ABC’s of Giving: Desired but Not Required

Mal 3:8-12

One Sunday little Billy was walking to church with 2 quarters his mom had given him. One was for God; the other was for an ice cream cone after church. Billy like most boys, began flipping his coin in the air and catching it. He had flipped it several times when suddenly he missed one and the coin rolled down the street and into the storm sewer. He stood there in a dilemma, not sure what to do. Finally he bowed his head in prayer. “Sorry God.”

That was the attitude of the Israelites in our text. They had come on hard times and instead of giving God what was owed him, they simply said, “Sorry God.” Under the Old Law, God required a tithe and so he took them to task for robbing him of what was owed to him.

But God takes pity on them. Instead of just blasting them for robbing him, he reminds them that he would bless them and keep his end of the bargain if they kept their end. He reminds them that they couldn’t out give God! I doubt very much that we could either.

PRAYER

I. We’re No Longer Under the Old Law, But Under The New Law

A. Don’t have to give a tithe

1. Many churches point to this passage in Malachi and say that everyone should give a tithe of their income.

2. Some churches even require a financial statement and what you give.

3. But Heb 8 tells us God made a new covenant for us to follow that is better than the old one.

4. In fact, vs 13 says the old covenant is obsolete.

5. Nowhere in the New Testament does God command us to tithe as an act of worship.

B. Not required, but desired

1. Hebrews gives us an indication that God as always desired a tithe.

2. The Hebrew writer in Heb 6:19 refers to a story we find about Abraham in the book of Geneses.

a) The area where Lot was living was attacked and he was taken captive. When Abraham heard of the attack, he gathered a force and pursued the army, defeated them and returned with his nephew and the spoils of war.

b) On the way home he came across Melchizedek,

c) I’ll come back to this story in a minute

3. There is no one like Jesus

a) The Hebrew writer spends several chapters pointing out how Jesus is great than everyone else

b) No angel was equal to him

c) No man is equal to him.

d) Moses wasn’t equal to him.

e) Even the high priests weren’t equal to him.

f) The Levites who performed the sacrifices for the Jews came from a different priesthood than Christ.

g) Jesus’ priesthood was in the order of Melchizedek.

h) READ Heb 6:19-20

4. The point is…

a) When Abraham met Melchizedek, he gave him a tithe in honor to God.

b) The giving a tithe to God came before Moses and the law.

c) God was pleased by the tithe long before the Law required it.

d) The tithe isn’t bound to the Law only.

II. The Tithe is a Good Benchmark for Mature Christians to Shoot for.

A. What our giving says about us

1. I’ve had to do some soul searching as I prepped for these lessons.

a) I hate talking about giving as a church. It always seems to get people upset at me.

b) It’s a very touchy subject.

c) But something keeps nagging at me. Why do we get upset when we talk about giving?

d) Does it hit something that we don’t want to face in ourselves?

2. What we give to God financially, physically and emotionally is as real an indicator of our spirituality as there is.

3. Maybe when we are forced to look at our giving and see that it falls short, it makes us feel guilty.

4. It makes us look honestly at what matters most to us.

B. Why the tithe should be a worthy goal

1. First, even the poorest Jew was expected to tithe to God under the law.

2. I’m not suggesting we do anything more than what was expected for a people who didn’t even know about Grace yet.

3. But would we really want to do less?

4. Abraham felt it was a worthy gift to God to honor him.

5. Shouldn’t our gifts be just as worthy?

6. We have Grace!

a) It’s not about obligation of the old Law to keep us in good standing.

b) It’s about a response to the grace that God has given us.

c) Nothing we do, nothing we give is going to earn our right to salvation.

d) That was a gift, dearly bought and freely given by God.

e) Our giving in response to that should be joyous and sincere.

C. What if I can’t tithe?

1. Some of us may not be in a position to tithe right now.

a) Because we haven’t learned to put our gifts to God first in our lives, we are in a financial position that we cannot tithe.

b) Because we haven’t learned to put God first in our time, other things like work, sports, and other activities have eaten up the greater amount of our time and we can only give God the leftovers.

2. What we can do is start today to begin changing that.

a) It may take some time to change our financial position.

b) It may take some time to reprioritize our time commitment.

c) But if we desire to do so, God will help us accomplish it.

d) And just as he blessed the Jews when they made God first in their lives, I believe he will do the same for us today.

e) It MIGHT be financially, It MIGHT be in other worldly matters, but I guarantee you it WILL be in spiritual matters.

f) Your faith will grow, your contentment will grow, your blessings in God will grow.

3. The whole concept of giving cheerfully is the knowledge that we find happiness in ourselves because we have pleased God.