Preach What You Practice I Robert Madu I Social Dallas

Hey everyone, before we jump into today's message, we wanted to take just a moment and personally thank you for being a part of our Social Global family. Yes, we are standing in the future home of Social Dallas. Demolition has officially started and every day we're getting closer to making the space a place where thousands of people will encounter Jesus for years to come. And if these messages have encouraged you, strengthened your faith, or helped you grow in any way, would you partner with us? Your generosity helps us continue sharing messages like the one you're about to watch and helps us build a permanent home where lives will be changed forever. To support the Almost Home campaign, visit socialdallas.com slash give and select Almost Home in the giving options. Or you can text the word give to 469-715-3755. Whether it's a one-time gift or becoming a recurring partner, every gift makes impact and every dollar moves dirt. Thank you for believing in what God is doing through Social Dallas. Here's today's message. Oh, can we thank God for our amazing worship team that just leads us so well? Come on, while you're clapping, help me thank God for the Social Dallas Mass Choir. So, so good. I like when a worship team sings loud enough that the people that can't sing on key around me, I can't hear them. That's how I judge a good worship service. Hey, I'm so glad that you're here today. Shout out to our Social Global family again. Everybody watching this on the Pando app, all of our brothers and sisters, today's gonna be a good day. You look good. You look like you got... How you know I was gonna say that? You look like you got confident trust in the Lord. If you're new to social, that's our word for this year, which by the way is almost over. Come on, somebody. Our word for this year is confident trust, and I hope that God has been strengthening your trust in him this year. And every single Sunday, to remind us that our trust is in him, we've been declaring Hebrews chapter 10 verses 35 through 37. We're gonna do that again today, but let me just check. How many of you got it memorized? Can I see your hand? Come on. Tell the truth. Shame the devil. All right. How many are still working on it?

All right. Hurry up. Hurry up. We're gonna declare it today as a family. Remember, you don't go till I say so. So? Remember the great reward it brings you. Patient endurance is what you need now so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. For in just a little while, the coming one will come and not delay. You believe it? I believe it. I believe it. Then remain standing. We're gonna go to our text for today, but we have been in a series, if you've been paying attention, that we've called Trust Issues. If you remember, I started the series diagnosing all of us, okay? We all have trust issues. We've established that the issue underneath every single issue is trust. Trust, hear me. That is ultimately the question of life. Do you trust God? Not even do you believe in him. The demons believe. Do you trust him? We've been looking at the word of God to expose where our trust really is. If you're watching this on YouTube, back that thing up biblically and go to the first two messages because the first week we understood expired trust, that we have a God that provided manna, the frosted flakes, if you will, and he provided it daily so they would be dependent on him. Last week, preached another message and posed the question, can I speak to the manager? You are not the owner. You are the manager of everything that God has put in your life. However, money, when you manage it, is the one thing that will creep into your life and become your master. Try to become your master, and we declare God as our master. Then we're gonna add another layer to it today. Are you ready? Okay. Go to Philippians chapter four today. I just need one verse of scripture. Verse number nine. It's not my assignment to necessarily exegete this text as much as I want to use it. as a framework for where we're going. Philippians chapter four, verse number nine, the apostle Paul writes these words to the church at Philippi, whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice and the peace of God will be with you. That's so nice. I got to read it twice. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice and then the peace of God will be with you. Can you say amen? I want to tag a title to this text today and preach to you from this thought. Preach what you practice. Preach what you practice. Help me preach and just look at your neighbor, whichever one you like the best and say, neighbor, if you ain't practicing it, don't preach it.

Hallelujah. Somebody could go home on that right there. Come on, find another neighbor, your second option. Come on, say other neighbor. I got a word for you. Preach what you practice. If you believe God's going to speak today, give him some praise up in here. Lord, have your way. Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Preach what you practice. Social fam, something happened a few weeks ago with my son, with my man child, my namesake, Robert Madu III. Something happened that reminded me how strange it is to parent in this YouTube generation. Yes, YouTube has united us. What I mean by that is you will find your child saying something or singing something or quoting something, and you will think to yourself, how in the world do you know that you weren't even born when that happened? This happened a few weeks ago. I heard my son say a statement. The moment he said it, I knew exactly where he got it from. I knew exactly where he got it from. It's interesting because he wasn't alive when it happened. This statement he was saying came from what I believe was one of the most famous and iconic press conferences in sports history. In case you missed it, I got it for you today. Watch this. We just talk about practice. We sitting here, I'm supposed to be the franchise player, and we're in here talking about practice. I mean, listen, we're talking about practice. Not a game, not a game, not a game. We're talking about practice. Not a game. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last. Not the game. We're talking about practice, man. We're talking about practice. Now, Gen Z and Alpha is confused because you got to understand when we heard AI growing up, that's what we thought about right there. That is Allen Iverson, who if you watched the full interview said practice about 30 times. Practice, practice. Not a game. Practice. Y'all, that word has been in my spirit for the last week or so. Practice, practice. I'm sure if you're here today, you've heard this quote, practice what you preach. I think that's true. I think there ought to be some congruence between what you do privately and what you preach publicly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That if you're going to try to tell somebody to do it, you should actually be practicing it in your own life. In fact, one of my frustrations with the culture that we live in today is that it has never been easier for you to have a voice before you've had a proved pattern of something in your life. One writer said it like this. We have so many people who have been overexposed and underdeveloped. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because nobody is actually practicing what they're doing. Have you noticed? Everybody has a platform. Everybody has a podcast. Everybody

