Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's word will be a blessing to you.
The title of my message this morning and this evening, it'll
be 1 message really extended over these two services.
And the title is what percentage is right?
And of course, that will make sense as we go along here in
just a few moments. What percentage is right?
Let's get right to it. As you stand, please.
Genesis 14. As you stand verse #17 where it
says this. And the king of Sodom went out
to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Kidalaimer
and of the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheva,
which is the King's Dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem
brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the
Most High. God, remember that name
Melchizedek. And he blessed him, and said,
Blessed be Abram of the Most High and Possessor of heaven and
earth, and blessed be the most High God, which hath delivered
thine enemies into thy hand. And he being Abraham, gave him
tithes of all. See that word there right tucked
in at the end of verse #20 tithes of all.
So a look this morning at the title of my message, which is
What percentage is right? Why don't you be seated as we
pray together? Heavenly Father, do thank you
for this time. And I pray that in the time that
I have this morning that I would be able to just set the table
for this very important subject. Thank you for how you're working
within our midst. And I do pray that you would use
this far beyond anything that has to do with a paycheck, far
beyond anything that has to do with the tithe, far beyond
anything that has to do with the wallet, but rather that we would
look to our whole lives and see how we are to live a stewarding
life. Thank you for this all.
And we ask it in Jesus name, Amen, what percentage is right?
You know what? We're confronted with this more
than any time I think now in a lot of ways at the restaurant.
You ever noticed that it used to be 15% was what you were
supposed to be able to give at a restaurant.
And then it kind of crept up to 18.
Now it's crept up to 20. And now if you get one of those
touch screens, which they love to be able to give you the touch
screen and say, oh, you're just going to be a question right
before you have to sign. Well, what's that question?
It's 202225 or other. And that's what it is.
It's like there is 15 in all of this.
I thought it was still 15% because, you know, even as the
bills go up and as the bills at the restaurant do go up, there
was a time you could buy a steak for a nickel at times.
Gone, isn't it? But 15% is still good in
whatever economy it is, I would think because of the fact that
whatever the bill is, 15% as well, 15%.
But depending on where you go online or whether you hear about
it, it's a little arguing about what percentage is right.
What percentage should you give when you're at the coffee shop?
What percentage should you give? If it's A to go order, what
percentage you should give? Everybody wants a tip.
Everybody wants something nowadays.
By the way, you don't have to give me a tip on the way out.
That's not what I'm asking for. Your tip might be this.
Hey, preach shorter messages, maybe that's what it is.
I don't know. That might be your tip.
I don't know, that could be it. But the idea is this.
What percentage is right? You know, Two men were marooning
an island and one paste back and forth and he was worried and he
was scared while the other man sat back and he was sunning
himself. The first man said to the second
man, aren't you afraid that we're about to die?
And the second man said this, no, I make $100,000 a week and I
tie faithfully to my church every week too.
He said, my pastor will find me. When you hear stewardship week,
there's probably a lot of people here that get a little bit
worried. Pastor, all you're going to talk
about. His tithes, Pastor.
All you're going to talk about is money.
A pastor. All you're going to talk about
is all the money we're supposed to give to the church, and it's
going to feel more like the Jerry Lewis telethon than it is
going to be like a church service.
And maybe there's some people that would feel that way here
this morning. And, you know, there was a time
as a younger preacher that I would say something like this,
that, you know, it's uncomfortable for me to talk
about the issues of stewardship. I would say that a lot as a
younger preacher. And I found that as I'm a older
preacher, I didn't say I was an old preacher, but I'm older than
I used to be. I have found that I'm actually
pretty comfortable talking about the issues of financial
stewardship. Why?
Because it's in the Word of God. And so I don't say this morning
because of a heart of trying to squeeze anyone or a heart of
trying to get something out of anyone here today.
As you know, I don't know the tithing records here at the
church. I'm not Privy to them.
And so I can preach with a heart of purity to be able to come
before you and just say this is what the Word of God says and
you have to take it for what it is and decide how you are going
to apply it within your own life.
I'm not uncomfortable with that, to be honest with you.
