God Does Not Change and His Call to Return Still Stands

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You're listening to a message from Victory. God's character, commandments

and promised blessings do not change. Discover more about this

truth in week three of our series.

Remember this, so let's start off by opening our Bibles

to Malachai chapter three, verse six. Okay, this is in

line of what God's message to his people prior to

the Silent years from the Old and the New. And

he was telling them, I want you to remember who

who I am, because I'll be silent for how many years,

and then I'll come back and bring the rescuer who

will say the world from our sin. And so in

Malachi three, verse six, he says, for I the Lord

do not change. Therefore you, oh children of Jacob, are

not consumed. The Lord tells us here of his very

nature that he is a lord who does not change.

He's a god who's unchangeable. What that means is he

was saying, if I am a lord who is very emotional.

You're dead, that's the version in verse six. You'll be consumed.

You're done. Now you've rebeled against me, you've disobeyed me.

But because I am a Lord who is gracious, I'm

a Lord who's forgiving. I'm a Lord who is long suffering.

I do not change. Even in your rebellion, I will

choose to love you.

Right.

A lot of people think that the God of the

Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are different.

The God of the Old is very violent. The God

of the New Testament is very gracious. It's not true.

If you look at scripture again. In Malachi, you see

here that this is a God is very gracious, and

he said, I am the Lord. I do not change,

or else you will be consumed. So the Bible talks

about the very nature and character of God that he

does not change. And I know Malachi tree is also

used as a verse to talk about tits and offering,

and later we'll get into that, But that was not

the heart of Malachi three. It wasn't really about tights

and offering. It's about something far deeper than tides and offering.

It was God saying here I am, I do not change,

because if Malachai Tree is all about tights and offering,

when we say God does not change, which is not

these all right? What he's saying is Hindian because I

owe okay, I tell you eighties right. I will not change.

In spite of what you've done, in spite of your rebellion,

I do not change. In verse seven, he says, from

the days of your father's you have turned us 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? I hope we

get the very heart of the text. The Lord was

saying to them, I want you to return to me.

If you return to me, I will return to you.

The Lord did not say, return your tights to me

and I will return to you, or return ten percent

of your finances, and I will return to you. What

he was saying is I want you to return to me.

I want you. I'm inviting you to return to me.

This wasn't about money. It was about us. He wants

all of us. He doesn't just want a certain aspect

of our life, like our finances or our love life

or our ambitions and dreams. He wants all of us,

and so he invites us, and he tells the people

who are rebelling against him return to me, and I

will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts. Now,

the people who are asking, Lord, how have we not?

Are we not?

Okay? People tell you, okay, why would you say? Why

would you invite us to return to you? We feel

like we've not gone far away? But the Lord is saying,

you don't see your sin, and that's why I'm inviting

you back. I want you back into my arms because

I want you to experience who I am because you've

gone far away. And they said how how can we

return to you? And then the Lord says, okay, I'll

give you an example. How here's one part of your

life where I feel like you've run away from me.

He says, will a man rob god? Yet you rob me?

You're robbing me? But you say, how have we robbed you? Again?

They were asking the question, Lord, we haven't robbed you.

We go to church, we help, I give my occasional

twenty pesos and in a good day my five hundred pesos. Right,

how have we robbed you? And he says, in your

tithes and offering, so Tightson offering here was just an

example of how they've run away from God. It's one

of the great examples because most of us, how we

handle our money would reflect our view of who God

is in our life. And so he was saying, a law, Yo, Munasah,

and the example I want to give to you in

your own life is how you handle my money. In fact,

not just my money, but the tithes and the offering.

And he says, you're robbing me. You're under a curse.

