Merredin Uniting Church

Texts: Psalm 118:19-29   Luke 19:28-40 

(Audio Version: http://sermon.net/daviddekock)

A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father came back from church holding a palm branch.
The little boy was curious and asked, “Why do you have that palm branch, Dad?”
The Dad replied, “When Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today.”
The little boy replied, “Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!”
Actually Jesus shows up all the time, we need only to look – but the question is this: What is our response?
Today is Palm Sunday- The day where a whole city threw a parade for Jesus. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the people threw Palm branches in anticipation of his coming – it marks a time of celebration where Jesus was worshipped and praised.
It is however a bittersweet thought for us because even as we read of the celebration we know that Friday is coming- The cross is coming. We know that many in this same crowd will within a few short days exchange words of praise to words of death. Shouting “Hosanna, Hosanna” and then later crying out “Crucify, Crucify”. Their faith was fickle – for the moment only.

As we head into Holy Week I want to contrast their casual faith with the faith to which we are called in the Gospels.

Billy Graham has been quoted many times as saying that the greatest mission field in the world today is in the local church- the people who are already coming to church. Now I am not sure whether this statement is true or not, but one thing that I do know is that many people know what to say, how to say it, even how to act in it, but when the rubber truly meets that road, there is no personal relationship with Jesus Christ. No real faith – just empty words, habit and ritual.
We see a perfect example of this in the contrast between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. On Sunday Jesus rode into the city with the people shouting praises and praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.
On Friday they are shouting, “Give us Barabbas, Crucify Jesus.” Why the change?

There are many possible reasons, but one simple reason is that their words did not match their heart. They had a casual but not a committed faith. They had religion but they had no relationship with Jesus… So how can we have a committed faith… How can we be real and sincere? How can we be consistent in all that we do?

Well here are some keys to just such a faith.

1. The first key is that a committed faith is not self-centered but is Christ-Centered
Now that sounds obvious, but we often miss it. We tend to say to God, “Lord, here is my diary, here are the things that fill my life… I can squeeze you in here or here, or perhaps next week”. “It’s not suitable for me right now, Lord, I have other things to do, I am too tired, I don’t feel like it.”

We fit God into our lives only when it is convenient for us. And I’m not just talking about convenient times – it happens also in our hopes and expectations. God comes last, after we have pursued all the other avenues of hope, healing or reward.

In our passage, the people praised Jesus as He passed by, but they did so for two reasons. First, because of his miracles. He had healed the sick, raised the dead…They praised Him because he was serving them and Second, because they saw in Jesus a way to be politically delivered from the Romans- To be set free from Rome as Israel had been set free from Egypt, thousands of years before. Their praise was there only because of what they thought Jesus could do for them.
A few days later at the trial they saw a beaten and disfigured Jesus – a man who no longer looked like a deliverer or a conqueror. And they bought into all the lies that were said about Him and they quickly changed their position. Ultimately their interest in Jesus was selfish, and when it looked like He could no longer satisfy them, they dumped Him. Their meaning in life had been all about what Jesus could do for them and their egos. They were selfish and self-centered.

There is a legend about an ancient village in Spain. The villagers learned that the king would pay a visit! In a thousand years, a king had never come to that village. Excitement grew! “We must throw a big celebration,” The villagers all agreed. But, it was a poor village, and there weren’t many resources. Someone came up with an idea. Since many of the villagers made their own wines, the idea was for everyone in the village bring a large cup of their best wine to the town square, “We’ll pour it into a large vat and offer it to the king for his pleasure! When the king draws this combination of our best wines to drink, it will be the very best he’s ever tasted!”

The day before the king’s arrival, hundreds of people lined up to make their offering to the honored guest. They climbed a small stairway, and poured their gift through a small opening at the top. Finally, the vat was full! The King arrived, was escorted to the square, given a silver cup and was told to draw some wine, which represented the best that the villagers had produced.
He placed the chalice under the tap, turned the handle, and then drank the wine, but it was nothing more than water.

