Tithing

This is not only the beginning of the big, obviously, festival holiday season kickoff with Thanksgiving and ending with Christmas and New Year's here in a few weeks for everyone else. So for the next few weeks, we'll be immersed in that. And of course, it's a major shopping season.

There's also one other feature about this season that you will notice as we move along because we're also ending the calendar year. But this is also a prime time of the year for charities to make their pitches for donations to their particular causes. And of course, you'll see those Salvation Army bells will be ringing every time you go into a lot of the stores and with their red pot there.

And other charities will be soliciting for various causes, many of them very, very good causes. Just to mention, the Salvation Army, it's always rated one of the top charities in terms of efficiency and service and dollars, you know, higher percentage of dollars. Each dollar goes to help people and the way they manage their funds than just about any other charity, at least from what I've read about them in years past.

But you will see and hear and be solicited yourself as you go about your business and notice that as we move through the next few weeks. And that is just the part that goes along with this time of year as various charities try to make a large part of their budget. So it's not just retailers that are making most of their profits at this time of year, but charities and other organizations are striving to meet their particular quotas as well. There is always an interest in how those charities spend their money.

And I've noticed in recent weeks, there have been some articles in recent days actually that have been targeting certain nonprofit organizations and articles that have been in the magazines and actually even in yesterday's Wall Street Journal that are targeting certain churches and religious ministries because of how they spend the millions of dollars that they take in through tithes and offerings. And they are beginning to get some scrutiny this year. And it's caught my attention. I was looking at a recent issue of Time magazine.

This was November 26th issue, so I think it's until today at least it was the current issue of Time magazine. And they had an article in their Life section that was dealing with religion and the headline was, Going After the Money Ministries. A senator wants to root out fraud, but will he run into the First Amendment problems? Some of you may have been aware that a senator, Charles Grassley, I believe it was, has recently subpoenaed records from a number of top televangelist ministries that are out there because of allegations that they are not properly using the monies donated to their ministries for the stated purposes. It's another round of the obvious or the old story of these multi-million dollar ministries using money for jets, expensive houses, trips to Hawaii, expensive cars, and this and that, and the various money ministries that are being targeted here.

The cover, or the picture, the one that they use here is a lady named Joyce Meyer. I've never seen her, but she is a woman evangelist who has her own ministry. She's stepping out of a BMW, and someone's got an umbrella over her head, so she can't get wet. She's probably like the Wicked Witch of the West.

She'd melt. She's got her private jet there on the tarmac in the background. So ostentatious wealth right there, and she's not just a male minister. She's a woman minister in this case. But she and a number of others have been targeted. Let me just read you a little bit from this article. It starts off by talking about another televangelist, Kenneth Copeland. Some of you will be familiar with these names. It says, on the website for their ministry based in Newark, Texas, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland commit to, quote, teach Christians worldwide who they are in Christ Jesus and how to live a victorious life, end of quote.

And they appear to be victorious in theirs. With books in 22 languages, a global crusade schedule and a TV show reaching millions, no less illuminary than presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is advertised to appear in the show for six days straight to discuss character in the Bible. But Huckabee might want to opt out. On November 6th, the Copelands got a sawtooth 42-point questionnaire inquiring into their own character from Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance.

Grassley wanted to know how Kenneth Copeland, who as a church leader pays no taxes but is expected to plow revenue back into the public welfare, got a private plane, and whether flights to Hawaii and Fiji qualified his business trips. He's not the only pen pal that Grassley has. I always love the way they tone these articles. Time magazine has a long and distinguished history of going after ministries and evangelists and their monies in this way.

But anyway, the article goes on and says that Senator Grassley also wrote to other ministers one named, and I love this one, Creflo Dollar. How many of you have ever heard of Creflo Dollar? An appropriate name. He's got a picture of him standing in front of his gated mansion, but they've gone after him, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer, and Paula White.

In total, six televangelists were part of an evangelical subculture known loosely as Prosperity Gospel. Recent news reports regarding the possible misuse of donations made to religious organizations prompted the probe, Grassley wrote.

The minister's responses are technically voluntary, but the senator has asked for them in a month and has mused that the replies could lead to testimony under oath. If so, Grassley could end up wiping out what some consider a kleptocracy, but what is certainly the public face of popular theology.

Prosperity adherents believe the right thoughts and speech, along with giving to the church, will prompt divine repayment in this life with a return as high as $100 on each dollar handed up. On a small scale, Grassley's positive thinking has sometimes energized the march of the poor into the middle class, but many Christians find it theologically and ethically perverse. Prosperity dominates American religious television, and millions of adherents send millions of dollars to preachers they have never met. For Grassley, this might be fine if the minister has put the money back into the mission, but his now famous question about Joyce Meyer's $23,000 piece of furniture suggests he questions the destination of her estimated $124 million annual intake.

He's asked for her real estate records, reminding her of various other things. She's had some issues with the state of Missouri in taxation over there. Among Grassley's questions to Creflo Dollar was one about a gift of $500,000 to Kenneth Copeland. It goes on to list a number of these. Prosperity gospel is the idea that if you tithe, if you give to them, to their ministries, to God, etc., then you will be blessed. It's been around for a long time.

