RETURN TO THE LORD - Malachi 3:6-12

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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So, brace yourselves. Into the almighty now pour your grace, that highest of honors, the door of wisdom stands.

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We are simply gathering together this morning, this

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Lord's Day, to give honor and glory to our sovereign triune God. This is obedience to Him.

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This is what He has prescribed us to do. He has told us not to neglect the gathering together of the saints for the purpose of encouraging one another and spurring one another on to love and good works.

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And so, if you are a guest this morning, you are loved and welcome as well. I want to encourage you, if you could, grab one of our

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Connect Cards and fill this out. We'd love to learn your name, and if you have any questions about who we are, we would love to answer those questions.

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And if you have any prayer requests, please let us know so we can be in prayer for you. And so, this morning, our aim is for all of us to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. That being said, we have one announcement that I am very excited about.

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This coming Saturday, we are having Friendsgiving. It's going to be a potluck, and we're going to do folk dancing.

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Does anybody know what that is? Because I don't. I'm really excited to do some dancing with my wife and everybody else.

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We're going to have a great time. And so, if you're interested in that, please text Becca, and we need to RSVP. And like I said, we're putting together a potluck to have food.

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And so, everybody that's planning on coming, please coordinate with Becca so we can know which food everybody is bringing.

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But mark that down in your calendar this Saturday, November 16th, starting at 5 p .m.

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through 8 p .m. And so, that being said, before the service, every Lord's Day, we pray for another local church, a church that truly preaches the gospel of grace.

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So, join with me in prayer this morning. Heavenly Father, we lift up Harvest Church this morning.

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Harvest is a sister church that heralds the gospel of grace, that we look to You, Jesus, in faith alone and in Christ alone.

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And so, Lord, we just pray for the leadership at Harvest. We pray that they would boldly stand on Your truth.

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Lord, we pray that You would equip young men to boldly preach the truth. And we pray that young women also,

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God, would be trained up in the ways of how to be young godly women and spouses.

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God, that all of the believers at Harvest, God, would unite together to be equipped, to be sent out into the world to fulfill the gospel.

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Lord, I pray that 12 .5 Church, that we could be an encouragement to Harvest and that we could just partner with them in ministry in any ways that You see fit.

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Lord, we love You and pray all these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen. All right, if you would, please stand for our call to worship that comes from Psalm 107.

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The Psalm says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble.

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Some wandered in desert waste, finding no way to a city to dwell in. Then they cried to the

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Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons.

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For they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. Then they cried to the

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Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities, suffered affliction.

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They loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the

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Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on great waters.

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For He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.

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Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things.

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Let him consider the steadfast love of the Lord. A station where we get to lift

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God's name on high. Please join me in prayer. You are so good to us each and every day,

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God. And we're reminded that we do not deserve anything. But God, in Your mercy, You have gifted us

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Your Son. Jesus Christ is Lord above all, and He has taken our sins and nailed it on the cross.

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And God, we can now have a relationship with You. Lord, please help us this morning to not get distracted with the things that have been happening to us throughout the week or what happened just right before we walked into this building.

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God, You are so great, and Your name is to be magnified on high. God, for the saints,

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I pray that You would fill us up with the spirit that we would look to You, Jesus, that we might kiss the sun in faith as Your Word tells us.

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God, please fill us up with praise this morning. Lord, we love You. We praise things in Your sweet name,

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Jesus. Amen. This is from 2

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Corinthians 9. This is a beautiful passage reminding us that God already owns everything in His universe, and yet He allows us to be stewards of what is already

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His. We get to engage with giving back to what God has first given us.

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And so He calls us to be a cheerful giver, reminding us that He doesn't need our stuff, but He wants us to be good stewards of what is already

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His. So starting in verse 6, the Apostle Paul says, The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

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Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

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And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things and all times, you may abound in every good work.

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As it is written, He has distributed freely as He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever.

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He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

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You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

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For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

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By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from our confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contributions for them and for all others.

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Amen. Collectively, as the body of Christ.

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You notice the songs are meant for all of us to sing praise with the one another.

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And so as we pray to God in our own individual lives, it is so wonderful.

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We get to express our heart to God in prayer, and He speaks back to us through His word. But these prayers are structured to pray collectively as the body of Christ.

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And so if you would, please join me in this prayer of confession as we rest in the assurance of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

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Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for your provision in our lives and all things. And God, we bend to the sovereignty of your will that cannot be thwarted.

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But God, we recognize how holy and transcendent and eternal you are. God, we constantly fall short.

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All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And that is us, day by day, warring against this flesh, warring against sin, and not giving you proper honor and glory that is due because of who you are.

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God, I think about my own personal life and my brothers and my sisters that I talk with throughout the week.

