The Danger of ‘God’s Math’: When Tithing Becomes a Transaction

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
What's going on Central?
[00:00:57] Good to see everyone.
[00:00:59] We also wanna welcome all of our live streamers.
[00:01:02] We got California, Texas, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, Tennessee, Alabama, Thailand, and Canada.
[00:01:10] Let's give it up for all of our live streamers.
[00:01:12] Don't forget, whenever you're traveling, you can also join us on online freedomhouse.cc.
[00:01:17] You can get all the information.
[00:01:18] My name's Troy.
[00:01:19] My wife and I are the senior pastors.
[00:01:21] Give it up for your campus pastors, Pastor Aaron, Pastor Stephanie.
[00:01:24] You guys stand up.
[00:01:26] We are one church, multiple different locations.
[00:01:29] I'm preaching here today.
[00:01:30] We have live preachers, live communicators at every one of our campuses.
[00:01:34] Pastor Diana is at our Southend campus, and Pastor Olan is at Lake Norman.
[00:01:43] like norm like Norman like Norman campus and so it's gonna be a great day today we're starting a brand new series called kingdom logic and you guessed it we are talking about money the entire month I've locked the doors you can't leave we're here to stay now seriously we want to talk about specifically how God's wisdom on money money is way better
[00:02:05] than any wisdom on money.
[00:02:08] We wanna focus in on three theologies of stewardship that build the foundation of Freedom House Church.
[00:02:17] The first is that God owns it all and we steward it.
[00:02:20] That's our job.
[00:02:21] We're managers.
[00:02:22] God gives us the resources whatever that looks like our time our talent our treasure and then he says look I own it all and I want you to be a good steward of it the second theology of stewardship is the best ROI return on investment is an eternal return on investment meaning that we're to build legacy and the ones that we can the way that we can do that is through our giving when we we are generous we're actually building into the foundation of heaven
[00:02:51] said that when Jesus comes back, before he comes back, we can be living our lives beyond our own lives.
[00:02:57] And then the last thing that we wanna talk about, and this is what we're gonna talk about today, is 90 is greater than 100.
[00:03:04] 90% is greater than 100%, and it starts with the tithe.
[00:03:08] Now, what's interesting, you may not know this, that only 48% of atheists are generous, give anything.
[00:03:17] Now, we know they're atheists, so they don't give to God.
[00:03:20] They give to anything outside of God, which I think is interesting.
[00:03:23] If you believe in God or some higher being, maybe you're agnostic, not religious but spiritual, you believe that there's something out there, you just don't know what it is yet.
[00:03:35] Statistics tell us that they give, about 68% of them give.
[00:03:40] Now, as a Christian, here's what's really interesting, follower of Jesus, born again, 90% of people who confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior are generous.
[00:03:53] Meaning that if you remove the church out of our world, we got some problems, y'all.
[00:03:59] We've got issues.
[00:04:00] Did you know that you're a part of the greatest movement
[00:04:04] that has ever existed on planet Earth.
[00:04:06] Isn't that great?
[00:04:06] Aren't you glad to be a part of the church?
[00:04:08] Not just the little C, Freedom House, but the big C. Come on, give God a big hand clap for that.
[00:04:12] Really good.
[00:04:14] The world would not survive if it wasn't for the church.
[00:04:18] Matter of fact, if you study the book of Revelation and you see when the church is removed, when we are taken to heaven with Christ, there's going to be a lot of problems here in this planet.
[00:04:28] You remove the spiritual aspect or the influence of the church, we've got issues.
[00:04:33] The church is extremely important.
[00:04:35] Whenever there's an event, an earthquake, a flood,
[00:04:39] or even what's going on, this hurricane that swept through Jamaica.
[00:04:42] Did you know that you are there helping them?
[00:04:44] We support an organization called Convoy of Hope.
[00:04:47] We give to them regularly and our finances here, your finances are there feeding, giving water, providing electricity, internet, whatever needs are there.
[00:04:57] Aren't you thankful that you're sitting here in Charlotte, North Carolina, but in Jamaica, your giving is having an influence all the way across the world?
[00:05:07] That's how powerful money is.
[00:05:10] You won't find PETA there.
[00:05:11] They're atheists.
[00:05:14] You won't find Planned Parenthood there.
[00:05:15] They're not gonna be helping out.
[00:05:19] BLM's not gonna be there helping the community.
[00:05:21] We found out that they don't even help the black community.
[00:05:24] They're just more about transgenders.
[00:05:27] No, but the church is always there.
[00:05:30] The church always shows up.
[00:05:32] It's the church that feeds the poor.
[00:05:34] It's the church that take care of the kids.
[00:05:36] It's the church that put roofs over someone's head.
[00:05:39] See, the church mobilized is the hope of the world.
[00:05:45] How many of y'all Carolina Panther fans are playing the Packers today?
[00:05:47] Raise your hand if you're, you know, don't be nervous.
[00:05:48] Don't be embarrassed about it.
[00:05:50] I know they haven't been that good this year.
[00:05:51] Haven't been good for a while.
[00:05:53] We were talking, a couple of guys in the lobby were talking about it, but you know, we're playing for those Panthers.
[00:05:57] We want them to, did you know that over the last 10 years, they have brought in revenue $4.5 billion?
[00:06:05] Now, you would think that an organization like them would have given a lot of money.
[00:06:10] Did you know that over those 10 years, they have only given $7 million?
[00:06:16] That's only .16% of their revenue.