You're a curse with a curse for your robbing me

the whole nation of you. My journey with Tidson offering

has been very coldorful. Early on in my faith, I

wouldn't give my tithes in offering. It was anti Chinese, right,

it was so it was so anti cultural for me

to give me ties. I couldn't understand. I've been a

Christian for the longest time, but I would not give

my tithes. I felt like, God, if you really want

to bless me, why do I have to give? Because

if I give, I lose, I don't gain. Doesn't make sense,

no matter how you calculate things. Loo, get Lord, look

get right. It was late nineties, in the nineties where

I think ninety seven ninety eight were totally changed for me.

And that's why I preached this with such conviction, because

I wouldn't give my ties. I was starting out in

our family business. I was earning, but I couldn't give right.

And then Pastor Giray Mora preached on tithes and offering,

and he said, it's as simple as this, God in

his generosity, gave you ten balls to play with, okay,

and then he tells you can I have one of

the ball. But then when we struggle with tides, what

we're really saying is but Lord, it's mine. But the

Lord is said, no, I give ten to you. I

just want one. You can play with the nine, but Lord,

I want ten. Now it made sense, Wow, how selfish

I am with that object lesson. I wasn't convicted with

the verse. I was convicted with the object lesson of

how I could be so.

Sugapa Okay, how.

I could be so selfish with the blessings that God

is giving me when he asked of me, he's only

ten percent one of the ten balls, and I couldn't

even give it. It just showed to me my sin.

And that's why when God says returned to me, and

I will return to you, he was going to the heart,

not to the wallet. Because if I couldn't give ten

percent of my income, how much more my love life,

my dreams, my vision, my plans. If I'm having a

hard time with that one ball, for sure, I will

have other problems with the other things that God has

given me. And so he invites us to return to me,

and I will return to you. And an example is

your finance can't even give. That's why since that time,

I've never gotten into any debate and I never entertain

any debate about tides and offering of whether it's from

the Old or the New Testament. And later I'll explain

why he says your curse with a curse. I go

back to my own life. I review, and at the

time that I was so stingy with God, I was

living under a curse. I'm not saying everything I do failed,

but my heaveryday life it was always incomplete. I was

living under a curse. I remember night I went to

the room of my parents. We live in Das Marina's

village Mahati in at Kavite. I knocked on the door,

I entered in. I looked at my parents. I was

scratching my head. I said, Papa, Mama, I'm poor. They

look at me. They scratched their head. What are you saying?

They came from a very poor background and worked their

way up. But here was I complaining. Mahati boy is complaining.

And my mom looked at me and said, do you

know what you're saying? Do you have a problem tomorrow

that when you go down there's no food to eat?

No? No, yeah, Yah will cook it?

My problem, mahaban And as air conditioned room, totulo a pero,

I couldn't see it. It was a lesson that I

learned that no matter how big your income is, if

your mind is poor and your being is poor, you'll

always think this way.

I was living under the curse.

We grew up that way because my parents were not Christians.

When we experienced business success, Tomato Taxa Avenue, we would

eat in a Chinese restaurant, and when we would order

sob drinks or juice, we were not allowed because it

was very expensive. But my mom just earned maybe one

hundred thousand that day. But we couldn't order a sixty

pace picture of iced tea. You see, it was like, wow,

means a sabai.

Were we happy?

We had birds?

But were we happy?

No? Because we need to work. We cannot rest. There

was no sabbath. Bahmanhawan always on her toes, always on

her knees, needing to go to work. We couldn't go

on a family vacation where we're all complete. Somebody needed

to be in the store. So all our childhood Hong

Kong or Japan.

Oh, but well ask you I turn.

Yeah. Yes, there were perks, but the same time, there

was no fullness of joy in the midst of prosperity.

It's a cursed life. Imagine if you made ten percent

an issue before the Lord. I'm just thinking, if he

goes home or she goes home, if he's making an

issue out of the ten percent that God wants, how

much more than ninety percent that his wife would want,

the kids would want, the business would want. It's a

cursed life. You don't need the business failure to say

you're cursed. When money starts to control you, it's a

cursed life. No need for other punishments. You would see

how empty life is and there will be no contentment.

