Tithing Part Two | Pastor Micah Narlock | The Ocala Church Podcast With Pastor Ryan Brister - Church Talk

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome back to the Ocala Churchpodcast with Pastor Ryan
Brister. Today we're going to be talking
about tithing in our second partof this series.

(00:24):
All right. Welcome back.
Yeah, we have a joke. This is different.
This is different. We have a joke.
Welcome to the Coward Church podcast.
I was joking. This is funny, this is funny
What you what y'all don't see inthe pre show man?

(00:46):
Yeah, well, it's, it's very deepand it's insightful.
A lot of people don't realize this and but does anybody know
what the leading cause of dry skin is?
Please tell us. Let us know.
Towels, if you look in the deep Greek of that word also means

(01:08):
towels. That's powerful and powerful.
If you lean into it enough, you'll get Lent.
But. Well, we're off to a good start.
All righty, enough of that. Welcome to the College Podcast
and we are glad to be on anotherepisode here and we are excited

(01:33):
to have Pastor Mike and Narlock with us again with you guys.
And so, but before we get started, wanted to throw out our
e-mail, the podcast at Ocala dotchurch e-mail.
So if you have any questions, just shoot us an e-mail.
If you have some questions maybethat you want us to answer and

(01:54):
you don't know how to e-mail, you can come talk to us maybe
after his service if you're hereat the Ocala Church.
Otherwise, pray, pray the Lord, the Lord, the Lord's going to
answer. So we we have been having what
I've seen as a good increase in our reviews happening and I'm.

(02:18):
Somebody besides Brendan Bass later.
Somebody besides I, I think it'sover the Sullivan on there.
So I appreciate that, I think. You had a.
Comment too by somebody as well.Yeah, Is that Pastor Brister?
He's a great guy. Let's.
See if I can get Morganton Church to come.
Yeah, throw in some. Comments College Church
Morganton Church Comment on these podcasts.

(02:42):
Morganton Church, if you don't comment on the these episodes
then you don't love your pastor so.
Wow, that's an indictment. I still love you, Morgan.

(03:02):
We're off to a great start. Yeah, this.
Is morning. This is morning humor.
It has caught us on the prior episode of evening humor.
We were kind of tired, so we're a.
Different animal in the morning.This is a.
Rare time for us to recording. Yeah, yeah.
Usually we've already prayed through after the service.
Right. So yeah, we usually, we usually
record on Sunday afternoon afterwe've had two church services.

(03:25):
We're full of the Spirit and theWord of God.
And today I've prayed, but that's about it.
And coffee we got. Coffee we got.
Coffee. I've got about 1/2 a cup of
coffee and me, Pastor Narlock's here for a very short amount of
time. So we're here in the morning
because he has so many things tosay that we need to hear.

(03:45):
And that was not supposed to be a joke patronization.
But it's it's it's morning and we're just laughing at things.
Well, hey, we're excited to be back in the saddle again and
thanks for everybody coming in the morning and doing this.
Now if you heard, if you heard last week's session on y'all see

(04:08):
what I'm doing? Yeah, I'm doing.
I'm really good at this. If you heard last week's session
on tithing Part 1, you understand why we had to come
back and do Part 2 with Pastor Norlock.
And so he had we, we cut his time way short on the last one.
And so we need we, he has so, somuch information and so much to

(04:32):
say on this subject. And so I wanted him to come back
on and we're going to let you finish this time.
So jump into it bro. I want to hold you to that.
Yeah, we can go for a while. We don't want him to come with
those two hour podcasts. So no, you guys literally jump
in at any time. You know, this is just a

(04:54):
conversation. But anyways, last time we talked
a lot about principles of giving, we, we talked about
where your treasure is. That's where your heart's going
to be. You know, if you want your heart
to end up at a place, put your treasure there first.
Treasure there. Your treasure.
Your heart follows your treasure.
Your treasure doesn't follow your heart.

(05:15):
Yeah. And so that's the whole dynamic
of tithing also talking about 100% of what we receive as gods
and just ask back for 10%. So if you are going into this
Part 2 not listening to Part 1, I would recommend go listening
to Part 1 real quick, at least real quick as far as 30 minutes
is real quick. So check that out.

(05:38):
So I wanted to go a little bit more into more of New Testament
talk and implications about tithing.
And a lot of tithing is revealedthroughout the New Testament.
For those that are perhaps like looking for the word tithe, you
may not always find it, but it'sdefinitely throughout the the

(06:01):
New Testament. And so it's it's, and there's
some actually direct mentions. So for the start, we can see
that in many ways here in a minute, that there was indirect
and direct ways Jesus put his seal of approval on tithing.
So we're going to go to Matthew 2323, Jesus said.
I think that's probably one of the most popular ones.

(06:23):
Absolutely. Said Woe unto you scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and
cumin. Now I've never seen anybody pay
tithe like that at my church. But that back in the day was
their increase. That's what they brought as
their increase. He says you pay tithe of these
things and have omitted the weightier matters of the law,

(06:47):
judgment, mercy and faith. These ought you have done to
have done and not to leave the other undone.
So notice he says these you ought to have done.
So yes, Jesus is endorsing tithing.
He didn't say stop paying tithe.He said continue to pay tithe,

(07:09):
but don't forget the weightier matters of the law.
That's what he's literally saying right here.
So we recognize his emphasis here is ought to do just as
Peter told the House of Cornelius what they ought to do
to be saved. So let's not take the word ought
and make light of it either. Like I ought to do that, but I
ain't doing that. Well, Peter told them they ought
to get baptized in Jesus name too.

(07:31):
And so that's the emphasis that we're going to do.
Then we go to another example, Matthew 2221, and this is a
little bit more of a indirect reference to tithing, but it's
powerful. It's very direct as well.
They say to him, Jesus here, Caesar's, you know what coin

(07:51):
inscriptions on this coin they said Caesar's.
And then he saith unto them, Render therefore under the
Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the
things that are gods. Should we pay taxes?
No. No.
No, all right, we're going to need a Part 3.

(08:16):
It's just purely on taxes. I love it.
No, I thought you said do you want?
This is what we ought to do. Absolutely so.
Do we owe allegiance of of tax form to the to the government?
Yes, we did. So this is riot provoking
questions, though, that they're asking Jesus, such as you know,

(08:39):
that could they tried to it was a setup question, right, And
they were meant to trick him into basically getting in
trouble with the government or if you answer the wrong way, you
get him in trouble with the people.
But he the only way that God could take those trick questions
and put a thread through the needle like that and make it

(09:01):
happen. So by avoiding the trap, our
Lord also reemphasized a point relating to giving back to God.
And so render unto the things which are God's rings loudly,
and echoes come back from the years of wilderness wandering.
The tithe is the Lord's. So render unto God.

(09:21):
What's God's What is God's? It is the tithe.
Leviticus 2730 says the tithe isthe Lord's.
So it it should be rendered given unto him.
So what obvious form of financesto be rendered God's that these
people would know Jesus was referring to when he said that
they knew what was supposed to be rendered to God.

(09:42):
And so I'm just saying someone has to be very serious about
being the devil's advocate to try to say that Jesus wasn't
referring to the tithe here. You know another example.
Let me, let me Yeah, I just thought I had here on that is
with them asking it about. A coin in an inscription.

