Let's go now into the untold truth about biblical tithing. Here are four things you need to know
about what the Bible teaches about tithing. Number one. The first mention of tithing had to
do in response to God's victory. When Abraham gave first time 10%, it's interesting that we
don't know and nobody knows for sure, where did Abraham learn about the principle of giving 10%.
There was no local church. There was this king named Melchizedek who is symbol of Jesus Christ
in the New Testament. Abraham goes and gets this huge victory with his army and with his band of
people that he was with, and then afterwards the Bible says that Abraham tithe 10%.
The first mention of tithing is the tithing of response to God's faithfulness.
Which I believe the real reason why many of us tithe, we say, "God thank you."
And we're not buying anything, we're expressing our gratefulness. So the first mention of tithing,
500 years before the commandments, it was Abraham saying, "God I acknowledge You as
the source of my victory." The second truth about tithing or the second way of tithing was done,
it was a way of promising God to tithe when I get a breakthrough. Now Jacob was the grandson
of Abraham, and Jacob did not tithe on the credit card, which is something I want to mention.
Okay there are people who get so fired up about tithing, that they tithe on their credit card.
That's not wise. Now I'm not going to stop you if you're going to do that, because if you buy
your shoes and everything on the credit card, you decide to tithe on the credit card, good for you.
God bless you, but it's not scriptural and it's also not wise. Jacob is broke like a joke. He
has nothing to his name. He's sleeping in front of the sky. He gets the vision of God. He sees
the staircase of heaven. He sees God and His house is called Bethel, which is where he was sleeping.
He slept on the rock, which there's a revelation there. You know Jacob went to sleep on the rock,
Samson went to sleep on the lap of Delilah. One woke up with the haircut, the other one woke up
with a revelation. Come on somebody. And so Jacob goes to sleep on the rock and there he sees the
vision of God, and Jacob wakes up. He's like man, this is the house of God. This is church somebody!
You know you would think like hey, when is the next church service? And the first thing Jacob
says is, "God the moment I got anything in my pocket or in my bank, I'm going to give you 10%.".
That's weird. I'm like, I want you to see the connection: church and he's saying,
"The moment I get anything God I'm going to give 10%." No commandments yet. No law. No Moses. No
coming with two tablets. None of this stuff. This guy has a vision of God in his sleep,
vision of the house of God. Wakes up and his first response, the moment I got something, the moment I
get something in my wallet, in my bank account. The moment I get my first paycheck, I promise
to give God and to thank Him. Maybe that's where you're at. You're broke but you got a revelation.
You're in the house today. You're like man, I'm in the house of God but I ain't got a
job. I'm going through a very difficult time. You can make tithing as a promise.
It could be a response, like Abraham or it could be as a promise, like Jacob.
Truth number three is the law of tithing. Now the law of tithing was something that when Moses took
the Israel out of Egypt, they went to the mountain and God came on the mountain and gave Moses the
commandments. Now a lot of these commandments, let's be honest, they were not given to America,
they were given to the nation of Israel. A lot of these commandments had to do with real estate,
they had to do with how to treat your employees, how to treat the land boundaries. It's pretty
much like a, like a code for living as a nation, and one of these commandments was also tithing.
What many people don't understand is that there was not one tithe, there was three. There was
three tithes in the law of Moses. The first tithe was to support the Levites and the priests.
10% of everybody's, Israelites went to maintain the work that was happening at the tabernacle.
But there was one more tithe God was requiring of them and that is this tithe was to be spent
on their travel to the festivals that Israel had. In fact I'm going to read this because many
Christians don't realize, there was more than one tithe by Israelites required by God. Deuteronomy
14:22. So the first tithe was you bring it to the temple to keep the lights on. The second
tithe is God says, "Hey, I want you to come and celebrate this feast but I want you to actually
spend your second tithe in a way of celebrating My goodness. And if the journey is too far to
where you're supposed to come, where the temple is, then take your oxen, your sheep, your goats,
your horses. Everything as your tithe. Go to the market, sell them. Get the money, get there and
then take that money." And this is what God says, "I want you to go buy in the market anything you
like and bring that food, all of that good stuff. While you having this feast spend it on hotel, tip
the waiter. Do all of this stuff and your spending is celebrating Me and rejoicing in My presence."
The third tithe that people were require to bring as New Testament people in covenant with God,
this tithe was 10% every 10 years. Excuse me, every 3 years. So 10% every three years. Let's
read this where the Bible says in Deuteronomy 14:28, "At the end of every third year
you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates.
And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger
and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied,
that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work your hand which you do." So the first
tithe went to pay the bills at the temple, the second tithe went in on your travel to the feasts
and you would spend there with your family feasting, rejoicing celebrating God.
And the third tithe God says, "I want you to give this one every three years, 10%. So each year it
would equal to 3.3% percent you would set apart. You can set apart either each year 3.3% or just
every three years you set extra 10% apart. And they had this like community, almost like a place
where you would bring that food, you will bring those resources for the immigrants,
for the poor and for the people in your community to eat of your tithe, including the Levite.
If whatever was provided to him at the temple was not enough he can come in. Almost like a,
like a world relief, almost like a food bank almost. Like this place,
like a welfare for a community, and guess who was paying for that? Not the government,
the people. So pretty much to say in the Old Testament the tithing wasn't 10%, it was 23.3%.
Each Israelite would give. So Mormons are a lot more closer to that than we
because their standard is 20% not 10%. So but that was the law of tithing. So this wasn't just 10%
bringing to the temple. It was also taking 10% to spend on my travel to the temple, celebrating
the goodness of God. And every three years I would give 10% to the widow, to the orphan,
to the fatherless, to the immigrant, and to a refugee. Somebody that struggled and needed help,
and that's what tithing was instituted. Number four truth about tithing, is Jesus talking about
tithing. Jesus mentioned tithing twice. We see this in Matthew 23:23 and in Luke 18:12, and in
both of those instances He corrected legalistic abuse of tithing. Jesus didn't endorse it
or discredited. He simply corrected legalistic abuse of tithing. Pharisees were so focused on
make sure they give 10% that they ignored other important things. And Jesus came and said, "Guys,
you're missing the whole point." He says, "Something that is more important than just
giving your 10%. It's how you treat people." He didn't stop the tithing,
nor did He preach about it as often as pastors preached today.
Amen.