Hello?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Let's do this. So, who do we have today for the game? Do we like Baby Back Ribs or do we like Philly Cheesesteaks?
Philly Cheesesteaks.
Ribs.
That's what I'm talking about. Who likes Philadelphia?
Okay, anyways, all right. Oh, they got jerseys on and everything. Terrible.
All right, let's get started. Today we are going to talk about tithing. But first off, there are two guys stranded on a deserted island.
Okay, two guys stranded on a deserted island. One guy is pacing back and forth. He is scared to death because he knows they are going to die. The other guy is laying in the sand sunbathing. He's taking in the sun, the cool breeze of the ocean.
The first guy looks at the second guy and he says, "Aren't you scared? We have no food and no water. What are you doing?"
And the second guy looks up at him and says, "I make $100,000 a week and I tithe faithfully to my church. I guarantee you my pastor will find me."
So, if that's you, Pastor Brent, Pastor Carlson, and Pastor Asa, and Pastor Jason, and Pastor Moy, we will find you. Rest assured.
All right. So, today we're going to talk about tithing. Tithing is an Old Testament concept. Let's start. It's found in the law of Moses.
And what tithing was for the children of Israel, it was like this. They had to give 10% of their crops and their livestock to God. And so this 10% that they had to give was in different categories. They gave 10% to the Levites. The Levites were the priests. The Levites didn't inherit land from God. So in order for them to be able to take care of themselves, the people would tithe to the priests.
The people would tithe to the place of worship and for a feast. So in Carlton's interpretation, they tithed to party. So they got all the tithe together, and they had a big feast, and they came to party and celebrate and worship God.
And then there was another tithe that they used. Every three years, they would give to the poor, the widows, and the orphans. So every year, it would be about 3.33% of their income.
So every year, the children of Israel would tithe to the priest. The children of Israel tithed 23.3% of their income to God. God's children tithed about a quarter of their income to him.
And that's the end of the message. I want to invite the worship team up. No hints.
But let's see how this tithing affected them and their relationship with God. We're going to go to Deuteronomy 14, 22, and 23.
22 says, "You must set aside a tithe of your crops, one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship, the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored, and eat it there in his presence."
That's my favorite part of the scripture. This applies to your tithe of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds. Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.
And I said, "God, do you want us to pay tithe to be afraid of you?"
And God said, "Read it in Hebrew, Carlton."
I said, "Okay, God," because God knows I read Hebrew. I speak Hebrew, so nobody's laughing at my jokes today. It's okay. You guys want to get out of here and watch the game. I feel you.
In Hebrew, fear of the Lord is "erat adonai," and "erah," fear, is a deep reverence or awe of God. It is the acknowledgment of God's power and holiness which leads us to obedience and humility.
Tithing is recognizing and having an awe of God and recognizing his power, leading us to obedience. So when it says doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord, paying tithes teaches us that God is holy and we are to be obedient to his will.
So I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying. Carlton, that was the law. I live under a new covenant under the law of Christ. I am no longer subject. We are no longer subject to the law of Moses.
And you are correct because in Romans 10 verse 4, it says, "For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God."
And Galatians 2 and 21 says, "For if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing."
Christ accomplished the purposes of the law. He fulfilled the law and we are made righteous through him and not by the law.
So Carlton, what gives with tithes? I'm glad you asked. One thing we have to understand is tithing pre-existed the law. You know the story of one brother killing another brother because of his offering. Also, Abraham gave a tithe to the priest Melchizedek and then Jacob tithed at Bethel in order to honor God and for God to cover him.
So tithing exists outside of the law and is not just a law, but it is a biblical principle that we need to follow. An example of this is, what do we call the day of rest in the Bible?
The Sabbath.
Good job, you guys get a gold star. The Sabbath. The Sabbath was established at creation. When God created the heavens and the earth, on the seventh day, he rested and he passed this biblical principle, this practice down to Adam in Genesis chapter two.
Moses took this practice and added it to the law, but the Sabbath pre-existed before the law. It is outside of the law and it is a biblical principle that we should practice and benefit Christians now.
In the same respect, we do not have a legal requirement to tithe based on the law. So tithing exists outside of the law, but it is outside of the law, and it is a biblical principle we tithe because it is a biblical principle that exists outside of the law.
God has given us this wonderful gift of tithing so that we can recognize that what we have belongs to him, so that we can establish order in our finances, so that we can prosper.
