Honor The Seed | It Starts in Your Heart | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas

Hey, everyone. Pastor Sean here, and I wanna thank you for subscribing to our podcast. I'm excited to get into today's message. And remember this, God is a good God. He loves you, and he wants to bless you.

I want you to turn with me this morning, Malachi chapter three.

And hang with me just one more second, Ken.

And I'm gonna read this. I wanna pick back up where where we were teaching from last week, and really I just wanna continue the conversation that we started. The Bible says this in Malachi chapter three, starting in verse eight, and I'm gonna read these four verses.

The word of the Lord states, starting in verse eight, will a man rob God, yet you've robbed me? But you say, in what ways have you robbed me?

In tithes and offerings, and you are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. And try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open.

Open for you.

Open. If you remember last week, we begin to define or look at the definition of what the statement says that when translators put this in there, it's not that it was that I'll open a window for you, but I'll open a window out of you.

That you are the window of heaven in which the blessing begins to flow. And the bible says, and I'll pour out of you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. Verse 11 says this, and this is what I love so very much, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground.

Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts in all nations. Somebody say all nations. All nations will call you blessed for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts. I wanna walk it back to verse 11. And verse 11 says this, and I will I will rebuke the devourer for your sake so that he will not destroy the fruit of the ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit. He shall not destroy the fruit of the ground. He shall not destroy the fruit of the ground.

God created you that in your capacity to sow seed, that that seed, the seed is a carrier of a life. And that when the carrier of a life would be planted into good ground, that good fruit would come out of the ground. And so, that means if I am sowing good seeds, seeds that God's given me to sow, it means that it should actually produce good fruit from the ground. And so God is saying anything that is of me and anything that is for me and anything that is from me is gonna produce something that is good. And if it's good, I'm not gonna leave it there to die.

He said there will be good fruit and the fruit of the vine shall not fail which means the seed shall work. If the fruit of the vine is not failing, that means the vine is working, which means from the root of where the seed's planted into the ground to the shoot, now to the fruit it shall not fail.

And I believe that there's been some of us that we've gone through different seasons in in in in different areas of our life that we feel like, is the seed working?

There has been seasons that we have sown.

But let me tell you, is that the seed sown in one season doesn't mean that the fruit's gonna show its face.

Because fruit has an assigned season.

If I plant a seed today, I'm not hopeful that this afternoon I'm gonna see the tree come out of the ground.

But when I plant the seed today, I'm walking in faith. Somebody say faith.

See, when you sow, you gotta have faith. You gotta have faith that the seed will do the work. I think sometimes, we're afraid that the seed won't do the work, so we'll sow the seed, But then, we're trying to check on it every two minutes to see what's happening. What's happening? What's happening? And then, what happens is we begin to get anxious.

And the Bible says, be anxious for nothing.

Let me let me tell you that. In the back. Be anxious for nothing. I love nothing because nothing is a compound word. It says no thing. Be anxious for no thing. And how often in life are things getting us worked up?

How often in life are things just wearing and weighing on our mind? And we get consumed with things. How is this gonna happen? How is this gonna work? But let me tell you, when I'm sowing a seed, I'm sowing in faith, trusting and knowing I've done my part, and now that God's gonna do His part. Because some sow and some water, but God will give the increase.

Stop worrying about how the increase is gonna come. Stop worrying about whether or not is the fruit of the vine going to prosper? If it's going to fail, oh, it will prosper because the Bible says that the word of the Lord will prosper where into He sends it. The seed will not fail.

If you're taking notes, just write that down.

If you're not taking notes, inscribe that in your heart and on your mind right now. The the the the seed in obedience to God will not fail.

I inserted an extra little part of that statement. Obedience to God will not fail.

Will not fail.

Will not fail.

Will not fail.

Your fruit reflects your life, which means if I'm bearing good fruit, I'm not failing. I'm winning. Any winners in the church this morning? Come on. Anybody victorious in Christ Jesus today?

Come on. Anybody here today saying, I thank God if it hadn't been for Jesus, I don't know where I would be.

But because of the finished work of the cross, I now get to enter into this life in Christ, which means when I'm sowing seeds of faith and seeds in obedience, it means I'm going to be fruitful in every good work. I'm going to walk victorious.

I'm going to step foot into the job tomorrow knowing that my God is with me, and my God is for me, and that His favor and His hand of blessing is upon me. That everything I put my mind to, and everything I put my hand to relationally, my family, the fruit of my family shall not fail.

It shall not fail.

I want to stir your faith this morning.

Last week we started the conversation talking about really teaching what tithe is. And I wanna I wanna pick back up the subject a little bit.

And I wanna teach on offering today.

And so I I wanna kinda go back a little bit to last week, refresh us, and then I wanna spend the time just really looking at offering and what its place is in our life. Not what its place is in the church, in your life.

In your life first.

And so when we look here at Malachi, the Bible says this.

