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Would you believe it that we're still on that eighth commandment?

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That's right.

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Did you ever think when we started this series of messages on God's 10 rules for living,

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and when we got down here to the eighth commandment,

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just four little words, thou shalt not steal,

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that we would spend this much time on just that one commandment alone?

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But it's very important, for in this one commandment,

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in just those four little words,

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God gives us his full economic system for his people,

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for the world, and for his church.

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And now we are in that part of that great system that God has for his church.

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And I gave that to you in the present tense, not in the past,

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for when he gave us these 10 rules for living,

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it was not merely for Moses and the children of Israel,

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but he looked down through the telescope of time,

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and the words that he gave,

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the laws that he gave were for all who were to come,

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generations out there in the future,

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including this 20th century today in which you and I live.

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For his laws are not limited to any one generation,

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but for all of humanity.

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And one could not imagine a God of law,

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a God of perfect order,

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launching one of the most important institutions in the world, his church.

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Without safeguarding it was a business method which would protect its and his honor in the earth.

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That's right.

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And you know, it never was in the plan of will of God

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that all of this reproach that is being brought upon his church,

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all of the reproach that is being brought upon his work and the preaching of the gospel,

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through men and women who lack wisdom,

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lack the knowledge of the word,

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in some instances lacking consecration,

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by begging for finances to support his work,

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by using all sorts of gimmicks to support the preaching of the gospel.

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Beloved, our God doesn't have to resort to these small things.

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I can't imagine the mighty God of this universe,

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God Almighty,

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resorting to gimmicks to have to support the most important institution in the world, his church.

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No, ma'am.

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Knowing God as we do, the mighty God of law,

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the mighty God of perfect order,

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and that's just exactly what he is.

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He is absolute perfection in everything.

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Perfection in law, perfection in order.

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Therefore, I know that he has worked out some kind of plan that would safeguard his church,

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that would protect his church, that would protect his own honor here on earth.

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I know that he has made provisions somewhere for the supporting of the preaching of his word.

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And he has.

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He has not forgotten one thing, not one single thing.

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And in this Eighth Commandment, where he has given us his great law,

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his great economical law for people, for nations,

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and this also includes his church,

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the supporting of his church.

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Therefore, we had this portion of the word of God as found in the third chapter of Malachi.

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Will a man rob God?

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Yet ye have robbed me.

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But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee?

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In tithes and offerings.

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Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even his whole nation.

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Then he goes on to say, bring ye all the tithes in the storehouse,

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that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now.

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Just prove me.

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Right now, herewith saith the Lord of hosts,

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if I will not open you the windows of heaven,

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

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Then he goes on further and says, because you have accepted my challenge,

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because you have dared to prove me, because you have done this thing,

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because you have remembered my word, obedient to the word,

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because you have been faithful in bringing in of the tithes and the offerings

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into the storehouse, had given for the support of my church for the preaching of the word,

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I will re-duke 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,

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saith the Lord of hosts.

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Let's come right down to this practical thing,

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and I like to be practical because I feel that God is practical.

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And sometimes I'm convinced that the most impractical people in the world

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are professing Christians.

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They're not consistent sometimes in their living.

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They're not consistent in their preaching.

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They're not consistent in their thinking.

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God is consistent.

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God is practical.

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And this thing of tithing is the most practical thing in the world.

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Don't turn off that radio dial.

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Don't you do it.

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If I was talking about heaven, oh, you'd love it.

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You'd get your chair a little closer, and you'd practically crawl into your radio set.

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Listen, I'm talking about something that is for your gain,

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something that can be very profitable unto you.

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Why tithe?

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Let's talk it over.

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Why is God reasonable?

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Because everything that you and I have, whether it's property,

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whether it's health, money, talents, even life itself,

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all we have, all we are come from God and prospers by the blessing of God.

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And you are absolutely the most stupid person in the world.

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You are just an inflated egotist if you feel

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that you are independent of Almighty God.

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There isn't a person breathing the breath of life this hour.

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There isn't a human being living this very minute who is independent of God.

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That person, if the old heart is beating, if that person is breathing this moment,

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he is dependent on God for the air that he inhales and

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for the next beat that his physical heart takes.

