The Tithe is Holy: Unlock God's Blessings in your Finances

All right, all right everybody, welcome back to another episode of the King's Council podcast. We're back at you with matching t-shirts today.

Yeah, that's what BFFs do.

I couldn't imagine ever like matching shirts like this. This is great. If you guys aren't on YouTube, you gotta check us out.

Yeah, our shirts say Jesus won. I don't I just saw this recently, the Ohio State Buckeye football team, like half the team showed up to their camp wearing shirts like this that say Jesus won. And I—

you probably didn't see it on mainstream media, right? Right.

It piqued my interest, so I, uh, checked it out to see. Plus I was like, I want a shirt like that, right? So one of the players, he's affiliated with an FCA ministry, I think it's in Ohio. And he created these shirts that all the proceeds go towards the FCA.

So cool. Yeah, all of them do.

Yeah, that's what I said. Wow. Yeah, that's great. That ministry and another ministry he's a part of, but it said all proceeds go to these two ministries.

That's great. Yeah, I got a buddy who leads an FCA group here in southern Minnesota. Yeah, and it's great. It's a great organization. That was when I was in, uh, grew up in South Dakota. We that had FCA, and, uh, it was fun to get together. Yeah, do those things.

Well, shout out to our boy Patrick in Uganda. Yeah, who listens to the podcast. And, uh, yeah, he, he's been a part of the Bible study on Wednesday mornings.

What's up, Patrick?

Yeah, what's up, man? And he just said he got a position with the FCA in Uganda. Uganda? Uganda?

I think it's Uganda.

Uganda.

Yeah.

And, uh, yeah, I didn't even know they had FCA.

That's amazing.

In Uganda.

Yeah. That's cool. I did not know that either.

Yeah, pretty cool that somebody in Uganda is listening to the podcast.

Absolutely. Worldwide represent.

Settle down, settle down.

Uh, taking territory, baby. Yeah, yeah, because Jesus won.

Yeah, we're big over in Africa, Pakistan. We got some, some listeners over there.

Yeah, we do in Pakistan too. That's true.

Yeah, yeah, it's just here in the States. Yeah, nobody listens.

That's not true. That's not true. I haven't looked for a while, but last I looked, I think we're at like between, I think like between 50 and 60,000 downloads a month.

That's great.

Yeah, on like all platforms.

Yeah, praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord. Yeah, absolutely.

And all we want to share is that Jesus, he doesn't just win in the end, he already won.

Yes.

And that's why we are overcomers, that there's nothing that is up against us that we haven't already won because we are in Christ and He declared us, he even says in 1 John that we have already overcome the wicked one.

Yes.

So next time you're being attacked spiritually, know that you already trampled him. He's at the bottom of your foot right now. So don't let him, you know, trick you into thinking that he has the upper hand in any sort of way. He's actually defeated.

Yeah.

I forget which story in the Bible, one of the cases of Jesus casting out demons, but I remember the demon asked Jesus, 'Is this the time?' And refer to like, is this the end? Because they know their, their end is right coming up soon.

They literally have nothing to lose other than—

right, chaos. And think about that, that was 2,000 years ago. So think about how desperate the devil and all his minions are right now to just wreak havoc in our life. And like we talked about last week, to steal, kill, and destroy, to devour us.

Yep.

I mean, they, they're just gonna ramp up the, the pressure.

Yeah, don't be surprised. That's why you got to know the word of God. He can speak it. That is the sword.

Sword of the spirit, baby.

Weapon that we have.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's got a, what is it when they unsheathe it? Is that what it's called?

I believe so.

Unsheath that baby.

Yeah.

Start speaking it.

Like when David unsheathed the sword of Goliath to cut his head off. Right.

Yes. He spoke directly at him.

Yeah.

Yeah. Good stuff. Yeah. That's not what we're going to talk about today.

No, no, nothing. We're off track already.

That's common.

5 minutes in.

That is common. Yeah. That's why we like doing these.

Yeah.

It is. It's how we sort of catch up most of the time.

I wish I had the website. Jesus Won, I think, is actually— just type in Jesus Won t-shirt.

Yeah, W-O-N, as in won the battle, right? Yep.

Yeah, but definitely support that ministry and rock these cool shirts. They fit well. Yeah, they seem to be good material, which is always big when you're buying a Christian product.

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, looks good. Looks good on you.

Thanks. Looks good on you.

