ARE YOU A GOOD STEWARD WITH GOD'S MONEY?
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Am I a good steward? By this I mean, "Am I a good steward of God's money? Knowing it's a sin to rob God!
We are told in 2Tim4:2, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season." following that advice, notice Deut 16:16 -17, "Three times in a year shall all the males [head of household] appear before the Lord there God in the place which He shall choose; In the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and in the Feast of Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty:[that is - empty handed ]. Every man, shall give as he is able, [from the gifts of their hands] according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you."
God's called are to appear in the presence of God with an offering worthy of the blessings received from the work of their hands. Giving commanded offerings, free will offering and the paying of tithes, is not a sin, but not giving free will offerings, annual commanded Holy Day offerings, or paying tithes is a sin and is robbing God!
Robbing God - is thinking we know better than God when it comes to spending money. Having been asked a number of times, does the Church of God, In Truth, teach "giving financially to God?" When we answer them yes, we sometimes don't see or hear from them again.
During the past 44 years in God's Church, we have not heard too many sermons on giving financially to God. It's usually only spoken of in sermonetts or offertories on the Holy Days. We don't speak very often on giving tithes and offering, because asking someone to give money is a sensitive topic.
Some who have been blessed with a calling from God, bristle at the mention of giving an offering. Maybe it's because, deep inside, they are still pretty selfish and would rather spend that money on pleasures offered in this world. Or, maybe it's because of disagreements with church leaders over how the tithes and offerings are spent. No one serving in the Church of God in Truth receives a pay-check. All tithe and offerings go for God's work
But perhaps our biggest cause for concern over giving is our fear of the future. We're afraid that if we give too much away, we won't be able to make ends meet. Whatever the reason's, maybe it's time to stop avoiding the subject and honestly seek God's direction from the Bible, His words, on the principles for giving!
Giving should be a joy - not a burden! We are commanded to tithe and commanded to give offerings. The amount of the tithe is ten percent of our increase or earnings! That is pre-determined! The amount of our free will offerings are not how we determine these amounts, it is determined on where our heart really is! "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21).
Did you hear about the $100 dollar bill, the $20 dollar bill, and the $1 dollar bill, that meet up-at the shredder at the end of their long lives? The $100 dollar bill said, "I've seen the whole world during my lifetime, why, I've been on cruises in the Caribbean, Safaris in Africa, and vacations in Europe!" The $20 dollar bill says, "Well, I've not done quite as will, but I have been to Atlantic City, Disneyland, and Starbucks!" They both turn to the one dollar bill and asked? "How about you?" The one dollar not wanting to be outdone -says, "I've seen the whole country as well, I've been from church to church to church." Then the $100 dollar bill asked, "What is a church?"
In order to give an offering which is pleasing to God we need to think about it and plan for it ahead of time! If we fail to plan - we plan to fail!
The eighth commandment points out, "You shall not steal." Robbing God of tithes and offerings is stealing from God, plain and simple.
Most of us who went to church at an early age were taught - God owns everything, "For the earth is the Lord's,and the fulness thereof" (1Cor 10:26). God created everything! He owns all the air - the universe - the cattle, the minerals, the trees, - everything. God gives us money to manage, but 1/10th of that money is not ours, it belongs to Him. So when we put God's share of the profit, be it a tithe or our offering in the envelope you are just returning what is His. Remember He owns it all! What money we give is not yours or mine.
We should appreciate our heavenly Father for making us a steward, and manager of His money! We should earnestly pray that we will be a good manager and to never abuse our stewardship. What is interesting to note again is that no fixed amount is mentioned in the Bible as to how much we are to give for offerings. The criteria or gauge we are to go by is how much we are blessed, not only in the physical sense, but also in the spiritual food and knowledge that one receives from God's word. This is something on which one cannot put a price tag. It is like the famous pearl of great price.
When we pay God's tithes and give Him an offering, we are not to boast about it, but we are to do it quietly, discreetly from the heart. God can and will, in His due time, bless us openly when we behave with a right attitude. Remember, "God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor. 9:7).
When we put His profit into the envelope, it's returning what is His. When tithing, remember, it is His money. The offerings from our earned money-also is His, all we do is return it. Think of it this way- God puts His money in our hands, and one tenth of it - off the top is His. That's why we need to return it. Then He watches to see what we will do with the left over 90 %. Mal 3: reveals He is watching! Let me ask - have you thought of your tithes and offering as being someone else's money? It's God's money! With God owning every thing, it's not ours!
