Proverbs chapter number three. Proverbs chapter number three. Have you ever read through the Proverbs? Proverbs is a real good book. It really is. It's a book of practical, everyday things that everybody faces at one point or another. The Bible says in Proverbs three, in verse number nine and verse number 10, I want you to look at this word, and just look at what it says here. He says, honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy precious shall burst out with new wine. So what I want to preach tonight is about the subject of giving. That's a simple subject, isn't it? This is a, it's absolutely a great, great thing. You know, when we started this program of not so many people being at church and social distancing and all that kind of stuff. I, I said, as I sent out that text about that, that I would be very willing to not get paid because I didn't know what was going to happen. I was told by two or three. That's not for you to worry about. It's our job to take care of you. So we're going to do it. I appreciate that so very much. I really do. And I think God is honored you if you've got the treasurer's report for the month of the last two months. That was a pleasant surprise. It really was. That the offerings are still good. I appreciate so very much, not just for my benefit, it's really for your benefit that this has happened. But you see what the Bible says in verse number nine, and understand that whenever a person gives, it's more than just giving to the church, it's more than that. The Bible says, honor the Lord with thy substance. And this is what the church has done. I know that I've gotten text from lawyers that talk about a loan that a PPP, a PPP loan that we're supposed to get from the government if we needed money from them. But I thought, I thought to myself, I thought, we don't need that. And as long as God enables us, we will provide for ourselves. And I think God is honoring that, because what the Bible says right here, honor the Lord with thy substance. This is why we give. We don't give for anybody, we give for the Lord. We're obligated to the Lord to give our tithes and our offerings. And God has always supplied for that. The Bible even says, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. The Bible says that. We're the first fruits of all that increase. And why we do that? You've got to understand what verse 10 really means. If you don't understand what verse 10 really means, you'll miss the whole subject of giving. You'll miss the whole thing. Because we're not talking about dollars and cents here. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about honoring the Lord with our substance. All right? The Bible said, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy precious shall burst out with new wine. A lot of people believe that the more you give, the more God gives back. And they relate this in physical terms. Well, listen, sometimes the more you give, the less you have, because you've already given to the Lord. But, you can have great, great contentment in knowing that you have done with what you have, with what God wants you to do with that. Given to the Lord. You see that's what they're talking about. We're not talking about giving to the church We're not talking about that. I know the church is receptacle. I know that But we give to the Lord that's the emphasis here that's that's what that's what tithing or giving is really all about Is giving to the Lord and let the Lord take care of things and God can really take care of things he can do it in an excellent way if we let him do it and But sometimes we want our fingers on it. That's the issue. Sometimes we want our fingers on it when we also let God have his whole hand on it. And God can take care of everything. He can take care of it all. You know, I think of, when the Bible says honor the Lord with our substance, and with all and with the first fruits of all that increase, you know what I think of? I think of of wages. All right. A person goes to work at their place of employment. And they are paid a wage so much an hour or so much a job or whatever, however you work it. All right. what you receive from your employer is is a check or whatever that's given to you. Okay. But the employer before they give you a check, they have to take out all that check taxes, which they have to pay in. So what we're talking about is your increase is before taxes, we're talking about gross income. All right. Now, the church here, they don't take out taxes. I pay my own taxes. I'm like a self-employed person, so I pay my own taxes. So the check that I get, you can say, well, what'd you do with that? You take 10% of that, and that's what the church gets. No, that's what the Lord gets. That's what the Lord gives. I pay to the Lord. And after I pay to the Lord, He can do with it what He wants to do with it. It's not mine anymore. I have no record or no way that I can take care of that. That's not my job. That's the church's job. But what if you're self-employed? What if you are working for yourself? How much do you pay then? I never thought about that. I never had