TITLE: TO TITHE OR NOT TO TITHE, THERE IS NO QUESTION
SCRIPTURE: MALACHI 3:7-15 / I CORINTHIANS 16:1-2
We have an exciting month ahead of us as we look forward to celebrating – BLACK HISTORY MONTH. We are off to a wonderful start this morning with other great worship opportunities in which we will reflect upon those whose shoulders we stand upon today. This month will also be our “LOYALTY MONTH.” We will consider various topics that will assist us in the growth of this Church. We will focus on Loyalty to GOD – CHURCH – MINISTERIAL STAFF - This morning, and for the next few weeks we will consider the importance of TITHING, which encompasses our loyalty to all three categories.
There are certain problems a Pastor faces whenever he talks about the subject of GIVING. Chief among those problems is the idea of BOREDOM. Not only is it difficult to make this subject exciting to preach, but also; people feel like they already know what is going to be said before I say it. So we have tendency to TUNE-OUT or what I call what we take is a “MENTAL VACATION” throughout the message.
--Let me begin with a True Story that perhaps some have heard and are aware of - PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT - that great charismatic leader, who grew weary from having to be in so many receiving lines at the White House.
--He felt that many times people weren’t paying attention to the things that he was saying to them as they would pass by and shake the President’s hand. So one day at a reception he decided to try an experiment. As each person filed by, he reached out to shake hands and as he did so he murmured, “I MURDERED MY GRANDMOTHER TODAY.”
--Several hundred people went through the line and as he would say, “I murdered my grandmother today,” they would say, “Congratulations. We’re so proud of you. You’re doing a wonderful job. God bless you.”
--He finally got to the end of the line and here came the AMBASSADOR FROM BOLIVIA. When President Roosevelt said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning,” the ambassador leaned over and whispered in his ear, “I’M SURE SHE HAD IT COMING.”
--Well, I have no doubt that most of us are like majority of those other guests. We think we know what’s going to be said and so we don’t pay much attention because we’re pretty sure we’ve heard all about the subject of tithing before.
Let’s examine our Scripture text -- This morning as we consider the subject “To Tithe or Not to Tithe, There Is No Question”. That is the subject of great interest to Christians. It is a subject that preachers preach about, teachers teach about, and one that is much discussed by Bible students. However; it is also a subject that is at the same time neglected and misunderstood by the average Christian.
Many of us can’t help but be confused - You listen to one Bible teacher and he says one thing. You listen to another Bible teacher and she says something else. You go to one church and the pastor says one thing. You go to another church and the pastor says something else. It’s the same way with the commentaries. One commentary says one thing and another commentary says something else. In fact, all the way along the spectrum there is confusion.
We find people who would say that the tithe is binding upon Christians today and that all Christians without exception are to tithe all the time. On the other extreme there are those people who say that tithing belongs under the law and has no relevance whatsoever for Christians today. And you will find people all along the spectrum in between those two positions. So it’s important for us to know what the Bible speaks about this that we have proper understanding.
The differences of interpretation fall along the lines of if we are AN ADMIRER OR FOLLOWER OF JESUS. Have you ever had someone say to you, “you know I really admire you” or have you ever told someone, “I sure do admire you.” JOHN ORTBERG said the difference between an ADMIRER and a FOLLOWER is:
• An Admirer is impressed
• A Follower is devoted
• An Admirer applauds
• A Follower surrenders his life
• A lot of people admired Martin Luther King
• Some marched with him
• Not many went to jail with him
• Not many got their houses bombed like he did
• A lot of people admired Mother Theresa
• Not many people followed her to live among the destitute and dying
You know we admire Jesus with the songs we sing.
