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you you We started out with a lesson,
the Lord knows when it was, I think three weeks ago now, a message
entitled A Condition of the Heart. And so we continue with part
two of this message entitled A Condition of the Heart as we
examine the message that God is delivering through the prophet
Malachi unto the children of Israel, towards Judah specifically. And this is the last written
prophecy that we have before the Lord Jesus came to earth
to be the ransom for all mankind. It was not the last word from
a prophet, though it was the last written word from a prophet. We know that the last of the
Old Testament dispensation prophets was John the Baptist. But here
we find a word from the prophet Malachi unto the people of God.
And it's interesting as we consider this prophecy that eight times
through Malachi, the Lord poses questions unto his people and
all eight times they answer the Lord with insolence and deceitfulness
in their hearts. Like what? I don't have anything
going on. You know, sometimes people, when
they're confronted with an issue in their life that is obvious
to everyone that's looking on, they think, hey, I don't have
a problem. Everybody else has a problem, right? I don't have
a problem. Do I? No. Yes. No. You're thinking. You've got one, don't you? And
sometimes we're the last ones to to admit it if we do see it. You know, and the fact of the
matter is, until you're willing to admit you have a problem,
it'll never be fixed. You know, people that have chemical
dependencies and are alcoholics, they never get sober, they never
get free from the scourge of drugs until first they admit
I have a problem because until they're willing to admit I've
got a problem and I need some help fixing this problem, guess
what? It's never going to get fixed. And so sometimes we're
so lifted up within ourselves spiritually that we think everybody
else has a problem. We think that we're God's gift
to the church so we can go around fixing every problem that everybody
else has got because we've got it all put together, we've got
it all taken care of, and we don't have anything that needs
to be fixed. Can I tell you something honestly?
If we say we have no sin, the Bible says in 1 John 1, We deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. Folks, I believe tonight
that positionally I'm entirely without sin. Right. But I do
not think I'm any better than the Apostle Paul. Do you? Let's
vote on this. How many people in here tonight
think that they are a better Christian than Paul the Apostle
was? Let me see your hand. Raise it
up big and high. Go ahead. Just go ahead. Raise it up big and
high. No, go ahead. You think you're a better Christian
than the Apostle Paul was. Go ahead. No takers. No, none of
us here tonight say, well, I'm better than Paul, but you know
what Paul said, the things that I don't want to do, those are
the things I find myself doing. The things that I want to do,
I find myself not really doing them. And he said, I'm in this
straight and I'm in a struggle and oh, wretched man that I am,
who should deliver me from the body of this death? He said,
I know that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth what? No good thing. So. When we start getting to the
place where self-sufficient and self-important and thinking that
we have all of these great gifts and virtues to offer the world,
we need to be reminded of the fact that sometimes God can arrange
for a reminder. That I know that in me, that
is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, he said, For the will
is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I
find not. And when I would do good, what
did he say there in Romans 7? Evil is present with me. And
so he learned something and that was the law of the flesh. And
there was a war and that is this. Here's essentially the law of
the flesh. You know what it is? That anything
that is a prohibition, that the law says don't do, Your flesh
wants to do it. That's the law of the flesh.
Now, if you don't believe me, take a little baby, OK, maybe
a toddler that's just walking a little bit and you've got a
beautiful plant in your home and you say, don't touch the
plant. You know what? You could take him to Toys R
Us and buy him all the toys in the store. They don't want to
play with any of those things. They don't want to play with
the G.I. Joe, with the Kung Fu Grip. All they want to talk about
and all they want to look at and play with is what? The pretty
plant. Why? You said no! That's the
law of the flesh. And sometimes, folks, we don't
get it. But the reality is this, that
whatever the spirit calls us to do or not do, the flesh militates
against. Because the Bible says in the
book of Galatians, chapter 5, that the flesh lesseth against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these two are
contrary one to the other so that you cannot do the things
that you would. So, until we see Jesus Christ, there's going
to be that conflict, right? Now, I was telling the men in
men's Bible study last night that we're in 2 Corinthians chapter
5 right now, and man, we're having a great time. The Bible says
there in verse 17, that if any man be in Christ, he's a new
creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are
become new. God has, it says that all things
are of God who have committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation
and now then you're ambassadors for Christ as though God did
beseech you and Christ did. Be reconciled to God and so forth.
