The Standard for Giving [B]

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Transcript:

We did look at Malachi chapter 3 this morning as one of those passages that is sometimes misinterpreted. And as I mentioned this morning, if you are one who believes that we are required in this day and time to give 10% of our income to the church as a rule, you’re welcome to disagree with me and you’re welcome to make your case from the scriptures, but I don’t believe that this is the one that does it. There is mention of tithing in here.

There is a mention of this practice whereby Israel would set aside a percentage of their income for the support of the temple, for the support of the priests, for the support of the sacrifices, and how God was angry that they had neglected that. But as I shared with you this morning, I do believe that that was God speaking to Israel. And God has given us a different standard in the New Testament.

New Testament principles teach us that about four giving that I shared with you this morning, that on the surface of them sound easier, but really are more demanding because they approach not so much the physical act of giving, but they approach the condition of our hearts. And I thought about it on the way home today. It’s sort of like when you go into a restaurant, and I don’t very often go into sit-down restaurants because I don’t like being waited on, but also because with, you know, small children are not necessarily always the most graceful eaters.

And going somewhere where, you know, you clean up your own table when you’re through, clean up your own messes, that’s sort of more comfortable for me than making somebody else have to do it. But on occasion, when you go into a sit-down restaurant, they will have a gratuity where they include it right there in the bill that there’s such and such percent given to the server. And folks, honestly, it’s usually a lot less.

It irritates me, first of that the restaurant’s trying to tell me how much I owe on top of the bill. But usually it’s less than what I would have tipped anyway. It’s less than what they deserved, especially if the service was good.

I think, well, then you shouldn’t have put that on there because I would have ended up giving more because they deserved more. If we look at our obligation, if you want to put it that way, if you look at the expectation to give back to God, and we need to look at it from that perspective, giving back to God, because any money, anything that we have is really just on loan from him. It’s his to begin with.

But giving back to God, giving back to his work, we can look at it in those terms. Is it just a set percentage that we’re required to give, or does God actually deserve more? And when I say more, I don’t necessarily mean percentage-wise. I mean the condition of the heart.

Are we giving because that’s what the bill says? You should give this amount, you must give this amount. Or are we giving because, hey, you deserve more.

And I don’t mean to trivialize God by comparing him to a server, but it’s the same sort of deal. They deserve more, and we would give more, usually, if the gratuity wasn’t included. Well, does God deserve more than just, well, here, this is what’s required. And it is very easy to say, here, here’s my 10%, I’m done.

whereas we look this morning and the New Testament teaches on this matter of giving that we’re supposed to give generously. I’m not going to go through it in detail again and preach the same whole message again tonight as what you heard, but just to refresh your memory because some of you may have had an absence then. I didn’t today, but I would have liked to have had.

Christians are supposed to give generously. We’re supposed to give according to the blessings that God has given us. You know, hey, if God has blessed us to where we just have seemingly unlimited resources, why stop at 10%?

Give according to what God has given us. If God has blessed us a little bit, and make no mistake, it doesn’t matter how poor we are, God has blessed us. Even in material things, God has blessed us.

The poorest of the poor in this country usually are better off than a large percentage of people around the world. People here are broke and still have an iPhone, as compared to people in other countries who scrimp and save to have a certain number of grains of rice per day. We’re incredibly blessed people.

But if God has blessed you less in the financial realm, then whatever He’s given you, give generously out of that. As I said this morning, if it’s 5%, if it’s 10%, if it’s 50%, whatever God leads you to give, do it generously. Christians are expected to give joyfully.

The Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. You know, it does you no good to give 10%. I don’t believe there’s a blessing involved if you give 10% of your income and, you know, the plate comes by and the usher has to wrench the check out of your hands.

I’ve never actually seen you do that. But if you’re holding it, but I just don’t want to let it drop. Folks, what is that?

You might as well just hang on to the money. There’s a message you don’t hear from the preacher very often. If you’re going to be that way, just hang on to it.

Just keep it. We should give joyfully. If we give 5%, if we give a quarter, if we give.

. . Folks, whatever it is, we should give it joyfully and readily.

We should give sacrificially. We should give until it hurts sometimes. And finally, we should give discreetly.

It’s not about, hey, I’m going to blow the trumpet so everybody sees me put my 10% in the box as Jesus pointed out they were doing at the temple. But instead, he drew attention to this widow lady who gave basically the last two pennies that she had. And did it discreetly.

She wasn’t looking for recognition. And yet she gave out of a pure heart. And so when we want to look at Malachi chapter 3, and it is used by preachers a lot of times to say, there’s a tithe, you’re supposed to give 10%, it’s a rule.

