The Blessing of Generosity - Malachi 3:7-12

I was raised by a single mother from the time I was five years old. Mom raised me, my little sister, in a little apartment south of on the south side of Kansas City, right across the street from Kmart. Anybody remember Kmart back in the day? There was a Kmart right across the street. And a couple times a year on my mom's birthday or maybe Mother's Day or Christmas. My mom would give me a little bit of money. We didn't have a lot of money, but she'd give me $5 or $10, and I'd walk across the street to Kmart, and I would buy her a gift, Mother's Day gift or a birthday gift. I would come back to our apartment, and I would wrap that using the, uh, usually the comics section of the newspaper. Anybody use the comic section as your wrapping paper back in the day? I'd wrap it up and I would give that to my mom. Now, what was interesting is my mom never opened that gift and said, oh my goodness, you have saved the day. I didn't know what we were going to do, and you have come through, Matt. You have bought the perfect thing that our fans, she never said, I needed a sweater. I didn't know what I was gonna do, and you bought me a sweater. We needed a toaster, and I didn't know how we were going to get the toaster. And son, you have rescued our family by buying this toaster. Why didn't she say that? Because the money I used to buy my mom a gift was money that my mom gave me to begin with. If my mom needed that money for some of their purpose, she would have used that money for that other purpose on her own. Why did she do this? She gave me the money to see what I would do with it. She gave me the money to see what I would do if I walked across the street, what kind of gift I would be brought to her. She wanted the joy of receiving back what I would do with the money she gave me. Now, why do I tell that story? If you've been here a while, you may have heard me tell that story before. And the reason I use that story before is because oftentimes when we come up to a passage in the Bible about giving, I think back to that experience as a little boy. It reminds me of this. God does not need my money. God does not need your money. My mom did not need the gift I gave her. My mom gave me money and let me go buy something with her money to see what I would do. That's a presupposition we need to have before we approach any passage, any sermon, any conversation or discussion about giving, is that when we give to God, we are giving to a God who doesn't need our money. This is not a message about, oh my goodness, God is pacing the floor of heaven, wondering if his plan is going to continue on, if we don't somehow up our generosity to what he's doing. He doesn't need our money. So we come to this with that presupposition. We're going to see the problem in the day of the people to whom Malachi wrote. Now, we've been in this book for a while. We've made our way through this to this passage. You're going to see today, where you heard Armando read the passage. Probably, uh, if you maybe you've never heard about this book or never heard anything out of this book. I would guess that if you've heard anything about this book, you've heard the passage we're going to be in today. The most popular Bible verse, excuse me, the most popular verse in Malachi is a verse we're going to talk about today. If you knew one verse from Malachi, you probably know the verse we're going to talk about today. It's calling his people, God's people, to be faithful in their giving. Now, what's going on here? It's a book written about 2,500 years ago, 500 BC, the people had just Israelites had just entered back into the land after a time of rebellion that got them kicked out of the land. They are still not, they still don't have their hearts fully turned to the Lord. There's coldhearted worship, a lack of devotion, spiritual compromise, and in that environment, God sends his prophet Malachi to challenge his people to repent, and to give him the worship and devotion he deserves. And we've seen many different areas so far, divorce, spiritual compromise, their cold-hearted attitude toward God, their apathy. Today he turns to their giving. How is their giving a reflection of their heart toward God? We're going to do today like we have in all of our messages. We're going to look and see what was happening in Malachi's day. What was the problem he's addressing? But then we want to bridge the gap to today. What does this have to do with us? Things are different today. He's talking about them not bringing the right kind of animals to the temple. No one brings animals as they're offering, not in the U.S. that much. I guess in other parts of the world. I remember the 1st time I took a mission trip, it was to Haiti, and went to church that morning, people were bringing live chickens, to the worship service, to give as their offering. Maybe you've lived in other countries where they brought animals to actually actual animals to sacrifice. We don't, I don't think we would take, we would take coconut cream pies, but I don't know what we would take. We would take fried chickens. Now, as long as I don't bring live chickens, but we will take 10% of your fried chicken if you want to bring that, but it's a different day. We don't bring animals and our crops, but God still cares about our heart of generosity. That's what we're going to see today. I wanna ask this question. What does my generosity reveal about my faith in God? What does my generosity reveal about my commitment to the Lord? Let's jump in and see the problem in Malachi's day. verse seven. