CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP (PART 2): PASTOR MENSA OTABIL – SUNDAY 6TH JUNE, 2021
SUNDAY SERVICE BY DR. MENSAH OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) ACCRA, GHANA)
TOPIC: CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP – PART 2.
DATE: 6TH JUNE, 2021
TEXT: GENESIS 15:8-9 AND EXODUS 25:1-3.
Amen! Let’s rise up together, as we make our DECLARATION OF FRUITFULNESS in this Year of Fruitfulness:
Are you ready? Say with me:
The Eternal God is our refuge. He opens Rivers in desolate Heights.The Lord makes the wilderness a Pool of water.
The LORD God is my Sun and Shield; The LORD gives Grace and Glory.
Therefore, I delight myself in Him. Those who are Planted in the House of the LORD shall be fresh and flourishing.
Though the Earth be shaken; the Name of the Lord is my Strong Tower. By Faith I affirm that: In Christ alone is my Salvation. In Him I live, and move and have my being.
It is written: The Righteous are like trees Planted by the waters; bearing fruits in its Season.
So I boldly declare: As for me, my God has made me EXCEEDINGLY FRUITFUL.
In this Season, my Spirit bears Fruits of Righteousness, my Talents make Way for me. With my hands, I will Plant, I will Build, I will Harvest – Day by Day, Step by Step.
In Jesus’ Name – Amen!
My Topic today is CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP – PART 2.
My Sub-Title is WHAT WE GIVE TO GOD.
When we started the Part 1, I defined who a Steward is. And I said:
“A Steward is a Person employed to manage another’s Property or Resources.”
And so, a Steward is not an Owner; a Steward is a Caretaker or an Agent of a Principal.
Christian Stewardship is how Christians manage God’s Gift and Resources.
The Management of Life God has given to us; the Resources, the Talents, the Opportunities He has given to us.
… How we manage it is Christian Stewardship.
But I am focusing more on how we manage the Money that God has given to us because, money is very important in our worship of the Lord.
And in Part 1, we looked at: “WHY WE GIVE TO GOD.”
And I gave you Biblical Reasons of why we Give to God.
DMC NOTES: Kindly avail yourself the Full Text of the Part 1 of the Series Message from the Link below:
So, we will look at: “WHAT WE GIVE TO GOD” in this Part 2.
And when it comes to Offerings, what we should Give to God can sometimes be a very vexatious Subject.
People have a very Strong Opinion of what kind of Offering should be given; What should not be given.
Should we Give to Church? Should we Give to Charity? Should we not Give at all? What about all the People who are dishonest with God’s money?
So People have Strong Opinions on what we Give to God.
But I think to answer that question of ‘What should be given to God”; we have to ask a more Fundamental Question of:
WHO DETERMINES WHAT WE GIVE TO GOD?
Because, if we want to know what we Give to God, we have to ask ourselves, Who determines it?
Should Christian determines what they Give to God all by themselves? Who sets the Standard of what we Give to God – Is it our Church? Is it our Income? Is it our Preference or God?
Who determines what we should be given?
… Because if we determine that, we cannot determine what it is that should be given to God.
The Simple answer is that: The One who receives what you Give is the One Who determines what we should Give.
So, even though in the Bible Giving is free will, and we Give as we want and as we are led.
- GOD DETERMINES WHAT YOU GIVE.
Because He determines what He accepts and what He does not accept.
Because He has the Power to reject and to accept.
We can say that He is the One Who determines what we Give.
You know, at the end; at the time I got married, People gave us Wedding Presents based on what they wanted to give.
And so People would attend a Wedding, if a Wedding Table is set up (and I think they still do), People go up to the Wedding Table and give a Present.
And I remembered that after our Wedding and after the Honeymoon, we (my wife and I) came to unwrap our Wedding Presents and then realised that most of the Presents that People had given to us were drinking glasses.
… Whether they wanted us to drink a lot of water or Probably drink something else!
So the question is: what do we do with all these drinking glasses?
