Praise God. So good to see you. And so thank you so much for being here today at church and so wonderful to be with you and you know I had some people after outside in the forecourt come up to me and just pinch me to make sure it was really me. Uh and so obviously we’ve done a series in a couple of weeks of it. Was actually recorded on video and just really felt that because of the nature of the contents the first time.
Uh since we’ve been since Trish and I have been here that we’ve done a series stewardship and so I just thought most of it should probably come for myself. Ah and so that’s why we did that. But ah here live and in the flesh. Praise God. Ah and last week Pastor John Hunt ah was here.
He was really awesome. Ah and so I’m here to close out the series. But kind of open up ah the annual breakthrough offering that we do. And this breakthrough offering goes we goes to honour all our missions commitments that we have. And it’s been wonderful and it’s been a blessing and that sort of thing.
But we know the scripture talks about it’s to give them receive and there’s blessings for the giver. Uh and so that’s why we call it ah the breakthrough offering. And so today is the last message in this series and so with that in mind ah I just want to share with you passage of scripture. Ah couple of passages actually. Ah first one’s from Genesis chapter two.
Genesis two eight to 10. Ah if you don’t know where Genesis is it’s ah table of contents. Genesis. Ah Genesis chapter two verses eight to ten. Says this.
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east in Eden. And there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground. Trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden with a tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden. From there it was separated into four headwaters. Wanna read now from Matthew chapter six verse thirty-three. Says but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added to you.
Let’s pray. Father, I just ask and pray that today, you would fill people with grace, you’ll fill people with faith, Lord and hope. I thank you and praise you for that, Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Couple of weeks ago, we started a new series, just a four-week series called First Things First.
Uh, a lot of churches every year, do a series on stewardship, but we really haven’t felt to do that up until now and it’s not because we’ve got any challenges or anything like that. But it’s really important. It’s just a method of discipleship for people to get a kingdom perspective when it comes to this topic. Who knows that the kingdom on this topic is actually very different from the world. Interestingly, Matthew 633 says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you and basically, the concept is that the in the Hebrew, the word for righteous is sadak but the word for generosity is and so what that means is this that the Christian concept of righteousness would naturally lead to actually generosity.
That a Christian life once formed one of the habits of the Christian life is actually a lifestyle of generosity. We understand there’s a lot of habits that we pick up when we become a Christian. Being part of a local church is one of them. Prayer is another one. Spending time in God’s word.
Sharing our faith. Believing for the miraculous. All those are parts of the Christian life. But also is generosity. Generosity is a natural overflow of the Christian life.
I read Genesis chapter two verses eight to ten. Cuz here we see God has created the perfect environment. It’s called the Garden of Eden. And the Bible says that it was watered by river flowing from it. Interestingly enough it wasn’t watered by river flowing to it.
It was watered by a river flowing from it. We can even see in the beginning of creation when God created a perfect environment. He took care of God’s people but it wasn’t supposed to be kept there. It actually was supposed to go out and it went out into four waterheads. Notice this.
It doesn’t say that God created the Garden of Eden then he created a dam for them to keep everything. He didn’t create a reservoir. He actually created he actually caused it to go out into four streams into four rivers. Notice this, it didn’t go out into one river, it went out into four. In the same way with the Christian life, God has called us.
God will take care of our needs. His name is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who sees and provides. He’ll take care of his people. But more than that, he doesn’t want it to be kept with us. He wants it to go out and to be a blessing to others.
Last week, Pastor on Hunt mentioned that we are blessed to actually be a blessing. We’re not blessed just to retain everything and keep it to ourselves. That’s why the Bible tells us that God supplies seed to the sower and bread for food. The context of that scripture is actually talking about finances in second Corinthians chapter nine and it says, he supplies seed to the sower and bread for food. So, what that means is part of what we earn is supposed to be bread for food.
It’s supposed to be consumed but part of it is seed for sowing. So, what that means is of that God gives us, part is supposed to be used on our needs. Part is supposed to be used on us, and part of it is supposed to be given away. That is why God has made, you look at even through nature, God has created a nature that way. I mean, my favorite fruit is apples and as much as I love apples, I don’t eat the entire thing.
