We are in a subject here that makes most people uncomfortable.
We're in this about... this is our sixth message.
So there's going to be a little bit of a shift this morning in what I'm presenting.
I feel like the Lord is wanting us to deal with financial giving and tithing
from more of the mature person's perspective.
To this point, you know, it seems so many people are caught up in,
well, I don't see, you know, it's Old Testament law and I don't see where we have to
and I think just churches trying to just take my money and bomb...
all the childish stuff, childish reasoning.
And you have to dispel that in order to be able to go beyond it.
And I think we did a fairly decent job of dispelling that to this point.
Hopefully, if not, go listen to it again, maybe it'll work second time around.
But this morning, we're going to talk a little bit more about covenant and that side of it.
I woke up this morning and the Lord asked me this question,
why do I want my people to tithe?
And I thought, well, I already gave the four reasons you want your people to tithe.
Which is like, yeah, there's something different he wants to say here.
It's like, whenever he asks you a question, it's not because you know the answer.
But let's review a bit.
What are the four reasons we looked at?
What financial giving or tithing? What are the four reasons?
Pardon me. Fund the kingdom.
Good job.
Test our heart for what?
Love.
Bingo. Second Corinthians 8-8.
What else?
I hear mumbling.
So that we can get into a position where we can receive more blessing.
Correct? That's number three. And what was the first one?
Returning to him what is already his.
Obedience.
So those are the four that we've covered.
So we're going to shift a little bit here this morning.
Once you get past the idea that God is after you to take something from you.
And actually mature in that a little bit and come over to the side of anything God asks of us in the end benefits us.
Anything.
He is a good father who loves us.
And a good father does not take things from his children or demand things of his children that don't benefit them somehow down the road.
You're always better off doing what dad said.
It'll benefit you.
And he is a good father.
A more mature view of tithing or financial giving is this word.
Partnership.
Paul said two places.
First Corinthians three and second Corinthians six.
He said we are laborers together with God.
See when you look at covenant and understand covenant the exchange he gives us what he has we give him what we have.
This is a partnership God is after.
This isn't God trying to just be down on us and command us and push us around.
Tell us what we're supposed to do and what we're not supposed to do and on and on and on.
This is a partnership he's after.
Where we supply he supplies which opens something up spiritually that things really can happen.
I'm going to take you back. Can you bring up it's in the NIV.
I want you to bring up Genesis.
I'm going to go there. It's not on the PowerPoint.
We're adding it in.
Genesis 14. Go to Genesis 14.
This is the first recorded instance of tithing.
I want to point something out to you here now that that we never even brought up first time through.
But it points out what I'm talking about here.
So if you go to the beginning of the chapter in my version.
I'm in the NIV in mine. It says Abraham rescues lot.
Lot was in trouble. Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah were in trouble.
And Abraham went and rescued the kings and the people.
And Lot his nephew and he rescued them all.
So on the way home, verse number 18. Let's jump in there.
Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
What is bread and wine for? Communion.
What does communion talk about? Covenant.
Communion is this is the new covenant in my blood. Covenant.
So immediately from the beginning, Melchizedek, priest of God, king of Salem, brought out covenant emblems.
He was the priest of the Most High God and he blessed Abraham saying,
blessed be Abraham by God Most High creator of heaven and earth.
And blessed be God Most High who delivered your enemies into your hand.
Who defeated the enemies that Abraham was after to get his nephew back?
God did.
You said, well Abraham had to go and do some fighting.
Yeah, but he could have been whipped silly.
He could have lost the whole thing.
So the credit goes to God. Melchizedek knew that.
He said, the only reason you're coming back victorious is God handed your enemies over to you.
He delivered them over to you.
Then Abraham gave him Melchizedek, the representative of God, the priest of God, a tense of everything he gave him the tithe.
Do you see a partnership?
God said, I did this for you.
Now reciprocate on that covenant beginning.
And I'm sure tithing happened way before this.
I mean these guys didn't have to sit down and say, what do we do with this now and figure it out.
Melchizedek showed up. He already had the emblems.
He knew what they were supposed to do.
The exchange was to be made.
This whole thing of covenant exchange and the tenth or the tithe being a reciprocation and the covenant blessings.
That was already in place. This is just the first place we find it in Scripture.
He delivered your enemies into your hand.
Then Abraham reciprocated and gave the tithe on what?
The covenant promise that was fulfilled by God to take care of Abraham.
Which was, if people curse you or bless you...
Remember that?
You don't remember that.
Anybody who curses Abraham or blesses Abraham or his lineage will receive like kind.
They bless you, you'll be blessed. If they curse you, you'll be cursed.
That's why we need to stand with Israel.
That promise is still in effect.
So here we've got that covenant exchange taking place.
Part of the exchange that God looks for in covenant is the tithe.
It's our partial reciprocation of what he gives to us.
Verse 21, then the king of Sodom said to Abraham, give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.
Now notice what Abraham said, verse 22.
So there's stuff that's going on in the background here.
He said, I've already done this.
When it comes to the stuff, I don't want any of it.
I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or a thong of a sandal
so that you will never be able to say, I made Abraham rich.
Whoa, here's a man who understands covenant.
I'm not even going to give you the opportunity to say, you're the one who blessed my life.
I'm in covenant with God.
If I get rich, it's going to be because God did it.
And the whole thing is based on covenant, based on tithing.
It's partnership.
