Malachi 3v7-12

Returning to God with your money

There’s a well known illustration of a young man who was travelling home on

the bus. He was a young man in his twenties. And he was dressed up in his

smartest clothes. He was sitting on his own in the bus and most of the time he

was staring out of the window.

There was an old granny sitting on the other side of the aisle. And every now

and then this young man would look away from the window and the granny

could see the anxiety on this young man’s face. And as they were getting closer

to their destination, the granny became so concerned for the young man that she

came and sat next to him and began talking to him.

And after a few moments of small talk, the young man suddenly opened up and

shared everything:

“I’ve been in prison for 2 years, he said. I just got out this morning and I’m on

my way back home.” I was raised in a poor, but a respectable family. The crime

that I committed broke my family’s hearts and brought them shame in the eyes

of the community.

I haven’t seen them in 2 years. I know that they were too poor to be able to visit

me.

Three weeks before I was released, I wrote them a desperate letter. I told them

how sorry I was. And I asked for their forgiveness. I told them that I was going

to be released from prison and that I would catch the bus back home. The bus

goes right past the front of my house.

In my letter, I said that I would understand if they just couldn’t forgive me.

And I’d make it easy for them to let me know. I asked them just to give me a

signal that I could see from the bus. If they had forgiven me and wanted me to

come back home, they could tie a white ribbon on the old apple tree that stands

at the front of our house. If the signal isn’t there, I’ll just stay on the bus, leave

the town and stay out of their lives forever.”

As the bus got closer to the house, the young man became so anxious that he

couldn’t even look out of the window.

The so the old granny offered to swap seats so that she could sit next to the

window and look out for him.

And as the house came into view, the old granny gently touched the young

man’s shoulder and with tears in her eyes, told him to look: All over the gate, all

over the house and on every single tree in the street, there were hundreds and

hundreds of white ribbons.

The family were happy to welcome their son home.

And that story’s often used to illustrate God’s attitude to sinners who come back

to Him. He welcomes us with open arms.

And that’s an accurate picture of God. You see God’s not just an impartial

judge who takes equal delight in punishing evil and rewarding good. He’s more

than that! He delights to show mercy.

He’s like a loving mother who hates punishing her children.

I heard about one of our pastors from one of our churches who’s got two young

kids aged four and six. And he took them to the shop. And they were running

wild. And he was struggling to keep control. And suddenly a lady came to him

holding his child. And she said to him: your child just kicked me in my shin.

And he looked at her and said: “well you probably deserved it.”

And he was asked by another pastor: why did you say that?

And he said: ja you know I knew he was wrong! But everything inside me just

wanted to defend him.”

That’s what its like for parents. You can get very angry with another person’s

child. But you can easily overlook your own child’s faults.

Well in a similar way God is reluctant to punish the wicked. He made them. He

longs for them to repent so that they can know His blessing.

And that’s what we see in our passage this morning. Malachi has been full of

harsh words against the nation of Israel. Warnings of judgment. But behind it all

is the father heart of God longing for His children to come home.

Look at Malachi 3v6.

“I the LORD do not changed. So you, Oh descendants of Jacob are not

destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from

my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you,’ says

the LORD Almighty.”

Imagine you go on a holiday to another country. And when you buy the ticket

you also buy a return ticket so you can also return home afterwards. And it

might sound obvious, but one of the things you assuming when you buy a return

ticket is that the place you returning to won’t have moved. It’ll still be there.

You can only return to a place if it remains unmoved.

Well that’s the truth about God. We can return to Him because He doesn’t

change. He remains faithful and compassionate.

And so that’s the main theme this morning: It’s a call to return to God. And the

specific area in which God is gona call us to return is in the way we handle our

money. That’s the title this morning: returning to God with your money.

I learnt this last week apparently during the Crusades when the knights went

to the Holy land to fight the Arabs. Before they left they were all baptized. Full

submersion. To signify that they were going on a holy mission. But apparently

as they went under they used to hold their swords up above the water. So that

their swords would be exempt from holiness. And so that their swords were

still free to still be used for fighting and slaughtering and killing. They weren’t

willing to baptize their swords.

Well nowadays many people do a similar thing. When they go under the water

of baptism they go under like this. hold up their hand like this (hold wallet up).

Their wallets are exempt from serving God. So they claiming to return to God.