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God, we are a people that tend to go astray. But God, you in your mercy, you do not let us fall away.

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God, we may stumble, but we stumble forward by your grace and by your Holy Spirit.

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And God, I pray this morning that we would take great rest in knowing that you, God, who begin that good work in us, you are faithful to keep your promises, to see it to the very end, to bring your children to glory one day.

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God, I pray that we would be assured, that we would rest, that your promises cannot be thwarted.

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God, please be with us not to look to ourselves. That is vain. God, we constantly fail, but Jesus, you cannot, for you are the same yesterday, today, and forever the same.

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God, I pray that this morning that we would find our yes and amen in you, Jesus. And all

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God's people said, The Savior saved his mom,

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Child of goodness, watch and pray. Father, we praise you for this time of worship this morning,

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God. As we sing these songs to you, Father, we proclaim these truths. Unto the

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Almighty, now bring all praise. Let highest of honors adorn his name. God, we pray that we're doing that this morning.

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As we sing songs to you, as we open our Bibles, we study. God, even in this time of giving and offering that we're transitioning into,

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Father, I pray that that would be honoring and glorifying to you. Magnify in your name, Father.

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Thank you, Lord, for this time of worship, God. We just pray that you are changing us from the inside out,

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Lord, by the renewing of our minds through your word this morning. In Christ's name we pray. Everybody said amen.

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God's word, if you've got one with you, which I hope you do, to Malachi. Malachi chapter 3, as the guys are wrapping up, taking up the offering here.

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We're going to be in chapter 3, verse 6. You know, over the past few weeks, as we've been in this study, many of you have shared that before we started, you knew very little about this

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Old Testament minor prophet. It's not often that you hear a sermon series on the book of Malachi.

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However, if you have grown up in church or you've been in church for any amount of time, this particular portion of Malachi is one that I'm sure that you've heard and you've probably heard many times because it is the quintessential passage for pastors to guilt trip the church into giving more.

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That's typically how it's used. And I'll tell you what, it'll certainly preach. As we read this text, you'll know what

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I mean. I could really stand up here today and press in to that Old Testament tithe, confusing the

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Old Covenant with the New Covenant that we are in, and we would certainly see an uptick in the offering, at least for two or three weeks.

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That's typically how it works. Because we'd be focusing on the symptoms instead of the disease.

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We would be placing a Band -Aid on a gunshot wound instead of the surgery needed to remove the bullet.

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There's a much broader context at hand. So look here with me at Malachi 3, starting in verse 6.

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For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you,

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O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your father you have turned aside for my statutes and have not kept them.

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Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return?

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Will man rob God, yet you are robbing me? But you say, how have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions?

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You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.

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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,

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I will 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

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Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the

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Lord of hosts. This is the reading of God's holy, perfect, inspired word.

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Let us fallible people stop in a moment and seek the

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Holy Spirit's illuminating power into our minds and hearts of this truth, that we may think of it rightly.

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So please bow with me. Lord, we come before you humbly now, and we acknowledge our frailty once again.

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As we have sung truths about you, as we've read your word, as we've prayed prayers of adoration, and prayers of confession and assurance, and we've been reminded of our position in Christ, yet Christ in me that is doing anything in all of these works that you've prepared beforehand, and we thank you for that.

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Right now we are dealing with a text that can oftentimes be used for selfish purpose.

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We're dealing with a text that can be confused when we do not understand the distinction between the nation of Israel and the church.

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We confuse this text when we do not understand that we are no longer under the old covenant, but we are under a new and better covenant.

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Please give us wisdom. Illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth. Guard my lips from error.

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We thank you for it. Use it in our lives to sanctify us, mold us, conform us more to the image of Christ, and that we may be a people of the word that love it and live by it.

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In Christ's name we pray all of this, in his righteousness that is imputed to us, and all

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God's people said, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the

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God I love. Most of us have sung that line of the 18th century hymn,

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Come Thou Fount, many times over the years, and if you were paying attention at all to the words that you're singing, and I hope you were, you can attest to the fact that those words often cut right to the heart as you proclaim them.

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As they leave your lips, they penetrate right into the core of who you are.

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And I think it's because we know the propensity of our flesh. We know our unfaithfulness to him.

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We're very aware of it. We know that our hearts often grow cold and apathetic towards the things of the

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Lord. We know that we do the things that we ought not to do as followers of Christ.

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We know how frequently that you and I, all of us, are drawn away by sin.

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But what's most frightening is how easily that sin causes our hearts to grow cold towards the

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Lord. And it blinds us to the effects that it has had upon our lives.

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Sometimes when we find ourselves in that position of sin or apathy or indifference towards the

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Lord, we begin to think that everything is okay. We begin to justify our sin.

