So I'm going to jump in. We've got a fair amount of material to cover, and there's something special the Lord wants to do at the end.
So I'm going to jump in and get started.
We are going to, and if you can give me the PowerPoint, we are going to be talking about extravagant giving.
And we haven't been on this series since July 27th, so it's been two months.
So I'm going to pick it up, and I'm going to complete the series, not this morning, but we're going to complete it here in the next couple of three Sundays.
And I want to explain to anybody who's new here since July 27th or any visitors or so forth.
This is the fourth series, and the series we're in is tithing.
We're talking about tithing. It's one of those series you don't hear a lot about nowadays.
It is one of the most powerful gifts that was given to Christians, to believers.
It's one of the most powerful things if we will wield it correctly.
What we're talking about this morning is in that series.
There's four parts of the whole thing that we started a little over a year ago.
We opened with prosperity and dealt with that quite thoroughly.
11, 12 messages, something like that.
And there is so much misunderstanding of prosperity that if that makes you twinge at all,
when I say, well, we dealt with prosperity, if that makes you twinge, please go and listen to that series.
It's online. That's why we did it is because there's so much misunderstanding in that realm.
And we want everybody to understand the true nature of prosperity and that God is a God of prosperity.
And what we are taught online and social media with the little clips attacking prosperity
is not a good way to learn what the Scripture has to say.
So I just request go listen to that because it's not what you have been taught it is
if you're still twinging about prosperity. This must be one of them prosperity churches.
Yes, it is. God is a prosperity God, but you've got to understand what that means.
And then secondly, we talked about the spirit of increase and let me go back here just for a second.
There it is. See time and harvest and then this is the fourth in that series.
This will be the last in that entire layout, tithing and financial giving.
So I'm going to, since it's been two months, I'm going to do a bit of a review,
but I'm going to go quickly. I put a lot of slides together again for the purpose of these are always available with the message online.
So once Kevin is done editing the message and he puts it up, it's up there tomorrow or Tuesday.
If you go to the message, not the live stream, if you go to the message and bring it up at the bottom,
there will be a PDF of everything that comes up on the screen today.
And you will be able to take notes or review yourself or whatever.
So I put a lot of slides together for the purpose. I'm just going to kind of breeze through these without stopping and discussing too much.
It's just to get us, oh yeah, that's right. That's what we talked about.
So giving in and of itself is a love issue, no matter what form of giving.
Love is the core or the base of all giving. Whatever we love, we give to.
Doesn't make any difference if it's a person, if it's a vehicle, if it's a project, it makes no difference.
If we love it, if we're involved with it, we will give to it and it involves all realms of giving, including money.
Tithing is a love issue.
The word tithe means ten percent. And that's what God asked for it, ten percent.
And the actual definition of the word means that.
So what is the purpose for tithing? What is the purpose of this?
To return to God, what is actually His? It doesn't belong to us, belongs to Him.
And again, I'm not going to stop and explain all this because this is the seventh message in.
Again, there's a lot of material. Just go back and re-listen to it or listen to it for the first time if you haven't.
But the first purpose is to return to God what's His.
Second is to supply for God's work on earth.
Test our hearts. Do we love Him? It's a hard issue. It's a test.
And to provide a way that opens an avenue of blessing and prosperity for believers in every area, including finances.
Believers are not just Christians.
There's people who are non-Christians who live by the tithing principle because they know what it produces.
So it's not necessarily tied to you have to be a Christian to benefit from tithing.
It doesn't work that way.
There's people who are not Christians who benefit from this.
God looks at our financial giving as a test to see the sincerity of our love for Him.
It's a proof of that love. And there's the scriptural references that we gave for that where Paul flat out says it.
Testing the sincerity of your love.
So that's one way God looks at us to see if we love Him.
What is the second way that God looks at us? Scripture, second way God looks at us to know if we love Him.
Obedience.
If you love me, you'll obey me.
So it's not how loud we sing. It's not if we're exuberant in praise and worship.
It's not how often we attend church.
It's not if we read the Bible every day.
I mean, these things are all good for us.
But what He looks for to know if we love Him is are we tithing and are we obeying Him?
That's what Scripture says. That was in the first message.
Second message, we were talking about Abraham's covenant because Abraham's covenant is the beginning of tithing.
It goes back to Melchizedek, the priest of God, king of Salem, king of Jerusalem.
We described all that.
What was Melchizedek celebrating with Abraham when he met him?
What was Melchizedek celebrating with Abraham when Abraham and Melchizedek met?
The defeat of Abraham's enemies.
Getting lot back.
How were they celebrating that victory?
They were doing it with bread and wine. Melchizedek brought bread and wine.
Bread and wine always speak of covenant.
They're the symbols. They're the types where you celebrate covenant.
It's communion.
And in the celebration, blessings were spoken by Melchizedek over Abraham.
Because of what God had just done.
Melchizedek said, God gave this into your hands.
You're blessed and I speak blessing over you.
And the reciprocation of that covenant blessing being active, Abraham gave a tithe or a tenth of what he had profited from that excursion, that little war that just took place.
That is a principle that flows through all of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament.
We showed you the scriptures on it.
When we receive spiritually, we are obligated to return something physically.
It's just a principle. It's the way God thinks. It's the way God works.
Tithing hasn't changed since Abraham because it comes out of his covenant.
Tithing does not come out of the Old Testament law.
It was developed on, it was opened up.
Like, here's how it works, here's what it's about, here's how you do it.
But it started with Melchizedek and Abraham in the acknowledgement of that covenant.
Abraham initiated tithing.
Message number three.
We took Abraham's covenant and brought it into the New Testament.
And we showed you...
Yeah, that didn't come out well.
We showed you something that looked better than that.
What that's trying to show us is that Moses' covenant stopped with Jesus' covenant.
Abraham's covenant, which was before Moses' covenant, is still in existence.
