A short, funny video about how tithing can actually hurt rather than help.
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Senate Panel Probes 6 Top Televangelists
Well, it looks like the senate committee in the national government is getting more involved in the matters of the church. CBS news talks about this story here.
I have been saying for some time that this was going to happen. If the church doesn’t put itself above reproach then the government will find any reason they can to mettle in the matters and control the Church. Ministries and lifestyles of Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn, just give the government an excuse to investigate.
I am so frustrated at the opportunity that these ministries have given the government to mettle in the matters of God’s children. What do you expect the governmental world system to do? Sit around and let these obese ministries be swept under the rug? I don’t care if you have the Christian liberty to be rich. I don’t care that God has given you the freedom to prosper. I don’t care that your ministry is following the laws of the IRS. I don’t care! I don’t care! I don’t Care! Do you think God looks at these ministries and smiles just because they are staying within the bounds of the tax code?
The only people that can destroy the freedom of religion is religion itself. I’m sick of it! The investigation of these ministries are just the tip of the iceberg in the near future. The government will be more involved, and regulate the church more and more with laws in years to come. These ministries make me sick! Maybe not the ministries as much as the personal lifestyles of these evangelists. These ministries have no right to point a finger at the government and complain about their invasion privacy, because it’s actually the devil at work here destroying the governmental safety net that these ministries have. Also, part of the investigations is a warning from God, saying, “watch out, straighten up, because the government is only going to make it harder and harder for the church to practice their liberty”.
How can any non-profit ministry have the audacity to squeeze a few tax dollars out of the federal government, and then call themselves a charitable organization while sitting their fat butt on their obese estate. Wasn’t it Jesus who said in Luke 3:11, ““He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” But here are these evangelists not only do they have 5 or 6 luxury cars sitting in their enormous garage, but they are flying around in jets.
These ministries have given the government every reason to go in there and investigate. How dare these ministries just sit there with the nose up and lifting their clean hands, without being humiliated.
Children of God, why aren’t you humiliating these people? Why do you support them? You are destroying our liberty! If you gave your child an inch and you saw them stretch it out to a mile wouldn’t you enforce newer laws to limit their liberty? This is exactly what the government will do with the church.
Am I alone in my thoughts here?
Are Tithes A Blessing or Curse?
I watched a video sermon on tithing from Life Church. It was titled “Tithing the Tithe”. One of the statements that the preacher made on the video was, “Why do so many people give and not see results, not see return, not see the covenant promises of God? It’s either the wrong motive or the wrong method. It’s not because the word of God is not true.”
If you are the one tithing, and not seeing the blessings, how many times have you heard a pastor say that you do not have the blessings because your heart must not be right? it’s so frustrating to hear that, as someone trying as best as he can to give with a good heart. I know. I’ve been there. What if I told you that you are not receiving a blessing from giving because you are under the curse for tithing?
5 Reasons Why Tithes are a Curse
- Obeying the law has a curse upon it (Galatians 3:10)
- You are fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4-6)
- God doesn’t say anything about loving a dedicated giver (2 Corinthians 9:7)
- Tithing makes you a slave (Galatians 5:1)
- Tithing makes you weak (Romans 8:3)
Ok. you get it, Israel was punished and cursed for disobeying the law, but doesn’t the bible say that we are free from the curse of the law? Yes, it does. Galatians 3:14 states, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us”. Of course, this sounds like great news, and it is, but this actually comes with bad news for some out there.
If you read four verses earlier in Galatians 3:10 it states, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.“
For those of you who are continuing to practice the works of the law, including tithing, you are actually placing yourself back under the curse. Ouch! So, you practice tithing to protect yourself from the curse, but in actuality, you actually are bringing it upon yourself.
