Tithing and First Fruits (Prosperity Gospel in secret).

Tithing and First Fruits (Prosperity Gospel in secret).

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         Recently I heard a sermon concerning tithing and first fruits (He was supposed to preach about something else). And boy was the preacher compelling using biblical principles that were true, bringing in the sovereign character of God of who He is and how as a child of God we have all we need. Amazing. But it was outright prosperity gospel straight in the face. But this one is even more subtle and my heart was just so burdened for the listeners of that church. My only wished was that I wrote about this sooner when my mind was fresher. I did not think I needed to respond to that message but here I am. 

           If anyone from that particular church reads this. It is up to them to either humbly respond to this or just call me outright wrong. Here is how I will break it down. I will briefly unpack his points in one paragraph. Invite you to see how damaging such a message is and also counter with what is more important.

          Disclaimer. I say this with all my heart that I believe that particular preacher is still anointed by God to do His will. That preacher has experienced God. But my heart sank when someone asked me, “so Eddryll this preacher said I am to give this much. The 10% is this and what is my first fruits then? I am not sure whether I have enough to give”. When you hear his sermons you might think he is glorifying God and preaching Christ till you notice the glorifying God bit is only 20% of His message while the rest of 80% is all materialistic wealth. (Do note that I only heard one sermon of his. But goodness I did not know he was famous too. Famous how? I casually brought up the preacher’s name and people around tell me to be careful of him for all he talks is money.) So I can only speak in the context of his sermon with the specific congregation and my concern is for the hearers of such message.

The sermon

               He preaches and enforces principles from the Old Testament in a didactic way. (Alarm bells ringing) But let’s carry on. So he brings the idea of tithing and first fruits during Israel’s time and why they do it. Then he goes on to remind us that we are children of God, hence our finances are not of the world but from heaven. It is God that provides. (Still okay right?). He then says you are so afraid to give of course God will not trust you with more as you horde your cash. Draws from Chronicles and Jeremiah on how the people do not know the seasons and the blessings. So then he says we need to give our tithe, offering, and first fruits... then God will bless us. All for his glory of course. He emphasizes God does not need our money and we need to recognize that we live not just in the material world but the supernatural world. What we declare in heaven can be declared on earth. And then he goes on to share how God has supplanted him thousands and thousands of money. How God has just given cash when he just declared it. And how all the business men love to call him for such things. And most of his concluding points are that God can bless you with that amount as well. All because we tithe, give offering, and our first fruits. He then asks us all to stand and prays a prayer of blessing (financially) and receive it with faith.

           You start to notice his 20% theologically correct 80% all about blessings and material wealth. I want you to read the breakdown of the sermon again and see whether you felt iffy. Do not read what I have to say next. Just discern on your own whether there was something wrong. Keep in mind my response to the sermon is more of the concern and the heart of how the congregation would receive it.

Christ as means to gain blessing

         Let’s begin with the hardest to spot. The message that Christ is used as means to gain that financial blessing. And boy was he convincing. Lean on Christ. Trust Him. Your saviour is infinitely powerful. Pray. Spend time with God. Then He will bless you. “I did that and see how God blessed me” Not untrue. But the danger is this. I am reminded of the verse in Matthew 6:33 to “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and everything else will be added on to you” That beautiful verse can be easily twisted. That was his message. “If you seek God and His kingdom everything else will be added on to you like me”. But he emphasized not on God and his Kingdom but on the ‘everything else’. So now the congregation is thinking okay noted. I shall go “seek” His kingdom and “pray and lean” on Christ that He would bless me. Which brings us to our next point.

Christ is not enough

         That is essentially the hidden message one would never need to say but only express. The context of Matthew 6:33 was not to worry about the earthly things but seek His Kingdom. Because His kingdom is better. His presence is best. I do not seek God so that “everything else will be added” on to me. I seek God because He is the best there is and in doing so trusting that the rest will fall in place because God is good. The challenge was not always choosing between good and bad. That is easy. The challenge has always been choosing between good and godly.

