So we're going to talk about... I've got two Sundays left on tithing. This Sunday,
next Sunday, next Sunday, I have a couple of testimonies I want people to share.
One was sent in and another one live one. So if you have questions, please get them to me.
I want to try to answer everything before we're done. But what we're dealing with this morning
is do we tithe on the net income or the gross income? So we're at the end of this series.
It's the first tithing series. I've given series I've done since we're in Minnesota and that's 21
years, over 21 years now. So it's not like we harp on this, but it is something that really needs to
be understood. One of the major things a pastor is supposed to instill into his people is how
to live the Christian life. That's one of our jobs. And this series is... tithing series is an
example of that. As a church, we are not a special event. We're not a special meeting. We're not a
conference. We're a church. That means that we walk this out with you. We've been here 21 years.
We've walked some things out with people and that's part of what a church is supposed to do.
You can go to a special event like Mary's speaking at a conference. Some of our ladies
are up there this weekend speaking at a conference in Duluth and there's all kinds of women there and
then when that conference is over and all those women go home and they have problems. Who's going
to counsel them? Anybody from that conference? Who's going to visit them in the hospital?
Anybody from that conference? Who is going to help them get through the tough times with
their family or whatever? Anybody from that conference? Who's going to say, hey, let's figure
this out. Let's go to God and let's hear what He's saying about your situation. Anybody from
that conference? No, it's a conference. You go, you receive what you get. But long term,
it's the church's job to walk it out and to make it happen. Our job is to cover the
broad stroke of life and not just come, dump a load, and disappear. Even though what Bruce
Fanata said last weekend was really good. Good impartation into us. But you know what? He's
not here today by day, week by week, month by month, plan that building, believe for that
building, keep pursuing that building. He's not here for that. That's a church's job. That's
pastor's job. That's our job. And this series on tithing and financial giving
is part of learning how to live out our Christian life. Tithing is one of the most underrated
tools that God has given to the church. It's probably one of the most underrated of all of
them in full gospel, charismatic, Pentecostal circles. It's just not dealt with. We like to
deal with other things, but not so much with this. Learning and understanding this principle
is literally one of the major keys to living overcomingly. Many times people will come to
me with a problem saying, God's just not moving in our life. And the first question I'll ask
is, are you tithing? Well, it has nothing to do with it. No, it has everything to do with it.
We don't understand the importance of it. And hopefully by I'm done this morning,
you'll understand it even more. But it never ceases to amaze me how that Christians will
have problems. They're not getting prayers answered. Nobody's getting healed. The checkbook
is just always underwater. There's no peace. We're having demonic issues, whatever.
And we will run around the world to get help. But we refuse to do what we know we're supposed to do.
We know we're supposed to tithe. I mean, if we haven't gotten that in these first six,
seven messages, you don't want to see it. I mean, it's pretty plain in Scripture.
We know we're supposed to do it. We don't do it. But then when we don't get answers,
oh, we got to get somebody bigger and better to pray for us. No, maybe you actually just need to obey
and get the process flowing. So our job is, as your pastors, is to emphasize to teach you
how to do it. And some of you get aggravated with me because I'm not going to do it for you.
I refuse to raise a bunch of spiritual babies and children. I will try to instruct you
to make sure you know what to do. That's why I've written so many booklets. We've got 33, 35 booklets,
something like that, covering all kinds of topics. So you know what to do. Once you know what to do,
I'm not going to do it for you. Now, come alongside you and help you, but I'm not going
to work harder than you for you to get your answer. We got to grow up. We got to mature.
That's part of the church's job to make that happen. So we have to answer questions. I've always
said the church has to answer every question we can answer. And those we can't, we got to find the
answer to. This is one of the questions right here. Get asked that a lot. So let's jump in
and let's talk about this. Here was the questions I wanted to answer in this series. This came
out in the first message. God wants us to have money and financial resources. Has he provided
ways for us to get it? Yeah, we talked about that. Is tithing one of these ways? Yep, it is.
What is tithing offering in alms? Now you know. Is tithing in the New Testament? Yes,
over and over and over. Do we give because of the Old Testament law has nothing to do with
the law. It has to do with Abraham and the covenant. Are we under a curse if we don't tithe? No,
we're not under the law. We are not under a curse if we don't do it. How do we get enough money
so I can afford to do this? Dean just told you. And I've told you before. Start. Start some place.
Give a buck a week every week. Give five bucks. Give ten bucks. And believe God to increase it.
And it'll only take a matter of time. You'll be giving him the tithe. He's not
legalistic. He just wants to see effort. Why should we give? Well, we talked about the four
reasons why tithing is necessary. We'll rehearse them a little bit this morning.
Why does God want us to tithe? Well, it kind of goes with the previous question. All goes
together. Should we expect to receive from our giving? What was the Bible say? Absolutely.
It's seed time and harvest. Absolutely. Giving is part of being a disciple.
Talked about that. So here's the last one. Do I give on my gross or net income? Well,
we're going to hit that this morning. Do I tithe in my benefits at work? We'll hit that this
morning. What do we need to watch out for? We'll hit part of that this morning and finish
that next week. And does God actually need my money? We'll hit that next week.
So those were all the questions that I said. Well, we're going to have to answer these.
So hopefully we'll get everything done. I think we've got most of them done.
So here's the one we're looking at this morning. Do I give on my gross income or my net income?
I presume everybody knows the difference, but gross income is the total amount of your
employee. It's the total amount your employee gives to you. Whether it's pay, benefits,
everything together, that's your gross. Your take home is usually considered your net.
Now, if you want to get more specific, you go to your tax return, etc. But that's kind of a
broad explanation. Do I give on my gross income or do I give on my net income? Well,
I'm going to show you what the scripture says, and then you're going to have to
figure it out from there. Like I said, tithing began with Abraham. It's not a law thing,
but the law opened up and developed on what Abraham started. God saying, and this is what
I want to see in tithing. He said that in the law. Doesn't mean tithing started in the
law. It started under Abraham. It was explained in the law. So let's look at a few scriptures
here. Some of these are reruns. Abraham tithed on the gross. He's with Melchizedek here in Genesis 14,
and they blessed the God most high who delivered your enemies into your hand. That's Melchizedek
talking. They were standing there taking communion and honoring covenant. They blessed
God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
And Abraham, the he there is Abraham, and Abraham gave him, him as Melchizedek, a tithe of all.
