What is the difference between the tithe and an offering? Ashley and Carlie unpack the different kinds of giving and how important it is to understand when, why, and how to give finances.
Transcription
Announcer: Why live a normal life when you could be living the abundant life? Welcome to the Abundant Life program with Ashley and Carlie Terradez.
Ashley: Hello, and welcome to abundant life. We’re so glad you’ve joined us today. My name is Ashley Terradez and this is my wife, Carlie, and we’re in the middle of a series. We’re talking about how to attack lack in your life. How to attack lack, especially in the area of finances. How to attack lack and how to attack a shortcoming in your finances. So, wherever you are financially, however much money you have got, haven’t got, or maybe how much debt you’re in, that’s not so much the issue. What we’re looking at is how to attack lack in any area in your finances. So, maybe it’s, it could be from one extreme to the other. It could be, haven’t got enough money to buy food.
When we started out, I was a youth pastor and when we first got married we didn’t have any money. I tell people we didn’t have enough money to pay attention.
Carlie: That’s about right.
Ashley: And we’d go to the store and sometimes you wouldn’t have enough money to buy the food you wanted. One time it was coffee or cereal. That was it. I only had enough money for coffee or cereal, not both. And I was like, “Am I going to be tired and hungry or hungry and tired?” So, maybe it’s that much lack, or maybe it’s that you want to do something for the Lord. You want to give, or you want to partner with someone, or you want to support more children or missionaries and you can’t. That’s lack as well.
Carlie: I think everyone could use abundance for something.
Ashley: Amen. Second, some of the verses we’ve been looking at in previous programs, 2 Corinthians 9:8. 2 Corinthians 9:8 says that God is able to give us all grace bound towards us that we have in all sufficiency, meaning that our own needs are met. All our own needs are met. We’ll have an abundance for every good work. And that’s ultimately where we want to be. That’s our goal, if you like. That’s where we should be because we should be believing having an abundance for every good work.
So, not just our own needs met, but have an abundance, have extra, to be able to give away and help more people and, praise God, extend the kingdom of God. 2 Corinthians 8:9 is another verse we looked at. 2 Corinthians 8:9 talking about how Jesus, though he was rich, he became poor for our sakes that us, through his poverty, might become rich. So, what that’s saying there is it’s part of the gospel. It’s the exchange. Jesus became sin on the cross, 2 Corinthians 5:21, so that we could receive his righteousness. He took our sin, we get his righteousness.
Carlie: That’s a great deal.
Ashley: It’s a great deal. He took on our sickness and disease and we get his healing and health. And in the same way, he took on our poverty and lack, and now we take his prosperity. We get to receive his prosperity and his abundance and his provision. Now the thing is, that’s already done in the Spirit. So if you’re born again, it’s a done deal. Praise God, you already have it in the Spirit. The question is are you seeing it manifest in your day-to-day life?
And we’re not saying we’ve arrived by any means. We say we’ve left. We’ve just about left but we haven’t arrived. But we’re debt-free, we’re able to make these programs, run our ministry. Both of us full-time run our ministry of very, very little, we’re taking very little from our ministry in expenses. Otherwise, everything’s going back into the ministry because, personally, we’re 100% debt free. We’ve paid our house off. We’ve done all that. And, more importantly than that, we’re able to give and we’re able to give considerable amounts if you like, because we were able to give away cars and build houses in third world nations and things like that.
I’m only saying that because we’re talking about finances and we’re talking about giving. So, that’s some of the things we talked about in previous programs. We also talked about, there’s some things we can do to see these promises come about in the natural. So, even though they’re done in the spirit realm, sometimes you don’t see them in the natural. A bit like healing. In the Spirit you’re already healed. 100%, it’s done.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: But sometimes we don’t see it manifest in the natural.
