Transcription
And I apologize for being late this morning, but we have had some challenges today. And thank God, we were able to overcome them by the help of the Lord. Uh, probably about an hour ago, maybe thereabouts, a storm was blowing on this side of town and not the transformer out of the church, and there was no electricity. About an hour ago, there was zero electricity and power here. So we were scrambling, trying to get generators and auxiliary lighting into the building so we could at least have have church down in the sanctuary to some extent. And uh, but miraculously, they came back on just in time to save the day. And so we were we were trying to get everything straightened out, taken care of. Appreciate all the good help that makes this possible, and we'll talk more about that later on, perhaps. But glad that everyone of you are here today, and I appreciate these moments with you.
And we're going to spend a little time today on a very particular subject that I find is most uh interesting, most trying, besides using a big word, that will make a big difference in your lives. I'm going to teach you a lesson today that could be on one of the greatest blessings to you in all of your life. If you will comprehend it right now, learn it now, and apply it to your life, you will be blessed throughout your life. How many of you really want to be blessed by God? You want to be blessed? Well, I'm going to give you a principle today that if you'll practice this, it is, I don't know if anything is more assuredly promised to bring a blessing than what I'm going to talk to you about this morning.
So let's pray right now. Lord, I thank you for all these precious lives that are before me. I thank you for the potential that is in them, and how privileged they are to know you at such an early age and not have to make adjustments in their lives, but to grow in the Lord, in the truths of the Lord, and the principles of the Lord, so that they can be blessed all of their lives. We want them to be blessed, Lord. We want them to have good lives. We want them to have lives of joy, peace, and purpose, saved from the turmoil and the guilt and the condemnation and the havoc that is in our world. Let angels encamp around about each of these precious people in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Anybody said amen? Amen.
Today, I want to talk to you about tithing. I want to talk to you about tithing. What is tithing? And why do we tithe? And what does it mean to tithe? Most all of you have seen your parents tithe, and perhaps you've gotten money, and you you have time. I want to tell you that tithing is not restricted to a certain age. It starts from the day you're born. And I'll be repeating myself, no doubt. But everything that you have comes from the Lord, and the Lord owns it all. None of, if we could say this is mine, well, not really. The Lord is just letting you enjoy that. He's letting you have it. And just because it's in your pocket or your purse or your savings account doesn't mean it's yours. It all belongs to the Lord. And that's the first thing we need to learn today. Everybody say it. All belongs to the Lord. Everything I've got belongs to the Lord.
Now, preach a friend of mine years ago was told this illustration of his little boy. The boy's name was Jimbo. And said, one day his dad was going to teach him on tithing. And he said, Jimbo, I want to teach you about tithing today. And that is that for every dollar that you have, 10 cents of it belongs to the Lord. 10 cents on every dollar belongs to the Lord. I'm gonna teach you the principle of tithing here in just a moment. 10 cents of it belongs to the Lord out of every dollar. It may be in your pocket, maybe in your bank account, but 10 cents on every dollar you have belongs to the Lord. It's not a bad deal at all. Stretch your hand out. You want to help me here? Stretch. Are you bashful? Okay, stretch your hand. Now, just hold your hand down like this. Now, you go. I'm proud of you. Hold on. Now, all right. Stand up here so that people can see you. Okay, turn around, face them. I just put one dollar in her hand and change. I just gave her a dollar. That's pretty good deal, ain't it? Now, let me go show you this. I'm going to take this dime back. You can be seated. Give her a hand for helping me. I'm gonna take this dime back, but look how much you're left with. You're left with 90 cents. I took just one dime out of your dollar. Every dollar you get, a dime of it belongs to the Lord. But since I'm not the Lord, and you're not tithing to me, I'm going to give you your dime back. So now you got a dollar, but you owe the Lord 10 cents. Really, to say you owe it to him is not right because it is his. Yeah, it is his. It's just in your hand. You don't give tithes. You don't pay tithes. Uh, so we like they they really did something. They pay their, they say they paid their tithes. No, you, you didn't pay your tithes. You gave God, or released it back to God, what was his all along. So out of every dollar you get, 10 cents belongs to the Lord.
