Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
"Bring ye all the tithe into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts" (Mal. 3:10-11).
These are the promises of God to His children who obey Him concerning tithes and offerings. But those promises are not made to those who bring God's tithes and offerings to just anywhere. The promises belong to those who not only bring God's tithes but also bring them to the place He has chosen. Notice, please, that God said in the beginning of the Scripture quoted above, "Bring ye all the tithe into the storehouse, that there might be food in MY house [that is, for MY servants]." The blessings that follow obedience to God concerning tithes and offerings are predicated on obedience to how God says to bring them, when God says to bring them, to whom God says to bring them, and where God says to bring them.
Within himself, no man knows how to serve God. We must all listen to Him if we hope to please Him. The whole world has always worshiped God, but only a small percentage of that worship has been acceptable to Him because (1) God is not a beggar and (2) only a small percentage of the world's worship has been offered to God according to His will. Paul said that his mission from God was to make the worship of the Gentiles acceptable to God, "being sanctified by the holy Ghost" (Rom. 15:16). Paul never had to persuade any Gentile anywhere that God should be worshiped. Everyone, everywhere, was already worshiping God, whether in Rome or on some remote island. Paul's challenge, then, was to persuade Gentiles everywhere of the right way to worship.
In the verse from Malachi above, God challenged His people to bring their tithes "to the storehouse". This was not just any storehouse; it was the storehouse that God had ordained to be built for the tithes and offerings that belonged to Him. It was the storehouse from which were fed the families of His priests. It was the storehouse controlled by the High Priest of Israel, not by the people who brought the tithes.
In both the New Testament, just as in the Old, once the children of God bring their tithes and offerings to God, they have completed their duty and have no more control over those things. As long as a man exercises control over the money he brings to God, he has not truly released it. This is the problem with tithes and offerings being given to a religious organization rather than being given directly to a man anointed of God. If a man brings his tithes and offerings to a religious organization of which he is a member, especially if he is an officer in that organization, how can he say that he has given it to God? If he brings his tithes and offerings to a religious organization of which he is a member, then hasn't he really given his tithes and offerings only to himself and his friends? In this New Testament, I can find no instance of God anointing an organization to receive His tithes and offerings.
There are many people, especially the very wealthy, who refuse to give any money to any religious organization over which they have no control or influence as to how that money is spent. In other words, they never really bring tithes and offerings to God at all because they never really release the money. It is never really out of their control, and if it is still under their control, then in fact, they still have it!
Child of God, when you have brought God's tithes and offerings to Him, you have done your part. You are free to rejoice with a clear conscience before the Lord. What happens with God's tithes and offerings beyond the point of your bringing it to His minister is no longer your responsibility. If you have brought it to the right place, if that minister is truly ordained by God to receive the tithes and offerings of His children, then it does not concern you how that man of God uses the money you bring. Besides, he has something to fear far more terrifying than your displeasure, should he ever misuse the money given to him by God's precious people.
It is critical that you bring God's tithes to a man who is truly anointed by God, not to a man who claims to be of Him but is not. This is your first responsibility, when it comes to bringing your money to God. God's tithes that are in your hand are important to the work of God on earth. It is your first responsibility, then, to make certain that you bring them to a man whom God has chosen. It is sin to bring God's tithes and offerings to the wrong person.
Where do you bring God's tithes and offerings that he has placed into your hands? To one of Christianity's clubs (denominations), where the people who give it control how it is spent? That is what most of God's children in this culture do, but in doing so, they are financing their own worst enemy. By using that money to hire men to teach them what that particular club thinks he should teach, they are hiring those men not to hear from God. They are paying for their own poison. In such cases, the tithes and offerings of the saints are used to support ministers who are not sent from God, who do not know the truth, and who teach what they teach because they have been hired to teach it. That is the way of Christianity; it is not the way of Jesus.
If you do not know a man who has truly been anointed by God to feed God's children holy manna that comes from heaven, then store your tithes and offerings in a safe place until you find one. It is better to store up God's money and wait on Him than it is to finance the enemy of your soul.
In the Old Testament, God's heart was grieved very many times when His children carried His tithes and offerings to priests of other gods. He was not grieved with them because He needed the money, but because they were sowing seeds for their own destruction by financing the enemies of their souls. Here is just a part of one of His heart-rending cries, this time through Ezekiel (16:16-19):
"And thou has taken thy fair jewels of my gold and my silver, which I had given thee, and made to thyself images of men . . . and took thy broidered garments and covered them, and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savor . . ."
Isaiah, who labored for the Lord through the reigns of several kings, saw both good and bad times for the servants of God. Through this great prophet, God pleaded with His people, whom He dearly loved, to explain to Him why they kept taking His tithes and offerings to other gods (Isa. 55:2-3). "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen to me, and [I will feed you with] that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come to me, and your soul shall live!"
God's children had been persuaded to hire the priests of Baal and of Astarte and of Molech, and priests of a hundred other gods, to teach them. Meanwhile God's servants, instead of being encouraged in the work of the Lord by the tithes and offerings of God's people, watched the servants of other gods prosper with goods that should have been theirs. Once in a while, a wise and godly king would arise in Israel and would protect God's children by enforcing God's judgments. When that happened, when the people were directed to bring God's tithes and offerings to the proper place, God's priests were encouraged in their work, the truth of the Law was zealously taught, and blessings from heaven were restored to the nation.
Young King Hezekiah's first order of business when he became king was to restore the knowledge of God's Law to the nation. He gathered God's priests and other servants together and spoke kindly to them, exhorting them to do the work for which they were anointed by God (2Chron. 28:1-11): "The Lord has chosen you", he said, "to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that ye should minister unto Him, and burn incense." That done, he commanded the people to come worship their God. They responded by bringing so many sacrifices to the temple that there weren't enough priests to offer them all. Their helpers, the Levites, had to fill in for them (2Chron. 29:32-36). Then Hezekiah issued an order that God's people should no longer take God's tithes and offerings to other gods but should bring them to God's servants instead (2Chron. 31:4). The people responded by bringing so much to the temple of God that special chambers had to be prepared just to store all the wealth that was brought. 2Chronicles 31:5 tells us that "as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of the increase of the field. And the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly."
Thus began a happy and blessed time in Israel's long and difficult history because there was a man on the throne who commanded the people of God to do it right.
When you learn that it is God's will to render to Him His tithes and His offerings, your next obligation is to find out where God wants you to bring them. If you bring them to a place or to a person not ordained of God to receive them, you are throwing God's money away, or worse yet, you are financing the enemies of God and His righteousness. It is your responsibility, and yours alone, to determine where to carry God's tithes and offerings, and it is an obligation that wise men take seriously. No wise man wants to waste his money.
The only place acceptable to God to bring His tithes and offerings is the place that He has chosen. It is, after all, His money. In the Old Covenant, He anointed the temple as the place to which His people should bring His tithes and offerings for His priests. In the New Testament writings, I have found no "place" anointed by God for any reason. This is important for us to know. In this New Covenant, God does not anoint places; He anoints only people. This must mean that those who walk in faith bring God's tithes and offerings to people, not to places. Moreover, there is no Scripture that indicates that God anoints institutions or religious sects for his service. That being the case, then it is sin to "donate" God's tithes and offerings to a religious institution instead of to a person, an anointed servant of God.