And Noah's covenant, which was before Abraham's covenant, is still in existence.
So starting from the bottom, you've got Noah's covenant as the foundation.
You come up and that still goes because we've got the rainbow.
You've got Abraham's covenant, which is still in existence because he is our spiritual father.
If you are a believer born again, you are referred to in Scripture as Abraham's children.
Goes back to Abraham's covenant.
Then you've got Moses' covenant, which was put into place up until the seed or Jesus.
At that point, Jesus fulfilled it and now Jesus' covenant is going and that continues to go.
The Old Testament, all three covenants that are operating, apply to us as Christians.
The Old Testament law no longer applies to us.
And not everything in the Old Testament is the law.
So it doesn't mean you just take the whole thing, throw it away.
But the law portion of the Old Testament no longer applies to Christians.
Tithing flows from Abraham's covenant.
And it continues under Abraham's covenant.
Melchizedek is in the order of, I mean Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek.
So Melchizedek representing Jesus back there.
Jesus being the fulfillment of the picture of Melchizedek.
Jesus is the priest who came in that order.
Jesus is the one in Hebrews who now we refer to as being the one who is living.
He is living. He's alive.
That's important here in a bit and I'll show you why.
So let's look at a couple of scriptures here just to remind ourselves.
There should be one here that I'm not seeing.
So let me just read it to you before we go to the one in Hebrews.
Genesis 14, verse 18.
Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought bread and wine.
He was the priest of God, the Most High.
And he blessed him and said,
Blessed be Abraham of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.
And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hands.
And he, Abraham, gave him a tie the wall.
There's the beginning of it.
Now let's read the New Testament version of it.
Melchizedek was king of Salem, priest of the Most High God.
He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him.
And Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.
And that's the principle that flows there.
And I gave you a number of other scriptures that goes with that.
First, his name means king of righteousness.
That's Melchizedek.
Melchizedek's name means king of righteousness,
then also king of Salem or king of peace.
Melchizedek 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.
So either this guy was the first immortal, whoever lived among humans.
Or this was a pre-incarnate visitation of Jesus himself.
I leaned... and there's controversy.
If you go study that, there's controversy in that.
Which one is it?
And they'll try to explain it away.
I think it's very simple. I think Jesus himself visited Abraham.
Because Jesus is the king of righteousness.
And Jesus is the king of peace.
And I think it's a pre-incarnate visitation of Jesus.
But it's not a salvation issue. You can believe whatever you want on that.
Next verse. Just think how great he was.
Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth.
So think of how great Melchizedek was.
Because even Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder.
Abraham is the covenant holder with the father.
Abraham is carrying a very important position here.
And yet Melchizedek outranked him.
And Abraham gave Melchizedek the tithes.
This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi.
Yet he collected a tenth from Abraham.
And blessed him who had the promises.
Without a doubt, the lesser person, Abraham.
I put Abraham in there. It's not in the original text.
I just put it in parentheses.
Without a doubt, the lesser person, Abraham,
is blessed by the greater, which was Melchizedek.
So here's the verse we've been leading up to.
In one case, the tenth is collected by men who die.
That was the Levites.
But in the other case, by him who is declared to be living.
In one case, people who die collected the tithes.
But in the other case, the tithe is being collected
by him who is declared to be living.
Remember that. That's really important.
Here, mortal men receive tithes.
There, he receives them.
Of whom it is witnessed that he lives.
So as we receive tithes here, as mortal people,
in reality, it's not about us.
It's about him who is alive
receiving that tithe.
Jesus.
Jesus, in the order of Melchizedek,
is the one who is currently receiving the tithes.
Now, there's something that's very big here.
It's the word receive.
Here, mortal men receive tithes.
But there, he receives.
Not received.
Receives them.
Because he's alive. He's still receiving them.
So I'm not going to go through all of this.
I referred to it in the last message,
pointed it out briefly,
but I thought I need to really emphasize this,
because this is the last nail in the coffin
of those who say tithing is not for today.
I think by now we should see it's for today.
But if not yet, this is going to kind of
make life difficult for you if you're struggling with that.
So I gave you research on this.
I don't want to read it all.
It's on the PowerPoint. It reads very easily.
You can read it through yourself.
I want to point out some things.
Here's the third slide in the research.
The word receive appears twice in this verse.
Technically, it appears once.
It appears as the first one.
The second one in your King James version is italicized,
which means it doesn't receive,
but it's inferred because of the first one.
The researcher said, no, this isn't my words.
It appears twice because of how it's written.
The first instance refers to mortal men,
the Levitical priests.
The second refers to he, Melchizedek, in context.
The question about what's the tense of the word receive.
So here it talks about the identity of that Greek word.
Step two, in Hebrews 7.8,
the verb that is translated receive or receives
appears in two forms corresponding to the two instances of receive.
Number one, mortal men receive tithes.
Notice the definition.
The verb is, whatever that Greek word is pronounced as,
it is a present, participle, active verb.
We don't have that in English language.
Greek does.
What it means is tied into what kind of verb it is.
The present participle indicates an ongoing or continuous action.
Hasn't stopped, not in the past.
In this context, it suggests that mortal men,
the Levitical priests, are continually or habitually receiving tithes.
So mortal men, I took up the tithes this morning.
I'm a mortal man.
That verse says that needs to continue
because it is a present participle, active verb.
It never ended.
Read on.
For he receives them.
That also is, the verb is, a present participle, active verb.
Same kind of verb.
Like the first instance, this is a present participle.
Indicating an ongoing or continuous action.
It implies that Melchizedek, or the one referenced,
who is the one referenced that continues to live.
Jesus, he came in the order of Melchizedek.
He's fulfilling that picture.
It implies that, let's just put Jesus' name in there,
is continually receiving tithes
in the context of what we're looking at here.
In both instances, the of receive in Hebrews 7, 8,
it's the same word.
It denotes ongoing, continuous, or habitual action.