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We say, after all, I'm still attending church. I'm still trying to read my

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Bible regularly. I'm going through the motions, much like the people of Israel in Malachi's day, blinded by the fact that we are no longer really communing with the

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Lord, but have wandered. No longer living for him, loving what he has to offer as long as it doesn't cost us too much.

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If you've been a Christian for any amount of time, you know this place very well, don't you? You become quite accustomed to that area of life.

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And it feels as though, in those moments, that God is far away. Not only is he far away, but a lot of times, you wouldn't say it from your lips, but you obviously feel it in your core, in your soul, that maybe

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God's mad at you. God is unhappy with you. And that's why he's distant.

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And in our sin, we begin to think that he's the one that has abandoned us. Have you ever been in sin, and then you know that you're sinning, and you don't want to be in the sin, and you think,

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Lord, why aren't you helping me in this? Why don't you just make me hate that sin the way that you hate it, and make me do the right thing?

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Just do it through me. We just sing the song, Yet not I, but Christ in me. Just you do it.

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You do the work, and I'm just going to be a robot and neutral. Sometimes I wish that God would do that.

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Don't you? And that way you could live a holy life. But see,

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God's not the problem. Look at what he said to the people of Israel in verse 6.

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He starts off with, For I, the Lord, do not change.

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God is pointing to his immutability. It's just a fancy word for unchanging.

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It's an attribute. It is an attribute of God, the immutability.

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As a matter of fact, this verse, I actually like how the New King James translates this verse. I think it's truer to the

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Hebrew here. We see kind of this doubling down on the language.

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In the New King James, it says, For I am the Lord, which, by the way, Lord from the

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Hebrew is Yahweh. We had discussed that last week. This is the name for God. And the name

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Yahweh is actually grammatically related to I am, which we'll talk about in just a moment.

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But it says, For I am Yahweh. And it says, I do not change.

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Remember when God spoke to Moses in Exodus 3? And Moses asked him,

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Who shall I say sent me? And he says, I am who I am.

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It's almost as if God is declaring that same thing back to the people of Israel once again.

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Why does God say it like this? Why were there with Moses? Why didn't he just say, I am

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God? He did. He did say, I am

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God, when he says, I am who I am. What God's doing is, he's using the present tense of existence to describe himself.

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What does that mean? It's because he is his own, depending on nothing prior to or outside of himself.

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He is the independent, self -sufficient creator, ground of all creation, in which we, the creature, live and move and have our being.

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All of creation is subject to change. He is outside of the creation.

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That's why we must be careful when we define who God is.

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God gets to define who he is. He is the I am. He's outside of everything.

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Everything comes from him. He is the source of all things. There in Exodus, Moses wants to know, who's going to save us?

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And with what confidence should I tell the people to have? And God says,

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I am who I am. The God of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. The faithful, unchanging

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I am. And that's what he does here. Once again, he doubles down on this truth about his character and who he is.

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When he says, for I the Lord do not change, and look at what he says. He says, therefore, because of this, in light of the fact that I don't change and that I'm outside of any ability to change, therefore you, oh children of Jacob, are not consumed.

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What is God saying here? Well, notice back in chapter 2, verse 17, they've been asking, where's the

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God of justice? As we talked about last week. Where's God? Where is he?

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Where's the justice that we thought that he would carry out? And he's saying, the only reason you're not consumed in your injustice, in the midst of your unfaithfulness, is because of my unchanging covenant with you.

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I don't change. This is important to notice.

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Because what God is doing is God is starting with himself. And he swears by himself because he is the only one worthy to swear by.

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Everything else is created by his hand. And it's subservient to him.

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Notice how he refers to them in the text. He says, oh children of Jacob, as a matter of fact, if you're a note taker in here,

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I don't have it on the screen, I'm sorry, I didn't put it up there. But you could follow along. There are three realities about this phrase that I think we can surmise from here.

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The first one, as he refers to them, oh children of Jacob, is who they are as biological offspring of Jacob.

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Right? That's a given. Who they are as biological offspring of Jacob.

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And who is Jacob? Remember, Jacob I love,

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Esau I hated. Jacob, who was he?

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He was a trickster. He was a cheat, a usurper. He deceived his father and he robbed his own brother of his birthright.

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It's interesting that this idea of Jacob, when he refers to them as, oh children of Jacob, as a matter of fact, if you look down at verse 8, we have a verb there, rob, that you've robbed

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God. We have this same idea of Jacob being a cheater, and it's the same word, of him robbing, of him taking from his own brother, and it's related to what

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God is getting ready to point out with the tithe. It's almost as if God is saying, oh children of Jacob, you're acting like your ancestor, taking what's not yours, so they are the children of Jacob naturally, right?

