Here we are, we're going to begin here today on page number 139, dealing with, we're in the middle of, well I got my sound on on my phone making all kinds of noise. We are in the middle of our study on tithes and stewardship, or tithing and stewardship. Last week we talked about the principles of stewardship, We basically dealt with four principles that everything belongs to God, that stewardship is a management of the affairs of another, that every Christian is a steward, and it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. And so we dealt with those principles of stewardship. Then we dealt with the few areas of stewardship. We dealt with the stewardship of time, how we use our time for the Lord. We dealt with the stewardship of talents like how we use our our talents for the Lord and then we dealt with the stewardship of of our testimony and then now we're going to begin dealing with the stewardship of our Treasure and I'm trying to find the verse that we left off that And Then we will get rolling here There it is right there. All right. All right, the same principles of stewardship which apply to our time, talents, and treasure are given for the management of our money. All money that you and I have is from God and it belongs to God. Everything that we have, really money or otherwise, any possession that we have, it comes from God and it belongs to God. The Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 18, it says, but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God that for it is he that giveth thee power to get well, that he may establish his covenant, which he swear unto thy fathers as it is this day. And so it's, we see here that it is the Lord. It says, even though we may earn our, our money through the labor we put forth, this verse tells us that it is the, Lord thy God, who gives us power or ability to get well. So this stewardship of God's money is usually referred to in the Bible as, and we're talking about more specifically in this particular study, tithes and offerings. But this stewardship of God's money really is what would God have me to do? This study doesn't really get into like every area of stewardship when it comes to our money. That would be a nice thing. Matter of fact, I think in our ABCs of Christian maturity, we're going to deal with finances and deal with how God expects us to be stewards of the money that he gives us, not just when it comes to offerings and tithes and so forth, but also how do we use our money? Do we use it wisely? Do we waste it on things that we shouldn't waste it on or do we use it for things that are that will benefit us in the long term? Do we invest properly? Do we put it where it needs to go? And so all of those areas we deal with on a deeper study, but this particular study, we're just dealing with one area, and that is how it relates to the church and how it relates to your relationship here and so forth. So the following scriptures will teach you what the Bible says concerning tithes and offerings. So first of all, we want to find out what in the world a tithe is. The word tithe is used here in these passages. Genesis chapter number 14, verse number 12, sorry, verse number 20 says, uh, and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. This is Abraham. This is speaking of Abraham giving tithes to Melchizedek. Okay. And so as he's giving tithes to Melchizedek, It's going to further explain it in Hebrews chapter 7, verse number 2. It says, To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being, by interpretation, king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is the king of peace. So this is, he gave to Melchizedek the king of righteousness, the king of Salem, the king of peace. He's giving him a tenth part of all that he had there. And so in the Old Testament passage, it uses the word tithe. In the New Testament passage, speaking of the same thing, it says tenth. Notice that this is before the law, before the law was given to the Israelites. So this tithe concept was before the law, before the promise had been received that Abraham was promised. So what we see here, this tithe is a tenth. or 10%, as it gives a space here to fill out. It says it is, and you can say 10% or 1 10th. So the question is, what is a tithe of $500? Gives the question, what is a tithe of $500? So 10% of $500 would be $50. $50 is a tithe or a 10th of $500. Or if you have $1,000,000. 10% of that is $100,000. 10% of $1 is a dime. 10% of $10 is a dollar. 10% of $100 is $10. So that's the idea there. A tithe is 10%. So we're going to look at the practice. The next thing here says, is the practice of tithing for New Testament Christians. Good question. Well, let's look and see what the Bible has to say about it. Some people, usually those who don't want the tithe, say that tithing was an Old Testament practice for Jews only. It was given under the law, and the Christian is not under the law, but under grace. And they'll use Romans chapter 6, verse 14, where it says, for you're not under the law, but under grace. Well, let's look. First, when did the tithe begin? Well, who commenced the tithe? Genesis chapter 14, verse number 18 through 20. It says, And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram, the most high of God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. And he gave him tithes of all. This wasn't Melchizedek giving Abram tithes, but this was Abram giving Melchizedek tithes. And so it was commenced by Abram or Abraham. Then it continued in Genesis chapter 28 verses 20 through 22, it says, and Jacob vowed a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and I will give, I'm sorry, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace. Then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee." So it was continued in Jacob. Jacob continued it. And then we see that it is confirmed in Leviticus chapter 27, verse number 30, it says, And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy unto the Lord. So we see that God gave in the law to Moses there that it was confirmed. He gave the tithe there to be confirmed in the law by Moses. And then it was commanded in Malachi chapter 3 verse 10, it says, 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 you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And