Where Does The Tithe Go? (Pt 3)

People who don’t tithe, generally don’t understand what tithing is meant to do or they have a problem with where the tithe goes. Perhaps you don’t tithe because; (1) You don’t believe that it goes to God, (2) You think that your hard earned money is going to the preacher and you know him personally, so you definitely aren’t willing to finance his lifestyle, (3) You’ve been told that it goes toward the upkeep and expenses of the church. But when you see no physical improvement to the building, you decide not to, or (4) You were led to believe that it went toward outreach but yet there’s no new members and nobody’s really receiving aid; so you keep your lil’ ole money.

Notice in Malachi 3:10 God says, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in My house.” The Hebraic definition for ‘meat’ is ‘to supply with food.’ Therefore, tithes were intended to go to those churches and/or ministries that are feeding the Word of God to His people; to those that are taking the time to warm up the bottle for the spiritual babies (the milk of the Word – I Cor 3:2) and prepare the steak for the spiritually mature (the meat of the Word) so that all can understand and grow. (Heb 6: 1-12) The gospel is free but ministry costs which means, your tithe should go toward the expenses of that church and/or ministry that's feeding you spiritually.

The problem is that you don’t believe you’re responsible for the expenses of your church. Some kind of way, the utilities, maintenance, mortgage, insurance, musicians, and Pastor should get paid – but not by you! God should be able to mysteriously pay all the expenses of the church – I mean He’s God! And you know what? You’re absolutely right! God is able to pay those expenses but guess how He does it? He uses your tithe!

When you go to a food supplier such as Walmart to get your natural food, you don’t tell the cashier, ‘Now before I give you this money for these groceries, tell me exactly where the Walton’s (owners of Walmart) are spending my money? Cause you know what? I don’t think it’s my responsibility that my grocery money should go toward paying your salary and buying other food for this store!’ No! You don’t do that with your natural food, so why do you have that same attitude about your spiritual food?

Pray this with me…Heavenly Father, where I am, I just don’t want to tithe. I don’t know where its going and I can’t see the benefit of doing it; so Lord, I’m asking You to let me know where I should send my tithes. Please reveal where I can be fed spiritually and I’ll bring you my whole 10%. In Jesus’ name. Copyright © 2013 Real Issues Ministries®. All rights reserved.