thought about that. Because the church had always paid me, or I worked at a farmer's home administration, they paid me. But what if you're self-employed? What do you do then? You don't get if you're seven point, you probably don't get a normal paycheck. How you do that? You know, I remember years ago, that there was a farmer that told me what he did. And I thought, this is amazing. Because he thought this, he thought if I only pay in to the church once a year because I harvest my crop once a year and then I get my income once a year and then if I pay that to the church everybody will know that it's me and I don't want them to think that I paid all that. He thought about it, and what he decided to do was that he would figure out what he should get. He figured out his income, what he thought it ought to be for a year. If he had a pretty good year, okay. So, he divided it by 52, and every Sunday then, he put in an offering. I said, well, that's a pretty good plan. However, there is a fault in there. He said, Where's it at? I said, Well, if there's a bad rain, what if your crop failed? He said, Oh, I was given offering. That's an offering. Oh, well, that's a unique way of doing that. That's a very unique way of doing that. You know, but this guy I tell you what, I never did know how much you paid. I never did know. I never did ask. I didn't want to know. But I know one year, he told me personally, he told me this. He said, you can't out give God. You cannot, you can't do it. Because God always takes care of me. He always does. And he said, I had a pretty good crop. That's all he said. I had a pretty good crop. That's all I know. You know, I'm glad that the Lord takes care of things. I'm so very thankful that he does. When he says, honor the Lord with thy substance, that's what he's talking about. When we give an offering to the Lord, We're honoring the Lord. I mean, that's what's going on. We're honoring Him in giving this offering unto the Lord. Look in the book of Genesis chapter 14 and verse number 20. In Genesis 14 and verse number 20, the Bible in this place is talking about Abraham giving a tithe unto Melchizedek. And I want to read this. Genesis 14 and verse number 17. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Shadol Lomer and all the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheva, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, and possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the Most High God, whom hast delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. Now, the one that gave tithes here is Abram. The one that received tithes is Melchizedek, alright? And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods for thyself. Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread, even to a shoelace, And that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich. Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which were with me, Aner, Eshgal, and Mamre, let them take their portion." An interesting point that I find in this passage, where in the world did Abraham get the idea of giving a tent? to McKesson, where'd he get that? I guess he just dreamed that up somewhere. You reckon? You're saying, I seen your hand shaking, no. He didn't dream that up, did he? No. You know, but where'd he get it from? Abraham got this idea from those that were before him. He did not get it out of the law. A lot of people say, you give 10% because that's what the law says. No, you don't. Abraham didn't do that. Abraham did not tithe because the law said he ought to tithe. He tithed because God said he ought to tithe. Makes all the difference in the world. You see, the Bible says in the book of Proverbs that we give unto the Lord, not unto men at all. The law that God gave to Moses was not new. A lot of people get this all mixed up. They believe that God gave a new law to Moses, but God did not give to Moses a brand new law. Instead, God CLARIFIED because the people had grown so COLD to God's directions. And so God wrote it out and spelled it out for them. But Abraham knew EXACTLY what he was doing. Another point along the same line. Noah was commanded by God To bring animals into the ark, right? He was to bring clean and unclean animals into the ark. But where did he get that idea? Where in the world did Noah ever decide how to figure out what a clean and unclean animal is? Isn't that defined for us in the law? Sure it is. You know why? It was because that men By the time the law had come around to be given to them, they were so cold and calloused to the things of God, they didn't even recognize the gospel at all. They didn't recognize that at all as being a thing of right. Didn't understand it at all. The events in Genesis about the law, about Abraham and about Noah, They came to pass before the law was ever given. Another thing, I guess it would be a good thing to look at, in the book of Genesis chapter 14, the Bible says that Melchizedek, that he was the king of Salem, And the Bible says in the book of Hebrews that he was a priest of God. Now, how could he be a priest of God if the priesthood was not even established? How