There is quite a bit of content that I want to get to in this post, but let me start with a few areas of conviction from the message from Haggai. The Lord used Haggai to “adjust” me a bit in these areas.
- I have been quietly complaining lately about not getting time with my kids. It’s not unlike many of you, I’m sure. As I drove in for church on Sunday, the Lord nudged me about this through Haggai. Could the lack of time with my kids be because I have stopped having Kingdom-minded time with them when I’m with them? When our children were younger, I was very intentional about our time at home. Before a movie, we would pray that God would give us discernment and wisdom as we watched. We made sure we had intentional conversations about Christ and the gospel. But something has shifted recently. As my kids have grown and have shown signs of following Jesus on their own, I’ve taken my foot off the proverbial pedal. Instead of being intentional about some things, I’ve let some things slip. I was convicted about this and spoke to our family Sunday about this.
- The Lord asked a deeply challenging question in Haggai 1:4: “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” and He gave the motive behind this in 1:10: “each of you busies himself with his own house.” While we’re not rebuilding the physical Temple, the application for New Testament Christians is to be doing the business of the Kingdom of God. And I wondered if we could put things differently that might get our attention (or at least my attention): “Is it time for you to rest comfortably when so many people around you don’t know Christ?” “Should you busy yourself with your own family only while other families might need you and your family’s influence in their lives?” “Is it time for you to take care of only your needs while neglecting the needs of others?” You get the point.
- One challenge we have as a family-oriented church is that we sometimes forget that family is a gift, not an idol or a god. One of the reactions to a culture that has pulled our kids away from their families is to draw so much inward to our families that we aren’t doing the work of the Kingdom of God with our families. I hear this in the young dad who says he shouldn’t go to a men’s meeting because his time is precious, and he needs to be with his kids. I hear this in the parents attempting to give their kids “the world” through every event, activity, and adventure, yet they might forget that their kids’ souls matter more. Yes, we want families intact, together, and to have quantity time together. However, we need to be careful not to tip the scales too far one way.
The “Giving” Principle:
We have never taught about giving in a specific series as a church. Part of this is that I don’t like talking about money because people get weird about it. I know, I know…Jesus taught more about money than He did on many things, but in our American affluence, people don’t like to hear sermons on money. Instead, I’ve allowed our expositional series through different books to bring us to the topic of giving, like Sunday’s sermon in Haggai. We’re going to see the same thing in Malachi.
So, let me give you the principle (which you can find throughout Scripture), and then I will unpack it a little bit. Give God what is God’s, and He will meet your needs in ways you cannot imagine. That’s the principle. Now, let’s unpack this.
When it comes to money, time, family, etc., we must begin with the fact that God owns everything. Everything we have is from His hand. We can’t breathe without Him, so we sure can’t make money without Him (see Deuteronomy 8:18). So, it’s from that premise that God owns everything and has given us everything that we think about giving.
Throughout the Bible, specifically in the Old Testament, God called His people to give a tithe (10th) of their first fruits (Lev. 27:30-34, Deut. 18:1-4; Deut. 26:9-10). “First fruits” means “off the top” of a harvest, a herd, or a business deal. God wanted His people to give Him the first of what they made and give their best of what they had. In other words, the first fruits were to be taken off the “top,” not the “bottom” or “leftovers.” It’s not because God needed it. It’s because giving God the first fruits is a picture and an understanding that God owns everything. Since He owns the money He allowed us to earn; He calls His people to show that we understand He owns that money by giving Him the first fruits. A tithe was always the first, not the last. It was always intended to be an acknowledgment that God owns everything.
That tithe was brought to the priest at the Temple to be used for Temple things, like food for the priests, furnishings in the house, worship, the needy, and mission. The tithe was given “hands off” to say, “God, you own it all. I’m bringing it to Your house for Your use. I trust You with this.”
Other offerings were taken throughout the year that the Old Testament people of Israel gave: they gave a benevolent offering (Deut. 14:28-29) for the needy, and they gave celebration offerings (Deut. 14:22-27). There is some debate about the actual percentages that the Old Testament people gave, but it’s anyway from 23%-37%. Some of this was their tax system as well. But the original tithe was always in place to serve the Temple and the synagogues.
Now, when we get to the New Testament, we don’t see a system for giving as detailed, but we do see the same type of bringing the tithe/offerings to the church’s leaders. For example, in Acts 2:44-45 we read, “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” This seems to indicate that the individual sold the property, then decided to whom they wanted to give it. But we get a picture of their practice in Acts 5:2 in the story of Ananias and Sapphira when we’re told, “and with his wife’s knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet” (emphasis mine). This is important because the early church’s practice was to bring their tithe to the church leaders, and the church leaders distributed them or used them for gospel work. Very similar to the Old Testament practice.
