Giving

00:02 If you turn in your copies of the Scripture this morning to Malachi 3, it's been quite a while since we've been in Malachi. And it was one of those things, one of those books I think that are better preached in person than on Facebook Live. And so I'd like to read our text. Then I'm going to have a little lesson for the children this morning again. 00:22 The Bible says in verses 6, Malachi 3:6 through 12, "For I am the Lord, I do not change. Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my inordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, 00:42 and I will return to you," says the Lord of Hosts. But you said, "In what way shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me." But you say, "In what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. 01:03 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. 01:19 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. "For all nations will call you blessed. For you will be a delightful land," says the Lord of Hosts. 01:40 Now I want to just read for the children or bring to the children a couple lessons this morning on giving and tithing. And I'm going to use kind of those terms, tithing and giving, interchangeably until later on in the message. 01:56 But Jesus said that we or Paul said in Acts 20:35 that we should remember the words of the Lord Jesus. How many of you want to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, children? Anybody want to remember the words of the Lord Jesus? Okay. We want to remember. And what did he say? What did he say about giving? He said, 02:17 "It is more blessed to give than to what?" 02:22 Receive. 02:22 Receive. Say that with me, okay? "It is more blessed to give than to receive." How many like to get birthday gifts? Huh? You like to get birthday gifts? How many like to get Christmas gifts? Yeah. How many like to just get a gift for anyhow? Okay. How many of you have the same joy in giving a gift? 02:46 Okay. Fewer hands, but a few. A few. We should have the same joy in giving a birthday gift. And sometimes when we actually do it, it's fun. It's fun to give and watch somebody else have the excitement of receiving. And we should have the same joy in giving a Christmas gift. 03:07 "Oh, did you know what I got you? You know what I got you?" Some children can't wait to tell what we got them for a gift, the other children. Or grandma or grandpa or mom or dad or whatever. And Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." And it's a real blessing to receive. But it's more blessed to give. 03:27 Now I think about that when I think about some things about my past. One of the things that I remember that my daddy taught us to give. And I remember working for my grandpa. I was probably about 13, working out in the fields, 03:46 the harvest fields, driving truck and whatever else we were driving out there in the fields. And I remember getting my paycheck at the end of the summer. Grandpa only paid once a year. And that was at the end of harvest. And he'd come over and he'd settle up with us. 04:03 "How many hours do you have?" And we'd turn in our hours and then he'd give us a check of money. And I remember after I got my first check, my dad said, "Now Todd, this is what you do before you do anything else. Before you do anything else with that money. 04:22 And you're going to put some in the bank and you're going to put some towards your tuition and some stuff like that." And so he said, "Before you do anything else, you give 10% of that money away to the church." He said, "I don't care where you give it. Needs to go to the Lord's work. You can give it to the church. You can give it to a church-sponsored mission. I don't care where you give it. 04:42 You decide. But you need to give 10%." Guess where I gave it? It was a 13-year-old boy. Never knowing the future. I gave it to Gospel Echoes. 04:56 And they sent me a little New Testament with a thank you letter. And that was very special. But I still remember that opportunity to give and how good that felt. And how my dad was teaching me to, in a disciplined way, to begin to give right off the top. 05:17 Right off the top. You know the best cream rises to the top. And you take that off and you skim that. And that's what makes the best ice cream, right? And so the best is what you give to the Lord. 05:28 Now I have another story, something that happened to me because I was still not quite under I mean, I believed in tithing and giving and giving the offering and so on. But one night I found myself in a meeting. And the speaker was challenging people to give by faith and to invest in God's kingdom. 05:48 And I was a poor pastor and didn't hardly have any money. And I think I had $4 in my billfold. And so the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "Now Todd, I want you to give those $4." Well, God, I'd like to stop and get something to eat on the way home. You know I've got an hour and a quarter drive. 06:10 But God, no, I want you to give those $4. And I made a deal with God. I don't recommend this. But I made a deal with God. It was the only time I ever made that kind of a deal. 06:21 I said, "Lord, if you will prosper this money or a hundredfold, I will give half of that back to you." And what do you think God did? Within the next week or so, we received some gifts that totaled up to about $400. 06:42 And he took that $4, multiplied it to 400. I had told my wife what I did. And so she was on board with it. And we gave away half of that money. And I don't even remember where we gave it or what we did with it. But we gave it away to the work of the Lord. 06:59 And so those are some things that have happened in my life to help us to know how to give. Now I want to share with you about a man by the name of Colgate. Now I won't ask you what toothpaste you use. But there's a good chance that somewhere in your house there's some Colgate something. They make toothpaste. 