Good morning again. Thank you, thank you.
Good morning. Yes, it is a good morning.
My name is Josh. I'm glad you guys are here with
us this morning, particularly if you're new.
Thank you for visiting with us. If you are either new or you've
been out of Vita Springs for a little while.
We're jumping back into the book of Malachi this morning.
Malachi, as I've been dying to get to say, I won't say it
again, I promise. Malachi page 8O2 if you're going
to use one of the Bibles underneath the seat in front of
you, and we're going to be in Malachi chapter 3 verses 6
through 12. If you have been coming around
for the last five weeks or so, we're in week six of eight in
the book of Malachi. Malachi is a serious book, isn't
it? So the people are dealing with
some serious pain. It's written to a people who are
suffering who not, not for the first time in their history, by
the way, they're suffering again, although in this case it
was suffering because of their own sin, just not always the
case. But in this case it was.
They were faithless to the covenant that God had made with
them. They were experiencing the
promised consequences of their disobedience and they had grown
weary of following God. It's a book with a serious
message. It's an urgent, loud call from
God to his people to return to him, to honoring God through
faithful living. That's that's the phrase we've
used to try to encapsulate the book of Malachi's honor God
through faithful living, a serious message.
But we also will see this morning that there's as a book
about a seriously faithful God. He says in chapter 1, I love
you, I love you. I know you're in pain, I know
you're suffering, but I love you.
Believe me. We'll see today, despite your
unfaithfulness, I will be faithful.
Even though you've been faithless, I want you back.
I want to bless you. We'll see the faithfulness of
God on on full display, even though we'll see that the people
of Israel were unfaithful to God, particularly in their
giving. As a fair warning, in Malachi 3,
we will be talking about money today, and thank God that He has
said much in the Bible about our finances and about money about
giving. We're going to cover as much as
we can as is relevant to the text, but it's worth saying
upfront. What God has to say about money
is not ultimately about trying to strong arm you into giving
more. He doesn't need to do that.
It's all his anyway. And please hear from me.
It's not a carefully constructed budget plea.
We're not. We're not aiming to try to get
you to convince, to try to convince you to give more or to
tie 10% of your income to the church.
In fact, that would be aiming too low.
God wants you. He wants your whole heart.
He wants more than 10%. It's all his.
He wants all of you. He knows how wealth can grip us,
and so He calls us to give faithfully, actually, for our
own good and for His glory. So on that note, there are three
main truths that I want you to be on the lookout for today and
one key question that will outline how we walk through the
test. The text, first of all, mankind
is unfaithful. It's the first thing we'll see.
We'll see also that God is faithful and that repentance
leads to our good and to God's glory.
The three key truths and one key question to consider is what
does faithfulness look like in our giving?
That's what Malachi 3 six through 12 prompts us to
consider. What does faithfulness in our
giving look like? I want to pray for us here
shortly. But before we approach God in
prayer and then through his word, let's pause for a moment
of silence to humble ourselves. Job after speaking back against
the Lord after doing so good for so much of the book of Job
resolved to continue to honor God seems to seems to say
something against the Lord and actually in chapter 40 says I am
of small account. What shall I answer you?
I lay my hand over my mouth. Or we might say along with
James, God help us to be quick to listen and slow to speak and
slow to become angry. Let's pause for a moment of
silence, and then I'll pray, and then I'll read for us from
Malachi 3. Oh God, who is like you, you are
in control, and you do all that you please.
God, that you are also compassionate and gracious.
God, you are slow to anger. We need strength to understand
how deep your love and your faithfulness are to us.
They are too wonderful for us that we confess that our faith
has been weak, that our strength has been dried up, that
sometimes the sorrows and sufferings that we experience
are more than we can bear. That even within this past week,
our very own loved ones have suffered through sickness and
trial and financial hardship and loss.
And we grieve together. Those pains and sufferings got
to remind us that we're not home yet.
We're citizens of a heavenly Kingdom from which we await our
Savior and Lord King Jesus. Lord, we thank you that while we
wait, you know, we know that you have not left us.
We believe you when you say that the Lord of hosts is with us.
God, you are our refuge and strength.
