Robbing God

Good morning again. Thank you, thank you.

Good morning. Yes, it is a good morning.

My name is Josh. I'm glad you guys are here with

us this morning, particularly if you're new.

Thank you for visiting with us. If you are either new or you've

been out of Vita Springs for a little while.

We're jumping back into the book of Malachi this morning.

Malachi, as I've been dying to get to say, I won't say it

again, I promise. Malachi page 8O2 if you're going

to use one of the Bibles underneath the seat in front of

you, and we're going to be in Malachi chapter 3 verses 6

Malachi 3:6–12

through 12. If you have been coming around

for the last five weeks or so, we're in week six of eight in

the book of Malachi. Malachi is a serious book, isn't

it? So the people are dealing with

some serious pain. It's written to a people who are

suffering who not, not for the first time in their history, by

the way, they're suffering again, although in this case it

was suffering because of their own sin, just not always the

case. But in this case it was.

They were faithless to the covenant that God had made with

them. They were experiencing the

promised consequences of their disobedience and they had grown

weary of following God. It's a book with a serious

message. It's an urgent, loud call from

God to his people to return to him, to honoring God through

faithful living. That's that's the phrase we've

used to try to encapsulate the book of Malachi's honor God

through faithful living, a serious message.

But we also will see this morning that there's as a book

about a seriously faithful God. He says in chapter 1, I love

you, I love you. I know you're in pain, I know

you're suffering, but I love you.

Believe me. We'll see today, despite your

unfaithfulness, I will be faithful.

Even though you've been faithless, I want you back.

I want to bless you. We'll see the faithfulness of

God on on full display, even though we'll see that the people

of Israel were unfaithful to God, particularly in their

giving. As a fair warning, in Malachi 3,

we will be talking about money today, and thank God that He has

said much in the Bible about our finances and about money about

giving. We're going to cover as much as

we can as is relevant to the text, but it's worth saying

upfront. What God has to say about money

is not ultimately about trying to strong arm you into giving

more. He doesn't need to do that.

It's all his anyway. And please hear from me.

It's not a carefully constructed budget plea.

We're not. We're not aiming to try to get

you to convince, to try to convince you to give more or to

tie 10% of your income to the church.

In fact, that would be aiming too low.

God wants you. He wants your whole heart.

He wants more than 10%. It's all his.

He wants all of you. He knows how wealth can grip us,

and so He calls us to give faithfully, actually, for our

own good and for His glory. So on that note, there are three

main truths that I want you to be on the lookout for today and

one key question that will outline how we walk through the

test. The text, first of all, mankind

is unfaithful. It's the first thing we'll see.

We'll see also that God is faithful and that repentance

leads to our good and to God's glory.

The three key truths and one key question to consider is what

does faithfulness look like in our giving?

That's what Malachi 3 six through 12 prompts us to

consider. What does faithfulness in our

giving look like? I want to pray for us here

shortly. But before we approach God in

prayer and then through his word, let's pause for a moment

of silence to humble ourselves. Job after speaking back against

the Lord after doing so good for so much of the book of Job

resolved to continue to honor God seems to seems to say

something against the Lord and actually in chapter 40 says I am

of small account. What shall I answer you?

I lay my hand over my mouth. Or we might say along with

James, God help us to be quick to listen and slow to speak and

slow to become angry. Let's pause for a moment of

silence, and then I'll pray, and then I'll read for us from

Malachi 3. Oh God, who is like you, you are

in control, and you do all that you please.

God, that you are also compassionate and gracious.

God, you are slow to anger. We need strength to understand

how deep your love and your faithfulness are to us.

They are too wonderful for us that we confess that our faith

has been weak, that our strength has been dried up, that

sometimes the sorrows and sufferings that we experience

are more than we can bear. That even within this past week,

our very own loved ones have suffered through sickness and

trial and financial hardship and loss.

And we grieve together. Those pains and sufferings got

to remind us that we're not home yet.

We're citizens of a heavenly Kingdom from which we await our

Savior and Lord King Jesus. Lord, we thank you that while we

wait, you know, we know that you have not left us.

