Bobby Chandler - What if... I Start Giving
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Summary:
In this message, the preacher challenges believers to start giving—particularly through tithing—as a way to break free from self-imposed curses and step into God’s abundant blessings. Drawing mainly from Malachi 3:6-12 and the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14–30, he reframes tithing not as a harsh demand but as an invitation to trust God’s generous heart. Ultimately, learning to give changes our perspective, protects us from the enemy’s attacks, and opens the door to experiencing God’s faithfulness in profound ways.
What If I Start Giving?
We have been asking the question: would living a godly life really change your life for the better? Over the last two weeks, we have discussed some hard topics. If you were here week one, we talked about what if we stopped living offended? What if we stopped clinging on to the offenses in our life? Yes, someone may have said something about you. Someone may have wronged you in a way that really hurt deep. But as long as you cling to that, you will always feel the pain, right?
Clinging to God Instead of Offense
God allows us times in our life, seasons in our life, to wrestle with Him so that we can cling to God. Because when you cling to God, guess what? You let go of offense, and that brings healing into your life. If you were here last week, we talked about what if I stopped living in fear? How many of you have been praying for a miracle in your life? Go ahead, raise your hand. I believe all of us want to see a miracle. We want to see God do the impossible. There is something in your life that you’re praying for. But let me share this truth with you: no matter how small or how big the miracle is, you’re going to have to step up to your fear to walk into victory, no matter how big it is. Because the miracle of God—let me point this out—a miracle will always, always cause you to face your fear. Because otherwise, it wouldn’t be a miracle. You have to rely on God; He has to do the impossible.
But God also wants to show you that no matter how big or bad the giant may look, God will take them down to show you His glory and His love for you. I believe that it’s powerful. But today, I want to talk about, I believe, an amazing subject— a subject I believe will change your life. But it’s also a subject that causes many to shake in their seats. It’s a topic that a lot of people have misused. So I want to show it to you in a brand new way today and actually explain that this is a blessing that God wants to do in your life. But the title for today’s message is this: What if I start giving?
The Struggle with Giving
Now, if you are like how I used to be, whenever a pastor mentioned the term giving or tithing, I’ll be honest with you: I checked out a lot of times. I was like, «Man, this is the day I bring my friend. It’s not normally like this, okay? It’s going to be okay.» But I’m glad if you brought a friend today; it’s a good day because I’m going to show you that this will change your life. This is a powerful principle that God wants to do within our lives, and I’m going to show you deep within the Word how it can change you.
When you do not learn how to give, you do not learn how to change. When you do not learn how to give, you do not learn how to change. God is going to try to change the way you think, the way you act, and your perspective on things so that you can be—we just sang about it—a light in the darkness. To not live like the world, to have faith with everything. What I’ve noticed in my own life in the past is I had faith about everything. «Oh, I’ll risk this; that’ll be okay.» But when it came down to money, when it came down to actually giving, that is where I struggled. Every time I talked about giving, I would share my testimony in that because it’s truly a Saul-to-Paul moment for me, and God changed my heart when I understood the context of what He wanted to do.
If you don’t learn how to give, I believe that you’re robbing God from giving you some of the biggest blessings in life. I’m not preaching a prosperity gospel; I’m not even talking about you becoming rich. I’m talking about God becoming real in your life and coming through when you thought nobody would come through. I’m talking about seeing the miracles that you have been praying for: «God, I want to see this in my life.» Okay, step in fear, and giving is part of that process.
It can be very scary to give sometimes. «God, how can I trust You? I want to trust You in this area of my life, but there are a lot of bills that I need to pay. There are things in my life where I’ve made mistakes, or I’ve gotten myself in debt, and I want to do better. But when I get there, then I’ll start giving.» That was my mentality for a very long time. I want to show you how powerful giving is in our walk with Christ. So if you have your Bibles, I want you to go ahead and turn to Malachi chapter 3, and then later I want to visit Matthew chapter 25. All right, but let’s start off in Malachi chapter 3.
