Tithes & Offerings

Introduction:

It is such a great, fun, and exciting life living for the Lord.

It amazes me to think that God, the creator of everything, could do anything He desires on this earth because He created it all, but yet He chooses to work through each and every one of us.

I would be lying to you if I would stand up here and tell you that living as a Christian is always great fun, and exciting because it is hard sometimes and very challenging at times.

I believe that, we as Christians, experience more challenging times than people of the world because we have an enemy that knows what we stand for and whom we serve.

The Christian life is also challenging because we are at a constant war fighting against our flesh.

On one hand we hear and sense the Holy Spirit speaking to us and on the other hand we sense our flesh pulling us in the opposite direction.

Paul explains it best in Romans 7:15–16“15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.”

When we decide to do something for the Lord we almost instantly have our flesh begin to fight back and question what God spoke to us or we even experience attacks from the enemy.

When we feel God’s nudging to have us go witness to a stranger or pray for them we instantly begin to question and doubt if we should do it.

When the Holy Spirit speaks to us our flesh also speaks and says, “Are you crazy. You should not do that.”

Don’t be surprised when you decide that you are going to be faithful to God with your finances and tithe that you have things at home break or your hours get cut back at work.

The enemy does not want you to do what the Lord wants you to do.

When we read through the Bible, we are supposed to do that on our own, we read God’s Word to us.

If you want to hear God speak or to receive a prophetic word from Him, read your Bible that you have.

Its amazing.

The creator of the universe, the One who holds all power and knowledge, wrote a book to you.

Read it.

Let’s take it a step further.

When we read it DO WHAT IT SAYS!!!

James says to Christians scattered among the nations, in James 1:22 “22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

We are challenged when we read the Word and we should be challenged at times when we go to church and we hear the Word being preached.

I want everyone of you in here today to answer this question.

How many of you would say that its important that we read and preach the entire Bible cover to cover?

Great because today I’m going to preach a message that will challenge some us.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Malachi 3:6-12

Malachi 3:6–12 NIV

6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 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?’ 8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 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. 11 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. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Point 1: What is a Tithe?

Money is one of the most talked about topics in the entire Bible.

One study says that prayer and faith are mentioned about 500 times in the Bible while money and possessions are mentioned over 2,000 times.

I have been at the church for 2.5 years now and never preached a sermon on money or tithing, so if you are new to the church or haven't been here very long this is not a topic that the pastor here constantly preaches about.

I don’t stand up here every Sunday begging people to give to the church like I have seen before in other places.

I will say that we have many people that attend the church who regularly give their tithes and offerings to the church.

It amazes me that we don’t pass a basket around and even sometimes forget to mention that we have offering boxes in the back of the church, yet God’s people continue to be faithful to Him so that Faith Outreach Center Church can continue to be part of this community.

As I studied Malachi in preparation for this past Wednesday night service and as I read through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy for our Bible through the year reading plan, I have felt convicted about not preaching and teaching on giving.

I want to be clear that we are not in desperate need of money, so I felt the need to speak on this today.

I have felt convicted, not as much for the sake of the church, but for every person who attends here.

It is hard being a pastor and honestly trying to follow the Lord’s leading because I don’t always get to preach what I want and excites me.

I really was excited last week to prepare a sermon about miracles, but not so much with giving until it started to come together because of the things we personally have experienced in our life.

We have tested God in the area of giving and found out that we really cannot out give God.

What I do know is that it is very obvious that God is doing some great things here at the church.

He is constantly opening doors for us in the community and sending new families to the church.

I know of different churches that are struggling right now to stay open.

Some of these churches have been steady in attendance and offerings while others have been losing families left and right.

I pray for them that God revitalizes those churches to the place where some of them once were and the others to a great place that they haven't seen yet.

What I do know is that God is constantly blowing my mind in what I am seeing here.

We are an extremely healthy church that is moving forward.

I don’t say that with a prideful heart but a humble and thankful heart.

I’m actually not sure where God is taking this church, but I have learned that we need to be ready and willing.

So, what exactly is a tithe?

The Hebrew word for “tithe” is a word that means “one-tenth”.

The Israelites were required to give one-tenth of their livestock, the land’s produce (crops), and a tenth of their income back to God.

This showed that they understood that the blessings they had came from the Lord.

We see this in Leviticus 27, Deuteronomy 14, our passage in Malachi, 1 Corinthians 16:2, and 2 Corinthians 8:3.

There are many more.

Malachi was a prophet of God that the Lord spoke through to the Israelites after they returned from Babylonian captivity.

Malachi rebukes the people in chapter 1 for bringing a sacrifice to God that was not their best.

