How To Prosper | Position Yourself for Blessing | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
How To Prosper | Position Yourself for Blessing | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
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Hey, everyone. Pastor Sean here, and I wanna thank you for subscribing to our podcast. I'm excited to get into today's message. And remember this, God is a good God. He loves you, and he wants to bless you. Hey, turn with me to Malachi chapter three.
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The bible says this in Malachi chapter three.
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And I'm gonna start in verse seven.
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God is speaking to the prophet Malachi and he says this, you've gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them.
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He says, return to me and I'll return to you says the Lord of hosts.
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But you say, in what way shall we return?
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And the Bible says in verse eight, will a man rob God, but yet you have robbed me?
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But you say, in what way have we robbed you?
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In tithes and offerings.
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You are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.
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Verse 10, bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. And try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts. It's the only place in the Bible, by the way, church, that God says test me in this thing.
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He says, I dare you to try me in this one thing.
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And he says this, if I would not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing. Wow. There's that word blessing.
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That word blessing is the same word blessing in Genesis chapter one verse 28. And so the bible says this, see if I would not pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. Verse 11. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes so that he will not destroy the fruit of the ground nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts. Verse 12, and all nations will call you blessed for you will be you will be you will be a delightful land.
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I wanna take the remainder of our time this morning. If you would like a title for today, just simply write this down. Let it flow.
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And if you'd like clarity around that, pastor's talking about tithe and offering.
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I believe that it is unfortunate that many ministries don't know how to take the time and walk through the word of God and understand the truth of what is being communicated in the scripture. So I'm gonna say this from the jump. We've already prayed over tithe and offerings, so we're not taking another tithe and offering moment today.
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This is not about what the church or pastor or anybody can get from you. It's about you entering in to an understanding that there is a blessing that God has for your life.
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And this blessing is released through what we're gonna talk about in tithe and offering. Can I have your ear just for another second? And then I'll get into this thing. I'm just gonna talk to you for a moment.
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In Ephesians chapter one verse three, the bible tells us that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.
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We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.
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We have been blessed. We have been permitted for every spiritual blessing. That second blessing in Ephesians one three means benefit.
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You have been permitted for every spiritual benefit in where heavenly places.
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So there are certain benefits that are located in certain places and if I don't understand the key that's necessary for the door to be unlocked then I can't get to the benefit that's on the other side of the door.
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Now, hear me when I say this.
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This scripture right here is talking about a particular type of blessing. And I'll get to that in a moment. But, there are different keys that unlock different doors in heavenly places for certain blessings.
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For instance, the key to the blessing of joy is to be in the presence of God.
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It's not tithe and offering.
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The key to peace is for you to have yourself in a place of the renewed mind.
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It's not tithe and offering. Okay?
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The key to healing, Jesus says lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.
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So, tithe and offering is not for you to get healed. You hanging with me. Salvation.
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To have salvation doesn't mean you have to tithe and give offering. The key to salvation is believe with your heart, confess with your lips. There are certain keys that open certain doors that release certain blessings.
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But when we understand what this blessing is in Malachi, it will change our whole perspective on who God has called us to be and how God has called us to live.
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And so, the Bible says this.
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He says, will a man rob God? There is a difference between stealing and robbing.
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Now, what's being addressed is that there is a corruption going on in the people of God.
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They have got corrupt families. They've got corrupt worship. They've got corrupt giving. They've got corrupt lifestyle. And so, this is the last book of the Old Testament before the New Testament comes.
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And in this last book, this is almost like God saying, I want more time, I am going to bring some clarity to some things because for next four hundred and fifty years, you don't hear nothing from God till Jesus shows up on the scene. And
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so, this is this, like this last, I almost feel like God's saying this is my last attempt to effort to remind them they better start getting some order to it.
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And so the Bible says that you have robbed me. Robbing and stealing is two different things.
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I can have misdirection and say, hey, Mike, look that way. And I could steal his phone. He didn't see me grab it.
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Stealing is when no one's looking and I take what is not mine.
