 |
|
|
|
|
||
|
Worship & Preaching > Preaching on Stewardship > Its raining let it pour Stewardship Talks : Its raining, let it pour (Malachi 3)
Perhaps you remember watching one of those Comic Relief, Red Nose programmes where the camera pans across a dusty African village. The ground dry and parched, the harvest scorched and failing, everywhere barren and lifeless. But then they flash forward to the same village and few days later. When the rains arrived. In your imagination zoom in from above on the face of a little African boy dancing in the rain, wet face, huge brown eyes, enormous wide smile beaming upwards. The barren ground bursting with life, the joy was unmistakable – when the rains came. This morning I want to paint a picture about what will happen in our life when God rains his blessing upon us. What can we expect when God opens up the heavens and his blessings fall — awesome, overwhelming, abundant. What will happen at Southover – when the rains come. But first I want to take you to Malachi chapter 3. The background is very important. Years earlier than Malachi 3, in fact in 600 BC the city of Jerusalem fell and the whole of Judah (lock stock and barrel) was carted off into slavery into Babylon. 1,000 year after Moses had rescued them from slavery in Egypt they were back again in captivity. 70 years later that, the Persian King Cyrus releases 50,000 Hebrews to return home to rebuild the Temple and to re-settle the land. Now can you imagine the excitement, within a generation they hope is restored. The temple is re-built and worship is re-established. It’s a hard time financially, materially but the Bible makes it clear that it is also a time of great spiritual awakening. Its tough work but its rewarding. Now fast forward a few more years. The struggle for survival is over, materially they are comfortable, life seems secure. The people lose their vision of dependency upon God and start to focus on their own lives. They decorate and extend their own homes. They build their businesses. They establish their family. And none of this would be a problem except at the same time
So on p960 this is where we join them. If you look at Mal 1:13 you can see that
So this is what happens:
Instead of the first of what they had, they gave what remained. Mal 1:8. They gave from the bottom of the barrel instead of from the top. And so if you would follow with me chapter 3 v8, p962 we have some very telling verses.
“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me”, says God. They skimped on the sacrifices, They compromised on their commitment, and they shaved their tithe. They gave less than 10% of their income to the building of God’s kingdom. Ever since Israel was formed God had laid down this rule. That the first 10% belonged to him. The first 10% of their income, the first 10% of their harvest, the first 10% of their cattle. Yet we join the People of God where they gave to God from the last instead of from the first. Out of duty instead of joy. And because of this v9 God says “you are under a curse, the whole nation, because you are robbing me”. Now we need to be careful here. This word “curse” actually means: stunted, limited, bound, dry, parched. When there was no rain, the land would be called cursed (same word). When the crops were stunted they were called cursed. When something failed to reach it potential the word that would be used was “cursed”. Here we have a people – who were not enjoying the blessings of God, whose spiritual temperature was luke-warm, who were living as if it was OK not to give to God their tithe and God calls them cursed, stunted, spiritually barren. God is not pulling his punches!! And “because they had squeezed God out of their daily life, because they had lost their vision for what life was about, because they focussed upon themselves, their religion had become dry and their faith was stunted. You could say “It had not spiritually rained upon Israel for quite some time”. This is God’s commentary on his people some 2,500 years ago. He could equally have been talking about our churches and many Christians today. There are many people, there are many churches whose potential is stunted, whose spiritual life is barren, who have become intoxicated by the comforts of this life which they pursue as of right and as of first importance. It is reflected in their commitment to God, it is reflected in their hunger when they come to worship, It is reflected in their sacrifice of their giving. It seems to me that despite the recent weather it has not rained in England for quite some time, What about us here? Have we seen people’s lives changed as they have found God? Have we seen his presence transform tears to joy, Have we seen love and care and sacrifice shown to others that leaves us humbled? have we seen generosity of spirit that is a delight? Have we seen the church grow in depth, in numbers, in hope, in vision, in service. Perhaps we have. And if we have, then we may say, that “yes it IS raining here at Southover” – But I tell you what, it isn’t pouring ... yet. OK It IS raining here – but don’t you just want the heavens to open? Don’t you just want to stand there like that African