Words of Jesus Podcast - Going The Second Mile

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

Obedience. Character. Righteousness. Our God requires Christian's to do the right thing for the right reason. Strive to keep the things of this world in the proper light. "Money is sewage, not my savior." The goal is to have the right attitude toward money. The obedience of paying tithes allows God to get involved in our finances. Regarding tithes Jesus said, "...these things ye ought to have done." Love makes us want to give to those we love -- our families, our neighbors, our God. We are only able to give a gift or offering when our tithes have been paid. "God so loved that He gave..." It's a divine principle.*** Ch 52: Jesus Tells Peter To Get The Tax Money From The Mouth Of A FishMatthew 17:24-27JESUS AND his disciples returned to Capernaum. The collectors of the temple tax asked Peter:            “Doth not your master pay taxes?”            Peter replied:            “Yes.”            When he came into the house, Jesus said to him:            “What thinketh thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children, or of strangers?”            Peter answered:            “Of strangers.”            Jesus then said:            “Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. That take, and give unto them for me and thee.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris, your host. Glad to be here enjoying what I do, going through the red ink and helping you do the same thing. I don't know if it's occurred to you yet, if you've been a part of this show from show to show. We've been through several of them now and I think it might have occurred to you as you walk through life and see particular people or problems or whatever else you know gets your

attention. Do you reflect on what the Lord might have to say about those kind of things? What's happening to you is you're starting to think red ink and there's just nothing in the world better than for a person that you know claims to be calls themselves christian uh to actually have a relationship with their namesake that's right they have a they have a relationship with christ and um this is just hardly this is hardly done without knowing this most precious book that on the face of the planet are as a book that has the words of christ printed in it and what he has to say to us for us about us and um and the instructions that he gives us so that we can make it out of this world alive. That is the idea, you know. We talked last time about Jesus instructing Peter to go and, as I said, from the translator of the Peshitta,

he feels like that the Lord told him, he says, well, you need to go back to your job, what you're good at, and make some money, and then we can pay this temple tax, which is fine with me. That's fine with me if that's what he feels like, and as a person who speaks Aramaic, he certainly is in a different category than I am. And there's many such examples, by the way, in the scriptures that we've always wrestled with, and he had no trouble with at all because, you know, they've said this for thousands of years in his village that he grew up in. Or if you want to look at this as if this was a miracle that Jesus performed, I don't know why he would put a piece of gold in a fish's mouth and send Peter to go get it. Why didn't he just, you know, just pull it out of his ear like any other magician would? You know, I don't understand all that

there is to that other than the fact that I think that Jesus, as I've told you before, I really believe that Jesus lived his life with the purpose in the back of his mind, with the idea in the back of his mind that these things are going to be recorded in some certain way and that they're going to be

passed down from person to person from generation to generation and that these stories are going to live they're going to live for for much longer and you have to you have to admit that the gold in the fish's mouth is that's a lot more stupendous of a story than just Jesus reaching in his pocket and saying, here, I found this on the road on the way over here this morning, or creating it out of thin air or whatever else. So there's probably more to be learned here, and it's one of the beautiful things about the words of Christ. He says, you know, my words are spirit, and they're life. And so when he tells a story or he gives us a metaphor, he gives us instruction,

there's something in it for us today. There was something in it for us 20 years ago that we would be in a lot better position today had we listened. And there's something in there for us next year or 10 years from now or 20 years from now because his words are spirit. They're not ink on paper. They're spirit and they're life. So I think within the metaphorical stories, the similes, the parables, things like that, it does open up vistas of understanding in a lot of

different areas. Now, Jesus was talking about this one little section here about going and getting the money to pay the temple tax is really separate from his discussion about taxes. I think that Jesus probably talked about taxes, especially when you're talking about these taxes that are imposed, the temple taxes and these kind of things that I'm sure that the Roman government commandeered a lot of this stuff. They charged and assessed and forced the people to pay certain taxes and certain tributes to Caesar and these kind of things.

