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Would you believe it that this is our third heart-to-heart talk regarding that eighth

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commandment in a series of messages on God's ten rules for living?

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Would you ever have believed that in those four words that constitute the eighth commandment,

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thou shalt not steal, that we are now beginning our third heart-to-heart talk?

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Oh, I'll tell you, when God laid out his plan of economics for humanity, he knew exactly

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what he was doing, but we have gotten so far away from God's rules for living that they

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seem almost inconsistent to us.

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They are so far beyond even our reason.

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But the trouble doesn't lie with God.

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The trouble lies with humanity.

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That's the reason we've gotten ourselves into such a mess that even our keenest minds

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cannot solve our problems and...

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Well, we're kind of in a jam with the whole thing, you know it?

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And why? is because we've let God's plans and God's rules and we've said, God, you

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didn't know what you were doing and we've got a better idea as to how to run our lives

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and run our nation and run our economics and we have run it right straight in the hole.

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And here we are.

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We didn't like what God had for us and we wouldn't like our own way better and since

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we have it, we don't like it, but we don't know what to do with it.

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And we're just in a mess with the whole thing.

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So here we come in this eighth commandment and we see God's great economical plan for

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humanity.

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And right at the beginning, we see that God gives us a recognition of property right.

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We have a right to possess property, to be the owner of property.

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But we also see that God's word denies all right to property except that of gift or work.

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No place in God's scheme of things does he have even the slightest opening for laziness.

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No, sir, I'll tell you.

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Search the Bible from the beginning to the end and you'll not find where God has left

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the slightest opening for a lazy man or a lazy woman.

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No, we've gotten to the place that it's our theology is just put it in my pocket, but

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that isn't in God's plan of things.

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Work six days shalt thou labor.

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That commandment is twofold.

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There cannot be a glorious Sabbath without six days of work.

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Exactly the same thing when it comes to owning property.

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Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the

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thing which is good that he may have whereup to give to him that hath not.

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In God's great plan, we see that we are to possess, to pass on to others, and we are

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to possess only as we work for that position or if it is given to us as a gift of love.

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But we are to possess and he blesses us for one reason, that we might pass on to others

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that which we say is ours.

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You cannot absolutely, you cannot beat this thing of giving.

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You cannot out give yourself.

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You can't do it.

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You try it.

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Just try it.

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You cannot out give.

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No man has ever given himself poor, but there is such a thing as giving yourself rich.

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I promise you understand it.

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I can understand it, only that it's one of God's rules.

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It's one of his laws.

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You cannot give yourself poor, but you can give yourself rich.

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Now here we come very definitely to another phase of this thing, another phase of God's

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great economics.

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Now in this first part when he says that we are to give to those who have not, well now

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that includes your wife's mother, that includes poor relatives, that includes those neighbors,

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that includes the folks down the street.

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There comes your charity.

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That includes, that's somebody else that you feel needs your help.

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Don't bring that part into God's part.

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God has a part separate and a part to this part of his plan for giving.

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Will a man rob God?

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Those very words are startling.

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My goodness alive, it's bad enough to rob your brother.

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It's bad enough to steal from your enemy.

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But the very idea of a human being to rob God, pause a minute, we need to get back again

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and have a full realization of who God is.

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He who spoke the world into existence, it is in his power to give life, to take life.

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He alone can bless one.

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The most high God, God Almighty, the very thoughts of a human being robbing him.

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Could you ever imagine in your wildest imagination someone stepping behind the throne of God

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and stealing something from off of the throne or stealing something from the person of God

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Almighty?

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Oh, but watch what God says.

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Will a man rob God?

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And then he continues, yet ye have robbed me.

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He makes a very definite statement.

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Ye have robbed me.

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But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee?

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And he answers in a very definite statement in tithes and offerings.

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Bring ye all the tithes where?

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Now your wife's mother is not included in this.

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She is included in that part that we had in our last heart to heart talk.

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Those who have less than you have and those that you can help.

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The tithes and the offerings are to be brought into one place and used for one purpose.

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Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse.

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And the storehouse is where you get your spiritual food.

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That there may be meat in mine house.

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This is how God's work is to be supported.

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It never was in God's plan that we had to go out with a little tin cup and beg for God.

