You are invited to stop letting fear dictate your generosity and start trusting God with your finances. Make a commitment today to honor Him with the first portion of your income, knowing He promises to open the windows of heaven. Walk in obedience and watch how He expands your life beyond what you can imagine.
What is up? Thanks for tuning in to the "Real Church podcast". My name is David John Phillips. I have the honor of being the pastor here. And I'm excited for you today because we are continuing the "blessed life" series.
We're in part 2. This 1 is titled the test. I know that putting these principles into your life will change everything. Everything. It'll be amazing.
*God* bless you. Enjoy. Our whole our whole service, everything that we do here is to honor Jesus. You know, so so would you guys mind just, if you don't mind, just stand up again. And let's just give Jesus, as if the president or someone just walked in the room, let's just give Jesus a big hand clap of praise saying thank you.
Well, thank you, Jesus, that you are here. Thank you that you love us. Lord God, thank you. We want to hear from you. We honor you right now.
Thank you, Jesus. Amen and amen. You guys can be seated. Welcome. My name is David John Phillips.
I have the honor of getting to be the pastor at Real Church. There's nothing I'd rather be doing. There's no place that I would rather be. And if this is your first time, we welcome you. Thanks for coming.
We guarantee everybody you'll walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. Amen? Okay. So, we have started a new series. It's called The Blessed Life.
We're in part 2 of this series. Last week was part 1. And, in part 1, we talked about The title was It's All About the Heart. It's all about the heart. Right?
Giving is what we were talking about. Right? Is all about the heart. Now, we're in part 2 of this series, The Blessed Life, and I knew that I was gonna be preaching I I Would you mind Would you turn this down just a little bit? That'd be awesome, because I don't wanna blow them out.
But I knew that I was gonna be preaching The Blessed Life about a month and a half ago. *God* kinda told me and really more than that, he kind of rebuked me and disciplined me a little bit because God disciplines his sons. He disciplines those he loves. And so, I have to tell you this. Now, don't freak out when I first tell you.
I'm gonna explain it to you. But I have to tell you that I've been a hypocrite. I've been a hypocrite. Yeah. No.
Seriously, in in what I the way that I've been teaching hasn't lined up in a certain way with the way that I've been living. Or, let let me be more clear, the way that I what I've not taught you since you started Real Church hasn't lined up with the way that I've been living. Let me explain. Because that's hypocrisy is is what you say and what you live doesn't line up. So, ever since I was a kid, ever since I was very young, when I would get allowance or whenever I would mow the yard, mow somebody's yard, get paid for it, From the first time that I got my first job, when I was a lifeguard, I was also a busboy, then I was a pizza cook, I waited tables and other things after that.
Ever since I first started receiving increase in my finances, I've always tithed. I've always given 10%. Every time. I was taught to as a kid, but I've never taught you that. I apologize.
What I've left out in my teaching has caused some people to not experience the full blessed life that we are able to live and able to walk in. And, there's a reason, you know, while we're being honest that I've done that. The reason is for and I've struggled with this teaching for the last decade, and God rebuked me on it hard and and set me straight. But, the reason is because when I would go to some places and different pastors, whether this was their intention or not, you know, it would seem controlling. It would seem greedy and selfish.
It would come across as if they were teaching the tithe out of fear. Right? I'm afraid if I don't teach the tithe, people aren't gonna give, and they're not gonna do this, that, and the other. Now, we don't have enough light. We can't pay the light bill.
We can't do it. And, I hated that because there's no fear in love, and perfect love drives out fear. And so, it jaded me against that. Right? And so, I didn't want to come across in that way when I taught the truth.
The problem is, I was putting more about caring more about what you think about me than about loving you because love rejoices in the truth. Right? So, I have to love you enough to share the truth with you regardless of if you like what I'm saying or not. Amen. Right?
So, if I love you enough to do that, and I apologize for not loving you in this way in the last 2 years since we planted the church. We forgive you. Yeah. And, so, I love you enough to share with you the truth because I want you to experience the blessed life. And so, take this, go through scriptures, be berean, berean with me.