[00:06:21] There's a family called the Green Family.
[00:06:23] You may have heard this small store called Hobby Lobby.
[00:06:26] You know, the Green Family gives $100 million a year to the cause of Christ.
[00:06:33] Isn't that amazing to think about?
[00:06:35] See, money in the heart of a person can become an idol, but money in the hand of a believer becomes a weapon against the enemy.
[00:06:44] You know, we made a decision as the Maxwell family, when I got married, I'll be married, I've been married for 30, let's see, 1992, what's the math?
[00:06:54] 33 years.
[00:06:55] Sorry, it took me for a second there.
[00:06:56] You know, I was thinking about it because my
[00:07:00] My born-again birthday is this month.
[00:07:03] I'll be 35 years a Christian in the month of November.
[00:07:07] Isn't that awesome?
[00:07:08] I'm glad I'm saved.
[00:07:10] But when Penny and I got married, we obviously learned how to give.
[00:07:15] I'll talk about that in a minute.
[00:07:16] We learned about tithing and being generous, and we had kingdom builders back in our old church where we were.
[00:07:22] But we made a decision as a family that we would never give to anything that didn't have an eternal component with it.
[00:07:30] meaning that we're not going to just give to something because they're doing something good there's a lot of great causes but without Jesus there's no eternal eternal connection so you can feed somebody you can put clothes on them you can put a roof over their head but if you're not preaching Jesus to them I'm not giving my money to you I'm not going to use the resources that God has given me to support something that's not doesn't have an eternal impact on it so
[00:07:57] The question you have to ask yourself is how do we make sure money doesn't become an idol?
[00:08:02] That it becomes a weapon in our hands.
[00:08:03] And it starts with one thing, one word, honor.
[00:08:06] Everybody say honor.
[00:08:07] Honor.
[00:08:07] Come on, say it again, say honor.
[00:08:08] Honor.
[00:08:09] We're gonna talk about honor today.
[00:08:11] And it reminded me of a gentleman who used to be in our church.
[00:08:14] He's in heaven now, his name is Bob McCall.
[00:08:17] Anybody remember Bob McCall?
[00:08:19] Come on, don't you love Bob McCall?
[00:08:21] A lot of you remember Bob McCall.
[00:08:23] He was about 5'7", just a ball of energy.
[00:08:27] You know, he was just thick.
[00:08:29] He looked like a piston.
[00:08:30] You know, if you see a piston in real life, he just looked like that.
[00:08:32] He was sweet, nice man, loved God.
[00:08:36] And he would do the generosity moments like Adam did today.
[00:08:39] And he would always start with, All right, church, give me a big...
[00:08:43] Come on, you remember what he used to say?
[00:08:45] Honor to God!
[00:08:46] Come on, let's try it.
[00:08:47] Let's all do it for Bob one time.
[00:08:48] Let's give a big honor to God.
[00:08:49] One, two, three, honor God!
[00:08:51] He would always say that.
[00:08:52] Everybody get excited?
[00:08:53] Yeah!
[00:08:54] They didn't even know what they were saying, but they just did it anyway, because Bob was saying it.
[00:08:57] You know, he's gone to be in heaven.
[00:09:00] He's in that cloud of witnesses now with us, just cheering Freedom House on, cheering the kingdom of God on.
[00:09:07] He's going, honor to God, Troy!
[00:09:09] Come on, honor to God!
[00:09:10] he was awesome always encouraging he was he was our head usher he would get mad at me he would get he would honestly get mad at me when i would do the altar call too fast at the end because he wanted to make sure he got the right count of the number of people hey hey pastor i don't want to miss anybody because if there's 16 people i want 16 people on my count and so he's probably counting in heaven making sure every weekend we get the right count i know he is we love you bob honor
[00:09:37] is a very important component.
[00:09:39] Jesus was pressed by the religious, the law experts, in Matthew chapter 22.
[00:09:44] And the Bible says that the religious, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, came to him and they wanted to ask him a question.
[00:09:51] Look at verse 34 with me.
[00:09:52] It says, but when the Pharisees, who were the ones who, they believed in a resurrection, heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, and they didn't believe in the resurrection, that's why they're sad, you see,
[00:10:08] it's kind of funny a little bit you know it's kind of daddy but you know but when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they gathered together they got together because they wanted to try to trip up Jesus they wanted to try to put him in a corner verse 35 then one of them a lawyer now this is not a litigating attorney this isn't
[00:10:30] An attorney like we think, a divorce attorney.
[00:10:33] Now, a lawyer was basically someone who knew the scripture.
[00:10:36] They had memorized the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.
[00:10:41] They could quote it.
[00:10:42] And so they sent the big guns in to try to trip up Jesus and asked him a question, testing him, saying, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?
[00:10:53] Jesus didn't hesitate.
[00:10:55] Verse 37, Jesus said to him, you shall, we probably know this verse, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your, come on class, all your soul, with all your mind.
[00:11:07] This is the first and greatest commandment.
[00:11:11] Basically, Jesus was letting us know that God wants everything.
[00:11:14] He wants our whole heart devoted to Him.
[00:11:18] But listen, honor precedes devotion.
[00:11:23] See, honor means to put weight to, give significance to, give value to, it means to elevate, give reverence to.
[00:11:33] The Bible uses terms like fear of the Lord to describe what honor is, or awe, when people say they had
[00:11:41] All they're talking about honor to describe what it means.
[00:11:45] Devotion and love flow from a place of honor.
