July 1, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Really, the real ar Bernard is on Instagram?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Did you say the real Rabernard is on Instagram to
be six, get Airbernardista in Instagram. You mean every other
Thursday at three pm Eastern time. We can catch the
real ar Bernard live on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yes, join ar Bernard on Instagram line every other Thursday
at three pm Eastern.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
The first mention of the tithe is in the context
of war and conquest, and the one who has the
victory is now giving an offering to his God to
honor and respect.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Welcome to a ar Bernard Ministries. You were about to
hear from aar Bernard, one of today's most influential voices
in ministry, A best selling author and charismatic teacher of
spirit led truth. Today's thought provoking message and captivating word
will empower you spiritually, inform you intellectually, and motivate you
with renewed strength to stand boldly in your purpose and
(01:08):
live out your faith in today's ever changing culture. Tune
in and join us now for ar Bernard.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
There is something called hermenutics. How many of you are
in the spiritual warfare class MC hands, not spiritual warfare students. Okay, good,
there are something called hermeneutics. You're familiar with the word.
Those of you are in class familiar with the word hermenutic.
It is simply the principles of interpretation, how you interpret something.
That's very important. It is not just biblical hermeneutic, but
(01:38):
historical hermitity. Hermanutic is how you interpret whatever it is
that you're trying to interpret. Well, we're talking about biblical hermeneutics,
principles of interpretation, and we need laws, we need rules
that guide us. Amen. We live in a universe of
law governed by a system of order, so we need
rules when we're interpreting scripture. Otherwise and just take something
(02:01):
out of context and run with it. We can put
two verses together and come up with a whole idea
and then preach it, preach it to practice it. Like
here's a verse right and Judas left and hung himself.
Here's another verse, go down and do likewise. I'm gonna
(02:26):
put those two together. I'll have you drinking kool aid.
There are principles. They're guiding principles when it comes to
biblical interpretation, because there is what the text says, and
what the text means, and what the text means is
(02:49):
not always obvious. We have to dig deeper. Amen, how
many review from Spiritual Warfare class? Remember this? How many
remember the tast slip? How many if you remember that
from Spiritual Warfare claus? Raise your hand, let me see
if you were paying attention in class. All right, half
of you. I put together a simple framework when it
(03:12):
comes to Biblical interpretation. How do you interpret the Bible?
It begins with you first have to understand the purpose
of the whole Bible, right, the purpose of that book,
the purpose of that chapter, So you break it down.
Purpose is critical because if you don't understand the purpose
of the thing, you're going to abuse it. Hey man,
(03:34):
the theme? What's the theme? What is the constant message
that's seeking to be communicated? The theme? Audience? Who's the audience,
who's it addressing? Who's being spoken to? Context? What's the context?
The context is important because you just can't you know
(03:57):
how many times do you hear this, Well, this is
what you said, Yeah, but you took it out of context,
which means you extracted it from its surroundings, which is
important to understand what I meant by what I said. So, purpose, theme, audience, context, language,
(04:17):
the prejudices that we bring supportive texts. So if you
have one thing right that a text says in terms
of a subject, you've got to find other texts, other
scriptures to support that. You can't just have one by itself,
and then you're gonna build a whole doctrine or an
(04:38):
ideology around one verse. So all of these things are important.
You need a framework. If you're gonna interpret the scripture,
you're gonna read the text, You've got to think about
all of this to guide you in coming up with
your interpretation. You understand that. That's why when the man
(05:03):
came to Jesus and he said, good Master, and he
came to trick Jesus. Actually it's a good master, what
must I do to a heavy eternal life? And Jesus said, well,
you know the commandments? But then Jesus asked him, how
do you read it? What was Jesus getting to? What's
your interpretation? Because you can have ten people read the
(05:26):
same verse of scripture and walk away with ten different conclusions.
There's got to be a guideline. Amen, There's got to
be principles. So this is what I shared in the
Invisible War class to help understand when you're looking at
a text, you want to make sure that you're applying
(05:49):
these principles. That makes sense. Amen. So there are two
things that come into play here with this whole tithing thing.
There's another principle. In fact, let me mean, it's a
wonderful passage of scripture here and this is so important. Yeah,
(06:09):
we'll go to that first. But it's called the law
of Oops, I'm sorry. It's a principle. And everything that
God does does on a blackboard. Everything that God does
he does according to a pattern and based on a principle,
(06:32):
And a principle is a broad and basic truth. So
there's something called the law of first mention, very important
because when you're trying to figure out what something means
and there's controversy around it, what do you do? You
go to the first place in the Bible that the
(06:55):
doctrine or the idea or the word is used. Got it?
