Brian's Sermons

Malachi 3:8-10: “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.  Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it . Over the past two weeks, we have been looking at the biblical foundation for giving. We acknowledge first that Psalm 24:1: The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it . Remember that God has given us dominion over it all — the command in Genesis was for humanity to work the land and rule over it. Last week we looked at John Wesley’s rules On the Use of Money: gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can. Today ...

The foundation of our discussion on stewardship can be found in Psalm 24:1-2. The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Remember that this means we are not the owners. God owns it — everything, and He has given it to us to have dominion over, to use for His Kingdom and for His glory.   Last week we looked at the parable of the talents, where a Master gave three servants his money. He gave them responsibility over the money, and when he returned, he made them accountable for what they had done with the money. So too, God has given us abilities, opportunities, and possessions, and because they are God’s, then we have responsibility for how we use them. How we steward everything. So, what can we do in order that we, too, may hear the words of the Master: Well done, my good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”   ...

Matthew 25:14-30 We are in the middle of Charge Conference season here in Lusaka. Sometimes it seems like the work we do in Charge Conference is pointless. We read reports and then we fight about them. We argue various points, sometimes completely off-topic. One thing we have seen in the first two Charge Conferences has been that the financial reports from all our churches have been poor, to say the least. We have voted to not accept them and to require a re-write. But that brings up a good point. Why do we spend so much time talking about money? Shouldn’t we spend our time and energy on evangelism?   Here in Zambia, we know that money is important. There’s a place near my home called Mountain of God, and I go there sometimes. I’ve found prayer requests, written and folded up. Most of the requests deal with money — God’s provision, getting a job, school fees, and so on. We all know that money is important. And, more appropriately, Jesus thinks it is important....