Somebody HONOR Somebody, Pt.4 [stevejesmer.com]

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This is reposted from www.stevejesmer.com.

HONOR GOD WITH YOUR WEALTH - BRING THE FULL TITHE & LIVE SACRIFICIALLY

Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. (Proverbs 3:9 NLT)

I love tithing. A tithe literally means "a tenth" or 10%. It is God's way of teaching the heart to always honor Him. Why does He use money? Because money is the greatest competitor for our heart's HONOR & WORSHIP!

We all like to treat money like its our god. We often believe that money will make everything better. We think, "If I just had a little more money then my life would be so much better." But that is a lie, because everytime we get that little more money, our lives aren't any better, we still have the same stresses that money brought in the first place. Why? Because so often we believe that MORE, MEANS MORE FOR ME.

Instead, the Bible teaches that we should GIVE IN PROPORTION TO WHAT WE GET. This is talking about tithing. God says, I have given you everything you own. In fact, all of my stuff is really God's stuff. And God says that He wants His portion. When I bring back God's portion, the tithe, I am really honoring God with all of my wealth/stuff.Bringing the full tithe (which means I bring back 10% of my gross income to the local church as an act of trust & obedience) is not a suggestion but a command, and certainly one with a huge promise of blessing (Mal.3:10).

It's easy to say that I HONOR GOD, OR LOVE GOD, BUT IF I'M NOT HONORING HIM WITH MY WEALTH, THEN I'M NOT HONORING HIM WITH MY LIFE!

The God of the Bible is so worthy of our best. He is not a God of leftovers, He gave us His best, His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus gave us His best on the cross to save us from our sins and give us eternal life with Him. Now, He honors us by calling us to GIVE OUR BEST TO HIM!

Tithing is not the ceiling, it is the floor. Tithing is the starting point of obedience level giving. Once you have grown in your trust of God, its time to learn how to give above & beyond the tithe. This often means re-orienting your lifestyle in such a way that you "seek the kingdom of God first" in an effort to build God's kingdom, grow God's church, and invest in eternity!

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