Return to Me and Glorify Me

Well, grab your Bibles and let's go back to the old part of the book. If you go to Matthew. You go back one book, and that's Malachi, and that's what we're preaching through these days. Malachi, we come to Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3.

We'll begin in verse 7 and go down through verse 12 this morning. Very common, often referred to passage of scripture.

Okay. Malachi chapter 3. Well, just a little backdrop, first of all, Malachi is. The last rotting prophet of the Old Testament era. Is the last voice from God for what's going to be about 400 years.

And the next pronouncement from God will be John the Baptist. And then, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ coming on the scene. Born of the Virgin, Living in Nazareth and ministering in Galilee and Going to the cross for our sins and rising again for our justification, ascending back up into heaven as our faithful high priest, where he reigns today and he cannot be toppled. But before that, we have the last word of God from the last prophet. until the advent of Christ.

Malachi three, verse seven. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me. In our return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, well, how shall we return?

Well, prophet answers, verse 8, will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me, but you say, Well, how have we robbed you? The prophet answers. In tasks? and offerings.

You are cursed with the curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.

so that there may be food in my house, and test 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 a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground. Nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes, says the Lord of hosts. All the nations will call you blessed.

For you shall be A delightful land, says the Lord. Of host.

Now this text has a lot to say about giving. particularly tithing, that means 10%. and even giving above a tithe in offerings. It has a lot to say about supporting the work of God and The men of God God set aside as his servants in the earth, which in this context is the priest. But that's not the primary thing here.

The primary thing is They had turned their hearts away from God. And they needed to bring their hearts back to God. That's the foundational issue. Don't get hung up on the tithe. Don't get hung up on that order.

I'm not saying that's not important. I'm saying that's secondary to the fact that their hearts were not devoted to God. Can I say this to you, sir? God does not want And God does not need your money. But he would like to have your heart.

Everything else is downstream from there.

Well, Roman number one, as we unpack this, I've been entitled to this, Return to Me. And glorify me. Return to me, God's saying in this text. And as you return to me, then you can now do the thing for which everything exists, and that is you can glorify me. God's people, Israel in the Old Testament, local churches in the New Testament, God's people are here to reflect him truly and accurately and therefore bring him glory in the earth.

God is all about His glory.

So he wants Israel to come back. to their covenant agreement. Their covenant relationship. And return to him and then glorify him. Roman 1.

These were people who were discipled In CN. Yeah. Discipled in sin. This is a tragic thing. A horrifying thing, if you will.

but an all too common principle in our world. He says in verse 7, the first part, From the days of your fathers. You have turned aside from my statutes. And have not kept them. In other words, Your fathers acted this way.

Your fathers became calloused. Unloving toward me, irresponsible in the covenant. robbing me, cheating me. Defiling my Holy ordinances. Your fathers did this, their fathers before them did it, and their fathers before them did it.

It's a generational thing. You see, sin never stops. Unless you bring it to God in repentance. If you don't deal with sin, it multiplies and it metastasizes.

So, this is something of a generational curse. That's a phrase we hear quite a bit of in our modern day, and that's basically what this is. That one generation tends to have a compromise, and then they pass it on to the next generation. And if it's not dealt with and repented of, then they pass it on to the next generation. Many of you here in this church.

have had to face up squarely. To some compromising views and patterns of local church life that you learned from your forefathers. And God will say the same thing to us that He said to the old Jewish nation in Malachi chapter 3: Don't keep walking in those paths. Return to me. With all of your heart.

But anyway, we see an insight on this generational thing of Actually, one generation discipling the next one in sin. Deuteronomy 5:9 says, You shall not worship them or serve them. That's the gods of the Pagan nations around them. He says, For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children. And on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.

Now, I'll be honest with you, I can't digest all, perhaps, that God is saying here, except to know this. There is a clear tendency, maybe an irrefutable rule, that what one generation allows in compromise, they tend to have it occur in the next generation and occur in the next generation and in the next generation. It multiplies and metastasizes. In the church, in the family. For them in the nation.

