Financial

Your Master

& Your Money

~ By Melvin R. Springfield DD

According to Mark 12:41-44, Jesus “…sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury,” meaning that He watched carefully what each person gave. He must have believed that giving was a very important part of worship in the temple. He still does ! Let’s see what the scriptures say about the tithe and the offerings, and our attitude towards them and the church.

The Tithe Belongs To God!

The tithe is a specific portion of your income that belongs to God. Leviticus 27:30

The tithe comes from the Hebrew word “Maasrah,” meaning TENTH PART, and, according to Proverbs 3:9, it is the first tenth that belongs to God. In simple terms, if you receive a dollar as financial increase, the first ten cents of that dollar belongs to God as a tithe. God’s law of FIRST THINGS applies here. The FIRST belongs to God. God doesn’t need your money – He can get along quite well without it. It is YOU that needs God’s blessing! You cannot get along without Him!

The First Tenth recognizes God’s FIRST PLACE in your life.

The tithe is to be BROUGHT to the Storehouse on the first day of the week . Brought – not sent!

Everyone must tithe, whether they are saved or unsaved, rich or poor, businessman or bum, preacher and congregation. God made no exceptions .

God considers the person who doesn’t tithe to be STEALING FROM GOD . We steal His “First Place” position – The Preeminence.

Conclusion: Since the tithe already belongs to God, we cannot GIVE Him our tithe, rather we must RETURN to God the tithe that rightfully belongs to Him. Not only does God expect everyone to tithe, He expects us to PERSONALLY BRING IT, to show that we honor Him. By the way, don’t call it a tithe if it really isn’t! Some people put a certain amount in the Tithe Envelope, and pretend it is their tithe, when they know good and well that the amount does not represent a first tenth of their income. Not only are they stealing from God by not giving the tenth-part, but now they are lying to Him as well.

Tithing is a New Testament Practice!

God chose that the tithe was to be given for the support of those who minister to you God’s Word .

The Apostle Paul emphasized the fact that God’s financial plan was still in effect in the church .

When Paul didn’t take a tithe from the Corinthian church, he realized that he had done them wrong, and had robbed them of a blessing .

Nowhere in the Acts or the Epistles do we find where the practice of tithes and offerings was ever made obsolete or rescinded. Rather, the historian Josephus (born AD 37) indicates that tithe paying was a general practice in the days of our Lord and continued to be a practice of the sincere .

Conclusion: God did not intend the tithe to be used to pay the mortgage payment on the church, or the electric bill, or to buy toilet tissue for the restroom. He intended the tithe to be the support of the ministry, and to be the responsibility of the minister.

God’s way is not cheap or shabby. The Minister of God should be as blessed as anyone in his or her congregation.

The tithe is to be brought into the Storehouse, “that My house might be full.” It is not to be sent to Reverend Tent-Preacher, or Evangelist Big-Name, but given to the minister of God who faithfully brings to you the Bread of Life and ministers to your spiritual needs.

Next time you get sick in the middle

of the night, call up that Big-Time

World Evangelist that wants your

dollars, and see if he will drop

everything and come pray for you!

You pay for your groceries at the same place you get them. Wherever you regularly go to receive teaching from the Word of God, that is where you are required to tithe.

The Tithe Has Special Significance

The tithe was God’s financial plan centuries before Moses and the Ten Commandments. In fact, Abraham was paying tithes at least a century and a half before Judah was born, from whom the Jews get their name .

In Genesis 14:18, when Melchizedek (who was an illustration or type of Christ) brought forth bread and wine and offered it to Abraham, Abraham’s response was to tithe. The Bread and Wine represents the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ . One response you should make to Christ’s offering will also be the tithe!

Conclusion: The tithe now becomes more than just a religious duty. It is a very personal relationship with the Lord. You do not return the tithe to please the pastor, but rather because you cherish what Calvary means to you. If you do not tithe, it would mean that you do not value the “bread & wine” of His Sacrifice, offered on the cross.

Jesus Practices and Endorsed the Tithe

Jesus tithed! He would not have been allowed to teach in the synagogue if He did not tithe. The super-religious Pharisees would not have been allowed to listen to Him teach, and especially not eat with Him, if he had been unfaithful in the tithe .

Jesus denounced the Pharisees on several grounds, but never in regard to their tithe paying . It was their hypocrisy Jesus condemned not their scrupulous tithing.

There are Great Benefits to the Tither

1. The 90% that remains after the tithe is taken out will go farther, with God’s blessings, than will the untithed 100% that has God’s curse on it ! Don’t use God’s money for your own affairs. Use the nine-tenths that God puts into your hands, and God will bless you abundantly.

The very opposite is also true. If you don’t return the tithe, you will end up spending at least that much, and most often spending MORE, on breakdowns, wear-outs, hospitals and doctors, fines and fees. God may not get His money, but He will see to it that you don’t get to keep it either! Plus, you are in trouble with God for stealing!!!

When you get in trouble physically, spiritually, financially - whatever - you have a right to come before God in prayer and seek His help . But, if you have NOT been faithful with the tithe, just what right do you have to ask the very One you have been stealing from (and lying to) for His help?

According to Revelation 17:14, the Rapture of the Church will only be for those who have been faithful.

The Offering Is Different and Special

In Malachi 3:8, God said that He expected BOTH the tithe AND the offering.

The offering must be given from “the heart .” The Word of God does not mandate the amount of the offering, but rather God’s looks at the “attitude” with which you give your offerings. Offerings are to be given as a love expression of “joy” from the heart. If fact, the Greek word for “cheerful” in II Corinthians 9:7 is “hilario,” from which we get the word “hilarious.” The offering is something you can GIVE to God. The tithe can only be RETURNED to God.

The offering, in order for it to be meaningful to God AND the giver, can not be given casual or ‘just off the top.” II Samuel 24:18-25 offers insight about the importance of giving a “meaningful” offering.

God uses the same “measure” with which you give to Him, and blessing you proportionately . Don’t plant just one bean and expect a hundred bushel return in the harvest. If you give “sparingly” you will also reap “sparingly.”

(Regarding Reverend Tent-Preacher, or Evangelist Big-Name, mentioned earlier – send him or her as much offering as God impresses you to give, just make sure you don’t send the tithe. The tithe belongs somewhere else.)

Try to outgive God, and see what happens! The only time that God ever challenged us to PROVE Him, or put Him to the test, was in regard to the Tithe and Offering. Malachi 3:10

YOU HONOR THE LORD WHEN YOU BRING THE FIRST-FRUIT OF YOUR INCREASE. PROVERBS 3:9

IF YOU HONOR GOD,

HE WILL HONOR YOU!

I Samuel 2:30