We are in a series on financial giving and the thing we're going to focus on is tithing.
So, just stay open-minded.
A lot of times people close their minds when you start talking about money things in church.
Just stay open-minded and just try to follow me through.
Let me review a few things.
We've already talked about these. From God's perspective, all giving is an outflow
and should be motivated by love.
Giving and love are interconnected.
What we love, we give to. That's just how human beings are made.
No matter what we love, we give to whether it's a vehicle or a house or a child or a spouse or whatever.
God tests our love for him via our financial giving.
A lot of people don't know that one.
God tests our love for him via our financial giving.
And we'll go over that more next Sunday and Sunday's following.
Paul specifically states it there in 2 Corinthians 8.
There's three primary ways of giving in the Bible, tithes, offerings, and alms.
And then last Sunday afterwards, Kai came up to me and he said,
Are you going to touch first fruits at all?
And I'll do it this morning just briefly.
I did not include it in the three primary or the three main ways of giving
because I don't consider it one of the main ways we give.
But it's in there, so we'll touch it briefly here in a bit.
Giving the tithe originated with Abraham's covenant, not the law, not with Moses.
The tithe is 10% of our income in increase or profit.
It's given to the Lord via his work, his ministers,
in reciprocation for the blessing we receive from God.
Abraham's covenant began a process that Jesus finished.
His covenant was the beginning of humans being able to be blessed by God as individuals.
And by faith in Jesus we become Abraham's offspring and therefore his heirs.
Everything in Jesus' covenant finds its roots in Abraham's covenant
and it is explained in detail in the law.
So there you go. There's review.
Now, hopefully that primed the pump a little bit and we're ready to move on.
Let's talk about first fruits just a little bit.
I don't consider it one of the main ways of giving and here's why.
Offering the first fruits to God was a way of demonstrating the principle of putting Him first in all things.
It fulfilled the first commandment in practice.
Such offerings in the Old Testament were commanded.
And special blessings were promised to those who did them.
The offering of first fruits typifies the resurrection of Jesus.
He was the first born from the dead.
And I pulled that out of Dake's annotated reference Bible there.
So let me just say this.
First fruits was offering a very small portion of the crop of every year
they would offer that crop to God before they ate any of it.
So if you were a tomato farmer, the first few you might have a million tomatoes that year
but the first few you would take an offer to God or offer to the priest.
It's definitely not a tie.
If it's an offering it's a really, really small one.
First fruits is basically stating God your first in everything
and we want to honor you first in everything.
So application for today is a little tougher because most of us are not in the farming business.
If we raise crops it's easy.
You just take the first part.
If we don't raise crops people will ask, well, how can I do it?
Well you can be done by, you know, take a little bit of the income at the beginning of the year
and, you know, just plant the first piece of it before you ever use any of it for yourself.
That's first fruits.
So in my mind it's not one of the main ways of giving because ties, offerings, and alms goes on year-round.
First fruits was kind of a seasonal thing done at a specific time, a specific way,
and it's good, it produces, but it wasn't a main way of giving.
So now you know about first fruits.
First fruits and tithing are absolutely not the same thing because people have asked me,
aren't, isn't first fruits and tithing the same?
No, first fruits is if you're a grain farmer and you're going to harvest,
like I grew up in North Dakota and these guys plant 30, 40,000 acres out there now,
so they're going to have hundreds of thousands of bushels come in in one harvest.
First fruits of that would be, you know, follow your spirit,
but you take some of that grain, you set it aside,
and you dedicate it to God. You give it to God. You say, how do you do that?
Well, we're going to get into that. It goes the same place, offerings go,
it goes the same place, tithes go, and we'll explain why.
But you give it to God. Just first thing.
So, let's move a little bit more towards tithing.
Now, I have so much material on this being in the New Testament
that there's no way I could put it in today.
So today we're going to look at the covenants
and how it ties in with the covenants.
If you don't understand how the main covenants lay out,
it's difficult to see what God's doing.
Remember, God is a multi-generational God.
When he makes a plan, it's not just about our few years on this earth.
Our few years connect to those behind us,
connect those behind them,
and it's a long thing that he's working out.
He's multi-generational.
So you have to understand covenants,
or you won't understand how God is working,
and it's really difficult to understand tithing,
especially if you're adverse to it.
Adverse means you don't like it.
So you've got to get the big picture.
So today we're going to look at the covenants
and try to lay it out that way.
Tithing in the New Testament and Abraham's covenant.
There's four main covenants we're going to look at briefly.
Noah's covenant was the first one.
And we know that covenant is still in effect.
Why?
Rainbow.
That was the sign of the covenant that God put into place.
So Noah's covenant, which was made probably 5,000,
4,500 years ish ago, still applies today.
We know that because the rainbow still shows up.
Abraham's covenant, which came a time after Noah.
Those years back there, it's hard to...
everybody's got opinions.
They're guessing about a thousand years later
was Abraham's covenant.
His covenant is still in effect.
How do we know that?
I hear mumbling.
How do we know Abraham's covenant is still in effect?
I hear more mumbling.
Gotta speak up.
God promise.
The seed, which went to Jesus.
What else in the New Testament tells us
Abraham's covenant is still in effect?
Paul referred to it.
What are we called?
By faith, we are children of Abraham.
So we know it's got to be in effect
if we're plugged into it by faith.
The law is no longer in effect for believers.
We'll give you ample reasons for that this morning.
And I sure hope Jesus covenant is still in effect.
That one is kind of big.
So I laid it out this way
and then we laid it out another way.
I'm trying to bring a point across.
Noah's covenant came first
and the little arrow to the right
means it just goes on. It's still in effect.
Abraham's covenant came next
and it goes on. It's still in effect.
About 500 years after Abraham
Moses covenant or the law came
but it is still, it stopped.
It stopped at the cross with Jesus.
When Jesus said,
this is a new covenant in my blood.
He fulfilled the law and Moses covenant.
That's why you have the two arrows
one pointing towards Jesus,
one pointing back towards Moses
with the slash between.
Moses covenant went to that point
and then Jesus covenant began from there.
Moses covenant stopped.
So, this is another way of saying it.
