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Basics | Week 7 | Sermon · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · Oct 27, 2025 · 48 min watch · 3 min read

Basics | Week 7 | Sermon

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In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Genesis 4:3-7
Genesis 14
Leviticus 27:30-32
Deuteronomy 8:17-18
Deuteronomy 14:22-23
1 Corinthians 16

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Tithing is not a transaction but a testimony — a declaration of trust that frees us from fear and opens us to God's blessing.

Just as sharing our personal testimony is a mission rather than a memory, giving the first and best of our income is a testimony of trust rather than a mere financial transaction. Pastor Bill walks from Genesis to the New Testament to show that tithing has always been a voluntary act of worship rooted in the conviction that everything we have belongs to God. He argues that the fear and frustration so many people feel about money is itself the 'curse' that generosity is designed to break, and that genuine faith — choosing to give even when it seems impossible — is the doorway to peace, purpose, and a deeper experience of God's provision.

Key points

1
1Giving was established before the law as an act of worship; God accepts the first and best, not leftovers.
2
2The first tithe in Scripture was a voluntary act of gratitude and worship, not an obligation.
3
3When we forget God is the source of our wealth, we live in fear of shortage — tithing reorients our trust.
4
4God challenges His people to test Him in the tithe, promising blessing and warning that withholding leads to a cycle of anxiety and never having enough.
5
5Jesus affirms tithing in the New Testament and raises the standard — grace produces more generosity, not less.
6
6Where we choose to put our money is where our heart will follow; we cannot serve both God and money.
7
7Cheerful giving is the fruit of faithful giving — start by taking a step of faith, and the joy will follow.

A story from life

The preacher describes being confronted by Randy Deal, the executive pastor who challenged him to trust God financially while telling students to trust God in other areas

Application

Pastor Bill's challenge is direct and grace-filled: stop fleeing or fighting, and take one step of faith toward tithing. If you're giving nothing, start at two percent. If you're at two, move to four — with the goal of reaching 10 percent as a starting line, not a finish line. He frames this not as a burden the church wants from you, but as a gift God wants for you: the peace, contentment, and freedom that come when money loses its grip on your heart. The practical next step is to calculate your giving percentage honestly, decide in your heart to move it up, and give it as an act of trust — not waiting until you feel cheerful, but trusting that the joy will follow the faithfulness. As Pastor Bill puts it, 'Just do it and see what happens,' because what God has waiting on the other side of that surrender is far greater than anything you would spend the money on yourself.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“Genesis four chapter three through seven. This is like right in the beginning. Cain and Abel, they're Adam and Eve's sons, and it shows them worshiping God through sacrificial giving before the law even existed”
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From the transcript
“you go to Genesis 14. Now Abram, who's not Abraham yet. This is still before the law is set. Before tithing is set down as a command”
From the transcript
“Leviticus twenty seven thirty and thirty two. Now this is when it's the context of it being set down as a command to God's people to say here's what I'm asking you to do”
From the transcript
“Deuteronomy eight seventeen and eighteen, it goes deeper into this. It says it Moses, as they were going in the promised land, warned the people as they went”
From the transcript
“Deuteronomy fourteen twenty two and twenty three goes deeper into the purpose of what does God do with it. Why what does he wanna do with what we give”
From the transcript
“In the New Testament, Paul says in first Corinthians 16, you give where you gather. So it does answer the question of when people say, well, what if I give elsewhere”
From the transcript
“Malachi three eight through 10. It's a test in our heart. Do we trust God? This is in the context of after the exile”
From the transcript
“Matthew twenty three twenty three, Jesus is calling out some pharisees because they were tithing. I mean, really tithing. Gross, not net”
From the transcript
“He goes on in into Acts, chapter four where where where it shows that in the New Testament, God doesn't lower”
From the transcript
“finally, the passage I refer to as part of my struggle, second Corinthians nine six through eight. Paul says, remember this, a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop”
From the transcript
“Paul said in this one, bring it to your house of worship. In chapter 16 verse two of first Corinthians, he says, bring give where you're gathered”
From the transcript
“That's what Jesus said in this last passage I want to read here in Matthew six nineteen through 24 he says, don't store up treasures here on earth where moss eat them and rust destroy them”

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

From the very first pages of Scripture, before any law was written down, before any command was given about giving, two brothers brought an offering to God. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock — the first and the best. Cain brought some of his harvest — an afterthought, the leftovers. God's response wasn't arbitrary. He was looking at the heart behind the gift. Abel's offering said, 'You come first.' Cain's offering said, 'You get what's left over.' Pastor Bill pointed to this moment not to shame anyone but to name something honest: most of us, if we're truthful, have been giving God our leftovers — our leftover time, our leftover energy, and yes, our leftover money. And when we do that, something in us knows it. There's a restlessness that comes with holding back. The good news is that God didn't abandon Cain after this — He came to him, spoke to him, and gave him a chance to choose differently. That's what this week is about. Not guilt over what's been held back, but an invitation to reorder things — to let God be first again, not as a transaction, but as an act of worship rooted in what you actually believe about Him.

