Today we're going to continue on our series from the book of
Malachi. In the last weeks, we've been
talking extensively about various things.
We've talked about marriage, we talk about justice, we talk
about being the choosing generation.
I mean, Ben laid a very wonderful foundation as he led
us into this great chapter of the Bible Accidentally, I think
it's the last chapter of the Old Testament before we move on to
the New Testament. And today we're going to
continue discussing about something that is very important
to me, to you, to the gospel of Christ, to nations, and to
everybody. And today we're going to talk,
talk talking about money, money, money.
God is good. So I know we all know so much
about money. And when we think about money,
sometimes, sometimes it's come with a bread of pressure.
Sometimes it comes with a bit of frustration.
Sometimes we think about how do I protect my money?
Sometimes we think about how can I make 10 to make 50 to make 20.
That means making our money work for us, investing, expanding,
making more money and all the stuff.
Right? Yeah.
And also in marriages you see people talking about percentage
307050 hundred 100, completely, everything.
So we all have different ways we look at money.
You know, sometimes we look at how much you look at your
account. How much do I have in these
accounts? How much do I need to save
before I can retire? How can I increase this?
How can I protect this? How can I leave something for
the future generation, for my kids, for the unborn kids?
But one of the questions sometimes that we do not often
ask is what does God say about my money?
What God does say about my money?
I think this is very important questions that we need to ask
ourselves as Kingdom people, as the chosen.
So I'm going to lead us today as we read from the book of Malachi
chapter 3. So hide the Lord, do not change.
So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
Ever since the time of your sisters, you have turned away
from my decrees and I've not kept them.
Return to me and how we return to you, says the Lord Almighty.
What, you ask, How are we to return?
Will a man mortar rob God? Yet you rob me?
What, you ask? How are we robbing you?
And the response in tides and offerings?
You are under a curse, your whole nation, because you are
robbing me. Bring the whole tide into the
storehouse, that there may be food in my house.
Testimony in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I were not
true. Open the floodgates of heaven,
and pour out so much blessing that there will be not be room
enough to store it. I will prevent pests from
devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not
drop their fruits before it is ripe, say the Lord God Almighty.
Then all the nations will call you blessed for yours.
We be a delightful lamb, says the Lord Almighty.
You have spoken arrogantly against me, says the Lord.
Yes, you ask, what have we said against you?
You have said it in the full time to serve God.
What do we gain by carrying out this requirement and going about
like mourners for Lord Almighty? Father, we thank you, Lord, for
this morning. We thank you, Lord, for your
great word. Even as we share your word this
morning, we pray that your Holy Spirit will minister to us all,
will bless us. We give us a open heart and we
give us that grace to be obedient to what He has said.
Thank you gracious God in Jesus name.
So when we look at this book of Malachi, it's a reflection of a
wake up call on when God challenges us and this is
because he loves us. This is about truth.
This is about God wants for you, not from you.
Because when we talk about money, sometimes it's never just
talking about money. It's about our hearts.
It's not about all the money
I've got, it's all about my heart.
What am I prioritising in my heart?
How do I say this? Am I saying this in an
instrument to show that I'm better than others?
Or I'm using as an instrument, as a will to promote the gospel
of Christ for all to make an impact in this generation?
And I'm going to break down this Bible verse we have just read 1
after the other. The first verse that we read,
that is the verse 6 says, for I am the Lord, I change notes.
Therefore you are not consumed. O sons of Jacob.
We can see here that God is such a faithful God, His word, His
yes and Amen. And once he says it, he would
definitely bring it into into fulfilment.
He will make it happen. He said I do not change.
I am the God of yesterday, today forever.
I've made a comment, I've made promises with your forefathers
and I have kept that word. And despite, when you look at
the Israelites, even when they were in bondage and holy
stories, God remains so faithful.
Even when they messed up, God still showed up for them.
And that is to confirm to us that God is the faithful God.
He's such a faithful God. Even when we have messed up,
even when we are not doing, sometimes when we are not doing
what He's expecting us to do, He remains a faithful God.
And the scriptures in this Bible verse corroborate this and says
God is not a man, that he should lie.
