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Right, Amen. You're in Malachi 3 and let's just look down at verse 10, which is our verse of the week as well. Malachi 3 and verse 10, which reads, Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now here with, 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 the title of my sermon this morning is The Blessings of Tithing. The Blessings of Tithing. I'm going to pray before we get going with the message. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for, well, the principle of tithing, Lord, and ultimately how much it benefits us. Lord, help me to make that clear today and to help people, Lord, help people to understand that this message is not about gaining from people, it's about helping people. Lord, help me to preach that clearly and accurately and boldly and fill in with your spirit, please, Lord, and help me want to just have a tent of ears to what your word's got to say, Lord. And in Jesus' name, pray with us. Amen. Okay, so preaching about tithing is never the most fun sermon to preach, as you could probably imagine, but it is an essential sermon to preach, okay? If I swerved it to avoid people being suspicious of my motives, then I would be doing everyone a disservice here in this church, okay? So if I'm just, I don't want to preach this because then people are going to think that maybe I just want their money or something else like that, then ultimately I'm not helping you. And it's one thing to go, I'm not scared to preach about the sodomites, I'm not scared to preach about sin in this church, but you know what, I also need to be not scared to preach about something which is an essential part of the Christian life as well, right? Now, and you might ask, well, why? Because there are many individual and collective blessings that we, and also the local community and beyond, receive from us tithing, okay? So tithing ultimately results in many blessings. Now, in case you've had your head turned by some of the false doctrine out there attacking tithing, and there is a lot of that out there, or maybe you've got your own doubts, I would say, look, please go and just look at my sermon from last year called Why We Tithe, because I think I pretty much just smashed most of those false doctrines in there and made it very clear that it's clearly a biblical concept, okay? This isn't, because some, there's all this stuff, it's only in the Lord, no it's not, as you're going to see today. But I'm not going to go into that in depth today, more I want to go into the benefit we receive from it today. But that sermon does debunk those criticisms. From what is usually so-called concern, they claim to be concerned, but usually unsaved teachers of the Bible, okay? So usually these people attacking tithing don't even believe the Gospel, and yet they seem to be so concerned about their apparent brothers in Christ, and what they're ultimately doing a lot of the time is just going for the clicks and the YouTube advertising instead of for the tithe, because they don't have a ministry in the first place, right? Other than their YouTube basement ministry or something else. But last year I said that it was something that I'll preach every January, and you're going, isn't it February? Yeah, the problem was it came up a lot in Genesis, okay? And I was like, man, I don't want to just keep preaching on tithing, it just kept coming up. And you go, it came up in Genesis? Yeah it did, did it not? Just Genesis, we just kept seeing examples of tithing and offering to God and things like that. And then also we've been going through Proverbs, obviously Proverbs 3, you know, there's a message in there as well. So I'll just delay it a little bit, and if anyone's been at this church for any length of time you'll know that this is preached about very rarely, okay? If it comes up in a Bible study I'm going to hit it a little bit, but we're not like a preacher about giving us your money every week, because that's not what this church is about, okay? However, it does need a whole sermon dedicated, especially as most don't make our midweek services. So many people sadly, and you know I'd love it if everyone that couldn't come here on a Wednesday just sat at home with their Bibles open listening to every single word preached out of our Genesis series. I'm not an idiot though, the reality of it is that a lot of people don't, and if they're not here a lot of the time they aren't listening to the service either. So I can't just think, well we've talked about it a bit in Genesis, you know, as we've gone through our Genesis Bible study, so that's fine for this year. And it does need a sermon dedicated to it for your own good, and I'm going to show you that. So I'm going to focus today on the many blessings that come from tithing to God, but before I do I'm going to start with a brief introduction about tithing, what it is, what it isn't, and explain just a few details about it, and then we're going to get into the blessings. Now turn to Genesis chapter 4. The word tithe means tenth, and it's been a principle from long before the law of Moses to give a tenth of our increase to God. The first time that we see the word or a form of it is in Genesis 14, but before that we see God's people offering of their substance to God. In Genesis 4, where you are, Cain and Abel both bring an offering unto the Lord, and Genesis 4 says in Abel, he also brought of the first lings of his flock, and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. The offering obviously picturing the future sacrifice of Christ, but it was the first lings, the first offspring, and it was plural. He could have pictured the sacrifice of Christ with one, couldn't he? One first ling, but he brought of the first lings. He brought plural, he brought an offering to God, he offered of his substance to God, and that's all the way back in Genesis chapter 4. Now flick over to Genesis 8, where Noah gets off the ark, we've just come off the ark, we're going to look from verse 18 in Genesis 8 where it says, And Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, and after their kinds went forth out of the ark. And Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took a very clean beast, and a very clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. So Noah took a seventh of those clean beasts and fowls. Perhaps it was the tenth, because they were of sevens, weren't they? He bought the clean beasts by sevens. Perhaps it was a tenth once you added the unclean that weren't offered. However, regardless, he killed, cooked, and offered it to the Lord. He took one of every one of those, that's a lot of animals, that's a lot of animals, of all the clean he took, and then he offered burnt offerings on the altar. Now just in case you're wondering, this wasn't to eat. Right now we're talking about eight adults, okay? That's a lot of animals for eight adults, okay? The offering was to God, not an offering to themselves, okay? They were offered to the Lord. All of those animals that could have been bred in the future, all of those animals that could have provided meat for Noah and his family for who knows how long, that could have done all sorts for the people of the world. No, in fact, he took one of every one of those clean animals, probably around about a tenth of all the animals that were on that ark, he sacrificed to God. He killed them, he slaughtered them, and he burnt them. Now, did God say, what are you doing? What a waste! You could have had more wealth, Noah! Did he say that? Look at verse 21, and the Lord smelled a sweet savour. Not because he was hungry, okay? God was like, finally, someone's cooked me some meat. I've been waiting for that, you know. Now they're off the ark, we can start hitting the meat, because all that stupid, you know, grain and everything else was winding me up, and it was doing my gut in. That's not why, okay? He could eat and cook if he wanted to. It was because Noah was doing the right thing and giving back of all that God had given him. And then look at the result. It said, the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done. He said, while the earth remain of seedtime and harvest and cold and heat, summer and winter and day and night shall not