The Principle of the Tithe by Michele Sloan June 5, 2024 ยท Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN) Kind: teaching Scripture: Matthew 25:14, Malachi 3:10, Matthew 23:23, Matthew 6:21, Luke 6:38, Joshua 1:8, Deuteronomy 15:10, 2 Chronicles 31 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/michele-sloan--the-principle-of-the-tithe-sister-sloan-6-5-24 Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ I remember I believe it was a couple years ago now wow and how many more can lift your hand and say I know the blessings that can come from being generous right and I know I think most of those testimonies well they didn't tell exactly that God gave them back more or double of what they give so many times we get certain things in our mind don't we we get certain things like okay if I give this dollar God's going to give me too right and it doesn't always come that way but I can tell you for sure and from experience and if there was anything throughout my life that I would want to share with you with other apostolics with just the Christian World in general was how blessed a generous life can be and my husband's already mentioned it generosity comes in so many forms there are so many ways that we can be generous and we're going to talk about that a little bit in just a little bit but the title of my lesson tonight is the principle of the tithe we're going to lay a foundation tonight to prepare our hearts for um the rest of the series that we're going to be going through and we always need a good foundation anybody ever built a house in here you want to make sure that Foundation is solid you want to make sure you want to put a lot of emphasis even though you're not really going to ever see it that's not the part you're going to see as much but you want to make sure that Foundation is solid and I'm looking around tonight and I'm looking at a lot of people people that know what it means to tithe I know a lot of you have been in church for a long time maybe all your life and you've heard of the the word tithe you've participated in tithing but I want to hopefully bring some some education to it REM some reminder to some of us um maybe even shed some some new a new way of thinking of it that maybe you haven't in the past so hopefully something I share tonight will help you I know that it certainly has made a difference in me Pastor mentioned just a few moments ago and I'm just going to mention this because all of us are taking some of our teaching out of it when I most of you not all of you know I had a recent job change um a huge change for us in the month of January um I left a firm that I had been working for for 15 years a firm that was good to me a good company to work for and that I had moved up and been blessed and promoted and all the things that went with it but we really felt a transition going on in our lives and in my life personally and the Lord encouraged me to begin to um check on some different options that were available and I went to a different company and that company is still an investment firm and I'm still involved in the investment world but it is so much different because it's biblically based we give our clients each of our clients one of these books when they join us at our firm and it's called the blessed life I'm still reading it I'm still digesting it because it is a wonderful book and I'm a slow reader I know some of the people on our team have already you know read through the whole thing and they're they've got it down pat um I'm a slow reader because it takes me a long time and I like if I read something I like to read it over and over again so that it will stick a little bit better so anyways all of that being said uh some of the principles that we'll be teaching will be from that but it is all based in the word of God and that's the important part that is why we are here tonight is because we want to learn from the word of God our key verse for this entire month series um of gifts comes out of Matthew 25:14 and I've asked brother herb if he would help me with reading did they give you a microphone brother herb um and they're going to put it on the screen as well but Matthew 25:14 for the Kingdom of Heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his Goods thank you very much so we're going to that's going to be the the key verse for all four lessons this month and we are going to get started now on talking about the principle of the tithe the tithing principle I want to mention runs throughout the entire Bible I know so many times and some of the verses that I'm going to read tonight you have heard over and over and over again but this principle that is in the the scriptures you'll hear various things in the Christian World you'll hear people say the tithe was in the Old Testament it's not for us today the tithe was part of the law has anybody ever heard that when you're talking to someone the tile was part of the law and Jesus came to fulfill the law and we're no longer under the law well the principle really actually of tithing predates the law and goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden God gave them free reign and he established a principle in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and he gave them free reign over all of his garden right he created the garden and it was his the Garden of Eden he gave them free rain over his garden but told them not to eat from One Tree so God reserved something of his back and said you can partake and you can eat freely from all of the rest of it but he withheld part of it so that