Numbers 2319 we seem there is no variation or shadows or toning
and through the Lord's mercy, we are not consumed.
And that is to tell you that with the Mass through the mercy
of God, we have not consumed. And one thing that is very
important about this is that God is not tired of being faithful
is ever faithful every day. And you know that's that song in
one of our ears that we used to sing say that great is thy
faithfulness and saying the last part of his it doubt changes not
thy compassion. Spring dance great is your
faithfulness Oh God to me that's the faithfulness of God is such
a faithful father and when we look at the next verse of that's
despite God's being so faithful. You know sometimes we human
being were always very funny. Return to me and I'll return to
you. I mean this is not a sort of
anger. This is sort of invitation is
invitation to what to grace. Repentance is not all about
punishment. It is the doorway back to
fellowship and God is reaffirming this and this news
Father, that you guys have messed up.
Return to me. I have a very open hand.
I'm ready to accept you the way you are and that is to confirm
that our God is such an awesome God full of grace and the
Scripture corroborate this by when we read the book of Isaiah
chapter 55 verse 67 says seek the law while he will be formed.
Let the wicked forsake his ways and he abundantly pardon and in
Matthew 1128 come unto me all ye that lay born and have a lady
and how we give you rest in God that is rest.
That is his work for us. That is his promises for us and
that is what it will for us. But as a human being we are
still who we are. And after God said these that
returned to me. And the guy said but you ask how
are we to return to you will a mere mortal robot, yet you
robbed me. But you ask how are we robbing
you? And God say entice in offering.
You have been robbing me and that tells a lot.
That's all God is not. I mean he created heaven and
heart. He has got everything in his
heart, so he's not needing our money or resources or anything
to take care of himself. No, like I said in my
introduction, he's always thinking about what he could do
for us, and you want us to align with him and that's why he's
calling us back into his grace. To rob means to be told what?
His deal. That's just the literary meaning
of that. This wasn't about theft, it
wasn't about violence. This was just a neglect.
And when you and that neglect was now justified.
And that is what it is. Bible verse is trying to tell us
here that God calls us and say why?
Why are you doing this? But one thing that I want to
really emphasise here here is that God is not just asking us
for our money or for our resources or anything.
What God sees this as a way of communing with us is our heart
of worship for everything that he has given unto us.
It is not manipulation. So when we're talking about
tithe money offering that this is not about that.
It's all about our hearts and how our hearts sees God and how
our hearts is worshipping our Maker.
That's simply what it means. It's not a scheme, it's not a
transaction, It's not about percentage.
It's not about showing enough. It's all about worship.
And with, you know, the nature of God.
He wants that fellowship with us and with everything that He has
given us. You want us to use that to serve
Him and also to worship Him. And what does this tell us about
giving? It tells us where our heart is.
It tells us what we prioritise, and it tells us what we worship.
Now, when we're talking about money, it shows.
I mean, sometimes when we oh, is it all about oh, for, for, just
for, I just want to make this clear.
We just, I mean, this is not, we don't talk so much about money
here for anybody that is coming here for the first time.
This is just the sort of what I mean, what's it's about part of
what is suspected of us as Christians, as Kingdom people,
as the chosen people. So it's not about prioritising
money, but it's also about sell iron, chapanade iron, just to
really tell ourselves what this is all about.
So, so I just want to make that clarification so it shows what
you actually believe. You know, show me where your
heart is, then I will show you what you're going to prioritise.
So when we prioritise, it reveals what sits on the throne
of our hearts. And when you look at this,
giving is not just primary financial decision, it is a
worship decision. And God takes this seriously.
And when you look at it, yeah, we might see now in the Old
Testament, it's law. It's all about law that you have
to give 10% of what's your hand, your food, your products from
your farm and everything. Yes, that is what it is, but in
the new era of grace, we are under grace.
The one thing I really want to emphasise here is that under the
new covenant, tide is not abolished.
In the Old Testament it was law, it was an obligation and it is
being given out of fear. But under the new generation,
under the under grace, it turns from law into love, from our
obligation into honour and from fear into faith.
And when we have that faith, then we can do exploit.
When we have that faith, we know that God is a great provider.