God says, if you will get in partnership with me, I will get in partnership with you.
That is a more mature way of looking at tithing or giving.
He's asking us to do something for him so that he can then turn around and do something for us.
Or when he does something for us, he wants us to turn around and reciprocate.
Make this thing go back and forth.
So it's kind of interesting to be in a partnership with someone, you have to love what they love.
I mean, if you're going to be in a good partnership with your spouse, you have to have some common interests.
Yeah? I mean, you got to kind of love the same thing.
If you love camping and sleeping under a tree on a blanket, and she loves Holiday Inn,
this could be hard.
There has to be some agreement on some things and it becomes a partnership then.
Otherwise, it's, ooh, you want to go camping?
There's no partnership there.
Let's go to the water park with the Holiday Inn.
I want to go to the water park with, I want to go camping, seeing right away.
We're hitting heads.
Partnership means agreement. You've got to love, you've got to enjoy what the other person enjoys.
And we had something just this last week that I thought was really interesting,
because it was setting me up for this.
We did, by the way, get the air conditioners in at Red Lake.
We got them in on Thursday.
That's a thank you to you.
And got up at four in the morning, left at five, and got back about 12.15 the next day.
So this was 20 hours ish.
Okay, is what it is. You get, you know, do what you do.
God asked me a question or he made a statement to me,
but he made it in a question form, so I'd get the point he's trying to make.
Holy Spirit told me after he said,
just so you know, the father was watching you that day.
He's got nothing better to do.
I mean, that could have been fairly boring.
I don't think that was the point though, but he said the father was watching you that day.
He said, really, why?
He said he wants to know if you love what he loves.
Were you willing to inconvenience yourself to do something that he loves?
See, that's partnership.
That's partnership.
And when people are against tithing to me, it just simply says they don't understand.
You can take me back to the PowerPoint.
They just don't understand.
It's still the immature reasoning of why should I have to and what is God, why does he need this?
And is he taking it from me?
Maybe it's just the church wants money and this isn't God at all.
It's all this immature reasoning and we don't understand the benefits of being a partner in covenant.
With Almighty God.
And we talked about it some last week.
I'm going to pick up there again this morning and just talk about that some more.
We already laid out it is for the New Testament.
It is a covenant thing. It's not under the law.
We laid that out. We took three messages to lay that out.
I think that's there.
And last Sunday, we started talking some about the New Testament and what God says if we will be faithful in this.
So we're going to pick it up there.
But before we do, can I get that mic back because every Sunday we've been having different people share about their tithing experience.
And this morning it's going to be Pastor Dave and Vicki.
So come on up and we'll let you give us some of your insight you learned over the years and why you're a tither.
Well, we started out writing this thing out and so on.
But there's so much I think the Lord has done in our lives.
It was hard to kind of narrow it down to what we really wanted to share.
Basically, I think I'm going to just go back and start at the beginning before we were married.
And even before that, I guess, when I was young, my mom and dad went into a very big shift in our family.
And that was accepting Christ and becoming born again.
And so that was just shifted everything.
It just changed everything to the point where my mom and dad started doing things differently.
And one of the things they emphasized was tithing.
And we lived on a farm, so my mom or my dad would always give us kids.
It would be like we'd get livestock or something for helping out in the farm.
Well, they taught us that when you get livestock like that and we ship it and get the money in, then we'd tithe on that.
And so that made a big emphasis in my life to the point that it's really important to do that because of what my mom was teaching.
And one of the favorite verses that she would always share would be,
Siki, first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added.
And so it's funny how you brought that up this morning.
But anyway, the whole thing in that is when we put God first in it,
and we're making that commitment to Him of that,
that He blesses back in all different ways, of course, not just monetary.
But as we did that, I learned that, and as time went, me and Vicki got married.
And in that marriage, we came together and decided that we were going to tithe.
And we decided that we're tithing 10% regardless.
And so we started right at the beginning of 10%.
And we were no way in the position of doing a lot of this.
A lot of times we were just barely making it, but making it.
But we were tithing.
And I don't know, there came a point where they had energy assistance for us,
so we had to apply for it, of course.
And so we applied and the lady took the papers and we filled them all out.
We took the papers to her and she looked at me and she says,
there's no way that you're making it.
You got to quit sending this much to the church.
And I said, if we stopped that, we're not going to make it.
Simple truth.
And so we learned from there to just keep tithing.
And that was a great emphasis.
And there was some things, you know, that Vicki pointed out,
a couple that she did.
When I was pregnant with Lexi and I needed to get my vitamins
and this was just, I don't know, shortly after we started the tithing thing.
And it was like, okay, I'm going up to the counter and going, okay, God,
this was like a test.
We did everything.
We're tithing.
We haven't spent money on things.
We shouldn't, can't spend them on.
I need these.
I don't know how they're going to do this.
I went up to the counter and asked for my prescription.
He apologizes that he could only fill it halfway because they were short on the vitamins,
but I had enough to cover the half.
And I know it sounds kind of silly, but that really, really grew my faith just right there.
And then there was a time later down the road that I'm not saying you should do this
unless God tells you to do this.
But we, I had to write out the payment for the car and put it in the mail and get it there.
I mean, it was like, if I didn't do this now, it was going to be late payment and then you get charged more.
So I was going in the mail and again, it was like, okay, God, we haven't been spending on things.
We shouldn't spend anything on.
We lived pretty meagerly.