As he says, going back in verse 10, he says, bring all the tithes and offering to the storehouse.

So, the storehouse does represent the church.

The storehouse does represent the place that you receive. Because some people question, where do I tithe to? The storehouse does represent the place that you receive.

But he says bring it. So, my tithe is not what I'm giving. My tithe is what belongs to God. Okay?

So tithe, it reveals your trust, your tenth, if you wanna write this down, in your tribute.

Your trust, your tenth, in your tribute.

I'm a good kid. Thank you.

Write this down. It represents your trust, your tenth, and your tribute.

When we look at tithing in the Bible, and I'm not gonna sit here and defend the subject, but I will expand for a moment because I get a lot of people that will say, well, that was Old Testament, and it's not too New Testament. And, I will squash the argument right here.

Because I hear people they say this, the Bible doesn't tell you to tithe in the New Testament.

And, I can show that, but I'm not gonna waste my time trying to prove something. I'm just gonna squash the argument right here. Tell me where it says not to do it, and then we'll have the conversation.

Tell me where it says not to do it, and we'll have that conversation.

But it doesn't tell you to do that. And the emphasis is this, we wanna split hairs over what happened at the cross that separates the old covenant and the new covenant, but the only thing that stopped from the old covenant to the new covenant was penalty, but the principle of what God teaches always goes through the cross.

And so, if you want to fight over penalty, then you can go ahead, and you can start lying, and cheating, and stealing, and everything else that falls under that category as well. And we can just live like rebels and ungodly as much as we want to. No penalty stops at the cross, but the principle of the heart of God passes through.

Tithing is not this subject that we have to look at it under a law.

Tithing reflects the heart of a king.

So, tithe represents your trust. Can you trust God with His portion?

And I showed you last week in the Bible when Adam and Eve were in the garden, God said you could have everything but one tree.

That represented their trust, their devotion of what was God's. Don't touch that. That's mine.

There's always a portion that God says, this is mine. And what it is, is it is demonstrating that everything in life, it comes from God.

In fact, even the clothes that you're wearing, the seat that you're sitting in, the car that you're driving, everything that you have, it came from God.

And he is saying, I want your trust. I want your heart, And so, tithe is your trust.

It is your tenth. What is tenth? The number 10 means divine order.

So, if I want to see godly order, divine order in my life, the tenth is what represented. It's not nine.

It's not 11.

It's not five. It's not 16. God says 10 because it's the highest number in the numerical system.

You say, well, after 10 is 11. No. After 10, you repeat 10 again. And you can keep counting to a 100,000,000,000, and it's 10 on 10 on 10. 10 represents divine order. The curtain to the tabernacle of the holy of holies was 10 cubits by 10 cubits.

It was saying that the outer court, you can participate in. The inner court, you can participate in. But there's a portion of it you're not allowed into. That one is for me.

10 by 10, divine order.

I'm coming out hot teaching right now.

Can't help it. I got a lot to say.

And so, divine order in our life means when I trust God, He will begin to bring His government, His order, His heart, His hand on my life in ways that I couldn't see. So it is...

The tithe is my trust. It's my tent that brings divine order, and it is tribute.

Now listen, tribute in Old Testament was mandatory.

It was mandatory.

If you want to talk again, where is it? Old Testament, New Testament? In New Testament, it's voluntary.

So, you don't have to listen to one word that I'm saying. You can totally check out. You're welcome to leave if you'd like to. If you say, I don't like anything that this pastor is saying.

I don't believe any of it at all. I don't wanna hear any of that. That is that is on you. Enjoy that. Go for that. But if there are some people in here that's saying, I want to see God release a divine order in my life. I want to go to a level and to a place in God that I've never been to today. I want to be able to rest in the word of the Lord, I and wanna see His good hand prosper me in everything that I... If there's anybody that wants to open up their heart and their ears to that.

It's not a mandatory, it's a voluntary.

And so, when we're talking about under the the the the the system of kings and kingdoms, kings would own all of the land, and they would parcel out the land to different individuals.

Now, those individuals, they could sow on that land, they could grow crops and and harvest and have fruit on that land. And there was a there was a specific time where what would happen is the the king would release people that would represent him, and the people would bring tribute. Now, it wasn't mandatory, but they brought tribute, and that tribute was a tithe that went to that king.

And as a result, the king would say this, because your devotion and your trust is in me, I will protect this land, and I will ensure provision for this land.

When Abraham tithed to Melchizedek in Genesis 14, the very first response that God came to Abraham was with him was this. Is He said, I am your shield, I will protect you, and I am your exceedingly great reward. Now listen to me on this. He says, this is what happens when you tithe, number one, you are enacting a covenant with God.

What you're doing is you are legalizing God's covenant. And God's covenant says, if you do this, then I'll do that. If you do this, then I'll do that. If you honor me with with with what is mine, I'm gonna honor you, and I'm going to now bring divine order into your life, and I will bring about protection and provision into your life.