You see every villager reasoned, “I won’t waste my best wine. Instead I’ll substitute it with water. With so many cups of wine in the vat, the king will never know the difference!” The problem was, everyone thought the same thing, and the king was greatly dishonored because everyone was being selfish.
Will you not today, at the start of this Easter Week choose to honor our great King, by giving him our very best. Withholding nothing… Giving him our all; Christ-centered rather than self-centered.
2. The second key is that a committed faith is relationship driven.
Many of those who gathered to throw their coats and palm branches onto the street and who shouted praises did so because it was the popular thing to do. For a moment it was the in thing to do. Perhaps some started with sincere motives, but others soon did it because others were doing it. Later at the trial, shouting “crucify Him” was the in thing … Here was a new trendy thing to do: to make a mass murderer and criminal their hero and so they shouted “we want Barabbas”..
In our own lives a committed faith comes only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. One where every day is fresh and new as he personally directs our steps.
In order to have a committed faith we must develop and maintain a personal relationship with Jesus through prayer and Bible Study. He should never be far from us.

3. The third Key is that committed faith is not swayed or blocked by our personal trials and crises.
At the parade it was trendy to offer praise… Everyone was doing it. But at the trial it was risky to speak out for Jesus, possibly even life threatening.
Many of us come to Jesus expecting everything to go really well once we come to church… We might allow for some slight mishaps but not too much… So when the bottom drops out for us… we question God, our faith and the reality of the promises of Scripture.

The greatest reason for falling away from faith is that people blame Jesus for personal failures.
If our faith is based on our situations or circumstances it will never be committed… It will always be casual. I have been to many big Christian events and visited many large churches. Its easy to get hyped where the praises for God rock the place… Where everyone is praising, clapping hands, and full of faith…
But often when these same people get back to work and the job is tough, and the crowds are gone, the glow quickly wears off. Without a living relationship with Jesus its hard to keep up the joy in a world which is not all focused on God, and where it is often filled with mocking laughter and anger towards the followers of Jesus.

Their failures and disappointments can easily become your own doubt.
A committed faith takes the good with the bad. Knowing that all we are ever promised is that in the midst of both our good and bad; Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us. He will stand with us, whatever our circumstances. All that He asks is thatr our faith be committed.

A story is told of a little girl who while walking in a garden noticed a particularly beautiful flower. She admired its beauty and enjoyed its fragrance. “It’s so pretty!” she exclaimed. As she gazed on it, her eyes followed the stem down to the soil in which it grew. “This flower is too pretty to be planted in such dirt!” she cried. So she pulled it up by its roots and ran to the tap to wash away the soil. It wasn’t long before the flower wilted and died.
When the gardener saw what the little girl had done, he exclaimed, “You have destroyed my finest plant!”
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t like it in that dirt,” she said. The gardener replied, “I chose that spot and mixed the soil because I knew that only there could it grow to be a beautiful flower.”

God has placed us exactly where we are. We must trust him for our place and our situation. And in the trusting we will eventually see that He is using our pressures, trials, and difficulties to bring us to a new degree of spiritual beauty.

True contentment comes when we accept whatever it is that God is doing and thank Him for it.

Is your faith casual or committed? As we enter into Easter Week, where our Jesus suffered incredibly for us. In a week where our sins, past, present, and future were the nails that hung him on that cross, I am asking you to renew your commitment to the Lord of Life.

Good Day to all of you. May the Lord bless you as we gather in worship.

We had a really fantastic evening at Merredin last Sunday with our formal dinner, honoring those who have served the Lord in the congregation over a long time period. It was good to hear the stories of the early days and of the families who are the foundation stones of the church. It was not intended but it was such an appropriate follow-on to the sermon in the morning when I spoke about the “seed of the next harvest.” Indeed the   pioneers of the church have ensured that those who come after have benefited from their “seeding” into the future mission of the church.

