There is plenty of money in the Kingdom, beloved.  Money in and of it's self has never been the issue. Do you understand that God's Kingdom has never lacked.

Let me give you a something to think about. We have made the Kingdom of God, if you would, a subculture to the culture. Christian music is a billon-dollar business. Christian television, my God, now I am not being negative about this I am just simply stating the facts, it is a business. It is run like the world runs things. It has the name of Jesus on it and so it looks okay to many Christians. We have built our buildings that look real nice. And we expect people are going to come in and join our culture, because, oh, isn't it wonderful? Didn't we have a good time this morning? And they are just going to come in because we are just having such a good time. And a few do!

That is not how the world looks at it. You see, the purpose of the gospel was that we are to go out and affect the culture. But what has taken place is that culture has influenced us. We are backwards in our thinking and our applications so we must make a change. Unless we change in our paradigm of thinking and move from pastor to apostolic, from church to Kingdom, we will not make the transition regarding finances and if we don't, we will frustrate the Grace of God. 

Hebrews 7 reviews Melchizedek and Abraham, and I believe what we see is a foundational portion of Scripture in regard to our subject giving and financing the apostolic.

The Law provided support for the priesthood through the tithe, it was an inheritance issue for them. But under grace, finances in part, support the workers.

It is also a heart issue. Paul makes this abundantly clear in 1 Corinthians 9 and 2 Corinthians 9 chapters. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul deals with this financial issue from an apostolic point of view. He is saying,

He makes a case for the right and the power to receive income from the Corinthians in order to accomplish his assignment from Jesus. What the Corinthian's were doing is they were giving to the super apostles. You know, the ones who had the silk shirts, the diamond cuff links, and Rolex watches. They were the impressive ones, not the ones that stuttered a little bit and didn't look so handsome, maybe. But they were the ones that came along and really looked like a class act. And that is where the money was going. And Paul said,

But we haven't taken advantage of our power so that the gospel—won't be an offense.

Wow, that is a different way of thinking! I am going to close this by giving you a personal illustration. There are many times I have wanted to say to a pastor, "Where's the money? Why don't you give consideration to how I have served you, what I've done to try to help you?" Now I am just talking about the flesh rises up sometimes, you know? In other words, there are situations in my city that I know I have power to go and speak that kind of a word. I don't do it, because I don't want the gospel offended. I am waiting on God. And if God doesn't give them a revelation, then why exercise my power? Do you know what I am saying? I think that is where Paul was, but he finally addressed it with the church at Corinth. In the way Paul addressed this problem, I believe he was hoping the Church Leadership would get a revelation for the sake of the gospel.

In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul deals with giving to the poor saints. The poor here is in the context of the community of God. It wasn't just giving to everybody that is poor. For the most part, I do not give money on the streets anymore. You say, "You a hard-hearted person." Well, if God told me to, I would. But on general principle I do not. If somebody has their hand out, I don't give them money, because my first obligation is to the saints in the house of God. I know there are many people that are poor, and not because of their own failure. They are suffering in culture and society, as a result of many difficulties today. Cut backs, utility prices, food prices, gas prices just to name a few. Those affected in the church are my first obligation. 

An apostolic function is to carry concern for the churches of God. That means if I am aware of need in one church, through the network I would invite others to help.  "Brother Allen, can you help this brother over here? Brother David, there is a brother that is really suffering over here. He is trying to pastor, and he is really going through it. Could we take an offering for him?" And we have done that. Our first obligation then is to the house of God.

Now then if the Spirit of God tells you to give to somebody, do it. But don't do it without wisdom. Don't give them money so they go down to the closest bar. Buy them a hamburger or coffee.

In this new paradigm, the tithe needs to be understood in the place of developing pastoral care, which is also an apostolic function. In other words, when people come into Christ, we need to teach them the basics. No pastor should have to stand in the pulpit and wring on people over giving. When they are led to Christ, part of foundation is to teach them to be givers. From conception in the faith, their pocketbook ought to get connected to their heart. And the  discipler that is leading them to Jesus and training them, should be the one to teach the new convert about kingdom and finances. It shouldn't be just the pastor over the house instructing. There might be teaching from time to time from the pulpit, but not to harangue the people, not to try to get them to give more, just to give understanding, pastoral clarity to what the Bible teaches.

How do you determine to whom and when to give within the house? How do you determine timing of raising up pastoral care? When do you begin to give money to others to live of the gospel? I want to mention three areas to consider. I see these three areas covered in the New Testament.

Firstly is productivity. Is a person being productive? Are they leading people to Jesus? Are more people coming into the house because of their witness? Are more finances coming through this person? Are they caring responsibility to pastor those new converts? Are they spending an extraordinary time evangelizing or teaching and training God's people? As a person begins to be productive, they ought to partake of that productivity.

Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And he uses the Law as his example. He said,

Then in another place in the same chapter, he says,

Do you think the United States would send you off to war, and say, "you must also fund the war as well"? No, I don't think too many would go. But the principle is the same in the Kingdom of God. If people are going off to war, they need to be funded; they need to be helped. They have given their time to the gospel rather than working a secular job investing in people. Somehow they have got to pay their bills.

Secondly is Need - what is the need? Years ago, my wife and I made a determination what we needed our income to be. With seven children, a mortgage, food, clothing and all that there was need for certain. I realized that as God would bless me beyond the need, I needed to begin to sow into others and raise them up. You see, it wasn't mine to hold on in order to build my bigger house. It was mine to release to others so that greater advancement would take place in the Kingdom of God.

Thirdly is Honor - 1 Timothy 5:17 says:

What does "double honor mean?  It means: "twice as much money" in plan English.

We have spoken a great deal of tithing, but what about offerings? Offerings are for the funding of special projects. I had a pastor from a large church ask me if he should teach more on "tithing" in order to enlarge their financial base for projects they had. At that point, he was teaching 3 times a year on giving (tithing). He was bothered by a large church in the next town that spoke about money frequently and appeared to be doing very well in that regard. He said: "their teaching on money, money, money all the time". He added "our people are tithing, but we need more money for projects like our bus ministry". My response to him was: "teaching more is not your problem. The problem isn't tithing, although a greater amount of people needed to learn to tithe. The problem is you haven't taught the people how to give offerings and have opportunity to sow into the projects that are intended to be a vehicle for extending the kingdom. The problem is you and how you are dealing with your finances". My suggestion was: "Not to continue to write checks from the general account to deal with project". When one has two thousand people in attendance and you have a bus ministry, share the vision of that bus ministry along with the needs. I guarantee you have somebody in the congregation with several thousand dollars sitting in the bank, that when they hear about the bus ministry, something is going to click by the Spirit. Because it is a ministry to children in the community, they are going to give money ‘over and above their tithe' and sow into the bus ministry, maybe meeting the full need. You will not have to finance the bus ministry out of the general account." Pastors need to learn how to lay a foundation of tithing and allow the people opportunity to invest in the projects of the assembly. Apostles need to learn to do the same thing as they develop apostolic teams that will have assignments or projects for extending the kingdom.   For example: I share the tithe given to our ministry for my support, with others that are leading with me, for their support. I depend on offerings for the projects of this ministry, such as overseas outreaches, facilities and equipment and supplies.

I have already written about Alms giving (giving to the poor). Giving to the poor is "lending to the Lord" according to Proverbs 19:17

He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, And He will pay back what he has given. 

In October of 1986 the Lord spoke to me to go to Karachi, Pakistan a city in which we had a church and pastor that we had supported since 1975.  I didn't have the money to go nor did the local church to send me. I began to pray for the finances to come in. I needed $1,600.0 by February 1987 for my airfare.   One day in November of 86, I attended a service led by ministers that I had issues with in regard to how they received the offerings for their ministry. The Lord set me up to deal with an attitude I had. I always give a little, I was going to give my two or three dollars. As I waited for the offering basket, the Spirit of God spoke to me. He said, "Give everything you've got." I said, "Say what?" I had a bit of money in my pocket that was already spent as far as I was concerned. "I thought I knew the voice of God, but I said: "would you say that again, if that is you Lord?" And He said: "I want you to give every dime in your pocket, because if you will, I will finance your overseas trip 100%." My response to the Lord was: "Well, Lord, You know my feelings about this ministry and they just did what I have problems with, and I don't want to support that." The Lord said "but I want you to give." I said: "Okay". So I emptied my wallet into the basket. You know the Lord sets us up and latter ups the ante. He doesn't do it right away, but later on He ups the ante. He gets your little obedience, and then He will require more.

I continued to believe God for around $3,000.00in order to go. One day I was fellowshipping with another pastor. And the brother says, "You should take somebody with you." I thought, "Oh, no," because I knew he was right as soon as he said it. I also knew who it was, and I knew his level of faith was on the small side. I realized my faith was going to have to go up another notch for both of us.

In February of 87, Becky and I received a call from a couple our church had helped a number of years prior. They were in poverty and our church helped them in their desperate time of need. We had not seen them for years and I can not tell you their story here, but they had remained in poverty for years. We went to coffee with them and they told us their story. They had cried out to God for help and He met them financially in their need.  The Lord brought us to their remembrance and they wanted to give back to us for those years of "Alms Giving". They wrote a check for $1,000.00 that night. (Ten times what I had given earlier in that previous mentioned offering). Now I had $600.00 toward the trip and now I had the airfare, right on time. 

To make a long story short, God supplied every need, until all $5,000.00 came in. Oh yes, the cost of the trip went up as the other brother joined me. I would love to tell you the miracles of how He supplied, it was just absolutely incredible. But He taught me a tremendous lesson in all this. You see, it was a heart issue. He had to deal with my heart. It had to do with obedience to God, regardless of how I thought—my opinion about the other ministry.  It has been said before "you can not out give the Lord".