All right, if you have your Bibles, I want you to go to the book of Malachi, chapter number three. The book of Malachi, chapter number three. We are in a series called I Give Up. The entire series is about giving. We started last week with the message, "Kill Cain, not Abel." How many of you all heard that message? Good. Now, I want to read a passage of scripture that has been, probably in the last 20 to 25 years, one of the most abused, manipulated, miscontextualized, misrepresented, controlling passages of scripture in the entire Bible as it relates to tithing.

There's two things that happens when somebody abuses a passage of scripture, or somebody abuses an element of our Christian faith, whether it be grace, or faith, or prosperity, or healing. One of two things happen. People completely avoid it, "Oh, since you've abused it, I'm never going to touch that again," or they swing to the other pendulum and they talk about it too much. No one's ever balanced. I had a choice as to whether I was going to completely ignore it or talk about it too much. I just want to address scripturally and bring into context what Malachi is actually talking about.

I want to read you the passage, and then I'll give you the title of the message, and then we'll go from there. All right? Malachi chapter number three, starting at the sixth verse. Here is what it says. "I am the Lord, and I do not change." Thank you, Lord. "That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed." [chuckles] God is so gangster.

He's like, "Do you know that if I change, you would be dead? I gave you a promise. No matter how rebellious you have been, I cannot change what I said about you. I will wait generation after generation after generation till somebody in your family gets it right, so I can pounce back on you with my promise."

"It's the only reason why you're not destroyed. Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now, return to me and I will return to you." Will y'all say that with me? "Now, return to me and I will return to you." One more time. "Now, return to me and I will return to you," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. You ask, "How can we return when we have never gone away?" Now, if God is the one saying this, don't you think he would know? A self-aware person would say, "Lord, would you please show me where I've turned away?" These people are so oblivious. They're like, "We ain't ever left you." In bondage, they're saying that.

Should people cheat God? Yet, "You have cheated me, but you ask, 'What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?' You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. You are under a curse for your whole nation has been cheating me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so there would be enough food in my temple. If you do," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great, you won't have enough room to take it in."

"Try it. Put me to the test. Your crops will be abundant for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. "Then all nations will call you blessed for your land will be such a delight," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies.

If you're taking notes on this passage, please write this down. "Don't knock it till you try it." Don't knock it until you try it. Bow your heads. Let's pray, shall we? Holy Spirit, help us not to knock till we try it. Amen. The book of Malachi is four short chapters. In these four short chapters, Malachi actually has six messages that he's articulating to the children of Israel. The first message has to do with God's love for Israel. The second message has to do with addressing the corrupt priests that were around during this time, the corrupt priesthood in Israel. The third message has to do with the call to faithfulness. "I want you all to be faithful to me," says the Lord. The fourth message has to do with the coming judgment that is going to come upon Israel.

The fifth message is about repentance. The sixth message is again a prophetic word about the coming judgment.

The passage I just read you, Malachi 3:6-12, is actually the message about repentance. When you think about what we've just read, it's God calling his children to change their mind. That's all repent means is to change the way you've been thinking about how you've been acting and come back in agreement with what I say about the situation. That's all repentance is. They have to repent and God is having this back and forth dialogue with them.

Let's address what a tithe actually is. A tithe simply means a tenth. That's all a tithe is, is a tenth. If you wanted a very simple working definition of it, a tithe is 10% of what you received from your income. My parents started teaching me this when I was about seven or eight years old. If I had a dollar, a dime went to the Lord. If I had $10, $1 went to the Lord. If I had $100, $10 went to the Lord. If I had $1,000, $100 went to the Lord. I think y'all got it. If I had $10,000, $1,000 went to the Lord. If I get a $1 million, how much is it?

Thank you for counting them zeroes, right?

It just means a tenth of the income that you've received. Now, some people will say, "Well, this is my money. I made it. It belongs to me." Well, let me give you some scripture to contextualize your money, your house, your car, your possessions. Psalms 24:1 makes it pretty clear that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. No matter where you got what you got, how you got it, it came from the earth He made and put you on. The earth is the Lord and everything in it, the world and its people belong to Him. There's one sentence I want you to have and this should be a sentence that governs your entire life. It all belongs to God. It all belongs to God.

