The Standard for Giving [A]

Listen Online:

Transcript:

Turn with me this morning, if you would, to Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3. You know, Baptists are funny creatures.

And I say that being one, obviously. I was born into and raised up in a Baptist family by Baptist parents and grandparents. Led to Christ by Baptist parents as a result of things I was taught and things I was scared by in a Baptist church, baptized, licensed, ordained, all that by Baptist church.

So this is not an outside attack. It’s just an observation that sometimes we’re funny creatures. And the reason I say that, thinking about this morning’s message, I can tell you I have preached over the years on some of what are perceived to be the most controversial issues, the hot-button topics, and everybody, as far as I know, has been fine with what I’ve said.

Preach about gay marriage, everybody’s fine. Preach about abortion, everybody’s fine. Preach about alcohol, everybody’s fine.

Adultery, divorce, styles of worship music, preached on all of it and everybody’s fine. It’s amazing to me the two times that I’ve ever noticed people being visibly upset about what I have preached. Two times I’ve noticed it.

Number one was when I told people, I had the audacity to tell people maybe we ought to be half as excited at least about God on Sunday morning, getting together and worshiping God as we were about yelling for the Sooners or the Razorbacks or whoever it was the day before. Some things you can’t say in the South, amen? And the other thing, The other thing that I’ve seen people visibly upset about was in preaching on giving, which is where we’re going this morning.

So said that to say, I hope you’re not upset with me this morning. I’m basing as far as I know to do. I’m basing everything I’ll tell you this morning on God’s word.

So I hope you’re not upset with me at the end of this morning. If you are upset with me, come talk to me about it and we’ll discuss it a little bit. We’re going to look at a passage in Malachi chapter 3 that is used to promote an idea about giving that is not necessarily a bad idea on giving unless you take it and spread it across the board and say everybody has to do exactly the same thing that I’m doing.

This is one of these passages as we’re going through this series on verses that are taken out of context sometimes. I told you at the beginning of this series, some of these you’re going to like and say, that’s exactly right, and some of these you’re going to say, well, you’re meddling, you need to get off my toes. This might be one of the meddling messages, and I hope that it’s not.

I hope that we can come to some sort of understanding on what God’s Word teaches. In Malachi chapter 3, there is a verse, actually a couple of verses, that are the only ones I ever hear taught out of the book of Malachi. and it starts in verse 8.

It’s really verses 8 and 10. We’ll look at verses 8, 9, and 10 here for just a moment. Then we’ll go and look at the whole chapter.

But it says in verse 8, Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. Throughout this passage, throughout this passage, God is, for lack of a better explanation, God is having a conversation with himself in front of the Israelites.

I know that sounds like a strange thing to say until you think about the fact that we do the same thing sometimes, or at least I do. Do any of you ever plan out arguments? You know that somebody in your family is going to say, well, you did, and you’re planning ahead what you’re going to say, and you know what their response is going to be, and you’re planning ahead the argument before the person ever shows up.

Okay, at least Janet’s shaking her head. I know I’m not the only one. I do this.

And so God is telling the Israelites what they’re going to say before they even say it. He says, will a man rob God? In other words, how could a person think that they’re going to rob God and get away with it?

He says, yet you have robbed me. But you say, again, God says, and now you’re going to say in your mind, you’re going to be thinking, wherein have we robbed thee? How?

How, God, how did we rob you? And God responds in tithes and offerings. He says, you robbed me by neglecting the tithes and offerings.

He says, you’re cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. He says, the whole nation of Israel has robbed me. And so he tells them in verse 10, bring ye 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.

Now, we’ll talk tonight in greater detail about what this verse is actually teaching. But if you expand it out and you look at the whole context of the chapter, God is upset about a number of things here. And the lack of the tithing and the offerings is just one small part of that.

And I’ll give you a little sneak preview of tonight’s message. What God is really upset about is their lack of concern for Him, period. The money here is not the issue.

The fact that they’ve forgotten to lay, or not forgotten, but neglected to lay aside 10% or whatever percent it was of their money, of their livestock, of everything. That is merely a symptom. And so God did tell Israel, you’ve messed up.

You look at the rest of the chapter. He says, you’ve messed up. And the tithing is one thing, one area, the tithes and offerings is one area that he talks about.

But that’s not really the whole focus of what this chapter is about. It’s about how they have forgotten God. Let’s look back at the whole passage starting in verse 6.

