♪♪♪ Adam Bender: Hi, everyone,
welcome to "ITOWN TV." My name's Adam, and I'm one of
the pastors at ITOWN Church. Today we're going to hear an
important message from our pastor, Dave Sumrall, on a topic
that can so often get twisted or perverted, but it's a
really important subject. Today we're talking about
money and the importance of this principle called the tithe. Now, I wanna encourage
you not to cash out, but listen with an open heart
because I know that it could be a huge blessing to you and
your family, check it out. ♪♪♪ Dave Sumrall: It's
fascinating to me how, when we talk about the
subject of money in church, it seems to be a problem
for people, and yet there's a lot that the Bible has to
say about our finances. In fact, 16 of the 38
parables are actually about money that Jesus taught. You may not realize this, but
there are 500 verses in your Bible about prayer, and there
are more than 2,000 about money or possessions. So if I honestly was a
better pastor to you, bringing you a balanced diet
of what the New Testament deals with, we'd be talking about
money every few weeks around here because it's a
very, very important topic. And I have this
thought for you today. I wonder, I just have
been praying and wondering, like, why are people so
upset about the subject of money in church? Well, the Bible says
this in Luke chapter 16. This is Jesus teaching. Verse 13, he says, "No
one can serve two masters, for he will hate the
one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to
one and despise the other." And then he says, "You
cannot serve God and be enslaved to money." Now, there's nobody here at
any campus that would identify, self-identify, as a
person enslaved to money: "Oh, that's me," hah, "I
didn't realize that money owns me, definitely. I am greedy, and I am
goin' after money." I would not say that at all, but
what I would submit to you--jot this down if you're takin'
notes at every campus--is the principle that
money is spiritual. Money actually is spiritual. And I think one of the reasons
why we have a problem with it, why it's so sensitive,
is because of what Jesus is actually saying. If you go back to
that text, this time, it's the New King James Version. He actually uses
the word "mammon." "You cannot serve
God and mammon." "Mammon" was the Syrian
God for wealth and riches, and so Jesus wasn't saying that
you can't be rich and serve God. That's not what he
was saying at all. What he was saying is that you
cannot be enslaved to riches. You can't make money your god
and still have God as your God. And the truth is, I think, there
are a lot of Christians who actually are trying
to make this work. And I don't think
it's a conscious thing. I think it's a cultural thing. I think it's a subconscious
thing that happens to us, that tells us that
mammon actually would make your life better. In fact, there's probably not a
person here that wouldn't say that your life would be
better if you just had a little bit more money. We all believe that lie that
"I would be more independent, I would be more significant, I
could make a bigger difference, I would have more freedom with
my schedule in life if only I had more money," because, see,
mammon's goal--jot it down if you're takin'
notes--is to control. The God of wealth, by default,
the spiritual God that controls the financial system of the
earth and has since Adam turned it over all the way back in
the garden, its goal is to control your life, and
to be honest with you, it actually gets to the place
where it is successful. If you study Revelation, the
Bible tells us that there'll be this antichrist, the
person that rises up, full of the devil, that actually
controls the entire world. There's only one way that he
actually gets control of the entire world, and that's
because there's a one-world government with--what? One currency. If you haven't
studied it before, the entire world,
the Bible prophesies, will go to one currency, and
then the devil will actually control the human population by
forcing people to put a credit card in their hand
or in their forehead. So you go to Walmart and
get all your groceries, and at the end, you, "boop," checkout,
and if you don't do that, then you can't buy and sell
food, the Bible tells us. So mammon will control the world
through the power of money. And I would submit to you
today that mammon is already controlling our culture. Mammon's already got its teeth
into American culture in a very deep level and controlling even
some of us as Christians the way we view the world and
the way we live our lives. In fact, there was a study
that was done several years ago, and I brought
this to you before, but humor me if you remember it
because I think it very telling for where we're at as a country. The title of the survey is "The
Day America Told the Truth." So they surveyed a whole
bunch of people and said, "Anonymously--you don't have to
identify yourself--what would you do, what would you be
willing to do for $10 million? If we just gave you $10
million, no questions asked, what would you do?" Well, disturbingly, 25%
said they would abandon their entire family. Some of you are
like, "That don't sound bad." I looked down the
aisle today-- might not be bad
to attend alone. All right, so 23% said they'd
become a prostitute for at least a week, 16% said they'd give
up their American citizenship, 10% said they would withhold
testimony and let a murderer go free, 10%, so they
would let somebody go free. But here's what's worse, 7% said
they themselves would pull the trigger--7% of you have a
neighbor that would come over and shoot you in the
forehead for $10 million. That's a problem. That is a big problem
in our culture today. Here's the disturbing
one, the most disturbing, 3% said they would put their
children up for adoption if you'd give 'em ten million. Some of you are like, "Man
after the morning I've had, I'll do that for free right now. Meet me in the lobby." Put that child
tag up, I dare you. Keep them kids. Money. Jesus said you can't serve both. And I just wonder how many of
us are subconsciously trying? We're trying to serve both. We can even make it
spiritual actually. Think about it: the
multilevel marketing scheme, think about how much you would
love your life and how much better a parent you would be if
you didn't have to go to work. Work from home or
work one day a week. You'd be more present in
your children's lives. You'd be able to
serve at the church more. You'd be able to fund
the work of the kingdom. All that sounds amazing, but the
problem with that argument is, at the core of all of it, is
that your life would be better, not if you serve God and did
what he told you to do, but if you just had more mammon. Money's in charge.
