David Jeremiah - God's Basic Plan of Economy (01/28/2026)
In this sermon, Perry Hayden's wheat tithing experiment vividly shows how honoring God with the first tenth leads to multiplied blessings, drawing from Malachi 3:8-10. The preacher stresses that tithing isn't just Old Testament law but a timeless principle for New Testament believers too. By faithfully giving our best to God first, we invite His provision and protection into our lives.
Back in 1940, a Michigan businessman named Perry Hayden was sitting in church listening to a sermon on tithing. As he listened, a simple, bold idea took shape. Here was the idea. What if God's promise in Malachi 3:10 could be illustrated in a visible, measurable way? He went home and planted 360 kernels of wheat, about a cubic inch, in a very small plot of ground. He made a commitment each year that he would give away a tenth of the harvest and replant the rest, repeating the process year after year. The results were incredible. Each harvest multiplied far beyond the previous one. As the seed increased, so did the land required to plant it. Before long, other farmers joined the experiment, agreeing to replant the seed and tithe from their crops. The project grew so large, it caught national attention. Time magazine reported on it in 1945, and Henry Ford even provided land and equipment. Within a few years, those original kernels that had been produced in that one little inch of land had produced thousands of bushels of wheat worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. What began with a handful of seeds became a living illustration of a timeless truth, that when God is honored first, he has a way of multiplying what remains.
I told you the first part of that story some years ago, and mentioned that it was in a Time magazine of 1945, and the next week, some of you found that magazine and brought copies of it to me. So, now I have five copies of Time magazine from 1945, reminding me that one day, tithing hit big time. It got put in a magazine for all of us to observe. Every year, we take some time, in the month of January, to talk about stewardship. I need to tell you that when I first began to do this, the week before we began to do this in my little church, I would have an anxiety attack. I had come out of seminary with the idea that you just don't ever preach on tithing, you don't ever preach on money. And by the way, some of my seminary buddies still believe that and still don't do it. But as I studied the Scriptures, I realized that God has a lot to say about stewardship of our time, our talents, and our treasure. And as a preacher of the Word of God, I have a responsibility to declare the whole counsel of God. If I did not teach what the Bible says about stewardship, I would be withholding truth and keeping people from the blessing that comes when we obey. Obey a truth that many people have never before heard.
I cannot tell you how many people in this church have told me. When I came to Shadow Mountain, I had never heard that before. But when I heard it and began to do it, God changed my life. So I began to teach on stewardship, and it's been an exciting thing over the years to watch what God has done. You see, any institution that has its feet on the ground is a candidate for financial problems. If a bank does not solve its financial problems, it goes bankrupt. If a store does not, it goes under. If a couple does not, they face serious difficulty, no matter how much they love each other. And if a government does not deal with its financial problems, it will end in economic chaos. And some of us are worried about that even now. But the same is true for the church. Some day, the church will be the church triumphant. And when that day comes, we will walk on streets that are paved with gold, and every financial problem that we have ever thought will be solved forever. But until then, we're the church militant, living and serving right here on this earth. And one of the challenges we face is learning how to meet the needs God has placed before us. And that leads to a very important question. How does God intend for his work through his church to be financed?
What Does the Bible Say About Financing God's Work?
I need to tell you that there are many people who have their own ideas about that. If you watch what happens in many churches, it's through bazaars and bingo parties and all kinds of things that they try to finance the work of God. But, ladies and gentlemen, we have a book called The Bible. And if we study that book, it will tell us what to do. And there are many passages in God's Word that speak about finances. There's one central passage that brings it all together better than any other passage. And so, every year on this particular Sunday, I teach that passage because there's no better place to go to get all the information we need to know what we should do. The passage is Malachi 3, 8 through 10. Here's what it says. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, in what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing, that there will not be room enough to receive it.
Reading that passage, I began to understand, first of all, the past of God's plan. Many people that I've talked to over the years come to me and say something like this. Well, Dr. Jeremiah, you do know that tithing is an Old Testament requirement, and it does not apply to us today. People who cling to that defense against tithing would actually be better off tithing than with what the New Testament tells us. If what they're trying to do is say, I don't want to tithe, so it's Old Testament, I don't have to do it. Well, when you read the New Testament, listen to what the New Testament says. It holds you even more responsible. Everyone to whom much is given from much will be required, and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. In the New Testament, the Bible says we're to give as we're blessed, not just a standard, but more and more as God blesses us. The more God blesses us, the greater is our responsibility. And surely, the blessing of the New Testament is better than the old. We have received more grace and more truth. It would be difficult to make a case for giving in the New Testament, that's less than the bare minimum prescribed in the Old Testament.