There’s a portion of the apple that I don’t eat and it’s called the yucky bit in the middle and it’s called the core. Now, some people I know are actually they’re going against is natural and against nature and they actually eat the core. I’ve met people like that. Is there anyone here that eats the core of the apple? Okay, we’ll be doing altar call later on because the thing is, God doesn’t want us to eat the corn. If we all ate the call, eventually, there’d be no more apples because we would be consuming.
What does the core do? The core houses the seed. We’re not supposed to eat the seed. We’re supposed to eat the outer part. It’s the same actually with our own personal resources. God wants to bless us.
He wants to take care of our he wants to meet all of our needs but more than that, he wants it to overflow in generosity towards others and not just in one place, it goes to four streams and four riverheads and so I want to talk to you today about from the scripture about four types of giving. So, this is not like a series on how to get wealthy or anything like that. This is not a financial management series. This is not a series where we tell you where you know, you gotta, you know, save 10% and you know, you gotta keep your fences down and you gotta put money in investments. That is not this type of session.
You can go and get that off the internet. But I want to talk to you today about more one one area of how we use our finances and that’s in the area of giving. So I want to talk to you about four types of giving from the scripture. The first type of giving. Uh number one is actually charity.
Charity. Uh giving to the poor is an expected part of the Christian life. Galatians chapter two nine and ten says this. And when James Cephas and John who seemed to be pillars perceived the grace that had been given to me. They gave me and Barnabas a right hand of fellowship that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
That is either only we should remember the poor the very thing which I was also eager to do. Now in the early church when it first started, it was primarily made up of Jewish converts. So, people who were Jewish people and then they converted to Christianity. It was only a little while later and the first moments we see this is actually in Acts chapter ten where they realize that Christianity wasn’t just for Jewish people. That that for Jewish converts but Christianity was actually for the Gentiles.
So praise God that includes you and me. So through Christ every nation tribe ah tribe and tongue can be saved. And that’s through Jesus Christ. But there were some theological debates in the early church around it. One of the biggest theological debates was around the issue of circumcision.
Where there were some we believe that really yes circumcision for the Jews. But if you want to be a Christian and you’re a Gentile even if you’re 65 years of age age then maybe you should be circumcised. If you don’t know what circumcision is, feel free to go and talk to your mum about it. Uh and so and so who knows that could be somewhat of a stumbling block for salvation. Could you imagine if we still had that today? Uh we said come and give your life to Christ.
Uh we’ll just take out the back. Uh we’ll sort a few things out. Make sure you take two weeks off work. Uh and you’ll be right. Uh so they realized that this is not workable.
Uh and so and it’s not necessary for salvation. Uh and so I decided, listen, don’t worry. You know, so the Jewish leaders were saying to Paul who was going to go to the Gentiles, they don’t have to be circumcised but they’ve at least gotta look after the poor. So, looking after the poor, it was one of the keys to actually, one of the evidences and one of the habits of the Christian life. Charity is one of the things as Christian but we do as Christians.
That’s why if you look in our society, a lot of the best things that we have are actually started by Christians. A lot of the charities, humanism hasn’t helped anybody. It’s the Christians because of the heart of compassion and the heart of charity in their heart that have created lot of hospitals, created a lot of charities. All these things, why? Cuz charity is a natural overflow of the Christian life Charity is actually Christ like. Jesus Christ actually gave to the poor.
John 1326 to 29. at the last supper, Jesus answered John and said, it is he whom whom I shall give a piece of bread when I’ve dipped it and having dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Escariot, the son of Simon. Now, after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then, Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly? But noone at the table knew for what reason he said this to him. For some thought because Judas had the money box that Jesus had said by those things we need for the feast.
Or that he should give something to the poor. Now notice this. This is the last supper. Jesus looks at Judas and says go do what you going to do? Go and do quickly. We know that Jesus knew and Judas knew that that meant he was going to go and betray him.
But the other guys around the table didn’t realise that. They assume something. They assumed he was either going to go and pay the bill or he was going to go and give to the poor. Now Jesus didn’t tell me go give to the poor. Jesus just said to him go and do what you’re going to do.
Do it quickly. But actually every else around the table assumed that one of the things he was going to do is go give to the poor. Why would they assume that? Cuz they’ve seen that so often. They had seen that Jesus had commanded Judas. Now who knows there’s a chance that through Judas, the money didn’t get where it was supposed to be.
