Synopsis of Sermon 1.14.24

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Malachi 3:7-18 NKJV
Yet from the days of your fathers 
You have gone away from My ordinances 
And have not kept them. 
Return to Me, and I will return to you,” 
Says the LORD of hosts. 
“But you said, 
‘In what way shall we return?’ 
8 “Will a man rob God? 
Yet you have robbed Me! 
But you say, 
‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the LORD of hosts; 12 “And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the LORD of hosts. 
13 “Your words have been harsh against Me,” Says the LORD, “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ 14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, And that we have walked as mourners Before the LORD of hosts? 15 So now we call the proud blessed, For those who do wickedness are raised up; They even tempt God and go free.’ ” 16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name. 17 “They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him.” 
18 Then you shall again discern Between the righteous and the wicked, Between one who serves God And one who does not serve Him.

I.          INTRODUCTION

• Being in relationship with God is not complicated. It comes down to obedience. Do what God says do or don’t do what God says do. When you don’t do what God says to do, you end up wondering why you didn’t end up in God’s potential for your life.
• Some people seem to get to the next level. God isn’t just wanting us to have a ticket to heaven. God wants us to have all that He intended for our lives.
• If we got to live in this world, what kind of life should we have?
• John 10:10 NKJV says The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. – There is a quality kind of life that God wants you to have. God wants you to live a life with fullness like God intended.
• There are many struggles that we undergo. Often a lack of biblical knowledge and lack of stewardship is the problem. Look at how many people are not able to leave a legacy to their children when they leave here.
• Everything that God puts in the earth is a system. Kingdom economics for example is a Your body is a system. God said we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The only time we get messed up is when we jack up the system He designed for us.
  • Think about your health for instance. Health is a system. God put in the earth, everything that we need to be healthy. For example, the Daniel fast was based off of them not wanting to eat the king’s food. They decided to eat the diet of the King of kings.
    • We highjacked that diet and added sugar, preservatives, and everything to it. As a result, we have many health issues.
  • Wealth is a system. God’s understanding of wealth is not to struggle and that we have all that we need. We added greed and selfishness to it and messed up this system.
  • You were made to prosper based off God’s systems and not the world. Every generation can’t be in struggle. Somebody has to break the curse! God has some people willing to say the struggle stops with us.
  • If you lock in on this word today, you will change your generation forever.

A.    Nevi’im–Second Main Divisions of the Hebrew Bible 

1. Malachi means messenger or spokesman. Through the prophet Malachi, the Lord addressed the Jews’ declining commitment to God.
2. They had been in exile and was in the process of being rebuilt. It was during this time of recovery that Malachi prophesies to the people.

B.    4 Areas of Concern in Malachi 

1. Neglect of Proper Worship– In this, they were bringing flawed sacrifices. Their sacrifices were supposed to be without spot of blemish.
2. Failure of the Priest– The Priest were not teaching holiness anymore.
3. Marriage Issues– The people had a disregard for the sanctity of marriage.
4. Withholding Tithes– They were not tithing anymore.

1. SEASON TO RETURN TO GOD
   
   

• In Malachi, God says that we have turned away from Him. God is hurt by our departure. We should seek God first and all things will be added to us. What’s holding back our blessing, is our failure to turn back to God. This also is the reason doors are not opening up for us.

A.    God Didn’t Move, You Did 

1. We left God, he never left us. He is the same today, yesterday, and forever more!
2. Evidence of leaving God:
   1. Drifting– It’s a slow process. First, we stop praying and then you stop doing Bible study anymore. Eventually you look up and wonder how you got so far away.
   2. Desires– Your interest starts to change. You act on what things you were curious about.
   3. Decisions– Now you start acting on what you are curious about.

B.    Returning Requires Commitment 

1. Commitment is staying with it. This means this is not a one-time thing. When you return back to God, He returns back to you.
2. When you return to God, you are receptive about what’s happening.

• STOP ROBBING AND START GIVING
  
  
• Our giving is evidence of our commitment to God.
• God says “you have robbed me…”. Buglers waits until you leave, then go steal your stuff. A Robber will take from you while you are standing there.

A.    Robbery Doesn’t Mind Causing Bodily Harm 

1. If the whole nation has robbed God, guess who the nation is? It is us. We are the body of Christ. When we rob Christ, we cause bodily harm to the Body of Christ.
2. Your robbery impacts generations, not just you.