Money's the secret. Money is the key. And so what
happens to us is while, as Christians, we should worship
God and use money as the tool that it is 'cause
money itself isn't evil, instead, we worship
money, and then we use God. As Christians, we leverage
our lives to put money first, and then we go to
God for miracles, and we go to God to
touch our marriage, and we want God
to save our kids, but at the core, we
don't have him first. And some of you right now
are goin', "Man, I knew it. Just a matter of time, ITOWN's
like all the rest of them. Every church is after my money. I knew he'd be after my money.
I just knew it. I knew that eventually,
if I came long enough, they'd come after it." And I would submit to you
that the thing that's so funny, first of all--I don't
know if you've noticed this, but I'mma pull the
wool away from your eyes. Everybody in the world
is after your money. You think that Disney created
Disney+ to bless your life? Everyone in the world is after
your money except for your God 'cause he's the only one
that doesn't need it 'cause he made it all. He doesn't need your
money, but he wants your heart, and we have to understand this
principle 'cause Matthew chapter 6 says it this way:
"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Most of us misread that verse. We read it as "We give
to things that we love. We put money in things
that we care about." That's not what that
verse says at all. It says that your treasure
is where your heart will be. You see the difference? The Bible's not saying that
you give to things you love. It's saying that you will love
the things that you give your money to, and
there's a big difference. Your heart follows
where you put your money. So God says, "I wanna see where
you put your money because I care where your heart is." God doesn't need your money,
but he does want your heart. And there's one thing
that he put in place. There's one principle that we're
gonna talk about today that can change all of that for you. It does both at the same time. It can break the
curse of mammon, the God of riches that pulls
us into always wanting more and consumed with greed
and messes up our lives. It can break that
off of your life, give you God's blessing, and put
your heart in the right place, all at the same time, and it's
a principle that people don't often like to talk about. It's called the tithe. I just wanna give you a couple
of warnings, all right? First of all, don't just
build all your spiritual walls, like "beep, beep, beep," texting
a friend, "Don't come today. It's not the--"
skippin' the next three weeks, not watchin' the podcast,
"delete, delete," no. Here's what we're gonna do. I want you--I'm asking you to
just take a journey with me. I've never worked ya, I've never
asked you for anything. I've always been honest, and I
want you to read the Scriptures for yourself, and I
don't want you to trust me. I want you to trust God's Word. I want you to decide, as
a person and as a family, what the Bible says, and then do
what the Bible tells you to do. Have your own conviction about
it 'cause it shouldn't be mine, it should be yours. But I'm also going to apologize
because I have not taught this principle as strongly
as the Bible teaches it, to break this off of your life,
just because I have been worried what you would
assume my intentions are. And so I apologize as your
pastor for not teaching you the truth that you need to hear that
would change your life because it's something that
Kate and I live out, and it is the reason
why we're blessed. It's the reason why
our church is blessed, and I, too, want you to be
blessed just like your God does. If we go to Malachi chapter 3,
it says this: "You're under a curse," because you're
in this wrong system. "You're robbing
me," the Bible says. And you would say, "How
do we rob you, God?" And he talks about the
tithes and the offerings. We come back to
the verse that says, "'Bring the whole
tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food
in my house, and test me. See if I won't open the
floodgates of heaven and pour out blessing that you will not
have room enough to store it, and I'll prevent pests
from devouring your crops, and the vines in your field will
not drop their fruit before it's ripe,' says the Lord. "And then all the nations--"
everybody will look at you. The world's economies and
countries and people who are not Christ-followers would
look at you and say, "There's something different. You have an anointing.