But what we're seeing is this, that there are people that say,
OK, Pastor, I know I should be a new creation. I know that old
things should be passed away and all things become new. But
you know what? Here's a problem, Pastor Eckelberry. I still want
to do some of those old things, they say. I can remember one
time, I told the men last night, I led a man to Christ who was
on a basketball team that I was playing on. And he prayed with
tears to receive Jesus as his Savior. And as it so happened,
I was preaching for my dad the next Sunday in church, at First
Baptist Church, and this man was there. He was a phenomenal
athlete. He actually went on to play for a little while with
the Cleveland Cavaliers. And but long before LeBron James,
anybody ever knew his name, probably before he was born. But anyway,
I gave the invitation for folks to come forward and get saved.
And guess what? This guy's name was Andre Sparks. He came forward
and I thought, I just let him in the Lord. You know? And so
I took him in the counseling room after I closed the service
and I sat him down and I talked to him and I said, now, his name
was Andre, I said, Andre, I talked to you about a week ago and we
went through the plan of salvation and you prayed with tears to
receive Jesus as your Savior and the only way that you're
not saved is if God lied or you didn't mean it and God told the
truth and the Bible says that God be found true in every man
a liar. And so I took him back to the plan of salvation again.
And I said, why is it that you came forward today? And he said,
well, listen, I'm living with my girlfriend and we've been
together. We have a daughter together,
but I've been stepping out on her and I stepped out on her
last night and I had a little bit too much to drink last night.
And so I don't think that I can really be a Christian if I'm
doing this. And, you know, I got to say that there are people
in this room that can identify with that whole scenario. You
know what I told him? The fact that you came forward
today. And it's bothering you is probably
an indication that you made a sincere decision a week ago. Let me tell
you why, because had he not made that decision, he would have
gone on with the lifestyle pathway that he had chosen without a
conscience, because he would have just lived after the natural,
you know, done whatever he felt like. Covered it up would have
been a big deal. But now as the Holy Spirit of
God was living in him, he was a new creature. He was acting
against his nature. God gave him divine nature. Now
he couldn't do those same old things and have the same enjoyment
and pleasure in them. And the fact that he was in a
spiritual struggle in a battle, whereas at any other point in
time in his life, there would have been no conscience about
it. No struggle about it whatsoever was an indicator to me that things
were changing. Now positionally had changed
forever just like that, but. He was being formed in the image
of Christ, and that was a process that God had begun. And the Bible
says in Philippians 1, verse 6, that he which hath begun a
good work in you will be faithful and perform it unto the day of
Jesus Christ. And so we come here to this point, and we see
that the children of Israel, particularly Judah, are being
called out by the Lord. And whenever the Lord calls them
out, eight times He questions them. All eight times they come
back at God like, What? What's wrong? I'm in church. What are you talking about? I'm
still offering the sacrifices. And no longer do they have a
conscience about the fact that they're bringing blind animals
and diseased animals and offering those because they thought, because
I'm still going through the ritual. That I'm OK because I'm still
showing up at the temple, even though I hate it. I don't like
what's going on there. And I'm not offering pure sacrifice
with a pure heart of worship. The fact that I'm going through
the motions is still an indicator of the fact that I'm I got it
all taken care of. Can I tell you something? that
long before a person ever drops out of serving the Lord, long
before a person ever quits coming to church, they have quit their
prayer life, their Bible reading, they've quit an intimate relationship
with Jesus Christ, and sometimes they're just going through the
motions until they find sufficient enough reason to justify them
jumping ship. And normally, they're hunting
for something. to find, to use as a reason so
that they can feel justified in stepping outside of the will
of God for their life. You know that? I've seen that.