principle actually so when someone says oh that was part of the law you can say no tithing actually the principle of tithing actually started in the Garden of Eden and it certainly there's many many other um instances even that predate the the law of God time would not allow me the opportunity to talk about examples of the tithe principle in the life of Abraham in the life of Jacob in his encounter in the life of Hezekiah if we stood we'd be here all night if we tried to go through all of the examples in the Old Testament about tithing but in uh there's three chapters in the Old Testament that I want to encourage you that if you have time please go back and read these because we certainly don't have time tonight and it each one of them teaches some great tithing and giving principles in Exodus chapter 15 Deuteronomy chapter 26 and in 2 coron 2 chonicles 31 since we don't have time to read all of those tonight we're going to go ahead and start out with the scripture we all are so familiar with in the Old Testament Malachi 3: 10 brother herb bring ye all the tithe into the store house that there may be meat in my house and prove me now here withth sayith the Lord Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it is there anyone in here that maybe hasn't heard that scripture I think we all have haven't we probably heard it multiple times maybe heard it annually as the church teaches on giving but this is a very U very foundational scripture in talking about tithe bring you all the ti tithe means 10% and I know most of you know that but some of the children are in here with us so they may or may not know that that's what that word means and it we bring that to the storehouse we bring that to the house of the Lord that there may be meat in our house that we may have the things that we need so this is a a very important principle but if you are of the thought that well that's in the Old Testament and that doesn't apply to me I just want to show you where it comes out in the New Testament in Matthew 23:23 can you read that for me brother herb woe unto you scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for you pay tithe of mint and Anis and kumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law judgment mercy and Faith these out ye these ought ye to have done and not leave the other undone people argue or or just you know want to discuss the tithing issue and they say it's in the Old Testament it's not in the New Testament they want to point out this scripture but they're just reading that very beginning part that says woe unto you scribes and Pharisees you pay tithe on your and of course they PID tithe in the Bible days on what they grew it was mostly in agriculture um so you know he's talking about the things they pay tithe on and he's saying but you're ignoring some of the these other really important things and they are really important things judgment mercy and faith and he's like we need to pay attention to all of it you don't need to to ignore judgment mercy and faith that is very very important and you do need to pay attention to it but don't leave the other talking about tithing undone so there's our scripture in the New Testament that helps us to see how important tithing really is and the fact that it is I think brother Tim said it on the on the video tithing was one of his foundational parts of giving because the word of God tells us to and it leads us to do that but tonight even though tithing is a commandment I want to share with you how important tithing is tithing is not law it was part of the law yes and that was some of the Commandments that the lord gave his people to follow but it is truly life tithing TR truly and you could say offerings as well we're focused tonight on tithing but tithing is life and if we can ever get that concept if we can ever truly live the word of God not just read it not just hear about it but literally follow the things and the precepts that we have in here it is life and it is that life that he talks about so abundantly he's given us all the the foundational things we need to live an abundant life we just have to make sure we put it into practice the tithe the tithe can be um life to us but let me just say um people who do or don't tith the the truth is it's a heart matter it really truly when it comes down to it it's not a dis truly wanting to disobey the word of God it's not truly a lot of other things but it really truly is the ultimate heart test in all of Christianity Today I read some staggering statistics in the United States alone if you took and I know sometimes statistics we think well where do they get that how they come up with it but I don't know exactly all the details of it but they they were trying to calculate how many people consider themselves Christians in the United States and they used a very low average income for that and if it really is true in Christianity Today about people Christians as a whole and I don't think that's true here necessarily are giving about one to 1.2% % of their income to the to the things of God could you imagine if we had a Revival of Truth in our lives and not just in our church but across the world could you imagine what we can do and I feel like the United States is a big help to other countries we reach out in missions and a lot of organizations have missions works all across the globe but could you you imagine if we all got our hearts where the Lord really needed us to be and really submitted ourselves to the word of God and became doers of the word wow what could we accomplish two true true tithing