Getting to the Heart of Giving

To Malachi chapter three. Thank you Malachi chapter three. If

you don't have a Bible with you, just raise your hand.

We're passing those out right now. Just raise your hand

and keep it up. If you don't have a bulletin,

and that's gonna be helpful for taking notes and that

sort of thing. So just raise your hand and keep

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a good time for me to remind you to fill

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first time. We ask everybody. It's important for our pastoral

work that we know that you're here by name, and

you can also leave a prayer request there on that

connection card, so that we've got a whole team of

people that will be praying for these prayer requests throughout

the week. Please do that. You got the whole worship

service to do that. We just asked that everyone would

do that. If you are new, you can leave your

contact information. We'll follow up with you and also to

this service. There's a table in the lobby called Step one.

Love to connect with you there, Love to answer questions

about the gospel, about some of these passages that we'll

be in this morning, and what does it look like

to be a part of a local church, be a

part of a community of faith making disciples together covenanted

one to another. Love to meet you there at Step one.

All right, Malachi chapter three, We're gonna be in a

lot of different places this morning as we look at

biblical stewardship again. This is our second message in a

series on biblical stewardship, the first one being two weeks ago. Right,

you remember I drew up on a big whiteboard. It

was a pie chart and everything. Yeah, this means yes,

this means to no. All right, Well we'll fill you

in here we go. Let's read from Malachi chapter three,

starting in verse six. Malachi three six. For I the

Lord do not change. Therefore you, o, children of Jacob,

are not consumed from the days of your father's You

have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them.

Return to me, and I will return to you, says

the Lord of Hosts. But you say, how shall we return?

Will man rob God? Yet you're robbing me. But you say,

how have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions.

You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me.

The whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into

the storehouse that there may be food in my house,

and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord

of Hosts. If I will not open the windows of

heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing

until there is no more need, I will rebuke the

devour for you, so that it will not destroy the

fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field

shall not fail to bear, he says the Lord of Hosts.

Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you

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

This is the word of the Lord. Considering biblical stewardship,

If you remember from two weeks ago, had a big

pie chart up there. I'm very proud of that I

can put things on a whiteboard. I guess you probably

remember we talked about biblical stewardship in regards to spending

and discipline and contentment and enjoyment. When it comes to that,

we talked about investing and saving right, so save some

seed to sow right. Also instructions that we received from

the Bible, and we left a awful little part called giving.

And I said, we'll talk about that soon. It's time

let's talk about giving. I was on a little car

ride with some of my family recently, and I asked

one of my younger kids what he thinks about giving?

What do you what? What? What are you gonna do

about giving? You know, preparing for this. I wanted to

see what he was thinking. And he said, well, you know,

once I start actually making some money, I'm going to

give some to the church. Okay, why, well, I mean

I know that the Bible says some things about that.

Well you're not wrong. How how you to do that? Like,

what's your plan? How much you're gonna give? It's like, oh,

well that's easy. I'll just ask you. All right, Okay.

What I hear you saying, and what I assume everyone

in this room knows, is that the Bible has something

to say, has guidance for us, has practical instructions for

us when it comes to giving. In fact, you might

remember from two weeks ago that the fellow who started

Crown Ministries Crown Financial Ministries is a group that actually

helps Christians think about stewardship in a biblical way. He

counted all of the verses in the Bible that have

anything to do with giving and stewardship or greed or investing,

all those things that came to over twenty three hundred

verses about biblical stewardship. So the Bible has a lot

to say about giving money. And if you're like my kid,

you would say, you know, I could actually probably use

some practical instruction about giving. That's what we're gonna look

at this morning, getting to the heart of giving Part one.

What are Here's the question we're after. What are the

major practical instructions and challenges that the Bible gives us

about giving? What are the major practical instructions and challenges

that the Bible gives gives God's people about giving. Well,

if we're going to tackle that, I think maybe the

way to organize it is just to ask a few questions,

starting with these two Why give? And how give? Why give?

How give? Pretty practical. Let's start with why give? Why give?

