Malachi 3:6-15 - Chosen to Give

Today we're going to continue on our series from the book of

Malachi. In the last weeks, we've been

talking extensively about various things.

We've talked about marriage, we talk about justice, we talk

about being the choosing generation.

I mean, Ben laid a very wonderful foundation as he led

us into this great chapter of the Bible Accidentally, I think

it's the last chapter of the Old Testament before we move on to

the New Testament. And today we're going to

continue discussing about something that is very important

to me, to you, to the gospel of Christ, to nations, and to

everybody. And today we're going to talk,

talk talking about money, money, money.

God is good. So I know we all know so much

about money. And when we think about money,

sometimes, sometimes it's come with a bread of pressure.

Sometimes it comes with a bit of frustration.

Sometimes we think about how do I protect my money?

Sometimes we think about how can I make 10 to make 50 to make 20.

That means making our money work for us, investing, expanding,

making more money and all the stuff.

Right? Yeah.

And also in marriages you see people talking about percentage

307050 hundred 100, completely, everything.

So we all have different ways we look at money.

You know, sometimes we look at how much you look at your

account. How much do I have in these

accounts? How much do I need to save

before I can retire? How can I increase this?

How can I protect this? How can I leave something for

the future generation, for my kids, for the unborn kids?

But one of the questions sometimes that we do not often

ask is what does God say about my money?

What God does say about my money?

I think this is very important questions that we need to ask

ourselves as Kingdom people, as the chosen.

So I'm going to lead us today as we read from the book of Malachi

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. So hide the Lord, do not change.

So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

Ever since the time of your sisters, you have turned away

from my decrees and I've not kept them.

Return to me and how we return to you, says the Lord Almighty.

What, you ask, How are we to return?

Will a man mortar rob God? Yet you rob me?

What, you ask? How are we robbing you?

And the response in tides and offerings?

You are under a curse, your whole nation, because you are

robbing me. Bring the whole tide into the

storehouse, that there may be food in my house.

Testimony in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I were not

true. Open the floodgates of heaven,

and pour out so much blessing that there will be not be room

enough to store it. I will prevent pests from

devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not

drop their fruits before it is ripe, say the Lord God Almighty.

Then all the nations will call you blessed for yours.

We be a delightful lamb, says the Lord Almighty.

You have spoken arrogantly against me, says the Lord.

Yes, you ask, what have we said against you?

You have said it in the full time to serve God.

What do we gain by carrying out this requirement and going about

like mourners for Lord Almighty? Father, we thank you, Lord, for

this morning. We thank you, Lord, for your

great word. Even as we share your word this

morning, we pray that your Holy Spirit will minister to us all,

will bless us. We give us a open heart and we

give us that grace to be obedient to what He has said.

Thank you gracious God in Jesus name.

So when we look at this book of Malachi, it's a reflection of a

wake up call on when God challenges us and this is

because he loves us. This is about truth.

This is about God wants for you, not from you.

Because when we talk about money, sometimes it's never just

talking about money. It's about our hearts.

It's about our hearts. It's not about all the money

I've got, it's all about my heart.

What am I prioritising in my heart?

How do I say this? Am I saying this in an

instrument to show that I'm better than others?

Or I'm using as an instrument, as a will to promote the gospel

of Christ for all to make an impact in this generation?

And I'm going to break down this Bible verse we have just read 1

after the other. The first verse that we read,

that is the verse 6 says, for I am the Lord, I change notes.

Therefore you are not consumed. O sons of Jacob.

We can see here that God is such a faithful God, His word, His

yes and Amen. And once he says it, he would

definitely bring it into into fulfilment.

He will make it happen. He said I do not change.

I am the God of yesterday, today forever.

I've made a comment, I've made promises with your forefathers

and I have kept that word. And despite, when you look at

the Israelites, even when they were in bondage and holy

stories, God remains so faithful.

Even when they messed up, God still showed up for them.

And that is to confirm to us that God is the faithful God.

He's such a faithful God. Even when we have messed up,

even when we are not doing, sometimes when we are not doing

what He's expecting us to do, He remains a faithful God.

And the scriptures in this Bible verse corroborate this and says

God is not a man, that he should lie.

