[Steven Britt]: So, which commandment of God would you say is the least of His commandments? Which one’s right there at the bottom? Well, you know, Christ revealed what the greatest one was, He even told us what the second greatest was, but which is the least? And if we could find it, could we afford to let it slide? Matthew 23:23, turn with me, you might have guessed where I’m going on that. Matthew 23:23 is where we find Jesus Christ talking with the Pharisees, really laying it on them about their religious practices, their focus that was just not in the right place.

And so, in Matthew 23:23, it says the following, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, which are justice, and mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone.” Okay. So, from this, we get at the very least see that tithing is not in the running for the number one commandment, you know, it’s not the greatest, not the second greatest. And it is further down in these concepts that are called the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. However, it does say, we can’t let it slide, even though it’s not the highest concept of the law, neither is it to be glossed over or forgotten because Jesus said Himself, these, you ought to have done without leaving the others undone.

So, you should have justice, mercy, and faith, but you know, don’t leave that other thing undone as well go ahead and tithe. Turn with me to Matthew 5:17. Matthew 5 is where we find Jesus Christ speaking in the Sermon on the Mount it’s been called the constitution of Christianity. It contains some of His most well-known teachings and a lot of it all in one place. Matthew 5:17 tells us, “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” These verses here, this section, ought to be memory verses for every one of us if we ever need an answer for why we do the things we do.

Christ didn’t come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Verse 18, “Assuredly, I’d say to you till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will buy no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Wow, all the way till heaven and earth pass away. Verse 19 is critical to my opener here, “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments,” whatever it may be, “and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Even the least of God’s commandments makes us great in His kingdom. All of God’s commands are good. If you ever need to prove that tithing is a command for Christians today, you know, the words of Jesus Christ between Matthew 23:23 and here in Matthew 5, are a pretty good place to start. You know, it doesn’t come out and Christ doesn’t describe the whole system, He had already done that when He gave the law to Israel. But He certainly referred to it directly enough and let us know that this tithing command is not going anywhere. And Matthew 6 a little bit further into the Sermon on the Mount. We’ll read in verse 19. You know, the chapter starts out with Christ giving more teachings about not doing any kind of religion for show. He talked about not doing your deeds to be seen among men or making your prayers in public to be heard by others or the many other practices that they had that were promoting themselves in their observance of it.

He also explained the model prayer for us to understand today. And then He gets on to the issue of money. It’s an important one. Verse 19 will read says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19). In other words, no matter what we try to do, how if we try to preserve our wealth here on earth, it has a way of getting away from us. Things can happen to it. It’s not truly secure. On the other hand, verse 20 says, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Verse 21 is critical, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Where your treasure is, your heart will be there also.

So, in other words, there’s no sense in trying to greedily hold onto money here on earth, but we need to have our treasure in heaven. And I think that, you know, my tendency when I read this, and I don’t know if this is the tendency of most people is to look at that and say, “Oh yeah, this can be applied to anything a person might trust in over God.” You know, you can apply this to anything that you care about that you might put above God. And it doesn’t have to be about just money. And that’s good, that’s true, that’s true but we do want to make sure we focus on the primary meaning of what Jesus was talking about, which was money.

So, we’re going to talk about money pretty directly today. In verse 24, He goes on saying: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he’ll be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). You know, the word mammon here, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody use the word mammon outside of reading this passage of the Bible. It’s not a particularly helpful word to have placed there. Would’ve been better to translate it, I would think. So, I’ll tell you what it means if you don’t already know. You might have guessed it has something to do with money and that’s true. Mammon is the Greek word, which is actually a transliteration, that means they borrowed it from a Chaldean word, going all the way back to the Babylonians, which was mammona [may-amoh-nah], mammona. It literally means that which is trusted in, that which is trusted in.

And what they actually did with this they personified money like a person, right? It is what personified means. Just like people do with Lady Luck, right? Imagine luck as some woman that would bestow some kind of kindness on someone by allowing them to have good luck because people don’t understand how those things work. They would in ancient times, personify money as this person mammona, mammona that they gave their trust in. And one thing that’s clear from reading this, and this is just true, it’s absolutely true, God wants our trust to be in Him, alone, Him alone. And our love for Him to be above all, above all.

Christ spoke directly about money and riches and had many teachings about them because God created us, He knows us, He understands that we have a basic human pull towards the physical things, towards stuff, towards possessions, towards our own immediate concerns. And what helps alleviate our immediate concerns? Money does. Money does. It’s the human way of seeing safety and security. It’s what people tend to trust in because we know we’ve got enough money in the bank for whatever comes up tomorrow. At least we like to think we do. God knows about that basic human pull, so Jesus Christ doesn’t tell us we have to absolutely forsake wealth altogether, but His instruction is not to let it rule over us as a master. That’s what we read in verse 24. We can’t serve two masters. God has to be the master. Money’s going to play a role in our life, but it’s not the role of master. That role is for God.

