(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Here this morning, dear God, that love you and they want to hear the Word of God preached, I just pray that you would bless the remainder of our service. Thank you for these great songs that we've been able to sing and rejoice in the things of God. But Father, please now just bless the service. Holy Spirit, I just pray that you would fill me as I preach and lead me to preach with power the things that you would have me to say this morning. And in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Now this story in 1 Samuel 15, it's kind of a famous story that a lot of people know of. It's where really Saul was rejected from being king of Israel any longer. And it started a chain of events into motion that eventually took him out of that throne and put David in the throne instead of Saul and his seed forever. It could have been an everlasting dynasty of Saul's sons staying on the throne as it was with David. And eventually Jesus Christ will sit on the throne of David when he returns in the second coming. But here he loses that privilege, he loses that right because he does not obey the voice of the Lord. Now Samuel gave Saul very clear, simple instructions of what he was supposed to do. God had told him to go and fight against these wicked, evil Amalekites. He said, I want you to utterly destroy them from off the face of the earth. He said, not only that, but I want you to kill every animal that they own. He said, I want you to kill their camel, their sheep, their ox, their ass. I said, I want you to just obliterate the Amalekites. And so Saul goes and thinks that he's performing the commandment of the Lord, but he decided that he was going to take the best and nicest animals and leave them alive for the purpose of sacrificing them to the Lord. And he felt like that was a worthy thing to do because he said, you know, it's not like I'm keeping it for myself. I mean, I'm going to take these good animals. Why waste them? I mean, why just kill them and destroy them? Why don't I give them to God? Why don't I offer them to God? And God will be pleased with me. Of course, God was not pleased because God says that the most important thing to remember is that obedience is what God is looking for, not a sacrifice, not some kind of a sacrifice where you give up something that you really wanted. He said, that's not the issue. That's not important to me. He said, what's important to me is that you obey the voice of the Lord to the word exactly what he tells you to do. He said, that's the most important thing. And, of course, he says, because you've rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. But look at verse number 22 and see this phrase that's so important. It says, and Samuel said, Have the Lord his great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. See that phrase right there? To obey is better than sacrifice. And, of course, just to finish the story for you, Agag was left alive. He was the king of the Amalekites. And Saul did not kill him. He didn't kill all these animals. So what did Samuel do? Samuel actually took out a sword himself and hewed Agag to pieces and killed the king of the Amalekites by himself. He took it upon himself to do it because Saul refused to obey God and thereby lost the kingdom. Now I'm going to talk to you about a subject that is not something that I often preach about because it's not the emphasis of the Bible and it's not the emphasis of this church, but it is an important subject nonetheless, and that subject is the subject of tithing. Tithing. Now what does the Bible say about tithing? Well, as we go through this lesson, I want you to understand, first of all, that phrase, To obey is better than sacrifice. That's the key to understanding tithing. See, tithing is not something because we need money as a church, because we don't. I'll be honest with you, I announced a business meeting on January 31st. We're going to go over the money that came in and the money that went out, just so that everybody is aware of it and everything, everybody's a part of it. But at the same time, you know what, we have no financial need in this church. We've never had a financial need in this church. I've never stood up and said, we're a little short, we need some money for this. We literally need nothing. Right now we have extra money in the account. There's extra money in the missions account all the time. I'm just telling you the truth. There's always extra money. And the point of tithing is not because we need money, because we don't. The point of tithing is not because God needs money, because God doesn't. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mine. The point of tithing is obedience. That's the only point. Obedience, obeying the voice of the Lord. Not to get you to make a financial sacrifice on your part, where you sacrifice and it hurts so bad to give up some of your money to God. There's nothing to do with it. Obedience is what God is looking for. God is not looking for you to sign over your whole paycheck and put it in the offering plate this morning. God doesn't ask you to do that anywhere. Churches all over America have a full check Sunday. It's unscriptural. It's weird. It's because they've created financial needs that they don't really need, and so they try to get people to put large amounts of money into the offering plate so that they can use that money for whatever they think is important, whatever they think that they need. But that's not what God is talking about when he talks about tithing. Look at Genesis chapter number 28. Actually, I'm sorry. Look at Genesis 14, and then we'll get to Genesis chapter 28. Now, there's so many things that I could preach about this subject. Every subject in the Bible is so inexhaustive. I mean, every subject in the Bible I could literally just preach for days on any subject because there's so much that the Bible says about anything. Now, just so that you know, money is not a big thing with God because if you remember in heaven, what are the streets made out of? The streets are paved with gold. So basically that means that the lowest thing in heaven, the lowest bottom shelf thing is money. Now, I talk to people all the time, and it seems like they make decisions based on money, and whenever you make a decision based on money, it's a bad decision. You say, well, I'm going to move over here because of money. Better financial opportunity. Wrong. Never move because of money. Never move to some other city. Don't move here because of money. There's never a reason to move because of money. Don't do anything because of money. Money should not determine your decision-making process. God will provide your needs. You work hard. You do what you're supposed to do. God will provide your needs. You don't have to worry about making decisions based on money. But I could also talk. I could spend a whole sermon, if I wanted to, proving to you that tithing is something that God commands you to do. I'm not going to do that this morning. That's not the scope of the message. I'm going to show you what the Bible says about tithing and how to tithe properly, is the purpose of this morning's sermon. But look if you would at Genesis chapter 14 and look at verse number 18. Now, before I read it, actually, in Genesis 2, tithing is alluded to. In Genesis chapter 4, tithing is specifically mentioned. But this is the first time that we actually see the word tithe in the Bible, is Genesis 14, 18. So look if you would at Genesis 14, 18. The Bible says, In Melchizedek, king of Salem brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. Now, we know from the New Testament, from the book of Hebrews, that Melchizedek is Jesus Christ. The Bible says that he was