Monday, April 16, 2007
Malachi 3:10
Have you robbed God? You need to know the answer to this question, because despite what you might think, you can steal from Him! Handle your finances the wrong way, and God will say that you have taken what is His. Handle them the right way, and God has real blessings in store.
God is very much interested in your finances. D on't worry, He doesn't want your money. He surely doesn't need your money. No, Psalm 24 says, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." God says in Psalm 50 that if He were hungry, He wouldn't come to you. If He were truly hungry, nothing you could produce could begin to fill Him up. Don't get the idea now that somehow God is broke, or that He is in financial difficulty. But this God who has everything He will ever need is very interested in your finances. Just read the Bible and you'll see how interested He is. Of the 38 recorded parables told by Jesus Christ, 16 deal with man's use of finances: how he secures his money, saves his money, spends his money, or shares his money. As a matter of fact, one out of every ten verses in the Gospels deals with personal finances. Over and over again, God speaks to us about money and possessions because He knows that "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). There are about 500 verses in the Bible about prayer. There are about 500 verses in the Bible about faith. But, my dear friend, there are some 2,000 verses in the Bible about our personal possessions.
The devil is also very interested in your finances. Satan knows that if he can trap you into financial bondage, he can bring wreck and ruin into your life.
Finally, the third person who is, or should be interested in your finances is you. If you say you are not, perhaps you are not telling the truth. You are interested, and well you should be, because God expects you to be a good steward of what He has placed in your hands. ? If you want to honor God with your finances, I will give you four steps right out of His Word.
1. Recognize Your Failure
Step one is a painful step. You must recognize your failure. You cannot get right until you recognize where you are wrong. In Malachi 3:9, God says that some people are "cursed with a curse." That curse is financial bondage. Do you use mastercard for some daily expenditures because you don't have enough money?
Do you find yourself putting off paying bills for lack of money? Do you find yourself unaware of just how much you do owe? Do you have creditors and bill collectors calling or writing you about past due bills? Do you make new loans to pay off old ones? Do you ever argue over finances with your spouse? Have you ever even thought about being dishonest about money? Do you find it difficult to return God's tithe? Maybe none of this is you! You can still be in financial slavery. Its not what you own but what owns you! Ecclesiastes 5:10, "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver." You can be in financial bondage when you spend your time worrying over your wealth. Proverbs 15:6 says, "In the house of the righteous is much treasure: but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble." You can be in financial bondage when you become a slave to your money. Proverbs 23:4 says, "Labour not to be rich." Maybe that's your problem: gold is your god. Or maybe you are in financial bondage because you have plenty in the bank, but you're poor toward heaven, destitute in the eyes of God. Proverbs 23:5: "Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven." How do you break out of financial bondage? Malachi 3:7. God says, "Return unto me, and I will return unto you." O.S. Hawkins said, "The principle hindrance to the advancement of the kingdom of God is greed. It is the chief obstacle to heaven sent revival. It’s seems that when the back of greed is broken, the human spirit soars into regions of unselfishness. I believe that it is safe to say there can be no continuous revival without ‘hilarious’ giving. And I fear no contradiction: wherever there is ‘hilarious’ giving there will soon be revival!"
2. Renew Your Fellowship .
If you want financial freedom, just return to God. I want to remind you that it is not your money that God really wants. It is you. God needs absolutely nothing from you, but He desires your love and devotion. Psalm 50:12. God says, "If I were hungry I would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the fullness thereof." God loves you for yourself, not for what you have. God wants you. Return to Him and He will return to you. Also, don't give your money without giving of yourself. If you think that I am trying to somehow wrestle money out of you, you are so wrong. God neither needs nor wants what is not freely and gladly given. 5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God. 2 Cor 12:14 for I seek not yours, but you: A lot of people who are trying to get right with God never get right financially. So they never really get right. The kind of repentance that has never reached the purse has never reached the heart.