We do need to celebrate God’s goodness in the past – this is much of the content of the Book of the Psalms. And we need to honor God for His faithfulness, in the today and tomorrow of our lives. As we do this we can find ourselves inspired to do our own “seeding” into God’s mission, and I want to encourage you to be involved in God’s outreach to the people within your own sphere of influence. Each of the congregations in the Parish have a goal to reach a certain number of people: 42 in Merredin, 10 each in Bruce Rock and Mukinbudin and 5 in Southern Cross. That’s roughly about one person for each person – and we have twelve months to do it. If you have not already begun to do so,  begin to pray for one person; ask God to show you the right time to invite them to church or Bible Study; be caring in Christ towards them and set before them your own example of following Jesus in your everyday life. Easter is a good time to invite people to church – don’t forget the Tenebrae Service at Merredin on Thursday evening at 7pm and the other services around the Parish. Details are on the next page.

Some of the activities in the Parish are also beginning to form as outreach ventures. The Junior Youth (MucaRound) in Merredin is going well under the leadership of Sal Marais and Lisa Arthur (with assistance from Gerhard Seymour). The Bible Study in Bruce Rock has its second meeting this Tuesday afternoon and Margie and I visited the Muka Corner Closet on Thursday. That’s a monthly combined “Morning Tea for the town” and “Op Shop” outreach which has a great atmosphere and attracts all kinds of people. The Men’s Group in Merredin is surging ahead and we have had over 15 men who have     attended the Wednesday night sessions. In conjunction with the Men’s Group at the Church of Christ they are now planning a “Secret Men’s Business” meeting at Venue 68 in Merredin on April 7^th at 6pm. The guest speaker will be Julian Krieg on “Dealing with stress and disappointment”, “Taking life in context” and “Talk to a mate”. The evening will include a “Fast Track Pitstop Health Check”. Plan to be there, and bring a mate!

Have you visited the Merredin Church website lately? There is a lot of useful  information on the site which you can view at www.merredinunitingchurch.org. It includes Bible Reading (with a easy click on download so that you can read it on the screen), Duty Rosters, News updates, most of this newsletter and the weekly sermons. The weekly sermons now also have an audio download button so that if you don’t get to church, you can still get the sermon (almost live!) I am most impressed with all the work that Dave Quinn has put in – we need to use it as much as we can.

Nominations for new elders at Merredin will be announced at the service this   morning. The election will take place after the service on Sunday April 11th. We will also be electing a new church secretary and representatives for YouthCare and the Churches Fraternal. George and Val Tengvall have served in these latter two committees for many years. I understand however that they will still be available for election to serve on the Churches Fraternal.

God bless

David

Hello all,

We have added a page to our website that contains the audio of our weekly sermons. You can find it by visiting our “Audio” page here.

The text of the messages will still continue to be found on the front page as they are available.

God Bless,

Dave Q

Texts: Malachi 3:6-12  2 Corinthians 9:6-15

(Audio Version: http://sermon.net/daviddekock)

This morning I want us to look at the scriptural standard of giving – what exactly does God expect of us? This is not the church’s or the congregation’s expectation based on a budget but God’s standard as determined through His Word.

It is sad that the Biblical basis of giving is seldom taught from the pulpit and perhaps its because the one who does the preaching is the one who receives the greater portion of the income. And yet it is God’s standard and not that of the preacher, whether he receives from that income or not.

I have certainly made every effort to distance myself from the financial decisions of any church of which I am the pastor and I encourage every minister to do the same.

This might seem strange in my case because my background before coming into the ministry was in finance. I have managed companies with budgets running into millions and I have two degrees in the finance field including a Masters in Business Administration. But my call is not to be the financial manager of the church but to be its pastor. That means I must teach about what the Bible says about all kinds of things, including our finances but always from the Biblical perspective rather than what the accountants and professors have to say.

