Good morning. Hope you all had a good night's rest. Let's all stand as we read the word of God. If you have a Bible handy, Get open to the Book of Malachi, the last book of the older testament. And I'll begin in chapter 3 and verse 7.

Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me 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 the whole nation. 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 a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sake so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground nor the the vine failed to bear fruit for you in the field says the Lord of hosts and all nations will call you blessed for you will be a delightful land says the Lord of hosts would you pray with me father we come to you this morning as a desperate people. We call out to you, we cry out to you.

Father, we ask you for your presence this morning, that you would send your Holy Spirit into our midst that he would anoint my lips and he would anoint the ear to hear today father we confess I confess this morning that apart from you we can do nothing and so Lord we ask you we beg you we plead with you for your grace. Grace, Lord, to hear. Grace to obey. In Christ's name we pray, Amen. You may be seated.

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine, he's a builder, and he built our house that we're living in now, and he and his wife took a trip with some other friends to California, West Coast. And they took them to church on Sunday morning and they went to a large mega church, Southern California. And after the typical hour rock concert and then 15 minutes in the Word of God, here was the remarkable thing about that little sermon. Two things the pastor said. Number one, I just want to let you know that I've come off of my Sabbath, my summer Sabbath, of reading the Scriptures.

I took the summer off of reading the Scriptures. And the second thing was I determined that the Minor Prophets are not for the church in our day. Well if he'd have been reading his Bible he would have recognized, as you all do from 2 Timothy 3.16, that all scripture, and by the way that was the all scripture that he was referring to, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. That means Malachi applies to you and I today. And there's many things that we can learn from the Minor prophets.

There's many similarities to what was happening as Malachi was prophesying to a nation that had gone astray. This text was written in 440 to 420 BC and it was written he was a contemporary with Nehemiah and probably likely Nehemiah's return to Jerusalem. You recall that he had gone, they'd rebuilt the walls, and then he had gone back to serve our desertes. And now he comes back to Jerusalem. And many of the reforms that he and Ezra had put in place, and Nehemiah had put in place, are gone away.

And Israel has fallen back. This is after the seven year, seventy year captivity has taken place. It's after the temple worship was restored. Malachi's prophecy is a singular prophecy. It includes a curse.

He's the last prophet. There will not be another prophet. God will not speak from heaven to Israel for 400 years. And we'll see the angels appearing and the forerunner come and Messiah come. If we look at chapter 1 of Malachi, he begins the burden of the word of the Lord to Malachi.

Did you ever have a burden? God put a burden on your heart for a people, for a nation, a burden to preach a message. God burdened, he laid this burden on Malachi and he prophesied to the nation. He begins this prophecy, if you look at chapter one, he says, I have loved you. You know, I saw something very interesting preaching a couple of weeks ago on, or reading the parable of the rich young ruler.

We hear this parable, and what we miss in that parable is when Jesus turns to him after he says all of the things he had done. He says, and Jesus, and he loved him. And then he says, go and sell. He loved him and then he says go and sell. He loved him and then he tells him go and sell, give it to the poor.

How is that a loving thing? How is this a loving thing? Israel says to God, to Malachi, how have you loved us? And then he takes him to Jacob and Esau. He says, Jacob I love, and Esau I have, I hate it.

And he says, look at Esau, look at them. They have suffered the same desolation from the Chaldean armies as Israel has, and they're gonna try to rebuild, and they can keep trying, and every time they try and rebuild I will tear it down. Do you recall the blessing between Jacob and Esau and Esau's blessing it would be 12 tribes but that's all they get. He says Esau I hated, it's not love less, it means I hated him. It's a picture.

He reminds Israel that he loves them and he didn't choose Israel and he didn't choose you and I because we were so marvelous, such a great people. He chose Israel because they were the most stiff-necked, and that's likely why he chose me and you, because we're stiff, that he might reveal his glory in you and I. See, it's through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of God, and you see the travail of Jacob, the transformation of Jacob from this conniving, grabbing the heel of Esau as he's born, God turns him into the prince of the Prince of God, one who rustles with God. He changes him, makes him a son. Malachi begins, after that intro, he begins to rebuke them.