That brings us, as followers of God, to a question, well, does my heart serve money or does it serve God? I mean, we might be really quick to say, well, I definitely serve God, but, how would you know? How would you evaluate yourself? Like, well, what’s the criteria that you would use to think that through if we wanted to check ourselves? Well, one good way to know is what we do when God tells us what to do with our money. Do we obey God’s commands regarding money? That’d be one way to test. That includes general principles of being a wise steward, right? Which really that’s a negative command, right? That’s something telling us what not to do. Don’t go and blow all of your money on things that are frivolous and just pleasure-seeking. And you know, don’t go and take an entire neighborhood block and buy enough balls to make a giant ball pit out of the whole block.

Even as much fun as it would be, as much joy as it might bring you, it’s just a foolish use of your money because you need to feed your family next week. Don’t do things like that, okay? So, we get that. We get that, right? Well, what not to do? I mean, otherwise, it’s the whole idea of don’t buy what you can’t afford. It’s again, a negative command. It doesn’t tell me to actively do anything. What are the positive commands of God? What are the things He commands us to take our money and spend it on and do? Well, for one thing, and we did this on Pentecost on Sunday, He commands us to bring offerings on His Holy Days. To look and assess how much He has blessed us in that year and to give an offering when we come together to worship Him on His Holy Days.

But the biggest chunk of change by far, it’s what I’ve got here. It’s a chunk of change, literally, right? It’s got a nice weight to it. Money used to do that, now it’s all just on your phone. The biggest chunk of change by far is tithing. And actually, it is far more than most Christians know about. And it’s for different purposes than most Christians teach about. We’ve understood that in the Church of God. And biblical tithing, what we’re going to read today is how it goes a good deal beyond the 10% that most churches teach and not in the way that they typically teach. So, when Christ said where your treasure is, your heart is there also, here’s what we ought to be able to take away from that. God is telling me, with the tithing commands, where to put my treasure. God is telling me where to direct my heart. He’s telling me where to put my heart.

Let’s make sure we know where it’s supposed to go. So today we’re going to start with a review of God’s tithing system. After we’ve looked at it, proving what it is from the Word of Scripture, then we’ll ask where or to what purpose is God directing my heart through these commands that He asked me to keep. So, we’ll look at, starting in Leviticus 27, the fact that the Bible in God’s law revealed three separate tithes. Anybody hearing that for the first time? You heard me, right. Three separate tithes, 10% each. You’re telling me 30%? Don’t blame me, God did it. Not me. And yeah, it’s a chunk of change, isn’t it? That’s a lot.

Leviticus 27:30. This is a starting point Leviticus 27, we’re reading about the tithe that went to the Levites, the tithe that even many churches other than ours know about, teach about. But notice a few details about it that are going to help us sort this out as we go. Leviticus 27:30 says that “All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord.” Holy means set apart. That means that this is something that even though God gives us food from our income part of that, He has earmarked for a purpose. It is holy to Him. Holy means set apart. He is saying that it is set apart to Him, therefore, we must set it apart.

Verse 31 gives some regulations about that. “If a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one-fifth to it.” So, to redeem, it would be if, say I have my grain or my fruit off the tree, to redeem it would mean that, “Hey, these are some really nice apples I would like to keep these apples in particular. But these are the tithe apples I’m going to have to pay the value of them plus one-fifth, plus one-fifth.” That’s what that adding one-fifth was like. So instead of just bringing the stuff and giving it over to the Levites, they could give the equivalent money if they paid a penalty to go along with it. Remember that penalty, it comes in handy a little later.

Verse 32, so that was for the things that came from your crops or your trees, verse 32 talks about the tithe of animals. “Concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. He shall not inquire whether it’s good or bad, nor shall he exchange it. And if he exchanges it at all, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed.” So, for animals, God was very clear, you could not redeem it for money. If the tenth one that came under the rod, you know, the tenth one born to your herd of flock was blind or lame, and you thought, wow, that’s not a very good thing to give God for tithe, let me trade it out for this one. Like you can’t trade it out. If you want to give to God the better animal, you got to give both of them is what it’s saying. So, no exchanges could be made you could, you know, decide to give a nicer one along with it, and no redemption possible.

You know, you could not decide, you know, “I know this is the tithe lamb out of my flock here, but I really want to keep this one.” God said, no, you can’t do that. You can’t do that. So, animals are treated a little bit differently. By the way, did we notice here that the Bible itself defines how much a tithe is? You know, you can look at the etymology, you can see that the word means a tenth, but here it specifically calls it out in verse 32, “Concerning the tithe of the herd of flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.” So, it even specifies that 10% rate that we’re all familiar with as being a tithe.

