Go to Hebrews 7.
Tithing is taught in the New Testament.
It's not just something that's limited to the Old Testament.
And we see that because of the fact that the New Testament is very specific about
the things which have changed or been done away with.
Now in Hebrews 7, look at verse 14, and you've got to kind of follow me on this one.
This one's a little bit, kind of a different take, but I think it's right.
So if you look at verse 14 it says,
For it is evident that the Lord sprang out of Judah, which Moses spake nothing
concerning the priesthood.
And I don't have it in there.
Let me just make sure, I want to make sure I get it right.
So I'm going to go to Hebrews 7.
Bear with me for a moment.
In Hebrews he talks about the fact that the priesthood has been changed.
Now I'm going to just read it because I want to make sure I get it right.
Hebrews chapter 7, verse 12.
For the priesthood being changed there is made of a necessity, a change of the law
also.
Now notice there, he didn't say that the priesthood was done away.
That's not what he said.
He said the priesthood was changed.
And of course we understand from Hebrew 7 that that change is that Christ has now
become our high priest.
He is the high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
That is the change that has taken place.
Jesus is our high priest in heaven.
Now the high priest's job in the Old Testament was to minister on behalf of the people unto
the Lord.
And that was the nature of that job.
That was what they were to do.
Now that part of that job hasn't changed either.
No, Jesus is in heaven and he makes prayers and intercessions for us.
But as far as the day-to-day stuff that we have to deal with, the nitty-gritty
of just living life here on earth, the practical matters, Jesus doesn't come down here
and teach us those things personally.
He doesn't come down here and teach us all the things that we have questions about.
He's actually given us ministers that do that on his behalf.
Just like you kind of had the high priest in the Old Testament and he had certain duties
and then the other Levites, they had, I guess you could call them lesser duties.
The high priest was the only one that was allowed to go into the holiest of holies
once a year.
And then the other priests, they had the more day-to-day stuff, attending to the altar,
cleaning things up, taking up and setting down the tabernacle, so on and so forth.
So yet, the priesthood has changed in the sense that Jesus has now become our high priest,
but we have ministers here in the local church.
The way Christ ministers, our high priest ministers to us, is of course through the
Bible and the Holy Spirit, but a big component of the way he ministers to us is
through the local church, is through the ministers that are in the local church.
That's what, in Ephesians chapter 4, it says in verse 8, wherefore he saith when he ascended
up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men, and it says he gave
some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and some teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ.
That's the reason for the local church.
That's why God has given preachers and teachers to the local church, is for the edifying
of the body of Christ.
Now you say, where are you going with this?
Just like the Levitical priesthood in the Old Testament, they were flesh and blood human
beings and they had physical needs.
That's why God gave them the tithes of the people to support them so that they could
be wholly devoted to those duties that were given only to them.
You can make that same application today to the New Testament church.
Those that are ministering in Christ's stead, those that are ministering on our high
priest's behalf, we still have physical needs.
We, like the Levites, still have families to raise, mouths to feed, have to put clothes
on people, have to put roofs over people's heads, have to pay for midwives and all
these other things.
We have these needs.
These haven't gone away.
In fact, Paul, he goes on and he even cites, if you would, go over to 1 Corinthians 9.
And people, they'll get upset and say, well, I just don't understand why we need a tithe.
Why is that commanded?
You're just insisting on it because you just want to take it easy or something.
Now look, are there ministers out there that are just all about making money and taking
it easy and not doing the work of the ministry?
Sure there are, but not in this church and not a lot of other churches that I know.
There are ministers who are serious about the work of the ministry.
The Bible says that they are worthy of double honor, that we should be willing to
communicate with such.
Because it is work.
The ministry at the end of the day is work.
If you're doing it right, it's work.
It's not easy.
It's a job like any other job that's out there.
Any other person that has a job, it's the same thing.
There's still the mundane duties that have to get done.
There's still all the fine print that has to get taken care of, the checks that have
to be written, the bills that have to be paid.
People have to understand, and I know this crowd probably isn't struggling with this,
but people need to understand the tithe is important because of the fact that those
are some nice chairs you're sitting on.
I think they're pretty comfortable.
If you were here when the old chairs were here, you'd really appreciate those chairs.
We're shipping those things out.
We're getting rid of them.
We're sending them to the other side of the country.
Get those things away from us.
Those chairs weren't free.
I didn't pay for them.
Pastor Anderson didn't pay for them.
You know who paid for them?
The church paid for them.
How did they pay for it?
Through the tithe.
It's not just going all towards someone's salary and making sure that they're taken
care of.
They have what they need.
It also allows us to do a lot of other things for the Lord to have nice murals,
have a nice big building, put a foosball table in the back, have a place for people to go fellowship.
We have a lot of nice things because of the tithe.
God bless you.