07:18 And he started the factory, the company, Colgate-Paulmolive. Paulmolive, I think, is a dishwashing soap and different kinds of soaps. And this lad, his name was William Colgate. And he was 16 years old when he left home to seek his fortune. All his worldly possessions were tied in one bundle, which he carried in his hand. 07:39 And as he trudged along, he met an old neighbor, the captain of a canal boat. And the following conversation took place, which changed the whole current of the boy's life. "Well, William, where are you going?" "I don't know," he answered. "Father is too poor to keep me at home any longer. And says I must go out now and make my fortune myself, 08:01 my living for myself." "There's no trouble about that," said the captain. "Be sure you start right and you'll get along fine." William told his friend that the only trade he knew anything about was soap and candle making, at which he helped his father while at home. "Well," said the old man, 08:20 "let me pray with you once more and give you a little advice and then I'll let you go." They both knelt down to pray. The old man prayed earnestly for William. And when they got done praying, he gave him this advice. "Someone soon will be the leading soap maker in New York City in New York. It can be you as well as anyone. 08:40 I hope it may. Be a good man. Give your heart to Christ. Pay the Lord all that belongs to him of every dollar you earn. Make an honest soap. Give a full pound." In other words, don't cheat people. "And I am certain that you will be a prosperous and rich man." When the boy arrived in the city, 09:01 he found it hard to get work. Lonesome and far from home, he remembered his mother's words and the last words of the boat captain. He was then led to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Because Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things that you have need of will be added unto you." And so he united with the church. 09:21 And he remembered the promise to the old captain. And the first dollar he earned brought up the question of the Lord's part. In the Bible, he found that the Jews were commanded to give one-tenth. So he said, "If the Lord will take one-tenth, I will give that." Having regular employment, he soon became a partner in the soap making business. 09:41 After a few years, the partner died. And William became the sole owner of the business. He now resolved to keep his promise to the old captain. He made an honest soap, gave a full pound, instructed his bookkeeper to open an account with the Lord, and carry one-tenth of all his income to that account. 10:01 He prospered. His business grew. His family was blessed. His soap sold. And he grew rich faster than he ever hoped. He then gave two-tenths, prospered more than ever. Then he gave three-tenths or 30%, then four-tenths, and then five-tenths. He was giving half of his income to the work of the Lord. 10:23 He educated his family, settled all his plans for life, and gave all of his income to the Lord, to the Lord's work. He ended up giving it all away. He prospered more than ever. This is the story of Colgate, who has given millions of dollars to the Lord's cause and left a name that will not die. 10:42 And so not that we want to not that we give to get rich. That's not the point. But we give to honor God. And so when you think about that, when you get your next paycheck, when you get your next allowance, how about just setting a little bit of that aside and saying, "I want to give this to the Lord in some way." Okay? 11:03 So that's just a lesson for the children. I know you as parents are teaching your children how to give, how to tithe, how to give to the work of the Lord. And I think we find this concept of giving to be extremely important. Now we'll talk about tithing a little bit. 11:23 And I realized that really in the years of ministry that I've been here at Living Water, I'm not sure I've ever preached on giving. And because I've always felt Marv had it covered well. And then Dustin came along and he covered it well. 11:43 But when you go through an expository series of messages, you got to do something with it. And I didn't ever felt like I myself was a financial wizard or a financial guru or didn't know that much about making money. I know a little bit more about spending it than making it, as probably all of us do. But this thing of tithing and giving is important. 12:05 It's very important in how we view and what we do with our material possessions. What is the state of tithing in the church? According to an organization called The State of the Plate, only 10 to 25% of church members tithe. That's pretty low. Only 10 to 25%. 12:25 Now these numbers may change very a bit depending on where you get your sources and so on. But that's fairly consistent. Only 5% of the United States population tithes. And on average, Christians get this. 12:39 On average, Christians give 2.5% of their income down from tithing in the Depression, where Christians were giving 3.3% during the Great Depression. Now they're averaging 2.2%. Well, I feel like we've been instructed well here at Living Water with Brother Marv, Brother Dustin. 12:59 We've had the Dave Ramsey series. And the Lord has blessed our congregation. And I want to bless you as a congregation for your giving. Now I have no way of knowing what the total income of all of the families at Living Water are and compare that towards our offerings. I don't know. I don't have access to that information. 