Carlie: And I think those challenges… It’s not like… You said we’ve left but we haven’t arrived. I don’t know that anyone actually arrives. I think this is a constant journey.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: It seems like when I look back at our life, at one point we were believing God for food and praise God, that was a season that we have passed now. Amen? But God is always challenging us. Circumstances challenge us too, to believe Him for bigger things. As He puts a new vision in our hearts and gives us new opportunity as circumstances change, there’s always something that will stretch us to take us to the next level. And I remember when we first started just tithing, that was a huge act of faith for us to regularly give into the offering at church. To regularly pay a tithe. That was a big stretch for us when it felt like we were struggling to buy diapers for our three little kids.
Ashley: If you’re from England, if you’re watching in England…
Carlie: Nappies.
Ashley: Nappies. We can translate diapers in America, nappies in England. Carry on.
Carlie: But now, what we give on a regular basis, whether that’s tithe, or above and beyond that in offerings, that’s way more than we used to earn.
Ashley: Oh, far more.
Carlie: Far more.
Ashley: We would have to have earned what we give now.
Carlie: And it’s almost on a consistent basis, actually, year after year, I think, the Lord stretches us a little bit further to give a little bit more. And it’s not because He’s in lack. He’s got some bigger bills coming in that he needs to pay, right? Heaven’s an expensive place and he’s got to pay the electric or something.
Ashley: God doesn’t need our money.
Carlie: He doesn’t need our money, but it’s almost like it’s a journey of faith and that act of giving, I know it’s true for us, anyway, and I’m sure for many people, but that’s a constant stretching of our faith to trust God with a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more. And as we do that, as we step into that, it’s like, “Wow, God, you’re so good” and it just makes life exciting.
Ashley: Yeah. Amen. Well, God’s the biggest giver. I mean, we covered this previously, but God is the biggest giver. He invented giving. He’s generous by nature. He’s love, He is good, and he’s generous, and he doesn’t operate outside of that. So, if he’s asking you to give it’s because he’s trying to get more to you. He’s trying to get something better to you and we’ve covered, well, I don’t to go back over all that, but there’s so many parts to this, that giving is so key to prospering, into attacking lack in your life.
Carlie: It’s good for us.
Ashley: Amen, it is really good for us. Yeah, Paul puts it this way in Philippians 4:17. Philippians 4:17, Paul says, “Not that I seek the gift.” He’s talking about offerings. He’s talking about money and about offerings in that context. And he said, “Not that I seek the gift by I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.” And really, giving, is more to do with the giver than the receiver. Jesus put it this way in Acts 20:35. Acts 20:35, Jesus said, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive,” and the blessing is greater on the giver than the receiver, if you like.
Carlie: It is. I mean, just think about Christmas, right? When you buy a gift for a family member and you wrap it up and you put it under the tree and you know that they’re going to love that gift. And it’s like, there’s an excitement on Christmas morning because it’s like, you can’t wait for them to open that gift.
Ashley: Oh right.
Carlie: And it’s like you’re more excited about it than they are.
Ashley: And now we got teenage kids, now it’s actually… Sometimes me and Carly wake up before them at Christmas morning…
Carlie: Yeah, we have to wake them up.
Ashley: And say, “Come on. Wake up. We want you to open your presents.” Whereas, in the past, when they were little, they used to wake us up at 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning. “It’s Christmas time. It’s Christmas time.” But now, we’re more excited than the kids are about the presents.
But it is, you know what it’s like, if you’re giving something to someone and you’ve taken some time over that and you thought about it, you’re excited about giving that to them. And, in some ways, that’s like us with God. When we give to God, He loves it when we give to Him and He loves a cheerful giver. We looked at that in different types of giving. So, we looked at some of the things, what we’re talking about, is some of the things that can help appropriate what’s already been done in the Spirit.
So, we’ve already looked at the work of your hand, by putting your hand to something. We’ve already looked at your stewardship, how you can steward what you already have and be faithful with what you already have and not just consuming all the money that comes in to you. And now, we’re in the middle of giving, we’re talking about giving. And the part of this that it takes faith to give, like Carlie said. Giving is so important. In fact, it’s key to prospering God’s way. It’s key to attacking lack. If you have lack in your life, then you need to look at your giving and what’s going on in your giving. And you might say, this is the first program you’ve watched, you might say, “Ashley, that doesn’t make sense. You’re saying that if I have lack financially I’m going to give some away. That doesn’t make logical sense.”