In Malachi 1 6, a son on earth his father and a servant his master if then I be a father where is my honor and if I be a master where is my fear sayeth the Lord of hosts Oh priests that despise my name and and you say you say wherein have we despised thy name? You offer polluted bread upon my altar, and you say wherein have we polluted thee? And you say the table of the Lord is contemptible, and if you offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and sick is it not evil offer it now unto thy governor and see if he will be pleased with thee or accept thy person sayeth the Lord of hosts. There were very few offerings in fact here's how bad, here's how apostate Israel was.

Tobiah, one of the enemies of it remember Nehemiah your memories were building the wall you got sample out to buy it continually mocking him. To buy it is now living in the storehouse. The storehouse is empty. There's no offerings. They made an apartment.

Tobiah is living in the storehouse. The enemy of Israel living there in the storehouse. And these offerings are lame and blind and weak. And they have males in their flock and they don't offer them to God as prescribed in the law. The priests are despising God's name.

And they're clueless. They say, how have we done this? They think that there are people that does right. They can't even see how blind they are. There's no fear of God.

How could you offer that kind of offering, except your heart be filled with total unbelief. Too much time in Babylon. Seventy years in Babylon will affect you. It takes a long time to take that out of you. God does that and he can do that and he will do that.

See they were used to the little gods of Babylon. Gods with a small g. Those offerings, see those gods they think need, those gods need the offerings. They get their strength from these offerings. As if God needed their offerings.

He does not need their offerings. If he was hungry he would not tell them. See, they thought that he was all together like they are. God is so much greater, saints, than you and I. You say this is a weariness.

What is the use? What is the use? That's what the priests were saying. We call the good evil, the evil good. They were partial in applying the law, divorce was rampant, they were marrying foreign wives.

In fact, Joita, the high priest, his son had married daughter of Sandalot, another enemy of Israel. The priests were forbidden to marry foreign wives and they were bragging about it. You've wearied the Lord and saying where is the God of justice? You wonder where the God of judgment is. Sound familiar?

Isn't that true in our day? Doesn't this apply to our day? Second Peter 3, 3, knowing this that first scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this they willingly forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.

But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one thing. One day the Lord is not slack concerning his promises as some count slackness but his long suffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. They should have been so grateful that God was patient and that he was waiting. Aren't you glad?

I'm so glad that God is so patient and merciful with me. Here's a common theme in the first chapter. Here's verse 5, Malachi 1. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, the LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel. In verse 11, from the rising of the sun until its setting, his name will be great all day long, great in every nation.

They made God into this little God. And over and over Malachi is saying, my name is going to be great in spite of you. My name is great. See this is the root. The fruit is no giving, but the root, the root sin, it's really viewing God as his little God.

And there's no fear of God, But the ultimate is just unbelief. The only way that you could bring lame sacrifices or no sacrifices is complete unbelief. And then Malachi comes, well he obviously didn't have chapters. In chapter three, the Lord whom you seek is going to come to his temple. You think you're ready, you are not ready.

He is going to come as a purifier, he's going to purify the sons of Levi with lye soap as a smelter purifying silver and gold. They're not ready, they're not ready so much that God is going to send a messenger first, he's going to send John the Baptist, he's going to prepare the way, he's going to prepare a people for the coming of Messiah. And then if you'll turn to verse 6 in chapter 3. He says, I am the Lord. I do not change.

Aren't you glad that God doesn't change that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever when the Lord says I am the Lord and I change not he's immutable He's incapable of changing. He doesn't need to change. He's perfect. You and I are mutable. We are changeable.

Praise God for that. We're not stuck with the way we are. He's changing us and molding us and making us into the image of his dear son. But he says, I am the Lord, I do not change. Therefore you are not consumed.