Now, I've been preaching for 25 years and anytime I teach on giving, there's always somebody that wants to have a conversation about tithing. They feel like it's not for today. It was not even money. I want to give you the conversation that I have with people like that, and I formatted it in the same way that God had his conversation with Israel. God said, "You have been cheating me," but you say this, then He says that, then they say this, and then He says that.

I want to give you the conversation that I have with people that love Jesus but they've had a challenge in this area, and it starts with me asking this question. "Are you a tither?" The first question that I ask. "Are you a tither?" To which they respond in kind, "Tithing is Old Testament law. It's not a New Testament reality." I'm like, "Oh. Very interesting. Muy interesante."

Genesis 14:17 says this. "After Abraham returned from his victory over Kedorlaomer," I get points for that, "and all his allies, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of the Most High, brought Abram-" I'm sorry, he wasn't Abraham yet. "-some bread and wine. Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing: 'Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has defeated your enemies for you.'" After Abraham heard this blessing, he gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything he brought back from the battle he fought to get his nephew, Lot, back.

That's what I read to somebody that says, "It's a Old Testament law. It's not a New Testament reality," because the thing I respond to them is the first tithe is given between 430 and 600 years before the law of Moses, in the same way we saw the first gift given in Genesis 4. Unprovoked. Nobody asked for it. God did not say, "Hey, y'all need to give me a gift." They just knew intrinsically, "If I'm going to have a connection with God, something that I have belongs to him."

Abel gave his. Cain gave his. Cain had an opportunity to give the same way Abel did. He decided not to, so he killed his brother instead of killing his pride and ego. We saw what happened to him after that. The law was given some 400 to 600 years after Abram gave his first tithe. Here's how somebody that has a problem with tithing will respond. "What you just read me is in the Old Testament. It doesn't count." Okay. Now go to Matthew 23:23 since you want New Testament.

"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law - justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things." Here's what Jesus is saying: "This is basic. Tithing shouldn't even be a thing we're talking about. I'm trying to get you to understand justice, law, and mercy. This should be something you learn in first grade of your faith."

"Oh, but that was Matthew and Matthew's Jewish." Cool. Luke 11:42. Good old Gentile. "What sorrow awaits you Pharisees!" Good old Gentile saying the same exact thing. "For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important thing." Listen. Jesus said it and it's in red. I'm pointing them to it. Jesus literally says, "You should tithe, yes." It's in red. It's right there. It's in Matthew and then it's there again in Luke. A Jew and a Gentile wrote the same thing.

You want to know what they say back? "The gospels are a part of the Old Testament because Jesus hadn't died yet, so it still doesn't count." Oh, so you read a little bit. Okay, you a little technical. I see you. The Old Testament is still extended through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You're absolutely right because until the testator dies, the testament cannot be enacted. If I have a $1 million life insurance policy out on me for my wife and kids, they can't get it until I die. This person is right that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is still a part of the Old Testament because the testator hadn't died yet. Then he did die, which means the testament was enacted. Then he got up.

Listen. If I have a $1 million policy on me and I die, the insurance company disperses the $1 million to my wife and kids. If I just happened to get back up, we just millionaires. There ain't nothing you can do about it.

If I happen to just pop back up, the insurance company can't take it back because what makes it effective? Death. What makes it eternal? Life.

They're still, "The Old Testament don't count." Cool. Hebrews 7. I'm going to get all deep into the New Testament. I'm going to pass Acts, 1 and 2 Corinthians, I'm going to pass Romans, pass Thessalonians, passing all kinds of stuff to get you to Hebrews. This masterful writer of Hebrews. You talk about painting a picture. When I read you these 10 verses, if something in you don't get happy, I don't know what's wrong.

"This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem and also a priest of the Most High God. When Abraham was returning home from winning a great battle against the kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him. Then Abraham took a tenth of all he had captured in battle and gave it to Melchizedek." Talking about tithing all the way in Hebrews.

