Let me just say that what God has revealed to the people of Judah and to those in Jerusalem is what he wants to reveal to every person in every dispensation. And that is what we stated in chapter one in verse two, and that is where the Lord has said to Judah, I have loved you. And so we see a reflection of the heart of God. And because God is love and we know that God is immutable, the Lord says in verse six, I am the Lord, I change not. So an immutable God who personifies love says, I have loved you and I'm not going to stop. I'm going to continue loving you. And that was precisely the reason why God gave them. A prophet named Malachi to prophesy and to call them to himself, because the Lord was continuing in his patience towards them and his love towards them, it was out of his love that he wrote this, and sometimes we fail to see in the midst of all of the woeful pronouncements that God gave to his idolatrous children, we fail to see the patience and the love of God revealed between the lines. Because the Lord said to them, because I love you and I'm not going to stop loving you, I haven't destroyed you. Because I'm not done with you. I've got a purpose and a plan for your life. I'm saying that I see that revealed in our God over and over again. By faith, I believe the reason why God spared Whitney from stomach cancer is because God wanted her to be His child, and I'm trusting the Lord by faith that she's going to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. God is not finished working that situation yet. And he revealed that. And I'm saying to you that sometimes in difficult situations, we fail to see between the lines the patience and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ for us. Sometimes I'll talk to folks who have had a run in with the law. and it has wound up placing them behind bars for a season of time. And there are several folks, perhaps even in this room, that have had to go through that process of humiliation in their life. And friends, can I say that it would be easy for you to have, when you go into that situation, this attitude that everything's going wrong, but if you begin to understand that God in his sovereignty put you in a place where he could show his love to you, where he could speak to you, where he could have your undivided attention as you being the captive audience that you would have to focus in. You would see in the midst of something very difficult, something very wonderful. And that is revealed to you the patience and the love of Almighty God. And so tonight, that's precisely what we see revealed in this passage of Scripture. We see between every line the love of Almighty God and the patience of Almighty God for a rebellious people that really were doing things their own way. And then when they were confronted with the reality of that in their insolence and rebellious spirit, they questioned God. They went so far as to question not only the love and the goodness of the Lord, because when the Lord said, I've loved you, they said, wherein have you loved us? What's so good that would demonstrate to us that you love us? And then every time the Lord tried to prove a point to them, they acted like they were smarter than the Lord. And when God was doing righteously towards them, they said, where is the God of justice and judgment? And they began to question even the holiness of God. And here I find that there are times where we as a people who should believe and trust in these things, we're just like they are. I've seen in my own spirit at times me saying, God, you know, man, I've been praying for this. I've been working and longing and yearning for this. And where is it? You know, and sometimes we we border on this idea of saying, where's the God of justice? God, if there's any justice in the world and if you're still righteous and holy, then this is probably going to have to be the end result of this is going to have to come out better than what it is right now. Have you been there? Or am I the only hypocrite in the group? Am I? I'm the only one that's ever questioned the Lord and had an attitude that the Lord would look upon contemptibly, but still demonstrate his love and his patience toward. I'm saying to you tonight that we see the heart of God revealed. And He called the people who come to Himself. And we talked about tithing last week because that's how it falls in the passage. And I want to just simply say that in this dispensation, I believe tithing is a rudimentary thing for people that are just starting out that don't understand the principles of grace giving. Much like my children. Right now, we're trying to teach the kids how to give, and Linda, on Sunday morning, will give them their little offerings. Sometimes she'll give them a $1 bill, or she'll give them some coins, whatever. How many of you, when you were growing up, your mom or dad put a little money in your hand for you to go and put in the offering, and maybe there was a little bank in your Sunday school room, or maybe there was an offering plate that you passed, but whatever the case, they were trying to teach you proper stewardship. And they were trying to teach you the principle of giving something back to the Lord, that which he had blessed you with, right? And so I believe for a newer believer, tithing is a very rudimentary principle. But in this dispensation, we teach grace giving, much