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But it doesn't stop there. There's more imagery involved here. The second thing that I think we can surmise from this phrase, as he refers to them as the children of Jacob, is who they are, children of Jacob, covenantally.

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So not only are they the biological offspring, but now they are the offspring covenantally.

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God addresses the children of Israel as the children of Jacob a number of times in the

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Old Testament, I believe primarily in Genesis, and I think it's somewhere around 15 times is how many times he refers to them as the children of Jacob, instead of the children of Israel.

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But here's the thing, it's almost always referring to his covenant with the children of Israel whenever he uses this phrase.

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As God reminded them back in chapter one, right? Hey Jacob, I loved your forefather,

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I loved him, and I have loved you, right? And if God is unchanging, and they are part of that old covenant, a covenant that God himself had made, the unchanging

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God, he hasn't budged, they have, because they are a part of the covenant.

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But I think we see a third thing in this title. Not only are they children of the offspring biologically and covenantally, but who they are, offspring of Jacob in their actions.

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I believe this is why he uses the tithe as his example of their unfaithfulness here.

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He's laying Jacob, their father's actions of faith before them as a reminder.

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You see, after tricking his brother, what did Jacob end up having to do? He had to go to exile, didn't he?

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Jacob goes into exile, but praise the Lord, God brought him out of exile. We see that in Genesis 28 through 35.

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But doesn't that sound awfully familiar with the current circumstances of the children of Israel here in Malachi?

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They have previously just been in exile, and they now have come back. They have been released out of exile.

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What's interesting is that Jacob had made a vow in exile. You can jot these passages down or you can turn there with me if you want, but in Genesis 28, in verses 20 through 22, we see

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Jacob. He says, 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 so that I come again to my father's house in peace.

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Remember, his brother's going to kill him. His brother wants to take his life from him for what he's done. But he's saying,

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God, if you'll just bring me back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone which

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I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house, and all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.

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What's a tenth? That's all the word tithe means, is a tenth, right?

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Ten percent. And look at what he does. When God makes good on his promise and does bring him out and protects him and takes care of him, in Genesis 35, 1 through 7, in verse 1,

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God said to Jacob, Arise, go to Bethel. That's where he had made this vow to God to carry this out and dwell there.

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Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. And then down in verse 7 it says,

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And there he built an altar and called the place El Bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.

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Jacob did as he had vowed in faith.

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Jacob's children here in Malachi returned from exile, similarly to their father

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Jacob. They had rebuilt the temple and then they wondered,

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Where is God? Where is his covenant blessing on us? Yet they had not fulfilled the vow.

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They had not brought the tithe, like their father did. So they are children of Jacob in this way that God is calling them to be children of faith as Jacob was a child of faith and to fulfill it, to fill the promise, carry out that covenant of works that they were called to.

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They may have returned physically, but not with repentant and obedient hearts of worship, not like their father

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Jacob had. So God is drawing a distinction here.

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He's telling them, You are children of Jacob by offspring, physically, biologically.

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You are children of Jacob in the covenant, but you are also children of Jacob in that you should be walking in faith as your father did.

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And then here is God's response to them. Look at verse 7 in Malachi. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them.

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We see the unfaithfulness. You see the contrast in verse 7 from the contrast of him saying,

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I am the Lord, I do not change. You've been changing over and over and over.

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I haven't budged. He says, return to me and I will return to you, says the

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Lord of hosts. Now again, the children of Israel were under the old covenant.

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I cannot emphasize that enough as we walk through text like this. They were under a covenant of blessings and cursings, okay?

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Do this, be blessed. Go against it and be cursed.

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God's presence was no longer in the temple. They no longer received the covenant blessings because of their rebellion.

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They did not walk in his precepts. But God says, I haven't budged, broken the covenant.

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I haven't changed the rules. I haven't changed the game plan.

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If you return to me, you will certainly receive those blessings that I, the

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Lord who does not change, has promised. So when he says, if you return to me,

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I'll return to you, he's not speaking in a sense that he is gone. It's speaking that his covenant blessings are not there because they are not walking in them.

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What's sad is that they didn't even realize that they hadn't returned to him.

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They didn't know they hadn't. They had returned to Jerusalem. They had rebuilt the temple as they thought they were supposed to.

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They were going through the motions and they were doing the things. But look at how they responded in the last part of verse seven.

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How shall we return? It's almost as if they're like, we're right here.

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What else do you want, God? You asked us to return, we did.

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We're here. We're doing the things. And God responds, oh, you might be there geographically.

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You might be in Jerusalem. You might be there with your traditions. You might be there in rituals, but I'll tell you what's not there, your hearts.

