I Give Up: Week 3 - Prove It God!

Tim Ross | August 15, 2021

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Transcription

If you have your Bibles, I want you to open them up to the Book of Malachi. Yes, Malachi 3. We're going back to that same address. I want to give you this exciting understanding of what it means to be a tither. I know that we talked about last week, "Don't knock it until you try it." This week, I want to read this passage and give you the three words that I believe God's going to respond to as it relates to you becoming a tither. If you have your Bibles, Malachi 3:6. Again, we're in a series called I Give Up. Here's what the word of God says.

"I am the Lord and I do not change. That is why you, descendants of Jacob, are not already destroyed. Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now, return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven's Army, but you ask, 'How can we return when we have never gone away?' Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me, but you ask, 'What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?' You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. You are under a curse for your whole nation has been cheating me. 'Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple. If you do,' says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, 'I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great, you won't have enough room to take it in. Try it. Put me to the test. Your crops will be abundant for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,' says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. 'Then all nations will call you blessed for your land will be such a delight,' says the Lord of Heaven's Armies."

Y'all ready for this? Y'all ready? I'm so excited. All right. If you're taking notes on this message, three words, please write them down. "Prove it, God." It's the title of this message. Prove it, God, that's what we want. That's what we need to see. This is literally what God says you get to ask of Him. Prove it, God. Say it with me. "Prove it, God." Again. "Prove it, God." One more time real loud. "Prove it, God." Prove it, God.

All right, bow your heads. Let's pray for the word and just jump right into it, okay? Holy Spirit, thank you for proving that Your word is true, Amen. I'm so excited about this message because it is in this message that I get to break down for you what it really means to understand God's promise as it relates to tithing. In Malachi 3, remember, this is a call to repentance. We talked about this last week. This is a call to repentance that God is giving His covenant people as it relates to their tithe and their offerings specifically.

He says, "You've been cheating me and the only thing I want you to do is repent. I'm not looking for back tax. I'm not keeping a log of what you haven't given. All I'm saying is from this point forward, you need to start being the giver that shows that you have a covenant with me." He does it through this seemingly boastful declaration of what He will do if you decide to be a tither. Did anybody pick up the tone in what He was saying? He sounds boastful. He's like, "Listen, I will do this and I will do it like that. If you do it, then you can literally put me to the test because I will show myself faithful because I'm the one that told you to do it."

I want to break down. This is going to be one of those breakdown to the very last compound messages where I just go line for line on these verses because I really want to draw out what He says from His word so that we can hold on to it and be anchored in it, tethered in it so that no matter what happens in our life, we're standing on God's word. Not another man's empty promise, but on God's word about what He said He will do for those that keep the covenant promise of tithing with Him. I have five points to this message. Let's go. Point number 1, please write this down. Point number 1, bring it all in. Bring it all in. Here's what it says in Malachi 3:10. Bring what?

All. How much of it?

"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there would be enough food in my temple." Bring how much?

Bring all of it. Now, here's one of the things that we need to understand when it comes to the tithe. I have seen people who literally are serial tithers. Let me explain a serial tither. A serial tither is a person that says, "Hey, I'm really blessed by a lot of ministries and so I get a tithe, but I give a little bit here and I give a little bit of my tithe over there and I give a little bit of tithe over here. I'm a tither, but this ministry really blesses me and that ministry really blesses me and this ministry really blesses me."

I just want you to know, the tithe doesn't belong to you. It belongs to God. Remember, you can't give it. You can only return it. Now, the tithe has to go to one place. It can't be split up amongst many places. The place you give your tithe is tied to the community that you worship in. Now, I've already gotten DMs from last week. Last week's message saying, "Now, listen, I'm part of the Vitamin E Church and we watch online and we don't have a physical location that we go to right now. We're just been putting our tithes to the side. Can we tithe to you or do we have to wait until we get to a church?"

Now, I just got to say this because it's 2021 and COVID changed everything. COVID has changed everything, but the tithe remains the same. I'm just going to say if this is a place that you feel like you're getting fed from, nourished from, but it just happens to be 800 miles between us and you want to tithe here, that's totally fine with us. If you get a local church, take your tithe with you to that church.

