In God We Trust Pt. 2
“And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.”
Isaiah 29:13 NLT
God doesn’t care about lip service, he cares about heart service.
For most people, the common denominator in all their problems is them, And it’s a heart issue.
“Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.”
Psalms 73:25-26 NLT
1.) Tithing is a two way test.
Pay day is really test day.
When we tithe, it proves our trust in God, and our Faith in God or lack thereof.
The only area of your life that God invites you to test him in is the tithe.
““I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
Malachi 3:6-10 NIV
The tithe is the tenth we return to him. an offering is anything above the 10% we give to him.
You can do more with 90% that God has blessed, than 100% that is cursed.
Tithing is not about money, it’s all about the heart.
We’re not giving to get, we’re giving out of worship to God, and declaring we trust him, and have faith that he will do what he said he will do.
2.) Test God’s promise, not God’s patience.
“Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done! They wouldn’t wait for his counsel! In the wilderness their desires ran wild, testing God’s patience in that dry wasteland.”
Psalms 106:13-14 NLT
God is a promise giver and God is a promise keeper.
“God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”
Numbers 23:19 NIV
Tithing works because God works.
3.) We give to Jesus because we Live for Jesus.
““Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
Matthew 23:23-28 NIV
God doesn’t want your money, He wants your heart, but money has most people’s hearts.
When you give, it is received by the hands of God in heaven.
“Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.”
Hebrews 7:8 NKJV
We don’t live to serve money, we live to serve Jesus!
Our identity isn’t in anything other than Jesus.
