Reveal the power of living by principle of the word of God
No, how blessed are those who hear God’s voice and make God’s message their way of life. —Luke 11:28 (VOICE)
Return to God
“For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts.
“But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’
“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.
You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. —Malachi 3:6-9 (NKJV)Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the Lord of hosts;
“And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” —Malachi 3:10-12 (NKJV)
Malachi is a book about returning to God in our:
Tithing is an ordinance, a principle of ordinary behavior, for us in committed relationships with God!
God’s character, His love and dedication to us, can not change; therefore, His expectation of us does not change
Is This Only a Test?
1. Tithing is a
God is testing my heart
…and allowing me to test His character”
I must remain under the blessing of relationship woth God!
2. Tithing is
“And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide…
then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me;
I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me. Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people…’” —Deuteronomy 26:1-2,13-15 (NKJV)
Even Jesus has instructed I tithe AND attend to more weighty matters
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” —Matthew 23:23 (NKJV)
3. Tithing is a
Moreover he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to the Law of the Lord.
As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. And the children of Israel and Judah, who dwelt in the cities of Judah, brought the tithe of oxen and sheep; also the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the Lord their God they laid in heaps…
And when Hezekiah and the leaders came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and His people Israel. Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. And Azariah the chief priest, from the house of Zadok, answered him and said, “Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and have plenty left, for the Lord has blessed His people; and what is left is this great abundance.” —2 Chronicles 31:4-10 (NKJV)
(NKJV) New King James Version
(MSG) The Message
(NCV) New Centruy Version
(VOICE) The Voice