cease. So, even with that offering going up in smite, God was pleased. Agreed? Clearly pleased there. However, in Genesis 14, the tithe goes specifically to someone. You can turn to Genesis 14. To Melchizedek, now this is after the slaughter of the kings and the spoil of that battle. If you remember, Abraham goes to rescue Lot, who's been kidnapped by these kings that have gone to battle and kind of raided Sodom and Gomorrah. He goes to rescue him and he goes out with, I think it's 318, I think it is, of his hide, trained servants and they go and they basically take out all these guys and bring back Lot as well. But they also get the spoils of battle. Verse 18 says, in Melchizedek, king of Salem brought forth bread and wine. This is after this has happened. And he was a priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said, blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the Most High God, which has delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. That's Abraham giving tithes to Melchizedek. We see that confirmed in Hebrews 7. You don't have to turn there. Who seems to be some kind of Christ figure, likely the Lord himself. Abraham gave him tithes of all. Not just animals this time, but tithes of all. He's just got all the spoils from battle. He's just destroyed these armies, come back and he gave him tithes of all. That's of all his wealth, everything he has, he gave him tithes. And when it comes to us as God's people tithing, we're giving God tithes, which is 10% of all. Okay, of all we have. And whether we've earned it, whether we've won it in battle, whether we've been gifted it, ultimately everything we have comes from God. Okay, it all comes from God. And we pay him back the first 10%. Proverbs 3.9 says, honour the Lord with thy substance, with the firstfruits of all thine increase. Didn't say some of thine increase. Didn't say only you earned increase. Didn't say only the extra increase. Just all thine increase. Everything we get, we give God the firstfruits of. And for me, by the way, that verse solves any questions about before or after tax, doesn't it? Who are you going to honour first, a taxman or God? You honour God. The firstfruits of all thine increase. It solves what sort of income? It solves what sort of increase? It's all thine increase. It's pretty simple, isn't it? It's actually a really simple principle, truthfully. Tithing is actually very simple. It's a very simple principle. We complicate it because many want to find ways out of it. That's the reality of it. People complicate it and try and find ways out of just paying God the firstfruits, the 10% of all thine increase. So the tithe is the first 10%. It's not something that we begrudgingly give after everything else is paid. That's not what the Bible teaches, does it? It's not the loose change in our pockets after a day of spending. God wants us to honour him with it. Honour him with it. Give him the respect of the firstfruits for all our increase. How do we give it to God? Well turn to Genesis 28, where Jacob is travelling to Padaneram and stops at Bethel, where he sees a vision and God speaks to him, okay? So he has his dream, he sees his vision, God speaks to him in the dream. Then he wakes up and it says in verse 17, it says in verse 17 there, and he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place? This is none other but the house of God and this is a gate of heaven. And the house of God ultimately is a gate of heaven. It's a house of God which sends people out to go and preach the Gospel and show people how to get saved. Verse 18, Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. Bethel means house of God, by the way. And Jacob vowed a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, he said, I come again to my father's house in peace and shall the Lord be my God. 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 of all that he's given. He said, I'll give a tenth unto thee. And guess where Jacob eventually went after returning from Padaneram. By the way, he didn't go there straight away, and things didn't go well for him. And when he eventually went there, it was to Bethel. To Bethel, to the house of God, to build an altar. And you know what happens on altars? Things get sacrificed, get offered to God. And his wealth was all in his cattle and everything else, and he sacrificed that to God. How do we give it to God? By bringing it to God's house. Now, under the Levitical priesthood, that was eventually the temple. And in the New Testament, which by the way interestingly points us toward this passage, in 1 Timothy 3.15, you can turn it if you want, but many know this verse. The house of God is the New Testament church. 1 Timothy 3.15 says, But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou altars to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. It's not about the building, the church is the called out assembly, the congregation of God's people. And it's where basically we meet, wherever we meet, it becomes a house of God. So where we meet is a house of God, right now this is a house of God. And just to make it clear, not any old place that calls itself a church is a house of God. Just because it's got church written outside, it might have church in big letters somewhere. Sometimes there might be flashing letters or something in some bizarre churches. Whatever it's got, that doesn't mean it's a church, okay? The church is the pillar and ground of the truth, says 1 Timothy 3.15. So it needs to have the true gospel, for starters. So if a place doesn't preach the gospel, if they add any works to salvation, you've got to give up sin to get saved, you've got to keep giving up sin to stay safe, you've got to at least try not to sin, you've got to repent of your sins, you've got all those different versions of work salvation. It ain't a church. It's not a church, because the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. It's not a church if it's basically doing the bidding of Satan and damning people to hell by justifying their own works. And that pretty much cancels out the vast majority of places that call themselves churches in this country and beyond. That's not a church. If it's the pillar and ground of the truth, it has to have the word of God. So there are places that claim to be churches that seem to believe the right gospel, but they're preaching out of a false bible. They're preaching out of some new bible of the month, the latest flavour bible, which changes salvation, changes many other things. That ain't the pillar and ground of the truth. It's not a church. And it needs to have the candlestick. What's the candlestick? Well Jesus warned the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2.5, remember, therefore for whence art fallen and repent, he's not talking about salvation here, he's talking about a church and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou to bend. He's saying you better get busy and start doing the first works. And if a church doesn't go out and preach the gospel in one way or another, it's not a church. That's the whole point in a church, the whole point in a church is getting people saved. That's our goal, that's what we do here in this church. This is a legitimate church. We have the gospel, we have the word of God, we preach the word of God, we go out and we get people saved. And without that it ain't a church. So if you're tithing to repent of your sins Baptist, shame on you. Shame on you and you're sitting here going, well we're kind of sitting in this church, it's not repenting of your sins Baptist. Understood, but you know what, some people might do in the future. Or some people may be watching online or whatever else like, yeah well you know, it's the only one I could go to, so I just give them, I just tithe 10%, I give that first increase, but you're meant to be giving it to God. So how are you giving it to God if you give it to repent of your sins Baptist? You're basically giving it to the devil. But if anyone ever watching this attends a genuine church, then please tithe there. And if you come from this church, yeah I just don't get on with this church, it's not for me, and you go off, please tithe to your church. We don't want your money. I don't want the money of