As I mentioned last Sunday, as a pastor I am charged by Jesus Christ to preach the word of God – the total word of God. That means that I get to preach and teach all of the “fun” stuff, like forgiveness, salvation, reconciliation, the wonderful promises of God, His great and unbounded love for us, and everything that makes us feel good about being Christians. However, in order to fulfill my duty to God, I must also preach about the “hard” teachings, like God’s righteousness, commands, teachings, and the expectations that God has for us who call ourselves His disciples.
For you see, to teach about only one side or the other is to give you a false image of who God is. If I teach only the easy things, the “feel good” lessons, then I fail to give you the understanding of what our responsibility is regarding our salvation and sanctification. Many pastors teach that our salvation is free to us for the asking, and that is true, if we repent of our sin and ask sincerely for forgiveness. But they stop there and never bother to teach that our sanctification, our spiritual growth as Christians, our journey towards perfection, indeed has costs involved.
As a result, we have gobs and gobs of Christians running around saved, but stagnant with regard to their spiritual growth and health. God does not want it to be that way. He wants us to be aware of everything that He desires of us, in order to be not only assured of our salvation, but also to be vibrant, effective examples of what it means to be a Christian for those unbelievers that we come into contact with. He wants our lives to be living testimonies to His power and glory.
So today we will look at giving God’s way with regard to the practice of tithing. Tithing is one of the “hard”, unpopular, somewhat controversial, teachings of the Bible. I tell you, it is not one of my favorite topics, but it is necessary to speak on it nonetheless.
What exactly is a tithe? Simply put, a tithe is one-tenth. Through the Mosaic Law, God commanded that His followers bring “a tithe (one-tenth) of their “firstfruits” (income) to the storehouse.”
The Laws of God through Moses were in effect for 1500 years, from the time of Moses until Christ’s death at Calvary. During that time, the people often ignored it or outright defied it, especially regarding the tithe. It seems that when their spiritual life was strong, when they were close to God, giving was strong. When their spiritual life was low, when they moved farther from God, their giving was low. When they strayed from God, He would send prophets, such as Malachi, to warn them about their backsliding and invite them to return to Him. Should they do that, God promised to meet them in reconciliation.
Hear the words of God through His prophet, Malachi (chapter 3, verses 6-9): “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished. Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. ‘Return to me, and I will return to you’, says the Lord of Hosts. But, you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But, you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In your tithes and offerings! You are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me – the whole nation of you!”
“But Pastor,” many say, “that was Old Testament times, Old Testament Law. Surely God doesn’t require Christians to tithe today does He?” Listen to the words of Jesus Christ, our Lord whom we profess to love. Jesus says, “You think that I have come to destroy the Law. But, truly I tell you that I have not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it!” Jesus also says, “He who loves me obeys my commands.”
Friends, that does not sound like we are off the hook to me. So these questions arise:
Throughout the history of God and His people, it is shown their willingness to contribute to His work depends directly on their relationship with the Lord. That still holds true today. Those who walk in close relationship and fellowship with God support His work gladly and generously.
Christian stewardship extends to our deepest resources and treasures. We do it because the Gospel is meant to be shared, not hoarded. In order for that to happen, in order to continue to grow and develop outreach ministries, in order to do what God has called us to do, in order to “go and make disciples of all peoples”, we must do as God requires and support our local church with, as God called it, “storehouse tithing”.
God Himself challenges New Testament Christians to pay tithes of our income to effect the building and extension of God’s Kingdom through the efforts of our local church. God wants to bless us.
Hear the rest of God’s word through the prophet Malachi (chapter 3, verses 10-12): “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 room enough for it.”
There you have it from God Almighty Himself. Our lack of faith often causes us to give God the smallest piece – the leftovers – after we pay everyone and everything else, including ourselves. But God says that if we will give Him the whole tithe, then He will give us blessings beyond measure.
There were two young brothers preparing to dye Easter eggs. They were just getting ready to put the eggs in a boiling pot of water when the older boy says to his brother, “Hey, if you will let me break these three eggs on your head before we hard-boil them, I’ll give you five dollars.” The younger brother figured that it was worth the mess for five dollars, so he said, “Okay.” The older boy took one of the eggs and, as his brother stiffened up, smashed the egg on his head. The sticky, runny mess dripped down over the young boy’s face. His brother picked up another egg and, as the younger boy stiffened again, he smashed the second egg on the back of his brother’s head. This caused the mess to run down the back of the younger boy’s head and neck. The younger brother stiffened, closed his eyes and prepared for the third egg, but nothing happened. A few moments went by and the younger brother asked, “When you gonna do the third egg?” “I’m not;” said the older boy, “that third egg would cost me five dollars.”
God does not go back on His promise! Nor does He play games with His promises. He promises to honor our tithing with untold blessings. Not only does he give us this promise, but also He instructs us to “Test me in this.”
Tithing is not only a command from God, it is God’s way to allow His adopted children to go into business with Him. That’s right. We become God’s business partners. The money we invest is not lost. We will see it returned in mouths that we feed, bodies that we clothe, lives that are changed, and souls that are saved.
A tithing church will not have trouble paying its bills or expanding its outreach. But God issues a warning to those who reject His call for “storehouse tithing”. Will we rob God by keeping back what is His to begin with? “Return to me and I will return to you”, says the Lord God Almighty.
For those of us who already tithe, we need to understand that the tithe is not the end, it is the beginning. As we receive continued blessings from God, we need to return more to Him. For those who do not yet tithe, but wish to work toward that objective, I have a suggestion. Begin with what you gave last year, add 10% of that total to it for this year, and continue to add 10% each year until you reach your objective. If each of us would do that, Salem will never again have to worry about meeting operating budgets or having money for outreach expansion.
Thus says the Lord, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse…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.” Amen!