HOW MUCH, GOD? MALACHI 3:7-12 SERMON

1 HOW MUCH, GOD? MALACHI 3:7-12 SERMON For the second week in a row I have a picture of a pro football player on our screen to begin my sermon. Derek Carr plays quarterback for the Oakland Raiders football team. He s leading his team in prayer in this picture. Last year Derek Carr received a five year, 125 million dollar contract extension from the Raiders, which at the time made him the highest paid player in league history. At the press conference which announced his extension Derek Carr said: The first thing I will do is to pay my tithe, like I have since I was in college. That won t change. The exciting thing for me, money wise, honestly is that this money is going to help a lot of people not only in this country but in countries around the world. When Derek Carr referred to giving his tithe, he meant 10% of his money! Today I m speaking on the subject of money, a subject few of us like to hear about in church. In fact, one of the standard excuses people give for not attending church is: They re always talking about money! Really? Always talking about money? I know pastors who never preach about money. Today s sermon is the first one I ve given on money this year!. In fact, in the past two years I ve only preached on money four times. I find it interesting that many people think it s OK to go to theater productions or movies which portray sinful relationships as normal and healthy or they attend concerts where the performers take God s name in vain but then they protest when the church talks about money, which really is a neutral object. It s our relationship with money that people don t want to hear about. I have a cartoon of two men who ve just left a worship service.standing and talking with each other. They re standing outside the church building clothed only in their boxer shorts holding their Bibles. One says to the other, That was the best sermon on giving I ve ever heard! These men responded positively to the sermon!! That s what I want you to do today. I want you to respond positively to this sermon! Though let me be clear: I don t want your clothes! The Bible teaches that everything we have belongs to God. We read in Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. As a matter of fact, we belong to God! The Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman church For if we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord s. Romans 14:8.. So, we belong to God, not to ourselves! Everything we have comes to us as a gift from God: our life, our family, our jobs, our homes, our electronic gadgets, our cars or trucks, everything! To remember this truth, that everything we have belongs to God, God established the tithe. Though 100% of what we have belongs to God, God asks us to return 10% to Him. The Bible commands the tithe in many places: Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Nehemiah, Amos, and in the New Testament, Jesus speaks of the tithe when he issues a warning to the Pharisees. Jesus said in Luke 11:42: But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Jesus told them to practice justice and love God while continuing to tithe. The Bible teaches that God wants us to return a full tithe to him of all He s given us. God wants you to return a full tithe to him of all He s given to you! Look in the middle section of your bulletin and you will see that s the point of the message today. In today s text, Malachi wrote of bringing the full tithe to worship. The emphasis in the original text in vs.10 is full tithe. Look in vs.10: Bring the full tithe into the storehouse

2 that there may be food in my house. Apparently the people were bringing part of their tithes but not the full 10%. The very definition of a tithe is: a tenth part of something paid as a voluntary contribution for the support of a religious establishment. God sought at least 10% of the people s produce, their material goods and their finances in Malachi s day and God wants you and me to return a full tithe to him today! Are you? Are you returning a full tithe of all God has given you including your salary, dividend and interest income, rental income, inheritance, etc.? Some of you are and I want to thank you for your faithful, obedience to God s Word!! According to the authors of the book, Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don t Give Away More Money, 20% of American Christians give nothing to the church! The authors add that the vast majority of American Christians give very little-the mean average is 2.9%. Only 12% of Protestants and just 4% of Catholics tithe. Malachi lists some important rewards for those who return the full amount of their tithe to the Lord s work. Let s look at the rewards as they apply to us today. What will happen if we give the full tithe, 10% back to God s church? 1.The church s needs will be met. Look again in vs.10a, Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. The purpose of the tithe in Malachi s day was to remind people that all they had belonged to God and to provide money for food for the Levitical priests. The priests spent their time offering sacrifices, studying and teaching God s Word, officiating at festivals, administering justice and taking care of the Temple. The priests were not given land to grow crops. They really didn t have time to care for the crops if they had them. The priests had no viable means of support other than the tithes of the people. When the people brought their full tithe, adequate food supplies could be provided for the priests. God wanted the first 10% of the people s crops. We read in Leviticus 23:9-10, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest In Proverbs 3:9 we read, Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your produce. Imagine inviting some friends over for dinner and taking some week-old, greasy hot dogs out of the refrigerator. Your kids had some of their friends over last week and they didn t eat all the hot-dogs so you d put the left-overs away in the refrigerator. You grab some frozen buns out of the freezer and toss them into the microwave to thaw. You think, gee, we could use some fruit salad so you find some nearly rotten peaches which you d picked a month ago, a pungent, soft cantaloupe you d bought two weeks ago, a few black bananas and throw together a fruit salad. Doesn t it sound good? For dessert you offer your guests a cake you made three weeks ago that has crumbled and dried up. Would you really serve this type of meal to your guests? Imagine how God feels when Christians offer their left-overs, their left-over money to Him?! When you bring the first of what God s given and the full tithe of what God has given you, the church s needs will be met! Our church won t have to cut salaries or programs or reduce vision, and so forth. Sally and I have tithed our combined income to our church for the past twenty-five years. We give to other Christian groups but we consider those offerings not our tithe. So, I m not asking you to do somethin that we don t do. Our tithes provide much more than the pastors salaries and living expenses. Our tithes support the children s ministries, youth and music programs, support for our international missionaries, they help assist our popular mission