But the reality was they knew that actually there was a clearly a habit in Jesus’s life. It was common for him to actually send the treasurer out to go and give to the poor. Giving to the poor is Christ like. We’re blessed when we give to the poor. Proverbs twenty-two on.
He who has a generous eye will be blessed. Why? For he gives of his bread to the poor. Proverbs 2827. He who gives to the poor will not lack. But he who hides his eyes will have many curses.
Proverbs 1917. He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord. And he will pay back what he has given. Matthew chapter six verses three to four. We’ve we’ve seen this scripture many times over the years.
We often talk about it when it comes to breakthrough. But when you do a charitable deed which is giving to the poor. Do not let your left hand what your right hand is doing. That your charitable deed may be in secret. And your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly.
Did you see that? Our giving to the poor. The Bible says actually generates blessings and it generates breakthroughs. One of the awesome things and you’ve heard me tell the story before about when we came to the church. One of our challenges was in King’s Community Care. And so with a few adjustments and that sort of thing.
Ah and and and Shirley went in to take over King’s Community Care and she said to me Ben what do you want to do? Now a lot of churches there community care does a lot of community engagement engagement which is all very valid. Running courses for the community and that sort of thing. But we were really in a position where we really couldn’t afford to do anything like that. And and so I said and and we were at the point where we were considering whether we shut it down. And I just felt the Lord say that we need to be able to look after the poor as a church.
And so we need to have some kind of ministry that does that. And so Shirley said to me she says ah Ben what do you want to do? And I said well let’s just keep it really focused. Let’s feed the poor. Clothe the needy. A price that we can afford.
And so extra extra stuff around the side of it that might be beneficial to the community which a lot of other churches do. At that time we felt no, no, let’s just, we can only do what we can do. Let’s just focus on the poor. Hoping that it will actually cause it to survive. Well, little did I know that the scripture says here gives to the poor lends the Lord and the Lord will pay him back and since that time, our care arm has been absolutely amazing.
We not only have a flourishing care arm here at Ready Creek but we have a expression at every single campus. Just yesterday at Logan Village they gave out 170 hampers to the local community. Each hamper feeds about four people. That’s 680 people. That is being fed and Fiona said to me five years ago there’s no way we could afford to do anything like that.
But the Bible tells us he who gives to the poor and to the Lord. And the Lord will actually pay them back. There’s something powerful. We can do that even with people not necessarily considered the poor but people that we know even in our community that are struggling and actually, you know, and and need some kind of help and and maybe don’t have the finances they need for certain things. Uh a number of years ago, when I was a Bible college, I was struggling to pay my college fees and I was going to get kicked out of the Bible College and so, I thought I’m got it’s desperate here.
I thought I’d better make a deal with God. You’ll be careful when you make a deal with God and the deal I made with the Lord was this. I said, Lord, anytime someone gives me a gift of $100 or more, I’ll give 10% to church. I’ll give 50% to someone who it and I’ll keep 40 percent for myself because that was a better deal than I was getting at the time. Uh so, as soon as I did that, my goodness, all of a sudden, resources started coming to me.
Money that I wasn’t expecting that was coming and so I thought, okay, I’ll give a 10% church but I thought I gotta give 50% away and I thought, well, the best group of people to give it away to is actual actually other students at Bible College and so, I would go and I’d say listen, put this amount of my fees then I’d tell the college registrar, who doesn’t have who needs their fees paid off and they tell me someone’s behind. I said, go put it on fees. So, every time they came in, I don’t know, it would have been a few thousand dollars in the end. We’re able to do that but the last week before college was about to start, I was still short to pay my fees and remember the college register coming up to me and saying, you know, Ben, you’ve been looking after everyone else and but you could’ve used that on yourself but we’re going to pray and believe that you get provided for and you know, cut a long story short two days before I was supposed to pay my fees. God came through and I was able to pay my fees and I was able to stay at Bible College which was fantastic.
After that, the manager of the college. Uh her name a lady by the name of Ray. Uh she asked to see me. And so and she was a very scary lady and I went into her office and she said, look, I know what you did. I know that you were paying off other people’s fees while you were paying yours but look, you nearly weren’t able to pay your own fees.
