Hallo new. Yeah, are we doing praise the Lord? Look at you.
You look amazing, every one of you. Wow, and you're in
the house of the Lord. Huh. How cool is that? Yeah,
we're doing something new today. We're gonna try this for fun. I don't
know what next week we'll bring, but can y'all bring it? Let me
see it, you'll see it. Are we Okay? We're going out there
too. Okay, let's stand pray over the word llelujah, see if we
can have some fun this morning. Amen, Father, we thank you that
you're here. We thank you that you are lifting us up, Holy Spirit,
best friend, best couch, victorious warrior, overcoming one. We thank
you that you're near to us, near to our hearts, and we receive
from you this morning. We open our hearts to hear from you and accept
the living Word and Jesus name. Everybody said, Amen, man shall not
live by bread alone, wonder bread, friend's bread, or any kind of
bread, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God a man.
God gives us the power to overcome. Yes, So we're so glad
for that. I'm so glad for that. I'm going to talk to you
today about tithing again, because I'm up to bat and so it's it's my
joy to talk to you about this. And you know, I want to
just you know, from the get go, because you're already nervous, so
you know us from the get go. I want to give you this Deuteronomy
eight eighteen. Remember it is the Lord who gives you the power to create
wealth in order to confirm the covenant that he swore to your father's. So
I want to give you this immediately. Is that God's not trying to get
more. He's not trying to get money from you. He's trying to get
money to you. God is not trying to get blessing from you. He's
trying to get blessing to you. There's nothing in the Word of God that
is all about God removing heaven from you. It's all about getting heaven to
you. How could God be calling us into a principle that contradicts the very
prayer of Jesus, pray this way, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be
done on earth as it is in How could the Lord call us to praise
something that contradicts God's will? The two meet together, right, So you
gotta remember that because we want to hang on to our money, don't we
We want to hang on to our money. So I looked at a couple
I thought, well, you know, I'm just gonna look up some statistical
stuff. And and so I looked at a little bit of statistical stuff.
There's a Barner Research Group, there's the Tithely Research Group, there's the the
Pew Research Group. It's called the Pew. Uh. So I was looking
at all this stuff, and you know what the average you know what,
you know what the tithing percentage is in America. But the the tithing percentage
in America is lower than any inn place on the planet, which is sad.
So people are more, people are more engaged financially elsewhere than they are
in America. Tithing has dropped. The five percent five percent of Christians in
America are tithing? Is that amazing? Five percent of Christians in America or
tithing. I think that's pretty bad. One in what is five percent?
I mean that's I mean, that is really bad, right, that's one
in twenty or tithing. Now, what the statistics shows, though, is
that the average giving across the church is two point five percent of give of
income. It's not ten percent, which is a tithe. The tithe means
ten percent bring the tenth part that the average giving is two point five percent,
not ten percent. So a lot of Christians are actually giving, but
they're giving a tip. That was a pretty good home Dennis. That was
one of the finest renditions on that song I've ever heard. And then Laura
did so good and Pastor had a moderately good sermon. I think that's worth
fifty dollars right there. Two point five percent. So people are giving,
they just aren't. And what the other research shows is that ninety nine percent
of American pastors believe in tithing, but only thirty three percent will ever talk
about it. So the majority of our churches, we're never hearing about tithing.
It's never being brought up. We talked about giving. We have giving
boxes in the back. A lot of churches are actually existing right now on
giving boxes in the back, and we're just kind of hoping that people give.
The problem is is that we are we are falling short of leading you
as pastors. We're falling short of leading you into one of the most significant
things you could possibly do as a Christian. Let's throw up the benefits if
you've get the benefits slide, let's throw up the benefits slide. So I
identified ten blessings, ten promises to tithing to those that tie that. We've
got ten of those up here, and I'm going to touch on a little
bit of these as we go here today. But the first one, the
ninety percent remaining comes under a sanctified blessing. That's the first fruits principle.
I'm going to talk about that probably frequently as we go through today's message.
The ninety percent remaining comes under a sanctified blessing, meaning the ninety percent gets
blessed by God in these crazy, crazy ways. The next one you inherit
the spiritual riches of the Kingdom of Heaven. By the way, this is
Luke. If you wonder where these are at. This next one is Luke
sixteen. If you want to write that down, I think it's like Luke
sixteen verses one through nine, or verses one through ten somewhere in there,
and the top of your Bible passage might say the shrewd business manager or something
like that. It gives you a paragraphical title as well to Luke sixteen.
