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

So, what I'm preaching on this morning is not exactly a topic that I want to preach on or that it's like just exciting to preach on, but it's dealing with tithing. Now, this is a needful sermon because it's something that everybody needs to know, but I want you to say this. I'm not preaching this because I want more money out of you guys or I'm like trying or like we're hurting on finances. We're not. We have enough, everybody that gives to the church, we have enough to pay the bills and more. We have enough to where we can buy Bibles and give stuff to pay out. And so, there's enough money coming in. I'm not worried about that and even if I was, that wouldn't be why I'm preaching on this. The reason that I'm preaching on this is because I want you to know what the Bible teaches about it and it's all about you and God and you being right with God because you do not need a tithe to come to this church. If you came here and didn't tithe a penny, didn't give anything to church, you're welcome here. I have no problem with you. Here's the thing, most everybody gives by cash anyway, so I have no idea who gives. Not that that would matter, but you know, I don't know and it doesn't bother me anyway. Even if I knew, I wouldn't care. So I don't want you to think that this sermon is coming up for any reason like that. Actually the reason that I even thought to preach on it, because Brother Joseph and I were out soul winning and we were just talking about a whole bunch of things, but we were just talking about certain instances as far as tithing and how to deal with certain instances, dealing with tithing. And again, when we have questions or we're talking about this type of stuff, I figure well maybe other people have questions about that too. And so that's what I want to get into. First I want to show you that tithing is a principle in the Bible, that it's not just an Old Testament thing, but also how do you tithe? What do you tithe on? What do you not have to tithe on? Just principles about that. And so again, this is just a teaching sermon more so. This isn't a red hot, like I'm coming down your throat, you better tithe or I'm coming after you. It's nothing like that. But Malachi here is giving definitely what God thinks about tithing. Now one thing I want to say first of all is tithes and offerings, we're going to get into that. Offerings, what you have to understand is offerings, I don't believe necessarily deals with money a lot of times. So when he's saying tithes and offerings, they would give the tithes of the land and what they brought in as increase, but the offerings were actually sacrificing animals. Now in the New Testament, I'm not preaching on that this morning, but there are sacrifices and offerings that we can give. In the New Testament, it's not sacrificing animals, but it's something different. So a lot of preachers would be like, well you gave your tithe, but are you giving your offerings? You know, full paycheck Sunday. Just empty your bank account right now. I believe if you're tithing, that's all God requires. And anything above the tithe is a free will offering and it's not required and I don't believe that God's going to curse you if you just say I'm giving the tithe and that's it. So there's been a lot of weird, there's been a lot of false things that have been said about tithing and I'm going to kind of cover some of that stuff too. But I want to talk about what is a tithe. You may be wondering what is a tithe. Is tithing only under the Old Testament? So that's what I want to talk about. So go to Genesis chapter 14. This is actually the first mention of tithe or the word tithe in the Bible and it's dealing with Abraham and Melchizedek. So straight up front I believe tithing is from the beginning to the end and actually what we'll see in this passage is this is before the Old Testament and if you remember the sermons that I preached on the Old Testament versus the New Testament, we talked about the order of Melchizedek first and then we talked about the Old Testament and then we talked about as soon as that ended, that's when the New Testament started and the New Testament is the everlasting covenant. So there's basically three things. You have the order of Melchizedek that I believe happened from Adam and Abel down the line until you got to where they're taken out of the land of Egypt. That's when the Old Covenant or the First Testament started where you had the Levites. But let's read this first verse 18. So Genesis 14 verse 18 says, 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, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the Most High God, which had delivered thine enemies into thy hand, and he gave him ties of all. Now go to Hebrews chapter 7 because you may say, well, who's giving ties here? Now this is clearly Abraham giving ties of all that he, so all the spoils that he got from this battle. If you know that this is the slaughter of the kings, so to speak. So this is when Lot was taken and all, you know, he basically Abraham helped out Sodom inadvertently because he was helping his nephew Lot. But Melchizedek, we'll see who Melchizedek even is, but Abraham gave him ties of all. Now this is the first mention of ties in the Bible, but Hebrews 7 gives us a lot of information about this. But it also, it defines what a tithe is. A tithe is just a tenth, okay, it's just another word for a tenth of something. So ten percent. But in verse 1 of Hebrews chapter 7, we're going to read about ten verses here just to kind of see what's going on here. We'll see who Melchizedek is, we'll see the story brought up about how he gave a tenth of all the spoils to him, but we're also going to get into going into the Old Testament with the Levites and talking about how that worked. So in Hebrews 7 verse 1 it 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. So we see here then in verse 2 who gave a tenth of all, it was Abraham. And then continuing there in verse 2, First being by interpretation king of righteous, 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 the 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 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 him received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises, and without all contradiction the less is blessed the better. And here men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witness that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. So there's a lot of information here. Now Melchizedek, I've already preached on this before I mentioned this, I believe that's an Old Testament, actually before Old Testament, appearance of Christ, because it says he was without father, without mother, without the sent, having not a beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God. So I believe it's super clear that this Melchizedek is literally the Lord just walking on the earth. Now he wasn't manifest in the flesh at that time because he wasn't born of a woman, because remember, without mother. But this isn't a sermon about Melchizedek, but all I have to say is that who was Abraham giving his tithes to? Essentially, he was giving them to God, right? And that's the key with tithing, is that you're not giving it to a person necessarily. When you tithe to this