Worshipful Giving (June 25th, 2017) - Mike Armstrong

Alright, well you can uh grab your Bibles and uh turn them to uh Malachi chapter three.

Malachi is the uh last book of the Old Testament if you're looking for kind of a reference point and uh where to find that.

Not sure if you've read in uh Malachi for a while now, but why don't you get over there?

We're gonna be looking at uh six verses here today.

Now, as you're getting kind of situated with all of that, uh, would you say that you are the kind of person who enjoys quality things?

Right?

You enjoy quality things.

Like some of us really have an appreciation for just you know, well-built, good products, right?

Like maybe for you, um, it's like it's it's it's a quality cup of coffee.

Right?

You're like, I I can't handle, you know, maybe for you it's like I can't handle Tim Hortons, you know, like Cure Egg is like nope, I can't go nowhere near that.

You know, and you've got your, I don't know what you have at home, like your AeroPress or your you know your chemics, and uh if you don't even know what those things are, it just means you don't care about any of that kind of stuff, you don't care about coffee, you'll drink whatever.

Um, but maybe that's you, right?

You're like, I I need a quality cup of coffee.

Like worst case scenario, maybe like set foot in a Starbucks.

Right?

You know, right?

You know that's you uh if that's the case.

Right?

Some people though, you know, you love a quality vehicle, right?

For you it's your it's your car.

You like fine cars, and and maybe there's even you have a bit of a collection or you like to work on them and and you have uh you have a love for quality vehicles.

It's your truck, right?

And you're like you're a Ford guy or you're uh you're a Chevy guy of hear a couple of whistles there, right?

And you are it's quality, and and anything other than that, you know, right, lacks quality, right?

And for you, you're big about your car or your vehicle, your truck or something.

You know, some people are just like really fired up about the quality of pens, right?

Like really, like people really are, and they'll they have no problem like dropping a couple hundred bucks or whatever on on like a fine pen.

You know, it's gotta have the right the right weight and the proper balance and ink dispersion, and you know, like you're thinking through uh all of those things, and I'm like, I'm like fine with this, right?

Like a bick with a plastic, like chew on it, right?

That's me.

Sorry, you gotta put that back together.

Sorry about that.

But maybe for you, that's you.

You know, maybe you're the kind of person who does like all kinds of you know research before you buy anything.

Anybody here like the research person?

I have a friend who's like that, and I know that if there's like anything I need to buy around the house or whatever, I just text that guy, like, hey man, like what's like what kind of like you know, garden hose should I buy?

And he's like, well, it depends.

What you want?

Do you want- I'm like, I don't care, right?

I just need to like get water on my grass.

Right?

But I know he's that guy.

He loves, and we all do.

We have a we have an appreciation for certain things uh that are that are quality.

We like that.

Now, it shouldn't be any surprise to us here as we gather as God's church, uh, that God cares deeply about the quality of our worship.

Right?

Do you know that?

Right?

He does.

Right?

In in no way, shape, or form is it simply you know, okay for us to worship God however you know we deem acceptable.

Right?

We're not supposed to do that.

You know, as as God, as as the creator of everything, including you and I, you know, it kind of just makes sense that he probably gets to dictate what worship uh is supposed to look like.

What's acceptable and and what isn't.

He determines the quality of all of that.

Now, do you know what what one of the major factors is in God's mind when it comes to the quality of our worship?

It's our giving.

It's our giving, it's our it's our money and how we handle it.

In fact, our entire approach to giving determines the quality of our worship.

Okay, that's what we're gonna be expressing and exploring today.

We've got you know a lot to kind of work through here today, so hopefully you're in Malachi 3.

I'm gonna be, you know, reading this starting in verse six.

So follow along with me in your copy of God's word.

Here's what it says it says, For I, the Lord, do not change, therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

From the days of your fathers 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?

Well, 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 therefore 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 field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.

Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

Lord, we come before you recognizing that a message about giving and about money is you know very uncomfortable territory for some of us.

Lord, but we also see here through the scriptures, and not just in this place in Malachi, but all throughout, that giving is massively important to you because it is a reflection of our worship.

And so, God, I pray that that we as a church, as we you know, talk about this topic for the very first time here, Lord, I pray that you would uh give us hearts of generosity, Lord.

I pray that you would give us hearts that that delight in giving, Lord, that delight in contributions to the church, that that love to bless others, Lord.

Would we be a church marked by generosity, Lord?

Would we be a church that's marked by strong, loving worship of our Savior?

God, we we recognize that we have a ways to go in our hearts.

And when it comes to handling money, this is again, this is all sensitive and difficult for some of us.

Money so easily becomes an idol, Lord.

We love it, we we crave it, we want it more often than we want you.

And so, Lord, that's the very reason why you would you would have us talk about this today.

And so, God, um, soften our hearts.

Lord, I pray that we would be willing to hear a word from you here this morning.

Lord, I pray that you would do a mighty work in our church, continue to do it.

Or we pray this to the glory of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Now, I can just imagine what might be going through your head when you realize that the pastor's talking about money.

Right?

Like, oh, here we go.

You know, here we go again.

This is, you know, this is what the church really cares about.

And, you know, he's been like baiting us, and and you know, we've been here for two years now, and and now bam, he's gonna nail us with it.

Right?

It's easy to kind of think that, isn't it?