But Luke sixteen is there and it talks about inherishing spiritual riches. Did you
know if we withhold treasure, then God says he withhold this treasure. So
actually opening up treasure or a giving of tithe opens up a spiritual breakthrough over
your life. And then I'm thinking, Okay, let's talk about American churches.
Let's talk about churches worldwide. If we need a revival and we've been
praying for revivally, we've been coveting revival. We've been desiring a revival.
And we have people who bring their bodies but not their wallets to church.
No wonder, there's an absence of revelation, no wonder. There's an absence
of power, no wonder. There's an absence of the anointing. No wonder.
There's an absence of healing and signs and wonders. No wonder, there's
an absence of revival. Because true riches are released when we bring treasure.
When we bring earthly treasure, he relieves his spiritual riches. We are entrusted
with greater management responsibility because to him who can be trusted with a little thing,
they can also be trusted with much. This is all we don't need
to go there. This is all Luke sixteen. But thank you Devin.
And then because we're not going to hover on this, and then you'll be
given property of your own. That's all out of that Luke sixteen as well.
Malachi three. How many have you've heard sermons out of Malakai three?
Ends up everywhere? If you've heard sermons out of Malakai three, No,
I'm serious. This is good to know. This is good. This is
a survey. This is a pastoral survey. Malachi three sermons, hands up
because if you look around, that's only about fifteen twenty percent. So that's
good to talk about this. So Malachi three outlines a bunch of other blessings.
It says, when you bring the tide into the house of the Lord,
that you come under an open heaven of opportunity in favor. You receive
Father's protection against theft and loss. You become enviable. You become enviable.
God sets you apart that body, that zion, that house, that nation,
that people, that family, They become enviable nations. Others will call
you blessed when you bring tide. Then God will see to it. He's
literally going to get more to you and bless you with more when you bring
the tide and you become a delightful land. Okay, that might mean your
garden might produce. I don't I don't know, you might get land.
The last one is out of the last two, the last one, the
last one one. Essentially, I'm not going to go deeply. I'm saving
number ten. Number ten might be a whole sermon. I don't know.
Escape the oppression of fear and greed. Did you know that the signs of
the stock market are actually the bull and the bear are actually the signs of
fear and greed? Did you know that? I want to get into that.
I want to get into mammon and what mammon is, and how mammon
is a spirit that is juxtaposed to the spirit of God. I want to
talk about that, but it's not today's message. But number nine Enjoy long,
lightful fulfillment. If you want to write that down. That's out of
Luke chapter twelve, where it says that a certain man had a great harvest,
that his crops were going great, his business was expanding, and so
he said, I'm going to build bigger barns, and I'm going to store
up my goods and Essentially, he's said, and I'm going to hang onto
my goods. It's interesting God doesn't judge that the harvest is growing. God
doesn't judge that there's a great harvest happening. What happens is the story goes
that God says, this night your life will be required of you. And
then it ends the parable with this, these are the words of Jesus.
So it will be with him who is rich in goods and not rich toward
God, rich in goods and not rich toward God. God is blessing us.
And I think the blessing, the blessing comes first, and then the
opportunity to respond with thanksgiving, with honor, with recognition, and to bring
and to bring a tithe. So anyway, those are those are some blessings
and great things that happen. And what we established a couple of weeks while
I was diving into this, we established that the tithe is biblical. We
established that the tithe is biblical, and the tithe is biblical even today.
The tithe is biblical even today. And remember tithe means tenth tenth part,
tenth percent, tenth part. Everybody say tenth part, ten percent. And
remember we talked about how that the tithe is the first fruit. We're going
to get into that. If you make five thousand a month, it's five
hundred is your tithe, even though you might have taxes that popped in here
and stole three hundred and fifty. I shouldn't use the words steel, because
we have all sorts of wonderful benefits in our American culture for taxes that taxes
give us. But if if three fifty came, then you know your end
result is maybe less than that. But the tithe is a first fruits,
or they say first fruits. So therefore it's actually based on the five.