Well, in the kingdom of God, most things don’t make logical sense. They don’t fit our natural way of thinking because our natural way of thinking is flawed now. It’s part of the world system and when you got born again, you changed address. You no longer live in the world, you’re just on loan to the earth. Now you’re seated in heavenly places. Now, you’re one spirit with the Lord. Now you’re ambassadors for Christ. So really, your spirit is now part of the kingdom of God and you have to get with how the kingdom of God operates. And the kingdom of God operates different from the world.
Some examples we gave. You want to be first? The kingdom of God says be last. You want to be the greatest leader? Be the greatest servant. Someone wrongs you, forgive them. You have an enemy, love them. You need more money? Give some away. So you see how it works? It takes faith to do these things. That’s why we walk by faith and not by sight.
So, we’re talking about giving here and the different types of giving. So, today we’re looking at some of the different types of giving and let me tell you, all giving takes faith.
Carlie: Yep.
Ashley: It takes faith to give. If you’re a giver then you know it takes faith to give. And we’re especially looking at tithing today. And I know tithing can be controversial. I have a lot of people attacking me and coming… “Ashley, you teach on tithing and we don’t believe in tithing.” I’ve yet to meet, and I’m just being real. I’ve yet to meet a prosperous Christian who is against tithing. Haven’t met him yet. The people that are against tithing seem to always be struggling themselves, financially, and it’s like everyone who comes to me and says, “I’m telling you, tithing’s not for today.” I ask them and they’re nearly always struggling.
Carlie: You got to look at the fruit.
Ashley: Yeah.
Carlie: Right? And when people are coming out strongly against something that they find in the word of God, usually it’s because they feel like, “Well, we’re under grace now. Don’t put us under the law. Tithing is part of the law, right?” The Bible is all good. The whole thing is good for us. The whole thing is for our benefit and now you’re going to go through the scriptures and prove how tithing is still applicable to us. But like Ashley’s saying, the people that we meet that are against tithing because they think it’s part of the law. Everybody we know, literally, that has come out strongly against that, they’re struggling for money. They’re struggling in that area and I’m like, “Well, the fruit of what you believe is not working in your life.” That should be indication enough that you’ve got something off base there.
Ashley: I’ve been tithing for 25 years. We’ve tithed together, as a married couple, for 20 years, for our whole marriage, and it’s too late. You can’t convince us otherwise, I guess, because it’s worked for us. It has worked for us. And you say tithing is part of the law. Well yeah, it was part of the law, but it was also before the law. So, we’re going to look at some scriptures. Here’s two examples of where tithing was before the law and I’m I’m pretty simple about things. It’s like, murder, okay, was wrong before the law.
Carlie: And it’s still wrong now.
Ashley: It was part of the law and there was actually a punishment for that in the law if you murdered. But it’s still wrong, now we’re not under the law. I agree. We’re not under the law anymore, but it’s still wrong. Tithing was good before the law. There was principals saying, we will show you some examples here of where people tithed before the law. Then it became part of the law and when it was part of the law, there was actually a curse associated with it. So, if you didn’t tithe, there was a curse associated. Now, that curse has gone. Galatians 3:13, Jesus redeemed us from all the curse of the laws so we don’t have to worry about the curse anymore. But tithing is still good after the law because all the benefits of tithing still are there. So, we can get all the benefits of tithing without having to worry about any of the curses. So, it’s a great deal.
Carlie: Amen. You can have all of the benefits of tithing without the side effects.
Ashley: It’s a great deal. Praise God. So, let’s look at some scriptures here. Have you got the one about Melchizedek?
Carlie: This is in Genesis 14:18-20, Abraham and Melchizedek. And it says, “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: ‘Blessed be Abraham of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.’ And he gave him a tithe of all.” Now, it’s interesting because that word tithe in the original Hebrew text actually means a tenth.
Ashley: Tithe means tenth. [crosstalk]
Carlie: The word tithe means a tenth.