Look, 31 years this May, I'll have been vocationally in ministry. I was born into a preacher's
home. I've seen it all my life. And you know what? There are
a lot of folks that they'll have a hardness in their heart towards
the things of God. God is putting his finger on something in their
life, trying to deal with them. And they think, I've already
got it all put together, God. And they harden their heart against
the Lord. And so what happens is they They
tune out the voice of God and no longer are they cultivating
a close, personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. And you know
what? They no longer have the heart to continue serving, but
they feel obligated because it's something that they committed
themselves to do. And they have more concern about how others
perceive them than they do about how others perceive Jesus. and particularly Jesus in them.
So because they're more concerned about how others are going to
perceive me, they keep going through the motions. And all
the while they're looking at the preacher, they're looking
at the deacons, they're looking at the Sunday school teachers,
looking at the leadership in the church to find some problem
so that they could use that as their reason for getting outside
of the will of God for their life. And my friends, God sees
right through your measly little excuses. He sees right down to
the heart of the matter. Tonight we're talking about a
condition of the heart. He knows that because of pride
in our hearts and our lives, we are trying to put forward
this idea that we've got it all together. We don't have any problems.
And so God, when you put your finger on my life, I'm going
to deflect that off onto somebody else and say, well, the pastor
this, or the deacon that, or the teacher this, or the long-standing
member of that, and say, because they're doing that, I'm not going
to do this. And we feel personally justified in rejecting the impulses
of the Holy Spirit and stepping outside of the will of God for
our lives because of how someone else is behaving. And what we
have effectively done is remove God from the seat of control
in our life We've taken him off of the rulership of the government
of our lives. And we have put hypocrites in
the control of our life because we're allowing hypocritical people
to have the controls now. They're going to dictate that
we're going to have to leave a church that God put us in.
You want to give a hypocrite control of your life? Then stop
looking around for somebody to justify why you want to jump
ship. Amen. If God moved you here,
then you keep your eyes on Jesus and don't go anywhere until God
says to go. Amen. Look, I'm just saying all
the while. All right. The Lord said, return
unto me and I will return unto you. But what did they say? Where
is shall we return? What we're going to the temple,
what we're making sacrifices, what God, we're still given tithes. You know, God was calling them
out and they weren't going for it. You know, I think that that's
sadly the case in many of the churches from coast to coast
and around the world where people have been sitting there and they've
heard it and, you know, they've been there and done that and
they've heard that and studied that and they've learned that
and taught that and they've got the T-shirt and they've, you
know, they've been to the conference and they've seen it on TV and
they read the book and saw the movie and, you know, they're
just so full of it that they think, you know, what is there
anything, what is there left for anybody to tell me that I
don't already know? What is there left for anybody
to convict me about because I've got it all put together? You
know, just when you think that you're humble, you're not just
when you think you've arrived, you haven't. You understand,
you've tripped and fallen and you've been ensnared by the will
of the devil, and we are just so self-deceived, we cannot see
it just like the children of Judah. And that's why God raised
up Malachi to talk to them. And the whole basis for the message
of Malachi, the whole basis for the minor prophets, and all of
the Bible for that matter, is found in Malachi chapter 1 and
verse number 2, where the Lord said to them, I have loved you,
saith the Lord. You want to get a picture of
God's heart? Then God says this, I love you. And in verse number 6 of chapter
3, he said, for I am the Lord, I change not. You know what he's
telling him? Look, I've loved you and I'm never going to stop
loving you. That's the basis for everything that God calls
him to do. And even though they might have been under the law,
my friend, listen to me. The Lord was telling them, I
love you. And He wasn't saying, get back to the law. He said,
return unto Me. He didn't say, get back to the
temple. He didn't say, get back to tithing. He didn't say, get
back to living right. He said, return, get back to
me. And even as the Lord said to
Jacob, as he sent him back to Bethel, Bethel means the house
of God. The truth is this, that the Lord
called Jacob to go back to El Bethel, the God of the house. of God. And my friend, we don't
need for folks just to get back to church. We need people to
come back to Jesus. Come back to the God of the house
of God. And what the heart of God is
crying out is this. Look, I love you and I'm asking
you to come back into my arms. And I'm never going to stop loving
you. You've run away from me from the days of your fathers.