church, you're not giving it to me personally, okay? It's going to the church, it's going to God's house, and that's what we're going to get into and how this is universal from before the Old Testament, in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament. Tithing is a principle that's been there. But we see here the first mention of it with Melchizedek, it's before the Old Testament. So for people to say it's only Old Testament, they're already wrong right there. Now you could say, well it's before Old Testament and Old Testament, but it's not in the New Testament. Okay, you could use that as an argument, but as we see here, Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek forever. So if Melchizedek before the Old Testament received tithes, don't you think Jesus should? That's where it gets into when you look at Hebrews chapter 7, that I believe really proves that tithing, it's coming full circle, right? Because the Levites were after the order of Aaron, and they received tithes, and they were the men that died. But Jesus ever lived it to make intercession for us, and he's a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek because he doesn't die. And that's what it's saying about Melchizedek is that, he's like, they're receiving tithes of men that die. They're dying and they're still receiving tithes. And so it's coming full circle back to Jesus in the New Testament. And so that's where I believe tithing should go to Jesus in the New Testament. But where do you give it to? I mean, you don't like, Jesus isn't down here walking to where you hand him money or hand him your tithe. And so I'm going to get into that because the next point is that Isaac tithed. Now Isaac wasn't in the Old Testament either, and I think a lot of this too when people get into tithing, a lot of times people are just trying to get out of it, and then some people I think are just misunderstanding and don't understand, you know, haven't studied it out necessarily. But the big confusion to think that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were in the Old Testament. They're not. The Old Testament is the Old Covenant. Now I'm not against you saying Genesis is the Old Testament, okay, the reading of the Old Testament. You know, we kind of say that with the law, right? They call the whole Old Testament the law. And so there's nothing wrong with kind of linking that all in there, the law and the prophets. And so, but anyway, go to Genesis chapter 28, and this is the next mention of tithing. It doesn't say tithe, but it says the tenth. But Genesis, this is interesting because this will link actually to the New Testament what Isaac does here. So, we're not going to read the whole passage for sake of time, but this is where Jacob, I'm sorry, this isn't Isaac, this is Jacob. But this is where Jacob is going, you know, fleeing from Esau, and he sees this ladder where angels are ascending and descending upon him. And that's a whole other sermon in itself right there, but he has this dream, and then when he awakes out of this dream, that's what I want to show you after he sees this. And so, in verse 16, it says, And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. And Jacob bowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way, that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 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 shall give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. So, we see here that Jacob sees this dream, and he sets up a pillar. Now keep that in mind. He sets up a pillar, and he says, This place is nothing but the house of God. That's what Bethel means. So Bethel, if you remember, when the kingdoms were split, Bethel was actually in the northern kingdom, and that's where Jeroboam put one of the golden calves in Bethel, and then he put one in Dan. But Bethel was the place where he set up this pillar and said, This is the house of God. But remember, God said, I'm going to put it where I choose. So when he put the tabernacle, at first it was in Shiloh, and then they moved it to Jerusalem. But that's what Bethel means, is the house of God. But he sets up a stone as a pillar, and he says, This is the house of God, and I'm going to give you the tenth of all. Now this, I believe, would still be under the order of Melchizedek, but this is before the Old Testament, that he's saying, In the house of God, that's where I'm going to give the tenth of all. Now go to 1 Timothy chapter 3, because you say, Okay, well I see that in the Old Testament, the house of God, and the temples where they gave the tithes, and we'll get into the Levitical part of it. Obviously, I don't think anybody would doubt that they gave tithes in the Old Testament for the Levites, but we're going to talk about that for a minute. But in 1 Timothy chapter 3, in verse 15, that's what it says, 1 Timothy 3, verse 15, it says, But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to pave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the what? pillar and ground of the truth. Now that to me links perfectly, because what he did, he set up a pillar, and in the place that he said, This is the house of God, and he said, I'm going to give you the tenth of all. And what does it say the house of God is? The church of the living God. So this is the house of God, not the building, it doesn't matter if we meant it in a tent, it doesn't matter, this is the house of God, because the church is the congregation, that's the house of God. So where should we bring the tithes to God? To the house of God. To the pillar and ground of the truth. And so obviously this should be a legitimate church, if you went down to the church of Christ down here, that's not the pillar and ground of the truth, that's not the house of God, I would not take a tithe there. But go back to Malachi chapter 3, so hopefully you see that, that before the Old Testament they were tithing, they were giving the tenth of all to God, and to the house of God, and obviously I'm going to get into the Old Testament a little bit too, as far as why they did it, why they were giving tithes, and how the priesthood changed from Melchizedek to the Levites, but then in the New Testament it changed from the Levites to Jesus, which was after the order of Melchizedek. So we saw two cases where they're tithing to Melchizedek, in the order of Melchizedek, and Jesus is after that order, so therefore Jesus should be receiving tithes, and since Jesus is the mediator of the New Testament, he's the head of the church, where should you be bringing the tithe to? So Malachi chapter 3, and I know we read this already, but notice what it says in verse 10. It says, "...bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house." Okay, so here it's saying to bring it into the storehouse, so notice that they're bringing it to there. Now, I'm not against, you know, if you don't have a church to go to and you're wanting to send your tithe somewhere, I think that you should be in a church that's a legitimate church. That's where it really comes down to. You should be in a church that's a church that you would believe in the tithe into, and if you're not, then you need to be working on getting into that church. And so if you're going to a church and you're like, well I like this church more, I believe you should