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This brings a reproach on the ministry.

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It is absolutely contrary to the word of God for preachers and for priests and for God's

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workers to beg and beg and plead.

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Every time you tune in a broadcast and they are using some kind of gimmick and they're

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begging for offerings, beloved, all those things are bringing a reproach on the Lord's

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work.

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No preacher should ever get up in his pulpit and beg and plead and plead the people for

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money that never was in God's plan.

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Never.

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In God's great plan of economics, he made provision for the preaching of the gospel.

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He made provision for his church.

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He made provision for the preaching of the word.

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Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house.

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And prove me now, herewith saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows

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of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive

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it.

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Is that the end?

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No, he continues because God is practical.

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And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes.

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And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground.

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Neither shall your vine cast your fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

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In other words, if you'll be obedient, if you will follow me blindly, and that's exactly

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what it is, if you will take me at my word, if you will dare to prove me, and this is

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the challenge, this is the greatest challenge that any human being can ever receive.

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The challenge comes from God Almighty.

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Now there's many a man who may challenge you, but he cannot back up his word.

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He doesn't have the wherewithal to back it up.

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But when God Almighty challenges you and me to dare to prove him, we may have to do it

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blindly because from our point of view, we don't see how we can do it.

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Don't argue with him.

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Never argue with God.

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You don't have to.

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Look up and say, all right, you've said it.

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I accept the challenge.

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I'll do it.

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If you will bring the tithe, the offering into the storehouse, the place where you are

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getting your spiritual food, it's not to be used for any other purpose, but for the preaching

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of the gospel into his storehouse where men and women are being saved, lives transformed

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with the power of God.

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It is a storehouse, and be sure it is God's storehouse, that there may be meat in my house.

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Believe me now, right now, not after you get home to glory, but now, this very moment.

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And he says, I will pour you out such a blessing as there shall not be room enough to receive

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it even to the rebuking of the devourer for your sakes.

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And he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit

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before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

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This may seem so inconsistent to you, but watch.

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It's the most reasonable thing.

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It's the most consistent thing that I know anything about.

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Why tithe?

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Why?

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What something?

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Because life, property, money, talents, everything in the world, all that we have, all that we

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are come from God and prospers only by the blessing of God himself.

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Never was man possessed of a more stupid delusion than the delusion of self-sufficiency.

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Oh, I've heard them say, what I have earned are, what I have cultivated are, what I have

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done in myself is the most stupid language that man can ever permit to leave from his

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lips.

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The most egotistical, stupid bit of humanity.

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Just to think that you are self-sufficient.

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Is your heart?

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If your land has produced an abundant harvest, you might do well to remember that even the

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land you claim as yours is not yours.

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The earth is the Lord's.

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And remember, it was his sunshine, his air, his rain that germinated the seed and matured

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the harvest.

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Until you can create your own land, your own sunshine, air and moisture, and create your

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own seed, germinate it, and mature the harvest, your boast of independence is stupid to the

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point of insanity.

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I don't care who you are.

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I don't care how keen your intellect may be.

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You may be considered a very intellectual person.

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You may be considered a very successful person.

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And yet, you are dependent on the mercy of God for even the air that you breathe and

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the next beat of your hutch.

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Any amount of millionaire who was sufficient in himself, when that moment came and he knew

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the old ticker was taking his last tick, would have exchanged every dollar that he had in

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his possession for just a few more ticks of the heart and just a few more days in which

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to breathe God's air and yet when God says it's enough, he realized perhaps the first

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time in his life that he was absolutely utterly dependent on Almighty God.

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That's something.

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I love to think that the greatest reason in the world to tithe is because in tithing,

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we admit our dependence on Almighty God.

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Your tithe is to practice putting God first.

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The first day of the week when you come, bringing his part, never take anything out of your

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paycheck until you take God's part out first.

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Here it is, Lord.

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I bring my tithe, I bring my offering into the storehouse, God first.

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Tithing puts God first.

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And you want to know something?

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God first, the Bible says, and all these things shall be added unto you.

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Accept that challenge and I promise you, he will keep his word.

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A God who cannot lie and who has promised will keep his word with you.

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Amen.