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Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Malachi 2:17-3:12
God’s people faced a hard accusation from God, “You are robbing me”. This accusation confused them because, in truth, their hearts had grown cold. They experienced no joy, peace, or purpose in serving the God Most High. In His love for them, He called them to return to him in joyful giving, and he would bless them. As followers of Christ, our hearts often grow cold, where joy, peace, and purpose are lost, and giving feels like nothing but a burden. Today, the Lord is calling us back to a true heart of worship and discipleship in the way that we invest our earthly treasure in Him with joy, for peace, and in hopeful expectation for the purpose of our Gospel Mission.
Transcript
Well for those who maybe uh haven’t been with us for a little bit or are guests of ours this morning we’re in the season of Lent going through uh the the book of Malachi uh the reason is is that the season of Lent is a season in which we’re to uh to search our own hearts take account of where we are uh with the Lord uh and this is a Malachi is a great book for for taking stock of where we are in our lives with God malachi the name itself of the prophet means my messenger and so uh this is God’s message to his people now the people had grown as we’ve talked about uh bitterly disappointed and none of the things that they had expected and coming back to to Judah and rebuilding Jerusalem rebuilding the temple none of the things that they had expected have happened yet uh and they’ve turned away from God uh in their this unmet expectations and bitter disappointment uh and they’ve turned away from God giving at best half-hearted worship and devotion to God but most of it was totally apathetic and God as a loving father corrects them and he calls them out for for those ways that they have turned against him uh to call them back to himself he begins his correction in Malachi 1:2 before he even gets into all the ways that they have gone astray and to call them out of it and to return to him he says “I have loved you i have loved you.” Every critique every correction every harsh word of truth that God gives them is out of a heart for love for them he wants what’s best for them like a loving parents should it’s what Hebrews 12 uh tells us right that like a like a loving father he disciplines us it’s what God does in our lives and we see it at work here in his people’s lives you know I’ve I experienced that myself with my own my own father uh and he knows he’s not here today but he’s he knows I’ve shared this story many times but when I was uh my freshman year in college I didn’t take it as seriously as I probably should have uh and in fact uh almost wasn’t uh welcome to come back to school uh for my second year uh unless I did a whole lot of uh changing my ways uh and so uh I said I remember not knowing what my parents were going to do and and how they were going to treat me and uh and supporting me to go back if they were even going to allow me uh and I remember sitting down with with my father right down here at the at the car wash on uh on at Beach and uh uh what’s the road um everybody knows it in Pinman uh I can’t and uh sitting down on the wall waiting for the car to get washed and I said “Dad you know what what are y’all going to do and he said “Son I didn’t do so well my first year of college but my parents you know said we’re going to send you back and give you a second chance and do the best you can.” And that was my dad call in love calling me out and calling me back and it changed my whole life it changed my whole perspective on what I was to be about uh cleaned up my act and uh and and did much better the the rest of the way uh but today that’s what God’s doing as a loving father he’s addressing the these issues and calling us to return back to him and today he wants to to deal with an issue that’s uh really close to our hearts or or more specifically uh hits really close to our pocketbooks or our wallets or our bank accounts or whatever we’re calling them now i don’t even know uh you know I don’t know however you do money that’s how uh that’s what God’s uh God’s wanting to address because God made a pretty strong accusation against his people in Malachi 3 a really strong accusation malachi 3 god said “Will man rob God you’re robbing me.” Is what he told them and yet they said “How in the world are we robbing you what what are we doing how could we and he said “In your tithes and your contributions.” In your tithes and contributions in short God was calling out his people for not offering to him the tithe that was deserved uh to him you know I don’t know i know that we uh that talking about tithing isn’t always a very comfortable thing at least it isn’t for me um you know I don’t like to do it uh it doesn’t feel comfortable but it should jesus talked about talked about money you know almost more than anything else and the importance of in our lives and how even in the gospel uh how we how we treat and handle money is is central to our understanding of who God is and as true disciples of him and I know it can feel like the church is just always trying to shake us down for money right and just after our money but it really is part of God’s plan it’s what God’s called us to as as being his people so this isn’t about a guilt trip this isn’t about something that’s trying to shame anyone this is about us hearing the this Old Testament prophet uh and word of God through the lens of the gospel and how it still applies to us and to where our hearts really are with the Lord because sometimes I think we tend to think of tithing as a God tax you know a tax that God’s put upon us and not as a the joyful act of worship and of disciplehip that that God’s truly called us to and in fact I think that’s what was really at the heart of God’s people in Malachi 3 this wasn’t a joyful act this wasn’t an act in thanksgiving in fact there was no joy there was no peace there was no purpose that they saw at all going on in their lives and so they withheld from God what God had required of them i think the same thing can be true of us and the way that we handle and see money and what God’s asking of us but I want to see this through a gospel lens this morning through the good news of Jesus Christ because when we begin to see tithing and experience tithing through a gospel lens what we find it it has less to do with money and more to do with worship and freedom and trusting in the God who through his unrelenting love for us has given us everything he’s given us everything