In part 13 of How to Attack Lack, Ashley and Carlie explain the different types of giving in addition to the tithe. Be empowered to make a bigger impact here on the earth!
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. Thank you for joining us today. We’ve got an exciting program for you today. We’re talking about how to attack lack in your life. We’re talking about how God wants to prosper us financially, but if we don’t see that happen, why is that? What’s going wrong you feel like? Why are we seeing financial lack in our lives? And we’re looking at all the different reasons. And today we’re talking about giving. We’re talking about the power of giving. In fact, we’ve been talking about this for a while now.
Carlie: Yeah we have.
Ashley: This is part of a series. We’ve been talking about giving, about the different types of giving, about why giving is important. And right now at the moment, we’re looking at the different types of giving and how they’re important to realize it’s not just one type of giving. You don’t just throw your money out there and hope for the best. There’s actually different types of giving.
And last program we talked about the tithe, the last couple of programs, talked about the tithe and about how important that is and why we should tithe, and about how the tithe is no longer part of the law, but it’s still the right thing to do. Tithing was before the law, there was two instances before the law where tithing was established, Genesis 14 and Genesis 28, Abraham and Isaac, both tithed separate instances, they tithed.
So the principle was set up before the law, then tithing became part of the law, so there was a curse associated with it. But now when we’re new covenant believers, we’re no longer part of that law. Jesus said in Galatians 3:13, “Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law”, praise God. So now when we tithe, we get all the benefits without any of the cursing.
Carlie: That’s a great deal.
Ashley: Amen it’s a great deal. I know some people say, well, “You mean we don’t have to tithe, it’s not the law anymore?” No, it’s not. It’s our choice. We get to tithe, but why wouldn’t you want to tithe? Because when you tithe you’re getting all the benefits. You’re inviting God into your finances and God is the biggest giver. God’s not a taker, he’s a giver. And when he asks you to give, he’s trying to give more to you.
Malachi three is the chapter people use in the tithe about how you’re robbing God if you don’t tithe, or actually, if you don’t tithe you’re robbing God of blessing you, because tithing invites God in to bless your finances and the whole emphasis on tithing anyway, even when it was part of the law, was try me on this, I’ll open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on you that you won’t be able to contain it.
So the whole idea was God was trying to get more to us. It was never about God taking from us. It was always about God getting more to us. And now God is trying to get things to us. He’s trying to get resources to us. Spiritually speaking, it’s already been paid for, our provision has already been paid for, just like our righteousness has been paid for at the cross burial of Jesus. When Jesus took our sins to the cross, it says in second Corinthians 5:21, “He became sin so that we could take on his righteousness.” First Peter 2:24, he took on our disease, he took stripes on his back, he took pain, so that we could be healed. It’s the same with finances.
Second Corinthians, chapter eight verse nine says, “He became poor.” Jesus became poor so that we could receive his prosperity. We could receive his blessings, praise God. We could receive his prosperity. And he took our poverty, we get his prosperity. Isn’t that a good deal?
Carlie: Great exchange.
Ashley: It’s a great exchange. It’s the gospel. So at the moment we’re talking about giving, and it’s the third thing we’ve talked about. We’ve talked about the work of your hand we’ve talked about your stewardship and about how you spend money, and now we’re talking about giving, how you give money. And praise God, there’s so much here. We’re going to try and cover as much as we can in this time, but the different types of giving, we’ve already looked at the tithe, and now the tithe is the first priority.
If he was going to do priorities on our finances, the first thing on the list would be tithing. As money comes in, we tithe. We’ve personally done this in our marriage for 20 years. And that’s one of the main reasons why we’ve prospered, because God has honored that, we have honored God with our finances. So we tithe from the very top. That’s the first thing we do, is where money comes in, we tithe from it. And now we can split hairs should you tithe off the net, should you tithe of the gross or do you want net or gross blessings? It’s up to you. But tithing is really a heart issue and you should want to tithe if you love God. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, your heart will be also.”
So really tithing is a relational issue between you and God. You want to tithe because you want to honor God, and you want to grow your relationship with God. And a lot of people say, “I want to love God more. I want to experience more of God.” Do you tithe? “No.” Well, maybe that’s a good place to start because you can guide your heart. Proverbs talks about guide your heart in these things.
And when we tithe, when our finances go towards the kingdom of God, we’re guiding our heart into those things. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So that’s why tithing is so important. And we’ve looked at that, and we looked at the different issues with tithing, the different arguments people have with tithing. And we’ve established the fact that tithing is for the new covenant believer today, and it’s filled with blessings and opportunities.
