Most of us have our finances backwards. The government gets paid first. The subscriptions renew first. Amazon gets paid the second you click — and God gets whatever is left, which we then call faithfulness.
This message, the final week of Vibrant’s STRAPPED series, asks a simpler question than it sounds: not how much you give, but who goes first. Abraham tithed before there was a law telling him to. A boy handed Jesus his lunch before he saw a miracle. The order, not just the amount, is the whole point — put God first, and the rest tends to fall into place.
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What Goes First Shows What’s Trusted Most
Long before the law existed to command it, Abram came home from battle and gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything — first, before he kept anything for himself (Genesis 14:20). No commandment told him to. He understood something: what you do first with what you’ve been given reveals what you actually trust. The order matters everywhere else in life — you wouldn’t eat dessert before the appetizer — but with money, so many of us try to run it backwards. “When I get out of debt, then I’ll tithe. When the raise comes, then I’ll start. When the season gets easier, then I’ll give.” First keeps getting pushed back.
The Lunch Came Before the Miracle
When Jesus faced five thousand hungry people, a boy didn’t wait to see what Jesus would do before handing over his lunch (John 6:9). He gave first, before there was any evidence it would matter, and Jesus multiplied what was placed in His hands. The tithe works the same way. It isn’t a bill God is collecting after the fact — it’s a test He’s inviting you to take before you know how the math will work out.
The One Place God Says Test Me
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse… Test me in this,” God says in Malachi 3:10, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven.” It’s the only place in all of Scripture where God invites His people to test Him — everywhere else, testing God is the thing to avoid. Putting God first with the tithe isn’t only a math decision. It’s a trust decision, and the tithe is the specific place Scripture says to put God first in your finances.
When God Is First, Everything Else Falls in Order
This isn’t a prosperity promise — give a thousand dollars, get ten thousand back. That’s not the claim here, and it’s worth being careful about the difference. The point isn’t that giving guarantees a return. It’s that everything — the money, the car, the house, the family — already belongs to God. Tithing isn’t being generous with what’s yours. It’s returning what was already His (Deuteronomy 8:17–18). Once that settles, giving stops being a transaction and starts being surrender.
Where This Lands
Generosity doesn’t start at some impressive number down the road — it starts at 10.1%, the step just past the tithe. Tithing was never really about obedience to a rule. It’s about answering one question honestly: does God have all of you, or just some of you? Putting God first isn’t a one-time decision you make from the stage — it’s a weekly one you make with your bank account. This week’s practical step isn’t to overhaul your entire budget. It’s to find your actual next step — whether that’s starting the tithe for the first time or giving beyond it — and take that one, not the top of the staircase.
If this raises questions about what Scripture actually says on money and trust, our page on Bible verses is a good place to keep digging, and next steps if you want to work through it with a Connect Group.
New to Vibrant? We meet Sundays 9:30 and 11:00 AM at Indian Ridge Middle School in Davie. Plan your visit.
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