Abraham tithed on the gross. He did not tithe on the net. He looked at all of it
and gave him a tenth of it. Now later in the scripture, and sometimes people bring this up,
they said, well, yeah, but later they took their expenses out. Yeah, but that wasn't for the tithe.
Now the king of Sodom said to Abraham, give me the persons and take the goods for yourself.
Abraham said, no, I'm not going to go there because then you're going to say,
you made me rich. So apparently there was a lot of goods. He said, I will not take anything
that is yours. However, the thing I do want taken out of what's left is the young, only
what the young men have eaten, the warriors, the soldiers, and the portion of the men who
went with me. Let them take their portion and he names three of the leaders. Let them take their
portion and let them get back, you know, what they ate. Pull that out. The rest stays with you.
I don't want it. It stays with you. That had nothing to do with the tithe. That was Abraham
settling up with the king of Sodom. So don't confuse those two. Abraham tithed on the
gross. Okay, let's move on. And all, this is Leviticus 27, explanation of tithe. And all the tithe,
or tenth, I put the tenth in part there in parentheses, all the tenth of the land,
whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree is the Lord's. It is holy to the
Lord. All of the tithe, one tenth of everything is the Lord's. Well, that's speaking gross.
Verse 31, if a man wants to, at all, to redeem any of his tithes, he has to add one fifth or 20%
of the original amount of the tithe to it. What that meant is this. I can't afford to give it
when it's supposed to be given. So I'm going to hold it back and do with it what I want,
and I'll give it later. And God said, yeah, you can do that. You can redeem it that way.
He said, but when you give it later, you got to give 20% more than what the original tithe was.
So if you hold back 100, when you finally give that 100, now turned into 120.
I mean, that's just the explanation for them. That's what God was saying.
And concerning the tithe, the 10% of the herd of the flock,
of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.
So they ran all the calves through the chute. One, two, three, they counted them with their rod.
One, two, three, four, number 10, pull that one out. That's God's. One, two, three,
number 10, pull that out. That's God's. Giving on the gross, not on the net.
And one other thing, and he shall not inquire, when you're counting the calves,
he shall not inquire whether it's a good one or a bad one, nor shall he exchange it.
If he exchanges it and gets caught, then both the one that was supposed to be given and the
one that he exchanged it for are now God. Shall be holy. You don't redeem anything.
So in other words, you're running them through the chute and the tenth one is like, oh man,
I want to keep that one. Gorgeous animal. So I'm going to flip that one for this one.
We'll give number nine, not number 10. God says, no, I got both nine and 10.
This is the holy stuff you're dealing with. Don't mess with me. It's kind of what God's saying.
So God is explaining how he wants this to work. Well, what he explained there
is on the gross income. Say, let's look at Deuteronomy.
Thou shalt surely tithe all of the increase or all the increase of thy seed
that the field bringeth fourth year by year.
Not part of the increase. Not after the expenses. Give the increase. Tithe all the increase. He's
talking gross income. At the end of three years, now this is the third tithe. Remember,
they had three different tithes. I'll explain that here in a bit. Just to remind you, we
talked about it, but this is referring to the third tithe. Every year, they gave 10%. Every other
year, they gave 10%. Second year, they gave 20% because there was a second tithe. Third year,
they gave 10%. And another tithe, which brought it up to 20. The third tithe. This is referring
to that. At the end of three years, Thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase in the same
year and shall lay it up within thy gates. This is talking about gross, not net. We're going to
explain that in a bit. But remember here the word increase. That's very important. We know tithe
means 10%. Now, he's giving us some idea of how we look at it. Increase, okay? Moving on to Deuteronomy,
when Thou hast made an end of tithing, all the tithes of thine increase. Again, he's dealing
with increase. Here's the, remember the three tithes. The first one went to the temple or the
church, the Levites, the priests. Second one paid the people's expenses for the pilgrimages.
Remember, they had to go twice a year to Jerusalem as a family and show up at Jerusalem.
Well, that all cost money. God said, that's okay. I'll count it as a second tithe there. You do that
to pay for your expenses. And then the third tithe every three years went for the poor and the land.
So he's letting us off easy. I can't give 10%. They gave a whole lot more. Besides, every time they
sinned, they had to take an animal in and give it away and get it sacrificed to cover their sin.
And every seven years, these were all farmers basically, every seven years they had no crop at all
because they had to leave the land rest. You add all the things up that God required of the
Israelites. They were giving over 50% of their income back to God. And you know one of the
reasons they are so hated around the world? Because Jews are always wealthy.
Well, how can you give 50% away and be wealthy? That's how God does it.
He'll just keep piling it on. That you can give half away and it's like, well, I still got way
more than I need. That's how God does it. So the New Testament agrees with that. First day of
the week, Sunday, that's when they met to have church, store up, lay up in store, bring it in
as God has prospered him. So prosperity is another way to, okay, how much have you prospered
this last week? Tie the courting to it. The word prosperity means you've succeeded.
You've succeeded in business affairs. How much have you succeeded? Okay, well that could indicate
gross, could indicate net depending upon how you look at it. So let's break it down. Tithing
is giving one tenth of your income. Well, there's the problem. What is considered my income?
Well, the scripture we read in Leviticus 27, every tenth animal that passes under the rod
is God's. You keep nine, I get one. Well, that was dealing with the gross. In Deuteronomy,
it talks about tithing the increase. The NIV uses the word produce, a tenth of all that your
fields produce. Well, that would be gross income. The amplified says a tithe of the yield that your
seed produced. Well, how much did you, you know, we, I grew up in a farm and every year varies,
but you always want to know how many bushels per acre you're getting. What's the yield?
Well, when you figure out the yield, you just figured out the tithe.
Oh, awesome year. We got four, you know, we're on western side of North Dakota where it's dryland
farming and they didn't have the techniques they're using now. So, if you could get 40 bushels an
acre on wheat, that was like, we got 40 bushels an acre average this year. Tithe all the yield
of your seed produced by your field each year. So, what's the tithe of the 40? It's four
bushels. Yeah, but we got expenses, pastor. You should have told God that.