They're not consumed because of the mercy of God, because of the promise to Jacob, because of the covenants to his covenant people. He's the covenant keeper. Praise God. He keeps covenant. Oh you sons of Jacob, Yet from the days of your father you have gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them.

Return to me and I will return to you. We see that in the New Testament, don't we? Draw near to me and I will draw near to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, 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." Of all the things that God could have said to Israel concerning to Israel concerning their unbelief, why in the world would he say this? Why would he go to this one thing of robbing them and then the prescription. See, they think that they're acting righteously, yet under a curse they're defrauding God of his property.

See robbery occurs when you and I take something from somebody else that doesn't belong to us. Years ago, God saved me. I was a fraternity guy. I had a radical conversion. And I had a roommate.

Some people have a... They just can't... Their besetting sin is they're a thief. They just can't help taking other people's stuff. That's not my besetting sin.

I have other ones. But I had a roommate that dropped out of college, and a couple of years after he was gone, I noticed his suitcase was up in the attic of the house, and I just kind of assumed it was mine. And fast-forward like 10 years later, I'm a believer. And I'm traveling. I have that suitcase.

Do you know who I bumped into at baggage claim in St. Pete, Florida? My old roommate. All of a sudden I'm thinking, he's going to see that suitcase. I forgot all about it.

It was the most terrified. Anyhow, I had to make restitution. So I get to call this guy up, Warren, what's your address? There's something I have to do. First of all, will you forgive me?

I stole your your suitcase. What suitcase? Well there was a suit. Oh don't worry about it. No, no, no.

I have to do this. I've become a Christian and I need to do this to clear my conscience. I need to send you this check. Okay, if you gotta do it. Well, Israel was robbing, not from a roommate, they were robbing from God.

There's no meat in this storehouse. This is a key point. And I said it last night, there's a famine in the land for the preaching of the word of God. And I think, perhaps, there's a famine because there's not meat in the local storehouse. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 9, 6.

Is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? Whoever goes to war at his own expense, who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends the flock and does not drink of the milk of that flock? Do I say these things as a mere man, or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.

Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does he say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who thrushes in hope should be partakers of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more?

Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but endure all things, lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple? And those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar, even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. You know, within the NCFIC or the Family Integrated Church movement, most of us have very small churches, maybe five families or 16 families or 40 families. Or 40 families.

And it's difficult for small churches to support a full-time worker, a full-time pastor, but it's necessary. We planted the church in Lake Geneva, I think about 12 years ago, a couple of other families. And I labored in that pulpit by myself pretty much, had help, but for nearly 11 years, as a bivocational guy. And I think in a church like that, you either focus on the pulpit, which I did, or you focus on shepherding and caring for the people. But there's so much that just is neglected.

It's just difficult. It's difficult to raise a large family and to support yourself and then to also, week after week, care for the pulpit and then God's people. And God graces us to do that, he graced me to do that. I loved every minute of it. But this last year we were able to bring in a full-time pastor.

Not to change, not to become a clergy laity, but to keep our biblical eldership intact, to not have him do everything. We're very careful to not do that. But it's changed everything. He's able to get his arms around people. He's a great communicator, he's a great preacher.

And it's just brought strength to our eldership. We have the resources to do that. You know Pink says in a world church in a missionary setting if you just get 10 faithful men the tithe you can support one one tenth of every 10 goes to support one man's income He'll have the average of the ten. It's not that difficult. And if we can do that, saints, There will be meat in the house of God.

And the local church can have impact. The shepherds can focus on the word of God. The elders can focus on the word of God, caring for God's people. It doesn't matter where you are. I was in Mexico.

We were at a very small church. I mean, it was impoverished. We were in Chihuahua, Mexico. It was, and the missionary that we were with, I was with my kids and and he preached and we left and we're getting ready to leave the church and the pastor comes running out Hey Ron, Ron, don't leave yet. He hands him a paper bag.