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He says in verse eight, well, man robbed God, yet you are robbing me.

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The unchanging sovereign great I am. But you say, how have we robbed you?

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It's almost as if, how can man possibly rob God? What have we done to you, God? We brought all the things.

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We did the stuff. We built your temple. And he says, you've robbed me in your tithes and contributions.

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As I mentioned earlier, tithe simply means 10%. It's 10 % of their goods, their income, their money.

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So if you make $100 and you're in the old covenant, you owe God the first $10 of that $100.

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It's his. It's not even in your bank account. It gets pulled out and given straight to God. It's the first fruits of that 10%, that tithe.

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We see this exemplified in Abraham first. And then of course,

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Jacob, as we looked at a moment ago, but then explicitly commanded in Deuteronomy. But here in this text, we also see not only the 10%, but we see another word in here, contributions.

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Right? Contributions. You see, in the old covenant, you didn't get to pay the first fruits of your 10 % and then go your merry way.

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There were other contributions required of you. As a matter of fact, if you add them all up, what the people of children owed as the first fruits to God was more like 30 to 40 % of their goods.

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Significant, isn't it? So here's the thing. So for anybody who wants to say the Old Testament tithe is for the

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New Testament saints, you are more than welcome to give 40 % to the church. We'll accept it.

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Okay? This tithe and these contributions, they served a twofold purpose.

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Okay? Number one, in the old covenant, it was to be a reminder that they are simply renters on God's land.

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You get that, right? This is a reminder. You take the first off of everything that you get, everything that is first fruits goes directly to God as a reminder.

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Everything comes from Him. This all belongs to Him. And He's just letting me dwell on His land in the moment, growing

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His crops, working His land for Him.

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As the psalmist says in Psalm 24, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, it all belongs to Him.

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They own nothing. He owns everything, including those crops, monies and goods in every way.

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Right? And by the way, that hasn't changed. That applies to us because God is unchanging.

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He didn't just change His mind whenever Jesus got here and said, well, now it's all kind of common ground.

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No, it's all His. When they gave their first fruits, it was a stark reminder of this truth.

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But then secondly, it was used for the purpose of blessing. Right? These monies are used, these resources, this food is used for blessing.

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These resources were brought into the temple and used for the ministry of the care of the poor, the orphans and the widows.

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This exemplified the character of God and His love for His creation.

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Remember how God feels about injustice back in chapter three, verse five of Malachi. He says,

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I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner.

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And do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. God loves justice.

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And then here they are asking, where is the God of justice?

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And He says, here you are robbing me of the means in which I use to bring comfort in that injustice.

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You're asking me, where's the God of justice? And I've given you the means to give comfort in the midst of a dark and broken injustice world.

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And you're not even participating. And wondering, where's

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God? I didn't budge. You did. It was also used for the purpose of worship in the temple.

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Those Levitical priests that carried out those sacrifices for them that were interceding for the people, they lived off of this tithe.

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This was how they ate. This is how they had shelter. This is how they lived, was off of these resources.

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And here's another thing to point out. You can see the full circle aspect of what

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God is doing here. Back in chapter two, if you remember, the priest had abandoned their responsibilities and God had called them out on their sin.

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Don't you think that it very well could have been because the people weren't bringing their full tithe and they were leaving those priests to be tempted to carry out their responsibilities in unauthorized, unholy ways?

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Here's priests that are supposed to carry out their responsibilities and there are limited resources coming in and their flesh is left vulnerable to compromise.

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We see that in church today, don't we? I can't tell you how many pastors struggle with this.

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They begin to compromise because they're afraid of losing people, because they're afraid of those monies not coming in and the resources and it leaves pastors vulnerable.

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They begin to worry about their own children and their own families eating and the roof over their own head and what do they do?

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They begin to compromise on the truth because they're afraid of running people off. If I say that truth, these people will leave or quit giving.

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You see it time and time again. And this is what was happening with these Levitical priests.

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Look at verse nine. It says, you are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me the whole nation of you.

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See, it's not just the Levitical priest now. Up till now, he's really been speaking a lot to the priesthood, but now he's saying the whole nation of you has robbed me.

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What does he mean that they are cursed? Remember covenant blessings, covenant cursings within the old covenant.

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You see, there were curses for disobedience. We see Deuteronomy 28, 38 through 39.

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Deuteronomy 28, 38 through 39. You see the correlations with the text that he is quoting here in Malachi.

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He says, you shall carry much seed into the field and you shall gather in little.

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You put the seed out, you're gonna gather little. For the locust shall come and consume it.

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You shall plant vineyards and dress them. You'll do all the work, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes.

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For the worm shall eat it. Some translations translate eat, devour.