You've turned away from my ordinances. And because of my love for you,
you're not consumed. I love you. Come back to me. And the love that God has for
us is the motivator or should be the motivator for everything
that we do in the Christian life. That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians
chapter number four, he said the love of Christ or chapter
five, the love of Christ constraineth me. It wasn't his great love
for God that made him serve God. That wasn't it. You know what
it was? It was God's great love for him that made him do it. God's great love for him. Now, let me say something to
you. I had the opportunity to go preach
in a prison in the Philippines, and it was one of the greatest
experiences that I've had. I just was so grateful to the
Lord for it. Although I battled in my flesh, I was tired that
morning. It was really hot and it was really rainy and it was
sticky. I mean, I stepped outside of
the hotel and my glasses fogged up instantly. It was so humid.
I got in the car, got out in the prison, my glasses fogged
up instantly. It was pouring down rain and I'm thinking, oh
brother, how's this thing going to go? Then we get there and
they're having a song service and the power went out. 500 guys,
most of them sitting on a concrete floor. Here's a tin roof, no
walls. And all of the cells in that
prison are exposed to the open air. There's nothing that's enclosed.
So there's like a recreational yard in the middle. And the sails
are built all the way around that recreational yard. And so
all of the bars are open to the recreational yard. There's not
a pane of glass in the whole prison. Everything is open to
the elements continually. So everybody can see everybody
all the time. And so now there are a few guys
that were washing some clothes over off to the side, beating
them on a rock by a pump. pumping water, but they didn't
have to pump water that day because it was raining so hard. It was
torrential downpour. And anyway, I'll tell that whole
story another time, because it's really a dramatic story, really,
to hear what God did in that situation. But there were hundreds
of men. I talked to different people. Some people said we had 500 saved.
Some people said we had 100 saved. Some people said we had 300 saved.
But irrespective, All 500 men stood up saying that they prayed
to receive Jesus as their Savior. I couldn't believe it. I really
didn't believe it. After I'd preached through the
elements, through difficulty, no power, almost hurricane force
winds and rain. And so I had them all sit back
down again, then I asked the pastor to come and Tell them
in brief what I shared with them, but now in their local dialect.
And then I said, and then I want you to if they prayed to receive
the Lord as their savior, understanding the gospel for the first time,
have them stand back up. Well, he he talked for about
five minutes and then you know what? Everybody stood back up
again. So anyway, I had him sit back
down and and I wanted to talk to him about assurance of salvation.
And I've never done this before. I don't know why I did it. Well,
I know why I did it. The Holy Spirit of God was prompting
me to do it. But I saw all these men sitting
there in these yellow shirts that said inmate. And I said,
men, let me ask you, how many of you here have a mother somewhere
on the outside who loves you? Almost every hand went up. I
said, how many of you have a girlfriend or a wife on the outside of this
prison that loves you very much? Hands went up, almost everyone.
I said, how many of you have children that love you very much?
