Tabernacle Giving

So in the first parts of the book of Exodus, we have witnessed the Lord's calling

of a man named Moses who would deliver the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.

This was a precursor of another deliverer who would come by the name of Jesus

who would deliver us from the slavery of sin in our own Egypt.

We witnessed the Israelites' exodus from Egypt and their grumblings in the wilderness.

And God's subsequent provision.

He provided manna and quail and all that they needed for their sustenance as

they gathered through, and yet we saw how they grumbled, even from time to time.

Because they didn't have life like they thought they should and like they did back in Egypt.

We witnessed the giving of the Ten Commandments and the overwhelming glory of

God God be given to Moses as it appeared, as God's glory appeared on Moses' countenance.

As we said, that even as he stood before the throne, his face shone in such

brilliance that the people could not even look on Moses.

And we've kind of looked at what would it look like to our generation,

to our people around us, if we so much live the glory of God that people would

see it in our face, not just in what we say,

but in how we live and how we act. They would notice that appearance in us.

In Exodus chapter 35 and 36, we read about the construction of the tabernacle,

Exodus 35 · chapter mention

which you see a rendition of on the screen up ahead.

In chapters 37 and 38, we read about the furnishings of the tabernacles.

In chapter 39, we'll read about the symbolic clothing of the priests.

And in chapter 40, we read about the consecration of the tabernacle and the

subsequent presence of the Lord Almighty and the glory of the Lord among the people.

And so we are going to read seven chapters this morning. No, I'm just kidding.

It is at the preparation for the building of the tabernacle that we're going to look this morning.

We're going to be looking at this in Exodus chapter 35, verse 4 through 21.

Exodus 35:4–21

Moses said to the whole Israelite community.

Incense." and oxen stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastplate.

All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lord has commanded,

the tabernacle with its tent and its covering, clasps, frames and crossbars, posts and bases,

the ark with its poles and the atonement cover and the curtain that shields

it, the table with its poles and all of its articles and the bread of the presence,

the lampstand that is for light with its accessories,

lamps and oils for the light, The altar of incense with its poles,

the anointing oil on the fragrant incense,

the curtain for the doorway at the entrance to the tabernacle,

the altar, a burnt offering,

with its bronze grating, its poles and all of its utensils, the bronze basin

with its stand, the curtain of the courtyard with its posts and bases,

and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard,

the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the courtyard and their ropes,

The woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary,

both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons

when they serve as priests.

When the whole community withdrew from Moses' presence, and everyone who was

willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord

for the work on the tent of meeting,

for all its service and for the sacred garments.

So, when you read that in Scripture, what are you thinking?

I know when I read some of those things and in Numbers and Leviticus and some

of those, my mind just all of a sudden just kind of shuts down and goes blank, right?

We see all those things, those preparations of all that God is preparing them

to do and asking them to do and telling them to do, delineated out into tasks

for what they're going to do.

And then we see later that Moses assigns two gifted men by the name of Bezalel

and Oholiab, and they are the ones that are going to lead this project.

They're skilled master craftsmen who are going to lead this project,

and get everybody together to develop this tabernacle, which shows at the middle

of the picture that's up there on the sign. That's the tabernacle that's in the wilderness.

This is not a permanent temple for them. This is a tabernacle which they are going to worship in.

The presence of the Lord is to be manifest there. They're going to bring their offerings to this.

And then when the Lord says, you know, have you ever watched the show MASH?

You know what MASH stands for? Tell me.

Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.

And heavy on the word mobile, the same thing goes for this tabernacle.

When they're building this tabernacle, I can imagine that they're looking at

all these things that God is saying for them to do, and they look at that,

and then his instructions are,

when I tell you to move, this tribe does this, this tribe does that,

this tribe does that, and you're supposed to get these all gathered up,

take the tabernacle down, put it into its suitcases.

Well, I don't know if they had suitcases, but anyway, put it all in its proper places.

So you travel wherever I tell you to do, to go, and then you set it all up again.

And if I say the The next day, you're going to move again. The next day, you do it all over again.

So no wonder people are thinking, you know, maybe it wasn't so tough back in Egypt.

