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First Things Lead To Greater Things
Pastor Floyd's second message from the series "Greater Things"
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I am really excited about our Greater Things vision that the Lord has given to us. Greater Things is a 3-year vision that we officially launched last Sunday in our church, but I basically pre-launched it in November of last year and began to ask you to join us in thinking through, and praying through that. Our Greater Things vision is a desire to see at least $20 million given over a 3-year period of time above what our people are presently giving to the annual budget of our church.
The annual budget of our church is $14,680,000. I’m asking God every morning for that amount. Now on top of that I’m asking the Lord to give us at least $20 million over a 3-year period of time that would be above the present gifts to our ministry budget for the fulfillment of a mighty 3-year vision that we believe God has put into our hearts.
I wrapped that vision around three simple C’s. The first c is church. Church. Church is our priority. Church is what we do. Church is who we are. We are the church. And it is our prayer that we will see over these next 3 years our church’s ministries surge and move in the elements that they presently are not moving. That we will be able to come alongside the various matters in our church to see an accelerated plan for the future of our church. We want to see our church over the next 3 years be in a greater position financially to hand it forward to the next generation behind us.
We also pray that over the next 3 years that God will take what we operate by a financial plan that looks at everything from our church. It looks at all of our facilities, looks at all of our, all of our properties, looks at all of our ministries, looks at all of our mission endeavors, and also looks even to the, to the mortgage of our buildings that we have, and look at all of that and see those aggressively, aggressively forwarded in a 3 year time. That’s forwarding the financial plan, just like you have a financial plan for the business that you’re a part of, or that you lead, our church operates with that. We want to see that accelerated into years to come.
Second c is the word commission. Commission is the Great Commission. That c is wrapped around a lot of things. One of those things is what we are seeing in our Fayetteville Campus. Let me announce to you today that 6 weeks ago our Fayetteville began. In week number 6, our Fayetteville Campus is now today launching its 3rd worship service. We started with 2, we’re launching 3. So now our Fayetteville Campus will offer a 12:30 service, as well as a 9:15, and a 10:55 service. In the first 5 weeks 41 people have already been baptized into our fellowship. Also, additionally, over 100 decisions for Christ in the first 5 weeks of our Fayetteville Campus, averaging over 1300 people a week in the first 5 weeks. You say well it must be a bunch of college students. There are a few college students, but let me just make it real clear, that is not what occurs. And if it did, you ought to praise God even more because I’d be willing to say that they’re not 400 college students at the University of Arkansas in anybody’s church, anywhere, on this given Sunday morning. That’s pretty sad.
So, but we’re seeing a multitude of people, all generations coming to that campus and worshiping and growing, and learning, and being challenged by the Word of God. But also, we want to see 50 churches planted in the next 3 years of our church, nationally and internationally. We’ve already seen, we’ve moved into an agreement with 16 of those churches in our World Missions Conference. So we are already beginning the first 16 this year all across the world, and we’re going to see that over the next while as well. Some of those churches are in cities like New York City, in Denver, and then to places in the world, around the world like Africa, as well as China, as well as Brazil. And so we are seeing the Lord do some great things.
We also want to see in the year 2012 a thousand of you to join us in going on a missions endeavor somewhere outside of NWA. A thousand of us. Can you imagine what God will do with at least a thousand of us, and what He will do in our church if a thousand of us would go in one given year? I want to see that. I’m believing that. I am praying for that. You give us 4 days, 7 days, 12, days, 14 days, 21 days; we’ll try to arrive a trip, and whatever you can do, a weekend, whatever you can do, we’ll help you go, and we’ll help you do it to the glory of God.
WE also want to see 10,000 people come to Christ in one given year, all of 2012 through all of those mission endeavors, through all that we see happening on this campus, and the other 2 campuses. We added all of those worship services, and all of those ministries that go on, and our missions’ ministry that is bigger than life at times. I mean we want to see God save at least 10,000 people during that year. You say Ronnie, can that happen? I guarantee it can’t happen the way we’re doing it, that’s why we’re changing. We’re going to do it in a brand-new way. Got it? Got it.
We’re also wanting to see by the end of 3 years that every home in NWA in someway receive some kind of gospel witness about how Christ is the answer to life. We’re not sure how we’re going to do that, but we’re hoping, and we’re believing God for a way to do that in the best way, in the culture in which we live.
And that last c is the word compassion. It’s a powerful word, challenging word. Do you realize there are thousands and thousands of children everyday that die across the world due to lack of hunger, or simply being deprived of having the right kind of environment, due to a lack of quality of water in their entire region? We want to help certain countries of the world gain that access. We want to tell them not only about water, and how water can help them, but we’re going to provide them with the Living Water, Jesus Christ, it has the power to change their life, and change their culture, and give them hope beyond what we could ever understand. We want to come alongside of world hunger. We want to come alongside of what we call a compassion ministry here in NWA that already is taking place, but we want to do it in a whole different level, bringing it all together in what we’re going to call a Compassion Center.