There's a New Testament insight here, and this is mentioned numerous times. Our Lord Himself, this is not the Lord speaking here directly, but it is the Lord's word. Acts 7:51 and 52. You men who are stiff-necked. And uncircumcised in heart.

In other words, you're not spiritual in your heart, you don't love me from your heart. In your ears, and are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.

Your forefathers hated the truth. They hated the truth preachers and the truth tellers and the truth rebukers, the prophets of old. They hated them, they persecuted them, they killed the Old Testament prophets, and now you're their descendants, and you killed the one they prophesied about, Jesus Himself. There's a generational thing.

So Israel here had been faithful for generations. Faithful in sin and faithful in disobedience. And faithful to harden their hearts before God. And that so applies to our churches today.

So many of our churches today are Struggling under, drowning under. Generations of repeated, multiplied compromise and sin.

Now, brothers and sisters, listen, I'm not talking about a church. I'm not talking about an individual who loves God and is striving toward God but struggles and fails from time to time. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about an entrenched pattern of embracing compromise. An entrenched purpose to live.

Mildly biblical, if not completely unbiblical. How many times in our churches do we run into? I mean, I've literally been in word fights with people, not necessarily here, that did happen here to some degree, but helping other pastors in other churches where they would just fight against you and you would show them the scriptures and say, This is what the church is to do. This is what our Baptist forefathers generations ago practiced and lived as normal church Christianity, and you're working against it. And they said, We don't care about that.

This is the way my dad did it, this is the way my granddaddy did it, and that's the way we're going to do it. We see that all the time in Baptist churches. And in evangelical churches.

Some of the key areas are things like sound doctrine. The notion came around a few decades ago that this little phrase of, well, it really doesn't matter about sound doctrine, and we just want to get people saved. That is ludicrous. Brothers and sisters, God will save men with the truth, or He will not save men at all. And sound doctrine is simply the preaching of the truth.

But you, I mean, folks, that's really common in a lot of church circles. Oh, doctrine doesn't matter. We don't want to get hung up on doctrine. We just want to get people saved. What are you going to get them saved with?

If you're not committed to doctrine and truth. That's why Paul said to the Ephesian elders when he left them to go to take up his abode in the Roman jail. He told the Ephesian elders of that church, I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. I gave you all the doctrine I possibly could. This whole idea of evangelism and conversion that's become mildly biblical, if not unbiblical, over the ages, where I believe often good men left the clear teaching of Scripture and devised habits or methods or schemes to quote help people get saved, and they became more crazy and more unbiblical and more shallow.

And you had scores and scores and scores of people proclaiming to have been saved, and they're not saved because it's so unbiblical and shallow. Actually, a lot of them did not have enough truth to be saved. Evangelists became popular because they were effective at using a verse or two of scripture and telling a lot of heart jerking stories versus just pouring God's truth on people and trusting the Spirit of God to bring men to repentance and faith. On and on we could go with these generational compromises, and it gets worse and worse and worse. The whole idea of the membership role of the church doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter if 60% of our membership role doesn't even come to church. Who told you that doesn't matter? It does matter. They all represent Christ and represent his truth to the world, and they're actually saying God is not of any valid importance to us. But we belong to him and we're going to heaven.

That's that's not incompatible, you can't have that. Completely untrue. It always multiplies down through the generations in quantity, it multiplies in degradation, it multiplies down in corruption. The old saying is true. But the fathers allowed in minimum The children excuse in excess.

There are astonishing things going on in churches today. No one 50 years ago, no one would have ever dreamed the United Methodist Church would have transgender homosexuality preaching in their pulpits. I don't agree with all of Methodist doctrine, but the old Methodists preach repentance and faith. What happened to them? Generational curse.

