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“If you’re able, please stand.” Reading of Malachi 3:8–12. “Thanks be to God.”
“How much should I give?” It seems like in a lot of situations these days, we’re faced with that question.
But what about giving to the church? We’re in a giving campaign and asking you to consider how much to pledge to the church. How much should you give?
A common measuring stick in churches is the TITHE. A tithe means 10%. There’s a long tradition in the church that you give the first 10% to the church and then “offerings” above that could be given outside the church or to alms.
This morning we’ll think about this idea of TITHING. This will be a bit of a deep-dive into TITHING.
If you’re not a Christian you might be thinking, “Ugh. Christians and money! They’re always asking for money!”
Our text is from the Minor Prophet Malachi.
Their spiritual state is given away in Mal. 2:17:
You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” (Mal 2:17)
Sermon: Let your generous giving be informed by the tithe.
Prayer
A generation with the residue of 70 years in Babylon. A Babylonian captivity that was the punishment for generations of unfaithfulness to God. God was clear in the Mosaic law that unfaithfulness to the covenant would have consequences—tangible, temporal consequences. Consequences in your family, with your crops, military consequences.
They had returned to Jerusalem. Yes!
They had returned because of WHO GOD IS: He is the unchanging One who keeps his promises: “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal 3:6).
Their history shows this to be true. Malachi is writing somewhere in the 400s BC—which means he’s basically a contemporary of Socrates. Not that they ever met, but they could have.
But Malachi is writing a thousand years after God brought his people out of Egypt. For a thousand years he had been watching over them, helping them, disciplining them, protecting them.
They had proven very changeable, often unfaithful. But Yahweh does not change. And therefore, God’s people were still there. Rebuilding their religion and their city, but they were still there.
God’s faithfulness to them in this moment in their history was proven by his provoking them to repentance and revival.
Malachi is God’s mouthpiece to call them to repentance.
The call in Mal. 3:7, “Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.”
This language of “returning” to Yahweh is found throughout the Old Testament. In the blessings and curses chapters, Israel is told that if they “TURN” from God’s Word then God will “TURN” from them (Deut 28). But if they “RETURN” to God, God will “RETURN” to them.
An example about the time of Malachi:
8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ (Neh 1:8-9)
Well, the whole book of Malachi is a time of TURNING back to Yahweh. In all of life. And this includes TURNING back in the area of finances. Restoring the tithe was a matter of TURNING TO GOD, because tithing was required under Moses.
Read Malachi 3:7b–10a. Now we'll do that deep dive!
At the time of Malachi’s prophecy, tithing was the way the religious work was accomplished in the nation of Israel. It was the way the economy of the priesthood was to function. It was clearly laid out in the Law of Moses. Tithing was part of keeping God’s old covenant, and forsaking the tithe was also forsaking the old covenant.
But tithing in the Old Testament predates the Law of Moses. Remember, everything in the book of Genesis comes before the Law of Moses. Everything in Genesis is before the old covenant was inaugurated.
Tithing itself has a long history. See it in the patriarchs.
We see it with Abraham:
19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Gen 14:19–20)
And Jacob:
19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.” (Gen 28:19-22)
There are a lot of verses on tithing in the Law of Moses. I’ll just read a few.
“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD’S; it is holy to the LORD. (Lev 27:30)
“To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting (Num 18:21)
There was the festival tithe. You wouldn’t give it away but eat it at the tabernacle/temple (Deut 12:17–19).
What can be called “the charity tithe”:
28 “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do. (Deut 14:28-29)
The total giving for all these tithes was actually more than 10% of a person’s income. But each gift was nonetheless a tithe, a tenth.
The pattern established in Genesis continues in the Law of Moses.
When revivals break out in Israel’s history, one of the things that happens is a restoration of tithing. Money and spirituality always go together!
In the days of Hezekiah (2 Chr 31:5; Neh 10:35–38).
And then our passage. Our passage fits within this tithing system established by the Law of Moses.
What were the tithes for?
Jesus mentions tithing on two occasions. Once in a parable where a self-righteous Pharisee boasts that he “gives tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:12).
But then in a passage where he is correcting the Pharisees:
“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” (Luke 11:42)
This verse has generated a lot of discussion because Jesus says that “justice and the love of God” need to be the priority BUT he says to do these “without neglecting the others.”
He doesn’t tell the Pharisees not to tithe. He simply says they need to pursue “justice and the love of God.”
But then Jesus really starts messing with our percentages.
So, is it 10% as a tithe like the Pharisees? Or 100% like the widow and rich young ruler? Or 50% like Zacchaeus?
In the passage we looked at over the last two Sundays, 2 Corinthians 8–9, Paul messes with our percentages also.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Cor 8:9)
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor 9:6–7)
Once again, our percentages are getting tweaked. Paul is speaking of giving out of our poverty (2 Cor 8:2), of giving “beyond our means” (2 Cor 8:3) of “sowing bountifully” and not “sparingly” (2 Cor 9:6).
But then there are aspects of New Testament giving that mirror pretty closely Old Testament giving.
But more important than that is what we give for in the New Testament. The categories for our giving are the same.
What are we giving for?
It’s pretty clear that saying 10% is our exact level of giving is hard to see in the New Testament. But it’s also hard to see that we’re to give less!
The best approach: See tithing as a guide to your generosity.
Reading Malachi 3:10–12.
I know what you’re thinking: It doesn’t say God is testing us. We’re supposed to test God!
True. But anytime God says to “test him,” he’s not the one being tested. We are!
How is Israel being tested here? God wants them to put their FAITH to the test. To put their CONFIDENCE in God to the test.
The promises in these verses are familiar ones from the blessings and curses in the Law of Moses. We saw some of them in our first point.
When we turn to the New Testament—life in the new covenant church—is this still true?
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. (2 Cor 9:6)
And then there’s Jesus’ teaching:
“Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38)
Sometimes these blessings are material, sometimes they’re more about a closer relationship with Christ. Or the joy of being used by God for him to accomplish his purposes.
A couple testimonies of God’s blessings:
From ______: “....Back in the day when we had our last giving campaign we were asked to or encouraged to consider bumping up the percentage of our regular giving for so many years. So [we] did. It's hard to chart or calculate but it does seem that my income began to steadily grow as we did that. At the end of the giving period I was somewhat "afraid" to stop giving that amount (��). That's because 1. I really believed that God had blessed our giving and didn't want to stop that blessing! 2. I knew the church would benefit from it so I saw it as a win-win. 3. I wanted to grow in my generosity. I did eventually take some of the "above the tithe" amount and give it to some other ministries that I wanted to give to but that overall giving habit has continued as has God's blessing.”
A second example for us this morning we’d like to share with you came true with Dan and Elizabeth Radez.
They’re going to come up and share it for you now.
Let your generous giving be informed by the tithe.
Remember Malachi 3:6, “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”
God does not change, because God cannot change. God our Provider will provide for us, just as he provided for Israel and for the early church.
Our resources always includes God’s abundance:
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:19)
God has given us the greatest gift. Because he’s given the greatest gift, we can trust him to give us “all things”:
Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! (2 Cor 9:15)
He gives the greater so we can trust him to give the lesser!
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:32)
Before our giving is our receiving. We receive Christ! Living in the good of receiving Christ, we give ourselves away, give our money away as he leads us.
Prayer and Closing Song
Here are some other recent messages.
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