Berean means it's it's a city in that Paul went through and he said they were more noble than the Thessalonians because they studied the scriptures. They actually went to prove to see if what he was saying was true. And, if it is true, then apply it to your life because I believe that this is an ordinary principle of those who walk by faith in their daily life. It's an ordinary principle, and and I'll show you that and prove it to you in scriptures today. Okay?
Fair enough? You guys ready? So, the title of today's message is the test. Kinda think about, you know, you go into school and and or back in high school or back in college, you walk in and everybody's cramming for this test, and you're like, what are you guys doing? And they say, there's a test today.
And you say, test? Did that happen to anybody? Yeah. Having flashbacks? Yeah.
What test? Well, many people don't understand and don't know because they've never been taught that there is a **test in the Bible**, and it's a 2 way test, but there is a test. And that test happens every time that you get paid. What you do with the first 10% of what comes in with your money is a test on who are you going to thank for what has been given to you. Who are you gonna worship?
Now, there's a lot of people who thank Visa and Mastercard with the first 10% of what comes in. The problem with that is, right, is Visa and Mastercard doesn't have the ability to bless your finances, but God does. Amen? Okay. So so with that, we are going to go through a lot of scripture in this message because I want you to see this in scripture.
Okay? And I want to show you that tithing is scriptural, not only that, it's it's for us today as new covenant believers. So let's go to Matthew I mean, not Matthew. Sorry. Malachi-3.
Man, this is a scripture that I stayed away from for 10 years when I was struggling with this. Hardcore. I just did, but it's a good scripture. Ready? Matthew chapter I mean, Malachi-3:6 says, for I am the Lord, I do not change.
That's that's very important for us to understand. God doesn't change. Not only is he saying that, he says, therefore, you are not consumed, oh sons of Jacob. And I kinda think that's funny. Right?
I'm the Lord your God. I don't change, so I'm not gonna kill you. I'm nice. I've always been nice. I'm gonna continue to be okay.
Anyway. Yet from the days of your fathers, you have gone away from my ordinances. I'm reading New King New New King James Version here. I know I usually read NIV. I like the New King James Version 2, and I like it for these scriptures.
But what is an ordinance? An ordinance is I think the the King James or the NIV says decrees or statues. An ordinance is an ordinary principle of living, an ordinary way of living. Right? You have gone away from my ordinary ways of living, my ordinances, and have not kept them.
Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts. He's making sure that you understand this is God speaking. Okay? But what but you said, in what way shall we return? Now, I want to remind you, I did not make this up.
A pastor, evangelist, whatever, did not make up what I'm about to read to you. Okay? It says, verse 8, will a man rob God? Will a man steal from God? It says, yet you have robbed me.
But you say, in what ways have we robbed you? What ways have we stolen from you, God? And he says, in tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the "storehouse", today that's the church, the local church, that there may be food in my house, in my church.
And try me now The NIV says, test me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a *blessing* that there will not be room for you to store it. This is the God This is God talking who cannot change. And he says, you've gone away from my ordinary principles principles of behavior. *Tithing* is an ordinary principle of behavior for those that walk by faith in relationship with him. I'm a show you why.
And then also, I know it says here that it talks about being cursed. You know? And we as Christians, we say, hey, wait a second. *Jesus took the curse* of the law on the tree. Right?
For those that are in Christ. Right? In Christ. 100%. Absolutely.
I, a 100%, agree with you. And, you have to understand too, a curse also, a curse is a is a consequence. That's what it is. Brent, do you have your phone on you? My phone's right here.
Can I see it? Yes. Thank you, sir. No worries. It's my phone.
Oh. I'm stealing your phone. As a matter of fact, because I'm under grace and not under law, I'm stealing your phone. Fair enough. Is that crazy?
That's crazy, right? That doesn't make sense. Not at all. As a matter of fact, there would be consequences if I stole his phone. The consequences were he needs his phone back.
He it would break trust in our relationship. Right? He would always kinda have this he would forgive me, of course, and all. But, there's some consequences for stealing a phone. It's the same thing.
*Grace* doesn't empower me to walk out from under the ordinary principles of of of what he set out for us. Grace empowers me to live by them. Not only that, not only do I not want to steal your phone, man, I wanna bless you. Bro, you you know what? We we got books out.