[00:11:49] Honor creates the space for us to experience the love of God to the fullest.
[00:11:56] Without it, we can't experience all of who God is.
[00:11:59] Just think about Isaiah.
[00:12:01] When you look at the prophet Isaiah and what he wrote in his book, you know the first six chapters are very interesting because you can kind of see a difference if you really look at it from Isaiah 6 on because in Isaiah 6 he has this encounter in the throne room of God.
[00:12:18] He sees the Lord high and lifted up sitting on his throne.
[00:12:22] His robe, his garments filled the temple and he saw the four seraphim and he had this amazing experience.
[00:12:28] But if you read just a few words before that it says, in the year that King Uzziah died.
[00:12:34] See, Isaiah struggled in his relationship with God because he had put a lot of trust in Uzziah.
[00:12:41] But when he had this encounter with God... See, when you have an encounter with God, everything changes.
[00:12:47] I mean, when you truly meet God, something in your heart changes.
[00:12:50] I'm not talking about just maybe a church experience or a good song.
[00:12:55] I'm talking about when God just slams into your world.
[00:12:58] and changes everything about you something changes on the inside of you and God slammed into Isaiah's life and showed him who he really is and that's because of the honor that Isaiah had he could say to God here I am send me
[00:13:15] It's what created the space for Isaiah to be able to take that step.
[00:13:20] See, Isaiah would have never been in a position of surrender had he not honored.
[00:13:25] Honor is the foundation of every meaningful relationship.
[00:13:30] Let me tell you, the two key components in any relationship are honor and trust.
[00:13:36] Now, the first person I honor in my life is God.
[00:13:39] And the second is my wife.
[00:13:42] Most important decision I ever made other than becoming a follower of Jesus 35 years ago is marrying Penny Maxwell.
[00:13:48] Penny Jean Compton.
[00:13:50] Don't tell her I told you that.
[00:13:52] That was her name.
[00:13:53] We fell in love, and I married her, and I honor her, meaning that I give significance to her.
[00:13:59] I value her.
[00:14:01] I elevate her above every other relationship.
[00:14:04] She comes before my kids.
[00:14:06] See, sometimes that's a problem in marriages is we put our kids before our spouse.
[00:14:11] That's not the order of the family, by the way.
[00:14:13] Men, we're to honor our wives before our kids.
[00:14:16] Women, you're supposed to honor your husband before your kids.
[00:14:19] You don't come in between me and my wife.
[00:14:22] The church doesn't.
[00:14:23] Nobody.
[00:14:25] If I told my wife I was gonna be home for dinner and I'm late, I'm gonna text her for two reasons.
[00:14:29] Number one, because I honor, and number two, I don't wanna die.
[00:14:35] Because she's told me how she would kill me.
[00:14:37] I mean, it's just, she's explained to me.
[00:14:40] Very, very, she watches a lot of crime shows.
[00:14:43] And I see her on her notepad all the time just writing stuff down.
[00:14:46] I'm like, what are you doing?
[00:14:47] She goes, uh-huh.
[00:14:49] She just laughs, you know, in that kind of Penny Maxwell laugh.
[00:14:53] See, the depth of your relationship with anyone depends totally on the honor that you give them.
[00:15:00] So what about God?
[00:15:01] Honor is the foundation of our relationship with God.
[00:15:06] In 1 Samuel, we are introduced to
[00:15:08] to one of the priests of the temple.
[00:15:10] His name is Eli.
[00:15:12] And Eli has two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.
[00:15:16] And Hophni and Phinehas were not good boys.
[00:15:19] They were not good kids.
[00:15:21] They did not honor God.
[00:15:22] They would sleep with women at the temple.
[00:15:24] They would steal people's offerings.
[00:15:27] They would trip people up.
[00:15:28] They dishonored God.
[00:15:31] And Eli never dealt with them.
[00:15:34] He never corrected them.
[00:15:36] He knew exactly what was going on.
[00:15:37] He knew everybody had told Eli about Hophni and Phinehas, and he did not do anything.
[00:15:45] So finally, God says, okay, I'm gonna send a prophet to you to make sure that you understand what's going on, Eli.
[00:15:52] Look at 1 Samuel 2 on the screen behind me.
[00:15:54] It says, why then do you, this is the prophet, he comes to Eli and he makes this statement to Eli.
[00:16:01] Why then do you scorn my sacrifices?
[00:16:04] and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest part of every offering of my people Israel.
[00:16:18] Therefore, that's a big therefore right there in verse 30.
[00:16:22] The Lord, the God of Israel, declares, okay?
[00:16:26] Listen to what he says.
[00:16:27] I promised, I promised that your house and the house of your Father should go in and out before me forever.
[00:16:38] In other words, hey listen, I made a promise to you, Eli, that your previous generation and the future generations would have a place in this temple.
[00:16:47] But now the Lord declares.
[00:16:49] Far be it from me now what God's not saying because I'm not I'm not changing my promise but you've made a determination by your actions that you are erasing the promise God says because your sons look at this for those who honor me I will honor and those who despise me shall shall be lightly esteemed notice that that the Bible uses the word despise as the antonym for honor
[00:17:20] I don't want to fall in that category where I put something or someone in a place above God.
[00:17:28] See Jesus tells us in Matthew 15 that honor is a heart issue.
[00:17:34] He's having a conversation again with the religious because the religious were always the one that were pressing against Jesus and he's actually talking about honor.
[00:17:43] He's talking about the commandment that says honor your father and your mother.
