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 And please open to Malachi chapter 3 again. It's on page 802.

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! It's really one simple thing that I want to try and convey to you this morning that I want you to think about.

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 It's the command that God gives in verse 7 of Malachi 3.

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 If you just drop your eye down. Three words. Return to me. Return to me.

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 I think it's pretty safe to say, without knowing what's going on in all of your lives this morning,

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 it's pretty safe to say that in some way or another, all of us are prone to wandering.

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 We're prone to slipping away from God.

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 And perhaps you're feeling that quite acutely this morning, at the moment, over the last week.

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 Maybe the period of departure has kind of been a bit more long term for you, if you're honest.

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 But what I'm asking you to do this morning is to think seriously and to contemplate returning.

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 At last.

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 Returning to God.

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 It's been a while since we were looking at Malachi, isn't it?

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 And when we were here last, we saw earlier in chapter 3 and at the end of chapter 2,

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 how God promised to send the Lord Jesus to purify the people of God.

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 And it was going to be a brutal and harsh process, wasn't it?

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 Like a refiner's soap.

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 A harsh soap.

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 Or a refiner's fire.

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 But God gives them the opportunity now to come back to him again.

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 To return.

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 We get another one of the people's replies, don't we, in verse 7.

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 How shall we return?

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 We've seen this all through Malachi.

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 This kind of back chat with God from the people.

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 The question, how shall we return, isn't really a question at all though.

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 It's more of a stalling tactic.

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 It's like, isn't it, if you ask a toddler or a child, put your shoes on, how, daddy?

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 Well, you know full well how to do it.

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 You've done it.

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 When it suits you, you're just stalling.

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 It's that kind of thing.

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 And so the issue in this chapter is not how to return.

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 Actually, if truth be told, really, you know how to do this.

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 You know what it involves in your lives and hearts, people of God.

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 The question really behind the question is why.

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 How is it that we'd want to, the people are asking God here.

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 Their problem is not that they don't know how to, it's that they don't want to.

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 And they think that they've got everything to lose and nothing to gain by returning to a relationship with God.

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 And because they're thinking that, because there are certain barriers in their thinking.

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 Things that they believe about God that are not true, that are barriers to them returning to him.

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 And I want to look at some of those barriers, some of those false beliefs.

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 And the first thing they think is that God isn't involved.

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 God isn't involved enough in the life of his people, in the life of the church.

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 Malachi, he's saying to them, isn't he, you may not realise it, but you have departed from God.

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 As far as God is concerned, you've left the building, you're not at home, you're away.

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 And it has to do with what they think God is affected by in their tithing and in their contributions, their giving habits.

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 The question is asked, isn't it, in verse 8, will man rob God?

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 It's a good question, isn't it?

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 God owns everything, doesn't he?

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 The cattle on a thousand hills belongs to him.

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 It all belongs to him anyway, doesn't it?

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 He'll provide, won't he?

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 What we do and how we live, they don't touch God.

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 And of course that's true on one level, isn't it?

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 Of course God isn't worried or shaken or affected in one sense by what his creatures do or don't do.

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 He is God.

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 And yet, verse 8, some things that they are doing affect God.

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 Do you see what he says in verse 8?

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 You have been robbing me.

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 You have been robbing me.

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 The first step for them in returning to God is to realise that what they do with their lives and with their gifts,

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 in this case, in Malachi 3, it's to do with their money, in one sense can hurt God.

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 He is involved in the life of his people and his church.

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 That he can say this, you've been robbing me.

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 Again, they come back to him, don't they, in verse 8.

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 How have we been robbing you?

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 And he says, in your tithes and contributions, verse 8.

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 Now if I was sat where you are right now, I'd be thinking to myself,

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 are you really going to go there?

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 Again, tithes and contributions.

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 It seems to be all we talk about, isn't it?

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 We've just moved into this church building.

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 We frequently talk about giving, don't we?

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 And paying off our debts.

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 Yada, yada, yada.

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 Same thing, over and over again, isn't it?

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 And that is true, isn't it?

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 I've got to say, I didn't plan to preach this text three weeks after we moved into the new building.

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 It's here.

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 And I've kind of got no choice in the matter.

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 But actually, Malachi brings something especially helpful on the subject of tithing and of giving.

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 Because he shows that to not give as they should is more than an issue of just not giving.

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 It's robbing God.

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 It's taking from God.