You should be encouraged to get into a local community as soon as possible because there's only so much participation you can have virtually. If you're in a season where you don't have a church and you want to tithe to Embassy City or any other church, we welcome you to do so. As soon as you get a local church, your tithe has to go with you to that church. Now, I'm going to teach you about giving in the next three weeks, but the tithe has to go to the specific place that you call your community.

He says bring it all in. Don't bring some of it in. Don't bring 7% in and you give another 3% to missions. That is not bringing the whole tithe in. The whole tithe needs to come to the place that you're in community on. Now, let me speak to the wealthy people in the room because we have a lot of wealthy people that are extravagant givers, extravagant tithers, but I have seen wealthy people and heard wealthy people say this, "The church can't handle my whole tithe. The church can't handle my whole tithe and so I spread it out amongst the local church that I go to, but I also give some to my college alma mater. I also give some to missions in Haiti."

[claps] I am so proud of your generous heart, but your tithe is not yours. It belongs to God. He gave you the address that it has to go to. If you're a part of this local community or any other local community and you don't trust that that church can handle your whole tithe, that's not the church you should attend. If you're a multimillionaire and you make $80 million a year, and so your tithe is going to be this really big, old check of $8 mil and you think I can't give that to our church because they don't know what to do with that, then you need to find the church that's going to line up with the tithe that you can give and that you trust is going to do the right thing with that money.

If this is not that church for you, I want you to take your very generous salary and find a church that you can be obedient to God in. Now, I'm going to tell you right now. There's a whole lot of pastors that wouldn't say that. They will be like, "Let's just talk about it real quick because you've been given and da-da-da-da." Let me tell you something. We have some incredible people at our church that are big givers and God has blessed them, but I do not see them any differently than if a widow came in with two mites.

I'm glad that God gave you what He gave you, but it's never going to be used as manipulation to get us to do something God hasn't called us to do. Sometimes people will give if they get what they feel like the direction of the church should be going in. The whole tithe need to come into the storehouse. When you bring it into the storehouse, you're trusting God over man because you're keeping your covenant with Him.

Point number 2, please write this down. Three words, "If you do." I told you, I'm breaking down this verse. "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple. If you do--" which means you have a choice. You do not have to tithe. I'm going to say it upfront. You don't have to tithe here, there, anywhere. You don't have to tithe on a boat. You don't have to tithe with the goat. You don't have to tithe-- I can turn it into a Dr. Seuss rhyme if you want me to.

You never have to tithe a day in your life. You don't have to tithe. Let me say that as a lead pastor of a church. You never have to tithe. The reason why I know you never have to tithe is because God even says "if you do," which gives the huge implication that you don't have to. Here's what He says. It has to be your decision. You have to step into this covenant sober, eyes wide open, with a clear understanding of what you're getting into.

If you feel manipulated at all, if you feel bound at all, if you feel forced to at all, here's what God says, "You don't have to do it, but my promise doesn't have to follow you either. I've told you what I will do for those that will trust me, but you don't have to be a part of that if you don't want to." Hoo, this is a good time for me to talk about the principle of the tithe. Do you know that the tithe is a principle, which means God will honor it whether you have a relationship with Him or not?

I'm going to let this go. I'm going to let this go real quick. There's some things that our covenant promises that only believers can have access to. Tithing is a principle that will work for a believer and a non-believer. This is why when you find somebody who is multi-multi-multimillionaire, super-rich, you got these billionaires, here's what you will find. They give 10% or more of their income to charity.

It's not coming into a church, but God goes, "Oh, you're applying the principle. Because you're applying the principle, you will experience the blessing that comes with tithing." Well, it's not coming straight to God. God honors the principle, and so I just want you to know. You have an opportunity to line up with God's word as it relates to the tithe. If you do it, you're going to experience blessings like you never experienced before.

If you do it, God gave a promise that He'll protect you. If you do it, you never have to worry about money another day in your life if you decide to do it. If you don't want to, you don't have to. You can come to this church every single week and say, "Amen," and leave, but His promise won't follow you out the door. If you do, here's what He says He will do. Point number 3, God will open up windows.

