July 4, 2025 • 38 mins
Tithing isn’t fund-raising; it’s heart-shaping. The first tenth belongs to God, not because He needs money but because He longs for trust, holiness, and love from His people. When treasure is returned to its rightful Owner, windows of heaven open, the devourer is rebuked, and revival begins—personally and corporately.
Scripture References:
Malachi 3:10
Matthew 6:21
Leviticus 27:30
Timestamps
0:00–1:30 Welcome back & studio catch-up
1:30–3:00 Youth fundraiser: fireworks tent promo
3:00–5:30 Guest intro—Pastor Micah Narlock & lifelong friendship
5:30–11:00 Why Jesus focused on money (parables, statistics)
11:00–15:00 Holiness of the tithe; sarcasm as doubt
15:00–20:00 Stewardship of the full 100 %; first-fruits principle
20:00–26:30 Malachi’s altar call—repentance by returning the tithe
26:30–30:00 Love vs. law; “double honor” and New-Testament giving
30:00–34:00 Tithing on all increase; meticulous generosity
34:00–37:00 Closing challenge & call to practice joyful giving
Host: Pastor Ryan Brister
Co-Host: Brenden Bass
Producer: Joey Doherty
REACH HEAL SERVE
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the Ocala Churchpodcast, The Pastor Ryan
Brister. Today we were talking about the
important subject of tithing. All right, welcome back to the
(00:25):
Ocala Church Podcast. We are excited to be back in the
studio. I believe we had a week there so
that we weren't able to be in the studio a lot happening at
the Ocala church, but we're gladto be back in studio and we are
especially glad to have Pastor Mike and Narlock with us.
So yeah. And glad to be with you guys
(00:48):
today. So we're we're looking forward
to a great podcast in in the meantime, we have we got some
stuff coming up right here at the Ocala Church that we're
excited about. One of the things on the top of
my mind right now as youth pastor, I have to do these
things called fundraisers and they're fun and they raise
(01:10):
funds. They.
Raise kids. We have a fireworks tent coming
up June 27th to July 4th that we're just stoked about.
So as you hear this, there's stuff on Facebook.
Please share it if you're not local.
You can donate if you want to atOcala Church, Ocala dot Church
online. If you just feel the donate to
(01:32):
that. We might ship you some
fireworks, who knows? Explosive opportunity it is.
And so, but I don't want to get too drawn out into this because
we have a lot of topic to discuss today and, and we're
super excited to get into this. Pastor Brister, I'll hand this
(01:53):
off to you. We are very excited to have my
friend Pastor Micah Norlock fromMorganton, NC with us this week
to talk about tithing and he is an expert on the subject and so.
If only I need 10% of what I need to know we.
(02:13):
We, we flew the experts in to talk about it.
No, I he, he is a outstanding pastor and preacher and they're
building a revival church in thecity of Morgans in North
Carolina. And we have been friends for a
(02:34):
long time, very long time. I think we first met when we
were about 7 years old. And man, it's been a, it's been
a long ride. How many friends do you have
that are still very close to youthat were your friends when you
were seven? You're.
The only one. Yeah, me too.
(02:56):
So it's it's hard to have. What is that saying?
It's hard to have new old friends.
Can't make old friends. Yeah.
So we're we have. We are old friends.
We have done our best through the years and it's been
intentional for both of us to make sure we stayed in the loop
(03:17):
of each other's lives and and I don't know about him, but I'm
definitely reaping the benefits of a our friendship and.
And tell us more. I could go all day on this, I
really could. Brother Narlock is a, is a great
Christian man. He's an accountability partner
(03:40):
of mine. He's one of the few friends in
my life that I know will always tell me the truth about myself.
And that is invaluable. Find you some friends that'll
tell you the truth. And so thank you for being here.
And I'm going to just kind of throw this at you.
(04:02):
You can talk about this tie the subject of tithing from any
perspective you that you prefer.You can talk about it in a
theological sense. You can talk about it in it from
a standpoint of principle. You can tie them together.
You just do you and we'll go along for the ride.
Well. First of all, we're honored to
(04:22):
be here. Thank you for the opportunity to
join you guys on this wonderful podcast.
Amen. We TuneIn from time to time up
in Morganton and we've always enjoyed the content you guys put
forth and we love Ocala Church. Obviously, I have got very
personal connection here with Pastor Brister and but the bass
from years ago. And so it's good to see the
supreme elder, the Brennan that's with us and.
(04:48):
And let me in. The doors it's great to see you
here today as well and man we'relove what God did last night and
continuing to do and so we're going to talk about a little bit
about tithing. I'm not an expert on this topic
by any stretch, but I I love. To tithe, right?
I I'm working on it. You mean you're a pastor that
(05:12):
pays tithing? I am a pastor that believes
pastors need to pay tithes. That's well.
Unbelievable. So it's worth noting, let's get
into this. It's worth noticing in Jesus's
ministry cause a lot of people say, well, Jesus just loved a
bunch of people. He didn't care about money.
It's actually he spoke on finances more than he did about
(05:32):
heaven, hell, or love, or the salvation plan for that matter.
Wow. Out of 38 parables Jesus taught,
sixteen of those parables had todo with how we handle money in
possessions. Wow, that's almost half.
Almost half, yeah. In the four gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John, there are 2880 verses.
(05:53):
Of those, 288 verses deal directly with money.
That's one out of every 10 verses.
Wow, he dealt with money. The Bible as a whole contains
roughly 500 verses about prayer,a little less than 500 about
faith, about over 2000 verses that speak about money, wow, and
(06:14):
possessions. So if we're going to preach the
whole council of God, if we're going to put emphasis where the
Bible puts emphasis, which I think is a wise way to minister,
sure. Then by that ratio, for everyone
sermon we preach on prayer, we ought to be preaching for on
money. Wow, wow.
For everyone, Sermon on Faith 4 should be on giving,
stewardship, and financial responsibility.
(06:37):
Incredible. So that that kind of flies in
the face of that. That preacher's always talking
about money, though. Well, they're exactly.
They would have said that about Jesus.
This point goes to show if somebody comes up and says,
well, I, I, you know, church is always about money, that
everything they talk about is about money, which isn't true.
But the reality is, is that you can point to these kind of
(06:59):
ratios and these statistics, stats or whatever you want to
call them and say, we're not actually doing near enough.
Because I don't know of a singlechurch that actually follows
that ratio pattern. And I don't think we'll start
today. So whenever we go into a season
of talking about money, we also we should perk up and not let it
let us fall into kind of that mainstream sarcasm.
(07:21):
Yeah. And I called not all sarcasm is
this way, but to me, the root ofsarcasm is usually doubt.
It's it's, it's, it's fear. I heard Joel Arshin say the
other day he said sarcoma is a cancerous tumor.
(07:42):
Sarcasm is a cancerous humor. It's the truth.
Sarcasm is probably a man's maintool to try to face life.
When a man is not happy with hiswife, he'll get sarcastic.
Sarcastic. Or his children, et cetera.
Or about his church, about his walk with God.
(08:03):
He'll get sarcastic. Because at the root of that is
what is God's commandment for holy men is lifting up holy
hands without wrath and without doubting.
So a man's response is you shouldn't have doubt.
Sarcasm is an outcropping of doubt.
So obviously we still have sarcastic humor for fun, but
(08:25):
it's a dangerous humor. If we're not careful.
It can be. It's basis is doubt in what
God's doing through our church, through our marriage, through
our kids, through our family, but also in subjects about money
at church. So why did Jesus teach and why
does the word of God teach on money so much?
Because Jesus tried to convey this in Matthew 621.
(08:46):
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
This means it's impossible to separate money from your heart.
