John K. Jenkins Sr - 9 Key Financial Principles Regarding Giving - Part 2

So, we are teaching on finances right now, and tonight is our evening of instruction. We’ve been teaching on Tuesday nights about non-key financial principles regarding giving. Part of what God wants us to do is to learn how to be givers. Thank you, Diane; I appreciate that very much. People get tight when you talk about money. They can’t even say " Amen» to that little basic point right there. But it is very important to understand that if you are in debt and struggling, you will not get out of debt by being stingy. Amen. That is not the way out. The way out is to learn how to be a giver. You reap what you sow. We’re going to see that in just a few moments. You cannot get a harvest if you don’t sow. We live in a culture that desires a harvest with minimal giving, but that is not God’s kingdom. In fact, the more entangled you are in debt, the more you should learn how to be a regular giver. We started giving you some principles, and I want to go ahead and rehearse some of those because I want to finish on time and give ample time for questions. Last time, we provided five principles, and we didn’t get a chance to finish all nine. Let me rehearse those real quick: give yourself to the Lord. In 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, the church in Macedonia gave beyond their ability. The scripture says they gave beyond what they should have been able to give, and they were able to do that because they first gave themselves to the Lord. Perhaps the reason many people can’t give is that they haven’t given themselves to the Lord. It’s essential to be a giver; you must first give your heart to God. They had given themselves to the Lord, and I love that passage of scripture that mentions they had given themselves to the Lord. So, it 's important that, number one, you give yourself to the Lord. Secondly, we talked about giving the first fruits. We discussed that a couple of Sundays ago: when you give to God, you give off the top. You don’t make God secondary or third; you don’t give to God after you’ve taken care of everybody else. You honor the Lord with the first fruits! Holler back and say «first fruits!» Say it again: «first fruits!» Everybody say «first fruits.» You give God the first fruits of all your increase — right off the top! Now, people ask me all the time, «Do I give off my tax return? Do I give the gross on that?» Yeah, you know-I should have known you saints over here in this corner would be able to determine that. So, if I’m going to answer that real quick: if you are tithing off of your gross-in other words, if you make $1,000 and they take 20% in taxes, leaving you with $800. Then they take your Credit Union charge and whatever other deductions, leaving you with $500. What should your tithe be? So, you got $500; you earned $ 1,000, which shows up on your paycheck after all those taxes: state, federal, Social Security, etc. If you 're tithing off your gross, it’s $100. Amen! If you’re tithing off the net, you’re tithing off of what you receive, but the scriptures say to honor the Lord with the first fruits of what? Turn to Proverbs 3:9. I don’t want you all to think I’m making this up. What does it say? Honor the Lord! Right there it is: honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of what? The word there is «all,» not a portion of your increase-"all» your increase. So, what you are supposed to do is tithe off the gross. If you’re tithing off the net, you’re stealing! Look down your row- there are several thieves on your row! Go ahead and look up and down: see if you can figure out who they are! It’s supposed to be serious! So, the answer to the question is: if you’ve been tithing off of your net, then when you get your tax return, you owe off of the tax return because you haven 't tithed off the whole amount. But if you’ve been tithing off your gross, as you should, when you get the tax return, you don’t need to tithe off it again because you’ve already tithed off of it. Can I get an amen right there from anybody? That 's how it rolls! By the way, if you’re getting-I think I said this last week; forgive me if I keep repeating myself: I’m getting old, and I can’t remember what I said and what I didn’t say-but if you’re getting large tax returns, that’s not a good thing. That 's right, because it means the government is taking more taxes from you than they should. They keep the money all year and then give it back to you with no interest, and then the state taxes you on that money!