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And that's why I believe he says later in verse 11 of Malachi 3, if you return to me,

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I will rebuke, and there's the same word, the devourer. You see the curse scenes over here back in Deuteronomy.

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You don't live for me. You don't do as you are. You don't worship me in the way that I've prescribed.

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There will be curse scenes, external curse scenes for you. Verse 10.

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He says, bring the full tithe into the storehouse. What's he referring to?

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He's referring to the storehouse as where they would gather everything there at the temple.

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They would gather all the goods, all of the tithe and the contributions of their harvest and their goods.

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And he says, bring the full tithe into the storehouse. That there may be food in my house.

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You want justice. You want to see me work. Well, there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the

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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.

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Remember, this is a covenant of blessings and curse scenes. And they're saying, where is the God of justice?

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He's saying, I've given you the prescription for the justice. You're just not carrying it out because there is not enough food and resources to carry out justice in the midst of all that injustice.

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Deuteronomy 28, 12 says, the Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land and its season and bless all the work of your hands.

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You want blessing. I've told you how to do it.

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Look at verse 11. It says, I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil.

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Reminds you of the curse scene back there in Deuteronomy, right? Where the soil is being cursed. He says, for the fruits of your soil and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the

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Lord of hosts. You want that blessing as opposed to that cursing. I will do this. I've not changed.

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I am the unchanging God. I made a covenant and you're children of Jacob, so I will fulfill it. Verse 12, then all nations will call you blessed for you will be a land of delight, says the

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Lord of hosts. You say, where's the God of justice? You're looking around at all the other nations living in injustice.

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Injustice. You're living in injustice and you want them to look in and see the light? To see the character of me in the midst of you?

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Well, I've given you the means to do that. You're not walking in it. And this is, of course, speaking of those external temporal blessing for the people of Israel under that old covenant wherein the justice and goodness of God is proclaimed.

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As I said, throughout a dark and lost world. So what is the application for us today?

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Many of you may be sitting here going, well, thanks for the history lesson, pastor. And I don't think we're under that old covenant.

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I'm not sure how this applies to me. We're not to look for temporal blessings.

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That's not our calling. We're not looking to be blessed in our vineyards. As a matter of fact, the only thing that we're promised to in the new covenant is suffering in this life.

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We're not looking for temporal blessings like they are. This isn't our home. They were looking for a promised land that was a physical promised land to be a light amongst the nations in order to bring about the

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Messiah to bring about the new covenant. But we are not like them.

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It's not the same. We're not to be looking for those types of things. We're not looking for America to be great and for it to bless us.

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We're not looking for that. Every time that happens, the church gets fat bloated and weak.

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The church only gets sanctified and stronger in suffering. And so how does this apply to us?

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You see, we are under the new and better under this new covenant where there are no covenant cursings, only blessings in Christ.

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You may say, well, Pastor, you just said we have to suffer. Isn't that a covenant cursing? No. Your suffering is a blessing.

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That's why the health, wealth, prosperity people that will come up and use texts like this and the ones we're going to read here in a moment in 1st and 2nd

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Corinthians, they're going to use those and they're going to say, see, if you give, then God will just return and your vineyards will burst out and you'll have all this excess if you just sow and then you will reap a physical blessing, but that has nothing to do with the new covenant.

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In the new covenant, you very well may sow and reap suffering because you're looking for a greater eternal reward that's already yours and you don't have to obtain and you don't have to lose and you don't have to worry about that actually matters.

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Because for them, it was all about now. For us, it's all about Him and it's all about living for Christ.

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But there are certainly principles here for us, right?

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Because remember, as I said at the beginning of this series, the heart of God doesn't change. God loves what

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He loves. God hates what He hates and He didn't change between those covenants. And even though we are recipients of this better covenant and now have the indwelling

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Holy Spirit within us that is prodding us onto good works, we still, as I said at the beginning, turn away from God.

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Here's the difference. He will never leave us nor forsake us. But you and I both know that there are times when we turn away from God.

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Just like the people of Israel where our hearts grow cold. God hasn't left us yet we experience a temporal absence of the expression of communion with Him.

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I'm gonna say that again. God never leaves us. The Holy Spirit will never not dwell in you.

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Christ will always be with you, interceding for you, right? But we experience a temporal absence of the expression of communion with Him until there is confession.

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And we are, as Paul said in Ephesians, being filled with the Spirit. Not grieving the

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Spirit but walking in the Spirit. The old covenant requirements like tithing may no longer have any bearing on us.

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However, there are new covenant precepts. The good thing is that the new covenant precepts don't come with cursings.

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The new covenant precepts come with chastening. The new covenant precepts are what we're called to walk in holiness.