I'm actually very comfortable with that, to present to you
what the word of God says. And so the issue this morning
isn't just about tithing, but really a much larger overarching
principle, which is the issue of stewardship.
Now stewardship according to the 1828 dictionary, is this the
office of a steward? Not extremely helpful to be
honest with you. Don't you love that when the
definition is given in, you know, the word and all that, the
office of a steward. So well, we have to ask
ourselves, what is a steward then?
Well, a steward is a person employed in great families to
manage the domestic concerns, superintend the other servants,
collect the rents or income, keep the accounts, etcetera.
A person employed in great families to manage all accounts.
And God defines it in First Corinthians 41 where it says it
is required in stewards that a man be found faithful is
required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
So what do I need to do this morning?
Well, I want to preach this morning and this evening on the
issues of stewardship and particularly how it deals with
tithing. But again, how there's an
overarching issue of it as well. And you say, pastor, some of you
would say, well, pastor, I know all about this, I've heard this,
I do this and praise the Lord if that's the case.
But there are others who maybe are newer to this and newer in
their faith and do not understand.
And so it's important for us as a church to remind ourselves
here and there about why the church preaches what it does,
why we teach that which the word of God says about these issues,
and where do we go from there. Now, there's a lot of people
that will say something like this about the issue of tithing.
They say, well, Pastor, tithing is something that you find in
the Old Testament, but now we live in the New Testament and
tithing isn't important. There would be others who would
say, well, pastor, that was something that was found in the
law, but we don't live under the law anymore.
We live under grace. And so it's really not important
anymore. And so certainly there would be
some arguments to be made in those favors.
But I would present to you both this morning.
That's even if the Word of God shows something quite different.
In fact, starting right here in Genesis chapter #14 what we read
just a few moments ago, and So what I want us to see first this
morning is this, that the tithe was before the law was given to
Israel. We find that the issue of the
tithe, as some would argue, well, the tithe is really about
the law. Well, the tithe was given before
the law was given to Israel. We see this here in Genesis
chapter #14. Now very quickly, the background
of Genesis chapter #14 is there's a confederation of
cities that are led by a man named Kittalayimer.
And Kittalayimer attacks a another confederation of cities,
which include cities such as Sodom and Gomorrah.
And they take over those cities. They take the possessions.
And most worrisome to Abraham, they also take captive Lot and
his entire family. Now you'll remember that Lot
pitched his tent towards Sodom and then he ended up living in
Sodom and Gomorrah. And eventually we become
leadership in Sodom as well. But he's living there in the
city and he has taken captive. His family has taken captive.
All those things are taken captive.
And so Abraham gets over 300 of his own armed men, his own
militia, and they go out and they set free the coalition of
Sodom and Gomorrah and all those cities and defeat Kit Aleimer
and in the process get a great amount of spoil as well.
But as we see right here, as we jumped into the text in the
middle of what was taking place, it says that the king of Sodom
went out to meet him verse 17, and his return from the
slaughter of Kitalemur and the kings that were with him in the
valley of Shiva, which is the King's daigle.
And it says and Melchizedek of Salem 4th and wine and he was
the priest of the Most High God. Now, Miss Melchizedek was never
mentioned before. This Melchizedek has never
mentioned again in the Old Testament.
It's like he came out of nowhere.
And there's a reason for that which I've mentioned before, but
we'll look at in specificity in just a moment.
And it says that he blessed him and said, blessed be Abraham of
the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be
the most high God, which has delivered thine enemies into
thine head. And he, Abraham, gave him tithes
of all. The first mention of the word
tithe is found here in Genesis chapter #14 is not found in the
other 13 chapters. It's found here for the very
first time. Genesis 14, Melchizedek comes,
brings him a blessing and Abraham in response gives him a
tithe of everything that he has. So we cast question ourselves a
question this morning. He says, well, what is the
tithe? And maybe another question to go
along with that is who is Melchizedek?
Both are important questions. Because you say, pastor, this
has nothing to do with me this morning.
Well, maybe you're not saying that because you're thinking of
what he's saying. It maybe does have something to
do with me. It does.