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 And affecting him in some way.

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 These tithes and offerings that Malachi refers to,

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 they're not referring to the voluntary free will offerings that we hear about in the Old Testament.

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 There are different kinds of offerings, aren't they?

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 These offerings are the obligatory offerings commanded in the law.

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 These offerings were part of their obligations in covenant with God.

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 And ancient covenants, it's a kind of big word, isn't it?

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 It works that in a picture of a king who rules over a nation.

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 Imagine a king, he comes and he takes over a nation.

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 And they would kind of pay him tribute, wouldn't they?

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 The occupying king who made a covenant with the nation.

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 They would pay him.

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 And in a way, the offerings work a little bit like that.

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 They worked a little bit like taxes.

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 But they weren't taxes like in an earthly government or economy like VAT or income tax.

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 They were to support the divine economy.

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 They were to be used for worship and God's gospel cause.

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 And if you go back into Deuteronomy and Numbers, you can see all about these tithes.

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 They were to be paid to meet the needs of the poor in the church community.

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 They were to meet the needs of the Levitical priests.

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 To fund worship and feasts and holy days for all of God's people.

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 But behind all of those functions and uses was God himself.

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 It was his economy.

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 In his kingdom, paying him tribute.

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 And so what the people of God are doing here is like benefit fraud.

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 It's like tax evasion.

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 They are setting up a kind of tax haven on a little island somewhere.

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 They are stealing from the king's purse.

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 It's not that they just don't give as they should.

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 But they thieve.

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 And in some sense, God feels that.

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 You are robbing me.

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 If you've been stolen from before, you feel that very deeply, don't you?

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 The intrusion of it.

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 The idea that maybe someone has broken in and they've rummaged through your things.

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 Or they've spent your money.

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 And it's the feeling, isn't it, that God's people have been rummaging in his cupboards.

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 And they've been taking from his storehouse.

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 We often use, don't we, the transcendence of God, that he is so high, as a bit of an excuse actually.

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 Because we think he is far away.

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 And he's not involved.

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 That you can't rob God, can you?

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 He owns everything.

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 And we twist that about him to think that he's not involved in any way.

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 He's not involved enough to care what's in the church balance sheets.

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 Or what's on the church calendar.

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 And we'd be wrong in thinking that.

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 Because they are his accounts and his calendar.

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 We get to look in at them.

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 Not the other way around.

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 If you like, God is showing us here that he has an emotional life, doesn't it?

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 He feels this.

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 About you and me.

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 And you cannot have a good relationship with someone who thieves from you, can you?

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 And apologies in advance for this.

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 But Tim Vine tells a great joke.

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 He says, thieves are getting more and more sophisticated these days.

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 One night my wife rolled over in bed and said, I think there's a burglar downstairs.

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 So I went and checked.

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 And there was no one there.

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 I got back into bed and then realised, I don't have a wife.

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 Sorry.

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 You are not close to the one who steals from you, are you?

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 It's just impossible.

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 God says to them, you're not near me because I am involved.

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 I'm affected.

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 And I'm affected by how you spend and how you plan and how you contribute.

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 And you're robbing me.

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 Not because I need the cash.

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 But because this is my kingdom.

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 This is my economy.

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 It's my church.

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 Malachi is pretty blunt, isn't he?

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 It is a question of the heart and of love for God.

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 But for him, it's a question of obligation as well.

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 Of what we owe.

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 We don't say, do we, to the inland revenue, I'm not paying my taxes because I just don't feel the love for the tax man at the moment.

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 But on one level, that makes no difference whatsoever.

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 And sometimes God simply says to us, whether you feel like it or not, you must do this.

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 You have to do this.

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 It doesn't matter how much value you feel that you're getting from church.

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 How much value you feel you're getting from the priests in their day.

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 Remember, the priests, as we heard about earlier in Malachi, weren't worth a dime, were they?

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 They were absolutely useless.

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 And so you could have thought, couldn't you?

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 Well, I'm not contributing to the work of the priests.

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 They're not much value for money at all.

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 But the point is whether the priests were on form or not.

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 Whether the minister was delivering on fire sermons or not.

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 Whether the debts were paid or not.

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 Whether there was a new roof or not.

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 All of that actually was irrelevant.

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 Because God is involved.

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 And God is affected either way.

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 God is affected and cares about his economy and his kingdom.

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 I've got to think to myself.