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If we love what God loves and hates what God hates, right? We desire to be obedient to Him and we walk in them.

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And when we disobey them, He is not judging us. God doesn't hate us. God's not mad at us. God is not upset with us.

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God, as a loving Father, then chastens His child because those precepts are for our good and for His glory.

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When a believer who, as I said, is walking in the Spirit, who's resting in Christ and communing in the

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Lord, will no longer just want to live in that, but that will long to and strive to walk in these precepts by faith.

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What do I mean by that? Well, let's use the example we have at hand, tithing.

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We no longer have a fixed percentage. The 10 % does not apply to the new covenant church.

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It is nowhere in the New Testament reapplied and reaffirmed. However, we do most certainly have a principle of giving.

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Can't get around that. As a matter of fact, the New Testament has a lot to say about money. We don't preach about money very often here, but the

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New Testament speaks about it an awful lot. Why? Because, as Jesus said in Luke 12, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

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You want to know where your heart is? Go look at your treasure. Where's your money? What do you treasure?

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What do you value? That's where your heart is. That's what you value. As a matter of fact, turn in your

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Bibles to 2 Corinthians 8 with me so we can see this principle. And I'm going to be honest with you.

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You're probably looking at your clocks going, oh, man, pastor's jumping into a whole other text. I'm not going to parse this out in great detail.

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I want us to see the principle of it because this Wednesday, be here because Pastor Keith is answering the question if the

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New Testament tithe applies to us. And he is going to be dealing with these texts that I'm going to read in great detail

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Wednesday night. So if you want to come and be a part of that, I encourage you to do that. But 2

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Corinthians 8, verses 1 through 8, Paul is given an encouragement to give generously.

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In verse 1, he says, we want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.

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For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed.

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Wait a second. Extreme poverty. These churches were struggling.

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These weren't just churches that were fat and happy with all types of money and wealth like the

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American church. That's not the way this was working. These people were suffering in affliction.

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They were losing their lives. They were losing their families. They were losing their livelihoods. They were losing everything.

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But in the midst of this, what does he say? In extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

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For they gave according to their means. As I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord.

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Not a 10%. They're giving to the ministry in a generous way beyond their means in the midst of suffering, not in the midst of abundance.

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I notice in the American church what happens is when somebody gets an inheritance or somebody wins the lottery somehow or whatever it may be, then they give generously because now it's easy to give generously.

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But in suffering, oh, that's when we tighten the wallet down. But here the church knows that the mission must go on.

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That the apostle Paul and these men that are carrying out the gospel, they need these resources and so they do so.

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Look at verse 7. But as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness and in your love for you and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also.

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This is Paul calling the church at Corinth to this same type of generosity. Look at verse 8.

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I say this is not a command. Notice Paul is writing to them going, hey, give a certain amount, give

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X amount of money or you have to give money. He's not saying that. He says this isn't a command.

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I'm not commanding you to do this. What's the purpose? He says, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.

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Where your treasure is, there your heart is. Do you love the ministry of the word?

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Do you love the gospel going forward? Well, then your generous act of giving will follow.

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And if you don't, God will use other means. It just means your heart isn't there.

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That's what Paul's saying. Now turn over 2 Corinthians 9. We're going to start, we're going to look at verses 6 through 15.

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I'm hitting all your texts, aren't I, Pastor Keith? In chapter 9, we see this principle of what

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Paul is getting at. In verse 6, he says, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

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And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Again, the health, wealth, prosperity wolves will tell you to receive some external blessing from you giving.

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And that is garbage because that flies in the face of what Christ has taught, what the apostle

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Paul taught, and what the new covenant church is all about. Verse 7, each one must give.

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Now, I like that he says they must give because here's the thing, you have to give as a

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Christian. If your heart is with the Lord and you've been saved, you give. But you must give as he has decided in his heart.

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There's not a 10 % here. He says, not reluctantly or under compulsion.

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This is not a set amount that's just easy. Okay, I know how to budget this in.

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For God loves a cheerful giver. But he decides in his own heart.

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Now, there is an active sense in this and Pastor Keith will talk about it so I'm not going to talk about it much. I'm trying to be careful here.

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But there is a sense that you decide, you set a goal for yourself as you decide in your heart.

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But not under compulsion, we can't drive that. But he says, for God loves a cheerful giver. Now, there's been a lot of discussion about the word in the

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Greek there about we get our word hilarious from. I don't make much,

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I don't make a whole lot of stock in that. Okay. It says, and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency and all things at all times you may abound in every good work as it is written, he has distributed freely.

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He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. That's an example of our savior, right?

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Verse 10, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

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Notice not increase the harvest of your field. Increase the righteousness of your or the harvest of your righteousness.