You are a very present help and trouble.
So, Father, teach us. Teach us not to presume upon
tomorrow, but to give our whole heart and life to you today.
Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Lord, satisfy us this morning with Your steadfast love, that
we may rejoice and be glad even in these very days of pain and
confusion and evil. God, this morning we declare our
trust and our delight in You. We eagerly await to hear from
you and to cherish your words to us in Christ's name, Amen.
So mention we are in week six of eight in the book of Malachi.
The book is constructed in the form of 6 disputes, which is a
funny word we don't use that very much.
You might think of them as just arguments, 6 kind of arguments
back and forth between God and the Israelites, whether actual,
verbally or just, you know, He knows their hearts.
It's a bad idea to argue with God, by the way.
It'd be better to be on his side.
They've said things like God, you don't love us anymore.
And they were bringing polluted offerings to God rather than
their first and their best. The leaders were leading the
people astray. These are just some of the
things we've seen already in the book of Malachi.
The the people were marrying women who followed other gods
and divorcing the wives that they had married.
They were calling God unjust. And today we'll see that they
were actually attempting to rob God through their offerings, or
lack thereof. I'm going to read for us Malachi
3, six through 12. And then we'll go back to verse
7, verse 6. For I the Lord do not change.
Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed from the
days of your father's. You have turned aside from my
statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return
to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we
return? Will man rob God?
Yet you are robbing me. But you say, How have we robbed
you and your tithes and contributions?
You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole
nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the
storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby
put me to the test, says the Lord of Hosts.
If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down
for you a blessing until there is no more need, I will rebuke
the Devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of
your soil. And your vine in the fields
shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of Hosts.
And then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a
land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
First of all, as I said, we'll see that mankind is unfaithful.
The claim that God is making to the people of Israel in this
passage is you've left me. You've been unfaithful from the
days of your Father. You've turned aside for my
statutes and you've not kept them.
And they say, so he says, return to me, the people, as if to say,
cut return. How can we return?
We haven't got anywhere. God points to their giving will
man rob God, you are robbing me. How have we robbed you God, your
tithes and contributions. You're cursed for your robbing
me. The whole nation of you.
Here's the the startling reality about the people of Israel.
They they could have been toast long before the book of Malachi.
It says from the days of your father's you have turned aside
from my statute. So the rebellion is
comprehensive. It's been going on for a long
time. The whole nation is guilty.
Verse 9 and it's not just in one area of life.
God, as he's already done throughout the whole book of
Malachi so far has pointed to a lot of different areas of their
life where they've been unfaithful.
Here God points to their giving. The practice of the tithe at
this point in Israel's history was tithe just means 10th.
It was to give 10% of their income.
Whatever kind of increase the Lord blessed them with, be it
through, you know, cattle or other types of livestock or the
crops that they were able to produce.
They were to give a tenth of all that God gave them back to him
as and God says their failure to do so is like robbery, taking
from God what is actually his. So they would have benefited
from and we will benefit from a reality check for a moment.
Who owns the world? God does not girls, Beyoncé,
sorry, God owns the world. Thank you.
A little delayed bit of a misquote.
God owns the world, the whole world and everything in it.
Psalm 50 verses 10 through 12 say it well.
God speaking for every beast of the forest is mine.
The cattle on 1000 hills, I know all the birds of the of the
hills and I and all that moves in the field is mine.
If I were hungry, just comical as if God could be hungry.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its
fullness are mine. Abraham Kuiper is famously known
for saying there's not a square inch in the whole domain of our
human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over
all, does not cry mine. Now maybe a piece of this seems
a bit odd. If God doesn't need our money,
then why does he care? Why does he care about their
giving? Why does he care about our
giving? Of course it's not because he
needs it. So think about the book of
Malachi as a whole. As we've said, God is calling
back His people to honor God through faithful living.
And all the disputes or arguments so far are areas of
their lives where they have been unfaithful or they've gone
astray, but God loves them and he wants them to return to him.
And so we can conclude God cares about our giving because he
knows how money quickly exposes what's in our hearts.
Money can quickly expose what or who we worship.