Neither instance is in the past tense.
Wow.
So let's go to the end.
Final answer.
The word receive in Hebrews 7, 8, in both instances,
mortal men receive and he receives.
He being Melchizedek, or the one who has fulfilled his place,
which is Jesus in the order of Melchizedek.
It's a present participle in the Greek text,
indicating an ongoing or continuous action.
It is not past tense, but reflects a habitual or timeless action
in the context of the verse.
So the same way when it says, Jesus said,
ask, seek, and knock.
They are also that same verb.
Ask and keep asking.
Seek, keep seeking.
Knock, keep knocking.
Oh, we quote that and say, well, God tells us to ask and keep asking
and seek and keep.
We have no problem with that.
Well, in Hebrews 7, 8, he says tithe and keep tithing.
It's the same verb.
So the whole concept of...
it's passed away?
Yeah.
That one's kind of tough to defend.
Not once you know what the word actually says.
So I just wanted to nail that down firmly.
Amen.
It's nice to know that you know that you know.
Message number four.
New Testament scriptures on tithing.
Now we gave you a whole bunch of them.
We dwelt on this one, 1 Corinthians 9, 13 through 14.
How is the church supposed to get its money?
There Paul explains how ministers and the establishment
is supposed to get... how it's supposed to get its money.
It's based on the Old Testament picture in Numbers 8.
Well, not picture, command.
Numbers 18 and Deuteronomy 18.
That is the basis that Paul referred to
in 1 Corinthians 9, 13, and 14.
So we dwelt on that quite a bit.
Won't go back and review that.
It's just in Paul's mind it was expected.
Remember he was kind of upset because churches were not tithing.
And he laid it out and he said those that preach the gospel
should live thereby and the provision comes through the altar
and what is presented at the altar.
Remember all that?
Okay. That's the point.
And we gave you six other passages besides that
and we just gave you Hebrews 7, 8 which is in my mind irrefutable.
I mean if you're going to look at that honestly it's irrefutable.
So that was message number 4.
Message number 5.
Let's get to message number 5.
Tithing produces prosperity.
Of course you've got Malachi 3 which really no longer applies
to us directly because we're in a new covenant.
However it is a foundational picture of what Paul develops on
in 2nd Corinthians 9, 6 through 11.
And 2nd Corinthians 9, 6 through 11 is actually better than Malachi 3.
And we looked at that at length.
I'll just remind you.
Remember this.
Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly.
Whoever sows generously will reap generously.
Each man should give what he has decided
in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion
because God loves a cheerful giver.
So if you're going to be a tither you have to decide to do this
and you're going to have to decide if you're doing it on the gross, on the net.
If you're going to do it after your tax return is done
and you look at the bottom line there,
you're going to have to figure that out.
You're going to have to decide.
But remember how you decide to give is deciding how you will reap.
How we decide to give decides how we will receive.
And that's his point there.
And this is not just tie.
This is applause to all forms of giving.
And then here is the New Testament concept of opening the windows of heaven.
2 Corinthians 9.
God is able to make all grace abound to you.
See, that's way bigger than Malachi 3.
So that in all things, at all times, having all you need
doesn't make any difference what you need.
In Malachi 3 he says I'll rebuke the devourer for your sakes.
Well, that's great.
But having no matter what I need
and being able to abound in it is way bigger.
So we set our faith to that.
Message number 6.
This morning is number 7.
So we're almost there.
Covenant.
Covenant exchange.
When we exchange in covenant with God,
and this thing we're living in is not a contract,
this thing is a covenant that we have with God.
Jesus said this is the new covenant in my blood.
He established a new covenant.
Hebrews makes that really plain.
The whole book of Hebrews kind of dedicated to the fact
we're in a new covenant here.
Covenant exchange means everything.
Covenant doesn't mean 10%.
Covenant means everything.
When I'm in covenant with my wife,
everything I am, everything I have,
everything I ever will be, all goals, plans, decisions,
everything is hers.
And everything she is, is mine.
And we revolve around each other that way.
That's covenant. We exchange everything.
A covenant exchange is such a huge principle.
Once we understand the power in covenant,
the tithe or the 10% seems like a very small thing.
Once you get what God is actually after,
the tithe is like, well, it's just a token of the covenant.
And that's exactly what it is.
Now I've heard teaching, and this is very popular,
so I just have to address it someplace in the series,
so I'll do it here.
I've heard teaching that says,
well, God doesn't require us to give 10%.
That's, you know, it's Old Testament law,
which, of course, they're wrong in that.
And God, they are right on the part of God doesn't require it.
He did, under the law, require it.
But He no longer requires it.
He's doing it to see if we love Him.
You cannot love and serve both God and money.
Mammon is King James word, money.
So you're going to have to choose what you love the most.
And where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.
So if you love money the most,
your heart will be there.
And guess what?
He's no longer Lord and now we have an eternal problem.
It's not the tide that determines that.
It's where we're putting our treasure.
If we love Him the most,
then our heart will go there
and that resolves a lot of other issues.
But tithing is actually a small thing
in comparison to covenant.
So the whole thing of,
well, we don't have to give 10%.
And it's taught that you just give
what you feel God wants you to give
and in the end of the year
you'll have given way more than 10%.
Well, cool, if it works that way.
And if it does work that way,
if you're actually giving 15, 18, 23%,
why are you fussing over 10?
10 should be nothing.
It's like, well, yeah, I give 10%,
I give 23%.
So 10 is not an issue.
But here's what I've discovered.
If there's not something definitive
for me to measure myself against,
the old flesh will try to slip away,
anything that's godly,
will try to slip away as far as it can
and not go there.
It's just the way it works.
So if you're a believer in that other,
that's great.
Then out of your 23%,
just give 10% to the church
because that's where Scripture says it belongs.
That's what Paul said.
And take the other 13%
and give it an offerings or alms.
Do what you want.
