What Test? | Created to Give Week 2 | Pastor Andrew Cromwell

What Test?

Series: Created to Give | Part 2

Pastor Andrew Cromwell

Genesis 12:2 ESV

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

If a man gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area of his life.

Billy Graham

Genesis 14:17-23 ESV

17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)

19 And he blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
    Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
    who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. 21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 

Tithe = 10% of increase/income

Tests prove .

Malachi 3:6-12 ESV

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributIons. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

The Test of Trust

Who am I going to thank and trust FIRST for my provision?

Tithing is a test of , not a transaction.

God always knows best, cares the most deeply about us and provides what He knows we need!

Malachi 3:10 ESV
And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing unIl there is no more need.

Tithing is a of that I get to take every two weeks.

Tithing: Is it an Old Idea?

1. Tithing is seen throughout the Bible.

Genesis 14:18-20 ESV

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)

19 And he blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
    Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
    who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Leviticus 27:30 ESV
“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord‘s; it is holy to the Lord.

Deuteronomy 26:1-2 ESV
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there.

Matthew 23:23 NLT
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.

2. The tithe is the foundation for in the life of the believer.

3. If I don’t tithe as a Christian, you are not “under the curse”.

Grace asks for more!