Kenneth Copeland - The Tithing Covenant Gets God Involved In Your Life
— Hello, everybody. This is Kellie and John and Kenneth Copeland. And as I said, this is the order in which they came. This one’s two years, well, you know, my offspring, my only begotten son. The Believer’s Voice of Victory broadcast has impacted our lives by giving us a strong foundation in the Word continuously. We have been watching the broadcast for over 30 years. Wow. Wow. And the effect has been ongoing from one level to the next. The broadcast has stayed true and consistent with the Bible, and it has been established, and it has been establishing us all these years to watch Kenneth Copeland expound through the years as he has grown and experienced… Yeah, not kidding, 30 years… -has affected and touched us in every area of our lives. Thank you, KCM, and all the guests, you’ve given their lives to minister and bring stability to His Word. You folks are a huge blessing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Glory to God. Thank you, thank you.
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— Yes, we do.
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— Father, we bless you and thank you for what you’ve said about the tithe all the way from the book of Genesis through to the book of Hebrews. We just praise you and thank you for it in Jesus' name. Genesis chapter four, some amazing things here. Now, Adam knew Eve. I want to stop right there. You’ll find places where to know the Word. This is very intimate. Do you have an intimate relationship with the Word? That’s a big thing. So just look for that wherever you find it, particularly in the book of Ephesians. In the process of time, all right, there’s a big thing there, particularly you farmers, you’ll get something out of this. In the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, the offering unto the Lord. Abel brought the first fruits of his flock and the fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. Unto Cain and his offering, he had not respect and Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. Why did he have respect? Because of the process of time. Now check this out. He brought the leftovers. If it’s corn, he brought the nubbins and kept the best. My father in the Spirit, Oral Roberts, they grew a lot of corn and his dad told him, he said, «No, son, no, no, no, no, no, See, don’t eat the nubbins. Plant the best». And he said, «As you plant the best over a period from four to five years, your nubbins will be as good as that seed corn when you began». Now his analogy was God planted his very best, glory to God. Amen. So Cain was a farmer. It was not because he didn’t bring a lamb. He brought God the nubbins of his farm, but let’s continue to read.
— Dad, can I point something out? I feel like it’s important right here.
— Please. You know, earlier before we started the broadcast, you were saying something about Cain, about his heart, about the posture of his heart. And I have come in the last several years to know Jesus as the shepherd of my heart, my soul. He’ll come to me and talk to him like, «Why did you do that? What are you doing»? And I see that the heart posture here, even before tithing was in, you know, given as an ordinance, Jesus was talking to him about… God was talking to him about his heart. So he comes in with the questions like he did with the woman at the well, asking questions. And if you look at these, he said, he looked depressed and the Lord said to Cain, «Why are you angry»? Like he’s getting down to the heart of the matter. So you can see that then the nubbins, as you call them, represent what Cain was willing to give to God. And that’s not a thing issue. It’s never a money issue. It’s never a thing issue with you or God. It’s a heart thing. And he said, «Why do you look so depressed and sad and dejected»? Cain was already feeling rejected before he ever got into God’s presence. He was dejected before he brought his offering.
— Well, there’s no mention of the devil here, but we know he’s there because of what happened to Eve.
— Well, and if he sins…
— He’s right in the middle of all this.
— Well, verse 7 says it, «If you do well, will you not be accepted»? God’s offering him the acceptance right there. And if you do not do well, because God knows what’s in his heart, Sin crouches at your door and its desire is for you, but you must master it. He had every opportunity to reframe his heart because God gave him that altar to do so.
— Well, remember, always remember God is love.
— He is love, he was after it.
— He was drawing him, pulling him toward it. He would have accepted it. John, you said that yesterday there was something that right at the close of the broadcast.
— Well, I was just, you had mentioned that the guy said he couldn’t afford to tithe and I said, you can’t afford not to tithe because if you’re not tithing, then it’s like you have a bag with holes in it and your money just, you turn around and it’s gone.
— In fact, the scripture says it.
— You know, the car breaks down, air conditioner at the house breaks down, lose a job. I mean, when you’re not connected, when you’re not connected to God through the covenant of tithes, then it is like, I just never seem to get ahead, you know? And when you’re tithing in the will of God, then you don’t, you don’t, you won’t notice all the things that didn’t happen. Does that make sense? It’s like, you don’t notice all the things that went right because they went right. But it’s just a different feeling. I will tell you when I tithe, and there’s been periods of my life, not very many, but there’s been period of my life where I wasn’t tithing. And I just went through some personal things. I never quit on God, but I wasn’t making any money, one, right? So I really didn’t have much to tithe, but it was… when I pray, when I get my tithe, I thank the Lord that this is my covenant with You. It’s like my connection. It’s like a physical action of connection of making… making my gesture of covenant to God. And it’s just a good feeling. I mean, it just gives you a good feeling when you know that God is involved in your finances, right? And it causes, it raises your faith, right? And your expectation. When your expectation raises and your faith raises, then things happen.