Because he's not taking in expenses here. Tithe all of your increase. Now, personally,
I believe it's saying gross income and I'm going to keep talking about it and give you why.
You're going to have to figure it out. This is between you and God. This is not me laying
down a rule saying this is what you got to do. No, this is between you and God.
We're not under the law anymore. We're in the New Testament now. We decide how we live for God.
So, you're going to have to figure it out. But he's using pharma rancher language because
he's applying it. That's basically what they were back then. But the same principle applies
to the wage earner, the 40 hour a week person. So, let's talk about both of them.
In there, it just says what I just said. I should have said that. Should have turned it a little
bit before. Let me go back and go over this. This is a pharma rancher language. As a
pharma rancher, every 10th animal would be gross income of the business.
And just stop and let that soak in a little bit. Gross income of the business.
Wow. You apply it to employees. Increase can speak of either gross or net income,
depending upon, again, how you look at it. Produce and yield are speaking of your gross
or net, depending upon how you look at it. So, we're going to take that apart a little bit.
And especially for employees, but even for business people. Well, what is the increase?
What did I actually increase or produce or what was actually yielded?
Profit or loss is not the language that God used when he was referring to giving and tithing.
Profit and loss takes us into tax returns, end of year taxes, things like that.
Shift your head out of profit and loss. The language that God used was increase, produce,
yield, not profit or loss. Because business people especially tend to go to profit or loss.
So, let's talk about this with the wage earner. Not a business person, wage earner.
You work for a company, they pay you X amount a week, salary or weight or hourly, what everything.
Everything you get paid, including your benefits, increases you somehow. It produces in your life,
it yields something that helps you. Those are the three words that talks about tithing.
And I know that very few Christians tithe on their benefits at work.
Some are real faithful to tithe on their take on pay. Very few tithe on their benefits because they
don't see it as producing in their life. Really, so your health insurance doesn't produce anything
for you ever? Why don't you just tell the company then to say, I don't need health insurance,
just cancel it? Oh, I never do that. So it is producing something even if nothing more than
peace of mind. It's yielding something, it's increasing you. Why do people like government
jobs versus private sector jobs? The benefits. Government jobs tend to have lots more benefits
than the private sector. So when people say, well, I'm going to take this job,
pay is not quite as good, but the benefits also the benefits are increasing you somehow.
Oh, yeah. Then according to Scripture, we need to tithe on the benefits.
Just think, not expecting any amens right here because it might be one of these things are
like, what? Just think about it. They're the three words God bases everything on.
Let's go back. I'll leave those three words up. I think I skipped. Here it is. Skip the slide.
I say God views the hourly or salary wage earner as tithing on everything, gross and benefits.
And here's my reasoning. Of course, the three words lays it out, but here's my reasoning.
Key question to help both an hourly person and a business person. Who controls or owns it?
Now, don't get super spiritual on me. Say, well, God owns it all. I don't know.
Who controls your income? When the federal government comes knocking at your business
door, are they looking for God or you? They're probably looking for you.
So kind of flip that into your mind. Who owns your hourly wage? You're working
for whoever. Who do they say controls or owns what is going on there? You do.
Even your withheld taxes, your insurances, your benefits. Who is considered the beneficiary
by the company you work for? You. You're the one. If we control it on the earth, so to speak,
we own it. So what it's giving to us, whatever prosperity it's giving in our life, is ours.
And see, that's why sometimes people like to go to a company and work for a company for an hourly
wage rather than being a business owner because the company by law has to provide
certain benefits. A business owner doesn't always have the money, especially if they're
starting the business to provide the benefits. And it's like, well, I got a family of five. I
can't go without health insurance. So I'm going to go get a job where they have to provide it.
So it is producing something in your life, isn't it? How much is it costing the company to provide
that? How much is it costing you that they take out of your paycheck before you bring it home?
Those are all increased to you.
Even the taxes you pay, well taxes, I mean that's just expenses. That can't benefit me at all.
Really? Try not paying them for a few years. See what happens.
There is an upside to paying taxes. You stay out of jail. I mean it's just a small thing,
but there is an upside to doing it. If we control it, technically it's ours. It's benefiting us. I had
one guy, he was trying to, I had talked a couple messages in Colorado about tithing, and he came
up to me after the second one. He said, well, he said, pastor, because I never got into it as
deep as we are. I just kind of laid out some principles. He said, well, pastor, he said,
the way I look at it, God owes me money. Every time the plate goes by, I should be taken it
out. Not putting it in. Which told me, number one, yeah, you don't understand it. You don't get it,
and the benefits, obviously, of it are not active in your life. I said, well, how do you figure that?
Well, he went to tax return thinking. He said, well, my tax return, I lose money every year.
So technically, I'm not making a thing. I said, okay, so let's talk business.
That new skidster you bought for your business, which you deducted on your taxes, did that increase
your business in any way? Oh, yeah, that's helped a lot. Well, then the money you spent for that
actually counts as income. Yeah, but it's an expense. I'm not talking tax return. I'm talking
God. He gave you $60,000 to go buy that skidster. You're saying that doesn't benefit me at all. I
don't have pay taxes tied on that $60,000. Well, then give away the skidster. It's not doing
you any good, right? It's not yielding anything, producing anything in your life.
What about that office buyer? What about that warehouse you're using to house all your stuff?
This person was in the trade, so he had a big, you know, he had stuff and he had a house stuff
and so forth. Well, that's all right off. I'm losing money every year. I said, are you?
I said, they haven't thrown you out. You're renting it, right? Yep, I'm renting it. They
haven't thrown you out yet. Nope, still there making my payments and where you get
the money to make the payments. You're getting money someplace to make the payments on your
storage. Yeah, but that's tax deductible. Yeah, but the money coming in from God's perspective
is someplace that's being produced and it's increasing your life to the point you now
can store your machinery in a rented storage. It's producing something in your life, isn't it?
Huh? You still with me? So, the time we were done talking, he was very confused.
I hadn't won him over yet because I hadn't gotten as thorough as I did with this series,
but he was very confused. He's saying, so you're telling me I'm supposed to pay
tithes on, if a customer writes me a check for $15,000, I'm supposed to pay tithes on
the 15? I can't take out my... and then he went, this is... he said, I've always thought I take
out my house payment, I take out clothes for the kids, I take out my food, I take... and by the
time he's done, he's like $5,000 in the red. And I said, your food, does that benefit you at all?
