If I could just have…
The great theologian Janis Joplin who once sang…
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends
So, oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
What’s funny about that song is that Janis Joplin drove a Porsche. So… I’m not sure why she wanted a Mercedes Benz, too?!
The song is actually a lonely blues tune about the pursuit of all the things the world has to offer with this idea that… if I could just have a Mercedes Benz… if I could just have a color TV… if I could just have a night on the town… then, THEN!… I would be happy and content.
But she knew something that most of us in the room know. We forget this, we spend money like we don’t know this, but deep down we know that none of those things will bring us happiness, true joy, peace, or contentment.
We’ve tried. We’ve bought everything Amazon has to offer. We’ve bought things that we don’t even want to impress people we don’t even like. But the endless pursuit of stuff is just that, it’s endless. It promises life, but it isn’t life giving. It promises contentment, but it’s never enough.
Janis Joplin would later say this… and this, this is actually very wise:
“It’s the want of something that gives you the blues,” she once said. “It’s not what isn’t, it’s what you wish was that makes unhappiness.”
What if there is another way? An alternative economy? A different way to live in relationship with money that would be life giving?
A Different Way
Here’s the good news, God’s deepest desire for you and for me is for us to have life and have it abundantly!
In fact, Jesus once said: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” – John 10.10 (NKJV)
This is what God has always wanted for His people. But God’s way is different than the way of this world.
Most of us know this, but like God’s people throughout history there’s a difference between knowing the will of God and doing the will of God even when we know that His way is the best way, the way that leads to life!
This is what was happening around 470-420 BC when a prophet of God by the name of Malachi was sent to speak to the people of God living in Judah.
The name Malachi literally means “my messenger” and this book is God’s message for his people who have returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile and captivity.
When they first returned under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra they rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem and things were looking good. But as it happened, they began to slowly forget God, forget the way of God, and began to live life on their own terms.
Listen to what God says to His people through the prophet Malachi…
Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Even though God is holding the people accountable and reprimanding them for their disobedience, He is still calling them back to Himself. Even though they have turned away from Him He has not turned away from them. Even though they have been unfaithful He remains faithful!
He says, “Now return to me, and I will return to you…”
But watch this… they don’t even realize that they’ve turned away from God!
“But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away?’
They had turned away from God and yet they didn’t know it! They had no idea!
Drifting
One of our family’s favorite places to go on vacation is the beach. And some of you have experienced this. Sometimes me and my son go get in the ocean. We’ll float, through a ball, whatever. Meanwhile, the girls are on the beach hanging out and having a good time.
20 minutes later Will and I look up to find the girls and they are nowhere to be found! What happened? I know they didn’t move. I didn’t think that we had moved. But ever so slowly the current in the ocean had carried us down the beach and we didn’t even realize it.
Culture has this same kind of current that moves us from where we think we are, where we want to be, so that when we pause and look up we realize we’re far away from where we thought we were. We’ve moved.
We didn’t mean to, we didn’t even know we were moving away, but the current of the culture and the business of our lives has carried us away.
The people of God that Malachi was speaking to had turned away from God and yet they didn’t know it! They had no idea! And I don’t know about you, but I think this should make us pause.
It is possible to be a part of the people of God yet be far away from God.
You can belong to a church but not be close to God.
You can be a part of worship but not be in his presence.
You can go through the motions but not be moving with God.
They ask… “How can we return when we have never gone away?’
Cheating God
Malachi answers their question with a question. Here’s his question back to them…
“Should people cheat God?
Talk about a strong question! Should people cheat God? Another translation says, Should people ROB God?!
How had they cheated God? How had they robbed God?
Malachi says…
“Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!
“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’
“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me.
How had they cheated God? How had they robbed God?
By what they withheld from God.
They were bringing to God subpar sacrifices. They were supposed to bring to God 10% of their income, the first fruits of their labor.
They lived in an agricultural economy so this typically meant bringing a lamb without blemish or the best of their crops as an offering to God. These provisions served two primary purposes. They provided for maintaining the Temple and for the priests who served at the Temple.
God accuses the people of cheating Him, of robbing Him, of withholding from Him what they were supposed to give to Him. And this disobedience, this decision to withhold their tithes and offerings put them under a curse.
A Loving God?
Which may make you wonder, Why would God curse the very people He claims to love?
