Heart Matters: A Trusting Heart

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

Sunday, November 5, 2006

[Video] “Too little to give.” “The game starts at 1:15 and we leave church by 12:30. We can grab lunch and have 15 minutes to make it.” “I wonder if I left the iron on.” “I love you, God.” “I love you, God.” “Thank you, Lord.” “Thank you, Lord.” “Thank you.” “Thank you.” “I love you, God.” “Thank you.” “Thank you, Lord.” “I love you, God.” “Thank you.” “I love you.”

So what were your thoughts when the offering was just taken? What words are going through your head as the plate passes by you and goes down the aisle?

We're beginning a series of messages this morning for the next three weeks to focus in on our attitude towards giving and our attitudes towards giving our offerings back to God, giving back to Him what's rightfully His to begin with. Now I need to tell you right from the beginning it is my firm belief that over the next three weeks, your faith and commitment to God could grow in a dramatic way. You see, it's my belief if you open yourself up to what God has to say to you, it can have a dramatic impact on your spiritual life.

But it's my fear you'll tune me out and you won't hear what God has to say because, for some reason, every time M-O-N-E-Y is mentioned in church, we get defensive. So it's my prayer and it's my request that you would open up your hearts and that you would open up your ears and together let's discover what God has to say to us about our attitude in giving, our attitude in offering. Because what we find out is giving is really a matter of the heart and it is in the heart we intersect with God because God is interested in your heart. God is interested in who you are. God is interested in your soul and in your spirit. God is interested in your heart and giving is to come from the heart. And so our attitude about giving reveals a lot about our heart. It reveals a lot about who we are as a person. We discover Jesus Himself said, “Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” So God is looking at our heart for when we have a true heart, we have a heart that has the right attitude. We find out that it not only affects our offerings back to God but it affects our entire spiritual life. It has an impact on our whole relationship with God. And that's why I say if you open up your ears today and the rest of these three weeks, it can have a dramatic impact on your relationship with God as we learn, as we learn the heart matters, and the attitude God wants us to have.

This week we focus in on the fact God is looking for a trusting heart. That is, a heart that puts complete confidence and trust that God will take care of all our needs. We're going to use the prophet Malachi to help us guide through that and understand how God is seeking us out and wanting us to have a trusting heart. We read from it a few moments ago but, before we take a look at it again, let's understand the context in which the prophet spoke these words. Malachi, more than likely, is the last recorded prophet we have before Jesus comes. We have about another 400 years in history before Jesus comes on the scene. That means God's people, the Israelites, the Hebrews, they're a far cry from what they were in the days of David and Solomon. Those glory days are long past gone. They're a distant memory for the people. Since that time, the kingdom of Israel has been divided in two. They've been run over by one country and then another country. They've been taken captive and taken off into captivity once and then brought back and then taken off into captivity again and then brought back. And then we finally come here when Malachi is speaking to the people. And what you have is a small band of Hebrews who have come back to Jerusalem and all they have is a small plot of ground that's Jerusalem and the surrounding area. What you really have is a destitute nation, a nation that has lost all hope, a nation that has lost all kinds of faith and trust in God. Oh sure, they've heard God's promises. They've heard the prophets, but they're having a hard time believing the prophets right now. They're having a hard time comprehending God is still with them, God is going to send them a deliverer, a Savior, God is going to bless them. Everything around them was contrary to that and so, therefore, they were just sort of going through the motions of their religion. They'd go to the temple. They'd do the things they were supposed to do, but they had no heart in it. They had no faith in it. And they'd simply leave and just sort of live out their existence. It's in that context God says, through Malachi, these words, “I, the Lord, do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” God says, “I'm still the same God. I'm still the God of Abraham and of Jacob and of Isaac. I'm still the God who rescued you out of Egypt . I'm still the God who spoke through the prophets. I'm the God of David and Solomon and all the rest.” God says, “I haven't changed and, therefore, my promises haven't changed. In fact, the very fact that you're alive is proof positive I haven't changed. I'm still your God.” But He goes on to say, “Ever since the time of your forefathers, you've turned away from decrees and have not kept them.” Now hear the heart of God. “Return to me and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. That's the crux right there. God says, “Return to me.” He's reaching out to His people. He's reaching out to this destitute nation that has lost all hope. They just don't see a light at the end of the tunnel, and He says to them, “Return to me and I will return to you.” So the whole force of this passage of scripture is God reaching out to His people. He begins by reminding them that He's still their God and He hasn't changed. And significantly, He says, “You're still alive.” You see, deeply ingrained in the Hebrew theology was the belief they only existed by God's gracious hand. You see, they believed firmly in Genesis 1 and 2 that God created the world and everything in it, God created the universe and everything in that. Therefore, God owned the patent rights and God was worthy of all the royalties of His creation. In other words, God was the owner of all things and they only had something in this world because God graciously gave it to them. You see that traced throughout the whole Old Testament where, time and time again, God is reminding His people He is the one who is doing everything for them. Remember, He said, “I am the Lord your God who took you out of the hands of the Egyptians.” When He brings them into the Promise Land , He says, “I will give you this land that's flowing with milk and honey.” He always reminds them the land, the crops from the land, everything they have comes from His gracious hand. So the people understood. The people understood even the strength they had, the knowledge they had, the drive they had, it all came from God. But God wanted to continue to remind them of that so they stayed close to Him, so they knew their source of strength was in God alone, so they would trust in Him and have faith in Him.

