What We Believe About Stewardship Series

So...how's it going? No, seriously. I mean how is your life really going right now? Pretty good? Could be better? Awful? Don't answer out loud but just think about it. On a scale of one to ten, how is your life? One is depressed and miserable. Ten is living a full and abundant life. If it's not a ten, why not? Do you know that your full and abundant life has almost nothing to do with your circumstances. It's all about your mindset. It's about having peace in the storm and joy in the most difficult times in life. And it is possible.

In fact, Jesus said in John 10:10 that that is why He came, so you could have life and have it to the full. Do you believe that? Then, if you don't have a full and abundant life, whose fault is it? It must be Jesus' fault, right? Yea, He's probably lying about that. That must be it. Or maybe He just doesn't understand the stress you are under and the problems you have. Ya think? 😊

We all know that's not true so it must be our fault if we are not living a full life. It must be that we are doing something wrong. It must be that we are not doing everything we ought to be doing. So, what should we be doing? What is it that God really wants? Have you ever thought about that? What is it that God really wants from us? What would make Him be so gracious to us that He would open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out His blessings on us so we could live a full and abundant life?

Well, God tells us in Malachi chapter 3. In fact, He uses those exact words but don't get ahead of me here. Even as you are turning in your Bibles to Malachi 3:6-12 and you have seen in the bulletin that our topic for today is what we believe about stewardship and now you remember what Malachi 3 talks about and so you assume I am going to say that if you tithe to the church, you will live a full and abundant life. You think I am going to say that what God wants from you is money. But that is not true. That is absolutely not what I am going to say nor is that the theme of this passage that is used often to make that point. Confused yet? Hear me out.

What God wants most of all from you is all of you. He wants you. He wants everything about you; every aspect of your life; every hope and dream, every thought, every action, every word; He wants to be in it, about it, for it, with it and in amongst it all in your life. And when He has you, He blesses you. It's all through scripture from Old Testament to New.

Deuteronomy 30 says, "The Lord will again take delight in prospering you." Jeremiah 9:24 says, "I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord." God loves to bless us! Philippians 4 says, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." God wants to bless you. He is setting you up to bless you. He is looking for any excuse to bless you. And He will when He has you. When you give yourself to Him completely, He will back the heavenly Brinks truck up to your heart's door and...beep, beep, beep, start piling those blessings in until you think you can't take it anymore.

Now, you may be hearing me say that if you give yourself to God completely then He will bless you with money. But that is not what I am saying nor does scripture teach that. And if you ever hear me or anybody else teach that, you need to run -- not walk - away from that teaching. People have some serious misconceptions about what is taught in scripture about money. They hear that God will bless them so they assume that means with money. They hear that we are to give money so they think God wants money. None of that is true.

The Bible speaks a lot about money. Jesus spoke a lot about money. In fact, He spoke more about money than almost anything else. And yet, if you understand what is truly being taught, God doesn't really seem to be interested in money at all. And He doesn't need you to work harder or try harder to please Him. All He is interested in is you. Let's read our passage in Malachi this morning and I'll show you what I mean. At first read, it sounds like God is money-hungry but let's go through it and take it, as always, in context, and let's see what we believe about stewardship.