We don’t base a lot of our rules on the Old Testament, but that one seems to be given as a rule. The New Testament sets up a set of principles that I believe supersede that. And really it has more to do with what is God leading you to give.

But now it’s harder to make sure our heart’s in the right place than to just write a check. See, one is concerned with the physical act of let’s write the check or let’s put the money in the plate. And the other side says, where is your heart before God?

That’s what’s most important in giving. And today, whether you give a quarter to the church, or you give $10,000 to the church, or not even just the church, you give to the Lord’s work elsewhere, you give to missions, you give to charities that are feeding people. Folks, whether you give the last dime you have or you give $10,000, God is more concerned with your heart and whether or not you’re committed to him and you’re doing it out of an overflow of love.

See, that was the problem that God was actually trying to address in the book of Malachi, was a heart issue. These few verses are taken out of their context, out of their chapter, and said, look here, you need to be giving 10% today. When you look at it in a little bit broader context, you take a few more verses than just the ones that mention the 10%, and it begins to grow clearer what God was really addressing with the people of Israel, which I alluded to this morning.

We’re going to start again in verse, you know what, we’re going to start in verse 5. We started in verse 6 this morning. Start in verse 5, And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not, saith the Lord of hosts.

For I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. God says there will be a judgment that’s coming. And what he specifically points out in verse 5 is the judgment that’s coming on account of how far that they have wandered from God and his principles and how it’s manifesting itself in the way they treat each other.

See, the Bible doesn’t seem to give a lot of concern for how great a Christian you think you are and how highly we esteem ourselves spiritually just on the basis of, well, I have the right morals. I mean, that’s part of it, ladies and gentlemen. But as believers, if God is really at work in our hearts, if we’re really listening to the Holy Spirit and He’s loving other people through us, folks, it will demonstrate itself in the right kind of life that we do the right thing.

We avoid doing the wrong thing, but also in the way that we treat other people. A friend of mine was talking, a pastor friend was telling me a story a week or two ago and talking about taking in some foster kids and asking his biological kids, well, what do you think we ought to do? And the son’s saying, well, we can’t very well call ourselves Christians if we’re turning away orphans, can we?

And we laughed at that statement, and they ended up taking them in, but we laughed at that statement, but I thought there’s a lot of wisdom in that. And I’m not saying you have to fill up your house with orphans, But folks, if we are Christians, it will manifest itself in the way we treat other people. It just will.

And God was saying because their hearts were far from him, their hearts were hardened toward other people. Look at what they were doing. They were involved in sorcery and witchcraft, which God had said was a no-no. Saul had lost his kingdom.

King Saul, who came before King David, lost his kingdom in large part because he got involved in sorcery. Adulterers, false swearers. You know what?

Adultery and false swearing, we might look at that and say, well, that’s a sin against God. It’s also a sin against other people. Adultery hurts the person who’s the victim of it.

Believe me, it hurts. False swearers. If you’re lying to people, it’s going to hurt them.

If you’re perjuring yourself, especially this idea of false swearing, I believe is tied to the ninth commandment, not to bear false witness against your neighbor. That’s not just lying. That’s lying about people.

So you’re testifying that so-and-so did this. You’re going to get them in trouble and ruin their lives when you know it’s not true. You’re going to hurt other people.

Those that oppress the hireling and his wages, hire somebody to do work for you so that they can feed their family and then cheat them out of their wages at the end of the day. What kind of heartless person does that? Oppress the widow and the fatherless.

Mistreatment of widows and orphans here. and that turn aside the stranger from his right. Those who say to those who are strangers, who are wanderers, who are from, get away from me, I’m not going to help you.

They turn their backs on visitors and he says, and fear not, meaning they have no fear of the Lord. And God says, I will be a witness against you, saith the Lord of hosts. And he says in verse 6, for I am the Lord, I change not.

He is the Lord, he changes not. and because he changes not he cannot pretend that their sin is okay he cannot pretend that their their hearts full of wickedness are okay he cannot pretend that their mistreatment of one another is okay and yet he says I change not therefore you sons of jacob are not consumed and it’s sort of what I told you about this morning that he had made promises to abraham to isaac to jacob to their forefathers down the line, that he would preserve the nation of Israel, that he would bless them in certain ways, that he would make them a blessing to all the nations, and he eventually did through sending Jesus Christ and letting the nation of Israel be the vessel that brought him forth into humanity.