"The name Melchizedek means 'king of justice', and king of Salem means 'king of peace'. There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors - no beginning or end to his life. He remains a priest forever, resembling the Son of God."

"Consider then how great this Melchizedek was. Even Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, recognized this by giving him a tenth of what he had in battle." Can I pause before I read the next verse? This is good stuff right here. This is that good old teaching that'll keep you anchored.

See, one of my assignments as a pastor and an apostle of this house is to raise your biblical IQ. That's why I read you so much Bible. I don't give you my opinions. I don't read one verse and then go on a tralalala story and never come back to the Bible. I'm going to keep giving you this book. I'm going to literally teach hell out of you.

When this writer starts talking about Abraham giving a tenth, a tithe, again, 430 to 600 years before the law of Moses ever said that it was supposed to be a law, he's telling him, he says, "Listen, this Melchizedek is really a type in shadow of Christ." We don't know where he came from. He has no mother, no father, no origin that we know of, but Abraham recognized that this was a person sent from God. He was not connected to the Levitical priesthood. He predates the Levitical priesthood because the Levites were actually in Abraham's loins. Want to hear it? Here it goes.

"Now the law of Moses required that the priests, who are descendants of Levi, must collect a tithe from the rest of the people of Israel, who are also descendants of Abraham. But Melchizedek, who was not a descendant of Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham. And Melchizedek placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promises of God. And without question, the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed."

"The priests who collect tithes are men who die, so Melchizedek is greater than they are, because we are told that he lives on. In addition, we might even say that these Levites - the ones who collected the tithe - paid a tithe to Melchizedek when their ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to him. For although Levi wasn't born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham's body when Melchizedek collected the tithe from him."

This is some good stuff right here. Here is what the writer of Hebrews says. When Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek, even the Levites that would come out of him gave a tithe.

If you want to know how important the tithe is, it predates any law that you could give it. Abraham, who was the father of our faith, recognizes in the embodiment of Melchizedek that, "When I gave a tithe to him, I was literally giving a tithe to God." Then it says that Melchizedek has no record of even dying, which means he still got the tithe. When you give a tithe, it doesn't go away. God keeps it forever.

I'm talking to the person and here's what they say back, "It still doesn't count because the writer is talking about what Abraham did in the Old Testament." Can't win with somebody that doesn't have a heart to give. We go back and forth like this. I show them all the scripture and they're still like, "No, still doesn't count. Tithing wasn't even about money. It was about grain and agriculture, and all that kind of stuff." I'm like, "Yes. If I lived in an agricultural society, I would be giving some green beans."

"I would be giving a tenth of my corn. I would be giving a tenth of wheat. We live in a capitalist society, and so we get money for our work, and so I give to God what's been given to me. If I was in an agricultural society, I would give something else, but this is the society we live in." My response simply is, "It sounds like you're not a tither." If I can give you all that scripture and you're still like, "No, I'm good," then it just sounds to me that you're not a tither. To which they respond, "No. I just give from my heart." "Oh, yes, your heart. That good old yummy heart where all your goodness pumps out of and exudes from that beautiful heart of yours." To which scripture says the heart is desperately wicked.

You can't even know it. "I just give from my heart." My response is, "Is what you give from your heart less than 10% of your income? Since you so generous that you don't believe in tithing, so I just guess automatically, your generous heart just gives at least 10% or more of your income." To which they respond, crickets. Every time I ask that question after a back and forth like this, they're like, "Mmm."

Then I double down and I say, "Is it less than 10% of your income?" To which they respond, "I just give whatever comes to my heart." To which I respond, "You're Abel. You're just choosing to be Cain." Like what I did there? You see that?

You're Abel. You're just choosing to be Cain because, "This is too inconvenient for me. All the church wants is money. I know what the pastor's going to do with it. He's about to go buy a Rolex and a Bentley. He's about to go wear some Gucci shoes. He's about to go buy some $700 Yeezys. All they do is abuse the money." If that's your perspective of this community, don't ever give here. I'm telling you right now, if you think we are doing something with the money that we're not supposed to, you can stop giving today because if you give from a heart that is not willing to give, you're doing it out of obligation, you don't get blessed anyway, so you might as well keep it.

