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Part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is the part in verse number 8 where the Bible reads, Will a man rob God, yet he have robbed me? But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings? You're cursed with a curse, for you've robbed me. Even this whole nation bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house. And prove me now to her wit, 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. What I want to preach about tonight is a subject of tithing. Now, I realize I haven't preached on tithing in years. I looked at it, and it's been a really long time since I've preached on this subject. And it's a very biblical subject, and it's a subject that's carried all through the Bible. Now, a lot of people don't believe in tithing. They believe that tithing was something that was under the law in the Old Testament. And that in the New Testament, you know, we don't do tithing. Well, I don't believe that at all. I'm going to prove to you tonight why I don't believe that tithing is an Old Testament or unscriptural. It's actually very biblical for us today to be tithing. Now, the word tithe, simply put, and go back to Genesis, if you would, the book of Genesis. Simply put, the word tithe means a tenth. And that's all it means. It's just one tenth. And basically, the subject of tithing is just giving one tenth of your increase unto God. And giving it to the Lord. And God said, if you do so, then he'll bless you and take care of you. And if you don't do so, then it's like you're robbing him. And I'm going to explain why as we get into this. But a lot of people will say, well, tithing is Old Testament. It's part of the law. And in the New Testament, we don't have to observe it. Now, here's the problem with that. The Old Testament is filled with laws. And especially Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the books of Moses. They list all these different laws of things that we should be doing and things that we should not be doing. Well, when we get into the New Testament, some of those laws are restated. But not all of them are restated in the New Testament. Now, in the New Testament, there are certain laws that God specifically does away with in the New Testament. He specifically makes changes to the Old Testament. Now, Jesus Christ said, think not that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. And so he didn't want to do away with the law. He came to fulfill the law. Now, there are certain specific things that the Bible lays out we're done away with under the New Covenant or the New Testament. One of those things are the dietary laws. You know, in the Old Testament, if you look at the Mosaic law, there were certain animals you weren't supposed to eat. You know, you weren't supposed to eat pigs or rabbits or shellfish or shrimp and lobster. Those are all things that we eat today. And they're good for you to eat today. They're scriptural for you to eat. But if you stop and look at that, first of all, before Moses gave the law, people were allowed to eat all the animals. Because in Genesis chapter 9, when Noah got off the ark, God told Noah that he could eat every living thing that breathed would be meat for him. And secondly, the Bible specifically says in the New Testament in many places that the carnal ordinances, and he says the meats, the drinks, the divers, washings, those things have all been done away with under the New Covenant in the New Testament. So he specifically mentions certain things. He also specifically mentions that there's no longer a Levitical priesthood and that that's all been changed in the New Testament. It's the priesthood of Melchizedek with Jesus Christ being the high priest. And so here's what I believe and here's what I preach because it's biblical is that anything that God did not do away with in the New Testament has not been done away with. For example, God doesn't restate every single law in the New Testament. So when the Bible says the Old Testament, it's wrong for you to marry your sister. And it's wrong for you to look upon the nakedness of your mother-in-law. Now, God didn't restate those things in the New Testament. But is there anybody here that would think, well, now that we're in the New Testament, you can marry your sister now. Hey, what are you trying to bring us back under the Old Testament law? Obviously, there are a lot of things in the Old Testament that did not change. And in fact, most of the things in the Old Testament did not change. It's just a few specific things that he particularly brings up and says, okay, you used to have the temple, now your body's the temple. You know, you used to have these dietary restrictions, now you can eat all things. But he specifically brings up which things have changed. The book of Hebrews is a great book to read that explains what is different and what is the same. But the thing about tithing is that tithing actually goes back before the Mosaic law was given. It's actually something that goes throughout the whole Bible, even beginning all throughout Genesis, before Moses was around. And in the New Testament, it's reiterated as part of the New Testament. And it's explained the transition from tithing unto the priests in the Old Testament to tithing to the church. That's actually brought up in the Bible, and we're going to look at that in 1 Corinthians in a little while. But let's start out in Genesis, okay, to see some of the earliest mentions of tithing. Look at Genesis 14, this is the first time that the word tithing is used in the Bible. It says in Genesis 14, verse 17, And the king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return from the slaughter of Kedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's nail. This is where Abraham has defeated the people who had taken law captive and he had defeated Kedorlaomer and these kings. And it says in verse 18, And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. So he comes out to meet Abraham. And it says in verse 19, And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abraham 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 he gave them tithes of all. So that's the first time we see the word tithing in the Bible. Now keep your finger in Genesis 14. We're going to be right back there. Go to Hebrews chapter 7 at the end of the New Testament. Hebrews chapter number 7. So the first time we see the word tithing in the Bible is when we see Abraham comes across this man that meets him. And this man is named Melchizedek and he's the priest of the Most High God. He brings bread and wine. He blesses Abraham. And then Abraham gives him tithes of all. He gives him one-tenth of what he won in the battle. Look at Hebrews 7, verse 1. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem... So we're referring to that guy in the Old Testament in Genesis 14. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all. So that shows that the tithe is one-tenth of the tenth part. First being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. Who is this man, Melchizedek, according to the Bible? Jesus. He was the Son of God. He was Jesus Christ. See, sometimes God and Jesus Christ would appear in the Old Testament in bodily form, like when Abraham is at the door of his tent in Genesis 18, and basically the Lord comes and appears to him in bodily form with his two angels. He sees three men coming toward him. It's the Lord and his two angels. And so Jesus Christ made appearances in the Old Testament in bodily form, and this is one of those times, because the Bible says that he was without father, Melchizedek, was without father, without mother, and without descent, and having neither beginning of days nor end of life. So is this just a normal mortal human being that walked up to Abraham? No. This was Jesus Christ appearing in the flesh of the Old Testament, and he was doing it for a reason, because God is teaching us something about how Melchizedek was the one who received tithes from Abraham. We'll look at the next verse, verse 5. And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, this is the Old Testament Levitical priesthood, 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, though they come out of the loins of Abraham. But he whose descent is not counted from them, talking about Jesus, received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction, the less is blessed to the better. And here men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. So let's go back to Genesis now that we saw that. So we see that in Genesis, the