Putting God to the Test
David C. Myers
November 11, 2007
I Kings 17:8 - 16
Malachi 3:8 - 12
Matthew 6:19 - 21
Text: "Put Me to the test to see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down an overflowing blessing (if you give to your fullest extent)." Malachi 3:10
Aunt Chintzy was an exemplary church member who would always sit down in the front pew of her Tennessean Baptist church on Sunday mornings. But Aunt Chintzy had one bad habit - she always had a pinch of snuff under her lip. One Sunday morning the minister was delivering a good old "hell, fire, and brimstone" sermon denouncing the evils of the world. After he condemned swearing, Aunt Chintzy shouted out, "Preach it, brother!"; after he condemned adultery, she shouted, "Amen!"; after denouncing liquor, she shouted, "Praise the Lord!" Then the preacher denounced the evils of tobacco and snuff, and old Aunt Chintzy stood up and said, "Now wait a minute, now you're meddlin' in other people's business."
Even though Jesus taught more about money that any other single subject, many good Christians think that when it comes time for the Stewardship Sermon, well, now the preacher's meddlin'.
Money is a tough issue for all of us to deal with. We resist it as much as we can. It's just plain hard for us to face. It's even harder to face as a church. But to be responsible Christians, face it we must.
This morning I have three points. The first deals the hardest of all of Jesus' teachings. The second point is that God does, indeed, want to be put to the test. And the third point is guidance as to how to give.
1.) I hope that some of you may be wondering what the hardest teaching of Jesus is. Actually it's not hard at all. We live it out all our lives. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
We live this teaching out all of our lives simply because it is true, "where our treasure is, there will be our hearts also." It is one of many teachings Jesus had on money and the spirituality involved with money. Jesus, who never had budgets to raise, buildings to renovate, mission programs to support, leaky roofs to fix, or salaries to pay, both taught and preached a lot on the subject of money - its use and misuse. I believe that all His teachings on money and wealth come to culmination in the words from our Gospel Lesson: "Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also." (Matthew 6:21)
In the course of our history we have tried to change the wording to a more comfortable "where your heart is there will be your treasure also." But that is not how it is. Our treasures reveal who we are; and how we use what we have reveals who we are. Where we spend our time, where we use our talents, where we invest, spend, and give our money reveals where our hearts are.
So it only stands to reason. If the church is to be faithful to Jesus' teachings, the church needs to challenge everyone concerning where we put our treasure. Because the church knows this truth - that if your time, your money, your presence, your service, and your prayers are focused on the church, so will be your faith and your heart. When you are giving, you are interested, and when you are interested you are committed, and the interests, places, and organizations to which you are committed reveal where your heart is.
2.) The second point is this matter of putting God to the test. Often when we think of putting God to the test it is in times of desperation. We challenge God to get us out of trouble, to take away our sorrow. People pray for miracle cures, or to be extricated from difficult situations - like losing a job. We have all heard, and perhaps have been guilty of such bargaining. Such bargaining goes something like this: "Dear Jesus, if you come through for me now, I will attend church every Sunday and raise my pledge to a full tithe."
OK, so I dream a lot!
But God has something quite different in mind when He talks about being put to the test. God does want to be put to the test, not in our times of trouble and worry, but all the time, especially in our prosperity. Hear again the prophet's Malachi's words:
The Lord spoke through the prophet Malachi: "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and thus put Me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing, says the Lord of hosts. . . .Malachi 3:10
The reading from the prophet Malachi begins by saying that humanity has been robbing God because in their giving they have not given to the full extent of their capability. The prophet quotes God as saying, "Put Me to the test to see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing."
It's a challenge to us.
Flat out.
If we give to the full extent of our ability God assures us that we will enjoy an overflowing of blessing.
But such giving goes against our instincts. Somehow it has been ingrained in our minds that hoarding what we have will provide more for us than be giving away what we have. That's what Jesus said when He cautioned us against storing up our treasures "moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal."
Perhaps it's because we never take into account the generosity of the original giver - the One Who gave us life itself, and all that is within life.
In short, the stewardship of giving is a faith stance. It is the recognition that we are given the gift of life and we are called to be managers of the good gifts that come from God. For the Christian, then, the motivation for giving is gratitude, not fear or guilt. God has given us everything - air, life, food, and even money. And we give thanks for that - so much thanks that we challenge God by putting God to the test, that if we give generously, we in turn will be blessed. By contrast, hoarding what we have is not just a tight-fisted attitude toward money, but toward all of life; and even more tragically shows a lack of faith in God. The message from Malachi is clear, "Put God to the test!"
