Faithful Tithing – Part II

I just want to give a warm welcome to all those who are joining today. Thank Amy and Courtney and Kaitlyn for that beautiful special music piece that they prepare in advance for us. It's a blessing to have that. I want to say thank you for your prayers for me, for my surgery, for my eye. If I start squinting my eye a little bit, you'll know it's just... I might be twitching there.

So I really appreciate your prayers, as I said. And I think Mr. Malecia's comments were really appropriate as we continue to go through this pandemic. I do think 2021 will bring some relief here, but in the meantime, we're in the midst of these things. And we learned to reach out and connect with one another in other ways. And thank you for joining us here, and I hope you really will join the sermon chat where we just have a chance to fellowship and chat as well.

Well, today I want to give a part two of a series... or part one that I gave on tithing a few weeks back. In part one on tithing, I looked at what I called the face of tithing, the real-life impact of how God's church uses first, second, and third tithes according to biblical models.

And in that sermon, we looked at the Protestant teaching on tithing, and contrasted that with what the Church of God teaches, including whether Christians should tithe, and if so, to whom.

In this part two, we're going to briefly review a summary of the three tithes that are described in the Bible, as well as for here's the key reasons why Christians do tithe. But really, that's just a very brief review. The bulk of the message will be around how we actually calculate our tithes, and some of the discussions around that topic. And then we'll talk about the second and the third tithe in more detail. Certain administrative things regarding the second tithe, and then the teaching around third tithe, which I think we probably haven't heard in a while, but I think it's important to review what the Bible says about third tithe, and how that ties into what we do today.

And as I said in that first sermon, when we're done, I hope that each of us will have a better understanding of the Church's teaching on tithing, and we will be encouraged to remain faithful to this fundamental belief of the Church. Because I really do believe that our faithfulness in following God's law and living by His grace is really what allows us to advance towards His kingdom and be an instrument in His hand.

And tithing is no different than the other laws that are outlined there, and yet it is probably one of those commands which has probably some more of the more detailed impact on our lives. That is, we have to actually calculate and determine and make decisions frequently on these topics. And so understanding what the Bible says, I think, is important, and being reminded of what it says is important. Now, I had a slide presentation for the previous sermon. I do have a few slides that I'm going to share with you on this.

It isn't sort of the full presentation that we had before, but I do have some. And I want to start by sharing this first slide, which is essentially three, and we'll make sure we can get to make sure this is coming through. Okay, hopefully this is coming through okay. So I want to go through this first slide here, which gives us really a summary of the three tithes that I described in the first message.

So we can kind of see it on one slide. And as I mentioned, the Bible does not use the term first, second, or third. We're going to get to a reference in terms of a second tenth in the Septuagint later in this message, but it doesn't say first, second, and third tithe. What we understand is the usage of the tithe. And we see here in this slide what I'm calling the Levitical tithe, or what we often refer to as first tithe.

The Festival tithe, which we often refer to as the second tithe. And then what I'm terming, the Charity tithe, which is often referred to as third tithe, and which is taken every third year. And you can see the scriptural references across the top, numbers 18 to 21. You'll see in those verses that this tithe that's described there is given to the Levites for work of the tabernacle, and as their inheritance. And in verses 25 and 26 of numbers 18, we see that the Levites are to tithe of the tithes that they receive.

And then in Deuteronomy 14 22 to 27, we see another tithe described. And this tithe is to be eaten, or exchanged for money, and spent on whatever the giver's heart desires at the festivals in a place that God chooses. And then in Deuteronomy 14 28 to 29, we see another tithe described. And this tithe is a tithe that is to be taken up every third year. It's to be stored in your gates, and to be provided for the use of the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. And as we've talked about before, as I mentioned in part one, you can see how the uses of these tithes are fundamentally mutually exclusive.

For example, you can't both give a tithe to a Levite for their work in the temple, and also eat the tithe yourself. Also, the location of where the tithes are to be spent are also mutually exclusive. You can't give a tithe to the Levite for the work in the temple, eat it at the festival, and also store it in your gates to give to the orphans and widows. Now, some have tried to argue that indeed you can do this by saying that you give a portion to the Levite, and you eat a portion, and then you save a portion for widows and orphans.

But the problem is, once you start subscribing to this sort of one-tithe theory, you have to start assuming some extra biblical explanations for allocation. You have to assume that God, in his wisdom, chose to not provide that to us, although he provided a great deal of other detail in there in terms of how to divide up these tithes in this way. You would also, if you went down that path, you would have to assume that on the third year and the sixth year, he would either cancel the feast or he would give provisions for the fact that you wouldn't have a tithe for that feast because you were using it for something else.

So it just becomes really untenable after a while. And then, of course, you also have to ignore what I shared in the first part of the sermon, the last sermon, the writings of the first century historian Josephus, who actually describes how these tithes were administered at the time of Christ. So you'd have to sort of throw that out as well to get to the one-tide theory. And so really a lot of biblical scholars, and I could quote them as well, understand that there were three individual tithes described.

Now I'm going to just pause the presentation here for a moment. We'll come back to a few more slides, but let's revisit why Christians tithe very briefly. In part one of the message, I quoted Jesus' teaching regarding tithing in Matthew 23 verse 23. I mentioned that's a really helpful sort of verse to remember. You can also reference Luke 11 42, where we also reviewed the instruction also in the book of Hebrews in regard to how the law of tithing was changed from tithing going to the work of the physical house of God through the Levites to tithing going to the spiritual work of the house of God or the spiritual house of God through Jesus Christ our High Priest.

And in this regard, I wanted to share a quote which I think is pretty powerful in this regard. It's from William Barkley. This is not the William Barkley who's written some of the commentaries you might know. This is William Barkley. He's a senior pastor at Sovereign Grace Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He's also an adjunct professor of New Testament studies at Reform Theological Seminary. You can tell by his credentials that this man is a mainstream Protestant teacher.