You know, and some of us, you know, kind of have those, you know, maybe maybe we have some kind of bad experiences when it comes to giving in the church, and and you know, we uh, you know, maybe we you know, you hear something like this and recognize that a message like this is coming, and you maybe you start to kind of panic a little bit, and and you're kind of thinking about yourself and your own giving and all of that, but maybe you're starting to think, like, well, is the church in trouble?

Right?

Like, is this a is this a cash grab, a money grab?

Like, you know, what's up with all of that?

Okay, well, I'm thrilled to be able to tell you today um that uh that I'm not preaching this uh today because we are in financial trouble as a church.

I'm not preaching this because you know it's not some like knee-jerk reactionary message because, uh-oh, we're you know, we're not making budget, and you know, I gotta you know, crack the whip on the people a little bit.

No, the Lord has been very good to us.

And uh it is uh it's actually uh an amazing thing that uh that our church is in a good place uh financially.

You know, the Lord has been doing some good things and he has been using you, and he has been working through you and in you.

And uh I'm gonna go into a few of those uh details uh here as we go along, but but you know, I got I just gotta be really honest here and and really just express my gratitude to you, right, for your willingness to give, for your willingness to uh support the work uh that we believe the Lord Jesus is doing here uh in our church.

So super grateful uh for you, our church family, and all the ways that you are, you know, no pun intended, but buying into the ministry here, right?

And I also I gotta say this I'm super grateful to the Lord for his provisions.

He's provided so many times, I mean, not the least of which is, you know, the office that he gave us, the office space that we have uh here in town.

Uh also the uh the building that we've already talked about today that we'll be moving into uh just next week.

The Lord has been so, so uh good to us.

And I actually see it as an evidence of God's grace that I get to preach a message like this uh at a time like this, uh, where our church uh is in a pretty good spot with all of this.

Let me just encourage you with a couple of the numbers here.

All right, you ready to hear some of these things?

All right, first of all, uh giving this year uh in our church is up up to this point, well, the end of May, let's say, uh, is up uh 11% over last year.

Now, I'm not sure, you know, if that number number kind of registers with you, but that is uh that's a big deal.

Like that's a big number, actually.

You know, if we were to be up like two or three percent, that would be pretty sweet.

Uh, but we're up uh 11%.

Now our numbers, you know, have also grown as well.

So some of that kind of makes sense in all of that, uh, but that is a great thing uh to rejoice in.

Now let me also give you this figure, okay?

At the end of May, uh our budget, the money that we uh needed to uh uh that we had budgeted for the end of May was uh$135,000, right?

That was the butt mutt number that we had budgeted, and our income, okay, up to the end of May was$137,000.

All right, so just over, uh, which is really cool.

About$2,000 over that.

Now you need to understand this$10,000 of that, part of that, was a$10,000 gift from another church.

Amazing, right?

Again, the way that the Lord provides.

And you know, of course, we didn't ask for anything like that.

All of a sudden, just one day I talked to a guy and he said, Hey, we got a check uh coming to you guys.

We just love you, we want to bless you and love the work uh of the work of the Lord that's happening there in the church.

So amazing.

That's all part of it.

So if you want to, you know, maybe look at it in another way, if you don't include that, which we do, of course, but if you don't include that, we're about 7% uh behind budget uh up to this point in this year.

Okay, now that is, you know, that's not perfect, right?

No one's gonna stand here and say that that's perfect, but that's not that's not awful either.

Right?

That is that's a number that we can overcome, right?

That is a number that we believe uh the Lord will provide for, and uh many, many churches are listen, they're in a way worse spot than that uh come this time uh of the year.

All right, and we also know that like January and February tend to be kind of lean months in terms of giving because so many people kind of went crazy at Christmas time, you know, the end of the year and uh and all that type of thing.

And so there's usually a bunch of catch-up that kind of happens kind of throughout the year.

Okay, here's another really great thing.

Okay, you guys know that we had our special offering through the months of uh April and uh and May, and our goal was to raise$9,000, and we announced to you after that we actually uh raised over and above that goal, and it was uh$11, uh150 that came in, so almost$2,200 above our goal, which is so so amazing.

But you want to hear something that's even better than that?

Okay, our regular offering that was happening as kind of a separate thing that was happening during that time were some of our highest ever.

Right?

So so encouraging to me and our elders, and should be to you as well, that uh our people weren't kind of sacrificing our regular offering to give to the special offering.

All right, so the Lord is uh is working.

I mean, these are again incredible things uh to report, and I think it's probably pretty helpful for you to get a good understanding of kind of how things are going in the church.

These are huge answers uh to prayer, right?

And you better believe we pray for these kinds of things.

We want to see our church be a church uh who is generous, see a church who are our cheerful givers.

Okay, I used to be on staff at Harvest Berry, I've mentioned that before.

I know that way back in the day, even before I was there, when they used to do their offering, it's during the service, they would announce it, hey, we're gonna do our offering, and the church would actually cheer.

Be like, this is awesome, we get to do this.

This is a huge blessing for us uh that we get to give back a portion of what the Lord has uh has given us.

Now, you might be asking, well, if things are good, right, if things are so great, then why a message like this at a time like this?

Right?

Why would you do that?

Well, you know, uh a couple of reasons.

First of all, we believe in the entire counsel of God's word, amen?

We believe in that.

And so we can't shy away from you know challenging and sensitive, you know, topics like this.