Does your food produce anything in your life? Your kids having clothes on rather than
running to school naked, does that help at all? Who gave you the money to do that?
Because it's producing something in your life. Well, that was just like he was blinking on,
because he thought he had it figured out. Just remember these three words. That's what God bases
it on. If it's increasing us, if it's producing for us, if it's yielding for us, it's considered
something God, according to his language, he wants it tithed on. Do your benefits at work
increase your life? Does your house produce anything for you? Does your car yield anything for you?
Clothes, paying your taxes. I'm going to save that one for later. So hopefully I don't forget,
I'll come back to it. I don't feel like I'm supposed to throw it in here. For the average
wage earner, everything that we get as income, whether it's tangible or it's being paid for
by the company. Half of your Social Security Medicare is paid for by the company if you're a wage
earner. Does that benefit you, produce anything for you, increase you at all? Talk to a self-employed
person, they'll say, we got to pay 15.3 percent. We got to pay the whole shebang.
Wage earners only pay seven point something. So the other seven, that's free money being
given to you. It just never gets in your hand. It goes straight to the government for you. If
the business didn't do it for you, you'd get to pay it. So I'm just trying to get you to
think here this morning. It increases you. So let's talk about the business person, the
company. Remember the three words? God never gave different words for businesses. It's how the
scripture defines it. So the difference with a self-employed or owner of a company is how
you look at those three words. Do you see the increase, the produce, the yield? Do you see it
as coming to you personally or is this the company that's being increased or it's producing in the
company? There's a difference. And it's looked at both ways and you're going to have to figure
out how you're going to look at it. Typically, it's the business owner who asks, was this
gross or net? Not the employee, because the employee might forget a bunch of things that
actually are increasing their life. But it's the business owner who's concerned because...
Well, I talked to my friend not that long ago who's a farmer renter now and I was talking
about how do you ever get to the point where you're borrowing almost a million dollars in the
spring to plant your crops and pay your rents, get everything going. And you can actually sleep
at night. He said, you just grow into it. Every year it increases and increases and increases.
And 15 years down the road, you look back and go, yeah, we used to only borrow 50. Now we're
up to 250, 300. And another 10, 15 years later, you look back and go, remember when we only
borrowed $250,000 every spring? Now we're borrowing 650. He said, it just sneaks up on you.
You just keep doing what you have to do. I said, well, what do you get a year? Income.
He said, well, our expenses are... He said, this is with... And there was two of them. It was
him and his son who were farming. He says, and we can't live on what my parents used
to live on. He said, have you noticed things have gone up? I said, yeah, notice that.
He says, well, I'm not talking about machinery. I'm not talking about feeding the cattle.
I'm not talking about rents or fertilize any of that. I'm talking about what do we need to live?
He said, and I won't tell you what he said. We need X amount to live. And actually, I thought,
well, yeah, that's right in the ballpark. He said, so when you add that in, we need
a million three, a million four every year to pay all the expenses of the farm and live.
I said, what are your expenses? Right at a million. He said at the end of the year,
it's always around a million, a little above, a little below. It's always right in that area,
depending upon how many breakdowns you had and et cetera. It's always in that area.
So when you say, okay, a million four or five is what you get a year. Yeah, it's in the area.
It's all spent, but that's what we get. We were supposed to tie it in a million four,
a million five. A business owner goes, how am I going to do that?
That's 150,000. No, we take all the expenses out, and then what's left, we'll tie it on that.
Okay, that's between you and God. Like I said, some of you are beginning to frown at me. Don't
frown at me. I'm not telling you what you need to do. This is between you and God.
All I'm saying is from God's perspective, he wants your goal to be to tie the gross,
not net. Now it's not legalism. You're not going to hell if you don't.
But he wants you to go for that. Okay, following me? So it depends upon how you look at that.
If you see it as personal, everything that comes in on my farm, the million five,
is personal gain to me somehow. Well, but it's not because I paid $200,000 for fuel.
How is that personal gain? Well, what if you didn't have the $200,000 to pay for the fuel?
How would have you put your crop in? How would you take it off? And how would you
got the truck to town to pick up the fertilizer?
See, it did increase you to have that $200,000 to pay for the fuel, didn't it?
See the looks on your faces. I wish I could pop that up on the screen.
But you have to figure out, is this company, is it personal, what is it? So let's take it apart
even a little bit more. If you're self-employed, who controls it? Who owns this? Now, yeah,
ultimately we know God owns everything, but for the sake of talking earthly stuff here now,
who owns it? Well, the friend I talked to, he owns the farm and he's in the process
trying to give it to the son or get it to the son. Well, who owns it? You do. Well, that means
everything attached to that is increasing, producing, is yielding for you because you own the farm.
It's not that the farm is a separate entity from you and you get a paycheck from the farm.
This is sole proprietorship, might be corporation, but let's say it's sole proprietorship.
And what the farm earns, you're over both. This is sole proprietorship. And if you get behind
on taxes and the government guy shows up, you don't say, he doesn't go, I want to talk to the
farm, not you because you're not responsible for the taxes, the farm is. He doesn't do that.
He says, I want to talk to the owner of the farm. Well, that's you. So everything that farm
ultimately produces or yields benefits you. Right?
You can say amen to that at least. Most small businesses are sole proprietorships. We're
personally owned corporations and stuff, but most small business are typically sole proprietor,
self-employed. One person owns or controls it, which means everything that comes in is prospering
you. And on your taxes, you deduct all kinds of expenses. If you didn't have the money to
actually buy or pay for what you're deducting on your taxes, if God didn't give you enough
increase to pay for that piece of equipment, you wouldn't have that piece of equipment.
That piece of equipment is prospering your company or whatever you're doing, which means that is
increasing you. I'm just making you think. Does the new vehicle increase or produce anything?
Does the electricity for the business, the business insurance, the building cost?
Does that produce, you know, you got a building. Well, it costs us a lot of money.
Well, get rid of it. Well, we couldn't run our business without it. So it is producing
something in your life, isn't it? It's increasing you because without it you can't run your business.
Don't mind about how much it costs. Get rid of it. Well, I got to have it to run my
business. So God is giving you the money to pay for the building. That's increased to you.