Well, thanks. Yeah, I got medium.

I got black just so my pit stains don't show.

Thank you.

Because I plan on wearing this when I'm preaching next Sunday.

Heck yeah, that'll look good.

Yeah, if I wore red, everybody'd be distracted by the massive amount of sweat coming out of my armpits. I get excited when I talk about Jesus.

Yeah, you do, man. Every Bible study, by the way, kingscouncilbiblestudy.com, every Wednesday morning. Christian walks us through the word of God, which is awesome. But he also sits up from his chair in a pool of sweat. I come in with the ShamWow, like the mop, clean up after him.

It's true.

It's true.

Well, Josh Latimer says, you know, whatever your calling is in life, that's what gets you excited. There's just a giddiness, a joy that like nothing else brings you. And that's like that giddiness that I get is when I'm talking about Jesus.

Yeah, absolutely. That's great, man. Yeah, I love it. So join us Wednesday mornings, 8 AM Central Standard Time. We go live, um, we're streaming that live on YouTube now. Yeah, but if you want to interact, ask questions, things like that, kingscouncilbiblestudy.com will bring you right on to the Zoom link.

Yeah, our Bible study is a little unique like that, where it's not just go through the Bible study and that's it, just take it, absorb it. If you have questions Fire 'em away. Yeah.

Fire 'em away.

Come on, man. Absolutely.

Well, let's dive in. If you guys have been avid listeners, we have been walking through these concepts of the Kingdom Money Principles. Principle of ownership, God owns everything. Principle of stewardship, we are simply managing what he owns. And we are on part 2 today of this principle of worship, which we dove into last week regarding the tithe. And that is our, obedience, uh, ultimately, but it is a, a spiritual act of worship. And we're going to dive further into that. We, we went pretty heavy into Malachi last week, which, uh, I think is kind of the go-to for a lot of pastors when, when talking about the tithe. There's some pretty, um, blatant verses on, on what that does and the fact that it, it opens up— God asks us to test him in this and that it— see if it will not open up the windows of heaven and, and pour out a blessing so much upon you that you don't have enough room for it.

Yeah.

Which is pretty radical.

Yeah.

I want them blessings.

Right. Here's the cool thing about Jesus. He always passes the test.

Yes, absolutely. His word does not return void, right? Which is something that I think we need to even be reminded of sometimes, of just like, man, this happens. And what I love about the Bible is it's not just a story of old things that used to happen or did happen, but it's what always happens, right? And you can see that in culture and society, just generation after generation after generation. The things that are going on in the world today, they've always been going on, right? They just seem so prevalent and so radical to us today. I think there definitely is some progression that has taken place as we're leading up to Jesus' ultimate return, but it's still— it's nothing new, you know? It's all this stuff has been going on, and so that's why it's wonderful to have the Bible to be able to look at and see, you know, what did they do then? What did God require then? And I think the tithe also is a form of worship, is something that we can look at and understand what was the point of it from the beginning of time. And we're going to dive into that today, leading up through all of the Old Testament, it being a part of the law. And now when Jesus died and rose again, the fact that he came, he fulfilled the New Testament or the Old Testament. But there's principles that are still at play with us here. And what I love about God is that he doesn't require us to do anything, right? We know, and this isn't a salvation issue or anything along those lines. We know how to be saved. It's we have to repent, right? We acknowledge, believe in our hearts, profess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. And he is the way, the truth, the life. The only way is to experience salvation is through him. And what we're talking about here is just principles that are in the Bible for us to truly walk in the kingdom. This understanding of what God's rule and reign is, and for us to be able to walk with freedom and joy today on this earth today, not one day when we get to heaven. Yeah, right. But these are, these are principles that we want to just make aware, make prevalent, and, and hopefully that some of you will actually start to take action on.

Yeah, amen. And even though God doesn't require us to do things, look at John 14:15. If we really love him, we're going to obey his commandments.

Yes, absolutely.

So if we're not doing the things that he commands or suggests to us, then it He actually questions our legitimacy as a child of his.

Yeah, come on. It's like you think of your wife, it's like, babe, I really love you, but you don't do anything that she asks you to do, right? Do you really love her or are you just a selfish piece of garbage?

I know you really love Ash the way you clean up after the dogs.

And yes, yes, that is true.

Do it without— I mean, she may not even know there's poop over here, vomit over here, you just clean it up, go about your way, and you don't even, you know, tell her that you did it.

