Malachi 3:6-12, Mending the Minimum Mentality, by John Carpenter

My Malachi chapter 3 verses 6 to 12 hear the word of the Lord For I the Lord do not change. Therefore you Oh children of Jacob are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them.

Return to me and I will return to you says the Lord of hosts, but you say How shall we return? Will a man rob God yet you are robbing me, but you say How have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions?

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 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.

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 Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed.

For you will be a land of delight says the Lord of hosts. May the Lord had his blessings for the reading of his Holy Word. You ever known anyone who is the world's best or at least among among the world's best at something.

I've had the privilege twice in my life of being able to work closely with people who were Among the world's best recognized as some of the world's best and what they did. The first time was when I was in college Samford University.

Samford had had a small kind of half-hearted Athletic program until my junior year and then it hired a track coach Bill McClure. Who had been forced to retire from LSU. He was an interesting character.

There's an eyewitness to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. He was actually there stationed there. I thought about him this week the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He was then a Marine Corps pilot who was twice shot down by the Japanese in World War two after the war.

He became one of the best track coaches in the world coaching at Texas Christian University the University of South Carolina and then LSU. McClure coached a total of 145 in C double-a all-americans.

In case you're wondering I wasn't one of them. Along the way he coached for the u .s. Olympic team at Mexico City in 1968 and at Munich in 1972 he was inducted into the track coaches Hall of Fame in 2002.

I've been mounting a campaign of my own with my alma mater to have him Inducted into the Samford Athletic Hall of Fame the fact that he's not yet in it being in my opinion and a horrendous oversight. The other man who was one of the world's best this time in academics Was professor Robert Fogel at the University of Chicago.

Professor Fogel studied the economics of American slavery and came to some surprising findings controversial findings in his book his first book time on the cross in 1974 it got a lot of criticism for supposedly the critics said he was exaggerating the Profitability of slavery of the plantations how profitable they were.

In fact, he his original conclusion from his statistics that he was able to study was that southern plantations were 35 more efficient Than northern free northern white farms and make a lot of critics said no couldn't possible.

It can't possibly be so he added much more research and came out with a book without consent our contract in 1989. Which by the way found he said, okay, you're right. I wasn't. 35 wasn't quite accurate it was actually southern plantations were 36 more efficient than free white northern farms and He so won the debate that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 1993.

I first took his class in 1999 and had the temerity to write a paper for him in which I criticized The main thesis of an upcoming book that he was then writing. Okay, normally you don't try to get away with criticizing a professor when his book but anyway.

Not only did not take offense at me. He asked me to come into his office and he to talk about it. And then the next year he hired me as his teaching assistant for the same class that I had disagreed with him about the previous Year, I then became part of his staff one of several graduate students working for him.

I published several articles since then defending and propagating his findings. Now both these men one in athletics and one in academics had a few qualities in Common most obviously they loved what they did.

They didn't just do their jobs just because they needed a job to pay the bills. They did it because they took joy in it because they loved being a coach or a professor for coach McClure and I'm sure that LSU gave him a fine pension when he retired at 65 and he probably had other sources of income.

You know, not only Social Security, but probably other things coming in but he wanted to keep doing what he loved doing. So he came to my college. When I started to work for professor Fogle. He was already about 72 years old with the Nobel Prize comes a substantial amount of money now.

It's up to a million dollars. I don't know quite how much it was in his time. But it was supposed to be a lot and he had book royalties and I'm sure he too could have retired. Well on a pension, but he kept working.

Professor Fogle even had a word for that. He invented a word for purely voluntary work that one does simply because you just love to do it. Vol work he called it now I'm going to ask him as we were preparing exam if what he was doing was vol work and he admitted it was.

What made these two men so successful? Was that they didn't have a I'll just do enough to get by. Mentality they didn't just put in the minimum they didn't have the minimum mentality. Because they loved what they did and so they worked at it even when the pay didn't matter.