Who is this Melchizedek and what is the tithe?
Well, there's an answer to this. Remember I said Melchizedek
isn't really mentioned again. The Old Testament was mentioned
several times in one book in the New Testament, and that is the
book of Hebrews. So we're going to.
Can you help me with something real quick?
I know time and all that stuff that today we're OK, right?
Amen. All right.
OK. If you didn't say Amen, we're OK
anyway. All right.
But I want you to do this just a second.
All right? Do this.
No. Come on.
Listen to Pastor. All right, All right?
You know what you're going to do with these fingers.
All right, You all look silly, but you know what, you're going
to do these. We'll work them through the
Bible today. We're going to turn to some
pages. All right, so why don't you get
those fingers limber, Go to Hebrews Chapter 7.
All right, Don't need to save your space in Genesis 14,
Hebrews Chapter 7. I know I'm talking at 60 words a
minute with gusts up to 80. So I understand.
I'm trying to keep it down, trying to slow it down a little
bit here. We'll get as far as we get this
morning and. We'll get where we get and.
We'll. Finish it up tonight.
Amen. Because all one thought for us
this evening, this morning, and this evening.
Hebrews chapter #7 If you ever read the book of Hebrews, the
theme of the book of Hebrews is Jesus is greater than fill in
the blank. Because the Hebrews had this
problem with all of these things being great, but missing the
fact that all those things they thought were great were actually
foreshadowing who Jesus Christ was.
They loved the Tabernacle, but the problem was Jesus was
mirrored in the Tabernacle. They talked about angels, but
angels were ministering spirits and ministered to Jesus Christ.
Moses. They loved Moses.
Now, they didn't love him when he's alive, they loved him when
he was dead. But Moses was a minister of who?
The Lord. And so the the whole book, which
which I believe is authored by Paul, I'm not going to argue
with you about it. Whether it is or it's not, it's
really of no matter. But whoever authored it, we know
the true author is the Lord Holy Spirit is the one that inspired
it. But as we see this, this
Melchizedek is being mentioned here again, he's already
mentioned chapter 5 once, a chapter 6 once, but we're seeing
Chapter 7. We want to see who is this
Melchizedek and what's this tithe?
All right, let's read in verse #1 it says for this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham
returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him, to
whom also Abraham gave up. We got an answer to one
question. A what 10th part of all?
We'll hold on a second. So what's the tithe?
The tithe is literally the word 10th.
That's what the tithe means. And in fact, we don't have time
to go there. But if you go to Genesis chapter
#28 remember the story of Jacob's Ladder where he saw the
angels ascending and descending? And after all that took place,
he promised to give a 10th, the tithe of all that he would
receive as the Lord would enable him.
And the Lord blessed him. So what do we see?
That Abraham gave of tithes. And that tithe literally means
this. He gave of 1/10, but then it
continues on saying, being an interpretation king of
righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is
king of peace. Now who is this Melchizedek?
Well, this is going to narrow it down for us really.
Well, here without father, without mother, without descent,
having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like
unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually.
Now a few weeks ago I talked about the fact that there were
Christophanes in the Old Testament, where typically it
mentions the Angel of the Lord. And this is an appearance of
Jesus Christ, the Old Testament. This shouldn't surprise us
because Jesus didn't just appear in the New Testament.
Jesus always has been. Now look, you might be squeamish
about ties and stuff like that. You don't want to say Amen this
morning, that's fine. But you can say Amen to this.
Jesus has always been. He's always been.
And so it shouldn't surprise us that he appears here and there
in the Old Testament. But I would suppose, and I would
say to you here this morning, that when it says that there was
1A Melchizedek without father, without mother, without descent,
without beginning of days or end of life, there could only be one
of who that Melchizedek is. And he is none other than Jesus
Christ in the Old Testament. That's who I see here.
But that answers that question. Who is Melchizedek?
Well, he is God. What's the tithe 10%?
So what did Abraham do by answering both of these
questions before the Law? He gave 10% to God before the
Law of Moses was ever penned. Here is Abraham who acknowledges
everything that I have and everything that I own and
everything that's within me is because of who the Lord is.