without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth the priest continually. So the High Priest of God here, Melchizedek, is Jesus Christ making an Old Testament appearance. And that's clear from the book of Hebrews, chapter number 7 and 5. And the Bible says here that, and he blessed him, in verse number 19, and said, Blessed be Abram, let's talk about Abraham, blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And look at the last phrase there, and he gave them tithes of all. Now, this is explained in great detail in Hebrews, chapter 7, if you want to look it up later. I don't have time. It explains how Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek. He gave him 10% of everything that he received in this battle, and Melchizedek is, of course, Jesus Christ. So this is the first mention of tithing where it uses the word tithe. Look over at Genesis, chapter 28. Genesis, chapter number 28, and look at verse number 22. This is Abraham's grandson, Jacob. Genesis 28, 22, the Bible reads, And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. Now, the first point that I have this morning about tithing is, number one, bring your tithe to the right place. That's number one. The number one thing about tithing, because remember, it's not about making a financial sacrifice. God is not impressed with you giving money, ever. He's not impressed if you take 10% of your income and put it in the wrong place and say, I gave it to God. Is he impressed by that? No, he's only impressed when you obey the voice of the Lord. And so, bring your tithe to the right place. Now, the first mention here of tithing, he was giving it to Jesus Christ, Abraham once. But in Genesis, chapter 28, we start a pattern throughout the Bible where God always says that tithes, 10% is supposed to go to God's house. You see here, he said, this stone shall be God's house, and I'm going to give 10% of whatever comes to me that I will surely give the tenth unto thee. Look at Deuteronomy, chapter 12. This is kind of a foundation for the message. Flip forward to Deuteronomy, chapter 12, fifth book in the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, chapter number 12, verse 11. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 12, 11, Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. Vither shall you bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice vows which he vow unto the Lord. Now, where does God say that you're supposed to bring your tithe? To the place that he shall choose. So, who decides where your tithe goes? Do you decide, or does God decide? God says, bring it to the place that the Lord shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. That was the house of God, which originally was the tabernacle, which was a tent that they moved around with them as they journeyed. When they got into the Promised Land, eventually with King David, and then King Solomon actually built the temple to God, that's where the place was at that point, because that became the house of God. Today, in the New Testament, the Bible says that you might as know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So, in the New Testament, the house of God is the local church. Look, if you would, at chapter 26. Flip over to the same book, chapter 26, and look at verse 2. Deuteronomy 26.2. The Bible reads in Deuteronomy 26.2. That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land, that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there. And so where, again, are you supposed to bring the first of your increase, the firstfruits, the tenth, the tithe? He says, bring it to the place that God will choose. Now, I was driving down the road the other day, as I often spend long hours driving down I-10 and I-8 between here and Southern California, and I saw a truck, a big rig, and you know what it said on the back? It said, this Sunday, attend the church of your choice. Has anybody ever seen that before? You ever seen that? I've seen it many times, you know, this Sunday, attend the church of your choice. Well, isn't that so sweet? No, it's not, because it's wrong. Because you shouldn't attend the church of your choice. Why don't you attend the church of God's choice? Why don't you attend the church where God decides that he's going to place his name to dwell there? You know, we're learning about the book of Revelation on Wednesday nights, and we have Revelation chapter 1. Very important messages, by the way. Don't miss any of it. It's vital. But in chapter 2 and 3, there's a great talk about these seven churches that were existing at that time, and Jesus Christ personally rebukes them and gives them some of their strong points and some of their weak points. And he says, if you don't repent of this and that that you're doing, you know, some of them had wicked sin going on in the church, some of them had quit soul winning and all the different things that are listed there. He says, if you don't change what you're doing, he said, I'm going to remove your candlestick out of his place. Because remember, Jesus Christ was standing in the midst of seven golden candlesticks, which represented these seven churches, that he acknowledged, that he respected. He said, there's other churches that are wrong. He said, they're the synagogue of Satan. He says, they think they're Jews and they're not. They're the synagogue of Satan. But he says, these seven churches are churches that I respect, churches that I dwell among, churches that I acknowledge as being a Bible believing right church. He says, I'll put my name on this church. And God says, go to the church that God chooses. Now, do you think that God chooses every church in this city? And he says, just go to the church of your choice. Go to the one that has the date night on Saturday night. Remember, we saw that in the yellow pages where, you know, drop it. You come to a service from five to six and then they watch your child till ten thirty at night. So you can go on a date night. OK. Yeah, that sounds good. Go to the one with the twenty thousand square foot sandcastle with a drawbridge and a moat outside. Go to the one with all your favorite rock bands. Go to the one where you can dress however you want. And by the way, you can dress however you want here if you want to get preaching against. And nobody's ever going to tell you how to dress here. Because we don't have rules. This church has zero rules, no rules. We just preach so hard that some people just usually leave if they don't like it. And so we love everybody. And you can dress however you want in this church. But go to the one where you can dress however you want and people will tell you it's OK. That's the difference. OK. I'm not going to tell you it's OK to dress your kids, your daughter like a hooker and dress yourself like you're for sale. Hey, if it's not for sale, then take down the for sale sign. There's no for sale sign in front of my house. I'm not selling my house. If you're not selling your body, then why are you advertising it to the world? But anyway, I have to throw that in because I hate preaching on tithing. So I just have to get off on these other subjects just so I can have something that feels like I'm preaching. But anyway, the point is, go to the church that God chooses. You should ask God, God, which church do you want me to go to? Now which church do I feel comfortable with? Which church do I like? Which church makes me feel good? And look, by the way, if you come to this church and do what this church preaches from the Bible, you will feel good. You'll feel better than the other crowd. The other crowd, they feel good for like 15 minutes when they walk out of the service. Oh, that was so good. And then they probably forget what the sermon was about. They forget all