Almost every single hand went up. I said. In a couple of days,
it's going to be Valentine's Day. And I said. Let's suppose that on Valentine's
Day, your wife or your girlfriend or your mother or your child
comes to visit you. They put their arms around your
neck and they say, I don't care what you've done, I don't care
what's transpired in the past, I love you and all is forgiven. I can't wait till you can come
home and we can have the kind of life together that we've only
ever dreamed about. All is forgiven. All is forgotten. I love you. Now imagine that
happening and then you get out. Does their love for you and their
forgiveness of you cause you to want to go out partying with
your buddies? Cause you to want to go out drugging
with your friends or gangbanging in the streets? You know what? I looked out and there were hundreds
of guys that were brushing away some tears thinking about a woman
that loved them or a child or a mother. And I said, does that
does their love and forgiveness of you make you want to go out
and commit crimes again to break their heart? No, sir, they said, no, sir. I said, you know what? Every
sin that you've ever committed, every terrible thing that you've
ever done was against Jesus. And because He loves you, He's
forgiven you. And now, as His child, let His
love and forgiveness of you be the very thing that motivates
your heart to live a changed life. You know, that's that's how we're
to live the Christian life on the basis of the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the motive for it. That
was something that those men could understand very well. Let
me say to you that the Lord was appealing to the people of God
on the basis of the fact that he loved them and forgiven them.
And it was because of his mercies that they were not consumed. And then he says, will you return
to me? You see the heart of God calling
them back to himself. But in this, we also see the
heart of the people that were self-deceived. They thought they
were OK. They said in verse seven, wherein
shall we return? And the Lord said, will a man
rob God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye say, Wherein have we robbed
thee? They're saying, we haven't robbed
you. We've been bringing offerings down to the temple. We've been
making sure that the Levites have something to eat. But the
truth is that they were not following the ordinances of God. They turned
their hearts away from it. But because they were going through
the motion on one level, they thought, we don't have a problem. Now, when God says something
to you, it's authoritative because God is never mistaken. Do you
understand that? So if you sense that God is dealing
with you about a matter, God is dealing with you about a matter. Did you hear me? If you sense
that God is dealing with you about a matter, God is dealing
with you about a matter because he's never mistaken. Sometimes
we are self-deceived. We are mistaken in our own thinking
somehow to vainly believe that we really don't need this because
we have it all put together. You know, after all, I've been
through, you know, less than 10 of journey discipleship and
I wrote out the whole New Testament word for word and I have the
binder to prove it. And I go soul winning and I'm
faithful. And so surely this isn't because I need anything,
Holy Spirit of God, that you're giving me. It just maybe is you're
putting someone else on my heart that has a sin in their life
that you want me to help. That's got to be what it is,
because surely it can't be me. Right. But the Lord was saying,
look, you're saying what? I'm going to the temple, God.
What? I'm given money. What? Levites aren't starving
to death. Right. But still, they had turned
their hearts away from the Lord, and I think that it is important
for us to understand that more than the tithe, God is focusing
on the heart. Now, we're going to talk about
this at a later time. And I'm going to say to you that
I believe that tithing is a principle that was before the law and it
was something that was condoned after the law. But I think that
it's a great suggestion for a place to start, because I believe that
we're no longer under the bondage of the law. We're now free to
do more than the least demands of the law because of grace.
And I think that what is more consequential than Cutting God
down to the tenth penny. Is for us to have a heart that
pours out with love for God, that is that is motivated because
of the love of God for us, and I think that we need to understand
this and the Bible says in Matthew, chapter six, and we know this
very well, but it says in verse twenty one. For where your treasure
is, there will your what? heart, the also. So are our finances
based upon this verse of Scripture an indicator of our heart? Yes
or no? Yes, they are. You could just
about look at a person's financial spending habits and determine
whether or not they have an eternal value system. Couldn't you? Now, I'm not saying that you
can do that emphatically in every situation, but Generally, we
probably could. But what we see the Lord saying
in the letters that are written in red is that where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. Can I say this to you,
that I realize that money is not the root of all evil. Some
people say, well, you know what the good book says, you know,
the cleanliness is next to godliness. And, you know, God helps those
that help themselves, brother. And you know what the good book
says? You know, money is the root of
all evil. No, the good book doesn't say that. You know what the good
book says? It says that the love of money
is a root of all evil, which while some have coveted after,
they have erred from the faith And they have pierced themselves
through with many sorrows. So when I start loving money,
I cease from loving God as I should love him. Why? Because the Bible
says I'm to love the Lord my God with how much of my heart?
