Lesson 7

We're going to learn about tithing this morning and we're getting to the end of this this course because after we'd learned the fundamentals in here then we build on that you know in the regular Sunday School class and this has been a great class you with the the amount of people who are consistently coming have been wonderful. Tanya and Chris are with us this morning they just had to tune in online since there was COVID in the family that they didn't want to share it with us you know they're not good at sharing things so they didn't want to share it with us now I'm thankful that's one thing I don't want you all to share so anyway we're going to learn about tithing this morning and the history of it and I've had such a hard time with my notes this morning I listened to my sermon notes this morning I write my sermons of course but then I play it back audibly through technology and I listen to my sermon notes in the in the morning on Sunday morning and I listen to them this morning everything was wonderful and then I kid you not right in front of my eyes I just go away off my off my device off every device I had and I'm like you've got to be kidding the devil just fighting fighting fighting so it wasn't until I was almost here in May Bank that I was able to actually recover those and I had to print a hard copy out of my sermon so I would have a hard copy of my notes just in case but I managed to get them recovered thank the Lord and but it's just been difficult so if I seem a little out of place is because I am and I'm having to search for this even now and find everything because I just got it recovered on the way up here and I told my wife I said the devil is fighting you know but that's okay I'm used to that and and in the end God's Word will always win and so we're going to learn about tithing this morning and in fact I'm going to start I've got two different documents that I wrote and I want to start with this one so let me slide this over here make this bigger so we're looking at tithing does anyone here not know what tithing is and you can say online if you don't know what tithing is feel free because I am looking at every comment that that pops up here so if you don't know what tithing is feel free to type it in there but we're going to be looking at that but but tithing it's an old English verb and it basically means a tenth that word tithe means a tenth ten percent and the Greek word that we use is translated tithe in the Bible or or or it's it means a tenth of anything so just basically ten percent so the first mention of tithing because a lot of people say well we don't tie because tithing was under the Old Testament law we're not under the law anymore y'all ever heard anyone say that yeah well that's a lie okay I mean yes we're not under the law anymore but grace never nullifies the law grace always fulfills the law and so the difference between the law and grace is the law told us what to do but it gave us no ability to accomplish it grace accomplished the law through Christ and then through Christ Spirit in us gives us the ability to to do what we could not do through God Spirit in us but here's the thing about the law and here's thing about tithing tithing preceded the law the law the tithing was not initiated in the law the law simply codified God's plan for man it means it put it down in actual statutes okay but God's plan for man hasn't changed and so tithing preceded the law it was here before the law and if it's if if if tithing is before the law then that means the law cannot disannul tithing it cannot make tithing go away it has no bearing on tithing and the reason we know that is because the Bible talks about salvation by faith and the Bible explains that Abraham was before the law and that Abraham was saved by faith the Bible says Abraham believed God or believed in the Lord and it was counted to him for righteousness and so the Apostle Paul explained that faith was before the law and so the law can't come around and say well you can't be saved by faith now you got to be saved by the law because faith was before the law so the law can't disannul grace the law can't disannul faith faith was here before the law faith was here during the law faith will remain after the law in the same way tithing was here before the law tithing was here during the law tithing will remain after the law it's the same principle and if you deny that principle on tithing then you have to deny the principle on salvation by grace through faith as well so in the Old Testament book of Genesis chapter 14 that's the first time that we see tithing Genesis chapter 14 and this is where Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek now we're going to be getting into some deep meaty doctrine this morning okay but in Genesis chapter 14 the Bible says that Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek the king of Salem in the New Testament the Bible says that Melchizedek was a picture of Jesus Christ so if Abraham was giving tithes to Melchizedek and Abraham was a picture of us who were saved by faith because the Bible says if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to promise so if Abraham was giving tithes to Melchizedek and Abraham was a picture of those saved by grace through faith in Christ and he's giving tithes to Christ then that means Abraham's children who if we're Abraham seed if we're Christ we're Abraham seed then that means Abraham's children they tithed to Christ as well and God the next mention of it is where Jacob vowed a vow to God and he promised God and this is in Genesis 28 22 Genesis 28 22 if you want to turn there Genesis 28 22 we're gonna see what Jacob promised God of course Jacob learned this from Abraham Abraham learned it from his predecessor I'm sure so after the Lord gave the gospel to Isaac if you'll look here that you know Jacob had a dream if you remember and there's this ladder remember the dream of Jacob's ladder and it was a picture of Jesus let's look here in Genesis 28 14 first look what God said in thy seat shall be as the dust of the earth and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south and in thee and in thy seat shall all the families of the earth be blessed now that's the gospel that's not the law that's the gospel the law still has not been given yet all we have so far as this amazing promise of the seed of the woman coming in redeeming man taking away the curse in blessing all families of the earth this is all grace this is all faith and I want you to see how Jacob's response was