For I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. And what God is saying there is that I don’t change, I am always who I am, I am always true to my word, and I have made promises to you starting back with your forefathers. And it’s really not because you’re so good and because you don’t deserve punishment, but it’s because I’m true to the promises that I made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that I, the God of Jacob, Jacob, have not consumed you.

Because in their behavior, in their thoughtlessness, this is after God had brought them out of captivity in Babylon. God had delivered them, not only from Egypt hundreds of years before, but God has delivered them again from the Babylonians. And yet their ungratefulness, God says, it’s really only because of my faithfulness to my promises that you’re not consumed.

He said, even from the days of your fathers, you are gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. He says here, you’ve forgotten about my law. Now, what’s the big deal with the law?

God knows, we know from the New Testament, God knows that we can’t follow the law perfectly. That’s sort of the point of the law, is to show us that we’re fallen, is to show us that we’ve already fallen short of God’s holiness. And yet it’s through our attempts, it’s through our heart for being obedient, that we show God that we love him.

Jesus, did he not say, if you love me, keep my commandments? And so God says you’ve not kept the ordinances. They didn’t keep them because they didn’t care about God.

Return unto me, he says, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. Now he had not really left them. I don’t believe he’s talking here about a geographical I’ll return to you.

But he’s saying return to me and I’ll provide for you and I’ll protect you and I’ll do all the things that I promised I would do. And you say unto me, wherein shall we return? So see, God’s conversation starts before verse 8.

He says, I’m telling you, return to me, and I’ll return to you, and do the things I promised, and then you’re going to say, how should we return to you? How is that possible? Because in their minds, they’re going through a lot of the motions.

If you read through the rest of the book of Malachi, they’re doing a lot of rituals and things, and they’re going through a lot of the motions, but they had forgotten. I mean, it became very obvious that they really had forgotten God in their hearts. And so he continues on with the conversation, the parts we’ve already looked at.

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings? Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Bring ye 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. He says in verse 11, And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time and the fields, saith the Lord of hosts.

So God is promising to the nation of Israel some wonderful blessings if they will just return to him. It’s not just about the money and the tithes, but he says if you will return to me, and if you will demonstrate that you return to me by doing the things that I’ve told you to, He says there are going to be incredible blessings that follow. And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.

Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, what have we spoken so much against thee? Again, God is having this conversation for both of them.

He says, I have said your words have been stout against me. You’ve spoken harshly against me. And your answer is going to be, what have we said?

What have we said against you? And God says, verse 14, Ye have said it is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and 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.

And God says, You have by your actions shown that you no longer consider it to be worth your while to serve God. Your question is materially, financially, what’s in it for me? to serve God.

He said, and because of that, you’ve gotten so twisted that now you look at those who ignore God. I’m sort of paraphrasing verse 15 here. You look at those who ignore God.

You look at those who spit in God’s face and see how they prosper because of their wickedness. And you think that that’s what you should emulate. Verse 16 says, then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it.

And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. 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. Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

And so he finishes this chapter by saying there were some who heard this rebuke from God. God rebuked them and there were some who heard the rebuke and actually listened. Sometimes when we’re chastised, we actually realize we’re in the wrong and we resolve to do something about it.

And he says there are some who did this and God promised them great blessings as a result. And he said, and you’ll be able to tell who walks with God and who does not. So I took you through that and we’ll go through it again tonight in more detail.

But I took you through that to get a sense of what the bulk of chapter three is talking about. Yes, it does talk about the Israelites tithing, but there was something more at stake here. There was something more at work, which was their relationship to God, which they had neglected.

And the tithes were just a symptom of that. Now, this passage does teach that Israel was supposed to, that Israel was expected to give a tithe. Now, there’s some debate about what that means.

Was it 10%? We recognize the tithe today as 10%. there are some groups that say, no, it was more than that.

I’ve heard as much as 37%, I think, depending on who you listen to. I don’t know. That’s a pretty big chunk of money right there.

But whatever it was, they were expected to lay aside a portion of everything. If you read back to where it started, you lay aside a portion to support the work of the temple, to support the work of the priest, to support the work of the sacrifices, and to keep all of that going. And so everyone was expected to lay aside a percentage.

Now, it’s very clear to me that this passage is teaching that for the nation of Israel. So my question then is, do we apply that to today? And this is where I think, this is where I have upset people in the past, and I hope you’re not mad at me, because I do believe it is one of those areas where we can disagree without being angry with each other.