So this preacher was teaching his son that. And he said, now Jimbo, every dollar you get, 10 cents of that belongs to the Lord. And he, and the little boy said, oh Danny, he said, don't learn me that. Don't learn me that. It may seem like something you don't want to learn today, but I'm going to show you by the Bible that you'll be so blessed in this life if you will learn, even now at an early age, that tithe is the Lord. The word tithe simply means 10 percent. So if you, if you get twenty dollars, you owe him two, two of that's his. If you get a hundred, ten of it is his. And that's the beautiful thing about it. Is I've seen people who, when they were poor, had just a little bit of money, didn't mind paying their tithing or giving, rendering their time. Let me use the right word. Rendering their tithing, release it back to the Lord. But when they got more wealthy, and all of a sudden it was a good bit of money, they had a hard time releasing it. But 10 of a dollar is really no difference than 10 percent of a million dollars. Yeah, I mean, it's the same amount. And so it doesn't matter. The Lord set that up so all of us could be blessed.
Now, let me read you the word of the Lord out in Proverbs chapter 3. The Bible says to verse 9, "Honor the Lord with thy substance." When you, when you tithe, you're honoring the Lord. It is honoring him because it's showing to him that you realize it's all his anyway. Uh, the house that you live in, the car that you ride in, the clothes that you wear, you might say, no, no, no, my mom and daddy gave that to me. Mom, Mom and Daddy provided that. Well, Mom and Daddy were blessed by the Lord to have the means to provide those things for you. But ultimately, the scripture said, "Every good and perfect gift coming down from from above from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness, neither is there shadow of turning." If you've got anything that's good, it came from the Lord. And by the way, I just want to say, all of you look so pretty and handsome here today. Wow. I just want to commend you on how neat you look and how pretty you look. That's the way we ought to come to church, and I celebrate that with you. "Honor the Lord with thy substance, with all thy first fruits of all thy increase." Here's another little point about tithing I want you to learn early. When you get a little older, you, well, let's say right now, you don't do all the things you want to do with your money, and then suddenly say, "Whoa, I still have 10 left. It's God's lucky week. It's God's lucky day. I'm gonna, I'm on time because I did everything I wanted to do and I had this left over." So, "Whoa, I can tithe this week." The Bible said to honor the first fruits. So tithing is not just ten percent. Tithing is the first 10 percent. Yeah, the first thing you do is take your time. And out of any money you get, uh, your birthday, I'll get on down where you're at now, your birthday, Christmas, when you get gifts, if you get cash gifts, you need to realize you owe God 10 of all that money that you've got because he gave it all to you. And 10 percent of it, he just put in your hand and see what you would do with it. He gave you a chance to see if you'd respond correctly. So the Bible said to honor the Lord for thy substance with the first fruits of all thy increase. "And so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." In other words, you're going to be very blessed. Everybody say, very blessed. So I promise you, if right now at this age, you will learn to tithe, your life will be blessed.
I remember as a little boy, my mother, of course, didn't have much money at all. But anytime we went to church, my mother gave me and my brother a nickel or a dime. That's all she had to put in the offering. And she said, "I want you to put this in the offering, and we better not have it in our pocket when church is over." We had to put that in the offering. But she was training us. Matter of fact, we're going to get on to where it's at here this morning. When you're on the way to church, you need to ask your mom today, "Where's my offering?" "Oh, I need somebody to put in a plate today when it comes by because we all need to learn right now how to give." Everybody say, how to give. I mean, I know we're children, young people, and some teenagers. It's a stingy world. It's all about me. But to have the blessing of God, he's got to become all about him. And the more you give to him, the more you will be blessed. And I don't know of anything in the Bible, any Bible subject, that is more powerful than that of tithing.