And he says here, I change not, and so you will be held accountable for that, but it’s the fact that I don’t change and I’m faithful to the promises that I’ve made is the only reason that I’m not wiping this nation out. He said, that’s the reason you’re not consumed. God was very upset at the way they were conducting themselves.

They had wandered far from God. Their hearts were cold toward God, and it showed in the way they lived and the way they treated each other. He says here in verse seven, even from the days of your fathers, you’re gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them.

So again, for generations now, they’ve been wandering away from God. They have totally disregarded his law. Why is that important?

Because he said, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, show me. As you would to a father that you love, do what I ask you to do.

Do what I tell you to do. This is hard to drill into my kids, but when they’re just acting wild, sometimes the only way I can get through to Benjamin, especially, because he is the wilder of the two. She follows him sometimes, but he’s usually, God love him, he’s usually the instigator.

And sometimes the only way to get through that head is to sit him down and try to connect with the heart and say, do you love daddy? Yes, you’re not acting like you love daddy, because daddy gives you rules, and daddy tells you to do things for your own good, to keep you safe, and you just completely ignore me like I’m some stranger off the street. If you love me, do what I say.

And that’s what God tells us. That’s what Jesus said. If you love me, keep my commandments.

And he says, yet you have totally ignored me for generations. You have walked away from my ordinances. This is the God who they kept in remembrance.

They reminded themselves as a nation, it was part of their history, that he brought them out of oppression in Egypt. But even more recently, within just a few years before this, he brought them out of captivity in Babylon. A good chunk of the nation of Israel was taken captive to the nation of Babylon to serve them, and it was only by God orchestrating that Babylon would fall to the Persians and then God getting a hold of the heart of King Cyrus that they were allowed to go back home.

That was not something they could have done. There was no military uprising. It was God doing exactly what he said he would do in the time frame he said he would do it.

And so he tells them, Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. And again, if you’ll remember this morning, I talked about sort of the rhetorical conversation that God has with himself, playing both parts. And it’s not here that God has a split personality.

I don’t know if any of the rest of you do this. Janet said she, Janet shook her head and said she knew what I was talking about. But sometimes you know there’s a conflict coming that you just don’t, I don’t like conflict, but sometimes I know it’s coming.

And I think to myself, what is the other person going to say? And I have my answer ready for what they’re going to say. What do I think they’re going to say to that?

And what would my response be? And before you know it, I’m having this whole argument, having this whole conversation in my head, and the other person’s really not even necessary to the conversation. Well, it’s kind of weird when we do it.

But here, when God does it, it points out that He knows the condition of their hearts. He knows what’s in their hearts. He knows what they’re going to think before they even say it.

And so he tells them, return to me and I will return to you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we return? So he says, when I tell you to return to me and I’ll return to you, come back here and do what you’re supposed to do and I will give you all the blessings that I promised you.

He knows that their response is going to be, why do we need to come back? What do you mean? We’re fine.

We’re still here doing the religious rituals. We’re still here with our outward righteousness, appearing to do the right thing. We’re fine.

What’s wrong? And so God’s response in verse 8 is, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.

So it sounds like he’s asking, is it surely it’s not possible for a man to rob God, but you’ve robbed me. What he’s really saying is, can a man rob God and think he’s going to get away with it? And yet you have robbed me, apparently thinking you’re going to get away with it.

And God says, your answer is going to be, wherein have we robbed thee? God, how did we rob you? What have we done wrong?

Because again, they’re still making their sacrifices when it’s required. They’re still showing outward righteousness. He said in tithes and offerings.

I don’t think this meant that they had stopped altogether their tithes and offerings, but they weren’t doing the things that they were supposed to do. He says, you’re cursed with a curse for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. He said the whole nation is guilty.

The whole nation has turned its back on me. And this is where we would look at it and say, it’s robbing God not to tithe. Yes, for Israel, who was expected to tithe, it’s robbing God not to tithe.

And so he tells them, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. So God gives, again, to Israel a promise. This verse is sometimes used to say, too, if you’ll give 10%, God will give.

Folks, as I pointed out this morning, there’s no promise that the blessings will be financial when we are generous to God’s work. God promises blessing and reward when we are generous, but it doesn’t mean that the rewards are financial. You may never see financial benefit. And again, if you want somebody to tell you, hey, you just give a dollar and God will give you back seven, go home and turn on TV.

You might as well not come here because that’s not what I teach. I don’t believe that’s what the Bible teaches. But God gave to Israel a promise and said, if you will just obey, there will be blessings.