Joy in my heart. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh, yes, I, I think you— I think you love the dogs. I see the way you interact with the dogs when you think nobody's looking, but I think you treat them the way you do because of your love for Ash.

Yeah, well, we definitely wouldn't have them if it wasn't for her, so— or Ellie, you know, right?

They love them.

But yeah, absolutely, I want I want my girls to have what they want. And yeah, absolutely. So, um, which doesn't mean I enjoy cleaning up poop or pee or anything like that, but I get to. I get to do that.

You get to.

So yes.

All right, what a humble servant.

Yes, right. Um, so we're diving into— again, this is part 2 of, of worship, which is really the tithe. Um, and I think what's to set the stage here, we're really just going to establish that the tithe is it's holy. It is something that, uh, it is an important thing. It's not that it was once important, but it is still holy. It is something that we should take seriously in our walk as followers of Jesus Christ. Um, and you know, again, this isn't something you can argue with your pastor, you can argue with other believers that you don't have to do it, and you absolutely don't. But one thing you can't argue with is the word of God. Uh, and that's truth, that what God says. And it— the Bible tells us that the tithe is holy. And so, um, now whether we choose to walk in that or actually abide by that, that's up to us. Um, what is it, Leviticus 27:30 that says this? I had it up and I don't know.

Yeah, I did too. I clicked off and I clicked back on and I lost it.

And all of 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 to the Lord. That's Leviticus 27:30. Yeah, it's holy, baby. So we have to understand that, and it's up to us again to be able to choose to abide by it or not, right? And we don't have to, but if something's holy, I certainly am— it's going to grab my attention.

Yeah, right. I mean, God calls for us to be holy, for he is holy.

Yes.

And that— I mean, we really need to make a conscious decision to be holy at all times, which is really consecrated to the Lord, set apart for his works and his goodwill. Um, so yeah, they call the tithe holy. Um, we need to have a reverence for it, understand that this is God's. He desires our first fruits to come back to him. Right? And specifically, um, when he does come to talk about the tithe with Abraham first, but then it installs it into the law. Yeah, it's in— I mean, that's why we're doing this podcast. It's an act of worship.

Yes, absolutely. Um, I feel like there's so much— there's so many more references probably we could bring up and just in regards to the tithe. But, um, I love this in Proverbs Uh, chapter 3, verse 9 and 10: Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. So it's— I think, understand again when the Bible was written, the, the years that this was in. I mean, I think it's easy for us to be like, okay, I don't have barns, I don't have a wine cellar, but we all have bank accounts, right? We do have storehouses in 2024 when we're recording this. And if we do honor the Lord with our possessions and with the first fruits of all our increase, your bank accounts will be filled with plenty, right? Your vats, your savings accounts will overflow with new dollar signs.

Yeah, I don't know, right? No, I like— because It first says honor the Lord with your possessions.

Yeah.

And then it kind of presupposes that there will be an increase there because— and with the first fruits of all your increase. So if I honor the Lord first with my possessions, it's going to bring an increase to me because, again, we talked about the law last week of sowing and reaping. And so if I'm sowing, I'm giving, there's going to be an increase. Yes. And it's not just what I gave is going to be replenished, there's going to be an increase on top of what I gave to begin with.

Yeah, there's an assumption there. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. That is good. I want to dive into here, as I would have mentioned, kind of, I think I kind of ended last week's, uh, just with this. We went through Malachi, uh, but I made reference to the fact that this concept of the tithe— and I'm not— I say the concept of the tithe because the concept of giving and sacrificing had been around well before the tithe was actually instituted into the law. Sure, right. And specifically, when I first read this or was made aware of this, I was like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. Because— and Christian and I had been kind of talking about this, um, as well. You know, we know Adam and Eve were the first two humans to, to walk the earth, and then they had these two sons, Cain and Abel. If you just read through the first few chapters of Genesis, you, you start to know about them. But specifically in Genesis 4, I'm just going to read this. Is that cool?

Sure.

I said cool.

I'm curious what translation this is because it says Adam made love to his wife Eve.

This is the New Rylee Meek translation, baby. I said that— I wrote this to Ash. So Adam made love to his wife Eve. I actually don't know where— which translation I pulled this from.

Yeah, because most— I mean, I typically read out of the New King James and I'll say Adam knew his wife Eve.

Right. I think that's what I like, made love better.

