Money Matters: Part 5 - Can You Spare a Dime?

0:05 We've been in a series on money and finances. We've talked about money matters was my first message. It dealt with the grace that God gives you when you manage your money properly. God smears us with grace. Wish I could talk about grace a little bit. We talked about debt. I spent a day talking about the dangers of depending on debt. We're trying to break that debt demon off of you. Look at your neighbor and say, we're trying to get that debt demon off of you.

0:42 That's too weak. Y'all got to have an attitude. You got to roll your head around. You got to snap your fingers and tell them. We're trying to tell people to stay out of debt. And to that end, we have these. This is my jar for helping people cut up credit cards. This is my second jar that we get. And people are coming every Sunday. We're getting people to make that commitment to stop using debt now.

1:11 Don't be like this person, this woman who came to me and said, Pastor, when you did that last year, I cut up the credit card to put it in the jar, went home, called the credit card company, asked them to send me another credit card. How many of your decisions make a determination about your future? Let me say that again. Your decisions today make determinations about your future.

1:37 Amen. So we're trying to help people live their lives in a way that's lined up with the Word of God. That's what we're trying to do, help you to make choices and decisions that line up with God. So we talked about stop using debt, stop depending on that debt. As a matter of fact, what I try to convince you to do is instead of pulling out the credit card when you have a need, pray. And ask God to meet the need instead of using the credit card. I can see this is going to be a tough sermon here today, I can tell you. And then I talked about God's supernatural ability to get you out of debt. And we looked at two instances in the Bible where God helped individuals get out of debt.

2:34 And I believe God will help you get out of debt. You make the right choice and God will help you get out of debt. All right. Today I wanted to talk about, or then I talked about last Sunday, I think I talked about giving that cost. How King David said, I'm not going to give anything to God that doesn't cost me something. Amen. So you want to give to God when it costs you something. Today I want to ask you a question. Can you spare a dime? Go ahead, ask your neighbor, can you spare a dime?

3:15 Ask him on the other side, can you spare a dime? Now today I'm going to talk about, it's about tithing. I'm going to talk about tithing. This is a message I've been preaching for 37 years that I've been at First Baptist Church Glenarton. And I'm telling you, I've seen people, I've seen God do the spectacular things for people. I've seen people pay off their mortgages. I've seen people get checks in the mail that they didn't know where the checks came from. I've seen God just do spectacular things for people. Amen. So Malachi chapter 3 Let's turn to Malachi chapter 3 now I'm going to walk down through this passage verses 6 through 12 is what I'm going to deal with today Malachi chapter 3 verses 6 through 12 now I'm going to go down and talk about these things now let me give you a little bit of background about Malachi Malachi is the last prophet mentioned in the Old Testament it's the last book of the Old Testament and God says some things through him that is going to be the last thing that God says to Israel before there is a break for 400 years.

4:39 God's going to stop talking, but this is what he says to them. Chapter 3, some things that he says to them before heaven is going to close down and be quiet. And I thought I ought to talk about this because he spends time talking about money. Now, I notice when the pastors start talking about money, people get tight.

5:04 I saw some of y'all grab y'all purses and put it, held it tight. We're not taking up another offering disservice. Amen. I don't know why I keep coming over this crowd because this section never says amen. Let me go back over to the people who I know will support me, encourage me, and walk with me. It's this section over here. I love you. Why do people get nervous when the pastors start talking about money? Because the Bible talks about money a lot. In 16 of the 30 parables in the New Testament, Jesus is talking about money. Because money, Ecclesiastes 10, 19 says, money answers all things.

6:05 money can either cause drama in your life or it can bring victory it can make solutions or answers it can provide direction God uses money in many ways to accomplish do some things in your life and in Malachi he talks and speaks and challenges the people of God at that time and at that season to make the right choice and I want to talk to you today about making the right choice. Look at your neighbor and say, listen so you can make the right choice. now ask him can you spare a dime ask him he's a spare a dime go ahead ask him can you spare a dime did y'all ask him For I am the Lord your God, verse 6. I do not change.

7:02 Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Verse 7. 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? Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. but you say in what way have we robbed you in tithes and offerings you are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me even the this whole nation 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. 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.

