A Change of Perspective

Illustration: Rightnow Media - Offering Plate

Aren’t you glad that we did not show this video clip just before the offering? If we had shown it, do you think it would have changed the way you gave during the offering? Do you think it may have changed the motives of your heart? I am glad we didn’t show it prior to the sermon and I am glad we had the offering before the sermon. Guilt or forced conduct is a terrible way in which to love someone.

I want you to think about someone who is incredibly important in your life. Who is that person in which you would say I love you? Now imagine if your current relationship with this person was built on how you can leverage them to meet every desire in your heart. Every decision that you made was to manipulate them into fulfilling an inward selfish motive of your heart irregardless of how that action made them feel or if it caused negative consequences in their life. How long would this relationship last? How do you think they would feel knowing you were using them only to fulfill a selfish desire? How long; a day, a week, a year? At some point do you not think that they would figure out that you were always putting yourself first? Do think you could honestly conclude that you were in a loving relationship with another person if you always made yourself first?

I want to share with you today our first principle.

Our outward actions are an expression of our inward motives.

Now some of you will immediately try to disagree with me on this point based on the video clip we just watched. You will say that everyone was doing the same thing , placing money in the offering plate, but having different motivations for why they were giving. This would be true if we based it off of the dollar amount given rather than a percentage of their wealth. You see, if we really wanted to get to the motivation of the giving we would ask them to open their check register. We would ask them what percentage are you giving based on the amount of your wealth. I believe their outward actions would then betray their inward motivations and we would have a better understanding of why they were giving.

Around 500 B.C. we see this same scenario playing out in the construction of the second temple of Israel. In 538 B.C. King Cyrus of Persia had released the Israelites to return to the Jerusalem area to rebuild their city and the temple of their god. Through the ancient text of Ezra and Haggai we learn that edict to rebuild the temple of the god of the Israelites was reissued by King Darius I around 522 b.c. and the temple was not completed until March 12, 516 B.C. as stated in .

The math sounds like a Baptist Church building program. It took them 22 years to complete a building that took them 4 years to physically build. How many times have you heard of a building or a gym to be built by a church only to take 10-20 years for its completion? So it took 2 or more prophets and a king to move the people to complete the work of the temple. We read the following:

Haggai 1:4 ESV

“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

;

Haggai 1:

Haggai 1:9 ESV

You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.

Zechariah 1:16 ESV

Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.

Yet even after they completed the work of the temple they again returned to their old ways. Around 450 B.C. in the book of Malachi we read in chapter 3 today which will be our main text the following:

Malachi 3:

Malachi 3:7–12 ESV

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.

Again doing a little math and this is rough in years since we are using references to kings to decide the time of the writings but basically the temple was built in 516 B.C. and this complaint was given by the prophet around 450 B.C. so in about 70 years we have reverted back to self interest and not providing tithes or contributions as stated in verse 8 to the maintaining of the temple. In which the prophet states that they are robbing God.

So the prophet asks the question in which he believes the hearer or reader would ask in protest; how are we robbing God? This leads us to our second principle in answering this protest.

God blesses us so that we might be a blessing to others.

Let me rephrase this. All of you have been blessed by God so that you may be a blessing to others. Let me say this differently. All of you “haves” have been blessed to give freely and generously to the “have nots” of this world. If you do not believe me that you are a “have” rather than a “have not”, let me provide you with a few statistics to drive home the point.

In the United States poverty is defined by a family of 4 under $25000 per year. If you have more or less members in your family subtract or add $4200 to that base number. Of this amount about 13% of our population live at or below this level.

Some of us may actually be close to that number but let us do a comparison. I want you to think of someone else who you believe is rich. Now if it is someone sitting next to you please do not jab them in the side. This is only for you. How much do you need to feel rich in which you could give generously?I many really, how much would it take to be a true blessing to others? So now that you have that name and figure we are going to do another comparison with someone who you do not know but of someone who I have spoken to face to face through a translator in another language. Someone in which I had to walk down a dirt trail littered with human feces. A person in human God created in His image. A person who had five children and lost her husband to an electrocution accident. A person who leaves her five children alone during the day to sell carved wooden masks to the local tourists in order to survive.

This local Guatemalan mom earns even less than what is considered poverty in Guatemala. So here is our comparison. In Guatemala the poverty line for a family of 4 is $2800 and over 50% of the people, 1 in 2, people live at this line. There is no getting ahead. If a Guatemalan was sitting here today to answer a question of how to be rich, she is already starting at 22,000 behind you just to be considered poor in this country. Think about your poverty versus her poverty. It is all a comparison game. We can do this all day long comparing who is rich and who is poor. It is a game played in the heart. It is a game played poorly when we believe we deserve more or when we own what in reality has been given to us from the beginning. Check out this video of what I mean.

RightNow Media video of Tithe (donuts).

Coming back to our text God did not give the people of Israel a box of donuts by sending them back to their country for them to keep and eat all of the donuts. He sent them back to be a blessing to the nations around them. He sent them back to rebuild the nation and his temple. Instead they like us believe all the donuts were for them and not to give back some to bless others.