He would not agree with us on many points in terms of the Sabbath, the Holy Days, and so forth. But in terms of tithing, he writes this on the website Gospel Coalition. He wrote this March 28, 2017. He says, the writer of Hebrews shows the propriety of Abraham's tithe since it was given to the priest of the Most High God. There is an inherent sense of continuity in Hebrews 7 connecting Abraham's tithe to the tithes the Levites received and gave.

Under the Mosaic covenant, this is striking in a letter intent on showing aspects of the covenant that no longer apply to New Covenant believers. Again, he would take exception with our teaching and understanding the book of Hebrews. But in regard to tithing, he is in agreement with our position and we would be in agreement with his position, where he says in these passages, the apparent requirement of a tithe comes before the giving of the Mosaic law and is not tied to it.

So while the tithe becomes codified in the old Mosaic covenant, it cannot be dismissed as part of the old covenant that's been fulfilled in Christ and no longer applies. This passage shows the piety of the patriarchs and establishes what God expects from his people. So here's a mainstream Protestant scholar, who we would not necessarily agree with in many aspects of understanding the old and new covenant, clearly affirming in his view the importance of tithing and connecting it back to Abraham, all the way through the time of Moses into the time of the New Testament and beyond, which is essentially the message I was sharing in the first part of the sermon.

So now that we've reviewed the three tithes, and I just wanted to get us back in that, and hopefully you've made those notations in terms of Numbers 18 for the first tithe, Deuteronomy 14, 22-27 for the second tithe, and Deuteronomy 14, 28-29 for the third, let's talk about some issues around how we determine what our tithes should be. Because this often is the question I have a friend and colleague of many years who is a tax accountant, and he grew up in the church, and he has advised many church members on many things in terms of finances. And the thing he told me years ago was the biggest and most frequent question he gets from church members is, what am I supposed to tithe on? So I'm going to go ahead and share a screen here again, and we'll go back to...

All right, good. We are in good shape here. All right, how is our increase defined? That is to say, what are we to pay our tithes on? So I'd like you to go ahead and turn over to Deuteronomy 14, and in verse 22, I'm going to take my Bible here as well. Deuteronomy 14 and verse 22, and let's read what God says about what we're supposed to pay tithe on. Deuteronomy 14 verse 22 says, "...you shall surely tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year." Now that's from the New King James. I've put up the New International version so you could look at that, where it says, "...be sure to set aside a tenth of all your fields, all that your fields produce each year." The New Living Translation says, "...you must set aside a tenth of your crops, one tenth of all the crops you harvest each year." The English Standard version of this same passage says, "...you shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field." And the Holman Christian Standard Bible says, "...each year you are set aside a tenth of all the produce grown on your fields." Now, if we focus on, first of all, this word increase or yield or tenth, this word increase is Strong's number 8393. I guess I didn't put it on the slide, but I'll mention that. It's the word you can see here pronounced Toba, and it means product or revenue.

I've listed the phonetic spelling, so you can take that in your notes there. And you can see that it's translated a variety of ways. It's translated as gain or harvest, income, increase, produce, revenue, yield, yield that may increase. And the point of this passage is that the tithe is from the increase of some kind of production, some kind of yield, some kind of gain from production. So that's the first thing that we want to just focus on. We're talking about an increase or a yield. And then the other thing that people tend to focus on is what says it's to be the increase of the grain of your field. And they'll say, well, I'm not a farmer, and so this doesn't apply to me. And so some have argued that we only are to tithe on land production.

For example, the increase of grain if you're a farmer or flocks if you're perhaps a herder, or if you if you have orchards, you know, maybe you have an almond orchard out in the central valley, you would tithe of your almonds. And some have argued that Jesus, even as a carpenter, did not tithe because it related to the work of his hands. Some have argued that the disciples of Jesus, who were fishermen, did not tithe because that did not relate to land, that related to water.

Fish came from water, not from land, therefore they did not tithe of their fish.

So what is it here? Is tithing about agriculture or tied to the nation of Israel? And so even if we are to tithe, we really should only tithe land production or things that might come from land, and fishermen, you know, don't tithe, and accountants don't tithe, and bookkeepers don't tithe, and nurses don't tithe, you know, any sort of service we don't tithe on.

Well, let's go over to Leviticus 27 and verse 30, and let's look at another passage on tithing.

Leviticus 27 verse 30 says, And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's, it is holy to the Lord. And the point being here that in this verse is that the tithe is holy to God. The first example given here is the tithe of the land. And then if we go to verse 32, it says, And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, or whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. And so we know that the holy tithe applied not just to the increase of the land, but also to the herds and the flock. Again, some people might say, well, that's tied to the land. But in this verse, we're actually told how to determine which animal it should be tied on. It basically just kind of goes under this rod.

Now, there are Jewish teachings, such as the Mishneh Torah, written by the Jewish scholar Maimonides in the 12th century, that records that the Jewish people paid tithes from agricultural produce of the land of Israel. And there is some debate that the land that they gave them across the Jordan, that was holy land, and therefore the things that came out of it was holy, and that if you weren't in the holy land, you didn't pay tithes on those things that were produced from land outside of Israel. And this practice, according to Maimonides, was changed after the exile because it seemed odd to the Jews who had left the holy land because of their exiles and not paid tithes, and so that practice was changed. And so this is where people can get wrapped up in this because they start looking at what the Jewish practices were versus what the intent of the scripture was. And, of course, we know the Jews created all sorts of different rules around all sorts of different things. What we understand from scripture, from this verse and other verses, is that the principle here is that the tithe was instituted formally and codified formally for the Israelites, as described here, when they came into the land of Israel. And everyone was given land except for the Levites, and there were arrangements made for them such that they would have an inheritance and so forth. So everybody was given land except for the Levites, and everyone then was to tithe on where that wealth would come from. Of course, there were sandal makers and carpenters and other skilled people, but the point was the wealth came from the land, and the principle was that we were to honor God who created all things with the increase of our wealth that would come from the land and from our production.