like the Lord revealed in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. Although tithing was still condoned in the New Testament in the respect that the Lord talked to the Pharisees about the way that they gave. And he said, listen, You tithe of mint and cumin. And here they were taking little herbs and they were measuring every little portion of herb and they would take a little, you know, like you take a butter knife and they pair off, you know, ten little flecks of an herb out of a hundred flecks, you know, and they give that as their tithe and they had it down. Kind of like that person whose tithe check is, you know, eighteen dollars and thirty nine cents. You know, they're going to give 10% down to the penny. You know, they're not going to round up to 40 cents even, you know, and give God the benefit of that doubt. And that's how the Pharisees were doing it. But he said, look, you've omitted the weightier matters of the law, such as mercy and judgment. And God was trying to get them to see that this matter of being down to that last little point and jont and tittle in the way that we gave to the Lord was not the proper spirit to have. And then when it was convenient for them, they made up rules about giving so they didn't have to, especially when it related to their parents. When their parents who had a need came to them and said, would you help me financially? Then the Pharisees would say, oh, I have this money, but it is Korban, which means a gift to the Lord or designated for the Lord's work. And so even though it had not been previously designated when mom and daddy needed a loan, they said, no, this money is Korban. And they were under no obligation to give that money to the temple or the synagogue with any time frame at all. It just was designated and there it sat. And so they tried to use the law conveniently for their own advantage to dictate the way that they wanted to give and to the things that they wanted to give to. And sometimes that's where the people of God are. They think, well, I'll give if, you know, it goes to the cause that I like or I'll give if it, you know, if I'm going to receive recognition for it or I'll give if I think that so and so is going to be administrating the project or if they're going to spend the money exactly the way it needs to be spent. And sometimes we get so wrapped up in the project or the project manager that we neglect God. You know, you remember when the Lord went into the temple and he sat down over by the treasury and he beheld how men gave. Do you remember that? And here came a little widow woman. And do you remember the story how that she came and the rich men took of their abundance and they took their gold coins and they put them into that fluted receptacle called the treasury that was oftentimes made of brass. And they would, with great fanfare, drop those gold nuggets or coins into that flute and it would cause everybody to turn and look, wow, that person gave a lot of money. And the Lord watched how they did it and how they were so proud. You know, kind of like that person that writes the tithe check and it's maybe one of the bigger ones that they've written in a while. So they leave it face up in the offering plate and then they watch it all the way down. And then they turn around and see if anybody's looking, you know. And they're looking back, you know. They're watching that tithe check all the way to the door, you know. And of course, none of us would ever do anything like that. But, you know, some people, they want to give that way. But then here comes the widow woman. And she had two mites, which legally was the least amount under the law of Moses that a person may give. And she put that in and the Lord said she hath given more than all of these rich men. You remember? Now, on face, did she give a larger amount? Yes or no? No, she didn't give a larger amount. She gave a much smaller amount. They gave multitude. She just gave the least amount possible. But God said all they have given out of their abundance, they had more than enough to spare. And so what they did was they took some of what they had left over to spare and they gave that to the Lord. But she had given all that she had and the Lord qualified. He said even all her living. In other words, God said she took and gave everything that she had. And by that action, she gave a greater sacrifice than those that gave out of their abundance, because God measures our gifts, not by what we put in the plate, but by what we have left over. You see that. And so consequently, it correlates with the principle that is taught in Second Corinthians chapter eight, which is under grace. And that is not equal giving, but equal sacrifice. I may not be able to give as much as somebody else. Someone else may not be able to give as much as me. However, we all have the capacity and ability to give sacrificially. And so God doesn't measure the size of the gift. He measures the degree of the sacrifice. So the size of the gift is proportional in the eyes of God to what we have left over. And so the thing that was of great consequence there, and I believe is in Mark chapter nine, where the Lord was beholding how this widow woman gave. We discover that the Lord just prior to that said, beware of the Pharisees, which for pretense make long prayers in the marketplace and make broad their phylacteries and which devour