5 Reasons Why No Tithes are a Blessing
- You are under grace (Romans 6:14)
- God said He would supply all our needs without mentioning the tithe (Philippians 4:19)
- Our gifts are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God (Philippians 4:18)
- God Loves a Cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)
- The Spirit gives life (Romans 8:5-10)
If you don’t practice tithing, you are free from the curse, free from the law, and free from tithing. So many feel led to give to someone outside their church but are terrified to do so because of the fear of the curse. It’s not that they don’t like their church or disagree, but in their heart, they have the desire to fill a more urgent need. When people pass up the opportunity to give from their hearts, they invite doubt or event guilt in their hearts, which robs them of their blessing
You can take away the punishment for not tithing and you can make it appear as graceful as possible; but underneath the sheep costume, tithing is still the Big. Bad. Law.
Let’s read a passage in Galatians 3:10
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
Tithing is part of the Old law. So, if you are trying to obey tithing by giving 10% of your increase, then I would suggest that you either obey the whole law or do not follow the law of tithing. Before I go any further, I did not say “do not give sacrificially”. I said, do not follow the law of tithing.
Obeying the law of tithing puts a curse on your life. Could that be the reason why you are not receiving the blessing? I’m not into the prosperity gospel thing at all, but I do believe God blesses his people for obedience. Some of that blessing can be external in financial rewards, and some of that blessing can be internal peace and satisfaction. I like to say that people reap what they sow. If you reap generosity you’ll sow generosity. It doesn’t always mean that if you reap $100 bucks, you’ll sow $200.
It’s up to you to decide in your heart the truth about tithing. God did not intend for his church to be under the giving requirements of the law. He gave us his Spirit to tutor us and help us down the road of sacrificial giving. Don’t be fooled by those that say “tithing is under the grace age so now we should give it by grace instead of the compulsion of the law”. Run far away as you can from that line of thinking. As you can see, the early church is still not the only one that struggled with mingling the old law with the new. We are still trying to do it today and they are putting others and themselves under the curse.
Church Tithes Continue to Decrease
I read an article by Monday Morning Insight titled, “Church Tithes Continue to Decrease”. The evidence of this statement is based on the research done in the publication, “The State of Church Giving through 2004”, by Empty Tomb inc.
I know what you’re thinking. Probably something like this, “Why are people giving less and less to the Church?” That is a valid question, and I’m sure there are many answers to that. Can we actually narrow the behavioral habits of the saints down to one cause? I doubt it. But I want to twist that question for you and prove that you’ve been brainwashed. Why did you first come to the conclusion that the Congregation is giving less and less to the church? Ahh! That first thought ran through my head as well. But what if you read it this way. Your church continues to give less and less to others outside of its own walls. Hmmm, that’s an interesting way to say it. Yeah, Yeah, i know the church are the people and the people are the Church, but let’s not put the congregation on the stand today. Let’s put the organization itself on the stand.
Our churches are giving less and less to the poor, the needy, and the hungry than ever before. Let’s face it, your church organization is decreasing their tithe more and more by percentage each year. Yeah, it might be up this year from the past, but let’s look at the grand scale of decline. A chart will show that your church is spending more on its own wants than it is spending on the needs of others.
I did write a comment on the comment section of the Monday morning website, and I said this, “It’s no surprise that the congregation is withholding more and more for our own wants when our pastoral leaders teach them to do the same by withholding more and more for our church wants.” Let me explain that in relative terms. A church does need programs and buildings to operate. but when we compile these expensive programs and buildings together, most of the time it turns out to be a hefty price. A majority of the church staff’s creative ideas, called “programs”, will be anointed and considered as Spirit-led. But when I want to spend money on family vacations, a safe, nice secure home, a nice safe vehicle, good education for my children, all of a sudden it’s like the Spirit’s anointing on these important things are gone.
Why should the congregation give more from themselves when the church organization is keeping it for itself? This is not what God intended for his Church.
You can read the article from Monday Morning Insight here
You can read the publication from Empty Tomb here
Nooma Video: Rich
Here is a small excerpt from the video, “Rich” by Nooma. I was able to watch the whole thing. It is a really good video, and an eye opener. I’m impressed with the quality that Nooma video has produced these short films.
10 Myths About Church Building Projects
In my opinion, these are the top 10 myths that people use to promote the initiation of building projects in the church.