And so I will take a 10th of a not a 10th of a percent.
That would be boy, that would be that would be really low.
All right, I will take 10% and I will give it to God.
And that's reiterated by his grandson Jacob a couple
generations later, as Jacob does the same thing.
So what do we see? There were offerings given
before. This word tithe is found in
Genesis chapter 14. You remember Cain and Abel gave
offerings. One gave an offering better than
the other because one gave the offering that dealt with the
blood. Why?
Because the plan of God has always dealt with the blood.
It always points to the blood of Christ.
That's always been the plan. So offerings were given before,
but we see codified here in a way that we had not seen before
in his first mention that Abraham gave 10% to God.
This was reiterate throughout of his generations.
And it's not just before the law, but here's where people
aren't going to argue with you. It also was found in the law as
well. It was before the law, but it
was also in the law as well. And I would say this, this is
the part that nobody disputes. No matter who you talk to,
they're going to say that tithing was a.
Part of the law. That was given to Israel, for
instance, Deuteronomy chapter 26, verse 12, when thou has made
an end of tithing, all the ties of thy increase.
It just says that right there in the beginning of a section that
talks about other things, but it says here's what you're going to
do, That you're going to make it a priority before anything else
takes place, to give of the first fruits to God.
That He is not the last of your thoughts, but rather He is your
first priority. That we don't give God what is
left. We give God what's right.
We say that one more time. We don't give God what's left,
we give God what's right. And the tithe was to be thought
of as the first fruits. It was to be before anything
else took place. In the Old Testament, they lived
in an agriculture, agricultural economy.
Often ties, time ties, were not paid in cash.
How would they be paid? Well, 10% of whatever you had
going on, wherever you were, sometimes that could be
converted to cash. We could see that in Deuteronomy
chapter #14 especially if you're going a longer distance.
But it would be just literally whatever you had was brought
into the use for God's. House.
Deuteronomy chapter 14. Remember that.
All right, good. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 14,
all right? Your fingers are already limber,
so you can work over there. Deuteronomy chapter 14.
And of course, we can give you many examples here, but for the
brevity and the sake of time, particularly of something of
which no one would dispute here this morning, I do want you to
see it. But we're not going to delve
into it deeply because everyone seemingly that has any kind of
background would acknowledge that tithing was a part of the
law to the people of Israel. Deuteronomy 14, verse #22 Thou
shalt truly tithe all thy, or all the increase of thy seed
that the field bringeth forth year by year, and thou shalt eat
before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose to
place His name there. The tithe of thy corn, of thy
wine, thine oil, the firstlings of thy herds, and of thy flocks,
that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always.
So it was done with the purpose. What was the purpose?
That you can learn to fear the Lord?
Meaning that you understand that you have respect for he who is
high and above you to say Yes, Lord, I got it all from you.
So I am willing to be able to give back a portion to you and.
For your work. Because I recognize where it all
came from. Verse #24 And if the way be too
long for thee, so that thou aren't able to carry it, or the
place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall
choose to set his name there, where the Lord thy God hath
blessed thee, then thou shalt turn to money and bind the money
in thine hand. Thou shalt go into the place
which the Lord thy God shalt choose.
And it continues on from there, and basically says that that
money can then be converted to use for the feasts, or for the
Tabernacle, for the temple. But what's very clear is this.
It is not to be used for your own use, but it was to be used
for the work of the Lord, as you were doing that which God had
told you to do, that whatever increase you had that a tithe
going back to Abraham, 10% that it belonged to the Lord for his
use, for His purpose, to make sure that his work was
perpetuated. Now, does the Lord need our
money? Let's be clear about something
just a moment, because this is what we often hear as the the
slur that's thrown at those of us who would preach on biblical
tithing. What?
Does the Lord? Need your money.
Listen, I'm not Kenneth Copeland.
I'm not working on my third jet, OK?
I drive a key and not a Benz or a Bentley or anything else.
I ride public transportation, All right?
I'm not trying to enrich myself here today.
