A missionary was speaking at a church about the work in foreign fields, and an offering was being gathered to help out with the work. A man was sitting next to the aisle about halfway up. He had folded his arms and sat frowning.  He evidently didn’t want to be there.  When the usher held the plate in front of him, he just shook his head.  The usher jiggled the plate invitingly.  Still the only response was the head shake. The usher leaned over and whispered, “It’s for missions, you know.” The man scowled and mumbled, “I don’t believe in ‘em.”  The usher leaned down and said, “Then you take some out. It’s for the heathen, anyway.”

In a few moments, the collection plate is going to pass by.  Has that ever bothered you?  Does it seem like the church just wants your money?  Ever felt that way?  What’s Up with the Collection Plate?  “The Lord made everything and owns everything anyway!  What difference does it make what I give Him or if I give Him anything at all?”

Our text answers that!  Offerings are important to God!  He made that very clear through his prophet Malachi.  He made it simple for his OT people.  He wanted them to tithe, to give Him back 10% to show their thanks to Him.  Now in the NT, God doesn’t hold us under that same rule.  The law of the tithe has been lifted.  But the law of love has not!  God does not change!  God no longer commands our percentage, but He does keep loving us the same as He did before!  And so, He wants us to keep giving!  God never says: “Well, in the OT I wanted 10%, but now in the NT, 6% or 3% would be just fine.  He’s saying: “You’re free to give more than 10%!”  Jesus told the Pharisees who were giving a tenth of everything, but not practicing justice, mercy, and faithfulness: “You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.” (Mt.23:23).  In other words, tithing should just be a beginning for us NT Christians!

What you give to God is up to you.  It should be what your heart moves you to give.  Today as we look at Malachi, I want to look at the blessings that giving at least 10%, that tithing, will give us.  What’s up with the collection plate?  It gives us the opportunity to 1. PUT GOD FIRST.  When we tithe, we put God first.  When you tithe, you are actually prioritizing.  And you are making God your first priority!

The Israelites thought they were putting God first.  When God told them they were defiling Him, they asked “How in the world are we doing that?”  They had no idea!  God tells them in Malachi 1:8: “When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong?  When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?  Try offering them to your governor!  Would he be pleased with you?  Would he accept you?’ says the Lord Almighty.”

The Israelites’ offerings were limping!  Literally!  They would walk through the flock, and find the mangiest, sorriest looking creature hobbling about, grab it, and give it to God.  They were saying: “We’re putting God first.”  Were they?  I don’t think so!  They were putting themselves first!  They were keeping the best for themselves, and giving God what was left over!

Listen to Malachi 1:14: “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord.  ‘For I am a great king,’ says the Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations.”  God is saying: “Don’t bring me the leftovers of your life… I am a great King!  Bring me the best that you have!”  The Israelites were not doing that.  Are we any different today?  “Lord, my life is really busy… I got a lot of bills to pay… lot of debt…but if I have anything left over, I’ll try to throw it in the plate on Sunday!”  Have you ever approached your giving to God like that?  That’s like giving God the dregs of your life!  The leftovers!  The crippled animals!

Tithing was given to us to teach us that God deserves FIRST place in our lives! Have you ever found out what it’s like to live when you’ve put God first?  When you put God first, things will happen in your life that you will never experience until you do it.  Our main purpose in life is to put God first and worship Him!  Tithing is a way to make sure we are doing that.

I remember when we were growing up, how on Sunday mornings, my Mom had us write the checks for church.  It was the first check of the week, and we got to write them out. I remember being in awe at the size of those checks!  They were much more than ten percent of my Dad’s salary, that’s for sure.  I remember thinking, “How is it so easy for my parents to be that generous with their money?”  What a lesson she taught us!  She taught us that God deserves first place in our lives!  And she made sure we had something to put into the plate as well.

Secondly, the Collection Plate gives us the opportunity to 2. PLACE OUR TRUST IN HIS PROMISES.  When you tithe, you are trusting God’s promises!  Malachi 3:10: “ ‘Bring the whole tithe 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 enough room for it.’”  God tells us, “Try me, test me, prove me!”  This is the only place in the Bible God tells us to test Him!  “I am challenging you now to test me in this matter of tithing.  If you do this, you will discover I am ready to pour blessings out on you like you have never received!  I want to open up the window of heaven and pour out so much blessing on your life that you won’t even be able to receive it all!

