February 1, 2004 - George Lim

Tithe/Offerings:  The Acid Test for a Christian’s Faith

Mal 3:6-10 (NIV)
⁶  “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.  ⁷ Ever since the time of your forefathers 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. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’   ⁸ “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings.   ⁹ You are under a curse-- the whole nation of you-- because you are robbing me.  ¹⁰Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. 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 you will not have room enough for it."

Introduction

I. Why should Christians give tithes/offerings regularly?

• Mt. 6:19-24  “No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve both God and Money.”

• Giving tithes and offerings is the acid test for a Christian’s faith.

• Old Testament

• Leviticus 27:30-32

• Numbers 18:21-32

• Deuteronomy 12:5-7, 11-12, 17-18

• 2 Chronicles 31:6

• New Testament

• Matthew 23:23

• Hebrews 5:6-7

• Application

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. 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 you will not have room enough for it.” ~ Mal 3:10 (NIV)

Rom 5:6-8 (NIV)
^{6 "}You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.   ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Introduction

"God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him (her)."  1 John 4:16b

I. God’s Love is a Self-Initiated Love

• Rom 5:6,8 (NIV)  “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

• John 3:16  (NIV)  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

• Gal 4:4 (NIV)  “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,…"

• Rom 5:7 (NIV)  “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.”

• Jer 31:3 (NIV)  “The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”

• Rom 5:8 (NIV)  “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

• Hosea 3:1-5 (NIV)

¹ The LORD said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes."  ² So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. ³ Then I told her, "You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you. ⁴ For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. ⁵ Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

• Rom 5:6,8 (NIV)  “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

• John 3:16  (NIV)  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

• Rom 5:6,8 (NIV)  “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

• Phil 2:6-8 (NIV)

⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷ but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!

God is love, we, His children, should resemble Him in love.  Let’s live a life “constrained by Christ’s love.” 2 Corinthians 5:14a

Love will cover a multitude of sins. ~ 1 Peter 4:8

Introduction

Would you listen to the advice of a person, who never fished, on how to catch fish?

I. Why did Jesus tell Peter, an experienced fisherman, how to fish?

    A. Reasons

• Returning a favor

• Helping a friend

• Self-Revelation

II. Why did Jesus choose to invest His time and life in Peter?

       Reasons

• Jesus looks at the inside not the outside of a person (potential)

• Jesus has a plan for Peter’s life

    John 21:1-11
    v.11  ". . . It was full of large fish, 153, but . . . the net was not torn."

• Lesson learned pertaining to self development

• Lesson learned pertaining to serving in ministries

¹ Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God--  ² the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures ³regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, ⁴and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁵ Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.  ⁶And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Introduction

• What does the Bible say about “God’s call?”

Is it just a “churchy” term?
 
• God’s call can be separated into two categories:

    A. Scriptural Example

• Mark 16:15-16

• Romans 9:24, 25

²⁴ "even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?  ²⁵ As he says in Hosea: "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one,"

• Romans 1:6

• 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12

¹¹ "For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, ¹² encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory."

• John 3:14-19

(v.14, 15, 18)
^{14 "}Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

• Matthew 22:1-14

"For many are invited, but few are chosen."

    A. Scriptural Example

• Exodus 31:1-5

• Isaiah 22:20

• Romans 1:1

"Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God--"

• Acts 13:2

"While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

• For Ministry of the Gospel

• Romans 1:2-5

• Acts 13:2

• For Ministry Related Service

• He speaks to us

• He equips us with the needed spiritual gift(s)

• Luke 9:23

"Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

• Philippians 1:21

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

I. Introduction

II. The Conviction of:

    A. Spiritual heritage (1:5)

    B. Your calling (1:6,9)

    C. God’s presence (1:7-8)

III. Conclusion