She said, I think the Lord’s telling you a lesson here. He let you get away with it. This time, Uh but you know, make sure you pay your own fees and I didn’t really take on that advice and I want to testify today 25 years later I’ve been getting away with it ever since. Uh you know, what I’ve learned is this, we can take care of others and God will take care of us as well. Amen.
That’s a promise in the word of God. So, often in the world, we say, oh, look after yourself, mate. What’s best for you? That is not kingdom, my friends. God wants to use us as a vessel of blessing to other people and other people in need. Amen.
Charity is one of the ways that we can give. The second type of giving is called the tithe. Malachi chapter three verse ten says, bring all the tithes into the house that there may be food in my house. The tithe was an offering in the Bible that was a that people give a tenth of their income to be brought before the Lord. Now, there’s a lot of offerings in the Old Testament that are no longer applicable for the New Testament.
There were a lot of offerings that were for ritual purity. So, what that means is people would have to sacrifice things in order to be made richly pure. Um but all those types of offerings, we don’t have to do. Uh praise God. Um and that’s because Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the lamb that was slain. He took the punishment for our sins. So, there’s a whole bunch of offerings in scripture in the Old Testament that we don’t have to do but the tithe actually wasn’t one of those. It was for the functioning and the ministry of the temple. That’s why the Lord says that there may be food in my house.
Now, couple of things about the tithe, couple of bullet points. The first thing is, the tithe actually belongs to the Lord. Uh technically, it’s not giving, it’s actually returning. That’s why the Lord when he talks about the ti says, will a man rob God? And so, you can’t rob something of somebody that doesn’t belong to them. Uh that’s why I believe that it’s just returning what belongs to the Lord.
Anything I do above that is actually generosity. I had a friend that I used to borrow his lawn mower all the time and this was when I was in Mackay and whenever I needed to mow my lawn, I just drive to his place, get his lawn mower, I’d fold it up, put it in the back of my Hyundai Excel and I go and mow my lawn. One day, my dad was visiting from Melbourne. He said, Ben, you need to mow and I said, yes, okay and so I hopped in my car. He goes, what are you doing? I said, I’m going to go pick up the lawn mower off, Simon.
He goes, don’t you have real lawnmower? I said, no. He goes, do you use that all the time? I said, yeah, every time I mow the lawn, I go and get Simon’s and he says, oh, I didn’t raise my son to be a freeloader. Uh and so, later that week, he actually bought me a lawn mower. Praise God. Uh that was good but interesting enough, I borrowed Simon’s lawn mower many many times.
Never once did he say to me when I returned his own lawn mower. Oh, thank you so much doing that. You’re so generous. I really appreciate it. No, no.
It actually belonged to him. It was his, that’s what the tithe is. It actually belongs to the Lord. The second thing about the tithe is the tithe is for today. Matthew chapter, now, if we want to talk about perfect theology, Jesus Christ is perfect theology.
Whatever he says, that’s the ultimate and it says in Matthew chapter twenty-three verse twenty-three, says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe. Notice this, is pay tithe not give it. Of mint and anus and common and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. So, what is he saying? He’s saying to the Pharisees, he says, you guys are hypocrites.
He goes, you tithe everything but you neglect the more important matters of justice and mercy and then he says, these you ought to do without neglecting the former. What is he saying? He’s saying yes, keep doing what you are doing. Keep practicing that habit. He says, but just make you live like a Christian. Make sure that you’re actually practicing justice and mercy.
This isn’t the only time this is mentioned in scripture. Luke eleven forty-two, there’s another there’s another account of this exact thing. Says, but woe to you Pharisees, for your tithe mint and ruin all manner of herbs and passed by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. So, it said twice by two different authors.
The one time Jesus talks about it is he actually enforces it. That’s why I believe that it is for today. Now here’s a promise associated with this type of giving. Malachi chapter three verse ten. Says bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.
Try me now in this says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven. And pour out for you such blessing. There will not be enough room to receive it. So he’s saying this type of giving opens the windows of heaven.