But in covenant, the 10%
is actually just a token of the covenant.
It's a financial reciprocation
of the actual covenant.
In true covenant exchange,
God gets 100% of us.
Not 10%.
Now when we say us,
that is our entire life.
Not just money.
Our entire life.
And he can rightfully ask
for any good godly thing
and we have no right
of refusal on him
because we're in covenant with him.
And vice versa is also true.
We can ask any good godly thing
and if we are in covenant with him,
he has no right of refusal.
And I gave you a few examples on this.
I did that with Jess when he was a baby
and had spinal meningitis.
I went to covenant.
I did that with Jacks
when he got run over by the car.
I just felt to do it.
Not knowing it was the predecessor
of doing it for my wife
when she had stage 4 cancer.
It's a 100% exchange.
And when we are in that 100%
covenant with him,
we can ask any good godly thing
and he will not refuse
because it's covenant.
That's how covenant works.
So in my mind,
and you'll see this by the end this morning,
in my mind,
living in full covenant with God
is that top level on that chart.
I won't show it this morning,
but we've showed it many times.
The martyr level.
Because to live in full covenant with someone,
you have to die to everything you are.
You have to.
And the other person dies to everything they are.
It doesn't mean they lose their identity.
It doesn't mean they lose who they are.
But they now place you first
above it all.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
Well, does that mean we can't do anything
for any other kingdom like America?
You can't be involved with America
and helping America at all
because the only kingdom we can seek
is the kingdom of God.
It's not saying that.
It's saying his kingdom has to be first
then everything else falls in underneath that.
That's how covenant works.
God has to be first
to us.
And if we will make him
if we will reciprocate on that relationship
we become first to him.
That's why it's called the Great Exchange.
It's just an exchange.
It's a partnership of exchange.
So with that as the basis
now we got to go keep making some tracks here.
This is not a message on tithing this morning.
This is a message that flows out of covenant
Extravic and giving flows out of covenant
and it goes hand in hand with covenant.
So it needs to be brought in here.
And let me also say this.
This is not a fundraiser message for the building
because we're going to make some applications to it
because we're talking money.
Make some applications
give some hopefully answers
to some things people have been asking.
But it's going to fit
and it's all going to come together
but I'm not doing it as a fundraiser message.
So let's briefly review.
Scriptural kinds of giving.
Tithe giving
and we've given you a lot of scriptures in that already
so I didn't list any.
That's the main one we've been looking at
in this portion of the series. Tithing.
Offerings giving.
There's a number of scriptures
and I just gave you New Testament scriptures there.
Tithe is a 10% that goes to the local church
for the advancement of the kingdom.
Anything beyond that 10%
either falls under offerings
or it falls under alms.
Offerings is giving to other ministries
giving to other projects, giving other places.
Alms is that
don't let your left-hand know what your right hand is doing
it's done in secret
and it's when you're helping someone.
You walk up to someone
and you slip $100 bill.
Alms.
You're giving to the poor. You're giving to them
if they have a need.
That's alms giving.
And there's scriptures on that.
Then this one we didn't talk about much
we just brought it up enough
to reference it. First Fruits giving.
It's an Old Testament concept.
I don't find it in the New Testament
because Jesus and
reciprocating down a little further
we are the first fruits.
He is the first fruits.
First one back from the dead.
We fall in underneath that
as being the first fruits of the harvest
of his sacrifice.
But the concept was
if you grow tomatoes, take the first few
and offer it to the priest
or to the minister
as an offering.
And that's fine.
It's all good. You can still do it if you want.
Just make sure your tomatoes aren't rotten when you give them.
This one's bad anyway.
Give that to Pastor Igor.
No, don't do that.
First Fruits offering.
If you go back and study it
it says you have to give the best.
Not the discards.
And then there is this giving
which comes out of covenant.
And we are going to talk about that this morning.
And to fully understand
extravagant giving
you have to understand covenant.
So we are going to quickly go through this
because the big impart is at the end
of the message and I want to leave time for that.
In covenant
trying to gain some understanding here
in covenant
everything is His
and everything is ours
by covenant or inheritance.
Everything that is ours is His.
Everything that is His is ours.
God made us stewards
or servants over everything on earth
because
the things
that we think we actually own
belong to God.
We are
stewards and servants of God
taking care of it.
That's why
He has the right
to ask for it.
Because it's not ours.
We're the managers.
We're the ones over it.
As believers
He owns everything
including Christians or believers.
You've been bought
not with silver and gold
you and I have been bought
by
the blood.
So if we've been purchased
He owns us.
You are not your own.
That's what Scripture says.
We're legally His servants.
I mean, scripturally, that's what it says.
And God
chose to restore the rights
of a son to us
as His servants
and restore the kingdom to us.
Under Abraham's covenant
and under Jesus' covenant
everything we are and have is God's.
Tithing is a token
of that covenant.
It's not the full expression
of that covenant.
What is this?
Besides the obvious.
Master, it's a ring. Okay, I got that.
This is a token
or a
signifier
of the covenant I have with my wife.
I'm glad we don't do it like they did in the old days
where they
cut their hand and mingled their blood.
But the concept
was the same.
When you see me come with this
you know I'm in covenant with somebody.
When they came
and greeted
and they had a scar
or two or three or five
it's saying, oh, this person is in covenant
with somebody.
That's why it was such a visible place.
Hi, how are you doing?
First thing they would look for is this guy in covenant with anybody?
Especially
if they're trying to rob them
or take advantage of them.
Because see if they're in covenant with, who is he in covenant with?
What if he's in covenant with someone
bigger and badder than he is?
And I robbed from him
now in covenant
that person is obligated to defend
me.
And I'm in covenant with that person
it always makes the one looking in
who has mischief in mind go
I don't know if I should do this.
For those of you that know my wife
it's the same effect.
I couldn't help but throw that in.
You pick on me, she's coming after you.
You don't want that.