But they not doing so with their money.

I want us to see three points about returning to God. Firstly how Israel have

turned away. Secondly, How they can return? And thirdly how God will

welcome them back?

1) So firstly, How have they turned away?

And you can see the answer in verse 8. They have turned away from God by

robbing Him. Look at verse 8.

“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.

Now I doubt many of us would plead guilty to this accusation. When we

confessed our sins a bit earlier I wonder how many of us confessed this sin:

“sorry God for robbing you.”

That’s not a sin we normally think of. What does it mean for us to rob God?

Iv heard of people who put their hand into the collection bag when it comes

round, but instead of putting money in. They take money out. Is that what it

means to rob God?

Well this is exactly the question Israel are asking in verse 8.

Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, “How do we rob you?”

And this is God’s answer…

“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – the whole nation of you –

because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that

there may be food in my house.”

You see, Israel aren’t robbing God by stealing money from the temple. They

robbing Him by giving Him less than they should. They not bringing Him the

whole tithe.

And so if we think about what this means for us. What does it means for us to

rob God? We mustn’t just think of stealing money out of the collection bag.

We must think about what we failing to put in.

A lack of generosity. Stinginess. Greed. That’s what it means for us to rob God.

And the word here for rob is very strong. Its violent. It’s a word that was used

to describe army coming in to a village and plundering and pillaging and raping

the village.

And so commentators struggle with this. How can this word be used to

describe what we do to God? simply when we not generous with our money.

Well 1 Chronicles 29 is helpful. David asks the people to bring gifts for the

building of the temple. And the people respond very generously. They bring

lots of gold and silver and bronze. But its amazing how David responds to their

gifts. He doesn’t say: ah thank you so much. You such generous people. You so

wonderful for bringing so many gifts.

No he responds by praising God. He says,

V14 - “who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as

generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only

what comes from your hand.”

You see that’s the crucial thing to realize about your wealth. Everything you

own comes from God. Many of us simply inherited our wealth. We havent

earned it. Its been given to us.

You might say: no. I was born in poverty. I worked hard to earn to my wealth.

But still. You were only able to do that because of the opportunities uv been

given. The abilities uv been given. And that also comes from God.

If you’d been born on a mountain in South Sudan I don’t think you’d be doing

too well. No matter how hard you worked. Our wealth comes from God.

And the other important thing to realize is that God doesn’t relinquish His

ownership of the wealth after He’s given it to us. We never become the

primary owners of our money. We simply become stewards. We simply like

brokers who manage the money on behalf of our investor. In the words of Tim

Keller:

“You relate to your money not as an investor, but as a broker, as a steward.

Now if you a money- manager and you see your funds grow and investors

giving you more and more of their funds to invest for them you get excited.

Because you going to eat the fruit of that. But you don’t have the slightest idea

I hope that that’s yours. That you can do anything you want with it. There’s an

accountability. You have to invest this money in line with the directions and

the purposes and the desires of the investors. And if you don’t do that its

called fraud.”

Well God is the great Creator investor. And everything we have has been given

to us by Him. We are His money managers. And He’s revealed to us His

purposes. And so if we don’t use our money for those purposes. If we use

them for ourselves. Well then that is called fraud. That’s what it means to rob

God.

So that’s how Israel have turned from God.

2) Now, how can they return to Him?

And God tells them how in verse 10.

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse”

And so immediately that raises the question: what does this mean for us?

What is tithing and is it relevant for us?

Well the word tithe is a Hebrew word which simply means a tenth. That’s what

the word means. And so in Leviticus 27 verse 30 God commands Israel to give

Him a tenth of the fruit, a tenth of the grain, a tenth of the livestock. A tenth of

all their wealth must be set apart for the Lord.

But now the question is: does this command still apply to us in the New

Covenant? Does the New Testament command us to tithe?

Well there’s only one place in the New Testament that speaks about tithing.

And it’s a very significant little passage.

Its in Luke 11 verse 42.It should be on the screen. Jesus is speaking to the

Pharisees. And notice what He doesn’t say. He doesn’t say,

“you have heard it said: Thou Shalt tithe

But I say to you: “you only need to give five percent or 2 percent or whatever

suits you.”

That’s not what Jesus says. Instead, He says: tithing is the very least that you

should do.