One generation went too far. And they're all cloaking and we want to be loving. We want to help the oppressed. We want to support those who are abused or looked down on. Then the next generation, then the next generation, it just gets worse and worse and worse.

Southern Baptists, the denomination you and I used to belong to and participate with. And there's some good and godly Southern Baptists. I thank God for those that are. But they're in one fight after another over things that our Baptist forefathers settled 200 years ago, 400 years ago. The Bible hadn't changed.

What happens?

Well, they compromise on a little bit, then they compromise on a little bit more, and a little bit more. Generation occurs. Malachi says here, your fathers did it, now you're doing it. We first tolerate compromise and sin. Then we begin to accommodate.

compromise and sin. Then we begin to celebrate. compromise and sin. And then we begin to obligate. If you don't hold to the matter of fact, in the Methodist church today, if you believe those things are a sin, homosexual marriage, homosexual activity, transgenderism, if you were to teach those are wrong, they would remove you from their fellowship.

They don't tolerate. You're obligated now. To embrace their sin and their rebellion. And this is the type of thing that's going on in ancient Israel. See, folks, listen to me.

Jewish flesh is no different than American flesh. The same kind of principles of sin and degradation we fall into affects all. But In God's goodness. And in God's grace, We can be the generation that rebuilds the foundations. We can be the generation that restores the traditions of holiness.

We can be the generation that repairs the breach. We have not arrived, but I believe Grace Life Church has traveled that road. to some good extent. Look at what he says in verse 7. Last part.

Return to me. In other words, you can stop this trend. You can stop this generational curse. You can stop this wicked, carnal, sinful compromise. Return to me, and I will return to you.

Says the Lord of hosts.

So this is a word of gracious hope. This is a word of gracious mercy and and gracious forgiveness. You don't have to keep going on in that. Deuteronomy 5 verses 9 and 10. Let's look at that again.

You shall not worship them or serve them. Don't go the way of the pagan nations like your forefathers and the fathers before them have gone. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children. And on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.

But look at this, verse 10. But showing loving kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. If you'll return to me. with a heart of love for me. And strive anew to walk in new purposes and patterns to honor my word.

We're back good again, God says. Isn't that good of God? That's why, when you study church history, every century or two, you find an awakening, you'll find a revival, you'll find a returning back to the old doctrines of the faith. And almost without exception, those people that lead that awakening. are purposing to purify the churches they're presently in.

But almost without exception, the churches they're in will not tolerate the awakening, will not tolerate the revival moving back to biblical fidelity, and they run those guys out. If you have not seen it, I want to strongly encourage you. To see the movie A Great Awakening. Have y'all heard about that? Have you seen it anywhere?

A Great Awakening. It's about George Whitfield, the early preacher evangelist in colonial America. and his relationship with Benjamin Franklin. I've studied a lot about George Whitfield. I've read the premiere biography on George Whitfield.

I think they did a good job. And it's quite inspiring. As it comes to the point that says Ben Franklin speaking. George Whitfield is the reason we have America today. If it wasn't for the great awakening that happened under him and others' preaching, America would have never become a nation.

What I'm saying is Whitfield went out, an Anglican. trying to purify the Anglican church. And they allowed him to preach for a while, then preaching, they said, wait a minute. We've got a system worked out. We've got a bureaucracy of religion, and you're stroking the cat the wrong way.

You're ruffling feathers. Look, you're not allowed anymore.

So he just went out to the streets, into the farms, into the coal fields, and preached to the people. And begin churches all over the colonies.

Well, anyway, there is a return. You can return. Churches. Families don't have to stay in that generational compromise, sin, and rebellion against God. You can return.

God says, return to me. And I will return to you. Just a couple more verses about this. Luke chapter 1, verses 71 and 72, as Zacharias, John the Baptist's father, prophesies of the ministry of Jesus that is coming. At this point, he wouldn't hear, but it's coming.

