Generosity | Week 1 | Heart for the House Series
The Tithe: Giving to the Lord, the first 10th of your income
Established in the Old Testament
Abraham to Melchizedek
20 And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Genesis 14:20
Jacobs vow to God
22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
Genesis 28:22
The Law of Moses
21 “I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting.
Numbers 18:21
Nehemiah’s Reform
37 “Moreover, we will bring to the storerooms of the house of our God, to the
priests, the first of our ground meal, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all
our trees and of our new wine and olive oil. And we will bring a tithe of our
crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the
towns where we work.
Nehemiah 10:37
Malachi’s Reform
6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings.
Malachi 3:6-8
Why do we serve God with our Tithes?
It’s a lasting testimony to our sons and daughters that we have been delivered!
13 1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.”
3 Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast. 4 Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving. 5 When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites—the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ceremony in this month: 6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 8 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. 10 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year.
Exodus 13:1-10
God and Money: Cortines, John; Baumer, Gregory. How We Discovered True Riches at Harvard Business School. Rose Publishing.
It's a Satanic Rebuke/Protection from the Devourer
11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty.
Malachi 3:11
Extrapolated in the New Testament
8 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.
2 Corinthians 8:1-5
2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
1 Corinthians 16:2
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
Why do we serve God with our Tithes?
Because we have been blessed to be a blessing!...across the street and around
the world!
9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9:9-11
Tithing is a Test of the Heart
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.
Malachi 3:10
8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:8
Words of Knowledge
We believe the Lord wants to heal tightness and pain in a left knee.
We heard the Lord say, “I’m possible. When you say there is too much to deal with, the resources are not there, and what you need is impossible; God says, you are absolutely correct. With man this is impossible, but I start at the impossible, stop holding on to the impossible because I’m Possible. “
We believe the Lord wants to heal those struggling with anger from childhood trauma.
We believe if your family household is struggling and you want God to redeem what the enemy has been trying to take hold of then you need to come forward for prayer.
We believe the Lord wants to heal someone’s neck.
We believe the Lord wants to heal upper back pain.