Returning to the Lord Instead of the Minimum Mentality

Now here in Malachi, we meet a very different kind of people. Remember the context we're on the way to the manger. This is the last book of the Old Testament and this shows us the heart of the people the attitude of the people.

During those long years those silent years before Jesus was born between the Old and the New Testaments you know, how do you ever ask how do you get to a situation a spiritual situation like we find when Jesus is born a Time of a lot of religion almost everybody seems religious a lot of strictly religious people.

They're keeping the law. They're they're measuring out even the produce of their herb plants that they have growing in pots I guess on their windowsills, you know the the mint and the dill and They're measuring out so they would be sure to style, you know, every 10th dill leaf or every 10th mint leaf.

It have to tide it just so they made sure they're keeping just strictly keeping the rules. That's their attitude and yet When the Messiah is finally born and he comes They kill him. How do you get to a situation like that?

Well, well, that's what we see here we see. They have a lack of they keep the rules. But they have a lack of love a minimum mentality. The reality is they just didn't love it. They didn't love the Lord and that spoils everything they do even when they keep the rules.

And so they're trying to do just enough to get by. Putting in the minimum and here we see three commands from the Lord to mend the minimum mentality.

First turn.

Then tithe and then test. Well starting verse 6 the Lord tells them that he does not change. I the Lord do not change. This is in part God's final answer to that mocking question we saw it last week in chapter 2 verse 17.

Where is the God of justice they're asking? Criminals evil people are prospering and they were saying where's the God of justice. And he's saying I'm still here folks. I don't change. I'm still the God of justice.

That's why you should be concerned about the the injustice you are letting flourish in your society. Now some Christians today think that basically God changed between the Old Testament in the New Testament.

That's a common attitude and it's just in guardians the Old Testament with I do not change. Okay, what do you think's coming in the New Testament? I'm gonna be the same God. I the Lord do not change but there's some people to say God must change.

He must have changed somehow at least he changed what he did that we can unhitch the Old Testament from our faith because even if he is the same God Changed at least he changed what he but he's doing a new dispensation started with Jesus.

They'll say but here we see but here he says that he does not change that. He's the same covenant-keeping God. He's committed to doing good to his people to do what he promised to save his people. That's what Jesus was born for.

Not because God had changed. But precisely for the opposite reason. Because of his commitment in verse 6 He's the God who does not change. We're not consumed by his consuming fire. The reason the reason we are not destroyed.

It's not because. Maybe we think I'm not destroyed because I haven't done enough to deserve it yet. No, that's not the reason. We already have. We've already done enough to be damned. Every one of us has already offended God's justice more than enough to be condemned to hell.

Okay, we're already over that threshold. We've met the minimum for hell already. We haven't done enough put it another way. We haven't done enough To get by to get by God's judgment. We haven't met that minimum of being justified.

The reason we are not destroyed is because the Lord Does not change he's still committed to doing good To his people to loving and saving them. That's the reason. And here verse 7 the Lord reminds him that the whole nation is guilty before him and they've been that way for a long time.

From the days of your fathers. He says I was all the way back Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses David they've turned away. They keep turning away. They've come back to Jerusalem. They've rebuilt the temple but soon drift right back into this kind of old.

Half-hearted worship.

Into the minimum mentality. Now many churches today seem to be in the same rut. For as long as they can remember this is the way they've been doing things. We don't know what we're doing, but we're gonna do it again.

They don't think of sitting down. Admitting they've gone astray that something's wrong and then open up the Bible and seek to start over. Now we could think. Ourselves we could call it. Well, we call ourselves reformed.

We started over we're doing it, right, but it's not good enough just to say we're reformed. We have to intentionally be Biblical to follow the Word of God to so Love the Lord that we're not satisfied with the minimum.

To do that we have to turn he says turn. That's the key word there verse 7 turn here. They turned away already long ago people before us. Turned away. They set precedents and patterns that we might follow out of habit.

They turned away from the Word of God and sometimes we just follow in their steps because we think well. This is the way things are done. They turned away to let people remain members of churches. They don't attend.

