-Transcript-
00:37 Thank you for joining me. Part three here of a three-part message on this cause-and-effect relationship we have with God. He has a great love for us.
00:50 What does that make us do? What is the effect of that? Are we ambivalent? Are we indifferent? Are we on fire for Him? Are we confused about it? We’re clearing it up here today through the help of God’s Word here at KJV Cafe.
00:58 So we’re in Malachi 1, and to recap, in Malachi 1 we’re looking at God’s promise that He’s loved us and that He loved us over others. And God gives this example of loving Israel or Jacob over Esau, the brother, and choosing Jacob.
01:17 And you can say if you’ve been saved, you’ve been predestined in the way that God’s chosen to save you. We can preach all day long and you can hear a message and you can get saved, but it’s not the preacher.
01:28 It’s nothing other than God Himself that does the saving.
01:32 And so we are loved with this predestined love. We are loved with an everlasting love. We’re loved with a love that is eternal, as in we have eternal security.
01:41 Once we’re saved, we’re always saved. Amen. And I know predestined is a loaded word, and so I’m not anywhere near the idea of Calvinism or anything like this.
01:50 I believe anyone can be saved, and God wishes in the Bible it says He wishes all to be saved. Amen. But what I’m saying for the Christian is if you have been saved, then you know that God loves you, and you know that He has a deep love for you.
02:02 And what do you do with that love? And we talked about that ungrateful, adulterous wife and the loving husband, and he did all he could for the wife, and he taught her great things,
02:14 and he gave and he didn’t take, and he took her back when she went astray, and he loved her far above and beyond what she could ever dream of having. He gave her and even gave his life to save her life, and it was a pure love, the purest kind of love.
02:30 And her response was indifference and confusion, lack of satisfaction, rebellion, pride, lack of giving, lack of recognition to who he is.
02:45 And I make this a comparison to the church today, not just the church house, but the people in the church. Oftentimes they’re indifferent. They’re confused.
02:51 They’re not satisfied. They don’t give. They have pride in their lives, and they don’t recognize who he is for what he is.
02:55 And I can make that statement because if you recognize God’s great love and you’re in his word to learn about that great love, then inevitably I believe that it’s just 100% possible or it’s 100% guaranteed that he’s going to light a fire in you to give more and to do more for him and to give him praise and honor and glory.
03:17 And that’s why we’re using this chapter here in Malachi. I know it’s in the Old Testament, and I know that it’s directed to the priests there in Israel at that time, but it still has great application for us today because we need to soften our hearts to the things of God and ways of God.
03:30 And in the last program I made the promise that there’s a reward for those that do that.
03:34 Now that’s what we’re going to get here today is a great reward. But first let’s look again at Malachi 1:14.
03:40 And so here we see that it’s cursed, the deceiver, those that have that great offering to give to God, those that have that mail, that first fruit, the good thing, and they say, I’m not going to give that to God.
04:05 I’m going to go ahead and give this other thing to God. Where do we see that in the Bible? Well, there’s, I think, multiple instances in the Bible, I’m sure.
04:19 One that comes to mind is Cain and Abel. Abel gave the proper offering that God had requested, and Cain gave an improper offering and he ended up killing Abel and he was a vagabond and he tried to do things his way and he was expelled from God’s program.
04:36 Would you say that Cain was rewarded for bringing that bad offering, that poor sacrifice? He was not rewarded.
04:34 He was punished greatly. Amen. And he was punished greatly for what he did.
04:39 And we see in the scripture that cursed are the ones making false promises. The idea is that God knows what you have. So number one, God is keeping a close eye on you and he knows exactly what you have in your storehouse.
04:55 In other words, God knows the context in which you give or you choose to give. And again, giving could be money. It also could be time and talents and resources and charity, and on and on.
05:10 God knows the context. And I want to give you a verse here, a very familiar verse that shows that God himself knows the context. Mark12:41-44.
05:19 And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury and many that were rich cast in much. So Jesus, God in the flesh, is witnessing what people are putting into the treasury.
05:28 They’re in the temple, right? And there came a certain poor widow and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
05:39 And he called unto him his disciples and sayeth unto them, Verily, I say unto you, look how he starts. This is like, it’s like a listen up. This is very important.
05:45 Verily, I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
05:46 And so in Mark chapter 12, especially verses 43 and 44, it tells me that Jesus is saying that poor widow cast in more than all they which have cast in the treasury.
06:01 I think that means more as in collectively. So all these rich people put in all of this, and then she puts in two mites. And Jesus Christ, God in the flesh is saying that’s more collectively than everyone else put together.
06:29 And why? Why? Because she cast in from her need, whereas everyone else from their abundance. Again, God is saying here, God in the flesh is speaking. He’s saying, I know the context, those rich people could afford to give, you know, if you’ve ever had a lot, I mean, how hard is it to give?
06:48 You know, if you have a bunch of money in the bank, and someone needs a few bucks, I mean, you even worry about it? I hope not, you know, it’s not not hard to give.
06:55 But if you have a few bucks in the bank, and someone needs a few bucks, do you worry about it? When you have a bill to pay when you have a need to meet, you may worry about it.
07:03 See, God knows the context. But how much are two mites? You know, according to Samford University, the mite, also known as a lepton, was a Jewish coin and the smallest used in New Testament time.
07:16 At the time of Mark’s writing, it was worth 1 64th of a denarius, and a denarius was a day’s wage for a common worker.
07:29 In today’s terms, it would be worth about 1 eighth of a cent. So she put in two mites, and I had to use a calculator, but that is roughly 25% of one penny, is what she put in.
07:37 She put in 1 fourth of a penny, amen? And I’m not a mathematician, maybe someone listening here can back that up, but she put in less than a penny, way less than a penny, and Jesus Christ said, that’s more than all these rich people putting in combined.