widows' houses. And right after the Lord said, watch out for these religious men of the cloth who are pretentious and devour a widow's houses, then the Lord beheld how a widow woman gave. I don't believe there's anything circumstantial about that. I believe that is providential in how God intended for it to come out. And I think what we need to see from this is the fact that when the Pharisees and the men of the temple would would find a widow in their culture that was struggling financially to pay her bills, they would say, I want to help you. And so they would take out a mortgage on that widow's home, knowing full well that that widow could never pay the mortgage payments. And when she could not pay the mortgage payment on time, They would foreclose on the house and they would take it away from them, leaving that woman to serve as a slave to them or homeless altogether. And that was something that was common in their culture that that happened, and that's why the Lord said they devour a widow's houses. They would prey on the less fortunate, the downtrodden, by the way, that's very much like the televangelists of our day who pray on the sick and the poor, who simply want to make ends meet and pay their bills, who simply want to feel better. And they tell these people, if you give us this money, God's going to give you a breakthrough. You're going to be able to pay your bills and you're going to be able to be healed from your rheumatoid arthritis. Or, you know, God's going to give you this breakthrough. And so what they're doing is they're devouring the houses of the less fortunate and of those that are in all kinds of trouble. And I'm going to tell you, there are multitudes of people in this country, yea, and around the world who have been deceived by televangelists. And the Bible is filled with warnings about these types of preachers who care not for people, only for themselves, and because of filthy lucre devour a widow's houses. Now, having said that, I want to say this, that the widow woman knew that these men at the temple would often do that. You know what she did? She gave anyway. Now, you could say, well, she was a foolish woman. No, the Lord said that there would be a memorial spoken of her throughout all the ages. That she's given more than them all. That she would stand as a shining example of how to give forever. You read the record of the Gospels, it's clear. And we would think that's very foolish. No, because see this. She was not giving that to the Pharisees. She was not giving it to the scribes or the Sadducees. She was not giving it to anyone except God. Now, if they took that money and they misused it, then they'll give an account to God for that. But that woman will still receive a full reward for her investment in the things of God. You know, once you give it, you've given it, it's gone, right? Listen, sometimes we're so obsessive about it and I realize we need to be wise. But folks, I've seen people around freeway who've who've invested time, who've invested money in this place. And you know what? They can walk around and they can say, you know what? I went to I went to a banquet at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in 2006 and I gave money and we bought this chair with it. We bought that chair with it. We bought that chair with it. We bought these lights with it. And we bought the lumber that built this platform with it. And we built that sound booth back there. And we built that media booth back there. And then some will say, I went in 2007 to a banquet that we had in the Fellowship Hall. And we bought that red van with it. You remember, Brother Bill? And we bought that white van. So we could say, here's where my resources went, OK? You can see it. You can touch them. You can feel them, right? And you can see the evidence of it. Or you can go upstairs and you can say, you know what? I gave money to help put gas in the bus. And you know what? Here's a little child that last week, a little boy, a 13-year-old 7th grade boy walked forward on Sunday morning whose name was Frank. And Frank got saved. You know why? Somebody cared enough to buy a gallon of gas to put in a bus. And because there was a Dorinda and there was a Monty and there was a Mickey and a Renee that said, we care about bus kids and we want to help. And there was a teacher there who taught the class for the Harris. And then he sat in the service and came forward in the invitation. And there was someone here to deal with him. But you know what? What made that possible was our giving. You see that? I believe God's plan for us in this dispensation is giving through the ministry of the local church. So Frank could get saved, and so the fellow that came forward Sunday night and got saved could be saved. And we have some unsaved young people upstairs tonight, and by faith I believe some of them are going to get saved. But it's because God's people give. And I want to just simply say, and I don't want to keep you long tonight because I know that we've labored some of these issues, but there are three things that I want to point out from this, and that is this. God said, will a man rob God? Yet you say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Now, whether it's A grace gift that the Lord compels us to give because of love, or whether it is a tithe and an offering that is a tenth of your earnings, we're not going to split the hair on that right now. What I want to say is I believe that every true believer in Jesus would say that God wants us to give gifts to Him. And that our treasure is a reflection of where our heart is. How many of you believe that? Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So we're not arguing about should we give gifts to the Lord. Some people want to split hairs. Should it be a ten? Should it be more than a ten? Should it be a tenth and the offering? What is it? The Lord said you've robbed me in tithes and offerings. What is more significant here is not just the amount that they may have taken, but the fact that they took it from God. Because you know what I believe? If you'd steal from God, you'd steal from anybody. You know that? If you'd take from God that which rightly belonged to Him, you wouldn't have a conscience about doing anything else. Do you understand? Because when we realize that God's word says clearly in Proverbs 3, honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase, So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presto shall burst out with new wine." We realize in Luke 6 it says, give, and it shall be given unto you. We realize in 1 Corinthians 16, 1 and 2, it says, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him the stores. God has prospered him. So we know that God, throughout every generation and dispensation of time, has had for people to give him offerings. Sometimes it was a lamb. Sometimes it was a turtle dove. Sometimes it was a pigeon. Sometimes it was something else. If sometime you go through the book of Leviticus and you begin to read about all of the many sacrifices that were given, and one of the things that is so miraculous beside that is the deliverance that God gave to the people of Israel in the wilderness, because not only was there more than a million people that wandered through the wilderness that God fed and watered, but there were millions of animals that had to have gone with them because Daily, there were animals sacrificed. Weekly, there were animals sacrificed. There were thousands upon thousands of animals that were sacrificed to the Lord. And guess what they had to have? Food and water. And if you consider just the amount of water that it would have taken to supply a million people, plus all of their cattle, animals, it was astronomical. But God provided for their every need. But these people, they stole from God. Now, in the Bible, we see the Pharisees, which we know, as we've mentioned, that they they were down to the last penny. They had it right down to where they were. They were measuring the little flecks off the end of the mint and the cumin and all of the herbs that they used. That's how they gave. They weren't going to give anything more. Now, then there were those that were irreligious and they didn't give anything at all. Some people just kind of gave what they had to and other people said, I'm just going to not give at all because what has God ever done for me? God doesn't pay my bills. I've got to pay my own bills. And that was kind of the attitude that was reflected in verse 14, where they asked, you know, what profit is there in serving the Lord? The temple doesn't pay my bills. What profit is there in me going down there? They're not the ones that take care of me. Some people might say that, you know, deacons and the pastor, they're not going to be here to mow my grass and take care of me. Why do I need to give money? Because you're not giving it to the pastor, because you're not giving it to the deacons. You're not giving it to the church. You're giving it to the Lord. And any time you give to the Lord, there is a reward. Say, how do you know that? Well, the Bible is filled with promises about the faithfulness of the Lord in the matter of financial stewardship. Here's one that God gives. He said in Psalm 37 and verse 25, I've been young and now I'm old. Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed. You know what the Lord does? He says, whatever you have need of, I'll give it to you. But I'm giving it to you on loan because you need to realize that everything I give you belongs to me. And he wants us to render that back to him. But do you know what he's going to do? He's going to lead you to say, just like David did, I've been young and now I'm old. And yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread? And I got to tell you something, honestly, my granddad used to say he was a farmer, a dry land bean farmer and raised alfalfa and wheat and beans. And I can remember him saying he never saw a farmer go belly up because he parked his tractor to go to church on Sunday. I never saw a farmer go belly up because he parked his tractor on Sunday to go to church. You know, I've never seen anybody go belly up because they were faithful to give to the Lord. Have you? And if they did go belly up, I'll tell you, they weren't given it to the Lord. They were given it for their own benefit or recognition. What I'm saying to you is that God's Word is so filled with things, but they robbed from God and they, without conscience, took that which belonged to the Lord. What is it that you have that belongs to the Lord? Everything. Everything. God gave you every good gift, every perfect gift. Whatever it is that you have that's good, it came from the Lord. They robbed from God and that was bad, wasn't it? But