people watching online if they've got a genuine church they can go to. Okay, that's not what we want. We don't need that. Okay, that's not, the idea is tithe to your church, go to the temple, to your local temple, to your house of God. Okay, and again I'm not saying this is a temple, but that's what it is in the New Testament and tithe to your church, right? Because if it's not a genuine church you have no business going there. So why would you go somewhere and then not tithe there and go, well no because instead I send it over to everyone. Then don't go there. If it's not a genuine church, why would you even go there in the first place? People do weird stuff like that. Why? Because tithing isn't just a case of giving it somewhere anywhere. Tithing is what facilitates the work of God being done. That's the reality of it. God expects us to be faithful stewards, and that's not just me as a pastor. And believe me, as a pastor, God expects me to be a faithful steward. Okay, it's a serious job. It's a serious job handling the money that comes into a church and making sure that you're a faithful steward with it and you're not spending it on things that you shouldn't. You're not like, oh well, you know, it'd be nice if we just did a whole coat of paint on this whole place. Forget the soul-winning materials, forget the soul-winning trips and the marathon meals and everything else. We're going to make this a lovely new colour. That would be a bad steward because that's not going to make a difference to people getting saved. But ultimately everything we do at this church should have that end result of salvation. But it's not just me. We're all expected to be good stewards of what He entrusts to us. God's entrusted to you your paycheck. God's entrusted to you whatever, wherever you get your money from, He's entrusted to you. You need to be a good steward with that. Throwing God's money at an easily provable false prophet isn't doing that. Now, I say easily provable. Okay, so it's no good going to a church going, well, we go there because it's okay, you know, but He's probably a false prophet, so I just don't type. That's ridiculous. Don't go there then. And if you can't prove He is and you think this person's right, then you need to treat that person with the respect you should be treating a pastor. Now, when I say easily provable, because there are people that just go to a church where all you had to do was click on the statement of faith and the guy says, you must repent of your sins to be saved. And often they'll even expand that. You've got to turn away from your old life and all this other stuff. At least ask the guy, what do you believe about salvation? At least, look, do some due diligence, right? Be a faithful steward of God's money. But that's not being a faithful steward. But if we tithe properly, there are many blessings that we will receive. And I'm going to go through those today. Go back to Malachi 3, where God is rebuking His people through Malachi, and it says this in verse 7, Malachi 3, 7. Even from the days of your fathers ye have gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? 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, there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now here with, 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 I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast a fruit before the thyme in a field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. The title is the blessings of tithing, and blessing number 1, tithing results in God coming first. So tithing results in God coming first in your life. Verse 7 said, even from the days of your fathers ye have gone away from mine ordinances, this is God speaking through Malachi, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we return? So God is saying through him that they've gone away from his ordinances, the things that he expected of them, the things that he wanted them to do. He's saying instead of drawing close to me, you've gone the other way. You could say that they've put him further down the list basically, haven't they? He's not of the importance that he should have done. His ordinances are no longer of the importance that they should be up here, right? But what tithing does is it puts God in his rightful place. He comes first. So straight away, in that area of your life, God comes first. That helps to make him come first in other areas of your life. Turn to Mark 12. It was on the first day of the month that they set up the Tabernacle of Congregation, by the way. The first day of the first month. It was on that first month they celebrated the Passover. The firstborn belonged to the Lord. The first of the dough was a heave offering. The first ripe of any crop was given to the Lord. It was the first day of the week that Jesus arose. It was the first day of the week that they gathered together, and it's the first day of the week that we gathered together. And in Mark 12.30 Jesus said, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment because God comes first. God should come first in every area of your life. He's more important than your landlord. He is. He's more important than your spendthrift wife. He's more important. He's more important than the taxman. He's more important than your mortgage broker. And you know what? Some people might be sitting here going, you're mad, aren't you? No! God's more important. God comes first. He's the Lord of hosts and he comes first. And that's one of the blessings of tithing is you get used to putting God first. And believe me, that is a blessing. It's a blessing for you. He said in Malachi 3.7, you've gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you. God's waiting for you to return to him for those that need to return to put him at the front of the queue again. And when you do that, he will return unto you. And look, maybe you're going through the motions, but you feel distant from him. You're turning up at church, but maybe you feel disconnected. Put him back as a priority in your life. He should be number one in our life. He should be the priority in our lives. And tithing is one of the ways that we do that because it puts him there. It puts him there and money down there. God comes first. All the other stuff, the things, the stuff you want to spend on, the stuff you want is underneath God. God is up there and that is a blessing for you in your life because he will return to you then. You're going to draw close to him. Draw an eye to God and he'll draw an eye to you. But the only way you're going to do that is putting him in his rightful place. The title is the Blessings of Tithing. And blessing number one, tithing results in God coming first. Blessing number two, tithing results in less covetousness. Tithing results in less covetousness. Look at verse eight. It said, Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Now why would someone go as far as robbing God? How on earth? You look at that guy. What? Someone would actually rob God, rob the Almighty God. One of God's people. We're not talking about people that hate him. We're not talking about the devil's children. We're not talking about just unbelievers. We're talking about God's children, his people robbing him. Why? Because they're covetous. It's covetousness. That's ultimately what it comes down to, it's covetousness. That's kind of the meat, that's the meat and bones of it really. People covet money, they put money here and God down there. It becomes more important to them, they set their sights on the cash. Now, of course, people won't say, I'm not paying tithing to God. And again, look, this is for everyone out there, okay? So this is whether you're in this church, whether you're in another legitimate church, whether you're out of church and you watch this and you have a local church to you, which is a legitimate church, I'm preaching to everyone here, okay? I'm preaching to everyone. Anyone, if you're saved, you should be paying God through whatever your local church is. Now, people come up with excuses. They'll say, well, this was only for Israel. This was only for Israel under Moses' law. Well, tell that to Abraham then. Tell that to Abraham. Because Abraham wasn't under Moses' law. He wasn't under the law of