Ah scary to even live that way. And God says,

you're curse with a curse for you robbing me, the

whole nation of you six point nine gdb growth. How

come not a lot of people are experiencing it.

Maybe because our God is money.

We don't even give ten percent this issue. You see

there's a direct connection to who we are and how

we handle money. You'll see, Oh, that's the God that

he worships. By your spending, by your saving, by how

you by your lifestyle. People would see who your God

is because there's a direct connection to who we are

and how we handle money, and whose God we worship.

The Lord says in Malachai, I the Lord do not change.

This is me. Return to me. I'll return to you.

I'm the same God who is so gracious. But I

want you to believe in this. I the Lord do

not change.

Now.

I want us to fast forward. In the New Testament,

there were a group of Christians who believe in this truth.

They believe that God is the owner of everything, that

the Lord does not change, and the Lord will be faithful,

that the Lord will bless them, and Paul made an

example of them in Second Corinthians eight. This was the

church in Macedonia. I want you to jump there to

Second Corinthians eight, and we'll see how the early church

lived out their life in view of the money that

they have. We want you to know, brothers, about the

grace of God that has been given among the churches

of Macedonia. Paul was saying, God is given all of

us in this room a gift.

It's called grace.

And you all know, when you experience the grace of God,

it changes everything. I know it's a song of victory music,

but it's true. When I experience the grace of God,

it changes my view of everything in life, including money.

Because I understand I now experience the grace of God.

Now I can say, Jesus here all I need, Jesus

here my everything. I will have full conviction because I've

experienced the grace of God. And this is the gift

that God is given the church in Macedonia. And then

Paul continued on and says, they've received a gift, and

it's called grace, for in a severe test of affliction,

their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have resulted

into what overflow in the wealth of generosity on their part.

What was Paul saying. Paul was saying, they've received the

grace of God and now the church was experiencing a

severe test of affliction. Paul was using keywords to explain

how bad it really was. He wasn't saying they were

having a test of affliction. They Paul said they had

a severe test of affliction, which in the Greek word

means tribulation. Tribulation means internal pressure that causes someone to

feel confined. I can't move comaa, can't because I'm trapped.

I'm under tribulation, a severe test of affliction. That was

how the Macedonians were feeling. Maybe they've lost the business.

The house burned down, the barns, you know, there might

have been a virus among the cattles, and they lost

their business. They were in a severe test of affliction.

There was tribulation, but the Bible says there was also

an abundance of joy that in the midst of the problem,

they were joyful. And then it says they were in

extreme poverty. Mind you, Paul did not say they were

in poverty. They were in extreme poverty. They were dirt poor.

I scanned this room and I don't see anybody in

extreme poverty. If it must have been an extreme poverty.

You don't know what you're going to eat in the

in after the service, you don't have any food to eat.

It was extreme poverty for them. They were having a

hard time. But then the Bible says that they moved

in overflowing generosity. Overflowing means all around which indicate its

abundance or surplus, exceeding beyond what is expected of them.

There was overflowing, right, it's overflowing, right, twenty kilos lalla

candyman penalties airport.

Why it's overflowing?

They wanted to give in all my hard work I

want to give. There was overflowing, and then it says

overflowing generosity. I tell you this changed me the past

few years.

This truth changed me. When poses they.

Were in a severe test of affliction, that they were

so dirt poor, but they moved in overflowing generosity. My

mind wrestled with it. How can I give? How were

the Macedonian churches able to move in generosity in the

midst of big tribulation and extreme poverty? It doesn't make

any sense. And then I look up the root word

that Paul use when he wrote the letter extreme generosity.

It was the word haplotes in Greek, which means they

moved in extreme simplicity of life.

Life was so simple.

It made them so happy that they were able to

give even in the midst of trials and extreme poverty,

simpling bohe and it was overflowing simplicity of life. You

look at them and you say, how come they're so

happy because they understood what God said in Malachi, I

am a Lord who does not change. They've experienced the

grace of God and now they could happily share whatever.