And to then go a step further to say, well, because we don't have land and because we don't produce today means that we have to honor God in some other way, would be missing the point of what God instituted in terms of being the maker of all things. I quoted a memo, or made reference to my mommades, according to the Encyclopedia of Judaism by Sarah Karrash and Mitchell Hurwitz.

Orthodox Jews to this day continue the custom of giving a tithe of their earnings, and it's of all their earnings, not just food or land. So even Orthodox Jews today understand this principle. But more importantly, from a biblical perspective, we know from Genesis 14, as we read that in the first part of the sermon, that Abraham tithes of the spoils of battle.

So, you know, the tithe that he gave to Melchizedek was not of the land, it was of the spoils of the battle, and that included gold and armor and all sorts of things. We also know from Numbers 18, I made reference to that in the first slide there, that the Levites tithed of the tithe that they were given. So their tithing only sort of secondarily came through the land. They were giving tithes of the things that they received. And then also in Genesis 28 verse 22, let's just turn there because we didn't make reference to that in the first message. Look over to Genesis 28 and verse 22, and let's see the example of Jacob. And when Jacob tithes and his decision to tithe, Genesis 28 and in verse 22, actually we'll get the context starting in verse 20, so there's no distinction here. Jacob isn't saying, well, you know, all the land I'll give to you, but you know, anything that my servants produce that is unrelated to the land, you know, anything that might, any sort of production that's outside of that I won't give to you.

It just says he will give a tenth, and in some translation actually says he will give a tenth of all. So to say that we tithe only on food or the productive capacity of a land is really to miss the larger point of what the Bible is saying and how it's describing the principle, is to give a tenth of the productive increase of whatever capacity God has given us.

At that time, most people were farmers and shepherds, and really frankly, up until the beginning of the 20th century, or beginning of the, I should say, the 19th century, most people were involved in crop production, and as our society has moved to more of industrial and service-based economy, most of us don't actually work in that way. So let's look at a practical example of tithing to understand kind of how we would think about this increase.

So we'll look at a simple example here. If a farmer produces 10 bushels of wheat in a harvest, and we've got kind of some some wheat here showing here from our tithing booklet, he would give one bushel to the priest as a first tithe. He would keep one bushel for him as a second tithe, then in the third year he would keep a third tithe. And that's pretty simple, but I think anybody who actually farms know it's not that simple because there's a lot of things that goes into producing that bushel of wheat or producing 10 bushels of wheat. A farmer, for example, must pay a neighbor for water to grow his wheat and agrees to pay for that water with one bushel of wheat. Then the farmer's increase is not 10 bushels because he has to pay one to the neighbor for the water. His increase is nine bushels. We would then pay nine-tenths of a bushel of wheat as a tithe. That is to say we have nine bushels of wheat, and so we would need to pay a tenth of those nine bushels. And so what you have then is this concept of cost of production. And cost of production is an important concept if you're a farmer or if you're an entrepreneur. You have to think about what are the costs that goes into producing that ultimate product that I produce.

Now, unfortunately, some people can sometimes confuse cost of production with cost of service because most of us actually don't work in a manufacturing. We may not be entrepreneurs producing things or farmers producing bushels. Most of us have a simpler way of tithing. Most of us essentially trade an hour of our time for money. That's fundamentally what most of us do.

So let's say you're paid $15 to work at In-N-Out Burger. What happens is you have entered into a contract to trade one hour of your time for $15. And after one hour, your increase is $15.

And we don't want to confuse any cost of production or cost of service in this example. There are generally no costs associated with you producing or creating or being paid that $15. It's just your time. Now there are some exceptions. Let's say that you're a bookkeeper and you're trading your services for some hourly rate. And as part of producing that service, you need to go buy a computer. Maybe you have to have a subscription to some tax accounting software or you might need to buy a desk. Now those things you wouldn't necessarily otherwise have. Now the desk, maybe you'd need a desk anyway because you want to study your bible with a desk. You might want to be able to write a letter to your friends with a desk. But you know the tax accounting software you wouldn't necessarily have unless you were the bookkeeper, the computer, maybe you'd need the computer anyway. And so this is where it becomes very much a question of a relationship between you and your creator, between me and my creator. Because you could argue, well I needed that computer anyway. I needed that desk anyway. And so if we start sort of lumping a lot of things into this cost of service, we might end up really reducing what our ties are and saying, well I needed this and needed that. Some people might say, well I need a pair of shoes to walk to work. If I don't have shoes, I can't walk to work. Well, you probably would need a pair of shoes anyway. Some people might say, well I need to have a car to get to work. And so you know if I have to go get a lease on a car or if I have a car payment, I need to deduct the cost of my car payment to get to work. Or if I'm going to live you know close to my work because that's important to me, I'm going to deduct the extra cost of having an apartment in a more expensive location. The problem with all these things is that they become very, very discretionary. Because some people, somebody might say, well I can take a bus to work.

Somebody might say, well I can drive a Prius. Another person says, well I want to drive a BMW. And so you begin to get very discretionary in these types of things. And so generally speaking, the church teaches that you know if we trade an hour of our time for some dollar amount, there really aren't any costs associated with that. Your employer generally provides all the tools that you need to be able to do your job. And so your increase is in this case 15, $15 an hour.