Our budgets, our investments, our spending, our saving, our
giving. All of these reveal what our
hearts truly love. God cares about our giving
because He wanted them and us to see that giving unfaithfully is
not a small sin. It's presuming ownership of what
belongs to God. And boy are our inner lawyers
really good at what they do. Try to convince us that it's not
so bad if I withhold just a little bit.
But it is. It's deep seated rebellion
against God, and we too have rebelled when we withhold from
Him what is rightfully His. It's the creation saying to the
Creator mine. It's my life, it's my career,
it's my house, it's my body, it's my money.
Those are my clothes, that food in the fridge and the pantry.
It's my food, it's my time, it's my schedule.
God said the world and its fullness are mine.
They're his. Speaking to Christians in First
Corinthians 6, God said actually, you are not your own,
You were, but at a price. Therefore, honor God with your
body and you might add to that your career.
Honor God with your house and your budget and your food and
our schedules. They're gods.
God cares about our giving because He loves us and He wants
our hearts. He wants to bring us back into
restored relationship with Him. He wants to save us from our
misdirected affections. Strikingly, for the Israelites,
it was their unfaithfulness and giving, the robbery of God, that
had led to the sufferings that they were experiencing.
Verse 9 says You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me,
the whole nation of you. So they were experiencing what
God said would happen. If you go back to Deuteronomy
chapter 28, the second-half of that chapter that's organized
with nice little subheadings in our printed Bibles these days is
blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.
There were curses for disobedience and the here's the
difficult reality of verse 9 for us.
And please hear me, it's not always the case.
OK, sometimes, not always, but sometimes, your pain and your
suffering is the result of your sin.
That is what was happening to the Israelites here.
And I have a very unflattering personal story to share.
Just at the beginning of this year, Debbie and I were in a
pretty tight financial spot. It seemed like like everything
was breaking. You know, if that is that ever
happened to you, Like it all happens at the same time.
Our foundation underneath our fireplace gives out because
armadillos were burrowing underneath it.
So it started to fall. Are you kidding?
The Armadillos foundation issues, we had a plumbing issue.
Thank the Lord we caught it early enough before it got
bigger. But you know, plumbing is not
cheap. We owed taxes for the first time
in our lives. We've never owed taxes before.
And then we had to start contributing more to taxes for
this year. We had just had a newborn, which
we love him, Silas, he's wonderful.
And this was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back.
We, we, we were happy with our insurance.
So we thought our medical bill wasn't going to be all that
crazy for Silas. And then we go and we check the
e-mail and it says 4600 dollars. We said like we thought that was
all going to be covered. All of this.
I think what it finally did for me was, you know, this, this
text has been on my mind for a while.
So it prompted me to consider God, have I been faithless?
Have I been stingy in any way? Is there anything I've promised
to give to you that I've not yet given to you?
Just like who knows? It was it was their their
disobedience that led to their pain and suffering.
Is could that be the root cause? Lord, I did some digging.
We had a small increase that we had planned to give towards our
regular monthly giving that we hadn't started doing yet.
There was a an offering we had intended to give.
We had the money sitting in a savings account and for whatever
reason, we hadn't given it yet. Perhaps it just feels good to
have the money in the savings account.
Like we'll get to that eventually and so quickly.
I was like, all right, take it, you know, to increase the
giving, give the money we already committed to give.
No joke. The very next day I pulled up
that same e-mail where the bill in the e-mail says $4600 a click
view bill and takes you to my UF health and it says $200 said
Lord, pay that right now before they can chase their mind.
Look, I need to be careful with with stories like this.
I'm we'll talk a little bit more about prosperity teachers later
on. I'm not saying that just give
more and all your pains will go away.
I'm not even saying that every single time we repent.
Your life is just free and clear of pains and sufferings
automatically. That's not what I'm saying.
In fact, who knows, maybe it was a glitch in their system and
they're going to hunt me down for the rest of the money.
I don't know. It doesn't matter.
God convicted me of sin, of my unfaithfulness and giving, and I
had to repent, admit, and now my heart is free.