You know, we we we tackle difficult things because God's word does, right?

And we all need to know and how I need to understand uh how the Lord kind of views all of these things.

All right, two, okay, we've got a budget here at our church this year that we're uh expected to sustain.

All right, so when we first were launched as uh as a campus of uh Harvest York region, uh we actually covered about 50% of the budget.

That was the goal.

We covered 50%.

In year two, the goal is to cover 75% of the budget.

So can you guess what year three is?

Right, we're gonna cover all of it.

And as we move towards autonomy, one of the you know rather huge things that needs to happen is we need to be self-sustainable uh financially.

All right, and so you've heard some of the reports, and so far we're tracking and we're doing you know really well with that, and the Lord has been you know good to us.

All right?

A third reason why we would have a message like this is that just like in all areas of our walk with God, there's always room to grow.

Right?

There's room to grow in the Lord, you know, in all of these things.

And here, listen, the reality is this if everyone was giving, right, we would be able to do way more.

Do you know that?

We'd be able to do far more.

We'd probably be able to, I don't know, maybe maybe be able to hire more staff and accomplish, you know, even more ministry.

We'd maybe be able to give more and support even more people here and and give to missions and do all kinds of amazing things here.

I mean, we are in a school, moving into another school.

You know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist, right, to understand that that's we don't own this.

You know, so maybe, you know, maybe if we were all giving, you know, we were all giving sacrificially and generously and all of that, maybe we'd be able to start to, you know, kind of put aside a little bit of a nest egg to think about, you know, a future home of our own.

Right?

There's all kinds of things that we could probably do, you know, if we all gave, and we all gave uh the way that the Lord uh would love us to.

Okay, fourth thing here, you know, as I've already said, giving is a worship issue.

Giving is a worship issue.

That's why we would have a message like this.

So don't don't don't really look at this as a as a money talk.

Don't look at this as a as a giving message as much as it's a worship message, right?

That's that's really it.

If we can all learn to view our our our giving and you know our our money and our and our contributions as worship, and if we were to get really fired up about worship and praising the Lord and honoring Him with our first first fruits and all of that kind of stuff, I firmly believe that the money and the giving and the budgets and all of that, that'll all just take care of itself.

We don't have to worry about it, we don't have to think about it.

It's you know, it'll all just come in as God's people, you know, give joyfully.

All right, so here we go.

You guys got an outline in front of you, hopefully it'll be on the screen.

All right, we're gonna go into this.

Here's the first thing.

My approach to giving determines the quality of my worship.

Right?

It's so important that we understand that.

And here's the thing, and and worship is everything as far as the Lord's concerned.

Right?

Worship is everything.

Now, the book of Malachi was written to address Israel's stagnant, uh, appalling attitude and approach when it came to worship.

Right?

And the Lord was addressing that with his people, and he actually starts in in the first chapter, kind of going after the priests, right?

The the leaders, the spiritual leaders of God's people, and calling them out for their offerings and their worship, being like, listen, it was a disgrace.

It was awful.

And in chapter one, you know, it uses certain words, and I pulled a couple of these things out, talking about their sacrifices.

It says that it's polluted.

Right?

They were giving, they were giving blind, lame, sick, and blemished animals as sacrifices to the Lord.

Now, if you're at all familiar with the law and the Old Testament, you know that that was not okay.

Right?

They were supposed to give their best, and they were like, no, we're gonna give our worst.

We're gonna hang on to the best for ourselves.

And the Lord was not happy about that at all because it showed where their worship was really at.

It showed where their worship was at, it was not good.

And kind of so through all throughout this entire book here, there's this unmistakable tone of rebuke.

Right?

And he's calling his people to account.

He's saying, This is not okay, and I need to address this with you and uh and call this out in you.

And so in chapter three, what he does is he he addresses this again.

He starts to go after, you know, not just the priests, but actually the nation as a whole, and their offerings that they were bringing, and their whole attitude with it.

So check it out, verse six.

This is what it says.

It says, For I am the Lord, for I the Lord do not change.

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

From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes, my rules, and have not kept them.

Okay, so here what the what the Lord's doing is he's addressing the people's fickleness.

They are so fickle, like, you know, you know, they worship God one second, and the next they abandon God.

Right?

You've read the Old Testament, you see this pattern, right?

And then, you know, we they come back to the Lord and they worship him, and you know, they start to feel kind of comfortable and all that, and so what do they do?

They abandon the Lord again, and and they go after other false gods.

And listen, he's saying this.

He's saying, good thing for you, I'm not like that.

Right?

I am constant, I am unchanging, I do not move, and because of that, you are not consumed.

Right, that's pretty, that's pretty strong.

Right?

He's saying, if I was as fickle as you, I would have probably snapped and lost it by now and consumed you.

I would have, I would have ruined you.

Now, here's the thing we're just like Israel.

Right?

It's so easy to you know read about Israel in the Old Testament, or we, you know, when we apply this to the Pharisees in the New Testament, and we look at them kind of on our soapbox, and I'm so glad I'm not like them.

And you know, why can't you guys get it together and figure it out?

And you know, listen, we're we're the same.

You know, we're the same.

You know, our our worship, you know, we have we have periods where it's strong and it's good, and there's a there's an intimacy there with the Lord, and and we love him, and it's it's coming from the heart, and and then in in no time, what is it like?