We do not tithe to be righteous, but because we are made righteous, we want our finances to align with this biblical principle.
So let's talk a little bit about tithing. Should we tithe?
Yeah, and you are.
Slow. Come on, guys. Should we tithe?
Yes, and beyond yes. Right? We should take this principle, this biblical principle of tithing, and expand it so that our minds can be in line with the heart of God.
And Jesus teaches us how to do this. Jesus takes the law and he teaches us how to do it. And he teaches us how to do it. And he teaches us how to do it all, and he expands it to align us with the heart of God.
He does this in Matthew. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 21 through 22, Jesus says in verse 21, "You have heard that our ancestors were told you must not murder. If you commit murder you are subject to judgment, but I say if you are even angry with someone you are subject to judgment. If you call someone an idiot you are in danger of being brought before the court, and if you cuss somebody out you are in danger of the fires of hell."
Temper, temper. We will have the altar team up here after service so if that was you this weekend you could come up. We love you, we'll pray over you, it'll be okay. Jesus loves you.
Jesus continues to expand biblical principles and expand the law to the heart of God. In verse 27 he says, "You have heard the commandment that says you must not commit adultery, but I say anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
The law says do not commit murder. Jesus expands that and says do not be angry. The law says do not commit adultery, but Jesus expands that and says do not even look at a woman with lust.
Jesus takes this law and he expands it to give us a higher standard of living, a higher standard of following him, a higher standard of being discipled.
So when the Bible says we are to tithe, that's the letter of the law, but what does God say? How does God want us to expand our thinking of tithing?
We're going to go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 9, verses 6 through 15, and I'm going to read this, but when I stop at a word and point to you, all I want you all to do is read the word that I don't say.
Got it? Everybody's on board?
All right, remember this: a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.
You must each decide in your heart how much to give and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure from Pastor Carlton, for God loves a person who gives cheerfully.
And God will provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.
As the scriptures say, "They share and give to the poor; their good deeds will be remembered forever."
For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.
Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous.
And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.
So two things will result from this ministry of giving: the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.
As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God for your generosity to them and to all believers who prove that you are obedient to the goodness of the good news of Christ.
And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you.
Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words.
Amen.
What was the word that you all said about seven times and that it started with the "g" and ended with "erosity"?
Generosity, right? To be generous. What does it mean? Showing a willingness to give more than necessary or expected.
Your tithe is what is expected, but God expands our thinking on giving, tithe, to generosity. He expands it for us to be in line with his heart.
The great theologian Brenton James McCoy says, "Tithing is at 10%, but generosity starts at 11%."
So let's go beyond the law or the principle of tithing and be a generous church.
So this generosity, this tithing, this giving has spiritual ramifications that have earthly results.
And so we're going to study this as we look at the book of Malachi. Malachi is the last book of your Old Testament. It's set about a hundred years after the children of Israel were in exile in Babylon.
You see, the children of Israel were disobedient to God and they worshiped idols. And God used Babylon as an agent of judgment to put the children of Israel in exile.
So everything you go through isn't always the devil. Sometimes, I'll just leave it at that.
Okay. So now the children of Israel are out of exile and they're back in Jerusalem and they build a beautiful temple and they give generously to God and they worship God with all of their hearts and they do everything they can to follow his law and his ordinances and they await the coming Messiah and everything's great.
Amen?
No, not in the least bit, not even close. They are as unfaithful and as unrighteous as they were before they got into exile.
It's like a hundred years went by and they completely forgot what got them in the trouble that they were in.
You see, Jerusalem became a place of poverty and injustice. They developed this cycle, this cycle that started with dishonoring God. Dishonored God, hardship came.
And when hardship came, it shifted their morals and righteousness. And when their righteousness shifted, they dishonored God.
And when they dishonored God, hardship came. And when hardship came, their morals failed.
And when their morals failed, they dishonored God. And when they dishonored God, hardship came.
And when hardship came, their morals failed. And then when their morals failed, they dishonored God.
And when they dishonor God, hard times came. And when hard times came, they lost all of their righteousness.
And when you lose your righteousness, you tend to dishonor God. And when you dishonor God, hardship comes.
And when hardship comes, your morals fail.
This is what the children of Israel did to make ends meet. To get by.
What's that day of rest we talked about? The Sabbath.
Well, in the law, on the Sabbath, you're supposed to actually rest and not do any business, not open any markets, not do any trading.