That's what God wants for us. He loves us, He wants our
hearts, He cares about our giving because He knows that
money and wealth and stuff can pull us away from Him.
And so He will allow pain in our lives.
He'll even sometimes send pain into our lives for the sake of
bringing us back to Him so that we can have restored
relationship with Him. Before we move on to away from
our unfaithfulness and talk about God's faithfulness, there
might be a natural lingering question in your hearts, which
is I'm not like you, Josh. I don't think I'm in sin to the
best of my ability. I'm I'm living faithfully, but
I'm still in pain. I'm trying to do everything
right and life is still really hard right now.
What then? There are a few things I think
the Bible tells us could be the cause of pain and suffering, and
the first of which is not a comfortable truth.
It's what we see right here in Malachi that, and that's the
truth that I had to deal with. We might not be actually living
as faithfully as we think we are.
It might be there is some unfaithfulness in your heart
that you need to to probe into and ask God to reveal.
We see the whole book of Job is a is a book of testing.
And whether that test comes from God or even from evil spirits,
right, or evil forces or evil world, it could be a test.
It could be simply that we live in a broken and sinful world.
David was a man after God's own heart, and yet Saul was
constantly pursuing him, trying to kill him.
So what do we do with that? How do you respond if that's
you? Well, what do dependent people
do? We pray.
God says that he is close to the broken hearted, and he saves
those who are crushed in spirit first.
Peter 57. Cast all your anxieties on him,
because he cares for you. A good prayer might be, Lord, is
there any way that I'm living unfaithfully?
It doesn't have to just be giving, by the way, but is there
any way that I'm living unfaithfully?
Expose it so I can repent of that.
Maybe a good prayer would be what David says in Psalm 139 on
the screen. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me and know my thoughts.
See if there's any grievous way in me and lead me in the way
everlasting. That would be a good humble
prayer for all of us, really at any point in life.
If it's a test, Lord, if this is a test, give me faith, give me
patience to endure the test. God, grow me how you want to
grow me. Produce in me what I need.
I praise you and thank you for the opportunity to be stretched
in this way. Or if it's simply the sin,
sinful world we live in and the evilness of men.
Lord, don't pray as as as what Old Testament prayers would like
to do, which is curse my enemies.
Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies.
He says, Lord, bring the wicked to repentance and give me
strength to endure. If we are honest with ourselves,
we can't acknowledge we are much more like the Israelites than
unlike them. Mankind as a whole is
unfaithful, but praise the Lord, God is faithful.
Look at verse 6. For I the Lord, do not change.
Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
I always love the phrase when you see a therefore, what's the
therefore, therefore it makes you pay attention to what comes
before it. You might read it backwards or
children of Jacob, you are not consumed because I, the Lord, do
not change. Isn't that music to your ears?
Isn't that like water in the desert?
God is faithful to his people and to his covenant, not just
because he's nice or patient or kind.
God's very nature is unchanging. The the theological word for
this is God is immutable. He can't be mutated.
He's fixed. He's permanent, He's eternal.
From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
Psalm 90 verse 2 says think of the laws as of physics.
Try as hard as you might to defy gravity, you can't do it.
You jump down and you're going to fall.
It's an unchanging law and interesting, amazing the
contrast how God is unchangeable.
We are so fickle and inconsistent and changing, but
he's not like us. He's completely other There's
there's not a spot for him on the taxonomic ranking system of
all things. The the taxonomy is that he's
the creator and we are the creatures we change.
But he says, I, the Lord do not change.
Now that's very good news, but it would not sound like very
good news. If you think that God is some
self-centered or powerless or unpredictable or unjust tyrant,
then that would be very bad news.
And maybe you do think that's what God is like.
And if that's so or some variation of that, then I would
just say, friend, please pause and ask yourself what is shaping
your view of God? Is it your recent experience and
the way that you interpret what's happening in your life?
Is it what you think God should be like?
Is it are there attitudes or underlying tones and the content
that you consume that are shaping you and what you think
of God? It's not right for us to impose
on God our views of Him. We must be careful to think of
God according to who has He, who He has revealed Himself to be in
Scripture. In fact, we cannot have an
accurate understanding of God unless He were to reveal Himself
to us. Praise the Lord, He's done so in
Psalm 50, which I quoted earlier, the Lord actually
suggests to the evil people being addressed in that Psalm
that they were flippant in their evil.