If you’ll bring all your tithes into the storehouse so that there’s meat in my house, he says, prove, that word prove usually in the older English means test me. Let me show how faithful I am that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out to you a blessing so big you will not even be able to receive all of it. He promises these blessings to Israel.

And he says, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, the devourer of your land, of your substances, of your finances. He said, I’ll rebuke them. And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time and the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

So he promised them a great harvest. And for an agricultural people, for farmers, I mean, that’s great news. That’s your prosperity. That’s your financial security, is your harvest. And all nations shall call you blessed, and you shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.

Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Here we go again with this conversation. God says, you have spoken ill of me.

You’ve rejected me with your words. Yet ye say, what have we spoken so much against thee? The people’s response would be, what do we say?

What do we say that’s so bad? And he says in verse 14, you have said it is vain to serve God. And what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts.

And now we call the proud happy, yea, they that work wickedness are set up, yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. I don’t know that the people of Israel literally said those words, what profit is it? But by their actions, and possibly by their words as well, but at least by their actions, they’ve said, what’s in it for us to serve God?

Because look here at all these pagan countries around us and see how they ignore God, and they do whatever they need to do and oppress whoever they need to oppress and break whatever rule they need to break to get ahead in life and see how prosperous they are. And folks, we could say the same thing in our world today. Look at these people and all the rules they break and look at how they do their own thing and look at how they dishonor God and look how rich they are.

It’s not to say every rich person is evil, but folks, there are people out there who are living high on the hog off of ill-gotten gain. And he says, in your hearts, at least by your actions and some of you by your words, you’ve said serve God what’s in it for us because you’re looking at these others around you and you’re seeing how they’ve gotten their wealth and you want what they have and he says in verse 16 then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it so some people heard the rebuke that God issued here some people were listening you know sometimes you get onto your child and they just dig their heels in even even more I don’t know if anybody else has a stubborn child. I have a stubborn child and sometimes a second stubborn child.

My parents had a stubborn child and sometimes a second stubborn child. My sister was the stubborn one. No, that’s a true story.

They would tell you. And sometimes you get on to your child and they just dig in their heels and they’re even more determined to do what’s wrong that they’re not supposed to be doing. And sometimes, though, you get on to them and they actually hear you.

I even do that as an adult. Sometimes somebody says, you’re doing this wrong. I won’t take that too well.

Or you’re wrong here. And I dig in my heels. Sometimes though somebody says, have you considered this?

Wow, I was wrong there. Sometimes, sometimes we receive a rebuke and we actually will listen. And God said that there were some of them.

Malachi records that there were some of them who heard and they spake often to one another. They reminded each other hey he’s right here. This is what we need to be doing.

Let’s go back to doing things God’s way. And the Lord hearkened as they cried out to God and they repented and they said we need to do things your way. God hearkened to them and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name.

God remembers those who humble themselves before him. Verse 17 says and they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts In that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. In a day when I’m preparing to hand out the rewards, I’ll remember them, and I’ll spare them just as a man would spare his own son.

Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. God was saying here, I’ll remember. I’ll remember those who return to me, just as he promised at the beginning of the chapter.

Yes, or the beginning of the passage we looked at, return to me and I will return to you. God’s bookending this here with a promise that he started out with, saying I will remember that and I will bless you and I will give you wisdom and I will spare you from the punishment that is to come. Now we look at this passage, and again, it does talk about tithing.

It talks about tithing to Israel in a particular period of time under particular circumstances. that again, I believe are not done away with, but are superseded by principles taught in the New Testament. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that we can learn from this passage as well.

Because even though the only time really I hear Malachi taught, it’s on those verses that talk about tithing, that’s really not even the highlight. That’s really not even the main idea of what God is trying to get across to the people here through the prophet Malachi. The tithing was a symptom.

The fact that they were not tithing was the symptom of something much deeper and something much more harmful that was wrong in the nation of Israel, and that is that their hearts had grown cold toward God. And God could have very easily just treated the symptom. Sometimes we try to treat symptoms, and the deeper problem only gets worse.

If you’ve got a brain tumor that’s causing headaches, do you just take Tylenol to stop the headaches? Or do you go get the tumor dealt with? You deal with the deeper issue.

And the deeper issue here is not the tithing. If the people’s hearts were right before God, the giving, all of that would have worked itself out. But you notice, he’s halfway through the discourse before he even gets to the issue of giving.

He says, you have walked away from my ordinances. You’ve walked away from me. That’s the main idea here.

In your hearts, you’ve left me long ago. Now, are they still there? Yeah, they’re still there and they’re still in Israel.