It's external, it's weak, where you know we care more about other things, and you know, we're just going through the motions, and you know, our worship falters, right?

We we honor him, and then you know, pretty soon we can dishonor him as well.

Okay, but again, the Lord, he's unchanging, right?

He is he is constant, he is forever faithful.

Okay, and kind of through all of this, he's calling his people you know back to his standards, back to account.

He says this, he says, return to me, right?

Return to me, and I will return to you.

You see the longing for a closeness with his creation, you see that intimacy that he wants to have with them.

Listen, he wants to have that with uh with us as well.

He says this, but you but you say, How shall we return?

Okay, so again, your God, he's calling his people back to worship, right?

Back to having the right approach to them, uh to him, right?

Uh, you know, as as expressed through you know, a more pure devotion, right?

Proper worship from the heart, not not empty, not not hollow, not not any of those kinds of things, not not actions on the outside, but a heart that lacks the authenticity and the genuineness and the passion and and all of that.

No, it's about it's about humble gratitude, you know, white hot adoration of Lord, you are awesome, and I and I'm coming before you, worshiping you, Lord.

I I want to get myself low under my great and and mighty God.

Now listen, I've always loved uh John Piper's quote that's simply this missions exist because worship doesn't.

You ever thought about that?

Right?

It's so true.

Missionaries, churches, ministries, you know, all of that exists.

Why?

Because there is a massive void of true worship happening throughout the earth.

Right?

The Lord wants people uh to worship him, right?

There are literally billions and billions of people, you know, scattered throughout the globe who do not know the Lord.

And so what is our job?

Our job is to we exist to make him known, right?

That is that is what we're to do, and that's our fourth pillar, evangelism.

Right?

So why?

So that people will turn to Christ, who will, you know, reject their pride and their sin, confess that to him, and then surrender their lives to him as what?

As true worshipers.

And so listen, I really want to just take you know, just a quick second here and challenge you to do just that if you have not yet.

And what I mean by that is become a follower of Jesus Christ.

Understand your sin is the thing stopping you from all of that.

Your sin is against a whole.

Holy, loving, just God.

And rather than you know, see wanting to see you spend an eternity in hell where you will be separated from God for forever, he said, God said, I want to do something about this, I want to fix this for my people, for my creation.

So he sent Jesus to die a miserable death in your place on the cross.

Why?

So that he would take your sins upon himself, so that you would be forgiven, so that you could become a true worshiper of God Almighty.

Have you done that?

Have you done that today?

Can I stay?

Can I push you to do that?

Recognize that your sin is the problem.

Confess that to the Lord.

Ask him to be your savior.

When you do that, you will be a true worshiper of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because listen, worship is kind of a big deal in the Lord's eyes.

Right?

Again, it's it's everything to him.

Why?

Because it concerns his glory.

It concerns the glory that he deserves.

Now listen, have the rest of us have we really embraced this?

Have you embraced this for yourself?

Have you surrendered to the reality, you know, that that you exist to bring God glory through your worship?

Have you absorbed that?

Is that like that's my mission?

Right?

That's why I that's why I wake up.

You know, that is what that is what's driving me.

Because listen, worship is far more than the songs that we sing at church.

Right?

Do you know that?

I know sometimes we can get kind of confused about that.

You know, we call that time worship, which it absolutely is.

Right?

It's one, it's one component of worship.

But listen, worship is what happens when we're struck by the reality that all of life is about God.

Right?

That that's what happens.

Worship is the response when we realize that God is everything.

Our lives are in submission to Him.

And God, you are you are amazing.

Every component, every aspect and fiber of our being is about worship when we realize that God is everything.

And listen, if God is not everything, we need to hear this.

Then we will not truly worship.

We won't.

We can't, we don't.

Alright, so what we'll do instead is we'll begin to compartmentalize what worship is.

You ever done that kind of uh kind of thing before?

Where you kind of you compartmentalize it, you know, and and kind of define it as you know certain aspects of your life, but not others, right?

And so what we really do in those moments is we actually redefine what worship is.

Right?

Worship becomes kind of one small part of my life.

It's something that I do on Sunday mornings from 10 a.m.

till 11:15 or whatever when I come to church.

That's something that I do for a specific period of time, but then after that, life is about me, right?

It's about it's about something else.

And again, worship becomes this tiny little thing, and and the rest of my life is about other things.

And you know, if that's kind of the mentality and the approach that we have to what worship is, listen, no wonder we struggle with seeing that our money is a huge component of our worship too.

Right?

And we look at it as like, no, this is this is mine.

And this is this is something else that I get to do, and I, you know, it's about me.

You know, functionally, it's really easy for us not to not even think about money and giving as worship.

Okay, so remind yourself this morning.

And and every day that you wake up, the first thing that that you that goes through your mind as you start your day with prayer, remind yourself that that your life, every aspect, every part of it exists to worship the Lord.

Everything is to be worshipful.

If it, you know, if it's everything to him, as we're seeing in this, in this passage, we see it throughout all the scriptures.

If worship is everything to God, it better be everything to us.

Right?

We better pay attention to this and take heed when he says something about it.

And then specifically, we better start, you know, be we or we better be willing to you know to think through and tackle this idea how how our money and our giving can reflect all of that.

All right, my approach to giving determines the quality of my worship.

So I have to see that being tight-fisted means that I'm actually robbing God.