first time tithing is mentioned, is basically an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ coming and receiving the tithes from Abraham, 110. Go to Genesis, chapter number 28, verse 22. Genesis 28, 22, this is Jacob, or Israel, the grandson of Abraham. He says in verse 22, And behold, 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. So we see very clearly that both Abraham and Jacob were talking about giving one tenth unto God, or giving one tenth unto Jesus Christ. Now if you jump back to Genesis, chapter 4, really tithing even goes back further. Because we can see something that pretty much resembles tithing in Genesis, chapter 4. Because in Genesis, chapter 4, the Bible says in verse 3, and in the process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of this flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel unto his offering, but unto Cain unto his offering he had not respected. So the Bible talks about the fact that Cain brought this offering to the Lord of fruits and vegetables. God did not respect it, God wanted a blood sacrifice, not fruits and vegetables. But also you notice that it says that Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock. And the Bible uses the term tithe and first fruits, and tithe and firstlings interchangeably later on in the Mosaic law. Because you're supposed to give the first tenth unto God. And that's what Abel was actually doing with his sacrifice there, he brought the first lamb. And that's what the Bible teaches there. So even you see a little bit of it right there. Now if you would jump forward to Proverbs, actually go to Numbers, chapter 18. Because first I'm showing you Old Testament tithing, okay? I'm going to show you Old Testament tithing, and then I'm going to show you where God brings this into the New Testament, and explains it in the New Testament. Look at Numbers, chapter 18. Numbers, chapter 18, verse 23, the Bible says, But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear your iniquity. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance. But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an eve offering unto the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit. Therefore I have said unto them, among the children of Israel they have no inheritance. So in verse 23 we see the Levites are doing all the work about the tabernacle, they're offering the sacrifices, they're taking it up, they're putting it down, they're doing all the work associated with the house of God. And so basically God doesn't give them an inheritance, as in He doesn't give them land that they can have a great big piece of land, where they can grow crops and sell those crops. Instead they're not going to be farmers and doing all that, they're going to be serving God in His house, and so instead of that they're going to receive the tithes from the children of Israel. That's their inheritance. It says in verse 26, Thus speak unto the Levites and say unto them, When ye take up the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from your inheritance, then ye shall heave up an heave offering of it from the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe. And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the Lord of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel, and ye shall give thereof the Lord's heave offering to Aaron the priest. So he says you're going to take all the tithes from the children of Israel, and that's going to be what the Levites live off of, because their work is just about God's house. And then he said you take one tenth of that and give it unto the priests, because not every Levite was a priest. So one tenth of that tithe goes unto the priests. That's what they live off of. Look at, keep your finger, or don't keep your finger there, go to Leviticus chapter 27. Leviticus chapter 27, the book writes before numbers. Leviticus 27 verse 30. The Bible reads, 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. Now, let me ask you something about that verse, Leviticus 27 30. And before we get into the New Testament, we're just talking about the Old Testament right now. In Leviticus 27 30, does that say, you know, you're going to take some of your, you're going to take all your stuff, and you're going to give one tenth of your stuff to God out of the goodness of your heart. Is that what you see expressed in that verse, Leviticus 27 30? No. He's saying the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the land, is the Lord's. So it already belongs to him, is what he's saying. He's saying it is the Lord's, it's holy unto the Lord. So he's saying one tenth of everything that grows on the trees. One tenth of everything that grows out of the land. He said it belongs to the Lord, it's holy unto the Lord. That's why he's telling them to give one tenth to God. See, you have to understand that throughout history, 90% of people have been farmers throughout history. I mean, today, we don't, we have such a tiny percent of the population that's farmers. We have everyone else doing every other kind of job, and we have an industrial farming system. And so we don't really have a lot of farmers. But throughout history, people grew their own crops. And so God's saying, you know, you take one tenth of that. It wasn't necessarily going to be cash that you brought for your tithe. Because you might not have a lot of cash, but it's like you grow a field full of, you know, potatoes. You know, you're going to give one tenth of them unto the Lord. Let's say, you know, you have orange trees, and you have orange groves, and you have all these oranges. Well, you're going to give one tenth of the oranges. So you might not necessarily bring your tithe in cash, but they would mainly probably bring their tithe in herds of cattle. Let's say they have 100 cows. They're going to give ten of them unto the Lord. Let's say they have, you know, this many bushels of fruit. They're going to bring that in. Just one tenth of the increase. And God said, it already belongs to me. And that's why he said in the Malachi chapter 3 verse 8, he said, will a man rob God? Yet you say, wherein have we robbed thee? How did we rob you? And he says, well, in tithes and offerings. Because it belongs to me, and you're not giving it to me. You're hoarding it and keeping it for yourself, which means that you're robbing me. Now, look if you would at Deuteronomy. So we're looking through the Old Testament law here on this, where he explains what the purpose of the tithe was. What was the purpose of it? He said, bring it to my house. He said, it's the Levites. They're the ones who get it and inherit it. But there's more to the tithe than that. Let's look at it a little further. Deuteronomy 12, 17 says this. Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds, or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy free will offerings, or heap offering of thy hand. So again, it doesn't look like we're talking about just cash. We're talking more about fruits and oil and animals. Because that was their source of wealth. When the Bible talks about how much wealth Job had, it doesn't sit there and tell you how much is in his bank account. It tells you, hey, he had this many sheep, this many oxen. That was their wealth. It was in land and food and animals and so forth, which things, of course, have value. But look what it says in verse 18. But thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. Thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy manservant and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto, take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite, as long as thou livest upon the earth. So God says, don't eat of your tithes. Don't use that stuff in your own gate and in your own home. He's saying, bring that stuff to the house of the Lord. Bring the tithe of your flocks and of your produce. And he says, you can eat it too. You'll eat it down there with them. He said, you'll eat it in God's house, and the Levite will eat it, and you'll eat it also, and the fatherless and the widow will also eat it. Hey, don't forsake the Levite. He's serving God. He needs this stuff. That's what he lives off of. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 14. Deuteronomy chapter number 14. The Bible reads in verse 22, Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed that the field bringeth forth year by year. 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, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. 