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me. And I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts, but you say, how shall we return? So the Jewish people, in Malachi's day, felt as if God had abandoned them, that he was no longer hearing their prayers. We've seen many references to this as we've journeyed through this. In fact, Ruston preached the very 1st sermon in this series, and I think your opening line rested with something like, you don't even love me, or you no longer love me. He was making the point that we often say it. That's what they were saying about God. God, you don't love me anymore. Verse two, the 2nd verse of the whole book. I have loved you, says the Lord, but you have said, how have you loved us? They were doubting God's love. In chapter 2, verse 13. It said they were covering the altar with tears and groaning because the Lord no longer accepted their offering with favor. God, we're praying and you're not answering our prayers. We're bringing an offering and you're not listening to us. And last week we saw how they were wearying the Lord with their words of, where is the God of justice? Why are things the way they are in the world in which we live? God, where are you? At this point in the book, though, we see the real issue. The real issue is not that God had left his people, but that his people had turned away from him. They were saying, God, where are you? And God is saying, no, where are you? I haven't left you. You have left me? And it's been a pattern throughout your whole history. Since the days of your fathers, or since the days of your ancestors, verse 7 says, what he's saying here is you have a long history of ignoring my commands. You have a long and sad history of reoccurring departure from me. Yet despite your rebellion, through all these generations, God says, I'm offering to return to you, if you'll return to me. He's calling them to repentance. To turn around. Turn from your path of rebellion and disobedience, and turn back to me. We see that pattern all throughout the scriptures. The call of God to us to repent, to turn from the way we're living. We see it throughout the prophets of Jeremiah and Isaiah and Zechariah and Malachi. We saw that in Acts 319, repent and turn back, so your sins will be wiped away. We heard it in the preaching of John the Baptist repent for the kingdom of God is near. We sang about it even today, the kindness of the Lord leading us to repentance comes from Romans 2, verse 4. God is always calling his rebellious people to return to them, to return to him. Now look at the pushback. We've noted this before, the pattern through Malachi. The prophet makes a statement that people ask a question. What are you talking about? What do you mean? We see it here. How shall we return? They begin to dispute with God again. Now, you could look at this on the service and say, oh, they're asking, God, we do want to return. How do we do that? That's not what they're doing. It' ironic. God says, return to me. And they say, what do you mean, return to you? Where do we go? haven't gone here. do you mean, return to you? And then God said, no, I'm going to tell you how you've left me. Verse eight. Will a man rob God? Yet you were robbing me. Now, notice again, the pushback. But you say, how will we robbed you? He says in your ties and contribution, see the pattern. God says, you left me. They say, what do you mean we've left you? He said, you robbed me. What do you mean we've robbed you? You're not bringing your tithe into the storehouse. They're disobedience and rebellion to take in many forms. We've seen it. The blind animals they were bringing at one point in the book, the spiritual compromise in their marriages, marrying pagan women in the land, leaving the wives of their youth, the youth, the divorce among the people, and now he brings another charge. You've robbed God. You've robbed God by cheating him of the tithe that you were to bring him. You've robbed him. Now, what is a tithe? A tithe. Means a 10th. And it's a word used to refer to the practice of giving 10% of your income to the Lord. We see the reference throughout scripture. We saw it 1st in Genesis chapter 14. where Abram gave a 10th of everything to the priest Melchizedek. We saw it in Genesis 28, when Jacob vowed to give a 10th of everything to God if he would protect him on his journey. And then we see it throughout the law, many places where the people were told to bring 10% to the Lord. Leviticus 27, verse 30. Leviticus 2730. Every tithe of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees is the Lord's. It's holy to the Lord. And every tithe of herds and flocks, and a 10th of every animal, of all that passes under the herdsman staff, shall be holy the Lord. So I want you to do when you get to the land, I want you to give me 10% of the crop. I want you to give me 10% of the fruit off the trees. I want you to give me 10% of the herd. I want you to give me 10% of the flock, 10% of every, all that I bless you with, 10%. I want you get back to me. Now, how