Jacob says in Genesis 28 20 and Jacob vowed avow 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 Raymond to put on so that I come again to my father's house in peace then shall the Lord be my God and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth or the tithe unto thee so here again is a person who is saved by grace through faith giving 10% to God now watch this what's the principle here God never asks or demands from us anything that he doesn't first apply us God never asked from us anything that he does not first apply us Jacob said in Genesis 28 22 of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee so whatever God gave Jacob Jacob would take what God gave him Jacob would use 90% Jacob would return 10% 10% of anything in Abraham's case it was 10% of the spoils of war in Jacob's case is 10% of whatever God gives him whether it be cattle whether it be livestock whatever he gives him 10% and so God never demands anything from us that he doesn't first give us and here's the wonderful thing about 10% if I make well let's add that no one makes 10,000 a year well some people do well let's just say this if I get paid a hundred thousand a year then 10% of that is going to be 10,000 a year so God supplies me $100,000 a year because we don't live on the agricultural economy like the Jews did back then they didn't have paper money they had gold they had so they had the real currency they had real property they had actual value but ours has been pretty much reduced down to paper currency in our economy so we're going to talk to you about that this morning make it real and current for us today if my job whether it's buying selling laboring whatever I do to make a living if God gives me $100,000 a year in my job you say well I work for that money God didn't give that to me if God sends a check in the mail yeah I'll give 10% to God gives it all to us God didn't give Abraham the spoils of war by sending him a check in the mail Abraham had to fight for that right they had a fight I had to risk their life for that spoils of war but God still gave it to him because God gave Abraham the ability to fight gay get God gave every Abraham the victory over his enemy and therefore God gave him the spoils of war if God allows my heart to keep beating and me to keep getting up in the morning and going to work then God is giving me that ability to earn that money therefore God is giving me that money and I acknowledge when I tithe I acknowledge that God it's not me that enabled myself to do this it's you who enabled me to do this and I acknowledge that all of this came from you and I give you thanks for what you have given me so tithing is a form of worship it's a form of acknowledgement just as when we set set down and we give thanks to God for the food that we're about to receive what are we doing we're acknowledging that God supplied this food for us and so in the same way when we tithe we're acknowledging God you gave this to me I'm going to give a tenth to you and it's and that tenth funds God's kingdom purpose okay we're gonna look at that here in just a little bit but if I earn ten thousand a hundred thousand a year then I give ten thousand a year if I earn two hundred thousand a year then I give twenty thousand a year if I actually do only earn ten thousand a year then I give what a thousand dollars a year so the tithing is on a sliding scale we give to God according to how God first gives to us and God does not see the person who gives ten thousand as giving more than the person who gives a hundred thousand because whether you're given ten twenty thirty forty fifty thousand dollars you're still giving ten percent so you're all giving the same unless you give above your tithes which we would call a free will offering that's something that God does not require it's something that we give above and beyond on our own free will and that's in the law as well you have tithes in the law you have free will offerings in law you have sin offerings in the law so there are things that were demanded and there were things that were allowed all right so let's go ahead and look here now let's go back and let's look here we're gonna look at different places here in the scripture let's go to Leviticus chapter 27 Leviticus chapter 27 we're gonna see where God codified this in the law when the law finally came around Leviticus chapter 27 the cure now in verse 30 what God told Israel and again all God's doing is taking what Abraham was doing and what Jacob was doing what others before them were doing and he's just putting into law the biggest 2730 and all the tithe of the land whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree is the Lord's so what do we learn about the tide what do we learn about 10% who does it belong to it belongs to the Lord doesn't belong to us it belongs to the Lord if it belongs Lord then why does God give it to us we have to give it back to him that's God allowing us to participate what about this hundred thousand dollars who does it who did that belong to before God gave it to me it all belongs to God right but God says out of what I give you 10% of that belongs to me and so it belongs to the Lord doesn't belong to us now if I hang on to something that does not belong to me what am I doing I'm stealing I'm stealing and so he says it's it's the Lord's he said look here now and all the tithe of the land whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree is the Lord's it is holy unto the Lord it's holy it's it's a very special dedicated percent verse 31 and if a man will it all redeem all of his ties he shall add there to the fifth part thereof now what that meant was this if someone says well I don't want to give 10% of my cows to the Levites or to the to the temple to be used for the Levites and to support them in God's kingdom work for the priests I don't want to give 10% of my cows I'd rather I'm very fond of these cows and I need these cows to help me produce more cows I would rather give silver and gold I'd rather give currency that could be traded for other things well they could do that they could redeem their tithe so here's what you do to redeem the tithe you say okay you can give 10% of that but you have to add in fifth part there too so in the end you end up giving more than you would had you given the 10% of the cattle does that make sense so you say okay well I'll add a fifth part there too so I'll give 10% equivalent in cash plus extra a little bit on top of that so let's look here now in verse 32 and concerning the tide of the herd or