Money Matters (part 5)

Father in heaven, we thank you for the blessing of being able to look to your word and what it says about our finances how we should view money. Especially in light of what you have done for us in Christ.

Father, I pray that you would be with us this morning as we gather to worship you that we would be mindful of you Again of what you have accomplished through your son for us. And Lord that we would be here to worship you and you alone in Christ name we pray.

Amen. Well have Some serious things before I get to the ridiculous and then back to the serious. That's a nice mix. I Wonder if anybody here could Define opportunity cost. I see that hand John's look.

The cost of what you give up to do something else. That is exactly right and you say well, I Mean that's something that you learn basically in Economics or something like that. Well, how does that apply to us?

How does it apply to us? Do we have opportunity costs in our daily lives? I? Can give you an example of one a? Few years ago. I don't know what I did with my money. But I was watching this was just a couple years ago I was watching Apple stock and it was on its downward arc and and it was $88 and I just thought if it goes any lower.

And I didn't and it went up a few dollars and now here we are a little over two years later, it's what 500 Stop. I gotta cry. Oh, sorry. So, I don't know what I you know what I invested in instead, but there's an opportunity cost there.

There might be an opportunity cost of this music stand falls down. I don't know.

Bruce you had something so you missed the opportunity.

Yeah, sort of I mean tip more typically here's it here's a better example. The car breaks down you've got your Vacation fund you don't want to miss the vacation. So you put it on the credit card the Car repair and therefore you pay, you know fifteen percent interest now that fifteen percent interest really represents the opportunity cost because What you normally could have done with that money you are just repaying to the credit company.

For absolutely no advantage. Here's a little website. I found what it what is it called? Oh, I guess I erased it. I think it's like investopedia or something like that. I Thought it was pretty fun. They said the the cost of an alternative that must be foregone in Order to pursue a certain action put another way the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action then they give a specific The difference in return between a chosen investment and one that is necessarily passed up in other words.

You have a couple thousand dollars. You can either invest in stock a or stock B. Say you invest in the stock and it returns a paltry 2 over the year. Of course, if you put it in the bank, you would be getting a paltry Zero percent, you know or a point one or whatever it is.

They give these days Return a paltry 2 over the year and placing your money in the stock. You gave up the opportunity of another investment say a risks risk-free government bond yielding 6 in this situation.

Your opportunity costs are 4 You pass up 6 you got 2 so you lost 4 So what do I bring that up? Because of the Vacation example we in our in our budgets. We make decisions that wind up costing us money.

I sent out an email this week and in which I mentioned a very kindly email which I got from, Texas. Where somebody was listening to the class and they had some money kind of sitting on the sidelines that they were determined not to spend and Instead of doing that they paid off credit cards and they'd kind of set the husband wasn't wanting to do this.

But they the wife sat down and did some calculations. They're gonna save $2 ,000 in interest by paying off. By using this money they have in the sidelines and I'm like, okay now that is an Opportunity cost, you know, and in other words, it's an opportunity savings.

I Think we underestimate. How much money we give to credit companies? I was thinking about it last night. I don't want to see any hands, but if you have an American Express gold card. You know it says membership has its benefits.

I was thinking about that last night and that would be like if they you know, if you had a $500 Debt that you owed them and you were paying 20 on it. That's how much you're paying for that card and you get nothing for it other than you know.

Cool flyers in the email telling you about events that you could never afford to go to anyway. But I digress. But opportunity costs are important because how we budget how we set things up really determines whether we're going to be In financially good shape if we're gonna be financially healthy or whether we're going to be financially impoverished.

So we've talked a little bit let's put this into practical means here. We've talked a little bit about having an emergency fund. Some people say $500 other people say $1 ,000. I like to have at least a couple thousand because the more stuff you have the more it breaks down and the bigger the bills.

Are when they break down? We talked a little bit about transmissions all that stuff. But having an emergency fund the number one reason to have it is so that you stop building up debt. Don't go into debt any further.

How else do you eliminate your debts? How else do you get out of debt? You know some people in here might owe Five ten twenty thousand dollars thirty thousand dollars, and I'm not talking about on your mortgage.

I'm talking about in just in terms of credit cards. How do you get out of credit card debt if besides stop digging Peggy? Yeah, if she says accountability if you write down everything that you spend somebody wrote me and said that they were doing that and That really helped them because they are out of money by the 11th of the month.