Okay. So far, so good. We’re talking about this tithe that was holy to God, but what was its purpose? Okay. This section of Scripture is more regulating what you can’t do with it in terms of redemption and the penalty that was involved there. Turn with me to Numbers 18:21. Numbers 18, I know we’re going to jump around a lot here, piecing this together on tithing here in the books of the law. It is kind of subtle to understand the truth of God’s teaching on this, but if we follow along and notice these details, it’ll come together clearly, and we’ll see God’s plan for it.

Numbers 18:21 tells us who that tithe of the land, the holy tithe belonged to. Numbers 18:21 says, “Behold, I’ve given the children of Levi” that’s the Levite’s “All the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting.” So, it’s in return for their work. It’s like wages. It’s like their income, right? This is what these guys get paid to do. So, God said this whole tribe if you’re born into that family, you have a special job, a special role in My nation, you’re going to be the guys who pick and pack up the tent of meeting and carry it from place to place and who serve the priests and all these different functions. And you’re going to be paid by the tithes of the other tribes.

And by the way, that checks out where you’ve got 12 tribes, so the tithe of 11 tribes ought to be able to support one tribe of Levi with that 10% rate. It works out. It checks out the math works. Okay. If we keep going, we read here in verse 22, “Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle meeting, lest they bear sin and die. But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel, they shall have no inheritance. For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up to the Lord I have given to the Levites as an inheritance. Therefore I said to them, ‘among the children of Israel, they shall have no inheritance.’”

Okay. Everybody else got their tithe from the work that they did on the land. So, God gave them the land to work, to receive money from, to receive their crops, and to raise their flocks on for the year. The Levites were not going to have that, right? They wouldn’t have land to work really. They wouldn’t have their own flocks. They would be dependent on the tithes of the rest of Israel for their income. And that would replace their inheritance. Okay. So far so good. Did we notice one more thing to notice here, back in verse 21, how much of the tithe was given to the Levites? All. All the tithes in Israel as an inheritance. That fact becomes important for what we’re going to see next.

Deuteronomy 14:22. Deuteronomy 14:22. It starts out normal enough that we might not suspect anything. “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year.” Seems pretty standard and fair about tithing so far. Verse 23, “And you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain, and your new wine, and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and flocks that you may learn to fear the Lord Your God always.”

Y’all know I’m from Georgia. We have a nice expression down there. Do what now? Yeah, when you hear something that doesn’t quite make sense that’s the common response, do what now? So, when we read this, and we’ve just read that all the tithes are given to the Levites. All right. All the tithes are given to the Levites as their inheritance because they were doing the work of the tabernacle and they wouldn’t have an inheritance. And here it says in verse 23, “You shall eat the tithe.” Do what now? I’m supposed to give that tithe to the Levite. Why is God telling me to eat it? That sounds very different.

Okay. If we read a little bit further, it gets even stranger. In verse 24, “If the journey’s too long for you so that you’re not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, and the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money. Take the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.” Wait, exchange it, but for the flocks and herds, they couldn’t be exchanged, do what now? This is different. You mean there’s no penalty? Like we read about Leviticus 27. No, it doesn’t seem to be, doesn’t seem to be. You’re going to eat it and you can exchange it for money without any kind of penalty.

If this was the same tithe that would violate what we read in Leviticus 27, it wouldn’t be consistent. If we read a little further verse 26, “You shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires.” That is it is going to me. You know, if I don’t eat of it, if I don’t take it with me and physically eat it, then I exchange it for money. Take the money with me. “And spend it on whatever my heart desires, for oxen or sheep for wine or similar drink, whatever your heart desires you shall eat there before the Lords your God and you shall rejoice you and your household.” Now, verse 27 does mention the Levite. “You shall not forsake the Levite who’s within your gates for he has no part or inheritance with you.”

In other words, you could share it with the Levites at that time because the Levites, it seemed were just not going to have a whole lot for themselves even with the tithe, would seem to come up short is what seems like in Scripture. But this is a far cry from that what we saw in Numbers 18, that all the tithe would go to the Levites. This is saying, well, you can share some of this tithe with the Levites and it makes it feel like, well, if you’re able to, or if you want to. Very different, from what we’re reading about. This is what, in the Church of God we have called for many years, second tithe.

One thing that makes this difficult to follow through Scripture is that there’s no distinguishing terminology, right? Right here in verse 22, it didn’t tell us that it was talking about a different tithe. Clearly, it is because it’s talking about eating it yourself instead of giving it to the Levites, it’s clearly a different one, but it just calls this tithing. Okay. This is a different part of a tithing system. The term “second tithe” that we’ve used in the Church of God, didn’t originate with our tradition. In fact, it goes back thousands of years it was used by the Jews around the time of Christ. We have witness to that through a Jewish historian named Josephus, very famous one because he has a pretty large body of work that was pretty well put together and preserved for us. Josephus explains in his work “Antiquities of the Jews,” which stays back, again, this is within just a few decades of the death of Christ.

