Sermon Tone Analysis

A little nine year old girl was in synagogue with her Safta/grandmother when she started feeling ill.

"Safta," she said.

"Can we go now?" "No," her Safta replied.

"Well, I think I have to throw up!" "Then go out the front door and to the back of the synagogue and get sick behind a bush."

In about two minutes the little girl returned to her seat.

"Did you throw up?" her Safta asked.

"Yes," the little girl replied.

"Well, how could you have gone all the way to the back of the synagogue and return so quickly?" "I didn't have to go outside, Safta." the little girl replied.

"They have a box next to the front door that says, 'For the sick'."

Ha-Foke-Bah

Introduction to the Series:

Today, we are going to start a series called the Treasure Test.

Our passage for this whole series is in

I understand this one passage, in a nutshell, explains that God blesses us so that we can behave like Him.

What does this have to do with a treasure test?

Do you treasure the compassion of Father God?

In other words, Do you treasure being judged or do you treasure not being judged.

Do you treasure being free or being condemned?

Do you treasure being forgiven, pardoned or do you treasure having your sin held against you?

Do you treasure good things flowing into your life that you did not earn and do not deserve, not just good things but an abundance of that thing or do you like living hand-to-mouth on barely enough, just the scraps?

Do you treasure the fact that God gave the greatest, most elaborate gift in the heavens and on earth and under the earth, His Son Yeshua?

Then what are you doing with this treasure.The treasure test is God’s testing you to see if you are behaving like Him.

The treasure test simply says that God will test you to see if you are being a dispenser or a hoarder with all of the blessing he has given to you.

I want you to see something about the treasure test.

We are not even talking about money yet.

We are talking about some blessings that are far beyond money.

The blessing of Father God’s compassion.

The blessing of not being judged.

Do you not what that feels like.

Feels like you are free to be you – all of your strange little idiosyncrasies and jokes and tendencies – and no one is reading anything sinister or evil or ugly into it but rather they see it as beautiful.

It is the opposite of walking on eggshells and wearing a mask.

It is the treasure of constantly being told your not condemned, your story is not set in stone, there is hope for the future, you are not bound forever.

It is the treasure of being let off the hook when the sentence was in stone, was determining your future, and somebody dropped all the charges, withdrew the complaint and said you are free.

Do you realize these are treasures that you are given and they have nothing to do with money they have everything to do with your heart.

Let me tell you something there is an invisible string from you heart to your pocket book.

Do you remember the story Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax-collector.

Now in the past I have unfairly compared Zacchaeus to an IRS man or woman.

That is not right because the IRS are working under the rubric of law.

Zacchaeus was working outside of the rubric of law he was more like a mafia loan-shark and extortionist.

Yet, when Yeshua rolled into Jericho one day and Zacchaeus climbed into his tree perch.

Yeshua said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

(, TLV)

Yeshua knew that the people were going to mutter about him, “he is making friends with a notable sinner I bet he is on Zacchaeus’ payroll.”

Yeshua did not care, Yeshua was being just like His Father: compassionate, full of mercy, abounding in loving-kindness.

Yeshua was giving him the treasure of fellowship, the treasure of acceptance, the treasure of honor in front of his peers when he deserved none of this.

Remember how Zacchaeus responded?

That invisible chord that runs from his heart to his pocket book was moved by the generosity of Messiah and he said, “Look, Master, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have somehow cheated anyone, I repay four times as much!” (, TLV).

This is way beyond what the Torah required and Yeshua did not even have to say a word to him.

Yeshua said to Him: you passed the treasure test.

That is my paraphrase of what he said, “Then Yeshua said to him, “Today salvation has come to this home, because he also is a son of Abraham.”

(, TLV).

Zacchaeus you passed the test, you received validation and the fellowship of the Father’s Son today, just like Abraham who blessed Melchizedek with a tenth of all he had when there was not law telling him to do so, so you also blessed beyond the Law, you are a son of Abraham..

That outer act of giving is just a representation of the inner treasure you received, you are like Abraham.

For the next couple of weeks we will be talking about the treasure test.

Please keep in mind, that we are not primarily talking about your money but what you do with your money does indicate what your treasure really is.

I am so unapologetic about what we are going to be talking about over the next couple of weeks.

Unapologetic for good reasons.

First, when I was praying in later November and early December about the message series to preach for the upcoming year, the Holy Spirit dropped a word in my Spirit, “Michael, I want my people to be overtaken by my blessing on their life but in order for that to happen they have to learn about the power of tithing and how it relates to what they really treasure.”

Please here me, I’m not proclaiming the truth about tithing because God needs money; I’m delivering these truths for your sake.

God doesn’t need your money — you need His blessing, He wants to give it to you but the principle of the treasure test says that God blesses us so that we can be a blessing like Him.

Secondly, Lauren and I have experienced the supernatural blessing that comes with being a tither and being generous.

I have lots of stories about God’s supernatural provision but let me tell you one that I just love.

One last reason we are going to talk about this together is because I am deeply convinced that this is key to the vision of Beth Messiah prospering in the coming days.

Around this time of the year people ask me, “Rabbi Vowell are you going to cast the vision for CBM?

What great things are we going to do.”

Let me tell you my vision for CBM this year.

It is not a vision for bigger buildings, though we need it, not more staff though we need it.

No my vision for CBM is a vision for you, for your life.

My vision is that this year you will have hope that God will do for you what His word has already promised regarding your family, your finances and your fitness.

My vision is ridiculous and people have told me so because my vision is that 100% of the families at Beth Messiah this year would so catch a vision of who God is, the great I’AM that I’AM, who does not change, the one who says, “Do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward,” that God backs His word in your life.

I want a 100% of the people at Beth Messiah to have hope that “If God says it, that settles it, I receive it and I give it!”

Introduction to the Topic of Today:

Today, I want to show you that God says to His people, “generosity is a gateway to intimacy with God.”

I know that right away when I put a phrase up on the screen like this there are some people that will say, “I don’t know about that.”

Okay well what about this phrase:

“Greediness is a gateway to intimacy with God.”

Of course not.

That is too extreme.

“Stinginess is a gateway to intimacy with God.”

Of course not.

“Miserliness is a gateway to intimacy with God.”

Of course not.

“Stewardship is a gateway to intimacy with God.”

Of course not.

Of course none of those are true because God is none of those things in Himself.

He is generous, ridiculously generous in Himself.

That is why the phrase, “Generosity is a gateway to intimacy with God” is true in every single generation.

When people live this way, because it is not just a belief, it is always so evident they have already passing the treasure test.

They have tapped into the abundant heart of God and they want to give that out.

Do you ever notice that generous people exude happiness love and happiness.

Generous people are this way not because of how much money they give away it is because they give so much of everything away.

The reason why generous people exude so much love and happiness is because they have been touched by the generous love of God.

If you have not heard Robert Morris’ testimony, the Pastor of Gateway Church in Dallas, you should hear it.

His testimony is all about experiencing God’s generosity in his life.

When he wrote the best selling book, “the Blessed Life,” which he could have made millions in royalties off of, he decided to give all the royalties away, every dime to this day.

That is nothing in comparison to some of the other amazing generous acts he has done.

His wife was asked once, “Why is Robert so generous?”

She simply said, “He just has never gotten over getting saved.”

Generous people like Robert Morris are experiencing the blessing of God overtaking their life because they receive God’s treasure to give out God’s treasure.