Myth #1. This building will be used to reach the next generation of young people
Buildings do not reach the next generation. People reach other people. The reason why you cannot neglect this truth is because the next generation rarely ever fills the pews of the previous generation. The next generation will have its own agenda to build, and I will guarantee it will differ from what the previous generation has visioned.
This reminds me of a story of a carpenter and his son. As the son was young, the father invested much time and money in training his son in the carpenter business. He bought lots of expensive tools and invested a lot into his business so that his son would have the best opportunities possible whenever he took over the business. But as the boy got older, he wanted to do something else besides being a carpenter. Of course, you can see that much of what the father had envisioned in his boy would not come to fruition.
Myth #2. Once we build this, more people will come
I think we get fooled by the old cliché that says, “If you build it, they will come”. As if it’s a magnet or something? More or less what I think the premise behind that statement is, “once we upgrade our facility I’ll be more proud to invite people to this church”. Another thing that I don’t understand is that our encounter with God is not show and tell.
Remember when Elijah met God in the mountains? There was a fire, an earthquake, and mighty wind, but God was found in the spectacular display. He was subtle and non-abrasive. God does not need a banner. What do we think? Don’t you think that the creation of heaven and earth is a good enough banner to advertise God?
Myth #3. This will help us reach our city
I understand that God gives us all things to use as tools to evangelize, but when you are “out there” reaching the city than that means you are not “inside” your building. in essence, it’s not even helping you reach the city that is “out there”. The city will not reach for you.
Of course, we are all familiar with the great commission, “Go out into all the world”. Need I say more? A church building is not mobile. It cannot get up and move, (not unless it’s on wheels) and start evangelizing and ministering to those in your city.
In conclusion of this point, how will your building and its facilities help you reach your city that cannot already be facilitated elsewhere?
Myth #4. This is God’s Storehouse
The storehouse in the Old Testament was the place where the Levites had stored what they had collected in tithes and offerings from the nation of Israel. Somehow in the New Testament, we’ve come up with a transferable analogy that the storehouse in the Old Testament is a picture of the church building in the New Testament. I have no clue where this idea stems from, because clearly, these people haven’t read the verse that talks about our eternal storehouse. “Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven”, is the proper view of what our storehouse is today.
We need to stop dignifying the perishable church building as a religious icon. The world doesn’t need another icon. It only needs Jesus.
Myth #5. God wants us to build his kingdom
This is for those of you who think that God meant building his infrastructure on earth. Of course most of us agree that we need to be multiplying the number of saints rather than building real estate here on earth.
Outside of that thought how much of the Church body today really understands the concept that God is not trying to build an empire the size of your city’s zip code? For example we can look at the Mormons. They practically have downtown Salt Lake City, Utah under control of their regime.
This is kind of a rabbit trail, but there’s one thing that bugs me about churches locking their doors. I’m not talking about leaving their doors open at night for thieves to steal, but I’m talking about the churches that have 10 entrances and they only open 1 of the doors so they have better crowd control or that they are lazy to open all of them. I guess what I’m trying to see if how many of you went to walk into your church and then pulled onto the door handle and found out it was locked. This is just my opinion but what kind of message is that? Really? On the Sunday morning that it happens to a visitor, I hope the pastor doesn’t read the verse that says, “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice”. Also in the back of my head, I’m curious to the churches that even have their doors open at all during the week. So all that time, the building is just sitting there literally wasting away.
Myth #6. Our renovated and upgraded sanctuary resembles the glory of God
– We act like we are recreating the holy of holies or the temple of Solomon! At one point I had the privilege of going to a church that had built a 96 million dollar facility. As a matter of fact, they paid cash for it! Let me tell you, it was something. It was beautiful! But once I walked out the doors on Sunday, what was it to me then? What was it to God then? God doesn’t sit up in heaven and just stare at all the beautiful churches, as if he were walking through a gallery admiring all the works of art.
Most people renovate their church out of peer pressure from so many complaints. I know of churches who have split over the color of the carpets or where the piano should go. What they’ve done is completely forget about their savior, who was born in some cave, placed in a feeding trough, and grew up a carpenter’s son.