Like I said, maybe you're an entrepreneur, you sell furniture, you sell a desk for a thousand dollars, but you've got to buy the desk for 700, and you've got to store it, and so forth. And so determining what you pay tithes on, as I said, is for some people who just don't trade their their time for hours, can actually be a little complicated. But the main thing to keep in mind is that for most of us salaried workers, our tithe is essentially the money we receive for the time that we trade for. So then I'd like to talk a little bit about taxes, because taxes can sometimes be confusing for people. I don't have a slide on some of these next few points, but some people pay tithes on their gross income, and others pay tithes on their net income. Now some in the past have said, well, you know, I want to put God first, and so I put God first above all, which means that I pay tithe on my gross. And in fact, William Barclay, who I quoted earlier, that was the position that he and his wife takes, and if you read about sort of their experience with titling, that's where they follow. Dave Ramsey, if you follow the Dave Ramsey course, he says that he pays tithes on his gross. And, you know, if your conscience is such that you feel that that's what you should do, then certainly there's nothing wrong with that. But the teaching of the church, in regard to taxes, actually I might have a slide on this. Let's see. Yes, I do. The teaching of the church up until the 1980s was that we would pay tithes on our gross. But in 1982, the church came to the conclusion, starting with brethren who lived in certain European countries, that they essentially had no control over the deduction of taxes from their income.

And in many cases derived a minimal benefit from these taxes. And that, in the cases of Denmark and Norway and then Britain, the level of taxes just continued to go up and up and up, such that it was taking a huge percentage of their pay, such that if they were paying on their gross, they would be left with very little. And so the non-discretionary nature of taxes and what we call confiscatory, that is, you don't pay it, you go to jail. Basically, it's taken from you, took out any discretion that people would have in that regard. And so the church made the decision in the 1980s and then in the 1990s, applying to the United States, that the principle here is that we would pay on our net. And so that's what the church teaches, that we should pay on our net.

Now, I do know people who live, you know, in no-tax states, Saudi Arabia or Hong Kong or certain other jurisdictions, they might be expats. Again, their gross income is going to be much, much higher. And so perhaps there's decisions that they can make. But in general, the church teaches that we pay on our net because that is our net increase. And then you can get in some details for the sake of time. I won't go into the details of, you know, should I pay on my 401k and should I pay on Social Security and these types of things. Again, those are decisions that individuals must make. Typically, people have not paid on their 401k because when they get their 401k, then they'll pay tithes on that. In retirement, same thing with Social Security. The point is you really need to make a decision on that. Am I going to pay tithes now or am I going to pay tithes later on those? Then there's the question as to when to pay tithes. I'm sorry, then there's a question. I will get to that in a second. I want to talk about retirement first. The question comes up of should I pay tithes in retirement? And the teaching of the church based on Scripture is, first of all, if somebody is in a position where they need to receive assistance in third tithe in some way, that is that they just are barely, barely, barely making ends meet, such that they just barely have enough to eat, then they may not be in a position where they should be tithing. And for many people on retirement who perhaps were not able to save for retirement and maybe they took early retirement and so they have very, very little, it may be appropriate for that person to not tithe because they're just barely making it through. But then there's a second principle here, which is that you know, the way that, at least in the United States, this works is if somebody takes early retirement and they haven't saved a lot, or maybe they didn't pay into the system very much, and they receive, let's say, Social Security benefits for 30 years, 20 or 30 years, most of that money is not money that they actually paid into the system that they're getting out.

Most of that money is coming from richer individuals who paid into the system and who are not going to see that. This is the way our system is designed. You know, somebody who makes more than $100,000 a year, for example, is going to pay way more into Social Security than they ever get out. And someone who only makes maybe $15,000 or $20,000 and is right at the poverty line for most of their life is going to receive way more in Social Security than they ever paid into the system. And so, most of that, somebody who might be in an early retirement who isn't receiving a lot, is likely receiving a gift or a transfer of wealth from someone else. And so, the teaching of the Church in France and in other parts is that often people in retirement do not pay Social Security, do not pay tithes on their Social Security. And so, this is something that I think our retirees need to consider of what is the right thing to do. Again, what we pay tithes on is often the most asked question, and it's really a question between that person and God. Now, that doesn't mean that the retiree who's just barely making ends meet can give free-wall offerings. We see that from the widow's mind who came in and put in those two pieces, right?

Even somebody who has barely anything has the obligation to think about where their blessings are and to give free-wall offerings. But what we're talking about right now are tithes and whether tithes are required. So, if you have questions about this, I encourage you to reach out to the elders of the church because each situation is different. But keep in mind, if somebody is just barely making ends meet, or if somebody is receiving essentially what is a wealth transfer and living on that, then that tithing may be something that they want to consider.

So then, there's a question of paying tithes on gifts. Some people ask, well, should I pay tithe? I received an inheritance. I received this wonderful gift from somebody. Should I pay tithe on that gift? The church teaches that we do not pay tithes on gifts or inheritance.

And inheritance is something that we have received from someone who originally earned money in some way. And that person who originally earned that money had a responsibility to tithe. Whether they tithed or not was between them and God. Whether they received the blessing or they were not blessed, that is between them and God. You, as receiving the gift, you didn't earn it. There is not an increase there. Now, you may give a free-will offering to be thankful for the blessing that you received, but an inheritance or a gift is just that. It's not an increase. It's not something that came from your productive capacity, from some gift that you received from God, and you've worked with that hand and you created an increase.

There's also the issue of paying tithes on capital gains, and this comes up a fair bit. Let's assume, for example, that you bought a house. You saved to buy a house, and of course you were tithing faithfully during the time that you were saving. And you saved up money to buy a house. You got just enough of a down payment, and you bought a $300,000 condo or house, and of course in this area, in the Bay Area, that would be a miracle. But let's just go with that example for a moment.