is trying to teach. Everybody can post. Everybody can give advice. Everybody is a life coach. This is the only generation where you can learn something on Tuesday and to be trying to teach a master's class on it on Friday. That is the generation that we live in and we are perfected preaching things that we barely had enough time to put into practice. Now, let me be clear. The word of God is true, whether you have personally put it into practice or not. Our experience does not give scripture its authority. How many of you know God's word is true simply because God said so? That is what it is. But I do think it hits differently whenever you can stand up and say, hey, I have walked this principle out in my life. I have lived with this truth. I've actually practiced this one. This isn't something I just discovered because I was preparing a sermon. This is something that God has been forming in me over time. There's just something different when you say, hey, I am preaching something that I have actually practiced. And that's why I love the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter four, because he's got the nerve and the audacity to say, whatever you have seen or heard or learned from me, put it into practice. Paul said, if you can't read my letter, read my life. And when you read my life, you should see some things that you can put into practice. Now, this is Paul.

He's not claiming that he's perfect, but he is saying there is a consistent pattern that you can look at my life and you can put it into practice. I've got a pattern of obedience. I've got a pattern of surrender. I've got a pattern of forgiving. I ought to look at your life and see a pattern. And so today, if you'll allow me, I want to share a pattern that is in my life that I didn't just start doing, I've been putting it into practice. Can I do that today? Will y'all allow me the pastoral privilege of just sharing something with you? Can I share something with you? You sure? Okay, I want to share something. Here it is. Something. Um. I want to share something. I want to share something, y'all, that I have been doing for decades. I want to share something that I was doing before I started preaching. I want to share something that I was doing before we planted this church. I want to share something I was doing before I married the lovely Pastor Taylor.

I have been doing this practice. I want to share something with you. Anybody want to know what this thing is, you want to know what it is? You know what this thing is that I've been practicing? Add a rapper to that thing. That's what I've been practicing. Okay, y'all still lost. It's tithing. Tithe, T-I, slow class over here. I want to share and talk about the practice of tithing. Let the church say tithing. Ooh, I had to bring some levity. I had to bring some levity to this issue of tithing because let's be honest, the moment you say that word, I am aware that depending on your background, all kinds of things start happening emotionally for you. Some of you grew up in a church. At the moment you heard somebody say tithing, you already knew where they were about to go. Some of you have heard this subject taught beautifully, and some of you have heard this subject taught badly. I even spoke to it last week. Some of you have come from cultures where people from the pulpit use manipulation every single time they talk about money. And that's actually why I didn't even start this sermon with Malachi chapter three, because I know some of y'all, if I would have started Malachi chapter three,

some of y'all would have got triggered. You would have walked out the room. It's coming later, but I just didn't start with it. Because I get it. There are some legitimate questions around this topic of tithing. Questions like, isn't tithing just an Old Testament thing? Wasn't tithing a part of the law? Didn't Jesus fulfill the law? I thought we in the new covenant now. And some of you have actually been tithing your entire life, but if somebody asked you why you tithe, you might have a hard time showing them from scripture. And then some of you, if you keep it 100, you don't even know what the word means. Come on. I've been coming to church long enough and pastoring long enough to hear people say, hey, PR, where do I pay my tithe? And I wanna help you just right there. Y'all, this is tithe, okay? That's tithe. Please keep your tithe, keep your tithe. That's detergent. We are not talking about tithe today. We're talking about the tithe. Somebody say tithe. Yes, yes, tithe. That is a Hebrew word that is ma'aser. And it simply means a 10th.