child, with your face turned to heaven, arms outstretched and to feel the rain of God’s blessing coming upon his people? Don’t you want that??? I DO! I HOPE! I can see it happening. But what is more exciting is, SO CAN GOD. This is not MY dream – this is God’s dream. This is not your hope – this is God’s hope. Because God wants it for you, he wants it for me, and he wants it for Lewes. He wants, he longs, he yearns to bless his church, his people, his children – you and me. God wanted it, for Israel 2,500 years ago. And he said to them “Look, test me in this”. Do what I say, be obedient, and see what I will do for you. These are prophetic words. “test me in this” he says, and see what I will do... God puts his honour on the line. So what did God want Israel to do? Well look at v10. He says. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room to hold it”. Do you get the idea “so much blessing that you will not have enough room to hold it”. That’s what this morning is all about. 4500 years ago God called to himself a bronze aged people who had “no hot and cold running water, no social services, no TVs, DVDs or CDs, no health care, no carpets in their homes, no “almost any comfort you can name”. No anything (by our standards), and he revealed to them one of the most sophisticated, generous, progressive principles on charitable giving this world has ever seen. He said before you spend any money on yourself, before you pay taxes to the king, before you spend money on food and shelter bring me the first tithe. And when they did (its important to see that when they did) God blessed them. Today, our society which has more wealth “in its little finger” (if that makes sense) than the whole of God’s people then — on average we give less that 1.5% per person to charity. And yet God’s people 4500 years ago, with almost nothing, gave the first 10%, and then paid taxes to their King on top of that. Humbling isn’t it? Why did God implement this idea of tithing. And why is it that Giving and Blessing are so linked. Well I want to give you three ideas.
Firstly, giving reveals to us our priorities. To give to God’s work FIRST, and to give SACRIFICIALLY, is just about the best indicator of where our heart and hopes are. It shows where our ambitions and our dreams are being invested. Jesus said “where your treasure is – there your heart is also”. Where we place our money reveals where we place our heart. It is the litmus test. A wealthy older gentleman had just recently married a lovely young lady, and was beginning to wonder whether she might have married him for his money. So he asked her, “Tell me the truth: if I lost all my money, would you still love me?” She said reassuringly, “Oh honey, don’t be silly. Of course I would still love you. And I’d miss you terribly.” Where we invest our time and money not only REVEALS where our heart and ambitions are. But it also LEADS them. Our hearts follow where our treasure is. Where we decide to invest, there our hearts follow. The warmth of our hearts prompt us to give, our giving warms our heart. And so a virtuous circle is created until our Spirit catches fire. I became a Christian when I was a teenager and my Father taught me to give 10% of my pocket money to the building of God’s kingdom. I carried on doing this when I was a Saturday boy at M&S, when I was a student at University, when Amanda and I bought our first home (easily the toughest financial years of our life), and when the years of abundance came when I worked in the city. I tell you this simply to say that we have never wanted for anything. We have never missed the finances and God has blessed us more than all that, that money could have bought. May I urge you to teach your children to tithe to God’s Kingdom when they are young. They will learn more about life and the value of money and the importance of thinking about others than any other practical lesson you can give them. J.D. Rockefeller said, “I never would have been able to give away my first million to the kingdom of God had I not learnt to tithe my first salary of $1.50.” But may be you cannot tithe because your financial commitments are already too high. This has all come as a bit of a shock. Well let me tell you “we live under Grace and not the Law”. God is more concerned about your heart than your amount. Determine what you can give and give it joyfully. We would ALL like to give more, if you cannot give a tithe, give what you can. And as your circumstances change (and if they change for the better) then give to God from the first fruits of that change. Or maybe you don’t earn a wage. Well, the key point about tithing is that you give “in kind” from what you do. If you were a shepherd you would bring a lamb, if you were a farmer you would bring crops, if you were a spice merchant you would bring spice. Why? Because God is saying “what you do is important to me” And I will delight in having a part in what you do. So that, if you work at home looking after the children, tending for the needy (or whatever). Then God wants you to know that what you do is every bit as important to him – and he will accept and delight in a tithe of your time every bit as much. It is not