Speaking of hoodies, you should get yourself a hoodie. Did anybody buy one? Does anybody have one already in here? I want to borrow it from you and give it away for free to somebody else. Would that be okay? I just want to demonstrate what socialism looks like. Sorry. All right. Message number six in “First Fruits.” I’m glad to be here. This has been great. It’s been a great ride. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. What we’re doing is to going to round it out with an explanation of how we walk it out in a new and living way in the tithe as well as in the free will offerings. Have you ever seen maybe you’ve seen a courtroom drama, or maybe you’ve seen an actual courtroom, a witness sworn in. And they always ask them the same thing, what do they say? “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So help you, God.” I do. I do. I swear. I will tell you that. I want to present exactly what the Bible says, what it means by what it says, and how we live it out in a new living way in Christ, related to the tithe as well as related to the offerings, free will offerings. And so, in some of that, we’re going to expose some false teaching. And I was, I was having too much fun preparing it, and I feel like I got moderated by the Holy Spirit, and I left a lot on the cutting room floor, but I have enough a couple demonstrations just to drive the point home. I feel like it’s better to know the truth than it is to identify every single detail of error. If you know what’s true, you’ll instinctively know what isn’t. And so, we’ll get to that here in a moment.
But I want to read you something out of Second Corinthians. This is 2 Corinthians 4:1-2. And Paul has just talked about beholding the face of Christ, Jesus by the Holy Spirit in chapter three, verse 18, and how that transforms us more and more to be like Jesus. And then he says this, these two verses, he says, “Therefore having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.” And then he makes a distinction between him and some of the false teachers, he says, “But we have renounced disgraceful,
underhanded ways. (Oops, I went backwards. Sorry. There we go) Underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” What is he saying here? He’s saying there are people that twist the Word of God. They tamper with it. That word, in the Greek literally means to “mix”. They take something that was gold, and then they would mix it with another metal and pass it off as pure. He says, what are we actually doing? We’re going to make open statements and commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. In other words, what we’re going to say, you can take and you can go to the Bible and see for yourself, and you can compare it to false teaching that maybe you’ve sat under that maybe your conscience has been bound to and maybe today will be a day of liberty for you, because it actually is incredibly good news, not just of what the tithe is about and our offerings are about, but what it isn’t anymore.
And so let me do a quick review with you. When we looked two weeks ago, we did the Old Testament is tithing for today? I think that was part one. Here’s the review real quick, what is the tithe? It is the first 10% this is an Old Testament. So, we get it from there, first 10% of our increase. Who does the tithe belong to? It belongs to God. He says it is mine. What is the tithe for? It’s for provision in God’s house. Now that specifically is the Levitical tithe. There were three tithes, and saying the other two, you could try to say that it supported the theocracy, but it didn’t. That’s not how Israel got its wealth. It was only what supported the house of God. And what happens this? These are questions we asked in the message. So, what happens when there is no tithe? The answer nothing, nothing. Why? Because the priests aren’t fed, the Levites leave, and the singers are gone, and then there’s just silence in God’s house. And then we ask this, did Jesus abolish the tithe? He did not. Matthew 5:17, He says, “Do not think I came to abolish the law and the prophets. I’ve not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” Okay, so then next week, we looked at in the New Testament. We saw that Jesus affirmed the tithe two times, two separate peoples, two separate audiences, rather, two separate places, ends and time. He affirmed it when he could have just said, That’s kaput. He said “These things you ought to have done without forsaking the others,” right? And where is God’s house? Today we asked that question. First, Timothy 3:15 says that God’s house is the church pillar and buttress of the truth. 1 Timothy 3:15, and then we looked at the distinction between two chapters, Second Corinthians nine, and First Corinthians nine. Second Corinthians nine. We went over refers to free will offerings. It was an offering of benevolence that he’s referring to. God loves a cheerful giver. That’s what he’s referring to. Free Will offerings give. Of his according is in their heart, and they bring it together, and then they take that offering over the period about a year and a half to the saints in Jerusalem. That’s what it was for. But First Corinthians, nine is referring to the tithe and how it’s used in the church today. And then, and what did it how do we remember which is which? Well, the tithe is First Corinthians, it comes first, and the offerings are Second Corinthians. It comes second. And then we went over to First Timothy five, and we saw that it still functions that way, even as he’s addressing Timothy, who is the senior pastor there at the church at Ephesus.