Ashley: I saw a church marquee once, a billboard, that says, “At this church, we tithe at 5%.”
Carlie: What?
Ashley: I think it’s a joke.
Carlie: Oh, okay.
Ashley: They’re basically saying like, “If you come to our church…”
Carlie: Some of those church signs are funny.
Ashley: “If you come to our church you only have to give 5%,” I think, is the idea
Carlie: So, they’re using it like a marketing plan to get people into church.
Ashley: “Don’t go to church down the road. They charge you 10%. We only charge 5%.” That was a joke, that was a joke.
Carlie: Wow. We get a better interest rate.
Ashley: But anyway, so that word tithe meant 10%. And here, Abraham gave Melchizedek 10%, even though Melchizedek said, “You don’t have to give me anything.” Talk about coming in from nowhere, Melchizedek. We know he’s a type of Christ. When we look back, he was a king and a priest. We haven’t got time to go into the whole teaching, the story of that, but Melchizedek, when he turned up, he didn’t ask Abraham for anything but Abraham chose to give to him 10%. He chose to give to him 10%. And then the blessing was on Abraham for doing that.
The other example here is of tithing in the… We’re talking about tithing before the law, where tithing was established before the law was even established. This is in Genesis 28:20. So, in Genesis 28:20, let me turn there real quick. Genesis… I guess I don’t turn anymore. You click [crosstalk].
Carlie: Well, I’m turning.
Ashley: You turn, I just click. 28:20. “Then Jacob made a vow.” So, this is Jacob, completely separate incident before the law. And again, haven’t got time to go into Jacob, but Jacob was a great person to study out. I mean, he sowed in a year of famine and reaped a hundred fold return. I mean, Jacob was a prosperous person. And right here it says, “Jacob made a vow.” In verse 20. This is Genesis 28:20 says, “Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I’m going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set a pillar shall be God’s house, and all of which that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to You.”
Again, before the law. This is before the law was established, Jacob made a vow here to God and said, “All what you give me Lord, I’m going to give a tenth back to You.” Now, how many of you know, everything we have is God’s? The whole earth and the fullness thereof is all God’s. Everything you have is God’s. I know some people say, “I’m a self-made man. I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps. I made my own money.” You didn’t do any of that. God is the one who gave you breath. God’s the one who gave you life. God gave you skills, abilities. He gave you energy.
So, I’m sure you’d agree with me, hopefully agree with me as a Christian, that everything you have is God’s. It’s all God. It all belongs to God. Your body, even your body, He purchased you. So, everything is God’s, ultimately, and Jacob’s saying, “Hey, you know what God? Everything you give me, I’m going to give you a tenth. I’m going to give a tenth back to You.”
Carlie: He was showing honor.
Ashley: He was showing honor. He was saying, “I’m going to give you a tenth back to you.” It was a part of worship. It was a part of honor. It was a part of respect and loving someone to give that back.
Carlie: So, they did this because they wanted to,
Ashley: It was their choice. They wanted to. But it was established. And there’s just two examples in the Old Testament. We also know of other places where there was gifts given. There was definitely established… What’s the word? Principle, in the Old Testament, before the law, that people would give back.
And these two incidents actually say a tenth, actually say a tithe, but there’s other instances that could have been 10%. It just wasn’t noted down as 10%.
Carlie: Right. It could have been more.
Ashley: But basically it was established that you give back and you give a portion back. And that was established before the law. All the way from Cain and Abel, that was established that you give back. So, tithing was actually established before the law. Two instances right there with Abraham, with Jacob, where tithing was before the law. Then of course, tithing become part of the law and that’s why I believe it’s still good after the law.
And if you say, “Well, now we’re under a different covenant.” I agree with that. But really, if you want to go that route, then really we should be given much more than a tithe. In fact, it’s tithes and offerings, the law talked about tithes and offerings, and we’re going to go there in a minute and look at that. But, if you think 10% isn’t right anymore then you should be given a lot more than 10%. I mean, you should be giving a third… I heard one person work it out. It should be more like 33%. A third of everything that comes in.
