Transforming Truth: Your relationship with money is an indicator of your relationship with Jesus.
Prior to 400 years of canonical silence, one of the last things God makes clear to His people through the prophet Malachi is that their relationship with money is a big deal and a huge indicator of what is going on in their hearts. God does not change. From beginning to end, Jesus wants to be your provider, your confidence, your security and your source. He demonstrated this for you on the cross by becoming a substitute for your sin, taking the wrath of God on Himself and giving you His righteousness. He continues this idea of provision with your finances as you give Him what He's entrusted to you to receive His blessing in return. Today, as we walk through the books of the Bible, we will deepen our worship by understanding the tithe and understanding the heart of God behind it all.
Understanding God's Tithe You are to acknowledge God as your source with your firstfruits - the first and best of all your income.
Malachi 3:6-12 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 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. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
Being blessed means to have God's divine hand and favor working on your behalf. Being cursed is living with God resisting you.
People often find themselves struggling and feeling cursed because they do not involve Jesus in their financial lives.
As you are faithful to give, God is faithful to take care of every need that you have (Philippians 4:10-20), and then some. By trusting Him, you come into the joy of being blessed to be a blessing (Genesis 12:2).
Exodus 34:26a “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God."
When God speaks of your firstfruits, it means that He expects that what you spend your money on first would be your tithe. It is giving back to Him what belongs to Him. It is not your leftovers. It is the best of what you have.
Make no doubt about it: your giving is an act of worship, faith and obedience to God.
“The worship to which we are called in our renewed state is far too important to be left to personal preferences, to whims, or to marketing strategies. It is the pleasing of God that is at the heart of worship. Therefore, our worship must be informed at every point by the Word of God as we seek God’s own instructions for worship that is pleasing to Him.”
― R.C. Sproul, A Taste of Heaven: Worship in the Light of Eternity
Leviticus was the book that began to describe to the people of God what true and full worship should look like.
Leviticus 27:30-33 “‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord. Whoever would redeem any of their tithe must add a fifth of the value to it. Every tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the Lord. No one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If anyone does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.’”
Tithe means tenth.
Tithe, tenth and firstfruits are all key words used throughout the Scripture to help us understand God's overarching principle reiterated throughout the generations. God expected the whole tithe, the first tenth and best of all of the Israelites' income to be returned to Him in worship.
Where is the storehouse?
Deuteronomy 12:4-7 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way. But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go; there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
The original storehouse was the temple in Israel, the place God prescribed for worship. Your storehouse is where you worship Jesus, find your Christian community, are being pastored, are serving and are being fed through the Word of God. There is the universal church, but it is important that you embrace the practical function of the local expression of the body of Christ.
Should I begin when I think that I have enough money?
No. It will not get easier as your income grows if you do not develop the right habits now. The truth is there is a big difference between our wants and our needs. When you are making your assessment of having enough, you are often referring to your idea of where you would like to be, not what you need to have. By beginning with what you have now, you are developing a lifestyle through which God can entrust you with more as you are faithful with the little you presently have.
Do I give off of the gross or net of my income?
Luke 20:20-26 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” He saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”“Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.
You tithe off of the gross. The government is unapologetic about asking for their share. God is unapologetic in requiring that we give Him the firstfruits before anyone else.
Did Jesus endorse tithing?
Matthew 23:23-24 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. 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. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. When you belong to Jesus, your life is not our own. Nor is your money. All 100% belongs to God. He tells you clearly what to do with the first 10%. Bring it into His house. He then expects you to be a steward, led by the wisdom of His Word, the unction of the Holy Spirit and the generosity of your heart to know what to do with the rest.
Understanding the Heart of God There is great joy, liberty and peace when you begin to trust God with your financial life.
Jesus wants your heart, not just your money. The issue is having a generous heart like Christ. When you involve God in your resources, you are giving Him the gateway to everything that is most important to you. You are putting confidence in Him that all of your needs will be met by a good Father and will bless you with your desires according to His wisdom (Psalm 37:4).
However, you end the robbing of God in two ways:
1) You give Him the honor He is due as the true provider when you pay your whole tithe. True worship is a wholistic lifestyle, not a sentiment. He established a faith mechanism through which you acknowledge Him by the giving of your tithes, not your lip service.
2) You demonstrate your concern for His house beyond the borders of your desires when you give joyful offerings beyond your tithe. The full extent of God's gospel purposes are realized when God's people give their offerings. Churches, missions and ministers are funded, the poor are fed and the gospel is advanced. All of these things are accomplished through the resources that God entrusts to us.
God said that He must be recognized as our source.
Deuteronomy 8:10-20 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.
When we tithe and make our offerings to Jesus, we are breaking the dominating spirit of self sufficiency in wealth by declaring that we will not live in fear, but rather in faith and trust in God as our ultimate provider, multiplier and source.
I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.
-Martin Luther
Second City Church- Famous Last Words Sermon Series 2014