[00:17:48] This is the only commandment out of the ten commandments that comes with promise.
[00:17:53] And he says, listen, these people, talking about the religious, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
[00:18:02] See, God doesn't just want lip service from you.
[00:18:05] You know, it's not just honor.
[00:18:07] Honor is not just showing up here on Sunday.
[00:18:09] God, I'm here.
[00:18:09] Aren't you glad I'm here?
[00:18:10] I graced you with my presence today.
[00:18:14] I gave you 45 minutes.
[00:18:16] Sorry, I was 30 minutes late.
[00:18:19] No, that's not honor.
[00:18:21] Honor is not just lip service.
[00:18:23] Honor is not just checking the box off and doing a religious duty.
[00:18:27] No, honor is relational.
[00:18:29] It's not religious.
[00:18:31] Honor is something that is seen, not just heard.
[00:18:37] Honor is, I'm coming with value to you.
[00:18:42] I'm giving my life to you.
[00:18:45] Jesus is saying, you will never be close to me if your honor is far from me.
[00:18:53] And listen, honor is always tested.
[00:18:56] Always.
[00:18:57] Parents, you know this.
[00:18:58] We're good at this.
[00:18:59] We're good at testing because we don't want our kids to fall more in love with the gift than they are with the giver.
[00:19:08] Right?
[00:19:08] So you take them the Chick-fil-A.
[00:19:11] This is how you test them.
[00:19:12] You take them the Chick-fil-A, you get them a chicken sandwich and some fries.
[00:19:16] And you get them a small fry, not a big one.
[00:19:19] And you reach, as they're getting in their bag, you reach over to grab some of their fries.
[00:19:25] And if they go, whoa, whoa, whoa, mom!
[00:19:28] Those are my fries!
[00:19:29] You take the bag.
[00:19:34] Because you want them to know that you're the giver of the gift.
[00:19:38] That if they want more Chick-fil-A, they better love the giver.
[00:19:43] They better honor the giver.
[00:19:46] See, a good kid would go, absolutely, you can have as many as you want, mom, because they know where the fries come from.
[00:19:52] And they don't come from Chick-fil-A, they come from your pocketbook.
[00:19:55] Are you following me?
[00:19:57] See, it's the entitled kids.
[00:19:58] Everybody knows who that ungrateful kid in the neighborhood is.
[00:20:03] Come on, if you don't know,
[00:20:10] I didn't say it I just brought attention to the neighborhood all right you know God's a parent he's a father and his first two kids Adam and Eve were given something amazing they were given a perfect environment Eden they were given everything that they needed and they were naked that's a bonus and all the married people said yes Lord come on come on if you're single just say I'm waiting
[00:20:40] And then he asked them, Do you honor me?
[00:20:42] How did he do it?
[00:20:43] And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day you eat of it, you shall surely die.
[00:21:00] See, the question was, Will you honor me?
[00:21:05] Are you devoted to me?
[00:21:07] Now, we know what happened, and as a result, you and I are in the position that we're in today.
[00:21:11] See, God continually tests us.
[00:21:13] How does He test us?
[00:21:14] The number one way that He tests your honor is with your finances, with your money, with your possessions.
[00:21:23] Money is the quickest way for God to check our honor.
[00:21:26] How do we know that?
[00:21:27] Well, Jesus tells us in Matthew 6, 21, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[00:21:35] for where your treasure is.
[00:21:36] He knows.
[00:21:37] That's why Jesus talked more about money than he talked about anything.
[00:21:40] He talked more about money than he talked about heaven or hell or faith or healing.
[00:21:45] He talked more about finances because he knows that if a person doesn't honor, they don't understand honor, then money will become an idol instead of it being a weapon in their hands.
[00:22:01] And so, honoring God starts with the tithe.
[00:22:07] The test for us is the tithe.
[00:22:11] Now, I learned this when I first became a Christian.
[00:22:14] And I think, I believe God taught me this at the very beginning of my walk because He knew that if not, money would become an idol for me.
[00:22:22] It would be something, because I grew up very poor.
[00:22:24] My dad left when I was 14 months old and my mom worked a job to take care of me.
[00:22:33] We lived in an apartment.
[00:22:34] I remember we had roaches so big in my apartment.
[00:22:37] I had names for them.
[00:22:38] I put leashes on them and they were my pets.
[00:22:40] We couldn't afford the dogs, so I just got a roach.
[00:22:43] I mean I would no joke I'd wake up and they'd be crawling on my forehead it was horrible we were so poor because in those apartments if they sprayed they'd just go to the other house until they sprayed and they'd come back to your house I mean it was just they just moved down the line all the the roaches did Martin knows about that you know he's a bug guy so so I mean we grew up extremely poor so when when I became a Christian God says all right let's let's deal with that spirit of poverty
[00:23:11] that's on you to make sure that you understand how to manage money.
[00:23:16] And he taught me to tithe.
[00:23:17] Now, there was one moment in my life where I missed it.
[00:23:21] So when Penny and I got married, we started tithing right from the very beginning.
[00:23:27] I had a sales job, she worked at a bank, and we would tithe every single time.
[00:23:31] I'm gonna talk about what it is and all that stuff for many of you that maybe don't understand what the tithe is.
[00:23:37] But we started, and then I was about 25 or 26,
[00:23:40] and Life got in the way.
[00:23:43] What happens?
[00:23:44] I started to get overwhelmed with life and finances got a little tight.
[00:23:50] And so tithing kind of went to the back seat.
