Latest / Off The Kirb Ministries / If You Need Freedom, You Didn't "Accidentally" See This
Transcript
- 0:00If you were being tempted right now, I don't believe it's any
- 0:03accident that this video has found you today, because right
- 0:06now I think there is a message that God has laid on my heart.
- 0:10I was reading my Bible the other day and I was reading about that
- 0:13very mysterious character, Melchizedek, and I just knew the
- 0:17Lord wanted me to make some videos on this.
- 0:19So I've got a very big video coming out about Melchizedek on
- 0:22my main channel off the Curb Ministries.
- 0:25But then I saw something, almost a nugget of gold here in Genesis
- 0:2914 that actually for any of us Christians who are struggling
- 0:33with sin, we need to take heed to this.
- 0:36So if it's your first time here on the channel, this is my cup
- 0:40of Joe podcast where we keep things very, very relaxed.
- 0:43It's just me, you, the Bible, and a nice cup of coffee.
- 0:47So if you've never done this before, I ask you to do this
- 0:50every time. But please go and put your
- 0:51kettle on. Get yourself a nice hot cup of
- 0:54Joe, a nice coffee, a tea. If you someone who likes a cold
- 0:58drink, get that and we're going to have a nice, nice cup of Joe
- 1:02together. I hope you've got a Bible there
- 1:11because I want you to turn to Genesis chapter 14 and verse 21,
- 1:17Genesis 14. And we're going to look at verse
- 1:1921. And the king of Sodom said unto
- 1:23Abraham, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself.
- 1:29OK, so I'm not going to go into the back story of this.
- 1:31I'll let you watch the other video when it comes out in a
- 1:33week's time on my channel for the Curb Ministries.
- 1:36But Abraham has come back from a battle, from a war, and he's
- 1:40victorious. And when he comes out of this
- 1:42war, he's met by two kings. One of the kings is King
- 1:47Melchizedek. He's a priest king.
- 1:49He's a he's a king who represents peace.
- 1:52He was the king of Salem, which is Jerusalem, which means peace.
- 1:56He was God's man. And there are many different
- 1:59theories on who this person was. Again, I'm not going to go into
- 2:02that. I'm going to save that for the
- 2:03next video. But he was God's messenger, OK?
- 2:07And then on the other side, we've got the king of Sodom, the
- 2:12king of the most evil place in the world, a worldly king.
- 2:16And both these kings come and meet Abraham.
- 2:20One gives him bread and wine. He gives him, if you like, the
- 2:23first institution of the Lord's Supper that we ever read in the
- 2:26Scripture. And he refreshes Abraham.
- 2:29But the other king, the king of Sodom, he comes with a very
- 2:33worldly offer. He, he flatters him.
- 2:35Do you know what he says? He says in verse 21?
- 2:38It's almost like he's saying you can have all of the stuff.
- 2:42Just give me the souls. You can keep the spoils, you can
- 2:45keep the gold, the sheep, the the money, the wealth, all the
- 2:48possessions. You keep all of that.
- 2:49Abraham, just let me have these people that you've taken
- 2:53captive. Let me have those souls and you
- 2:55can have all of that. Now if anyone from the world
- 2:59would look at this, they'd say Abraham was a fool for for
- 3:03refusing this offer right now, Abraham, you could have
- 3:06everything you'd want. You'd be an instant multi
- 3:08millionaire. You'd become the richest person
- 3:10on earth just taking all of this stuff, and yet he chooses to say
- 3:15no. We're going to look at that in a
- 3:17moment's time. But right now, I want to talk to
- 3:20you. I want to ask you a personal
- 3:22question. When I opened at the very
- 3:26beginning of my message, and I said, if you're being tempted
- 3:28right now, this might just be a message for you guys.
- 3:33What was the temptation that was on your mind?
- 3:37Some, some people, they, they go through some Christians that
- 3:39they're constantly in this state of repetitive sin.
- 3:42They, they keep returning to the same sin over and over again.
- 3:46They keep watching the same stuff that they know they
- 3:48shouldn't and they feel ashamed and they're living like that.
- 3:51Some Christians, they have a a real temptation to maybe do
- 3:57something dishonest, maybe fraud or take some money.