We believe you when you say that the Lord of hosts is with us.

God, you are our refuge and strength.

You are a very present help and trouble.

So, Father, teach us. Teach us not to presume upon

tomorrow, but to give our whole heart and life to you today.

Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Lord, satisfy us this morning with Your steadfast love, that

we may rejoice and be glad even in these very days of pain and

confusion and evil. God, this morning we declare our

trust and our delight in You. We eagerly await to hear from

you and to cherish your words to us in Christ's name, Amen.

So mention we are in week six of eight in the book of Malachi.

The book is constructed in the form of 6 disputes, which is a

funny word we don't use that very much.

You might think of them as just arguments, 6 kind of arguments

back and forth between God and the Israelites, whether actual,

verbally or just, you know, He knows their hearts.

It's a bad idea to argue with God, by the way.

It'd be better to be on his side.

They've said things like God, you don't love us anymore.

And they were bringing polluted offerings to God rather than

their first and their best. The leaders were leading the

people astray. These are just some of the

things we've seen already in the book of Malachi.

The the people were marrying women who followed other gods

and divorcing the wives that they had married.

They were calling God unjust. And today we'll see that they

were actually attempting to rob God through their offerings, or

lack thereof. I'm going to read for us Malachi

3, six through 12. And then we'll go back to verse

7, verse 6. 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 are robbing me. But you say, How have we robbed

you and 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 Devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of

your soil. And your vine in the fields

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

And then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a

land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

First of all, as I said, we'll see that mankind is unfaithful.

The claim that God is making to the people of Israel in this

passage is you've left me. You've been unfaithful from the

days of your Father. You've turned aside for my

statutes and you've not kept them.

And they say, so he says, return to me, the people, as if to say,

cut return. How can we return?

We haven't got anywhere. God points to their giving will

man rob God, you are robbing me. How have we robbed you God, your

tithes and contributions. You're cursed for your robbing

me. The whole nation of you.

Here's the the startling reality about the people of Israel.

They they could have been toast long before the book of Malachi.

It says from the days of your father's you have turned aside

from my statute. So the rebellion is

comprehensive. It's been going on for a long

time. The whole nation is guilty.

Verse 9 and it's not just in one area of life.

God, as he's already done throughout the whole book of

Malachi so far has pointed to a lot of different areas of their

life where they've been unfaithful.

Here God points to their giving. The practice of the tithe at

this point in Israel's history was tithe just means 10th.

It was to give 10% of their income.

Whatever kind of increase the Lord blessed them with, be it

through, you know, cattle or other types of livestock or the

crops that they were able to produce.

They were to give a tenth of all that God gave them back to him

as and God says their failure to do so is like robbery, taking

from God what is actually his. So they would have benefited

from and we will benefit from a reality check for a moment.

Who owns the world? God does not girls, Beyoncé,

sorry, God owns the world. Thank you.

A little delayed bit of a misquote.

God owns the world, the whole world and everything in it.

Psalm 50 verses 10 through 12 say it well.

Psalms 50:10–12

God speaking for every beast of the forest is mine.

The cattle on 1000 hills, I know all the birds of the of the

hills and I and all that moves in the field is mine.

If I were hungry, just comical as if God could be hungry.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its

fullness are mine. Abraham Kuiper is famously known

for saying there's not a square inch in the whole domain of our

human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over

all, does not cry mine. Now maybe a piece of this seems

a bit odd. If God doesn't need our money,

then why does he care? Why does he care about their

giving? Why does he care about our

giving? Of course it's not because he

needs it. So think about the book of

Malachi as a whole. As we've said, God is calling

back His people to honor God through faithful living.

And all the disputes or arguments so far are areas of

their lives where they have been unfaithful or they've gone

astray, but God loves them and he wants them to return to him.

And so we can conclude God cares about our giving because he

knows how money quickly exposes what's in our hearts.

Money can quickly expose what or who we worship.