Now, if you're if you're self employed and you're running a business, and
you brought in five thousand grows, and then you had supplies like Ugo and
Arena for pure clean, and you had supplies of six hundred dollars, then
it's oh my math, Jesus, stick the wheel. Then you're tithe would
be coming after those overhead expenses. Right, Yeah, it's not on gross
earnings, it's on gross earnings minus overhead. Yeah, so then your tithe
is four forty. Right, that's your tithe, the four forty, even
though taxes might sneak in here and take some Yes, this is the way
it works. And if and if your income is one hundred thousand in a
month and you have expenses of twenty thousand because you paid employee payroll and you
had all this other stuff going on, your tithe is not on a hundred
thousand. Your tithe is on your earnings before taxes. So your tithe is
on eighty thousand. Okay, that's why it works. Thank you, God
bless you. If you want to pay tithe on the gross earnings before expenses,
you're welcome to God bless you. Right it out to New Horizon Church.
So we showed you this biblical Because we showed you this, we showed
you that here's the law right, and this is the law of Moses.
And under the law of Moses, the priests received the tithe. And the
priests received the tithe because as a part of the law of Moses, there
was the sacrificial system, and there was the tabernacle, and all of that
was to be cared for and it was all to bring the people into at
one with God. Atonement is at one month. So the priesthood was meant
to reconcile the people to God. So one facet of the law was the
ten Commandments and the six hundred and the ten Commandments and the six hundred and
thirteen other commandments. Right, that was the one aspect of the law,
ten commandments, But that was only one portion of the law. The other
facet of the law that was super important, maybe more important, was the
sacramental, the sacrificial system that was to bring the people into atonement at one
month with God so that they would be reconciled. And so a lot of
us see the tithes starting there because we have all these scriptures that talk about
the tithe starting there, But actually the tithes started back here in Genesis fourteen
with Abraham and mel Kezedek. And Abraham is the father of those who walk
by faith. Abraham is the founder of our faith. So this is where
the tithes started, Verses seventeen through twenty. And remember the cover with Abraham
started in Genesis twelve where Abraham is called out of her of the Keldys to
the land that I will show you, and then he leads him over to
this land, where he says, lit up your eyes, and as far
as you can see, I'm going to give that to you. And it's
there that he has the first recorded profitable event where he defeats five kings and
he plunders those five kings. And when he comes back from the first ever
story about increase, the first ever story about plunder or increase or wealth now
under covenant with God. As he comes back, he's met by this gentleman,
this priest called mel Kasiedek. Remember that everybody say mel Kazadick. So
mel Kazadick is his priest that he meets when he comes back. And it's
that priest that blesses him. And it's that priest of whom he gives a
tithe. He gives ten percent of all of the plunder to Malkazedek. So
that's where tithing actually started. And Malkazedek is actually a type of Christ.
But he's actually a third dimensional being. He's not an angel, he's not
a spirit. Angels don't need to eat, Angels don't have tents and houses,
angels don't drive donkeys. He's actually a third dimensional being that has a
priesthood, right, And so wherever you know, wherever there's a priesthood,
wherever there is wherever there's third dimensional realities. There's third dimensional needs, right,
So this is interesting. Then actually I want to suggest a couple other
things. So you get that, you get the Malkasitic thing done. So
actually this is really cool because then Hebrews seven tells us that Aaron and the
Levites are actually that they actually have a valid priesthood, and that they actually
have the authority to receive the tithe of the people under the Mosaic law because
Abraham gave ten percent to Melkesitic, who was actually the Christ. He was
a type of Christ. Hebrews seven tells us that he had no genealogy and
that he was as Christ, and that actually the priesthood that we're now under
is the restored mel Keasidic priesthood. Can you see this over here? Not
too well, Zach. He'd be better up there, wouldn't it. Yeah,
I'll try to do the doodle. I'd be a lot that. I'd
be a lot better. Oh my word, look at you. What was
your lifted? Okay, maybe if it's back at here, Maybe I got
it too far forward. Oh no, that probably helps a little bit right
there. Maybe, Okay, go ahead, All right, well, okay,
with all this, I want to suggest you's something weird, though,
everybody up for something different. I want to suggest to you that the tithe
actually started back here in Genesis four. And I wouldn't suggest to you that
even in Genesis three that there were the type of the tithe, because the
tithe is all about the thing that God says is his. The tithe is
all about something that is holy, something devoted to him, something set apart
for him, something that he says is his, it's not ours. And
so these were actually precursors to the tithe that they didn't use the word tithe,
and they didn't use the word or the inference ten percent. But back
here in Genesis four, there was talk with Cain and Abel about bringing God
a sacrifice and what an appropriate sec prifice would be. And so Kane and
Abel were both instructed to bring a sacrifice, and they were both instructed on
what a acceptable sacrifice would be. But in Genesis four, versus one through
seven, it says that Able broad a first fruits. This is a big
deal. The first fruits thing is so big. And I think I told
you a few weeks ago that when I got some provoking conviction on this,
you know, a few years ago, I'm like, honey, are we
right in our tithe check as the first thing? Because I'm because I'm like,
I don't think we are. I think, you know, it could
be. I mean, you know, it's like you could be faithful in
your tithing, and we are faithful in our tithing. So then you can
think, well, it really doesn't matter. We're going to be faithful anyway.