And it was after God told Abraham in Genesis 14 that I'm your shield and exceedingly great reward. He says, Abraham, what is it that you want? And he says, I have no offspring. I have no children. I'm 75 years of age.

I've got nothing to show for a legacy moving forward. And God says, look up at the stars Abraham.

If you can count them, that would bless you if you could count them, but you can't. There's so many stars, so shall your descendants be. What was God doing? God was now giving him revelation to His purpose and destiny. So, when I tithe, tithing, it demonstrates my trust in God. I'm bringing the tithe to Him because it's His.

It brings divine order in my life, and it guarantees protection and provision, and now it releases revelation for me to see.

Now, the bible says, see if I would not open to you the window of heaven and pour out a blessing.

Hang with me now.

You are the window of heaven, and all the revelation that God has put in you is now released for you to see, for you to walk in. Let me let me give you a clear example like this. Does anybody have a water hose at their house?

Anybody have at the end of the water hose a little water gun?

You know, I can go to the spigot and I can turn on at the side of my house the the the valve that releases the water to the hose. And that water can run all the way through that hose. But how many know at the end with that gun that there's a lever, and if I don't open up that lever, ain't nothing gonna come out of the end of that water hose. Water is being fed through a tube to a water gun, so to speak, but I'm not getting any water out on the seeds that I've sown in the garden in my backyard if I don't flip that lever. When I tithe, what happens is it's a lever that opens me up so that water can flow. Oh, the water's coming to you, but it's got no way to get out. And when I tithe, it opens me up that every seed that I've sown, now there is water flowing to it.

And so, when I bring my tithe to God, He opens me up so that everything that He has for my life can be released and I can see clear.

And I can walk with a greater understanding.

Because Abraham was 75, and there is no way naturally that that brother and his wife should be having babies.

Ain't no way, but God gave him a revelation, and it tells me this.

What God has spoken, no man and no thing can come against it.

For the word shall not become void, but it will prosper where God sends it. So, I don't care if you're 75, and He gave you a word, we better write that testimony down and let the world know if you're still having babies at that age. But what I'm here to tell you is this, I don't know what seed God's placed inside of you, but when I begin to honor God and He gives me revelation, that seed shall produce fruit, and that fruit shall not fail.

I want the water to flow.

I don't want the water to fill me up, and I'm not able to release it.

I wrestle whether or not I wanted to use this just because I'm I'm very sensitive to the catastrophe of what took place, I think it was about two weeks ago, in Nepal.

And my heart and my prayer for all the people and the tragedy and all of that.

But if you understand what was taking place was the snow caps were melting.

And the place where the water would go down into, that reservoir that it filled up, it wasn't strong enough to contain the water that was in it. And so it began to break.

The water that was previously there needed to be released so that new water could come in.

And some of us, I want more revelation, more revelation, more revelation. I want more. I want more. I want more. I want more. And I believe that God is saying, what are you doing with what you have?

What are you doing with what you with what you have?

Are we just gonna consume the seed? Are we gonna consume and just become full and fat?

Or are we gonna be ones that recognize the blessing is not about what God wants to get into me, it's about what God wants to get out of me so that I can make an impact and reach my world with life? Life.

The blessing, the revelation, the heart of what God's revealing for your life is not for you to become some big entity in your own fame, in your own thing, in your own whatever.

It's so that God can use you to begin to flow out into someone else's life. And so tithing is not about I give this and I get that. Tithing is saying, God, there are things in my life that I know you've put in my heart, and I wanna make sure that through what you've given me, I can reach my world. I can reach my community. I can make an impact on the job. I can make an impact in my family, and in my neighborhood, and everywhere that I step foot. God help me so that I can walk in blessing for others.

And so, he says when you tithe, when you bring what what is God's to him, he'll open you up. I don't know about you, but I just want to make a declaration. God, open me up.

God, open me up. Just say that. Open me up, Lord. Open

us up, Lord.

And so, he says this though. Check this out. As he says, bring all tithes and offerings.

Now,

tithe and offering are not the same thing.

They're two different things,

but they work hand in hand.

They work hand in hand, but they're they're not the same thing. Offering is not 10, a tenth. Offering is not God's offering is out of the abundance of your heart.

It's over and above is the language that we like to use.

Well, write this down. Let me give you some some punch words for what offering is.

Offering is your treasure.

It is your seed.

And, offering is your honor.

So, tithe reveals your trust.

Offering reveals your treasure. Your treasure is your resource. Your treasure is your possession. Your treasure is whatever you place value on.

Whatever you put value on is your treasure.

And so, your offering is... It's your treasure, it's your seed, because I sow my offering, and it is my honor.

Whenever I give something to somebody, I don't just do it flippantly, it is my honor to give that gift to that individual.

