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Welcome to the Dundee SDA church service. We pray you will be blessed.
An important note before we go too far. Sometimes technology fails us and we end up having an out of sync video and audio experience, or the video is not as crystal clear as we would desire it to be. We hope this will not make it difficult for you to hear the message. We hope, in the future we will work through all these challenges.
[Music] people we want to invite the church want to invite the church to stand as we take the intro [Music] place of to the of God our your can to the heart of God oh Jesus bless Redeemer send from the heart of God hold us who wait before to the heart of God [Music] our love for you to listen to you guide us through your word but we want to do all that Guided by your holy spirit so EMP te of self emps of any preconceived ideas I’m tears of uh anything that’s fing us now that may be contrary to your will so that in the emptiness of our hearts you will speak to us through us with us and for us we ask this in Jesus name amen amen please be seated happy Sabbath Church happy is the people whose God is the Lord we would like to welcome everybody for choosing Dand church as your church to worship this morning indeed is it with great joy and gladness sing everybody to church and worshiping Our God and our maker we would like also to welcome our visitors and friends who came from different places to join us in our worship we would also welcome H in our midst the man of honor the man of our the servant of God that will bring the bread of life for us this morning we are happy to have our very own Pastor NJ as our divine worship speaker this morning I’ll be reading from the book of Isaiah H chapter 55 vers 8 and n it says for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts for as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and return it for my thoughts as not right sorry at verse eight for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways sayith the Lord and my thoughts than your thoughts sorry again happy Sabbath day and welcome to Dand church amen amen so before we begin in honest I have just a few announcements for us and then um we’ll have this opening song so we’ve got uh next Sabbath rectam who is myself I’ll be preaching next Sabbath so keep me in prayers and uh yeah I’m almost done with the sumon but do keep me in prayers that it will all go well next Sabbath also we’ve got the youth will be having an informal Sabbath morning so that will be from 11:30 a.m. and it will be at T’s Place um can see tando here but if you need more information you can contact Jima or Marvin or even tando himself and you’ll be given the extra details that you might need um so this is uh uh just for the morning until maybe lunchtime or so but in at 400 p.m. they’ll come back here for an afternoon service which will be in the in the hall there so keep that in mind um I understand you do need to let jamaa or Marin know that you’ll be attending this afternoon service so please do let them know so that they can know how many people they’re expecting if you don’t have their numbers just see me and I’ll make sure you have the contact details that you need just also to mention that we’ve got we’ve been testing out the CCTV system um and it’s now working we finished all the tests and just to let you know that this will be a 24/7 operation and it’s to help to keep the church safe and secure but most importantly as well to help help keep the church family safe so if there’s any issues we can then review those um to make sure that we are limiting the access we only have Pastor Nel who have remote access and all the records will only be reviewed if there’s any issue that is raised so there’s uh it’s not going to any public server or anything like that it’s all private information it’s not going out to the public so want to let you know of that and I think I’ve got one more announcement yes we’ve got the transfer of membership of our sister Magdalene I was hoping I could see her here so that I can embarrass her and tell her to stand up but we all know Sister Magdalene as she has decided to join our membership here at dandi church and she’ll be coming to us from the Medina East Church in Ghana this is the first reading next week we’ll have the second reading as well as the vote so I hope we’ll make Magdalene feel very well welcome I didn’t put in the announcement that we have potl today but I’m sure you the food will smell nicely and it will welcome you itself all right so at this moment we have our opening song [Music] great is th fa of God my father there is not sh of with the ches not [Music] the they fell not has been the forever will be great is thy faithfulness is th faithful [Music] Mery all our Earth in our hands are Great Is Thy Faithfulness to me win and spring time andest some good in all nature might for witness to the great faithfulness mercy and love bre is is morning Mery I all I have Pro great is th Lord me for SE and [Music] the I give to sh to God streng for today and bread H for tomorrow blesss my with [Music] 10,000 Great Is Thy Faithfulness Great Is Thy Faithfulness burning burning Mercy I see oh hands provided great exed for Lord to me please be seated our scripture reading for uh our service today is taken from the book of Acts Acts chapter 4 and I will be reading from the new King James version uh vers 32 all the way to verse 37 Acts chapter 4 and from verse 3 2 to verse 37 so we’re in the New Testament and U this is the word of God now the multitudes of those who believed were of one heart and one Soul neither did any say that any of the things he possessed was his own but they had all things in common with great power the Apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and great grace was upon all of them nor was there anyone among them who liked for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and lay them at the apostles feet and they distributed to each as anyone had need and Joseph who was also named Barnabas by the apostles which is translated son of encouragement a levite of the country of Cyprus having land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet may God bless the reading meditating and doing his good word amen we have a very unique uh setting