second rate. it is not about money – it never has been. Its about your heart and your priorities before God.. Why is tithing important? Because where our treasure is our heart follows – it reveals our priorities. Secondly, because giving sacrificially puts our trust in God and we learn that God never lets us down. God says in Chapter 3v10 Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessing. He says “go on, put me first”. Test me in this. Go on, have a go. Try me, See if its true. See if being faithful to me doesn’t result in blessings more than you can number. Dr. James Dobson tells this story about his father, who was an itinerant evangelist for a number of years: “Travel was expensive and we never seemed to have much money. Evangelists were paid only when they worked. Therefore, my father’s income dried up during Thanksgiving, Christmas, Summer vacations and any time he rested. We always seemed to be near the bottom of the barrel — but that didn’t stop my father from giving”. “I remember Dad going off to speak in a tiny church and coming home ten days later. My mother greeted him and asked how the meetings had gone. He was always excited about that subject. Eventually, she would get around to asking him about the offering. “How much did they pay you?” she asked. I can still see my father’s face as he smiled `Aw...’ he stammered... My mother stepped back and looked into his eyes. “`Oh, I get it,’ she said. `You gave the money away again, didn’t you?’ “`Myrt,’ he said, `the pastor there is going through such a hard time. His kids are so needy. It just broke my heart. I felt I should give the entire $50 to them.’. “My good mother looked intently at him for a moment, and then said `You know if God told you to do it, it’s okay with me.’. “Then a few days later the inevitable happened. The Dobsons ran completely out of money. There was no reserve to tide us over. That’s when my father gathered us in the bedroom for a time of prayer. I remember that day as though it were yesterday. He prayed first. “`Oh, Lord, You promised that if we would be faithful to You in our good times, then You would not forget us in our time of need. We have tried to be generous with what You have given us, and now we are calling on You for help.’ “A very impressionable ten-year-old boy named James watched and listened very carefully. `What would happen?’ he wondered. `Would God hear Dad’s prayer?’ “The next day an unexpected check for $1,200 came for us in the mail. Honestly! That’s the way it happened, not just once but many times. I saw the Lord match my dad’s giving stride for stride. No, God never made us wealthy, but my young faith grew by leaps and bounds because my Dad taught me “you cannot out-give God!” God says, “Go on test me” and if you don’t receive:
“if you don’t receive says God” then “you have proved me a liar” I believe God is saying to Southover “Go on, put your life where your theology is, put your money where your mouth – now is the time to experience the proof of my faithfulness and generosity”. Jesus said the same “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you”. My friends, God says to you and me personally “Go on... test me in this. I have never short changed anyone”. Thirdly, Why is tithing important? Because ministry costs money. What would happen if all of us gave 10% of what we produced to the Kingdom of God and a portion of that came to Southover? What would happen if that began next Sunday or the Sunday after at our Response day? Shall I tell you? Our ministry and our capabilities here at Southover would explode. They would multiply 3, 4, 5 times. The people of God in this church would become the most powerful force for good in the whole of this town and district. The pitter-patter blessings that we are experiencing now would turn into a flood. Why? Because we will as a church have determined to have our ambitions fixed upon God’s kingdom. And the way we think and they way we see and the way we perceive the world would be changed forever. Why? Because we would not just live for now, but we would live and work and dream about a better tomorrow. A tomorrow where lost people find that they belong with God, where children and young-people find a life worth living, where older people discover a hope that will outlast time and outshine death. Why? Because we would have the material resources that would be limited only by our vision of where we put them to work. We would investment in a community “that was able to serve others to make a radical difference in our Church, Lewes and beyond. If we tithed what would happen? Well look with to v12, to the promise there-in. “Then all the nations will call you blessed. For yours will be a delightful land”. Says the Lord God Almighty. Can I paraphrase it? Then all the people in Lewes would call Southover blessed. For this community we will be a delightful people to live among. For we would walk the talk, live the life, we would depend upon God and he would never sell us short. And I believe him. Its raining. But don’t you just want it to pour? There are letters for all of you today. May today be the day that we stepped up to the challenge and promise before us. |