But the children of Israel thought they were clever. They wanted to take matters into their own hands. So what they did was they said, "Let's open up markets and trading posts far outside of the city, far away from the temple, far away from the presence of God."
And we're supposed to do that. And we're supposed to do that. And we're supposed to do that. And we're supposed to do business out in the land.
You see, one thing that they forgot to understand is that God is omnipresent and his presence is everywhere.
But when you think in your head, the further I get away from God, the better I would be. But the further you get away from God, the closer you get to unrighteousness and sin.
And we do this sometimes ourselves. We take matters into our own hands when circumstances get hard.
We open up credit card accounts that we shouldn't be opening. We make career moves that God did not tell us to make.
We dip into our savings accounts and our investment account. We put bills in our kids' names. We hurt their college fund.
We date somebody for financial incentives, somebody we should not be dating. You stop paying tithes. You stop honoring God because hardship has caused your morals to fail.
But you may say, "Carlton, no matter how bad it gets, I'm not going to be susceptible to unrighteousness. My morals will not fail."
Let me tell you a story. One Memorial Day, I was outside in my house barbecuing, and the weather got bad. It started to get dark.
And I go inside the house, and I hear on the TV the alert for a tornado, a tornado in Oak Lawn.
I said, "How cool is this? When was the last time there was a tornado in Oak Lawn?"
This tornado came through Oak Lawn. It came down 95th Street at 35 miles an hour, keeping the speed limit.
And I'm in the house like, "Man, this is awesome, a tornado with my family." My brother-in-law is there. My brother-in-law works at State Farm, so he's there with me.
And I had to mention that. And you know how you hear water in the house somewhere, like a sink is overflowing or the bathtub is overflowing? Like, you know.
That's just a disheartening sound, the water. You hear water in your house. Like, where's this water coming from?
I go downstairs in the basement, me and my brother-in-law, and we see water pouring into the back door, into the laundry room. I mean, gushing and pouring in like Niagara Falls. It is the worst sight I had ever seen in my house ever.
Water is pouring in, and my brother-in-law looks at me and says, "Carlton, we have two options. We can unplug everything, get all the electronics, the furniture, the rug, the chairs, the tables, everything upstairs. We can get the submersible pump. We can bring it downstairs. We can go outside and get the water hose, tie it to the pump, send the hose outside out through the window so the water can drain out, get a 100-foot extension cord, plug in the pump, take it upstairs, plug it in, and then barricade the door and then go outside in the tornado, around in the backyard, down into the stairway of the basement door, unclog it and waste deep water, and let the water drain out and save the basement.
Or we can turn our back to the water coming in and tell State Farm that the water came up through the sump pump well, and you can get a new basement."
I thought to myself, new basement, 90-inch screen, TV, surround sound, new floors, drywall, the whole nine, all the bells and whistles, everything I ever wanted.
And the Holy Spirit said, "Insurance fraud."
I said, "I rebuke you, Satan, in the name of Jesus."
And the Holy Spirit said, "It wasn't Satan. It's called insurance fraud."
I said, "Oh."
You guys want to know what I did, right?
We got the water up. Man, it was a task. I was soaking wet.
But I maintained my morals. I maintained my righteousness. But unrighteousness was there. It was there staring at me in the face.
Thank you, Pastor Brent, for being proud of me. God's still working on me. You know, I rebuked him, and he was like, "No."
But the lack of honor creates difficult circumstances, and difficult circumstances puts you face-to-face with unrighteousness, which will then lead to further dishonoring God.
But how does God, how does our loving Father respond to us when this happens?
So we're going to extract some points from Malachi chapter 3, and I'm going to start at verse 7.
"Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them."
So God establishes the problem. We've gone away from him.
And then he gives us the answer to the problem in his introductory speech to us. "Return to me, and I will return."
"Return to you," saith the Lord of hosts.
This is the most beautiful thing God could ever say to a people that neglected him, to return to him.
And not only that, but he also gives you a promise in it. He will return to you.
Don't you love a God that when we are in our sin, he opens up his loving arms and wants to receive us?
He wants to receive us, and he wants to draw near to us as well.
He says, "Return to me, and I will return to you."
And then it continues. "But you said, in what way shall we return?"
I wonder what they were thinking, because when God says return to me, there's some things that I can think of of how he wants us to return to him.
He may want us to do 10 days of prayer and fasting, which is good and a way to return to God.