What's it called? That was weak? What's it call? And
you come to church to learn? Right? Hey, man, what's
it call? And what does that mean? It simply means
(07:18):
when you're trying to figure out the meaning of something,
interpret something, you go to the first place that word
is used or that theme is used. Express you go
to the first place in the Bible where you find it.
You go to the place first place is revealed. Just
write that down. It's called the law of first mention.
(07:39):
In order to understand a particular word or doctrine, we
must find the place in scripture that that word or
doctrine is revealed, and then study that passage. Find where's
first mentioned? And then study the passage, unpack it, spend
time there. And here's the reasoning behind this, all right?
(08:01):
That the reasoning is that the Bible's first mention of
a concept is the simplest and clearest presentation of that
concept or that word. It becomes a foundation for us
to understand the word or the text, or the doctrine
(08:23):
or the idea, so to fully understand any important and
complex theological concept in the Bible. All right, And where
students of the word right, where do we go? We find?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
What?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Where's it first mentioned in scripture? Got it? And the
first mention of tithe in scripture is with Abraham. It
is found in Genesis chapter fourteen, verses seventeen through twenty.
You want to go there, all right? We will go there.
(09:00):
Genesis chapter fourteen, verse seventeen is where we'll begin. And
the king of Sodom went out to meet him at
the valley of Chevet, that is the king's valley. Meet
who Abraham after his return from the defeat of Chedlayomer.
(09:22):
That is all right, So understand Abraham was at war, right,
he had, he had troops, He was at war, he
was victorious. This is the context. He was victorious after
his return from the defeat of Chedlayomer, and the kings
who were with him. Then Melchizedek, I may've heard of him,
(09:46):
King of Salem, king of Righteousness, brought out bread and wine.
He was the priest of God most High. And he
blessed him Abraham and said, blessed be the Abram of
God most High, possessor of heaven and earth. Not Abraham,
but God. And blessed be God most High, who has
(10:08):
delivered your enemies into your hand. And he Abraham gave
him Melchizedek. A what a what a what can't hear you?
What a tithe of all? Now we'll stop right there.
It is mentioned again with Jacob, it's mentioned again in Malachi,
(10:33):
all right, but it's first mentioned right here with Abraham
and what's going on. Abraham goes out the war, he's victorious.
And when he comes back, all right, he has an
encounter with this high priest named Melchizedek, and he brings
him bread and wine. Does that sound like communion to you?
(10:55):
And Abraham partakes of it. And then Abraham, to honor
mel Kis a deck, right, he gives him a tithe
or a tenth, a tenth of what he gained in war.
And how do we know it's what he gained in war? Well,
if you keep reading the King of Sodom verse twenty one.
(11:18):
The King of Sodom said that Abram, give me the
persons and take the goods for yourself. But Abram said
to the King of Sodom, I have raised my hands
to the Lord God most High, the possessive of Heaven
and Nerd, that will I will take nothing from a
thread to a sandals trap, and that I will not
take anything that is yours, Lest you should say I
have made Abram rich except only what the young men
(11:40):
have eaten in the portion of the men who sent
a wet with me. All right, So Abraham is saying,
you're not going to take the credit from God, God
is the one who gave me victory. God is the
one who increased me. God is one who prospered me.
And now I'm going to give back to him a
tenths of all of my increase, a tenth of what
(12:05):
I have prospered in. So the first mention, the first
mention of the tithe is in the context of war
and conquest. And the one who has the victory is
now giving an offering to his God to honor and
(12:32):
respect is God. Now that's the context. We have two
things working here. Let's go back. Two things working here,
audience and context. Context the ancient world, the audience the
(12:54):
ancient world. Right, this is important. So number one in
the context is war, successful victory Abraham, and the audience
is the ancient world. You cannot interpret that text based
upon the modern world if the audience was the ancient world,
(13:16):
because audience means how did they understand the text? Not
how do you understand it? And going to try to
apply it in twenty twenty two? What did it mean
to them? So when they picked this up, when the
Hebrews picked this up after the Roses, after this was
written and disseminated to them, right, which was about eleven
(13:38):
hundred BC. When they picked it up and read it,
what did it mean to them? They were in touch
with the ancient world. They were in touch with ancient customs.