- 4:01And some people maybe, as we've talked about in videos
- 4:04previously, maybe an affair is, is is on the cards for you and
- 4:08you're in a season of temptation.
- 4:11What was it? What was the temptation?
- 4:14Think of it now in your mind, what is it you're being tempted
- 4:16with right now? Maybe it's gossip, maybe it's
- 4:19division that there must be something as I've you wouldn't
- 4:23be here right now. What is the sin that you're
- 4:25struggling with? Because just like Abraham, you
- 4:28and I, we have someone who's coming to us.
- 4:32We have two kings that come to us as Christians.
- 4:35We've got the King of righteousness, the Lord Jesus
- 4:37Christ, and he comes and he offers us his own Lord's Supper.
- 4:42He offers us his body when he it was broken at Calvary.
- 4:46He offers his his blood like that, the wine that was offered
- 4:49through Melchizedek. He, he offers us the the blood
- 4:52of his that he, he spilt at Calvary that that can wash us
- 4:56clean, that can refresh us. He offers himself the the Prince
- 5:00of Peace, that the Prince of righteousness, the King of kings
- 5:03and the Lord of Lords, he, he offers himself to us and we can
- 5:07find peace and refreshing in him.
- 5:09But then another king comes before us, the king of this
- 5:15world that that the God of this world who the Bible says has
- 5:19blinded the eyes of unbelievers. The devil comes, doesn't he?
- 5:25And just like the King of Sodom said, listen, just give me the
- 5:28souls. Just give me the souls and you
- 5:31can have the spoil. That's what he does with us.
- 5:34The devil puts bright lights in front of us, enticing things
- 5:38like that fisherman who's got the bait.
- 5:40He dangles bait in front of us and says just just either bait,
- 5:44have the fun, Take your spoil now take your pleasure, Now have
- 5:47all of that. Just give me something I want
- 5:50and that's your soul. And no one, by the way, as the
- 5:54scripture says, All Souls are mine, says the Lord.
- 5:57No one can sell their soul, but we can sell ourselves out as
- 6:00Christians. And also many of us as
- 6:04Christians, we've got a job to do.
- 6:06Some of us are fathers and we've got to raise children.
- 6:09Some of us are mothers raising children, grandmothers raising
- 6:12grandchildren. Perhaps we've got responsibility
- 6:15in church or service or we've all got these people out there.
- 6:19And and just like in this period where Abraham, they were here,
- 6:23they were, there was captives, there was hostages.
- 6:26And this king of Sodom, he just wanted those people.
- 6:29He wanted them souls. And when we go for the spoils,
- 6:33when we go for the, the, the, the juiciness, the the plunder
- 6:36of this world, we take our eyes off what we should be doing, our
- 6:40service, our help for other people, the Lord's work.
- 6:44And we get distracted. And that's what the devil's
- 6:46trying to do in these last days. And I do believe we're in the
- 6:49last days. We are supposed to keep our eye
- 6:52on our goal. We are supposed to keep our eye
- 6:54on the Lord Jesus Christ and so easily we can get distracted.
- 6:58So easily we can take our eye off the ball and do what we
- 7:02shouldn't. All right, I will warn you, this
- 7:04next story isn't a pleasant story at all, especially if you
- 7:08are an animal lover like like I am.
- 7:10If you love animals, you won't like this story, but there is
- 7:14some solace that you can take from it knowing it's not a true
- 7:16story. But where I'm from in, in
- 7:18Lancashire, it's very, it's a well known, there's a well known
- 7:21place the north of Lancashire called Kirby Lonsdale.
- 7:24It's a beautiful place with a beautiful river, the River Loon
- 7:28that that just flows through it and there's just beautiful
- 7:30scenery there. But the story of this place in
- 7:34Kirby Lonsdale is there's a bridge called Devil's Bridge,
- 7:37which again is very famous. People jump off the bridge.
- 7:41It's very, very high and they do all kinds of things there.
- 7:44It's it's just a very famous place to go.
- 7:47There's also a big fair where there's lots of gypsies that go
- 7:50there up a bit further north called Appleby.
- 7:53And many of the gypsies will also spend time there as though
- 7:56on the way up there. So beautiful place.
- 7:58If you ever get there, please do visit Kirby Lonsdale.