— Wouldn’t that be the outpouring of the blessing that comes from it? He said, «I’ll pour you out a blessing». Well, that’s not just financial blessing. That’s what I was talking about yesterday. That, that blessing is your life. The things that are happening and the things that are not happening to your life that you don’t even know.
— You don’t know about the car wreck that was avoided.
— That’s right.
— You don’t know about, you know, there’s just, you just don’t know because it never happened. But you have a sense and things are going your way and things financially are going your way and you get a job, a pay increase at your job or a promotion. I mean, these things happen. And I will say this too, if you’re doing it out of, because you have to, then you might as well not do it. If your heart’s not in tithing and you’re not doing it with a willing heart, you might as well just hang on to it.
— Or your offering is like Cain’s.
— Your offering’s like Cain’s and it has no, you’re going to get out of it basically what you put into it. So many people are legalistic and they feel like, well, I have to do this because it says so and I do it grudgingly. I don’t want to do this. Then it’s like, just, just hang on to it. You don’t need it.
— Your name is Cain what?
— But you know what? Let me point this out…
— That’s a good way. He was grudgingly about it. He didn’t want to do it. So he just, he kept the best and gave him the trash.
— But the act of it did open the door for God to give him another deep, like, Hey, come on in a little deeper with me. Come tithe for the right reason. Bring it to me for the right heart. But he refused it. This says he went right out to the field and called his brother out into the field and he killed him. He left the presence of God because of the condition of his heart where God was trying to reach him, but he didn’t hear it. And but he did have the opportunity. And you know, there’s a lot of talk about, you know, well, tithing is, you know, like you said, it’s just the law. God’s not into punishing you for not tithing. And I think that is true. He’s not out to punish you. He’s out to partner with you. And when people… when you tithe, it shows, like we said, the posture of your heart. But if you flip the script on that and you remember that the Word says the love of money is the root. It’s Satan’s hold on you is the love of money. So God gets you out of that with the tithe.
— That’s the curse that’s on you. It’s the fact of the love of money. Now, my dad was never without a job 24 hours during the great depression. Now, the difference in the great depression, there was no such thing as a credit card. That didn’t exist. We have had the great depression. But people run the bills up on the credit card. Well, what’s the difference? You’re behind $50,000 on credit card debt. It’s cursed. And so Gloria and I made up our hearts and minds in the very beginning. And then I’ll tell you what my dad did, that she and I made up our hearts and minds. We’d been tithing some, but we just came together and we said, well, we’re going to be so consistent on this and we’re going to tithe 10 and save 10. If we can live on 90, we can live on 80 because he’s blessing us. And my dad, I’d go to the bank with him, State Bank of East Fort Worth, and watch him make his deposits. And so he had three accounts. He had his personal account and his business account and his tithe account. I said, «Daddy, what’s the difference»? He said, «This is my business’s money, and this is my money, and that’s God’s money». And he said, «I don’t put them in the same account with one another».
— Yeah, that’s some practical things that I have found for me, because I’ve had times where I was on a salary, so my paycheck was the same every two weeks, right? So I could automatically, I have a tithe account. The savings account, checking account, tithe account. So at that time, I could automatically set it to transfer to my tithe account. When that paycheck hits, it automatically goes in my tithe account. I don’t have to think about that. But I never wanted to automatically make my tithe go to the ministry, because if I do that, I don’t think about it. Does that make sense? If my tithe automatically goes to an automatic debit to the ministry or church or whatever, then I’m not consciously, I’ll forget, I’m not consciously making that effort to sow that seed and connect… Yeah, to speak over it, you know, it’s just, and so, so now do automatic debit for other donations, right? Because I want to support this ministry $50 a month, or $100, $500, whatever. I want to do that, and I don’t want to forget. But with the tithe, I always wanted it to be automatic into my tithe account, so I didn’t have to think about that. And then, when it came time to give, I wanted to go through the act of sowing that tithe to God, so that I could consciously and on purpose speak over and make that profession of covenant together. So that’s just some practical kind of the way I do it. I mean, everybody’s different, but some people get paid cash, you know, so it’s a whole different process. But, but anyway, that’s a system that works for me.
