Test The Lord Your God: Malachi 3:7-12

Prayer Time:

Pray for Pastors Conference next weekend, those going to serve, to lead, to worship.

Pray for needs of the church- healing, protection, unity.

Pray for the message.

Intro:

You have likely heard the thought experiment, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Well, in more recent days I have heard some put a twist on that by saying to the church: “If revival happens in the world and no westerners/Americans are around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Unfortunately for much of my life that really was how it felt, there were incredible stories from all over the world but not here in quite a long time.

There are stories of revival happening around the world all the time, and fortunately in recent months we HAVE been able to see and hear about them fairly consistently, even right here in the US. Many of you remember back in February when a revival of prayer, repentance and worship broke out at Asbury University in Kentucky. After an ordinary chapel service, college students continued to pray and sing together in worship, this led to a multiple week worship experience in that chapel. By the end, tens of thousands of people had travelled to participate in this move of God. But, this actually didn’t stop there, Lee University, Anderson University, Ohio Christian University, Cedarville University, and Northern Kentucky University are among the other schools who also experienced similar revival moments soon after Asbury. Outside of this collegiate revival there are incredible stories of the church growing and strengthening in some unexpected places around the world including Iran, Thailand, Myanmar, Algeria, India, and multiple countries in Africa.

Even closer to home for me, multiple churches I follow- one in New York and one in Australia have had similar renewal experiences in their services. And two of my close friends in ministry- one in student ministry and one in young adult ministry have also seen God move in their ministries in similar ways this year.

This moment should make us, as Christians, excited and hungry for more of God! I also believe that in a moment like this we can easily find ourselves asking, what about us? What about me and my church? Or, what about our city and our country? How can we experience such a powerful and awesome move of God?

Now, to be clear- you can’t force, manipulate or cause revival- God is always going to move how, when, and where He wants to.

And in many of those stories I just mentioned I heard from or about the leadership that they had NO intention of anything happening, they didn’t plan revival, they showed up, worshiped together and God brought new life!

So we shouldn’t try to force or fabricate those experiences here. However, as I want us to see this morning, God desires to dwell among His people. He wants to move in power, bring new life, do EVERYTHING he promised he would do for His people. So, we must devote ourselves fully to God as He deserves.

Then, the question must be asked how? How do we return to God and seek Him, especially in moments when it feels like something is off or something is missing? Whether it is personally in our lives, corporately in our church, or across the land we live in- how do we return to God and seek his powerful presence?

This is where we find the people of Israel in the book of Malachi. You can begin to turn there with me now.

If Malachi is a book that you haven’t spent much time in, which is likely the case for many, I strongly urge you to read through it this week. It is very short and you can read it in one sitting easily. But it is a powerful, encouraging, and convicting book of the Bible. If you are still looking for it, it is the last book of the Old Testament, so get to Matthew and turn a page back.

Context:

The book of Malachi was written after the Israelites had returned from their Exile in Babylon. It appears that the temple has already been rebuilt and the people have settled back into life back home. However, even though they are out o the exile and the prophetic hopes in exile were that everything would get better when God delivered them out of Babylon- this generation finds itself full of corruption once again. They thought, as the prophets had said, that they would be entering into a new Jerusalem when God delivered them from their captivity. Yet, here they are in the same old jerusalem, with the same old struggles. And, they can’t seem to realize the heart of the issue.

So, God sends Malachi- whose name literally means messenger, to speak to Israel.

Through the first few chapters we see that Israel has become lazy, compromised, and corrupted.

They question God’s love and justice, they tolerate idol worship, they offer bad sacrifices and don’t give God what they are called to.

And we see because of this, their families are broken, the temple is corrupted and their faith, as a whole, is dead.

It is to this people that God speaks through Malachi. He reveals to them that their circumstances and struggles are because of their sin and hard hearts.

Finally, leading into the passage we will explore together, God tells them that one day he will send a messenger who will prepare the way for him. And that the LORD that they seek will come into the temple and be like a refining, purifying fire. Then they will have an offering that will please the LORD. And this will happen before he comes to judge them. We see that it was a big prophecy about the coming of John the Baptist and Jesus. He ends that section with a reminder- that they are only still alive and breathing because He doesn’t change. His love, mercy, and patience are the only reason they were still alive, but they needed a major change in order to survive the future day of judgement.

And so, we find ourselves in Malachi 3, verse 7. God speaking to a broken and empty Israel who cannot see their own sin, and warning them that their day of judgement is coming.

Read with me in Malachi 3:7-12

Malachi 3:7–12 CSB

“Since the days of your ancestors, you have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Armies. Yet you ask, “How can we return?” “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!” “How do we rob you?” you ask. “By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions. You are suffering under a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing me. Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way,” says the Lord of Armies. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your land and your vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the Lord of Armies. “Then all the nations will consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of Armies.