was it used in that day? It was used in three ways in Malachi's day. Number one, it would support the work of the Levites who served as priests in the temple. And so he said, they would come, they would carry out the events in the temple all day long, and it would keep them, keep them around, they go out and work, so that they could devote themselves to the work of the temple. It also provided food for the festivals that took place in Israel, and then finally, it provided for the needs of the community. Deuteronomy 1428 says, The tithes would meet the needs of the poor, the immigrant, the orphan, and the widow. So you take all that money. We're going to take care of the priests who do the work in the temple. We're going to have all that we need for the festivals, and then we're going to take care of the needs around us, the people who are in need financially. Now, while that was how it was used, That wasn't the reason for it. The real reason for it, was not so that God could meet these needs, because he could do that however he wanted. The real reason was the tithe would be an expression of their commitment to the Lord. Them giving 10% to the Lord was a way they showed their commitment, their gratitude, and their trust in the Lord. So to withhold the tithe is to have a heart that's far from God, because the tithe was the evidence that their heart was devoted to the Lord. He said, you've robbed me 4 times in this passage. You've robbed me. They say, how have we robbed you? You held back what was mine. You say, now is that really robbery? If I didn't take something from someone? Is it really stealing? Well, try that in April with the IRS. Just try not, just say, I'm not going to give you what you think I should give you. They're going to call that robbery. is what they're going to call that. You would do that too, if I sold you something. If I was gonna sell something to Dusty, and Dusty, I want $20 for this, and Dusty says, all I have is a 50? I said, that'll do. He gives me his 50. I put it in my pocket and walk away. You're going to feel robbed. Now I didn't take your money. I just didn't give you back what I should have given back. He said, that's what they're doing. He said, God gave you your crop. You were supposed to give back part to hit. And when you failed to give back to him, you have robbed him. Look at verse nine. s the result. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me the whole nation of you. You're robbing me. You see, he says, when you really, when you robbed me, you robbed yourself. You really robbed yourself. You're complaining about the lack of blessing in the land, but what were you expecting me to do, God says. Your hearts were far from me. You were full of spiritual compromise and blind sheep and robbing the tithe. And now you wonder why I've not blessed you. What he's saying to them is your sin has consequences. Maybe they brought the blemished animals because they felt God wasn't blessing them enough. Maybe they held back the offering because he felt God wasn't blessing them enough. And here he says, no, guys, the reason why you were cursed is because you are robbing me. Deuteronomy 28. We won't look at it today, but you could go back later. Deuteronomy 28 laid out the grounds for the covenant God had with his people in that day. And he said, here, if you're obedient to me, there'll be blessings and if you're disobedient to me, there'll be curses. Be faithful, you'll be blessed, be unfaithful. You're gonna be cursed. And so by robbing God, they were not fulfilling the covenant God had made with them. And it wasn't really about the offering. It was about their trust. It was about their obedience. Robbing God was a symptom of the bigger problem in their life. So here's the solution, verse 10. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you, and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. Bring the full tithe into the house. Now maybe they were doing partial part of the crop. He said, I want the full thing. I want everything that you are to bring to me, partial obedience is disobedience. I want you to bring it all. Why? So there'll be food in my house. We're going to fill up the storehouse. What is the storehouse? These were little chambers in the temple where they would store the grain, the oil, the wine, the temple vessels, we need all that we need to carry out the ministry. And I need you to bring it so that we will have all that we need. And then he says this. First 10, put me to the test. Test me. See if I won't bless you as a result. Do you trust me enough to do this is what he's saying. Do you really trust my sovereignty? Do you really trust my provision? If you really want to show that you trust me, test me by bringing the tithe into the storehouse? And then the result? I'll open the windows of heaven and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. The windows of heaven. It's the same word used to refer to the flood waters in Genesis 7 and 8. Well, God opened the windows of heaven and poured rain on the earth. It's the same word used in Psalm 78 in reference to the manna that God used to fetus people. I opened the windows of heaven and poured manna on my people. God promises to open the heavenly floodgates. When they're faithful to him. Now, it's important to know. This verse can be