A tithe is 10%. That's what a tithe is. And this is important. This is critical because every time you tithe, you are giving. But not everything you give is a tithe. There is a difference. If you decided today that you just want to bless somebody with $50 because they look like they need it, that's amazing. You gave. If today you said, man, I want to give to Almost Home because I believe in the building that we're building, that's amazing. You gave. All of those are beautiful acts of generosity, but the word tithe has a meaning. A tithe is a tenth. It's 10%. That's why if you go to the dropdown on the Giving Link, you will actually see the distinction between tithe, offering, Almost Home, and even benevolence that we use to bless people within this community. The tithe is a tenth. Now, here's something that I have realized on my giving journey and on my tithing journey, and that is I was born in an atmosphere where this was normal. Your boy had the cheat code. I was born in the best family ever with two of the greatest parents ever who are sitting in this room right now. I am thankful for Robert and Evelyn Madu, Sr., because before I could do a biblical word study on the tithe, before I could give you the Hebrew word, ma'aser, I saw this modeled in our household. I watched my parents tithe. I watched them go above the tithe and operate in generosity. I knew when we went to Luby's for lunch on Sunday that if there was another family that was eating in the restaurant, I knew like clockwork, my Nigerian daddy was going to call their waiter to our table and say, excuse me, I want to pay for that family's meal over there, and don't tell them that I'm doing it. I want to pay for it. I grew up in that atmosphere of just generosity. It was our life. I grew up and remember my parents dropping me off to Sunday school and church and then giving me money to give in the offering. I remember this, y'all, and I remember the day that I felt the Spirit leading me to take that offering and put it in the vending machine and get some M&Ms, amen, peanut M&Ms. I remember it, and then was stupid enough to bring the M&Ms in the car when my dad picked me up from church and to have him go, where did you get those M&Ms? I said, from the vending machine with my money. He said, what money? You don't have any money. I gave you that money. Did you take your offering and buy M&Ms with it? That was a dark Sunday. Oh, that was a dark Sunday.

I didn't know then that my parents were actually forming something in me, that my dad was teaching me a principle, that you don't have any money. I gave you that money. It was never yours in the first place. He was teaching me you don't eat what belongs to God. That was formation. So, before I ever studied tithing, I inherited a practice. But hear me, social fam, just because you inherited something doesn't mean it's biblical. One more time for the people in the back. Just because you inherited something doesn't mean it's biblical. Just because your mama always did it doesn't mean it's biblical. Just because the church you came from always did it does not mean it is biblical. You have to investigate what you inherited. You have to investigate what you inherited. So, at some point in my life, I had to start asking myself the critical question, why do I tithe? Why do I tithe? Is this actually biblical? Is this something God still asks of his people? Is 10% simply an Old Testament requirement, and what did Jesus say about it? So, I'm going to stand here today, and I'm going to preach what I practice, and I owe it to you to not just tell you that I tithe, but I want to show you through the scriptures why I tithe. Is that okay? Okay. I love when you study the Bible, you will find out that all the way from Genesis, there was something in humanity that understood we have to bring an offering to God. People were already bringing offerings to God. You go all the way to Genesis chapter number four, we encounter the story of Cain and Abel. We are four chapters in the Bible, y'all. There is no temple. There is no tabernacle. There is no tap tag. There's no preacher saying, pass the offering plate, and yet already there was offering in place. Cain brings the fruit of the ground, and Abel brings an offering from the firstborn of his flock. Y'all, the first murder recorded in Scripture erupted over offering, over giving. That's how powerful offering and even money is. That's why I've watched enough CSI to know that when a spouse gets killed, how many know they start looking at the what? Looking at the money. They start chasing. If PT ups our life insurance. Let's see tomorrow and then it's like hey for our anniversary. Let's go scuba diving. Let's do something different I ain't going I know something's about to go down. I Know what's gonna happen on that trip. That's how serious Money is the first murder in the Bible was over offering now hear me Genesis chapter 4 is not a text about tithing, but here's what I want you to notice Giving did not begin with the law

Giving didn't begin with the law very early in the biblical story human beings are already taking something that has come into their hands And bringing it before God Offering was before the law Fast forward 10 chapters later in Genesis chapter 14 and now for the first time in Scripture We see this principle of the 10th There's something in the Bible called the law of first mentioned anytime something is mentioned for the first time in the Bible pay Attention the first time we see the Hebrew word ma'aseh is right here in Genesis chapter 14 Let me give you the background before to break down. I love it because father Abraham the one we did the dance to remember him His nephew lot has just been captured He's been captured and Abraham begins to go into war and he trains his men to go into war and God Brings him the victory and he rescues his nephew lot and I want you to see that in Genesis chapter 14 He runs into one of the most mysterious Figures in the Old Testament Melchizedek it says then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine He was the priest of God Most High and he blessed Abraham saying Blessed be Abram by God Most High creator of heaven and earth and praise be to God Most High Who delivered your enemies into the land of Israel? Who delivered your enemies into your hand? then Abram gave him a tenth of Everything that's the first time we see the tenth before the law, but watch this Don't miss what happened Melchizedek blesses Abraham and then gives the credit for Abraham's victory to God God Most High delivered your enemies into your hand and then the Bible says Abram gives him a tenth of everything Please don't miss the order God gave the victory Then Abram gave the tenth The tenth was not a down payment on the victory Abram didn't go. Oh, I better give because I want to make sure I win this war. No, no