He is the alpha, He is the Omega, He is my.
He has said that he was going to provide for me and what he,
whatever he says he will do. Then we can have faith in
whatever God has said and whatever God has promised that
he's going to do for us. So fighting is not it.
It is it is not just about us giving our money.
It's all about giving our hearts and when you look at it, the
title we talked about is a covenant platform for
supernatural supply. It is a covenant platform for
supernatural supply. So when we believe in it, then
we can see what God could do if we truly trust Him.
So trust where our heart is our priority and our worship.
That is what makes that in the book of Psalm 24 was one I
mentioned in your time. The heart is the Lord and
everything in it. Before we are here, this earth
has been existing and God has got everything in His heart.
He is the Alpha is the only guy. He has created everything.
God owns it, but He has entrusted it in our hand and we
are steward and we are to return to Him everything we have been
able to gather. So everything originated from
God. All our resources, all our
gifts, all our talents, all the opportunities, all the
connections, all the network, all the wisdom, everything we've
got originates from God. It is not our own.
And He has given us that platform to manage all this.
So when we manage all this, then we can return everything back to
Him through our worship. Thank you Lord, for your
faithfulness. Thank you, Lord, for this.
It's not my own mind, it's not by my own power, but you have
done this for me. I'm returning all these to You
in my Thanksgiving. I'm returning all these to You
because You are the source and I'm returning to you.
That is what that's it. And in the book of First
Chronicles 2019, we said both riches and honour comes from
God. It's not our own wisdom.
So Webber's giving us that we are to give all praises, all
worship back to him and that is what we are doing with our
offering, with our tithe, which giving back in our wisdom
whatever talent we've got. And we are using him for the
appeasement of his name. In one of the books of Bishop
Davido Edipo, he said Titan is a covenant platform for
supernatural supply. And when you look at it, like I
said, everything belongs to God. And in the covenants of the Old
Testament talks about 10%, well, let's look at it. 10% is what
the law says, right? Well, because we are under
grace, we are replacing that law with law for God, right?
And when we love, we give everything.
We give all to love because we are not under obligation that I
have to give 10%. And when God has blessed us, we
could even do more than the minimum 10% because of our love
and because of who we trust that He is a great provider and He
can provide for me. That is what we call about trust
in God. You know, sometimes we see our
resources is our own, but our resources not actually our own.
It is for God. And this is an evidence that we
are not under the law, but we are under grace.
And when we are under grace, we have liberty to do more than the
minimum. The tide of 10% was never meant
to be a ceiling. It was meant to be a starting
point, a reminder that everything comes from God.
And when we look at the scriptures in the book of Romans
11/10 seas it said from Him and through Him and to Him are all
things. We are not the owners, we are
just T words and God entrusts all these resources in our hand
to his people, not for personal comfort but for Kingdom impacts.
Hallelujah. So giving is not all about what
God wants from you, it's about what God's want.
I repeat that giving is not all about what God wants from you,
it is about what God want for you.
And having said all this, God promises us something said with
all this Test me. Test me means bear me, you try
me, you put your trust in me, you do what I've asked you to
do. Then you can see what I could
do. According to Malachi 310 said I
will open the windows of heaven provision, I will rebuke the
Devorah protection and all nations will call you blessed
testimony and this is who God is and that is what God is telling
us this morning. Trust in me, I can provide for
you, trust in me, I can protect you, trust in me.
You have abundance testimony. You will testify your
generation, it will show fault in your generation because it's
a covenant. Sometimes I always tell people
that you know when you get to that game, when things are very
difficult, when there seems to be no way, when it seems that
this is just the end, One thing that will also speak for you is
your worship. At that moment, your worship
will speak for you, and that is the evident what God is telling
us here. I will protect you, I will
provide for you, and you will testify.
And when you testify, it's an evidence that God is making
impossibility possible. It's telling you that what's you
fear or what you've been waiting for, God has done it.
It is what you have been praying for.
God is answering that prayer and that is His promises for us in
the book of Malachi chapter 3, fasting.
So said gold stand between his faithful people and everything
that will consume what He has entrusted today.
So your faithfulness becomes a witness.