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 to set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thy hand, and shalt go into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. So what's he saying? He's saying, look, it might not be practical if you live far away from the house of God. It might not be practical for you to bring just all this tons of produce, and you got one-tenth of this and one-tenth of the animals, and it's just too much to bring. He said it's probably easier to just turn it into money. Basically sell one-tenth of your stuff that you earned that year, and then just bring the money. And then when you get down there, he says you can buy whatever and bring that for the... You know, you can buy the stuff. You can buy food, and you can buy animals and everything that you want to give to the Levites and to partake of and enjoy with them, because they would bring it at the time of a feast. So they would bring it, and they would give it to the Levites, but then they would also get to partake of the tithe themselves. They would get to enjoy it as well. It says in verse 26, thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. He's saying whatever you want to buy, for oxen or for sheep or for wine or for strong drink or for whatsoever thy soul desires. By the way, when he says strong drink there, he's not referring to, you know, let's buy some liquor and go to God's house and get drunk together. The words wine and strong drink, both in the Bible, can either be referring to an alcoholic beverage or a non-alcoholic beverage, depending on the context. The word juice is not a word that the Bible uses. He used it one time in Song of Solomon, only because in the same verse he just said wine, so it would be redundant to say wine and wine. So, you know, the wine of the wine. So he says, like, the juice of the wine. Other than that, the Bible just uses the word wine, and it even uses the word wine about juice that's inside of a grape. And we know that, you know, you don't have to be 21 to go pick grapes, folks, you know, because, you know, you can pick grapes because there's no alcohol in that grape, but yet God calls the juice in the grape wine. Why? Because wine is just the word the Bible uses for juice. Now, a lot of people think whenever they see the word wine that it means grape juice every time. Not so. Because the Bible doesn't use the word juice except for one time in Song of Solomon in a poetic way. The rest of the time it uses the word wine, and it is not always referring to grape juice. Any fruit juice in the Bible is called wine. And so what the Bible is saying here, a strong drink, it doesn't mean an alcoholic beverage. It just means a strong drink. Like, for example, you could even say that a cup of coffee is strong. That doesn't mean it has alcohol in it. It just means that it's potent or powerful. For example, my wife makes spiced cider. And also, you know, I drank ginger ale that my wife made. My wife made ginger ale at home before out of fresh ginger and everything, and it was so spicy and hot it would burn your mouth. That was a strong drink. But you say, Pastor Anderson's drinking strong drink, you know? But it doesn't mean I'm drinking alcohol, you know, if I'm having a ginger ale or something. And I'm not talking about the one you buy at the store that has an artificial ginger flavoring. I mean, the one that has real ginger in it, if you grind up ginger and make real ginger ale, it's pretty hot stuff depending on how strong you make it. How strong you make it, you see what I mean? So that's what that's saying. God's not saying come to church, get drunk. The Bible makes it clear that they're never supposed to drink any wine or strong drink when they're in the house of God, because he's talking about alcoholic beverage there where he talks about them perverting judgment and so forth. And so you can tell from the context when God's telling you not to look on a certain wine, and then in another one, Jesus is handing his disciples wine saying, take, drink it all. Obviously one of them is just juice and one of them is fermented. And that's a whole other sermon in another cell. I've gone through all that in other sermons. But he says, Whatsoever thy soul desireth, and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice thou in thy household. And the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him, for he hath no heart nor inheritance with thee. To say, look, he doesn't have his own field, his own income, he's relying on you to bring the tithe. It says, At the end of three years, thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thy name priests the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates. And the Levite, because he hath no heart nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are within thy gates, shall come and shall eat and be satisfied that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest. Go to Nehemiah chapter 12. So what have we seen so far? We've seen, okay, the tithe is something where they bring one-tenth of their income, one-tenth of whatever they produce that year. Maybe it's physical objects, maybe it's money, but it's just one-tenth of their earnings. And the purpose of it is to bring it to God's house and it's to go to the Levite because he doesn't have another pipeline of money coming in. That's how he lives off of, the service of God. Not only that, but it's for the poor and the fatherless to eat. They could basically get a charitable contribution from God's house. If they're starving, they don't have anything, then the house of God is a place that they could go to get something to eat. And also, it's for the person who's bringing the tithe. They get to rejoice and enjoy it and eat it at God's house. And so those are the three groups of people that you see partaking of the tithe. The people that are bringing it, the poor, the widow, the fatherless, and the Levite and priest who is running the place. Look at Nehemiah chapter 12, verse 44. The Bible says, At that time were sub-appointed over the chambers, for the treasurers, for the offerings, for the firstfruits, known as the firstfruits, and for the tithes, to gather into them out of the fields of the cities the portions of the law for the priests and Levites, for Judah was joyous for the priests and for the Levites that waited. Go to chapter 13, verse 10. And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them, for the Levites and the singers that did the work were fled every one to his field. So he's saying, look, all the Levites and the priests, they had to go to the field and basically they had to go get a job, they had to go plant crops and do something because they're not getting any tithes. So it's like, well, we got to go do something. So they'd all left serving the house of God and they had to go, like everybody else was doing, plant the field and do what everybody else was doing. But Nehemiah's upset with that. He says in verse 11, Then contended I with the rulers and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together and set them in their place. You know, basically it's like we would say, you put them in their place. And it says in verse 12, Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine, and the oil unto the treasuries. And so we see that there. And I made treasurers over the treasuries, Shelamiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and the Levites, and Cadaiah, and next to them was Hanan, the son of Zachar, the son of Mabiniath. For they were counted faithful, and their office was to distribute unto their brethren, Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for the offices thereof. Now let's go to the New Testament and see how this ties in in the New Testament. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Because you say, well Pastor Anderson, that's all fine and dandy. I get it. The Levites, they served God in the house of the Lord. They ran the tabernacle. They didn't have an inheritance. They didn't have a field. They didn't plant their own crops. So that was what they got. And that was how God took care of the poor back then. And that was what they would do. They would tithe. But in the New Testament, they say, tithing is unscriptural in the New Testament. It's not biblical. Who's ever heard that? Hey, tithing is not biblical in the New Testament. Yeah, a lot of people have heard that. And they'll say, it's totally not biblical to tithe in the New Testament. Well, first of all, before I get into the scripture that spells this out, I would just say what I said earlier. Well, God never told us stop tithing. You know what I mean? Think about it. Let's say you're living in the time of Christ. And you're paying your time. You're going to the temple. You're offering the sacrifices. And by the way, Jesus and his parents and everything participated in this. I mean, when Jesus was born, he was taken down to the temple. He was circumcised. His parents offered the offerings and so forth. Well, let's say you're going through life. You're giving the tenth part under the temple, and to the ministers of the temple, the priests and so forth. And then let's say Jesus Christ comes along. He says, I'm the lamb of God, which is taking away the sin of the world. He preaches the gospel. He dies on the cross. And as he dies on the cross, you remember the veil in the temple was rent in twain. It was torn in half. And then you have the apostles saying, hey, we don't need these sacrifices anymore. We don't need the temple anymore. Your body's the temple. We don't need this. The Holy Spirit's living inside of you now. That's where God's presence is. And now we meet together in the local church. We're gathering together and breaking bread with the believers, the disciples. And the Bible says that the church is the house of God. He said in 1 Timothy 3.15, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So you're in this early church, and all of a sudden you're getting together with the believers. You're assembled together now. You're not going to the temple and offering sacrifices. You're going to the church now that Jesus Christ has established. You know, where did they say, hey, you know what? You don't need to tithe anymore. From now on, just keep all your money. Keep everything to yourself. And it's like, score. You know, that's like getting a raise. You know, I mean, I've got 1 tenth more than I had under the Old Testament. This New Testament rules, okay? But hold on a second. There's really no doctrine that says, you know, stop tithing, number one. Number two, if you think about it, did things in the... from the Old Testament to the New Testament, did God get more strict or less strict about things that are being right and wrong? Now, what's funny is that your average person today, they think, oh, yeah, in the Old Testament, God was really strict. But in the New Testament, you know, we're just total Christian liberty, free in Christ, anything goes. But, man, that God in the Old Testament, he was just really a strict God. But that is the opposite of what's true. Because in the Old Testament, God was so much more lenient in the Old Testament. I mean, he let people get away with so much in the Old Testament. You try it in the New Testament, you're done. I mean, in the Old Testament, there's people that have two wives and everything. And God never approved of that. It was always a sin. But you see him much more strict in the New Testament. He said, you know, in the Old Testament, or in Matthew chapter 5, he compares some things. You know, well, you've heard that it was said, thou shalt not commit adultery. I'm saying don't commit adultery, and whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Does it sound like he's backing down on his Old Testament commands? No. No. And so that's another thing about it. But look at 1 Corinthians 9, and it's pretty much spelled out here in verse 9. It says, for it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it all together for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope, and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, and he's talking about himself and Barnabas. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others be partaker of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Verse 13. Do ye not know that they which minister about the holy things live of the things of the temple? Now who's he talking about? The Levites. The Levites, right? He says those who, because look, at this time Paul's preaching, are there still people going down to the temple thinking that that's the right thing to be doing? I mean, the Jews who didn't believe in Jesus Christ, they're still offering a sacrifice. They're still going down to the temple. They took that veil that was ran in twain and just made a new one. I mean, that's pretty much what they did, right? Oh, somebody tore the veil. Better make a new one. And they put the veil back up. And they kept going through those motions. And Paul preaches over and over again and says, those sacrifices can never take away sins. You know, the lamb of God is Jesus Christ. That is not what we ought to be doing. And he preached against it. But those people were still there doing it, following in the Old Testament. Now he says this. Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? He's talking about the old way, the Old Testament, the priests and the Levites. He said they live of the things of the temple. And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar. Now is that what we saw in all the scriptures we turn to? Yeah. We saw the Levites and the priests living off of the offerings and the tithes that were brought in. You know, when they would bring an animal and sacrifice an animal for a sin offering or a trespass offering or a burnt offering, part of that would go to the priest. Part of it would be burned upon the altar of the Lord. Part of it would go to the priest. That's what he lived off of, OK? So on a daily basis, people are bringing to the priest animal sacrifices on a daily basis. And they're also bringing the meat offering, which was the flour mingled with oil. So he's basically getting bread and meat every single day as people bring their offerings in the Old Testament, the Levites. Then once a year or once every three years, depending on what your cycle is with that, OK, you're going to bring in the tenth of your produce and so forth. But that's where they're getting their fruits and vegetables from, from people bringing in the tenth or the tithe. And then other people would bring in a free will offering. So they're getting meat, they're getting bread, and they're getting fruits and vegetables. They're getting basically everything that they need through the tithes and through the offerings. He said, they which minister about holy things live off the things of the temple. And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar. OK, that's the Old Testament. We saw it a bunch of times, did we not? Look what he says in the next verse. Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. Now, that's pretty clear. He basically says, this is how it was in the Old Testament. And guess what? It's the same way in the New Testament. Even so, as it was in the Old Testament where the people who ran the temple and the altar lived off of those things, he said, that's the way it is in the New Testament. Those who preach the gospel live of the gospel. Then he goes on to say, but I've not done that because Paul chose to work a job. He made tents, he paid his own way, and he did not take a paycheck, as it were, from the church. He just paid his own way. But he says, wait a minute. God has ordained that it be this way. But he said, I've not used that because he said, I just wanted to pay my own way. Now, is it wrong for a pastor to just pay his own way and not get paid? Absolutely not. That's fine. And for the first four and a half years that I pastored here, that's what I did. I just paid my own, I worked a job. Now I'm 50-50 or so. Not exactly 50-50, but I'm somewhere thereabouts. And the thing is, the Bible is clearly, you can't show me a verse that says tithing has ended, no more tithing, no more bringing in of the tithe to the house of God so that it would basically feed the needs of those who work there. And you do have a verse that says, well, even so, has God ordained to do the same thing in the New Testament to those who preach the gospel as to those who worked in the altar in the Old Testament? So to me, 1 Corinthians 9, 14 pretty much spells it right out. So what are the implications of this? First of all, what is the tithe being used for? We talked about some of it in the Old Testament. But let's think about it from a New Testament point of view. Go to Malachi 3 where we started out, Malachi 3. And you say, why are you preaching on this? Well, the reason I preach on it is because it's, and here's the thing. People will say like, anytime you preach about something like this, they'll say, oh, it's a money-grabbing preacher. The preacher wants the money or whatever. Well, here's the funny thing. The first four and a half years I passed, I took zero pay. Zero, OK? I took a little bit of pay one of those years and I paid it back because