8:11 And all nations, somebody say all nations. All nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts. I don't know where y'all are, but I'm glad I'm living in the land where people are calling me blessed So I want to start by looking at this point. Verses 7 through 9, Malachi explains a problem. That's my first point, if you're taking notes. Here's the problem, he says. And the problem is, first of all, there's several problems. The first problem is rebellion. The people have rebelled. And that's what he says in verse 7. He says in verse 7, And yet from the days of your fathers, you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. God says it's a problem because I've given you clarity.

9:07 I've told you what to do, but you have failed to do it. You have walked away. You have walked in the opposite direction. You have rejected my truth. And some of you are in drama in your life today because you have rejected the truth of God's word. And you done tried everything else. You've gone down every other pike, every other road, but you have refused to do what God says. How many of you know that God's truth is truth always? His truth remains truth all the time. He says, but you've rebelled. You and your fathers have left the principles and the ordinance that I've given you. And God cries out to them. He says to them, return. Come back. Come back to my truth. Come back to my principles. Stop rejecting it. It's a cry out. He says, return to me. And here's what God says. You return to me. And God says, I will return to you.

10:00 Amen. But you say, in what way shall we return? How do I get back? How do I get back to where I'm supposed to be? I'm glad you asked the question. God answers that question in verse 8. He answers their question with a question. His question is, will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. but you say in what way have we robbed you here's God's answers in tithes and offerings in tithes and offerings. You kept the tithe. You kept the offering. You robbed me. I think it's interesting that he uses the word robbery and not a thief. The difference between a robbery and a thief.

10:53 A thief does it secretly. He comes, he wants to steal and walks, wants to escape before it's noticed that it's gone. and he doesn't want you to know that he did it. That's a thief. A robber, on the other hand, he walks into the 711 with the gun and no mask. He's not trying to hide himself. He does it out in the open. And when you take the tithe, God says, I see you.

11:25 I feel tension in the room. Look at your neighbor and say, God saw you. God saw you take his tithe and pay your MasterCard off. God saw you take the tithe and use it to buy a car. Go ahead, come on, holler at me, somebody. Oh, this is tough. Let me come back here. That's the deal here today. This crowd is, I thought y'all would get amen. I'm in the word. I'm right in the scriptures. He says, you have robbed me in tithes and offerings. And guess what? there are repercussions to those acts. There are consequences. You are cursed with a curse. Verse nine, you are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me even this whole nation. You're doing it because everybody else is doing it. And everybody has a, you and all of the rest of those who have violated this principle of honoring God with the tithes and the offering, you are cursed with a curse.

12:24 You have, you go from bad to worse. you never can get ahead. As soon as one thing break down, something else break down. One thing go wrong, something else go wrong. You get over one sickness, another sickness pop up. You get one child acting right, then the next child starts acting wrong. You are cursed with a curse. There are repercussions. Look at your neighbor and say, there's repercussions. Tell them on the other side, there's repercussions. Now, here's the great news. In verse 10, there's a prescription.

13:00 I don't know if y'all noticed that I got P's all here in this thing. P's. Go ahead, Pastor, with your P's. Y'all help me celebrate I got these P's. I worked hard to bring these P's to y'all. Somebody say there's a prescription. And what is the prescription? I'm glad you asked the question. This is a very important thing. A prescription is an answer. It's a remedy. It's the way to get you out of the situation that you're in that God can make a change in your life. I went to, my wife had her neck was hurt and she had a neck problem and she went to the doctor and the doctor says, I need to send you to a specialist. So we called the specialist to look at her problem. But while on her way out, her primary doctor said, here, go and get this medicine and start taking this until you go see the specialist. So she went, we got the medicine and then she made the plan to go to the specialist.

13:58 And we went to the specialist. He said, oh, I think I know what this is. We're going to do X, Y, and Z. He gave her a prescription. It turned out that both prescriptions were the very same thing. The primary doctor gave her the same prescription that the specialist gave her, and they both were. Listen, God gives this prescription several times in the scriptures to tell you it's the same answer.