You see these ministries on television, many of them, they continue to be honest with you, with all that we have been through even in our own experience within the Church of God, going back years, and our own magnifying glasses that have been put upon us, and what we have dealt with over the years. I guess I'm still a little bit surprised to see these ministries like these that they are targeting proliferating out there.

They continue to spring up, and they're on television. You've seen them, I've seen them, and they continue to get the scrutiny of senators. They have an audience, obviously, for someone to give $124 million to one woman ministry. They feel they're getting something in return. This gets into some very touchy issues, as we all realize. Issues of faith, issues of belief, and conscience, and all of these things in terms of, from the individual's point of view. They're looking for something, and you'll find testimonies of people whose lives are improved, they feel, by their expression of their religion and their belief in the ministry of whatever an individual may be.

There can be reasons and explanations for that, and as we often see, there are excesses as well. These things, as I said, it's a little bit surprising to see that there is still a market for that, but there is. People believe in what these particular televangelists are marketing.

It gets rather bewildering at that time to see that, but nonetheless, they, and I'm not necessarily standing on the side of Senator Grassley and other critics and saying, go get them, because I recognize that when you start seeing the government turn loose on religion, regardless of extravagance and misuse and misappropriation of funds donated to ministries or whatever, anytime you see the government unleash on religion, look out, because it has already come back on us.

We've seen that in our own history back in 1979, when we had the state of California come in on us. I do not want to see government come in on religion in these situations, nor do I want to see excess and abuse of funds and evangelists and people like this living like that. I don't condone that at all for religion.

I think that that wipes everybody with a broad brush, and it has nothing to do with the gospel and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jets and fancy cars and all of this extravagance has nothing to do with the gospel, and we should know that and understand that. But on the other hand, I don't want to see human government necessarily turned on that for that reason. It just is wrong, and it will come back on us, because human government doesn't seem to know any more about what to do.

I'm sure Senator Grassley would not survive too well under a very strong microscope in his own life, perhaps, or his own use of government funds, as well as many other senators, and that they've got their own scandals to deal with as well. But nonetheless, that doesn't justify the other. Then yesterday there was an article in the Wall Street Journal called the Backlash Against Tithing. As churches push donations, congregants balk. Quote, That's not the way God works. And this was on one of their weekend sections here.

And it was another interesting article, because it was coming at essentially the same topic from a little different approach. And it starts off, it says, Can you put a price on faith? That is the question churchgoers are asking as the tradition of tithing, giving 10% of your income to the church, is increasingly challenged. Opponents of tithing say it is a misreading of the Bible, a practice created by man, not God. They say that they should be free to donate whatever amount they choose, and they are arguing with pastors, writing letters and quitting congregations and protests. In response, some pastors have changed their teaching and rejected what has been a favored form of fundraising for decades. And again, this is their twist on talking about the law of tithing and, again, how various churches are dealing with it.

The backlash comes going on as some churches step up their efforts to encourage tithing. Some are setting up giving kiosks that allow congregants to donate using their debit cards when they attend services. Can you imagine us putting a kiosk, a little ATM out here in the lobby, so that when you come in the door you can put your little debit card in and key in your pen and donate whatever you want to do? Not a bad idea, I guess. But no, we're not going to do that.

But some of these large churches do this. Others are offering financial seminars that teach people in debt how they can continue tithing even while paying off their loans. Media-savvy pastors sell sermons online about tithing. I did a shift. More Catholic parishes are asking churchgoers to tithe. Church leaders say tithing isn't just a theological issue but a financial one.

Americans give an estimated 97 billion dollars to churches in 2006. Almost a third of the country's 295 billion dollars in charitable donations, according to one foundation, they give that much. So, you know, giving to charities is a big operation in the United States. $97 billion to congregations alone. But giving to religion is growing more slowly than other types of giving, says one director of the Center of Philanthropy down here at Indiana University. That's partly because people are attending church less frequently, and they are giving to a wider array of causes, including secular ones, that worry some church leaders. If everyone gives 2% of their income because that's what they feel like giving, you aren't going to have money to pay the light bill and keep the doors open, says one minister in a denomination that believes tithing is required by the Bible.

Many Christians who don't read the Bible literally say that by tithing they are not misreading the text but rather interpreting it differently. And it goes on to talk about some of the roots of tithing in the scriptures and has pros and cons in this. They have several case histories of people who have changed their view on tithing.

Some evangelical Protestant churches require new members to sign covenants promising to tithing or give generously. Now, God's church has never done that. Obviously, we do teach tithing, but we've never had anybody sign a contract or a covenant promising to give generously.

Going on, those who openly refuse to tithe might be denied leadership roles or asked to leave the congregation. The tithe has been the Episcopal Church's minimum standard since 1982, although the average annual gift from its millions of members was much lower than the 10% requirement.

