Sermon Brief
Date Written: November 3, 2008
Date Preached: November 02, 2008
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: A Series On Tithing
Sermon Title: Encourage the Tithe
Sermon Text: Malachi 3:8-12 (NKJV)
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the LORD of hosts;
12 And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts.
Introduction:
It had been a hard winter in the Rockies. The snow piled deeper and deeper. The temperature dropped below zero and stayed there. The rivers froze over. People were suffering.
The Red Cross used helicopters to fly in supplies. After a long hard day, as they were returning to their base, the rescue team in a helicopter saw a cabin nearly submerged in the snow. A thin wisp, of smoke came from the chimney. The men figured those people in that cabin were probably critically short of food, fuel, and medicine.
Because of the trees they had to set down about a mile from the cabin. They put their heavy emergency equipment on their backs, trudged through waist deep snow, and reached the cabin exhausted, panting, and perspiring.
They pounded on the door and a thin, gaunt mountain woman finally came to the door and the lead man panted, "ma’am, we’re from the Red Cross."
The mountain woman was silent for a moment, looking down at her feet, and then she cautiously said, "Well men, it has been a long and tough winter and I just don’t think we can give anything this year!"
As a pastor, I want you to know that it is understandable that many of us are leery at times to answer the phone or open the door... because it seems that everybody and his brother wants something from you.
But what I want to speak about today is about WORSHIP and WORSHIPPING God thru the giving back to Him out of the abundance you have been blessed with… BY HIM!
What I want to emphasize here this morning is that the act of worship…that we call tithing and offerings… that grace of giving to back to God is not something that Christians should believe is an OPTION in their lives! Total submission and surrender to God includes ALL of who we are… all our time, all our talent and all our tender!
Now it is clear and evident in Scripture that God does not require NOR does He want ALL of your money, but He does set up a standard that represents a surrendered heart… a submitted life and that is what He calls the TITHE…which the Bible describes as 10% of all your income.
Scripture is very clear that tithing is God’s plan for His people from the very beginning. Able brought an offering…a form of tithe to God, we also see that Abraham paid a tithe to Melchizedek in recognition of God’s blessings. Jesus tithed and He encouraged His disciples to go beyond the tithe.
However, by the time of the prophet Malachi, the people of Israel had become disobedient in their worship of God and many no longer practiced tithing.
The disobedience of the people resulted in the fact that they were suffering… they were suffering because they had strayed away from God. God’s covenant with them was that if they would worship Him, He would bless them, but they had strayed and the result was hardship and suffering.
This suffering was in part because they refused to surrender of themselves to God. Malachi pulled no punches as he confronted the nation in his accusation…their actions were akin to thievery… there withholding in their worship was robbery from God and what He had done for the nation.
So it is really not a surprise when we read what God told Malachi to write, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But you say wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” (Mal. 3:8)
Because of their disobedience God had brought punishment to the people of Israel. And if we look at this verse and say that Malachi was encouraging the people to give to God in the form of a tithe… well that just doesn’t seem strong enough.
The fact of the matter is that Malachi is clearly laying out the fact that the people are in grave danger because they are robbing from the God of the Universe and the only way to alleviate the suffering was to begin to live in obedience to God. He clearly told the people that one way to God’s blessings is found in obedience in the area tithing. (Mal. 3:10)
God’s Word is not silent on this matter. God’s word is not fuzzy on this matter! God is very clear and straightforward about tithing and the act of giving of a tithe back to Him.
As believers we are called to worship God with all of who we are, we are called to hold NOTHING back in our worship of God… And the truth of the matter is that IF we practice worshiping with ALL our heart, the act of giving a tithe to God is NEVER going to be an issue!
But as a pastor today, I find that far too many believers compartmentalize their worship! But that attitude fails to acknowledge that true worship is all about service and giving of yourself! Giving of your time, giving of your talent and giving back a portion of what God has blessed you with in your pocketbook!
The act of Giving has EVERYTHING to do with your worship and the spirit in which you worship! If you give out of compulsion or obligation to God… your heart is not in the right place and then your giving is nothing more than an empty ritual on your part! That means your giving is NOT true worship!
The Bible states that God loves a ‘cheerful giver’, one who gives out of love and thankfulness for the grace, mercy and salvation that God has provided.
And that is just what believers should be doing, our giving must be done with a cheerful heart and with the understanding that we are giving back to God because of His great and wonderful gifts to us! God has blessed us far beyond what we could ever deserve!
