Click Banner to go to main page

In many of my studies the question of tithing comes up. I want to say right now that I do believe in the process of giving.

The issue to me is not so much one of how much you should give but rather should you give to churches and ministries?

I pastored many years and it often was a sore spot with someone that I was not a pocket book preacher and would not take at least one Sunday a month to preach on tithing. The reason is simple, they wanted more money so they would have to give less, and I wasn't led by God to preach on it so didn't. This does not mean I do not believe in the need to give. Just God has never showed me in the bible where we the church should make laws to put our people in bondage once he set us free.

There are two basic groups of people, givers and takers. The unfortunate thing is there far more takers then givers in the world. To be a giver takes a real heart change for most folks. I think that once a person grows in the Lord if his or her heart is right with God they will want to give and give and give. The reason so few feel inclined this way is because of a more serious problem with the way they have been taught and their relationship with God and his church.

One thing that tends to stand out in people of all ages and sex's if the type of countenance they show us. Have you seen those people that always just seem happy no matter what they face, no matter how poor they just always seem ready to smile? What can give such a cheerful heart? It is simple, when you have a heart filled with love and right with God all looks right in the world. Its knowing that all things do indeed work to the good of them that love God and called by him to do his work. So that person can truly be the richest poor person on this earth. Paul said he had to learn to be content in whatever state he found himself in. I often tried to impress on the church its this kind of countenance that will cause a church to grow and be strong. Can you imagine going to church every Sunday to find it full of happy cheerful faces beaming with joy to see you. This is what church should be always.

When I was growing up we didn't get to see each other much in the week I couldn't wait to get there. Why, I enjoyed the singing and even the preaching, but what helped me to enjoy it so much I was there with my friends. We would sit to gather and sing together sometimes we would smile or help each other search for something the preacher had just said. There is something deeply wrong in so many churches today because that joy of being together is gone. I had a time when I pastored that was very hard and I struggled with this for a time. There was a certain group of ladies I would pray would not show up. The reason was where every they were there was confusion. I wonder if you pastor ever prays you don't make it? Every week there was someone they were going to fuss about or try to get me in a corner to fuss about what my wife did or did not do. No amount of money in the offering plate was enough to do all the things they just knew the church had to do. Funny thing was most of the time they came in smiling and walking about acting happy and gay and shaking hands. They were happy not because others were there, but like fishermen who show up on the bank of the river and see the preach jumping out hungry. They couldn't wait to find some thing or someone to attack. Then one night as I was praying God spoke to me and said why do you not just ask me to take care of it? I realized I had been trying ever way I could to fix the problem but the problem wasn't mine to fix. I did just that, and all three of them ended up fighting between themselves and forgot about everyone else, till one day they were gone. We have to learn to trust God and not let anyone rob of us the joy of him or each other. You have some problem people let God take care of it, and worry about the things that need your attention. I assure you sometimes a back door revival is what the church needs. Just make sure its God doing the house cleaning and not you.

Those people that are always so cheerful, if you were to notice are almost always givers. I cannot think of a single one I have ever met that was a taker. Want to know why?

I remember once going to a family home after preaching and was shocked to see the conditions in which they lived. These folks had old scrap planks to make the walls on the outside of the house and to insulate it they had cardboard boxes on the walls. There was not one really nice piece of furniture, any TV or phone. The meal was beans and water to drink. And yet these folks were as happy as could be, I knew because I often took up the offering that they always put money in sometimes a twenty-dollar bill. I wondered to my self-how can they be so happy with so little and yet give so much when they could use some things at home. The reason was because they knew the secret of what Jesus taught, not by some law or rule but from the heart they gave as if giving to God.

I shall never forget when a boy going to the school for the blind Christmas was up on us and so were my birthday and my cousins. We both wanted cameras so bad, his family really struggled to make ends meet because his dad was an invalid and thus money was always tight. His birthday came and he got nothing at all, mine came a couple weeks later and I got some present don't remember what it was but it wasn't the camera. We did not give up hope and sure enough at Christmas our school went to a program that Famous and Barr always put on for the school and the gift I received was a camera. The next week Christmas came and I received a few more nice gifts. When I got back to school I was in a hurry to find out what he had gotten, it was a pair of pants and a shirt and nothing more. That evening when I went to my room and opened my dresser I saw the camera, my heart was breaking for my cousin I saw the tears he had tried to hide. I took that camera and went to the room he was in and gave it to him. The joy on his face I will never forget, the price was well worth the loss to me. To this day I get tears when I remember his face at my giving him that cheap camera. I don't know if he remembers or ever even has thought of it again, does not matter cause I remember. When you learn to give from the heart no money no words can express the joy you feel.