Here is People trying to give us something. We didn’t determine what they should give – They gave us what they wanted to give. And what they wanted to give wasn’t what we wanted.
It is always important that the Receiver has a determination on what we give.
I understand that now, couples will indicate the kind of Present they want for their Wedding. People open Gift Registers and some People write it on their Wedding Invitation cards anyway!
So the Point I want to make on what we Give to God is that: God determines what He wants us to Give to Him.
… That is the first Point – God determines what He wants us to Give to Him.
We don’t determine it, the Church doesn’t determine it, our Income doesn’t determine it, our Interests doesn’t determine it – God determines what He wants us to Give!.
That is what we have to get right from the onset – God determines what He wants us to Give.
Genesis 15:8-9; this is God speaking to Abraham, when He had Promised Abraham that He was going to give him the land that he was living on as his inheritance, and to his descendants.
Genesis 15:8-9 (NKJV):
8 And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
And then in Exodus 25:1-3:
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering.
3 And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze;
If you note in Exodus, God says they should give it well – “Only let him give it Willingly from his heart.” It is a Freewill Offering.
But the fact that it is a Freewill Offering doesn’t mean you should just give whatever you want.
God said: “This is what I want you to Give.” And He gave them exactly what He wanted them to give – Although it is a Freewill Offering.
… And when God spoke to Abraham, He also gave him Specifics.
So, God determines what we should Give to Him! – We Give what He asks us to Give. We don’t Give just what we feel like Giving.
But we Give because God has Specifications and Constructions. And we gave what He asks us to Give.
Throughout the Scriptures, you find this Pattern repeated over and over – God determining what should be given to Him.
And whatever we give to God must Please Him – What we give must Please God.
If we consider that our Offering is to God, then it must Please Him.
It must not be like receiving Wedding Presents and not knowing what to do with them – Whether to put them in a Storage or to distribute them to somebody else because the People don’t know what you want!
So, God tells us what He wants; and we Give the things that He has asked us to Give and what Pleases Him – That is the first (1st) Point in determining what we Give to God.
… God determines what we give to Him.
- Second (2nd) Point: WHAT WE GIVE TO GOD MUST COME FROM WHAT WE HAVE.
We cannot Give what we don’t have! We cannot Give if it is not ours! – What we Give to God comes out of what the Lord has given to us.
So, when God asked Abraham to Give a Sacrifice of the animals he mentioned; Abraham already had those animals.
God had blessed him with those animals. He had a lot of them. And God said: Give these Specific ones. They were things he already had.
When the Lord asked the children of Israel to give the Gold and the Silver and the Bronze and the Purple and all of those things; they were things they already had.
They didn’t have to go and pick it from somebody, borrow it or loan it. Or (sadly) Probably steal it. They had to give for they have!
So what we give to God is determined by God; and what we give to God comes from what we already have.
If you don’t have it; you don’t have it!
But if you have it, then God makes demand based on what we already have.
It doesn’t mean He’s going to collect everything
But you have it! And so He is going to ask you based on what He has given to you.
If you believed that God is the One Who gives you what you have, then He has a say to make a demand on what He has given to you.
… So what we have comes from different sources!
HOW DO WE DETERMINE WHAT WE HAVE?
I will give you three (3) ways in which we determine what we have:
I. What we have could be an Income.
An Income is the wages we are Paid; and this could be likened to what you receive regularly after we have worked.
Some receive Income every day -They call it ‘By Day.’
Some receive it every week, some receive it Monthly – which is a Normal Income in Ghana.
Some receive it Quarterly; some actually receive their Income Annually because of the kind of Business that they are doing.
Whatever your Particular time of receiving Income, you Give to God Who has blessed you out of what you have!
So, the Income is the first (1st) Source of what you have to Give.
Income includes Bonuses.
II. The Second (2nd) Source of what you have is our Interest.
An Interest is Profit from our Investments.
We Give to God when our Investments yield Profit.
And it includes what we have gained from Treasury Bills, from Bonds, from Dividends, from Shares, Loyalties and other Monies that come from our Talents working for us, or Money working for us.