Even discounting the fact that this first tabernacle was a temporary structure,

it is still conservatively estimated that this same tabernacle, if it were built today,

it would cost well over $10 million in U.S. money.

Consider this. The people who gave to the construction of this tabernacle were

nomads in the wilderness, slaves who had just left their slavery probably about six months prior.

Prior they had been wandering in the wilderness

for six months they've been fleeing from captivity without

a gps to tell them where they were going and moses

wasn't about to stop and ask directions at the quick trip they

didn't have to worry about the collapse of the banking industry or the bankruptcy

of aig or the loss in the value of their 401k plan because they had none but

what What they did have was what the Egyptian people were favorably disposed

to give them as they left Egypt.

And we're told in Scripture that Egyptians were favorably disposed to give them

clothing and food and gold and silver and everything else as they left Egypt

to go out into the wilderness.

Now, no wonder they had to have a lot of oxen and carts, because they had to

carry all this stuff with them.

Scripture tells us their clothes didn't wear out for 40 years.

How many of you have had the same clothes that you

had for well no i'm not going to ask that question maybe i

should go back how many of us fit in the same

clothes we did 40 years ago but that's another question yes the egyptians had

been generously predisposed to give them to them but still there were two million

of them who left egypt two million men women and children who left or more would

consume an awful large amount of food in a very short order order.

Obviously, the construction of the tabernacle required some generous giving

on the part of God's people.

Today, I would like us to consider what we are told in these chapters in Exodus

about the giving that made the construction and ministry of the tabernacle possible.

I need you to understand, this giving was not once a week over a year.

This giving was what they had right then, and they brought it into the storehouse.

I'm convinced that just as the construction of the ministry of the tabernacle

would not have been possible had it not been for the people's willingness to grow in giving,

growth Growth in our church will not be possible without you and I being willing

to give and grow in our practice of generous and sacrificial giving.

Our church is not going to grow. Our church is not going to be a lighthouse

in the community as we should be unless we are willing as God's people in this

place to sacrificial give to his service. us.

Now, what lessons can we learn from the building of the tabernacle in Moses'

day that we can apply to the growth of our church today?

First is this, the need was God-caused.

It was nothing but the leadership, will, and desire of God on behalf of his

people that presented the need for the tabernacle to be built in the first place.

If God was not presenting himself as their their provider,

as their source, as their protection with the pillar of fire by night and the

pillar of smoke by day, if God was not hedging them in front and back, if God was not their God,

there would be no purpose for a place to worship him.

And so God was setting this up. God, who had led his people out of slavery,

who had declared to them the title right, title deed to the promised land,

he had already declared that years ago.

He said, He said, I'm going to send you to a place where I will send you.

He said this to Abraham and even to the Israelites as they were coming out of Egypt.

He told them they would be going to a promised land that was flowing with milk and honey.

He had miraculously opened the Red Sea, and now he desired to have a place where

he could meet with his people and not just wander around.

He could meet with them on a ready basis. Thus, the need for the tabernacle,

which would have been both a symbol of the presence of God in their midst and

the place where man could meet with God, this tabernacle, this priesthood, this offerings,

the system of worship were to present a glorious preview and preparation for

the coming of the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

God was preparing the people already for what was going to be coming.

He was delivering them from Egypt to prepare the Israelites and all of God's

people for the coming of the Messiah.

Tabernacle had to be constructed exactly as God commanded it to the finest detail.

Just as God commanded the building of the tabernacle, he's commanded that his

church grow through making disciples.

We are a church that are called by the Great Commission to go wherever we are

going and in our going to make disciples of all people everywhere.

Following and being obedient to God.

Church growth is God's idea.

Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against

it. In other words, God is going to build his church.

It's up to us to do the work along with him and to provide the means for God to do that work.

In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus says that, I will build my church.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 to 20, it says, Therefore go and make disciples

Matthew 28:19–20

of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and

the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.

If we are less than faithful in tithing, if we are less than faithful in tithing,

we will not have enough resource, or we will have enough resources to do the things we want to do.

And we will have enough resources, even if we're not faithful in tithing,

to make us feel comfortable in this church.