Well, well, there's significance to that word knew. That's the Hebrew word yada. Yeah. And that's the same word that David uses when he asks God to search his, search his heart, try me and know me.

Sure.

So it when you tie the two together, that David is asking for this intimacy with the Lord, and not like a sexual intimacy with the Lord, but an intimacy that's so close. It's the same word that's used for Adam making love to his wife. That's pretty intimate.

Interesting. Yes.

And even the act of making love between a husband and wife, that's so intimate. There's such a union there that it just kind of highlights that word, but we'll go with made love.

Okay. Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, with the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man. Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought— also, I just want to make reference. We know, okay, there was the— they were in the garden. Adam and Eve were in the garden and they sinned, right? So this is after they have the fall of man, right? Abel kept the flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord, and Abel also Cain also brought an offering, fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? Like, this is so crazy. Like, he already knows, but he's like, tell me, why are you angry? Why are you downcast? And then he goes on to say this. 'If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must rule over it.' So what I want to— I mean, there's a lot that we could unpack from this here, but when I was first reading this and kind of made aware of this as I was studying the tithe and where it really came from, they just— the understanding of it's like, man, who told Cain and Abel that they needed to bring the— their— a sacrifice, right? Who told them that they needed to bring anything to the Lord? Obviously it had to be their parents because they're like the only ones walking the earth right now. And, you know, we don't have a clear representation that that happened necessarily because of the fall, but we know because of our sin now blood needed to be part of the atonement, right? That like there needed to be a sacrifice to God because of what we actually did. Right now it doesn't clearly say that it's the first 10% or anything right here, but just this concept of giving, of sacrificing is an act of worship here.

Yeah.

Right. And the Lord says directly to Cain, 'Hey, if you did what was right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, since crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.' Right? It's like it's in Cain's hands. It ain't in God's hands. It's like he has to rule over it by being what I believe should have been obedient to this. And the fact that Abel brought the fat portions, some from the firstborn of his flock, again, the first fruits essentially, Abel brought that, but Cain brought some of the— just says some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. It wasn't the first fruits, it's just some of it. Yeah, it's probably like, oh, that one's kind of funky looking, right? It's got a deform— that carrot's like a little deformed, right? So let's just— let's take that. And it's like, no, that was Cain's fault on that, and that he must rule over it, right? He brought some, he didn't bring the best, uh, as an— as a— an act of sacrifice, as an act of honor to God at that time. This is wild.

Yeah, think about this too, the first fruits. So the, the first of the flock. I mean, I don't know the frequency of like having babies back then for these animals, but sometimes if you offer the first, the second one isn't even there yet, right? So you're really offering everything at the time. You know, more is to come. Just think about that when you give to the Lord. Like, given I don't know what I'll get paid again necessarily, but I'm going to give it all to you. Because that's my first fruits, trusting that more will come.

Yes. Yeah, that's good. Absolutely, absolutely. Then as you read further into Genesis, specifically into chapter 14, again, the law is not put in place at this point, but this is the first reference that we see of the tithe, which would be the one-tenth. Chapter 14 in Genesis, I'll pick up in verse 18. It says, then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, blessed be Abram by God Most High, creator of heaven and earth, and praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand. Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Again, now we just think of a tithe as, oh, you know, I get paid, I give 10%, which, as we talked about last week, nobody often gives 10%, not a lot, 5% of churchgoing Christians give 10%, but a tenth of everything.

Yep.

Everything. Think about that. If every day you just say, all right, what do I have? What's in my possession? We know it's ultimately God's, but it's in my possession right now. If I give a tenth of it and you start to like whittle away, like your furniture starts going, your clothes start going, stuff like that. But according to scripture and the principles in scripture, those things will be replenished.

Yes.

It would just be cool to put this in practice in a mass scale to see how much you could give and how much you'll actually be blessed in giving on a high scale.

Yes.

An abundant scale.

Yep, absolutely. And again, this all was taking place before the law was, was put into place. Um, and I really think, you know, part of the law with that Moses ultimately put in. It was like, it was the instructioning law, I guess we'll call it, for the nation of Israel. It's like, this is how— I mean, I don't know this for a fact, but I got to believe this is probably the reason the tithe became a part of the law, is that God wanted to bless the nation of Israel. But there's principles that he has to work through, through man. And so it's like when you make it a law, then you're required to actually tithe on everything. And I just think it's fascinating that these concepts, these principles were in place prior to the law. Yet we still now in 2024 argue with the fact that if we have to do this or not. Like, no, well, you don't, again, you don't have to, but if you want to be blessed, this is something that you should do. Life will go well for you if you abide by these principles.