So, we got that caught up, and we kind of landed the plane related to First Corinthians nine. In these two passages, I want to repeat them, because we need to make a distinction here. This is verses 13 and 14 of 1 Corinthians 9:13-14, nine. “Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service (that’s Old Testament, he’s referring to the law) get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?” That’s literally referring to the tithe that was brought to the priests and the Levites. Verse 14, “In the (here’s the key) same way (in the same way), the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.” We recognize that’s from the tithe. That’s actually what he just taught us. It’s explicitly clear. If you missed that, you can go back and listen to that message. But it’s interesting. This says, “In the same way.” Now what we want to learn is, yeah, but what is that? What is new about it then? What is different? What has changed? Because what we recognize is Jesus fulfilled the whole law, and we walk it out in a new and living way. Now, this says “in the same way” and it’s in the same way, in that you return it to God’s house, and it’s used for food in his house, for the provision of those who serve the house. That’s in the same way.
But there are differences. In fact, I’m going to point out three key differences to you. I’m just going to list these, and we’ll talk about one of them.
Location
Vocation
Motivation
The first one is location. Right? What’s different about the location? Well, it’s not in a Jewish temple, it’s at local churches, okay? It’s not at one place, and there’s not a temple that’s, you know, centered in in Jerusalem. That’s different locations, right? It’s varied. It’s local churches today. Second, vocation, what are we referring to there? Well, we have a whole different vocation than the Old Testament priests, don’t we? Yeah, we don’t offer up dead sacrifices. We’re not burning incenses. We’re offering prayers and supplications with thanksgiving, and we give our lives as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service of worship. That’s Romans chapter 12 verse one. Okay, so it’s a different vocation. We’re not just laying down the law and administering condemnation. What are we doing? We’re proclaiming the good news, the gospel. Yes, we use the law because it’s a tutor. It leads us to the need for our Savior, but then the gospel is the good news. So, it’s totally different vocation. That’s very clear and easy but here’s what I want you to see. It’s also a different motivation. It’s a different motivation. Tithes and free will offerings had a motivator in the Old Testament. So, here’s what I want to do. I want to see what the motivator was. And then I want to ask, is that motivation still the motivation for today? And what I want to demonstrate to you is that false teachers try and use an Old Testament, Old Testament motivations to produce some kind of New Testament results. I want to demonstrate to you the futility of it and how that is anti-biblical, and if you’ve been under that before, I hope that the Holy Spirit opens your eyes and frees you from the bondage that men put you under.
The title of the message is, “A New And Living Motivation”
A New And Living Motivation. So, let’s start with this. Let’s understand from the Old Testament what the motivation was. There were two key motivators. We’re going to see them in these verses. I’m going to start in Malachi 3:7-10 chapter three start verse seven, he says this, “From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How?’” Right? That’s what he’s telling. He’s telling Israel, you’ve left My ways, and your forefathers have been doing it the entire time, since Sinai, right? Return. And they say, “How? How do we do it?” Almost an insincere question, it seems that way. “‘How shall we return?’” God’s answer, “‘Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed you? (And the answer is) In your tithes and contributions.’” So, what was happening here is what was happening all through your Old Testament, particularly the book of Judges and some of the Chronicles events, right? What happened was people would start following idols. They would start following other gods. They would intermarry with heathen nations. And then ultimately, what would they do? They’d stop returning the tithe. They would count it as a loss, and what profit? What good is it? And that claim is even made later in Malachi. And then ultimately there was no tithe. So, guess what? There are no priests and no Levites and no singers. So, the temple was left abandoned because those men had to go out and make a living. That’s what He’s saying. “Will a man rob God? You’ve robbed me in your tithes and contributions.”