So this is going to be. It could be our third check,
our tenth check. It could be our you know, our fifth debit transaction
or bank transaction. But the more I thought about it in light of scripture,
I'm like, no, this needs to be our first transaction. This
needs to be our first first transaction. And then I think that the tithe
is actually there's something hidden here with Cain and Abel, because it says that
Caine just brought some miscellaneous fruit to the Lord, but that Abel brought the
first fruit up to the Lord, and so Abel's offering was actually acceptable,
and a blessing came on him. A blessing came on Abel so powerfully that
it was noted, it was notable, and it stirred up anger and jealous
and frustration and envy with Kane so much so that Kane wanted to take his
life right. And then if you look at the passage, God rebukes.
God actually rebukes Caine. He gives him a rebuke, and he says,
why is your face downcast? What's going on? If you would just do
what's right, then I would bless you. Blessing would come on you.
You would be fine if you would do just right, just do what's right.
But if you don't, sin is couching at your door and it wants
to have you. But you must master it well. The mastering of the
sin that was couching at his door was not just the hatred or the anger
that he had now for able, but it was the rebellion because he wouldn't
believe God. And the whole first frust thing, all the way through,
the whole first fruit thing, is that the first fruit belongs to God.
It doesn't belong to me. The first fruit belongs to God. Let's go
to Levitica's twenty seven thirty through thirty three. While we're on this, A
tithe of everything from the land, whether a grain from the soil or fruit
from the trees, belongs to the Lord. It is holy to the Lord.
Everybody say, holy to the Lord. It belongs to the Lord.
You know, this is this is really I mean, I'm just telling you
something weird. Before you came to the Lord, one hundred percent of your
money was yours. But once you came to the Lord, only ninety percent
of your money is yours. And that's the biblical truth. Ten percent belongs
to the Lord. It's holy to the Lord. It's called the first fruit,
the first of all that you make. It's actually holding the Lord.
It is a biblical principle, all through a scripture, and it's actually his.
Whoever would really okay, whoever would redeem any value of the tide,
must add a fifth to it. Keep going, every tide of the herd,
the flock. The tenth animal that passes under the shepherd's rod will be
holy to the Lord. No one may pick out the good from the bad,
or make any substitution. If anyone does, both the animal and its
substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed. The point that I want you to
see is this is how our first fruits works. A first fruit is a
holy thing. It actually belongs to the Lord. Let me give you a
couple other verses on this first fruit thing, because this is so critical,
and it's why so if you've if you've wondered about Cain and Abel, the
problem wasn't that Kine brought fruit and Able brought fat offerings. That's not the
problem. The problem is is that Cain didn't bring the first fruit of his
fruit, and he was clearly instructed to. So let me, I want
to read some of our first fruit stuff to you, and then I want
you to entertain this because this kind of hit me is that could the tree
of knowledge of good and evil? Could that have actually been a tithing issue?
Because God says, look at all this, I'm gonna give you all
of this. Look at this beautiful eating, Look at this beautiful orchard,
Look at all this fruit that I've prepared you, But just don't touch this
one. This one's mine. This one's mine. You can eat of all
of the rest of this, but don't eat of this one. This one's
mine. This is what's happening when we eat the tithe that we're actually eating
the first fruit. We're actually eating the thing that he says is his,
and we don't realize it, but we're missing out on at least ten of
those crazy blessings that God would pour out upon our lives to set us apart.