I don't know what that meant. How. About this for accountability people are always wanting to post what they're doing on Facebook. I wonder if you just posted all the money that you spent on Facebook how that would look.

I don't know probably wouldn't be so grand would it. So but you know to put it another way. You're talking about diet and exercise and all these other things things that we know we ought to do, but we don't do.

Accountability what about you know just like what if you're on a diet. And your wife cuts you a small piece of cheesecake you probably don't want to go for the second piece of Cheesecake which I did last night.

Now if Jenna made it so it's calorie-free. The idea if you're on a diet, what do you do. It's not absolutely no, I can't eat anything. It's I'm going to watch what I eat so if and sometimes. I'm just gonna say no.

So what if you applied that same thing to your spending, you know what was the last time you just said no to something. We're not going to. You know go to I mean people go, but we only eat at McDonald's.

Well even McDonald's if you add up how much you spend over the course of a month. I I think the fallacy is it's like people who say they eat healthy, and you look at what they eat. Always remember to turn off your cell phone.

Boys and girls don't try this at home. If you know a lot of people say well, I eat healthy. I don't understand this and then you actually you know you have them record what they eat. Or you go to one of these Websites where they help you to track the number of calories that you eat during the course of the day.

The results can be fairly shocking because what you thought was so good. You know winds up not being so good. Well, it's really healthy. Okay, and it's 3 ,500 calories a day. Might be really healthy, but that's a lot of calories, and you've got to cut back a little bit.

But the idea of just saying no if we deny ourselves something or even you know if we if we have a budget for going out I mean here's kind of governmental thinking we have $200 in our ability to go. I'm just making up this number.

I don't know what it is in our ability to go out and have dinner per month. Now we can spend that all in one evening. We can spend it all in about. I don't know ten evenings if we get the 99 cents special.

I don't know if they even have those at McDonald's quite frankly. I don't go to McDonald's very often. Or You know when we get to the $80 mark or the? $120 mark or whatever we get to go. You know what let's just stay home and save some money.

Saying no is a good way, but here's the other thing. I wanted to talk about this morning, and that's this. When you make up your mind that you want to get serious about getting out of debt. Because you want to actually control your money instead of your money controlling you.

Then what you do is you take aim at one credit card one bill that you have that you're paying on every month and you just aim to get rid of that and Sometimes you know it can be there are different theories on this take the highest Interest one and pay that one off well, that's all well and good.

But another way is to go at the smallest bill that you have pay that off. And then take that money that you would pay on that every month and go on the next biggest one etc. Etc etc. It's called debt snowball.

The idea is that you get momentum and you do as. You pay one off, and then you pay another one off, and you pay another one off. And you start realizing that you're in better economic shape of course the temptation is to do what?

Yeah, all of a sudden. We've got more money than we had before well. We better buy something to get back in the hole that we were in. Not the right way to go. But saying no you know this idea of having an opportunity cost.

We don't really think again if we don't think about how we're spending our money if we don't think about where it goes. Then it's gone, and we have no idea what happened to it, so if we just contemplate well.

What happens if I don't spend this what happens if we didn't? Necessarily expend all the money in a given account a given Category for a month. What happens if we just save that money, or we applied it to a bill.

Or we did something else with it. I mean I I'd venture to say that everyone in this room if you have Employment and you have absolutely no bills if you had no mortgage. No, you know monthly bill that you had to pay.

I mean you're gonna have electricity or something of that nature unless you've installed solar panels. But if you had no other bills. Except for energy and that kind of thing you would be in pretty good shape.

But most of us don't live like that. So the idea is to get to that point anyway, so I just want to bring up opportunity cost think about that now. We get to the ridiculous as you all know I am on the TBN newsletter, and I Read it semi religiously well.

But it just so happens that this month. It's on giving. What a relief because every other month is on giving but and this is entitled and this is true right. God gave first. Is that true? It's absolutely true.

Talks about John 3 16, but now listen to this he talks about how God gives first, but then he puts things backwards all sudden it goes from God gives first to. Somebody gives and then God gives them. I don't know where the transition happened, but it it happens for it.