I mean kind of the obvious question, because the youngest

amongst us probably knows that God does not appear to

need our money, Bible says, so you can give God nothing,

not not in that sense, like in the sense that

God needs something. So is that why we give? Because

God needs something? Well, I mean fix that a little bit.

There's a there is the sense of observing needs. Right,

It's true that God needs nothing from us. But as

we look around we can observe needs. We might see

needs in our own community of worship. We might see

needs in other families. We might see needs in our

neighbors' lives and want to respond to those needs. And

we think, well, here's the most practical reason why I

might give is because of need? Is that what the

Bible says about why we give because we observe needs

and we want to meet them? Is that the main

reason we give because of what gets done through us? Well,

keep your finger in Malachi chapter three. We'll be back

here in a minute. It's considered Deuteronomy fourteen. I know

we're gonna be all over the place, but there's twenty

three hundred verses to talk about money. So it's gonna

be a little bit of a Bible drill. Deuteronomy fourteen,

starting in verse twenty two, I just want to point

out a few things quickly for sake of time. Deuteronomy fourteen,

starting in verse twenty two, says this type of thing.

You shall tie all the yield of your seed that

comes from the field, year by year before the Lord

your God, in the place that you will choose to

make his name dwell. There you shall eat the tithe

of your grain and of your wine, of your oil,

firstborn of your herd and your flock. And here's the

clause I want to point out to you here, here's

the main logical connector that so that you may learn

to fear the Lord your God always. The reason that's

present here is that we would learn to fear the Lord,

that we would the relationship that we have in our

hearts with the living God would be set right. He

goes on, say verse twenty nine. He lays out the

different ways in which he wants these specific ties to

be handled in verse twenty nine. And the levite, because

he has no portion of or inheritance with you, and

the sojourner and the fatherless and the widow who are

within your town, shall come and eat and be filled.

Here's that. Here's the word that the Lord your God

may bless you in all the work of your hands

that you do, that you may fear the Lord, that

you may be blessed. In other words, it's not mainly

we the reason why we give. It's not mainly what

gets done through you. It's what gets done in you

and for You've been having several conversations about biblical stewardship.

As I said two weeks ago, that's a it's an

area of discipleship. We've we've felt like, hey man, we

really need to press forward in biblical stewardship. We haven't

discipled as thoroughly in some other as we have in

some other areas as biblical stewardship that in other areas,

and we need to in biblical stewardship. And I asked

one of the guys in our church, who I respect,

a ton strong Christian, mature making disciples, generous heart, why

do you give? And he said mainly I see needs.

Nothing wrong with that. I see needs and I want

to meet them. I see needs in our community of worship.

I see needs and I want to step up. I

know that God is calling me forward, and that is true.

There's nothing untrue about that. It's just secondary. It's way

more about what God will do in you and for

you than it is about what God will do through you.

Consider let me jump right back to Malachi three. Consider

what we see there Malachi three. He says this verse nine, Ye,

you are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing

me the whole nation of you. You're cursed with a curse.

Your crops are failing. I am, I am. I am

giving you consequences because you're giving lax wholeness. You are

not giving with integrity. You're withholding what we have a

covenant together you should be giving. In this way, you're

giving lax wholeness. You're giving lax integrity, And I am

applying consequences. But going on bring the full tithe into

my storehouse, that there may be food in my house,

and thereby put me to the test as the Lord

of hosts if I will not open the windows of

heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing

until there is no more need. It's way more about

what I want to do for you then what you

think I need to do through you. I want to

bless you. I want to work in you. He said, Well,

that's an old Testament passage. Does God still have the

same attitude passage? Just start with either, Lord, do not change. Well,

let's just consider what about the blessing that Christ's promises

those who give and Luke six, give and it will

be given to you. The measure that you use will

be measured to you, and it will be given pressed together,

shaken together, pressed down, poured into your lap. I want

to bless you. It's way more about what I want

to do in you and for you. And consider Antonius

and Sephira from Acts. So God wants to bless us

as we give. What about this idea of being under

a curse that we see in Malachi? Hear this is

this a New Testament thing? Well, consider Antonius and Saphira.

