good morning everyone should I say churches today
As we have as well the church from Downer Market with Andrew Wiley, pastor, he joined us for the service today.
So probably I should say good morning churches. It is good to get together.
You know, there is something beautiful when we belong to the people of God because we can, it's not about names and places,
but there is always, you know, we can always have occasions actually to get together, to worship God together,
because we've been saved by the same Lord, we worship the same Lord, and we want to honor together the same Lord. Amen?
As well, you know, we want to remind what happened yesterday, something important happened in this country politically,
the coronation of King Charles III. Yes, so it's like we want to remember him as we're going to pray today,
as we're going to, you know, just bring our worship and request to God. We want to pray for the nation, you know, for this nation.
We know that we don't live in an easy time, politically speaking, so I think we need like never before,
we need to pray for the people, you know, who are ruling this country, even if I understand, you know, kings and queens,
they don't have much to say really into the political system, but still we want to pray for them.
And let's just open this service and in the name of Jesus, we want to, Lord, we want to open this service this time together.
We thank you for how we are here together. We want to worship your name together, Lord God,
and we thank you for all what you've done and you do for us every day, Lord. We thank you for the cross, Jesus.
Thank you because you purchased us and you paid a high cost for our salvation. We thank you, Lord, for the cross, for dying on the cross.
We thank you for the resurrection. And it is because of this resurrection that we want to come before you, Lord,
because to you nothing is impossible. And we want to pray for Alicia right now, Lord God, in this time of trouble in her life.
Holy Spirit, we want to pray that you will touch her heart, her mind. You know her. You know her life, Lord God.
We kind of maybe lost a bit touch. We don't know what's going on in her life and in her heart and in her mind,
but nevertheless, we want to bring her before you. And we want to ask God that you will touch her life
and that you will keep on giving strength to her family, to Chandra and all the rest of the family
that will be able to stay next to her during this time of difficulty. Help them not to lose sight of you.
Help them not to lose their faith in you, Lord God. And work, Lord, in this situation in Jesus' precious name, Lord God.
We thank you, Lord God, for King Charles III, Lord. We pray for this country, for those who run this country, Lord God.
We want to pray for them, Lord. And although we live in a world that is going more and more like far away from you, Lord God,
we want to pray for these people, Lord. Holy Spirit, you will revive in them, Lord, some passion, some love, some thoughts for you, Lord God.
So we pray, Lord Jesus, for them, Lord, as they run this country, as they make decisions, they will affect one way or another
all our life, Lord. We just want to pray and bless them in Jesus' name, Lord God. And we want to speak, Lord,
and we want to pray, Lord, as well for each one of us here today, Lord. We thank you, Lord God, because you are present among us today.
Holy Spirit, we pray. Have your ways among us, Lord. We pray that you will move and touch our life in Jesus' name, Lord God.
You know how we came here, those who left maybe some burdens, some problems behind, Lord God.
We just pray, Lord Jesus, that you will speak to their life, you will touch their life in Jesus' precious name. Amen.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Just, you know, let's keep standing for a moment if you don't mind.
And if you're here today and you acknowledge that Christ has paid your debt on that cross,
if you are here today and the Lord Jesus Christ is your personal Savior, I really want to invite you to take part
in this next section of our service, which is communion. And I'm just going to read something from the Bible.
This is from Matthew 26 verses 26 to 28. This was Jesus. He was with his disciples.
And it says that while they were eating, Jesus took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples,
saying, Take and eat. This is my body. Then he took a cup. And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying,
Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
And then Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 26, speaking about taking communion, he says,
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
So what we're about to do now, we're not just having some juice and bread, and we're not just doing it because we do it once a month,
and we want to get used to. But I really want to invite you to think about the price that Christ had to pay on the cross for you.
So just feel free to open your bread and drink your juice. If you need any, just raise your hand.
And Ana is around the tray. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Jesus. Hallelujah, Lord God. You are wonderful, Jesus.
Lord, we thank you so much because the price that you had to pay for each one of us, it was not something cheap.
It was not the leftover what you had, but you gave to us the first fruit.
You gave to us your only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, for paying this absolutely massive price for us.
We thank you for your love for us. Thank you because in you we are forgiven. In you we are saved.
And thank you because one day we will see you face to face. We honor you, Lord, today.
We honor you, God, with our life every day. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
Please take your seat. Sarah, if you would like to come for the notices, I've got the microphone ready for you.
Hello, hello. Okay. So we've got an event coming up in June, and we've got the IBTI students coming to join us on the 3rd of June.
So they're coming on the Friday night, I believe, which will be the 2nd, and staying through until the Sunday.
Oh, they are coming on Saturday. Okay, so Saturday to the Sunday.
So what we might remember in years gone by is when they've come, we've had some lovely people within the church who have hosted them.
The students come and, yes, they spend time with the family, and then they come and do the things at church, etc.
So we are looking for some hosts, people. So the 3rd and 4th of June, so it will actually just be the Saturday night.
And so if you could help at all with that, I guess, check in with Sam Welley initially. Yep.
So we've got five girls, three boys, not such a big team this time, five girls, three boys, and three members of staff.
So not hundreds of people to accommodate, but if you can help at all with that, please see Sam Welley.
