Tithing
I bet most all of you in here have seen kids fuss and fight before haven’t you. What gets me is how my two little blonde headed girls are.
One of them can have a favorite toy. It can be sitting out in the middle of the living room and nobody is playing with it, nobody wants to have anything to do with it. Then the sister will come in and reach for the toy and oh boy, a fight is under way.
What really gets me is the fact that they aren’t arguing over who the toy belongs to. They get money for birthdays or other things and they buy their own toys. But, when they are arguing one of them will say… Its mine.. it belongs to me.. I bought it… and there is no argument there. But then the other one says… Yea, but I had it first…
I had it first…..
Do you ever see that?
Well, we want our kids to learn how to share and since they were not playing with the toy anyway, we tell them to let the other child play with it a while.
Boy, it is like a death grip they have on that toy. They didn’t even want to play with it but then they feel like they are being forced to give it up, they just cannot seem to do it.
Transition…. Well, I want you to know today that many Christians act the same way when it comes to certain things.
They feel like they are being FORCED to give up something, and they hang on to it just like that child fighting over their toy.
Many of you have heard my testimony.. and some of you have not. But during my testimony I usually talk about the first time I had gone to Church in years.
I was sitting in Church and the pastor started preaching............. And I got mad.
I had gone to Church to feel good, you see, I was not a Christian at the time,
I had gone to Church to feel good and this man was preaching about something that I felt like he had no business preaching about..
I believe that I tuned out real fast. I am sure that I never finished listening to his message. And many people do that same thing today….
Please don’t tune out to fast on me this morning.
You let a pastor preach every Sunday in his Church and never discuss how the Church should spend their time in duty to the Kingdom of God, and the pastor is considered to be falling down on the Job.
You let a pastor preach every Sunday in his Church and never discuss how we should all use our spiritual gifts to help the Church function properly, and he is derelict in his duties.
But you let a pastor discuss stewardship; you let him discuss money, a subject that was highly discussed by Jesus Christ,
Let him discuss these matters,
And many people in many Churches say, “well, he is only out to get our money.”
Many people do not realize it, but, Jesus Christ talked about money quite often.
In the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in the Synoptic Gospels approximately one out of every six verses… One out of every six verses..... relates to money.
I said a minute ago that many people feel like the preacher is always out to get their money.
And I have in the past felt the exact same way, but that is because I had listened to someone who did not know for sure what they were talking about.
We have all seen poor examples of the way some ministries handle their money.
I get so tired of seeing these people preaching on the health, wealth and prosperity movement.
They are in their adorned churches, and there is nothing wrong with a beautiful church, but they are there beside their gold plated this and their silver plated that, and they are telling the poorest of the poor in our country that to become rich they need to send all of their money to this ministry.
I heard one minister say one time that they promised, if a person would send them ten dollars, they assured people that God would send them back one hundred dollars.
Folks, if it worked like that, that ministry would be sending every person in America ten dollars so they could get back one hundred for every ten.
That would be a mighty good return wouldn’t it.
But it does not work like that.
God is not a moneychanger.
But I will tell you one thing; you will never be able to out give God.
I am going to discuss the stewardship of giving today.
Not because I feel that anyone in here is not tithing… not because I feel like our Church is in financial need… quite the opposite.. I feel like the members of this Church as a whole give far more than many other Churches.
But, I am going to discuss the stewardship of giving today because it is something that is highly discussed in the Word of God….
But again, Friends, I am not out to get your money.
It was stated in a pole a few years ago that on average 90% of the Work done in the Churches in our country today, 90% of the work is done by 20% of the people.
It was also stated that 90% of the tithes and offerings were given by 20% of the people.
Now, I do not know what the percentage is here in our Church,
We are not going to do a study about the percentage here in our Church,
And actually, I don’t even want to know what the percentage is here in our Church.
I do not know what anyone gives other than myself… and I do not want to know what anyone gives… that is between you and GOD……
I am not out to get your money.
But I am afraid that all to often, we have a misunderstanding about what tithes and offerings are all about.