I ended up making plenty of money. So I was like, well, I'll just pay that back. The first four and a half years, I made zero. And you know what's funny? I preached on tithing several times during that time. I don't even know if I've even preached on it in the last year and a half that I've even received any pay. And that's what's funny about it. So it's not about money or getting money and so forth. And listen to me. I've had people constantly call me and email me and contact me saying, I want to send you my tithe. I want to send my tithe to Faithful Word Baptist Church. And I flat out told them, you need to find a church in your area and bring the tithe. So if this was just all about just how much money can we get? No, we don't need a bunch of money. We have all the money we need. We always have and we always will. Because God will provide our needs. It's not about how much money we can get coming in. No, I'm constantly telling people. And I even tell people when they go out of town and visit another church, I just say, if you made money that week and you're going to tithe on Sunday, I would just tithe it wherever you're at that week. Because the Bible says to bring the tithe to the house of the Lord. And so if you're in some foreign city, let's say you're out of town for three or four weeks, you're in that city, bring the tithe to God's house. Because that church you're going to is just as much God's house as this church is God's house. Any local Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church is the house of God. And so whether it's Faithful Word Baptist Church or wherever you're at, bring the tithe. So it's not just how much money can we get coming in and everything like that. It doesn't matter. Your money pairs with you. Take your money and shove it. I don't care about your money. The bottom line is we did fine in this church for a long time without a bunch of people's money. And we don't need a bunch of people's money now. That's not the point. The reason that I preach about it is because it's a commandment. And so if I don't preach about it and then you don't do it, well, then you're the one violating the commandment. And you're the one that's going to be punished by God for not obeying this. And then I have it on my head that I didn't even preach about it. I didn't even tell you about it. I mean, if I were you, I would want somebody to expose me to this so that I wouldn't be sinning and not even know that I'm sinning because I've never even heard of it. I don't even know what tithing is. I don't even know what that means. It is a biblical concept. You see, the Bible says, and it's funny because some people will say this. They'll say, well, the Bible says, you know, people should give willingly, not by constraint, for God loves a cheerful giver. But here's the thing. What that's saying is that we shouldn't force people to give. It's not saying that God's not telling us to give. What it's saying is nobody's going to force you to give. Like, think about it. If we said, hey, I noticed you haven't been tithing. You will tithe. You will give it to me. And this is, by the way, this is what Eli's two sons did. Remember Hophni and Phinehas? They said, give it to me or I'll take it by force. That's what they were doing. And the Bible says when they did that, God, it caused man to despise the offering of the Lord. When Hophni and Phinehas, in the beginning of 1 Samuel, said, give me the offering, I'll take it by force, it made people mad. And they're like, man, I didn't want to give to church. They're making me give. They're forcing me to do it. It makes you have a bad attitude. Because let me explain something to you. When people force you to do something that you don't want to do, it gives you a bad attitude. And that's just across the board. When people are forcing you to do something that you don't want to do, you're not going to have a good attitude about it. And that's why it's better if you can preach the truth to people, educate people. Like, for example, my children. I don't want to just always have to force them to always do the right thing. What I'm trying to do is teach them the Bible, get them to love God, and to want to please God, that they'll want to do the right thing. And they'll do it because they want to do it. If they do it because they want to do it, then when they're 18, 19, 20, they'll still be doing it. And when they're 30, they'll still be doing it. If they're only doing it because I'm forcing them, well then guess what? As soon as they get out of the house, they're going to do something different. Because they're not being forced. So that's why we need to teach and preach to our children and to everyone what they should be doing so that they'll do it because they want to do it. And so when the Bible says that people should do it willingly, it means that nobody's going to force you to do it. Nobody's worried about making sure that you tithe. I'm not your mom and your babysitter. If you don't tithe, that's your problem. I don't even care. It means nothing to me. It's none of my business. Because God loves a cheerful giver, someone who says, you know what? I'm going to give the tenth because I want to give the tenth because that's what God has asked me to do. I believe it's the right thing to do. And I'm doing it on my own. Nobody's making me do it. Okay? Now, he says in Malachi 3, verse 8, will a man rob God? Now that's a pretty serious charge if the Bible's saying, well, you're robbing God. I mean, I don't think anybody would want to think to themselves, I'm robbing God. I mean, look, stealing is bad, right? But when you're stealing from God, that's pretty bad. Because, I mean, stealing from someone else, you know, you might justify it like, oh, this guy is a jerk anyway, you know, or whatever. The boss is ripping me off, so I'm going to steal stuff. You know, it's still sin. It's still wrong. But probably the last person that you have a right to steal from is God. Or the last person that you would feel comfortable stealing from is God. And so this is a pretty serious thing. He said, will a man rob God? Yet you've robbed me. But you say, where have we robbed thee? And see, these people weren't hearing this kind of person. So therefore they're like, what? Where have we robbed thee? And he said, in tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house. So where is he telling them to bring the tithe? Into the storehouse, which is God's house. Now, where did Jacob say he was going to tithe to in Genesis 28, 22? He said, this stone shall be God's house, and whosoever thou givest me, I'll give a tenth unto thee. So consistently throughout the Bible, tithing is to God's house. Whether it was God's house in the Old Testament being the tabernacle and then the temple, or whether it's God's house, the local church, in the New Testament, those that preach the gospel at the local church. He said, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house. So what's the purpose? That there might be food in his house. There might be meat in his 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. So he gives you two options. He says, if you will bring the tithe, he said, I'll bless you. And I'll pour you out a blessing so great that you won't even be able to receive it. And he says, conversely, if you rob me of the tithe, he said, I'll curse you. Now, here's the thing. When you're living under a curse from God, you're probably going to lose more than 10% of your income by being under that curse. So think about this. You can take the 90%. You can live off the 90% and have God blessing you and pouring you out all these blessings and taking care of your needs. Or else you can take the 100% and everything's going wrong. Everything's going bad. God's cursing your work. He's cursing your job. He's cursing you in your endeavors. And then let's say you might get down to 70% because you had to fix the car when you wouldn't have had to fix it. Or you had to, you know, you had unexpected illnesses or doctor bills or just stuff come up that would not have come up except that God's mad. Because the way God looks at it is like, well, you're going to rob me. I'm not going to let you enjoy that if you took it from me against my will. And it's like this. Not only did they tithe, but in the Old Testament, there were some, and obviously, does the tithing carry over into the New Testament? Absolutely. Because it's brought out in 1 Corinthians 9 and 14 and other places. But in the Old Testament, they have another thing called the Sabbath. And not only do they have the Sabbath