today in that uh we have three babies being dedicated how many did I say three babies being dedicated well one small infant uh baby Katherine and two adult babies uh they are in a sense um well in one sense continuing uh their Walk With Jesus but also taking baby steps in uh membership to the 7th Day Adventist Church through profession of Faith uh for uh um Vicki and uh for Stewart but really there’s many of us today who are dedicating and rededicating their lives as it should be every Sabbath um it’s a daily experience the saddest experience I guess is when we forget the daily experience and uh church just becomes an occasion like okay there’s potluck yeah yeah let’s go to church uh maybe I need to catch up on the latest gossip about so and so and so and so usually the pastor is always one of them let’s go to church you know today we can Feast on gossiping about uh the pastor it’s sad when that’s your reason for coming to church very sad um whenever we reduce worship to just the potlock or to all these other things uh you know to dressing up or showing off all our knowledge and how much better Adventists we are you know our version of adventism is the one that’s Supreme whenever we do that we miss the gist of what Jesus said in his word at least in Matthew 18 so turn with me to Matthew 18 as as I read verses 1 to to 5 so as I do this I will underline one or two things uh there before we dedicate Katherine and then after that we accept um the mil family uh by profession of Faith Matthew 18: 1 to5 at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven then Jesus called uh little child to him in the midst of them and said assuredly I say unto you unless you are converted and become as a little as Little Children You Will by no means enter the kingdom of God therefore whoever humbles himself as this legal child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me God bless the reading of his word it’s lovely to have those who are visiting with us and uh those who are supporting uh both the mil family and also supporting lella in the dedication of uh uh Katherine so here it is the greatest person in God’s Kingdom I’m sure you know we need to uh recognize the role that uh those who play the piano uh contribute to our worship surely they must be among the greatest thank you Naomi for the work you do I’m sure those who deal with treasury are amongst the greatest aren’t they if our funds were not well looked after there would be a big problem how about the deacons oh maybe the deaconesses how about our long-standing members H how do we find who’s the greatest in the Kingdom those who service lunch they determine whether you get one dumpling or two or you have a full serving or just half for your sins surely those who return a faithful tithe and offering are the greatest in the church the list goes on of potential people who could be seen as the greatest but what does the Bible say about who’s the greatest well Matthew 18 as we have read um the greatest person in God’s kingdom is the person who is most dependent the greatest person in this passage is the person who is most dependent one who like a child is always crying out Mom Dad expressing their dependency some months ago I get a call it’s a familiar number she’s about over 100 miles uh from where I am and as I pick up the call guess what time this is around 3:15 a.m. as a minister you you know those calls are quite familiar but this one is unique because on the other side it’s Dad Dad there’s something on the floor in my room I I won’t tell you what it was but just that moment you know uh of dependency it’s just a lovely moment when you realize that your daughter loves to um Express that she is dependent in many ways on you well God is saying this is the same thing I am hoping you will do my children being dependent always needing help screaming out loud that we are not sufficient that childlike need for help makes us the greatest whenever we exercise it so don’t stop crying out uh for help Vicki don’t as you have been doing together with Stewart in your journey crying out God please help us don’t stop crying out lella asking God to fully help you in your journey in your experiences all the losses that you have suffered and uh yet God in his grace and mercy has blessed you with little Catherine my prayer is God will continue to be your the person you will call whether it’s after 3:00 a.m. in the middle of the night that you will always be appealing to him uh to be your rock and to be your help in each and every day and for us as members as we look on May we all be fully dependent on God whatever time of date may be and may God receive the honor and glory and he calls you when you exercise that he says you are the greatest in the kingdom and so may God help us uh with that at this point I’ll invite uh lella and all the friends who are here to support her to come forward as we have the special prayer of uh dedication for Katherine so friends please don’t hesitate to come forward and I’m sure some would want to uh take photos please join us up front it’s lovely to see Shauna I’ve spoken to Shauna before but this the first time we get to meet uh this is Arthur’s daughter and Arthur is caringly and kindly accommodating uh lella he’s been very kind to her and uh also to Katherine so do come forward guys um is anybody joining them okay Joy is already here uh don’t hesitate don’t hold back uh to join dear friends at this uh point so the question is okay uh this pull pit is yours no no fears no fears no fears yeah isn’t she looking lovely look at those photos she has those piercing eyes doesn’t she yeah they just say hi my name is name is Catherine I’m [Music] here lovely okay so lella uh do you promise to do all you can to raise Katherine according to God’s word good good good and Katherine is looking on it’s as if she’s hearing everything and just saying I’m ignoring you Pastor I’m not looking your way and the question is to the church as well does the church agree to support lella as much as uh they can in raising Katherine okay so lella today as you dedicate Katherine uh and you accept the responsibility of dedicating yourself to the ideals of parenting to the ideals of God’s word and what it says we pray that God will bless your journey and uh the work that you are supporting Katherine