No, he already had the victory. He already won the battle. God had already delivered him Abraham's response to already being delivered was God you did this God. You are my source God I have to give you the glory. See this is the principle of the tithe I'm, not tithing because God is a slot machine in Vegas, and i'm hoping he'll give me the victory. I tithe out a response Understand that everything I have it comes from a gracious God. I'm not just doing it by requirement I'm doing it by response because I know I wouldn't have got the victory if God had not been on my side Let me tell you why some of y'all ain't clapping because you think that you won the victory yourself But there's some of us in here that know there's no way I would have won that battle if God had shown up I'm, not smart enough. I'm, not talented enough I didn't even have the credit score to qualify for that but God in his goodness went before me Whoo and made a way Look at abram Abram gives a tenth before the law Now if you're like me And I know I am You could push back right here and say okay. Hold on pr Abraham did that one time And nobody commanded him to do it. So does that text prove that I have to tithe? It doesn't Not by itself And i'm not going to take a verse out of context and tell you this verse says you should tithe case closed No, that would not be honest to the integrity of this text but I cannot dismiss genesis 14 as some meaningless ancient event because of what happens thousands of years later in hebrews chapter 7 the unknown writer of hebrews Writes this in hebrews chapter 7 verses 1 through 4 this melchizedek Was king of salem And priest of god most high

He met abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him and abraham gave him a tenth of everything First the name melchizedek means king of righteousness Then also king of salem means king of peace without father or mother without genealogy without beginning of days or end of life Resembling the son of god He remains priest forever Just think how great he was Even the Patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder. Social fam, you just missed your opportunity to shout because this right here is crazy. Hebrews reaches all the way back to Genesis 14, brings Melchizedek back, brings Abraham back, and specifically brings the tenth back. The writer of Hebrews says Abraham gave him a tenth. Who is Melchizedek? This lets us know that he is a king and he's a priest, that he brings peace and he brings righteousness, that he resembles the son of God and has no mother or father and has no beginning or end. I don't know about you, but that reminds me of somebody who has no beginning and has no end, who comes with righteousness and comes with peace, who is both king and is both priest. Is that giving you any kind of a blues clue of who that is pointing to? It's pointing to Jesus. Now hear me, hear me. The argument of Hebrews chapter seven is not Abraham tithe, therefore Hebrews commands every Christian to tithe. That's not the argument of the chapter. Hebrews is showing us the greatness of Melchizedek

and ultimately the superiority of the priesthood of Christ. But while making the argument, the New Testament deliberately takes us back to the moment before the law where Abraham responds to blessing by giving. Don't miss that. Abraham's reflex to the blessing was giving. Is that your reflex to blessing? Giving? I don't know about you, I want my reflex to the blessing of God to be giving. I don't wanna be one of those people that gets all they can, can all they get, and then they sit on the can and are just stingy and wonder why you are miserable in life. That's why the Bible says the world of the generous gets larger and larger and the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. And somebody in here can testify that your world has gotten bigger because you've understood the power of God getting something to you so he can get it through you. His reflex to the blessing was giving. Have I lost y'all yet? Okay, let's keep investigating. So we've seen offering before the law, we've seen a tithe before the law, so what happens when the law with Moses shows up? Leviticus chapter number 27, verse 30,

says a tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from soil or fruit from the trees, here it is, belongs to the Lord. It is holy to the Lord. I want you to notice the tithe belongs to the Lord. It's holy to him. Biblically speaking, you can't give your tithe. You bring it. Because you can't give something that don't belong to you. It's not yours. You bring it to him. Does this sound familiar to anybody? It's what I preached last week. That's why the first principle to understand, you are not the owner. You are the manager. If you don't get that principle, you will never live a life of generosity. God says this part belongs to me. So here's what's undeniable. Once the law comes, the tithe becomes woven into the covenant life of Israel. And here's what the tithe did. It supported ministry. It supported worship. It created celebration. It cared for vulnerable people and even a multiplicity of other things. Now, I already lost some of y'all and you're gonna feel some type of way already

at this message and this might be your last Sunday. And may the Lord bless you. But I do want to tease next Sunday's message because it's one thing to give the tithe in the temple days and know what they did with it. But if you ever come to Social Dialogues and go, well, what y'all do with the money? I'm gonna answer that next week. I'm gonna open up the books next week. And if you have ever asked the question, where does y'all's money go when you sow? I believe you deserve to know. And I'm gonna tell you next Sunday. So make sure you show up if you want to know. But I want to show you something that may be even more important than where the tithe went. Today, I want to show you what the tithe was supposed to do inside the person giving. Deuteronomy chapter 14, verses 22 through 23. Be sure to set aside a 10th of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling place for his name. Here it is. So that you may learn to revere the Lord your God. on always. Did you catch the end of that? God tells them, set aside the 10th because I want you to practice. I want you to learn to revere me always. This is what the tithe does. This was