Blessing was never meant to stop you.
It flows through you. When God blesses you, it's not
stopping with you, it flows through you.
You'll be a blessing to others, be best into a generation and it
goes down, down, down, down to you and you are such a person.
That is what is coming firstly. So sometimes when we think about
it, my future generation, my base, my base, we just need to
put our trust in God and do that which He wants us to do.
I want to leave you with these three acronyms because when
we're talking about TIDE, talking about offering, it's not
just about our money. It's all about everything that
God has given to us, to everyone here present.
God has given us so much. What are we using it for?
The glory of God? That's the question we need to
ask ourselves this morning. So I gave you 3 acronyms, our
time, our talent, and our treasure.
TTT. Can you say this after me?
Time, talent, talent and treasure.
Time, talent and treasure. When we look at these three
things, if we can give these back, God has given us that
treasure, said where your treasure is, that is where your
heart will be, Where is your heart?
Where is your heart? Our time, sometimes we have
very, very, very busy schedule or sometimes every step, some
step we take goes a long way to touch the lives of others.
It is not always convenient. It is not always convenient.
Spending time supporting, comforting, visiting.
It's not always easy, but that is what's part of what God wants
from us as His covenant people. We spend our time with Him.
So you just reflect on these, how we spend our time, you know,
how are you spending your hours? It reveals what you prioritise.
There's something in management we call time management.
How do we manage that? How do we prioritise that?
To do some of the things God wants from us.
Giving God your time means his presence comes first.
So before we schedule anything, let's think about everything
else, how we can actually do that.
Our talent, I know here as we are seated, we've got so many
people with diverse talent. We are so blessed.
How are you using that talent for God?
Very important. And you know that every gift did
not come from you. Every gift, every skill, every
understanding, every knowledge, everything comes from God.
Every creativity, every wisdom, it was pleased in you for your
purpose. Are we using that for God's
purpose? That's a question we need to
really ask ourselves. And our treasure, our money, our
resources, how are we using it? Are we prioritising it for the
things of God? Or are we just using it just to
stay with us and it stays with us because we are not truly
trusting God that another one will come.
We're just keeping that. I just have to keep this so that
I can plan. I'm not saying it's double to
plan. I can plan for the next 205045
years with all these that I have.
So I'm not just going to disturb myself.
I'm not just going to give anything.
I'm just going to retain this one.
So that but no, if we trust God, we know that he can provide said
he is our God that provides all our needs and we promise he said
that I will provide all your needs according to my riches and
glory to Christ Jesus. Do we believe that or we want to
cherry pick what we believe? Today I just want us to have a
reflection on this. What am I gaining?
Why do I keep trying? Disobedience really matter.
Is it important to obey God what He has said in this?
I want us to reflect on all these and finally, I just want
to tell us that the time to say reminder that I know where this
came from and I trust the one who gave it.
That one who gave it is ready to do more than what he has done.
And that is our trust in God. That is our word and trust.
And finally this morning, everything comes from God and
the greatest gift was given to us by God.
In the book of John 316 it says for God so loved the world and
he gave. What did he give?
That's what that's what he gave his son.
The after giving his Son, what is the next person that
whatsoever on the line, whosoever will have that eternal
life, that is what really matters.
That is the ultimate. So in all we do, let's Christ
remain the central. Let's money subdemission.
Let's our money, our resources, our talent, our wisdom, our
understanding, our gifts, let it serve the mission so that the
nation's Blackpool, England, the Old World can feel that impact.
And that is what we have. Father, we thank you, Lord, for
this morning. Thank you Lord, for your
faithfulness. Thank you Lord, because we are
the God of our flesh. Lord, I just pray this morning
as we have heard from you, that you give us the grace to listen,
to be obedient, to always do that which you have commanded us
to do. Give us the great to do more
than the minimum. Give us the grace to focus on
the maximum and how we can do more and more to the glory of
your name. Thank you gracious God.
Lord, this is a new month. It shall be a blessed month for
us all. Lord, You go ahead of us and you
make every crooked way you make them plain for us.
You go ahead of us Lord, and fill us with your Holy Spirit in
Jesus name.