So, in my house, my wife and I, we kind of struggle a lot in the sense of giving gifts because we want to make sure that we're gonna give a good gift and a right gift. And there's nothing worse than not having the right thing, whether it be a Mother's Day or a Father's Day or a birthday or or Christmas or whatever it is. And I'll tell you like, listen, I I wrestle with this because I want to get it really, really right.

And so, we'll start well in advance, and I'll say, so, you know, it's the day after your birthday. What do you think you want next year?

I'm counting down the clock. So, got notes in our phone. Hey, if you're gonna give me a gift, get this.

Why? Because I don't want to give her something that does not honor and express value.

Couple years back, we were getting ready to celebrate our ten year anniversary.

And so I was like, man, ten years? That's a milestone. That's a big year. I'm gonna upgrade her wedding rings.

I can't wait for this. And then I went in and I found out how much that upgrade cost. And I was like, are we sure we don't wanna do this at twenty years?

But it was in my heart. It was in my heart because I wanted to honor my wife. And so what I did was a year before our anniversary, I went in, to to to the jewelry store, and I said okay, here's what I want to do. And we laid it all out. What is this going to cost me? Oh, okay. We're going to make this thing happen. I'm going to trust the Lord. And so, a full year, I spent the time and worked towards being able to upgrade something that I thought would express the value and the honor that she deserved because she was my bride and I wanted to love her, and I wanted to offer her something that would express my heart.

And then after that, I was like, thank God I got ten more years. Till I... Because twenty years we won't...

And now I'm like, shoot, I got six years left. I gotta get on this thing. Because whatever the next upgrade is, that one one's gonna hurt.

Why? Because when you give something, you want to express value.

And so, when I bring an offering to God, I don't want to offer Him something that is just casual.

I wanna offer something that's gonna express my heart and my love to the Lord. The core values of abundant life church, if you didn't know these and you wanna mark them down you're free to, but I'm just gonna say them. But the core values of this church is that we would love, honor, serve, and give. It's in that progression.

Love represents my devotion.

Honor, it expresses the value on that person or that situation.

If you're serving in a ministry team, on that ministry, I honor this ministry so I'm going to serve it because what you honor is what you serve, and what you serve is what you honor.

I'm gonna say that again. What you honor is what you serve, and what you serve is what you will honor.

Because honor means to lay down.

Honor means to lay down, to surrender.

I I honor and I recognize that in this situation that this person or or this thing is deserving of value.

Honor is where you serve, and where you serve is what you honor.

And whatever I serve, I'm gonna give to.

And so, if I'm if I'm... If there's a ministry in the church here that I truly honor, I truly honor our production team.

I honor them.

And they honor their ability to serve and be able to see the Gospel communicated online and around the world. They honor the fact that there is an opportunity to reach people, so what do they do? Our production team, they serve the ministry.

And in serving the ministry, the cameras don't turn on by themselves, the soundboard doesn't turn on by themselves, the lights over our head don't turn on, so they have to give of themselves so that the area that they're serving and that they're honoring can actually have its effect.

Does this make sense? I'm trying to walk you through something to understand that my giving is not just putting a buck in a box.

It's that I'm saying, God, I am giving unto you because I serve you. You are my God. I want to honor you with my best because I place the highest value on you and that's why I love you.

So, my offering starts in the heart. Turn with me, this morning to Mark chapter 12.

Mark chapter 12, starting in verse 30.

As you turn in there, I'm just gonna go ahead and lead into it, because the Bible says that there was a religious leader that came to ask Jesus some questions. And one of the questions that he asked is he said, Jesus, what is the greatest commandment?

What is the greatest commandment?

What is the greatest commandment? And Jesus responds with this. He says, to love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

And then he follows it up with and he says because this commandment is a twofer, love your neighbor as yourself.

So, says love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Everything in life starts in the heart.

Everything in life starts in the spirit before it happens in the natural or in the flesh.

Who you are in this room today happened in the spirit before mom and dad came together and brought you to life in the flesh.

So, everything starts in the spirit and when I love God, I'm gonna love Him starting with my heart first, not with my hand.

Because my hand is an extension of my heart.

So, when I am bringing or giving an offering to God, it's coming from my heart or needs to come from my heart before I'm just releasing anything from my hand.

And so, Jesus tells the the the religious leader this. He says, love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul. Your soul is the place of desire.

It's the place of will. It's it's where you get driven.

Your mind and your thoughts and your strength, everything that is yielded from your hand.

Everything that flows from your hand. So, love the Lord with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength.

Offering is not just about a transactional moment spiritually in a service.

Your offering is your life every single day.

Your offering is when I go to work tomorrow, am I offering the seed of my talent, the seed of my time, the seed of my intellect, the seed of my wisdom? Am I offering in unto God my best? Because I want to see God move in this area.

Now, why do we give finances?

Because finances represents the seed of your time.

It represents the seed of your talent and your energy.

It represents the... It puts a value on you at the end of a hard work week. Well, don't know about that. Don't take a paycheck every two weeks.

