04/10 - The Truth About Tithing

I think now if you don't know what tithing is when we use the word tithing we're talking about the the Old Testament idea of giving 10% that is a required 10% so tithing is not the same as donating tithing is not the same as giving let me just say up front for clarity here that we're not anti donating and we're not anti giving but we do have a stance on tithing that if you're new here it might surprise you so this morning we're going to look at the route of tithing where it really comes from and then what Christians today are really supposed to be motivated by instead so let's talk about some of these messages upfront before we dig into the scriptures some of these messages out there just make you want to go home right I mean you can't be healed unless you tithe now hopefully you've been blessed lucky enough to not be in a church that has ever taught this but I get emails all the time and there are different flavors will say different tribes of Christianity out there and some of these try to push this idea that you'll be physically healed if you just give enough money and if you have a physical ailment and you haven't been healed yet well maybe it's because you haven't tithed faithfully well you can see what kind of effect this would have upon a sincere eager child of God who really wants to please their heavenly father I mean so they give the money and then they're not healed and then they give some more money and there's maybe they're still not healed and eventually they end up with a whole lot of frustration and they end up with a messed up view of God because hey God I did what the church told me to do and I still haven't experienced what they promised I still don't have a changed circumstance now on the face of it we can see how ridiculous it would be the idea that we would essentially by healing from God that we would by God's favor that we would buy his healing and so then another message that's out there still makes you go huh because it's this you can't be blessed unless you tithe now this could take on many different faces couldn't it I mean what is blessed mean well some people might infer from this I won't be blessed in my business unless I give a required 10% at church and if I give a required 10% then God will bless my business or maybe it's not about your business maybe it's just that you will find favor with God that God will be pleased with you if you meet the 10% requirement you know the word blessed can mean a lot of things to a lot of people and quite frankly this sort of teaching does pretty well out there in the we'll call it the Christian marketplace so to speak because that's what it ends up being quite honestly people end up thinking that they're buying blessings from God and when they have negative circumstances it must be because I didn't put enough coins in the divine slot machine before I pulled the handle down and got my circumstances out the bottom and so we see that these sort of things get traction recently a friend of mine got back from another country and this is a worldwide issue I mean they were over in another country and when they sat down to the church sermon a friendly pastor nice guy but his teaching was if you haven't been tithing 10% please leave your car title in the offering plate as you leave otherwise God is disappointed with you and this is a great way to make up for it so just please leave your car title in the giving box these sort of things believe it or not they are out there and they are everywhere and they are disgusting they manipulate Christians and cause us to feel pressure and guilt and people get a messed up view of God the Father because of it now you know maybe you've heard the idea that unless you give 10% you are robbing God right we've seen this plastered on billboards we've seen it maybe on Facebook and people say that you know God requires this and if you don't give him this amount then you are robbing God and Malachi 3 is often used to justify that of course you know that Malachi 3 is from the Old Testament and the context of it actually it says bring your your tithes bring your offerings and tithes into the storehouse and so in the context there it was Israel needing to store grain grain offerings you know like oat wheat barley that sort of thing and so sometimes we take a passage out of the Old Testament and then it's wrongly used in a totally different context and so I think for clarity today what I want us to do is look at tithing and examine it in light of the cross and the resurrection examine it in light of the New Testament message and number one will ask is tithing for Christians today and then number two if tithing is not for Christians if we are not under a required 10% then why in the world would we want to give anyway so what's the proper what's the good what's the godly motivation so it's going to be an adventure because we're going to see a lot of different things here but I think it's also going to become crystal clear by the end and if it's not of course I invite you to go home and and study further and check it out and be convinced in your own mind now the third thing that makes you want to go huh out there is this idea that God will pay you back threefold now other churches might even teach 10-fold so I if you're going to go with this method I would go to that church right I mean if you're risking it all if you're betting it all on a payback go with ten fold over three fold any day right but I mean this sort of teaching then and what's the motivation for the giver right I mean think about the motivation for the giver there why am I giving well because God is going to give money