But God always met our needs.
But I had faith, just simple faith, put that in there and asked God to bless it and make something happen.
And when I went and got the mail out of the mailbox that day, there was a check from some crazy place that covered what I sent out.
I mean, so these things just really built our faith in the process of it.
Yeah, just lots of, if you want to tell me when you broke your leg.
Yeah, so then early on in our marriage, I broke my leg and we were laid up for like six months or so.
So anyway, so there was nothing coming in.
But somehow we kept making our payments.
And just through the, I don't know, there was nothing I could do, which was really difficult for me.
But at the same time, God was working in it.
I really believe that God takes like situations or I call them opportunities now where you can't do it.
But he'll use that to set you up for what's coming.
And if you hold tight to what your faith is in him, which at that point in our marriage, we were...
I don't like saying it this way, but you get kind of the drift of it.
We were in the Lutheran church and so in the Lutheran church, there's not a lot of born again or gifts flowing or that type of thing.
But at the same time, we were moving toward that direction.
I really believe God was preparing us in a sense for what was coming.
And so in those situations when you're going through a rough time or rough thing, know that God is preparing you for something that's great or common.
And that doesn't mean that it's bad. It means that he's got it.
I think that's one of the things we learned early on, too, is that he's got it.
And we've got to start trusting him.
But it wasn't until later on that we really started to grow in faith because we got out of that church and went into different churches and so on and so forth.
And life always throws curveballs.
I mean, you're going to go through stuff.
Especially, we were not perfect.
We had some things together, but boy, for the most part, we were still really learning a lot of principles to put in our life.
And so with that, I'll let you tell them about the house and how...
So when the economy went bad in 2000, I don't know what it was, 7 somewhere in there, we...
Dave had right before then decided that he was going to start a business.
So he quit the job he'd been working at for 20 years and started a handyman business.
And then things just really went south with the economy and it was really bad timing.
So we...in all that, we...let's say, we could have done bankruptcy, but for us, I'm not seeing anything bad if that's something you've done.
But God told us, for us, we weren't supposed to do that then.
So we lost our house, but we never ended up homeless.
I mean, he made a place for us to be and we got through that with...he showed us he provides.
But also, I kind of lost my train of thought, sorry.
In that too, then we had started listening to some faith messages and learning to grow in that.
And so we were growing in that and we had heard Jerry Savelle speak on a program and he talked about making a petition.
So we made a petition to God for a house.
And we were over our head in debt, but we managed, we paid that.
We also went through Dave Ramsey and we learned some principles there.
We paid all the stuff off, but three years from when we made the petition, we had a house.
The house that we are in now, which is an absolute miracle of God because it was way beyond our means.
Way beyond...we couldn't, in the natural, qualify for this house.
But the owners gave it to us for a dollar down.
And they carried us until we got to where we could get our mortgage, get enough stuff back on it.
Yeah, to be able to get our mortgage.
So we got the house we have now, which is way beyond what we could have imagined or even thought about.
I mean, when I would think about houses, I was not thinking this big.
But God's the God of big and He's the God of blessing.
So in that, you know, we came to a point of understanding that there's so much more that God has for us than what we tend to always want to believe.
And so it really stretched our faith in knowing that God will take care of that.
And one of the verses, well, a couple of the verses was in Malachi.
And there's, it's three, ten and eleven.
And the ten was telling us that, you know, God is faithful and test them in it.
And He'll open the windows of heaven and fill the room.
Well, then there's, the next one goes on and says, and He'll rebuke the devourer.
And so there was instances when we were still learning, we missed this,
but I wanted to emphasize it because we had to take authority over the devourer on certain situations where it just seemed like every time we turned around,
our vehicles were getting crunched or smashed or hit in a deer or whatever it may be.
And we had to take a stand on it.
And I remember we did it right in the middle of the road.
Yeah, we were, you know, both mad and just came out and just really did, you know, so we have that authority.
So over your finances through Christ, we have that authority.
And through that we took, and that made a big difference in a lot of different things.
But there's a lot of maturity that came out of that later on when we learned actually what we did.
Yeah, so it was actually quite a move.
And the last verse that I want to throw out is the,
you'll meet all your needs according to the riches in heaven.
And that's immense. That's totally over what we could ever imagine.
And that's the same way I feel about how he took us from a little house.
Yeah, one bedroom, you know, in a kitchen, and it was little.
Yeah, and he took us all the way from that to where we are now, where it's just amazing what God can do.
And it's through tithing.
I mean, you know, he's blessing over that tithing and the covenant that we had with him that he carried us this far.
Amen. Awesome. Thank you.
They hit a few points that if we get far enough this morning, I'll be hitting, which is everything comes by faith.
I mean, we've got a lot of promises, but they don't automatically happen.
Everything comes by faith when it comes to the kingdom of God.
So here's where we left off last Sunday.
So we'll just get a running start on this.
Remember this, whoever so sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever so generously will also reap generously.
Of course, that is a principle that farmers live by.
It's just a principle of if you put two tomato seeds in your garden, don't expect a whole row of tomatoes.
You know, you got to put more in if you want to get more. Simple.
That is a covenant statement.
Those top two lines, that's a covenant statement.
What you give to God is dictating how much you can get back from God.
Not because he doesn't want to give you more.
You're setting the pace.
We decide how this works. Whoever so sparingly, this is how it's going to work.
Didn't Jesus say be careful how you measure it?