And our lives really don't differ. Maybe if we're not tithing, I
don't know, maybe our lives don't differ that much from other Christians. Well
sure, don't you realize other Christians aren't tithing. Don't compare your life with
others who aren't tithing. They're not trusting god fully either. Anyway, I
just I just had that little I don't know what it was, but I
just like, oh, my word. I wonder if that is part of
what was happening with the Tree of Good and evil, is that it was
the first of God giving them something and saying, but don't touch this one,
it's mine. Another first fruits thought if you want, if you want
another first fruits thought, Proverbs three nine through ten. You guys know this
one. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all
your crops. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing. He doesn't mind
you having barnes. You know what chases? I mean, I know I
really don't like him, but you know what, wells Fargo is it chases.
It's your modern barn, your modern barn. Hello, have you got
a bank account? Anybody got a bank account in the building, Let the
barn account. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing. And your vats,
anybody got a vat? A vat is where you store your combucco new
Burpee wine. You gotta have. I had a couple of kabooches yesterday.
You know what that is. I don't know if I'm saying it right,
but it's just the fizzy drink. And I told Joel, I said,
this is my beer, Honey, this is my beer. I just I
just need one of these things right here. It's good for the tummy,
rarely good for the growing rummy. Then your vats will brim over with new
wine. When when will your barns be filled with overflowing? When will your
vats brim with new wine? When you honor the Lord with the first fruits
of your crops, listeners, Israel was the first fruits of all the nations.
We know God is after all the nations. We know God is going
to harvest all the nations. You have been harvested out of the nations.
You are the result of God doing something with the nations. But listen to
what he said through Jeremiah. Jeremiah two, verse three, Israel was holy
to the Lord, the first of his harvest of the nations. All who
ate of it became guilty. Evil came upon them, declares the Lord.
Oh that's why you don't mess with Israel. Why don't you mess with Israel.
Well, because they were the set apart. They were the holy,
They were the first fruits of all the nations. They were God something.
God was doing something special with Israel. That whatever he fashioned with Israel,
did with Israel, that he would then bring all of the nations into They
were a first fruits. And we talked about that in the Blessing of the
First Fruits. Is that when we bring our first fruits, then God sanctifies
the whole. He does something with the rest of it. When we bring
this in the ten percent and we sent it apart to Him and we've recognized
that it's holy His Listen to this, Jesus is the first fruits of resurrection.
This is a big principle. I don't even know if I've got a
full grasp on it, but all through scripture, this is a big,
big principle and our money is woven into this principle, our fruitfulness, our
prosperity. First Corinthians, fifteen twenty. But Christ has indeed been raised from
the dead the first fruits of those who fallen asleep. For since death came
through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man,
who in Adam all die. So in Christ all will be made alive.
But each in turn Christ the first fruits. Then, when he comes those
who belong to him. The blessing that comes on the ten percent, the
blessing that comes on the first that you give to God. God intends to
put that whole blessing on the ninety percent. Isn't that crazy? Isn't that
amazing? So God's doing God's doing some interesting things here. First Corinthians chapter
nine, thirteen and fourteen affirm that the Gospel, the Gospel message is the
message of Jesus, who is the high priest according to the order of melk
Kazedek. He has stepped into the priesthood of melk Zedek, and Jesus fulfills
that priesthood, and in doing so fulfills the promise given to Abraham. The
law was only given until the seed of the promise would come Jesus, and
then we enter into we enter into the priesthood of Jesus. Ephesians chapter four,
four through eight says that when he ascended, he gave gifts to men.
When he ascended, then he appointed and gave gifts to men, offices,
callings to men, so that they would fulfill he is priesthood. So
we actually all that with my microphone. Sorry, I got a bad wire.
So we actually this is interesting. Church leaders who are called of God
or called of Jesus actually are serving under the fulfilled Melchizedek priesthood, which is
Jesus. And that's why he says that those who serve in the gospel in
this way should receive their living from those who are benefactors of the gospel,
which is the message of promise, it's the message of faith, it's the
good news, it's the message of the kingdom. So sorry, I got
a bad wire. Who though there's nothing you can do about it. In
the booth, it is my it's running in my jeans. It's not a
booth, not a booth fix. I think it's a gene fix. I
need softer jeans. So I want you to see this though this is interesting
is that the tithing is actually and it was here too. This is what
it was here with Abraham. Tithing was recognizing spiritual authority, spiritual power,
spiritual covering over your life. Abraham comes back from winning this giant battle.