their rock music and they turn on their other rock music in the car, the woolly rock music. And you know what? It's just a little temporary little fix. It's like a little vitamin they take. Hey, if you will sell out for God and live, eat and breathe and sleep this book, I'm going to tell you something. You can feel good for the rest of your life. That's what we're preaching here, not a little temporary feel good. And you know what? Go to the church that God chooses. Now why is tithing so important? Why is it so important that God says bring your tithe to the right place? And by the way, he never says send your tithe. Never. You'll see this throughout the Bible and we're going to look at this. He says bring your tithe. Don't send it. Don't mail it in. He says bring your tithe. So what's the number one purpose of tithing? Number one, you know, bring it to the right place. Why? Because the purpose of tithing is to get you to come to the right church. Because look, how are you going to obey God and bring your tithe if you don't come to church? It's impossible. It's impossible for you to bring your tithe to church if you don't come to church. You can't send it. You're supposed to bring it. And you can't bring it unless you're there. And if you're going to bring it to the place that God chooses, then God has to be in the church that you're going to or else you're not bringing it to the right place. Can you imagine if I took my paycheck and I just went to a totally different bank? Okay, because I banked my personal bank at Wells Fargo. Let's say I just went to, you know, Bank of America. And I walked in and I just said I want to deposit this money into the account of Steven Anderson. And they say, well, you don't have an account here. And I said, look, I chose today to go to Bank of America. Okay, I like Bank of America. Well, aren't you glad that I like you? You know, just put this in my account, please. And that's it. Or even worse, think about this. What if somebody wrote a check? Because I work in a business. What if somebody wrote a check to MSHAR Security? Okay, the company that I work for, MSHAR Fire and Security. And they wrote out a check and I just went and deposited it in somebody else's account. My boss said, oh, here, you know, deposit these checks for me. I just deposit them in some other security company. I chose. Look, that's what you're doing. If you go to some liberal church that's not preaching hard, that's not winning souls, that's not seeing people saved and baptized, that's not preaching the King James Bible, that's not screaming and yelling about the sins of 2007, I'm going to tell you something. You're depositing your money into the wrong account. And when God looks at his bank statement and all the deposits, he's not even going to see your deposit. Your deposit's down at Bank of America when it ought to be in God's Wells Fargo account. And so, this has been a message brought to you by our sponsor, Wells Fargo. But the point is, look, you're depositing your money in the wrong account if you're not bringing it to the place that God shall choose. Do you see that? Now look if you would at verse number, I'm sorry, look at Malachi chapter 3. This is the last book of the Old Testament. Last book of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 3, verse 8. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read to you Nehemiah 1038. So turn to Malachi 3. The Bible says in Nehemiah 1038, And the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites take tithes. So in the Old Testament, the Levites were the ones responsible for collecting the tithes from the people. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 7, And verily they that are the sons of Levi, who received the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren that they come out of the loins of Abraham. So here in Nehemiah 1038, it says, When the Levites take tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes, unto the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure house. So they bring the tithe, they take up the tithe, and they bring it to the house of God. Look at Malachi chapter 3, verse 8. Will a man rob God? Yet you've robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even the sole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse. So where are you supposed to bring the tithes? Into the storehouse. And then look at this. That there may be meat in my house. So what's the storehouse? It's God's house. He says, Bring the tithes into the storehouse. And he says that there may be meat, meat is food, that there may be meat in my 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 God says, You've robbed me. You're stealing from me. And he said, How? And he said, Well, in tithes and offerings. Because remember there were two things that were supposed to be brought to the house of God. Tithes, which is the first ten percent. It's also called the firstfruits, or the firstlings. And he says the first ten percent, he says don't check whether it's good or bad. He says just take the first ten percent, the quality doesn't matter. He says it's nothing to do with a sacrifice or anything. He just says you just take the first ten percent and give it to me because it belongs to me. And that's what tithing is. He says bring it to the storehouse, and then the offerings there, that's talking about the burnt offerings, was the other thing that they were supposed to take to the house of God that we saw in the book of Deuteronomy. Of course, we don't do burnt offerings today because Jesus Christ was the burnt offering once for all, the Passover lamb for us, and so that's been fulfilled. But we do steal tithe, and that's throughout the Bible. And again, that's a whole other sermon to show you tithing all the way from the beginnings of mankind all the way to the millennial kingdom after this current era that we're in here, after the tribulation, after the rapture, after the wrath of God is poured out, after the millennium, in the millennium people are still tithing. And so that's another sermon. But God says bring the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house. He says the reason that I'm having you tithe, he says I'm forcing you to bring it to me because I want you in my house. I want you in my house. I want you to bring with you the tithe. And he says if you don't bring it, he says you're robbing me. You're stealing from me. Now, look, if you don't pay your tithe, you're stealing from God because you're disobeying God. Now, is it that you didn't sacrifice and give enough to God? No, you don't give your tithe. The Bible says that you pay your tithe. The Bible uses that phrase, pay your tithe. Just like I pay my bills, just like I pay the water bill and pay the electricity bill, what if I don't pay the electricity bill and I go out and I just rip out the meter and turn it upside down so it starts running backwards? I'm robbing the power company because I didn't pay my bill. Well, look, God says I want you to pay me 10% of what you bring in. And he says if you don't, you're robbing me because you owe that to me. And God says, well, if you do that, he says I'll make sure that you have everything you need anyway. Now, is God going to make you rich because you tithe? Is God going to bless you financially and you're going to have all these great... No, but to be honest with you, I don't want God to bless me financially as much as I just want God to bless me across the board. And so God says I'll pour you out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it. Now, number two, the first point was bring it to the right place. Bring it to God's house, and that will force you to be at God's house. And bring it to the right God's house or else you're depositing