Let me give you a free book. I wanna I wanna bless you. You understand? *Grace* empowers me not only to live by that, but to go above it. It's a big deal.
For instance, murder. If I were to murder somebody, there would be a consequence in this physical life. The consequence is I'd go to jail, and that family would be really aggravated, really mad, and really upset. I I just tore up relationships, all kinds of stuff. There's natural consequences when you walk out from under the ordinary principles of living that he set out by faith.
Amen? Amen. You guys follow me so far? So if you steal something, exact same thing. Okay.
What if I'm gonna say this, but I'm gonna show it in principle, but what if we steal from God? You say, well, hold on a second. The Lord owns it all, and you're right. He does own it all, and he gives us everything that he has, but scripture is clear. He has reserved 10% for himself for a reason, because it's a test.
It's a test of the heart. It's all about the heart. I know these are strong words. I understand these are strong words, but I did not make them up at all. I used to hate it when preachers say, but you've stolen from me, but you've robbed God.
But, it's scriptural and it's clear, but also in his grace, he doesn't want you to to walk under the consequences that come from that. He shares the his truth with you and then empowers you by the Holy Spirit. Guess what? The Holy Spirit will always empower you to walk in his ordinary principles of living and even to walk above them. So, in his grace, he's sharing truth with you, so you're not doing what you've always done out of whether it's ignorance or just because you didn't know, which is not knowing or just No.
He's sharing truth with you so you can walk in the grace of his blessing because he wants to bless you. Amen? So, this is the the famous passage in Malachi-3:10 that you always hear and the passage that I really struggled with for many many years. Number 1, tithing is a test. Tithing is a test.
Now, think about this too. When someone argues about tithing, what is the heart behind it? Like, if we really understand that God has given us everything, that everything that we have is his, but not only that, he gave us his first and he gave us his best in Jesus dying on the cross for us. Right? Jesus dying for us and paying for our sin so that we are imitators of God and we freely and joyfully give him our first and our best, which once again is a heart test.
Now, here's why he chose 10%. Tithe is a Hebrew word, biblical Hebrew word that means a tenth. That's what it means. Tithe, and but it's also a percentage, and I believe he chose a percentage because it's fair. Because he's testing everybody.
It's fair. You know? Whether you make $10,000,000,000 a year or you make $10,000 a year, it's "10 pennies on every dollar". So, it's it's it's a fair test for everyone. Not only that, another reason I think he chose 10 is because throughout scripture, whenever you see 10, you also see test.
Alright? So, I'm gonna give you guys a test. I'm gonna ask you a question, and I want you guys to say the answer out loud. I'm gonna give you a hint. Alright?
To set you up. Ready? How many plagues were there in Egypt? 10. Good.
The test 10 test test of Pharaoh's heart 10 times. How many commandments were there? Alright. A little louder. Yep.
10 10 commandments. That's good. Let's keep going. And, you might not know the answers to these, but remember, it's a setup. Okay.
How many times did God test Israel in the wilderness? 10. That's right. Come on. You guys are getting more confident.
How many days was Daniel tested? 10. Yes. 10. Come on.
How many virgins were tested in Matthew-25? 10. 10. No. 10.
Okay. How many days of testing are there mentioned in Revelation? 10. 10. Good.
No. How many disciples were there? 10. That was a test. I I set you guys up.
No. It was 12. No. Okay. But but *tithing* I did see.
Yeah. Did. Well, you know. So so tithing is a test. And and here's something you might not know.
It's a 2 way test. It's a 2 way test. Right? So, *God* is testing our hearts because he wants to be able to trust us with with your faithful with a little, he gives you more. He wants to be able to trust us to be able to expand his kingdom.
So it's a test for us, but it's a 2 way test. It's the only place in the Bible where God says, test me. It's the only thing that we have a license to test God in. Do not test the Lord's God, but so why is it does it go against that though? Do not test the Lord your God?
*Malachi-3*. And I'll just show you. *Malachi-3*. Great question. It says, try me or test me in this.
Right? It's the only place where it says to test me. Alright? And, he's saying, test me to see if if I'm pure. Right?