Moses. He wasn't living under the law there. But he was living under God's law. And you know what? This is a timeless principle. Some will say it was just the produce of farming. You might have heard that. Oh, yeah, well, why don't we all bring some fruits of the field and some animals in here and everything else? Yeah, you like that. No, they're actually able to trade it for money too, by the way. And when they're travelling journeys and other things and they're able to trade it and then bring in the money for that. Some will say they just want our money. These churches just want our money. Now, if you're somewhere like, if you are somewhere like that that just wants your money, then you are likely at a covetous false prophets church and you need to leave. So if anyone's sitting here going, they just want our money. Well, then ultimately, you've probably got some real doubts about this church and it's probably not really a good place for you to be. OK, but we don't just want your money. I'm going to explain that to you as we go on, OK? Kind of we do, but I'm going to explain that to you as well. OK, now some will say this. I go soul winning or I do a job at the church. That's me offering to God. That's not tithing, stupid. OK, if anyone thinks that that's not tithing, you get rewarded for that. Tithing is paying God. You pay God your first 10 percent. You get rewarded when you do stuff for God. There are other members of staff in churches, by the way, that are voluntary. I mean proper full time members of staff. Did you know that I did 95 percent of a pastor's job here for nearly 18 months voluntarily? And I'm not trying to get any applaud for this because I know many men here would have done the same, right? And eventually I started getting paid part time. There are pastors out there who are doing a full time job as a pastor. And believe me, it's beyond full time and a full time job on the side because they're in a small church. Just the reality of it. And do you know what? Every single one of us, if they're right with God, do you know what all of us have done during that whole period, whether you're being paid or not, is tithe to God on top of the work. I didn't go, well, I'm doing this job, you know, and I'm not getting paid for it, so I'm not going to tithe any of my paychecks. No, you carry on tithing because it's just the principle of God. You give your first ten percent, right? And whether you're doing work here, whether you're not. And why? Because whatever increase God gives us, he demands ten percent back. Simple. If we start trying to find ways of working it out ourselves in our own mind, we just won't pay it. We'll just find a way to excuse it. Well, actually this week I picked up a few bits off the floor on my way out of the church. I reckon that's probably, that should knock off this. It doesn't work like that, right? And whatever reason we don't results in robbing God because it was his in the first place. Everything we have, everything I've ever been given in life ultimately came from God. And he demands the first fruits for ten percent back, of all my increase. And when we tithe, we're willingly paying out of our increase to God. We're defeating the covetous urge to hold on to it. That's a blessing. Seriously. Because it will help you. If you have, if you have urges and temptations to be covetous, and many people do, that's just sadly life. It doesn't mean you're a wicked person. A lot of people have some covetous traits. Paying the tithe will help you with covetousness. If you're paying it willingly, now say willingly, because this isn't some weird cult, okay, where we make sure you're tithing. Honestly. If you talk to our money collectors, I've never said, did you notice if anyone has put anything in this week, or this month, this year? I've got no interest in that, because ultimately it is between you and God. Okay, so many messages we preach here, we're going to preach hard on truths that God wants you to do, and things he wants you to do in your life, but it's down to you and God. And I would much prefer you came to this church for 20 years and never paid a penny in tithing to God, than that you didn't come to church. Honestly. I prefer you to come to everything, to come to every event, everything we lay on, everything we put out for you, everything we do at this church to encourage you to serve God and to do all those things. I prefer you to do that and not pay a penny of tithe than you to stop coming to our church. And we don't check, and I'm not kind of, you know, like, you know, talking to the guys at the back, going, okay, let's try and work out who gave what. That's not, we're not, we're not a cult, because a lot of cults do that. They'll get all your details, find out what you're, what you're earning, what you should be paying, making sure, going, you owe for this month, you haven't paid. Honestly, the Mormons do stuff like that, you hear stories of this, and J-dubs and others, right? That's not what we do here. But, but turn to Colossians 3, because when you're willingly tithing to God, because that's a key thing, it's about getting your heart right. So if your heart's wrong, your money, look, that's not the important thing, the important thing is your heart. And when you're willingly tithing to God, you're already putting money lower than God. So when you're willingly tithing to God, God's already gone above money, hasn't He? And that's a great place to be in your life. And that is a big step toward the temptation of covetousness. Because Colossians 3, 5 says, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. So basically, mortify or subdue your fleshly desires, basically. You need to subdue them, you need to stop, you need to cut out the covetousness because it will destroy your life. Don't idolise money, don't make it more important than God. And every single one of us needs to make sure that we do that, that we put God there and money comes much lower down. Look, we need money in life, and I expect you to go, oh, we don't even care about it. Look, you need it, right? You need to survive, but God is more important. Tithing helps you do that. And that's a blessing because, like I said, covetousness will destroy your Christian life. Do you know why? Because you'll never be happy. You'll never be content. If you're coveting, if you're constantly just coveting, and really most people are going to covet money, some people covet other stuff, you'll never be happy. 1 Timothy 6 says, but godliness with contentment is great gain. That's what you need in life is a contentment, and you'll never have that if you're covetous. The title is the blessings of tithing, and blessing number one, tithing results in God coming first. Blessing number two, tithing results in less covetousness. And blessing number three, tithing results in less chastisement. Look, I'm just going to be honest about it. Just trying to threaten, look, that's what the Bible says. That's the word of God. So you do well to take heed to it. It said in verse 9, back in Malachi 3, ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. He told his people here that they are cursed with a curse. And no, it wasn't just the priests. Now, I spoke about this last week, how if you're saved, you will get chastised. Okay, you will. That's just life. If you're saved, you'll get chastised. Because he promised to chase in every son whom he receiveth. Did he not? He promised to chase everyone. It's for our own good, okay? We see that. The book of Hebrews makes that very clear. We see that in Proverbs 3 as well. Chasing is for your benefit. When we punish our children, it's for their own good. Okay? When we're punished as God's children, it's for our own good. But that's because we're meant to respond to it. And as you're starting to see, hopefully, and you will by the end of this sermon, tithing is for our own good. Okay? As I'm showing you as we go through this sermon. So anyone want to hazard a guess as to whether or not you'll get chastised for not tithing? Tithing is for your own good. God punishes you for your own good. He wants you to respond for your own good. You get many blessings from tithing. Anyone want to guess whether or not you're going to get punished or not for tithing without