Here in the United States of America, we get a income tax deduction for the tithes and offerings given to the church and outside charities. When thinking about our tithe, we do not use one penny of our hard earned money to pay it! We put someone else's money into the tithe envelope! Let me say that again, We never use one penny of our hard-earned money to tithe. We put somebody else's money in the tithe envelope. The tithe belongs to who? - to God!
Every time you get paid, you simply return what is His. It's sort of a trust element. If you want to give to Him personally then you have to give a free-will offering from the 90% of your own earned money!
Remember Adam and Eve? They had a bad problem right in the middle of their Eden paradise. There was this tree that looked normal, like any other tree, but that tree just happened to be the gateway to death. The one way a person could die was to go near that tree and partake of the fruit of that tree. God warned the couple! "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of Good and
Evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Gen 2:16 -17). The tree of knowledge was a daily visible test
of their trust and dependance on God. Both Eve and Adam sinned because they ate its forbidden fruit. They were excommunicated from paradise. They started to die the moment they bit into the forbidden fruit.
Today there is the equivalent of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is still in existence. It is still here on this earth. Do you know what it is? Could tithing or giving of a offering be it? Now think about this, Adam and Eve's fall happened because they did not trust God's word.
Today, God still has a visible testing point for His people. It is something real, and we come nearby it every day, as near as your back pocket or your purse. It is something just like Eve did, robbing God by taking the fruit that belonged to Him. Early on - God told her she could not have it, but she took it and used it for her lust any way.
In the last book in the Old Testament we are shown-we also can rob God, by taking His tithe and keeping His offerings and using it for our own pleasures and purposes. Eve took God's fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil - that is the equivalent to stealing God's money.
Today God uses tithe and offerings as the tangible demonstration of loyalty to Him. Presently God says of all your possessions, I reserve a tenth for Myself, besides gifts and commanded offerings.
Back in Eve's time the devil worked hard to deceive her into thinking that, what God held back for Himself should be taken away from Him. Just like in these last days the devil is also working hard to deceive if possible the very elect! That is you and me - the bride of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle John gives us a clear definition of what sin is! "Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the Transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4). Sin is lawlessness, it is insubordination to God, wanting one's own way and refusing to acknowledge the Lord as their rightful supreme authority! In essence it is placing one's own will above the will of God.
Sin in regards to tithe and offerings is man's present visible tangible test. The old snake is in the tree again. He says God really did not mean that we have to return His tithe and offerings into His storehouse. You can just keep it for yourself or spend it on something you want- would that be wrong? Let's again go to the Bible - for the answer in Genesis 14 -where we can find Abraham returned a full 10% of God's tithe to the priest
of the most High God. "He returned a tenth of all he had acquired" (Gen 14:5). He did it freely and willingly.
Notice what God did for Abraham immediately after this experience. "God came to Abram in a vision and said, do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward" (Gen 15:1). God immediately started pouring out a blessing on His faithful servant Abraham.
We read of Jacob's pledge in Genesis 28, after Jacob fled from Esau his brother, who was not given Jacob blessings. One night while Jacob was sleeping in a field he had a dream of a staircase extending from heaven to earth (Gen 28:11-12). "And he came to a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." The next morning verse 20 tells us, he made a vow and said in verse 22, "Of all [plural] that You shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto You." Giving to God a tenth of all - covers a lot of things, from money to harvesting, to mining, to the ranching of animals - etc-etc. Giving a tithe of all was Jacob's pledge. Abraham and Jacob both understood and practiced the payment of tithing and giving of all they possessed.
Notice in the book of Deuteronomy where God here again states the law of tithing and offerings that are to be redeemed [delivered]. Notice very carefully how specific God's statement is: "Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there; [Church of God ] there shall you bring all that command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, [work of your hands] and all your choice vows which you vow unto the Lord" (Deut 12:11).
Why does God have the right to tell us where to return His tithe and offerings? Because it is His! Why does our electric power provider tell us to send our monthly payment to them? Because it is their money from us buying their electricity. If I do not send the money for their electricity our power will get cut off.
The tithe and offerings are God's. We are not to tamper with it! If we do - we could be cut off from being in His Kingdom. The tithe and offerings is for preaching His gospel- His good news of His soon coming Kingdom- His government- and His truth. Those who meddle with God's money will be punished with the loss of God's kingdom treasures. Remember we are enlightened by Christ. Luke tells us. "For where your treasure [money] is, there will your heart be also" (Luke 12:34). God has not changed; His tithe and offerings they are still to be used for the support of His work. None of us are to feel at liberty to retain God's tithe and offerings, to use according to our own desires! We are not to use it on ourselves as we see fit.