And I'm sure that it was a part of Jesus' conversation. So much so that at one time the Pharisees sent to him to try to trap him in his speech and said, paying taxes to Caesar, should we do that or not? Now, it's kind of an interesting thing that they would say, should we do this or not? Because the idea lends itself to not, you know, should we eat oatmeal in the morning or not? You know, should we do this or do that or do this or not? It was pretty obvious that he was being presented two different scenarios,

and I happen to believe, just personally, that there were likely whole scads of people, groups of people, zealots and Zionists and people who were against the Roman occupation of Israel that decided that they're not going to pay taxes. They're not going to give tribute to Caesar. They used to call taxes tribute. And to pay tribute to something is a, it's condoning. It's like I'm on your side and it's like

you want to extract my taxes, go right ahead. But for me to willingly do this or without complaining or anything, some people see that as very important to them and their testimony in the world. Some people feel that way today. Look, I don't like the Lord convicted me about taxes and yeah, you ought to pay your taxes. Know in full well that my tax money is going

to go to you know some of the silly and murderous and sexual perversion and uh and abortion and all the stuff that our country now stands for um that you know that we feel like uh is very very important enough to take our tax money and pay millions of dollars toward a lot of these projects that I don't agree with. I don't like it. I don't like it a little bit. However, what am I going to do? What am I going to do?

I have to be obedient to the Lord. And I have to tell you that it's not, you know, the threat of jail that makes me pay my taxes. It is the fact that the Lord requires of us righteous life, a righteous living to do the right thing. And he makes that clear, I think, in this chapter. Let's read this. We read it last time. We should read it again to get ourselves acclimated to what he's talking about. He says, he said, now, when these kings of the earth take custom or tribute, do they take it of their own children? And Peter says, no, they don't take it from the children.

Well, then you're saying that the children are free? The children don't have to pay this tax? Well, that's right. And he's saying, look, I don't appreciate the fact that the Roman government is doing surtaxes and such on the temple of the Lord. You know, this is his temple, not theirs. It wasn't the logistics of the tax, who's collecting it,

where's it going, and all these kinds of questions. He was saying that when they decide that you owe tax, they have made the decision in their head anyway, you are not one of us. You see, if you were one of us, if you were one of the government, our government, they get a kick out of passing laws that they don't have to obey. You know, they make unfunded mandates on businesses, on counties, on states, on people. You know, they say, you have to do this. Well,

where's this money going to come from? Well, you're going to have to earn it. You know, we lived through a president that ran on the mantra, no new taxes. Well, good for you. How come we're still paying hundreds and thousands of dollars out for everything? Well, now if you fill out a form in a government office, there's some kind of fee for filing it. And so they took, you know, fees and cost and privatization of certain government businesses and these kind of things, so they're still getting the money. You just can't call it a tax.

Well, that's great. Got a man in office. Hot dog. I get so tired of all this government running around and playing with words and treating people badly and not understanding who we are and what we should stand for in this country. And frankly, I'm not tickled about financing them. I don't like it.

I don't like it a little bit. I wish I could send them a bill. But, you know, we live in this society and therefore we pay taxes. Well, I don't know that we should, you might say. Well, I know we should. And the reason I know we should is, is Jesus is making it very clear here. He says, Peter, let me ask you a question.

The people who are a part of this government, do they pay taxes? Well, no. Well, pay taxes? Well, no. Well, why not? Well, they belong to the system. Well, you know what? That's true in our country too. Because, you know, the tax brackets, the exclusions for taxes, the exemptions for taxes,

these kind of things, people complain about it all the time that the rich don't pay any taxes. Well, that's dubious. I don't know. I don't know any rich people, and I'm certainly not one of them, so I can't say. I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me that the at the government bodies that impose these taxes don't pay them that wouldn't surprise me at all would it you well here's the beautiful thing about taxes and if i have to pay taxes and i do um here's the the beautiful thing about it. Here's your money. Now this separates me from you. You see, I'm not one of your kids. I'm not one on the inside. I am allegiant.

I have allegiance toward the kingdom of God first. And I appreciate my ambassador status while I'm here. I appreciate you letting me live in your country. And, you know, and I can offer to this country, you know, I love the United States. And every ounce of anything in me that is due the United States as a matter of patriotism, I give it and I offer it willingly because I love my country. However,

I pay taxes because my God tells me to pay taxes. I don't have a right to cheat them. I don't have a right to play around with my tax return and pretend like certain things cost certain amounts of money and work my taxes down to zero or any of the rest of this stuff. I don't like that. I don't like it at all. As far as I'm concerned, when you deal with money, like I was telling you in the last show, as if it's a poison, think of it as sewage.