be putting the tithe in the church that you're going to. And so, you know, I tithe, sometimes when I'm traveling I'll give the tithe to another church. I'm not saying, like if you're traveling or whatever, you know, when I've gone on vacation and I've gone to a different church or visited a church that's a like-minded church that I believe in, you know, obviously I'm not saying that you have to give your tithe to the church that you're always at usually, but what I'm saying with that is you're bringing it. You're not sending it. Okay? And so I think that is a principle with tithing. And so if you, as my church members, you know, the church members of Mount Baptist Church, if you're on vacation and you're out for a week or whatever and you're going to a good church that you would believe in, you know, believe is a legitimate church, and you gave your tithe for that week there, you know, that's what I would do. Okay? But, you know, some people give at different times, and then that's the thing, it doesn't say give every week, it doesn't say give every month, you know, so I believe that you can, it's not like it tells you exactly the time frame as far as you want it to give, okay? But all I'm saying with that is that it says to bring it, okay? And so that's a principle in the Bible, but it says that there may be meat in my house, and really that's really the key to tithing. What's the point of tithing? Is because it sustains the house, it basically is giving means for meat, so to speak, or food, you know, when it comes to the Levites in general, that's how they lived, okay? And so when it comes to the Old Testament, go to Deuteronomy chapter 14, you know, why did the Levites receive tithes? Because they didn't have an inheritance. They didn't have land to till, and they didn't have stuff, you know, they weren't growing crops, they were, their job was to keep up with the temple or to teach and preach, so to speak. So you had the order of Aaron that were the priests, but then you had the other Levites that were doing, they had other jobs, okay? And so a lot of their jobs were to preach in the synagogues, to preach the word of God, you know, the Levites were pretty much the preachers, so to speak, but they didn't have a means, so their income, so to speak, and their way of living was the fact that the rest of Israel was tithing. This happens to be, you know, if you think about back to the fact that the Levites were chosen as a whole tribe to serve God, it was originally the fact that all the firstborn of every tribe was unto the Lord. Every firstborn male was to the Lord, right? But then he said, okay, instead of that, I'm going to redeem the firstborn of all these tribes by just the whole tribe of Levi, but if the tribe of Levi, if there wasn't enough people to substitute for all the firstborn of those tribes, they'd have to pay a certain amount of money and redeem it. And so when you understand that, that that was their living, that's how they survived was off tithes, then you kind of understand what the point of tithing is. What's the point of, why are you giving to the church? What's the reasoning for it? And so, it's not for your pastor to get a Bentley, okay? It's not what it's for. It's for the administration, it's for the needs of the church in general, okay? And it could be, you know, that there's people on staff, and that's definitely a principle in the Bible, we're going to get to that, but in general, it's for the church needs and it's for, you know, things of the church. We wouldn't be able to pay for this place if people didn't tithe. You know, my tithe alone wouldn't pay for the rent of this place every month. And so, that's the principle that you're thinking about. You know, if people didn't tithe, you know, we'd meet somewhere else, you know, we'd meet somewhere that we could afford or that, you know, we'd meet in a house, a bigger house that would fit us all or something like that, but all I'm saying is that that's the reason for it though. And so, in Deuteronomy chapter 14 and verse 22, I just want to read this passage, you just really see as far as in the Old Testament, this is the reasoning for the tithes. So in verse 22, it 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 thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds, and of thy flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. And if thy way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. 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 lust desireth, and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice thou in 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, shalt come, and shalt eat, 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 it's telling us exactly why this tithe is coming in, okay, and don't get caught up on it. We talked about the strong drink. I preached a whole sermon on wine as a mocker. That's for a strong drink offering, okay. So what they were saying there is the fact that obviously the house of God in the Old Testament in Israel was a literal one place, okay. That's where the house of God was. That's where they had to do like a lot of their sacrifices, where they had to do the Passover, all this stuff. And so they had to travel to it. So that's what it's saying there is that basically if you have a whole herd and you got all these sheep and oxen, instead of carrying it all with you, you turn it into money, and then when you get there, you can buy whatever you need for whatever sacrifice you're doing. Does that make sense, or whatever you're trying to give. So it's basically just giving you a convenience so you don't have to drag the whole herd with you on this caravan to get there. And that's why it's saying if it would be too far for thee. Now if you lived right next to it, it wouldn't be that hard. And so, but it's basically saying don't forsake the Levite. But also, notice what it says in there in verse 29, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Pure religion and I'm the father before God and the father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep thyself unspotted from the world. So if you think about what the church, as far as like, what ministries we'd have as far as dealing with feeding people, the fatherless, the widow, the strangers, and the poor. But we're not talking about delinquents here. We're not talking about derelicts. That's where people come in, they're like, oh, you know, the homeless, we need to help all the homeless. We need a job. If you don't work them out, they should just eat. But what we're talking about is the fact that the church, remember the widows, the widows can be taken care of the church. Now there's a whole, I'll preach a whole sermon on widows that are widows indeed, but it even says, you know, if they have family, let them take care of them, and let not the church be charged. Okay? But do you see how the fatherless and the widows, how they can be taken care of the church? Now that is a biblical principle of the house of God, that the house of God would be able to take care of them, but how can they take care of them if they don't have any money? They don't have the means to do it, they don't have the food to feed them. And so that's where the tithe comes in. So you can see how this transfers over into the New Testament because the