WEBVTT
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Why don't you go ahead and grab your Bible?
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Thank you, worship team.
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Y'all may be seated.
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And turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 8.
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Proverbs 8.
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Turn, turn, turn.
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Should be here in the pages going.
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We're gonna pick it up in verse 17.
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It's always good to follow along in your own copy of the Word of God.
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Good to see things in context.
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Proverbs 8 is wisdom personified, speaking to us on behalf of God.
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And wisdom says, I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.
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With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.
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My fruit is better than fine gold.
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What I yield surpasses choice silver.
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I walk in the way of righteousness along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who loved me and making their treasuries full.
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The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works before his deeds of old.
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I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be.
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Yeah.
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But I do want to teach you once more on the biblical concept of tithing, returning the first 10% of all that you earn to God by tithing it to his church.
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And this time I want to come at it from another angle.
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Last week we talked about wise people tithe.
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This time I want to talk about how righteous people tithe.
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And as a reminder, the reasons for teaching on this are twofold.
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If you guys could go ahead and bring up that graphic for us, uh, this is uh a chart that shows uh what's been happening in our church since January.
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So just the last eight months, and there's two lines here.
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That top line in white is attendance, and that bottom line in black is giving.
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And praise God, since January, our attendance as a church has grown on Sundays by 19%, which truly is an amazing thing.
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Um we've never experienced that kind of uh rapid growth before as a church.
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And that line on the bottom is our giving, which doesn't look like it's improved.
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It doesn't at all, um, but it is growth.
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It's 1% growth since January, friends and family.
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Um, and as you can see, there's there's quite uh a gap there.
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And so I need to teach into that um because as our church grows, the cost of ministry also grows, but uh our revelation of giving is not keeping up with what God is doing in our church.
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And so the second reason then that we need to talk about this is because that gap is what I call a sanctification gap.
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Sanctification is the is the process of becoming more devoted to Jesus.
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It's a discipleship gap that I need to help us close by teaching about the importance of honoring and trusting God with our money by returning to him the first and the best portion.
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So last week we looked at Proverbs 3: Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing, your vats will be brimming with new wine.
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And we consider that promise in its context, both its immediate context in Proverbs chapter 3 and the broader context of Proverbs as a whole.
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And we learned that the command is for us to give weight to God.
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That's what honor means, to give weight to God as our creator and sustainer by returning to him the first and best portion of all that we earn, and to do so, really importantly, to do so with the incense of love and trust.
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For if it's not with love, then it's not our best.
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And this is the way of wisdom.
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Wisdom, according to Proverbs, is learning the skill of living God's way in God's world.
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And when we do that, generally speaking, is the promise that we flourish.
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Even though at times we stumble, even though at times we still endure suffering, Proverbs invites us to consider the big picture of life and see that the righteous, though they may fall, they rise up and they continue to experience the beauty of a life spent walking faithfully with God.
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And so, with that in mind, I want us to pay careful attention today to what wisdom says in verse 20 of that first passage that we read in chapter 8.
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Bring up verse 20 for me.
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Pay careful attention to this.
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Wisdom says, I walk in the way of righteousness along the paths of justice.
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Now, that statement is worth spending considerable time on.
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Because God tells us that if we seek wisdom, then generally speaking, it will produce an enduring, fruitful, honorable, and prosperous life.
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So our question then becomes well, where do I find wisdom?
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And that verse tells you wisdom is found along the way of righteousness and justice.
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That is, if you walk down the path of living righteously and justly, you will find wisdom because that's the same path that wisdom walks.
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To paraphrase, one of the foremost scholars on the book of Proverbs, a man named Bruce Waltke, he states that there is an inseparable connection between embracing the virtues of wisdom and enjoying the benefits of wisdom.
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And you may not realize it yet, but the virtues that are mentioned here in this text are not just any old virtues according to the Bible.
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Rather, these virtues sum up the entire biblical message about how God's people are commanded to live.
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Those words are righteousness and justice.
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Or in the Hebrew, which is worth talking about because they pop up a lot, sedaka and meshpat.
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Do you want to get you guys want to try those on for size?
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Say sedekah, say meshpat.
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Now, independently, those words pop up all over the scriptures all of the time, and by themselves, those words are very important.
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But together, they communicate the very heart of what it looks like in practice to be a Christian.
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Those words work together to communicate one unified concept that is even greater than what either word could express on its own.
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And that concept is essentially that every single relationship, your relationship with God, your relationship with others, your relationship to yourself, and your relationship to creation, every relationship is well ordered, that it is submitted to God's way so that all things flourish as God designed those things to flourish.
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The way that one teacher summarizes it is that we live right, we do what's right, and we help set things right.
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We live right, we do what's right, we help set things right.
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This is what it looks like to live well.
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That is wisdom.
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Righteousness and justice are not just a way to live, they are the only right way to live.
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And so unsurprisingly, we see this word pair pop up all over the Old Testament because this is what it looks like to live wisely, and God really wants you to know that, so He tells you a lot.
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And living this way is not heavy, it is costly, but it is not heavy because it really does promote flourishing.
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God's way really does work, including your own flourishing, by the way.
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Remember what Proverbs 8 says with me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.
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My fruit is better than fine gold.
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What I yield surpasses choice silver, I bestow a rich inheritance and I make your treasuries full.
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So when you live for the flourishing of others, you experience flourishing also.
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So while living God's way is going to require us to live sacrificially, what it ultimately leads to is a more fruitful, beautiful, and prosperous life for you and for those around you.
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The way that I would sum it up is like this: that righteousness walks a path that abundantly provides.
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A genuinely righteous life does come with a cost.
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Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
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But in the end, it will be proven that that righteous life did not yield a loss.
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It always leads to fruitfulness.
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That's not an Old Testament thing, that's a God thing.
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Remember, Proverbs says that wisdom was present at creation.
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In other words, wisdom is woven into the way God made the world to function.
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There is a right way to live and there is a wrong way to live that remains true across the whole biblical narrative.
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And as we will see in a moment, the Mosaic law, that is the law that the nation of Israel abided by, the Mosaic law encoded the right way to live for that nation in a particular context, but the Mosaic law did not establish the right way to live.
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Righteousness and justice have always been God's requirement.
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And so what does this have to do with tithing?
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Well, a lot actually.
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And to help us see that, I want us to uh to turn and look at the first person in scripture who is associated with this word pair, righteousness and justice.
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His name is Abraham.
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And actually, next Sunday we will begin a short series studying the life of Abraham.
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So now's a good time to get to know him a little bit better.
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Look at what God says to Abraham in Genesis 18.
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He says, Abraham, starting in verse 18, Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through Abraham.
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That's the promise of the gospel that through Abraham's lineage the blessing of God's salvation would come to all the nations of the world.
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Jesus, the ultimate son of Abraham, has fulfilled that.
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For I have chosen Abraham.
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Why?
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So that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.
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So that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised.
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Blessing to the nations.
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Now notice that the way of the Lord here is to do what is right and just.
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In the Hebrew, Sedecah Mishpah.
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And the story that Genesis tells up until this point, after the fall of Adam and Eve, is that humanity grew increasingly corrupt and it had entirely abandoned the way of the Lord.
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But God chose Abraham so that he could direct his entire household to do what is just and right.
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Because it is through the righteousness and justice of Abraham's household that God would fulfill his promise of bringing blessing to the nations of the earth.
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In other words, there is a direct link between the moral fabric of how God's people live and the fulfillment of God's mission to redeem the world.
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If God's people don't live right, they cannot fulfill their role of mediating God's glory, God's love to the nations.
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Now, this conversation between God and Abraham is hundreds of years prior to the giving of the Mosaic law.
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None of those commandments had been given yet.
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Not the Big Ten or any of the others.
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And yet, listen to how God describes Abraham as God summarizes Abraham's life in Genesis 26, 5.
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He says, This Abraham, there you go.
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Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him.
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This is really unusual language.
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Keeping my commands, my decrees, and my yeah, were laws.
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Torah.
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Commands, decrees, laws, centuries before the law of Moses was given, before a single one of them was written down, Abraham kept.
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How?
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Not because Abraham somehow had the rule book early.
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No.
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But because the way of the Lord, righteousness and justice, was how Abraham had learned to live in his relationship from God.
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The law hadn't been encoded on stone yet, but the heart of the law, in a very real sense, was already written on Abraham's heart.
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Which, of course, is what the Old Testament prophesies will happen to those who believe in Jesus.
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That God's law will be written on their hearts.
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It is not too much to say that Abraham is a prototype of a Christian.
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I'll unpack that more so next week when we start our series, but know for now that God very clearly has a foundational standard of righteousness and justice.
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That he not only wanted Abraham to uphold personally, but also that he wanted him to pass on to his children and his children's children for the sake of fulfilling his promise to redeem the nations that is fulfilled in Christ.
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So if you want to know what righteousness and justice looks like, then a good place to start is to look at Abraham's actual life.
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The Bible records it for a reason.
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It is instruction for us.
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Now, as it concerns our target today that righteous people tithe, I want us to look at Genesis chapter 14.
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In Genesis 14, Abraham's nephew, his name is Lot, he gets uh caught up in a war.
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Lot had settled near the city of Sodom, and some kings had swept through with their armies, and they had attacked Sodom, and as a result of that, a casualty of that, Lot, along with a bunch of other citizens of Sodom and a bunch of goods from Sodom are carried off by these armies.
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And so word reaches Abraham that his nephew has been captured.
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So Abraham he gathers the men of his household, he goes after them, and he brings Lot back, along with everybody else and everything else that was taken.
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And on the road home, two other kings come out to meet Abraham.
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One is the king of Sodom, and another is a mysterious figure named Melchizedek.
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Watch what happens in Genesis 14, beginning in verse 17.
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After Abram, that is Abraham, after Abram returned from defeating however you say that guy's name there, and the kings that were allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of however you say that place there.
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Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
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He was priest of God most high.
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And he blessed Abram, saying, Blessed be Abram by God most high, creator of heaven and earth.
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Verse 20, and praise be to God most high, who delivered your enemies into your hand.
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Then Abram gave him Melchizedek a tenth of everything.
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Verse 21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the people, you can keep all the goods for yourself.
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But Abram said to the king of Sodom, with raised hand, I have sworn an oath to the Lord God most high, creator of heaven and earth, that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, I made Abram rich.
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So two kings greet Abraham after this victory.
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One is the king of Sodom, who very clearly uh signifies unrighteousness in the story of Abraham.
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And the other is a mysterious king named Melchizedek.