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Robbing is I'm a walk up to you and I'm gonna take this out of your hand and I'm gonna forcefully take something from you. Whether you know about it or not, I could care less.
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It's that I'm forcing my way in and I'm taking something from you. And so, the language is very particular there because it's not that you're taking something that God didn't see because God sees everything.
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He's saying what you've done is you have forcefully taken what is mine and you've kept it for yourself.
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It's the difference between stealing and robbing.
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And he goes on and he says this, in what way have you done this? And he says through tithe and offering. Tithe and offering are two different things, but they work hand in hand. It's like salt and pepper, Ben and Jerry's. They work hand in hand.
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Tithe, if you're taking notes, this down. Tithe means tent.
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And as I was studying this out, I also found that tithe has two other meanings to it. It means tenth.
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It means unto God.
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You ready for this? And the last one is, it means tribute.
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Now let me start with tenth.
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God is saying, bring to me the tithe. You're not giving tithe to God.
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Tithe is I'm bringing what is already His.
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This is why you gotta be careful because we wanna use language and feel relevant and say generosity.
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And generosity has its place in the body of Christ, but generosity is to bring relief and aid and support to a situation that is not functioning well. That could be a widow, or that could be an orphan, or that could be a ministry that is going through hardship. That's being generous is giving into that good ground.
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But tithe is what belongs to God.
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And God says, bring to me a tenth or 10 unto me. Bring it back to me.
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Now, what is tithe? Tithe is the first of my increase.
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Proverbs three says this.
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It says, honor the Lord with your possessions and the first fruit of your increase. So when I tithe, I am giving the first fruit of my increase to God. And God says I only want 10.
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So, if I'm working a job and I get paid a thousand bucks a week, the first thing that I'm bringing to God is a $100.
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Why am I bringing a $100 to God? Because God says it's a tent. It is a tithe. Why am I bringing it to God?
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Because God is the one that has released a blessing, which we'll get into in just a moment, on my life to work that job. You with me so far? Why
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10?
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Why not nine? Why not 11? Why not 20? Why not five?
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Why 10?
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10 is the highest number in the numerical system.
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Well, can go to 11.
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One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, everything repeats itself.
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It repeats itself. It repeats itself. It repeats itself. You can go all the way to a billion and it's 10 on 10 repeating itself.
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10 is the highest number and the word 10 biblically means divine order. And God is saying when you bring that 10% unto me, you're releasing my divine order on your life. What you couldn't do in your own strength, what you couldn't do on your own, what you were trying to figure out, the frustration why the fruit wasn't coming to the ground. Now, what is happening is there is a divine order that is released into your life that everything from that you can be fruitful as you're sowing.
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That's good teaching right there.
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The 10 is God's, and it is not to be touched because it belongs to God all throughout scripture. And you'll you'll see this. There is what I would call a divine portion that is God's.
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In the Garden of Eden, it was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. See, when we think tithe, we're just thinking straight money. Tithe is what belongs to God.
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Now hear this, tithe reveals your devotion.
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Offering will reveal your treasure.
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Tithe is your trust. Offering is your treasure. And God is saying, will you trust Me by not touching what is Mine and the treasure of every tree Adam and Eve you can eat of? It's all yours.
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In the garden, he there was one tree that belonged to God and He said don't touch it. What happened? When they touched the tree, the representation of the tithe, now the blessing was pulled off of Adam and Eve's life.
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And the sweat of their brow they were working from in the ground took a lot longer and it was a lot harder to yield the fruit that once was natural and normal, now was with great frustration.
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And so, there is this understanding that throughout the Bible.
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Isn't it interesting that there is 12 tribes of Israel, but God says 11 of the tribes can have an allotted portion of the land, of the promised land, but there is one that I keep back to me.
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When they went into the promised land, He says this, when they conquered Jericho, He says that every area that you step foot, you will have great victory. Wherever the sole of your foot touches in Judges chapter one, you will have great victory. He says, but when you conquer Jericho, you don't touch the spoils. That belongs to me. There is always a tithe, a representation of God's portion in the Bible. And what it is modeling and what it is demonstrating is can I trust God?