So we’d encourage you to tithe and to take that step of faith. And God even says this in Malachi three, “Try me in this.” Give it a go, try it for three months or six months and see what happens. I believe if you tithe in faith, you’ll see 90% of your income increase and you’ll do better than when you kept a hundred percent for yourself.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: The next type of giving we’re going to look at is offerings. So we’ve looked at the tithe, now we’re looking offerings. Malachi three was about tithes and offerings. So we’re going to look at offerings. Offerings are above the tithe. So if you’ve got a scripture, this is a first Kings
Carlie: First Kings 10 verse 10 it says, “Then she gave the king”, this is talking about the queen of Sheba, “Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold spices in great quantity and precious stones. And there never again came such an abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon.” And then look at the result of this. In verse 13, it says that king Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides Solomon had given her according to the Royal generosity. And so she turned and went to her own country, she and her servant.
Ashley: Wow. So this is a story of the queen of Sheba. She’d heard about Solomon’s wealth, now Solomon’s the richest man who ever lived, and she heard about his wealth and she heard more about, in particular about his wisdom. She was fascinated by his wisdom. So the queen of Sheba went to visit Solomon, to find out, to get some answers and to find out some things because she knew he was wise.
And when she went there the queen Sheba gave Solomon a big offering. And you can see that it was a big offering, and people debate on how much it is in today’s spending value and how many millions of dollars that was. But it was a significant offering. Now, Solomon didn’t have any need. This was an offering that she gave him because she wanted to honor him. And she wants to give this out of her heart.
Carlie: Right. And that’s a really interesting point actually, because I think sometimes people withhold from giving because they feel like the recipient, they don’t need it, they’re okay. And their main motivation for giving an offering is to chase need. But this is really interesting, the whole time that Jesus ministered on the earth, he never chased need.
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: And he actually said, “The poor will always be with us.” He was led by the Lord where to go, because if we’re only led by need and not by God, then we will wear ourselves out. There is always going to be need, but we need to be led in our giving by the Lord, I think.
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: And so this is interesting, we should bring this up about the queen of Sheba, she wasn’t giving an offering because Solomon was hard up, he was the richest man on the face of the earth. She was giving an offering out of honor. She was being led to give. And so sometimes in our giving, let’s take a moment and just think about that. Are we just chasing need? Are we giving out of obligation or are we giving because we’re being led?
Ashley: And here’s another point, with that is some people give to ministries or to TV-stations or whatever, because they’re saying, ‘We’re going under, we’ve got this need. If you don’t give…” And that’s manipulation in giving. And a lot of the time, the Lord will lead us to give to ministries that are doing great, that are being good stewards with their resources, and they haven’t got this crisis need. And now before you turn off or get mad, we’re going to talk about benevolence. We give to need, we give to people in need, we give to, to things of needs. So we’re going to talk about benevolence in a little bit, but when we’re talking about offerings, offerings shouldn’t be led by need. You should give your offerings led by the Lord. And a lot of the time it will be to ministries or to churches that are being good stewards of their finances.
And in the parables, Jesus taught lots of parables about stewardship and the parable of the talents for instance. The person who did well with their talent actually got given more. And Jesus said, “For those who have, who don’t basically steward what they have, even what they have will be taken away from them.” And I think a lot of the time, and I’ll never mention names or anything like that, but a lot of the time, if you feel manipulated to give to a ministry or to a church or to whatever it is because they’re begging you, and they’re saying that if you don’t give, our need is so great, if you don’t give we’re going under, if you don’t give, we’re not going to be able to make it. I’d question that. I would say, is that manipulation or are you giving out of a pure heart.
Carlie: Actually, just on a daily basis here, just because we’re being real in this moment. It really irks me at checkouts in supermarkets where they’re doing this whole campaign thing, “Do you want to give a dollar to save the children?”, or whatever the organization is. And I always say no. Some people are going to think, “Well you’re really mean, it’s just a dollar.”
But I feel like they are kind of preying on peer pressure a little bit. Everyone in the line is looking at you, you don’t want to come off mean, right? It’s only a dollar, you should give it. But I feel an emotional pull and I’m just mad about this. When it comes to manipulation, if I feel I’m being manipulated, and manipulation is basically maneuvering somebody’s emotions to get them to do what you want them to do, that’s what manipulation is, okay.
If I feel like my emotions, my heart strings are being pulled on to give a response, that’s manipulation. And I will come against that because that’s not of God. Manipulation is not of the Lord. The Lord will never manipulate us. And so we love to give, but we love to plan our giving.