in as uh your daughter you are today confessing that you are a steward you are looking after Catherine and Katherine belongs to God and God wants Katherine to be the greatest to be raised as the greatest because she is fully dependent on God so we all join in in dedicating Katherine and pledge to assist you in working towards the day when this act of dedication shall be followed by baptism as she grows and makes her own decisions and uh the honor and Glory will be to God as she is accepted and become a member of uh The Remnant Church of God and so we are so delighted at this point to invite uh the uh ordained Elders who are amongst us uh to join me up front and I’ll actually ask you to stay up front as we follow on to the next part of the program with profession of Faith so ordained Elders if you can please do join me up front as we have this time of our prayer for uh Katherine so those of us who are able to kneel up front here will do so uh but um it doesn’t need to be that for everybody else you can uh remain uh standing thank you she came she stayed and she was quiet let us see if there’s any intimidating faces in the church okay those who are able to we going to be dear heavenly father we thank you for this lovely day and thank you Lord for the life of Katherine and we thank you for lella her mom and her journey in life and thank you that we can come to this part of the journey our heart’s desire is for you father and we thank you for granting us a Sabbath where we can reflect on your grace and on your mercy thank you for watching over us during the week we have had different experiences some of us have been riding on a crest of uh successful waves of uh great news and yet some of us have been pattered by many waves in the week but now we come on this level ground to acknowledge that you are God you are a loving God and uh that you have plans for us not to fail but to prosper we come because you’ve invited us into your house a house of prayer and you have made it clear Lord that uh you have not given us a spirit of fear but of power love and a sound mind we want to come with a sound mind sanitize our minds forgive us our sins cleanse us of all unrighteousness accept us before your throne of grace and mercy and now we want to dedicate this little girl Catherine thank you Lord for the day of her birth and thank you for your love for her which surpasses all understanding and I pray father that you will bless Catherine she will grow in wisdom and St and be in favor with you oh God and with all men as we dedicate her we ask for your blessing to be upon all the days of her life and we ask father that your blessing will be upon all who will be a blessing to her and father whatever scheme against her that is set we rebuke it in Jesus name and we ask that the blood of Christ will be her strength and it will guide her and uphold her in all manner of good and you will save her into your kingdom bless all of us who come to witness and uh all who support and love and we ask for your blessing on each and every person in their unique way which they are supporting and my prayer father is that you will bless us into all that is here in this service today and all that will take place in Jesus name amen was impressive well I don’t know if it’s a Catherine who is impressive or it’s my arms there have many who cried in these arms so well done to you Katherine God bless you so we have uh some gifts for uh Katherine’s dedication and uh we have our customary letter as well uh that uh we give to uh children when they are dedicated and we pray that God will continue to watch over uh them so um Togo our children’s ministries leader if you can just have the honor of doing that for us please well how about we just uh take some photos uh with Katherine and um we know there’s uh a lot of uh photographers or the paparazzi who all want to join us um and we invite the the elders please uh draw close and uh after that let’s all give an Embrace to this little girl okay for well um thank you for that and at this point we invite Vicki and Stuart to come forward as we have the the profession of Faith uh that they will be doing before us all yeah Vick is like no I don’t do these public things you know but we want to remind Vicki and Stewart of that special day when uh they got baptized by immersion at the Easter Sunday on that Easter Sunday the 8th of April 2012 uh at Destiny Church uh in erenor and they were baptized by immersion and so as a church we accept an on profession of faith and I’ve had the privilege of studying with these guys uh they are so eager for God’s word for the process of learning and unlearning for over a year we have been studying uh together and they are studious and genuinely keen on growing uh in God’s um presence and amongst our studies we’ve also uh gone through the 13 vows of the 7 Day Adventist Church however uh for us uh this uh afternoon we will just look at um the three vows the alternative for our service today and uh this is uh how it uh reads I will invite um Rector to just read each one of them and we’ll see if these guys agree to uh each of them um that are going to be read that’s uh okay so the first one is do you accept Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord and you desire to live your life in a serving relationship with him yes they said yes so that next one is do you accept the teachings of the Bible as expressed in the statement of fundamental beliefs of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and you pledge by God’s grace to live your life in harmony with these teachings amen do you desire to be baptized or in this case professional Faith but yeah do you desire to be baptized as a public expression of your belief in Jesus Christ to be accepted into the Fellowship of the Seventh Adventist Church and support the church and its Mission as a faithful Steward by your personal influence tithes and offerings and a life of service amen okay so thank you uh for that so upon your vows and your profession of Faith uh does anyone move to accept Vicki and Stewart uh into Fellowship here at dandi church okay it’s been moved or any who second that all in favor look at those hands any opposed we need to ask I dare you not for such this lovely couple well thank you it’s carried we want to accept you into membership