Right? What if you're publicly, you're a corporation,
public corporation. Well, now you've got a group of people controlling this. It's,
you might not be on the stock market yet, but you've got investors and you've got a group of
people on the board and you've got to keep the board happy. If you're personally working
as an employee of a corporation, the tithe is, again, like an employee. What you receive from the
corporation, that's increasing you. If your business is a closed corporation, because I don't think
we have any public corporations here. I don't think I have to go any deeper in that one,
do I? If we do, come talk to me later. But I don't think we have any publicly
traded corporations or publicly funded corporations. But we might have some closed
corporations. It's usually a small group of people, sometimes Christians, sometimes a closed
corporation is a family-owned corporation. It's a business where the family has put the business
under corporation. Here I say this, consider having the corporation tithe annually on how
it's increased, because the way corporation works, all the money flows into the corporation
and then the family is paid salaries out of the corporation and whatever's left over stays
in the corporation and then the corporation has to pay its own taxes on what's left there.
We'll let the corporation pay tithes. Have you ever heard of that?
I mean, it's increasing the corporation, let the corporation pay tithes.
Just saying, it's a thought, think about it.
Well, somebody's going to say, we shouldn't have to tithe on the income that is used
for expenses. It's not doing anything for us. Well, number one, we shouldn't have to tithe.
That concept of tithing is wrong. You don't have to tithe. We're not under the law.
But there are reasons for tithing. Test time, what are the four reasons for tithing?
We've been over this number of times. So between all of us, we should be able to
remember it. What are the four reasons for tithing? Why does God in the New Testament want us to tithe?
It's a test of our love or our heart to provide for the kingdom.
Obedience, someone said it's obedience. If you love me, you will obey me. So obedience comes in under love.
Love, test of our heart, provide for the kingdom.
Give back what belongs to him. It actually all belongs to him, but he asked for the tenth of it.
Why does he want that tenth? The last one is?
Provide for the kingdom. No, my mistake, that's not the last one. That was the second one.
Provide for the kingdom. I got the last one of my notes.
Test of your heart. Provide for the kingdom. Give back to God what's his.
God says there's something in it for you if you'll do this.
God uses it to open the door for prosperity for us. He uses it to open the door for prosperity
for us. And there's... I mean, the Old Testament scriptures are good on it, but the New Testament
are even better. I mean, when God says, just check this out.
Test me sometime. Bring your tithes and I'll open the windows of heaven and dump a blessing on you.
You will not have a way to contain it all. That's Old Testament. I mean, that's not a bad reason to
try it. Yeah? So you don't have to tithe. We're not under law, but there's many good reasons to
do it. We've talked about them. I don't want to go over it. Number two, do your expenses increase,
produce, yield anything for you? Of course they do. Now, let me just give you my experience.
My experience, ministers are self-employed. We take deductions on our taxes. We're considered
sole proprietors, blah, blah, blah, blah. I believe what Paul said about the things of
abounding and being abased or having more than enough or not having enough. I believe
what he has said about them. In my perspective, both are good. We love abounding more,
but being abased or having a really, really tight financial picture is good for us during
certain seasons of life. So let me explain to you why I say that. Number one, it helps us learn
both sides, but I will say this. When you're abased and you just are scraping by, that's
where you actually learn faith. That's where you learn it. Dear God, if he doesn't step in,
we're in trouble. You know what? You're going to start exercising your faith in those times
way, way more. You're going to start studying faith. You're going to start trying to grow in it
way, way more than if you've got two years worth of money laying in the bank and everything is fine.
You're going to depend on that. You're not going to be walking around claiming things by faith
unless you've already learned, you know, things can get tight. So we've got to learn
faith and we've got to stay in faith. When you've got two years extra for your whole
business laying in the bank, stay in faith. Keep calling it, keep pushing it. Do not back out of
faith. You back out of faith, all of a sudden that starts evaporating. Stay in faith. So
personal example. In 1989, I had a friend who died in Colorado and they wanted me to do the
funeral. The church out there was about three years old at that point, really struggling to survive
financially. And I had a drive to Greeley and up to Estes Park in the mountains and back to
northern Denver, about 145 mile round trip. And I did not have the money to pay for the gas
for that trip. I had to put the gas for that trip on credit card because I didn't have the
money to pay for the gas. Okay? Technically, that gas was an expense to me. And at the end
of the year, when I did taxes, I would deduct the cost of that gas. But do you know what he
taught me that weekend? Even what you think are expenses that you deduct in your taxes?
Somehow producing your life, don't they? So, tithe on what you need for gas in the vehicle.
Well, I'll write that off. Well, you don't have to write it off if you don't have it.
So, believe God to have it. Tithe on it and then you can write off the expense in your
taxes. I learned that. You say, why did you learn that? Because we were in an abased
situation. We were so close to going under. That's when the flesh tries to figure out
how to get out of tithing. Surely, God wouldn't want me to tithe with the financial situation
we're in. No, you're actually the one who needs it the most. Because there's promises tied to
it. And if you'll be faithful to it, you won't be in that situation for the rest of your life.
Tires on your car, heat and electricity in the house, etc. They actually produce something in
your life. I learned it that weekend. So, things that we actually have to
fath for, we learn how to do that when we have to fath for it.
That's why we do our children a huge injustice if we give them everything and not make them
believe or earn or work for some things. You just keep handing it to them. They're going to come
into adulthood and have a horrible shock. Where is the money supposed to come from?
You failed as a parent. You should have taught them that when they were early teenagers.
You're going to have to set your alarm clock, go out and get a job and work.
That's where the money comes from. I thought you would give it to me.
Well, at some point that ends, hopefully. Some parents it doesn't end with, but I mean
you learn certain scriptural principles when you are shoved in a corner and it's like,
this is not God. So, I'm going to learn some things here and come out of this situation.
So, let's make a run for the end here. No one can serve two masters. You're either
going to be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Notice, love one and despise the other and then he ties love and despising to God and money.
It is possible to love money. That's why Paul said the love of money is the root of all evil.
You want evil to break loose in your house? Love your money more than what God's asking
you to do and don't tithe. It is the root of all evil. It will just break out every direction.
No servant is this how the Amplified reads it. No servant can serve two masters. He will
either hate one and love the other. He'll stand by and be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon or riches or anything in which you trust and you rely on.
