Sermon Recap
The First Tithe
Part 1 of 2 in Generosity and the Tithe
Parte 1 de 2 de la serie Generosity and the Tithe
Read the full transcript · Leer esto en espanol
Brian Hunter · July 6, 2025
“Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.”
Scripture Referenced
Recap
Opening a short summer series on generosity, Brian started with Mark 12:41-44, the widow who gave two small coins that Jesus called greater than the large gifts of the wealthy because she gave out of her need rather than her surplus. From there he applied the “principle of first instance,” a bible study approach of tracing a word or theme back to its earliest appearance in Scripture, to find the very first tithe on record: Genesis 14, where Abram gives Melchizedek a tenth of everything recovered after rescuing his nephew Lot from raiders. Brian was careful to distinguish tithes from offerings: related but not identical practices, with offerings (illustrated by Cain and Abel) planned as the following week’s topic.
By grounding the practice in Genesis rather than starting with the law given later in Leviticus and Exodus, Brian made the point that tithing predates the Mosaic law entirely: it’s a response of worship and gratitude modeled by Abram long before it became a commanded practice, which reframes it less as a legal obligation and more as a pattern of the heart.
The message set up the rest of the series: having established what a tithe is and where it began, the following weeks would go on to unpack why it matters and how it’s meant to be lived out today.
Touch Points
- The widow in Mark 12 gave out of her need, not her surplus. How would you describe your own giving, more out of surplus or genuine sacrifice?
- Abram’s tithe in Genesis 14 came before any law required it. Does knowing tithing started as worship rather than obligation change how you think about it?
- Brian distinguished tithes from offerings. Had you thought of those as the same thing before? Does the distinction matter to you?
- What would it look like for your own giving to be motivated more by gratitude than by rule-following?