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 I wonder, would I give as much in giving to the church if we weren't in debt?

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 Would I?

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 Would I give less if I knew we were in the black?

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 That's an interesting question.

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 I probably would, actually, do those things, if I'm honest.

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 But to think like that is to miss the point.

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 Because when we give, we're not, as I said earlier, just giving to the work of the church.

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 Actually, we are giving to God.

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 We are giving to him, himself.

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 We give to him what he already owns, yes.

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 But it's a tribute to him.

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 To his economy.

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 And we don't often return in this sense.

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 Because we don't recognise we've departed in the first place in this area.

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 But we can grieve the Holy Spirit with our behaviour.

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 That the Lord Jesus, in the book of Revelation, he walks in the lampstands of the church, doesn't he?

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 He is in the midst of us.

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 He walks down the aisles as we meet together.

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 But so often I pretend that what I do with my money, well, it may affect the minister.

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 It may be a difference between nice chairs and not so nice chairs.

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 But it won't affect God.

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 He is up there.

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 It'll have no bearing on him.

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 And so we are fine.

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 But you see, he is involved, isn't he?

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 He is involved in chairs and in wallpaper and Bibles and cups of tea and all the rest of it.

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 But they don't believe that.

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 They don't see that.

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 They don't see that they are robbing God directly.

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 They don't believe he's involved.

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 The second barrier to returning is the belief that God isn't consistent.

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 God isn't consistent.

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 Returning to somebody that you've fallen out with can be a really risky thing, can't it?

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 It's an uncertain business.

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 If you had a painful departure and a painful disagreement and there's, yeah, the two people have separated, coming together, it is risky.

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 The answer from the other person could be yes, couldn't it?

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 Or it could be no.

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 I don't want to know you.

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 You know the story of the prodigal son.

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 We thought about it with the kids this morning.

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 Think about what went through the son's mind as he thought, I'll go back to my father's house.

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 It was an uncertain move, wasn't it?

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 As Jesus says in the story, he kind of came to himself and thought, I'll return.

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 But he didn't know for certain how the father would take that.

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 It's a really risky business.

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 And we think sometimes, if I try and do that with God, I know I've not been near to him recently, but if I try and do that, the answer could be yes or it could be no.

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 But just think about that word for a moment.

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 Return.

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 Return.

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 That word has something different in it to the command come, isn't it, or approach.

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 Both of which Jesus commands us to do.

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 Because the word return, it implies a base.

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 It implies a place that has never changed from a time earlier when we were close to him.

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 In the meantime.

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 You can't return to someone or something who has moved, can you?

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 Or changed in any way.

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 And God says return, because even if we've gone away, he remains rock-like.

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 Returning implies constancy to the one that we return to.

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 And that's exactly what he says in verse 6.

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 For I, the Lord, do not change.

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 Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

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 Between people, it could be a yes.

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 Or it could be a no.

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 What will happen, but not so with God.

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 We may have moved and changed and slipped, but we return to the unchanging God and the unchanging place that we left.

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 Because he doesn't change in his intention to save and receive his people.

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 Not consuming the children of Jacob.

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 And his unchangeableness is tested, isn't it, by their relentless departing.

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 We're reminded that these people are chips off the old block.

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 Children of Jacob.

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 Do you remember Jacob?

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 The conniving, plotting, selfish man.

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 He cheated Esau and his uncle Laban.

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 Like father, like sons.

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 And like children.

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 They are just like him.

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 And so are we, aren't we, in many ways.

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 But it's like when you return after a long trip.

00:18:31.019 --> 00:18:33.920
 Back to the familiar place of home.

00:18:34.180 --> 00:18:35.259
 The place of his grace.

00:18:35.380 --> 00:18:36.140
 It is constant.

00:18:36.140 --> 00:18:45.500
 So much so that 50 years earlier, in the time of Zechariah, an earlier prophet, his prophet starts with the same words.

00:18:45.620 --> 00:18:48.440
 Return to me, says the Lord of hosts.

00:18:50.360 --> 00:18:57.120
 While he was still a long way off, Jesus says, his father saw the son and had compassion on him.

00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:03.000
 The father ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:10.839
 It is a constancy of a kind of reciprocal motion.

00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:11.779
 What do I mean there?

00:19:11.900 --> 00:19:15.000
 He says, return to me and I'll return to you.

00:19:16.180 --> 00:19:19.920
 He moves towards those who move towards him.

