Does the tithe belong to the local church?
Hi, welcome to today's Little Lesson.
We're going to continue talking about the subject of tithing.
If you missed the previous Little Lesson, kind of laid a foundation there.
It'd be great if you saw that one first because under the new covenant, obviously, you can't
find in the instructions about the necessity of Christians tithing in the epistles written
to the Christians by the apostles.
You know?
There is a little mention about tithing in the epistle to the Hebrews, but it's not an
instruction to tithe.
It's just a historical references to Abraham when he tithed to Melchizedek and that Jesus
is now our high priest, but if you've been a Christian very long and attended a church
you probably heard about tithing and very likely your pastor once or twice or many,
many times prior to an offering has read a Scripture from Malachi chapter three that
he applies to what you're about to do as they're taking up the offering in reference to tithing.
If you're not familiar with that, I happen to put it right here so I can read it to you.
It's a great Scripture.
I love it.
Malochi chapter three beginning in verse number eight.
This is the last book of the Old Testament by the way, one of the final prophets.
"Will a man rob God?"
Question mark.
"Yet you are robbing me, but you say, 'How have we robbed you?'"
Question mark and God gives the answer.
"In tithes and in offerings."
Then he spells out the consequences of not tithing.
"You are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you."
This was endemic non-tithing.
Now, here's his abomination.
God says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my
house, and test me now on this," says the Lord of hosts.
"If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until
it overflows.
Then I will rebuke the devour for you."
Whoever that was, kind of sounds like the devil.
"So, that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground."
So, they're having crop failure.
That was part of the curse.
"Nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes," says the Lord of hosts 'cause God
says "You tithe, I'll rebuke the devourer and you won't have any crop failure any longer."
And verse 12: "And all the nations will call you blessed for you shall be a delightful
land," says the lord of host.
And so, again, I pointed out to you on the previous little lesson that tithing was instituted
under the law of Moses primarily to support the levites and their work in the tabernacle,
later the temple.
They were the ministers of the day and they weren't being supported by the nation of Israel
and God says "I don't like that.
So, I'm gonna let the devourer in there and he's gonna, you know, make some things miserable
for you.
And you think that by not tithing you're, you know, got more in your pocket, but in
reality you got less in your pocket 'cause by not tithing, that is, you know, resulting
in the curse that I put upon you, the devourer stealing the fruits of your ground, the fruits
of your labor.
And so, you actually have less money.
So, if you'll obey the Lord," he's saying, "and tithe, make sure the levites are taken
care of and the service there at the temple and then I'll see to it that you're blessed
and your crops, you'll have a good harvest and so forth."
And so, pastors often quote from that verse and it has application because, you know,
God doesn't change, right?
He's still the same, but the covenant has changed.
We don't have Levitical priests any longer.
We don't have any priests any longer to speak of, but we do have ministers, people that
God has called to serve him vocationally and that would be apostles, prophets, evangelists,
pastors, and teachers.
And so, if you want to kind of extrapolate something from Malochi chapter three then
you ought to be thinking in terms of, you know, "I want to support those who are doing
the work of God who are called to it."
Now, heres a little problem.
Pastors are apt to say silly things like the tithe belongs to the local church.
Now, it can't be supported anywhere in the New Testament whatsoever.
You won't find Jesus teaching that.
You won't find Paul, Peter, James, John, or Jude teaching that.
So, any pastor who teaches that is teaching what none of the apostles who offered the
New Testament ever taught as far as we know 'cause it's not taught there.
But, they base on the fact, they say "Well, you know, the local church is equivalent under
the new covenant to the store house of the old covenant 'cause this is where we all come
to church and we all get fed."
And they really start stretching it and usually they can't look you in the eye too directly
when they start making such statements because their conscience begins to bond them.
You know?
You're stretching the truth here buddy.
In the New Testament there were no church buildings.
And so, no pastor ever got up for about the first 300 years of Christianity and said "You
know, we need to tithe to the local church because we got a building here, we got a mortgage,
we got utilities to pay and so forth."
And this is another thing that just kind of gets my goat a little bit.
And so, this is my ... It's my Little Lesson.
So, I guess I have the right to say what I want to say and I'm hoping I say what you
understand would be the truth.
You know, giving in general is not supposed to be something that exclusively benefits
yourself.
That is, you know, when I take money out of my wallet and I go buy something for me, that's
normally not considered giving.
Right?
Okay, so if you give to the local church and that money goes to pay the mortgage, the utilities,
the salaries of the people that are ministering to you and to your family and somebody like
a pastor has the nerve to call that giving, now you're just paying your dues.
You're just paying your rightful share of what should be paid for by everybody who benefits
from it.
Right?
Like the dues at a country club or, you know, some association that you're a part of.
If you're benefiting from the services provided, you should be paying.
Now, churches don't set a set rate and say "Well, you know everyone has to pay this amount."
[inaudible 00:07:09] should give a tithe.
And it gets worse.
If, you know, maybe ... Let's say your church tithes and maybe they give 10% to missions
for example.
Well, that means 1/10th of your 1/10th is escaping the church four walls.
And that percentage could be considered giving because it's actually something that doesn't
directly benefit yourself.
Okay?
These are some things to think about and I think I'll talk about it a little bit more
on the next Little Lesson 'cause I know it's controversial, but I love you and I'm telling
you the truth and I want you to lay up treasure in heaven, not on this earth.
Okay?
Alright.
Hope to see you again next time.
God bless you.