So if God truly has our hearts, then it sends a reason that it
will be shown in how we manage our money in matters, especially
in matters as sacred as tithing and offering, but also how we
(09:07):
budget the rest of what we have.I think that's a key point
because you know, a lot of people take care of the tithing
and the offering part and then blow the rest and then say,
well, the the tithing and the offerings don't work.
I'm still not blessed. Well, you know, you took care of
(09:29):
what he required back without realizing that the whole 100 is
his. You know that that you still got
to manage the rest of it. Tithing and offering doesn't
negate the fact that you've got to be wise with the rest of what
he gave you. Because it's all actually God's
money. It's all God's money.
It's all God's money, but for the sake of the tithe part,
(09:53):
Leviticus 2730 says in all the tithe of the land, whether of
the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the
Lord's. It is holy.
Holy. So I think sometimes we forget
in our Bible holiness teachings,we'll go through a holiness
series that tithing is actually a matter of holiness.
Matter of holiness, yes. And, and to suggest that tithing
(10:15):
no longer matters because of theNew Testament church or
whatever, I'm telling you, I would be careful with that
because you're suggesting that some holiness standards really
don't matter anymore. Wow, wow.
And so the Hebrew word for holy is kodesh.
It means to set apart it's sacred, it's consecrated,
belonging to God. Thus, to misuse it, the tithe
part is to profane what is sacred.
(10:38):
So when it comes to God saying that the tithe is holy, he
doesn't just mean that paying your tithe is an act of
holiness, but the tithe itself, while it's in your wallet, while
it's in your paycheck form, it'sholy in itself.
It's not just the act of paying,it is holy, it is holy.
So for God, setting apart anything that is holy is such a
(11:01):
big deal. So whether it's your body,
whether it's your clothes, whether it's your relationships,
your worship, it's such a big deal.
All these matters are meant to be holy to God.
That to violate any one of thosethings by forcing them into an
unseparated condition is such a severe violation of God's sacred
nature that it encourage rejection of God's covering of
(11:23):
favor because God cannot favor anything that is actively taking
holiness and profaning it, including our tithe.
I'm, I'm coming out pretty strong here, but no, it's good.
So, so try to, so to try to corrupt the holiness of the
tithe is a very severe attempt at attacking God's overall
holiness. Wow.
You go to the throne room of God.
(11:44):
The angels are gathered around the throne of God.
What are they saying? They're not saying love, love.
Love is the Lord God Almighty. They're not saying faith, faith,
faith. They're not saying kindness,
kindness, kindness, meekness, meekness, meekness.
They're saying holy, holy, holy.Why are they pre?
Why are they emphasizing on holiness?
Because holiness is the foundation of love.
Holiness is the foundation of faith.
(12:04):
You can't have those other attributes without holiness.
And so we don't mix with holiness.
I'm telling you, the tithe is not to be firstly seen as a
paycheck to keep things rolling for ministry.
It's first and foremost the Lord's holy tithe.
So when I go pay my tithe at church, I don't look at it as
well. I'm just giving.
I'm helping the preacher survive.
(12:26):
Literally, it's God's money. God's money, then.
After it leaves the offering plate, God orchestrated it to go
to the ministry. But first and foremost, I'm
giving that to God. I don't look at it as I'm paying
the ministry, I look at it as ifI'm paying God and then God
takes care of the rest. I don't need to know where else
it's going after that because it's God's holy money.
Now I'm waving my hands and Amen.
(12:47):
It's not sign language, I promise.
So this next statement is especially for established
believers and I, I know we get new converts probably listen to
this, Amen. So obviously there's a lot of
grace here, but the tithe is part of the plan of God to see
how you handle His Holiness whenyou have a choice to spend it on
anything you want to. Wow.
(13:11):
It's holiness in money form. Yes.
So if you would mismanage His Holiness in this regard, money,
it shows how your heart feels about holiness in other matters
too. Wow.
No matter how modest we dress orhow much worldliness we avoid
knowingly, if we disregard the holy portion of God's money that
(13:33):
He's given to us to give back. This is a big deal to God
because where your treasure is. There.
There will your heart be also, and he proves this by the holy
tithe. Wow, wow, wow.
That's outstanding. So go ahead.
No, no, continue, please. I don't want to.
(13:55):
You're on a, you're on a roll. I don't want to take you off,
knock you off track. You guys bump in?
I'm just throwing stuff out. Very good.
So as as we mentioned earlier, 100% of everything I am and
everything I own comes from God.You know Psalms 24 One, the
earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world and
they that dwell therein. That means everything in the
(14:15):
world belongs to God. Every resource, every dollar,
every gold and silver mines, diamond fields, all of it's his.
We're just the stewards of things, not owners.
You need to start looking at your paycheck as this.
That's not my paycheck, it's God's.
I'm just the steward of it. The whole amount is God's, not
just the 10%. And so he's the owner of it all.
(14:38):
And so here's the deal. Tithing isn't me giving God
something I own. He owns that 10%.
As a matter of fact, he doesn't just own the 10%, He actually
owns the whole 100%. But in his kindness, he gives me
100%, then he lets me keep 90%. Yeah, it's not that I have to
pay 10, it's I get to keep. 90 Iget to keep 90, yeah.
(15:00):
Pretty good deal. That's there's no Better
Business partnership. You're going in business with
God, with his money and his promises.
If you just give me that $1010.00 back, I'll.
I'll make sure that I open the windows of heaven for you even
further. Yeah, and I'll keep the curse at
Bay and curse into the. Bow.
He's given you 100% to invest and then he's letting you asking
(15:25):
you to just invest 10% back in him and he'll let you keep the
rest of the investment that he already gave you.
Yeah. And people, people fight with
God over the 10% that he invested in you and won't invest
it back into Him. The The greatest investment plan
(15:48):
on the planet is giving. Yes, it is.
It's giving back to God. He owns the cattle on 1000
hills. I love how that verse it doesn't
count the cattle that counts thehills, right, because it's the
cattle's innumerable. We're just, you know, let's dot
the hills here. And so he he he has endless
(16:10):
resources, but the tithe is justa trust test of relationship of
our business partnership with God.
It's just a trust test because when we don't give it back to
God, that's why he says, will a man rob God who tithes and
offerings? How am I robbing you when I
don't give $10, ten, 10% back? It's looked at thievery.
(16:30):
And so for instance, I give you my wallet, right?
And $100 are in it. And I look at you, I said, will
you do me a favor, Pastor Brister, as my friend, count the
money out. And as your friend, I want to
gift you the 90% of that $90.00.I want to tell you something,
there's a whole lot more than $100 in this man's wallet.
(16:51):
Because he's paying me. So 90% of that money, $90.00 I'm
giving to you. But I gave you $100.
I just, but will you please return ten of those dollars back
to me? I trust you with that.
That is essentially what it is. When you get your paycheck, God
is giving you his wallet and asking for $10 back.
(17:15):
You know, 10% there's. No other investment in the world
like that. No other investment.
No other there's, there's no I, I don't.
I have a few investments that I that I'm involved in.
None of them are giving me anything to give to reinvest
back into them. Everything that I put into them,
(17:36):
it comes from me first, yes, notfrom them first to me.
Yes. This is the only investment
where he's supplying the funds for investment and then just
asking you for a percentage of it back.
It's in. It's the greatest thing in the
world. It's unbelievable.
It's unbelievable. And I think so.
(17:57):
We've corrected the view of the principle of tithe.
It's God's money. It's God's. 36 times in 11 books
in the Bible tithing or the 10thin relation to finance or
increases spoken to directly andin many other places the issue
is discussed without the words tithe or 10th being mentioned.