not just about what left their hand. This was about what was being formed in their heart. The tithe wasn't just about what they gave. It was about what giving was teaching them. Every year, every harvest, every increase, they had to practice this because the practice reminded them that God provided this. God is first. God is holy. God is worthy of my trust. I might have planted, but only God made the harvest grow. And this practice is reminding me of who my source really is. This is why this message has to belong in this series, Trust Issues, because God was using a financial practice to form spiritual posture. Okay. All right. All right. I know what some of y'all are thinking. I know you. I see you. You're looking at me in that tone of voice and you're tracking. You're like, okay. Okay. Okay. PR, I got you. Okay. Okay. Okay. You're talking about Cain and Abel. I get that. All right. You're talking about Abraham. That's cool. You're talking about Moses. All right. That's cool. But I don't follow none of them. I follow Jesus. Uh-huh. I follow Jesus. What does Jesus say about the tithe? Good question. Good question. What does he say? Let's look at what he says. Matthew chapter 23, verse 23, Jesus talks about the tithe. Matthew 23, verse 23. Now, before I read it, I do have to point this out and you'll pass the studies. So I know that the verse numbers and the chapters of numbers came later. I know they are not inspired. So all you YouTube theologians, I know, but this is the way my brain works. And I thought it's intriguing that the place where Jesus talks about the tithe is in Matthew 23, 23. And two plus three plus two plus three is 10. That's for free. That's for free. That's for free. And look at what, look at what it says. Look at what Jesus says. Woe to you. Talking to the Pharisees,

the haters. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill, and cumin, but you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter. Here it is. Without neglecting the former. Did you hear what he just said? Jesus is already coming for your neck when he starts off talking about you hypocrite. He ain't scared to tell you what he feels about you. So he could have said, Hey, forget your little tithe. Y'all out here measuring out oregano. Practice the weightier matters. Forget the tithe. And all you should do is worry about justice and mercy. But he doesn't say that. He says, I want you to practice the former, the tithe, and do the lather. In other words, don't be tithing and you got a nasty heart. Don't be tithing and you look past other people and you're arrogant. Don't be tithing, but you won't help anybody else. No, I want you to tithe, but also care about justice and care about mercy. Do both. I'm preaching better than y'all are talking in here today. Slap your neighbor. Say do both. Do both. That's what he told the Pharisees. Do both. Do both. He's teaching them the power of the tithe. Don't neglect the former. We see tithe before the law. The tenth. We see the tithe established under the law and we see Jesus talking about it. And what is the principle running underneath all of it? God is first. God is my source. What I have belongs to him. God is first. God is my source. All that I have belongs to him. And hear me, for me, the tithe is a tangible, repeatable practice that puts this conviction into action. It's not the end of generosity. In fact, I dare say it is the floor and not the ceiling, but it's where I

learned to start. If I'm going to preach what I practice, I want to get very practical as I close this message. The obvious question is if the tithe is a tenth, a tenth of what? I don't want to insult anybody's intelligence today, but I also want, don't want anybody leaving here saying, pastor, I think I believe you. I'm following with you, but I still don't know what to do. A tithe is a tenth. It's 10% of what God has entrusted to you. 10% of what God has entrusted to you. In the Bible, they lived in the agricultural society. So that's why you see language. which about grain and herds and oil. That was their economy. If you weren't here today, that's not your economy. None of y'all getting paid this Friday with three goats and a couple of cows. Ain't nobody talking about, ooh, I got five goats, this paycheck, we going to Cabo, you don't get paid with that. That is not our economy. What is our economy? Money. The first of what comes into your hands, you calculate the 10%, okay? I don't want to insult your intelligence, but let me just help you. If you want to know what you tithe, whatever comes into your hand, move the decimal over one. Your check is $1,000. Your tithe is $100.

I'm checking who went to math class. Your check is $100. Move the decimal over. Your tithe is what? $10. 10%. It's not complicated math. But somebody in here is asking, all right, but PR, do I tithe on gross? I know, I saw you thinking it. Or net. Which one do I tithe? Before taxes or after taxes? And let me tell you something, I've been in church a long time. Some preachers will be like, you want a gross blessing? You better tithe on the gross. And then other preachers tell you, no, no, no, I'm only tithing on what hit my account. And I'm not going to manipulate a scripture to give you one. Because the Bible does not tell you. I would rather answer your question with a question. Have you ever thought about why you have net and not gross? Have you thought about why? Because your uncle, Sam, don't trust you to bring it to him. Before it ever gets to you,

he's going to take what's his because he don't trust you to give it to him. Look at the difference between your uncle Sam and your God. God says, I want you out of your own willing heart, knowing that it wouldn't even be in your account if I didn't bless you to have it. I want you to bring it. I'm not trying to hijack you. I don't need your money. I just want to know, do you know the source? Do you know I'm the God that gave you the job? Your job ain't your source. I am your source. Can I trust you to bring it? Uncle Sam don't trust you. Deduct it now. But your God, watch this, because he's so relational, uses language like bring, offer, honor me with it. Here's another question, we practical. When do I tithe? When do I tithe? Again, people do this differently. There's some people, they wait to the end of the month. They calculate the 10% and they tithe. I've heard some people say, I'll wait to the end of the year. And I tithe at the end of the year. God bless you.