misused sometimes in a kind of a prosperity preaching of the gospel, in which we treat God like a slot machine. Throw in your your offering, pull the lever, and 1000000s of dollars will come your way. Don't buy that. If anybody's saying that on the internet or wherever you hear people saying that. Don't buy that. What he says here. It interesting. There is a little distinction. When you read the Bible, you said the Bible. One things that I like to do, I encourage you to do, is read the Bible in multiple translations. Because what we're doing with Malachi, for example, is we're translating Hebrew into English. And different translators will bring that over a little bit differently. So I like to go to like Biblegateway.com as a website I'll use, Biblegateway.com or the U version app, and you can select different translations. So I do that when I study a passage. What I was doing this and I noted a discrep, not a discrepancy, but a little difference. The ESV that I'm reading from here says there will be no more need, no more need. Others translate it without measure, without measure. So what's the difference? So I called Blake, Pastor Blake, we know him as here, down the road at Midwestern Seminary, he's Dr. Hearson. And so I wanted to know, I know what the ESV and the CSV, I want to know what the BHV, the Blake Hearson version of this says. And so here's what the BHV says. The BHV says this, according to Dr. Blake, Pastor Blake, you translate this way. Everything that's needed is provided for. Everything's needed is provided for. So what's the idea of overflowing? He says, the idea is this. You're going to have everything you need fully, totally, to the point where it overflows a little bit. He said, it's not like an unlimited cornucopia. We're just blessing after blessing after blessing after blessing. God's going to meet everything you need to the point where after he's met all of your need, there's still some left over. There's 0 lack when the Lord blesses us. That's what it's saying here. I'm going to meet all of your needs. Verse 11. I'll rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of Host. Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts. Not only will I provide for you, I'll protect you from the devourer. What is the devourer? This is a word that kind of generally was used of anything that threatened your crop. You might translate, if you read other translations, it might have pests or insects. I'm not gonna, anything eat your crops, is what he's saying here, to the point where the nations are going to look at you, and they're going to say that as a nation that is blessed by God. Look at their provisions, look at the protection of the Lord on them. When you're faithful to me, I'm gonna take care of you. Now, what's the application in our day? Three things I want you to notice today. Number one, is that God still calls his people to support the work of ministry. It's a different day, different process. God's moving in a new way today. It's not a temple that we take animals to. There aren't priests offering sacrifices that we need to take care of them because that's they want to eat if we don't bring the food and take care of them every day, but God still calls on us to support the work of what he's doing in the world. He still invites us into that. Just as God expected Israel to give back to him. God calls Christians to give back to him, just as the tithe provided for ministry, that there'd be food in the temple, that are giving today, provides for the support of ministries of the local church. Now we didn't plan this this way. Russell, I thought it was ironic or how the timing of God, that this next week, a week from tonight, we'll vote on our annual budget. It's timely message. What we're saying is when you leave today, you grab the budget out there. This is our budget for 2027, members of our church, we invite you to come a week from tonight to our meeting when we approve this, you can scan the QR code and get it digitally. Everything we're doing next year is funded by the generosity, the faithful giving of the members of the Northland family. So our money that goes to missions, our money to church planting, as we plant more churches, our support of our missionaries around the world, our staff that serve in our church, the teacher training that we do, women's ministry, men's ministry, senior adult ministry, children's ministry, student ministry, the copy machine, everything we do this year. It's all in here. It's funded by the generosity of the family of God. That's the same thing God was doing there. He continues today. God invites us into this. It's so cool how we get to just, you have no idea, because you don't get to see it. You just like, you put something in the app or drops in the basket. It's so cool to be one of our leaders and see what God does. Chris runs a ministry down the road with Line Creek Apartments. And Chris put on a soccer tournament last week. I was able to meet Chris and Kuyak at Walmart and we loaded up the cart with snacks and all we needed for those kids. You guys did that. Your generosity put on a soccer tournament for kids down the street. We're gonna do a Christmas party. You're gonna hear more about that soon. We're gonna go down and bake cookies and build gingerbread houses with the kids down the road, our