You have something on your life. There's a blessing on your life
that I don't have on my life. What is different about you?" That's God's plan
for your finances. We're just gonna
break down this verse, and we're gonna address a couple
of the issues that I find pop up every time you talk about
the subject of the tithe. First one that Christians
will often say is "I'm not gonna tithe because that's
an Old Testament law. That's Old Testament.
We don't do that anymore." And if you read that
verse, we're like, "Oh, this is the Old Testament,"
that would be awesome. I'm so proud of you for
knowing that that's in the Old Testament, great job. I do regret the
fact that it's, like, just a few pages
from the New Testament. It's like, "Man, God, why
couldn't you just put it over a few?" 'Cause then it
would help people, but, no, God put it where he put
it because he needed it to be there because it's
a step of faith. We'll talk about
that in a minute. Let's go all the way back to the
garden of Eden, 'cause I would submit to you that there are
some principles from God's Word that predate the law and
postdate the law that were also included in the law, like it
was always bad to kill people. Then the law said,
"Don't kill people." Just because we're not under
the law doesn't mean now it's cool to kill people. Y'all trackin' with me? So, all right, it's quiet
in this Presbyterian Church. That's all right.
We'll keep goin'. So, "The Lord God commanded
the man--" this is the garden of Eden, God's original
relationship with mankind. "Hey, Adam, take care
of the whole garden, and you're cool to eat from any
tree in the garden but," verse 17, "you must not eat from one,
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 'cause, if you
eat from that one, you'll die." What God is saying is
"The whole garden is yours. You have to care for all of
it, but there's one portion I'm asking that you set aside. There's a part that's set
aside just for the Lord, and when you take what is God's,
it brings death into your life." So I would submit to you a
different perspective: tithing is not law, 'cause this
obviously predates the law by thousands and
thousands of years. Tithing is
actually life, not law, because to not touch the tithe,
to reverence or set aside as holy what is the Lord's actually
brings life into your life. That's the principle
that God is teaching Adam. Genesis chapter 4, we go
to the next generation: "Abel kept the flocks." These two brothers,
"Cain worked the soil." So, one was a farmer,
one was a shepherd. So it says, "In the course of
time--" that's an important phrase-- "Cain brought some of
the firstfruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. Now Abel also
brought an offering, but he brought fat portions,
which is the best part of the meat, from the
firstborn of his flock." And then the Bible says, "The
Lord gave favor to Abel and his offering, but not to Cain." And so you'd wonder why did one
get favor and the other did not? It's simply because it was over
the course of time that one was brought, but
Abel's gift was first. He gave God the first. And I want you to know
that's what God is after. It's a principle
about putting him first. Go to Colossians,
Colossians chapter 1. This isn't even about giving. It just says, "Christ
is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before
anything was created. He's supreme over all creation. He is the beginning, supreme
over all who rise from the dead. And so he is--" read it
with me, every campus-- "first in everything." Come on, read it again.
"He's first in everything." God wants to be--what? "First in everything." Now, this is fascinating. That word "everything" in the
Greek is the Greek word "pas." You may wanna write
that down, P-A-S. You ready?
It means "everything." Some of you missed
that--everything. That word
"everything" means everything. Now, that's deep.
I don't care what you say. God says, "I wanna be
first in everything. I wanna be first in your day. I wanna be first in your year. I wanna be first
in your marriage. I wanna be first in your
home, and I also wanna be first in your finances." God wants to simply be first. And so what happens with the
tithe--Deuteronomy says it plainly: "The purpose of tithing
is to teach you to always put God first place in your life." So it's a universal principle.
Jot this down. Number one, tithing
is a principle that just puts God first. It's a principle.
