-Untold biblical truth about tithing.
Untold biblical truth about giving.
I believe that I have not preached a message like this before
at Hungry Gen.
I am really excited for it, today.
Christmas season is a time of giving.
When the wise men came and they gave their gifts
even though Jesus was no longer a little baby
He was already in the house, not in the manger.
But still the idea of gift-giving is very very Christlike.
Now for those people who may be watching
or maybe you are coming here and your idea of why
Christians are celebrating Christmas;
"We shouldn't be celebrating Christmas
because it's a pagan holiday."
It is a pagan holiday in it's origin. OK?
Why are we celebrating Christmas?
Because it's not a pagan practice of what Christmas
celebrates today.
Unlike Halloween that has pagan roots,
Halloween also has pagan practice, not just roots.
We are celebrating Christmas not because we are ignoring
the pagan roots, it's because of what it practices now.
The songs are about Christ, the songs are about His birth,
and anything that can expose the world to more of Jesus
we're up for it.
Amen.
[congregation applauds]
If Halloween would have had pagan origins
and celebrated life, love, peace, thanksgiving, eating turkey
everybody dressing up real nice like they do it for the wedding,
I would be the first person to join in the boat.
But because it doesn't present that where it originated,
and Christmas does, it celebrates something about Christ
the world sings about-- you go to the mall and you hear,
"Mary did you know?" And by the way she did know.
so I just want to answer that question.
But you hear Joy to the world, you hear Christ is born,
you hear deliverance, and so, when we hear like that--
when I walk in the mall, I know most of these people
they' don't even know Christ.
They sing the songs because it's the holiday cheer for them
it's about Santa and rain deer. But honestly,
when I hear the name of Jesus sang in our malls,
in our gyms, it gives my heart joy.
I'm like, man, I'm for that. This is so awesome.
We need to make Christmas great again.
C'mon somebody! Amen.
Merry Christmas.
Statistics say that more than one in four Americans protestants
gave only $0 during a year to a local church.
So one in four Americans in Christian protestants
gave zero a year.
From 1968 to 2005, giving to protestant churches
declined from 3.1% of income to 2.6% of income
of an average regular churchgoer
compared to those who say they are Christians
but rarely attend, give 6 % of their acts after tax income.
Pretty much, overall giving drops in average
protestant churches Christian's life.
The median for annual giving for a Christian is $200,
just over half a percent of their after tax income.
Mormons give more than seven times more the amount of money
as compared to their income than Catholics.
About 27% of evangelicals give away 10% or more
of their income.
So in a room of this size,
about 27% of people from evangelical background
give 10% or more.
About 5% of Christians provide 60% of money
to churches and religious groups.
20% of all Christians give 80% of all giving.
So, 20% of Christians are responsible for 80% to 86%
of all giving that comes to local churches or charities.
Among the protestants, 10% of evangelicals
28% of mainline folk, and 33% of fundamentalists
and 40% of liberal protestants gave nothing.
Now, and I can go more and more but I'm going to leave
on what would have happened if all the Christians
would have donated.
In fact, I'll read this: "Christian Smith, a psychiatrist
an expert on American Christianity says,
'If committed Christians in the United States
gave 10% of their after tax income fully,
but no more than 10%,'"
So just 10%, every committed Christian,
would just make a commitment to give 10% of their income--
"this would provide extra 46 billion per year of resources
to which to fund needs and priorities.
Here are some of the things this money could improve
in Christianity around the world.
150,000 new missionaries and pastors in nations
most close to foreign religious workers would open.
It would triple the resources being spent by all Christians
and Bible translating, printing, distributing
to provide bibles to native languages of the 2,737
remaining people groups currently without Bible translations."
Or pretty much will eliminate people not having Bibles.
"We would finance the organizational infrastructure
of major Christian research and advocacy organizing
fighting against contemporary, economic and sexual slavery
worldwide.
We would quadruple the total resources being spent
by all Christians globally to evangelize the world.
Five million...
So we would develop five million micro enterprise
economic development projects in poor countries worldwide.
We would have one million new clean water well-drilling projects
per year in the poorest nations.
We would treat and prevent malaria worldwide.
We would provide food, clothing and shelter
to all 6,500,000 current refugees in all Asia,
Africa and Middle-East.
We would quadruple the budget for Habitat for Humanity
the budget of World Vision which serves
one hundred million people in 96 countries.
We would sponsor 20 million needy children worldwide
providing food, education and health care.
We will quadruple global Christian medical missions work.
We would provide financial and debt management training
to 200,000 US Christians per year who are currently in debt."
Pretty much, if Christians would just do bare minimum
with the Law in the the Old Testament says,
the amount that this could contribute to the wellbeing
of the world honestly, would be staggering.