Here's what's going on in the church. There's a guy

named Barnabas. He sells a piece of property and he

brings the proceeds to the church. He says, man, I

just want to bless the church. I see some needs

I want to worship. I think this will be encouraging.

And everybody's super encouraged, like this is awesome. God is

moving and Antonius as the Firas see that, and they're

like I'd like to get some of that respect. So

they sell a piece of property and they bring some

of the proceeds, but they pretend like it's the whole

thing because they want, you know, a little bit of

the glory. And and they bring the proceeds, they give

it to the church and Peter says, you know, just asking,

it's your money, but is this everything from the sale?

And the dude's like yeah, drops dead. A little while later,

his wife comes in and Peter's like again just asking,

is this everything from the sale? And she's like, yeah,

that's everything. Peter. It's like, this is unbelievable. You two

got together and you conspired to lie to God. I mean,

it was your property, it was your money after you

sold it. But what you've done is you've decided to

give without wholeness, without integrity, without uprightness of heart. The

people in Malachi is they were robbing God and an

iceense fire are lying to God. There is no integrity there.

And then she drops dead. Now the moral of the

story is not that if you don't give with integrity,

God is going to kill you. The moral of the

story is this God is no less serious than he's

ever been. About the integrity of our giving. If in

Malachi's day God confronted his people based on a covenant

made in law, and based on that covenant made in law,

was serious about consequences for lack of integrity and abundant

blessing because of giving and wholeness and integrity and an

uprightness at heart, How much more so do you think

God is committed to consequences amongst his people and blessing

amongst his people when the covenant that we have formed

with him is based in the blood of Jesus Christ, God,

the son who became a man, died and was raised,

And you have been welcomed into his family by his

grace alone, through faith in Him alone, and you are

his and blood bought, and you will give without integrity,

And you think God doesn't care? How much more so?

How much more so? Why do we give? Listen? If

we think why we give is more about what gets

done through us, the needs we might meet, uprightness of heart, integrity,

and wholeness in our giving will take a back seat.

But if we realize that what the scripture teaches us

about why we give is that it's way more to

do with what God is doing in us and for us.

Then uprightness of heart and integrity and wholeness in our giving.

We realize that's a foremost issue. It's a foremost issue.

Why do we give? It's way more about what God

does in us and for us than what He does

through us. What other major practical instructions does Scripture give

about our giving? Well? Not only does it tell us

why we give, also tells us a lot about how

we give, how we give? How do we give? And

when I say how give? I know the first thing

that comes to mind is how much? Right? That's always

the first question when we're talking about money. How much?

That's that when you walk through the grocery store, you

see the thing and you see the number, right, how much?

If you go to a place where there aren't numbers,

that's the first question you ask. When you go to

a place where you're going to haggle about this, you

pick up the item and you say how much. It's

always on our minds. I want to broaden that question

a little bit from just how much to how But

we'll talk about how much? How give. Whenever you start

talking about how give, church people start talking about tithing.

Church people talk about tithing ten percent, right, which is

what the word tithe means. So when you're Alex saying,

where did they get this ten percent stuff? That's the

word tithe means ten percent? And where did they get

the term tithing? Well you see it right here in

Malachi three, and you see it throughout the pages of

the Old Testament and even throughout the Gospels and the

New Testament. Tithing. Malachi says, O glasses, that guy says,

bring the full tithe into my sorehouse, the full time.

So ten percent is that? It is that the magic number? Right?

If tithing means ten Dave Ramsey thinks it is love

Dave Ramsey. You know who Dave Ramsey is, and he's

a financial guy. He helps people, salty salty guy. God

to love him, you know, Dave. He will tell you

exactly exactly how much you should give, because that's what

Dave Ramsey does. He tells you exactly what to do.

