It’s great to start the new year off the right way, with the favor of God. One way to do that is by bringing our first fruits to God and become generous, giving people. God is much more reliable than we are. When we can rely on God in everything, we can mix the abilities and talents He gave us with His power and vision and make the best out of everything in our lives. That is what tithing is. It’s aligning ourselves with God and putting God first. We want people to have great lives and that is how we do it - aligning our hearts with God, putting God first, and being generous in all things because we trust that God will provide.

Luke 12 is a chapter mostly about money. Beware, it says. Don’t be greedy about what you don’t have, because real life is not measured by how much we own. In today’s society, this is difficult because people measure you and themselves by what they own. In this chapter, Jesus gives a parable about a guy who had everything, but wouldn’t give God his heart. God took away everything he had.
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Genesis 2:8-9: Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God planted seed in the ground to plant trees. We can’t have fruit without trees and we can’t have seeds without fruit. God created this cycle and this principle when He created the first seed.

God planted beautiful trees in the garden, and in the center of the garden he placed the tree of life. Jesus – Jesus was meant to be in the middle. “I am the vine and my Father is the gardener.” Christ is the vine, we are the branches, grafted into the vine as we connect to Christ. His seed is planted in us.

God wills it that we all should prosper, multiply and be fruitful. He has given us the ability to bear fruit. Part of the fruit that comes from and is released from our life comes from giving. Our gifts are like seed. When we sow, we create a field of righteousness in our lives. By putting seed in the ground and creating our own garden, our gifts of giving put Christ at the center of our life – our garden. The Bible says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our attitude towards giving demonstrates very clearly what is at the center of our garden – our world.

When we plant in the soil of our lives and Christ is at the center, God multiplies our seed. But if we aren’t planting, how can we be fruitful? If we don’t plant, God has nothing to multiply.

Jesus said if you don’t understand this parable – you sow, you reap – you won’t understand any of the other parables or principles of the Kingdom. When we give, we are giving to Christ, the head of our church, the high priest, the center of our garden. The result is fruit and blessing in our lives, as we become fruitful and multiply.

Mark 8:14 - 21 – In this scripture, Jesus is angry at his disciples because they are focusing too much on what they have and what they see and are missing the revelation Jesus is trying to give them. Jesus says, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees – (yeast in the Bible represented sin because you only needed a little to enlarge the whole loaf). Beware of the sin of the Pharisees. The Pharisees had no faith. They couldn’t equate Jesus and his deity, so they tried to explain away his miracles. But instead, all the disciples could think about was the fact that they did not have enough food.

Jesus replied, why are you so worried about having no food? Why won’t you learn or understand? Can’t you remember what I just did (referring to the miracle of feeding the 5000)? I wasn’t talking about bread – I was trying to give you a revelation.

But the disciples missed it, because their minds went straight to the food. If all you think about is what you have, you can miss the revelation of what you really have – what you have in God. Things are different when you get them in the hands of Jesus. God will something small and transform into something that is huge. It looks small to us when we think that is all we have. But that’s not all we have – it’s all we have if it stays where it is and we keep it – we have to get it into the hands of God.

This is especially true with tithes and finances. It may not seem like a lot to you, but if you get it into the hands of God, it has multiplying power. What you have in your hand is like your life. Jesus says stop worrying about what you have – I have proven to you what I can do with a little – I have proven to you that I can transform a little into abundance, as with feeding the 5000. What you have will only ever be what you see as long as it is in your hands. When you give it to Jesus – the high priest - it can be something else. Every time we give – we tithe, give to building fund, give offerings – we take something that is finite, that is tangibly in a boundary, and we break the boundaries over whatever that thing is. In the hands of Jesus, it becomes miraculous. It can multiply and do things that it never could if it stays in your hand.

I never want to be in God’s house and not participating on every level – involved spiritually, physically and financially. I want to always have my heart engaged. Jesus is always teaching us something. He wants to get us involved in our miracle – wants to grow us, not do it all for us. Between lacking and abundance there is a plan that God wants to bring forth in your life so he gets you involved.

Jesus came to set priorities. He came to set things in order. He gave us the perfect example of how to prioritize our lives. He said, where your treasure is, there your heart is also. If you don’t understand the heart of God, you won’t understand the kingdom mindset. Jesus gave us the opportunity to join our hearts with God with his blood sacrifice. God said that he knows our hearts are joined with him by where our treasure is. Where your treasure is, there your heart is also. You can have as much stuff as you want as long as God has your heart. People for living for getting money and having things have their lives torn apart. We can’t live for that. We weren’t created to live for things. We were created to live for and in a personal relationship with God.

Every time we bring an offering to God, his heart catches fire because our hearts are aligning with his. God sent Jesus to us to bear his heart and teach us how to align our hearts with his. God sent Jesus to bear his soul so that his heart and our hearts can come together - so that we can have an intimate relationship and connection with him. That is why it is so important for us to bring our tithes and offerings to God. We are demonstrating where our hearts and priorities lie. God isn’t looking for our money, he is looking at our hearts. We have to shift our thinking about giving and make sure that we approach our finances from a kingdom mindset.