14:22 I know you want to try something else. I know you want to try another way I know you want to go down a different road you're trying to look for an answer and a solution to do something else other than what God says is his answer let me tell you nothing else works the thing that works the best is what God tells you to do Amen. This is a tough crowd today. It's a tough crowd. What is the prescription? Here's verse 10. Look at verse 10. He says, bring all the tithes into the soul house. Boom. Stop right there. That's the first thing is a priority. I call that a priority. Somebody say about priority. The prescription is make the tithe a priority. some of y'all pay you you try to pay your tithe after you done paid everything else and after you done paid everything else there ain't nothing there ain't nothing left to pay God says what I want you to do is bring the tithe matter of fact I'm not reading it I didn't read it right bring all the tithe into the storehouse that means the tithe is off your gross and off your net, not your net.

15:42 I'm going someplace else. I want to find some people that believe the word of God. It says, I really wanted to do the word of God. Let me come back. Let me come over here. Even the people that I normally depend upon are getting quiet on this point right here. And so y'all are my new section right here. Somebody say priority. Priority. At the top of the list, before I pay anything else, before I pay anything, before I pay any bills, the first check I write is to honor God. He's the one that wakes me up every morning. He's the one that gives me the activities of my limbs.

16:36 He's the one that answers my prayer. I honor him first. Master Charge ain't going to help you. American Express ain't going to deliver you, help you. You put God first. Somebody say, put God first. Say that again. Put God first. Make him a priority. Make God a priority. That's what he says. Bring all the tithe, that's the off the gross, not after you done paid your bills, not after you done had the deduction from your taxes, not after all of the stuff, your credit union fee and all that stuff. Now you want to bring God the net stuff? Oh no, that's not how it works. Somebody say, bring all the tithes. He said, bring all the tithes. In verse 10, he says, into the storehouse. Say storehouse. That's the church. In case there's any question about it, it's the church. It's into his kingdom. It's advancing his kingdom. God says, honor me by bringing it into my kingdom, into my place where I'm doing my work and amongst my service to the world.

17:50 He says, bring it into the storehouse. And I call that the place. That's where you bring your tithe. You don't pay your cousin. You don't send money to your friends back home. No, no. The tithe, first of all, goes to God's kingdom. Then he says in verse 10, I like this, he gives us a promise.

18:19 Whenever God gives a principle, he always gives a promise. Look at the promise right here. It's in verse 10. He says, bring all the tithes in this tall house that there may be food in my house. Here's the promise. And try me now in this, said the Lord of hosts. I like that. 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. I don't know if you've been to this place, but I've been at the place where I've seen God bless me beyond what I thought I could handle. Anybody other than me had to say to God, slow it down, I don't want it all right now, spread it out over a while. Anybody know what I'm talking about? We serve a God that can bless you beyond your wildest dreams and give you more than you imagined, take you to places that you never thought you would be, make provisions for you in ways that you never thought there would be provisions made.

19:14 Does anybody know what I'm talking about? That we serve a God that will keep his promise. And he said, try me, put me to the test. He says, try me. Put me to the test, he says. And he says, see, and I like the word. He says, watch what I will perform and do. He says, see if I will not open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. Watch me perform. We serve a God that performs. He's a miracle worker. He's a problem solver. He's a way maker. He's a burden bearer. Hallelujah. He can do all of that for us. He will perform. Amen. And I give God a shout. And not only will he perform, he will protect. Look at verse 11. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground.

20:11 I like that right there. I've seen God do spectacular. Some of y'all know this. We serve a God that can keep stuff that wouldn't normally break down keep on working. I had a car one time. This is years ago. I had a car and I decided to sell it. Great car. But I sold it to a member of our church for $1.

20:40 They came over to the house, gave me the dollar. I signed off the title, gave them the car. I was trying to bless somebody. He went out to the car and the car wouldn't start. I had just drove the car that morning to go to the store and came back home. The car was working. And now the car is in his hands. After I gave him the title and it didn't work, I said, it's your car. It's your car.

21:10 I'm telling you, when you got the favor of God upon you, he will cause stuff to work on your behalf. Y'all don't know what I'm talking about. I'm just trying to tell you, God can keep you. God can make stuff keep working. God can cause stuff that stop working to start working again. I believe God can rebuke the devil and tell him to take his hands off your stuff and cause your stuff to keep on working. Can y'all say amen? And he can prosper you. He says in verse 11, here it is, and I will rebuke the divine for your sake so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, said the Lord of hosts.