Yeah. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

We move ahead to Deuteronomy 26:10. Because tithing is a form of worship, like we've been saying. It says, "And now behold, I bring the first fruits of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me." So again, a proper mindset of understanding that everything we have is from the Lord. He owns everything. "And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God." So you set down that offering before the Lord and worship. It is a form of worship, that sacrifice, that giving of the first fruits.

Yes. Yeah, and then just an acknowledgment to who is the true source of everything. Yeah, right. It's, it's God that owns everything. We're stewarding it, and an act of our stewardship— worship is, as we would have started, I think, last week's episode, is like the tithe begins the process, right, of this, this— it begins the process of the blessing of God in our life, but we have to be the ones that actually do it. Yeah, and that comes back to just, we, we don't have to do it. We all have a choice in this. But also in Deuteronomy, it tells us that blessings and curses, uh, are set before us, right? And we can choose life or we can choose death. We can— it's up, up to us to actually choose these things. And we know that the act of— back from last week in Malachi— the act of robbing from God, not abiding with those caused a curse upon the nation. And, uh, that was their fault because they were not being obedient to what was originally instructed to them.

Yeah, right.

So choose life, baby.

Yeah, I think there's such an indifference, just a mindset or heart's posture of indifference within the church. And I don't know if that's because in the day of social media we see so much and we kind of become numb to things because, you know, we could see evil things happening, people being hurt, people getting killed and stuff that, you know, even when we were kids, you can't just go on the internet and see that, right? So you see so much wickedness around you, you start to become numb. Like, your heart just naturally builds up this wall so it doesn't affect you emotionally, but then it kind of creates this indifference to all things. It's just kind of like, yeah, you know. But within the church, that's the last thing God wants from us is indifference, because that will kind of lead to that lukewarm status.

Absolutely.

But we, we have the option to choose life or death. We have the option to choose blessings or curses. And so many people are like, I don't want to be cursed by any means, but the blessings— I have to do this for the blessings. It's like I have to go out of my way. Everybody just, just like, yeah, right?

And we become the, the lukewarm church.

Yeah.

Yep. And back to just, we got to return to our first love. But love is a verb, and it's something that we have to actually do. And, and again, I think we talked about this last week of it's not what we say or maybe even think, but it's what we do that matters most.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Life is precious, and it's, it's time is short. There's an old song, it's funny, it just popped into my head. Are you familiar with the, uh, former recording artist Mase?

I am, yes. Okay, well, on one of his albums, was he, uh, my chick bad, my chick good?

That's Ludacris.

No.

Yeah, really? Yeah. Wow, I thought that was Mase.

I thought so.

It's like two different eras even, man.

I, I completely submit to you on this type of topic.

I for sure did not think that I, I would have bet that was not Ludo, but, but no, Mase had a song called 24 Hours to Live, and you know, him and, you know, guys from, I believe, the LOX and maybe Black Rob who were on the album, um, you know, just have no clue who those people said. The LOX? Yeah, you don't know the LOX? Jadakiss, Styles P, Chic Louch?

Nope.

Three guys. Yeah, I know you probably know some Jadakiss songs. I'm sure if I played it for you, he was like the most popular out of the three and had some solo albums.

Okay, all right.

Yeah, I'll play for you after this.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, can't wait.

Yeah, I'll, uh, poison your spirit, right?

Seriously.

But anyway, this song, it talked about what if you had only 24 hours to live, what would you do, right? And in the song, you know, some of the things were not great things that they would do in their last 24 hours. But I remember even as a young child, I was like, man, if I had 24 hours to live, like, what would I do? Yeah. And it kind of made me realize that life is precious, life is short, and you really need to realize we're not going to live on forever. Even in a— do things in your youth that you're not able to do when you're, you're older. We have an opportunity. We can live such an abundant, impactful life here on Earth, and why will we not? Why would we not? We have all power and authority that, that, that Jesus has bestowed upon us, right? And he lives within us. Why would we not do it? Like, right at the end of everybody's life, you know, they— there's regrets of things that they don't do. When people are dead or dying on their deathbed, they— all they have is regrets. Yeah, they think about good times and good Your good memories always involve other people, right? Always. You always want your loved ones to be around you. So if you're a lone wolf Christian, guess what? We're not meant to do life, period. And whether you're a Christian or not, you could probably attest to that, that we are made to be in community with one another.