of the 7th Day Adventist Church here in dandi and it’s a global Church may God bless your journey as you grow in him and as you always depend on him for your sustenance cry out for help all the time to him and we pray he will send those who will be a blessing uh to you and so we will have a special prayer at this point after which uh we will extend the right hand of our fellowship with uh those uh who are here uh up front and we have some uh gifts for you as well let us pray let’s pray father we are so glad to have Vicki and Stewart we thank you for the day when they were searching and they were talking to different people in the congregation and they came here and uh they stayed we thank you for that father thank you for your holy spirit’s guidance on them for their eagerness to accept you and your word and to accept the lifestyle changes that are necessary for them to keep healthy to accept father a passion for uh your word and applying it in their day-to-day lives where they are we thank you for that Journey father and I pray that they will always depend on you and now father we invite that in a special way they will receive the holy spirit in their lives for this new phase of their walk and They will receive it in Jesus name may you be upon them Father may you be their guide their Navigator and may they block into you fully depending on you for their sustenance and I pray father that as they receive the holy spirit in the dose that you know they need for their this part of their Journey they will be humble enough father to acknowledge you uh continually in the rest of their Journey and Lord when all is said and done may they be saved into your kingdom together with us as we look on father I pray that you will rece remove anything that is against your spirit help us to be teachable to enjoy the journey of learning and unlearning even in our service today we ask all this in Jesus name amen what we will all get the opportunity to we’ll all get the opportunity to embrace them immediately after the service so please stay put we’ll have some photos Pastor Neil oh Pastor Neil please Papa Razzi first St we love to create these memories so we thank God for his leading and um let’s enjoy the rest of the service amen before we collect our tithes and offerings I’ll be reading from The Book of Mark uh chap 12: 41-44 it says and Jesus sat over against the treasury and behold how the people cast money into the treasury and many that were Rich cast in much and there came a certain poor Widow and she throw in two mites which make a farting and he called unto him his disciples and said unto them verily I say unto you that this poor Widow had cast much more than all they which have cast into the treasury for all they did cast and of their abundance but she of her want did cast in that all she had even all all her living May we request our young deacons to gather our tithes and offerings [Music] for [Music] let’s pray our heavenly father we are thankful for your goodness for sustaining us and for providing our needs continue to bless us that we will be a Channel of blessings to others bless also the tithes and offerings and also the projects and the ministry where it will be used we thank you for everything for Jesus name amen and girls it’s time for children’s story good morning guys oh really should be oh yeah it’s still morning actually at least for another minute okay so around March and April and maybe a bit of May uh is the carving and lamming season what does that mean anybody know carving and lamming boys and girls what’s cing and Ling sorry they shaving them okay not quite but it’s also a special time uh in their life cycle cing laming what you see in many farms these days you see animals okay okay but special animals uh the pigs okay um okay special more special fluffy jump juming up and [Music] down Sheep No No but they are the the the young one of a sheep did you say lamb well done yay so that’s lamming okay and then cing will be for the the cows okay all right yeah okay so so um uh anyone ever been to a farm to see the cing or laming have you ever seen the Lambs coming out of their mommy’s belly anyone oh okay okay some of the faces are like don’t go there don’t go there okay okay well a story is told about a couple who had one cow how many cows did they have just the one cow they loved it they gave the cow a name what name shall we give the cow yes da okay um uh do you want to get permission from Auntie Daisy to call this C Daisy okay I think uh let’s look for okay do you all all you guys agree with that name uh do you have another name hey not I’m talking to the children by the way uh do you have another name interrupting cow moo cow oh interrup interrupting cow final answer okay well it looks like it’s the majority so they called this one interrupting cow God have mercy on your children you parents the cow used to join other cows uh so the couple were always checking if it’s pregnant they were praying that God would bless them with more cows and you know cows can be a great bank account because they get their cows and then they can grow in numbers and they’ll be plenty of cows and there’ll be a lot of money they can help Okay so finally guess what happened well interrupting cow got pregnant it was interrupted okay and anyway it got pregnant and finally it gave birth to two baby cves okay oh they were so happy there was a red one and then there was a brown one and the man and the his wife were so happy that they had a baby little cow they had a cow running here and running there and uh so the husband went home and said to his wife God has blessed us with two cows so let’s give one to the Lord oh that was nice wasn’t it uh which one the red one or the brown one the wife asked no that doesn’t matter the husband said I will decide soon so interrupting cow looked after the her Cal and um the farmer did his beat and they all worked well and then the red one and the brown one were growing very well then one day the farmer came home very very sad and said the Lord’s cough has died the Lord’s cough has died so his wife says so which one was the Lord’s cough the wife asked well I always knew the red one was the Lord’s one and uh I always knew it was you know um the special one and then he cried a bit and then he said that one is died the red