Josephus’s works are contemporary with the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. So, it’s contemporary with the writing of some of the New Testament as well as the apostles in those early days of Christianity. And Josephus writes the following in “Antiquities of the Jews Book IV Chapter 8 section 8” if you want every detail. He says, “let there be taken out of your fruits a tenth.” Okay, that’s a tithe. He says, “Besides that, which you’ve allotted to give to the priests and Levites.”

So, Josephus is the one that we can reach back to that tells us the Jews saw this as a separate thing than what was kept apart to give to the priests and Levites. “This, you may indeed sell in the country, but it’s to be used in those feasts and sacrifices that are celebrated in the holy city, Jerusalem.” Just like what we read about here. So, the idea that there’s more than one tithe was not something that was made up in recent times by our Church tradition, it was something that was widely understood and acknowledged by Judaism at the time of Christ.

Back to Deuteronomy 14:28. We’re not done, right? We said there are going to be three tithes. And the third one’s described right here. In fact, this chapter kind of lays out tithing, even though it’s not immediately clear in reading it because there’s not that differentiation of terminology. What starts in verse 28 is clearly a different, separate, and distinct tithe because it doesn’t happen every year. Verse 28 says, “At the end of every third year, you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates and the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied.”

Again, do what now? So now it’s not just the Levites, it’s the poor, and the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless. And these are not, you know, you’re not taking the tithe to them in Jerusalem to be shared among them, it is something you store up in your gates and they come on over to your house and eat and be filled. Very different than either of the other two tithes that we read about. It’s different in the place that it was consumed and it’s different in the people that consumed it. Concludes in verse 29, that when you’ve done this, it says, “The Lord your God may bless you at all the work of your hand which you do.”

Now, just a little caveat, you know, every time we mention this it’s every third year, but part of a longer discussion, if you want to get into it’s actually every third and sixth year out of a seven-year cycle. If you want the whole story, you can read about it online or talk to me after services and we can go through that carefully. But we see a difference here. This is a different and separate tithe. There’s again, no mention of any kind of redemption like Leviticus 27 talked about. You can’t consume it yourself, so a companion scripture to this is Deuteronomy 26, where the third tithe is also talked about and specifies there when you declare this. You make this declaration at the end of the year when you’ve done this that “I haven’t eaten any of it myself.” This was not something for you to consume yourself the way the tithe just before this one was done. And again, it’s a different place, different recipients because it’s a different tithe.

And Josephus, again, testifies to this tithe, which we have called third tithe for our convenience in this way. So, this is a little further down in “Antiquities of the Jews.” He says, “besides those two tithes, which I’ve already said you’re to pay every year, the one for the Levites, the other for the festivals, you are to bring every third year a third tithe to be distributed to those that want.” That is those who are in need. Those who are lacking. He includes to women also that are widows and to children that are orphans. So there, that quote is Josephus using that term third tithe that the Church of God has used. I don’t know whether in that larger work he uses the term second tithe, but he definitely talks about a third tithe.

So, for us to use second tithe is no stretch. And to call the other one first tithe just makes sense. It’s a way of keeping up with the system that God has laid out in Scripture. It’s all that is. Now, there are sources out there, there are Bible scholars and there are scholarly works that will tell you, well, no, no, there was just one 10% tithe that was done. And they would just split it among these three different things. You know, every third year they did a different thing with it and you would give some of it to the Levite and you would do some of it to celebrate the festivals.

For example, the Westminster Bible Dictionary which was written in the early 1900s, 1930s, I believe. Other sources like that will erroneously say that there was that one tithe split between the three purposes. And I hope having gone through this carefully, we can say with a good amount of confidence that that’s not what the Bible reveals. That doesn’t account, you know, that view does not account for what’s being said here. In any way that we can see is legitimate, only three distinct tithes can account for the different instructions in these four passages that we’ve read and pieced together.

And on top of that, there’s good historical evidence to tell us that what we practice today is exactly what God’s people actually did in history. That doesn’t include just Josephus a Jewish source, but even other Christian sources up to the 300s and 400s A.D. or what are called the early church fathers and regarded as such in the Catholic church where we don’t really acknowledge them that way, but they were early Christian writers that attest to a similar system to what we’ve just described from Scripture and that Josephus testifies to also.

It might lead us to wonder, well, you know, how did the church and Christianity at large come to a point where they dropped off and forgot about that second and third tithe? How and why were those lost? And the understanding of them lost? I mean, one thing that makes it really easy is that for over 1,000 years, the Scriptures were more or less locked away from the general public. You know, average person, if you weren’t a priest (was not a priest in the Catholic church that is) was not permitted to read the Scriptures. Scriptures were not published in people’s own language. So, you just kind of replaced whatever it said with false traditions, which they did with many such things, not only tithing. And nobody really knew, nobody had access to the information like we do today. Makes it easy.