He may want us to come to church one Sunday and be a part of worship service, right?
He may want us to go to Encounter Night every first Wednesday of the month here at D.C. in this auditorium. That's a way to return to God.
He may want us to join D.C. teams, to serve and to make a difference in the church and with God's people.
He may want us to join or sign up for D.C. groups, which the sign-up's in the lobby if you haven't heard in our announcements, so that we can come together and build a relationship and discuss our issues so that we can be healed.
These are ways that we can return to God.
And all of these are good, but God wants something in particular, something that we have made our master, something that belongs to him.
They ask, "How do we return to you?"
And God says in verse eight, "Will a man rob God?"
Who is robbing God?
How do you rob God? Is there like a gate in heaven that I can climb over and take something from God? Like, how do you rob God?
Who's robbing God? Like, this is a concept that I just don't understand.
And God says, "Yet you have robbed, but you say, in what way have we robbed you?"
They have the same question that I have. How do you rob God?
And God answers, "In tithes and offerings."
The first point that we have to understand in our relationship with God regarding our giving is that everything belongs to God.
How can someone say that you've robbed them when the thing that you've robbed them from is God?
How can someone say that everything that you've robbed them belongs to you?
How can God say that you've robbed them when everything you have is yours?
But the reality is that everything that you own, everything that you have belongs to him. That's how he can say that you have robbed him.
All of your money, all of your possessions, all of your assets, your savings, your investments, your retirement, everything belongs to God.
Everything you have has come from the earth and come from Christ. Creation and therefore belongs to God. He is the owner of everything you have.
David says in Psalms 24 and one, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it."
And what does everything mean? Everything.
You guys get another gold star.
The world and all its people belong to him. That includes you.
Not only are we to return what belongs to God and our possessions to him, but we are also to return ourselves to him.
Return yourself to God.
Give God tithe and offering, and be generous to the house of the Lord.
You think that you hold on to your tithe because you have bills to pay, and then you say, "Well, I'll honor God in another way. That's what I'll do."
But do you know that God is a better manager of your money than you are?
God can do more with your 90% than you can do with your 90%.
God can do more with your 90% than you can do with your 90%.
God can do more with your 100%.
As a matter of fact, God can do more with the 10% tithe that you have than you could if you won the lottery and hit the jackpot.
God is far better at managing our money than we are. We have to trust him.
We have to trust him with what we give him, and we have to trust him with what's left over.
When we understand that everything we have belongs to him, we can then say, "God, it belongs to you."
That means that you are responsible for it.
You are responsible for my money. You are responsible for my budget. You are responsible for my bills.
You are responsible for my retirement. You are responsible for my children and their college fund.
You are responsible for me because I belong to you.
When we get this concept in our head that everything we have and who we are belongs to God, we can say, "God, you are responsible for it, and you will take care of it."
The next point in this is, it's a spiritual matter.
Verse 9 says, "You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation."
Your economic hardship, your lack of productivity, your lack of provision is not a practical matter.
There are some things that you can do to better manage what God has given you, but no matter what you do, you can even go out and get a second job.
The lack that you have is not because you didn't work hard enough. It's a spiritual matter.
He says, "You are cursed with a curse."
When you dishonor God, you're cursed with a curse because you have robbed him.
It's not a practical matter. We can't take practical measures to solve a spiritual issue.
In order to solve the spiritual issue, we have to honor God with our generosity.
Point number three, we are called to bless people.
Verse 10 says, "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house."
The storehouse was a place in the temple where they kept the grain for the priest and the people for the feast and to feed the poor.
The New Testament, you remember, we take the law and we expand it to match the heart of God.
And so the early church, the followers of Christ in the New Testament have done the same thing.
In Acts chapter two, verse 45, the early church, they sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.
Not only did they store it in the storehouse, but they sold everything they had to take care of the poor and those in need.
When you give to the church, the church supports the community that's in need.
I'll give you a couple of examples.
We support PADS, and PADS is an organization here in Tinley Park that gives emergency shelter and health care to the poor.
They also give affordable housing for the homeless.
We, D.C., since 2009, every month, we feed these people, and we've fed over 6,000 people that have gone through PADS.
We cook food here in the kitchen at church and we deliver it to PADS. And we fed over 6,000 people since 2009.
Amen?
The Hope Center. You all know Pastor Moy. He always talks about the Hope Center and the good things that they do.
They have aquaponics and hydroponics to give fresh vegetables to people in need.
