What Kind of Offering do You Presenting to God?

Scripture: Genesis 4:1-5  

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD." Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.

Insights: In today’s world we no longer present offerings to the Lord in the form of animal sacrifice or produce gifts.  In modern day economy our finances exist in the form of money.  In today’s verses we observe the central truth regarding offerings to the Lord.  This truth regarding offerings is that the Lord requires our first fruits.  In other words, Abel gave of the firstlings of his flock; whereas, Cain just brought some produce and it was not the first and the best.  He kept those for himself.  Later in the Scriptures we learn God’s standard is a minimum of ten percent.  The word tithe literally means tenth.  Because of the grace gift the Lord gave to us through His death and resurrection, our tithe is the bear minimum of our offering to the Lord.  As a side note, this tithe comes off of the gross and not the net of our income.  There are a couple of things that amaze me about people and tithes.  One, is people do not give their tithes to the Lord, yet expect Him to bless them for the little leftover they do give to Him. Two, is the amount of ministry in which local churches are incapable of participating because of the lack of financial resources.  In other words, if every believer actually gave their tithe, then we would never have a financial crisis in the life of churches.  Unfortunately, the average “believer” only gives two percent to the Lord as a form of his/her tithe.  Obviously, two percent is not a tithe.  Let me encourage you, Beloved, to truly test the Lord in your finances this year and give your tithe to Him.  If you have been tithing regularly already, then let me encourage you to ask the Lord what kind of percentage increase the Lord would have you start giving to Him.  You will never out give the Lord!

Questions:

1. Are you tithing?
2. Do you see the contradiction between blessing and disobedience to God’s command regard tithing?

Prayer: Father, You have told me to test You with my finances.  Let me see Your hand of provision as I obediently give to You my tithe of first fruits.  Amen.