13:20 But I do believe that many of you, if not all of you, take giving very seriously. And if you don't, you're missing out on a blessing. You're missing out on a blessing. According to Malachi, you're missing out on a big blessing. Now this this morning is not an exhaustive study. 13:39 I leave that to the experts. But neither do I disagree with the things that have been taught from this pulpit by Brother Marv and Brother Dustin through the years. I may have just a little bit different slant on it. And I don't remember everything they've said. So if you compare your notes to what I say and what they said, you might have slight differences here or there. 13:59 But be that as it may, we want to stick with God's word. Now let's just do a very quick review here to bring us up to speed on the book of Malachi. The purpose of the book of Malachi, you recall, as they were gathered back to the land of Israel after being in Babylonian captivity for 70 years, Malachi was addressing sin, sin such as sorcery, 14:20 adultery, perjury, fraud, oppression, injustice, a corrupted priesthood with corrupted worship. And God was calling them back to the covenant, back to the Mosaic covenant, the covenant that he had made with Moses, which was an extension of the covenant that he had made with Abraham, 14:40 Isaac, and Jacob. He was calling them back to the priestly covenant. You recall in one message that we talked about, Phineas. 14:51 Not Phineas. I can't remember the priest's name. Anyway, he was the son of Aaron. And yes. Anyway, he had made a covenant with that priest that as he took a stand for truth. And so we have the priestly covenant. They're being called back to the priestly covenant, 15:11 being called back to the marriage covenant, marriage covenant in chapter two, which they had been unfaithful in divorcing their wives and remarrying other wives, foreign wives. And he's calling them to righteousness, calling them away from the attitude and the actions of the world, which is so easy to succumb to the temptation of living like the world around us. 15:33 And if there's one way that one area that we live like the world around us many times is how we dispense and use our money and our possessions. Oftentimes, we're tempted to spend like the world, make it like the world, use it like the world, bequeath it like the world. And we have to take a step back and say, 15:55 "What about my giving is a reflection of biblical values? And what about my giving is a reflection of worldly values?" So if you recall the format of the book here, he starts by making an accusation against the people by using rhetorical questions. And so he'll ask a question such as here in our text this morning, 16:15 "Will a man rob God?" Whoa. You know what's he talking about? Will a man rob God? And so he starts with a question. And then God makes an accusation. "Yet you have robbed me." And then the people's objection in the form of a question, "How have we robbed you?" There you have it again. 16:35 "Will a man rob God? You have robbed me. How have we robbed you?" And then he justifies his judgment and his verdict and expands the argument to make God's case against the people. That is the pattern of these questions that have been raised in the book of Malachi. So here we have this morning, 16:56 this question, "Will a man rob God?" And I think it's important that we connect verse six and seven with verse eight and put it in its context. Because what we're talking about is this God of the covenant, the unchanging God, the immutable God. It means the God who cannot move, the God who will not change, 17:16 the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He says, "I am the Lord. I do not change. Therefore, you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob." What's the fact that he doesn't change have to do with them being consumed or not consumed? Well, the fact of the matter is that it is about the covenant. 17:36 God is the one who will not change, cannot change, does not change. He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses. And that will not change even if the people are unfaithful. And so we have the changeless nature of the God. The covenant is the reason that they are not consumed because his covenant with them, 17:55 which is an extension of his character and of his name and not an extension of their ability to keep the covenant. Their ability to keep the covenant wasn't all that great. They didn't have a new heart. They didn't have a new mind. They were prone to idolatry. They had hearts of stone and stiff necks. 18:16 And they didn't have the ability even to keep this covenant. Some did. Most didn't. And so God's faithfulness in the midst of an unfaithful group of people. And verse seven, "Yet from the days of your fathers, you have gone away from my ordinances. You have not kept them. So return to me. 18:36 And I will return to you," says the Lord. But how shall we return? Well, one of the things that happens when a person returns to the Lord and gives the Lord their heart, he also gets their pocketbook. When God gets your heart, he gets your billfold, 18:55 your checkbook, and your purse, and your bank account, and your 401(k), and your possessions. And you see that in scripture. And if we have time this morning, I'll show you at least one illustration of when the revival took place. All of a sudden, finances started flowing. Interesting. 