God's up to it, are we?!?!
There is a story in First Kings that gives an excellent example of putting God to the test. As we enter the story we encounter a poor widow living in Sidon, a land now known as Lebanon, which at the time was in the throes of a severe drought and resulting famine. The widow is in a desperate plight as she tries to provide food for her son. Yet this widow has been commanded by God to feed the visiting prophet Elijah. She is living in a foreign land, a land where people do not worship Yahweh, the God of Israel, but the pagan god Baal.
When Elijah comes to her she is trying to scrape together the morsels she will use to prepare a meager meal for both her and her son. She is now caught between the radical demands of ancient hospitality and the harsh reality of famine. She reacts with a fatalistic resignation: "?I will go, I will prepare it for myself and my son, we will eat it, and then we will die." (I Kings 17:12b)
And Elijah, upon hearing her plight, does not react like a compassionate pastoral counselor - but then what prophet is pastoral? Instead of seeing her plight, instead of letting her keep the meager amount for her and her son, rather Elijah encourages her to feed him!! Elijah tells her that by doing the will of the Lord and by feeding him that her "jar of meal and her jug of oil will not go empty until the day the Lord sends rain to the earth."
But, let's be honest with ourselves - would you trust a foreigner with a different faith asking in a seemingly selfish manner for food when your own son is starving?
The poor widow hesitates, but in the end she does what Elijah says. It is only as she puts God to the test, even if reluctantly - in this case by feeding the prophet - that she was indeed blessed and her jar and jug were filled with such abundance that she could have opened a food pantry.
The test before us: will we challenge God to bless us by giving as generously as we can? And the wonderful thing about this test is that, if we are a faithful people, it is a no-lose situation! . . . if we will only give it a chance!
3.) My third point deals with how we become good stewards. You may have been wondering about the bulletin cover. Hopefully they are the Chinese characters for an old adage that says, "What I hear, I forget. What I see I remember. What I do I understand." I believe that adage is at the very heart of the Christian understanding of Stewardship.
I would like to suggest that the person who only hears about stewardship and only sees examples of it does not necessarily understand stewardship - in fact, probably does not. Only the person who practices stewardship understands it. Only those who give understand giving.
"What we do we understand."
We have all heard about people increasing their church giving, we have even seen letters from the church telling us about it, and I bet you have heard it preached - a lot!, but weren't quite ready to increase those pledges. That is because there is another step. Like the widow in Sidon, like the hearers of God's prophecy from Malachi, you simply need to do it in order to understand. Almost seems backwards, doesn't it?
But Methodist history offers a good - and rather amazing - example. When the young John Wesley - the founder of Methodism - was having a crisis of faith, his mentor, Peter Buehler said, "Preach faith as if you have faith, and then you will have it." Wesley then went on and preached the story of faith - sometimes as often as 3 times a day! And as part of the Methodist family, we know the results of Wesley's faith development.
"What we do we understand."
Hopefully, now you are getting ready to do stewardship Soon, if not already, you will begin trying to figure out how much of the wealth you have amassed through your God given gifts and talents you are going to give to your church. You have already received - or soon will - my letter of testimony. I'd like to suggest that as you determine how much you are going to give to the church, it is not a question of how much the budget of the church is; it isn't a question of what your "fair share" is; it isn't a question of how much you can afford after paying all your bills; nor should your giving be viewed as another obligation.
The issue is only this - how much love do you have for God? How thankful are you for all God has given you?
How much are you willing to put God to the test? How much do you believe God's words in Malachi? "Bring the full tithe to the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put Me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing of blessing."
This is what it means to put God to the test. And as we test God by giving up our treasure, it shows where our heart is, and reveals that through our giving God will truly bless us with an abundance from heaven. Indeed, what we do we understand.
I have one more grace-note to add.
In the Middle East there are two lakes. One only has water leading into it, but it has no outlet. The water has nowhere to go and now the lake is so filled with minerals and salts it is called the Dead Sea. The other lake has both an inlet and an outlet. Since recorded history and to this day the Sea of Galilee is a source of life for people living there. This lake is the source of life because it "gives up" and shares its water, its source of life.
The major irony of these two lakes is that the one called the Dead Sea receives its water from the Sea of Life, the Galilee.
The test is before us: will we put God to the test? Will we challenge God to bless us by giving as generously as we can? And the wonderful thing about this test is that, if we are a faithful people, it is a no-lose situation! . . . if we will only give it a chance.
You see, what we do, we understand.