But what I see in the scriptures is I believe that God has a different standard, for believers in the New Testament and in today’s time. And at first it might sound like, oh, that’s great. I don’t have to set aside 10%, but when you really think about it, it’s a much more intensive standard, if I can say it that way.

It’s not that it’s a harder standard, but there are more things to consider because we can thoughtlessly, and guys, if you write a check for 10% of whatever you make to the church overly, please don’t think I’m calling you thoughtless. That’s not my point. But I know from experience, it’s easy to just say, I’m going to write a check for 10% of what, and not think a thing about it, and there’s no sacrifice on my part.

Again, not saying you’re not sacrificing. I’m just telling you what is possible from my own experience. It’s not a sacrifice.

It’s not, there’s no effort. There’s not really any thought behind it. I’m just going through the motions, which is what he warned Israel against doing in the first place here.

In the New Testament, we are taught something different. We are taught to give as God leads. Now, here’s what hopefully will keep you from being upset with me.

I’m not saying don’t give 10%. If God leads you to give 10%, that’s what you need to give. If God leads you to give 5%, that’s what I believe the scriptures teach you need to give.

If God leads you to give 50%, then that’s what you need to give. And I don’t preach on money very often because people come to churches and they say, well, the preacher only preaches about money. If you come in and say, I’m always preaching about money, then you’ve been here twice because I think this is the second time.

maybe the third or fourth time in my whole ministry, which is sad because the Bible does say so much about money. And honestly, I could be accused of being neglectful about that. But I’ve been purposeful in saying, you know, I’m not going to.

And you know what? I don’t get a commission. I don’t get a commission for how much the church brings in.

Right, Brother Dacus? I’m not on commission here. So if you start giving 50%, that does not get funneled to me.

So I’m just trying to tell you this morning what God’s word says. tonight we will go back and look at this some more in depth and see what god is actually talking about here but what this is used to support often is the idea of a 10 percent tithe and if you believe you can make the case for 10 percent tithe out of scripture that’s great we can talk about that but I don’t believe this is the passage to do it because he’s talking about something a little different here I want this morning to go and look at what the new testament says about how we’re supposed to give. And there are four criteria that God sets out and says, these are the ways we’re supposed to give.

If for you, that comes out to be 10%, great. If for you after a prayer and sacrifice, that comes out to be five, great. The fact is that you need to give what God leads you to give, And God will take care of the rest. Now, God does have a plan for supporting his local churches through the giving of its members.

That’s just, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t expect us to contribute because the money, this is my wallet, the money in it really is God’s to begin with. Amen?

Okay. It’s easy to say amen when I’m holding my wallet. the money in your pocket is God’s anyway.

So he’s asking us to chip in out of the money he’s allowed us to have. And whatever he leads you to give is what you need to give. Whatever he leads us all to give is what he expects us to give.

And if we do that, he’ll take care of the rest. You know what? I have studied math. I’m not great at some of the higher math where you’re having to graph all the squiggly lines.

But I spent half my life this last year just working on teaching math and got pretty good at doing the numbers quickly and not making so many mistakes. Guys, I can’t figure up how sometimes God makes the math work, but he takes care of his people. He takes care of his churches, and there’s no need that is too big for God to meet.

And so we give freely, we give as he leads and trust him to take care of what the needs are. But four things that the New Testament teaches about giving is that first of all, Christians should give generously. Should give generously.

Now, for some of you, 10% may be incredibly generous. I don’t just hand over 10% of my money for no reason to anybody. And it still bothers me that Uncle Sam asks 20 and 30% When God, well, if you believe the tithe, then God asked for 10%.

For you, 10% may be generous. You may be sitting there saying, I’ve got barely enough money to live on. 10% may be generous for you to give.

You may have more money than that. And you may say, you know what? 10% doesn’t quite go to generosity for me.

I can write a check for 10% and not bad an eye. And folks, I have been there. I have been there at times where God has blessed me with so much abundance that I could write a check for 10 or 20% and not bat an eye about it.

And I’ve been there where I’m digging through the couch cushions for change just to put something in the offering plate. But whatever level we’re at, we’re told to give generously. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, now concerning the collection for the saints as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.

Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. And Paul was writing to the church at Corinth and saying when you meet together on the first day of the week, that’s what they’re talking about, the first day of the week is Sunday, and when you come together for your church services, take up a collection and let everybody give as God has prospered him. Now this is related to another phrase that’s sometimes used in scripture, According to.