back and in fact this one may be the most popular falsehood the most popular myth that is in a lot of mainstream evangelical churches today you know 500 websites and more can be found with a simple search on Google under 3-month tithing challenge and with the three-month tithing challenge churches across the nation and Beyond have copy pasted a little paragraph that says if God doesn't pay you back within 90 days either with money or with equivalent blessings then we will give your money back to you and so they're putting God under a time constraint here God has 90 days to bless you back but the catch is I mean let's be serious for a minute let's think about it and I'm not here to be critical or sarcastic I just want you to see that there are these manipulations out there but just think about the guy who who comes to the leadership 90 days later and says pardon me but it didn't it didn't work for me I was wondering if I could get my money back now the chances of a person having the guts to do that are pretty low and so this whole thing this tactic it works for a lot of churches and people are misled and pressured and manipulated and of course I like to say that maybe just maybe some of these guys who say I want my money back they're greeted with a well good morning brother now you have been blessed you just haven't seen it yet and off they go so this sort of teaching number one is not biblical number two is highly manipulative and so now we're going to look and ask about tithing itself this mandated 10% is it in the Bible where is it in the Bible is it for Chris and if it's not then how should we then give so first we ask what about in the Gospels I mean we know that tithing is in the Old Testament people tithed spices they tithed grain offerings they tithed a portion of their income in order to support the Levites in order to support support the priests of the Old Testament and so this was certainly a lifestyle for Israel it was a way of giving 10% to support a special tribe now we have to ask what about the Gospels and what about the epistles because that's that's where we live today we live in the New Testament not in the Old Testament so first we're going to see that tithing is not mandated for the church in the four Gospels that is Matthew Mark Luke and John do not mandate that Christians tithe a required 10% so first of all matthew 23:23 this is going to be an easy survey of the gospels because there's only three passages and here they are two of them are staring us in the face right now matthew 23:23 and luke 1142 basically tell the same story of jesus chewing out the pharisees so first of all who is this written - it's written - scribes and Pharisees they are Jews they are law keepers they are before the cross they are under the law and look at what Jesus says scribes and Pharisees you're hypocrites why because you tithe mint and dill and cumin which are spices and then it says and you have neglected weightier matters weightier provisions of the law justice and mercy and faithfulness these are things you should have done without neglecting the others now I bring this to your attention first of all to have you see you know Jesus is basically chastising Jewish people about tithing he's not recommending tithing for us he's chastising Jewish people about it secondly we see Jesus's theology of iving here there is something pretty clearly revealed here and that is there are light matters of the law and then there are weightier matters of the law the light matter of the law is tithing and the weightier matter of the law is justice and mercy and faithfulness and he is chastising them saying you should obey all matters of the law so take a step back and notice that tithing get this now tithing according to Jesus tithing is a matter of the law and Christians are not under the law we are free from the law we're dead to the law we're not bound by the law Christ is the end of the law and Jesus here is teaching to the Pharisees that tithing comes from the law so with a bit of simple logic here we see Jesus is actually revealing he's tipping the hand here showing that tithing is a matter of the law now in the third and final passage in the Gospels the third and final passage that mentions tithing we again see the same thing Jesus is talking about the pride and arrogance of people like the Pharisees who brag about their tithing the Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself god I thank you that I am NOT like oh those other people the swindlers the unjust the adulterers or even like this tax collector over here look what I do god I fast twice a week I pay tithes of all that I get but the tax collector standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven he was beating his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner then Jesus concludes this I tell you that this man the tax collector who was humble I tell you this man went to his house justified rather than the other man the Pharisee for everyone who exalts himself we'll be humbled but He Who humbles himself will be exalted so what's the point of this story Jews you are beating your chest bragging about your tithing and God's not pleased with it all right so now we're done we're done with our survey of the four Gospels talking about tithing what would you conclude did you see anything here that would lead you to believe that Jesus is commanding the New Testament church to tithe well of course not there's just no evidence for it there's no support for it at all a mandated 10% was for Israel but not for the Bride of Christ in today's world after the cross but wait there's more we have to ask another big question after Matthew