DAY #7: November 28, 2010

If you read Hebrews 11, it talks about some really great people of faith, the first guy who gets listed is a man named Abel. Abel gets listed, not because he did something great, because he didn't. He had no great accomplishment. No great achievement to his name. The only thing he did was he gave an offering. And God put him in the Hall of Fame. Why? It wasn't how much he gave, it wasn't what he gave. It was how he gave. Abel gave his first and his finest and he did it with a great attitude.

Cane and Able, they were Adam and Eve’s sons. Cane gave this fruit stuff to God. Able gave his first born, an animal—sacrificed it to God. God accepted Able’s offering. He said no to Cane’s offering. WHY?

“In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.” Hello! I hope you didn’t miss that one. “In the course of time Cane brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.”

You know what Cane did? Cane waited until all his crops were in. He was looking around his farmer’s market type stuff, all of his produce and he said, “Oh, man! This has been pretty incredible. I’ve got it all in. Now I’ll take a few items to God and I’ll throw him an apple, an orange his way. I’ll throw God a bone. You know, “Here you go, God.”

Think about that that phrase - “In the process of time” – is that the way to do life? Is that what God desires? Is that God –hearted? Is it generous? Folks, I goitta tell you - that dog will not hunt when we deal with God. The Bible tells me, the Bible tells you that we’re to bring to God our best – our finest – our highest to God. What do we learn from this story?

#1: FIRST THINGS FIRST. (vs.3-4) God wants you’re highest and finest and He wants it first, because it shows that he is first.

Exodus 23:19 (NIV) says, "Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.” This is a them of God’s throughout the Bible. We’ve got one time around – one shot at this life to discover what matters most. God says we should bring our firstfruits, where? Into the house of the Lord—our firstfruits. First things first.

First fruits = TITHING. First 10% of income and gain goes to God. Folks, God makes the rules, and these are His rules.

Deuteronomy 14:23 (LB)says, “…The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives.” Did you hear that?

Proverbs 3:9 (LB) “Honor the Lord by giving him the first part of all your income..” If we honor the Lord with our wealth, God’s going to honor us. [The verses continue] “With the”—here we go again—“first part of your income….” That’s pretty sweet. “Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”

Honor God, He’s going to honor you. First things first. So the Bible is telling me, it’s communicated to me that the first part of my income, of all of my financial gain should go to the house of God. In the Old Testament, that was the tabernacle/temple. In the New Testament, that’s the local church.


I remember once, I did this in a sermon - I said: Does anybody have a $10 bill? I’ll give you this hundred for a $10 bill. Here, give me the 10 dollars. This guy said, “I’ll give you twenty!” No, it’s got to be 10. Thank you, though. That was good. That was good. (A young lady handed me a $10 bill) All right, young lady, here is $100. Is that a good deal? Yeah, it’s yours.

Let’s say I’m God, just for a second. $100, give me $10. Is that a sweet deal or what? I’m going to bless your life. I’m God. I’m going to take care of you. I’ve given you your abilities and your stuff and man, enjoy that ninety. Enjoy the rest. I’ve got 10—and that’s the worship requirement, the minimum worship requirement—that you just brought to me, which is some stuff that’s already mine. Is that a sweet deal or what? God being God could have said, “Here’s 10. Now give me the hundred. You live on 10.”

Folks please get this truth this morning - God’s a loving God. He wants to bless us. He wants us to live in the sweet spot of his success. And friends, let me tell you this. There is no way you will ever experience the blessing of God unless you’re giving, I’m sorry, bringing 10 percent of your income to the local church.

I know what some of you are thinking – so read Deuteronomy 8:17-18 (NLT) with me. “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”

God doesn’t need your money, doesn’t need it. Why does he ask for it? Because money is so powerful. And here’s what happens to us. If we don’t tithe, if we don’t bring it, all of a sudden we segue from being a manager into an owner and we think it’s our stuff.

It’s very easy to tell if Jesus is number one in someone’s life. It’s simple. You know how? Just look at their checkbook. Look at my checkbook. You can tell like that if Jesus is Lord, if He’s number one. And I discovered something a long time ago. You cannot out-give God. God wants to bless your life and mine. If we could see the blessings he has for us, we would not even…. Well, let me let the Bible explain it.

Malachi 3:8(NLT) says, “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob Me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings.” Have you ever thought about this? I have. The local church is the most important thing in God’s economy. The question is, does God want to bless the local church? You better believe it! How is God going to bless the church? Well, He will bless a lot of people in the church so they can bless the church. We’re either clogs or conduits, reservoirs or rivers.

Believe me, God’s blessed a lot of you in a great way. And the sole purpose of God blessing you is to bless this local church. I know a lot of you here are really blessed financially. And believe me, you’re not that smart. You know it’s from God. That was a joke, you know? Come on.

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this.” This is God talking. The only place in Scripture where God says, “Test me. Test me in this.”

Here's another thing I said in a message a few years ago: You know what I thought about doing? Now this is crazy. I can’t believe I’m saying this. “Test me,” God says. You know what I thought about doing? I thought about having a money back guarantee at COV. I thought about next weekend starting this deal to say, “Okay, six weeks you tithe. And if God does not bless your life in mighty ways, we’ll give you your money back.” That would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it? Money back? I think we’re going to do that. I’m serious. I love that. That’s how sure I am with this stuff. I know it works. I’m a walking, talking, living, breathing testimony of it.

Malachi goes on to say -“Test me in this and see if I will now throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” I want to sign up for some of that. I’m telling you man, my life is a testimony to this. I’m blessed financially, yeah. But I am blessed relationally, occupationally, and emotionally much greater than I’m blessed financially. I’m a living testimony to this first. I’ve never met a person who said, “You know what, Mike? I bring the tithe, the first 10% to the local church and my life’s boring, man. I’m not blessed. I’m just not making it. And I’m living the same old, same old life.” I’ve never met that person. Wow, what can happen in our lives if we get hold of this!

Ponder these things today. I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course. Endure.