Derek Prince - What Happens When We're Stingy With God
This is a clip from the full sermon The Christian And His Money.
Now let's turn to Malachi for a closing analysis of this theme. Malachi 3:8 and following. I don't have time in this short talk but if you have access to the Living Bible I would recommend you to read the Living Bible version of Malachi. It is vivid. It really tells it like it is, especially the first chapter. I'd love to read it but I just don't have time. But this is good, too. What we learn from Malachi is that God keeps a reckoning of His people's giving. God had given the Law of Moses maybe twelve centuries earlier. But now He tells His people, This is the accounts I've been keeping. Do you believe that God keeps accounts of what we give? I believe every one of us one day in eternity will be confronted by a balance sheet. And every single amount that we've ever given will be recorded. I hope we won't be embarrassed.
So, God says to Israel, Listen, I've been keeping a record of what you've been doing. And I'm not pleased with you. He says, You're all a lot of robbers. Now they were all very religious in those days, very religious. Us, robbers? Where have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. Let's read it. Malachi 3, beginning at verse 8: Will a man rob God? Is it really possible to rob God? The answer is yes. Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, In what way have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings. You have not brought what was My due. You've kept for yourself what belonged to Me. You're robbers. And then notice the result: You are cursed with a curse for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. God has led me to a real study of the nature of curses and blessings. And where I've presented this teaching it's impact has been revolutionary.
One of the things that God has led me to analyze is what causes God's curse to come upon His people. And this is one of the main causes: stinginess. You are cursed with a curse. You've robbed Me. You've kept back for yourselves what was due to Me. What's the answer? Very simple, very practical. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in My house. And test Me now in this way, 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. How do we move from curse to blessing in this area? By stopping being stingy and starting to be generous with God. God says, When that happens, I'll remove the curse and I will pour out the blessing. See, God is so practical. He doesn't deal with high theological concepts that we can't understand. He deals with things that are very clear and very practical. Money and material things and He says, Deal rightly with that and I'll see to it that you are blessed in the consequences.
Now, there's one further point in closing. It says: bring all your tithes into the storehouse. What's the storehouse? Well, I believe just from the analogy the storehouse is the place from where you get two things: the food you eat and the seed you sow. And it seems to me logical that where we get out food to eat and our seed to sow, we should respond with our tithe offered to Jesus. I told people in the United States, you know, there are a lot of restaurant chains in the United States, Howard Johnson and there's the Holiday Inn and others. And I told them this, just a little parable. If you eat in the Holiday Inn, don't pay your bill in Howard Johnson. Where does your tithe belong? Where you receive your food that you eat and your seed to sow.