- 8:02What's this myth? What's this folklore behind
- 8:04Devil's Bridge? Well, there was a lady
- 8:06apparently, and every day she used to cross over the river to
- 8:10get to market here. She was in a long dress.
- 8:13You know, this is in the Middle Ages.
- 8:15And she's crossing over and she just gets soaked or all of her
- 8:19dress gets dirty and and wet and she has to go to market every
- 8:22day to do this just to get food. And one day, again, this is not
- 8:27a true story, but one day the devil apparently met her.
- 8:31And he said, I'll do a deal with you, lady.
- 8:35I will build you a bridge so that you don't have to get
- 8:38yourself wet every day when you go to market.
- 8:41I will build you a bridge right now if you do a deal with me, if
- 8:45you promise me that whoever walks across that bridge, the
- 8:48first person who goes across that bridge, that soul belongs
- 8:52to me. Now the devil thought that that
- 8:54woman was going to be the first person to go across that bridge.
- 8:57But the woman was a little bit naughty, she was a bit sly.
- 9:01And what she did is she she took her a piece of bread and she
- 9:06threw it on the bridge. And then she sent a dog after
- 9:10the piece of bread. And then the the dog went over
- 9:13the bridge, ate the bread. And then thus the devil had to
- 9:16accept that the first person was a dog that went over the bridge.
- 9:21I told you it's not a true story.
- 9:22It's really dumb because of course we know that.
- 9:25Well, we know that dogs, they have a breath in them as as the
- 9:28book of Ecclesiastes says, it says does does the spirit of the
- 9:32animal go back to its its creator?
- 9:35Well, who knows? That's what the book of
- 9:36Ecclesiastes says. I'll put a little, I'll put the
- 9:39verse here above here if you want to visit that verse for
- 9:42yourself because I am paraphrasing it.
- 9:44But we know that dogs don't have souls.
- 9:45We know that that's a bit of a silly story, don't we?
- 9:49But I like to share that story. Why?
- 9:51Because it does show something else, that the devil is hungry
- 9:55about souls. He does want to get souls for
- 9:57himself, but there's someone else who's even more hungry for
- 10:00souls, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 10:03You see, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is the bridge between man and
- 10:07God. He is the mediator between man
- 10:09and God. He is, if you like, the bridge
- 10:12between heaven and earth. And when we trust in him, we can
- 10:15get to heaven through him alone. And we're going to look at that
- 10:18right now about this person, Melchizedek, who, who is what we
- 10:23would call a type of Christ. He, he is an image of Christ.
- 10:26He is some would say Christophany, which is literally
- 10:29a pre Incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ before he
- 10:32came in bodily form as that little baby in Bethlehem.
- 10:36So how did Abraham get the ability to refuse?
- 10:40He refused this offer from the King of Sodom.
- 10:42Well, just look at verse 22 with me.
- 10:45And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand
- 10:50unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and
- 10:55earth. Verse 23 that I will not take
- 10:58from a thread, even a shoe latchet, that I should not take
- 11:03anything that is mine, lest thou should I say I have made Abraham
- 11:07rich. So, so what's Abram saying here?
- 11:10What's Abraham saying? He's saying, no, you are an
- 11:13ungodly king, King Sodom. We know that Sodom was the most
- 11:17ungodly place on earth. You are a godless man and I will
- 11:21never have it said of me as long as I live.
- 11:24I do not want anyone to ever say this godless king, this man who
- 11:29rejects the most high God, this man who does not honour the the
- 11:33God of the Bible, My God, this, I will never let anyone say that
- 11:37he made me rich. So I tell you right now, King of
- 11:42Sodom, I'm not going to even take a thread from you.
- 11:45I'm not going to take a cotton bud.
- 11:46I'm not going to take a shoelace, not even a button.
- 11:48I don't want anything from you because I trust in the most high
- 11:52God. Now, again, it's so, so
- 11:55interesting when you look at this passage.
- 11:56So we've got the first Lord's Supper instituted as Melchizedek
- 12:00brings the bread and wine. We've got the first war, by the
- 12:04way, in all of the Bible, this is the first war we ever hear
- 12:07of. So likely the first war ever in
- 12:09history when Abraham went to go and rescue Lot, which again, I
- 12:12want to tell you more about in detail in this other video.
- 12:15I do hope you do go over and subscribe to Off the Curb
- 12:18Ministries if you've not already.