We started with Noah's covenant.
That was the first one.
And then we went to Abraham's covenant.
From Abraham's covenant,
we went to Moses covenant.
Once Jesus came on the scene,
Moses covenant stopped.
It was fulfilled.
It had done what it was supposed to do.
And Jesus covenant came in
and replaced it in its place.
So to understand the principle
of living in blessing
and reciprocating on that,
we have to understand
the covenant that comes out of.
So that's what I'm going to try to explain this morning.
Abraham's covenant.
Tithing goes back to Abraham's covenant.
It doesn't go to Noah's covenant.
It doesn't go to Moses covenant.
Jesus covenant is just an extension on
of Abraham's covenant.
So let's look at Abraham's covenant first.
The New Testament clearly teaches
that believers are part of Abraham's covenant
through faith in Jesus Christ,
who fulfills the promise of the blessing
to all nations and gives the verses.
These scriptures show that believers
both Jew and Gentile are Abraham's spiritual errors.
Receiving the covenant blessings,
righteousness, the Holy Spirit,
inclusion in God's family,
those are part of the blessings.
Receiving the covenant blessings through faith,
it's not by physical descent or physical works.
It's by faith we get into Abraham's covenant.
So now I want to point something out
because this is the age we're living in.
Notice the source on that?
AI, I used AI.
I thought I'm going to use AI
and see what AI knows about this.
A lot of Christians think AI is evil.
It's the antichrist.
And it's like, well, that's typical Christian garbage.
Anything we don't understand,
we're afraid of, and therefore we label it demonic.
AI is a computer.
I feel like I need to explain this here.
AI is a computer that has access
to all knowledge and any databases.
Any AI platform has access to all that.
So when you ask it a question,
it will immediately,
instantaneously,
search information worldwide
and give you an answer.
It's better than Strong's.
I'm just saying.
It's amazing.
You can give me all the places in the New Testament
where Jesus prayed.
Just pops them up.
This verse, he prayed for this
and that verse, he prayed for that.
And then it'll give you explanation.
So I thought, well, I'm going to try this
with Abraham's covenant. See what AI says.
And you know what? They worded it in such a way.
It's like, well, I don't need to improve on that.
Let's just copy and paste that.
So that's what I did.
You say, how would AI know about godly things?
Because it has information.
It has access to all the information in the world.
That's how it knows.
And it's not demonic.
Okay?
So then I asked about Abraham's covenant.
Well, before Abraham's covenant,
does Noah's covenant?
Because that came earlier
and Abraham's was on top of that
and then it went up from there.
So I thought, well, let's ask about Noah's covenant.
It did pretty good there with the first question.
So I thought, well, let's ask about Noah.
Notice how it started.
Since your previous question
addressed believers' inclusion in the Abrahamic covenant,
it's like you're talking to a person.
It's worth noting how the Noahic covenant relates.
Oh, okay. Well, tell me.
Noah's covenant provides the foundation
for the Abrahamic covenant.
Well, yep, that's exactly right.
By ensuring the survival of humanity and creation,
allowing God's redemptive plan
to proceed through Abraham's line.
So this is what he's saying,
which is, or it's saying, not he, it.
This is what it's saying.
Noah basically spared the human race
from being destroyed.
And Noah's covenant is kind of a governmental thing.
You'll be held accountable for killing people
and things like that, okay?
So Noah's covenant kept us from being destroyed
so we could actually get out to Abraham line,
and Jesus could eventually be born.
Had Noah and that flood not taken place,
we were on the cusp of the genetic,
pure genetic human race vanishing.
The Nephilim interbreeding had gotten so bad,
there was only a handful of people left
who did not carry Nephilim DNA.
Noah and his wife, you're not Moses,
Noah and his wife were part of that.
Noah, his wife, his three sons.
What would have happened had God not restarted
the whole human race with Noah.
Remember, he told Eve,
through you is going to come someone
who is going to destroy what the devil just did.
He's going to fix the whole thing.
He's going to put an end to what the devil's rule is.
He told that to Eve.
So we're headed for Jesus.
That was Jesus he was talking about
when God spoke to Eve about that.
But in the meantime, fallen angels
and human women cohabitated.
And out of that came Nephilim.
That practice was so widespread
that fallen angel DNA had gotten into
almost the entire human race.
If we don't have a pure human being
over here when Jesus shows up,
we don't have a savior for mankind.
We had to have a pure human being.
So God said, OK, we're going to have to reboot this
because you people are just messing this up really bad.
And out of love, he sent the flood
and rebooted the human race
scurrying out all that Nephilim DNA
so that we could get to a savior.
The problem was God had no right
to bring a savior to this world.
Adam and Eve gave that away.
When they sinned, they gave the rulership
because the rulership of this world
had been given to Adam and Eve.
When they sinned, they gave the rulership
of that away to Satan.
So God had no legal right to come in and fix this.
He had to find a way in.
That's where Abraham eventually showed up.
But had Noah not been here
and we have the reboot of the human race,
Abraham, that would have never happened.
And we would all be perpetually lost.
Believers as Abraham's spiritual heirs
indirectly benefit from Noah's covenant
the preservation of the world
in which God's promises are fulfilled.
That's exactly right.
While the Abrahamic covenant is specific to those
who share Abraham's faith,
the Noaic covenant applies to all humanity.
Unsaved, saved, makes no difference.
You don't have to be a born-again Christian
to see a rainbow.
And what that rainbow promises
applies to unsaved as much as it applies to saved.
God sustained the world so he could move forward.
The Noaic covenant is described as
lasting while the earth remains.
The New Testament anticipates a future renewal of creation.
And it even gives you the verses for it.
Where the current earth gives way to a new heaven
and a new earth until that time
Noah's covenant remains in effect.
Yep, that's correct.
Preserving the world for God's purposes.
The absence of a flood-like judgment
and the continued appearance of the rainbow
affirm it as ongoing validity.
Signed Brother Grock.
I couldn't help. I saw that.
I thought, that's exactly right.
I couldn't say that any better.
So I'm going to just throw that out
and see if anybody gets up and leaves.
Apparently not. We're okay.
So we've got the bottom two in place.
