Tithing and the promise of blessings!

Transcription

1 Tithing and the promise of blessings! Brendan Mc Crossan

2 Tithing and the promise of blessings! Brendan Mc Crossan

3 Tithing and the promise of blessings! Brendan Mc Crossan One This is something as a Christian I have tried to do and didn t do too well up until now; I tried giving a 10% of my income but got nothing back in return, so I stopped, thinking this does not work. Of course in my youthful days I was arrogant and instead of realizing that God wanted me to put something into his storehouse for his work I instead put in money so that I could get more money, it was like I was playing a lotto roulette. My hearts attitude was so wrong, I only wanted money from God; the blessing part was not really my goal. Now I have grown up in the spirit and I realize that God is wanting to bless me and you through our giving into his storehouse, so that there is enough there to be of help to others, it is not a giving and I will get better attitude I have now, it is a, I want to obey God mode I am in today. I have realized that obedience to God is more important than anything else in this world, it is the obedience part that imparts the blessing, and today I wish to receive the blessings, but not because I shoved money into some ministry, or something else. God wants food in his storeroom so that he may help others less fortunate and he wants to share that privilege with us as partakers of his heavenly blessing. When you consider that God calls us partakers in the heavenly calling, is awesome. Hebrews 3-1-King James Version (KJV) Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, That is an enormous blessing in itself to be called to share in the heavenly calling and to share with God your tithes so that he can distribute them as he sees the needs of his children, and you actually share in blessing others with God your father; God is calling you, his child to share in the blessing by the giving and receiving ministry, and this is a ministry, a ministry of tithing. Tithing so that God can use what financial help you give to give to others. God owns all the wealth in the world, no man or woman owns anything, it is on temporary loan till they die, no one can take it with them it returns to God who owns it. He doesn t need us to tithe to him he wants us to share in the blessing of others as partakers in the heavenly calling. Psalm 52-11, for all the animals in the fields and forest are mine! The cattle on a thousand hills! And all the birds upon the mountain! If I were hungry I would not mention it to you for all the world is mine, and everything in it. So you see not one thing belongs to anyone, what you have; either small or large, God gave it to you, so that you could be a blessing to others. He wants you to share with him so he can be a blessing to others through your generosity and all he asks for is one tenth, and in return he promises to bless you with many blessings. That s a fair swop Jesus even said a widow who gave a mite, {less than a cent or a penny} gave more than all the wealthy people, she gave with her heart all she had, and has been mentioned in the scriptures ever since, as a generous woman. She partook in the heavenly calling by giving all she had

4 left, you see it is not the size of how much you can afford, it is giving willingly that brings the blessings in return. Two Test me and see The amazing thing about this scripture is that God says to test him I would never dream of testing God in any shape form or fashion these days, but he challenges us to test him and so in obedience I am putting God to the test today. I have come to realize that God wants to bless us and even if he has to nearly force us into the blessings by saying, test me! I wish to obey his word. Malachi 3:10- Names of God Bible Bring one-tenth of your income into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way, says Yahweh Tsebaoth. See if I won t open the windows of heaven for you and flood you with blessings. This scripture is an amazing promise from God to those of us who have a heart for him, he only asks for one tenth of all we earn. I realized now that the promise is not saying I will give you money in return as I always imagined, but it is a promise of flooding us with blessings; blessings can cover everything we ever need and that includes money, but I would rather be blessed these days. Money is ok but it is not my goal any longer, God has always provided me with enough and when I didn t have any money he supernaturally seen to it that someone gave me the exact amount that I needed, and he always has that money sent out to you so that it arrives on time, even if it looks like there is no answer to your prayer. For an example of God s provision; Rose and I needed English pounds, as we had a bill to pay in two weeks time on a Friday, I was not working at the time and had very little money and certainly not enough to pay this coming bill. We sat down together and asked for God s help on a Monday, two weeks before the bill was due. The day before the bill was due there looked like there was going to be no answer from God; and all through the two weeks we were tempted to try and get a loan from someone but resisted. At eight o clock that night there was a knock on our door and I answered it and two dear friends were standing there, I was surprised to see them as they had never ever been to our home before, they lived far away, and I had helped them set up a prayer meeting in their home a few years ago. I invited them in and as we talked Jacqui turned to Rose and handed her an envelope just as I was going to the kitchen to make them a cup of tea. When I returned with the tea Rose was weeping, and I thought that they had told her bad news, but Rose was weeping because the envelope Jacqui handed Rose was a gift from the prayer meeting people in Jacqui and Johnny mc Ferns home, and it was the exact amount that we had prayed for two weeks earlier. In the two years I spent with these people never once did they ever take up a collection for me, I paid my own way up and down to their meeting. Johnny and Jacqui said they need to apologies for not coming with the money sooner as the group had taken up the collection on the night we had actually prayed for the lord s help, they said God