But, I think tithing, for me personally, one of the things about tithing is I believe God set it up because it’s good for us. It’s good for our own heart. It shows that we’re trusting God in our finances. Like I said, it takes faith to tithe. Let me tell you, when you write those tithe checks, it takes faith. It’s an equal playing field. God set out… Can you imagine if God said, “You know what? I want whatever. $10,000 from each person a year.
Carlie: A flat tax.
Ashley: A flat tax. Imagine if God wanted that. For some people that’d be the end of the world. They will never be able to get that amount of money. And for some people it’d be easy because it’d be a tiny fraction. Now, God set it up that it’s equal for everyone. If you make $100, you give $10. If you make a $1 million, you give $100,000. It’s the same amount in proportion for everyone.
So really, it’s the fairest system and I think it’s really good for our own hearts. This is what it does for me. It’s good for my own heart because I, now I know, you know what? It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to have to pray about it, think about it. When the money comes in, 10% I automatically give back to God. And I’m not doing it as an obligation like I have to give it back and begrudgingly. I’m doing it cheerfully because I know, you know what? The other 90% is also God’s and he’s going to increase us. And actually, like I said before, it doesn’t make logical sense, but your 90%, or however much you keep back, is going to be much more than the 100% if you’d kept the tithe. So, there’s a supernatural, there’s a spiritual principle to this that when you trust God with your finances and you make this commitment to tithe, it changes everything else in your finances.
And I’ve had people come to me several times. I’m just thinking of a young man who came to me just a few months ago and he actually stopped tithing and his business started to go downhill and everything else. And then he started tithing again, it all started picking up again and he came to me, he said, “Is that coincidence, actually? Do think that’s a coincidence?” I said, What do you think?” And he said, “No, I don’t think it is.” And he said to me, “But I don’t understand it. Why would that make a difference?” And I said, “I don’t really understand it, but it does.”
Carlie: Well, just my simple level. God’s relational, right? And I think when we give and when we’re tithing, like you’re saying, it’s an act of faith, but it’s connecting our hearts to God. God is not distant, but we get busy, right? And I think you mentioned this, maybe in one of our previous episodes, how our heart is connected, our treasure and our heart are connected.
Ashley: Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.
Carlie: Exactly. And so, when we’re giving on a consistent basis, it’s a connection point from our heart to God.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: God is never distant from us, but sometimes we get busy and we get distracted. But that giving, that’s hitting us in our finances. That’s hitting us in the reality, the cold hard light of day, when we’re giving something of our own, of what it seems like our own resources, our hard earned money to the things of the kingdom. It’s a heart connection. And I don’t think it needs to be more complicated than that.
When we love somebody, as a demonstration of that love, we want to give them stuff. We’re raising three kids and it’s so exciting… I remember, it wasn’t too long ago, our oldest son, he had been wanting a little game console for ages, right? And he really, he’s not a wanton child. Well, he’s not really a child anymore, he’s almost 18. But he doesn’t really ask for very much. He’s a really easy keeper of a child. And so, we don’t usually, as parents, we don’t go crazy on birthdays and Christmases, particularly.
Ashley: Again, that’s all relative.
Carlie: That’s all relative.
Ashley: Yeah, we don’t spend a bunch of… I know some people like to spend lots of money. We usually buy one or two presents for them.
Carlie: Yeah, we didn’t go wild. But this time was different. We just felt like we really wanted to bless him.
Ashley: And this thing that he wanted, funny enough, was out of stock. It was it one of these things that had just gone out of stock for months. And they’ll go in for four times the price on eBay and all that. And it was like, we wanted to get him one. So anyway, I found him one. I tracked one down. I found him one. I had to drive an hour to get it [crosstalk].
Carlie: And he hadn’t even asked for this thing at all because he…
Ashley: He didn’t think he’d be able to get one because it was too much money and they were out of stock. So anyway, we got him one and he was very pleased with it.
Carlie: And he was and it was like, we just did that because we love him. Just because it’s an act of love. And I think sometimes people look at tithing like it’s this legalistic thing that’s just, “Oh, you can’t put me in bondage.” It’s not bondage. It’s an act of worship.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: It’s an act of love. It should be a healthy part of our relationship, right?