What is not similar and not nearly as clear is how much we’re supposed to tithe. The New Testament does not give any indication of this. Now, as Americans, we tend to say, “well, since it’s not as detailed, we don’t have to live like this anymore.” Or we say things like, “we’re no longer under law but under grace.” And those comments are accurate, but we do need to be careful. Here’s why: A good principle when studying our Bibles is: where the New Testament doesn’t change or clarify from the Old Testament, we should embrace what the OT taught and obey it. So, while the NT does not give a clear 10% tithe model, a Christian should be asking: is 10% a good place to start? Instead, American Christians sometimes ask, “how little can I give and still be right with God?” which is the wrong question and the wrong way of looking at this. It is clear from the NT teaching that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7), implying that we are giving and giving cheerfully. It’s also clear from the NT that if we give sparingly, we will reap sparingly, but if we give generously, we’ll reap generously (2 Cor. 9:6).
Now, let me add one other issue to this: from the Bible’s teaching, it is clear that there’s a difference between a tithe (which is brought to the church leaders for church work) and an offering that is beyond the tithe (which is given separately either to church leaders to distribute to missions or the needy or given directly to missions or the needy). We see this in Paul’s concern for the needy in Jerusalem who were suffering through a famine (1 Corinthians 16:2-3) and the completion of that giving work in 2 Corinthians 8-9. Further, we should be mindful of Christ’s coming for us in any of our giving: “though He was rich, yet for your sake, He became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:8-9). But there’s a difference between a tithe and an offering.
From this very brief overview, here are some things to consider: the first fruits principle still seems to apply because God has not changed it or clarified it in the NT: So, we should give God what is God’s. The first fruits (some idea of a tithe) should be given to your local church. It should be regular, faithful, personal (you decide), and generous (with Christ in mind). This should be “off the top,” and it’s given “hands off” for the leaders of the church to use as they see fit. Other offerings for missionaries or those in need are not a biblical “tithe.” Those should be considered sacrificial offerings.
The main motive for giving tithes to the Church and offerings to others is the glory of God and the gospel. Giving is at the heart of the gospel. God gave His own Son for us (“though He was rich, for your sake He became poor so that those who are poor might become rich.”) If we’re unwilling to give, we should evaluate how much we understand and appreciate the gospel. This is why 1 John 3:16-17 connects the fact that Jesus gave up His life for us to us being willing to give up our lives for others. But vs. 17 makes it clear that part of giving up our lives for others is giving them “the world’s goods.”
Now, let me say a few things with a personal example in this to help clarify:
- People have told me, “When I have people over for dinner, I see that as a tithe to the Lord.” My response to them is that it is not biblically accurate. Or I’ve had people ask, “when I give of my time, is that my tithe?” Again, I say, ‘no,’ that’s not biblically accurate. Time is a touch different, but I do think this is why church gatherings are important because when we come to church, we’re saying, “God, you own my time, and one way I show you that is by coming to your family house to worship you with your people on Your time.” But that is not a tithe.
- If church leaders send you a bill for your tithe…that’s weird and completely wrong. Further, if church leaders make giving to the church a standard by which your status before God is judged, that’s also wrong. However, church leaders should teach about money and your responsibility to give because that’s clearly in the Bible. The Lord should be the One to direct you on how much you give in your tithe or an offering.
- Personally, Jill and I have made tithing a big deal since the first day of our marriage. We have always given at least the first 10% to the church. Even when I was serving in a Christian non-profit ministry, we gave to our local church, not to the non-profit. We gave offerings, separate from our tithe, to the non-profit when we could. And honestly, we do our best to give more to our local church each year. It is our firm belief that pastors (especially) and staff members should tithe because pastors that give sacrificially of the money God gives them seem to serve more sacrificially. So, the 1st check (or entry in our checkbook) is our tithe to CLF. Then we pay our bills, and that determines our discretionary funds. I have attached a simple budget sheet to this email to give you a tool that helped us early in our marriage. Now, because we have tried to operate by the principle “Give God what is God’s,” we have seen God meet our needs in ways we could never dream of. One particular time was when we still had to pay for long-distance phone calls (remember those days?). We had finished paying our tithe and bills and had $0.43 left in our checking and savings accounts (not good). We had one bill left to pay…the long-distance phone bill. When it came in, it was $0.38! You read that right. Luckily we had a stamp because the stamp cost more than we could afford. I remember calling the long-distance carrier and asking if I should send in coins or a check. God met us in ways we could not imagine.
Give God what is God’s, and He will meet you in ways you cannot imagine.
Finally, CLF, the church isn’t begging for money or in desperate need. That’s not the point of this. Rather, honoring the Lord with our money indicates what we value. The giving principle is actually for God and us, His people. It’s not about if the church needs money or not. It’s about God’s glory and His blessing to His people. As I said on Sunday, if you want a good gauge of where your heart is, take a good look at your checkbook and calendar.
From the Cheap Seats
- USC is better than TCU. If they beat Utah, there is no way they should be out of the playoff. A 2-loss Alabama team should be out (sorry, George Graham).
- Mike Maddox is back with the Rangers. Now, if we can get him some pitchers to work with.
- It may be just me, but I don’t think the Eagles are that good.
- Did the Beavers really beat the Ducks by not passing the ball? If my math is correct, if OSU didn’t pass the entire game, they would’ve beaten the Ducks by 21. Give that some thought. And yes, Jonathan Smith deserves the PAC-12 COY. Even Lincoln Riley will tell you that.
Have a great week!
In Christ,
Dave York