In fact, every 50 years, God instituted what was called a Year of Jubilee. This is phenomenal. Year of Jubilee. That is, whatever piece of land you were originally given, when the conquest came into the Promise Land , every 50 years it returned to the original owner. Now it could have been sold two dozen times in 50 years but, on that 50 th year, whoever the original owner was comes back to that piece of property. Why? Because God wanted to remind them, “It's my land but I give it to you to use and to be good stewards of it, to be good managers.” It's also in this context that God instituted the tithe. God instituted the tithe so the people, on a regular basis, would remember where everything came from, that they were dependent upon God. So God says, “Everything out there I own, but you keep 90% of it. In recognition of me, return 10%.” So God says return 10% of your offerings, 10% of whatever comes in as a crop, 10% of your income, bring that back to me. And that was a regular reminder they were dependent upon God, that it was God's to begin with, and to show their faith, their trust, their hope in God, they return that.

It's in that context then now God comes to them, these people who have lost hope, they're destitute, and they're just sort of going through the motion and God issues a wake-up call. The wake-up call went like this. “The people say, ‘How are we to return?' God answers with a question, ‘Will a man rob God, yet you rob me?' But the people asked, ‘How do we rob you?' ‘In tithes and offerings you're under a curse.'” That's heavy. Rob God? Steal from God? That would be the farthest thing from the people's minds, that they were stealing from God, that they were robbing from God. Now understand the context. Remember, they believed everything belongs to God, God gives it to them on loan, if you will, to steward and manage, and, all of a sudden, He says you're robbing God. In other words, God says, “You keep 90% but bring 10% back to me.” Now if it all belongs to God, including the 10%, if the 10% isn't going back to God, then what would you call it if they weren't giving back to God what was rightfully His? So it was a pretty major wake-up call for the people. Stealing was a major offense. You might recall it's part of God's Top 10, You Shall Not Steal.

So the people are in shock that they'll rob God. But see what God is doing is getting at something deeper here. He's getting at something deeper than the tithes and the offerings. He's getting at the fact the people have lost faith. They've lost hope in Him and they don't trust Him anymore. And a glaring symptom of their spiritual condition was in their tithes and offerings. They were holding back on God because they didn't believe God anymore. They didn't trust God anymore and so a blaring example of that was the fact they were holding back on their tithes and offerings, so God issues a wake-up call. He says, “Will you rob me?” The question for us this morning: Is the prophet speaking to us as much as he was speaking to the people back then? Is God issuing a wake-up call this morning?