Well, I'll just read it to you God. So loved the world that he gave John 3 16. Then he says we see this wondrous law in practice all through the Bible now listen. See if you can see the shift here. Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek priest of the Most High who most police people believe is the pre-incarnate Christ.

He doesn't mention that here. But Abraham tithed to Melchizedek and received a miracle son in his old age. We just went from God gave first to Abraham gave first. I think is that what happened now? Is that what's that cause and effect.

Did Abraham give a tithe to Melchizedek and therefore in his old age he received a son. No, you know, this is where I get all my good theology. Let's see, this is good. This is good. Solomon also built the great temple of God with gold and silver so much.

So that it was said. The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones. Wow. But then of the dedication of the temple Solomon gave a thank-you offering of 22 ,000 oxen 122 ,000 sheep. Wow again, no wonder God said there was not a king before or after Solomon as great or rich as he and we can go on blah blah blah, but then he gets down to.

What we're gonna talk about a little bit. You have robbed me of. The tithes and offerings do me and he brings up this idea of tithing. But this is good to. Listen, he says he's talking about how they used it to support the temple.

He says why was God so concerned about? The support for his temple. Ah I'm glad you asked you may have heard me liken the great temple to God's TV network of the day. His temple was to show the nations of the world who the true and living God was.

Now, I don't. I don't doubt. Several of you have been to Jerusalem and when you go there and you see the temple mount and you think. You know, you can see the Dome of the Rock basically from almost every place and you think that the temple was much bigger Than the Dome of the Rock.

I mean it commanded the entire valley and you think it must have been impressive. But I mean was this Kind of God's way of saying I'm better than all the other gods. Should we look at all the other temples that were built to false gods?

Was that the purpose of it? I Don't think so. I think it was to say more that he was with his people. Let's see. Just in closing here. He says Abraham and his tithe to Melchizedek Rahab and her scarlet cord, which I skipped over King Solomon and his thousand birth ten thousand burned offerings while the study about the law of giving and receiving.

Again, God gave first and now it's giving then receiving. Again I'm glad you asked we dear partners are building temples. Yes, you know that our temples are not of gold and silver. Although if you watch our TV show you might get confused.

Paul the Great Apostle makes it clear. We are the temples of God his eternal plan from the beginning was to bring many sons unto glory true Praise God souls are streaming into glory through our TBN temple.

The 24-hour prayer lines ring and ring and ring and we give and receive. Etc, etc, etc more terrible theology, so Done with that. I wish I had a shredder up here. I would shred it. We started talking about giving and I would invite you to open your Bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 and I guess I don't have to open my Bibles because once again, I've printed them out for my Purposes so I don't have to do that and I'm gonna quickly go over where we were and we'll catch up and keep going.

2nd Corinthians chapter 9 beginning in verse 6. The point is this whoever so sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver.

And we began expanding on that a little bit last week and some of the characteristics of biblical giving number one. Purposefully, I mean you see it right there in the text that you are to give as you have decided or purposed in your heart.

Kissed marker said. The responsibility rests on the individual and not on the church as such. The church doesn't assess everybody. This isn't the government. We don't give out assessments of what everybody has to give this year thankfully.

Each person must ponder this matter and is his or her own heart and then decide. So the entire congregation may be united in contributing to the collection. We talked about how if you miss a week that doesn't mean that you get to keep the money.

I Can't afford to go to church this week. I'll just stay home. So it needs to be. You need to give purposefully you need to give cheerfully and this is where we Left off last week. I Mean there's an interesting concept, you know, are you cheerful when the offering plate comes by and you put your your offering in there.

Kissed a mocker says. Paul says that the act of giving must be accomplished neither reluctantly nor grudgingly. Reluctance implies that clinging to possessions that one hardly wants to give and when they have been given the giver grieves.

Giving grudgingly denotes that external pressures compel one to conform to the rules of society. Now, let's just think about that for several points here. A Reluctance you don't want to give but you give anyway, it implies that what you're giving away you consider more valuable than You ought to really we talked about that on Matthew 6 how Jesus tells us not to.

You know value the things of the world that can that are subject to rust and to moths. But can you imagine you know, you put your envelope in the in the plates and then you grieve. What have I done? There goes that new Hot Wheels said I was gonna get on eBay.