And on that day, please mark that in your diaries now. So it's going to be Saturday, the 3rd of June, and we're going to have like a summer outreach for the community.
So we're going to have it here at church. We're going to have some outside caterers come in.
We're going to have activities and games for the kids, maybe the bouncy castle.
Yeah, so just a nice time for the community. We're going to put flyers out.
So we're going to need all hands on deck to help, but also hopefully lots of people will be here and we can be a good witness in the community.
Right, so 3rd of June, and it will be, we're sort of toying with the times, but over lunchtime, so 11 till 2, middle of the day, something like that.
Okay. Other good news, we're going to start home groups again at the end of May, beginning of June.
So we're just confirming the days and what that will be like.
So we're going to give you news of that in the next few weeks, but be prepared to sign up for them again.
And then finally, don't forget, we've got the special offering going on for the Ugandan mission.
So we're doing the medical mission offering, and also if you can manage to buy extra when you go shopping, maybe find some extra knickers for the little girls.
Yes, I know they're taking knickers this year. So don't forget underwear is very useful, new underwear.
And if you'd rather just give us the money and we will buy that, please do mark that in the offering so we know what that's for.
All right. And then today's plan on first steps. Oh, sorry, that was in tiny print. I should have put my glasses on.
Indeed. Sorry. One of the home groups, Samalee did mention it, one of the home groups this time, we did our for last time.
And so this time we're going to do first steps as a home group. All right.
So that's a kind of an introduction to the Christian faith that's taken your belief a little bit further, giving you some more information.
All right. So if you're interested in that one, be ready to hear more about that. But that will be one of the home groups as well available this time.
All right. And I will give you quick information and run down on today's event because today we're going to have our own coronation celebration.
All right. So we're going to be very British and have a lovely afternoon tea together.
All right. So it's just that it's an afternoon tea. All right. So we're not expecting to be going home like massively full and that you probably will still eat later on today.
So be aware that we've got a we've got nice sandwiches. We've got nice cakes. We can have cups of tea. We're going to have skewers.
And yeah, just a lovely time together. All right. So scones, scones, whatever. Yeah. Cream on first jam on. I don't know.
But there you've got the options and we're going to have some games to the kids. So we're going to do that after church.
So give us time to sort of get it all prepared. Set up. We're saying about one o'clock.
So we'll do our best to get it ready for one. All right. All hands on deck.
Hopefully might round up some guys to get the tables out because it's going to be sunny when we open the curtains.
We're going to have a sunny afternoon. I know it. All right. So we're going outside guys. All right. We're going to eat outside.
It's going to be lovely. And yes, I please stay for that. And yeah, we'll have a lovely time of fellowship together.
All right. We've got the ties and offerings now hoping that we've got problems with the Internet people.
So if if things don't function quite so well in a minute, just bear with us.
But we'll hopefully be able to take donations at the back and the baskets here and the kids are dismissed.
A few things to say today. So as always, thank you very much for your generosity.
And all we do as a church is also thank you to the support that you give.
You know, you give you to the church, but really you're giving to God.
So it's like thank you so much for what you do, for what you give to the church.
So is today we're going to carry on on what we started last Sunday.
So if you were here last Sunday, we started as a short series on on the church.
And in specifically we spoke about the church being a living organism.
So the church is not an organization, but the church is a living organism.
And the main point, the difference is really that an organism is something that is alive, is something that grows, is something that change changes over time.
And that's what the church is. Christ is the head and the church develops, grow different countries, different cultures.
You know, the church has all so many different aspects when you look into into into it.
And so the church is a living organism. And we have seen that in the Book of Acts.
It was actually the blueprint of a healthy church.
And we're just going to read these verses together.
So we just refresh our memory.
And then speaking about the verses that we find in Acts chapter two from verse forty two to verse forty seven.
So this is the blueprint of the early church and what they were doing.
And we can see in verse forty seven how actually God was blessing them.
So starts from verse forty two.
They, the Christians, devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Everyone was sweet, was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the Apostles.
All the believers were together and had everything in common.
They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple court.
They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
And we we also defined last last week, if you remember, the meaning of the word devotion,
because it starts by saying that they, the Christians, were devoted to a number of things.
And we've seen that the meaning really of the word devotion is to be great love, great loyalty or enthusiasm for a person or for a cause.
But the definition that we've taken, because I really love the way how it's laid out, is like a profound dedication.
To be devoted is to have a profound dedication towards something.
And last Sunday we spoke and we said in this passage, in these verses that we just read, we can actually analyze three things.
They were devoted to the teaching of the Apostles or and we translated to the Bible, the Word of God, because we still have the teaching of the Apostles.
You know that, you know, we've got them all in the Bible.
Yeah. So we spoke how it's important for a healthy church to be devoted to the Word of God.
And because we are the church, that means as well it's important for you personally to be devoted to the Word of God.
The Word of God has to be the foundation of your life.
The Word of God has to be the foundation of the church.
Otherwise, the church will crumble.
And then today we're going to look at a second aspect, and it's the aspects of fellowship.
You know, they were devoted to fellowship, the breaking of bread.
And then next time we'll look at prayer together.
Now, when we look at fellowship, it's interesting, you know, in the past we spoke already about the importance of fellowship,
you know, in terms of coming together and having fellowship together, worshiping together in the house of God.