And what Abraham did here had nothing to do with
the law, because the law of Moses didn't even come yet.
This is a period preceding the law. And grace is
(13:59):
not the issue here, because the law came by Moses,
and then after that, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
So the voice of grace is Jesus. The voice of
the law is Moses. But we're talking about Abraham and Abraham,
although God's grace has continuously been manifested from the garden
(14:20):
right up to now. All right, but what is Abraham
associated with Not grace or law. He's associated with one beautiful,
powerful word through which he entered covenant with Yahweh, and
the world would be beath blessed. It wasn't about law
(14:40):
or grace. Abraham was the father of faith, and because
of his faith he was blessed, and all nations of
the world would be blessed through a seed that would
come from him, not law or grace. Talking about here,
(15:01):
you're trying to position this to determine whether it's an
obligation or free will act or optional. Let's get the
theology right first. The law first mentioned places it in
the context of war and the spoils of war and
the custom and tradition that was practiced by Mesopotamia, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Sumeria.
(15:30):
Let me get my list, the Grecians, the Romans, the Creekans,
the Sicilians, the Arabians, the Chinese, the Greeks, the Phoenicians.
Did I mention the Romans? They all practiced it. Abraham
was practicing what was common to the ancient world, and
(15:52):
that is when you went out to war and you
were victorious, you brought back the spoils of war, and
the first thing you did was take something called and
it wasn't the tithe means tenth, but in those days
it was called the sacred tenth. They took ten percent
of all that they gained in war and brought it
(16:15):
to the temple as an offering to their deity in
thanksgiving for their victory in war. Are you hearing me?
This preceded the Jews, preceded all of this other theological
stuff that we've laid out. It was the practice of
(16:36):
nations at that time. It was the practice of the
ancient world. They understood because they wanted the protection of
their deity. They wanted the victory of their deity. They
wanted the provision of their deity. And how they maintained
that is that they brought sacrificial offerings. You can go
to the British Museum. You can see because the cuneiform
(16:58):
writings are now better interpret it. You can see it
in the Dead Sea scrolls. You can see it everywhere
written where these traditions were practiced, before the Law of Moses,
before the doctrine of Grace. It was a tradition and
Abraham was simply functioning in that tradition. So now we
(17:24):
want to argue about where we pigeonhole it, where we
place it. That's disingenuous, that's ridiculous. Are you with me.
I can get into more of the history, take a look,
research it, fact check me, and have fun. I want
(17:44):
you to so that you can think correctly, not because
of something you heard on you too, but because you
understand the principles that govern how you approach your life.
Tithing is an act of faith. It's God offering a
promise that if you support his work, he will bless you.
(18:13):
Now you can understand Proverbs three nine when it says,
honor the Lord with your substance and the first fruit
of your increase. The language first fruit and substance goes
back to the act that Abraham engaged in, because as
(18:33):
you were increased, you would give a portion of that
in honor and thanksgiving to the God that you believed
gave you that victory. Tithing is about honor to God.
It's about recognizing his sovereignty over us and our stewardship
(18:58):
responsibility with whatever he gives us. How many notice there's
no hurts, There's no U haul truck following a hurtz
at a funeral because you can't take it with you.
So essentially we are possessors of nothing and stewards of
(19:19):
everything and a whole life. We gain things by God's
goodness right, but we never really own it. We simply
are stewards over it until we die and then leave
it behind. We're stewards over our time, talent, treasury, and relationships.
(19:43):
And even your spouse is not yours. There is stewardship responsibility.
Your wife is your stewardship responsibility. Your husband is a
stewardship responsibility. Your chill our stewardship responsibility, because we are
possessors of nothing, stewards of everything. The earth is the Lord's,
(20:07):
the fullness thereof the world, and they that dwell therein.
And although He owns it all, he has allowed us
stewardship responsibility and will respond in blessing if we steward
it correctly and show thanksgiving and appreciation for what He
(20:30):
gives us. Tithing and offering is an act of honor,
recognition of God's sovereignty and our stewardship responsibility. It's an
act of thanksgivings. It's It's design for freedom to free
us from fear and covetousness. Because people will not give
(20:51):
out of fear doesn't mean tithing and offering. They just
won't give it. They won't give anything to anybody for
any reason. Jurn your neighbors say I know somebody like that.