There are so many other things that I could talk about. We’re excited about that. But you know what? All of that $20 million plus is above what we give to our ministry budget. And so we can’t rob one to do the other, or else we paralyze the other, and we can’t do that. And so, but you know what? Jeana and I we’re really excited about this vision of Greater Things. When we did our last one called Special Treasures that helped build this building, you know we didn’t really know how we were going to meet that commitment, but by faith we launched that commitment, and we did it. I’m telling you this morning Jeana and I are determined over this past week we are going to double the commitment that we made all that time ago when we did Special Treasures.
I don’t know what that means for you. I don’t know what God might be calling you to do. I’m just going to ask you to do one thing, do more than you’ve ever done in your life for the gospel of Jesus Christ. To give more than you’ve ever given for the gospel of Jesus Christ to what we call Greater Things.
We believe that there was a group years ago who wanted to see the very same thing, as we wanted to see, Greater Things. That groups existed in the days of Malachi, about the 5th Century, B.C. If you may. His contemporaries were Ezra and Nehemiah. We find in the book of Malachi, which is the last Old Testament book, which we’re going to read from today. We find in that that God declares to Malachi that if you really want to see greater things in your life it’s got to begin with first things. First things first. And you know what we learn from Malachi’s book? Last week we learned about how all things lead to greater things. All things are given to us for greater things. Whatever those all things are.
But we learn this week that first things lead to greater things. And that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning, how first things lead to greater things. You see as the people wanted to have greater things happen in their life, they asked God a question. The question is quite an amazing question to me. They asked God how have You loved us? Can you imagine yourself coming to a point in your life where you ask God now how have You proven Your love to me? That’s where they were.
You see what we have to understand is that’s where many of us are today. We may not verbalize it, but we’ve asked ourselves why is all that stuff happening to me? Why is all this stuff going on in my life? What is going on in my life? You see sometimes the trials of life become such a problem for us in life we don’t see things very clearly. And we become diluted and polluted in the way we see God. And we imagine this God that doesn’t really even exist, the God of the New Testament, and we try to Americanize that God. And we cannot Americanize God to an American gospel, for the gospel of Jesus Christ is powerful and transcends all cultures, and has the power to change the world.
And so what we must understand is that in this particular story, as they ask God how have you loved us? God combated that immediately and asked them a couple of questions. He asked those questions in verse number 6 of chapter 1. He said to them, He said, “Hey, where is My honor? You ask Me if I love you, and I’m telling you, where is My honor today? When have You not honored Me in My life? Where, where is the honor, how have you esteemed Me, is another question He asked them.” So you know what? God doesn’t mind you asking Him a question, but you can count on one thing, He’s going to come back on you and He’s going to also, not only answer your questions, but He’s going to also ask you some questions to penetrate even further what may be in your mind.
Well in this great book of the Bible, uh, they still had those high expectations, and we learn from all of a sudden that a man walks into the scene in the 5th Century, and his name was Malachi. That’s a great name. Malachi. In fact, I’m reminded of a young seminary student up at Midwestern Seminary that I’ve become a friend with his name is Malachi. You don’t meet a lot of Malachi’s, so I could remember his name real well. And what a tremendous name that is.
And so here is Malachi years ago who walks on the scene, and he becomes a prophet of God, and he delivers what God says. You know I was reminded of that this morning. I went out early this morning, and uh, as I was out early this morning I was wondering why our paper had not been delivered. You know years ago boys were delivery boys of the paper. Today you don’t see a lot of boys delivering papers. You see adults, and those adults are driving in the cars, and have the window going down, and mean even in the cold weather they’re tossing that dude somewhere out there in your grass, or on the driveway. And they’re just delivering the news and they don’t ask me once I read the newspaper what I think of it. Uh, they don’t ask me if I like the way it came either. Uh, they just deliver the news, and uh, they’re not looking for approval about it.
And you know, that’s really what I am today. I’m simply the deliveryman of God’s Word. That’s what Malachi was. Malachi didn’t ask them what they thought about what he said. Malachi was just telling them what God thought, and what God said. And my heart today, I just want you to see me not as me, but see me as simply God’s delivery person to you today, to see that this is the Word of God, and it doesn’t matter whether we like it, or we disagree with it, or play intellectual gymnastics with it, or we, we decide to play little spiritual games with God. It’s still the Word of God. It’s still true. I have nothing to prove whatsoever at all, and while I love approval, I don’t have to have approval to make it God’s Word. It’s still God’s Word.