But if we are faithful, at least to the level of the the tithe,

God will pour out such blessing on us.

He will pour it out so that anything, the work of the ministry and any evangelism

and all that is going on, all that's going to go on, will be much more than

we could possibly imagine, and it's actually going to make us uncomfortable.

If we are not uncomfortable as a church of God, then we're not letting God do what God wants to do.

God's going to make us uncomfortable if we're doing what we're supposed to be

doing and living the way we're supposed to be.

It is because of the Lord's commands to make disciples that our church does

all it does by way of worship, fellowship, ministry, and evangelism.

It is because of our Lord's command to make disciples that we provide resources

for growth and opportunities for ministry through preaching,

Bible study, teaching, fellowship events, prayer, and even for missions.

How is all this made possible? Well, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is God already has enough resources to provide for his overflow

of everything he's wanting to do.

The bad news is it's still in our pockets.

God wants to provide, but he's provided to us through a way we live and what

we have and everything that we've been given.

And he's asking us, as I shared with the kids, he's asking us just to give them one donut back.

One-tenth of all we do. How is it possible?

It's made possible by those who obey the instruction of God concerning giving

to the support of the work through the life of the church.

There's an interesting and disconcerting statistic according to one study of

giving trends in the church.

16% of member households in a typical church give 80% of the budget.

49% of member households give the other 20% of the budget, and 35% of member

households give nothing.

And it is often those who give nothing who earn the largest incomes.

1 Corinthians 16, verse 2a says, On the first day of every week,

each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income.

Each of us should give to the support of our church ministry according to the

level of income, because the work of the church and the need for its support

is God-centered and God-caused.

It has been said that the votes that really count in the church are the votes

that people cast with their feet and with their dollars.

Jesus didn't say, go and sit in your church and wait for the people to come

to you to make disciples of them. What did he say?

Therefore, go and make disciples.

It was an active verb. Therefore, in your going, wherever you're going,

whatever you're doing, the purpose is not to just sit still and sing sim kumbaya over a campfire.

The purpose is to go out and make disciples of whoever.

Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell are not going to stand up against it.

Since this is true, this means that when a believer chooses not to give to the

support of the work of the church, he is voting to see to it that the church

does not do the ministry necessary to glorify God.

Pretty blunt statement, really, but when you think about it,

when a a believer chooses not to give their support to the work of the church,

that believer is choosing, is voting to see to it that the church does not do

the ministry necessary to make disciples.

When a believer chooses not to give, he votes for the church not to grow.

When a believer chooses not to give, he is voting for the church not to survive.

And Mike, when I was working on this message, I struggled with that word believer.

And I thought maybe that word is wrong here. Because a true believer in the

Lord Jesus Christ would do what Jesus says, right?

So to choose not to give is simply to choose to disobey God.

The second thing we see in this is that the potential was God-arranged.

That which God called the people to give, he had already provided.

He had maybe had provided some of it through the favor that was disposed by

the Egyptians on the Israelite people, but nonetheless, God provided that.

In fact, it even says he favorably disposed the Egyptians to give that to him.

Their obedience to God with respect to his provision made possible their obedience

with respect to the project God had set before them.

You see, when we speak about stewardship today, we are talking about more than

what you put in the offering or in the offering plate.

We are talking about a spiritual and holy use of everything that God has given us.

Stewardship is a wise use of God's resources, and not just tithing,

although that's part of it, But in everything that we have, everything that

we are, stewardship is to be used for God's kingdom.

You see, God gives to us not so that we can give to ourselves,

but so that we might give to others as we support his work through the church.

Stewardship of God's resources doesn't mean stinginess either.

I've seen many churches where they look at their finance statement of the church,

and we're being good stewards of God's money basically because they're being

stingy with it, And they're not using it for God's resources,

for God's ministry, for God's mission.

When a church does that, they get stagnant.

And then sooner or later, you'll see outside of their church,

on their sign that's outside the church, such and such a church, us four and no more.

Because they refuse to reach out and refuse to do what God has asked them to do.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 4, verse 28, If you are a thief, quit stealing.