Our budgets, our investments, our spending, our saving, our

giving. All of these reveal what our

hearts truly love. God cares about our giving

because He wanted them and us to see that giving unfaithfully is

not a small sin. It's presuming ownership of what

belongs to God. And boy are our inner lawyers

really good at what they do. Try to convince us that it's not

so bad if I withhold just a little bit.

But it is. It's deep seated rebellion

against God, and we too have rebelled when we withhold from

Him what is rightfully His. It's the creation saying to the

Creator mine. It's my life, it's my career,

it's my house, it's my body, it's my money.

Those are my clothes, that food in the fridge and the pantry.

It's my food, it's my time, it's my schedule.

God said the world and its fullness are mine.

They're his. Speaking to Christians in First

Corinthians 6, God said actually, you are not your own,

You were, but at a price. Therefore, honor God with your

body and you might add to that your career.

Honor God with your house and your budget and your food and

our schedules. They're gods.

God cares about our giving because He loves us and He wants

our hearts. He wants to bring us back into

restored relationship with Him. He wants to save us from our

misdirected affections. Strikingly, for the Israelites,

it was their unfaithfulness and giving, the robbery of God, that

had led to the sufferings that they were experiencing.

Verse 9 says You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me,

the whole nation of you. So they were experiencing what

God said would happen. If you go back to Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

chapter 28, the second-half of that chapter that's organized

with nice little subheadings in our printed Bibles these days is

blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.

There were curses for disobedience and the here's the

difficult reality of verse 9 for us.

And please hear me, it's not always the case.

OK, sometimes, not always, but sometimes, your pain and your

suffering is the result of your sin.

That is what was happening to the Israelites here.

And I have a very unflattering personal story to share.

Just at the beginning of this year, Debbie and I were in a

pretty tight financial spot. It seemed like like everything

was breaking. You know, if that is that ever

happened to you, Like it all happens at the same time.

Our foundation underneath our fireplace gives out because

armadillos were burrowing underneath it.

So it started to fall. Are you kidding?

The Armadillos foundation issues, we had a plumbing issue.

Thank the Lord we caught it early enough before it got

bigger. But you know, plumbing is not

cheap. We owed taxes for the first time

in our lives. We've never owed taxes before.

And then we had to start contributing more to taxes for

this year. We had just had a newborn, which

we love him, Silas, he's wonderful.

And this was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back.

We, we, we were happy with our insurance.

So we thought our medical bill wasn't going to be all that

crazy for Silas. And then we go and we check the

e-mail and it says 4600 dollars. We said like we thought that was

all going to be covered. All of this.

I think what it finally did for me was, you know, this, this

text has been on my mind for a while.

So it prompted me to consider God, have I been faithless?

Have I been stingy in any way? Is there anything I've promised

to give to you that I've not yet given to you?

Just like who knows? It was it was their their

disobedience that led to their pain and suffering.

Is could that be the root cause? Lord, I did some digging.

We had a small increase that we had planned to give towards our

regular monthly giving that we hadn't started doing yet.

There was a an offering we had intended to give.

We had the money sitting in a savings account and for whatever

reason, we hadn't given it yet. Perhaps it just feels good to

have the money in the savings account.

Like we'll get to that eventually and so quickly.

I was like, all right, take it, you know, to increase the

giving, give the money we already committed to give.

No joke. The very next day I pulled up

that same e-mail where the bill in the e-mail says $4600 a click

view bill and takes you to my UF health and it says $200 said

Lord, pay that right now before they can chase their mind.

Look, I need to be careful with with stories like this.

I'm we'll talk a little bit more about prosperity teachers later

on. I'm not saying that just give

more and all your pains will go away.

I'm not even saying that every single time we repent.

Your life is just free and clear of pains and sufferings

automatically. That's not what I'm saying.

In fact, who knows, maybe it was a glitch in their system and

they're going to hunt me down for the rest of the money.

I don't know. It doesn't matter.

God convicted me of sin, of my unfaithfulness and giving, and I

had to repent, admit, and now my heart is free.

That's what God wants for us. He loves us, He wants our

hearts, He cares about our giving because He knows that

money and wealth and stuff can pull us away from Him.

And so He will allow pain in our lives.

