Tithe Gets a Bad Rap

This is the last message that I have to preach in Leviticus.

And all God's people said, okay, so actually I have more, but I'm not going to do them.

Anyway, so let's read Leviticus 20, verses 30 through 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 becomes

holy and cannot be redeemed. And tithe gets a bad rap, doesn't it?

We see their smiling faces on the television, silky smooth voices,

great clothes, hair just perfect like mine, offering the promise of health and wealth.

The key, your money or the tithe. off your tithe unto the Lord,

that is, to their ministry, and God will multiply your wealth and happiness.

Do you remember Y2K 2000, when all of that came up?

I remember there was one pastor of a large church in Michigan who on the television,

on the broadcast, told everybody to take out their wallets,

hold their wallets up the air, and pat them and say, in the year 2000, you will be filled.

He proceeded to tell people that they would be blessed if they would take all of their savings,

and buy houses and properties for 10 cents on the dollar from people who couldn't

go afford them, and then turn them back around and rent them to them.

He said the kingdom of God, the people of God should become wealthy during this time.

I'm sorry, that's not exactly what I'm looking at.

These people would say a heavenly windfall can be yours if you just sow the

seeds of faith by giving to the Lord through their particular ministry.

And I know every one of you has the image of a television pastor who is teaching

and preaching the prosperity gospel.

This is a message tailored to American consumer. Essentially,

God will pay you to be his disciple.

What a bargain. The tithe is a hot ticket item in today's churches,

particularly in those churches that preach a connection between wealth and God's blessing.

The tithe, in their view, is an investment strategy.

If this is an accurate portrayal of the tithe, I don't know what is.

I think this is what people are trying to teach today.

Should we still observe a tithe? even though preachers are talking about it as a way to get wealthy?

If not, how much should we give to the church? These are all important questions

and worthy of our attention, but before we get into answering them,

let me just say this is also one of the most uncomfortable subjects in the scriptures

for any preacher to preach on.

Those who have prayed upon others to enrich themselves have fostered such an

environment of skepticism concerning the church and finances that preaching

on giving is now almost considered taboo.

But this morning, despite my reservations, I'm preaching on giving.

Quite frankly, the Scripture has a lot to say about giving and about money.

In fact, actually, probably more so about money than most any other topic.

So this morning, we will take a look first at the topic of tithe as found in

Scripture, and then about giving in the New Testament context.

We'll begin by looking at the origin of the tithe, where the idea of a tithe comes from.

Then we'll look at how the tithe was presented in Deuteronomy chapter 14,

Deuteronomy 14 · chapter mention

23 to 28, or give you a synopsis of that.

You may be surprised to find out how the tithe was interpreted.

After that, we'll consider the real reason for the tithe, and then finally look

at the tithe in a New Testament concept.

Can anybody tell me what the word tithe actually means?

Okay, tithe means a tenth. That's correct. It's a giving of a tenth to God.

Now, it's interesting that we look at that, but...

We want to get a good grasp on the difficult subject of a tithe.

So first, it's hinted at, the first time it's hinted at, the tithe is hinted

at, it is in Genesis 4, verse 3, and you know the story, Cain and Abel.

Genesis 4:3

Although not strictly called a tithe, the implication here is that they were

to give in worship to God.

Cain and Abel each brought a portion of their produce as an offering to the Lord.

Abel, rightly, made his offering from the first and the best portion of his

flocks, while Cain, it says in the Scripture, brought some of the produce from the field.

It very clearly says Abel brought the first and best, but Cain just brought

some, hence leading to his offering being rejected.

So a tithe is to be a specific portion, the first and the best portion of our produce.

The first place we hear of a tithe per se is in Genesis chapter 14,

Genesis 14:18

verse 18, if you want to write that down.

When Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils of the war to Melchizedek,

the priest king of Salem, his tithe comes in response to Melchizedek offering

a celebratory meal and a blessing and blessing Abraham after he had defeated Lot's abductors.

So it was an indirect apportion. He gave a tithe.

He gave a tenth of all the spoils to Melchizedek.

So a tithe is also a response of thanksgiving honoring God's providence or provision.

The idea of the tithe continues to appear on the pages of the Old Testament

until it's brought front and center as part of the law of Moses.