19:16 Interesting. God's blessing was upon that revival. And so we have tithing here. What have you robbed God in? In tithes and offerings. And so we have the subject of tithing here in this passage. The tithe speaks of the 10%. It is first mentioned in Genesis chapter 10 or excuse me, 19:38 Genesis 14:10, when Abraham had come back from a war, a military action, 19:47 and had conquered the five kings there that had taken Lot captive. He took those possessions. And he met Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, the priest of Salem. 20:02 And he gave 10% of all of the possessions that he had acquired in that military conflict, that military action of setting Lot free. He gave that to the priest Melchizedek. That's the first mention of tithing in the New Testament that I'm aware of. And then you have in Genesis chapter 28, 20:24 Jacob furthering this opportunity to tithe when he went and saw that vision of God and the ladder, Jacob's ladder, while he slept with his head on the pillow. The next morning, he knew that he had been visited by God, the God of heaven. And he said, "If you will bless me on our way, I will give you a tithe, 20:43 a 10% of all." Can I have a glass of water, please? I'm not sure if this one's fresh. It's half there. But I will give you I will give a tithe of all that is there. 21:01 Social distancing. Drink from your wife's water bottle. Well, I kiss her anyway, so. 21:10 I will give a tithe. I will give 10% of all of my increase to you. And then Moses came along and instituted the tithe under the Mosaic code. A tenth of Israel's seed, fruit, flocks were given to the Lord. You can read about this in Leviticus 27, Deuteronomy 14, Nehemiah 13, 21:31 2 Chronicles 31. And that went to fund the work of God in the tabernacle and the temple and then to take care of the priests who had no inheritance. They were not allowed to have an inheritance of land. They were given cities where everybody else was given land. The Levites were given cities and surrounding pasture land of that cities. 21:53 But they were to live off the tithes and offerings of the temple, the tabernacle. And then the Levites were in turn to give unto the chief priests. The Levites in turn were to give 10% of their income to the chief priests. 22:09 And those who didn't tithe were threatened with a curse right here in Malachi chapter three. You are cursed with a curse. The word cursed there means you are hindered. You are bound. You are hemmed in. You are hemmed in. My blessings are hemmed out. You are hemmed in. 22:28 And fill your way is filled with obstacles. You try to make money here. There's obstacles. You try to make a good crop here. There's obstacles. You try to invest over here. It's like putting it in a bag with holes, Haggai says. So that came out of the Mosaic system. 22:46 Now, though we might assume Old Testament Israel gave a total of 10%, those who have studied this more than I believe that as you add up all the different tithes and offerings, there were 14 different tithes over seven years. And others believe that there were 12. I can't tell you for sure if there were 12 or 14, 23:06 but there was more than one. And Bible scholars believe that the amount certainly exceeded 10% of their total tithes. It was probably more likely up around 20% a year of tithing to the work of the Lord. And so our 10%, 23:26 if you tithe 10%, should be viewed as a minimum if you're interested in tithing under the Old Testament economy. However, when we talk about the New Testament, well, we'll get to that in just a minute with the schools of thought, we are to tithe generously. We're to give generously, 23:46 a generous amount of giving to the work of the Lord. Now, he says there's four blessings here that I will promise you if you tithe. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there will be food in my house. The storehouse will be full. 24:07 The temple had rooms. You can read about this in the ministry of in the reign of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 31. The temple was built with rooms. 24:18 Those rooms on the other sides of it became like warehouses to warehouse the grains and the 24:28 tithed things that were tithed that came in from the people, for the priests, for the sacrifices, for emergencies, for the poor. The work of God would be funded. 24:39 He said, "If you will tithe and will give, the work of God will be funded." Number two, there would be an abundant manifestation of God's goodness. 24:51 "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 blessings that there will not be room enough to receive it." A manifestation of God's goodness is seen when we give. It's seen by others in the gift. 25:12 And it's seen by us in the way that the Lord responds and blesses as a result of our giving. Someone has said we can that God uses a bigger shovel than what we do. He said, "We can shovel it in, shovel it out. But God's shovel is bigger than ours." And when his shovel pours out blessings into our lives, 25:33 it glorifies God. And we see a manifestation of his goodness. The third thing, the things that devour God's blessings would be rebuked. 25:42 Verse 11, "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." And so whatever it is there to devour, he said, "I'm going to rebuke that devourer. 26:00 And that way, the blessings that I want to pour out to you will not be hindered." Now, in order to really get a hold of this, we have to understand what happened and what God said in Deuteronomy chapter 28. So if you want to just turn there, Deuteronomy 28, he's referring in this passage in Malachi to the covenant, to the covenant. 26:21 And God's covenant with them was a covenant such that if you walk with me in obedience, I will bless you. If you walk in disobedience, I will curse you. And in the Old Testament, that blessing was in terms of monetary fruitfulness. 