He'll even sometimes send pain into our lives for the sake of

bringing us back to Him so that we can have restored

relationship with Him. Before we move on to away from

our unfaithfulness and talk about God's faithfulness, there

might be a natural lingering question in your hearts, which

is I'm not like you, Josh. I don't think I'm in sin to the

best of my ability. I'm I'm living faithfully, but

I'm still in pain. I'm trying to do everything

right and life is still really hard right now.

What then? There are a few things I think

the Bible tells us could be the cause of pain and suffering, and

the first of which is not a comfortable truth.

It's what we see right here in Malachi that, and that's the

truth that I had to deal with. We might not be actually living

as faithfully as we think we are.

It might be there is some unfaithfulness in your heart

that you need to to probe into and ask God to reveal.

We see the whole book of Job is a is a book of testing.

And whether that test comes from God or even from evil spirits,

right, or evil forces or evil world, it could be a test.

It could be simply that we live in a broken and sinful world.

David was a man after God's own heart, and yet Saul was

constantly pursuing him, trying to kill him.

So what do we do with that? How do you respond if that's

you? Well, what do dependent people

do? We pray.

God says that he is close to the broken hearted, and he saves

those who are crushed in spirit first.

Peter 57. Cast all your anxieties on him,

because he cares for you. A good prayer might be, Lord, is

there any way that I'm living unfaithfully?

It doesn't have to just be giving, by the way, but is there

any way that I'm living unfaithfully?

Expose it so I can repent of that.

Maybe a good prayer would be what David says in Psalm 139 on

the screen. Search me, O God, and know my

heart. Try me and know my thoughts.

See if there's any grievous way in me and lead me in the way

everlasting. That would be a good humble

prayer for all of us, really at any point in life.

If it's a test, Lord, if this is a test, give me faith, give me

patience to endure the test. God, grow me how you want to

grow me. Produce in me what I need.

I praise you and thank you for the opportunity to be stretched

in this way. Or if it's simply the sin,

sinful world we live in and the evilness of men.

Lord, don't pray as as as what Old Testament prayers would like

to do, which is curse my enemies.

Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies.

He says, Lord, bring the wicked to repentance and give me

strength to endure. If we are honest with ourselves,

we can't acknowledge we are much more like the Israelites than

unlike them. Mankind as a whole is

unfaithful, but praise the Lord, God is faithful.

Look at verse 6. For I the Lord, do not change.

Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

I always love the phrase when you see a therefore, what's the

therefore, therefore it makes you pay attention to what comes

before it. You might read it backwards or

children of Jacob, you are not consumed because I, the Lord, do

not change. Isn't that music to your ears?

Isn't that like water in the desert?

God is faithful to his people and to his covenant, not just

because he's nice or patient or kind.

God's very nature is unchanging. The the theological word for

this is God is immutable. He can't be mutated.

He's fixed. He's permanent, He's eternal.

From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

Psalm 90 verse 2 says think of the laws as of physics.

Psalms 90:2

Try as hard as you might to defy gravity, you can't do it.

You jump down and you're going to fall.

It's an unchanging law and interesting, amazing the

contrast how God is unchangeable.

We are so fickle and inconsistent and changing, but

he's not like us. He's completely other There's

there's not a spot for him on the taxonomic ranking system of

all things. The the taxonomy is that he's

the creator and we are the creatures we change.

But he says, I, the Lord do not change.

Now that's very good news, but it would not sound like very

good news. If you think that God is some

self-centered or powerless or unpredictable or unjust tyrant,

then that would be very bad news.

And maybe you do think that's what God is like.

And if that's so or some variation of that, then I would

just say, friend, please pause and ask yourself what is shaping

your view of God? Is it your recent experience and

the way that you interpret what's happening in your life?

Is it what you think God should be like?

Is it are there attitudes or underlying tones and the content

that you consume that are shaping you and what you think

of God? It's not right for us to impose

on God our views of Him. We must be careful to think of

God according to who has He, who He has revealed Himself to be in

Scripture. In fact, we cannot have an

accurate understanding of God unless He were to reveal Himself

to us. Praise the Lord, He's done so in

Psalm 50, which I quoted earlier, the Lord actually

suggests to the evil people being addressed in that Psalm

that they were flippant in their evil.