house of God will help the widows, they'll help the fatherless, but they also, the Levites are the big things you see there, but what does it mean? The Levites' purpose, to minister unto the house of God. What is the pastor, what is the deacon? They're ministers of the house of God, they're the ones that are basically doing the work so to speak of keeping everything together, preaching, doing all that stuff. And so that's where I believe that in the New Testament there's definitely principles as far as pastors being paid, deacons being paid, as far as being the servants of the church, and so that's a biblical principle. Does it mean that you have to be? Does it mean you're not really a pastor if you're bivocational? That's where it's ridiculous, this whole, I hate the term, or I hate how they use it so to speak, a full-time Christian service. Surrender yourself to full-time Christian service. I think I remember the fact that I believe I was doing full-time Christian service before I became a pastor, and what in the world would I even become a pastor for? But you know what, according to their standards I'm still not in full-time Christian service because I'm working a full-time job. And so that whole idea of like, oh well you need to be a full-time pastor and all this stuff is ridiculous. And you know what, some of the pastors that I know that are bivocational are doing more work than most all these pastors that are being paid full-time. And I'm not against pastors being paid full-time, I believe it's biblical, it's a good principle, and if you can do more work by being full-time then yes, that's what needs to happen. But this whole idea of like, you just need to be full-time from the get-go is ridiculous. Ridiculous, okay? There's not enough stuff for me to keep myself busy. I would just have to go soul-winning all day long, and you can only do that so long. I mean, going 40 hours a week soul-winning is just not possible when you think of just the mental aspect of doing it. But anyway, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9, and I want to talk about the fact that this is something that's a biblical principle as far as service of the church being paid. But if the church doesn't tithe, there's nothing to pay them. So that's the principle of what tithing's for. And so remember in Malachi it said, you know, you have robbed me with tithes and offerings. That's what you've got to think about, and this is a personal thing that you have to think about, is the fact that you don't want to be robbing God. And there's a blessing and a curse in this, and so it's a good thing to know, and it's definitely, I want to, you know, the reason I'm preaching this is because I want to warn you about it, that if you don't tithe, there could be a curse. God's not necessarily going to bless your finances if you're not tithing. And we'll talk about principles of tithing after I get through this, but in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, starting there in verse 1, it says, Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you. For the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. Mine answer to them that do examine me is this. Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Are I only in Barnabas, or are I only in Barnabas? Have we not power to forbear working? Who goeth to warfare any time at his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth the flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man, or saith not the law the same also. For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth shall plow in hope, and he that threshest in hope shall be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power, but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple, and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel shall live of the gospel. This is no doubt giving you that same correlation of the Old Testament, how they ate of those things at the temple. They partook of the things of the altar, because when they would sacrifice at the altar, who ate it? The priests would eat the stuff that's on the altar. That's what their food was. They'd had daily sacrifice. They had meat offerings, which were unleavened cakes and all this other stuff. They had all kinds of food and everything that came from these offerings. It's saying, even so had the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. He's talking about himself. He's an apostle. He's saying, hey, I didn't use this power, but I do have the power to forbear working. He's saying, when you look through the New Testament when he's writing this stuff, he's basically telling the Corinthians, I didn't charge you. I didn't take anything of you. The reason he's doing that is to be an example unto them, but it's not that he doesn't have the power to do it. That's what he's saying. He's like, I had the power as an apostle to be paid. That's what he's basically saying. God has ordained that. That's what he's saying that should be done, but he's not doing it. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, he touches on this with them at the end of the book there. He's saying again that he has the power to do it, but he didn't do it with them. We know that Paul was a tent maker because Priscilla and Aquila were both tent makers and they were the same trade. Obviously, Paul had a trade. He had something that he would do to make money and he was working with his own hands and he labored night and day so that he wouldn't be chargeable unto them. He even says in one place, he said, others I robbed, meaning that he took wages of them for their sakes. That's what he was saying. Basically, this other church was taking care of what you should be giving me. That's why he's saying I robbed them. He's saying that because he wasn't using that for their church particularly. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, in verse 6, it says, Now we command you brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you. It says in verse 9, Not because we have not power. So he's saying, we had the power to do this, but it's not because of that, but notice why he's doing that. But to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we are with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. So he's saying here that, hey, I had the power to do this, but because I wanted to be an ensample unto you, meaning he's saying, I want you to live by my example that I'm working with my own hands to feed myself. Because he's saying, you know, and in other passages in 1 Timothy he talks about that if you don't provide for your own, especially for them of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. So he's giving that principle, obviously that you need to provide for your own, and if you don't work, neither should you eat. But he's saying that I have power, though, to forbear working, because I'm an apostle of Christ. So I believe that those that are in the church as far as offices in the church and staff of the church, you know, it's very biblical that they should be paid. It doesn't mean that they have to be to be in that position, no. Obviously Paul was still an apostle, even though he didn't get paid. So he could forbear working, and it was his, you know, his ordain that he should forbear working, but he chose not to be an example unto