For one individual in San Antonio, one lady named Judy, 12 years of tithing came to an end earlier this year. She says that she gave a tenth of her pay to Cornerstone Church because the pastor, the Reverend John C. Hagee, teaches, quote, If you obey God and you tithe, God will return to you 30-60-100-fold. This lady earns $26,000 a year as an administrative assistant and says that she started to research the practice, reading criticism online, and studying the Bible and concluded that she'd been, quote, guilty into tithing. She quit the church and hasn't found another one. I sometimes watch John Hagee. I like to kind of watch his style. Sometimes I don't don't agree with his theology, and I think he's off on prophecy, but he is a very popular television preacher and interesting to watch, but he is probably a class that's one of these prosperity teachers as well. But it goes on with several other examples and even some ministers and some denominations who have gotten away from the idea and the practice of tithing. One group right over here in southern Ohio, Chesapeake, Ohio, after 25 years leading Union Missionary Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Ohio, the Reverend Bob Barber stopped preaching about tithing a few years ago. He now promotes what he calls, quote, grace-giving, a voluntary, unspecified amount, because he says it squares better with scriptures. The church still receives enough to cover expenses, he says, and if it falls short, so be it. You can't beat people over the heads. So, it's an interesting article that showed a backlash against tithing from many people who are faithful in their own particular way and their denominations and even some churches and ministers backing away from teaching tithing as a law and the recurrent result of that. So, these are just two recent articles this past week in two major publications in the United States dealing with the subject of tithing and giving to these television ministries and, you know, some of the problems that come up.

You know, tithing and the issue of tithing is something that is always been in the forefront of controversy at times, and it is a perfect subject that makes ideal articles for national publications like this when they decide to focus on that particular topic and bring in examples and bring in stories within denominations. It is always, it seems to be a situation, anytime you start dealing with money, religion, non-profits, and the issues that go back and forth with that over the years, you are going to run into these types of discussions. I can go back, I can remember 30 years ago when I was just in the ministry, actually more than 30 years ago, now 32 or 3 years ago, just in my first months in the ministry, that the issue of tithing became a controversy within the Church of God. And because of issues at that time and people's belief and ideas, and it became one of those things that, again, we had to mount the barricades, show what the Bible taught about it, deal with the issues, move forward. It's not only, it's one of these topics that's cyclical within the Church, and as you will see, not just the Church of God, but other groups as well for a variety of reasons, all of which come down to, again, many of the biblical principles that are taught regarding wealth and money that deal with spiritual character, deal with spiritual issues and matters. Christ said that where your money there is, there will your heart be as well. He enumerated a very important principle in dealing with wealth and that whole subject in and of itself. But it's one of these issues that just continues to come round and round. And I would not say that it's necessarily a big issue, front burner type of issue within God's Church at this time, but it is a subject that from time to time we should focus on, or at least remind ourselves, because we do teach tithing in the Church of God as a law, not as a principle, not as a grace-giving or some watered-down version of what makes it sound a little bit more palatable. We have always taught the law of tithing from the Scriptures, and in the same way, as a result of that, we have had always ample funds to do the work. Sometimes over the years, those funds have had various demands put on them for various reasons and decisions that have been made through the history of the Church. I remember when I was a, I guess I was a senior in high school, and this goes back to 1968-69. I was saving my money from college to go off to ambassador, and there was a, this was early 1970, this is when this took place. I was a freshman in college back in Missouri, and still waiting to go to ambassador, and there was one of these financial crunches in the Church, and the Church put out a call for some extra offerings to get through a period of time.

And I remember robbing my, literally my piggy bank, and what I was saving for to go off to ambassador college at that time, and gave an extra offering, which wasn't a whole lot, but it was a whole lot to me. And I was, you know, practiced tithing then as I was taught, practiced tithing today as I teach. And so I've been through all the stories and the cycles and the issues and the episodes of the Church of God for all that period of time, just as you have as well. And you know what? I still believe that tithing is a law of God. I don't teach it as a principle, because I don't see it as a principle within the Scriptures. I see it as part of God's way and God's law.

And the reasons that I tithe are different, perhaps, than what I, they were when I was 18 or 19 years old. I will admit that probably there was a measure of guilt when I was 18 and 19 and tithing at that particular point in my life. I would say it was guilt measured with faith and belief, but the reasons that I tithe today are different from what they were in 1969 and 1970 when I was a teenager in God's Church at that time. I tithe for different reasons today. And from time to time, when you see these things and we all go through various stages in our life, and our particular fortunes may go up and down with the economy and our own jobs and our own life and what we're going through, and we're always tested in various ways. And sometimes it's financially, sometimes it's other areas of our spiritual life that try and test us. But this one is one that from time to time we just need to kind of focus on and think about. And so with these two articles in mind, I thought, well, let's talk a little bit about that with the season we're in and being thankful and the season of giving in many ways as far as the world is concerned. At least let's look at this for a moment and let's remind ourselves of certain matters from the scriptures and what the Bible says about the subject and give all of us a chance to ask ourselves why we do what and remind ourselves what it is that is so important about this teaching from the Bible regarding tithing. The first place that we find it in the Bible is back in Genesis chapter 14.