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His name literally means king of righteousness.
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And he is the king of Salem, which literally is in Hebrew king of Shalom, king of peace.
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And he is the priest of God most high.
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And so he's clearly a representative of the ways of God.
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Hebrews in the New Testament later points to him as a type or a prefigurement of Jesus Christ.
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And notice that Melchizedek pronounces a blessing upon Abraham.
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And what does he say in that blessing?
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He credits God, Yahweh, he credits God with being responsible for Abraham's victory in this battle.
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He says, God most high has delivered your enemies into your hand.
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Now that Hebrew word for delivered there is related to the word shield.
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I want you to hang on to that for a moment.
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God has been Abraham's shield.
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That's what God has done.
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And how does Abraham respond?
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By giving Melchizedek, God's priest, a tithe of all the plunder that he had brought home from that war.
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What is Abraham communicating with that act?
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He's saying to Melchizedek, Amen.
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He's saying, Yes, God provided me with this victory.
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And so I acknowledge that fact by returning 10% of the increase to him by giving it over to his priest Melchizedek.
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This is the first formal tithe in scripture.
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And I want you to notice a couple of things.
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First of all, that the figure of 10% was not mandated by a law.
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This is prior to the Mosaic Law.
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So this is what Abraham gratefully apportioned to God in response to God's blessing, God's deliverance.
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It was an act that communicated communicated that as powerful and as successful as Abraham had become, he still recognized that God is his source and his sustainer.
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Notice also that this act of tithing by Abraham had to be systematic.
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He had to take care in his giving.
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Lastly, I want you to notice that this tithe is not an attempt in any way to attain forgiveness or atonement.
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Some people say that Christians don't need the tithe because the sacrificial system of the law was about forgiveness, and Christ has fulfilled that.
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Well, first of all, a lot of the sacrificial system in the law was not actually about forgiveness and atonement, it was about thanksgiving and fellowship and worship.
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It was a what's our word?
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A well-ordered relationship with Almighty God, creator and sustainer.
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And second of all, the tithe, specifically in the law, never has anything to do with seeking forgiveness.
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It was always about honoring God by practicing righteousness, as we'll see in a little bit.
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And where do you think that principle has its roots?
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Right, right here in the story of their ancestor.
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The Bible wants you to see this.
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This is where it begins.
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Right here in the story of Abraham, the father of the household of faith, who returns to God through Melchizedek, a tithe of the plunder, as a way of proclaiming, yes, God is my deliverer, God is my provider.
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My question is: Do you think we should learn from righteous Abraham here?
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That was a rhetorical question.
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I think the answer is yes.
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And then Abraham doubles down on this proclamation when the king of Sodom offers to let him keep the rest of the plunder as a thank you gift for rescuing his citizens.
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And how does Abraham respond to the king of Sodom?
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He says, No shot.
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I'm not keeping a nickel of this stuff because that would give you and the false gods of Sodom an opportunity to take credit for my wealth.
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Abram says, God alone is my provider.
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What is that?
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That's an act of faith.
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And look at how God responds to that act of faith in Genesis 15:1.
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It says, This after this, same context, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.
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It says, Do not be afraid, AM, I am your same root as deliverer.
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Your very great reward.
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God says, You indicated your belief in the fact that I am your shield by giving that tithe, and I want you to know that you're right, I am.
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And you turn down that reward from the king of Sodom, guess what?
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I am your very great reward.
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What's God saying in response to Abraham's tithe?
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He's saying, Good job.
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He's saying, I liked that.
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God doesn't change.
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Do you think we should learn something from the fact that this act of tithing pleased God?
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If you want to know what righteousness and justice look like in relation to material goods, look at how Abraham credits God for being his deliverer and provider, and look at how God responds.
00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:41.400
Abraham tithes hundreds of years before such a practice was encoded in the law of Israel.
00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:41.799
Why?
00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:47.000
Because honoring God with your wealth is a fundamental part of a well-ordered relationship with God.
00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:48.839
It is righteous.
00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:53.480
Friends, there is a vertical dimension to your righteousness and justice.
00:20:54.440 --> 00:21:01.960
You can live justly in this life by everybody around you and live unjustly in relation to God, and you would have lived unjustly.
00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:05.480
That thought doesn't originate with me.
00:21:05.559 --> 00:21:08.680
I believe Augustine, the church father, actually made that same point.
00:21:09.400 --> 00:21:14.440
That's part of what Abraham was to pass on to his descendants about living righteously and justly.
00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:15.319
He's to teach them this.
00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:21.000
So it's no coincidence that Abraham's grandson, Jacob, said these words in Genesis 28.
00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:37.799
If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey, I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's household, then the Lord will be my God, and this stone that I've set up as a pillar will be God's house, and all of that you give me, I will give you a tenth.
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:38.839
That is a tithe.
00:21:40.440 --> 00:21:50.519
So again, hundreds of years before the Mosaic Law, Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, determines to worship God through the act of tithing in response to God's provision.
00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:55.319
In the words of one commentator, Jacob vowed to serve God.
00:21:55.400 --> 00:22:00.920
If you guys could bring that sign up, yeah, he vowed to serve God and worship him in this place and offer tithes.
00:22:01.240 --> 00:22:06.680
This reintroduces another motif for worship, paying tithes, first seen in Abraham.
00:22:06.839 --> 00:22:15.160
To give a tithe was an act whereby a person acknowledged that everything he had was a gift from God, and thus, in the final analysis, actually belonged to God.
00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:17.720
Tithing says this is yours.
00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:20.920
Keeping it all says this is actually mine.
00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:24.680
Now, where did Jacob learn that?
00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:26.759
From his grandpa.
00:22:29.559 --> 00:22:30.920
That part of the way you recognize.
00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:33.880
God as deliverer and provider is by bringing him a tithe.
00:22:34.519 --> 00:22:46.359
Which means that when the Mosaic law speaks about tithes and offerings and first fruits, it wasn't introducing something new and temporary, it was applying something enduring and foundational.
00:22:48.680 --> 00:23:00.359
In the law, God takes this principle of righteousness and justice and he encodes it for Israel so that they will be guarded against living sinfully and so they will know what it means to please God.
00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:08.839
But even when the law is fulfilled by Christ and we are ushered into a new covenant, the same foundational principle of righteousness and justice still carries over.
00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:14.839
It is still required, in other words, that all of our relationships be well ordered so that life is full of shalom.
00:23:16.279 --> 00:23:19.079
Full of peace, full of flourishing, just as God designed them.
00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:23.720
Abraham's role wasn't just to teach Israel this, Abraham's role was to teach the nations this.
00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:31.160
This is why the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 3 29, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed.
00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:35.559
And you are heirs according to that promise of blessing to the nations.
00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:41.559
So the church, all of us, composed of Jew and Gentile, we are Abraham's children.
00:23:42.519 --> 00:23:46.599
Those who have faith in Christ are the true household of Abraham.
00:23:46.759 --> 00:23:54.599
We are the ones to whom the blessing of God has come through Jesus, the ultimate son of Abraham, who perfectly fulfilled righteousness and justice.
00:23:55.160 --> 00:24:03.880
And we are the ones who now, through whom God's blessing is still coming to the nations because we are united to Christ and we share in his righteousness and justice.
00:24:04.599 --> 00:24:05.400
What does that look like?
00:24:05.559 --> 00:24:07.319
Paul elaborates in Galatians 5.14.
00:24:07.480 --> 00:24:14.120
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbor as yourself.
00:24:14.519 --> 00:24:14.839
Okay?
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:18.680
So we are still required to keep the heart of the Mosaic Law.
00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:22.279
Because the heart of the law actually predates the law.
00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:25.400
The heart of the law is living righteously and justly.
00:24:26.120 --> 00:24:28.759
Or as Paul paraphrases it here, what is this?
00:24:28.839 --> 00:24:33.319
This is right, right order relate, well ordered relationship, loving your neighbor as yourself.
00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:36.359
So, in other words, we do the Abraham thing.
00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:50.279
We walk the path of righteousness and justice, but we do it even more faithfully than Abraham because now we've encountered an even greater revelation of God's love in the cross of Jesus Christ, and we've received the power of the Holy Spirit.
00:24:51.160 --> 00:24:51.799
You with me?
00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:56.920
So as that relates to tithing, we don't practice a strict rule-keeping righteousness.
00:24:57.559 --> 00:24:59.960
We practice a generosity righteousness.
00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:10.120
Rule keeping righteousness, uh, someone who's trying to be a really good Pharisee says to somebody in need, Oh, I don't need to do well by you because I've already tithed.
00:25:10.200 --> 00:25:10.680
I'm good.
00:25:12.839 --> 00:25:20.039
Generosity righteousness looks for ways to help even when they've fulfilled that biblical baseline of entrusting to God 10%.
00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:22.359
What does that look like in practice?
00:25:22.440 --> 00:25:24.039
Well, Paul elaborates in Galatians 6, too.
00:25:24.120 --> 00:25:24.920
Here's another good example.
00:25:25.160 --> 00:25:31.400
Here's what it looked like to love your neighbor as yourself, carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
00:25:32.440 --> 00:25:34.920
That's well-ordered relationship that promotes flourishing.
00:25:35.240 --> 00:25:36.599
That's Sedaka Mishpat.
00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:51.000
And in case you think that righteousness and justice promotes being overly dependent on others and a lack of taking responsibility for your own life, Paul comes at it from another angle just a couple verses later in verse 5 says, Well, well, each of you should carry your own load.
00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:51.880
Don't be lazy.
00:25:52.920 --> 00:25:56.759
Work hard, earn a living, don't be dependent upon others.
00:25:56.920 --> 00:25:59.880
Actually, you work hard, so you have a surplus to support others.
00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:02.680
For this is part of living a righteous and just life.
00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:05.559
But so also is this next verse in Galatians 6:6.
00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:12.440
Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
00:26:14.120 --> 00:26:20.680
So, as we'll see in a moment, this is this new covenant imperative has everything to do with the biblical concept of tithing.
00:26:21.319 --> 00:26:24.519
This is part of what it means to fulfill the law of Christ, to live righteously and justly.
00:26:24.680 --> 00:26:29.960
You don't just receive from the ministry of your local church, you actually contribute financially to the ministry of your local church.
00:26:30.519 --> 00:26:35.720
And then look, Paul even grounds this command in the foundational and enduring way of wisdom in verses 7 and 8.
00:26:36.039 --> 00:26:37.160
Don't be deceived.
00:26:38.039 --> 00:26:40.599
Carrying on from the same thought, God cannot be mocked.