5 told them to take a collection up for us and Johnny and Jacqui had forgotten to bring it to us, until tonight when God reminded them about the gift. All that time the lord heard our prayer and the enemy tried to get us discouraged by saying we won t get an answer to our prayer and it looked that way until Johnny and Jacqui arrived, and even that night we had talked and said, no matter what even at this late hour we would believe that God would turn up with the money somehow or other and we truthfully never expected that he would use that little prayer group to give us our answer. Ever since then we learned the lesson, that when we pray God answers, immediately, then we wait until it arrives even at the latest hour; God never fails us. Now I know that seems to have nothing to do with tithing but it does; I tithed my time, petrol money, and effort into that little meeting and God did many a healing and miracle through them in the time I was there; it shows that even when we think he doesn t answer he does, so if he promised to pour out a blessing on us, those blessings will always come in his perfect timing. He is promising us blessings not money in response to our tithing as I used to believe that this scripture meant. And any blessing from God is awesome. And we can offer to God our time as tithes, or anything we have and own as our own which others can use to bless them. Isaiah 23:18- Names of God Bible Her profits and her earnings will be turned over to Yahweh for his holy purpose. It won t be stored or hoarded. Her merchandise will belong to those who live in the presence of Yahweh so that they will have plenty of food and expensive clothing. In Isaiah we see profits and earnings will be handed over to Yahweh; for his holy purposes; our earnings given to God as tithes are shared with other Children of God, and not hoarded up selfishly. God distributes his blessings to others who need them and returns the blessings to us, it is a continuous circle of blessing after blessing, going and coming and I want to be part of that circle of blessings. Did you notice the last few words in this scripture? It says, so that they {we} will have plenty of food and expensive clothing. Does this not let you know that poverty and hardship is not the will of God for his children; he wants us having plenty of food, and expensive, {not Primark} clothes. Now there is nothing wrong with Primark clothes I wear them myself, but I also have expensive clothes good brand names that I wear on special occasions. Three Old Testament tithing In the Old Testament God called tithing into being, asking for the tenth of everything that he gave to his people back as an offering to him, he always wanted to bless his people, and is doing this he allows us to share in his blessing others, God would not do something unless it had serious blessings accompanying it.