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Am I willing to truly recognize that God's hand is upon my life? And
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so he says, bring to me the tithe and the offering.
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So write this down. I'm gonna restate this.
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Tithe reveals your trust.
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Offering reveals your treasure. Tithe reveals your trust.
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Offering reveals your treasure.
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Pastor, I don't like you talking about tithe. I don't believe in this thing. Listen, neither does this nation that we live in. They don't trust you. That's why they tax you before you even have an opportunity to pay that tax. It's already built into the bill.
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And you want we want to sit here and argue and complain in the body of Christ giving unto God. No. Every time that you go to Starbucks and you put your hand across that counter to pay, you're laying your hand on an altar, which is a counter. It is an altar, and you are surrendering and making sacrifice and there's a tax that is built into that thing.
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And yet, we wanna come to church and argue about how dare they talk about this thing. The very thing that releases a blessing on your life for you to function at the capacity that God has.
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I'm not saying that outside of tithing you can't function, but what I'm saying is when you walk in this biblical truth, in this key, it reveals and unlocks a level of blessing on our life that puts us in a whole another position.
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Put you in a place of overflow. And I want God's overflow in my life.
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Now let me clarify this, and I wanna say this.
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Is that when we are talking about tithing and giving, We're not talking about putting a dollar in and getting a 100 out. God's not a vending machine. He's not an investment system.
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Why is it money? Why? Why is it so? Because money reflects where your heart is at.
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When I go into work and I give up my time, which is a seed, and I give up my energy, which is seed, and I give up my effort, which is a seed. At the end of that week, I get a paycheck which represents everything.
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And so, what I do is I take from that paycheck and I say, God, I thank You that You gave me the capacity. You gave me the ability. You gave me the wisdom. You gave me the strength to do what I could not do on my own. And God's saying now freely eat.
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Freely eat.
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Can I go on? Yes.
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I might not get to everything this week. I might have to pick up some next week. I
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got so many different directions I wanna go in right now.
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Thank
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you for the encouragement.
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He says, in what way have you wrought me and tithe and offerings?
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You are cursed with a curse. Now, God's not saying I'm cursing you. He is saying, when you walk outside of my blessing, you've opened up the door for a curse to come upon your life.
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Deuteronomy 28. Listen to me. Deuteronomy 28.
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He opens up and he says, if you are diligent to obey the voice of the Lord, follow his commands.
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He talks about every blessing that will come upon your life. You know what's beautiful? The first 14 verses of Deuteronomy 28, we relish in.
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I don't if you know this. There's 68 verses in that entire chapter.
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From verses 15 to 16 or 68 talks about every curse that comes upon you when you're not walking in obedience. We don't wanna touch that.
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Oh, we just wanna talk about being blessed, but at the same time, we're not doing what's necessary to walk in the blessing. So you got a lot of verses there.
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And there's one in particular that really jumps out at me because he says this, cursed is the ground and cursing and confusion will come upon you. When I'm not walking under the blessing of God, I've never found myself in such a place of confusion.
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I knew a gentleman who was close to me years back.
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And he was real faithful in the church and he he he really started to get excited and and and started to join in on on what we're talking about here through tithe and offering. And and man, he was creative too. It just seemed like every day he had a new creative idea. He was coming up with new concepts and doing different things.
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And and this was going on for probably about about two years or so. And then all of a sudden, it just seemed like all the creativity stopped.
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It seemed like the momentum when he came to work stopped.
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It seemed like every day that there was a problem or a challenge or something going on at home and in his family.
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And out of nowhere, just something hit my spirit and I and I went and I grabbed this guy because he he was he was a friend. He was close. I said, brother what is going on with you? He began to explain these things. I said, can I ask you a question? I was like, how was your heart in your giving to God?
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Well, he said, well, it's it's okay. I said, okay. Let me go a little deeper. I said, have you stopped tithing?
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And he was like, well, yeah.
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You know, I just I I you know, I got away from it.
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Fair enough. I said, well, you better get back. Get get get to that place, man. I don't want you to shortchange and the blessing on. Long story short, he refused to fall in line with a biblical principle.