Sometimes referred to in other terms like first fruits or
firstlings or holy things and Proverbs 39 Whole 11 gets 2730
(18:23):
consecrated things, Hollywood things, Hebe offering the Lord's
portion, several other associations.
So just because it doesn't always say tie, you look at the
context and you realize what it's talking about and that
plays. That's just Old Testament
references. We go to the New Testament.
There's more there. We could easily spend 2 hours
going through Scripture proving this principle, but that the way
(18:46):
to see spiritual work or renewaltake place in my life but also
in my church is when people begin to give, especially in
ties, especially when it's backsliders giving in ties.
Yes, I'm not saying backsliders just that are coming off the
street been gone for 10 years, but it Speaking of just people
(19:07):
in the heart conditions and theylocked up when they give their
tie back. That's actually an open door of
repentance. I'll prove that here in a
second. There's a spiritual connection,
though, between finance and revival.
So let's start with the book of Malachi.
Malachi was raised up by God to confront a backslidden Israel
while they were acting as thoughthey were saved.
(19:29):
They're acting like it, right? But Malachi rose up to preach
and it was a spiritual crisis. Chapter 1, God rebukes their
half hearted fake worship. Chapter 2, he addresses their
own faithfulness and marriage, spiritual treachery, the
profaning of God's covenant, theabuse of their wives.
Chapter 3, They were profaning the Lord's sanctuary by
intermarrying with Pagan idolaters.
They were tolerating sorcery, adultery, perjury, the
(19:51):
exploitation of the vulnerable. Even the spiritual leaders, the
priesthood were corrupt. And everywhere you look, the
people were supposed to be the people that were supposed to be
the people of God. Are living like blatant sinners.
Thank God we don't, you know, have that at our church.
I'm thankful for healthy churches, y'all.
(20:11):
But Malachi did what every true God called preacher would do in
those moments. He named the sin and confronted
their heart condition. But then at the end of his
scathing sermon, Malachi 3 Malachi gives an altar call.
Remember, you know what was the altar call?
Appeal on Acts 2. Men and brethren, what shall we
do? They they had a call and
(20:32):
response there from the people actually.
Well, this kind of happens here,a call to come back to God.
Malachi said, even from the daysof your father's year, gone away
from my ordinances, return unto me and I will return unto you,
saith the Lord of Hosts. OK, so here we have 3 1/2
chapters of a sermon, A scathingsermon calling out sin.
Now we've got the altar call andhere is how the people respond.
(20:55):
When the altar call came, they said wherein shall we return?
It's like men and brother, what shall we do?
There it is. In other words, we hear you,
prophet. We're convicted, we see that we
really are are in a mess and that we're far removed from God.
And now we want to turn back to God.
But how do we do it? How do we turn back to Him?
(21:18):
This isn't for the new believer.This is for backslidden people.
Right, it's. Not men and brother.
What shall we do to get saved initially?
This is this is backslidden in heart.
Now I want you to watch this. Pay close attention to Malachi's
answer of how to start their repentance.
It's just the start. Obviously it's not the only
thing. It's just the start.
How do we start a repentance? Turning back to God, verse 8,
(21:39):
Malachi says, will a man rob God?
Yet ye have robbed me. They asked, wherein have we
robbed thee? And here it is.
He said, in ties and offerings. Then look in #10 Malachi double
S down on that answer. He says, Bring ye all the tithes
into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and
prove me. Now herewith saith the Lord of
hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you
(22:02):
out a blessing, that there shallnot be room enough to receive
it, Then God said, And I will rebuke the devour for your
sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground,
neither shall your vine Castor fruit before the time.
OK, and then saith the Lord of hosts.
So literally, God was saying Youwant to repent, you want to have
(22:23):
revival, you want to bring your marriages back together, you've
been committing adultery, you want to fix your adultery
situation. Yes, go to the altar, repent,
but there's a first thing you got to.
Stop robbing God. You got to stop robbing God.
The revival starts by you bringing a full tie into the
storehouse. Because the only way it goes
(22:44):
back to what you said in the beginning, where you started,
where your treasury is, there will your heart be also.
Literally in my next life, the renewal and return to God in
heart was proven in money. Yes.
Wow, yeah. I mean, that's what John the
Baptist said. What did He say to the people?
That when He said, Prove your repentance?
(23:04):
Remember what He said, He said, He said in Luke 37.
He said then said He to the multitude that came forth to be
baptized of him. O generation of Vipers, who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bring forth
therefore fruits worthy of repentance.
The NET version therefore produce fruit that proves your
repentance. Wow.
(23:24):
And and so he's saying Malachi, saying, Hey, I didn't call you
to do a seven day fast of repentance only.
I'm sure they had a great altar call.
Amen. But you're he's over here there
you guys are out there committing adultery and
committing perjury and fake worship.
If you want to start the processof getting this stuff right,
then we must start by bringing the full tithe into the
storehouse. Wow.
(23:46):
It's not just a financial transaction.
It's a spiritual transaction of your heart.
You're saying God, I really do submit to you.
Our submission is usually shown shown.
And when we actually admit that 100% of the tithe is God's by
giving the ten. Wow, wow.
Wow, that's outstanding. That's outstanding, incredible.
(24:06):
So money is money is God's heartmonitor.
Yes. Is the what God uses to see
where your heart is. I think one of the most because,
and we might be stepping over into some controversial ground
here, but we've made reference to it already.
But one of the big things for people is it's wonderful.
(24:30):
We've walked through the Old Testament and you know, but
tithing is not talked about a whole lot in in the New
Testament. So I you know, that that was the
law, that was the prophets. That doesn't apply to us because
we're under a new covenant. I know I want you to speak to
(24:52):
this, but I think I think one ofthe most powerful rebuttals to
that to me is in Malachi 3 when Jesus begins this or when when
Malachi begins this narrative about them robbing God in verse
6, he starts by saying he's, he's speaking as the Oracle of
(25:18):
God, the mouthpiece, mouthpiece of God.
And he says, I am the Lord and Ido not change.
And then he says, how have you robbed me in tithing and
offerings? And so God began this exchange
by literally the first phrase inthis context, in this narrative
(25:40):
is God doesn't change. And so I don't care if it's New
Testament, Old Testament, the principle of tithing has not
changed. Look, if you want to revoke all
the law, so a lot of people liketo say the law, the Old
Testament, they bundle it all up.
OK, If you want to revoke all the law, then that law of
gravity should apply. Yes.
(26:02):
Yeah, OK, You're talking about the Law of Moses, but not
actually even the entire Law of Moses.
You're you got Paul and, and, and you got to study the New
Testament and realize that they're talking about dietary
laws that gets that's removed ceremonial laws and you know, a
few other little things here, but not all the law.
But tithe is not just the Mosaiclaw.
(26:24):
It predates it. It predates the Mosaic law.
It started by Abraham. If you're looking for the
literal word tithe that started with Abraham, that predates the
law. But then you go back to Cain and
Abel. You go back to Jacob even did it
Cain and Abel. The reason why his Keynes was
probably rejected was because hedidn't first bring his first
(26:45):
sling. First fruits.
First fruits. He brought produce, but God
wanted first fruits. And that is an important idea.
That is an important concept to understand about tithing is it's
not just 10%, it is the 1st, 10th.
It is. You got to give the first you
take it off the top. First paycheck before I pay Jill
(27:08):
back or before I pay? I like Bill my Bill my car.
Payment. Whatever thing I make sure, God
knows that he's. 1st. These these are this is your
money 1st and I'm not going to put you last because what if you
don't actually have 10% if you start paying everything after
that, I'd rather make sure God gets his first seek you first,
the Kingdom of God. Well, I, you know, wait.