Oh, so if I am saying, OK, I love money and I love God, too, what
I'm doing is dividing my heart. God said, I want all of your
heart, not a part of it. And so the Bible goes on to tell
us this. Look at it. And Matthew, it says
in verse 22, if the light of the body is the eye, the light
of the body is the eye, if therefore that I be single, thy whole body
should be full of light. In other words, if you love God
and he's what causes your heart to pitter patter and sing, then
guess what? He's going to be your focus and
your life will be filled with him. Look at what it says, if
I and I be evil in verse 23, my whole body should be full
of darkness. In other words, if you have evil passions, your
whole life will be characterized by that darkness. And how great
will be that darkness? It says, how great is that darkness?
Verse 24, no man can serve two masters. For either he will hate
the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one
and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. So my directing of material financial
resources is an indicator of my heart's condition. True or
false? How many of you would agree based on what we've just
read that that's an indicator of my heart's condition? So you
know what? On that basis, we know that there are some things
that are not moral or immoral. They're all moral. But how you
use them determines whether it's good or bad. For example, a computer
can be used to propagate the gospel. It can be used to look
at pornography. That computer sitting there on
your desk is not immoral. Right. It's all moral. How you use it determines what
it is. Money. All by itself, sitting
in the bank is not immoral, but you can reveal the condition
of your heart by how you use it, right? And so how a church
directs its money is it correlates to the heartbeat of that ministry?
How we spend money at home correlates. To the heartbeat of our home,
true or false? So if all my spinning is about
me, me, me, me, me, what does that reveal about me? Well, that
I'm narcissistic and that I don't care about anybody else. I think
that sometimes we've got to understand that when God transformed us
and he came to take up residency in us, that he took out that
old heart of stone and even as Jeremiah prayed, give me a heart
of flesh and not meaning a carnal heart, but a heart that beats
tender, that has sensitivity, that is not calloused, that has
compassion. That's what he was talking about.
And God wanted to implant within you his heart. which is a changed
heart. And we see that the people here
were revealing the condition of their heart because God said,
though you've gone to the temple and though you've offered some
sacrifice and though you've given some offerings, you have stopped
short of what I have asked you to do. And here's what the Bible
says in John 14, 15. Jesus said it in the letters
written in red. If you love me, what? Keep my commandments. You see that. So the reason why
we obey the Lord is not because He's going to kill us and send
us to hell. We don't. He said, if you love me, keep
my commandments. We love Him. Why? Because He
first loved us. 1 John 4, 19. So look, we love
God because He first loved us. And He said, if you love me,
keep my commandments. And God has said, look, I want
you to offer unto me of the firstfruits of all mine increase. That's
what the Bible says. In Proverbs chapter three, honor
the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all mine
increase, so shall thy bars be filled with plenty and thy presses
shall burst forth with new wine. So what God is asking us to do
is this, honor him with our giving, right? And if you love him, what
are you going to do? I'm going to honor him with my
giving. Now, under the law, the 10th
was the least that they could do. And in fact, really, time
doesn't permit us tonight to go through and to examine it.
But they gave exponentially more than a tenth. Do you know that? There were many tithes that were
given. There were firstfruits offerings. Honestly, if you study
what they had to give under the law, it was astronomical by our
standards. So it's amazing how many people
that want to say, well, tithing is Old Testament, tithing is
law, tithing is legalism. When we begin to open up what
the Bible teaches about grace, it's amazing how grace loving
people all of a sudden become legalistic in their finances. They want to revert back to the
least common denominator. You see that? It's an amazing
thing. We'll have a waitress at Denny's
give us good service and keep our coffee hot and we'll give
her a 20, 20, you know, 2% tip or something like that. And we
still see, you know, tie checks that are $102.38. You know, we
let the waitress keep the change. We don't even round up with God.
