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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

Giving to Get? The Inside Scoop on Offerings

And just in case you didn't realize it, it's the goodness of God that has brought you here today.

Thank you for that beautiful, mighty song.

You know, we human beings are something else sometimes, aren't we?

You know, we're used to choosing whatever gives us the most perks at any time.

We look for a restaurant with the best price, the menu, the atmosphere, the best location, and if it's not any of the above, they're not getting any of our business.

We go to clothing stores that carry our sizes, have our taste in clothes and the best sales, and if we can't find that in town, we shop online.

We want to get our groceries at the place that's closest to our home with the best prices, best selection, and that's not crowded.

The sad reality is that many of us take that same mentality to church, particularly when it comes to giving offerings.

I've heard some ask, what benefits do I get for contributing to the local church budget?

What will I get from out of Sabbath school?

Will I get those changes I've been wanting?

But wait, I do give tithes, so why are you expecting offerings on top of that?

And how can I go about avoiding a consumer mentality and cultivate a biblical point of view when it comes to offerings?

Let's see if the Apostle Paul this morning gives us the inside scoop.

Father in heaven, as we open the Word of God, we want to examine the scriptures for we know the Bible provides counsel, guidance, instruction to everything that pertains to life and godliness.

And Father in heaven we pray that as we open scripture and take a look at today's message, I pray that yes, the Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts and I thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

My purpose today is to share with you instructions regarding offerings.

It's not a topic that we often hear about or even expect, anticipate.

If anything, if there's going to be a sermon on stewardship, well it's going to be on tithes first and foremost, but not today.

Today we're going to look at offerings and the instructions that are given to us found in the writings of the Apostle Paul.

These instructions will help us to know when we should prepare our offerings, who should give offerings, how we should prepare our offerings, where we should set our offerings aside, how much we should give as offerings, and finally why we should give offerings.

And these instructions are found in Paul's letter to the Corinthians.

I hope you came to school with your main textbook.

The Word of God is to be always handled as we come together to worship God.

And in 1 Corinthians 16, verses 1 and 2 is what we're going to focus on today.

In fact, our focus today will be on these 2 verses.

1 Corinthians 16 1-2 And Paul wrote, Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must also do.

On the first day of the week let each 1 of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.

I'd like to answer 6 questions today, 6 questions that naturally arise from this passage we just read.

First question, when should we prepare our offerings?

The Apostle Paul writes, on the first day of the week, which began to be called Sunday by Roman culture a few centuries after Christ.

At this time the days of the week were simply 1234567.

Now to be sure, before we go any further, To be sure, the designation that the Creator Himself made of the seventh day of the week, as the Sabbath and our world at the beginning, never changed.

And because Christians in the early church, as they worshipped God on the Sabbath, they did not manage their finances on the seventh day Sabbath.

It's not something they did on the Sabbath.

After all, the Bible says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

And so the Christians that kept the Sabbath did not do that and the custom was to manage their earnings at the beginning of the week.

They came to the end of the week, the 7 day Sabbath, and on the first day of the week, their custom was to do an inventory of the work that they had done and the earnings they had.

And the Apostle Paul says that offerings should be set apart right there and then.

As he do inventory, right there and then, he says, on the first day of the week.

Don't wait until you get to church when the designated person is making their offering appeal.

Do it early on the first day of the week.

If you're asking why we are advised to separate offerings at the very beginning of the week, I'm going to respond by asking you a question.

And the question would be this, when is the balance in your bank account the most?

At the beginning of your pay period or at the end of your pay period?

At the beginning of the pay period, of course, the answer is obvious.

See, Paul's instruction of when offerings ought to be prepared is actually quite reasonable and logical.

We should separate our offerings before we start spending our money.

Paul is saying listen, we're all human here And he discipled the new believers.

He came along their side and said, you know, as you spiritually mature, as you learn to walk with the Lord, the Lord of your lives, who is the Lord of your finances.

Because if you don't, you're going to find yourself having spent most of it.

You know, there's also a spiritual factor there as well, Not just practical, which was very reasonable and logical, but there's a spiritual factor here as well.

They were the earliest portion of the crops.

In fact, they were regarded as the very best.

The first fruits was the very best, the very best.

And God told Moses in Leviticus chapter 23 verse 10, he said this, I'll read it to you, when you come into the land which I gave you and reap its harvest then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest as an offering." God called his people to bring the first yield, the first fruits from their harvest to Him as an offering.

Oh, that song that we sing today was inspired long ago.

This was to demonstrate the Israelites obedience as they did so and their reverence to God.

It also shows that they trusted God to provide enough crops to feed the family.

You're asking us to give you the first fruits?

I'm gonna have to trust God with this, because I'm giving you my very best when I have a family to feed.

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Giving to Get? The Inside Scoop on Offerings

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