You know, that we should not neglect fellowship, but we should, you know, come together.
But today I want to take the word fellowship for actually how it is explained in these passages that we just read.
Because here the word fellowship, when then you go to verse 44, there is an explanation of what, you know, we meant in the previous verse.
It says that all the believers were together.
They had everything in common.
They sold property and possession to give to anyone who had need.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.
So yes, there was the element of meeting together, but specifically here at this passage there is an element of generosity.
And now actually the people there, you know, in the early church, they were selling their property, giving their money to the apostles,
and then the apostles will give them to the people who were in need.
And this is a pattern that we find as well in Acts chapter 4 and later on as well in the letters that Paul wrote.
And, you know, it's like, and here he's speaking about, you know, generosity, but specifically he speaks about financial generosity.
You know, we always say we can be generous in so many ways, which is true.
I can be generous with my time. I can be generous with my skills.
I can be generous in so many ways, but specifically here, you know, the Bible is speaking, it gives detail.
They were actually selling possessions, you know, get the money.
So we're speaking about money, and with that money they were supporting, you know, the work of God, how?
By helping the people who were in need.
So the people here in the early church, yes, they were devoted to fellowship, but as well here is explained,
they were devoted to support the work of God.
They were giving generously towards the word of God.
And now when we come to these verses, you know, I can see already the panic in your eyes.
Oh my goodness, here's the pastor is asking me to sell my house.
No, I'm not asking you that. So we're going to do some explanation here, right?
So I think it's important to understand these verses.
You know, you hear me a lot of times saying that, you know, when we take a passage,
you know, there is a meaning there, but then we have to put that meaning,
whatever we take out from a passage within the context, the immediate context,
which is the story around this passage, and then from the immediate context we move to the book context,
so the context of the book of Acts, and then in the context of the entire Bible.
This is how the way how you actually, you know, how you explain the Bible
and you try to understand what the Bible is saying to you.
So it's important to look at the context here.
So I want to start by saying very clearly what these verses are not saying.
So these verses are not calling out to socialism or to communism,
where you are not allowed to have property as a believer,
and we need to give all the money to God.
This is not what these verses are doing.
This was something specific to what was going on in this moment in Chapter 2 in the book of Acts,
and so is in Chapter 4, and so we'll see later as well in the letter of Paul.
So it's not a call to communism or to socialism.
So if God doesn't want us to sell what we have, what can we learn really from this passage?
And what we learn is like a lesson about generosity, what I just said.
The early church, the early believers were people who were generous,
and when I speak today, when I speak about generosity, I'm speaking about their finances.
They were not holding back to their money like they were like, oh, this is all mine,
but they were giving, they were investing into the work of God.
And now maybe you are here maybe for the first time in church, or maybe you're here with Andrew.
So here we go, the church is again after money, the pastor today is speaking about money.
But I can guarantee you, we don't just speak about that.
It's probably once or twice a year we speak about money and stewardship.
But if you come along, all other Sundays we do speak about all the other topics as well.
But it is important for the church, it is important for me as a pastor of this church to speak about money.
And do you know why it is important?
It is important because the Bible speaks a lot about money, about possession, about wealth.
So there are about 2,300 verses in the Bible that speaks about money, speaks about wealth and possession.
And when we look at the person of Jesus, Jesus himself,
the 50% of his preachings are about wealth, money, and possessions,
and 11 out of 39 of his parables were about money, wealth, and possession.
And now you're maybe thinking, come on, don't tell me that you went and calculated a percentage.
I haven't done that, I've done some study around it.
You do when you prepare a sermon.
Someone has done that for me and they've come up with these pretty important numbers.
So money is something that is spoken in the Bible, and because we are a Bible church,
occasionally we have to speak as well about money.
So why did Jesus, you know, spoke so much about money?
Certainly it's not because he was obsessed by it.
And certainly not because he wanted us to be obsessed by money.
That's not the reason why Jesus, you know, spent so much time and so many words
speaking about money, wealth, and possession.
But the reason why he did that is because he knew that when it comes to money,
that's a heart issue.
It's like, it's very dear to us.
It's like, ask me everything but don't ask me about my money.
That is the same, put your money where your mouth is, right?
It's like, if you really want to prove me that this is good, just put your money there.
That speaks a lot.
Money is so important for us, and you know, we, whenever someone asks us about money,
we kind of start to get nervous, right?
So Jesus knew this is a matter of the heart of people.
That's why I need to address that.
Because you see, and listen carefully to this, you probably already heard this saying,
but you know, if you haven't, maybe it's the first time, that money can be either two things,
can be either a terrible master or a wonderful servant.
So if your life today is controlled by money, by wealth, you live to make more money,
you live to gather, you live to earn more and to strive economically,
and all your attention, all your focus is consumed by that, well, you are a slave.
Your heart is slave to money.
But then, you know, money is not in itself evil.
The Bible says that the law for money is the beginning of all evil.
But money in itself is not evil because if you are not mastered by the money,
then it can be a wonderful servant because with the money we can do things,
we can bless people, we can give to others, we can do so many things with money.
So it's like a heart. We need to check our heart.
You know, it's like, what is money for you?
Is it a master or it is a servant?