Luke 1, 71, 72. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to show mercy toward our fathers. And remember his covenant. He says, This Jesus is coming. To come in a sense of mercy toward all the wrong our fathers taught us.

and that we can walk in a correction. We can realign ourselves with God and with God's word and with God's truth. And that's what Jesus does. He does, he brings us back to God. Isaiah 59, 1 and 2.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short that he cannot save. He's willing. Our ear so dull that he cannot hear, he'll hear you if you turn to him in repentance. But if you hang on to some things, verse 2, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. And your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Isaiah 42, verse 3. What a beautiful picture of God's long-suffering, gracious provision to sinners. A bruised reed he will not break. Picture of a reed, a stem, a stalk that's broken off. It's just hanging by a couple little strands, and Jesus won't just yank it off.

He'll carefully take it. And put it back up. That may be your life, and that may be where you are, and you may have things in your life and say, Pastor, I struggle so bad, and I fail so often, and I've seen this in my father and my father's father. What am I going to do? Turn to Jesus.

If there's a strand left. He'll hold you back up. He'll forgive your sin. He'll cleanse you of wrong. He'll give you a second chance.

And a third chance. And a fourth chance. And a hundredth chance. I don't know about you, but I need a God like that. A dimly burning wick.

Isaiah goes on to say in Isaiah 42:3, a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish. Pastor, I'm trying to honor God, but I'm just a little flicker. All the fire is about gone. That's okay. Run to Jesus.

Run to Jesus. He can fan that flame again for you. Mm-hmm. Don't run from him.

Well These people have been discipled in sin. Their fathers did it, their fathers did it, their fathers did it, and now they're doing the same thing, turning aside, is the phrase in verse 7, turning aside from God's statutes and not keeping them.

So the prophet goes on now. Roman numeral two. And shows that they dispute with God again, another dispute with God. We've seen those throughout Malachi, and we'll see them all the way through. They just continually challenge God.

Oh, how I've seen this in my ministry and how nauseating it is. What do you mean I can't do this? Who told you that? What do you mean God says this? Just disputing.

With the clear word of God. Notice how he says it there in verse 7, the last part. But you say, How shall we return? You know what they're really saying? What are we doing that's so bad?

What is the big deal? Are you some sort of Zayat legalist fanatic? This Malachi religion, don't you know our fathers and fathers and forefathers and forefathers all function this way? We had this religion thing worked out and we're very comfortable in it. And leave us alone, Malachi.

What do you mean? What are you saying that we've messed up on? Mm.

Well, they're disputing with God. Let's get a context here of why they might be irritated and what's behind it. In biblical counseling, you learn you got to get to the root problem. And it's always seen in some way, form, or fashion. You see, they've returned from exile, Babylonian, then Medo-Persian captivity.

Cyrus the Persian allows them to come home, and then Malachi preaches to that group that's come back to Jerusalem, rebuilt the walls, rebuilt the city. But they didn't rebuild their hearts. They got the external things now, but they didn't get their new hearts. But they come back to Jerusalem, back to the promised land, rebuild everything, fully expecting that God's Messiah would be at hand. That God's promised Messiah that was going to conquer their enemies and usher in this era of blessing and prosperity and wealth and glory and satisfactions and pleasures They just knew that's what was going to happen when they came home from captivity.

But it didn't happen. Matter of fact, it's been real tough. Crops have not been good. They're not prospering. Life is hard.

Staying alive through the winter is even a challenge.

So they're mad at God. And they decided I'm mad at God. I don't like how my life has turned out, so I'll make my own rules. You ever seen someone like that? You know, once a person becomes a rebel, they believe they can make their own rules.

There's only one problem with that. There's a God of the universe who's already made all the rules. And you don't really break God's word. You don't break God's law. You break yourself against it.

So This is what you call The idol of unmet expectation. Brother Steve, I remember when I first heard of that idol, I thought, my goodness. I see that idol everywhere. I see it in my heart sometimes. I see it everywhere.

