This is week #3 of DETOX
In week one, we taught you about the value of truth in your life.
Sometimes we need an intervention to wake us up and bring healing
in our lives by turning to God.
Last week we saw that being aware of the truth is only half the battle…
It’s application of the truth that sets us free.
Blessing comes when you accept responsibility for the truth God reveals! Curses are the result of ignoring the truth.
Today, we want to use that truth as a jumping off point for today’s lesson…
If blessing comes when we accept responsibility for the truth God reveals, why is it so hard to apply the truth to ourselves?
Scripture says that it has everything to do with the condition of our hearts.
9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?”
Jeremiah 17:9
MAIN THOUGHT: We must learn to lead our hearts, not be lead by them.
So how do we train and lead our hearts towards health and God’s purposes for our life?
It actually happens in a very interesting way...
“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
Matthew 6:21
In other words, Jesus is saying that you can tell a lot about a your heart by looking at how you spend the commodities of your life!
The Time-Talent-Treasure Dashboard
When we drive we react to what our dashboard is telling us about the car we are driving.
There’s a gauge for fuel, speed, RPM, etc…
Our heart has a dashboard as well and it measures how we use our time, talent and treasure!
Time is the only thing we can never get back.
Talent is what we spend our energy on.
Treasure is our wealth or means.
In the same way, we can look at the dashboard in our heart and make the necessary adjustments to the way we drive our lives.
Generosity should be the driver of our hearts and we can detoxify our hearts by leading it to giving as God prescribed.
POINT #1- Start by contributing 10%
You must set aside a tithe of your crops—
one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. V. 22
Honor God with the first 10% and you can trust God with the other 90%
God gives it a number so that we can be clear about it.
God doesn't say, "if there is enough left over". Do it first.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!
Malachi 3:10
POINT #2- Contribute to the God-community He places you in
23 Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored—and eat it there in his presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds.
Deuteronomy 14:23
The first part of your generosity should go to the place you worship God.
It should be shared in community with others!
Consumer or Contributor?
God established the tithe so we could understand the value of moving
from a consumer to a contributor and that change starts in the
God-community He places you in!
This is why many of us have a hard time fitting in. We are consumers everywhere we go...including our church.
God imagined His house as a place where everyone would be a contributor, not just a consumer!
Giving either works or it doesn’t!
Tithing is like training wheels. It helps us see that giving works!
POINT #3- Contribute to the highest value
Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 14:23b
The tithe trains our heart to trust God and not worry. When we give God control of our finances, it becomes His responsibility, not mine!
The highest value is not greater wealth, it’s knowing God more closely.
The highest value in our lives determines what we spend our time talent and treasure.
What is the highest value in your life?
The bottom line is actually determined by the top line...consider tithing.
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