How do you rob God? When you believe all that has been given to you belongs to you. Being rich is a moving target that you will never hit. There is never enough to be satisfied for our hunger for more is insatiable. Yet one act of generosity is to be a generous person. How do you kill greed and the need for more in your life? Try to out give God. Generosity is the antidote to our selfishness. It starts with us believing we have more than enough in order to bless others. When we live our lives out of this principle, it changes us. It lifts our thinking to a higher level. It lifts us from thinking of ourselves to others. It gives us a new perspective. A perspective that leads us to another principle.

The church just like the temple is to stand as a beacon of hope to the world.

God accommodates himself to us through physical objects in this world as a reminder that we can redeem the image he has placed in us. The temple and the church stand as reminders that we are beacons of hope of changed lives. The temple was not just not for sacrifices for the Jewish community to take away guilt. It stood as a symbol of blessing. Malachi writes that temple will be a blessing if the people make God first by giving back to him.

Malachi

Malachi 3:10 ESV

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.

The principle in this passage is further teased out by Paul in .

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 9:6–7 ESV

6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

If we read without the context of we will turn the passage into a heavy handed law of nonsense. We will begin to conclude that blessings will magically fall out from heaven as we give 10% of our earnings to God. Instead of a motivation of love it will become an act of compulsion. You will again be a slave to the law instead of a free person in Christ.

I call you today to stop living as people of the law. Stop seeing God as a fairy who sprinkles out a wand of blessings on those who obey the law. This begs the question in how we live as people of the law and not as people who have been set free from the condemnation or judgement of the law.

Allow me to provide you some examples of how we still live as old covenant law followers. Some of you like me have grown up going to church with the cultural expectation that you wear your Sunday best. For gentlemen this would mean a suit and tie and for ladies this would be dresses only. The idea behind it is that we are more presentable or acceptable to God for our attire. Yet Paul says that our good deeds are as filthy rags to the Lord. It is part of the reason I will wear slacks and a dress shirt one week and jeans and sports shirt another week. I am not bound to a law of attire to please God.

Another example is confusing honoring God with patriotism. You will hear it said that if we just bring prayer back into the schools or if we just had a Christian president the country would get better and would return to being great. Hear me honoring God with a prayer or a nod of the head does not magically bring an exchange of blessings from heaven. The practice of wise principles such found in Proverbs will bring blessings. Our country is not great because some men wrote God on a piece of paper and said a prayer. This country became an amazing place to live because of taking a concept found in Genesis that man was created in the image of God and so has certain rights and these rights set forth a protected set of freedoms. It was a principle along with many others discovered in the ancient writings of Scripture and then practiced that brought blessings. It is why today I am trying to point out certain principles. God setup the universe to work in a certain way and when we follow it things have certain intended consequences.

2 Corinthians 9:10–11 ESV

10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

Another way we are a law follower are those who say the church is required to give 10% to missions just like here as it is stated that Malachi calls on the people to give 10% of their best goods to the Lord. This Old Testament law that was written for people is not seen first of all anywhere written for the synagogues. This is a logical fallacy. From the beginning is not everything that is brought into the church not belonging to God? Secondly if 10% is to be set aside why not for worship or for evangelism? What is so important about missions?

I am driving this home today and I hope in some small way poking you to a little anger so that you will read differently. Read it as someone not bound to the law but trying to implement the principles of God in their lives. Read it from the standpoint that God owns everything, and we deserve nothing but God being rich in love and mercy has given us everything for life and godliness. Now, how do I respond? With a cheerful heart. Your stuff is no longer just for you but a vehicle to do good to do good works for others. Sow bountifully. Be generous and you will reap accordingly in generosity. Another way to say it is that what goes around comes around. If you are generous then people will be generous to you in your time of need. Underneath this though is not a motive of self-serving, but a motive of joy based out of God’s generous gift to you in Christ.

I call you today to stop living as people of the law. God has called you to be more than 10% givers of the law of tithing. Give and give generously out of your abundance. There is no magic formula to tithing. Find a place to start and then keep increasing your capacity to be more generous each day by being a blessing to others. We no longer live as people who are slaves to the law but as people saved. People who stand in awe of the resurrection of Jesus and utter all I have is yours. You have taken away my iniquity, you have given me a hope and a future in Jesus. My life is his life. My possession are not mine but yours. Lift my head higher. Trade my perspective for your perspective. Call forth from me a better me a more generous me.

We each have the capacity to grow to be more than what we are now. It is not easy and it calls from us discipline. It calls from us to reject all the marketing campaigns to be a better you by acquiring more through debt. It calls from us to push back on poor advice given to us in how to manage our money. It calls us to return back to the principles in Proverbs of how to manage money. Giving is a muscle grown in work and discipline. It does not come naturally or easily.

It is why we keep offering Financial Peace University. It is extremely difficult to give when you have debt or you have not learned how to control your inner two year old voice that says “I am important.” “I want it.” “I deserve it.” Purchases have consequences that lead to more purchases which lead to other purchases until eventually nothing is left. Some of the most wealthy people in this country are in complete poverty if you run a ratio of their debt level to their income level. It does not match. Fortunately in this country you do have the choice to choose. You can run a treadmill of keeping up or you can run your own race of through the principles taught in Financial Peace University.

Either way in what you choose, choose to be generous. Leave today trying to have more of a heart of God in living out the principles we talked about today. Let your outward actions show the motives of a generous heart. Believe today that you are blessed to be a blessing to others. Finally decide what will you give so that this church might stand as a beacon of hope to others.