(10:04):
Would you call this a reference?That tithe is more than just
because the argument is it was just on the crops.
Is that Yeah, is that coinage could be linked into tithing at
that point. So he says you gain coin and you
give it to Caesar. You can also gain coin or
dollars the $100 bill and give that part to God.

(10:24):
Absolutely, yeah. It falls into line with the
increase, yeah. Yeah, I've said this and
hopefully it's not as sarcastic as it sounds, but Cal currency,
corn currency, wheat currency, it's the, it's the things they

(10:48):
use for currency in ancient times.
It's just like the the Benjaminsin your wallet or, or down to
the Abraham Lincoln's in your pocket.
It's the same deal. Yeah, absolutely.
It's it's it that livestock was a form of trading and

(11:13):
exchanging. Part of system.
It was dowries, it was all kindsof things, you know.
I mean they traded animals and produce as a gift for a wife.
Exactly back. In the good old days.

(11:34):
These days you better have some Benjamins, but back then a good
old heifer with. I'm getting off track here, but
when I went to Israel, I had my sister with me.
That's where I got married to. This is years ago when I was in
my late teens and we were getting off the bus of Bethlehem
and our tour guide emphasized tous, he said, look, we're in a

(11:55):
rush, so we're going to the burial.
Excuse me, the birthing place ofJesus quote UN quote.
And there's going to be peddlersbetween here and there.
You guys need to ignore them right now.
We can come back and we'll, we'll barter with them or
whatever, but please stay focused because we're on a time
constraint. So I get off and my my sister

(12:19):
grabs my arm. She's like, I'm going to stay
with you, you know, and she's blonde, long hair and over
there. That is just a deal.
You know, they just can't barelystand as a person.
They have, they're attracted to them and, and so she gets off
the she gets off the bus with meand these barters just bombard

(12:42):
us and you know, I want to buy aflute for a dollar, you know,
and $2.00, you know, scarves andall these kind of stuff.
And, and they're, they're tryingto engage us and I'm just
focused. I am like one track minded.
I am tunnel vision like a great man and going forward and my

(13:03):
sister for whatever reason, I don't know, she got slightly
distracted. Whenever the one of the barter
said he noticed that I wasn't paying attention, He said, Sir,
is that your daughter or something like that or she's
like no, that's my brother. And he said, brother, I will
give 700 camel for your sister. That's a while.

(13:25):
Kept on focus. My my sister got sidetracked.
She thought I was leaving her behind and I was like, no, I'm
not going to hang up for 700 camels.
So that is a deal that was. A deal so sister Alicia Davis is
worth 700 camels. Yes, yeah.
Wow. Cody Davis.
Pay up, brother. Anyway, so let's go to John 839.

(13:46):
John 839. Here's a kind of another
example. They answered and sent it to
him. Abraham is our father.
Yeah, Jesus said unto them, If you were Abraham's children, you
would do the works of Abraham. What were the works of Abraham?
So some take great pride in the religious affiliation, the
history of their church group, or their family background.

(14:08):
When Jesus began to uncover the sins of the Jews, they tried to
take refuge and their ancestor Abraham.
This occasion gave an opportunity to point out who
were the true God recognized children of Abraham.
Only those who do the works of Abraham are counted as his
spiritual children. And among Abraham's works of

(14:28):
faith and obedience stands the work of pain.
Tithes. Tithing.
Yes. If a person does not pay his
tithe, is he truly a child of Abraham?
Wow, wow. Anyways, and I want to let me
get into this. God is a generous giver.
So not only did Jesus teach about tithing in the verses that

(14:51):
we talked about indirectly, indirectly, but God is a
generous giver himself. But even in the midst of all his
constant generosity, breath, oxygen, keeping their earth
tilted at the right angle and all the planets and all the at
the spinning and everything likethat and, and just all the life

(15:12):
and the water. If you have any less water in
the world, we'd all burn up, youknow, all this kind of stuff.
He's a constant giver and he's constantly giving to us, not
just. Giver of life.
Giver of life, financially and our happiness, any of that
stuff, it's all blessings of God.
He's generous, but even in the midst of all his constant

(15:35):
generosity, God himself is a tither.
The Bible reveals that God gave Christ the manifest 1
manifestation as the tithe. Wow.
First fruits. But now First Corinthians 1520
says, But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the

(15:55):
first fruits of them that slept.So Jesus was the first fruits of
our salvation. Christ was the divine tithe
offered on behalf of all the Saints in the grave.
It was like he gave the tithe onbehalf of all all of us that
eventually go in the grave. Those gone before now present
and future for our eventual resurrection.

(16:19):
It it was the ultimate standard of a tithe, preserving those in
the grave from the devourer. Wow.
Yes, incredible. And so, you know, God believes
in tithing. He still believes in tithing
right now. He tied himself to create that
eventual glorification of our bodies, that rapture.

(16:41):
Yes. I think it's just so.
That's awesome. And then Jesus asked us to view
ourselves as a tie to the world.James 118 of his own will begat
this begat. You know what has begat?
That's called the birth experience, right?
The new birth of his own will begat he us with the word of

(17:01):
truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his
creatures. And so we ourselves are tithing
ourselves back to God. And but I believe if we could
just point this and say this is just money tithe, Yeah, we need
to tithe because we are first fruits.
But it's not just referring to our bank accounts.
It's referring to our time. It's referring to our talents

(17:26):
and our treasure. And so our whole life, our
existence, we're going to tithe.Giving back to the world of
trying to reach the World. This is one of the greatest
outreach messages of eternity. We need to tie ourselves, yes,
back into the world. Yes, that's awesome.
It's just an interesting concept, yes.
So I wanted to kind of, if you guys got anything, jump in.

(17:49):
I'm about to transition just fora second.
We have a couple. Questions, but we can do that at
any point in the lesson. So if you want to jump in,
that's. Go ahead and do it real quick,
yeah? Absolutely.
So there were you can either do one or both.
Do the Old Testament. Old Testament 1 So in the Old
Testament it talks about the wayyou use your tithing.
And so people will often like bring this verse up when you

(18:13):
talk about tithing because it's a little confusing at first.
See here we go. Deuteronomy 14 and 26.
It starts in verse 22 where it talks about tithing and it says
that you shall. In verse 26, you shall spend
that money, that tithe for whatever your heart desires, for

(18:33):
oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your
heart desires, you shall eat there before the Lord your God,
and you shall rejoice you and your household.
So people are wondering, can I buy Chick-fil-A with my ties?
Yeah, basically. So these scriptures can cause a
little bit of confusion. So there's actually three

(18:54):
different ties in the Old Testament.
So there's the Levitical tie that the tie that went to the
ministry, and then there's what's called the feast tithe
and that's what you're referringto.
And then there's what's called the poor tithe.
So the feast tithe and the poor tithe are actually covered in
the same chapter, Deuteronomy 14.
The feast tithe is covered in the verses you just read.

(19:15):
Also the surrounding verses, it goes from verse 22 to the verse
27 talking about the feast tithe.
And so this is called the secondtithe, the feast tithe.
It's consisted of 1/10 of the increase of corn, wine, oil and
firstlings of the floxent. This tithe was different from
the first tithe in that it was to be eaten as a feast by the

(19:37):
tither and his family at the feast of the of the Lord.
And so the tithe was taken to the place Jehovah God chose and
was there, which is the temple was there eating that they might
learn to fear The Lord God gave this commandment to tithe to the
people to help remind them constantly that it was God who
had blessed and strengthened them.