Ashley: Right.
Carlie: And so we plan our giving and we are led by the Lord in our giving. And I’m not saying I’m never going to give money to a panhandler or a beggar on the street or anything like that, I’m not saying that, but I just, the minute I feel something pulling at me and I know that that’s manipulation, I’m going to shut that down.
Ashley: Right. And the checkout thing is maybe if you’re watching in a different country, you might not have this issue, but in America, in England, every time you get to checkout, it seems like every store now, would you like to give a dollar to this charity or that charity? And here’s a few things of that real quickly. Like Carly said, first of all, a lot of the time that’s manipulation. You feel the peer pressure, they’re trying to get you right then and there. The other thing you need to realize is most of these charities, a very small amount actually goes to the charity because…
Carlie: You don’t know where it’s going.
Ashley: They have to give back to the store who’s doing that. There’s a bunch of things they do.
Carlie: And they do it because it works.
Ashley: And they do, because it works. You can check them out and find out how much actually goes to that charity. And I looked into one of them and it was 30 cents out of the dollar actually went to the need, and the rest of it went to all the admin and paying the supermarket and the Superstore and all that. So I don’t impulse buy, we don’t do impulse purchases and we don’t do impulse giving and things like that.
Now, if God’s tells us to do something, there’s been hundreds of times where God’s told me give this person this and I’ll do it. I’ll impulse give like that. But if someone’s asking me and putting pressure on me, like Carly saying, I’ll say no. And I have to say it bothers me because I was in a Christian store the other day, man that was too much information, anyway, I was in the store the other day and they said, “Do you want to…”, this one was $5.
And there’s all these people around me now looking on, is he going to give?
Carlie: What’s he going to do?
Ashley: And I was like, no, this is my principles. I choose where to give, and I don’t feel led to give to this charity. I don’t even know who they are. So I said no. And I went away feeling shame and all these people watching me. And then I figured we could have given away thousands of dollars that month, which we would have done, $50,000 a year or whatever, and just because I didn’t give $5 I feel guilty now.
Carlie: See that manipulation
Ashley: So it’s manipulation. So you [crosstalk].
Carlie: You get a bad taste in your mouth.
Ashley: You do. So don’t be pressured into giving. If someone’s pressuring you into giving, then it’s probably not God. I tell people, if you feel pressure, and the pressure’s not… Sometimes the holy spirit will move you, and you’ll start to feel that, we’ll talk about the generous giving a little bit later, but sometimes the holy spirit will move you. Maybe another show, in another program [crosstalk].
Carlie: You always say that.
Ashley: I’m ambitious. I’m ambitious of how much we can cover in one program. But if the holy spirit starts moving you, maybe you’ll start to feel uneasy like that. But it’s not manipulation. It’s like a challenge. Do you want to take part in this? Do you want to give in this point? But manipulation is like Carlie says, when it’s an emotional pull and you feel like you can’t say no.
Carlie: Maybe you see on a television program or you get a letter in the mail and it’s basically, if you don’t give now, then you’re not going to be blessed. That’s one to watch out for. If somebody tries to manipulate you by saying, “If you don’t give”, they might not go as far as to say you’re going to be cursed with a curse, but you’re not going to be blessed.
If there is a consequence for you not giving, like they’re backing you into a corner, then just screw that letter up and throw it away. Or if you don’t give, then this program can’t continue to go on the air. I mean, ultimately God should be any ministry and it doesn’t have to be Christian ministries, but any kind of charities can do this. This emotional kind of pull on your heart, especially Christian charities. If they are looking to you as their source, that is misplaced. We should always be looking to Jesus to be the source of our abundance, right?
Ashley: Amen.
Carlie: We are not somebody’s savior. We are not their Jesus. Right? And we are not their provider. Now, sometimes a lot of users to be provision, but we shouldn’t be where they place all their hopes. They should have that in Christ.
Ashley: I remember the first time Andrew Womack took up an offering, I was at a conference of his, and he took up an offering and he says, “You know what?” He said, “If you don’t give”, he said “I’m going to be fine”, God’s going to look after me.
Carlie: Right.
Ashley: He goes, “You don’t have to give in this offering.” And I thought, oh no, he’s killed the offering.
Carlie: [crosstalk] wanted the cheerful givers.