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Biblical principle. Again, you may wanna say this. I'm not telling you if you don't tithe, you don't have peace, you don't have joy, you don't have salvation.
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Tithing releases a blessing ready for this? Write this down.
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It releases the blessing of what God has declared over your life.
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Okay?
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And what God has declared for our life when we are outside of tithing, we don't know. But when I'm tithing, it's revealed.
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Tithing brings about revelation and understanding to my life that I can see what I have not seen and do what I have not done. And at one point, this gentleman, man, he was seeing God move. He was believing. And it was like all of a sudden, he got away from this thing. And the Bible says in Deuteronomy 28 that the heavens will shut up like bronze.
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Couldn't see anymore.
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He was frustrated.
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And the problem was that ultimately in the process, he went through great frustration in his family, lost his job.
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Things just started to all fall apart in his life, and he went through a long period before things turned around again. And it was amazing. As soon as he got back to the biblical principles, a new job opened up, his family started to see rest Why? Because they were starting to see again.
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I'm definitely gonna have to split this into two weeks. I have the time for it.
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Because I wanna get you somewhere to see something today.
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So the Bible tells us to bring the tithe, that's God's, and the offering to him.
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I get this question a lot. People wanna talk about, well, tithing's an Old Testament thing.
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Tithing is all throughout the Bible, guys.
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It is. Tithing didn't start with a Levitical practice. It started with a righteous man and a righteous king known as Melchizedek and Abraham in Genesis chapter 14.
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Melchizedek was a king.
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Remember I opened up today and I said Jesus came to bring a kingdom? Yes.
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Get ready for this. Tithing is a kingdom principle.
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Amen.
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Let me teach this.
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It's gonna help you.
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Abraham found out that his nephew was captured in family and everything that they had.
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Abraham went and rescued his nephew at a time when kings were going to the war, and Abraham had great victory over all these other groups of people. And he came back, and there was two kings, a wicked king and a righteous king. The king of Sodom and Melchizedek.
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And Sodom said, the king of Sodom said, listen, you can keep all the spoils, give me the people back. And Abraham said, you're not a righteous king. I don't want one thing from you unless you say that you blessed me.
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I want nothing to do with that. But he goes to Melchizedek and the Bible tells us this that Melchizedek was the king of Salem and he came to Abraham with bread and wine. Now, you never heard this, I've never heard anyone talk this, preach this, teach this. So if you have, don't say it and ruin it for me.
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Melchizedek means righteous man or righteous one.
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So what do we have here? We have a king of righteousness.
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He is from Salem. The word Salem means peace.
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And he brings out bread and wine.
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It is the first mention of communion in the Bible.
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Communion represents the blood that was shed in the body that was broken, meaning Jesus in the New Testament representing a new covenant.
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Now look at this. David says in Psalm 51 when he was in a place of sin and he was repenting to God, is he says, the Lord make a clean heart in me but restore to me the joy of my salvation.
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So every time that I take communion, the bread and wine reminds me of the joy that it comes in Jesus through the salvation that He made available for me. So here I am in Genesis chapter 14, and it is a type and shadow. Abraham comes to Melchizedek righteousness.
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He's from a place that is called peace, and they're experiencing communing which represents joy. Romans fourteen seventeen says this, the kingdom is not into earthly things, but it is righteousness, it is peace, and it is joy in the Holy Spirit. He is having a divine kingdom encounter in which he goes to Melchizedek and the Bible says that now Abraham gave him a tithe of all.
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Why would Abraham give a tithe of everything that he had to this righteous king? Because what he was saying is, I recognize your authority and my devotion is to you, not to the things of this world. Your tithe reveals your devotion to the one that you serve and His rulership over your life.
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Can I go on? This is what I wanted to get to right now.
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Because the Bible says this.
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The Bible says that when I bring the tithe to the storehouse, that there be food in my house. And he says, try me in this, says the Lord, if I would not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing.
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Now this, I guys, I scratched my head and I went back and I studied and I looked at this. And I I'd hate to be the one to translate the Bible.