Jesus knew that money was a heart issue.
And that's why as well, for example, in Matthew 6, 21,
we read for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
So if your treasure today is like, I want to make more, I want to make more,
I want to earn more, then your heart is there.
And if your heart is there, then money is the Lord of your life.
Christ is not the Lord of your life.
But if your heart is like in the Lord,
then you will declare the Lordship of Christ even over your finances.
And you will learn to be generous as Christ, as God himself, he was generous.
We believe in a generous God. Don't forget.
Don't forget what he has given for you and for me.
The price that he paid on the cross.
He didn't give out of something, out of surplus,
but he gave the best of what he had to save you and me.
And if we are full of Christ, we need to learn from our master.
So here we start to speak. We are speaking about giving, you understood that.
And here is the question, okay, why is God asking me to give?
Why is God wants us to invest back into his kingdom?
And why do we have to put money in the basket
or to give money with the cards when we go to church?
Why do I have to do that?
And it's not because God needs money, right?
God is self-sufficient. He doesn't need anything from you and me.
No money, no food, or anything else.
He is a self-sufficient God and he doesn't need any of that.
But he wants us to be steward of what he has given us.
And you know the word steward.
It means that someone is entrusting you something
and he is giving you something that you need to manage somehow.
And God is asking us to be good stewards with all everything he has given us.
And you know the first principle of stewardship,
something that we need all to understand,
is that you may think that your life belongs to you.
You may think that your money in your pocket today belongs to you.
You may think that your car belongs to you.
You may think that your car, your house belongs to you.
You may think whatever out there belongs to you.
But actually everything belongs to God.
In Deuteronomy 10, 14 it says,
To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens,
the earth and everything in it.
The earth and everything in it.
That includes me, you, my body, your body, my house, your house,
my car, your car, my finances, your finances.
Everything belongs to God.
And he blesses us with different things in life, including money.
But he wants us to be good stewards.
He doesn't want us to be greedy.
He doesn't want us to live and to be consumed by money.
But he actually wants us to be good stewards.
And the principle of stewardship is in so many ways is explained in the Bible.
Because you may think I'm just talking here, making things up.
But only if you remember the parable of the talents.
You remember three servants and a master,
he gave different talents to his servants.
And then at the end of the story, those who actually managed to trade
what they had received to make it profitable, to master it well,
they were commanded by their master.
And then there was actually the one servant who didn't do anything with it.
He kind of hid that talent just to keep it there and to give it back to his master.
And actually at the end of the story, the master was not happy about that
because he had not been a good steward with what he had given him.
So the principle of stewardship is present everywhere in the Bible.
And it starts from understanding that all what we have belongs to God.
And God wants us to be good stewards.
And therefore when we give back to him, and when I speak give back to him,
of course we're speaking about we support the church or whatever else you give to,
it's like we are actually being stewards of the finances that God has entrusted to us.
Our life, our time, our bodies, everything has been entrusted to us.
And we are called to be stewards of what he has given us.
And that is like, okay, but still I don't understand, why should we give the church?
Why do we should put money in the basket there?
Well, it's because there are two reasons really mainly,
I'm just speaking plainly, there is like an internal need and there is an external need.
The internal need is, you see you've got a beautiful building,
and there is always something going on, there is a project going on outside,
there is something, sooner the ladies bathroom is going to, we're going to do some work there.
There is always things happening, but guess what, these things need money.
The lights and the gas in the kitchen and electricity.
So the money that we receive as a church, we use internally to pay the expenses,
to pay the salary of the people who are employed by the church,
to pay the people, the contractors who come and do different works for the church.
The equipment that we buy and so on.
But then as well there is of course the external aspect that you know,
if you're part of this church, that we love our town, we love our community,
so we do kind of invest a lot of money in that.
Every time we do an event we print leaflets, about 5,000 leaflets.
Our events are free, we buy equipment, we invite people, we make food,
because we want to bless the people out there, we support Uganda,
Kenny is going with the team, we're supporting a medical day,
we support working in India.
So whenever we give to the church, understand that we are giving,
we are investing back into the kingdom of God.
And I think this needs to be, you know, I want to be clear here,
because maybe you're here for the first time and you've got a wrong conception,
conception of what money is in the church,
and maybe you are here listening to me speaking, or you want me to speak,
because you know, if I give money you become more rich.
No, that's not the case, and you know, just in case you don't know
how we run finances here in this church, we are a charity,
so all our books are online, you can go and see them,
and you can see exactly where we spend our money, how much we pay our staff,
how much we give to mission, how much we give to outreach,
everything is out there.
We do members' meetings during the year, once or twice a year,
where we explain, where we invest money, the projects that we are doing,
what we buy, everything is transparent.
But really, to me, you know, as a pastor of the church,
nothing comes in my pocket from you giving or not giving.
It's not like the more you give, the more I get.
That's not the case. There's a body of trustees, you know,
I'm part of the trustees, but whenever they speak about my salary,
the yearly review about my salary, I'm not there, you know,
I've got nothing to do with that, you know, they make the decision,
they look at things, so things are very, you know,
run in a very transparent way, and I just said that because I think it's important,
because I don't want you to get these words and thinking that, you know,
I'm looking after my own personal wealth.