"Ye have robbed Me." How have we robbed You, Lord? How have we robbed Him? "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, 'Wherein have we robbed thee?' In tithes and offerings."
Men and women today rob God by withholding their tithes and offerings. Most of us will never get a gun and a mask and go in and rob a bank. I heard about a man once who tried. He shoved a note to the teller which said, "This is a robbery. I've got a gun on you, put all of your money in a bag and slide it over." She wrote him a note and sent it back to him which said, "Straighten your tie, they're taking your picture."
God is taking your picture. You can fool your friends and your church. You may even be able to fool your spouse. But you can't fool God. He knows and He is taking your picture. When you fail to return the tithe, you do rob God.
3. Release Your Finances
there is a definite proportion that He asks you to bring. "Christians are under grace,'' they say, "not under the Law." But look at this: when Jacob decided to give a tenth of everything to God, he did so long before the Mosaic Law was ever recorded. In fact, Abraham, the brightest star in the Hebrew heaven, gave tithes to the priest Melchizedek 400 years before Moses and the Mosaic Law. Melchizedek was a picture and a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham tithed before the Law. In Matthew 23:23 Jesus said: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." May I say this about the tithe? Abraham commenced it. Jacob continued it. Moses commanded it. Jesus commended it. Who am I to cancel it?
there is a designated place "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him" (1 Cor. 16:2).
there is a determined purpose. What is the purpose? That there may be meat in God's house. In other words we give in order to sustain His work.
4. Restore Your Fruitfulness
God will renew our faith,
Many people say, "I just can't grow in my Christian life. I wonder why I'm not growing. I wonder why I don't have more faith. Why is it when I pray the heavens are like brass? Why is it I don't understand the Bible?" Just get right with God in your finances. In Luke 16:10 Jesus said, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is also unjust in much." Here, the least means material things, and the much means spiritual things. "If you've not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches" (v. 11).
He will rebuke your foes. Malachi 3:11: Proverbs 3:9-10 says: "Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine."
"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete it shall be measured to you again" (Luke 6:38).
God is very much interested in your finances. D on't worry, He doesn't want your money. He surely doesn't need your money. No, Psalm 24 says, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." God says in Psalm 50 that if He were hungry, He wouldn't come to you. If He were truly hungry, nothing you could produce could begin to fill Him up. Don't get the idea now that somehow God is broke, or that He is in financial difficulty. But this God who has everything He will ever need is very interested in your finances. Just read the Bible and you'll see how interested He is. Of the 38 recorded parables told by Jesus Christ, 16 deal with man's use of finances: how he secures his money, saves his money, spends his money, or shares his money. As a matter of fact, one out of every ten verses in the Gospels deals with personal finances. Over and over again, God speaks to us about money and possessions because He knows that "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt. 6:21). There are about 500 verses in the Bible about prayer. There are about 500 verses in the Bible about faith. But, my dear friend, there are some 2,000 verses in the Bible about our personal possessions.
The devil is also very interested in your finances. Satan knows that if he can trap you into financial bondage, he can bring wreck and ruin into your life.
Finally, the third person who is, or should be interested in your finances is you. If you say you are not, perhaps you are not telling the truth. You are interested, and well you should be, because God expects you to be a good steward of what He has placed in your hands. ? If you want to honor God with your finances, I will give you four steps right out of His Word.
1. Recognize Your Failure
Step one is a painful step. You must recognize your failure. You cannot get right until you recognize where you are wrong. In Malachi 3:9, God says that some people are "cursed with a curse." That curse is financial bondage. Do you use mastercard for some daily expenditures because you don't have enough money?