Don't ask for a payment every time that something is sold.

No. You desire that because it is the value for the time that you've put in.

And so, when I come to God, I'm giving Him my heart first.

My heart is my yes.

My heart is my surrender.

My heart is that Lord, you have my trust and my faith and my hope because I know that you are my God and you are good, and you saved me, and you changed me, and you healed me, and Jesus, you did on the cross what I could not do for myself.

So, I offer you my life, but don't tell God that you will offer Him your life, but you can't offer Him your stuff.

We can't walk around saying, well, you know, I'm not going to offer God my stuff. But the Bible says in Proverbs chapter three verse nine, to honor the Lord with your possessions, with what you possess, with what is in your hand, because your hand is an extension of your heart.

And I will tell you this, if your heart is not in it, do not give it.

No other pastor will say that. No other preacher will say that because what happens is we'll manipulate this teaching and this message because we just gotta get. All those bills to be paid, and there's things that we gotta do. And you know what that's called? That's a survival mindset.

And people that operate in a survivalist mindset are greedy. And people that are survivalist are not thinking about how the gospel needs to go out and reach people with life. But if your heart's not in it as your pastor, I'm telling you, do not give it.

Because you will not be blessed.

Your seed will go into the soil, and it will remain dormant.

Because it's out of your heart that the water flows for that seed to take place and produce fruit.

Tell me who is saying this in churches right now. I'm not trying to put myself on a pedestal. I'm just trying to cut it straight, because I'm tired of the Gospel being manipulated.

I'm tired of the term prosperity preacher, prosperity Gospel getting a bad reputation.

God called us to prosper in all things, be in good health even as our soul prospers. So, I'm gonna prosper in my heart, I'm gonna prosper in my soul, I'm gonna prosper in my mind, and my goodness, I'm gonna prosper in how I give the Lord for my hand.

And you should not be embarrassed about that. You should not be afraid of that. Because when Jesus died on the cross, He died not just for you to be forgiven of your sins, but He hung openly and naked on a cross so that you could be healed, you could be restored, that you could enter back into the family of God, that you would be fruitful in every good work, that you would prosper in all things.

God wants you to prosper.

And He's given us vehicles in which we can move in that dimension.

So my offering expresses my heart.

And Proverbs three:nine says, honor, love, lay my devotion and my value with what I have given unto the Lord. But I honor with my possession and the first fruit of my increase so that my barns would be full and vats overflowing with new wine. Move that New King James, you know, version into modern. That you would have more than enough, that you would be overflowing, and that you would able to be in a place that you could now be a blessing towards others.

The Bible says, see if not all nations would call you blessed.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 28, He says that you are to be a lender and not a borrower.

My God, prosper the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are the ones that are lending and not borrowing.

That we are the ones that when people are in a time of need, that we can go out there and we can we can be able to reach needs and serve our community and do the things. I don't want to go out and ask for bank loans. I don't want to go and be indebted to Uncle Sam. I want to know that the good God of heaven had me rise up like in the day of Nehemiah, and He prospered me in every good work I put my hand to.

But you've got to get out of a survival mentality.

Survival mentality is I'm only thinking about where I'm at in the moment.

And as the church, we've to get out of this, guys. We've got to stop thinking about the the woes of today, the troubles and the trials of today.

You're gonna go through trials. You're gonna go through troubles. That is the process of a seed thriving through the soil.

When that seed's in the ground, don't you think that it's a little uncomfortable as it's coming out of a tiny little form and it's trying to wiggle its way up through the dirt? It's dark. It's compressed. It's uncomfortable, but that seed is pushing through because it knows it's got a destination.

A destination is the long version for destiny.

You've got a destiny that God's trying to get you to. You've got a destiny that He's trying to lead you to, so you've got to stop thinking about how am I going to get through this today and start declaring tomorrow, start declaring outcome, start declaring your future. Father, I thank you, Lord. Your Word said that all nations would call me blessed, that I'll be fruitful in my coming in, in my going out. And so, God, I'm going to continue to offer a sacrifice unto You, a sacrifice of praise, the sacrifice of my heart, and the sacrifice of what I have for my hands. The

offering, it goes from your heart to your hands. I'm gonna honor the Lord with my possessions

so that I'll be overflowing.

And the Bible tells us this. Jesus says in Matthew six twenty one, as He's as He's He's He's He's telling the people, He says, don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth.

It's your offering. Offerings treasure.

Don't put your... Don't store up your treasures on the earth.

Now I'm glad for investments and all those things.

That's great.

I'm I'm down for it. Let's go. But the but the greatest investment is a kingdom investment.

And Jesus says, if you store up treasures on earth, it's just gonna collect rust and moth. Lay up for yourselves, lay up, bring up, bring up treasures that can rest in heaven.

Because he says where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Oh, wow. Do we just go full circle? I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

My strength is my hand.