They came back expecting God's going to do this and this and this and this. It's going to be wonderful. And it didn't happen.

So now they're mad.

Now they're disgruntled.

Now they think God's the problem. You know how many times over these 45 years I've seen people come into Grace Life Church? And they don't talk about what they're expecting, but in their hearts, they're expecting something. Certain position, a certain role, a certain authority, a certain assignment, whatever it is. And if they don't get it.

They start being disputers. They start finding fault. They start being critical. And all of it is that idol of unmet expectation. And God may be showing you that today.

And here's what you need to do: say, God, that's just like me. Focused on me. What I thought I would get, what I thought I would deserve, the role I thought I could have. And old Joe Blow got that job at the church, and I'm wiser and smarter and more spiritual than Joe Blow. And you might be.

But God doesn't always choose the most talented. And the most qualified. Ask David. Ask Balaam's donkey. He spoke for God.

God can use whatever instrument he wants to use. Here's my point. Repent of the idol of unmet expectation. That's where these guys are.

Well, they are discipled in sin. This has been going on father, forefather, forefather, forefather. They've been discipled in sin. They're disputing with God again on another point.

Now thirdly, They've asked the prophet, now, what in the world are we doing that's so bad? And the prophet said, Okay, are you listening? You're a robber of God. You've been robbing God.

Well, how have we robbed God, they said. Last part of verse 8. In tithes and offerings. Verse eight, the whole thing, will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me.

But you say, how have we robbed you?

Well, you've robbed me in tithes and offerings, God says. You know, robbing another person is very serious. That's violating one of the Ten Commandments. But robbing God, that's very serious. The word rob, the original Hebrew word for rob or robbing here, is the idea of defrauding.

Or cheating. It gets down to where the rubber meets the road. God said, We had an agreement, you and me. Israel, you and me. We have a covenant.

Devotion here. And you're cheating on your part. You're cheating. We had an agreement, and you're not keeping your word. You're cheating.

Strong stuff. Our text Translates it robbing, and that's good, but I like that full or picture. Done in verse 10, he gives some specifics. Bring the whole tithe, he says in verse 10. Bring the whole tithe into the temple storehouse.

That's what you're supposed to be doing as my people. Maybe they brought 8%, maybe they brought 5%, maybe they brought 2%, I don't know, but they weren't bringing the whole tithe.

Now, let's do a little research on tithing right quick. Could we do that together? A little study on tithing. Number one, under tithing, It's a very old practice. You might even say it's a very old religious ordinance.

For example, Tadding Was taught in practice by the ancient Egyptians. By the ancient Babylonians, by the ancient Assyrians, and by the ancient Canaanites, and yet still others. And this was all before Israel became a nation. That these people just knew Now they weren't worshiping Yahweh, the true God, but there was just something innate in them. And defined in all their religious laws and practices, you would bring 10% for our religion.

That we as a people embrace. It's almost like it's innate. Like it's a part of natural law that men basically know that's a right thing to do.

So Tithing was a very or is. A very ancient practice. Number two, tithing is taught in the Old Testament. Tithing is mentioned in seventeen chapters of the Bible, actually. It's first mentioned in Genesis chapter 14, verse 20, where Abraham paid a tithe to Melchizedek.

You remember Melchizedek, that mysterious priest? He couldn't have even been human the way the Bible describes him. You know why? Because he wasn't human. I believe he's a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus.

If not, he's at least a type of Christ. He pictures Jesus.

So Abraham's won this battle. He comes back with his spoils and he gives his tithes to this mysterious priest. This is before the Levitical priesthood is established in Israel. But he gives a tithe to this man of God, Melchizedek, who's called a king and a priest, and that doesn't happen in the Bible. Only Jesus is king and priest.

It was before the Levitical priesthood even appeared on the earth. He's called the king of righteousness. Only Jesus is the king of righteousness. He has no earthly father, the text says. That's Jesus.

