Worship Worthy, Malachi 3:6-12

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Psalm 148 NIV

1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above. 2 Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts. 3 Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars. 4 Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. 5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created, 6 and he established them for ever and ever— he issued a decree that will never pass away. 7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, 8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, 9 you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, 10 wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, 11 kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, 12 young men and women, old men and children. 13 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. 14 And he has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his faithful servants, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord.

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Worship Through the Word:

Worship Worthy

If I were to take a survey about the things you are willing to entrust to others, I bet everyone in this room would have the same two things at the bottom of the list. Those two subjects would be your life and your money.

But what would you say if I said that God has placed in our trust both of those things. You see, God created you and God created everything you own. God ultimately has the power to provide you a job or to take that job away. Everything you have, God has entrusted to you.

However, most go through life without understanding this. We think it is our life and our money to do with as we please. I think it is probably correct in assuming that this is the number one issue that keeps people away from God. They have no desire to acknowledge His ownership over them or their money.

Today, we continue to explore what was eroding the relationship between Israel and God, and we find that finances were at the heart of it. Please stand with me as we read our text from Malachi 3:6-12.

Malachi 3:6–12NIV

6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ 8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LordAlmighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

Father, please bless this Word which you have provided and which we now receive. Amen!

I. Learning to Give, Malachi 3:6-12

God’s Word begins with the account of creation. Everything that exists apart from God, God created. However, God was not created. He is an eternal being. He had no beginning; He just always was. He will have no ending, for there is nothing created that can kill God.

Nothing that has been created is created without God. We were created in God’s image and like God, we enjoy creating things. However, everything we create begins with other things that God has created unlike God’s creation which came merely because He spoke them into existence.

Therefore, if God created all things, then all things ultimately belong to God. When we create something, we assume we own it until we turn it over to someone else. Why would God be any different. When we create something, we like to see it cared for and taken care of. If someone abuses something we made, we wish we had not given it to them. It feels disrespectful to us.

Don’t you think God feels the same way?

Today as we continue to explore the book of Malachi, we find a key issue that was at the heart of all their issues, and we find it has to do with this idea of ownership. This passage begins with identifications of some of God’s many attributes. The very first attribute we notice is...

A. God is Forever Faithful . Malachi 3:6-7

Malachi 3:6–7 (NIV) 6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

In looking at these two simple verses, there are four attributes I find about God.

1. God is Immutable .

“I the Lord do not change...”. V 6a

Immutable means that something is constant. It is unable to be changed without exception according to the dictionary. Bible commentaries connect this same idea with God eternalness. He always was and always will be and He never changes. God never changes because God is perfect. This is a difficult concept for us because there is nothing we know of apart from God that is always perfect. That is because everything we know was created but God was not created but always was and He is the measuring rod against which everything else is measured.

The next thing that stands out to me is that...

2. God is Compassionate .

“So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed...”. V 6b

I know that there are many passages of the Old Testament where God sounds harsh, but it is because we do not fully understand God when we read those. When we look at the overall message of the Bible, God is completely generous and loving. He has a heart for all people, even the vilest. It is not the people God hates, but the sin that is destroying the people He created. Sin is a disease that destroys human life. God wants to rectify this disease, so He sent His Son the great physician to perform the surgery that was required to eradicate this disease. Only unlike the surgeries we think of, this surgery was performed on Him. Nor was it an act to save His life, but to take it.

God’s compassion is shown here in God’s mercy toward Israel. I did not have mercy on the list, but it is yet another attribute of God. Israel did nothing to deserve God’s compassion or mercy. However, we see here that God has no interest in destroying Israel. God had made promises, and God would keep those promises despite their unfaithfulness.

Next, we see that ...

3. God is faithful .

“The descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed...Return to me, and I will return to you…” V 6b & 7b

Another of God’s attributes is His faithfulness. God’s unchanging and faithful nature is something we can always depend on. This is yet again, something that is difficult for us to understand because we live in a world where faithfulness is not a constant. Even those we love and trust the most will at times let us down. Not because they mean to do so, but because they are not perfect. However, God is perfect and so His faithfulness is perfect.

There are times when I hear people declare that God was not faithful to them, but when I hear their story, I find that the issue was not God but them. I find they desired or prayed for something that was contrary to God’s Word, or had some expectation of their own that they felt God should have taken care of. God is not a Genie in a bottle that is obligated to answer all our prayers or grant all our wishes according to our will and our desired timeline. However, when we follow God’s will, we can count that God will provide all the right answers and the right circumstances at the perfect timing. Our ultimate good is always at the heart of God’s actions. God is not only focused on our moment of need, but He is also always working to get us to the best eternal destination.

