A Take on Tithing | Life in the Spirit Week 9

I've been, I don't know why, usually I do this kind of reflection at the end of the year, but for some reason I've been just super thankful lately in a lot of ways. And I even thought recently on, so then November the 2nd, let me just back up, all right, November the 2nd of 2014 was the day that I was named the lead pastor at Victor Church. And the very next weekend I was here at the OKC campus and I was about to come out and preach my very first message here and I was standing over here to my right by those doors and I think I stood there for, it seemed like a long time, because quite frankly I was like, I'm going to open these doors and no one's going to be out there. I don't even know if they're going to come back, like I don't know, I had no idea what I was walking into. And I opened the door and there was people out here and I was like, oh my gosh, they came back. And since that journey, it's been a journey, but I'm just overwhelmed every week at the goodness of God for this church and how he has redeemed this church and done so many amazing things over the past almost 12 years. And I'm just grateful, I'm grateful, you know, I don't take it lightly, I don't get to decide who calls me pastor, like it's not my decision, I don't get to decide that. And anybody that would call me pastor, it's a huge honor and a responsibility that I don't take lightly, and so no matter what campus, and so it's just kind of been on my mind lately. As a pastor, every single week, you guys let me speak into your life, like that's crazy. I mean, it's humbling. And you let me like step on your toes, it's crazy, you know, and I get all up in your business. And there's this one young lady that goes to the Grapevine campus, her and her husband, and I always know when I preached a decent message because she's super mad at me in the lobby. She's like, I can't talk to you right now, but that was a great sermon, you know. And because those are the kind of sermons that I'm super passionate about. And I'm all about helping people go from here to here in the Lord. And there's a lot of ways you can do that.

You can do it through condemnation and shame and, you know, yelling and screaming, and that's just not my vibe, my style. But you let me speak into stuff in your life, your thoughts and your struggles and your habits and your relationships. You let me challenge you, you let me step on your toes, or I guess if you're not here, you didn't let me step on your toes, you left. That's cool, too. And for the most part, you lean in, you know, you lean into those times. But there is one topic that I preach on, I would say in 12 years, I've maybe preached on it four or five times. That gets a little awkward, you know, when I do bring it up. Kind of like that awkward right there, like that awkward pause. I mean, you guys let me talk about marriage, you let me talk about purity, you let me talk about forgiveness and attitudes. And I mean, I preached a sermon a couple of weeks ago, a couple of months ago, where I talked about the power of confession, and people literally were coming, leaving their seats, coming down to the front and confessing. Like, that's heavy stuff. And the fact that you guys would lean into those things that the Lord might be saying is pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. And, you know, you guys leave and let me talk about generosity and stuff, heart for the house and stuff like that. But this one thing that I bring up every now and then, it just sucks the air out of the room whenever I bring it up. You want to know what it is? Tithing. Feel that? And I've often wondered why, but I also get it. You know, it's not just money, it's your money.

And money means a lot of things. Money represents things. It represents security, it's your livelihood, it's your well-being, it represents control. It's one of the things in your life that you do control. Like, it's all under your control. It means your future. Like, it affects your future. And after all, who am I to talk about your money? It's yours. It's your money. And not to mention the poor job that the Capital C Church has done in proving that we steward your money well. That's fair. I don't know that there's a great track record of the church, Capital C Church, in a lot of ways. So the reason I honestly, I honestly love to talk about tithing, even though it's awkward, and even though, you know, I just kind of prepare myself for it. It's like, you know, I just pretend I'm on the tee box, golfing, and there's people holding, quiet, quiet, please, you know, and I just know it's gonna be quieter whenever I preach on tithing, and I'm ready for it. But I like teaching on it because I genuinely think if you sat Michelle and I down and asked us the top five most formative things in our spiritual disciplines, what I would call spiritual disciplines, things that we have to discipline ourselves