And sometimes preachers, we don't want to preach on it cuz
it may seem like we're trying to enrich ourselves or trying to
take more. But I hope you've been here at
Liberty Baptist Church long enough to know my heart and know
why I'm preaching it. It's not because I want to get
an increase. It's not because I want to get
more. I want to make more of myself.
What is it? Because God has taken this and
this principle is put into place and He says right here, do it.
Because it's part of the fear of the Lord recognizing who He is
and recognizing who you are. Absolutely.
I give because I recognize without Him I am nothing.
And I put that offering plate. I put the offering in the plate.
I don't just take the offering plate.
Well, sometimes those guys walk past me.
I just take the offering plate from him to put it in.
But I put in the offering plate. Why?
Because this is some transaction.
If I give him a little bit, I know he'll give me more.
Now, will he? In some ways, yes, we're going
to see this in a moment from the book of Malachi.
But that's not why I give. I don't give because like, like
this is some sort of eternal fidelity account.
And if I can put it in, then I'm going to get a return of $100 in
this week. Next week, $200 comes from
Jesus. That's not what I'm preaching.
You'll get that on TBN. Sow a little seed.
That's not what the Bible's saying here.
Saying this, when I put in the offering plate and the Bible
tells to give cheerfully, I'm recognizing God.
I know who you are and I know who I am, and I trust that you
can take care of me better than I can take care of myself.
You know I do better than with 90% than I do 100.
I'll run that up flagpole one more time.
I do better with 90% than I do with 100.
You know why? Because in the midst I
acknowledge for God who he is, and I acknowledge who I am, he
gives me the help as a steward to be able to administer that
which I couldn't do on my own. I'm pretty good at losing money.
Anybody want to testify? No, I'm just kidding.
Don't do that. So, yeah, somebody else that
wasn't me. Yeah.
So I'm pretty good at losing money or wasting money.
But you know what? When I say even my finances,
Lord, belong to you and he takes what I have and he stretches it
out. People would laugh at you.
They would laugh at you for giving 10% to a church outside
these walls. They think you're crazy and
they'd scratch off 10%. They'd gamble away 10%.
They'd blow 10% on something that'll break next week.
But they'll laugh at you for investing in internal things.
What are you saying? I I acknowledge you, Lord, it's
for your work. I fear you again, not the
cowering fear that you're trying to hide yourself, but the deep
reverence and respect. Lord, I know who you are and I
know who I am, and I'm going to stay in my lane and trust you.
And as I do, you'll take care of me way better than I can take
care of myself. Now, where else do we see this?
I mean, throughout the Old Testament, but I want you to
also look at the book of Malachi.
All right. So would you turn to Malachi
chapter #3 Malachi chapter #3 say, pastor, this is, this is a
good thing. So if I, if I, if I, if I want
to get involved in this, that's good.
But you know, if I don't want to get involved in this, and that's
good too, right? Well, this is really not
optional. This is commanded.
And again, this is where I, as a pastor, would feel uncomfortable
in the past. I don't want to meddle.
And here's the thing. I'm not meddling.
I'm not going home and checking your budget.
I'm not going home and checking your paycheck, your pay stubs.
I'm not doing that. I don't want to know.
I don't. Want to know?
Here's what I do need to do. I got to preach the whole
council of God. I got to preach it because it's
here. And what do we see?
Before the tithe, Before the law, the tithe was there.
In the law, the tithe was there. Tonight we're going to see that
Jesus Christ himself did not condemn the tithe and that if we
are to give by grace in this New Testament era that we live in,
it's actually about doing more, not about doing less.
That's when it gets real. Quiet, but look at what it says
here in Malachi chapter #3 this is verse #8 Will a man rob God?
You've robbed me, but you say, where?
And have we robbed thee? Now before I get to the next
verse, you probably fixed words. You probably read it.
If you read the book of Malachi. God is constantly telling the
Israelites to do wrong, and then they question him the whole
time. Well, but yeah, but how wrong
are we? But we're not as wrong as you
think. We're not as wrong as those
people. And the whole book of Malachi is
God saying this is the way it is, and it's Israel saying.