6 1 Genesis 14-9-New Living Translation (NLT) 9 Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing: Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has defeated your enemies for you. Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered. 21 the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give back my people who were captured. But you may keep for yourself all the goods you have recovered. This is the first record that I know of tithing and notice it was a tenth of the goods, they captured Leviticus-27:30-King-James-Version and all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD's: it is holy unto the LORD. It is not just money you can tithe see here it says you can tithe seed of the land, or the fruit of the tree, everything is the lords anyway, and he wants you sharing in the heavenly partaking. Tithing is not sowing a seed; tithing is giving from what you possess, from what is yours. I am a musician, a guitar player, and I took a few groups of people, and I taught them how to play with one purpose in mind only, that they would use their gift to serve the lord in the music ministry, and for many years they served faithfully, and some even taught others to play the guitar so they could serve in the music ministry. One lady I taught was over seventy five years old and she went on to become the music leader in the church during healing services and other services, she was such a blessing at her choice of anointed songs. This was a part of the tithes I gave to the lord and It was a delight to listen to them play, some even became better than me in their music gift. You can tithe a seed or a fruit God wants you being a partaker in his giving and receiving, he created you to share in the divine calling as partakers of the heavenly blessing; we are called to bless others. Farmers can share in the tithing by giving a sheep, chicken or any kind of animal, its not just money that you can give to God for his use. Leviticus-27:32-King-James-Version and concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD. So you see it is whatsoever passes under the rod; {Years ago a man stood with his rod raised above the heard or flock and as they passed through the gate, the tenth was touched and separated for the lord s use.} Remember God has no personal need for a cow or sheep or money and does not keep it stored away somewhere; it is for the blessing of others who belong to him. And an offering must be from the heart not reluctant, just because you should.

7 Four A heave offering! What s that? I never ever heard of a heave offering before until I read these scriptures, and I see it is important enough for God to include it in his word regarding tithing. King-James-Version-Numbers-18:27-29 Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof the LORD's heave offering to Aaron the priest. In this scripture God is saying when you receive a gift of a tithe offering, you should then offer back to God a tenth of that so that he can continue to bless others. In this scripture God says to give this heave offering to Aaron the priest, and I believe that the heave offering should be given also to the priest or minister or pastor whoever is feeding the sheep and looking after the flock as his own personal offering, not just for the church, just like God told them to do with the heave offering to be given to Aaron the priest. Numbers Amplified Bible (AMP) 26 Moreover, you shall say to the Levites, when you take from the Israelites the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present an offering from it to the Lord, even a tenth of the tithe [paid by the people]. {The Israelites gave tithes to their fellow Jews, the Levites, then it says, you should present a tenth of that tithes you received back to the lord, in a give and take situation of obedience.} 27 And what you lift out and keep [your heave offering] shall be credited to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor or as the fully ripe produce of the vine. 28 Likewise you shall also present an offering to the Lord of all your tithes which you receive from the Israelites; and therefore you shall give this heave offering [lifted out and kept] for the Lord to Aaron the priest. {The lord says to give his tithe offering to the priest, as a heave offering, from him to them; or in today s society the pastor, minister or priest, if he or she is serving God with all their heart, for their own use and not for the church he or she serves in, Your tithes are shared with the church; but the heave offering is given to the pastor or priest a tenth of those tithes for his own

8 personal use, for example to buy clothes or furniture or to even buy a TV if he or she so wishes, it is for their personal use not the churches 29 out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every offering due to the Lord, of all the best of it, even the hallowed part lifted out and held back out of it [for the Levites]. 30 Therefore you shall say to them, When you have lifted out and held back the best from it [and presented it to the Lord by giving it to yourselves, the Levites], then it shall be counted to [you] the Levites just as if it were the increase of the threshing floor or of the winepress. 31 And you may eat it in every place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your service in the Tent of Meeting. 32 And you shall be guilty of no sin by reason of it when you have lifted out and held back the best of it; neither shall you have polluted the holy things of the Israelites, neither shall you die [because of it]. Wow this is a sort of confusing scripture saying when you get from someone a tithe offering, you should immediately give a tithe to the lord to give to others, and we also should give the pastor or priest or minister a tenth of the share of the tithing done by the church, for his or her own use, because of his or her service to the tent meeting, or house of worship or church as today s worship places are usually in. Scripture tells us that when you have lifted out the best offering and presented it to the lord first, then you can enjoy the rest of the tithes and enjoy the best cuts of meat or whatever it is offered as tithes to the lord and it will be counted as a blessing for you. Tithes are important to the lord as I now see, it is his way of us sharing in the heavenly calling, to be a blessing to others through and with and in God. Obedience is the most important thing we need to be doing, and in return we will share in the blessings distributed through us to others and to ourselves. Amen