Do you know why Eve ate the forbidden fruit? Was the sin - because she was eating between meals?
What was Eve's sin? The sin was not her appetite. It was because she did not believe or trust God, so Eve took matters into her own hands. God said very clearly, don't do this and Eve said, "I think that I know a little better, I think it's okay." In other words she distrusted God's words! She had unbelief in His instructions. Both Adam and Eve thoroughly rejected God's authority. Eve's sin was thinking she could take what God told her was His personal property and use it as she saw fit.
Today - we should want to return God's tithe and give our offerings to God because we love him and want to see His work done. Any other motive is the wrong motive.
Leviticus 27:30 tells us, "All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord." In other words, don't you touch it! Remember what happened to Uzzah after touching the ark? By example - don't use God's money-as you see fit. Use it as He tells you.
Its time now to get more specific - turn to the last book in the Old Testament called Malachi. Malachi chapter 3: verse 6, "I am the Lord I change not." Has He changed things? Is the New Testament the same as the Old Testament?
Even though tithing is not brought out too often a in the New Testament, but then neither is the Sabbath.
Why is that? Because those things were assumed. They were reading the Old Testament. They were already in general practice. Verse7 of Malachi. 3-calls for repentance- returning to God is to repent of sin. "Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from Mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we return?" Notice now - verse 8, [here is the verse people would like to remove out of their Bible]. God asks? "Will a man rob God? -yet you rob Me.- but you ask- how do we rob You? God answers - in tithes and offerings."
This is strong language indeed, there is no mincing of words! Some fail to realize that it is possible to rob God in offerings even as in tithes. A person who senses his obligations as a steward of God's bounties will freely give the Lord offerings, according to his ability, as God has prospered him or her. A person who does not sense their obligation verse 9 tells them, "You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation." Curses automatically follows disobedience, just as blessings followed obedience. There is no neutral ground. A man is either right or wrong in his conduct, and God rewards him accordingly.
We should want to live under a blessing not with a curse hanging over our heads. Verse 10 tells us, "Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat [spiritual food] in Mine house." What is the storehouse? The storehouse is God's house. Verse 10 continues, "And prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the floodgate of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Test Me in this - says the Lord Almighty. Are you only picturing money here? There are far more blessings than just money. Verses 11 -12, "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts."
You would think we all want our property and possessions to be delightful. God will do that for us - if we are faithful to Him and trust Him. Bringing in the whole tithe and offerings into the storehouse God says He will reward those who are faithful to these words of His.
I Corinthians 9:6 has something else worth remembering. "But this I say, [remember what I say] he which sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposed in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: as it is written, he has dispersed abroad; he has given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. Now he that ministers seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness; being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causes through us thanksgiving to God" (I Cor 9:6-10). Returning God's tithe and give offerings to support His cause, God promises He will bless you.
We should not want to hitchhike into God's kingdom. Have you ever seen a hitchhiker standing along the road with his thumb out? His thumb signal is giving a message loud and clear: "If you will furnish the car, the gasoline, the time and the air conditioning and if you will do the driving, I'll ride with you, but you are crazy if you think - I am going to chip in with any gas money and by the way, if you have an accident and I am injured, be sure that
I will sue you for everything else you have!
In just about every congregation of church goers you will find church hitchhikers. God identifies them as chafe-drifters- never stable. Never satisfied, blowing with the wind. Always on the move. They conscience-ly say, in one way or another, "if you supply smooth, articulate, attractive sermon so that I will be entertained, I will listen to the message. I'll ride along with you for awhile but you are crazy if you think that I am going to chip in with any real financial support and by the way, if anything happens that irritates me, you will hear from me real quick! Forget receiving tithes or offerings from me!
People who are the most systematic and unselfish in sustaining the cause of God are the most prosperous spiritually. Treasure in God's kingdom is laid up only as treasure on this earth is laid down. The motivation for all giving is love. John wrote, ""For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
Many church offerings are given to ease the conscience. Giving a "X" amount of dollars could be a nice way of "paying off the Lord" while the whole time our heart is set on the concubines of sin. If you are serious about being in God's Kingdom you will naturally want to give God what is His. Remember what Malachi 3: recorded. "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal 3:8-10).
Your tithes are God's money and your offerings show God where your heart's desire is! Matt 6:21 - makes that clear, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
James Russell
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