And you bought this $300,000 house, and five years later, you were blessed in such a way that that house was now worth $400,000. And you then decided to sell that house. Well, you bought that house for $300,000. Of course, your down payment was a fraction of that. And now you sell the house for $400,000. You have a $100,000 gain on that home. Now, if you take that $100,000 gain after you pay off all your bills in the house and so forth, and you go on a beautiful vacation to Cabo San Lucas, and then after that you buy a fancy car, and then you kind of put the rest in savings, well, that would be a gain to you. And you would be responsible to pay tithes on that capital gain, because you essentially just use that gain for your own pleasure. That's just a gain. It's an increase, just like anything else. You've been blessed with an increase of your productive capacity because you put the money into the house, and through the conditions of the market, you received this wealth increase. Now, however, if after five years you decided to sell the house, not to take that fancy vacation to Cabo San Lucas, but instead you buy a different house. Maybe it's closer to your work, maybe it's a little bit bigger, maybe your other house was older and this house is newer, and you take that $100,000 and you roll that into this new house, well, you have no gain at all. You're not benefiting from some, you know, car or vacation. All you're doing is trading one house for another, and in that case that gain and the title of that gain becomes deferred.

It's basically deferred in there. Now, of course, you are benefiting from a nicer house, maybe, or maybe a house that's closer, or maybe the house that's in some way better. Maybe you got married and now you have children and so forth, but the teaching of the church is that that gain is deferred, and so if you'd like to give a free-will offering based on that gain, you certainly could, but that asset is just trading. You're just trading one asset for another. You can imagine Abraham having a head of cattle, and he needs a camel. So he trades a head of cattle for a camel, and in that process it's just a swap. There's no tie there. That's the same principle. Now, of course, if he traded a head of cattle for a camel and he got some cash, well, that cash would likely be increased, and he could tie on that difference.

So that's the issue of capital gains, and of course, if we're blessed to own some stock or a mutual fund and we see an increase in that over time and we sell that and we use that increase for something that we needed, again, that would be something that we would tie them. That's a capital gain that we would tie them. There's also a question as to when to pay tithes.

The biblical example that we see is that we pay tithe when we have the increase. So if we're a farmer and we have tithes at the end of the year when we harvest, that's when we would pay our tithe. We can't pay our tithe before that. For most of us, we get paid every other week or maybe twice a month or maybe once a month, and when we get paid, that's our increase. So that's when we would need to pay our tithes. I counsel anyone in God's Church who does budgeting to put your most important items first. Interestingly enough, Dave Ramsey says the same thing in his course on financial peace university.

Tithing, first and second tithes, should be right at the top of anyone's budgeting list. And then after that, you can put rent or food or whatever the other things are. And we should pay our tithes first. Tithes should not be paid after everything else. Tithes should be paid first, and then we live on the rest. And I recommend for first tithe that that be some sort of an automated payment that is calculated. And that way, you basically get your paycheck, the automated payment is sent off to the church, and then you live on the rest.

And that way, there's no risk of not paying your tithes as you should. Okay, so those are some of the questions that often come up with, how do I determine my increase, capital gains, taxes, when do I pay my tithes, and so forth. Let's talk about the second tithe here. The second tithe. Because the second tithe is saved and consumed at the festivals. Excuse me. And we can see a discussion of that at Deuteronomy 1422.

We looked at that, for example. There needs to be a way to save that second tithe. And this is often best accomplished with a separate savings account in some way. And if you have regular income, I recommend you just make a just have an automated transfer between your checking account and the savings account. And it just accumulates up through there. Some people like to put it in some sort of interest-bearing account.

Right now, interest rates are very low, but still, you might see a little bit of something before the feast as something to supplement your second tithe. If you don't have regular income, then you know, you can save that in a jar in the house. You can have an envelope in your drawer someplace where it's safe and protected and put in that tithe, whether it's a cash or check into that.

Well, it should be cash because the check will become stale data. You put that cash into that envelope. I should mention for brethren in Africa, the second tithe is sometimes given to the local elder or the local leader for safekeeping. And this happens where there might be a woman who's saving her second tithe, and then, you know, after six months, there's some money in the house and the husband comes and takes the second tithe.

And so, to protect that woman and also protect it from theft, we do counsel some of our members to just give it to the local church, and then they keep it for them and then give it back to them right before the feast for them to spin. And those are special cases, I think, in most of our western countries that would not be necessary, and it is not our practice. So regular income, separate bank account, intermittent income, maybe a separate bank account, or at least just put it in an envelope or save it in some way.

Now, the festival tithe is a tithe just like all the other tithes. It's not about saving enough to go to the feast. Some people think, well, I'm going to save money to go to the feast.

The second tithe is a commanded tithe, and I'd like you to just go back to Deuteronomy 1422, just to be reminded of that. Deuteronomy 1422, we read how the first tithe was holy, we read the tithes of the land and the tithes of the flocks, but notice here in Deuteronomy 1422 that God makes a statement about the second tithe here. He says in Deuteronomy 14 verse 23, "...you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where he chooses to make his name abide the tithe of your grain and your new wine, your oil, the first slings of your herds, and their flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always." So the second tithe is also about learning to fear God, and so some people say, well, I can make the first tithe, but I just can't do that second tithe. Well, it says here we save the second tithe also as a principle of learning to fear God, that this celebration that he ordains for us is so important that it must be funded, and we must have a way of rejoicing, as it says, but if the journey is too long, it talks about being able to change that into money. And in verse 26, "...and you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, whatever your heart desires, you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice." And so we are to save a full tenth. That's exactly what it says. And if after saving our second tithe, we have more than we need, then we should be generous with others and give of our excess. We can give directly to those we see who have a need at the feast, or we anticipate we'll have a need if we give them of our second tithe before the feast.