And then here are the two motivators of the Old Testament related to this. Verse nine, “(You are cursed) you are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.” We’ll get to what that means here in a moment. But that’s one motivator. That would be considered the what? The stick. But there’s also a carrot. You know what the carrot and the stick are? It’s how you motivate a donkey, right? You can either dangle the carrot out and he wants something good, so you get him to move, or you can get behind him and you can, you know, warm him up a little bit, and then he gets to moving. The carrot and the stick. These are the motivators here. Here’s the second motivator. It’s the curse. But then look, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house (that’s still the same) and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a (what?) blessing until there is no more need.” This is the Old Testament motivation. Do you want a blessing? You’ll return the tithe. Do you want to be under a curse? Then keep withholding it. Now the problem with importing that into New Testament theology is very simple. We want to understand when He says, “You’re cursed with a curse.” What curse is He talking about? When He says, “I’ll pour out a blessing.” What blessing is He talking about? This is very important. I wanted you to understand that this is not just- God did not just say, “Hey, Malachi, throw something out there so I can have the tithe.” That’s not what He was doing. He was talking about the perpetual behavior of his people. And the term “curse” and the term “blessing” are terms that refer to the law, the curse of the law, or the blessing of the law. That’s what it’s referring to. There was not some unique curse that someone got if they didn’t tithe. It’s all part of the general curse of breaking the law of God. There was not some unique blessing that people got when they did return the tithe. It was part of the general blessing of the law of God.
I want to show you both in Deuteronomy 28:1-6. The blessing is listed first. I’m not going to give you the whole rundown of either the blessing or the curse. You’re welcome because it gets rather detailed. But here, note the language here, it’s very important. God says this to Israel. “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do (how many?) all (that’s the key word) all His commandments that I command you today, the Lord, the Lord your God, will set you high above all the nations of the earth.” Now I want you to notice the word “all” that means, if you do it all perfectly, you’ll get the blessings that follow. Got it? “And these are the blessings that shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of the Lord, your God.” Again, what does He mean? He means “all”, You have to obey it. All. Here’s the blessing, or part of it, at least. “Blessed shall you be in the city. Blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out.” All this and more can be yours if you live perfect. Yay. Now, not a trick question, what exactly are the odds you’re going to do that? Zero. Wait, that’s no zero. Zero. So who qualifies for the blessings that are listed here? Because only one way to get them. You had to be a perfect Jew your whole life. Not one sin through commission or omission. You had to do it perfectly. If you did, there’s the blessings.
What about the curses? Skip down and let’s see verse 18 through 20. Here it is no, Deuteronomy 28:14-20, same chapter. “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do (here it is again) all (in Hebrew? Chaldean? what does that mean? Aramaic?) all if you will not do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” Here they are, just a few of them. This is not the whole list. “Cursed shall you be in the city. Cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out.” You think that’s bad? It’s bad. Listen to me. The curse of the law was not just the soul that sins will surely die. That’s the ultimate statement. The soul sins will die. But this is, these are the details, and they happen even on Earth. Finally, verse 20, it says “The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and you perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me.” Now here’s the problem with this, nobody qualifies for the blessings. Everybody qualifies for the curses.