(19:59):
So this this particular tithe was also advantageous to the
people. If the people obeyed God's
commandments concerning this tithe, they would automatically
have the means of attending the great worship gatherings and
festivals of Israel. So if they didn't pay this
tithe, they wouldn't have the ability to attend these
festivals. Right, so it's in the face.
Yeah. And so it's almost like this was

(20:20):
their ticket to get into the temple.
And then you have the poor tithe, which is covered through
verse 28 through 29. And so literally, at some point,
you'd be giving 30%, not just 10%.
Yeah. It's.
Very interesting. 10% to God, 10% that you would use when you
went to this particular feast, and then another 10% to the

(20:42):
poor. Wow.
Because there's a lot of people that also say, well, I pay my
attention to the pole, not to the church.
And I would just say that they miss have misread those
scriptures because then they kind of confused that there's
actually three different ties. So if we want to go down that
route, we end up paying a whole lot more.

(21:05):
That's true. We appreciate you answering that
question. Absolutely.
I wanted to go back to Malachi and we recapped it a little bit.
Yes, Malachi went and he's dealing with a backslidden
people condition right there. They got adultery going on,
their perjury, corrupt priesthood.
And one of the things I got off is their giving and their altar

(21:25):
call was get your tithing right and that will lead you through
repentance. So their their beginning point
as backsliders. I'm not talking about new
converts, but as backsliders. Their their initial thing to get
it right with God was put their treasure and lead their heart by
their treasure. Put your treasure back to God

(21:46):
and that it's basically the fruits meets worthy of their
repentance as John the Baptist would say.
And so had all these things going on.
And because here's the dynamic is the devourer and the curse
was set loose. When we don't tie the devourer
and the curse is allowed to reverberate over us, we lost our

(22:06):
covering. There's a covering that comes
with tithe and the devourer was let loose.
And so there's this idea about the devourer that it comes in
four stages. If you tied into Joel, Joel had
the same problem they had. Their giving was off.
If you read the book of Joel, itwould appear that they had the
same issues there. Their giving was off.

(22:28):
If you read the book of Joel, it's a little more obscure, but
it's there and they have. If you read, it sounds like
Malachi and Joel are preaching the same message.
And. Because they're dealing with the
same condition of people and, and so their their message is
about the same. They're all to call, appeal is
close to the same. There's a lot of things going on
and and the devourer is actuallypresent in both books.

(22:52):
Now Joel doesn't call it the devourer, but it's the same
thing because the devourer in the in Malachi's book was a
pest. It was going after their fields,
their crops. And the devourer is just a
manifestation that manifested into a locus at this time in our
lives. It doesn't show up as locus.

(23:12):
I don't look for a locus when I'm not paying ties and be like,
I found a locus on my car. Shit, they're after me.
You know, I'm not doing that. But the devourer comes, in its
own ways, into our lives. It's a physical manifestation of
a. Spiritual problem.
Bingo. Good, good way to say that.
And so in Joel it actually breaks down that there's four

(23:33):
different versions of the devourer a progressive forms.
It goes from the the cankerworm to the locust to the Palmer.
I think it's the Palmer worm, the Palmer worm to the locust to
the cankerworm to the locust to the Caterpillar.
And so the the first one, the the Palmer worm is the larvae

(23:55):
form of the locust. It's a baby form.
It breaks open, it doesn't have wings yet and it's just nibbling
along the vegetation very discreetly, quietly feeding on
that By doing so, it actually itwhen it finds something good to
eat, sends off pheromones into the air and notifies signals
from miles around to the other locusts, full grown locust

(24:16):
worms. Hey, here's food.
And then also the the plant vegetation themselves when
they're being eaten on, they send out their own distress
signals. OK.
And so there's a combination that their wounds are speaking
and it it brings them the locusts, the second stage, and
then the locusts devour everything.
It's gone within minutes. My grandfather, my great

(24:38):
grandfather lost his whole cropsto the locusts coming and eating
it up in North Dakota fields. So what you're saying is
basically what what seems to be a small issue winds up being the
issue. Yes.
Because of what? Because of what the small issue
is sending out. Bingo.

(25:00):
Signals that send it out. Yes, it is sending out signals.
A lot of people think, well, when they stop paying ties,
they're like, oh, it's no big deal.
I mean, I'm a little frustrated about little things.
And it starts off small. It starts off discreet.
It doesn't start off with your car crashing or you know, or, or
you know, you, you losing your job or something like that.
Who knows how the devourer may work on individual lives.

(25:22):
It's not like a set blueprint. We just know it gets loose.
So it's set loose, usually in a small form.
Larvae form locust form, which is complete obliteration of
anything visible. But then what did the cankerworm
do? The next one's the cankerworm.
Cankerworms are that which Burrows into the ground and
waits. The farmer gets back off his

(25:44):
knees, wipes the tears from his eyes, somehow regains his
courage, plants the seeds again,begins to see as the months go
up, crops come back up, and thenthe cankerworm comes up and
restarts the process all over again.
There's no hope. It's like I'm going through
every. How many times have you heard

(26:04):
people say this? I'm going through the same
cycle. Over and over.
I just can't seem to get a head.I can't seem to, you know what I
mean? This is what's going on.
It's the cankerworm is also let loose.
And then we have what's called the locust, excuse me, the
Caterpillar. Now these caterpillars aren't
those little cute little hundredleg things that squiggle around

(26:25):
these, these ones that Joel saysthey had the teeth of a lion.
And they would these kind of species would go into the ground
as well, like the cankerworm, except they didn't just go there
to hide and wait. They actually go down there and
devour the seed and the roots towhere there's no hope at all of

(26:45):
anything just happening by vegetation cycles.
It's completely gone. It's removed.
And so that's what the and so you're talking about four
stages. This is incredible.
Now I've seen in my own life, I can trace back to where

(27:06):
devastation begin for families that stopped tithing because
like the moment they stopped tithing, I could look back in
the books or even talk to them when they stopped doing it.
And that's usually the point. And then this is not the same
for everybody. But this particular situation
where that's where their children started to backslide

(27:28):
before their children were strong in the Lord.
But the moment those parents stopped, the devourer began to
go work in their home. They.
Lost their jobs, their vehicles broke down, they were making
$6000 a week, and now they're struggling to make 1500 keeping
afloat. Yeah, and they lost all their

(27:48):
kids. Well, it goes back to the
principle that you talked about in the first, in the first
session, first episode, where where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also, yes, the the correlation has been
made that you know, wherever youput your finances, that's where

(28:12):
your, your emotions will go. Right.
Your emotions are attached. I mean, it's and it's been
proven scientifically that when you Dave Ramsey talks about the
the connection between giving money and literally there is
psychological and emotional attachment to the exchange.

