Text: Malachi 1:6-9, 3:7b-10
On a rainy Sunday afternoon, a little brother and sister were looking for something to do and decided they would play Noah and the ark. They had studied the story in Sunday school so they knew all about it.
They filled the bathtub with water. They took an old shoebox as an ark and filled it with their toy animals. When the flood finally subsided, they decided to make a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God just like Noah did.
Mr. Noah, the little brother, said to Mrs. Noah, the sister, "You go get one of your toys and we'll sacrifice it to God."
The sister said, "No, I think we should sacrifice one of your toys."
After arguing back and forth a while, the sister ran to the attic and found a stuffed lamb that was worn completely out. She said, "We don't want this anymore. We can sacrifice that to God!"
Now, change the scene to heaven and imagine God looking down on earth. God saw that the people were wicked and weak. Sin reigned on the world, and something had to be done about the hopeless of humans in their sin.
God had to send a sacrifice to save them from their sins. God knew the very best would be the only thing to give. God gave his only begotten son as a sacrifice for our sins. John says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…"
The contrast between those two stories is the contrast that Malachi presents to us. He as much as says on behalf of God, "I have loved you with a great love, yet you have offered to me such pitiful, poor sacrifices."
Malachi 1:8 says, "When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not wrong? Try presenting that to your governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts."
The people of Israel were offering polluted sacrifices. They were supposed to bring a spotless animal, only the very best. But their faith had been so corrupted that they brought their left-overs to God. They brought animals that were lame and sick, that were going to die anyway. They were like the children who said, "Let's give to God what we don't want anymore."
This text will cause us to ask, "Do we bring only our left-overs to God?" If we are serious about God, we had better start thinking about giving our best.
In chapter 3, Malachi spells out clearly what the nation Israel was doing wrong. They were suffering from many things, drought, insects taking their crops, and financial disasters. God says, "Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts."
That seems to always be the deal that God offers. If we'll do right by God, God will do right by us.
From Malachi, I would argue that when we do not tithe, we rob God, we rob the church, and most of all we rob ourselves.
1) First, let's look at his argument that we rob God. The Scripture makes it very clear that we rob God. There's no getting around this for he said, "You are cursed with a curse because you are robbing me."
From the earliest recordings of religious feelings in the Bible, the first impulse after a person was touched by God was to give a tenth of all that he had to God out of gratitude. Every time we find this happening in the Bible, we see that the immediate response is to give an offering, to give a tithe. I believe any person who is genuinely touched of God will have that kind of generosity.
Some give even more than that. Remember Zacchaeus, when he was touched by God, he said, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much" (Luke 19:8).
Some people really don't like to talk about the tithe, but I always like to ask, "Which other Biblical model would you prefer? Would you prefer Zacchaeus, who gave half of his possessions? Or would you prefer the story of the rich, young ruler, where Jesus asks him to give 100% of his possessions to the poor?"
Think about what God has given us. In the Bible we find again and again the phrase, "God gave…" Most importantly the Bible says God gave his son. But God also gave us this world. God gives to us all material things. If we are to reflect the character of God, we too will be givers.
In Malachi's day, he saw a people who had become so perverted that they were not like God at all. They had become stingy in their relationship to God. These people were not bringing their appropriate tithe to God's house, the Temple. And God said, "You are robbing me." How can this be?
One of the fundamental facts of the Bible is the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. It's all God's, and we are stewards. When we begin to keep back from God the things which are God's, the Bible says plainly we rob God.
A pastor once preached on this text emphasizing that everything belongs to God. He said, "Nothing really belongs to us." Shortly afterwards, he was invited to the home of one of his members, a very wealthy member. As they walked about this layman's vast estate, the wealthy laymen turned to the preacher and said, "Do you mean to tell me that none of these things really belong to me?" The preacher replied, "Ask me that same question 100 years from now, and I will give you the answer."
Suppose we have saved for a long time to buy a precious diamond ring. Do we really own this diamond? Whose will it be 100 years from now when that diamond is still shining bright, and we are cold in the grave? The things we have not really ours. We must see those things in terms of stewardship. We have them on loan.