And really, in many ways, we wouldn't need to go too far away from this one episode in Genesis chapter 14 where we find tithing introduced to us in the episode of Abraham when he had gone after his nephew Lot. He had saddled up his forces of men, gone after his nephew, bought a battle, and the spoils of battle were his. And we read the story here in Genesis 14 that verse 12 talks about the taking of Lot, Abraham's brother's son, from Sodom and with his goods. And someone had escaped and came and told Abraham what had happened. And so in verse 14, when Abraham heard that his brother, meaning Lot, was taken captive, he armed his 318 trained servants who were born in his own house, and he went in pursuit as far as Dan, a very northern part of what is Israel today. He went that far to meet up with the kidnappers. Verse 15 shows the tactics that he employed. He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. So he brought back all the goods, and he brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Sheva, that is the king's valley, after his return from the defeat of Keterlionr and the kings who were with him.

And then we have Abraham coming across this very interesting character from the Bible, Melchizedek, whom we understand to be a Jesus Christ before he was Jesus Christ. The word had manifested himself as this Melchizedek, the king of Salem. I won't go into all the biblical teaching on that, but this Melchizedek was the one who became Jesus Christ. The word, the Logos, who was in this particular form and fashion and particular purpose at this time, had the designation as the king of Salem, which is Jerusalem. And so it's that really early name for Jerusalem. And so the king Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and he's identified as the priest of God Most High. That book of Hebrews goes on to talk about Melchizedek at a later time. But he blessed him, and he said, Blessed be Abram of God, Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. So Melchizedek pronounced this blessing upon Abraham, and the connection, the relationship that was there, and this was a course who Abraham was already dealing with and had been dealing with in another form as he had revealed himself to him.

And he was continuing to work in his life and giving him favor and delivered his own enemies into their hand. And it says here in verse 20 that he, Abraham, gave him a tithe of all.

So here's where we find tithing introduced, and Abraham is giving it to God. Melchizedek, but when we put it all together, he's actually tithing to God of the spoils of this particular expedition. And this is where it all starts. He recognized Melchizedek as the servant of God, and at this point, the father, one who would be the father, without trying to sort through all the technicalities of theology at this point. Let's just understand that he understood him as a servant of God and his representative in this particular fashion. And Abraham has an approach toward money, toward goods, here that is quite interesting because he won't take anything from the king of Sodom. You'll read on in the story here. Abraham's the king of Sodom said to Abraham in verse 21, Give me the persons and take the goods for yourself. And Abraham said to the king, I have raised my hand to the Lord God, most high, the possessor of heaven and earth, and I'll take nothing from a thread to a sandal strap that I will not make anything that is yours. I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, I've made Abraham rich. And so he said, just let the others take enough to cover their expenses for this particular trip and let them take their portion. But he says, I'm not going to take anything, lest you say, as the king of Sodom, Abraham didn't want having dealings with anything that would stick to him, as we say in some circles. He didn't want anything to stick to him regarding this particular episode from the king of Sodom. He already probably had his own feelings about that city and that king, what went on in Sodom. And he was basically taking care of his nephew and he was not fighting battles for the king of Sodom. So he wouldn't... Abraham was not greedy as the point. And he wouldn't take it from there. And then he turned around and he gave to God's representative Melchizedek a tithe of what he had. And so Abraham, the father of the faithful, the one whose spiritual descendants we are, every one of us, tithed to God. And then this is where tithing begins. And in one sense, it's probably where it all should end in terms of the whole story being said to us.

You know, what other proof, what other examples, what other teaching do we want to turn to, to prove tithing, to this or that? How much more do we need? There is much more discussed in the scriptures, yes. But in one sense, this is where it should begin and end for for us. Because in Galatians 3 and verse 7, we are told that those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. Now Paul reaches way back when he talks in this book of Galatians, and just turn over to Galatians chapter 3.

In this section, where he talks about Abraham and his faith and what he did, verse 6 says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Verse 7, therefore, know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

And it goes on that those who are in verse 9 says, then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. So Paul goes all the way back to Genesis to pull forward into this discussion of some very deep spiritual New Covenant issues, if you will, New Testament issues.

The example of Abraham, the life of Abraham, and he says that those who are of faith are sons of Abraham, which tells us that Abraham is an example for us to go back to to learn about faith. And not just in regard to tithing, but other examples of his life as well. And this is the example that Paul goes to. So we're told here that if we are of faith, we are going to be blessed with Abraham. And so it says that Abraham tithed. In Genesis, God makes specific promises to Abraham in connection with this particular act of tithing, and other blessings go forth from that.

When you look at this example in Genesis about Abraham, you learn that Abraham had a very generous spirit, and the fact that he gave 10 percent, the word tithe is what does mean 10 percent, comes from an Old English word. But it shows that he was very, very generous in his whole approach to money. He wasn't motivated by greed. He wouldn't take anything from the king of Sodom.

He showed that he essentially owed, he wanted only to owe God what was his. And he didn't want any other man to come between him and God. God was his shield. God was his rewarder. He understood God gave him the victory in this particular situation that God was part of his life.