— Well, and of course, Jan sees, she handles all of the ministry’s money, that’s Gloria’s sister. And she, of course, she sees to it that, that my income is tithed. But she always brings the mount and so forth, where I can take it and tithe it.
— You’ve taught us that’s different than you just put the money in.
— I can tithe it, tithing the tithe.
— That’s basically what I was saying.
— Yeah, that’s the same thing.
— Tithing the tithe that’s heart issue. It’s a heart relationship.
— Tithing the tithe. In Proverbs 3, 9, and 10 Amplified Classic, Honor the Lord with your capital and sufficiency from righteous labors. And with the first fruits of your income, so shall your storage places be filled with plenty, and your vats will be overflowing with new wine. Well, then, take no thought therefore saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or what shall we be clothed? For all of these things the Gentiles see, but your heavenly Father knows you need of these things. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and right standing with him, and all these things will be added unto you.
— So that, what you just read was Matthew 6, 31, and 33. And if you, I like the Proverbs 3:10 in the Passion Dad, because it really connects with Matthew 6. It says, glorify God with all your wealth, honoring him with your first fruits, with every increase that comes to you. Then every dimension of your life will overflow with blessing from an uncontainable source of inner joy. And that connects with Matthew 6. Every dimension would be what you eat, what you drink, your relationships, your health, like you were saying earlier, every dimension of our lives will overflow.
— Yes, every dimension of it. Praise God.
— That’s why when you said that about talking about when your children are sick, having tithers' rights, healing is a dimension of our lives. Mark Barclay, who I was trying to think about, his son-in-law, his granddaughter, Mark and Vicki Barclay. And she got her hair caught in the bottom of the pool and they pulled her hair down and she drowned. And they pulled her out and her daddy screamed, «I’m a tither and I have tithing rights. Devil in the name of Jesus, you take your hands off my daughter. I curse death in her». They got her out. Well, they rushed her to the hospital and they opened the door of the ambulance and they said, «Where’s the daughter that died»? She said, «It’s me». He said, «No, the one…» She said, «Yes, Jesus raised me from the dead». He actually did, that little girl drown, but tithing’s rights. If he’d have shouted, «Oh no, she’s dead, she’s dead». She’d be in the grave today.
— Every dimension…
— Every dimension, all of it. Now, if you go to Deuteronomy chapter 26, we read this, And you shall go unto the priest that shall be in those days and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord that I am coming to the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers… And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord. A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down and so forth. And when you have made an end of tithing, the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and has given unto the Levite and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, and the gates and be filled, you’ll say before the Lord your God. Tithing is a saying matter. Now, let’s go here. Wait a minute, I had to…
— What page are you on? What page are you on?
— Verse 26, and Deuteronomy 14:22, tithe all the… Wait a minute, let me go page before that. All the tithe of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, say unto the Lord in Leviticus, thou shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed and the field and bring a fourth of your… Deuteronomy. Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God will choose to cause his name to dwell there. That tithing, there you shall bring all that I command you and your burnt offerings, your sacrifice and your tithes, and have offering them to the land, which is… so. And you go ahead and read. Now, that’s the way the Israelites did it. In this little book, and we’ll get into it tomorrow. The Lord gave me, they have their confession, but I’ll break it down like this. Thank You, my Father. We have come into the land that Jesus has provided for us, and that we are tithers under his covenant and under his command. And I’ll get the… yeah, I know where it is. Thank you, sir. The important thing here is to do this, tithe the tithe. Every word, we’ve mentioned it. Words, words of gratitude, words of prosperity, spirit, soul, body, financially, and socially. Now, the Lord of the tithe, my dad’s pastor came to him and said, «You’re supposed to bring all of that tithe to me» in this church. My dad said, «Really»?
— Yes. He said, «Who’s the Lord of the tithe»? Uh? Who is the Lord of the tithe? Well, Jesus, then I’m going to put it where he says, put it.
— That was a question I was going to ask you for people like, a lot of people think, where am I supposed to tithe? How do you answer that?
— You tithe to that place where you’re being fed. Now, John Osteen, he’s gone home into Heaven. John and I were, John and Dodie and Gloria and I were very, very good friends, and before he went to heaven. And there would be time he would send check, he would tell the people. Now, if Brother Copeland’s ministry has helped you, it’s perfectly all right for you to send part of your tithe to their ministry. If Brother Hagin’s ministry has helped you and fed you, it’s perfectly all right to send part of your tithe to his ministry. He said, «God will take care of us adequately». Now, that’s the way it should do. The store house. The store house is where you’re fed. That’s what it said, to the meat in my house. Oh, glory to God. We’ll be back in just a moment.