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Now in Hebrews chapter 7 we begin reading about Melchizedek, the king of Salem, priest of the Most High God. And this is the man who of course met Abraham coming back from the battle in Genesis 14. And if you would just keep your finger in Hebrew 7 because that's where we're going to be. Let's flip back to Genesis 14 quickly. The first book in the Bible, the 14th chapter. Genesis 14 where we see Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, where he met Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God. And look back at Genesis chapter 14. And of course Abraham had defeated these four great powerful kings, Kedorlaomer, Tidal, Eumdations, and these others when he was delivering his nephew Lot, who had been taken as a prisoner with the family. And the Bible says in verse number 17, And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Kedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him at the valley of Shady, which is the king's dale. Genesis 14 and 18. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. And he gave them tithes of all. Let's flip back to Hebrew chapter 7. So we see Melchizedek introduced in Genesis as the priest of the Most High God. When we get into Hebrews chapter 7, God explains to us that that was actually Jesus Christ, who met him returning from the slaughter of the kings of men. Melchizedek was in fact Jesus Christ. It says in verse number 7, I'm sorry, verse number 2 of chapter 7, It says, To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace, without father, without mother, without scent. It's like Melchizedek. He had no father, he had no mother, he had no descent, having neither the beginning of days, so Jesus Christ had no beginning, neither end of life, but made life unto the Son of God, abideth, present tense, abides, still is, he's saying, a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was. He's explaining, look, this was Jesus. He says, consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham, whom you would have thought was the greatest man living at that time, gave the tenth of the spoils, and verily neither of the sons of Levi, who received the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham, but he whose descent is not counted from them, received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises, and watch this, with thou-well contradiction, the less is blessed for the better. So who is greater? Melchizedek, great man. Melchizedek was greater, because there was an Old Testament physical bodily appearance of Jesus Christ, the high priest of God. And so it says in verse number 9, As I may so say, Levi also, who received the prize, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchizedek met him. Now, what am I preaching on tonight? I'm preaching on the subject, and it's a subject that I rarely preach on, but I do preach on it, it's the subject of tithing. Now the last time I was, I was trying to think of the last time I really preached on this, I think it was back in January of 2007, is what I came up with, like January 14th, I may have preached on it a different time, I don't know, but it seems like it's been a long time that I've preached on this, and I don't preach often on it, because it's not something I really think that much about, I just, money to me is not an important part of our church. Now, obviously we do the best we can to be wise about the way that we spend the money, and the way that we use the money, and obviously, you know, money makes the world go round, you know, according to the people of this world, and we all need money to live and survive and so forth, but when it comes to church, I don't think that God ever intended for money to be something that is emphasized. I don't believe that at all. I mean, it's not emphasized heavily in the Bible. I mean, people will try to say, oh, the Bible talks about money, I heard somebody say one time that one out of five verses in the Bible is about money. You know that's not true, I mean, you've read the Bible, you know that's not true, it's a lie, okay. The Bible doesn't emphasize money, money, money, but it does talk about money, and the Bible talks about everything, and I don't think that money is really at the top of God's list of importance because he paid the streets for the gold in heaven, but at the same time, everything's important, and so if God commands this, and God talks about this, I ought to preach about it, and I'm going to tell you something, if you're not tithing, and maybe another reason why I don't really preach on this that much is because pretty much everybody in our church seems like everybody's tithing, you know, I don't sit down and try to analyze it, but it just seems like we always have a lot of money coming in, it seems like everybody's tithing, and I couldn't even name anybody that's not tithing, you know, I don't know, and I'm going to name them right now, and I don't know, I don't know, I don't really care, but what I'm trying to say is this has never been something that I felt like people struggled with, and to be honest with you, it shouldn't be a struggle, I mean, it's not that hard, and let me just preach it to you tonight, what the Bible says about this important subject. Now, of course, we see the first instance of tithing that's actually named and called tithing in the Bible is in Genesis 14, when Abraham tithes to Jesus Christ, also known as Melchizedek. Look at the second instance of tithing in the Bible, it's in Genesis 28, 16. Look at Genesis chapter 28, 16. Now, just so that you know, the word tithe means tenth, and God uses those two words interchangeably in Hebrews chapter 7. The Bible is very easy to understand because as you're reading chapter 7 there, you notice in verse number 2 at the beginning, it's called tenth, and then it says tenth in verse 4, and then it's called the tithe in verse 5, and then it's