This morning I want us to look at our passage and I to share 4 very specific ‘encouragements’ to help you become the Christian giver God wants you to be!
1. First, Christians are encouraged to tithe as recognition of God’s ownership.
As believers we should have the outlook that everything belongs to God, not just 10%. All the blessings we receive…come directly from God. God owns everything and we are merely managers of what He blesses us with.
When we tithe as a matter of true worship… When we tithe with the right heart and attitude… when we are truly thankful in our giving, it is then and only then that we are being the good mangers of all what God has blessed us with.
Tithing to God keeps our focus in the right place. When we give our tith to God it helps us to resist materialism and selfishness. Tithing helps us to be less self-centered and focus more on God as the creator of the earth and all that is in it.
The problem lies when we forget who is blessing us and when our focus is on money…when our life is dedicated to MONEY… Paul addressed this issue in 1 Tim 6:9-11 and how this attitude can affect a believer and what how the believer is to respond.
1 Tim 6:9-11(NKJV)
9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
Now do not get me wrong here, there is nothing wrong with having nice things or having a lot of money, but when MONEY is the focus of your life and you are refusing to give God the credit and refusing to part with what God has blessed you with… your focus is out of whack… we must remember WHO owns it all and thankfully give back to Him who provides us with all we have!
As believers, I encourage you to 1st remember that God owns it all and we are merely the stewards and managers of what He has blessed us with, and when we realize that, the worship of giving and the tithe become a joy!
But the 2nd encouragement I want to give you this morning about tithing and it is that…
2. Christians should tithe because our blessings are dependent upon our obedience – v.9-10
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
When we read this passage it is clear that disobedience brings curse and obedience brings blessing. This has been God’s way throughout the history of humanity.
In the Garden, Adam and Eve were promised wonderful blessings if they would obey, but they were promised death if they disobeyed. When they disobeyed, death entered into the world, physical death and disease, and spiritual death in that sin separates us from God!
Abraham was promised blessing if he would obey and follow God, likewise the covenant between Abraham and God, and Moses and God were covenants that proclaimed blessing for obedience and cursings for disobedience.
Today is NO different. For the believer, our obedience is tied to our blessings from God. Don’t mistake worldly prosperity for blessings from God… God’s blessing is something internal and something NO amount of worldly possessions can imitate. When we are obedient and in service to God, He is going to honor us and bless us!
However, as believers, when we are disobedient, God has promised that discipline will come to those who choose to disobey. God will take you to the woodshed… God will discipline the wayward believer! It doesn’t matter what or how they are disobedient… God will discipline you when you refuse to live in total obedience to Him.
Again, don’t mistake worldly misfortune for God’s discipline! God’s discipline can be manifested in our misfortune in this world, but that is not always the case. When God takes a believer to the ‘woodshed’ that believer knows beyond a shadow of a doubt why God is doing it… they may not admit it to others or even to themselves but they KNOW why God is disciplining them.
But I warn all of you here today…don’t mistake worldly FORTUNE or MISFORTUNE for Godly discipline or blessing! They are totally different… and the believer knows the difference and will be able to determine between the two. God can and does use worldly things to represent His blessing or cursing, but that is not always the case.
We can also see in this Scripture that God demands us to bring the tithe and offerings to His storehouse. In our world that means that we are to give our tithe to God through the local church!
Malachi exhorted the people to give tithes and offerings to God as a means to receive His blessings. In fact he states that God will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings, and that the blessings will be abundant.
There are those who will misinterpret this passage saying that Christians should so that they will experience material blessings. But as I have stated the attitude of our heart reveals why we tithe.
Tithing just to get the blessings of God is the wrong attitude, but one thing is sure in this passage—you will NOT see the promise of Malachi 3:10 fulfilled without being obedient to the tithe.
Notice that God’s blessings exceed material blessings. Hear the words of Malachi 3:12: And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts. In our stubbornness to NOT recognize the worshipful nature of giving back to God, we have lost sight of the fact that our obedience in this area is a testimony to others of our glorious God.
With that being said we must understand that God’s blessings are not just for our selfish use, but as people see our blessings they will call us blessed. Our obedience brings God’s blessing and God blessing brings opportunity to become a witness of His goodness.
So when we are stubborn and disobedient we are robbing God, we are ourselves of His blessing, and we are robbing our fellowship if its ultimate potential in the Kingdom!
My 1st encouragement to you is to remember that God owns it all and we are merely His managers of what He has blessed us with..