- 12:20And then we've also got something else here, the first
- 12:24ever tithe given. Now tithing, that is a very
- 12:29awkward subject. I hate talking about tithing
- 12:32and, and, and maybe I'm the only one, but sometimes when you hear
- 12:35preachers talking about it, I can find myself cringing a
- 12:38little bit. But let's have a little talk
- 12:41about tithe, shall we? Look at verse 20.
- 12:46And blessed be the most high God which have delivered thine
- 12:49enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
- 12:55Now you should have, if you've got a more modern translation,
- 12:58he gave him a tenth of all. He gave him a 10th of his, his
- 13:02his possessions. So I want you to know something.
- 13:04I, I love the Christian community.
- 13:07I love Christian Youtubers, I love Christian preachers.
- 13:11I'm, I'm so blessed to be in ministry.
- 13:12It feels like such an honour. But I like you at times, if I'm
- 13:17honest, I do cringe when it comes to, you know, preachers
- 13:23asking for money. And why is it, why do we
- 13:26struggle with that so much? Because it's been misused so
- 13:29much in the past. You know, there's been like
- 13:31pressure that's been put on and you know, you can get, you know,
- 13:35you go on a Christian ministries website and the first thing you
- 13:38see is a big button that says donate, and it's on the IT takes
- 13:42over the whole website. And then you've got people who
- 13:45that you can go to a church sometimes and, and they can take
- 13:481015 minutes, you know, amping it all up, saying we need, we
- 13:52need your support. We'll go under if, if the law
- 13:55doesn't, if you don't provide for us, you know, if you don't
- 13:58help us. But the Lord owns, owns the
- 14:00cattle of 1000 hills. The Lord is the one who keeps a
- 14:02ministry afloat. And am I the only one who wants
- 14:06to be kept afloat when knowing that the Lord wants me in this
- 14:09place? So if I go under, well, I know
- 14:11it's the Lord's will that I go under.
- 14:13But with all of that being said, with all the stuff that makes us
- 14:16cringe, I do think tithing is a wonderful thing to do.
- 14:21Is it compulsory? We'll come to that in a moment.
- 14:23But I do think it's a really wonderful thing to do.
- 14:28And I actually believe that because Abraham tithe, that's
- 14:32one of the reasons he tithed before he met the king of Sodom.
- 14:35That's one of the reasons he was able to overcome this
- 14:38temptation. Now, I could be wrong about
- 14:40this, but I believe when we tithe, not only does it take
- 14:43away our selfishness, but it also shows to the Lord gods
- 14:47we're investing into His Kingdom.
- 14:49And the more we invest into his Kingdom, the more invested we
- 14:52become, the more we care about his Kingdom.
- 14:55And that's why I believe, Listen, I'm not saying don't
- 14:58give to some of these big ministries because some of these
- 15:00big ministries, they do big, wonderful works.
- 15:03But I think it's great to to have an eye and to think, what's
- 15:07a ministry that doesn't get a lot of exposure?
- 15:10What maybe there's a preacher who he's not on social media, or
- 15:14maybe he is and he's not got many followers at all.
- 15:16Or maybe there's a work or there's a poor family that live
- 15:19down the street and you can see they're struggling and you want
- 15:23to support them. Or a poor child in another
- 15:25country, sponsor a child. You need to have an eye.
- 15:28I think don't go for the massive ones that are up in shining
- 15:32lights, but have an eye for smaller ministries that don't
- 15:35get that much exposure and invest into them.
- 15:38And I truly believe the Lord will bless you for it.
- 15:41What is the first word that children say?
- 15:45Is it please? Is it thank you?
- 15:48Is it Hallelujah? Very often the first word that
- 15:51children learn to say is this mine?
- 15:55It's mine. You know, we don't have to teach
- 15:57children. We don't have to teach ourselves
- 15:59to be selfish. We always think about ourselves
- 16:02when we look at a photograph, who's the first person?
- 16:05There's a group photograph, who's the first person you look
- 16:08at? You look at yourself.
- 16:09We're always thinking about ourselves.
- 16:12And I do think there's a lot of truth when people say don't
- 16:14worry about what people think of you because most people are too
- 16:17busy thinking about themselves to even think about yourself.