00:26:40.680 --> 00:26:42.839
A man always reaps what he sows.
00:26:43.720 --> 00:26:50.839
Whoever sows to please their flesh, that is, they orient their money around themselves, from the flesh will reap destruction.
00:26:51.079 --> 00:26:57.319
Whoever sows to the spirit, that is, their money is well ordered according to the kingdom of God, from the spirit they will reap eternal life.
00:26:57.480 --> 00:27:00.519
Now, I think Paul is talking about eschatological reward here.
00:27:01.160 --> 00:27:13.640
Reward that awaits us in the age to come, or the lack thereof, in relation to our obedience in the area of giving and all other things that go into living a Christian life.
00:27:13.960 --> 00:27:19.720
Old covenant or new, the wisdom of sowing and reaping is just foundationally true.
00:27:20.920 --> 00:27:29.640
We are still required to live righteously and justly, which even in the New Testament includes the act of giving out of our income to support the ministry and the ministers of our church.
00:27:29.799 --> 00:27:36.279
For this is how you honor the Lord with your wealth by giving him the first fruits of all of your increase through tithing it to his church.
00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:39.880
So the way of righteousness did not stop at Abraham.
00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:43.000
The way of righteousness did not stop at the law.
00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:47.160
The way of righteousness runs straight through to us.
00:27:47.559 --> 00:27:48.920
And it's not murky.
00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:54.440
In other words, we don't get to define righteousness and justice how we feel like it.
00:27:56.120 --> 00:28:00.039
Like I know in the world you can define words however you feel like it.
00:28:03.720 --> 00:28:05.799
In the kingdom, you don't get to do that.
00:28:06.440 --> 00:28:11.880
It defines what love, righteousness, justice really, truly looks like.
00:28:12.039 --> 00:28:15.960
It's not abstract, it gets carried over into concrete application.
00:28:16.440 --> 00:28:25.799
Now to grasp that more fully, we need to look at what the purpose of the tithe was in Israel, because those purposes carry over into the practice of giving in the New Testament.
00:28:26.039 --> 00:28:26.359
Okay?
00:28:26.599 --> 00:28:29.000
I'm landing on the plane, hold on to your seats.
00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:30.120
It's all good.
00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:33.559
If nothing else, you're learning a lot about the Bible, okay?
00:28:36.359 --> 00:28:44.200
So when God carried this moral fabric of Abraham into the law of Moses, he didn't just say to Israel, give.
00:28:44.680 --> 00:28:54.359
No, he told them exactly who their tithes were meant to reach, exactly what the way of righteousness and justice was meant to fund.
00:28:54.920 --> 00:28:59.480
So let's look at what God funded because it connects to what he's still funding through us today.
00:28:59.720 --> 00:29:04.440
First, the tithe provided for those who served in God's house as a vocation.
00:29:04.599 --> 00:29:06.120
There's 12 tribes in Israel.
00:29:06.200 --> 00:29:09.960
The tribe of Levi served in God's house as a vocation.
00:29:10.120 --> 00:29:12.039
They received no land of their own.
00:29:12.200 --> 00:29:18.279
Every other tribe got an inheritance of the land that made up the promised land that they could farm, they could live on.
00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:21.079
God says to Levi, I'm gonna be your inheritance.
00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:21.880
Congratulations.
00:29:22.039 --> 00:29:22.920
You get me.
00:29:23.799 --> 00:29:27.640
But think about what that meant in a world where land was everything.
00:29:28.120 --> 00:29:33.400
How you ate, how you provided, how you earned a living, how you secured you and your family's future.
00:29:33.559 --> 00:29:38.200
To have no land was to be dependent entirely on the faithfulness of everybody else.
00:29:38.440 --> 00:29:40.680
So how does God uh set up the system?
00:29:40.839 --> 00:29:45.240
Well, he says to the people in Numbers 18, encourage you to go read Numbers 18, it's all about this.
00:29:45.400 --> 00:29:56.120
Numbers 18, 21, I give to the Levites all the tithe in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting.
00:29:56.440 --> 00:30:01.640
So the tithe was their inheritance, it was God's provision for the work that they did in God's house.
00:30:01.960 --> 00:30:03.480
Now here's the part that's amazing to me.
00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:06.759
Look at what the scripture categorizes that provision as.
00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:08.759
Look at Deuteronomy 18, 3.
00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:17.240
It says, this is the share due the priests from people who sacrifice a bull or a bull or a sheep.
00:30:17.480 --> 00:30:18.599
Here's the thing that got me.
00:30:18.680 --> 00:30:22.279
That word due, that phrase share, do, guess what that is in Hebrew?
00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:23.559
It is myshat.
00:30:25.079 --> 00:30:26.680
It is justice.
00:30:27.720 --> 00:30:31.799
The portion owed to those who serve at the altar is not charity.
00:30:34.519 --> 00:30:36.359
It is their just due.
00:30:37.960 --> 00:30:43.480
Providing for the ministers of God's house in Israel was a matter of righteousness and justice.
00:30:44.120 --> 00:30:47.720
And that practice is what enabled their work.
00:30:47.880 --> 00:30:52.680
When people were faithful to bring their tithe, the Levites gave themselves fully to the work of God's house.
00:30:52.839 --> 00:31:04.519
When the tithe dried up, as it often did in Israel, because they were very unfaithful at times, like for example, in Nehemiah's day, the Levites had to abandon their posts in the house of God and go back to the fields just to eat.
00:31:05.240 --> 00:31:09.160
And beyond that, the worship of the whole nation ground to a halt.
00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:13.319
Because the house wasn't functioning.
00:31:13.640 --> 00:31:19.079
So the tithe not only provided for the Levites, it kept God's house functioning as it was designed.
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:21.960
You cannot set God's house on AI, okay?
00:31:22.120 --> 00:31:23.720
Claude isn't getting involved here.
00:31:23.799 --> 00:31:25.079
You can't automate this thing.
00:31:25.319 --> 00:31:28.920
Effective ministry requires servant-hearted leaders at the helm.
00:31:32.599 --> 00:31:37.240
Second, the tithe provided for those who were in need among God's people.
00:31:38.039 --> 00:31:40.599
Deuteronomy 14, verses 28 and 29.
00:31:40.920 --> 00:31:55.480
At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites who have no allotment or inheritance of their own, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied.
00:31:55.559 --> 00:31:57.160
So there's four people groups here.
00:31:57.240 --> 00:32:00.839
There's Levites, they pop up again, foreigners, fatherless, and widows.
00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:04.839
These are the four people in Israel who are most likely to fall through the cracks.
00:32:05.160 --> 00:32:05.640
Right?
00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:10.920
In an agrarian world, these are the ones without land, without a provider, without the means to secure their own future.
00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:11.799
So what does God do?
00:32:11.960 --> 00:32:13.400
He builds them into the tithe.
00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:17.319
Part of what Israel returned to God was meant to be in support of them.
00:32:17.480 --> 00:32:21.880
And embracing this was part of what it meant to live in a way that was right and just.
00:32:22.039 --> 00:32:25.160
You could point to gosh, hundreds of scriptures.
00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:28.920
That doesn't feel like an overstatement, especially throughout the prophets that pick up on this point.
00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:30.359
Look at Isaiah 117.
00:32:30.519 --> 00:32:40.519
Learn to do, learn to do, seek, yeah, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
00:32:40.680 --> 00:32:44.759
Oftentimes we define justice, you know how the world teaches us to define justice.
00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:46.920
You have to define justice biblically.
00:32:47.079 --> 00:32:50.200
This was Sedechem Mishpat, made concrete in Israel.
00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:56.519
Righteousness that does what's right and helps to set things right for the neighbor who is in need, according to how God defined it in his law.
00:32:56.680 --> 00:33:01.079
So justice was not an add-on to worship, it was not a secondary thing.
00:33:01.240 --> 00:33:03.079
To worship was to do justice.
00:33:03.319 --> 00:33:05.799
To bring God your tithe was to do justice.
00:33:06.519 --> 00:33:11.000
It was to participate in the assurance of flourishing among all of God's people.
00:33:11.160 --> 00:33:14.519
Notice again that these tithes were not offerings to make atonement for sin.
00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:22.519
It was part of the path to righteousness that provided for those who were serving in God's house full time and for those who could not secure provision on their own.
00:33:22.680 --> 00:33:27.720
As seen in Abraham, righteous people tithe, so also seen in Israel, righteous people tithe.
00:33:28.039 --> 00:33:29.720
Part of that righteousness is vertical.
00:33:29.880 --> 00:33:33.079
It's worship unto God, the one who delivers and provides for us.
00:33:33.240 --> 00:33:35.079
It is righteous to honor him like this.
00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:38.680
We talked a lot about that last Sunday, and part of it is horizontal.
00:33:38.759 --> 00:33:46.359
It is the means for promoting the functioning of God's house, the livelihood of God's ministers, the well-being of God's needy.
00:33:46.519 --> 00:33:49.480
It is righteous to support God's church like this.
00:33:49.720 --> 00:33:52.200
So what does the New Testament do with all this?
00:33:52.440 --> 00:33:56.839
The whole system doesn't carry over, but there are absolutely points of continuity.
00:33:57.240 --> 00:34:00.359
We already saw in Galatians that our giving serves a similar purpose.
00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:03.720
Those instructed share with those who instruct.
00:34:04.039 --> 00:34:06.200
Does Paul make it any clearer elsewhere?
00:34:06.599 --> 00:34:09.000
Look at 1 Corinthians 9, 13 and 14.
00:34:09.400 --> 00:34:14.759
Don't you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple?
00:34:15.400 --> 00:34:19.159
And that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?
00:34:20.759 --> 00:34:29.639
In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:32.599
Pay attention to what Paul just did.
00:34:32.759 --> 00:34:40.199
He makes a direct reference to the sacrificial system under the old covenant, where the ties that people brought sustained the livelihood of the Levites and priests.
00:34:40.359 --> 00:34:52.519
And then he makes a direct appeal saying that the Lord Jesus Himself, based upon this pattern, commanded that those who spend their working lives in service of the gospel should be provided for in the same way.
00:34:52.759 --> 00:34:54.439
It's not ambiguous.
00:34:55.719 --> 00:34:59.000
This is still the path of righteousness and justice.
00:34:59.879 --> 00:35:04.919
Now it is possible that you could make an argument to me that the verse does not stipulate 10%.
00:35:05.879 --> 00:35:07.879
And you'd be right, it doesn't.