Let's look at the context. You and I believe in Genesis 1 and 2. You and I believe God created everything in the heavens and the earth and all that is in it. You and I know everything we have is by God's gracious hand, that really it belongs to God and that He's given it to us. Oh, we have our moments and we'll sort of say, “But wait a minute. I work awfully hard for everything I have.” Then you think, “Well, wait a minute, though. Who gave me the strength to do it? Who gave me the mind so I could accomplish my work? Who gave me the drive and the will so I could advance in my career? Okay, it was God. You're right. God is responsible for everything I have.” You and I have the promises of God. In fact, we've seen the promises of God come to fulfillment. The people, back in Malachi's time, all they had was the promise of a coming Messiah, the promise of a coming new age. You and I live in it. You and I know who the Messiah is. You see, we know it's Jesus. He was born of Mary and Joseph. We know Jesus lived among us for 33 years. We know Jesus went to the cross and, although He was sinless, when He was nailed to that cross, every single one of us was nailed to the cross with Him, and we know it was our sins He bore on that cross and, through His blood, we have been forgiven. We know since He rose to life three days later, He's guaranteed a spot for us in heaven. In short, we know we are short timers here on earth. It's just a little blip in eternity that we spend in this world because we have forever to spend with God. We have all of that. God has proven Himself time and time again trustworthy. God has kept His promises again and again and again. But the question is do you trust God? And more pointedly, do you trust God with your money and with your finances? Do we need a wake-up call?

Consider this. Of all the Christians in America , only 1/8 give 10% of their income back to God. 7/8 do not. In all of America , those who claim to be non-Christian give approximately 1.8% of their income to some charity whereas those who claim faith in Jesus, they give approximately 2.3% back. Should I bring it a little bit closer to home? Should I start meddling and getting personal? According to the records of the church of the members of Gloria Dei, there are 169 adult members who gave absolutely nothing to the Lord last year. You can add to that another 100 adult members who gave less than $3.00 a week to the Lord last year. Do we need a wake-up cal?. Now stay with me on this. Don't tune me out. God didn't issue the wake-up call to make the people feel guilty. God didn't issue the wake-up call to shame them and God didn't issue the wake-up call to make them angry. God issued the wake-up call because He wanted to bring them back. He wanted to bring them into a deeper relationship with Him. He said return to me and I will return to you. In essence, if you read the prophet, what God says is, “Will you rob me and, in essence, rob yourself?” That's really what the prophet says. If you rob God, you're robbing yourself of the blessings God has in store for you. It's what the prophet says. He says, “Bring the whole tithes 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 for it. God says, “Test me.” God says, “Test me on this one. Bring the whole tithe in. Don't hold back. Come with a trusting heart. Come with a faithful heart. And bring what I have asked you to bring and give back to me and watch what happens in your life. Watch if the floodgates of heaven don't open up and blessing upon blessing flow out over you.” And it's not only in this prophet that says that.

Let's turn to the book of Proverbs. “Honor the Lord with your wealth with the first fruits of all your crops.” Here it is. “Then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine.” Jesus Himself says to us in Luke, “Give and it will be given to you a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap for with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” And even the apostle Paul when he writes to the Church at Corinth , “Remember this whoever so sparingly will reap sparingly. Whoever sows generously will reap generously.” God's word is clear on this one, My Friends. When God says in faithfulness, in trust, in obedience to Him, we bring our offerings to Him and we give back to Him, God says the floodgates of heaven will open up and blessing upon blessing will flow out to you. He says to the people of the Old Testament, “Your crops, they're not going to go bad. You're going to have bumper crops. The rain is going to come down. The blessings are going to be there for you.” And He offers this, “Test me on this.” He invites us to trust Him on this one. Now don't get me wrong and I think you all know this. God isn't saying He's a magic formula. So you sit down tonight and say, “Alright. 10%? I'll do that better. I'll give 15%. By the end of the year, I should be a millionaire.” It's not what God's saying. God says, “Come with the right heart.” Come with a trusting and faithful heart and give back to God what He has asked as a recognition, as a demonstration, as a reminder to you that everything you have is from God and God says, “The floodgates of heaven will open up.”