Because He says you thought that the I am was one like yourself.

He's not like us. How has He then revealed Himself

to us? What has He told us about

Himself? To look at Exodus 34, verses 6

Exodus 34:6

and seven, which we'll actually be meditating on these verses in

our small groups all summer long.

The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed the Lord.

The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and

abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

This is how God has revealed Himself, keeping steadfast love

for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and

sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the

iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's

children to the 3rd and the 4th generation.

God is amazingly gracious and merciful, but He's also just.

Notice the contrast though there is there is justice that may

continue for three or four generations, but His love

extends to thousands of generations.

God is gracious and merciful. He's also just Lamentations 322

and 23 says something similar to Malachi 36.

It says the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness or

Numbers 20. Excuse me, 2319.

God is not a man that he should lie, nor son of man that He

should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do

it, Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it?

God is steady and faithful and constant.

This is how He has revealed Himself to us.

I, the Lord, do not change, and therefore, O Israelites or

children of Jacob, you are not consumed.

Friends, God's unchanging nature is good news.

It's comforting to know that that God is constant, He is

safe, He's steady, He is just. He is welcoming, He's forgiving,

He is patient, He's tender. God is righteous, He is pure.

God is powerful or God is trustworthy, and if the idea

that God is good or that his nature is unchanging in fact

feels like bad news to you, they might.

I say as lovingly as I can, that you're not seeing God rightly.

And please make it a point this summer to seek Him for how He

has revealed Himself through His Word.

Here are a few ideas and ways that we'd like to help with

that. First of all, prayer.

It might be wise. If that's resonating with you

and you feel like that's me, You don't want to raise your hand

and say that, but you know that that's you.

We pray for each other. At the end of every service,

we'll sing a few songs and then there'll be a time for prayer.

Come forward and ask someone to pray for you.

You can tell them specifically. We have a whole team of people

who are trained to pray for for one another.

Pray that God would help change that in you and help you to see

Him rightly. Perhaps a dedicated Bible study

on the character of God would be a very good thing for you.

Meditating. As I said, we'll be meditating

all summer long on Exodus 34, six, and seven.

If you're not in a small group, might be a great time to join a

small group. There's a small group wall on

your way out where you can see what day of the week works for

you, meaning all throughout time on different days of the week.

But dig into who God says He is, or maybe look specifically at

the promises that God has made to His people and start praying

those promises back to Him. Maybe reading a good book would

just be helpful enough. Next step for you, a couple I'd

recommend Knowing God by Ji Packer or Knowledge of the Holy

by AW Tozer. We'll be giving away a couple

copies of those at Team Vita next week.

Praying the Promises of God by Tom Yeakley, a wonderful little

book. We want to see God and know God

and believe Him for who He has said that He is because He is

faithful and unchanging. We are unfaithful.

He is faithful. Verses 10 through 12 show us

that God makes a way for us to be restored to Him and that

repentance leads to our good and to God's glory.

I'm going to read verse 7 first again and then verses 10 and 11.

So God says return to me and I will return to you, says the

Lord of hosts. So what does that returning look

like? That's what I think verses 10

and 11 are showing us is what that returning to God for the

Israelites looks like. 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 devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of

your field, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear,

says the Lord of hosts. Now sadly, because this passage

has been abused by prosperity teachers or Word of Faith

teachers, I won't even call them prosperity gospel teachers

because it's not good news. I feel the need to start with

what this text is not saying 1st and then we'll talk about what

it is saying when it says test the Lord put me to the test.

This is not saying test the Lord by giving 7 times what you

usually give and it'll be returned 7 times what back to

you? That's not what it's saying.

That testing sounds more like the testing the devil did when

he tempted Jesus with when he tempted Jesus in the New

Testament. This is not Try me and see if

I'll bail you out. Provoking God by demanding that

He meet our tests is distrusting and evil.

That's not what that means. It doesn't mean God only wills

health and wealth and happiness and a pain free life for us.

