Tithe Stewardship & Church Tithing

“The Lord said to Aaron: “You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.”

“And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.”

With their livelyhood at stake, pastors say that God requires us to give a tithe, but they ask burdens to be born that they themselves do not bear. The burden mentioned here isn’t talking about the specific law, because in the Matthew 23 the pharisees performed everything to the “t” in the law. So what is this contemporary burden I am writing about? It is that Pastors ask for faith beyond the wallets of their congregation, but there is not the same faith on the receving side. The argument is that the levites earned their living by the letter of the law, why can’t pastors do that? That question is answered in the statement, they which preach of the gospel should live by the gospel.

The preaching and living cycle begins with Israel giving and having faith in God as their increase. The ending of the cycle, is the Levites receiving, and practicing faith in God as their inheritance. This is why those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar. So, why are congregations required to give according to ceremonial law and rely on God for our increase but leaders receive according to the ceremonial law, but take an inheritance from among the children, contrary to ceremonial law. The levites test in faith wasn’t the worry of receiving food from israel, but their test in faith came from not receiving a land inheritance and portion among Israel. It’s the NT saints pictured as Royal Priest’s that havn’t received our eternal inheritance yet.

Here’s the challenge. Stop demanding tithe and offerings and tell the congregation “there is no required amount, but ask the spirit how much to give”. We’ll see which type of giving takes greater faith for both sides. I’d say the more faith we need, the more right it probably is. Because it’s the circumstance that pastors/congregation can least likely put his fingers on that God will bless the most. Interesting to see that the teachers receiving the tithe don’t have to exercise the same faith of others giving the tithe.

It’s also interesting to see that the missionary’s that do so much leg work, are the leaders most required to live on spirit led giving, but inside america’s home grown churches, the church staff demands a tithe.

13Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar?
14Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.

Some feel that, according to God’s direction, 10% should be portioned off to the local church
First, In the early NT all was taken from everyone and all was distributed to everyone. In other words, there is no mention of a ten percent portion going anywhere. Second, The local church is not the representation of the OT storehouse. OT pictures were earthly parables with everlasting meanings. for instance, the OT storehouse is the picture of our eternal storehouse, “lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth or rust comes or thieves can steal”. So why must we designate a tithe and offering to the local church? Yes we are to be stewards of 100% of it. So in teaching stewardship, why is 10% commanded to store in a false storehouse? You can put 10% into your local church if that’s where and what the Spirit is telling you to give. But I can guarantee America’s fat church complexes aren’t in that big of a need. I give what i feel is right to my local church, but i do not encourage thoughtless spending with something that wasn’t needed. To think about this logically, demanding a guaranteed church income is not the best way to have accountability in spending it. Just look at the government.

Teach an eagle to walk before he can fly and you’ll train a flightless bird. Instead, let the wind under his wings be the guide to carry him, not his legs. Build his nest high, and when it’s time to open up his wings, he will soar. He will learn to trust the wind. When you push them out of the nest, even you will be amazed to where the wind of the spirit takes them.

If we receive the gift of giving from the Holy Spirit, why can’t he guide the amount? But of course it’s natural that mankind puts his mark on things, subduing the Holy Spirit. Go ahead, tell them they have legs to walk with, and let the strength of their legs be their guide. It’s telling someone that 10% is a minimum. They’ll think 15% is an above and beyond mark, and in turn, the legs are trained to carry him the rest of his life. But teach them 100% and let the spirit guide them in their giving with the sky as the limit. With the wind as their force of energy, eagles can hover for longer periods than we can walk or run in our own strength anyway.

how can you tell the HS that the 10% level of giving is the launch pad for a particular christian. You or I don’t know what the minimum was in the OT, because specific amounts of offering were REQUIRED along with the tithe. In other words a tithe was just a portion of what was required to give back to God. The OT doesn’t teach 10% minimum, so where does it come from? 10% was just portioned off so it could be designated into different storehouses.