The word for test, try, test, prove, it's the same word used for testing gold to see if it's pure. Test me to see if I'm pure. Test me to see if I won't actually "open up the floodgates" of heaven if I won't do this. But, here's the thing. It also It goes on to say he wants to rebuke the devourer.
Right? He wants he wants to bless you. And, so, here's the thing. He's wondering, he's testing you to see if you're gonna walk by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Are you gonna walk by faith and trust him that 90% blessed with God's blessing is better than a 100% in my control? Good. Right? Are we gonna "walk by faith" and trust that 90% with God's blessing is better than a 100% in my control? So, 1, tithing is a test.
Number 2, *tithing* is biblical. You need to know that tithing is biblical. You're not a bad person if you haven't tithed or you haven't been tithing. You're not rebellious. That's not I'm not trying to throw a bunch of condemnation on you.
I'm trying to to give you truth. A lot of people don't really believe that tithing is in the Bible. They don't believe it's scriptural. They think that some evangelist just came up with this in order to fund God doesn't need your money. I haven't taught tithing for 2 years, and real church is doing great.
Right? Okay? We are blessed because God provides for what he has spoken. We also had to be obedient. I will love you with my yes, which is to to tell you guys I should have been preaching this to you.
Okay. So a lot of people, myself included, just believe that this was old covenant stuff. Right? And that was 1 of the excuses that I made for not teaching it to you. But let's go to Genesis-14:18-20, and this is 500 years before the law.
Says, then Melchizedek, king of Salem, which means "king of peace". Who's the king of peace? Jesus. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out the bread and wine. He's kind of showing communion there, which is interesting.
But he was priest of God Most High, and he blessed him and said, blessed be Abram, God of most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God of most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand, and he gave him a tithe or a tenth of all. So Melchizedek blessed Abraham, and Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of all that he had. Right? Abraham is our spiritual father. By faith, you read Galatians, by faith, we are children of Abraham.
And in Hebrews-7, it talks about Melchizedek. Who is Melchizedek? Well, Hebrews says, we really don't know where Melchizedek came from. He didn't have a genealogy. He had no beginning and no end, and a lot of theologians believe that Melchizedek was actually Jesus Christ.
Says he's a representation of Jesus Christ. So, spiritual father, who we're under his promise now in the new covenant, tithed 10% to the representation at least, if not Jesus himself, in the in in Genesis-14. That's amazing. That's wonderful. There it is.
And next week, we'll show you that, you know, actually 2500 years before the law, it came out in "first fruits", which is awesome. But let's just read Hebrews-7:8, where I'm talking about this. It says, here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them of whom it is witnessed that he lives. So, just some theological stuff here. You know, it's talking about the Levites receive tithes here, mortal men, and there it was talking about Melchizedek, the representation of Jesus, the 1 who lives.
Now, who's the 1 who lives today? *Jesus* is the 1 who lives. And here, mortal men receive tithes and divvy it out and do this in order to expand the kingdom here, but there, Jesus is the 1 who receives it. Jesus receives our tithe. That's amazing.
It's kind of It might be kind of personal to him, and we'll talk about why. Let's go to Genesis-28. Just showing you all throughout scripture. This is 400 years before the law. *Genesis-28* and verse 22.
It says, And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house. Right? We are houses of God individually. Yes. We come together at the house of God, the church, the local church.
Shall be God's house, and all of you give me and of all that you give me, I will surely give you a tenth. That's Jacob talking to God. This is 400 years before the law. *Leviticus-27* and verse 30 says this, and all the tithe of the land, whether of the seeds of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is "holy to the Lord".
Now, you have to understand, this is why God said not tithing is stealing from me. The thing that I always had trouble with. This is why. Because God said it was holy to him. Holy means set apart.
He's saying, it's mine. This is mine. Okay? So that's Leviticus-27:30. *Deuteronomy-26:2* or verses 1 and 2, and it says, and it shall be when you come into the land which the Lord your God has given you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket, and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make his name abide.
That's the church now. There was the temple or the tabernacle. Verses 13 through 15. Then you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the holy tithe from my house and have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, kinda saying how to how the tithes divvied out, and also, let's see, yeah, according to your commands which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed your commandments or and I have not forgotten them.