He's got three hundred and eighteen servants with him. He comes back, they've
got the plunder of five kings. And he comes back and meets mel Kezedek
and he offers or gives him ten percent of all this plunder because in he
recognizes spiritual authority, spiritual covering and where the victory came from. Right,
and so this is still the way it works to that the reason that we
bring money to the church is because, like mel Kasdick wasn't an angel.
He had a tangible, tangible being and he had needs. Likewise, your
church leaders aren't angels. Your church leaders eat during the week, they sleep,
some of them, some of them because they're highly spiritual, they sleep
on sistel mats and hard futons. But most of your church leaders here sleep
on pillow tops with foam. Trying to be fun and you're not even laughing.
This is the driest crowd, or that mercy tough crowd. Tough crowd.
Okay, so your church leaders have needs, so you're actually you're giving.
You're giving into these church leaders. That's the practical side, because the
church leaders are caring for the flock, they're meeting in prayer, they're called
of God, they're nurturing and equipping. That's the kind of the practical side
is that they have needs. But on the spiritual side, you're actually not
giving in the church leaders at all, because you might think, have you
seen Pastor Dwayne, He doesn't need another dime. That man's driving a Mercedes
BNS, a black Mercedes bens. At that mind, ye's ancient mool.
But nonetheless, that man is so wealthy he doesn't need another dime. Besides
that, have you seen the way he talks to his wife when she doesn't
put the rat sugar in his coffee? He gets so arrogant and upset.
I'm not going to give that manidim? Is it twelve thirty six? What
happened to our time? The first service? I had hours? We have
to close six minutes ago? Oh my word? So you might you might
think, though, I don't want to give into impure leadership or faulty leadership.
Well, guess what, you can't find any impure leadership on the planet.
You can't find leadership without faults on the planet. Neither could they during
this period over here. Right, So, on the practical side, you're
giving to meet the needs of the ministry, but on the spiritual side,
you're actually giving to Jesus. You're giving into Jesus. And what you're doing
is you're keeping this. You're you're coming under the covering okay, and the
authority okay, uh of Jesus. Right, so this is this is weird.
But how is it that you but that's really what's happening. And so
so you know, you might be tempted to evaluate ministry like, well,
if I'm under the covering and the authority of New Horizon and pasture dying,
oh boy, oh boy, or more. I needed visited last week,
they didn't come out. I needed groceries, they didn't provide any That sermon
last week didn't make any sense, they didn't get anything out of it.
That worship stunk the week before. I don't know. And then I can't
attend half the time anyway, And you might be thinking that, you know,
you might be thinking in terms that relate to what you're receiving, like
a consumer. But actually the way this works is that as you honor Jesus
through church leadership, then the covering and authority isn't all that church leaders do
for you. It's what Holy Spirit does for you. It's what God does
for you. It's how He shows up to meet you and to bless you.
Because you've honored those over you, then he releases the power of God
and the Angelly Coast to care for you in ways that are way beyond what
a few church leaders could do, even if they lived in your house like
circuit secret service agents. Let's stand. I just don't want you to miss
out. God doesn't want you to miss out. It's not about twist your
arm. It's not about confronting. It's not about embarrassing. This whole discussion
about the tide, it's not about oh, Dwayne must be trying to empty
the church. This is a great church growth technique. This is perfect talk
about tithing and it's just we'll be We'll be growing in negative numbers every week.
It's going to be wonderful. It's it's not, you know, it's
not God really wants to bless you. God really wants to be miraculous in
your life. And and you know, the Lord gave me a little insight.
You know, a while back, he said to me, he said,
doubt or fear, or rebellion or distrust, you know, it will
always be it will always be vindicated on your timeline, It'll always be vindicated.
So like, I'm over here and here's my income, and there's no
way that I can afford ten percent and I can't do that. And so
I'm like, okay, I can't do that. That's just too much.