one it’s the Lord’s one that’s di well um do you think that was nice you’re not sure what a sad story because suddenly the one that died Belongs to the Lord do you know boys and girls when you have two one pound coins and you decide I will spend this one and buy whatever I want but the other one I will use it uh and give it to the Lord give it as offering and then one of them gets lost usually the one that’s lost is the one that belongs to the Lord for other people but not for you guys right yeah yeah you may have three pounds then okay that’s a good one so it says um or rather as we close the story I think it’s not going to be the same for you guys if you have two and you give one to the Lord and if you lose one I think it’s always best to honor God and um see how things are with you and God in your heart and if things are okay usually we will honor God so um if we really love the Lord and we realize that he owns everything we are just looking after what he belongs to him I think we will always want to uh exercise our faith and give to the Lord what belongs to the Lord then we will always want to to put God first and we want to be faithful to him and to be honest and I pray that you guys will grow to be honest in everything you do is that okay good all right let’s pray Lord please help all of us to be honest and help these guys as they grow to be honest and loving to you and uh to exercise that honesty and love in everything they say and in everything they do even when it comes to money this is our prayer in Jesus name amen amen God bless you have a lovely Sabbath we will now have our congregational song So praise team I brother of Jesus that penate this world of us today shall we all stand [Music] please be the prees told I Jesus our be by his to be the king the be he in [Music] s all God Jesus [Music] there this [Music] today have Jesus and [Music] I be [Music] to Jesus F I’ll True To His holy name that to be the king be [Music] in God Jesus this world today [Music] his as BL is sweet than money from he my Hing Spirit our right Jesus and let him to be the king of the are behing [Music] s Jesus [Music] this [Music] world thank you guys Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship it moved to Greece and became a philosophy it moved to Italy and became an institution it moved to Europe and became a culture it came to America and became an Enterprise end of Sam pasco’s quote this quote was once uh read to students training to be Pastors in America context is the right loving relationship with Jesus and so was their lecturer Dr David who read that quote some of them were as young as 18 and 19 years old uh so the lecturer felt he needed to clarify the last line it came to America and became an Enterprise so he added an Enterprise that’s a business that’s a business after a few moments uh Martha the youngest student in the class raised a hand yes Martha Dr David said Martha asked a simple question a business but isn’t it supposed to be a body isn’t it supposed to be a body Dr David was now wondering where maa’s line of uh questioning was going and he simply said yes uh MAA yes yes but she continued but when a body becomes a business isn’t that a prostitute when a body becomes a business isn’t that a prostitute the lecture room went dead silence that question changed Dr David’s life when a body becomes a business isn’t that a prostitute how can we members of the church children of God how can we keep the church a body of Believers and not a business how can we do that it’s a daring question but I hope it gets us thinking in all ways possible reflecting in all ways possible cuz indeed this should be the body of Christ and not a business I believe it’s lovely to be clear on teachings from the Bible and to be able to share those teachings with no reservation with no apology because they are teaching from God’s word and so we’re going to one of those ones today because I believe that the answer is grounded in good stewardship good stewardship so I’d like us to consider three lessons from our passage uh Acts chapter 4 lessons that help us to learn how we can keep the church and its finances as a body of Believers and not a business how do do we each contribute towards that well the first thing that I would uh encourage us to look at uh In this passage is how they gave ungrudgingly give ungrudgingly that’s the first point that’s what we read about the early church they sell their houses and give their money to the apostles and the Bible says they laid the money at the the feet of the Apostles they didn’t throw it down grudgingly there you go you greedy Apostles they didn’t throw it at the feet of the Apostles they laid it it’s a heavy word laid calls for all the caution for all the weight and for all the consideration the kneeling the Bowing that is associated with laying they laid the money at the feet of the Apostles just watch what I will do if our house sells I’ll just buy another one but these guys had come to a special and unique time in uh their livelihood and uh in progression of uh the gospel and this is what they did they didn’t do any such things as we would naturally do as Believers whenever we give anything from our means grudgingly or reluctantly or or unwillingly even when we give our time and our talent you know grudgingly imagine Naomi just a let’s play this piece and get over and done with no she was very gracious wasn’t she imagine coming up front here and you’re singing or whatever you are doing but you’re doing it uh grudgingly when we give off our time our talent our skills grudgingly I believe we most likely prostitute the body of Christ think about me how we could be prostituting the body of Christ after bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt God said to them let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them Exodus 25:8 how do you build the Tabernacle in the wilderness how what do you use for building the Tabernacle well God commands Moses to collect an offering in Exodus 35: 4 and 5 he says collect an offering hello we’re in the wilderness but God is asking for an offering as they left Egypt God commanded them to ask from their neighbors silver and gold we find that in Exodus 11 the first three vers verses God says you know go and ask from them and they gave them kindly so God