For reflection

When you think about your time, energy, and money, what does the pattern of your 'firsts' reveal about what you currently trust most?

Pray

Pray for honest eyes to see where God is getting your leftovers rather than your first and best.

Centuries before Moses, before the law, before anyone told him he had to, Abraham gave a tenth of everything to Melchizedek — priest of God Most High. Pastor Bill made a point worth sitting with: this was entirely voluntary. No commandment. No social pressure. No tax code. Just a man who had just witnessed something remarkable — God's hand in a victory he couldn't have won on his own — and whose first instinct was to give. That instinct is the thing. Abraham had just recovered everything that was taken from him, and his response to abundance wasn't to grip it tighter. It was to open his hands. There's something quietly revolutionary about that. Most of us, when we receive more, feel the pull to protect more. Abraham felt the pull to worship. And his gift wasn't calculated giving — it was grateful giving. Pastor Bill's point here is that tithing, in its oldest form, was never about obligation. It was about recognition: recognizing who God is, recognizing where the blessing came from, and responding with the kind of trust that lets something go. If giving has felt like a burden to you, this story is an invitation to reimagine it — not as what God takes, but as what a grateful heart naturally offers.

For reflection

Can you recall a moment when you clearly saw God's hand in something good in your life? What was your first instinct in response?

Pray

Pray for a heart that recognizes God's provision in your daily life and responds with genuine gratitude rather than self-congratulation.

Moses spoke these words to people who were about to enter a land of abundance after decades in the wilderness. God knew exactly what prosperity would tempt them to forget: that He was the source of it. 'You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' Sound familiar? It's the quiet story most of us tell ourselves — that what we have is the product of our own intelligence, our own hard work, our own good decisions. And hard work is real. Skill is real. But Pastor Bill pressed on a deeper question: who gave you the mind to think, the body to work, the opportunities to walk through? Deuteronomy 8 is a warning about a particular kind of forgetting — the kind that creeps in slowly as life gets more comfortable. When we forget that God is the source, we start living in a scarcity mindset even in the middle of plenty, because our security is resting on something that can shift. Tithing, understood this way, is a regular, rhythmic act of remembering. Every time you give the first portion, you're telling yourself the truth again: this came from Him, it belongs to Him, and I can trust Him with the rest.

For reflection

In what area of your life are you most tempted to believe your own effort is the primary reason things are going well?

Pray

Pray for a spirit of remembrance — that you would recognize God as the source of your abilities, opportunities, and provision.

This is probably the most direct passage in the Bible on tithing, and it's also one of the most misread. Pastor Bill didn't wave it around as a guilt trip — he used it to name something real. God calls His people to 'test' Him here. That word is striking. Elsewhere in Scripture, testing God is warned against. Here, He invites it. Bring the whole tithe, He says, and see what I do. It's an unusual offer, and it's worth asking why He makes it. Pastor Bill's answer was pastoral: because fear about money is real, and God knows that no amount of teaching will fully dislodge it — only experience will. The 'curse' this passage describes isn't God punishing people for financial failure. It's the cycle that happens when anxiety about money drives every decision — never feeling like there's enough, never experiencing the freedom that contentment brings. Generosity is the doorway out of that cycle, not because giving magically produces wealth, but because it reorients the heart away from scarcity and toward trust. The windows of heaven aren't just about financial return — they're about a whole different way of experiencing God's presence and provision when your hands are open instead of clenched.

For reflection

What would it look like, practically, to 'test' God in this area of your life over the next 90 days?

Pray

Pray for the courage to take one concrete step of faith with your giving, and for a willingness to see what God does.

Jesus is in the middle of one of His sharpest exchanges with the religious leaders of His day, and He says something that might surprise people who assume the New Testament moves away from tithing. He actually affirms it. He tells the Pharisees they tithe meticulously — right down to their herb gardens — but they've neglected justice, mercy, and faithfulness. And then He says: 'You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.' Both things matter. Pastor Bill drew out something important here: Jesus didn't come to lower the bar — He came to raise it. The Sermon on the Mount doesn't say the old law was wrong; it says the spirit behind it goes deeper than the letter. Grace doesn't give us an escape hatch from generosity. If anything, understanding how much we've been given — and forgiven — is the most powerful motivation to give freely. This passage is also a quiet check on a different kind of mistake: being technically faithful with money while being stingy with mercy and presence. Real generosity is larger than a percentage. But the percentage is still the starting line, not a ceiling.