00:35:08.279 --> 00:35:20.039
I would just say to you that truly, if our heart posture towards the gospel is to reason our way out of giving our best, then I would just have you reflect more deeply upon the gospel.
00:35:20.199 --> 00:35:23.239
We have not been set free from obedience to God.
00:35:28.359 --> 00:35:31.239
We have been set free to obey God.
00:35:31.399 --> 00:35:33.639
That's what the New Testament teaches again and again.
00:35:33.799 --> 00:35:38.359
We've been empowered into a life of genuine generosity, righteousness.
00:35:38.439 --> 00:35:45.159
And I still think the righteous examples of Abraham and Jacob set 10% as a good biblical baseline.
00:35:49.799 --> 00:35:50.919
He chose it.
00:35:52.439 --> 00:35:55.879
And the point is that he chose well.
00:35:57.719 --> 00:35:59.319
He did what was wise.
00:35:59.559 --> 00:36:00.519
I want to be that.
00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:02.839
He did what was righteous.
00:36:03.159 --> 00:36:04.279
I want to be that.
00:36:05.079 --> 00:36:12.039
And it's awesome because through this righteous act, we sustain the livelihoods of those who give themselves full time to the work of ministry.
00:36:12.199 --> 00:36:16.759
Which, by the way, Ephesians chapter 4 says that their job is to equip you.
00:36:22.519 --> 00:36:28.439
Is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry, to help you grow up into maturity into Christ who is the head.
00:36:28.599 --> 00:36:28.839
Right?
00:36:28.919 --> 00:36:35.399
So the same dynamic under the law of Moses, where people funded God's house, but then received the benefit of God's house.
00:36:35.479 --> 00:36:37.479
That same dynamic is at work in the New Testament.
00:36:37.559 --> 00:36:43.719
That people fund their local church and then in return they receive the benefit of a well-led, thriving local church.
00:36:44.919 --> 00:36:47.319
Paul says, Don't you know?
00:36:50.439 --> 00:36:51.879
This is how it works.
00:36:52.759 --> 00:36:56.519
Which indicates somewhat hilariously that they did.
00:36:59.079 --> 00:37:01.319
Or at least that they should have.
00:37:01.639 --> 00:37:07.399
Especially given the Corinthian self-inflated claim to an abundance of knowledge.
00:37:09.639 --> 00:37:11.319
Now maybe this is some of you.
00:37:12.759 --> 00:37:18.839
And so I just pastorally, somewhat gently.
00:37:21.879 --> 00:37:23.879
I just want to ask you to change.
00:37:24.519 --> 00:37:27.159
And to come into alignment with what God's word teaches.
00:37:27.399 --> 00:37:31.079
Because it's not just the ministry of the church that you provide for, there's another group as well.
00:37:31.319 --> 00:37:33.399
The needy among God's people.
00:37:34.359 --> 00:37:38.919
Landing the plane now, just as we saw in Israel, the same function carries over into the New Testament.
00:37:39.079 --> 00:37:40.359
1 Timothy 5.
00:37:41.239 --> 00:37:42.599
Give proper recognition.
00:37:42.679 --> 00:37:49.239
This is Paul speaking to his disciple, Timothy, who oversees a group of churches in the city of Ephesus.
00:37:49.559 --> 00:37:55.319
And Paul says, Hey Timothy, I want you to give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.
00:37:55.879 --> 00:38:04.919
But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents.
00:38:05.079 --> 00:38:07.719
Listen, for this is pleasing to God.
00:38:08.039 --> 00:38:11.479
So how we handle our money can either please God or it can displease God.
00:38:11.719 --> 00:38:18.199
The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
00:38:18.359 --> 00:38:21.719
But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.
00:38:21.959 --> 00:38:25.719
Give the people these instructions so that no one may be open to blame.
00:38:25.959 --> 00:38:33.159
Anyone who does not provide for their relatives and especially for their own household has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
00:38:33.479 --> 00:38:42.679
Now the basic idea here is that the church members' giving funds the church's ability to care, here in this context, for the widows in the church who are truly in need.
00:38:42.839 --> 00:38:44.519
And notice that Paul is very careful.
00:38:44.599 --> 00:38:49.000
He does not say that the church funds all of the needs indiscriminately.
00:38:49.159 --> 00:38:51.639
He says that the family needs to take responsibility first.
00:38:51.799 --> 00:38:54.519
If a widow has children or grandchildren, they need to care for her.
00:38:54.679 --> 00:39:02.359
The church steps in for those who truly are alone, who are really in need, to use Paul's words, with nobody else to turn to.
00:39:02.519 --> 00:39:06.199
Now, if you just think about all that, that's all rightly ordered relationship stuff.
00:39:06.359 --> 00:39:10.839
That's families operating the way that they should, and the church operating the way that they should, right?
00:39:10.919 --> 00:39:13.239
That's wisdom that promotes flourishing.
00:39:13.479 --> 00:39:20.519
But when the church does support the needy, it's the same mechanism under the old covenant that is now carried into the new.
00:39:21.799 --> 00:39:23.559
It's the same thing.
00:39:24.679 --> 00:39:27.239
And of course, it's not limited to widows.
00:39:27.559 --> 00:39:31.000
The book of James widens it to widows and orphans.
00:39:31.479 --> 00:39:41.159
The principle is that through the faithfulness of its members to honor God with their wealth, a local church should have the means to support its truly needy members.
00:39:41.719 --> 00:39:57.159
That's not just about handouts, that's about coming alongside people to help them overcome what would otherwise be insurmountable obstacles so that they are empowered to be able to create wealth there on their own and to be a blessing to other people as well.
00:39:57.479 --> 00:40:06.919
And that's true, especially in our society where opportunity abounds for most people, if only they are provided with the help that they need to access those opportunities.
00:40:07.239 --> 00:40:15.319
Okay, so just last week we were able as a church to provide over$3,000 to repair a family in our church's car.
00:40:15.559 --> 00:40:15.879
Okay.
00:40:16.759 --> 00:40:25.959
By doing that repair, you enable that family to be able to function, to do what they need to do, to get to work, to get to church, all of those things, right?
00:40:26.119 --> 00:40:28.519
That's not a handout, that's righteousness.
00:40:28.839 --> 00:40:31.000
That's not charity, that's justice.
00:40:31.159 --> 00:40:36.039
That's coming alongside people as a church because what does Malachi say?
00:40:36.199 --> 00:41:06.439
Because the storehouse is full, people can be fed, people can be supported, the needs are supplied, and it happens through every member of God's house choosing to obey God's command, to walk in the way of wisdom, which is the way of righteousness and justice, which is to honor God with the first fruits of your wealth, by bringing it into his house so that his house can operate with strength, his ministers are well supplied, the needy among God's people are well supplied, and everybody has the opportunity to flourish.
00:41:06.519 --> 00:41:07.639
And what do we do by that?
00:41:07.799 --> 00:41:15.479
We are living rightly and justly, and we are conveying the love and the glory of God to all of the nations around us, just as God intended.
00:41:16.759 --> 00:41:33.719
No wonder when Paul is encouraging the Corinthian church in their giving to support the church in Jerusalem who were going through a very difficult time, he says in 2 Corinthians 9 9, as it is written, they, the generous, have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever.
00:41:34.279 --> 00:41:41.159
Enduring righteousness is a righteousness that freely, not begrudgingly, freely gives to those whom God is determined to provide for through the tithe.
00:41:41.319 --> 00:41:45.799
Or, as Bruce Walkie sums up the subject, I love this statement, let it hit you in the heart.
00:41:45.959 --> 00:41:49.719
The wicked are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.
00:41:49.959 --> 00:41:55.639
They take with no intention to give, but the righteous are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community.
00:41:55.799 --> 00:41:57.000
And here's God's promise.
00:41:57.159 --> 00:42:07.000
That disadvantage that you put yourself at through living righteously does not remain a disadvantage because this is the way that pleases God, this is the path that God loves to bless.
00:42:07.879 --> 00:42:09.319
And you can do it.
00:42:09.639 --> 00:42:11.479
Because Christ has gone before you.
00:42:19.239 --> 00:42:21.319
So here's my altar call, same as last week.
00:42:21.399 --> 00:42:22.439
Can you guess what it is?
00:42:26.519 --> 00:42:27.799
Start hiding.
00:42:28.759 --> 00:42:30.119
Just obey God.
00:42:30.839 --> 00:42:32.279
Trust God in this.
00:42:32.839 --> 00:42:35.079
And see what He does in your life.
00:42:35.719 --> 00:42:36.679
So I'm gonna do this.
00:42:36.759 --> 00:42:40.359
We're gonna um here's how you can prepare to give.
00:42:41.799 --> 00:42:44.439
If you have the ability today to begin, then I want you to begin.
00:42:44.519 --> 00:42:47.399
If you don't, then I want you to begin the next time that you get paid.
00:42:49.079 --> 00:42:54.839
And do a portion of the first best of your income by giving it to the Lord through his church.
00:42:55.719 --> 00:42:58.279
And I want us to say this prayer out loud before we give.
00:42:58.599 --> 00:42:59.079
Ready?
00:42:59.319 --> 00:42:59.959
Begin.
00:43:00.279 --> 00:43:06.679
Dear Heavenly Father, we desire to faithfully steward what you have entrusted to us.
00:43:06.919 --> 00:43:13.079
Unite our hearts as we give, that our generosity would become a shared act of worship.
00:43:13.399 --> 00:43:18.839
Many hands offering one gift, many lives declaring one faith.
00:43:19.079 --> 00:43:26.599
May our generosity in this moment be a tool in the advancement of your kingdom and mission here on earth.
00:43:26.839 --> 00:43:34.519
Give us the grace to honor you so that we may be remembered as a trustworthy people and caretakers of your gifts.
00:43:34.759 --> 00:43:45.000
May our lives and our giving be a testimony to your goodness, a witness to your kingdom, and a song of praise to your glory, both now and forever.
00:43:45.159 --> 00:43:45.719
Amen.
00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:32.920
Why don't you go ahead and grab your Bible?
00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:34.039
Thank you, worship team.
00:00:34.119 --> 00:00:35.640
Y'all may be seated.
00:00:37.239 --> 00:00:41.000
And turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 8.
00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:44.200
Proverbs 8.
00:00:44.599 --> 00:00:45.640
Turn, turn, turn.
00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:47.239
Should be here in the pages going.
00:00:48.519 --> 00:00:50.920
We're gonna pick it up in verse 17.
