I was in McKay, a community just off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia when it happened. We were there on holidays, which was to include a diving trip on the reef and a trip to a Alligator reserve and also a visit with Kevin Hudson, a pastor friend of mine. Kev and I hadn’t seen each other for awhile and once the pleasantries of the visit were over we began to talk preaching, as preachers are oft to do when the get together and in the course of the conversation Kevin mentioned the “Italian Prophet.” I was a little confused. I thought I was familiar with all the prophets, both major and minor, having been a preacher at that point for 10 years or so, not to mention my degree which as you can well imagine contained a fair amount of Bible knowledge.
“Yes” he insisted “The Italian prophet”. Well he could obviously tell from the confused look on my face that I just wasn’t getting it. Although a confused look on my face doesn’t necessarily indicate much beyond my natural state. So slowly he said “you know, the last book in the Old Testament, Ma-lee-chee.
Well this morning I will be preaching from the book of Ma-lee-chee or Malachi as it’s better known. And the reason is very simple, I am at the end of the Old Testament and the series wouldn’t be complete without Malachi. To be specific I will be speaking from probably the best know text in the book of Malachi which of course is Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you!
Now I know that there is someone out there who is thinking “Aha, Denn’s going to talk about money this morning and I hate it when Denn talks about money.” You think you hate it when Denn talks about money, you have no idea how I feel when Denn has to talk about money. But it’s something that has to be done occasionally, it is the responsible thing to do, after all do you really want to be kept in the dark about our finances? How would you feel if someday you arrived the Lions Den was locked and there was a note on the door that said “due to financial problems Cornerstone Wesleyan Church is no longer able to operate, please feel free to attend one of the other five churches in Bedford.”
I’m sure that most of you, I hope most of you, would think “This is terrible, I wish I had of known.” That’s why occasionally I preach about money, and giving and finances and why I occasionally write you about where we are at, and I do mean occasionally. Actually the great thing about this message is that is was planned to be preached on this date a year and a half ago, including the puppets.
In nine and a half years I have never ever suggested a dollar amount that anyone in this church should give and I never will. And I have never treated anyone differently because of what they do or don’t give. The only time that comes into consideration is when it comes to leadership at Cornerstone. Because I believe that tithing is a Biblical command I am very unapologetic about the fact that if you don’t tithe or come close you will not be nominated for a spot on the leadership team at Cornerstone Wesleyan Church. Not because you are of more or less importance based on your giving patterns but because of your obedience to God’s word.
So with that said this message is really not about money or about giving, it will be mentioned but it is not the “Big Idea” or the “Main Concept.” You all right?
So here we are at the 39th book of the Bible, the last book in the Old Testament. It was not written by the Italian prophet Ma-la-chi, it was written by the Hebrew prophet Malachi whose name in Hebrew means “My Message”, which would seem to be a pretty good name for a prophet. Time wise, you’ll recall that the residents of Jerusalem had been taken captive when the Assyrians conquered Israel, then when the Babylonians conquered Assyria the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls and the temple. The temple was completed in 516 BC and this letter was written almost a hundred and fifty years later around 460 BC. Why was it written? Malachi was confronting the spirit of complacency and indifference that had overcome God’s people. The worship that had once been the centre of their culture had now become simply a habit. The enthusiasm they had for building the Temple of God had become a “been there done that” attitude.
And so this morning for a little bit I want us to look at the tenth verse of the third chapter of this the last book in the Old Testament Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you!
In particular I want to look at the portion that says “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in!” This is the word of God, speaking to God’s people and it says that God will pour His blessings on His people. And not just any blessing, this passage says He will pour out a blessing so great that we won’t be able to take it in. Would you like to be blessed? Would you like your life to be characterized as being blessed of God? Sure you would, so here’s the secret.
It begins with one very small very important word, just two letters and yet this entire promise hinges on that word. And the word is “if”. God is waiting and willing to bless Hi people, but, there’s another small yet important word, the choice is always up to us if we want to be blessed. In this case the word of God says “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” What will happen? God will open the windows of heaven.