In the Income, you work for it; in the Interest, your money works for you.
So, whether you are working to receive an Income or your money is working to give you an Interest; what you have is what God is going to ask you to Give to Him.
III. The Third (3rd) is Inheritance.
Inheritance has to do with Assets that have been Passed on to us. This is where you reap where you have not sown.
It could come in a Generational Transfer of wealth to you; Houses, Land, Jewelries, Trust Funds and other Monetary Instruments.
So when we are talking about what to Give to God:
- First, God determines what you give to Him.
- Second, what we Give to God is based on what we already have.
… And what we already have comes from our Income, Interest on Investments and Inheritance – Assets that are Passed on to us.
So those are the two (2) Major Points that we have made!
- The Third (3rd) Important Point I want you to note is that: WHAT YOU GIVE TO GOD MUST HONOUR HIM.
… And that is very Important!
Malachi 1:6 (I know most of you thought I was going to say Malachi 3:10) – But No, No, No! Malachi 1:6.
And this is what God said to Israel before He even talked about bringing the Tithes.
This is the Foundation of all that we do for God!
He says in Malachi 1:6:
A son Honors his father, And a Servant his Master. If then I am the Father, where is My Honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My Reverence? Says the Lord of Hosts
To you Priests who despise My Name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your Name?’
Whatever we give to God must Honour Him!
If He is our Father, where is His Honour? If He is our Master, where is His Honour? If He is our Healer, where is His Honour? If he is the Baptizer, where is His Honour? If He is our Deliverer, where is His Honour?
Because what we Give to God must Honour Him.! It must Honour Him.
We don’t Give just to show off to People or to check a Church Register, or to fulfill on a Church Obligation.
… We Give to HONOUR GOD!
He tells us what to Give; the Gift comes from what we have; and what we give must Honour God.
Honour is at the heart of our relationship with God.
In fact, if you look at the Ten (10) Commandments, the whole concept of the Ten (10) Commandments is based on Honour.
Honouring God and honouring other People’s Property; Honouring God and honouring other People.
God’s Relationship with us is an Honour Relationship.
He honours us, and that is why He has Grace and Mercy extended to us. That is why Jesus died for us. That is why He didn’t allow some lesser being to die for us – God gave His Best to us!
And when we Give, what we give to God must Honour Him.
We must be Mindful that ‘this is for God!’ And it must Honour Him.
There are People who see Giving as Charity!
As a matter of fact, if you look outside the Church, Giving is called Charity. And Charity has to do with Giving out of Mercy.
And so, whenever we are Giving to Charity, we are having Mercy on somebody else. When we have Mercy on somebody else, then the Person we are Giving to, is more or less a Beggar.
When you give Charity, you are Giving to a Beggar – Somebody whom you must have Mercy on.
That is Charity! – Having Mercy on the Person.
And that is what People do when they give Charity – They give to beggars and all kinds of People. They go to an Orphanage.
You are Giving to honour the Orphans, you are Giving because you have Mercy on them.
When you Give to a Beggar, you are not Giving the honour to them; you are Giving because you have Mercy on them.
And as it is said: “A Beggar has no Choice”.
Because Beggars have no Choice, they can’t tell you what they want you to give to them.
Well, about a few Beggars can reject your giving if you give them money by the roadside.
If we Honour God, do we give Him by giving Charity? – No! Is God a Beggar that we must Give to? – No, He owns everything!
So in the Biblical sense, our Giving to God is not Charity; it is not a Mercy – Giving. Our Giving to God is HONOUR.
In the first (1st) Offering of the Bible – That is the Offering of Cain and Abel; God determined which of the two (2) Offerings He accepts. And which one He rejected.
And He accepted the Offering of Abel, but did not accept the Offering of Cain.
And Why? – Because it is based on Honour.
… One gave to Honour God, the other gave Him as an Obligation.
What we give to God must Honour Him!
For something to Honour God, it must be First. It must not be the Bottom – It must be the TOP.
