The Blessing Week 5 : Tithes and Offerings

Presermon

Celebrate what happened on Wednesday at Encounter Night

Remember Dream Team Dinner Party | November 20 at 7PM

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Series Text

Genesis 1:28 NKJV

28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Pray

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Recap

We began our conversation about what this concept of blessing was by discussing the Hebrew Word for blessing.

Barak meaning to bend the knee.

“the blessing” is something that we acquire by assuming the position of blessing which is to be submitted to the God who has the capacity to bless.

The overarching truth of this conversation initially is that God has an order in mind for those who are going to walk in blessing.

_________ That order is dependent upon having a proper chain of Godly authority in place.

God is the head of our homes

Husbands are the head of the family

Wives are the head of the children

Children learn this pattern and reciprocate it in their homes.

This order is enacted and blessing follows.

The blessing carries with it a mandate to multiply…because when something is as it ought to be, multiplication is a good thing.

BLESSING DOESN’T TRANSFORM YOU IT MAKES YOU MORE OF WHAT YOU ALREADY ARE.

__________ So we learned …

submission is necessary for the blessing.

unity is necessary for the blessing.

_________ Today we are turning our attention to a concept that is most frequently associated with blessing yet so rarely practiced.

We are talking about tithes and offerings.

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Malachi 3:8–12 NKJV

8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts; 12 And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the Lord of hosts.

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Connect it to the series

The blessing that God is pouring out is the same blessing that we see in the book of Genesis when God blesses Adam and Eve

It is also the same blessing that we see God command in the Psalm that we read last week where it says that “there” I will command blessing.

If you know something is going to be somewhere…you go there.

If I see a Crumbl cookie…I have trouble not going in because I know what’s going to be there.

Yet many of us do not practice the principle of tithing because we do not seem to understand that it’s content is guaranteed.

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This principle didn’t change

I preached on the concept of tithing earlier in the year in a message called living in the nineties.

I encourage you to listen to that message in congruence with this one because I am preaching about the same concept but want to look at some different angles.

A lot of people like to talk about the concept of tithing from the perspective that it was only to be practiced under the law.

But I want you to look at how God predicated his conversation with Malachi about the concept of tithing.

Malachi 3:6 NKJV

6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.

Before he tells the prophet that tithing and giving of offerings is a part of the required material for those who call themselves followers of Yahweh…He says “I AIN’T CHANGING”

The tithe is more about a principle than a particular.

God has always instituted a level of restraint for mankind to practice in regards to the gifts he has given them.

One man of God referred to this as the “law of divine portion.”

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The Law of Divine Portion

He gives them the entire garden but says “there’s one tree you need to avoid.”

He gives them the twelve tribes of Israel but says set aside the tribe of Levi for me.

The tithe is a continuation of this theme

It is intended to be a constant reminder that we are not our own and as such we yield our resources to the God of heaven.

God gives us a measure to test our motive.

When we are unwilling to bring our tithe back to the Lord, it is an indication that we have mischaracterized who our source is.

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Kingdom Growth is about internal factors not external

More comes to those with right motives rather than those with right methods.

When your heart is right…your methodology will be right

A right heart is teachable.

Don’t tell me that God can’t give blessing instantaneously…

10 men made $67B within twenty-four hours last Tuesday.

They didn’t do anything besides be in the right place at the right time

What if we really believed what scripture teaches about the principle of the tithe?

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The good soil fallacy

Today I want to shift some of our thinking because we overthink the aspect of giving.

We talk about giving into good soil

This indicates that their is bad soil to give into

This gives the implication that we are giving to the earthly ministry represented.

The soil you are sewing your seed into is not Awaken Church,

you are sowing into the kingdom of God.

Seed travels in the kingdom

Not only are you sowing into the kingdom…you are sowing into obedience.

Don’t be a tither because we believe in it at Awaken Church…Be a tither because scripture teaches it.

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Don’t start with sacrifice

God doesn’t necessarily want you to give until it hurts to begin…He just wants you to obey the principle he’s already set before you.

I often talk about sacrificial giving

1 Samuel 15:22 NKJV

22 So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

God is not impressed by our large offerings if we are not exercising our command of returning the tithe.

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WHY?

That there may be food

Malachi 3:10 NKJV

10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

The only way to guarantee that this is a place where people can be fed…is for us to be faithful.

The initiation of this church is based on the yes of Kayla and myself..

But the continuation of this church is based on the yes of each and every one of you.

I think about people like Dustin and Caitlin stepping into their leadership gift.

I think about people like Joe and Tiff radically altering their life in order to be in the will of God

I think about people like Kayla who we are watching transform from just an incredible singer to an anointed worshipper

Not to mention people like Stacy who in her baptism testimony said Awaken Church saved my life

People like Rob who is 112 days sober in part due to the community he found at Awaken.

They were all able to find food in the storehouse because someone practiced the principle of the tithe!

WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED!

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I will open you up

There are some linguists and translators that believe this is a poor translation to say that it says I will open you up the windows of heaven.

They believe the translation is I will open you up, the windows of heaven.

In other words we are the windows of heaven.

Some of us are waiting for God to pour something out on us that God wants to pour out through us.

What if your struggle financially is simply because you’ve been closed.

Shontae and the air vent at mom and dad’s house.

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Money is an amoral product.

There is no such thing as good money or bad money…clean money or dirty money.

It is just money.

While it doesn’t have a spirit in and of itself, scripture lends itself to the idea that over the course of it’s transactional life, money gets a spirit on it.

The state of the economy effects the effectiveness of yours and my dollar.

I UNDERSTAND THERE ARE MONETARY REASONS FOR THIS.

But Malachi lets us know that when we walk in obedience in regards to the tithe.

We position ourselves in a place to have that spirit broken off of us.

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Sown seeds and devoured crops

Everything you bring into the kingdom is a seed.

2 Corinthians 9:10 NKJV

10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,

The problem is that we live in a culture that is contaminated by a ruthless devourer.

The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy

You think that’s only spiritual…

The enemy would love to

steal your margin,

kill your dreams, and

destroy your future via your finances.

The monetary policy of our world has created a context that inflation is soaring and potentially could continue to soar even with administrative policy shifts.

But when I practice the principle of the tithe…in exact congruence with the scripture.

THE PROMISE IS TO REBUKE THE DEVOURER.

It’s not that I make more…It’s that what a make goes further.

Some of us are asking for a raise and God’s asking for obedience.

Malachi 3:8–12 NKJV

8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts; 12 And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the Lord of hosts.