Just as we've been singing, what has God done for us? So much more than you can imagine. Now, for 15 centuries, from Moses to Christ, the law of the tithe was in place for Israel. When Israel disobeyed God's laws, she found herself being disciplined. And the book of Malachi finds Israel having returned from a 70-year period of discipline where they were in exile in Babylon. When they got back in the land, they started out to once again follow the Lord's commands, but they weren't back very long before they had backslidden and returned to their disobedient ways, including ignoring God's law of the tithe. And all the lessons that the captivity in Babylon was meant to help them understand seemed to have been forgotten. The law of Moses, under which Israel lived, actually required three different tithes. I haven't shared this with you very much, but I want to just remind you of what it was like to be an Israelite under the law of the tithe. First of all, there was what they call the Lord's tithe. It's mentioned in Leviticus, chapter 27, where we read, And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord, and concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.
Understanding the Three Tithes in the Old Testament
Now, in Israel, we have to understand that Israel was a theocracy. That means that their religious and their governmental things were all together. They didn't pay taxes and then go to church. Their taxes and their tithe were a mixture because God was the head of their nation and everything was according to God. This tithe was basically what we would call our taxes today, the 10% up front. Now, I don't know anybody in this room who probably pays 10%, but that's what it was. It was the way they managed the infrastructure of the land. The second tithe is called the Levi's tithe, and it's found in Numbers, chapter 18. Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting. For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance. Therefore, I have said to them among the children of Israel, they shall have no inheritance. Now, the Levites or the priests were like the pastors or the church staff today. They didn't have any inheritance of land in Israel, so they rested upon the nation for support. And the second tithe was God's way of caring for the spiritual life of the nation. It was the Levites tithe, the tithe for the staff of Israel.
And then there was a third one, and this was one that they gave every three years, the third-year tithe. This is in Deuteronomy. Now, at the end of every third year, you will bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work in your hand which you do. This tithe, this third tithe, occurred every third year. And to give you an illustration of what it was like, years ago here at Shadow Mountain, we used to take a Deacon's offering. Anybody remember that? And the Deacon's offering was taken usually on Communion Sunday, and it was set aside in a restricted account, and we used it to help people who were in need. If somebody had some major problem, they could come to the deacons and say, we need help, and we had a fund from which we would take those monies. We don't do that anymore because we've just included it as a part of the general budget, and we still do that, although not from the Deacon's fund. But in Israel, every three years, they would take a special offering, and that offering was for special needs.
So, the total annual tithe for the Israelite was 10% plus 10% plus 3 and one-third percent, or 23.3 annually. Now, to be honest, included in that was their tax. So, while we say, wow, they gave 23% of their income to the Lord, and if we compare that to today, we look pretty good, don't we? Because we, probably all of us in this room, especially if we're tithers, we let go of more than 23% between our tithe and our tax. So, that was the way God planned to support his people, and it worked wonderfully through that whole time. You don't read about them having financial needs. You don't read about bankruptcy in Israel. You don't read about people suffering from what we would know of as today, somebody in deep trouble. Their plan worked. It was God's plan for that time. Now, let's notice the percentage of the plan. I always smile when I say this, and I'm not trying to be funny or sarcastic, but you would not believe how many people over the years have said things to me like this, that they were tithing 5% of their income, or I tithe 7%, or I'm tithing 6%, and I hope to get to 10% someday pretty soon.
What Does Tithing Really Mean in Percentage Terms?
But unfortunately, the word tithe is a synonym, not for giving, but for 10%. Tithing and tenting are the same. So, you can't tithe 5%. You can't tithe 7%. When you tithe, you give 10%. A tithe is a tenth. And if a person says they tithe 7%, that's not actually a tithe. When we use the word tithe, we should use it correctly. It is not a synonym for giving. We are only tithing when we give 10% of our income. That doesn't mean that giving less than that is wrong until God brings you to the place of obedience with regard to the tithe. What you give is important, but it isn't a tithe until it's a tenth. And that's important to understand when you talk about tithing in the church. Now, let me talk with you thirdly about the priority of God's plan. Do you think this is important? Well, after you read with me what I'm about to read to you, you will realize how important this was to God. He said, And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably, says the Lord of hosts? Cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is to be feared among the nations.