I looked at Ron I said what is that your lunch? He said no that's the offering. He said I've trained them. He said I don't care if Bill Gates comes. Bill Gates wouldn't come.

That's what he told me. He preaches here. You take an offering and you give it to him. Not for him, but it's for you. You get the blessing.

You get the blessing. It's more blessed to give than to receive. And I've taught them to give. Praise God. It's true in Paul's day, the Macedonian Christians gave out of their poverty.

They wanted to participate in the blessing of giving to the saints that were suffering so much in Jerusalem. Well, here's the cure. We've laid out the problem. We've laid out the disease. It's ultimately it's unbelief manifested in not giving.

Small God, verse 10 of chapter three, "'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 a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. 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 and all the nations will call you blessed for you shall be a delightful land says the Lord of hosts this is God's prescription for unbelief test me see You're going to see in a very tangible way if you will step out in faith and believe me you're going to see the results immediately. This is the path back to right standing. Draw near to me and I will draw near to you. See, it's an invitation, Saints.

It's not a heavy thing. It's an invitation to participate in the glory of God it's it's an invitation to taste and see that the Lord is good that he fulfills his promises that he does what he says he will do in a very tangible way He says I will pour out a blessing upon you that you cannot contain it. This is the same word as the deluge when Noah's flood, when the heavens opened. It's the same word. Proverbs 3 9, honor the Lord.

We read this to our families every month. But yet it doesn't apply to us. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Solomon's advice to his son.

Son, this is an older son, don't forget to honor the Lord with your firstfruits and here's the result of that. Your barns are going to be full. It's God's cure. There's a couple of key points here. First of all, there's no fear of God before apostate Israel.

They think they're doing right, they're not. There's no fear of God. Tithing, tithing, not giving, tithing, teaches us to fear God. Did you know that that was why the tithe was given to Israel? Deuteronomy 14 22.

You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year and you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where he chooses to make his name abide. The tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. Saints anything that teaches you and I that increases the fear of God in our lives, you want to do. Because we heard it, we've heard it all the last two days. There are blessing after blessing after blessing from the fear of God.

By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding. We could go on and on and on with the promises of the fear of the Lord. So the question I want to ask is how do I get more of the fear of the Lord?

Here's one way. Trust God with your resources. Here's another one. Their issue, another key point, the issue is unbelief. There is unbelief in their midst.

And they have a belief in a small God. They don't have the right God. They're not seeing the God of Israel. They're not seeing Yahweh. They're not seeing the almighty God who speaks and matter comes into existence.

Tithing builds up faith and trust in God. How many times in those first couple chapters do we say God says over and over again my name will be great From the rising of the sun till it's going down again, my name is going to be great in all the nations. You see, this command is given with a promise of blessing. One of the most impactful books, Children, read, get the two volumes set on the life of George Mueller. Paul Washer told me, he said, There's a couple books I have on my desk.

He didn't tell me this. I was thinking of a different conversation with him. I heard him preaching. One of the books on his desk is George Mueller's book. And he said it's dog-eared.

It means he's been in it a lot. George Mueller is a great man of faith. And I learned to pray from reading George Mueller's book. And we started a business, that business is a very large business today, but we started it almost 30 years ago. We had $2, 000.

Literally paid in, or prayed in every single payroll. We prayed in every order. I would pray for customers, God, God send in an order from this doctor, send in an order from this doctor. And I would go back to shipping and say, did an order come in from so and so? And they'd go, yeah, how did you know?

And you know how I could pray? I learned to pray from George Mueller. Because George Mueller said, you can go to God and say, you said, You said, Father, if I would honor you with my firstfruits, you would rebuke the devourer, you would open up the heavens. And we existed for ten years like that, every week, every day. God, help us.

God, help me with this customer. Open the door. Father give me favor. But I could pray that way because I had the promise of God that he would do what he said he would do and he has opened up the heavens for us in so many ways. Jesus said in Luke 638 give and it shall be given unto you.