And vice versa.
I better not be the dish cloth.
Husband that.
Oh, sorry.
Sorry babes.
I ain't doing nothing. You figured it out.
The covenant
is
100% here.
This just tells you
there's one in existence.
That's all that is.
The covenant I have with God
is 100% here.
The tithe just tells you
this is the token of
I'm in covenant with somebody.
But the covenant
he owns it all.
He owns us all.
100%.
Everything and anything.
And a lot of Christians go
I believe that until it touches
our pocketbook.
And since this is in the tithing series
I'll dwell more on that.
We could talk about all kinds
of marriage things this morning
because covenant touches
it all.
Touches everything.
But we're talking about giving this morning.
So I want to give you some examples
of extravagant giving
or giving out of covenant
and then we're going to make some application to it.
Building the Old Testament
Temple, Solomon built it.
This is
mind-staggering.
They estimate
the cost of that temple
in today's dollars
520
billion.
How did that get funded?
How did that temple get funded?
How did that temple get funded?
People gave
but I'm going to point something out.
Was it dropped
into the people's heart?
Whose heart was building a temple for God
dropped into?
David.
It was dropped into David's heart.
One man
It was
dropped into his heart.
We have to build
We got to get past this tabernacle thing.
We have to build
the temple
or a temple.
Okay?
So how did that
get funded?
520 billion.
Well, that's interesting.
Well, let's look at some verses.
First Chronicles 22 14
Indeed, I have taken much
trouble to prepare for the house of the Lord.
This is David speaking.
And he lists
the amount of things that he made
available
to prepare
for the building of the temple.
Now, there's controversy
whether that
contribution was solely
David's
or as king
when they did all these wars
and conquered all these countries
when the gold and the silver and all the stuff would come back
as king he said
this chunk I'm setting aside
for the temple.
Next war, this chunk I'm setting aside
for the temple.
Either way
the money that came
for the temple was directed
by David.
Now most feel that
size of a contribution
was the monies
that David had set aside.
Some say, nope
he said I did this
so it was David.
Well
the amount of money
listed there
if you convert that into
today's value of gold and silver
and some of the other things
comes to that.
463 billion
was set aside
of the 520.
In addition to that
in 1st Chronicles 29
this was where David
just said, well bring me my piggy bank
I'm going to rate it a little bit
and this is directly attributed
to him
12.75 billion
David directly
so now we're
at about 475 billion
of basically the gold and the silver
they didn't even calculate the other
because it never said how much was
given it just said
all the iron all the
timber all the stuff was given
then the leaders got
involved and they gave
21 billion
which is
a sizable amount
what's interesting is David
alone rated his piggy bank
and gave more than half
of what
all the leaders gave
21
So, now we are pushing 500 billion. Solomon gave some, but it doesn't say how much he gave.
And you have got all the iron and all these other things added in. That is how they came
up with the 520 billion. That is why Scripture says, God told David, you are a man of war,
you have blood on your hands, you can't build a temple. Your son Solomon is going to build
a temple. But when Scripture reveals who actually provided for Solomon to do it, it always says,
doesn't say Israel built the temple. It doesn't say the leaders built the temple. It says
David built the temple. One man is credited for building the temple. Now others were
involved and others gave. But one man was credited for building the temple. Let's look at some
other extravagant giving in Scripture. Here a government gives, which actually, if you
break it down, it is Cyrus and Darius, two men who rebuilt the walls and the temple
of Jerusalem. Extravagant giving, to get that done. Jesus requested a person to
give extravagantly. Rich young ruler. If you read that story, he says, go sell everything
you've got. Give it to the poor. There's the project. Come follow me. I'd call that
more than the tithe. What gave Jesus the right to ask for everything? Jesus owned it
anyway. He just needed to check if this young guy was willing to give it. Which he
wasn't. A person who gave extravagantly, the widow who put in two copper coins, the
widows, you know, she's called the widow and her two mites, two copper coins, worth
about a half a cent. That's what she put in the offering. The project was the
church. And Jesus said, she gave more than all these people came with bags
of gold and silver and dropped them in. Why? She gave extravagantly. They
gave out of their excess. She gave out of what she needed to live. Extravagant
giving. Individual extravagal giving. Selling lands and houses to get the
new church community up on its feet. Acts chapter 4. People and churches
extravagant giving. Paul said they gave beyond their ability for an offering
there's the project to help the poor. Beyond their ability. Extravagant giving
to help the poor in Jerusalem. So I've had some questions come in over the
series. This one I want to address. That one right there because it was one
of the questions that came in. Someone asked me could this be God?
Pastor, would God do this? Is this God? I feel like he might be asking me to
sell some of my property and put the proceeds in the building fund. Could that
be God? Can God rightfully do that? Would God do that? Well, about all
scriptures we saw. You already know the answer to that. Even in the New
Testament. Extravagant sacrificial giving is not the dollar amount. I want to
tell you one. We have, it affects our extravagant giving. For instance, when, and
I've told you this story, when Mary and I in Colorado were in a bad spot
financially and we needed a miracle, we had 400. I think it was, I believe it
was $402 in some sense to our name. We had rent due in two weeks. We have to
eat. We have all kinds of things. And God specifically said, and this is the key,
don't just jump out and do something. It won't work for Pastor Burn. I'm going to
make it work for me. Nope. God specifically said, give that $400. So
you're trying to bankrupt me. Good, good father. Trying to bankrupt me. Trying to
get me down. You say $400. I got more than that in my wallet right now. That means
if you gave 400, it wouldn't be near as extravagant as it was for us to give
400. Because we gave our living. Just like the woman with her two coins. We
gave our living. Well, why would God ask for that? I don't believe that's
God. No, that is God. He shows us that throughout Scripture. Why would He do it?
