As will a man rob God, yet ye have robbed me.
But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?
In tithes and offerings.
Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,
that there may be meat in mine house,
and prove me now, prove me now means test me now herewith,
saith the Lord of hosts,
If I will not open you the windows of heaven,
and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough to receive it,
and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
and he shall not destroy the fruit 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.
So what's God promising here?
God's not promising that you're going to be a millionaire,
you're going to drive a Rolls Royce.
This isn't like the televangelist,
who will take these scriptures and they'll abuse this,
and twist this into saying,
Hey, if you send us money,
and they'll get on TV and say,
Hey, send us your money,
and if you send us a hundred,
God will give you a thousand,
and if you send us a thousand,
God will give you ten thousand,
and if you sow sparingly,
you'll reap sparingly,
and if you sow abundantly,
you'll reap abundantly,
and if you give the,
you know,
and the phone number is on the screen right now,
operators are standing by,
call, you know,
we accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express,
Discover, Diners,
you know,
just call in,
make a donation,
and you know,
look how God's blessing me,
look at all the rings on my fingers,
look at the Rolls Royce in the driveway,
look at the Mercedes,
you know,
look at the Italian suit.
That's not what the Bible's teaching,
but you know what,
what the Bible is teaching here,
here's why God says,
test me,
bring me the tithe,
and I'll pour you out a blessing,
and I'll rebuke the devourer,
and your fruit's not going to fall off the vine too early,
and rot on the ground.
What's God saying?
Here's exactly what God's teaching.
He's saying this,
that you will live better on 90%
than you will on 100%.
That's what he's teaching here,
because people are thinking,
oh man,
you know,
I can't afford to give one tenth unto the Lord,
because you know,
I just need everything for myself,
but what God is promising to do is make up the difference,
is what he's promising to do,
because he's saying,
look,
if you rob me,
because look what he says in verse nine,
you're cursed with a curse,
for ye have robbed me,
even this whole nation.
So what the Bible is teaching here is that,
let's say you rob God,
let's say you withhold that tithe,
and say,
well,
I'm not going to give a tithe unto the Lord,
I'm not going to give anything to the Lord.
Okay.
Then basically what he's going to do then,
he's going to allow that amount to be lost through attrition.
He's going to take it out on your hide as it were.
You know,
for example,
you know,
let's say you decide,
hey,
you know,
I'm not going to give the tithe unto the Lord,
and let's say your tithe was supposed to be,
you know,
a hundred dollars.
He could cause something to happen,
where you'll lose a hundred bucks.
I mean,
think about how many unexpected things happen in your life,
where you just lose huge amounts of money.
You know,
especially if you own a home,
the water heater goes out.
Oh man,
you know,
the plumbing starts leaking,
you know,
the air conditioner breaks.
I mean,
your air conditioner breaks,
and it's like four thousand dollars or something
to get a new air conditioner.
And you know what?
You live in Phoenix,
it's kind of a necessity,
you know,
to have the air conditioner working.
So what I'm saying is,
these unexpected expenses hit you,
especially medical expense of the worst kind,
you know,
you just get hit with unexpected expenses.
So here's the thing,
God in heaven,
God Almighty,
don't you think He's able to either cause you
to not have those kind of things come up,
or to cause those things to come up in your life?
And that if you really believe,
if you really trust in the Lord with all your heart,
you really believe that He controls your destiny,
and you actually believe that God is the one
who holds your faith in His hand,
financial and otherwise,
then you'd think to yourself,
wait a minute,
if I obey the Lord,
and if I, you know,
give the Lord ten percent of what I have,
then God's going to bless me,
and I'm going to be better off.
He's going to take care of me.
He's going to provide my needs.
He's not going to cause me to run out of money
because I gave the ten percent unto Him.
Now I don't have enough money.
God's not going to allow that.
And God even says,
just try it out,
just test it out,
and I'll provide your needs.
But He says,
look, if you give the tithe,
I'll bless you,
I'll rebuke the devourer for your sakes.
Who's the devourer?
The one who's constantly causing you
to need car repairs,
home repairs,
and medical repairs.
Okay.
So that's just,
He's just saying,
I believe He's teaching,
He'll make up the difference,
and that you'll do better on ninety percent
than on ten percent.
You say,
Pastor Anderson,
how can I do better on ninety percent than ten percent?
Well, if you don't,
or than a hundred percent.
You say,
a hundred percent is more money.
But wait a minute,
if you don't believe in God,
then go with a hundred percent.
Because it's more money.
But if you actually believe that the Lord in heaven
determines whether you get a raise,
or whether you lose money here,
or lose money there,
then you trust the Lord and say,
you know,
I'm going to be better off obeying Him.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Meaning,
food,
drink,
and a place to live.