In my hand is my offering.

My offering represents my treasure. My treasure's not gonna be buried into the earth, but it's gonna be planted into the good ground of the kingdom because that's where my heart is. I ask you, where is your heart today?

Where is your heart?

Where is your heart?

Where is your heart? See, here's the problem in Malachi.

Because a lot of people won't... They'll just teach chapter three verses eight through 12, and that's it. You gotta understand the entire book. So Malachi receives a word from God because the people are living corrupt.

They're living defiled.

They're living in sin. Let me make it plain as day.

They're living in sin. They're ripping people off.

They're they're committing adultery.

They're not doing what is right, but yet they're coming to the house of God wanting to do the Sunday show, but they wake up on Monday and they're doing anything but that.

And so they walk in and in their offering reflects their heart. Malachi chapter one in verse six, God says this, do you honor your father as a son?

Do sons honor their father? Do servants honor their masters?

He says, well then if I am your father and I am your master, where is my honor?

Says, where is my honor? If you know how to do this in the natural, why don't you know how to do it for me?

And he says this, is he says that that you dishonor me.

You treat me poorly. How do you... And the people say, well how do we treat you poorly? He says, you offer a defiled sacrifice on the altar.

Now here's what was happening in the Old Testament. Jesus hadn't come yet.

The spotless perfect lamb of God has not arrived to give His life and atone and shed His blood. So, the Old Testament, they would take animals and they would sacrifice the animals.

And the thing was this is that God said, you're gonna offer up the best that you have.

You want me to model grace in your life? You're going to have to bring a nice lamb, nice goat. You need to do what is right. But the people weren't doing that. They were bringing sick lambs, sick cattle. They were defiled. They were blind. They had problems.

And He was saying, all that you're doing is you're just giving a casual offering, a casual sacrifice.

It's like this. Well, it's the thought that counts.

I don't want that. I understand that it has its place. I appreciate the thought process.

I do. But don't just stop by and just say, I guess that will work, and then just release it as a gift.

And often times, we'll come to the house of the Lord and what we do is this, it's not that the the the money itself is defiled, it's the hand that's holding it. By the way, money does not have an identity.

We talk about dirty money, clean money.

Money is money. It has no identity.

The identity that it has is the one that's holding it. So, on Monday, the drug dealer can hold money that is meant for a terrible cause. He can get saved on Wednesday, come in and tithe, and that money is the identity that is being held by from the person.

Say, well money's the root of all evil. That is not what the scripture says. It's the love of it, and it produces all kinds of evils.

It's not the only evil, but it produces. What is the point? The point is this, is that the identity comes from the one that's carrying it.

And the problem that is happening in Malachi chapter one is the people that are carrying it, their heart is not right, and so what is in their hearts reflected in their hands, so they're bringing crappy sacrifices.

And so, God is saying, your offering is not right. That's chapter one. Then He moves it along, and He says, and now to you who are the priests that actually bring these sacrifices to Me, I rebuke you because the offer is not living right. By the way, in the Bible, you have the offeror and the offering.

You have the presenter and the presentation.

You have the giver, and you have the gift.

We see all throughout Scripture that there is always with an offering an offeror.

And so, Malachi, God is saying, hey, this offering is defiled.

And it's defiled, it's not right, because the offerer is not living right. And the priests were living corruptly.

And the priests were living in sin.

And the priests weren't doing what was necessary, and God rebukes them for that. And he goes on and he says in chapter two, listen to this. He says this, as he says, how long am I gonna put up with this when you deal with your brethren treacherously?

And he says, in the life of your youth, you treat her treacherously.

Now I'm gonna unpack this for a second. He says, you come to the altar of God crying tears, laying down your gift, laying down your offering in Malachi chapter two, but the wife of your youth you have dealt with treacherously.

The brethren, the body of Christ you've dealt with treacherously.

Means that you are not treating them right, you're ripping them off, you're not living right, you're not modeling what it is to be a kingdom citizen.

And so, says you can come in and you can cry, you can weep, you can lay your offering and I will not receive it. And I want to tell you this today, that when you bring your offering, your offering is to be an extension of your heart.

If your heart's not in it, and your life's not right, God can't bless it.

And this might get some people angry and mad, but I want to get you to a place that you are prospering. And I want you to enter in a place where you are seeing the blessing of God in your life.

But if you're living in sin and you come up, it's just a show.

You're not doing it because you know, because God says to Malachi, He says tell the people they're not living right, but yet they're coming in and they just want to have a Sunday experience. They want everybody to know, look at all the spiritual things that I'm doing.

Defilement, by the way, because I wanna just... Can I just clear the air on this thing? It does not matter how much you're giving in your offering. That's between you and God. It starts in your heart.

Jesus says in that same passage of Mark 12, He says this. He's in the... He's He's standing in the temple treasury where people give offering.