Mark Luke and John then we have to ask what about in the epistles you know the letters that Peter James John and Paul wrote what about in the letters well tithing is not mandated in any New Testament epistle so let's do a quick study of tithing in the New Testament letters it's going to be a quick study it's going to take us about 30 seconds you ready here we go in Acts there's zero mandates for tithing Romans zero versus Galatians zero ephesians philippians colossians zero mentions of tithing first and second Thessalonians first and second Timothy Titus Philemon James first second and third John zero verses about tithing now hold on a minute let's just think about this if I were a pastor a preacher or a Bible teacher that we're pushing Christians to tithe a mandated 10% look at the fuel I've got to work with here look at the ammunition I've got to work with pretty skimpy clothes 2-0 pretty pathetic really and so let's think about this logically if Peter and James and John and Paul were looking out at the congregation's believers all over the world 2000 years ago and if they wanted those congregations to survive and thrive and do well and meet the needs of other people and if it were going to happen if that were going to happen because of a mandated 10% don't you think it would show up in at least one letter I mean you know it doesn't show up anywhere so the burden of proof would be on those who say we need to tithe today and there's an absolute absence of any mandate in any letter to do so so if we're going to give there better be another motivation it certainly can't be a mandated 10% it's just not there now of course people will say well wait a minute what about in the book of Hebrews because Hebrews written to Hebrews not to Gentiles but to Jews Hebrews which was written to Jews has an Old Testament story in it about Abraham going to war fighting people winning taking their stuff stealing it from them and then on the way back from his battle he's on a lonely road and he meets up with someone a foreign King a foreign ruler and he pays this person a tenth of his spoils of war so doesn't that mean that we should do what Abraham did well let's think about that for a minute if we did what Abraham did you know go to war with people kill them take their stuff and then dump their belongings on the church lawn that's certainly not what Christians are supposed to do today so why is this story this Old Testament story of Abraham giving a tenth of his spoils of war why is it in the Bible well let's see if we can make something that's a lengthy explanation pretty simple here I'll do my best all right so there was a gentleman who came from Abraham his name was Levi right Levi was a descendant of Abraham now who was Levi Levi was a pre in Israel right so that's why we call it the Levites the Levitical priesthood they came from Levi who came from Abraham so here's the sky Abraham walking back from battle and in his lineage is Levi right one day Levi will come from Abraham so Levi is represented by Abraham okay so Abraham is walking this lonely road and he sees this foreign ruler this foreign priest named Melchizedek and Abraham pays respects to Melchizedek now why would he do that well it's a bit of a mystery and if you were to interview Jewish scholars not Christians but Jewish scholars they would be fumbling over themselves for a solid explanation there is no reason why Abraham who was the forefather of all Israelites there's no reason why he would pay respect to this foreign ruler the strange appearance of this man Melchizedek on this lonely road but he did he took a tenth of his spoils of war and he handed him to this foreign ruler well in the book of Hebrews the mystery is revealed this man Melchizedek very likely was an early appearance of Christ now Christ is our priest isn't he Levi is not our priest Christ is our priest we don't have a priest of the law we have a priest of the New Covenant and so what you see here is very simple the lesser honored the greater and so the lesser priest honored the greater priest and the greater priest blessed the lesser priest and so we have a hierarchy here that concludes that Jesus is greater than Levi because Melchizedek is greater than Abraham do you see it and so from that the author of Hebrews concludes that the priesthood of Jesus is greater than the priesthood of Levi and the Covenant that Jesus brought is greater than the Covenant that Levi was under and so there's a picture here of a superior covenant and an inferior covenant a superior priesthood and an inferior priesthood but there is no verse in all of this story that says therefore we should all do what Abraham did of course I wouldn't recommend that at all so think about what he really says here in Hebrews 7 in fact Hebrews 7 would support what Jesus said that we saw earlier remember what Jesus said jesus said that tithing was a matter of the law watch this in Hebrews 7 it says that the sons of Levi who received the priests office have commandment where commandment in the law to collect a tenth from the people so this idea of collecting a tenth where does it come from it comes from the law but we aren't under the law we're dead to the law so Hebrews 7 actually says the same thing that Jesus said tithing is a matter of the law tithing was a commandment of the law so the bottom line is when we asked this question in Hebrews why was this Old Testament story even told why does the author of Hebrews tell the story about Abraham giving a tenth of his spoils of war to Melchizedek I think the best answer is to ask the author of Hebrews himself and in this verse he sums it up he says