For reflection

Are there areas in your life where you might be carefully faithful in visible ways while quietly neglecting something God cares about even more?

Pray

Pray for a faith that is whole — generous in giving, yes, but also rich in mercy, justice, and genuine care for others.

Paul writes to the church in Corinth about giving, and he lands on a phrase that has probably been both quoted and misquoted more than almost any other on this topic: 'God loves a cheerful giver.' Pastor Bill was honest about this one. Most of us hear that and think: I should wait until I feel cheerful to give. But that's not quite what Paul is saying, and it's not what the sermon was arguing. The cheerfulness Paul describes isn't a prerequisite — it's a fruit. You don't manufacture it in advance and then give. You take the step of faith, often before the feeling arrives, and the joy tends to follow the faithfulness. Think of it like this: the farmer in verse six doesn't wait until he feels generous to sow — he sows, and then the harvest comes. The sequence matters. Giving isn't a transaction where you produce the right emotion and God releases the blessing. It's an act of trust you make with your hands, and your heart catches up. This is Pastor Bill's 'just do it and see what happens' moment — not as a gimmick, but as a genuine invitation to experience something you cannot fully understand from the outside. The peace and freedom on the other side of that step are real, but they're discovered, not theorized.

For reflection

Have you ever done something faithful before you felt ready, and found that the feeling followed? What does that experience teach you about giving?

Pray

Pray for the willingness to take a step of faith in your giving even before the feeling of cheerfulness arrives — and for trust that God will meet you there.

Jesus doesn't mince words here. Where your treasure goes, your heart follows. Not the other way around — your heart doesn't lead your treasure. Your treasure leads your heart. That's a quiet revolution in how most of us think about motivation. We tend to think: I'll give more when I feel more connected to God, when I'm more sure, when I trust more. But Jesus says the trust, the connection, and the freedom are downstream of the decision. You cannot serve two masters — not because God is demanding exclusive loyalty as a power move, but because a heart divided between security in money and security in God isn't actually resting anywhere. It's just anxious all the time. This final day is a chance to hold the whole week together. From Abel's first offering to Abraham's grateful tenth, from Moses' warning about forgetting to Malachi's unusual invitation to test God, from Jesus affirming the tithe to Paul describing cheerful generosity as a fruit — all of it points in the same direction. Money is not the enemy. Fear about money is. And the antidote to that fear isn't a bigger bank account. It's a heart that has learned, through practice, to trust the One who owns everything and withholds nothing good.

For reflection

Looking back at this week, what is one specific, honest step you can take — starting this week — to move your giving in the direction of trust rather than fear?

Pray

Pray for the peace that comes from surrender — that your relationship with money would move from anxiety and control toward open-handed trust in God's faithfulness.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message made the case that how we handle money is less a financial question and more a faith question — and that the way we give can actually reshape the way we trust God.

Discussion questions

1
In Genesis 4:3–7, Cain and Abel both bring offerings, but God responds differently to each. What do you notice about the difference between what they brought, and what do you think that difference reveals about what God is actually looking for in an act of worship?
2
In Genesis 14, Abram gives a tithe to Melchizedek before the Law of Moses ever existed. What does it tell us about the nature of tithing that its first appearance in Scripture looks like this — voluntary, spontaneous, and rooted in gratitude rather than obligation?
3
Deuteronomy 8:17–18 warns Israel against saying 'I have achieved this wealth with my own strength.' How do you think that kind of forgetfulness — believing we are the source of what we have — shapes the way people relate to money day to day?
4
In Matthew 6:19–24, Jesus says that where we put our treasure is where our heart will follow. Pastor Bill used this to argue that giving isn't just a response to where your heart already is — it can actually lead your heart somewhere new. How does that idea change the way we might think about the relationship between action and belief?
5
In 2 Corinthians 9:6–8, Paul describes the goal as giving cheerfully — yet Pastor Bill made the case that cheerfulness is often the fruit of faithful giving rather than the condition for it. What do people in general tend to assume has to come first — the feeling or the step — and how does this passage push back on that assumption?
6
Pastor Bill challenged us to take one honest step — calculate where we are, decide to move it up, and give it as an act of trust. How might a community of people taking that kind of incremental, faith-based step together look different from a culture that waits for perfect financial conditions before giving at all?

Pray together

Trusting God as the source of everything we have — and the courage to take one step of faith with what He's given us

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Basics

Week 7 · 9 messages

Where these passages are preached

Genesis 4 Genesis 14 Leviticus 27 Deuteronomy 8

Explore related topics

Generosity God's Provision Spiritual Growth Tithing Trust and Money

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