so it was commanded here in Malachi, And so then the next thing here we see in Matthew chapter 23, verse 23, it is further commended or complimented and shown. Jesus said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of men and Annas and Cuman and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. So he says, it's commended, he says, these ought you to have done, but you should not have left the other things undone. And then, so here Jesus commends them for it. However, that's not fulfilling the whole thing. There were other weightier matters that should have been done. So that is also a common misconception is Some people think, well, if I'm giving my tithe, if I show up at church and I give my tithe, then I'm right with God. Well, that's not necessarily the case. Just because we give to God doesn't mean that we're right with him. We have a relationship with God that has to be kept right in other areas as well, not just in giving. So, you know, it's commonly misconstrued. Some say, well, I don't have to give. And others say, well, I give, so I'm right with God. But that's not both of them are wrong. So Jesus commended it, and then God ordained it and commissioned it. In 1 Corinthians 9, verse 14, it says, Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. So if you study through on the offerings, the tithes, and so forth of the Old Testament, of the New Testament, and what God gave in terms of what that was for and the purpose and so forth, you find that He was giving Standard by which God's men would be taken care of in the Old Testament that that well and the very first tithe It was Melchizedek. He was taken care of or given a tenth It was an offering to God, but it went to Melchizedek and then we see that Jacob says I'm going to give a tenth to God and we see that later when it's confirmed with Moses the offering as you find as you look through the book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy is that as this tithe is given, it's given to take care of, as we're going to look and see later, it's given to take care of the priests and the house of God and those things. So then Paul conformed it. We see in 1 Corinthians 16, verse 2, this isn't actually the tithe, but it's concerning giving in the New Testament. It says, Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God had prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. Last Sunday I preached on 1st Corinthians chapter 16 and we dealt with this this this this was speaking of the As we call it the Jerusalem relief fund or the Judean relief fund when when Judea had a great famine There's a great famine all over but Judea was the ones that were suffering most from it at the time and so they had a fund set up they had a situation set up where Paul would gather a money from other churches and take it back, money and food and goods and so forth, and take it back to Jerusalem to care for the poor saints in Jerusalem. So, this here, though, Paul gives us confirmation of taking care of the people of God. So, number two on this point, number one there was just dealing with the fact of tithing in the New Testament. This is part of letter B here, dealing with it being the practice of it, and then number two, it says, a study of these scriptures shows that tithing is a scriptural principle. Abraham and Jacob tithed 500 years before the law was instituted. Moses, Malachi, and Jesus spoke of tithing under the period of the law, and the apostle Paul explained tithing after the law. So Christians, it says, Christians ought to tithe. I believe this is a correct statement. I believe that we should be. There is a Scriptural mandate for this I believe it was given before the law and I don't believe he took it away It's not something that you do for your salvation or anything like that. Of course salvation is by grace or faith alone And and repentance for God faith for the Lord Jesus Christ. So the the tithing is a practice that that faithful Christians practice So it says how should Christians practice tithing so we look at the how and I We may get through, we're probably not going to deal with offerings this week. We're just going to deal with just the tithing portion because we're already over time. We got started a bit late. So how should Christians practice tithing? So we're going to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5, I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse number 14. It says, for the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. It says here, under the law, tithing was commanded, but under grace, we do not tithe legalistically, but because we love the Lord. And the passage here says, for the love of Christ constraineth us. We do what we do, not because we have to now, but because we can now. We're now set at liberty from the law, and we're now able to serve the Lord with constraining love. And number two here, it says, Do you think God would ask less love, less faith, less cheerful giving from a New Testament Christian than from a Jew under the law? Tithing for the Christian is not a matter of bondage. It's not at all a matter of bondage. And I've found personally, in my own experience, that as I give to the Lord, as I'm faithful to give to the Lord, God does just what he said in Malachi chapter 3. He pours out a blessing. And I'm not a prosperity type preacher. I believe that what you sow, you also reap. I believe that is a spiritual concept, and I believe it's a financial concept as well. When you work for a living, God blesses and takes care of you. And I do believe that that also goes in the spiritual as well. When you give to the Lord and to His things, He blesses and takes care of you. I don't say that for, as Paul said, not that I have respect of want, for I found in whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content. And so you'll find that every time that I get paid, I'm throwing stuff in the offering plate. I usually do it while we're praying so you guys don't see it. But as the Lord blesses, I make sure that I'm giving back to Him and honoring Him. So the fact is, as we practice doing this, we don't do so out of bondage. God is not happy with that. to do it willingly, not with, how did that go? Not by constraint of a willing mind. It says, for God loveth