- 16:20So maybe that's a burden that's lifted for some of you.
- 16:24But we do need to be careful that as Christians, we're
- 16:28different. As Christians, we are placing
- 16:30other people above ourselves. And when we tithe, it hurts.
- 16:35It's sacrificial. This is my money.
- 16:37We feel like this is the money I've worked for.
- 16:40Even though as Christians we should know every good and
- 16:43perfect gift has come from the Father of lights.
- 16:46It's come from the Father of heaven.
- 16:48He's given everything to us and we're only just giving back
- 16:51what's already His to the Kingdom.
- 16:53But we do feel that, don't we? We want to hold onto things.
- 16:56We want to look after ourselves. We want to self preserve and
- 17:00keep it for ourselves. But the problem when we do that
- 17:04is it does truly make us miserable.
- 17:06When we get bound up in our possessions and our wealth and
- 17:09our investments and and ourselves, it does make us
- 17:13miserable. A number of years ago, before I
- 17:17met Emma, I had a girlfriend. And if she was here now, this
- 17:21girlfriend, she could attest we weren't right for each other.
- 17:24We didn't click. We didn't flow.
- 17:27Yeah, there was. It just wasn't right.
- 17:29It just, you know, maybe you've had boyfriends or girlfriends in
- 17:32the past and you just knew you weren't right for each other.
- 17:36And yeah, I really didn't want this relationship to end.
- 17:39I really wanted to make it work. And I was always trying to make
- 17:43it work. Even though I knew deep down we
- 17:45weren't right for each other. I was always trying to make it
- 17:47work. And do you know why that was?
- 17:50It was actually not long after the relationship ended, I heard
- 17:53something online and it made me think that was exactly me.
- 17:56This person, this girl, she lived 4 1/2 hours away and I
- 18:01used to catch the train and I'd spend nearly like 6070 lbs on
- 18:06train fare every week to go and see her.
- 18:09I'd buy flowers for her. I didn't have a great job.
- 18:11I was just pouring coffee. Actually, I was a barista, A
- 18:15barrister. I don't know how you say it in
- 18:17your country, but I made coffee for a living.
- 18:20I didn't have loads of money and I was, you know, working loads
- 18:23and loads of hours. And I'd buy flowers, I'd get
- 18:26chocolates, I'd go to a shop and I'd see a nice dress and I'd buy
- 18:30that for her. We'd go out to the cinemas and
- 18:33I'd pay and I was always spending.
- 18:35And then not only that, we'd write letters to each other.
- 18:38And I think of all these letters and ways to show her that I
- 18:41cared about her. We do phone calls every night,
- 18:45all the time. I was investing, investing,
- 18:47investing all of my time and all of my energy.
- 18:49And then when she she dumped me, I was absolutely gutted.
- 18:53As we say all day I was, I was heartbroken.
- 18:56Why? Because I'd invested so much
- 18:58time into him. My dear friend, whatever you
- 19:01invest your time into, that is a thing you will love the most.
- 19:06So if you're investing into the Kingdom, your finances, your
- 19:10time, because that's the best thing you can do.
- 19:12Don't think that you're going to have a great relationship with
- 19:14the Lord God if you just spend 10 minutes doing a Bible reading
- 19:18and a couple of minutes in prayer.
- 19:19Now if you're spending lots of hours worshipping him with, with
- 19:23worship music in your house, lots of hours reading the word,
- 19:28you know, cumulative or cumulatively over the week,
- 19:30listening to sermons. If you're spending all this time
- 19:32with him, the more you spend time with God, the more you
- 19:34invest into his Kingdom, the more you're going to love him.
- 19:38And, and at times these investments, they will cost you.
- 19:41It will hurt again. Some of you are artists and
- 19:44you're listening right now. Imagine a painting in front of
- 19:47you, a beautiful painting. And you as an artist, you've
- 19:50painted it. You spent hours and hours doing
- 19:53the trees, doing the river. You know, you put your lifeblood
- 19:57sweat and tears into this painting and then someone comes
- 19:59along and they just RIP it up in front of you.
- 20:03You are going to be so angry. Again, you're going to be
- 20:06heartbroken. How dare you do that to my
- 20:09painting. I've put so much time and energy
- 20:11into this. And that is why we should put
- 20:14time and energy into the Kingdom of God, because then when people
- 20:18mock our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, it bothers us when, when
- 20:23we see that the king of the church isn't growing, when we
- 20:26see that if you like God's house, is, is, is is an estate.