friends at Long Creek. You're gonna buy all of that, Northland family. Friday night, we did a parents' night out for foster families. You bought the pizza and the chicken nuggets for that. Saturday, yesterday, our hope special needs support group got together. You paid for that. Our ESL ministry on Thursday nights that Rachel runs. You guys are paying for all of that. Everything we're doing. Our students are at their disciple now weekend right now. They'll be flooding into here for the 3rd service. You guys, the pizzas and the food and you guys did that. God, it lets us all be a part of what he's doing. Nothing, the more things change, the more they stay the same. God still said, bring the resources to meet the needs of what I'm doing. Now, the question comes up. Does the tide still apply? So they were tithing to meet the needs of the temple. We're giving to support the work of ministry in our community. Does the tithe still apply in this way? Now, let me say a few things about it. Most of the time when people ask me that question, it's a very sincere question. They really want to know a sincere answer. Sometimes people ask that question because they want to know what's the bare minimum I can get by with. I want to give. I want to give, the smallest amount I can give. Does it need to be 10%? Okay, so if that's you, let me just point something out, and that is that the giving level in the New Testament often exceeded 10%. So if the question is, I don't want to do it the Old Testament way, I'd like to get the New Testament discount, there's not a New Testament discount, because we see the examples here. Mark chapter 12, the widow gave everything she had. Luke 19, Zacchaeus, came down on the tree, gave half of his possessions to the poor. Mary, and John 12, anoints Jesus with oil worth a year's worth of wages. Acts 2, Acts 4, the early Christians sold their property, to give to others. That'd be great. Micah, to call the Mars group, to sell some land, to donate the money. They were, I want to sell this and give it all. 2 Corinthians 83, the churches gave beyond their ability. And so the standard that we see as we move from Old Testament, New Testament, it oftentimes went well beyond 10%. But we do see, either way, Old Testament and New Testament, outside of these bold, dramatic, sacrificial moments, it was a proportional level of giving. Acts 11, 29, and in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of you determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea, a proportion. God didn't care about the portion, he cares about the proportion. That we give. Uh, 1 Corinthians 62, on the 1st day, every week, each one of you should set aside, as he may prosper, set aside money according to how you prospered. 2nd Corinthians 8, 11, by now finish doing it also, so that just as there was the readiness to desire it, so there may be the completion of it by your ability, by your ability. For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. So a lot of great questions about this. When it comes to tithing. Is it Old Testament, New Testament, we've seen some examples there, often went well beyond that in the New Testament, should be proportionate to how God has blessed us. People will ask questions like this, do I tithe on my net or my gross? Do I tithe on a birthday present? I know I'm a tithe on what my boss paid me, but what grandma gives me $100? Do I give 10% of that? Do I give the tithe to my local church or can I support other ministries, campus ministries and mission causes? All these questions? Here's the, I don't think we should get into all the weeds of all that. Here's the simple answer that I would give you to all of your questions. And I take this from Proverbs 39 where the scripture says, honor the Lord from your wealth. Honor the Lord for you, wealth. I would just ask the simple question. Is God honored by your level of generosity? Is God honored? Is God glorified by the level of generosity? If 10%, you feel it honors him, if it sells some land and give it away, or if it's your net or your growth, or grandma's $100 Christmas gift, is the, is God honored? Is God honored? We have a good time in January, to lay your W 2 next to your giving statement to different ministries that you support, and say, God gave me all of this. What did I do with it? And he said, 0 man. I think it can be trouble. I don't think I'd feel so good if I looked at everything God gave me this year and so much I gave away. Well, good news, you have about 6 weeks to fix it before those come out. Is God honored? I want God to be honored by what I do for him. Second. God still meets the needs of the faithful. God still meets the needs of the faithful. verse 10, I will pour down blessings. Verse 11, I will rebuke the devourer. And what's really cool about this? It says, when you were faithful to God, he provides and he protects. Here's why I want to point that out. It's easy to see when God provides. We don't see how God protects. The truth is, everything you have today is not just the result of what God provided from you, but it's also how God protected the devourer from taking it away. And we don't see that. And a guy one time, he switched from one line of work to another line of work and it really experienced incredible financial blessing when he made that move. And