And so, you know, I just want to give you God’s Word. It all starts with chapter 1, verse number 1. That’s a good place to start. In chapter 1, in verse 1, the Bible says, “The oracle of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.” Now notice, the Word of the Lord came to God’s people, Israel, by a prophet named Malachi. In other words, it wasn’t Malachi talking; it was the Word of the Lord given to Malachi, to the people of God. Are you with me? And then they used a word called oracle. Interesting word, in fact it’s used 20 other, 20 times in the Old Testament. The word is the Hebrew word massa, m-a-s-s-a, is how that would be transliterated from Hebrew into English.
And what does massa mean? It means oracle. It means law. It means declaration. You want to put it in the real practical sense; it means the following, a divine pronouncement. Now what is a divine pronouncement? A divine pronouncement is a divine declaration. It is a divine announcement. It is a divine word given by God, just like chapter 1, verse 1 says that it is. And so right here you find the divine pronouncement.
God’s pronouncement:
Now what was God pronouncing? What was God telling them? Now listen, you’ve got to ask yourself if you read the book of Malachi, you got a chance to read it real quickly, and you’re able to get down there and dissect it, and, and get down to the exposition of the text as much as possible in this story. All of a sudden you would understand this is what was telling them. You’re being unfaithful to Me. That’s God’s pronouncement. You are being unfaithful to Me.
Out of all the things that God could tell them, He was telling them you are being unfaithful to Me. And all of a sudden as He began to deliver that, they began to debate the pronouncement. That’s why they asked him that deal about how have You loved us? How have You loved us? So today, here’s the question: if God is telling me as a person, God is telling us as the people of God you’re being unfaithful to Me, I’d better ask myself now how am I being unfaithful to God? That’s quite a charge. Would you not agree? That’s quite a strong charge.
So how were they being unfaithful? First of all:
1. With your love. With your love. You see Malachi is a book about love. It’s about how to love God. It’s about loving God with all that you are. It’s about giving God your best. It’s about being your best before the Lord. But he says with your love you love me. And then God tells them, and He tells them, He says, “Hey, you know what? I have shown My love to your people. I’ve shown My love to your father. I’ve shown My love to your fathers. I’ve shown you love constantly again and again and again. I have shown you My love, but it’s you that’s being unfaithful with your love towards Me.” And that’s why he said if you want to debate that guys, how are you honoring Me? How are you esteeming Me? Let Me tell you the facts of life of what you’re doing, and then, I mean, He backs up the dump truck buddy, and He delivers the goods. You’re being unfaithful to Me with your love.
And then He says you’re also being unfaithful to Me:
2. In your worship. In your worship. In verse 7 through 9, what a powerful word it is, verse 7 through 9, “By offering polluted food upon my alter,” look at it, “but you say how have we polluted You,” they’re asking God. “By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised.” Then God says, “When you offer blind animals in sacrifice,” look at verse 8, “is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor,” good question, “will he accept you, or show you favor?” Can you imagine you going to the governor’s mansion here in the state of Arkansas and you bring the governor a special gift, and you bring him something that’s lame, and no good, looks like something all worn out. I mean is he going to accept that gift? That’s what He’s saying.
But He’s saying hey, He said, present that to your governor, will he accept you or show you favor says the Lord of Hosts. And then He says now entreat the favor of God that He may be gracious to you with such a gift from your hand, will He show favor to any of you? Says the Lord of Hosts. Pretty powerful question.
And then if you would look at verse 13. “But you say what a weariness this is, and you snort at it.” Interesting word, “says the Lord of Hosts. And you bring what has been taken by violence,” meaning you’ve done it in the wrong way. You’ve made the money in the wrong way. You’ve gotten something in the wrong way. You bring that, or you bring to Me something that’s lame, second best, or sick, something no one else wants. I mean it’s like giving God a virus. Here God, take this virus, I don’t want to throw up anymore.
“And this you bring as your offering.” And then God asked them a powerful question. “Shall I accept this from your hand, says the Lord.” So He says in your worship. You say well He’s talking about offering. That’s what worship is ladies and gentlemen. That’s why the third thing He talks about is you have been and you are being unfaithful to Me:
3. Through your offerings. Through your offerings, rather then me working back through that, those verses that I mentioned a moment ago, and I just read for you a moment ago, that’s what, He’s talking about. He’s talking about love. He’s talking about worship. He’s talking about offerings. And I want to give you an observation because I’m telling you there is a big time disconnect. And it’s because of American Christianity distorting the word of truth! And I want to give to you what the Bible teaches about those things. Now I want you to follow me. Listen to this observation: We cannot separate loving God, worshiping, God, and making offerings to God. You can’t separate those! You can’t separate that. There are a lot of people today that say well I love the Lord. Oh I love the Lord. Yet there are thousands of our members they’ll say that to you but they’re not in church today. They don’t love the Lord enough to come to worship, so why are you going to say you love the Lord?
Honey I’m going to love you but I ain’t coming to see you for about 4 or 5 weeks in a row. Is that all right? What are you doing honey? Well, don’t, just trust me, no big deal. I’ve got you covered. Remember I love you. Well, it wouldn’t work in marriage, listen to me, it don’t work with God. Love, and then He talks about what? He talks about worship!