without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater so Levi was lesser than Jesus and Abraham was lesser than Melchizedek and that's the whole point why am i explaining this because this passage has been twisted and it's been used as fuel to fuel the tithing theology for today and really again let's think about that if you're a Galatian have you ever heard of tithing no you're not Jewish if you're in Ephesian have you ever heard of tithing no you're not Jewish how about a fess alone Ian's not Jewish either so all of these letters written to Gentiles if they were supposed to know about tithing it would show up the only people that knew about tithing were the Jews and that's why the author of Hebrews feels comfortable telling this story this Old Testament story but it's it's about respect and it's about two covenants it's not about a mandate to give 10% all right so let's finish up the the clarification side here by asking this question maybe you've heard something like this and if you haven't heard this praise god but a lot of people have heard this under the awning of a grace message under the awning of a New Covenant message people may have heard well in the Old Testament it was 10% so in the New Testament which is a greater covenant it should be greater than 10% man that sounds really cool I mean it sounds really articulate and pithy and it could be right but actually there's no support for that at all I mean the logic goes kind of like this Oh 10% was the Old Testament so that's the baseline that's the minimum and now grace would have you give more well you know what the logic of that is is that grace is harder than law grace is more strict than law grace is more binding than law grace is more difficult than law that's not true that's not the gospel of grace as we'll see in a minute we're allowed to give freely from the heart with no particular amount whether it's 25 cents or 25 bucks or 1% or 11% or 4% it's all up to us and God giving from the heart is what it's about so people use the book of Acts though they say wait a minute now now don't you remember in the book of Acts that the Christians in the early church they sold everything they had everything and they laid all the money a big big fat pile of dough they laid it there at the Apostles feet so you see we should give everything someone might conclude well let's look at that briefly here it is in Acts chapter four for there was not a needy person among them for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the Apostles feet and they would be distributed to each as any head need guys this was a commune you know what a commune is right I mean a commune is when a small group of people get together they collect all their belongings and all their cash they put it together in a pile and then they just lead distribute it among all the people evenly so when a pastor teacher leader type person uses this passage to say everything belongs to God therefore give everything to the church well if they're not distributing it right back out to everybody evenly and for their good then they're not modeling Acts for anyway so all of that is just a false teaching and it's manipulating a passage for their own good so you know this was easy when there were 80 Christians a hundred Christians maybe even two or 300 Christians maybe this was easy but now 2,000 years later with thousands tens of thousands millions billions of believers you would need quite quite a website and a management system to try to create a worldwide community of Christ the point is is that this passage tells a story of people who willingly did that for a purpose but it's not a mandate or a rule or a law or anything like that for Christians today alright so now we're done with the clarifications there's no support for a 10% tithe coming out of Matthew Mark Luke and John for there's no support for a 10% tithe coming out of any New Testament letter for us so then why would we give today well here's what the New Testament actually says about giving under grace 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 describes it in verse 7 this is one of the best places to look there's not that many places to look quite frankly concerning our motives forgiving but here's one of them each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart not grudgingly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful Giver another translation says not reluctantly or under pressure so you see this balance here wait a minute I'm not supposed to experience pressure I'm not supposed to be stressed about it I'm not supposed to be pressured into giving but I'm also not supposed to be grudgingly giving I'm not supposed to be reluctantly giving sitting on my wallet going grace grace grace grace grace I'm never given a thing grace right so we find this weird spot in between don't we we find this weird motivation that's not pressure and it's not reluctance it's whatever I want to do whatever I really want to do in my heart motivated by God so what it seems like is that the grace giving is the same as the grace living you know what motivates us to live uprightly the grace of God what motivates us to give the grace of God the theology doesn't stop when we pull out our wallets it's the same God it's the same grace it's the same freedom it's the same motivation and so we see first of all it says each one must do just as he is purposed in his heart so who gets to decide you do we do we all do we get to decide in our hearts without any pressure and without looking to reluctance we find that weird place in the middle where the Spirit of God is where there's total liberty and being inspired by him to do whatever we really want to