God begins to close up the message in this passage.

He calls His people to return to Him.

Why? They hadn’t gone anywhere, they were finally home. They had the temple. They had the land. They had the priests.

But God didn’t have their HEARTS.

God’s word is clear time and time again, even in the OT, God never desired the sacrifices, the offerings, or the traditions.

He used those and accepted them for one reason:

God desires to dwell with His people.

And in this moment, we see that God wants Israel to see that they have strayed from Him, they have stopped worshiping Him as He deserves, they have tolerated sins and lost their hearts for him, and He calls them to Return.

Return to me and I will return to you!

I can’t help but think of James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

God desires to dwell with His people. Every point in Israel’s history that God had spoken to them, rescued them and instructed them, He made it clear it was all because He wanted to dwell with them, to be their God and they would be His people!

Beyond just Israel, we, as Humans, were created to be with God, to know Him and love Him and worship Him with our lives. We were created to be with God, and God wants to dwell with us.

So, he calls them to Return and says He will return to them.

But then we see the heart of the people God loves so much in the end of verse 7 they ask:

“How can we return?”

We all should want to gasp at this moment. Because in this question the tone, if we track with it, is that they don’t see a need to return. They thought since they had made it out of exile and back to their land that they had been set free from their days of sin, brokenness and suffering- this is the problem with tying holiness/relation to God to a location or experience instead of true intimate relationship. Yet, we see God answer with what the real problem really is:

Verse 8:

Malachi 3:8 CSB

“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!” “How do we rob you?” you ask. “By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions.

God says the real problem is that you are robbing me.

By not paying the tithe and contributions that you are supposed to.

Now, I don’t know about you, but out of all the things we can think of and that are mentioned in this book, not paying a full tithe or contribution seems so small in comparison. This is the one thing they need to do to return to God? They have all of these issues, and they are so corrupt that God sends Malachi to talk to them, and yet all they have to do is start paying the tithe again?

Well, it is not that simple.

God’s explanation and the language used, seems to suggest these offerings were the ones specifically for God and the temple workers. So, they were literally robbing God of the offering he deserved and as a result, robbing the temple workers who were spiritual leaders in their community. They wouldn’t of had land or resources, they survived off of these offerings.

So, the people were failing in two ways. They were failing to worship God as He deserved- with the first and best ten percent they could offer. And they were failing to contribute to what God was doing through the temple workers.

I want to be really clear on two things here: 1. This is absolutely about money. and 2. This isn’t just about money.

Is that clear?

It really is important to not skip ahead and miss that this IS about giving financially. Why? Because our bank statements tell us a lot about our hearts. Where our money is going is a massive indicator of what and who we love most. And we are called to love God and love people.

God deserves the first and best of our lives.

And so, while we don’t like to talk about money, our money has a lot to say about us!

So, financially, what do we take from this passage?

Well, we are not tied to the law of the tithe anymore, however, Jesus did recognize it as something we should still practice. However, the legalistic 10% is not a goal, or a ceiling. In fact, it is the floor that we should start at. From the legal tithe we should say ok God here is the start, now where do you want me to go from here.

Ultimately, we have to realize: God doesn’t need our money, He wants our hearts.

A lack of financial generosity and faithfulness reveals a wicked heart.

If you want to check your heart, check your worship.

Part of our worship is our giving. Giving to God and to others.

Yes, this is a lot more than financial giving but it’s no less than financial.

How faithful are you to give to God and to others? How JOYFUL are you to give to God and to others.

So, if you feel like something is missing right now, or off in your walk with God- look at your life of worship, specifically, look at how you are giving.

But like I said, this isn’t just about finances. No, this is about the heart. Our heart to worship God.

And the question is, how much does God have of your life?

Illustration:

I want to take you back quickly to June 14th, 2019. If that date doesn’t mean much to you that is ok, but it means a lot to me. That is the day that Jenna and I got married. I want you to imagine for a moment that you are there, and you see Jenna and I standing, facing each other in front of you all. And we are reading our vows to each other. You know, all the promises a couple makes to each other before they say I do. You want to make sure those are good promises right? Well imagine I am rolling through my promises to Jenna and then at the tale end of my vows I add one last little paragraph. Jenna I promise for as long as I live you will get 50 percent of my money. You will get 40 percent of my effort for chores, you will get 60 percent of my time on the weekends, and hey, you will get a solid 75 percent of my love…We think that is crazy. Because vows are 100 percent right? that is the point. you get all of me and I get all of you- or at least that is how it “SHOULD” work. But, unfortunately we know that we often say you get all of me and then only give parts sometimes.

