TESTIMONY TIME : GIVING TO GOD, NOT TO MAN

I preached in Buffalo, New York, in forty-six inches of snow. I had 1,500 people out in an auditorium. That's a lot of folk in forty-six inches of snow. I told the folk I was going to receive an offering.  A lady stood up and yelled "Brother Schambach, an evangelist came to town, and I gave him $1,500, and I didn't get anything back."

I thought, oh, Lord, she is going to kill my offering. Will you hush that woman up?

Then she said, "A second evangelist came to town, and I gave him $2,500. And I still didn't get anything back. Then a third evangelist came to town, and I gave him $3,000. I still didn't get anything back." Then she sat down.

I said, "Sister, stand back up. How much do you have left?"

She said, "Nothing!"

I said, "For the past minute and a half, we have heard you talk. Three times you said, "I gave to an evangelist, and not once did you say, I gave to God. There is your answer."

When you give, you are not giving to the church. I hear folks says, "I give to the church." No wonder they're messed up.  "I give to my church." "I give to the preacher." No, you don't.  When you give, you are giving to God.  I want you to see this because if I can turn you around so you put your giving in its proper perspective then you will be blessed.

People say to me, "I pay my tithes." No, you don't.  How can you pay somthing that doesn't belong to you? The tithe is the Lord's.  That belong to God. If you make $200; you make $180. That $20 right off the top belong to God.

I believe that the tithe belongs to God. That tithe should be given where you are being fed, right there in your local church. And I preach that. I'm an evangelist,  and I want your offering.

God said,

Will a man rob God?  Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithe and offerings.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

                                                                                                              ***   Malachi 3:8,10