Now, this is, as I said, in one sense where it all begins and ends. There are other things that we can turn to and look to as well, and many, many other principles regarding the use of money and wealth from the scriptures, and other specific teachings about the tithes and the tithes and how they were divided up and how they were to be used and all. But this is where it should really begin and end for us. At any time, you and I might be tempted or diverted or interested in stories such as this, and people such as these who squander well-meaning people's generous offerings for their own personal gain and good. Wherever and whenever that takes place, it's a shame and it's wrong. And when we see those things, it begins, we start asking questions and we start thinking various things. We go down various roads in our thoughts and our minds. And I'm saying when we do, let's always come back to what the Bible tells us about this particular subject, and this is where we begin. And let's remember why we do what we do and recognize that tithing and the giving of our income and of our increase is between us and God. Always has been, always was. This is what this is another point from the story of Abraham. Tithing is a very personal expression of our faith. Yes, it's a physical act. You write out a check, you pull a bill out of your wallet, and you put in an envelope, and you do this or that with it. Yeah, that's the physical. We see that deducted, cha-ching, from our accounts. But when we do that, we must always be doing it because we recognize it as a part of our worship between us and God. And our belief that wherever we are giving that, it is going to serve the work of God. As we understand it, as we see it, and we believe it, based on our faith and our decision as individuals with free, moral will and conscience, that we are giving to God. Yes, to an individual, to a man, to a group of men, to an organization, duly constituted, etc., with a church of God on the backside of it, then we make our decisions. But understand that whatever we do, we are giving to God.

And where we feel God is doing His work, because we believe that as the Scripture says, that tithe is God's. It's in Numbers chapter 18 that we find the principle of tithing.

While I was at the feast this year in Jordan, I had to sit down with some young adults and answer their questions. They had some questions about tithing. And these were young adults who had been raised in the church all their life, and they had some specific questions. And so, I went through all of them with them and gave them an answer. I think that it satisfied them. But Numbers 18 was one that you go to and you understand where it talks about the tithe. And here God says, I have given, verse 21 of Numbers 18, in this structure of the Levitical priesthood, it says, Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance and return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting.

The tabernacle, the priesthood, the Levitical system, that whole structure that was set up was supported by the tithe. And in verse 21, God says here, I have given the tithes.

Why, what does that say? It says that the tithe is his. And it was his to give to the Levites for the support of the tabernacle. And that is exactly what that, what it really was, that the Levites themselves belonged to God. They were the one tribe set apart and dedicated to God, and their work was involved within the tabernacle and the priesthood. God gave the tithe to the Levites. God owns the tithe. That's what this particular verse tells us. And the tithe was a means to support the work of God as it was at that time, which revolved around within the nation of Israel, revolved around that tabernacle and later a temple that was set up.

And it supported that work in many different ways as it went out and benefited the people of the nation. And from that scripture, we within the New Testament Church understand and have taken that law to be the means by which the work of God is financed today, and the work of God being done by His Church. And so it is transferred, and Hebrews talks about that in terms of the priesthood of Melchizedek, and that system transferred over there to the spiritual priesthood. And we understand that from these verses and these scriptures all put together that the tithe is used then to support the work of the Church. And so we come to that conclusion. And we read of the other tithes that were within the scriptures as well, and their very uses for the Feast of Tabernacles and for the poor, not getting into a whole exposition of all of those in this particular sermon. That would be for another time, but we understand that as well. But this is the means by which the work of God is to be supported. And again, we have to understand as we go about our lives and believe what we are a part of. I was reading this one article that they changed the terminology from tithing to grace-giving, which sounds a little softer. Sounds a little bit more New Testament and fits a particular approach to theology that they might have, but they feel that it is more biblical.

And those are not any new arguments. Again, having been around through these arguments and issues as they've revolved in the Church over the years, you hear the same arguments over and over again.

Essentially, historically, attempts to redefine the work of God, being done by His Church and by His people, have always resulted, it seems, in a redefinition and efforts to redefine tithing.

And it devolves into a confusion of really what is the work of the Church, what should be done, and whenever those things in itself, the work of the Church, get to be clouded, tithing always comes into the mix because of the connection. As I'm showing you in Numbers 18, the tithe was given to support the work of the Church in the Old Testament, and we understand that to support the work of the Church in the New Testament. And whenever the Church has been fuzzy, uncertain, given an uncertain voice in terms of the work that it is to do, and its commitment to the work that is to be done. And there have been, whether it's personalities or issues that get in the way of the mission of the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, whenever that has happened historically within the Church, it results in confusion. It results in heresy, and always somewhere in the mix of that particular period of time. I saw this in the 1970s, mid-1970s, just to go back to that period of time, and you saw it again in the 1990s. Tithing and the financial matters always sneak in there, because tithing is the means by which the work of the preaching of the Gospel is funded and is supported. And it's a system that God uses throughout the Scriptures. And so, whenever there's a fuzziness or inattention to the details of the mission of the Church, for whatever reason, the issue of tithing sneaks in there, and it, again, breaks down the will and the ability of the Church to actually preach the Gospel.