(27:29):
Until later, and make him last and be like All these things
cannot be added unto me. Yes, wow, that's, that's very
good. Well, you know, I think one of
the, one of the ideas that the, or the thought processes that
caused this to click for me as ayoung, very young man was I want
(27:50):
to what if I, if I, if God walked through my door today and
presented himself to me in physical form and asked for my
bank statements? I want my bank statements to
prove that he's first, right? Because he gets his first.
(28:12):
He gets what he has, not his. It's all his.
He gets what he has asked of me first.
And I think, I think you can really tell where people's
priorities are if you just have them print out their bank
statements. It's God's heart monitor.
It is his heart monitor. I mean you look at the original,
(28:33):
the first sin, Adam and Eve, they had access to all the trees
in the garden, 100% except almost 100% except the tithe of
it. Yeah.
The tree was the tithe of knowledge of good and evil.
You'd let that just be gods. You have access to everything
else. Yeah, really.
(28:54):
The original sin was just not respecting the tithe.
Yeah, boy, that's powerful. Something Pastor Purchase said
earlier. Kind of made me think because my
wife, she first generation Apostolic and she thought when
she got in church, there was like Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John and that was about it, You know, just the Gospels.
(29:14):
But so he, he mentioned how likepeople are like, that's the Old
Testament. And then if you teach any Bible
study, at some point they're going to talk about how things
transition from the old to the new.
Some things stay the same, like consumption of blood.
Some things escalate to a higher, even a law, higher way
of doing things, and some thingspass away.
(29:35):
So I don't know if this is the right point in your, in your
study, but where would you say that?
Where does that fit in there? Because there's, there's some
things in the Old Testament where it talks about people like
eating or drinking their own tithe in the Old Testament.
But where would you say like because he he brought Malachi,
but where would you say the New Testament?
There's that, I guess, demonstration of.
(29:59):
It Bible calls an increase to you, so whatever increases you.
So I would, I just don't tithe off of money, I tithe off of all
my increase. All my increase.
And so that's actually scriptural dynamic.
You just don't tie that money you.
I was given clothes. Yeah.
I don't know how to estimate allthe value of that, but I'll try
(30:20):
to do my research how much that is worth, that's worth and it's
used so I can dock it a little bit.
But I'm going to tithe off that what's been given to me.
I'll tithe off of gift cards. I'll tithe off of all kinds of
if it's an increase to me. So whether it be someone handed
me a bushel of okra tied off of that, obviously my pastors,
(30:40):
Bishop Copeland, I'm not going to send him in a box and a mail
of okra. I'm going to convert it into
money form and make sure I'm covering that.
Maybe somebody's saying, well, why are you being so meticulous?
Because I know if I'm meticulousabout it, God will be meticulous
back with me. Yes, Sir, because I am desperate
to honor Him. I'm telling you what He will
double honor me. He will, absolutely.
(31:02):
Elder JT Bass's wife Granny Bass.
It was said. I, I didn't see it first hand,
but I was told it, I think by sister Juanita that she would
take the coupons she got from the store and she got dollar off
coupons. She would tie on the coupons
that she would receive his and why did she do that?
It was said that she's like, I want to make sure that I'm not
(31:25):
cheating God. And if I am, I want to be
covered. I don't want to.
Make any air. I think it's I think it's very,
very important for, you know, for the you mentioned Hurley
hurliness. We want to be Hurley around here
for is that in? Mississippi coming?
(31:45):
Out yeah, You mentioned holinessearly earlier and tithing, being
holy to God. I think it's important for for
people to understand that, you know, when we are, when we are
all in our pursuit of holiness, separation happens.
What holiness is, it's a separation.
(32:09):
So we separate ourselves in the way that we dress, in the way
that we carry ourselves, in the way that our in our appearance
and all that those things as Apostolic.
But a mature Christian does not do those things because he's
afraid or she's afraid of going to hell.
Right. Yeah.
They do those things because they want to please God and they
(32:30):
have developed a love relationship with God.
I think that same principle needs to translate into the
tithing and giving world where I'm not doing this because I'm
afraid God's going to strike me dead or I'm going to go to hell
if I if I don't tithe on every dime that comes through.
(32:51):
That's not why I'm meticulous. I'm meticulous because I love
him. Yeah.
And we have such a skewed view of relationship in general
because of how the marriage relationship has gotten so
messed up where the people that we are the rudest to are the
people we're supposed to love the most.
(33:14):
The people that we neglect are the people we are supposed to
love the most. The people that we are hateful
and bitter towards are the people that we let.
Well, they love us so that they've, they're, they're
married to me. So they've got, they've got to
deal with it. They they can put up with it.
Well, a real love relationship is meticulous in yeah, I am
(33:36):
upset. I'm irritable today.
I'm I'm, I am angry. I've dealt with a lot, but I'm
not going to bring this home andspew this on the person that I
love more than life itself. And so in the same way, I am
meticulous in the way that I give back to God, not because
(33:57):
I'm afraid that God is going to strike me or that I'm going to
be lost because I've, I've missed $0.10.
I am meticulous because I love him with all of my heart.
And I want him to know that withmy diligence that I love him.
(34:18):
That's good. I'm careful to let him know how
much I love him. Don't, I don't think we need to.
And you can, you know, you can correct me if you're wrong, if
you have a different opinion. God bless you.
I, I, I receive it. I, I receive it.
But, you know, I, I really, really feel like we need to view
(34:40):
everything that we do as Christians as I'm doing this
because I love him, not because I'm afraid of being judged if I
make a mistake. I've made a, I've made mistakes
with tithing before. I don't know if I can admit that
on the air. Think about this.
(35:01):
You know, Paul, we're not. I don't have the scripture in
front of me but it says an elderis worthy of what?
Double honor. Double honor.
Read the first verse before that, and the last verse or the
next verse after that. It's it's talking about don't
muzzle the ox of truth. It's talking about a Workman
being worthy of his hire. It's all implicationary.
It's all in reference to ministry.
(35:23):
Yes, right there. It's talking about the tithe.
It may not use the word tithe, but we know it's talking about
supporting ministry. Yes, it's worthy of double
honor. Have we?
So if the honor part is actuallythe what it's talking about,
it's talking about money. Talking about money.
So he's actually not if you're if you love the ministry and the
gift of ministry that God has put in your world, he's not
actually worthy of 10%. He's worthy of double of the 10
(35:45):
but God set it up. Said he's worth love.
Will actually demand more. Than all ever will.
That's so good. That is so good.
Love will pull It's saying he's worthy of 20% because he's
carrying a better message. He's delivering a better hope
than the Old Testament ever did.He's.
(36:07):
Well, you know as well as I do, and.
Obviously a pastor's not going to demand that.
No, no, no. But that's what God is saying.
He's saying he may. This pastor's never going to
demand something like that, but he's worthy of it.
Well, you know as well as I do everyone that really, really
gets the revelation of the blessing and the favor that
(36:31):
comes from being meticulous and giving given God what He has
asked back. It rarely ever stops with 10.
It rarely ever stops with the 10%.
I don't know anybody that's really got the revelation that
stopped at the 10%. It always many times 20 and and
(36:55):
many times far beyond. The lady that gave her two
mites, why did she give 2 and not one?
Because in the in the temple at that time in the treasury, there
was actually multiple containersto put into one was defined as
offering and the other one was defined to go to the ministry.
She couldn't decide which one she's I could keep, I could pay
my ties and keep this one for myself.
(37:16):
But I love the House of God, so she gave both.
God, wow, that's incredible. She.
Gave both. That's incredible.
Well, I think I think that's a good place to end.
This has been incredible. We can talk about First
Corinthians next time. Let's do it.
We got to have Part 2. Leave a comment if you want Part
(37:41):
2 we'll bring. Difficult questions because we
have. Yes, if you have any difficult
questions, you need to leave them for pastor.