I think it's just perfect. You know, okay, what do you need? You need a five gallon bucket of sewage is that what you want is that what my taxes amount to here you go pal take this with you and i think that that's how we should deal with these kind of things we need to um you remember when jesus was talking about tithing those of you that believe that tithing isn't a new testament thing you know you're just mistaken you're misinformed because jesus talked about tithing saying that uh this is this is exactly what you should be doing uh he said he was talking about how people will tithe by okay they they get a little bag of,

for example, Jesus used anise seeds. So, as a spice, they pour them out on the table, and they sit there, and they count them all out, and they find out how many there is, and they take one-tenth of them and set them aside, so this goes to the temple. And he was trying to tell them that, you know know you sit there and you count out these tiny little seeds that you know little that look like fern seeds i mean you're sitting there ruining your eyes trying to make sure that you pay these tithes and he says

but you've forgotten the weightier matters of the law now there are some people who feel like the tithing is something that's an agricultural thing. That's what they did back in the old days or whatever. Look, that was their money. There were people that lived and died and never owned a piece of money in their whole life. They traded, they bartered, they grew what they needed to eat, and they would trade it for certain things and they lived without money so money was something um i mean when you talk about it being an agricultural commandment that you know that that's that's really sad because uh the truth is is every bit of agriculture in your refrigerator you bought it with money and so money is the medium of exchange that we use in

this life. And the Lord says, you want to make an offering to me of that? Here's how you do it. In the Old Testament, he tells you exactly how to do that. And it carries over into the New Testament because, well, Hebrews mentions, here men that die receive tithes, but there one receiveth our tithe,

who it is witnessed that he lives forever. Bad transliteration on my part. But this is what it's saying is that Jesus today, for the New Testament, receives our tithe. Now that's a beautiful thing and so here we have tithing in the new testament jesus was talking about you people to sit around and count these seeds out to make sure that this goes to the temple and this goes in my cupboard you know he says this you ought to have done but not to leave the other undone you see so jesus was fully he was on board with the tithing thing that's what you should be doing now the reason i bring it up and as you know our our

ministry is just not about money we don't sell anything we don't ask you for offerings we don't cry baby about if you don't give we're going off the air and that kind of thing uh yeah you might tune in here one day and it's gone but you know what not if people do what they're supposed to do and um so we're just ministering as we're capable of doing so it's fine with me it's it's just fine with me and um I think that when we try to eliminate the tithing, we are eliminating not only, I know you'd rather not write the check, I get that, but I'm afraid what we might be limiting and removing from our lives that is of such a benefit

is the Lord's involvement in our finances. Okay, fine, you want to go nuts on me with the prosperity thing and talk about giving and getting a hundredfold return or any of the rest of that stuff? Well, you can go do that someplace else. There's millions of preachers out there that will talk with you about that. Not me. I'm not interested. Now, here's what I am interested in. I want the right attitude about money. And it won't matter if I have a dime or a dollar. If I have a dollar or a million, it doesn't matter. I'm concerned about honing my attitude about it. And one of the best ways of doing that is to see to it that the Lord always gets his share.

It's something that it's just given. And in many cases, you're writing a check and you're thinking, well, you might as well throw that away. You know, that was a waste of money. You know what you're saying? Exactly what Judas said. Look, the that was a waste of money. You know what you're saying? Exactly what Judas said. Look, the Lord's not worth giving to. There's people out there that need food and they need clothes and on the surface it kind of sounds nice. You know, oh wow, he really cares

about people. The apostle who wrote that particular gospel that I'm reading or telling you the story from says, now I want you to know this was Judas that said this and that he didn't say that because he cared for the poor, but because he, because he was a thief and he carried the bag. See, money was a part of his life. When they said, hey, let's eat, Judas was the one that looked in the bag and said, wait a minute, I don't know if we've got enough. When Jesus looked at, who was it, Philip, and said,

give ye them to eat. I don't doubt that Philip didn't look over at Judas and say, what have we got? And he says, we've got two bucks in here. And then Philip looked right back at jesus and said 200 penny worth is not enough to buy that everybody might take a little bitty smidgen we don't have enough money now here we have that physical and that spiritual starting to merge again don't we and jesus said if the bible says that he asked Philip, how many loaves do you have?

And, you know, give ye them to eat. The Bible says that he asked him knowing what he would do. Now look, friend, you do not want the Lord God to quiz you about money. He's going to win this argument every time, hands down. Because there's no excuse for us. There's no excuse for us because we have an all-powerful God that can do, you know, amazing things in the earth. And Jesus, at this particular point, the Bible says he knew what he would do. What did he do? He fed them anyway, didn't he? Make them sit out on the ground. Give me what you have. Now, there are people, and I say that, and I'm talking about the people who are against the tithe today. And unfortunately, there's many of them who are. I'm hearing it more and more as time goes by.