What about the next one?
We've got to deal with Moses Covenant
which I'm going to deal with that a little differently.
I'm going to come back and just explain to you
why it's no longer in effect.
Because Moses Covenant was added to Abraham's Covenant
because of sin.
And the whole reason for the law was to point out
we were sinners. We needed a savior.
Once the savior came,
we're no longer under all those rules and regulations.
So we need to look at this portion of it.
Jesus Covenant.
So what did I have to say about that?
The New Testament teaches that the Old Testament law,
Moses' law given through Moses at Sinai,
was fulfilled and superseded by Jesus Christ,
marking a transition from the Old Covenant
to the New Covenant.
While the law was not abolished
in the sense of being nullified,
its role as a binding legal system
for righteousness was completed
with Christ's life, death, and resurrection,
which inaugurated the New Covenant of Grace through faith.
Exactly.
Oh, I didn't turn the page for you.
So there's that part.
The text shows the law.
I read that to you.
I think. Let me back up.
Am I too ahead?
Okay.
There's the part I read to you.
The New Testament teaches that the Mosaic law
was in effect until Jesus fulfilled it through his life,
death, and resurrection, establishing the New Covenant.
There's the passages that give that.
These texts show that the law's role
as a legal system for righteousness
ended with Christ,
who fulfilled its purpose
and introduced salvation by faith
under a New Covenant.
These texts show the law's role
as a legal system
for righteousness
ended with Christ.
He fulfilled it. Now we're under faith by grace.
While the law's moral principles
may guide Christian ethics.
Now this is a big statement here.
We're going to develop on this a bit.
While the law's moral principles
may guide Christian ethics,
its ceremonial and civil
requirements are no longer binding.
The first place they taught me that
was in Bible college.
And I'm going to teach you
what they taught me,
and hopefully the air doesn't go out of the room here
like it went out of the classroom there.
But let's talk about it.
Abraham's Covenant's still in effect.
Noah's still in effect.
The no longer is the law in effect
for believers.
Notice for believers.
The law is still here to point out
if we're a sinner.
So if we're not a believer,
it's nice to know
what we're doing wrong.
But it can never save you.
It doesn't give life.
It just says you're wrong.
Well, what do I do to get right?
Well, that's where we go to Jesus Covenant.
And then we forget the other side.
Jesus Covenant is built on Abraham's Covenant.
It's an extension of it.
Now, sometimes people struggle with the concept
that Moses Covenant or the law
no longer applies to us.
And some people struggle with it more than others.
Depending upon
that there's different flavors
that go back into it,
some Messianic Jews
do really well with this.
Some are still living in the Old Testament.
They're believing in Jesus for salvation,
but they're kind of living under the law.
So it can become
an issue for people
in many areas of life,
but it can become a big issue
in tithing also.
Because when tithing is brought up,
the first thing I hear
95% of the time is,
well, we're not under the law.
Yeah.
The law has nothing to do with tithing.
So what they just told me is they don't understand
the Covenants.
They don't understand the law was fulfilled.
It has nothing to do with us as believers today.
Tithing
goes back to Abraham's Covenant.
Scriptures that say
Moses Covenant is no longer
in effect for Christians
that Jesus fulfilled it.
Let me just give them to you
for reference. And by the way,
everything that we put up here
is on a PowerPoint.
It goes with the message on the website
and you can download the PowerPoint
and have all this stuff right there.
Or you can view it online
or however you want to do it.
But all the PowerPoints
are available
online.
Scriptures that say
Moses Covenant
is in effect
is no longer
in effect for Christians
that Jesus fulfilled it.
There's a group of Scriptures
that say the law was only
until Christ.
The law was annulled.
There's the Scriptures.
It was set aside
because it was weak and useless.
There's the Scripture.
Fault was found with it.
It's now obsolete
to us as believers.
It was set aside
to make room for the new Covenant.
It was abolished.
It was cancelled.
And to belong to
or to be married to Christ
to be the bride of Christ
we have to die
to the law.
You can't keep the law
and be the bride of Christ.
The two don't work together.
So since we're talking about this
we might as well go a little bit deeper
and bring out some stuff here
that we really need to think about.
Some of us this is going to be old news.
It's like, yeah, I knew that.
No problem. Others of us
it might make us blink once or twice.
So take a deep breath and
hang on to your seats.
Let's go a little deeper.
Romans 7
Therefore, my brethren,
you also have become dead to the law
through the body of Christ
that you might be married to another
to him who was raised from the dead
that we should bear fruit to God.
That's the point I just made.
Go to verse 6.
But now we have been delivered from the law
we're delivered from it
having died to what we were held by
so that we should serve in
newness of the spirit
and not in the oldness of the letter.
Many Christians
live by rules
that is law
that's legalism.
We don't live
by rules anymore.
Our job now
is to learn how to love.
What did Jesus say?
The law and the prophets
are summed up
in
love God with all your hearts and mind and strength
love your neighbors yourself.
When we get to heaven
He is going to ask us if we learned
how to love.
How do you
treat other people?
How do you handle them?
How do you deal with other people
when they do you wrong?
When they do stuff
that just makes you really angry?
That's what we're going to answer for.
We're not going to answer for...
Now, hang on.
We're not going to answer
for the Ten Commandments.
Did you know the Ten Commandments
are part of the law?
That's where the whole thing started.
Where's the Ten Commandments?
And people somehow
separate out the Ten Commandments and say
oh yeah, we're not under law
but we got to keep the Commandments.
The Commandments were the law.
When in Bible
in Bible college when the professor
pointed that out and gave a scripture for it
it's like the whole room just went
because we were all, well I'll just say
I was going to an assembly of God college
and we were all raised assembly of God
and that was near blasphemy.
The Ten Commandments no longer apply
thou shalt not
no longer counts
See, now the room is starting
to feel a little funny.
If we have to
be dead to the law
so we can be married to Christ
the law started
with the Ten Commandments.
They were the law.
We have to die to them.
What's our goal now?
Love God
and love each other.
Our goal is to treat each other
with respect
and dignity and honor
and speak well of each other
do what we can to help each other
our goal is to
love.