A couple real quick examples. Where this church is at now and Red Lake being an outreach for us,
there are certain things we have to do. I have to run up there today and there's stuff we're
going to be doing service tonight and stuff. And sometimes you got to spend money to do the
stuff to buy what you need to do. Where the church is at now, it's like, cool, we'll just
right check out and go get what we need and go up and take care of it. In 2011,
I believe it was 11, when God asked Mary and I and Jim and the band to go to North Dakota,
hold some special meetings, not in a church, alongside a church, to try to kick it back
into gear. That was our assignment to try to kick that church back into gear.
We didn't have the money to do that.
That was Jim was living in Denver. We flew him up. We had a rent room in a motel.
We all stayed at people's houses. I think most of us paid our own expenses.
It was tight. So we were believing God was going to supply the money.
Because when it's tight, that's when you actually go, I better use my faith.
When you got plenty, you just pulled the checkbook out. But when it's tight, it's like,
you know, I probably should start believing for something here. So when it was over,
my brother who lives there, he was part of what we were doing. He asked, he said,
so how did the finances turn out for this? I said, awesome.
He said, really? I said, yeah, we broke even. Now, he's a businessman.
I said, we broke even. Our major expenses all got paid. Well, how much you get out of it?
Okay. Now, listen, brother, I'm going to talk to you about ministry now.
This isn't a business venture. This is ministry.
When you step out and do a ministry kind of thing, and you actually break even,
you rejoice, don't you, Jim? Because many times you pay for it comes out of your checkbook.
I said, we broke even. This is great. You know what he said? I don't think I could
live like that. Well, that's why you're not in the ministry and I am.
It was all expenses to us, but we were thankful for the money to pay the expenses. Here's my point.
There's a difference between a bounding and being a based. When you have the resources,
the decision can be made on whether God is asking you to do something or he's not asking
you. It's not made on the basis of money because you've got the money. When you don't have the
resources or fear, selfishness kind of thing gets in charge, the decision is often made on
the basis of money. Can we afford it? Not on whether God is asking you to do it or not.
Now go back to that scripture. No one can serve two masters. Well, we can't do this because we
don't have the money, but I thought you said God's asking us to do it. Well, he is, but we don't have
the money, so we're not doing it. Who are you serving? God or money? Which one are you serving?
You're serving money. Money is telling you what you can and you can't do.
Now worry not, faith people, somebody's going to say this.
Well, pastor, that's when you need to step out in faith. 100% agreement with you.
So let me put the shoe off of my foot and slip it onto yours.
You know that number that God dropped in your heart that you're supposed to give
to the building fund? Well, yeah, we can't afford that. You need to step out in faith.
Don't tell me to wear the faith shoe and you're dancing around out here and you don't
have to put it on. God's going to ask you to put it on too and I'm in agreement with you.
When God says do something, do it. We made that trip. We didn't have the money.
Mary and I were going to pay for that trip out of our own account.
That's how you looked at it. You ministered. The word minister means to serve at your own
expense. God told us to do it. We're doing it. So whether we have the money or not,
God told us to do it. We're doing it. And then you believe God to pay for it.
That's serving God. Serving money is, well, we don't have the resources.
So I guess we just can't do it. You can't serve both. Well, I love God with all my
heart. We just don't have the money. Wait a second. He said money and love are tied
together when it comes to God. You either love God and obey Him or you love money and you despise God.
So when he asks us to do this building thing, it's like, well,
to begin with, I lost sleep over that. It's like, are you serious, God?
Multi-million dollar building? My flesh was going, there's no way. There's no way. This is stupid.
Don't even try. You're going to look stupid. No way. That's why we had like 10 or 15
confirmations. If you go back and watch that original message, we had like 10 or 15 different
confirmations. We're supposed to do this. Well, see now I'm going to decide what I love the most.
Am I going to love God enough to abandon? We don't have the money. God didn't care
whether we had the money or not. In fact, usually when he asks you to do something,
you don't have the money because that's how God works. So you stay in faith. Are we going to
do this? Or are we going to say we don't have the money so God, we can't do it?
Which one are you serving? Which one are you loving?
Huh. When we're abased is when we truly decide who we're going to serve, God or money.
When he asks you to build a building and you've got 50,000 in the building fund and he wants
100 times that, 10 times that, whatever, in our case 100 times that,
now you're going to decide who you truly serve. It's where we learn faith.
Side thought, that's why church boards that ultimately control the finances of the church
typically do a horrible job. Now some church boards are not bad, but most of the time
the church board that decides what the church is going to spend money on do a horrible job
because they look at it from the money side, not what God told them to do.
We can't afford it. We're businessmen. We know there's not enough money here,
but God told us to do it. Well, I'm sorry, we can't do it.
Well, there you go. Now you're going to be disobedient to God. Oh, but we love God.
That's not an issue. No, you actually love money more than God because you're not even
willing to believe for it. You're just going to next the whole project.
Serving God no matter what is learned in seasons when we don't have enough money,
but God tells us to do something and you find a way to do it anyway.
He will prove himself faithful in that. Now living in abundance and abounding has
lessons too. Here's the biggest one. Some of you might not like this. Here's the biggest
lesson I've seen that needs to be learned by people who have a lot of money.
Get out of your sense and reasoning and learn to follow the Holy Spirit.
Businessmen tend to be the worst at this. It has to make sense on paper or we're not doing it.
Where's God in all this? Get out of your head, follow the Spirit. You say,
why? Because the mind of the flesh which is sense and reasoning without the Holy Spirit is death.
That's why we have to follow the Spirit. Whether we're abased or we're abounding,
we have to follow the Spirit. So from my perspective, Scripture indicates tithing should
be done on the gross income. Some exceptions, corporations, especially a closed corporation
or private corporation. Bottom line is you. You will need to come to the conclusion of what
you're going to do. Entithing, giving offerings, giving a net, the gross, be extravagant,
give or whatever. Is it a heaven or hell issue? No, because we're not under law.
But it is a love issue. I mean that shows up in Scripture over and over. Paul flat
out said it. He said, I'm testing to see how much you love God by looking at your giving.