Okay, that's strong.

That is strong.

Okay, not my words.

Take a look at this.

God calls the people to return to him.

He's like, I want to be close with you again and uh return to true worship.

And they're like, how, how, how do how do we return?

He says this, verse 8 will man rob God?

Yet you are you are robbing me.

But you say, How have we robbed you?

And here's the answer in your tithes and contributions, you are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.

Again, there's nothing passive, you know, about what God is saying here.

It's not like, hmm, that's unclear.

You know, no, he's he's like he's he's straight up about it.

And I think there's a you know, there's a bit of a slap here to you know to God's people uh in Malachi because they needed that.

They needed that wake-up call here.

And the word, I mean the word robbing, right, that is, again, that's that's real strong.

Now, something that's kind of interesting, at least I found this interesting, and hopefully, you know, you do too, the reality is here is that God's people were still gathering to worship.

Right?

They were still coming to the temple, they were still offering their sacrifices, you know, they were still doing that as as families and and individuals, right?

They still gave their offerings and their gifts.

Okay, the problem then was that their tithes and their offerings weren't pleasing to the Lord.

Right?

He wasn't pleased by any of it.

Their offerings, their tithing lacked quality.

And he was not he was not happy about of this.

Their heart was not in it, their their actions were dry, and and and their selfishness was was showing up big time and in the form of their giving, and they were giving far less than their best.

And what was actually happening here, I got already addressed it a little bit earlier, but instead of giving their first fruits and you know, the best of the animals that they have, remember they lived in the sacrificial system at that point, right?

Instead of giving their best ram or dove or whatever it was, they were they were keeping that for themselves and the worst of their flock, they were like, I will give God those things.

Right?

And that was like that was a huge no-no, right?

And they and they knew it.

Right?

And they knew it because they knew the law.

Okay, so all of this it shows that they were they weren't taking worship seriously.

This was a big time worship problem for them.

They were they were being tight-fisted with what they had.

They're like, no, I, you know, I I don't want to do this, I can't do this, and they kept the best for themselves instead of you know giving the Lord what what he required.

Now, important question asked.

Does the Lord need a bunch of goat meat?

Does the Lord need to have a big barbecue?

Is he like, man, I'm lacking you know a lot of this food here, and uh if you don't give it to me, you know, where am I gonna get it?

Right?

Is the Lord saying that?

No, that's that that's not.

That's not what this is.

The Lord needs nothing.

The Lord needs nothing.

The scriptures say that that the Lord owns a cattle, the cattle on a thousand hills.

Right?

Everything that is out here, he owns.

Everything exists for his great pleasure, right?

And that wasn't the point that he needs something.

The point is that these offerings were a picture of their worship.

You know, if they gave poorly, it meant that they worshipped poorly.

Right?

The quality was just like like way down, way, way down.

And just like you know, God's people, you know, in the book of Malachi, like we're looking at here, uh, when or if our giving you know lacks in any way, it means that our worship quality declines as well.

Right?

And so this is this is pretty important stuff to the Lord.

So again, at the end of the day, you know, if we have you know a poor attitude about giving, or you know, you know, we just don't like it, or maybe we just find it we don't do it, you know, let other people do it, you know, what are some of the possible reasons for this, maybe in our heart or practically, uh, that might cause us to not give with the right heart or not give you know the right amounts or you know, whatever it might be.

What are some of the reasons here?

Because if the quality of our worship is at stake, you know, we probably gotta figure this out.

Right?

So let's just let's just dive into this.

All right, here are here are some of the reasons we don't give.

It's gonna be on the screen for you.

We've got four of them.

I'm not saying this is all of them, this isn't exhaustive or anything like that, but here's here's the first one ignorance.

Right?

Ignorance is a reason why people don't give.

And it's okay to be ignorant at first, right?

There's nothing wrong with that.

Like maybe you're you know you're new in the faith, you're a brand new believer, or you know, you're you know, you're just starting to come to church, and you've never heard the pastor talk about this before.

Again, this is the first message I've ever given on this topic, right?

And so you've never heard this, and you're like, I don't, you know, I don't know what this is all about.

And I see the bag go by and I don't even, you know, I don't get it, and I don't understand.

I've got some I've got some questions, and you know, all of that's all that's good, that's fine.

It's it's it's okay to be to be ignorant, but that might be one of the reasons why you don't give.

You know, I'm I'm uninformed.

And then of course the questions come up of, you know, how much?

Right?

How how much should I give?

And all of that.

Let me talk about that for just a quick second here.

Okay, well, you see the word tithe here in our passage.

Okay, that word tithe literally means a tenth.

Okay, it means a tenth.

Now, that is, I would say, more of an Old Testament word than it would be a New Testament word.

Okay, so the givings and the requirements are very, very specific in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament, they are far less specific, uh, far less clear.

Right?

It doesn't say a tithe.

In fact, you probably very rarely hear me use the word tithe when we talk about our offering.

I use the word offering, right?

Because we don't want to, you know, be legalistic about you know the specific and the amount.

And in the you know, New Testament, you know, there's a lot that talks there about, you know, you need to work that out with the Lord about the amount that you give him.

Here's the thing that I would kind of challenge you with, though, because I know some people say, well, it doesn't say a tenth in the New Testament, so therefore I don't have to give, or I don't have to give as much, and I can give far less than 10.

Well, listen, do you think that in the New Testament the requirements, the standards, the principles are less or greater?

Right?

Probably greater.

And so here's what here's what we would say.

We would say that that 10% of all of your income is probably a pretty good place to start.

That's a probably a pretty good place to start.

Now, we're not gonna be legalistic about this, right?

We really aren't.

We're doing, we're we would say that as a way to encourage you and help give you a framework and and a reference there.

But let's say, let's say you're like uh, you know, a single mom or a dad, and you've got you know a bunch of kids and mouths to feed at home, and you're working like you know, two or three part-time jobs, and to to give 10% would sink me.

And you know, I couldn't give that, and we would say, fine.

You know, maybe for you it's like one, two, three percent, something like that.

You know, but we would encourage you, give, give a portion, give sacrificially, and uh and watch what the Lord does with that.

Now, another question that comes up you know, do I, you know, do I give on the gross or the net?

Right?

Do I give on the gross or do I give on the net?

Do I, well listen, does the government tithe on the gross or the net?

Yeah.

Yeah, look, no, I I would say we we tithe on the gross.

Right?

That's what that's what Angie and I do.

We trust the Lord with that and we tithe on the gross.

If we just tithe with uh what's left over, listen, none of us are gonna have anything left over.

We're gonna go spend the groceries and pay for the mortgage, and oh, if there's anything left, I'll give you a little fraction of that.

No, we would say tithe on the gross.

Here's a good way of looking at it.

Do you want the Lord to bless you on the gross or bless you on the net?

Right?

Think about that.

Right?

I think that's really important.

Okay, so ignorance, okay, and a couple of practical things uh in with all of that.

Okay, second thing here, another reason why we don't give.

We have an ownership versus stewardship mentality.

Right?

An ownership mentality.

Maybe that's you.

And you're like, this is my money, you know, and I have earned this, and you know, I wanna, you know, I want my money to do things that for for me, and and I want to be able to buy what I want to buy, and you know, my heart, you know, and and and that's really what you think.

And and maybe for you, you need to start to realize that everything belongs to the Lord.

Right?

God doesn't God God doesn't bless us and give us so that we can build our own kingdoms and and and and and only do what we want to do.

Now I'm not talking, you know, I'm not slamming saving, I'm not, you know, I'm not slamming all of that and thinking about the future, and by no means.

We need to think what you know with wisdom about all of these things for sure.

But maybe we have an ownership mentality, and it's like, I don't want to give my 10%.

Well, it's not your 10%, it's the Lord's.

And if we have this ownership mentality, we so easily fall into the place where the people in Malachi uh were here where it where they're robbing God.

And I know I hope that your heart is not to be in that kind of place.

Hopefully you're starting to see yourself as a steward of uh of the things that God has given you.

You're a steward, you're a manager of it.

And hopefully you see that when you get a paycheck or when the Lord blesses you and in any ways, you're like, Lord, this is the Lord, this is your money.

How do you want me to use this?

Lord, I I I'm holding this open-handedly.

I'm not holding on to it, and you know, it's mine, and I can do whatever I want to do, and you're gonna have to pry it for my cold, dead fingers, Lord.

No, hopefully, hopefully that's not it.

Okay, but some of us really struggle with this.

This is not easy.

I would say like we all struggle with this to some degree, I'm sure.

I I do.

You know, we see this as it's it's mine, and you know, it's not.

We start to realize that everything, everything belongs to him.

Maybe that's a reason why you don't give.

How about the third one?

Okay, lack of trust in church leadership.

Okay, is this you?

Right?

We've all heard the horror stories and we've seen the exposés and you know, all of that, where you've got, you know, you've got the pastor, you know, rolling in his like fleet of Bentleys, and you know, he's got the private jets.

By the way, I don't have any of that stuff, you know, just to make it real clear.

Right?

But you've seen that before, and you're like, this guy is just like milking it, right?

And and then the pastor must be like skimming off the top, and you know, he's just talking about giving because he wants to, you know, he wants a bigger salary and you know, all of that kind of thing.

And sometimes we've we've had bad experiences in the churches that we've been to, maybe, and you know, and there's been a lack of transparency and and and finances have been handled poorly, and there's been, you know, so you've got this lack of trust, and therefore you see that as a valid excuse to not give.

But it's not.

And listen, I would tell you this.

I have been so blessed, one of the things I've been so blessed by by all every harvest that I know of, and I would say certainly uh with ours, is there's a real transparency uh about the money.

Right?

If you have questions, our our elders are available to you.

In fact, they would love for you to come to them and ask them how does the whole thing work?

Our our financial statements are all posted online.

You can go you can go find all of that, you can go see all of that.

I mean, just what was it, two weeks ago, we had our our celebration meeting down in Markham, and we gave a financial report and talked about all the good news and the good things that God was doing, and again, made it really clear like you can come talk to us about these things.

We're not trying to hide anything and you know anything like that.

I think there's a real good vulnerability, transparency uh that's there.

And so we want you to you know to know that.

Also, I want to tell, uh let you know this, because this is really important.

I have no clue what you guys are giving.

Right?

I don't.

And maybe for some of you you're like, oh, you know, there's there's a there's a bit of a relief there.

Because maybe up to this point, you've been something, man, that guy's just talking to me, and he knows that it hasn't been so good lately with the giving, and he is calling me out, he's thinking about my name for the whole thing.