26:42 The New Testament, we're under a different dispensation. Does God still bless in a monetary way? Yes. We had some of those stories this morning. But in a more biblical way, in the New Testament, it is spiritual blessings as the spiritual blessings are a reflection in the New Testament of the prosperity of the Old Testament blessings materially. 27:04 And so he says in verse two of Deuteronomy 28, "Because you obey the voice of the Lord, blessed shall you be in the city and in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl." Verse six, "Blessed shall you be when you come in. And blessed shall you be when you go out. 27:22 The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated." And for 14 verses there, he talks about blessing after blessing after blessing after blessing after blessing. "If you walk in obedience, follow the covenant. 27:37 But," he says in verse 15, "It shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes, then you will be cursed. Cursed shall you be in the city and in the country. 27:51 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl and your fruit of your body and your produce and the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. You will be cursed when you go out. And you'll be cursed when you come in. You'll be cursed with confusion and rebuke in all that you do." And over and over down through verse 47, he says, 28:11 "Because you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, therefore, you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord shall send against you." And so it's the result of not walking in the covenant. So what he's calling them back is into the covenant. He said, 28:29 "This covenant that we made that I made with your fathers, that we made together, the blessings you have experienced is because you've kept the covenant. 28:37 The curses that you are now experiencing is because you have disobeyed the covenant." The fourth thing that would be a blessing or that would happen when they tithe is in verse 12. "And all nations will call you blessed. For you will be a delightful land," says the Lord of hosts. 28:57 And so it will not only bless you, but it'll bless the land. It'll bless the nations. It'll bless my name. It will all be a wonderful experience of blessing if you walk in the covenant. That's what this is about. 29:16 Now, what does this passage have to do with New Testament Christ followers? There are at least two schools of thought on this. One school of thought would be that tithing is binding upon Christians in the church age. Tithing is binding upon Christians in the church age. What do people base this on? 29:35 They base it upon the fact that Abraham, before Moses, before the Mosaic covenant, Abraham tithed. Jacob tithed. 29:46 This position is also based on the fact that Jesus seemed to support it in the New Testament, in the teaching that he gave in the Gospels and throughout the New Testament. Jesus seemed to support it. He supported the temple tax when he had Peter go out and get the money out of the fish's mouth. 30:06 And he told them about their tithing and the inconsistency and hypocrisy of the Pharisees when they said, "You tithe intricately, common and the seeds and the little seeds and the various seeds." He said, "You tithe those meticulously. 30:25 But you have neglected the way to your matters of the law." And then he says, "This you ought to have done, this over here, the way to your matters of the law, you ought to have done and not to leave this undone." So Jesus seemed to support the whole area of tithing. 30:44 Others who believe that tithing is binding upon the Christians in the church age would also, many of them would believe in what is called storehouse giving, that 10% of the tithe should come to the local church that an individual is a part of. Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea. Is it required in scripture? 31:04 According to them, this verse would teach that. They would give their 10% to the temple. Christians now give their 10% to the local church. That would be one school of thought. The second school of thought is that tithing is non-binding upon Christians in the church age, that instead, 31:24 generosity should be the standard. Generosity should be the standard. They would say that Abraham and Jacob were descriptive, not prescriptive. In other words, they were describing what Jacob and Abraham did, not telling us that we should do it in the New Testament. Well, interesting. 31:43 I'm just laying out the case. And since the Christian is not under the Mosaic law and the practice of giving 10% is not commanded in the New Testament, this school of thought would say that we are not under the bondage of tithing 10%, but rather, 32:04 as the New Testament does with all of the law, it goes to a greater degree, encompasses the heart and not just the action, that we should be known as people of generosity, the people of stewardship, where we steward the things that God has given to us. 32:24 And we responsibly give to him that which funds his work, that which cares for the poor, that which takes care of the Christian workers, and that which evangelizes the laws. 32:38 Listen to some scriptures about giving. And I'll leave those two schools of thought for you to consider and to ponder on. But listen to these scriptures, Hebrews 13:16, "But do not forget to do good and to share." That word share means give. 32:58 "Don't forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." You mean our giving should be sacrificial? Our sharing should be sacrificial? Yes, in the New Testament age, just as a reflection of the sacrifice that Jesus gave of himself. 