And that's what he's going to ask us about
when we get there.
How well did you do in the love area?
Well I never lied. I don't care
how well did you do in the love area?
Well I went to church
every Sabbath.
Yeah, that was yesterday.
How well did you do in the love area?
That's going to be the question
because he said that's my command to you.
Learn to love.
Now, if I learn to love
I won't lie to you.
See, if I love you, I won't lie to you.
I won't steal from you.
I won't gossip about you.
I won't spread all...
Have you heard?
Have you heard about this
new pastor they got at Word of Life?
I think he's a Russian spy.
His wife seems alright
but boy, I don't trust him at all.
I'm just giving you warnings. Stay away from him.
See, that's not love.
That's not love.
That's not how we talk about people.
Well, did you know she was pregnant
before she got married?
And she walks around church
like she's somebody.
You gossip be all bitty.
That's not love.
Well, I'm not breaking any commandments.
You broke the biggest one.
Love.
That's what he's going to hold us to.
So here's the big thought.
Even though the Ten Commandments
are a good moral guide,
just like Uncle Grock said,
they don't show God to us.
The Ten Commandments don't show God to us.
They show sin to us.
And what sin is,
and that we've got to stop doing it.
That was the whole purpose
for the Ten Commandments.
To show us we're guilty sinners.
They don't show love.
Their purpose was to expose
and reveal sin.
But they're no longer over us as believers.
So let me show you another scripture or two for that.
Here we're in Colossians 2.
He's talking about,
in him you were also circumcised
with a circumcision made without hands,
putting off the body of sin of the flesh.
Okay, so stop right there.
Why is circumcision such a big deal in the New Testament?
Why was it a big deal?
I'll ask it a different way.
Why was circumcision a big deal
to the Israelites or the Jews?
It was part of the covenant that Abraham
made with God.
God said every male
has to be circumcised, physically circumcised.
We get to Jesus
and Paul and we
understand, oh
this is circumcision of the heart.
That was the picture.
God told Abraham
you've got to physically circumcise
your children.
It's kind of hard to do that
if we're talking about their physical heart.
But we get to the New Testament
right here. You are circumcised
with a circumcision made without hands,
putting off the body of sin
of the flesh, cutting sin away from us.
By the circumcision
of Christ, buried with him in baptism
in which you were also raised in him
through faith, working of God.
Who raised him from the dead.
And you being dead in your trespasses
and sin in your trespasses
and uncircumcision of your flesh,
flesh means
the sin
of your heart, sins of the flesh
third line down.
You were dead in sin
trespasses and your heart
was still uncircumcised.
He has made alive,
He's made you alive together with
Him. He forgave
all your sin
having
wiped out the handwriting of
requirements that was against
us, which was contrary
to us. He took it out
of the way, having nailed it to
the cross. What was
the handwriting of
requirements?
The Ten Commandments
They were hand written
by God.
Thou
shalt not
Thou shalt
handwriting
of requirements
which we couldn't keep.
It was against us. It was just to point
out we needed a savior. We're sinners we need
a savior.
Having disarmed principalities and power
so at the same time He took the law
and nailed it to the cross
He disarmed the demonic realm
making a public
spectacle of them trying
over them. Same time.
So because of that
here's some Old Testament stuff.
So let no one judge you in food
or in drink or regarding a festival or a
new moon or Sabbaths.
Which there are a shadow of things to come.
They were pointing to Jesus.
But the substance is of Christ.
So
Oh, Pastor Verne.
We don't keep
the feasts at word of life.
Nope.
Not under the law.
Well you can learn so much about it.
Well you can.
Nothing wrong with learning some things.
But every one of those
feasts pointed towards the work that Jesus
did.
We should be living in the work
Jesus did.
Not in celebrating the physical feast.
Now we can learn more
about that work by understanding
the physical feasts. Because they are very
detailed. They give a lot of information
about what Jesus actually did.
But
I'm not going to celebrate the day of
atonement.
I'm going to get my
sins forgiven over here.
That's
what that was picturing.
Jesus blood.
I'm not going to celebrate
Pentecost.
The way they celebrated it.
I'm going to try to get everybody
baptized in the Holy Spirit
and living in the Holy Spirit.
Because that's what the picture was.
And my
experience has been if you pay too much
attention to the Old Testament
feasts and Sabbaths and all that stuff
you lose this.
And it becomes a bunch of rules
and laws again.
And since it's done away with
I'm not going to celebrate it.
So he's trying to tell them the same thing.
People are going to judge you.
Because now you're eating bacon.
You're drinking Mountain Dew.
Or Coke.
Coffee.
Or regarding a festival.
Different translations say a feast.
They're going to judge you.
You're not keeping the feast or whatever
you're doing is wrong.
The new moon, see the
certain things were tied to the
whole Old Testament was tied to the moon
in timing. So certain things
kicked into gear at every new moon
and every Sabbath.
And then you had the high Sabbaths and all this stuff.
He said all of that was nailed
to the cross. Forget about it.
It was all talking about Jesus.
Live in Jesus.
Forget about all that stuff.
So in the New Testament we're held
accountable to love. Learning to love
learning to live it.
Just in case
you need to remind it.
The Pharisees heard that
but when the Pharisees
heard that he had silenced the Sadducees
this is like
Catholics and Protestants
of the Old Testament.
Pharisees and Sadducees.
Oh yeah, we all serve
God but we just don't get along.
They were like two different
mindsets.
And the Sadducees
had just asked him a question
and Jesus kicked their feet out from underneath them.
So the Pharisees thought,
well that's cool. Never had any
use for those people anyway.
I'm going to ask a question now.
So they gathered together. So here you've got
the Pharisees huddling up.
I imagine Jesus went,
oh man they're going to be next.
They're cooking up a question right now.
They're going to come at me.
And they did.
Verse 35
Then one of them
a lawyer. Oh,
they got the lawyers. The big guns
are out now.
Asked him a question, testing him.
He didn't really want to know truth.
He was just trying to trip them up.
Saying, teacher, which is the
greatest commandment in the law?
Huh. See, so that's
a trick question right there.
Jesus answered it, you love the Lord
God with all your heart and soul
and your mind.