Wealth they had. Life is so simple.

How many of us here life became complicated when you

started having more. Maybe I've shared this with you before.

In our early years of marriage, we were campus missionaries.

We didn't know how much money would come every month.

We were living by faith technically with regards to our finances.

But our favorite restaurant was Tramway.

You know Tramway.

I think it's two hundred thirty eight now very expensive now.

Twelve years ago it was one hundred and twenty eight pesos.

Birthday wedding anniversary. We look at each other tramway coming, tramway.

All right, we were in tramway.

We were happy with that.

Less than it's a two hundred you know, it was

less than three hundred vessels.

But we were so happy. Life was so simple.

We don't need a tramway now for health reasons.

Because of that. But you were hit by a tram

right so, but.

Oh, Gravina and Addin, we didn't need a hotel buffet,

Saysari was such a treat for us.

Life is simple.

We look at our lives today and we say, wow,

everything we need we have. Imagine if every Christian think

this way and live this way, life is simple. I

some pole Illes is a you okay, now again, this

is not guilt trip. The reality of the world is

Prosperity is very subjective. Contentment is not. Some of you

might have three cars and that's a simple life. Some

of you you're able to afford uber and that's a

wow life. Some of you ten thousand emarticard more than

nag Emartica ten thousand, eight eight passes lad. It's very subjective.

That's why I don't want to go there and say

this should be the standard of it depends on your culture,

depends on your background, depends on the world you live in.

But for the Macedonian Church, the spirit behind their lifestyle

was life is so simple I could give. Sometimes it's

us who makes it just complicated.

That's why we could not give.

Some much blessed the city, but I don't have money.

And then later you're drinking an expensive coffee to complete

your planner. A simple life would say, I don't need

that planner. I want to give, They'll give it. Now

you work hard, you want to get two planners? Go again,

depends on your context. It's living a very simple life.

How much do you really need? How much should make

you happy? Is this a never ending vicious cycle?

That's why you cannot give.

You want mama, that's not the more your ma man

audience participation piece. That's the more your mamma right, then

your problem, that's right, what's the more your mamma? I

want to be rich? Are you not? We raise our

hands because we think I still need a certain level.

For me to be able to raise my hands. And

that was me before.

I couldn't give to real life because I need I

couldn't give to the poor because syndicat But the real

reason behind it is because I'm also poor like you.

Because in my mind I was poor. I couldn't move

in generosity until you understand life is simple, and then

you say, wow, I am so rich because God is

provided for all my needs, not my ones my needs,

I'm so blessed. So the continance in the spirit we

must have as Christian is if you have three cars,

be grateful and be happy. If you have one car,

be grateful.

And be happy.

Contentment you have no car, be grateful and be happy.

Driver Mapara can be called driver. Sometimes it's a matter

of perspective. The simple life, our actions tell us who

we are. Can be seen through our actions, our theology,

our belief is seen by how we handle money.

Simple life. That's why they were able to give.

This is a powerful biblical concept. Yeah, Hi, Paul, damning

topic about contentment. I know what it is to be

in need. I know what it is to be in plenty.

I've been content in every way because I can do

all things to Christ, who gives me strength. He was

talking about finances, He's talking about contentment. He understood his God,

he believed Malachai. He was a generous giver. Now we

go back to the Old Testament. That was an example

in the New Testament. And then the Lord said to them,

return to me. I will return to you. How can

we return to you. You're robbing me through tightson offering.

So but then the Lord told them this, I will

give you an offer you cannot refuse. Okay, So my

godfather fans alamota right, here's an offer that you can't refuse.

No man in his right mind would refuse this offer.

Ma Lach nine three, verse ten.

He says, bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that

there may be food in my house, is the Lord,

and thereby put me to tests. If I will not

open the windows of heaven for you and pour down

for you a blessing until there is no more what need?