day, they have the Sabbath year. Now those are things, again, that the Bible specifically rolls back in the New Testament, specifically spells out that that's been changed and that we do not observe the Sabbath any longer. But in the Old Testament, they would have a Sabbath where they would sow their fields for six years and then the seventh year, they wouldn't sow any seeds. Well, what happened is the children of Israel, they stopped obeying that. And by the way, even science has shown that that's good to rest the land than to over-farm it and just keep farming it every single year. Giving it that year of rest to go wild is actually good for the soil. And so God was actually taking care of them. But what happened is the children of Israel did not tithe, or I'm sorry, forget tithing. The children of Israel did not keep those Sabbaths of years. And for like 490 years, they didn't do it. They blew that commandment off and for 490 years, they didn't do it. They just kept sowing their seeds every year instead of taking that year off. They were supposed to take a year off every seven. And you know what God said? He said, okay, you don't want to give the land its rest, the seven years of rest? He said, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to send you into captivity in a foreign country. You're going to be kidnapped and brought to a foreign country Babylon for 70 years. One year for every year that you did not observe the Sabbath. And he said the land will rest for 70 years. No one will sow the seeds because you're going to be gone. So basically he's saying, okay, you went 490 years without resting for the year like you were supposed to. And so that's, you know, let's see, 490 divided by 7, that's 70 times. Okay, well you're gone for 70 years. Basically what he's teaching there is he's going to get it from you one way or the other. Basically like, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You know, you can either just do what I told you to do or else I'll do it for you. And it's the same thing. I mean, honestly, if you didn't give 10% unto the Lord, okay, then basically what's he going to do? He's basically just going to take it out on your hide. You know, that's pretty much what it comes down to. And I thank God that I, you know, I was taught this as a very young child. I grew up with this. And I remember when I was a child, my first allowance was 30 cents a week. Who had an allowance lower than that at any point in your life? You did? That's not lower. That's not having an allowance. That's not having a lower allowance. What do I do? You had a quarter? You had a quarter? Okay, you're close. So I remember my allowance was 30 cents. And, you know, I think part of the reason why I was given 30 cents was so that I could tithe that. Because, like, it was 25. It would have been, like, two and a half. I don't know. But I was given 30 cents. And I was literally taught as a tiny little child. I was taught three cents of that belongs to God. And I would literally tithe. My first tithe was three cents. And I paid it. I got up to 50 cents. My tithe was five cents. I got up to a dollar. I went from 50 cents to a dollar. And my tithe was 10 cents. And I remember I went to my mom one day and I said, Mom, I said, I want to raise my allowance. You know, every kid is coming up to their parents at some point and said, like, I want to raise my allowance. And I went to my mom. I said, Mom, I want to raise my allowance. She's like, well, how much do you want? And I said, I want a dollar and 11 cents. And she said, what? A dollar and 11 cents? I said, but here's why. You know, when I was a young kid, I said, here's why. I said, because I want to be able to tithe and still have a whole dollar. And I said, if I do a dollar and 10 cents, you know, if I get the extra 10 cents, well, now my tithe's 11 cents. Then I'm down to 99. So I told her, I'm like, I need a dollar and 11 cents. Because then I can pay the 11 cents, you know. And she's like, no, no, no. And now that I look back at it, I really would have needed a dollar and 12 cents to do it. You know what I mean? If you really think about it, you know, maybe you'll get that later if you stop and really think about it. But anyway, but the bottom line is that my mom said no. Because she said no. She said the whole point is that you need to learn to understand that the whole dollar isn't yours. You know, you've got to break it down like that. That's part of what you're learning. That's what she told me. And then later, when I got two bucks, you know, 20 cents went in the plate. And I literally, I tithed all the way up through, all the way up through. And then I got a job at Round Table Pizza, and I tithed all my paychecks, you know, at Round Table Pizza. And I've tithed ever since then. And it's just been something that's been ingrained in me from the Bible and from my parents taught me this. And you know, I can honestly say that God has blessed me through the years, you know. And there were times when I was poor and when I was really struggling and so forth. But honestly, I mean, I've definitely made it through that. And you know what? It's not that I've just been blessed financially. You say, well, Pastor Harrison, why is the front of your car hung together with wire ties if you're so blessed? Your car has 245,000 miles on it, you know? But you know what, though? There's other blessings, by the way, besides just money. Like, that's just the only blessing is just, you're going to get all kinds of money. You know, this isn't some kind of sermon like, you put a dollar in the plate, you're going to get five back. No, just trust God. Just call the number on the screen, you know. Put your hand on the screen. This is basically just saying God's going to bless you. It's not saying you're going to be rich or he's going to give you a bunch of money. It's saying he's going to bless you and take care of your needs and so forth. Now, what are some of the point, what are some of the purposes of tithing? Why does God have us tithe? Well, here's a couple things I can think of, just in my own understanding of why. And turn to Proverbs chapter 3. The way I understand it, why would God have us tithe? Well, number one, it gets you to church. I mean, think about it. Like, it's a reason to go to church. Because if you're not going to church, you're not tithing. You say, well, I'm just going to mail my tithe over, you know. But the problem is that's not really what God told you to do, to send it, you know. Some people, they're just like, I can't find a church in my area. Well, you know, I always tell people the same thing they can't find a church in their area, you know. And by the way, when people send us checks, I just cash them, you know what I mean. But the bottom line is, I tell people every time they ask me, I tell them, look, you need to find a church in your area. People say, I can't. I always just tell them, we need to either drive a little further or else look a little harder, you know. Something's out there. And if you just can't, and it might not be the perfect church, but at least it's something that preaches the gospel, that has the King James Bible, just at least has the basics. And you say, well, I can't even find the basics. Well, you must be living in Sodom and you can get out of there. I mean, if you're living in such an even place where you're willing to drive and commute far and you can't find any decent church that even preaches salvation and the King James Bible, what are you doing? You can get out of there probably. Well, I can't. It's like, well, I don't know what to tell you. God said go to church. God said bring the tithe. And so here's the thing. Tithing gets you to church. Now, think about this though. Is every church in America God's house? No. There are a lot of apostate, false, wicked churches. And so I say if you're going to some phony church that's not even preaching the word of God and salvation, you're not even tithing. If you're giving your money to somebody who's basically preaching a work of salvation or that's preaching some false Bible or something, I mean, that's not tithing. It'd be like this. It'd be like if I told you, OK, I'm selling you this car and you're going to pay me for the car. You owe me this amount of money. And my banking account's over at Wells Fargo. Here's my account. Here's my routing number. Go put that money in my bank account for the money that you owe me. And let's say you go down to Bank of America and deposit the money and say, OK, Pastor Anderson, I gave you that money. And I say, well, it's