Because He says you thought that the I am was one like yourself.
He's not like us. How has He then revealed Himself
to us? What has He told us about
Himself? To look at Exodus 34, verses 6
and seven, which we'll actually be meditating on these verses in
our small groups all summer long.
The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed the Lord.
The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
This is how God has revealed Himself, keeping steadfast love
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's
children to the 3rd and the 4th generation.
God is amazingly gracious and merciful, but He's also just.
Notice the contrast though there is there is justice that may
continue for three or four generations, but His love
extends to thousands of generations.
God is gracious and merciful. He's also just Lamentations 322
and 23 says something similar to Malachi 36.
It says the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness or
Numbers 20. Excuse me, 2319.
God is not a man that he should lie, nor son of man that He
should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do
it, Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it?
God is steady and faithful and constant.
This is how He has revealed Himself to us.
I, the Lord, do not change, and therefore, O Israelites or
children of Jacob, you are not consumed.
Friends, God's unchanging nature is good news.
It's comforting to know that that God is constant, He is
safe, He's steady, He is just. He is welcoming, He's forgiving,
He is patient, He's tender. God is righteous, He is pure.
God is powerful or God is trustworthy, and if the idea
that God is good or that his nature is unchanging in fact
feels like bad news to you, they might.
I say as lovingly as I can, that you're not seeing God rightly.
And please make it a point this summer to seek Him for how He
has revealed Himself through His Word.
Here are a few ideas and ways that we'd like to help with
that. First of all, prayer.
It might be wise. If that's resonating with you
and you feel like that's me, You don't want to raise your hand
and say that, but you know that that's you.
We pray for each other. At the end of every service,
we'll sing a few songs and then there'll be a time for prayer.
Come forward and ask someone to pray for you.
You can tell them specifically. We have a whole team of people
who are trained to pray for for one another.
Pray that God would help change that in you and help you to see
Him rightly. Perhaps a dedicated Bible study
on the character of God would be a very good thing for you.
Meditating. As I said, we'll be meditating
all summer long on Exodus 34, six, and seven.
If you're not in a small group, might be a great time to join a
small group. There's a small group wall on
your way out where you can see what day of the week works for
you, meaning all throughout time on different days of the week.
But dig into who God says He is, or maybe look specifically at
the promises that God has made to His people and start praying
those promises back to Him. Maybe reading a good book would
just be helpful enough. Next step for you, a couple I'd
recommend Knowing God by Ji Packer or Knowledge of the Holy
by AW Tozer. We'll be giving away a couple
copies of those at Team Vita next week.
Praying the Promises of God by Tom Yeakley, a wonderful little
book. We want to see God and know God
and believe Him for who He has said that He is because He is
faithful and unchanging. We are unfaithful.
He is faithful. Verses 10 through 12 show us
that God makes a way for us to be restored to Him and that
repentance leads to our good and to God's glory.
I'm going to read verse 7 first again and then verses 10 and 11.
So God says return to me and I will return to you, says the
Lord of hosts. So what does that returning look
like? That's what I think verses 10
and 11 are showing us is what that returning to God for the
Israelites looks like. Bring the full tithe into the
storehouse that there may be food in my house, and thereby
put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts.
If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down
for you a blessing until there is no more need, I will rebuke
the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of
your field, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear,
says the Lord of hosts. Now sadly, because this passage
has been abused by prosperity teachers or Word of Faith
teachers, I won't even call them prosperity gospel teachers
because it's not good news. I feel the need to start with
what this text is not saying 1st and then we'll talk about what
it is saying when it says test the Lord put me to the test.
This is not saying test the Lord by giving 7 times what you
usually give and it'll be returned 7 times what back to
you? That's not what it's saying.
That testing sounds more like the testing the devil did when
he tempted Jesus with when he tempted Jesus in the New
Testament. This is not Try me and see if
I'll bail you out. Provoking God by demanding that
He meet our tests is distrusting and evil.
