Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On May 27, 2018: Numbers 18 Giving To The Lord
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. This morning, as we are in the book of Numbers, continuing to work our way through the Bible in three years and dealing with a variety of different subjects as God is establishing his people there in the wilderness and setting up the foundation for them as a people to walk with God, to worship God, establishing their nation. And here in Numbers chapter 18, we're dealing with a portion where God is establishing some of the things that are necessary regarding the tabernacles. and the priests who were to be dedicated to serving the Lord at the tabernacle, as well as the Levites who were there with the priests to be able to meet the needs that were there, the practical things that were going on within the tabernacle and all the things involved in the sacrifices. And God is setting the framework for those things and allowing it to be set up in a way that it will continue and be blessed for many years to come. And And in addressing this, he also deals with the subject of the giving for the nation of Israel. That is, their giving of tithes and offerings unto the Lord. And so I've titled the message for this morning, Giving Today. And we're going to talk about the subject of giving this morning here in Numbers chapter 18. Now, this may not be an exciting subject for you. For me as a pastor, this is one that I always, you know, try to avoid if possible. But as I was reading through the scriptures this week and preparation for Sunday and, you know, daily reading through the Bible in three years along with you, I came to this passage and immediately the Lord began to speak to me. This is a message that he wants to bring forth. This is a message, a passage that he wants us to consider. It's something that is necessary now. for us. And I do want to just, you know, start out by saying, look, this is not an attempt. We're not going to take an offering after I give this message, you know, to try to like, you know, get you to do something. Listen, like the Apostle Paul said to the Philippians, my desire is for the fruit that would abound to your account. And this is what we need to be considering is, what does the Lord want of us? This is not an attempt to accomplish something. It's But this is an attempt to be obedient to the Lord on my behalf, that you might have the opportunity to be obedient to the Lord on your behalf. And, you know, giving is a big part of our lives, right? If you think about your finances, I mean, finances have a huge part to play in your life. You work a significant portion of your life for finances, right? And so that, you know, involves various aspects of your life. And there's a lot of things that God has to say about our finances and the giving of our finances unto God. the lord now the subject of giving as a whole is a huge topic and so i'm not going to be able to answer every question and deal with every topic there there's you know one sense we could talk about giving in that there's lots of ways to give to god that don't involve money time and worship and using our gifts. And there are lots of ways to give to the Lord in that way. And typically, if I talk about giving, I prefer to talk about those aspects. But today, God wants us to consider and to be thinking about our finances and giving financially, giving of our resources unto the Lord. But even amongst that, even with our finances, there's different kinds of financial gifts. We could deal with, and we're not going to really get into it this morning, but giving unto the poor is something that God instructs and encourages us to do in the scriptures. It's a separate discussion, but it is part of our giving unto the Lord. There's giving for special occasions and special gifts. There's also giving in the sense of a portion of our income. And so these are various aspects of giving that that the Lord has a lot to say about in his word. Again, we're just going to kind of scratch the surfaces as we talk about giving to the Lord here in Numbers chapter 18. But I want to start out by just reminding you of something that we walked through a few weeks back. It was back in the book of Leviticus. We went through a message on when to obey an Old Testament law. Because as we look at these things, it's important to understand we are reading the Old Testament. And we are in the new covenant under Jesus Christ. There's a transition that has taken place and there is some misconception and misunderstandings about how these things apply to us today. And so I want to just walk you through that really quickly. When do we obey an Old Testament law? First of all, we saw that we obey that Old Testament law when it's repeated in the New Testament. When it's stated again in the New Testament, this is what the Lord commands you to do, well, then it is a command for us to do, and we must walk in that. When it comes to the subject of giving, when it comes to the particular subject of tithing, It's interesting, we do not have a clear, direct repetition of the law to give in the New Testament as we do in the Old Testament. And so there's some room for discussion about this subject of giving as a result of of that. And so we find that it's not clearly said, you have to, thou shalt, you must, or you can't be saved. That is not at all the way the New Testament addresses the subject of giving. It does talk about giving, but not in this type of command that we're seeing in the Old Covenant. We also looked at, we obey an Old Testament law when it's not reversed in the New Testament. So when it's commanded in the Old Testament, but then in the New Testament, the Lord says, okay, the Sabbath, that was for my people for that particular time, that is fulfilled now in Christ. You are not under the burden of the Sabbath any longer. It's clearly reversed. And that is declared to be not applicable or not demanded from God's people right now. When it comes to the subject of giving, we don't have that kind of reversal. So maybe we might wish for that, but that's not what we have. We don't have a don't give. We don't have a you don't have to give or, you know, ignore those things. The Lord does not reverse these instructions in the New Testament. The next thing that we walked through and how to decide when to obey an Old Testament law was we obey it when God's heart is clearly revealed. As we work our way through the scriptures and particularly the law, we're seeing the heart of God be revealed in the principles that are behind these laws that he's establishing and the structure that he's setting up for the people, for the nation, for their spiritual life, for their