B.    Giving Starts with The Tithe and Offering 

1. Once you make a decision to come back to God, then you need to understand how to give to God.
2. The Tithe is 10% of gross income, not your net.
3. Some argue that you shouldn’t have to pay off the gross, because that is money that you don’t see. You might not see the gross, but you benefit from it. For example, when you apply for loans, you use your gross as a means for how much you qualify for.
4. References to Tithing in the Bible
   1. Leviticus 27:30 NKJV says And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord – Grain was their commerce during these times. Today our commerce is money. Don’t take what belongs to God and turn up with it, instead of giving to Him what is due Him.
   2. Genesis 14:20 NLT says And blessed be God Most High, who has defeated your enemies for you.” Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered. – Genesis was before the Law. Melchizedek was someone that represented God. Abraham paid his tithe god.
   3. Genesis 28:22 NLT says And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.” – They gave a tenth of everything that God blessed them with.
   4. Matthew 23:23 NLT says “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. – This scripture describes how tithing was important to the pharisees, that they did it even when they didn’t do the other things so well.
5. The Tithe is a dime out of every dollar you make. Know that the rules of tithe don’t change because your income goes up. It’s still a dime out of every dollar you earn, no matter how much you earn.
6. The real question is, do you trust God? We don’t give to God, for Him to do something for us. We give to God, because of what he has already done for us and because we love Him.
7. Tithe is a debt we owe to God. Offering is a seed we sow. Genesis 8:22 NLT says As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.” – The law of sowing and reaping always works.

1. SPIRITUAL REVELATION OF GENEROSITY
   
   

• We want to model generosity in the community. We are called to be channels of God’s blessings.
• Why does God want us to give?
  
  

1. Meat In God’s House Keeps Meat in Yours
2. The storehouse was a place where they stored the meat. So when the scripture says to bring the tithe to the storehouse, it is the place where you are getting meat or where you are getting fed.

1. God Will Move You from Just Enough to More Than Enough
2. Culture is about doors. Doors are about who controls them. For example, if you come upon a Security door, you have to have access to get in. Privacy doors are set up in a way where there are certain things that you are not able see. Climate doors are doors designed to control the environment or how you feel.
3. When you are a Tither, you don’t trip when people close doors on you. You don’t trip, because you know your blessings will come through windows from Heaven. If you think about it, there are more windows in a house than there are doors. More windows equal more opportunities for blessings.
4. Never put confidence in a job. God never meant a job to take care of you. That’s why his name is Jehovah Jireh instead of Job Jireh. Your job is seed money. When you are a Tither, you will always have more than they pay you. Do you feel a draft? Do you feel a window open in Heaven?
5. God is trying to move you to a place where you know that you have visions to fund and people to bless.

1. SECURITY KNOWING MY REAPING IS GUARDED
   
   

• God said he will rebuke the devour for our sake. God never blesses us just for us. He blesses us from generation to generation.
• Some of you are already the first in your generation to make something big for yourself. Ever wonder how people come into a lot of money and in a year they are broke? Without spiritual leadership and good stewardship, this will be you.
  • Haggai 1:6 AMP You have planted much, but you harvest little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you do not have enough to be intoxicated; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns wages earns them just to put them in a bag with holes in it [because God has withheld His blessing].” – This happens when God withholds the blessing. God will sometimes withhold His blessing when you withhold your tithe. When you have the blessing, God will protect the bag.

A.    God Will Keep Boundaries Around Your Blessings 

1. Malachi says there will be pest that wants to eat what you have worked so hard to harvest.
2. When you are a Tither, God will block all of the schemes and plots of the enemy.
   
   
3. The Full Scope of Your Blessing Will Be Obvious to Everyone
4. When God blocks that which comes to harm you, all nations will called you blessed!
5. Imagine that God will take you to a place that is flowing with stuff we didn’t plant. When you plant in the ground, you know you have water, but the milk and honey is a little something extra.
6. There are people sitting next to you that will testify, that this principle (tithing) is right. God’s got some stuff that will flow to you. There are things that God is about to do that you will not be able to explain. God will call you blessed, and others will too, because of the way you live.
7. If you lose it, you know that God gave it, and He can give it to you again. Your name is not the sick one! You will not be the bitter one or the messy one or the pitiful one.
8. We came today to break the curse off your bloodline! It all will stop with you! You will be the last generation that has to worry about a student loan or a mortgage payment, in Jesus name, Amen!