even looking at any verse in the Bible about that? It's pretty clear, isn't it? It's obvious. And again, I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't preach about this. Unfortunately, I'm going to preach it once a year. Once a year, around the new year, is going to be a tithing sermon. So it would be wrong, wouldn't it? If you're at risk of chastisement, it would be wrong for me to not preach about it, wouldn't it? That would be wrong. That would be a bad thing for me to do. In fact, considering it's a clear, presumptuous sin. It's a clear, presumptuous sin, isn't it? It's something that you can easily choose to do or not. This isn't one of those like, well, I've just kind of got a bit tempted by this and I just couldn't resist it. It was one of those spur of the moment sins. I'm sorry, God, that you actually feel sorry for. This is something you just choose to do or choose not to do. When you choose not to, that's presumptuous sin, right? Because you have full control over it, okay? It's not something, ah, well, I regret it now afterwards, right? Because you can get right. How do you think that chastisement will be for that clear, presumptuous sin? Anyone want to hazard a guess at that one? Especially once you consider all of the blessings that we and others and others receive from it as well, and I'm going to explain that to you in a minute. He said in verse 9, ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation. He said cursed with a curse. That doesn't sound like a slap on the wrist, does it? Anyone think that sounds like, well, you might just kind of, you know, get a little slap on the wrist, a little reminder. Turn to Proverbs 3. You can have your church attendance, your soul winning, your Bible reading, your prayer life down. You could be getting major sin out of your life, but you're robbing God. You're stealing that 10% that's His. That's what the Bible calls it. Think you're not going to get spanked sooner rather than later. It's going to happen. And look, like I said last week, so often people are just getting chastised in life and they won't recognise it. And that's a bad place to be. Don't be stubborn with it. You've got to go, okay, so what am I getting? You've got to tick the button. This is what I say to lots of, often I'll say to people who come to me for counsel and stuff and they'll say, okay, so, you know, things don't seem to be going well. I'm getting this. It's like, right, let's tick the boxes first. Are you in church? Okay, because that's a clear, presumptuous sin. Are you reading the Word of God? Are you praying? Are you soul winning or trying to learn to soul win or getting involved in some soul winning? Are you tithing? Because if those clear, just clear principles of the Christian life, you're just like, nah, not going to do that bit. If you were like, you know, I do everything else, I tithe to God, I read my Bible, I go out to someone, I just don't go to church, can't be bothered, sick of it. You think you're not going to get worked? God's going to spank you. He wants you in church. Not just for yourself, for everyone else in church. Because like I said before, we don't forsake the assembly of ourselves together as a matter of summies, but it's so that we exhort one another. It's to exhort, it's to encourage. It's for other people as well. But it's the same with tithing, because tithing isn't just about you. It's not just about giving to God. It's not just about the blessings. It's also about the effect it has on others, as we're going to get to in a minute. And the reality, though, is this, is that those not tithing usually find it hard to maintain the other areas in the long term. That's the reality of it. Because there's a heart issue. It's a heart issue. And I'm going to show you that. Proverbs 3, we're told to 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 paths. In verse seven, be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all might increase. So not doing this would be dishonouring the Lord, wouldn't it? But when we honour him, he blesses us. And when we don't, we're dishonouring God. That's a bad place to be. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy precious shall burst out with new wine, followed straight away with? My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord. That's a punishment. Neither be weary of his correction, for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth. He wants us to get right, which is why he corrects us. He wants us to get right with it. The best thing to do is to respond to the correction. Okay? Ways that he chastises us. In case you're going, well, how does he... I haven't had a thrashing. My bum's not sore. No, maybe he is. But unexpected bills, breakages, bad health, problems at work, financial hardship, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, are much, much, much, much worse. And it will just get worse and worse and worse and worse. And many of us have been chastised by God before in various areas. And many of us will understand in hindsight when you start assessing it, yeah, that was the chastisement of God. And I don't want the chastisement of God, so we respond to his correction. That's what he wants for you. The title is the blessings of tithing. Blessing number one, tithing results in God coming first. Blessing number two, tithing results in less covetousness. Blessing number three, tithing results in less chastisement. And blessing number four, tithing results in less hardship. Tithing results in less hardship. How does that work? Well, let's have a look. Verse 10 says in Malachi three, bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. He said to prove him on this, and I believe that the true fulfillment of this is as a collective church. That's really what I believe, how we apply that really. Now don't get me wrong, okay, on a personal level, tithing will avoid the chastisement that comes from it and that would include forms of hardship in life, okay. Tithing will ensure that he rebukes the devourer and that your earnings won't be constantly dented. Now we're not a health, wealth, prosperity church here, we're not telling you the more money you give, the more you'll be multiplied back. That's not how it works. However, he will help you to maintain what you do have. He will rebuke the devourer, he said here, he said that he'll pour you out a blessing. He said in Proverbs 3 10, for example, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. And that's talking about the individual there. But I do believe that this verse in Malachi specifically would apply now to the New Testament church, that body of believers inheriting those promises, because God wants meat in his house. He wants meat in his house. He wants his church to be able to provide for his people. That's what he wants, right. And in one way, that's just someone able financially to study and provide the meat of the word to his hungry people. I mean, look, turn to 1 Corinthians 9, okay. Studying and preparing three sermons a week. Any of the men here that have preached our sermons, they know how long it takes to prepare for an hour sermon, okay. That's very difficult to do on a full-time job to do it properly. Now don't get me wrong, I could stand up here and rant for an hour on a hobby horse. I could get up here, read a couple of verses, springboard off and just have a good old rant about the NHS or some other bugbear of mine in life, but that's not really biblical preaching. But you know what, they've probably preached that there are well-meaning men of God that just don't actually have the time, they don't have the time to put into actually preparing a biblical sermon. Now, there are probably guys out there that maybe, look, they're able to maybe, and there are others that maybe have to rehash sermons as well, and just repeat and repeat, maybe preach that one, just change a few bits in between and everything else. Because if you're really preparing a biblical sermon from scratch, that takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of time. You turn to 1 Corinthians 9, and now, by the way, the three sermons, that's kind of the easier bit, that's not the rest of the work that goes into, for example, pastoring a church. And there are other