They're afraid, and God is trying to break that fear
to say, trust me, and what's what I'll do for you.
(21:17):
And it's an investment in the work of God and
the Kingdom of God. So we do it by faith,
not by fear. Not by law, not even by grace.
We do it by faith, and faith is trust that
the one that we're trusting in will keep his promise.
(21:41):
I got to stop here. Did you get anything out
of that? This morning?
Speaker 5 (21:46):
In appreciation, we'd like to offer you the special opportunity
to receive a. Ar Bernard's best selling book, Or Things
Women Want from a Man. This practical guide is organized
in a four part system from men and women who
genuinely seek to improve their lives and relationship. The book
is the result of the personal wisdom learned from Arbernard's
forty five years of marriage and thirty eight years of counseling,
(22:06):
and is our gift to you for any donation of
twenty five dollars or more. You won't want to miss
the life changing insights shared in Arbernard's best selling book.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Aar Bernard is the founder and pastor of the Christian
Cultural Center, one of the fastest growing churches in America.
Thanks to your prayers and financial support, spiritual leader aar
Bernard educates, empowers and inspires millions of people worldwide via
his radio, TV and online ministries. Visit our website at
aarbernard dot com.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Extra extra read all about it The Anointed teachings of
Pastor Arbernard, among them Audacious Power and Basic Training, teaching
us to navigate the intersection of faith and culture. CDs
are just seven dollars, DVDs ten dollars, and downloads as
little as four ninety nine. Order them now at Arbernard
(22:56):
dot com or go to cccinfo dot org. The Anointed
Teachings of Pastor Arbernard Get yours today, Today, Today, Today.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Listen up. Available are the must have teachings of ar Bernard,
teaching us to navigate the intersection of faith and culture,
with messages such as pain must have a purpose, reset
your mindset, and strategies for spiritual responsibility. Don't delay. Get
your blessing today. Go to Arbernard dot com or cccinfo
(23:31):
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just four ninety nine. Again to order, go to Aarbernard
dot com or cccinfo dot org.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Extra Extra read all about it The Anointed teachings of
Pastor Arbernard, among them Changing your Framework and Ebbinflows, teaching
us to navigate the intersection of faith and culture. CDs
are just seven dollars, DVDs ten dollars, and downloads as
little as four ninety nine. Order them now at Arbernard
(24:07):
dot com or go to cccinfo dot org. The Anointed
teachings of Pastor Arbernard get yours today, Today, Today Today.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Arbministries works hard to provide content and programs that will
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ministry with a monetary donation that is suitable for you.
You can donate directly online at Arbernard dot com ORARB
(24:41):
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Arbministries and send it to Arbministries pobox one five four eight, Smithtown,
New York one one seven eight seven
Really, the real ar Bernard is on Instagram?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Did you say the real Rabernard is on Instagram to
be six, get Airbernardista in Instagram. You mean every other
Thursday at three pm Eastern time. We can catch the
real ar Bernard live on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yes, join ar Bernard on Instagram line every other Thursday
at three pm Eastern.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
The first mention of the tithe is in the context
of war and conquest, and the one who has the
victory is now giving an offering to his God to
honor and respect.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Welcome to a ar Bernard Ministries. You were about to
hear from aar Bernard, one of today's most influential voices
in ministry, A best selling author and charismatic teacher of
spirit led truth. Today's thought provoking message and captivating word
will empower you spiritually, inform you intellectually, and motivate you
with renewed strength to stand boldly in your purpose and
(01:08):
live out your faith in today's ever changing culture. Tune
in and join us now for ar Bernard.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
There is something called hermenutics. How many of you are
in the spiritual warfare class MC hands, not spiritual warfare students. Okay, good,
there are something called hermeneutics. You're familiar with the word.
Those of you are in class familiar with the word hermenutic.
It is simply the principles of interpretation, how you interpret something.
That's very important. It is not just biblical hermeneutic, but
(01:38):
historical hermitity. Hermanutic is how you interpret whatever it is
that you're trying to interpret. Well, we're talking about biblical hermeneutics,
principles of interpretation, and we need laws, we need rules
that guide us. Amen. We live in a universe of
law governed by a system of order, so we need
rules when we're interpreting scripture. Otherwise and just take something
(02:01):
out of context and run with it. We can put
two verses together and come up with a whole idea
and then preach it, preach it to practice it. Like
here's a verse right and Judas left and hung himself.