Yep.

And you think about the good times, the memories that you have, but then you think about the regrets, the things that you should have done, the things that you could have done. And guess what? By then it's too late. Yep. It's too late.

I don't—

I don't have any regrets.

Absolutely no regrets. So you have tattooed on you— how did we get on that topic?

Um, just choosing life or death, blessing over curses. Yep.

And the great theologian Jadakiss put that in your heart as a small boy. Yeah.

I just had a flashback to when you said you had a Vanilla Ice poster.

Uh, I've actually made a poster of your face and put that on my wall because of the throw your darts at response, your response to me having a poster.

Yeah, it's probably—

you guys haven't seen that. I think we made it a social media post of Christian's face.

Yeah, I know a lot about you. Probably Ash is one of the only people on Earth that knows more about you, some of your secrets, and nothing has been more shocking to me than you having a Vanilla Ice poster as a I, I didn't—

I told you I didn't hang it up.

I just—

I think I won it at a carnival.

I know, but you can't tell me at that carnival Vanilla Ice was the only option they had. I don't remember, man.

I went to a lot of carnivals when I was younger, right?

Uh, how old were you at the time?

I don't— probably, I don't know, 10, 11.

So you probably wouldn't opt for a poster of a girl at that time yet? No.

Yeah. Yeah, see, nice. Yeah, yeah, the cool pants, cool haircut.

That would be like me just being 4 years older than you, like getting at 10 years old the New Kids on the Block poster.

Did you have that?

No, absolutely not. I'm a straight white male, always have been.

Oh man. And yeah, so we were talking about this being blessed— a blessing and curses, and As we talked about last week too, the fact that them robbing God of it, it put a curse on them, right? And so we today in 2024, anytime when you're listening to this, it's like we still get to choose this, that we get— we— it's a choice that is up to us. And I love it really that God allows us to make this choice, right? Because it's— it is an act of where our heart truly lies. Is it in the— in what we can do and what we can accomplish, or is it in our faith and, and truly the understanding that God owns it all? Yeah, I'm not even— I'm not even giving him my 10%, I'm giving him back his 10%, right? And that's why all of these principles, if we really understand them, why they're not independent of each other but they all work in conjunction with each other. Yeah, of of walking in this kingdom authority that he truly desires for us. But it's a choice that we have to make. And you don't have to, but you can choose to continue to rob God. Or you can step into this lifestyle, we'll even call it, of what it really means to be obedient to the word of God.

Yeah, God doesn't force you to do good and the enemy doesn't force you to do bad. So you can't say, oh, the devil made me do it. Yep. Because just like God told Cain back in Genesis 4 where he says, sin is crouching at your door, desires to have you, but you must rule over it. You just have to make that decision to rule over it.

Yes.

And you have the power and the authority to rule over it.

Yes.

At all times. If, if only if you're in Jesus Christ.

Yes.

If not, you don't have the power. To rule over darkness. You really don't.

Yep.

You're actually a child of the devil.

Yes.

If you don't have Jesus.

Yeah, absolutely. And if you haven't been faithful in tithing up until this point, um, don't sweat it, right? That's why Jesus died and rose again for us, is that, uh, he, he knew we'd suck. He knew we would, right? So don't sweat it. But I'm going to encourage you to no longer let the enemy steal your harvest, right? And that's really in Malachi 3:11, where it talks about, uh, protect us from the devourer. The enemy's coming to steal it all. He's— because we don't have that protection, that fence set up around us by just us doing a spiritual act of worship, of actually tithing and, and giving back to God what is already his.

Yeah.

Um, and so I want to challenge all of you and be clear, you ain't tithing to us, right? I don't— it is— it's not even about the money. It is about the act of sacrifice, the act of, of acknowledgment of who your source truly is. Yeah. Because your resources are going to change over over and over again, but your source should absolutely never change.

Yeah, and if you haven't been tithing, repent of it, right? God's not going to hold it against you. He chooses to, to cast those sins that are forgiven as far as the east is from the west, and mercies are new every single day.

Yes.