Because the way we measure it, it is measured back to us.
That is a covenant principle.
He waits for us to choose and then he reciprocates.
That's why it says draw nigh to God.
That's us sowing. That's us starting, measuring.
And then he will draw nigh to you.
How close to him do you want to get?
We decide that.
He doesn't decide that.
Oh, I wish I could have as close a relationship with God as some people have.
Well, if you really want it, just push closer.
We're the ones deciding it, not God.
That's a covenant statement there.
Verse 7,
God loves a cheerful giver, takes a little bit of maturity to be a cheerful giver.
I remember the beginning, it was kind of like under compulsion.
And these are all lessons you learn. This is how you grow.
But it is a thermometer.
Each man should give what he has decided to give,
not reluctantly or under compulsion.
That's the person who is still struggling a bit, a little more immature,
hasn't gotten to the point where they understand this very well.
The cheerful giver, the one that God says,
hey, come on, come on, come on.
Don't feel like it's under the law.
Don't feel like this is a rule.
And if you don't do it, I'll beat you on the head.
Get over here to where you can actually feel good about giving.
Because that brings us into a different realm with him.
We can be obedient over there,
but it's hard to get into that partnership with him
when all we're doing is grumbling.
Remember that first example?
Okay, honey, I'll go camping with you,
but this is going to stink the whole way.
You know, I don't even want to pack for this stupid trip.
Camping. I suppose you want to go to the boundary waters, too,
where there's nothing. We can't even get cell service.
Fine, fine. I'll go with you. You're my husband.
I'll do this. See, that's kind of a reluctant under compulsion camper.
Versus, honey, the car's packed. We're ready to go.
I didn't get my stuff. I got it for you.
Come on, let's just go.
Who do you want to go with? Which one?
Who does God want to partner with?
That's what it's telling us.
His point is we determine the amount of the harvest.
It's not just a tie. This is in everything.
You sparingly give to your wife.
You don't talk to her.
You grunt at her in the morning when you leave.
That's about all she gets out of you.
When you come home, you're expecting everything to be done for you
while you sit in your chair with your feet in the air.
You go ahead and sew like that for a while.
Let's see how that turns out for you.
It works in all realms.
Verse 7, ultimately each person has to decide
if they are going to give ties, offerings, or alms.
We decide how we're going to do this.
If we're going to do it, if we're going to do it cheerfully,
we decide if we're going to do one important thing that Cindy hit
as well as Dave and Vicki hit this morning is,
and it's in my message,
don't expect if you put ten bucks in this week
all of a sudden you're going to get five raises and promotions at work
and everything's going to happen before the week's over.
You might,
but my experience is God tests us.
How serious we are about this?
Because he's not into money making schemes.
Paul said, don't think that godliness is a mean to financial gain.
So okay, I'm going to tie it because it will bring money in then.
Probably won't work.
You know why we tied? Because it's his, we give it back to him.
We're supporting the kingdom and it shows him we love what he loves.
We're trying to get something done in this earth for him.
The fourth one will happen if the first three are in place.
But tithing is not a get rich quick scheme.
Tithing is God looking at us and saying,
are you partnering with me or not? Where are you at in this whole thing?
How much can I trust you?
How much are you going to pull the load with me that I'm trying to pull?
But we're trying to make happen here.
That's what tithing is.
And, whoop, went two of them.
And I put in the numbers one, two, three, four, five.
And coming out of this verse, remember this, whoever is so aspiringly,
so forth each one should decide be a cheerful giver, next verse.
And, here's the benefits for getting into partnership with God.
You know that David and Vicki referred to Malachi.
And Malachi is a good verse, the Old Testament verse, so we're not under that covenant.
But it's still a good verse in that if we'll bring the tithe in,
then he'll open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that we will not be able to contain it.
Okay? That's great. This is better.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you.
Anything that salvation has bought for us can be ours.
And not just barely get by, but abound to us.
Abound means you got more than you need.
So that in all things, not just finances, but in all things,
you can't name something that God won't put grace into and make it work for you.
All things. Every air of your life gets touched.
At all times.
Having all that you need.
Huh.
You will abound in every good work.
You know, if we would put that in a business mindset and we went to some place to get hired
and the boss liked us and he said, if you come work for this company,
I'm going to make everything in this company abound to your account
so that in every area of your life, every day of your life,
you're going to have all you need and will abound beyond anything you need.
We want you.
Will you come work for us?
No.
I don't know if the offer is good enough.
Really?
How much better offer you need?
Here's the offer.
Remember how you sold.
Because you're going to decide how good this offer is.
Get in partnership with me. Be a cheerful giver.
Here's the offer.
See, if Christians understood that, they wouldn't whine a bellyache so much about tithing.
Because when you whine a bellyache about something, you're not in faith.
You're complaining. You're griping. You're murmuring.
You're not in faith. You're not putting it out there and saying,
and in the name of Jesus, everything God promised to me will manifest in my life.
This has to happen because he's the one who made the offer.
And I'm taking him up on his offer and it's going to be part of my life.
And you pull on it by faith.
No, when we're whining and griping...
Honey, you didn't write out the tide check yet, did you?
Good, because I got some things I want to spend it on.
Yeah, he's just that... I mean, put that in a business setting.
The boss is just going to be jumping up and down with excitement over that attitude.
It's just that, you know, there is a way to approach this.
He's able to make everything we need at all times.