called the tithe in verse 6, and then it's called tithe in verse 8, tithe in verse 9, and it goes back to tenth, I mean, back and forth, tenth, tithe, tithe, tenth, because God wants you to understand the deafness of the word tithe is tenth. So, we're talking about 10%. Now, it says in Genesis 28, 16, the Bible reads, and Jacob will wake out of his sleep, and he said, he had to dream, of course, about the ladder going up to heaven, and the angels ascending and descending, and Jacob will wake out of his sleep, and he said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not, and he was afraid, and he said, how dreadful is this place? This is none other but, and notice these words, the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven, and Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stones 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 Beth-El, which is he before, house Beth means house, El means God, house of God, but the name of that city was called Luz of the first, and Jacob bow to bow, 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, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then 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 a tenth unto thee. So this is something that's, a concept that's carried throughout the Bible. You know, it's carried throughout Genesis, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then we get into the Mosaic law, it's reiterated again and again and again, the prophets, the book of Matthew, Hebrews, you know, all throughout the Bible talks about this. Look, if you would, at Malachi chapter number three. Malachi chapter number three, see why this is so important, and why I'm taking the time to preach on this tonight. Malachi chapter number three, and then I'm going to get into some more practical applications of this, but right now I'm just laying in the foundation, you know, tied into something that's found throughout the Bible, it's found throughout the book of Genesis, it's found throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and all the way through the Bible. It says in Malachi chapter three, verse number eight, it says, will a man rob God? Are you there in Malachi 3? Will a man rob God? Yet he robbed me. But ye say, where in have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house. Now where is the tithe supposed to go? To God's house. We saw that in Genesis 28, it says God's house is where I'm going to bring my tithes. Then it says in here, it says, bring the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house. So his house is the storehouse for tithing, according to the Bible, which of course in the New Testament, his house is the local church. And it says, and prove me now here with strength, 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 sake, and you shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your mind cast your fruit before the time of the field, save the Lord of hosts, and all nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a delights of land, save the Lord of hosts. And that's a great promise. God is saying, look, I'll take care of you. And Jacob said, hey, as long as God gives me food and clothing, did you see that? If he gives me food to eat, and raiment to put on, I will give one tenth of all that comes to me back to God, if I just have food and clothing. Now, did everybody here eat food today? Did everybody here have clothing on? And you know, God has promised that we would have food and clothing as we eat. He said, and having food and raiment, let us be there with content. God says, does God not clothe? He said, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? So God has promised to clothe us. He says, consider the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking God can add one cubit to his stature? Hey, fear ye not therefore. He said, look, I will feed you, I will clothe you. He said, don't ask yourself, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things that the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all these things shall be added unto you. And so you will have food and clothing. And God says, you have to give me one tenth of what you have, because he said, you've robbed me again. You say, well, why are we robbing God if we don't give him one tenth? We're robbing God if we don't give him one tenth, because the Bible says in the book of Leviticus, the tithe is the Lord's. The tithe of all the land is the Lord's. Look at, look at, well, I'm trying to go in order here, but I guess it's difficult. Look at Proverbs, chapter number three. Proverbs three. I've got all kinds of different things here and I'm trying to go in some semblance of an order here. Look at Proverbs, chapter number three. Proverbs three. I've got all kinds of different things here Look at Proverbs, chapter number three. You see, we go through life worrying about where the next meal is going to come from, where are we going to get the clothes we need, how are we going to pay for the house that we need. God has promised to provide for us. He hasn't promised to give us maybe everything we want in life, but he will give us our needs, which is food and rain. And every single person in this room, God will provide you with food and clothing. And he expects us to give him the tenth part. You say, Well look, it's a graduated system here. It's ten percent. So the less money you have, the less you're even giving. You understand what I'm saying? And the more you have, the more you're giving. And so it's a, you know, thank God it's not like the IRS, where rich people have to give like forty percent. Poor people are getting money back, you know, they're coming to church and getting a withdrawal. But, you know, it's ten percent across the board. And so, nobody can really say, well I can't afford it. You know, different people live at different levels, not so nice, nicer cars, that sort of thing. But God just said, look, ten