- 20:30It bothers us that the Christians aren't holy today.
- 20:33It bothers us that people don't care about it bothers us when we
- 20:36think about heaven and hell and how many people are going to
- 20:39this, this, this pit of absolute darkness, the lake of fire.
- 20:42It scares us because we're so invested in the Lord.
- 20:45We're so invested in the Kingdom.
- 20:48And that's why Melchizedek was able to refuse this offer,
- 20:51because he was invested. Sorry.
- 20:54That's why Abraham was able to refuse this offer, because he
- 20:57was invested into the Kingdom. When this king of righteousness,
- 21:02when this priest, King Melchizedek came and gave him
- 21:05the bread and wine, and he gave his tithe to the Lord through
- 21:09Melchizedek. I was so taken aback when I
- 21:17heard this, but apparently there was a gazillionaire.
- 21:20I don't even, I didn't even know they existed, But a guy had just
- 21:23millions and millions of dollars or millions and millions of
- 21:27pounds, very, very rich man. And he said after spending much
- 21:31time at dinners, at events, mingling with other
- 21:36millionaires, he said this. I seldom see a wealthy man
- 21:41laugh. It's interesting, isn't it?
- 21:44And we can think of celebrities right now.
- 21:47We've got all this money and they're very serious.
- 21:51They're very miserable. Why?
- 21:52Because they've traded their life for profits.
- 21:56Some of them look very old as well.
- 21:58And they've, they've aged so quickly because they've traded
- 22:01everything. They just want the profits, the
- 22:03gains. And it's, it's corrupted them.
- 22:06But like, if you've seen Lord of the Rings Gollum, he found that
- 22:10that ring and it was his precious and he's all he did was
- 22:13just look after it, looking at it, holding his hand.
- 22:16I'm not going to do the impression, don't worry.
- 22:18But it turned him into this this creature, didn't it?
- 22:20If you've seen the films, he started out as this, you know,
- 22:24normal looking person. He was like a Hobbit and he
- 22:27looked normal with flesh and skin and looked healthy.
- 22:31But when he got the ring, it took a hold of him and turned
- 22:34him into this creature. That's what money, wealth, sin
- 22:38it does to us because it it becomes all consuming.
- 22:42But then compare that to again with ministry, I get to meet a
- 22:46lot of farmers, Christian farmers.
- 22:49And I honestly say when I go to these churches and I preach at
- 22:52these farming communities, they are the happiest Christians you
- 22:56could ever meet. They're just so content.
- 22:58Now some of them probably do make a decent crust from, you
- 23:02know, working so hard and selling lambs and selling milk
- 23:05and things like that. But you find a humble farmer
- 23:08who's not on social media, not consumed in this world, and
- 23:12they're just happy in God's creation.
- 23:15You've got the mother. Some of you mothers are watching
- 23:17this and you homeschool 6 children and you're worn out.
- 23:21You go to bed and you're thoroughly exhausted.
- 23:24But I know if I looked you in the eyes, I would see joy
- 23:27because you're doing what the Lord's called you to do, to be a
- 23:29homemaker, to to look after to your children.
- 23:34Again, you could go to a third world country.
- 23:36People have nothing and yet they have a joy because they have the
- 23:39Lord. It is true, the old saying
- 23:42holiness equals happiness and you don't need all of these
- 23:46things. You don't need all of this money
- 23:48to be happy. You just need the Lord.
- 23:50OK, so here's the part you've all been waiting for.
- 23:53Is tithing biblical? Well, my answer, I'm going to
- 23:57keep it brief. Yes and no.
- 23:59It is interesting. I'm over here in the UK and you
- 24:02guys, many of you are over there in America watching, and this is
- 24:06my observation. I could be wrong about it, but
- 24:08I've noticed that over here in the UK, we have a big emphasis
- 24:13on the Lord's Day or what many Christians would call over here
- 24:19the Sabbath. And we're very, very big on not
- 24:22doing anything. Some Christians wouldn't watch
- 24:24TV. Some Christians, they wouldn't
- 24:27like to go out for a meal. They wouldn't want to go to the
- 24:30shop, they'd want to keep it very, very special.