I gave you the story last Sunday about Jess and what happened to him as a baby in the spinal meningitis
and how that through by faith pulling on the covenant,
not being such a faith person that I spoke it into existence,
just saying, hey, God, I'm taking you up on what you said and reminding them.
Instantly, an instant miracle made whole. Remember that story?
That was directly tied to covenant and that's where we want to go this morning
because tithing is a reciprocation on covenant.
It's where it's at.
Here are the New Testament earthly rewards. I'll just remind you again.
And harvest is not just financial.
In fact, financial might be the smallest part of what we reap.
There's a lot of people seemingly... I don't know if, you know,
after I say this, you're going to ask in your mind,
I wonder if he's a conspiracy theorist.
So I'm going to answer that right up front.
I am not a conspiracy theorist.
I know there's a conspiracy going on at all times.
This is not a theory.
There's too many pieces of evidence that say this is a fact.
But there is a lot of people, to me, a lot.
Who are really struggling to find a reason to live.
There's too many people dying young.
There's too many suicides.
There's too many people questioning whether they should live.
And should I just end it all and get out of this?
And the harvest that we reap in all things...
Parents, let me just put it in your lap.
I'm not going to apply it any place, but parents,
your children being willing and not only willing,
but excited to live life, move forward,
and see what God does for them,
is far greater return than money.
Or land. Or wealth.
Far greater return.
It has to be a horrible thing for a parent to have a child commit suicide.
I mean, that has to test you in many, many, many ways.
You say, do you actually think that tithing would change that?
Well, I... you know, I don't know.
What do you think?
Because tithing in its truest form is a covenant exchange.
And I will reciprocate on what God's doing for me,
and if I'll get that partnership rolling,
covenant is not just for me and my wife.
Covenant flows down into your lineage,
if you study it at all.
We just, you know, sometimes we're the ones who just get it started.
They receive more of the benefit.
So yeah, I think it could make a difference.
No matter what God said.
Let me back up and find where we're at.
Abounding in everything.
However, notice this.
If giving opens up for us to receive those five things listed,
a lack of giving can close those five things to us.
Remember, he said it.
If you sow generously, you reap generously.
If you sow sparingly, that's what you're getting.
How you measure it, be careful how you measure this.
How much of a partner with him do you want to be?
Well, be a little bit of a partner with him.
Well, then he'll be a little bit of a partner with you.
We're the one measuring this.
The lack is not a curse.
Well, if I don't die,
I suppose I'm going to come under a curse.
No, not saying that.
Lack's not a curse.
I mean, Jesus dealt with the curses.
Not a curse that's active in our life.
Not understanding and not having the faith to just step out and do it.
If doing it opens it to us,
not doing it closes it to us.
Not a curse.
Either you turn the faucet open,
or you turn the faucet shut.
It determines how much comes out.
And remember, Dave and Vicki said this,
everything we receive comes by faith.
Everything we get from God's kingdom.
He has bought us so many things,
but we have to receive them by faith.
They mentioned one I read underneath.
There was some kind of generational thing going on in their lives
that was stealing from them.
Car accidents, deer running in, too.
I mean, just always losing money.
Until by faith, they said,
yeah, we're done with that now.
You say, well, Jesus took care of that on the cross.
Yes, he did.
But everything comes by faith.
Just because he did it on the cross doesn't mean we're living in it.
We have to apply it by faith.
And when they stepped up by faith and said,
yeah, we're done with that.
Ooh, all of a sudden things change.
Surprise, surprise.
Comes by faith.
But pastor, I can't afford to give.
I'll go to the next verses.
Paul understood that.
The Holy Spirit understood that.
Now, he who supplies seed to the sower,
he's going to give you seeds so you can plant it and get a harvest.
He's also going to give you bread for food.
So he's not going to let you starve while you're planting.
He will also supply and increase your store of seeds.
Now we're talking harvest cycles.
And enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
So when you're sowing, there's going to be times you're wondering
if you have enough leftover to eat.
Use that verse and call it by faith.
You said you'd give me the money to tithe.
And you said you'd give us food while we're getting this whole thing rolling.
Put your faith to that verse.
That's a promise.
He who supplies seed and bread will.
He's the one, he's promising he'll do this.
And then he's going to get it rolling.
And all of a sudden more harvest is going to come in.
And here's just a thought. I'm going to just hit it and run.
Don't eat your seed for the next harvest.
All of a sudden money came in and if you quit tithing
you've got enough money to buy that pickup you've wanted.
Woo hoo, thank you Jesus.
It works.
I got a new pickup now.
Are you still planting seed? No, no, no.
Guess what? Now you're headed back down the wrong way again.
Don't eat your seed.
He'll give you enough to live on and replant
and let that get rolling and mushroom.
In the business world it's called compound interest.
You earn a little bit on some money one year.
Don't pull it out and spend it. Leave it in there.
And next year you earn a little bit compounded on that.
A little bit more.
You know what? You figure that out a few years.
That thing starts rolling.
And snowballing and just don't eat your seed.
And there is seed time on harvest again.
So there's one thing in there we have to talk about.
If we do that and let the system work,
you will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.
Two points there. Number one, God wants us rich
and in America we're kind of there already.
And number two, rich is not determined by the amount of dollars like the system tries to tell us.
Rich is determined by generosity.
God does not look and say oh they got a million dollars. They're rich.