Or you can send it into the church. That can be sent to the Home Office in Cincinnati because there are needs there. There are needs that we can't see. And they, as pastors, sometimes we have to put in requests for second tithe assistance. And so when I put in a request for second tithe assistance for somebody here locally, I put that request in Cincinnati. And that money comes from a second tithe fund where people have sent in excess second tithe that it might be used for people around the country. Some people prefer to send it locally, and we do distribute second tithe locally. So it can be used in various ways, but it's really intended to be generous if you have extra second tithe. Saving a second tithe teaches us about generosity with our excess, and it teaches us about the importance of spiritual recreation. We tend to kind of say, well, you know, yeah, the feast, and that's fun and everything. But you know, this is spiritual recreation, or recreation, as we tend to say in the modern vernacular. We need a break. We need to rejoice. We need to have time set aside each year where the pressure of paying bills is not there, and it's not a concern. And we can imagine what it's going to be like in that kingdom of God, in that millennium, and beyond, where the pressures of that we feel day-to-day are removed from us.

And so at the end of the end of the feast, if we have extra second tithe, then we can be generous with that. Now, some have asked, is it okay to carry over some of my second tithe from one year to the next? And, you know, I think practically speaking to spend every last penny sometimes, I mean, sometimes some of us have been in that situation, or we do that. But, you know, we should make sure we budget to stay within our means, and what we have for our second tithe, we should calculate what that second tithe is. And so, you know, perhaps there's a little bit left over, there might be 10 or 20 or 100 dollars left over in that second tithe account. And as a practical matter, leaving that in that account for the next year is perfectly acceptable. If we have a big excess, and we've been generous, and we've given, and we maybe even sent some into the church, into the home office, to be used, and so forth. And we still have excess, and you want to carry that over to the following feasts, because maybe there's something that's special, that following feast that you'd like to do. Maybe there's a special trip that you'd like to take instead of being local, you'd like to go international. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. In general, the teaching of the church is that those things are personal choices. That, again, this is between you and your creator. However, the principle is to rejoice. And so, sometimes people say, well, you know, this year I'm going to be local, and I'm going to be a little more frugal, and next year I'm going to do something special. Well, okay, but keep in mind, if that frugality leads you to compromise the intent of the feast, the spiritual intent of the feast, to learning to fear God and to rejoice, to do something special the next year, we might be confusing the spiritual recreation with a vacation. And the feast is not a vacation, although it can have vacation-like elements. It's not a vacation. And so, we have to make sure that we fulfill the spiritual intent. And again, I wanted to give this sermon now because, you know, this is, as it were, the beginning of the next cycle. As we are saving our second tithe now for the feast, it's going to be coming up in September of 2021. And so, we need to be applying these principles now and making sure that we are prepared to spiritually rejoice at that feast in September of 2021. Now, question comes up.

What if we are unemployed and have no income to tithe on? Should we go to the feast? And we're going to read a few scriptures, I think, that we'll be telling on this when we get to third tithe. But let me just give sort of the response here now. If we don't have a job and we are in need of church assistance to go to the feast, then the spiritual example indicates, and the law we're going to read here indicates that we should ask for help. If we refuse church assistance and for going to the feast, we may be suffering from pride because we don't want to take assistance.

God wants everybody to go to the feast, even if there's some issue where somebody might be temporarily unemployed or doesn't have enough or that needs to be supplemented.

And if we, let's say, were unemployed for half of the year and employed for the other half, well, if we're faithfully saving our second tithe and we still don't have enough, it is perfectly acceptable to ask for assistance. And the minister, the pastor, should ask, have you been faithful in saving your second tithe based on what you did receive? And if the answer is yes, well, then there is money available. That's what that second tithe assistance fund is for. Everybody should go to the feast and rejoice. Now, if we are chronically unemployed or chronically underemployed, that we require church assistance year after year after year. Now, that may reflect a deeper spiritual issue, and that may be a need for further counsel and understanding. So there are, again, facts and circumstances for each individual. But going to the feast is not an option under God's law. It is a requirement under God's law, which means saving a second tithe is part of that, and saving enough to go to the feast is not saving second tithe. As I said, saving a second tithe is about learning to fear God, is what the scripture says. So now let's turn our attention to the... and by the way, I've put a couple things. Hopefully you've seen this Nehemiah 8 verse 18, I think, is a great scripture in this regard. It says, they kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly according to the prescribed manner. And so that's what we do. We keep the feast seven days, and on the eighth day we have a sacred assembly. That's what we follow. We follow this example, and now is the time to make sure that your second tithe planned for the year is set up properly.

Now let's talk about the third tithe. This is my final point here in the sermon today.

We've already seen from Deuteronomy 14.28 that there's a third tithe given every year, or every third year, I should say. But I'd like you to turn to Deuteronomy 26 and verse 12.

Deuteronomy 26 and in verse 12, and I'd like to read this other reference to the third tithe. It says here, when you have finished laying aside all the tithes of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, and we're going to go back to what that phrase refers to here in a moment. So keep that in mind. When you have finished laying aside all the tithes of your increase in the third year, and have given it to the Levites, the stranger, the followess in the window, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandments which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. Now anybody who has paid third tithes, and I know I'm speaking to a lot of you out there who have have done that, that third tithe year is a test of faith. And maybe you were ready to say this at the end of the third tithe. God, I was faithful, and I did this. And my wife and I have, and we've been incredibly blessed, as I'll share that in a moment. But this is a scripture about the third tithe and the importance of the third tithe. But there is a reference here to the year of tithing.

And for clarity, I'd like to read this verse from the Septuagint. This is the, I'm going to use the Brenton Septuagint translation. I'm going to put it up on the screen here. Deuteronomy 26 verse 12. Just as a reminder, the Septuagint translation is a translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, which was done a couple hundred years before the time of Christ.