33:17 You see, the Gospel is the reason that we give. The Gospel is the reason that we give. God gave to us. Don't we say that at Christmastime? Why do we give gifts? Well, because Jesus gave us a gift. And we want to just be generous and give other people gifts because Jesus gave it. That didn't change after Christmas. 33:37 That's still the same. It's still the same. Jesus, the Gospel, God giving us a gift that we do not deserve, an extravagant gift, also pictures of the way that we should be conditioned to give as New Testament Christians. 1 Corinthians 16:2, "On the first day of the week, 33:57 let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come." What were they doing? They were taking up collections and donations for the poor who were experiencing famine in Jerusalem. Proverbs 3:9 and 10, "Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increases. 34:20 So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine." Honor the Lord with the first fruits of your increase. Luke 6:38 echoes that, "Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, 34:39 shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom." These are the words of Christ. The words of Christ. Does that sound like generosity? That sound like generosity? "Give, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, it will be given to you. For with the same measure that you use, 35:01 it will be measured back to you." So I guess the question is, what kind of measure do you want to use? You want to use a scoop? You want to use a teaspoon? Yeah, well, I'll give you a little bit. Here. I have a teaspoon. 35:15 Or you want to use a scoop shovel of giving? 35:23 Now, we also must say that the scoop shovel may look different for different people. Jesus indicated that with the widow and the widow's two mites. Her scoop shovel was two mites, may I remind you. But it was a scoop shovel as far as she was concerned. She gave all that she had, Jesus said. 35:43 And so you cannot compare, well, this person gave a million dollars to this cause and this person gave $5. That $5 may be as much sacrifice as the person who gave a million. Amen? 2 Corinthians 8:7, "But as you abound in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, 36:03 and in your love for us, see that you abound in this grace, the grace of giving also." 2 Corinthians 9:7, "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of a necessity. For God loves a cheerful giver." By the way, 36:22 Jesus also said, "Don't give to be seen of men. Don't give for the purpose of having a plaque with your name on it on the side of the building. Don't give for that reason. But give letting not your right hand know what your left hand does." Haggai 1:5-11 said, 36:42 "Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much and bring in little. You eat, but do not have enough. You drink, but are not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And you earn wages. 36:57 He who earns wages earns wages to put into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified," says the Lord. "You looked for much, but indeed it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away." Does the Lord ever blow away your money? 37:19 I mean, you talk about you blowing it. God can blow it too. That's what it says. He can blow on it and it's gone. 37:28 "Therefore, because of my house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house, therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew and the earth withholds its fruit. For I have called for a drought on the land and the mountains on the grain and the new wine and the oil and whatever the ground brings forth, 37:49 on men and livestock and on all the labor of your hands." Here's something for sure. You can't outgive God. And it's also for sure that when God withholds his blessing, we can work all day, all night, and work and work and work and still not make ends meet. 38:10 Ed Cole was a man who wrote Maximize Manhood. He was a Christian speaker, a very godly man years ago. He's been gone now for maybe 10, 15 years. But he said this, "Only three things will keep a man from tithing." And his use of the word was tithe. We may say it as giving. 38:28 "Only three things that will keep a man from tithing or giving: fear, greed, or unbelief." I find that interesting. Fear, greed, or unbelief. All of those three things are sin that need to be repented of. 38:48 And interestingly enough, and I'm going to close with this illustration, interestingly enough, when God gets ahold of people's hearts, he gets ahold of their pockets and their purses. Go over to the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 9. 39:07 Nehemiah 9. And by the way, Nehemiah was likely a contemporary of Malachi. So Nehemiah was a leader in the community. Malachi was a spokesman from God. And so they were contemporaries addressing the same time, the same issues. 39:21 And it could have been that Malachi's message either was prompted by the experience of Nehemiah or the experience of Nehemiah was a result of Malachi's message because the people got the picture. "In chapter 9, now on the 24th day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and sackcloth and with dust on their heads. 39:41 Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord, their God, for one fourth part of the day. And for another fourth, they confessed and worshiped the God, the Lord their God." Now, does that sound like revival? 