But is it? It's no wonder that there was a
period of silence for about 400 years after the Book of Malachi.
Why? Because God said you're not
listening. Then fine.
Until John's voice pierced through, there's nothing.
Wherein have we robbed thee? God, You accuse us of robbing
you. Where do we rob you?
In tithes and in offerings. Now, tithes and offerings are
different. Do you know that?
They're not the same. They're not interchangeable
words. Ties are.
Well, what do we see? A tenth.
Look up the etymology of the word.
We saw how it was used, and it's very first mentioned in Genesis
chapter 14. Hebrews Chapter 7 is dealing
with the 10th. An offering is over and above
the tithe. You might give to faith promise
missions. When our family gives a faith
promise missions, that's not a tithe, that's an offering.
We don't take it out of our tithe to give to missions.
That's why sometimes it can hurt a little bit.
That's why sometimes we pray. Well, that's why we pray about
it before we give every year to missions.
Why? Because it is an offer.
It's over and above. What if we pass the plate?
Somebody has a need. We know some people say, well,
I'll just put my tithe in there and I'll give it to them.
Well, you're actually taking that which belongs to God and
giving it to someone else. Oh, pastor, you're being picky.
This is what the Bible says and someone just has to tell you
because a lot of people just don't understand it.
It's not you re appropriating the tithe however you'd like.
I'm going to put it in this fund and this fund and this fund and
this fund. No 10% that goes to you, Lord.
Whatever the use is for the church, that's what it is.
This is how God has provided. It's how he provided for the
temple, the Tabernacle. It's how he provides for his
church today. The offering is that which is
over and above. That's why oftentimes we call it
a free will offering, meaning this, if you have it, give it.
And if you don't or the Lord doesn't lead you, then don't.
Do you know we don't provide invoices at Liberty Baptist
Church? We've never gone to anyone and
say, you know, you're behind. No, there are churches that have
done that. I've heard stories of that.
You know, I get anxiety just even thinking about that.
Bill, can I talk to you for a minute?
Bill, come here. You know you're behind.
Behind what? Pastor.
Oh, you know, you know, you know, but you mean I got here
late to church. No, no, you, you know, Bill,
you're behind, you get, you got, you got a couple weeks to, to
catch up. Could you imagine?
Now, I will say this in as far as leadership at Liberty Baptist
Church, talk about trustees, staff members, we have to tithe.
You have to be a tither to be in those positions.
Could you imagine if I preached to you about tithing and I
didn't tithe? Could you imagine if you found
that out, how hypocritical it would be like, hey, pastor, you
told us the ties, but you know, I got some things going on.
Well, I'm the pastor, right? You go back, we don't have time.
You go back. You know what the Levites did
with the tithe? Tithe.
The Levites as they received the tithe to be able to help them.
You know what they did, they tithe off as well because they
were not exempt. And I'm not saying I'm a priest.
Someone at the hospital called me a priest yesterday when I
went to go visit Dave. She said, are you as a priest?
I said, if that'll get me in all right.
I was wearing a tie. My collar wasn't up.
She should have known I wasn't a priest.
I'm not a priest. But all I'm saying is this.
In the leadership of the Tabernacle, they were also
required to give. The leadership of the church is
required to give as well. And if there is someone that is
up to be a trustee, I do have to know not what they tied, but I
asked our financial secretary, yes or no.
I have to because you can't handle the offerings if you
don't give yourself. That's just ethical.
But in general, do we go around to, hey, Bill, you know, you
know, see this guy over here, he's cracking his knuckles.
He's from Federal Hill. We don't get this right.
You know, there could be an unfortunate accident.
No, I think people think that's what we do.
That's not what we do. It's not because it's between
you and the Lord, but I will tell you this.
I'm going to be passionate about it.
And the reason why is because I know what the Bible says and I
know what it's done in my life. I know what the Bible says and I
know what it's done in my life. And I don't want you to tithe so
that I become the manager of a greater empire.
That's not the way that I look at ministry.
That's not the way that I look at life.