Paul expressed this trust in God’s faithfulness when he prayed for the Philippians.

Philippians 1:4–6 NIV

4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

The next attribute found in Malachi 3:7 is that...

4. God is Forgiving .

“Return to me, and I will return to you…” V 7b

If you doubt God’s love, look at this statement. God wants a relationship with us. However, you cannot have a relationship with someone who doesn’t return the same feelings. God does not say, “return to me and I will think about forgiving you and restoring our relationship.” No, He says, “Return to me and I will return to you.” This implies forgiveness and a restored relationship.

At this point in the conversation, we find a key to Israel’s restoring their relationship. Up to this point in this conversation, it has been a list of all the ways they have wronged God. Now Israel asks the key question, and it is...

“‘How are we to return?’” V 7b

This brings us to the key point of our day because we find that...

B. Restoring Our Relationship With God Begins With Acknowledging Proper Ownership . Malachi 3:7b-12

There were a lot of things going wrong in Israel during this time. As we have seen over the past few weeks, they were going through a tough time in Israel at this point in history. Now God had a covenant with Israel and God had told Israel that if they were faithful to Him, He would bless them in everything. Their health, their crops, their cattle, and God would protect them from their enemies. However, God had also warned them that if they were not faithful to the covenant, He would remove His hand of supernatural blessing upon them, and they would be vulnerable to whatever came their way. They would also suffer as He would discipline them by taking negative actions against them, not to bring harm but as a warning to them. These “curses” or “actions of discipline” were meant to get their attention and help them take action to change their ways and return to the covenant agreement. The goal of the covenant was to eventually provide them an eternal home with God. It would be the ultimate blessing.

However, at this point, instead of acknowledging the difficulties as a warning and seeking how to fix things, Israel has blamed God and continued a downward spiral of sinful behavior.

God’s faithfulness is demonstrated as God could have allowed them to continue to spiral and be completely destroyed either by famine, pestilence or enemy, but God did not allow it to go that far. God sent a messenger, Malachi. Whether they wish to hear it or not, he is speaking God’s message. He is voicing the questions that needed to be asked and answering them and the number one issue they needed to address was that of ownership. You see,

1. Everything Belongs to God and We Are God’s Stewards . Malachi 3:8

Malachi 3:8NIV

8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.

If you are not familiar with Bible teaching, this can be hard to wrap your mind around. To understand it, we must go back to the very beginning.

Genesis 1:27–30NIV

27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Everything was created by God and God created people to be the caretakers of all He had made. He provided everything we needed, and He still does. However, we are only God’s stewards/caretakers. When it comes down to it, we technically do not need to own anything because God provides for us all we need.

This may seem foreign to you, but I have been a benefactor of God’s provision. I can tell you multiple miraculous things that have occurred in my life that have provided for my needs. I share many of these often in my sermons. I do not want to take a lot of time here, but I want to give an example. I have shared this before so many of you already know this story. It is one of my favorites. I was a single mom and finances were tough. It was not always easy to provide what was needed for me and my son, but we never went without because I learned to trust God when things got tough. One day, my son’s tennis shoes were worn and had become separated at the seam at the toes. I was driving home from work, and I was praying asking God for the means to buy my son new tennis shoes. As I was driving and praying, I saw a tennis shoe at the right-hand side of the road and as I drove by it, it looked brand new. I prayed, God, if that is my answer, help me see the mate to that shoe. I had no sooner prayed that when I noticed at the side of the road on the left, a second tennis shoe. I trusted it was God’s answer. I made a U-turn and picked it up. It was brand new, looking as if it had never been worn, and it was my son’s size. I continued down the road until after I passed the first one, then pulled a second U-turn to pick up the other shoe. It was a perfect mate to the shoe previously picked up. I continued home and presented my son with a brand-new pair of tennis shoes.

Since God has the power to provide in such ways for our means, why do we need to own anything?

However, for now, we are expected to work to eat. In the garden, food was provided without work, but working for our income became part of the curse of sin.

Genesis 3:17NIV

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.

Work is a part of our everyday life, and we are to do so to the best of our ability.

Proverbs 14:23NIV

23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Exodus 20:9–10NIV

9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lordyour God. On it you shall not do any work...

Colossians 3:23NIV

23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

And check out this one.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 NIV

10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

In Israel, if someone needed food, it was not just handed out to them. The farmers were to leave some harvest for the poor to collect for themselves. Yes, the farmers provided it, but the poor still worked to get it. God expects us to work, however, when we are in relationship with Him, He directs us to the jobs to take and what we earn is still from Him. He entrusts it to us with few mandates. However, there is one expectation and that brings us to our next point which is about…

2. God’s Tithes and Offerings . Malachi 3:8

Malachi 3:8NIV

8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.

