The Life of Tithing

Read Malachi 3:6-12

When I was a pastor in Altoona I arrived home from the church one night and found the door between my garage and basement open. (My garage was underneath the house) I thought it strange, but figured the wind must have caught it because I left the garage door open, so I kept on going. When I got to the top of the stairs I found another door open, so started to worry that maybe someone had broken in. As I looked around the kitchen, dining room and living room I realized that everything was in order, so I kind of laughed at my paranoia and moved on. When I walked into the study I had at home – it was completely torn apart. My computer and printer were missing, papers and books were thrown everywhere and in each of the three bedrooms every closet and dresser drawer had been ransacked. After the police came and took my statement and went over everything, everyone went home and I was left in the house alone. If you ever been robbed or burglarized, you know the real problem is that your stuff is gone – it’s that you feel violated. It took me a long to time to get to sleep that night and when I finally did fall asleep, I was fully dressed with my shoes on and I laid on top of all the covers. When you are robbed you feel taken advantage of and it’s hard to feel secure and it’s hard to trust others again.

I was thinking about that incident again this week when I read in Malachi God talking about being robbed. You might think that the last person to be robbed would be God – but that’s what He says – you rob me. Now the natural question we might ask is the same one the people of Israel ask, How do we rob you, God? And God says, through your tithes and offerings. If we look at the history of Malachi, we see that it was written at a time when the people of Israel had just returned from captivity in Babylon. The people had been held as slaves and prisoners for 70 years in a foreign land and they had just recently been able to return to Jerusalem where they rebuilt the Temple and the city walls. While they were beginning to return to their old way of life and establish once again their faith, their commitment to God was still pretty weak. So while God called for a tenth to be returned to him - the people were not giving it all to God. And the offerings of animals they were giving where not the perfect and unblemished ones he called for, they were blemished and imperfect. God was getting the leftovers not the first fruit. He was getting the runts of the little not the first born and strongest. The people were robbing God because they were taking from God what rightfully belonged to him in the first place, but beyond the insufficient and imperfect offerings, what really offended God was the way he was being treated. God was being taken advantage of, God was being violated and the relationship God sought to have with his people was being strained and broken. Ultimately it’s not the offering that God wants, it’s the relationship. Think about it, God didn’t need the lambs or the grain or the new wine given in the offerings. God didn’t need it and God didn’t want the stuff – God wanted the hearts and lives of his people. God wanted his people to come to Him and place their faith and trust in Him. That is what the full tithe was all about, it was not a financial issue, it was faith issue.

The law of the tithe in the OT wasn’t given because God needed the stuff – it was given as a practical example of what it means to love and trust God. When God says, I want you to love me and trust me with all your heart and soul and mind and strength – he doesn’t just send us off to figure out how to do it – God gives us practical ways to work this out and the tithe was one of those ways, and when we fail to give God what he calls for, in essence we are saying, God we don’t love you enough to say thank you for all you have given us, and we don’t trust you enough to place our complete financial situation and future into your hands.

More than anything – God wants us to know that he loves us and God wants to show us – even prove to us – his love. Look at the passion of God’s words in Malachi 3:10-12
It’s as if God is begging us to come to him with our tithes so that he can show us just how much he loves us. Tithing helps us develop a deeper relationship with God because we come to God being vulnerable and needing God to show himself and prove himself trust worthy. So tithing is still not a financial issue – it is a faith issue. Tithing isn’t about giving money to keep the church doors open or the lights on, it is about loving God and allowing God to love us. So let me just lay it on the line – do we love God enough to tithe?

Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Church in Chicago, says that tithing requires from us a heart check – a gut check and a faith check. So here it goes – it’s heart check time – do we love God enough to tithe? It really is a matter of the heart. The Bible says we are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength – do we? Do we love God enough to step out and return to Him just a portion of what He has given to us? Remember – the reality is that it all belongs to God in the first place, it has all come from God and so our tithing is really not giving to God it is giving back to God – so do we love God enough to give back just a tenth of what he has given us?

As we reflect on this, we need to think about all God has done for us. God has not only given us life and then generously worked to sustain our lives in this world – God has also given us the gift of his son, Jesus Christ. God has given us what was most precious to him so that we could be forgiven and enter once again into a relationship with God. When we look at the cross and the empty tomb we know that God has wiped clean the slate of our lives. God makes us part of his spiritual and eternal family and he opens to us the door to eternal life. God has given us all of this, but there is still more.