Listen to me, you qualify for the curses even if you were tithing. Do you know that? Why? Because if you break one piece of the law, the whole law is broken. It’s not itemized. In fact, James 2:10 puts it this way, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” In other words, the law is broken, when one piece of it is broken, the whole thing is ruined. You have fallen. You have fallen short of the glory of God. You, in other words, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We could say it this way, every single person born of woman has broken the law of God and deserves the curse, except for one. There’s only one man, only one perfect Jew, never broke God’s law, 33 years of perfect law keeping. I don’t know if you’re aware of that, but not tithing did bring the curse. So did every other breaking of the law. And if you broke one, you broke the whole thing. We tend to think of the law as being itemized. Like, “Well, you know, I’m a pretty good guy. I don’t, you know, it’s not like I’m murdering people.” Well, Jesus shows up and says, “If you’re angry with your brother, you murdered him in your heart.” And it’s like, “Oh, well, that’s yeah, okay, maybe once a day twice in traffic, right?” I remember when I was a kid, I was about eight years old, one of my friends that we both went the same Catholic school. We went over to play baseball in his house, and the ball got hit, and it broke one window at his parents’ house over the front door. And what it was it was a French pane, French pane windows. And what are those? It’s just a bunch of little windows all put together. They’re all separate. And so, the baseball went through one of those windows, which was not that big a deal, because they just had to get a glass guy to come out, take that one out, and then put another one in, right? The whole thing wasn’t ruined. We tend to think of the law that way. “I only did this” but that’s not what the law actually is. It would be better illustrated as a plate glass window. You know what a plate glass window is? The huge ones like what happened to us last year when the guy who was mowing our yard, he decided to mow the rocks, which is great, yeah. And so, the lawnmower decided to shoot one of those rocks at my plate glass window out of the sliding glass door. You think it just dinged it. No, it smashed it. It broke it. And then what? It ruined the entire thing. It broke it. Now you understand what that is? That’s a picture of the law. If you break one piece, it’s broken. You’re not going to. Let me say it this way. You couldn’t tithe your way out of a curse and you couldn’t tithe your way into a blessing. No Jew qualified, and neither do we.
Aren’t you glad there’s good news? Someone did fulfill the law. Jesus Christ did, born of a virgin, conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit, no link to Adam. He is the last Adam, you understand? Born and lived a perfect life, perfect life of perfect law keeping 33 years, no sin of omission, no sin of commission, but He dies of death only because He willingly laid His life down and took the penalty for our sin. But the grave couldn’t hold Him. Death couldn’t keep Him because He was innocent. So once sin was atoned for what happened? He rose from the grave never to die again. And now what does He do? He now imparts, imputes to anybody who has faith in Him. He gives them His righteousness so that God sees you as though you lived 33 years of perfect law keeping. Think about it, your whole life, and removes the stain of your sin by putting it on His own Son. Yeah, so it’s called “The Great Exchange”. Luther called it, your sin goes on the Lamb of God and His righteousness goes on you. Does that include the tithe? It has to because if it doesn’t, you’re damned. Do you see it? And this is where false teachers do this. They switch it, they twist it, and they ignore the finished work of Jesus. They minimize it. They tamper with the Word of God.
I’ll prove it to you, but let’s see the fruit of the good news right here. Galatians 3:10 says this, “For all who rely on works (rely on them for what? to be blessed, to be righteous) For all who rely on works of the law are under (a what?) Under a curse.” Uh, oh, what’s your motivation to tithe? “I don’t want to be under a curse.” Oh, you’re relying on the works of the law? Guess what? Got news for you now, Christian, that’s not you, because you can’t be under a curse. Why? “For it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things (there’s that word) written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’” Can’t just affirm them. Skip down to verse 13 and 14, Galatians 3:13-14, “But Christ redeemed us.” This means to buy back or to buy up. “He redeemed us from the curse of the law. (How did He do it?) He became a curse for us. For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who was hanging on a tree.’” Do you see it? Did every one of us deserve the curse? Yes. Did Jesus deserve the blessing? Yes, He took the blood. He took the curse so we’d get the blessing. And if He took the curse, you know how much curse is left? None. Not for His kids, not for those who’ve been adopted into His family. If you think you can still be under a curse, where does the curse come from? If Jesus took the full weight of the wrath of God, then how could you ever have that land on you again? You say, “Yeah, but what if I sin?” You do sin. All your sins were future tense, when Jesus died for you, listen to me, that’s not license to go out and do whatever you want. If He’s changed your heart, that’s proof you’ve been forgiven. You now have a different motivation, and the motivation is love. “He became a curse for us so that (look at this) so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Not just the spirit, but chapter four, verse five, of the same book, what does it say that we actually have the benefit of adoption. We’ve been adopted into God’s family. It is impossible for God to curse one of His children. Now, if you’re here and you go, “We’re all God’s children.” No, we’re not. If you disagree with that, you disagree with Jesus, He looked at people and said, “You’re of your father, the devil.” All those who are under darkness and under Satan’s sway have not been regenerated, born again by the Spirit, through faith in the Gospel, they’re all still under the wrath of God, and they’re all still the children of the devil in that they desire to do their evil Father’s will. See that? But a real Christian, can you ever be cursed? No, you can’t be. Why? Because the curse went on Jesus. It went on Jesus. This is incredibly good news. Now, can you be disciplined by your Father? Yep, yep. Well, what does that look like? I don’t know. He’s a good Father, though. He knows how to do it. He knows how to get a hold of the attention of Hs kids. He knows how to turn them, He knows how to get them to follow closer. But He’s always working toward the heart. He’s always working on the heart. He’s going to work inside. Our Father knows what He’s doing. We trust Him in that. But does the Father, excuse me. Please don’t bring me a water. You scared me to death last time. Does the Father ever take one of His kids and say, “Damn you”? How many of you parents ever had to spank one of your kids, right? If you didn’t, I guess they’re in jail or at Walmart, not working there. You know what I mean? You see, never mind. Scratch that joke from there. Will not ever happen again. You spank your kid. You discipline them, what? So you can restore them into obedience and so that they can be me walking in the union with the family. That’s why you do it. It’s a good purpose. Why does God discipline His kids? So we can share in His holiness, so that we can bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness. It’s not a curse, it’s not a damnation.
