Tithe
"Money, money, money.... Why do preachers have to bother us about it all the time?"
Well, for some reason, we feel insulted when the church asks for money, but we forget that every other involvement in our life costs money too; but we take that as a given requirement.
I, too, used to feel bothered by the appeals of ministers to give. Oh, I knew it was the right thing to do. I just didn't like it being emphasized.
We all have ways of excusing ourselves from the responsibility to give. Maybe it was just an Old Testament command. After further investigation I find that not to be the case. Truth be told, if anyone wants to investigate the matter, they can know for sure, but many don't want the demand of the tithe put on them so they continue to point to reasons why they won't do it.
Hebrews 7:1 says For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
7:2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
This is a reference to an event that occurred in the Old Testament, but it is written in the New Testament. I could argue that it's inclusion in the New Testament along with Matthew 23:23 verifies the importance of the Tithe. But actually this above event occurred before the Old Testament Law was given to Moses. That means it has nothing to do with the Old or New testaments. It is just a godly principle.
The word "tithe" means tenth. That means you can't just "be led by the Spirit" on how much you give UNLESS it is above 10%, which would be your offering. Make the distinction. God is not a busboy we can "tip" with whatever change we have in our pocket. He expects deliberate obedience.
Now here is why this is near to my heart most recently: Early in my Christian life I struggled with giving money consistently even though I knew it was right. I knew someday I had to make it right, but I kept putting it off. I will share things that helped me and maybe it will help you. (That would be a lot better than hearing another lecture on why you heathens should stop robbing God.)
Keep in mind, that the work of the kingdom of God needs a financial base as a foundation to issue help and life to others. This cannot be overemphasized- although it is in some churches. No company succeeds unless it has the finances to function freely. It is more important in the church because people's hopes are attached to our obedience. We do not know the damage due to our negligence. But in order to influence the world we must settle this case in our hearts. We have allowed it not to be a priority to the detriment of progress of God's work. We are tied up with other things- and it is time to get untied from them, so that God can move through us. But before God move's through us, He has to move in us!
You have heard financial advisors say it, but now hear God say it: Make it your aim to get out of debt! To do this, you will have to be intent on laying aside some entertainment and rearranging other priorities. But do it at all cost( no pun intended) so you can gain a mentality that frees you to spend your increase on Kingdom endeavors.
The problem with your lack of giving money is not that you don't have enough. Even the poorest of you reading this in America are by far more rich than over 2/3 of the rest of the world. The conveniences in the houses we live in today would have shamed what kings had centuries ago. So the first enemy to deal with is a poverty mentality. We have to shift from thinking we are deficient into knowing we are richly enabled. That will help you pastors out there break down some walls. Stop attacking the symptoms and work on the disease. Tell your people to drench themselves in the promises of God that declare you are "enriched in every good thing".
Years ago I was in such debt because of irresponsibility, I declared bankruptcy. During my endeavors to rebuild my credit, I was forced to get a credit card with a high interest rate. I thought I had good reason not to tithe at this time because of circumstances. Then one night I heard a preacher say "Your giving 20% to Master card and you can't even give 10% to God?!?!". Well that settled it. I was putting men above the Lord!
Now things are different. Not because a minister made me feel guilty, but I just acknowledged that God was right. It does not matter about circumstances. It is just right to give to God. And when you give to God, you don't worry about where it went to- you just trust Him. I used to go to a small church where I didn't see many results, so I thought "why give here?". We are not "giving here" nor there. We are giving in eternity! We won't see all the results until we are in glory! What is it that you are building in glory by your giving today?
There's more. Recently I received a large sum of money that completely obliterated my debt. I was able to give to a couple in my church that is going through hard financial times. It really felt extraordinary to stand in the gap of a situation that I believed to be teetering on desperation. I look forward to more of these instances and that is the freedom I want you to experience. Last night in church the words of God rang in my head "You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth." I understood that God wants us to be world influencers- not just our families, neighbors, neighborhoods,and cities- but the whole world. I am not going overboard. Those are Jesus' words and He doesn't lie. So in order to expand your vision, you will need to become free financially. I plan on identifying all the countries of the world and giving in some way to one person in each country of the world. Many times it will be financially, sometimes a letter of encouragement or just to testify of our Lord, or maybe all of the above. But I intend to fulfill those words from Jesus, because I have the rest of my life to do so.
So now when I hear preachers talking about giving, it still bothers me. But not because I don't want to give. Now it's because I'm ready to give and I wish they would stop trying to convince me, because God already has!