00:19:21.660 --> 00:19:24.440
 With people it might be a yes, it might be a no.

00:19:24.599 --> 00:19:26.799
 But with God it's always a yes.

00:19:28.859 --> 00:19:30.500
 Thomas Chisholm wrote,

00:19:30.500 --> 00:19:34.299
 Thou changest not thy compassions.

00:19:34.460 --> 00:19:36.220
 They fail not.

00:19:37.259 --> 00:19:40.660
 As thou has been, thou forever will be.

00:19:42.099 --> 00:19:44.500
 But don't we struggle to believe that, don't we?

00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:49.880
 We think, don't we, he'll react differently to me as he does to somebody else who returns.

00:19:51.259 --> 00:19:52.859
 He won't have me back.

00:19:53.180 --> 00:19:54.920
 I've changed so much, Lord.

00:19:54.920 --> 00:19:59.300
 The things that I've done, that I would have never dreamt of doing.

00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:00.060
 I've slipped.

00:20:00.180 --> 00:20:01.720
 I've made big mistakes.

00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:04.720
 The old me would never have made.

00:20:05.740 --> 00:20:07.180
 I'm a different person.

00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:11.080
 God says, well, that may be, but I am not.

00:20:12.120 --> 00:20:13.019
 Return to me.

00:20:14.360 --> 00:20:15.820
 He is always ready.

00:20:15.940 --> 00:20:17.660
 He is consistently ready.

00:20:17.660 --> 00:20:23.920
 When we return to him, he'll receive robbers and thieves back with joy.

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:26.100
 He's always warm.

00:20:26.180 --> 00:20:27.860
 He's not grudgingly forgiving.

00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:30.560
 But warmly welcoming.

00:20:31.840 --> 00:20:33.700
 But we think, don't we, he's not involved.

00:20:34.700 --> 00:20:36.900
 We think he's not consistent in that.

00:20:36.900 --> 00:20:42.180
 And thirdly, and this is, I think, the main thing here.

00:20:42.920 --> 00:20:45.160
 We think that God isn't generous.

00:20:46.460 --> 00:20:48.200
 We think that God isn't generous.

00:20:50.220 --> 00:20:56.040
 If you're thinking about returning to God, do you think you've got everything to lose in that?

00:20:56.280 --> 00:21:01.200
 And you might have a lot to lose, actually, if other people know that you're a Christian.

00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:08.100
 Have you got everything to lose, though, and nothing to gain by coming to him?

00:21:09.539 --> 00:21:16.000
 Do you think that God is there to take from you and not to give to you?

00:21:17.380 --> 00:21:25.519
 It's funny, in this passage, Malachi tells us that we can do a couple of things that we thought, technically, we could never do with God.

00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:28.080
 Things that can't be done with God.

00:21:28.160 --> 00:21:30.299
 The first one is robbing him, isn't it?

00:21:30.299 --> 00:21:32.079
 Well, we can do that, he says.

00:21:32.379 --> 00:21:34.480
 But there's a second, if you look at verse 10.

00:21:35.399 --> 00:21:44.599
 He says, bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts.

00:21:46.339 --> 00:21:47.960
 Alarm bells should be ringing there.

00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:52.359
 Return to me, and test me.

00:21:53.500 --> 00:21:55.440
 Put me to the test.

00:21:57.819 --> 00:22:00.200
 Testing God is not supposed to be good.

00:22:00.299 --> 00:22:00.599
 Right?

00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:11.419
 Psalm 95, it talks about the generation that we've looked at in the evening services, in Numbers, who tested God in the wilderness.

00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:13.240
 That was not a good thing.

00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:15.639
 It was a sign of unbelief.

00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:20.899
 Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6 to Satan, isn't he, when he's being tempted.

00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:24.299
 He says, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

00:22:24.299 --> 00:22:29.960
 But God gives explicit permission to do that here.

00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:34.139
 And it is a slightly different testing.

00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:41.680
 He's saying, return to me and let me prove this something to you.

00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:50.840
 Let me prove that you will gain far more than you lost when you bring in the full offering to me.

00:22:51.580 --> 00:22:53.100
 When you return to me.

00:22:54.019 --> 00:22:55.360
 Test me in that.

00:22:55.359 --> 00:23:00.399
 But it would feel very risky, wouldn't it, to do that.

00:23:00.479 --> 00:23:05.579
 At this time, people of God, they weren't well off as a nation at all.