Whenever God blesses us, we must GIVE first, to Him! – That is the way to Honour Him.
That means, immediately God blesses us, You must ring-fenced His Portion before we start Spending.
That is the way to Honour God.
To say ‘this Portion is for God, and even if I don’t get to Give it immediately, I have ring-fenced it – it belongs to God, and it is the first!
So, in your mind, your first (1st) Expenditure is what you give to God. That is the way to Honour Him! Not what you give after everything is done – That is dishonour!
So for it to Honour God, it must be first! That is the way to Honour God.
That is what Abel did; he took of the firstling of his flock – The first!
… And then, it must be Worthy.
That means, it must be acceptable. It must have the weight of the Person you are giving to. And that is what the Bible says about Abel’s Offering: the firstlings and their fat – A Worthy portion!
He looked at Whom he was giving the Offering to and determined: “What I am Giving is to God, and it must meet His Weight.”
You can’t just Give to God haphazardly – First, it must be WORTHY.
If we Give an Offering that does not Honour God, we would have fulfilled the Church Obligation; we would have filled the envelope; we would have danced.
… But in the eyes of God, there is no Honour.
Now, Honour doesn’t mean you give all your money to God. But in your own consciousness, and your own conscience – in your Spirit, you have to determine: “is this an Honour?’
God says: if I am your Father, where is my Honour? If I am the Master, where is my Honour? Is this Honour?
Years ago, I read the Story of a family which had invited a traveling Preacher for dinner. And this was a Preacher in the neighborhood; in the area who went from Town to Town, Village to Village to Preach, and People liked him. They liked to do something to support him.
So this family invited this “Itinerant Traveling Preacher” to come home for dinner – Which is a Good Thing! They want to honour him and thank him for the work he is doing.
So they said: Come home for dinner Preacher. And they decided to Prepare chicken for dinner.
When they went through their Chicken Farm, they have all kinds of Chicken: Some very Strong.
They have to choose one! And one of the Chicken sadly, had an eye disease.
So this People said: You know he is a Preacher, he doesn’t care!
And after all, the eye disease doesn’t affect the meat of the Chicken; the Chicken thigh is not affected by the eye.
So they Picked the diseased Chicken and made a Meal from it.
Did it smell as Good as an undiseased Chicken? – Yes!
Was the meat as delicious as one which had no disease? – Yes!
But they knew in their hearts how to determine what they gave.
… That is where Honour comes in!
Well, they sat at Table to have the dinner.
Normally they had to Pray – So they asked the Preacher to Pray.
And strangely, as he started Praying – God just spoke to him that the eye of the chicken was diseased.
And so he stopped in the middle of his Prayer and said to the Couple: God says why did you give to Him a diseased Chicken?
Of course, I don’t think the Chicken was eaten!
… And this is a story I read Years ago!
But the reality is from a very Functional View: Does it matter? It matters, because it is a matter of the heart.
For you to go out there and say: I am going to Give to God. But in Giving to God, I’m going to Give something that I feel me myself will not like to eat. I will give to God!
It’s like going (in Ghana) to have a Traditional Wedding, and you go to your In-law’s Place and you have to Pay all the things that you were asked to Pay.
Can you imagine if you bring some of those tethered Cedes Notes (Ghanaian Currency) from the Marketplace. And smelly Cedes notes and say: ‘Well, money is money, and doesn’t matter!’
Do you think they will be happy to give you their daughter for you to marry?
Because most times, when People are going to do that, they change whatever dirty currency notes they have into fresh mint.
Is the value the same? – Yes! What does it mean? – Honour!
So, when we give to God, it is not just so much about money; it’s about Honour. And if it’s Honour, it must be FIRST and it must be WORTHY.
- The Fourth (4th) Point: WHAT WE GIVE TO GOD MUST COSTS US SOMETHING.
1 Chronicles 21:24; Then King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full Price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me Nothing.”