• Lord, I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me
• Jesus on the main line, tell him what you want
• The Lord is blessing me right now
• You are my strength when I am weak you are the treasure that I seek
• What a Mighty God We Serve
Jesus has never had a shortage of admirers in this world. People inside and outside the church admire Jesus. But you know something, you can read every verse in the Bible, and you will not come across a single verse in which Jesus comes even close to saying, “COME ADMIRE ME”, or “UNLESS YOU ADMIRE ME, YOU CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.” Nobody ever impressed Jesus because of their admiration for Him.
This sermon will help no one that is satisfied with being an Admirer of Jesus, but it will PENETRATE the Hearts of every Follower this morning. Let’s ensure we understand the DEFINITION OF TITHE before we go any further. The word TITHE is a HEBREW word. The word tithe comes from the Hebrew word which means ONE-TENTH. Literally, a tithe is one-tenth of anything. In the OT a tithe was more than just giving one-tenth of your money to God. If you had ten cows, you gave one out of the ten to God. That one cow that you gave was your tithe. If you had ten pounds of grain, the one pound that you gave to God was your tithe before God. So the definition of a tithe is that it is one-tenth of anything. That’s what the word itself means. To tithe your income is to give one-tenth of your income to God.
The sad reality is that the average church only receives about 3% of tithes from the congregation. I thank God because I realize that some in this Church are giving far more than a tithe here at PPWC and I also realize that some people give a tithe but they don’t give all of it to PPWC. They give part of it to various Christian organizations. However, for the most part the majority tithe very little.
Let me share with you what the DEBATE is all about. Most can’t converse about many BIBLE DOCTRINES:
• Regeneration
• Triune God
• Christology
• Eschatology
• The Fall of Man
• Doctrine of Justification
We have the answers about tithing though and we are fluent in our position. But we embrace the idea that tithing is an OT teaching. So, what RELEVANCE does it have to NT CHRISTIANS? Since we know it comes from the OT, how do we apply tithing in the New Testament era? Or to put it another way, since tithing was given to the nation Israel, what relevance does it have to those of us who are not Jews living in ancient Palestine?
Obviously there is an even bigger question lurking behind these smaller ones.
• Tithing belongs to the age of law and this is the age of grace
• How do you relate those two concepts?
• Is there a place for tithing in the age of grace?
• That’s the key question I want to ask and answer in this message
First Form of Tithing we find is found in GENESIS 14. This is the narrative of Abraham coming back from war. He had gone to war against KEDORLAOMER and the kings who were allied with him. It had been a BLOODY – BRUSING – VISCIOUS BATTLE. In the end Abraham had triumphed and now he is coming back home with the spoils of war—the slaves he had captured, the soldiers he had taken into captivity, the food and stuff he had gathered, the grain, the wine, the oil, with the cattle and sheep. With all the spoils of war Abraham was making his way back home as a VICTORIOUS GENERAL.
On his way back home he runs into a most unusual character, a man by the name of MELCHIZEDEK. We pick up the Narrative in VS. 18 - “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God Most High, and He blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
If you know BIBLICAL THEOLOGY you know that Melchizedek appears in the Old Testament in two places—GENESIS 14 and PSALM 110. He shows up again in the Epistle to the HEBREWS. It is clear in the Epistle to the Hebrews that Melchizedek in the Old Testament is a TYPE OR PATTERN OF JESUS CHRIST in the New Testament.
Now who was this Melchizedek? We don’t know for sure. He just shows up on the stage of history and INTERRUPTS Abraham as he is coming back from war. He introduces himself as a priest of God Most High, he blesses Abraham and then he blesses God. It’s most instructive to note Abraham’s response at this point—"Then Abram gave him a tenth(or a tithe—it’s the same word)of everything.” (20) That meant a tenth of the slaves, a tenth of the soldiers, a tenth of the food and a tenth of the stuff, a tenth of the garments, a tenth of the gold, a tenth of the silver, and a tenth of everything else he had taken from the enemy in his great victory. – VOLUNTARY TITHING. This was done 400 years before the Law was established. Abraham acknowledged that he did not win this war on his own.