Not just one window. So what that means is there’s multiplied blessings. Associated with this have it. I told you the story a few years ago but most of you weren’t here then about a time when I was I was a youth pastor and I invited I would get my team to actually receive. So, at youth, we would have little a little offering talk and we got opportunity to train people up in public speaking and and so I’d have more my leaders get a chance to do that and because they’re inexperienced.
I would give put them on the roster so they would know that they would know well in advance and so I remember at the time I sent out a letter, that was in those days. I sent out the roster by letter and People actually looked at it and I put one of my team members on there. Her name was Laura. Now, Laura was one of the older members of my team. She did not want any upfront ministry.
She was more interested in you know, one on one with the kids and that sort of thing and I thought she’ll try and get out of this but I thought, you know what? We’ll just let her do it and you know, if she doesn’t want to do it, she doesn’t have to do it. I sent the letter out as soon as it got to her place. She gives me a call. She said, Pastor Ben, I need to see you. So, she comes in and sees me.
She goes, pastor Ben, you’ve put me down and received the offering. I said, that’s right. She goes, I don’t do it. Now, that didn’t surprise me because she’s a very shy person but I thought I’ll just ask you why but her answer surprised me. She said, well, I feel like a hypocrite.
I said, why is that? And she said, well, you know, I was trying, you know, she goes, I’m at, you’re asking me to tell the kids and talk to them about giving. Me and my husband don’t even do it ourselves because we don’t even give to church at all and I said, really? She goes, yeah and I was a bit surprised because she’s a very mature Christian. She loved the Lord and I said, and we had the kind of relationship where I could speak to her quite directly and I said, well, how come you don’t, Laura? I’m surprised and she said, well, she goes, you don’t understand how finances are so tight. She goes, we have to, you know, like we’re behind on all our payments. When we go shopping, we have to go a couple of times a week when government payments come in.
Basically, gotta take a calculator, figure out what we can buy and we go at the end of the day and buy all the things that are on special getting thrown out and she goes, so, our finances are that tight and I and she goes and if we do and so, that’s the only, you know, we have no spare money and I said, look, I said, the Bible says that when you do this, you open the windows of heaven and I said, listen, I can give you a handout right now. No problem. Wanna help people? And I said, but I reckon the key to actually do a breakthrough is actually doing this and she said, well, you gotta understand. If we do that, my kids may not eat and I didn’t want to be the kind of pastor that tell people their kids shouldn’t eat. You know, get on, get on a current affair, that sort of thing and And then I said, hey, your husband, he smokes, doesn’t he? Now, Emmy spoken a long time.
Uh he and I become a Christian a couple of years before. I’m not saying he wasn’t going to heaven. He’d had a transformed life. Uh you know, I wasn’t judging him. I’m not saying there’s a smoking and a non-smoking section in heaven and all anything like that.
But I just said, you you buy cigarettes, right? She goes, yo, I said, how much you spend on the smokes? She goes, 50 bucks a week. I said, 50 bucks. So, there’s your tithe. Your husband’s smoking it all the way and she said, well you don’t understand. She goes, we bought, he’s been smoking this whole adult life.
I have to buy the smokes before we buy food and I said, look, I don’t know what to say to you. I said, listen, we can help you out but I just believe. I’d be lying to you. I’d be shielding you from God’s blessing. Uh if I didn’t tell you what I believe on this situation and I said, so, I’m not saying the kids shouldn’t eat but you know, maybe you talk to hubby.
How do you smoke money? So, she goes home. Sits him down. His name is Rodney. She goes, Rodney. Our finance are a mess.
Now, I’ve gone and spoken to pastor Ben. Pastor Ben says that we should start tithing and I told him that we can’t afford it. So, he said, we should use your smoke money. And this is exactly what he said. This is because they told me.
He looked at her and goes, okay. And then he said, I don’t get it. Cuz you don’t get it till you do it. And he goes, I don’t get it but I trust you, honey. And he said, no, I trust Pastor Ben.
What a nice guy. So, they did it. Next week. Didn’t buy the smokes. Second week.
Third week. She was unemployed and she got a job. Then he got a pay rise Then she got a pay rise. Then all their young adult children that were living at home all got jobs. Then praise God.
They all left home. That’s the breakthrough right there, right? Then they moved from the rental that they’re in to another rental that was cheaper. Bigger house, closer to work, less less fuel money. We started doing that. Then, they stopped taking it, had a little bit of extra.