That's not what that means. It doesn't mean God only wills
health and wealth and happiness and a pain free life for us.
That's not what this is saying. It doesn't mean that if you have
pain or if you've not received yet what you've been praying
for, that somehow it's because you have too little faith or
because you haven't given enough money.
That's not what this is saying. That's what prosperity teachers
or Word of Faith teachers teach. And do you see how far away from
the text that teaching is and why it's not good news?
It's missing anything relevant to the truth, The point of
Malachi, which is we want to honor God through faithful
living. And it's instead turned it into,
well how do I ensure that I'm blessed and how do I use God to
get what I want? The results of that sort of
teaching are awful. They include self centeredness
and entitlement or disillusionment or worse towards
God and we end up with 0 grid for pain and suffering in life.
But in reality, what these verses have to say is very good
news. Again, it's that repentance
leads to our good and to God's glory.
For the Israelites, remember their plight, The pain they were
going through was the direct result of their sin.
But here God is saying it doesn't have to be that way
forever. There were specific blessings
for obedience and there were and repentance as well.
So again, go back to Deuteronomy 28 and see God's making a way
for them to come back to him. And he says I will forgive you.
You've sinned in giving. So repent by getting that
straight and I'll send the rain again until you don't have any
more need. That's what this you know,
pouring out the opening up the windows of heaven pouring down
for you a blessing until there is no more need.
In this context would be referring to there was a drought
there was in an agrarian society who relies on crops and
livestock. God's saying I'm going to help
you out when you repent. You've been unfaithful in your
giving, and per our covenant agreement, you're experiencing
the curses that were promised to you.
So repent. I'll send those nasty locusts
away, the devourers, and I'll give you reign.
So instead, put me to the test. Can be interpreted as see if I
won't be faithful to my word. See if I won't take the curse
away when you repent. That thing I promised that I
would do. See if I won't be faithful to do
what I said I would do. Isn't God so kind and gracious
to have given them that that provision for them, that despite
their their unfaithfulness or their faithlessness, Israel's
sin could be forgiven? Their fate was not sealed, even
though they were rebellious against a holy God.
They could be forgiven because God made a promise and he
offered a way to be restored through repentance.
And isn't God so gracious He's offered a way for you and for me
to be restored to him as well? Despite our rebellion against
God, He's intent on restoring our relationship with Him
because just as he was faithful and patient and holy and just
and gracious then, he is now. He is the same God from
yesterday, today, and forever. From everlasting to everlasting.
The truth is, like the Israelites, we could have been
taken out by God long ago, but God made a way.
Isaiah 53, six says that we all, like sheep, have gone astray.
Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has laid on
him, referring to Jesus, the iniquity of us all.
Second Corinthians 8-9 says that though Jesus, he says he that
though he, but it's referring to Jesus, was rich, yet for your
sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become
rich. Rich with forgiveness and
eternal blessings and brought back into right relationship
with God. God made a way for us to be
restored to himself by sending his own Son to bear the weight
of God's justice and to pay the penalty for our sins on the
cross. And if that was not enough to
demonstrate his complete victory over sin and death, God raised
Jesus from the dead. And as a down payment, so to
speak, God will give His Holy Spirit to all who repent and
surrender to Him as Lord, and He will one day return for His own
and raise them up to eternal life.
So what are we to do then to be brought back into right
relationship with God? In the words of Malachi 3 verse
seven, in a common phrase in the New Testament, the words of
Malachi are return. God calls them and He calls us
to return. God's not OK with continued
rebellion against him. He says if you're going to
follow him, then you actually do need to change.
You actually do need to turn away from sin and turn towards
him. The words of the New Testament
writers are repent and belief. Turn away from your sin.
Put your trust in that work of Jesus for you and receive the
free gift that he has for you. Forgiveness, a new life with
Him. And he says that your humble
repentance will lead to blessing.
It will lead to your good in Malachi.
That was again. Turn.
Turn back to Me in your giving. Get that straight and I'll
remove the devourer for US. Turn back to me and receive the
gift of your sins being separated from you as far as the
east is from the West. Thank you Lord, I mentioned
there was one key question to consider.
