Understanding the Kingdom Tithe and Offering Part 2

Understanding Sonship Today’s Focus: Understanding the Kingdom Tithe and Offering; Part 2 Scripture: Acts 20:35 Greetings Kingdom Citizens Now we left off with this profound statement: The reason we tithe and give offerings is to celebrate the fact that we are sons of God and have an inheritance! So why is this not being taught and understood in the church today? Why is tithing and offering looked upon with a frown. It is because people do not understand it and many leaders are not teaching the celebratory meaning of the tithe. When I look back at the interaction between Abraham and Melchisidek, I see happiness and joy in the giving of the tithe to Melchisidek. Many use the Law to justify the tithe. But this in itself is crazy because we are not under the Law! Let me show you a scripture you know you have heard on why you should tithe: Malachi 3:10: bring all your 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. Now the problem with using this is the belief that if you do not tithe then your life will just be utterly miserable and completely distraught. Did anyone think that Malachi was under the Law and not a son of God? And the people were required by the Law to tithe to the Priesthood (Levites). Let me say this again! When you use the Law to justify why we tithe, we make slaves out of people and they view tithing as a negative thing. In the New Testament you are treated as sons and not as slaves. The tithe is not about your supply; it is about your celebration of your sonship. You celebrate the fact that you have an inheritance from your Father. For example we celebrate the Lord’s Supper which celebrates our resurrection. We celebrate baptism, which celebrates our separation from the world. It is a symbolic earthly gesture used to represent an eternal action. So what about offerings? Offering is how God tests you to see if you may become a conduit of blessings to others. Offerings are extra and let me explain. God supplies all of my needs and gives me extra. Now the offering is the test to see if you will take the extra and bless someone else or will you hoard it for fear of not having enough. This is where you have the war between the soul and the Spirit. Either you trust God to supply all of your needs or you hoard what God gives you, not believing He will supply. This is why the latter part of this scripture says in Acts 20:35: It is more blessed to give than to receive. What is so blessed about giving? Because, being blessed gives you the opportunity to stand in the place of Jesus on Earth and give where He would have given. True giving is giving without expecting anything back in return. It is from the heart. It is His nature to be that way and we have the character of God if we walk after His Spirit. God gave us His own Son (John 3:16), the greatest gift of all so that we may have eternal life. So offerings are opportunities to bless someone else and stand in on Earth where Jesus would have and give to those in need. And when you do that, God trusts you with more and more of the Kingdom and you grow spiritually and closer to God. Now in no way am I saying that we should not tithe because we should, but the attitude toward why we do it should be different. So I want to make it clear. But I know that we will see a better commitment to tithing if we are taught about the celebratory reason why we tithe. God loves a cheerful giver and when we give grudgingly then our giving is for naught. In the next message we will look at money and how it has been used to mis-represent the true blessing of God. At Our Father’s Service, Elder Calvin Calhoun, Jr.