00:23:06.519 --> 00:23:07.939
 They were skint.

00:23:09.019 --> 00:23:13.639
 And they might have been saying, Malachi, what on earth are you doing preaching to us about offerings?

00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:17.019
 And giving and tithing and all of that stuff.

00:23:18.099 --> 00:23:19.379
 Not now.

00:23:20.659 --> 00:23:22.139
 We've got hardly anything.

00:23:23.599 --> 00:23:26.159
 And that is why I was nervous about preaching this to you.

00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:32.259
 But they're out of sync, aren't they, about God's ability to provide.

00:23:33.660 --> 00:23:34.900
 Of his generosity.

00:23:36.660 --> 00:23:45.180
 He says, if you bring the full tithe into the storehouse, I'll open the windows of heaven and pour down blessing.

00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:49.420
 Do you not know how generous I am?

00:23:49.420 --> 00:23:55.820
 That when you take risks and contribute, I don't take.

00:23:56.460 --> 00:23:57.539
 I give.

00:23:58.320 --> 00:23:59.400
 Just watch.

00:24:01.640 --> 00:24:04.060
 And I think going deeper, it gets worse.

00:24:05.380 --> 00:24:08.620
 It is not just that they don't believe he can bless.

00:24:08.740 --> 00:24:12.180
 In a strange way, it's that they don't want him to.

00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:16.340
 And looking at our hearts, I think this is true as well.

00:24:16.339 --> 00:24:22.480
 You can sin by testing God's patience like they did in the wilderness.

00:24:22.819 --> 00:24:27.000
 But you can also sin by not testing him in this way.

00:24:28.579 --> 00:24:31.399
 There's a really helpful passage in Isaiah 7.

00:24:31.459 --> 00:24:33.639
 I wonder if you'd just turn there for a moment.

00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:35.779
 It's on page 571.

00:24:37.699 --> 00:24:39.539
 Page 571.

00:24:39.539 --> 00:24:47.700
 And this is the part of the story of King Ahaz.

00:24:48.599 --> 00:24:50.119
 Ahaz was not a good king.

00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:57.619
 And in verse 11 and 12 of chapter 7, let me just read that for you.

00:24:57.619 --> 00:25:04.019
 Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz.

00:25:04.659 --> 00:25:06.419
 Ask a sign of the Lord your God.

00:25:06.519 --> 00:25:09.259
 Let it be as deep as Sheol or high as heaven.

00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:14.539
 But Ahaz said, I will not ask and I will not put the Lord to the test.

00:25:16.019 --> 00:25:18.139
 And he said, hear then, O house of David.

00:25:18.500 --> 00:25:24.059
 Is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also?

00:25:24.059 --> 00:25:28.299
 And the Lord offers Ahaz a chance, doesn't he?

00:25:29.299 --> 00:25:33.339
 He gives him the opportunity for a sign to bolster his faith.

00:25:33.879 --> 00:25:34.859
 But he refuses.

00:25:35.799 --> 00:25:39.039
 And he says, I don't want to put the Lord to the test.

00:25:40.659 --> 00:25:46.700
 Yet given the Lord's invitation to do that, that refusal in this case was sinful.

00:25:46.700 --> 00:25:51.080
 Ahaz puts a pious coating on it, doesn't he?

00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:53.160
 I don't want to test God.

00:25:54.880 --> 00:26:01.660
 But actually what he didn't want to do was remove reasonable doubt that God could provide a sign.

00:26:02.860 --> 00:26:07.580
 At the heart of it was a refusal to see God's blessing.

00:26:08.840 --> 00:26:10.779
 Not just a lack of belief in it.

00:26:10.779 --> 00:26:14.460
 Don't show me a sign, God.

00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:17.359
 Don't bless me too much.

00:26:19.180 --> 00:26:24.660
 And many churches don't grow simply because actually deep down the people don't want it to.

00:26:25.799 --> 00:26:27.740
 We just don't want the risks.

00:26:27.740 --> 00:26:33.539
 Returning to God means returning out on a limb.

00:26:34.539 --> 00:26:36.359
 And putting him to the test.

00:26:37.319 --> 00:26:38.859
 And stepping out in faith.

00:26:39.059 --> 00:26:41.720
 And evaluating him on the basis of his response.

00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:42.620
 He says, doesn't he?