I don't know why Hot Wheels popped in my head but Childhood. So so there's that but how about this idea of external pressures. You know, do you ever think when the plates coming down the road do you just think well If I don't put something in there people are gonna know that I didn't put something in there.

We shouldn't think like that. I Mean, we're not supposed to really kind of look around while we do that. I mean If it says, you know, not the right left shouldn't know what the left hands doing or whatever I think the the principle is, you know, we're not to make a gaudy display.

I Would like everyone to see the size of the check that I'm about to put in. Put it in there. And on the other hand, it's not something that we should. That we should feel compelled. We should feel pressured to put in.

And. And I came up with this on my own. I think it's a brilliant insight. Thanks, Becky it. If you don't plan to give in other words if the first point isn't correct. If if you haven't thought through it if you haven't purposed if you haven't planned if you haven't determined in your own mind.

That I'm going to submit to you this morning. It is impossible to be joyful about it. Why. Because you didn't determine, you know, and it's just kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing where it's going in there and You won't ultimately feel good about it because a well it tells me a lot of things first of all.

It tells me that you're not tracking your money right if the way that you give is the plate comes by and you reach in your wallet and you give the. You know, you make your lint offering. Then you haven't purpose you haven't planned and therefore there are other problems with your financial picture.

Far beyond this but you're not going to enjoy giving it. I also note this and I thought this is a brilliant insight that I made up if you don't if you don't enjoy giving. There are other problems. You've you buried yourself in debt.

You're worried about things because you're not thinking about your money as a stewardship. You're not thinking about your money as a gift from God and you are not thinking rightly at all. Now this question is anyone is any Christian?

Let's put it that way exempt from giving. I don't think so. I Don't think so. Now. There are some you know, if you're on a really tight budget, it might be really hard to give. You should still give something.

Why should why should you give something even if you don't have that much? And please don't say the widow and her two mites. It's all gods anyways and and we're not looking at it rightly if we think you know what I'm too poor to give then you've.

You've really got the your budget is upside down. You should give something now. Here's a question. Is it anyone else's business how much you give? Should I be accountable to Peggy? I'm just I'm throwing Peggy out.

It's just I mean, is there anybody who needs to know what I give? Is there anyone who needs to know what you give? No, and I I've said it before, you know Fred did this for many years was the financial secretary and I think that is probably The worst job here.

No, Bob and raisin. Does it why do I call it the worst job? Why is it the worst job? Because you know what everybody gives. I would hate to know what everybody at the church gives. I would hate that why well, I might be prone to favoritism, but I might also just be prone to say dude.

I I Can't believe what you give. It's just kind of embarrassing isn't it? And I I just don't need to know. I don't need to know that. In fact, the ideal situation would be where nobody knows. But sadly somebody has to know somebody has to keep track of it.

So we all get receipts at the end of the year. Now there is one exception to the is it anyone else's business. If you give or how much you give. We established several years ago the idea and I think this is a good one.

Why. Well I guess I can give it to you. But why do you think it would be important for? The church to determine that deacons and elders are Sacrificial givers. Any thoughts on that the the email where the guy the thief who got restored to the Was he an elder?

I see. I didn't even pay that close attention to it. I just saw somebody stolen was Yeah. Open your Bibles for a moment to first Timothy chapter 3 the saying is trustworthy if anyone aspires to the officer of overseer elder.

He desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife sober-minded self-controlled respectable hospitable Able to teach not a drunkard not violent, but gentle not quarrelsome not a lover of money.

I mean this just kind of goes with it. You can't you know, somebody can't. Let's put it this way someone who is not a sacrificial giver. There's something wrong with the way they view money and they probably are not to be an elder or a deacon.

I think that's kind of common sense. Okay. So the second part is in In terms of giving we need to be cheerful givers cheerful givers and the third point is sacrificial giving. I sort of gave that away, but Elders and deacons must be sacrificial givers.

I think that goes hand-in-hand with being cheerful about it. Let's well, we won't we won't read all that but MacArthur says this about Acts 17 1 through 15. He says it records that the Macedonians really were in some very difficult situations and Paul's letters corroborate the reality of suffering affliction persecution and Tribulation for those churches yet in the face of those overwhelming hardships the Macedonians Displayed no quote poor me mentality.

