First Things First - Week 2 | Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is
Psalm 34:8-10 “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! 10 The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
John 16:13-15 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
Deuteronomy 14:23 (TLB) …The purpose of the tithe is to teach you to always put God first in your lives.
2 TEMPTATIONS WHEN IT COMES TO MONEY
WE ARE TEMPTED TO LOVE MONEY!
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil......Some people, eager for money, have wandered away, wandered from their faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Ecclesiastes 5:10 Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.
WE ARE TEMPTED TO SERVE MONEY
Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either he'll hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Leviticus 27:30 ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.
Proverbs 3:9-10 Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing,and your vats will brim over with new wine.
WHERE DOES THE TITHE GO?
Malachi 3:10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse."
The storehouse has always been the Old Testament picture of the New Testament church.
Genesis 14:18-20 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Hebrews 7:4-10 (NKJV) Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. 5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; 6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. 8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.
Malachi 3:8-10 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.