You crown the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with abundance. Psalm 65:11
What an incredible confidence that we can have as believers knowing that if God is first in our lives, then everything will come into order. This is especially true in the area of our finance. The simplest way to focus on putting God first is to put him first in our finances – through the tithe. So simple yet it seems so difficult for so many.
Tithing isn’t legalism. It’s life. Spiritual life. It’s hard to overemphasize this. The stewardship practice of faithfully tithing is neither for Him nor about Him. It’s for you. It’s about you.
Did you catch that? Let me run that by you once more:
It’s not about God – it’s about you!
We generally refer to this as the principal of tithing – I believe it’s simply the principal of putting God first. The tithe is both a reminder and a test. It’s a reminder that God actually owns it all. And it’s a test of whether or not God is truly in the first-place position in your life.
It’s also a test because it takes faith and trust in the goodness and faithfulness of God to return His 10 percent to Him first before you start addressing your other physical needs.
There is no faith involved if you wait until all your other bills are paid to return God’s tithe to Him.
So, it is a test - yet the tithe is much more than a test. It’s actually a spiritual gateway for God to enter your circumstances and place His blessing on the remaining 90 percent of your income. Just as a reminder from last week: we are talking about a spiritual principle that a firstfruits offering redeems all of the remaining portion. The first bit carries the power to redeem the rest.
This is the essence of what Paul said in Romans 11:16:
For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
The first portion carries the blessing.
Jesus confirms in His sermon on the Mount that if we are faithful to this principal, in being intentional about the placement of the first, by seeking the Kingdom first,
ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU.
We can be confident that God will take care of those material needs.
There’s an incredible example of this truth in Old Testament in the book 1 Kings. I’m sure you probably remember the story of Elijah and the Widow in 1 Kings 17?
During a time of drought and Famine in Israel, Elijah had been living in the wilderness. For a period of time he experienced miraculous provision there. He had water from a stream that somehow hadn’t dried up, and each day ravens brought him food. Eventually, however, the stream gradually dried up. And at the same time, the ravens stopped coming. Elijah knew that this was a sign that God wanted him to relocate. In fact, God told Elijah to move to the city of Zarephath, where He had instructed a widow will provide for him.
As Elijah approached the gate of the city, he saw a woman gathering firewood. He wondered if this was the widow God had mentioned so he decided to test her. He asked her to bring him a little water in a cup. Remember this was in the middle of a severe drought, and water was precious. Even more, the person making the request was a stranger to her. Even so, she agreed and started to do as he asked, but as she started to walk away, he asked an additional request. I’m paraphrasing. But Elijah basically said, “Oh, and can you bring me a piece of bread while you’re at it?”
She turns back to the prophet and says,
As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar. See, I am gathering a few sticks so that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it [as our last meal] and die.
This grim revelation didn’t seem to faze Elijah one bit!
Elijah replied back to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do as you have said. Just make me a little bread for me first and bring it out to me. Then you may make one for yourself and for your son. For this is what the Lord God of Israel says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again.”
She could have told him to go jump somewhere but, the widow stepped out in faith and gave to the man of God first. And God miraculously blessed the rest of her meager supply. Do you know how long it was until the Lord sent rain? Three years and six months.
In all that time, the flour wasn’t used up and the oil didn’t run dry.
Why? Because she gave to God first! Now, let’s dig in to this a little deeper.
Why in the process of a drought and famine, would God send His very own prophet to an impoverished widow? If God's intent was to supply provision for Elijah, couldn’t He have sent him to a rich man in Zarephath? Someone who could have been in better shape to help out Elijah. Why send him to a widowed mother on the brink of starvation?
I believe there is a simple and powerful reason. God did not send Elijah to the widow to provide for Elijah – He sent Elijah to provide for the widow.
Remember, tithing is not for God’s benefit; it’s for ours. He had already sent Raven’s to feed Elijah – and He certainly could have continued to do so!
He did so because there was a widow who needed to be provided for – who was going to die. God knew that as much as she needed bread, and probably even needed hope, this woman needed a properly aligned relationship with God Himself. So, He sent a man of God to her and said, “Give to me first. Give to God first – then watch what happens to your provision.”
This was a fair test of her faith in the God of Israel. To get the blessing of multiplication on her tiny reserve of oil and flour, she needed to take some of it and give it to God – FIRST. Only then could the lump be blessed.
By the way, this was not only about finances – just as your tithes don’t only affect your money. It’s also about our loved ones. If you read a little further on in the story, you learn that later on the widow’s son gets sick and dies – and Elijah raises him from the dead.
Do you think that by chance God knew that her son was going to get sick? Absolutely He did – He knows the future!
He sent Elijah there to not only provide for her but also to bless her.
However, all of the blessing and provision hinged upon her being willing to respect the principle of putting God first.
What about you? What if God came to you in person and said to you, “if you will tithe – if you will give me the first ten percent of your income – I will do two things for you. First, I will stand at the door of your house and keep the devil out. I will keep him out of your marriage, keep him away from your kids, and keep him out of your health. Secondly, I will bless you so that you actually have more than what you are currently making”?
If God showed up to you face to face, would you take Him at His word and give Him the first ten percent of your increase?
God says this in His infallible Holy Word:
"Bring all the tithes (the tenth) into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you [so great] a blessing until there is no more room to receive it. Then I will rebuke the devourer (insects, plague) for your sake and he will not destroy the fruits of the ground, nor will your vine in the field drop its grapes [before harvest],” says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:10-11
What rational person would say no to that offer? But millions on millions of believers say no to Him month after month. There is no key more vital or impactful to living a life of abundance than this one. God must be first!
And, by putting Him first in your finances and devoting the first tenth of all your increase to Him, you activate the spiritual principal of firstfruits and open a gateway of access for God to redeem and work and bless and multiply in every area of your life.
First things First!
God Bless
– Pastor J
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