It's not a part of the law. Yes, it was in the law, but
it's not restricted to the law. We see Jesus affirm it
in the New Testament. We don't have time to go
through all the Scriptures. The writer of Hebrews talks
about it in the New Testament. It's all throughout the Old
Testament, Abraham tithed. We see all these different
people outside the law and inside the law
observing this principle. It's a principle, and it's
important that we put God first in our lives, why? Because the first, whatever
you do first has the power to bless the rest. So here's the second
thing that I hear from people: "I can't afford to. I think it's a great
principle, but I just can't afford to tithe." And I would submit to you
that ten out of ten Christians, when polled, who do
tithe, do your tithe, every ten, every
person out of the ten. And I'm encouraging you to go
ask people, go interview people. It's kind of fascinating. People who say, "Yes, we tithe,"
the answer is "We are blessed." Ten out of ten Christians that
you poll, "Do you tithe?" who say, "No," every one
of 'em can't afford to. Here's why: Haggai says,
"You're in this place. You gotta give careful
thought because you plant much, but you harvest little. You earn wages, but you
have holes in your pockets." That's the condition
of the non-tither, why? Because Malachi says there's
this curse on the financial system, to which some
of you may be arguin', "No, Jesus reversed the curse." Yes, I would say you are right
that Jesus gave us the ability to be free from the curse,
but we have to walk in the principles that
bring us the promise. Just because Jesus set us free
from sin doesn't mean you have never sinned since you
made a decision for Christ. Just because Jesus overcame
sickness does not mean that I don't have a head cold today. There are things that we still
experience in this fallen world, and the cursed system of
finances is one of them. If we don't walk the path
that God gives us for financial freedom, the curse remains. So he says, "You're
under this curse, and so you have to
bring the whole tithe." "Tithe" means "tenth," for those
of you that have never heard this teaching
before, "tenth"--is why? Because God says, "Equal
sacrifice," not equal amounts. That's not fair. Equal sacrifice. So everyone
sacrifices at the same level, "the whole tithe," and here's
the key, "into the storehouse," so there's supposed
to be food in my house." We're gonna get to
this in a minute. But that clearly says that
you don't just give it wherever you choose. It's where God chooses, and
God says it's supposed to be in the church, his house. So you can be a
person who gives away 10%, but if you don't give the first
10% and if you don't give it to the body of
Christ, a local church, you're not tithing because
that's what the Bible says. I'm not tryin' to
get legalistic. I'm just tryin' to show
you what the Bible says. He doesn't say, "to an
orphanage" or "to the person that you see who
needs money" or "to the people that
don't have food." I think all those
things are important. We give to all those
things, and you should too, but you can't give your tithe. You bring your tithe. It's not yours to
determine where it goes. God determines where
it goes, and he says, "You have to return it--or
bring it to the storehouse." And then I love this phrase.
He says, "Test me, test me." It's the only place God says in
Scripture that you can test him. It's a test for us
where our hearts are at, and it's a test for God:
Will he fulfill his Word? "Test me in this and see." You had a test, you had to put
God first 'cause look, it doesn't take faith
to give the last 10%. God's not lookin' for leftovers. You can give 10% and give it
last or give it to somewhere besides a local church,
and you're not tithing. "Test me in this and see if I
will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessing
that you would not have room enough to store it, and
I'll also prevent pests from devouring
your crops." That's your investment.
That's your finances. That's your car.
That's your house. That's your
air-conditioning unit. God protects it. "And I'll keep the
vines," your investments. "They'll not drop their
fruit before they're ripe." So the opposite of this is
that, if you're not tithing, then your life is open to pests
devouring the investments and to problems coming into your life. And I can tell you, it doesn't
matter how many zeros are at the end of your paycheck. If all it takes is a little
disruption to keep you from giving the first
and the best to God, the devil will keep you
in financial bondage. You can make seven figures a
year and believe that you don't have the money to tithe 'cause
the devil will keep you in that place perpetually
'cause it's not a principle. It's a mind-set. Now, I understand math and that
you can add it all up and not have enough money at
the end of your month. Some of you are like, "I got way
too much month, Pastor. You just need to cut it down to,
like, 15 days, I'll be cool." I get it. That's why it takes some faith. God says, "I wanna be first, and
then the nations will call you blessed," putting God first. So what you put first,
as I mentioned earlier, it has the power
to bless the rest. Proverbs chapter 3 says, "Honor
the Lord with your wealth and with the first of your crops
and then--" so put him first. After that, "your barns
will be filled to overflowing, and then your vats will
brim over with new wine." I don't know what "vats" or
"brimming," but if you want that to happen in your life, you're
gonna have to figure out how to put God first. I don't have any vats, and
I've never seen anything brim. But anyway, the point is
that it takes a step of faith. Tithing actually
builds our faith. And I would challenge
you, don't listen to me, and don't trust me, but you do
have to decide if you are going to trust God or not, and this is
the only place in Scripture that he says, "I dare you
to test my reality, my goodness, my
character, and my existence. Test me.