It seems that the first place the tithe was mentioned is in our text for this

morning, specifically mentioned in that Leviticus chapter 27, verses 30 through 33.

Leviticus 27:30–33

And if you remember right, I told you last week that Leviticus would have been the first book.

The first writings that the Hebrew children would have learned.

They wouldn't have learned Genesis and Exodus first. They would have learned

Leviticus first with the laws and all of that.

But the practice of the tithe is more fully described in Deuteronomy chapter

Deuteronomy 14:22–28

14, verses 22 to 28 in Deuteronomy chapter 26.

Deuteronomy 26 · chapter mention

So write those down. You can read those. I know you are looking forward to something

other than Leviticus, so you can read Deuteronomy.

That's always exciting. Actually, it's probably much more exciting than numbers, just saying.

Although interpretations differ, the law of Moses appears to call for three

separate tithes to be exercised among the Israelites.

The first tithe went to support the priestly ministry.

This is found in Deuteronomy. The first 10%, the first tithe of everything that

they produced was to be support to priestly ministry.

The Lord was the inheritance of the priesthood in Israel.

They had no land of their own. They had no means of income.

They didn't do anything other than serve in the temple and in the tabernacle.

So their very means were what they received from the people as tithes and offerings.

Instead, they were to concentrate on ministering before the Lord to see to their

physical needs a tithe was instituted.

The second tithe, excuse me, the use of the second tithe was used for the care

of the poor and the disenfranchised among them.

The tithe was to be brought into the temple storehouses so that it could be

used to feed the widow and the orphan and the downtrodden, those who are in need.

And then the final use of the tithe, this one was taken every three years.

This tithe was received every three years.

The final use of the tithe was to be used for a celebration of God's grace.

It was a festival offering, basically a party to celebrate God is what it was.

So if one takes all of these tithes into account and accepts this reading of

the tithe structure and Mosaic laws,

it appears that the Israelites were called in the Old Testament to tithe 23 and a third percent.

Now, it seems kind of a lot, but yet then again, 10% seems almost impossible to many people.

And I'm reminded of that because when you go to a restaurant, what do you ask to tithe?

Or excuse me, what do you ask to tip in a restaurant?

17, 18, 20? I saw one person put on, if you can't afford to give a 30% tip,

you can't afford to go out to eat.

Friends, if we have a problem with giving God back 10% of what he has given

to us to begin with, we aren't even tipping God. Think about it.

The figure we just mentioned, 23 and a third percent, does not include the year

of Jubilee every 50 years when all debts were forgiven, and all land was restored

to its original possessor.

The main reason this practice was to demonstrate that although a person may

possess the land, they do not own the land.

The land belongs to God, just like everything that is given to us belongs to God.

They simply hold the land in trust as stewards on behalf of God called upon

to use the land wisely and for the purposes as God intends.

You see, being good stewards of God's money does not mean being stingy and cheap.

It means that we are to give the very best and to use God's money wisely to

bring about the greatest gain for his kingdom.

And I don't want to sound horrible here, but it might.

I remember one church we were in where one lady who had quite a bit of means,

And when she got brand new furniture in her house,

brought the used furniture that had to be wired together and screwed together for the church.

You know, are we giving God our best, or are we giving him our leftovers?

John Wesley said that as followers of Christ, we should consider everything

we purchase for what impact that purchase has on serving the kingdom of God.

Now, as we look over the Old Testament treatment of the tithe,

we quickly become aware that the teaching has little to do with the imposition

of law or financing the temple and has everything to do with grace and gratitude.

The reason Cade's offering was rejected by God was because he didn't demonstrate proper gratitude.

He was begrudgingly giving God some of the produce that he had gotten from tilling the garden.

He didn't present his first and his best. Abraham tithed out of gratitude for

God's protection and provision in the victory won.

The tithing structure of Israel is grounded in gratitude for God's great act

of redemption, deliverance from Egypt, from the life of slavery.

People gave because they were thankful for what God has done for them.

The real motivation behind the offering is not law, but gratefulness,

an overwhelming sense of thankfulness for God's deliverance and his continued providence.