Some scholars believe the Septuagint was somewhat widely used in the first century church, and there are even quotes from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament.

That's a whole interesting discussion of itself. But Deuteronomy 26 verse 12 in the Septuagint says, And when thou shalt have completed all the tithings of thy fruit in the third year, thou shalt give the second tenth to the Levite, and the stranger, father, was widow, and they shall eat it in thy cities and be merry. This is a very interesting rendering of this verse from the Septuagint. The reference to this second tenth would be what we would call third tithe, or the charity tithe, because remember they kept a first tithe to the Levite, and another for themselves to keep the feast, because this was at the time of the feast that this was being described. And so this second tenth was given to the poor in this third year.

Now, this second tenth then, it specifically calls out how this is going. You know, the first tenth went to the Levites, and now this second tenth is being given portion to the Levites, portion to strangers, fathers, widows, and so forth.

Now, this reference to the second tenth, as I said, would be the third tithe that they put out. So this is specifically calling it out. Now, some scholars have argued that in the third and the sixth year, instead of saving the second tithe, they used the second tithe for this purpose, but I think I've already gone through the three tithes earlier there, and there's quite a bit of debate on that. Now, in the modern era of the Church of God, up into the 1980s, the Church taught that members should pay a third tithe every third and sixth year, according to the commandment of Deuteronomy 14 and here in Deuteronomy 26, and then rest on the seventh year.

And so I want to bring out this concept of resting on the seventh year. So why did we say we should rest on the seventh year? So I'd like you to turn with me to a couple other key verses here on the third tithe, again, that we might not have reviewed in a while. Let's go over to Leviticus 25 and in verse 3 to 5.

Leviticus 25 verse 3 to 5, it says, Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruit. But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own cord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your unintended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land.

And then in verse 6 it says, the Sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you and your servant and so forth. So what they were able to do is any sort of volunteer crop or plant that might come up from the seeds that were left, they could eat those. That was fine, but they were not to harvest them and have a regular production. They were supposed to give the Sabbath the land, supposed to have a rest for the Sabbath. This is probably one of the most remarkable early indications of managing your land in a productive way such that you can achieve long-term sustainability from the land.

Now let's look over in verse 20 because that raises an obvious question. If they're not producing or they're not yielding anything from the land, what do they do? It says in verse 20, and if you say, what shall we eat in the seventh year since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce, then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth produce enough for three years. And you shall sow in the eighth year and eat old produce until the ninth, until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.

So God said, don't worry, I'm going to bless you so richly in this sixth year, you will have plenty to eat throughout the whole seventh year. And in fact, so much so that the feast was still to be kept even on the seventh year, even with that because they were going to be so blessed by the increase, they would have the ability then to keep the feast in the following year as well.

And again, that's why we say that sometimes it is okay to move your, potentially use your tithe from one year to another because we see that principle here that they would have had to do that. And so God wanted them to trust Him that He would provide for Him.

You know, modern universities and some companies actually give extra time off after seven years. I worked for Intel Corporation and I received what was called a sabbatical. That was the term. It was a sabbatical. Every seven years, an employee of Intel was given an extra eight weeks of vacation on top of the regular vacation time to have a rest. And in university settings, that seventh year could be an entire year of rest. And this is where we get the concept from.

We get it right from here from the Scripture. Now, in the modern context, most people are not farmers, and so most of us don't pay tithes from agriculture, so the land doesn't need to rest. Therefore, there isn't the same seventh year rest in terms of paying our first and second time.

We continue to do what we do. Now, you know, if we do have a sabbatical and we aren't paid or maybe we take some time off, then obviously that'd be a different matter. But look over in Deuteronomy 31 verse 10, and we'll see that even in these sabbatical years, the feast was kept. In fact, the seventh year was a special year in terms of the Feast of Tabernacles because it was on the seventh year that the law was especially read. Look over in Deuteronomy 31 verse 10.

It says, and Moses commanded, in Deuteronomy 31 verse 10, commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time of the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which he chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. And so based on this, we see the feast is still kept every year, even in the seventh year. However, as a principle, the Church teaches that regarding counting the third and sixth year of tithing, we observe this biblical seventh year of rest. And we basically reset the clock. Therefore, as members, we should restart our counting of the third year, as did the Israelites, after resting on the seventh year. Now, again, we probably haven't heard this, but in a while, because as we're going to get to in a moment, there's a principle of third tithe that the United Church of God published in the 1990s. But I think it's important we just get grounded in what the Bible says regarding the administration of this third tithe. So what the Church has taught for decades is that we determine our third tithe year by when we came to understand God's truth about the tithes. So if somebody comes into the Church, they begin to, I should say, they begin to understand the truth, and they are baptized. That would be the beginning of when they begin to understand the truth. If we've grown up in the Church, and we now come to a point where we're ready to make a commitment to this way of life, and we're baptized, that would be that moment. And then that's when we begin counting. So I was baptized, for example, in February. And what the Church has always taught is that we determined the beginning of this three-year cycle and then the seven-year cycle, based upon the Feast of Tabernacles, which is closest to our baptism date. So I was baptized in February. The Feast of Tabernacles that's closest to that would have been the prior year, October. So that year was my first year of tithing, and that's where I begin to count the one. Now, if someone was baptized in July, well, the Feast of Tabernacles would be coming up in a couple months. So that stub period of July to October would not be the first year, but the first year would begin with the Feast of Tabernacles a few months after they were baptized. And that person then would count one, two, and then in the third year would save a third tithe. That would be for the purpose of providing for those who are in need. And then they would have, after that year, they would have a fourth, fifth, and then there would be another tithe, the third tithe year.