We talked about this on Wednesday night that if I had a herd of animals it would be easy to offer God one of my animals that were lame or blind, but that wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice.

God wanted their best and He wants our best.

Giving to me is such an indicator of the condition of a person’s heart.

It’s easy to say we are a Christian but if it begins to hurt we are done.

We want to be a Christian with all the benefits but when we begin to hear things that challenge us like dying to our flesh, not doing what we want but what God wants, we then decide to not continue living for the Lord.

Jesus has this encounter with a young man who the Bible describes as a rich young ruler.

He comes to Jesus and asks Him what he needs to do to receive eternal life.

Jesus tells him to obey His commandments.

He responds by saying that he has done that, and Jesus then tells him to sell everything he had and give all the money to the poor.

Then the young man upset because he had great wealth.

It was not his money that was the issue but that it had his heart.

If we are not tithing Malachi says that we are robbing God.

We actually had someone get very upset and leave the church because I mentioned in passing once that if we are not tithing we are robbing God.

He said that there is no way his family could afford to do that.

I said on Wednesday night to not shoot the messenger.

I am just preaching what the Bible says.

When we figured our own family budget we made sure to keep tithing as our number 1 priority at the top of the list.

You can ignore everything I’m saying today if you want and think that I’m just saying this because I am the pastor, but I’m telling you right now that I do not want to stand before God and answer to Him why I did everything else HE asked but held money from Him.

You know what I believe He would say.

He would probably say with a broken heart, “Was it because you didn’t trust me enough? Was it because you thought that you had to do it on your own? Was it because you didn’t think I would supply your needs? Was it because you didn’t believe me when I told you that I own everything anyway?

You do not have to answer to your pastor for not tithing but God.

You are not giving to the church but to God who owns it all.

We don’t bring God sacrifices in the form of animals, but we do bring Him sacrifices in the form of times, fleshly desires, and money.

Point 2: What is an offering?

An offering, or even referred to as a free-will offering, was something that was not required of the Israelites but that they gave on their own.

We see this throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

In Acts 2:45, we read of the believers selling their possessions and giving to those in need.

They were not required to do this, but moved by the Holy Spirit they felt the urgency to help those in need.

In Exodus 36, the Israelites brought offerings to Moses for the construction of the Tabernacle.

The Bible says that the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning.

In Exodus 36:5 Moses says that the people were bringing more than enough for the work that the Lord commanded to be done.

Then, in verse 6 Moses ordered that the people stop bringing offerings.

They were not required to do this but did so out of their excitement for what God was doing.

I cannot imagine being at the place where we had to tell everyone in the church to stop bringing offerings because we had more than enough.

When we begin to catch hold of what God is doing we will want to give in to that.

Point 3: What are tithes and offerings used for in our church?

When we give our tithes to the church, our “one-tenth” of the first of our income, it goes into our General Fund of the church which is used for our day to day operations like payroll, paying the utilities, maintenance, cleaning, our water treatment, and other things like that.

As you are faithful to God in your giving to the Lord this church can continue to more and more in the community.

If everyone in the church decided that instead of tithing anymore they would use that money to buy a new truck, purchase a bigger house, or go on a vacation of a lifetime, it would not be very long that this church would close its doors.

You may have heard to big question that every church should ask itself, “If our church all of the sudden was not here next week would anyone from the community even notice?”

I’m telling you that lots of people would notice.

When you give you tithes and offerings to the Lord, we pray for the Lord’s direction on how we use that and pray God’s blessing upon it.

When you sow into God’s kingdom through the ministry of Faith Outreach Center you are helping us:

Preach the Word of God and see one another built up and sent out.

We see people accept the Lord by being born again, baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

We support 25 missionaries all from China, to Thailand, to Africa, and many places in between.

We also help support local ministries like youth centers, pregnancy care centers, organizations like Love Life who are a pro-life ministry who help defend unborn babies, and PA Family Institute who stand up and fight for pro-life issues and religious liberty issues in Harrisburg.

We have our monthly Food bank where we send over 120 families home with food.

Every month people tell us that they would not make it if it were not for us.

We have a Home School CO-Op that meets here every Tuesday afternoon for 3 hours.

We also host a Bible-2-School program at the church where third graders from Donegal school come for their lunch and have the bible taught to them.

This past week all the students were repeating together Psalm 119:11 “11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

It was the sweetest thing ever.

We are making a difference in this area for the Lord.

This church is a beacon of light here surrounded by farm fields where people can come for safety.

Conclusion:

This message is hard to preach for me but it is so important.

Please do not put all of your trust in earthly possessions holding back from God thinking you are doing your family a favor because you have everything figured out.