jobs and churches, but just thinking about pastoring, it's beyond a full-time job. It really is. It's all-encompassing, you're never really off duty, it's constant, and there's a lot of work that goes into it. Pastoring, just pastoring people, let alone everything else that goes into it. That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, who goeth the warfare any time at his own charges? Who planteth the vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth the flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say out these things as a man, or saith, not the law of the same also. For it is written in the law of Moses our shout 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 that, sorry, this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope, and he that thresheth in hope should be partake of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? He's saying, who goes to work for free, basically? God made a law for oxen to be applied specifically to this situation. That's really what you're saying, right? Why? I'll tell you why. I've been on the receiving end of this a little bit because there are bitter, covetous people that think that a passer shouldn't get paid, and many will actually withhold tithing for that reason. And I'm not just talking about children of the devil. And there are those, because they're usually full of envy and everything else, for what they perceive, even though they don't really understand any of it, and they don't really know anything. It's not just the unsaved devils trying to hinder God's work. There are some that maybe just don't get it, okay? But think of it this way. This is something I was thinking about, a way to think about it. Say one of the men in here wanted to get into the ministry, okay? So we eventually want to plant churches in the future if we find there's places where, you know, they're suitable for church stuff. So say one of the men in this church wanted to get into the ministry, yeah? He met the qualifications. Now what's one of those qualifications? One of them, and I'll make it clear one, because a lot of people think this is the only qualification, get a bit confused, yeah? One of the qualifications is that he has a family. Now it's not just that he has a family, it's that the family, you know, he has a family in order as well, he ruled as well his own house, but that he has a family, okay? Would he be ruling his house well if he took on what's sometimes even 70 hours a week job for free on the side? Anyone think he's ruling his house well now and he's looking after his kids? Is he raising his kids properly if he takes, and honestly it can be as much as 70 hours a week on the side working for free for the rest of his life. Anyone think that he's being a good dad then? Shall I tell you what he's been? He's been a lousy dad. He really is, because how on earth can he be a dad and pastor to a church and work a full-time job to provide for his family so his wife doesn't have to go to work? It's impossible. It's bad parenting. And if I'd gone into this job thinking, well, and I knew at the beginning that we were a new church and I didn't want to get paid, because I knew I'd get criticism as well in the future, so I'm pleased I didn't get paid for a long, long time doing this job, because people just say, just trying to find anything, to try and discourage anyone and try and say anything. But you know what? What a poor dad I would have been if I'd just said to my wife, I'm going to do this for voluntary for the rest of my life. My kids are going to end up a nightmare. They're going to end up with no, they won't even see me. I'm just stuck in my office writing sermons after work, getting up early to write sermons, finishing late writing sermons. When I'm at church they barely see me because I'm running the church. And you know what? They're my priority, aren't they? They're more important than the church. They're my family. I'm a dad. But there are people that honestly think that. So how would that work? But the Bible clearly says who even would do that? Who goes to work? Because the work is so important as well. And that's what he even makes this clear here, because he says this, if we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing for you to eat your carnal things? All of that doesn't even take into account the enormity of the job, and what a massively important job it is. And it's so important that the job's done right as well. Like I said, if I just got up here and just preached hobby horses three times a week, you're going home with nothing. If I just got up here and just kind of came for false prophets every week, and just didn't preach anything really from the Bible, just a few of my favourite verses, like, no one's really growing. Let alone the hundreds of other parts of the job. We wouldn't have half of what we have here. And I'm not even full time. And here's the thing is that the more that, and eventually in the future, if we grew as a church, we could get more people into the ministry. If we could employ a deacon in the future, things like that, it only benefits the church and beyond, as we're going to see. But it's not just to reap the spiritual things, okay? There are many other blessings that we have as a church here due to tithing as well. We have a great building for starters. We wouldn't have this building without faithful tithers in our church. We're not, if anyone's new here and wondering, we're not part of a denomination. It's not that a load of old elderly widows have left a load of money to their head honcho who's then been funnelling it down to us as long as we preach damnable heresy and anything else. We're just an independent church. Okay, so we have a great building. I mean, this is a great building for small independent church, instead of meeting under a tree in the park, which is what we would be doing. If no one tithes, we'd be under a tree in the park, listening to Hobby Hall sermons. And that's all that would pretty much go on. We could afford to heat it in the winter. In fact, I'm sweating it so hot, I feel right now. It's not totally heated now. We could afford to actually not be in here shivering. And I've been in churches where you're literally like this, kind of like an old building, but that's just because it didn't get hot, haven't much heating yet. That cost a lot, just, I'll tell you what, the only reason that there weren't icicles is because of tithing in that building. But I've been in churches where it's like that, right? All you can smell is damp. And it's just appalling. To be able to have drinks at the end of the service and not have a collection box next to it, and an old lady watching you while you take your drink and wondering why you haven't put money in the box. There are churches like that. Honestly, the fellowship meals. Isn't it great to be able to have fellowship meals? And be able to feel like, look, I've gone soul winning and we're going to sit down and have a meal together. And it's not like, well, I can't come because I can't afford it. I can't come because it's not part of my budget this month. And be able to say, no, it's just going to be paid for. You can sit there and eat a meal, all the equipment so that people can at least keep up when they are away. So people that do travel from far and maybe can't make it every week are able to watch a service online, live, and everything that goes with that. And plenty, plenty more blessings, I'm sure you could think of if you put the time into it. It could be so much different if people didn't tithe, if God's people didn't tithe. The title is The Blessings of Tithing. And blessing number one, tithing results in God coming first. Blessing number two, tithing results in less covetousness. Blessing number three, tithing results in less chastisement. Blessing number four, tithing results in less hardship, and ultimately for the church there. And blessing number five, tithing results in less laziness. Did you know that? Tithing results in less laziness. You said in verse 11, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast a fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. So on one hand, we benefit from our work, which makes us less likely to quit. So because we're