The tithe, the sacrificial giving, is a powerful act of worship,

if you think about it, acknowledging God's redemption.

When you make out your check for tithe, or you prepare to bring your cash in

for tithe, or if you want to leave your credit card with me—no,

wait a minute, that's not—or if you want to electronically give,

I would urge you to make that a time of worship.

When you're writing out that check, don't just do it.

Inanely. Just do it as a time of worship. Thank you, Father,

for what you have given to me, provided to me a job in which I can pay my bills,

which I can feed my kids three times a day because they feel like they have

to be fed, as the rap said.

But make it a time of worship in thanking the Lord that you have the opportunity

and the privilege to give back to him what already belongs to him.

Isn't that interesting to think? Now, one aspect that I have not covered,

and will only do so briefly, the financial giving is an indication of our trust

in God's provision and providence.

Adam's message was about independence and dependence, dependence on God.

And Autumn will rightfully talk about what dependence was. It's the idea that

we're relying on somebody else. This is what we're doing with God.

We're relying on God for provision of everything we have, and this is our trust

in him, our faith in God that he will provide. This is just an indication of that faith.

The scriptures speak of a first fruit offering and of our tithe coming out of

the first and best portion of our produce.

The first fruits offering was exactly what it sounds like, the first harvest

from the first planting.

Israel was to take the very first portion of the first harvest and give all

of it as an offering to the Lord.

In doing so, they were proclaiming confidence and faith in God's ability to provide for his people.

Giving this offering was a way of saying, thanks, God, we trust you for an even greater harvest.

It's interesting to me when I went down to Honduras on mission trips,

we would usually go in January.

During January, the church down there where we went would have a first fruits offering.

It's not the first fruits of the harvest. It's the first fruit of the year.

And people would bring in stuff, their offerings, not only money,

but food and whatever it would be for the pastor's family and for the children's home where we were.

They would bring that in at the first part of the year is in anticipation of

how God was going to bless them.

Now, these are people who live on probably about $3 or $4 a day.

And they are giving to bless God and in thankfulness of what God was going to do for them.

As an example of first fruits giving, we should set aside and pay our tithes

before paying any other bills and trust God to work out the rest.

I would urge you to do that. Think about that. Pay ahead.

We're anticipating God to do this. If we find out that I pay 10% of what I think

God's going to give me, and it ends up he doesn't give me as much that week,

well, I can bet that next week he will be, so I'll continue to do that.

Or let's say God gives me more than what I anticipated.

Well, then I guess he'll just get a little more tithe. What do you think?

Isn't the way we do things we should do that in anticipation of what God's?

So then what can we say about the tithe and offering?

Why is it mandated in the Old Testament? We have just said that it brings expression

of our gratitude for redemption and our confidence in God and his ability to provide.

At a pragmatic level, it provides for economic realities of maintaining a priesthood

and a ministry that we have here in the church, in today's terms,

providing for the church facility and the staff and the ministries of the church.

But there's a deeper reason, although this teaching becomes much more explicit

in the New Testament, particularly in the teaching of Paul.

God mandates a tithe, and the New Testament echoes that mandate because it's

a way to measure how the heart is doing spiritually.

I don't know how much everybody gives, but I know a pastor who used to do that.

He would not know necessarily how much specifically everybody did,

but he would talk to the treasurer, and the treasurer said somebody was slipping up on giving.

He would know that there's some kind of spiritual matter, and he would pray

for that family and the needs.

And oftentimes you'd find out that the family was going through some divorce

problems or things like that, and the church would then gather around them and

minister to them their need.

The financial means of giving often follow our spirituality.

The tithe is about attitude, about the willingness to be a disciple.

Jesus said, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

He warned about the dangers of material wealth, how it is so easily becomes an idol.

Money is much more than a neutral medium for carrying out business.

Jesus said this, where a man's treasure is, there will his heart be also.

I've also heard it said, if you look at a person's checkbook,

you will find exactly what they find as valuable.

What do they spend their money and tithe on?

Because of our fallen nature, money and treasure have the power to captivate

the heart, to elicit greed and envy.

Jesus also said the love of money is the root of all evil.

Material wealth taken as owned and not possessed often begins to possess the owner.