No, it's not a heaven or hell issue. Unless God commands you to do something and you rebelle
on him, well now it could become a heaven or hell issue. Not because of the money,
but because you rebelled. That's now the issue. But in and of itself, you say, well, I'm not
a tither. Am I going to hell? I don't know. I'm not the judge. Ask him.
Scriptureally, I don't think you are. But let me ask you a couple questions.
In the big picture of life, not just finances, in the big picture of life,
how is your marriage doing? How is your family doing? How is your health doing?
How is all this stuff going? Because see, financial giving affects it all. That's what
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9. Affects it all. So here's what I want to leave you with,
and we're not going to have a prayer line, so this is something you do take home and chew on.
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest
with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in
handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? This is Jesus talking.
And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property,
who will give you property of your own? Now there's a couple of questions here.
Jesus is saying, can I trust you?
Well, how is he going to figure that one out? He just told you.
I am going to give you physical financial money, wealth, and how you handle that will
tell me if I can trust you with the real riches. That's not the real riches, not the true riches.
How you deal with that will show me if you're trustworthy. His point is this,
there are the two questions. Here's his point. If we can't handle worldly wealth,
which includes money and tithing, if we can't do that correctly, we are disqualifying ourselves
for God's true riches. If you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property,
scripturally, the tithe doesn't belong to us, please, belongs to God.
You can't be trusted with property of your own. Now it's not talking physical property,
that's talking true riches that he referenced in there. We don't have the time to go into that.
What is true riches? But I can sum it up this way. It's anything that produces for eternity
is a true rich, true riches. But his point is if you can't handle the almighty dollar,
so to speak, do you ever wonder where that phrase comes from? The almighty dollar.
I thought he was the almighty. Oh no, it's the almighty dollar.
I mean, just think about that. It's like, yeah, we got that one out of order.
He's the almighty. The dollar is just this little piddly thing down here. But
he wants to trust us with true riches. Now notice this, no servant can serve two masters. He's
either going to hate the one, love the other. We read that. You cannot serve both God and money.
The Pharisees who loved money heard this and sneered at Jesus. What a fool. He's trying
to get our money. He said to them, you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men,
but God knows your heart. What is highly valued among men? He's talking to Pharisees who love money.
He could have said, what you love, which is money, that love of money is detestable in God's sight.
Money is not detestable, but the love of it is. God detests that. So the big question is,
can God trust us with money? We'll see financial giving and tithing and all kinds of stuff is
into that. Alms is all part of that. It's not just tithing. It goes way bigger than that.
James 2 says we're supposed to help our brother in need, not just pay for them, but actually
give them something to help them. Matthew 6 says focus on spiritual priorities over gaining wealth.
Seek ye first the kingdom and his righteousness, then these things will be added to you.
Which one are we speaking the most in our heart? What God wants or financial prosperity?
Matthew 6, don't worry about supplying your own needs. So literally when we're in that
with money, I mean, you ever think about that? He said, don't worry about it. I got it.
We don't have enough money for the house payment. I don't know what we're gonna do.
He's looking at me and saying, yeah, I can't trust you with money
because I just told you how to look at money and you refused to do it.
Trust me, not money. I'll get you the money for your house payment.
Walmart's hiring.
Go get a job. You see, you can't be serious. I am serious. I have people sit in my office who
are not working saying we can't afford our house. Get a job. Those who don't work should not eat.
Read that someplace. Get a job. Well, I don't like to work. Join humanity.
Do not love money. Don't focus on getting rich. First him of the sex.
Don't focus on getting rich. That's one of the ways God's measuring us to see if we know
how to handle money. Is money serving us? Or are we so focused on getting rich that now
we're serving it? If he can trust us with money, we cannot be focused on
I'm going to get rich. We have to be focused on I'm going to seek his kingdom first.
And I'll do my jobs down here. And if it turns out I get rich, so be it. But if I don't,
the correct order is don't try to focus on getting rich. It's wrong.
When you give, do it cheerfully. That's one of the rules he's looking at to say,
hey, can I trust you with money? You know that $100 you got in your bill full-throw in the offering?
Dear God, what? The whole thing? Can I rip it in half? Give the other half some different?
I ain't doing that. Now he just wants a cheerful giver. Oh, you want that? Cool.
Thank you, Jesus. I can give away $100 that I already was planning to spend. But it's
yours now. Glory to God. He's looking at that to see if he can give you a thousand dollars.
Lay ups for yourself treasures in heaven, not on earth. How do you do that by giving to the poor?
Matthew 6. Tied to your church. Matthew 23, 1 Corinthians 9, 1 Corinthians 16, Hebrew 7.
Pay your taxes. Matthew 22. Can I trust you with money?
When you file your taxes, he's watching. Pay your taxes.
That doesn't have anything to do with living in prosperity. That has everything to do with it.
Because for God to give you the true riches, he's watching how you handle money and finances.
You say, well, how are they connected? Well, when you get sick and you can't run your business
and it's starting to go backwards because it's not gaining income and you go to God to get
healed and nothing happens and you go to doctors and they say we're trying but we can't do much.
You know what you need right there? Some true riches. You need healing. You need a miracle.
And God's looking at you and saying, well, I can't trust you with one
because you keep ripping off the government. I told you, give Caesar what is Caesar's?
Pay your taxes. Show me that and I can give you some true riches here.
I mean, there are sometimes Christians we paint ourselves on our own corner.
Can God trust us? Boy, I was rattling around in my mind when Igor was talking about a
bride church this morning. Is God going to marry somebody he can't trust?
I wouldn't marry somebody I can't trust.
No wonder so many Christians struggle to get answers to prayer or get answers to promises in the word.
We've proven our self untrustworthy to God. He can't give us the true riches of the kingdom.
How do you fall in under that principle? Are you trustworthy to God?
Well, how would he know? By he's watching your finances. He gave all kinds of things in the
scripture that says this how you handle it and just stay in the New Testament if you
want. This how you handle your finances. He's watching to see if you do it that way.
If you do it that way, he trusts you with true riches. He trusts you. Are we trustworthy?
But pastor, I'm struggling so much financially I can't see how I could give a tithe.
Cool. We've all been there. Step out in faith and give five dollars a week every week
and believe for the income to come in that you can give 10 and work it up.
God said, test me on this. He loves to be tested whether he can come through for us or not.