[sarcasm]Oh my, must we really let go of our security blanket and let the Holy Spirit handle the minimum amount? how dangerous can that be? Going completely against human reasoning, letting go can only be Spirit led. For some reason the comfy nests/security blankets in our life seem to be handled best by the Spirit. A security blanket can be anything. it can be a guaranteed salary, a house, children, job, etc. Now, in our hearts we think God’s Spirit can move those securities out from underneath us whenever he wants, but when he does we get all nervous, and flap our wings frantically wondering how we will ever survive. in this case “freewill” is a scary word for an accountant and pastor to hear about. I’m not saying pastors have or want complete control over giving, because you and i know they don’t, otherwise people would be giving more than they currently do. Many pastors have a good heart and they mean well by preaching their giving standards.

Standards might seem good to start out with, but their two causes are either for protection or the Holy Spirit isn’t in control of people’s lives like he should be. We know that giving a minimum of ten percent doesn’t protect us from being out of God’s will. So, the next logical answer is, God’s Spirit isn’t in control of people’s lives like he should be. So let’s change the message to a higher authority than the law, God’s very own spirit.

Take a test fly pull the nest out from under us. Don’t panic, and spread the wings and let the wind of the Holy Spirit guide.

Deuteronomy 16:10,17
And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.

The feast of weeks is the OT portrayal of the formation of the church. it lasted for a period of 50 days. In observance of the time Christ died and when the HS came upon the Disciples in the upper room and the church was formed.

and the NT corresponding verses almost seem that Paul is quoting OT scripture because it resembles the OT passage so much.

II Cor. 9:7
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

1 Corinthians 16
1Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.
2Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

Also, the NT doesn’t remove the exact portions of offerings either, so why don’t we practice these?

And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering

But if he be not able to bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he that sinned shall bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering

And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering

The scholars try their best and come up with a round figure with the exact amount of tithe(s) the israelites gave, so why don’t they try their best with offerings. it would be so much easier to figure out how much to give(sarcasm)

Live by the OT and your storehouse will be earthly. Live by the the NT and your storehouse will be eternal, where neither moths, nor rust, nor theives can break through or steal.

Most of the time when i am in discussions about obeying the Old covenant, i fail to emphasize that the newer covenant has an eternal calling. We only live by laws based on eternity, forever, always, no end. The OT covenant was temporary, earthly, for man-not eternal God that’s why the ritual’s of the OT had to be abolished. Sacrifice, grace, love, justice, and mercy are examples of eternal principles.

Many like to split up the OT laws into 3 categories: ritual, ceremonial, and moral. In actuality moral can be better interpreted.
ritual - ceremonial - eternal

Quotes in bible:
Eternal life
Eternal word
Eternal power
Eternal purpose
Eternal glory
Eternal salvation
Eternal redemption
Eternal Spirit
Eternal Inheritance
Eternal Fire
Eternal King
Everlasting Love
Everlasting consolation
Everlasting Covenant
Everlasting Gospel
Everlasting kingdom

Did Jesus abolish these? NO, these eternal laws are fulfilled as Christ said they would be, and our eternal souls live according to them.
Romans 14:17
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost

That’s what the NT is all about- living eternally

Because the eternal covenant took the OT laws place, the Levites were able to inherit land after the cross. The priestly inheritance is now the kingdom of heaven, including Jew or Gentile. There are many more showcases of events that elevate the eternal law. Eternal laws were in place before the first day of creation, and will stay after this creation is destroyed. So from an eternal perspective can we discuss what law we should obey? If we look at it that way, this higher knowledge of God’s eternal law may ask us to do some or all the Old Testament (OT) commandments, but also it could free us.

The OT ritual and ceremonial laws were the image of the Christ to come on man’s timeline. The OT & NT eternal laws (which will have never changed) are the image of God’s eternal character. Maybe think of it this way, the OT ritual and ceremonial laws are temporary parables- earthly traditions portraying an upcoming divine event. In the New Testament (NT) we don’t live by those timelined parables that point forward to the cross. Instead superior, eternal parables are kept and the temporary parables are taken out of place. Eternal laws are not earthly traditions otherwise God’s character would be changing. We are bound by a ritual and that is the Lord’s supper, which is eternal anyways, and this time it looks back at the cross, not forward.