I want to give you a couple of phrases that I want you to have before we close. Tithing is a test to see if you know where your provision comes from. I told you my parents started teaching me tithing when I was about seven or eight years old. My mom would give me a $20 allowance and I'm like, "$20." She was like, "$18.''

I was like, "What? How are you going to break this $20?" She was like, "I already got the money, baby, to break it. You going to give this money to Lord." I'd put my little $2 in the offering. I remember getting 50 cents and putting in a nickel. My mom would tell us, "Put a nickel in the little offering envelope and write tithe on it." I'm like, "We wasting a whole big old piece of paper for this loose nickel in here. Just let me drop it in there." She was like, "No, baby, no. Get credit for your tithe. Put it in there."

Here's the thing. The principle of the tithe, the principle of giving God what is first has nothing to do with the amount and everything to do with the heart behind the obedience of it. If you've got $500 and he says, "Give me 50," just give him 50. He doesn't say, "Give 75."

Here's where so many people have abused this verse. Will a man rob God? "You all ain't tithing in here. You all ain't giving enough. You're under a curse. You're about to be cursed by God if you don't give this money. Now, I want a $100 line here, I want a $500 line here, I want a $1,000 line here. God told me there's at least eight of y'all that can give $10,000. You come put that in my hand because you going to get doubly blessed when you put it in my hand." No. You are a liar, you are a manipulator, you are a controller, and you are a deceiver.

God has never told you to put on display what you give. We have had people being manipulated into miracle offerings, miracle blessings. At the end of a sermon, "Oh, the atmosphere is right. You need to sow into this atmosphere." Show me a Bible verse for it. You got us all excited. That was great. Show me in the Bible where I can sow into an atmosphere.

"I'm just giving into an atmosphere?" "This atmosphere is ripe for giving." "What? You don't have a Bible verse for that, sir. You're not getting my money." I have been in plenty of church services. I'm talking about small services too, 82 people in there. They're like, "I believe 50 people can give." I got money and I'm like, "It ain't me."

"I don't hear God at all. I hear you. I hear you asking for some money. God ain't telling me to do nothing." Here's the thing. When God does move me to give, it's unprovoked. It's coming from my heart. Listen, I don't wait to get to a service to judge if it was good enough to give. I have my gift set already. So many of you all do too. Do you know that 93% of y'all that call Embassy City home, y'all give through the app? We never passed a plate on the weekend.

I remember when we first started the church, because we started this church by telling people, "Just give as God lays on your heart," and if you're a believer in Jesus, then you should be a faithful tither. The deacons would get the money out of the boxes and they would count. They would be like, "Oh, this church is not going to last at all." They would be counting the money on the weekends, and they'd be like, "Oh, boy. Y'all are going to need a lot of help. This church probably got a good 92 days before they going to have to close their doors." They had no idea all the money came in Monday through Saturday because people were giving through the app.

We have always trusted God with the people that he brings here to fall in love with Jesus. If they fall in love with Jesus, their heart is going to open and what happens in their heart, so they're going to be turned into givers. There's one thing I want to say about the tithe. The tithe cannot be given, it can only be returned. You can only give something that belongs to you. The tithe does not belong to you, it belongs to God. It's the tenth, it's the first. It belongs to God. You don't give a tithe, you just return the tithe.

I have my giving set up on automatic payment. Every two weeks, I wake up and I have a email that says, "You gave this much money to Embassy City," and I go, "Thank you, Jesus." I don't even want to think about it. It belongs to Him so I just automatically set it up and it's gone. Okay, now here's what happens when you become a faithful tither. You learn discipline. You show me somebody that does not tithe, I'll show you somebody that has zero discipline. You're like, "I can't tithe because I can't afford to tithe and because the way my money is set up." When I finish going through your Netflix subscriptions and how much you Uber Eat and them shoes you bought, I can find you your tithe. It's not that you can't give it, it's that you haven't disciplined yourself to give it. "Oh, it's tight right here."