Like one of the things you have to understand about Hungry Gen
is we are embarking more and more on helping other churches,
helping other missions where we've taken a church in Vietnam
under our covering financially to sponsor and to help.
One hundred percent of Hungry Gen's budget
goes to the missions.
Some of it goes to Tri-Cities missions.
Some of it goes to when we go to conferences,
when we-- we are going to launch churches next year
the internships; everything is missionary in it's focus.
When we help the local people that are in need,
when we help also with missions,
when we help with all of these things, it goes to the world.
Let's go now into the untold truth about biblical tithing.
Here are four things you need to know about what the Bible
teaches about tithing.
Number one, the first mention of tithing had to do
in response to God's victory.
When Abraham gave first time 10%,
it's interesting that we don't know and nobody knows for sure
where did Abraham learn about the principle of giving 10%.
There was no local church,
there was thing king named Melchidezek
who is a symbol of Jesus Christ in the New Testament;
Abraham goes and gets this huge victory with his army
and with his band of people that he was with,
and then afterwards the Bible says that Abraham tithed 10%.
The first mention of tithing is the tithing of response
to God' faithfulness.
Which I believe the real reason why many of us tithe
we say, God thank You.
And we're not buying anything,
we're expressing our gratefulness.
So the first mention of tithing,
500 years before the commandments,
it was Abraham saying, God, I acknowledge You
as the source of my victory.
The second truth about tithing or the second way tithing
was done was a way of promising God
to tithe when I get a breakthrough.
Now Jacob was the grandson of Abraham.
And Jacob did not tithe on the credit card;
which is something I want to mention.
OK, there are people who get so fired up about tithing
that they tithe on their credit card.
That's not wise.
Now I'm not going to stop you if you're going to do that
'cause if you buy your shoes and everything on the credit card
you decide to tithe on the credit card,
good for you, God bless you, but it's not Scriptural.
And it's also not wise.
Jacob is broke like a joke. He has nothing to his name
he's sleeping in front of the sky, he gets the vision of God.
he sees the staircase of heaven,
he sees God, and his house is called Bethel
which is where he was sleeping. He slept on a rock
which there is a revelation there.
You know, Jacob went to sleep on a rock
Delilah went to sleep on the lap of-- Samson went to sleep
on the lap of Delilah. One woke up with a haircut,
the other one woke up with a revelation.
C'mon somebody.
And so, Jacob goes to sleep on a rock and there he sees
a vision of God, and Jacob wakes up he's like,
man, this is the house of God. This is church, somebody!
You know, the first thing that Jacob says,
instead of saying, man, I'm going to sign my kids
for the kids ministry, I'm going to enroll to serve
where is the planning center app?
You know, you would think like,
hey, when is the next church service?
And the first thing Jacob says is God, the moment I get
anything in my pocket or in my bank,
I'm going to give You 10%.
That's weird. I'm like I want you to see the connection.
Church, and he's saying, the moment I get anything
God, I'm going to give 10%.
No commandments yet, no law, no Moses
no coming with two tablets; none of that stuff.
This guy has a vision of God in his sleep,
vision of the house of God, wakes up and his first response:
the moment I get something in my wallet, in my bank account;
the moment I get my first paycheck, I promise to give God
and to thank Him.
Maybe that's where you're at.
You're broke but you got a revelation.
You're in a house today; you're like,
man, I'm in the house of God but I don't have a job.
I'm going through a difficult time.
You can make tithing as a promise.
It could be a response like Abraham,
or it could be as a promise, like Jacob.
Truth number three is the law of tithing.
Now the law of tithing was something that when Moses
took the Israelites out of Egypt,
they went to the mountain,
and God came to the mountain and gave Moses the commandments.
Now a lot of these commandments let's be honest,
they were not given to America,
they were given to the nation of Israel.
A lot of these commandments had to do with real estate.
They had to do with how to treat your employees.
How to treat the land boundaries.
It's pretty much like a code for living as a nation.
And one of these commandments was also tithing.
What many people don't understand is that
there was not one tithe, there were three.
There were three tithes in the law of Moses.
The first tithe was to support the Levites and the priests.
God said, you will bring the first of your crops
pretty much like the first 10% of what you're making
and that would help to maintain,
keep the lights on in the tabernacle.
Levites and the priests, these guys actually did not work.
All they did was to kind of worship, pray,
cut videos and upload stuff of YouTube.
And so, all they did was they were working at the tabernacle
for the things of God. And God's like,
hey, I got to keep these people so they can keep
their families fed and have a roof over their house.
So the 10% of everybody, Israelites went to maintain
the work that was happening at the tabernacle.
