Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Common Questions: (answers in sermon audio)
- What is tithing?
- How much should I give?
- Does LifeBridge just want my money?
- Does LifeBridge need my money?
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Giving is a deposit (v. 6-7) in an able God (v. 8-9) who will provide for you and glorify his name through it. (10-15)
Quotes:
“but the species alone has been changed, inasmuch as the offering is now made, not by slaves, but by freemen…And for this reason they (the Jews) had indeed the tithes of their goods consecrated to Him, but those who have received liberty set aside all their possessions for the Lord’s purposes, bestowing joyfully and freely not the less valuable portions of their property, since they have the hope of better things [hereafter]; as that poor widow acted who cast all her living into the treasury of God.”
Irenaeus 180 AD Against Heresies 4.18
“And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son…Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday,(1)and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given,(3) and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.”
Justin Martyr, THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN, CHAP. LXVII., WEEKLY WORSHIP OF THE CHRISTIANS (AD 150)
The research shows that 5% of adults qualify as having tithed—giving 10% or more of their annual income to a church or non-profit organizations. In 2009, before the financial crisis, tithing was 7%, then dipped to 4% in 2010 and 2011. (Note: Barna calculates this “tithing” rate based on total giving divided by household income, not by asking survey respondents to estimate percentages.) Among born again Christians, which includes both evangelicals and non-evangelicals, 12% tithed in 2012, which is on par with the average for the past decade.
30% of the members of the church carry 80% of the financial load of the average U.S. Church.