So what does the Bible say about our giving.

The very first standard that we find is that we are called to give a tithe to the Lord. That is one tenth of our income.

In Leviticus 27:30 we read that, “A tithe of everything belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.” In effect this is saying that the first tenth of our income belongs to God and not to us.

It is holy … separated to God’s purpose. So when we tithe, we are merely returning to God the seed of the harvest … …… if a farmer were to consume his whole harvest he would have no seed to plant for the next season.

Paul uses this analogy in our text today … He (GOD!) who supplies seed to the sower (US!!!) will also increase your store of seed (THAT WHICH IS GIVEN TO BE THE SEED OF THE NEXT HARVEST) and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

Very clearly Paul is addressing this situation in the context of giving … He says, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

But we don’t give for a reward … in fact it is not even part of the equation. We give because God first gave to us.

In the apparently incongruous way of Christ in which we go down to be up and die to live, the reward of giving is in fact in the giving itself rather than that God will do something good for us because we have given. Actually, God is not going to do anything for us at all … the seed that we return to Him will yield a different harvest.

We were the harvest of someone else’s giving, and ultimately we are the harvest of God’s self-giving on the Cross and so the seed we sow, the tithes we bring, will yield a different harvest of souls. Perhaps from another town or another generation … God knows.

And so, does God then not reward us for our giving … well, the Scripture does say that in respect of giving that by “the measure that we use will it be measured unto us”  but it seems that God does not so much reward our giving, as our obedience to His word.

In 1 Samuel 15:22, the Lord says that “to obey is better than sacrifice” and time and again He says “I require mercy, not sacrifice.” God’s call to us is a call to obedience not to make sacrifices in search of rewards and in that obedience, according to God’s strange economics is found the true blessing of God.

Still on the subject of the tithe, we turn to Malachi 3:6-10. Here we have a sharp exchange between Israel and God.

“Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.

“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’

“In tithes and offerings.  ⁹ You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me.  ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

You see, God expects our obedience to the tithe … indeed lack of obedience in this, or any other area for that matter, can lead to a separation between God and us. But the Lord does not just expect the obedience and that’s that … He does also honour the obedience that comes through the giving of the tithe.

“Bring the whole tithe …. and see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.”

In the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul addresses God as the One who “can do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ever ask or imagine.” We must not have a low view of God. He invites us to test His greatness and His exceeding generosity to those who believe.

Some argue that the tithe is Law and therefore belongs to the Old Testament and so is not an obligation for us today. But against this view we must say, we worship the God who never changes. He is the Same, yesterday, today and forever. Tithing did not come with the Law at Mount Sinai … even Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek, the King and Priest of Jerusalem and who is, according to Hebrews 7, the antetype of Jesus.

“You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

In effect, Abraham was giving the tithe to the pre-existent Jesus …

Is tithing then still required in the New Testament Church?

First, we need to take note of the fact that it was never stopped. In the earliest days of the New Testament church the people gave much more than just a tithe. However, in our text we do see that Paul does say that a man must give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. Some have suggested that this means that we give as we can, rather than to give a tenth of our income.

Without doubt, this is not true. Paul is, in the first instance speaking about a specific collection – money to be raised for famine relief in Israel … this is not the tithe. It is over an above the tithe. Second, he is talking about offerings … again, this is that which we give sacrificially over and above our tithe.

The tithe then, is the first part of our income and it belongs to God as the first standard of Biblical giving. We give our tithe – one tenth of our income – to God’s work through the Church … for the prime purpose of our tithe, must be seed for the next harvest of souls !

The second standard of Biblical giving is our voluntary giving. The Bible refers to this as offerings and collections.

This is what we give to the work of the Lord over and above our tithe – in a sense, this is the “secret” part of our giving where, as the Bible says, the “left hand does not know what the right hand does.” Offerings are what we choose to give out of our own volition, the collection is our response to a specific appeal. Both of these are included in our charitable giving ie giving to charity work outside of the church’s specific mission but the tithe is not.