percent, wherever you're at on that, if you make, you know, four hundred dollars a week, it's forty bucks. If you make, you know, a thousand dollars a week, it's a hundred bucks. If you make two thousand bucks a week, it's two hundred bucks. And if you make two thousand bucks a week, you know, you can afford two hundred bucks. If you make four hundred, you can afford forty. And God has promised, he says, I will bless you, so that you will have the things that you need and the money that you need. You see, a lot of people, they take things into their own hands. They lean upon their own understanding. Okay, look at Proverbs three, and I'm going to explain this. Proverbs three, verse five says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. That's when we have our own plans, our own ideas, of how we're going to make things work, when God has said that he has a method of us giving him ten percent, and then he will bless us and increase us. Look at verse six, it says, In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Be not wise in thine own eyes. It says, In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thine navel, and marrow to thine bones. Look at the next verse, Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with thy firstfruits, and firstfruits and tiger used interchangeably, we're going to see that a little later, and with thy firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Now listen, why would you want to live your life under a tree? Why would you want to live your life under a tree? Why would you want to live your life under a tree? Now listen, why would you want to live your life under a curse from God, where God says, You're cursed with a curse because you've robbed me. Don't you think that God can curse you more than 10% of your income? I do. Think about it. He says here, Give him the firstfruits of all your increase. Honor it to God, and he will bless you and fill your barns with plenty. But you see, many people say, Well, I can't afford to tithe, I'm having financial problems right now, so right now I'm not able to tithe. That's going to make your financial problems worse. But you see, many people say, Well, I can't afford to tithe, I'm having financial problems right now, That's going to make your financial problems worse. Because now you're robbing God. Now you're going down a downward spiral. I mean, think about it. How many times have you had unexpected things come in your life that cost you a bunch of money? Good night. I mean, do you realize that if one person's room had some kind of a major illness right now and had to go down to the hospital, that would cost you two years worth of tithe? I mean, think about it. Think about that. I mean, I remember when my wife had her gallstones, and she had a gallstone with each pregnancy. And she had three kids and three gallstones, okay? And so she had to have her golf letter removed. And we didn't have health insurance, and so I just paid for it out of pocket. I just finished paying it off like I think a year ago or something. Yeah, I paid it off for a while. And it was $14,500 to just have a golf letter. She was just there overnight. That's all. Fourteen, you know, a few dips were about $12 per year dip. You know, the aspirin was about 15 bucks each. You know how these medical staff kids are. And so, think about that. I mean, God could just go like this. Wham! Fourteen grand. God, I'm in smoke. Now, I don't make $140,000 a year, you know? Even if I were to make $140,000 a year, that would be one year's time. I mean, that's a couple years of tithe. Think about that now. I mean, your car, something happens, boom, there's a couple grand right there. You know, there are times that we lose money, and then there's other times we have a windfall where money comes in unexpectedly. Okay, guess who's in charge of these things? God. Am I preaching that you're going to be rich and prosperous and prosperity preaching? No. But don't you think that if God wanted you to have more money, you'd have more money? Or if God wanted you to have less money, you could take away some of your money? God can give you whatever money you want. And some people are poor and they can't get ahead and they can't get ahead. You know, maybe that's just where God wants you to be in life. And you ought to just be content. Maybe God, some, not everybody's made to be rich or even middle class. Sometimes God wants people poor because he knows that's what they can handle or he knows that that's when they're going to serve God more. He's trying to teach them a specific life center. Some people he wants to have more money than others, but God can give you the money that you need. So to sit there and say, well, I got to step in and do this and take this into my own hands is foolishness. And it shows a lack of faith in what the Bible says because either this is true or not. And what I don't understand is why go to church if this isn't true? I mean, if God can't bless you, if God can't provide for you, if God can't feed you, if God can't clothe you, why didn't you go to church if you don't believe that God can provide for you? I mean, if God can't provide for you, can God save you? Think about it. If God can't provide for you, can he preserve the word of God? If he can't even feed you or clothe you or take care of you, but yet we feel the need to take our finances into our own hands, it doesn't make any sense at all. I mean, God said he blessed us and we do it. He said he'll curse us as we go. So if we really believe that nobody wants to walk around with a big dark cloud over their head, I'm cursed by God. Think about that. Now, I thank God that I was taught to tithe from the time that I can remember. When I was a very small child, I got my first allowance of 30 cents a week. 30 cents. I got a quarter and an acre. And that was my time. Or that was my allowance for a week. And I remember, I had to get changed in