I know that we're gonna have. You know, we've got troubles. We've
got to prepare for money, and you know, for this and that and
the inner thing and you know, bills and so and so. But thirty
days later, when I get over here on the other side, when I
look back, my doubt or my distrust is going to be vindicated. Like
sure enough, sure enough, look at that the car broke down, and
this happened, and that happened, and the inderhof. Sure enough, sure
enough, it's a good thing we didn't give that five hundred dollars because man,
we really needed that. Well, now you're doubt and unbelieved. It's
got vindicated, all right, And I Jeff came to me afterwards. We
were talking about this a little bit out of Malachi chapter three even and just
talking about this whole thing, because in chapter three, various times the prophets
have confronted Israel and brought Israel back into revival, and revival always was the
restoration at Tithe. And Malachi's no exception. He's one of the prophets did
this, Hagee I did it, and Neemiah did it. So I mean
there's and there's another one. Two has Akaia Hazekaia restored the tithe and it
was part of it, was part of a revival and part of restoration.
But what's interesting, God says in Malaki chapter three, returned to me.
And they're like, okay, what's that mean. We're still coming to the
temple, We're still bringing our offerings, sacrificial offerings. What do you mean
return to you? And he says, return in tithes and offerings. Oh,
return in tithes and offerings. He wants to bring our money to Okay,
all right, And then he says, and this is a little bit
of a covenant lawsuit he's yapping at him a little bit through Malachi and then
he says, oh, and I have another thing against you. Oh what's
that? Your words they're arrogant. The King James says, your words are
stout under translation, says, your words are arrogant, your words are abrasive,
Your words are against me. And they're like, oh, what do
you mean. Well, you've been walking around and saying that it's in vain
that you serve the Lord. You've been saying that there's no profit in serving
the Lord. And Jeff and I were kicking that around a little bit after
service because I think we have to be careful. Calvinism has taught us that
the will of God has revealed in your circumstances. Hello, God is sovereign.
Have you ever heard that God's in charge of everything? God's in you
know? Well, that's happening for a reason. Calvinism has taught us that
God's will is revealed in your circumstances. But that is not true. The
Word of God has taught us that God's will is revealed in his word,
and that you are supposed to change your circumstances by invoking his word over your
circumstances. But here's what happens. Here's what happens. You're looking at these
ten promises and you're like, oh, well, promise number three, that's
not happening for me. Promise number five, that's not happening for me.
And the enemy wants to come up against you in your thought life and say,
see there, there's no prophet in serving God. See there, it
doesn't work to tide. See there, it's in vain that you're sacrificing.
It's in vain that you're setting aside his ten percent. Why don't you just
not do that and see what happens. You'll see life isn't that much worse.
And what's happening is the enemy wants to get our heart and get our
confession and get our words. We begin to all at once get activated with
that Malachi three and we're like, yeah, that's yeah. God's done nothing
for me, Yeah, tithing testimony nothing. Now it's not happening for me.
And now all at once what's happening is we are releasing. We're coming
into agreement with negative circumstances that were touched by the enemy, the enemy hoping
that if our circumstances were touched, we'd get into agreement with a negative thing
over our circumstances because we've elevated our circumstances above the word of God. Because
theology has taught us that God is in your circumstances, and whatever is happening
to you right now, that must be God's will. That's a lie.
It's not necessarily God's will. We're supposed to be led by the spirit.
The sons of God Romans eight fourteen and fifteen. The sons of God are
led by the Spirit of God. They're not led by circumstances. They're led
by the Spirit of God. I've really gone over now, so we need
to close. Holy Spirit. Ah, we welcome you right now. Butt
you just offer up your heart to him, offer up your hands to him.
Holy Spirit. We welcome him. Grab our hearts, Grab our hearts,
grab our hearts, grab our perspective. Holy Spirit. We let go
of fear, We let go of bread, we let go of disobedience,
we let go of a belief, we let go of doubt. We welcome
you, Holy Spirit. Calm over us as a people, over those watching.
Calm, Holy Spirit, make your word alive to us more than ever
before. We receive from you and from your word, the grace to restore,
to return your ten percent to you, and to see you do miracles
with the ninety percent remaining. Calm, Holy Spirit. Calm, Holy Spirit,
break out in our midst with miracles, break out in our midst with
miracles. Make us a delightful people, are delightful, land enviable, Set
us apart, Oh, even show us right now what you would do.
I asked that the rama of the spirit would come with a visitation over our
hearts and lives, with the whispering words of instruction, blessing, breakthrough,
increase, even spiritual treasure that would come and will come as we lean into
the giving you the first fruits. We thank you for it today. We
bless you for it today in Jesus name, and everybody said, Amen,
God, bless your church, Thank you so much.