the money into the wrong account. It's never going to make it to God. Bring it to the right bank. Bring it to a real candlestick, not one of these other charlatans that's preaching heresy. And so number two, bring the right amount. So first of all, bring it to the right place. It's very basic, but this is the important thing about tithing, obedience. And by the way, if you're not going to tithe right, don't tithe at all. I mean that. Save your money. Why waste the money? I mean if I would either decide right now I'm going to tithe or I'm not going to tithe. And if I weren't going to tithe, man, I'm not putting anything in the plate because I'm going to need every cent that I've got. But if I'm going to tithe, then I'm going to do it right. Wouldn't you hate to do it like 90% right? You give all this money and then God says, you didn't do it right. You didn't obey me. You disobeyed. What a waste. What a waste of money. I mean if I'm going to put money in the plate, I want to make God happy. I want him to be pleased or else what's the point? Why just throw money around? And so I want to do it right. So number one, I'm going to be dead sure and make sure I'm bringing it to the right place. And number two, I want to make sure that I'm bringing the right amount. It's very basic, but it's important. 2 Chronicles 31, verse 5. You don't have to turn there if you want to. You can. 2 Chronicles 31, verse 5. And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the first fruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field, and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly. So God here defines for us, he puts words side by side separated by the word and to show us that they mean the same thing. He redefines himself. He says I want you to bring in the first fruits of this, this, this, and he lists it. He says of everything. And then he says I want you to bring, you know, that's the tithes of all things. And so when you're deciding about your tithe, you have to understand that tithing is on everything that you receive. Everything that you're blessed with, you're supposed to tithe on that. Okay? Now, the tithe is called the first fruits. The reason that it's called the first fruits is because it should be the first thing that you do with your money. Okay? Remember, we're trying to see how we can obey God while we're tithing. Now, when God says it's the first fruits, he's saying you have to think about these people weren't necessarily always dealing with just cash. Okay? So their wealth was measured in animals and food and things like that. And so when they took the first fruits, they didn't find, well, I'm going to take the best 10%, and I'm going to give it to God. I mean, the best stuff. I mean, that'd be nice, right? But that's not what God told them to do, though. God said just take the first 10%. He said, you know, they would make their animals pass under a rod. They would count their animals, and the first out of every 10 went to God. Or if they were going through the fruits, the first ones that grew and were ripe, you know, because things become ripe over the course of several days, he said take the first ones and give them to God. He said that's what God wants, the first fruits. And so when you get paid, the first place that you divide your money, you know, you get $1,000 bucks. Okay? You get a $1,000 paycheck. Well, the first $100 is your tithe right there. Now, what does that mean? People say, well, I can't afford to tithe. Well, tithing is the first thing that you do, okay? You see what I'm saying? So then it never becomes an issue. Now, I thank God, I praise the Lord, that my entire life, since I was these little kids' age, I have tithed my entire life. There's never been a time when I didn't tithe. I'm not saying I have to brag. My parents taught me at a very young age, and I just took it for granted. I mean, I never even thought about not tithing just because that's the way I was raised. My parents just said, here's your 30-cent allowance. That was my first allowance. Thirty cents, okay? I don't know why it was that oddball number. Thirty cents, and I would get a quarter and a nickel. This is my first allowance. And I tithed on that three cents, and it was always irritating to me because I had to find a way to change that nickel into pennies, okay? You know, and I had to find a way to get the change. And then I remember my allowance went up to 50 cents, and I tithed five cents. And then I remember my allowance went up to a dollar. I tithed 10 cents. And I remember I went to my mom one day, and I said, Mom, I get a dollar allowance. I tithed 10 cents. I got 90 cents left. I said, it'd be so nice if I just had a whole dollar left. And so I said, and I was smart because I said, I want you to give me a dollar and 11 cents, okay? Because I knew that if I had a dollar and 10 cents, then I'd have to tithe 11 cents. And so I thought, then I've got 99 cents. So I told my mom, I said, I want you to raise my allowance to a dollar and 11 cents. And she said, no. Because she said, you're missing the whole point of kiting. So it has to hurt a little, I guess. So I got the dollar, and I would have to get changed again. And I'd have to find a way to get it changed, broken down, so I could put my 10 cents in the plate. And I did it every week. I got my allowance every week, a dollar, 10 cents in the plate, 10 cents in the plate, 10 cents in the plate. I wonder if God looked down and saw a little boy throwing 10 cents in the plate every week. I wonder if that's why I love God and read the Bible today. I wonder if that's why I preach and go soul winning. I wonder if that's why I'm raising my kids to live for God. I wonder if that's why I'm not out drunk somewhere, out partying somewhere. I wonder if that's why I'm not out ruining my life somewhere like other people that are my age right now. I wonder if it's because God looked down and saw somebody obeying the voice of the Lord, whether it was three cents, and said, I'm going to put my three cents in the plate. And my mom didn't have to stand over me and say, okay, put it in, son. No, I mean, they taught me to do it, and I did it. They taught me to do it, and I did it myself. I wonder if that's why I'm still serving God right now. That's the kind of blessing that I want, my friend. I'm not trying to have an air-conditioned doghouse like Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. I'm trying to have God bless me for the rest of my life and bless my wife and bless my children. That is the purpose of tithing, because when you obey God in any area, God blesses you when you obey Him. And He said there's a blessing on those that obey and a curse on those who do not obey for any sin. It's not just tithing. It's anything will cause you to get blessed or cursed by God based on obedience. Look, if you would, at Matthew 23, 23. Matthew chapter 23, verse 23. Matthew 23, 23. So remember, you take the first. The first thing that you should do, and plus people who say, well, I make so much money, I can't afford to tithe. Well, if you make that much money, you should have it, because it's 10%. If you make a little, then your tithe isn't that much. I mean, 3 cents? Anybody can afford that. But if you make 1,000 bucks a week, your tithe is 100 bucks. But hey, you're making 1,000 bucks a week. Or if you're only making 400 bucks a week, well, then your tithe is only 40 bucks. And so that's why God does it by a percentage like that, 10%. But Matthew 23, 23, the Bible reads, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and of omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith, these ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. So what does God say? Is he criticizing them for tithing on mint, anise, and