Ephesians 4:28

Instead use your hands for good

hard work and then give generously to others in need

malachi 3 10 after god says bring the

whole or before god says bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and see if

i will not pour out blessings to you from heaven open the storehouse before

that he says you're robbing me and they said how are we robbing you and he said

you're robbing me because you're You're not giving the tithes.

You're not giving what you're supposed to.

So which one of us wants to be called a thief?

Robbing God. Instead, it says,

use your hands for hard work and then give generously to others in need.

Paul tells us that to be able to give, we must be willing to be productive and effective.

To be able to obey God in the amount we give, we must obey God with the amount we receive.

We must be obedient. Some Christians today are having trouble obeying God in

the area of their giving because they're not obeying God in the area of their

productivity or stewardship.

Stewardship we're not being wise with what god

has provided us god has arranged for each

of us to get 10 donuts and

he wants one back for himself but then what are we supposed to do with the other

nine share we bless others with what god has given us god has arranged for us

to give what he commands by giving us an ample and adequate supplies the problem

is that too many christians do not want

to rearrange their lifestyles and priorities in order to follow him to the livelihood

he has planned for them. I remember one gentleman in one church.

You don't know him, so I'm not even going to mention his name.

It doesn't matter. But he came to me after one message one Sunday,

and he said, Pastor Tim, he says, I want you to know that my wife and I are

trying really hard to bring our giving up to the level of the tithe.

But he said, we have failed in that.

We have taken on so many expenses of things we wanted that we can't afford to do the tithe right now.

And I said, well, what do you think God wants you to do?

Next week, they had sold their boat, and they'd sold their camper,

things that were costing them money so they could not give, and they were beginning

to give on a regular basis.

And they were being blessed for it. I had another gentleman come to me,

new follower of Jesus, a new Christian, and he'd heard about this giving tithe

that he says, I don't know what to do. I don't know if I could afford to do that and stuff.

And I said, I tell you what, I said, you start out this next week,

you start out, give 3% of your earnings. Okay.

And if you find that God blesses you in that 3%, give four and then get five and then six.

I said, sooner or later, you're going to find out that you're going to be up

to 10% of your income and you're going to find out that God blesses you.

And about a month and a half later, he came to me and he says,

you know, that's amazing. How's does that work? I said, isn't that cool?

God is the supreme mathematician and the accountant.

He knows how this all works. He will bless you beyond belief.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and see if I will not open the floodgates

of heaven and pour out a blessing on you so much that you will not be able to contain it.

Amazing to me as a matter of course, as I have worked in the financial services

industry over the years,

how many homes I go into or have gone into where people say they can't afford

to provide for their long-term financial needs of healthcare and retirement,

and yet they have brand new SUVs in the driveway,

60-inch big screen TVs,

and cable television service, and spend $80 per week on manicures,

pedicures, and I don't know, whatever else cures there might be.

When we lived in the inner city of Peoria, we had many people come to me and

the church, and they would come asking for money for food for their kids,

for food, or money for food for kids.

The next day, I would see them in the gas station buying the same amount of

money in lottery ticket.

So where does the food for the kids come from. Anyway, Solomon wrote,

vanity, vanity, everything is vanity.

In the midst of this kind of world, John Wesley wrote this, earn all you can,

save all you can, give all you can.

Paul wrote this, God creates each of us by Jesus Christ to join him in the work

he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work that we had better be doing.

The message, the New International Version says something like,

God has created us for good works to please him and to glorify him.

So to participate in God's plan for us with respect to giving,

we must submit to his plan with respect to our living.

Part of God's plan for our lives includes our doing with our lives,

that which God has already planned for us to do in order to provide for our need and our seed.

But as Paul points out, finding the thing that God wants me to do for my livelihood

will require a willingness to work by way of preparation and by way of performance,

which is why too many of God's people are not enjoying the living God has planned for them.

A union representative was explaining the New York contract.

He said, I have great news, brothers.

Management has agreed to lighten our work schedule. The crowd shouted, hooray.

And he went on to say, and we will have a 150% pay increase.

Hooray. We will finish work at 4 p.m., not 5 p.m. And again,

the crowd yelled, hooray.