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To be able to convert historical text,
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God inspired text, and bring that into an English language for understanding, I don't want that job.
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But as I study this, the actual text there is not see if I would open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing. It was see if I don't open you up as a window and pour out of you such a blessing. The window is not in the sky.
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The window is in you.
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Track with me. I'm gonna build this now. We still there? You gonna give me about ten more minutes? Alright.
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Here we go. Say buckle up.
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I tell my kids buckle up buttercup. Here we go. So the Bible says this, see if I would not open you up as a window.
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That word window there, it means sluice or water gate. And so, what happens is this, and we could probably get this picture. When it rains, and the rain comes down and fills up a reservoir, that reservoir of water is reserved for a time of need.
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And when I enter into a time of need, that water gate, that sluice, that window would open up and the water would be released so that the people of that land could draw from that water and be able to water their crops.
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That's the progression, that's the system.
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And so, the Bible says when I bring the tithe, it means that all the water that's been collecting, now it gets opened up. My life gets opened up as a window and everything that God's deposited in me can now be poured out for me. And so, I bring my tithe and honor Him with what is His, I can't release everything that He has for me.
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And so, I will live my life with minimal potential, but when I begin to bring my tithe, it releases my God given potential.
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Let me help you out with this. Your potential is your future trapped in your present.
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Your potential of what's ahead is your future trapped in your present. In some of us, we can't see what's ahead because we have not honored God with what is His. But when I bring to Him what is His, He opens me up, and now will begin to flow out every word that He has spoken in my life. This is why I could come to a service on a Sunday. I can hear the word of God, and it have no effect in my life. It's not that you hadn't retained the word. It's the fact that you have not released the word. But now when I retain it and the window is opened up because I tithe, I begin to release everything that God has spoken, revealing to me my potential and my future for my family, for my life, for my purpose and destiny. You getting this?
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So many notes.
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How do I jot all these things down?
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Don't worry about the notes. I just want you to hear this with your spirit right now.
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Okay.
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That ten minutes starts now.
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I I want because I want you I want you to see this one thing. I want you to see this one thing. This is the thing that popped it all off for me.
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Blew me away. I've never seen this.
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This is what I've been stewing on. This is one pastor Chad I said the other day. I said, I like it when a theory is no longer a theory, and it proves true. I like it when the word of God is so true.
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Look at this.
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Thank you, Holy Spirit.
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Verse 11, he says, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit. Meaning, when I tithe, after that every seed that is sown will produce the fruit that is assigned to that seed.
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So if I am sowing an apple seed, that means the fruit of that apple seed will not fail.
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If I'm sowing an orange seed, means the fruit of that seed, it will not fail.
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How will it not fail? When I bring what is God's.
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Now Adam, you're empowered to have rulership over what is yours.
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Now I'm just staying on tithe right now, but I want you to see this.
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He says, I will rebuke the devourer for your sake.
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The devourer is speaking of in Deuteronomy the locusts that would come or the locusts that would come, the pestilence that would come and eat the crops every time Israel would sow seed into the ground.
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What would happen is the locusts would come in and they would devour. But God says, when you tithe Ready for this? Write this down. Last notes. And I'm gonna I'm gonna preach the fire out of this last point.
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This got me so stirred up.
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The blessing of God reveals the word that's been spoken over your life. It floods out. It flows out. Okay?
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But with that revelation comes protection and provision.
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God's not gonna give you a word and not give you the protection and the provision for that word to not come to pass.
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So in Genesis, after Abraham tithed, the first thing that happens after he gave of his tithe, it was of his tithe.
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The bible says that the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision and the first thing that God said is that He tells Abraham, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward.
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Now, when He says shield and exceedingly great reward, He follows it up with and He says this, what is it that you want?
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What is it that you need? He says, have no offspring, no heir. I'm 75 years old. And God tells him to look up at the stars and He says, so shall your descendants be. And Abraham believed. Abraham had revelation of what could be, because that's what blessing does. It gives you revelation of what could be, but God says I'm your shield and your exceedingly great reward.