You know, and it's a reflection of what's in our hearts. You
see that? We're talking about a condition
of the heart. I'm not trying to browbeat. I'm talking about
the love of God. I'm calling God's people to love
God as he has called us to love him with all of our heart, with
all of our soul, with all of our mind, and to love our neighbors
as ourselves. And what we need to see is that this questioning
of the people of God was pointing to the direction of their heart,
the condition of their hearts and their insolence and thinking,
I don't need this, was a clear indicator that God was absolutely
right and they were totally deceived and they could not see it. And
that's why there was need for a prophet to be raised up in
Israel, to call them out for the things that they thought
were already covered. You know, The book of Revelation
chapter 2 and 3, we read there the seven letters of the seven
churches in Asia Minor. How many of you know that? And
I believe that those seven churches represent seven periods of church
history, seven church ages of which we're now living in the
Laodicean church age. And I think without controversy,
most everybody that believes in a dispensational theology
would say we're living in the Laodicean church age. And it's
interesting that in five of the seven church ages, you know what
God asked the churches to do? Repent. Repent, repent, repent,
repent. You know, we hear so much talking
about repentance for people to be saved. But do you know, it
would surprise you if you counted the number of times in the Bible
that the word repent or return, which in this context means repent,
was used not for the heathen, not for the unsaved, but for
the people of God. It's a disproportional number
of times I counted them up. I can't remember what it was,
but it was a big disparity. And what I want you to understand
is this, that God is talking to saved people and he's saying,
I want you to come back to me here. He's talking about people
that he already called the apple of his eye. They didn't have
to work to become that. It was their birth right. He
said, I want you to come back to me. It will reveal the condition
of your heart. And one of the things that they
would do to reveal that they had fallen back in love with
Jesus or Jehovah God was with their finances, because where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also. You think about what the Bible
tells us in second Corinthians, and I'll finish with this because
I know the hour is late. I just sometimes I get so passionate
about the truth and giving the truth and giving it in its fullness
and giving it in its purity that it's hard for me. I get started. I don't know how to stop, you
know, but the fact we're in a series helps me a little bit because
I know I can come back next week and pick it up. But but here's
just listen for a second and we'll we'll finish off on this
thought. Second Corinthians eight, it says in verse one, Moreover,
brethren, we do you to wit. In other words, I want you to
think about what it says. We do you to wit your wits or
your mind or your thinking capacities. He's saying, I want you to think
about something. We do you to wit. Think on this
a minute. OK. Of the grace of God bestowed
on the churches of Macedonia. How that in a great trial of
affliction The abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded
unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record,
yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves,
praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift
and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own
selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. What did
these impoverished, unemployed, hungry people do to their power,
yea, and beyond their power? They were willing of themselves.
You see, they gave more than anybody thought they could give. They gave beyond their ability. Why? Because they first gave
themselves to God. It was a reflection of what was
in their heart. It was a reflection of what was in their heart. Many
of you have heard me tell the story of a little boy who came to church
and he would come to church and every week he would be playing
with his little cars and he heard the preacher talking about giving
and he'd reach in his pocket and he'd find his little treasures
and trinkets and one week he put in his marble. His best marble. And the usher came back to him
and said, we can't put marbles in the bank, son. You know, thanks,
but no thanks. And gave it back to him. And
one day he the offering plate came by and he put his best little
matchbox car in the offering plate and he watched it go all
the way down. He was so proud. He gave his.
Most prized possession to the Lord. And the usher came and
said, son, we can't put matchbox cars in the bank. We can't spend
those things and appreciate it. But thanks. But no, thanks. And
the usher went to the pastor and and and said, I don't know
what to do now. The boy keeps telling me to put
the offering plate on the floor. The pastor said, well, you know,
it's kind of a harmless request. And he sits in the back just
one Sunday, just oblige him. So the little boy, when the offering
plate came by, told the usher, would you put it on the floor?