Understanding Malachi 3
Now, Malachi chapter 3 is one of my favorite passages. It is probably the most famous passage when talking about tithing. But let me warn you now: if you do not understand the context, it will scare you. If you do not understand what God is saying, it will terrify you. In fact, I was offended by it many times when I heard it. But until God showed me a revelation out of it, I also realized that once you understand the context, it is the biggest blessing for your life because it changes how you see what you have right now. Every good gift comes from the Father. Everything that you have comes from the Father. «Well, I worked for it.» Yes, you did. Who gave you the job? «But I still showed up.» Yes, you did. Who gave you legs to walk, right? Who let you be healthy today so that you can show up to a job that you might not even like? But still, God is providing for you, and it’s when you start to change the perspective that you see in everything: God is good. God is good.
But you need to understand the context, so let’s look together at Malachi chapter 3, verses 6 through 12. I’m going to be reading the New Living Translation. God is speaking to His people. He says, «I am the Lord; I do not change.» God doesn’t need to change; He’s already perfect. He doesn’t make mistakes, so He says, «I do not change.» That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. This is actually good because what God is saying here is that because I don’t change, the victory that I’ve declared over you, My people, doesn’t matter how many times you have rebelled. My word will come true. He’s saying that as many times as you have rebelled against Me, you should have been defeated. But you haven’t been defeated because I have protected you—because I do not change.
This was real to me. Many times in my life, I have rebelled against God over and over and over again. Yet when I come to Him humble and ask for forgiveness, He has taken me in, and His word has never left me. What He has declared over my life and what He is declaring over your life will never leave because He does not change. But then He says, «Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned My decrees and failed to obey them.» Now, in some translations, instead of «decrees, » it actually says «ordinance.» When God is speaking to His people, I want you to see it like this: God is saying you aren’t acting in what I would call ordinary behavior as believers. That’s what He means by an ordinance; by a decree. These laws that I’m giving you, this should become ordinary behavior. These are things that I want you to do, no matter how big or small. I want you to follow in these things so that you can witness, first of all, My love, My power, and My grace, but also that I’m with you.
He’s given them a warning because you have rebelled against Me on what should be ordinary behavior. You have left My presence. Let this sink in: whenever we reject God and what He’s telling us to do—right, living in a biblical way—we start to follow the world and reject God’s presence. The reason why is that we become lovers of self, and we don’t want to hear it anymore. «I don’t want to hear about it. I know this is wrong, but I want to do it. I know that I want to go in this direction just because, even though I know that it’s going to hurt some people.» Right? We don’t want to hear the conviction. It can be hard. But understand, I told you a couple of weeks ago, Paul said it like this: «If anyone’s rejecting God, rebelling against God, hand them over to Satan because then they’ll see how the world is fine. You want to live for it? Live for it, but you’ll be back because you understand how harsh this world can be. Sin is death, but what Jesus is giving us is life.»
He says, «You have just not followed My decrees, My ordinary laws that I have given you.» But then He says, «Out of grace.» This is the Old Testament too, because people say, «Oh, the God of the Old Testament isn’t loving.» No, listen to this: «Return to Me. If you return to Me, I will return to you, » says the Lord of Heaven’s armies. But the people didn’t understand; they were confused. I imagine they started talking. «What do you mean that we have left You, God? We have physically been here; we have always been here; we’ve never left You.» But in verse 7, God says, «But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away? ’» The people did not understand that physically they were there, but their hearts were checked out. Maybe you know how that feels. Maybe you know what it’s like to come to church every Sunday but just feel checked out. In fact, sometimes you may become bitter over it. Maybe you walk into this place feeling like you don’t deserve God’s love or that He’s not for you. You might see other people weeping and crying and raising their hands, and you’re just kind of numb.