God doesn’t change.  That means his promises don’t change either.  We won’t be destroyed, even though we haven’t been good givers.  God’s goodness and mercy is not dependent on our giving.  If He gave in proportion to our giving, we would be destroyed!  But He has had mercy on us!  He gave to us.  He gave his first and best to us.  His Son.  His mercy.  His forgiveness.  His eternal life.  So… let’s stop robbing Him!  Let’s trust Him!  Let’s test Him!

How do I test God?  Repent for your lack of trust.  Go to Him for mercy.  Find strength from his Word.  And then, just do it.  Give Him 10%, or more.  “But Pastor, I’m not making it on 100% now, and you want me to take the top 10% and give it to God?  That doesn’t sound right!”  When you do what God says, He will take the 90% and stretch it beyond what the 100% ever went before!  He will pour out blessings upon you!  When you test God, you take Him at his Word!  You are demonstrating trust!  Even though it doesn’t make sense.

I can just hear the conversations on the way home today.  Your husband says: “Honey, we need to do this.”  (But he doesn’t do the bills.  He just brings money home.  You pay the bills!  You know how tight it is!)  So you say: “Are you kidding me?  We can’t make it on what we’ve got!  Honey, we can’t do this? (Or maybe it’s vice-versa.)  Both of you have to trust in God and say: “If God says we can do it, we can do it.  Let’s test Him and find out!”

And when you test Him, you will discover that God never breaks his promises!  And when you begin to do what God tells you to do, He will pour out so many blessings in your life that you won’t even know what to do with them!  Now, the first week you tithe, you aren’t going to get a cheque that covers the difference!  Don’t go waiting at your mailbox every day!  But when you put this into practice, you will discover that God is at work with you.  He will begin to entrust you with more resources than you’ve ever had!  Many people have said that they’ve discovered that life is a lot easier on the 90% than it was on the 100%!  One reason for that might be that guilt is gone!  When you are doing what God tells you to do, you are no longer living with a guilty conscience!  And then, you start being able to enjoy what you already have!

Third, the Collection Plate gives us the opportunity to 3. PROFIT FROM HIS BLESSINGS.  When you tithe, you receive God’s blessings.  Remember Malachi 3:10?  God is generous with us when we are generous with Him!  That’s just the way it is!  That’s what God’s Word says!  It shows up in personal blessings.  You remember my Mom having us writing out the offering checks?  She always told us, “The more we give, the more we seem to have!”  She had 6 children.  And she wanted us all to go into the ministry (Prep, University, Seminary).  And she felt it was her and dad’s responsibility to put us through.  But there is NO way it should have been possible on my Dad’s pastor salary and my Mom’s piano teaching money.  But she just kept writing those checks.  And we started going to school.  Checks should’ve been bouncing.  But, there would be a scholarship here, a grant there...  Somehow, one of my seminary years got completely covered through grants and gifts, and we still don’t know how that happened.  And in the end, my mom and dad put 6 kids through Prep, 6 kids through university, and 3 boys through Seminary.  Debt free.  That shouldn’t have been possible.  God was providing!

More importantly, God provides spiritual blessings.  He says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  What is most important to God is hearts content in Him.  And how do you know where someone’s heart is?  Well… where’s your treasure?  You want to know what you believe in?  Go home and look at your cheque register.  Your bank book.  You’ll find out where your treasure is!  Seeing the first and best part of that going to God shows your heart is in the right place.  The spiritual blessings we receive from God are contentment and joy!

Fourth, The Collection Plate gives us the opportunity to 4. PRAISE GOD’S NAME.  When we tithe, we praise God’s name!  Prov. 3:9 says: “Honor the Lord with your possessions.”  How do you honour the Lord with your possessions?  Well, you give back to Him the first tenth of what He’s given to you.  That’s one way.  When you give to God, you honour Him.

In Malachi, we are reminded we have a great king!  He’s worthy of our honour!  I love the joy that’s in my heart when we write our cheque out at the beginning of the month, our church offering.  I love giving back a portion of our tax return when it comes!  I feel a great sense of joy in my heart because I am honouring my God.  He’s given so much to me!  I could never repay Him for what He’s done for me, but I can honour Him.  I can praise his name!