Test him on it. But pastor, I don't trust the church. I've been hurt by the church.
I can't give 10% of the church. Church hurt me really bad.
Well, let me give you a news flash from this side of the fence.
If the church hurt you and it could have, I'd almost guarantee you've also hurt the church
with your mouth, with your gossip, with your attitude, with your criticism.
You've done the church damage. Well, the church hurt me. Well, what have you done?
You've hurt the church. So how about we all grow up and move on?
What about that for a concept? How about we all just grow up? Yeah, the church hurt me.
And you know what? Yeah, you hurt me too. And you hurt our endeavor. So how about I forgive you
and you forgive me? And we just move on, rather than just being locked down here going,
why can't I grow? Get over it. Grow. Or you'll be stuck the rest of your life.
Tithing, financial giving is one of the most underrated tools God has given us
to succeed in all of life. Every part of our life is touched by our tithe, our financial
giving, and whether he can trust us or not. So, whoa, now we've got five reasons
for tithing or financial giving. You listed the four. The fifth one is he's watching how we
handle earthly possessions to see if we're trustworthy to be given the true riches.
Many times the true riches are not active in Christians' lives. Oh, God never answers my prayers.
It's not like God's presence ever shows up in my house. I said, are you a tither?
Well, I don't see where they're connected. I do. He don't trust you.
You've proven you're untrustworthy. See, that had been a good spot for you to go.
Not to the thought that we're untrustworthy, but to the fact now you actually see your answer.
This is one of the answers why Christians don't live victoriously or overcomingly.
God doesn't trust this enough to give us what we need to do it. The true riches.
Because we don't trust God enough. We're full of fear. We're full of selfishness. We're
whatever. We don't trust God enough to give him what he's asking for.
See, time of harvest.
So that should give you something to chew on this week.
And you have to figure out, what is God asking you to do?
You may be legitimately in a position. There is absolutely no way I could afford to tithe.
It's okay. What is he asking you to do?
Because if you will prove yourself at least making the effort to be trustworthy.
What does scripture say? Hebrews 11, 6, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
Seek to do the right thing. Make the effort. God rewards effort. Make the effort and you
will find he will start rewarding that. And it won't take very long. It might take a year.
It might take two years, three years, depending upon how deep the hole is that you have already dug.
It won't take very long. You'll be going, oh yeah. Remember when we used to sweat bullets to give
five bucks a Sunday? That's nothing to us now. Why? Because you proved yourself trustworthy.
Keep growing. Keep growing. I'm done. This is for somebody, somebody's.
Don't put a limit on what God can ask of you concerning his property. Remember the covenant
thing? Everything I own technically is God's. I say I own it, but technically it's God's. The
whole earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Don't put a limit on how much you can
give. Take the limit off and make it a goal. God's asking some of us to give $10,000, $50,000,
and this is not a bidding war. I'm trying to say in our head we've said I will never give more than
$100 one time. Well, you got yourself in shackles. What if God asked you to give
$500? Well, you ain't going to do it. Well, as you measure it, it'll be measured back to you.
I don't understand why we're always scraping to get by. Because you're not willing to take the
shackles off and obey God. The first time Mary and I gave $500 thought we were going to die.
It's like $500. This is 40 years ago. It's when a good paying job was 10 bucks an hour.
So $500 is like the time they take taxes out and everything else. That's almost two weeks work.
$500? You got to be kidding me.
And then he asked for $1,000. Then he asked for $5,000. Then he asked for $10,000.
God, we don't have $10,000. You know what he said? Check your savings.
See, somehow we think our savings is ours and our checkbook is his.
Well, it's my savings. No, actually it's his. He gave you the money to put in there and now
he's asking for some back. I won't give you the number that made us swallow the hardest.
It's irrelevant. The point is, when he asks, get rid of the ceiling.
And say, you know what? We've only been able to give $100 at a time. The day's coming, I'm going
to give $1,000. And it won't affect our living whatsoever. We will live just fine. And we're
going to have enough, I can give $1,000. We're going to have enough, I can give $5,000.
Rather than the reverse of, oh God, don't ever ask me for $5,000. I don't know if I could
ever do that. No, the day's coming. This is a goal, bucket list. The day's coming,
I'm going to give $5,000. Days coming, some of us might be $100,000. I don't know. The day's coming,
I can give that. And you know what? We're still going to live just fine. We will have prospered to
that point. That's the goal. That's how Christians should look at it. That's cheerful giving.
I'm looking for the day. I can write out the check. Here you go, missionary. $50,000.
Quit running around to churches trying to get support. Just get on the field. That's my goal.
Rather than, oh, they still need $50,000. I wonder if they're ever going to make it.
I sure don't have that. I only have $750,000 in my savings.
But that's for retirement. It's my money. What if God says I want $50,000 of it?
Don't be moaned that. Grow in faith. Remember, you told me, well, pastor,
you just got to believe God's going to supply. Let me say that back to you.
Well, people, you just got to believe God's going to supply.
Yes. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
And I don't know how that fits in this, but it's an old saying.
That's what my parents always said. Well, we got to do it. You got to do it too.
It's good for the goose and good for the gander. Who's the gander and who's the goose?
That's not the point. The point is we all have to do our share.
So Lord, I'm asking, increase us in the faith you've already given us. Help us to
learn to live in it. If we have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
we can say to the mountain, the mountain might be that $10 donation. The mountain might be that
$500,000 donation. We can say to the mountain,
be thou removed and cast into the seed. The day is coming. I'm giving it.
And I'm believing God will prosper me to the point where it will be there.
Change our thinking, Father. Holy Spirit, work on us to where we're trustworthy.
Trustworthy. To where the Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, you can look at us and say,
I trust that person. I trust them. We've earned that trust. Get us to that point.
If we're already there, grow us in our faith so we take the ceilings off.
And we start realizing, hey, this is all about the kingdom and not about me getting rich.
Me getting rich is showing God he can't trust me. Me saying, okay, God, kingdom's first. Yeah,
I need my need supplied and I need to grow. And I love to get some wealth here so I can spread
some around. But the kingdom's first. Now he can trust us. Grow us. Grow us. In Jesus' name.
Grow us. In Jesus' name. Grow us. In Jesus' name. It may be evening before you get out of here.
Grow us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You're dismissed.