I’m going to address an issue that has caused me much torment especially as of late. Giving. Tithing. Whatever you want to call it. Are we required to give? How much do we have to give? Why do we give? Who do we give to and how often? Before we go any further, let me first state that if you are looking for answers to questions like those simply so you can “pay your tax”, this is not where you are going to find them. Instead, I want to dig deeper into the subject of giving. I want to dig more into the attitude of giving, the heart condition, and the expectations of both us and God. This is a subject that I’ve started to focus on recently, and I really don’t have any answers. So, instead, this “mini sermon” will be more like a “what if” sermon. What if I gave more than I can afford? What if my heart attitude was changed? What if my focus was more on being grateful than on how much I’m putting into that plate each Sunday? How might my life be transformed if I truly learn the right attitude about giving? That is what I’m trying to learn here this time.
First of all, I am learning that when I can’t afford to tithe, I really can’t afford not to tithe. When money is tight and we’re staring down the barrel of a loaded disconnection notice or two, tithing must be our first priority. Why? Because God has proven to us that He blesses us when our hearts and minds are more focused on Him rather than on our situation. We have seen month after month when we’ve made ends meet financially, even though it didn’t seem possible at first. One of my fall-back verses in the Bible on this area has always been Malachi 3:10 where God speaks to the Israelites and tells them to “…”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 there will not be room enough to store it.”…” (NIV). God challenges the Israelites to test Him! Now, I do understand that many people seem to get edgy whenever we try to apply an Old Testament statement or verse to our walk, saying that the old covenant was replaced by the new covenant when Jesus came to die. That we no longer need to follow the same laws and traditions that the Israelites did before Christ. And that is true. However, what I see from this verse is not so much a tradition or “rule” that I am being asked to follow. Instead, I see a portion of the character of God being revealed to us and that never has changed nor will ever change. God yearned for the Israelites to test him in their tithes so He could prove to them that He truly did have control over their provisions and blessings. God longed to prove to them that He could indeed take care of them.
And He still longs for us to understand this about Him today.
I witnessed a great example of such “testing” earlier this year. At church, we had a young missionary couple come and speak about their work. They spoke mostly of the local missionaries that were being raised up and trained in the area where they served. They spoke about how hard it was for these locals to raise any funding at all to support their work. When asked what we as a church could do for this couple, they said that they didn’t want anything. Instead, they would rather that if anything were to be given, that it be given to the local missionaries they were training. Our pastor stepped out in a great display of faith and declared that that morning’s offering would be given entirely to these local missionaries through this couple. This meant that our church just gave up a quarter of their monthly income! Now, I’m sure there are many out there that would be scolding our pastor right now, saying he should never make such a decision without discussing it with the board and so on. I’m sure your right. But this step of faith was huge. I suddenly looked at my own life. Could I do that? Would I ever be able to suddenly give 1/4 of my monthly income away? 25%!!! I don’t think I could. And yet, God says, “test me”. Would this not be considered a test of God’s faithfulness if I was able to do something like this?
As I said earlier, so often we view tithe as a “tax”. In fact, if you search online or follow many sermons out there today on tithing, you will find many very inflexible views. Views that state how much you have to tithe. Views that proclaim how often you have to tithe. I am going to step out on a rather risky limb here and say that I find very little in the New Testament where God has laid out such rules and boundaries when it comes to tithing. In fact, the one verse I often think about whenever the discussion about tithing comes up is found in 2 Corinthians 9:7 where Paul states that “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful give” (NIV) Paul does not state here that we must give 10% of our gross income. Instead, he says that we should give what we have decided in our hearts to give. And that we are not to give out of reluctance or compulsion, but cheerfully! I think many of us have been beaten by leaders today and growing up that giving was something we were commanded to do. And for most, it is an act out of compulsion, not an act of their hearts.
Note verse 8 of chapter 9 of 2nd Corinthians. Paul just finished saying that “…God loves a cheerful giver…”, and then goes on to say that “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (NIV) God is able to bless you abundantly! Again, I see an echo of what God stated to the Israelites some 500 years earlier. If we give cheerfully, God is able to bless us abundantly.
I will have to say, though, that herein lies a conflict of interests for us as I’m sure most of you would agree. We are not supposed to give grudgingly, nor under compulsion. Instead, we are to give cheerfully. However, if we give because we are looking for these blessings, is that not a poor heart attitude? And yet, if we go off of these two passages that I’ve just brought up here, is that not a driving, motivating factor in our giving? Yes, it can be. So how do we follow these scriptures, yet avoid such a motivation in our giving?