cumin? No, he says you ought to have done it, but you ought to have not left the other undone. He says do both. Have the spiritual aspects of the law, but he says also obey the letter of the law. You're right to do that. Now, what is mint, anise, and cumin? These are herbs and spices. I mean, this is like if somebody took them out to dinner and they tithed on the parsley that was on the plate. I mean, that's literally what he's saying. I mean, they just tithed on everything. I mean, every little thing. Deuteronomy 14, turn there. I'm sorry I'm showing you so much scripture, but I want to teach you these things from the Bible. I want you to be able to see it for yourself. On certain subjects, I like to show a lot of scripture where you actually look at it. But here, this brings me to my second purpose for tithing. Now, my two points are bring it to the right place and bring the right amount. Why do you bring it to the right place? Because that's how God drags you into the right place. Number two, pay the right amount. Why? Because if you pay the right amount, it forces you to take an inventory of every way that God has blessed you. I mean, think about this. If I just tithed on my paycheck only, if I just looked at my paycheck and said, this is how much I made, and so I'm going to put 10% of it in the plate, but then I didn't tithe on all the other things that were given to me and came to me throughout the week. Well, if I had to sit down every week and think about, okay, what is everything that I've received this week? Well, that's going to make me have more gratitude to God if I sit down and think, okay, this is how I've been blessed this week. This is how I've been blessed. Oh, yeah, I didn't just get paid a thousand bucks. I also was given this. And so and so took me out to eat, and this and that I received, and this and that I received. And then I can sit down and say, God, thank you for everything that you've given me this week. I'm going to give you 10% of that because that's what you told me to do. Do you see how it's a more spiritual thing when you can sit down and take inventory of everything that you received? You know, when I got Christmas gifts, I tithed on them. I remember when we were first married, because you know how he says he'll give you a blessing that you can't receive? I remember when we were first married, we were poor. I mean, when my wife and I were first married, we had like no furniture. We still don't have a lot of furniture, but we had no furniture. I mean, we had like a mattress, okay, and that's it. We had just an empty apartment, never went out to eat for years. I mean, what did we go, like two years? We never went out to eat unless somebody took us out to eat. I mean, that's the truth. And we were dirt poor. I mean, we had no money. We just were, I mean, we were happy. You know, we were fine. We were blessed and contented and everything. But I mean, we had to really, really scrape by. And I remember somebody gave us a bunch of gifts, like a whole bunch of stuff, and you know, I knew from the Bible, I'm supposed to be tithing on this stuff. And I remember, I didn't even have the money to tithe on what these people had given me. And I was thinking, now I know what it means. God gives you a blessing that you can't receive, you know, because I was giving all this stuff, and I'm looking at this stuff and I'm thinking, okay, this is the dollar value of this stuff, and I can't even afford to tithe on it. You know, but I tithed on it anyway. I just took money. Maybe I sold some of it. I don't know what I did, but I just paid the tithe because I just, you know, God wants me to do it. I'm sure God's going to provide it for me. And I paid the tithe. See, I was acknowledging the fact that everything comes from God. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. And so when you acknowledge that everything that comes into your hand is from God, God's the one that gives you the power to get wealth, the Bible says in Deuteronomy. God's the one who gives you every good gift that you receive, so you should give the tenth part back to him. And so the Bible reads in Deuteronomy 14, 22, Thou shalt truly tithe. Truly tithe. He says tithe right. You know, make sure you're tithing right. Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed that the field bringeth forth year by year. Now, here's something that's controversial, but I'll tell you something that I believe firmly is that I tithe before I pay my taxes. Now, the reason that I do that is because the Bible says in all things, he must have the preeminence. Now, I'm not going to give Uncle Sam a piece of the action before God has a piece of the action, and so I firmly believe that. And then once you tithe to God, then you can write that off on your taxes, thank God. And so this month, in January, everyone who's here will receive a statement of everything that you've given to this church and write it out on your income taxes. If you itemize your deductions, you can write off your giving to this church because the government, when it was set up, used to recognize that they didn't have a right to mess with God's money, and so that's why you can write that off because you're supposed to... I mean, the government acknowledges that you tithe first and then pay taxes to them. That's why they let you write it off. Does that make sense? Because they let you write it off because they figure, well, that's not even your money anyway. That's not even your money. I mean, I just went to God. And so then we'll take our piece of the action after you tithe. So if you're tithing after you pay your taxes, well, you're basically not even understanding the system in the United States, which is set up in such a way to where you tithe first and then you pay taxes after. Now, it's just kind of a scam because the Social Security and Medicare, which has elevated itself above God, you pay before you tithe. Now, I'm not saying you should because I pay my tithe first. But in the United States of America, they take that off the top and they don't let you deduct your tithe from that because they're a bunch of thieving, lying devil, communists out of hell, okay? Amen. That's what it is, okay? And you say, well, I don't know why you're saying that. Look, I'm saying that because I'm sick and tired of the government stealing my money every week and taking half of my stupid income in income taxes and stealing it and giving it to other people that are lazy, that don't work, that have ten kids from ten different dads that are all in prison in the ghetto somewhere because I can go out and work my fingers to the bone so that somebody else can have a free ride and it's ungodly and wicked. It's all political. It's out of hell and it's wrong. And so I'm against all of it. But all that to say this, even though I don't agree with the taxes, I still pay my taxes because God says to, but I'm not going to exalt the God of the Social Security system and the God of the federal income tax system, even though they put themselves in the place of God, they take more than ten percent of your money because they think that they're bigger than God and they take some of it even before you're tied. You know, the federal income tax they take after you're tied, the Social Security they take before you're tied. I am going to give God the preeminence because the Bible says that Jesus Christ, in all things, he should have the preeminence. And so what I do is before I pay my taxes, I look at the number at the top of what I actually earned before they take out all the deductions and that's what I pay ten percent up to God. I'm just telling you that. Now, a lot of people mistakenly call that tithing on the gross. They say you should tithe on the gross. Well, that's