He is a priest perpetually. Only Jesus is a priest forever. And the text says he's like the Son of God.

So we see this picture in the Old Testament of bringing tithes to honor Christ. Is there not a message there for the New Testament church?

Well, this was an ingrained pattern for the children of Israel. Amos, for example, in Amos chapter 4 says that even though the people's hearts were not with God, and they didn't love God, yet they kept bringing the tithe.

Now, God wasn't pleased with it. My point is, it was just such a custom and expected they would do it even often when they were backslidden. But gloriously, the pattern seems to be: when Israel got right with God and had revival, they generously brought the tithe and the offerings to God's work. We see that very clearly in Hezekiah's reign and in Nehemiah's leadership. Nehemiah chapter 10 unfolds this quite clearly.

So it's an ancient practice. It's taught in the Old Testament. But thirdly, I'd like to say that tithing is in the New Testament. The New Testament mentions tithing four times. In Matthew 23, Luke 1, Luke 18, and Hebrews chapter 7.

In the two gospel accounts, Matthew 23 and Luke chapter 1. There, I believe, is an instruction on tithing. Though it's an instruction on more than just tithing, and that's always the case, as I said in my introduction, because the heart issue primarily, not the specific. Percentage. In Matthew 23, 23, for example.

Jesus says to these religious hypocrites, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you tithe mint and dill and come in the tithe. You'll go out in your gardens and get the tiniest spice. It's not even worth a penny, but you'll make sure you bring a tithe of it to the temple. You're so strict.

You're so religiously devoted, Jesus says. And have neglected the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. In other words, your heart's not right about justice and mercy and faithfulness, because justice and mercy and faithfulness has to do with your fellow man in Israel, how you're treating your brethren in Israel. And you have injustice between you, you don't have any mercy for one another, you're using and taking advantage of people.

But you're faithful to bring the tithe. Here's what he's saying. Get your heart right. And keep tithing. That's what he's saying.

Tithing was not Discouraged. Are taught against. It was just, God didn't need your tithe, but He would like to have your heart.

So in other words, You make a show of tithing down to the smallest spices. But the things of loving God and the things of loving your brethren and treating one another right, you don't do well there. For example, it's quite obvious that they were cheating their brothers and sisters in Israel, taking advantage of them in business deals, cheating them, and then bringing the money they, in essence, robbed from one another and brought a tithe of it, as if that fixes everything. That's a haughty and faithless obedience. Jesus says, get your heart right.

Love God and love the brethren of Israel and keep on tithing. But the heart, listen, church, the heart is the key. Loving God and loving the brethren. And tithing are all downstream fruit of a truly regenerate heart. The point, tithing is not the sponge that soaks up the sin.

Of a cold, unloving heart, a cold heart toward men and toward God. God is not a deal maker. God is not saying, well, you can cheat, you can scheme, you can manipulate, take advantage of one another, but bring the tithe and it's all okay. God's not doing that. That's the point here.

Because that's the way the Pharisees functioned. In 1 Corinthians 9, 13 and 14. I think tithing is implied in this text at least, 1 Corinthians 9, 13 and 14. The context here, and Lord will, and we'll look at a lot of this next week because. One thing that fascinates me is how The precepts of the Old Testament.

are fulfilled Amplified, perfected in the New Testament. He didn't throw them away. They're perfected. And so it is with giving. And I want to wade into that maybe quite heavily next week, Lord willing.

So he's talking to the Corinthians here. And the Corinthians are begrudgingly criticizing, if not refusing, to support Paul financially. And Paul basically tells them, okay, you're a bunch of carnal rebels, immature baby Christians. Yeah, y'all been in 1 Corinthians, hadn't ya?

Well, this is one of the areas he dealt with, of course. You saw it a few weeks ago. You're so carnal and immature. I'm not going to take anything from you guys. Then he turns right around and he cleans their clock.