order to pay my tithe. Because I had to change that nickel into five pennies and I took three pennies. I literally every week religiously, never did I miss a week. I put in those three pennies into the offering plate and that was my tithe. Three pennies. Sunday. After Sunday. Three pennies. Three pennies. Three pennies. Sometimes, man, it was feeling generous, throwing the whole nickel. Just give it to God. And I remember, then my allowance went up to 50 cents. Two quarters. And I had to break it down and get that nickel. Throw in my nickel. I mean, I did this every week. And then I started getting a dollar. And I'd throw in a dime. Get changed. Throw in a dime. And I went to my mom and I said, Mom, I've got a dollar allowance. I paid my tithe a month with 90 cents. I would like to be let go with a dollar when I'm done tonight. And so I told her, I told my mom, I said, I want you to give me a raise to my allowance. I'm not asking for anything big. I said, I want you to give me a raise to a dollar and 11 cents. Because I was smart enough to know that if I got a dollar and 10 cents, then now I owe 11 cents time. Oh, man, you know, now I'm down to 99 cents. So I said, I want to have a full dollar, a dollar bill. And so I said, I want a dollar and 11 cents. Come on. And she said, No, no, you can't do it. Because she said, she said, if I do that, it's defeating the purpose to tithe. You know what I mean? Like, I'm trying to teach you to tithe. I'm not just going to give you like, where's your allowance and here's the tithe and I'll help you out with that. She said, one day you're not going to be able to go to your boss and say, can I have a raise of 11 cents per hour because I'm trying to tithe on it. Okay. And so I, but I thank God that they taught me that. Because I have literally, okay, I've literally, from the time I was born until now, I mean, I've tithed every week. It was, it was a, maybe an oversight or something that I didn't realize. But I mean, as far as I know, I've tithed my entire life. I mean, it's just something, it's just a part of who I am. Just tithe, tithe, throw it in. Now, when I was growing up, I had, I was taught some things that were incorrect about tithing. Like, my parents taught me this. They said, no one ever tithed on a gift. You know, they said, you only tithe every time you increase, you should tithe on it. And so, you know, in the early days, I wasn't tithing on the increase. I just tithed only on wages, my life. And then also, when I got a job, I started working at Round Table Pizza. I worked at it for three years. And I would tithe after taxes. You know, because that's what, again, that's what I was taught to do. I just tithed after taxes. And you know, Uncle Sam took out his big chunk. And then if I got his big chunk, I would just have to preeminent. So I don't want to give the IRS their piece of the action and then give God his piece of the action. So then I started tithing before taxes. And that's why I do now. I tithe before taxes. And then, you know, I got to a point where I realized I started working for a job where they were paying me for my meals, and they were paying for, you know, all these benefits and stuff. And so I began to tithe on anything that came my way. Whatever came to me, there are a lot of things that I think people tithe on that are not necessarily going to be tithed upon. You say, oh man, you're just trying to get every ounce and just squeeze people for money. I don't care about the money. Is this something I preach about a lot, Amanda, who's been here since the second Sunday? This is like, she's shocked, I mean, what's she at? You know, it's like, oh man, did I walk in the wrong chair? You know, I don't preach and I told her, I said, wait a minute, that's not something that you tithe on. And I said, you know, if you want to give an offering, great, but I said, I wouldn't tithe on that. I don't believe that you need. For example, if somebody, you know, is paying for, you know, people paying the insurance plans, for example, like Social Security. You know, people pay into Social Security their whole life. They pay into it, they pay into it, pay into it, the government spent all your money. All that retirement money, I mean, if you had all the money that you could pay into that thing, you'd be on the beach in Maui right now, okay, if you're also, I mean, you'd be, you'd have a palm tree and lemonade and a lounge chair and you would be in a million dollar mansion with all the money, paying 15, I mean, look, if you save up 15.3% of your income every week, you will retire a billionaire. But when Uncle Sam takes 15.3%, they're so good at managing your money. They're such a great financial planner that at the end of it all you get like 800 bucks a month or whatever, 600 bucks a month. Yes. You know, when you really used to be getting like 6,000 bucks a month or 60,000 bucks a month, I mean, the amount that you pay in, seriously, does anybody know any math at all? Obviously not because they keep voting these idiots in and you're probably gonna go down and vote for one of these idiots too. Unless you, you know, one of these idiots that, you know, the TV will tell you, look at this one, you know, they're both idiots. I can vote for either one of them. They both want to take 15% of my money every time. Oh, man. God only asked for 10%. And that, that's just the Social Security 15.3%, let alone all the federal tax, the state tax, the local tax. And, you know, they think they're God. God wants 10%, they want 40%. What does that make them? If God wants 10%, they want more than God. Amazing. But the thing is, what was I talking about? You know, I'm talking about Social Security. You know, if you want to do that as an offering, hey, praise the Lord. But what I'm saying is, I don't believe that you have to tie it on something where you paid into it, you got less back. Like, for example, if you buy a car for $5,000, then