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

All right, so the subject for tonight, obviously, we're reading from the last chapter of Leviticus. This is one of those chapters that many people find it very difficult to read through sometimes. You're just like, what is all this talking about? Why do I care about the estimation and the value and it's good or it's bad and everything else? The Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for us even today, like in the New Testament. The New Testament says that it's profitable for instruction and doctrine. And what we're going to be studying tonight is the doctrine of the tithe. Now I don't preach on giving and tithing and things like that very frequently. Anyone who's followed along at all with my ministry and my preaching over the past four and a half years will know that. That's not some big focus. There's a lot of churches out there where it's like they're hitting on tithing every week and it's just like this week after week after week, they just keep on drilling this topic of money. I don't like to do that. I don't think we need to do that. I don't think there's a purpose for doing it every week unless you've got other problems in the church. I'm indicative of other problems of just getting people involved in general and getting their heart into a church. I'm not preaching this sermon because I think that there's an issue at all. So if I say anything tonight and you're like, oh man, he's preaching to me, I have no idea. I had nobody in mind on a sermon like this at all. I record what we receive in. We do everything above board. But other than that, we're not like the Mormon church who's asking you to sign an affidavit that I'm tithing to the church and they've got all their paperwork and all that stuff. That's pretty crazy. I know there's churches out there that do that type of a thing, but that's not how we do things here. The tithe is between, first of all, it's between you and God. It doesn't matter personally to me what you do with your money. That's going to be between you and God. But I do believe in the doctrine of tithing. I do believe it's biblical. And I do believe that the subject needs to be preached on periodically because it's an important doctrine. If someone's going to try to say that I'm greedy and I'm all about the money from preaching this sermon, then so be it. Because I'll tell you this much, I'm not going to leave anything un-preached that's in the Bible. And since this is in scripture, I'm going to preach on it. Now I don't see this in scripture like in every single book of the Bible, just repeated all the time. I'm not going to be preaching it all the time. I try my best to preach on subjects that, hey, if I see something more frequently in scripture then it's probably more important and I'm going to hit on that more often. But everything in the Bible deserves some preaching. Because otherwise, why is it there? Now this topic, though, this isn't just some little thing either. There actually is a lot, I have, and you know, I promise I'm going to do my best to get out here. I'm probably going to skip over a lot of this, but I was trimming down and trimming down and trimming down the amount of scripture there is regarding this topic. There is a lot. There's a lot. I could split this up into multiple sermons, I just don't want to. I want to try to get as much as I can just in one sermon because I don't think it's just that necessary to kind of drive it in week after week after week. I just get it in in one sermon. But there is a lot of scripture on this. Now we're going to go over a little bit some of the Old Testament tithing in the Levitical priesthood and how it was done there, and then we're going to apply it to the New Testament because the biggest attack I think these days is that people will say, well, tithing, that's just something from the Old Testament, and in the New Testament that's changed, it's done away with, and I'm going to show you that that's not the case, that it actually was never changed. And what we believe in this church, when it comes to anything, any doctrine, and when it comes to just understanding the Bible, is that whatever we read in the Old Testament, unless we can see that it was specifically changed in the New Testament, it all stands. It's all still good. It doesn't need to be reiterated. Every single commandment and every single thing in the Old Testament doesn't have to be repeated in the New Testament in order for us to believe that it still stands. Were there some changes made between the two? Of course there were. That's evident. We're not doing sacrifices anymore. The Levitical priesthood was changed, so all the carnal ordinances and washings and things like that that we read about in scripture, we don't do that anymore, but that has all been spelled out for us as well in the New Testament that we don't have to do those things. We don't observe that. It's very clear. Now one of the things that was not specifically mentioned in the New Testament, that's done away with, is the tithe. So we're going to go into that, we're going to look at, and when you understand the purpose of the tithe, when you understand how they did it, who it was for, why it was even instituted, it's going to make perfect sense why it still works today, why it's still applicable in the New Testament. So let's dig into this a little bit and try to stay with me. First of all, what we need to understand, because people who like to confuse this issue, one of the biggest things they'll do is confuse the different types of giving that there is in the scripture. They'll take verses talking about a completely different type of giving and try to apply that to a tithe. A tithe is one aspect of giving, one aspect of the law. The word tithe literally means a tenth. And we're going to look at that here in scripture, but there are free will offerings, there is offerings given for other saints, there's offerings given to support ministries, missionaries, evangelism. There's all different reasons that money can be collected or given. And it's not all just called the same thing. There's alms that you can give. These are all different terms, different ways to give financially or otherwise, just to give of yourself or to make a sacrifice. It's not all just a tithe. So keep that in mind as we read the passages, and I'm going to point out some of the distinctions between them as we go. But word Leviticus 27, I'm going to just read for you real quick from Nehemiah 1244, because this illustrates a little bit what I'm talking about. You don't have to turn there, but Nehemiah 1244 says, and at that time were some appointed over the chambers for the treasures. So they're appointing people for the treasury, to bring in what everybody's giving. It says for the offerings, for the first fruits, and for the tithes, to gather into them out of the fields of the cities of the portions of the law for the priests and Levites. For Judah rejoiced for the priests and for the Levites that waited. So right there alone in that one verse, it's saying they appointed people to take care of the offerings, the first fruits, and the tithes, all different things that people were giving for. So of course, as I mentioned, a tithe, what is a tithe? Tithe is just a different word for a tenth. It's just an old word, it literally just means a tenth. So if you don't want to call it a tithe, you can call it a tenth. Same thing. Now in this passage in Leviticus 27, it doesn't get into tithing until the very end. And the reason is because it's demonstrating a point here. So it starts off with somebody dedicating things to the Lord. Whether it be themselves, or whether it be their house, or a portion of their house, or something of their goods, or one of their animals, or whatever, they want to give something to the Lord. They want to dedicate something to the Lord. And it's just giving you a way to deal with this stuff, to have it valued, and also then to be able to, if that person wants to redeem it, it means they want to take it back. They say, you know what? I'm going to dedicate my house unto the Lord, or I'm going to dedicate my oxen for the service of the Lord, for the Levites, for the priests. I'm going to dedicate this, it's still mine, but I'm going to dedicate it to the Lord. And then you say, you know what? No, I actually need that back. I'm going to use that, so I'm going to redeem that, and I'm going to get it back. And it wasn't a sin, but in order to do that then, what they would prescribe is that, well, you're going to give the fifth part of the value then back to them. So you're basically giving, you know, like 20% more above to be able to redeem that back and to get that back. Now, in this chapter, it's bringing