In other words, they weren't whining. They offered no excuses instead they gave even though as they even as they were enduring intense prolonged suffering and Deprivation. This is the way devout Christians react.

In other words, he's saying look when the chips were down. The Macedonians gave all the more. Why because they understood that there were others who were suffering and they wanted to help them. 2nd Corinthians 8 verses 1 to 5.

2nd Corinthians 8 verses 1 to 5 and I'm gonna read that. We want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction. This is exactly what MacArthur was talking about.

Their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. Want to talk about sacrificial giving? They're in severe affliction and Yet how do they respond in joy even though they're extremely impoverished they give.

For they gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord. No campaign to squeeze money out of them. I Mean there are ways of you know, sort of bribing people, you know the TBN thing.

They have an offering every month. Where if you send money in they send you something that's one way to go. Another way is to send Rocco and You know Louie over your house and shake you down. I Don't know how well that would work.

But they gave her their own accord begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the Saints and This not as we expected for but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Lenski said this he said they they talking about the Macedonians made a joy of robbing themselves. Made a joy of robbing themselves. That's sacrificial giving. MacArthur goes on to say they rose above the pain sorrow and struggle of difficult circumstances as.

For the sake of others they were happy to divest themselves of what little they had. That's sacrificial giving, you know, we often talk about or we often hear the story about the widow's mites and all that.

But MacArthur kind of blew that out of the water a couple years ago at Shepherd's Conference. If you didn't hear that you should because it was pretty. It's pretty good. He took a contrarian view and it was Pretty compelling.

Okay, so sacrificially we want to give fourthly generously. Generously not with a mindset of punching a ticket or satisfying. Satisfying satisfying a requirement meeting a threshold. Instead we want to be givers who are overflowing in a wealth of generosity.

The word generosity or liberality and other translations literally means Integrity or single-mindedness it is without reservation without double-mindedness. In other words, it's this kind of hesitation.

Should I give that much? Do I feel comfortable giving that much? That should already be done. That should be determined well ahead of time. And so when the offering plate comes by you don't even think about it.

You're done and you're happy to give. But again, you know this idea that somehow we have to meet a certain threshold a predetermined threshold and we'll talk more about that later. We should also give proportionally.

Fifth point is proportionately those who have more should give more 2nd Corinthians 8 verse 3 for they gave according to their means. What does that mean? It means you can't give what you do not have, you know.

If I say I'm going to I'm gonna pledge a million dollars to the new building. That should pretty much get us the parking lot. Sorry. If I said I was gonna pledge a million dollars, it would mean nothing.

Why. Because I couldn't do it. Anyway, we give proportionate to what we have. That's why we don't want to give pledge drives. We don't want to do telethons where we tell you to you know, pledge more than what you have step out in faith and if we're gonna give Sacrificially joyfully and all these other things and then we come down to proportionately.

Well, what does that mean? It means if you have a lot and you give the same amount or even the same percentage as somebody who has little then maybe you're not quite getting the points and. And I've made this Analogy before but if you make a million dollars and you give 10

That's still a lot of money. Not that you're not entitled to you know, some Fun and all that but that's still a lot of money. Voluntarily and we're gonna talk about tithing here in a moment, but voluntarily 2nd Corinthians 9 7 again not reluctantly or under compulsion.

It is entirely between you and the Lord so there's no reason to feel forced to give. If somebody if you ever hear somebody say I feel pressure to give. Where does that pressure come from? Could it be your conscience?

I'll tell you where it's not coming from. It's not coming from any of the elders. I've mentioned this before but you know think about this if In the Mormon Church if to get to the highest degree of heaven you have to get married in the temple you have to.

Even though there's no temple marriage in the Bible or the Book of Mormon. You have to get married in the temple to get the highest degree of heaven and Mormonism. How do you get to the temple? Well, one of the ways is by paying 10 tithing.

You have to pay tithing you have to not drink coffee smoke cigarettes. Drink hot tea. What else? Can't you do don't smoke? Don't you okay. All that kind of stuff, you know, you can't go to R-rated movies.

They have all these rules and if you obey all those rules, then you get to go to the the temple and and get married now in order to Pass the test that you are actually giving 10 every year you go before the bishop.