It is not for Nothing that Offerings are called SACRIFICE. When we give, we are sacrificing. Our Offering must be Sacrificial and anything that is Sacrificial costs us.
When we Sacrifice, it means we are doing something that is costing us; something that makes us feel that virtue has gone out of us.
So, we cannot Give to God that which costs us Nothing. It’s almost as if you are just Giving – it means Nothing to you.
Jesus saw People Giving a lot of money in the Offering Basket and He said: “It meant nothing to them!”
To the Receivers, it is a lot because it is a lot of money. But to the Giver; he knows I could dispense of this without feeling anything!
What we Give to God must costs us Something. We must feel it when we Give, that we have done something that costs us.
…And our Offering must be INTENTIONAL.
It must be Sacrificial, it must be Intentional. We must be mindful of what we are Giving and when we Give it. And we cannot Give without Pausing to think about what it is that we are Giving.
So, you will notice that in all this Message, I have not talked about Tithes, I have not talked about Firstfruit because those are not really the most important things.
People keep asking: should we give Tithe? Should we not give Tithe?
The important thing is to know the Spirit behind what you are Giving.
Because, sometimes People argue about whether Tithe is Old Testament or New Testament.
And I ask a Question: What is the Purpose of Giving? Is it to tell you so that you don’t Give at all or so that you can Give less?
People say: ‘I want to Give what I want.’ Anytime they say that, they just want to say ‘I want to Give less.’
It is not borne out of an attitude that says: “I want to Give as I am led, so I want to Give ten (10) times more. No! They want to do nothing.
I am not talking about People who don’t love God, People who don’t trust God, People who say they don’t really believe in the Bible. They have no Obligation to Honour God! Because they don’t trust Him, and they don’t believe Him.
But you trust Him, you go to Him in Prayer, you go to Him to Help you, you go to Him to deliver you. You go to Him in the morning, you go to Him in the evening, you go to Him in the afternoon. You Pray for your children, you Pray for your Business.
If He is your Father, then what you give to Him must costs you Something.
- The Fifth (5th) and Final Point is that: WHAT YOU GIVE TO GOD REVEALS WHO WE ARE.
In the end, our Offering is the biggest Snapshot of who we are!
Our Offering is X-ray Picture of who we really are.
In 1 John 3:12, it is describing what Cain and Abel did in the Old Testament. And this is how the Writer Portrays what happened back then.
It says:
Not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
When Cain and Abel gave their Offering, this is how God saw it: Cain’s Offering testified that he was Evil.
Is it possible for your Offering to show that you are evil? – Yes Sir! Yes Ma’am!
… When our Offering doesn’t Honour God, it is EVIL.
Cain’s Offering was Evil – His work was evil.
And Abel’s Offering testified that he was righteous. His brother was righteous.
How? – Because one honoured God – It is righteous; one did not honour God – That is evil.
So, CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP: WHAT DO WE GIVE TO GOD?
… We know why; What do we give to Him?
- What we give to God is determined by God Himself;
- What we give to God comes from what we have – What He has blessed us with.
- What we give to God must Honour Him;
- What we give to God must costs us Something;
- And what we give to God Reveals who we are!
I am Persuaded, you are not evil.
But Per Chance, if you have acted in a way that Portrays your evil heart towards God; today is a Good Time to repent and say: “Lord, I want to Give to You out of ALL the Blessings You have given to me. I want to Honour You for Your Blessing upon my life.”
Let us pray!
CLOSING PRAYER
Father we Thank You that every Good and Perfect Gift comes from You.
You are our Father and we Honour You; You are our Master and we Honour You.
And Help us as Your Children to approach You with Honour, to approach You with Respect. That in all that we do, we will Honour You.
So, when we appear before You with our Prayer and Supplication, we will be acceptable before You.
Help us Lord in all that we do, not to be Argumentative Givers; but to be Cheerful Givers – Who Give because we know why we Give, and we Give because we know what you must Give.
In Jesus’ Name we Prayed – Amen and Amen!
… And I trust that you will be a Doer of His Words and not Hearers only!
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