government, and all of that. And through that, we can see the heart of God many times. And what I would suggest to you is that as we talk about giving to the Lord, this is where we fall. This is where this subject lies, that as you look at the scriptures in the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, there is a lot that God has to say about it. And God's heart is clearly revealed about giving. And this is one of the reasons why it's so important for us to discuss it, because it is applicable to us Because it is clearly something that God desires for us and from us. Moving on, when it's not restricted to a certain time or context, some laws, God said, when you go into the land for the first three years, do this. And then after that, do that. Well, this is not one of those, and so that doesn't apply. And then finally, we saw that we obey the Old Testament law when Old Testament repetition makes God's heart clear. It goes along with the third one, as I mentioned before, that Throughout the scriptures, we have some clarity from God about his heart and his mind in regards to our finances, and particularly in regard to giving of our finances and our resources back to the Lord. And so we have the clear heart of God, and I'll be seeking to help you see that as we work our way through Numbers 18 this morning, but also want to make sure that it's clear we're not talking about laws. None of this is attached to your salvation. None of this is God is really upset with you because you haven't done what he commanded and so he's out to get you and he's, you know, so disappointed. Don't let the The stigma of this topic really mess with your mind. I would encourage you this morning, hey, we are here meeting with the Lord and God just wants to give us some great encouragement about our relationship with him and some things that we need to learn, not punishment or not rebuke or it's about some insight for us that is beneficial for us. in our walk with God. I like how Pastor Chuck put it. He said, look, if you haven't given yourself to the Lord, don't even bother giving your money. God doesn't want it and he doesn't need it. And that's really what's important. It's what it comes down to is really our hearts and where they're at with the Lord. And as we're walking with the Lord, as we're desiring to be his children and his disciples, his servants, well, there is some aspects of giving that he wants to instruct us in and to teach us And so we're going to talk about this in three points this morning here in Numbers chapter 18, looking at some spiritual aspects of giving, but also some practical aspects of giving and the way that God had established it for his people. And so we're going to start in the first point in verses 8 and 9. And here's point number one. Giving to the Lord is an act of worship. As we get started talking about this subject, it's important that you understand that you stop and consider giving. We're talking about spiritual things when we talk about giving to the Lord. It's an act of worship. It's an act of adoration. It's an act of gratitude. It's an act of expression of our love to the Lord. Looking at verse 8 and 9, here's what it says. And the Lord spoke to Aaron, Here, I myself have also given you charge of my heave offerings, all the holy gifts of the children of Israel, and the gifts of the Here in verse 8 and 9, God is addressing the priests, Aaron, and his sons who are the priests after him, and he's assigning to them certain portions, and we'll get to that in the next few moments. But before we get into that, I want to just stop and reflect and notice how God views the offerings. Notice what he says in verse 8 again. He tells Aaron, here, I myself have also given you charge of Notice what he says here. My heave offerings. My heave offerings, God says. Now, I'm pointing to myself as if I'm God speaking and not pointing to me as I'm part of this. But understand, God says, the heave offerings are mine. Now, what are the heave offerings? Well, if you go back to the book of Leviticus, and not that you have to do that right now or later, but In Leviticus, the first seven chapters or so deal with all of the instructions regarding the sacrifices and the different kinds of sacrifices that God allowed and prescribed for the people of Israel. Some of them were sin offerings. And so they were brought in response to sin that they had committed. And then they brought a sacrifice as a result. Some of them were voluntary, just I want to fellowship with God and celebrate his goodness. I want to give thanks to God or I want to devote myself to God and just have a special commitment to the Lord. And there was various offerings and sacrifices that God set up and made arrangement for there in the book of Leviticus for his people. Now, it's often kind of like we just kind of skip over it. We don't pay much attention to it is in each one of those animal sacrifices, there's there was also a heave offering that went along with it. And that would many times be a portion of the animal that was being sacrificed, and it would be heaved or waved before the Lord, a special portion. Many times it was the best cut of meat or a certain special portion of the animal. Sometimes it was an accompanying sacrifice or offering. So it might be, you know, a type of grain offering or a drink offering. And it was this special thing that was given along with the animal sacrifice. And it was this heave offering that was given before the Lord. A lot of times we picture the animal sacrifice and we just picture the whole animal on the altar being fully consumed. And that was only true of the burnt offering, one kind of offering. Every other kind of offering had different portions of the animal going to different things. Some of it were for the worshiper, and they would have a feast with their family with the animal that they sacrificed. A portion of it would be burned on the altar before the Lord, but a portion the family would eat. But also a portion would be this heave offering. And here's what God says to Aaron. I'm giving that to you. But notice, God is very clear here, whose heave offering is it? He says, it's my heave offering. So here you are, just a normal Israelite. You commit a sin. As a result, you're required to bring a sacrifice. So you get your animal, you get your lamb out of your flock, and you lead your lamb to Jerusalem, to the tabernacle, and you are going to sacrifice this to the Lord. It's your animal out of your flock. But as you bring this animal now and sacrificing it to the Lord, you are giving it to the Lord. That's what the Israelites were doing. They're giving it to the Lord. And there was this special piece, the heave offering piece of the sacrifice, and