you sell that car later for $3,000, that's not an increase. You, you lost $2,000, okay? Let's say you, how are you now? I mean, is this not an increase? I mean, is this not an increase? I mean, how are you now? I mean, is this too simple? If you buy a car for $5,000, then you turn around and sell it for $10,000. Is that an increase? You increase by $5,000, you tie it on that, okay? Some people tied on their tax return or on their tax rebate check. I didn't tie it on my rebate. I'll tell you right now. I got my tax rebate of, how much, how much did they send us? Who knows how much that was? How much was it per kid? $600. $600 for a married couple and then $300 per kid or something? I don't know. I got like $1,200 bucks or $1,800 bucks. What was it? $2,400 bucks. Yeah, wow. You know what was amazing about it this year? I had just written them a check for like $7,500 bucks a month before my check came. So I wrote them $7,500 bucks and then they said, here's $2,400 to buy your boat this November. And I'm thinking to myself, how much is this? $7,500? $7,500? $7,500? $7,500? $7,500? $7,500? $7,500? $7,500? $7,500? $7,500? $7,500? And I'm thinking to myself, wow, that was really an increase. No. How is that an increase? They stole $7,500 and they gave me $2,400 back. That's not an increase. Does everybody understand this? So did I tie it on that? No. Okay. Other things, sometimes people will, they pay into a health insurance plan. Every month, they're paying in, paying in, paying in. Then they get sick and the health insurance pays their bill. They don't have to tie it on that. I mean, Same thing with auto insurance. They pay to fix your car. Well, you paid for the insurance every month. And so that's not an increase because you paid in more than you pulled out. Does that make sense? But if you pay in and then pull out more than you paid in, you know, then that's something that you would tie down. It's you tied on your increases, not just every time necessarily money exchanges hands. So every time you go to work and you work and you get your paycheck, that's an increase. That's money that's coming to you that you didn't have before and so you tied. Does that make sense to everybody? And so, you know, if anybody ever has a question about that, you know, you can ask me. I'd be glad to answer it. But, you know, I'm not just having to just money, money, money, money, money. Because people have come to me and had a tie about something. I've come to them and said, and they can tell you about all kinds of different people. And I told them, I said, you know what, let me just explain this to you scripturally and you make your own decision. But this is the way I believe, just so that you can be informed. Now, let me use an illustration for you. You say, why did God Institute tie this? Well, let me give you part of the reason. Think about this now. Let's say, because of course you're supposed to tie it at the house of God. And the Bible says to bring the tie to the storehouse. Did it say to mail the tie to the storehouse? Send it to the storehouse. No, he said bring it. So in order to bring the tie, you have to come to church. All right. So if you don't come to church, you're not tying it, right? You're not scripturally tying it because you're not bringing it. Now, let me use an illustration for you. Let's say you wanted to give me money. I mean, I'm not talking about this church. You just wanted to give me money, okay? And so let's say you said, I'm going to deposit some money into Stephen Anderson's bank account. Well, look, you have to go to Wells Fargo because that's where I'm at. And by the way, this message is sponsored in part by Wells Fargo. But if you wanted to deposit money into the account of Stephen L. Anderson, you got to go to Wells Fargo, okay? Now, what happens if you brought money down to Capital... What's this one that you go to with Chase? Let's say you brought the money down to Chase and said, I want to deposit this into the account of Stephen Anderson. Or let's say I took my paycheck and said, I want to put this in my bank account. You're never going to get any money to me by giving it to Chase Bank. You're not going to be able to deposit money into my account by going to Bank of America. You're not going to be able to deposit money into my account by going to this school's credit union. You must go to my bank in order to deposit money into my account. And let me tell you something. If you think that God has an account at these liberal churches, these churches that are using a different Bible, preaching a different salvation, okay? They're not the house... Remember the sermon about where the colonel came down? Remember that sermon? I mean, if the colonel has come down, God has already moved his account from that bank. And so you go to some messed up church, drop your money and say, are you really tithing in God's house? You're putting it in the wrong account. You put your money in one of these apostate churches, you're not tithing to God. You're putting it in the wrong account. And so part of the way of tithing right is you have to go to a church that truly is God's house. And that's where you put the tithe in. Now you've made a deposit in the God's account. And so that's part of the reason why he's tithing. Here's another reason why he's tithing. Because it causes you to be thankful. Because in order to give 10% of all your increase, and this is why it was a great day when I realized that I should be tithing on all my increase, not just my paycheck, because it causes me, every week, to sit down and take an inventory of everything I've received the whole week. And when you really sit down and think about it, you say, oh man, I got this, somebody gave me this, and somebody paid for my meal, and somebody did this for me, and I got a check in the mail for this, and somebody gave me this, and then there's my paycheck, and this and that. It causes