comes from the heart yes giving is a spiritual discipline and if any of you are like me you know check check the box right get get up pray get up read my Bible get up do this get ready to do my budget pay my tithe pay my offering and sometimes it can be just very ritualistic right we just do it without even thinking about it we just do it as a discipline and it's important to have um good disciplines in our spiritual life but the attitude of the heart can make all the difference in the world it really can change the the way we do things brother um herb if you would read Matthew chap 6 verse 21 for where your treasure is there will your heart be also you know we hear this verse quoted uh many times when we're talking about giving or when we're talking about various things in the church but one of the things that really stood out with me I think we we used to we sometimes get that conf confused right sometimes we think whatever's going on in my heart that's what I treasure right so whatever is going on here then that's what I treasure but the truth is for where your treasure is that's where your heart is going to follow so it is in talking about that discipline right it is important to be disciplined in doing that right because then my heart should follow the discipline process so both are important but but the idea of getting our heart right and that attitude right is so much more important and it's going to make life so much easier than it is just to go through the ritualistic process so let's talk about the heart just a little bit before we do uh we're going to read Luke chapter 6 and verse 38 give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom for with the same measure that you meet with all it shall be measured unto you again I don't think any of us have ever heard that verse before have we every Sunday we we have the giving affirmation I think brother Tim shared a piece of that verse when he was giving his testimony on the video so each time we hear this so many times we do think about the fact that this is talking about giving giving money right because it says give I don't know about any of you but when you hear the word give is money the first thing that comes to mind I think most of the time I think uh when they say it's time to give we want to maybe hide our wallet under the Pew or or hold on to our wallet a little bit tighter maybe sometimes but in this particular case in this um Luke 6:38 I just want to let you know that if you read verses 3637 before that you would find out that there's many other things it's talking about you can give Mercy you can give forgiveness there's so many things in a generous life so many different parts besides just giving money and um so many of those are so so important to our Christian walk the principle in of giving included in here in this includes so many more things um yes it also is talking about money and whatever you give it will be given back to you the Lord has guaranteed that his promise is in that in his word but I want to emphasize we don't give to get those testimonies you heard earlier the test monies that each and every one of you have you didn't give so that God would turn around and give you back in maybe Financial blessing or whatever other type of blessing that it was that's not the motive behind we often hear pastors say motive matters and when we're giving our motives matter we may be doing it routinely we may be doing it you know as we're checking off our list but God knows the motives in our heart and when we truly get that principle down of giving of living a life of generosity then it can make a difference and it can certainly make a difference in our in our hearts in thinking about what kind of heart do we have um there's several different ones that we're going to talk about tonight the first one we're going to talk about and the reason I want to talk about it first is because this is what we usually face before we give right and I'm looking out across here tonight and I thought I thought about telling this after the video I'm not going to take up an offering tonight I promise We're Not Gonna I have been in some of the most powerful Services ever where there have been beautiful a spirit of giving take over we have had some of those Services here um in at CAC and I am so thankful for those because they have really impacted and touched my life but the reason I say I'm not going to take up an offering or and one of the Pastors in the next few weeks may decide to but as far as I know that's not the intent of this series this series is to help us to to change our lives and our hearts to en encourage that generosity that touches every part of our life and I promise if you become a generous person it'll affect your family it'll affect your friends it'll affect your co-workers it'll affect the world and the people that you live around in your community and we can make a difference with a generous attitude now I got to get back to where I was all right we're going to talk about this first one because it attacks us before we get ready to give and be really before we get ready to give money may be where we notice it more but it also um comes out in other forms of giving as well and that is the selfish heart does everybody know and I know we got some young mothers in here with young ones that we're all born selfish we are I was born selfish we're all born selfish we're born with that human nature one of the first words that kids learn two of the first words that I know that some of them learn some of them learn M and Dad D first but no is