Numbers 2319 we seem there is no variation or shadows or toning

and through the Lord's mercy, we are not consumed.

And that is to tell you that with the Mass through the mercy

of God, we have not consumed. And one thing that is very

important about this is that God is not tired of being faithful

is ever faithful every day. And you know that's that song in

one of our ears that we used to sing say that great is thy

faithfulness and saying the last part of his it doubt changes not

thy compassion. Spring dance great is your

faithfulness Oh God to me that's the faithfulness of God is such

a faithful father and when we look at the next verse of that's

despite God's being so faithful. You know sometimes we human

being were always very funny. Return to me and I'll return to

you. I mean this is not a sort of

anger. This is sort of invitation is

invitation to what to grace. Repentance is not all about

punishment. It is the doorway back to

fellowship and God is reaffirming this and this news

Father, that you guys have messed up.

Return to me. I have a very open hand.

I'm ready to accept you the way you are and that is to confirm

that our God is such an awesome God full of grace and the

Scripture corroborate this by when we read the book of Isaiah

chapter 55 verse 67 says seek the law while he will be formed.

Let the wicked forsake his ways and he abundantly pardon and in

Matthew 1128 come unto me all ye that lay born and have a lady

and how we give you rest in God that is rest.

That is his work for us. That is his promises for us and

that is what it will for us. But as a human being we are

still who we are. And after God said these that

returned to me. And the guy said but you ask how

are we to return to you will a mere mortal robot, yet you

robbed me. But you ask how are we robbing

you? And God say entice in offering.

You have been robbing me and that tells a lot.

That's all God is not. I mean he created heaven and

heart. He has got everything in his

heart, so he's not needing our money or resources or anything

to take care of himself. No, like I said in my

introduction, he's always thinking about what he could do

for us, and you want us to align with him and that's why he's

calling us back into his grace. To rob means to be told what?

His deal. That's just the literary meaning

of that. This wasn't about theft, it

wasn't about violence. This was just a neglect.

And when you and that neglect was now justified.

And that is what it is. Bible verse is trying to tell us

here that God calls us and say why?

Why are you doing this? But one thing that I want to

really emphasise here here is that God is not just asking us

for our money or for our resources or anything.

What God sees this as a way of communing with us is our heart

of worship for everything that he has given unto us.

It is not manipulation. So when we're talking about

tithe money offering that this is not about that.

It's all about our hearts and how our hearts sees God and how

our hearts is worshipping our Maker.

That's simply what it means. It's not a scheme, it's not a

transaction, It's not about percentage.

It's not about showing enough. It's all about worship.

And with, you know, the nature of God.

He wants that fellowship with us and with everything that He has

given us. You want us to use that to serve

Him and also to worship Him. And what does this tell us about

giving? It tells us where our heart is.

It tells us what we prioritise, and it tells us what we worship.

Now, when we're talking about money, it shows.

I mean, sometimes when we oh, is it all about oh, for, for, just

for, I just want to make this clear.

We just, I mean, this is not, we don't talk so much about money

here for anybody that is coming here for the first time.

This is just the sort of what I mean, what's it's about part of

what is suspected of us as Christians, as Kingdom people,

as the chosen people. So it's not about prioritising

money, but it's also about sell iron, chapanade iron, just to

really tell ourselves what this is all about.

So, so I just want to make that clarification so it shows what

you actually believe. You know, show me where your

heart is, then I will show you what you're going to prioritise.

So when we prioritise, it reveals what sits on the throne

of our hearts. And when you look at this,

giving is not just primary financial decision, it is a

worship decision. And God takes this seriously.

And when you look at it, yeah, we might see now in the Old

Testament, it's law. It's all about law that you have

to give 10% of what's your hand, your food, your products from

your farm and everything. Yes, that is what it is, but in

the new era of grace, we are under grace.

The one thing I really want to emphasise here is that under the

new covenant, tide is not abolished.

In the Old Testament it was law, it was an obligation and it is

being given out of fear. But under the new generation,

under the under grace, it turns from law into love, from our

obligation into honour and from fear into faith.

And when we have that faith, then we can do exploit.

