Date: 11/11/2020
Questions
What does it mean to tithe?
- To give 10%.
- OT, there are so many different tithes, that they gave well above 10%.
- A couple of statistics:
- Americans in general
- 2018 – charitable giving accounted for 2.1% of our nation’s GDP.
- 2017 – general US household gave $2,514 on average.
- US Christians 2018
- Tithers make up 5% of Christians. Though 17%, on surveys, say they tithe.
- Christians average 2.5% giving of their income in 2018. During the Great Depression Christians gave 3.3%.
- The average dollar amount, per adult, was about $17 per week. $884 per adult per year.
- 37% of evangelicals don’t give any money to their church.
- Since 1990, religious giving is down by about 50%.
- Muslims give more per family to their Mosques than Christians give to their churches. So do Jews to their synagogues.
- Americans in general
Is tithing still a command today or was it just an OT thing?
- Matthew 23:23 – “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”
- 2 Corinthians 8
- Jesus didn’t tithe his blood.
- Who is sovereign over your income? God or you?
- The unfortunate, yet all too common, situation of potential elders/deacons not giving.
- One thing we need to be self-aware of is WHY we are asking these questions. Are we genuinely curious to know what God expects of us so that we can honor and obey Him? Or are we asking because we want to know the bare minimum required in order to be in right standing with God? People always ask me whether they should tithe on gross or net income. My question in return is always.. “Why do you ask the question? To find a way to be okay with the bare minimum?” Then I’ll ask “Which do you think would be more pleasing to God?”
Do I tithe to God’s work in general or to my local church? What if I’m giving generously to God’s work, it’s just not all going to my church?
- Jesus came to build one organization — the church (Matthew 16:18).
- Don’t cheat the church in order to be generous to others.
- If Christians gave generously to their churches other para-church (which means “outside of the church” or “alongside the church”) organizations wouldn’t need to exist. Churches would be home to what all of these other organizations are doing (from WRC, to Christians education, to orphan care, etc…).
I sometimes hear people talk about “tithing their time.” Is that a real thing or just a justification for why they may not be giving financially to the church?
- Tithing your time isn’t found in the Bible.
- We’re called to serve others and live for the glory of God, but nowhere is how we spend our time a substitute for what we do with our financial resources.
- This goes back to the motivation of the heart. Are you trying to justify doing the bare minimum? We should want to be generous with both our time AND resources that God has blessed us with.
Are passages like Acts 2:45 or Jesus’ interaction with the rich young ruler teaching that possessions and money are bad? Should we feel guilty if we are financially blessed?
- I sure hope not, because — here in the US — we all fall under the biblical definition of rich.
- James 1:17 — every good gift is from above, coming from the Father…
- We shouldn’t feel guilty; but we should feel a responsibility. God has entrusted us with his riches to be used for his glory and the good of others.
- When you let your kid borrow your car, what do you expect of them?
- Why do we fool ourselves into thinking that God has no expectations of us and how we use his financial resources?