pretty easy to learn and they learn it because they hear it said a lot too but mine mine that's mine it is not your child is not just being the worst child in the world when they say mine it is just in our human nature that we are selfish we are born that way selfishness Whispers before you get ready to give we won't have enough for ourself that God won't be faithful to meet our needs if we give the selfishness inside of us wants to keep it for ourselves keep it for a rainy day keep whatever the case may be and I promise you if the word of God says to give and he's going to bless you it is not to harm you his intent when he speaks to your heart about giving whether that's giving money whether that's giving someone love that maybe you don't feel like loving whether that's giving sharing whatever that is his intent is not to harm you but it is to help you have that Abundant Life I don't know if you've ever given something to someone has anybody ever given someone a gift and you just knew they didn't like that they're going to sell it at the yard sale next month mon or whenever right have you ever done that has anybody ever given a gift when I give gifts I don't like to waste my money so I'd like to think that I'm getting something that they will enjoy but it it's not always possible you know they try to be appreciative they try maybe it's a a child maybe it's another adult maybe it's a coworker um I was just this week at a funeral and someone I know it wasn't us this time thank goodness but someone I know had sent a chime you know you go to a funeral and they might have flowers and they might have a church over you know like a little church um thing for them to take home or they might have blankets right and they had there was CH a chime laying there and I know that the husband didn't mean anything by it but he goes you know what my wife hated Chimes and the person that sent it was standing right there right can you imagine what their heart was kind of like ah what do I do he did not it was not intentional bless his heart he had every reason he was grieving terribly so of his passing of his wife but I'm just giving that example to say sometimes that happens to all of us right and we give things and maybe they're not as received the way that we would like them to be but uh if you're faithful to give the Lord will bless you and um God wants you to change for or wants all of us I don't want to CH say he wants you he wants me too God wants us to change from selfish Getters to Grateful generous givers you know we were talking earlier about the fact that yes the Lord does bless us and sometimes when we give he gives back to us financially but we don't do that to to get God doesn't do that so he can say oh I can't wait to have a whole bunch of Getters in my church I can't wait until the whole Christian World become more Getters that's not God's intention his intention is to help us to become givers grateful generous givers Joshua 18 brother her will you read that for me this book of the law shall will not depart out of thy mouth but you shalt meditate there in day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then Thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then Thou shalt have good success Thou shalt make thy way prosperous and have success I don't think anyone in here says is there anybody that wants to raise her hand or stand up and say I want to live a life of poverty and I I want to fail at everything I do none of us none of us we're going to have failures we're going to have moments of lean times or or maybe times of poverty but that's not what any of us are striving for and that is not God's purpose for us that's not what he intends selfishness will keep us from living a generous life so if we get past that selfish heart and we actually begin to give then then we have a another issue that can come up and that is The Grieving Heart The Grieving heart um Deuteronomy chapter 15 verse 10 brother herb I'm just going to read this because I'm not going to read the entire chap chap or I'm not going to read the entire verse you shall surely give to him and your heart should not be grieved does anybody know what that means grieved have you ever bought something and had buyers remorse anybody ever bought something and wish you hadn't you kept the receipt so that you could go back and get your money back anybody especially when it comes to Big Ticket items houses cars people really suffer from this after they do it then they're like ah what did I do oh no that payment or whatever it is so they have buyers remorse sometimes if we when we give if we have we've gotten past that selfish heart that told us no I need to keep that for myself or I need to keep that for my family or I need to keep that for whatever reason and then we get past that and then we have that givers remorse we give it but then we're like oh no what if I can't pay the electric bill this week or what I mean there are very valid things that come to our mind right what if I can't do this if I had not given then I would have the money to do whatever you know whatever it feeling you feeling the blank if I didn't tithe I don't I want to see if if there's anyone else willing to confess this I have worked with people before and maybe it was a vacation maybe it was a boat they went out and bought has anybody ever thought in your mind I've never said it out loud I can say that but I have been guilty of hearing people talk about the things I had and I thought if we didn't tithe maybe we could have that boat or maybe we could go there has anybody