In the 17th century, German preacher August Francke founded an orphanage to care for the homeless children of Halle. One day when Francke desperately needed funds to carry on his work, a destitute Christian widow came to his door begging for a ducat—a gold coin. Because of his financial situation, he politely but regretfully told her he couldn’t help her. Disheartened, the woman began to weep. Moved by her tears, Francke asked her to wait while he went to his room to pray. After seeking God’s guidance, he felt that the Holy Spirit wanted him to change his mind. So, trusting the Lord to meet his own needs, he gave her the money. Two mornings later, he received a letter of thanks from the widow. She explained that because of his generosity she had asked the Lord to shower the orphanage with gifts. That same day Francke received 12 ducats from a wealthy lady and 2 more from a friend in Sweden. He thought he had been amply rewarded for helping the widow, but he was soon informed that the orphanage was to receive 500 gold pieces from the estate of the Prince. When he heard this, Francke wept in gratitude. In sacrificially providing for that needy widow, he had been enriched, not impoverished!

When you do what God tells you to do, even though it’s hard, when you take that “step of faith,” God will be sure to let you know that you are walking in his path.  He will give you positive reinforcement!  When you begin to tithe this year, before the year is even over, you will look back and wonder: “Why did we wait so long??  I wonder what would have happened if we had started earlier?”  God is just waiting to bless you for your obedience!

Finally, the Collection Plate gives us the opportunity to 5. PARTICIPATE IN GOD’S WORK.  When we tithe, we participate in God’s work.  Look at what God is doing through our church to share the Gospel in this community!  Do you know how many lives here have been touched?  How many of you know what God is doing through our church body, the WELS, around the world?  Missions in 30 different countries!  Hundreds of thousands of people hearing about Jesus!  We could not do that alone!  Not one of us in this room could do that individually.  Do you see what happens when we come together, when we pool our resources for the kingdom of God?  We become part of something bigger than we could ever be by ourselves!

When I get discouraged, I think about what God is doing through this church!  He is touching our community!  He is touching our world!  Through the ministry of his Word, through your service, you who are generous and serving and loving and giving, God is carrying out his work!  And when all of that comes together in the ministry of a church like ours, great things happen!  God is glorified! We become a “city on a hill”!  The world knows something is happening!  And He gets the glory!  And that’s the way it should be!

There are three things I want you to remember about our giving.  First, we need to be PERCENTAGE GIVERS.  We need to be tithers.  1 Corinthians 16:2 tells us to give in proportion to what we have been given.  That isn’t saying, “I’m going to start at 2% and work my way up.  No!  Take the step of faith and start at 10%!  Then work up!
Second, we need to be PRIORITY GIVERS.  That means we give to God first!  We make Him first in our lives!  We write God the first cheque!  Use the Electronic Fund Transfer if it helps… I don’t know if it does, but it might keep you from having that moment of regret!
Third, we need to be PROGRESSIVE GIVERS.  Many of you already have been tithing.  Someone might tell me, “I’ve been tithing all my life!” “How long?” “40 years!” “And you’re still giving 10%?”  Let me ask you: Are any of you doing anything today the same way that you did it 40 years ago?  I don’t think so!  So why would our giving habit still be the same?  What if all of God’s people said, “I’m going to give 1% more that I did the year before!”?  If you did that for ten years, you would be giving 20%!  That’s a lot!  But if you did that for ten years and were double tithing, you would be so blessed you wouldn’t even know what happened!

Take the step of faith, friends.  How do you start?  Simple.  Look at God’s Word.  Look at how rich He has been with you.  He gave you Jesus.  He gave you forgiveness.  Thank Him and pray for strength.  Then take the chequebook out and write the cheque.  My challenge to you today is: If you are not tithing, start!  If you are, increase!  That’s it.  Trust God and do it. Remember, you need the blessing!  You need the opportunity for God to work in your life.  You need to show Him your trust.  I promise you that if you do this, you are going to come back to me one day and tell me that this was one of the greatest moments of your life, when you finally began showing your trust in God and putting Him first!   Amen.