This is the first or great
commandment. And the second is
like it, you shall love your neighbor
as yourself. On these
two commandments hang all
the law and the prophets.
So everything that had to do
with Moses covenant
and the law and everything
is summed up right there.
Love God,
love your neighbor, everything
hangs on that.
So, now that we have
a little bit of a history lesson
let's quickly go and apply it to
Oh, forgot to turn it for you, there it is.
See, when I've got it in my hand
and I'm not having to hold this mic
it's like I can keep
up.
For whatever reason I'm not used to this
and my mind doesn't keep up with
turning the slide for you.
So let's go to now. Let's
apply it.
Abraham, Melchizedek and New Testament
tithing. Here's where it's
found in Genesis. Melchizedek
king of Salem
brought out bread and wine.
He was the high priest of God most high.
We read this last Sunday so this won't be news to you.
And he blessed Abraham
and said, bless be Abraham,
the God of God most high
possessor of heaven and earth
and bless be God most high
who has delivered your enemies
into your hands.
And he, Abraham gave him
Melchizedek a tithe
of all. Now there's something
I want you to notice here. There's a pattern
that's going to go all the way through Scripture
starting with Abraham.
The priest of God most
high gives the blessing
of God. He doesn't have it
in himself. He's speaking for God
bringing into fruition in this earth.
When the person
is under the blessing
the reciprocation on that
is giving back to God
and God specifically asked for the tithe.
So
we live in the blessing
and God says, what are you going to do with that?
How are you going to reciprocate?
One
of the ways, the financial
way is the tithe.
You're going to see that over and over now.
I want you to see that financial giving.
Blessing means what?
We're going back
to a series we did
last year. Blessing means what?
Empowerment
to prosper
in every area of life. Not just financially.
Paul reiterates that
in New Testament, sitting Corinthians 9.
Everything. Your marriage
can do well. Your children
can do well. Your car won't
break down every time you go out the driveway.
Your chickens won't die.
When you need eggs
at ten dollars a dozen.
On and on and on.
Everything in your life
is successful.
That's what the word blessed means.
The word of faith is near you, even in your mouth.
We call and speak the blessing.
As representatives of God, we speak
blessings to each other
and over our family and over our spouses.
What are we doing? We're
activating what he has available
on earth. And the way he
chose to do that is the word of faith
is in your mouth. That's why
Melchizedek spoke
blessings over Abraham.
He was activating
that power for Abraham to
prosper in everything.
And then he blessed God and
empowered him saying, oh, thank God
what you did in destroying Abraham's enemies.
You're going to see that
principle over and over and over.
But the supernatural power that is
released in our life when we speak
blessing. We're talking
dunamis power. We're talking
angels. We're talking
supernatural gifts. We're talking
this is the
stuff that is supposed to be
released to help us
prosper.
And it's released with
our mouths.
That's why the devil
loves to get our mouth
and turn us negative, turn
us cranky, turn us nasty
saying all kinds of stupid
dumb things.
You've always been
a disappointment to me.
Well, thank you for the blessing, Mom.
That'll go a
long ways.
You're going to turn
out worse than your brother.
Well, thank you, Dad.
If we understood words
have creative ability,
we'd quit dock talking
so dumb.
We should be blessing,
not cursing.
So let's see where
that shows up in the New Testament. It's in
Hebrew 7. This Melchizedek
was king of Salem, priest of the most high God.
He met Abraham, returning from
the defeat of the kings, and he blessed
him. Okay, so there he's referring
back to the scripture we just read in Genesis 14.
And Abraham gave
him a tenth of everything.
There is the principle, and I wrote that
in at the end of the scripture. And there is
a few places it's found.
It's found all the way through the Bible.
But there are some real obvious places.
The blessing from God
is given to us.
The tithe is returned
back to God as a reciprocation
for that blessing.
Remember, covenant means exchange.
So we're exchanging here.
And one of the ways you exchange
is that. Here it is in Romans.
And Macedonia and Achaia were
pleased to make a contribution. These were
two churches for the poor
among the saints in Jerusalem. So they took
up offerings for the churches,
for the saints in Jerusalem from
two churches, Macedonia and Achaia.
They were pleased to do it.
So they were happy to make the
contribution for the poor. Now listen
to this. And indeed,
they owe it to them.
For if the Gentiles,
Macedonia and Achaia were
not, those were not Jewish
churches. Those were Gentile churches.
For if the Gentiles
have shared in the Jews spiritual
blessings, they
owe it to the Jews
to share with them their material
blessings. There it is.
There's the principle again.
Blessing comes to
me.
Giving goes back.
First Corinthians.
Nine. For it's
treading out the green.
Is it animals, Jesus,
or God's concerned about? Now
he's giving an example for
us. Yes, this was written
for us because when the plow
man plows and the thresher threshes,
they ought to do so in hope
of sharing in the harvest.
Here's the principle. If we
have sown spiritual seed
among you, is it
too much if we reap a
material harvest from you?
Notice.
Spiritual is given.
Physical needs to come back.
Hebrews
7. First
his name, speaking
of, this is verse number
2 now, speaking of
Melchizedek. First his name means
king of righteousness, then also king of
Salem means king of peace.
This guy was without father
or mother, without genealogy,
without beginning of days or end of life.
Like the son of God,
he remains a priest forever.
Now if you read that
commentators, most of them
will say, well that just simply means
they didn't have a record of his
life. They didn't know who his parents were.
They had no record.
Okay.
Now
take your religious glasses off
and put some common sense
ones on.
We have a king
who is our priest
and we have no idea
who he is or where he came from.
He just
crawled out from underneath the rock one day
and we said, let's make you king.
How dumb is that?
They knew exactly
who Melchizedek was.
So I'm going to
give you something to think about it.
I don't buy their
commentators explanation. They're trying
to stay away from the supernatural.
I think
this was a pre-incarnate
visitation by Jesus.
He did it
numerous times. Go back
without
father or mother, without
genealogy, without
beginning of days or life, like
the son of God, he remains a priest
forever. Who lives forever
was not physically
born, has no ancestors,
no beginning.
He wasn't born
at one point
and then died at another.