But this is what false teachers do, is they quote the Old Testament, and they bring the entire piece with it, without changing the motivation. And I’m telling you it’s unrighteous, because we do some things in the same way, because it’s modeled that way. It’s how God set up the provision, but it’s for a different motivation. It’s not because you’re afraid of a curse. It’s not because you feel like you’re earning a blessing and somehow you have put God in your debt. False teachers use false promises and false threats. That’s what they do, false promises and false threats. I’m going to do a little review with you. Bear with me, almost in a little foolishness, because I’m going to quote some people, I’m not going to say, who, decided not to crack heads, you know, think there’s a benefit to it. Yeah, maybe here’s some false threats that I’ve heard personally. This is me that I sat under and was told, was taught these things, and I was in this bondage of, you know, greed and fear, basically, is what it was. Bankruptcy. Don’t tithe? You’re going to go bankrupt. Don’t tithe? Go you’re going to get sick. You don’t tithe? You’ll have a house fire. Not making that up. Pretty good motivation, isn’t it? Better pay your tithe. You’re going to own your house on fire. Think about that. That’s the stick, isn’t it? You’ll have breakdown of your possessions and even be possessed by a demon. Yeah, I heard it. I have that recorded. I thought to show it. I’m like, I’m going to spare them. Some of you out there are cantankerous. You’re like, “Show it.” He said it. Somebody said it. Demon possession. But here’s what you’re doing. You’re threatening in a way that causes people to do what? Be driven where you want them. Now keep that word driven in mind. In fact, let me read you a quote. Here’s an actual quote from this teacher. It says this. He said this, “And please understand, if you don’t tithe, that’s an open door to demons. I’m telling you that’s an open door. And no matter how many doors you close in your life (and I don’t know what that means) if you’re not a tither, you’ve always got an open door to the enemy.” Now I want you think about that. That’s a threat, isn’t it? That’s a motivator. I want to point something out to you. This is the way you drive goats. This is not the way you lead sheep. And in case you didn’t know, sheep are LED. They follow a shepherd. They have a high herd instinct. Goats are rebellious and autonomous, and you can’t lead them anywhere. You got to get behind them, and you have to drive them. That’s all this is. It’s a manipulation tactic to tell you that even though you’re a Christian, think about this, even though Jesus bled and died for you, God will put you under the Old Testament curse in Deuteronomy chapter 28. They use that for a threat.
