The Why of the Tithe | Pastor Marcus Mecum

treasury and he saw how the people put money, NIV, which I read earlier, says he watched how people put money into the treasury. Just think you should maybe underline that because it's it's an interesting concept that Jesus watched people's giving. Isn't that something? I wonder why he would do that. Kind of tells us here, but many were rich, put in much, but one poor widow came and threw in two mites. So he called the disciples to himself and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, this poor woman is put in more than all of those who have given in the treasury." Not speaking about the amount she she gave because he goes on to say, "For they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had her whole livelihood." And so if Jesus in this case was watching their giving, we've been in a little bit of a giving focus. We wrapped that up today. But does he still watch? And if he does, what is it that he's what's he looking for? What is it that's catching his attention? And if Jesus were to show up today to this church and inspect our giving, I wonder what he would say. I wonder what he would see. And so we're going to look at the why of the tithe. The why of the tithe. We'll touch on the what, but really the why of it. And this is where you get free from guilt because I'm not in any way trying to get you to do something. And if you'll stay with me and keep your uncomfortableness at a minimum, I think you'll be okay with it whether you ever give or not. I think you'll get it in a way that you'll be at peace with the subject, whether it's something that you can step into or not. So there's no guilt. There's no gimmick today. I really want to encourage you. I want us to encourage one another to grow and walk with God. And let's go one step further that we would give God glory from our lives. Really, that's what I want to do. I want to give God glory with my life, the best that I can. How many of y'all know we're not always there, but that's the goal is that I glorify him with my life. So when it comes to the text that we read, we see that he watched everyone's giving, but he highlights the widow. So what was given was part of it. And we would know that the what of the tie is just if God, whatever God gives you, this is the definition of it. I'm not going any further than that right now, but if God gives you 10, you give him the first of the 10. And you bring that to the storehouse. The storehouse represents, it's a picture of the church, represents the place you go and your fed spiritually nurture. That may not be here, but I believe it's God's desire that you find that place, that you find a place where you assemble, that you come and you're a part of the body of Christ. And wherever that is for you, you take the first 10th, 10%, that's the tie.

And the Bible says that belongs to God. That's the what of it. That's the what. But I want to talk about the why. Well, tithing is not a transaction. It's a type of trust. We see that the widow woman is highlighted for exactly that. Her level of trust was so so much greater than anyone else, even though their amounts were greater, that caught the attention of God. So God doesn't demand the tithe because he needs funding. He invites us into trusting him as our source. Now, if you believe that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, then you would know that he's the source of all that is seen and unseen. He's the he's the creator of mountains and oceans and rivers, hills, the ground that we walk on, all of that. But now let's come down to where we're at. He's also the source of our life, the breath that we have in our lungs, the fact that our heart beats, our gifts, our talents, our abilities, where we were born, all of these things were in his hands as he is our source. And if he, he is the source, but the question is, is he your source? Do you believe that? Because in the story that we read, the widow woman who is noted here for her level of faith, her level of trust, she doesn't have a perfect life. So faith is not the promise of a perfect life. It's not the promise of a pain-free life. If that was the case, then this widow wouldn't be a widow. But she's lost her husband, she's been devastated, she's broken, she's hurting, and she's left with little to nothing to live off of. But yet faith is seen here because no matter what happened to her, she had something about her that said, "I know I can handle this, I know where to turn, because I know who my source is." And that really is the key to faith. Faith says, "Whatever happens." Fear says, imagine the worst-case scenario, lose what you love, lose what you care for, lose what you've worked for,

and you can put that in the category of people, reputation, image, what you pie in the sky thing that you thought that you should have, or you can just put that into good old-fashioned stuff. But your worst nightmare, you lose it, fear says you're going to lose it all, but the goal of fear, that's how fear speaks to us. And we all feel it, and we all hear it. But the goal of fear is to disconnect you from the source. Because you can have everything, all the resources, all the stuff, be surrounded by the resources in your life, the people, and still feel empty. Because you believe somehow the resource would fill you up and fulfill you. But it never will. It ain't better. But faith says, it doesn't matter if I have all that stuff, and it doesn't even matter if I lose all that stuff. I'm not inviting that, but if I do, I know, even if I'm down to nothing, if I'm connected to the source, I have everything. So in Malachi chapter 3 verse 10, God says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, test me in this." He's just wanting to know, "Do you trust me?" And if you'll think about that for a moment, that's why the tithe is not given after bills are paid. It's the first. It comes off the top, and the reason why is because it's a test of trust. God's wanting to know is your resource, what you put your trust in, or is it that I'm your source. He's divine. We're the branches. He's the source. And as long as we're connected, as long as we're rooted into Him, then we can be fruitful and we can thrive.