They turned away from practicing church discipline. They turn to manipulating people and particularly children and to repeating a prayer and then rush them through a baptism. They don't understand and then they assure them that they're saved and then they wonder why they grow up and don't care anything for the Lord.

They.

Turned to the minimum. And so now we need to turn back. We need to return. We can't do it with a minimum mentality. Just thinking what's the what's the least I can get away with? We have to turn away from that.

If we turn he says the Lord will turn to us in verse 7 of religion of the minimum mentality. Thanks if we could just do enough to get by. This is enough for God we can find that absolute lowest at least amount.

That we have to give. You know with a give of our interest. What's the least amount I can be interested. Can sit to one sermon a week. Try to pay attention sometimes the least amount of our time the least amount of our money.

We can find that minimum. Then he'll be happy. We'll satisfy God and he'll let us get by. It's kind of like paying your bills, right. Send in the minimum payment just enough. So the electric company doesn't cut you off just enough to keep the credit card active.

Keep your account going until the next month. And so some think well, I'll just say a little prayer. I'll read a verse or two now and then attend a service now and then contribute a little. You know, that's how you get people like you find in sometimes in some churches not particularly I guess not us but in some churches this time of year they think well, I got a I've got a church around Christmas round Easter.

That's the least that's enough. They think that should be enough but think how insulting that is to the glory of God when any of you be happy if. To find out that the people who gave you Christmas gifts thought of you like that that they're thinking when they're thinking they gave you.

A gift they're thinking. Oh.

What's the least I can get away with? The gifts of this person. Not not look like a Cheap a cheapskate. Or the minimum mentality might work. And keeping your credit cards active. But it does not work with someone you're supposed to love and remember the Lord is the one we're to love above all others.

We have to break out of the minimum mentality. We have we must intentionally turn from the very the mindset. It's been so much a part of the old religion. That mentality that begins by asking what's what's the least I can give to God and get by must turn from that and throw ourselves with joy and love and pursuing God and keeping his word and then he says I'll turn to you and.

One way we do that is By tithing at the end of our seven. The people show their their typical denial. Remember what we looked at last week their denial. The Lord tells them to turn back and and they say, you know, what us turn back.

We've never turned away. What. Whenever you ever turned away Lord and the Lord counters you've turned away by robbing me. Now to rob someone is to take from them something that rightfully belongs to them.

So God is here saying that they've been taking something from him that rightfully belongs to him again. They're in denial. What are you talking about. God we never robbed you, you know, I have a clue how have we robbed you.

No idea what he's talking about the answer is simple and specific. In your tithes and offerings you've robbed me in your tithes and offerings. They were required by the law to give 10 for the temple.

It's upkeep and for the priest to provide for them and for the poor and that's the tithe. Tithe just means 10th. That's what the word means means 10th it was the minimum they were required to pay. The offerings were the portions of the sacrifices.

The offerings here are Contributions. The offerings of the contributions were contributions. Our offerings were gifts on top of that. They have no comprehension that they haven't been paying it. But here they weren't.

Even meeting their minimum payments they weren't giving a tenth or Enough offerings to keep the temple going if that continued. The priest and the and the Levites would have no option but to give up their ministry and earn their own living by farming.

You have to leave the temple unmanned and God here's takes very seriously knows how serious and personally God takes their requirement to give to the temple. You know, he doesn't just say You're robbing the temple you owe the temple this much and you're not giving it.

He says no, you're robbing me. Now there are two schools of thought about this among serious Christians, you know, there was this apply to us and First there's two ways of approaching that first some believe.

Well, this applies directly to the church and that the church the local church is the believers temple. So you just substitute temple here church for temple and you give to your church like that. And therefore the the member of a church is required by God to give at least a tenth to his church and plus special offerings and of course all Christians are to give their whole lives to God as a living sacrifice and everything they have belongs to the Lord and We're just stewards of it.

That's one school of thought. The other school of thought is that since this is an Old Testament law and it is not specifically Applied to Christians in the New Testament. Otherwise, there's no place in the New Testament where it says this apply.