People are discrediting, discounting the idea of paying tithes. And it's a huge mistake. Let me explain. The idea of paying tithes. And it's a huge mistake. Let me explain. The idea of paying tithes is under attack. Many people are talking about it like it's something terrible, something archaic. They think that it is an answer to the prosperity doctrines and all these preachers getting rich and all this stuff. When in reality, it's not at all it's not an answer to that at all as a matter of fact the removal of the tithe has caused a lot of these problems

and probably enough time to get into all that now but the the truth of the matter is that if you have had a relationship with God, if you have come to the point where you feel like that your sins are atoned, that your sins are covered, that you have a relationship with God by His grace and His mercy and His power, and you're thankful for that, there is something within us that makes us want to give. I don't know what that is, but it's in there, and there's no sense in denying it.

We do want to give. We want to give to that person. It's just like, you know, a guy gets a girlfriend. What's he want to do? He wants to buy her something. He wants to take her somewhere. He wants to do something. It's just an outcrop, an outgrowth of the love that we have for another being.

Well, it's true with God as well. And I'm afraid that the modern idea, the modern Christianity that we deal with on a daily basis is this idea that we don't owe God 10%. We owe him everything. Well, you know, again, it's one of those syrupy little sayings that sounds good,

but it's got no basis in truth at all. We don't owe God everything. Look, friend, you owe your family 90% of your salary. And if you're given 30%, oh, aren't you wonderful. If you're giving 40% or 50%, oh, you're great. No, not in my book you're not. What you're doing is, is you're giving for some other reason

other than just the obedient reason of, the Lord said, this is what I want. If he wanted 11%, he would have said 11 if he wanted nine he just said nine he didn't he said a tenth and so why not do that well there's reasons why we do what we do or there's reasons why we're told what it is we're told to do and um and in in the area of money i think that if you move your your mind into the area that if i give if i give ten dollars i just made a hundred if i give ten then i'll get i'll get a hundred back well you know given to get i don't know does it take a whole lot of sense for you. Well, you know, giving to get, I don't know.

Does it take a whole lot of sense for you to realize that, you know, that stinks. That's a bad deal. You know, there's something really wrong with that. You know, the idea is to give and to give sacrificially. Now, you say, well, I'd like, I want to give an offering. Okay. You can give an offering if you've paid your tithes.

You know, you can't go to the bank and say, hey, you know, I appreciate what you guys are doing in here. You know, you guys are doing a good job. Been my banker all these years. Here's 100 bucks. Y'all go out to lunch and enjoy yourself or whatever. And the banker looks at you and says, you're four months behind on your house note. What are you doing? You're giving me a hundred

bucks. You're not even paying your house note. You see, there's certain things that we owe to our Lord. And there's certain things that we can give, but you can't give until you're paid up. So tithing allows us to give an offering. Nothing else allows you to give an offering. And it's the only way that it can be done. There's so much of this stuff that needs to be talked about because I don't think any, first of all, I don't think there's a lot of honest people out there that want to talk about this that aren't themselves so wrapped up in money and so money's so necessary in their ministry and their work and their life and that they're not free enough to talk about it. And I thank God that I am. He made this clear to me 15 years ago. Money will not have anything to do with your ministry. And I set out thinking, oh boy, this is going to be great. Well, it hasn't been so great.

I had to learn as I go. But as I learn, I can now find joy in any bank balance. I can now find joy in any amount of people involved in the ministry or, you know, who's, who comes to feast or who, who likes me, who doesn't like me. Um, and you know, the Facebook, uh, responses and stuff. It doesn't really matter what all those numbers are. I have joy in all of them because I'm just doing what I'm told. That's all. And I'm not doing it for money. I'm not a hireling. So, you know, so what's in it for me? Pure joy. And that's what I want for you.

But the money thing, you're going to have to take the edge off of that. And the only way to take the edge off of that strychnine is to do with it what you've been called to do. It takes money. It takes money. It takes the world and the spiritual part of ministry to come together to see to it that these things happen and they happen like they should. It's just a fact. Well, get that out of the way. Get the money part out of the way. Write to me, would you? Just write your email to don at thinkreading.com. All right, until next time, think reading, my friend.

Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you