~ Open in Prayer ~
Icebreaker
•What are you looking forward to this Summer?
•What was your favorite subject in school?
•What messages about money were you told/did you learn growing up?
Message Review
Where the pulpit is silent the people struggle. You have to first “think it” to be able to go there, so if no one is talking about it you don’t even have the knowledge/awareness to get where you need to be. When you know the keys to the blessing and apply them, your life will begin to be blessed. You can’t keep a blessed person down. They may get knocked down but they won’t stay down. A blessed person will always rise back to the top. The blessing of the Lord will take you places you’ve never imagined and makes you so much better than you really are. What have you heard from the pulpit around finances? What blessings have you experienced in your life where you know it was God?
Let’s dig in more…
Read Malachi 1-3 (emphasis on 3:6-11)
Take turns reading through these chapters as a group. As you read take note of things that stand out to you. Pause at the end of each chapter to discuss key highlights.
Discuss…
There are 450 years between Malachi (last book of the Old Testament) and Matthew (first book of the New Testament), and the last thing God spoke about was the tithe. The first conflict of the New Testament in Genesis was regarding the tithe and the last conflict of the New Testament was regarding the tithe. In Malachi God is addressing an attitude….an attitude of familiarity. “You’ve stopped giving me your best.” God is saying “if doesn’t mean anything to you, it doesn’t mean anything to me either.” God wants your best; the things that mean something to you – the things that are a sacrifice. In Malachi 3:7 God says “return to me and I’ll return you.” We are the ones that have gotten out of line and have distanced ourselves from God. Returning to God by following the principle of tithing is the seed for abundance, not just financially but in ALL aspects of life. Why is the tithe so important? Have you stopped giving God your best? In what aspects of your life is this true? Is there something you’ve continued to struggle with? Do you think it’s tied to your giving?
The blessing and the curse are built into the process. But it’s not transactional (you give money, God gives you more money), it’s about the blessing over your entire life. God wants the blessing to follow you wherever you go – favor, opportunities, open doors. His original intent for you was to be fruitful, to multiply, to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28). The blessing empowers you to prosper and releases potential. When you honor what God says and what is His (the tenth) you give God the power and authority on earth to destroy anything evil that may come against you. Do you believe that your actions have power? Have you been operating in the original intention of God – being fruitful, multiplying, and subduing the earth?
Money has no spirit of its own and is simply a medium of exchange. It takes on the spirit of the one who holds it. You cannot serve God and mammon (money). A spirit of mammon results in lack (just enough), poverty (not enough), and greed (holding tightly to more than enough). The tithe means “given to God for destruction.” Therefore, the tithe cleanses your money and destroys the spirit of mammon and gives you a spirit of abundance. Have you been operating in a spirit of mammon – lack, poverty, or greed? In what ways have you made money and idol over God?
Your storehouse is the well you draw from – whatever well is feeding your spirit. You bless the thing that blesses you. God never meant for one thing to be diminished so you could be enhanced. You don’t have an income problem, it’s a money problem. When you rob God of the tithe and only give an offering, the devourer (seed eater) comes immediately to snatch it up. When you tithe, God rebukes the seed eater (the devil) so now everything else in your life, including your offering, prospers and returns back to you. If you’re not a tither your offering/giving does nothing. However, your offering will come back to you multiplied if it’s protected by the tithe. Are you currently giving to the wells you draw from? Have you experienced the multiplicative blessing of your offering as a result of tithing?
Prayer Focus and Requests
Ask your members if they have any prayer requests or praise reports. Pray that they will continue to honor the tithe and that they will be faithful to God over money. Repent for and rebuke the spirit of mammon and pray for a recommitment to God.
Scripture References
Malachi 3:6-11
Genesis 12:4
Proverbs 10:22
Deuteronomy 28:1-7