do for God loves a cheerful Giver so apparently it's actually supposed to be fun but I'll tell you what it is no fun when somebody is promising healing it is no fun when somebody is promising blessing and then it doesn't turn out like they promised also guys it is not fun it is not fun when everything below 10 percent doesn't count you know 50% of people in churches in America don't give anything and the other 50% they average 3 percent so the 10% tithe teaching it's not working anyway half of the people sitting in churches think well if I don't give 10 percent it doesn't count so I might as well not give anything there's no fun in that there's no joy in that there's no truth in that the truth is if you give a penny a quarter a dollar if it's from here that's all that matters and it does count if it's of Christ so it's a beautiful verse it's a beautiful motivation and it changes everything it puts everything in line the grace living and the grace giving it's all one attitude so people who are in ministry are they just way off base you know pastors missionaries people who earn their living from sharing the gospel or they off-base of course not I mean first Corinthians 9 explains in this way it says do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar so also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel so he's relating to them I mean these are Greeks and they have a bunch of pagan temples around them and you know he's basically using that as an analogy hey just like those pagan temple guy they take care of those practices over there and then they eat the meat the meat you know from there and they live from there and survive from there well so also the Lord has commanded that those who proclaim the gospel get their living from the gospel so missionaries pastors people in ministry all of this sure it's justified as long as there's no pressure attached to it as long as people know why they're giving so why would you give I give because I'm excited I give because the gospel is being proclaimed I give because I want to give and there's no rules about it at all and that is awesome that is freedom so I hope this has been helpful to you today I want you to walk away with this simple thought as I've said it twice already the grace giving is the same as the grace living God's not going to pull a 180 on you and change the whole Christian life when it comes to giving it's all the same give because you want to give whatever you want if you don't want to give don't give it's all about the hearts motive and each of us is in different circumstances financial circumstances sometimes God's saying take a break take care of your family this is irresponsible for you to give this money away I've counseled many people who are giving away all of their money to church and the spouse is saying whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa we need to feed our kids here let's take care of these bills we got an enormous debt we need to get out of and they were being misled and so they were doing something that wasn't sound minded so listen to the Lord each person be convinced in their own mind and each of us is different and so that's the beauty of being a child of God we get to choose what to do from the heart let's pray together father we thank you for this ministry we thank you for this congregation this body of believers that gets to gather together and deeply enquire of you and your word and seek truth and you say the truth will always set us free we thank you that we don't have to buy your blessings we thank you that we don't have to buy your favor that we don't have to buy your goodness we thank you Father that you have freely blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus you loved us first and we only love because you initiated we thank you for equipping us and qualifying us and making us right by the blood of Jesus not because we give father I just pray that as we see the needs of this ministry and other ministries missionaries around the world whoever it might be I just pray that you would remind us yeah there are needs out there needs that need to be met but our job our role is to watch you and fix our eyes on you and be motivated by you as you show us what's on our heart to give we thank you in Jesus name Amen witless slow - I understand breathing the world life you she's got me my choice my soul does its work I'm stretching wide the you are in there cross my refined you're loved maybe maybe you're one of those people who over the years you were taught something different and you felt the pressure you felt the manipulation you felt the guilt maybe you've been damaged in the past by a wrong teaching about tithing or giving I'm sorry a lot of religious people do a lot of harmful things people asked me how can you teach this how does your church even survive how can you teach against tithing that doesn't make any sense I can teach against tithing because it's the truth I can teach against tithing because then God steps in and motivates people freely I can teach against tithing because I trust God and I trust you and I trust your heart I trust your heart because God gave you your heart and he'll never leave you and he'll always be inside of you and what he wants you to do is what you should do don't do what anybody else wants if it conflicts with what he wants he's the boss he's running the universe and he is the one who inspires from within have a great day you

Channel: The Grace Church with Dr. Andrew Farley

Views: 90,357

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Id: MMEAFjLcVY8

Length: 37min 39sec (2259 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 11 2016