Does God Expect Us to Give? Should We Tithe?

The Virtue of Giving

On Sunday evening, Pastor Devon Rossman led the worship service at Fellowship Reformed Church in Mt Pleasant, MI. And he continued our preaching series through the book of Malachi. In our text, Malachi confronted Israel, because they were not giving their tithe and contributions to the Lord as an expression of their worship. Pastor Rossman preached on Malachi 3:6-12:

“For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 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. I will rebuke the devourer 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. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.”

God’s Generosity, and Giving our Tithe and Contributions

The sermon addressed three points about giving from the text. First, we considered the gift of God’s patience, how God had been giving numerous expressions of patience to the Jews over their history together. Second, the sermon described the giving of God’s portion, and how God calls his people into worshipful giving (with the tithe being a helpful benchmark). This is important for the spiritual health of God’s people. And it’s the method God has chosen to provide for ministry workers who serve the Church, including local churches like our church in Mt Pleasant, MI. And then third, the sermon explained how we can trust God in our giving because of the guarantee God gives us of his provision. Though God doesn’t promise earthly riches, necessarily, we can trust that he will ultimately supply us with our eternal needs.