They stopped taking the calculated supermarket. They could buy a little bit more of what they wanted to buy. Then, she left the youth ministry not because she was offended at me but because she wanted to work in the women’s ministry but then, each week, I’d have one of the ushers come up to me at church on the Sunday and say, pastor Ben, there’s this envelope here on the front that said, youth, in it, every week was 20 bucks. Someone’s given 20 bucks. Found out later, it was her.
So, she was actually giving more and more. Uh not only that, he hasn’t smoked another cigarette another day in his life. No hypnosis. No patches. No gum.
Completely delivered. Completely set free. Why? Cuz the wind does of heaven. More than one window gets open. Amen.
Uh the third thing is this. The third type of giving is mission. Mission. Kingdom advancement. Beyond where we are.
Philippians four nineteen. One of the most famous verse in scripture. You know, when I used to work at Word Bookstore, Philippians 419 was on everything. It was on fridge magnets, it was on covers, it was on those little gift cards people used to give each other. Philippians 419 and my God shall supply all your need according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus but that verse actually comes with context.
And here’s the context. Philippians 15 to 19. Chapter four, 15 to 19. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia. No church share with me concerning giving and receiving but you only.
For even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again from my necessities. Not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. Indeed, I have all and abound. I am full having received from Epaphroditis the things sent from you. A sweet smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.
And my God shall supply all your need according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. The context of the was this, they were supporting another ministry endeavor and by supporting that ministry endeavor, according to the apostle Paul, they qualified for this verse and that was my God shall supply all your need according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. So, one of the things that God calls us to support is other ministry endeavors. That’s why with our breakthrough offering, we go to honor and service or all these missions commitments that we have. Some overseas and some local.
There are things that we don’t control. They’re things that are the of other people but I believe as believers, that’s part of what we’re supposed to give to and there’s got many great promises associated with that type of giving. In second Corinthians 910 to twelve, says, now, he hears the place seed to the sovereign bread for food. The context of that scripture is talking about finance. We’ll also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and through us your generosity will result in Thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but it’s also flowing in many expressions of thanks to God. So once again that’s actually talking about receiving an offering to go to another group of believers. To go to another ministry endeavour. And the promise of the Lord to them was actually this.
The God will make you rich in every way that you might be generous on every occasion. That is why one of the things when we first came ah back in two thousand and 18. And those who’ve been around long toner long time no at the time there were a lot of right then. Reason why we’re doing the series now and this is because we don’t have those challenges. Things are going very very well.
But back then we were having a lot of challenges. And one of the temptations was to say okay let’s cut back all these things that we give away. And one of the temptations was let’s cut back on the missions giving. But I just really felt at the time that we’re not supposed to do that. And so we did that and we did actually our first breakthrough offering.
It actually went to honour our missions commitments. Before all the of the church were actually met. But after that time come August our financial situation is completely flipped. And ever since then our finances have turned around and we’re a very helpful. We’ve got a very generous church.
This is an incredibly generous church. And we’ve got ah and we’ve got good stewardship in place. And everything’s going well. But we made the decision early that we can’t keep everything that we earn. So we as a church we give away 10% of everything that we get.
We gave over $150, 000 away last to missions. We don’t make a big deal about it. But the principle of the scripture is here that as we do that God will take care of us. And we’ve lived it as a church organisation ever since. Missions is one of the things.
One of the streams that we could give to. And the last stream that we can actually give to is a thing called freewill offerings. So if you look through scripture there was times when people would just give at a at another time according to what was in their heart. Ah I know people here. You gifted different things.
Just as God moves your heart. And that’s kind of like a free will offering. Where it’s unto the Lord but it goes and you set the amount and that sort of thing. In scripture there’s a number of times when people would do that. There’s actually an offering in there called first fruits offering.
Which people would give three times a year. Three times a year. People would do that. Uh the King Solomon would actually go three times a year to the temple. And he was not he was not an offering for the forgiveness of sin.
He’s a king. He can’t give that. That’s a job of a priest. He was actually doing an outstanding act of generosity. Now, there’s great promises associated with this type of giving.
