Elevate - Return to Me

This is a sermon about God's desire for a relationship with His people and the importance of genuine worship. The speaker emphasizes that giving and generosity are not solely about money, but about the heart behind it. The book of Malachi is discussed as a message from God to Israel, addressing their sins and apathy and urging them to return to Him. The speaker highlights the love and faithfulness of God, even when His people fall short. The importance of sincere worship and giving is emphasized as a way to strengthen our relationship with God. The speaker also mentions the historical context of Israel's disobedience and the significance of the book of Malachi as the last prophetic utterance before 400 years of silence. This is the cry of a broken-hearted God who longs to be in relationship with His people, to restore what has been broken, to walk in the fullness of their relationship. Hear it. Hear the desperation. Hear the pleading from God. Return to me. It's not judgment. It's yearning. It's longing. Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama with Pastor John DiQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message and welcome to Elevate. You know, we frequently here at Authentic Life Church, we encourage generous giving. We always do that. But I very, very infrequently preach an entire message to kind of really lay the groundwork and the understanding of why we do it. But sometimes we just need to be reminded of the heart of God regarding this aspect of our Christian walk. There's something that happens within us and it strengthens our faith and our relationship to Jesus. And so I really want you to see something about the heart of God. When it comes to giving and it comes to generosity, can I tell you something? It has nothing to do with money. It doesn't have anything to do with money. Our giving, that's how we carry out this principle in the Word of God. But it's not solely about money. So we're going to look at a very familiar passage in the book of Malachi. But before we read this passage, I just want to kind of give you an overview of really what the book of Malachi is all about. You'll notice it's the last book in the Old Testament. And so I want you to see what the context and the heart behind the Lord's instructions about giving through the prophet Malachi. So throughout the book of Malachi, God is addressing some sins and some spiritual apathy and some misunderstandings that Israel is having about their covenant relationship with God. And so He speaks through His prophet Malachi in order to bring correction to these things, in order to get them back to their vitality in their worship. And so we all need to be reminded. We all need to be reminded of what God loves. And when we get off track, right, for Him to kind of scoop us back, we need to know what He expects of us and how our relationship with Him can really, really thrive. And I don't know about you, but I want my relationship with God to thrive. I want to hear His voice. I want to experience His hand moving in my life. I want Him to carry out His plan for me and through me. And I believe that's what you want today as well. Is that right? Amen. So before we get into our main passage, I just want to take you to the very first verse in the book of Malachi. And this is what it says. It says, The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. Now the word oracle, the way that's being translated and what that word means at its core, is this word burden, which means that this was a burden that was being... He was getting something off his chest, alright? And it was weighing very heavily on Malachi. So he's not just a guy speaking about some things that he sees. This is the word of the Lord. It is weighty. It is substantial and it needs to give some importance to the hearer. That's why he says this. It's an oracle of the word of the Lord. Now understand that this burden, oracle equals burden, right? This burden is not Malachi's burden. This burden that we're about to hear, this is the Lord's burden. It's God that is burdened and He has some things He needs to say to Israel. Things that are burdening Him, that are weighing down on Him. And so He has now placed this burden on Malachi in order to deliver this to the people of God. And what I love about the word of God is that it is living and it is active. And what Malachi spoke 2,400 years ago to Israel has very, very clear application for us today. It's really one of the more relatable and applicable prophetic books in the Bible. I know sometimes you read through prophetic books and it's like, Oh my goodness, what's he talking about? Is he talking about the king of Babylon? Is he talking about the Antichrist? Is he talking about the Messiah? It can be confusing if you don't go through it real slow. But Malachi, very easy to understand and apply to our own lives and to our relationship with Jesus Christ. So let me give you the background of what's happening in Israel as Malachi begins to prophesy. So Israel had disobeyed the Lord, as they had so many other times, and had eventually been conquered and they had been carried away into exile. And so they have finally returned from exile and they've rebuilt Jerusalem and they've rebuilt the temple under Zerubbabel, was the guy's name, that was ruling. And they were inspired by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, right? Those smaller prophetic books that are in your Bible, right? These books, these are about inspiring the revitalization of worship through the building of the temple. So that all was completed in 516 B.C. This was a long time ago. Now understand, well first of all, at the time of Malachi's prophecy, when he comes on the scene, like everything's done. The temple's rebuilt, worship is resumed, and about two generations have passed. So however many years that is, 80 years, 100 years, two generations has passed. You know this, Israel at this point, they're not a sovereign nation at this point. They're still under Persian rule. Harvests were poor. There was a severe locust problem in the land. People were indifferent toward God. They weren't tithing, they weren't sacrificing properly or sincerely following the Mosaic Law. Foreign cultures had infiltrated, so they were beginning to pick up the practices of pagan religions from these other nations and picking up their