made the Egyptians heart Tender by the time we get to verse 35 and 36 Israel Israelites did as God had told them and they gave the silver and the gold and so when God said help build a sanctuary let them build me a sanctuary he knew there was enough that he had given the children and he had given them freely so we find in Exodus 36:6 Moses had to shout stop stop stop giving cuz the offerings were enough it was how God wanted things to be then and how he continues to want things to be it has always been like that God doesn’t want us to give grudgingly because he gave us without a grudge to start with he had given them abundantly when they left and he’s asking for them to uh come contribute or give an offering abundantly Paul will capture this in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and in verse 7 he says each one of you must give as he purposes in his heart as he purposes in his heart and then the next phrase not grudgingly or of necessity for God loves a cheerful Giver God loves a cheerful Giver while the early Church in uh acts was a huge success story the first major problem that they faced uh the members uh they faced uh in this early church the first time that we sense there’s trouble within the early church the first time self-interest raises its ugly head the first time we realize that church isn’t perfect in the book of Acts the first time all that happens the first time they get a problem that leads to severe fatal judgment had to do with the begrudging ananas and Safa in Acts chapter 5 the very next story after our passage that we are looking at this was in the early church the most United Church this was the church upon which God’s spirit had been visibly poured out in Acts chap 4:31 just a few verses before what more of you and me if it happened that way in the early church what more of you and me ananas and Safara had made a pledge to give to the Lord the proces from the sale of the certain property they witnessed Acts chapter 4 and how the Holy Spirit had moved but they gave with a begrudging heart that polluted and prostituted the body of Christ the church and God demonstrated a lifelong lesson see Ellen White will say this true service begins with ungrudging giving of what God gives you true service begin is that way so how can we keep the church a body of Christ a body of Believers and not a business Point number one give ungrudgingly and ask God to help you as you do so give ungrudgingly it’s a Biblical principle and so we waiver not at biblical principles Point number two and we are upfront about them at least we are today two years and first sermon on stewardship sorry Pastor Neil but it’s such an important uh lesson from God’s word so Point number two separate wants and needs this is an area where the enemy likes to confuse us for example uh food water and shelter are basic human needs we agreed those are basic human needs ones are things that we would like to have or desire you know a bicycle or a mobile phone are meant to be examples of on but I’m not sure some people will agree about the mobile phone it seems to be moving from a want to a need in many ways especially uh for those uh younger ones amongst us now if you’re buying healthy foods just to inspire you to lose weight and you’re not eating them until it goes bad in the fridge or cupboard then they a bit of a problem there a problem between needs and wants note in the Bible it says there was no need there were no wants not wants it’s saying no needs doesn’t refer to Once in that passage in that scripture we are looking at any generosity and compassion was always done to meet need and not greed in the church I admit that the word need and and greed have two EAS in common but that’s just about it there’s nothing more they have in common nothing more needs are not to be confused with Greed for individuals and the church the Holy Spirit guided the early church to A system that meets needs and we find it throughout the Bible guidance to A system that meets needs Paul says honor or help a widow who is a Widow indeed that’s in 1 Timothy 5:3 is clearly saying the needs and wants must be clearly discerned and separated put needs in their place put wants in their place in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3: 10 to2 Paul will say if someone doesn’t work or they despise manual labor this is what that passage is really talking about if if they manual labor they shouldn’t eat it says immediately his graduating work to a need not a want men should provide for their household he says in 1 Timothy 5:8 providing is a need not a want we’ve gone through scripture we are seeing this pattern of things you see the enemy’s argument against God is that Hew his laws cannot be kept and so we cannot meet their goal which is the goal of the laws the law of God is a loving Community you know the Ten Commandments summarize that the goal is to have love for God first four Commandments and love for fellow man your neighbor as yourself create a community of love that’s what uh uh those Ten Commandments summ in in summary uh want and we find Jesus uh uh answering the lawyer in the New Testament when the question question is asked which is the greatest commandment love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself summarizing the first four and the last six uh Commandments in uh the Bible so the enemy’s uh argument against God is that they cannot be kept impossible the devil says but when the Holy Spirit was upon the early church the spirit enabled them to be loving community that God always wanted they demonstrated that it is possible to have loving Community where there was no one in need there was no one in need just as God has commanded but where did he command that well turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 15 and let’s look at verse 4 Deuteronomy 15:4 but put one finger in Acts 4:34 so keep a finger there and then turn to Deuteronomy 15:14 you see when you read Deuteronomy 15:14 there’s a certain line we want to go to and you read acts 4:34 in the Old Testament Greek okay so read Deuteronomy in Old Testament Greek and then compare to the New Testament Greek uh uh so the Old Testament Greek being the seant um the only difference between these two lines or these two verses is the verbal tense from future to past tense in