Here's another verse, go down and do likewise. I'm gonna
(02:26):
put those two together. I'll have you drinking kool aid.
There are principles. They're guiding principles when it comes to
biblical interpretation, because there is what the text says, and
what the text means, and what the text means is
(02:49):
not always obvious. We have to dig deeper. Amen, how
many review from Spiritual Warfare class? Remember this? How many
remember the tast slip? How many if you remember that
from Spiritual Warfare claus? Raise your hand, let me see
if you were paying attention in class. All right, half
of you. I put together a simple framework when it
(03:12):
comes to Biblical interpretation. How do you interpret the Bible?
It begins with you first have to understand the purpose
of the whole Bible, right, the purpose of that book,
the purpose of that chapter, So you break it down.
Purpose is critical because if you don't understand the purpose
of the thing, you're going to abuse it. Hey man,
(03:34):
the theme? What's the theme? What is the constant message
that's seeking to be communicated? The theme? Audience? Who's the audience,
who's it addressing? Who's being spoken to? Context? What's the context?
The context is important because you just can't you know
(03:57):
how many times do you hear this, Well, this is
what you said, Yeah, but you took it out of context,
which means you extracted it from its surroundings, which is
important to understand what I meant by what I said. So, purpose, theme, audience, context, language,
(04:17):
the prejudices that we bring supportive texts. So if you
have one thing right that a text says in terms
of a subject, you've got to find other texts, other
scriptures to support that. You can't just have one by itself,
and then you're gonna build a whole doctrine or an
(04:38):
ideology around one verse. So all of these things are important.
You need a framework. If you're gonna interpret the scripture,
you're gonna read the text, You've got to think about
all of this to guide you in coming up with
your interpretation. You understand that. That's why when the man
(05:03):
came to Jesus and he said, good Master, and he
came to trick Jesus. Actually it's a good master, what
must I do to a heavy eternal life? And Jesus said, well,
you know the commandments? But then Jesus asked him, how
do you read it? What was Jesus getting to? What's
your interpretation? Because you can have ten people read the
(05:26):
same verse of scripture and walk away with ten different conclusions.
There's got to be a guideline. Amen, There's got to
be principles. So this is what I shared in the
Invisible War class to help understand when you're looking at
a text, you want to make sure that you're applying
(05:49):
these principles. That makes sense. Amen. So there are two
things that come into play here with this whole tithing thing.
There's another principle. In fact, let me mean, it's a
wonderful passage of scripture here and this is so important. Yeah,
(06:09):
we'll go to that first. But it's called the law
of Oops, I'm sorry. It's a principle. And everything that
God does does on a blackboard. Everything that God does
he does according to a pattern and based on a principle,
(06:32):
And a principle is a broad and basic truth. So
there's something called the law of first mention, very important
because when you're trying to figure out what something means
and there's controversy around it, what do you do? You
go to the first place in the Bible that the
(06:55):
doctrine or the idea or the word is used. Got it?
What's it called? That was weak? What's it call? And
you come to church to learn? Right? Hey, man, what's
it call? And what does that mean? It simply means
(07:18):
when you're trying to figure out the meaning of something,
interpret something, you go to the first place that word
is used or that theme is used. Express you go
to the first place in the Bible where you find it.
You go to the place first place is revealed. Just
write that down. It's called the law of first mention.
(07:39):
In order to understand a particular word or doctrine, we
must find the place in scripture that that word or
doctrine is revealed, and then study that passage. Find where's
first mentioned? And then study the passage, unpack it, spend
time there. And here's the reasoning behind this, all right?
(08:01):
That the reasoning is that the Bible's first mention of
a concept is the simplest and clearest presentation of that
concept or that word. It becomes a foundation for us
to understand the word or the text, or the doctrine
(08:23):
or the idea, so to fully understand any important and
complex theological concept in the Bible. All right, And where
students of the word right, where do we go? We find?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
What?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Where's it first mentioned in scripture? Got it? And the
first mention of tithe in scripture is with Abraham. It
is found in Genesis chapter fourteen, verses seventeen through twenty.
You want to go there, all right? We will go there.
(09:00):
Genesis chapter fourteen, verse seventeen is where we'll begin. And
the king of Sodom went out to meet him at
the valley of Chevet, that is the king's valley. Meet
who Abraham after his return from the defeat of Chedlayomer.