values. Divorce was rampant throughout the children of Israel, and the spiritual, moral, and ethical tone of the nation was very, very low. Now this is the Israel that had just returned from a 70-year period where they were in exile in the Persian kingdom, and they're back in their land, but yet they're doing all the same things that landed them in exile in the first place. So this is a real pivotal point in Israel's history. God's like, what do I got to do to get your attention? Conquer you? How many times do I got to conquer you? And send you off into exile before you get it. So it's a very pivotal point in Israel's history. This is the last book of the Old Testament. After Malachi's prophecy, we hear nothing for 400 years. Not that there weren't things happening, not that God wasn't necessarily speaking, but the next spiritually significant event to happen in Israel's history is the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. So I find it very, very, I think we should all find it very, very important that the last prophetic utterances from God that He deemed worthy, that these things need to be written down and kept in the annals of the history of Israel for them to read, the very last thing before 400 years of silence is to prepare them for the next significant event that's going to happen. So this is something that's really important to God. There's a preparation that God is preparing His people for a heavenly invasion. So here we are. God's got some major things that He needs to deal with regarding His chosen people. And so He begins in verse 2 of chapter 1. He says, I have loved you, says the Lord. That's how He starts. I have loved you, says the Lord. His first words in this oracle, this burden, this heavily weighted message that God wants to give, His first thing He says is an expression of love because God begins with relationship. He could have just come out of the gate just swinging and said, alright, here's everything you've done. You did this wrong, you did that wrong, you did that wrong. And He could have pulled off His belt, snapped it a couple times and gave Him a good lashing. Anybody born 1980 or earlier will understand what I just said. But that's not how God deals with His people. He doesn't just come out swinging. You know, I don't know about you, but I've done some pretty messed up things in my life. And sometimes I feel ashamed before the Lord. I still make mistakes. Sin still gets the better of me at times. And when I come before the Lord, I don't feel the wrath of God over my life. When I come before the Lord, what I sense is His embrace. I sense His love. No matter what I've done, no matter what bad attitude I've had, whatever mistake I've made, whatever way I annoyed my wife to just drive her crazy, whatever I did, the first thing I feel when I come before the Lord is His embrace and a welcoming of me into His presence. And so if I ever feel distant from the Lord, it's because of my own thoughts or my own guilt or my own stupidity that gets me to that place where I feel distant. But look what Jeremiah the prophet says in chapter 31. In the second half of the third verse, he says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you. I've loved you with an... This is another message to Israel. He says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. And then after this, God takes a turn. He says, alright, I want you to know... Do you ever do this with your own kids? Listen, sit down. I want you to know something. First of all, I love you. If you have any kids or teenagers in the room, you usually know what's coming next, right? But, I love you, however... No, don't ever say I love you, however. Alright. But after this, after His expression of love to His people, God moves on to now correcting their worship. Because what they had been doing was bringing sacrifices that were lame, diseased, which is not what they were to be bringing. They were supposed to be bringing the best of their flocks. The best portion. And so even in that particular... And we're not going to get into that. That's a whole other message, but... Is our worship, does it move God's heart? When we come before the Lord in worship, when we give our sacrifice of praise, does it move God's heart? Or do we just give leftovers? Right? Do we sit in our seat and go, I just ain't into this. Or do we go, I don't like this song. I've heard this song before. I wish we'd stop singing it. Right? Because what kind of worship are we offering the Lord? Right? And so He's correcting that with Israel. Because the way they worship was through following the rituals of the sacrificial system. Alright, so He moves on from correcting their worship and then He moves on to the priesthood. And He tells these guys, He's rebuking them for allowing all of this careless worship that was taking place. The priests, they're the guardians. Right? The buck's supposed to stop with them. They're the ones saying, no, this is not an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. Go home. Put that one in the infirmary and get one that's in good shape. Because that's what we give to the Lord. We give our best to the Lord. Right? They weren't doing that. They're allowing this careless worship. They're being rebuked for not bringing honor to His name by keeping the covenant and by keeping the law that was given to them. But then He moves on and He challenges them about their giving. He challenges them about their generosity toward Him. Look what it says in Malachi 3, beginning in verse 6. He says, For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return? Will man rob God? Yet you're robbing Me. But you say, how have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse for you are robbing Me. The whole nation of you. 