Only the power of grace and a proper understanding of possession and stewardship

guards the heart from a spiritual idolatry.

The tithe is instituted to remind us that we are stewards and not owners.

It's said that if you want to know where a person's heart is,

as I said, you look at their pocketbook, look at their bank account,

look at how they spend their money.

What's interesting is that in the New Testament, the notion of tithe is not

carried forward in its fullness, not like the Old Testament dictates.

It still talks about it, but it's not carried forward.

Why is that? It's because, as Paul makes clear in Galatians,

the Old Testament faith was a training ground for the fuller,

more mature faith that came in Jesus Christ. In his mind—.

The Old Testament faith needed such explicit instruction as guidance to the proper worship.

But in Christ, such instruction is no longer needed because we have the Holy Spirit to guide us.

New Testament tithing, look at that, New Testament tithing does not call us

to a strict standard of the tithe.

Rather, this is just the beginning of our giving that should come from a grateful

heart for the gift of salvation.

God has given us in Christ.

How blessed we are when we can go beyond the tithe and give those offerings

to those organizations that need the extra, or to the church in an extra time

when we have love offerings or extra needs,

or to the campground like we've done in the past.

By the way, Sky Lodge Camp, you know, we did the finish line campaign.

We are less than, they are less than $3,000 short of the $275,000 goal.

So I'm saying that, thanking the Lord for that.

But if you would desire to help them out with that, that would be great.

Just make your checks out to the church and make a note Sky Lodge giving line.

We can get that too. We'd love to put them over.

We're also going to be taking on a couple other projects too.

I don't know if you've been to Sky Lodge, but the furniture in the lodge building

is, the cushions need to be redone, the things need to be redone.

So we're going to be looking at getting somebody to reupholster some new seating

material that we have for those. And I've told them that.

I volunteered us to help with the cost of that, so we will do that.

So we don't obey the laws of God to be saved. We obey the laws of God because we are saved.

Get that again. We don't obey the laws to be saved.

We obey the laws because we are saved.

It's not a matter of doing what God wants to try to earn our way to heaven.

It's doing what God wants because God has already redeemed us.

In the same way, we don't give our tithe so we can earn our way to heaven.

We give our tithe because we're saved.

It's because of what God has already done for us in giving it to us.

And according to even the New Testament, a tithe is just the minimum.

Paul makes clear that a life infused with a dwelling spirit is a life marked

with worship, love, and gratitude.

And these things are expressed in large part through our selfless giving.

Of our time and resources for the sake of the kingdom.

But if the tithe is no longer relevant in the New Testament,

is there a standard for giving in the New Testament?

Is the tithe still a valuable practice?

If love and grace are our guiding principles for giving, what should our standard be for how much we give?

Let me offer some guidelines on that. The truth of the matter is how much to

give is found in a story in the gospel of Matthew chapter 12, verses 41 through 44.

Matthew 12:41–44

And if I tell you what it is, you'll know exactly the story.

You see, there's this little old woman and Jesus sat down opposite the place

where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.

Many rich people walked up and they threw in large amounts of coins into the temple.

You know, the temple pots, the treasuries, were metal.

And so when they threw in their coins, there was a lot of nice-sounding tinkles,

you know, and they would come and bring their offerings and throw them in,

I think, just to see who could make the loudest noise, who could.

Have the biggest tinkle. Anyway, but a poor widow came and put it in her two very small coins.

And I think this woman probably slipped up there and just kind of let it slide

down the side and didn't make any notice of it.

Probably worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his decidables to him,

Jesus said, I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.

They gave out of her wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything,

all she had to live on. That's a quote from Jesus's word.

Out of her poverty, she put in everything, all she had to live on.

So here are the guidelines for giving.

I think the first guidelines we have to consider is to remember that our tithe,

which by the way means a tenth, is the measure of our desire.

What's really important to us in this scene from the Gospel of Matthew,

Jesus declared that the minuscule offering of this window was worth far more

than all the fantastic gifts of the rich people. Why? Because of her gift.

Her gift is marked by faith. She gave out of her poverty. She sacrificed.

She gave everything she had to live on. She didn't keep anything back for herself.

She didn't sit down after everything else was paid and try to figure out how much she could give.