And He says, these religious leaders give out of the abundance of what they have, but this little woman here with two mites, she gave all that she had and all that she had is greater than what they had. It's not a matter of amount, it's a matter of heart.

And if the heart is right, the hand is right. So, God's not looking at the amount saying, well, that wasn't that wasn't enough.

It's the heart, guys.

It's the heart. And see, here's the problem. Nobody's talking about this. Nobody's teaching this.

I know that there's ministries that will call you and say, hey, we checked the records and we noticed, you were off your giving this week.

We don't do that here at this church.

I don't even know what goes on.

We don't do that.

You know why? Because the Bible tells us in Corinthians that God loves a cheerful giver.

God wants it to be out of the overflow of your heart, and He'll give seed to the sower.

Is this good? We okay?

We okay?

I feel like I'm gonna have to get some rash cream for some of y'all. Like, oh, man. He just... Pastor's just putting it on me right now.

It's just, oh.

You said I was gonna leave rejoice, and I'm leaving a little sore.

I wanna... I want y'all to step into this dimension of God where you see him prospering in every area of your life.

And this is just one of the vehicles.

This is one of the vehicles. Because he says in Malachi, when you tithe, the result is now that I'm going to protect and provide for your land.

So when you think about that, and it says that the fruit will be good and the vine doesn't fail, How do you get fruit?

How do you get a vine that doesn't... How do how do you get it? Like, how does that happen? You gotta you gotta you gotta sow a seed.

You gotta sow a seed.

Tithe belongs to God, so tithe is not a seed.

My offering is a seed. So God is saying when you tithe, you put me in place that every time you bring an offering now, I'm gonna make sure that it is gonna produce good fruit.

Every time you tithe, you have now enacted the covenant, which means I'm gonna step in. And every time that the devourer, and every time that the enemy, and every time that something tries to come in and take away from your opportunity to sow seed, He says, not today.

Not today. That ain't happening. That seed's gonna go to the ground, and I'm gonna ensure that you're gonna walk with a supernatural harvest beyond measure, which is good news for you. Because if you are walking right with the Lord, and your heart is right, and your life is right, and you're sowing in obedience, and you're bringing and honoring God with what is His, He says, now I'm going to honor you, and I'm going to bless you with what is mine. And I don't know about you, but God's best certainly trumps my best. God's greatest certainly overwhelms my greatest. So, when I honor Him with what I have at my best of where I am and what's in my heart, God moves me into a season now that He will begin to bless me and cause every area of my life to be fruitful. But you say, but pastor,

I can't afford to tithe.

It's a real question.

What do I do?

I sow seed.

Get a new mother to the church that recently gives her life to the Lord.

She says, I got all these bills. I can't afford to pay for the bills and and bring tithe to the Lord, but but but I know that God's touched my life and and I recognize His love so I wanna honor Him.

But I but I can't I can't afford to do this. I'm a I'm a single mom and and there's bills and my kids and what do what do I do? But I wanna honor God so I sow seed.

And like the widow with the two mites, it might be little. By the way, a mite is one fifth of a penny.

So, two one fifths is what this little woman brought in.

And as I sow seed, now God begins to cause that seed to be fruitful.

And as I'm becoming fruitful and as God begins to do things in my life and as God begins to open up doors and, and opportunities, and, and, and where I'm at today or where she's at today, she's going be in a different place in a year from now. And now she's in a place that she can begin to tithe.

Does this make sense?

God puts the system in place so that it can demonstrate

our trust in Him, our treasure in Him, in His truth, in us, in His truth is that God says, I will withhold no good thing from those that love me. And how I love Him is from my heart to my hand.

Now, gonna get ready to close here because I told you, in Malachi, who was being rebuked, was the ones with the defiled offering and the offeror.

You have the offering and the offeror. It's interesting because Jesus both represents in the New Testament the offering and the offeror.

And the Bible says that God so loved the world that he gave, he offered his son.

And so God was the offerer, but his son was the offering.

Romans chapter 12 says this in verse one.

He says, I beg you brethren, offer yourselves up as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable before the Lord.

Verse two says this, and do not conform to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Someone better tell that ring at the door, we coming later.

Listen to me on this. Listen to on this. It's amazing. Distractions are gonna come the moment we get on this hot topic.

Lean in.

The Bible says in Romans 12 verse one that we are to present to offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice.

You are the offer.

But the only way that I can offer myself up is in my life also has to be an offering.

Abraham, once his wife gave birth to Isaac, God said, now, I want you to bring your son to this mountain and I want you to offer up your son as a sacrifice.

It was a type and shadow of Jesus in the New Testament.

Isaac comes up to the top of the mountain with wood on his back. How did Jesus come up to the mountain?

With wood on his back.

He lays his son down.

He gets ready to pull the knife, and a voice from heaven comes and says, Abraham, Abraham, Abraham.

And he stops him because Isaac couldn't take away the sins of the world.