So you could say, man, I haven't tithed in 5 years, like, I got so much to catch up on. It's like, no, just repent of it, be forgiven that you haven't And I mean, I don't even know, would you consider it a sin not tithing if you're not honoring the Lord?

Well, I would say if you hadn't known scripture, you don't know what it actually says, probably not. But if you know what it says and you're convicted in just what we've been talking about, then I would say, yeah, it probably is.

Yeah, if you know what is right and don't do it, James says, then that's sin.

Right.

The sin of omission. Yeah. Not doing what you know Even if it's not explicitly written in scripture, if God's telling you, hey, stop doing that, speaking to your heart and telling you, and you keep on doing it, then— or if he's telling you to start doing something and you don't do it, that would really be more the sin of omission, doing what is right, what you know God's telling you to do, and not doing it.

It is. It's not a blatant, you must do this. Yeah, it's not a Ten Commandment. But the point of this is for us to challenge you in your walk with the Lord and I believe well before it was in the Levitical law, there's reference of Abram giving a tenth. There's reference of Cain and Abel giving, sacrificing, but Cain, who didn't give the best, didn't give the first, but just gave some.

And didn't give a sacrifice.

Yeah, just some. And yet Cain was downcast. He was distraught. And God said, why are you?

Why are you?

And it's— you have the ability to rule over it. It's, it's you that get to choose life and death, blessing and curses. And today we get to choose life, but it has to be something that you choose.

That's so true though. You could just have a crappy day when you're walking outside the will of God. If you— I mean, even if you get up in the morning, then you typically spend your day with the Lord, you pray, Bible time, worship time, whatever it may be. When you don't do that, you just have like a crappy day. You're like, what the heck? Yeah, I usually— we're idiots as human beings, so it's like, oh, I didn't pray today, right? Yeah, it's actually the secret sauce to my entire being.

Yes, absolutely, man. Especially within business. As entrepreneurs listen to this, we're busy, man. We're so busy. But the acknowledgment, the first fruits, which is why I believe, you know, for some people say it doesn't really matter when you spend time in the word. I think I disagree. I think it's the first fruits. It's, it's the time you wake up, you're starting your day, man. Why would I fuel up on anything else other than the word of God and to get my strength from him and him alone? That's why I, I have to have the time in the morning. Um, otherwise the day just happens. If you wake up late, man, you're just like stressed and yeah, you're freaking out. And yeah, it just doesn't go well.

Yeah, even if you get up and you just hop on social media right away, even it's 5 minutes, and then you spend time with the Lord, like what you just fed your, your flesh above and beyond your spirit in those 5 minutes, it's so hard to like tip that scale back where the, the spirit is overcoming the flesh.

Absolutely, you know, absolutely.

But it could literally, it could take 5 minutes of time with the Lord in the morning, as long as it's the first thing that you do Yep, man, it just changes the, the course of your whole day.

It does. It's truth, baby. That's truth.

Yeah.

So you got anything else on the tithe, man?

I don't think so. We could land this plane, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. So again, guys, this is up to you if you want to walk these principles out, um, to choose life, to choose blessing or curses. It is completely in your hands at this time. Um, we're just the messengers. Uh, you get to actually choose, um, what you want to do here. But I would challenge you, uh, to test him. God actually challenges you to test him in this, that he doesn't open up the windows of heaven and pour out that blessing that is so much that you can't even— you can't even contain it. I mean, it starts with that. And next week, guys, we're going to continue to walk through these 4 principles. We're diving into some fun stuff. Yeah, over the next couple weeks here, just this principle of kingship. Kingship. What does that actually even mean? You can say queenship if you want to. Um, but it also could be referenced as kinship because we are kinfolk, kinfolk of the Lord Most High. We are— we have been adopted and we are his children here. And what does it mean to walk in kingship here, um, in that authority that we've been talking about here within the kingdom of God?

I think Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father saying, that my kinfolk right there, that's my boy, that's my boy.

That's good.

Blue, you're my boy. What movie is that from?

Old School.

Yeah.

Yep.

Nice. We're going straight, gang.

Yeah. Um, don't watch it. It's— there's some laughs, but, uh, yeah.

When I have conversations like this with Lucy, like about stuff from the past, I remind her, I was like, wait a second, weren't you saved? I wasn't saved at that point in my life. Weren't you saved though, right?

Oh, that's funny. That's funny. All right, that being said, we're gonna put, put a bow on this thing here. That being said, we'll see y'all on next week's episode.

Peace.