(28:36):
Yes, right. That is a Bible principle.
This is what Jesus is talking about.
When you put wherever you put your finances, your heart is
attached there. There is a emotional and
psychological attachment to whatever, to whatever and
wherever you put your treasure. So if you if you put your
treasure in sports, you're goingto have a psychological and an

(29:00):
emotional attachment ownership to sports.
If you put your treasure in, youknow, worldly investments, if
you put your treasure into toys,if you put your treasure into
whatever, you're going to have apsychological and emotional
attachment to that thing. But I've also watched the same

(29:23):
thing happened. And I know as a pastor you have
as well when people put their treasure into the Kingdom.
Yes. Over a period of time, it's not
a it's not I, I, I tithed one time and this happens.
But if you put your treasure into the Kingdom of God over a

(29:47):
period of time, you will developa psychological and emotional
attachment to the church. And where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also. And Bishop Copeland used to make
this correlation with this. He says he would say, how many,
how many of you parents have ever looked at your children and

(30:10):
said that that little girl rightthere is my heart, That little
boy right there has my heart. He would say, where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Your kids follow your treasure. Wow.

(30:31):
Just like your own emotions, follow your treasure.
So good. So if you want your kids to be
invested in the church, put yourmoney well.
Whatever you want them to be invested in, put your money
there. They'll follow your money.
They will your. Kids will follow your money and
I I've seen that done so many times and and the promise of God

(30:54):
is as well as if you do this right, the tithe and the
offering. I will rebuke the devourer, yes.
Yeah. You can bring all the tithe, I
will rebuke devour and so the devourer is something you can't
rebuke God can only you can rebuke a lot of things.

(31:16):
You got the name of Jesus on your life.
You can you can cast out devils,but the devouring a devil, you
can't rebuke this. This is something that that it
just happens only. Daddy can do.
Only Daddy can do this and so. There's some bullies only Daddy
can get rid of. I want to say this real quick.

(31:38):
So the devourer is a mechanism that consumes what we withhold
from God because it's God's money.
So that means if I if I do not give the tithe, then I won't
actually end up enjoying the tithe I withheld anyways.
Yeah, I'll either give my tithe to God or I'll end up giving my

(31:58):
tithe to the devourer. God will get what's his, because
why would God send that? Because to not give it, I'm a
thief. He's just getting back what's
his. I'm just saying.
I mean, it's his money. All of it was his money.
We went in business with him andas a business partner, I, I've

(32:21):
withheld that and God saying, look, that's mine.
I'm going to send my agent to get it.
IRS, they really come again. Yeah, I mean, that is the, that
is the, you know, the the issue of a steward taking ownership of

(32:42):
what is not theirs. And it's like, again, I made
reference to Bishop Copeland earlier and he's obviously been
the guru in this world for quitea while now.
But you know, he he's he makes the statement also that you know

(33:05):
how the best way for a a secretary to get fired is for
the CEO to come to her and say, I need a check for this much and
her to argue with the CEO. Yeah, because it she has taken
mental ownership, ownership of what is not hers.

(33:27):
Her job is just to manage, enterit into the books, steward it,
steward it. But when the CEO requests it,
don't withhold it. Yeah.
You don't have the right to withhold it.
You don't have a say in the matter, so when God asked me of
anything that He's given me, I give it away with no questions

(33:49):
asked because it's not mine. None of it is none of the
increase. My possessions are not mine.
None of my my money is not mine.None of it is mine.
So we're. Living according to the
blessings. Of God, everything, everything.
This, this suit is not mine. You know, I, I, the, the clothes
that I wear is not mine. Everything that I have is not

(34:11):
mine. So when God says give it away,
I'm not arguing with God. It's his.
There's and I'm sure all of you guys have been to those points
where God you're at beyond the tithe.
He begins to ask for something beyond the tithe.
Yeah, they're. Like, God, I'm a tithe.
And he says empty your. I've been in those services
where he's like, empty your bankaccount.

(34:32):
Yeah. Everything.
Everything like my whole empty out, your whole savings.
And some people they're like, Ohyeah, I only got $0.50, but some
people, you got 20 grand in there and it's like, God, are
you serious? And you start arguing with God.
And it's the same faith level. It is, yeah.
Talk about that. You know, it's, it's the same
it, it's a percentage thing. Yeah.

(34:53):
You know, to the little woman that has the two mites, it takes
just as much faith for her to put that two mites in the
offering as it does for somebodythat's got 2020 grand, 20,000
mites, mighty a mighty lot of mites.
And you know, it's the same faith level.

(35:14):
The deal is is she did not take mental ownership of the two she
had and the guy that has accumulated 20,000 has taken
mental ownership of the 20,000 that he's been given.
That is the difference. There's been times, you know,
like I remember we were saving up for our RV.
This is right before we took ourchurch in Morganton.

(35:36):
I didn't know we're going to be taking to church in Morganton.
And I really don't even like theword take.
He wouldn't. Never took it bro.
Transitioning it probably would be a better statement when we
transition, but God, we were saving up for a brand spanking
new RV. We had a new baby on the way.
We needed to expand the space bigger than the RV that we had.

(35:57):
And and so we I was in the service.
This is in Harrison, AR and it wasn't even the actual regular
service. It was just kind of like a
potluck and we're going to have a college basic, the life is
college deal. Entrepreneurial was the deal.
And they again speak man. I felt the Holy Ghost nudge me
and I went to the pastor. I said, can I take up an

(36:18):
offering? I wasn't even the speaker that
night, right? I said can I take up an
offering? I remember this.
Yeah, so we went up there and I said, look, I'm crying because I
knew what God spoke to me. I went to my pastor as well.
I reached out to my pastor, saidcan I give to this church?
You know, because I feel like I just didn't want to give to
random churches around me without it being channeled

(36:39):
through my pastor, right? If that makes sense.
Yes. With that ethical thing,
brother, I can't believe you would be ethical.
Anyways. There's that.
It's a different podcast for. And so he's of course.
And so I went up there and I said, look, I'm and I told the
amount that I was emptying everything I had that I'd saved

(36:59):
it for a new RV and the whole church was even there.
Probably 1/4 of the church was there eating burritos.
And bro, before the night was over, it was just within like 24
hours, we had a raised over like200, three, $100,000 wow towards
their building program. And within that same 24 hours I

(37:20):
got all that I put into it back through two different sources
like I nearly 10 grand at the time.
It just within 24 hours from random places it all came back.
To me, well, I mean, this is a similar testimony and this is,
this is breaking news for our church.
But you know, you know, while we're on this subject, I, we're

(37:46):
doing fundraising for a buildingproject right now.
I gave my car in our auction that we did to raise funds for
our building fund. We've been looking for a house
since we came to Ocala. Couldn't find anything,
especially within proximity of the church.

(38:08):
I gave my car in the auction anda week later the house that
we're moving into this week cameup for sale.
It's 100 feet from the driveway of the church and we've got, we

(38:29):
got a great deal on the House. I mean, I don't know if y'all
know this, but Ocala is the fastest growing town in America.
And you don't just talk people down off their prices here.
This is, we're still in like a 2020 white hot market.
So I, I have made offers on houses here.