But maybe there’s something deep inside of you that God is trying to work out for you to see that you don’t want to see. Maybe there are some things that He would call ordinary behavior for your life that you haven’t been doing, and so you’ve been rejecting His presence. God is trying to open up your eyes. He says, «But you ask, ‘How can we return if we’ve never gone away? ’» They did not understand. And here it is, verses 8 and 9: «Should people cheat God?» And He says, «But you have cheated Me.» And you ask, «What do I mean? When did we ever cheat you?» «You’ve cheated Me of the tithes and the offerings.» Now here’s the big one. The next line is what I didn’t understand for a long time, but God said, «You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating Me.» If you’re like how I used to be, when you hear that statement, I said, «You check out. What kind of loving God would do such a thing? Are you telling me just because I don’t give my money to the church that God is not going to love me as much or that He’s going to curse me or that I can’t be blessed?» What kind of loving God would do such a thing? This is the way that I used to think.
A Personal Testimony on Giving
In fact, I’ve told you before, even going into ministry, my wife and I would have arguments about this before Sunday. Before church on Sunday, we would be in the car because she was a giver; I was not. Even going into ministry, she said, «You know what? You need to give.» I said, «No, I don’t have it. I don’t have it, » and that’s what I told her every single time. But guess what? She didn’t have it either. I knew what our bills were; I knew how much we were making. But she gave joyfully every Sunday, and I tell you what, it killed me more than it killed her because she was always happy giving, and yet I was unhappy not giving. Isn’t that ironic? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? If I’m keeping this for myself, shouldn’t it make me happy? But every time she was the one smiling about giving, and I was the one upset because something was killing me on the inside.
For God told His people, «You are under a curse, and the whole nation has been cheating Me.» So let me change your perspective. Because if this passage offends you or digs deep, I want to show you something new today that I believe will set you free. What if God did not put you under a curse? What if you put yourself under a curse, and God is trying to set you free from that? I’m going to say that again. Hold on. The bell just rang; everybody listen. You ready? God’s telling me to revisit that: What if God didn’t put you under a curse? What if you put yourself under a curse, and God is trying to set you free from that? I didn’t realize that for a long time. I didn’t get it; I didn’t understand.
The Restaurant Illustration
We have this extravagant illustration for you guys today that I want to show you, okay? Let’s pretend I have gone to a restaurant, and let’s pretend—actually, I’m not pretending. Usually, when I go to a restaurant, I’m very hungry, all right? I want a three-course meal, and I want to make sure I have everything. And I think, «What is this? Cheesy bread? Is that what you told me? I think this is cheesy bread. I got the rolls, which I don’t like sharing, even with my own family. When I go out to eat, I get my own plate of rolls, okay?» So then I got the entrée; I got the nice water; I’ve got the vegetables on the side—I’ll give that to the kids—and then I have dessert. What is this, apple pie? I think I just woke somebody up in here. Did we say apple pie? What are we doing in church?
Now, let’s say I came, I sat down, and I ate. I mean, I fed myself. I didn’t hold back; my belly was full at the end of this—one of those, you know, you can hardly stand up. It’s like you barely know how to drive when you go home because you’ve been eating so much, going into a food coma. But now, let’s say the waitress comes up to me. «Thank you so much. Y’all have done a wonderful job on the meal. Thank you.» And she hands me the bill, and I look at it. Even though I fed myself so much, I say, «I’m not paying this. I don’t want the bill.» What’s going to happen? You’ve already answered it. I’m going to be stuck here washing dishes, and if I don’t wash dishes, the cops are going to be called, and somebody’s going to take me to jail, and I’m going to have to pay for this and a fine.
But what if I said, «I don’t want to pay this bill, » even though I have gotten my plate full and sick because I fed myself so much? This illustration really made me think: For so long, I showed up to church wanting to get fed, and I wanted the three-course meal. I wanted that appetizer of healing or a miracle for my life. I wanted that entrée of, «You better dive deep, Pastor; show me something new.» I wanted that dessert of a life change. But I’ll say it like this: when it came to commitment, whether serving or giving or being involved, even though I was full, I checked out. I didn’t want any part of it.
I’m telling you, guys, let me be very clear because, you know, for an entire year when Authentic first started in Louisiana, for an entire year, my wife and I did not receive a paycheck. Everything came from God. But here’s what’s crazy: it was that year that I started tithing when I didn’t have a paycheck, when I didn’t know where it was going to come from because I was so guilty—like I said, I was so guilty for risking so much on faith, never trusting God with what He had given me.