There's no beginning, there's no end.
Who can do that besides
God?
Or nobody.
I think we're talking about Jesus.
Jesus was
was Jesus a physical king
and priest of Salem? He might not
have been. Chances are
good, no.
But he owns the whole
world and everything in it, so
spiritually he was king and priest.
And Jesus manifested
in the physical to Abraham.
Do you know what's real?
If you would have went to the
city of Salem, or later
it was called Jerusalem, but it was called Salem
at that point. If you would have went to that city
and said, does anybody here know Melchizedek?
When that happened,
they maybe didn't even know there was a Melchizedek.
Because
if this was Jesus,
he showed up as the king of Salem.
What does the word Salem mean?
Peace.
He showed up as the king of
peace
and the priest.
Who's the high priest now?
Jesus.
Who is the prince of
peace?
That's why he could say
peace I give him to you. Peace not like
the world gives give unto you. But I give
you peace. Why? Because he was the prince of peace.
Don't go with the names.
Go with
Jesus was the king of Salem.
What does that mean? He was the king of peace.
Oh.
And he was the
priest of God. Well, yeah.
He ended up being the high priest.
I don't think we're talking about a physical
man here.
I think we're talking about Jesus.
And there's why.
No human father mother, no human genealogy,
no birth or death.
A priest forever like Jesus. He lives.
Did not die. Just goes on.
Do you know who Abraham
paid ties to? My understanding?
Jesus.
Who do we pay
ties to?
Jesus.
It's his church. It's his
kingdom.
Way back.
2000 BC.
A covenant was cut
where
spiritual blessing was given, not just
to Abraham, but to his seed,
which was Jesus. And then through Jesus it goes on
to us. And now, not like
Noah's covenant. Noah's covenant was
a broad brush stroke over the whole
earth. I'm just going to reboot humanity.
There wasn't any individual
promises to people.
But Abraham's
covenant became
individual promises
to people, which then
the law went and explained that.
You're blessed if all these things are
happening in your life. You're blessed. There was a
promises and then you're cursed if all these things are happening. The law
just opened up Abraham's covenant.
But Abraham's
covenant was spoken to individual
people.
The principle
of tithing started
with, I
am living in the blessing
of God.
I will now
give him
his tenth. And we haven't talked about that yet.
But the tenth is not ours.
God says it's mine. It belongs to me.
Ten
cents out of every dollar.
One animal out of every ten.
One bush a lot of every ten.
Well, however you want to cut it, it belongs to God.
Doesn't even belong to us.
But the whole principle
of tithing started here. That's what I'm trying to get you to see.
So just
how great was this Melchizedek?
Even the patriarch
Abraham gave him a tenth
of the plunder. Then it talks
about how in the Old Testament Levi and his
sons, their priests collect the tenth
from their brothers and
everybody else into the part
there that's underlined. Yet he
collected a tenth from Abraham
and blessed him who had
the promises. Now you got to get in the
mind of the writer of Hebrews here.
Abraham was the one
who made covenant with God
that brought God
back into the picture of
the earth and the
salvation of man. He
exchanged sons with
him. Abraham
said, I'll give you my son.
God never took him. He took him right
to the edge and said, now don't worry about it.
It's all I needed.
Now I will give you on earth
my son. Covenant
exchange. It has to be
an exchange.
Abraham was the one
responsible
for starting something.
It's why we're saved.
It's why we can know
God. This all goes back
to Abraham.
Melchizedek was
greater than the
guy who held the covenant
that literally changed the
destiny of the human race.
Who was this Melchizedek? How great
was he that he
even collected a tithe from
this guy who holds the covenant.
And he blessed
Abraham. Who in the world
verse 7
and without a doubt the lesser person
and I put in Abraham there. It's not going to be
in your Bible. I just put it in parentheses.
The lesser person Abraham is blessed by
the greater Melchizedek.
Just so you have it straight in your mind.
In the one case, the tenth
is collected by men who die. That was
Levi. He just said that
in those verses
right there, explaining how the Old Testament
worked. Now he's saying
in one case, humans
accepted the tithe.
But in the other case, the tithe
is received by
him who is
alive.
I know it's not Resurrection Sunday.
But Jesus is alive.
Jesus fulfilled that picture
of Melchizedek. So as Abraham
our great spiritual
ancestor father
tithed to Melchizedek
or Jesus pre-incarnate
we now tithe
to the one who fulfilled
that. And we'll read it here in a second.
Jesus
Jesus was greater
than Abraham.
Jesus could bless
Abraham.
And Jesus had the right to bring
to get the tithe from Abraham.
If perfection
could have been attained through the Old
Testament priesthood, why is there still need
for another priest to come in the order of
Melchizedek?
And what we have said
is even more clear if another priest
like Melchizedek appears.
One who has become a priest
not on the basis of regulation
as to his ancestry. Anybody
know who the priests, what tribe
the priests came out of in the Old Testament?
Levi.
You had to be a physical
offspring of Levi
to become a priest.
Melchizedek
and Jesus
both carry something in common.
Surprise, surprise.
One who has become priest
not on the basis of
the regulation which says
you got to be born of Levi as to his ancestry.
But
they both became priests on the basis of
the power of an indestructible
life.
So either we have
an immortal living among us
Melchizedek as a
human being, he's never died.
Indestructible life.
Or something's going on here that
maybe that was Jesus.
For
it is declared
here the father spoke to Jesus
you are a priest forever
in the order of
Melchizedek.
The thing that qualified Melchizedek to be
the priest for Abraham is he had
an indestructible forever life.
The thing that
qualified Jesus who was not
from the tribe of Levi.
But he became
our high priest.
The thing that
qualified him when he didn't have the
right lineage is the power
of an indestructible life.
He lived forever.
That's what it's saying right there in that verse.
That's why
my, the way, the only thing that makes
sense to me, the same person who collected
ties from Abraham is the same person who collects
them from us.
It's Jesus. And remember
we're still under Abraham's covenant.
The law made
nothing perfect.
And a better hope is introduced by
which we draw near to God. See there's the
blessings.
And he became a priest with an oath
when God said to him, the Lord has sworn and will
not change his mind. You are a priest
forever. That's speaking of Jesus.