could that happen? I thought the priesthood was established by the law. No, there was a priesthood before that. All right, so the things we're talking about in giving is shown to us over and over again in the Bible. If we just look at it in the right way, I think we can understand that it is so. You know, God wants us to honor Him. And God wants us to give willingly and freely To Him, it's not a duty that we give an offering to the Lord. It is not a have-to case. It is rather that we do that because we love the Lord. Look in the book of Leviticus 27, Leviticus 27, and this passage is written here. It's written in the law, of course, because of where it is, Leviticus 27. And we'll notice here that the Bible says that we'd be much better off giving more to the Lord than less. It's what it really amounts to. The Bible says in Leviticus 27 and verse number 30, And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is holy unto the Lord. So all the tithe of the land, the whole land, it all belongs to God. If a man will at aught redeem all of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. Now, you can figure that up real quick. That God says that if you do not pay a tithe, that God wants you to pay a tithe, or if you miss it some way, that God will require 20% more. That's something to think about. You know, this actually happened to me one time. I remember when I was a boy still living at home, I had my own job, make my own money, have my own car and all that. And I needed tires. I needed tires pretty bad. And so in order to buy the tires, I could not pay the tithe. My daddy was the treasurer of the church, however. And every Sunday night after church, he'd always pile all the money on the kitchen table and count it all down, and that was the final figure. Okay. So I remember him saying to me one time, he says, your tithe is not in here. I said, no, I had to buy tires. He said, oh, I'll take care of that. You think God could take care of that? Well, he did. I tell you what, the next week I blowed out two of them. Brand new tires. Blowed them out. I learned the hard way about a lot of things. I didn't know that verse was even in there then. But whether I knew it or not, God still required me to give tithes. He wanted me to give tithes to the Lord. That's what He wanted. And the whole thing is that I need to honor the Lord with my substance. I need to honor the Lord, giving to the Lord, and God will always take care of me. See what I'm doing here? I'm trying to keep us all out of trouble. And it's not trouble to me. I don't want you to get in trouble with God, because God knows what you're doing. Nothing is hidden from Him. Nothing at all. Look in the book of Malachi 3. Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3. The Bible says in verse number 8. And this is an interesting passage to me. It really is interesting. Malachi chapter 3 and verse number 8 the Bible says here is the question that God asked he says will will a man rob God Here's the answer Yet ye have robbed me and answer But ye say wherein have we robbed thee and he answers in tithes and offerings That is an amazing passage that God says to the people of Israel in that day. He says, you have robbed me, and they say, what are you talking about? What do you mean we've robbed you? And God says to them, you have not given me tithes and offerings. Then he says in verse number 9, you are cursed with a curse For ye have robbed me, even this whole nation, bringing 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 you out a blessing, that there should not be room enough to receive it." God said this to the people of Israel, and I think of this passage, especially relating to the here and now. HOW GOD HAS BLESSED OUR CHURCH, AS SMALL AS IT IS, THAT GOD HAS BLESSED OUR CHURCH, AND YOU HAVE CONTINUALLY GIVEN ME A SALARY. You've seen the offering, the report that was sent out. There it is. God bless. The Bible says, In verse number 11, I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. That is what God says, but these Israelites, they had robbed God. Look at the book of Amos chapter 4, Amos chapter 4. Amos 4 and verse number 4. The Israelite, now this is written about the same time as the book of Malachi. It's a little different, not too much. The Bible said it in Amos 4, verse number 4, Come to Gilgal, come to Bethel, and transgress. At Gilgal multiply transgression, and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years. And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings. For this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord. And I have also given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and one of bread in all your places. Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the LORD. And also I have withholden the rain from you. And when there was yet three months of the harvest, I caused it to rain upon one city, and not cause it to rain upon another city. And one piece it rained upon, and the piece whereof it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered into one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet you have not returned unto me, saith the LORD. Over and over again, the people of Israel had not done what God told them to do. It's a simple thing. It's a real simple thing, and yet, it takes a matter of faith. It takes a matter of faith. to step out and believe the promises of God. That's what it takes, and nothing but that. These people, they had to give. Can you give willingly and freely? Can you do that? That's what the scripture's talking about. Israel had robbed God by not giving when they should have given. Turn to the book of Matthew, chapter 21, and notice this. Matthew 21. And verse number eight, begin reading verse number eight, Matthew 21. And verse number eight, this passage is talking about the triumphant entry in of Christ into Jerusalem. This is shortly before his crucifixion. Matthew 21, verse number eight, the Bible said here in this place in a very great multitude, spread their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before and that followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! I mean, they are having a great time! as Jesus enters in Jerusalem in His triumphant entry. They're rejoicing and very great. But it doesn't stop there. The Bible said in verse number 10, And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved. How much of the city? All of the city was moved, saying, Who is this? This is Christ that's coming in. And the whole city was amazed. The Bible said in verse number 11, And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth, of Galilee. And boy, that would irk the Jews. Many of them, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they wouldn't like that at all. But the people knew who he was. That's why they had that cruel trial at night. Because they didn't want it to be known what they were doing. Verse number 12. Notice this. And Jesus went into the temple of God. I'm glad that the Bible does not say Jesus went into their temple because He didn't do that. Jesus went into the temple of God. He went into the very house of God. And here's what He did. The Bible said, And cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them. So he went in there and he just played havoc with the whole place. It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. What was the reaction? There's two different reactions to look at. There's two different ones. The Bible said in verse number 14, notice, and the blind and the lame, get this, and the blind and the lame, and they were not supposed to be in there. Why? Because they were blind and lame. That's why. Remember the beggar that begged at the gate of the Temple of Beautiful? The Gate Beautiful? And the blind, the lame, came to him where? In the temple. They came in the temple. And he healed them right there in front of everybody. He healed those people. Wow! Notice, And the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. They were sore displeased. Notice here, this is quite an uproar. Jesus Christ was healing people in the temple. He overthrew the tables of the money changers, and it seems to them that soul does. And the people were overjoyed. The Bible says in verse number 15 that the children were crying in the temple. The word crying here does not mean boo-hoo. It means that they were actually shouting for the Lord. They were praising the name of the Lord. And this kind of racket, the Jews did not like, ESPECIALLY since Christ had just made His triumphant entry into the city and ALL of these things were going on. They didn't like it at all. It's remarkable. What is it that God is really looking for? Look in verse 16, And said unto him, Now the Pharisees, the chief priests and scribes, when they saw all the things that was going on, it was these people, when they saw the wonderful things that he did, and they heard the children loudly proclaiming the name of Christ and glorifying God in the temple, They said, Hearest thou what they say? And Jesus said unto them, Yea, have ye never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings? Now that's a perfected phrase. He's quoting here Psalms 8 verse number 2. Hadn't you ever heard that? Ever read that? You know, God wants us to give Him praise with our tithes and our offerings. That's why God overthrew these money changers and all this. And why heal people in the temple? Heal the lame and the blind in the temple. He was glorifying himself. Look in Matthew 23 and verse 23. And I read this passage, it's really because of Verse 15 of Matthew 21, when the chief priest and scribes read what the Bible says in Matthew 23, in verse 23. He says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. I don't know how Christ said this. I know how it's written with an explanation point, but I imagine it was very hard. Imagine he said it in such a way that they would get it. He was talking about them Especially as he uses the term scribes and Pharisees. You're a bunch of hypocrites He says for you pay tithe a man and an ease in coming and those are just small Gar a small Call Well, there were I can't think of the word. They were small plants. Small plants. They would grow them in a windowsill or