to do spiritually that then form us and shape us in our walk with the Lord, there's no doubt in my mind that tithing would be in my top five. There's no doubt in my mind. I had a guy, after one of the other gatherings, say, well, where is it? Is it number one or number five? And I said, that's a great question. I need to wrestle with that. I mean, there's a daily discipline of getting in God's Word and praying, and so I know that tithing wouldn't be one or two, but somewhere in that three, four, five range, I've just seen the transformative work. And why is that important? It's important because if we are really called to live life in the Spirit, then there's always going to be spiritual disciplines. I think sometimes when we talk about the Holy Spirit or the Spirit showing up in Pentecostal circles, we get super pumped about a sermon series on the Spirit because we think God's gonna show up and just fix everything. And I do think there's seasons where God does that, and I believe God's capable of that, and we should pray that God does that. But I believe that life in the Spirit, living what I refer to as, that I stole from Jack Hayford, a Spirit-formed life.

Life in the Spirit is me having a series of disciplines, what I would call spiritual disciplines, that lead me closer to Jesus and shape me and form me into the man that I'm becoming. And I think tithing is one of those, and I don't preach on it often. I probably should preach on it. The last time I preached on tithing was June the 25th, 2023. It was the very last time I preached on tithing. And I'm not here to try to get something from you. Like, that's not my goal. We'll talk more about that later, but here's the cool thing. Everyone take a deep breath because you don't have to do anything I say. Like, there's no pressure, there's no guilt, there's no manipulation. I'm not gonna spit and scream and holler. It's just not my style. And if you hear what I have to say, and you say, that's not for me, that's not for us, that's okay. You can walk out of here the same way you walked in and live your life the exact way you've been living your life, and there's no harm, no foul. But today I wanna present, and even the title itself will kind of lay a foundation of kind of the style or the vibe in which I wanna present this.

And the title of the message is A Take on Tithing. A Take on Tithing. So if we say that we wanna live life to the full, and we go out that way every week, we wanna live life to the full, here's what I genuinely believe about living life to the full, is that we, I do not believe that we can live a spirit-led, spirit-filled, spirit-formed life without fully trusting the Lord, okay? That's baseline. And secondly, on top of that, nothing reveals trust like what you do with money. So maybe we shouldn't even call it tithing. Maybe we should just call it trusting, because it really does get to the heart of that. So here's my goal today, all right? Here's my goal. I wanna try to do two things, if I can try to thread a needle. I'm gonna give my position on what I believe is one of the most argued reasons why people don't tithe. And the old educator in me just kind of wants to present it like a dissertation or like a white papers, you know? So I wanna try to dismantle what I believe is a incorrect dichotomy or an incorrect approach to tithing. And then secondly, to finish, we're gonna finish with the good news,

because in Psalm 103, the Bible says, "'Forget not all his benefits.'" So if you've ever gotten hired at a job and they go through your benefits package of what your benefits are with your job, I just wanna stop by showing us what Scripture says about the benefits package of tithing. So the first thing I wanna do is try to unpack this, what I believe is a false approach to what tithing is. There are people, it kind of splits into three camps. Those that tithe, they don't question it, they do it, they've been taught, they've seen God show up in miraculous ways. And then there's people that would say that I actually believe a large part of Christians fall into is people that genuinely want to, and they just can't. I mean, they just can't figure out how to balance the budget. But there is a camp of people that would just say, that's Old Covenant, that's Old Testament, that's Old Testament law, and so now we're in the New Covenant, and because Jesus is here, and because of the grace, and because of the mercy, and because of the cross, we're not under the law anymore, so now we don't have to tithe. So that's the main thing I wanna talk about. So I'm gonna unpack it in three ways. So the first thing is, I would say,

is there is a pre, a during, and a post in tithing, okay? So the first way I would describe this as point number one is I would say there was a before the standard. So if tithing was kind of the standard that was set in the Old Testament, I wanna present, and reveal, and show you that tithing appeared on the scene in the Bible before the law ever came. So in Genesis chapter 14, there's this cool little story about how Abraham, who's the father of many nations, the father of our faith, and his nephew Lot, they kind of divided and went their separate ways, and Lot got basically kidnapped by some kings from the north, and he was taken captive, and taken all the way to the north up in Israel, and Dan, and Abraham left and went up there and took his servants with him and conquered those kingdoms and took Lot back, his nephew back. And the Bible says, and you can read it later, for time's sake, in John chapter 14, it says that he came back with a lot of wealth. So he got the spoils of war, and he came back with a substantial amount of wealth. And then about midway through chapter 14, this really interesting thing happens that's debated theologically. A high priest named Melchizedek came to him, and in Hebrews chapter seven, I told you to turn there just a minute ago, if you go to Hebrews seven, it kind of recaptures the story.

