Tithes and Offerings (part II)

By Odon Bulamba (summary only)

Lev 27:30

The fruit mentioned here is the fruit of Spirit which is in Gal 5:22 which is also a part of the tithe. Someone asked a question about the tithe in the New Testament, I found something in the book of Luke 18:12, we can find that the Pharisees and Sadducees in the new testament knew about fasting and tithing. So why did they talk about it in the New Testament? It means that the foundation that God has laid can never be moved by people. People try to interpret things to change the meaning but God’s word will never change. Many people try to say we no longer live in the Old Testament but this is not true because God is the beginning and the end, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He said that everything can pass away but His Word will not. When the Pharisees asked Jesus questions they always referred to Moses’ law to show Jesus that what He was doing was different from law of Moses. Jesus wanted to show them that I am the Lord and I prefer spiritual things over physical things, but they couldn’t grasp that.

You must know that the tithe still exists today. Heb 7:5,8,9 those Levites who were working for God would get 10% from the other people. The Bible says that the Levites were men and they would die which is different from Melchizedek. We know that Melchizedek didn’t have a mother or father, He is the living God, He the one who met Abraham for the first time in Genesis. The God without generation, meaning that tithing also doesn’t have a generation, it means that it didn’t just belong to the generation that is past but it still carries on.

We are going to read the last point in Matt 23:19,23, in v23 Jesus was threatening the Pharisees. They would tithe and the Bible says that these tithes were like thyme and all the plants. I tried to analyse all those herbs and found that they are useful for cooking, they smell nice, they are attractive and just looking at the leaves we can see something of the old world, it means that when you come with your tithe before God it is something precious for God. When the world saw what they gave to God it pleased everybody but God wasn’t pleased with it because in everything they did they forgot the law. Although they were giving they didn’t care about God’s Word, they didn’t care about justice. Justice means to live with a good mind. They were also not kind and faithful.

When we tithe there must be those 3 things, justice, kindness and faithfulness. If you don’t live in justice and you offer God millions it doesn’t make sense. If you are not kind and you give money to God, God cannot see anything special in it. God cares more about the spiritual than the physical. However, I am not telling you not to give physically. That’s why Jesus said you give and that’s good but you lack something- justice, kindness and faithfulness.


Jesus said in v19 that they were blind. How do you understand that the offering has more worth than the altar because without the altar we cannot offer. It is the same thing with us Christians, without the spiritual foundation we cannot do anything that pleases God.

We must give 10% of everything that God has given us. So you can give 10% your voice because God gave you a voice. For example, from morning to night, do you give 10% to God when you sing, do you share the Word of God 10% of your time with others, when you think is 10% of it about God or not? When you sleep or have a rest do you have 10% of your spiritual rest in God? When you have physical peace do you have 10% of spiritual peace?

Often we say, “God I give my life to you completely” but do we really give 10% of our lives to God because if we cannot give 10%, how can we give our whole life? We might be found liars before God and that would be sin. We say before man that I have given my life to God but when others look at us, we don’t prove it.

One day has 24hrs, you have planned for your day, you sleep for 8 hrs, you study for 6 hrs, you go and visit your friends and so on. You have a whole plan, but during your 24hrs you must know that 2.4 hours don’t belong to you. Do you pray, sing and give glory to God during that time? If you don’t do it, you must know that you are stealing from God and you are a theif. There is no difference between you and someone who robs a bank.

Mal 3, “you steal my share” doesn’t only mean money, we steal many other things from God. For instance when you take care of your body, you wear make-up to go somewhere, but God is watching and He says I gave you this body, I gave you also the money to buy your cosmetics, so where is My share for the spiritual beauty? You will see that people forget completely about God’s share. When we eat and drink we must know where is God’s share because in the end God will say I was hungry but you didn’t give me any food to eat.

This issue of 10% will make many Christians not earn what they should have deserved, we will be found as thieves. Although they will say to God, no I haven’t stolen, God will call them thieves and they won’t inherit God’s kingdom.

When you eat you must know that some people don’t eat and you must know how you can help them and give them something to eat. They don’t ask you for 90% of your food but only 10%. Sometimes we have food that we can’t eat and sometimes we can even throw food away. How can we throw away food knowing that others suffer? This is the physical, what about the spiritual? We always share God’s Word here at church, we always eat God’s Word, but in everything you have learnt here, have you shared 10% with others? It means that we are sometimes selfish and if we are selfish we neglect and selfish people will not inherit the kingdom of God, that’s how important it is.

SUMMARY

- We have to give God 10% of everything He has given us (time, money, thoughts, our voices...)
- Tithes and Offerings is important for today
- We must have justice, kindness and faithfulness for our tithes to be acceptable to God
- God cares more about spiritual things than physical things
- Whatever spiritually your receive from God give 10% to others (share Word of God)
- If you don't give 10% you are stealing and thieves will not enter the Kingdom of God

For the full message please email: littlebethlehem@windowslive.com