And the answer to that question is simple yet profound. It’s because he loves them that He calls out their disobedience and allows them to suffer the the consequences of turning away from Him.
The most loving thing God could do was to hold them accountable and call them to change, to return to Him, which is precisely what He does.
It’s the same thing you do with your own children as a loving mother, a loving father, when you discipline your children, when you hold them accountable, allow them to suffer the consequences of their actions, all the while calling them back into relationship with you and living life the right way.
Put Me to the Test
God says this to the people of Judah…
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
God says… Put me to the TEST!
In other words, try me! Bring your tithes and offerings, stop withholding from me and just do the minimum… just give the 10% I’ve commanded you to give, and test me. See what happens.
I’ll tell you what is going to happen. If you trust me, if you put your faith in me, if you give me 10% I will bless you so much you won’t be able to believe it! I’ll give you such abundance it will blow you away. If you bring me the minimum I will bless you with the maximum.
Can I suggest that you and I may need to also put God to the test so we can experience what happens when we trust God with our giving?
What if we put God to the test?
What would happen if you just did the minimum? There is no command in the New Testament for Christians to give 10% of our income to God. That is a principle and I would suggest a promise that is found in the Old Testament. Jesus taught that giving is a matter of the heart. He even implied that 10% is insufficient… what really matters most are matters of justice and providing for those in need. (Matthew 23.23; Luke 11.42)
They say that between 10-25% of people in a given church actually tithe, give 10% of their income. Which means, at best, 75% of us give less than 10% of our income to church.
They say most Christians give about 2.5%. Which is interesting because during the Great Depression, Christians were giving 3.3%!
I know the economy has gone through some ups and downs but I think we would generally agree that we’re doing pretty good compared to the days of the Great Depression, yet generally speaking, Christian people give less than they did back then.
What blessings would God pour out on you individually and us collectively as a church if we gave with that kind of uncommon generosity?
And to be clear, I’m not preaching a health and wealth prosperity gospel. You give 10% and then God will give you a Mercedes Benz!
But I am suggesting that the blessing of God is always on the other side of trusting in God. And there may be no more proven or practical way for us to demonstrate our faith and trust in God than through our giving!
We live in a land of abundance yet we sometimes give as though we live in a land of scarcity.
What we fail to remember is that our God is a God of abundance. And that what God wants for us, above all else, is for us to have life and have it abundantly!
True Story
There is a true story of a man in Dade County, Florida, who sued his church for the return of the money which he had contributed to it.
“I delivered $800 of my savings to the church.” said the man in his court suit, “in response to the pastor’s promise that blessings, benefits and rewards would come to the person who did tithe 10 per cent of his wealth. I did not and have not received these benefits.”
This man had given a tithe but had the motivation all wrong. We don’t give in order to get. We give out of love. We give out of obedience. We give out of faith. We give because we understand in God’s economy, we’re not giving a portion of what we have back to God because everything we have is a portion of what God has that He has given to us.
When we give we’re demonstrating that we understand what we have does not belong to us. We’re stewards of what we’ve been given. And one way we steward what we’ve been given well is by giving a percentage of that to God’s church to further His work in the world. And as we do that, as we participate in God’s economy we discover that God’s blessings are so great and so abundant that we have more than we need.
And God invites you to put Him to the test. Why?
Because God knows that it’s not enough to just KNOW that something is true, you have to EXPERIENCE what is true in order to be changed.
And He wants you to EXPERIENCE His blessing. His abundance. He wants you to know Him, to live in relationship with Him, and to experience the abundant life found in Jesus.
The Abundant Life
You see, the abundant life is rooted in a generous life.
So what would happen if you put God to the test this week? This month?
I don’t know what you give, but what if you decided to give just 1% more than you do right now? Or maybe you want to go all in and try to tithe for 1 month?
Here’s what I believe, if we put God to the test in faith with love through generosity we will experience the abundant life He promises!
Whether you drive a Mercedes Benz, an old Ford truck like me, or something in between, I hope that we will find contentment in what we have and that we will be able to live generous lives. Because the abundant life that Jesus offers is on the other side of generosity.
We see this at the cross. The abundant life of Christ was on the other side of His decision to give his life generously, sacrificially, for you and for me.
We see this at every turn. The abundant life is rooted in the generous life.
May we live and give generously. May we experience the abundant life Jesus came to give.
Want more from this Series… Click here.
To hear this message click to watch or to listen.