not in my account. You're like, well, yeah, I took it to Bank of America. They put it in Steve Anderson's account down at Bank of America. I say, no. My bank account is at Wells Fargo. You know, why are you putting my money in the Bank of America? It's not going to get to me. It's not in my account. I'm never going to see that money. You put it in the wrong account. What are you doing? Well, that's the way it is with God. It's like you're taking your money down to some phony liberal church that doesn't preach the Bible. It doesn't preach the gospel. And you say, OK, God, here's my time. And you gave it unto Satan. And you're like, God bless me. Well, no. Don't talk to Satan. That's who you gave your money to. Don't talk to Satan. But anyway, what I'm saying is that you got to give the tenth to the right person, and it's God. And you're supposed to bring the tithe to the storehouse. Part of the reason is it gets you in church. Now, another part of the reason is that it helps you to stop and think how God has blessed you. Because here's what the Bible teaches, that he says, give the tithes of all your increase, OK? Now, a lot of people misunderstand this, especially business people. Now, most of the people in this room probably just have a job where you get a paycheck. It's pretty simple. You make $20 an hour, you give $2 to the Lord, and you keep the other 18 or whatever. OK, that's pretty simple. But when you run a business, sometimes it's confusing to people because they say, well, I grossed $1 million, but my profits were only $100,000. So if I tithed on it, I'd have nothing. Well, no, you tithe on the increase. If you had $1 million in sales come in, and $100,000 of that is profit, well, then you tithe on your profit. Because the Bible says you tithe on your increase. You just tithe on what you made, which would be that $100,000. So you give $10,000. Or if you brought in $90,000 but you had to buy parts and buy materials and so forth, and you only really made a profit of $75,000, then that's what you tithe on. Just your increase. But see, here's the thing. When I was growing up, I was always taught when you get paid, you tithe on it, you give $110,000 to the Lord. And that's how the local church is going to be supported. And so I would give my $0.30, I'd give $0.03, I'd give $0.50, I'd give $0.05, I'd give $0.10. But I was always taught this growing up. They say, if somebody just gives you stuff, if somebody just gives you something, like let's say somebody just gives you a gift, $20, they said, don't tithe. You don't have to tithe on that. That's a gift. Well, but if you think about it, though, I mean, it's your increase. And so when I got older, that's what I was always taught growing up. But when I became an adult, I started realizing, you know what, I should tithe on all my increase. Because if I get extra money, like let's say, for example, I win the lot of dollars. Let's say somebody just gives me $1,000 and says, you know what, you inherited this or whatever. Somebody died, and here's $1,000. I'm going to give $100 to that, because that's something that I got. And here's the thing. What I do, because the Bible talks about turning stuff into money, sometimes people give me a physical gift. I'll think about how much did this cost, and I'll tithe on that. Let's say somebody buys me a car or something. It's like a $20,000 car. Well, that's a huge blessing. That's a huge increase. I would tithe on that. Now, some of the things that I would not tithe on that I don't think are negative, because people have asked me about this sometimes. They said a tax return was one thing. And I've heard some churches say, tithe on your tax return. But if you think about it, a tax return is where you overpaid, and they're giving you some of your money back. That's not an increase. And here's a little rule of thumb when it comes to tithing. Any time you're dealing with the government, it ain't an increase. If you're dealing with the government, you're always getting the short end of the stick. You're always getting ripped off. So if it's the government that's giving you money, it's probably not an increase. Just a rule of thumb. When you're getting a tax return, and some people in America, and the people who run our country are pretty smart. They're like, we don't want people to hate taxes. I have an idea. Let's take more from them than what they can else. Let's just steal extra. And then when tax time comes around, we'll give them back a little bit, and they'll think it's cool. I always take people like, oh, these taxes, and they're like, well, I always get money back. I don't know what everybody's going to fight about. You just want to shake them. They're going to take you here probably the whole year. Are you insane? I always get it back. So they turn into a tax year where everybody's excited about it. And people are like, oh, man. I can't wait till April 15th tax time, because I get that big tax return. It's like Christmas and Easter all rolled into one, because I'm getting all this free money. That's just extra money they took from you, and they're giving it back. That's not an increase. That's a decrease. OK. Or other things, for example. Let's say you buy a car, and the car costs you $10,000. Then you sell the car for $8,000. That's not an increase. That's a decrease. Now, don't take $200 out of the plate, but it's a decrease. You're like, I lost money this year, Pastor, and I didn't make my withdrawal a 10%. Anyway, I wouldn't even be able to tie it in. Just kidding. So what I'm saying is, if you decrease, you don't tie it in. But let's say you bought the car for $10,000. You turn around and sell it for $12,000. That's an increase. That's money that you made. Some people make their living that way, buying and selling cars. And you can sell it for more. You make an increase. You don't tie it on the $12,000. You tie it on the difference, the increase, which went from $10,000 to $2,000. You tied $200. That's all there is to it. It's that simple. And so those are some things that I would not tie it on, things that are a decrease. People have asked me about their Social Security benefits. Well, guess what? That's not an increase. You paid into that thing your whole life, and you're getting some tiny percent back. I wouldn't call that an increase for one second. And so I'm not the final authority here either. You've got to read the Bible and make your own decisions and then think this through. But God says, tie up your increase. Whatever you produce, whatever the works of your labor produces, you're supposed to give one-tenth of the Lord. And you say, oh, man, that stinks. I already don't have enough money. But God says if you do, He'll bless you. Go to Proverbs 3. The Bible says in verse 5, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy path. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and merit of thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. So God's able to bless you to the point where you can do better on 90% than you would have done on 100%. Because He'll cause you to be blessed and for your barns to be filled with plenty and your presses to burst out with new wine. And He's going to take care of you. Now, a lot of people will say, well, you know, in the New Testament, tithing no longer applies. And it's just, you just give whatever you've got. You know, let's say you've got extra money or, you know, you want to give some money to the church, just go, you know, throw in a $10 bill or whatever, and that's good. Well, here's the problem with that. Have you ever noticed that nobody has extra money? You know, it reminds me of, my dad said that when he was a young person, he said people would always come up to him and say, hey, do you have an extra cigarette? And he would always tell those people, nope, just the 20 that came in the pack. You know, that was basically his way of saying no. I don't have an extra cigarette. You know, he bought it because he was going to smoke it. And of course, smoking is wrong. I'm not going to condone it then. But anyway, this was a long time ago in the 1960s. But anyway, he said, no, I just had the 20 that came in the pack because nobody has extra money. And the Bible says where goods increase, they, and I'm paraphrasing, but he said the people who eat them increase. And I've noticed that taking place in my house. With my seventh child on the way, I've noticed the increase in the mouths. As I've increased in goods, you know, there's just more mouths. And so the bottom line is that nobody has extra money. Because guess what? When people