ever you don't have to raise your hand like I did I'm just telling you we're human and we can think like that we can think like that and that would be a grieving heart someone that is grieving over the fact that because they give they can't have or can't do something it is important that we not grieve the giving after we give selfishness May attack us before we give but grief will attack after we give you must guard your heart against both of these attacks you must guard your heart against selfishness you must ask the Lord to help you because his Spirit has now come into you you are reborn you are new creature in Christ and that selfishness you were born with should not remain it'll wear its head up for sure in our lives but if we've got that spirit of God living inside of us we have got to guard our heart heart against these things also another reason and I want to mention this uh that we grieve our giving is because we do it out of obligation if you are giving and you are tithing out of obligation yes I said earlier it's a good discipline to have and sometimes when you don't feel like giving that discipline kind of takes over and helps you to go ahead and do it anyway but if you're doing it out of of obligation and because it is is just a burden and a heavy weight I ask you to allow the Lord to do a work in your heart so that you can have that Generous Heart now we're going to talk about the generous heart we must avoid a selfish and grieving heart but we must develop so those others attack us right but we have got to do the work to develop A Generous Heart it does not come easy it doesn't come without work and it doesn't come without getting into the word of God and finding out what we can do to develop A Generous Heart I have three things I'm going to share with you tonight that I feel like personally after reading the word of God and and some other material this book included that will help us with having a Generous Heart we need to stop trying to manipulate the circumstances in our favor that is the attitude of a taker so when you're getting ready to give if you're thinking of how you can do it so that it doesn't hurt you so much then maybe you might want to rethink that because then that means we're trying to manipulate the things of God to our favor and that goes right on back down to the selfish heart right so we want us we want that's one thing that would help us to avoid that and have a Generous Heart number two don't give to get and we've already talked about that so we really don't have to go into that have the right motive when you give so that the Lord can bless you and we don't give to get and then number three realize that God owns it all we all say that thank you for the amen we have heard that all of our life we say it from our mouth but we don't live it that way I truly don't always live as if God owns 100% of everything we are only the stewards or another more common English word managers of what he's given us and I am not just talking about our money we are just managers of our children we are just managers of our spouse not well we don't need to manage our spouses but you know that's that's a little bit different way of thinking my husband does a pretty good job managing me most of the time but we don't I mean all of that I'm and I'm I'm being serious I'm glad we were able to laugh because you guys were certainly starting to look at me like is she ever GNA be done but realizing that God owns it all 100% of it certainly helps us to be more generous I had a little bit of a u illustration and that didn't that fell through at the last moment but I just want to ask you really quick do we have brother herb your kids are here let me just ask you if you give your debit card to Kiara and you ask her to go to the store to get some things whatever that is does she does she do pretty good about getting those things yeah does she sometimes pick up anything extra no not without permission okay but he's got her trained well would it be easier for her if you gave her your debit card and you said go to the store and get whatever ABC and get you something whatever you want would she maybe enjoy whatever you want right that's the secret now would she get something and spend it differently if it was her debit card absolutely absolutely she would I remember going out to eat with my teenage kids they always knew when the budget was was was short because I would catch the waiter before he got started we'll all have water we'll all have kids meals no I'm just kidding about that but no but but if I let them order and they know Mom and Dad are paying right they're going to order something they still today probably would right they probably would enjoy something a little more maybe that's steak instead of chicken or maybe something else right because they're spending someone else's money if you think about it if what you have is 100% Gods it is so easy to give his money it is so much easier you're not spending your money you you are spending God's money or God's love or God whatever it is that you're giving God's forgiveness you are spending his money it's all his stuff so sometimes that's not always easy for us to grasp and get a hold of once we've developed a more generous heart and we realize that God owns it all anyways and all we're doing is returning it to him then we can begin to have a grateful heart it is almost impossible the two go hand in hand A Generous Heart and a grateful heart because it's almost impossible to be generous if you're not thankful for what you have if you're not grateful for the