Offerings and collections are, in the expectation of scripture, to be sacrificial because the implication is that we do without in order to make the gift. The tithe, by the way, is never referred to in Scripture as a sacrifice. 

There is a difference between “tithes” and “offerings” since the Bible often refers to both in the same sentence. And often when we read about “giving” in the Bible it is a reference to an offering … in the strictest Biblical sense, the tithe is not “giving” … it is returning “stock seed” to the Lord. It is giving back to God that which is already His.

The Lord loves us to make offerings … in 2 Corinthians 9:7 we read that “the Lord loves a cheerful (or hilarious) giver.

And He always rewards the giver’s obedience … in Luke 6:38, Jesus says, “Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Why don’t you test the Lord in this, as Malachi says. The Bible instructs us to tithe. Margaret and I have tithed for almost the whole of our Christian walk and we have seen it as an essential expression of our trust in our God who has given much, much more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Official offerings are taken by the church from time to time – but it is my understanding from Scripture that these are to be limited to special situations. If the congregation is tithing then there is usually no need to take up special offerings – there is always enough in the storehouse to meet these situations.

I do however believe that we should have a regular opportunity to take a collection to give support to needy individuals – often in churches today, this takes the form of a Retiring Offering. In the past it was often a box at the door of the church called the “poor box”. In my previous congregation my son-in-law made four wooden boxes that were permanently in place for anyone to make contributions.

The elders have felt that as a church we also tithe, that we should give one tenth of all our income for work outside the church. This is an excellent way of providing mission support and of assisting people who are out in the field with God’s work.

Finally, remember whatever you give to the Lord’s work is between you and Him. Please don’t think that I am trying to pressurise you, or attempting to do anything other than give you the scriptural basis of giving. Rather, go down on your knees and ask the Lord what you should give.

Tithes, Offerings and the Collection

What does the Lord require of me ?

1. Tithing – a tenth of my income

Leviticus 27:30 – “A tithe of everything belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.” (Holy = separated to God’s purpose)

Tithing = the seed of the harvest; the seed for the next crop

2 Corinthians 9:10 – “He (GOD!) who supplies seed to the sower (US!) will also increase your store of seed (THAT WHICH IS GIVEN TO BE THE SEED OF THE NEXT HARVEST) and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.”

2 Corinthians 9:6 – “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

The seed is for the next harvest; just as we are the harvest of someone else’s   giving so our giving will yield a different crop.

In our church we have envelopes available for the giving of our Tithes. They are available at the door.

But isn’t tithing an Old Testament requirement and therefore not for us? eg 2     Corinthians 9:7 – “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion.”

Paul is actually referring voluntary giving ie that which is over the tithe, specifically this voluntary giving can be divided into Offerings and the Collection

2. Offerings and The Collection

An offering is the “secret” part of our giving – it is what we choose to give of our own freewill over and above our tithe. The offering includes our giving to charity and other forms of alms giving.

The Collection, in Biblical terms, is our response to a specific appeal eg the collection for the Church in Jerusalem which was suffering the consequence of a severe drought (1 Corinthians 16). Other examples of Biblical Collection-taking include the donations by the people towards the construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 35) and also the Temple (1 Chronicles 29).

We have had collection for the Bush Fire Appeal, Haiti, the Toodyay Fires, the Christmas Shoebox Appeal, airconditioning  and so on.

Offerings and the collection are expected to be sacrificial; the tithe is our obedient response to God’s command and for our blessing (Leviticus 27:30 & Malachi 3:8-12).

The Lord loves us to give – He loves a cheerful (or hilarious) giver. (2 Cor 9:7) and He always rewards the giver’s obedience – Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over … For with the measure you use, it will be measured unto you. (Luke 6:38)

Rev David de Kock