We've seen that God is, that mankind is unfaithful, but God
is faithful and that repentance leads to our good and His glory.
And there's one key question to consider.
Now I think would be a good time to consider it before we
conclude. And the question, well, before I
get to it, should we consider this passage relevant to our
giving at all today? I think the answer is yes.
And the question just to give it to you now and then make a few
comments on it is what does it look like?
What does faithfulness and giving look like?
So that's the question to consider.
But before we get there, should we consider this relevant to our
giving at all today? This is a passage about how the
Israelites were unfaithful in their tithes and contributions
to God. And the message of Malachi once
more is honor God through faithful living in this
particular text, specifically message about their giving.
So be faithful to God in your giving.
And what is God going to do? God will meet your needs.
Is that taught anywhere else in Scripture?
Absolutely. Matthew 633 is a personal
favorite after a long passage on Don't worry about what you will
eat or what you will wear or where you will live.
Jesus teaches but seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness
and all these things will be added to you as well.
Philippians 419 Similarly, the church in Philip I having
already given generously to Paul Paul then writing even out of
their their their poverty. They were not particularly
wealthy and God says to them to to encourage them.
Essentially you've given generously.
My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches
and glory in Christ Jesus. The message of our giving
throughout Scripture is give faithfully and God will meet our
needs. Thank the Lord.
So what does faithfulness in giving look like?
On a very practical level, I've just put together some biblical
principles for giving with a bunch of references.
You can take a picture if you'd like.
I'll try to walk slowly through them if you're jotting them
down. But first of all, what does
faithfulness in giving look like?
Give thoughtfully and prayerfully.
And so I'll just pose a question to each one of us after each of
these statements. Give thoughtfully and
prayerfully. So do you pray annually about
how much to give? Doesn't have to be every single
week necessarily that you're saying, what do I give this week
and what do I give today or what do I give next month?
But annually could be fine. God, what, what, what might
you'll be calling me to give to you this year?
If more frequently than that, great for additional giving
opportunities, give joyfully. God loves a cheerful giver.
So, so maybe just consider to yourself, what are you able to
give joyfully? And do you pray that God would
increase that amount, that God would increase your ability to
give joyfully? He says it's more blessed to
give than to receive. Give sacrificially, like we saw
from the Church of Philippi in the verse I just quoted.
And so the question I would ask is, does it ever hurt a little
bit to give, give joyfully, but does it ever hurt just a little
bit, maybe more than just a little bit?
Does it ever hurt to give? The principle from Proverbs 69
is that we would give our first and our best, not the leftovers,
but give God from immediately upon receiving.
God being quick and ready to give back to immediately.
So who gets your first and your best would be the question that
I would ask. Who gets your first and your
best? First Corinthians 16 two talks
about setting aside a contribution at the beginning of
each week, and so the idea being give regularly.
Most of the giving we see in the New Testament is towards local
congregations, but there are plenty of other giving
opportunities we could give towards.
But give regularly. So how regularly do you give?
And what do you do when you miss a gift?
Do you try to go back and make up for it?
Lastly, we'll see. God calls us to give to those in
need. That could be those in need
within our own church, or just those in need in the world.
But God loves the poor. He loves those in need.
So I love the phrase being spring loaded.
Are you ready? Are you spring loaded?
Are you looking for opportunities to give?
There's just some some biblical principles for what faithfulness
and giving looks like. And the idea being it's not
ultimately about dutiful performance, but it's about the
heart. God loves us.
And so he cares about our giving because he wants us for our own
good to live faithfully in this area for his glory and for our
good. To conclude, look at verse 12
where he says, and as a result of this, you know, when you
repent of your lack of giving and and instead bring the full
contribution that I'm asking you to give, all nations will call
you blessed for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord
of hosts. Said another way, when God's
people obey, there are ramifications that reach beyond
our walls. You could say that their
faithlessness and giving was actually slowing down the
worship of God among other nations.
Or in a more positive way of saying that, you might say that
our repentance and faithfulness, it's not only good for us, it's
not only good for us, but it's for God's glory and it's for the
blessing of the nations.