he got to the end of the year, and he got his giving statement. He said, Pastor, I felt really cool this year. I was awesome. When I saw that, we gave more to the church this year that we ever had before and more than I ever would have imagined giving. And so I was felt so good about it. But I'm to be honest with you. He said, I also there's a part of me that said, man, what I could have done with that money. He said, that was a bigger number this year than it had been before. And it got me thinking about the things I could have bought with that much money. I said, yeah, that's a normal feeling to have. But I said, here's the thing. If you hadn't been faithful to God, you don't know if that number would have been that big. That number might have been that big, because your income was that big, because God protected the devourer of the new business you started. And we just don't know. What we do know is how many times, every year of our life, how many times God protected us and we didn't even see it. But what he's saying this here is faithfulness leads to fruitfulness. The obedient are going to be blessed. So I think there's 3 reasons I think people fail to give. One is a lack of knowledge. They just don't think about it. Just nothing they've really thought about, that they've talked about. Couples have never really sat out and talked about. This part of their budget. There's nothing they give me thought to. Second, is materialism or greed, and that certainly plays a role. Um, uh, Tony Evans, pastor in uh, Texas, I believe, wrote a, put out a study Bible. I use his study Bible a lot. He had this quote in his study Bible in this passage, Christians suffer from what I call cirrhosis of the giver. And while general paralysis sets in when reaching for the wallet or purse in the support of ministry, the disease amazingly disappears at the mall, movies, and restaurants. That's a pretty good quote. Sometimes it's greed. But let me tell you what it usually is, though. honestly, it's for most people. They want to give, they think about it, but it's a lack of faith. It's a lack of faith. I just don't know if I'm going to be able to pay the bills if I give to this cause that God has put on my heart to give to. Let me tell you something. God doesn't want your money. He wants your trust. God doesn't want your money. He wants your trust. And giving is a way to say, God, I trust you. I'm going to give to this ministry. I'm going to give to my local church. I'm going to support this mission's cause. I'm going to give to this believing that you are going to take care of my needs. It's not a bribe. It's not, okay, God, here's the gift. Now give me the new car. not what's being taught here. It's, give to me, and I'm gonna make sure all the needs are met. And we see this throughout scripture. Proverbs 39. Honor the Lord from your wealth. From the 1st of all your produce so that your barns will be filled with plenty, your vats will overflow with new wine. Luke 6, Jesus said, give and it will be given to you. Good measure, press down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Philippians 419. Says after about 10 verses about giving. The letter concludes, the section concludes with these words, my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus. And then 2nd Corinthians 9.6. The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, whoever sows bountifully, will also reap bountifully. What does all this say? Honor me and I'll fill up the barn. Give to me and I'll give back. Support my ministries, and I'll meet all your needs, so bountifully and reap, bountifully. God meets the needs of the faithful. And then finally, God still shows mercy, those who turn back to him. God still shows mercy to those who turn back to him. They turned aside. In fact, say you turned aside at every generation. Here's the sad news, Northland. We've kept the streak going pretty well in our day. The streak of disobedience of the Israelites has continued generation after generation. We still turn our backs on God. Here's the beautiful thing of this passage. Return to me and I'll return to you, verse 7 promises. See, the context is money. So if you're robbing God of a tide, Start being faithful. If you're not trusting him, start trusting him. But the point is, the robbing of the tide was one problem. They had a bunch of other problems. He's not just saying, return to me with the tithe. Return to me with your whole heart. Return to me with everything. Turn back to me. And I'll bless you. I'll forgive you. Return to me. I'll return to you. So here's our 3 questions as we close. Is God honored by my generosity? Am I guilty of robbing God in any way? I remember years ago, someone said, a checkbook is a theological document that tells you what you worship. Now some of you say, what is a checkbook? Find somebody with gray hair, they probably have one in their purse. But for you, it's your banking app. Your banking app will tell me, tell you what you really worship. And so he's saying, your hearts are far from me, and I can see it by your giving. That's what he's saying to the people. See, money is a magnifying glass. Money just magnifies what's already in our heart. Some people say, oh, I don't give now, but if I hit the Powerball, I would. I don't know that you would. Because all the magnifying