Ashley: It’s going to be a terrible offering. But Andrew Womack is super prosperous. His ministry is debt-free and doing great because he looks to God as his source. He doesn’t look at the people as his source. And if you look into people as your source, then that’s when you can get into the manipulation. And when it comes to offerings, that’s a lot of the time people try and manipulate people into giving. So don’t be manipulated into giving, give where you want to give, give where you lead and give in honor.
A lot of the time you’ll be given to people who don’t need it per se. It’s because you want to honor them, and they’re doing the work of the Lord. And that’s where there’s a great reward. Because when you give an offering, there’s an increase back on that. You give seed into that ministry and a farmer doesn’t just scatter a seed. A farmer looks for good ground to put your seed into. A farmer looks for a good opportunity, an investor looks for a good opportunity. What opportunity is going to produce the most? Where’s my money going to be best used? And a lot of the time, if you look into ministries or churches or whatever, giving to ministries that you believe in, giving to ministries that you have a heart connection with, giving to ministries have fed you.
I said this in a previous program, but if you receive something spiritual, it’s good to give back materially. Paul talks about this, we sowed into spiritual things that it’s not wrong for you to give to us material things. And that’s one way of honoring that teacher or that teaching that’s one way of honoring the word of God. That’s one way of confirming the word that you’ve received. If you receive a word and you give financially, you’re putting your heart into that word. There’s a spiritual aspect to this as well that’s going to confirm the word in you, but offerings often to things I’ve given to people that don’t need the money, but I know God’s led me to give to them. And there’s been great reward in that. There’s been times when I’ve giving, it’s amazing that the times we’ve given into things and we’ve seen great reward, great increase come back on that when we’ve done that.
So it’s given to honors. The queen of Sheba that she gave, and guess what, Solomon gave back to her. You remember Solomon was a giver, the queen of Sheba was a giver. So what happened was givers are now given. When a giver gets around a giver there could be a little battle going on here. And Solomon gave the queen of Sheba, a bunch of stuff back. So she ended up leaving with all her answers to her questions. Her heart was filled. She had the answers to a question and she went back with an offering as well. So they were both blessed. They were doubly blessed. And this will happen a lot of the times with things. When you give into ministry, give into good ministries, given to good ground, you’re going to be blessed back more than the recipient.
Just like Jesus said in Acts 20:35, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.” That’s what was happening here. So the queen of Sheba is a great example of giving and given out of honor, and giving to someone who, on the outside, doesn’t need it. Second Corinthians 9:8. We looked at this verse, but second Corinthians 9:8 talks about how God wants to give you all grace so we’ll have all sufficiency and we’ll be able to give into every good work. So offerings are talking about giving to every good work. We should be looking for ministries, we should be looking for missionaries, we should be looking for places to give offerings extra on top of our tithe. Another point I’ve got here is Romans 10. And it says, “And how shall they believe in him whom they’ve not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful the feet of those who spread the gospel.'”
So basically what it’s saying here in Romans, how is someone going to get born again? How’s someone going to receive the good news unless someone tells them? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And how is that person going to preach unless someone sends them? So it’s very important. Part of offerings is to actually send the gospel out. And it’s actually to give to missionaries, to give, to ministries, to send the gospel out. So a big portion of your offerings, when you give offerings, you should be giving into ministries and missionaries who are preaching the gospel, who are preaching the good news, who are preaching the goodness of God. And that’s where we give our offerings.
We love to give offerings to ministries who are preaching the good news, who are preaching the life giving message of grace and faith. The fact that God loves them and God’s got good things for them. So that’s where you want to be putting your offerings because then they’re going out and they’re preaching that gospel and people are getting healed and set free, and people are getting born again, praise God.
And the reward on that is huge. You’re going to get lots of increase on that seed sown. You will get a natural increase, but even if you don’t see natural increase, the increase you’re going to get spiritually, you’re going to get heaven, you’re going to have people come to you thanking you. Saying thank you for giving into that offering. Thank you for partnering with that ministry. Thank you for paying for that person to fly across the world and hold that event. That’s where I got born again. That’s where I got saved. That’s where I got healed.
Carlie: And it’s interesting you should bring that up actually, because especially missionaries when they’re overseas and traveling just that regular giving really does change the world. I mean, it could be a small amount, it could be $5 a month, but you take your $5 a month from America or five pounds a month from England, and you transport that into a foreign, and into a developing country, and the value on that is exponential.
It’s much more than you think. What you consider to be a small seed makes a big impact on people. And for missionaries out in the field to know, I mean, everyone loves a one-time donation, a one time gift, but that regular giving really can help them plan, can help them eat, can help them travel, can plan their finances. Makes a big difference.