[00:23:53] In other words, I stopped honoring God with my finances.
[00:23:58] And then you know what happened?
[00:23:59] I remember.
[00:23:59] I remember where I was standing when it hit me.
[00:24:03] I remember in the church while I was at, I remember I was standing in a stairwell when the Lord spoke to me after my wife asked me because our car broke down, our dishwasher broke down.
[00:24:13] I mean, everything was just going down the tubes.
[00:24:16] And all of a sudden, my wife goes, are we tithing?
[00:24:19] That's the first question she asked me.
[00:24:20] Are we tithing?
[00:24:21] And I was like, no, we're not.
[00:24:23] I'd let it fall by the wayside.
[00:24:25] And we immediately, and ever since then,
[00:24:27] For the last 25 plus years, we have never not been a tither.
[00:24:33] We've always been a kingdom builder.
[00:24:35] Even when we left our church in Richmond to come plant this church, we kept giving to that church a year afterwards because we had made a commitment as kingdom builders.
[00:24:45] So here's the logic from God.
[00:24:47] 90 with God is greater than 100.
[00:24:53] If you can get that in our heads, if we can get that in our hearts.
[00:24:56] See, that's God's math.
[00:24:58] God's math says 90 blessed is way better than 100 cursed.
[00:25:06] And if we can understand this idea of the tithe.
[00:25:09] Now, people who struggle with the tithe, there's two of them.
[00:25:13] The first one is the person who just struggles with generosity, period.
[00:25:17] They struggle with this idea of being generous.
[00:25:20] And then secondly, the person who struggles with tithing is the person who struggles with trusting God.
[00:25:27] They struggle with trusting God.
[00:25:29] They can trust a lot of other things except God.
[00:25:32] So that's why God tests you, first of all, with your money and the tithe.
[00:25:35] So look at the great Italian prophet, Malachi.
[00:25:40] The great Italian Jew, Malachi Goldstein.
[00:25:43] If you look in the author, I'm joking by the way, it's Malachi is how you pronounce it, all right?
[00:25:49] Now, let me just tell you about Malachi and specifically this verse.
[00:25:52] If you've been around church any amount of time, you know this verse because you've heard this talked about tithing.
[00:25:58] Every preacher in the world would have loved for this to be just one book over in Matthew, because it would have been New Testament.
[00:26:07] But God put it in the Old Testament just to give us a challenge so we would know how to teach on tithing.
[00:26:13] Because tithing is not a law issue, it's a principle issue.
[00:26:17] It's a trans-covenantal promise from God.
[00:26:21] It didn't end when Jesus took the cross.
[00:26:24] It didn't end then when we became New Testament believers.
[00:26:27] Malachi 3, verse 10, it says, Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.
[00:26:34] And then God says, Test me in this, says the Lord.
[00:26:37] If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
[00:26:46] Verse 11, and I will rebuke, listen to all these promises attached to tithing, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes.
[00:26:54] so that so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field says the Lord of hosts and if that wasn't enough all nations all peoples will call you blessed for you will be a delightful land says the Lord so let's answer a couple questions what is the tithe well the word tithe means tenth means tenth
[00:27:22] So, just giving something is not necessarily a tithe.
[00:27:27] Just returning something.
[00:27:28] It has to be the first 10% of your gross earnings that are brought in.
[00:27:35] So, I've got 10 $10 bills right here.
[00:27:39] I just made them this morning so they're a little crispy.
[00:27:43] So, 10 $10 bills.
[00:27:47] What's the tithe?
[00:27:49] $10.
[00:27:50] So the question is, is which $10?
[00:27:55] The first one down here or the first one over here?
[00:27:59] The first one.
[00:27:59] What do you mean by the first?
[00:28:01] It's the first one that you spend.
[00:28:06] Okay, so why is that important?
[00:28:08] See, tithing is a principle.
[00:28:09] It's not the law.
[00:28:11] It's not a part of the law.
[00:28:13] It's actually a principle that has been practiced all through Scripture.
[00:28:17] Abel tithed.
[00:28:19] Says he brought the firstborn.
[00:28:20] So Adam obviously had taught him something about this principle.
[00:28:25] Abraham tithed to Melchizedek.
[00:28:27] This was before Moses got the Ten Commandments from heaven and all 600 laws.
[00:28:32] Are you following me?
[00:28:34] Jacob tithed.
[00:28:37] When he was in Bethel, he called the place House of God and he tithed.
[00:28:42] I mean, come on, we gotta wake up sometimes and read the Bible.
[00:28:46] So why is it the first that we spend?
[00:28:49] Well, let's just think about it for a second.
[00:28:51] If I were to not do it that way, let's just pretend I got paid $100, and so now I got to pay my mortgage.
[00:28:57] Okay, so I got, you know, I got to pay my mortgage.
[00:29:00] This, you know, mortgage.
[00:29:02] It's gone up.
[00:29:03] Interest rates are high.
[00:29:04] And I got to pay my electricity.
[00:29:07] And then I got to, you know, take care of my water bill.
[00:29:10] And I got to buy some food.
[00:29:13] And now I guess I'll give God what's left over.
[00:29:17] And so why is it that that can't be the tithe?
[00:29:20] Because this required no faith.
[00:29:24] Zero faith.
[00:29:26] See, God says, if you really trust me, then the first thing that you're gonna do before you do all that is you're gonna bring me the tithe.
[00:29:36] The number 10 is the number of testing.
[00:29:40] Every time you see 10 in the Bible, God is testing somehow.