But apart from Him, Jesus said we can do nothing. So God is watching what we do with our first fruits, not because He needs our fruit, but because He wants our faith. God never one time, and all of eternity has been broke. It's never happened. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Heaven is not running a deficit. So when God asked you for a tithe, he's not collecting a fee. He's calling you to trust. Jesus said seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. And all these things will be added to you. Victor, last week if you were here, talked about his story, how God provided in ways that He could have never explained or anticipated. And as he gave, their faith grew. And as they gave, it became less about money and more about relying on God. We're not talking about a prosperity gospel, a giving to get rich kind of gospel. We're talking about how tithing trains your heart to say, God, I trust you more than my paycheck. I trust you more than my bank balance. I trust that you are my source, not my paycheck, not my job, not my investments, not my side hustle, you. And when you tithe, you're saying to God, I believe that you can do what you said you can do. That's why tithing is never just a financial act. It's a spiritual statement. You're making a statement to God. I believe that you are my source.

I don't want you to just be over here and be Lord of my eternity. I want you to come down and be in real everyday way, Lord of my economy. When you pass that test, you start to see what only faith can unlock in your life. Not always in ways you expect, but always in ways that you need because God honors faith. He's pleased by our faith. Trust is the currency of heaven. And tithing is one of the clearest ways to say, Lord, I trust you. I really, really do trust you. And the goal is that tithing would flow from that kind of a relationship. It should never be a weapon of fear or guilt. You should never feel pressure into giving. Fear-based teaching would say, if you don't give, if you don't tithe, then you're cursed. Or it might say, if you give this much, then God's going to give you this much more. But if you tithe to avoid judgment or chase prosperity, I just want to help you, that mindset will distort the why of the tithe. God's not a genie bottle, a genie and a bottle. Right, you know that. You don't tithe and then poof. What are all your wishes? It's not faith. That kind of thinking is not faith.

It's superstition. And God's not after that, he's after relationship. A heart that loves him, a heart that trusts him because God has transformed you. And giving flows from that kind of a relationship. And when you have a true encounter with God, when you've truly experienced his grace and his goodness and all of his generosity to you, then giving is not a requirement. It's a response. You're responding to what he's already done. This is why in Second Corinthians 9, 7, Paul writes, each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Notice what Paul doesn't say. He doesn't say give or else God won't bless you. He doesn't say give. If you don't give, you'll be cursed. What he says is don't give under compulsion. Don't give under any type. Don't let anyone twist your arm. Give because it's in your heart. Give because relationship and relationship alone has unlocked generosity in you. Amen. That kind of power behind our giving, the power of relationship, let you know no one is forcing you, but you can feel free to give through relationship. I would actually say what Paul is identifying in this text

is if you give without relationship, it can even damage your view of God. So his call is not just to give money, but to give our hearts. And when you're giving with your heart, you give with joy, you give with freedom, you give with passion. God's not interested, the Bible says. And our guilt offerings anyway, we give because we love him, we give because we trust him. And above all, we give because our hearts have been touched by his goodness, not twisted by fear. So... and the New Testament and where is the tithe and all of that. And so I'll do my best to talk about that. Tithing initially was kind of like God's training wills for the children of Israel. And the goal was to teach His people how to trust Him. Just like children learning to ride a bike, it provides the structure. It provides the foundation. But just like training wills, at some point God's goal was for those things to come off. They were not to be there forever. And so we know in the Scripture that tithing predates the law. We see it in the Garden of Eden. You see God gave them everything, but He said, "That tree is mine." It's a picture of how God says. There's always the thing that belongs to Him. You get into Cain and Abel's offering. Of course God accepts Abel's and rejects Cain's. And really the only difference in most scholars would bring attention to this is that Abel brought the first fruits of his increase where Cain just brought an offering. And God's rejection of Cain's offering just came down to this. If you'll just do right, Cain.

And I'll accept you too. We see this with Abraham, how he gives a tenth to Melchizedek. Again, this predates Moses in the law. We see this with Isaac. We see this with Jacob. Moses shows up. God gives him the law and in the giving of the law, the tithe moves from the principle that had been there for thousands of years into law. In other words, they were required to give God 10%. They were required. It was a rule. 10% of everything that came in, that increase, whatever that increase is, 10% goes to God. Jesus comes and he fulfills the law. Everything changed in Jesus. We no longer live under the law. We live under grace. So the law of the tithe has changed. The law of it. I mean, you don't have to ever tithe or give. And as far as I know, nothing about that has anything to do with your eternity in heaven. Jesus and the price that he paid on the cross, the blood that he shed, what he did, he paid the price. He did. You don't pay the price. He paid the price. And so this has nothing to do with being accepted by God or salvation. That's been done away with. Now we're under grace. So the law changed. But the spirit or the why or the principle was before the law.