That's not what this is saying. It doesn't mean that if you have

pain or if you've not received yet what you've been praying

for, that somehow it's because you have too little faith or

because you haven't given enough money.

That's not what this is saying. That's what prosperity teachers

or Word of Faith teachers teach. And do you see how far away from

the text that teaching is and why it's not good news?

It's missing anything relevant to the truth, The point of

Malachi, which is we want to honor God through faithful

living. And it's instead turned it into,

well how do I ensure that I'm blessed and how do I use God to

get what I want? The results of that sort of

teaching are awful. They include self centeredness

and entitlement or disillusionment or worse towards

God and we end up with 0 grid for pain and suffering in life.

But in reality, what these verses have to say is very good

news. Again, it's that repentance

leads to our good and to God's glory.

For the Israelites, remember their plight, The pain they were

going through was the direct result of their sin.

But here God is saying it doesn't have to be that way

forever. There were specific blessings

for obedience and there were and repentance as well.

So again, go back to Deuteronomy 28 and see God's making a way

for them to come back to him. And he says I will forgive you.

You've sinned in giving. So repent by getting that

straight and I'll send the rain again until you don't have any

more need. That's what this you know,

pouring out the opening up the windows of heaven pouring down

for you a blessing until there is no more need.

In this context would be referring to there was a drought

there was in an agrarian society who relies on crops and

livestock. God's saying I'm going to help

you out when you repent. You've been unfaithful in your

giving, and per our covenant agreement, you're experiencing

the curses that were promised to you.

So repent. I'll send those nasty locusts

away, the devourers, and I'll give you reign.

So instead, put me to the test. Can be interpreted as see if I

won't be faithful to my word. See if I won't take the curse

away when you repent. That thing I promised that I

would do. See if I won't be faithful to do

what I said I would do. Isn't God so kind and gracious

to have given them that that provision for them, that despite

their their unfaithfulness or their faithlessness, Israel's

sin could be forgiven? Their fate was not sealed, even

though they were rebellious against a holy God.

They could be forgiven because God made a promise and he

offered a way to be restored through repentance.

And isn't God so gracious He's offered a way for you and for me

to be restored to him as well? Despite our rebellion against

God, He's intent on restoring our relationship with Him

because just as he was faithful and patient and holy and just

and gracious then, he is now. He is the same God from

yesterday, today, and forever. From everlasting to everlasting.

The truth is, like the Israelites, we could have been

taken out by God long ago, but God made a way.

Isaiah 53, six says that we all, like sheep, have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has laid on

him, referring to Jesus, the iniquity of us all.

Second Corinthians 8-9 says that though Jesus, he says he that

though he, but it's referring to Jesus, was rich, yet for your

sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become

rich. Rich with forgiveness and

eternal blessings and brought back into right relationship

with God. God made a way for us to be

restored to himself by sending his own Son to bear the weight

of God's justice and to pay the penalty for our sins on the

cross. And if that was not enough to

demonstrate his complete victory over sin and death, God raised

Jesus from the dead. And as a down payment, so to

speak, God will give His Holy Spirit to all who repent and

surrender to Him as Lord, and He will one day return for His own

and raise them up to eternal life.

So what are we to do then to be brought back into right

relationship with God? In the words of Malachi 3 verse

seven, in a common phrase in the New Testament, the words of

Malachi are return. God calls them and He calls us

to return. God's not OK with continued

rebellion against him. He says if you're going to

follow him, then you actually do need to change.

You actually do need to turn away from sin and turn towards

him. The words of the New Testament

writers are repent and belief. Turn away from your sin.

Put your trust in that work of Jesus for you and receive the

free gift that he has for you. Forgiveness, a new life with

Him. And he says that your humble

repentance will lead to blessing.

It will lead to your good in Malachi.

That was again. Turn.

Turn back to Me in your giving. Get that straight and I'll

remove the devourer for US. Turn back to me and receive the

gift of your sins being separated from you as far as the

east is from the West. Thank you Lord, I mentioned

there was one key question to consider.