According to as God has prospered you. I heard a preacher talking this week, a friend of mine, who was talking about in the scriptures the difference between out of and according to. And he said if you want somebody to give out, you know, there’s a difference between wanting somebody to give out of their prosperity versus asking them to give according to their prosperity.

And just to give you an example, let’s say Sandy’s a billionaire. Wouldn’t that be nice? so I’ll go to Sandy’s house let’s say Sandy’s a billionaire and I ask her to give out of her billions and she takes out a her checkbook writes me a check for 50 that’d be nice wouldn’t it it’d be 50 out of her billions now if I asked Sandy to give according to her billions Sandy could write a check for tens of millions of dollars you see the difference and so this when it says as God has prospered him.

It’s related to that term according to. They mean the same thing. So he says as God has prospered you, you lay out according to what God has blessed you with.

Now if God has blessed you with $10 this week, be generous with the $10 he’s given you. If God’s blessed you with $10,000 this week, be generous. You know what?

This applies, again, I’m not on commission here. This applies to the local church. I also believe it applies to the other areas of life where God calls on us to be generous.

If you see somebody in need, be generous with the $10,000 according to the $10,000 that God has given you. When we keep in mind that all the money we have is His to begin with, then it’s much easier for us to be generous because it’s His money. It’s always easier to go shopping with somebody else’s money.

It’s always easier to be generous with somebody else’s money too. The government sure has a fun time doing it, being generous with other people’s money. So we get to be generous with God’s money that he’s given us to use.

In 2 Corinthians 9, he wrote this, But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver.

and we will come back to this passage. But he talks about the difference between sowing sparingly and sowing bountifully. God promises blessings for those who will be generous.

This is not. Hey, guys, if you want to name it, claim it, message, hey, put in your faith offering and God promises He’ll give you ten times back. You go home, you turn on Joel Osteen.

I don’t have time for that. That’s not what I’m saying this morning. God promises blessings when we’re generous.

that doesn’t necessarily mean they are financial blessings. But I can give you an example. My in-laws, many of you know them, run a ministry in Mexico and Nicaragua, and I don’t know if they still do this part, but at one point you could adopt, you could sponsor a child in one of their areas.

And you would send so much money a month, I don’t remember how much it was, But you would get periodic reports on the child you sponsored. You’d get a picture occasionally. They might send you a letter.

They might color you a picture and send it to you. You might, I know one girl, we were down there on a trip, and I don’t know that she’d ever seen a cell phone, and we put her on a cell phone to talk to the lady who sponsored her back in the United States. You know what?

What a blessing to be able to be generous. And it wasn’t a huge amount of money, but to be able to be generous to buy food and medicine and clothing for a child in third world level poverty and then get to see in little glimpses here and there the way the child grew and prospered as a result of that. There was no financial benefit back to it.

And they’re not the only ministry that does that. There are several. But you support one of those kind of ministries, there is no financial benefit to you as a result. And yet there are blessings that come out of that.

You know what, we could list any number of good things that you could do with your money this morning that don’t necessarily bring you a financial benefit, but bring all sorts of rewards. God teaches that there are blessings as a result of generosity, and he says those who sow sparingly, those who plant sparingly, will reap sparingly. That’s just the law of the universe.

That’s the way the universe works. I plant a couple of okra seeds, I get a couple of okra plants, and never enough okra at one time to do anything with. I dig several holes and fill each hole full of cucumber seeds, and I sow bountifully.

Oh my goodness, the cucumbers will take over my entire house. I have a true story. That’s the way it works.

You plant a lot of seeds, you reap a lot of produce. You plant a few seeds, you don’t reap as many. So God promises blessings and rewards for us for being generous.

With our money, yes, I think that applies to our time, our energy as we invest in other people. But whatever it is that we’re called on to give, we need to give generously. If that’s 5%, do it with a happy heart.

If that’s 50%, do it with a happy heart. But God has called on us as Christians to give generously, whatever that looks like for us. Second of all, Christians should give joyfully.

We look at the same passage here in 2 Corinthians 9. Again, he says, every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. That doesn’t mean God hates you if you don’t give or don’t give cheerfully, but that’s an emphasis here, that it pleases God when we give cheerfully, when we give joyfully, when we’re going, I can’t wait to give this morning.

And there is a difference. There is a difference. He says, don’t give grudgingly or out of necessity.