All to often people feel like someone is trying to force them to do something, so they are going to hang on that much tighter.
Friends, no one wants to force you to do anything.
Now, You may get tired of hearing me say this, but I do not want you to listen to what I have to say,
I do not want you to believe something because of what I believe,
But I want us to go to the Word of God.
I want us to see what God has to say about this matter.
I want us to let the Holy Spirit guide us while we read God’s Word and let the Holy Spirit help us see what God expects of us.
Turn with me now to the book of Malachi.
Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament.
Now, if you study the entire book of Malachi, which is not very long, it is only four chapters long, but if you study the book you can see that the nation of Israel was in a great spiritual decline.
The reconstruction of the Temple had been completed and corruption had entered into it.
Malachi said
“you offer polluted bread upon the alter”
Corruption was wide spread.
divorce had become a normal thing.
The nation as a whole was in great spiritual decline.
Does that sound like any nation you know of today?
Anyway, turn with me to Malachi chapter 3 and starting in verse 7 I am going to read from the Word of God.
Read Malachi 3:7-12
You have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them…
In verse 7 God is saying to the nation of Israel,
You have broken the law,
You have failed to keep the commandments that I have given to you.
You have done this for a long time, even from the time of your fathers.
We can see here that God is not talking to the people as individuals but as a nation.
“ I have commanded you to do something and you have failed to do it and because of this, if you will return to me,
If you will obey me, If you will start back in obedience, I will return to you.”
God is saying here that He is no longer with the nation, He has departed from them, He has gone out and is not present among them anymore.
And do you notice how the Israelites answered?
Why, they answered in ignorant arrogance.
“How are we to return?” they said………
What do you mean God,
What are you talking about?
We have done nothing to return to you about,
We have done nothing wrong!
We are a righteous people,
We are your chosen people, what are you talking about,
How are we to return?
They do not even acknowledge that they have departed from God’s laws.
The Lord said, “Will a man rob God? yet you rob me.”
Then again, they seem not to understand,
In verse 8 again they said…How do we rob you?
Now, I am not expert in the matter of robbery…. Thank goodness right….. But just as I sat and thought about this, I really came up with only two basic forms or ways to rob someone.
You can either take something that belongs to somebody else.
Or you can keep something, or hold something back, that belongs to somebody else.
Let me read something for you from psalm 50 verses 9-12
Psalm 50:9-12
I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, [10] for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. [11] I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. [12] If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Now friends, that is not the only place in the Bible, but it is one of the many places that show us that everything on earth, everything in the universe, belongs to God.
God owns it all.
God owns everything.
But God has entrusted unto us some of the things in which He owns and He has allowed us to be stewards and keepers,…. he has given us authority to use what belongs to him.
And to keep something back, to keep something that belongs to someone else and to not let them have it is theft.
It is robbing someone.
And God responds to the nation of Israel, he responds to their arrogance when they ask the question,
How do we rob you,
God responds,
“In tithes and offerings.”
Now most of you know that the word Tithe means tenth.
In the Law of Moses in Leviticus chapter 27, the Israelites were commanded to tithe and this included the seed of the land, the fruit of the trees, every tenth animal from the heard, everything.
But tithing had been around much longer than the recorded command in the Law of Moses.
In Genesis chapter 14 we see that Abraham gave one tenth of all his goods obtained in battle. He gave this tithe to Melchizedek.
The Bible states that Melchizedek was a “priest of God most high”
In Genesis Chapter 28, Jacob promised that he would give a tenth of all he received to the lord.
And, it seems like we can remember Cain and Able offering sacrifices to God. One gave of his first fruits and one gave of his animals.
Offerings are that which is given above the Tithe, or above the tenth.
Now, some people would argue that what all these people were giving, fruits and plants and animals and all of this other stuff,
Some people would say that this was different than it is for us to give of our hard earned money.
But that is not a valid argument because this was their wealth. This was basically their money.
This was what they had to have to survive.
When the Bible talks about wealthy men, like JOB and Abraham, it talks about all the cattle that they possessed.
Their food and cattle was no different than our money is to us today.
Now, I want you to look at the first part of verse 10 again….