3 projects to Mexico and Honduras, they provide resources to minister to our community such as the Harvest Festival, Habitat for Humanity, Child Evangelism Fellowship and the Medford Gospel Mission. Your tithes maintain both our main and historic church facilities. Your tithes accomplish a lot for the kingdom of God! Unfortunately, lots of you don t tithe to this church. You might give your money elsewhere but not here. Let me be clear: I don t know exactly what you give. But I do know that if everyone or nearly everyone who attended this church gave their full tithe to this church we wouldn t have any problems meeting our annual budget. It seems that whenever we have a special building project or mission need that arises, money is offered from people who attend our church. In fact, sometimes, lots of money is offered! We paid off our twenty year loan on this facility in just seven years! So, I know the resources available, they re just not being given to the operating budget of the church. Is that because the operating budget is not a tangible object like a building? The operating budget of our church supports the kingdom of God, made up of people, people made in the image of God!! What could be more important than investing your tithe into the kingdom of God?? The fact is, in the past five years it s been a real headache meeting our annual operating budget. It was so difficult last year that we had to tap into one of our designated funds so we d have enough money to pay for the moving costs of a new Lead Pastor. In our denomination, churches are expected to pay the moving and interview costs of the pastors. The reason we tapped into this designated fund was because I had given $10,000 as a tithe of money I inherited from my dad. I put it in the Church Planting designated fund account so that our church could one day plant a new church. But now we are having to use that money, that $10,000 to help meet our annual operating budget. The elders decided not to cut salaries because our hard working staff members are already working for less than they should be paid. So, we found a way to meet the budget. Now, you might think to yourself, why didn t anyone tell us this? I would have given more to help the budget. It s because we shouldn t have to! If you were giving what you re supposed to, the church s needs would be met without pestering you for additional funds to meet our operating budget. When you return the full 10% of what God has given you to God and his church, the elders will not have to resort to taking money out of designated funds and pestering you to help us meet the budget. The practice of tithing also affects us: 2. We receive abundant blessings! Look in the second part of vs.10: And 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. Isn t God s challenge intriguing? He dares us to tithe! He says, And thereby put me to the test. God tells us that if we accept his challenge, he will throw open the windows of heaven and pour out so much blessing that we won t have room enough for it! Twenty-five years ago Sally and I decided to accept God s challenge. We decided to start tithing a full 10% of all that God gave us. We d been giving generously to the church but we hadn t tithed the full amount of our salaries. One day when I decided to preach on this text from Malachi the Lord spoke to me about my hypocrisy. How could I preach on a text that I didn t fully obey? So, we started tithing and when we did, we stood in awe of God s abundant blessings!

4 Amazing things started happening. Paying our bills became much easier. Money seemed to come from unexpected sources. We couldn t believe it! Some of you remember the story of the yellow snowsuit. We wanted to take our kids skiing but had little money and didn t own any of the equipment necessary to ski. Sally and I prayed and asked God to help us. One day Sally found a yellow snowsuit at a garage sale up the street from our house. It was our daughter Christy s size and Sally purchased it. When she got the snowsuit home she started looking at it and opened the pockets. In one of the pockets a wad of ten $100 dollar bills fell out onto the floor! Sally and our kids were laughing and crying they were so excited! After they calmed down, Sally told the kids they would have to return the money, as it wasn t right to keep it. So, she marched them and the snowsuit back up the street and returned the money to the owners of the home who had the garage sale. Later that day, the woman of the house who hadn t been home when Sally returned the money brought her a reward, a $100 bill. A week later I preached on stewardship and shared this story in my sermon. When I got to church on Tuesday I found an envelope in my box. In the envelope were ten $100 bills and a note from a couple in our church. They said that God had told them to give me this money. I sat at my desk and wept. We had several other less dramatic examples of God pouring out his blessings on us! Through these displays of God s power we saw God s handiwork and presence. We felt confirmation for returning the tithe. We were recipients of great blessing! Besides receiving abundant blessings 3. We receive protection from catastrophic financial ruin. Look in vs.11-12 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. Scholars believe Malachi has locusts in mind when he mentions the devourer. Note the second phrase, your vine in the field shall not fail to bear. The word for fail to bear in the original means, to miscarry. In this context it refers to a good quantity of grapes that will not perish and drop off before they ripen. God will protect the people who bring the full tithe into the Temple by protecting their crops from the destruction of locusts or dropping off the vines before they ripen. In the agrarian society in which they lived, protection of crops meant a great deal to farmers. If the crops were protected, the farmers would be prosperous! As a result of God s protective care of their crops, the nations will notice the prosperity of the Jews and will call the Jews, blessed. They will be a land of delight. Today, this text means that the person who returns the full tithe to God will receive protection from catastrophic, financial ruin. Most of us don t work as farmers so God won t be protecting us from locusts and miscarried fruit. Rather, God will protect us from catastrophic financial ruin. Isn t that good news? Returning the full tithe to God results in His protection over our lives! Ultimately, our hope is not in our financial assets or our retirement plan or any other financial investment or instrument. Our hope is in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!! Though the markets fall and rise, sometimes precipitously, the Bible teaches in our theme verse for this year, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever Hebrews 13:8. Let s us never, ever forget that our hope is in Him, in Christ and not in our financial resources!! In my daily quiet time I surrender my financial assets to God. This act of surrender helps me remember that everything I have been given really belongs to God. The practice of tithing also helps me remember that everything that I have belongs ultimately to God.

5 Here s what I d like you to do in response to today s message: first, some Christians have never paused to figure out the percentage of their total income that they give to God and his church. Do you know the percentage that you give? In order to obey the biblical mandate to tithe, you need to know your total income. If you work on a commission based salary, use your average. Put together a monthly budget and figure out what percentage you give to God. In other words, it s hard to give 10% if you don t even know how much you make! Second, start giving first fruits. The very first money should go to God and his church. Third, if you want to begin tithing but are afraid you might not be able to handle all your obligations, try increasing gradually. If you re giving 5%, raise it to 7%, then to 9%, then 10%. God will bless you as you step out in faith and trust him! Let us pray.