up all this other stuff, but the point of that is because when you dedicate something, it's holy, it's set apart for the Lord. And then it gets into the tithe in order to demonstrate that the tithe is the Lord's, like that's what belongs unto the Lord. It's His. Now, it gives you an opportunity to redeem that tithe if you want to, but it's going to cost even more to do so. And you can do it. You say, well, no, right now I really need that money or whatever, and I want to redeem that tithe. Well, then when you give it back, you have to give 20% above on top of that, like of the actual tithe itself, if that makes sense. You add a fifth part of whatever it is that you're redeeming back to it when you pay it back. Now, look at verse number 30, we'll just reread this last portion of scripture here. The Bible says, and all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's, it is holy unto the Lord. So right there, just saying, look, that belongs to God. And if a man will at all redeem out of his tithes, he shall add there to the fifth part thereof. And concerning the tithe of the herd or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. He shall not search, whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it. And if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy, it shall not be redeemed. Now, again, this is talking about like, you know, a tithe doesn't have to be money. We think of it as money today because that's our economy. We're in a money-based economy. The economy back then was more agrarian, more agricultural. So you know, it's not that money didn't exist, money did exist. But you'd have a lot more commerce being done with food and with animals and things like that. And it was an easy way to trade and to do business and things like that. So if you have someone, if you have a farm, you do husbandry, you have animals or whatever, you have oxen. And basically what God's saying here is that however much increase you have each year, you have, you know, 10 calves, well, one of those calves belongs unto the Lord. God's blessed you. He's multiplied the number of calves that you have because that's going to bring you forth even more prosperity. It's going to help you out that much more. He's basically blessed you with that increase. Then he's just saying, well, God owns one tenth of whatever. So whatever it is, it could be, it could be the calves, it could be the, you know, the food that you're bringing, whatever it is that you're doing that's causing you to increase, that's all it is. It's not, the tithe applies to any of that stuff. And it's not, it's not only like the fruit of the ground or fruit from a tree. It's not like, it's not only agriculture, it's not only animals. It's all of these things. It's just giving you these examples because that's the most common. That's what people did for their livelihood. And it's saying here that that belongs to God. And what it says, it's the tenth, and God's not saying you have to give him only like all of the best, but he's also saying don't give him all of the worst either. So if you have, you know, your animals produce and you have, you know, a bunch of them that came out with imperfections and they're not going to be very good for you, they're not going to be very good work animals or whatever, you can't be like, oh yeah, I'm going to give all these to God, right? But he's not requiring you to go through them and pick out and cherry pick the best ones either. He's just saying, just give me the tenth. Just one, two, three, you know, you count to ten, one for the Lord, you count to ten, one for the Lord. You know, you could just do it that way and there you go. And you're done. And that's what God's saying is that just give him the tenth. Basically it's just use common sense and be fair about it, right? Because it belongs to God and that's the biggest point I think that we need to realize. It's God's. God's the one who gives us the increase. God's the one who's blessing you. It belongs to him. We can't think about this stuff even though it's in your possession physically as it being yours. Turn if you would to Numbers chapter 18. Now that being said, there's a few topics that come up and questions that come up when it comes to tithing in general that I hear and I've seen from people and I'll be honest with you, there's a few things that people do and people have done whether it be in this church or in other churches and I think it's great and I think it's really nice and I think there's a lot of people here who are very generous. Very generous and I know a lot of people love God and that everyone here, I honestly believe everyone here just wants to do what's right. And I do too. I want to do what's right. Which is why I'm preaching on this. I'm preaching on this so we can all have knowledge and information but I do think that sometimes people might feel obligated to give even more than God requires. One of the things I mean by that is I've heard people even preach on this, not anyone in our movement but where some preachers talk about going and do back tithing. Where they go back however many years to times where they were making money or something and going back and then paying all of that to God. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing to do or to sin or there's anything wrong with doing that. I honestly personally don't think that that's necessary. I don't think God's requiring us to go back and do all of that especially if you were living ignorantly, even if you were saved or whatever to then go back and just like why owe all of this money now and I'm just going to have to give all of that to God. I don't think that God requires that of us. I think that the purpose and the spirit of this is just to rely on God and to give him the 10% that belongs to him and that's it. He's not asking for anything more. I think he just wants you to be obedient with that. That's my belief on that. Now if you want to go back and do that, I mean hey God bless you and maybe God will bless you for that just for doing something and giving above and beyond but I'm just trying to teach what I think that the Bible is teaching and I don't think that that's something that's just you have to go back and do this otherwise you're not right with God. I don't believe that. I don't see that anywhere in scripture. Numbers 18, look at verse number 26. This is going to give us a little bit more of an insight into the why. Why is there a tithe? What is the purpose of it? Obviously we've seen that it belongs to God. It's God's. He deserves it so we shouldn't withhold it from him. Look at verse number 26 the Bible says, Thus speak unto the Levites and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe. And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you as though it were the corn of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress. Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the Lord of all your tithes which ye receive of the children of Israel, and ye shall give thereof the Lord's heave offering to Aaron the priest. Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the Lord, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it. Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor and as the increase of the winepress. And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households, for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation. And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the best of it. Neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die." So we see here in Numbers 18 that not only do the rest of the tribes of the children of Israel have to give a tithe, because they give the tithe to support the Levites, the tribe of Levi was taken apart from the other eleven tribes in order to do the service of the Lord. So while all the other tribes were given an inheritance in the promised land, they're given land, they're given everything to build on and to do their business and everything else, the Levites, God said, nope, I want this group of people to work in the tabernacle, they're going to be doing the offerings, they're going to be working for me full time. And since they're working for God full time, they don't have time to go and work in the field and do everything else and earn an income and earn a living because they're serving the Lord. Well, since they're serving the Lord, they need to be taken care of. So God instituted the tithe in order to do that. But just because He instituted the tithe to help them out, He says, well, you know what, you guys still have to pay a tithe. Whatever is coming in unto you that you're receiving, that you're collecting, He's saying, you're going to treat that just as if you had gone out and you brought that in from the fields yourself, and that, you know, God bless you in that way, you're also giving a tithe of that, that everybody is participating in this. Why? There's more to it than just, you know, a God needing money. God doesn't need your money. He really doesn't. God could do whatever He wants. God owns a cattle on a thousand hills, right? God owns the whole world. He doesn't need your money. But there's a lot of things that He teaches us also with the tithe, and I think the biggest thing is just to rely on Him. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy 18 is basically going to explain what I just said without giving you a scriptural reference for it. Deuteronomy 18 verse number 1, the Bible says, the priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire and His inheritance. Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren. The Lord is their inheritance, as He hath said unto them. And this shall be the priests do from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, and they shall give unto the priests the shoulder and the two cheeks and the maw, the first fruit also of thy corn and of thy wine and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep shalt thou give him. For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever. So it just explains why, you know, why God's doing this. And also that it's, the first fruits are in the tithe of everything. And that makes sense too. Because whatever is being produced, whatever is being blessed with, you know, it's not going to be like just corn, because then that means they're going to be living on like just corn forever, you know, I mean that's all they're going to have. It's the animals, it's the food, you know, it's the clothing, they're going to get the wool, whatever, all the stuff that you would normally benefit from and that you would get, it's the whole rest of the group, the whole rest of the nation is taking care of one tribe. So they're giving of everything in order to help them. Now one of the cool things about the tithe also though is that the people giving the tithe are partakers of the tithe. And you know, if it's your, you know, if it's that time of year, whatever, you're going down to bring your tithes, you go and you bring your stuff, but then you also like have a meal and eat and partake of it with the Levites, with the fathers, with the wizard. We'll see that in a little bit. Did I, turn if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 26. I like that aspect of it too because you're not only giving, you're seeing where everything you're giving is going to and what you're supporting and the people you're immediately affecting by going and bringing it in and being able to sit down and feel like you're actually giving and supporting a servant of the Lord, someone who's doing God's service. You sit down, you make a meal with them and do all that. It's a great system. Look at verse number one, Deuteronomy chapter 26, the Bible says, and it shall be when thou art come in unto the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance and possesses it and dwellest therein, that thou shall take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee and shall put it in a basket and shall go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there. Jump down to verse number nine, the Bible says, and he hath brought us into this place and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. And now behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, has given me, and thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God and worship before the Lord thy God. And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing, which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee and unto thine house, thou and the Levite and the stranger which is among him. When thou hast made an end of tithing, all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates and be filled. And keep note of that last verse there, verse number twelve, because this is also going to come up in the New Testament before we get there. I'm going to get to the New Testament more near the end of the sermon. But I'm going to reread verse number twelve. When thou hast made an end of tithing, all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, so the stranger is just a foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates and be filled. Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the stranger, to the fatherless and to the widow, according to all thy commandments, which thou hast commanded me. I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them. This is a commandment of the Lord, to give the tithe. This is something that belongs to the Lord. It's a way that God's going to take care of the people that are working and serving Him. And it's also a way not just to serve those that are working and serving Him, but it also takes care of those who are genuinely in need. Like the stranger, the foreigner that's traveling or sojourning in the land, the fatherless, someone who's maybe tragedy is struck at home, or through no fault of their own, I mean children that are born from out of wedlock or whatever, someone needs to take care of these people. Their husband dies, their husband's bringing, you know, doing all the work and supporting her as he ought to be. Something happens, he dies. People need to be taken care of. So there are people in society that need a little bit of help, they need to be taken care of. And God makes provision for these people. And notice it's through church, essentially, it's going to be through ministry. I mean, if they're bringing their tribe to the place where the people are doing the work for the Lord, then guess what? Those other people who are in need, they're going to need to be hanging around the Levites. Because they're not just bringing it to the homeless shelter, they're not bringing it to some other tribe. Well we really like it over here and all the vagrants and the bums are going to go over there and they're opening up a soup kitchen, that's not the way it works. They're going down by the people of God. And I bet you they'd probably be working with them as well, but they're going to be down there in order to receive of that food, of that meal. You know, I'm sick of the people that call, and I haven't gotten it here yet, we probably just haven't been around long enough and we're not in the phone book yet. As soon as we get in the phone book, though, you start getting the calls from people that just call churches looking for money. Oh man, I need to pay my electric bill. Oh, I just got kicked out. I need a place to stay. I need this. I need that. Need, need, need, need, need. And they call on the phone and they're not even willing to get their rear end down here to church to sit through one service. All they care about is getting their stinkin' money. Well you know what, money's not going to solve your problems. That's a whole completely different thing that has nothing to do with tithing. Well it does have something to do with tithing because these people we're being cared for are actually people who are going to be going and being around God's people. You know, I really don't have a problem, I'll help people out. I will. I've helped people out in the past and I'll do it in the future. If they're willing to come down, if they're willing to hear preaching, if they're willing to actually hear something that will do a difference in their life, because just giving somebody money that has all these problems, you aren't helping them at all. They think their problem is, oh I just need to get through this week, I just need to get through this night. I just need a place to stay. No. You need to get the sin out of your life and stop creating all these problems for yourself. You don't have a financial problem, you have a spiritual problem, you need to get right with God. You wouldn't be begging bread if you were right with God, I know that much. And that's why I don't have a problem helping people out when they're going to come and receive something that's actually going to benefit them and then in the meantime help them get on their feet if they're willing to come and grow and listen and get right with God. You don't get right with God, nothing I do for you is going to help you at all and actually if you don't want to get right with God, I don't want to be aiding and abetting someone who God might be cursing because he's trying to get your attention, trying to get you right with him. So we see here these things going on, we're on, jump down to verse number, flip over to chapter 14, Deuteronomy chapter 14. So we see some of the purposes for the tithe and as we're going to see here in Deuteronomy chapter 14 is that the tithe is based on your increase. It's not