I have not eaten any of them in mourning, meaning when it was hard times. I didn't say, well, it's just hard times. I'm just gonna No. I have not eaten any of them in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use. I didn't use it to sin.
Nor have given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that you have commanded me. Okay. Let me ask you a question. We looked at Hebrews.
Right? We looked before the law. What if Jesus himself said to tithe? You know? Would that what if what if Jesus himself said to tithe in the red letters?
You know? Would that make it I I know this is this seems hard or it seems hard to preach, actually. Let's go to let's go to Matthew. But there's blessing. Trust me.
Let's go to Matthew-23. Matthew-23. It says now, I'm not saying this is not to you, scribes and pharisees. Right? You're not scribes and pharisees.
It says, woe to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay this is Jesus speaking. For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. So Jesus is saying, hey, guys, you pay the tithe on a lot of stuff. You even paid it on the spices that go under your food. Like, going over and above.
But he says, you've neglected the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. So, you know, if you were to come to me and say, well, hold on a second. And I've tried to get around this before in my mind. He's talking about not leaving undone, pastor.
Like, isn't he talking about the the justice, the mercy, and the faith? Isn't that what he's talking about? That's part of it. Yeah. But he says he says, if that's the case, then he says, even without leaving the other undone.
He's saying, it's good to do justice, mercy, and faith, but don't neglect tithing too. These are ordinary principles of the way of living for someone who walks by faith. We're trusting him with what he's given us. Amen? Okay.
Alright. So, 1, tithing is a test. Number 2, we've showed tithing is scriptural. Test for our heart, but also testing God. The only place where it says that in scripture.
Go look it up. But also, number 3, *tithing* is a blessing. I always say this, tithing is a blessing. Is a Let me tell you about 2 Chronicles-31. Let's go to 2 Chronicles-31.
This is the last scripture that we're gonna be in today, and I'm gonna give you another analogy. *2 Chronicles-31*. Before we get there, just to give you some context of what happened, we're gonna start reading in verse 4. But Israel, in second Chronicles, is just under some really economically hard times. It's tough in Israel at this place, at this point.
And, Hezekiah is the king, and they find the scriptures, and they're reading through the scriptures. They're reading through the book of the law. Hezekiah finds out, wait a second. Hold on. We're not tithing.
And so, he gives out a command, a decree to all of Israel to tithe, and that's where we pick up. So they were under the curse, "devour devouring". They were it was bad. Hezekiah finds the word of the Lord, finds what they're they're not tithing, and he gives the decree. That's where we pick up.
*2 Chronicles-31:4* says, Moreover, he commanded the people, Hezekiah, who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to the law of the Lord. Verse 5. As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in *abundance* the first fruits of grain and of wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field, and they brought abundantly the tithe of everything. And the children of Israel and Judah who dwelt in the cities of Judah brought the tithe of auction and of sheep, also the tithe of holy things, which were consecrated to the Lord. They, the Lord their God, they laid them in heaps.
So, these huge piles they brought to the tabernacle, to the house of the Lord. Okay? Watch this. In the third month, they began laying them in heaps, and they finished in the seventh month. Third month is time of harvest.
Seventh month is the time of Increase, they're tithing off the increase. That's what you do. Right? And when Hezekiah and the leaders came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and his people Israel. Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps.
And Isaiah, the chief priest from the house of Zadok answered him and said, since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord, we had enough to eat and have plenty left for the Lord has blessed his people, and what is left is great abundance. Now, let me put this in a little perspective, what they're saying here. Alright? So, basically, economic hardship, Hezekiah sees this in Scripture, tells the people to tithe. The people respond in *obedience* to what God said in faith.
It takes faith to respond in obedience to something you don't understand. Right? And then, after a while, Hezekiah goes to check on what's going on. And, he goes to the temple, and he sees all of these heaps of stuff. He's like, woah.
Like, that's amazing. That's a lot. And he says, are my people okay? He questions them about it. Like this is a lot of stuff.
Are they okay? And, Ezraiah says, oh king. Like, absolutely. Like, this is the 10%. You should see how God has blessed them.
You should see the 90. They were blessed in everything that they've done. It's a big deal. You know, I've been in ministry and in church. My dad was a pastor, grew up in church and ministry all of my life.