You should go back and read the original one in Genesis 14, but in Hebrews chapter seven, it kind of unpacks it with more rich context, and I wanted to read this one, verse one. It says, for this Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth, or a tithe. Tithe literally means tenth, is all that means. Part of all the spoils was, first of all, by the translation of his name, the King of Righteousness, and then also King of Salem, which is King of Peace. Now, verse three is really important, will impact this. It says, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of days, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. So he's talking about Melchizedek, and this is where kind of a debate happens in theology amongst theologians, and some theologians would say that Melchizedek is a type and a shadow of the coming Messiah. He's a picture of Jesus as the coming Messiah, as the great high priest, because it says he had no father, he had no mother, he was a deity, right? He was without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of days. But then there's another group of people that would say, no, that's not a type and shadow, that was actually Jesus.

That was the pre-incarnate Jesus that appeared to Abraham. Not important for the sake of this conversation. So I want you to just go with me for a second to think about tithing, the very first time tithing was ever introduced in the Bible. It wasn't under the law, it wasn't a command, it wasn't a requirement, it wasn't a system. I mean, it wasn't even a percentage that Abraham was taught. Why did he give a tenth? We don't really know, because he would have never been taught that that's what he should give as a tenth, because the law was not yet to come. So it wasn't guilt-driven, it wasn't fear-based, it wasn't transactional at all. The first time tithing was ever mentioned in the scriptures, it was a response, he was responding to an encounter. And so if you go back tonight, go back and read Genesis 14, you'll see that when Melchizedek first comes, it's really cool, he gives him two things. Melchizedek gives Abraham, think about this, he gives him bread and wine. Now he's a type and a shadow of Jesus, or he's the pre-incarnate Christ himself, and isn't it interesting that he gives Abraham bread and wine, the same thing that Jesus would give his disciples in the upper room on Pentecost, right? We're at the Passover. What we take communion, what do we take? Bread and wine.

What does the bread represent? The body. What does the wine represent? The blood. So thousands of years before Jesus appears on the scene, he appears to Abraham and symbolically shows him, this is a messianic prophecy of the coming Messiah that's going to come to give his body and to give the wine. And immediately the Bible says that Abraham apportioned a tent to the priest, to the high priest. So Abraham gave a tent out of a response to a picture of the body and the blood. Why is one of the reasons we tithe? We tithe because Jesus gave his body and his blood. We don't do it legally. We don't do it because we have to. We do it as a response to the appreciation of what Jesus did for us. And then comes along the law, okay? Then comes along the law. This is what I would call the standard is set. So now the standard is set. The standard has come. And most people would say, most people would quote Malachi. You know, that's the part of the scriptures that preachers love to preach. They just beat it to death. But that's not when the law happened. You gotta go back to Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. Tithing was introduced that the tithe belongs to God.

That in Numbers, it says that the tithe came to support the Levites because when they got into the promised land, all the 12 tribes, 11 of them got land, but the Levites did not. And so the tithe was apportioned to the priests. The priests were gonna come out of the Levitical tribe. And then in Deuteronomy, it's included for provisions for the poor, that the tithe is gonna come in through the temples and all those sort of things to provide for the poor. So what was once voluntary, all of a sudden became this established thing. It was a measurable standard. It was 10% is what the law said. You give it 10%, and it wasn't just 10%. Under the law, you gave your first 10%. It mattered. God was like, don't do all your stuff and then give me the leftovers. I want your first. I wanna be priority. And then I want your best. He's like, don't bring me the defected fruit from your crops, the stuff that's not edible, or the stuff that's secondhand or thirdhand. I want the best your crop has to offer. So bring me your first, bring me your best. So it was always tied to honor. And then Malachi comes along.