they're giving that to the Lord. And God accepts that gift. And he claims ownership of it. And now it is my, it was yours. It was part of your flock and you brought it, but you gave it to the Lord. And so God declares, that's my heave offering. You gave it to me. It's mine. And God gets to do what he wants to do with those offerings. And so he's going to now give it to Aaron and his sons. And again, we'll talk about that in just a moment. But the point is God saying, those are my offerings. They were given to me. God accepts and receives those offerings. Also in verse eight, he makes reference to all the holy gifts of the children of Israel. The holy gifts, that is the word holy, it means to be set apart or to be devoted to God. And there were gifts that the people of Israel would say, this belongs to the Lord. This is to be used for the Lord's purposes. I want to give this to God. And those were holy gifts. And God accepts that. He says, you dedicated that to me. You committed that to me. You devoted that to me. You're giving that to me. I accept that. Those are my gifts now. Those are my things now. I accept them. He goes on in verse 9 to talk about the various types of sacrifices. And again, you can look at the beginning part of Leviticus to see the different types of sacrifices and how the different pieces were used. But he kind of just gives a couple examples and says, every offering... of theirs, every sacrifice that they give, notice he says at the end of verse nine, which they render to me. They are giving those sacrifices to me, God says. They're mine. They belong to me now. Some of the offerings, the sacrifices, they were required. Some were voluntary. Either way, God says, they were rendered to me. They're given to me. And when something is given to the Lord, he receives that. He accepts that. He claims ownership of that. He has now the right to use that however he sees fit. Now, it's important to point out, God doesn't need it, but he receives it. The psalmist addresses this in Psalm chapter 50, verse 12, speaking on behalf of God. He says, if I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine in all its fullness. God says, look, if I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you about it, because you couldn't do anything for me if I was hungry. Don't picture, don't think of it like, okay, God's like, okay, How am I going to eat for the next couple thousand years? I know. If I attach something to their sin and they have to bring an animal every time they sin, boy, I'll feast all the time because they're going to sin all the time. So that's a good way. That's a good method. Okay, I can provide for myself and eat if, you know, God's not doing this because he got to consume the animal. He wasn't doing this for his own sake. He wasn't doing it because he needed it. It's not because he needs it, but he receives it. But why does God receive it if he doesn't need it? Well, and here's the important thing for you to consider. God receives our offerings because he knows that we need to give those offerings. Giving to the Lord is not about the Lord's need, but it's about our need to give. The Lord knows that you have a need to give to him. And it is important for you, it is best for you to be giving unto the Lord. It deals with the spiritual aspects of giving. And really, it is for you that God gives this instruction and insight into the subject of giving. And there's so many aspects to that that we could consider. Again, I'm just kind of scratching the surface. We're not going to get into it. But giving to the Lord is an expression of faith. And it's more than just, you know, generally saying, I trust the Lord, but there's also that action that you take. Because I trust the Lord, I am giving to the Lord. And there is that need for us. It's important in our lives to be able to express our faith. As James said, if you have faith without action, faith without works, your faith is useless. But if your faith, if your trust in God is manifested and demonstrated, you're in a variety of ways, but also in particular in the way that you give, that's good for you. You need that exercising of faith and trust. Giving to the Lord is also an expression of our gratitude to God. And that's seen throughout the giving passages as well, that we give back in thankfulness of what God has done for us and how he has ministered to us and provided for us and blessed us. And again, there needs to be more than just a general, oh, I appreciate everything that God has done. You know, like you can just say that. But also there needs to be more than that at times in our lives where then it's followed up with an actual moment of action, an actual demonstration of our gratitude with giving. Giving to the Lord because we are thankful for what he has done. There's another spiritual aspect to consider, and that is giving to the Lord protects your heart from idolatry. Idolatry is something that is fighting to take over and consume us continually. And the issues of money in connection with idolatry, they're closely connected and they're all around us in the world and they easily creep into our hearts and lives as well. And one of the ways that God helps us to deal with that and to fight that battle against idolatry in our hearts is is by giving us the opportunity to give. And giving to the Lord is an important way for me to keep myself from chasing after idolatry within my heart. Pastor Dylan, when he was still here, he used to always share as he would pray for the offering and share about the offering and things like that. He would always share that giving is not about God raising cash, but it's about God raising kids. It's not about God raising cash. Again, it's not because he needs it. He's so desperate for it. This is not, you know, that kind of message. This is God is looking at your heart and saying, look, you need this. This is important for your spiritual health. This is important for you. And so I'm going to give you the opportunity to give. I would encourage you later on to check out Deuteronomy chapter 14, where the Lord elaborates a little bit on the giving of the tithes and such. But let me just read a couple of verses real quick to you. In Deuteronomy 14, verse 22, God says, Notice God gives the instruction. Here's the command to Israel. Tithe. You must tithe every year, all your grain, all your animals. You must do this. But let me tell you why. so that you will learn to fear the Lord your God always. It's not for my sake, God says. This is important for you. to help you to fear the Lord, that is to honor the Lord, to give God his rightful place in your life, there is a necessary part of giving of what you receive, of giving what comes in for