All of my life. And, I always hear 2 testimonies about tithing. 2. Tithers, when you ask them about tithing, they say, man, we're so blessed. Amen.
We're just so blessed. Non tithers, when you ask them about tithing, they say, we just can't afford to tithe. The problem is, you'll never afford to tithe be able to afford to tithe until you tithe. Right. That's the truth.
Yes. You'll just never be able to afford to tithe until you tithe. Why? God wants It's a test of your heart. And, he wants you to walk by faith, trusting his word.
And, guess what? The *Holy Spirit* will empower you. He will always empower you to live by the ordinary principles of a man or woman of God who walks by faith. He will always do that. And, he wants to pour out his blessing on you.
And, when we sin, sin cuts us up, And, there are consequences of that. And, God, in his grace, wants to reconcile, redeem, and enable you to walk in abundance in his grace and his mercy. So good. Tithing's a part of that. Yeah.
Let me give you 1 last analogy, and we'll be done. Let's see. Dylan. Would you mind being a part of this analogy? Sure.
Dylan? Gabe? Dylan. Would you mind being a part? That would be awesome.
Let me pick 1 more. Bart. Come on, Bart. Come on. I 3 guys.
I got Bart here. They didn't know I was gonna do this, so I got Gabe, and I got Dylan. Okay. You know what? Here.
Dylan, why don't you get in the middle? Oh, okay. Gabe, you be right here. Perfect. I'm gonna go away on a trip, and it's gonna be an extended trip.
And while I'm going away for this long amount of time, I've taken care of my wife. I really wanna bless her. And so, I've talked to these 3 guys. You know what? Bart, Dylan, Gabe, while I'm gone, want you to help me "take care of my wife".
So, I'm gonna give you, each of you, $10,000 a month. K? I want you to take 10% of that $10,000 a month, and on on the first of of the month, I want you to give 10% of it to my wife, and I want you to keep the 90%. Okay? Just do do what you want with it.
Will you guys do that for me? Okay. So, I want to bless my wife. Now, I go on my extended trip. About 3 months I've been in with my wife consistently, but about 3 months in I think, hey, I wonder how the guys are doing.
So I asked her, Courtney, she's gorgeous. She she was playing the keys today. Isn't she awesome? She's amazing. Yeah.
Hey, beautiful. Anyway, so I asked Courtney, how are the guys doing? How's Bart doing? And she says, baby Bart, the first of every month, he sends me 1000 dollars. 10% of 10,000.
Like clockwork. He sends me 1000 dollars. January, February, March, third month, thousand dollars. Good job. Thank you.
That's awesome, babe. Thank you. What about Dylan? How's Dylan doing? Dylan, first of every month, he sends me $2,000.
I said, Courtney, dollars 2,000? Yeah. 2,000. Why does he send you 2? I don't know.
But first of every month, I get $2,000. Wow. Okay. Noted. Thank you.
I said, what about Gabe? It's not Gabe. We got we got to talk about Gabe. Switched him on purpose. Gabe, we got to talk about Gabe.
Yeah. Say, the first month, Gabe sent me $800. The second month, Gabe sent me $400. And the third month, he hadn't sent me anything. Come on, Gabe.
How do you Good day. Now now now question. How do you think that makes me feel? I gave them $10 and asked them to give 10% to take care of my wife. What do you think I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna take what I gave to him. And I'm probably gonna give most of it to him. Maybe some of it to him. Mhmm. You know?
You might say, well, wait a second. *Jesus* Jesus wouldn't take from me like that. Have you ever read the parable of the talents? Go in the gospels and read the parable of the talents. Those that didn't put the talents, which was money, to good use, he took from the 1 who who didn't, and he gave to the 1 who did so that he could multiply it.
You guys can have you guys can be seated. Now, this I know this is an analogy, but but but think about it. *Scripture tells us that the body of Christ* is the bride of Christ. And Jesus went away. Says, but I'm coming back and I want you to take care of my wife.
He wants to bless his wife. He wants to expand his wife. Right? He wants his wife to to grow. So, *tithing* might be more personal to *Jesus* than you originally thought.