A seed does something different. For a long time, when I sat down at the table to be fed, I considered it my money. It’s mine, and I’ll give when I feel like it. This may hit hard, and like I said, this is kind of one of those subjects I said, «Why are we preaching this on Palm Sunday?» I’m going to show you why. But at the end of this message, this is all going to make sense, and I’m praying that you see this in a brand new way because it changed my life for the better.
The people didn’t understand; they didn’t understand. «God, what do You mean? What have we done? How did we leave You? How are we not in Your presence?» Let me read it again. Malachi chapter 3, verse 8. The amplified version states, «Will a man rob God? Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me.» But you say, «In what way have I robbed You?» And the tithes and the offerings that you have withheld. If you look back at the New Living Translation, He actually says that you have cheated Me of tithes and offerings due to Me.
Take a second: God is saying these are due to Me, that you owe Me. I’m going to change your perspective today. So let me make this very clear, though: don’t get it twisted. God doesn’t need your money to succeed. God doesn’t need my money to succeed. I believe fully that as long as we’re doing the will of God, one person can come into this church and hear from God and give us enough to supply every need because that is how powerful and good God is. But I want to show you something important today.
The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25)
So now I need you to flip to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25, I want to show you that this is a heart issue and that God wants to bring change into your life. In Matthew chapter 25, we’re going to be looking at verses 14 through 30, the New Living Translation. Now, I love this because just a few chapters before this, Jesus is riding into Jerusalem; it’s Palm Sunday; it’s what we celebrate. Everybody’s rejoicing. The very next chapter is when Jesus starts flipping over tables.
I love that. He wasn’t a people pleaser; He didn’t care who was praising Him; He was going to do what God wanted Him to do. And at the time when everybody was shouting His name, I bet you a lot of them were running in fear when He started flipping over tables. And then after that, this is what I mean. As soon as Jesus came riding into Jerusalem, opposition, opposition, opposition. The Pharisees started to talk. «Do you hear what He’s teaching about?» You know the Sadducees came on in. They didn’t believe in a resurrection; that’s why they’re sad, you see? (Dad jokes). We’ll have an album one day; it’ll be great. But they challenged Jesus over and over again.
Jesus knew what was about to take place, and so in Matthew chapter 25, He’s talking to His disciples, but He’s also talking to this crowd around Him, and He starts telling a parable about three different servants. Just to give you a background of the story, He’s talking about a rich man; he was a master, and he was about to go on a long journey. Because he was going on a long journey, he entrusted three of his servants with some talents. Okay, now you may be hearing that like, «What do you mean by talents?» So, talents, biblical talents, was a measurement of weight, and usually, think about this: one talent was around anywhere from 58 to 80 pounds. Okay? So one talent, anywhere from 58 to 80 pounds.
Now, let me help you understand. One talent of silver was equivalent to about 15 years of wages today. I saw some of your eyes light up now; there we go. One talent of silver: 15 years of wages. One talent of gold was 20 or more. I mean, this is the stimulus check of your dreams. Okay? What you’ve been praying for? «God, just give me one of those; I’ll be good. I’ll give, then.» You know what I mean? But think about this. So the master is telling his servants, «Look, I’m going to leave this wealth with you guys. I’m going to be on a long journey, and I trust you to handle it correctly.»
How many of you would be like, «Oh, okay, I can do this; I can handle that amount of money, » or would you be scared? But I love to look at what He did. So this is what He said: Matthew chapter 25, verses 14-15. «He called together His servants and entrusted His money to them while He was gone.» Now, notice this: He gave five bags of silver to one, some say talents, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last.
Now, notice this: dividing it into proportions according to their abilities. Think about that: the amount that He gave them was divided according to their abilities. And then He left on the trip. Now, here’s something that I need you to understand. The master was not showing favoritism, all right? Jesus is trying to illustrate this. We know according to the Word of God that God does not show favoritism. But He gave to each servant according to their abilities.