They only have five thousand in the bank. They're poor. Nope.
That's not how God measures it.
This guy may give nothing that God wants him to give.
This person is giving a lot.
There's the rich one.
There's the one who's going to get the big reward. That one won't.
Does that make any sense?
Richness is determined by generosity.
Well, I tell you what, it's really hard to be generous on every occasion
if you don't have something to be generous with.
So God wasn't born yesterday. He knows how this works.
If he wants us to be generous on every occasion,
he has to get it in our hand
Right? Does that make sense?
So, he makes us rich.
You say, well that's spiritually rich, really.
There's nothing in this whole section of scripture
that talks about something other than finances.
Material things. This whole section of scripture is talking about
finances and material things.
So to pull that out and I've had people do that to me.
Well that doesn't mean physically rich. That means spiritually rich.
Well, you're kind of stretching the scripture there.
Because, if it makes me spiritually rich,
so that on every occasion I can be generous with my spiritually rich.
How do you give away spiritually rich?
Doing really good spiritually this last week.
Here, let me give you some so you can do really spiritually good next week.
That don't work.
So you're stressing the context, even make it say that.
Besides, go home, use your strong concordance,
look up that word rich and see where that appears in the New Testament.
That is the same word used every time where it talks about finances or money.
So you say, what does God want?
There's what he wants.
He wants us to start the process
and let it cycle a few times.
Don't eat your seed.
Let it cycle a few times.
So that you can get to the point financially,
you can be generous on every occasion when a need or an assignment shows up.
That results in thanksgiving to God.
Okay, so now we have to take a little bit of a sidetrack here.
But pastor, doesn't 1 Timothy 6 say that we should not desire to be rich?
Because those who desire to be rich fall into many harmful temptations, the NIV says.
Exactly.
That's exactly what it says.
And I agree with it 100%.
Well, how can you say that and say that?
Okay, so let me put it in this.
Let me say it this way and then we'll try to give you some examples.
Don't pursue money or land or wealth.
Seek ye first the kingdom.
And then this other stuff take care of itself.
And by the way, when Jesus said that, he was talking about the material world also.
What you eat, what you drink, what you wear, that realm.
He said, seek the kingdom first.
This will take care of this.
See, it's not a get rich quick scheme.
Well, I'm just going to do this and man, I'm going to get rich.
It may not work for you because you're in with the wrong motives.
You're in with out faith.
You're just trying to play the system.
Seek the kingdom first.
Now, do you know what's going to happen when you seek the kingdom first?
He's going to ask you to give stuff away you don't want to give away.
He's testing your heart.
Can I trust you?
That's just the way it works.
Well, but doesn't it kind of mean like we should want to get rich?
Okay, so here's where it takes a little maturity.
If we will seek the kingdom, not seek riches.
Everything through scripture says do not seek money, lands, wealth.
Do not pursue. That's not the goal.
All of you going into college.
That is not the goal.
All of you want to start your own business.
That is not the goal.
If you're in this to get money, you're going to fall into temptations that are going to harm you.
First Timothy 6.
If you will seek the kingdom first.
So now here's where you got to put your thinking caps on a little bit.
If you seek his kingdom first and get in partnership with him.
And just live this thing cheerfully.
You end up with a bunch of finances.
You didn't seek them.
You get them.
It's a paradox.
And it's hard for the human brain to figure out.
What did Jesus say to live?
You must.
What?
To be strong, you must become.
And many different. It's a paradox.
So you're telling me if I will follow God's kingdom first.
That shows up.
Yes.
And I'm also telling you if you make this your life's goal.
You're going to miss that.
You're going to miss the things God has for you in the kingdom.
And wanting to be part of the kingdom.
Let's go on a sidetrack here.
Can you bring up Proverbs?
This isn't in the PowerPoint so you're going to have to bring it up.
Let's go on a sidetrack.
Proverbs 3.
Let's start at verse 5.
NIV version.
Here's my two favorite scriptures been all my life.
Trust in the Lord of all your heartly, not in your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him.
And he will make your paths straight.
I can quote it in King James NIV.
I have to look at it because it's a little bit different.
As soon as you find that, bring that up.
Because I want him to see some things so I'm waiting on you.
And I know I put you in a hard spot here.
But there you go.
Verse 6.
In all your ways acknowledge him.
He will make your paths straight or direct your paths.
Verse 7.
Do not be wise in your own eyes.
We're going to figure this thing out.
That may not work well.
Fear the Lord and shun evil.
Well what did Jesus say?
Seek the kingdom.
That's how you fear the Lord.
Do not be wise in your own eyes.
Fear the Lord shun evil.
Next verse.
This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
If you're struggling with your health,
go back to verse 7.
Start there.
Well aren't we supposed to pursue health?
No, we're actually supposed to not try to figure it all out in our own thinking.
Fear the Lord shun evil.
I mean there's stuff we're doing to our bodies we need to quit.
It's evil.
And fear the Lord.
This will be the beginning of the next verse.
Flip it over to the next verse.
And this will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
You're not seeking God to get healthy and whole.
You're seeking God for what he wants you to seek him for.
Seek the kingdom first and all the stuff gets added to you.
Go to the next verse.
Honor the Lord with your wealth and the first fruit of your crops.
Okay?
Next verse.
Then, if you do that your barns will be filled to overflowing
and your vats will brim over with new vine.
Wine.
New wine.
I said vine.
Wine.