Uh Proverbs chapter three verses nine and ten, it says, honor the Lord with your wealth with the first fruits of all your crops. That’s this type of giving, then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. So, he’s actually saying that actually there is promises associated with this type of giving. If you look even in the Testament. There were times when people just decided to sell houses and to sell properties and they would use it for kingdom expansion.
Acts chapter four verse 36 to 37 says and Joseph who was also named Barnabas by the apostles which is translated son of encouragement. A Levite of the country of Cyprus. Having land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostle’s feet. It wasn’t something that was required of everybody. No one was required to do that.
It’s not a cult. Where people are supposed to sell houses and that sort of thing. But this person just felt it on their heart that they wanted to do that for the extension of the kingdom of God. That’s why we call the offering that we’re opening up today. We call it a breakthrough offering.
Why? Cuz it ticks a lot of these boxes. Number one it goes to charity. We, some of this actually goes to our King’s Community Care which actually goes to meeting the needs of the poor. Not only that, it goes to missions. So, we go and do that and we support different missions but not only that, it’s a free will offering.
It’s just between you and the Lord. We don’t take a pledge. We don’t have a target. We don’t have a goal. It’s just between you and the Lord.
What the Lord would ask you to give in order and and to give at this time. And we believe that there are number of times when people actually receive breakthroughs as a type of Thanksgiving. I know myself if you look through scripture and we haven’t focused on that on that this much this year. We have in the past. There’s a number of times in Scripture.
When people the Lord lead people to give something to a certain place in order to receive a particular miracle. There are times in scripture when that happens. And there are times in our own lives where that actually happens as well. There’s been a number of times in my nutrition’s life where the Lord’s put a specific amount to believe for a specific thing. It’s just between us and the Lord.
I told you a few years ago about something that happened for us and that was when we received ah when we actually received a miracle. Ah we’re believing for a miracle for a house. So we were at a in the afternoon at the that night they were going to receive an offering where they was just called a breakthrough offering and so we went and prayed about what we should give and I wanted to be really generous. I was feeling really stirred. The Bible says determine in your heart what you want to give.
So that’s how you determine it for this kind of offering. And so we just prayed. And and I was really feeling I wanted to be generous. And the amount I wanted to give. And I’ve told you guys this a couple of years ago.
The amount I wanted to give was $700. Now that was a lot of money. And I thought well I’m just going to ask Trish what she thinks and see what she wants to give. So, I went to Trish. I said, babe, how much? I want to be generous in the offering tonight.
She said, so do I. I said, well, how much do you want to give? She goes, how much do you want to give? I said, well, what do you want to give? She goes, well, what do you want to give? And I said, listen, what I want to give is probably going to be way more than what you want to give. So, to save a fight, let’s just give what you want to give, okay? And she goes, alright. She goes, I want to give $700. She goes, I want to give $2, 150.
I said, what? 2, 150. Why so specific. Can’t we round it down? What about 2 grand? What about 1, 500? The conference doesn’t even need the money. I said, why do you want to give that? And she said, well, I was praying today and saying, Lord, I’m believing for a breakthrough and she want and we need a breakthrough to get a house. It was just impossible for us to get our first house.
And she wrote the Lord told her, open up the real estate guide. This is obviously a long time ago. Over 20, you know, 22 years ago, something like that. The kind of house we wanted in that market was two thousand 1 00, oh sorry, was worth 215000. And she felt the Lord tell her to sow a one percent seed to believe for a miracle.
When she told that to said, sounds like God. Okay. So that night we went to the meeting. I wrote out a check. Remember those things? Checks? Wrote out a check? And they were taking the offering up the front.
They had buckets at the front so Through the check, it leaped over the edge a little bit. Started talking to me. You need me, man. Don’t do this. You’re going to regret this.
You’ll never see me again. And everything in me wanted to grab it and put it in my pocket. But I couldn’t. Cuz I was a pastor. Everyone’s looking at me.
So I went back and sat down, felt terrible. Next few months, finances got worse. Every day, I was thinking, gee, that 2 thousand1 50 be handy around about now and then, one day, we got a phone call. Person on the other end line said, I want to give you some money to go towards your first house. So, praise the Lord, how much? Uh they said, 14000.