I ain't got that discipline, fam. I don't trust December Robert with January's money, okay? I can't, I can't. If you can do it, God bless you. Come up here and preach. But for myself and PT, again, what we've practiced, what we've practiced is the moment we get our check, the moment we get anything, watch this, first thing we do is we pay the tithe. It is the first thing. We don't wait till we pay Netflix, Hulu, mortgage, car, and then do it. No, it is the first. Don't miss it. If it's not first, it's not the tithe. Proverbs chapter three, verse nine says, honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of your crops. PR, I ain't got no crops. I know, I talked about that already. We're talking about your money, your wealth. It's what goes first. God says, I don't want you to calculate after you paid everybody else. I want you to practice putting me first. I don't wanna be an afterthought. I want to be first in your life. I want you to be intentional. I want you to practice and cultivate this discipline. Why?

Because tithing is a practice that trains my trust. It trains my trust. Every time I do it, I'm saying, my job is not my source. This church is not my source. My business is not my source. My salary is not my source. Those may be the channels, but God is my source. And when I tithe, for me, it reminds me that God, I trust you. I trust you enough to put you first. If you are waiting, hear me, if you are waiting till you have enough before you trust God, you will never have enough. There'll always be another bill. There'll always be another goal. There'll always be another purchase. There'll always be another reason or another number that makes you say, oh, when I get there. then I'll start. No. Trust does not begin when I finally have enough. Trust begins when I decide God is enough and I trust him. Are y'all bored? Again, I debated for a long time whether I should do this or not, but I want to stick true to my title. I'm preaching. Watch this. What I practice I found out when I was on our PushPay app, which is the mechanism by which I give, I hit the tab that said transactions. And before I show you this, you need to know that I've only been a part of one church before we planted this church. I was at my church from three years old until we planted this church. That church was Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, Texas. In fact, today they celebrate 50 years as a church. And I wasn't the pastor of that church. That was the church I went to. And y'all, I was on that PushPay app and I hit the transactions part on my phone and I scrolled to see how far back it would go. This thing went all the way to 2017. Now your boy was tithing before 2017, but it went back to 2017 and it was crazy to see

the practice. And I just took a little screen record and I wanted to show you straight from my phone. You can see it started in 2017 and you'll see Trinity Church, Cedar Hill, Trinity Church, Cedar Hill, 28, 28, Trinity Church, Cedar Hill, 2019, Trinity Church, Cedar Hill, Trinity Church, Cedar Hill, 2019, 2020. It's about to flip. We planted in 2021. Social Dallas, Social Dallas, Social Dallas, Social Dallas. Now, I took off the amount because that ain't none of your business, okay? But I'm trying to show you the receipt, the history of the faithfulness of God. I didn't just do it when I felt like it. This is practice. This ain't a game for me. I do it because I planted a church and, oh, I need some money now. No, no, this has been practice. And I stand here as a testimony to see I ain't never seen the righteous forsaken. I ain't Vaughn. I ain't Elon Musk, but I've had every single thing that I need. Why? Because I put into practice. God, I trust you. God, you are first. I trust you with everything you put in my hand. This ain't a game. I'm talking about practice. Practice. And hear me, I appreciate the claps, but how many know obedience shouldn't get a clap? It should just be your practice. Don't miss this. Not only do I practice this personally, we practice this corporately. You need to know Social Dallas does not operate on 100%. We operate on 90%, and we give 10% away, and we have done that every single year of this church, which is why last week when I was at a conference in Los Angeles and I saw Pastor Matthew Barnett was on the rooftop of Los Angeles Dream Center because he was trying to raise a million dollars to continue helping the most vulnerable people in Los Angeles, I was able to pull up on that rooftop and hand him a check for $50,000 on behalf of Social Dallas so he can keep reaching people in Los Angeles. God loves Dallas, and God loves Los Angeles, and it's the faithful, consistent giving of this church that let me do that. I didn't have to manipulate. I didn't have to say, God got a $50 blessing if you give $50. No. Just the practice of putting away 10% because it doesn't belong to us, and it allowed us to do it. I appreciate you shouting and clapping, and I'm so thankful and grateful for those of you who have already put this into practice. Bear with me. Some of y'all are like, PR, I've been doing this. Well, okay. I'm trying to help somebody else today because I found something out that encouraged me and depressed me a little bit because do your research. Most churches, the average church, 20% of the people carry 80% of the giving. 20% do the heavy lifting of 80%. The other people just pull up and say, I didn't come here to sell. I came here to get something for me. That's the average church,