So it's like, you know, God has called us to be good stewards,
and we give to church to invest back into the kingdom
because we want to see the church of God, you know, growing.
More we have, more we can do, more we can invest in different things,
and of course, more people will be blessed.
So it's like being part of a church, it's like being part of a family,
just like in the book of Acts.
And just like any good family, probably you have a family financial plan.
Do you have that in place? If you don't, you should have one.
You know, where it's like you sit down with your wives, you know, your expenses,
your budget, you know, it's like there is a financial plan,
these men have got this money for this, this money for that,
there is a plan in place, yeah?
And so as well as a church, there is, you know, God, if you want financial plan
for this church in Brandon or for your church where you come from
or for whatever other church where you go,
because we are a family, there is God's family as a financial plan as well,
and you can choose to opt out from this financial plan.
You can do that anyway. You can do it anytime.
Like I said, you know what, I don't want anything to do with giving.
I want to opt out from this, from God's financial plan from my church.
But I just want to make you think, you know, why would you do that?
Don't you want to take part in building the kingdom of God in your community?
Don't you want to see people saved and don't you want to see a church
that invests more, you know, in the place where you are?
Why would you want to opt out? You can.
Your salvation doesn't depend on how much you give.
Understand that. Salvation is by faith only, so nobody is sending anything here.
But why would you want to opt out from God's financial plan of your church?
Or you can say, you know what, God, because you are Lord over my life,
as well I want you to be Lord over my finances.
Oh, Pastor, if only you knew my situation.
If only you knew my situation, you wouldn't say that.
Perhaps, it's right, I don't know your situation,
but I know plenty of stories of people and personal experience
that they have been faithful with giving in times of plenty and in times of needs.
And God has always honored their faithfulness to Him.
You have to understand as well what I come from.
Maybe you don't know what I, you know, it's like you see me here in church.
But before coming in Brandon, for a number of years,
five years we were like as missionaries serving in a Bible college in the south of England.
We had flat, we had food in the table.
You know how much money we were getting for the college as a family?
Fifteen pounds a week.
So for five years, they would give us the flat and the food,
you couldn't have the expenses, but we lived with 15 pounds a week.
Anna had a job outside, I was doing other things beside that.
But, you know, so I know what it is to be depending on God, 100%.
I've been there.
And still, you know, it's always good to be in life in a place where there is that dependency.
I don't want to ever get to a place where I've got everything
because it becomes more dangerous to manage.
Some people are there, blessed, but for myself,
I like to be always in that zone where I want to depend on the Lord.
And I remember, this is just one story, I can tell you many stories.
Remember 15 pounds a week, we had one car.
We were standing on the queue, coming back,
and they invited us to speak in a church in Bolton.
So I paid the petrol, of course, to go up to Bolton from Brighton.
So we're there, so you can imagine, it's expensive in there.
But the church actually was very generous, they helped us to cover that.
But anyway, on the way back, we were still standing at the traffic light,
and someone hit us in the back, in the car.
It was not our fault, we were just standing.
Joshua was sitting in the back, it was lethal.
The car was written off.
Of course, what the insurance gave us is not much to buy another car.
So they had given us a thousand pounds for our car,
so what do you buy with a thousand pounds, right?
We needed a car, and we were on 15 pounds a week, never forget that.
And we prayed, Lord, here, how do we do?
We need a car to move around.
And then we had a phone call from some friends of ours in Germany.
And out of nowhere, we see them once a year,
when we go to Germany, we kind of get together for a tea or a coffee.
We don't even speak as we go.
So they didn't know anything of our need or anything.
They said, Sam, you know, we were praying, really felt from the Lord
that we should give you a financial gift.
I don't remember if it was like 4,000 pounds, something like that.
So we've taken this money, and together with the thousand pounds
we got from our insurance, we had about 5,000 pounds,
we were able to buy a decent secondhand car.
So I'm speaking from a position where I know what it means to give
when you are in time of need.
So I may not know about your situation,
because I don't know everybody here,
but one thing I know, that God is faithful,
and He honors those who honor Him.
I've experienced that in my life.
I've seen it happening around me.
So I can tell you that if you're faithful to God,
even when it comes to your finances, even when you are in time of need,
God is going to honor those who honor Him.
I can tell you that.
So here is the next question.
You may be like, okay, we understood what the Church does with the money.
We understood it is important to give back to God,
and we're called to be steward.
How much? That usually is the question.
How much do you want from me?
I'm going to tackle that, right?
Once a year we fish about money, so if you're here, I'm sorry,
you've got to hear that, okay?
So let's start with what I said at the beginning.
God surely doesn't want to sell your house,
unless He comes in a dream and says, sell your house.
I've heard this story about it.
Generally speaking, God doesn't want to sell your properties
so you can give everything you had back to Him.
He doesn't want that.
But as well, I can tell you that God doesn't want the leftover.
There is a principle, again, in the Bible,
you look throughout the Bible, where God always was asking
the first fruit of the produce to His people.
And I'm thinking just one verse, but there are so many that we can look at.
In Proverbs 3 verse 9, it says,
honor the Lord with your wealth,
with the first fruits of all your crops.
So God doesn't want everything, but He wants as well the first fruit.
And then again, the question may be still there.
What do you mean by first fruit?