the flock even of whatsoever passeth under the rod the tent shall be holy unto the Lord he shall not search whether it be good or bad neither shall he change it and if he change it at all then both it and the change thereof shall be holy and shall not be redeemed and so what he's saying is this you're not going to sit here and look at these cows and say well I tell you what these cows are nice I'm going to keep them for myself but these cows here are not nice I'm gonna give those to the Lord now you don't do that that's what he's saying so look now in verse 34 these are the commandments with which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai all right let's look at more about this tithe here look here if you would a numbers chapter 18 numbers chapter 18 all right if you would look here now in verse 20 now remember from our Genesis to Jesus class we learned about Aaron and his sons they were the priests they were special people appointed by God to be priests to offer up sacrifices and only one was the high priest that was Aaron and whenever he passed away they would ordain one of his sons to take his place and so Aaron and the priest look here now when they came to the promised land God divided up that land into different sections for each tribe and the tribe each inherited their own piece of land and they could do whatever they wanted to they had a free market economy like you get as wealthy as they wanted or as poor as they wanted to be they they were free to work however they wanted to and and in but they they inherited this land but if you'll look here now in verse 20 numbers 18 verse 20 in the Lord spake unto Aaron thou shalt have no inheritance in the land in their land neither shalt thou have any part among them I am thy part and that inheritance among the children of Israel now what what's happening here God expressly is forbidding here Aaron and his children from having inheritance in the land why God says I'm your inheritance now this is not just some pie in the sky what he means is this they'll receive the land that will be their inheritance you will receive the service of God and that will be your inheritance so as the land provides the the the twice the tribes of Israel as the land provides them cattle and water and sustenance and a living so your service to me will provide you a living you see so the Israelites made their living off the land the seat of Aaron made their living off their service to God see how that works so here's what happens in this it's perfect it's beautiful watch what happens here this is how it works Israel works secular work they work the land this little work secular work they make their living with secular work off the land the priests do spiritual work and they make their living off their service to God the only way this works is if the people work the land and then they give 10% to the to the temple for to supply for the priests so the priests serve the people spiritually and these people serve the priest secularly they receive their funding from the people and the people receive their doctrine in spiritual service from the priests this is how tithing was set up this is what it was all about these guys were so busy they were constantly doing sacrifices constantly keeping up the work of God constantly having to study the Bible because they were they were they were obligated to teach it and to train they had to know what they were doing this this week at work I do both I do both of these and I tell you it's wearing me out but this week at work we have construction people at work and they're all doing different things it's been like I've been immersed into a live YouTube tutorial on construction since May they've been everything up there you get any questions about laying tile just asked me sheetrock whatever I can probably tell you anything after watching these guys the neat thing is this one guy was telling me he said yeah he said I do painting and texturing and all that he said but if anyone needs wallpaper he said I don't know anything about wallpaper he said I sent him to my dad he said he's got a business he can do wallpaper he said I don't know I don't know how to do that stuff he said because it's old it's dying out people don't use it much anymore he said and after a while people who hang that and know how to hang it they'll be gone but it was real neat to me here's a man that's been in construction all his life and he doesn't know how to do something that involves construction but you better be an expert on what you do never once did I see the plumbers ever go help the tile people it would probably be a mess if they did if the tile people broke off what they were doing and they wouldn't have started working in the plumbing you'd probably have some leaks everybody needs to be an expert at what they're doing so they can perform a good service and concentrate on that nobody can be an expert at everything I used to have a job when I work for the state and they wanted us to be an expert at everything you know what started happening we went from having people who did one thing very very good to having a lot of people that didn't do anything really good at all and so the way God set it up these people would take care of the land they would be experts in cattle experts in farming and husbandry experts in cultivating trees and groves and things like that while these people were experts in God's Word experts in the sacrifices experts in knowing exactly how to handle God's business because at some point in time you need to be able to come to somebody and say how do I do this what does this mean here in the Bible and I tell you it's invaluable I thank God for the time when I was searching how to be saved and I come across that man in England who was who was an amazing Bible teacher Charles had Spurgeon and I thank God that somebody was out there that could answer my question it wasn't just winging it like a lot of preachers do winging it man life and death and eternity are way way too important to wing it and so God set it up so that those who preached the gospel should live of the gospel being funded by those who don't so they serve them and they serve them it's a wonderful symbiotic relationship now here's what happens can you have people who are winging it figure the system out here and try to scam the people up here yes we see that all the time don't we we sit on TV all the time we see people abusing that all the time and what happens is they get way more money from them that they should and these people get nothing