Latest / The Daily Word / July 10 – Giving as Worship
Transcript
- Brandon: Well, welcome once again to another episode of the Daily Word podcast. Hope that you are doing well today wherever you are and whenever you're listening to this. ⁓ in case we haven't met, my name is Brandon, and I am one of the pastors at our church. And again, it's just such an honor and a privilege to be able to every day, well, I guess I'm not doing it every day, but as a team, every day, share from the Word of God something that is encouraging. Challenging, inspiring, speaking to us in some way. And that really is the whole point of us doing this. It is to every day provide a daily encouragement while at the same time reminding you that God wants to speak to you through his word. And so I'm hoping you're encouraged today. And also I'm hoping that you take time today to go spend time with God and let him speak to you. ⁓ that being said, ⁓ we do every day go through the New Testament reading. Through ⁓ from the life journal reading plan in ⁓ our reading plan that we use, that is the life journal reading plan for our church. What am I saying? Stumbling all over my words here. But we take the reading from that plan, the New Testament portion every day and share from that. And so today being July the 10th, I want to read to you today a scripture from Hebrews chapter seven. It is our reading today, and I want to read to you Hebrews chapter seven ⁓ verse. Let's see where is this verse at? ⁓ verse let's go let's go five through six. Five through six. I was debating on which ones ⁓ where to start and where to end, but we'll go five through six. Here's it says. And indeed, verse five those who are of the sons of Levi who received the priesthood have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham. But he whose genealogy is not derived from them receives tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promise. Now beyond all contradiction, verse seven, the lesser is blessed by the better. In verse eight, we're going all the way to verse eight. Verse eight says this here, here, key word, here, mortal men receive tithes, but there, another key word, but there He receives them of whom it is witness that he lives. Hebrews chapter seven, verses five, all the way through verse eight. And here in this passage, ⁓ the author of Hebrews is talking about giving. ⁓ he's he's referring to tithe. Now let me just stop and give a preference, a preference, rather, that when it comes to giving at our church, we believe that giving is not something that is legalistic. Not something that is forced, not something that is a ⁓ if you don't do it, God doesn't love you and God won't bless you. I know some people believe that, ⁓ but that's not what what we believe. We believe that now giving under the new covenant that we have in in Christ, that giving now really is purely an act of worship. Now, do we believe in New Testament tithing? That is giving the first 10% of all that God has given us back to God, yes. Do we believe in giving offering above and beyond to God? Yes. Do we believe in leveraging our finances for kingdom purposes, whether that be for those going on missions trips or sewing into ⁓ to different ministries or helping a kid go to camp? Yes, we believe in all of those things. But we just believe that they are now an act of worship, a response to what Jesus has done rather than a legalistic ritual or commandment. That we have to do in order for for for God to love us or bless us. No, not none of that is true. We now give us an act of worship. And here in this passage in Hebrews chapter 7, it's talking about how before Jesus came, the priesthood would receive tithe. ⁓ the ⁓ the holy priesthood, ⁓ the ⁓ the sons of Levi, they would receive tithe from the children of Israel. Now in the New Testament, still. ⁓ we bring tithe into the house of God. And here's the part that really just stuck out to me. Verse 8, it says this here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them. Let me just read that again. Here mortal men receive tithe, but there he receives them, of whom it is witness that he lives. I say all of that, give you the preface on What we believe about giving and tithing and offering and ⁓ stewarding our finances for kingdom purposes. I I I I say all of that not because my insight today was that that we should tithe or should give offering or I'm none of that stuff. But the insight that I grabbed in reading that and thinking about giving is that the Bible says, although here, here we we we are giving here. Here a mortal man, a church, a ministry, ⁓ someone is receiving that you were we're giving it tangibly here that although here mortal men receives them, there in heaven, God, he, he receives them. And man, it just got me thinking today that really all of our giving really is unto God. We can talk about tithe, we can talk about offering, we can talk about giving towards missions and kingdom endeavors. Shoot, we we could even talk about our giving as it relates to our time, our giving of time or talent to invest into the kingdom of God. And just this thought struck me today that as I'm giving, I'm not giving to men, but I'm giving to God. And and and I've always known that, but what really just struck me and hit me, and I'm I feel like I'm stumbling over my words to to to To communicate this accurately, what really hit me is that in a real way, Jesus is receiving that which I give in heaven. Like I I know intellectually I'm I'm giving to God, not to man. But but just this picture I had today as I was reading this passage, that as I'm whether I'm sitting in church on Sunday, whether I'm doing it on the app, whether I'm you know serving or whatever it may be. That while here I'm tangibly doing something, that in heaven, seated at the right hand of God, there's Jesus, and he's receiving what I'm giving. That there is Jesus, the Son of God, the King of Kings, Lord of the Lord, the ⁓ he who rules and reigns over all, the one who gave his body and gave his life for us, that he Seated at the right hand of God is receiving them in heaven. It made Romans chapter 12, verse 1 come alive to me even more, which says that in light of all that Jesus has done, in light of all that God has done, in light of God's mercy, it's a reasonable service. It just makes sense to offer our whole lives back to God a living sacrifice. Why? Because here we're giving something, here we're offering something. But but in heaven, Jesus is receiving it real time. I'm I I might be giving it tangibly here, but he's receiving it tangibly there. And that's you know my observation and and my application today is that every time I give, whether I'm tithing, giving of offering, serving, every time I give, I really want to do as Pastor Gill says often: take a minute. And calibrate my heart and remind myself, I'm not just doing something in the app. I'm not just writing a check. I'm not just filling a gap or no, I'm giving something. I'm I'm giving an act of worship today to Jesus. I'm giving act of worship here today to God that while I may be giving this here on earth, Jesus is receiving it in heaven. Man, that just that makes me so excited to give. It it changes my perspective on giving. It makes me anxious to give because I get to turn around and in worship give a gift back to my Lord and my Savior, the one who's given everything for me. And so today, my prayer and my response and my encouragement is: let us continue to give generously of our time, of our talent, of our treasure. Let us continue to give our lives and offer our lives back to Jesus. A living sacrifice because it is our reasonable service. But let us do so, remembering that I'm not serving a man, I'm not giving unto a man, I'm not doing something. No, I'm I I might be doing it on here, but in heaven, he is receiving it as an act of worship. Lord, today help us as we approach the subject of giving. Help us as we approach the subject of serving and and and giving our lives unto you and everything that we give. Let us approach. Approach it in this way that while we know we're giving it here on earth, that we are tangibly thinking and and and and and being reminded and mindful of the fact that you are receiving it. Would our giving never just just be vain religious activity? But would it truly be an act of worship that we're giving back unto you? God, we thank you for speaking to us and ask you that you would help us to apply these things to our life. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, hey, thank you once again. For joining us for another episode of the Daily Word Podcast. We love you so much, and we'll see you tomorrow here on another episode.