20%. I ran the numbers on social. 13.8% of our church carries 80% of the giving. I'm so grateful for the 13%. Thank you. Texas Trust will be cutting off the lights if y'all didn't. But I wonder what it would look like if every single person in our church said, God, I believe you and I trust you, and I'm going to start putting this in to practice. Practice why should I put into practice? I told you it was coming Malachi chapter 3 I told you I didn't do it at the beginning. I said it was coming now Malachi chapter 3 watch this Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me But you ask how are we robbing you in tithes and offerings? You are under a curse your whole nation because you are robbing me Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house test me in this says the Lord Almighty and see if I will not throw up the floodgates of heaven and Pour out a blessing so that there will not be room enough for you to store it. Hear me I've been in church a long time I've seen what people do they will throw this verse up and especially focus in on the curse Not realizing that's just simply God saying I'm gonna take my hand off of your resources as I'm taking my hand It's not like God is up there putting a hex on you But preachers and people will use that to manipulate so you have some people who are actually Tithing out of fear because they won't don't want to be under a curse and God doesn't want you given out of fear at all That's not the heart of your father If I were you I would focus on the verse that where it says test me in this That's one of the only places God says if you don't believe me I will prove it to you be consistent and see will I not throw open the windows of heaven and not sprinkle I'm gonna pour Cuz sprinkle will reach everybody but whenever you pour in something, you know exactly what account you want to pour it into Is there anybody knows? God knows how to pour what you need and it ain't always money. Sometimes it's favor Sometimes it's a relationship If you'll trust me, I know what you need I'll pour it

I'll pour it if you'll trust me He says test me in it Test me in this I should have preached this message to call it. I wish you would I Wish you would cuz he says it Test me in this and see will I not open up the windows of heaven now again Does that mean you're gonna be a millionaire no Matter of fact, you can't out time bad stewardship Amen I'm tithing but I'm chargings Of course you're gonna be broke You can't out time bad stewardship It's the principle. This is God. You are first Test me in this and hear me If you test them in this I'm a living witness Your trust will be tested. I Wish I could tell you that every season of my life I was never scared to do it if you're in here today here the heart of your pastor. You're like PR. I don't know It's scary. I have been there. I Never forget 2020 the year of our Lord. Y'all remember 2020 It was before we planted this church And up into that point for 16 years. I Would go preach at churches they would give me an honorarium and that was the primary source of our income and Y'all when 2020 happened and the pandemic hit and everything was shut down Your boy was scared I Wish I could tell you I was full of faith and I was like, oh God is Jehovah Jireh He gonna provide your boy was scared to death I said Lord How in the world am I gonna provide for my family when I can't get on a plane to go preach? I

Had to stop checking the email because it was sending me into depression because every church was sending email saying as you know The pandemic is here and we're gonna have to cancel you this year. We'll rebook you for next year I remember replying. God bless you. Thank you Next year. That's great. My bills are due this year. But yeah Panicking panicking And God said do you trust me I didn't stop tithing because that door was closed and Watch this because everybody was stuck inside and couldn't go anywhere and people were scared because they were stuck They started going on YouTube and watching sermons and people were watching messages I had preached years ago and while they were watching the message God would just speak to people and say you need to sow a seed into his ministry and then some pastors were like hey I know you can't travel out to preach But God just spoke to me in my quiet time and said I'm supposed to send you a check and every time there was a Bill we would just get a random check It would just come in and I remember sitting on the floor in my living room crying saying God I thought me going out to preach was the source but that was just a channel You are my source and it was a reminder to me that God will give you what you need Who am I preaching? to today. God is your source, not your job. Do you trust him? Do you trust him? I didn't know that I could get in my living room, record a message, not get on a plane, and mail it in during the pandemic, and God would still provide. And it reminded me, there's a difference between the channel and the source. He is my source, and every time I tithe, I'm reminded of it. I'm going to land with this. I didn't get to do this in the first service, but I want to do it this service. Sit down real quick. Can I get five more minutes? Who will give me five more minutes? Okay, five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40. Jose, would you come up here real quick? Jose, would you come up here? He's looking for another Jose. Yeah, you. Would you welcome Jose as he comes up here? You had no clue I was going to do this, did you? He did not know. Come right up here. I met Jose in the lobby a couple of weeks ago. Serves on the photography team. Shout out.