00:00:57.319 --> 00:01:01.799
It's always good to follow along in your own copy of the Word of God.
00:01:01.959 --> 00:01:03.959
Good to see things in context.
00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:13.480
Proverbs 8 is wisdom personified, speaking to us on behalf of God.
00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:18.840
And wisdom says, I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.
00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:22.760
With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.
00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:24.920
My fruit is better than fine gold.
00:01:25.079 --> 00:01:27.560
What I yield surpasses choice silver.
00:01:27.879 --> 00:01:37.159
I walk in the way of righteousness along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who loved me and making their treasuries full.
00:01:37.399 --> 00:01:41.879
The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works before his deeds of old.
00:01:42.119 --> 00:01:48.679
I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be.
00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:10.920
Yeah.
00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:23.400
But I do want to teach you once more on the biblical concept of tithing, returning the first 10% of all that you earn to God by tithing it to his church.
00:02:23.640 --> 00:02:26.360
And this time I want to come at it from another angle.
00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:28.520
Last week we talked about wise people tithe.
00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:31.960
This time I want to talk about how righteous people tithe.
00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:37.000
And as a reminder, the reasons for teaching on this are twofold.
00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:47.240
If you guys could go ahead and bring up that graphic for us, uh, this is uh a chart that shows uh what's been happening in our church since January.
00:02:47.320 --> 00:02:50.600
So just the last eight months, and there's two lines here.
00:02:50.760 --> 00:02:55.560
That top line in white is attendance, and that bottom line in black is giving.
00:02:55.719 --> 00:03:03.480
And praise God, since January, our attendance as a church has grown on Sundays by 19%, which truly is an amazing thing.
00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:07.159
Um we've never experienced that kind of uh rapid growth before as a church.
00:03:07.320 --> 00:03:10.360
And that line on the bottom is our giving, which doesn't look like it's improved.
00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:12.520
It doesn't at all, um, but it is growth.
00:03:12.600 --> 00:03:15.240
It's 1% growth since January, friends and family.
00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:18.600
Um, and as you can see, there's there's quite uh a gap there.
00:03:18.760 --> 00:03:31.000
And so I need to teach into that um because as our church grows, the cost of ministry also grows, but uh our revelation of giving is not keeping up with what God is doing in our church.
00:03:32.040 --> 00:03:38.120
And so the second reason then that we need to talk about this is because that gap is what I call a sanctification gap.
00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:44.200
Sanctification is the is the process of becoming more devoted to Jesus.
00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:57.000
It's a discipleship gap that I need to help us close by teaching about the importance of honoring and trusting God with our money by returning to him the first and the best portion.
00:03:57.320 --> 00:04:06.200
So last week we looked at Proverbs 3: Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing, your vats will be brimming with new wine.
00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:12.840
And we consider that promise in its context, both its immediate context in Proverbs chapter 3 and the broader context of Proverbs as a whole.
00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:16.680
And we learned that the command is for us to give weight to God.
00:04:16.839 --> 00:04:31.319
That's what honor means, to give weight to God as our creator and sustainer by returning to him the first and best portion of all that we earn, and to do so, really importantly, to do so with the incense of love and trust.
00:04:31.719 --> 00:04:34.839
For if it's not with love, then it's not our best.
00:04:35.399 --> 00:04:36.920
And this is the way of wisdom.
00:04:37.159 --> 00:04:44.519
Wisdom, according to Proverbs, is learning the skill of living God's way in God's world.
00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:50.360
And when we do that, generally speaking, is the promise that we flourish.
00:04:50.680 --> 00:05:05.560
Even though at times we stumble, even though at times we still endure suffering, Proverbs invites us to consider the big picture of life and see that the righteous, though they may fall, they rise up and they continue to experience the beauty of a life spent walking faithfully with God.
00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:15.480
And so, with that in mind, I want us to pay careful attention today to what wisdom says in verse 20 of that first passage that we read in chapter 8.
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Bring up verse 20 for me.
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Pay careful attention to this.
00:05:18.519 --> 00:05:24.759
Wisdom says, I walk in the way of righteousness along the paths of justice.
00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:29.240
Now, that statement is worth spending considerable time on.
00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:38.759
Because God tells us that if we seek wisdom, then generally speaking, it will produce an enduring, fruitful, honorable, and prosperous life.
00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:42.519
So our question then becomes well, where do I find wisdom?
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And that verse tells you wisdom is found along the way of righteousness and justice.
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That is, if you walk down the path of living righteously and justly, you will find wisdom because that's the same path that wisdom walks.
00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:13.800
To paraphrase, one of the foremost scholars on the book of Proverbs, a man named Bruce Waltke, he states that there is an inseparable connection between embracing the virtues of wisdom and enjoying the benefits of wisdom.
00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:21.879
And you may not realize it yet, but the virtues that are mentioned here in this text are not just any old virtues according to the Bible.
00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:28.680
Rather, these virtues sum up the entire biblical message about how God's people are commanded to live.
00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:33.000
Those words are righteousness and justice.
00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:38.920
Or in the Hebrew, which is worth talking about because they pop up a lot, sedaka and meshpat.
00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.480
Do you want to get you guys want to try those on for size?
00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:44.439
Say sedekah, say meshpat.
00:06:45.400 --> 00:06:51.960
Now, independently, those words pop up all over the scriptures all of the time, and by themselves, those words are very important.
00:06:52.199 --> 00:06:58.360
But together, they communicate the very heart of what it looks like in practice to be a Christian.
00:06:58.840 --> 00:07:05.639
Those words work together to communicate one unified concept that is even greater than what either word could express on its own.
00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:26.600
And that concept is essentially that every single relationship, your relationship with God, your relationship with others, your relationship to yourself, and your relationship to creation, every relationship is well ordered, that it is submitted to God's way so that all things flourish as God designed those things to flourish.
00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:34.040
The way that one teacher summarizes it is that we live right, we do what's right, and we help set things right.
00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:38.840
We live right, we do what's right, we help set things right.
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This is what it looks like to live well.
00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:42.040
That is wisdom.
00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:48.199
Righteousness and justice are not just a way to live, they are the only right way to live.
00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:58.439
And so unsurprisingly, we see this word pair pop up all over the Old Testament because this is what it looks like to live wisely, and God really wants you to know that, so He tells you a lot.
00:07:59.879 --> 00:08:12.199
And living this way is not heavy, it is costly, but it is not heavy because it really does promote flourishing.
00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:16.519
God's way really does work, including your own flourishing, by the way.
00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:20.439
Remember what Proverbs 8 says with me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.
00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:22.040
My fruit is better than fine gold.
00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:27.240
What I yield surpasses choice silver, I bestow a rich inheritance and I make your treasuries full.
00:08:27.400 --> 00:08:31.400
So when you live for the flourishing of others, you experience flourishing also.
00:08:31.960 --> 00:08:43.879
So while living God's way is going to require us to live sacrificially, what it ultimately leads to is a more fruitful, beautiful, and prosperous life for you and for those around you.
00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:51.159
The way that I would sum it up is like this: that righteousness walks a path that abundantly provides.
00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:56.279
A genuinely righteous life does come with a cost.
00:08:56.759 --> 00:08:59.319
Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:05.320
But in the end, it will be proven that that righteous life did not yield a loss.
00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:07.960
It always leads to fruitfulness.
00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:11.960
That's not an Old Testament thing, that's a God thing.
00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:17.240
Remember, Proverbs says that wisdom was present at creation.
00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:22.840
In other words, wisdom is woven into the way God made the world to function.
00:09:23.159 --> 00:09:28.919
There is a right way to live and there is a wrong way to live that remains true across the whole biblical narrative.
00:09:29.480 --> 00:09:43.480
And as we will see in a moment, the Mosaic law, that is the law that the nation of Israel abided by, the Mosaic law encoded the right way to live for that nation in a particular context, but the Mosaic law did not establish the right way to live.
00:09:43.720 --> 00:09:47.240
Righteousness and justice have always been God's requirement.
00:09:47.879 --> 00:09:49.639
And so what does this have to do with tithing?
00:09:49.799 --> 00:09:50.919
Well, a lot actually.
00:09:51.159 --> 00:09:58.759
And to help us see that, I want us to uh to turn and look at the first person in scripture who is associated with this word pair, righteousness and justice.
00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:00.680
His name is Abraham.
00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:05.080
And actually, next Sunday we will begin a short series studying the life of Abraham.
00:10:05.159 --> 00:10:07.159
So now's a good time to get to know him a little bit better.
00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:10.600
Look at what God says to Abraham in Genesis 18.
00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:20.519
He says, Abraham, starting in verse 18, Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through Abraham.
00:10:20.680 --> 00:10:26.519
That's the promise of the gospel that through Abraham's lineage the blessing of God's salvation would come to all the nations of the world.
00:10:26.680 --> 00:10:29.240
Jesus, the ultimate son of Abraham, has fulfilled that.
00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:31.080
For I have chosen Abraham.
00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:31.560
Why?
00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:40.519
So that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.
00:10:41.560 --> 00:10:45.399
So that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised.
00:10:45.639 --> 00:10:46.840
Blessing to the nations.
00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:50.600
Now notice that the way of the Lord here is to do what is right and just.
00:10:50.680 --> 00:10:53.080
In the Hebrew, Sedecah Mishpah.
00:10:53.320 --> 00:11:03.879
And the story that Genesis tells up until this point, after the fall of Adam and Eve, is that humanity grew increasingly corrupt and it had entirely abandoned the way of the Lord.
00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:09.799
But God chose Abraham so that he could direct his entire household to do what is just and right.
00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:17.240
Because it is through the righteousness and justice of Abraham's household that God would fulfill his promise of bringing blessing to the nations of the earth.
00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:25.080
In other words, there is a direct link between the moral fabric of how God's people live and the fulfillment of God's mission to redeem the world.
00:11:25.879 --> 00:11:34.360
If God's people don't live right, they cannot fulfill their role of mediating God's glory, God's love to the nations.
00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:42.680
Now, this conversation between God and Abraham is hundreds of years prior to the giving of the Mosaic law.
00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:45.480
None of those commandments had been given yet.
00:11:45.560 --> 00:11:48.440
Not the Big Ten or any of the others.
00:11:48.680 --> 00:11:55.799
And yet, listen to how God describes Abraham as God summarizes Abraham's life in Genesis 26, 5.
00:11:56.039 --> 00:11:59.159
He says, This Abraham, there you go.
00:12:00.039 --> 00:12:04.600
Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him.
00:12:04.840 --> 00:12:07.080
This is really unusual language.