The Greek here for the term abilities is actually «dunamis, » and it means explosive power. So I want you to think about it like this: the master gave them a talent; He gave them an amount of money according to the explosive potential that they had to take care of it. Think about that: the explosive potential that they had to take care—the responsibilities that they were able to do with what the master had given them. I started to think, you know, how many times I’ve noticed in my own life—and maybe you can relate—that we’ve gotten mad because it seems like God is blessing somebody else more.
«God, how come they keep getting more money? God, how come they were able to buy the big house? God, how come they are able to have multiple cars that they don’t even use? I’ve got one, and it barely gets down the street. God, you know what I mean? How come?» And so much of the time, we look at other people, and we say, «God, it’s like You’re showing favoritism, » or you start to think, «Remember, there’s a special club. Maybe God doesn’t love me as much as He loves them.» But what does the text say? The master gave to them according to their abilities.
I’m telling you now: if you are not grateful for what you have right now, you will not be grateful for more in the future. If you have children in the room, you know how this feels sometimes. «Let me get you a gift.» «Is this it? Is this it?» All of your stuff is going somewhere else. You know what I mean? You just lost everything; you need to be grateful for what you have. It’s the same thing: if you can’t be grateful for the little, how will you be grateful for more? If you can’t see that what you have—and yes, it may look small to the world, but it is a precious gift from God to show you explosive potential for your life—handle it with care and look at it differently.
You realize when my family moved out here on faith and being in the church for a very long time, at the church that I worked at for a little bit of time while I was here in Charlotte, I went from preaching to taking out the trash for a while. It was hard, and I had to be humbled. But what God was giving me still had such potential, and I didn’t know it then, but it would lead me here today. Sometimes you’re looking at your life and you’re saying, «God, look at my combined job. Look what You’ve given me. It’s not as important as him.» No, how are you handling it? Are you grateful for it?
Are you just going to throw it away? Because here is a harsh reality: you ready for this? No matter how much you have, somebody will always have more. No matter how much you have, you may have tons of money, and it’s good until somebody else has more. You may have a nice vehicle, and it’s good until somebody else has more, right? And we compare, and we compare, and we compare. Somebody will always have more, so what do you get your value from? Because if that’s where your value comes from, you’ll always be in competition, and you’ll always feel like you’re not good enough.
But God says, «No, no, no, stop looking like the world looks at things.» They call it small, but David was small and made fun of too, yet look at his courage. «I will take down the giant for you.» Now notice something else interesting about the story that Jesus is telling. So the master gave his servants an extraordinary amount of money to look after. Here’s what happened next: here’s what they did with it, okay? Matthew chapter 25, verses 16-18. The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned what? Five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more.
Now notice this: the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money. You know what this proves to me? The master already knew their character. Think about it: he gave to them according to their abilities. The servant that he gave five earned five more; the servant that he gave two earned two more. But the servant that he gave one, he dug it into the ground and left it. Let me say it like this: God has also given you talents and abilities. He’s given you gifts, but right now, would you say that you are using them for the Kingdom of God, or have you buried them in the ground?
Because the context of this passage, what Jesus is saying, is that all of this is about the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is your duty; it is your job; it should be ordinary behavior for you to go out and use what God has given you to expand the Kingdom. That may be serving; that may be loving; that may be praying; that may be giving. But are you using it, or are you burying it into the ground? Because guess what? The servant didn’t understand, even though he only got one, because he might have looked at the others, «Well, they got five, and he got two; I only got one.» It was still an opportunity for change in his life because when you do not learn how to give, you do not learn how to change.
I’m telling you there’s something else even more important that I noticed. The master gave them a lot of money. Now, if you were handing out that much money to somebody, wouldn’t you agree that you would be very specific on how they should handle it? «Here’s a list; here’s what I want you to do with it: one, two, three, don’t miss these steps. This is a lot: one talent equivalent to 15 years of wages.» Did you notice that the master didn’t do that? He didn’t give them instructions on how to handle the money. Think about that. He just handed it over and trusted them to what? To know His heart, because a good master knows his servants.