Don’t give because somebody twisted your arm to get the money. God has no pleasure in that because, folks, again, just like with Israel, the money is really not the issue here. The money is the symptom of the deeper issue, which is the condition of our heart before God.

Think about the woman who gave the two pennies, the two mites. She gave them willingly, readily, cheerfully. And there were others who gave a lot more money, but held back a lot more money as well.

And they weren’t giving really because they wanted to. They were giving for some other reason because of the social pressure or they wanted to be noticed. And Jesus said she gave more.

I don’t think that means just more as a percentage of her income. Folks, I think that means it was more pleasing to God because she gave cheerfully. It says here, God loves a cheerful giver.

God is pleased when we give joyfully. And so what I’m telling you here is that this morning, I believe God is more pleased if you could afford to put a quarter in the offering plate, not only here at this church, but God is pleased if you could give a quarter to missions and did it joyfully. That’s another thing.

I’m not shy about asking for money if we’re going to give it away. But I believe God is more pleased if you give a quarter to his work, whether it’s at this church or somewhere else where he’s at work, and you do it joyfully, than he is if you gave $10 million and it had to be wrenched out of your hands and you were grudging about it. We know the difference.

Would you rather receive a gift from someone who is excited to give it to you? I just can’t wait for you to open it. Or from someone who says, Here, I was told it’s the social convention.

I’m supposed to bring you a gift, so enjoy. I don’t want that. No, you keep it.

Folks, the Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. I hope by now you understand I’m not trying to squeeze money out of you. Because I’m saying if all you can give is that quarter, give it to God’s work and be glad about it.

Whatever amount we give, give joyfully. Third of all, Christians should give sacrificially. This is a harder one to do.

Christians should give sacrificially. And here we look at the story about the widow and her mite. In Mark chapter 12, Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury.

And many that were rich cast in much, and there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites which make a farthing. And he called unto his disciples and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which hath cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance, But she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

She gave sacrificially. Folks, she gave until it hurt. And I’m not saying this morning that to be a good Christian, you have to give every dime you have.

Now, I have trouble sometimes understanding, understanding entirely what Jesus taught on the subject. I know that’s not something a preacher is supposed to admit. Because I wonder sometimes, did he encourage every Christian at every time to give away everything they had.

There were certain times that he said, go sell everything you have and give it to the poor. And I tend to think that was because he knew that’s what the idol was that was keeping, for example, the rich young ruler from coming to him. It was because he loved his money more than God.

And he said, fine, get rid of the money. And if Jesus were speaking to me, he might as easily say, you need to go get rid of something else, whatever it might be. So I don’t know, ladies and gentlemen.

I’m admitting to you that I don’t know that it is a command at all times and all places that we as Christians are supposed to own nothing but the clothes on our back. Because I do like the quote, I know it comes from Margaret Thatcher and not scripture, but I do like the quote where she says that if all the good Samaritan had had was good intentions, we wouldn’t remember him. It took money to accomplish the good work that he set out to do.

You know the story, of course. he had to pay the innkeeper to take care of the man that he found on the side of the road. There is something inside me that says, well, we need to be able to take care of our affairs.

Also, we can trust God to take care of those. So I don’t know necessarily that it’s a command at all times and all places that we’re supposed to own nothing but the clothes on our back. But I will say this, there is an expectation of God from God that we be willing to give sacrificially when he calls on us to do so.

What I mean by that, ladies and gentlemen, is let’s say, for example, a visiting missionary comes in and there’s a need that they’re working on. Some group that needs to be reached, some clinic that needs to be built, some project going on. And God says to you, you hear his voice clearly.

And he says, you give that missionary a thousand dollars. But God, I only have a thousand dollars in my bank account until the end of the month. And I’ve got this bill and I’ve got this bill.

and how you’re going to. . .

I’m saying if God tells us to give that $1,000, we need to give that $1,000. If God says, maybe you need to give up. .

. I know there’s not a Starbucks in Lindsay. Y’all are lucky.

$18 for a cup of. . .

No, it’s not quite $18, but I haven’t been in there in so long I don’t know how much it actually is, but I know people are paying a lot of money for coffee when I can go get it at Brahms for $0. 85. Maybe you need to give up a several-dollar cup of coffee every day you can support God’s work in some area of the world.

Folks, what is He calling on us to do? I know years ago, my pastor, when I was a child, asked people in the church to cancel their cable for a year so they could give $30 a month toward some mission project. Folks, what is God calling on us to sacrifice?

Powered by atecplugins.com