Deuteronomy it says there shall be Future No poor among you plural that verse was fulfilled in Acts 4:34 when the Bible says they were no poor among them present continuous one was future one was present and continuing one of the things the early church started off with was locating the difference between wants and needs God established a system that generated enough to meet needs not wants he had predicted this is how I would love my community to be where there were no poor among them there were none who were in need among them and we find it fulfilled in Acts chapter 4 god-given spirit-driven wisdom distinguishes between ones and needs you cannot lie against the Holy Spirit to pretend Oh no you’re making a a want and need a need a want uhuh this is the mistake that anania and saf made in chapter 5 they tried because their judgment said do not lie against the holy spirit because they could not differentiate between those two the body of Christ the church is intentional about worshippers faith faithfully and intentionally returning a faithful tithe and offering it’s another god-given system to ensure that needs and not ons are met and we find it in the word of God each of us are scripturally said to be intentional about returning a faithful tithe and Free Will offering tithe being a tenth of your earning or increase each of us are called to be faithful in that don’t let the decision to return a faithful tithe and offering drift by undecidedly because you may end up saying it’s the Lord’s cough that has died cuz you’re not intentional about declaring making it clear BL your tithing and your offering it’s actually scriptural 1 Corinthians chapter 16 it says in verse two on the first day of the week they were planning their offerings there were one step ahead of the enemy who Majors on surprises it pounces on you when you’ve set aside something that you want to honor God with a faithful tithe of offering he pounces on us plan your faithful returning to God you are never returning to men but to God through men of course in our church here in dandi we even have direct debit as you saw flash on the screen during offering you can plan it Pastor Neil has shared this before we can plan how we can have stop orders and uh things like that what does the saying how does the saying go bread always falls on the buttered side am I the only one on that one bread always falls on the buttered side be intentional about God’s system that helps us separate wants and needs if you’re not you’re bound to have the bread falling on the buted side it’s not a coincidence in the gospels an amazing one out of 10 verses it’s actually a tithe isn’t it one out of 10 one out of 10 verses or 288 in all 288 verses deal directly with the subject of money there’s over 2,000 verses on money and possessions because as Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:10 it says For the Love of Money is the root of all kinds of evil actually the verse doesn’t end there it continues to say and some people by longing for money have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many Sorrows for their Love of Money now if you’re piercing yourself with many Sorrows we do need to encourage each other not to do that when we can share such messages and boldly as we need to the Love of Money confuses wants and needs that’s what the love of money does it’s always the Lord’s cough that dies with the Love of Money may God Deliver Us from that the last Point insist on the church as a body of Christ insist on the church as a body of Christ we need to insist on compassion on tenderness like-mindedness and humility for the body of Christ look at verse 35 and verse 37 it uses an interesting phrase that we find there it says they laid it at the apostles what feet they laid it at the apostles feet so our passage starts with Believers described as having one heart and one mind can you see my heart no really like the physical one at least you cannot see my mind can you we start with those things that we cannot see but they are parts of the body the heart and uh the mind so we start with the Believers described as having one heart and one mind it ends with the money being placed at the feet of the the apostles the disciples can you see my feet well like if uh yeah I extended them you would we are moving away from The Unseen to the seen in this short passage money is placed at the feet of the Apostles I love the use of those different parts of the body a living and thriving body but whenever there’s such a United and loving Spirit you can expect the enemy to invade where there’s a loving spirit and people are one in mind and in body uh in heart and in mind and uh there are following the biblical injunction you can expect the enemy is not going to be happy he is going to go all over the place if we want to go with him what does it mean to say they laid it at the apostles feet you see food was always given to someone in the Middle Eastern culture uh it was uh given to someone in their hand but money was wrapped and placed at the feet money was wrapped and placed at the feet in many of the uh Middle Eastern cultures children were even taught that there’s record about that it’s also a humble admission when we read further of God’s Authority in the hierarchy of the church because 1 Corinthians 15:27 will say for he has put everything under his feet because God is the final Authority he’s all in all by so doing the people acted in keeping with good character money was only a servant money was not their God it was an outpouring of loving Christ centered Resurrection based unity and when we tithe and return offering or return tithe and give a free will offering when we help meet genuine needs we not only practice or participate in a needs-based system but a system of Christ centered compassion that puts money in its rightful place at the feet that’s where it belongs it is not our God it is a servant your pound is a servant you are not serving it it is serving you tithing and offering to God’s Church which is the storehouse there’s many competing storehouses out there but the word of God will say the church which is the storehouse become spiritual indicators of unseen hearts and Minds we see the feet of a tither we do not see their heart and their mind but they’re exercising and we can see it’s a spiritual