It's His right to do it. It's His. Well, He's just going to leave you high and
dry. No, see, that's where you don't understand covenant. It's His right to
ask for it because He owns it. He's testing our hearts. And if we will
pass that test of covenant, He now can kick the door of opportunity wide open.
That $400 seemed like life and death at that time. I don't remember if I cried
when I wrote the checkout or not. I don't remember. That was the best
$400 I ever gave in retrospect. But it was spirit directed. You don't just do
something because it's a great idea. When we find extravagant giving in
Scripture, typically surround special projects. It's not the tithe. It's not
alms. David was the temple. Jerusalem Walls in the temple. Cyrus and
Darius. The rich young ruler was the project of the poor. The widow, the church.
People selling land and houses get that newborn baby church up and running.
People living beyond their ability. The project was the poor in Jerusalem.
Scripturally speaking, and this comes from Scripture, when God asks a
project to be done, He typically either has already given the funds to
some people or it's eminent. It's going to show up today, tomorrow,
whenever. In other words, scripturally speaking, the money's already there. Just
let that soak a bit because that's a big one to chew on a swallow. But we have to
go with what the Scripture picture is. If he's asking for a project, the money's
already there. How much do we give to make it extravagant? I like facts and
figures. I like statistics. It's just kind of how I'm put together. So I wanted to
touch this a bit before we're done. The average wage earner in Isani
County, the median household income is 86,000. The annual average household
income is 103,000. So the difference between median and average, median is you
have half the population that makes more than 86, you have half the population
that makes less than 86. That's the middle line, half above, half below.
Average is we have 100,000 households. We take the income of all 100,000, add it
up, and divide it by 100,000. That gives us the average per household. So the
average is always higher than the median. But there is Isani County, 86,000,
103,000. I thought, well, let's take it deeper. Under 25-year-old in Isani
County, the median, or the half above, half below, is about 45,000 a year.
25 to 44 is 112,000. 45 to 64. I thought this was interesting.
Same range, 112,000. And the retirees is about 55,000 a year.
So when God's asking for extravagant giving, the person who's retired and is
living on 55,000 a year, he's going to give extravagantly, but the dollar
amount will be far less than the plumber down the road who has his own
business and he's earning 500,000 a year. For that man to come into the same
extravagance as the one who's making 55, the 55 might be, we can give two
grand. And boy, we're stretching to do it. Two grand to this guy, he spends
that taking his buddies out for a meal, trying to get their business. Two
grand's nothing to that guy. Extravagant to him might be 200 grand.
So extravagant is not the dollar amount. Extravagant is measured to what we
have in our financial means. It's what Jesus pointed out. These guys came
with all their bags of money and they dropped it in and Jesus said,
they'll never miss it. They've got so much, they're not going to miss that.
That woman is going to miss that half a cent she dropped in. That's
extravagant giving. This is not. So if I was going to go by what Jesus says,
if we don't miss it, it's probably not extravagant giving.
We gave a lot. Doesn't make any difference. You got a lot.
Follow me? If you got a little and you give a little, that might be more
extravagant than the person who's got a lot and gave a little.
So I just kind of wanted that pointed out when we're talking extravagant giving,
you can't expect a lower wage earner to give what a higher wage earner gives.
It ain't there. That's why God looks at the heart and sees how that's involved.
So now let's make an application or two. Hang on to your bootstraps.
If you notice, scripturally again, and even in our current day,
many churches are primarily built. I'll just go there with it.
Many churches are primarily built by many things for God.
The temple, the wall was built by two men, Cyrus and Darius.
David was responsible for the finances for the temple. One man.
You come to the New Testament, the people who had lands and houses.
How many were there? I don't know. It doesn't say.
They were the ones who were responsible for funding it.
The people who had nothing weren't responsible for funding it.
Many churches applying to our situation, one person, one family, one or two businesses,
a handful of individuals carry the lion's share of the financial load. They build it.
God expects everybody to be involved, but he will bless certain people to do the job.
Did we not just see that on Scripture? Okay, so let me give you a current example.
And I'm not going to name the name of the organization. It's beside the point.
But there's a Protestant organization of churches in the Twin Cities
that has more than 10 separate campuses. They have multi-million dollar budget
every year, multi-million dollars, not just like two million, to run those campuses multi-million.
They, to this point, have continued to expand and put new buildings up.
Their buildings, from my understanding, range any place from 10 to 20 million,
is what they're putting into their buildings. We're trying to do it the conservative way at five,
four to five. They just know it's going to cost them 10 to 20 million to put up their building,
okay, and they have more than 10 campuses. They have a multi-million dollar budget every year.
One person has funded approximately half of everything they do.
One person. Yeah, I can't be right. That's scriptural.
Oh, why would God make them that much? Give them that much money. Make them that rich.
I just gave you the answer.
He said, I need money in this project. I can trust you to put it there.
I will give you whatever that project needs, not for you for the project.
Even take 10 campuses at 10 million, so go low and low. We're talking 100 million dollars
worth of buildings. They paid half of it. They paid 50.
And every year they're paying half the budget to run all that. That could be another 10, 15 million
a year. Extravagant giving for a person making 90,000 a year is going to look different
than extravagant giving for the person who makes a lot more. So now let's just wrap this up.
Felicia, would you come up for the piano? This all flows out of covenant. That whole concept
of extravagant giving, that whole concept of God picks a person and says, do this,
and then just dumps on them finances. That all flows out of covenant. And this question
always comes in, so I might as well answer it. What determines why God chooses certain believers
to be so overwhelmingly blessed financially, and others are more like the rest of us. More
common in that regard. But there's certain believers that God just sets them up.