God said, "If you do, I will open up windows. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there would be enough food in My temple. If you do," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you." Now, listen, [chuckles] I had to go do a study on this because when I read this statement that He would open up windows, I had to go study the word in Hebrew.

When you say "windows--" because there are so many anthropomorphic terms that we use to describe God, His hand of protection would be on us, well, He's a spirit. Does he have a hand? Right, right, right. Well, He will nurture us. Our God is a strong tower. Is He an architectural structure? When you're trying to get this understanding, when God Himself says, "I will open up a window in heaven," what does that look like, God?

What does a window in heaven look like? Well, I found out that this word "window" in Hebrew literally means arubbah, not the destination, but the word is "arubbah." This word had many different variations. One was a chimney, the other was a window. One was a lattice. Have you all ever seen a lattice where there's a cross-section and it has a lot of holes in it? Then the one that really blew me away was this definition that it was a hole in the wall.

There were windows as a definition for arubbah, but also a chimney, but also a lattice, and then the last one was a hole in the wall. Now, I'm a nerd. I wanted to make sure I had the right word with this verse because that same Hebrew word can mean something different if you read it in a different context. Here, it means window. Over there, it could mean chimney. Right here, if you see the word, it might mean lattice. Over here, it might mean a hole in the wall.

I'm like, "Okay, I want to focus on the fact that you said it was a window." Then the Holy Spirit said, "It is a window, but I want you to know when it comes to my covenant, you can apply all of those definitions. I promise you that if you keep your covenant of tithing with me, I will open up a window, I will come down a chimney, I will come through the lattice, I will punch a hole in the wall before I let my covenant fall on what I told you I was going to do in your life."

He says, "You cannot come back to me and tell me you will obey my word and I not do what I said I was going to do." Let me tell you something. I don't care what situation you find yourself in right now. I don't care if 2020 was the worst year for you and you lost everything. I'm telling you right now. He is going to be faithful to sustain you because you decided to be a covenant tither.

He will punch a hole in the wall before He allows you to lack. He has never seen the righteous forsaken nor His seed begging bread. When He has something for you, He will always get it through to you before Santa Claus was. The "I am" has His promise waiting to come to you. Whatever window you need that to be, that's what He will be in the season you are in. He says, "I will open up the windows of heaven." Thank you, Holy Spirit.

When He opens up these windows, let me tell you something, it's more than money that comes through these windows. Everybody tries to focus on the tithe means more money comes. No, the tithe means that everything comes with the person that gave you the blessing, to begin with. It's not just provisioned as coming, it's peace that's coming. It's not just peace that's coming, it's hope that's coming. It's not just hope that's coming, it's deliverance that's coming. It's not just deliverance that's coming, it's healing that's coming.

When you decide to stand on God's word, everything that belongs to the attributes of God come with the promise that He's giving to you. Oh, that's good. That's good. [claps] All right. Y'all with me? Okay, point number 4. Please write this down. God will pour a blessing. God will pour a blessing. From the top because I'm going to drill this into y'all, "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple. If you do," your choice, said the Lord of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you."

Whatever kind of window you need that to be, whatever definition arubbah needs to be, for you, He will become that. "Chimney, I got you, fam. Window, I got you. Lattice, I got you. Punch a hole in the wall, I got you. You're not in here by yourself. There's a covenant that's following you because of the covenant you've made with me." Then he says, "I will pour out a blessing."

Let me slow down. He didn't say, "I will pour out blessings." He said, "I will pour out a blessing so great, you won't have enough room to take it in." Now, when God starts talking like this, that's when He's flexing. I love when God flexes. When God flexes, I'll be looking like, "Sir, this is too much right now." Anybody besides me had God do some things in your life that, literally, you were so blessed, it was a little bit overwhelming and a little bit embarrassing?

You didn't want to share with everybody. You were like, "[chuckles] My dad's really generous. I didn't even know all this was going to happen, sir. Please don't." He said, "I'm going to pour out a blessing." Now, I just want you to think about it. God looks at your life, looks at the season that you're in, sees the situation that you're going through. He goes, "You know what? For this season, I'm going to pour out this blessing."