a misnomer because that's not really your gross. Like if you run a business, for example, if you run a business, you're only supposed to tithe on your profit. Okay, you know what I mean? Like if I buy parts for work, and this is just a practical sermon because you need to know these things from the Bible. If I buy parts, like if I buy a fire alarm panel and then install it, and let's say I install it for 3,000 bucks and the panel costs me 1,000 bucks and I make 2,000 for putting it in, I'm going to tithe on the 2,000, not the 3,000 because it costs me 1,000 bucks to put the panel in. So you don't tithe on the gross. You tithe on your net, but you do it before taxes. Does that make sense? That's what I do and that's what I believe the Bible teaches. Do you read Deuteronomy chapter 14? Look at Deuteronomy chapter 14. Deuteronomy 14, verse number 23, the Bible says, And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. What's the purpose of tithing? To learn to fear the Lord thy God always. Not to give money, but to learn to fear God, to obey God. Now the biggest test of whether somebody's willing to obey God is with their money because money is something that people don't like to part with very easily. It's something that I don't like to part with very easily. But God is saying here, I can test how much you fear me because when I say I'll bless you if you do so and I'll curse you if you don't do so, if you don't fear me, that's just going to go in one ear and out the other and you're going to do whatever you want. But if you fear me and I say I'll bless you if you do this, I'll curse you, you'll say, God, how much? Where? Where do I bring it? What do you want me to bring it? How much is it? Better make sure I get it right because I'm scared to death. That's why. And that's what God's saying here. If you fear me, then you'll understand that I have the power to bless you, I have the power to exalt you, I have the power to promote you at your job, I have the power to take care of you, or I have the power to curse you. And so if you fear God, you'll bring him your tithe. And if you fear God, you're going to want to tithe right because you want to truly tithe of all your increase. Look at verse number 24. And if the way be too long for thee, this is very important, and if the way be too long for thee so that thou art not able to carry it, or if the place be too far from thee which the Lord thy God shall choose, that's like if you move to Mesa, you know, you have to drive all the way to Tempe. If it's too far, okay, he says if it be too far for thee which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there when the Lord thy God had blessed thee, then shalt thou turn it into money and bind up the money in thine hand and shalt go into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose and on and on for sake of time. The point is God is saying that if you tithe on non-monetary items, this is what we talked about, somebody gives you something. Okay, and remember back then a lot of it was not monetary, a lot of it was fruits and vegetables and animals and gold and clothing and stuff. When somebody gives you something, you don't have to take a tenth of it and put it in the offering place physically, okay? You have to bring it, you know, somebody gives you a barrel of apples or something. Don't bring a tenth of the apples and here you go, pay for Baptist Church, you know? Or somebody gives you a car, you know, you roll one of the wheels in or something and say here you go, I figure this is about a tenth of it, okay? No, the point is, he says turn it into money, okay? So let's say somebody gives me, and people have given me so many things throughout the years, and do you think that that was God blessing me when people gave me things or do you think it was just somebody gave me something? Whenever somebody gives me something, I always thank God and acknowledge that it came from God. So let's say, for example, somebody gave me a really nice jacket, which has happened before, you know, somebody gave me a really nice coat. Well, here's what I did, I found out what the value of that coat is and I gave 10% of that in money to God, okay? Somebody takes me out to eat. You know, the bill was 30 bucks, for example, for my portion of the food and they paid my bill, I'm going to put $3 in the offering plate that Sunday because I'm acknowledging the fact that that's something that was given to me that came my way that came from God and so I give it in the plate, 3 bucks. Now you say, come on, Pastor Anderson, you're splitting hairs, you're being ridiculous. Look, what in the world does it matter, 3 bucks? You want to mess with God for 3 bucks? I mean, the biggest part of your tithe is your paycheck, right? I mean, isn't that going to be the biggest thing? Unless you're just getting all kinds of gifts and people are just showering you with things. But the biggest part of your tithe is your paycheck. That's going to be like 97% of it. So look, I tithed on the incidentals because God said to and it's only a couple bucks, 5 bucks, 10 bucks. Look, I want to stay on God's good side, whatever it takes to do so. And plus, I know that when I put my money in the plate here, it's not being wasted anyway. I mean, it's going toward good things. It's going toward the work of the Lord. And so it's not like it's a waste of money. Hey, tithe on the incidentals because it's only a couple bucks and because even if it was 1,000 bucks, I'd do it anyway because I'm scared to death. I don't want to mess with God. And if you knew who God is and what He's like, then you'd be afraid too. Now, do I tremble and shake and get scared of God all the time? No. But I have a healthy recognition that if I stay on God's blessed side, then I'll be doing great and He loves me and takes care of me and He loves me when I'm on the non-blessed side, but He's going to discipline me and I don't want that. I'm afraid to have God stop blessing me and I'm afraid of having God have to discipline me. I don't want to live my life that way. And so, on and on, I'm going to have to skip part of this that I was going to show you from Deuteronomy 14. I don't want to take too much time this morning. But number one, remember, bring it to the right place. That means you have to go to the right church. That means you have to bring it there. You have to be here on a weekly basis. Number two, bring the right amount. Take inventory every week. Sit down and think about all the ways God has blessed you. Thank God for it and then give Him His 10% of that. But look at Leviticus chapter 27. Leviticus 27, the third book in the Bible. Leviticus chapter number 27. And you may not have learned these things before, and that's fine. A lot of this I didn't learn growing up. I was pretty much just taught, just tithe on my income. And I didn't learn until a little later, just from my own Bible study, that I was supposed to be tithing on gifts. Because my parents taught me, don't tithe on gifts, just tithe on the money. But I learned from reading the Bible myself as I got older, just my own personal Bible reading. I said, you know what? The Bible's clear that I'm supposed to be tithing on gifts that people give me. And so I'm going to do that as well. And so as soon as I learned that, then I started doing it. Before that, I didn't know any better. But look at Leviticus chapter 27, verse 30. The Bible says, In all the tithes of the land, whether of the seed or of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It belongs to God. Do you see that? It is the Lord's. It is holy unto the Lord. That means it's set aside for Him. It's set apart for Him. The Bible says in verse 31, And if a man will at all redeem aught of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. And