It was under the old covenant law of Moses. It continues after that, not as law but in spirit or in principle like it has since the beginning of creation. Jesus actually said, and Matthew 23, 23, he's talking to the Pharisees as far as I could find. This is the only place in your Bible, Jesus complimented the Pharisees. And you know what it was surrounding? He said, you tied and that's good. This is a good thing you're doing. He says, well, it's kind of incomplete. You should add to that justice and mercy, but he compliments him. This is good. So he's not critical of it. He's not diminishing it in any way. He's actually saying this is a good thing. You should do that too. But add to it. In other words, don't stop at the 10%. Start there. Don't let the 10% be the ceiling. Let it be the floor in your life. Realize that you're called to give all of your life to God. And when you come to God, Paul said, let each one decide in your heart what you should give. In other words, the heart matters. The heart behind the number matters. Not pressure, not because someone scares you, but letting God's spirit move your heart. Being a life where you realize relationship can't be legislated. Rules are not the key to relationship, love and learning to trust and knowing God is your source is the key.

So I'm inspired in what I do and the way that I give of myself and my life that is all inspired That helps me know I don't stop at 10%. I start there. Tithing is my beginning generosity, journey, not the end. Because in the New Testament, in the Old Testament, I would look at my performance. Did I keep all the rules? Did I check all the boxes? Did I do all the things that I was supposed to do, right? The 640-something little commandments, and that I could only walk this far on a Sabbath, and I could only do this much. And if I did any more, then I'd break. And so that's Old Testament. Trying to figure out how far to the edge I could get without breaking the law. But when you get to the New Testament, Jesus gave everything. He died on the cross, and he gave everything. Am I right? That he didn't go to the cross and pull back at 10%, or pull back at 50%. But he went to the cross, and he gave what? 100% he gave it all. So now it's not, what do I have to give? Now it's, what do I get to give? Now I want to give because of my relationship with him. I'm not checking a religious box. I'm surrendered to a life of stewardship. My tithe is not the end goal.

It's the beginning of a life marked with generosity. But God's will is that the training wheels at some point come off. And that we learn to ride freely, and we learn to be guided by the spirit of God. And when your heart is surrendered in that kind of a way, 10% is no longer a sacrifice. It's a launching pad. It's not some cold obligation in your life. This is why Jesus says, where your treasure is, your heart will be also. He's saying, hey, this is about that your heart reveals what matters most to you. And if I matter to you, you give out of love, and when you do that, you'll be drawn closer to me. But if you give out of duty, you'll feel spite, you'll distance yourself from God. It'll always be reluctant and hard to do. Paul said, no, that's not how we do this. Love is the real fuel of generosity. And when you love someone, it's never a burden to give to them, it is a joy. I don't know any parent worth anything that gets burdened about doing something special for their children. They love to do it. They're glad to do it. They're not counting dimes and trying to calculate what their return is gonna be on a gift. Know their hearts connected to that child,

and they get great joy out of giving to that child. Sometimes we get too much joy out of giving it, and we're giving them too much because we like it. And even if it's not good for them, we just keep on doing it. Any grandparents like me out there, you just don't know how to stop giving them everything. So I don't give to earn God's favor. I already have it. It's already settled, that's done. I don't give to twist his arm to bless me. I give to touch his heart. So religion says do this or else relationship says, give because you love him. So when you give, you are not putting money in a basket. You're sowing seeds that will have an eternal impact. Now we read in Luke chapter 12 that Jesus was watching their giving. Well, if you go to Acts chapter two and Acts chapter four, we see clearly that the early church understood how important it is to consider that God does care about our giving. We can see very clearly that their giving was not about comfort, it was about the great commission. Their giving was about living and being sold out to the mission of Christ. So in Acts chapter two and four, we see that they gave of themselves, they shared all that they had and the result was,

the Lord added to their number daily, those who are being saved, that fueled evangelism, their generosity strengthened the church, their financial sacrifice turned into spiritual fruit. And so their giving wasn't just a support ministry, it was ministry because they were investing in people. So is your giving help people come to know Jesus Christ? Is your giving helping people be lifted out of bondage? Is your giving helping make heaven crowded and emptying hell? Are you sowing into something that will fade away? Or are you giving to something that will last forever? My point is, is getting beyond writing a check and seeing spiritual eyes, I'm partnering with God to heal broken lives. Your giving has an eternal impact. Your giving brings heaven to earth. Your giving is kingdom giving. And kingdom giving changes our world. One soul, one need, and one seed, at a time. (audience applauding) And God does watch it. He watches. And he watches to bless. So, (dramatic music) If Jesus was to come and inspect our giving, we would know, okay, so all these apples we already went over, it represents whatever you're giving. All of us have something different, but the percentage remains the same.

