Tithes
Luk 11:42 But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
1 Tim 5:18 For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
Offerings
2 Cor 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
2 Cor 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
Rom 15:25 But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.
Rom 15:26 For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.
Gal 2:10 Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.
I have valued the following teaching on giving and hope it is of comfort to all who struggle with this. The following is a portion of a lesson of a marriage seminar given by Pastor Gene Hawkins titled "Circles of Responsibility".
“Do not give out of necessity, or of having to. Necessity also means out of your need also.
2 Corinthians 9:6-8. "But this I say, He which sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 7 Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:"
Now I'd like to illustrate this point in the way that God has given us to handle money. Now there are different ministers that I have talked to that when I say you must put your family before the ministry, the first thing I hear is oh no, God has to be first. I will agree wholeheartedly God has to be first, but there is a difference in God and ministry. This is the distinction that we have to make and scripture is very plain on this matter. I'd like to illustrate it with money.
The first area of responsibility that we have with money is in the tithe. God plainly tells us there in Malachi chap. four that if you spend the tithe and don't give it to God, then you have robbed God. The first fruit belongs to God and that's the same thing with our own personal lives. We must dedicate the first part of ourselves; our love, our adoration, our affection, and our devotion. All of that must be given to God Himself. I'm not talking about the ministries He has given us to do; I'm talking about God as a person and dedicating these things to God as to who He is. So our first responsibility with money is to give the tithe directly to God. Now men may receive it, but it is God that we are giving it to.
The second area of responsibility and you can compare this with (1 Tim. 5:8) "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." After the tithe has been given to God, then that money must be dedicated and earmarked for the family, and what I am saying is this: it is not right to give money to the church that rightfully belongs to fulfilling the needs of the family. Now there are some ministers and again I have a problem with the way some of these professional fundraisers get money because they are not scriptural. They try to get people to step out by faith, and if you give this money I guarantee the Lord will bring it back to you. I want to tell you a very simple operation concerning money. If God gives you money for a certain thing and you don't spend it on what He gave it to you for, you're going to have a need in that area. So if He gives you the money to pay your rent and you become very spiritual and say oh we'll give it to the church; don't be surprised if your rent ain't paid. God isn't bound to pay your rent after He gave you the money to pay your rent and you proceeded to give it somewhere else. We cannot do that all in the name of: well the Lord is surely going to come in for this. So it's not right to give money to the church which rightfully belongs to the family. It cannot be given to other members of the body of Christ when our own family is suffering and needs that money.
I want to notice one more example here that Jesus gave in this area where that you don't give money to the church that properly belongs to the family. Back in the time of the Jews in (Mark 7:11) Jesus was denouncing the Pharisees because they were taking gifts of money and giving it to the temple and they called it Corban, but the money they were giving was money they should have been giving to take care of their parents. So they were shirking their responsibility to their parents to take care of them, and they were giving it to the temple and Jesus said that is not right. You need to give that money where it belongs and take care of your parents first.
The third area of money is the church or household of faith. (Gal. 6:10) "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, (The context of this is in regard to money, so as we have opportunity let us do good unto all men but with this proviso: this takes the priority above all men and it is this) especially unto them who are of the household of faith. So we have this money and we give our tithe to the Lord, we meet the needs of the family and then if we have other monies we are free to help other members of the body of Christ.
Here last year I doing some work for a neighbor of mine trying to get his house done and I had money in addition to what I normally take from the church; it was just all free and clear, and there arose a medical need in a family of the church who didn't have any insurance. The Lord spoke to my heart and He said I want you to give this entire two week check which amounted to a sizeable sum of money to them; okay, no problem, I did not rob my wife of anything to give that money to those people. That was mine free and clear; I wasn't taking it away from anybody else and I gave it to that family. I didn't look for any big increase or windfall and haven't seen it; it was given simply because God said to do it and it was mine to do with as He said to do it, but I did not rob from the family in order to do that.
Right after the Oklahoma bombing I felt deeply moved and grieved and we didn't have a whole lot of money; we did send an offering from the church, but I felt like I wanted to do something in a personal way so I talked to my wife and didn't demand of her but asked, would be alright with you if we forego our date-night for a month and the money we would have spent on our date-night we will give to these people down in Oklahoma after the bombing? fine she said, wonderful. So that's exactly what we did, but we didn't rob anybody else in order to do that, and so this is what I'm saying: don't ever take anything away from the family and give it to the church. It belongs to them and that includes our time and everything.
Now then, the forth area regarding money. ((Gal. 6:10) "Let us do unto good to all men." Once we've taken care of the immediate needs of the church, then we are free to give to all men if we have any left. This refers to the rest of the world and those without the household of faith; these are the last in our order of responsibility to help and that means with our time, with our money, with our commitment or anything of this nature. The world gets what's left as exactly as it should in our lives before the Lord. So we must establish the right priorities in our marriages, because if we don't we are going to be robbing from the family which rightfully belongs there.”