I look at what God has done in my life and I say this, you
know, he's taking care of us every step of the way.
And I look at my statement every year, not because I claim it on
my taxes. And if you do, that's fine, but
it's never helped me to be able to.
But I look at it every year to just say, God, I don't get it.
I don't get this, but you took care of me.
I gave me so much stuff I didn't even deserve or.
Need. And some of you don't have that
joy of understanding that because you miss what God has
for you, tithe is before the law, ties during the law.
We'll see tonight that in this, the situation that we're in now,
that God will also God also that the program of tithing is still
very much in effect. But I do want to just give us
some closing thoughts here this morning.
The thought of tithing. Is scary to some.
I want to acknowledge that I'm not cold and I'm heartless, but
I'm not always cold and then heartless.
All right? But no, no, I I understand some
of you might feel like like this is a telephone.
Some of you might feel like, well, pastor, is this church
just all about money? No, the church is not all about
money. The church is all about souls.
But to reach souls, you know what is needed?
Some money. You like these lights, don't
you? You miss, you miss air
conditioning, don't you? You know why money helps to be
able to do the things that we need to do.
Some are afraid, well, as a church just about money.
Some are afraid that their budget will break down.
Some are afraid while I'm behind already.
What you're saying, pastor, it'll just be even worse.
You might not be able to pay your bills, your mortgage, your
car payment. You might feel if you have a
husband or wife that's also a believer, you might feel like,
well, maybe I'm on board, but she's not.
Maybe she's on board, but he's not.
Maybe you have a spouse that's an unbeliever.
What will they say? Maybe they won't agree.
Fear of starting. I'll start next week.
I'll start next month. I'll start next year.
Some think about, you know, what I could do with that money.
I could do a lot with just that 10%.
Some may be uneasy to give to a church.
Maybe you've seen financial impropriety in the past and you
think, well, I don't know that I want to give to a church because
I don't trust that they'll take care of the money in a
responsible way. Can I say that if you have any
of those thoughts this morning, I as your pastor, not here to
belittle you or to mock you or to make fun of you, Every single
one of those I can understand. But I will say this every single
one of those thoughts have to be overcome with truth and the of
God is this is that you give as it's been given unto you that if
we do not give as we're supposed to.
The Bible says this, we are robbing God, not my words, not
my words. You just read in the book of
Malachi. You just read them.
I don't even think we read the whole text.
I think I stopped in the middle of it.
But you say, where have we robbed God in ties and
offerings? Verse 9 And you're cursed with a
curse, for you've robbed me even this whole nation, bringing all
the ties into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine
house. Prove me now here with saith the
Lord of hosts, if I will not open you up the windows of
heaven and pour you out a blessing, there should not be
room enough to receive it. What he says here is this is all
about an issue of trust, and that's why fearing God is
important here, because do you fear God enough to trust that he
can actually take care of you? If God commands you to do
something, He will take care of you as He commands you to do it.
First Thessalonians Chapter 5. Faithful as he who calleth you,
who also will do it. If he's called.
You to do something he would be cruel to not give you that what
you need to be able to do it now cruel would a God be who would
say I want you to give of this 10% but then you figure it out
on your own. No, he says.
Prove me do it and see if I don't take.
Care of you. So really it comes down to this
issue of trust. Some things to consider, just
very practical things. The tithe doesn't belong to you
in the 1st place, Leviticus 27 verse 30 and all the tithe of
the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the
tree, it is the Lord's. It is holy unto the Lord.
The program of tithing is for each church.
I believe it's very clear that when you see in the Word of
God-given to the Tabernacle, see the New Testament, that they set
aside monies. It's not that churches didn't
help one another. Paul collected an offering to be
able to help the Saints of Jerusalem.
What do we do? We give up missions to be able
to help new church plants, to be able to help missionaries from
other churches. A church.
Could you imagine a church to fully supporting A missionary
going to Japan? They can't do it to be well over
$100,000 a year. What do they do?
Other churches help and in the same way we cooperate with one
another. The program of tithing is for
each church. We don't, we don't send it to
other places. We just don't give it out to to
others that it's given to through the church.