I believe the blessings God is talking about are both physical and spiritual. And I believe most of the blessings we don't see because we don't recognize it. Because God says, “Bring in the offering.” And then all of a sudden, the car doesn't need repaired, the furnace doesn't break down, the roof doesn't leak. And, all of a sudden, there is enough to pay the bills. There is enough to take care of it because God has promised that. God has promised you'll always have what you need. But I think even beyond that, beyond the physical blessings are the spiritual blessings because as God says, “Return to me,” and as He pulls you in closer to Him and as you develop this trust relationship with Him, this faith relationship with Him, all of a sudden your spiritual life and your commitment to God and your love for God grows and increases and it deepens. And all of a sudden when you hit the valleys in life, you have the strength. You have the fortitude. You have the faith to make it through those valleys in life because you know God is there and you know God's promises in your life and you know God is faithful and God will keep His promises to you. God says, “Test me on this one. Trust me.”

And it's significant that God says trust me in this area. God is asking us to trust Him in a significant area of our lives. You see, I'm pretty sure between last night and this morning, there has to be at least one person out there who's sitting there saying, “It's always about money. Why is it always about money with the church?” There are two things. First of all, it's not always about money. The second thing is let me tell you why it is about money. It's about money because money is such a big part of our life. Add it up. Add up in your own life. How much time do you spend each day either earning money, spending money, saving money, or investing money? Or thinking about money? It consumes a major portion of our life, rightfully so. We can't survive without money. I still have to pay my mortgage payment. You have to buy groceries. You have to have clothes. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying it is a major portion of our life and God wants to be part of every aspect of our life. So certainly, something that is such a major concern in our life God wants to be part of that as well.

The second thing is it is so easy and it is so tempting to turn our trust away from God and to put our trust in ourselves, to put our trust in our bank account or our savings account or our retirement plan or our portfolio and not recognize that everything is from God and not look trustingly to God to take care of all of our needs. God says when you give your offerings back to me, when you bring in your tithes and your offerings, it is a regular reminder to you, a regular recognition that we are dependent on God for everything, that everything we have is His. And He says, “Keep 90% but bring an offering to me.” And when we do, we draw closer to God.

It has an impact on our whole spiritual life. But, My Friends, you'll never know until you do. There are some of you out there who know exactly what I'm talking about. You've experienced it. I've experienced it. Some of you out there are saying, “I don't get it. I sit down with a pencil and paper and it just doesn't add up. It's just too scary.” You'll never know until you do. The best analogy I can come up with and I'll admit freely it's a weak analogy. I'm going to make a jump on you here. It's like getting into a hammock for the first time. Stay with me. I hope you get this. It's a good visualization. If nothing else, it's like 40 degrees out there. Let's visualize a hammock and it's 85, about 20% humidity, the sun is going down. And it's stretched between two trees. Now do you remember the first time you got into a hammock like that? You see, I do. Because you look at it and you say, “You know, it looks pretty good. But I don't know.” And so you walk up to it and you push and go, “Well, I don't know. It's kind of squishy. Are you sure it will hold me?” And so then you try and just sort of skirt it and you just sort of sit on the edge but, oh, that doesn't work. You can't just sit on the edge of a hammock. And then, all of a sudden, you get flashbacks of the cartoons you watched as a kid. You know the cat or whatever that got in it spun around three times and went flat on its face and you say, “I don't want that to happen to me.” But finally you get up the courage and you get into the hammock and, all of a sudden, the hammock just envelops you. And now you're just swaying in the breeze and the sun is beating down on you and you're saying, “Yeah, this is living. This is nice.” That's what it's like to have a trusting heart, to take that step of faith and to say, “God, I trust you with everything in my life.” And you just jump in and, all of a sudden, you'll find you're wrapped up in the arms of God and He's holding you there. And those worries you have about the bills, He takes away. Those worries you have about life, Jesus says, “Why? You can't add an hour to your life that way.” He says, “I promise to take care of you.” And you sit back in God's arms and you say, “Yeah, this is living.”

It's my prayer that over the next three weeks when the offering plate goes by, what's playing through your head maybe is a little bit different. What you're saying to yourself as it goes by is, “You're amazing, God. I love you, God. Thank you, God. I trust you, God.” Amen.

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church