a cheerful giver. I think I'm misquoting that, but I do know that it says that God loveth a cheerful giver, and that's the kind of giver that he wants us to be. So when we practice giving, we give cheerfully, not just because, oh, I gotta give 10%, you know, or whatever. We give cheerfully, and in fact, when we give cheerfully, Oftentimes I found myself, it's easier to give more when I'm giving cheerfully because I'm excited to give to the Lord's work. So where should a Christian place his or her tithe? So Malachi chapter 10, as it says, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse. And so the Old Testament, for the Old Testament Jews, the storehouse was the treasury of the temple at Jerusalem. According to Acts chapter 4, verse 35 and 37, it says, that they laid them down at the apostles... Brother John sent me a text here. I guess he didn't know we're going over a little bit on our time. It says they laid them down at the apostles' feet and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And then in chapter 4, verse 37, it says having land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. So Christians brought their tithes and offerings in the New Testament And they brought them and set them at the apostles' feet. So according to 1 Corinthians 16, verse 2, it says to lay up in store. As we've already saw that passage there, it says to lay up in store. And I had an extra blank here. I don't know if you guys did or not, but it's S-T-O-R-E. So we're laying up in store for our giving. Subsequent verses show us that the storehouse was the church at Corinth. To whom the Apostle was initially address or the epistle. I'm sorry was initially addressed So today the storehouse for your tithe is your church. It is God's plan for you to give the tithe Wherever it is, let's say it is not God's plan for you to give the tithe wherever you decide You see God's made us a part of a local assembly To be a part of the ministry of this local assembly. And so as we give to God we give through our local assembly. So as we Well, I want to make sure that this isn't misunderstood here. As we give to the Lord, we give to the Lord. Many people often think, well, I'm giving to the church. No, we don't give to the church because it is the church that is doing the giving. You know, when we pass around the offering basket, we're passing around the offering basket to the church, the individual members of the church. And so as we, as the church, come together, and we give to the Lord, it is the church giving to the Lord. That's why if we write a check to the Lord, we don't write it to Fountain Square Baptist Church. We write it to the fund that's held on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's, again though, the church is the congregation of the Lord, and this is where we, you set up, you have a representative that you call out to handle those funds and so forth. In the day of the New Testament church, it was the apostles. And so, you have that storehouse or the place that it's kept. And here's the other thing, too. Well, we'll just look at the next point here. It says, why are we to place our tithe into our church? Malachi chapter 10, it says that there may be meat in mine house. The tithes and offerings are used for the temple and the ministry, or I'm sorry, the temple and the temple ministry. So it says that is for the priests, et cetera. Or in the New Testament sense, it's for the pastor and the needs that are there. We primarily use what comes in for the work of the ministry to try to reach the people around here. I work full-time for a living right now, and so for the most part, I don't receive from the church. As we have need, the church does take care of our needs, but as far as As far as the primary purpose of the offering, we're not really using it for that right now because I'm working also. So there will come a day though that the Lord will bless here and he'll have me more focused on just the ministry and I won't be working outside of here and the offerings that come in will take care of the needs of our family so that we can take care of the needs of the ministry. But right now we don't really have a congregation large enough to be able to handle that. We don't have any individually financially set people here that would be able to help with that kind of a matter at this point. But as the Lord leads, we'll get there at some point. But I believe that right now he just he's he set us in a position financially to be able to be a blessing to the rest of the church as well. And so praise the Lord for that. But as time passes on, We look forward to seeing the Lord add to the church body and see the church grow spiritually as well as see more people following the Lord here as a part of this church as we are able to reach more in the neighborhood. So anyways, that's the one purpose is that there may be meat in my house so that in the Old Testament, the tithe, the offering, it was brought in so that the priest had food to eat. So that was the point. It was to take care of the man of God. Well, in the New Testament passage here, it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 13 and 14. Let me see here. I just was quoting some of this stuff and skipped on down. All right. So it says, do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar, even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. So this obviously, again, it says it relates to the Old Testament practice, and verse 13 relates to the Old Testament practice, and then verse 14 carries this principle over to the New Testament churches. Our tithes and offerings are for the support, upkeep, and ministry of, he says here, of your church, And I would say that specifically according to this passage, it's of those who are ministers of the altar or the those who preach the gospel. And so. It says tithes should never be designated, meaning that, you know, when you when you put your offering in the plate, you don't say we're using this dollar for, you know, gas in the bus or whatever. It's just you put it in the offering. And and as the Lord has led the church, we decide how it's used and The authorities delegated if there's any major things that we do as you guys know I always call or text or email or you know or whatever and I get