I'm talking about if He pours, we're not talking about "plop." He says, "I'm literally going to pick up whatever blessing you need in this season. I'm not going 'blop-blop.' It's going to be [gulps]. I'm just going to tilt it over you and hold it there for the entire season that you're in. I can pour out a blessing of peace on you that will not run out for the entire season that you need peace in your life. I will be that. I will pour out overwhelming love and kindness on you in this season. Whatever you need me to be in this season, I will become that. I'll pour out that blessing."

Here's the thing. Here's the reason why it's a blessing. Why would He multiply if you can't handle the one blessing that He's about to pour out? He said, "I'm pouring out this blessing and you ain't going to have enough room to take it in. Don't even ask me for anything else in this season. What I'm giving you right now, you can't handle. You can move into a 10,000-square-foot mansion. You still wouldn't have enough rooms to take in everything I'm giving you. What I'm giving you right now is enough for this season that you're in."

I call to the witness stand the children in Israel. Children in Israel in the Old Testament had walked out of Egypt and were in need of God's provision. They were not in a season of abundance. They were in a season of being sustained. God said, "I'm going to pour out a different kind of blessing on you in this season. You're my covenant people, but you find yourself in a season where you're going through a dry place. The blessing I'm going to just keep pouring out on you is sustenance."

"Your clothes are never going to wear out. Your sandals are never going to get holes in them. Every morning you wake up, there will be bread. I heard you complain so much. I even brought you some quail. For this entire season that you are in, no matter what's going on, here's what you need to know. You are never going to be raggedy. I won't let my kids be out here looking busted and calling me their God. Even though you are now on your 75th year in the wilderness, your clothes looked like the day that you left Egypt, because I'm going to sustain you through this season. Let me just pour out that blessing."

When you get to step into the Promised Land, and now it's time for you to enter into Canaan and it's time for you to claim what God has given you, He says, "I will pour out a blessing of victory. There is nobody that you're going to come up against that you're not going to be able to overwhelm as long as you keep your covenant with me." The only time Israel fell into a situation when they stepped into the Promised Land is when Achan took the tithe.

Jericho was the first city they conquered, which means it was what? The tithe, the first belongs to God. It was only when he took from that place what did not belong to him that they wind up losing that battle and they rectified it super quick. I wish I had time to go to that passage, but it cracks me up every time that they basically did like American Idol finalist drawing to find out who was the person that sinned.

Now, when you're Achan and you know you did it, can you imagine how uncomfortable it was? First of all, he wasted everybody's tithe. If it was me, I would call out my own fam. "It was me, fam. I did that. We don't need to go through this whole thing," but they had to line up all 12 tribes, then go down through all the clans, then get down to a family, and then get down to Achan. Then finally, Joshua said, "Glorify God and tell the truth," and he was like, "It was me."

If I was one of the people that have been out there all day in the hot sun, I'd have been like, "For real, Achan? For you knew this whole time that you-- Come on, stop," but God is serious, that serious, about his tithe. He's that serious about the first. After they rectify that, God just kept pouring out victory on them. What do you need God to pour out in your life in this season? Because let me tell you something, it ain't all money. Some of y'all, you just need to get up under His oil of blessing and peace.

You feel like slapping everybody you get around and what you need more than anything is peace. It's not even money that you need. It's just peace. For some of you all, you just need a breakthrough. You just need God's promises to show yourself strong in an area that you've been weak. You need a breakthrough, a generational curse to be broken over your life and in your family and He can pour out that blessing on you, but it's one at a time. It's one at a time. You couldn't handle two things at once. God said, "There's one blessing I want to pour." You couldn't handle the whole thing, so let Him pour it out on you.

Point number 5 and then I'm done. Point number 5, please write this down. God will guard what He gives. Woo, I feel that thing every time I say it. God will guard what He gives. Woo, that felt good. Here's what it says in Malachi 3:11, "Your crops will be abundant." Why? "For I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe, says the Lord of Heaven's Army." Keep the scripture up for me real quick.