And there is again, there is a pattern in the Bible that we observe,
and this is what we call timing.
And just to put it plainly, and I'm going to explain that a little bit,
I'm going to show you because I know there is much debate on that.
Timing is simply, to say plainly,
is the 10% of your income, of a family income.
And in Deuteronomy 14, chapter 14, verse 22,
you must set aside a tithe of your crops,
one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year.
Ten percent?
That sounds a lot, doesn't it?
It's so much, right?
But think it this way, we go back to the principle of stewardship.
All what you have is not yours, it comes from God.
So picture that you are there starving,
and someone comes along to you, you go anything, you don't have anything to eat, right?
You cannot produce food out of nowhere.
Someone comes along to you and says, here you go, I've got here for you ten potatoes,
and you get not the small European potatoes, the English potatoes,
ten big potatoes, something that you can hardly hold in your hands.
You've got ten of them.
And then the one who has given you the ten potatoes says,
would you mind actually if you give me one back so I can plant it again,
and then whatever I get out of that I'll be able to bless other people.
What would you do?
Yeah, you can have it.
Come on, I still have nine, right?
If you start from the principle you've got nothing, I still have nine,
it's still quite a lot.
So sometimes we focus on the ten, but we forget about the ninety that is left to us.
So this is what tithing is in the Bible.
And again, this is one of the most quoted verses in the Old Testament
that explain about the importance of giving back to the Lord,
of tithing to the Lord, Malachi 3, from verse 6 to 12.
He says, this is like a monologue that God is having there,
and he's speaking for himself as well as he's speaking according to the heart of people.
So he says, I the Lord do not change, so you the descendants of Jacob are not destroyed.
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.
But you ask, how are we to return?
Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
But you ask, how are we robbing you? In tithes and offerings.
You're under a curse, you're an old nation because you are robbing me.
Bring the old 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 floor gates of heaven
and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
This is God, you know, through the prophets of prophet Malachi speaking about tithing.
You know, he uses quite strong words like you are robbing me.
And you might think like, oh wait, hold on a second, Sam, this is the Old Testament.
You know, we are in the New Testament, things have changed, that was the law of Moses.
But actually let me explain you how this goes beyond the law of Moses.
And that goes beyond the law of Moses, in fact, because it was in place before
even the law of Moses was ever put together.
And this is what we call systematic theology.
When we want to learn things about God, the doctrine of God, you look at the entire Bible,
you see patterns in the Bible that repeat systematically,
from here systematic theology, and then you come out with a conclusion.
That's why you take one verse on its own, it doesn't make any sense unless you analyze it
in the context of the old book.
So when we do a bit of systematic theology, we see that actually giving the tenth to God
was there before the law of Moses was in place.
And we are not going to read by Genesis 14, 19, is the episode when Abraham gave the tenth percent
to Melchizedek. Melchizedek is a type of Christ, by the way, for those who like typology.
The Bible says he was the priest of the Most High, meaning he was representing God on earth.
Melchizedek blessed Abraham with something, and Abraham responded,
wait a second, I want to give you back the tenth of all my possession.
And that was way before the law was put in place.
And theologically speaking, this is a very strong argument, because it means that
this is perhaps a moral law. When it comes to the law, there are moral laws and practical laws.
We are not anymore under the practical laws, if you want, of washing and killing of animals.
But the moral laws are still in place, and there are plenty of things that were established
even at the beginning, before the law was in place, and therefore they supersede the law.
They are bigger than the law. For example, marriage was there before the law.
For example, murdering someone was wrong, it was there before the law.
We didn't have to wait until the law of Moses to understand them to killing and to murder was wrong.
It was there before, and so it was tithing. And then of course it is reinforced throughout the law.
Deuteronomy chapter 14 is only about that, but there is so much more again into that.
And then of course we come to the New Testament. And because here is the point,
we are in the New Testament, okay, well, yeah, before the law, but still it was Old Testament,
we are in the New Testament. So how do things work in the New Testament?
Are you sure you want to bring me there? Because I'm going to show you something interesting.
The New Testament actually raises the standard of everything.
You know, you had the law in the Old Testament, and then Christ, the New Testament,
it's not just the law disappear, we're not subject to the law, yes, but all the moral teaching,
there were parts of the law actually, are amplified in the New Testament.
And I've got just a few verses here. Matthew chapter 5, verse 21.
This is Jesus speaking. You have heard that it was said to the people long ago,
so he was speaking about the Old Testament, you shall not murder,
and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.
But I tell you now in the New Testament that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister
will be subject to judgment. So you know, raise the standard.
You know, you thought that to kill was wrong. Wait a second.
Even if you're angry to your brother and sister, you're subject to judgment.
Matthew 5, 27-28. You have heard in the past, in the Old Testament,
that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.
But listen to what's going to happen here in the New Testament.
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The standard again, they're raised.
Matthew 5, 38-39. You have heard that it was said, eye for eye and tooth for tooth.
But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.
If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.
It's like in the Old Testament, you heard that you could give an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,
but here the standard are raised. If someone hits you on one cheek, just give the other one.
Matthew 5, 43-44. You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
The standards are again raised.
And of course you might think, well, this is nothing to do with giving, right?
But there is a story in the Bible, in the New Testament. It's such an important story.