I said, thank you very much and then without unsolicited, unasked for, put another 22, 000 come in and we were able to sign a contract, build our first house, and sold it Two and a half years later, for 150 times what we first sowed. That’s just a testimony. There are times. Occasionally, there are moments when the Lord will say, I want you to give a specific amount to a specific place for a specific breakthrough and every year, we have some people exactly like that. It’s not about trying to twist God’s arm.
It’s not about trying to make God do something he doesn’t want to do but you know what? You can do that with prayer as well. Have you ever tried to make God do something you don’t want to do? You can do that with fasting as well but there’s about to it. They’re all keys to breakthrough and giving is actually one of those keys. And so I believe I want to encourage every single person that today we’re opening up this offering today. It’s going to be open till July 9.
And the reason why is if people want tax deductibility ah they’re eligible for it and sometimes people want to give it this side of the financial year. And some people want to give it on the other side of the financial year. Some of the things we give to are tax deductible. Some of the things are not tax deductible. And so give us according as to what the Lord is telling you to give and that sort of thing.
And we don’t take pledges We don’t have a faith goal. We don’t follow people up. It’s free will. It’s literally between you and the Lord. And all we’re asking people to do is ask the Lord what he would have them to give.
And we’re not chasing anyone up about it. We give most of it away anyway. And so it’s just between you and the Lord. But I do know because we’ve been doing this for a few years. I do know the the maturity of our congregation.
I do know that there are some people that have come into this kind of ready that you kind of ahead of time that the Lord’s spoken to you. And so if that’s you I want to pray with you. We want to pray and believe with you that what you’re believing for will actually come to pass. And I’ve seen it happen many many times time and again. Where people have received breakthroughs as a result of this.
Just like we can receive breakthroughs as a result of prayer. Just like we can receive breakthroughs as a result of fasting. Sometimes a mechanism by which God gets us a breakthrough. His generosity. And I believe that with testimonies that come out.
Every year there’s testimonies of people receive some kind of breakthrough at this time. And so what I want to do is this, invite you to stand to your feet And before we receive, what we’re going to do is this, we’ll pass the buckets by. If you’re ready today, feel free to put that in. If you’re not ready, that’s fine. You can take the envelope home anytime over the course of next five or six weeks.
If at any time you want to give in it, you can go to Hello Hub or you can just put it in the envelope or fill your details on that envelope and just put it in when the buckets come passed during normal offering time. It’s just this first week where we actually receive it at the end of the service. It’s like a statement And create an altar but I know that there are some people that already know ahead of time. You already know what God’s put on your heart and you already know what you’re believing for and I want to stand in agreement with you. So, can I just get everybody close their eyes, bow their heads for a moment and if that’s you, you know, you’ve you’ve come into this breakthrough offering knowing what you’re sowing and knowing what you’re believing for.
If that is you, with every eye closed, every head bowed. If that’s you, just slip up your hand and say, that’s me. I know what I’m believing for. I feel the Lord spoken to me and I just want to stand in agreement and pray with you right now. Father in Jesus aim.
I pray for every person with their hand raised and I stand in agreement with them Lord. May this be a breakthrough moment for them. I ask and pray father that you would open the windows of heaven over their life Lord God and I just thank you ahead of time for what they’re going to do. I pray Lord as they sow, some are sowing in tears Lord God but I know as I sow in tears, they’re going to reap with shouts of joy. So, I ask and pray father for every single person in this place, Lord God.
As they just step out in obedience, what you’ve called them to do, I thank you, father that you’re going to do great and mighty things. I stand agreement with them and I pray for every single person in this place. Because for some Lord I know that there’s some unexpected breakthroughs. There are some things going to open up for them that they did not even realise. So I pray for every single person in this place.
Lord we know this is going to go and supply the needs of the saints. We know Lord this is going to be used for the extension of your kingdom. But we also know Lord God that it’s more blessed to give than it is to receive. I thank you Lord already. We’re blessed.
I thank you Lord already for many. You’ve already fully supplied. But I know Lord just like the Garden of Eden as we allow the streams that water us to not just stay with us but to actually to flow out to the nations and to flow out to others. I thank you Lord God that as you blessed us, it will be a blessing to many. I thank you and I praise you for that Lord in Jesus name.