In our life, we're. Actually going to do the the
episode here in about 10 minutesand put it on the next week.
Just give us a second to change our options.
Yeah, yes. Well, thank you, man.
(38:02):
Thank you so much for coming in.And I, I appreciate you being
willing to do this. And remember that money is God's
heart monitor. And if you want to let God know
where your heart is, where your priorities are in your life,
it's not. Don't don't view it as something
(38:24):
that if I make a mistake, God's going to judge me.
Do it out of love and let God know by your giving your first
fruits to God that he is priority in your life.
Musician has come.
Welcome back to the Ocala Churchpodcast, The Pastor Ryan
Brister. Today we were talking about the
important subject of tithing. All right, welcome back to the
(00:25):
Ocala Church Podcast. We are excited to be back in the
studio. I believe we had a week there so
that we weren't able to be in the studio a lot happening at
the Ocala church, but we're gladto be back in studio and we are
especially glad to have Pastor Mike and Narlock with us.
So yeah. And glad to be with you guys
(00:48):
today. So we're we're looking forward
to a great podcast in in the meantime, we have we got some
stuff coming up right here at the Ocala Church that we're
excited about. One of the things on the top of
my mind right now as youth pastor, I have to do these
things called fundraisers and they're fun and they raise
(01:10):
funds. They.
Raise kids. We have a fireworks tent coming
up June 27th to July 4th that we're just stoked about.
So as you hear this, there's stuff on Facebook.
Please share it if you're not local.
You can donate if you want to atOcala Church, Ocala dot Church
online. If you just feel the donate to
(01:32):
that. We might ship you some
fireworks, who knows? Explosive opportunity it is.
And so, but I don't want to get too drawn out into this because
we have a lot of topic to discuss today and, and we're
super excited to get into this. Pastor Brister, I'll hand this
(01:53):
off to you. We are very excited to have my
friend Pastor Micah Norlock fromMorganton, NC with us this week
to talk about tithing and he is an expert on the subject and so.
If only I need 10% of what I need to know we.
(02:13):
We, we flew the experts in to talk about it.
No, I he, he is a outstanding pastor and preacher and they're
building a revival church in thecity of Morgans in North
Carolina. And we have been friends for a
(02:34):
long time, very long time. I think we first met when we
were about 7 years old. And man, it's been a, it's been
a long ride. How many friends do you have
that are still very close to youthat were your friends when you
were seven? You're.
The only one. Yeah, me too.
(02:56):
So it's it's hard to have. What is that saying?
It's hard to have new old friends.
Can't make old friends. Yeah.
So we're we have. We are old friends.
We have done our best through the years and it's been
intentional for both of us to make sure we stayed in the loop
(03:17):
of each other's lives and and I don't know about him, but I'm
definitely reaping the benefits of a our friendship and.
And tell us more. I could go all day on this, I
really could. Brother Narlock is a, is a great
Christian man. He's an accountability partner
(03:40):
of mine. He's one of the few friends in
my life that I know will always tell me the truth about myself.
And that is invaluable. Find you some friends that'll
tell you the truth. And so thank you for being here.
And I'm going to just kind of throw this at you.
(04:02):
You can talk about this tie the subject of tithing from any
perspective you that you prefer.You can talk about it in a
theological sense. You can talk about it in it from
a standpoint of principle. You can tie them together.
You just do you and we'll go along for the ride.
Well. First of all, we're honored to
(04:22):
be here. Thank you for the opportunity to
join you guys on this wonderful podcast.
Amen. We TuneIn from time to time up
in Morganton and we've always enjoyed the content you guys put
forth and we love Ocala Church. Obviously, I have got very
personal connection here with Pastor Brister and but the bass
from years ago. And so it's good to see the
supreme elder, the Brennan that's with us and.
(04:48):
And let me in. The doors it's great to see you
here today as well and man we'relove what God did last night and
continuing to do and so we're going to talk about a little bit
about tithing. I'm not an expert on this topic
by any stretch, but I I love. To tithe, right?
I I'm working on it. You mean you're a pastor that
(05:12):
pays tithing? I am a pastor that believes
pastors need to pay tithes. That's well.
Unbelievable. So it's worth noting, let's get
into this. It's worth noticing in Jesus's
ministry cause a lot of people say, well, Jesus just loved a
bunch of people. He didn't care about money.
It's actually he spoke on finances more than he did about
(05:32):
heaven, hell, or love, or the salvation plan for that matter.
Wow. Out of 38 parables Jesus taught,
sixteen of those parables had todo with how we handle money in
possessions. Wow, that's almost half.
Almost half, yeah. In the four gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John, there are 2880 verses.
(05:53):
Of those, 288 verses deal directly with money.
That's one out of every 10 verses.
Wow, he dealt with money. The Bible as a whole contains
roughly 500 verses about prayer,a little less than 500 about
faith, about over 2000 verses that speak about money, wow, and
(06:14):
possessions. So if we're going to preach the
whole council of God, if we're going to put emphasis where the
Bible puts emphasis, which I think is a wise way to minister,
sure. Then by that ratio, for everyone
sermon we preach on prayer, we ought to be preaching for on
money. Wow, wow.
For everyone, Sermon on Faith 4 should be on giving,
stewardship, and financial responsibility.
(06:37):
Incredible. So that that kind of flies in
the face of that. That preacher's always talking
about money, though. Well, they're exactly.
They would have said that about Jesus.
This point goes to show if somebody comes up and says,
well, I, I, you know, church is always about money, that
everything they talk about is about money, which isn't true.
But the reality is, is that you can point to these kind of
(06:59):
ratios and these statistics, stats or whatever you want to
call them and say, we're not actually doing near enough.
Because I don't know of a singlechurch that actually follows
that ratio pattern. And I don't think we'll start
today. So whenever we go into a season
of talking about money, we also we should perk up and not let it
let us fall into kind of that mainstream sarcasm.
(07:21):
Yeah. And I called not all sarcasm is
this way, but to me, the root ofsarcasm is usually doubt.
It's it's, it's, it's fear. I heard Joel Arshin say the
other day he said sarcoma is a cancerous tumor.
(07:42):
Sarcasm is a cancerous humor. It's the truth.
Sarcasm is probably a man's maintool to try to face life.
When a man is not happy with hiswife, he'll get sarcastic.
Sarcastic. Or his children, et cetera.
Or about his church, about his walk with God.
(08:03):
He'll get sarcastic. Because at the root of that is
what is God's commandment for holy men is lifting up holy
hands without wrath and without doubting.
So a man's response is you shouldn't have doubt.
Sarcasm is an outcropping of doubt.
So obviously we still have sarcastic humor for fun, but
(08:25):
it's a dangerous humor. If we're not careful.
It can be. It's basis is doubt in what
God's doing through our church, through our marriage, through
our kids, through our family, but also in subjects about money
at church. So why did Jesus teach and why
does the word of God teach on money so much?
Because Jesus tried to convey this in Matthew 621.
(08:46):
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
This means it's impossible to separate money from your heart.
So if God truly has our hearts, then it sends a reason that it
will be shown in how we manage our money in matters, especially
in matters as sacred as tithing and offering, but also how we
(09:07):
budget the rest of what we have.I think that's a key point
because you know, a lot of people take care of the tithing
and the offering part and then blow the rest and then say,
well, the the tithing and the offerings don't work.
I'm still not blessed. Well, you know, you took care of
(09:29):
what he required back without realizing that the whole 100 is
his. You know that that you still got
to manage the rest of it. Tithing and offering doesn't
negate the fact that you've got to be wise with the rest of what
he gave you. Because it's all actually God's
money. It's all God's money.