Give me your tithe, Bring it to the local church,

into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.

We're going to bless the city through our local church.

But bring it here. See if I will not open

the floodgates of heaven pour out so much blessing.

That there will not be enough room for you.

It would cover all your needs. I'm blessing you. But

then he did not end there. He said, if you

call now, there's more. Verse eleven. He tells us this,

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, the Lord you. When I start

blessing you, somebody wants to devour the blessing. It's Satan

and his demons wanting to destroy you and DeVore the blessings.

John Than the thief came to steal, kill and destroy.

But Jesus came that you might have life, and life

to the full. Return to me. I will return to

you almost the same wordings that were used. God was

after us, and he says, when the devil wants to

steal from you, I will rebuke the devourer. Can actually

pray that over your business, Lord, I'm a giver. I'm

a generous child of God. Therefore I rebuke the works

of the enemy over my business. This business is going

to succeed. This business will have the hand of God

and the favor of God in it.

Because I'm a giver and.

I affirm the covenant that I have with you. There's

power because of the problem is that God made. I

will rebuke the devourer. I will make your soil fruitful,

says the Lord of Foes. Then in verse twelve, he says,

then all nations will call you blessed, for you will

be a land of delight, says the Lord of Hosts.

People outside would look at you and say, grabby is

so blessed.

It's now a land of delight, not a land that's

full of cursed. He's not living a cursed life where

it's all about him and his pursuit of happiness. He

looked at him, and he says, wow, look at him

in the relationships that abound in his life.

He is a blessed man. She is a blessed daughter

of God. This is what the Lord says.

An offer you can't refuse, And what was the requirement?

Give me one ball that I actually gave you. Change

your perspective. Now some of you are saying, okay again, yeah, nice, nice, good,

good good fine good fine, But I still not convince

because Wikipedia told me that tithing is for the old

and it's not for the new. We should practice the

New Testament. Okay, I'll go to the New Testament. Second

Corinthians nine. And I'm saying this in the spirit that

I want. God wants your heart, not your money. Look

at Second Cordentians nine. This is the verse that everybody

wants to use when they don't want to give their tithe.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart,

not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

A you see, you see what I decide in my heart,

not the law of the Old Testament. Para contexts that

Second Corinthians nine. You remember the text that I just

shared earlier, Second Corinthians eight. Paul just gave an example

of the Macedonian Church. And if you study verse eight,

look at what verse eight said. The Macedonians were begging

earnestly that they may partake of the relief of the saints.

These were the church who was so poor in tribulation,

and they were begging. Begger.

You saw a beggar.

There's a lot of beggars downstairs. Yoh yo yo, will

not stop until you open your window and give some

We'll sing a song. Will put soap on your window

and start cleaning it. They're begging and pauses they were

begging earnestly. Kurapaul, you so yes, come in Pizzo, you

wanna give. No, no, no, no, don't give. I know

the tribulation you've gone through. I'm begging you earnestly, which

means there was a struggle. No, don't don't give. We

should give to you. No, yeah, I really want to

give for the relief of the saints. You need relieve, No,

they need relief. Because I live a simple life. I

have fifteen passions. May give the five to you. That

was the spirit. Imagine if every Christian would have the

same spirit begging. Imagine one hundred thousands of victim in

Metro Manila. All of the Christians are saying, will please

please Anna.

Eco Bagna Blue, begging earnestly, may I do something for

the Kingdom of God.

Their issue was not ten percent. They might be giving

fifty sixty percent. So when Paul was saying each one

must give in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion,

what he's saying is he wants a cheerful giver like

the Macedonian churches, who are not even counting. They decided

at home crush the piggy bag ooh, May fifteen, pestels,

let's give five, because he and they were begging, please

let us partake of the relief of the saints. Then

Paul said this, you want to make an issue.

About about giving. Okay, I go back to verse six.

The point is this, here's the point.

