For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished. Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In your tithes and offerings! You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you! Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. I will rebuke the locust for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
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Let's talk for a moment about
indulgence. We all have indulgence
foods. Indulgence foods are the foods
that you know are not healthy, that you know are not good for you, but you eat
them anyway, just because they are so good and they make you feel good. Indulgence foods are the foods you eat when
you've just received some goods news and want to celebrate. Indulgence foods are the foods you would eat
three times a day if someone came out and said they were healthy.
What's your indulgence food?
I love big hamburgers. The type that you have to stare at for a
little while to figure out how to pick it up without it falling apart. The hamburgers that just look messy, that
take up way too much of the plate. I
think they're simply marvelous. Plus,
when you cover the rest of the plate with french fries, to the point that
they're spilling over the edge of the plate when you set it down, it's a
beautiful thing. But do you know what it
isn't?
Healthy.
So what do I do?
Order a salad with it.
The salad makes it healthy. Because I have a salad, I can eat whatever I
want. Cookies and ice cream for
dessert? Had a salad? More fries?
Sure, I had a salad. Rachel
didn't finish her burger? I'll take care
of it—had a salad.
We do this with God
sometimes. Sometimes we knowingly do
things we aren't supposed to, but we say a little prayer beforehand and think
that makes it ok. The bad news is that
it doesn't. If we know it's wrong, a
little prayer won't make it right.
We know what food is
healthy. We know what food is
unhealthy. If we're really honest for a
moment, as hard as this is going to be, we can all take a moment and admit that
fried chicken isn't good for us. Let's
just own that for a moment. We can go
back to denial soon, but we can all share the confession that we eat food that
isn't good for us.
Now, let's imagine that we all
decided to eat healthy. We know what a
healthy diet is. If we all decided to
follow it, it would change our lives, right?
We'd be different people! We'd
feel better, we'd move and sleep better—our bodies would be closer to the
ideal, closer to how they're supposed to work.
But we don't eat like that. We like to indulge every now and again. Sometimes, it's hard to eat healthy. Sometimes we just don't like to.
But deep inside, we know how
we're supposed to eat. And if we did
really stopped eating bad things and started eating good things, we'd be
healthier.
Our faith isn't so
different. We're talking about
repentance today. Repentance isn't
fun. If we do it the way it's supposed
to be done, it's not easy. But it's
important.
See, the thing is, in Scripture,
God tells us how we're supposed to live.
We know we're supposed to put God first and trust him in absolutely
everything. We know we're not supposed
to worry and we're supposed to love everyone, regardless of what they've done
to us or someone we love. We know we're
supposed to let our lives get caught up in service of others, and we're called
to spend time alone with God in prayer.
But we don't.
This has effects. Just like eating bad food has effects on our
health, the sinful choices we make have effects on our lives. We don't function as well as we should. We don't live the abundant life God wants us
to live. We don't live to the highest of
our possibilities, because sin prevents that.
In our Scripture reading from
Malachi today, God is talking to his people about this. See, the rule is that they were supposed to
give the first 10% to God. Didn't matter
what it was, the first 10% went to God.
The first, the best—nothing was too good for God.
But that's hard. Giving 10% to God is hard enough, but giving
our best 10% to God—that's even harder.
Especially if we're called to do it before the rest of the harvest has
even come in. That's pretty radical
dependence on God, so we hedge our bets.
We hold some back. We hold back
some of the percentage, and we hold back some of the best, just in case God
doesn't come through.
This is the sin the people were
guilty of—they weren't living up to their end of the tithe. God called them on it. He told them to return to him, to repent of
their sins, and amend their ways.
He then went on to tell them that
he would bless them if they followed the law.
He says he'll open up the windows of heaven if they tithe—blessings will
spill out upon them, and they'll live the abundant life God talks about. If they are willing to trust God completely,
God promises that he will come through—he tells them to test him, to give him
the chance to prove that he is faithful.
But they have to trust God.
Friends, we're in the same
position. God knows that we aren't fully
dependent on him. God knows we're
holding something back for ourselves, hedging our bets in case God doesn't come
through. We say we depend on God, but
we're afraid and uncertain of what total dependence on God is, so we hold a
little back.
And it's sinful. It's the construction of idols in our hearts,
idols in our lives, and slowly, we begin to worship them.
So what Romans says is this—that
the kindness of God, the blessings and riches and mercy of God, is poured out
upon us to lead us to repentance. When
we see the love and wonder of God, it should be to us a reminder that we aren't
living as God intended for us to live.
It's like the produce section at the grocery store—it's a reminder to us
that we're eating too much mac and cheese, and that we need to change our
ways.
What God is saying is that if we
repent of our sin and return to him, it's the first step in moving toward the
abundant life Christ talks about. God
promises us that if we trust in him completely, if we follow him with all of
our life, he'll bless us in ways we cannot understand. God takes our repentance and does a work in
it—he changes us into a different kind of people, a kind of people who delight
in doing his will.
But we need to repent, and
honestly repent—this isn't like just getting a salad with a massive heart
attack on a plate. This is changing how
we live, true repentance. This is going
to God in prayer and allowing him to do a work in you. This is hard, hard work.
Repentance isn't easy. But it's necessary. God's kindness should lead us there, but God
doesn't then leave us alone—he changes us, transforming us into the kind of
people who delight in doing God's will, in living the life he has imagined for
us, one caught up in love of God and love of neighbor. But to get there, we need to repent.
Let us pray
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