Well you know we worship. And then we worship. Oh we worship. Oh we love to sing songs. We just worship, and we just worship, and we just worship. And uh, just worship. Big craze at worship today, but a major disconnect at worship relating to loving the Lord, and then there’s a major disconnect giving offerings to God. Oh let me tell you what you can say about a person that, that worships and doesn’t love the Lord, and doesn’t give offerings to God according to the Word of God. There’s one word you’ve got it. I mean one word: you’re being unfaithful to God. That’s what the book of Malachi says. You’re being unfaithful to God.
You say well, well listen, I stand and I pray, and I stand and I, and I, and I worship. I love all those songs that Josh sings, and I, and I stand to my feet, and I lift my hands, and I, and I clap when he asks us to clap, or it looks like we should. I’m quiet when we’re supposed to be quiet. And I’m trying to play the game. I don’t know the game but I’m trying to play. None of that matters because I’m telling you what God is telling us in the book of Malachi, all of it comes together to become a mighty spiritual force in your life. Love. Worship. And offerings. None of them exist in and of themselves. And for you to let them exist in and of themselves in your life, you have a distorted view of God, a distorted view of the Word of God, and you need a reconnect, and recorrection immediately in your life.
You say boy that’s kind of blunt pastor. I’m just telling you, I’m just telling you the word, look at the word, study the word. I’m not going to play intellectual gymnastics with you today. I’m just going to deliver you the Word, and that’s what the Word says.
I want you to notice a fourth thing. He says:
4. As leaders. Leaders are being unfaithful. Who’s a leader? A leader is someone who has responsibility to lead other people in relationship with their walk with God. That could be spiritual leaders in the home. It could be spiritual leaders in the church, any kind of leader there might be, whether it be men, women, or whatever it may be. And what is the disconnect? Look at chapter 2, verse 8. He says, “But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of Hosts.” In other words, there are people who are not going to walk with God, be what God wants them to be because of the way you’re living. There’s a disconnect between your words and your life!
And the Word is so strong He moves back in that entire section of chapter 2 and I want to bring you back up to verse 3 because you couldn’t think in verse 3 until I read verse 8. But verse 3 here’s what He says, look and see what He says, “Behold I will rebuke your offspring,” that’s your kids. “And I’m going to spread dung on your faces.” What’s dung? Figure it out. The dung of your offerings, and you should be taken away with it.
Let me tell you what God is saying. God is saying that when we have a disconnect with our love, our worship, and our offerings as leaders in the church, leaders of the Lord, being what we need to be before God, there’s a major disconnect there, God is saying I want to take the dung of human waste and the dung of the animals, and whatever you offer, and I’m going to smear it in your face as a testimony. You’re not living what you say you believe. That’s what James chapter 3; verse 1 tells us that those of us who teach the Word are under a stricter judgment. Come on now. Are you with me?
Number 5, he’s even talked about how we’re being unfaithful:
5. In marriage. In marriage. Boy this is a needed word in today’s
world. Look in chapter 2, verse 14. He says, “But you say why does he not? Because the Lord was with us between you and the wife of your youth.” Listen to what He’s saying to these men. “To whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.” I’m telling you God is into covenant marriage. God is into being committed to your spouse, and I’m telling you we are living in the faithlessness of marriage today in an unprecedented manner! Now why is that? Because there is a major disconnect between love and worship, and giving! Therefore, there’s a disconnect in the marriage vows, and the marriage commitment.
Look in the next verse, the final verse in that section, verse 16. “For the man who does not love his wife, but divorces her,” says the Lord, “the God of Israel covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of Hosts. So guard yourselves of this spirit, and do not be faithless.” He’s challenging us to not be faithless in marriage!
Boy I tell you the Lord got really strong with them, and He said, You are being faithless, and you’re being, you’re not being faithful to me even in marriage. And then He said also, you’re not being faithful to Me:
6. As parents of children. Look at chapter 3, verse 5. Chapter 3, verse 5 it talks about how they’re going to come and He’s going to be a swift witness against those who do certain things! And I’m not going to go into all of those, but I want you to understand He’ll be a swift witness against the fatherless. The fatherless. You know who is left the fatherless? The fathers! The fathers! That’s why over in the last verse of this entire Old Testament book He talks about the promise of restoring the Father with the children, the children with the Father!
We live in today’s society, in a day when dads have left their kids! God help us! And yet there’s this massive disconnect. Well, I love the Lord. I love the Lord. Well, I come and I worship, and I love coming to church. Giving. Oh wow. Disconnect. I’m going to tell you something folks; we’ve got a real issue here going. I mean the Lord is really taken it to us. And now with this, with this situation, the Lord all of a sudden gives to them His mercy. And He invites them to something. Now I want you to watch what He invites them to. Do you know what He says to them? Return to Me.