(38:49):
Holy, Holy Ocala. So you've been waiting for a
while to use that one? That was.
A pent up. Man, goodness gracious.
So I have literally made offers on houses.
They're offered what they were asking and got beat on the bid

(39:11):
and to to get people to come down especially as much as I got
them to come off of this deal. Just a miracle situation from
God more than more than many times.
Same payment back. Many times over.
But God cut the price down to make.
It happens every time. You can't out give God and it's

(39:31):
those moments where he asks you to empty everything out.
You're like God, this is my money or your money and that you
start questioning if you give itknowing it's his.
I promise you God is going to take care of you.
I've never seen his seed beggingfor bread.
He mentioned about this concept of the CEO going to the
secretary and asking her to write a check.
Sometimes God, the CEO will cometo us and he'll say write a

(39:54):
$20,000 check and we're like there's 5 grand in the bank
account. It's not our job to argue what's
there. Oh boy.
It's let me get me started, write it and give.
You know, it's you're so right, it's not.
Ours there's been. Times at my church where we had
to take a step of faith, whereasit a deadline for something and
I had to write the check knowingit wasn't there.

(40:16):
And we're talking not just a small check.
It was $70,000 and literally that got met the day before I
had a random $70,000. Ryan knows Pastor Brister knows
a lot about that story, but it was a God thing and God came
through. I, I did not communicate it out

(40:36):
to the people that gave. I didn't even know they knew.
I don't know. I don't know how they knew.
Maybe Brother Brister told them,I don't know.
But it was unbelievable how thattook place, you know, to where
it met our churches need. It was just a miracle.
Well, if you. Building.
Program go forward if you you can testify to this and I'm not
trying to take you off of your notes or whatever, but as a

(40:58):
pastor, you, you would know as well as I do basically every
week is a miracle here. Yeah, yeah.
It's because the things that we're having to do and the
things that we're having to juggle and to try to keep the
church momentum moving forward and and then get ready and get

(41:25):
it in position to build a building at the same time.
You talk about a juggling match and and it is a difficult
juggling match, but then see whythose.
Charismatic truckers have 5 pastors.
Yeah, yeah, because they're all juggling.
I'm being stupid y'all. Seriously, I'm just having too

(41:48):
much fun in the morning. But that, you know, the deal is,
is it's literally I'm, I'm, you know, I'm a man of faith.
I believe God, I believe God's going to take care of me.
I've watched him do it over and over and over again.
But sometimes he makes you sweata little bit and and like every

(42:08):
week, sometimes he makes you sweat a little bit and then you
go in and you start stewarding and it just shows up.
It just. Shows up.
It just shows up. It don't.
I'm just telling you and you know what I'm talking about, but
it's many, many times when you've when you're living by the

(42:29):
principle of first fruits and tithing and and giving of your
abundance. It don't make sense on paper,
doesn't but it but it works out.It works.
I remember when you were evangelizing, you were preaching
for a church. You told me this testimony that
they did not have the money to pay you as an evangelist.
They. Did not I remember this?

(42:50):
No this. Was easiest a while back like OK
it's an X amount of dollars usually you know we try our best
to take care of evangelists whenthey come through it's.
Well, it's a very small church. Very small church, and I think
you're preaching about four services a week for them.
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night.
Well, they, the, the way it worked was when I, when I, when

(43:11):
they asked me to come, the church had been through quite a
bit and the pastor told me, he said I felt to go there.
He felt very strongly that I should come.
And so I went. But he told me when I got, when
I got there, he said we can't doanything but Sunday because we

(43:34):
don't have the money to pay you for a midweek.
And he said we're, we've took such a hit that we don't even
have enough people coming to justify doing a midweek revival
service. So we're just going to do
Sunday. I said let's get through the 1st
Sunday and then if you still feel that way, let me know.

(44:00):
Bro, I'm just telling you that first Sunday we went out to
lunch and he said let's let's try midweek.
And so we, we did midweek. We never missed a midweek where
we wound up. We wound up going from doing

(44:23):
just Sunday and the midweek to doing Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
night revival. For six months we did Sunday,
Monday, Tuesday revival. He paid me very well and he

(44:44):
about about four months into that revival, he brought me the
books and he said I've just got to show you this.
He said it's unbelievable. I've got to show you the you
won't believe it unless I show it to you on paper.
And he showed me what was comingin, what's going out, and he
said, I don't know how we're paying you.

(45:08):
Nothing added up. He said.
I can't make it make sense but it's working out every week.
Wow like the payment the the thelove offering they were giving
the evangelist was just showing up in your account into the
check. Wow, it never actually into the
account. It never went into the offering
plate. Wow.
It just showed up. Just showed up.

(45:31):
That's incredible. That's a church stepping out in
faith. I just.
Gave and by the way there was that church more than doubled
during that revival and they aredoing very very well now and
have built a new gymnasium and just built a new evangelist
quarters and are incredible but glory to God I.

(45:56):
Need Jim to show up Family Life Center.
So were you guys comfortable going a little further?
Sure. Yes, I'd love to hear some of
the new test concepts we're. Good.
It's a longer term one y'all. OK, but here's the dynamic of

(46:16):
remember we broke down like the Palmer worm, the locust
cankerworm and the the the Caterpillar, those guys and
basically the message of Malachiback to Malachi, he said prove
me now here with if I will not open you the windows of heaven.
That's what we're talking about.Open the windows of heaven.
Open you the windows of heaven. Open then God said though in

(46:40):
Joel he said if you guys get thestuff right, if you repent, get
to the altar, get it right and also.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I made. I almost made you take a laugh
and it tickled me. Go ahead.
He said if you guys get this right, I will restore to you the
years that the locust hath eaten, that the cankerworm and

(47:03):
the Caterpillar, the Palmer wormhath eaten.
He doesn't just stop the enemy, he doesn't just stop the
devourer. He restores the seed that the
Caterpillar has. Eaten.
My God, he goes to the enemy's camp.
God. Gives back the deceit.
He doesn't just give back our, you know, little carrots and and
corn on the call he says, I'll give you back your future here.

(47:26):
God's not just the blessings. I'm not just going to restore to
you the blessings. I will restore the years.
I believe God has the power to restore children, marriages,
ministries, peace and favor. When we return to God with our
tithes and offerings, we're not just fixing our budget.
We're rebuking the devourer and inviting heaven to cover us

(47:47):
again. All the blessing that that
implies. And then in Joel 228, just
literally on the heels of that, just a few verses later, we just
read Joel 225. This is just like 3 or 4 verses
later. The prophet unveils what can
happen after we repent, after wemake these things right after
I'll restore to you all these things that these four things

(48:08):
have eaten up. And then verse, when it ended,
shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit
upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters
shall prophecy. Your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions.
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days
will I pour out my spirit, Not just your sons and daughters,
but your servants. Wow.

(48:29):
I mean, it's not just going to affect your family, it's going
to affect the contractors that come to work and paint in your
house. Yeah, it's going to.
Impact the employees, it's impacting everybody.
So it's interesting to me that tied into the message of
repentance is the promise of Pentecost, because this is that
Peter said, spoken by the prophet Joel.