in touch with people and say hey What do you think about this like we got the bus and the bus was free praise the Lord it was it was a gift given to us and But we had to buy tires for it. And so You know That was a no-brainer. It wasn't like anybody was like, I don't think we need new tires for that bus. We just went with it. So anyways, obviously those kind of things, we discuss those things. We see what the right course of action would be and then we go for it. But we don't do that on an individual basis per se. It's a group decision. for the most part when they're major decisions. And my oh my, we are way past our time. So we're gonna quickly blast through the rest of this. So letter F here, it says, does God call us, or what does God call us if we refuse to tithe? Well, Malachi chapter three, verse eight says, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But you say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. You see, when we don't give our tithes and offerings to the Lord, and it doesn't just say tithe, says tithes and offerings. If we don't give our tithes and our offerings to the Lord, the Bible says that we have robbed God. And I, you know, that that dealt with my heart, you know, in the past when I hadn't given to the Lord as I should have come across this passage. I'm like, oh, wow, I need to I need to correct that. And in fact, chapter chapter three, verse 10 says that he will open the windows of heaven Pour out a blessing and then letter H here says whose is the tithe in Leviticus chapter 27 verse 30 it says and all the tithe of the land whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree is The Lord's it is holy under the Lord. So it is it is the Lord's and so 10% of my gross income Our gross income. It's not mine It's not yours. It belongs to God. This is the tithe is the Lord's So last question here, how can I please the Lord when tithing? Matthew chapter six, verse 33 says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. So the principle here is that we give the Lord first place in not just our financial situation, but in everything we give the Lord first place. And then Proverbs chapter three, verse nine, It says, honor the Lord with all thy, I'm sorry, honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So we're going to honor the Lord with my firstfruits. This means that we set aside the tithe first before all the other bills or expenses are paid. If we leave the tithe until last, God usually misses out. I found that to be true. Sometimes in the past, I've had times where I'm like, okay, I gotta pay this bill, I gotta pay this bill, I gotta pay this bill, I gotta pay this, gotta pay that, gotta pay that, gotta pay the mortgage, gotta pay the, you know, gotta put gas in the car, gotta get food, and then I look back and I'm like, oh man, I missed something. Ah! And let me tell ya, it's not easy to catch up. In fact, I found out, scripturally speaking, I don't have the passage right here, this is a sidebar thing, but I don't have the passage right here. to point it out, but I'll find it and show you guys, but it actually says that if you miss the tithe, this is the law, the Old Testament law, if you miss the tithe, you're supposed to add 20% to the tithe when you bring it. I'm like, whew! That's what they had to do in Israel. If they missed their tithe, if they were like, well, I can't afford to pay it right now, I'll pay it next time, then they would have to bring it plus a fifth part of it, so another 20%. So it was 10% plus 20% of 10%, which basically means that if they were late, they had to pay 12%. Like, wow. That's interesting. So I started thinking back, and I was like, man, when was I late on that? When I came to that passage, I'm like, not that I live the Bible as though it's some law, but the love of Christ constrains me, and I think, Well, praise the Lord, here's an opportunity. If the Lord's blessed me, I can catch up on that other 2% that I missed somewhere along the line. But it does, often it's very difficult to try to catch up after you've missed it. In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 2, it says to bring the tithe on the first day of the week. So, next week we'll deal with, I'm gonna mark it this time so I don't miss where we're at, Next week. We'll start talking about the offerings and then actually oh my goodness You know what? man I'm taking the time. We're going to do it right now because that's all we have their side of this five point for six points here Okay, we'll just fly through it you have the scripture Okay, because it won't be a whole lesson next week if I don't I? So many people would feel that they have done God a great favor just by tithing, but we do not give the tithe. It is not ours to give. Only after we have faithfully tithed can we give an offering to the Lord, unto the Lord. So what he's saying here, scripturally speaking, in Malachi 3, verse 8, it speaks of tithes and offerings. The offerings are what we give above and beyond the tithe. Tithing requires an obedient heart, but giving requires a willing heart. Exodus chapter 35 verse 5, whosoever's heart is willing. And then Ezra chapter 1 verse 4, chapter 3 verse 5, chapter 7 verse 16, chapter 8 verse 28. In those passages, the Bible refers to these offerings as a free will offering. And according to 2 Corinthians 8 verse 5, the people, the churches of Macedonia first gave themselves to the Lord. And then they gave of the offerings there. So according to First Corinthians, chapter nine, verse seven says, what kind of giver does God love? As I already said before, a cheerful giver. And then if we tithe and also give an offering, will the Lord allow us to suffer and go without the necessities of life? Well, Second Corinthians, chapter nine, verse eight says, God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. So the answer to that question is no, God won't allow us to go without the needs that we have. Oftentimes when we don't, when we're not faithful to God though, we do go without. So the last page here of this study has a little thing here, just basically a resolution to practice giving scripturally. You can look at that and that's between you and the Lord to do. Next week we'll talk about unity. Any questions or comments on this study?