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So, I'm gonna show you something and because you tithe, I'm showing you this, but I will also give you protection and provision.
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Because tithe doesn't mean all your problems are just gonna go away, but tithe means there's a blessing on your life that you can walk over your problems and fruitful in every good work. You hearing me on this thing?
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And so, Bible tells us this is that I will rebuke the devourer over your life for your sakes, so it will not destroy the fruit of your ground.
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I'm laying in this plane right here.
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I opened up and I said, tithe is a tenth divine order.
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Tithe is unto God, because I bring my tithe unto God.
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Bring it to the storehouse.
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It's the church. It's the ministry. It's the place that I receive the word.
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And I said that tithe also means tribute.
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Tribute is not tax.
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Tax is mandatory.
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Tribute is voluntary.
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In
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the days of kings, what they would do is they would release what would be called this tribute to the people that work the land. So the king owns all the land.
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All the land. How many know our God owns cattle on a thousand hills? He's got everything. Even the chair you're sitting on, he owns. It's it's his.
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It's not everything's his. K?
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Your car and yours, it's his.
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He's just leased it to you. So
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what would happen is the king would give land to all the people. The people could do with it what they want.
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But tribute was that the people would honor the king with the portion of their crops, of their possession. It was whatever came first from their livelihood. They would bring it to the king to honor the king for the king giving them the land so that they could live and work and do all the things to be successful.
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They would bring this tribute to the king.
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The king would release, ready for this, the king would release protection over that land that if there ever was a raiding or an invasion of some kind, the king would deploy his forces because the tribute represented devotion.
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He would deploy his forces to go and protect that land so that that person living there could still have their livelihood.
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I will rebuke the devourer.
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When I bring what is God's, God says, I release heaven's forces. Deploy on my behalf to set a perimeter that nothing can come in. And the devourer that tries to come in, the very thing that tries to to to to to consume the seeds that you've been sown. We've been on this series talking about seeds. The seeds that you've been sowing. God says, when you bring unto me, I'm going to release a supernatural blessing upon your life so you can see what you have not seen. And with it, I will give you divine protection and provision for the word that I spoke will prosper whereunto I sent it.
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And so, don't know about you. But, I wanna see heaven flow into my life.
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And, I found that it's when I bring what what what honors the Lord, when I bring what is His. And then, I offer up. And, I'll get into that on another week on offering. But, when I bring what is God's, it demonstrates my trust.
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And it releases heaven's rain on my life that I can walk in what God has spoken and what God has purposed for you and for me. Paul says this, and I close on this last note.
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Second Timothy chapter four verse six, he says, I pour my life out as a drink offering.
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The end of my life is near. I have fought the good fight, and I have ran my race. I want to conclude my life, and I got many more years ahead of me. And I speak that over you. Your best days are ahead of you. I wanna live my life pouring out everything that God has spoken for me. I wanna empty myself out.
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The richest place in the world, church, is the graveyard. It's because that's where potential and purpose dies in the ground of people that never access what could have been.
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And I'm not gonna go to the grave full of potential. I'm gonna go to the grave knowing that I've emptied everything that God has spoken over my life. I will bring unto Him and I will walk under an open heaven. And I will see that blessing be released.
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Father, I thank you for your word today. Father, I thank you as we have talked about these truths and these principles. Father, I just pray right now that your word does not rest on deaf ears.
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Father, this message is not one to be manipulative.
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This message is not one for any other reason other than we wanna put our trust and our hope in you from our heart to our hand. God, we wanna honor you.
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So father, I just thank you Lord today for every person that's gathered in this place.
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Today, father, I thank you for the purpose that you've placed inside of the people of God. The potential that you've placed inside.
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Father, I pray that as we enter into this biblical truth, honoring and bringing what is yours, that father, you said see if I would not open you up the windows. Father, open us up God.
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Open us up father.
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Open us up Lord, that we could see everything that you've spoken.
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We thank you, Lord.
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Thanks again for listening to today's podcast. We trust that it has touched your heart and blessed your life. Listen to support the ministry, you can go to our website, abundantlife.tv.
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And remember, we are better together.