whatever. And you pay tithe of that. But you have omitted the weightier matters of the law. Justice, mercy, and faith. You forgot those. You're a hypocrite. That is what he said. You know, I think of the woman, the widow's mind. I don't know exactly where that is. I don't think I looked that up. But I'm thinking of that right now. And Christ told the Pharisees when he saw this widow woman with her mites. Mark 12, that's where it is, Mark 12. Mark chapter 12. I did have a note about that. Mark 12 and verse number 41. This is, you know, it's not the amount of money. God's not interested in that. We are, but God is not interested in the amount of money. That doesn't, the amount of money don't make any difference at all to God, because God can make things out of nothing. I mean, He made this world out of nothing, and surely He can make anything else out of nothing, too. The Bible said in verse 41 of Mark 12, Mark 12, 41, And Jesus said over against the treasury, And beheld how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast him much. And there came a certain poor widow woman. And she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And I really don't know how much money that is, but it's like a penny, not much. And he called on him, his disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, THAT THIS POOR WIDOW HATH CAST MORE IN THAN ALL THEY WHICH HAVE CAST INTO THE TREASURY. FOR THEY DID ALL CAST IN OF THEIR ABUNDANCE. BUT SHE OF HER WANT DID CAST IN ALL THAT SHE HAD, EVEN ALL HER LIVING. WOW! NOTICE THAT! This poor widow woman cashed in all her living. Have you ever done that? Sometimes we think we're doing pretty good to give 10%. to the Lord. I'm not talking about just an offering, just a gift out there for us. I'm not talking about that. But I mean, have you ever really given what God impressed you to give? I'm not talking about time. So if I do that, I won't have nothing to do this other with. So what? Don't you think God can take care of that? You know, I know a lady, I know a lady one time, and she saved money to buy a thing for her house. But you know what happened? It's real strange. She told me. when she could not buy the thing because her money that she had set aside to buy that had to pay a doctor bill. I think that's what it was. So what's so special about that? She didn't get it. Oh, but she did get it because God sent a carpenter to her. And he built it for her. It was a donated, he just wanted to do it. Could that ever happen? Would that ever happen? Are you willing to give up what you have for the Lord? Or is it all for here and now? What do you think? Are you going to do what God wants you to do? Is God able to supply for you? Does God know what you need? That's the question. That's why we're talking about giving, about freely giving to the Lord. I'm not talking about giving to the church. I'm talking about giving to the Lord. I know I paid my tithes and offerings to the church. That's how I give the Lord. But I did speak with one man a long time ago. A long time ago. And I don't know how the conversation ever come up. I can tell you the man's name, but I won't. But he told me he didn't believe in tithing. It wasn't Wilbur Johnson either. He didn't believe in tithing. It's okay. You don't believe in tithing. Okay. Found out later that the man, he thought that tithing limited his giving. And he didn't like it. That's right. He said, tithing, when I give a tithe, then I'm supposed to be satisfied that I've given enough. But he says, I've never given enough until I really ask God what he wants me to give and give that. And let God take care of the rest of it. Couldn't find out. The man gave at least 20%. I found that out by accident. I should not have known that. You can never out give God. You can never out give God. He's got a great big shovel, it's bigger than ours. I heard a guy say that one time, so I thought I'd use it. God's got a bigger shovel than I've got. He's got more strength than I've got too. God can do it. I'm so very thankful that he can. Well, we'll close with that thought, It's good. I love to give to the Lord. I'm thankful to the Lord for the way that he supplied for us and my family during this time. Let's go Lord in a word of prayer. We ask the Lord to bless the services tonight. I pray for you that if you're lost, that you might come to know Christ as your own personal Savior. He can save your unworthy soul. And I pray that he would do it tonight, that we might be able to see it be here when you are saved. I'm thankful to you, Lord, for the way you've blessed tonight. Lord, I thank you for this message. Lord, I pray that we might be able to say the things that you want us to say, and you'd be honored by it all. Lord, I pray that we might just bless you. And Lord, I pray that you might forgive us for our sins, help us as we give to the Lord daily. Lord, our lives are you. I pray you might forgive us for many sins blessed keep us from harm. Have us tonight to be found faithful to you. I pray Lord for those who are lost, that you might touch hearts as only you know how fortune Jesus name that I pray. Amen.