And marriages fall apart when that difference never gets dealt with, and they just give less and less of themselves to each other. Many times it is that selfishness or pride that rips marriages apart. See, it is that same selfishness and pride that wrecks our relationship with God. God wants to dwell with us, but often times we are not fully devoted to Him as he deserves.

There is no such thing as partial devotion. Devotion is about surrender to God.

Partial surrender is unacceptable to a perfect and holy God.

Especially because, partial surrender is full rebellion.

Jesus didn’t use those words though, Jesus said if we wanted to experience the life he had for us we need to deny ourselves daily, take up our cross and follow Him. He also said we must lose our lives for his sake. We are called to die to ourselves in order to live in Christ.

Is there partial death? No, someone is either alive or dead. Even if they are just barely hanging on, they are alive until they are dead.

We are called to come and die when we follow Jesus.

To withhold our tithe, or worship of any kind from God is showing we ARE NOT surrendered to Him. We are not dead to ourselves.

We are still selfishly trying to keep for ourselves what belongs to God. Whether it’s our money or our schedules or our jobs or families…

what we are pridefully saying is that we believe that we can do more with it than God can.

I can do more with my money than God would, I can do more with my time or plans or with my church than God can. So we try to hold onto it for ourselves.

WE must check our hearts with God. Are we surrendered to Him?

We can check this through our giving.

And we ultimately must check our trusting.

Do we trust God?

Read with me in verse 10: Malachi 3:10-12

Malachi 3:10–12 CSB

Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way,” says the Lord of Armies. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your land and your vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the Lord of Armies. “Then all the nations will consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of Armies.

We like to ask: How much money should we give? How much of our time should we give? How much of our plans, dreams desires should we give to God? Well, how much do you trust God with? Some of it or all of it?

In this unique moment, God invites His people to test Him. Usually we are commanded NOT to test God. Not to challenge him and test his character. However, here, when it comes to our giving of our worship, God invites His people to test Him.

Give God what He deserves. Your first, your best, your all. And see what he will do with it in your life and the lives of others.

Romans 12:1 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.”

This doesn’t take away from the financial conversation but adds to it. Give your life with such radical, self sacrificial love that you aren’t sure how you are still standing- and God is saying - see if I won’t take care of you. See if I am faithful to take care of you as I have promised. To bless you as I have promised. To defend you and reach the world through you as I have promised.

God invites us to test his faithfulness with our surrender.

When we are devoted fully to God, we get to experience the blessings of a life of dwelling with God.

Now, I realize this passage can easily cause 2 negative reactions:

First, it could cause us to hesitate because we have heard prosperity gospel preachers manipulate people into giving money with the promise that God will give them even more money, status, or happiness.

Or, it could tempt us to begin to think in that way- that we can earn God’s blessings.

Neither are these are the point of this passage. Instead, I want to remind you of what pastor Robert preached earlier in our Ephesians series: In Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.”

If you are fully surrendered to God with a life of worship to him, will he bless you physically? Maybe. I have a massive list of ways I have been blessed in physical ways by god as I have followed Him. But that’s not the promise we hold onto.

In Christ we have every spiritual blessing in the heavens because we have the God of all Creation living with us, in us, and through us.

This is not a passage for the prosperity Gospel, it is a passage about the true Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus- that even when we were completely bankrupt, lost and dead in our sins, God sent his one and only son into this world, to be the perfect offering that we could never give for ourselves, to pay for our sins, make us right with God and offer us eternal life.

Our response to the gospel must be full surrender to Jesus as Lord. This is a life of Worship, of giving generously and trusting God to carry out every promise He has made to us! Namely, to be with us and never leave us!

To get back to where we started this morning:

For the church that is calling out for revival, we must first check our own hearts, our own worship, repent of sin and follow Jesus in full surrender.

We must return to God and He will return to us. We must give Him the worship He truly deserves, all of us. Our finances yes. And our plans, our dreams, our families, our preferences, our jobs. Everything. We must present our whole lives to him, because He gave His life for us.

Church, we can experience the powerful presence of God every day in our lives, but He has called us to return and give Him all of ourselves today.

For the person who feels like something is missing or off in your life right now, is there sin between you and God, are you fully surrendered to Jesus or holding back, does he have all of you? Return to Him and he will return to you.

And finally, for the lost person, again none of this is about earning our way to Heaven or working for God's blessing, it is about finding our salvation in the completed work of Jesus on the cross. You are invited to experience the ultimate blessing of God through the saving power of the Gospel. Turn from your sin, follow Jesus as Lord, and experience the forgiveness and eternal life with God that He has promised.

To all of us, let us test the Lord our God in this way- giving him our whole lives as a church, and let us see if he won’t unleash the floodgates of his blessings upon us!

When we follow Jesus in full surrender, we can live in the fullness of God's promises.

Let’s pray together.