Three tithes?

At church yesterday, it was mentioned that the system established by God to care for His church was the system of the tithe and special offerings. Once we realize that God owns everything and we love him a lot, we are given the opportunity to trust God and pass on what he owns to His church. Did you follow all that?

It was also mention that the Levitical guidelines also communicated that there was multiple tithes. In fact there are three. After church, I entered into a conversation with a friend about these three. Following is were it’s mentioned in the Bible.

1st TITHE: Annual tithe for the maintenance of the Levitical Priesthood (Num 18:21-24).
The tribe of Levi received no inheritance (Num18:20, Deu 12:12, Deu 14:27). This tribe was segregated from the rest of Israel (Num 3:39-45, Num 3:5-10, Num 8:14-19) in order to serve the Lord in the Temple, and in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. So the first tithe was necessary for their support, since they had no other means of subsistence.

2nd TITHE: A second tithe was brought to Jerusalem for festival purposes (Deu 14:22-27).

3rd TITHE: A third tithe was required every third year to assist the poor (Deu 14:28-29).
Every third year was known as "the year of tithing," (Deu 26:12-14). When the Israelites had completed tithing of the increase of the land, they were to give this 3rd tithe to the Levites, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows. When this was completed, they were to declare unto the Lord that they had performed to the best of their ability in obeying the divine commandments. All the tithes mutually would consist of 23.3% of one's assets.

Now the NT tells us that we should work as hard as we can to give all that we can, so collectively, we can make an impact into our communities that we live. So, it is to that end, we do so.

Have an Awesome Day
David

That was a long sermon?

After church, I was eating dinner with my oldest child and she said, "Dad … that was sure a long sermon today"! "No it wasn't" I shot back, "it was all the preliminaries that came before the sermon, that’s want made it, seem so long.” Later that night, when I was preparing the sermon to be uploaded to our churches web sit, I noticed that my sermon totaled 44 minutes in length. Boy, I sure talked a lot yesterday.

Typically, I like to hit the finish line of my message around 30 minutes. Considering all that we do on a Sunday add in the uncomfortable seats, and that’s about all that normal people can endure. I also heard a very good communicator say once, “If you can’t strike oil in 30 minutes, stop boring”.

In a resent book I was reading by another pastor said that the goal of every message is to speak less. His primis was that many times the words / stories / illustrations sometimes lead people away from the main point of the day rather then adding substance to it. I can see were that happens, yes, even in my messages.

So, I guess yesterday was a good reminder for me to once again, I need to return to the work bench and do some more work on delivering the greatest message ever heard.

Have an Awesome Day

David

Do I really love my City?

For my reading today, I found myself in Roman's reading chapter 13

It says;
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

It’s interesting that I read these verses now. Lately, our church as been dealing with some big un-knows with our city as it pertains to our new building. It’s been very hard to keep good thoughts in my mind about the city. I’m sure I’m not the only one in our church family that has struggled with ill thoughts of our city leadership.

But as I read these verses again, I see a valuable lesson for me.

First of all, as a leader in our church, I need to set the standard to encourage others to do the same thing. So a little reflection was called for and some confession was made.

Secondly, it’s not by mistake that these leaders our in the places they are during the this time. As it states in Romans, God places these people in these places . . .and here this . . for the reason for me to grow up.

Thirdly, these people are for my good . . .so, the question, is, there needs to be good found in what is happening here. So what is the good? Our church must be ready to shine in our city, especially when it comes to how we will be working with the city over the next few months to see our project completed. We have a golden opportunity to turn our present thoughts around to be a great testimony of God’s grace to our city leaders.

Lord Help us.

Have an Awesome Day

David

A Great Day!

A friend and I were hustling around bringing more chairs out for our Easter Service when my friend turn to me and said in three months, this will be a normal Sunday service. This statement brought a mix of emotions. I love a bunch a people to hang out with. So thinking about a larger group of people, loving each other and loving others outside the body. On the other time, the responsibility of helping and leading these folks is enormous.

As God open’s the people blessing increases over the next few months, our leadership must increase as well.

My leadership must increase. Learning new things, doing things better, growing deeper in my relationship with him. Our partnering pastors base need to increase. Each pastor needs to do the same. Getting closer to God, and knowing him better. Our leadership team needs to do the same.

If we are going to love people well, we need to grow up as a leadership team. I need to grow!
Pray for your Pastor! Please!

Have an Awesome Day

David

The Passion Week

One of our staff pastors gave a wonderful about the Passion Week yesterday. Many of the events of this week can be glossed over before of the main events at the end of the week, and rightly so. After all, it is the passion of the death and resurrection that keeps me going from day to day. One of this week that needs a brief talking about is Christ anointing at the home of Simon the leper. It was there that Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus. Judas was critical of this supposed "waste" of expensive oil, but he wasn’t concerned about the poor. Long before, Judas had chosen himself over the person of Christ and really ignored that events that were unfolding before him. It was at this critical time, after Jesus rebuked him, he left and went into Jerusalem to bargain with the religious leaders to betray Jesus.

Now before we get on Judas case, we to need to take a moment of reflection too. What would we have done depends on our state of heart. Are we looking for his way or are we looking for our way? It really is so easy to flow into thinking about us after all, we live with ourselves a long time. But the story of Christ anointing allows us to center ourselves around the fact that we need to think of others, even though it may cost us.

Have an Awesome Day

David