Today's sermon by Rev Christopher Rao is on giving: pledging and tithing. God expects us to give cheerfully, it is our duty and our declaration of who our God is. One very important question is this: do we freely praise and worship and yet do not give freely in tithes, in offering and to the needy? Since God has done so much for us, do we not respond in our giving?
One very interesting observation is when the Old Testament talks about giving, it talks about the giving of one tenth and the giving as first fruits. If you think one tenth is a lot, take a look what Jesus says in the New Testament: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Matt 19:21).
We need to be faithful to the Lord and give to him and to the poor. We need to give regularly and cheerfully. We need to proclaim and declare whom we serve through our giving. We need to give him what is his in the first place, which he has so freely given us.
I did begin to think why the need to give him back what he gives to us in the first place. He might as well give us the 90% and keep the 10%. I suppose if that is the case, we will not be able to show where we put our allegiance. Being human, we are almost always allured by wealth and materialism. Hence, God still gives the 100% and leave it to us to proof where our allegiance lie.
pearlie
Picture by Jaclyn Twidwell
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