benefiting as a church here, because we're getting things, that stops us quitting, because that does. You know one of the reasons I like doing a meal with each soul in your mouth thing, because it makes people come to soul in your mouth every month. I'm not saying, look, a lot of you aren't going, I'm only coming because of that meal, but it does encourage people a little bit. I mean, you think, yeah, I don't want to miss it, because I'm going to sit down and have a nice meal with my brothers and sisters afterwards, right? And I can afford to have and sit down and have a meal. And many of the other things here, just those little comforts, on those days where it's a 50-50, if we were in some old shed somewhere, we were under the oak tree in the local park, with the wind and the rain driving into us, and you got out of bed, you're not really feeling church, you're less likely to come, aren't you? So a lot of those things, and again, you've got to get the balance, right? You're not all going to have, you know, sort of leather armchairs and things like that, just to make sure everyone comes to church. But there's a balance there, right? But also in our personal lives as well, because it's often when things go badly that people do faint on the job. So when all your, when your money is just going through your pockets, it's like you've got holes in your pockets. When things just aren't working out, it's just like, I just can't seem to just keep it up. I just, every time I get paid, the washing machine breaks, and this breaks, and that breaks, and it's just, why? It makes you much more likely to just give up on the Christian life. That's just what happens. People just quit. They faint. If we're tithing, God will give our work a protection, and that includes the work in this house too. Okay? So there's a protection that will come from the work we do here, and we'll be able to keep doing it, because as a collective, we're tithing, we're not robbing God. But here's how it also works from a practical standpoint. Tithing does mean that 10% of your increase is paid to God. Okay? Which means that you need to work harder to earn what you need, basically, don't you? So say I needed whatever, just say someone in here needed a thousand pounds a month after they've paid, you know, whatever it is, they need that to be able to survive, for them, their family, whatever it is. But then you're giving a hundred pounds of that to God, or maybe your earnings are two thousand, and then you give two hundred pounds to God, and you need whatever, you might have a problem. Well that doesn't work for me. I don't have enough money to survive. So what do you do? Turn to Proverbs 14. Well here in verse 11, they're expected to be working farming. It said, you shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast out of fruit before the time in the field. You might need to do some extra hours. You might need to get an extra job. You might need to be more diligent in your job to earn that promotion, to be able to make life that little bit easier. Sitting around on benefits won't cut it, like, because it's kind of bare minimum anyway, but I know I've got to give 10% to God. So suddenly I need to start finding a way to earn a bit of extra money, to do something, not just sit at home doing nothing, which so many people do. You say, how's that a good thing? I'll tell you why, because it's good to work. Because God said to Adam, cursed is the ground for thy sake, because we're sinful, because when you're sitting around doing nothing you just get into sin. That's just what happens, that's life. Proverbs 14.23 says, in all labour there is profit. Did you know that? There's profit in you laboring, there's not profit in you sitting around justifying why you won't do any work. There's not profit in you sitting around going, well, I only work 30 hours a week, I just can't afford, I should be able to afford to live on a 35 hour working week. Well, most people can't. And since when will we promise that? If you can't afford to live off it, get an extra job. Because in all labour there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. That's basically people that just, all they've got is a load of talk, but they don't actually go out and graft. Work is good, even from the simple fact that it just leaves less time to sin, or at the least less time for vanity, less time for just empty rubbish. It might even be sinful about how many wasted hours probably everyone in this room spent this week in vanity, scrolling through their news feed on whatever social media, scrolling through this, reading just a load of old junk, watching a load of old rubbish because of too much time on their hands. In all labour there is profit. And do you know what tithing does? It means you have to work a little bit harder. Tithing means you've got to work, you've got to be diligent about it. And, because not only are you now left with a little less, but your efforts, and here's leading on to the last point, your efforts are directly affecting the work of God. And that's going to be my last point. The title is The Blessed Tithing. And blessing number one is tithing results in God coming first. Blessing number two is tithing results in less covetousness. Number three tithing results in less chastisement. Number four tithing results in less hardship. Number five tithing results in less laziness. And blessing number six, tithing results in more salvations. It's as simple as that. Tithing results in more salvations. Verse 12 says, And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. And let me tell you how all nations will call us blessed. By us getting the Gospel out to them. By us getting out the Gospel to all nations, to all people, to people far and wide. By us going into all the world and preaching the Gospel to every creature. But I don't know if anyone realised, but that actually costs money to do that. Okay, it's very hard, it's going to be very hard to walk to Malawi. Okay, it's going to be very hard to even plan and plot things like that and many other things, and many other things that we do that ultimately result in salvation. The knock-on effect of the work we do results in people getting saved around the world. And do you know what funds that? Do you know what basically funds the work we do here as tithing? The whole everything here is basically funded by tithing. Is there a more noble cause? Anyone wondering if there's a more noble cause? There's not a charity out there that comes close to a real biblical church. Now again, and I understand, people have had bad experiences with false churches, people see these churches and they preach this stuff every month, and all they want is money to do nothing. But when you're involved in a proper church which is just trying to find ways of getting more and more people saved, there's no more noble cause. I don't care what charity, little orphan babies or I don't know, whatever you think is the most just noble charity out there doesn't come close to a soul-winning church. It doesn't come close. It doesn't matter. Well, what about the, you know, I don't know, people with extra limbs? It doesn't matter. Because if they ain't getting saved, they're going to hell. An eternal security. Salvation is more important than any charity in the world. It's more important than any fund, any anything else that you think is worthy of your money. There's nothing that I could give my money to that would be better than giving my money to a biblical church. Seriously. Because unless it's a lousy church which is just like having a knees up and doing nothing, but then it's not really a church. Turn to Galatians 6. You say, well all the money doesn't go to soul-winning efforts. Oh, but it does. It really does. Everything paid for here works toward that end result of salvation. Everything we do is working towards the end result of more people saved. The comfortable building, like I said, means more people are likely to come when it's a 50-50. Having some heating on means people are more likely to come in the dead of winter when they look outside and it's cold and they're like, I don't really want to sit in that freezing cold church and, you know, and everything else. The meal after a monthly soul-winning marathon