We've seen that God is, that mankind is unfaithful, but God

is faithful and that repentance leads to our good and His glory.

And there's one key question to consider.

Now I think would be a good time to consider it before we

conclude. And the question, well, before I

get to it, should we consider this passage relevant to our

giving at all today? I think the answer is yes.

And the question just to give it to you now and then make a few

comments on it is what does it look like?

What does faithfulness and giving look like?

So that's the question to consider.

But before we get there, should we consider this relevant to our

giving at all today? This is a passage about how the

Israelites were unfaithful in their tithes and contributions

to God. And the message of Malachi once

more is honor God through faithful living in this

particular text, specifically message about their giving.

So be faithful to God in your giving.

And what is God going to do? God will meet your needs.

Is that taught anywhere else in Scripture?

Absolutely. Matthew 633 is a personal

favorite after a long passage on Don't worry about what you will

eat or what you will wear or where you will live.

Jesus teaches but seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness

and all these things will be added to you as well.

Philippians 419 Similarly, the church in Philip I having

already given generously to Paul Paul then writing even out of

their their their poverty. They were not particularly

wealthy and God says to them to to encourage them.

Essentially you've given generously.

My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches

and glory in Christ Jesus. The message of our giving

throughout Scripture is give faithfully and God will meet our

needs. Thank the Lord.

So what does faithfulness in giving look like?

On a very practical level, I've just put together some biblical

principles for giving with a bunch of references.

You can take a picture if you'd like.

I'll try to walk slowly through them if you're jotting them

down. But first of all, what does

faithfulness in giving look like?

Give thoughtfully and prayerfully.

And so I'll just pose a question to each one of us after each of

these statements. Give thoughtfully and

prayerfully. So do you pray annually about

how much to give? Doesn't have to be every single

week necessarily that you're saying, what do I give this week

and what do I give today or what do I give next month?

But annually could be fine. God, what, what, what might

you'll be calling me to give to you this year?

If more frequently than that, great for additional giving

opportunities, give joyfully. God loves a cheerful giver.

So, so maybe just consider to yourself, what are you able to

give joyfully? And do you pray that God would

increase that amount, that God would increase your ability to

give joyfully? He says it's more blessed to

give than to receive. Give sacrificially, like we saw

from the Church of Philippi in the verse I just quoted.

And so the question I would ask is, does it ever hurt a little

bit to give, give joyfully, but does it ever hurt just a little

bit, maybe more than just a little bit?

Does it ever hurt to give? The principle from Proverbs 69

is that we would give our first and our best, not the leftovers,

but give God from immediately upon receiving.

God being quick and ready to give back to immediately.

So who gets your first and your best would be the question that

I would ask. Who gets your first and your

best? First Corinthians 16 two talks

about setting aside a contribution at the beginning of

each week, and so the idea being give regularly.

Most of the giving we see in the New Testament is towards local

congregations, but there are plenty of other giving

opportunities we could give towards.

But give regularly. So how regularly do you give?

And what do you do when you miss a gift?

Do you try to go back and make up for it?

Lastly, we'll see. God calls us to give to those in

need. That could be those in need

within our own church, or just those in need in the world.

But God loves the poor. He loves those in need.

So I love the phrase being spring loaded.

Are you ready? Are you spring loaded?

Are you looking for opportunities to give?

There's just some some biblical principles for what faithfulness

and giving looks like. And the idea being it's not

ultimately about dutiful performance, but it's about the

heart. God loves us.

And so he cares about our giving because he wants us for our own

good to live faithfully in this area for his glory and for our

good. To conclude, look at verse 12

where he says, and as a result of this, you know, when you

repent of your lack of giving and and instead bring the full

contribution that I'm asking you to give, all nations will call

you blessed for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord

of hosts. Said another way, when God's

people obey, there are ramifications that reach beyond

our walls. You could say that their

faithlessness and giving was actually slowing down the

worship of God among other nations.

Or in a more positive way of saying that, you might say that

our repentance and faithfulness, it's not only good for us, it's

not only good for us, but it's for God's glory and it's for the

blessing of the nations.