on the gross, it's on the net, it's on how you've been actually increased. So anyone, like if you own a business, you know all about this. There's expenses that go into operating a business. So your increase isn't going to be just like say, let's say you have a business where you manufacture something, some clothing or whatever and you sell it. Your total sales, say it's a thousand dollars but you had to buy the shirts, you had to buy the equipment, you had to buy the dyes, you just have to buy raw materials and things like that. So that costs you a couple hundred bucks, whatever. Your increase would be then eight hundred dollars, you're subtracting off those costs, that's your increase, that's what you've actually benefited by. Same thing with, even if it's with animals or whatever, you have to have food in order to feed them, you have to have other stuff, so it actually costs you money to have these things but overall you've got a much bigger increase. We breed dogs. We have puppies. That's an increase. When we have a litter of puppies, we're going to sell those puppies, we're going to make money off of that but we need to consider that we're feeding those dogs, we're bringing them to the vet, we've got all these other things that go along with the cost of doing that type of a business. So what God is expecting out of you is the tithe of the increase, what you've actually increased by. Now that being said, there's other situations where God gets the first fruits, we've seen the principle of God getting the first fruits and that belongs to God or that they bring the first fruits onto the Levites. When it comes to a paycheck, I believe it's right to tithe on the gross because that's what you actually have increased and earned even if the government comes and they want to get their hands in there first. Just because someone else takes your money from you, I don't believe that they deserve that before God deserves His cut, His 10%. I don't think the government should be stealing from anybody. They have supposedly the authority to do that or whatever, either way it happens, whether they have the authority or not, that's what happens. That's not the same as a legitimate cost of business type of thing that's causing you not to increase. You may disagree with me on that but I'm telling you, this is the way that I understand it and this is the way that I do it. I tithe personally. I don't keep any secret about that either, whatever money I make, this is the way that I view things. I also believe, and we're going to read this chapter in just a second, but when we're talking about an increase, when I receive or if I receive benefits where my employer is paying into me having some extra benefits or paying into a 401k or paying into something like that, I also tithe on that because it's basically more compensation things that I'm earning. So I'm going to look at that as an increase. I'm benefiting and getting this extra increase, there's more money being paid, even if it's not being paid directly to me, it's being paid to something that's benefiting me. So I will take all of that money when I consider in what it is that belongs to God and give Him the tithe. Now, we're going to see the increase here in Deuteronomy 14, look at verse number 22. The Bible says, Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed that the field bringeth forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God in the place which He shall choose to place His name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thy oil. And the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set His name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, then thou shalt turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. And basically then you get to partake of it there, but he's saying that, you know, first of all you need to tithe of the increase, but second of all you need to go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. And I firmly believe this as well when it comes to tithing is that you ought to bring your tithes to church, and then you ought to bring it there. I don't think you should just be sending your tithes in, especially to other churches, and I've always taught this and will preach this. We receive money, we have a donation link up on the website for anyone who wants to donate to our church, and we'll have that, and there's nothing wrong with that if anyone wants to give an offering unto our church, and I'm not talking about our church members here, I mean your church members too, but we have people that want to support what we're doing that live in other places, so they'll, the easiest thing for them to do is send it through PayPal or whatever, and that's great. And then thank God for them, we have a lot of generous people out there that do donate to our church because they like what we're doing. They want to help support the ministry, they want to help buy Bibles, they want to help do whatever, and that's awesome, and we appreciate that. But when it comes to actually tithing, I think you need to be bringing your tithe to church and bring it to the church that you attend. I've always told people, look, if you want to tithe, but you're going to some other church, don't tithe to our church, tithe to the church that you're attending, and if you have such a serious problem with that church that you're just like, well I don't feel comfortable even giving them my money because they're gonna use it for this or that, then you probably shouldn't even be there in the first place if it's really that bad, right, if you can't even trust them to like use your money for anything that has to do for the Lord or even just to help the pastor or whatever, like what are you even doing there then? But if you're going to their church service, you're listening to the teaching of that pastor, you're listening to everything they're doing, support that church. That's your church. Get your heart in that church. You know, where your heart is, there shall your treasure be also, and if your heart's in that church, then give to that church, they're providing for you, they're giving you a service, they're offering teaching, they're offering things to you, support it. That church, but you know, go to the place where you think, you know, God shall choose, but that's where he wants you to go, not for you to send your money. He says you go unto the place that the Lord shall choose, not just send your tithe to the place, he wants you to go. Don't just ship off your tithe with a shipping company. Now if you, and don't get me wrong on this too, because I think you should bring your tithe, but like if you show up to church all the time and you choose to donate, you know, to give your tithe, you're using an online payment, I'm not saying that that's wrong, like you're not bringing your tithe somehow to church, so don't take that the wrong way, I want you to misunderstand what I'm saying. However, however, I will make mention of this, because I think some people don't think about this either, is you gotta make sure that God gets the full amount, because when you give money online, unfortunately, it costs money, it's actually a service fee that needs to be paid so that the church doesn't actually receive the full amount of whatever you give. So that's an aspect that I think some people don't always consider either, that now we pay those fees because again, it's, you know, if people are gonna give money, great, you know, we'll accept it, but we don't actually receive the full amount of whatever's given because, you know, whoever's processing our payment needs to, you know, make some money also, so just keep that in mind if you do online giving. Now jump down here, let's keep reading here in Deuteronomy 14, look at verse number 26, the Bible says, And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, 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 thine 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 tithe of thine increase 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 fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shalt eat, and be satisfied, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest. So here we see then a promise, which is also very common in a lot of these passages talking about the tithe, is that God will bless you. When you just are obedient, when you just do what God's telling you to do, when you bring your tithe, when you're just following God's law, he says, I'll bless you for that. I wonder if you went to Proverbs chapter three, because tithing requires you to trust God. One of the lessons learned from just paying your tithe to the Lord, giving what belongs to him back to him, is what it is. I mean really, when you're thinking about it, there should never be