you to take an inventory, and sometimes when you sit down and count it up, you got more in the week than you previously thought, until you sat down and talked about it. And so that's why it's good that it's a percentage, because it causes us to sit down and count our blessings, and be thankful for everything that's come in. And we can show that gratitude by saying, look, all things come from Thee, God. You know, everything came from You. And so I can say thank you to God, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variable, and is neither shadow nor turning. I can say thank you, God, for everything that You blessed me with this week. Now I'm going to, in gratitude, give the tenth part back to You. I'll bring it down to the bank, your bank account, down at Faithful Word Baptist Church, or another scriptural church that's a King James Bible preaching, soul-willing type Baptist church. You know, I'll make the deposit, I'll give it to God, give him the tenth. Look at Deuteronomy 12, and we'll see this illustrated even more, about making sure that you're putting your deposit in the right account. I mean, wouldn't it be embarrassing if you called me up and said, Hey Pastor Anderson, I got great news! I just deposited a thousand dollars into your account. Really? Great! Really? How'd you know where bank I banked at? Well I figured you banked at Chase. So I went down there and I asked, do you have anybody here that has an account by the name of Stephen Anderson? And they said, sure we do. Well go ahead and put this thousand dollars in his account. And I said, listen my friend, I hate to tell you this, but Stephen Anderson's a pretty common name. Have you ever noticed how much I used my middle initial? Stephen L. Anderson? And even that's a common name. And I'm sure that somebody's pretty happy right now that you gave them a thousand bucks, but it wasn't me. You feel a little bit stupid. I'd be a little upset, you know. I mean, I graduated with several Stephen Andersons in my high school. I met somebody named Stephen Anderson who was born on July 24th. I went down to get a background check in Phoenix. There was a Stephen Anderson born on July 24th that's got a criminal record. You know, but he's like 20 years older than me. But that could be a mess sometimes. People are digging up dirt on Stephen Anderson, you know. But, you know, I went down there because I had to get a contractor's license. And I did the background check and there was this other Stephen Anderson. And, you know, they bring out this big thing, you know, this is your record. No, that's not mine, you know. Mine should be just like a thin piece of paper, just with a lot of traffic violations on it. You know, shouldn't have any kind of felonies or anything on it, you know. Nothing crazy like that. But, you know, that's all decided. Point living Deuteronomy chapter 12. And I want to show you another important thing about tithing. It says in verse number 1, it says, These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do in the land whither the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it all the days that ye live upon the earth. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which he shall possess serve their gods, upon the high mountains and under the hills, I mean, upon the hills and under every great tree. And ye shall overthrow their altars and break their pillars and burn their groves with fire, and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not destroy the Lord your God, but unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose. Notice that phrase. Out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come. And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand and your vows and your free will offerings, and the first things of your herds and of your flocks. And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your household, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day every man whatsoever is bright in his own eyes. So he's standing here to bring your tithe, and he talks about the burnt sacrifices, which of course was fulfilled with Jesus Christ, and those no longer pertain to us. But he says, bring the tithe to the place that God shall choose. Not attend the church of your choice this Sunday. Attend the church of God's choice. God will choose which place he'll put his name. And it's not a particular place, but it's any place that meets the criteria in the scripture of what a church is and what a spiritual, actual house of God really is. And so it's got to be the place that God chooses or else you're putting your tithe in the wrong place. You're not even really tithing. Now, look if you would at, let's see here, Deuteronomy, we're in chapter 12, let me check 14. Deuteronomy 14, 22, the Bible reads, Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed that the field bringeth forth year by year. It says, and thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God. That's why we always have food at the church. We're like the most spiritual church around. In the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first things of thy herds and of thy flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there when the Lord thy God bless thee, then shalt thou turn it into money and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. And thou shalt bestow that money whatsoever thy soul lusteth at, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth, and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice thou and thy household, and the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him, for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee. At the end of three years, thou shalt bring forth all the tithes that thou can preach the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates. And the Levite, because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger, and the boneless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat, and