Do you find yourself putting off paying bills for lack of money? Do you find yourself unaware of just how much you do owe? Do you have creditors and bill collectors calling or writing you about past due bills? Do you make new loans to pay off old ones? Do you ever argue over finances with your spouse? Have you ever even thought about being dishonest about money? Do you find it difficult to return God's tithe? Maybe none of this is you! You can still be in financial slavery. Its not what you own but what owns you! Ecclesiastes 5:10, "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver." You can be in financial bondage when you spend your time worrying over your wealth. Proverbs 15:6 says, "In the house of the righteous is much treasure: but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble." You can be in financial bondage when you become a slave to your money. Proverbs 23:4 says, "Labour not to be rich." Maybe that's your problem: gold is your god. Or maybe you are in financial bondage because you have plenty in the bank, but you're poor toward heaven, destitute in the eyes of God. Proverbs 23:5: "Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven." How do you break out of financial bondage? Malachi 3:7. God says, "Return unto me, and I will return unto you." O.S. Hawkins said, "The principle hindrance to the advancement of the kingdom of God is greed. It is the chief obstacle to heaven sent revival. It’s seems that when the back of greed is broken, the human spirit soars into regions of unselfishness. I believe that it is safe to say there can be no continuous revival without ‘hilarious’ giving. And I fear no contradiction: wherever there is ‘hilarious’ giving there will soon be revival!"
2. Renew Your Fellowship .
If you want financial freedom, just return to God. I want to remind you that it is not your money that God really wants. It is you. God needs absolutely nothing from you, but He desires your love and devotion. Psalm 50:12. God says, "If I were hungry I would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the fullness thereof." God loves you for yourself, not for what you have. God wants you. Return to Him and He will return to you. Also, don't give your money without giving of yourself. If you think that I am trying to somehow wrestle money out of you, you are so wrong. God neither needs nor wants what is not freely and gladly given. 5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God. 2 Cor 12:14 for I seek not yours, but you: A lot of people who are trying to get right with God never get right financially. So they never really get right. The kind of repentance that has never reached the purse has never reached the heart.
"Ye have robbed Me." How have we robbed You, Lord? How have we robbed Him? "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, 'Wherein have we robbed thee?' In tithes and offerings."
Men and women today rob God by withholding their tithes and offerings. Most of us will never get a gun and a mask and go in and rob a bank. I heard about a man once who tried. He shoved a note to the teller which said, "This is a robbery. I've got a gun on you, put all of your money in a bag and slide it over." She wrote him a note and sent it back to him which said, "Straighten your tie, they're taking your picture."
God is taking your picture. You can fool your friends and your church. You may even be able to fool your spouse. But you can't fool God. He knows and He is taking your picture. When you fail to return the tithe, you do rob God.
3. Release Your Finances
there is a definite proportion that He asks you to bring. "Christians are under grace,'' they say, "not under the Law." But look at this: when Jacob decided to give a tenth of everything to God, he did so long before the Mosaic Law was ever recorded. In fact, Abraham, the brightest star in the Hebrew heaven, gave tithes to the priest Melchizedek 400 years before Moses and the Mosaic Law. Melchizedek was a picture and a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham tithed before the Law. In Matthew 23:23 Jesus said: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." May I say this about the tithe? Abraham commenced it. Jacob continued it. Moses commanded it. Jesus commended it. Who am I to cancel it?
there is a designated place "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him" (1 Cor. 16:2).
there is a determined purpose. What is the purpose? That there may be meat in God's house. In other words we give in order to sustain His work.
4. Restore Your Fruitfulness
God will renew our faith,
Many people say, "I just can't grow in my Christian life. I wonder why I'm not growing. I wonder why I don't have more faith. Why is it when I pray the heavens are like brass? Why is it I don't understand the Bible?" Just get right with God in your finances. In Luke 16:10 Jesus said, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is also unjust in much." Here, the least means material things, and the much means spiritual things. "If you've not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches" (v. 11).
He will rebuke your foes. Malachi 3:11: Proverbs 3:9-10 says: "Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine."
"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete it shall be measured to you again" (Luke 6:38).
# posted by Groseys messages @ 11:18 AM 
