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Malachi 3:8-10 ESV

8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

I. TIPPING VERSUS TITHING
A. Tipping is not tithing, & tipping is robbing God.
B. We give tips. We pay tithes.
C. Tipping is giving what you have to someone else. Tithing is giving God what is already His.
D. Tithing is not just about God’s ownership of our money, but of us.

II. TITHING, LEGALISM, AND GRACE
A. Tithing is not legalistic, unless it is done to get instead of because you already have.
B. Grace changes why we obey God, not whether or not we should obey God.

III. TITHING AS GOD’S TRAINING WHEELS
A. Tithing is not a finish line, but the way God gets us started towards being generous like He is generous. (Deuteronomy 14:22-23)
B. Before we can be generous, we must learn to be faithful, which is what tithing teaches us to be.
C. Tithing does not just force us to trust God for our immediate future, it forces us to remember God’s goodness in the past.

NEXT STEPS
1. Tithing requires change because obedience to God always requires that we change.

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Luke 18:18-30 ESV

18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”