Along with that, part of the false traditions they brought in also obviated, you know, made unnecessary for them, the need for that second tithe. If people are no longer keeping the festivals of God that God said to take this tithe, the second tithe to rejoice with and to eat of each year, go and celebrate this way. If you’re not doing that, if you’re replacing that with other observances that don’t require any kind of travel or anything like that then it’s easy to just stop teaching it. You know, people don’t need it. People don’t need it would be their thinking if they’re not keeping God’s festivals. There’s also along with this, the intentional work of disassociating the church from anything Jewish at all. In fact, in that regard, it’s a wonder they even kept the concept of tithing as the Christian world knows it today.

You know, one of those things, some of those false traditions brought in, Easter for example, you ever wonder why sometimes Easter and Passover line up to be in the same weekend and other times so like a month off? It’s because, in an effort to be less associated with Judaism, they changed the calculation of Easter to be, oh, let’s see if I can remember, the first Sunday after the first new moon, after the spring Equinox. Something complicated like that. Most times it lines up with the weekend of the Passover, but you know, sometimes it doesn’t end up being a month off. People sometimes ask why. That’s the reason why. Because they didn’t want to seem Jewish. They didn’t even want their new tradition to line up with the Jewish festivals, which we understand are God’s festivals, in any way. So easy, easy when people get that far off track from the Word of God, easy for them to miss, forget about, and lose the understanding of the truth, what God says for us to do with our money.

Okay. So, what about for us today? How do these three tithes subscribes, you know, up to 30% in that third year? How does that all apply to us? How, how do we keep that? And what does that matter to us? I mean, that is a big amount of money. If it sounds steep, we always want to remember that in fact, everything we have is God’s. You know, we are God’s, we belong to Him, right? If that’s true, then everything we have really belongs to God. That means that He has the right to tell us what to do with our money. It’s really His. He rules our whole life, not just our money. He could command whatever amount He wanted us to. But He doesn’t do so arbitrarily and without reason, it’s not just to make us bow and cower and obey, it’s to teach us something because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

There are several references here in the book of Deuteronomy, actually, we’re still here. Deuteronomy 12:28, where God reveals why He commands the things that He commands. What’s His motivation behind it? You know, none of it was arbitrary, none of it was just to force people to obey or to have some arbitrary standard. No, in verse 28 of Chapter 12, Deuteronomy says, “Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.” The commands that He gave them then and there, they are still the commands for us today were for their good and they’re for ours. They’re for the good of mankind.

Another one, a couple of chapters back in Deuteronomy 10:13, He says, “I command you for your good. I command you for your good.” All of God’s laws benefit us in one way or another. It’s important to understand how. They teach us all kinds of lessons about the right way to live and the wrong way to live. And many things in God’s law are simple cause and effect, you know, that we can recognize with just even a little bit of wisdom, a little bit of understanding. In many cases, yeah, obviously, if I do this thing God says, my life is going to turn out better than if I don’t. Some of them are not so obvious, but in all cases, the purpose is the same that it may go well with us and with our children. But also, those laws are about transforming us to make us like Him. We start doing the things that God says, and God makes us more like Him in our character, deep down… deep down.

So, let’s talk about these three chunks of change. Let’s talk about them in order. The first tithe and how they apply to us.

First tithe, first of all, its purpose, where does it put my treasure and where does it direct my heart? Let’s start with where it puts our treasure. Okay. That first tithe was the one that was to the Levites in the Old Covenant system. It was for the clear purpose of doing God’s work. They had to haul the stuff and be helpers with the tabernacle and later the temple worship system. We saw that that was the income for those Levites. That they would do much more than just, you know, herding the animals and hauling things around for the priests. The Levites also had special responsibility under the law to teach the people, to teach the law, and to render judgment among the people.

So, the Levites had a ministering role. We live in a physical world and the fact of the matter is it takes physical resources to accomplish things sometimes. So, at the very least, God likes to do things that way. And at the least of those is manpower. So, the purpose of the first tithe, where it puts our treasure is towards doing the work of God. If we want to ask if that’s still relevant or needed or something God still expects or wants today, we can ask, is God still working here on earth or not? For our sakes we better hope He is. Yes, He is. God is still working here.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 9. We’ll read from one of His workers, the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:14.

1 Corinthians 9:14, where he instructed the Corinthians about this very thing, supporting those who do the work of God today. And he did this in a very clever way, which we’ll kind of touch on. In 1 Corinthians 9:14 Paul says, “Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.” And the verse before he was saying that just like those who serve in the temple live from the offerings that are given, that is they had their part, their physical substance out of serving people spiritually, even so, the Lord has commanded those who preached the gospel should live from the gospel. So, it was in Paul’s time and so it is still today.

Earlier in this chapter, verses 8 and 9, he actually compared the need to pay those who preach the gospel and who work for God in that sense, compared it to the need to feed work animals. You don’t muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain. And it’s really interesting there in Corinth, they had a mixed congregation of Jews and gentiles, and you can see Paul speaking to both audiences there, which is really awesome. You know, for the Jewish brethren, really for them, if Paul’s trying to convince them they need to tithe, that it’s just changing where you send it to, for the gentiles, they had to learn the principle just line upon line.