As we continue the story, and you already know now that two of the servants invested it and produced more, but one hid it in the ground. After a long trip, Jesus says that the man finally returns. Notice how each servant speaks to the master. Matthew chapter 25, verses 19-26. After a long time, their master returned from his trip, and he called them to give an account of how they used the money. So here’s how the first servant viewed the master, verse 20: «Master, » he said, «You gave me five bags of silver to invest. Look, I have earned five more.» He is excited! He is happy that the master has returned. «Look, You gave me all this money, but look what I did.» Because I knew that You would be happy.
It says that the master was full of praise, and he says, «Well done, My good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you more responsibilities.» This hit me hard because this man had the most; he had five talents, and the master says, «You’ve been good with this small amount.» Because what God has for you is bigger than you can even imagine. What God can do in your life—don’t you ever hold back. Don’t you pray too small. God wants to challenge you. Yes, you’ll go through trials. Yes, you’ll have to face your fear, but believe me, what God has for you is bigger than you can imagine.
There are times in my life where I say, «God, thank You for helping me handle this big amount or this big responsibility, » and God is saying, «You think that’s big? I’m just preparing you.» He’s doing the same for you. He’s preparing you. It is an opportunity to see His love. He was full of joy. What did the second servant do? This is how we talk to the master as well. Verse 22: «Master, You gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.» And again, he was full of praise and said, «Let’s celebrate together.»
All right, let’s celebrate this together; you have done what is good. But the third servant—the third servant only had one talent—he buried it into the ground. But notice how he talks to the master. Verse 24: «Master, I knew you are a harsh man, harvesting crops that you didn’t plant and gathering crops that you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid.» In other words, the third servant is saying, «You’re harsh, and I’m afraid of you. I’m afraid of you, and so I’m afraid that I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.»
In verse 26, the master replied, «You wicked and lazy servant!» Like I had said, the context of the story is about the Kingdom of Heaven. God will entrust you with responsibilities, sharing the gospel, stewarding the gifts that God has given you. But I just couldn’t help but notice that the third servant said, «You’re a harsh man, and I’m afraid of you.» That’s exactly how I felt when I read Malachi chapter 3 for a long time in my life. Whenever a preacher preached that passage, I saw God as harsh, as angry. I would complain and say, «God, You know I don’t have enough. There’s no way that I can give. How can You put me to this test right now?»
I wanted to do everything else, but I didn’t have it. There were times in my life where I had like five dollars to my name, and that’s all. But God was still testing me, and He never stops. I realized for the longest time that I didn’t know the heart of God, because that’s the big difference with the three servants. Two of them knew the heart of their master. They were pleased that He was back; they were excited. They already knew what they needed to do, but the third one didn’t have a relationship with Him, so he was scared. Because of that, he hid it in the ground, and he missed the opportunity.
That’s the reason the master never gave instructions, because they should’ve already known his heart. Let me make this point clear: how they viewed the master defined their actions. How they viewed the master defined their actions. So let me turn this around: how you view your relationship with God right now defines your actions. I want to revisit this. It’s a different illustration, but for a long time, I showed up to church—like I said, I would feed myself with everything that I wanted, and I got full—but then I never committed because I always told God, «I don’t want to pay the bill. I don’t have enough or I can’t do it.»
But that’s because I believed that God was a harsh God. Once God changed my life and I started giving, I started to know the heart of the Father, and He spoke to me and said, «You know what? You’ve never paid the bill; I have every time. All that you have has been given to you by Me. Do you trust that what you have right now to give is from Me?» So you give, and you pay the bill because I’m paying the bill, and I give you more left over to show you that I’m in control. It’s when I had that mindset that I started to realize it’s not my money; it was always His.
