Pastor Mac Hammond | November 7, 2021

Recap:
Anxiety has become a prominent problem in today’s society. So many people get worked up about how to handle what they have been given. This can change, however, as we begin to understand that God owns what we have been given. We are simply the stewards of it. What does stewardship look like? Stewards follow the lead of the Owner. In this case, we can find out what God wants us to do with what we have been given and do what He expects. This is one way to release worry from our lives, for we are managing God’s resources on His behalf.

Dive Deeper:
Money can be a source of stress as we attempt to figure out the best way to manage what we have been given and earn more for future needs. However, money does not need to be a source of stress, for it is not ours, but a resource God has given us to use on His behalf. In fact, the Bible tells us that “the blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 10:22 NLT).

A key way we use our money as God wants is through honoring Him as Lord through our tithes. The tithe is ten percent of our increase and our acknowledgement that God is Lord in our lives. A good example of this is the Israelites and their conquest of the Promised Land. The first battle in Jericho was the only battle where they could not keep the spoils. They were supposed to dedicate those spoils to the Lord. Every other battle they could keep the spoils. The first was their acknowledgement that God is Lord.

Tithing is found in the New Testament as well, for Jesus Christ is our High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek, as noted in Hebrews, received tithes and conferred blessings. What does that blessing look like? Well, since blessing is the empowerment to prosper, God will bless those who tithe with opportunities to increase. As they step into those opportunities by faith, the blessing of the Lord will follow.

The tithe is your way to put God first in your life. If you want to win the victory tomorrow, give God your first fruits today!

Read More:
Psalm 50:10-12 KJV
For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.  I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 KJV
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Genesis 28:20-22 KJV
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

Leviticus 27:30-32 KJV
And 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 unto the Lord. And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof. And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.

Joshua 6:18-19 KJV
And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.

Joshua 7:10-11 KJV
And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.

Malachi 3:10-11 KJV
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 you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

Hebrews 7:1-2 KJV
For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;

Hebrews 7:8 KJV
And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.

Discussion Questions:
1. Why do you think God has put the principle of the tithe in place?
2. Have you made tithing a part of your life? What is holding you back? What keeps you tithing regularly?
3. Do you worry about money? Does tithing help you worry less because you know you have placed God first in your finances?
4. Have you seen opportunities open in your life to increase? What did it look like? Did you take advantage of it?

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