That’s what He says. Now if you were sitting where they are sitting, and that’s where many of you are sitting today, and He were to say to you Return to Me, man I’d go! Huh? I mean that means mercy still runs from the Calvary’s mountain! Amen! Mercy still is possible! And they ask an important question that all of us needs to ask, then Lord how shall we return? That’s a good question! Isn’t that right?
Now I want you to think with me for a moment if you’re God. Let’s say you’re sovereign in all affairs and you’re God for a moment. Now that’s really a hard stretch for us but let’s go ahead and think about that for a moment. And you think about if you were extended the opportunity for your people to come back to you, how would you want them to come back? Do you know what God tells them? God gives them a way. And I guarantee you if you were to survey every church in America, 95% of the people would tell you nothing, anything like I’m about to tell you. Because the people don’t know the Bible, and if they do know the Bible, they like to isoget it rather than exoget it. That means they like to interpret in their own mind, and their own heart, rather than what God’s Word says. Got that? Everybody with me?
All right. Now that you’re with me again. Here we go. In this whole process here’s what He tells us, and He begins to articulate for us for a moment and He tells us boys and girls it starts with first things first. And first things always lead to those greater things. So what is God going to tell us? God begins to articulate that over in the third chapter of, of, of the book of Malachi.
Now I want you to get your Bible and look with me to Malachi 3, and I want to just read pretty slowly. I want to work through this passage for a moment. Listen to what He says, “For I the Lord do not change.” That’s the key. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. He’s the God of the Old Testament, the God of the New Testament, He is God! Lord! Savior! Mighty One! He’s the One! Don’t think that was there back then, now it’s this. You buy into that man; you’re going to get yourself into some real trouble biblically. IT doesn’t matter what it is, the New Testament reinforces what the Old Testament teaches, and some way it always calls us to a higher and a bigger level than ever the Old Testament called us to because grace extends much more than law.
Law condemns, grace sets free. Well amen. That’s pretty good. Wish you would have enjoyed it a little bit more. “For I the Lord do not change, therefore, you, old children of Jacob,” meaning people of God, “are you not consumed?” Do you know what He charged them? Why are you not consumed? DO you know what they’re not consumed with? Love! Because the heartbeat is love! You’ve got to love God! “From the days of your father you have turned aside from My statutes, and you’ve not kept them.” Remember it all started with Moses. God gave Moses the commandments, God gave Moses the way to walk, and what did the people do? Every time they saw that they came to it, and then they ran away from it. Right? Then they came back to and then they ran away from it. And then they came back to, they ran away from it. Every time they got in trouble, they came back! But as long as they weren’t in trouble or need, they ran in their own way! A lot like us today.
So He’s telling them you’ve got to come back. And then He says, you’ve run from there, and then He says in these words, “Return to Me.” That means come to Me, “And I will return to you. I will return to you.” What a, what a powerful word! Can you imagine that? God says to you, “Come to Me and I’m going to come to you.” It reminds me of James chapter 4, verse 8, guys, and that is, “Draw near to God and I will draw near to you.” If we will return to the Lord, the Lord will return to us. If we will meet Him, He will meet us! I’m telling you man we’ve got to meet God!
And He goes on here to say, “But you say then how shall we return?” Good question. I’m going to talk about that in a moment. He said, “Will a man rob God?” Wow. God answers that question with another question. You better, are you going to rob Me? “Yet you’re robbing me, but you say how have we robbed You?” And notice what He said, “You’ve robbed Me in your tithes and contributions.”
Now what is the tithe? The tithe is first-tenth of all God gives you. That’s 10% if you don’t get that. The first-tenth of all God gives you. Contributions are anything over and above the first-tenth. Offerings are over and above the first-tenth. Then notice what He says in verse 10. He said, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse.” What is the full tithe? All that God gives you the Bible says you are to bring it. People talk all the time; you need to give the tithe. Give the tithe. Give the tithe. And then we kind of construct the tithe of what we want it to be, and we talk about giving the tithe.
Listen to me today, you can’t give the tithe and the contributions because they’re not yours! They belong to God, that’s why He said, bring them! You bring them, you don’t give them! You can’t give something that doesn’t belong to you! Amen! And He says to bring them to the storehouse. What’s a storehouse? The place where the activity of God took place. The activity of God in the Old Testament was the storehouse. The activity of God in the New, New Testament was and is, and still is the Church of Jesus Christ.
And He said, “You bring the tithes and the offerings into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there will be food in My house,” meaning there will be provision in My house. “And thereby you put me to the test,” in other words, God says I’m so bold, and I’m so believing of what I’m telling you, if you don’t believe it then put me to the test, and what God challenges them is that, “you test Me in regard to My faithfulness when you’re obedient, and if you don’t believe what I’m telling you, you obey what I’m telling you, I’m telling you you’re going to find Me as faithful.” That’s what God is saying. That’s quite a deal.