them. And so, you know, if I saw, for example, when it comes to if I were to ever get paid, or if I were to ever be full time, if I saw in the church that people had a problem with working with their own hands or providing for their own, I would not take a paycheck. And I would live by an example and say, you know what, I'm going to do it, and I'm the pastor of the church. That means you need to do it. And so, not that I don't have power to do it, but that's what Paul was pretty much doing there is saying, hey, you know what, I'm going to do this by example. And if I'm doing it, then you need to be doing it, okay. And so, that's why sometimes I get frustrated with pastors that are full time, that they get on the case of people that work to provide for their families. And I don't know if you've ever heard sermons where they're just like ripping someone's face off because they're trying to make ends meet for their family. And they're like, you need to, you know, be here every service no matter what. It's like, listen, if they're trying to provide for their family, that comes first. Now, obviously I think you should be here for every service. But if you were to come here every single Sunday morning, I don't believe you're forsaking the assemblies. There I said it. That's what I believe. I don't believe you're forsaking the assemblies of God, not the assemblies of God as far as that false denomination, but you're not forsaking the church of God if you're coming every week. That's just my personal opinion. Now, should you be trying to come every single service and should that be your goal? Yes. Every time the door's open, you should try to come here. But let's use an extreme example. What if I had a church service every single day and you missed and you came to like three of them, but you couldn't make it to every single one, would you be forsaking the assemblies? I mean, how far do you take that? But all I'm saying with that is that pastors that are paid sometimes sit on their lazy rear ends and then they wonder why people can't make it to church when they're trying to provide for their families and then they're not even working 40 hours a week. And they're counting the sermons that they preach on Sunday and Wednesday as part of their time of working. And so now I'm not saying this isn't work, but what I'm saying is that there are lazy pastors and there are some pastors that probably just need to get a real job, get a job picking peaches or something like that, and start working to be an example to the flock. Because when I see a pastor that's lazy and then they're coming down on people that are working full time jobs or working 80 hours a week to try to put food on their table and provide for their families so that their wife doesn't have to go to work and then they come down on them, can you imagine why they don't respect the pastor? Paul was earning his respect here, not because he had to, but he was earning his respect by not taking a wage and he was making a point with that. He's making a strong point that he's doing more work than them and he's doing work above and beyond. He's paying his own way to be able to live, but he's also doing all the work for Christ as well. So all I have to say, I'm not against pastors being paid is very biblical. The Bible is very clear it's very biblical, but it's based off the tithe. If people don't tithe, then you can't pay the pastor, okay? But here's the thing, that's not my end game, that's not something I'm like, man, I just can't wait until I can be full time. That's not what I'm looking for. Now if that could happen, then amen, great. But it's not something, if we're here for 10 years and I'm still not full time, I'd rather be taking that money and putting it towards preaching the gospel, I'd rather take it towards doing a lot of other things if I can keep up. But if it comes to the point where I just can't keep up with the church and doing the full time job, then that's where it makes sense, okay? But if a church is small and you're just going soul wedding, you're not like doing these extravagant great works for God so to speak where you're like going on all these mission trips and doing all this stuff, and I'm all for that stuff, but if you're not doing that type of stuff, why do you need to be full time? Why has it come to that point already? So I think it's one of those things where it just needs to come to the point where it just makes sense and you can't do it any other way. And so that's where I stand with that. I'll work a full time job to pay for my family until the day I die if I have to and I have no problem with it, no problem at all with it. And so this isn't a sermon saying Pastor Robinson wants to get paid full time so we need to start giving more money. That's not what this is about. This is just to show you principles in the Bible about tithing and the fact that it does carry over to the New Testament. It just never ended. It was before the Old Testament, it was in the Old Testament, and it's just still there. It just was never done away with. It's just the fact that the house of God has changed places. Before the temple or the tabernacle in the Old Testament there was Melchizedek and the order of Melchizedek and they would give the tithes to Melchizedek. In the Old Testament they had an actual tabernacle and the Levites were the priests and they give the tithes of that. In the New Testament Jesus Christ is the high priest at the order of Melchizedek, he's the head of the body, the head of the church, and the church is all local assemblies of believers. So that's just the way it goes. But go to Proverbs chapter 3 and I want you to see that there is a blessing, there's blessings and then there's cursings when it comes to tithing and that's why I would bring this up. One just so you know, and it's always good to know what the Bible teaches on things, but you want to know if there's something you can do to get a great blessing out of God but also if there's something that maybe would be a curse in your life. So you want God to be on your side, you want God to be blessing you. In Proverbs 3 and verse 9, notice what it says, Proverbs 3 and verse 9, it says, Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Now this is exactly what it talked about in Malachi where it says I will open up, it's basically saying prove me. If you tithe, prove me because it says I will, it's basically saying prove me 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. It's exactly what it's saying here in Proverbs chapter 3, but he's basically saying prove me on this if I will not bless you because of this. Because obviously you're giving part of what you have, right? So that's the thing, you're parting with something that you say, well I need that, I need that money to survive, but God is saying prove me on this because I will take care of you and you will not be able to contain it. So there's that blessing and he says I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground. So he's basically saying I'm going to bless you in the work that you do and it's going to come around and here's the thing, when it comes to tithing, I believe God has blessed me for tithing. I believe that I have more money today than I would have had if I didn't tithe. I have more things today than I would have had