New wine.
Are we seeking our barns to be full and the vats to be flowing over?
No.
Go back to verse 9.
Thank you.
Honor the Lord with your wealth.
I'm going to do that for a while.
I'm going to flip you back and forth.
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your crops.
What is God asking us to do with the little bitties given us?
Because if you partner with him and do that,
you can't partner with the one who created it all, owns it all.
If he needs more, he just makes more and not end up there.
You don't have to seek that.
You partner with him, you'll get that.
So Paul's 100% correct.
He said, don't seek it.
It's going to put you in a bad spot.
Partner with God.
Read on.
Let's jump to verse 13.
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding.
So what are we supposed to go after?
Wisdom and understanding.
Just making sure you're still awake.
Blessed is the man.
Of course, blessed means empowered to prosper and have success down the road.
That doesn't mean financially.
It means every area of life.
It's just wise not to grunt at your wife when you take the first bite of the food that she set before you.
Don't do that.
It's just not wisdom.
Because it will not help you prosper and success in that marriage.
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom.
A lot of our trouble is not the demonic or the devil attacking us.
A lot of our trouble is us.
We don't have any wisdom.
Blessed, empowered to prosper is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding.
Okay, I'll be blessed.
What does that mean?
Verse 14.
For she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.
Verse 15.
She is more precious than rubies.
Nothing you desire can compare with her.
Verse 16.
Here's what you get.
Long life is in her right hand and in her left hand are riches and honor.
Well, I'm going to try to live long and just be rich.
That's not what you seek.
No, that's going to mess things up.
Verse 13 is what we seek.
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom.
That means we were looking for it.
There's a concept.
We're looking for wisdom.
And when we see some, we grab it, we gain it, we get that understanding.
That will produce verse 16.
Long life in her right hand and in her left hand are riches and honor.
I agree with Paul 100% verse 10 of these six.
Do not desire to be rich.
It's going to cause trouble in your life beyond anything.
And most college students go for the purpose of where can I make the most money?
Wrong, wrong, wrong, double wrong.
What did God put you on this earth for?
Seek that.
Well, I might be poor.
I don't think so.
Well, he's going to make sure it ends well.
You can't be hooked up with the God who has it all, partnered with him,
and not end up looking like him.
You just can't.
It's not how it works.
It's not how he set it up.
So seek what he wants.
Wisdom, get understanding.
And long life and riches are going to end up in your hand.
So let's go back to the PowerPoint.
Again, let me just try to restress this.
Don't seek after the riches.
Seek after God.
Partner with him.
And there will be times he will test your partnership,
especially when you start this process.
Will you keep it up even though it's really hard?
Any of you ever partner with someone and start a company?
Anybody ever do that?
One, two, three, a few of you.
Within the first year, you were all millionaires, weren't you?
That's exactly right.
That's funny.
The average company, they say, takes three to five years to get on its feet
before it can even pay its own bills.
Well, I didn't get into it for this.
That's the test to determine whether you're going to make it well or not.
And it works spiritually the same way.
God will say, OK, let's see if you'll follow through with what I'm asking you to do.
That's why we have to have points one, two, and three
before number four reason why we tithe.
Dave quoted this.
I've got to put this out there because there's a key in here.
Philippians four, moreover, as you Philippians know in the early days of your acquaintance
with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia,
no one in the church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving,
he's talking money, except you.
Just the Philippians supported him financially.
For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again
when I was in need.
Oh, here's my question.
What was the Thessalonica church doing?
Why weren't they taking care of him?
He was there ministering.
I don't know.
But the Philippians, he said, you stuck with me and supported me.
Notice this.
Not that I'm looking for a gift.
He said, I'm not dropping hints here so you give me more.
I am looking for what may be credited to your account.
So I'm bringing this up because my faith is set that you receive on what you gave.
I have received full payment and even more.
I'm amply supplied for I don't need you to send any money.
I'm good.
Epaphroditus brought the gifts you sent.
We're good.
Verse 19,
My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in heaven.
I am looking that something may be credited to your account.
What He wants credited is God meeting all their needs according to glorious riches in heaven.
How did they get in a position?
Paul could go to the throne of God and say, Father, this is what they did.
This is what I want them to have.
How did they qualify for that?
What does it say?
They were the ones who gave.
People who aren't in partnership with God, don't have His heart, don't love what He loves,
run around quoting that verse all the time.
And God will meet all my needs according to His riches and glory.
You're not even qualified for that promise.
The qualifications for that promise are right there.
You can't receive that promise without following through on the qualifications of the promise.
So always remember that when God asks us to do something, it will always benefit us.
God is looking to and fro on the earth, looking for a man who will stand in the gap.
Do you know what he's looking for?
A partner.
He's always been looking for a partner.
He wanted to save this world and everybody in it.
He looked for Abraham.
I need a partner in this.
He wanted to build the temple.
He looked for David.
See, the end result God was after was a number of things, but he wanted that temple built.
He knew if he would let David get in the driver's seat and take via war, this is how David got rich,
all the enemies of God that attacked Israel, he would go wipe them out and take all their wealth.
He was a man of war.
God knew.
Let's put this kid in charge.
He's willing to run out a giant with a stone.
This is good.
In the name of Jehovah's of both.
He said, you come to me with your spear and your sword, talking to Goliath.
He said, I'm coming to you in the name of Jehovah's of both, the covenant God of war, service, and appointed time.