07:50 That’s how I read it. The point is, she put in out of her need, and God knows the sum total of what we give against any other, it’s what we give against what we have that matters.
08:06 So it, you know, God could know that we’ve got two people living in a house. We’ve got one person living in a house, and one person living in a house next door.
08:14 And person A gives $1,000 and has $100,000 in the bank, and person B gives $100 and has $5 in the bank.
08:23 And God knows the context, right? And so the person giving $1,000 said, hey, I gave $1,000, I’m doing really good. And the Lord says, well, I know all of your bills, all your needs, and you really didn’t give that much.
08:33 But this person over here, they gave pretty much everything they have.
08:37 And God understands it. And think about this more broadly speaking. You know, what does this come down to? I think it comes down to two issues, faith and heart.
08:50 Number one, faith. Do you really believe God will reward you if you give your all? I mean, that lady with two mites, you know, what kind of faith did she have? She needed that. She had very little, and she needed it.
09:00 And she said, I’m giving it to the Lord. Because she truly believed and had faith that God is real, that He is who He says He is, and that He will reward her for what she had done. That He will take care of her, provide for her, and reward her.
09:13 She had faith. And a heart issue. Do you love Him as He’s called you to love Him? Because when we get into that circumstance where it is really hard, and we don’t know what to do.
09:24 And you know, I had a preacher one time that told me he was stuck between paying an essential utility bill and tithing. You know, and he’s really in a hard place.
09:32 And he chose to tithe, and the Lord honored it, and he was able to pay that utility bill by the working of God’s grace.
09:46 And yet it’s sad, because it’s hard. And some people, what will they do? They’ll say, I just have to pay the bill, the Lord will understand. And it’s not that we need to just give all the time to please God.
09:53 It’s that we should have the faith and the heart to love the Lord, and believe that He is going to reward us for what we give. And to have that heart to believe that we should love Him with all our heart, and give even if it’s the last thing that we’ve got.
10:03 Hey, look, in chapter 3 of Malachi, God outlines what He does to those that give.
10:15 Chapter 3, let’s see here, verse 10. And bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, God saying, test me, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall be not enough room to receive it. Not enough room to receive it.
10:29 God is saying, go ahead and give it a try. You go ahead, you bring your best, you go ahead and you give what you’re supposed to give. You go ahead and see what I do, see what I bless you with.
10:41 Now let’s get into some details here. Firstly, when we’re talking about giving, we’re not talking about money necessarily.
10:49 It could also be charity, it could be time, right? You know, people’s time is very precious.
10:54 We live in a world that’s overbooked, that’s out of control. Someone asked me how early should they announce an event for work, and I said four months out, because people’s calendars are very booked.
11:02 You know, four months to book an hour appointment, that sounds crazy, but everyone is so busy now.
11:08 Everything is all booked up through the ceiling, so many distractions. When you say, God, I’m gonna give you this time every day, how about this? God, I’m gonna give you the first hour of my day.
11:18 When I wake up, I’ll get up extra early, I’m not gonna sleep during that time, I’m not gonna work, I’m not gonna do anything, I’m going to read your word, I’m gonna pray.
11:26 When we give God time, we give him that first of our time, when we give him our resources, our talents, what has God blessed you with that you could use to be a blessing to him?
11:34 What are those things that you can do better than anybody else, or close to better than anybody else? Are you going to try to make money off of those things, try to make a name for yourself off of those things?
11:43 Or maybe you’re gonna go ahead and use those to give back to God. Have you ever thought that he loved you so much that he gave you those talents so that you could do something for him?
11:52 Because he needs nothing. God is perfect and he needs nothing, so when he gives us a talent and we use it to glorify him, in effect he is rewarding us and blessing us to do that, amen.
12:01 He is giving us an opportunity to bring glory to him, which will bring us peace and joy, and this abundant blessing that he’s gonna pour out from the windows of heaven, amen.
12:14 When we do what we should do with our very best.
12:18 So charity, time, resources, talents, and yes, money. We should give to God, not out of an obligation. I’ve heard great preaching on the idea that the tithe doesn’t necessarily represent 10%, that there is no actual amount, we should just bring God what we can give as he is blessed, and I agree with all of that.
12:34 And so I’m not advocating for a certain amount, I’m just saying to your local church, to the ministries you’re involved in, give. Give as you can. And you know, how about this?
12:43 Help other Christians that are in need.
12:47 You know, maybe it’s not the church that has a need, maybe there’s someone in there that’s dealing with something.
12:53 Be a blessing and help them, not out of something that they may want, but out of something they really need, amen. And if you have the resources to do it, maybe God gave you those resources to be a blessing.
13:03 But it all comes down to having that heart and that faith to believe that God is who he says he is.
13:05 He’s a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. You know, we look at this idea here of cause and effect. You know, we get from God what we put into our relationship with and for God.
13:13 Are we putting in our best, offering our finest, or all that we have? Or are we doing the opposite? You know, God knows the truth and he will repay such as he has said he will repay.
13:21 We’re not under a workspace salvation, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Jesus Christ alone. So this is not about being saved.
13:32 This is about what you do after you’re saved and how you could draw closer to God by giving of what he’s blessed you with and trusting that he will replace it.
13:40 The idea of like a cycle where you give and he’ll help you and you go ahead and you give and so on. And it’s very important.
13:48 I love the Lord here today. I hope I did did him honor by the way that this was preached. And again, please seek the Lord and see what you can do for him, not just here in this holiday season, but around the clock.
14:00 And watch as he blesses you and you realize that his advice to you was not just for his glory, but is for your benefit and your own good. And just seek him with all your heart, and I believe he will lead you in a prosperous path.
14:12 Thank you for listening. Take care and God bless.