Test me. Test me and see." Every person, every
person, every person, every person who tests him,
every person who trusts him, every person who tithes will
tell you that they are blessed. Doesn't mean they don't
have problems or adversity. Doesn't mean there haven't been
times that things are tight. Doesn't mean they have a
million dollars in the bank. Doesn't mean any of that stuff,
it just means that they are blessed, that
they find favor. Their dollar goes farther
than they ever expected. Financial miracles
come into their lives, protection over their family,
peace in their marriages. There's something that
happens in your life when you stop serving money. Before we go, the last
thing I hear often is "Well, the church
doesn't need my money." And I would say to
you, here at ITOWN, that you would be
partially correct. If everyone here continues to
participate financially at their current rate, we did build
enough margin in that we'd be able to afford a
place like this, but the Bible says, "Bring the
tithe into the storehouse 'cause there needs to be
food in God's house." You know why? Because, just last month, there
was a couple in our church, faithful givers,
faithful people, both husband and wife,
same time, lost their job. And so, you guys,
because of your generosity, you paid their house bill,
and you paid for all their utilities, and you paid for
everything their kids needed, and you kept their family afloat
and every expense that came through, and because of
that, now both of the couple, both husband and
wife, have new jobs, and they're back on their feet,
and you guys bridged the gap because of your generosity. And that's not one story. That's hundreds of stories that
happen every single month in our church, and we don't tell you
about it 'cause we don't want your friend that's
sitting in the aisle with you to be embarrassed. We are constantly
paying electric bills, gas bills, car notes,
paying off hospital bills. We don't do it to get glory. We don't do it for you to
think that we're great. We do that because it's
what God's called us to. You know, there are people who
are alive overseas right now because you dug a well for
them to have fresh water, and then you built the church
that's next to the well for them to find Christ, and then you
built the orphanage for the kids to live in that
wandered up to the well that didn't have anything,
anyone to care for them, and then you paid for the food
that the kids got to eat and the educational books that
they learn from as they grow, and their lives will
forever be altered, and you'll never meet them
face-to-face until you get to eternity because you gave. There are so many
things that we are doing, and yet there's so much
more that God has called us to accomplish together. There are people who are
addicted, there are people who are homeless, there are
people who are hurting, there are people that today may
be fine, but six months from now might find themselves
in financial trouble that are a part of our spiritual
family, and it's on us. That's why there has to
be food in God's house. Number three, tithing simply is
designed to provide for God's work in the church, and he
always intended for it to 'cause there's so much that
God has called us to. I firmly, with all of
my heart, believe that, if it's God's
will, it's God's bill, so I'm not here today
to raise money from you. Honestly, my heart's
not connected to this message at all. As a human and as
a leader of ITOWN, I couldn't care less
if you give or not, but as your pastor, as a person
who prays over your family, as someone who loves you, I want
this for you more than you could possibly imagine 'cause I don't
want your family to be exposed. I don't want your
heart to be messed up. I don't want you chasin' after
money 'cause the Bible says this clear: it'll never be enough,
and it'll always leave you empty and broken and
hurting, and, yes, at the end of it all, we'll
still be here for you to love you, but I'd rather save you the
heartache and break the power of mammon off of your life just
by simply believing in the principle of the tithe
'cause God does have a great plan for your life. Adam: You know, we really do
believe that God has a big plan for your life, and it starts
with giving up control to him. God wants to give you a
brand-new life filled with joy and peace, free of
guilt and condemnation. In fact, God sent
his only Son, Jesus, to this earth to die on a
cross to pay the price for our mistakes, to wipe away the
past and set our balance back to zero, all so that we can
have a relationship with him. All you have to do is
ask him into your life, to give up control to him. If you've never done that, I
wanna give you an opportunity to do that right now. We're gonna pray
a simple prayer, and you could just
repeat after me. Just say, "Dear
Jesus, I give you my life. I turn from my old ways,
and I turn to you today. Forgive me for what I've done in
my past and give me a brand-new life, in Jesus's name, I pray." And, God, I pray that
you would be with each and every one of us. Lord, help us to put
you first in everything. Give us the faith to put
you first in our finances. And, God, I pray that you would
bless each and every one of us beyond our wildest dreams. Thank you so much for
speaking to us today. We love you so much, in
Jesus's name, amen. Well, if you just made the
decision to give your life to Jesus, we are so proud of you,
and it's honestly the best thing that you can do with your life. Our church is built to support
people just like you on this journey of faith, and we'd
love to come alongside you and support you on that journey. The easiest way we can help is
if you'd grab your cell phone and text the word
"HOPE" to the number 63566. We'll send you a link to a quick
video from Pastor Dave with some next steps you can take
to help you grow in your relationship with God. I'd also love for you to join
us live in person for a Sunday service at a location near you. You could also stream
services live online, and more details for that can
be found at itownchurch.com. Finally, if you call ITOWN your
home church and you wanna put God first in your finances,
then visit itownchurch.com/give. Thank you for your
generosity, and I know God is going to bless your life. Well, we hope to see
you soon, but until then, we love you so much. We're praying for you.
God bless. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ CC by Aberdeen Captioning
1-800-688-6621
abercap.com