Notice what the Bible said in Malachi chapter 3, verse 8. "Will a man rob God?" So if we don't tithe, the Bible says we are robbing God. To rob is to take what's not yours. It belongs to somebody else. And the scripture said, "Will a man rob God?" If we don't tithe, then we are robbing God. As a matter of fact, as you get a little older, you start smelling perfume, boys, and you girls start smelling that nice cologne. He started those little cars that ride in, that little hair do. You know, you start getting a little swayed toward. I know right now they all stink and they have cooties and all that stuff. I understand all that. I understand, you know, girls that all men's club, you know, no girls allowed. I understand that period of time. But sooner or later, you're gonna come out of that. And when you come out of that, you always tell when boys are starting to get to that point, particularly because they start taking baths. It's so cute when a boy starts taking baths. That means something's going on chemically inside him. The clock is just turned on. And he, he starts worried about how his hair looks, his clothes. And you know, something's happening biologically that is necessary for the saving of the human race. But there's one thing I want you to hear me today clearly. Whenever you get ready to get a boyfriend or a girlfriend, before you ever say, "You're my boyfriend" or "You're my girlfriend," the first thing you need to ask him is, "Do you tithe?" Do you tithe? Yeah. You say, "My Lord, that's kind of radical." And I'm going to show you it's not very radical at all. Do your tithe.
The Bible said, "Will a man rob God? You have robbed me." But you say, "Wherein have we robbed thee?" He said, "In tithes and offerings." So here's what I want to say. You are cursed with a curse. You have robbed me. Even this whole nation. You don't want anybody in close proximity with you that you're dating or that you're going to marry that is a thief, robbing from God, because they are cursed. They're cursed. I remember they didn't run out of the book. Yeah, there's a curse on. Now, I know it's, you said, boys, what a blessing it is. It is a blessing. But it's an equal curse if you don't. And I don't know anything in the Bible where God said, I mean, even prayer, worship, you name it. I don't know anything in the Bible where God said, "You're cursed if you don't. You're blessed if you do." It's really the only thing I know in the scripture where he said, "You're cursed if you don't." Now, we don't want any curses on us. What do you mean by curse? It means anything we do will not work out good. It just won't. It won't work out good. I mean, we make all the money in the world, it's like putting it in a bag with holes in it. It just falls out, and we don't have anything to show for it. We don't want the curse of God in our life. We want to be blessed. He said, "You're blessed if you will tithe."
Let me go on to bring you all the tithes of the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now here with." It's the third part about it. Is you're not only cursed if you don't, you're not only blessed if you do. The Lord said, "Now, I want you to put me to the test. I want you to try this. I want you to try this and just see that if you were to tithe, I will bless you abundantly." And I don't know of anything else in the Bible where the Lord just said, "Prove me." He said, "If you'll tithe, I will open the windows of heaven and I will pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord. And all nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord." He said, "If you'll tithe, I'll bless you, and everybody you come in contact with is going to have to admit, man, they are blessed. They are blessed." And it's because you're tithing.
So let me remind you again, what is tithing? 10 percent. It's ten percent. Now, the Bible doesn't tell us, um, pointedly how much offering we're supposed to bring. It just says tithes and offering. Here's why. Tithes prove your honesty because nobody really knows how much money you got but you. You can get a time of the envelope when you had a dollar and put a nickel in there and say that's my tithe and make everybody think you got 50 cents when really you got a dollar. Nobody knows. Only test your honesty. Only you really know if you're doing it right or not. And by the way, anything less than 10 percent is not a tithe. It's a tip. And we don't want to tip God. We want to tithe God. So we have to learn to get it right. Everybody say, get it right. Right. So a tithe is clearly 10. And then the Bible said with offerings, but it didn't say how much. Most people believe like five percent, ten percent. Tithing, five percent offering is a suitable thing. Tithing proves our honesty. Offering proves our love for God because there's no set amount. Tithe is set, 10 percent. But I can tell you this too. I've seen people, and I've seen it proven, that we challenged people years gone by, tithe not on the amount of money you make, but on the amount of money you would like to make. You start tithing like you're making that amount of money, and I've seen it work that God would bless people until they increased till that point.
So the Bible says the tithes are the Lord's. And so we must learn at an early age to tithe and to give offerings, and our lives will be blessed. It will come back to you in overflowing ways. So right now, once you get in your mind that when money comes into your hand, you owe God how much of every dollar? A nine, 10 cents of every dollar. And if you'll start that right now and do that all of your life, I'm here to tell you, David said, "I've been young and now I am old, but I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread." And the Bible said, "If you'll give," that's what I like. "If you'll give, men will give back to you." Not God, but people say, "You know what? I just feel like giving you this. I just feel like I want to bless you with this." And it's because you have given that God will render it back to you over and over and over again.