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Never was a man possessed of a more stupid delusion

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than the delusion of self-sufficiency.

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That's right.

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You say this is mine.

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I worked for it.

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How much did you pay for the sunshine?

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How much did you pay for the moisture?

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How much did you pay for the gentle rains?

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You pay for what you get?

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You work for what you get?

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That's marvelous.

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But the scripture also says the earth is the Lord's.

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It was his sunshine, his air, his rain that germinated the seed, matured the harvest.

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And until you can create your own land, until you can manufacture your own air,

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your own moisture, your own sunshine, until you can create your own seed,

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until you can give life to your creation, then believe me,

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be big enough to admit your dependence on Almighty God.

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If you really doubt man's independence of God, ask some of those folk

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who were in that great earthquake, they were absolutely powerless to do a thing.

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They were absolutely helpless.

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Why does man get so panicky if he is all sufficient in himself

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when the earth begins to tremble a little bit,

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staying in the middle of a great storm?

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Why does man panic?

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Because he's absolutely helpless when it comes to the elements.

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There's steel in the hands and in the power of Almighty God.

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Why is it that when God says it's enough, and man faces death,

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and the old heart is taking its last beat,

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that all the money in the world cannot keep that heart ticking a second longer?

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Because man's so dependent on Almighty God,

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to practice the law of tithing is to acknowledge

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that you are dependent on him for his blessing,

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his goodness.

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To practice the law of tithing puts and keeps God first.

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You know, the apostle Paul tells in Timothy

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that the love of money is the root of all evil.

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You know, some people like to misquote this.

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They like to say that money is the root of all evil.

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It is not.

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The Bible never says it.

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It's the love of the thing.

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You can have only 10 bucks, and the love of that money,

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the love you may only make $5 a week,

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and yet the love that you feel for that $5

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by taking it and hoarding it, and keeping it unto yourself,

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can literally damn your soul.

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The love that you have for it, it isn't the amount that you have,

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it's what you feel in your heart for that which you do have.

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Sure, money isn't a curse.

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Money can be one of the greatest blessings in the world

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when it's used rightly.

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To tithe, whether it's only 10 cents a week,

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whether it's only a dollar a week,

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by being faithful in taking God's part out first,

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you automatically put God first.

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It's more than just the eighth commandment.

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It goes back to the very first commandment.

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And those of you who've been following me

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in God's 10 Rules for Living will readily

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see that that very first commandment,

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thou shall have no other gods before me.

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The man who will not give to God has automatically

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made money his God.

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It isn't how much he has or how much he makes.

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He actually has made money his God

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if he refuses to give God his part.

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Therefore, at the very outset, to practice the law of tithing

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puts and keeps God first.

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That second commandment, thou shalt not make unto thee

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any graven image or any likeness of anything.

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Many a person has made material things their graven image.

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They have worshiped.

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They have made it their idol.

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Oh, that's the reason Paul says the love of the stuff.

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To practice the law of tithing, bringing,

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as God hath prospered unto you, the material things of life

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into the storehouse, taking God's part out first,

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said, all right, God first.

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And he's promised that everything else that concerns

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you, health, material blessings, spiritual blessings,

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everything that concerns you shall be added unto you.

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But here is the part I like.

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Oh, this is great.

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Tithing is absolutely good business.

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Now, I'm considered a pretty good business woman

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by a few business people.

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And I'm interested in something when somebody

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says it's good business.

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Oh, I'm all ears.

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I've had to be because I take care of my own business.

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Sure, I don't have anybody else take care of my business.

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I take care of it myself.

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And tithing is good business.

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Do you want to know why?

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Because it takes God into partnership.

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It binds him by his own law and covenant

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to honor those who honor him.

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Tithing literally takes God into partnership.

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He becomes my partner.

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And how in the world can I fail if I have Almighty God

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as a partner?

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If I'm faithful in giving him his part of that

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with which he's blessed me, the tithe, I'm faithful in accepting

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this challenge of his, approving him, automatically

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he becomes my partner.

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And if I have God for a partner, I'm bound to prosper.

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I'm sure to be a success, and I want to be a success.

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And with him as my partner, we will succeed together.