That's his stick. Again. I love him. I've learned a

lot from him. But what Dave does is he specializes

in people who have demonstrated a track record of bad

judgment in finances. Finances right, they I don't know how

to manage money. I'm gonna call Dave, and Dave is

gonna tell me exactly what to do step by step.

I'm gonna either call him or I'm gonna read one

of his books, or I'm gonna join one of his communities,

and and he's gonna tell me and his and his

helpers are gonna tell me exactly what to do step

by step to get out of debt and how to

how to how to manage my money, and how much

to do this, how much to do that. And he

will tell you how much to give. He'll tell you

give ten percent of your gross income. That's it. That's

the rule. And I and he's got a lot of rules.

In fact, if you join one of his his communities,

and I'm not against it, it's funny, and it can

be funny, but lots and lots of people have been

helped through the work this organization. And if you join

in one of those communities, you just have to realize

you're gonna get told exactly what to do. And if

you suggest in like a chat room or something like that, hey,

you know what, I've got another strategy. Here's another theory.

They'll just say we don't do that. Here we tell

people exactly what to do. But you know, tithing is

actually a little bit more complicated than that. If you

study tithing in the Old Testament, what you'll find is

that there are multiple types of tithes. There's the levitical tithe,

there is the festival tithe, there's the poor tithe. You

add it all up, it looks like twenty three percent.

How's that There's multiple layers of tithes, And in fact,

there's no specific percentage that carries forward into the New Testament.

Some of them, some of those tithes wouldn't even make

sense in the New Testament context. So here I am

saying that the question this morning is what practical instructions

and challenges does the scripture give us about giving? And

now I've just told you there's no specific percentage. Josh,

I thought you were going to give us practical instruction.

Seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. Give me,

Dave Ramsey. Just because there's not a specific percentage that's

given in the New Testament doesn't mean that we don't

receive instruction from tithing. Actually, Old Testament tithing teaches us

timeless truths that continue forward in the New Testament giving.

And in fact, this is what Romans fifteen four says,

what was written in the past, what was written former

was written for our instruction. So in what way what

are these timeless truths? I think it'd be helpful to

just group him into four areas, four ways that Old

Testament tithing teaches us timeless truths. And be this that

giving amongst the people of God should be proportional, planned, generous,

and to God through his congregation, proportional, planned, generous, and

to God through his congregation. Old Testament tithing was proportional, proportional.

I mean it's a percentage, so it's automatically proportional, right,

And New Testament giving is also what we see in

the New Testament is also proportional giving. In fact, we

have Paul writing in Second Corinthians eight, a whole passage

where his emphasis is that our giving is not meant

to be equal amounts, but rather equal sacrifice. Not equal amounts,

but equal sacrifice. It's proportional. In fact, he closes that

whole passage with saying with referring to the Old Testament, therefore,

who gathered much did not have too much, and he

who gathered a little did not have too little. There

was fairness. It was proportional. Those that made a lot

gave a lot, and those that made a little gave

a little. There's a percentage kind of situation there that

comes from tithing, and that proportionality carries forward into the

New Testament. Old Testament tithing was planned. Old Testament tithing

was planned that you knew what was coming. If there's

a particular percentage that's being given, then you know how

to plan for that. You set it a side. And

we see the same thing in the New Testament. Paul's

writing again to the Corinthians and he says, hey, there's

gonna be a collection when I get there. I want

you to set before I get there. I want you

to set aside every week as you prosper right proportionally.

I want you to set aside every week in amount

so we don't have to do this all at once.

It's proportional, but it's also it's also planned. It's also generous.

It's generous. Old Testament tithing was generous, it was meant

to be. It was significant. I mean, I don't know

about you, but ten percent always seems significant to me.

It's significant. And if I ever get a raise, then

ten percent of that again seems significant. Every time I

get a raise, ten percent of whatever it is, it

seems significant, seems generous, and that's how proportionality works. But

it should be significant. It's meant to be. Paul says

again to the Corinthians. Here's the principle, he says, here's

the principle. Whoever sows generously will reap generously. If God

designed significant giving and generosity into the covenant that he

had with his Old Testament people, into the covenant that

was formed by law, again, how much more so is

his instruction to us to be generous in our giving

when our covenant has been formed in the blood of Christ,

who was rich and became poor, that we might become

rich in every way proportional, planned generous and to God

through his congregation. Old Testament tithing. Again, it's to God,

and that's the way the Old Testament always talks about.

