[Brief Skittles skit with Tyler]

My youngest son Tyler doesn't understand a few important things about life. First, he doesn't understand the fact that I was the one who bought the Skittles for him. Number two, he doesn't realize my strength. Although he's 15, for at least a couple of more years, I think I'm strong to jerk those Skittles from him and eat every one of them. Third, he doesn't understand that I could have gone to the concession stand and with my credit card purchase 500 packs of Skittles. There would be so many Skittles he could never eat them all in a year's time.

We all have Skittles. Some have a pretty nice size pile of Skittles. Others have a medium-size or even little bags of Skittles. God says, "Would you bring me some Skittles? Just a few Skittles." Many times our reaction is, "No! They're mine! They belong to me. I earned them."

Like Tyler, we don't understand several things. First, God is the one who gave them to us. They're His Skittles. He bought them. If He wanted to (because God is omnipotent), He could take all the Skittles from you—just like that. Moreover, if He wanted to, God could rain so many Skittles on your life you wouldn't know what to do with them. You could never eat them all.

Last week we started a new series of messages called "In the Zone." God wants you and me to live in the zone, the sweet spot of His success. Even though they're all reruns, I still read the Peanuts comic strip every morning. This week Snoopy has been attending school with Charlie Brown. On Monday Snoopy took a true-false test with the rest of the class. Here is Tuesday's. Charlie Brown is standing before the principal's desk with Snoopy behind him. He says, "Yes, sir, Mr. Principal. My teacher sent us here to see you. I guess my dog was the only one in our class to get a perfect score on the ‘true or false' test. Twenty out of twenty. No sir, I have no idea how he did it." Snoopy, with a cocky smile on his face says to himself, "When you're hot, you're hot." Snoopy was hot because he was in the zone.

How do you live in the zone? You have to realize that God is the Blessor. Everything we have is God's. All of our Skittles, no matter if they're piled high Bill Gates' style, they're God's. God is the Blessor. We are the blessed. And because we are blessed (here is the exciting part), we can turn around and be a blessing. How do we become a blessing? We receive and we reflect. We receive the supernatural favor of God. Then we reflect the nature and the character of God. And we realize that we are just managers. We don't own anything.

Many (actually most) Christians do not live in the zone. They live in the land of Ing. They are into own-ing, earn-ing, cloth-ing, earn-ing. How do we move from the land of Ing into the zone, the place where we can receive the supernatural favor of God, the place where we can enjoy the tangible and intangible blessings of God? It goes back to Skittles. What are you doing with the Skittles? God talks a lot about Skittles throughout the Bible.

Did you know that Jesus talked more about money than He talked about heaven, hell, prayer, or faith? Around half of His parables were about money and possessions—Skittles. Money is huge. It's powerful stuff. We spend so much time trying to get money, invest money, protect money, save money, spend money and hoard money. Show me the money. The Bible is filled with teachings about the way we handle money. So we're going to talk about these teachings over the next few weeks.

God is into the philosophy of first things first. He reminded Adam and Eve that they were managers first, not owners. God set aside one day a week as a holy day. Today Christians celebrate Sunday, the FIRST day of the week, as the Lord's day. Let me teach you some other biblical examples of first things first and how they relate to the money we bring as an offering to God.

First, don't give it. Bring it in faith. Listen to what God says: "Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal" (Exodus 13:2). Consecrate means to set apart something for holy usage. The birth of the firstborn male in a family was a huge event. By faith, the parents consecrated him, set him apart for God to use. The same was true for animals. The firstborn animal was sacrificed. If it was an unclean animal, like a pig, a clean animal was sacrificed in its place.

God sent His first born and gave Him up on the cross as an offering for our redemption. It was like God's tithe. There is something big about the first born. First things first.

Second, don't give it. Bring it to the right place. We talked about the firstborn. Now let's talk about the firstfruits. In Bible times, most people were farmers. Listen again to what God said. "Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God" (Exodus 23:19). The best of the firstfruits. Notice the first word is bring. Underline it. It didn't say give the firstfruits. No, bring them.

Do you remember the story of Cain and Abel? God accepted Abel's offering, but He rejected Cain's. Why? I've always heard that it was because Abel's offering was a blood sacrifice, while Cain's was an offering of the fruit. But that's not correct. Look at Genesis 4:3—"In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD". Cain brought SOME of the fruits of the soil. He waited ("in the course of time") until all his crops were in. He looked over his harvest with satisfaction and said, "I'll take a few Skittles and throw them to God. Here you go, God."

That's no way to live in the zone. To live in the zone, the Bible says we must bring, not give. We should bring our firstfruits to the house of the Lord. First things first.

The Bible says, "Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine" (Proverbs 3:9-10). Translate this to 2006 and do you know what you have? The first part of my income should go to the house of God. In the Old Testament, it was the tabernacle and temple. In the New Testament, it is the local church. I'm not talking about giving. We bring it.