Good measure, pressed down and shaken together. And running over shall men give unto your bosom, for with the same measure that you give, it shall be given to you. Are you niggardly in your giving? Are you miserly in your giving? You're going to receive the same way.

If you're selling grain, Pack it in there for your customer. Pack it in, keep shaking it down. Pack it, pack it, pack it, put more in, pack it down. And then put a crown on the top of it and tie it shut. Everybody's gonna wanna buy grain from you because you're generous.

And Jesus uses this analogy in the same way that you give it's going to be given to you. And don't please don't just spiritualize, oh he's just talking about spiritual blessings. When did we become Gnostics? When? Of course it's spiritual blessings.

But it's also he's speaking very specifically about material blessings as well. And I am not a prosperity preacher. I am NOT. God's church is made up of rich and poor of all kinds of people. Give and it shall be given unto you." John Bunyan said this, there was a man, some called him mad, the more he gave the more he had.

Again in Proverbs 11 25, the liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered himself. And not just materially. See, if you do that, there will be food in the house, there will be food in the local church. Often times before I preach, I'll pray, God, God, equip me to feed your sheep with the finest of wheat. Sometimes I pray, Father, set a table for them in the presence of their enemies today.

Oh God, feed them till they want no more. See a good shepherd leads the sheep into green pastures to feed them abundantly. And if if we're miserly and are giving to the local church We can't, there's nobody gonna be able to feed the sheep. I implore you not to lay this on you. I don't want this to be heavy to lay this on you.

I wanna invite you to participate in something that is so marvelous, it's so joyful, it's so beautiful, that is so faith-building. Please hear me. He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed for he giveth of his bread to the poor." And when you bring your gift, when you bring your tithe, when you bring your offerings to the Lord, do it in faith. I love Exodus or Deuteronomy excuse me chapter 8. The Lord reminds Israel when you come into the land, when you drink from wells that you didn't dig, when you eat from vineyards that you didn't plant, when you've increased your living houses that you didn't build and you forget me if from that place you'll remember me.

And when we when we bring our gift to the Lord we do it as an act of worship we We take tithes and offerings before we begin our singing service as an act of worship because it's part of worship. And it's saying to the Lord, Father, thank you. I recognize that everything I have has come from you. Some of the enemies of tithing, and there's many in our day, they say well that was because Israel was an agrarian society, and it was a tax on the land and they were using the tax. Listen, in my, in our business, every idea I ever had, where did it come from?

Came from God. Where did the strength come from to get out of bed in the morning? Came from God. Where did the initiative come from? Came from God.

Where did the people come from? The employees came from God. Where did the customers come from? It's saying Everything I have has come from your hands. You and you alone give the power to gain wealth.

That's faith. Well, what is the tithe? The tithe is, it's the first fruits of the increase of your labor. It's 10% of your gross income before taxes. If you're in business, obviously you subtract your expenses to make that product, to sell that product, so it's on your profit.

You pay tithe on the increase. You don't pay tithes on gifts and inheritances. Those are gifts and inheritances. Tithing is 10 percent. Tithing is 10 percent.

It's not throwing twenty dollars in the offering and saying that you're tithing. Sam Waldron, and he's got a great many sermons on tithing and sermon audio, but he says somebody is going to tell you how much to give. Somebody. Either you yourself are going to tell you or some preacher is going to tell you, but why don't we let the word of God inform us? God has already told us how much.

How about we just obey him? Paul says that we should give proportionally as he has prospered us, proportionally. Well wouldn't it make sense that everybody would give the same proportion, or minimally the same proportion? And he said in 1 Corinthians 16 one, you do this, take it up weekly as the church assembles. You know, there's many objections to tithing.

You just Google it on the internet. Should we tithe? You talk about haters. I mean, this is like, you would think this is the most vile practice that there is. Like this is some evil.