And it is one of those subtleties that really, quite frankly, is always aimed at destroying the work of preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. And so, I've seen those, seen that happen time and time again. And that's why it's important for the Church to always have a firm grasp of its mission to preach the Gospel and to be about that job of preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. To be clearly stating it, doing it, pushing it forward, so that the Church is doing what it is, what is, is biblical-manding. And the other things then don't have room to grow. These other seeds of doubt and problems and discouragement and abuse and all these other things don't have any seedbed in which to put down roots and confuse and harass the Church and the people of God. But whenever the Church loses that focus, weeds grow up.

Weeds of ideas, weeds of teaching, practice, and you see it, I'm not surprised to see it in these others, and it should never ever be something that taints the work of the Church of God and the mission that it has to do. When you look at the whole issue here, and you look at some of the arguments that come up, the issue of giving to God, obeying God on this particular law, is something that, quite frankly, the whole Christian life moves us toward. The arguments whether it's giving, grace-giving, or something, or just giving or whatever, become mute.

We tithe because the Christian life leads to that conclusion. It really is a false argument, the idea that Christian giving or grace-giving is superior to the teaching that tithing is a law.

That's a false argument, or to some idea that it's better just to have a voluntary approach rather than something that is required. That moves right into so much of the spirit of an age and our thinking that we don't want to put any requirements on anyone, we don't want to teach law, we don't want to teach what the Bible does say, and there are so many different efforts from many different angles to water down what the Bible does teach on any number of topics and its authority. This area is no exception, but it really becomes insidious when you see it creep into the thinking of the Church of God. In the Old Testament, the tithe is stated as a law. It's not reiterated with the same approach in the New Testament because there's really no need to.

A Christian who reads the statements on giving in the New Testament should conclude that the law of tithing is God's system for the support of the work of the Church without having to see it always restated 15 times to reiterate the point. Our life as Christians is a life of submission and sacrifice to God, living sacrifices, Paul describes us in Romans 12 and verse 1.

And that approach is going to, I think, lead in this particular field naturally to tithe.

Stewardship, selflessness, patience, wisdom, priorities, and especially even the ordering of our own financial physical priorities are important. They're all a part of a Christian money ethic that helps us wisely use the resources that we have. And if we practice the fruits of the Holy Spirit, you will be led to tithe. That is something that I firmly believe. That's why I say that the reasons that I tithed today are different than when I was 19, because of, I hope and pray, the fruit of God's Spirit in my life. And all of these principles there. So many of our problems come from not living within our means when we get into our financial problems. So often we spend more than we have, and we are bombarded with offers and opportunities and enticements to spend more than we have from every aspect of this society today.

And we are a very, very rich land, and we have a very wealthy standard of living in this country. The poorest in America are wealthy by the standards of any other part of the developing world.

I was reading an article about a year ago, no, it was two years ago now in preparation for one of the Beyond Today programs. I was reading Ghana or Nigeria, one of the developing nations of Africa. He's a doctor, and he practices and he had a clinic, and he helped people. He was a trained physician. His salary, maybe it was in the Congo, his salary in the Congo as a doctor was less, less than a person from Eastern Kentucky living on welfare. Because the article used that type of person, a real life person from Eastern Kentucky living on welfare, disability, with his three televisions and his trailer. And what he had was far more. And we look at that person from our perspective and think, you know, they don't have much. That's why I say that the poorest in our land have more than the wealthiest of a place like some of the areas of Africa. We have tremendous wealth in this country, as we see it. We should have thought about these last few days of Thanksgiving. But with that come the enticements at times for us to overspend and to live beyond our means. And when we do, we fall prey to a lot of other problems that get us crossways with God's laws, especially his financial laws of tithing, as well as other financial principles that are enumerated in the Gospels and the New Testament especially, and we spend more than we have.

The tithing, like all of God's laws, involves our submission of our will to God's and an acknowledgement that God is first in our life. And when that alignment takes place, tithing, I think, is a natural part of our faith and an expression of our faith. By itself, tithing doesn't always lead to the success, prosperity, gospel, blessings that some of these preachers abuse.

We've been accused over the years within the Church of God of preaching a prosperity gospel ourselves. So I shouldn't point the finger too much at that. That's been our, that's been, we've been accused of that. And I think we've had to learn from that as we teach tithing, and as we handle the resources of God's Church, that we don't get into a trap of being like any of these other ministries. And also the way that we teach what the Bible does say about tithing, we need to be very careful. It's not always by itself doesn't lead to success and the blessings.

You're never going to hear me say that if you give $10, you're going to get $60 in return.

And you're not going to see that printed. That doesn't mean that tithing is not part of the whole way of life that leads to success and leads to the blessings of God. I think it's really, it's the life that leads to tithing that is important, not just tithing itself. That's been my observation from experience and study and reflection and looking at people's lives over the years. It's the life, the way of life, the calling, the Christian life that we live, that leads us to tithe, but it's that life then that is important. And it's not just a rope giving of something, then it kicks in some magic formula in the heavens that pours out the blessings.

We tithe with that sole expectation we're going to not reap any of the blessings.