So what Paul did was he used God’s law to show, well, you know, don’t even the animals need to eat if you’re going to get work out of them and benefit from them? There’s an argument that appeals to gentiles, people who didn’t know the law of God at all, but also resonated with… he presented it in a way that resonated with his Jewish audience, by bringing in the law of God that showed that to be true also. So that’s back in verse 9, “You show not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” was part of God’s law. That is while the thing is going through the field for you, if it, you know, reaches out and eats something, that’s okay. That’s okay. So that’s a pretty cool teaching from Paul there.

So right now, we’re talking about the first tithe and whether it’s still relevant and if it’s still needed, is God’s work being done here on earth today? I believe it is. I think you all understand it is. The United Church of God, part of our mission is to do the work of God as an organization. We actually have a twofold mission that is to preach the gospel to the whole world. And secondly, to prepare a people for the return of Jesus Christ. It’s right up here on our seal at the front of the lectern. At least I think it’s up there today. Well, we don’t have one out there today. That’s okay. You can look at the United Church of God’s seal online and see “preaching the gospel across the top, preparing a people along the bottom.”

If your tithe goes to our organization, that’s what we endeavor to do with it, to the best of our ability. We do the work of God. So that’s where we put our treasure, but... and that’s important. It’s important that we obey God in that, but where does first tithe direct my heart? Well, if the purpose of the money given for that is to do the work of God, it puts my heart in doing the work of God. That’s significant. That’s significant. We become personally invested in preaching the gospel and in caring for the disciples that we’re making. You know, that is me going to work and, you know, taking that paycheck home and saying, “God, part of this is going to go to do your work because your work matters to me. I’m going to use this money yes, to feed my family and clothe us and even to have fun and do good things. But a portion of it, my skin in the game, I’m setting my hand to Your work as You’ve commanded us to do.”

You know, we all benefit from that. At least I hope you feel like you benefit from, for example, having you know, a pastor who’s employed by the Church, right? So, the benefit of that first tithe does come back to us as individuals, back to our family. If anybody had any question, you know, I used myself as an example there. Yes, our ministry also tithes. We also practice this. We believe that’s commanded for us. But the blessing of the first tithe does come back to us and our family that’s something that you find out whenever somebody dies, and you need someone to sit with you while you’re grieving and someone to perform the funeral, to help honor the person you love that’s been lost. Or when you need to be anointed for being sick, whatever we may need in our family, or just somebody to talk to when times are hard.

That’s part of what our first tithe goes to. And it provides it, not just for me and my family and many other things like a place to show up, to fellowship with others, and all those good things that we get as a result of that first tithe, but it’s not just to your own family, but we recognize we’re providing that care to others. We’re providing that care to others. Now also providing that message of the truth going out so that others can learn, and hear, and know, and be convicted of, and change their lives based on the real truth of God. We want other people to know God’s truth, just like God commanded these things for our good. He commanded it for the good of everybody. Of course, we want to share that. When we give that first tithe, it shows that our heart is in that work. That those are the things important to you and me.

So that first tithe leads to our first...well, our first chunk of change is for that purpose, a heart that wants God’s work to be done. That’s what we’re developing and cultivating with first tithe. How about the second tithe? Well, first of all, the purpose, where does it put my treasure that second tithe? The second tithe we saw was used by Israel to go and celebrate the festivals of God. Specifically, they were supposed to go and intentionally rejoice in the blessings that God had given to their family that year. The second tithe is God giving a gift back to the person, actually. You know, it is something that God commands us to do, but it’s for our own benefit. He says to use this 10% of your income to get together at the times I tell you and to have a great time worshiping Me on My Feast.

That’s a really good...I mean, that’s a really good command for us. Isn’t it? You know, by the time we take our second tithe, we’re splitting it over a week in the spring, a week in the fall, and a day in the summer of Pentecost effectively. You know, we use that part of our income to make time for God’s Feast to get away from our regular work. And we use it to enjoy ourselves at God’s appointed times with our families. It’s a wonderful commandment for us. I mean, you might almost think who could say no to that? To not wanting to do so. Is it still relevant and needed? Well, that question really comes down to are the Festivals still commanded. And our answer is yes, in the Church of God. Yes, God commanded His Feast in Leviticus 23, He said, these are My Feasts, we see Jesus Christ celebrate them. We see the apostles in the early church celebrate them.

Does God still want us to rejoice in His blessing to us which was the purpose of that command part of that second tithe command? Well, yeah, He wants us to rejoice in the things He’s given us, nothing has changed in that sense. The second tithe creates an environment, a much-needed environment, for obeying God and for rejoicing. So, He gives us funding to do so. You know, very often, if you want to get anything done, you have to allocate some funding to it. It’s a good principle for life, for business. God gives us the funding to take the time to obey Him like He commanded and to actually have a good time doing it.