this thought of like, well, should I pay my tithe? It's like, what you're really doing is saying, well, should I just keep something that belongs to God? We just got done reading Joshua chapter seven with the story of Achan, where everything was supposed to be dedicated unto the Lord. That belonged to the Lord. The spoils of Jericho belonged unto God, and what did Achan do? He took some of that for himself. And the Bible says that he was stealing from God. Well, if we choose just to say, no, I need this money. God doesn't need my money. I need this money. So I'm not going to give God the tithe. You're stealing from God. And Malachi chapter three says that, we'll get to that in a little bit, but the Bible clearly says that too. You're robbing God when you're not giving your tithe. And I'll reiterate this. I'm not saying this because I want your money. I'm saying this so that you can have the information, because wouldn't you like to know if you were even accidentally stealing from the Lord? I know I'd want to know. I think it's really important. I think it's something that everybody needs to know, which is why we're even going over this, because it is an important topic. And hopefully, I'm pretty sure everyone does, but hopefully everyone's just okay with this anyways. But we could just learn a little bit more tonight. Proverbs chapter three. One of the things that tithing requires us to do is to trust in the Lord. I think that's especially true when you don't earn a lot of money. When people have limited income. Maybe you're struggling financially. Maybe you have other debts. Maybe you have a big family, and you just don't really have a lot of money. And you go, oh man, you know, that's 10%. Whatever that dollar amount is, you're thinking like, oh, it would be so much easier. I wouldn't be struggling so much if I just had that little bit extra. Just a little bit. And in some people's cases, humanly thinking, that might make sense. Just in the flesh, just humanly thinking. The wisdom of this world, for sure, is going to tell you, well, absolutely. You don't have enough money to be given to church. To be tithing. But this is one of those areas that God wants you to trust Him. Just trust Him. Because He'll make sure that you're okay, and in fact, I believe you'll be even way better off by just being obedient in what He says and not stealing from Him, than whatever you think you're going to benefit by not giving it to Him. By not giving that tithe. Remember that God's all powerful? He can get His tithe however He wants to. Whether you give it voluntarily, or you end up paying it in medical expenses. Or vehicle expenses. Or whatever. And if it happens to be that way, you know, it's probably going to be a lot worse. Now you may not always know when something like that is God chastising you, but I do know what the Bible promises here, we're going to read some of this, about honoring God and respecting God and giving Him what belongs to Him. Look at verse number 5 of Proverbs 3, the Bible says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Trust, rely on Him, and lean not unto thine own understanding. Don't trust your own wisdom. Just trust God in what He says. Verse number 6, In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. That's every way. All thy ways. Even financially. Just trust in the Lord. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance. That's talking about your money, your things, what you own. And with the firstfruits of all thine increase. It's coming from the Book of Wisdom. Verse 10, So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, saying, If you do this, if you honor God, if you give God the firstfruits, your barns will be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. God will bless you for your obedience. He will make sure that you are provided for, and provided for abundantly. He will. It may not even make sense to you, but God will make sure that things will happen, that things will happen well for you, and that you'll be blessed for it, because you've stepped out in faith, especially if you're thinking, man, we can't even afford this. I don't know how we're going to survive. But if you just say, I don't know how it's going to happen, but I'm still going to just give what I owe to God, God will bless you for that. He'll see that, and he'll bless you for that. Turn to Malachi chapter 3, I was just talking about this, Malachi chapter 3. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, so if you get to Matthew, you just go backwards to Malachi, Malachi chapter 3. And starting in verse number 8, the Bible says, Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. So God's saying, is a man going to rob God, are you that stupid you're going to try to rob God? And they're like, no, of course not, we're going to rob you. How would we rob you? No, you've robbed me. And they're like, how? How have we robbed you? He says, in tithes and offerings. You're not giving. You're not giving to me what belongs to me. Verse number 9, Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house. And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. He's saying, if you just hide, he's like, try me on this, prove me, test me out on this, if you will. Just do it and see. And he's like, I'll open up the windows of heaven and I'll pour you out a blessing. I'll make sure you're taken care of, and you know what? Even all the nations round about are gonna see you and be like, wow, what a great land. What a great booming economy and country over there. When you're giving God the first fruits, when you're giving him what belongs to him, he'll bless you for that. Turn to II Chronicles chapter 31. Now he also said that they're cursed when they're not giving. And think about this, since the tithe is supposed to go to support the workers and the laborers for the Lord. When the people stop tithing and stop giving, ultimately what belongs to God, but that is also the source of the people who are serving the Lord and doing the work for the Lord. What are they gonna do? They have to do something. So what's gonna suffer? Well, they're gonna have to feed them and their families, so what they're gonna have to end up doing is going out and finding some other means to be taken care of because no one's taken care of them. And what does that do? That detracts from the work of the Lord. And you can see how easily this is gonna apply to the New Testament. Instead of a Levite, you still have servants of the Lord. You still have people who are doing a work in a ministry of the Lord and that are dedicating their time trying to work. Doesn't it make sense to support that person so that they can focus only on doing the things the Lord instead of having to focus on, well, I gotta support my family, so none of this is coming in. Well, I mean, what are we gonna do? Well, the work of God's gonna end up suffering and you're gonna be losing ground because all the time can't be dedicated in that thing. Now, this is a whole other sermon altogether, but I wholeheartedly believe that pastors ought to be paid, that it is something that they ought to be cared for and provided for by the church. There's not a problem with that. Again, that is a whole other thing, but that goes hand in hand with the tithing. Because if you're going to have a minister, if you're going to have someone that's gonna be serving God and that's their full-time job, they're gonna need to be taken care of. I mean, it only makes sense. I know when I was sitting in the pew, I wanted really bad for Pastor Anderson to be full time because he wasn't for a long time until pretty much right before I left. And I remember thinking like, man, you know, of course I was giving and I'm pretty sure everyone was giving too, but when a church is smaller, it's harder to support somebody. But I just remember the mindset of just thinking like, wouldn't it be great if instead of him having to do all this other work, he can just be like all the time just doing more soul winning, more Bible study, more, you know, reaching people, just doing more to just increase and do that much more. I mean, that's awesome. And that is the mindset. That's the mindset that everybody should have when it comes to a subject like this. Like, hey, let's all pitch in together. Because the thinking is, and with God, you know, there's 12 tribes. If everyone gave one tenth, you know, 10 other tribes give one tenth, that's enough to support one full tribe. Does that make sense? And they had 12 tribes and one of them needed to be provided for. So it actually gave, you know, out of the other 11, giving one tenth, that actually gave an abundance, it gave them a little bit more, it actually provided a little bit above and beyond what was actually would