00:26:42.660 --> 00:26:43.740
 I welcome that.

00:26:43.819 --> 00:26:44.220
 Do that.

00:26:44.339 --> 00:26:44.859
 Test me.

00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:45.620
 Prove me.

00:26:46.380 --> 00:26:48.839
 Let me prove to you how generous I am.

00:26:48.839 --> 00:26:55.039
 On reflection, I've just been thinking about the new building.

00:26:55.179 --> 00:26:56.259
 It's wonderful, isn't it?

00:26:56.339 --> 00:26:58.699
 And it's something really to be thankful for.

00:26:59.079 --> 00:27:02.099
 I don't know though, if over the last few weeks, maybe this is just me,

00:27:02.159 --> 00:27:08.699
 whether you can perceive something in yourself slightly unnerved by this new building.

00:27:10.199 --> 00:27:12.459
 It's new and it's different, isn't it?

00:27:12.619 --> 00:27:14.019
 And maybe that's all it is.

00:27:14.019 --> 00:27:15.799
 Maybe change is just hard.

00:27:16.500 --> 00:27:17.259
 Maybe that's it.

00:27:17.259 --> 00:27:25.980
 But actually, reflecting on this passage this week, what unnerves me about this wonderful building

00:27:25.980 --> 00:27:31.420
 is that now I can no longer afford to think that God cannot provide.

00:27:33.259 --> 00:27:39.019
 I cannot keep making excuses for my low faith in that way.

00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:45.759
 And maybe in a way it was easier, wasn't it, to do that in the old building when we were in there.

00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:50.359
 Because we could pretend that God wasn't big enough to do it.

00:27:51.220 --> 00:27:53.519
 And we could kind of keep going like that.

00:27:54.799 --> 00:27:57.259
 And we didn't have to put him to the test.

00:27:57.339 --> 00:28:01.240
 We didn't kind of step out on a limb.

00:28:02.119 --> 00:28:04.579
 But then, I guess we did, didn't we, in a way.

00:28:04.700 --> 00:28:05.619
 We did do that.

00:28:05.740 --> 00:28:07.019
 And the heavens opened.

00:28:07.019 --> 00:28:13.579
 And God was proved to be generous in this whole experience.

00:28:13.579 --> 00:28:17.740
 And that is not the end, is it?

00:28:17.819 --> 00:28:20.579
 In this building, that's not the end of God's generosity.

00:28:22.199 --> 00:28:23.779
 Because God doesn't change.

00:28:24.839 --> 00:28:26.159
 And he's involved.

00:28:26.319 --> 00:28:27.279
 And he's generous.

00:28:27.279 --> 00:28:35.960
 In the biography of the Duke of Wellington, the writer, he worked on the research for the biography.

00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:38.480
 He looked through the records and the diaries and all the rest of it.

00:28:38.539 --> 00:28:45.160
 But he says, in the biography, he had a breakthrough when he discovered some of Wellington's old check stubs.

00:28:46.119 --> 00:28:51.299
 And he says, when I saw how he spent his money, then I knew the man.

00:28:51.299 --> 00:28:57.279
 And our checkbooks, if you have a checkbook, say a lot about us, don't they?

00:28:58.220 --> 00:29:01.779
 They show others how they could view us.

00:29:01.879 --> 00:29:07.879
 But actually, more importantly, our checkbooks really show us how we view God.

00:29:09.299 --> 00:29:11.440
 Is he the giver of good gifts?

00:29:11.700 --> 00:29:14.839
 Or is he a taker of our gifts?

00:29:16.259 --> 00:29:19.599
 And the problem is, sometimes we'd rather keep our gifts

00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:22.419
 than take the risk of receiving his.

00:29:23.819 --> 00:29:26.099
 We want to keep all we can, don't we?

00:29:26.159 --> 00:29:28.719
 So that we can avoid going out on a limb.

00:29:29.459 --> 00:29:31.240
 But do you see what they are doing here?

00:29:31.339 --> 00:29:33.459
 They are withholding from God

00:29:33.459 --> 00:29:35.740
 because they think he doesn't give.

00:29:36.939 --> 00:29:39.299
 But the more they do that, the more they hold on,

00:29:39.379 --> 00:29:40.419
 the less they get.

00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:41.199
 Verse 9,

00:29:41.579 --> 00:29:43.839
 You are cursed with a curse.

00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:47.059
 For you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.