From the beginning of Genesis there was and understanding that God was to be given a tithe, which means a tenth. When we acknowledge that God owns all things, and that we are God’s stewards, as well as trust that God can provide for our needs, we have no problem being faithful in giving God a tenth. We should also desire to be generous. God is generous with us, and we should desire to be generous back. So, we give over and above the tithe, not because we are mandated to do so, but because we love and want to serve God.

As we saw early on in this book of Malachi, Israel was not being faithful. They did not give out of love, respect and appreciation to God. They gave under compulsion and then they gave the lame and infirm. In their culture, their income often was in the form of crops, cattle, and flocks. They were required to give the best and perfect specimens of their lot; however, they were not doing so.

We, likewise, are to give a tenth of our gross income to God. God uses these for His ministries here on earth. We are also encouraged to give offerings over and above out of the generosity of our hearts. We are to do so out of joy not under compulsion. Our willingness to do so is a witness to our trust in God. We can be a generous people because we know that God provides for us generously.

2 Corinthians 9:7 NIV

7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

We are to give in such a way as to not draw attention to ourselves. It is not to for our glory but for God’s. If no one knows beyond God, that is all the better. Many are generous but they enjoy the attention they get from it. If you suspect someone needs a hand financially, find a way to provide it to them without them or anyone else knowing. This is the kind of generosity that pleases God the most.

Matthew 6:3–4NIV

3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

However, we do not do it for the reward, because pleasing God should be the best reward. (A child enjoys a reward, but the parent’s approval is the best reward).

This is such a key concept that God makes an unusual offer to all who will take Him up on it. So, lets look at…

3. God’s Surprising Proposal. Malachi 3:9-10

Malachi 3:9–10NIV

9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. 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 there will not be room enough to store it.

This is exciting but I must also issue a warning. Do not take it out of context! There are several key things you need to understand in this verse before we get to the proposal. The first is...

a. Israel’s spiritual decline was revealed through their offerings. V 9

I am not going into this since we have talked about this in previous weeks. But I want to suggest that this is the first and foremost issue of their problem. When something is wrong spiritually, the first place it becomes apparent is in our giving. When we fail to tithe or are stingy in our giving, it shows a lack of trust and respect for God. The second thing we need to understand is about the storehouse.

b. The storehouse was where their offerings were kept in trust for the Temple and the Levites . V 10

I hear a lot of sermons on this and various interpretations. Some say the storehouse was not at the temple and therefore does not mean that tithes are to come to the church. However, God’s word makes it clear that the tithes and offerings were for the maintenance of the Temple, for the livelihood of the Levites and priests and their service of ministry. Tithes were designated by God to provide for these needs. Offerings are usually voluntary. Therefore, I believe they are not stipulated in the same fashion.

It is true that the church today is somewhat different from the Temple. The temple at that time played a two-fold purpose. 1) God dwelt there with His people. 2) The people came together there to worship God. Nowadays, our bodies are the temple where God dwells. However, the church still serves the function of being a place where Christians gather to worship God. That still requires a building that needs maintained and pastors to preach and teach. It takes funds to do this. When all members of a church are tithing, God blesses the church, and it has the funds it needs to take care of the business and the ministry end of the church. God has really blessed our local congregation in this way the past decade. Before that, this church had struggled. I am very blessed that you have all been faithful in your giving to this church. I believe God blessed us for several reasons.

1) You valued having a full-time pastor. (God mandated the Levites provisions so they were free to serve).

2) Even when funds were tight, you found a way with the yard sale to raise funds to use for people’s needs and you have not been stingy with those funds. I believe God blesses both of those.

3) A third reason I believe God has blessed you is that you have been faithful to me as your pastor in providing for my needs.

I believe the tithes of the people should come in full to their local church. Those funds help pay for the utilities, maintenance, salaries, supplies and so forth. The tithes were always at the discretion of the priests as they saw the need firsthand, and it is the same in our local churches with the added security of a church board. When you give your tithes, it is not designated by you in how it is spent, but it is entrusted to the pastor and board to decide how to do so. If everyone who tithed said how it was to be used, the power bills would not get paid, and the pastor would probably go hungry because it is always more exciting to see it used for more exciting things. i.e. A new super large tv screen, a fancy sound system, etc… So, tithes are in the hands of the church leadership, which is why you are to be very careful who you select a pastor and who is placed on the church board. They need to be people you trust and then you need to place that trust in them.