And then after that year was over, there would be a seventh year of rest, where the cycle has now been complete. There would be a rest year, and then that person would restart then the year after that, counting one, two, and then again the third year would go. And that's what we've taught for for years and years, up until the 1990s, when certain considerations needed to be considered given our modern context. And before I get to that, I just want to say that personally, my wife and I have been richly, richly blessed on the third tithe years that we had.

Both our children were born during our third tithe years. I finished my graduate degree, which was a huge thing for us on my third tithe year. We bought a, I remember buying a very nice car that just managed to work that out. We ended up getting into our first home. And just just amazing blessings, truly miraculous, associated with that third tithe year. And yet, those years, as those who have kept them, were difficult years, and we knew that.

However, over the last 60 years, the level of social programs and the level of taxation has increased in many countries around the world, including in the United States, which resulted in church members basically paying a double third tithe. And so, I wanted to put this up on the screen. This is from the UCG doctrinal statement on third tithe. In 1982, the church was presented with a fax regarding the form of taxation in Britain and Scandinavia, and the impact it had on individual wages in those nations. And the church recognized that these modern states in Europe had, to a large extent, assumed the church's responsibility in caring for the needy. And so, what the church realized is essentially members in these countries were paying a double third tithe. They were paying their third tithe every third year, according to the biblical command and counting the seven years of rest and so forth. But then, their taxes were so high for these social programs that essentially they were paying it to the government as well.

And consequently, in the 1990s, the church determined that in many cases it would be inappropriate for church members to pay both a tax to the government and to these social...

and the third tithe, according here to the Bible. Because, again, the purpose of the third tithe was to provide for the widow, the orphan, and those who... those that are in need. In 1996, the Council of Elders in the United Church of God clarified a key point in regard to the keeping of this law. And I've put the quote from the doctrinal paper here up on the screen. I'll just read it. The Council of Elders has resolved that where governments provide programs, the intended purpose of which is to provide for the needs of those that the biblical third tithe was designed to assist, and that where such programs are funded by an annual rate of taxation greater than the biblical third tithe, members who are so taxed are not obligated to pay what amounts to an additional third tithe of the church. Members not tax in this manner should follow the scriptural instruction to pay a third tithe. And so you seem to be getting... hopefully by this time a theme through this whole message, which is that the tithe is very much a spiritual matter, but it has a physical implication as we consider what God would have us do.

What is our individual situation? If we are not paying toward social programs in our individual case, and there are many who don't, then we should be following this third tithe command from Scripture, and we should be following the third and the sixth and the sabbatical rest, and how we calculate those, and so forth. But if we are in a situation where our taxes are such that we're basically paying for a lot of these social programs, frankly here in California we have a state tax.

Many states don't have state taxes, but here in California we have a state tax. We pay extra, and a lot of those state taxes go for these social programs. And so living in California, you know, it's very likely not necessary to pay that third tithe because we are already paying extra taxes for that, often in excess of whatever we would be paying in a third tithe. Your individual situation needs to be evaluated, and that's really the principle that the Council of Elders has laid out. Now the quote-unquote benefit of this doctrinal statement here in 1996 was that many families no longer struggle to pay both the taxes that they were being taken out for these social programs and the third tithe. So that situation has now been rectified. But the downside is that there is less money available now for church members who need help. And the thing I'd like to bring out is that the church has not stopped teaching third tithe. The church teaches. I am teaching third tithe right now. If you go on the church's website, you will see the church is teaching on third tithe. Third tithe is commanded. It is a commanded tithe, and that's what the church teaches. And so some people have chosen, even with this doctrinal statement, to still keep a third tithe. And they've evaluated their individual situation. They said, you know, it is important that I do this because my taxes or my situation does not fall under this doctrinal statement here. Each year we should ask ourselves, have we truly kept God's law relative to third tithe? Just because the church has a specific position adopted doesn't mean that our social circumstances wouldn't warrant us doing it.

Personally, I would tell you that my mother and I benefited from third tithe assistance, or church assistance. I remember eating, frankly, as a teenager a lot of beans at a certain point in my life because we just didn't have a lot for food. And that church assistance really made a difference for me personally. That church assistance helped with clothing, it helped with food, and it also helped me get to summer camp one year. I remember there were some special assistance because we didn't have funds. Third tithe, like the other tithe, is a personal question between you and your Creator, between me and my Creator. We don't ask for money in the church of God. We don't pass a plate on the Sabbath and say, you know, put some money in this basket. We rely on our individual conscience and our study, our faithfulness, and our diligence to pay our tithes faithfully to God. And the third tithe is, like the second, and the second tithe sometimes can, in our minds, be less important than the first tithe. But they're not. There are three tithes, and each of them must be kept, that we might learn to fear God, and they are holy to God.

You know, I hope this part two of the sermon has been helpful to understand more fully this first, second, and third tithe and some of the administrative details. And in the sermon chat, we can certainly answer some more questions about this. We've looked at these practical aspects of paying tithes and some of the details. You know, there's a lot of details around this, and what matters is to get counsel about it. You know, when we begin to think that we are prospering because of our own efforts, then I think we might lose sight of God's grace in our lives. God gives the increase of the earth to us. When we begin to look for reasons to reduce our tithes, then we must ask ourselves if our priorities are in the right place. And if we even begin to question biblical tithing and the biblical teaching on tithing, then I think we may be crossing the line into a realm of sinning against our Creator. God looks at the heart, and He wants us to put His laws into action, all of them. And tithing is just one of the many laws we read in Scripture. And frankly, tithing can be a test commandment as to whether we're going to truly trust God, whether we're going to learn to fear God. And I hope that this Part 1 and Part 2 has been helpful to you as you evaluate your individual circumstances and decide what your tithes should be and whether or not you're being faithful in tithing. Thank you very much.