WEBVTT

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Day 5, or January the 5th. All to Jesus I surrender,

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all to Him I freely give. Our thought today is

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rooted in Genesis chapter 14, verse 20. Then

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Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First,

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the big picture surrounding this verse. Abraham

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finally settles in the promised land with his

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wife Sarai and their nephew Lot. It quickly becomes

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obvious that the land will not be big enough

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for both Abraham and Lot, so it is divided between

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these two potential nations. This confirms why

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God told Abraham to leave his relatives behind

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before entering the promised land, but being

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a doting uncle, he thought he was doing the best

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by looking after his nephew Lot. The land was

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a gift from God. But when it is divided, Lot

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greedily takes the best portion and leaves the

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part he doesn't fancy for his uncle Abraham.

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Abraham is grateful to God for the rest of his

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life and is the first person in the Bible to

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give a regular part of his income back to God.

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It is called a tithe or a tenth. Meanwhile, Lot

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slips away and ultimately finishes up with nothing

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of real value. But Abraham gets all that God

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has promised, and he thrives in the promised

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land. And our action step for today. I think

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one of the most misused criticisms of the church

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today is seeing it as always asking for money.

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When tithing or the giving of a tenth is brought

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up, many believers react by saying that they

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are New Testament believers, not Old Testament

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ones. It's true that the concept of tithing is

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an Old Testament one, but in the New Testament

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it is superseded in the early church, where Acts

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4 .32 reminds us, All the believers were united

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in heart and mind, and they felt that what they

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owned was not their own, so they shared everything

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they had. This news usually makes tithing a very

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attractive option. However, Abraham's tithe was

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a tenth of everything, not just money. I believe

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tithing is a minimum, but let's not limit it

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to money. What about time? What about our talents?

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Need I go on? Remember, God allows us to retain

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90 % of our wealth, but even then we need to

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use it wisely as a good steward.