Why? What causes that? So now the answer to that applies, not just to finances,
it applies to any realm of our life. Any realm, doesn't just apply to finance. So when I give the
answer to that, don't just put it to money. This applies to everything. Number one, partially,
and I didn't put this on the PowerPoint, I can put it on for next Sunday so you have a list of
it. Partially, it's their destiny. That's what God, that's why they're here. Major reason
why they're on this earth is to accomplish that. The first church I pastored in had a
multi-millionaire family. It came from Dad, who was grandpa at that point. When I got there,
he was 70 years old. For those of you that know anything about the rural area, especially milking
cows, he's the guy that invented the barn cleaner. You know that little chute that sticks
out the end of the barn and everything comes out and drops on the wagon and they
take it to the field, he invented that whole system. He said, before I really got going on
any of that, he was a dreamer. He said, I had a dream. He said, I was standing at the end of a field
and he said, I wasn't grain, it was gold. The whole field was gold. And he said it went
quite a ways and then it went over a hill and I could tell it just went on.
And he said, this is what God was telling me. If you'll apply yourself and follow me,
you can harvest as much out of that field as you want.
He said, I woke up and I looked at my wife and I said, we're going to be rich.
They were living, he was a blacksmith by trade at that point.
They had the building on one end. This was in the depression area,
time in the 30s when they got married. They had their building with the blacksmith on one end
and they segmented off a little on the other end that they lived in.
He said, I was making $5 a week when God said, I will give you that.
You say, why him? It was his destiny. Why he was here? He had to play a part of it,
but it's why he was here. So once you understand, oh, this is what it's about.
You have to make number two, a covenant level commitment to God. A martyr level
commitment to truly walk in full covenant. You have to make a martyr level commitment.
What does that mean? Anything he asks of me, I will give it.
Anything. Now don't just apply this to money or you're going to miss the whole point here.
This is all of life. Anything he asks of me, I will give it because I am making a covenant
level commitment to you. What is yours is mine and what's mine is yours.
Very few Christians understand that level of commitment.
Because to do it, you have to die daily. That's what Paul's talking about. He said, I die daily.
Dying to what? All the stuff that tries to creep in to say, I'm not going to give that to God.
I mean, can't I have one thing for myself? No, you can't have one thing if you're going to
have a hundred percent covenant between you and God. Everything is his. That's number two.
Number three, I asked the man, I'm a young guy going in the ministry.
He's older. It wasn't too many years later. He passed away. I said, okay, he shared that story
with me. I said, why did God do that for you in your opinion? I said, obviously,
you followed through on what he asked you to do and you applied yourself and you gave him what
he asked. And by the way, he tied on the gross. So, you know,
why did he do that for you? He sat there. We were going to... He had, I don't know, 160 acres
or whatever that he had built out with fishing ponds in it and stuff that he stocked. And
we were driving on our way there. He was going to take me fishing.
And I'm more interested in his story than fishing. But I'll go fishing if I can get your story.
I said, why did he pick you to do that? He said, well, he picked me. I said, yeah,
but there's got to be a reason. And he sat and he thought, I bet he thought five minutes.
He said, I'm going to say it this way. He said, I worked very hard to learn how to
carry a full cup without spilling it. I worked very hard to learn how to carry a full cup
without spilling it. In other words, it's another way of saying, everything God gave to me, I treated
as holy. I didn't just splash it around however, wherever. I treated it as holy. And he said,
the more I tried to mature in that, the more came. More inventions, more whatever, the more came.
In other words, when it comes to our souls, we have to work diligently to mature beyond where
we are now, if we want to live in that covenant level commitment. And he did make this point.
He said, at some point, you have to decide if you're going to serve God
or you're going to let what people think dictate what you do.
To carry that cup without spilling, to live in covenant level commitment with God,
you can't care what people think.
You just can't... you do what God asks you to do. You don't care what people think.
Because when you make a covenant level commitment with God, it's 100% God,
wherever you want, it's yours anyway. I'll just give it to you. The average person
is going to think you're crazy.
You did what?
The average Christian will think you're crazy.
And this can apply to anything that God asks of us. So I'm going to apply it to something
else so we get our head off money here for a second. They're gone so I can talk about them.
Pastor Igor and Tanya, it is an honor to have them here.
It is an honor to have them here. And what God will do through them,
if they can remain on the trajectory of going low, dying to yourself,
that's all covenant talk. It's not about me, it's about you, whatever you want, you got it.
I'll give up, I'll make adjustments, I'll do whatever I have to do to give you what you're asking for.
As long as they can remain on that trajectory,
what God is going to do through them, not just in this church but beyond,
what God is going to do through them, they're going to have to look down a long way to see our
ceiling. They're going to far, far surpass where God brought us to this point.
As long as they can stay humble, stay dead.
As long as they keep doing what God is asking them to do,
that 40,000 square foot building is going to be too small for the number of people who are going
to come craving a move of the spirit in their life. And those two individuals have the ability
to wield it and operate in it. It is an honor for me to have that quality
in the chute to follow me, because they will take this ministry beyond anything of our wildest dreams
of imaginations. And God is going to gather a group around them. Why? Because both of them
have covenant level commitment to God. Both of them. Whatever you want, it's yours. 100% that's
how they live. God is going to gather a group around them who have that same commitment
and intensify and strengthen that foundation.
We haven't seen nothing yet. I hope I live long enough to see it.
Because when you make a covenant level commitment to God, he makes a covenant
level commitment to you. You give him half your life? Well, the way you measure it,
it will be measured back to you. So what does a covenant level commitment look like?
Now I want you to take and start internalizing some of this.
Covenant level commitment from my observation. This is just me over...
Well, I started paying attention when I was in junior high.
First really started paying attention in high school. Freshman probably.
So over the last 55 years, I have observed some things.
People who are in a covenant level commitment to God, it always starts with an encounter with God.
It's always that Moses and the burning bush. It's always Jacob and the angel he wrestled with.
There is an encounter with God where God shows up on the scene and he says, I want you.
I want you. And if we're strange to it, it scares us. If we've never seen anything like that before,
it's like, what in the world is this? Depending upon our background, it can freak us out.
But because it's God, if we won't give into the fear, it always circles around and we get drawn
back to it. That was God. That was freaky. That was wild. Dear God, what was that?