I've sat with people in my younger years, especially, and some of this was kind of emblazoned on my mind in my earliest days in the ministry because it became an issue. And I would sit with members who would say, I'm not been blessed. I've been tithing for 20 years and I haven't been blessed.

And we would, you know, just counsel and discuss and go through their life. And, you know, how do you answer that? To be honest, there's not always an answer.

Because, as I had learned, I didn't always realize that at that moment in that time, and Bernhard was here last week, and he and I would set through those. It was with him that I set through those conversations so often in those years during that period of time. And I learned after the fact that there's more going on than the balance of the checkbook. It's an attitude. It's a heart. It's a spirit for a way of life for God. And there's really, I've learned there's no answer to that. When someone comes to that conclusion in their mind, I don't have an answer. Other than, again, to point them to the Scriptures, we're all going to have to work out our own salvation in that way. And I've never taught anybody to tithe as an insurance policy against catastrophe. And I've never coerced people into tithing and giving, you know, with dire threats that something was going to happen to them or to their children if they didn't tithe.

Because I don't believe that that's God's way. And I don't tithe with that expectation either.

I know that I can very well write a check, and then the next week I write a tithe check, I should say. And the next week something bad could happen to me.

Does that negate tithing? Does that negate any aspect of God's way of life? Any law of God? I don't think so. And I can't just hinge my obedience to God on one point like that.

And that's why, again, for any minister of any of these groups or anywhere to stand up and teach a prosperity gospel like that is to abuse the Scriptures. Malachi 3 and verse 10 do talk about a blessing. And I don't want to just ignore that because I know some of you are thinking, well, what about Malachi 3.10? Now, let's go read Malachi 3.10. And in this prophecy there are some specific statements about robbing God and tithing and cursings. But you have to read Malachi 3 and the statements on tithing in the context of all of the prophets' message about a way of life that Israel had departed from. But specifically it does say, in verse 9 it says, well, a man robbed God, yet you have robbed me. But you say, in what way have we robbed you? And he says, in tithes and offerings. So we can't rob God, and we do rob God if we don't tithe. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And try me now in this, says the Lord God of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And here are some specific promises. But read this in the context of all of the prophets. Israel and Judah were also cursed because they broke the Sabbath. Israel went into captivity because they neglected the Sabbath and other of the laws of God. They were cursed for more than just the fact that they did not tithe. And the blessings that ultimately came back to them, or will come back to them, you read Leviticus 26 or Deuteronomy 28, involve a whole way of life. Of which financial management and stewardship and tithing is one key component of the whole way of life. So to say that and to try to use it in that way by itself, to beat somebody over the head with a threat and to guilt them into giving and tithing is not exactly playing honest with the scriptures. On the other hand, as I said, it is the way of life. And there is a financial principle behind tithing as well.

I do understand. When you give 10%, and you set aside that and you honor God, you are obeying God's law, but you're also learning something about a very simple principle about management called budgeting. And when you live within a budget, within one's means, then all of our financial dealings are going to go a whole lot better. It is when we live beyond our needs, it lives outside of a budget, and what we have coming in, that we run into problems. We should all know that. It's one of those lessons that we don't ever want to forget.

Like I said, we're tempted on it so many different times because of the situations that are happening to us. But be very careful that we don't use tithing as a linchpin of our relationship with God, meaning that if anything goes wrong, we're going to pull the plug on that.

That's another aspect to keep in mind. Something bad happens to us or to our family. We stop tithing. Or if we get upset with a person, an organization, a leadership of the church, whatever it might be, we stop tithing. Again, we shouldn't approach it that way. We can't isolate tithing any more than we can isolate the Sabbath or any other fundamental truth of God. We cannot be selective in what we do. This way of life, Christianity, is a highly integrated way of life that involves many elements that define our faith and our worship and our relationship with God.

So we tithe because it's a deeply personal form of our worship with God. And when we do that, we are living up to the teaching from Romans 12.1 of being a sacrifice, a living sacrifice. We understand that it represents the spiritual claim that God has on our life.

And that's one demonstration of it that we see as we do tithe. It represents our dependence on God for all that we use in this earth to sustain our life. And when we approach it from that perspective, we understand the privileges, the responsibilities, and see it as an expression of our faith. And we are learning reliance upon God. And we are also learning how to handle the physical things that we have within our life. In Luke chapter 12, there's a very interesting parable of what is called the rich fool.

Whatever we have, small or great, if it's $100 left over at the end of each month or if it's about $1,000, whatever we have, if our home is paid for, if we still owe a big fat mortgage on it, maybe two mortgages, if we're driving a brand new car or a car that's 12 years old with 100,000 or 200,000 miles on it, whatever we have, whatever we are privileged to use, give thanks for it, but use it to serve God. Use it to honor God in every aspect of our life and service to others by what we can give, by how we can serve, by example of people who are able to live within their means, and then use those means to serve and to give, and to be proper stewards of physical things as well as the spiritual matters of God. This is what's behind this parable in Luke 12 of this rich fool. I love this parable, and it kind of slaps me in the face every once in a while. It should slap us as well and teach us something about the use of abundance, the use of what's left over in our bank accounts and the reserves we might have and the the funds that we have. In verse 13 of Luke 12, one from the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you? Christ had enough sense not to get involved in a dispute over an inheritance. You know, I've watched from afar, from my own family's experience, inheritances, what's left over when the parents die. Oh, boy! You know, kids might get along for a while, but when they start dividing up, whether it's a few hundred dollars or a few pieces of mom and dad's inheritance that's junk to someone else, but it is all that remains of their life.