So where does second tithe put my heart? For that one, let’s turn to Deuteronomy 12:14. So, we’ve seen what the purpose of second tithe is in general physical terms where it puts our treasure. Now hopefully we agree that it’s still a relevant need, God wants us to celebrate these festivals, He wants us to rejoice in what He gives us as blessings. Deuteronomy 12:14 puts it this way as far as where it puts our heart. Deuteronomy 12:14 says, “In the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.” With the second tithe, God directs our hearts to actually go and do what He’s commanded. If we start by doing that with His Holy Days, it has a compounding effect on our life. It shows a shift in our perspective, “God, I’m willing to go wherever You tell me to go, whenever You tell me to go there, and do whatever You tell me to do.” And that’s significant to Him. It directs our heart to go and to do.

And again, it’s something we benefit from so much. We get to rejoice in the Feast, both physically by going out and enjoying spending that second tithe for whatever our heart desires, having a fun time with our family, but also spiritually we’re edified so much. We understand too that His Holy Days reveal His great plan of salvation. I mean, to go and focus on that and to learn to fear God as we obey Him so much good comes out of the Feasts, the Festivals of God, both physically and spiritually. God definitely commanded it for our good. So, if we commit the money to faithfully, keep God’s Feasts, we are setting our hearts to keep God’s law. That second chunk of change is a heart that is willing to do God’s commands. The heart that’s willing to do God’s commands.

And the third tithe, which was again to be in the third year or more specifically, the third and sixth out of a seven-year cycle. Always gotta keep that asterisk there. What was its purpose? Where did it put our treasure in just the surface level of the command physically? God commanded that extra 10% in every third year for it was the Levite, the widow, and the orphan, the stranger, that is those who just wouldn’t have much. It included those who were poor and marginalized in general. You know, the strangers in the land would be people who didn’t have a lot of family there, because they had moved in from somewhere else. So, they would need the extra help. They wouldn’t have the contacts; they probably would’ve been quite poor. And so, they’re included in that. It was very straightforward for us; the third tithe is giving our treasure to those in need. It’s giving our treasure to those in need. It’s that simple. It’s that still relevant and still needed? Well, didn’t Jesus say the poor you have with you always? You know, God’s law, He actually said, if everybody in the nation of Israel had followed it, there wouldn’t be any poor among them. Guess what they didn’t do? They didn’t follow it. And you know what, no nation on earth has ever followed the law of God the way He intended. It’s true in America today, we didn’t do it at our founding, we don’t do it now. Some ways we were worse off then and some ways we’re worse off now. Yeah, you know, it swings on all kinds of different issues.

So yes, there are people in need because the world does not live by the way of God. No nation on earth has done it. Not even Israel, the nation God showed these mighty wonders to and revealed these things to first. So, are there still people in need today? Of course, there are. We all know they are. We see them out on the streets all the time. Today, the United Church of God teaches that our tax dollars and Western democracies, which, you know, our taxes are taken at pretty high rates in most Western countries, provide more than what was required by God with this third tithe principle. More than 10% every third year, when we average out over our taxes over time. So, we have a study paper that you can find online that discusses this and makes a judgment that a person’s not necessarily obligated to set aside that 10% within their gates as the command is if it’s taken at a tax rate that’s high enough to account for it, which, like I said, most Western democracies it is that way.

Nevertheless, many of our members, I just know this personally, as a pastor, it comes up sometimes seeing our great blessings that we have still choose to keep the third tithe personally, even though they pay taxes and rates that account for it, you know? Well, why do I know about that as a pastor? Because sometimes they’re trying to seek out those in the Church they can help. And so, they ask. Because I might know if there’s somebody that maybe needs help that they could reach out to. That’s one way that it’s done. And so, for the third tithe, we understand this is the way it’s been done. It’s not something that you’re sending into the Church, second tithe isn’t something you’re sending to the Church either. Neither one of these, it’s the Church trying to get more of your money, which is a very big difference from how people think of tithing in the world.

The second tithe, you keep it in your own bank account so you’re ready to go to the Feast of Tabernacles or until you’re ready to, you know, eat a nice meal on the day of Pentecost, or whichever of God’s Festivals you’re talking about. You know, it’s something God has earmarked out of our paycheck or His purposes, but not something we send to the Church. For the third tithe, that’s much the same way. You can store it up within your gates, according to the command, share it with those in need. Or, if a person’s doing that, we do have an outlet within the United Church of God on the donations... well, if you make a donation to the organization and list it for the Church assistance fund, it’s earmarked for this purpose. The Church can’t spend it for anything, but to help those who are poor and in need within the Church as restricted access as for assistance to our brethren.

