Man God

Giving Their Best to God   by Ed Young

When we give it to God, what we are saying to God is, God, number one, I recognize that You Are over all of my life. You are the one in charge. And you are in charge of my finances and I can trust you to provide. I had something hilarious happen. I was lifting weights at this place where I work out, and there were a couple of high school guys there, who are involved at Fellowship Church and who work out with me. We always joke back and forth to each other.

his one guy walked up to me and said, “Ed, what are you talking about this weekend?”I said, “Jake, I am talking about giving. I’m talking about tithing.”He kind of looked at me funny. He said, “You are going to talk about tithing? Ed, I want to ask you a personal question. Do you mind?”I said, “No.”He said, “Do they Make You tithe? You are a pastor. Do they force you to tithe? Do you have to tithe?”I thought That Was a great question. You know what? I do have to tithe.

Ed: No, the Board of Directors does not make me tithe. But I do have to tithe. Lisa and I give at least ten percent to Fellowship Church. Sometimes it surprises people that we tithe and that our entire staff gives at least ten percent.They say, “Wait a minute. You are employees of the church and you tithe?”e have to. I want to take Malachi, Chapter 3, and just give you several reasons why I tithe. This is me.

Right up front, one of the reasons I tithe is that I want to be honest with God. Ed Young stated that I want to be transparent before him. Verse 8 says, “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings.”This was referring to the Israelites, because they were not giving their best to God. They were giving the leftovers, weak dying animals, not the first of their livestock, but the ones that were diseased. So God says, “You are robbing me.”

Another reason I tithe is because I want to be obedient to God. I want to do what God says. I talked about the fact that all of us matter to God, and we need to live within the guidelines and guardrails of Scripture. So, I want to be obedient to God. In verse 10, it says, “Bring the whole tithe.” We are going to talk about that word “bring” in a second. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.”
People ask me all the time, “Ed, how can I grow spiritually? How can I get involved?”

There are several ways to grow spiritually right up front. First of all, you have got to join a local church. The Bible is big about being hooked into the local church. Also, if you have not been baptized, you need to be baptized after you become a Christian. You need to have that time daily where you read the Bible. Also, and here we go, you need to start giving.

About the Author

We don’t change the message, but we should change the way we communicate it.” Creative Pastors and Ed Young are helping many communicate in fresh ways to reach fresh audiences.
For The True Man of God