Malachi, contextually, is kind of post the Babylon exile. I don't wanna get too deep, because people will fall asleep. But they're coming back from exile, and Malachi is this reminder to the people, hey, you're back from exile. Don't forget what God has done for us. Don't forget the law. Don't forget tithing. And the priests were offering blemished sacrifices. They were giving God things that didn't cost them anything. And so Malachi was this reminder to the people of, hey, we gotta come back into alignment with tithing. So their giving, in Malachi, or their lack thereof, was what revealed their drifting away from God. So remember, what we do with our money and how we serve the Lord are not separable. They go together. And so they were drifting from the Lord, and so there was a connection there. But really, what I wanna talk to you about is the third thing to address the question I raised earlier about those who would say it's Old Covenant, not New Covenant. One, I would say you're right. You're right. It is Old Covenant. It is Old Covenant. It's not New Covenant. But what I would say, and I would present to you is,

so when we have before the standard, number two, we have the standard set, number three, this is the season that we live in, the era we live in, is what I would say, we live in the New Covenant, which means, number three, we're actually beyond the standard. Here's what I mean by that, okay? So let me try to unpack this as best I can. What happened, let me just pose a question, what happened to everything in the Old Testament, all of the Old Testament law? What happened to it when Jesus appeared? When Jesus came on the scene, what does that mean? All of the law, all the things, what happened to it? Matthew chapter five is a really famous chapter in the Bible that we would call the Sermon on the Mount. And it's a great chapter in the Bible. Jesus kinda deals with a lot of this in Matthew chapter five and he starts Matthew chapter five in verse 17, he says this, he says, do not think, this is Jesus' words, he says, don't think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish it, I actually came to fulfill it. So it wasn't a deleting of the old and establishment of the new. Jesus came to not abolish it, he came to be the fulfillment of everything the law tried to accomplish but failed. So he came to fulfill what the law had failed. And then he goes on, you can read it later,

then he goes on, After that, he lists six things, six things that he deciphers the old and the new, the law and now the new covenant. And this is kind of the terminology Jesus uses, and you may have heard this said before. Jesus says over and over again for the next several verses, he says, you have heard it said blank, but I say blank. So what he's saying is you've heard it said blank, that's the law, that's the way it used to be, but I say blank, this is the way it's going to be, okay? So let's just, let's review just a couple of them. The first one, one of the first ones he says is the law of thou shalt not commit murder, Exodus chapter 20, thou shalt not, that's the 10th commandment. And Jesus presents this and he says this way, you have heard it said thou shalt not murder, but I say, don't even hate, don't even be angry at your brother. Ooh, man. Another law he addresses, he says, in Exodus 20 it says, thou shalt not commit adultery. And then Jesus comes on and he says, you've heard it said do not commit adultery, but I say, don't even look lustfully at someone. And if you do, you are committing adultery, sorry. The law in Exodus 21, it says eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, someone plucks your eye out, you pluck their eye out.

That's what the law said, kind of like that law. I mean, I wish we could kind of live by that one. Jesus comes on the scene and says, turn the other cheek, turn the other cheek, someone hits you, give them your other cheek. Another law he deals with, he says, in Leviticus 19, it says to love your neighbor as yourself. That's a good law, nothing wrong with that law. Jesus comes on the scene and says, I say, love your enemies. Hold up, Jesus, I mean, come on. So let me just pose a question, all right? You can kind of see where I'm going with this. Let me pose a question. Does the new covenant lower the standard or raise it? So the pattern that I see in the New Testament is that Jesus, when he came to fulfill the law, he didn't lower the bar. He came to fulfill it and elevate it. So let's reverse back around and do some deductive reasoning and say, well, then what about money? What does that mean with tithing? Old covenant says to give 10%, but that's old covenant. I don't got to do that no more. Okay, first off, I wanna, this isn't my main point, but I wanna address, people just don't think Jesus talked about tithing, but he actually does. In Matthew 23, 23, he says this. He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you tithe your mint and your dill and your cumin,