Now, if that doesn’t work, if the false threat doesn’t work, here’s what they switch to, false promises. The false promises. This is where a lot of the prosperity guys land. They prosperity guys always incorporate both of them. But boy, they do promise big. They tell you, “Boy, if you do this, God is obligated to do that, and you put Him in your debt.” And family, that is unbiblical. Completely unbiblical. In fact, I want to show you two of the most famous books, unbiblical books on tithing, and you can basically get the whole picture of what they’re doing just from their cover. Here’s the first one this. This book is called, “The Blessed Life.” Oh, we want the blessed life. Well, if you want to earn the blessed life, I read to you how you earned it in Deuteronomy 28:1-6. Good luck. But that’s what this is. But then he goes even further, and he makes this claim. Look at the subtitle, bring up that next slide. Here it is. It’s always a secret, by the way. This is ridiculous. This turns out he has the secret that’s called Gnosticism, by the way, thinking you have some special hidden knowledge that others have to pay you for. That’s what that is. It’s one of the oldest heresies that church has ever had to refute. But look, It’s the simple secret of guaranteed financial results. Oh, guaranteed financial results. Well, that’s worth $30 book, isn’t it? Y’all gotta do is spend 30 dollarr book, then he’s gonna give you this simple secret, and it’s gonna guarantee you that you will achieve, you will earn guaranteed financial results that is not appealing to love, that’s appealing to lust. And you don’t have to be regenerate to find that attractive. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful part of life. You mean you’re going to tell me how I can guarantee financial results? He claims to. Oh, but there’s a problem, because there was a guy in the Bible who didn’t know about this, and his name was Paul. Tell Paul, you’re out of it. You’re going to be hungry sometimes. Paul, you’re going to go broke sometimes. Sometimes you’re not gonna have any money. Sorry, Paul, he didn’t get the Robert memo. If this is pushing your button, good, good, good, good, good. You’re looking up here and you say, “Hey, you’re attacking a man of God.” No, I am not. I am attacking a heresy. That has put people in bondage. Look by the millions, by the millions, because there are no guaranteed financial results. In fact, he wrote a second book, later called “Beyond blessed.” So, think now I’m not making it up. It sounds funny, doesn’t it? Here’s the subtitle. This is beyond blessed. God’s perfect plan to overcome all financial stress. Let’s do it. If you read this book and do what he says, you’ll never, ever be stressed about money again. Nice. So let me get this straight. The blessed life is guaranteed financial results, but then I guess I could still have some financial stress, so I need to be beyond blessed. You see, that’s the thing. There’s always another thing. I mean, you want to be blessed? Sure. Oh yeah. Do you want to be beyond blessed? That’s another $39. My third book will be super duper uber blessed. You say, “That’s ridiculous.” It is. It’s ridiculous.
Let’s put up a blank slide so they don’t have to slide so they don’t have to look at this junk anymore. That is so painful to read that, because here’s what people are drawn into. They’re drawn into false promises that everything will go great as soon as they start tithing. Can I just tell you the truth? The only blessing you’re going to have is going to be found in Christ Jesus. That’s where the blessing is found. We get the blessing of Abraham. We get the blessing of adoption. Does He provide for His kids? Yes. Does He guarantee financial anything? No, He does not. And if you’re conned into that lie, listen, this happened a lot people would begin to tithe, and they would start to tithe, and then they lose a job, or they have a car breakdown, and what do they say? “What’s the matter, God? Yyou didn’t keep Your promise.” God never made that promise. Let me say it to you this way, just to flip the switch off, you might start tithing in obedience to God’s Word, out of love for Jesus, love for His church, and disassociating yourself from the love of money. You might start doing that and you can get laid off from your job. Now, why am I telling you that? Because I made a promise to you to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so, help me, God. That’s the truth. There are people who could start tithing and then get cancer. There are people that could start tithing and have their house burned down. I don’t want that. For now, if you’re say, if you’re out there going, “I don’t want you speaking that over me.” You’re a kook because that ain’t how it works either. I love you. That’s not the way it works.