It can cause families to divide and squabble, however small or great it can be.

I remember my dad telling me the story of when his mother died and 12 kids finally gathered in his small log farmhouse that my grandmother lived in to divide up the few meager possessions this poor woman had left over. And her house was sitting on property owned by her son, so she was taken care of in that way, but she had very little. But, you know, it was a sewing box. It was something she'd made. It was this. It was something she cooked with, this and that. And those have sentimental memories. And they all put their names in a hat and pulled the names out by numbers, I guess, and then they were able to go by, you know, each had their place to pick what was left and lined up there. One brother didn't get something that he wanted. He stormed out of the house. And my dad was the one that went after him. Daddy might collard him in the front yard and talked to him and said, you know, come on back in here. You know, this is we're family. We're not going to do these, act like this. But I've heard the stories and you've had them as well and you just don't want to get involved there. Christ was smart enough not to do that.

Because those are some of the very deep emotions over things, whether it's money or other physical remains from a family's life. He said, I'm not to judge that. And he said to them, take heed, beware of covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Very, very important principle. That's why I say this is one to read every once in a while and let it slap you up the side of the head. We all need to be slapped up the side of our head and say, yeah, it's not in the things that we possess as we remember that next time you're doing the best buy.

I'll remember that next time I go into Best Buy or start surfing my favorite website where I, you know, have something that I really think I got to have. Our life doesn't consist of the things that we have. And he spoke to the repairable saying, the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops?

And so he said, I'll do this. I'll pull down my barns and build greater, and there I'll store all my crops and all my goods. So he pulls down his barns. The barns that were probably paid for, probably adequate, and he could have done other things, but he said, oh, I will build greater.

Now you can substitute in their car. You can substitute house. You can substitute clothing, television sets, whatever you might have. And, you know, it might not, none of us, most of us don't relate to a barn. Who in this room here wants another barn or a bigger barn? Unless it's, you know, some of these show barns that are really palatial party barns that some of the rich can build. But most of us, you know, don't relate to that. Put in there what you relate to.

So he said, I'll do this. In verse 19, I will say to my soul, to my innermost thoughts, and where I really commune with myself, because that's where money and wealth, and that's where our heart really gets into this. I will say, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry. And this rich fool thought that he could do that.

But God said to him, fool, this night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. This parable has a lot of wisdom in it. He said, you know, verse 20, you could die tonight. That's what he's saying. And then who's going to take what you've got and you've stored up? What's going to happen to it? I sometimes jokingly tell people, and I've told some of you this as well, look, spend it. Spend it. Take that trip. Do this or do that. I said, if you die, your kids are just going to argue over it. So don't leave them anything to argue over. There's one of these money books that I looked at a few years ago, and the guy's advice was, he had, it was, he offered you a plan through his book, financial plan, that in retirement, you could, you could live, you know, as high as you wanted to live with any means, but it was a plan to basically spend every dime that you had and leave nothing behind. And I think the kicker line was that, you know, the last check you write, make it to the undertaker and make sure it bounces.

But I do, I tell people, look, if, you know, all things, all other things being right and whatever, if you've got that extra, enjoy it yourself and know how to use it. And be rich toward God, be rich toward yourself, be rich towards some others if you need to, but plan it accordingly. And that, that's a wise principle. He said, if you lay up, so is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. The rich fool had failed to first acquire and develop a right relationship with God. He therefore, that's why he was a rich fool.

And there are a lot of rich fools. They are very astute at making money and can make millions and billions of dollars. I guess it's not just to be a millionaire anymore, it's, you know, it's to be, you've got to be a billionaire to really be filthy rich. But you can be a rich fool if you don't have a proper relationship with God. This, the parable, its teaching is aimed at those who are worried and tempted to join the rat race of material pursuits for the sake of materialism alone without God.

It's good to enjoy the material things, but make sure that God's at the center of your life so that you can enjoy it in the right way and handle it in the right way.

So these are just a few principles from just a few aspects of the scriptures to remember.

There's always going to be a lot of talk in articles such as these about ministries, religionists who abuse people's generosity. There are always going to be arguments within the church, within theology, among people, overhiving itself as a law of God, or is it a principle, or is it something else? And those are age-old arguments.

Know what the Bible teaches, but most of all, know why you obey God on this particular matter.

Know why you obey God. Then these are not going to bother us, and we're going to know and have the confidence that as we give to the work of God that we are given to God, and all other aspects of our life are going to be ordered properly. And in this season, as well as all seasons of our life and of the years, then we are going to be able to be proper stewards and good stewards of the abundance and the blessings that God has given to us.