is, like I said, makes people more likely to come in a soul-winning marathon. That's the reality. If we cut all that stuff out, we're like, nope, soul-winning marathon every month. Believe me, numbers would dwindle. Because it's nice, it's a day out. You get to take your kids to a restaurant. A lot of people can't afford that because it's expensive. But instead we do that because the result is more, the goal is to get more salvations. That's why we do things like that. That's why we do our events. That's why we don't just do random bizarre events that have nothing to do with anything. Now don't get me wrong, fellowship events are needed as well. Those fellowship events are important because they keep people in the church. They keep people fellowshipping in the church and not fellowshipping outside with the world too much where eventually they start to pull out of church. So everything we do here, everything we put on is trying to get that balance right and ultimately with the leading of the Holy Spirit to be able to result in more salvations. That's the whole goal. The ability to fly out to take on a group in Switzerland. The goal, whether short term or long term, is more salvations. The goal is a French speaking group that will hopefully eventually become their own church. It costs us money as a church. However, the goal is more salvations in the future. The goal of going to South Africa and setting up a group there, is it because, oh, isn't it just jolly fun to go and do 12 hour or 11 hour flight and all the delays and everything else when I first went out there and all of that stuff. It's not because of that to go and then soul win and then come home. It's because we want to try and reach out. We want to try and find ways of getting groups, getting churches, everything else, to get more salvations. To hold preaching and soul winning events, to organise mission trips, to have a wealth of materials, Bibles, follow-up packs. It all results in more salvations, whether short term or long term, and none of it is possible without tithing. None of it. It's not possible. None of this. We wouldn't have any of this without faithful tivers. And good on those people that, oh, but ultimately we shouldn't even be patting ourselves on the back because really we're just paying God and not robbing him. Oh, and I was such a great guy because I didn't hold God to ransom. Oh, and I was such a great guy because I didn't just rob God. No, no, no. You're just doing what's expected of you. We looked at this passage last week, Galatians 6, and although it has many legitimate applications, it's context. The primary application is paying the ministry. And like I said, that's so that the work of God's done. Verse 6 of Galatians 6 says, let him that is taught in the Word communicate, which is to impart or to give to someone else, unto him that teacheth in all good things. It's about giving to basically the ministry. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And that's what our tithe money ultimately reaps of salvation. Life everlasting for people not only in this community, but those in further field. And isn't it nice because a lot of us here have been in churches and tithed to churches where it is questionable. And like I said, you just can't go 100% it's a false prophet. You're kind of going, look, they're pretty suspect, but they claim to believe the right thing. It's the best I can pretty much do. I'm going to have to go there. I'm tithing my money there, but we seem to be the only ones going outside winning. And that can be hard. But we're in a church where everything we're doing here is just going and getting more and more salvations and setting up a group there, trying to look for a potential church right there, doing a tour of cities around the UK there. It all needs tithing, but ultimately what are we doing? We're just trying to get people saved. And I don't think anyone sitting there going, just trying to siphon it. Nothing's being siphoned. Because we're doing so much for a small church anyway already. We organised our first missions trip. I mean, most, a lot of churches aren't able to do that. And it's thanks to having some faithful tithes here, and ultimately thanks to some good preaching that people listen to before even coming to this church. But it's not something that I just want to suddenly stop, because here's the thing. It's not just about you. Like I've said, it's also about the church itself. It's about the wider community. So if I went, well, we've got enough people to be able to at least pay for some things. It's a bit awkward for newcomers and other people and the people that aren't really like NIFB backgrounds, you know. They probably won't understand. They've been at a church where they put like 50p in the offering and that's it. They're not saying a thing. Not only would I be doing those people a disservice, but it affects people's souls. Because the more that we can, the more tithing that this church will receive, the more we're just going to do for God. That's really what it comes down to. And you say, why is this all a blessing? What about for you? Because it's a joy to see salvation, isn't it? Isn't that a joy? A joy to be part of the church, getting people saved, to see salvation, to be able to look at the bulletin and just see salvation, salvation, salvation, and know that you're a part of that. To hear those numbers coming in, to be a partaker in that reaping. Verse 9 said, Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. And this church isn't done with the plans, by the way. So we want to go further, we want to go wider, we want to go further and wider, reaping life everlasting, but it's dependent on all of us. And like I said, I'll preach something similar once a year, and that's going to be it unless it comes up in a Bible study. And like I said, I just want to caveat this sermon one more time. If you decide, no, it doesn't matter, it's ultimately between you and God, it's a shame, and it's a shame for the work that we want to do here, but you can come here for us, I'll never rebuke you, reprove you about tithing. Even if I knew that you didn't really tithe, I'll only ever preach the word of God from behind a pulpit on it, and then it's up to you at the end of the day. But I hope this sermon's made it very clear that it's not just something where you're commanded, that's it. God actually blesses us for following that command, and then what's more, it results in blessings for all around as well, it results in a blessed church, it results in a blessed community. It said in verse 12, and all nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. The title was the blessings of tithing, it was blessing number one, tithing results in God coming first. Number two, tithing results in less covetous. Number three, tithing results in less chastisement. Number four, tithing results in less hardship. Number five, tithing results in less laziness. And number six, tithing results in more salvation. That's some great blessings that all of us can receive, but it's down to you, it's your choice if you want to receive them. On that, we're going to finish off in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word, thank you for, well, thank you for, Lord, the blessings you give us that we shouldn't have to receive to just pay you back what you tell us to pay you, Lord, and to give you the first fruits and to put you in your rightful place, but thank you that we're all so blessed by that, that we can receive those blessings in this life. No, we're not going to all suddenly be mega-rich by anyone's standards, Lord, just for tithing, Lord. However, we know that you help us to be content, to be able to live with what we have and help us to do that, help us to live according to your word, Lord, help us to be diligent in our work as well, help us to be diligent in all aspects of our Christian life, help us to just get right, get our hearts right on this, Lord, help people to understand, you know, the spirit that this was preached in, Lord, as well, and just help us to all just be a successful, just a blessed church, a church which ultimately just affects more and more people's lives in a good way for eternity, Lord, in Jesus' name, for all this. Amen.