What was being modeled there was Abraham's trust, which we saw when he tithed in chapter 14 and now his treasure in chapter 17 when he brings his son, lays him. He's the offeror and the offering.

In Romans chapter 12, you are the offeror, but your life is the offering.

You you hear me? This is why he says don't conform to the world. Why not conform to the world? Doesn't that sound good? Renew your mind, have happy thoughts, has nothing to do with that. What he's saying is this, if your life is an offering, don't conform to the world because now you will defile your life as an offering and I can't accept it.

Every offering is not always accepted by God.

God did not accept Cain's offering.

He accepted Abel's.

He did not accept Cain's.

Cain's was a lesser than because his heart was not attached to the Lord.

And he says, see sin is crouching at your door. Your countenance has fallen. Get this... Get your heart right Cain so that I can accept your offering.

So if I come in and I'm just giving an offering to God and my heart's not right, doesn't mean that He naturally accepts it.

If your heart's not in it and that seed will lie dormant.

And now here's the thing.

Lord help me with this. God, let us have ears to hear and a heart to receive this.

You can defile the seed.

If you take a natural seed and you put it in the elements with bad condition, that seed becomes corrupted and it's no good for planting.

When I live in disobedience, when I'm living in sin, and I'm living in the world, and I know better, and I know that I should not be living this way, but yet I come in to do the spiritual thing, that seed will not survive.

God does not accept every offering. He wants, He wants an acceptable sacrifice.

And so, He says in Romans verse two, don't conform to the world. It doesn't mean you've got to live perfect, because the only one that was perfect was Jesus.

But what it is saying is this, I've got to renew myself just like the priest did in the Old Testament.

The priest had to take off the dirty garments. They had to wash and clean themselves, so when they walked in with the offering, God would accept both the offeror and the offering.

In John chapter 20, Jesus now has risen, and He's in the garden.

And Mary doesn't recognize Him at first, and Jesus reveals Himself. Do you remember this? Remember this?

And what happens?

Mary clings to Jesus, and what does Jesus say? No. No. No. No. No. Don't touch me. Don't touch me.

Don't touch me. Don't don't don't don't cling to me right now.

It's not that Jesus didn't wanna be the rabbini, the the one that they knew that they walked and they loved.

It was that Jesus was saying, you don't understand right now.

Is that now that I am risen, I, as an offering, I have to be presented back up to my Father, and nothing can touch me right now because I can't let anything defile me.

I am the offerer, and I am the offering.

And I gotta get ready to go up to my father and present a holy offering that would be acceptable. Don't touch me right now. So you gotta understand when you come to the house of the Lord, there's a time where we can be pals, but then there's a time where you gotta recognize that you're a priest. And I've got to put away the pals so that I can come down to the altar of the Lord with my offering, and I can be a priest and offer what's acceptable.

So, when I'm coming in, and I'm casual, and I got my coffee, and I'm doing my thing, and I don't care, by the way. Come in. Let's be the brethren. That's who we are. But you are not just called to be the brethren, you're also called to be a holy priest, a royal priesthood.

And so, I come to the house of the Lord to present my offering, I don't want anyone to touch me.

Because in this moment right now, it's a matter of my heart, my hand to God. And so, I'm going up. I'm going up with my offering. We could talk later.

We could chat about that later.

We can do that thing. No. No. No. Right now.

Right now. This thing right now, this is personal.

Because it's my heart before the Lord, and I want to lay my life down as an offering.

Don't touch me.

Don't cling to me.

And there's some of us that we're desperately believing and trusting for God to do something in our life.

And we'll take what I'm teaching today, and we'll take these principles today, and we'll want to put them to work.

But if I'm allowing the world to constantly cling to me, I'd hate to get all the way to the end of the line and not cross into the end zone.

I'd hate to get all the way there, but my seed was defiled and corrupted. I gotta protect this house.

I gotta protect this house.

And my offering is personal. It's my treasure.

Anybody that's got treasures and belongings that are valuable, you don't leave them open for for just anyone in the house. I mean, I'm in a house with two little kids, and and there's some things, they're just not out. My kids, they can touch a lot of things, but there are some precious things, some valuable things that they don't get access to. Some things is just between me and myself when it comes to my walk with the Lord. There's some things between me and God.

Because as an offer with an offering, I wanna honor the Lord when I lay down my kingdom is the moment the invitation of his kingdom comes.

Father, we want your kingdom come.

And we want your will to be done as an offer with an offering as we bring our tithe, as we sow our seed, father. We thank you that your word shall pro... Shall perform true, that we will see the fruit of the vine. It shall not fail. We'll have good fruit, and all nations will call us blessed. Why?

Because we choose from our heart to walk with you.

We need you, Jesus.

Father, I thank you for this word today. Thanks again for listening to today's podcast. We trust that it has touched your heart and blessed your life. Listen to support the ministry. You can go to our website, abundantlife.tv.

And remember, we are better together.