And I don't know that they've changed it and asked to see your w -2s or anything like that. But you tell him whether you are a full tithe pair or not. And if not, why not? We haven't done that and we won't do that.

Because that's not what the Bible says. Not reluctantly or under compulsion. No one is looking over your shoulder except for the Lord. That's what I mean. It's entirely between you and the Lord if you can say with a clear conscience that you're meeting the biblical standard of Joyfully giving giving voluntarily sacrificially everything else then okay.

I'm okay with that. I'm fine with that. You should be fine with it, too final point. After voluntarily is in some loving submission to the Lord. We should do that in all things, right? We want to please him and all that we do and how we handle our finances again is another one of those issues.

Do our thoughts of money and our wealth and what we control what we are entitled to do those match. How God would view them? We want to please him and all that we do now. Let's talk about tithing. This is fascinating to me.

Well, first of all, let me ask you this this is gonna come up later. But I just like this anyway tithing. Some people say that we should give 10 of our pre-tax income. You know what my favorite retort to that is if you give 10 of your pre-tax income what happens if the tax rate gets to 95 then you're losing 5 every month.

You're gonna bet. That way if I make a hundred thousand dollars a year, let's make it easy a hundred thousand dollars a month. Whoa, live it large. And I give 10 of the gross that's ten thousand dollars and then the government wants $95 ,000 95 plus 10 is a hundred and five and I make a hundred.

I'm in I'm in a bad way. I think the biblical the New Testament principle is clearly we Give sacrificially we give joyfully we do all these other things, but I don't think there's a 10 we'll get to that here.

Now true or false. Tithing existed before the law was given who said true and how do you know that Brad? Abraham many offerings had father Abraham Genesis 14, let's turn their Genesis 14 verses 17 to 20 and would someone read that please when they get there.

Genesis 17 or I'm sorry. Genesis 14 verses 17 and 20. Yes, sir a tenth or a tithe.

Right. Why did he do that? What was the command to give a tenth of everything? There wasn't one. So if the idea of Tithing came before the law then what does that suggest maybe about tithing? Well that it that it's voluntary.

It certainly was in this case and That it not doesn't necessarily Comport with how we think about the law. Let's put it this way. Was it wrong to murder before? The law was established. Yeah, and it was wrong during the law or wrong after the law because it was a basic principle and you say well.

What are you saying that tithing was a basic principle? No, let's keep going. What did Jesus say? Well, let's. What about the Sabbath? There's another there's another one was the Sabbath commanded and the Ten Commandments.

Yes. Did the Sabbath as a principle as exist before the Sabbath or before the commandments? Yes, and yet what did Jesus say about the Sabbath? I'm sorry. It was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and he basically did things that you know, just shocked the Pharisees.

So the question is, you know was was the Sabbath and enduring principle or was it a Principle made to make a point and I think Jesus pretty much said it was made to make a point. People want to you know, I think for people who are sabbatarians today I go.

Well, I hope you rest fully on Saturday because that would be the biblical design. But I digress what about animal sacrifices we had those before the law even though the law commanded them. So MacArthur says that Old Testament tithing had elements of voluntary like we saw there with Abraham Abram.

Voluntary and required giving Before Moses time as it did during the time before and after the law of Moses so giving wasn't just relegated to the law. But let's talk about tithing. What was the purpose of tithing?

Why did Israel tithe? In fact, you know, I read that earlier from Paul Crouch the beloved theologian about what would a man rob God and not paying? His tithes. Well, how was he robbing God and it gets right back to this this point.

What was the purpose of tithing in? The Israeli economy and it was. Basically it was a tax. It was a lot of things listen to it how MacArthur describes it. He says. The tithe was was the 10 tax used to supply the needs of the Levites the priests because they had no livelihoods and received no land.

There the Levites worked in the temple. They Served the Lord in the temple. They had all manner of things that they did including killing all the animals and all the things that went on there. Which didn't really make a living.

Nobody was paying them $20 an hour they didn't have a priest union or anything like that to negotiate for them and Furthermore the tribe of Levi what was their part of the land? What did they get? They got nothing zip and.

So the tithing was instituted to keep these These guys alive basically, I mean this was their livelihood was the other tribes gave 10 to the Levites. MacArthur goes on to say the first tithe was a mandatory one-tenth of the people's produce and animals.