He may not have taken their money, but, buddy, he tore their tails up. Excuse me, I'm preaching. I should have said that. I only say that to my grandchildren every now and then. But.

He really corrects them firmly. Firmly. Even though he refused to take a penny from them, because he said his word is he had a right. Just as these Old Testament priest Serving in Malachi's, they had a right. To receive the tithes of the people for their support.

Paul goes on to say, and do you not know those who perform the sacred services, that the Jewish priests of old ate the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share in the altar? He said, Your Old Testament priests lived off the tithes of the people.

So also, the Lord directed those who proclaimed the gospel, that's the New Testament era. To get their living from the gospel. You might look at it this way, two simple phrases. In the Old Testament, God's people tithed under law. In the New Testament, the principle is we give under love.

In the Old Testament, cold, austere, legal, you tie, that's law. In the New Testament, You love God. and give out of that kind of heart.

Now A key insight. All of those precepts God gave the Old Testament believers. Under law, Are expanded And our greater Under the New Testament, under grace. All the precepts taught in the Old Testament under law are expanded. Amplified in the New Testament under grace.

I'll give you an example. Jesus said, You've heard the law says, Do not murder, but I'm going to expand on that. Don't even hate from your heart. If you do that, you're a murderer already in your heart. He said, You know, the law says you should not commit adultery, but I'm going to amplify that.

I'm going to perfect that. Don't even lust in your heart. Fight the fight there. Repent there. Don't ever walk it out.

Because if you have it in your heart, you're an adulterer already in your heart. You know, if somebody sues you, Jesus said, and it's a proper suit, and they sue you to take your shirt. Go ahead and give them your coat also. Do what the law requires, and then we're going to magnify it. Give them the code also.

It was a Roman law that if a Roman soldier asked you to carry his pack, you had to carry his pack for a mile. That was a part of your service to support the military of your country. He said, if the Roman soldier says, carry my pack a mile, carry it two miles. We're going to take the law and we're going to expand on it. Perfect it.

It's greater. And on and on, and on, we go, love your enemies, pray for your persecutors. You don't do what other folks do. Under grace, we do what other folks do. And then some.

And so it is with giving. So it is with giving. For example, in Acts chapter 2. This is a one-time thing for certain, but it shows the heart. Everybody in the church, as far as we know, except for Ananias and Sapphira, brought all that they owned and laid it at the apostles' feet to support the church.

That was suffering and struggling. In Second Corinthians chapter eight, Paul commends the Macedonians. Because the Macedonian church gave voluntarily, they gave out of their poverty, and they gave above their ability because they first gave themselves to the Lord. We give Under love Under grace. Total.

It is true. Tithing is not explicitly commanded in the New Testament. But loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is commanded. And tithing is way down the stream from that. If you came to Jesus.

to get out of hell. And to do the minimum to be a Christian, you are not converted. You are not a child of God. You have not been born again. I will give a little room for maybe you have been, but you've been very terribly and poorly taught.

Jesus said, If you're going to come after me, you're going to have to hate your father, and mother, and brother, and sister. if in any way they distract from you following me. You hate them in comparison. Teacher said, If you're going to follow me, you have to carry your cross and follow me. I don't have a Christianity that's going to make you slap, happy, fun, blessed.

Every time you walk in the door, I don't know of Christianity like that. But it's going to be a Christianity with deep, rich joys of loving and knowing Christ. Beyond any other joy you can have.

So, tithing is not explicitly taught or commanded, but loving God with all your heart is taught. I will say this. I'm so grateful in my own pilgrimage. I get converted 46 years ago. And I've told you this before.

I told the students at camp: you could not have been more ignorant than I was. I mean, I didn't know the New Testament from the Old Testament. I thought Nicodemus was nicotamus. I thought a leper was a leaper. I just didn't know anything.

But early on Some people taught me Brother Jephney, you need to bring 10% of your income back to the Lord's work. It was settled right then. It wasn't a debate. It wasn't a struggle. I love the Lord.