00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:14.680
Keeping my commands, my decrees, and my yeah, were laws.
00:12:15.399 --> 00:12:16.039
Torah.
00:12:17.080 --> 00:12:25.000
Commands, decrees, laws, centuries before the law of Moses was given, before a single one of them was written down, Abraham kept.
00:12:25.159 --> 00:12:25.720
How?
00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:29.480
Not because Abraham somehow had the rule book early.
00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:31.080
No.
00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:40.039
But because the way of the Lord, righteousness and justice, was how Abraham had learned to live in his relationship from God.
00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:49.080
The law hadn't been encoded on stone yet, but the heart of the law, in a very real sense, was already written on Abraham's heart.
00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:54.919
Which, of course, is what the Old Testament prophesies will happen to those who believe in Jesus.
00:12:55.159 --> 00:12:57.720
That God's law will be written on their hearts.
00:12:57.960 --> 00:13:02.680
It is not too much to say that Abraham is a prototype of a Christian.
00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:14.360
I'll unpack that more so next week when we start our series, but know for now that God very clearly has a foundational standard of righteousness and justice.
00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:25.480
That he not only wanted Abraham to uphold personally, but also that he wanted him to pass on to his children and his children's children for the sake of fulfilling his promise to redeem the nations that is fulfilled in Christ.
00:13:25.639 --> 00:13:31.879
So if you want to know what righteousness and justice looks like, then a good place to start is to look at Abraham's actual life.
00:13:32.039 --> 00:13:33.560
The Bible records it for a reason.
00:13:33.639 --> 00:13:35.240
It is instruction for us.
00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:41.399
Now, as it concerns our target today that righteous people tithe, I want us to look at Genesis chapter 14.
00:13:41.879 --> 00:13:47.720
In Genesis 14, Abraham's nephew, his name is Lot, he gets uh caught up in a war.
00:13:48.279 --> 00:14:05.320
Lot had settled near the city of Sodom, and some kings had swept through with their armies, and they had attacked Sodom, and as a result of that, a casualty of that, Lot, along with a bunch of other citizens of Sodom and a bunch of goods from Sodom are carried off by these armies.
00:14:05.560 --> 00:14:09.320
And so word reaches Abraham that his nephew has been captured.
00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:17.960
So Abraham he gathers the men of his household, he goes after them, and he brings Lot back, along with everybody else and everything else that was taken.
00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:22.440
And on the road home, two other kings come out to meet Abraham.
00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:27.399
One is the king of Sodom, and another is a mysterious figure named Melchizedek.
00:14:27.799 --> 00:14:31.000
Watch what happens in Genesis 14, beginning in verse 17.
00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:45.639
After Abram, that is Abraham, after Abram returned from defeating however you say that guy's name there, and the kings that were allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the valley of however you say that place there.
00:14:46.680 --> 00:14:50.680
Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.240
He was priest of God most high.
00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:58.279
And he blessed Abram, saying, Blessed be Abram by God most high, creator of heaven and earth.
00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:03.960
Verse 20, and praise be to God most high, who delivered your enemies into your hand.
00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:08.919
Then Abram gave him Melchizedek a tenth of everything.
00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:14.759
Verse 21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the people, you can keep all the goods for yourself.
00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:27.960
But Abram said to the king of Sodom, with raised hand, I have sworn an oath to the Lord God most high, creator of heaven and earth, that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, I made Abram rich.
00:15:28.279 --> 00:15:30.840
So two kings greet Abraham after this victory.
00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:37.240
One is the king of Sodom, who very clearly uh signifies unrighteousness in the story of Abraham.
00:15:37.480 --> 00:15:40.519
And the other is a mysterious king named Melchizedek.
00:15:40.680 --> 00:15:43.879
His name literally means king of righteousness.
00:15:44.039 --> 00:15:49.560
And he is the king of Salem, which literally is in Hebrew king of Shalom, king of peace.
00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:52.680
And he is the priest of God most high.
00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:55.799
And so he's clearly a representative of the ways of God.
00:15:55.960 --> 00:16:01.399
Hebrews in the New Testament later points to him as a type or a prefigurement of Jesus Christ.
00:16:01.639 --> 00:16:04.919
And notice that Melchizedek pronounces a blessing upon Abraham.
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:06.440
And what does he say in that blessing?
00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:14.759
He credits God, Yahweh, he credits God with being responsible for Abraham's victory in this battle.
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:18.840
He says, God most high has delivered your enemies into your hand.
00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:22.279
Now that Hebrew word for delivered there is related to the word shield.
00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:24.200
I want you to hang on to that for a moment.
00:16:24.440 --> 00:16:25.960
God has been Abraham's shield.
00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:27.240
That's what God has done.
00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:29.399
And how does Abraham respond?
00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:37.320
By giving Melchizedek, God's priest, a tithe of all the plunder that he had brought home from that war.
00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:41.399
What is Abraham communicating with that act?
00:16:41.720 --> 00:16:44.840
He's saying to Melchizedek, Amen.
00:16:45.399 --> 00:16:49.240
He's saying, Yes, God provided me with this victory.
00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:56.600
And so I acknowledge that fact by returning 10% of the increase to him by giving it over to his priest Melchizedek.
00:16:56.840 --> 00:16:59.799
This is the first formal tithe in scripture.
00:17:00.680 --> 00:17:02.600
And I want you to notice a couple of things.
00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:06.919
First of all, that the figure of 10% was not mandated by a law.
00:17:07.879 --> 00:17:09.799
This is prior to the Mosaic Law.
00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:18.519
So this is what Abraham gratefully apportioned to God in response to God's blessing, God's deliverance.
00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:28.359
It was an act that communicated communicated that as powerful and as successful as Abraham had become, he still recognized that God is his source and his sustainer.
00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:35.000
Notice also that this act of tithing by Abraham had to be systematic.
00:17:42.039 --> 00:17:45.240
He had to take care in his giving.
00:17:49.559 --> 00:17:58.839
Lastly, I want you to notice that this tithe is not an attempt in any way to attain forgiveness or atonement.
00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:07.160
Some people say that Christians don't need the tithe because the sacrificial system of the law was about forgiveness, and Christ has fulfilled that.
00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:15.559
Well, first of all, a lot of the sacrificial system in the law was not actually about forgiveness and atonement, it was about thanksgiving and fellowship and worship.
00:18:16.519 --> 00:18:18.039
It was a what's our word?
00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:21.880
A well-ordered relationship with Almighty God, creator and sustainer.
00:18:22.039 --> 00:18:26.759
And second of all, the tithe, specifically in the law, never has anything to do with seeking forgiveness.
00:18:27.160 --> 00:18:31.400
It was always about honoring God by practicing righteousness, as we'll see in a little bit.
00:18:32.039 --> 00:18:35.880
And where do you think that principle has its roots?
00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:39.319
Right, right here in the story of their ancestor.
00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:42.039
The Bible wants you to see this.
00:18:42.519 --> 00:18:43.640
This is where it begins.
00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:54.279
Right here in the story of Abraham, the father of the household of faith, who returns to God through Melchizedek, a tithe of the plunder, as a way of proclaiming, yes, God is my deliverer, God is my provider.
00:18:54.519 --> 00:18:58.440
My question is: Do you think we should learn from righteous Abraham here?
00:18:59.880 --> 00:19:01.160
That was a rhetorical question.
00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:02.759
I think the answer is yes.
00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:11.240
And then Abraham doubles down on this proclamation when the king of Sodom offers to let him keep the rest of the plunder as a thank you gift for rescuing his citizens.
00:19:11.319 --> 00:19:13.000
And how does Abraham respond to the king of Sodom?
00:19:13.079 --> 00:19:14.279
He says, No shot.
00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:23.880
I'm not keeping a nickel of this stuff because that would give you and the false gods of Sodom an opportunity to take credit for my wealth.
00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:26.839
Abram says, God alone is my provider.
00:19:27.079 --> 00:19:27.720
What is that?
00:19:27.799 --> 00:19:29.160
That's an act of faith.
00:19:30.039 --> 00:19:33.880
And look at how God responds to that act of faith in Genesis 15:1.
00:19:34.359 --> 00:19:39.960
It says, This after this, same context, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.
00:19:40.120 --> 00:19:45.160
It says, Do not be afraid, AM, I am your same root as deliverer.
00:19:45.640 --> 00:19:47.240
Your very great reward.
00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:54.120
God says, You indicated your belief in the fact that I am your shield by giving that tithe, and I want you to know that you're right, I am.
00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:57.880
And you turn down that reward from the king of Sodom, guess what?
00:19:58.039 --> 00:19:59.720
I am your very great reward.
00:20:00.120 --> 00:20:03.480
What's God saying in response to Abraham's tithe?
00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:05.799
He's saying, Good job.
00:20:08.839 --> 00:20:10.279
He's saying, I liked that.
00:20:14.440 --> 00:20:15.720
God doesn't change.
00:20:17.319 --> 00:20:22.039
Do you think we should learn something from the fact that this act of tithing pleased God?
00:20:24.680 --> 00:20:36.599
If you want to know what righteousness and justice look like in relation to material goods, look at how Abraham credits God for being his deliverer and provider, and look at how God responds.
00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:41.400
Abraham tithes hundreds of years before such a practice was encoded in the law of Israel.
00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:41.799
Why?
00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:47.000
Because honoring God with your wealth is a fundamental part of a well-ordered relationship with God.
00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:48.839
It is righteous.
00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:53.480
Friends, there is a vertical dimension to your righteousness and justice.
00:20:54.440 --> 00:21:01.960
You can live justly in this life by everybody around you and live unjustly in relation to God, and you would have lived unjustly.
00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:05.480
That thought doesn't originate with me.
00:21:05.559 --> 00:21:08.680
I believe Augustine, the church father, actually made that same point.
00:21:09.400 --> 00:21:14.440
That's part of what Abraham was to pass on to his descendants about living righteously and justly.
00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:15.319
He's to teach them this.
00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:21.000
So it's no coincidence that Abraham's grandson, Jacob, said these words in Genesis 28.
00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:37.799
If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey, I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's household, then the Lord will be my God, and this stone that I've set up as a pillar will be God's house, and all of that you give me, I will give you a tenth.
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:38.839
That is a tithe.
00:21:40.440 --> 00:21:50.519
So again, hundreds of years before the Mosaic Law, Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, determines to worship God through the act of tithing in response to God's provision.
00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:55.319
In the words of one commentator, Jacob vowed to serve God.