(48:49):
To think that you can have a Pentecost coming out of the
fourth stage of the devourer. Wow.
My God. I mean, I'm telling somebody if
you've not been tithing or giving, like you know that the
word of God's been teaching and you've been losing out and like,
I don't know how to make ends meet, much less pay tithes.
I'm telling you what if you put God first, God will put you

(49:10):
first. Yes, he will.
He will begin to pour into you and say, hey, I will not forsake
the seed, I will not forsake those that are are in
repentance. I will abundantly show them that
I am blessing them. I have the ability to restore to
you the seed, and I will pour out my blessings upon your
family. That's awesome.
That's awesome. Pentecost was the outcome of

(49:33):
repentance from a fourth phase of the Devourer.
Yes, that's crazy. Well, I mean, if you look at the
children of Israel, where they were historically when Pentecost
happened, that's absolutely the case.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
And then but the promise of, of blessing and and renewal and

(50:00):
abundance comes out of Pentecost.
I think in Pentecost, so many times we have spiritualized
poverty to the point where we are.
You can't be, according to Joel.You can't really be Pentecost
unless you believe in abundance.I'm going to do my own Bible

(50:25):
bomb sound effects. That's incredible.
And here's the deal. I mean I.
Copeland illustration Who in ourright mind would put coins in a
vending machine that says out oforder?
Yeah. Yeah, I don't.
Mean quoted the Bishop a lot today, yeah.

(50:47):
If it's out of order, why would we invest our money into
something that's out of order? So why would God invest into us
if we're out of order? If we get an order with our flow
of our heart, where our hearts at, with our money, God's going
to pour back into us because we're giving, we're we're
something he can invest into. Well, I mean, you know, we have,

(51:11):
and I might be revealing too much, but we have a standard
here where, you know, if you're going to participate in ministry
here, you have to be a tither because otherwise I'm investing
into a ministry that's out of order.
And that's not good stewardship on my part.
And so I've got to get, it's notthat I'm not willing to invest

(51:34):
in you, but you've got to show me that you're fixing the
machine before I can, before I could in goodwill invest back
into you, because I'm going to get in trouble with God for
putting his money in a machine that don't work right.

(51:57):
And, and, and the reality is notjust putting people on platform
or something like that. I've, I've had, you know, people
come up and say, you got a pastor, you've got to do this.
You know, they're, they come with an attitude, a spirit of
critical spirit and not all the time, but sometimes a lot of
those, some of those folks are usually not those that are in

(52:20):
financially in order. And so I'm looking at them
saying, look, if you want to, ifyou want, if you want me to have
a lot of say in this conversation, then then get
these things in order because you're not actually even your
heart's not even in this church.Really, your heart's not in this
church. Well, it's not with you.
It's not with me. There is a spiritual connection

(52:41):
between tithing and ministry. Yes, yeah.
You know that was and I don't know if we talked about this in
the last episode or not, but I think so.
You and I both, when we became pastors, had a very strong
conviction that we would continue to tithe to our pastor.

(53:03):
Exactly. And the reason for that is where
your treasure is there where your heart be.
Also, so many preachers that go into full time ministry, they
quit tithing to their pastor andthey tithe where they are or
they tie in the in the churches that they're preaching to or
they tithe what however it's done, you know, I'm not going to

(53:25):
get into all that. But when you break that
connection that that emotional and psychological connection
from your man of God, that is why preachers, when they go into
full time ministry, wind up losing connection with their
shepherd, with their men of God,because where their treasure is

(53:47):
still flowing to their heart is still going there.
It flows into what we talked about Tuesday.
Money is a way of anointing. Oh God, man.
If you want to anoint yourself, you got to anoint your head.
You anoint the head, it flows back down onto the body beneath
it. I want to anoint my body that I

(54:07):
need to anoint my headship, and it flows right back down.
There's a connection there. Yep, that's incredible.
And I, I, I really believe that and I've talked to a few
preachers about this that, that agree with me on this.
But I think I think we would have a whole lot less ministry

(54:28):
losing out with their spiritual headship if we got the
revelation that where your treasury is there, your heart
will stay there. Yes.
It's so good, man. We have a whole lot less
preachers having to look for another pastor because they've
lost connection with their original pastor.

(54:50):
I think this can be seen in First Corinthians 9.
I want to. I know we're going late.
This is a later episode than normal.
Are we good with that? I think we've done longer than
this before. OK.
I'm sorry for anybody. We're wearing anybody out.
This is such a massive concept though.
Let's bump over to another scripture in First Corinthians

(55:11):
9. So when Paul first came to
Corinth, and I want to keep in mind Malachi and Joel when we
come to Corinth. OK, when Paul first came to
Corinth, he was walking to what would eventually become the
second largest revival in the New Testament area.
The first one probably being Ephesus.
They had over 100 soul, thousandsouls.
But Corinth either had some commentators say 30, some say

(55:31):
80,000 converts. That's massive.
And I believe that the latter rain is going to be greater than
the former. We got to get ready Ocala.
We got to get ready Morganton. We got to get ready church.
OK, So Corinth eventually becamea harvest field bursting with
souls. But before the fullness of the
revival could take place, there was a dilemma.

(55:54):
When Paul arrived, he came with the concern many pastors still
carry today. He was afraid, and he did this
for more than one. We read this in about three
other places in Acts. It talks about Thessalonica and
etcetera, but Corinth was the big one.
He was afraid that the people would think he was in it for the
money. He'd never done this to this
extent, though, for the other churches.

(56:14):
He did it for just Corinth to this extent specifically because
at Corinth people came to a point of severely challenging
Paul's legitimacy as an apostle.So Paul made a choice.
He said, I'm going there to preach, but I'm not going to
receive the tithe or offerings from the people because it was a

(56:35):
new, it was a new work. You know, he's he went by
vocational, but he said in FirstCorinthians 911 through 12, he
said, if we have sown into you the spiritual things, is it a
great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
What what is he talking about carnal things?
He's talking about money, right?We've sown into you spiritual
things as ministry. Is it a great thing if we should

(56:58):
read back to you from from you money financial support?
Nevertheless, we have not used this power but suffer all things
less. We should hinder the gospel of
Christ. So he's like man, I'm not going
to take tithe from the people. I'd rather see the gospel go
forward then then money be a hindrance situation.
We know Paul had some time before, though he had taught

(57:19):
them on the right for ministers to be supported.
He made that clear in First Corinthians 913 through 14.
He said to the Corinthian church, Do ye not know?
Well how? Why would he say that?
Because he had the they they already knew.
He knew they already knew. Do ye not know that they which
minister about holy things live of the things the temple?

(57:40):
Even so, hath the Lord ordained that which they preach the
gospel should live of the gospel.
So that's all tithing. That's all talking about
tithing, right? Yes.
But when he had physically been in current, Paul had.
So even though he taught about it, he refused to accept any
financial support. Actually, there's a it doesn't
show up in the KJV, but if you look at other translations,

(58:02):
there's actually a hyphen there.He said I'd rather die than
receive from you guys financial support.
He abruptly interrupted himself at one point and said I'd rather
die like he was boasting about it.
Paul was and he had good intentions and there's a lot
packaged into this stuff. OK.
But so when he officially come there, he worked as a tent

(58:25):
maker. His trade, he went by
vocational, which that's a biblical model.
And there's nothing wrong with it when it's necessary.
But at the time, Paul said, while I'm here, I'm not taking
any money. I'm going to preach the gospel
free of charge. But here's the key statement.
Y'all I want everybody to get. Paul would eventually look back
at that decision and apologize. After Paul had gone from

(58:51):
Corinth, He'd been there for about a year and a half, two
years. The Corinthian church found time
to question in the ministerial call of Paul.
Why? Because there is no attachment
to him financially. But they found time to
eventually call into question the man who had brought them the
gospel. He robbed them of the ability to
keep their heart connection. Yes.