you as an act of worship, as an act of giving God his rightful place in your life. Many of you guys know me, and we've been around each other for a long time, but for those who don't, you might have heard, or maybe if you know me, you might remember, back in my early 20s, so we're talking about like 20 years ago now, my early 20s, I was a mess. Not that I'm necessarily less a mess today, but I was especially a mess then. I had accumulated over $30,000 in credit card debt. By the time I was, I don't know, 22, 23 years old. $30,000 with nothing to show for it. On top of that, I had a truck with a, you know, a loan on it that I went for like six months without paying it. I was a mess financially. But that whole situation did not come about because... I was just bad with numbers. I'm not a math guy. That's what happened. That wasn't the issue. It wasn't that I didn't know how to work a spreadsheet or I didn't know how to use Quicken or I didn't know how to put together a budget. In fact, I actually worked in the financial industry. I was an underwriter for second mortgages. I evaluated people's credit every day. I knew exactly. I knew. It wasn't about that information. You know what the issue was? The issue was my heart. Listen, finances, giving to the Lord, it's not really a financial issue. It's a heart issue. And I remember there's a very clear moment for me in my mind when everything changed. I mean, there was a lot that built up to that moment. And then afterwards, there was a long process of recovering from that. But there was a clear moment for where everything changed. And I remember I was sitting in a hotel room in Rochester, New York. I was there, I was working for Paychex, and that was their corporate headquarters was there. I was there for training, but I was just, the Lord was ministering to me and speaking to me about my financial situation and about my heart in that. And I had just finished reading a book about finances, and it came to that moment. It was a decision moment, right? And the decision was whether or not I was going to honor the Lord with my finances. And I had to make that decision. It was a tough decision. And I was a mess, as you could understand. But as I brought it before the Lord, as I responded to what he was speaking to me, and I said, okay, Lord, I don't know how this is going to work. I don't know how this... At that point, I had just, you know, after you get like $10,000 in credit card debt, you kind of just get into this mode of like, hey, I'm going to be paying credit card bills for the rest of my life anyways. What does it matter if there's another $10,000 on top of it? So just, you know, I just, I was in that mentality for a long time. But the Lord called me to say, no, you need to put me first and let me have first priority in your finances. And that was a decision moment for me. It changed my life. And it was a long process. to go from there to where we are today. But it goes back to that moment where I said, I need to fear the Lord. I need to learn to fear the Lord. I need to learn to put God first in all aspects of my life, including the way that I spend my money. This is what God desires for his children, for his people. We need to learn to fear the Lord in all aspects of our life, including our finances. Consider what the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 7. He says, Again, it's a heart issue. It's a spiritual thing. Paul says, look, this is not a burden that you have to give grudgingly. You're like, oh man, I just hate it. I just, you know, don't want to give, but God commands I give. It's a law that I have to follow. No, no, no. God loves a cheerful giver. God loves. God is so excited. You know why? Because God loves when we do things that are good for us. God wants what's best for you. What's most important to him is what's best for you. And that includes you learning to fear the Lord. And when you learn to fear the Lord in your giving, oh man, God loves a cheerful giver. So give as you purpose in your heart, Paul says. Again, it's not a law that your salvation is dependent upon, or God is going to strike you with judgment, and your tires are going to fall off your car if you don't, you know, that kind of thing. Hey, maybe there is some times where God is speaking to you directly, and you're flat out rebelling, and so God is free to bring some judgment upon that. But this is not a law issue, a salvation issue. This is How much do you want to please God in your walk with God, in your life? How much do you want to live in a way that honors the Lord and God is first? Where's your heart in that? God loves a cheerful giver. Now, don't use that as an excuse. Well, I just got to give myself a bad attitude then every time the offering comes up. And then I don't have to be giving because I can't do this cheerfully. Hey, hey, think about it this way, okay? Sometimes we need to be obedient to God. whether we're cheerful about it or not, right? God doesn't say, hey, repent of sin, you know, if you're cheerful about it, you know. No, hey, when your flesh hates it, well, that probably means that it's because it's exactly what God wants. So your flesh might still have some struggles with this idea of giving. And that doesn't stop you from being a cheerful giver. Listen, for me as a pastor, this is the least favorite type of message I would ever want to give, right? I hate addressing this subject. I would rather teach any other chapter in the Bible. Give me the genealogies. Give me anything else. But I can do this cheerfully, not because I enjoy it, but because I've made the choice. God, I want to honor you and put you first. And so I'm a cheerful pastor. I'm a cheerful teacher, even though the subject itself doesn't cheer me up. But I am happy to obey God. and what he has called me to. In a similar way, your flesh may struggle, your flesh may really be upset about the subject of giving, but that doesn't mean you can't be a cheerful giver. You can, in spite of that, I know how I feel about it, I know the struggles I have and the things that go along with that, but Lord, I am so happy to obey you and to put you first. It's a heart issue that God is addressing with this subject of giving because it's an act of worship. It's an act of adoring God and putting him first and lifting him up and giving him the priority that he deserves in our life. And when you give something to the Lord, he receives it. He accepts that gift. He doesn't need it, but he receives it because he knows you need it. It's good for you as an expression of your faith and your trust in God. It's good for you as an expression of your gratitude and your appreciation to God. It's good for you in protecting your heart from idolatry. It's