SHOW ME THE MONEY
Did you ever see the movie Jerry Maguire? One of the most famous lines in the movie is when Cuba Gooding’s character cries out, “show me the money!” I kind of feel like God is crying out that same phrase to us in Malachi chapter 3:8-11. https://www.bible.com/search/bible?q=Malachi%203:8-11.
When we first went into the ministry I was so confused where I was to give our offerings and was I supposed to tithe? Was I supposed to give at all? After all, I was receiving tithes, gifts, or offerings from others to provide for our needs as missionaries and was I now supposed to give that money back to the church? I was confused, to say the least. So, I settled it in my mind, “nah, of course I wasn’t supposed to give that money back”. People gave it to us for our needs. So we didn’t tithe but we did give offerings as we felt we could afford it. That kind of made sense so we settled on doing that. Boy, was that a mistake!
It was October 1995 and Terrill, the kids, and I were living in a rented house and it was one of those weeks where we could either pay the electric bill or give an offering to the church. I chose to keep the lights on and figured I could “make it up” to God sometime in the future. That following week we received no offerings in the mail, our savings was very little and now we had hardly any money at all, I mean like zero dollars. The following Monday we walked into our staff meeting only to be greeted by the sounds of a young women loudly crying and repenting to God, “please forgive me for robbing you God, I repent and I will never do that again!” In that moment the Spirit of God convicted me of my robbing him and I joined in the crying and repenting. I told Jesus that day, “I will never rob you again, I will tithe and give you what belongs to you (in reality everything belongs to Him) even if the lights go out and we have nothing to eat, please forgive me Lord!” The following week we received a tax return check for $1,200.00 and a letter with a $250.00 check in it from a friend. What I am about to write to you is true, since that Monday back in 1995 until today we have never missed a week of giving our tithe to the Lord’s work. We have never gone without a home, food, clothes, or any other provision. We have had cars last for 230,000 miles and never need a major repair, we have purchased homes, cars, we have traveled the world and the Lord has always provided for our financial needs. We started giving the tithe (10%) but now we give much above that.
Listen, I’m not saying Jesus is a genie in a bottle and you can rub your Bible and make a request and Jesus will pop out and grant it. I’m also NOT saying you can command God to make you rich, or every material thing you want you can have if you just tithe. All of those ideas are unbiblical. I am saying that God is a promise keeper. He said if you don’t give Him the first 10% of your income you are robbing Him and there will be a curse or no blessing on your finances or possessions. He also said we can test Him in this and if we do He will pour out a blessing so great we will not have enough room in our lives to contain it. I know you have questions like, “isn’t tithing old testament law?” “How about 2nd Corinthians 9 - aren’t we supposed to give whatever we can by our own decision as long as we are happy about it?” “Is the blessing always in the form of money?” I will answer those questions and many more in my next blog but for now I challenge you to read Malachi 3:8-11 (link above) and begin to test God’s word. “I WILL open the windows of heaven for you. I WILL pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!” (NLT version) Hey God said it, that makes it final so I believe it! Show Him the money!