things that God has given you one of the things and one of the spiritual disciplines excuse me that I want to talk about here I have a tendency sometimes to oversimplify things but if I were to look at this whole scripture and I were to choose one word that I feel like one discipline that I feel like could make the difference in your life of Holiness that could make the difference in your giving prayer everything I don't know what what word you have in your mind right now but you probably have one too but contentment contentment is the theme of my life I don't always live it the way I should but I know I should godliness with contentment is great gain and so many issues that we face in our spiritual life is because of discontentment whether that's giving whether that's praying whether that's living a holy lifestyle whatever it is God Made You you he owns everything so why not just be happy in the process why not just be content in your stage of life now don't get me wrong I I can be one of the most ambitious persons in the world I have been called ambitious more than once and I don't say that as a like oh you know good good to me you know I'm just so wonderful I don't mean that but I'm not talking about not to be ambitious not to improve yourself not to take what God has given you and take the best of it and and I'm not saying don't have a career or don't do this or don't do that or not don't do I'm not saying that you don't do things to reach success in his kingdom I'm saying the reason why you do things is all the it makes all the difference in the world and finding contentment can make all the difference giving is not just a duty and I hope from my talk tonight I I hope my from my teaching that you have realized giving is not a duty it is not just a check mark on our list of things to do it's not just a religious exercise that we're supposed to do it's not a punishment that God provided so that he could keep his thumb on you that none of those things are what what giving really is but it is an amazing opportunity to live a tremendously blessed life you can go back and read in the story in 2 Chronicles 31 when the people begin to tithe the house of God was blessed they were blessed they were playing paying blessings on their blessings in my world in finance that would be called compound interest God was blessing their giving they have giving and then God was blessing that and it was just compounding one right after another they were then blessed on what they gave examples um can we can find in all over in in life today real life examples could you imagine what Cornerstone what the Apostolic Church what the Christian world could accomplish if the entire body of Christ got this Foundation of tithing down and the Lord began to bless and to move in our midst it is a amazing what God can do I want to end on this note and I know that the musicians and singers are probably coming on up I want to end on this note Monday night I was here in prayer and I know sometimes we come together corporately and I enjoy our time when we meet on the first Monday night of every month and I was having myself a time in prayer this last Monday night and I want to share with you why I am such a visual person when it comes to praying when I pray for someone to receive the Holy Ghost for example in my mind when I'm praying for them I see them lifting their hands and speaking in other tongues and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost well Monday night I was here and I was praying about this lesson and I said Lord you know please help me give me the words help me to inspire and you guys have been really quiet tonight except for a couple of laughs so I hope maybe I've inspired you and not bored you to death but I was just praying along those lines and I said Lord what do I need to do what do I need to say and it was as if the Lord moved into my heart and said you need to go back to the Altar and in my mind I thought of the of Abraham when he took Isaac to The Altar and literally as I came up here and prayed I I in my mind I built an altar and the Lord said you need to go first if you're going to teach this lesson you need to go first and so on my mind in my mind as I was praying I laid Raymond on the altar I laid Steven and Britney and Elsie on the altar I laid Lauren and Sam on the altar that alar was getting pretty high I laid every material possession that I could think of I put my house on that altar I put my cars on that altar I put my checkbook on that altar I put everything I could think of on that Altar and I said God this is yours this is all 100% yours and if I have taken it and tried to do something with it that I didn't need to please forgive me it is yours every piece of clothing every pair of shoes everything I have is yours and I give it to you God every bit of it and if you ask me to give it I want to be willing and I want to be generous Lord and you gave me salvation I want to be willing to share it you gave me forgiveness I want to be willing to forgive God help me to Be A Generous Heart help me to have a generosity that exceeds anything that your word tells me to do and I left it all right here on the Altar and I ask the Lord if I have to do that every day of my life I want to remember that I I need to leave them all on the altar because they're his they're his and he can do so much more than I can so much more stand with me we're going to we're going to ask the Lord to to move I want you to raise your hands and begin to Worship the Lord as the singers and musicians come we're going to worship him