What is the motivator? What is the motivator? The true motivator is not greed or fear. True motivator is love because love fulfills the law. That’s why you do it, not for another reason. That’s how the tithe is manipulated. I wanted to build in a component here to talk about free will offerings. Just for a moment. There are ways that false teachers manipulate free will offerings. They do this. There’s a few primary ways. The first one is by guilt. It’s just pure and simple, make you feel guilty if you don’t give to this cause. You know, then, you know, I don’t know, somewhere somebody is going to happen, something’s bad and press on you and try to twist your heart strings. That’s manipulative guilt. Another one is by false testimonies. This will be false testimonies of people that will say, “When I gave this amount, I got this given to me.” And I’ve heard hundreds of these. In fact, some churches call their offerings, like that, Miracle offerings. And what you do is you show up and you say, “I’m giving this $1,000 because I’m asking for a miracle. I want my son to get saved, so I’m going to give this give this seed. Plant the seed I’m asking for a miracle, or I need a new job.” Oh, well, that’s good $1,000 to get you one thing. But what if you gave 2000? “Oh, I’ll give 2000 then my son has a greater chance of getting saved because I sowed a bigger seed, I’ll reap a bigger harvest.” In fact, if you give $100,000 we’ll guarantee to have them in ministry within 12 months. That’s con artist. That’s con artist. You never hear them offer the microphone to anybody that says, “You know, I gave $100,000 and my wife died.” You know why? Because that would not entice you by fleshly desires. And that’s what false teachers do.
Here’s another way to manipulate the free will offering. It goes like this. It’s, here’s an opportunity for you to give a free will offering, we can’t bind your conscience to do it, but here’s what I want you to do. I want you, just picture a married couple, I want you and your wife to go home and separately pray. Just pray. Just pray about, listen to me, pray about what the Lord would have you give. Now, you don’t realize it, but you just got manipulated, because the free will offering is not something that the Lord commands. The free will offering is something that just comes out of your heart. And you go, you know what? I want to do. This out of my own heart, because Jesus has changed it, and now I am generous, and I’d like to do that. That’s what a free will offering is. So they say, “Go away and pray, you and your wife and both of you listen to this, ask the Lord how much you’re to give, (not if) but how much.” And so, the husband goes away and the wife goes away, and they pray. They’re like, “Oh, Lord, tell me how much.” And a number pops into her head, and a number pops into his head, and then they come together, and he’s like, how much did you hear? And she’s like, “I heard $10,000. How much did you hear?” And he goes, “I heard $10,000 too. God told us to give $10,000.” Do you know what if Almighty God speaks to you, first person, immediate revelation, and tells you to do anything, your only response is, what? Do it. Obey Him. That’s not free will offering anymore. That is an exaction. He’s requiring that of you, and that is manipulation. So, it’s not just the tithe. It’s the manipulation of the offering as well. I just want to sow that in you. That is how people do that.
Now, again, let me mention this, will a disobedient Christian be disciplined by the Lord? Yeah, they will be. But is it a curse? No, it’s impossible. Are there qualifications for some places in leadership, in a local church, that people walk at certain levels of maturity and obedience and love toward Jesus? Yes, but does that mean, if you have those issues and struggles still, that you’re going to be turned over to reprobate mind? No. I’ve heard that taught too. “You don’t tithe, God will turn you over to a reprobate mind.” That’s mean and that’s abusive. Now you might be here and you’re thinking, “I don’t believe this. Who would ever fall for that junk?” Millions, in fact, there’s some of the biggest churches in the world do this because goats love it, because it appeals to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life.