Through the church God has given us a new family that is here to support us and help us in this world. Through the Holy Spirit God gives us joy and love to experience here and now. God gives us so much and while the thanksgiving season is a time for us to verbally say, Thank You God! Tithing is a concrete practical way for us to show God that we do love him. So let me ask again, Do we love God enough to return him just a portion of what he has given us? Are we willing to stop living for ourselves and start living for God? Do we love God enough to live by the principles he has given us and not just give but give cheerfully and with open hands and with the confidence that God will provide for us in the future? It’s heart check time for us and there is no easy way to say this, do we love God enough to tithe?

If you say Yes, then it’s a gut check time – if your heart is saying, I want to step up and do this, then you have to sit down and figure out how. If we never follow through on what our heart is telling us to do – we are not only robbing God – we are mocking him. So if we want to step out in faith and trust and begin to tithe, then we have to first sit down and figure it out what it is we need to return to God. So let’s get specific for a moment. Tithing is returning to God 10% of our income. Since all of our financial situations are different – I can’t tell you what this figure is – but God can. Sit down with all your financial information: your wages or salary, your investments and pensions and all others sources of income and before you do anything, pray about what God wants you to give. A lot of people ask me if they should tithe on their gross income or net? I don’t know, let God show you. Do we include interest and dividends and what about gifts and investments? I don’t have the answer – but God does and so we need to ask him. Just don’t put off doing something – do what brings you peace – do what feels right in your gut, it may not be easy – but step out and do it.

As you figure out your tithe, I want to give you a word of caution, for many people their tithe may be significantly higher than what they may be currently giving. I think it was Scottie and LeAnn who said they were putting their $20 in the offering plate, but when they sat down to figure out their weekly tithe, it was considerable more than $20. If you do the math, working 40 hours a week at a minimum wage job would require you to give more than $20 a week in a tithe, so giving God the full tithe may seem like a big financial step, maybe even an impossible one, but it is exactly these impossible steps of faith that lead us closer to God and God is just waiting for us to take this step of faith. I picture God as the mother or father who is just waiting with open arms for their child to take that first step. They can’t do it for their child but they know it will be the best thing for them, and when they take that first step – they are right there to celebrate and support, to embrace them or to encourage them in another step.

Let me also say that I know there are some of you that are really struggling financially right now and you may not have enough money at the end of the month to pay our bills. Here’s what I would ask of you – sit down and figure out your tithe. It may not be very much, but if you can give it to God – God will honor you and God will provide for you. Now one of the ways that God provides for us is through the people of God called the church, so if you tithe and yet you still have financial needs – would you please come and talk with us so that we can reach out to support you. Here’s the truth of God’s economy – if everyone would tithe – there would be no one in need among us because we would have all the resources necessary to provide for those in need.

If we get our hearts right and make the decision to tithe, and if we do the gut check and work out the details – then we are ready for the faith check. The faith check is following through and giving back to God the full tithe. It’s writing that first check and placing it in the offering, and then it’s doing it week after week, month after month, year after year. You can’t just give once and then be done – tithing is a lifestyle where we consistently put God first and the truth is that tithing may require us to change our lifestyle. Maybe we don’t eat out as much, maybe we don’t buy as many new clothes. Maybe we forgo the latest technological gadget, maybe we buy one less gift during the holiday season or find ways to give gifts that don’t cost anything. Tithing may require a change in our lifestyle – but it will be a change that will bring us more joy because it will be a change that will bring us closer to God.

Tithing is also something we need to revisit again and again in our lives. If you have been tithing for many years, let me ask you to sit down again and simply ask God what he wants you to return now. There will be those moments in all of our lives when God will call us to go beyond what we think we can do. Jesus called Peter to step out of the boat and walk on the water. God called Moses to leave behind his sheep and go out to lead the people of Israel out of slavery and into the promised land. God gave Malachi a message that challenged the people. God may be calling us to go deeper in our giving and practice sacrificial giving – giving more than 10%. We won’t know what God wants us to return to him, until we ask.

Tithing takes a heart check – do we love God enough to do this. It requires a gut check – we have to sit down and figure out exactly what God is calling us to return to him and it requires a faith check as we make the lifestyle changes needed to give and then continue on in a life of tithing. The end result of it all is this for us is simple, God’s blessing, so much blessing that we will not have room in our hearts and lives for it all. The blessing may not be a financial win-fall – it may be a peace that passes our understanding, it may be more stable families, it may be a joy that knows no limits. There are so many different ways that God wants to bless us. Will we open up our hands to receive God’s blessing by first opening up our hands and returning to God the full tithe?