00:21:55.400 --> 00:22:00.920
If you guys could bring that sign up, yeah, he vowed to serve God and worship him in this place and offer tithes.
00:22:01.240 --> 00:22:06.680
This reintroduces another motif for worship, paying tithes, first seen in Abraham.
00:22:06.839 --> 00:22:15.160
To give a tithe was an act whereby a person acknowledged that everything he had was a gift from God, and thus, in the final analysis, actually belonged to God.
00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:17.720
Tithing says this is yours.
00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:20.920
Keeping it all says this is actually mine.
00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:24.680
Now, where did Jacob learn that?
00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:26.759
From his grandpa.
00:22:29.559 --> 00:22:30.920
That part of the way you recognize.
00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:33.880
God as deliverer and provider is by bringing him a tithe.
00:22:34.519 --> 00:22:46.359
Which means that when the Mosaic law speaks about tithes and offerings and first fruits, it wasn't introducing something new and temporary, it was applying something enduring and foundational.
00:22:48.680 --> 00:23:00.359
In the law, God takes this principle of righteousness and justice and he encodes it for Israel so that they will be guarded against living sinfully and so they will know what it means to please God.
00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:08.839
But even when the law is fulfilled by Christ and we are ushered into a new covenant, the same foundational principle of righteousness and justice still carries over.
00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:14.839
It is still required, in other words, that all of our relationships be well ordered so that life is full of shalom.
00:23:16.279 --> 00:23:19.079
Full of peace, full of flourishing, just as God designed them.
00:23:19.240 --> 00:23:23.720
Abraham's role wasn't just to teach Israel this, Abraham's role was to teach the nations this.
00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:31.160
This is why the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 3 29, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed.
00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:35.559
And you are heirs according to that promise of blessing to the nations.
00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:41.559
So the church, all of us, composed of Jew and Gentile, we are Abraham's children.
00:23:42.519 --> 00:23:46.599
Those who have faith in Christ are the true household of Abraham.
00:23:46.759 --> 00:23:54.599
We are the ones to whom the blessing of God has come through Jesus, the ultimate son of Abraham, who perfectly fulfilled righteousness and justice.
00:23:55.160 --> 00:24:03.880
And we are the ones who now, through whom God's blessing is still coming to the nations because we are united to Christ and we share in his righteousness and justice.
00:24:04.599 --> 00:24:05.400
What does that look like?
00:24:05.559 --> 00:24:07.319
Paul elaborates in Galatians 5.14.
00:24:07.480 --> 00:24:14.120
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbor as yourself.
00:24:14.519 --> 00:24:14.839
Okay?
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:18.680
So we are still required to keep the heart of the Mosaic Law.
00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:22.279
Because the heart of the law actually predates the law.
00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:25.400
The heart of the law is living righteously and justly.
00:24:26.120 --> 00:24:28.759
Or as Paul paraphrases it here, what is this?
00:24:28.839 --> 00:24:33.319
This is right, right order relate, well ordered relationship, loving your neighbor as yourself.
00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:36.359
So, in other words, we do the Abraham thing.
00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:50.279
We walk the path of righteousness and justice, but we do it even more faithfully than Abraham because now we've encountered an even greater revelation of God's love in the cross of Jesus Christ, and we've received the power of the Holy Spirit.
00:24:51.160 --> 00:24:51.799
You with me?
00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:56.920
So as that relates to tithing, we don't practice a strict rule-keeping righteousness.
00:24:57.559 --> 00:24:59.960
We practice a generosity righteousness.
00:25:00.680 --> 00:25:10.120
Rule keeping righteousness, uh, someone who's trying to be a really good Pharisee says to somebody in need, Oh, I don't need to do well by you because I've already tithed.
00:25:10.200 --> 00:25:10.680
I'm good.
00:25:12.839 --> 00:25:20.039
Generosity righteousness looks for ways to help even when they've fulfilled that biblical baseline of entrusting to God 10%.
00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:22.359
What does that look like in practice?
00:25:22.440 --> 00:25:24.039
Well, Paul elaborates in Galatians 6, too.
00:25:24.120 --> 00:25:24.920
Here's another good example.
00:25:25.160 --> 00:25:31.400
Here's what it looked like to love your neighbor as yourself, carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
00:25:32.440 --> 00:25:34.920
That's well-ordered relationship that promotes flourishing.
00:25:35.240 --> 00:25:36.599
That's Sedaka Mishpat.
00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:51.000
And in case you think that righteousness and justice promotes being overly dependent on others and a lack of taking responsibility for your own life, Paul comes at it from another angle just a couple verses later in verse 5 says, Well, well, each of you should carry your own load.
00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:51.880
Don't be lazy.
00:25:52.920 --> 00:25:56.759
Work hard, earn a living, don't be dependent upon others.
00:25:56.920 --> 00:25:59.880
Actually, you work hard, so you have a surplus to support others.
00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:02.680
For this is part of living a righteous and just life.
00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:05.559
But so also is this next verse in Galatians 6:6.
00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:12.440
Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
00:26:14.120 --> 00:26:20.680
So, as we'll see in a moment, this is this new covenant imperative has everything to do with the biblical concept of tithing.
00:26:21.319 --> 00:26:24.519
This is part of what it means to fulfill the law of Christ, to live righteously and justly.
00:26:24.680 --> 00:26:29.960
You don't just receive from the ministry of your local church, you actually contribute financially to the ministry of your local church.
00:26:30.519 --> 00:26:35.720
And then look, Paul even grounds this command in the foundational and enduring way of wisdom in verses 7 and 8.
00:26:36.039 --> 00:26:37.160
Don't be deceived.
00:26:38.039 --> 00:26:40.599
Carrying on from the same thought, God cannot be mocked.
00:26:40.680 --> 00:26:42.839
A man always reaps what he sows.
00:26:43.720 --> 00:26:50.839
Whoever sows to please their flesh, that is, they orient their money around themselves, from the flesh will reap destruction.
00:26:51.079 --> 00:26:57.319
Whoever sows to the spirit, that is, their money is well ordered according to the kingdom of God, from the spirit they will reap eternal life.
00:26:57.480 --> 00:27:00.519
Now, I think Paul is talking about eschatological reward here.
00:27:01.160 --> 00:27:13.640
Reward that awaits us in the age to come, or the lack thereof, in relation to our obedience in the area of giving and all other things that go into living a Christian life.
00:27:13.960 --> 00:27:19.720
Old covenant or new, the wisdom of sowing and reaping is just foundationally true.
00:27:20.920 --> 00:27:29.640
We are still required to live righteously and justly, which even in the New Testament includes the act of giving out of our income to support the ministry and the ministers of our church.
00:27:29.799 --> 00:27:36.279
For this is how you honor the Lord with your wealth by giving him the first fruits of all of your increase through tithing it to his church.
00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:39.880
So the way of righteousness did not stop at Abraham.
00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:43.000
The way of righteousness did not stop at the law.
00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:47.160
The way of righteousness runs straight through to us.
00:27:47.559 --> 00:27:48.920
And it's not murky.
00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:54.440
In other words, we don't get to define righteousness and justice how we feel like it.
00:27:56.120 --> 00:28:00.039
Like I know in the world you can define words however you feel like it.
00:28:03.720 --> 00:28:05.799
In the kingdom, you don't get to do that.
00:28:06.440 --> 00:28:11.880
It defines what love, righteousness, justice really, truly looks like.
00:28:12.039 --> 00:28:15.960
It's not abstract, it gets carried over into concrete application.
00:28:16.440 --> 00:28:25.799
Now to grasp that more fully, we need to look at what the purpose of the tithe was in Israel, because those purposes carry over into the practice of giving in the New Testament.
00:28:26.039 --> 00:28:26.359
Okay?
00:28:26.599 --> 00:28:29.000
I'm landing on the plane, hold on to your seats.
00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:30.120
It's all good.
00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:33.559
If nothing else, you're learning a lot about the Bible, okay?
00:28:36.359 --> 00:28:44.200
So when God carried this moral fabric of Abraham into the law of Moses, he didn't just say to Israel, give.
00:28:44.680 --> 00:28:54.359
No, he told them exactly who their tithes were meant to reach, exactly what the way of righteousness and justice was meant to fund.
00:28:54.920 --> 00:28:59.480
So let's look at what God funded because it connects to what he's still funding through us today.
00:28:59.720 --> 00:29:04.440
First, the tithe provided for those who served in God's house as a vocation.
00:29:04.599 --> 00:29:06.120
There's 12 tribes in Israel.
00:29:06.200 --> 00:29:09.960
The tribe of Levi served in God's house as a vocation.
00:29:10.120 --> 00:29:12.039
They received no land of their own.
00:29:12.200 --> 00:29:18.279
Every other tribe got an inheritance of the land that made up the promised land that they could farm, they could live on.
00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:21.079
God says to Levi, I'm gonna be your inheritance.
00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:21.880
Congratulations.
00:29:22.039 --> 00:29:22.920
You get me.
00:29:23.799 --> 00:29:27.640
But think about what that meant in a world where land was everything.
00:29:28.120 --> 00:29:33.400
How you ate, how you provided, how you earned a living, how you secured you and your family's future.
00:29:33.559 --> 00:29:38.200
To have no land was to be dependent entirely on the faithfulness of everybody else.
00:29:38.440 --> 00:29:40.680
So how does God uh set up the system?
00:29:40.839 --> 00:29:45.240
Well, he says to the people in Numbers 18, encourage you to go read Numbers 18, it's all about this.
00:29:45.400 --> 00:29:56.120
Numbers 18, 21, I give to the Levites all the tithe in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting.
00:29:56.440 --> 00:30:01.640
So the tithe was their inheritance, it was God's provision for the work that they did in God's house.
00:30:01.960 --> 00:30:03.480
Now here's the part that's amazing to me.
00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:06.759
Look at what the scripture categorizes that provision as.
00:30:06.920 --> 00:30:08.759
Look at Deuteronomy 18, 3.
00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:17.240
It says, this is the share due the priests from people who sacrifice a bull or a bull or a sheep.
00:30:17.480 --> 00:30:18.599
Here's the thing that got me.
00:30:18.680 --> 00:30:22.279
That word due, that phrase share, do, guess what that is in Hebrew?
00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:23.559
It is myshat.
00:30:25.079 --> 00:30:26.680
It is justice.
00:30:27.720 --> 00:30:31.799
The portion owed to those who serve at the altar is not charity.
00:30:34.519 --> 00:30:36.359
It is their just due.