if I didn't tithe and I believe God has blessed me with that, but I didn't do it because I knew I was going to see that, although God did promise it and I do believe he'll keep that promise. But I'm not saying that, don't look at this like well I'm going to get a Ferrari next year because I've been tithing. Obviously if God wants you to have a Ferrari he'll give you a Ferrari, but I doubt that's his will. I doubt that's what he's wanting for you, but all I'm saying with that is that God said he'll bless it. It says all nations shall call you blessed. So you think about the fact that it's going to be noticeable that if you tithe that God's going to take care of you. I'm not saying you're not going to have bad times financially. I'm not going to say that you're not ever going to have to find another job. I'm not saying any of that, but what I'm saying is that you want God on your side on this. If you do quit following the hard times you can fall back and say, Lord I've been faithfully tithing to you. Please help me with this financially. So you want God to be on the right side of that equation if you were to come into hard times and need to pay some bills or something like that. But Deuteronomy, but it says ye are cursed with a curse, it says, for ye have robbed me in Malachi. So there's the other side to that as far as being blessed and being cursed. We already read Deuteronomy 14.29 when we were talking about the Levites receiving a tithe. It says that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all thy work of thine hand which thou doest. So you see this is very consistent as far as if you tithe, the Lord is going to bless you. If you tithe, prove him with it. He'll bless you. And so that's what I believe about tithing as far as the blessing and the curse. That's why I would preach this. Again, we're not hurting on funds so I'm not worried about it. We're never going to have a thermometer on the wall on like having a giving Sunday and I'm going to preach a whole sermon about how we need to have all this money for some kind of program or something like that. It's never going to happen. We don't have the money. We don't have the money. So be it. We're going to do it with what we got and that's how we're going to perform there. But in your own lives, this is something that I think you need to apply to your lives and say, hey, if I want the blessing of God, obviously there's all kinds of things that we should be doing for God to get the blessing of God in our lives, but this is a simple one as far as just taking 10% of what you make and giving it to God. And so that's something that we need to all get into. And some people coming into it, if you come into it and you haven't been tithing and you're living from paycheck to paycheck, yeah, it's hard. It's hard to get into that mode and I'm not saying to like not pay your bills to get into it, but you got to figure out how you're going to do it. You got to cut some mustard somewhere. You got to cut something out. You need to downsize somehow to where you can somehow get that tithe in there so we can get the blessings of God. And so I'm not saying that you just starve your children or something like that to pay the tithe. That's not what I'm talking about. But you need to start getting into trying to figure out how you're going to do it. And so, but Jesus wasn't against tithing. You know, a lot of people are like, oh, Jesus was changing everything. Go to Matthew chapter 23. And then after this, I'm going to give you some principles. I gave you all the Bible, but I'm going to give you some principles about tithing and just some questions people have about tithing and all that stuff. But Matthew 23 and verse 23, he's rebuking the Pharisees, but he's also giving a truth in there as far as they did do some things that were good. It's not like everything they did was bad, but Matthew 23 and verse 23 says, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and fate. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. Now this is, you know, it's when they say outward appearance, it doesn't matter. He's like, no, clean the inside of the cup and the platter that the outside may be clean also. He's not throwing out the outside and he's not throwing out the fact that they should tithe on the mint, anise, and cumin, right? Now what's mint, anise, and cumin? It's just spices, right? So you think that's something really small, but he thought that was important. Jesus said you ought to have done this, okay? So any income or increase that you have, you should be tithing on it. So Jesus wasn't against tithing and he didn't say this isn't something that you should be doing or anything like that. Now obviously he's talking in Old Testament, he was dealing with people in the Old Testament because the New Testament hadn't started, but we went through that, that he is the high preceptor in Melchizedek. So I want to give you some principles on tithing. I'm just going to tell you how I do it and just tell you some different avenues and you may have some questions like, well, do I tithe on this, do I tithe on that? I tithe on my gross income, okay? So all you know that when you get a paycheck, you have this gross amount and you never see it, right? You're like, man, it would be nice to get that, wouldn't it? But then Uncle Sam takes out his fair share. So the gross income is basically just what your employer is paying you, but then it has all these deductions on there. So then you get your net at the end, which is after all the federal income tax is taken out, your state income tax, the FICA, the social security that you'll never see, we'll never see it, let's just be honest. It's going to be gone by the time I ever get it. So anyway, you have all this stuff that you're paying into and so I pay on the gross. Now what that means is that if I pay on the gross, if I tithe on the gross, when I get a tax return, or you do your tax returns and you get a refund, I don't tithe on that. Does that make sense? Because I already tithed on it. The way I look at taxing is that you make $100 and they steal 20 and then they give you back 10 and I'm supposed to thank them for that, right? Oh, thanks for giving me back 10 that you stole 20. But anyway, all I have to say is that you've already tithed on that, right? Let's say you made $100, you give 10 to God, 20 goes to the government, right? So if the government gave you back 10, then you just keep the 10 because you've already tithed on the whole amount, okay? That's why I do this personally because it's easier and it's simpler and I don't have to rack my brain to try to figure it out. I'm an engineer but I don't want to try to, why I say this is because you could say, well, I'm going to tithe on the net after the taxes are taken out and I don't think that's wrong but then you'd have to tithe on the refund, right? Which is fine. I don't think there's anything wrong with that but now you got to figure out what that net is when you take out your retirement stuff that's being taken out and you take out your insurance because usually you have insurance, you have retirement stuff and you have other things that are not necessarily taxes, okay? So that's why I just do gross and then let the chips fall where they may. And here's the thing, there's nothing wrong with giving