[00:29:45] And this is the principle.
[00:29:46] See, tithing is not the ceiling of Christianity, it's the floor of Christianity.
[00:29:52] It's one of the easiest things that we can do as a Christian.
[00:29:54] Let me prove it to you.
[00:29:55] If I told you, all of you, go love your neighbor today, I guarantee
[00:30:01] Probably all of us are gonna go and do something different.
[00:30:04] Some of us are gonna cook them a meal.
[00:30:06] Some of us are gonna go cut their grass.
[00:30:08] Some of us are gonna wave at them.
[00:30:10] Some of us are gonna go shake their hand.
[00:30:12] You know, whatever love, how you define love, because we all have kind of a different definition of love.
[00:30:17] Love is pretty broad.
[00:30:18] Wouldn't you agree, church?
[00:30:20] Come on, you're looking at me like I'm dumb up here.
[00:30:21] You don't, you agree.
[00:30:23] It's love, it's broad.
[00:30:25] However, if I said go tithe of $100, it's pretty easy.
[00:30:30] You take 10% of $100 and you do it.
[00:30:34] It's very simple.
[00:30:36] That's what's the base level of Christianity.
[00:30:38] It's not being generous, it's being obedient.
[00:30:42] See, we're all gonna have different definition of love, but tithe is very, very simple.
[00:30:47] Tithing is not a duty under the law, but a privilege under love.
[00:30:53] You see, if we wait, it's just really giving God a tip.
[00:30:58] It's not trust.
[00:31:00] So when do we tithe?
[00:31:01] We tithe when we are paid, when we receive the increase.
[00:31:07] Proverbs 3, verse 9, Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase.
[00:31:15] Funny story, a man came to Peter Marshall, who was the chaplain for the United States Senate, with a concern about tithing.
[00:31:25] So the man said, I got a problem, chaplain.
[00:31:29] I've been tithing for some time, and it wasn't too bad when I was making $20,000 a year.
[00:31:35] I could afford to give $2,000, but you see, now I'm making $500,000 a year, and there's just no way I can afford to give $50,000 a year.
[00:31:46] Dr. Marshall reflected on the wealthy man's dilemma, but didn't give him any advice, and he just said, Yeah, looks like you got a problem.
[00:31:53] I think we should pray about it.
[00:31:55] Is that all right?
[00:31:57] The man said, Absolutely.
[00:31:58] So Dr. Marshall, he bowed his head and prayed with boldness and authority and said, Dear Lord, this man has a problem and I pray that you'll help him.
[00:32:10] Lord, reduce this man's salary back to the place where he can afford to tithe.
[00:32:20] Do you have a problem?
[00:32:22] I'll pray with you after the service.
[00:32:26] Where do we tithe?
[00:32:28] Do we get to pick?
[00:32:29] Well, it's not generous.
[00:32:31] Tithing is not being generous.
[00:32:33] Tithing is being obedient so God tells us exactly where the tithe goes.
[00:32:38] If you remember in Malachi chapter three, it says, bring all the tithes into the storehouse.
[00:32:43] Now, what's the storehouse?
[00:32:44] Great question, I'm glad you asked.
[00:32:46] Because the temple at that particular time had little buildings that surrounded, little storehouses.
[00:32:52] that they would bring all.
[00:32:53] No, they didn't.
[00:32:54] Sometimes they would bring gold and silver, but most of the time they brought what the community needed in order to provide for the community.
[00:33:03] And so now we bring finances because that's how we buy food and take care of benevolent issues, pay people's mortgages, help them with their rent,
[00:33:12] Help them get help with clothing and take care of their kids, pay for their kids to be in school and books and so forth.
[00:33:18] That's what we do as the church.
[00:33:20] Back then, that's exactly the same thing.
[00:33:22] 10% comes in in order for the church to be able to take care of the priests, the leaders of the temple, and then also to be able to be benevolent to reach out.
[00:33:33] Now let me just tell you something about your church.
[00:33:35] From the beginning of Freedom House Church, we have been a tithing church.
[00:33:39] Meaning that from the very beginning, every dollar that comes in, we take 10% and we actually do more than that.
[00:33:46] And we tell you at the end of the year, we tell you exactly where all the money goes, but we give immediately, it goes into an account to help benevolent here in our community.
[00:33:55] We have a process to help people.
[00:33:57] We send money internationally.
[00:33:59] We have organizations that we support and we support organizations internationally around the world.
[00:34:05] That's why your finances right now are helping people in Jamaica.
[00:34:09] and in Africa and in Asia.
[00:34:12] Every time you tithe, every time you give, that money goes into an account and immediately goes out and helps people.
[00:34:20] Our church budget is just over $8 million.
[00:34:23] So this year, 800,000 plus will go out into the community to touch people.
[00:34:29] Aren't you thankful for the church?
[00:34:31] Aren't you glad that your giving is a weapon?
[00:34:35] Now Timothy tells us exactly what the storehouse is or the house of God.
[00:34:39] It says the house of God which is the church of the living God.
[00:34:42] It's the church.
[00:34:44] I can't pick where my tithe goes.
[00:34:47] I tithe to the local church.
[00:34:49] Now why do we tithe?
[00:34:52] My friend Russell Johnson wrote this and I love it.
[00:34:54] I added a few things to it.
[00:34:56] But the reason why we tithe is it provides for God's house.
[00:35:01] It tells God, I trust you.
[00:35:04] I honor you.