They partner with an organization called Blue Cap. And just last year, they were able to give fresh produce and vegetables to 7,130 people.
Amen?
So yes, bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there may be meat in my house.
The fourth point. God is faithful.
Verse 10 continues, "And try me now in this," says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessings that there will not be room enough to receive it."
Man, I want to see that in my life and I want to see that in your life.
I want you to receive a blessing where you don't know what to do. You're calling the church and saying, "Carlton, I have so much. I don't know what to do with it."
I guarantee you we will help you find a way to use that money.
But I want this blessing for all of us.
The ESV says, "And thereby put me to the test."
God says, test his faithfulness in providing for you and people in need.
Test him. He says he dares you to follow the biblical principle of generosity and see what he provides for you and take care of people in need.
Lamentations chapter 3, verse 22 and 23 says, "The steadfast love, the love of the Lord never ceases. It never stops. It never ends. His love is continuous forever. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness."
Not meh is your faithfulness. Not mediocre is your faithfulness. Great is his faithfulness, and he wants us to test him in his faithfulness to us.
He desires for us to be blessed. He desires for us to be provided for more than we can handle, more than we have room for, because he wants us to be a blessing to others.
This is brilliant by God. He's given us more than enough so that we can then bless others, so we can advance the kingdom, so we can bless the kingdom of God.
It's a cycle of generosity.
2 Corinthians 9 and 8 says, "And God will generously provide all you need."
All you need, not some of what you need, all you need.
And you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.
And plenty left over.
I will open the windows of heaven and pour you out of blessings so you won't have room enough to receive it.
Plenty left over so that you can bless others. That's the purpose.
That's the great thing about our father. He is a good father, and he wants to bless his children.
One thing we must understand, though, is that generosity is not transactional.
We cannot say that we give in order to get, and we cannot say that God blesses us because we gave.
God loves us, and he has a heart to bless us. He has love and goodness inside of him for his children, and he wants to bless us out of his love, and he wants us to mirror that love and bless people that are in need.
He wants us to be generous, not because we are receiving from God, but because we have a love and a care for people that are in need, because we are disciples of Christ, and that's what we do. We love each other.
And point number five in how generosity affects us in our relationship with God, we will have victory over the enemy.
Verse 11 says, "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field," says the Lord of hosts.
And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts.
Not only does God want to provide for you, but he wants to hold back the enemy.
He wants to hold back the devourer from destroying what you have, from destroying what he has put in your possession to store.
God wants to bless you and he wants to protect you and protect the blessing that is in your life.
It doesn't matter how volatile the economy is, who's running the Federal Reserve.
It doesn't matter what Mojila says about your student loans.
God wants to bless you and he wants to protect you from hardship.
Amen?
God wants us to be a generous church. He doesn't want us to fall into the cycle of dishonoring God, falling into hardship, putting on a show.
He doesn't want us to be in our morals in question that continues to dishonor God.
He wants to bless us. So when people see us, they say, "You are blessed."
And the nations will call you blessed.
When they see disciples of Christ, they say they're provided for, they're prospering, and they are blessed.
And that's an opportunity for us to share the good news of Jesus Christ and his goodness in our lives so that all can come to know who he is and be blessed in the same way.
Dishonoring God leads to hardship, which leads to unrighteousness, which leads to dishonoring God.
But God wants us to be a generous church to honor him with our generosity so that he can take care of us and we can take care of his people and we can continue to honor God and we have that cycle in mind.
God is responsible for us because we belong to him.
Let's pray.
God, we give you adoration and praise today. Not only do we worship you with our lives, God, but we worship you with our money and our possessions because you call us to be a generous people.
We acknowledge that all things belong to you and you rule and you reign over all things, not just our money, but ourselves, God.
And we thank you, God, that you are responsible for us no matter what happens out there.
No matter what happens outside, around us, no matter what happens in our government, in our homes, in our workplace, God, we know that you are responsible for us because we belong to you.
The issues that we face in our life come from us not honoring you appropriately, God, but we thank you that you have put it in our hearts to honor you, God.
We thank you that you take care of us, you take care of people in need, and that you have applied that love in our hearts.
Thank you for loving us, God.
Thank you for your faithfulness.
Thank you for allowing us to test you in this area, God.
We thank you that you are going to bless us and the nations will call us blessed because we are disciples of Christ.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. Thank you.
on Feb 11, 2025