- 24:32But my observation and what I've heard from Christians over in
- 24:34America is the Lord's Day In America, you might sometimes get
- 24:38churches, big churches, and they'll have a service at 9
- 24:41o'clock 10:00 in the morning. And then straight after that all
- 24:45the dads or families will go off and they'll do their own thing.
- 24:48For instance, a lot of them might go and watch the American
- 24:50football. But again, over here in the UK,
- 24:53if someone went over to watch our sporting equivalent like a
- 24:57soccer match, it'd be frowned upon by by the pastors.
- 25:01Then we come to tithing. Now in America.
- 25:04I'll just say this from experience, the vast majority of
- 25:09all of my giving the support that enables me to keep going.
- 25:12And as you know, I don't ask for money.
- 25:14I just have it. People who give find out, find
- 25:18me without me asking. I just believe the Lord lays on
- 25:21the heart and leads them to find where to give because I live by
- 25:24faith. I just want to trust God for it.
- 25:26But the vast majority of my support, it comes from America,
- 25:29from sacrificial Americans who give so very sacrificially.
- 25:34And I'm very, very grateful for that.
- 25:37But in America, my understanding is tithing is very, very big and
- 25:41giving. And I can speak again from
- 25:44speaking to Americans and there's a great generosity over
- 25:47there, even with non Christians, the, the Americans have got a
- 25:50big heart and they want to help people even if they're not
- 25:53saved, that there's a, there's a generosity there.
- 25:56But then over in the UK, and I can speak from experience here,
- 26:00it tends to be Christians are very stingy.
- 26:03I've got quite a few friends who have openly said, we don't give
- 26:07tithe to the church. We don't think it's, it's
- 26:09necessary. So is tithing biblical?
- 26:13Is it commanded? Well, both these two things, the
- 26:16Lord's day and tithing, I think, and again, I could be wrong
- 26:20about this. I think these are two new, you
- 26:23know, in the new covenant, the emphasis isn't the same as in
- 26:26the old covenant. In the old covenant, tithing was
- 26:29you, you must give 10%. And in the old covenant there
- 26:32was the Sabbath principle. You if you broke the Sabbath,
- 26:34that was very, very serious. But now, since Jesus has risen
- 26:37from the dead, we're in a new covenant, and there's a freedom
- 26:41there, There's a liberty there, which I think we could all agree
- 26:44on. There is a liberty, but then it
- 26:46comes down to conscience, doesn't it?
- 26:49Some Christians want to keep the Sabbath.
- 26:51They want to keep a day special and holy for the Lord.
- 26:55And I believe those Christians who do that, they will receive,
- 26:59if you like, an extra blessing. I'm not saying in material ways,
- 27:02but a blessing, a peace for doing that.
- 27:05And likewise, there are Christians who want to give more
- 27:09than the 10% and they want or 10% or they want to give the the
- 27:13widows 2 mites, which is obviously there in the New
- 27:16Testament. It's, it's a principle there
- 27:18that is so crucial. And I believe they will get a
- 27:21blessing too. So I think it comes down to
- 27:23conscience. And again, it comes back to
- 27:25everything I've been saying. How much do you want to invest
- 27:28into the Kingdom? Do you just want to be 1/2 baked
- 27:31Christian that just dips their toes in and does the bare
- 27:34minimum or do you want to give and invest into the Kingdom and
- 27:37thus you care about these things?
- 27:39So that's my 2 pence. Let me know what you think.
- 27:42I'm just a street preacher. I'm not a Bible teacher.
- 27:46There are plenty of amazing Christian channels out there.
- 27:48It'll give you deeper answers than me.
- 27:51I'm just here to be your friend, to look at the scripture and to
- 27:54drink coffee with you. And just to say, listen, I've
- 27:56not got all the answers, but I love you to pieces and I'm just
- 28:00grateful for your friendship and that we can talk about Jesus
- 28:02together. If you would like to see another
- 28:04video, if you've still got lots of coffee in your pot, I've done
- 28:07a video on false teachers on Christian pastors.
- 28:10You should be aware of. Be careful of these guys looking
- 28:14at scripture there. If you want to see that video,
- 28:16click here. God bless you all and thank you
- 28:19for your time.