Now, here's what was going on. The Israelites who were in backslidden condition still wanted a sense in their heart that they were doing right. So, when they would bring their tithe, which was a part of their agricultural produce or their animal kingdom, instead of going out and getting the best lamb to bring to God, they'd go find the mangiest creature they had in the flock. They'd go find a creature that was blind or about ready to die, put a rope around his neck, and bring it to God. And God did not like that. Did you get that picture? He said some pretty strong things about that in this passage of Scripture. He said, don't bring me the dregs in the bottom of the cup. I want the best. Why? Because he said, I am a great God, and I deserve great gifts from God's people. If we say we believe God is great, should we not treat him that way? And Malachi uses an illustration. He said, you think you could get by with doing that with your governor? And try it on him. He wouldn't like it. If he wouldn't like it, do you think God likes it? Now, that might seem harsh to us as we read it today, but all God is saying is this. You can fool yourself into thinking you're doing right when really you're not. It's all right if you haven't come to the place of tithing, but don't fool yourself into thinking you're tithing when you're not.
And don't bring God what's left over after you've spent all of the rest of your money on the things that you want. The Israelites Malachi addressed had backslidden. Here Malachi points out that when they brought an animal as a sacrifice to the Lord, instead of bringing the best of the flock, they brought the worst. And Malachi said, God put them under a curse. What is the world supposed to think about a God whose followers bring him the worst instead of their best? That's what he is saying. I bring this all to our attention because sometimes people say, especially those who say you should never talk about money in church, it's not important. It's just an incidental thing, and don't talk about it. Let God work that out in a person's own heart. But that's not what the Scripture teaches. It takes work and sacrifice to offer God our best. We have to give up some things we might buy with the money we give to God, and that's a good process. That reminds us of how important he really is to us. We have to give up time to come to choir and orchestra practice. We have to take classes to be an excellent teacher. If we're going to use our time and our talent, we should be able to bring our best to God.
Why Should We Give God Our Best First?
And the question we need to ask is this, am I giving God the first part of everything? My money when I get paid, my day when I get up, my time when I'm called to serve, is God first on my list. Notice number four, the proof of God's plan. In verse 10, we read these words, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. This is really an extraordinary part of the Word of God, because all through the Scripture, God tells us not to test him. Then we get to this passage, and he says, I want you to prove me, I want you to test me, I want you to try me, and find out if I won't be faithful to you as I promised to be. It sounds strange to think of God wanting to prove himself. We are far more accustomed to trying to prove ourselves to God, but in this one area, he invited Israel to trust him and experience his faithfulness. And this was never about God selling his blessing. Sometimes I hear guys preach on this when I watch Christian television, and I cringe because it's like you make a deal with God. This is not making a deal with God. God has never worked that way.
History shows us where that thinking leads. I remember during the Protestant Reformation, the church taught that forgiveness could be bought. One popular saying captured by a guy named Simon went like this, as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory Springs. In other words, you could buy your way out of trouble by giving to God. But God is not for sale. That's not what this is about. The tithe represented obedience, and obedience represented faith. And Israel had just returned from captivity because of disobedience. And now God was giving a new generation an opportunity to trust him again. Our tendency is to want to see the 90% in the bank before we release the 10%. But there is no faith in that. Faith gives first and trusts God to keep his word. And that's what tithing is all about. And let me tell you something. This is honestly true. I have been doing this now for almost 50 years, this teaching on tithing. And I've never known anyone who trusted God in the matter of tithing who wrote me a letter and said, I'm so disappointed. I tried this, and it doesn't work, and I'm never doing it again, and you didn't tell the truth. Now, have there been people who've experienced that? Probably, but they haven't written me a letter. And don't you be the first one. I don't want to hear you. All right.
So, we have the past of God's plan, the percentage of it, the priority of it, the proof of it. Here's the good part. This is the fun part of this message, the provision of God's plan. Try me now in this, says the Lord, if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts. Donna and I, since we first got married, have used the tithe as the foundation of our financial stewardship. We started there. We've determined to add to it as we've gotten further in the faith and older together as a couple. That doesn't mean we've never had financial challenges, but it does mean that God has honored his word, and he's provided for us and proven himself faithful through the years. It's been an adventure to see how God has met our needs over and over again. And that is what was in God's heart when he was talking to the Israelites. If you will trust me, he said, I will prove to you that I can care for your needs.
How Does God Protect and Provide Through Tithing?
He mentions in this passage of Scripture a devourer. Remember, this is an agricultural passage. They didn't have dollar bills and coins as we have today. They dealt in flocks and herds and in the produce of the ground. God said, if you will tithe, here's what I'll do for you. I'll not only bless you, but I'll protect you. He was talking about pests and drought and invading armies, anything that would wipe out the harvest after it had been planted. God was saying, I won't just give you the increase. I will guard what I give you. Now, today, devourers in our culture, first of all, would be the enemy, Satan. He's the great devourer, isn't he? He comes to devour everything that we have. And the Bible says God will protect us from the devourer. The car repair you didn't plan for, the medical bill that shows up out of nowhere, grocery prices that are higher every week for the same item. Something happens when you tithe, and you're doing what you should do with God. It gives you a confidence that you're going to be okay, that you'll get through those things. And I'll tell you the truth. We've experienced that in our lives, as many of you have. Times can be tough, but God's promise to rebuke the devourer reminds us that hardship is not the same as abandonment. Even in difficult seasons, God is at work rebuking the devourer and sustaining us through what we cannot control.