If you can get this, I promise you, you will walk around with the same swag that God actually gave the promise. "Your crops will be abundant for I will guard them from insects and disease." Now, y'all know I read NLT, but I have everything memorized in KJV. In KJV, it literally says, "I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes." Now, a lot of people have tried to associate that with Satan himself. The translation is insects and disease, okay?

I think we really need to have this verse right now, especially going through corona, Delta, Spirit, United, Southwest, whatever. I don't know what all these variants are. For whatever comes out of here, here's what I know. I have a promise of God over my life. I'm not saying I'm not wise. I'm not saying that I don't use precautions. What I'm saying is God said Himself, "I'll guard what I give you because of the covenant that I made with you and you will see abundance."

Now, okay, I want to take my time. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me pause. Calm down, Tim. There are some people that are flinching right now because you have some PTSD as it relates to provision, abundance, prosperity. The word even, you're like, "Whoa, Jesus, there they go again." Here's what I want you to know. Prospering simply means to be healthy. I want you to prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers.

This is what John said in his salutation to Gaius. I want you to understand that I want everything that pertains to you to be blessed. Now, again, some people have swung the pendulum way over here to make it be something or sound like something that it is not, but I'm telling you, God wants you to prosper. Please don't take that image to mean that you're going to walk around here with a brightly watch or a Rolex or you're going to wear Gucci loafers every day.

You're going to wear silk blazers every day and drive a Lambo. Now, that's materialistic. Now, if you have enough money to afford it and you tithe and you give, I don't mind you doing whatever you feel is good for you. Prosper doesn't mean bling. It means God. Why would God went in covenant with you where you don't experience what He lives in for eternity?

Listen, y'all, when the streets are gold, when God's asphalt is gold, this lets you know how much He thinks about what we call wealth down here. What we call the height of wealth is asphalt in heaven. It doesn't make Him, "No, never mind." He doesn't mind you having it as long as it doesn't have you. He's never been opposed to anybody being blessed. He's been opposed to somebody taking their blessings and trying to give themselves credit for.

He says, "I'll guard what I give. If I give you something, I'll guard it. If I give you something, I will make sure you keep it. You be a good steward of what I give you, but I will make sure you keep it." At every turn of my life for the last 25 years, God has done that in my life. I'll never forget when I moved here from California. My parents raised an offer for me at their church, God's Way Holiness Fellowship, okay?

They raised their offer for me because I felt like God said that I was supposed to move to Texas, and so they raised $400 for me. While I did not work for that money, I still gave God a tenth of that. That $400, I gave $40. I had $360. I got on this bus. I had three suitcases to my name and I got to Texas. I didn't know where I was going to be. The first church I went to was my cousin's church, the Church of God in Christ church over in South Dallas.

I paid my tithes there and I'm like, "Lord, you're going to have to open up the door because I'm just out here. I came down here on obedience. I don't know what I'm going to do now." I'm out here and we were about to go to a conference. I needed somebody, my cousins, to help me get to the conference. We went to a McDonald's that morning. We went in there. I don't even eat at McDonald's no more. What did I get? I got some hash browns and it was a morning time. Definitely, two hash browns with the ketchup on it is right.

Squirted that little ketchup down in the middle, them hash browns we'll be right. For the first five minutes though, you let them linger over five minutes. They turn into cardboard, but the first five minutes, them hash browns will be popping, okay? I got me two Egg McMuffins with cheese with the strawberry jelly, not great strawberry jelly, squirted on that biscuit, okay? Had my belly full, cheap meal had my belly full.

It was raining outside. Nobody had an umbrella. We all had to duck like this and run to the car. The rain is just coming down on me and I'm running to the car. I get in on the passenger seat, backside passenger seat. I looked down and there's a $100 bill washed up against the tire just chilling. I wouldn't have seen it if it wasn't raining. It was the rain that caused me to hunch over and run to the side of the car.

While I'm trying to fumble with the door, I'm looking down and there's a $100 bill right there. I picked it up, looked around. Nobody said nothing about a $100 bill. I put that wet thing in my pocket and I said, "Okay, Lord, You washing out money on me now?" It was just $100, but for a 22-year-old kid who was believing God, I needed that right then. I wouldn't call it a window. That was a chimney blessing. That was something that just slid on right up in there and God gave me that.