a little more to God. I'd rather be a little higher on the echelon of what I'm giving to God than lower, okay? So if you're doing gross, you're good, right? There's nothing that can be said about that. You're paying more than probably what you need to be paying because of all the taxes and stuff people are stealing from you. So that's what I do. I do gross income so that's the simplest way to do it. But then you get into, okay, what about with retirement plans and stuff like that? So this is where you are into paying more because I, for example, and you may say I don't have retirement. That's fine, okay? I'm just giving you an example, okay, of just how it would get confusing. If you have a 401k, okay, my company has a 401k that's just a company 401k. I put, you know, so much percent of my paycheck into the 401k. Well they match it dollar for dollar up to a certain percentage. So I don't ever see that money though. That's not on my paycheck. Right? I don't see the money they match. So I'm tithing on the money I'm putting in but not on the money that goes into the 401k. So the question is how do you tithe it? How do you tithe on something you don't have? So if you had retirement or if you had stock, shares in stock, let's say your company gives you a bonus and it just puts it into stock, how are you going to tithe on it? Let's say they give you $10,000 and said this is going to stock. How are you going to tithe on that? You don't have, you know, $1,000, you know, that you're just going to pull out of nowhere. So the way I look at retirement and the way I look at like stock or something like that that you're going into, I would tithe on it once you pulled it out. You know, my boss one time told me, he said, you know, buying stock or, you know, doing stuff like that, it's like you bought a piece, a loaf of bread and it's underneath your arm but you can't make sandwiches with it. You know, that's kind of what you're looking at there. You have something that's out there but what if your 401k crashes? You don't have anything, okay? And so when you're dealing with investments and stuff like that, I would just deal with it once you had it in hand. Then, you know, like if I have a retirement and I'm pulling it out or something like that later on, I would just tithe on it once I have it. Yes, it's going to be more. You know, obviously, that's the whole idea, right, is that you're putting into retirement and it accrues money on that or if you have stock in a company, it gets more value but so be it. You know, amen. You know, you just have more money to give to God. So that's why I just do gross income because there's all those facets you got to look into. This way, yeah, I'm paying probably more than I need to as far as my tithe but why? Who cares? You know, and now this is where it would get into hard to do that. Let's say they start taxing you 90%, okay, you know, like Bernie Sanders once, right, these socialists. They start taxing you 90%. That's where you probably begin into, okay, well, that's probably not going to work out, right, because you don't have, if they tax you 90%, you're giving the rest of it to God, right, and then you don't have anything. So that's where I would say, you know, this isn't like hard line like this, you're either doing this or you're not doing it right. I'm just personally doing it this way and let the chips fall where they may, you know, let their money perish with them, with the taxing. I believe God will make up the difference. They start raising the taxes to the point where I'm giving more and I have less money, you know, the less net income after that because obviously they raise the taxes more, the amount of money I'm going to have cash in hand after I tithe is going to be less and less and less and less as they do that, right? This isn't a math lesson but that's just the way it is but the thing is is that I believe God will take care of me. I believe he'll allow me to make so much money that even if I had only 10% of my paycheck that I'll be able to take care of my family because I'm tithing, because I'm giving to God and so let the chips fall where they may with that but that's kind of the idea of where that would be hard to do sometimes, you know, what if they taxed it so much that you wouldn't have any money to even tithe, okay? So I believe that you should tithe if you have it, you know, like if you don't have it then how are you going to tithe on it, you know what I mean? So that's the principle with 401Ks, IRAs, retirement, stuff like that. That's how this even came up for me to preach this sermon because Brother Joseph and I were kind of talking about that, you know, like how do you deal with those type of things, you know, with stocks and all these different things. Don't have them, you know, that's one way to deal with it, right? But anyway, but there's something else that's been taught. In the middle of Leviticus chapter 27, and they call it back tithing, okay, and I've actually heard this, I've never heard anybody ever, I never saw anybody ever show it to me in the Bible, but I've heard preachers say things like, okay, let's say you've been saved for, you know, 20 years and you're just starting to tithe. What they'll say is that you need to tithe in all the years that you should have been tithing and you need to add 20%. Now, I don't believe this is biblical, and I'm going to show you where they would even be getting this from, or at least where I would think they would be getting this from, but I don't believe that. I don't believe that. Basically, the way I look at it is if you're trying to tithe, just start right now. Start right now where you're at, try to tithe on what you're doing. Don't worry about the past, you know, just do it now and try to go on from there, okay? But in Leviticus chapter 27, and in verse, start there in verse 30. It says, and all the tithe of the land, whether of seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy unto the Lord, and if a man will at all redeem aught of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. So you see, what they're saying is that if you're redeeming your tithe, basically, what they're saying with this, I'm going to say what they're saying, and I'm going to say what the Bible's actually saying about this, is that if you're trying to redeem your tithe, they're saying the redeeming is that you haven't paid it for like a long time, or you haven't paid it for so many years, and now you're trying to pay it up, so to speak, then you need to add 20%. That's what a fifth is. A fifth part is 20%, right? If you read this chapter, what it's talking about is the fact that if you're going to turn it into money, then you need to add 20%. If you're going to redeem it, meaning what it's saying, if you read the chapter and we're not going to do it for the sake of time, it's basically saying I have this land, but I don't want to give it to the Lord. Like, I'm supposed to be giving it to the Lord, but I don't want to, I want to keep it for myself, then you can turn it into money and add the fifth part to it. That's what it's saying, because the whole chapter's talking about things that are devoted to the Lord, and it's saying that if it's bad, you need to give it to the Lord if it's devoted to him. Basically, whatever comes out of the gate, so