Here's one of the things that is really interesting to me as a teacher of these truths. One of the great surprises that people report to me is this, that when they begin to tithe, somehow, magically, miraculously, the 90% that's left goes further than it ever had gone before. And they say, how does that happen? Well, I give God credit for that, but I also know that when you start to take time to give attention to what you're doing with your income, and you give the first 10% to the Lord, something happens in your mind that clicks in. You start doing that with the rest of it. How many of you know we are kind of foolish with our money sometimes? I know it's not a good thing to say that right after Christmas, but it's true. And the Bible tells us that when we give to him, he takes control of us, and that 90% somehow seems to stretch beyond the 10%. I see some of you shaking your heads, so you know what I'm talking about. Finally, let me talk with you about the place of God's plan. He said, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this, says the Lord. I don't know if you've ever done this, but one year, I kept track of all of the year-end financial requests that I got in the mail. And I remember correctly, there were 27, 27 letters from people asking for me to give them some of the money that I had.
There's an old adage that there's two lists you can't get off of. Jerry Falwell's list you couldn't get off, and Donald Trump's list you can't get off of. They just never go away, and you probably got some letters from the politicians, and from the other agencies, and maybe from some other ministries. And the question then becomes, how do you decide? If there's a hundred hands reaching out for your giving, how do you know what to do? All of them may be legitimate. All of them may be good. All of them may be godly. But throughout the Scripture, the priority of giving is always directed to the place where God's people gather. Even more specifically, we are to give to the place where we are blessed and encouraged. And the place of our giving should be to the place where we receive ministry. I believe that place is the church that we attend. Galatians 6:10 kind of gives you this picture. Therefore, as we have opportunity, says the Scripture, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. You know, if I'm a Christian, I may give to some secular operations, but the Scripture says, especially I should give to the household of faith. Because let me tell you something, non-Christians don't support Christian work. Christian work is supported only by God's people.
Where Should Christians Direct Their Tithes Today?
Here's another thing. I can't appeal to any of the people in San Diego who go to other churches to support Shadow Mountain. Why would they ever do that? And they never do that, because that's not how it works. Where does Shadow Mountain get its support? From its own people, from the people who come here every week. We are the financial base of Shadow Mountain Church, and that's the way it should be. The church can only appeal to those who are ministered to it by the church. And therefore, when the Bible says, bring your tithes into the storehouse, I believe it's talking about making the church the most important part of your giving. Let me just address this for a moment. I have known some men over the years who have been very, very successful, very wealthy men, and they're members of a church. But they could never bring themselves to tithe what they make in the business world just to the church. Sometimes they say that makes the church too dependent on them. I doubt it. But the Bible teaches that we should make our church our priority, and I don't think it has anything to do with how much money we make or don't make. It means the church should be our focus. I say that without apology because I believe in the church, and obviously, I've committed my life to the church. And by the way, folks, you're in church. So, this is how we should apply things.
Now, the final thing that I want to talk about is the practicing of all of this, because this is where practicality enters in. I'm convinced that none of the really important things in life will ever be accomplished without the rigors of personal discipline. Tithing is a discipline, especially at the beginning. After you do it for a while, it just becomes normal and natural. Sometimes you don't even think about it, you just do it. But at the beginning, it's a discipline. And things which are disciplines have to be viewed as difficult. I'm not saying to begin tithing is easy, especially if you're kind of in over your head a little bit and behind. Some people say, well, when I get caught up, I'm going to start giving to God. Let me tell you what I've learned. Start giving to God, and you'll get caught up quicker than you would if you don't. And if you wait till you get caught up, you probably will never start giving to God. Because you're already not giving to God, how are you going to get caught up? A discipline, you see, is something that goes against natural inclinations. Does it make sense to tithe? Are you kidding me? No, it doesn't make sense to tithe. Tell somebody who isn't a Christian that you give 10% of your income to the Lord, and they'll look at you like, why? Why would you do that? It's not something that's explainable. It's something that's exceptional because God said to do it.