He told the man, if you won't take my matchbox cars and my
marbles, he stepped into the offering plate and he said, I
give myself. I give myself. You know, that's
exactly what they did. They gave themselves to the Lord.
But you know what happens when you give yourself with your heart
and soul to God? Everything that you have comes
with it. And so when there's a need within the body of Christ,
guess what? Your heart goes right along with trying to care for
that need, where your treasure is, where your heart be also.
We're talking about a condition of the heart, not about a keeping
of the law. Something we're talking about.
The Lord said, from the days of your father, you've turned
away from my ordinances. But what I'm asking you to do is not come
back to tithing. First, come back to me, fall
in love with me, have the right heart's condition. And when that's
taken care of, then guess what? You'll return to tithing. You'll
stop robbing from me. You know what? Listen, when I
love my children, I want to feed them. How many of you have known
somebody that's been under the domination of drugs or alcohol
and it has ruined their life? Let me see your hand. I know
men who when they're sober, the finest men, but when they're
drunk or when they're high on some drug or want to get a fix,
they have no conscience. You know what I'm talking about?
You know what they'll do? They'll take their paycheck.
and blow through it in a day on drugs or alcohol and never
give a second thought to the fact that they got babies at
home that are hungry. They'll take mama's food stamps
and sell them for 50 cents on the dollar to buy a $30 bag of
heroin. Do you know what I'm talking
about? And it reveals a condition of
the heart. When I love my kids, you know what I want to do? I
don't want to rob from the cereal in their bowl so that I can obsess
on me. I want to make sure that their
needs are cared for. When I love God, I don't want
to shortchange His work. I want to see to it that every
need within the work of God is handled and cared for. And I
want to do my every part. Why? Because my heart is towards
Him. And where my treasure is there
will my heart be also. We're talking about a condition
of the heart, not about a keeping of the law. Because God is more
interested in what's going on in your heart than by you just
dotting your I's and crossing your T's. I've never been the $138.28 type
of giver. I hope I never will be. I hope
that my heart is always benevolent towards the Lord, always wanting
to give Him the benefit of the doubt, the roundup. You understand? The little extra and the leftovers,
the freewill offerings and the drink offering and the meat offering
and the bread offering and the heave offering and the first
fruit offering and the tithe. You see that? Why? Because of
love. A condition of the heart. We're going to talk about this
more next week. And you don't listen, folks. You say, well,
I don't I don't need this. I already got it down. I already
tithed. We're not talking about the tithe specifically. We're
talking about condition of the heart. We're going verse by verse
in the book of Malachi. There's six verses here that deal specifically
with this issue of giving. But that's such a sensitive area
to most people. They get real ticklish, you know.
Oh, he's trying to get something out of me now. I'm not trying
to help you get the windows of heaven open over your house. I'm trying to help you see your
pathway clear to God's blessing. And I'm not here to hurt you.
I'm not your enemy. I'm not trying to get my hand
in your pocket. You understand, I'm here to try to help. I'm
here to say, thus saith the Lord. You know, like it or not, but
this is what it says. And live it or don't, be blessed or cursed,
whatever you want. But I'm just saying this is what
God's word says. Amen. So my job, John Harris,
as a pastor, is to preach the word of God as it is to people
as they are and let God be God in their life. Because, you know,
I make a lousy God. I don't even play a good one
on TV. You know what I'm saying? So, so look, I'm just going to
let God be God. He doesn't need my help. Oh,
by the way, he doesn't need yours either.
A Condition of the Heart Part 2
Series A Condition of the Heart
| Sermon ID | 311122030504 |
| Duration | 46:19 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Malachi 3:6-12 |
| Language | English |
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