In God We Trust

Not Bad For A Dollar

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.”

In God we trust, that isn’t a bad saying is it? We see it everywhere we go and in some ways it goes mostly unnoticed at least for some people. We’re busy, living hectic lives and we rush around just trying to survive in a world that seems to be driven by everything but God. And then we see this saying somewhere, we give it a quick thought and we move on and never take in what the message is saying.

Many of us feel like we are just scraping by and then the church – it seems – comes along asking us for money. We feel like we can’t make it if we spare a penny more, and so we don’t give to the church. Did you know that “only about four-percent of professing Christians tithe?” Many of us are afraid to give because we feel that our income is just too far spent and that we have way too many financial obligations to spare anything.

A priest once asked one of his parishioners to serve as financial chairman of his parish. The man, manager of a grain elevator, agreed on two conditions: No report would be due for a year, and no one would ask any questions during the year.

At the end of the year he made his report. He had paid off the church debt of

$200,000. He had redecorated the church. He had sent $1,000 to missions. He had $5,000 in the bank.

"How did you do all this?" asked the priest and the shocked congregation.

Quietly he answered, "You people bring your grain to my elevator. As you did business with me, I simply withheld 10 percent and gave it to the church. You never missed it." --James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers,

More than likely, each of us has some money to spare, but we’re afraid that once we’ve given it, then some emergency will arise and we’ll wish we had it back. From what we see each and every day of our life, it’s no wonder we hold on to what little we have. It seems hard to make it. With both financial obligations and the daily trials, it appears to be true that when it rains it pours!

However, did you know that the Bible tells us that both our financial troubles and our daily trials will lessen or even cease if we go ahead and give to the Lord as He asks us? That’s what God says in our passage of Scripture that we’re going to look at this morning. If you’re really curious about how this is possible, then let’s dig into God’s Word!

John Wesley once said…

"When the Possessor of heaven and earth brought you into being and placed you in this world, He placed you here not as an owner but as a steward--as such He entrusted you for a season with goods of various kinds--but the sole property of these still rests in Him, nor can ever be alienated from Him. As you are not your own but His, such is likewise all you enjoy. "

Malachi chapter 3 is perhaps the most preached Scripture when it comes to the issue of tithing. Preachers have been known to use this text to shame Christians who don’t give a whole lot to God’s cause. And (in many churches) there is reason to do that. The national average of giving (for most congregations) is 3%, with the majority of the support - in any given church - coming from only a handful of people.

So, preaching Malachi 3 is almost a no-brainer for most preachers in most congregations. In fact (for preachers that would use this to shame their people into tithing) this passage almost preaches itself because that’s exactly what Malachi was doing to the Israelites. He was shaming them. Malachi was basically telling them, if they would put into their relationship with God, they’d get more out. The Israelites had become lax in their obedience to the law and specifically the part of that law required them to give a regular tithe to God.

English Standard Version (Introduction)

Malachi, called the people to repentance with respect to: the priesthood, which had become corrupt; worship, which had become routine; divorce, which was widespread; social justice, which was being ignored; and tithing, which was neglected. “Will man rob God?” the Lord asked through Malachi (3:8), and he promised to “open the windows of heaven” (v. 10) for those who pay their full tithe. Malachi predicted the coming of both John the Baptist and Jesus, referring to each as a “messenger” of God (3:1).

We Rob God

Malachi the Burdened Prophet to a Beaten People (1) We Rob Our God (3:8))

The Bible puts it very simply, “The tithe belongs to the Lord” (Lev. 27:30). He who owns everything and makes us stewards, asks for one tenth back to finance His work.

When we fail to give to God what belongs to Him we are taking it from His hands as if we steal from the nail scarred hands of my Lord.

We Rob Others

Malachi the Burdened Prophet to a Beaten People 2) We Rob Others (3:10A)

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my House. (3:10A)

God does not ask for money for Himself, but for others who need it. The Jews brought their tithes to the Temple, where they were stored in chambers or storehouses, built to receive them (Neh. 10:38–39; 2 Ch. 31:11–12; etc.).

We bring our tithes and offerings to the church (1 Cor. 16:1–4), the New Testament storehouse. But it goes for far more than staff salaries. The hungry are fed; the sick are healed; the homeless are given homes; the unwelcomed are welcomed; and the lost receive visits and tracts and Bibles and radio programs and telecasts. And all this costs money. How sad that 20 percent of our church members give 80 percent of the money. Hold back the tithe and you take food from the hungry. You slam the door in the face of sick folk, orphans, and unwed mothers.