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You are being sanctified in your giving generously. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

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For in the ministry of this service is not only supply and the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

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By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.

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While they long for you and pray for you because all the surpassing grace of God upon you, thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.

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Why does he say that? It's his inexpressible gift because just like what the people of Israel pay in their tithes and their contributions was a reminder that this isn't mine,

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I'm a renter, is a reminder that everything that we have belongs to him.

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He's the supplier of all good things. It's his inexpressible gift. God is still working through his people.

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We live in a present darkness, right? Now the light has come and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn't overcome it, but we still live in this present darkness, as Paul said, and we are commanded to do justice and to love mercy.

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And of course, all of these things take money. You want to help the widow and the poor?

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It takes resources. Here's the point. If God is the great

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I am, the one with the cattle on a thousand hills, right, who created and owns all things, then your bank account is not exempt from that.

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Everything you and I have comes from and belongs to him. Our giving back to him plays absolutely zero, listen to me, plays no role in our standing in Christ.

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I don't care if you give 100%, it will buy you nothing as far as your justification and your standing in Christ.

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That justification has nothing to do with anything we do or don't do. However, faith without works is dead.

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If you truly have faith, if you've been saved, if you've been delivered, if you've been changed, then your heart has been changed.

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And when we are resting in and communing with him, things like our pocketbook follow.

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Because where our treasure is, there our heart is also. Oftentimes this isn't a reality for many

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Christians today. We see people and we go, I believe they've truly been changed. I like how

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Spurgeon put it. He said, for some Christians, the last part of their nature that gets sanctified is their pockets.

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And that's why Jesus, I believe, spoke about money so much, because he knew the propensity of man is to rest in his own ability to provide.

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Are we seeking to live lives that reflect the grace that we've received, to glorify and honor the

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God that we worship, or are we going through the motions and wondering why we don't see

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God at work around us? Where's the

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God of justice? Why is 12 .5 not taking care of the poor and the widows and the orphans more than they are?

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Why are we not carrying out justice? Return to God. Return to God with a heart of worship and adoration.

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And when you do, your bank account will follow. Your prayer life will follow. Your scripture reading will follow.

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Your ministry involvement will follow. Your love for others will follow. Your marriage will follow.

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Your speech will follow. Your habits will follow. Your thoughts will follow. Whenever you are giving your leftovers in any of these areas, including your money, there should be a stark wake -up call to where your loyalties truly lie.

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Do I want the bigger house? Do I want the nicer cars? Do I want the savings?

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Do I want other things? Or do I want kingdom purpose and justice and mercy to go forward?

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Do I want the gospel to be proclaimed? What do you treasure most?

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There. Right there is where your heart is. Before I prepare for us to go to the

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Lord's table, I want to give us a moment of reflection. If you'd bow with me for a moment.

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Sometimes when we deal with a heavy topic like this, we just need a second.

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We need to process. If you need to return to God, if you have been withholding what's already

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His for selfish and frivolous reasons, take a moment.

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Run to the cross. Lay that sin at the foot of Christ, knowing that He has already paid for even that, that His grace and mercy is infinitely greater than our sin.

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May we confess it, turn from it, look to Him. Once again, restore the experiential expression of communion, realizing that He has gone nowhere, for He does not change and His kindness leads us to repentance.

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We thank you for your patience and grace with us. We must confess that we go through spells where we are looking to other things.

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We are not walking in your precepts. If any of us are in that season now, may you and your grace draw us out, knowing that you are not angry with us.

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You have a perfect love for us because of your perfect love for your

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Son. If we are in Christ this morning, we stand under no condemnation.

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We stand under grace. May we live a life that reflects that grace.

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May we be a people that gives of our lives, gives of our resources, gives of our gifts, because they all belong to you.

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May we be a people that the light of the gospel shines into the whole of the community because we are leaning into what you've prescribed and utilizing your resources.

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Let us be good stewards. We thank you for what you've called us to and what you've drawn us from.

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Because of that, we get to come to this table today in full assurance of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, that we are one in Him and He is one in us, that we are brought into union with the triune

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God. As we partake of the wine and the bread that represents the body and blood of our

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Savior that was spilled and given for us, may we worship you,

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Father. May we worship you, Christ. May we worship you, Holy Spirit, three in one.

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In Christ's name, amen. If you are in Christ this morning, then we welcome you to the table.

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You know the routine. We come around. Pastor Keith's on this side. Pastor Jeremiah, you could take bread and wine, go back to your seats through the center aisles.

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You can partake as a family, individually. But this is a communal thing going on.

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This is not an isolated, individualistic thing. There's a reason we're doing this all together.

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And so we can partake and then we'll come back together and sing the doxology. May God be honored.