Ashley: Amen. When we talk about the tithe, a lot of people will bring up Malachi 3. So, let’s look at Malachi 3. This is Malachi 3:8 and Malachi 3:8 says, “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me.” It’s funny, once I was preaching this, I was talking about teaching the tithe once and I was reading this and I just said, “If you don’t tithe, you’re robbing God” and this one guy said, “Amen.” He started going, “You God robbers.”
Carlie: [crosstalk].
Ashley: And I was like, “No, wait.”
Carlie: Let’s finish the verse.
Ashley: I’m not finished here. I haven’t finished what I was saying. What I was going to go on to say is, actually, now, if you don’t tithe you’re robbing God of being able to bless you in that area. So, that’s how I look at it now. But anyway, we’ll read this. “When a man…” This is Malachi 3:8. “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.” Verse 10. “‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough for you to receive it.”
Now, a few things here with this passage. First of all, this was a passage written during the laws so this is part of the law. The curse is not applicable anymore. As I said, Galatians 3:13, we’ve been redeemed from the curse. This is not applicable for new covenant believer. So, there is no curse if you don’t tithe. I’ve heard people teach, “If you don’t tithe, God’s going to take it out on you in doctor’s bills or mechanics bills” and all that. That is not true anymore. I do not believe that. I’m not even sure that was the case back then anyway. But anyway, that’s neither here nor there. That does not apply for you as a New Testament, as a new covenant believer.
Carlie: God’s not trying to squeeze us to get our pocket change.
Ashley: Amen. Remember, God’s the biggest giver. He’s the one who’s the giver. He’s not a taker. See, God’s not trying to take from you. He’s trying to get something from you. And just a few things with this real quickly. First of all, people say, they get really transfixed on this. “If you don’t tithe, you’re robbing God.” And that’s what’s turned off a lot of the people now about tithing. They think that it’s all part of this whole… Basically it’s like the… I heard one person describe it it’s a little bit like the hush mummy. Hush mummy? Hush money…
Carlie: Hush money.
Ashley: Of the Godfather [crosstalk].
Carlie: Oh my gosh.
Ashley: In fact, I’ve seen the t-shirt, “It’s God the father, not the godfather. The hush money with [inaudible] and stuff. It’s like…
Carlie: A bribe.
Ashley: You better pay your hush money. You better pay your tithe, otherwise you’re going to be cursed. Okay? That is not the case. God is not like that.
Carlie: It’s not ransom.
Ashley: He’s not trying to take from you. It’s not a ransom or anything like that. The emphasis here is God wants to bless you even back in the law. Even back when it was written like this in the law and a part of the old covenant. Look at the emphasis. The emphasis is, “I will open the windows of Heaven to you and I will pour out a blessing that there will not be room enough for you to contain it.” So the whole point of this was God was trying to bless us. It wasn’t about God trying to take from us. It was always about God trying to bless us. That was the whole point of the tithe, anyway. So, He there is saying He wants to bless you, he wants to open up the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings so there won’t be room to contain it. So, that’s the first point.
The other point is people often say about bring all the tithes in. They miss out the bit, it’s tithes and offerings. “You’re robbing me of tithes and offerings.” It’s not just tithes. So, it’s not just the 10%. It’s the 10% and it’s other offerings and we’re going to cover some of the other offerings in future programs, about different ways to give. There is lots of different ways to give and if you don’t understand the differences in giving then you’ll get confused and you’ll end up short-circuiting the system. So, we’re going to teach you in the next programs of different types of giving. All the different… Benevolence giving and offerings and first fruits and things like that.
But here in the tithe, it’s not just the tithe, it’s tithes and offerings. And the other thing I want to say is this is the only time when God says, “Try me on this. Give it a try.” He says, “Prove me now in this.” He says, “Try me on this.” Verse 10, “Try me on this.” And like I said, the curse of this is gone but the good part of this, the blessings of this is still applicable.
Carlie: At the end of the day…
Ashley: So, we can try God on this.