but you've neglected the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. He says, you've majored on the minors and you've minored on the majors. And then he kind of corrects him. He says, but these are the things you should have done, but then he says these words, without neglecting the others. So Jesus didn't cancel it. He didn't say, you don't have to do that anymore. He said, you've just reversed the importance of this. It's not my main point, but it is an interesting point. There's this moment in Matthew 19 where this, what we would know as the rich young ruler, he comes to Jesus and he asks Jesus a question. And the question is this, how do I inherit the kingdom of heaven? He just asked Jesus, how do I inherit the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus says, obey the law. Do what the law says. All of the commandments, all the laws, love your brother, love your brother as yourself. Don't commit adultery, all the things. He lists a couple of them. And then the rich young ruler says back to Jesus, he goes, I've done all that. Checked all the boxes. And what did Jesus say back to him? Okay, sell all your possessions and give it to the poor. Did Jesus lower the standard or raise the standard?

The early church, you know, Acts chapter two, when the church was born, and I hear Christians all the time, like, we should go back to that. Why can't the church be like the early church? We need to get back to the church the way it was. And I don't disagree with you. Like, I'm for it. But do you really know what you're asking for? Because in Acts chapter two. Chapter two, the first church, the early church, they sold all their possessions and shared it with each other. Like that would literally be like me going, all right guys, here's the plan. This week, everyone go home, everyone have a garage sale, sell everything you have, sell your house, cash out your 401ks and come back next week and we're all gonna lay it all up here on the altar and then we're gonna distribute it and we're gonna just take care of people. None of you would come back next week. I wouldn't come back next week. Like, mm-mm, that's my house. I love these people, Lord, but mm-mm, I ain't doing it. I ain't doing it. So the new covenant upped the standard. Remember the widow's mite? The widow's mite, this poor young lady and she's a widow and Jesus is sitting by the, can you imagine this?

We've talked about this before, but they're in the temple and the Bible says that Jesus is sitting next to the offering receptacle and people are coming by and dropping their offerings in and the wealthy people are coming and putting in vast amounts of money and can you imagine like giving your offering and Jesus is sitting there? You're like, no, let me try something more. And then this widow comes by and drops in two copper coins, which is the equivalent of less than a penny and Jesus literally stands up in front of the whole temple and goes, hey, this lady right here just gave more than all of you. And everyone's like, no, and Jesus said, because she gave everything she had. So for those that say tithing is old covenant, I don't have to do that anymore. I would say you're right, you're right, but be careful what you ask for because what I would say is in the New Testament, the covenant that tithing is the floor, not the ceiling. Tithing is the on-ramp to generosity. It is not the end game. Tithing is not this destination, it's in the new covenant. I believe that we're challenged, not required, not condemned if we don't. We don't not get to go to heaven if we don't, that's nonsense. Jesus doesn't love you more if you tithe

and if anyone has ever told you that's a lie, that's religion and it's a lie from the pit of hell. It has nothing to do with earning and the pecking order and I'm more important and Jesus loves me more than you. No, it is the same thing it was for Abraham. It's a response. It is a response and people, you know, most people, not us, we're the perfect church. I'm talking about all the other Christians, you know. Most people, they see it as like, what's the minimum I have to give God so that I can receive the maximum from God? And to me, that's the spirit, that's the spirit behind that's old covenant. I don't have to do that anymore because the spirit, not intentionally, but the spirit behind that is, what's the minimum I can give and still expect God to give me the maximum? Where I believe the new covenant says, I'm going to trust God to the maximum. I'm going to believe that I can't out give God. I'm going to trust God to the, I'm not gonna be foolish, I'm not gonna be reckless. I am not advocating that you sell all your possessions. Please don't do that unless the Lord tells you to. So, you know, if the question is, is tithing for me, should I tithe? Is tithing for today? Is tithing a new covenant principle?