I’m even saddened that it took me a year of evangelism to figure that out. I’ve shared incredible stories; you know, we would get money in our mailbox, at the doorstep. I found hundred-dollar bills in a diaper bag. We had strangers come up to our house handing us money, and they always said, «God told me to do it.» What hit me hard was that for so long I rejected God in this, yet the moment I came running back, His arms were wide open. He never stopped loving me, and He never stopped using me. What He’s declared over my life, I’ll come because He doesn’t change. The same thing is for you. Imagine if all the people of God trusted, and we gave selflessly to a bigger cause to see a seed sown, to see lives changed, to see what God is doing already.
We’ve been blessed; like I said, we’re moving into a brand-new building next month. There are a lot of cool changes that are going to be happening for you guys— a lot of things to get excited about. I want to thank every one of you for being obedient. You’ve been giving. If you’ve been serving, if you’ve been committed, but even if you haven’t and you felt maybe kind of an offense from this, listen, I’m not doing this to offend you. I’m doing this to set you free because for a long time, I was under a curse, and my anger wouldn’t allow me to open my eyes to see the truth.
Three Key Points on Tithing
Let me share three things with you before you leave today. Point number one: tithing breaks the curse. Tithing breaks the curse. You may say, «What kind of God will put me under a curse?» No, no, no. Malachi chapter 3, verses 9 and 10: «You’re under a curse, » God says, «for your whole nation has been cheating Me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there will be enough food in My temple. If you do so, » says the Lord of Heaven’s armies, «I will open the windows of heaven for you, and I will pour out a blessing so great that you won’t have room to take it in.»
I love this: God says, «Try it; I dare you. Put Me to the test.» It is the only passage out of the entire Bible where God says, «Test Me. Test My love for you; test that I’m in control.» Because here’s the truth: God wasn’t saying, «I’m putting you under a curse.» God is saying, «You’re already under a curse because this world is under a curse, because sin is all over this world. One sin brings what? A curse upon our life.» But He gives us instructions, and these behaviors are about something deeper.
The giving is about having the same heart the Father has for you. When the Bible says, «Try it; put Me to the test, » I’ve realized in my life, because a lot of us, we look at them like, «Oh, God’s blessed them; God’s blessing them.» Yes, but you don’t know the sacrifices that they’ve made for God in the private room when nobody’s looking. All you notice are the blessings in the public room because that’s how good He is. Again, I’m not telling you that you’re just going to be rich, but you’re going to have something deeper. God may make you rich; I don’t know; it’s up to Him. Cool; hope you are. But what He wants more than anything is your heart and to protect you from the curse.
Why is this so important? Point number two: tithing removes the attack of Satan from your life. Let me show you this. Malachi chapter 3, verse 11, the amplified version: God says, «If you give to My house, guess what? Then I will rebuke the devourer.» I will rebuke the enemy, the insects, and plagues out of this—this amplified version relates to the things in our life that break down. The things in our life that hold us back. Even when you feel, «God, I don’t have a car to even worship You or do things right, » God will provide at times that bring you to your knees: money in the mailbox, something you didn’t expect.
Why? Because He says, «I will rebuke the devourer for your sake. He will not destroy the fruits of the ground, nor will your vine in the field drop its grapes, “ says the Lord of hosts. I pray that over this church, that God rebukes the devourer and that the fruit here produces and grows. Because I want you to understand this: Satan needs permission to attack. The world will tell you that he’s big and bad, and he’s nothing, and we see this out of Job chapter 1, verse 10, where Satan asked God permission to attack.
Listen to his words: Satan is complaining. He says, „You’ve always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything that he does. Look how rich he is.“ Satan is saying, „I can’t touch him because of Your power.“ God is saying, „You trust Me. Put Me to the test; I’ll rebuke the devourer from your life.“
Point number three is this: tithing recovers the blessing in Malachi chapter 3, verse 12. „Because then all the nations will call you blessed, but your land will be such a delight, “ says the Lord of Heaven’s armies. I’ve realized in my life-see, the blessing is not the riches, even though it can be nice; the blessing is not even in His protection, even though we are grateful. But the everlasting blessing is to know the heart of God so that in whatever He asks you to do, you do it because you desire the same-just like the two servants.
Consider it an opportunity for great joy, for you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow.