To Be Responsible in Much...
Pastor Jerry Wilhite,
author
To be responsible in much first we must be responsible in the little things. I know most people consider that they are responsible in most things, but are we? Think about the one thing we are told to do or otherwise we are robbing from God. It is a little thing that is made big by others and our conception of it. Of course I am talking about the tithe. It is not an offering or donation; it is the tithe. It is not sowing it is the tithe, a form of control given by us to God in the physical to protect our income in the physical and our growth in the spiritual.
If you really want to grow in God and to know God then you would do what little He asks. If you do not you can not blame Him or faith, only yourself. He did not say give 90% and keep 10%. Actually He tests us and when we do tithe by giving the FULL 10% He sees to it that we earn the 100% plus the 10% needed to cover the 100%. So we are not keeping 90% but we are keeping the 100% and giving Him what is His.
Anyone who tithes correctly, to the right place, and for the right reason will receive the promises from God that are laid out in Malachi 3.
Malachi 3
8. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10. Bring ye all the 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.
11. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
God asks for so little and offers so much. So why are we not seeing more of the fruit of the tithe by others who tithe? The main reason is because most are not tithing completely. I have heard religions say start with 3% and work up. Then during that work up time the person sees no reason for it and stops before the 10%. That is because they are not protected until they tithe the FULL 10%. God did not say, "I will protect you while you are working up to it." He said that if you do not give the full 10% you are robbers of God.
Then there are those who tithe 10% of the net and not the gross and in that case they are only up to about 7-8% and not tithing at all. Another group that does tithe the gross still is 1-2% off from the tithe I will explain why later.
The last group who tithes the full 10% look at their gross and says I want to be sure and gives 12-15% of the gross and are actually only giving 10-13% but because they are doing this they are tithing. This is less than 1% of the total tithers worldwide. Since worldwide the total tithers are about 3%, they are less than 100th of one percent.
You might think, "But 10% is so much." Let's say you make $2500 a month and tithe 10% - $250. But after taxes, federal, state, etc…you only clear $2000. Shouldn't you pay only $200? No, because God deals in gross not net, meaning the FIRST FRUITS are His. What ever your income is, that is what you should tithe on and that is what He protects.
Let's say He did work the way you are thinking and you tithe $200 so He only protects 80% of your income not 100%. Do you really believe you are protected then?
Guess what - most who tithe do not tithe 100%; they miss anywhere from 1%-10% because of things they forget to consider as income before they tithe. I am talking about things that the employer pays for you. They are not his/her taxes but yours, this is about 8% plus another 2.5 to 5% for Medicare. If your employer is paying part of your health insurance you have to consider it as well. What ever you would have to pay if you were self-employed and your employer pays should be considered as part of your income before you calculate your tithe.
A person making $2500 a month needs to add at least 10% more for taxes and find out what the employers portion of health, dental, life insurance is and add them in before calculating the tithe.
For a total gross income of $2880 and a tithe of $288 a month now consider the difference from the $250; it is only $38. Would you really want a hole in your protection the size of 11.5% for just $38 a month? If we were talking about armor then there could be a hole in your chest the size of a football and an arrow could reach your heart and kill you. Do you think a knight of old would wear armor with a hole in it?
I know most do not mention this because in the first place most are afraid to even talk about the tithe. The enemy created this fear to keep us from God’s protection both in our physical income protection and our spiritual growth.
That's right, your spiritual growth is directly connected to your tithe. Read Matthew 13 where it all explained. It all starts with the tithe. Remember in Malachi 3:10 God says to "prove" Him in the tithe. Literally translated it means to "test" Him.
10.
|0935| Bring
|3605| all
|4643| the tithe
|0000| into
|1004| the house of
|0214| stored goods
|1961| so that may be
|2964| food
|1004| in My house.
|0974| And test Me
|4994| now
|2063| in this,
|0559| says
|3068| Yahweh of
|6635| armies,
|0000| if
|3808| not
|6605| I will open
|0000| for you
|0699| the windows of
|8064| the heavens
|7324| and pour out
|0000| for you
|1293| a blessing
|5704| until not {is}
|1767| sufficiency.
This is the place in the Bible where we are told to test God. In all actuality it is a test of our selves. It is our opportunity to show that we are faithful in the small things so we can be entrusted with the large.