One of the most famous men in his generosity to God is R.G. LaTourneau of Texas. He gave 90% of his income to the Lord. He made a lot, kept what he needed and gave the rest to God. Once he said, "It's not a question of how much of my money I am going to give God. It's a question of how much of God's money I'm going to keep for myself." What a remarkable testimony! We need to view our money that way, because if we hold back on our tithes and offerings we are robbing God.
http://www.intouch.org/myintouch/mighty/portraits/rg_letourneau_213618.html
2) Secondly, I would argue from Malachi that we rob the church when we hold back our giving. Verse 10 says, "Bring the full tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house."
In the Old Testament times, tithing made worship possible. Animals were brought the Temple as an act of worship. Today, tithing still makes worship possible.
It is because you tithed to this church that we have a building to worship in. It is through the generosity of many people here that we have a church staff that works for God. It's through your generosity that we have these buildings in which we can study God's words, that we can support the many ministries of the church. The church is completely dependent on the generosity of God's people.
Someone has said that there are three books necessary for worship. We need the hymnbook, we need the Holy Book, and we need our pocketbook. We need all three to worship. Just as we study from one book and sing from another, our appropriate use of the pocketbook is an equally important part of our worship.
Some say they prefer to spread their tithe around to various causes. They may give to the March of Dimes, to the Cancer Society, to Rotary, the Band Boosters, and what remains of the tithe they give to the church. I find it very hard to justify that logic based on the Bible. Did you notice that Malachi said, "Bring the full tithes into the storehouse." In Malachi God was not very excited about receiving the people's "left-overs." He called them "polluted sacrifices."
My belief is that we should give a tithe to the church's general budget and make gifts to special offerings or outside organizations over and above the tithe to the church. And I believe that churches should tithe in the same way. If the church doesn't model tithing to the missions program of the general church, how can we ask our members to tithe to the church?
Not everyone can tithe right away. For some of us, we have spent a long time getting ourselves in so much debt that it will take a long time to get ourselves out of debt. But I believe anyone can tithe. We can start by giving a certain percentage, even if it is only 1%. Then every year increase our giving by 1% until we finally reach our goal of tithing. That is a model of a worthy growth in stewardship.
We should never be satisfied with our level of giving until we have at least reached the tithe to the local church. I believe the only Biblical model is to give a percentage of what we make to the church.
3) When we don't tithe, we also rob our selves.
Arthur Barry is considered to be the world's greatest jewel thief. He committed more than 150 robberies, primarily stealing jewelry worth $5 - $10 million. He was a jewel thief extraordinaire. He was an amazing man. He had his plan down perfect. He never robbed anyone unless their name was in the social register. He studied his victims carefully. He only robbed the very richest. He often wore tuxedoes while committing his crimes, sometimes in broad daylight.
He was finally caught and spent 17 years in prison. After he got out of prison, he went to work on the East Coast at a park at a roadside restaurant making only $50 a week. A news reporter tracked him down and interviewed him. He talked freely about his life of crime.
He concluded his interview this way, "I'm not very good at drawing morals, but when I was a young lad I had intelligence, charm, the ability to get along with people and guts. I could have made something out of my life, but I didn't. So when you write the story of my life and tell about all these robberies, don't leave out the really big one. You can tell them that Arthur Barry robbed Jessie Livermore, the Wall Street baron. You can tell them that he robbed the cousin of the King of England. But don't forget to tell them that most of all, Arthur Barry robbed Arthur Barry."
What a wonderful story that tells the truth of our scripture passage that we can rob ourselves.
Someone has said that if every person were convicted of the crimes we have committed against ourselves, we would all get the death penalty. We rob ourselves, and that's what this passage says about Israel. They had robbed themselves by wandering away from God.
Israel could have had the blessings of God. They could have had wonderful worship, but because they were cutting back on their giving they were robbing themselves of the blessings God wanted to give them. That principle is still true today. We need only do what the Scripture says - try God. Verse ten says, "Put me to the test and see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down an overflowing blessing."
Only our best will please us. Verse 13 says, "What a weariness this is." The people of Israel were weary of their religion. No wonder! Someone has said, "A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing." Someone else has said, "You only get out of something what you put into it." There is great truth there. If our faith doesn't cost anything, it is not very satisfying to us.
A soldier who served King Charles of England had died on the battlefield. His epitaph said, "He served King Charles with a constant, dangerous and expensive loyalty." Can we do any less for God?
I believe Malachi challenges us to have a loyalty that is constant, dangerous and expensive. If we don't give our tithe, we rob God, we rob the church, but most of all we rob ourselves.