make more money, they spend it. And if people do have extra money, it's probably a $5 bill or $10. It's probably a lot less than 10% of what they make. I mean, if it's just like, oh, whatever I've got, extra? You know, a moth flies out of your pocket. OK, here's $5. Here's a buck or whatever. But if you stop and think about it, the reason that that principle would not really work out is because the Bible says that in all things, he must have the preeminence. So if in the Old Testament, he said give the first fruits or the first wings, he didn't say give me the last 10%. He said give me the first leg, the first fruit, the first 10. Well, that means that in the Old Testament, they would give the first 10 to God. So are you telling me that in the New Testament, you buy everything you need and want, and you pay all your bills, and then you see what's left over? And then, OK, I'll give God my leftovers. You know, I don't think God wants your leftovers. I don't think God really cares about your leftovers. You know, he either wants to be first, or else he doesn't even, you know, it's just not obedience. Now, a lot of people have said things like this. Well, I'm not a very good tither. Well, you know, you're either a tither or you're not. You know what I mean? Now, some people will say, like, you need a tithe more than 10%. Well, if it's more than 10%, it's no longer a tithe. You know? If it's 15%, it's not a tithe. That's a 10% tithe, and then you just give. And look, the Bible does talk about giving a free will offering. You know, if you want to give extra above your tithe, that would be what that would be. If you gave 15%, you're basically giving 10% tithe and a 5% offering, just an extra offering. Okay. But people say, well, I'm not too good about tithing. I'm not that good at tithing. Well, then you're just not tithing. You know what I mean? Well, I tithe every other week, or I tithe... My tithe, you know, even though I make $1,000 a week, my tithe is, like, 50 bucks. You know? Or I make $1,500 a week, so, you know, I tithe... I don't tithe $150. I just tithe, like, 90 bucks. Well, but you're not tithing at all. You might as well keep your money, because you're going to need it. You know, you're going to need it when God comes to take the tithe away from you. He takes the tithe out of your car and the tithe out of your appendix and the tithe out of your... Whatever else, okay? And I'm not saying that that's what that means when bad things happen, but God can say bad things. He said he'll curse you with a curse. I mean, whatever that is, I don't want it to happen to me. But what I'm saying is that, you know, throwing a little bone unto God, throwing him a little bone and saying, oh, well, you know, this is better than nothing, honestly, you might as well probably just keep it. Just hang on to it. You know what I mean? Because God wants you to obey. Because the Bible says to obey is better than to sacrifice. And so, you know, you might make a sacrificial gift where you reach in and really sacrifice. But if it's not obedience, it's not worth as much as obedience. And, you know, the person who is poor and makes very little and yet tithes into the God, you know, that's worth more than a very wealthy person who might be giving ten tithes as much. But it's not the tithe. You know, if you're making $300,000 a year and you're only giving $20,000, you're going to be the biggest giver in the church. But guess what? You're not an obedience. God's not going to bless you because you're not obeying. It's better to obey than to sacrifice. You know, and the person who's just maybe making a really low salary, okay, and yet they give their tithe, you know, that's worth more to God because it was obedience. And again, it's not about a dollar amount. It's not about money. And what's funny is that some people, when they're poor, they can afford a tithe because it's so little, right? But then they have so much money and they're like, well, I can't afford a tithe. You know, look how big it would be. That's like, well, that means you have a lot of money, though. So you should be able to afford a tithe. You know, and so, again, the purpose of this is to finance. And just quickly, let me say this. What do we use the tithe for? Well, biblically, we saw some of the uses for it. It was basically used to run the house of the Lord, all the expenses and whatever was needed for the house of the Lord. And that's both the staff and obviously the facility. A lot of times they would bring in the tithe. I don't have time to turn to all the scriptures. And they would use it to repair the breaches in the house of the Lord. And sometimes when the tithes didn't come in, they couldn't fix stuff. And a king would come into power that was a righteous king, and he'd say, hey, look at the house of God. It's breaking down. It's got breaches in it. We need to repair it. And they would hire construction workers to come in and repair it. And they would pay them out of the tithes. So those are the type of things that we just, just to pay for the facility, obviously, just to pay the salary and just to pay for food. Like, have you noticed that at our church, whenever you come to any church activity, the food is always free? You know, most churches you go to, it's like, you know, you pay for the food. But the part of the purpose of the tithe was that there would be meat in God's house. And that basically the people who were giving the tithe would partake of it as well. And that's why we have a lot of events throughout the year and big dinners and meals that we have. And church activities and food. And it's always free because that's a very... And I've heard people say, like, well, that's not right to use God's money so that you guys can all eat a bunch of barbecued cheeseburgers and have a picnic. And that's God's money. But you know what? Nothing can be more scriptural than for us to take God's money. And we do this on the church picnic and other events. And take God's money, turn it into a bullock and a ram and a sheep and whatever, and throw it on a barbecue and eat it. That's about as scriptural as you can get, buddy. That's tithing. Okay? We eat the tithe, just like the Bible said. Eat of the tithes, you know? Whatsoever thy soul uth is at, lusteth after. And for me, that's a cheeseburger and all the stuff on the side. And so hopefully that sermon helps you to understand the concept. And read the Bible and study it out. And I can't really cover everything the Bible says in the short time that we have. But that pretty much shows you how serious this is and how important it is. And it is what finances our church. And you say, well, you know, you just need the money. But here's the bottom line. If we didn't have the money, we would just find a way to do without it. Because that's what we've always done. We only spend what we have and we don't spend what we don't have. And so it's not that we need your money or that God needs your money. It's just that God is testing your obedience and he wants you to honor him with your substance and with the first fruits of your increase to show your faith in him. It gets you to church. It also gets you to count your blessings because you can't figure out what 10% is unless you know what the 100% is. And sometimes when you stop and count up to tithe, you're like, wow, I forgot that I even got this 100 bucks and somebody gave me this and I got this 20 bucks. And you stop and count your blessings and you can be thankful to God for it and tithe on it. And also it just gets you to show your faith. It shows that you believe God's word when you're willing to step out on the limb and say, okay, I'll give 10% God and expect God to bless you and make up the difference, okay? And let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God, and for your promises and thank you for the fact that you do bless us and really you've given us so much that 10% is not really a lot to ask when we look at all the things that we've been given and the things that church does for... I mean, I think of all the things that church has done for me throughout my life, growing up as a child, a teenager, an adult. You know, church always did a lot more for me than I ever gave in the offering plate in the way of my 10%. And so your word is worth more than rubies and silver and gold, the wisdom that comes across the pulpit and that I grew up listening to and that is in every Bible-believing church through your word. I just pray that you would just help us to be faithful in this area and to understand this doctrine and Jesus name we pray.