good for you. And when you do what's good for you, oh, God loves it. He is so excited about that. And so when do we obey an Old Testament law? Do we obey the Old Testament laws of giving? Well, it's not repeated in the New Testament in that you have to do this or you can't be a Christian. Listen, you could never give a dollar to the Lord and still be saved. That is not, they're not connected. But I would suggest to you, as Paul said, God loves a cheerful giver. His heart is clearly revealed, right? It's clear what God desires, what God loves. And so how much do you want to be one who is doing things that are pleasing to God? That's the real question. It's coming back to the heart, and that's what really matters. And so there's the spiritual aspects of giving to the Lord, in that it's an act of worship, an act of adoration to God. But The interesting thing about God's design is that there's also some practical aspects to giving. And that's what we're going to deal with in the next two points, starting in verses 8 through 20 with point number two, and that is giving to the Lord provides for the ministers. There's a part of giving that is necessary for you and I as those who need to give. It's important for us. It's protection for us. It's worship for us. On the other side of it, God says, now I'm able to use that gift to to provide for those who are helping you to worship the Lord and to walk with the Lord. There's spiritual aspects as well as practical aspects of the giving. And God can do that because, well, when we give to God, he owns the gift. It's his. He says, this is my heave offering. These are my items now. And so here's what I'm going to do with them. I'm going to give them to the priests. Again, looking at verse eight, it says, and the Lord spoke to Aaron and said, Verse 9. Verse 10. and your sons. Verse 10, in a most holy place, you shall eat it. Every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you. Again, God says, they're my heave offerings. Here's the Israelite. He gives them to God. God accepts them. Thank you very much. This is now mine. And here's what God chooses to do with it. He says, I'm going to give it to the priest. Now, the priest was involved in the sacrifice. The Israelite would come. They would offer this animal to the Lord. And The priest would be there to, well, process the animal. In some ways, a priest was a lot like a butcher. And if you ever want to see, like, the amount of work that is involved, you know, you could do, I would encourage you at some point in your life, like, watch a cow be slaughtered. It's a long process. There's a lot of work involved. And this is what the priests were doing. They were cutting it up, dividing it up. Different portions go this way, this part, this part. There was a lot of work involved. The priests would be doing that work along with the worshiper. And so God says, in reward for that work that you have done, here is a piece of that sacrifice that you get as a meal. You get to eat it. Your family gets to eat it. This is for you and your family. And in this way, God is providing for the people who are doing the work of ministry. In verse 11, he says, this also is yours, the heave offerings of their gift and all the wave offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. Here we have just such a practical thing, right? For a priest... to be able to be involved in this work. They would have to be devoted to it. There was a long process. There was a lot involved. And so they would spend all day sacrificing these animals as the people would bring them to worship the Lord and to honor the Lord in response to their sin and so forth. And so they would be working at this all day. Now, meanwhile, they have a family to provide for. Now they can't go work a field and be performing the sacrifice at the same time. There's not the possibility for them to provide for their family in another means. And so God has set it up so that their family is provided for in the giving to the Lord. They get a portion so that their practical needs are met. It's so practical the way that God has set this up. And this is a subject that's very important to God. All throughout the scriptures, you'll find this principle. A worker is worthy of his wages. God says, look, you're my priest. You're doing my work. You're helping my people worship me. You're doing that all day long. You need to get paid for that. I'm going to take care of you. God says to people who are doing his work, he promises. It's important to him. So much so, he even says this about King Nebuchadnezzar. It's kind of a random illustration, but I think it's a good one. In Ezekiel chapter 29, God says, all right, I've raised up King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he's going to conquer the land of Tyre. It was a land that was proud and boastful against God, and there was a lot of hard work involved. God described it in Ezekiel chapter 29, verse 18. He says, Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre. Every head was made bald, every shoulder rubbed raw. In the city of Tyre, the significant thing about it is there was a island just offshore and the people within Tyre, they were incredibly wealthy. And during the siege as Babylon was attacking them, they moved everything off to that island. And so by the time Babylon conquered it, it was empty. There was no reward there for conquering the city. And God says, oh, that's wrong. They did my work in conquering this place, but they got no reward for it. And so here's what God says in Ezekiel 29, verse 19. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, surely I will give the land of Egypt for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. He shall take away her wealth, carry off her spoil, and remove her pillage, and that will be the wages for his army. God says a worker's worthy of his wages. God says, you did my work, King Nebuchadnezzar, in your army in attacking Tyre. You didn't get anything for it. That's wrong. I'm sorry. So I'm going to give you Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar, And I'm going to give you all their wealth as payment for the work that you did for me against Tyre. This is important to God. Those who are doing his work, God says, they need to be taken care of. Now, just like with giving, when it comes to serving the Lord in this way, there's a variety of aspects that are going on, spiritual and practical aspects. When it comes to the spiritual things, listen, true servants of God are willing to serve without regard to compensation. So, you know, the priest can't be there like, okay, well, what's my cut going to be before I perform this sacrifice? You know, like that can't be the attitude. A true