Well then, a question: How did they rob God? Well, in those days, they didn’t have the “First National Bank” or the mutual funds or the CD [Certificates of Deposit] system. So, people put their money—their wealth—in their cattle. And you know what those Jews were doing? The Jew would go out among his cattle and he found a cow that was sick. He knew the cow was going to die, and he says, “I’ll give that cow to God.” He’d keep looking; he’d find another cow that’s fallen into a ditch—she’d broken her hip. He said, “That cow can’t live, so I’ll take that cow and give it to God.” That’s what they were actually doing! And that’s when Malachi said to them, “Why don’t you offer that sick cow to your governor?” It’d be an insult! You won’t offer it to your governor, and yet, you offer it to God! And God said, “You’re cursed with a curse…. The whole nation is cursed, because you’ve robbed Me.”

And then, in verse 10, God said, “Bring all your tithes and offerings into My storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and PROVE ME….” Did you know that you can begin with the first chapter of Genesis; you can read through the last of Revelation, and in all of God’s dealings with mankind throughout all these years, as far as the Bible reveals, only one time God called upon man to prove Him? One time God said to man, “I want you to try ME. I want you to test Me. I want you to prove Me.” Notice what He said: “PROVE ME!...if I will not open [you] the windows of heaven, and fill you life with so many blessings that there might not be room enough in your life to receive them.” [Malachi 3:8-10: “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings. 9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove 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.”]

Praise God. What a commitment! What a promise! Now, does God have the capacity to do that? [He says,] “Prove Me; test Me; try Me, and see.”

But I can just hear someone ask in a Bible class, “How in the world could God fill a man’s life with so many blessings that he can’t receive all of them?” Well, let me give you a personal example.

Several years ago—back when I was a younger preacher—about 35 or 40 years ago, I received a letter from a church about a Gospel Meeting, and I laid that letter down and didn’t answer it, because I was going from one meeting to another. I came home the second week, and my wife said, “That number’s on your desk. Did you return it?” [“The telephone number that was in that letter about a Gospel Meeting is on your desk. Did you return, or make the call?”] I said, “No.” I’d return it, but I picked the number up and I went to a meeting in Toledo, Ohio. And I had that number in my pocket, and one night in my motel room I thought [that] this would be a good time to return this call. And it was a call from one of the elders at one of the great churches in the South. And this man said, “Brother Black, we’ve had an elder’s meeting, and we would like for you to move here and become our pulpit minister (whatever that is).” And I said, “Well, I don’t think I can do it.” And so, I did not go.

Well, somebody says, “Why wouldn’t you go?” Well, it was not because of the salary, because the elders…. This man told me, “We’ve had a meeting, and we’ve agreed in the meeting [that] if you would come and preach for us, we’d let you set your salary.” How would you like an offer like that?

So, I said, “No, I can’t come.” Now, listen to me carefully. At that time I was in this full-time meeting work. For many years, I had done local work. I could not continue doing the local work and at the same time be doing this meeting work that I was doing. I had to make a choice between this work, or this work. Either one of them would have been a great work! Doing the local work was a great work. Preaching at meetings was a great work. But, I had to make a choice! So, I made the choice to give up the local work and to go into meeting work. Ah, God was filling up my life with so many blessings [that] I couldn’t accept all of them! That’s how He does it!

If we could just trust God…. And the ONLY thing that God is asking us to do is to give back to Him as He has prospered us. And let me ask you, “What’s wrong with that?”

Now, in the concluding part of this lesson, I want you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians, if you will. And I want you to read some verses with me. The reason I want you to read these verses is because I’ve marked them in my Bible—you may mark your Bible; you may not.

Several years ago I was going to a place to lecture on “Stewardship,” and I was sitting in the preacher’s office, and I was going to discuss the 8^th and the 9^th chapters of 2 Corinthians, because both chapters talk about “giving.” And I was sitting there and quoting these chapters to myself to see if I’d be able to quote them when I stood before the congregation. Even though I’d memorized these chapters, I began to notice some things now, as I’m quoting them [to myself] that I’d never observed before after studying it over and over to memorize it.