They’re still living their lives. They’re still giving the outward appearance of following God. But in their hearts, they’ve walked away from it.

And it’s showing up in some ways. It’s showing up in the way that they treat one another. I mean, they’re treating each other horribly, many of them.

It shows up in the way that they are now not only running from God in their hearts, but they’re running from God outwardly because some of them are involved in sorcery. They’re involved in witchcraft. I mean, how much further could you get from God?

That is, it’s like oil and water, not compatible at all with God’s teaching. It’s showing up in them refusing to give God what he deserves and what he expects from them. Folks, all of these are symptoms. These are the headache and the tumor.

The deeper issue is the heart that’s grown cold toward God. And God says, you need to fix this, and he rebukes them. What this passage is about is a rebuke about hard-heartedness toward God and some of the areas where that was showing up.

Some of the areas where God says, this is what you’re doing wrong, and here’s the reason. Now, folks, there are some things about this that apply to our lives today as well, because even though we’re in a totally different world than what they lived in, Totally different set of circumstances, totally different expectations as far as what the scriptures teach, New Testament versus Old Testament. It’s still possible to get cold-hearted toward God today.

Didn’t Jesus at the beginning of Revelation warn the church at Ephesus that they’d lost their first love? Didn’t he tell the church at Laodicea that they were neither hot nor cold, they were lukewarm? Wasn’t that a problem?

It’s still possible today to be cold-hearted toward God. And some of the ways that it will show up are some of the same ways that it showed up for the people of Israel. First of all, God rebuked Israel for refusing to obey the laws and covenants He had given them.

Now we see this really in verse 7. Even from the days of your fathers, you are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. He said there’s this cold-heartedness.

There’s this lack of concern for God. There’s this lack of love for God. And it’s showing up with you not obeying what I’ve told you to do.

Now folks, the rules for us are a little bit different than what they were for Israel. But the fact is, if our love for God grows cold, it’s going to show up with us refusing to obey Him. What are some of the things that He expects us as believers to do?

This is the quiz portion of the evening. What are some of the things, just a few, what are some things that God expects from us today? Preach the Word.

Preach the Word. Is it possible to stop obeying that commandment as a preacher? Let me rephrase that.

Do preachers sometimes not do that? We’ve got a whole country full of them, folks. It’s possible for your love for God to grow cold and to disobey that command.

What are some others? What else are we told to do? What does he want us to do?

To love him. To love him. Love our neighbor.

Is it possible to ignore that one? Yeah. If we love God, we’ll love others.

1 John says that we cannot. I want to make sure I get this right. Now, I can’t remember the exact quote, but 1 John teaches that if we are born of God, that we will love our brothers.

Give me something else. What are we supposed to do? Good stewards of what he’s given us.

Yet we can ignore that command and say, I don’t care what God wants me to do with this money. I’m just going to blow it on what I want. Are we supposed to make disciples and tell others about Jesus?

That’s an easy one to forget. Folks, there are things that we are supposed to do as believers. It’s not the same as the Old Testament law, but we as believers are given expectations, if I can put it that way.

And if our love for God begins to grow cold, it’s easy to forget to do the things He’s commanded us to do. Second of all, God rebuked Israel for their refusal to support the work of the temple. I would say this carries forth.

It was not just a matter of the money. They were refusing to support the worship that was taking place in the temple. Folks, their financial support was part of what kept the worship going in the temple, the worship that was supposed to take place for the nation of Israel.

If we don’t love God, or if our love for God grows cold, it’s easy to let go of supporting worship, sustaining worship. And I don’t mean financial support for worship. Those tithes and offerings were part of what they needed in the temple.

Part of their worship was they had to make sure there were animals to sacrifice. They had to make sure there was incense and showbread. That was part of their worship.

If our love for God grows cold, it’s easy to neglect our worship as well. We are created to worship God. We are created to have a relationship with God.

It’s not just about follow these rules. Christianity is about a relationship with God where we walk with Him and we love Him and we know that He loves us and we know more about Him every day. We learn to know Him more.

We learn to love Him more. We praise Him for His goodness and His greatness and we serve Him. Folks, all of that is wrapped into worship.

We can neglect coming together for corporate worship. I don’t want to go today. It could be an issue with the preaching.

Then again, it could be an issue with my heart’s not where it needs to be with God. I’m just not going to go. I’m just not going to.

Folks, not even corporate worship. When’s the last time you just worshipped God on your own? We can very easily neglect worship if our hearts are not where they need to be before God.

Third of all tonight, God rebuked Israel for their refusal to wal

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