servant of the Lord is willing to serve regardless. At the same time, true servants of God are not trying to get wealthy by serving God. Like, all right, okay, I'm going to serve the Lord because, boy, there's a lot of money in that, you know. If you ever want to get wealthy, you know, just serve. Create a religion. I forget the Scientology guy said that, but that's not the motivation. And the New Testament is filled with examples of that too. False teachers and people who are motivated by greed trying to do ministry and that there's some severe things that God speaks against them. And so that can't be a part of the heart for the person serving the Lord. Also, there needs to be a careful analysis because if you're trying to get away with not working by quote-unquote serving the Lord, you know, I don't really want to work full-time, so I'm going to go into ministry. That's not the right heart either. So there's some spiritual aspects of the serving side of things, but there's also some practical aspects. Hey, for the priests to serve and minister to the people in this way and help them worship God in this way. There was cost involved. There was time involved. They needed to be able to eat. They needed to be able to provide for their family. And so God worked all this together so that as the worshiper gives to the Lord, the one who is helping them worship the Lord and walk with the Lord is being provided for as well as his family. Now here in verses 8 through 20, God runs through a variety of different scenarios and the different types of gifts that were given to the Lord. I think it's important to take note. In none of these things is he talking about the tithe. We'll talk about the tithe. That's in just a few verses. But he's talking about heave offerings. Those were a part of the sacrifice in verses 8 through 11. He talks about those. I explained those a little bit. In verses 12 through 14, he talks about the firstfruits. The firstfruits was not the tithe, but it was a portion of the first things harvested from a crop. In verse 12, he says, Verse 13, So there was the sacrifices that they would bring. But there was also the first fruits, the first cut of the harvest, the first batch of oil that they made from their olive grove, the first batch of wine that they made from their grape vines. And it would be given to the Lord. And God says, thank you, I receive that. It's a gift to me. Credit to your account. Good job. Now, I'm going to give that to the priests. And so they would receive the best oil, the best new wine, the first ripe fruits. And I think it's a... Maybe something to consider as you look at this. God's not talking about give your left. If you have anything left over, could you give it to the priest, please? Because, you know, they need some support. No, God's saying give the first. Give the best. Sometimes we can have this kind of attitude where it's like, well, I have this old thing. I was going to throw it away, but then I thought, well, maybe the Lord can use it, so I give it to the church. Now, not to speak ill of that in the sense that Maybe God can use that. So not that you shouldn't give those kinds of things to the Lord, but at the same time, we need to allow God to speak to our hearts when he wants us not to just give us, wants us to give to him something that's, you know, old and left over that we don't need anymore, but maybe he wants us to give him the first, the best, something new. Sometimes it's like, oh, I bought myself a new one, so I'm going to give God my old one. And hey, praise the Lord. I mean, as the Lord leads, as the Lord pumps your heart, you can do with the Lord according to your want. There's no laws that require this, right? But at the same time, maybe sometimes God wants you to buy a new one for him and you keep the old one. That's a tough thing to wrap our minds around, right? That's challenging. But God was setting up and establishing for the nation of Israel that the first fruits would be given to the Lord so that the ministers would be provided for it. Not only the first fruits, but the firstborn he deals with in verses 15 through 18. Now the firstborn of the animals, this is relating to the Exodus as, you know, the firstborn of all of Egypt was put to death. God preserved the nation of Israel in that. But then he said, so from here on out, the firstborn of all your creatures, they're mine. They belong to me. You don't get to keep it. You don't get to do what you want with it. You don't get to say what, you know, happens to it. It's mine. Okay. The firstborn of clean animals, they were offered as a sacrifice. You had a cow or a lamb that was born. The firstborn of that animal is a sacrifice to the Lord automatically. It's given to the Lord, which is given to the priests, the ministers. The unclean animals that couldn't be sacrificed, God says you have to redeem those. So your donkey gives birth, it's the firstborn. You can't sacrifice the baby donkey, so you take a lamb. And you give a lamb in its place. You redeem that donkey. Then you get to keep the donkey, but you have to give up the lamb and sacrifice that and give that to the Lord and so on and so forth. And so this was not a 10% rule. This again was not a tithe. It was the firstborn. The percentage was irrelevant. It was just any animal that you have, the first time it gives birth, that belongs to the Lord. You are to give that to the Lord. And so through all these things, God is saying, you give these things to me and I accept that. You get credit for it. Good job. It's good for you. It's an act of worship. And now I'm going to give that to those who are doing the work of ministry. He receives it. He owns it. It's his to do with as he please. And so he says, here's what I choose to do with it. And that points out to us an important principle that supporting those who do the work is a valid use of God's funds. It's a valid use of those resources. It's not that, you know, well, it'd be better if we just bought Bibles, you know, like that's a valid use of the resources that are given to God to be providing for the people who are doing the work. Paul the Apostle discussed this a little bit in 1 Corinthians. He says, "'Do you not know that those who minister the holy things "'eat of the things of the temple, "'and those who serve at the altar "'partake of the offerings of the altar?' Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. Again, it's not a law issue, but here the heart of God is being revealed that those who are involved in ministry, those who are involved in helping you in your spiritual life, in your spiritual walk, in your walk with God, your growth with God, it's appropriate for them to be supported by the work, by the worship of God and the giving to God in that kind of support. Now, Here in 1 Corinthians 9, as Paul is addressing this, he's also declaring, look, I laid down my rights amongst you Corinthians. I had the right to be supported by you, but I didn't accept that. I didn't receive that. And during that time, he supported himself and other churches like the Philippian church, they supported Paul while he was there in Corinth. And he blesses the Philippians, right? You might be familiar with that passage in Philippians 4. But notice what he tells the Corinthians later on in 2 Corinthians 11. He says, did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you. There was issues that the Corinthians had, and they were rebelling against Paul, and there was a lot of things going on. But Paul here addresses that situation again. He says, look, I preached the gospel to you free of charge. Other people are coming in with false motivations and they're charging you and you're willingly putting up with that and disregarding, you know, but I didn't require anything from you. But as he describes that this time in 2 Corinthians 11, he describes it as robbing other churches in order to minister to them. It was the Philippians who provided for Paul while he was there in Corinth. Again, no law, no burden, no condemnation here, but it is appropriate for you to consider, do other people have to be robbed for you to be ministered to? Are there people who have ministered to you who are influential in your life, spiritually speaking, but you don't support them, you don't help provide for them, you don't help take care of the needs, other people do. Paul described that as robbing from others, a rob from others. It really was your part to play here. but you didn't participate in that. Giving to the Lord provides for the ministers. There's a common question that's asked. Can I do something different with my tithe? I want to use my tithe to, you know, meet this need over in this situation. I want to use my tithe, you know, I want to, and that's a common question that's asked. And listen, you can do whatever you want with your money. Again, there's no law, but hear the heart of God. Be careful not to neglect the The people who minister to you and help you grow in your walk with God. Be careful. Who ministers to you? Now, don't think of this, you know, just in perspective of the person who's talking to you right now. That's what makes this a little bit awkward is I do receive income from the church here. And so there's like this weird thing, but set aside all of that if you can in your mind and think about who ministers to you. Maybe think about it this way. You know, there's people who are ministering to your kids right now. And they're a huge influence, spiritually speaking, in the life of your children. It's appropriate for you to bless them. It's appropriate for you to give to them. It's giving to the Lord, even though they're the recipients, and it's helping to support them in the work that they're doing unto the Lord. And you're receiving the benefit. Your family is receiving the benefit. It's not something that you have to funnel through the church either. Just bless those who are ministering to you. It's appropriate, and it's giving to the Lord when you do that. You know, maybe it's someone who's just ministering to you in a home Bible study scenario or a situation, or maybe it's a worship leader that, man, you're just, you're connected to God and worshiping God in such a powerful way. It's really blessing you, and so it's appropriate for you to bless, to give to the Lord when and help provide for those who are performing that ministry on your behalf and helping you grow in your relationship with God. Well, we need to finish up here, so I'm going to jump now to point number three, looking at verses 21 through 24. Here's the third point. Giving to the Lord provides for the meeting place. Here we're talking about the Levites. Here we're talking about the tithe, actually, and so it's still servants being provided for, but also it's the place. It's the maintenance of the facilities that are being addressed here. Again, dealing with these practical aspects of giving to God. It has this impact. In verse 21, here's what he says. Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting. Here's what God says. Okay, I've given to Aaron and his sons, the priests of They have particular portions that are dedicated to them, that are given to them. Now, the Levites, they were not the priests involved in doing the sacrifices, but they were the maintenance workers. They were the ushers of the tabernacle. They were the ones who kept things in proper order. There was lots of sacrifices, and the Levites would be involved in part of that and carrying things around. And sometimes, you know, the animal had to be taken outside of the city gates and burned there. And sometimes things had to be cleaned up afterwards. Water had to be brought for the basin and for the washing and everything. And so the Levites would be bringing in the water. They were gatekeepers. There was a lot of work that went in so that the tabernacle could continue to function and be a place for people to come and to meet with God. And God says, I value that service. And I want to make sure that you're provided for. And so God established the tithe. The priests had the firstborn, the first fruits, the heave offerings that was theirs. That's what provided for them. They were a smaller portion of the Levites as a whole. So it was just, you know, one family essentially that was being provided for in those things. But then there was all the rest of those who were involved in helping to maintain things. And And so there was a bigger portion, and that was the tithe that was given to the Levites. The word tithe literally means tenth. It's 10%. And God gave the command in Leviticus chapter 27, verse 30. He says, all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of a tree, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. God says the first, not the first, the tenth of tithe Your crop, that 10th of your harvest, that belongs to me. The heave offerings, these were gifts to God, right? But the tithe, God says, that's mine even before you give it. And if you don't give it, well, you're keeping from God. In fact, God said, look, if you want to keep that 10%, no problem. You can keep a 10th of your grain. Just add 20% to the value of that and give that total new value to me. That's mine, God says. It belongs to me. It's the Lord's. It's holy to the Lord. And that's why he says in Malachi chapter 3 verse 8, he challenges the people, will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you say, in what way have we robbed you? And God