because a true response of heartfelt disciplehip of Jesus Christ is one that is full of joy and peace and hopeful purpose for what he’s doing and what he’s called us to do in this world but let’s back up a minute and just talk about what is tithing because I don’t want to take it for granted that maybe we know from a biblical perspective what this even means in Malachi 3:10 this is what uh they’re told bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be may be food in my house and there 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’s no more need if we’re not careful what we can begin to think from this uh about tithing is that it’s something akin to more of a financial transaction you know we we can kind of see it that way uh if I give God 10% then God’s going to give me back a bonus check right you know we we can begin to see this in fact many I think greedy pastors and televangelists and even well-known and well probably read uh big pastors out there uh are preaching this and it’s called a prosperity gospel this idea that uh when you give your tithe you can keep the receipts and when you need something present your receipts to the Lord and that he has to honor them you know that’s the that’s what the prosperity gospel says uh you give so that you get baby and but that’s not what it’s happening here and that’s not what Paul that’s not what uh what Malachi is saying and God’s saying to his people so what’s a tithe uh the word literally means a tenth uh and it goes all the way back in in the Old Testament into Genesis itself we first see it in Genesis 4 with Cain and Abel they both came and made their offering to the Lord uh remember Abel brought the firstborn of his uh of his sheep of his flock uh Cain just offered an offering of fruit from the ground and God had regard for that first fruits that that uh that Abel had offered i mean that Abel had offered to the Lord uh we also see it in Genesis 14 uh when after rescuing Lot Abraham gives a tenth of his spoils to the priest of the most high to Melzdc it was done Abraham did it as an act of gratitude out of thanksgiving and a recogni recognition that God is the source of all victory and of all wealth and so we see it there this is before so these are are some of the first examples of tithing uh these predate the the law of God so tithing wasn’t just something that was that was required in the law of God uh and then through Christ who’s the fulfillment of the law it’s no longer something that God is calling us to this goes back that predates the law itself and then we see in the law itself uh in Leviticus 27 Numbers 18 Deuteronomy 14 uh that it establishes the law a tenth of produce and livestock that belongs to the Lord and the Lord regards those as holy numbers directs this tithe to support the Levites who had no land inheritance for their service uh of God and the tabernacle deuteronomy expands the and the tithing to include provisions for the poor and the widows and the orphans uh these passages frame tithing as as an act of obedience to God a stewardship of all of God’s given resources in our lives and actually a social responsibility that God’s given us to to one another and tithing actually became a command of God to support Israel’s worship and their community life it’s what he intended it for then we have our passage from Malachi 3 today where God accuses them of robbing him by withholding their tithes and offerings from him and he promises that they return to him and they trust him with their lives and they give their tithe to the Lord that he is going to bless them for their obedience telling us this about tithing is that tithing is about trusting God trusting the God who is unchangeably faithful to his people even when they are not faithful to him because he’s the source of all good things now something that’s that’s powerful in this passage as well is that God declared that when his people trust him with their tithe that the result is a missional proclamation to the rest of the world of who he is it was at the very end in Malachi 3:12 then all nations will call you blessed for you will be a land of delight says the Lord of hosts and so here in Malachi he directly uh connects tithing to the proclamation of the gospel of the one true God in the Old Testament tithing was never meant to be about earning God’s favor uh even in the Old Testament that wasn’t God’s intent in the Old Testament in Malachi specifically it had it was about responding to the God who loved them relentlessly and who had shown it over and over again a God who was faithful to them even when they were faithless towards him it was faith put into action out of trusting God and obedience for what he had promised it was a missional act to give proclamation to the nations of the one true God and in the New Testament Jesus continues to affirm tithing in Matthew 23 uh 23 he calls out the Pharisees saying “You give a tenth of your spices your mint your dill your cumin but you have neglected the more important matters of the law justice mercy faithfulness.” So Jesus here isn’t anti-tithing uh he’s actually just calling them out as for an empty religion a heartless religion they they weren’t giving out of of a joy and a heartfelt trust in the Lord they were giving out of some duty and some hope of God’s uh manipulating God to cash in those receipts when they wanted them god Jesus was saying don’t just check the tithing box let your giving flow from your heart that loves God and loves people financial giving and tithing is part of how we live into the commandments that Jesus told us right to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself it’s all wrapped into our financial giving the gospel shifts the focus though from percentages meaning how much to an attitude of the heart and where it’s coming from you know the co the gospel view of tithing Paul writes it in 2 Corinthians 96-7 whoever sws sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sws generously will also reap generously each of you should give what you’ve decided in your heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver or a joyful giver that’s what God’s looking for hearts of of joy towards him for what he’s done and notice the phrase not under compulsion right the gospel doesn’t twist our arm the gospel frees us to live into what God had always intended why because Jesus has already paid the ultimate price think about it god didn’t tithe his love for us he didn’t just give 10% of his son he gave everything he gave a 100% of himself for us on the cross and John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” If that’s true