Dave Ramsey's Thoughts on Tithing

instructions forgiving well I will says to give 1/10 Deuteronomy 28 says that give 1/10 a tithe of your increase the word tithes when you look it up in the Hebrew means tenth I had one pastor tell me he says well I tell my people it's okay to tithe 5% when they're getting started and I said well that's okay but don't tell them to tithe 5% cuz that's mathematically impossible you can't tenth the 20th just tell them to give an offering until they can get up to that point I'm all about the grace on this stuff I'm not a big rule keeper anymore I like the rules because I kind of know what I'm supposed to be doing but I'm not freaked out about the rules either so I'm not gonna try to tithe try to 10th or 20th it's a tent it's a tent that's 10% well is it on the gross or on the net you ever heard that one this is hilarious 2.7 percent of evangelical Christians tithe less than 3% of evangelical Christians tithe then people ask me grabs their net who cares none of your doing it I had a big theological awakening I just figure I'm gonna give on the big one the gross that way if I get up there and I'm wrong I'm okay so that's the way of looking at it the Bible says to do it first before you do anything else firstfruits which means off the top 22 times in Proverbs alone it says firstfruits proverbs is written to an agrarian an agricultural based culture so when you're doing a harvest the very first tenth of the harvest that comes in is off the top and it goes to the local church which is a New Testament representation of the Old Testament storehouse offerings are different than the tithe tithes and offerings are often used in the same sentence the tithe is 10% it's before you do anything it's firstfruits it's off the top if you look at our budget forms charitable giving is the number one line on the budget forms you didn't do that before you do anything offerings though are different they're above the tithe and are freely given and typically given from surplus people often quote and I'm even been known to teach on the Widow's mite how the widow gave all but that scripture is misused a lot to say that offerings should be given every time regardless of how broke you are you're supposed to take care of your own household first or you're worse than an unbeliever and that means you need to get your tail end out of debt you'll be tithing off the top but before you do a bunch of offerings above that an offering that is not from extra excess money is unusual in Scripture now I want you to go get you a bunch of extra excess money though so that the offerings go up I don't want you to just cut everything off that's not the point but I have met people who are behind on their house payment but their current with the local ministry they promise to support and that was not the church that was an offering in a parachurch situation like that and that is not biblical that's backwards you're supposed to take care of your own household first then you're going to get to those if you'll do the steps we're talking you get to do tithes and offerings you're gonna get there I promise the tithe is pre-law sometimes I'm teaching this and people say oh now you're doing that Mosaic law thing you're going back to the Old Testament and you know Moses and no not it's before Moses way before Moses Genesis 14 is the first time the tithe shows up Abraham has come across the plains with huge treasures from two cities he had just flattened while he was bailing out his idiot nephew lot yet again read it it's in there that's exactly what happened in Abraham here he comes across the plains with all this treasure this is the first time the tithe appears Genesis 14 this character comes up that's kind of Melchizedek he's a little spooky he has no beginning and no him he's a priest of Salem and nobody knows where Salem is it's very very some people call that an appearance of Jesus and I'm not gonna get into the theological arguments on it basically an unusual guy shows up here that is a priest and Abraham bow before him and gives a tie the tenth of all the spoils right there we see it again when Jacob wakes up from his dream where the angels were ascending and descending you remember that dream anybody remember that Jacob's Ladder not the movie the Bible verse and and he says surely the Lord is in this place and he built a Bethel and altar there and gave a tenth of his income Genesis 28 this is before Moses was a twinkle in his mother's eye this is not with all this is pre-law Abraham is the father of the faithful he was being guided by God's Spirit and that's what this is about the tithe is in the New Testament Matthew 23:23 Luke 11:40 to both say the same thing woe to you scribes Pharisees and other miscellaneous jerks for you give a tie the tenth of all that you have and you neglect the weightier matters of the law justice mercy and faith this you should have done the tide without leaving the others undone justice mercy and faith you should be doing both if you have a red letter Bible that's Jesus talking he says you should be doing both and I know there are some denominations and some doctrinal differences on that and some of your churches don't teach a tie they don't teach giving a tenth of your income and I'm perfectly cool with that because it's not a Salvation issue we're all on the same side here yeah and if you want to if you want to teach whatever that's fine but I can tell you this the people that win are giving that's the bottom line and whether you go by a tenth or whether you go by more than a tenth or whether you just give and you understand he owns at all and it ends up being a lot I don't care that's the spirit you've got to have I'm not mad about this I'm not a bit angry about this I can tell you this it is completely me free from my addiction to stuff it really has and it set my spirit free to become things I never dreamed I would be never give with the motive having your giving return if you give it'll be given back to you yes it will but it's not necessarily money open for test meters in this says the Lord of Hosts and see if I will not throw open the windows of heaven it says in Malachi and pour out for you a blessing that you cannot contain and this is referring to the tithe he promises a blessing you cannot contain if you tithe but the word blessing when you look it up in the Hebrew does not mean BMW it doesn't say that the word blessing in the Hebrew if you look up the root word of it means peace when I was going through bankruptcy I had one of these little blue-haired church ladies said the only reason you don't have any money here and having that faith and I said well the only reason don't have any money is cuz they took it all and all I got left is faith so apparently that theology didn't stick you know but I'm not gonna argue about that one either the point is you can't lose by giving Kenya and we're getting to all these doctrinal hair-splitting contests and I'm not going there bottom line is you can't lose by giving

Channel: New Hope Community Church

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Id: 2h6O9cI8hP8

Length: 6min 53sec (413 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 20 2016