There's some we say, pastor, I'm not making anything right now.
So what do I give? You know, there's a beautiful
thing about this 10%. You know what 10% of 0 is zero.
I was hoping a few more people would answer there.
So 0, there could be seasons in your life where you don't have
an increase. That word increase is important.
What if you don't have an increase?
Then you have nothing to tithe off of.
You shouldn't feel guilty about that.
You can you give an offering that's between you and the Lord.
Maybe the Lord still presses upon your heart to give
something you know it's going to cut deep.
But if you don't have an increase, then you don't have a
tithe. This is not asking you to give
beyond something that you're even receiving in the first
place. And we remind ourselves that God
is the one who provides our needs.
We'll see tonight from Matthew chapter 6 that God is the
provider of everything that we have and everything that we
need. Tithing sometimes means giving
up some things in our budget that we think are important that
aren't as important as we think. There's a lot of things that we
spend money on and we don't even think about it.
And then we turn around later and say, I can't tithe.
Well, we could. We just have to maybe prioritize
a little bit. There have been times when my
wife, I looked at the budget and I said, you know, we, we can't
do clothes for the kids. We can't get new clothes.
And she said, well, that's not an option because they're
growing like weeds. So, you know, we had to do, we
came up with it. Now we may go on to the thrift
store. We're big fans of Savers at the
Rivera's house. But you know, we did, we found
it even that meant cutting something else out.
Maybe we didn't get pizza three times a week.
What do we do? We realize, oh, it's there, it
just needs to be shifted. There's a lot of Christians
don't even put enough time to think about, oh, where are my
priorities with that? Now, there could be some that
would say this. You know what, pastor, it
doesn't matter what you say. I'm doing what I'm doing.
This is what's worked for me. Seems like God provided for me
in the past. I have enough right now.
I'm making it. So really I'm just kind of
waiting for you to finish this sermon and I'm going to go ahead
and do what I keep doing until Stewardship Sunday comes around
again the next time. Now, would anybody actually
physically say that? Maybe, but probably not.
But there might be something to think of that.
Pastor, I just want this to be over and I'm going to get, I'm
going to get over this guilty feeling that I have.
And I'll be over by tomorrow and I'll be good.
You know, the purpose of my preaching is not to make you
feel guilty. Guilt is a very poor motivator.
You know what happens? You'll do it while you feel
guilty. As soon as you stop feeling
guilty, you go right back. The Bible talks about something
different, conviction, godly sorrow that worketh, repentance.
You know, I'm not trying to make you feel guilty.
I'm not trying to make you feel bad about yourself.
But we do want to ask you, will you allow the Holy Spirit to
actually work in your heart? James 417 says therefore to him
that knoweth do good and do with it, not to him it is sin to know
it's right and to not do it is a dangerous thing.
Too much is given. The Bible says much is required.
This has been placed in your trust.
You've got to decide what you'll do with it.
So the question is what percentage is right?
Say pastor heard you loud and clear, don't need to come
tonight, I'll just stay home. I heard you.
It's 10%. And the answer is you're wrong
because stewardship isn't about 10%.
The percentage is 100%. The issue of what percentage is
right is 100. Now I got to give it all to the
church. No, the stewardship life is
this. Everything that I have belongs
to him 100%. The skills that I have, the
talents that I have, the time that I have, the abilities that
I have, the wallet that I have, 100% of it belongs to him.
And he could in a moment, require my soul from me.
Luke Chapter 11, we just read that this morning.
He could require soul from us and we'd have nothing.
So we'd have him, if we were believers, would be in glory,
which is everything. What I'm saying is this stuff
that we're worried about now be gone.
So what do we need to do? Understand it's not about 10%,
it's about 100%. Psalm 24 verse one.
The earth is the Lord, the fullness thereof, the world and
they that dwell therein. First Samuel 1522 and 23 and
Samuel said hath the Lord is great delight and burnt
offerings and sacrifices as obeying the boy's voice of the
Lord. Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken is better than the fat of Rams.
See, God doesn't want your tithe as much as He wants you.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.