It's a story of a widow. She was not important. She was not a teacher of the law.
She was not educated. Just a normal widow could be anybody living at that time.
But yet what she did was so important that somehow it's reported in the Gospels.
And I'm just going to read in Mark 12, verses 41-44.
Jesus sat down near the collection box in the temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money.
Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I tell you the truth.
This poor widow has given more than all the others were making contributions.
For they gave a tiny part of their surplus. But she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.
So it's like speaking about raising the standards. Jesus was there.
Imagine. He could have gone to her like, hey, I know you're poor. You don't need to do that.
Don't do that. Just keep it for yourself.
Go and get, I'm saying a pizza, but I said no, there's no pizza at that time.
Go and get something to eat. You don't have to. Jesus knew she was a widow.
A widow with a man. The man was a provider.
Speaking about single motherhood in those days was much tougher than what it is today.
There was no social support or anything. But Jesus didn't stop her. He actually praised her.
Do you think that Jesus then he didn't take care of her?
Do you think that she put a coin and she went out and died because she was on starvation?
We don't know what happened to her. It's not in the Bible.
But because of the God that I know, I'm pretty sure the God has done something wonderful to that woman.
Because God honoured those who honour him.
And he said, look, there are all these rich people that are giving a lot of money, but you know what?
They're just giving their surplus. But this widow, she gave all what she had.
Again, the standards are raised. Speaking about giving.
She gave all what she had. She gave something that was dear to her.
She didn't give whatever she found, but she gave something that was important to her.
But wait a second. Did Jesus ever mention the word tithing at least once in the New Testament?
Did he ever mention something about it? Yes, he did.
In Matthew 23, verse 23, he was speaking to the teacher of the law.
And he said, What sorrow awaits you, teacher of religion, of religious law, in your Pharisee?
Hypocrites, for you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens,
but you ignore the more important aspects of the law, which are justice and mercy and faith.
You should tithe. Yes, but do not neglect the more important things.
So Jesus said, Yeah, it's okay. You should tithe. Yes, you're good at that,
but you should not neglect the more important things.
So it's like there are things that are more important to tithing.
Yes, justice and faith and love.
But how can we give the more important things of our life
if we cannot even be obedient in giving the less important things like tithing?
Have you ever thought about this perspective here?
How can we give to, you know, how can we operate and invest in important things like justice and love
and mercy, but yet neglect the less important things about tithing?
This is Jesus Christ. Yes, you should do that.
But as well, don't ignore the other things.
I've got five more minutes and I want to close and just to wrap up.
I want to speak about sometimes the barriers of giving,
why we struggle to give back to God what he has given us in the first place.
And there are basically three main groups.
The one is fear. I'm afraid that if I give to the Lord, I won't have enough.
But yet I know to whom I'm speaking.
I know where I'm speaking from. We are in England.
And I know very well and I've never seen anybody dying of starvation in this country.
Never seen.
So I've never seen anybody dying from starvation, but as well what actually I've seen is a nation,
and I put myself, the Western civilization.
We are very good in confusing two things.
You know what we are good in confusing?
We are good in confusing the needs with the wants.
I cannot give back to the Lord, but I cannot make it at the end of the month.
But I've got my Netflix, got my prime membership.
I just upgraded my car. I had to switch electric right.
I upgraded my phone. I need to go at least once or twice a week to eat out.
I've got to buy new clothes and new shoes.
I don't want so many wants, so many wants that we kind of get confused
and we think that become needs in our mind.
But really the needs are much fewer.
Much fewer.
And if we learn to honor God with what we have, even financially,
maybe we have to eliminate some of the wants.
Maybe instead of having Netflix and Disney Plus and Prime,
we choose only one of the three.
Maybe instead of changing phone every year, changing every three years, four years.
Maybe instead of having two or three phones, I have one or two if we have one for job, whatever.
I understand there are different dynamics.
But you know what I'm saying here, we are so good in kind of getting confused with wants and needs.
Because the needs, you know, God is going to provide to your needs.
He's faithful.
He said, look, if you honor me, see how I'm going to open the store of heaven.
I'm going to bless you. I'm going to fill you.
You look at the birds in the sky.
I mean, there are plenty of passages in the Bible.
They don't strive to work and yet they eat every day.
So it's like God speaks about providing the needs to his children.
But yet whatever is left, we would rather invest in wants rather than honoring back God with what he's due.
And we waste so much money in so many different things.
We think we don't have enough, but I'm sorry.
And it doesn't matter how your financial situation, because you know, if it is 100, it's 10 pounds.
If it is a thousand, it's 100 pounds.
If it is a million, it's 100,000 pounds.
Everything is proportionate.
If it's 10 pounds, it's a pound.
Yeah, just to speak plainly.
So, you know, 10 percent spare for God is something that we should manage to.
If you want to be called good stewards of what he has given us.
And then come on, you can trust Jesus Christ for heaven, but you cannot trust him to provide to what you need.
How does that work?
We just entrusted our life, our eternity to Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us.
And yet we cannot trust that he is going to be able to cover us, to cover our needs.
That's what we want, to cover our needs.
The two things that they don't, you know, how can we put these two things together?
The second reason why we don't give is because of greed.
Our life is controlled by money in this case.
