House of Hope Online

June 11, 2023

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Last week the Lord gave us a word entitled, “Never Forsaken and Never Begging,” and I shared the faithfulness of the Father to His promise from Psalms 37:25 in the life of my family and my business career.

Psalms 37:

 25 …I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. (NIV)

We saw the Lord is faithful to His word, and that He produces fruit out of our dark moments and weakened faith.  We talked about walking as children of the light.

Ephesians 5:

 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

 9 (for the fruit of the light [consists] in all goodness and righteousness and truth),

 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

We saw how we need to get out of the darkness of this world and wake up to what God is saying.

Ephesians 5:

 14 For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.”

We also talked about the promise from Malachi 3:10.

Malachi 3:

 10 “Bring the whole tithe 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 a blessing until it overflows.

 11 “Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it may not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast [its grapes],” says the LORD of hosts. (NASB)

The word of the Lord today stems from this promise of an overflowing blessing from the windows of Heaven and the spiritual concept of sowing and reaping and increasing. 

How does this overflow come?  The Hebrew definition of “blessing” in verse 10 provides insight.  The Hebrew word is “barucha,”and it means a fresh flow of words.  The Latin derivation is “benediction” which means good words.  So, dollar bills do not drop out of Heaven, but a fresh flow of good words will flow from the throne room.  We are talking about the rhema word of God, which means the spoken word will flow from Heaven into our spirits and give us spiritual revelation and a continuous flow of wisdom, creative genius, and the opportunity to make wealth.

You might be thinking: “Really?  I pay my tithes and God gives me the ideas to make wealth?”  The answer is “yes” but don’t take my word for it.  Look at the logos, or written word of God.

Deuteronomy 8:

 18 “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as [it is] this day.

Isaiah 30:

 21 And your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

We saw last time there is joy that is promised to us in the scriptures when we give, and this joy comes from the overflow and abundance of the Lord.

2^nd Corinthians 9:

 6 ¶ Now this [I say,] he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.

 7 Let each one [do] just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.

 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;

 9 as it is written, “HE SCATTERED ABROAD, HE GAVE TO THE POOR, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ABIDES FOREVER.”

 10 Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness;

 11 you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.

Joy Comes from Giving

And so, the word promises joy, or a cheerfulness in our spirit as a result of giving according to the Lord’s command to sow and reap bountifully (verses 6 and 7).  I can attest to the joy that comes from giving.  The Lord has encouraged us to regularly support the ministry of Iris Global, which ministers food and housing to the orphans, widows, and poor of the undeveloped areas of Mozambique and other poor nations.  Once we were able to make a large enough donation to drill a well for the people of Mozambique.  I cannot describe the joy that He put in our spirits as we made that contribution. 

More recently, on Friday night, Nancy and I went to the Pittsburgh Arts Festival downtown with two of our children, Anthony and Laura, our son-in-law Ralph Balash, and our two granddaughters, Hailey and Riley.  We walked around for a couple of hours and really no one was inspired to make a purchase until we happened upon the booth of David Ogden, a born-again Christian artist whose ministry and art business is to take pictures of God’s creation and reprint them.  Check out his website at Shop Photography Art | Pictures for JESUS, llc  Each piece of work includes a scripture reference giving glory to God.  Friday night, Nancy and I purchased a beautiful reprint of the Lion of Judah which had a Revelation 5:5 reference.

Revelation 5:

 5 and one of the elders *said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.”

The Lion of Judah, from the Root of David, of course is Jesus Himself, and He will open the book and judge all according to the logos word of God.

Anthony bought two beautiful reprints and the Balashs bought a couple as well.  But the joy came as we talked with David and shared our Christian testimonies with each other.  We all knew we were sowing into His ministry, and he was sowing the word of God from his life into us.  We paid the price of the art not grudgingly or under compulsion as we would have with secular art.  Instead, we sowed willingly as we purposed in our heart, and God made us cheerful givers.  The encounter with David changed our entire evening.  There is a worldliness to secular art, and it can be devoid of the Spirit.  This affected us because we were not joyful at all until the Lord blessed our entire evening by giving us the opportunity to give into His work through David.  We could feel the abundance of joy that caused the Macedonians of 2^nd Corinthians 8 to beg for the opportunity to sow into the Gospel of Paul’s ministry.  All glory to Jesus!

