Why Tithe?

Last few weeks,

Why join a church, we understand that God has planned it this way, we are not designed to do this thing alone

Why read your bible, how else will we know what He is saying to us, to grow we must be reading Gods word!

This week again is another tough topic so says society,

Tithing - defined - from an old english which meant a tenth, which is where we get tenth, also scripture uses tenth

1st question is why tithe?

this one most of us had probably asked ourselves, and maybe you end up with a few answers, maybe you say well that is just what we are to do, or maybe you end up with well have to keep the lights on some how, or it is how we do things as a church

those are all correct, but for use to understand tithing we first have to ask some different questions,

like we have for the past few weeks

1 - What is tithing?

Leviticus 27:30–34 NASB95

‘Thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S; it is holy to the LORD. ‘If, therefore, a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it one-fifth of it. ‘For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD. ‘He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; or if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’ ” These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the sons of Israel at Mount Sinai.

Tithing is the act of giving a tenth to God

wether it be grain, fruit, flock, or income, it is the portion and the act of giving it to God

Nehemiah 10:35–37 NASB95

and that they might bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the LORD annually, and bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks as it is written in the law, for the priests who are ministering in the house of our God. We will also bring the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine and the oil to the priests at the chambers of the house of our God, and the tithe of our ground to the Levites, for the Levites are they who receive the tithes in all the rural towns.

2 - What is the purpose of the tithe

Numbers 18:21 NASB95

“To the sons of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform, the service of the tent of meeting.

Deuteronomy 14:28–29 NASB95

“At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town. “The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

God set this up to supply the levites which were 1 of the 12 tribes set apart for him, they had no inherence in the land and no way of making food or money, in the NT it was designed to supply the church

3 - How are we to give our tithe?

we are to give it joyfully

Mark 12:41–44 NASB95

And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

since it is God’s first it should come off the top

Some of the best advice I received growing up was that the first thing you should do after being paid is tithe, then at the end of the year when you get your giving statement, it is fun to see how much you gave and did not even miss!!

Back to our first question of why tithe?

I hope you understand that tithing is more than money, tithing is more than giving 10% of your income, tithing also includes our time, and service and our skills

Everything you have is because of God! all he requires in 10% of what he has blessed us with back

Church we are to be serving the church as part of your tithing as well as tithing money, and skill and time and energy.

Some of you are better at decorating, or skill musicians, or builders, or mechanics, or movers

we should be tithing 10% across the board, money, skills, time, energy

It is my prayer that you have come today and learned a thing or two about tithing, more importantly i hope you understand why you are to tithe, that it is a blessing to Christ,

Maybe you have come here and God has shown you that you need to start tithing, or to give more, or maybe you need prayer, I would invite you if you don't know who Christ is, I would love to come and talk you about it.