Over the next six months, until I got on my feet, people were just blessing me. Every time they gave me something, 10% went straight up. Every time they gave me something, I said I remembered God every single time. I'm telling you, He guards what He gives. He won't let nothing be taken away from you. Last story and I promise I'll shut up. I remember being in a-- I got in my apartment in Irving. Actually, about a mile down the street from here.

If you left Belt Line and you went-- What is that? If you went south on Belt Line past one out of the hill, the Glen Arbor Apartments are to the right. I think they changed the name of it, but they used to be called the Glen Arbor Apartments, okay? I was living there and I had just got a car. No, no, I had just got the apartment. I had just got a job and I was working on getting a car. Somebody broke in my house, stole all the clothes I had just bought from Old Navy, $22 on a budget, okay? They stole all my clothes.

The only thing they left in the apartment were my church clothes. I'm like, "Whoa, this was definitely some heated." One thing about the church, but why would you want my Old Navy stuff though? Just moved there, just finally got some-- I didn't even have a box spring for my mattress. My mattress is on the floor. Why am I telling you this? I'm telling you this because I need you to understand, being faithful as a tither doesn't necessarily mean you're going to leapfrog into some prosperous season where you're in a 15-bedroom house and you got a yacht in the back, but He guards what He gives.

The church clothes was still there. [chuckles] Them church clothes are the clothes of my covenant. If I was going to be anywhere Monday through Saturday, on Sunday, I was going to be at church. Guess what? They left my suit. My good, old suit from K&G, they left my suit. I walked back up in that church. The money I had got from CarMax gave me my salary and I paid my tithes and God started opening up doors.

I remember walking out of church one day after all this had happened. One of the ladies at the church that owned a landscaping business said, "Hey, Tim, come here. Walk with me to the car." I said, "Okay." I walked with her to the car. She said, "How come you didn't tell me that you had gone through this thing where people broke in your house and robbed you?" I said, "Well, I mean, I'm an introvert and that seems private, so I didn't feel like I needed to bring it to the attention of everybody in the church."

She pulled out-- I don't know if you have ever seen a business check, but a business check is long, okay? Your personal check if you don't own a business, you read the little check with your little check book. That business check is long. The business check holder is even longer, okay? That woman went in the back of her truck and pulled out that business check holder and flipped through to a page.

She said, "How much is your rent?" I said, "Um," because I'm emo, so I started crying, "Um, it's this much." She said, "Okay, well, if that's too much for your rent, I want to make sure you're okay, so I'm going to write the check for two months of your rent, but then how much do you wind up paying for groceries?" She wound up giving me enough for three and a half months to cover me. There's no way I could have done that on my own.

Somebody had just robbed me of what I thought was important at the moment and God said, "No, I can replace that because I'm better than any insurance policy you could ever have. I know you have some money that's in the bank. That's FDIC-insured up to $100,000, but I'm letting you know right now. If the banking system fails, God won't." If Bitcoin goes down tomorrow and we all wind up having to get in line for some soup, your shoe is not going to fail. Your belly is not going to go hungry. God is going to keep His word.

It's the only place that He says, "Prove it, God." This is the only place that you can test God. You can't test Him in any other area, but this is the area that He says, "If you ever want to know if I can keep my word, I double-dog dare you to test me with your tithe and see if I won't open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you won't have room to receive." Put God to the test and He'll handle the rest. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? My hope and my prayer is that you've been challenged. My hope and my prayer is that you have been convicted. My hope and my prayer is that you have literally been encouraged that if you are a tither, no matter what season you are in, God's promises will not fail you.

If you found yourself because of present circumstances, because of the year that we just came out of in a very difficult place, I promise you. If you would steel your heart long enough and look close enough, you will find that your God has never failed you and He never will. God, I pray that You would take this message, sear it into our hearts until we are the ones that You said in Your word that all nations would recognize because our blessing and our covenant lies with You. In Jesus' name.