I mean, there's websites set up to make sure that people understand that they don't have to tithe. There's a very well-respected guy I love. You all know him. He thinks that we don't have to tithe because we have taxes. We pay our taxes to the government.

Ouch. Well, here's the objections. Well, hey, that's Old Testament. That's under the that's under the ceremonial law or that's under the civil law. Or it's not meant tithing is not mentioned in the New Testament.

Or hey listen yeah I know tithing but that's you know we're supposed to give it all hey the New the New Testament says we give it all or I give as I'm led by the Spirit of God or yeah I don't make enough money to tithe hmm think that might be that was Israel's problem. There's no money, well I wonder why. And God says this is our call to the impoverished church. Or hey I don't like what the church does with it. I don't like my elders.

They don't make good decisions, so I'm not paying my tithe. Well first of all, you shouldn't be paying it to them anyhow. You should give to God with no strings attached. He'll deal with his people. Well, here's the objection number one.

It's Old Testament. Can I ask you a question? How are we doing on time? 15 minutes? OK.

When did the first fruits stop belonging to God? I said, when did the first fruits stop belonging to God? When did they? Was it rescinded in the New Testament? Did Jesus affirm the tithe in rebuking the Pharisees?

He said, you tithe mint and cumin, you're very exact in your weighing out of these things, yet you neglect the weightier matters of the law, of love and mercy. This you should do, but don't neglect the greater. That's, To me, that's an affirmation of the tithe. See the... Leviticus 27, verse 30, in all the tithes of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's.

It is holy to the Lord. It's separated. It's distinct. And Jesus, when the Pharisees were trying to trip him up, in Matthew 22, 21, they said unto him, Caesars, it's Caesar's image on that coin. And he saith unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's.

See, A.W. Pink says that he doesn't think that the tithe was ceremonial law. He thinks it was clarified in the ceremonial law. But it was before the law. We know that clearly, and he thinks as moral law was written in the hearts of God's people, like the Sabbath law, like the offering of a blood sacrifice.

How did they have these things before the law? We see Jacob offering tithes at Bethel. We see Abraham paying tithes to Melchizedek, who is a type of Christ. By the way, Levi was in the loins of Abraham, as was you and I, paying ties to, not the Levitical priesthood, but to the priesthood of Christ. Objection number two, I give as the spirit of the Lord leads.

I had a co-elder one time before we were reforming Charismatics, God drew us out of that whole thing many, many years ago. But I had a co-elder, and his whole thing was, I give when the Spirit leads. And as we began to preach through these passages, he said, I realized I wasn't giving very much. And if you're giving as the spirit leads, perhaps the Lord isn't speaking to you very much. And because here's the church in America.

R.C. Sproul wrote a wonderful article called Will a Man Rob God? And he was astounded to find that evangelicals in America, only 4% of them tithe. That means 96% of professing evangelicals do not tithe. See, if you give as the Spirit of God is leading, isn't He going to lead you to obey His Word?

Objection number three, I don't make enough money or have a large family that I need to support with one income. I was telling Scott the other night, I was thinking back, it's difficult. I had a grandfather, he was a Catholic man, a faithful, just a faithful man. And they had seven children. My grandfather had a little business.

He was a calf buyer. He would go to the local dairy farmers. He had a pickup truck with a box on the back. He would buy calves, and then he would take them to Chicago and sell them to the meat markets for veal. He never had a credit card.

He paid cash for a house. He paid cash for a car. He put seven children through private schools, owned his house, and then he left an inheritance to his kids. How did he do that? Grandma never worked, grandma didn't even drive a car.

It was the same in Pink's day. One thing that's different that hurts us, we're taxed very heavily and inflation has robbed us. But saints, It's all the more reason to trust God. God isn't bound by our taxation system. God isn't bound by our inflation.

See, tithing is dynamic. There was a man, he was mad. The more he gave, the more he had. Number four, the objection is I don't like what the elders do with it. You need to obey God.