Malachi 3:10
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house……
Now, in verse 10 God said bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.
There are a couple of things I want to point out in this verse.
People have asked me for years and I guess every preacher gets asked the same question.
Should I tithe on my gross or my net?
I have heard preachers give different interpretations on this also. I have heard many say on your gross income and many say on your net income.
They come to the conclusion of paying from net by using the scriptures that mention bringing your first fruits to the house of the Lord.
They say, well, we had to use this much to do this and that and I had to spend this and the first fruits is what are what is actually produced, this is actually the part you can take home with you ,
Therefore, our first fruits would really be like our take home pay or our net income.
Well friends… If I make $5.00 an hour, even if the government takes $4.00 an hour of that money, I still make $5.00 an hour.
I read in Malachi here and I see that God said bring the whole tithe into the store house,…. other translations say bring all the tithes into the storehouse or bring the whole tenth.
It sounds to me like God wants all of it, he wants a tenth of everything, it all belongs to him anyway, he has supplied it to us and I believe that the whole thing would be more like our Gross income, not our net income.
Now, when God says to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, what is he referring to when he says storehouse?
The storehouses were either specific rooms inside the temple itself …or they were buildings built and attached to the temple.
And the temple was the local place of worship.
So, if you relate it to our day and time today, God is saying bring the whole tithe into your local church.
Why?
Why would God ask us to bring a tenth of our wealth into the local Church?
Well, the Levites were the people that did the work of the Lord. The Levites were from the tribe of Israel that were to be the priests.
They did not receive a land inheritance like the other tribes of Israel, but they were to be brought the tithe so they could survive and live and so they could spend all of their time doing the work that God had called them to do.
And it went farther than this,
The tithe was used to carry on all the work of the Lord.
Now, am I saying that we should not give to other ministries….
Not at all… I think we should give freely and willingly to any ministry in which we feel like God is asking us to give… but I feel like the Bible is showing us that the Tithe… the tenth should be given to the local Church… anything else should be given from above the tithe or, as an offering….
Let me read Deuteronomy 26:12-13 to you.
Deut. 26:12-13
When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. [13] Then say to the Lord your God: "I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.
The tithe was to be used for the kingdom of God, to carry on the work of the Lord, AND….. to help those in need.
I told you about the pole earlier of how 20% of the people give 90% of the tithe the Church receives….
I am going to give you something that is my own personal opinion now……
I am under the personal opinion, that if all the Christians in the Church today would give a tenth of their wealth to the work of the Lord,
I believe, that there would be no government welfare programs,
There would be no social security programs,
There would be no Medicaid and Medicare
Because if the Church were functioning properly, I believe there would be no need for any of these programs, we would all take care of each other’s needs by the graceful supply of our God.
That is my opinion….
Now, when God was talking to the nation here, when God told the people of Israel that they were robbing him, He went on to tell them that they were under a curse because they were robbing Him….
The curse that he promised them would come their way if they were disobedient to him.
There was drought, there were locusts eating the plants, grapes were falling off the vine before they were ripe.
It was kind of like the people were saying, well God, you can see all the terrible things that have been happening, you can see how bad of a year it has been.
God, we cannot afford to tithe.
Have you ever heard that???? I’ll be honest with you…. I have said that….
We are so far in debt,… we have son many bills to pay… we have so many kids to feed…. We cannot afford to tithe……
But God is saying,
GOD is saying……You can’t afford not to.
If you will obey me in this, if you will return to my commands, then I will open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessings that you will not have room enough for it….
What did God say here basically?
You can’t out give me!
Now, we have done a lot of studying here, and all of this was in the Old Testament and stems back to the Mosaic or Levitical law.
We do not have an eleventh commandment that reads,
“Though shalt not forget to tithe”
It’s not there.
Nowhere in the Bible do we see where Jesus Christ commanded us to Tithe. It is plainly implied… but not commanded
Nowhere in the New Testament are we commanded to tithe.
It is discussed in the New Testament, it is mentioned a few times , but there is no specific command given.
Our father is not forcing us to open our hands and give it up.