Ashley: Amen. It really does. So give your offering. Offerings includes partnerships with ministries, it includes partnership with missionaries, like Carlie’s saying, sending the gospel around the world. It includes sponsored children and programs like that. Put your offerings in places where the good news is going out there. And people are really spreading the gospel. The goodness of God. And when you do that, I’m saying it’s one of the best uses of your money when you do that.
So look for ministries that are preaching the gospel. Look for ministries that are preach the good news and get it out there.
Carlie: Look for fruit, right?
Ashley: Look for fruit. Amen. Amen. That’s important. Don’t just scatter your seed, have a plan for your giving. The next type of giving, we looked at tithing, offerings. The next type of giving we want to look at is benevolence. Benevolence giving. Now benevolence giving is when you give to need. You see a need and you give to that need. Matthew 25, it talks about the story about I was hungry and you didn’t feed me, I was thirsty and you didn’t give me a class of water.
And in Matthew 25:40 it says, “The king will answer them and say, ‘Surely I say to you, in as much as you did to one of them, the least of these you did to me.'” Benevolence is helping people that can’t help themselves a lot of the time. That maybe just for season, it maybe they’re going through a life crisis, it maybe that they’re going through something. But when we give benevolently, we are helping people that can’t help themselves at that point.
Carlie: So at this point your seed is their bread.
Ashley: Yeah. That’s a good point. You’re giving a seed and it’s becoming their bread. In James 1:27, this is James chapter one verse 27, it says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James is saying, when we give to orphans, when we give to widows, if you study this out, he’s talking about giving to them. When you give to orphans, when you give to widows, that’s benevolent given, and that’s helping people. That sort of that people in need, people without parents or people without spouses, that’s giving to need.
So if you see some need, if you see someone in need and you can help them, then I would recommend you help. That’s benevolent giving. Now a couple of quick stipulations of this, sometimes if people aren’t being responsible with their finances and they’ve got themselves in that state because of their own poor decisions, then sometimes just giving them money, some people call it, it’s like giving a drunk or drink. It doesn’t actually help the situation. You just keep giving them money and they keep misappropriating that money and spending it wrong. It’s not helping the situation.
Carlie: So would you say benevolence is more of a one-time donation than it would be a regular?
Ashley: Sometimes. Yeah. A lot of the time it’s one time. Sometimes it can be ongoing, but the point is, is make sure you’re not just fueling the problem, make sure you’re not just giving money and they’re just misappropriating.
Carlie: They’re just becoming codependent.
Ashley: And they’re just being codependent. They misappropriate, they’re not spending it right. Make sure there’s a genuine need. And we can’t always know a hundred percent. I tell people I like the piece of the steak where I’m big enough to be taken advantage of sometimes.
Carlie: And often when we’ve given benevolently, it’s been for somebody in a moment of crisis where they’ve had a turn of events, life-changing event or something like that, rather than an necessarily to chronic problem.
Ashley: Yeah. Jesus puts it this way in Luke, he says, “And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you and you should be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” So Jesus is saying, there’s a blessing when you give to people who can’t repay you, when you giving one way, like you’re saying, when you’re at a point in a crisis and you’re giving one way and you’re helping people in a point of need, whatever their need is. And Proverbs 19:17, I love this verse, this is Proverbs 19:17 says, “He who has pity on the poor”, [inaudible] benevolence, he who has pity on the poor, he who gives to the poor lends to the Lord.” So he’s like lending money to God. And you think God pays his bills. He said, and he will pay back what he has given.
So when you give to the benevolent, when you give to the poor, God’s going to be the one who gives you back. And God is going to give you back [crosstalk].
Carlie: That’s powerful.
Ashley: It’s very powerful. Let me tell you, God always pays back with interest.
Carlie: He pays hi bills.
Ashley: He’s going to pay you back your interest. So there is increase when you give to the poor, but you’re not giving because you’re looking to sow where you want to go, or because you look into sowing, you’re giving because there’s a genuine need. And you have to judge that need, that’s where you have to be led by the spirit sometimes, all the times you should be led by the spirit, but sometimes it’s not the best thing to just keep giving money. Sometimes you want to judge the situation and find out what’s the best thing you can do for them, how can you help them.
You can do some coaching with them as well, like this is how you should spend this money. Or sometimes rather than just giving them money, we’ve bought groceries, we’ve bought single mothers groceries and things, paid their rent or paid people’s school tuition, funeral costs, school tuition things like that. So you can do things. That’s all giving benevolently. So just use wisdom when you do that. Because all benevolent giving is you have to make sure that there’s a genuine need. And that’s why the church and the body of Christ should be the ones giving welfare and giving benevolence, so that we can know people personally and we can find out where their need is and we can help them best.