00:30:37.960 --> 00:30:43.480
Providing for the ministers of God's house in Israel was a matter of righteousness and justice.
00:30:44.120 --> 00:30:47.720
And that practice is what enabled their work.
00:30:47.880 --> 00:30:52.680
When people were faithful to bring their tithe, the Levites gave themselves fully to the work of God's house.
00:30:52.839 --> 00:31:04.519
When the tithe dried up, as it often did in Israel, because they were very unfaithful at times, like for example, in Nehemiah's day, the Levites had to abandon their posts in the house of God and go back to the fields just to eat.
00:31:05.240 --> 00:31:09.160
And beyond that, the worship of the whole nation ground to a halt.
00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:13.319
Because the house wasn't functioning.
00:31:13.640 --> 00:31:19.079
So the tithe not only provided for the Levites, it kept God's house functioning as it was designed.
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:21.960
You cannot set God's house on AI, okay?
00:31:22.120 --> 00:31:23.720
Claude isn't getting involved here.
00:31:23.799 --> 00:31:25.079
You can't automate this thing.
00:31:25.319 --> 00:31:28.920
Effective ministry requires servant-hearted leaders at the helm.
00:31:32.599 --> 00:31:37.240
Second, the tithe provided for those who were in need among God's people.
00:31:38.039 --> 00:31:40.599
Deuteronomy 14, verses 28 and 29.
00:31:40.920 --> 00:31:55.480
At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites who have no allotment or inheritance of their own, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied.
00:31:55.559 --> 00:31:57.160
So there's four people groups here.
00:31:57.240 --> 00:32:00.839
There's Levites, they pop up again, foreigners, fatherless, and widows.
00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:04.839
These are the four people in Israel who are most likely to fall through the cracks.
00:32:05.160 --> 00:32:05.640
Right?
00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:10.920
In an agrarian world, these are the ones without land, without a provider, without the means to secure their own future.
00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:11.799
So what does God do?
00:32:11.960 --> 00:32:13.400
He builds them into the tithe.
00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:17.319
Part of what Israel returned to God was meant to be in support of them.
00:32:17.480 --> 00:32:21.880
And embracing this was part of what it meant to live in a way that was right and just.
00:32:22.039 --> 00:32:25.160
You could point to gosh, hundreds of scriptures.
00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:28.920
That doesn't feel like an overstatement, especially throughout the prophets that pick up on this point.
00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:30.359
Look at Isaiah 117.
00:32:30.519 --> 00:32:40.519
Learn to do, learn to do, seek, yeah, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
00:32:40.680 --> 00:32:44.759
Oftentimes we define justice, you know how the world teaches us to define justice.
00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:46.920
You have to define justice biblically.
00:32:47.079 --> 00:32:50.200
This was Sedechem Mishpat, made concrete in Israel.
00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:56.519
Righteousness that does what's right and helps to set things right for the neighbor who is in need, according to how God defined it in his law.
00:32:56.680 --> 00:33:01.079
So justice was not an add-on to worship, it was not a secondary thing.
00:33:01.240 --> 00:33:03.079
To worship was to do justice.
00:33:03.319 --> 00:33:05.799
To bring God your tithe was to do justice.
00:33:06.519 --> 00:33:11.000
It was to participate in the assurance of flourishing among all of God's people.
00:33:11.160 --> 00:33:14.519
Notice again that these tithes were not offerings to make atonement for sin.
00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:22.519
It was part of the path to righteousness that provided for those who were serving in God's house full time and for those who could not secure provision on their own.
00:33:22.680 --> 00:33:27.720
As seen in Abraham, righteous people tithe, so also seen in Israel, righteous people tithe.
00:33:28.039 --> 00:33:29.720
Part of that righteousness is vertical.
00:33:29.880 --> 00:33:33.079
It's worship unto God, the one who delivers and provides for us.
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It is righteous to honor him like this.
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We talked a lot about that last Sunday, and part of it is horizontal.
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It is the means for promoting the functioning of God's house, the livelihood of God's ministers, the well-being of God's needy.
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It is righteous to support God's church like this.
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So what does the New Testament do with all this?
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The whole system doesn't carry over, but there are absolutely points of continuity.
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We already saw in Galatians that our giving serves a similar purpose.
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Those instructed share with those who instruct.
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Does Paul make it any clearer elsewhere?
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Look at 1 Corinthians 9, 13 and 14.
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Don't you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple?
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And that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?
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In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
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Pay attention to what Paul just did.
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He makes a direct reference to the sacrificial system under the old covenant, where the ties that people brought sustained the livelihood of the Levites and priests.
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And then he makes a direct appeal saying that the Lord Jesus Himself, based upon this pattern, commanded that those who spend their working lives in service of the gospel should be provided for in the same way.
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It's not ambiguous.
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This is still the path of righteousness and justice.
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Now it is possible that you could make an argument to me that the verse does not stipulate 10%.
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And you'd be right, it doesn't.
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I would just say to you that truly, if our heart posture towards the gospel is to reason our way out of giving our best, then I would just have you reflect more deeply upon the gospel.
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We have not been set free from obedience to God.
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We have been set free to obey God.
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That's what the New Testament teaches again and again.
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We've been empowered into a life of genuine generosity, righteousness.
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And I still think the righteous examples of Abraham and Jacob set 10% as a good biblical baseline.
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He chose it.
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And the point is that he chose well.
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He did what was wise.
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I want to be that.
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He did what was righteous.
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I want to be that.
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And it's awesome because through this righteous act, we sustain the livelihoods of those who give themselves full time to the work of ministry.
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Which, by the way, Ephesians chapter 4 says that their job is to equip you.
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Is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry, to help you grow up into maturity into Christ who is the head.
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Right?
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So the same dynamic under the law of Moses, where people funded God's house, but then received the benefit of God's house.
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That same dynamic is at work in the New Testament.
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That people fund their local church and then in return they receive the benefit of a well-led, thriving local church.
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Paul says, Don't you know?
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This is how it works.
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Which indicates somewhat hilariously that they did.
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Or at least that they should have.
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Especially given the Corinthian self-inflated claim to an abundance of knowledge.
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Now maybe this is some of you.
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And so I just pastorally, somewhat gently.
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I just want to ask you to change.
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And to come into alignment with what God's word teaches.
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Because it's not just the ministry of the church that you provide for, there's another group as well.
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The needy among God's people.
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Landing the plane now, just as we saw in Israel, the same function carries over into the New Testament.
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1 Timothy 5.
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Give proper recognition.
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This is Paul speaking to his disciple, Timothy, who oversees a group of churches in the city of Ephesus.
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And Paul says, Hey Timothy, I want you to give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.
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But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents.
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Listen, for this is pleasing to God.
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So how we handle our money can either please God or it can displease God.
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The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
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But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.
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Give the people these instructions so that no one may be open to blame.
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Anyone who does not provide for their relatives and especially for their own household has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
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Now the basic idea here is that the church members' giving funds the church's ability to care, here in this context, for the widows in the church who are truly in need.
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And notice that Paul is very careful.
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He does not say that the church funds all of the needs indiscriminately.
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He says that the family needs to take responsibility first.
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If a widow has children or grandchildren, they need to care for her.
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The church steps in for those who truly are alone, who are really in need, to use Paul's words, with nobody else to turn to.
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Now, if you just think about all that, that's all rightly ordered relationship stuff.
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That's families operating the way that they should, and the church operating the way that they should, right?
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That's wisdom that promotes flourishing.
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But when the church does support the needy, it's the same mechanism under the old covenant that is now carried into the new.
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It's the same thing.
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And of course, it's not limited to widows.
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The book of James widens it to widows and orphans.
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The principle is that through the faithfulness of its members to honor God with their wealth, a local church should have the means to support its truly needy members.
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That's not just about handouts, that's about coming alongside people to help them overcome what would otherwise be insurmountable obstacles so that they are empowered to be able to create wealth there on their own and to be a blessing to other people as well.
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And that's true, especially in our society where opportunity abounds for most people, if only they are provided with the help that they need to access those opportunities.
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Okay, so just last week we were able as a church to provide over$3,000 to repair a family in our church's car.
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Okay.
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By doing that repair, you enable that family to be able to function, to do what they need to do, to get to work, to get to church, all of those things, right?
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That's not a handout, that's righteousness.
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That's not charity, that's justice.
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That's coming alongside people as a church because what does Malachi say?
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Because the storehouse is full, people can be fed, people can be supported, the needs are supplied, and it happens through every member of God's house choosing to obey God's command, to walk in the way of wisdom, which is the way of righteousness and justice, which is to honor God with the first fruits of your wealth, by bringing it into his house so that his house can operate with strength, his ministers are well supplied, the needy among God's people are well supplied, and everybody has the opportunity to flourish.
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And what do we do by that?
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We are living rightly and justly, and we are conveying the love and the glory of God to all of the nations around us, just as God intended.
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No wonder when Paul is encouraging the Corinthian church in their giving to support the church in Jerusalem who were going through a very difficult time, he says in 2 Corinthians 9 9, as it is written, they, the generous, have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever.
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Enduring righteousness is a righteousness that freely, not begrudgingly, freely gives to those whom God is determined to provide for through the tithe.
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Or, as Bruce Walkie sums up the subject, I love this statement, let it hit you in the heart.
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The wicked are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.
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They take with no intention to give, but the righteous are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community.
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And here's God's promise.
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That disadvantage that you put yourself at through living righteously does not remain a disadvantage because this is the way that pleases God, this is the path that God loves to bless.
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And you can do it.
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Because Christ has gone before you.
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So here's my altar call, same as last week.
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Can you guess what it is?
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Start hiding.
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Just obey God.
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Trust God in this.
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And see what He does in your life.
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So I'm gonna do this.
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We're gonna um here's how you can prepare to give.
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If you have the ability today to begin, then I want you to begin.
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If you don't, then I want you to begin the next time that you get paid.
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And do a portion of the first best of your income by giving it to the Lord through his church.
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And I want us to say this prayer out loud before we give.
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Ready?
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Begin.
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Dear Heavenly Father, we desire to faithfully steward what you have entrusted to us.
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Unite our hearts as we give, that our generosity would become a shared act of worship.
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Many hands offering one gift, many lives declaring one faith.
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May our generosity in this moment be a tool in the advancement of your kingdom and mission here on earth.
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Give us the grace to honor you so that we may be remembered as a trustworthy people and caretakers of your gifts.
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May our lives and our giving be a testimony to your goodness, a witness to your kingdom, and a song of praise to your glory, both now and forever.
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Amen.