Increase Comes from Sowing and Reaping

Not only does joy come from giving but increase comes as well.  This spiritual principle of giving is contrary to that of the world, but it is fundamental in the Kingdom of God. 

The accountant in me says: “Well, I have this much, if I give away 10%, I will have to live on 90%.”  That logic is a challenge to us, and especially to lower income Christians, and it can stop us from obeying God’s word.  But that is not how it works in the Spirit realm.  100% minus 10% is not 90%.  It is more than that.  God loves to multiply and add.

We said last time when you sow the seed that God gives you, you are investing in, or planting in, the Kingdom of God.  When you invest well, you receive a return on that investment.  That is the harvest that comes from sowing.  God promises in 2^nd Corinthians 9:6 if we sow bountifully, we will reap bountifully.  Bountifully means after your brain decides what is reasonable to give, your spirit listens to the Spirit of God and increases that amount.  Bountiful is greater than reasonable.  The Macedonians were in a great deal of affliction and deep poverty, yet they gave beyond their ability, and the scripture says it overflowed in a wealth of liberality.  Get that word: overflowed.  Overflow comes when we give beyond what we think is reasonable.  Remember Jesus praised the poor woman because she was giving not out of her excess.  She was giving her food money.  But her giving caught the eye of her Lord and Savior and she was blessed by His word over her.

Let’s go back to 2^nd Corinthians 9, where the Lord also promises in verse 10 and 11 to “supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality.”

So, there is increase promised to us from sowing and reaping with a cheerful heart.  That means we have more than 90% left when we give 10%.  When we sow bountifully, we are expressing our faith and trust in the promises of God. And that is how the increase comes.  The word says He will multiply our seed for sowing and increase the harvest.  It promises we will be enriched in everything for all liberality.  Glory to God.

The Tithe of the Increase

And with the increase that comes to us from sowing and reaping bountifully also comes the opportunity for more giving.  The tithe which is 10% of gross income, is known as the first fruits tithe, but there is a second tithe known as the Tithe of the Increase, which is spelled out in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 14:

 22 ¶ Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. (KJV)

Deuteronomy 14:

 28 At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates:

 29 And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest. (KJV)

The tithe of the increase is calculated as 10% of the increase in your income and is set aside each year but is not paid until the third year.  For example, if your income increases $10,000 in 2023, then you would set aside $1,000 at the end of the year, and then donate it at the end of 2026.  You can invest that money in the meantime and earn income from it, but when the third year comes, you only donate the $1,000.  So, you can keep the change, but you should tithe on that.

Note that the Tithe of the Increase is to benefit the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.  Therefore, when you donate in year three, you should benefit a priest or minister (the Levite), the homeless (stranger), the orphans (fatherless), and the widow.  If your church does not provide avenues for donating to these groups, some of the big ministries such as Iris Global, have separate funds you can donate to for the benefit of new pastors, widows, and orphans.  And of course, the Light of Life Rescue Mission, here in Pittsburgh, is dedicated to sharing the Gospel while feeding, housing, and rehabilitating the homeless. 

As we tithe on our increase, the Lord promises in verse 29 to bless us in all the work we do.  Therefore, more increase comes to us as He blesses our work, whatever it is.  The spiritual principle of sowing and reaping and increasing is powerful.

In addition to the joy and the increase, there is another important spiritual aspect to the tithe, as Deuteronomy 26 teaches us.

Deuteronomy 26:

 10 And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:

 11 And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.

 12 ¶ When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; (KJV)

This is God’s heart – to prosper us while feeding the less fortunate within His gates.  But notice the other important aspect of the tithe.  In verse 10, it says we are to set our tithe before the Lord and worship the Lord our God.  Tithing is an act of worship, and verse 11 says we shall rejoice in every good thing the Lord has given us.  And that is the word of the Lord for us today – there is boundless joy and rejoicing in sowing, reaping, increasing, and feeding the needy within His gates.  Hallelujah and Amen!

Let us pray.

Father God, thank You for the privilege and joy of sowing and reaping and increasing.  Show us Your heart to bless and lead us by the Holy Spirit to purpose in our heart to be a cheerful giver into Your work.  Speak into our spirits a continuous flow of fresh words of wisdom and creative genius to make wealth for the benefit of Your house.  In Jesus’ name we pray.   Amen.