Carlie: What have we got to lose by trusting God with our finances?
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: Absolutely nothing.
Ashley: Not at all. So, I challenge people. I say, “Try this.” Now do it because it’s a positive thing. Do it because you believe God wants to bless you back and do it actually… Don’t do it like, paying it begrudgingly. Do it as a cheerful giver like Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians. Do it as a cheerful giver, don’t do it grudgingly. But if you do this, I’m telling you, people say, “Well actually, I haven’t got the money to tithe. I can’t afford to tithe.” I tell people, “You can’t afford not to tithe.” Try it. Try putting time at the top of the budget instead of the bottom of the budget. People say, ” If I have enough money I’ll do it.” No. You’ll never have enough money like that. Start with it.
Carlie: It’s like having children, isn’t it?
Ashley: Yeah, you’re never ready. Start with it.
Carlie: I’m going to save money to have children. Well, that never actually really works out that way.
Ashley: So, start with the tithe and see what happens. You’re going to end up, you’re going to see that supernaturally your finances are going to turn around. I’m telling you. This stuff works. This is a promise from God. You have a promise from God here that if we do this, he’s going to open up the windows of Heaven and he’s going to bless us. So really, if you’re not tithing in faith to God, then really you’re robbing him of the opportunity of blessing you because he wants to bless us. He wants to give us more. Remember givers are not out given and he always wants to give us more.
So, praise God. That’s the whole point of the tithe is he wants to give us more. And as we do that, as we start tithing and we do that, you watch how God will start giving you more in different areas and things start happening and you’ll end up with more than before you tithed. It’s amazing how that works.
So, we’re going to cover some more things about tithing, about when to tithe and when not to tithe. We’ve got a lot of questions on this about, “Should I tithe to my church? Should I tithe of where I’m fed? Should I tithe gross?”
Carlie: “Can I tithe on my credit card?”
Ashley: “Should I tie with my credit card? How do I tithe when I’ve got a business? Should I tithe if I’m in debt?” We’ll answer those questions next time. But we’re out of time.
Carlie: Let’s pray for the people.
Ashley: Do you want to pray?
Carlie: Yeah. Amen.
Father God, I just thank you that you love us so much that you give us an opportunity to give back that. This isn’t a debt that we owe, but this is an opportunity to grow in relationship with you and learn to trust you with our finances. And thank you, Lord, that you are an over abundant, you are an excessive kind of God. Thank you, Lord, for your great love for us, that it is limitless and Holy Spirit, we just ask you to make these words that these scriptures that we’ve been looking at today become raiment to us, become real to us. Give us revelation on these things. Not a second-hand revelation, but our own revelation on these things. Speak these things into our heart that they may become alive and give us the wisdom to know how to move forward in them. And we bless you and we thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Ashley: Amen. That’s awesome. Praise God. Well, thanks for being with us today. We’ll be back real soon to continue teaching on this subject. But, until next time, remember, don’t just live a normal life when you could be living the abundant life. We’ll see you next time.
Announcer: To order your copy of this teaching, visit our website, Terradezministries.com. Download your free copy of Ashley and Carly’s teaching notes at our website, Terraezministries.com.
Ashley: Hey. I want to tell you about Carly’s confession card she wrote. It’s a little card, it’s prescription size and it has verses about who you are in Christ. This is powerful. I use this regularly. You put your name at the top and then you read it to yourself. It says here, “I’m a party waiting to happen,” I Peter 1:8. It says, “I’ve been sanctified,” I Corinthians 6:11. “I’m a child of the King, adopted into his family.” It goes on and on. I lack no good thing. “I can do all things through Christ.” You know what? This card is powerful. This will change your life. This will show you who you are in Christ. And I’m telling you if you haven’t got one of these yet, go to our website, Terradezministries.com. We’d love to give one of these to you as our gift, completely free. So, go to our website, Terradezministries.com and get your confession card today.
Announcer: To receive your free copy of Carlie’s confession card, as our gift to you go, to Terradez ministries.com today. Join us next time for the Abundant Life program with Ashley and Carlie Terradez.