indicator of unseen hearts and Minds in their active participation and financial spiritual giving uh becomes a reliable indicator of where one’s heart is where are your affections where are they placed it tells us a lot about any Heart to Heart unity and relationship one with Jesus the Bible says in Matthew 6: 21 for wherever your treasure is wherever your treasure is there your heart will be always so so let me thank the faithfulness of those who return a faithful tithe in dundi but also challenge those who may not see it as a spiritual indicator who may see it as returning to the pastor in our church we open we have a a worldwide exercise of uh the return of faithful tithe and giving in which the pastor is not involved and it spreads to the needs that are covering the whole wide world so let me thank the faithfulness and also challenge the lack of faithfulness as we look into ourselves the very act of giving expands our hearts as givers it takes a great deal of character to put money at the feet many Put It In The Head and the Heart and the mind so to speak but at the feet reminds us that it is worldly substance that’s subject to a higher authority to lay it at the feet one has to bow when we place money at the feet we accept right there that we are a worldwide church we operate a tithing and offering system uh that like a living body is made of various connected parts that depend on each other to form a unified whole we bow to the beautiful Adventist system that has over 21 million members and about 70 million people attending we bow to the god of the system that globally operates 7,782 schools colleges and universities in over 145 countries the largest Protestant Integrated Network of Hospitals and Clinics worldwide that that’s the church we will be acknowledging when we return a faithful tith and offering to see the active humanitarian Aid through the work of uh the Adventist development and relief agency Adra when we give we are acknowledging that aspect the fastest growing Protestant Church in many areas in the world that’s the church we are talking about the most Multicultural uh Church in many parts of the world just look at our cross-section here today very Multicultural a church a family that puts matters of money at the feet believes in a body of Christ it’s when we put it in the head or the heart that things start to go wrong when money bows to those God has chosen to oversee it we refuse the church the body of Christ to become a business and my prayer is that’s the spirit we will each adopt whenever we see the church as a mere means of advancing personal gain or personal influence and personal possession we prostitute the body of Believers and so give ungrudgingly separate between needs and wants and insist with all your influence on the church as a body of Christ and not a business to God’s honor and glory amen thank you Pastor en for sharing the word of God today uh may we request the praise team to lead our closing song I surrender all to stand as we take the closing 309 [Music] All to Jesus I surrender to him I fre G I will the love and Trust in in his presence I surr the I surrender to the my blessed savior I Surrender how to Jesus I Surrender loveely pleasures of forsing Take Me Jesus take me down I Surrender I surrender all to the my your heart surrender all to Jesus I Surrender make me Savor holy fill me with thy love and power Tru know that thou I Surrender I surrender all today my savior I [Applause] surrender all to Jesus surrender I feel the sa flame oh the joy of full salvation glor glory to his name I Surrender I Surrender all today myor surrender let us pray father we pause to reflect on this topic of uh stewardship values I realize father it is uh can be a difficult and uncomfortable conversation but because it is premised in your word and it is a a teaching that we hold high and we can see its beauty when we can give ungrudgingly and when we can separate needs from wants and being a good network of our but recognizing and acknowledging the beautiful system of uh giving that spreads to all over the world and becomes a blessing to all colleagues but above all pushing your work to go forward father we pray that um you would forgive us if we have misrepresented this topic in each of Our Lives and as a church if we have reduced the body of Christ to but uh a place of self-interest and advancing personal ambition please forgive and cleanse Us in Jesus name help us father draw us out of anything that’s unlike you and as you do so father we are the first and we would like to be the first to raise our hands and uh live out those stewardship values in a practical way in our tithing in our offering in all the thoughts we have about money and putting it in its rightful place so help us oh God and help us to exercise that in the coming weekend in our lives always and may the little children grow to know and acknowledge and love it too and we thank you for doing this through the name of Jesus Christ Our Savior amen we have that confidence that God is going to take care of us as we join in another week and he’s going to bring us back safely again to worship at his feet next Sabbath in church e99 God will take care of you before we take the departy song We would like to quickly pray on the food Lord we thank you Lord because you’ve prepared something to nourish our physical body thank you most especially because you’ve already nourished our spirit with your word and we bless bless this food in the name of the father of the son and of the holy spirit [Music] amen God will take care of you his wng of love God will take care of you of you will take care of every to every day all the way he will take care of you God will take care of you two days of God will take care of you when they just the God Will Take Care to care to God will to every day to every all the way all the way he will take care of you God will take care of you are you many will provide God Will Take Care you as God will take care of you care of you God Will Take Care to every day to every all the way all the way he will take care of you God will take care of you no matter what may be T God will take care of you we reward upon his PR God Will Take Care you take care of you take care every day to every day way he will take care of you God will take of you