Now, looking at that and understanding that well, many may not actually keep third tithe in that way because of the reality of our tax situation, which, you know, is not a choice for us, but it’s just the way that the things are, you know, this really ought to change the way that we see paying our taxes if we think about it. You know, for whatever we might say, the programs for whatever our political leanings might be, some people are very much against any kind of government assistance to anybody, right? Which, you know, yeah, we could do without it and just have, you know, God’s third tithe assistance to help people. And if people did it, that would work. But whatever you might say, whether, you know, you look at this situation we’re in, in America and say that those programs are inefficient or ineffective or exploitable, whatever, okay, that may be, that may be, but that’s kind of on the people that implemented, right? Or the people that exploit it.

Our responsibility is to willingly give to God what He has commanded for the purpose of helping the poor and those in need. Not to begrudge giving to those in need, which does occur through those programs even if there is, you know, inefficiency or corruption or whatever the case may be. If it’s not done with integrity or stewardship that that needs to take place, okay, well, somebody’s liable for that and they’re liable to God. And it’s a shame when that happens. But nevertheless, we ought to be thankful to God for the help that does occur to those in need because that’s part of His law. That’s human. Where does the third tithe put my heart? Where does the third tithe put my heart?

God cares about all people. He cares about everybody. God doesn’t want anybody in the world to starve to death. He doesn’t want anyone to suffer living on the streets without a home and worrying about where their next meal comes from. He doesn’t want that. Very often people choose that; we understand that sometimes people choose that and that’s bad. God doesn’t want them to choose that any more than we want them to choose that. It’s not good for them. It’s not good for anybody. It’s a drain on the system you could say. That doesn’t change the fact that we care because God cares. He wants us to care about them too.

That third chunk of change sets our heart on the love of God. And whether we fulfill that command in paying our taxes today, or whether we fulfill it, and the way that we’ve described otherwise on our own, this is the purpose. And we need to connect with that purpose that God directs our hearts towards those who are physically in need: the poor, orphans, widows, those with no one to provide for them whatever their situation or disability may be.

We can acknowledge too that we were once spiritually poor. And yet God has given us, that we didn’t deserve it while we were still sinners, Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price for our sins. And God has given us exceedingly great riches in His kingdom. God wants our heart to be like that, to have love for those that don’t deserve it. And certainly, concern for those who are most in need of it. That’s the kind of heart God wants us to have. God does want our change, but not this kind of change.

God wants our change because He wants us to change. God wants us to change by keeping this commandment. A heart that will obey God is a heart that God will continue to shape and mold and work with. A heart that will obey God over the love of money is one that He can use. Obedience is something that precedes and accompanies the transformation that God is ready to work in every person who is willing to obey Him. If we do give those chunks of change, we will be changed by God. This is the promise of the New Covenant to write His law on our hearts and in our minds and for it to make a difference in not only what we do, but in who we are.

Even the least of God’s commandments when obeyed by the Spirit of God will transform our lives. You know, where our treasure is, our heart will be there also, even if it’s the least of the commandments, the heart is no small matter. Making sure we put our treasure where we want our heart to be is critical. So, you might be thinking, what can I do about this? Right? Well, we may have people who have never heard these things, hearing it online or elsewhere, or we may have people who have been keeping exactly the things I’m talking about for decades, longer than I’ve been alive. Well, here’s something we can all do every one of us have a financial review with God this week. Have a financial review with God and just ask some basic questions, God, am I faithfully following your tithing commands? Am I being faithful? Conduct an audit of yourself and your own finances before God, just you and Him.

You can also ask if you have faithfully kept what He’s commanded you to do to the best of your ability. Have I understood what you want me to learn in doing this, God? Am I really being changed by this the way that you’re telling me to be changed? Am I treating this like a checklist? Or am I actually engaging my heart and mind in keeping these commands to tithe? So, do that this week and pray about it, think on it. Build a habit. In fact, this is another good thing to do if you’re not in the practice already. Build a habit to pray about the meaning of those tithes as you give them.

So, for the first tithe, when you send it in to the Church throughout the year, or however you give it, pray, “God, I want my heart to be in Your work. I want people to hear Your truth. I want people to grow and love and concern for each other. I want Your disciples to be cared for. I want Your work to be done on the earth when I give that first tithe.” Pray also when enjoying your second tithe at God’s Festivals. God, thank You for blessing me with this second tithe, with giving me so much that I can take this 10% out this year and rejoice before You. Glorify Him for all that He’s given you.

With the third tithe, whether you do this on tax day when you pay your taxes, or whether you keep that third tithe in the third and six years out of the seven-year cycle, however you do it, pray God, “incline my heart to those in need and make me loving and compassionate like You and like Jesus Christ.” Because that’s who God wants us to be. So whatever our situation, whether we’ve been doing these things for a long time, or whether it’s new to us, we can all commit, recommit, and refocus to that work of laying up treasure in heaven, like Christ spoke about knowing that these things will all be rewarded many times over, many times over by the promise of God in His soon coming Kingdom on the earth.