Now we skip 400 years and we’re into the MOSIAC LAW. LEVITICUS 27:30-34 reads this way:
A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord. It is holy to the Lord. If a man redeems any of his tithe, he must add a fifth of the value to it. The entire tithe of the herd and the flock - every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the Lord. He must not pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed. These are the commands the Lord gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.
Note two things about this passage of scripture. FIRST, this is very clearly a part of the Old Testament Law. What happened in Genesis 14 happened before the Law, but Leviticus 27 is the Law. This is a commandment given by God to the nation of Israel as part of Mosaic Law. SECOND, the tithe in the Old Testament was to encompass all a man’s material possessions. It didn’t include just his money. It included his livestock, his cows, his sheep, his wine, his oil, his grain, and his fruit. A tithe was to be given back to God from everything. It also says that the Jews were to give one out of every ten cattle. It says there are to be no substitutes. They were not to give God the scrawny cows and keep the best for themselves.
Now we move to the very end of the Old Testament. We’re a THOUSAND YEARS down the road now. We started back in Genesis and then went to Leviticus and Deuteronomy and now we’ve jumped across 1000 years of Jewish history. Listen as God speaks to his disobedient people in MALACHI 3:8-12:
Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, “How do we rob you?” In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it. I will prevent pest from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit, says the Lord Almighty. Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty.
This is an amazing passage of scripture. Here is God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, saying to his people, “You are robbing me in order to get more, but because you are robbing me you end up with less. If you would dare to give me what really belongs to me I would bless you beyond all comprehension.”
That’s the Old Testament. But the real question comes when we move from the Old Testament into the New Testament because we know that the tithe was an Old Testament teaching. What does the New Testament teach concerning Christian giving?
I CORINTHIANS 16:1-2 contains the most concise teaching on this subject: - Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatia churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should lay aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. This is very clear New Testament teaching. First, giving is to be regular—"on the first day of every week”. Second, giving is to be personal—"each one of you”. Third, giving is to be proportional—"set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income.” Christian giving is to be REGULAR – PERSONAL - PROPORTIONAL.
What is proportional giving? It means the more that God blesses you, the more you are to give. That’s NT grace giving. The more you’re blessed, the more you give. If you have little blessing—financially or materially—then you are only able to give a small proportion. But the more you are blessed, the bigger the portion you’re able to give. Ten percent is not the issue in the New Testament – it is the minimum standard. Some Christians who are greatly blessed ought to give 15 percent. Others ought to give 20 percent. Some who are enormously blessed ought to give 25 percent or 30 percent.
I know some don’t want to hear this -- Many of us have mixed feelings about GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY who is a MORMON. In spite of what we think about him and his political views. He gives his church 30% of his income and he made $24 million the past two years! That’s about $7 Million that he gave and I don’t believe that Mormons are a Christian doctrine. Even the children that are Mormon at a very early age begin to tithe.
• We have the Word of God and don’t want to Give
• Get upset if we are asked to bring a $5 pie from Walmart to a Church dinner
• As Christians we love the Lord but we sure don’t want to Listen to Him
God’s plan for Israel in the Old Testament serves as a foundational model regarding the way Christians should view and use their material possessions today, To be “God-fearing Jews” simply meant that these people were committed to doing everything they could to keep the Old Testament Laws. We can certainly assume that most of them, before they became Christians, practiced the Old Testament regulations regarding tithing. When these Jews became Christians, they would have naturally TRANSFERRED THEIR ECONOMIC LOYALTY FROM JUDAISM TO CHRISTIANITY.
• They did not now view themselves as Christians and say Oh, good we don’t have to give now
• We want to follow Jesus up unto the point He says give
--Bible confirms importance of Tithes
--Give God portion that He blessed us with
--Church moves forward by Power of Tithes
--Give not grudgingly or of necessity
--Tithes give with Cheerful heart
--When we miss a week must make it up following week
-- Tithe or Not to Tithe, There Is No Question
