Scripture Passage: Malachi 3:6-12

Slide 1

Orientation:
Lifetime achievement award: growing in the great commandment

Slide 2

Present Project:
Caring Encounters
"real conversations and holding on"

Slide 3

This Act:
Practicing the conversations
Today's Scene:
Money

Slide 4

Malachi 3:6-12
God in honest conversation and holding on

Slide 5

God does not change, but we probably should
6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

Slide 6

Relationships are a 2-way street
7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

Slide 7

Are we asking?
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

Slide 8

Challenging Conversation with God
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

Slide 9

Stew #1 It all belongs to God
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.

Slide 10

Participating in God's economic system
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.

Slide 11

Raises a few questions
Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

Slide 12

The goal
12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Slide 13

Do we want to take the God-test?
tithe and trust

January 15th, 2023 - Robbing and Testing God