We support the pregnancy center in Clinton every month, they spend their time and resources to save babies, to give new parents options to help them and help provide for them to get them started. That money comes from you, so not giving isn’t robbing the church, it’s robbing a child of a chance of life.

These are the things that we do to help people we are supposed to love, to care for them, protect them. Buying AED’s for the church we pray we never have to use, buying for the fire department that can’t afford them so they can help others. Our giving matters to real people in real ways.

Bob Marcaurelle, Malachi the Burdened Prophet to a Beaten People, vol. 19, Expository Preaching through the Old Testament (WORDsearch, 2015), 31.

We Rob Ourselves

Malachi the Burdened Prophet to a Beaten People (3) We Rob Ourselves (3:9, 10B–12))

We also rob ourselves when we do not tithe. Malachi closes this section showing that the hand that is closed in giving is also closed when it comes to receiving the bountiful blessings of God.

You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. (3:9)

“… 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 the Burdened Prophet to a Beaten People (3) We Rob Ourselves (3:9, 10B–12))

We rob ourselves of 1) The Peace Of Obedience (3:9, 11). Disobedience brings the curse of God’s chastisements. When God’s children disobey, they are punished. We lose power in prayer (Ps. 66:18). We lose the joy of salvation (Ps. 51:12).

Malachi the Burdened Prophet to a Beaten People (3) We Rob Ourselves (3:9, 10B–12))

We also lose 2) The Prosperity Of Obedience (3:10B, 12). At the woodshed, we miss the windows. God may or may not bless us financially. He gives us our daily bread, not our daily cake. He will meet our needs. And as we are believing and faithful in hard times, others will see God’s blessings of peace and power and provision and perhaps turn to Him. In hard times, we need FAITH that trusts and FAITHFULNESS that obeys. Doing this, we will be a blessing to God, to ourselves, and to others.

Malachi the Burdened Prophet to a Beaten People (3) We Rob Ourselves (3:9, 10B–12))

My friends, we just cannot outgive God. We feed Him with a spoon but He feeds us with a shovel. The hand that is closed in giving is also closed when it comes to receiving. This does not mean that tithing will serve as an insurance policy against disaster. The man who gives with one eye on his gift and the other on his bank account is giving for the wrong reason. God may well test us. Sufferings may well be part of our blessings.

Does it pay to tithe? Well, few of us keep score. But we know it costs NOT to tithe. It costs self respect; it costs contentment of soul; it costs power in prayer. God says that he will bless those that give and even test him on this. Give and see if I don’t open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing you will not have enough room to put it, you will see how good your God is.

Understand that God is not bankrupt, He doesn’t need money for himself, but for others that need it. The scripture says to bring the tithes into the storehouse, this was place that built onto the temple to store food for the needy. We are taught not to put God to the test, and there is only one place where we are challenged by God to test Him. Test me He says, I will bless you because you have been a blessing to others.

Tithing isn’t buying our way into heaven, it is a response to God’s instruction to show our faithfulness to God. It is a faith that trusts and faithfulness that obeys. Our giving fits into another command from God, to love our neighbors and be a blessing to them as God has blessed us.

Now, I’m not going to leave this out either, our church has been blessed, we don’t have the financial issues that many others churches have but that doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility either. “Well, we have all this money so why should I have to give anything, clearly the church doesn’’t need it?” YOU need it. Are you willing to take that chance? Will you rob God? Because that is what God says we should do. And the money we have, we are to use that too and not try to hold onto that with both fists. I don’t mean to use it recklessly but to use as God would have us to. We have been blessed with what we have, and for what reason? To save for a rainy day? Well, it’s raining all around us right now.

It’s raining for those that don’t have enough to eat tonight, it’s raining for those that can’t afford to buy the medicine they need. For those that are struggling not month to month or week to week, but rather day to day. Just as God says, “test me!” God may very well be testing us also. The storehouse is there, it needs to be stocked with the needs of God’s people and God has clearly told us to fill it up, to do His work, to show our faithfulness to Him.

He doesn’t ask for much and if you can’t start with ten percent start with five and work up to it and when you give cheerfully, you’ll never miss it. If all that we have comes from God as we claim to believe, it was never ours to begin with. Let God use you so He can prove his love and promise to us, to pour out his blessing on us, as we pour out a blessing for others. Do you trust God enough to give to Him what is His?