Carlie: That’s a great point. If you want to give benevolently, you’re feeling led in that area, a great person to point you in the right direction is usually your local pastor, because they are in contact. Churches get a lot of requests from people outside of the community that aren’t even necessarily their church members, but they are in need of benevolence. And so your pastor is usually somebody that’s a good point of contact to be able to help you and direct that benevolent giving to make sure it lands in the right place.
Ashley: Yeah. And also you can give to things like sponsored children programs and things like that, where that is a form of benevolent giving, because they’re given to help those people there as well.
And then the last thing I want to touch on today is First Fruits. What First Fruits is. This is Proverbs three verse nine. Proverbs three verse nine says, “Honor the Lord with your possessions,” so we’re talking about here honoring God with our possessions “and with the first fruits of all your increase;” verse 10, “so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.” And the point I want to make here is we honor the Lord with all our possessions. So all our possessions, all are God’s ultimately, that’s why we tithe and we give back 10%. That’s why we give offerings as well.
But First Fruits here, it says, “First Fruits of all your increase.” I believe that the true meaning of First Fruits is when you have an increase, maybe you got a promotion, maybe something’s happening and a deal has come through in your business. There’s been some sort of increase. There’s been some sort of notable increase, or maybe you’ve sown some seed, and all of a sudden, you’ve got this increase come back. You give a portion of that increase as First Fruits, and you give that to honor the Lord and to thank God. Say, “God thank you, promotion comes from you.” And you give that First Fruits. So when I used to work at the ministry and have a salary, when I used to have a salary, before [crosstalk].
Carlie: In those days.
Ashley: Those were the days we used to make money, anyway.
Carlie: We used to get paid.
Ashley: We used to have a salary. When I got promoted, and if there’s any type of pay rise, I would give that first pay rise as an offering back to the Lord,
Carlie: Would you can’t inheritance as First Fruits?
Ashley: I’m not sure if it’s a First Fruits, but it’s definitely an increase coming into. It’s definitely money coming into. So I would tithe off an inheritance and I’d give special offerings off an inheritance. I’ll look, where can I give this money? And I would give a portion of that inheritance away. And yeah, I mean, you could look at that as a First Fruits, but usually First Fruits is an increase of something that’s happened as a result of business or a result of work or something. There’s an increase that’s come to you. And that’s the First Fruit.
So the main thing is, remember, God is after our hearts, where our hearts are, where are treasures, there our hearts are also, and this is relational we’ve got. So we don’t have to be trying to work out what’s First Fruit, what’s the offering or anything else. Just go be spirit led, go by these principles, tithe what comes in, give offerings where the gospel is being preached and where you’re being fed, and where you’re being taught. Give benevolently where you see need, and when you feel led to give benevolently and to charities and things like that.
And then give First Fruit has increased comes into your life. And you wait, God’s going to increase you because the whole point of giving is God wants to get more to you. He wants to increase you. And we sow, so he reaps so we can sow even more. The seed you sow is increased, praise God. And God provides for our needs as we do that. So it’s a powerful thing. When we give to God, we can’t lose, praise God.
God is going to bless us back and we’re going to increase even more. Amen.
Carlie: Amen.
Ashley: Praise God. So thanks for being with us today. We appreciate you being with us. We’ll be back real soon to carry on with this subject. And we appreciate you. Remember to go to our website, TerradezMinistries, and find out more. But until next time, don’t just live a normal life, when you can live the Abundant Life. We’ll see you real soon.
Announcer: Order your copy of this teaching. Visit our website, TerradezMinistries.com. Download your free copy of Ashley and Carlie’s teaching notes at our website, TerradezMinistries.com.
Ashley: Hey, I want to tell you about Carlie’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. First Peter 1:8.” It says, “I’ve been sanctified. First Corinthians 6:11.” “I’m a child of the king adopted into his family.” It goes on and on.
And I’m saying, 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: Coming up next on the Abundant Life program.
Ashley: When God asks us to give it’s because he loves us. Jesus asked this rich young ruler to give because he loved him. Jesus looked at him, and loved him. So this was the best thing for this rich young ruler. Jesus was looking out for this rich young ruler’s interest. Sometimes we don’t realize is, God is looking out for your best interest. That’s the reason he asks you to give. Not because it’s good for him, it’s because he’s trying to do the best for you.