Archive for tithing
Somebody HONOR Somebody, Pt.4
Posted by: | CommentsHONOR GOD WITH YOUR WEALTH – BRING THE FULL TITHE & LIVE SACRIFICIALLY
Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. (Proverbs 3:9 NLT)
I love tithing. A tithe literally means “a tenth” or 10%. It is God’s way of teaching the heart to always honor Him. Why does He use money? Because money is the greatest competitor for our heart’s HONOR & WORSHIP!
We all like to treat money like its our god. We often believe that money will make everything better. We think, “If I just had a little more money then my life would be so much better.” But that is a lie, because everytime we get that little more money, our lives aren’t any better, we still have the same stresses that money brought in the first place. Why? Because so often we believe that MORE, MEANS MORE FOR ME.
Instead, the Bible teaches that we should GIVE IN PROPORTION TO WHAT WE GET. This is talking about tithing. God says, I have given you everything you own. In fact, all of my stuff is really God’s stuff. And God says that He wants His portion. When I bring back God’s portion, the tithe, I am really honoring God with all of my wealth/stuff.
Bringing the full tithe (which means I bring back 10% of my gross income to the local church as an act of trust & obedience) is not a suggestion but a command, and certainly one with a huge promise of blessing (Mal.3:10).
It’s easy to say that I HONOR GOD, OR LOVE GOD, BUT IF I’M NOT HONORING HIM WITH MY WEALTH, THEN I’M NOT HONORING HIM WITH MY LIFE!
The God of the Bible is so worthy of our best. He is not a God of leftovers, He gave us His best, His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus gave us His best on the cross to save us from our sins and give us eternal life with Him. Now, He honors us by calling us to GIVE OUR BEST TO HIM!
Tithing is not the ceiling, it is the floor. Tithing is the starting point of obedience level giving. Once you have grown in your trust of God, its time to learn how to give above & beyond the tithe. This often means re-orienting your lifestyle in such a way that you “seek the kingdom of God first” in an effort to build God’s kingdom, grow God’s church, and invest in eternity!
Return Your Refund
Posted by: | CommentsEverybody loves the RUSH of getting their tax refund check in the mail. Our minds have already spent it before we’ve even cashed it.
This is a BLESSING! I understand where the money comes from, it’s money that you and I worked hard for and then “voluntarily” paid to the government to maintain and improve the infrastructure we have in our state and country; then the government refunds a portion back to us. I get all of that and I get that there are many who have heated political feelings about taxes, and how much money we should get back; that isn’t my focus in this post.
Let me shed some light on the “tax refund” from a spiritual & eternal perspective. What if I told you every year as followers of Jesus WE HAVE AN INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY TO LEAD MORE UNCHURCHED PEOPLE TO BECOME HARDCORE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST through the TAX REFUND. That’s right, your tax refund, which is really a blessing from God is an opportunity to be a blessing to Jesus & His Church!
The Bible teaches us that God is the BLESSOR, we are the BLESSED, to be a BLESSING! Every good gift comes from God. This includes the air we breathe, the minds we think with, and the hands we work with. God wants to bless us because He loves us. And God wants to bless others through us!
The spiritual discipline of tithing is the tool God uses to shape our hearts to become more like His in the area of our finances. A Tithe literally means, a tenth or 10%. God says, I have given you everything you have. Now, bring back to me a portion, 10% as an act of trust and obedience. When we bring back the 10%, God blesses the remaining 90%. I would much rather live on a blessed 90% than a cursed 100%, when you live on the cursed 100% you will never feel like you have enough, you will be swimming in debt, and you will be enslaved to the almighty dollar. Besides, God promises to pour out so much blessing on us that we won’t have enough room to contain it all (Mal.3:10).
Imagine with me all of God’s people returning a portion of their tax refund to their local church in an effort to see GOD DO THE IMPOSSIBLE! Imagine all of the lives that would be changed, imagine all of the churches that would be strengthened, imagine how much glory God would get! Imagine God pouring out HIS BLESSINGS UPON HIS CHURCH in proportion to the portion WE BRING BACK TO HIM!
So, this year, before you go out and spend your entire tax refund on televisions, cell phones, dvd’s, video games, couches, cars, and clothes – RETURN A PORTION OF YOUR REFUND TO GOD, as an act of TRUST AND OBEDIENCE! If you already tithe on the gross of your income, consider this a SACRIFICIAL OFFERING that you are giving above & beyond the tithe! My family tithes on the gross and gives a certain percentage above & beyond our income every single week, PLUS we love to return a portion of our tax refund every year as a sacrificial offering to Jesus & His Mission in the Church!
For more info on giving at The Dialogue Church visit www.theDC.tv/giving.