Jesus Christ said in Matthew 23:23,
Matthew 23:23
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
Have you ever seen some of these plants, Mint and Dill,
they are the tiniest things, and Jesus Said, Here you are making sure you give one tenth of these little leaves here, You have gotten legalistic here, and while you have made sure to pay your tithe, you have neglected the other matters in life, justice, mercy, faithfulness.
You hypocrite,
If you study this verse, Jesus is saying,
“I do not want you to give up paying your tithe, but do not tithe legalistically and then show no mercy for your brother”.
“ Do not snap ten leaves off of the mint plant to conform to the commands of the law and then go and cheat your brother in your daily business practices.” ……….You Hypocrite.
We are not specifically commanded in the New Testament to give a tenth of our income, but we are told in 1 Timothy 5 and other places that the Church should take care of those in need.
Jesus said, I am not after your legality,
I am after your love.
I don’t want you to obey the law; I want you to obey me.
I don’t care what you do with your money; I care what you do with your heart.
That is why I say so many people misunderstand what tithing is all about.
It is not a legal matter or a command, it is a heart matter.
It is not Old Testament verses New Testament,
It’s a heart matter.
The ten percent thing is just a guide.
The best I can tell, it is the minimum amount that is ever mentioned in the scripture at all as to how much of God’s money we should give back to the service of his work.
But Jesus is not adding things up with a calculator saying, how much do you owe me,
No,
Jesus is saying,
How much do you love me?
How much do you trust me?
How much will you do for me?
If you are not willing to give it freely, if you are not willing to give back a portion of what I have allowed you to have,
if it bothers you to give it,
Then I don’t want it.
In Second Corinthians chapter 9, Paul said that God Loves a Cheerful giver.
Now the word cheerful here is derived from the original Greek word “Hilaros” and that is where we get our English word hilarious from.
God wants us to be happy and completely willing when we give. He wants us to give hilariously….
“Glory… thank you Lord for allowing me to give to the work of the kingdom of GOD………..”
God is not trying to force us to do anything.
Jesus Christ told us what the greatest commandment was.
Again, it is recorded in all three synoptic Gospels,
I will read it from Matthew 22:37
Matthew 22:37-39
Jesus replied: " ’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ [38] This is the first and greatest commandment. [39] And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’
If we follow these commandments, if we Love God with everything we have, with our total being.
If we love our neighbors as ourselves,
Than all we can say is…..
“How much father”
“How much do you want from me to help teach these children about Jesus Christ?”
“How much do you want from me to help those in need”
“How much do you want from me to help show others my savior”
“How much do you want from me so I can be a part of your redemptive work?”
I have heard many fine, Godly Christian men say,
“let me look at a mans check book and I will tell you where his heart is”
They have said that a man’s money matters are a spiritual barometer of his life.
Well, you know who said it first?
John did.
The Bible says in 1 John 3:17 1 John 3:17
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
I want you to notice one last very important thing from this passage of scripture….Look at verse 10 again, but look at the second part of verse 10
Malachi 3:10
……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 room enough for it.
God said, Test me in this….
Try me… see what I will do for you in your obedience to me…..
Test me in this…….
We can not out give GOD……
He may not double your money… he did not promise that.. but he will bless you abundantly….. he did promise that…
TEST HIM AND SEE….
I wish I had thought of this illustration, but I didn’t.
I heard a preacher say one time,
“Most of us would not have the nerve to go to a restaurant, eat a big meal and then leave the waitress anything less than 15 %”
He said we would be to ashamed to be known as someone who left less than 15% for the waitress.
And yet we find it difficult at times to give 10% of God’s money back to him.
It is not a legal matter, It’s a spiritual matter.,
It’s a heart matter,
Now it is between you and God as for what you are to do.
I am not here today to tell you to do anything,
Except to seek the will of God in all things.
You can’t out give God.
We are going to have a hymn of invitation this morning, and as always, you are welcome to come foreword and pray or have me pray with you…
And, I always want to give an invitation for any who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
If you need to come this morning,
Come,
as we sing a hymn.