have just been needed to support one full tribe. And it's perfect. And you know, that'll make up for people who aren't giving and everything else that that'll help to kind of make sure all that works out. It's a really good system. A few other things that apply just again with tithing, and when it comes to just little details that you might think of or questions have come up, I've had, this actually happened to me personally, sometimes people receive things like insurance money. And you'll say, well, that's an increase, right? I don't believe that to be true. I mean, what that is, is just usually when receiving insurance money, whether it be from a car wreck or that was it wasn't my case, or whatever, they're just what it is, is that's like justice. You had, like in my case, I had a vehicle and I had a functioning wrist. And the insurance company adjusted and compensated me for my losses, because I ended up losing my vehicle. So they had to give me money to replace that vehicle. And then the loss of movement in my hand and the problems that that's gonna probably give me in the future, I was compensated for that as well. Now, when I got the money, I was kind of thinking like, wow, like this is kind of a blessing for me to just have this money. But you know, the value was actually given to cover damages that were done. So I don't believe that's something that needs to be tithed on, just not an increase. It's an even swap is what it's supposed to be. They're just giving you damages, they're doing that type of control. And also now when it comes to taxes, this is an interesting one. And I want to make sure I'm very clear about this too, because I've actually I've studied this a lot. And I've heard people say things and I totally disagree with this. First of all, I want to say I don't think there's any problem with anybody writing off their giving on their taxes. Now I already mentioned earlier that the tithe should come before the government gets their hand in your paycheck. So if you're tithing off of what you earn, there's no more obligation to God on the tithe. You've done your good in your square with God on that front, just completely. I've heard people say, well, if you put that on there, whatever extra you get back then because you're itemizing your giving, it's like you're stealing from God. No, the government isn't God, okay? The government stole from me. If I'm getting back just some of that money that they took from me, I'm going to go try to get as much of that back as I can. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that and there's nothing against God or you're stealing from God. No, you're not. I gave God. I'm not getting that money back. I'm not getting my tithe back. I'm pursuing the money that they already had their hands in in my paycheck before I ever got it. That's what I'm trying to get back. Me and God are square, so I just wanted to throw that in there too because some people get confused about this. And obviously when you want to do what's right, I think sometimes people will think that they have to do more. And they will end up giving more because you don't want to be wrong with God. So obviously, I would never want to do anything that I'm shortchanging God, right? But it's important just to know what's right and wrong. And you don't have to feel obligated to pay over and above what God's actually expecting and requiring. One other thing that I also tithe on though, because the Bible talks about just your increase, your increase. If I'm increased in other ways, like outside of my employment, like people give you a gift or something like that, I also tithe on that. Maybe not everybody would do that, but I look at that as something that, hey, God's blessed me, you know, with this person being my life and they give me some nice gift, I'll take that into consideration and I'll also tithe on those things as well. Because it's done an increase to me, I will give on those, the same thing. It's similar to like the work benefits. But anyways, let's continue on to your 2 Chronicles chapter 31. I'm kind of throwing these things in here as we go through to hopefully lighten up a little bit of some of these passages, because they're not always the easiest to go through. We're just going to look at verse number 4, because there's another purpose for tithing, and of course it's to provide for those doing the work of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 31, verse number 4 of the Bible says, Moreover, he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord. And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field, and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly. And concerning the children of Israel and Judah that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things, which are consecrated unto the Lord their God, and laid them by heaps. And it goes on and on, how they basically just brought in all this stuff, and then everything was great. And that is an encouragement to the Levites. That's the encouragement to the man of God, who's sitting there going, man, because I'll tell you what, when you've got to work a full-time job, and you're trying to serve the Lord, and you're trying to get everything done, it gets really stressful, because you want to get everything done. But when you see, oh wow, I'm actually being provided for, now I don't have to just have this extra added stress of doing all this other work. Well praise God, now that's an encouragement, awesome, cool, I could just move full speed ahead and just focus on serving God. That is a great encouragement to have, and we see that found here also in the Bible. Now if you would like, turn to Genesis 14, and you could also put a bookmark in Hebrew 7, because we're going there, I'm trying to go a little bit quicker now to get through this. We're going to be transitioning again into all the New Testament. We got a pretty good, and there's so much stuff on tithing and everything, we go on and on and on in the Old Testament, there's a lot of information there. But when we just understand some of the basic principles of the tithe, why it was instituted, what's it for, we'll see how it applies in the New Testament. But the reason why I'm turning to Genesis 14 is it's the very first mention of tithing, and Genesis 14 is before the Mosaic Law. So we've been reading in the Law of Moses, we've been reading in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, we've been reading these places where God ordained, hey, you need to pay this tithe, and it's to the Levites. This is during that time period where God had established the Levites to do the ministry of the Lord, to do that service. Well, that's not when the tithe was first introduced. The idea or the notion or the wisdom of giving to God the firstfruits comes even before that law. Genesis 14, look at verse number 18, the Bible says, And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed them and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. That's talking about Abraham giving Melchizedek tithes of all. That was after Abram had that great victory in that battle, getting Lot back and all that stuff, and he comes back and he meets Melchizedek, who the Bible says is the king of Salem, he's the priest of the Most High God. So Abram gives God the glory, he gives God the credit, and he gives God his due in blessing him so abundantly and getting this great victory, and he gives Melchizedek a tithe. Now the reason why this is so important, I'll turn to Hebrews chapter 7. This is critical, this is key, because the people who want to say that the tithe is done away with, the reason why they'll say that, one of the reasons is because there's no more Levitical priesthood, right, and the tithe is written in the law of Moses, and it had to do with that Levitical priesthood, but you see, understanding who Melchizedek is in the order of Melchizedek is basically where the priesthood changed from, or changed to, it changed from Levitical priesthood to the order of Melchizedek. And of course, I believe this is an Old Testament appearing of Jesus Christ, Melchizedek is Jesus Christ. We're going to see that in Hebrews 7, he's without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. I mean, that's talking about God. And since Melchizedek was receiving tithes of Abraham before the Mosaic law, wouldn't it make sense for him to be receiving tithes in the New Testament system and order of Melchizedek that we're supposedly currently in right now? Look at verse number 1 of Hebrews 7, the Bible says, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive 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 without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth." So he's saying, you know, yeah, here the Levites