This is for you Christians. Because of that they say well the law of tithing then has passed away. It's just for the Old Testament just for the temple, but we are called to give generously that can first second Corinthians were called to give generously and proportionally that is the more you have the more you should give and So 10 is a good guideline a good proportion to follow for your giving to your church.

And of course.

All.

Christians have to give their whole lives to God as living sacrifices. Everything we have belongs to the Lord and we're to be and we're the stewards of it for the Lord. So which of those two thoughts the schools of thought?

Are true. Well if you're paying attention You probably already realize It's an irrelevant question. I mean you think about it either. Here's the two options either you have to give the 10 and.

Everything or.

Second.

You have to give everything and 10 is a good biblical proportion of what you should practically give. So no matter which road you take You're gonna end up in the same place. But some insist well, they just want to just insist they have to ask this question Is this a binding command on us now or are we free of it?

I believe that's a dangerous question. Because what we just saw you're gonna end up in the same place if you seriously are dealing with this back. You're gonna end up in the same place no matter which option you take.

Why you keep pressing that idea that this is whether this is binding or not. That's the minimum mentality the person with the minimum mentality is thinking. What is the least I can get away with? Is it 10 is it less or free.

I can Give almost hardly anything. People that conclude that this is just an Old Testament command about a temple that we don't have anymore to support a priesthood We also don't have any more and then they say I'm free.

Maybe but what free to do what free they think often. To fritter away their money on every other thing eating out too often and too expensive places. Entertainment cars more expensive than they need Christmas gifts.

There are unnecessary. But you feel like well, you just got to give a lot on Christmas every year it's that's how you have the Christmas spirit by spending a lot even you put it on the credit card and.

Then they throw in a couple of dollars in the offering plate as a tip that they call Freedom, I'm free from the law. It is of course only bondage to their self-indulgence and their love of money and things.

Now setting aside this command plays into the hands of the love of money of materialism.

Then it is sin.

Well others will in a sense, okay, it is a binding command on us just like here. Your church is your temple and so they'll pay the 10 and They'll pay it like any other debt. They owe. They'll sit down.

With their bills all lined up the checkbook open. Lecture the bill gets paid. Water bill gets so much. The rent or mortgage whatever credit cards and the church 10 It's paid. I've met the minimum. There's no love of course for the electric company or the waterworks or the visa corporation or for some there's no love for the Lord and his church.

But there is the sense look what I've done there is self-righteousness. Turn from your minimum mentality by tithing. Should you give 10 Yes, even if it's only an Old Testament law like the laws of sacrifices still shouldn't grace move us to give at least as much as.

The law.

Commanded us to. The minimum was 10 Now the minimum is generous. How? How. How is it possible? How can generous? Generous possibly be less. Then what was the minimum? Shouldn't gratitude surpass duty and giving.

Shouldn't love.

Outgive.

Simple obedience. Well, of course. That's why if you concluded that there's an Old Testament law and we're not bound from it for by it. We're free of it. I'm not gonna bother arguing with you about that.

I Won't even be debate the point. I might even agree. You know, it's just one of those questions where I know I'll end up the same place. Why even bother thinking it through. I mean even agree. But what you need to see though is if you have a minimum mentality, that's what's motivating that question.

Then that's wrong. Maybe you don't have to give 10 But you should want to. Or maybe you concluded that you do have to give 10 So you've been counting every last penny. Like the Pharisees, you know every little mint plant.

And make sure they give one leaf out of ten. Careful not to accidentally fall under the minimum. Do. But you don't do it cheerfully with joy like the gift of one lover to another.

Turn.

From your minimum mentality by changing your mind. To become generous.

Turn and tithe.

Then test the Lord. Now this may sound peculiar when we remember the command Remembers repeated by the Lord Jesus himself in the desert when he was being tempted. You know, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

But here in this specific situation when they are they are cursed by God for not tithing. God challenges them. God himself says test me Bring it on. Test me Bring in the full time. Don't hold anything back.