concerning the tithe of the herd or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. Now let me explain this to you. When God is saying here that if you want to redeem aught of your tithe, then you have to add the fifth part to it. What does that mean? Well, back in Leviticus chapter 27, they're tithing on non-monetary items like we talked about. Fruits, vegetables, animals, the tenth of the animals. And remember how I told you they just had to take the first one indiscriminately? They couldn't check the quality. They didn't say, Oh, this one's junk. I don't want to give that to God. I'm going to give God a nice one. Or, Man, this one's too nice. I don't want to give this to God. I need this. And given this goat that's missing a leg or something, here you go, God. You know, the one that's all diseased and mangy. No, he says just take the first one indiscriminately. He says if you want to take part of that first fruit and keep it for yourself, okay, for whatever reason, he's saying if you want to take that animal, you say, I don't want to give this to God. It's too nice. For whatever reason. Of anything. He says, well, that's fine. That's fine. He says you can keep it, but you have to give God a fifth part in addition. So let's say I decide that I'm not going to give God ten bucks that I was supposed to give God, right? I say I'm not going to give it to him. Well, now I owe God twelve bucks. Do you understand that? Because I have to add the fifth part when I pay it back to God type of thing. Now, don't go into debt with God, okay? This is not like everybody's light bulb is going on. Wow, this is great. This is like the check cashing place. Number one, don't go to the check cashing loans till payday place. Don't ever go there. They know you buy first name bases down there, don't they? No, I'm just kidding. But don't go there, okay? Number one. And number two, don't do that with God either. But if for whatever reason, for example, there are times when I have forgotten to pay my time. You know how it is. You just get busy and just forgot to do it. Or there have been times when I tithe on part of what I got, but I forgot something. Like, for example, I got my paycheck this week, and then I got some other money this week. Now, what if I just tithed on my paycheck this morning and just totally forgot about that other money that I got? Okay. Well, let's say tomorrow morning I wake up and say, oh, no, I forgot to tithe everything I was supposed to tithe. I kept part of it by mistake because the Bible says you're supposed to bring it on the first day of the week, and that's another scripture. But I forgot to bring part of my tithe. What am I going to do? I've incurred the wrath of God on myself, and I don't want that. So here's what I do. The first thing I do is I say, God, I'm sorry. Right? Because I made a mistake, didn't I? Because I was supposed to bring it on the first day of the week. I was supposed to bring it to the right place. I was supposed to bring 10%. The first thing I do is I say, God, I'm sorry that I did not bring my tithe like I was supposed to, and I'm going to pay you back, and I'm going to add the fifth part thereto. So let's say I forgot to tithe 40 bucks, you know, that I was supposed to put in the plate, an extra 40 bucks for whatever reason. And I say, you know what, God, I'm sorry. I put in 40 bucks too little, so now I'm going to bring you $48. Do you understand that? Because you're adding the fifth part thereto is what he's saying here. When you take some of God's tithe away, he says, well, that's okay, just pay me back, you know, 20%. Now, don't say, well, I can't afford to tithe right now because, you know, I have this and that bill, so I'm just going to pay 20% more next week, okay? You know, don't live your life that way in any area, but especially not with God. It's not right to do that, okay? But if you do it, then add 20% to it. Or here it's more talking about if you want to substitute something else, you know, because they were doing, again, non-cash. Then he says add the fifth part thereto. He says if you were supposed to tithe this certain animal and you want to keep it, hey, give me 120% of the value of that animal and we'll call it good. And so on and on. That's just something that I do, and that's something that the Bible teaches in Leviticus 27, what to do in case you forget to tithe or you didn't tithe what you were supposed to tithe. That's what you do. Now, I'm going to close with this last thing. I'm going to show you two scriptures on this. Look at Leviticus 26, just one page back, and I'm going to show you a concept from the Bible that you may have never heard before or seen before. What the Bible says in Leviticus 26, 15, the Bible reads, And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, he's saying if you hate my rules and my laws, so that ye will not do all my commandments, he's saying you decide you're not going to do all of them. You're going to do some of them. But that you break my covenant, I also will do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And he goes on and on and lists all these curses that he's going to do to you if you decide that you don't feel like obeying the Bible. But look down if you would. It's interesting. Look at verse 34. He's listing all these horrible things that will happen to you. But look at verse 34. He says, Then shall the land... He's talking about how they're going to go into captivity. They're going to lose everything. But he says, Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemy's land. Even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sabbaths. Now turn to 2 Chronicles 36, the last place I'll have you turn. I'm going to explain that to you while you're turning there. He's saying that if you refuse to obey the Bible, he's saying if you decide that you don't like some of my rules and you're not going to obey all my commandments, just the ones that you like, he says I'm going to cause these curses to come upon you. And he lists all these different curses for about 16, 17 verses there. Then he says, Then after all these things have come upon you, after you've lost everything, after you go away into captivity, which he prophesied that they'd be taken captive into another land. He said, Then the land shall enjoy her Sabbaths, when you're captive in this other land. Now what did he mean by that? The Sabbath, the lands enjoying the Sabbath, was that God had made a law in the Old Testament that they were supposed to, if they had a farm, they were supposed to plow and sow their land for six years. Okay? And in the seventh year, they were supposed to let the land rest, not going to till it, not going to sow it, not going to reap it. They were basically just going to let it go wild. Just whatever grows, whatever happens. And they could just go out there and just pick it as they eat it or whatever. And they say, Well, what are we going to do? He says, Well, in the sixth year, he said, I'll give you three times as much if you're going to obey me. If you guys obey me as a nation, he says, I'll bless you in the sixth year. You'll get three times as much as you need. And he says, You'll have enough for the sixth year, the seventh year, and by the time you get into the eighth year and you're sowing your field, you'll still have, you know, finances that you needed. And so he says, You'll obey me and I'll bless you. And so they did this for several hundred years. They obeyed this. They would sow the land and reap it for six years. And then the seventh year, they would let the land rest. Now, that's an agricultural principle, by the way, because if you just farm the land every single year with the same crops, you'll deplete all the nutrients out of