My 2nd encouragement to you is for you to remember that our blessings are tied directly to our obedience to God’s commandments…
That leads me to my 3rd encouragement this morning and it is that…
3. The tithe teaches Christian discipline!
The Christian life is a life filled with disciplines. We must discipline ourselves to pray, we must discipline ourselves to read the Bible, we must discipline ourselves to memorize Scripture, we must discipline ourselves to tell others about God’s love… and we must discipline ourselves to give back to God a tithe of His blessings in our lives!
But what we must understand is that the giving of our tithe doesn’t just happen when we feel like it. Tithing, as we should, is the direct result of spiritual discipline in our lives!
For those of us who grew up in the church, we have been taught from a very early age to give a tithe of what we have earned, and when practiced it brings discipline into our lives.
The “habit” of tithing should be 2nd nature for the believer! Giving should be the result of a discipline we have developed… and not just when we “feel” like giving.
I was taught about tithing as a child, but rebelled against it. It was not until after I accepted Christ as an adult that I began to tithe and I can tell you it was REALLY HARD at first, but the more I practiced it, the more I trusted Him… and the more I trusted Him the more at home I felt in giving my tithe!
People, I can tell you that it doesn’t ever seem to work out on paper, but when we are faithful and disciplined in our giving of the tithe to God, his promise of blessing is true and real. God will honor those who honor Him!
1st God owns it all and we are His managers of what He has blessed us with..
2nd remember that our blessings are tied directly to our obedience to God’s commandments…
3rd remember that giving of the tithe encourages and establishes Christian discipline in our service to God…
But finally this morning I want to share one more encouragement about the tithe and it is that…
4. Last, tithing brings glory to God.
Far too many professing Christians use the tithe for reasons beyond what it is purposed for…
Some believers will use their tithe as leverage to get the church to do what they want them to do…
Some believers think that the church is only out for their money and refuse to bring the tithe…
Some believers don’t adhere to a 10% tithe and give only a small pittance of what God has blessed them with…
For whatever reason, there are FAR too many professing believers who simply do not tithe as they should! If the church practiced the discipline of a regular and faithful tithe, we would NEVER have a single monetary issue within the fellowship!
Many believers have lost sight of WHY the tithe is there! Many believers have forgotten why God instituted the tithe! We must always remember that when Christians tithe… God is glorified!
When Christians tithe… we bear witness to the world of the life-changing power of the Gospel.
When we bring our tithes to the church we enable the Gospel to be shared with all nations and people. People can see the Glory of God and sense His awesome presence in their lives because of our obedience in the giving of our tithe.
Thru our obedience in giving, people all over the world, from Algiers, to Alexandria, to Alabama, to Africa… they can all see and hear about Jesus Christ. They can all feel His power at work.
And it all begins with our conscious effort to be obedient to God by recognizing His ownership and then responding by giving the tithe to God. God will fulfill His part if we obediently fulfill our part
Conclusion:
I want you all to understand that I am NOT after your money. I don’t track WHO is giving WHAT… I don’t keep up with the weekly offerings other than just to know what we have brought in…
My interest in this is strictly spiritual in nature. As your pastor I challenge you to be the giver that God has called you to be. Your spiritual act of worship in giving is something that is between you and God…but it is something you are called to do!
Today I challenge you to do something… I challenge you to give as God has commanded…give with a cheerful and thankful heart… give out of your love for Him… give to show the world His goodness and so that God will receive the glory!
Give and God will bless you… Give and God will bless this fellowship… Give and God will be exalted in our fellowship and in our community! I call on you to give as God has called you to give!
For those of you here today who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus, you may not understand about giving back to God. But this morning I call on you to take stock of your life…
Are you headed in the right direction? Do you have a hole in your life that you are trying to fill? Does it NEVER seem that you are NEVER satisfied with the things of this world? Well I call on you to give your heart to Jesus today and let Him bring the greatest blessing you could ever experience… let Him open up the floodgates of heaven on your soul!
Come to Him today in repentance and confession of your sin and know salvation that frees you from the bondage this world holds you in… no longer a slave to materialism, no longer a slave to sin, no longer a slave to self-centered thinking… you will be free to serve God!
The world will tell you that serving God limits you to what you can do, but I tell you that serving God frees you from what holds you in bondage! Come to Christ today and know the freedom that He and ONLY He can bring into your life!
Give Him your heart and be blessed by the gifts He will bring into your life! Come as Bro Parker and Jason come to lead us in our Hymn of Invitation…