Maybe those are all the wrong questions. Maybe a better question, maybe a better question is, does my giving reflect the level of trust that I have in God that I claim to have? So whatever measure that I use with my mouth that I trust God, does my wallet match up with my mouth? So use the old adage, don't write checks with your mouth, you already know what else I'm gonna say. I don't even have to say it, it's good. I mean, it makes us wrestle through things and that's my call. I'm not trying to convince you of nothing, I'm trying to get you to wrestle with stuff. Can I still tithe when gas goes up $2 a gallon? Can I still be, because listen, tithing is what I would call a spiritual discipline. Going to the gym is a discipline. You don't have to go to the gym, but if you go to the gym, you will see improvement in your life. What makes you go to the gym? You do. It is a discipline. And every time I go to the gym, I was, hey, Jace, my son, hey, Jace, let's go to the gym, bro. Let's go to the gym. I don't feel like it. I go, you need to do it the most when you don't feel like doing it. There's a lot of spiritual disciplines, prayer, scriptures,

all of those things that are spiritual disciplines. Tithing is nothing more than a spiritual discipline. Can I be disciplined in my tithing when we go to war as a nation, and my stock market and my 401k does this? Can I be disciplined in my tithe when I'm super concerned about AI, and I don't know what AI is gonna do, and I might not even have a job a year from now because AI may take over my industry. So the temptation is to, well, I'll just start stockpiling a little bit here and there. Do I have the faith? Do I trust God enough to continue tithing when I am uncertain about the future? I'm concerned about AI. I really am. I'm very concerned about it. I don't know if it'll replace me. I mean, can you imagine a Tesla robot coming up here? Open with me to Hebrews chapter 11. I mean, I don't know. Maybe, I don't know. It's possible. It's possible. So most people mistake tithing as like this obligation. It's like, we see it like paying taxes. Like it's a burden. And I would just say this isn't an obligation.

This isn't some tax. This is the greatest investment you will ever make in your life. Like when somebody is thinking about investing in a company or investing in a stock or investing in something, you do your due diligence because you want an ROI. That's why you invest. You're looking for an ROI. And I love investing. I've gotten very interested in it. And so you're looking at a lot of things because you're trying to measure all these things that you're trying to rationalize the stats and the data to prove that there's going to be an ROI. And you're looking at cap rates and you're looking at the net income of the company and you're looking at all these different things and EBITDAs and all this stuff. Tithing is one of those things that just doesn't make sense. It doesn't make any sense. Like there is no computation, no quantitative data that will help you build enough umption to begin. But that's why it's faith. That's why it's faith. And so in closing, I just want us to, I want to just do a quick review, all right? So let's just pretend, let's just pretend for a second that you're even like 10%, no pun intended, with me. And you kind of believe, okay, John, you know, I'm interested in at least hearing more about this.

Let's just pretend for a second that you would want to give it a shot, all right? Let's just recap real quick what Malachi says. Not what John says, what the Scriptures say. If we're saying that we're talking about the old covenant here, but we're believing that God doesn't raise, that lower the standard, he raises the standard. And so if he's raising the standard, then the old standard still works. That the truth of Scripture, the truth of God's covenant still works because Jesus came to fulfill it and to go beyond it. So we're going back to the floor. Like we said, what if tithing's not the ceiling, it's the floor? So I'm gonna just go back to the floor level of God's promises, okay? So let's just read this together real quick. In Malachi chapter three, verse eight, it says, "'Will a man rob God? "'Yet you are robbing me, but you say, "'How have we robbed you in tithes and offerings? "'You are accursed with a curse.'" I'm reading this part fast because this part's no fun. "'For you are robbing me with a whole nation of you.'" So, you know, it's true, but I don't want to focus on that right now. I want to focus on this part, verse 10. So now comes the promises of God.

He says, "'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse "'so that there may be food in my house, "'and test 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 a blessing until it overflows, "'then I will rebuke the devourer for you "'so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground, "'nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes.'" Means your grapes won't fall off the vine until they're fully ripe. "'All the nations will call you blessed, "'for you shall be a delightful land,' "'says the Lord of hosts.'" So let's just recap these real quick. Let's get a baseline review of the standard. Couple promises we look at, all these promises. I'm just gonna unpack them real quick, all right? And we have to look through these, through the lens of agricultural terms. He's speaking to them, he's meeting them where they're at. He was talking to us today, he might be talking through a business lens or through a TikTok lens, I don't know. But he's talking through an agricultural lens because that's what they understood, they were farmers. So the terminology he uses, one, he says, I will open the windows of heaven. I don't know a single person that if I sat down with them and said, hey, are you interested in God opening the windows of heaven over the top of you?