be satisfied, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand, as thou doest. So God's saying, I'll bless you if you'll tithe on your increase. And he says, this is what you do. Back then, a lot of what they did was barter. It wasn't a lot to do with cash or money. You say, why is it that we do everything with money today? We don't really do everything with cash. Well, obviously, it's more convenient just to use cash. But another reason is that the government just wants to get a piece of the action. And when you trade things, the government doesn't even know about it. That's why people who live in Europe, you know what they do to avoid the government? They'll do all kinds of stuff, like, you know, you give me a pig, and I butcher it, and then we'll pass it off to this person, and let's trade the meat for something that was growing in the field. They try to do as much as they can in barter because the government has to tithe taxes, you know? And when you have a system where everything's all based on money, the government can easily tax everything. And so, back then, a lot of it was barter. And so what they would do is, when they would tithe, I mean, if they had ten cows, they would bring one cow to God's house. And that was their tithe, okay? Or if they had, you know, ten e-flaws of flour, you know, they'd bring one down to the house of God. And they would literally bring one-tenth of what they received and what they increased down to the house of God because the priest, he didn't have any inheritance with him. He had no land. He had no job. His only job was to work about the house of God and do the sacrifices and to do the work of the house of God. And so they lived off of the tithe, okay? The priest, they would live off of the fact that these people would bring in all their cattle and their food and everything and tithe it, and then that's what they would live off. And they also lived off the burnt sacrifices. They would eat, well, a certain portion of the meat that went in there. So he says here, if the place is too far away, you know, and you don't want to bring this cow just hundreds of miles, you're bringing cows and food and all this, you got this big entourage and stuff because some of these people only tithe once a year or once every three years or whatever, they would store it up and then bring it down and give it all at the house of God which was in Jerusalem eventually. Before that it was in a few other places. But at the place God would choose always. And so they didn't, if you lived really far from Jerusalem, this would be quite an ordeal, bringing all this stuff. So he says you could turn it into money, bring the dollar equivalent of what you're tithing and just give that. And that's, it'll be, or he said when you get there, you can buy food and buy whatever it was that you wanted to give. And he says, you know, you could eat some of it too. You know, you participated too because they basically, if you notice, they all brought it and then they all bought a bunch of food and they all ate it. And they did. But they didn't just eat it themselves. They ate it with the fatherless, the widowed, the poor, and the Levite because he didn't have any income. He lived off of the, you know, the money from the house of God. Hey, you know, God in this was his means of gain. Oh, that's, you know, I mean, so he still has the editors of the New King James version if you didn't hear the start of this point. And so the point is that that's why, let's say somebody gives you something. Let's say somebody gives you a cab. You know, that's not what happens. But let's say somebody gives you a car. Right? And somebody hands you the keys to a car that's worth $20,000. Okay. Obviously you're not gonna, you know, take the wheels off, take off, you know, the muffler and stuff and say, here's one tenth of this car, you know. I'm gonna give one tenth to God. Obviously you turn it into money. Right? So if it's a $20,000 car, you just give $2,000. Oh, man, I don't know if I can afford that. Look, man, some days they gave you a $20,000 car. You're doing pretty good, you know. You could cough up the $2,000. You know, and that's what God expects you to do. You know. God didn't, uh, I remember when we first got married, I could hardly afford to tithe on everything people were giving us. Because people were giving us and giving us. I was thinking, I can't believe they stopped giving us stuff. Because I don't have the money to tithe on all this stuff. You know, these people gave me, like, $800 worth of stuff. I didn't even have $80 hardly. But you know what? I scraped it together and coughed up the $80 and paid my time. Because, you know, I turned it into money. And, and, you know what? I, I just say this. God has blessed me over the years. And, whoa, we, man, when we were first married, it was very lean. Very lean. And, I mean, we were starving. I mean, it was, it was, we were very poor. But, you know what? God has blessed me through the years. And I believe that part of that is just tithing. You know what I mean? Just, just, God is taking care of it because he's seen somebody with a heart that wasn't just trying to just grasp it all and keep it all. And, you know, you can sit there and say, well, I'm not trying to be grasping. I'm just trying to survive. Nobody in this room is just trying to survive. I'm trying to, I mean, if we live, we in America, we live good. Come on. Every single meal we eat is a balanced meal, unless it's by our own, you know, choice to go to Little Caesars or whatever, you know. Unless it's by our own, our own choice to go to someplace that's not nutritional value, you know, I'm not preaching to anybody in particular, but the point is, we can eat a balanced diet, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We've got clean water. We've got a nice place to live. God didn't even promise to give you a place to