(59:12):
Wow. From the record of this
controversy though, that we havetoday, it seems that some had
maneuvered their way into placesof leadership and we're now
fighting against Paul. And although Paul had not taken
the tithe on the preceding occasion, tithing was practice
in Corinth. Like we just said, he had taught
it. When the false apostles gained
control of the church or some ofthe narrative of the church,

(59:34):
tithing had already been taught and now they were partaking of
the benefits. We read this in verse 12 of
First Corinthians 9. If others be partakers of this
power over you are not we rathernevertheless we have not used
this power. Well.
So, and as we read on, we gatherthat the taunts of these false
apostles against Paul seem to bethese Paul, by working with his

(59:58):
hands, was admitting that he wasnot a true minister.
By not accepting the ties from us, Paul was implying to us that
he was not entitled to support and therefore not an actual
apostle. That's what he was dealing with.
And we actually read several times.
You know where, for instance, First Corinthians 9/1 through
two you said, am I not an apostle?

(01:00:21):
Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our
Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord?
If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to
you, for the seal of mine apostleship are on ye in the
Lord like whoever brought you into the church.
There's a he said my seal fingerprints.
Whoever brought you in the Lord,their seal is on you.

(01:00:43):
Yeah, whoever's been your pastor, I don't care if your
pastor's ever changed transitions you, all the pastors
have a seal. Their fingerprints is on you.
God recognizes that seal. Yes, very interesting anyways.
And so whoever's your seal is atthat time, most recent seal,
there's got to be that connection.
And they were giving towards these other false apostles and

(01:01:06):
they were justifying receiving the tithe by saying that man
didn't receive it. So he's not genuine because they
understood what Brother Brister,Pastor Brister was talking about
just a few minutes ago. Your financial connection to
your pastor brings your heart connection to it.
So they were rejecting his authority because of that.
All right, so now we get, I wantto cover a few things.

(01:01:30):
The gospel and law First Corinthians 9 musicians come 1st
Corinthians 9 three through 7. This is very important.
He said my answer to them that do examine me is this so he's
putting himself. He's been on trial so he's like
you're examining me my answer toyou because I'm on the witness

(01:01:51):
stand now is this have we not the power to eat and to drink?
Have we not the power to lead about a sister, a wife and as
well as other apostles and as the brethren of the Lord and
Cephas for I only and Barnabas have not we power to for bear
working like I don't have to work like a buff by vocational
necessarily. I have that power not to have to

(01:02:14):
do that I should. That's what he said, because in
his reason for that is saying who go with a warf, who go with
a war for any time at his own charges.
Talking about the soldier who planted the vineyard and eat not
of their own fruit. They're talking about the farmer
and who feedeth the flock and eateth not the milk of the of
the flocks, talking about the herdsmen.
So the battle had been enjoined,the controversy rage.

(01:02:37):
Paul is defending his ministry in these phrases, and he was
forced to do so in the field of finance.
Verses 3 through 6 that we just read are an amplification of
Paul's rights as an apostle. The answer to his questions must
be in the affirmative. He did have the rights and the
powers mentioned. Verses 7 enters into the realm
of Labor and pay that we just read.

(01:02:57):
A soldier is paid by the countryhe defends number one #2A farm
is supported by the produce he cares for #3A herdsman would
feel definitely cheated if he risked his life defending A
flock against wild animals and then was not allowed even to
refresh himself with the milk ofthat flock.
David got offended about that with Abel.

(01:03:17):
Yes, he did. And so now we go to 1st
Corinthians 9/9 through 11. This is all the same chapter if
you everything we're reading is basically the same chapter.
Chapter 9, he says for it is written in the law of Moses.
Now, this is for those that liketo tear out the law, you know,
tithing. And so that's just law.
Well, Paul's actually bringing it back in focus right here.

(01:03:38):
That's what he's preaching for. Affirmation.
He's preaching from this to support tithing, He says, For it
is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth
of the ox that treadeth out the corn.
Doth God take care for oxen, or sayeth He altogether?
For our sakes, he's saying with Did God give that commandment
just to talk about animals? He said no.

(01:04:00):
He said that as a principle for ministry.
For our sakes, no doubt. This is written just for our
audience's sake. Oxen was always a type of the
ministry. So he's he's saying don't, when
the way to muzzle the ox that treads out the corn is to cut
off financing from him. In ministry, you know where the

(01:04:22):
crib is clean, you know where there's no oxen.
If you got an ox in the house, it will make a mess.
Your pastor will sometimes create an environment where it
seems like, man, he's making a lot of changes and making a lot
of mess and you know, all this kind of stuff.
That's what the oxen will do, you know, anyways, and it says

(01:04:42):
verse. If you want green, you got to
have an ox. Exactly that he that ploweth
should plow and hope. He's talking about soda a
minister. If he's plowing, he needs to
plow and hope a fine of of beingtaken care of in a lot of areas.
But obviously the financials thewhat Paul's implying here and
that he that thresheth in hope should be a partaker of his

(01:05:03):
hope. If we have sown unto you
spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your
carnal things forever? Paul destroyed the argument that
what was done under the law has no effect on us under grace in
this one part. In fact, in his writings Paul
made reference to over. In all of his writings, Paul
made reference to over 240 Old Testament verses of Scripture to

(01:05:27):
build his script his his theses off of.
I mean, if you're trying to RIP out Old Testament to approve
something, then you'd actually RIP out a lot of the New
Testament to do so. Yeah, right.
Besides the references to over 100 Old Testament verses in the
book of Hebrews alone, so the law has something to say to us
in certain areas. It says that God has appointed

(01:05:50):
certain rules for the support ofthose who labor.
Whether it be an ox or a farmer or a preacher, God has something
to say about their support. The ox is to eat, the farm labor
is to be supported, and the preacher is to be rewarded for
his labor. In view of verse 11, it is
amazing that anyone would doubt that it is but right, for a

(01:06:11):
preacher received temporal compensation money or goods for
his work. He has delivered to others an
opportunity to partake of what is everlasting.
So let me go. Let's go to verse 13 through 14,
same chapter am I wearing? Anybody.
Else do ye not know that they which minister about holy things
live of the things of the temple, and they which wait at

(01:06:33):
the altar are partakers with thealtar?
Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the
Gospel shall live of the Gospel.So the capstone of the issue of
New Testament tithing can be found right there.
What we just said Paul referred here it is Paul referred to the
way in which the priest and Levites were supported and
applied that same way to the NewTestament ministry.

(01:06:55):
That's awesome. Passage.
Yeah, absolutely. As the tithe support of the Old
Testament ministry, Even so, thesame plan is in effect today for
the support of the New testamentary.
Based on those few verses right there.
Yeah. Yeah.
This passage lets us know that to find the method which God has
to support New Testament ministers, we must find through
the system used in the Old Testament.