Love the photography team. They know this is my good side. And you didn't know I was going to do this today, but I wanted to even put this into practice today. He's got an amazing family, serves faithfully here at Social Dallas, and I don't know where you're going for lunch today, but I just want to bless you. And this ain't from Social, this is from me. It's not the most, ain't the most money in the world, but it's something. This is an envelope with $100 in it, and so I want you to go eat wherever you want to eat today and take your family, and thank you for serving here at Social Dallas. Amen. Love you. Thank you. Appreciate you. Wait a minute, Jose, Jose, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back. Come back. Y'all can sit down. I hate to do this, Jose, but I just taught it. I know that's $100. You can check. You can see it's $100, and it's all in tens. And it's a free country, Jose. You could do whatever you want. You could do whatever you want, but just based off of what I just preached, I don't know if you want to, but would you, could I get just the tie, the 10? You'll give me? Thank you so much, Jose. I appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Now he got 90. He got 90. That's all it. I'm sorry, Jose, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back, because I'm sorry. I'm so glad. I'm so glad that you trusted. So, Jose, that's another $100, all with 10. That's another 100. Now, Jose, you can do what you want. Jose, you can do what you want. You really can do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want to do. I don't let them, don't let them do that to you, Jose. Oh, thank you so much, Jose. I appreciate it. Now, Jose, hold on. Come back. That's another 100, Jose. That's another 100. You do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want, Jose. It's up to you. All right, Jose. Jose, all right. You want to keep doing that. That's another 100, Jose. That's another 100. Jose, do whatever you want to do. Oh, I guess he got it. It's practice. How long do you want to do this, Jose? How long do you want to do this? He knew what he had. He didn't know what I had on me, and some of y'all are tripping over what you have, but you don't know what your God has. How long do you want to keep doing it, Jose? All right, I'm out. He's not out, but I'm out.

Watch. Watch the principle. This is practice. He got $450. I got $50. You got people tripping, Tom. Now, 50 versus 450, when he had nothing when he came up here… See, you think you're the owner. You're just a manager. He had nothing when he came up here, and now he has 450. And don't miss the principle. This is not manipulation. In this illustration, every single time it was more. There's going to be some times when nothing comes back in that season. Tithing don't protect you from losing your job. What if God has another job? This is about trust. There could have been a time I come back and I don't give you a hundred, I give you three. Are you going to stop? If you stop because you don't see the blessing when you thought you should've seen the blessing, that's not trust. And to finish the illustration and to let him know that I don't need it and to remind you that God doesn't need it, I'm going to give you this too. And I am praying God's blessing and God's supernatural favor over your family and over every single thing that you put your hand to. Father, let this living illustration not only speak to so many people, but God, I pray it would manifest in his own life that you are faithful, that you can be trusted today. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Would you stand to your feet and give God some praise today? Preach what you practice. My heart today is that somebody would put this into practice. God says, test me in it, because every time I do in it, it's reminding me he's my source. I'm a living witness. I've been practicing a long time.

He's never failed me. He's never failed me. Would you bow your heads all over this place today, Father? I was obedient. I preached what you told me to preach. Lord, I pray today that we would get the revelation not just of more increase, not just of more money, because money cannot buy us joy or peace. It is not a good master. You are. Father, let the principle today be received that you can be trusted, but Father, don't let us just declare with our lips that we trust you. Lord, I'm praying today we would put it into practice that with every single thing that you so graciously put in our hands, we would trust you with a 10. And Father, just as you've done in my own life, we would graduate beyond the 10 and just have the joy of giving, the joy of generosity. God, I pray that Social Dallas would be known for our outrageous generosity, that people would know God loves Dallas not just by us saying it, but they would see it, and it wouldn't even just be with money, with our time, with our giftings, with everything that we have, God. Because we're not the owners, we're just the managers. Help my brother and my sister, God, who is scared. Help them see today you can be trusted. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. If you'd be so honest and say, hey, PR, I know this word is for me, and I'm going to start putting this into practice. Again, hear the heart of your pastor. If you're like, hey, that doesn't resonate with me, that is fine. But I do know that God, speaking to somebody today, saying, hey, put this into practice. I want to do things in you and through you that you can't even see now. You're just looking at what's in your hand.

You don't know what I have on me. He can be trusted. If that's you, would you just lift up your hand high enough and long enough just to say, I hear the Lord speaking to me. I'm going to put it into practice. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. Put it right back down. Heads still bowed, eyes still closed. If you're here today and you have not surrendered the most important thing, your life. He died on a cross because he loved you. you that much. Salvation is free, but please believe it was not cheap. He paid for it. If you haven't given him your life, that's where it starts. When you give him your life, there ought to be something that happens in your spirit. You want to give. It's the joy of giving. Nobody has to manipulate you or beg you. It's just you think about all he's done in your life. But it starts with surrender. If that's you and you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, I want to give you that opportunity today. Would you lift up your hand high enough and long enough to where I can see it? I see that hand. I see that hand. Thank you, Lord. Anybody else? I see that hand. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. That's what he wants, is you to respond. Thank you, God. Hallelujah. I'm going to close with this prayer just before Pastor Josh comes to give us some instruction, but can we all say it as a family, especially those of you who responded? Would you say this? Say, Jesus. Come on, declare it. Jesus, I need you. I cannot do life without you. You are my life, so today I surrender. I give you everything. Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. I believe that you lived the life I was supposed to live, and you died the death I was supposed to die. You took my place, so here's my response. I give you everything. Forgive me of my sins. Make me brand new. I am yours, in Jesus' name. Amen.