I’m sure many of us have gone through the following situation. It’s Christmas, and you have bought a gift for a good friend, at least someone you think is a good friend. You have anticipated that they, too, will be giving you a pretty nice gift so you make sure that your purchase is top notch. However, during the exchange, things get awkward as the parity of gifts between you is not there. What you get in return is cheap, un-thoughtful and not at all what you expected. What went wrong? Well, first of all, the expectations you set were wrong. The whole point of giving a gift is the giving part, not what you may or may not receive in return. By setting up the expectations that “if I give him/her this gift, I’m sure they’ll give me one similar in return” is a setup for failure and shows a wrong heart attitude. If there had been more focus on the giving itself, for the simple reason to see joy on their faces, it wouldn’t matter if nothing was received in return. The point of the gift was for them.
And a similar attitude is required when giving to God. In the case with giving to God, we are not giving a “gift”, but instead we are acknowledging His provision and His faithfulness in our lives. Because of scripture like we read earlier, however, we do have some expectations in getting blessings in return. However, that is where our expectations should cease. As soon as we start assuming we know what those blessings might be, our heart attitude becomes derailed once again. Often we think that if we give monetarily, then our blessings will be in the same form in return. Sort of like an investment, right? Wrong! In my limited experience, I have seen God bless us by providing for us in areas we never would’ve imagined. God has yet to drop an envelope of cash on our door steps, in spite of my expectations for Him to do so! However, we often have looked back at the end of a month and realized that we made it through, paid our bills, and kept food on the table, when by all rights we were dead in the water. Other times, God has blessed us with material possessions. Still more, God has blessed us with groceries, even Christmas gifts for the children one year!
How God may choose to bless you for giving with a right heart attitude is unknown. For us to focus on these blessings and try to determine what they may or may not be during our giving is wrong. But, we can rest assured that God will bless our giving.
This brings me to my final point. We’ve talked about the heart attitude. Now I want to talk about what we give. Giving is not just of our income. It is also giving of our time, our possessions, our food. Whatever God has blessed us with, I feel that we are to give in return. And yet, this is not something to take lightly. What we give is just as important as how we give it. I’m referring here to the quality of your tithe. Let’s go back to Malachi and look at the first couple of passages, before God challenged the Israelites to test him.
The Israelites offered defiled sacrifices: “It is you priests who show contempt for my name. But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ By offering defiled food on my altar.” Malachi 1:6,7 (NIV). They even offered lame sacrifices: “’When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?’ says the LORD Almighty.” Malachi 1:8 (NIV) And, not only that, but the Israelites treated their sacrificing acts with contempt: “’And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously, says the LORD Almighty.’” Malachi 1:13 (NIV)
God has had enough of the sacrifices that the Israelites are bringing to Him. He’s had enough with their poor attitude towards sacrificing. Let’s take a minute now to see the response God has towards the Israelites. God would rather no sacrifices at all, and He states that he will accept nothing from them. “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.” Malachi 1:10 (NIV). In fact, God admonishes the priests saying that “I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices.” Malachi 2:3 (NIV).
Later on, just before Malachi 3:10 as we read at the beginning of this message, God states that they have robbed him (Malachi 3:6-9). He states that the whole nation is under a curse because they have robbed Him in their tithes and offerings, their sacrifices. God doesn’t take our offerings lightly. What are you offering to Him?
Are you giving God the first 10 minutes of your morning, when you’re half asleep and can hardly keep your eyes open? Do you tithe based on what you have left over once the bills are paid? Are you robbing God? Have you scheduled your devotion time in such a way that if you’re running late, your devotions get shorted? There are so many ways that we can essentially “rob God” by our giving (or lack thereof). I’m not familiar with all the details of the story, but growing up as a missionary kid I remember hearing a story in our circles of a missionary family that received used tea bags from their supporters! Another more humbling story was a report recently that the pastor of our local church described during a sermon about the giving within our church. I don’t remember all the details, but what I do remember is that the majority of the church, I believe it was about 80%, generally tithed an average of $1000 a year. If we figure out based on the average 10% of giving that most people try to give, that would mean that 80% of the church only makes $10,000 a year? Obviously, that is not the case. Yes, there may very well be a couple of people in that range of $10,000 – $20,000 for a yearly salary. But NOT 80% of the attendees. This is a very discouraging report on the state of giving within our Christian circles. Tithing is becoming more and more of a passing thought than something at the forefront of our walk with God.
How are you robbing God? Left over possessions? Left over time? Left over money? God asked for the “first fruits” from the Israelites. Not their leftovers. It takes more faith to give to God what we long to keep for ourselves then to give just Him our “leftovers”. Giving God our “first fruits” is a bold demonstration that we understand that our possessions, our time, our money all come from God in the first place. We acknowledge that God is our provider, and that He will continue to provide.
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