When we have that faith, we know that God is a great provider.

He is the alpha, He is the Omega, He is my.

He has said that he was going to provide for me and what he,

whatever he says he will do. Then we can have faith in

whatever God has said and whatever God has promised that

he's going to do for us. So fighting is not it.

It is it is not just about us giving our money.

It's all about giving our hearts and when you look at it, the

title we talked about is a covenant platform for

supernatural supply. It is a covenant platform for

supernatural supply. So when we believe in it, then

we can see what God could do if we truly trust Him.

So trust where our heart is our priority and our worship.

That is what makes that in the book of Psalm 24 was one I

mentioned in your time. The heart is the Lord and

everything in it. Before we are here, this earth

has been existing and God has got everything in His heart.

He is the Alpha is the only guy. He has created everything.

God owns it, but He has entrusted it in our hand and we

are steward and we are to return to Him everything we have been

able to gather. So everything originated from

God. All our resources, all our

gifts, all our talents, all the opportunities, all the

connections, all the network, all the wisdom, everything we've

got originates from God. It is not our own.

And He has given us that platform to manage all this.

So when we manage all this, then we can return everything back to

Him through our worship. Thank you Lord, for your

faithfulness. Thank you, Lord, for this.

It's not my own mind, it's not by my own power, but you have

done this for me. I'm returning all these to You

in my Thanksgiving. I'm returning all these to You

because You are the source and I'm returning to you.

That is what that's it. And in the book of First

Chronicles 2019, we said both riches and honour comes from

God. It's not our own wisdom.

So Webber's giving us that we are to give all praises, all

worship back to him and that is what we are doing with our

offering, with our tithe, which giving back in our wisdom

whatever talent we've got. And we are using him for the

appeasement of his name. In one of the books of Bishop

Davido Edipo, he said Titan is a covenant platform for

supernatural supply. And when you look at it, like I

said, everything belongs to God. And in the covenants of the Old

Testament talks about 10%, well, let's look at it. 10% is what

the law says, right? Well, because we are under

grace, we are replacing that law with law for God, right?

And when we love, we give everything.

We give all to love because we are not under obligation that I

have to give 10%. And when God has blessed us, we

could even do more than the minimum 10% because of our love

and because of who we trust that He is a great provider and He

can provide for me. That is what we call about trust

in God. You know, sometimes we see our

resources is our own, but our resources not actually our own.

It is for God. And this is an evidence that we

are not under the law, but we are under grace.

And when we are under grace, we have liberty to do more than the

minimum. The tide of 10% was never meant

to be a ceiling. It was meant to be a starting

point, a reminder that everything comes from God.

And when we look at the scriptures in the book of Romans

11/10 seas it said from Him and through Him and to Him are all

things. We are not the owners, we are

just T words and God entrusts all these resources in our hand

to his people, not for personal comfort but for Kingdom impacts.

Hallelujah. So giving is not all about what

God wants from you, it's about what God's want.

I repeat that giving is not all about what God wants from you,

it is about what God want for you.

And having said all this, God promises us something said with

all this Test me. Test me means bear me, you try

me, you put your trust in me, you do what I've asked you to

do. Then you can see what I could

do. According to Malachi 310 said I

will open the windows of heaven provision, I will rebuke the

Devorah protection and all nations will call you blessed

testimony and this is who God is and that is what God is telling

us this morning. Trust in me, I can provide for

you, trust in me, I can protect you, trust in me.

You have abundance testimony. You will testify your

generation, it will show fault in your generation because it's

a covenant. Sometimes I always tell people

that you know when you get to that game, when things are very

difficult, when there seems to be no way, when it seems that

this is just the end, One thing that will also speak for you is

your worship. At that moment, your worship

will speak for you, and that is the evident what God is telling

us here. I will protect you, I will

provide for you, and you will testify.

And when you testify, it's an evidence that God is making

impossibility possible. It's telling you that what's you

fear or what you've been waiting for, God has done it.

It is what you have been praying for.

God is answering that prayer and that is His promises for us in

the book of Malachi chapter 3, fasting.

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

So said gold stand between his faithful people and everything

that will consume what He has entrusted today.