Some years later my wife had a run in with the city police chief, she thought he had done her a awful wrong and let him know it, in fact told him to leave our house and not come back. A few weeks later the officer's wife became ill and things were going pretty hard on him and his family. I came home to find this nice ham and all kinds of stuff laid on the table, being I knew our own money was a bit tight, I asked what was going on. She had chosen not to pay a bill and instead take the money to buy this stuff not for us but for him and his family. It is one of the few times I ever saw her really happy and what made her so happy was she was doing something good because she wanted to even though she had been so upset. When she took the stuff to the family the officers wife cried and he was embarrassed but smiled from ear to ear. She came home happy and every time from then on when they would meet they always found a smile. The whole thing turned around between them. I doubt that he ever will no we let a bill go and that while he ate ham we were eating much less, it was not important because the joy of the giving was worth it all. Neither he nor his family ever came to our church, but later our church sent them some money to help them get though, and you know what we expected? We expected only to make them happy and help them, nothing more. Yet God blessed the church beyond what we expected for someone came into the church a new family who were givers and our condition was far better then before. Trust me you cannot out give God.

The word blessed means happy or happiness and you cannot every be happy till you learn to give from the heart.

Over the years our little church couldn't afford it seemed to pay a pastor. I didn't quit I stayed and you no something I never hurt because of it. God seemed to always supply us with just what we needed when we needed it most. Sometimes someone from the church would feel led to give us a little extra money or the church would go to gather and give us a hundred or two hundred dollars. That is what paid for my kids to have Christmas gifts on more then one occasion. Sometimes that extra little gift was what put food on the table beside beans for a few weeks. They will never fully know how God used what they gave but God will and has and will continue to reward them.

Once we had a real need come up in the church. The roof was leaking and no money to pay for it. The church a few years before had paid someone to fix the roof but by no fault of theirs the shingles didn't hold. There was the usually fussing coming from a few and others just worried, people had given all they had to give and no way was there money to fix a roof that was going to cost nine hundred dollars. When things were at the worst and I had prayed and was reaching a place of despair a huge storm came though. I had gone over to the building and tried to protect things best I could and prayed no more damage would be done. I had just sit down and my wife was in the kitchen when a huge bolt of lightening flashed a boom that shook the windows accrued. My wife ran in the room shaking it had something she couldn't tell what but it was at the church building. The next day when the rain died down I found what it was. It had hit the Air conditioner. I called a service man that came and verified that indeed was the case. Our insurance paid for the air conditioner, which was enough to fix the roof. Later when summer came he provided enough to get the air conditioner fixed. Instead of thanking God we had one family got mad and left the church. As for me when God provides the answer I'm not going to get mad but just say thank you LORD?

I could go on to tell you many many stories in my life where God sent just what was needed by a giver. The point is this if you serve God and love him you will give and as you give he will return to you when its his will to do so, and if you don't get it down here you get what is worth far more the joy of knowing you have touched someone's life.

I know a lady who has a friend that she talks to often off the Internet. Because she knew that the lady was hurting and doing with out things she needed just to survive she often skipped something her family wanted and sent the money to her in a envelope that was unmarked. She didn't want praise or thanks; she got the joy from knowing she touched a life that is the kind of giver God wants us to be.

You belong to a church; you have a pastor you owe it to yourself to be a giver. In the old days of the bible God told the church to give ten percent of all they had to meet the needs of the leaders. And then when it was time to build they gave offerings as well. This was an example to us though we are not under the law; we should take care of those who God places as our leaders.

If your heart is right with God then you should want to give not only because it's your role as a member but because you love your church and its people. Love is charity and charity is giving. What good would love be if you put it in a jar and sealed the top and placed it on a shelve? Love only works when you use it and using it is showing it or giving it. So what if you have to give up something in your life when you see the need in your church family and you could bring a smile. That smile is worth far more, and its memory will last a lifetime.

Far too often this verse is used by those who chose not to give as if some magical justifier as to why they do not have to give to others. WRONG, if you heart is right with God you will purpose in your heart to give. Maybe it will be the ten percent but even then don't stop there are you rob your self. If you joined a church and in the membership rules it says you will faithful support the church and some set an amount and you joined agreeing to this and do not do it you rob God. And even more so you now separate yourself from God because you have lied and become a liar. Yet God does not want you to give from a law but because you chose to do so, from your heart you show where your treasure is. God loves cheerful givers. Now why would you not want to be loved by God? I want his love and I want all of it I can get so if I can get more of his attention and love shown to me why would I not give as much as I can knowing he loves givers. Then look at the reward of giving from the heart, his grace, and believe you me I need all or his grace and more then he can give. Because I'm so human and make so many mistakes, just as you do. Notice to he promised you would have sufficiency in all things. So thus I know he will meet my real need, which is not one of the flesh but of the heart.

So I sum up with these words, if you are to have a close walk with God and be happy you will be a giver. Not because man says so, not because someone must beg you but because you love God and you love others. I like you have many needs, I will not ask you to send me money or help me, why? Because so long as I live and I give of what I can and myself of earthly things he will send what I need with out my asking. This is the kind of God we serve. So you look in the mirror and judge yourself are you right with God, if your not a giver your not.