She gave before everything else, knowing that God would make up the difference and provide for her.

Her giving was a revelation of her heart's condition.

The real lesson here is the lesson of Abel, giving from our first and our best.

So the guideline would echo the words of Paul. purpose in your heart what you

are going to give, and then follow through with it by giving that portion off the top.

Personally, Nancy and I counted the privilege to be able to give the tithe and beyond.

At the beginning of the week, before we pay any other bills,

we set out our check for that next week, anticipating that God will provide us for us.

Let me offer you some other guidelines from a book by Dr.

Hairsprink, who's pastor of the Faith Community Christian and Reformed Church.

This is in a book titled A First Fruits Congregation. Here's another guideline.

Number two, our giving should be systematic.

Systematic, every time, on a consistent basis. In this way, the concept of tithe is helpful.

Systematic giving ensures consistency and instills discipline.

The same thing should be said of our prayer life, right?

So if our prayer lives should be consistent and systematic.

Shouldn't everything else in our life for Christ be consistent?

And systematic. Our giving should also be proportional.

One of the real tragedies of the modern age is that as income increases,

lifestyle expectations increase.

Bigger house, better clothes, better vacation spots, bigger and faster cars, but giving doesn't.

In fact, if you look at the giving averages, as income increases,

the percentage given to the churches actually decreases until there might be some here.

If you're making over $500,000 a year, then the percentage of giving begins to increase again.

But otherwise, the percentage of income goes down as the income goes up.

I was reminded by one person back in another church, and I won't tell you which

one, But she came to me after a message about giving, and she said,

boy, that really struck home. I said, what do you mean?

She goes, well, I've always given $10 a week because that's what my grandpa did.

And I remember watching him put $10 into the offering plate.

And so I thought if $10 was good for him to give, it's good for me too.

$10 for her grandpa probably was a tithe.

And I remember one other pastor had a person come to them one day and said,

Pastor, well, actually it was a pastor in Michigan,

had somebody come to him and he said, you know, you spoke about this,

but he said, I can't afford to give a tithe.

He said, my income has increased and I can't afford to give 10% because that would be so much.

And he said, well, he said, let me do this. I'll pray for you.

I'll pray that either you will be able to give 10%, you will be able to give

in proportion of what your income is, whether you give an increase of your tithe,

or your income decreases to the point that it's 10 times what you're giving.

Oh, you can't do that, Pastor.

To do what the Lord says. So our giving should be proportional.

Giving should be without compulsion.

Again, giving can be a barometer of the heart. If you're giving out a compulsion

that is legalism and it's far from grace, give according to your faith,

as Paul says, as you purposed in your heart.

And then we should give expectantly.

God in Malachi says that giving the tithe is a test of God's providence.

He says, test me of this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven.

Those who sow generously expect to reap generously. And this is not a prosperity gospel.

We are just trusting God to provide for us what we need.

And then one final guideline, and this comes from Christian Financial Concepts

and the late Larry Burkett, is to begin teaching our children at a young age

about the significance of giving to God.

I know growing up when we got birthday money or anything like that,

my dad sat down with us and said, you need to give 10% of that to God before

you do anything else with it.

So what they suggested in this is that you provide your child with three separate

piggy banks, one for savings, one for spending,

and one for tithe and offering, and teach that whenever they receive any money

to take a portion of it and put in each bank.

It teaches them early everything that they receive. They receive from the hand of the Lord.

People of God, the tithe is not just another bill to be paid.

It's a recognition that God is our Redeemer and that he's our Lord.

He has given us everything that we have, even what's in our wallets.

And never forget, all that we have is given to us in trust. We are stewards and not owners.

So let's worship the Lord in spirit and truth in all of our giving,

and let's make our gratefulness known through our giving.

Heavenly Father, as we close this time of worship, this is oftentimes some of

the hardest things for us to teach on and preach on,

and yet you have been so clear in Scripture talking about money and the use

of money and the ways oftentimes money uses us, which it shouldn't.

But Father, I pray that you would help us as your followers not to do this out of compulsion,

but to give to you out of thankfulness and gratefulness for what you've already

done for us and what you've given to us. In Jesus' name, amen.