glass does is blow up what's already in your heart. If you're generous with a little bit of money and God gives you more money, you'll be extravagantly generous. And if you're a jerk, you'll be a really big jerk. All money does is magnifies what's already in your heart. And so we say, God, I want to honor you with my heart today. If you have a little or you have a lot, whatever you have, God wants to be honored, through our giving. Don't just try to squeak by. Don't just say, what's the bare minimum I can get by with? It reminds me of students, Rustin, uh, uh, uh, come finals time. What do I have to do to get to just pass your class? What is, you ever ask they ever ask you that question? What's the lowest grade I can make on this final and pass? That does not have to add toward God. You wouldn't want your doctor to say that, right? Like, how was med school, man? I just barely got by. You don't want that. We don't have that attitude toward God. God, what's the bare minimum I can get by with? Honor God with generosity, honor him. Second, is my generosity reflection of my trust in God. Does it show that I really trust him? Your giving is the test of your trust, the test of your faith. Again, God doesn't want your money. He wants your trust. I remember, as a, uh, years ago, writing, we used to write checks. We used to write down on a piece of paper what we wanted to pay people back in the 1900s. And, uh, I remember, um, this is probably the early 2000s. It was Mike or Mason was watching me pay the bills and I was showing how I write a check to the church teaching our kids. You should talk to your kids about money at every age, by the way. Don't make this a private thing, talk all about all your money with your kids so they know about this. when they grow up. And I said, God gives us money. And then we give part of it back to him. And it was Mason or Micah asked the question, why didn't he just keep what he wanted to begin with? Why did he let you have it? And just count on you to somehow give it back? I said, because God wants to know, do I trust you? Well, I worship you, this, the way I worship him. God gave you money this year to see what you would do with it. Will you say through it, God, I trust you. I trust you. And then finally, is God calling me to turn back to him? Maybe it's in the area of giving, maybe it's in another area. God says, return to me and I'll return to you. Reminded me of a story I heard years ago of a old couple driving down the road in an old pickup truck, the old man sat behind the steering wheel. It's one of those old trucks with the bench seat. Anybody who had one of those back in the day? He did? The bench seat, he's driving the truck. His wife's over there, the passenger seat, begins to complain about how they're not, their relationship isn't like it used to be in their younger days, how they don't seem as close as they used to be when they were younger and the old man said, what do you mean? And she said, well, for example, we used to go for rides in this truck and I would sit right next to you and you'd have one hand on the steering wheel and one arm around me holding me close. And now look, you're over there and I'm over there and the man said, hey, listen, I'm not the one who moved. I'm not the one who moved. You may feel that way about God today. God, where are you? God, I feel so distant. God, I feel like you're not there, and God may say to you, I'm not the one who moved. I'm not the one who moved. Return to me. I'll return to you. Lets pray together. Take a moment just to consider what would be your response to what we saw in God's word. Maybe you'd ask the Lord this as we pray together. Father, show me, reveal to me, are you honored by my generosity. God, you've blessed me in a lot of ways. Am I honoring you with what you've given me. Maybe you'd say, Lord, do I really, really trust you? Maybe you would confess, Lord, part of the reason I hold back is because I'm just not sure about the future. I'm not sure about these bills that are coming up and God would say, just trust me. Trust me. And maybe you'd say, Lord, I've been wondering where you were this whole time, and the truth is I'm the one who's moved. And God says return to me. Pray a prayer of repentance. Jesus, I want to turn to you. Jesus, I want to return to you if you maybe wandered away. return to me, I'll return to you. Trust me, and I'll bless you. Father, we thank you for the ways that you provide for us, how you meet our needs, for the ways that you bless us, provide for us, and the ways you protect us, the things we see, the provision we can see in our bank accounts, and the protection we can't see. When a major bill was avoided because of your protection. Let us trust you. Help us to honor you. Help us not to get in the weeds of the technicalities of how we might skate by with the bare minimum, but help us to have hearts of radical generosity and incredible faith. Thank you for letting us be a part of what you're doing in the world, letting us invest in eternal things. And thank you most of all for your grace, Jesus, that when we wander away, we can come back. I pray for anyone here today who feels like they've wandered away. But today they'd heed. Verse 7. Return to you, so you can return to them. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.