That's not happening.

I have no clue what anyone is giving.

Right?

I don't.

No one, in fact, does, other than our financial department and our executive pastor.

And it's so helpful and good, I think, that way.

I don't want to know what you're giving.

I don't, you know, it doesn't matter.

I would just encourage you, encourage you to give as you have, you know, sorted that out uh with the Lord.

Okay, the only people whose giving we check are each other, the the elders.

And I think that's a really healthy thing as well.

Because if the elders aren't giving, that's a huge problem.

Right?

We we want to be modeling.

We want to be modeling generosity, we want to be modeling all of that stuff.

And so, you know, maybe once, twice, a couple times a year, we kind of go through that and make sure that the elders are giving.

So hopefully that provides you with you know peace of mind as you think through that.

All right.

Here's the last one another reason we don't give.

Lack of trust in our provider, God.

We flat out just don't trust that God's gonna provide for us, and so therefore, we do not give.

Right?

This is a challenging one.

You know, as you know, as crazy as the economy is and it appears to get worse and worse, and you know, you know, the housing market is nuts, and you know, all these different, it's so expensive, you know, to live.

And so, you know, how we kind of feel is like all of my money is going to something.

It's not like I have you know all of this extra cash floating around.

It's not like that.

So, you know, it's this sense, this feeling that if I if I were to you know let go of that 10%, then you know, I'm not gonna be able to put food on the table, and you know, I'm not gonna be able to, you know, pay for my house, and you know, I'm not gonna be able to go on the vacation with my family, and you know, if I give that, I don't think, you know, and everything's gonna fall apart.

Listen, the Lord will provide.

The Lord will provide.

Ange and I have seen it like a million times in our marriages.

We've gone through seasons where, you know, where you know things are tight and you know the the car is broken down like two, three times in one month.

And you're like, where is this all gonna come from?

And you know, the temptation is well, let's just not tithe this month and let's hold on to that because we really need that for a new whatever on the car.

You're like, no, we we we gotta give.

And you know what happens every single time?

The Lord comes through.

The Lord comes through, he takes care of us, and it's uh it's an amazing and and awesome thing.

And then this is the problem, this is what was really happening, I think, with with the people here in Malachi's letter.

You know, they had very little, they were they were under a curse, they were, you know, they were because they weren't giving, a lot of bad things were happening, and their their crops were being you know destroyed, and and they didn't have a whole lot, and so that's why they were they were scared to to give away the best because they they were afraid that they weren't gonna have enough to provide for their families.

And the Lord's like, no, no, give me your best, always do that.

I'm gonna take care of you.

I'm gonna do it.

Listen, trust the Lord.

Trust the Lord.

You cannot outgive God.

You can't do it.

You never will.

Be generous, and the Lord will be generous to you.

All right, so what should our giving look like here at the church?

We already talked through a couple of things, but what should be the mentality?

What should be the approach and the attitude that we come at here?

Well, I would say this cheerful, generous, and sacrificial.

Cheerful, generous, and sacrificial.

All right, the Lord loves a cheerful giver.

It's not like, fine, Pastor, you're saying this, and I'm gonna, I guess, I'll empty, you know, this savings account, and you know, you know, whatever, you know, makes him happy.

It's not about that.

Right?

He wants us to give cheerfully.

It should be a joy.

I think it would be amazing, you know, when we do our offering, if someone, you know, whooped it up and hollered.

You know, you're not gonna rattle me.

In fact, I think that's the greatest thing in the world.

It is a joy to give.

2 Corinthians 9 talks about that if you're looking for a reference there and some uh some biblical backup.

I think we should be generous too, right?

We should be generous.

Like, not like, you know, fine, I'll give the I'll give the bare minimum, I'll give my 10% and uh and that's it.

Well, listen, some of us, and again, I don't know what anyone makes, and it doesn't even, I don't care, right?

But some of us could live on the 10% and give 90 and still have no lack.

Right?

So for some of us, 10% is is not worshipful.

And again, that's for you and the Lord, you know, to kind of work out and all of that, but think about giving generously, give, give sacrificially, give till it hurts.

Right?

I would say very few of us actually, you know, ever get to that point where we're giving sacrificially and really leaning uh into the Lord with that.

All right, last thing here.

Last thing.

Okay, my approach to giving determines the quality of my relationship, and worship is everything as far as the Lord's concerned, so I have to see that being tight-fisted means that I'm robbing God, okay?

While accepting the truth that giving is an opportunity for blessing.

It's an opportunity for massive blessing.

And we've kind of been touching on it, hinting at it, but but here we go.

Take a look at verse 10.

He says, Bring, bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby, thereby I love this, put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts.

Do you know that this is the only time in Scriptures where God says that that's okay?

To put him to the test.

It's the one time where he says that.

Okay, the Hebrew word there for test, you know, gives the same kind of meaning as when gold is tested, you know, with fire to prove its quality.

Okay, that's the idea here.

And essentially God's saying, I dare you! Right?

Test me on this.

You know, see if I won't come through for you.

You know, I am going to do incredible, amazing things in it in your life.

Don't be, don't hold on to this, or I'm gonna have to withhold my blessing on your life.

You know, be open-handed, be be generous.

I dare you to give.

It's gonna come, it's gonna be awesome.

Just keep going here.

This is what he says.

