Give, Get
Exhorting.
Uplifting. Inspiring. BUT. A good sermon on “Give God Your Best” springing from Malachi 3 sounded from
my laptop this morning. So exhortative the sermon was, perhaps it inspired my
laptop to cooperate for a little longer this morning as well. Yet, I ended the
sermon on a “but…” The entire sermon was in its title—“Give God Your Best.” It is true, and something we need to hear as humans all tend toward apathy and selfishness. Malachi 3, which contains God's rebuke against robbing him,
is only a reflection of our own hearts, shown in the church in Ephesus that forsake
their first love, Ananias and Sapphira, etc.
But the
sermon was a little one-sided: You, person--give God your best. Only imperative. No indicative. No grace. No gospel. No Christ.
Correcting
it a little bit can still give a lopsided equation: God gave us his best = so,
therefore, give him your best. It is an equation that creeps into our
sermons and encouragement to one another frequently. Yet, I’m not sure our
relationship or response to God has an equal sign in the middle. And—this
sounds sacrilegious—is God's giving of grace truly grace (unmerited favor) if it is done with the intention to
get something back? God invites us to his party so we’ll invite him into our
life and give him our firstfruits of time and money. Minimizes God. As if he needs something from us?
Yet, I think
that is sometimes how we think. Sometimes how Satan sneaks in distortions of our view of God. God gave me so much…. So, I guess I have to
give him some back. A way to say thanks. Keep the old man happy. Maybe he’ll
keep giving/blessing me. A little guilt trip. Or a little
manipulation/investment in the heavenly stock market.
How does
this paint God?
Needy.
We are
equal partners in the equation, as if we had something God wanted.
It seems there are three reasons that lurk under the equation:
God gave us
his best = so therefore, we give him our best.
=
pride, we have something God wants/needs
=
guilt trip, we owe God something
=
manipulation, give so God keeps giving
“The God who made the
world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in
temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed
anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything”
(Acts 17:24-25).
But, he does not need us. He does not need to be served with human hands.
It is not a give-take, equal relationship.
Humble.
Repent.
Awe.
Worship.
Let the awesomeness of our All-Sufficient God soak in once again.
But yet--the call is to give God our best. An imperative we need to heed, but heed with pure motives. Why do we give him our best?
One, it has
to do with Lordship. We are not our own; we were bought with a price. He is our
Creator and Redeemer. As Creator, we are his ambassadors bearing his
image and his. As Redeemer, we are saved and restored to his image, and his. All we have is his; all we are is his. This is one
dimension of our relationship with him, and we give back acknowledging that.
Second,
giving our best is a response to properly seeing who he is. What grace! That we
can see him as he is. What grace! That we have a God who gives to us! We serve
the God who can and who desires to bless, the life-giving God, who gives delight. “Delight”
is used twice in Malachi 3. The people delight in the messenger
God sends, rejoicing in the good news. And then God promises to turn the land
into a land of delight. This is our God! We “feast on the abundance of your
house, and you give [us] drink from the river of your delights. For with you is
the fountain of life” (Ps. 36:8-9a). Not only is
the God revealed as the Delight Giver but God is also in the passage “the LORD
of Hosts.” Powerful. Commander of angels. The seraphim and cherubim cover their
eyes before him and constantly cry out holy. This is the God worthy of our
worship; worthy of our best. What else can we do? Malachi also calls God the “LORD”—Yahweh,
the covenant God. The God who has entered into relationship with us. What else
can we do? Outpouring of our best naturally happens when we see him as he truly
is—and he is most clearly revealed in Christ, the humble Servant, the crucified
Sacrifice and Redeemer, the exalted Interceeder, the Alpha and Omega.
Thirdly,
our response of sacrificially giving comes from properly seeing who we are. In
Malachi 3, God addresses them as the “children of Jacob” (v. 6). Who was Jacob?
Deceiver. Thief. Doubter in God. Transformed by grace. Calling them the “children
of Jacob” reminded how much all of their history was by grace from the Gracious
God. Therefore, because this Grace-Giving God does not change, they are not
consumed, even though they have turned aside from his statutes time and time
again (v. 6-7). Oh, how can we not recognize how undeserving we are! All we
have is by grace! And if all is by grace, it is all his, all gift. And if all
we have by now is grace, we can't give to get back for we didn't earn it in the
first place (so goes any idea of the prosperity gospel, legalism, or contract.
I give God X and he gives me XX). Nor can we outgive God and live in fear that
if we give X, we'll miss or not have X. All is by grace—and grace from a God
that gives!
Fourth, we
give from an overflow of love. Not just gratitude. One can be grateful to a
judge for a pardon, or a cashier for handing us a dollar to cover a discrepancy
without love. Yet, would we give spouses (or our boy/girlfriend in that
budding, passionate romance) any less than our best? Best flows from love. Not
just gratitude, guilt, give or take, or gimme.
Fifth, in a
sense we do give our best to him because he gave us his best—as we behold him
we become more like him. His Spirit makes us like the image of Christ. Therefore,
since God is a God who gives his best, we become like him, bear his image, echo
his character, and naturally give our best. Even in the context of Malachi 3 it
is a response—the Lord comes and makes us like him (v. 2-4).
Yet, the
pastor’s word was needed. We of cannot offer cheap grace or assurance. In
Malachi 3, God is clearly saying, “You need to give me your best.” But he did
not predicate it on the equation of, “I gave to you. Now you give to me.” No,
his warning of judgment comes after he has sent his messenger, after he has
transformed his people (v. 1-4). Then verse 5 gives warning of judgment to those
who do not fear him (i.e., those who do not respond to
him, for without holiness, without his purification and responding to it, no
one can please the Lord, Hebrews 11).
Our giving
reflects our heart—do we:
Truly honor
him as Lord?
See him as
who he really is?
See us as
who we really are and how undeserving we are?
Love him?
Become like him?
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