You know? Could could the band could the band come on up? Could we turn the lights down? What I would like to do, and this is what what we do every time at Real Church during worship. And, we have most of our worship at the end of service.
And, we do that on purpose because it's a time of response. It's a time to say, God, I just love for you guys, just just for a moment, if you could if you guys could stand up. I just invite you to stand up if you can. And just close your eyes and say, God, what are you saying to me? And so, I want you to take this time to ask God, what are you saying to me?
I didn't preach this message to condemn you at all. Right? God wants to bless you, And he he wants to encourage you. And and and sometimes, as we sang before, I didn't even know that they were singing that song when I'd planned this. *Obedience*.
Sometimes it takes steps of obedience. Walking in faith, trusting his word. God, what are you saying to me? I wanna ask you to make a commitment. If this isn't your local church, whatever local if you're just visiting, you go to another local church.
Make a commitment to your local church, to God in your local church, to begin to walk in the ordinary principles of a man or woman of God who walks by faith, like Abraham, tithing to Melchisedec. And I want you to if you have a wife here, don't do that apart from your wife. Talk with her about it, and you guys make a commitment to do so. Some of you might need to make some lifestyle adjustments in order to do that. I promise you, you will not regret obedience.
I promise you that God can bless you, because he said the testament, more than you could think or imagine. So I just encourage you as we sing these songs to think about, God, what are you saying to me? And once again, there's no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus. It's not a, oh my gosh, I'm a terrible No. It's a, hey, let's "fall forward".
My father loves me. And because of truth, because of grace, he's telling me truth so I can walk in it. Yeah. So we're about to do worship. I would like for our elders, Jerry and Heidi, Daniel, trustee, and anybody.
You know, if if if you wanna pray for people type of deal, you know, and and and what you can do. If if you need prayer, just turn to the person beside you and say, I'd love prayer. But I'd love for our elders to come up to the sides, Jerry and Heidi and then and then Daniel too. And that's just some people. If you wanna step out and need prayer for it, don't think, well, if I step out, everybody's gonna think I'm not tight.
No. It's not about if maybe you need healing in your body, maybe there's relationship struggles that you're going through, or maybe you just you just want the fire of God in your life. You want a deeper passion for his word. I don't know. Maybe you just want prayer.
I encourage you to step out during worship for prayer. It's a big deal or ask somebody around you. The Bible says we're all ministers of the gospel, which is awesome. Not only that, we do communion. You see the little communion cups there.
You step out and go go take communion. I would encourage you to take it with your family. What is communion? You're thanking him for what he's given us. Your body was broken as you take the the bread.
Your body was broken for my healing, for my restoration. Thank you, Jesus. I receive this. I remember what you've done for me. "Praise the Lord".
Thank you. As you take the the the communion cup, your your blood was shed for my forgiveness, for my right standing with you. So now, no matter what has gone on, because of my faith in you, I'm in right standing with you, and you're standing right next to me in the midst of whatever I'm going through, and it's because of your blood that was poured out. Thank you, Jesus, for that, and take the blood. I would encourage you to take a step out and do that.
We also do have we have giving boxes on the side. Maybe that's part of the response. My wife and I don't give in in here. We give online. You know?
So but God loves you and he cares for you. If you're watching online, you guys can click the connect link as well, and there's the giving link online as well. "God bless you". Let me pray for you. If you've never received Jesus before and you're listening to this and you hear about how God wants to bless you, you hear about his grace, you hear about obedience, you've got all those things, you wanna receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, go talk to 1 of our elders.
Go talk to 1 of some of our leaders. They wanna lead you into a relationship with Jesus. Let's just process what God is saying to us as we worship. Father, I just thank you for everybody watching. Lord God, thank you for your word.
Lord God, thank you for freedom. Lord, thank you that **obedience brings freedom**. Lord God, I thank you, Jesus, for your obedience on the cross, which has brought us freedom, which is awesome. And Lord, thank you that I'm free from this holdup in my mind about not teaching this. Oh, God, pray that your people are blessed.
Thank you for loving us. Let's worship him. Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you.
You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving or you can text any amount to 84321 and then just search in the link that comes up. Search for Real Church Clearwater. God bless you, and the best is yet to come.