you know what they were doing? They were robbing from themselves. Why? Because one of the avenues by which God supplies our every need is by us giving to the Lord. He said in Luke 6, verse 38, give and it shall be given unto you. Press down, shaken together and running over with good measure shall men press on your bosom. But with the same measure that you give with all, it shall be measured to you again. So. How many of you have ever been to In-N-Out Burger? Let me see your hand. All right. Some of you have had a true spiritual experience. You've been to In-N-Out Burger. Amen, Brother Bill. That's just good goodies. There's just no getting around it. But I don't know if you've ever gone to In-N-Out Burger and ordered a number one with grilled onions. But man, that's just a good thing to do. And every once in a while, you just have to, for general purposes, go in there and say, I have a number one with grilled onions. You go in there and you sit there and you watch them in the back and they take whole potatoes, spuds. Have you seen it? And they put them in this spud press and they go and out pops the fresh potatoes out of that press, you know, and they put those in the oil, the peanut oil, and then they come out and they put them on a big towel, right? And they salt them and they take that towel and they shake the grease off it in that towel, right? And then they'll put the the containers on top of that and they'll turn it over and they'll shake it and then they'll put a few more in there and then they put it in your box. And there's about 20 French fries that fall out in the box. You know what that is? That's pressed down, shaken together and running over. That's how the Lord gives back when you give to him. Amen. And so when I see that, I want to say, honey, are you using those fries in the tray right there? And, you know, I realize that that man, she's got him running over and I need him far worse than she does to maintain this this hourglass figure that I've got. But what God does is. He says, look, one of the ways that I want to bless you and give to you, press down, shaking together, running over with good measure, is by you giving to me first, because given shall be given unto you. And then he said, here's how I'm going to give. God always gives back in greater proportion than what we give to him. And so when you rob God, understand and remember this, you are really robbing from yourself because you have cut off the supply line from heaven to your house. by your lack of a willingness to demonstrate your love to the Savior. I'm not saying you're under some terrible curse, but do you know what I've discovered? If I withhold from the Lord a gift that He's put in my heart to give Him, I've found that generally I'm going to have to give that up somewhere along the line. I remember one time I was teaching stewardship in a Sunday school class to young couples, and I had a guy named Les in my class. And after the class, he said, Pastor, can I say something? And I said, sure, go ahead, Les. And he stood up and gave a testimony. And he said, I just want everybody to know that last week when I got paid, I had some bills and things going on. I decided I wasn't going to pay my tithes because things were tight. So I didn't pay my tithes. And he said, this week on payday, I had just a little bit of time on my lunch hour to run to the bank. And in my haste to get there, I was driving a little too fast and I got pulled over by a police officer and given a ticket. And he said, lo and behold, the amount of the ticket was the exact amount that my tithe would have been last week. And he said, he's going to get it one way or another. Now, I'm not saying that every bad thing that happens to you financially is somehow God trying to teach you to give. But what I'm saying is that, you know, listen, that's one way that you can be certain it won't be lost. God never will be a debtor to any man, will never be a debtor to any man. So when we rob from God, remember, we're really robbing from ourselves. Look at what it says. It says in verse 10, bringing all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out of blessing, that there should not be room enough to receive it. How many of you would like that? The windows of heaven to be open and God pour you out of blessing, that's so great you can't even receive it. There were some offerings that they took in the Old Testament where they had to tell everybody, hold up, time out, you've given way too much money, stop giving money. I think that only happened once. But anyway, that happened. But look, verse 11, And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast your fruit before the time of the field, saith the Lord of hosts. You know what God says? When you rob from me, You're really taken from yourself. Because when you bless me with the resources that I've entrusted to your care, that I've loaned to you, and you give them back to me, I'll make sure the supply line of heaven stays open to your house. I'll make sure I rebuke the devourer so you don't have to pay more in tax, more in gas. I'll give you the coupons. I'll make sure that you find the deals. I'll stretch the rice a little further. I'll make sure you can wear the shoes a little longer, that the tires last longer than what the manufacturer says they should. I'll make sure that the devourer is rebuked for you. So when we