Third, don't give it. Bring what belongs to God. Would someone bring me $100? Cool. Thank you. Thanks for bringing it to me. I didn't take his money. That's my $100 bill. Before the service, I arranged with {name} to bring me my money. I gave him my $100 bill and said, "I'm going to talk about it. When I say, "Bring it, you bring it."

Do you know why he brought it so quickly? Because it is not his. It is mine. That's what God says. "Bring it." Unfortunately, many don't bring God the firstfruits because we say, "It's mine. It's mine."

Does anyone have a $10 bill? I'll give you this hundred for a $10. [Get person on platform.] Is that a good deal? It's yours. Let's say I'm God, just for a second. $100, give me $10. Is that a sweet deal or what? I'm going to bless your life. I'm going to take care of you. Enjoy the 90. I've got 10—and that's the minimum worship requirement. What a deal. All 100 is His. He just asked us to bring Him the first 10. He could have said, "Bring me 90; you keep 10."

People, let me be as straightforward as I possibly can. There is no way you will ever live in the zone unless you're BRINGING 10 percent of your income to the local church.

God doesn't need your money. The bringing part is a test. The first 10 percent represents the best of what we have. So when we bring it, we honor God and He blesses the remaining 90 percent. When we bring the 10 percent, we can help others and build the most important thing in the world, the local church. When Anita and I bring the firstfruits of our Skittles, our income, to Chapin Baptist Church, what's going on? God is supernaturally blessing the other 90 percent. The other 90 percent is redeemed.

So here is a great question. Do you want to live with 90 percent of your income supernaturally blessed or 100 percent of your income cursed? It's your option. Blessing or cursing. That's a no-brainer at my house. We're going to bring the 10 percent.

What do you mean that when I don't bring my 10 percent, my money is cursed? Great question. Let me refresh your mind with the story of Joshua in the Old Testament. There were 10 cities God told Joshua to conquer. The first one was Jericho. God instructed His people with this first city to bring all the spoils of war, the gold and silver, to His house as an offering. The other nine cities He told them to enjoy for themselves the stuff they got from the battle. But God said, "First things first. The stuff from Jericho is mine." Bringing the spoils from Jericho was to be an act of worship.

Joshua was obedient, but one of his troops, a man named Achan, decided to keep some of the stuff for himself. "Those shoes will fit me. This Rolex watch looks nice. I'm going to sneak these into my tent." But God knew what he was doing and He said, "Achan, you're cursed. You're robbing me."

Let's look at one more passage—Malachi 3:8-10. This is God speaking. "‘Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.' But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?' ‘In tithes and offerings.'" What does the word tithe mean? It means 10. First things first. Verse 9, "‘You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me.'" Let me ask you again. Are you living on 90 percent of your income that is blessed, that is redeemed? Or are you rolling the dice and living on 100 percent of your income that is curse?

Then look at verse 10. "Bring." Not give. Again, we're not talking about giving. Now if it's over 10 percent, we're talking about giving. But now we're talking about bringing. "‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.'" Stop. Storehouse—in the Old Testament the storehouse was the temple or tabernacle. In the New Testament it's that which is most near and dear to the heart of God—the local church. "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse."

This doesn't mean that we break up the tithe and say, "I'm going to give 4 percent to this missionary, 1 percent to this Christian organization and then 5 percent to my local church. You're not bringing the whole tithe into the storehouse. I'm all for supporting missionaries. I'm all for supporting good parachurch organizations. But Christ died for the church. When you want your daughter to get married, you go to the local church. When you pass away, your funeral will be in the local church. The local church is the heartbeat of God, the bride of Christ.

If you're a part of another church, bring your 10 percent there, not here. If Chapin Baptist is your church, then bring your tithe here. It is the storehouse.

God doesn't need your money. Then why does He ask for it? Because money is so powerful. And here is what happens. If we don't bring the tithe, we segue from being a manager into an owner. And we begin to think that it's our stuff.

The local church is the most important thing in God's economy. Does God want to bless the local church? You bet He does. How will He bless it? He blesses people in the church so that they can bless the church. We are either clogs or conduits, reservoirs or rivers.

When you bring the tithe, God always stands ready to bless you. Look at the verse again. "‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,' says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it'" (Malachi 3:8-10). From the days before Anita and I got married, we made a commitment to bring the tithe to the local church. Yes, we support other charities and many other projects at this church. But we bring the first ten percent to the general offering so that the ministries God has called us to lead can be carried out. And I'm telling you that God has blessed us. Our needs have always been met and beyond. Not just financially, but in every area of life.

I know sometimes people get upset when I talk about tithing. The reason people get upset is that they are confronted with the truth of God's Word. People get a little edgy when the Bible says they are living in the Land of Ing—earn-ing, own-ing, hous-ing. But God wants to bring you out of the Land of Ing into the zone. And the way to move into the zone is by bringing the tithe to His storehouse. Remember your Skittles are not your Skittles. They are God's Skittles.