Luke 11 verse 42

“Woe to you, Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all

other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You

should have practised the latter without leaving the former undone.”

You see what Jesus says here:

don’t be like the Pharisees!

Don’t use tithes as a way to restrict your giving. As if you can just say: “I’ve

given my ten percent. Therefore I can neglect justice. I can neglect a love for

God. Because I’v paid my tithe.

That’s legalism. That’s just trying to keep a law without any real relationship

with God where you have a love for Him and a desire to serve Him.

And so that’s a real warning for us today. There many people who think theyv

ticked the box as soon as theyv given their ten percent. That relieves them

from giving anything more. They can keep the rest for themselves.

Don’t be like that. Don’t be like the Pharisees.

But then notice. Jesus also says: “without leaving the former undone”. In other

words I’m not saying you should neglect the tithe. The tithe is still important.

But that’s just the starting point. That’s the least we should give.

As Tim Keller says: “The tithe is not a legalistic limit to our giving, but a

baseline.” It’s the bottom line. That’s where we should start.

Listen to John Piper:

“If we are going to set aside the commandment to bring tihes into the

storehouse because it sounds legal and slavish, then let us beware of jumping

out of the frying pan of legal slavery to a command into the fire of carnal

slavery to greed.

If your motivation in setting aside the command to tithe is so that you can feel

content not tithing, then your motivation is wrong.”

You get that?

If your motivation in setting aside the command to tithe is so that you can feel

content not tithing, then your motivation is wrong.”

And so its true: the New Testament doesn’t emphasize tithing. This is the only

verse in the whole New Testament that refers to tithing.

But that’s not to comfort to us in our stinginess, as if we should give less than

10 percent. Its because we’ve got a greater motivation to give more. You see,

in the New Testament we shouldn’t need a law commanding us to tithe. We’ve

got the grace of God in the gospel.

Listen to how Paul urges the Corinthians to give in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 8.

“I am not commanding you, but I am wanting to test the sincerity of your

love…. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was

rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might

become rich.”

We’ve been given the riches of every spiritual blessing in Jesus. How then can

we just restrict our giving to a law of ten percent? How can we store up wealth

for ourselves?

So tithing should be our minimum.

But now you might be asking:

To whom do I give it? Who receives my tithe?

Well look at chapter 3 verse 10. “bring the whole tithe to the pastor’s house,

that there might be food in his house.”

Is that what it says?

No that’s Kyle’s version.

Or the prosperity preachers version.

Verse 10 God says

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my

house.”

And the house of God here refers to the temple.

That’s where Israel must bring their tithe.

And so there some people today who say just like the Israelites went to the

temple. In the same way we go to a local church. And so the way you give your

money to God’s house is by giving it to your local church. And so You must give

your whole tithe. It says whole. Your whole tithe to St James.

Well I don’t think we can say that.

You see the temple fulfilled a much bigger role than any local church.

You didn’t have a little temples in each suburb or on each street. There was

only one temple. And the temple was the centre of all of Israel’s worship.

Everything was controlled and administered run from the temple. And so we

don’t have anything like that in the Christian church today. We don’t have a

central place of worship like the temple.

And so I don’t think anyone can tell you: you must give your whole tithe to me.

Or you must give it to my church.

There many projects and churches and organizations around the world doing

the work for God.

And so that’s something you need to work out between you and God. As you

study His word. What are His purposes? How can I be a faithful steward? How

can I best use what He’s given me to fulfil His plans?

And so I’m not telling you to give all your money to St James. But now that I’ve

said that. That gives me the freedom to suggest something that you could give

your money to.

Right?

I can’t say you must give your money to something. But I can suggest

something that I thinks a wise investment.

So on the screen you can something I’v calling Mission Mkiva’s

Some of you will know the people on the screen: Solly and Lungile Mkiva.

Solly is from St James. He’s busy completing his honours in theology at George

Whitefield College. He’ll finish this year.

Lungile has already completed her bachelor of theology. And she’s been

serving as a children’s worker at Stephens church in Claremont.

And they wanna come to st James next year.

And I think they’ll have a wonderful contribution to make.

Solly’s a godly young man with clear gifts in leadership, preaching and leading

music. He knows the church. He knows PE. He’s got contacts in the area.

Lungile’s a full time children’s worker who comes highly recommended by St

Stephen’s church. She’s also musically gifted.