So the first question is Why will God bless You? The short and simple answer here is that God promised to bless the Israelites if they paid their tithe. So what is the tithe? Tithe simply means tenth and throughout the word of God the concept is reiterated that all that we have comes from God but he requires a tenth of it back. For the people of God this does not mean that we give God ten percent of what is ours, it means that He allows us to keep ninety percent of what is His. And in this case God tells his people, “If you tithe, if you return to me ten percent of what I have given to you then I will bless you” You see when we give to God, we are just taking our hands off what already belongs to Him.
And that is the short answer, and if that was the entire answer then we’d be finished. We could sing a song to close and we could go home but you would have received only a portion of what you need in order to achieve God’s blessings today.
Here then is the long answer the answer that is contained in the short answer.
You will be blessed if you are obedient. The fact that the Israelites had not been paying their tithe was only evidence of a much great problem and that was their obedience, or their disobedience in this case. The concept of the tithe goes back to Genesis, the first book in the Bible, when Abraham gave King Melchizedek, who was also a priest, ten percent of his belongings as an act of worship to God.
The commandment to God’s people to return ten percent of what God had given them is first recorded in Leviticus 27:30 A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy. It is also mentioned in Deuteronomy 14:22 You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. Throughout the Old Testament we see God’s people responding to the command of the Tithe, when they were living in obedience to God’s will and commandments. However when they were living in disobedience it is often evidenced by the fact that they are not giving to God’s work.
In fact God often uses our giving as a spiritual barometer, because if we are finding it difficult to give something as paltry as money how much more difficult will it be to give important things like our time, our will and our future?
So when we are obedient to God then he blesses us. Now some of you might be thinking “That’s blackmail or bribery.” No, that is reality. When our children are disobedient do we rush out immediately to buy them a gift or take them to a special restaurant? “I am so glad that you wrote on the living room wall with crayons and didn’t do your homework, let me buy you something special.” No, that happens when they do what we want them to do.
Tithing is only a small part of who and what we are as Christians, but is a part it can’t be ignored. But neither can it be a bribe to excuse our disobedience in other areas. If people could just pay their tithe and then do whatever they liked with immunity the church wouldn’t be able to spend the money they had.
You may remember the story of King Saul in 1 Samuel. The Israelites were at war with the Amalekites and Saul was commanded after a particular battle to destroy all of the plunder, the gold the silver and the livestock. Instead he kept the very best for himself, when he was confronted by Samuel, God’s prophet, he justified his actions by saying that his men brought it back to sacrifice to God, nice try Saul. Samuel’s response is found in 1 Samuel 15:22 But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much better than offering the fat of rams.
God is still looking for our obedience to His word and He will bless us when we obey Him. We are told in 1 Kings 8:23 O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven or earth. You keep your promises and show unfailing love to all who obey you and are eager to do your will. Jesus himself said that unless we obey him we don’t really love him John 14:15 If you love me, obey my commandments. When we were children and we disobeyed our parents we felt guilty, and that wasn’t a fun feeling was it? As believers when we do what we shouldn’t do or we when we don’t do what we should we feel guilty as well, sometimes we call that conviction and that isn’t a great feeling is it? By the way, when we stop feeling guilty about our disobedience it’s not that the action has become all right it’s that our hearts have become hardened.
You will be blessed if you are faithful. This goes back to the concept of all we have as coming from God, he has entrusted us with our material possessions to make an impact on this world. And we can choose to do that or choose not to do that and that is entirely up to us. But if we choose to spend what was meant for the sacred on the secular then God is not going to bless us. The concept is laid out in Luke 16:10 When Jesus said Unless you are faithful in small matters, you won’t be faithful in large ones. If you cheat even a little, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. The New International Version says it this way Luke 16:10 Whoever can be trust with very little can also be trusted with very much.
If we go back into the Old Testament we discover that when Israel was faithful to God, then God blessed them. When he could trust them with what they had then he was willing to trust them with even more, and the converse was also true. When God’s people could not be trusted then the blessings of God were removed.
If you boss can’t trust you do you think you will be promoted? If you’re spouse can’t trust you to be faithful with your love and your emotions do you think the relationship will grow. I truly believe that God blesses us based on our past performance with his blessings. When we aren’t faithful, when we can’t be trusted how do we feel? Not good huh?
You will be blessed if you are honest. When you take something that doesn’t belong to you but belongs to somebody else it is called stealing. When you take what doesn’t belong to you but belongs to God it’s still called stealing. If we look back into the book of Malachi this is what God says Malachi 3:8 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! “But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’
“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me.”