So your faithfulness becomes a witness.

Blessing was never meant to stop you.

It flows through you. When God blesses you, it's not

stopping with you, it flows through you.

You'll be a blessing to others, be best into a generation and it

goes down, down, down, down to you and you are such a person.

That is what is coming firstly. So sometimes when we think about

it, my future generation, my base, my base, we just need to

put our trust in God and do that which He wants us to do.

I want to leave you with these three acronyms because when

we're talking about TIDE, talking about offering, it's not

just about our money. It's all about everything that

God has given to us, to everyone here present.

God has given us so much. What are we using it for?

The glory of God? That's the question we need to

ask ourselves this morning. So I gave you 3 acronyms, our

time, our talent, and our treasure.

TTT. Can you say this after me?

Time, talent, talent and treasure.

Time, talent and treasure. When we look at these three

things, if we can give these back, God has given us that

treasure, said where your treasure is, that is where your

heart will be, Where is your heart?

Where is your heart? Our time, sometimes we have

very, very, very busy schedule or sometimes every step, some

step we take goes a long way to touch the lives of others.

It is not always convenient. It is not always convenient.

Spending time supporting, comforting, visiting.

It's not always easy, but that is what's part of what God wants

from us as His covenant people. We spend our time with Him.

So you just reflect on these, how we spend our time, you know,

how are you spending your hours? It reveals what you prioritise.

There's something in management we call time management.

How do we manage that? How do we prioritise that?

To do some of the things God wants from us.

Giving God your time means his presence comes first.

So before we schedule anything, let's think about everything

else, how we can actually do that.

Our talent, I know here as we are seated, we've got so many

people with diverse talent. We are so blessed.

How are you using that talent for God?

Very important. And you know that every gift did

not come from you. Every gift, every skill, every

understanding, every knowledge, everything comes from God.

Every creativity, every wisdom, it was pleased in you for your

purpose. Are we using that for God's

purpose? That's a question we need to

really ask ourselves. And our treasure, our money, our

resources, how are we using it? Are we prioritising it for the

things of God? Or are we just using it just to

stay with us and it stays with us because we are not truly

trusting God that another one will come.

We're just keeping that. I just have to keep this so that

I can plan. I'm not saying it's double to

plan. I can plan for the next 205045

years with all these that I have.

So I'm not just going to disturb myself.

I'm not just going to give anything.

I'm just going to retain this one.

So that but no, if we trust God, we know that he can provide said

he is our God that provides all our needs and we promise he said

that I will provide all your needs according to my riches and

glory to Christ Jesus. Do we believe that or we want to

cherry pick what we believe? Today I just want us to have a

reflection on this. What am I gaining?

Why do I keep trying? Disobedience really matter.

Is it important to obey God what He has said in this?

I want us to reflect on all these and finally, I just want

to tell us that the time to say reminder that I know where this

came from and I trust the one who gave it.

That one who gave it is ready to do more than what he has done.

And that is our trust in God. That is our word and trust.

And finally this morning, everything comes from God and

the greatest gift was given to us by God.

In the book of John 316 it says for God so loved the world and

he gave. What did he give?

That's what that's what he gave his son.

The after giving his Son, what is the next person that

whatsoever on the line, whosoever will have that eternal

life, that is what really matters.

That is the ultimate. So in all we do, let's Christ

remain the central. Let's money subdemission.

Let's our money, our resources, our talent, our wisdom, our

understanding, our gifts, let it serve the mission so that the

nation's Blackpool, England, the Old World can feel that impact.

And that is what we have. Father, we thank you, Lord, for

this morning. Thank you Lord, for your

faithfulness. Thank you Lord, because we are

the God of our flesh. Lord, I just pray this morning

as we have heard from you, that you give us the grace to listen,

to be obedient, to always do that which you have commanded us

to do. Give us the great to do more

than the minimum. Give us the grace to focus on

the maximum and how we can do more and more to the glory of

your name. Thank you gracious God.

Lord, this is a new month. It shall be a blessed month for

us all. Lord, You go ahead of us and you

make every crooked way you make them plain for us.

You go ahead of us Lord, and fill us with your Holy Spirit in

Jesus name.