the soil. But if you let it go wild, it gives the land a rest and you'll actually get more like God said you would. You'll get more from the land because you're resting it and you're allowing nature to take its course and so forth. But look at 2 Chronicles chapter 36 verse 19. The Bible says, This is the fulfillment of this prophecy in Leviticus 26. It says, And they burned the house of God and break down the wall of Jerusalem and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. This is the enemy coming in and conquering them, the Babylonians. And then they had escaped from the sword, carried he away to Babylon. So they're brought away to Babylon, as he said they would be, where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. For as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill threescore and ten years. So here's what happened. The children of Israel decided to disobey God about the Sabbaths of years, where they took that year off from plowing their field. They did it for 490 years they did not obey that rule. For several hundred years they did it and then they quit doing it. And for 490 years they refused to obey that rule. And so when they went into captivity to Babylon, he said, I'm going to leave you in Babylon exactly 70 years because that's exactly how many Sabbaths you were supposed to have kept to me in that time. And so he says, one year for every seven that you disobeyed, the land is going to rest like I said it was supposed to rest and enjoy her Sabbaths for 70 years because you disobeyed me for 490 years. You say, what in the world does that have to do with tithing? Well see here's a principle that you see throughout the Bible. These people were greedy and said we're not going to let the land rest. We want to just work this thing and just make more money. I mean what good is it going to be to take a year off? We need to work. We need to make more money. We want to be rich. We want to increase. Now they would have been better off if they would have disobeyed God because what happened? The land rested all 70 years anyway and they ended up being taken captive, losing everything they had, losing their homeland, and being kidnapped and prisoners in a foreign country. So what am I trying to say? God will balance the scales in this life, my friend. The Bible says in Proverbs 11.30, don't turn there. I'll turn there myself. This verse just popped into my mind. It wasn't part of my sermon. Proverbs 11.31 says, behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth. How much more, much more the wicked and the sinner. He says, I'll pay you back in this earth for your sins. You know, he says, you're going to be recompensed in the earth. And so here's what's going to happen. If you don't tithe, God will take your tithe away from you. I believe that. Because he says, if you don't keep the Sabbath of years, I'll make sure that it comes from you. I'll make sure that that land gets a rest. I'll balance the scales of justice in this life. And so basically, if you don't pay your tithe, and I believe this, if you don't pay your tithe, God says you're cursed and if you pay it, I'll bless you, but this is what I believe. I believe that if you don't pay your tithe, God will take your tithe away from you. Like let's say, for example, you make a thousand bucks, and you say, I'm not going to tithe the hundred bucks that I owe God. I think God will find a way to take a hundred bucks out of you. You say, how's he going to take a hundred bucks out of me? Well, when you get a bunch of doctor bills that you didn't expect. When your car has to go to the mechanic that you didn't expect and break down. When you get a bunch of bank fees or something that you didn't expect. When you get some kind of a catastrophe that takes away your money. I mean, good night. There are so many things that God could do like that to just take a lot of money from you. I mean, we've had them happen to all of us. Not as a result of us not tithing, just because things like that happen in life, don't they? Being bad events happen that can snatch up in a moment. You know, my wife had to go to the hospital for an emergency several years ago. I'm just now paying that off. It's been years of paying that off. I'm just paying it off like this year, okay? Because it was like $14,000. And so things like that happen, my friend. Now, God is very capable of taking that 10% away from you if you don't just give it to him. Now, would you rather come to church and just take inventory of how God's blessed you, come to the right church, bring your tithe to the right church, put it in and say, God, thank you for everything you do to me. I love you, God, and that's why I'm obeying you because I fear you and I love you. Now you're going to bless me, God. Now, that's good, isn't it? Or you can refuse to obey God and say, no, my money is too important to me. My money is my God, and so I'm going to obey the travings of my flesh for money, and I'm going to disobey what God has told me about tithing, and then God will extort your tithe from you anyway. What's the point? But see, you have to have the faith to believe the Bible, to believe that that's the truth, that you will be better off on 90% than on 100%. You have to believe that. If you don't believe the Bible, then it makes more sense to you to keep your tithe. But if you believe the Bible and fear the Lord, well, now it makes a lot more sense to just put it in the plate, get the blessing, because you really weren't going to enjoy that money or spend it anyway because God was going to make sure and take it from you. And I'll guarantee you that the people in this world who don't tithe, they don't have any more money than I do, you know, if you compare apples to apples, because God's going to get it out of them one way or another. And not only that, but they're spending money on sin that I don't spend it on because I've tithed, and God has led me in a blessed path of not living a life filled with sin. You know, I'm saving money every month on cable television that I don't pay for. Saving money every month that I don't pay for alcohol and cigarettes and movie theater tickets and all that kind of stuff. Saving all kinds of money. You see, my friend, God will bless you if you pay your tithe. So just bite the bullet, write the check, and you know what? You might hurt at first to do it, you know, but after a while you won't even think about it. And most of the people, I think everybody here, you know, hopefully you've come past the point where it hurts, you know, to put it in and where you're having to decide whether you're going to put it in, but you just put it in like you don't even think about it because you know that God's going to take care of your every need because money's not your God. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. God, I thank you so much for this church, dear God, and for the people that come. And God, you know that I love everyone who comes to this church. And God, I love you and I thank you for the Bible and I thank you for the laws in the Bible and I thank you for tithing, dear God. I'm so glad that you invented tithing and I mean that, God, because it causes me to sit down and think about what you've done for me. It gives me an easy way that I can obey you. It's not always easy to obey you, God, but one of the easiest ways is when I just throw on my tithe every week because I don't even think about it. And God, I just pray that you bless the message, not the most exciting message in the world, dear God, but it's exciting to be on the good side of God and to have him bless you for the rest of your life. And so thank you so much, dear God, for giving us these admonitions and warning us and giving us these incentives to obey you.