[00:35:05] Why do we tithe?
[00:35:06] It creates margin in my life for God to fill.
[00:35:10] How do I know that?
[00:35:11] Because the Bible says he'll open the windows of heaven and pour out you a blessing that you'll not have room enough to receive it.
[00:35:17] It's a part of the promise of tithing.
[00:35:19] Just being obedient.
[00:35:21] And God says, I'm gonna bless you.
[00:35:23] It reminds me that I am not my source.
[00:35:26] Why do we tithe?
[00:35:27] It provides protection from the devourer.
[00:35:31] I heard a story this week one of my one of the board members came to me and we were talking about tithing and he goes you know it's funny the other day I was talking to a friend of mine who God had healed him of cancer and he and I didn't he said he didn't know the guy that well and he told he said the Lord told him to go tell him the reason he got healed of cancer is because he was a tither and so he went to the guy and he goes hey you know I just want to let you know God healed you of cancer because you're a tither are you a tither he goes absolutely
[00:36:01] See, God says he'll step between you and the devil when you tithe.
[00:36:05] He'll rebuke the devourer for you.
[00:36:07] Not only has he given you authority to deal with the enemy, but also he'll take your place in front of the devourer, the devil, for you.
[00:36:15] Isn't that awesome?
[00:36:17] So why do we tithe?
[00:36:18] It connects my life to an eternal purpose.
[00:36:22] We make heaven bigger and make the kingdom of God better because of our tithe.
[00:36:26] Why do we tithe?
[00:36:27] It gives my job eternal significance.
[00:36:30] I'll tell you a funny story.
[00:36:32] I'll tell you a funny story.
[00:36:33] Yesterday, I was witnessing to this guy.
[00:36:35] I said, what kind of work do you do?
[00:36:37] He goes, I own a cannabis farm.
[00:36:39] And I thought for a second, how's that going to work?
[00:36:46] Like, if I get this guy saved, Michael, like, how's this gonna work?
[00:36:49] Is he gonna have to retire from his job, or can we redeem cannabis money?
[00:36:54] I said, God, you can do all things.
[00:36:56] I'm having this conversation on the inside.
[00:36:57] I hope he doesn't see this, but anyway.
[00:37:02] It gives my job eternal significance.
[00:37:04] That's why we tithe.
[00:37:06] We tithe because it breaks greed and self-reliance off my life.
[00:37:10] Why do we tithe?
[00:37:11] Because it lets everything in my life know that God is first.
[00:37:17] 90 is always greater than 100 with God.
[00:37:23] I want to live and lead my life on 90% with God's blessing and grace instead of an extra 10% without God's blessing and God's grace.
[00:37:32] Can I get an amen?
[00:37:33] So church listen, the argument is not whether should I tithe, is it biblical?
[00:37:39] The argument is why wouldn't I become a tither?
[00:37:43] Why wouldn't I?
[00:37:45] God's generous act
[00:37:48] Through His Son Jesus tells us that why wouldn't I want to be again?
[00:37:53] Why would I spend so much energy trying to not give to God?
[00:37:59] Like it just doesn't even make sense.
[00:38:02] Only the enemy could be the author of that kind of an argument.
[00:38:06] Only the enemy.
[00:38:08] So here's how I want to close the service today.
[00:38:11] I know some of you are new to Freedom House and maybe new to the church.
[00:38:16] Overall, just like coming to church, I want to challenge you to become a tither, to start your journey in being generous.
[00:38:27] See, we have these theologies of stewardship that God owns it all and we manage it.
[00:38:33] The best ROI is eternal ROI and that 90 is greater than 100.
[00:38:39] because we want you to build a foundation of being a great steward not just in your finances look this is just the beginning because when I decide to honor God in my finances let me tell you he opens up a lot of wisdom for me in other parts of my life so I know I know some of you in this room I just want to talk to a few of you some of you are saying you don't understand pastor for me to to give to start giving ten percent would be a
[00:39:07] There's a huge, huge issue.
[00:39:09] So here's what I want you to do.
[00:39:12] I want you to start somewhere.
[00:39:15] Maybe 2%.
[00:39:17] But here, I don't want you to just go, I'm just gonna do tip.
[00:39:19] Your goal is to get to be a tither.
[00:39:22] You wanna get to that Malachi 3 life.
[00:39:25] So maybe you start at 2%.
[00:39:27] Maybe you start at 4%.
[00:39:29] Maybe you start at 8%.
[00:39:30] Wherever you can start.
[00:39:32] Here's the thing.
[00:39:33] Look at me, look at me.
[00:39:35] Start somewhere.
[00:39:36] And this is the thing about stewardship.
[00:39:38] Stewardship is the same no matter what you do as a Christian.
[00:39:42] You gotta start.
[00:39:43] So if you wanna be a Bible reader, the first thing you gotta do, you gotta start reading the Bible.
[00:39:49] And then the next thing you gotta do, which is what we're gonna talk about next week, is you gotta do it consistently.
[00:39:55] So you become a tither, and then you do it consistently, not just once every now and then,
[00:39:59] When you feel emotionally moved, no, it becomes a regular part of your everyday life.
[00:40:04] And then the next step is where you get to the kingdom builder mode.
[00:40:08] This is when God begins to move in your life so much so that you become so precise with the weapon of the resource God has given you that now you're destroying the devil every time you write a check.