Because
of this oath, Jesus has become a guarantee
of a better covenant.
Jesus lives forever.
He has a permanent
priesthood. The end of verse 24.
Therefore
he is able to completely
or save completely those who
come to God through him because
he lives forever. He always
lives
to intercede for them.
There's another
concept of the blessing
we get.
Jesus is calling
your name before the father
today.
He's alive
and he's
interceding for us.
Such a high priest
meets our need. One who is holy,
blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted
into the heavens. For the law
appoints a high priest as men
who are weak. But the oath, the promise
made to Melchizedek and Jesus, which
came after the law, appointed
the Son who has been made perfect
forever.
Jesus became the high priest.
So Jesus fulfilled
the picture of Melchizedek. I think
Jesus was Melchizedek. That's just my opinion.
But either way, it doesn't
really make any difference.
The principle of receiving the
blessing from the priest
and returning the tithe
back to the work of God
remains the same.
Whether Melchizedek was
Jesus, Jesus was Melchizedek, how
makes no difference.
He fulfilled
you will be in the order
of Melchizedek
fulfilling that.
Huh?
So
if
if Jesus was fulfilling
the picture, let's say they weren't
the same guy. Just, I don't know how you
get around that, but let's say they weren't.
If Jesus was fulfilling
the picture of Melchizedek,
fulfilling, he's made a priest in the order
of Melchizedek. We're
children of Abraham.
Abraham received
the blessing and returned the tithe.
Jesus fulfilled that.
We, whatever blessings we get
now, come from
the covenant that Jesus cut.
This is Jesus working
in our life.
We return the tithe. That's
the picture. Has
nothing to do with the Old Testament law.
The lesser
us, we're
blessed by, and that's a
typo there. We the lesser are blessed
by the Jesus.
The word thus not supposed to be there.
Blessed by Jesus, the greater.
Just like Abraham.
The exchange of that blessing is the
principle of us returning the tithe to God.
This is found all through
Scripture. Well, show me in the mouth
the two or three witnesses. I'll do better than that. I'll do
Brother Caseman on you.
This is found in seven witnesses.
We just saw it in Genesis.
It's repeated in the law.
David talks about it over
and over in the Psalms.
The prophets talked about it.
Jesus taught it
in the Gospels.
The acts of the Apostles
lived like it. That's where the shift
of the new covenant where God owns it all
and we're servants and we're just, you know,
they lived in it.
And the letters written to the church, which are now
doctrine, which we just read some of them to you.
This is found all the way through Scripture.
The application to us.
Who is the lesser receiving the blessing?
Us. Who is the greater giving
the blessing? Jesus.
Who declared to be
living and a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek?
Jesus.
It's the principle of covenant
exchange. That's where tithing
has its foundation, its roots
in. When a person receives
the blessing from a minister
who is the representative of God,
this is all about God,
the reciprocation on that
financially is the tithe.
This is Abraham's covenant,
just a continuation of it.
Now,
here is God's idea. Say, why would God
do that? That's how he is funding
his earthly kingdom's work on
earth. That's how he
chose to fund it.
And Jesus and Paul both agreed
with that. They confirmed it.
Let me...
I'll go real quick
and see if we can finish this.
Paul.
Well, let me hit this first.
How does the temple get its money?
How does the church
get its money?
Tithes and offerings.
Ah, the church always wants
my money. It's not your money.
It's the 10%
that God set aside. He said, I'm going
to use this 10% to fund the kingdom.
90% is
you can use.
Of course, you should ask.
What do you want me to use this for?
Not just presume we know.
But 10%
doesn't even belong to us.
It's not ours.
It's designed to fund what God's
doing on this earth.
And both Paul confirmed it and Jesus
confirmed it. Notice this.
Do you not know that those who
minister the holy things eat the things
of the temple and those who serve at the altar
partake in the offerings of the altar?
Even so,
the Lord has commanded.
So he's quoting Jesus here.
The Lord has commanded that those
who preach the gospel should live
from the gospel.
What is Paul presuming?
He's presuming something in that scripture.
Tithing
and offerings were not
new to anybody.
This is...
about tithing. He didn't have to explain offerings.
Everybody knew about offerings.
That's how you get
the food necessary
in the church.
He's using the word temple.
And Jesus said
if you're serving
in the temple or in the church,
if you preach the gospel,
you're supposed to get you living
from that gospel.
I'm supposed to get paid.
Pastor Igor is supposed to get paid.
Others are supposed to get paid
because we all tithe,
including Pastor Igor and I.
We all tithe.
It goes into the kitty.
It's handled
very responsibly. That's why we put out
the financial report as detailed as we do.
But we're
supposed to earn our
living from what we do.
Jesus said that.
So now Paul hits it from a different
angle. He's kind of griping here.
He said, I'm an apostle.
I've seen Jesus.
Why does other people get support
financially?
And I don't get any. Verse 5.
Do I not have the right
to take along a believing wife?
Now, he wasn't married as far as we know.
But Peter took
his wife with him.
His life, how he lived
was being paid for.
But Paul says,
why aren't you people giving to me?
Or is it only Barnabas and I
who have the right to refrain from working?
Who do not have the right to refrain from working?
We've got to work for our living.
What's going on here? Verse 8.
Do I say these things as a mere man?
No, because even in the law it says
don't muzzle, the ox treads out the corn.
Verse 10.
Or does it say that for our sakes?
For our sakes
it is written that
he who plows should plow in hope.
I mean, would you work the fields as a farmer
knowing you're never going to get anything back?
There has to be hope
to get you out there.
And he who thrashes in hope
should be a partaker of the hope.
Here's the principle.
If we have sown spiritual things for you,
is it a great thing
if we reap your
material things?
What are the material things?
The tithes and the offerings.
If others are partakers
of this right over you
we should be so much the more.
Then he says, nevertheless I haven't used this
right, and he goes on and talks about that.
Verse 13.
Do you not know that those who minister
the holy things
eat of the things of the temple
and those who serve at the altar
partake of the offerings of the altar?
That was God's
design to fund the kingdom.
The tithes
goes all the way back to Abraham.