Everybody repeat after me: Ten percent of my money belongs to God. It may be in my pocket, maybe in my under my, maybe under my mattress, but God knows where it's at, and 10 of it belongs to him. I want you to start now. Somebody said, "Well, you're the preacher. Y'all just want the money." That's not it at all. Yeah, yeah, that's, I mean, I've always felt like if you don't, somebody else will. God's going to provide for the church. That's right. But you lose your blessing. You lose the favor of God on your life. And I'm not teaching this lesson today to try to get more money into the church. I'm teaching this lesson to get more blessings on your life so you'll learn all your life to tithe. Everybody say, "I am going to be a tither."
And so then on Sunday mornings, you'll read her quote with the church upon the authority of your word, "I have given shall be given to me, press down, shaken together, and running over. I am a tither. I bring my tithe today into your storehouse. Therefore, the enemy is rebuked. The curse is broken. I live under an open heaven. You pour out upon me such a blessing that there is not enough room to receive it. We receive jobs and better jobs, raises and bonuses, sales and commissions, benefits and settlements, estates and inheritances, interests and income, rebates and returns, checks in the mail, gifts and surprises, bills paid off, debts demolished, royalties received, my whole family saved and walking with God, perfect health and abundance, to walk in divine favor and blessings. I am blessed going in, I am blessed going out. All that I do will prosper. Earth in Jesus name. Amen."
And I'm so thrilled that most of you could quote that. And so when I knew that I was going to be teaching this lesson, I asked Sister Michelle to help me. Give her a hand. She's a big assistance. Sunday morning, I thank you so very much for all of that. I didn't know I had to get up on Sunday morning, make all this happen myself. I thank you for your help. So I asked her about 50 frames, and I had the affirmation statement framed so that each of you will get one this morning to take to your home and put beside your bed, on your dresser, or somewhere in your house. When you exit today, I got one for, I think I got 50, which should be probably more than enough here this morning. So you can place this beside your bed in your bedroom or wherever you sleep, and every morning you'll stand up right there, every morning when you get up, every night when you go to bed, you can quote that because you'll see at the bottom of it. I asked her to add, there's been people that thought this was just a financial get rich program, giving someone trying to get money back from God. But we have listed the scriptures that were used in this affirmation. If you got a problem with the affirmation, you got a problem with the Bible, and you got a problem with God, because God wants to bless his people. Proverbs 10:22, Psalm 37:22, Proverbs 8:21, Deuteronomy 8:18, Genesis 26:12. Those are the scriptures that are actually quoted in this affirmation. So on your way out this morning, stop by. She has provided with you a nice little frame and and the affirmation. It's yours. Take it home with you. I want everybody to have one. If there's five kids in your family, I want all five of them to have their own. We're not going to share these things. We want it to be, uh, my voice is living here. We want it to be yours so that you will have this for yourself. Okay, let's all stand. I'm gonna pray for you again. Everybody say, "I am a tither." Notice there is no age limit on that. It doesn't say it starts when you're 12. Yeah, it doesn't say it starts when you get married. It starts right now. You are a tither. Can I say it again? Don't ever get involved with the opposite sex that doesn't tithe because if you get involved with them, their curse is going to get on you, and you don't want their curse. You want somebody that's blessed so that you can be blessed.
Lord, I thank you for all the wonderful people in this room today, especially our precious children. Thank you, Lord, for putting them in the church and exposing them to truth and principles that will guide their lives all the days of their life. I pray the blessing of the Lord upon them with health and prosperity. I pray the strength of the spirit to lead them, give them gifts, talents, expertise, abilities that will horrify hell and honor heaven in Jesus name. If I said amen. When you get rich, tithe. Some of you are going to get rich. I'm looking at some people today that one day you're going to be very rich. Start tithing now and tithe in, and God will bless your life. Good morning. Glad everybody made it by the storm. If we have, if we don't have 50 is not enough, I think it is, but if it's not, we'll get some more. Stop by and get your affirmation state.