22:07 He can prosper you. That's what that means. he prospers. Somebody say prospers you. And all nations will call you blessed for you will be a delightful land. People call me blessed. I'm blessed. I'm happy to be blessed. I thank God for his favor upon me. I used to be hesitant about celebrating what God has done for me. I used to be quiet and wouldn't say much about it. But one day I came to the realization that no matter what happens, people are going to have problems with what God has done for you.

22:47 And here's the fact, that's your problem, it's not mine. And I'm going to brag and celebrate what God has done for me. I don't know who I'm preaching to, but I'm preaching to somebody that's about to be blessed. I don't know why I'm feeling like y'all are not getting it. I don't feel like they are getting it, Brandon. Brandon, help me out. I feel like they are not getting it. They don't understand it. So I got to pull out my traditional example of this to help. Y'all seen this before? Act like you ain't never seen it before. It goes back a long way, but okay, it still makes the point. Amen. Thank you. Great job. You're anointed. Thank God you have the anointing of God upon you. Amen. Praise the Lord. Bless him. Wonderful, wonderful Praise God, amen Thank you Jesus, amen Anointed men of God I have in my little plastic envelope 10 dimes.

24:00 and God says, what I want you to do is spare a dime. Give me a dime and you can keep the other nine dimes. Every dollar you make, give me a dime, you can keep the other nine. Yeah, just come up. Just come up. Let them see the difference between one dime and nine dimes. Yeah, you're gifted. Good job. You're anointed. So God says, if you just give me the dime, I'll bless the other nine. If you honor me this way, I will protect and prosper this. So let's say this is God's table, and this is your table. God say, do this, I'll bless that. Y'all don't get it.

24:58 Let me help you out. Here's 10 grapefruit. God said, give me one out of every 10 and you keep the other nine and I'll breathe on it and I'll prosper it and I'll protect it. I got 10 pairs.

25:20 God said, give me one out of the 10. Every 10 that you earn, every 10 that you grow, every 10 that comes your way, and I will bless and breathe upon the other nine. I got 10 oranges right here. He said, give me one. I got 10 apples. just before you don't spend it on nothing else just honor god give it to him breathe it let him breathe on your nine but you give him his one See, when you do it God's way, you have to manage how you handle this. You got to carefully look at it.

26:19 You got to... Y'all still ain't got it. I ain't got no illustrations here today. Ah, see, I got 10 bananas. You've got one. Do y'all see the picture? This is God. This is God. You can do what you want with this. You pay your bills with dead. You do what you have to do with this. But whatever you do, don't steal this.

27:12 Don't go over to this table. Don't take this off the table. Honor me, God says. Put this on my table. Let me accomplish my purposes through your hands. Hallelujah. Y'all understand what I'm saying? Now, this is what some of y'all are doing. Now, how foolish does it look by you going over to God's table and bringing a curse on you and judgment on you because you have not honored God by giving him and keeping him, but you're stealing. If you don't give God 10%, if you're not giving it, and I feel tension in the I feel people who got a thousand reasons and y'all listen to some of these preachers who say tie the game for today I'm gonna answer that coming up in the next couple weeks I'm gonna tell you what the truth is what the truth of the matter is but all this Suffice it to say right now and today honor God this way and he will bless you this way Hallelujah.

28:23 Hallelujah. And see, this is what God does. He takes the drama in your life. and makes lemonade out of your life. He sends money from unexpected sources and checks from unexpected places and money that just shows up in your account. Amen, a bonus that you shouldn't have gotten. You got a bonus, a raise coming your way. Come on. And here's the deal about it. God says, here's what I do. even in my bonuses and my extra, I still give God another 10% off of everything that comes my way. If it worked for all of this, I believe it'll work if I honor him with this. Can I get an amen right there? Am I that selfish that I'm going to come over here and steal from God's table and bring it over to my table and pay my bills with it Rather than let God breathe on that?

29:43 No. I dare not do that. Because I want God's favor. All my life. I noticed some of y'all ain't clapped one time. But guess what? We serve a God who forgives and gives you another opportunity to get it right. Come on, help me thank God that he gives us an opportunity to do it right. Thank you, Lord.

30:31 I know we're living in financially uncertain times. I know that's the kind of world we live in. I know some of you have lost your jobs. I know some of you have no confidence or certainty in your jobs. What I'm telling you is stop putting yourself in the middle of the church.