He says, I see 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 field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.

Then the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

See, one of the biggest reasons, and maybe we've kind of been into this a little bit already, but one of the biggest reasons that we you know we fail to give and express our worship to the Lord in that way is because we think it automatically means depletion.

Right?

We think, we think math in human turns, and and I give, it means I'm gonna have less.

It means I'm gonna be lacking, it means I'm gonna be wanting.

You know, Lord, if I if I give to you, if I you know if I give an offering here, it means that I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna be in the hole here.

If I if I give, I lose.

Maybe that's your heart, maybe that's uh that's kind of your mentality with all of this.

What we really need to see here is that when I give, I gain.

When I give, I gain.

Giving is an opportunity, right, for immeasurable blessings from the Lord.

Now, it's no guarantee that you know, if you put$40 into the offering, for example, that all of a sudden you go home and there's gonna magically be 4,000 in your checking account.

Right?

It's not to say that.

It doesn't say that God is gonna give you more than you know what to do with.

It says that he will meet the need, right, until there is no more need.

Right?

He will provide for you.

What it means is that God blesses obedience.

He blesses obedience, he blesses generosity.

Now I've had the privilege of knowing some extremely generous, obedient people in Christ.

They've been cheerful givers.

We have sometimes, at times, been on the receiving end of all of that.

And there's a couple of things that I've noticed about uh these types of people, kind of without fail.

Okay, first of all, is that they do it as an act of worship.

Like this is this is the Lord's, right?

And this is a way that I can express my love to Him.

This is a way that I can express my care for the body, my care for people.

I have seen, I've seen people, you know, uh give amazingly high amounts of money uh to the church because they want to see the Lord do something with it.

It's not so that you know, so that I can have power in the church.

Well, I gave money, therefore I better be able to make some decisions around here.

No, that's not it.

Right?

It's because I want to see the Lord use this.

The Lord has so generously, graciously allowed me to be you know good at making money, or he's you know provided me with his amazing gift.

It's more than I will ever need.

So I will I'm gonna give a portion of that to the Lord.

And I want to see him do you know amazing things with it, way more than I could ever do.

Right?

So I notice that they use it, they do it as an act of genuine worship.

Here's the other thing I notice about genuine people he keeps pouring more blessing out on them.

Right?

Have you noticed that?

The most generous people ever, the Lord just kind of keeps giving them more.

Right?

Why does he do that?

Because he knows that they can handle it.

They're not like, yes, more, and making it rain, you know, and you know, it's not about them and all the money that they get.

They're like, wow, the Lord keeps blessing me.

It's more opportunity to give.

It's more opportunity to be generous, it's more opportunity to worship.

Right?

Don't you want to be like that?

Don't you want to be like that?

Don't you want, don't you want us to be a church that is so generous?

I would love for us to be able to, you know, write a check of our own to another church that's just starting up and just, hey, we love you, we love what God is doing there, we pray that he will use this to his glory.

Right?

I would love that.

I would love for us to be able to plant other churches.

Right?

It's not just a money thing to be able to do that, but but there is money involved.

Right?

I would love us to have this kingdom mindset when it comes to our when it comes to our giving and when it comes to our to our worship.

Don't you want that?

And listen, you ever heard people say this before?

Don't wait until you got a lot of money.

Right?

Because that day may never come.

Right?

We should be generous now.

We should be sacrificial now, whether we have a little or or whether we have a lot.

You know, I want to be the kind of person, I want to be uh, you know, us to be the kind of church where we where we honor the Lord with our wealth, where our worship is passionate in this area, you know, where we just we are looking for ways, you know, to bless and and where we're seeing the Lord take care of us.

Wow, Lord, you you really are coming through, and we are putting them to the test in this area.

And I'm gonna I'm gonna give radically, I'm gonna see the Lord bless me radically.

That's how I want to be.

Is that what you want to be?

Is that what you want our church to be?

Where our generosity is uh is a worship response.

It's a worship response to the Lord's generosity to us.

Now, I don't know if you noticed here this morning, but we haven't taken up our offering yet.

Whoops, forgot.

You know, and so what we're gonna do is we're gonna have our our ushers uh come up to the front right now.

We're gonna take up our offering as a way to express what?

To express worship.

Now, here's the thing.

Yes, yes, thank you, Andrea.

Amazing, I love it.

Here's the thing this isn't some arm twisting thing to try and you know uh make this be the greatest offering we've ever had in a church.

Okay, that's not what it is.

We're not gonna be looking around at our neighbor to see, you know, did they put anything in or not?

Here's what we understand.

Not everybody gives every week.

Right?

Sometimes you give on pay week, sometimes you give once a month, other people give once a quarter, right?

Some people give online, and so they're never gonna put anything into the bag when it goes by.

So let's all kind of understand all of that.

We want to do this as an act of worship.

If you're not giving today, spend some time as this is happening, as the as the ushers pass this forward in just a few moments, as the worship team is coming, even now, we're gonna have a time uh of worship and and thanking the Lord for his generosity and his goodness to us.

Think of this as an act of worship.

Every single time that we you know take up our offering and we do this, every time we talk about money in any kind of way, and I know that sometimes it's uncomfortable, but every time we talk about it, think about this.

This is a way that I can show the Lord how much I love him.

Right?

That's really what this is.

So is that clear?

Do we understand that?

All right, this is this is fantastic.