January 12, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God is Our Provider"

Malachi 3:6-12

Pardon Me, But Your (Bank) Slip Is Showing!

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – Melvin Newland tells this joke: I like the old story about the guy who came to church with his family. As they were driving home afterwards he was complaining about everything. He said, "The music was too loud. The sermon was too long. The announcements were unclear. The building was hot. The people were unfriendly." He went on & on, complaining about virtually everything. Finally, his very observant son said, "Dad, you’ve got to admit it wasn’t a bad show for just a dollar" (as cited on SermonCentral.com).
2. Context – We don’t like anybody telling us what to do with our money. We want to be make good use of our money, but we don’t want instruction or direction (unless it increases our money supply). But in this passage God is trying to tell us that with Him, less is more. Let’s read the passage.

1. Scripture Passage

1. Malachi 3:6-12 (from The Message) – "I am God – yes, I AM. I haven’t changed. And because I haven’t changed, you, the descendants of Jacob, haven’t been destroyed. You have a long history of ignoring my commands. You haven’t been a thing I’ve told you. Return to me so I can return to you," says God-of-the-Angel-Armies. "You ask, ‘But how do we return?’ Begin by being honest. Do honest people rob God? But you rob me day after day. You ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’ The tithe and the offering – that’s how! And now you’re under a curse – the whole lot of you – because you’re robbing me. Bring your full tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple. Test me in this and see if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams. For my part, I will defend you against marauders, protect your wheat fields and vegetable gardens against plunderers." The Message of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. "You’ll be voted ‘Happiest Nation.’ You’ll experience what it’s like to be a country of grace." God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.