Offerings on the other hand are optional. You can give them to other ministries. You can designate them to specific needs. Those are over and above the tithes. Tithes ensure the church is able to function and run, but offerings can provide for various other options.

And now we come to God’s proposal, and it is probably the most abused verse in the whole Bible. God says...

c. “ Test me in this.” V 10

Malachi 3:10 (NIV) 10...Test me in this,” says the LordAlmighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

This is the only place where testing God is condoned. God is holy and perfect and must be treated as such. However, this subject is so important that God offers us to test Him on this account. We are to take what we feel is a risk, testing God so He can prove His ability to us.

Now, some caution must be used. This is not a means to abuse or get more from God. Many misconstrue God’s blessings here. God does not say He will make you rich. God doesn’t care if you are rich or poor because God has you in His care no matter your financial state. God knows that you will one day have all the riches you need when you are finally fully in His presence. However, God has a way of making everything work out. When we trust God and take Him up on this because we truly want to honor Him and trust Him, He works miraculously. I have seen it repeatedly. I have also suffered the reverse. If for any reason I am not faithful to my tithes, things instantly begin to fall apart.

When I first began to tithe, I had a huge hospital debt. I was not sure how I wouldn’t go bankrupt when I began to pay my tithe as I was already flip flopping on what I was paying and not paying. I would pay a portion to a doctor for one month and a portion to the hospital the next month, always trusting that if I did not go too long between payments, they wouldn’t send me to collections. The first month or two that I paid my tithe, finances were a strain. I really struggled and I feared I would end up defaulting on something. I came to a point when I had to decide whether to continue trusting God or bail on the tithe. But I really did believe in God, and I determined I would stick with it. I felt I would rather be faithful to God and go bankrupt then to not serve God. Incredibly enough, the next month I paid my tithe, and I paid my monthly bills, and I even had enough to pay on each medical bill. I couldn’t believe it. I was salaried so I did not have any more income than usual. The bills were all the same. I couldn’t explain it, it just worked. Shortly after that, the hospital called me and said that I had been so faithful to pay monthly that they were writing off my debt. They had funds that were provided to people who were trying to pay their debt but really were not financially able to do so. Once I showed good faith in making regular monthly payments, I became eligible for their debt forgiveness program.

My story is not a standalone account. I have heard this kind of story repeatedly among faithful Christians over my entire lifetime. It was stories like mine that led me to make the decision to give it a try. I took God up on the test, however, my sincere desire to please God was what kept me going. I have heard similar stories from many of you in this room. Never dismiss the ways and means that God can bless you. It does not have to be through finances alone. It may be a car that runs for many years with minimal repairs. It may be a job close to home reducing gas and eating out. God blesses us in many various ways, including a sense of peace and security.

When we have this kind of trust in God, we can be more relaxed in our salary. When I was in college, I worked for an asphalt paving company that paid me a good wage. I felt God calling me to take a position as bookkeeper for a Church Christian school. It paid a good deal less and I warned my son that we would need to tighten our financial spending. However, at the end of the year we found we had not made any changes, and everything worked out. My taxes revealed I had a sharp income decline, yet we never noticed any difference. God is so good.

If you decide to test God on this subject, I caution you to not expect your story to be just like my story. God is creative and He works with each of us differently based on our own situations. However, if you are seeking to know if God is for real, there is nothing that reveals it more than this test because you begin living by supernatural means.

Which brings me to my last point which is…

d. God wants to bless us! Malachi 3:11-12

Malachi 3:11–12NIV

11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

God wanted to use the nation of Israel to show all the nations of the world how He was able to bless and provide for any who would put their trust in Him. He did it by financially blessing Israel when they were obedient to Him. He also showed it through His withholding of those blessings when they were not following Him.

God did it in grand fashion with Israel in the Old Testament. They were an object lesson to the whole world. It is not quite the same today. However, on a smaller scale, it is the same for two reasons.

1. God loves us and desires to provide for us.

2. God also wants others to see through our lives that He can provide for them as well.

Conclusion

No where does God promise to make any of us independently wealthy in this moment in life. Why? Because our human nature takes over and we quickly become more dependent on the wealth than on God. We become self-indulgent and this leads to spiritual lethargy. However, I would add that generous giving is a spiritual gift for some. In such cases, God usually does provide more financially because they have proved they control it well. However, most of us, would be poor stewards of it if we had too much. Besides, it is so much more exciting to see what God can do than to just take money out of the bank.

If you have never tested God in this way, and your motives are to please God or discover God, I encourage you to make a new start for the New Year. Test God in His ability to provide for you by being faithful in tithing and generous in offerings. You will experience a new level of intimacy with God, Your Creator.

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