It's all God's money, but for the sake of the tithe part,
(09:53):
Leviticus 2730 says in all the tithe of the land, whether of
the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the
Lord's. It is holy.
Holy. So I think sometimes we forget
in our Bible holiness teachings,we'll go through a holiness
series that tithing is actually a matter of holiness.
Matter of holiness, yes. And, and to suggest that tithing
(10:15):
no longer matters because of theNew Testament church or
whatever, I'm telling you, I would be careful with that
because you're suggesting that some holiness standards really
don't matter anymore. Wow, wow.
And so the Hebrew word for holy is kodesh.
It means to set apart it's sacred, it's consecrated,
belonging to God. Thus, to misuse it, the tithe
part is to profane what is sacred.
(10:38):
So when it comes to God saying that the tithe is holy, he
doesn't just mean that paying your tithe is an act of
holiness, but the tithe itself, while it's in your wallet, while
it's in your paycheck form, it'sholy in itself.
It's not just the act of paying,it is holy, it is holy.
So for God, setting apart anything that is holy is such a
(11:01):
big deal. So whether it's your body,
whether it's your clothes, whether it's your relationships,
your worship, it's such a big deal.
All these matters are meant to be holy to God.
That to violate any one of thosethings by forcing them into an
unseparated condition is such a severe violation of God's sacred
nature that it encourage rejection of God's covering of
(11:23):
favor because God cannot favor anything that is actively taking
holiness and profaning it, including our tithe.
I'm, I'm coming out pretty strong here, but no, it's good.
So, so try to, so to try to corrupt the holiness of the
tithe is a very severe attempt at attacking God's overall
holiness. Wow.
You go to the throne room of God.
(11:44):
The angels are gathered around the throne of God.
What are they saying? They're not saying love, love.
Love is the Lord God Almighty. They're not saying faith, faith,
faith. They're not saying kindness,
kindness, kindness, meekness, meekness, meekness.
They're saying holy, holy, holy.Why are they pre?
Why are they emphasizing on holiness?
Because holiness is the foundation of love.
Holiness is the foundation of faith.
(12:04):
You can't have those other attributes without holiness.
And so we don't mix with holiness.
I'm telling you, the tithe is not to be firstly seen as a
paycheck to keep things rolling for ministry.
It's first and foremost the Lord's holy tithe.
So when I go pay my tithe at church, I don't look at it as
well. I'm just giving.
I'm helping the preacher survive.
(12:26):
Literally, it's God's money. God's money, then.
After it leaves the offering plate, God orchestrated it to go
to the ministry. But first and foremost, I'm
giving that to God. I don't look at it as I'm paying
the ministry, I look at it as ifI'm paying God and then God
takes care of the rest. I don't need to know where else
it's going after that because it's God's holy money.
Now I'm waving my hands and Amen.
(12:47):
It's not sign language, I promise.
So this next statement is especially for established
believers and I, I know we get new converts probably listen to
this, Amen. So obviously there's a lot of
grace here, but the tithe is part of the plan of God to see
how you handle His Holiness whenyou have a choice to spend it on
anything you want to. Wow.
(13:11):
It's holiness in money form. Yes.
So if you would mismanage His Holiness in this regard, money,
it shows how your heart feels about holiness in other matters
too. Wow.
No matter how modest we dress orhow much worldliness we avoid
knowingly, if we disregard the holy portion of God's money that
(13:33):
He's given to us to give back. This is a big deal to God
because where your treasure is. There.
There will your heart be also, and he proves this by the holy
tithe. Wow, wow, wow.
That's outstanding. So go ahead.
No, no, continue, please. I don't want to.
(13:55):
You're on a, you're on a roll. I don't want to take you off,
knock you off track. You guys bump in?
I'm just throwing stuff out. Very good.
So as as we mentioned earlier, 100% of everything I am and
everything I own comes from God.You know Psalms 24 One, the
earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world and
they that dwell therein. That means everything in the
(14:15):
world belongs to God. Every resource, every dollar,
every gold and silver mines, diamond fields, all of it's his.
We're just the stewards of things, not owners.
You need to start looking at your paycheck as this.
That's not my paycheck, it's God's.
I'm just the steward of it. The whole amount is God's, not
just the 10%. And so he's the owner of it all.
(14:38):
And so here's the deal. Tithing isn't me giving God
something I own. He owns that 10%.
As a matter of fact, he doesn't just own the 10%, He actually
owns the whole 100%. But in his kindness, he gives me
100%, then he lets me keep 90%. Yeah, it's not that I have to
pay 10, it's I get to keep. 90 Iget to keep 90, yeah.
(15:00):
Pretty good deal. That's there's no Better
Business partnership. You're going in business with
God, with his money and his promises.
If you just give me that $1010.00 back, I'll.
I'll make sure that I open the windows of heaven for you even
further. Yeah, and I'll keep the curse at
Bay and curse into the. Bow.
He's given you 100% to invest and then he's letting you asking
(15:25):
you to just invest 10% back in him and he'll let you keep the
rest of the investment that he already gave you.
Yeah. And people, people fight with
God over the 10% that he invested in you and won't invest
it back into Him. The The greatest investment plan
(15:48):
on the planet is giving. Yes, it is.
It's giving back to God. He owns the cattle on 1000
hills. I love how that verse it doesn't
count the cattle that counts thehills, right, because it's the
cattle's innumerable. We're just, you know, let's dot
the hills here. And so he he he has endless
(16:10):
resources, but the tithe is justa trust test of relationship of
our business partnership with God.
It's just a trust test because when we don't give it back to
God, that's why he says, will a man rob God who tithes and
offerings? How am I robbing you when I
don't give $10, ten, 10% back? It's looked at thievery.
(16:30):
And so for instance, I give you my wallet, right?
And $100 are in it. And I look at you, I said, will
you do me a favor, Pastor Brister, as my friend, count the
money out. And as your friend, I want to
gift you the 90% of that $90.00.I want to tell you something,
there's a whole lot more than $100 in this man's wallet.
(16:51):
Because he's paying me. So 90% of that money, $90.00 I'm
giving to you. But I gave you $100.
I just, but will you please return ten of those dollars back
to me? I trust you with that.
That is essentially what it is. When you get your paycheck, God
is giving you his wallet and asking for $10 back.
(17:15):
You know, 10% there's. No other investment in the world
like that. No other investment.
No other there's, there's no I, I don't.
I have a few investments that I that I'm involved in.
None of them are giving me anything to give to reinvest
back into them. Everything that I put into them,
(17:36):
it comes from me first, yes, notfrom them first to me.
Yes. This is the only investment
where he's supplying the funds for investment and then just
asking you for a percentage of it back.
It's in. It's the greatest thing in the
world. It's unbelievable.
It's unbelievable. And I think so.
(17:57):
We've corrected the view of the principle of tithe.
It's God's money. It's God's. 36 times in 11 books
in the Bible tithing or the 10thin relation to finance or
increases spoken to directly andin many other places the issue
is discussed without the words tithe or 10th being mentioned.
Sometimes referred to in other terms like first fruits or
firstlings or holy things and Proverbs 39 Whole 11 gets 2730
(18:23):
consecrated things, Hollywood things, Hebe offering the Lord's
portion, several other associations.
So just because it doesn't always say tie, you look at the
context and you realize what it's talking about and that
plays. That's just Old Testament
references. We go to the New Testament.
There's more there. We could easily spend 2 hours
going through Scripture proving this principle, but that the way
(18:46):
to see spiritual work or renewaltake place in my life but also
in my church is when people begin to give, especially in
ties, especially when it's backsliders giving in ties.