(09:22):
That is all right, So understand Abraham was at war, right,
he had, he had troops, He was at war, he
was victorious. This is the context. He was victorious after
his return from the defeat of Chedlayomer, and the kings
who were with him. Then Melchizedek, I may've heard of him,
(09:46):
King of Salem, king of Righteousness, brought out bread and wine.
He was the priest of God most High. And he
blessed him Abraham and said, blessed be the Abram of
God most High, possessor of heaven and earth. Not Abraham,
but God. And blessed be God most High, who has
(10:08):
delivered your enemies into your hand. And he Abraham gave
him Melchizedek. A what a what a what can't hear you?
What a tithe of all? Now we'll stop right there.
It is mentioned again with Jacob, it's mentioned again in Malachi,
(10:33):
all right, but it's first mentioned right here with Abraham
and what's going on. Abraham goes out the war, he's victorious.
And when he comes back, all right, he has an
encounter with this high priest named Melchizedek, and he brings
him bread and wine. Does that sound like communion to you?
(10:55):
And Abraham partakes of it. And then Abraham, to honor
mel Kis a deck, right, he gives him a tithe
or a tenth, a tenth of what he gained in war.
And how do we know it's what he gained in war? Well,
if you keep reading the King of Sodom verse twenty one.
(11:18):
The King of Sodom said that Abram, give me the
persons and take the goods for yourself. But Abram said
to the King of Sodom, I have raised my hands
to the Lord God most High, the possessive of Heaven
and Nerd, that will I will take nothing from a
thread to a sandals trap, and that I will not
take anything that is yours, Lest you should say I
have made Abram rich except only what the young men
(11:40):
have eaten in the portion of the men who sent
a wet with me. All right, So Abraham is saying,
you're not going to take the credit from God, God
is the one who gave me victory. God is the
one who increased me. God is one who prospered me.
And now I'm going to give back to him a
tenths of all of my increase, a tenth of what
(12:05):
I have prospered in. So the first mention, the first
mention of the tithe is in the context of war
and conquest. And the one who has the victory is
now giving an offering to his God to honor and
(12:32):
respect is God. Now that's the context. We have two
things working here. Let's go back. Two things working here,
audience and context. Context the ancient world, the audience the
(12:54):
ancient world. Right, this is important. So number one in
the context is war, successful victory Abraham, and the audience
is the ancient world. You cannot interpret that text based
upon the modern world if the audience was the ancient world,
(13:16):
because audience means how did they understand the text? Not
how do you understand it? And going to try to
apply it in twenty twenty two? What did it mean
to them? So when they picked this up, when the
Hebrews picked this up after the Roses, after this was
written and disseminated to them, right, which was about eleven
(13:38):
hundred BC. When they picked it up and read it,
what did it mean to them? They were in touch
with the ancient world. They were in touch with ancient customs.
And what Abraham did here had nothing to do with
the law, because the law of Moses didn't even come yet.
This is a period preceding the law. And grace is
(13:59):
not the issue here, because the law came by Moses,
and then after that, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
So the voice of grace is Jesus. The voice of
the law is Moses. But we're talking about Abraham and Abraham,
although God's grace has continuously been manifested from the garden
(14:20):
right up to now. All right, but what is Abraham
associated with Not grace or law. He's associated with one beautiful,
powerful word through which he entered covenant with Yahweh, and
the world would be beath blessed. It wasn't about law
(14:40):
or grace. Abraham was the father of faith, and because
of his faith he was blessed, and all nations of
the world would be blessed through a seed that would
come from him, not law or grace. Talking about here,
(15:01):
you're trying to position this to determine whether it's an
obligation or free will act or optional. Let's get the
theology right first. The law first mentioned places it in
the context of war and the spoils of war and
the custom and tradition that was practiced by Mesopotamia, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Sumeria.
(15:30):
Let me get my list, the Grecians, the Romans, the Creekans,
the Sicilians, the Arabians, the Chinese, the Greeks, the Phoenicians.
Did I mention the Romans? They all practiced it. Abraham
was practicing what was common to the ancient world, and
(15:52):
that is when you went out to war and you
were victorious, you brought back the spoils of war, and
the first thing you did was take something called and
it wasn't the tithe means tenth, but in those days
it was called the sacred tenth. They took ten percent
of all that they gained in war and brought it
(16:15):
to the temple as an offering to their deity in
thanksgiving for their victory in war. Are you hearing me?