So, what we come to here in love is we find out what? Love is now the new and living motivation, right? It’s a new location. It’s different location, it’s different vocation. But here’s the motivation. The motivation is love. It’s not greed, and it’s not fear. It is love for the one that loved you first. This is Romans 5:6-8. It says, “For while we were still weak, (that literally means helpless) at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly (that was all of us). For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love (look at that, He shows it. How did He do it?) for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Oh, what love. Oh, what amazing grace when we recognize that that’s what fuels our heart to love Him back. 1 John 4:16-19 says, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God. God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have (watch this) confidence (for what?) for the day of judgment.” Does that sound like somebody who’s dreading being under a curse? No, no, because what you’ve recognized as a true believer is this, you don’t have any righteousness of your own. You’ve been clothed in a foreign, alien righteousness. The Reformers would say you’ve been clothed in a righteousness that you never could have purchased. He purchased it for you on His cross and gave it to you freely, so you’d be covered with Him. And when God sees you as a believer, you know what He sees? He sees His Son because as He is also, are we in this world? That means standing righteous already? And then finally, these two verses, “There is no fear in love.” That’s dreaded fear, “But perfect love (actually, what?) casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment.” That’s not the motivator anymore. Whosoever fears has not been perfected or matured in love. Then he ends that statement with this, “We love because he first loved us.” Where does the motivator come from? From recognizing the gospel on repeat and understanding this is what He did for me, and in fact, the more we recognize that, the more it changes us from the inside out and no longer is an obligation. It’s no longer us chasing money so we can get more and more and hold on to it or put it into a slot machine and make God give us something back. The motive is no longer this, this fear, this terror, I don’t want this curse to come upon me. All those things melt away. And love is the greatest motivator that there is, and it plays itself out. 1 John 3:16-18 says it this way, “By this we know love, that he laid his life down for us and we ought to lay our lives down for the brothers. But if anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, (here’s a great word, “how”?) how does God’s love abide in him?” That’s a great question, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in (what?) deed and truth.” “Little children”. He doesn’t say, “Hey, you goats, get to work.” This is something we grow up in to love. It’s not something you’re going to love perfectly. If you’re a Christian here today, you love Jesus. I know you do. If you’re a real Christian, you love Jesus. Do you love Him as you should? No. Do you love Him perfectly? No, are you growing in that? Yeah, you are. Is it under threat or under greed? No, it’s as you’re remembering and you’re growing in your understanding of what He actually did, in spite of who you were, in spite of what you did. That’s all of our journeys as we grow up into that and that’s why we say gospel-centered teaching to gospel-centered worship. To know Him is to love Him, and to love Him is to love others and to love others to be motivated to please God while serving someone else. And that’s involved in taking your next .iI’s really not that complicated. I love the way the Lord laid that out in the Word.
Let me say it to you this way, concluding the series, if you love God, you won’t love money. If you love God, you won’t serve money. If you love God, you’re going to love His Son. If you love his son, you’re going to love His people. If you love the bridegroom, you’re going to love the bride. If you love the head of the church, you’re going to love the church. If you love Jesus, you’re going to love His wife. If you truly love His wife, you’re going to support her press period. Hard stop. That’s it. Now. Is that? Is that perfected in people? No, is that a stumble? Is that a struggle? Yeah. Does that mean you don’t have to obey? It does not mean that conscience is bound by the Word of God. But the true motivator is not greed, and it’s not fear. His people, His household, His bride, His wife, His church, and thus love fulfills the tithe in a new and living way. Why? Because the tithe is part of the law, and it’s no different than any of the other commandments.
Let me end with Romans 13:8-10. “Owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” That include the tithe. Absolutely, He goes on, “For the commandments, (he just says, a few), ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” That becomes the motivator that’s in the new and living way. Now I recognize me saying this, what this does is this will allow some people, maybe that were falsely taught, who maybe have been tithing to stop. Don’t you dare do that. This isn’t slip the knot. This is just the truth of Scripture, and rather than tamper with it, we present it with a clear conscience and say this, if that takes you out of the out of the obedience of tithing, I would check your heart because there’s a motive that’s messed up there. What do you ask the Lord to do? “Change my heart, God, help me.” And then you begin to act on that as He goes to work. But family, the motivator is love, and we want to rest in that, because the one that’s growing in love is growing more and more mature in their real discipleship, you can do so many outward things. It doesn’t mean a thing if it’s not coming from a heart of love. That’s the goal, right? What did? What did Paul tell Timothy, it’s 1 Timothy 1:4, “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a clean conscience and a sincere faith.” May we walk that out in a new and living way more and more and more, amen.
Tithe, Tithing, Free Will offerings, New Testament, Old Testament, Location, Vocation, False Teaching, Motivation, Love, Curse, Blessing, Stick, Carrot, The Blessed Life, Beyond Blessed, Law, Church, Gospel, Discipleship, Obedience, Provision, Gnosticism, Money, Heart, Audio Sermon, Bible Church, Texas, Sherman, French Pane Window, Plate Glass Window, The Great Exchange, Commission, Omission
Speaker
Steve LeBlanc