1. Blessings Are Better than Curses

1. There are two things I want to make perfectly clear as I start this morning. First, I have no idea whatsoever who gives what in this church. I don’t know who tithes, and I don’t care to know – it’s not my business. I care that you do, because it impacts your ability to grow spiritually, but that’s between you and God. Second, I do not believe that God will make you rich if you honor Him. There are lots of preachers around who try to tell you that, and they surround themselves with financially prosperous folks to try to prove their point. The belief that God is obligated to make you rich if you give Him His due is not biblical. I just needed to make that clear. But I also want to make clear a very important principle that is biblical: we hinder God’s ability to bless us if we don’t honor Him with our money. Let me explain.
2. Jesus, in Matthew 5:17-18 said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. What He’s saying is that, while the practices of the faith may have changed with the coming of Jesus, the principles are still the same. In other words, Jesus came as the final sacrifice for our sins so that we don’t have to sacrifice animals anymore, but the principles God set forth in the Old Testament are still true. When Jesus came and died and rose again, He fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament without erasing the principles. That’s what He meant when He said He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, not abolish them.
3. I’ve spent time talking about this because it’s a critical concept for us to understand if we are going to begin this biblical principle set forth in Malachi. What’s the principle? Simply this: blessings are better than curses, and obedience is the path to God’s blessings. And the only way to receive the blessing of God meeting our most essential needs is to obey Him. Jesus, in John 14:15, said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." Obedience is the path to God’s blessing. And this obedience has to carry over into our finances if we’re going to experience God’s blessings.
4. Now wait a minute, you say. Didn’t you just say a minute ago that God didn’t promise to make us rich if we honored Him with our money? Yes, I said that. But I’m not talking about God making us rich – I’m talking about God meeting our needs. God said, "Test me in this and see if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams. For my part, I will defend you against marauders, protect your wheat fields and vegetable gardens against plunderers." He isn’t talking about the people getting rich – vegetable gardens don’t bring to mind images of prosperity. The Israelites had come back from exile, and they were destitute. They couldn’t even grow enough to live on. Malachi spoke God’s truth around 430 BC The exiles had been back in Judah for about a hundred years, and even though they had rebuilt the temple, life was hard. The land had been decimated when the Babylonians took the last exiles away in 538 BC, and it produced little food. God used Malachi to tell the Israelites why. They have little food because they haven’t obeyed Him. Swarms of bugs and pests and other wildlife ate their crops. Something always came up to keep them from getting a full harvest. The cause? They were under God’s curse because they did not bring the tithes and the offerings into God’s storehouse.
5. I know this is a touchy subject, and I’m not here to pronounce gloom and doom on you if you don’t tithe and give over and above the ten percent whatever He calls you to give. I’m here to say that this Malachi passage is the only one my Bible software found in the NIV where God specifically tells someone to test Him. In fact, many of the passages in the Old Testament warn against testing God. But God specifically says, "Test me in this bit with the tithes and offerings. Do it, and you will see Me provide for Your needs like never before." God doesn’t promise to give us everything we want – He promises to take care of our needs, like food, clothing, and shelter. That’s His gracious blessing. And if we don’t honor Him by giving our tithes and offerings, we are under the curse of not receiving His promise to meet our needs.
6. When Kim and I were first married, I struggled a lot with this. I was not taught growing up to tithe, and I couldn’t see how we could do it with the little money we had coming in. We lived from paycheck to paycheck. The first place we lived in after we got married was a one-bedroom dive where the gusting winds would whistle around the windows. Then when we moved to Wamic so Kim could teach, I couldn’t find work for a long time and we were barely paying our bills and having enough left to eat. The months I didn’t write that tithe check, something strange or unusual would come up and cost that amount of money. It was weird, but it taught me something. The day I committed to tithing was the day God was freed to start meeting our needs. The day we decided to get out of debt was a day He was freed even more to meet our needs. We still struggle at times with this whole stewardship issue, but one thing I’ve learned is that, while tithing will not guarantee that no trouble will come financially, when you tithe you don’t have to worry about asking God to meet your needs. You KNOW He will meet them.
7. That was a hard lesson, and I’m glad my wife had the courage to stick with her convictions until I came around. Otherwise I would be disqualified to stand in front of you today. You can’t lead if you don’t obey God, and you aren’t obeying God if you don’t tithe. That is truth you can take to the bank. I’ve been in both places and I can tell you that God’s blessings of provision are so much better than the curse of not having His provision that there is no comparison. Jesus gave this great promise of how God takes care of us when we obey Him in Matthew 6:25-34: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? ²⁸ "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Seek God’s kingdom and God’s interests first with your finances, and God will provide for your needs.
8. Brian La Croix writes, Richard Halverson, the chaplain of the U. S. Senate, pointed out something that bothers a lot of people and excites a few. He said, "Jesus Christ said more about money than about any other single thing because, when it comes to a man’s real nature, money is of first importance. Money is an exact index to a man’s true character. All through Scripture there is an intimate correlation between the development of a man’s character and how he handles his money" (as cited on SermonCentral.com). Halverson is right. I want it to be said of me that I am a man of character and that character is reflected in the stewardship of the financial resources God has entrusted to me. Obedience is the path to God’s blessings. What does your bank slip say about your obedience to God?
9. Illustration - In a sermon on giving, Dave Ferguson, pastor of Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois, read this letter from Jeff and Julie, who attend the church: Julie and I started attending Community Christian Church in January 1993, after moving here from California. We moved here for a business opportunity that ended up not working out, and we soon found ourselves in a desperate financial situation. We were behind in our rent and our car payments. We had back-IRS payments, 16 credit cards with more than $40,000 in debt, and not enough food in the fridge to keep our tummies full. And on top of all that, we decided to start a business. Well, in the middle of this, Jon had challenged us to include our finances in our commitment to following Jesus, and I really struggled with this. It wasn't that I didn't want to support CCC or set an example for others to follow. It was, in fact, that on occasion Julie and I were so broke that we ended up going to a friend's restaurant to ask for free food. I thought, If I'm struggling to keep my family, how can I commit what I don't have to God? What am I supposed to do; just write a check for ten percent of my income and hope that something happens? Jon urged me to trust God and give it a shot. After prayer and discussion, we decided that God would get the first portion of every check and not just what we were willing to give up each week. We learned to make God the first priority in our lives, and we had no idea how we'd get by. During the week after this decision, my brother and I were dropping off flyers at a construction site looking for work. We'd started a carpentry company. We met a builder, and he asked if we would be interested in doing their work. He had a house that was ready for us to start immediately and about twenty more to do during the next twelve months. Julie and I no longer questioned how we'd honor our financial commitment. Julie and I decided to increase our giving. If our story ended there, it would be a good story. However, you cannot outgive God. Over the next couple of years through a complicated and divinely orchestrated series of events, Julie and I also went from renters to homeowners. Owning a home has given us the ability to restructure our debt and give us some security and stability. I felt the need to tell our story. The story is much, much more than about finances. It's about faith, stepping out and trusting God with all that we have—our lives, our future, our relationship, and even our finances. Now as I reflect on this story and what we experienced, I'm still trying to answer one question. What was it that we sacrificed? (from PreachingToday.com.)
10. I can relate to this couple. When I think about what I could do with the money I give away, which I do from time to time, I realize that what I have is more than enough, and that I’d much rather have the blessings of obedience than the curses of disobedience. I do a lousy job of taking care of me. I’d rather have God do it. So I ask again, what does your bank slip say about your obedience to God? What would someone find out if you died and they looked at your checkbook? How well are you obeying God in this area?

1. Conclusion

1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Is God calling you to look at your finances in a way you’ve never looked at them before? Is He calling you to test Him by tithing and giving offerings above that to Him? What is God saying to you this morning? I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not grubbing for money – God convicted me to preach this message because someone here needs to hear it. Maybe all of us. I know I needed this reminder. What is God saying to you this morning?
2. As I said before, I don’t want to know who gives what, or who is and isn’t giving. But I want to give you an appropriate way to respond to God and show Him your commitment to obeying Him with the tithe and offering if that’s what you want and need to do to follow Him. So I’m going to sit down and close my eyes for a few moments. You raise your hand as a sign to God of your commitment to start obeying Him with the tithe and offering, and I’ll stay here with my eyes closed. When I start praying for all of us, you put your hand down because I’ll need to see where I’m going when I stand up. Please, test God in this and see that He is good. Raise your hand if you want to make this commitment before God.