(01:07:15):
And that system was tithing. Yeah.
So later on now I'm wrapping up,I'm, I'm on my, I'm on my, my.
3rd Closing or. Yeah, musicians better come.
Are we good, though? I I don't have to do this.
OK. It's great.
Later on, after Paul is apparently moved on from
Corinth, he's moved on. It's been a year and a half

(01:07:37):
later. Paul is in another place,
possibly Ephesus, and there's a knock on the door.
It's three men from the Corinthian church.
Yeah. Stephanus Fortunatus and
Archaeus, and this is you can read their names in verse 17,
chapter 16 in First Corinthians.They've come a long way.
I don't know how many miles it is between Ephesus and Corinth

(01:07:58):
on top of my head. And they're spiritually spent.
They're desperate as well. And by their visit, it's
actually here that Paul becomes fully aware.
He's heard a little bit from Chloe.
You always have those Chloe's inthe church, but these guys come
to confirm it. Paul becomes fully aware of the

(01:08:20):
deepening depravity of Corinthian church.
And they didn't have Facebook back then.
Just look from 500 miles away. Oh, man, they are having
problems, you know, You know, back then, back then, my sister
would have killed me looking at her diary.
You're right. Today they post them online.
Not my sister, though. Not my sister.
But that's just the reality of our world.

(01:08:40):
Everybody's, everything's known online.
So he, he already knew there were issues from Chloe.
But this visit reveals just how toxic and spiritually dangerous
the condition of the church has become.
So, and this visit, scholars agree, is what prompted Paul to
write the letter of First Corinthians.
These three guys coming to him, they told him the condition and

(01:09:02):
he realized the condition and hewrote the letter there and
probably hand delivered it back to them, back to Corinth.
They brought the First Corinthian letter back with
them. So.
But even more striking is it seems that this visit is what
convinced Paul in regard to something he had once prided
himself on refusing to receive financial support from the

(01:09:24):
Corinthian church. It's this visit though, that
caused Paul to be eventually apologize.
Paul humbled himself and admitted that his refusal to
receive tithe from the Corinthian church had hurt the
Corinthian church, said Corinthians 12/13 says Paul said
for what is it wherein you were inferior to other churches,

(01:09:46):
except it be that I myself was not a burdensome to you.
He's talking about financially. Yeah, he said forgive me this
wrong. Wow, so many words.
Paul said I did you wrong by nottaking the tithe.
Please forgive me. He said my failure to take tithe
from you cause you to become an inferior church, a lesser church

(01:10:08):
than the other churches. Compared to other churches,
you're a subpar church. Wow.
Not because of what you did, because of what I did.
Wow. Because I didn't receive it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I was afraid I would be
all about the money. Yeah.
His decision had limited their spiritual development.

(01:10:32):
And this is just me, brother Brandon, but I believe Paul came
to realize something profound because their their Bible at
this time was the Old Testament.They didn't have old First
Corinthians, Second Corinthians,They were writing it at this
time. I just imagine that Paul
probably seen all the, the vision that was going on there,
hearing all the immorality, the incest, the drunkenness, that

(01:10:53):
communion, the doctrinal confusion, the carnality, the
wildfire, the gifts of the Spirit.
There was dysfunction everywhere.
And Paul looked back and I believe I, this is just me.
I believe he began to connect the dots.
He's like, I did that to them bynot receiving it.
I actually released the Devoureronto them.

(01:11:15):
Wow. Please forgive me of this wrong.
I did that to you and I believe you began to think of Malachi 3.
Will a man rob God? Yeah.
Yeah, you are cursed with the curse, Malachi 39.
I will rebuke the devourer. So Paul saw there's no where,
there's no tie tie. The devourer has access.

(01:11:37):
Holiness breaks down revival to sabotage as soon as it's coming
in. This is churches destined to
have an 80,000 soul revival. What am I doing getting in the
way of it by corrupting you guysby not receiving the tithe?
I've I've removed the spiritual covering from off your
household. I've released the cankerworm,
the Palmer worm, the locust and the and the Caterpillar.

(01:12:00):
I've I've released it into the church.
And so he apologized. Now here's here.
These three men are what caused him to apologize.
How did they cause him to apologize?
Because the Bible shows right here that they did so because
when these three men are as the cast and just I can't say their
name on top of my head now that I have in front of me.

(01:12:22):
They came with a desperate cry in these men.
The Bible says that in first Corinthians 1617.
He said I am glad of the coming of Stefanus Fortunatus and
Archaicus for that which was lacking on your part.
Talking to the Corinthians they have supplied in verse 18.

(01:12:43):
He said for they have refreshed my spirit and yours therefore
acknowledge ye them that are such guys getting it what they
what you guys lacked in giving me they came up and made the
difference. They came didn't they just come
with a negative report to Paul that came with bags of money as

(01:13:05):
it were tied and said we're hereto make this right as we see
this as the main issue. Wow.
We're tying our hearts back to our man of God and we're letting
you know that you're you are substantial, that you are our
genuine apostle. And this is you.
Make this right. And Paul, I'm asking you don't,

(01:13:26):
don't reject this like you used to.
You can't reject this. And that's what convicted Paul,
and that's what prompted his apology.
Well, and you know this, just reporting the news here, but
this is the same concept. And where where people like

(01:13:50):
Elder Steve McMullen, they taught that if if you've missed
tithing, you need to catch up, you need to pay it back.
And they got it from these threemen who realized where they had

(01:14:13):
failed, and they made it up to Paul.
And what it happened, it said, said when this happened, Paul
said I was refreshed in my spirit for they have refreshed
my It's not just a middle thing.It's not just.
A heart thing, Spiritual thing. Spirit thing.

(01:14:33):
So when they gave that money, itrefreshed my spirit.
Wait, you didn't say that. Not just my spirit, it refreshed
the your spirit. He's writing to the whole
Corinthian church, he said. Not only did it refresh these
three men, Spirit. He said the whole.
Church one person tithing actually impacts the whole.
Church, one person not tithing actually impacts the whole.

(01:14:56):
Church. Yes.
Yes. It's a refresher.
There is a spiritual transaction.
Now I know money is just money. It's whatever, Benjamin, but
when you put it into the offering plate, it takes a
spiritual dynamic, just like baptism.
It's just water. When you go under, there's a
spiritual transaction. Communion.

(01:15:16):
It's just bread and, you know, unleavened bread and, and, and
juice or wine or whatever you guys do.
Well, what makes a thing spiritual is add faith.
Faith. Bingo.
It's like, it's like add, add faith.
It's it's like you know, you, you know it's, it's, it's the,

(01:15:37):
the microwave meals. Just add water.
You want to make a thing spiritual?
Add faith. And.
So I know money is a very, very.Sensitive.
It it's a it's a very physical thing.
It doesn't have morals it but you add faith and it takes on a

(01:15:59):
whole new life. It does.
It does. I think, man, I know we've been
going along today, but this is this is something that's really
spoken to me a lot over the lastseveral weeks and.
Well, this has been outstanding man.
Thank you so much. We appreciate it so much.

(01:16:22):
We appreciate everyone for tuning in.
I know this has been a longer episode than normal, but maybe
while you were cleaning your house or working in the yard,
mowing the grass or whatever, you've been able to be blessed
by this week's episode. Thank you so much, Pastor
Norlock, for pouring into us. And there is a blessing when you

(01:16:42):
get the revelation of giving to God's Kingdom, giving back to
Him what is already His. And we pray that God's favor and
blessing would be upon your lifeas you participate in this great
practice of tithing. Musicians come.

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Tithing Part Two | Pastor Micah Narlock | The Ocala Church Podcast With Pastor Ryan Brister

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Tithing Part Two | Pastor Micah Narlock | The Ocala Church Podcast With Pastor Ryan Brister