Money is the Lord of your life.
I want more. This is mine. I earn it.
I need to do more. I need to make more.
I was so greedy. All for me. All for me.
But yeah, how can you worship God?
How can you be a follower of God?
You know, God is everything but greedy.
He has given his only son. He has given the first fruit of what he had.
He didn't give that even the 10 percent to us.
He gave the 100 percent.
He gave all what he had, the best of what he had for you and me.
He's everything but greedy.
Yeah, but there's this pattern in the Bible that we can observe.
And yet we struggle even to stick with that.
And the third case is that we know what the Word says.
But we don't do what it says.
Some people call it rebellion against the Word, God's Word.
It's like the person that go and look at himself or herself in the mirror,
see what needs to be done, he goes away but does nothing about it.
So it's like those who read the Word, but then instead of allowing the Word to become reality,
you know what, this is yes, oh yeah, God's going to bless me here, oh yeah, yes, yes, yes,
oh he's asking me that, no.
So if we're honest with ourselves, you know, we can.
And as well, you know, understand when, you know, it's easy for you, you're a pastor, you want my money,
I don't want your money, I don't care.
You know, whatever you give to God is invested into the kingdom of God.
And you can see around you, come on, yeah, it's invested back into the kingdom.
And it's like don't be afraid.
Don't be greedy.
This greediness is money controlling your life, it's money mastering your life.
Maybe there is someone here that you need to give up on that.
If you want really Jesus to be Lord of your life, he has to be as well Lord of your finances.
Why don't we all stand?
I finished what I wanted to share with you today.
And remember, you know, it's like we're speaking here, the blueprint of a healthy church in the book of Acts.
And specifically because we know God's Word is, you know, never things are there by accident.
Specifically when in Acts 2 we read that the church, they were devoted to fellowship.
And that word fellowship is then linked with the work together, sharing what they had, speaking about generosity.
Then as well we, in obedience to the Word, we want to be generous.
You know, just because I want to be transparent, as I said, you know, I just shared you stories.
I always honor God with what I had.
I give Him, I tithe, I give offering.
And I'm not saying that because God is witness to me right now because I want to boast of anything far away from me.
Boasting, that's not my intention, that's not, I'm not trying to manipulate, I'm not trying to do anything.
But I just want to say I am the testimony of someone who has experienced in my family the blessing of God,
God honoring us because we choose to honor Him.
So many we can count, countless experience of how God came through for us.
I have seen, you know, I speak to people, I know where people are and I know all different stories, you know,
God is faithful, He doesn't own anything to anybody.
And He called us to be good stewards, to be good stewards is part of an healthy church.
If you want to be an healthy church, we build on the Word of God, yes, we pray, we're going to see, we're going to speak about prayer next time.
But as well we need to be generous, we need to be devoted to one another, devoted to the work of God specifically.
You know, the Bible is intentionally here mentioning generous from a financial point of view to honor God.
And really it's like I want you to ask this question, what is money today controlling your life?
Where is money always there, you know, it's like maybe nobody told you that we came naked into this world and guess what?
We cannot take anywhere with us.
So we've been entrusted something in between and we can either choose to keep it for ourselves, even sitting there doing nothing,
or actually we can invest back into the kingdom and we can experience God's goodness, we can experience God's faithfulness,
we can experience the new aspects of God.
You know sometimes we say, well yeah, we are Christian but really Sam, I can't experience God, thank you so much if we don't do what the Word says.
You will never experience provision unless you go through a time of need, right?
You will never experience certain things unless you are obedient to other things.
So if you really want Christianity to be real, if you really want to be God to be real, maybe we need to start to be doers of the Word,
learn from the Word and do what it says.
As I said, you know, I'm not here to manipulate anything.
Maybe you're asking, oh my goodness, will I be saved if I don't die? Yes, you will. Yes, you will.
Salvation is by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ.
There is nothing more that we need to add. There is nothing more that we need to take away from it.
It's not about that.
But the question is, why do you want to opt out from God's financial plan for your church?
Why do you want to opt out from being a good steward of what He has given to you?
Oh, yes, we will all be saved, but the Bible as well says that we will receive different crowns, different prizes in heaven
according to how we live our life, according to how we've been good stewards of what God has given us.
And this is everything, our life, our bodies, our homes, our cars, and our finances.
So yes, we will all be saved.
So what God will tell you one day, we will appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
We will not be judged because of salvation, because we are saved by faith alone,
but we will be judged according to what we have done with what was entrusted to us.
And we will receive accordingly.
I want to invite you today, if you've never done it before, just to trust God in this.
I've never seen, I've never met a single person who started tithing
and then actually kind of ran out of everything and had to stop doing that.
I only saw people just moving from blessing to blessing, just God providing to their needs.
Not to confuse with the world once.
God is faithful. God is faithful.
God is faithful and I want to invite you to trust Him also in your finances. Hallelujah.
So we thank you dear God because your Word is complete.
Your Word is something to say about all aspects of our life,
our family, our marriages, our finances, our sins, salvation, about our sexuality, about our identity.
Everything is there Lord and we thank you for your Word.
And today Lord I pray for all of us, help us to honor you as well with our finances.
Help us to honor you with what you haven't trusted as God.
So we thank you Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.