Yes, I'm not saying backsliders just that are coming off the
street been gone for 10 years, but it Speaking of just people
(19:07):
in the heart conditions and theylocked up when they give their
tie back. That's actually an open door of
repentance. I'll prove that here in a
second. There's a spiritual connection,
though, between finance and revival.
So let's start with the book of Malachi.
Malachi was raised up by God to confront a backslidden Israel
while they were acting as thoughthey were saved.
(19:29):
They're acting like it, right? But Malachi rose up to preach
and it was a spiritual crisis. Chapter 1, God rebukes their
half hearted fake worship. Chapter 2, he addresses their
own faithfulness and marriage, spiritual treachery, the
profaning of God's covenant, theabuse of their wives.
Chapter 3, They were profaning the Lord's sanctuary by
intermarrying with Pagan idolaters.
They were tolerating sorcery, adultery, perjury, the
(19:51):
exploitation of the vulnerable. Even the spiritual leaders, the
priesthood were corrupt. And everywhere you look, the
people were supposed to be the people that were supposed to be
the people of God. Are living like blatant sinners.
Thank God we don't, you know, have that at our church.
I'm thankful for healthy churches, y'all.
(20:11):
But Malachi did what every true God called preacher would do in
those moments. He named the sin and confronted
their heart condition. But then at the end of his
scathing sermon, Malachi 3 Malachi gives an altar call.
Remember, you know what was the altar call?
Appeal on Acts 2. Men and brethren, what shall we
do? They they had a call and
(20:32):
response there from the people actually.
Well, this kind of happens here,a call to come back to God.
Malachi said, even from the daysof your father's year, gone away
from my ordinances, return unto me and I will return unto you,
saith the Lord of Hosts. OK, so here we have 3 1/2
chapters of a sermon, A scathingsermon calling out sin.
Now we've got the altar call andhere is how the people respond.
(20:55):
When the altar call came, they said wherein shall we return?
It's like men and brother, what shall we do?
There it is. In other words, we hear you,
prophet. We're convicted, we see that we
really are are in a mess and that we're far removed from God.
And now we want to turn back to God.
But how do we do it? How do we turn back to Him?
(21:18):
This isn't for the new believer.This is for backslidden people.
Right, it's. Not men and brother.
What shall we do to get saved initially?
This is this is backslidden in heart.
Now I want you to watch this. Pay close attention to Malachi's
answer of how to start their repentance.
It's just the start. Obviously it's not the only
thing. It's just the start.
How do we start a repentance? Turning back to God, verse 8,
(21:39):
Malachi says, will a man rob God?
Yet ye have robbed me. They asked, wherein have we
robbed thee? And here it is.
He said, in ties and offerings. Then look in #10 Malachi double
S down on that answer. He says, Bring ye all the tithes
into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and
prove me. Now herewith saith the Lord of
hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you
(22:02):
out a blessing, that there shallnot be room enough to receive
it, Then God said, And I will rebuke the devour for your
sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground,
neither shall your vine Castor fruit before the time.
OK, and then saith the Lord of hosts.
So literally, God was saying Youwant to repent, you want to have
(22:23):
revival, you want to bring your marriages back together, you've
been committing adultery, you want to fix your adultery
situation. Yes, go to the altar, repent,
but there's a first thing you got to.
Stop robbing God. You got to stop robbing God.
The revival starts by you bringing a full tie into the
storehouse. Because the only way it goes
(22:44):
back to what you said in the beginning, where you started,
where your treasury is, there will your heart be also.
Literally in my next life, the renewal and return to God in
heart was proven in money. Yes.
Wow, yeah. I mean, that's what John the
Baptist said. What did He say to the people?
That when He said, Prove your repentance?
(23:04):
Remember what He said, He said, He said in Luke 37.
He said then said He to the multitude that came forth to be
baptized of him. O generation of Vipers, who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bring forth
therefore fruits worthy of repentance.
The NET version therefore produce fruit that proves your
repentance. Wow.
(23:24):
And and so he's saying Malachi, saying, Hey, I didn't call you
to do a seven day fast of repentance only.
I'm sure they had a great altar call.
Amen. But you're he's over here there
you guys are out there committing adultery and
committing perjury and fake worship.
If you want to start the processof getting this stuff right,
then we must start by bringing the full tithe into the
storehouse. Wow.
(23:46):
It's not just a financial transaction.
It's a spiritual transaction of your heart.
You're saying God, I really do submit to you.
Our submission is usually shown shown.
And when we actually admit that 100% of the tithe is God's by
giving the ten. Wow, wow.
Wow, that's outstanding. That's outstanding, incredible.
(24:06):
So money is money is God's heartmonitor.
Yes. Is the what God uses to see
where your heart is. I think one of the most because,
and we might be stepping over into some controversial ground
here, but we've made reference to it already.
But one of the big things for people is it's wonderful.
(24:30):
We've walked through the Old Testament and you know, but
tithing is not talked about a whole lot in in the New
Testament. So I you know, that that was the
law, that was the prophets. That doesn't apply to us because
we're under a new covenant. I know I want you to speak to
(24:52):
this, but I think I think one ofthe most powerful rebuttals to
that to me is in Malachi 3 when Jesus begins this or when when
Malachi begins this narrative about them robbing God in verse
6, he starts by saying he's, he's speaking as the Oracle of
(25:18):
God, the mouthpiece, mouthpiece of God.
And he says, I am the Lord and Ido not change.
And then he says, how have you robbed me in tithing and
offerings? And so God began this exchange
by literally the first phrase inthis context, in this narrative
(25:40):
is God doesn't change. And so I don't care if it's New
Testament, Old Testament, the principle of tithing has not
changed. Look, if you want to revoke all
the law, so a lot of people liketo say the law, the Old
Testament, they bundle it all up.
OK, If you want to revoke all the law, then that law of
gravity should apply. Yes.
(26:02):
Yeah, OK, You're talking about the Law of Moses, but not
actually even the entire Law of Moses.
You're you got Paul and, and, and you got to study the New
Testament and realize that they're talking about dietary
laws that gets that's removed ceremonial laws and you know, a
few other little things here, but not all the law.
But tithe is not just the Mosaiclaw.
(26:24):
It predates it. It predates the Mosaic law.
It started by Abraham. If you're looking for the
literal word tithe that started with Abraham, that predates the
law. But then you go back to Cain and
Abel. You go back to Jacob even did it
Cain and Abel. The reason why his Keynes was
probably rejected was because hedidn't first bring his first
(26:45):
sling. First fruits.
First fruits. He brought produce, but God
wanted first fruits. And that is an important idea.
That is an important concept to understand about tithing is it's
not just 10%, it is the 1st, 10th.
It is. You got to give the first you
take it off the top. First paycheck before I pay Jill
(27:08):
back or before I pay? I like Bill my Bill my car.
Payment. Whatever thing I make sure, God
knows that he's. 1st. These these are this is your
money 1st and I'm not going to put you last because what if you
don't actually have 10% if you start paying everything after
that, I'd rather make sure God gets his first seek you first,
the Kingdom of God. Well, I, you know, wait.
(27:29):
Until later, and make him last and be like All these things
cannot be added unto me. Yes, wow, that's, that's very
good. Well, you know, I think one of
the, one of the ideas that the, or the thought processes that
caused this to click for me as ayoung, very young man was I want
(27:50):
to what if I, if I, if God walked through my door today and
presented himself to me in physical form and asked for my
bank statements? I want my bank statements to
prove that he's first, right? Because he gets his first.
(28:12):
He gets what he has, not his. It's all his.
He gets what he has asked of me first.
And I think, I think you can really tell where people's
priorities are if you just have them print out their bank
statements. It's God's heart monitor.