See my sling?
That guy must have thought this kid's nuts.
Till all of a sudden something smacked him in the head and boom, we went down.
See that's the God needs to partner with people.
He's looking to partner.
And if we will take that step of faith and partner with him, who he is in covenant will dump on us.
It'll just dump on us.
It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
The kingdom.
That's the whole tamale.
It's the whole works.
We're the ones who decide how that exchange takes place.
So let's start with the basics of partnering.
Have we made Jesus our savior?
Have we said, Lord, I need you.
Forgive my sins.
I want you to be my master, my owner, my ruler.
I want you to be Jesus to me.
That's where partnering starts.
That gets us in the door and we go on from there.
And then by faith we see this and we go, hey, I'm going to go after that.
And then God says, I want you to do this.
And our faith said, I don't have enough faith to do that.
We can't do that.
And the Holy Spirit says, just do it.
Just do it.
Come on, come on, come on.
Find some verses on it.
Let me tell you.
Let me give you some Raymond knowledge on it.
I want you to do this.
Oh, God, we're going on this.
This is bad.
But finally we take the step of faith and we do it.
And just like Vicki said, what the world, it worked.
And your faith grows a little bit.
And step at a time, step at a time.
We become bigger and bigger, larger, larger, more committed partners with him than where we ever started.
God is looking for partners.
Now we're in a tithing giving series.
So God is looking for partners who are willing to reciprocate on the covenant.
And say, I'll be a tither.
I'll partner with you.
I want in on this covenant thing.
And we never got to the point where in reality covenant means he has all of me, not just my tithe.
That's covenant.
We didn't get to that point.
We'll catch that next message.
He wants all of us.
Why would he want all of me?
So you can get all of him.
Remember how you measure it is how it's measured.
Go sparingly, you reap sparingly.
Covenant, true covenant is 100% giving to the other person, entity, and them giving 100% back.
That's his goal.
That's partnership.
That's the partnership he's looking for.
That's what he's after.
And he's calling for partners this morning.
All the way from the beginning of...
Well, I don't even...
God, that's a whole new concept to me.
This whole God thing is a new concept to me.
I don't...
I don't have gotten my life.
Well, let's start there.
Let's start there.
And then some of us are further down the road and it's like,
yeah, we need to understand this concept of partnering
and get to the point where we're believing to tithe.
And like I said, you know, don't go curl cold turkey unless God tells you to.
To where you're just going to walk on water one day
and you're going to be a tithe there and you can't even pay your rent.
You know, you don't have to do that.
Grow your faith.
Start consistently with five bucks a week.
Move it up, but your goal's the 10%.
Grow your faith.
And then God is looking for partners who are willing to give anything He asked for.
Anything He asked for.
That's where extravagant givers come in.
There's the book of Acts when they sold property and gave it.
Why? Because God said, I want that.
I want that field you bought two years ago that doubled in price.
I want you to sell it and give it.
What?
Yep, it's mine anyway because right we're in covenant.
Are we?
We're in covenant. Covenant means everything that I have is yours.
It's all available to you and everything you have is mine.
It's all available to me.
He's looking for those kind of partners.
So we're going to put this thing in one big basket and anybody who wants to partner with God
you just stand where you're at, whether it's making Jesus your savior for the first time
or you're over here saying, yeah, I'm going for extravagant giving.
I want to partner with God.
Stand where you're at, we're going to agree in prayer.
Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, it is exactly what was said earlier.
It is an honor to be able to tithe and give to you.
It is a reciprocating on the covenant that is available to us, which is so far beyond anything
we can understand or grasp.
It is an honor that you've made a way to say, I want to partner with you.
Just test me in this. I'll partner with you.
You bring the tithe. I'll partner with you. Just test me.
God, you're the one who said that.
It is an honor to partner with you.
And for those of us who are just beginning, let's do this.
Let's pray a prayer.
Most of us are probably already born again, but let's pray a prayer together
so those who aren't can begin their partnership this morning.
So just repeat after me.
Dear Jesus, forgive me for my sin.
I submit my life to you.
I want you to be my savior.
I want to partner with you in every area of my life.
Forgive me. Cleanse me. I make you my master.
Amen.
And Lord, we pray for the next...
Wherever we're at in our growth process, whether it's...
We're still believing to tithe.
Or we can, and we're just trying to obey.
Or we're beyond the tithe. We're giving offerings.
We're giving alms, and we're wanting more.
Or we're over here knocking on the door of saying,
I want to extravagantly give.
Whatever God gave to me, it's all his.
That's the statement of an extravagant giver.
Whatever he gave to me, it's all his.
Cars, lands, homes, whatever it is, all his.
If he needs it, if he wants it, I'm here.
I'm an extravagant giver.
You ask it, you've got it.
I come into agreement with all these people
who are saying, I want to partner with you in covenant, God.
I want to partner with you.
And we are going to.
We are going to.
We are going to keep this the focus of
seek ye first the kingdom.
We're going to learn to hear your voice.
We're going to stay in your word.
We're going to follow you. We're going to obey you.
We are partnering with you.
And according to your word, that opens up the heavens to us.
Everything can come back.
No matter what we need.
Healing, miracles, a marriage that's fixed.
Whatever, no matter what we need.
It opens it up to us.
We receive that, we agree on that.
Do we receive that and agree on that?
We receive it and agree on it in Jesus' name.
Amen.