00:29:47.059 --> 00:29:51.179
 Around this time, we know that the harvests in Judah

00:29:51.179 --> 00:29:53.220
 were not very good at all.

00:29:54.179 --> 00:29:56.240
 They were suffering hardship and famine.

00:29:57.879 --> 00:30:00.159
 And often there is spiritual famine, isn't there?

00:30:00.179 --> 00:30:01.799
 There is a lack of growth in churches.

00:30:01.960 --> 00:30:03.879
 There's a dryness and a barrenness.

00:30:04.339 --> 00:30:07.879
 Because God's people think God is more of a taker than a giver.

00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:11.360
 And they hold things very, very tightly.

00:30:13.160 --> 00:30:15.720
 But we know, as we look at the Lord Jesus Christ,

00:30:15.800 --> 00:30:18.060
 that the absolute opposite is true of that.

00:30:19.560 --> 00:30:22.620
 For he gave his life, isn't it?

00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:23.760
 He gave his all.

00:30:24.620 --> 00:30:26.460
 And what happened a few days later?

00:30:26.460 --> 00:30:31.900
 God opened up the windows at Pentecost

00:30:31.900 --> 00:30:35.340
 and poured his Spirit out on the church.

00:30:35.500 --> 00:30:38.420
 And there was massive worldwide growth.

00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:42.980
 One sacrificial gift from the Lord Jesus Christ,

00:30:43.059 --> 00:30:44.720
 the greatest gift of all,

00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:47.539
 kind of sparked off, didn't it?

00:30:47.700 --> 00:30:50.460
 Multiple gifts within the church.

00:30:50.460 --> 00:30:54.539
 And in Christ we get this domino effect

00:30:54.539 --> 00:30:56.319
 of offering and of gifts

00:30:56.319 --> 00:31:00.799
 and God responding in exuberant generosity to the church.

00:31:02.180 --> 00:31:04.920
 And we've had a great taste of that as a church, haven't we?

00:31:06.039 --> 00:31:08.920
 As many of us have given very generously.

00:31:10.380 --> 00:31:13.279
 And we give of our time and our money and our gifts

00:31:13.279 --> 00:31:15.100
 and look what's happened there.

00:31:15.099 --> 00:31:20.559
 But now, at a time like this,

00:31:20.679 --> 00:31:23.059
 three weeks in to a new building,

00:31:23.240 --> 00:31:25.419
 maybe now it's so important, isn't it,

00:31:25.419 --> 00:31:28.480
 that we don't forget that God never changes.

00:31:29.980 --> 00:31:31.859
 And he is always generous.

00:31:33.199 --> 00:31:37.000
 And he is consistent in blessing those who return to him.

00:31:39.579 --> 00:31:42.679
 Rosaria Butterfield speaks of her conversion

00:31:42.680 --> 00:31:45.100
 and the whole experience of repentance

00:31:45.100 --> 00:31:46.779
 and returning to God.

00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:47.400
 And she says,

00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:50.160
 I learnt the first rule of repentance,

00:31:50.460 --> 00:31:52.140
 that repentance requires

00:31:52.140 --> 00:31:54.820
 greater intimacy with God

00:31:54.820 --> 00:31:57.060
 than with our sin.

00:31:58.980 --> 00:32:01.220
 Repentance is an intimate affair.

00:32:02.560 --> 00:32:03.600
 And for many of us,

00:32:03.740 --> 00:32:06.539
 intimacy with anyone is a terrifying prospect.

00:32:08.259 --> 00:32:09.519
 It could be yes,

00:32:10.360 --> 00:32:11.560
 or it could be no.

00:32:12.680 --> 00:32:14.680
 Well, God says,

00:32:14.840 --> 00:32:17.440
 bring the full tithe in.

00:32:18.560 --> 00:32:21.500
 Bring yourself to me.

00:32:21.640 --> 00:32:22.920
 Come out on a limb

00:32:22.920 --> 00:32:25.740
 and test me,

00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:26.860
 says God,

00:32:28.100 --> 00:32:29.799
 for I never change.

00:32:30.940 --> 00:32:32.019
 And just see,

00:32:32.180 --> 00:32:33.180
 just watch

00:32:33.180 --> 00:32:36.039
 if I don't open the windows of heaven.

00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:38.820
 Let's pray.

00:32:38.820 --> 00:32:38.900
 Amen.

00:32:38.900 --> 00:32:38.900