But I want to be honest. For these 46 years My accountant's sitting up there, you can ask him. For these 46 years I have not tithed. I've given above the tithe.

Sometimes far above the tithe. I'm not saying I've done all I should have done, by the way. I'm not saying I am the example. But it's just not been a struggle. But here's the thing I want to say.

I'm glad I was challenged with the Old Testament principle of tithing because that. controlled my flesh from getting out of hand. Have you understood as the child of God, you've got to. Buffet your body, as Paul says. And there are weeks when it's going to be hard to go to church.

There are weeks when it's going to be hard to go to your small group. There's weeks when it's going to be hard to give your tithes and offerings. But you make yourself do it out of a discipline because you love God and you don't want the old man, the old flesh, to get its way. Are you listening? 46 years of bringing tithes and offerings, and God has wonderfully, abundantly blessed my life.

Preacher told me one time, he said, Brother Jeff, I can live like I live because I've given like I've given. There's something to that. We're going to talk about that a little bit more in a few moments.

So I like what one writer said. He said, you know, tithing is really the training wheels for giving. It's kind of the default position that you start with and then just trust God. You want God to bless you, then bring the tithe. My first salary here was $50 a week.

By the way, can I give you a little bit of trivia? You might appreciate this. A little bit of grace life church trivia. Did you know? That my wife, Pam Noblet, was a paid staff member at Grace Life Church here, this church, before I was.

Did you know that? Not much, just a short period of time. But her dad led their family to this church. And the music guy at that time went to her and said, You're talented. We want you as one of our companies and put her on the payroll to keep her from going somewhere else, I guess.

And she's been on the payroll longer than me.

Okay, that's it. That's the trivia. Um Then I thought, well, she's making such a good salary. I better marry her and get in on some of that, you know.

So I joined the staff. And I'm paid $50 a week. And I gave tithes and offerings off of that $50 a week. And I've never stopped. I'm not saying there's never any struggle there, but I'm saying it's always right.

So, as your pastors, I would charge you to begin there. I would charge you to see tithing as the training wheels. We'll get into more of this next week, Lord William. I mean, a bunch more of it, maybe, but it's going to be amazing to you if you've never done this to see how God will honor it. If you'll give God your heart.

And then bring tithes and offerings. Your businesses, it's gonna be incredible. God to pour on your businesses. I know there's always a guy that said, well, I didn't really tithe. I hadn't done some of those things, and God's blessed my business.

Yes, we'll get into this more later, but your wealth is cursed. It's not blessed wealth. And one day It's going to be a bitter gall in your heart, mind, and spirit. God said, you're robbing me. You're defrauding me.

You're cheating me of what's rightfully mine. By not bringing your tithes and offerings, this is going to have to be a two-farter, but let me say this right quick. As your pastor. I would never charge you. To tithe to the Lord and his work.

I would never limit you to a tithe when we live this side of the cross. In this day of glorious grace. It would be a sin for me. To limit you. that.

Here's my command to you, and we'll close with this. 2 Corinthians 9, 7. Each one must do Just as he has purposed in his heart. Not grudgingly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.

Many, many, many offerings that I've known how much money we've raised since I've been here, but it's a lot. It's many, many millions. And I've pretty much every time said to you. Only do what you can do with joy. That's fine.

Nobody's going to know. Nobody checks your giving record. Nobody's going to discipline you if you don't bring tithes to the church. We're not going to operate like that in that area. The only people who know anything about what you give is two or three people that count the money every week.

And I don't even know who those people are. I know one or two of them. But learn to love the Lord. And then honor him from your heart as a Cheerful giver. With a note of balance, it is wise, knowing that we're still packaged in fallen, rebellious flesh.

to have some sort of guideline Tithing perhaps, say I'm not violating that. And then see what the Lord does. We got some really, really good stuff. To go. But we'll close here for this morning.

Mm-hmm.