Sermon Tone Analysis

Being open-handed to give freely

The land belongs to God

!!! /Morning Worship 11-06-06/

!!! Announcements

!!! Bible presented

!!!

Call to worship

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

(Psalm 46:10-11)

!!! Blessing

Grace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

!!! Doxology Hymn No 321:        /“Bring to the Lord a glad new song” /Prayer of Adoration, Invocation and Thanksgiving Lord’s Prayer

Gracious heavenly Father, we are your redeemed people and, as we gather in your presence, how we rejoice in you.

We rejoice in the majesty of your character, the sheer perfection of your being.

You are the only wise God, the one true and living God, the Almighty, the all-knowing one, the ever present one, the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We rejoice in the perfection of who you are.

And we rejoice in the works of your hands, in the wonders you have done: the splendour of your creation, the generosity of your providential care, the sheer grace of redemption, the mystery of your purposes in election, the infinite wonder of your everlasting love, the gift of your Word, the power of your Gospel, the sanctifying work of your Holy Spirit, the blessings of your Church, the glories of Heaven and the wonders you have prepared for us there.

When we consider the wonder of who you are and all that you have done for us in Christ, we rejoice with trembling.

We stand in awe of you.

We realize something of the greatness and grandeur of who you are, the high and holy God who inhabits eternity.

We also realise the finite, weak, limited, sinful condition of ourselves by comparison.

But we rejoice in the fact that despite the vast gulf between us, you nevertheless delight to dwell with those who are humble and contrite in heart and who tremble at your Word.

We rejoice that you have appointed Christ to bridge the gap between us, and that he has reconciled us to you through the cross.

We rejoice that with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

We come before you this day, yielded and still in the presence of you, our Lord and Master.

Continue and bring to completion the good work you have begun in us.

Humble us in our pride.

Condemn in us any wrong.

Wash us with water through the Word to make us holy and send us to our homes rejoicing that we have met with you, the Sovereign Lord, in Jesus’ name.

Lord’s Prayer

!!! Hymn No 96:                               /“God we praise You” (Tune: Ode to Joy)/

!!! Prayer of Confession of sin

Father, it is with a sense of shame that we confess our sins to you.

It grieves us that we continue to fall short of your glory.

We feel the burden of our guilt, but if we are blind to sins in us, trouble our souls about them, prick our consciences, bring them out into the light, show us the true nature of our hearts, and the deceitfulness that resides there.

Give us no rest until our sins have been dealt with by the cross, until all sin has been forsaken, its power broken and put to death.

Lord God, you have been very patient with us.

You have disciplined us.

You have corrected us and rebuked us.

Grant us the grace to heed your corrections and yield to your gentle rebukes.

We do not want to provoke you.

We do not want to grieve you.

We do not want to resist your Holy Spirit.

Make us humble, keep us responsive, and enable us to keep short accounts with you.

It is our hearts' desire to be your holy people, set apart to you and unspotted by the world, wearing the robe of Christ’s righteousness.

Keep us by your almighty power.

Increase our faith in you and lead us in the way everlasting, for we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

!!! Forgiveness

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

(Psalm 32:1-2)

!!! Scripture Reading                     /1John 3:11-24/

!!! Tithes, offering and dedication

While stewards wait upon the tithes and offering, remaining seated we sing:

!!! Hymn No 365:                            /“We give You but your own”/

!!! Prayer for others

!!! Scripture Reading                     /Deuteronomy 15:1-11/

!!! Sermon

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Two weeks ago the Word of the Lord came to us from chapter 14 of Deuteronomy, the last section, where it deals with the tithes.

Let’s just ask the children if they can remember what a tithe is.

Can anyone help me?

A tithe is what one takes of the income God blesses you with 10% to give it to the work of the church so that there will be enough money for workers in the Kingdom of God.

It supplies the income for missionaries and other people who are employed by the church who tell the Good News of Jesus Christ to other people.

It is also the task of the church to provide for the needs of people who are in need, like the widows, the fatherless and, in Israel’s case, those who had no land rights.

!!!

It belongs to God

; There was one very important principle all Israelites had to keep in mind, and of course it applies to us who are members of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We find this principle in Leviticus 25:23-24:

The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.

Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

(Leviticus 25:23-24)

It worked this way:  God provided for each and every tribe a certain portion of the land.

It was theirs because God gave it to them.

They did not pay for it; they got the land and what was on it for free.

They had to look at their block of land as a gift from God.  On it they were only tenants.

This was of course an excellent deal:  ; because it was God’s land, He would provide for them the rain they needed, and He would give them prosperity for as long as they obeyed the commands of the Lord.

Later on, because they disobeyed God and broke covenant with Him, He of course took the land back and sent them into slavery in Babylon.

Of what they earned from the land, God commanded them to take 10%, that’s the tithe, and bring it to the temple where it would be given to those in specific work of the Lord.

The Levites who served in the temple had no land and they were dependant on the tithes of the rest of the people for their day to day existence.

If the people were disciplined and obedient to constantly give the 10% of their income for the specific work of the Lord, they would not miss out, because God Himself would make up by giving them his blessings.

If however they withheld their tithes, the Lord shut the windows of heaven and withdrew his blessing from them.

They would then forfeit income, eventually the land.

The application for us living today is:  the world belongs to God.

He has ownership over everything He has made.

He sustains it; He sends rain, withholds the pestilence and famine for as long as his people are obedient in serving Him with a complete heart, loving Him and their neighbour and providing of their income for the work of the Gospel.

The truth is also that if God’s people do not serve Him by faithfully providing for the needs of the Gospel and the needy people, and withholding their tithes, God does not only begin to withhold his blessing from the individual members and families in the church, but He also withholds his blessing from the church.

!!!!!! ; Tenants and stewards

To make sure that the people did not lose sight of the fact that the land did not really belong to them, but that they are mere tenants or stewards of it, and also to prevent his people from becoming greedy and become lovers of money and materialistic things, God command them to, in a seven year cycle, ; not plant in the seventh year.

This is the command:

At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

(Deut 14:28-29)

And then further:

“For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused.

Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave.

Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

(Ex 23:10-11)

Just think about it, six out of seven years one could plant and take the harvests and put it in your barn after you took your tithe, 10%, out and give it for the specific work of the Lord.

But then, the seventh year you had to have the land rest.

And you could rest and rejoice in the provision of the Lord.

; There was just one problem:  let’s say you owed your brother some money and you had to pay off the loan in a prescribed number of years, and then, in the seventh year, the year of the Jubilee, you could not plant a crop and you would not be able to make your loan payment that year.