[00:40:22] and you're changing lives every time you write a check then your money becomes soulish it becomes like I'm reaching people every single time I give and you get fired up about opportunities like kingdom but you go oh my gosh I get to give again and so you go whoa hold on a second that's just being too much no no it you check your whole philosophy of life changes
[00:40:47] and your life becomes a tool that God can use.
[00:40:51] But I just want to talk to you.
[00:40:53] Maybe you've never tithed before.
[00:40:55] Today's your day.
[00:40:56] Just pull out your phone.
[00:40:57] this is how you do it you pull out your phone you tap that little circle or you pull out your phone you say you mean I gotta do it right now yeah do it right now do it right now take the time to do it because likely when you get out to your car and life gets in the way it won't you you'll forget about it until the next time you're reminded about it or you can go to freedomhouse.cc slash give
[00:41:17] all the information a lot of what i talked about is on the website it'll just kind of walk you through it help you we want to help you we want we want to help you with your finances we want to help you steward sometimes people find themselves in bad positions financially because they've never been taught how to manage their money
[00:41:36] How to live?
[00:41:37] We have financial peace.
[00:41:38] We have life groups.
[00:41:39] We have great people here at this church that would love to help you navigate your resources.
[00:41:46] I learned it from some great people in the church I was at.
[00:41:50] Now there's great financial models out there, absolutely.
[00:41:54] But there's ways that you can steward your finances from a kingdom logic standpoint that will change you forever.
[00:42:04] Because God's math is always better than ours.
[00:42:07] His logic is always better than ours.
[00:42:09] Amen?
[00:42:10] So start that journey today.
[00:42:12] Make that decision.
[00:42:13] If you want to give cash or a check, there's envelopes, and there's right in the outside, there's these giving containers.
[00:42:19] You put it in there, it goes right to heaven.
[00:42:22] It's like at the bank.
[00:42:23] You'll hear that sound.
[00:42:26] Or at the pharmacy.
[00:42:27] Just goes right up to heaven.
[00:42:29] I'm kidding, it doesn't do that.
[00:42:31] But just pretend, you know, just pretend.
[00:42:33] That's what I do.
[00:42:34] Amen.
[00:42:34] Father, thank you for today.
[00:42:36] We love you so much.
[00:42:37] We're so grateful for your presence that we've sensed it the whole day.
[00:42:42] We don't deserve it, God, but you show up.
[00:42:45] You're so wonderful.
[00:42:47] You're so amazing.
[00:42:49] And God, we wanna honor you.
[00:42:52] we want you to see our devotion not just by the words that come out of our mouth but God from our heart posture from who we are and what we do and how we act and how we apply your word to our life Lord especially when it comes to giving and resources God we want to be tithers we want to return the tithe so that you'll open the windows of having heaven and pour a blessing a blessing over our lives father we want to we want to see the rebuke the devour in our family
[00:43:22] God, we want to just watch you move supernaturally in our church, Lord.
[00:43:27] We love you so much.
[00:43:30] We wanna show you that, God.
[00:43:33] We don't ever want there to be a doubt that we don't honor you.
[00:43:40] Like Bob said, honor to God.
[00:43:44] Honor to God today, in Jesus' name.
[00:43:48] Jesus, we stand up on your feet today.
[00:43:51] I truly believe that Jesus was God's tithe to the world.
[00:43:56] He gave a man so He could gain many men and women.
[00:44:03] He gave His best.
[00:44:04] Understand that God didn't have ten sons up there and just pick Jesus because He was the most He could get rid of up there.
[00:44:10] No.
[00:44:11] He had His only begotten Son.
[00:44:13] He gave His only begotten Son to you and me so that He could die.
[00:44:17] His purpose was to come and die for you and me.
[00:44:20] If you're here today and you want to receive the blessing of a relationship with Jesus,
[00:44:26] to know that your eternity is in heaven.
[00:44:28] I wanna pray with you today.
[00:44:29] Or maybe you knew him at one time in your life, but you fell away from him.
[00:44:33] You know who you are.
[00:44:33] You know your life is not pleasing.
[00:44:35] Guess what?
[00:44:35] You can hit the reset button and start all over.
[00:44:38] I'm gonna count to three in just a second.
[00:44:40] If you say, I want a relationship with God.
[00:44:42] I wanna start by confessing Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
[00:44:46] I wanna pray for you.
[00:44:47] Or maybe you wanna rededicate, recommit.
[00:44:49] When I count to three, just put your hand right on your heart.
[00:44:53] I wanna pray.
[00:44:53] Let's let Bob count some people today.
[00:44:56] and Heaven.
[00:44:58] So you ready?
[00:44:59] Just make that decision.
[00:45:00] You want to become a follower of Jesus.
[00:45:02] You want to recommit your life, rededicate.
[00:45:05] Rededicate your life.
[00:45:06] One, two, three.
[00:45:08] Just put your hand right on your heart.
[00:45:10] And if you did that, close your eyes.
[00:45:12] Church, would you close your eyes and just pray this prayer out with them as a church family.
[00:45:16] Say this loud.
[00:45:17] Say it strong so heaven can hear.
[00:45:19] So Bob can hear it.
[00:45:21] Say, Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus died for me.
[00:45:26] I believe that His blood washes me of all my sins and all my mistakes.
[00:45:33] Today I give You my life.
[00:45:34] Thank You, Jesus, for being God's tithe and being raised from the dead
[00:45:40] So I can start a brand new life.
[00:45:42] I'll worship you and I'll serve you forever and ever.
[00:45:47] And all God's people said, Amen.
[00:45:49] Come on, give God a big hand.