to speak, if there's like, you have 100 lambs and 10 are supposed to go to the Lord, the first 10, the first things are supposed to go whether they're good or bad. But if one of those lambs, if you wanted one of those lambs and you're like, I don't want to give it, I want to keep that, then it's saying then, okay, if you're going to redeem it, then you got to add the fifth part to it, meaning that it was devoted, it was supposed to go to the Lord, but you got to add 20%, so you can turn it into money, and that's what it's saying in here is like the estimation of it. You figure out how much it's supposed to cost, and then you add 20% to that, and then you can keep your lamb. That's what that's talking about. It's not saying that, okay, you haven't tied in the past five years, now you got to pay that and add 20% to it. That's not what it's saying, but I've heard preachers say that, and I've heard them say that, and then it's like a mic drop. They say that, and then they just leave it, and they don't tell you where that's at, because you wonder, because you're like, good night, I need to figure out, I don't even know what I even earned in those past five years, you know what I mean? You're trying to figure that stuff out. It's like trying to figure out all the past sins that you've done or something. I don't know. What my advice is, is that if you're going to start tithing, just start tithing day one. You figure out how much you're making, and what your increase is, your income is, and then tide on that. What I see with increase is what you're working to get. This is where I would differ maybe with some people. I don't believe that you need to tithe on a gift. Let's say someone just gave you $10,000. I don't believe you have to tithe on it. Now, if you want to tithe on it, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't believe that you have to tithe on that. Your increase, so to speak, because you've been given money, let's say someone gave you a house, though. Are you supposed to tithe on that? Do you even have money to give on that? Now, a gift, the reason, one big reason why I don't think that that's necessary or that's something that's in the Bible necessarily is because, what's the biggest gift that we can get? The gift of eternal life. Does God expect us to give back 10% on that? Just in that principle, a gift is something you don't earn, and you don't owe anything. We owe God what we've brought in when we work a job because He's helping us work, and so part of that belongs to Him. That's why I don't believe gifts, as far as if someone gives you a gift, you don't need to figure out the estimation of it and give the fifth part. You think about all the things that they would give you, like how would you even give that money? Let's say they gave you an object or a car or something like that, how would you even give that money? If you don't have it, you're not going to have that kind of money, and so the way I look at it is that you have something to give, and so therefore you give the tenth part of that. If you're getting your increase, and you get your paycheck, that's all in hand. You have it in hand, therefore you can give 10% of it. That's an extreme example, obviously, with a gift. The gift of eternal life is an extreme example, but I just don't see anything in the Bible where they got a gift from somebody and then they gave the tenth part to God. They got spoils for more, but I wouldn't consider that a gift. That's where Abraham tied the tenth part of the spoils, but I don't see that as a gift. He won the battle. He had the work to get that, and so that was an increase, but you notice what it says. It doesn't say just increase in general. It says increase of the field or of the herd. To me, that's implying work, what you've done to work, and obviously a gift is something you don't work for. That's where I don't believe that a gift is something you have to tie it on. But here's the thing. If you think, well I think you should, then you should because if you don't do it in faith then it's sin. If you're up in the air like I think you need to and you really believe that, then do it. I'm not against you doing it, but I don't believe it's necessary. But Proverbs chapter 3 gives us a promise of the fact that our barns will be full. We'll honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. So tithing in the Bible. We see that it is across the board, it's from before the Old Testament, it was in the Old Testament, it's a principle in the New Testament as far as for the ministers of the house of God, for the widows, to basically feed the people that need it in the church. So that's a principle that goes across the board. And just some simple advice as far as just what you should tithe on. I tithe on my income and if I were to make money outside of, I'm not saying just that one job, if you make money some other way of doing something else then you should tithe on that too. But just some principles on that. If you stick with your gross income then all your bases are covered. You can obviously get into the nitty gritty and try to figure out the way to pay a little less in tithing. I'm not against that but I think it gets a lot more complicated and I would just be worried I'd be missing something personally. And so just some principles on that. Back tithing, just start where you're at. There's nothing in the Bible that says back tithing. That's what they say. They say back tithing but there's nothing in the Bible that says anything about back tithing. That whole idea of giving a fifth part added on to what you haven't paid already. To me no one's ever going to start tithing. You're already starting off. To me the Bible just says tithe, just do it. Let the past be the past. Forgetting those things which are behind. That's not in reference to tithing but I would look at that as far as when it comes to tithing. So hopefully that helped out. If you have any questions about tithing or just what the Bible teaches on that, I pretty much showed you pretty much a lot of the places that it's mentioned. So it's not something that's brought up a whole lot but if you have any questions about that or anything like that let me know. Not the most exciting sermon I know. Tonight we're going to be getting into parables and so tonight's going to be a fun one explaining a parable that a lot of people take out of context and everything. And so let's end with a word of prayer and then we'll get on with the day. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord we thank you for this morning and Lord just pray that you would be with us as we go out soloing but also as we just go back home. I pray that you be with those that aren't feeling well and Lord just pray that you'd heal them and help them to be able to come back and that we can see them and fellowship with them and Lord but just pray that you be with us as we do work our jobs. Pray that you give us enough income to provide for our families and Lord that we can give to you and Lord we just pray that you'd help us to be faithful in that and be able to do that and Lord we know that you will take care of us. Lord that I've never seen the righteous begging for bread and Lord we just pray that you would take care of us Lord and we love you. I pray all this in Jesus Christ's name, Amen.