give to the Lord, He says, I'm going to bless you. When we rob from God, we're really robbing from ourselves. We're cutting off the blessing that God wants to bless us with. And in the process of that, let me say this, not only we're robbing God and we're robbing ourselves, but we're robbing from others because look at what it says in verse 11. Again, I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes. And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of Hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts. You know what God's saying here? I want to bless you in such a way. I want to give to you in such a way. I want your fields to be so prosperous in such a way that all of the Gentile world may know that there's a God in heaven that loves his people. And when you rob from me, not only do you rob from yourself, but you rob the testimony that's potential to a gainsaying world that would want to know more about a God that loves his people like that. You see that all the nations are going to call you blessed, why? Because I've blessed you. But if there's no blessing there, there is no testimony there. If God's people say, we're not going to finance the work of the Lord at Freeway or any place for that matter. We're going to just do what we feel like doing. That's your prerogative to do. But let me say, not only are you robbing from God, but you're robbing from yourself. And what you're doing is you're relegating others to the place that they have not the witness that God wanted to give them. God wanted the Gentile world to have a witness of a blessed people, but they weren't being blessed because they were robbing from God. And they were robbing from God because of a condition of their heart. And whenever we get to the place where we feel skittish about teaching on money, or we're a little uptight about it, a little uncomfortable, and we hope that it gets over with, and things like that, we need to ask ourselves, is my heart in the right place Am I loving God as I should, or have I come to the place where material things and money are more important to me than they should be? They were far more important to the people of Judah and of Jerusalem than they should have been, or this would never have been written. And the one thing that I know, that just as God never changes, human nature, the carnal man, is always the same. And when we walk according to the flesh, guess what? We're going to demonstrate the very same type of spirit and attitude that these people did as well. I'm just simply saying to you that God calls us to give ourselves unto him first, to say, Lord, I surrender not just the tithe. I surrender me. I surrender all. Because when God has all of you, he has everything that you possess. And God did not want to take something away from these people. He wanted these people. God doesn't want to take anything away from you. He wants you. When he has you, guess what? He has you right where he wants you. So that he could pour you out a blessing. Say, God's going to help me win the lotto? No, it may not be like that. It may be that he blesses your interview and he gives you that job. It may be that he greases the skids to help with the disability claim. It may be that he helps you get more back in tax than you thought you'd get. It may be that you discover that you had an old gift card to Fry's that you forgot about in the cabinet. I don't know what it is. But God has something that he will do for you. And sometimes it may just be so sedate that we don't recognize that it has come from God himself. But God, every day, allowed manna to fall from heaven. Every day he provided for his people. It wasn't so spectacular after a while, it was just daily provision. They didn't stop every day to think, you know, man, I've been wearing these old shoes for 25 years and they look as good as the day I put them on. But they did. How did that happen? God. God. You know, these are expensive shoes. They may not look like it right now, but, you know, I saw these the other day at Nordstrom Rack on sale, half off for $120. OK, you know, I paid $27 for them at last chance. You know what I think that was? That was the Lord saying, I'm going to provide for your needs. I want you to wear something comfortable so when you go on visitation, you're on your feet, you're comfy. I want you to like them too. And I'll let you have them at a price you can afford to pay. I couldn't have paid $270, but I could have afforded $27 when I bought them. You see that? I think that was just the Lord. And God does that for you. And every person in this room tonight, everyone, I have no doubt, could tell about something like that and more that God has done for you. Amen. How many of you tonight could give a testimony of how that the Lord has provided for you and you knew it and you knew it? Then let's remember this, that when we take from the Lord, it's a reflection of our hearts. And what we've really, really done is taken from God, and we've also robbed from ourselves, our families. And in so doing, we've robbed from others because we've stolen from them the witness of the blessing of God. And let's determine we're going to stop our thieving ways and we're going to begin our loving ways and love in God like he deserves to be loved. He didn't say go back to tithing. He said return unto me. And when he has you, he's got everything you have. you