Robbing God
Notes
Transcript
We are continuing today working our way through the book of Malachi. If you are here today and think that the passage or the sermon has been chosen because you are here, please know that God is the one who orchestrated that and not David. But today, we are looking at a passage that deals with how we as humans view how God is involved in our finances.
As with every passage we have looked at in the book of Malachi, it begins with God telling the people they are acting a certain way and the people asking God to tell them how they are doing that. This passage is no different.
6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
7 From the days of your fathers 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?’
8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.
10 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.
11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.
12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
Prayer.
Change is not easy, but it is good.
about to celebrate 4 years here; transition was not easy for me and still isn’t
came from a physical labor background; had back surgery and had to slow down
the change took a physical toll on me; put on weight, slowed down, got lazy
change happened for the bad; but I had to change for good
many of you experience change; aging, kids, grandkids, retirement, church has changed
change is not easy, but it can be good
may not seem that way, but the theme of text is change; we will see it when we go through it
3 questions and an invitation
Why are we still here?
Why are we still here?
the people have questioned God again; they are a volatile people
6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
Immutability of God
James 1:17 “17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Hebrews 13:8 “8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Psalm 102:26–27 “26 They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, 27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.”
because God is unchanging, the people are not consumed
many threats in OT about God wanting to wipe the slate clean; Golden calf incident at Mt. Sinai, while they were wandering in wilderness and wanted to kill Moses
God never would; God keeps his promises
Maybe you are here today and are asking this same question, why am I still here?
I cannot personally answer specifically why. But what I do know is that each and every one of us were created for God’s glory. We are images of God’s glory for others to see in us, and we show others God’s glory through our actions. We were created to know God and to make God known. So I can guarantee you that if you are still here, it is because God is no where near done with you.
But they ask him a question in return of this statement.
How shall we return?
How shall we return?
Kid going to the state park with his dad and got distracted chasing squirrels; didn’t realize he was lost at first; when it hit him, the only thing he could do was to stop and to call out for his father
sometimes you need to step towards God
7 From the days of your fathers 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?’
not the first generation; fathers before them had been turning aside
continued falling away; blame can be on people and the priests
specifically turned from his statutes
put an emphasis on knowing God’s word
what must happen with turning aside is a return; just like the little boy who was lost in the forrest needed his father, the people of Israel need to return to God
repentance; lit: to turn
for Israel it means to recommit themselves; God has made a covenant with them, a commitment; God has never let up on his end of the deal, so Israel much come back to their end
it is going to deal with robbing God(next verses)
application
For us, what does repentance look like? (gospel presentation)
Today is the day to turn to Jesus as Lord
We have looked at 2 questions so far from our text, why are we still here and how can we return. Now I want to look at the question…
How have we robbed you?
How have we robbed you?
theft has evolved; used to be at gun point, now it can happen at the point of a computer mouse, over the phone even
this question is a piggy back of the previous question of “how shall we return”
8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.
God answers the question of returning to God by bringing up their tithes and contributions
money talk has been divisive; everyone gets uncomfortable
a return to God deals with the heart, why is he bringing up money?
Jesus teaches in NT about money and talks about this connection
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
inseparable connection between our hearts and our money
pull out our banks statements and we will know what each other values; food, coffee, cigars
Israel did not show God their love and their wallets proved it
in 2 areas; tithes and offerings; a tenth and contributions
Tithe = 1/10; this was instituted in the levitical law; people would set aside a tenth of their crop or their flock; but where would they take it, this is important because people do not feel like they have to give to the church today. In the book of Numbers chapter 18, it specifically tells us that they were to take it to the Levites. What purpose for the Levites? It was for the service that they did in the tent of meeting(church). Then the offering would be something different. It would be a gift to God, sometimes mandatory and sometimes voluntary like a freewill offering. So we have the required 10th to the church and then the offering to God.
I know there are a lot of different emotions about what I am saying. (how dare he, that was OT, if a tenth is good enough for God, why isn’t it for the government)
What I want to point out is that God is speaking directly to the Israelites in this verse. But that doesn’t mean that we are off the hook. We are going to get to that.
So what we have seen so far is 3 questions. Why are we still here? How shall we return? and How have we robbed you?