It is his heart monitor. I mean you look at the original,
(28:33):
the first sin, Adam and Eve, they had access to all the trees
in the garden, 100% except almost 100% except the tithe of
it. Yeah.
The tree was the tithe of knowledge of good and evil.
You'd let that just be gods. You have access to everything
else. Yeah, really.
(28:54):
The original sin was just not respecting the tithe.
Yeah, boy, that's powerful. Something Pastor Purchase said
earlier. Kind of made me think because my
wife, she first generation Apostolic and she thought when
she got in church, there was like Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John and that was about it, You know, just the Gospels.
(29:14):
But so he, he mentioned how likepeople are like, that's the Old
Testament. And then if you teach any Bible
study, at some point they're going to talk about how things
transition from the old to the new.
Some things stay the same, like consumption of blood.
Some things escalate to a higher, even a law, higher way
of doing things, and some thingspass away.
(29:35):
So I don't know if this is the right point in your, in your
study, but where would you say that?
Where does that fit in there? Because there's, there's some
things in the Old Testament where it talks about people like
eating or drinking their own tithe in the Old Testament.
But where would you say like because he he brought Malachi,
but where would you say the New Testament?
There's that, I guess, demonstration of.
(29:59):
It Bible calls an increase to you, so whatever increases you.
So I would, I just don't tithe off of money, I tithe off of all
my increase. All my increase.
And so that's actually scriptural dynamic.
You just don't tie that money you.
I was given clothes. Yeah.
I don't know how to estimate allthe value of that, but I'll try
(30:20):
to do my research how much that is worth, that's worth and it's
used so I can dock it a little bit.
But I'm going to tithe off that what's been given to me.
I'll tithe off of gift cards. I'll tithe off of all kinds of
if it's an increase to me. So whether it be someone handed
me a bushel of okra tied off of that, obviously my pastors,
(30:40):
Bishop Copeland, I'm not going to send him in a box and a mail
of okra. I'm going to convert it into
money form and make sure I'm covering that.
Maybe somebody's saying, well, why are you being so meticulous?
Because I know if I'm meticulousabout it, God will be meticulous
back with me. Yes, Sir, because I am desperate
to honor Him. I'm telling you what He will
double honor me. He will, absolutely.
(31:02):
Elder JT Bass's wife Granny Bass.
It was said. I, I didn't see it first hand,
but I was told it, I think by sister Juanita that she would
take the coupons she got from the store and she got dollar off
coupons. She would tie on the coupons
that she would receive his and why did she do that?
It was said that she's like, I want to make sure that I'm not
(31:25):
cheating God. And if I am, I want to be
covered. I don't want to.
Make any air. I think it's I think it's very,
very important for, you know, for the you mentioned Hurley
hurliness. We want to be Hurley around here
for is that in? Mississippi coming?
(31:45):
Out yeah, You mentioned holinessearly earlier and tithing, being
holy to God. I think it's important for for
people to understand that, you know, when we are, when we are
all in our pursuit of holiness, separation happens.
What holiness is, it's a separation.
(32:09):
So we separate ourselves in the way that we dress, in the way
that we carry ourselves, in the way that our in our appearance
and all that those things as Apostolic.
But a mature Christian does not do those things because he's
afraid or she's afraid of going to hell.
Right. Yeah.
They do those things because they want to please God and they
(32:30):
have developed a love relationship with God.
I think that same principle needs to translate into the
tithing and giving world where I'm not doing this because I'm
afraid God's going to strike me dead or I'm going to go to hell
if I if I don't tithe on every dime that comes through.
(32:51):
That's not why I'm meticulous. I'm meticulous because I love
him. Yeah.
And we have such a skewed view of relationship in general
because of how the marriage relationship has gotten so
messed up where the people that we are the rudest to are the
people we're supposed to love the most.
(33:14):
The people that we neglect are the people we are supposed to
love the most. The people that we are hateful
and bitter towards are the people that we let.
Well, they love us so that they've, they're, they're
married to me. So they've got, they've got to
deal with it. They they can put up with it.
Well, a real love relationship is meticulous in yeah, I am
(33:36):
upset. I'm irritable today.
I'm I'm, I am angry. I've dealt with a lot, but I'm
not going to bring this home andspew this on the person that I
love more than life itself. And so in the same way, I am
meticulous in the way that I give back to God, not because
(33:57):
I'm afraid that God is going to strike me or that I'm going to
be lost because I've, I've missed $0.10.
I am meticulous because I love him with all of my heart.
And I want him to know that withmy diligence that I love him.
(34:18):
That's good. I'm careful to let him know how
much I love him. Don't, I don't think we need to.
And you can, you know, you can correct me if you're wrong, if
you have a different opinion. God bless you.
I, I, I receive it. I, I receive it.
But, you know, I, I really, really feel like we need to view
(34:40):
everything that we do as Christians as I'm doing this
because I love him, not because I'm afraid of being judged if I
make a mistake. I've made a, I've made mistakes
with tithing before. I don't know if I can admit that
on the air. Think about this.
(35:01):
You know, Paul, we're not. I don't have the scripture in
front of me but it says an elderis worthy of what?
Double honor. Double honor.
Read the first verse before that, and the last verse or the
next verse after that. It's it's talking about don't
muzzle the ox of truth. It's talking about a Workman
being worthy of his hire. It's all implicationary.
It's all in reference to ministry.
(35:23):
Yes, right there. It's talking about the tithe.
It may not use the word tithe, but we know it's talking about
supporting ministry. Yes, it's worthy of double
honor. Have we?
So if the honor part is actuallythe what it's talking about,
it's talking about money. Talking about money.
So he's actually not if you're if you love the ministry and the
gift of ministry that God has put in your world, he's not
actually worthy of 10%. He's worthy of double of the 10
(35:45):
but God set it up. Said he's worth love.
Will actually demand more. Than all ever will.
That's so good. That is so good.
Love will pull It's saying he's worthy of 20% because he's
carrying a better message. He's delivering a better hope
than the Old Testament ever did.He's.
(36:07):
Well, you know as well as I do, and.
Obviously a pastor's not going to demand that.
No, no, no. But that's what God is saying.
He's saying he may. This pastor's never going to
demand something like that, but he's worthy of it.
Well, you know as well as I do everyone that really, really
gets the revelation of the blessing and the favor that
(36:31):
comes from being meticulous and giving given God what He has
asked back. It rarely ever stops with 10.
It rarely ever stops with the 10%.
I don't know anybody that's really got the revelation that
stopped at the 10%. It always many times 20 and and
(36:55):
many times far beyond. The lady that gave her two
mites, why did she give 2 and not one?
Because in the in the temple at that time in the treasury, there
was actually multiple containersto put into one was defined as
offering and the other one was defined to go to the ministry.
She couldn't decide which one she's I could keep, I could pay
my ties and keep this one for myself.
(37:16):
But I love the House of God, so she gave both.
God, wow, that's incredible. She.
Gave both. That's incredible.
Well, I think I think that's a good place to end.
This has been incredible. We can talk about First
Corinthians next time. Let's do it.
We got to have Part 2. Leave a comment if you want Part
(37:41):
2 we'll bring. Difficult questions because we
have. Yes, if you have any difficult
questions, you need to leave them for pastor.
In our life, we're. Actually going to do the the
episode here in about 10 minutesand put it on the next week.
Just give us a second to change our options.
Yeah, yes. Well, thank you, man.
(38:02):
Thank you so much for coming in.And I, I appreciate you being
willing to do this. And remember that money is God's
heart monitor. And if you want to let God know
where your heart is, where your priorities are in your life,
it's not. Don't don't view it as something
(38:24):
that if I make a mistake, God's going to judge me.
Do it out of love and let God know by your giving your first
fruits to God that he is priority in your life.
Musician has come.
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