And then He says, “I will…” “You’re going to test Me and I will not open up the windows of heaven for you?” Can you imagine all of heaven being opened up to you and your family? All that God has, all that God is, all that God can command out of the universe, all that God has created is at your disposal, meaning He will bless you with that as you need. That’s what He says. He’ll meet your needs. Amen. That’s right. But don’t be claiming that if you’re not offering to God the first-tenth and those contributions.
“And pouring down for your blessing until there’s no more need.” Look what else He will say. He said, “I’m going to rebuke the devourer.” You know who the devourer is? Satan. “So that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil,” in other words, here you are working hard, working hard, working hard, you wonder why you can’t get anywhere, God said I’m telling you, you obey Me, you trust Me, you obey Me, I’m going to take what you’ve got, and I’m going to tell you, I’m going to honor your work as you honor Me. Wow.
And then He says these words, He said, “I’m going to honor the fruit of your soil, and I’m going to vine the field, and they’re not going to fail to bear. I’m going to make it productive.” You know what? I taught you this a year ago; I still believe it. It’s over in the book of Romans. You give the Lord the first-tenth of all He gives to you, and He will take the 90% and make it just like it’s 100%. You say I don’t believe that. Test Me in this, God says, and I will show you the windows of heaven until you have no more need.
And then He said all the nations, all the people groups in the world are going to come, and they’re going to call you blessed. They’re going to look at your life, and you’re going to say man, you’re blessed person. God delights in you. Wow because your life is a testimony that God is meeting your needs, and you’re worshipping Him. Why is that? Because there is a connection going on! There’s not this well I do love Jesus, oh I don’t have time to come to God. I mean worship is not important. I mean I’ve got soccer on Sunday man. I mean my kids they’re going to this AU Basketball league, and Sundays when the games are. My teenagers have to work on Sunday. They need a job. You let your teenagers work and not worship on Sunday, you’re asking for trouble big guy. Oh well, but I’m going to give every now and then. Every now and then? That’s not quite the gig here. You see there is such a massive disconnect and God is saying it’s got to all connect. And when it all connects, there’s a whole new level you go to.
Now follow me today, what do we rob God of? Hm? What does He say we rob God of? I’m going to give you these things, and I want you to listen very quickly. We rob God of:
- Loving Him. Do you realize that when we do not connect the dots
of love and worship, and giving; we’re robbing God of loving Him? You can have all those little sweet feelings, and you can have all that little sloppy agape you want in today’s church. You can hug yourself, you can do all kind of stuff, but I want to tell you something man, when it boils down to it, there’s got to be a connection between loving God, worshipping God, and giving to God. And I’m telling you when there not all three going on in your life, according to the Word of God, you’re robbing God of loving Him! That’s what it says in the Word. Wow it sure is strong. Don’t, don’t interpret it strong, just receive it as the Word.
- We rob Him of worshipping Him. I mean God wants our worship.
You understand that today? He wants you to worship Him! He wants the nations of the world to worship Him. But they’re going to be a lot more prone to want the God of the Bible and the God of the Old and the New Testament, and the God of Isaac and Jacob, and the God of, or all, they’re going to want that a lot more when they see all the connection in their lives going on! And we’re walking the talk, and we’re living the life that matches all that to the glory of God.
- We’re also robbing Him of receiving the first-tenth of everything.
I mean God wants us to give Him the first-tenth of everything we have. The first-tenth of everything. You say well I don’t have a lot. It doesn’t matter. You start with where you are. You say well I’ve got a whole lot. It doesn’t matter what you have if it’s a whole lot. I’m just telling you what the Bible says. You’ve got to work all that out with God. You say well I talk to God about all that. I’m working it. He never leads you contrary to this Word. Everybody got that? You may debate it in your own mind. You may place gymnastics with it. An intellectual dialogue going on, but I’m going to tell you that you’re losing that battle and you just don’t know it. And uh, so with all that, He talks about.
You know I thought about that this week. I mean think about it. You go into a local restaurants all over NWA, or as you’re out across the country, and the world, and you know we give a gratuity to the server, and I don’t know what you give, but I mean, years ago we use to give at least 10% of gratuity, and now that margin has gone up to 15% or 18%. It’s very rare that I don’t give at least 18%. Sometime I give 20, sometime I just write them a whole lot more than what I paid for the meal ‘cause I like to bless people, especially when they don’t expect a blessing. And in all that, you know what? Think about it, many of us we’ll give 10%, we’ll give 15%, we’ll give 18%, we’ll give 20% to a server in a restaurant, and we won’t give anything hardly at all to God. The One who died on the cross for the sins of the world. We would more honor a person who waits on us in a restaurant than we would purposely honor the One who gave His life for all! Hm. Hm. Hm.