are receiving tithes, the Levites were spawned by Abraham, right, they're the descendants of Abraham. And Abraham is given more respect as the patriarch of the tribe of Israel, of all the different tribes. Abraham gets even more respect, and what he's pointing out here is saying, well look, Abraham had these promises, Abraham was blessed, and when someone gives a blessing, the one who's giving the blessing, what's the exact phrase they use here, the less is blessed of the better, right, Melchizedek was better than Abraham, and he blessed Abraham. So for one, it's pointing out how great Melchizedek is, that even though you have this great patriarch Abraham, he's being blessed by Melchizedek, and Abraham's paying tithes, showing respect and giving honor and giving tithes unto him. Whereas the fruit of Abraham's loins receives tithes in this world, Melchizedek receives them of whom it is witnessed that he liveth, verse number nine, and as I may so say, Levi also who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. So even Levi is paying tithes to Melchizedek. For he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. So people will turn to that verse and say, oh, the priesthood being changed is made of necessity a change of the law, and they'll say, see, the tithe was under the Levitical priesthood, so no more tithe today. And I say, no, because what was the priesthood changed from, it was changed from Levi, what was it changed to, Melchizedek? Does Melchizedek receive tithes? You better believe he does. So why would we not pay tithes to Melchizedek today? Abraham did. Not only that, we see all the reason for the tithe of the Old Testament. Is there no longer a need for people to do the service of the Lord and be provided for to do that work and to do that ministry? Is there no longer a need for that? I think there's still a need. Is there no longer a need for the widows and the fatherless to be cared for by God's people? Still a need. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 5, and we'll see this all now in the New Testament. Once you understand the principles and once we see this, now it's going to be very clear in the New Testament that all of these things, that none of these things have really changed that need to be done, that need to be administered, that need to be happening in the New Testament. 1 Timothy chapter number 5, verse number 3, the Bible says, honor widows that are widows indeed. Now that word honor, and I bring this up almost every single time I preach on this at all, and anything has to do with honor, honor isn't just talking about giving some type of recognition or respect like in a cognitive manner. Honor by and large is referring to caring for and supporting financially or giving things to. That's what honor really is. So when the Bible talks about honoring your father and mother, and if you're familiar with the Bible you remember this passage where Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees for breaking the commandment of God when they said, here's what the Pharisees would do. They would say to their own father, you just treat it as a gift, whatever you might be benefited by me. And they called that Corban, or a gift, the Bible says. That's the way they dealt with their father. Jesus rebuked them for not honoring their father and mother because what they were doing is saying, well hey, you just be thankful for anything that I give you and you just receive that as a gift. And Jesus is saying, no, the Bible says that you are under obligation to take care of your parents. When the Bible says to honor your father and mother, it's talking about caring for them and providing for them because they provided for you when you were young. And you are under obligation to make sure your parents are provided for. You don't just leave them off in the street. You don't just say, well, I'll help you out a little bit here and there and just whatever I give you, you just better be thankful for, Dad. That's wicked. The Bible says honor your father and mother, you take care of them until they die. That's what it's talking about. And that honor is that type of provision. So when the Bible's talking about here, and this becomes clear in the chapter anyways, I don't need to tell you all that to even see that that's what it's talking about here. When the Bible says honor widows that are widows indeed, it's not saying hold the door open for them and say yes, ma'am, and respect them in that way. It's talking about widows that need help because they have nobody to provide for them. And this chapter, when you read this whole chapter, it makes that very clear because it defines who is a widow indeed. It gives you an age requirement. It gives you a spiritual application of what are they doing in the service of God. Do they have a good rapport? Are they actually involved in ministry? Are they actually helping people out? Are they actually doing what they're supposed to be doing? Or are they just off living in sin? It gives you all of these qualifications in order to honor the widows that are widows indeed. And honor means support them. Jump down to verse number 16. In the same chapter, the Bible says if any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them. Which is basically saying take care of them. Look, if you've got a widow in your family, you take care of them. The family is going to take care of them first. He says, and let not the church be charged. Don't make it the church's responsibility to care for your widows if you've got a widow in your family because that's a family matter. You take care of your family. It says that it, talking about the church, may relieve them that are widows indeed. Why? Because the church already has an obligation and responsibility to the widows who are widows indeed. And the church ought to be taking care of those widows. But anyone else that has family, they have nephews and nieces and everything else, look, they need to be taking care of them. And then in verse number 17, after it talks about these widows, it says let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor. And again, that doesn't just mean double respect, like yes sir, yes sir, you say the same thing twice or so. That's not double honor. Double honor is talking about financially or however just taking care of them, making sure they're provided for. And if they're working real hard, you know what, they deserve even more. They deserve being well taken care for because they're working really hard in the Word. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the Word and doctrine. For the Scripture saith, he even continues more, if you say, I don't know what you're talking about, Pastor Burns, I think you're crazy, that's not what honor means. For the Scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. You can't get much more clear than that. The ox treading out the corn, you say you can't muzzle the ox, let him eat, he's doing all this work for you, at least let him eat. You've got a workhorse of a pastor, of an elder, feed the guy, he's doing all this work for you. Make sure he's taken care of, make sure he's fed. That's what this passage is talking about. So if you have this teaching in the New Testament of widows being cared for, men of God doing ministry being taken care of, given honor, where is it going to come from? We know where it came from in the Old Testament. Came from the tithe, and it was a great system, and it made sense. Where does it come from in the New Testament? Same place, because it wasn't done away with, because nowhere are you going to see the tithe is done away, anywhere. Now a few more passages just to answer some critics, turn if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter number 9, and this is where I mentioned it earlier, but I didn't get in depth in the New Testament passages, I will now, where people will conflate two different things. So one of the passages that we're going to see here, that people who disagree with tithing in the New Testament will point to a passage like this, 2 Corinthians 9 verse number 7, the Bible says, every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. People say, see, in the New Testament, you're not giving of necessity as in you have to, because in a tithe, you have to give 10%, right? So the point to this verse, and if you don't read things in context, and if you're not reading the scripture, and you're just going to accept what anyone says, you'll be like, oh wow, okay, well yeah, I guess you see you have a point. Well why don't we see what he's talking about first? I want someone to point out to me where it says he's talking about a tithe, because you know what, it's not in this passage. Look at verse number 1, and we'll actually read this in context. You know what, God does love a cheerful giver, first of all, I mean this verse, there's nothing incorrect about this verse, this verse is absolutely true, it's the word of God, but what's it in reference to? Verse number 1, for as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you, for I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achiah was ready a year ago, and your zeal hath provoked very many. Yet if I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf, that as I said, ye may be ready, lest haply if they of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, we, that we say not ye, should be ashamed in this same confident boasting. Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had noticed before, that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness. But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. So what's going on here? Verse number one says, verse touching the ministering to the saints. There are other believers in another country that were not at Corinth that had a need. They had a financial need. And Paul's writing to them saying, hey, I know how great you guys are. You already got a reputation for helping people out. Why don't you help these people out? Just take a collection for the saints in advance. And that way when we come, it's all ready to go, and everything, you know, and he gives all these other reasons, but it's like, this is not talking about a tithe that belongs to God. He's talking about collecting money together to help support someone else. It would be as if I said, hey, we're going to take a special collection for Pastor Robertson, because his family's going through all this turmoil, and they're having this legal battle, and he's got all these expenses, and their church is, everybody there is in dire need because they're being persecuted. Hey, let's take up a collection here, and we'll send it over there to be a blessing unto them. Do you have to give? Is that a commandment of God? No. That's why he says, not of necessity. And don't feel like you just have, he doesn't, what he's saying is, these people are in need. And it's a serious need, and they could really use your help. But what I don't want you to do is to become bitter, because you feel like you just have to give this money unto these people over there. You say, you know, if that's the case, then don't do it. God wants you to be happy about it, just be a blessing and to help them out, and if it's going to cause you to be angry or mad about it or feel like you have to do it, you don't have to do it. Because that's not a tithe. You don't have to do it. It's just totally out of your own heart to help these people out. It makes perfect sense in the context. It's nothing to do with the tithe. Turn if you would to, we're almost done, Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. Yeah, I'm going to blow through this real quick. I'm going to cut that part out. What they'll find in Matthew chapter 6 is people say, well see, the Bible says let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing. So if you're given a tithe, your left hand has to know what your right hand is doing because you're calculating 10% in order to give that to God. Right? But he's saying, you're just supposed to give and just whatever. And that's what people will teach. I've heard it before, that's why it's coming up now. But again, context is key. What is he talking about? Let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Let's read it. Matthew chapter 6, teaching from Jesus Christ himself, verse number 1. Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Barely I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. I'm sorry, where was the word tithe? When you tithe, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is. When you're tithe, do it in secret. Is that what it says? Oh wait, no, it says alms. You know why it says alms? Because an alms isn't tithe, it's not the same thing. The alms doesn't belong to God, the tithe does. It's a different way of giving. There's lots of ways to give, there's lots of purposes and reasons for giving. They're not all just called the tithe. An example of someone giving alms, you don't have to turn it, it's found in Acts chapter 3, verse number 2, And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they had laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms. So here's a guy that was lame, he was injured, he couldn't work, he needed help. So what's he doing? He's asking people for help. He's panhandling. But he goes to church to do it. And he actually has a legitimate reason for not being able to work, because he's lame of his feet. It's not like he's just a lazy bum and doesn't want to go out and get a job, he's physically handicapped. So he goes to church to where he's thinking, hey, maybe I can find people here who's going to help me out, and he's asking for alms. Now doesn't that make sense in the context where Jesus is saying, you know what, if you're going to help somebody out, don't make sure, hey everybody, you know, this guy's approaching Peter and John, that they go, oh hey, here you go buddy, $500 just for you. And you say it real loud and make sure enough people can hear you and be like, oh wow, look how generous that guy is. That's what he's talking about. And he's saying, you know what, if you're going to be a blessing to someone, don't even think about the money. Like you're giving it to them just to be a blessing, so in that regard, don't let your left hand know your right hand. It's not that big of a deal. Hey, just give it to them and bless them. That's alms. That makes perfect sense. But again, that's not the tithe. In all of these, whatever they come up with, and usually they'll go to verses like this, or they'll try to focus in just really hard core on the tithe and how it was agriculture or how it was, and they really try to get you twisted around just on focusing on that too much instead of what's the purpose of the tithe. They focus just so much on how is it carried, well is it every three years? Is it every year? Whoa, you don't even know what the tithe is, and it's foolishness. It all makes sense. You compare it to the Old Testament, the New Testament, the purpose of it is to support the minister of God. The minister of God is supposed to be provided for, as we see in the New Testament clearly by scripture. All giving's not the same. You run across people trying to tell you that, oh no, we don't need a tithe of the New Testament. You're full-blown-y. Like I said, I already cut a bunch of things out, there's so much more that you can talk about this subject, I feel like we don't need it, to be honest with you, I don't think we need any more. I think the point is made sufficiently. If you have a problem with it, if someone's turned your head around or whatever, and you're still not convinced about something, let me know, I'd be happy to answer your questions after service, but as I mentioned before, I don't think anybody in our church has a problem with it anyways, everyone's extremely generous, I think above and beyond even what God is requiring, but that's why I make sure that information's out there, so let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for the teaching from your word, dear God, I pray it should please just help us all to be strong in our doctrine, understand and know why we believe what we believe. Lord, we love you, we've got a heart to serve you, we just want to do things that are right, we don't want to be wrong and cross you in any way, dear Lord, and help us just to have the proper guidance and wisdom so that we wouldn't even ignorantly do something that would not be right. Lord, give us that light and the guidance, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. I want to make one more point, I just remembered this, if there's something that I didn't convince you of, especially if it comes to one of those areas where I don't think you have to give back taxes, or I don't think you have to do this or that, right, and you disagree with me on that, if you think you need to give more in your heart, even if you're wrong about it, if you think that, don't then not give because I said it's wrong, right? So like the Bible says that if you believe something to be true, if you're not acting on faith, and you know what I'm talking about, am I making sense? If you're not acting on faith, on your conviction on what you believe to be true, that's what God's going to look on that, even if you were incorrect about having to do it, if in your heart you feel like, no man, I really got to do this, and you don't do it, then that is a sin. Okay, I just want to throw that out there because I just want to make sure everybody's right with God all the way around.