And somebody going, meh, sounds complicated. I don't know, I don't know that I would like that. It's an agricultural term. What he's saying is I, if you put the seed in the ground, this is what God's saying, if you put the seed in the ground, I'll bring the rain. Opening the windows of heaven, the next phrase is pour out. He's saying, I'm going to bring the rain. And what he's saying is if you'll do what you can do, you can plant, did you know that if you have a garden, you can plant a seed, but you can't make it grow. Something happens in the ground that was a principle that God created when he created the heavens and the earth, that you do what you can do and I'll do what you can't do. It's the same principle in giving. We put seeds in the ground in God's kingdom, and then God makes something grow and puts fruit on it. So it's access, what this is saying is I'm giving you access to a provision that you have no control over. And God is providing a way outside of our ability is what that means. So I'm gonna do something that you can't do. And then it says, I'm gonna pour out a blessing. And then it goes on to say, I'm gonna pour it out. In fact, I'm gonna keep pouring it out until it overflows. So I'm gonna pour out a blessing. So this is an overflow harvest and this can apply to not just your finances, this can apply to favor and opportunities and peace. Listen, people get so wrapped up thinking that tithing

is all about give to get, like I give to the Lord and then he's gonna give me my money back with interest. There's so much bigger than that, so much bigger than that. It doesn't say he'll pour out money on you, it says he'll pour out blessings on you. I believe that part of the blessings that come are things like opportunities, it's favor, it's peace. Let me tell you something, I know a lot of really, really, really, really, really, in all my years of fundraising, I've met a lot of really wealthy people. And I know a bunch of them, a bunch of them that have no peace, no peace. Going through divorce after divorce, have no security in Christ, don't know who they are, they're insecure, they have orphan hearts. I want peace. The next one is my favorite. It says, when we tithe, when we do this, the promise says, I will rebuke the devourer. He's saying, as you plant your crops agriculturally and your crops sprouts and it starts budding and fruit starts popping up on the vine, everything that comes to take away what is for you, I rebuke them, I will put a stop to it. And honestly, man, when it comes to tithing for me, I don't know if I even theologically believe what I'm about to tell you, but I do it anyways, because I like to pray in certain ways and if the Lord wants to answer it, he can. Sometimes I will sow a seed, I will give,

I'll be generous, I'll tithe. And I'll just be like, hey, Lord, I'm not saying that I get to control this, but if I get any say in this, I don't want money in return. Will you just make sure my kids love Jesus? Will you just, will you protect my marriage? Will you protect me from doing something stupid that would impact my marriage? I want, Lord, with this seed that I'm sowing in the ground, I want you to rebuke anything that would come to steal or kill or destroy my life, my family, my marriage, my finances, my mental health, my physical health. I believe, yes, we can clap for Jesus. I believe that a big part of God's protection and blessing and favor, yes, financially, yadda yadda, I am way more interested in a living life to the full with peace and security and an amazing marriage and kids that love Jesus and serve the Lord. I will take that over money any day of the week. And I believe that tithing sows seeds into those aspects of our lives. All right, I'm done crying. Okay, the next one says, your crops will not fail. That's such good news. Do you know how exhausting it is to plant crops and to work your tail off to build something, and then it all failed? You know how much work you put into your career and how much work you put into your marriage and how much, moms, how much you sewed into those kids?