That’s why last week I told you that in 2008, just a little over 3 years ago now, the average Christian gave only 2.43% of their income to their local church. Wow. 2.43, that’s really a disconnect, isn’t it? Yet, we have worship flying higher than it’s ever flown in churches! We’ve got people over here sloppy agape God, saying how much they love God. And yet over here there’s this disconnect, there is massive disconnect. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. We’re robbing God of receiving the first-tenth of everything.
* We’re robbing God of receiving offerings above the first-tenth. He talks about that. He talks about giving above the first-tenth. That’s why we believe in our budget receipts, our budget giving should receive the first-tenth. Those kind of things like Greater Things, and all, those things should be above all of that.
* Then He talks about giving God the joy He gets blessing His children. Think about that. We’re robbing God of getting to bless His children. I mean God wants to bless you! Everybody got that? Huh? Are you with me? Say yea! I mean He wants to bless you! Well we pray in church and small group, oh Lord, bless us. Bless us. Bless you? He’s going to bless what you live. What you do. And how you live. Hey don’t you love to bless your kids? Man I love to bless my kids. I love to bless my grandchildren. I love to give my kids things when they don’t expect it. I mean that’s a blessing to me. I love giving to them! It’s special!
Some of you say I can’t wait where I don’t give anything to my kids; they’re wearing me out. Let me just tell you big boy, you never quit giving to them, and the price tag goes up the older they get. Are you with me? Can I get a witness? I just want to tell you that’s part of life.
* And then He talks about how we’re robbing God of seeing the right attitude in His children. God wants to see the right attitude in us. I mean that right attitude is so important, I mean, that boy there’s love, there’s worship, there’s giving, and God sees that as a good attitude. I mean I’m telling you, I didn’t have much attitude problem with my boys, and if it did, I dealt with the attitude. My daddy dealt with my attitude. He used to wear one of those little thin belts, and if I ever got an attitude, yea, I’d remember the very place he took me and he wore me out! You say you’re daddy spanked you? Yep! You say, well you didn’t turn out very good! I’m going to tell you right now you should even imagine what I would be like if he hadn’t taken care of me. And he took care of me until some of you would think it would be abuse, but I’m grateful for every moment. And even though I’d never believe what he said, “Son, this hurts me more than it hurts you,” but I’m telling you I know as a dad that it really does. Amen?
I cannot stand even when I see my grandchildren get a spanking. I tried to spank my first grandson one time and he told on me. And he said Poppy went…I haven’t spanked the child since, and I’m not going to spank him. All I did was like swat at him a couple of times, and it wasn’t even a big deal. It didn’t even bother him. I don’t know what that has to do with this, but I just want you to know that. All I can tell you is hey there’s got to be a connection between love and worship and giving. Amen?
And you know this is why some people they act like; they act like they’re going into this brain dead status when they get to talking about giving. You know? Well you know I don’t understand why we’ve got to do that. Man you’ve got the wrong heart right there bro. You need to get right. You ought to be asking God how can I do this in the best way that’s suitable and right? But you know why, the Bible talks about it over in Deuteronomy 14:23. It says these words; “The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your life.” That’s why you give. You give to show that He is the first in your life.
I mean Jeana brought it up to me the other day how much money we gave last year. She said can you believe it? I mean she said can you believe this? I’m going to tell you we’re blessed by that. We’re not trying to get out. We’re not trying to get by. I mean God’s given us a lot, God expects a lot from us. But I’m going to tell you one of the reasons we have a lot because we were faithful when we didn’t have anything! God blesses you when you’re faithful.
Randy Alcorn says tithing is the training wheels of giving. How true that is. Some of you have those children and you put the training wheels on the bicycle, and you look forward to you know letting those wheels and they learn to ride the bike, and you hope they don’t fall. I mean they finally start to get the hang of it, and you’re trying to run alongside of them to make sure they don’t fall. Well you know what He says? He says hey, tithing is simply the training wheels of giving. In other words, what he is saying is that is baby steps, man. Now God wants you to grow way beyond that. God wants us to grow way beyond that because hey it’s all for the gospel. It’s all for to love Him, and to serve Him.
Then God tells them that if you will do what I’ve told you to do, I’m going to do some things for you and with this I’m going to close today, and I expect you to write real fast if you are taking notes. I expect you to listen real fast if you’re taking notes, or if you’re not taking notes, I want you to listen real quickly. All right? That’s going to depend on your willingness to listen fast because I can’t go any faster than you’re listening. So I may be here until 2:30, or I may be here for another few minutes. All right? Everybody got that? Everybody ready to listen fast?
Here’s what God says He will do. So if you will put love, and worship, and the bringing of the first-tenth, and offerings to your church, you know what God says I’m going to do? He says I’m going to do seven things for you. These are going to come right out of the Word! Here’s what He’s going to do!