then then tithing isn’t just about meeting some quota to try to please God it’s about reflecting the God who has given us all with our whole lives including our finances our time our talents including it all gospel tithing in that sense is saying “Lord you’ve been extravagantly generous towards me how can I not respond with trust and generosity for the work of your kingdom?” So what is gospel- centered tithing what does it do uh tithing trains us to let go it trains us to let go money is tricky right it can grip our hearts tighter than anything else and certainly more than we’d like to admit it can divide even the closest of families right it can drive wedges between the best of friends how many have had falling outs with family members because of money maybe when uh a parent died and it was time to go to the will and there was hard feelings and bitterness based on how money got divided and how it got given away jesus said to this in Matthew 6 24 our gospel reading this morning you cannot serve both God and money which means tithing is it’s a declaration that we’re making to God it’s a declaration that money doesn’t own me god does money doesn’t own me god does it’s not about the amount it’s about trust it’s declaring that our real treasure our real riches are not here on earth but they’re in heaven where our lives have been hidden with Christ is what the gospel tells us tithing therefore is an act of faith that demonstrates our reliance on God rather than reliance on material the material world we’re not dependent upon it it’s the gospel’s call that we depend on God’s grace and not on our own resources that’s what’s happening when we tithe 10% is just the starting point the key is this the gospel calls us to give intentionally joyfully freely because you know in your heart of hearts God’s got you he’s got me but sometimes it feels risky doesn’t it it can feel real risky and I know the bills pile up the cars break down and you wonder can I really afford this you know can I really afford this but Malachi invites us right god’s inviting us through Malachi to put him to the test i know Jesus said “You will not put the Lord your God to the test right?” But God told us here in Malachi that we’re to put him to the test on this not as a get-rich scheme but to really believe him for his promise that he’s the one who provides he’s the one who provides there are a lot of stories of people who’ve stepped out in faith and saw God meet them and wonderful wild ways uh I know many of you could do it if I asked you to stand up right now you’ve experienced it in your own lives uh but it’s not always with money it’s not always with money but sometimes it’s with a peace that surpasses all understanding a peace that the circumstance doesn’t call for whereas in just the material world we’d say we’re doomed and yet there’s a peace that we have in Christ because we know that our lives are are hidden in him kept in heaven for us it’s a peace that we can come when we trust him that the floodgates of heaven his faithfulness to us will be overflowing in ways that we could never possibly even expect i know that’s been my testimony and tithing and as we tithe as a family oftentimes it’s scary i don’t feel like uh that we’re going to be able to do it or we’re going to be able to make it this month and sometimes it is tough but more often than not it’s a it’s an incredible peace that comes with you know what my life isn’t held captive by the world my life’s hel my life is held captive by Christ so tithing it teaches us to let go to trust God with joy and in that that we might experience his peace in a deeper way than we ever could possibly when we’re just holding on tight to everything we got the second thing that uh that we learn in gospel tithing in the New Testament is that tithing supports the spread of the gospel just as in Malachi 3:12 God said “Then all nations will call you blessed and you will be a land of delight says the Lord of hosts.” And the New Testament financial giving supported the church’s mission and we see that over and over again in Paul’s writings and in his missionary journeys how the tithing that was given the offerings that were made were given to support Paul’s mission they were given to support the churches around that they might continue to proclaim the
gospel tithing today funds the the mission of the church the missionaries that are supported through that effort the ministries of the good news of service to the poor all in ways that align with the great commission that Jesus has called us to so I think for us in conclusion has your heart grown cold are you finding yourself in in a place where you’re fearful or it just seems like a God tax to
you where there’s no joy no peace no sense of of
purpose we’re being called to examine where our hearts are during this season of Lent and one of the ways that exposes that most of all is in how we treat money so here’s the challenge let tithing become an act of joyful worship to the Lord not a tax not a burden but a way to say “God I trust you with my whole life i trust you with it including my wallet.” Let this be a season of a revival of our hearts towards the Lord god loves a joyful giver is what he tells us maybe if you’ve never tithed before maybe this is the time to start and start small start start somewhere and see what go God God does you know he said to test him test him with it and see what God does in your heart and in your life we’re going to talk about in a few minutes during announcements about the disciplehip journey uh that the Lord is calling us to here at Church of our Savior and this this would be a great way to begin if you’ve been giving you out of uh out out of just duty to the Lord expecting to cash in those receipts someday would you dare to ask him to make it
joyful because God cares more about the attitude of our hearts than he does about our works of piety he doesn’t need our money he calls it to it because he knows what it does to our own hearts and where it draws our own hearts because at the end of the day it’s not about what you give it’s about who you’re giving to the one who gave all of his life for you deserves ne nothing less than your whole heart your undivided trust in him because of the gospel God’s unconditional love for us his faithful his unchanging love for us in Jesus because he’s the God of unending second chances as his disciples let us begin to give with joy for our salvation let us give for the peace of knowing that he is faithful to us and let us give in hopeful expectation and the purpose for the gospel mission of the church that he’s called us to amen