So it’s not just a matter of obedience and faithfulness it is a matter of honesty. Many people who would never take a penny that belonged to somebody else have no problem taking and keeping what rightfully belongs to God.
But honesty doesn’t just have to do with money. We can steal the affections of someone who isn’t our spouse, that’s called adultery, we can steal somebody’s good name that’s called slander, we can steal the honour that is due God and that is called idolatry. To take something that doesn’t belong to us is a sin, by whatever name you call it. And God will not bless us in our sin.
So if those are some of the reasons for God to bless you the next question has to be: How will God bless you?
Let’s start with the least important blessing, You Will be Blessed Monetarily Throughout the scriptures this concept has been taught, if you are faithful to God with your finances then God will reward you. The word “give” is used over 1100 times in the Bible and we see this concept taught, again and again. Listen to Ecclesiastes 11:1 Give generously, for your gifts will return to you later. Or Proverbs 11:24 It is possible to give freely and become more wealthy, but those who are stingy will lose everything. You understand the concept, that if God provides for his work and his Kingdom through his people then it is in the best interest of His work and his Kingdom for those who are faithful to prosper. Luke 19:26 ‘but to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away. And Jesus says basically the same thing again in Matthew 25:29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away.
R.G. LeTourneau was an American Inventor and committed Christian. What did he invent? Heavy earth moving equipment, much of what they use in excavation and road work today was originally the brain child of Robert LeTourneau. And he became very wealthy doing what he did, and as his income grew so did his giving but he wasn’t content with simply giving a tithe and by the end of his life he was giving back ninety percent and living on the other ten percent. And this is what R.G. LeTourneau said “I shovel money out, and God shovels it back ... but God has a bigger shovel”
Most of us have either read the book, seen the movie, watched the play or at least heard of The Diary of Anne Frank, and Anne Frank said “No one has ever become poor by giving.”
I came across a neat saying that kind of sums up this point, You should give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving. So here’s a question, could you live on 10 times what you give to the church each week?
But the momentary blessings are the least important. You Will be Blessed Emotionally When we aren’t doing what we are supposed to be doing we feel guilty or under conviction. And I know some of you think that I’m the one that tries to make you feel guilty. Not so, I simply present the word of God, if you are feeling guilty that’s your doing not mine. If I did a poll right now, some of you would feel guilty and wish I would change my sermon right now to something pointed like Apple Pie, Motherhood and Lower Taxes while others wouldn’t be feeling the least bit convicted.
If I were to preach on Adultery or lust who would feel guilty? If I was to preach on lying or stealing who would feel guilty? If I was to preach on unforgiveness who would feel guilty? And guilt will tie you up in emotional knots. Ask the person who is having an affair how they feel around their spouse, as the person who is stealing from the company how they feel around their boss, ask the person who cheats on their income tax how they feel when a letter arrives from the tax department.
And so the blessing of Obedience is emotional freedom, a clear conscience makes a soft pillow. Listen to God’s word in first in Acts 3:19-20 Now turn from your sins and turn to God, so you can be cleansed of your sins. Then wonderful times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will send Jesus your Messiah to you again. and then in Romans 4:7 Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.
Have felt the Joy of knowing that your sins are forgiven and when was the last time you felt wonderful times of refreshment? Which lead us to the last point You Will be Blessed Spiritually. When we are disobedient to God, in whatever area of our lives it puts up a road block between us and Him. You see disobedience is simply a big word that describes a little word and that word is sin. The bible, the word of God says in James 4:17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
But when you are walking as you are supposed to be walking, talking as you are supposed to be talking and doing as you are supposed to be doing then you are in fellowship with God, the doors of communication are open and you are right where you are supposed to be with your God and creator. Is that where you are this morning? If not then it can be. The blessing that God has in store for his believers are for those who are obedient in all areas of their lives. For those who are walking in the light that he has given them. If you are not a believer then those blessings aren’t even on the menu yet but they can be, and in either case the choice is yours, do you obey or do you disobey?
The promise that is here for you is found in the last part of Malachi 3:10 Try it! Let me prove it to you. Do you want to be blessed, then try it and let Him prove it to you.
Hope you enjoyed this message, PowerPoint is available for this message at www.powerpoint4preaching.com or by email me at denn@powerpoint4preaching.com