Myth #7. We need to invest in more room to fit our congregation
-God is calling his church to disperse, not build our own civilization. A passage about the tower of babel in Genesis 10 says, “And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
Now in the 21st century mankind is back to our old ways. We get so comfortable and are so afraid to break up the chemistry. We think that we can’t possibly start a new church or disperse the people we do have. Because we are carnal thinkers, when we are uncomfortable, we come up with a natural way to fix it, instead of coming up the spiritual way.
Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not talking about that we all should be worshipping under the open sky whether or not it’s rain or shine. Many churches do not make the right decisions when it comes to investment. Just because you built your church building on some property that is appraised higher than what you bought it for, does not mean that God looks at it as an investment.
This reminds me of the story in Luke 12 which states,
“Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
‘So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.’”
Myth #8. The debt will be worth it
– There can be much said on this subject alone. The first thing that comes to mind is that our debts typically do not last for 10 to 15 years. Most of our church mortgage debts run for typically 30 years. This means that these debts will not only be paid by us, but also by our children. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to pay for my parent’s debt. I don’t care if they think the debt was for my benefit. I don’t want to pay it. Why should children have to pay for the debts on the decisions that their parents have made?
Let’s not forget about what will be neglected because we have to pour so much of our money into paying off this debt now. Who will go hungry, what ministries and missionaries will be sacrificed? Are we neglecting the one good to do different good?
What will you have to sacrifice from your family so that your church family will have? Are you leaving an investment for your children or are you considering this church building your investment for them? Eventually they will move away from that area, so then what? 2 Corinthians 12 states, “For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.”
If I knew the end of the world was going to be next week, I’d be racking up all of my credit cards and going into as far debt as possible. I would only do that because I knew next week it wouldn’t matter. But the Church isn’t doing this because they are getting ready for the rapture, tribulation, or the end of the world; they are doing it from the desire to pursue the American dream. This country is in unprecedented debt, and why should we preach against it when our church’s debt is maxed out?
Myth #9. Our growth will allow us to birth more programs and functions
– If only we had more, then we could do more for those who don’t have what we’re gonna have.
Although I can say more, I don’t think I should. That said it all there.
Myth #10. This is the will of God
– There are many churches out there that have fallen into the path of a pastor who has been misled. For most churches, all it takes is the pastors to get up one day and say that God is calling them to initiate a church building project, and from then on, all the energy, time, and resources is poured into the pastor’s vision. I understand the role of the pastor. They are to lead and to shepherd, but God still created him as part of the body. The pastor is not the head or the cornerstone, he is a co-dependant organ, just like the rest of the body parts.
There are so many people out there that claim the will of God and His power over their life, but the repercussions do not show the power of God. I agree that it is hard to discern the will of God, but no man can do it alone. The pastor must operate as one of many.
What happens many times in building projects is that the pastor gets everyone all pumped up and on board with this goal. Then all of a sudden when bills hit and the pastor is preaching his 10th sermon this season on giving, people now aren’t so on board with it all. You see what happens is that the pastor’s will was not the will of God. You do have some people that continue to stay on board, but the majority lose track of the excitement because they’ve realized that they’ve been pursuing the dreams and visions that a man, and not God, has placed on their hearts.
As a simple illustration, this is typically how this same scenario works out with a teacher who is motivating kids to go to the museum for a field trip. The teacher pumps the kids full of excitement about the awesome dinosaurs, and animals that are at the museum. But when the kids get there, they are bored out of their mind. They are not interested at all. Yes, the teacher told the truth about a few dinosaurs and animals, but to a kid who can’t touch or climb on it, it’s dumb.
You see, the teacher wanted to go to the museum, and then all he had to do was excite the children into going. There was no consensus made nor was there a proper perspective painted about the actual experience.
When I am facing some open doors for my family, it would be foolish for me to just excite my wife about the decision that I’ve made without actually consulting her first. When you are a body, you breathe as a body, you think as a body, and you open doors as a body. It is designed this way by God because he knows that 1 man(one body part) has difficulty discerning the decisions for the whole body.