I was a deacon many, many years ago, 30 years ago probably, and I would look at what the, I had kept the checkbook and I didn't like what the elders were spending the money. And God really dealt with me, he's scary. It's not your issue. You just do as you're told. How do we apply this this morning and I'll wrap up.

Number one, give with joy. God loves a cheerful giver. Number two, give locally. Give nationally, give to this organization, give to NCFIC, support other churches. But give locally, Get meat in that local house.

Give systematically. Give regularly and pinks as exactingly, like you're keeping your books. And err on the side of generosity. Don't cheat God, don't rob God. Give first.

You can write, don't wait till all the money's gone. Pay God first, return to tithe first. It's not yours. Number five, given faith. With full assurance, expecting that God will do what he says he will do.

I challenge you, a year from now we come back to the, I challenge you, a year from now, if you will be faithful, a year from now you come up to me and if you tell me that God has not been faithful, he will be. That rattles your unbelief doesn't it? He is faithful and he says this is the place in scripture and he says test me on this. Pink says he marvels that God would actually say that. Do you think that God would be your debtor?

Do you think that? He said that he would rebuke the devourers for your sake. He can open up things that are just unimaginable to you. The phone call comes, the new contract comes, The new business comes, the new promotion comes. You know what, the car doesn't break down.

We have one of our businesses, we've got a farm, and I challenge you guys when you're doing hay, you pray, don't neglect during harvest, don't you pray, you have your normal devotions and prayer. You go, oh, I gotta go out and get in the fields and do, hey, you know what? If you pray and are faithful in prayer, guess what? That baler can work all day. This actually happened to us.

The guy didn't have any time for prayer. That baler was down for two weeks. Two weeks! Your furnace doesn't break. Number six, give us an active worship with grateful hearts.

Oh God, I thank you. God, I thank you. I recognize that everything I have has come from your hand. It is, it should be an act of worship in your heart. I have friends that are in big churches and they do this thing in the credit card, or the tithe comes out of their bank account automatically.

That's a bad idea. You don't want it to be like a payroll tax. You want it to be an act of worship saying, Lord, thank you, thank you. I don't let my kids, I don't let them put my check in the bag. They need to put their own in.

This is an act of worship. Number seven, may your purpose be to glorify God. Look at the last verse in Malachi chapter 3. Sorry, verse 12. Here's the promise, 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 says the Lord of hosts and all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land.

What if your neighbors, your family just, what's up with you? It's everything you touch. Just, it always works out, What's up with you? Let me tell you about my God. Lyndon Baines Johnson, He had a little plaque in the White House Oval Office.

It was a letter from Sam Houston to his great-great-grandfather, Baines Johnson. He was the one that led General Sam Houston to Christ. I say that when Sam Houston got baptized, his wallet was in his pocket. He was a belligerent man, and after he was saved by God's grace, he became a very gentle man. And he announced after his baptism that he was going to pay the local pastors half the local pastor's salary.

Somebody asked him about that. He said, when I got baptized, my wallet got baptized too. Just like last night you heard about Zacchaeus. When you and I are encountered by a living God, it changes everything about us, doesn't it? It changes our disposition.

You can tell a lot about a man. You could apply this to the ladies as well, or children, but some of it. By looking at several things, you can look at his wife, she's a reflection of him, his children, his library, his calendar. See, if you look at the calendar you can tell what's important. Can I just close by inviting you to participate in this God honoring practice to bring all the ties into the local storehouse?

Like in the days of the temple, Solomon's Temple, they had so much, they had to say, quit, quit bringing the money, quit, We don't have any more place to store it. Wouldn't that be amazing? We could plant churches everywhere. We could support full-time men in this work. We see the glory of God on his church.

Father, thank you for this people. Father, bless them with the gift of faith. Oh Father I pray that you would give them the grace to trust you, to cling to you, to hope in you, to believe your promises, to know that you are a rewarder of those who diligently seek you. We pray these things in Christ's matchless name. Amen.

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