You say, well, why would it start with
Abraham? Because
Abraham was the one who made
the covenant that cleared
the way for Jesus.
The promise was made
to Eve, a Savior
is coming.
God told
Abraham and Sarah
the promise is
for your seed.
Not us.
Jesus.
And then through
Jesus covenant, it explodes
out to the world.
The whole thing was designed
to be funded that way.
So let's just summarize everything and close it up.
Tithing began with Abraham
and McKizadek, it has nothing to do with the law.
In the New Testament
it continues on with Abraham's
offspring and children.
And the one who fulfills
the order of Melchizedek, which is Jesus.
Can you flip me to the next slide?
Galatians 3
If you belong to Christ,
then you are Abraham's seed.
And heirs
according to the promise made to Abraham.
So Abraham's covenant has to be in place.
In one case, the tenth is collected
by men who die. In the other case, it's
collected by him who's declared to be
living. Who's that?
Jesus. So let me ask you some questions
just to make you go,
give you something to talk about over lunch besides me.
Who are we heirs of?
We are heirs of Abraham.
Some people say,
well, we're heirs of God.
No, we're heirs of Abraham.
And the blessing comes through him,
through Jesus to us.
It's Abraham's covenant.
We are joint heirs with Christ,
Paul said.
So who's Christ in heir of?
Abraham.
Remember the promise was given
to Abraham and Sarah
and their seed.
And in Galatians, Paul explains,
the seed is not us.
The seed was one.
It was Jesus.
Jesus inherited
the promise through
Abraham.
He's an heir
of Abraham.
So if we're joint heirs
with Christ, well,
I'm a joint heir of Christ.
We're inheriting from God. No, actually
we're inheriting from Abraham.
Jesus inherited from
him and he opened up through
his covenant so we could become
children or offspring
seed of Abraham.
Jesus is referred to
as our older brother. Why?
Because we're joint heirs.
He's our older brother, meaning
we're in
the family of Abraham
by faith.
Everything
goes back
to Abraham
because that's where God
got access again to this
earth to bring a savior
and change it all.
Thank God
for a man
and a woman
who were willing
to leave the family
business of
idol makers
and go cross country
with camel, donkey,
whatever
to some place
they had never been
because God
said
the whole earth
will be blessed through you
if you follow me.
The courage
that took
they didn't have the Holy Spirit
living inside of them.
They didn't have all the stuff we had now.
The courage
to thank God for a man and woman
who were willing to take a stand
and say
yeah, we'll give our oldest son to you.
If that's what you want, we'll sacrifice him.
You say, why would they even think of that?
Because they came out of paganism.
Sacrificing children was normal.
That's what they did
to their idols. They give them their
kids.
That goes all the way back to the Samarians
and I mean, that's normal.
That's Easter.
That's Ishtar.
Sunrise service was sacrificing
babies who had been conceived
the year before by the priests
on the altar that they were sacrificed
on a year later.
And to commemorate Ishtar
who fell out of the sky
in a big egg into the river
and fish rolled her up in the bank
and she came out this beautiful goddess.
To commemorate that, they would take
eggs and dip them in the blood
of the babies they just sacrificed.
Turned them red.
That was normal for Abraham
to go, oh, I'm supposed to sacrifice
my son? Okay.
We can do that.
I don't know how I'm going to have offspring
because God, you know
how long it took Sarah to come around the first time.
You know, we're going to have to do this again.
But if that's what you want,
I'll sacrifice Abraham.
I'll sacrifice Isaac.
Had Abraham not
been willing to sacrifice his son,
God could have not had the right
to sacrifice his.
Thank God for a man
and a woman who took a stand
for what God wanted.
Thank God for men
and women who are willing
to take a stand today
for what God wants.
You say, well, I don't know what my life's producing.
Abraham had no clue either.
He just did
what he felt God was asking him to do.
If we will do
what we feel God is asking us to do,
the ripples
that will go on
forever,
forever,
we have no clue
of how big those ripples will be.
He's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great granddad.
He set the example.
Are you willing to pick it up
and walk in that example?
You know why he was so
amazingly blessed,
not only physically but
every way?
He obeyed.
He obeyed.
And with that blessing, which he knew
it was God,
with that blessing,
he said, okay, I'll exchange with you.
And he gave back the tithe.
That's his example for us.
Dear Lord,
I pray in Jesus' name that there are
men and women sitting
in this place watching online.
We'll watch the recording.
Who realize
there is a
important,
important destiny
and reason why we're here.
Why every one of us
is here.
And we need to be men
and women
who will put God first and say,
God, whatever you want, I'm yours.
Whatever you need of me, I'm yours.
My whole life
is yours. That's the New Testament.
My whole life,
everything I am, everything I have,
everything I ever will be,
everything I could ever accomplish,
everything
is yours.
Thine be the kingdom and the power
and the glory
for anything good
that comes out of me.
Lord, help us
be those
people
who follow
our Father Abraham's
example
and bring Jesus into
this earth to confront the dying
starving, decaying
corrupt
devilish land
and shine forth
the gospel
and the light
in Jesus' name.
Make us into that.
Make us
into that.
Make us into that.
In Jesus' name
make me into that.
I expected to be done
with the prayer right there, but something's
stirring here now.
If you sense that stirring
make me into that.
Make me into that man.
Make me into that woman
who will face
the enemy down.
We'll kick that gates
of hell down. The gates of hell
can't hold out against us.
And we'll go in and we'll rescue
them out.
Make us those people.
Make us
those people.
If that's
stirring inside of you, get on your
feet and agree with me before God
and you verbalize it.
God, make me that man.
Make me that woman
like Sarah, like
Abraham, who is willing
to leave it all if you
ask for it.
Because we will produce a blessing
that will go down through our lineage.
We will produce an effect
on this earth that will change
this world. We will be
a people who will stand for
righteousness. We will stand for
godliness. And if none
go with me, I will still
follow you. Make us
those people.
Make us those people
that we exchange
with you like Abraham
exchanged. Our whole life
is yours.
And your whole life
is ours.
Make us those people
in the name of
Jesus.
Amen.
Amen. Be blessed.