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. If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need, I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil and your vine in the field should not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed for you will be a land of the light, says the Lord of hosts. Alright, so that's a big passage and I'm just going to summarize this for us but then I'm going to get to the heart of the matter. God is telling the Israelites here, He's rebuking them, He's saying you're robbing Me. You're robbing Me in two ways. Number one, you're not tithing. Which is the first tenth of their increase to the house of God. That's what He required of them, right? And number two, because you're not giving offerings. Offerings are just free will offerings, right? These are given out of praise, not out of obligation, but they're given out of gratitude and love and affection, right? So He's saying you're robbing Me in these two ways. You're not giving Me the portion that belongs to Me and then you're not giving anything out of your heart. The covenant that God made with Israel included the tithe. They would tithe and He would in turn bless them. And that tithe, it was useful, right? It was used to take care of the priests. You know, if you remember reading through and seeing how God distributed the land and all those things, the priesthood did not get their own land. They didn't have a whole lot of ways to earn money, right? And so they worked in the temple, they facilitated worship, they did all these things. It was that tribe and this is how they were taken care of, right? So it took care of the priests and the upkeep of the temple, but also their giving of the tithes ensured that their increase was blessed. So when they got their increase, they took the first portion, they gave it back to God. God says, now I will put a blessing over the rest of your increase. Does that make sense? So He even set it up that every six years that their land would produce enough to last them for the next two years. Why did He do that? So that they could rest. So that they could have a time away. That the land could rest. That they could rest. And so during that time, they wouldn't plant crops, they wouldn't have to farm, they wouldn't have to harvest. And for an entire year, they got to rest. And I think it's a pretty good trade-off to say, Lord, I will give you the first 10% of my increase for a double portion for once every six years and I don't have to do any work for it. That seems like a pretty good deal, but I get a year's vacation. Maybe we ought to implement that. Right? Amen. But in order to do it, it required faith and trust on the part of Israel. They had to trust the Lord in all of this. But they weren't keeping this part of their covenant with God. And so God is pleading with them to enter back into this covenant relationship. In fact, He tells them to test Him about this. He says, go ahead and do it. See if I won't pour out so much blessing on you that you won't be able to contain it. In fact, I won't just pour out a blessing, but I'm going to rebuke the devourer. Right? If you remember what I said, in this time they were having a severe locust problem in the land. They knew what God was talking about here. The devourer, right? The locusts are not going to come in and steal your crops. The foxes are not going to come in and steal your crops. The bugs aren't going to come in and ruin your crops. This will be blessed and this will all be for you. Now that's a good deal. The protection and the blessing of God in exchange for a firstfruits offering. But I want you to see the heart of God in all of this and realize that this is so much more than about money. First, I want you to see how generosity toward God has always been a part of the relationship between God and His people. It's from the very beginning. If you go all the way back to Genesis and you read the story of Cain and Abel and it says in the process of time, they brought their offerings before the Lord and we know what happened there, right? One brought an acceptable offering and one brought one that was just kind of careless and just kind of leftovers and God accepted one and not the other. But we see in Noah after the flood, right? Afterwards, he worshipped God with the first crops and the first flocks after the flood. And because of that, God makes a promise to never send a flood again. If you look in Abraham's life, he gives a tenth of everything to the priest Melchizedek, which most theologians will tell you that that was Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate form. And because of that, right, and that faith that Abraham walked in, God blessed him and that blessing has rung out throughout the ages till today we are a part of that blessing that was given to Abraham. The fact that you're sitting here, a child of God, saved and sanctified and set free by the blood of Jesus Christ, is part of the blessing that comes forth through Abraham. With Moses, when they were exiting out of Egypt during the exodus, right, he asked all the people, we need to build a portable tabernacle so that we can worship God. This is what we need to do. And he said to the people, hey, give so that we can build the tabernacle. And the people gave so much that he had to say, whoa, alright, that's enough. Now if you remember, where did they get all that stuff that they had to give for the temple? Egypt. Because as they were leaving, God somehow put it on the hearts of all the Egyptians to start giving away all their stuff to the Israelites. And so when they got out into the, they were like, well, it's time to give. Well, what do we got? Well, we got a whole bunch of gold, right? We got a whole bunch of silver. We got all this fabric. Let's build us a big tent to worship God. And so it was all there. And so this idea of tithing and giving is a deeply embedded concept within the Word of God. It's part of the covenant. It's this idea of first fruits, right? The first portion always belongs to God, whether it's a flock or it's a field and a harvest or a paycheck, whatever it is that the first portion goes back to God. And that's deeply, deeply embedded in the relationship of God with His people. Now let's go back to Malachi to get the heart behind all of this. When we look in v. 6 of chapter 3, it says this, For I the Lord do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. I mean, what an awesome fact. What an awesome character trait and promise of the Lord that He doesn't change His mind. His ways and certainly His covenants, they never change. He's basically saying everything that I promise, I will do. I'm not concerned about what's happening in the culture. I'm not concerned about what's happening everywhere else. I'm going to remain the same and I will do what I promise that I will do. V. 117 says this, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly light who does not change like the shifting shadows. So it's spoken through