in return but they get a bunch of lies but every time you see that happening the people who are giving to these people these people aren't really seeking God's kingdom and they're giving to people who are also not seeking God's kingdom because most of the time the people who are giving them money so they can become rich are doing so because these people are telling them if they give them money they'll be rich too and they're both serving a false God and so but what the devil will do he will put people like that on TV and he'll say honestly all that's just a scam it's not a scam y'all never see my notes because they're always on here these are my notes this is my Sunday morning sermon the other written papers before in school these are well thought out carefully researched studies in God's Word for this Sunday morning and that's not including the investment of the education I had beforehand it takes time to do that when now here's the thing we'll get very specific I'm running out of time in here we're gonna get very real I don't have time to cover all the scriptures man there's so many in there so we'll get your calculator out on your phone you got a phone so we've got a calculator on our phone can you pull yours up I don't care who multiply 750 times 52 $39,000 do most people in here make more than 39,000 a year live off more than 39,000 a year you don't have any money no raise your hand if you make more than 39,000 a year you make more than 39,000 a year you work from the house you make more than 39,000 a year you're retired you're still working but you make more than 39,000 a year you make one 39,000 a year you are retired but you bring home more than 39,000 a year all right that's how much I get paid from the church that's why I'm still working a secular job my entire time in ministry and I've been in ministry since around 2000 so it's well over 20 years that I've been pastoring my entire time as a pastor I've held a full-time secular job plus pastor of church it wears me out but I do so because if I don't I would not be able to pastor a small church so you either have a choice of having a pastor that's on some kind of government assistance or broker constantly has his hand out to people or you have a pastor who's like the Apostle Paul and says I'll do both and that's what Paul did they call Paul the tent making pastor because he did collect offerings from the church but he also made tents to help fund the program and so out of that to add that 39,000 I have to pay self-employment tax because the church doesn't pay like in Social Security pastors are considered self employed so you got 15% self-employment tax that comes out of that off the top I pay 10% back to the church that's my type back to the church to help support the church out of what I get and the priests were required to tie too it's really cool how it works then it's very intricate so and and what I make from the courthouse that's how I funded the trip to Kentucky all that was funded from my work to the courthouse every bit of it so all of that allows me to do what I do but this is what the church pays me it pays me 750 a week which is that minus 10% back to the church minus 15% back in in self-employment and then minus the taxes on top of that the regular income tax and so this is why I do what I do don't ever think when you see brother Doug come hand me a check in the morning and I put it in my pocket don't ever think why guys just scamming the system here's what my day looks like I'll get up in the morning gobbling at 515 a.m. I'll have a brief time of exercise I will listen to brother Shepherd Sunday School part of it I will then drive an hour to work I'll put in eight and a half hours at work managing crazy stuff and then I'll drive an hour back home when I get back home I'll then go I'll eat I'll go to my study I'll then start working on my Wednesday night sermon I'll lay it in I then go get back up at 5 in the morning I then come back home and I then again the next day work until it's time to go to bed again I work in from the time I get up at 5 in the morning to the time I go to bed at each night every night Wednesday night my center sermon is finished I now work until I come here then I preach and I go back home it's time to go to bed Thursday and Friday I'm now working on Sunday mornings messages Saturday I'm working on my book so I can help evangelize and help the people who write in for help with their salvation Sunday I'm at church Monday 515 starts all over again it's an incredible pace to keep up with it's not the way God designed the problem is a lot of our larger church most of our larger churches I'm going to correct that most of the people in our larger churches aren't really interested in sound doctrine they're interested in fun and games and all these other things and that's why you see a lot of these pastors falling into sin getting into promiscuity and things like that and so this allows me to do what I do to a small church and if I ever leave here and I hope I never do for a long long long time but if I ever left here and I ever did retire and send this over someone I'd love to go some somewhere to another church it has no pasture at all and help them but it allows me to do what I do so don't let the devil tell your mind oh you you don't need to do that or you don't need this is what funds it and and so when you put mine the offering plate this is how much comes to me brother Shepherd gets much much less than that of course he doesn't his job does not span what mine does but he gets much less than that no one's getting rich off this brother Shepherd does on his Sunday morning Sunday school I guarantee you he's putting the same amount of work or more and then then it goes to paying the insurance the bills the water the heat light all that other stuff that's what in its it's funded by ties if anyone ever quits working and quits tithing this church will shut down that's the short and sweet of it and I enjoy that part of working because I actually get to work outside the church and I actually get to give more than what I just get from the church so that's that part of blessing so there's no complaining here but I didn't want there to be any mystery in this either tithing is an important thing we don't make money off dry cells off rummage cells off bake cells that's not how God designed the church to be funded we make it off working and giving 10% to God of what he gave to us any questions let's go to church again let's go next door thank you all for tuning in we love y'all so much