Don't look for clever deductions. Don't be so Untrusting that you think the Lord can't provide for me. So I got a hold of this myself. Don't look for excuses to redirect some here or delay it. Bring it all in in verse 10 and then see if that curse is.

Lifted and.

You got you gave more and you actually end up with more somehow. Specifically when it comes to giving to tithing God challenges us to test him. Give more get rid of that minimum mentality and be launched toward generosity and see if He will not cause Blessings to come our way now.

The language here in the second half of verse 10. It's got an exuberant in its generosity. Test me if I will not open the the windows of heaven and It's using the same words like we used to describe the the rain and the water is coming during Noah's flood.

You just got a poured the rain poured down and the Springs gushed up here. God says that he will open the floodgates a Provision for us until we have.

Enough.

If you give so to here God challenges us to test him. That if we'll that is that if we stop being so self-indulgent.

Just.

Holding tight to our money using it for for whatever but not setting aside in a disciplined regular way 10 of our income and then giving generously of our offerings. Test him and see that he will bless us.

And this is a scriptural.

Principle.

In the New Testament as well that God loves the cheerful giver. He rewards those who give not only out of their excess They have the other way they have a bunch of money left over and they give some of that but they but those who Sacrifice to give what almost what will cost them something when they have to cut back on their Their satellite TV service or their dinners out in order to give when it's going to cost them something.

Not looking for a minimum to get away with but looking for a maximum to give away and The Lord Jesus said that such people will experience God's blessings. Pour down.

Running over.

Press down.

Packing it in for you and God will bring us so many blessings that we can can't contain them. All he says now you might think well that sounds too good. Be true. It sounds like it's like you're that's a fantasy.

Maybe a little cynical. It sounds like you're trying to manipulate us into giving more. So you can get a raise and drive a Rolls-Royce that's really what's going on here well. Test him and see I wouldn't mind a Rolls-Royce.

Now verse 11 implies that well, they've been suffering from devouring insects, right? They've been their their produce has been destroyed by locust or whatever has been eating them up. They've been holding back their tithes and offerings.

Instead they probably have been investing in their crops. I bet one of their excuses was that well, you know, I'll cut back on giving this year to invest in my farm so I can plant more so I could grow more and next year when I have a bumper crop and.

Then I'll go back to tithing. But then the locusts come along and they destroy their investments. Of course, the Lord sent the locusts. To curse them here. They are under a curse for stinginess. God curses the stingy.

They've been finding ways to take deductions out of their tithe for trying to get by but as little as possible. They assume that like most people do today. They're probably just calculating it. They're thinking.

You know if I want to have more I want to have more money then I need to lower my expenses. I need to eliminate all unnecessary expenditures and I can just stop this tithe business and and save the money for now.

Maybe give more later. But now and so what's the minimum up we could get away with? You know, they'll probably say in an economy like this. You know with our crops being eaten up by locusts. Or we might say where our business is going under jobs being cut inflation.

We've got to cut back a little, you know, including in our giving hate to do it, but we got to but God says.

Test me.

I'll rebuke the devourer you give. Generously, I'll rebuke those locusts those things taking your money. I'll rebuke that inflation that job loss whatever's eating away at your money. If you give generously notice the two sets of two words there in verse 11.

Two sets of two words. I will rebuke I will God says act he will do for you, I will.

For you.

And we so naturally think in terms of a contract.

Will you for me?

We think like a contract if you will. If you will God then I will. If first you give me a lot of money. God you first give me a lot of money. Make me rich then I'll give a lot. But I'm waiting for you to go first.

But God comes with a covenant and says I will.

For you.

Test me.

If you will be for me the Lord challenges us. I will be for you you might ask. So are you promising? That if I give to the church God will prosper me. That really what you're saying.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's what it's that's what it says doesn't it. That's what God's saying here. If you will be for God if you'll put away that minimum mentality if you'll stop approaching God like he's a Boss that you're trying to get by with by putting it in as little work as you possibly can.