But there was one more tithe God was requiring of them
and that is, this tithe was to be spent on their travel
to the festivals that Israel had.
In fact, I'm going to read this because many Christians
don't realize there was more than one tithe by Israelites
required by God.
Deuteronomy 14:22 says the following:
"You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain
that the field produces year by year.
And you shall eat before the Lord your God,
in the place where He chooses to make His name abide,
the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil,
of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks,
that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.
But if the journey is too long for you,
so that you are not able to carry the tithe,"
they didn't have like UPS and FedEx at the time.
"Or if the place where the Lord your God chooses
to put His name is too far from you,
when the Lord your God has blessed you,
then you shall exchange it for money,
take the money in your hand,
and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.
And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires:"
Man, wow!
"For oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink,
for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there
before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice,
you and your household."
So the first tithe was you're bringing to the temple
to keep the lights on.
The second tithe is God says, hey, I want you to come
and celebrate this feast, but I want you to actually spend
your second tithe in a way of celebrating My goodness.
And if the journey is too far from where you are supposed
to come, where the temple is, then take your oxen, your sheep
your goats, your horses, everything as your tithe;
go to the market, sell them, get the money,
get an airline ticket, fly to that place--
I'm using the modern terminology, they did not have airlines
during that time; get there and then take that money
and this is what God says: I want you to go buy in the market
anything you like.
And bring that food, all of that good stuff
while you are having this feast, spend it on hotels
tip the waiter, do all of that stuff
and you are spending and celebrating Me
and rejoicing in My presence.
So you can always tithe twice.
You can tithe once to the church,
second time you can bring your tithe and just spend it
at the church coffee shop.
I'm just kidding, this is Old Testament. OK?
This is not-- I see the coffee shop team is yes, yes!
This is in the Bible!
But we have to start providing breakfast then.
Not just coffee shop; if we bring this law back.
I'm talking about the Old Testament law, OK?
I'm not saying this is what we need to do.
I'm just giving you an example of what they did.
The third tithe that people were required to bring
as [Old] Testament, people in covenant with God
this tithe was 10% every 10 years; excuse me, every 3 years.
So 10% every 3 years.
Let's read this where the Bible says in Deuteronomy 14:28.
"At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe
of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates.
And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance
with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow
who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied
that the Lord your God may bless you
in all the work of your hand which you do."
So the first tithe went to pay the bills at the temple.
The second tithe went in on your travel to the feast
and you would spend there with your family
feasting, rejoicing and celebrating God.
And the third tithe God says I want you to give this one
every 3 years, 10%.
So each year would equal to 3.3%, you would set apart.
You can set apart either each year 3.3%
or just every 3 years you set extra 10% apart.
And they had this like community, almost like a place
where you would bring that food.
You would bring those resources for the immigrants,
for the poor and for the people in your community
to eat of your tithe, including the Levite.
If whatever was provided to him at the temple was not enough,
he can come in-- and almost like a world relief
almost like a food bank.
Almost like this place, like a welfare for a community.
And guess who was paying for that?
Not the government, the people.
So pretty much to say in the Old Testament that
tithing wasn't 10%, it was 23.3%
each Israelite would give.
So Mormons are a lot more closer to that than we
because their standard is 20%, not 10%.
But that was the law of tithing.
So this wasn't just 10%, bring into the temple
it was also taking 10% to spend on my travel
to the temple celebrating the goodness of God,
and every 3 years I would give 10% to the widow,
to the orphan, to the fatherless, to the immigrant,
to the refugee- somebody that struggled and needed help.
And that's what tithing was instituted.
Number four truth about tithing is Jesus talking about tithing.
Jesus mentioned tithing twice.
We see this in Matthew 23:23
and in Luke 18:12.
And in both of those instances
He corrected legalistic abuse of tithing.
Jesus didn't endorse it or discredit it.
He simply corrected legalistic abuse of tithing.
Pharisees were so focused on making sure they gave 10%
that they ignored other important things.
And Jesus came and said, guys, you're missing the whole point.
He says, something that's more important than just giving
your 10% is how you treat people.
He didn't stop the tithing nor did He preach about it as often
as pastors preach today.
You might say, Man but if--
The way I'm speaking about tithing today my goal is not
to get you to give more.
So I want you to just-- those of you who already
the moment I mentioned the word tithing your defenses went up
and you became like Jericho, like closed securely,
you can open up.
I'm not after your money.
Plus if you make a decision not to give there is no one
in heaven or on earth that will take what's yours
except the devil.
So I just want to you relax because I see some of you are like
you're stiff. You're looking like, ah-ah, mm-hmm,
you are not taking anything.
I'm not going to.
I'm going to preach the truth of what God teaches.
Amen.
So, does tithing apply to us today?