This preceded the Jews, preceded all of this other theological
stuff that we've laid out. It was the practice of
(16:36):
nations at that time. It was the practice of the
ancient world. They understood because they wanted the protection of
their deity. They wanted the victory of their deity. They
wanted the provision of their deity. And how they maintained
that is that they brought sacrificial offerings. You can go
to the British Museum. You can see because the cuneiform
(16:58):
writings are now better interpret it. You can see it
in the Dead Sea scrolls. You can see it everywhere
written where these traditions were practiced, before the Law of Moses,
before the doctrine of Grace. It was a tradition and
Abraham was simply functioning in that tradition. So now we
(17:24):
want to argue about where we pigeonhole it, where we
place it. That's disingenuous, that's ridiculous. Are you with me.
I can get into more of the history, take a look,
research it, fact check me, and have fun. I want
(17:44):
you to so that you can think correctly, not because
of something you heard on you too, but because you
understand the principles that govern how you approach your life.
Tithing is an act of faith. It's God offering a
promise that if you support his work, he will bless you.
(18:13):
Now you can understand Proverbs three nine when it says,
honor the Lord with your substance and the first fruit
of your increase. The language first fruit and substance goes
back to the act that Abraham engaged in, because as
(18:33):
you were increased, you would give a portion of that
in honor and thanksgiving to the God that you believed
gave you that victory. Tithing is about honor to God.
It's about recognizing his sovereignty over us and our stewardship
(18:58):
responsibility with whatever he gives us. How many notice there's
no hurts, There's no U haul truck following a hurtz
at a funeral because you can't take it with you.
So essentially we are possessors of nothing and stewards of
(19:19):
everything and a whole life. We gain things by God's
goodness right, but we never really own it. We simply
are stewards over it until we die and then leave
it behind. We're stewards over our time, talent, treasury, and relationships.
(19:43):
And even your spouse is not yours. There is stewardship responsibility.
Your wife is your stewardship responsibility. Your husband is a
stewardship responsibility. Your chill our stewardship responsibility, because we are
possessors of nothing, stewards of everything. The earth is the Lord's,
(20:07):
the fullness thereof the world, and they that dwell therein.
And although He owns it all, he has allowed us
stewardship responsibility and will respond in blessing if we steward
it correctly and show thanksgiving and appreciation for what He
(20:30):
gives us. Tithing and offering is an act of honor,
recognition of God's sovereignty and our stewardship responsibility. It's an
act of thanksgivings. It's It's design for freedom to free
us from fear and covetousness. Because people will not give
(20:51):
out of fear doesn't mean tithing and offering. They just
won't give it. They won't give anything to anybody for
any reason. Jurn your neighbors say I know somebody like that.
They're afraid, and God is trying to break that fear
to say, trust me, and what's what I'll do for you.
(21:17):
And it's an investment in the work of God and
the Kingdom of God. So we do it by faith,
not by fear. Not by law, not even by grace.
We do it by faith, and faith is trust that
the one that we're trusting in will keep his promise.
(21:41):
I got to stop here. Did you get anything out
of that? This morning?
Speaker 5 (21:46):
In appreciation, we'd like to offer you the special opportunity
to receive a. Ar Bernard's best selling book, Or Things
Women Want from a Man. This practical guide is organized
in a four part system from men and women who
genuinely seek to improve their lives and relationship. The book
is the result of the personal wisdom learned from Arbernard's
forty five years of marriage and thirty eight years of counseling,
(22:06):
and is our gift to you for any donation of
twenty five dollars or more. You won't want to miss
the life changing insights shared in Arbernard's best selling book.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Aar Bernard is the founder and pastor of the Christian
Cultural Center, one of the fastest growing churches in America.
Thanks to your prayers and financial support, spiritual leader aar
Bernard educates, empowers and inspires millions of people worldwide via
his radio, TV and online ministries. Visit our website at
aarbernard dot com.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Extra extra read all about it The Anointed teachings of
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(22:56):
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Speaker 2 (23:07):
Listen up. Available are the must have teachings of ar Bernard,
teaching us to navigate the intersection of faith and culture,
with messages such as pain must have a purpose, reset
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(23:31):
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Extra Extra read all about it The Anointed teachings of
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(24:07):
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