You want to give one percent to the Lord out

of the one hundred percent.

He gave you.

Go, who's stopping you?

That's my point.

Paul was saying. You want to debate, you debate on

your own. Go give three, give five. But the point

is this, you so sparingly, you reap sparingly. You give

a little, you sew a little, you give bountifully, you

reap bountifully.

That's the point. So don't debate.

Don't think the church is after your money. No, God

is after your heart. Paul was saying, that's my point.

God loves a cheerful giver. You give one percent, you

read one percent.

That's the whole point. Look verse seven eight, Chapter eight.

Verse seven.

But as you excel in everything, you excel in faith,

in speech, in knowledge, in earnestness, your love for you,

see that you also excel in this.

Act of grace. Also, the grace of giving.

Excel means surpassing ordinary. Excel means extraordinary, ordinary ten percent, extraordinary,

exceed overflow. Adjust your lifestyle so you could give more.

That was what Paul was saying, excel in disgrace of giving.

But look, and I want you to look at this.

This is so liberating verse eight, second eight. I say

this not as a command, Sat galu guystening to us,

not telling you to go home and calculate ten percent.

This is not a command, but to prove.

Far deeper than the command.

To prove it's an evidence of the earnestness of others

that your love also to Christ is genuine. What was

Paul saying, Oh, generosity. By the way, it's not a command.

It's who you are. I'm not commanding you. That's you.

Christians are to be the most generous people in the world,

So don't quote all the new In the New Testament,

they gave twenty three percent.

According to church.

History, because they excel in the grace of giving, nobody

was in need, basic needs covered. That's the essence of community.

Paul was saying, I'm not commanding you to give ten

I'm telling you you're generous people. It's up to you.

So decide in your own heart what you want to give,

understanding this is.

Who you are already. God loves a cheerful giver.

And then Paul preaches the gospel to them. I'll tell

you why you can do that, why you can give more,

Why you can be a simple Christian, simple lifestyle, so

you can give more.

I'll tell you why.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the same grace that he's given the church. That though

he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,

so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. If

you start to weave together, Malachi and Corinthians, return to me,

and I will return.

To us as the Lord of host. Look at this.

Christ came down and his richness became poor like one

of us, so that you, through his poverty.

Might become rich. It's an invitation. You return to me.

I return to you. I want you to experience me.

Never will you say again I need the latest gadget

to complete me. Never will you say again I need

a spouse to complete me. I will complete you. Return

to me. I will return to you. That's an offering.

That's only one example. I want you, not your money.

The Lord does not change.

This is the same God that talks to us today

in the midst of abundance in our nation today, in

the midst of all the marketing telling you you need this,

you need that. Don't go simple, go all in with

material things. You have to go back and reassess life

in my living in simplicity, so that I could be

more to others and give more to others. As Christ

really satisfied me.

Do Christ really complete me?

Or should I add something else?

It's our choice.

But I just want to remind you, as Paul reminded them,

this is who we are. We're generous people because we've

experienced the generosity of Christ smother and I had says pray,

Lord Jesus, we thank you. Thank you for your overflowing

generosity over our lives. Thank you that you are a

father who does not change. You're the same yesterday. You're

the same God of Malachi. You're the same today, You're

the same forever. You will not change. You're gracious. You're

inviting telling us return to me. I will return to you.

I'll give you an offer you cannot refuse. I will

pour out so much blessing upon you.

But I want you to return to me.

Lord today. I know this would be a day of

returning for some prodigals in the house are returning back

to you, some of us. Lord. It's exposed through how

we handle our finances and how stinging we could get

when it comes to giving. Lord, I don't want to

live a cursed life where my God is mammon, where

my God is money. I want you to be my God.

I want you to take control. I don't want staff

or things to control me.

I want you to control me.

Lord. That nations would look and they would say that

man and woman is blessed. They live in the land

of delight. I afraid that would be us. That would

be our story.

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God bless you all.