Malachi 3:1-18
WORSHIP FOR JESUS IS COMING
"See, I will send my
messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are
seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you
desire, will come," says the Lord Almighty.
2 But who can
endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be
like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. 3 He will sit as
a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them
like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in
righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will
be acceptable to the Lord , as in
days gone by, as in former years.
5 "So I will
come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers,
adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages,
who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but
do not fear me," says the Lord Almighty.
TIME
6 "I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob,
are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you
have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I
will return to you," says the Lord Almighty.
TREASURE
"But you ask, 'How are we to
return?'
8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.”
"But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
"In
tithes and offerings. 9 You are
under a curse — the whole nation of you — because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the
whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in
this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw
open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not
have room enough for it. 11 I
will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will
not cast their fruit," says the Lord
Almighty. 12 "Then all the nations will call you
blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the Lord Almighty.
TALENT
13 "You have
said harsh things against me," says the Lord
.
"Yet you ask, 'What have we said
against you?'
14 "You
have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his
requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? 15 But now we call
the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who
challenge God escape.'"
16 Then those who
feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance
was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.
17 "They will be mine,"
says the Lord Almighty, "in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them,
just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. 18 And you
will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between
those who serve God and those who do not.
2 Corinthians 9:1-15
There is no need for me to write to you about this
service to the saints. 2 For I know
your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians,
telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your
enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting
about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as
I said you would be. 4 For if any
Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we — not to say anything
about you — would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5 So I
thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish
the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready
as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap
sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to
give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God
loves a cheerful giver.
SCROOGE BECAME
A CHEERFUL GIVER
At the end of
Charles Dickens’ book “A Christmas Carol”, Scrooge has realized the error of
his stingy, miserly ways. Scrooge gets converted! At the end of the story
Dickens wrote this: “Scrooge
was better than his word. He did it all and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim,
who did not die, he became a second father.”
ZACCHAEUS
BECAME A CHEERFUL GIVER
Luke 19:8-9 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord,
"Look,
Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have
cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house.”
See,
we can change and become cheerful givers and look what happens…
VIDEO:
The Offering Plate
2 Cor 9:8 And God is able
to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all
that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
"He has scattered abroad his gifts
to the poor; his righteousness endures forever."
10 Now he who
supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase
your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be made rich in every way so that you
can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result
in thanksgiving to God. (WORSHIP)
12 This service
that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also
overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. (WORSHIP) 13 Because of the service by which you have
proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your
confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with
them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will
go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (WORSHIP)
BUT WHAT I GIVE WILL NEVER BE MISSED
A Stewardship Parable
There is
a story in the folklore of a village in France in which all the families had
their own vineyards. Each year, as the families gathered their grapes,
one-tenth of all their wine was placed in a large vat inside the church. It
would become a common store of wine for the communion, and for village
celebrations.
One year, as the harvest
was smaller than usual, one farmer decided to keep all of his wine. When the
time came to empty his family’s share into the common vat, he poured in pure
water. After all, with the many offerings from all the vineyards, a little
water would make little difference.
Later, the pastor and
all the villagers gathered for the first testing of the vat. The mayor opened
the spigot to begin the celebration. As he did so…….clear water poured into his
glass. As it happened, all the vineyard growers had thought their offering to
be of little importance. Each one had held back their tithe; and there was no
wine in the common vat for the village festivities, or for the church’s
communion. How important is it for you
to give of your TIME your TREASURE your TALENT? (EX. Mike Manny)
I
AM BLESSED
So, if I give of my TIME, TREASURE, and
TALENT, I will be blessed? Yes and no. The bible does not make any guarantee
that because you make a deposit into the bank of heaven you can make a
withdrawal in the bank of earth. (Health and Prosperity Gospel)
I have been a person who
has tithed since I was 15 years old - for almost 45 years I have given a
minimum of 10% of all I have ever earned to Jesus through his church. Yet, I
still carry debt that I can only hope will be paid off by the time I retire
someday. Think about the widow who gave all she had. Was she blessed? She was
poorer than dirt…all she had to give was a couple of pennies, but she gave them
anyway. The truth, I am more blessed than anyone I know and that widow was more
blessed than anyone who came with gold to put into the church offering that
day.
You see, the blessing
the bible talks about is not ‘give and you will receive a blessing’, it is instead
‘give because you know you have already been blessed’. I give of my time -
always in worship - I give of my treasure - always tithe / I give of my talent
- I became a preacher and use my talents in other ways for the glory of Christ.
I do many things wrong/or not well, those three things I do as an act of
worship not so I will be blessed - rather because I have been blessed. How
blessed are you? The true answer to how much you are blessed is in how well you
worship God by giving your TIME, TREASURE and TALENT.
WORSHIP FOR JESUS IS COMING
Mal 3:1 "See, I will send
my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you
are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you
desire, will come," says the Lord Almighty.
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