The Blessed Life: What Test?

Anthem Of Hope Church - Service Podcast

Malachi 3:6-12 [AMPC] 6 For I am the Lord, I do not change; that is why you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 Even from the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My ordinances [My principles of ordinary behavior] and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? 8 Will a man rob or defraud God? Yet you rob and defraud Me. But you say, In what way do we rob or defraud You? [You have withheld your] tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with the curse, for you are robbing Me, even
this whole nation.

10 Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove [test] Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer [insects and plagues] for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts. 12 And all nations shall call you happy and blessed, for you shall be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

1. TITHING IS A TEST

2. TITHING IS BIBLICAL

Genesis 14:18-20 [NKJV] 18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him [Abram] and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he [Abram] gave him [Melchizedek] a tithe of all.

And this stone which I [Jacob] have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
Genesis 28:22 [NKJV]

And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy [set apart] to the Lord.
Leviticus 27:30 [NKJV]

1 “And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, 2 that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide.”
Deuteronomy 26:1-2 [NKJV]

…13 then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the holy [set apart] tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. 14 I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me.
Deuteronomy 26:13-14 [NKJV]

15 Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”’
Deuteronomy 26:15 [NKJV]

Yes, woe upon you, Pharisees, and you other religious leaders—hypocrites! For you tithe down to the last mint leaf in your garden, but ignore the important things—justice and mercy and faith. Yes, you should tithe, but you shouldn’t leave the more important things undone.
Matthew 23:23

Furthermore, here [in the Levitical priesthood] tithes are received by men who are subject to death; while there [in the case of Melchizedek], they are received by one of whom it is testified that he lives [perpetually].
Hebrews 7:8

3. THERE’S A BLESSING ON YOUR TITHE

4 Moreover he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to the Law of the Lord. 5 As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything.
2 Chronicles 31:4-5 [NKJV]

6 And the children of Israel and Judah, who dwelt in the cities of Judah, brought the tithe of oxen and sheep; also the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the Lord their God they laid in heaps. 7 In the third month they began laying them in heaps, and they finished in the seventh month. 8 And when Hezekiah and the leaders came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and His people Israel.
2 Chronicles 31:6-8 [NKJV]

9 Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. 10 And Azariah the chief priest, from the house of Zadok, answered him and said, “Since the people began to bring the offerings [tithes] into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and have plenty left, for the Lord has blessed His people; and what is left is this great abundance.”
2 Chronicles 31:9-10 [NKJV]

4. TITHING IS USED IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE

And I will rebuke the devourer [insects and plagues] for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts.
Malachi 3:11auda

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