But I'm really curious now. I want to know more about this. It always starts with an encounter with God.
He swallows you up in his presence. You might be sitting at home. You might be driving down the
road and you just all of a sudden, the presence of God filled the room, filled your car, and you
find yourself just weeping. What am I weeping for? God's here. I don't know what's going on.
God's here. He's encountering you. That's how he starts it.
Out of that, you will begin to crave and long
for those moments. Once you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good,
you don't want to keep tasting. You want to go back and eat.
I need more than a taste. You begin longing and craving to be in his presence.
And when you get those times, because it's not, it's like candy. You feed someone candy day after
day all day long after a while. It's like, yeah, it makes me sick. That's human nature.
Presence of God's the same thing. There's times he will hold it back just so we know.
Oh man, I don't know if I can live like this.
And when he dumps it, it just becomes so much more impactful and anointing in our life.
We will crave those times. And out of that, you will find yourself abandoning goals and plans
and dreams and rearranging priorities because you know that won't fit in what he just
showed you. Because when you encounter God, you see something that you never saw before.
You may not understand it. You may not be able to explain it. But you were there, you saw it.
And the more you're in his presence, you begin seeing, yeah, this thing I had planned
over here, that'll never fit that. That's going to have to go. And your focus will begin to narrow
on what God is building in your heart every time you get in his presence, every time you're in
his word, every time you wait on him, every time he says, please do this for me and you obey.
Your focus is narrowing on your purpose, your destiny, what he wants to accomplish for you.
And please understand, you will be misunderstood by the people who are closest to you.
When you have an encounter with God and you decide to go to covenant level commitment,
the people closest to you will not understand. And they'll try to persuade you a different
direction. You will be betrayed, made fun of, talked about by people who you actually thought
were your friends, were your family. And you have to go through that.
Those are all things that have to happen for us to make him a hundred percent.
You find it all through scripture. Jesus said, if you have not left father, mother, sons, daughters,
lands, and he goes on listening to follow me, if you haven't done that yet, you can't be my disciple.
This is all part of it. Problem is, it doesn't come out pretty. It's ugly when we have to
leave them many times. There will be days you will question yourself, what in the world
am I doing? Is this even God? I mean, if this was God, why do we have all
the noise around it? Why do we have all the garbage, the opposition? What is this even God?
And you, there will be days you will question yourself. This might not even be God. I might
be totally deceived. But then there's the moment he pulls you back into his presence.
And you're overwhelmed and you're surrounded.
And your heart begins to burn within you. And you know that you know, that you know,
that you know, this is God. This is God.
And you will light up from the inside out with the determination, with a focus,
with a renewed sense of vigor, with a renewed goal. It will light up from the inside of you
that will literally repel all the opposition that's trying to choke that out.
But that only, my observation, that only happens for the people who get into the presence of God
and just lay it all out. Say, God, I can't do this. God, look at me. I'm a mess. God,
how can I accomplish anything for you? And his presence comes and he reassures,
here is where you're going. Here is what you're going to do. Quit questioning it.
Follow me. I will make you whatever you need to be.
That produces that martyr covenant level of commitment. One goal surfaces out of that.
God, the only thing I'm concerned about is that I'm pleasing you, that you're happy,
that I'm doing what you asked me to do. That's the only thing I'm concerned about.
I don't care what people say. I don't care what people think. My reputation,
I'm going to be like Jesus. I'm going to make myself with no reputation. The only one I need
reputation with is you. And with every death you die on a daily basis, love and intimacy with
God grows. And one overwhelming focus comes to the front.
And yes, it's Jesus. But you know what Jesus said? He came to restore us to the Father.
The deeper we get into this, the more the focus gets on Jesus, but the Holy Spirit
directs to Jesus and Jesus directs on to the Father. For the Father, God so loved the world
that He gave, Jesus said, I'm here to restore you with the Father.
And that goal, that focus, and He'll give you a fellowship, a koinonia of like-minded people
who will walk this with you. And they probably won't be a lot of them.
He'll gather some around every person. And you'll be like-minded and you'll walk this out together.
I really believe the Spirit of God is standing in front of us today saying,
are you going to make a covenant level commitment?
Are we going to commit to Him in all of our life the way He has committed to us?
Are we going to commit to Him the way He has committed to us?
This starts out by something He wrote to the church. He said to the church,
Behold, I stand at your door and I knock.
He's talking to the church, not unsaved. He's talking to the church.
Behold, I stand at the door and I knock.
If any man will open the door, I will come in and I will commune and I will
sup within the King James says, there will be a oneness formed if you'll let me in.
Why would he say that to a church? Because not everybody lives in a covenant level commitment.
He is worthy of our extravagant giving.
He is worthy of you making a commitment to Him
that is so overwhelmingly extravagant that I give you all of me.
Whatever you lay your finger on, you ask for it. It's yours.
He's worthy of that. And his question for us this morning is,
will you make a covenant level commitment with me because Jesus made a covenant level
commitment toward you? Will you open your heart to that and say, come on in and sit down.
Let's get the details of this figured out because what you, as you've committed to me,
I'm committing to you because you're worthy of it. You're worthy.
That's what extravagant giving comes out of. That mindset,
that commitment. So if you need to leave, you can. I'm going to encourage you hang around just for
a bit, at least. You need to answer that question. You need to answer that question.
You need to find a place of prayer, whether it's the front, whether it's seats,
whether it's on the floor, and say, God, where am I at with you and my commitment level to
you? Am I living in full covenant commitment with you or reaffirm it? God, I am living in full
covenant commitment to you. It's a choice I've made and I will give you whatever you want.
And if I'm missing it any place, point it out to me and I will sacrifice it on the altar for you.
Don't leave before you've hammered some of these things out
because he is worthy. He is worthy of far more than we can ever offer. So Lord, we offer our all.