says, in tithes and offerings. You have held back what is mine. Some things are not God's until you give them to him. You think about Ananias and Sapphira, right? They gave of the property they sold to the Lord. And They didn't have to. That wasn't required. They did it, but they lied about it. But Peter made the point. It was yours. You didn't have to give it. When it comes to the tithe, God says, that's mine. Now again, is this a law? You have to tithe in order to be saved? No. You're going to be judged by God if you don't? No. But the heart of God is revealed. As you work your way through these passages, and man, we don't have time to work through all of them. I wish we did, but God's heart is clear. There's a portion of your income that belongs to God. Whether you give it or not, it belongs to God. And if you don't give it to God, God says, you're a thief. You're robbing me. You're taking what is mine and using it in ways that I have not authorized. And God set up this tithe to provide for that meeting place. And in a similar way, listen, we don't have Levites, you know, to make oil for the candles. But we have Edison who makes electricity for the candles, right? There's bills to pay. There's maintenance. There's costs for having a meeting place. And if you don't meet with God here, no problem. You don't have a part, but go somewhere where you can meet with God and you're responsible to give there. Whether you're here or there or somewhere, that's not the point. The point is there's a portion of your income that belongs to God that God asks you to give to him to help provide for the needs of the place where you meet with him. That portion, it could be up for discussion. Now, literally, the word means 10th. So some people say, well, can I tithe 5%? Well, it's kind of like saying, can I, you know, have a five eggs be a dozen? Well, like you can redefine things if you want to. That's not the way that it works. But again, this is not a law. And so I like what Pastor Dave Guzik says. For some to give 10% is nowhere near enough. For others at their present time, 5% may be a massive step of faith. This is not a law. You have to give this specific percentage or this specific amount. But I would encourage you to consider that in your relationship with God, God says, look, there's a portion of your income that belongs to me that needs to be given for the maintenance of a place for me to meet with you and for you to meet with God's people and to have fellowship and to exercise the worship and all of the other things that we've been talking about. And that's something that God desires. This is the heart of God revealed. And so much so that in the passage we read to start this morning, in verse 26 here of Leviticus, or Numbers 18, God says, look, Jerry, you're not off the hook either. Verse 26, speak thus to the Levites and say to them, when you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, a tenth of the tithe, or literally a tenth of the tenth. And so the Levites who receive the tenth, Now it's 100% for them of what they get, right? So here I have 100%. Now, Levite, now you take 10% of what you received and you give that to the Lord. That was God's requirement for the Levites. They received the 10% from the Israelites and then they take a 10th of what they receive and they give that to the Lord. That was to be something that was required of everybody because again, giving is important for everybody. Giving is not just something you need to be paying attention to. It's important for you. Giving is important for me. It's necessary for me. It's necessary for you. It's part of our health in our walk with God, our spiritual health. And so give a portion of your income at the place where you meet with God or else. No, not or else. It's not a law. But it is the heart of God that you would be involved in your own spiritual growth, that you would be providing for your spiritual health by giving to God in a way that supports those who minister to you in a way that provides for and meets the needs of the place where you meet with him. I would encourage you to consider this morning, where is your heart at with giving? Now, there's so many other aspects of giving that we didn't talk about. Giving to the poor, that's another aspect. That's something else that you can consider and take before the Lord. Well, we didn't get to talk about the eternal value and reward of giving today, Man, there's so much there as well that it's not just for this life and for this moment, but oh man, God rewards greatly as we give to him and are obedient to him. I'll close with these words from the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 9. He says, but this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. Let's pray. God, I pray for each one of us. And Lord, we can be sometimes very sensitive about this subject, and it can cause some negative reactions as we've seen, Lord, different abuses and different uses of these things and finances and money. And Lord, there's been so much that is corrupt in regards to these things that we've seen in the past. And yet, at the same time, Lord, that doesn't keep us from understanding and hearing what you have for us today. Lord, you want us to learn to give for our sake. You want us to learn how to give for Because we need to be able to let go, to be able to trust you, to be able to say thank you. Lord, we need it. It's part of our health and our walk with you. I pray, God, that you would teach us. Help us, Lord, as we face obstacles and challenges in our minds and our hearts and our flesh in regard to these things. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to overcome, Lord, that we could experience the fullness, the greatness, the blessing that you have in store for us. Lord, I pray that you would help us to be those who sow bountifully, that we give to you, not in response to some law, some mandate, some grudging thing, but Lord, in response to our relationship with you, as you prompt our heart, as you speak to us. God, I pray that you would help us to be those who give. Help us to trust you in that way. Help us to be establishing and preserving our spiritual life. by supporting those who minister to us, those who bless us, those who help us in our relationship with you. Help us, Lord, to maintain and to keep up the place that you have set aside for us to meet with you and to meet with one another. Lord, I pray that you would help us to be those who sow bountifully, that we would worship you. And Lord, in doing that, you would also provide for those who minister to us. Thank you, God, for your goodness. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. 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