Write this statement down, then we're done. Not tithing doesn't bring a curse. I'm going to say that again. Not tithing doesn't bring a curse. You don't get a curse because you don't tithe, but tithing does remove a curse. I'll say that again. Not tithing doesn't bring a curse, like so many people have tried to manipulate you into believing that if you don't tithe, God's going to bring a curse on you, but tithing does remove a curse. "Well, Tim, if not tithing doesn't bring one, then how does tithing remove one?" I'm so glad you thought that.

Malachi 3:9. "You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me." Here's what God is saying. "I didn't bring a curse, but you're under one. When you give your tithe, it removes the curse." Let me break it down to you this way. You were born in sin and you were shapen into inequity. You didn't need to do anything to sin. You were just born a sinner. When you gave your life to Jesus Christ, that curse of sin and death was removed from you even though you did not do anything to get into it. By accepting Jesus Christ as Lord, you had the curse of sin and death removed from your life.

It's the same thing with tithing. All of our money is under a curse until we acknowledge who it belongs to and give back to the God what rightfully belongs to Him. When my mom and dad started teaching me about tithing at that very young age, it literally transformed my entire life and at every stage of my life, God's blessed me. God blessed Juliet and I when we were in apartments. I need you to understand what tithing really looks like because most people paint it as this successful, "You're going to have a big house." I'm talking about wherever you are right now.

Juliet and I were living in a one-bedroom apartment and we were eating Wolf Brand Chili and rice on our date nights, with half a saltine crackers crushed up in a Tupperware bowl because that's how you get full. Your body don't know the difference between-- I'm telling you, your stomach don't know the difference between filet mignon, Wolf Brand Chili and some Success rice. Boil-in-bag Tim, as you all know.

Okay. Get some saltine crackers and dump some Louisiana Hot Sauce in it, about a third of that bottle, mix it up. Your belly won't know the difference between that and sea bass.

We were tithing then. Whatever income we had, 10% went to the Lord and then we budgeted the rest of our money. Because we did that and we were disciplined, God opened more doors for us. Then He could trust us with more money. Why? When I had $10, I gave Him $1, which means if He gives me $10,000, I'm going to give him $1,000. If He gave me $100,000, I'm going to give Him $10,000. Why? Once this gets into your routine and your heart, it becomes automatic.

Now, why did I go back to Malachi? There were six messages that Malachi had to give the children of Israel, and this message was about repentance. When you realize that you've done something that you're not supposed to be doing, all God asked you to do is to change your mind and do what's right. I have heard people say, "I haven't been tithing. It's August. Do I need to start back from January?"

What? There's no back tax. There's no IRS segment of heaven that's like, "To date, you owe us $4,238.10." No. When it penetrates your heart, you repent and you go, "From now on, I'm tithing." He's not asking for any back taxes, he's not asking for any back pay. He's just saying, "I want you to change your mind about the way you've been thinking. From this point forward, it's time for you to become a tither. I want the covenant not to just be with your soul. I also want it to be with your treasure."

Don't knock it till you try it. Don't let this argument in your heart, or the abuse, the PTSD you have from a past experience, stop you from receiving the full blessings that God has for you. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? My hope and my prayer is that there's something in this particular message that either confirms for you, "God, I'm on the right track," or convicts you to get on the right track. God is not after your money. He's after your heart because if he gets your heart, he'll not just have your money, he'll have every part of you: time, talent, treasure.

I want you to be like Abel, who said, "I recognize that no matter how blessed I am, I cannot be more blessed than the one that blessed me, so I'm giving You a tenth of everything that I've received and I'm giving it to You first. I'm not waiting to sort out my budget and if I have enough leftover, I give to You. The very first thing I give to You is what You've given to me." The earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, the world and all that dwell in it. God, I pray that You would make this entire house a house that acknowledges You first and calls the tithe the blessing that breaks the curse. In Jesus's name.