live. Did you notice that? He just promised food and clothing. He never even promised that you have a house. Okay. But most people here have a house or a nice apartment or something. And so God's blessed us crazy. God's just surviving. And we just, I mean, if we tithe, it'll be the last food out of our child's mouth. I mean, it's either feed the baby or tithe. Nobody's living like that. You know, and to pretend to is to call God a liar because God said he'd feed you anyway. Then you remember when Elisha, I'm sorry, Elijah, came to the widow woman at Zarephath, and God had commanded her to sustain Elijah, and he came and he said, give me a cruise of water, and she said, okay, I'll get you a cup of water. And he said, oh, by the way, give me a little cake to eat too. I'm hungry. And she said, well, you know what? I don't have a cake. She said, all I have is just a little bit of meal in the bottom of the barrel and I've got two sticks and I'm going to take these two sticks, I'm going to make a little fire and I'm going to cook on the coals this little bit of meal and make it like a pancake. Okay. A little, just a little tiny cake and I'm going to split it with my son and we're both going to eat it and then we're going to die. And he says, well, just go ahead and make it for me anyway. That's what he said. He's just like, okay, yeah, okay, whatever. Can you hurry up with that? Let's go ahead and read the story. It's in 1 Kings chapter 17. And so, you know, she goes in and she basically cooks it up and gives it to him. And he says, by the way, if you give it to me, it's never going to run out until the pan is over and you and your son are going to be eating it and eating it and living it. Now think about how stupid it would have been if that woman was saying, no, I'm not going to give it to you. I don't care what God said. I'm just going to eat this. Me and my son are going to eat this and it's all we got and we're going to die. You know what she would have done? She would have cooked it, put it in that, eaten it and died. Right? But when she gave it to Elijah, then it just kept coming. And for months, they would just, they would open the barrel and there's just a little bit left. Just a little bit left. There's always a little bit left, you know, it seems like. I mean, you know, as lean as you get financially, right? I mean, God somewhat brings us pretty lean. There's always a little bit left. Remember the beating at 5,000? I mean, Jesus took five bullets and two fists and fed 5,000 men, not counting women and children, and we don't think that God can multiply our sustenance and provide our needs that we have to take into our own hands and lean on our own understanding and do it our way and say, no God, you cannot have this cake. I will eat it myself and you'll eat it all right and it'll be the last thing you ever eat from God. You know, I mean, that'd be terrible if that woman would have done it. That would have been a very sad story. And you know what you'd say if you read that story and that's how it was? You'd say, man, God, why was God so hard on that woman? All she had to do was just what God told her to do and everything would have been great and this is kind of how it is with God. You just have to do things His way and He just demands everybody to do it His way because, you know, you say, well, what gives Him the right? Because He's God? Because He craved the whole world? Well, I don't know, you know, what gives Him the right to run everybody's life? He's God. He created you. He could end your life right now. He controls the whole world. Okay, this is God we're talking about and if He says, give me one tenth, just give Him a tenth. If you know what's good for you, just do it. And then, you know, you say, oh, and then God's just immediately going to bless me? You know, He'll take care of you. You'll never run out. I'm not saying, I don't think that that woman was necessarily eating, you know, a seven course meal. I mean, she was pretty much just eating cakes and that's about it. But that's better than scarring death. That's better than, you know, that dying slowly upon her. She lived. A lot of other people died in that family if you read the Bible, but she lived. She stayed through the whole thing because she listened to God and awakened. And so, you turn it into money, you bring it down to the house of God, you know, you eat it with us, you know, sometimes you get a piece of the back when you eat with us and we have a piece of the back when we eat with us and we have a piece of the back when we eat with us when we eat with us and we have meals and programs. And you know, that's why I think it's another reason why it's sinful to sell the food at church. You know what I mean? Because they sit there and, you know, churches just sell everything these days. You know, they're selling the CDs, they're selling books, they got a bookstore and the book table and the CD books and the bookstore and the order form and then, and then, they finally have a meal and you're like, oh great, you know, they have a little potluck, like five bucks. It's like, everybody bought this food. I mean, I'm gonna go to a potluck where you pay. You're paying to eat the food that you brought. You know? Who's been to a potluck where you paid? Oh yeah. And then, and then other times, they'll provide the food and you pay. But where did they get the money to provide the food? Out of their own pockets? No. They took it from what? Ties. Okay. Great. No problem. That's very scriptural. They take the tied money and buy food with it. But guess what? They did. And guess who else ate the fatherless? Because he wasn't charged five bucks at the door. Because the fatherless doesn't have any money. The widow doesn't have any money. You say, fatherless? That was back then. Okay. Have you ever driven into South Phoenix? You weren't talking about the fatherless. Those people are fatherless down there.