And what I've learned about God is that God doesn't always make sense logically. And sometimes I think if it's logical, it's probably not God. Because God tells us to do things that go beyond our logic, and tithing would certainly be categorized as that. A discipline, then, is something that you do not because you feel like it, and not when you feel like it. It's something you determine to do, you make the decision, you set up the structure, and you start to do it. I have to tell you, my best definition of discipline was given to me by a guy named Bobby Knight, who was a coach of basketball in Indiana. And my sister, Mary Alice, was the girls' basketball, the women's basketball coach when he was the men's basketball coach. So, I got to know him a little bit. This is his definition of discipline. I've never heard one better. He said, discipline is doing what needs to be done, doing it when it needs to be done, doing it the best it can be done, and doing it that way every time you do it, whatever it is. And certainly that applies to tithing. Tithing is a discipline. It means planning your money, making determination. You're going to give God what belongs to him first, and you do it, and you don't stop doing it. And when trouble comes and difficulty comes, you take that as a test, and you just plow right through it. You soldier through it and do what God has called you to do.
How to Start Tithing as a Discipline and Decision
Secondly, tithing is not just a discipline. It's a decision. You know, a lot of times we think that if we just had more time to pray about something, we'd be able to do it. You know, there are some things you don't need to pray about. Did you know that? You say, are you kidding me? No, I'm telling you. If God says to do something in his book, you don't have to pray about doing it. He's not going to change his mind. He's not going to tell you to wait. He's not going to say, when you get around to it. If it's in his book, if he tells you to do it, you should do it. And you don't need to pray. Just do it. And then thank God for the privilege of doing it. You can pray that way. But you don't need to ask God if you do something he's already told you to do. And that certainly would be true with this. If you know that tithing is God's plan, and he's touched your heart with it, the way you do it is you just do it. You just take the step to do it. Now, I thought about bringing my checkbook into the pulpit and writing out a check in front of you so you would know exactly what I'm talking about. But you know what I'm talking about. You know what somebody told me once? Someone told me once, if you want to know what people believe in, go get the check stubs from their checkbook. They believe in a home. They believe in insurance. They believe in going to a Christian school, maybe. Do they believe in God? There should be some evidence in there that they believe in God and what God is doing.
So, what I want you to know today is we have this wonderful opportunity to serve God with our giving. And the thing that, to me, is so wonderful about being a part of this church is we bring our gifts together, and then together we do more than we could ever do on our own. Just think about this past year and what God has allowed us to do. I'm still caught up in the fact that we gave away 1,100 turkeys for Thanksgiving. We didn't take a special offering for that because through our giving, we had the money for it. I'm still caught up in the fact that from COVID until now, our Christian school has grown by almost 800 students. I'm just overwhelmed by that. I'm overwhelmed by the fact that people come to this church in droves. Do you know that during the Christmas season, for the first time ever since I can remember being the pastor of this church, on two Sundays in a row, we had over 2,000 people in this room at 9 o'clock and at 10:45. We saw so many people come. Everything that you see that happens, the youth ministry, the children's ministry, the choir ministry, the food ministry, all these ministries we can do together and so much more.
Here's the final and greatest illustration of all. Some of you may be old enough to remember when we moved into this building back in the early 90s, we were trying to figure out how we were going to handle missions. And lo and behold, in a business meeting one night, we came up with the idea that if we ask people to tithe of their income, we as a church ought to at least tithe of our income to missions. And then a man by the name of Ralph Radford, who used to be in this church, stood up and said, Dr. Jeremiah, if we're supposed to tithe to the church, we as a church ought to at least give twice as much as that. We ought to give 20% to missions. I swallowed hard. I had just been in budget meetings trying to figure out how to manage this church on what we had, and he said, take 20% off the top and give it to missions. We had a vote, and it was unanimous. I didn't vote. In my heart, I was voting, but we did it. We made the decision, and from that day until this, we have given the first 20 cents of every single dollar that's been given to this church, we've given it to missions. Let me tell you what happened. When we started doing that, our missionary budget was $250,000 a year. This last year, we hit $6 million for missions.
The Impact of Collective Tithing in Church Missions
And because we determined to do what God told us to do, and we took it a step beyond that, the church has done what the church is asking us to do, and because we do it, we can do that. All over the world, people are being blessed by missionaries from this church, organizations that we support, things that we do together. And we do them together, but we could never do them by ourselves. We come together and bring our tithes together and our offerings together, and then we get to be a part of a church that's making a difference, not just in San Diego or in El Cajon, but all over the world. And I thank God for the privilege of doing that, and I invite you to become a part of it. If you've never tithed, I can't make it easy for you. I can just tell you to do it, but I can promise you, if you do it, you will sense the Lord's hand in it, and you will discover what it means to be in partnership with Almighty God. And all the people of God said together, Amen.