Whenever the Pastor announces a message from the book of Malachi the givers smile and the rest just sigh. “Oh no another sermon on tithing.” But Malachi says so much more about God’s desire to bless His children. He says a great deal about how His children can bless Him too. It also focuses on the corruption of the Priests of that day and their departure from following God. There are only four chapters and I encourage givers and sighers alike to dig deep into the truth found in the book of Malachi. It can change your life.
One of the interwoven themes of Malachi deals with the quality not just quantity of our offerings. If for instance, you own ten pairs of shoes and nine pairs are new and still in the box and one pair is worn out, which pair will you give to God? The children of Israel were giving the worn out pair. God was not pleased with the offering even though it was a tithe of what they had.
In Malachi 1:13 God says “you bring the stolen, the lame and the sick and expect me to accept them as an offering.” In verse 14 He curses the giver for offering a blemished sacrifice.
Many of you have heard the Norman story. Norman was a poor and humble neighbor, that Mike Adkins, the story teller, came to love. At one point in the story Mike remembers the day he cleaned out his closet of old clothes and shoes and happily took them to Norman’s house. Mike decided he would put the clothes away in Norman’s closet for him but couldn’t believe what he saw.
When he opened the closet door he found it full and overflowing with every size style and color of clothing you could imagine. Charities and neighbors had also given him all of their old clothes and now Mike was about to add his to the rest.
Mike
began to weep and asked God to forgive his feeble attempt. Then
he loaded up Norman and carried him to the finest Haberdasher
in town and made sure that Norman's clothes were not only as good
as his but better.
Friends,
are your offerings blemished in some way? Is God pleased with
your gift? I pray that you will not only give a tithe but that
you will also give God your best. Honest money, quality time,
quality merchandise and the love of a child for a Precious Father.
In
turn God will pour out His blessings on you. It's a promise given
in the book of Malachi by a loving heavenly Father.