We will start work at 10 a.m., not 9 a.m. Hooray.

And from now on, we will work only on Wednesdays.

There was dead silence. Then the voice from the back asked, we have to work every Wednesday?

Thomas Edison said, opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed

in overalls and looks like work.

Do your work willingly as though you were serving the Lord himself and not just your earthly master.

In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who you are serving,

and you know that he will reward you.

In his book, How to Succeed in Money, George Bowman wrote this,

about nine out of every ten people with an income are financial failures.

Look at our world today and think about it.

I mean, our nation is in a mess financially. financially

we are in a mess financially why

is that is it because we're not earning enough money

or is it because we and our

government are living beyond our means in their book seven principles of finance

for the believer jim and pam elif wrote one of the most recognizable differences

in the believer in the world he lives in is his unusual relationship to money

and possessions However,

even serious believers sometimes balk at the seemingly extremities of the teaching

and lifestyle of Christ and the leaders of the New Testament church.

If you look at the New Testament, they had everything in common,

the Scripture says. Acts says that.

And they gave to anyone who had need.

While they were speaking about this, these authors, that it is true that believers

are often the most generous when it comes to volunteer work and giving,

and yet oftentimes the believer is not so different from the non-believer in

the area of steadiness and diligence of work,

in the area of unwise spending,

in the area of selfish overindulgence and impulsive purchasing,

which leads to great debt, as I've mentioned about the one gentleman woman before.

So I want you to look at these seven principles real quick of finance for the

believer written by this couple.

First, the principle of non-attachment. It doesn't belong to me.

I will purchase or receive nothing that I cannot give away. This is John Wesley who said this.

I will purchase or receive nothing that I cannot give away. And I would paraphrase,

He said, cannot and will not.

He would not receive or purchase anything that could not be used to directly

influence the ministry of the work of the kingdom.

Jesus said to them, be aware and be on a guard against every form of greed,

for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possession.

Number two, I will owe no man anything but to love God and to love the man.

O nothing, Romans 13, 8, O nothing to anyone except to love one another.

Number three, the principle of liberality. I will constantly seek to give away

possessions for God's glory.

Now, how many of us really honestly do that?

Yet that's one of the one of the seven principles of a true giving believer

for i testify that this is from second corinthians 8 3 and 5 for i testify that

they gave as much as they were able,

entirely on their own they urgently pleaded with us for the mercy and the privilege

of sharing in this service to the saints paul is talking about a people who

were poor and that they want yet they They wanted the privilege of giving of what little they had,

giving as much as they could to benefit the work of the kingdom.

The fourth principle is the principle of recall. I will keep accurate records

and accounts of God's dealing with me financially in order to show others that

God answers prayer and provides for his own. The Israelites did this.

They repeated over and over what God had done for them, writing it down in scripture,

but just keeping track of it. We would do well to do that. How has God blessed us?

How has God gotten us through situations that we need to?

And then we need to repeat those to our kids and our grandkids and everyone around us.

Number five is the principle of security. I will save and invest only as God

is leading with the understanding that I will give it all away at his slightest

Titus Instructions, Matthew chapter 6, verse 19 and 20 says,

Matthew 6:19

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moss and rust destroy

and where thieves break in and steal.

I have never, well, I take that back.

I've seen a picture of a hearse pulling a U-Haul truck or trailer,

but I have never seen anybody go from this life taking their possessions with them.

Just a thought. Sixth principle is the principle of compassion.

I will not pray for someone else's needs financially unless I'm willing to be

the instrument God uses to meet that need.

Number seven, the principle of contentment. I will be content to live on whatever

God chooses to provide, whether little or much.

I will learn to live on what God chooses to provide.

And then the third message in our text today is the offerings were God-directed.

There were five things we need to note here about the offerings that God directed

to be given. First, it was a freewill offering.

They were not compelled. held. It was not a tax.

Nobody was going around and saying, you earned this much this last year,

you've got to give us this much.

It was a freewill offering. The offerings were to be given by those who were willing to be given.

It was a revelation offering. It was the Lord commanded and revealed that the

offerings were to be given for the building of the place where God would meet.