           But where is the sufficiency of Christ? Where is the stories of Job’s suffering? That in everything that I do that Christ is enough. That Christ is preeminent. Nehemiah 8:10 says that the joy of the lord is my? Strengh. Psalms 16:11 talks about His presence having fullness of joy. Pleasures being in His right hand. Yet the message received was I do this and the Christ will bless. But what happens if Christ does not bless? (woooo heavy statement). This brings me to my most important and practical point.

What if God does not bless? What does it mean to be blessed?

          The word in Hebrew and Greek reveals that to be blessed is to be happy. What scared me most was the millions the preacher was sharing that he had received till the point that he cannot finish his money. And then he says we too can receive that blessing! WOOOAAAH! God uses you to be a blessing to others but that was not emphasized. My gripe was that he was saying all the right things but had to emphasize back on money. Which makes it all wrong in the end. When Colossians tells us to keep our eyes on the things above, the preacher told the congregation to place your eyes above so that you can get the things below. The preacher probably has the gift of wealth creation. Not many people have that.

Many people are struggling maybe not even with wealth creation but with gambling issues. With bad marriages. With spending issues. And now you tell them to tithe with the mindset to expect that the millions will come is just plain wrong. I tithe because I am giving God what is already His. I bless others with my finances even if I am not rich because I know it is God who provides. Not because I am expecting God to bless me. CORRECTION. I expect God to bless me regardless of whether I tithe or not because He is GOOD. But I tithe as the expression of that expectation. See the difference.

Besides, scriptures have already told us what it means to be blessed. Are you ready for this? Are you prepared? Matthew 5 says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs in the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. “Eddryll…wait…blessed are those who seek God and get their riches?” DEI, earthly riches are perishable. Money to me is a tool to establish His Kingdom on Earth. But sadly, we are living in this consumeristic society. Hear those who have ears to listen and eyes to see for 2 Timothy 4:3 says “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear” That day has clearly has arrived.

Truth about tithing, and first fruits

           Tithing was a Mosaic Law in which the Israelite people were to give a percentage of the crops they grew and the livestock they raised to the tabernacle/temple. (Keep in mind...Mosaic Law). First fruits can be referenced in Deuteronomy 26 when Israelites enter their promise land, whatever their frist harvest was they were to dedicate it to the Lord to acknowledge how God took them out of  Egypt, increased their number and brought them out from slavery into their promise land. I do not want to dwell so much on bible verses and what not. You go make your own reference lah. But there is a spiritual element to it to remember who God is. And by the way, if we are going to be strict about the Mosaic Laws, Israelites were to give technically more than a tenth. There were all sorts of tithe. But that is not the main point here lah. 

            But now in the New Testament Jesus says in Matthew 22:38-40 that loving God and thy neighbour is the only two greatest commandments that fulfill All the Law and the Prophets. Not only that, Jesus says in Matthew 5:17 that he came to fulfill that law that Mosaic Law.  Which means all has been fulfilled in Christ and now we live in this New testament period of grace and disciple making. Guess what... In Luke 14, Jesus says if the individual does not give up everything he owns, he cannot be my disciple. So you can see my issue of preachers asking you to tithe and give first fruits so that God will bless you. 

            Yes I tithe. Not because I am following the Mosaic Law. Just because it is easy to start with 10%. After all, God sees the heart and God seeks a cheerful giver. It is not about being calculative but rather with the same spiritual laws of recognizing God as your Jehovah Jireh you give out of that Joy that he has provided for you. And God has blessed me so much. (But the who concept of Law and Grace is another blog post for its own. The purpose of this blog is just to respond to that sermon)

Conclusion

I never thought there will be a day where I will be writing a response sermon. Honestly I hate it. I do not want to sound like the nit picky conservative bible bashing Christian but here I am doing this. I am standing firm on the Word of God for if anything deviates from the truth of the Gospel I must make a stand not because the Gospel needs defending. But because THESE ARE PEOPLE’S LIVES WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. I love His people and it breaks my heart to see them led into this pseudo teaching.

Any sermon that deviates away from the sufficiency, sovereignty, and salvation of Christ is in danger of heresy. I will humbly take in the critique if I am found wrong because I am all for truth. And I can only hope I have spoken the truth objectively and lovingly. I have nothing against the preacher. Rather he should have better contextualized his sermon for a church such as that.

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