God Invites us to test him
God Invites us to test him
story of Peighton testing me; I will ask if she thinks I am playing; I can be soft but not often
first verse talked about God never changing; Keep that in mind when we look at the rest of the verses
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.
God declares they are robbing him; not just a group of people but the whole nation
they had been cursed; present tense “are”; the curse is their hardship they are facing in society and the economy; why? because they are robbing God
v. 10 is the challenge
10 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.
11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.
12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
if/then statement; if you are obedient in this way(bringing the full tithe) then you will receive protection and all nations will call you blessed
specific to Israel in this moment
The Israelites had a covenantal agreement to tithe. It was a requirement. God has not changed. When his people were obedient and had the right heart behind it, he blessed them. That will not change.
“Well what does this have to do with us. We are not under the OT law of tithing!”
That is absolutely correct. If you were to look at a history of tithing though, you would see that tithing predated the law. Abraham took a tenth of everything he had to Melchizidech. The law would come and reinforce what was already happening. So just because we find something in the law doesn’t mean it is only binding where the law is binding. Thou shall not murder is found in the law. If we claim to no longer be under the law, that doesn’t mean that we can now get away with murder. It doesn’t work that way.
We are now in what is referred to the New Covenant. Jesus established this when he came and he went to be the perfect sacrifice on the cross for us. You have hear it referred to as the covenant of grace. We are no longer bound by OT law. And we won’t get into it really today about the difference in cultural and ceremonial laws and moral laws. But I do want to hit on how we view laws through the lens of the New Covenant.
First, let’s talk about practicality. I believe that giving financially to the local church 10% of our income is a healthy rhythm for a believer to practice. I believe that it is a way for us to be practical in our practice of truly saying that this money is not ours and it is God’s. When you do this with the right heart, you are saying that you believe that God can do more with 90% than you can do with 100%.
It also helps to fuel our generosity and to help set boundaries for us. If we are dedicated to giving 10% of our income to the local church, then we are going to think twice about buying that brand new vehicle or that bigger house. God wants us to live within our means. It shows that we care about things other than ourselves. It squelches pride in our lives.
And if you think that I am just saying this and that I do not practice it, I will gladly have Barbara print our my families giving and you will see that we have our bank send the church a $350 every 2 weeks. I am practicing what I preach.
So I want to go back around and talk about being under the New Covenant and how we should view tithing. When we study the gospel accounts of Jesus and he is teaching about the law, he uses some examples. With murder, he ties it to hate. With adultery, he ties it to lust. It is clear that Jesus is teaching that the covenant of grace is asking more of us than the law ever did.
How should we treat this? Are we saying that 10% is not enough?
Please do not see it that way at all. But what if we each personally had a goal that we are going to sit down each month, and decide that we are going to take 1/10th of the money that God is blessing us through our jobs and give it back to the work of his ministry? Do you believe that if you are doing this with the right heart and the right attitude, that God is going to pour suffering out on you?
That is what this challenge to Israel is about. God is telling them to test him and see how generous he can be back to them.
I am not naive to struggle. I know that we all have times when we don’t know if we are going to be able to pay the power bill. So, if someone cannot give 10% of their income, then what do they do?
I think it would be a good practice to make it a long term goal to get there. But start by giving something. Paul tells us that God loves a cheerful giver.
See, this all comes back to the heart. That is at the center of the covenant of Grace. The condition of our heart. If our desire is to be obedient to God and to be a cheerful giver, and we can give 5%, I believe God will bless that. If you are doing it for the right reasons and only able to give 1%, I believe that God can bless that.
What I want to offer to you is that you find a brother or sister in Christ who is good with money and sit down with them and have them help you figure out how to better handle money. Last year, me and Brittany were struggling with our finances. So we decided to sit down each month and actually write down what our income was and what our expenses were and see how much money we had to live off of after all of our necessities were paid. I can tell you that after that, we do not go out to each as much because we wanted to be better.
It takes a shift in our mindset in this area.
I want to finish up with this. It isn’t about a dollar amount but it is about a heart posture. This is what repentance is about. Turning your heart to God and surrendering yourself to him. God is generous to us, and he never changes, so we should be generous and trust him with our finances.