(1) He’s going to return to you. That’s right. How shall we return?
He said you return to me, I’m going to return to you. Wow. Can you imagine God returning to you? Say where do you read that? Chapter 3, verse 7. I’ll let you read it. You note it, and you read it later.
(2) He says open up the windows of heaven for you. That’s chapter
3, verse 10. That means that He will literally open up all that heaven towards your life. You say well I’m ready for that. Please let Him come, and I’ve been faithful pastor. It looks like I’m kind of in a lean time. Those times, God tests your faith; God will let you walk through all kind of things. You know life’s not one big moment of prosperity. It never is, it doesn’t matter how much you’ve got or how much you don’t have. That’s just part of life. God takes us through seasons. Everybody got that? Amen. And so He says He will open up the windows of heaven until there’s no more need. I’m going to tell you today man God’s blessed us. We don’t really have any needs. Jeana and I have a hard time giving anything for Christmas. I mean we do it, and we work at it, but it’s very difficult because we’re just blessed. You say well I wish I was there. Well you know what? IT doesn’t matter whether you’ve got it or you don’t have it. The bottom line is folks is that you need to give it to your spouse regardless. Amen. I mean whether she’s got it all or not, I remember a professor years ago said well I told my wife when I married her on that night I love you, and I want to tell all you preacher boys something, I told her that night if it ever changes, I’ll let you know and I haven’t told me life yet I’ve loved her since. That is one dumb prof, but however, that, that, we act like that with God sometimes. Are you with me?
No, it’s a process of loving Him, worshipping Him, and giving to Him as a sign of love. And then what does He say also?
(3) Bless you until there is no more need, not greed. That’s right. He’ll bless you until there is no more need, not greed. You see we try to Americanize God, and we think God’s going to meet our greed. No, that’s prosperity gospel. Health, wealth, great life, everything goes wonderful, never any trouble, if you give a seed, it will all make you wonderful and great, and you won’t be sick, and you won’t die, and you won’t do this, yet, all those people die. All those people get sick. And they have problems in their life, their families are falling apart, many of them!
So God says I will open up for you the windows of heaven until you have no more need, not greed. Amen. And then He says, chapter 3, verse 11, He says:
(4) I will rebuke the devil from you. Wow! Can you imagine that? Let me tell you something man you can sit in the prayer meeting all day long, and you can take authority over the devil and rebuke the devil, but I’m going to tell you something if there’s not a connection between love, and worship, and giving, you are whispering into the wind, or you can shout it and yell it until your throat is sore! But I’m telling you you’re shouting in the wind because only the Lord Himself has the power to rebuke the devil, and only the Lord Himself has the power to do that in your life. And God is saying I’m going to take all of your life if you will be faithful to Me in love and worship and giving, and I’m going to take on Satan, and I’m going to beat him for you!
(5) And I’m going to remember you He talked about in chapter 3, verse 16. Everyone likes to be remembered. God says in chapter 3, verse 16 I’m going to remember you. That’s right. I’m going to remember you.
And then He says in chapter 4, verse 1 and 2,
(6) I’m going to come for you. That’s right. One day He’s going to come again. He’s going to come for us. Look at it with me. Chapter 4, verse 1 and 2. This is so good I’ve got to read it. And I want you to get it with me today. He says, “For behold the day is coming, burning like an oven,” are you with me? Chapter 4, verse 1 and 2. Put it on the screen. “When all of the arrogant, and all evildoers will be stumbled,” that means judgment is going to come, “and the day that is coming shall set them ablaze,” that’s judgment says the Lord of Hosts, “so that it will not leave them neither root nor branch,” in other words, nothing is going to be left! “But as for you who fear My name, those who live like I want you to live, the Son of Righteousness,” who is the Son of Righteousness? Jesus Christ the Lord! “Shall rise with healing in His wings, and you shall go out, the church shall go out,” with what? “Leaping like calves from the stall.” That’s what’s going to happen when Jesus comes again and wakes His church up.
So today He’s promised you He’s coming for you. And then He says:
(7) I will restore you. I restore you. Now, I tell you, you talk about a powerful verse is chapter 4, verse 6 and with this we bring it all over. “And He will turn the hearts of the father to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers less come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction.” In other words I’m going to bring restoration, and I’m going to take a father’s heart, and I’m going to unite it with the child’s. I’m going to take a child’s heart, and I’m going to unite them with the father, even though they are separated now, even though there’s a problem now, if a person will live the way I’ve told to you live, and love, and worship, and giving, I’m telling you, I’m going to turn that person’s life around, and I’m going to do a new work and a new process in your life.
I’m telling you folks; you’ve got to get it today. There is an incredible blessing on what God will do when you’re willing to do it God’s way. And it all comes back to returning to God, and it comes back to Him returning to you. And Him restoring you, restoring you to being more than you’ve ever been before.
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