Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
UNDERSTAND WHY AND HOW YOU SHOULD TITHE
About fifty years ago, I was pastoring a church in the oil fields of east Texas. One of the deacons of the church had a good job working for Humble Oil Company. And he was always faithful in his support of the church.
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One day he said to me, "Brother Hagin, can you explain something to me? I 've been a Christian for thirteen years, and I 've been faithful in paying my tithes and giving offerings." I knew that was true. He was a regular tither whose support really blessed the church. "What is it you want to know?" I asked.
He said, "Well, I don't know why I'm doing it. I've never heard any teaching or preaching about tithing. When I got saved, they told me I was supposed to do it, so I did. But I don't know of anything that's ever come of it in thirteen years. If I've ever gotten any blessing out of it, I don't know it."
I was amazed. Here was a good man who had been tithing strictly from the standpoint of slavish duty, and it hadn't worked for him. So I took a few minutes and told him a little bit of what I'm sharing with you in this chapter.
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Then I said to him, "The next time you get your tithe envelope out, say, 'Lord, I'm doing this by faith. I'm giving for the purpose of keeping this local church going, which is benefiting the Body of Christ by helping people. I'm helping spread the Gospel so that people can be saved. Thank You, God, for making it possible for me to be part of Your work. I am giving in faith and expectancy to be blessed according to Your Word.'"
"I'll sure give that a try," he said. And he did.
About thirty days later, he came back to me with a big grin on his face. "I've been doing what you said, Brother Hagin. Every week I've been praying when I get ready to pay my tithes. And boy," he declared, "it's really working. I can definitely tell a difference in my finances!"
Another time, in another east Texas church, a man came to me and said, "Brother Hagin, my wife and I have been paying tithes ever since we got saved, nearly twenty-five years. But we've never heard any teaching from the Bible about it. Many of our friends in the church are farmers. They borrow money to buy seed to plant, and when the cotton is ready, they hire people to pick it. How do they pay tithes?
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"I talked to one or two of the deacons," he said. "And they don't know much about it, either. They said they had thought about asking you to preach about it, but they didn't want you to think they were trying to tell you what to preach. So I wanted to see if you thought you would be talking about it anytime soon?"
I said to the man, "Brother Williams, I'm glad you brought this up. God has been dealing with me about this before you ever said anything. So I'm going to do it right away."
In those days, the biggest crowd we had at our church was on Sunday night. The building was usually full, and if the weather was good, sometimes there would be people standing outside. Because I wanted the most people possible to hear what the Bible says about tithing and giving, I took a Sunday night and spent about an hour on the subject, going into great detail.
I had always tried to preach a balanced message to the church. I had preached about salvation, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and the gifts of the Spirit. I had preached about healing, faith, and living a life of love and service to others. So the people knew I wasn't trying to cram something down their throats when I preached about finances; it was something they needed and wanted to know.
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After the service, many of the folks told me how glad they were that I had preached about tithing and giving—that I had helped them understand what the Bible said and the purpose for giving to God. I could tell they had taken it to heart.
Well, immediately the income of the church tripled! Without any special emphasis or pull, there was a generous response when we passed the offering plate. Even sinners started paying their tithes. There were two ladies in the church who were married to unsaved men. These two men would come to church with their families on Sunday night.
The very next day after I preached on tithing, one of these men stopped by the parsonage. "Brother Hagin," he said. "My wife and I talked about your sermon on the way home last night. We believe that God will bless us if we obey His Word. I just got off my first bales of cotton so I wanted to stop by and pay out tithes."
Well, those unsaved fellows kept on paying their tithes. And it wasn't long until both of them got saved and filled with the Spirit. Their families were blessed too. Later, one of the wives was called to preach, and the family went out on the field to minister. The last account I had of them, they were traveling about and evangelizing.
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In my more than sixty-five years of ministry, I've heard thousands of testimonies from people who have practiced God's biblical plan of returning a tenth of their income to Him through the local church. A great many of them, in the beginning, weren't sure how they could get by on the remaining ninety percent of their income when they had been barely making it beforehand. But somehow they did. Oh, it wasn't always easy. It required patience, determination, faith, and some time.
But if they persisted, the promised blessings came. Sometimes they noticed that God had "rebuked the devourer" in their lives—the car or the appliances didn't break down as often or the kids weren't sick as much, resulting in fewer medical bills. If they worked in construction or as farmers, bad weather didn't keep them off the job. Then many times, extra income would come from totally unexpected sources. Perhaps they would get a raise, some overtime hours, or maybe even a bonus! Others reported that they got an insurance settlement, collected on an old debt, or received an inheritance.
The bottom line was that when they paid their tithes, they had more financially and did better. And most people were also blessed spiritually with a closer walk with God, physically with better health, and mentally and emotionally with a greater sense of joy and well-being. The Bible says, "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it" (Prov. 10:22).