40:01 That sounds like revival. What happened? Verse 38, still in chapter 9, "And because of this, their commitment to God, because of this, we make a sure covenant and write it. 40:18 Our leaders, our Levites, and our priests seal it." So there was such a turning to God that day and such revival breaking out that they made a renewal of the covenant. Verse 36, "Here we are, servants today, and the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its bounty. Here we are, 40:37 servants in it, and it yields much increase to the kings you have set over us because of our sins. Also, they have dominion over our bodies or our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. And because of this, we make a sure covenant and write it down." Now, what happened as a result of that? In chapter 10, 40:58 verse 29, "And these joined with the brethren their nobles and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, which was given to Moses, the servant of God, to observe and to do all the commandments of the Lord our God or the Lord our Lord and his ordinance and statutes. 41:15 We would not give our daughters as wives to the people of the land nor take their daughters as our sons for our sons." And they go on and list the agreements and the terms of the covenant. 41:26 And then you go down in verse 37, verse 35, "And we made ordinances to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of all trees year by year to the house of the Lord, to bring the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, 41:45 and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, to bring the first fruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new wine and oil, to the priests, to the storerooms." There you have the storerooms at the temple, the storerooms of the house of our God, 42:04 "and to bring the tithes of our land to the Levites, for the Levites should receive the tithes in all our farming communities." Verse 38, "And the priests, the descendants of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes. And the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithes, a tenth of the tithes, a tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, 42:25 to the rooms of the storehouse. For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain, of the new wine, and the oil to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are, where the priests who ministered and the gatekeepers and the singers are. And we will not neglect the house of God, the house of our God." In other words, you're going to bring that stuff into the Levites. 42:46 The Levites are going to give it to the chief priest. And everyone is going to tithe. 42:53 What happened here is that when God got ahold of their hearts, all of a sudden, their money was freed up. Their possessions were freed up. They began to give as a result of their heart expression of praise and glory to God. 43:11 I believe there are several things that need to be considered in our giving. Number one, the work of God locally, the work of God at the local church. Number two, giving to the poor in appropriate ways. And we work at that as a brotherhood, as a body, giving in ways that do not enable poverty, 43:32 but that help in times of crisis and giving in such a way that people are not bound to stay in poverty. But nevertheless, there are legitimate needs of the poor that even in the New Testament, the apostles were very mindful of the needs of the poor. 43:49 And then there is the need to give so that we can see the glory of God and give praise to God and so that God's name might be glorified. And one of the reasons, I think this is an application of that last verse where the nations will give glory to God. And that, I think, is the priority of giving in worldwide evangelism, 44:11 in worldwide evangelism, so that all the nations of the world may see the goodness and glory of God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this lesson. It spoke to my heart today to reevaluate my heart, my attitude towards giving, 44:31 my joy in giving, how much I give, my desire to give more, to look at those things in my life, to repent, to confess where I have not allowed the glory of God to be my motivation for giving. 44:53 Lord, I pray that you would speak to each of our hearts and that we might, in our own way and in our own hearts and our own marriages, determine what God would have us to do and how he would have us to do it. And we pray this that you will bless this congregation, bless it in this time of COVID. 45:15 And thank you, Lord, 45:16 for those who have been able to be sustained during this time. And thank you, Lord, for those who have struggled, Lord. And as you have given us opportunity to share with one another, may that opportunity never be overlooked. 45:36 Thank you for our deacons, Lord, who look after the finances of the congregation. Thank you for their contact with those who have been unemployed these last weeks and months. Lord, I just pray that there would be opportunities and there would be resources, that he who has much would have not that would have much to give, 45:55 and he who has little would receive in a way that glorifies God. We pray these favors and blessings in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me say one more thing just to clarify something. I believe in tithing. I do believe in tithing. I don't tithe for my salvation. 46:18 I don't tithe because I'm going to earn merit points with God. I don't even tithe so that I can get more in return. I think that reveals something about our hearts. If you tithe to get rich, then you're probably not tithing out of a heart of love for God. But I think that the tithe of 10%, 46:39 this is my personal opinion, the tithe of 10% is a good place to start. And it's a good thing to teach our children and our young people to get them in the practice and in the regularity of planned giving. So that's my two cents on tithing. God bless you, Brother Justin. 47:01 Would you have a song? And then would you dismiss us this morning by section?