Malachi in the Old Testament. It's spoken through James in the New Testament. He gives good gifts and He does not change. His heart toward His people will always remain and His gifts will always be good. But then we move on to verse 7 and here comes the rebuke from the Lord. He says, From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? Now this is the God that just proclaimed His deep, deep love for them. He tells them that He's made them a special people. If you read back through the beginning of Malachi, you'll see all this. He's made them a special people. He reminds them how time and time again that God Himself, the Warrior, was fighting their battles for them. And that He has not changed that MO. He's still that God and He still loves Israel that much. But He's saying, However, you have turned away from My laws. Which means that you have turned away from Me. Because relationship has now been lost or at least severely damaged between Me and between you. It's not functioning as it should, the way that He established it for it to function. So He says these words, Return to Me and I will return to you. Now remember, He begins by saying, I love you. You're My special treasure, My possession. I'm always watching. I'm ever watching and I'm fighting for you. And it's now this God that's saying, Return to Me. Come back. This is the cry of a broken-hearted God who longs to be in relationship with His people. To restore what has been broken. To walk in the fullness of their relationship. Hear it. Hear the desperation. Hear the pleading from God. Return to Me. It's not judgment. It's yearning. It's longing. He's saying, You're not doing these things and so therefore, it's putting a wedge between us, but that's not what I want. I want to come back into that relationship that we've once had. But He acknowledges that they don't understand and they're going to ask, How will we return? Well, then He gives them the answer by asking another question. In verse 8, He says, Will you rob God? Yet, you're robbing Me. He's saying, This is the problem, guys. This is the problem. But then, of course, now you're going to say, Well, how have we robbed you? In your tithes and your contributions. You're cursed with a curse for you're robbing Me. The whole nation of you. So He responds with a question, Are you going to keep robbing Me because that is what you're doing? I mean, what an accusation for a father to levy upon his children. A picture of a father saying this to his child who's been sneaking money off of the dresser. Saying, You're stealing from Me. Imagine the heartbreak of a father who has given so much to his children only for them to steal from him. How devastating that is to their relationship. When our kids were small, we taught them from a very young age, Trust is very, very important here. And so we need to know that we can trust you and that you're going to keep the rules of the house. And if you do that, the relationship is so much easier. Like, we'll never stop loving you, but just know that if all of our interactions have to be us correcting you all the time, it's going to create a distance in our relationship. From the time they were little, we helped them understand that concept. And it's the same with God here. But you imagine when a father has to say that to their child after all I've done for you. Why would you steal from me? And then you imagine the kid going, What? Who? Me? No! I can't believe you think I'd do that. Which is what the Israelites respond with. Oh, yeah, right. Like, how have we robbed you, God? Like, silly God. How have we done that? And His answer is in your tithes and in your offerings. So how is that robbing? Not giving to someone is not the same as robbing, right? Well, let's think about it. If you worked 40 hours for somebody, you'd expect a paycheck according to your employment contract, right? And if you didn't receive that paycheck, you'd say, that's robbery. That money is mine. It belongs to me. Well, look at what God says in Leviticus 27, 30. Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. The tithe belongs to God. He says that portion, that first tenth, is mine. I'll bless you. I want to bless you. I want to pour out every good and perfect gift in your life, but the first portion that you receive from this is mine. It belongs to me. And so, because it belongs to Him, not giving it is the same as stealing. Like your employer, not giving you your paycheck is the same as stealing from you. But God doesn't remain there and focus on that. But He names the problem and why it's a problem. But now He moves on and look at the loving and pleading heart of a Father who wants nothing more than a restored relationship with His people. Malachi 3, verse 10, He says, here's the answer, right? 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. If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there's no more need, I will rebuke the devourer over you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed so you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts. Now listen to what He's saying here. Bring the whole tithe in. Why? So I can have your money? Because I need your money? No! Is it so that you can struggle? No! He says, do it so that I can bless you. Do you see that? He says, if you do this... He didn't have to say, hey, test Me in this. He didn't have to say that. But He said, I want to do this so bad, if you just come into that alignment with Me and do the things that are part of the covenant, you do your part, and I'll continue doing My part, He says, look, I need you to do this so that I can overwhelmingly bless you. In fact, so much so, that I'm telling you, test Me. He's daring them. He's saying, I dare you to give. I dare you to start tithing again. I dare you to start giving offerings again. I want to bless you so bad that I'm daring you to do this again. Hear the heart of God. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We hope this message encouraged, inspired, and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website, authenticlife.tv for more information about Authentic Life Church, to find out what we have going on, or to make a donation. You can also find us on Facebook. We'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs, so bring the family. For Pastor John DeQuatro, I'm Scott Chestnut. Thanks again for listening, and God bless you.