It is to God, but it's through his congregation. You

can't you can't throw money up into the sky and

see what sticks. God designed giving to be centered on

the community of worship, to share with those who teach

his word. To meet the needs of those in your

community of worship. As it did in the Old Testament,

there was tithes that provided so that no one in

that Old Testament community of worship should be destitute. The

same thing carries forward in the New Testament. That's what

we see. We see that no one in the New

Testament church was meant to be without and praise the Lord.

In this church for as long as it's existed, there

is no one who's been a part of our church

who's had to miss a meal, kicked down in the street.

Anytime anybody has said, hey, I'm in trouble, this church

has been able to meet that need. It's the design

of God to center giving on the fear of the Lord,

that he would bless you, that His name would be

worshiped and his people cared for. You know, I, I

know you still like, yeah, but how much a proportional

plan generous to God through through his congregation. But how

much I did a little survey. It's a personal survey.

I've been doing this for a little while, just asking around,

asking specific people who I know are mature, who who

who's who have a spiritual perspective that I respect. These are.

These are people I know that are committed to Christ

and have been walking with Him for a long time.

And it's about fifteen to twenty people. Fifteen to twenty

guys are couples. And I'm like, all right, how give?

And do you know every single one of them said

the same thing. They said, I give ten percent of

my income to my church. Huh. And then when I

asked why of all of those people who they all

said the same thing, I asked why two of them?

Two of them said, well, I see the word tithe

in the Bible, and so that's what I do, Okay,

just looking to be faithful. But besides those two, everybody

else said something along these lines my words, not theirs,

but something along these lines. I see the biblical pattern

of giving in the scriptures, that it's meant to be

proportional and planned and generous and to God through his congregation,

and so wanting to be faithful to that pattern, that's

what we do. Huh. That's helpful as we look at

these questions, why give? How give? Again? Again? Hear me?

Tithing not a magic number. Ten percent not a magic number.

We need not create a law where the Bible doesn't

give us a law. Okay, not a magic number can

be a faithful expression of all of these principles of

biblical giving, right. I mean, you may be in a

certain debt situation where you're like, I want to be

proportional and planned and generous and give to God through

his congregation. But because of my debt load, for me,

that means five percent, and I've got discipline to do,

I've got planning to do. God has granted us all

kinds of freedom generously. So ten percent, not a magic number,

can be a faithful expression I'm gonna do again because

I had very few players. Ten percent not a magic number,

can be a faithful expression of proportional, planned, generous giving

to God through his congregation. I want to answer one

last question. When we consider why give and how give?

I want to just touch on when when, And if

you consider that question from one perspective, I think that

the answer to when is first. The answer to when

is first. It's the first thing that we do when

we have an increase. It's our first fruits. It's the

most important thing in our lives because we're giving to God.

Where did it all come from? Who owns it all? First?

Is the answer to when. But there's another way to

answer ask the question when. Another way to ask the

question when is when do I need to do something

about taking another step of faithfulness? And the answer to

the question when do I need to do something about

taking the next step of faithfulness is now. It's now.

If God is calling you forward to take a step

when it comes to proportionality or planning, or generosity or

giving to Him through his congregation, as God is calling

you to take a step forward, the time to take

that step is now. Do it this week. Get together

with your your spouse if you're married, and say, all right,

this is this is where I talk it over with

your small group. You're like a small group. Yeah, you

talk about sexual purity in your small group. You can

talk about finances. Where is God calling me forward in

the next step of faithfulness when it comes to biblical stewardship.

Maybe discipline in my spending, maybe wisdom in my investing,

may be proportionality planning, or generosity in my giving. But

the time, the time for faithfulness is now. Let's do

that this week. Would you stand with me all over

this place. M