And so if we trying to reach young families in summerstrand, this couple could

really help us to do that.

But we need to raise money. At the moment we’ve got about 130 thousand

rand pledged or available to go towards them next year. We’ve set ourselves

the goal of raising 200 thousand rand by the end of September. That should be

enough to support them for their first year. So we need to raise about 70

thousand in about a month and a half.

So we’ve drawn up a formal letter which I’m gona send out this. And there’ll be

a few different ways that you can consider giving towards this. And if you’d like

to send it on to anyone else please feel free to do that.

So this is just one way that you might want to give. I think it would be a good

investment.

Okay so we’ve seen how Israel have turned from God. We’ve seen how they

can return to Him.

3) Now finally, notice how eager God is to welcome them back.

Look at verse 10 again. Notice the longing in God’s words. Verse 10.

You see how God’s just longing for the opportunity to bless them.

He’s like the rugby player just longing for the coach to give him an opportunity

to play. Just test me! Just give me the chance. I’ll reward how. Just let me show

you my blessing.

You see, God doesn’t delight in our rebellion. He longs to bless us. And so He

wants you to repent. He says: come back to Him. stop being greedy. Stop

storing up money for yourself. Stop robbing me. Give me your best. And let me

show you how much blessing you will receive.

“I will throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that

you’ll not have room enough for it.”

Now these verses 10-12 are some of the most misquoted verses in the whole

Old Testament.

They some of the favourite verses for those who teach the prosperity gospel.

They say: look here. Look at Malachi. He says: give your money to the church.

And then God will bless you abundantly. And the blessing will be physical. Look

at verse 11.

“I’ll prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will

not cast their fruit. Then all nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a

delightful land.”

And so if you wanna have beautiful gardens. With no rose beatles. If you want

your crops to be fruitful. If you want our nation of Israel to be prosperous and

blessed. Then you must give your money to the church.

Whatever you sow financially. You will also reap financially.

That’s the prosperity gospel. And it’s a lie. And so I wanna ask you to listen

carefully now. Because I think this is one of the most common and dangerous

lies in our country at the moment. Many of the biggest churches in our country

are following this lie. And so we almost done. But please nudge the person

next to you. please concentrate for this point.

The error of these false teachers is that they fail to understand the context. In

case you havent noticed Malachi is still in the Old Testament. And so its written

to people who are still in the Old covenant. The law that God gave to Moses.

And included in that law were blessings and curses. And so if you go back

Deuteronomy 28 you’ll notice that right at the end of the law, there’s a whole

list of physical blessings if Israel obey His law. And a whole list of physical

curses if they disobey.

And so that’s exactly what you see in Israel’s history. Whenever they obey

God, the nation prospers. Under King David and his son Solomon they become

the great kingdom in the world.

But when they disobey God then they suffer. God sends famine on the land.

They get taken captive by their enemies. Eventually they get taken off into

exile.

In other words, God’s blessing in the old covenant was earthly and physical.

Not so in the new covenant. God’s blessing in the new covenant is heavenly

and spiritual.

You get that?

God’s blessing in the old covenant was earthly and physical. In the New

covenant its heavenly and spiritual.

That’s why Ephesians 1 verse 3 says: Praise be to God Who has blessed us with

every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

And so I wanna show you how these verses apply to us.

This same principle still applies.

We will still reap what we sow. But instead of reaping a physical harvest. Our

harvest will be spiritual.

Look at 2 Corinthians 9 verse 6. It should be on the screen.

“Remember this: who ever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and

whoever sows generously will also reap generously. So it’s the same principle.

The more you sow, the more you gona reap.

But notice the type of harvest we will reap. Verse 7

“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly

or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make

all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you

need, you will abound in every good work.”

You notice the similar language to Malachi? All grace abound to you. This is

abundant grace. Abundant blessing. Why?

So that we might abound in every good work.

The same thing in verse 10.

“Now He who applies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply

and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your

righteousness.”

You see God doesn’t wanna withhold good things from His people.

He wants to bless us abundantly. He wants to pour out His grace upon us. He

wants to prosper us. Not physically. But in a harvest of righteousness. And an

abundance of good works.

Don’t you want that for yourself. Spiritual fruitfulness for God. Will you return

to God with your money?

Lets pray