The first 10th belongs to God. It all belongs to him, but he says, if you'll give this to me, I don't need you to give it all to me, you can, but what I need is you to give this to me. And I see it as though you gave it all. That's what the first represents. If the root is holy, then the Bible says that it comes out and blesses the branch. So, this is the first is the tide, that's the root. So, if God comes and he's going to inspect this in your life, we would know that according to Barna's most recent research, the 21% of Christians' time. And that's something, 21% of Christians' time. So, 21% of people take this and they hear God say, this one is mine, it doesn't belong to you, this is not about you, this has nothing to do with you, this one's about me. But yet, 79% of us, even though we have all of this, we take this and we say, you know, I just kind of just need more. That's life's more, more, more, more, more, more. Yeah, I got that, but I want more, so. I want newer, newer, I just can't stop getting newer, I just need bigger, bigger, and bigger, right? I just can't stop. This is our end, that's all. And I saw, I have a phone, the phone was perfectly fine, but I have a phone, I don't use anything on it that I'm paying for, but I gotta get it.

I'm telling all myself now. Nothing wrong if you're having Netflix over here. I mean, you're definitely not investing into something that's gonna build your spiritual life. And you don't question that whatsoever. But Hulu, Paramount, Prime, Apple TV. Again, there's nothing wrong with it, but you can't seem to care about this one. So when we give to God Malachi goes on to say, when you test him, he opens up the windows of heaven and pours out a blessing. I have not have room enough to receive some. Is it possible that the windows of heaven are only open in proportion to our giving? In other words, maybe only 21%. I don't know how it works. I'm just saying only 21% of the windows of heaven are open. So the question begins to say, "Well, man, look at all the amazing things God has done with just 21%. What might God be able to do if we just took it from 21% to 31%?" I mean, that would be significant, wouldn't it? Wouldn't that be amazing to see what God could do in that way? I'll tell you right now what would happen if just 10% more, those who, besides the 21 that do, the 10% that don't, would just say, "I'm going to stop eating what belongs to God, and instead I'm going to give it to him." Make that commitment. It would translate into enormous resources for the kingdom of God. This to me is the most amazing thing about. The one we give to God. He doesn't just take it and slip it in his pocket and say, "Thank you." He actually turns around and he says, "I'm going to take this and use it to build you a beautiful sanctuary." Great stuff for kids, young people. Dry ridge, 50 acres. They don't have a building yet, but they're doing good. Highland Heights Cincinnati, 20 acres on Interstate 75. We're working on it. It's amazing that all those things are done. They're settled for kingdom purposes, for generations to come. We did that. We made that happen. Future generations will be blessed by that, and it should be a launching pad for them. He turns around and says, "You know what else I'm going to do? I'm going to give you worship leaders." I'm going to give your kids children's pastors, children's facilities. I'm going to make sure they're safe around here. I'm going to make sure that your young people have a place to go. I'm going to not just make sure your young people have a place to go, but they're going to have youth

pastors at all locations, and then you're going to have a youth staff here to help run all that, and they're going to be in the schools every day reaching lost young people, and they're going to have events where they can bring their friends, and your children are going to go to kids camp, and your young people are going to go to youth camp, and they're going to grow in the things of God, and then you're going to have care pastors if you need care, and then you're going to outreach pastors so we can figure out what the best way is to reach the needs and the hurting in our community, and then you're going to have this prison ministry, and then you're going to have the technology and online and all of that stuff, so if you know someone that can't get here for some reason because they live far away, then they're going to find a way to connect with them, and then I'm going to give you a really great good-looking senior pastor in the process of all that, you know, and we're just going to, my point is, this is my point, all of this. God turned around and He blesses us with it. Every church that you'll ever sit in was paid for by a Tyler. There's no other way to do it. Every time a sinner sits in one of these seats, the tithe are paid for it, and you don't think that matters to God, you don't think it matters. see maybe we'll never see or know on this side of heaven but I want to do what I can do to make that a possibility but every time we devour this we're affecting all of this when I give this God uses it to bless my spiritual life and so seeds that will make eternal impact and does matter is important God does see God does watch does matter to him and we should just simply say how am I doing