A giver or stingy? (please read and share)

As a follower of Jesus, I believe we are commander to give a portion of what God has blessed us with back to God. Many scholars teach the stating point of this should be 10% and I think this is a good starting point. I heard a sermon yesterday by Johnny Hunt that really spoke to me and I wanted to share some statistics with you from that sermon. 

First let me a share a some scriptures with you about giving(tithing):

Genesis 14:19-20
19 And he blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor[a] of heaven and earth;
20 
and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Genesis 28:20-22
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

2 Chronicles 31:4-5
4 And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the Law of the Lord. 5 As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything.
Proverbs 3:9-10
9 
Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
10 
then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine.

Malachi 3:8-12
8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer[a] for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

Mark 12:41-44
41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.[a] 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Hebrews 7:1-2 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.

Luke 16:11
11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

The verses in Malachi have always spoken very loudly to me! Obviously we see God desires us to tithe or give a portion back to Him.

Have you ever heard someone say…”if God was good then how could he allow people to starve???” Well Johnny Hunt shared a good insight to this….God is good it is the stingy Christian who people are starving! Ouch! Harsh but true when we get down to the true numbers of things. 

As we seen in the verses of Mark 12 above, It does not take money to give money away; it takes faith to give money away. Think very carefully on the following statistics which are the latest we have right now:

Today the average believer gives 2.3% to charity. This is to all charity not just the church…like Red Cross, Cancer research, and the church.

In the Great Depression era the believer gave 3.3%!!!! What? Gave more when they had nothing!

Only 5% of believers give 10% or more. This says much about our faith in our God!

Giving is a heart issue, not a money issue! Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Now think about this: If the minimum giving of all church goers was 10% we would receive $165 billion additional money.

What could the church of God do with this?

$25 billion could relieve global hunger, starvation, and deaths from preventable diseases in 5 years!

$12 billion could eliminate illiteracy in 5 years!

$15 billion could solve the world’s water and sanitation issues, specifically at places in the world where 1 billion people live on less than a $1 a day! 

$1 billion could fully fund all overseas mission work!

$100-$110 billion would still be left over for additional ministry expansion.

These numbers blow my mind away! 

So let me ask you, if you claim to be a follower of Christ are you a giver by God’s standards or are you a stingy Christian? Remember everything we have is a blessing from God….are we sharing these blessings thus fulfilling Galatians 5:14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Tom