God had a vision, and he gave this to his people. This is the vision I have.

This is what I want you to give to.

It was a God-word offering. It was given toward God.

It was given to God for the same purpose it was given to glorify God.

And then it also was a God-empowering offering. What God expects, He enables.

And what He did is He took those offerings and He multiplied them for what they

needed to be done in the building of that that tabernacle.

Isn't it interesting that when we are asked to give to those who are less fortunate,

when we are willing to give to the work of the kingdom, that we come face to

face with the reality of how much God has blessed us?

When we're asked to give to those who are in need, how often do we say,

well, they should just get a job?

May be true, but how often do we do that? It was also an inclusive offering.

God directs each of us as, and we're all included, to give freely as God reveals to him by faith.

He doesn't say, you give 10%, and you give 3%, and you give 15%.

We are all to give for the work of the kingdom, whatever that is,

whatever God is asking us to do.

Fourth, the results were God-glorifying. I want to read to you the rest of the

story of this passage, and you will be amazed as I was.

This is found in Exodus chapter 36, verses 2 through 7.

Exodus 36:2–7

It says this, Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Aholiab and every skilled person

to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work.

They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry

out the work of constructing the sanctuary, and the people continued to bring

freewill offerings morning after morning.

By the way, tomorrow the church is going to be open, just I thought you'd know.

So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left

what they were doing and said to Moses, the people are bringing more More than

enough for doing the work of the Lord commanded to be done.

Then Moses gave an order, and they sent this word throughout the camp.

No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.

And so the people were restrained from giving more because they already had,

what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.

Isn't that interesting? interesting. Jan, where did she go? There she is.

What would you think if we had to stand up in front of the people and say, stop giving?

We've got too much for his work.

What I'd say? I think we'd better find some more work that he wants us to do.

Don't you think? Can you imagine what it'd be like if God's people were so generous

to his kingdom that it made us uncomfortable in what we would do?

Not only did God's people give sufficiently, but they gave in surplus.

In fact, they gave in such quantities that Moses had to give in order for them to stop giving.

The late Larry Burkett, a financial expert, said if every church member in America

would increase their giving to an average of 10 percent,

there would be an extra $69 billion for overseas missions and an additional

$150 billion in income for American churches.

The interesting thing is that current estimates for American Christians Christians

giving in American churches, Christian churches, is about 2.7 percent.

So can you imagine what would happen if all of us who call ourselves believers,

gave a minimum of the 10 percent? What God could do with that?

I think he'd not just want to build a huge tabernacle—in fact,

this is beautiful, but I don't think he'd want to spend it on that.

I think he'd want to spend it on his ministry, wherever his ministry happens.

Our purpose is to make disciples and bring people into the kingdom.

The funding of God's kingdom is already here, and as I taught the children, it's called a tithe.

The biblical word for giving means a tenth, referring to 10% of all that we

have and have all that we earn.

There's an old joke about a preacher who got the people wound up during a sermon

on the growing of the church, the growth of the church.

He shouted, if this church is going to serve God, it's going to get down on its knees and crawl.

And the audience yelled back, back make it crawl preacher

make it crawl and once this church has

learned to crawl it's got to get up on its feet and walk make it

walk preacher make it walk the audience moaned and

once this church has learned to walk it's got to begin to

learn to run make it run preacher make it

run in order to run it's got to reach deep into its pockets and learn to give

and there was a quiet pause and then someone was heard saying can we just go

back to crawling preacher earlier i mentioned that the The votes in a church

that really count are the ones people cast with their feet and with their dollars.

When it comes to giving to support the ministry and growth of your church,

how's your voting record?

How are you doing in being the hands and feet of Jesus in whatever way that means?

We should pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would indeed work within us

as we become your people, become more and more your people.

We call ourselves believers, and yet we oftentimes don't believe everything

you say, don't want to believe everything you say.

Father, you have told us that you would pour out such a blessing upon us.

You would open the floodgates if we would just be faithful to you by even the tithe.

Father, we pray that that tithe will manifest itself not only in your presence,

in your favor, but in disciples coming

to Jesus. Will you grow your church through us in Jesus' name? Amen.