Without getting fired. If you'll change your mindset, then God will bless you now. He may not make you extravagantly wealthy because at the end of verse 10 He says that you will pour out a blessing until there is no more Need.

You don't need a new Rolls-Royce. A Used Kia will probably do just as well and he may not bless you on your timetable. You might have to learn to live simply for a while eat ramen noodles. Cut off your cell phone and cable TV.

But test him. He will bless you now you might think. How can you how can you promise that God will bless us if we give What he says here at verse 10. Ah. But you sound like a he's like one of those prosperity preachers.

Well put him to the test. I.

Promise you I.

Promise you if you give joyfully out of love.

Seeking the maximum.

God will bless you he will.

At the end at.

Least. Bless you with the greatest blessing of all by making you into the kind of believer Who gives joyfully out of love? Seeking the maximum He will prosper your soul. You may not be able to afford his nice house or as a car or have those luxury vacations.

But you will have been blessed by becoming more like our giving God. I believe that God has designed this command of tithing that if you practice it if you make it a discipline of your Christian life that Is you plan you?

Prioritize your giving. You miss a part of your budget. It's a part of it's a discipline of your life. It will transform the way you deal with money you you begin with how much you Have coming in and then give in proportion 10 to good proportion.

To start with it's easy to add up. Especially first math challenge people like me just add to move the decimal point over one space to the left. Once you've disciplined yourself to do that, it then becomes easier to discipline yourself to do other things.

Like pay off all your bills on time.

Hey.

You're paying you're giving you're giving. Regularly now you can pay all your bills on time and that way you don't have to pay late fees. You're not stuck with interest payments. You save a lot of money that way.

To obey this you have to learn to be disciplined with money. And once you learn that for tithing. You didn't become disciplined in every other way you handle money. Anyone who has worked with chronically poor people now not just people who are born into poverty and they really have hardly any way to escape from it like in some very poor countries, but people who have Have been able to get out of poverty, but just they just don't.

People who work with those kind of people will tell you that one characteristic they share is that they do not they do not know How to handle money. They're undisciplined in their handling of money. Mary is a social worker once had a homeless man.

She was working with who had gotten a loan the look, you know a loan by I guess by a bank to Supposedly for his education so he gets I've got a degree and you know get his life on track and said he took the money.

He got from the loan. Splurged it on a chauffeur driven limousine and have expensive dinner out. This is a Los Angeles area so you find a really expensive restaurant there now such people if they want something they want something now.

They happen to have the money in their pocket. They'll spend it. They'll waste it even if that means sacrificing their education their future. Just like you know, just a couple of hours of feeling like they're rich.

But if people will practice this discipline that is from the start as a discipline planned.

Budgeted.

Giving then it's easier to plan and budget. Every other way you're using money. So before the expenses are added up you put aside 10 to give once they do that. Then they begin to learn Self-control to plan to budget to manage money so they can begin to break out of the culture of.

Poverty.

You see I believe when God gave Israel This gave us this to this command to tie pregnant. Within that command is this discipline to learn how to handle money and Once that is learned Then you begin to prosper.

Now you may never be a Warren Buffett or a Bill Gates. But your needs will be met. Test him and see. Not only your needs be met but we will all is all of us. God's people we will be blessed. Notice there in verse 12 if they follow this prescription if they turn a Tithe they test him and then the Lord promises all the all the nations will call them all the people around them who aren't believers, but they'll see how Blessed they are how much they have.

Even us is the the true Israel. They'll see that we're blessed. You will find yourself spontaneously Supernaturally Blessed. You find yourself learning the discipline of giving of using money instead of wasting it.

Mastering money instead of letting it drive you and we all will be better off for it. We turn we tithe. And we test him to see if indeed we are now. So much better off after all the father. By giving us Christ giving us a son.

Did not just do the minimum for us. If he had done the least He would not have sent the Sun at all. If the father had a minimum mentality like we often do. Then we'd all be doomed. He thought and gave like we so naturally do.