And this promise comes along and says, hey, I'm going to bring harvest security, and I'm gonna bring stability, and I'm gonna bring sustainability, and what you're working to build is going to last. I received that blessing. I want that blessing. And then the last one says, your vines will not drop its fruit before it is ripe. There's a guy that I know, a really good friend of mine, that was offered a very large offer, over a billion dollars for his company, like four years ago, and it was done. Handshake deal, they had a closing day set, all the due diligence was done. It was an exit, and it was a massive exit. He was gonna be a billionaire, with the stroke of a pen. And I think the offer was like 1.2 billion, something like that, and so he showed up on signing day and went to sign it, and it all fell through. On that day, the whole thing fell through. It just fell through, and he was broken. He was devastated. He was like, oh my gosh, I've worked this hard to get this to this moment of fruition, and it fell apart. So another four years pass, and then he just kept at it, kept due diligence, kept working hard, and another company came and bought his company and bought it for almost double. What that means is that the fruit hadn't fully ripened yet.

This was protection, and we don't know, when we tithe, this idea of premature loss, it's a loss that was premature. It can be a relationship that needs to endure. It can be opportunities that mature fully. It can be callings that aren't cut short. How many callings are cut short? And then, and then, God has the audacity to say, test me in this. Excuse me? The creator of the universe, the one who speaks and things appear, says, hey, I just wanna encourage you to trust me, to tithe, and if you do, I'll do this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and then he leans forward and goes, give it a shot. Test me, test me. Have you ever heard that saying that says, put your money where your mouth is? It's like, it's literally like God is saying, put your money where my mouth is. Because God's the one that said it. It's an invitation, and that's the thing, is I think a lot of preachers preach this like it's a shame on you for not tithing. Listen, you don't gotta tithe. If you're still skeptical, don't tithe. Do your thing, man. Like, whatever's working for you. But after I do my due diligence

and I study the scriptures for what I read them as, not because a TikTok video said it or some pastor on YouTube said it. But when I go into the scriptures and look at what it says, I'm like, how could I not give this a shot? So my final disclaimer, I'm gonna pray. This is not a ploy for your money. We're good. Like, we don't have some air conditioner that went out and I'm trying to raise money. You know, better preach on tithing because we need to raise an extra bit of money. This is what I say all the time. If you've been coming to church or you've heard me say this, if you don't trust me and you don't trust this house, give it to another church. Couldn't care less. Don't care. If you don't trust this house and you don't trust me, give it somewhere else. Give it to a different church. I'm saying this because I believe that if you wanna live life to the full, you will never fully live life to the full. Not just financially, because I believe tithing impacts other areas of our life other than just money. I believe you will never live life to the full

until you fully trust God and fully open and fully submit your life to the Lord, which includes your wallet. Includes your wallet. And we try to be a church that's trustworthy. The Bible says we're to sow seed into fertile soil. So your job is to sow seed, but your job is also to find fertile soil. Don't just go throwing your seed into organizations that you don't know what they do with your money. Like, is this fertile soil? And so we try to go above and beyond to make sure you know this is fertile soil. We do a State of the Church, if you're new to Victory, every year that I've been a lead pastor, we've done a State of the Church address where we talk about our expenses and our budget. on our income, and our debt, and how the pastor's salary is set, and the layers of accountability, and what our elders look like. We have a, we do an annual audit, a financial audit from a third-party CPA firm, an annual audit, a full audit of our finances, and if you want to see it, it's on our website. You can go and look that up, because we want to be a place that's trustworthy, so that you can fully trust God, and you can't fully trust God until you find somebody trustworthy to sell your seed. Okay, let's pray. Jesus, I thank you that you, that you didn't come to just fulfill the law, that you didn't come to just abolish the law, you came to fulfill it, and you modeled this time and time again with your time on earth. Even in your death, you modeled it. You didn't abolish the law. Sin still had to be atoned. You didn't do away with the atonement. You fulfilled it. No longer did it have to be a cow, or a goat, or a

dove. You stepped in, and you didn't give some, you gave all. The Bible says that you stepped out of heaven, and took off your deity, and became nothing for us. I'm grateful that you didn't give 10% of yourself on the cross. You gave everything. You gave everything. We're so grateful that you joined us today. At Victory, we pray big prayers to a big God, and we expect big results. If you would like to receive prayer, you can submit a prayer request by visiting victory.church slash pray. If this message, or any of our messages, have impacted your life, and you would like to partner with us through giving, you can do so at victory.church slash give. Thank you again for joining us. At Victory Church, we live life to the full.