Dr. Mensah Otabil - Tithes, Offerings and First Fruits [ Biazo 2018 ]

[Music] so I'm going to talk on the subject tights offerings and fresh fruits tights offerings and fresh fruits and I'm going to proceed systematically and so don't get flustered part of it is going to be a bit technical but you will understand them when we are through I think one of the things that has happened to the church of late is we people go to church and do things that they see others do but they don't do it because of understanding there are people who tithe because the church asked them to tithe but the Bible says that everything we do without faith is a sin and how do we have faith faith comes by hearing the Word of God our actions should not just be because our church tells us to do something but because the Word of God has come and there is clarity on what to do so that our actions are a result of faith and it is only when we act in faith that we get a results that God has promised us in his word so we'll explore the biblical basis for giving we'll look at how God responds to our offerings we'll also look at how the instructions of the Bible apply to us today we would look at the principles of giving as they get mentioned in the Bible and we'll look at what Jesus himself taught on the subject and what the early church practice on the subject of tithes of offerings and offers fruits I'm going to start with the first record of giving or offering or sacrifice in the Bible and it starts from Genesis chapter 4 verses one to five Genesis chapter 4 verses one to five Genesis for your information is a first book of the Bible and I like starting from Genesis because that is where everything starts from it is where you see the first principles laid out in the Bible almost every doctrine in the Bible starts from the book of Genesis and is expanded throughout the rest of scripture so it's always good to get to the roots of it from the book of Genesis so Genesis chapter 4 verses 1 to 5 now I'm reading now now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain and said I have acquired a man from the Lord then she bought again this time his brother Abel and now Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground and in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat and the Lord respected Abel and his offering but he did not respect Cain and his offering and Cain was very angry and his countenance fell now if you read further you would realize that Cain ended up killing Abel as a result of how God responded to their offerings this passage we just read is the first time the word offering is introduced in the Bible is the first time is the first time an offering is made it's the first time man had given to God is the first time a sacrifice is being made and so this establishes what I call the first principles for offerings for sacrifice for tithing for every kind of giving this is the first mention this is the first principle and it's very important because when we confront something for the first time in the Bible it establishes the case study the original case study the first principles for it the reason this is important also is that Cain and Abel were the first born human beings the first born human beings Adam and Eve were not born they were created so in a sense we are not a reflection of Adam and Eve because we were born they were created from the dust of the earth and from the side of a man so Cain and Abel reflect us humanity because we were all born by a woman so this is the first human the first real human beings born human beings and their first actions isn't it interesting that the first actions are the first human born the human beings born is a sacrifice they could have been shown doing different things having fun eating or doing some other human activity but the first thing that we are introduced you as the first human activity of the first human beings born is sacrifice or giving or offering it tells you that sacrifice and giving and offering is at the base of every human activity without it the human society cannot progress the human society thrives on the principle of sacrifice sacrificing what you have now for something that is yet to come to you in the future now in the passage we read that they brought an offering offering the word offering in the hebrew is min ha min ha offering it is a word in hebrew that has several meanings and i'm going to give you three of the meanings of the word offering or min ha the first meaning is a gift a gift so when we say somebody has given an offering it means they have given a gift a gift is something that is giving willingly you are not forced nobody demands it from you when it's demanded from you it's not a gift when it's demand that is another gift so you can't tell somebody to give me a gift I know most of you do that but but if you demand it it's not a gift for a gift to to be a gift it has to be offered by the person who is given it without demand and without question when you demand it then it becomes payment once you are making a demand it's no longer gift it's a payment and that payment could be several things I can get into most of you having an African understanding know that there is something called pride but I'm not going to get into that so which most people call a gift once you demanded it's not a gift so mean ha first is a gift God did not demand Cain and Abel to give they did it by themselves the second meaning of the word mean ha is attribute attribute a print attribute is a payment owed to a higher authority so at one level it's a gift it's a free gift at another level is a tribute it's a payment in other words you or it and you must give it so first is a gift second is a tribute of the meaning of the word mean ha is a sacrifice a sacrifice is surrendering something of value surrendering something of value most of the time in order to get something back whenever you make a sacrifice you expect something back and I like what the lady who says she is not a politician but is running for political office I like his story very much and the story she told about her mother and the sacrifice her mother made for the six children now the mother promise was I'm going to give education to my children in the process I am making a sacrifice I may not buy as much clothes I may not buy as my shoes I may sell some jewelry I have when she made the sacrifice she expected something in return nobody makes a sacrifice in vain as sacrifice is always made with a return in mind all right so any time a person gives an offering it's either a gift it is a tribute it's a sacrifice that means that the person making it is expecting a reward out of the action that they are taking the reward of the lady's mother was that she has now a doctor a lawyer and an engineer and now a politician as a result of the mother's sacrifice so so she gave and she has received a doctor and a lawyer and an engineer and a politician and others in in retain so that is what a sacrifice is you make it you're gonna get something back all right so Cain and Abel made an offering and the Bible says they made an offering for kein of the fruit of the ground that means that something he has produced something that is an any something that was a reward now if you look at the offering that these two gentlemen gave the Bible says that in the process of time note that carefully in the process of time in other words they didn't just start working and then gave in the process of time and we are not to what time frame that we are talking about now if you consider that those guys were living for nine hundred years and and and things like that in the process of time could be a long time in the process of time in an in the time of Adam or in the timeframe of Adam and the first people who lived on on this earth could be a hundred years as a matter of fact in the days of Adam if you about three hundred years you were a teenager yeah because average age was about eight hundred years so by the time you are three hundred years you are now exploring the world by the time you hit five hundred years you are mid life seven hundred years now you you're growing do for retirement those guys were growing so when the Bible says in that context in the process of time don't see it as a one-year or two-year timeframe because of the time space or the time span of the lives of the people living at that time but the Bible says in the process of time they brought an offering to the Lord it doesn't give us specific date but it says in the process of time so I am not at liberty to fix a date but I think intelligently we can give some reasonable timeframe for the process of time it could be maybe fifteen years it could be twenty years it could be thirty years now why am I saying this because is important to the offering that they gave in the process of time they brought an offering to the Lord Cain brought of the fruit of the ground because he was an agricultural crop farmer so he brought up the fruit of the ground and and he made an offering to the Lord probably of fruits and grains and the Bible says that God did not respect Cain and his offering interesting God did not respect the giver and the gift so in God's mind the offering was an extension of the personality so when Cain was giving God was not looking at the crops he was looking at the passing he was using the gift to represent the passing and so when God now responds he first response to the passing before the gift and he says God did not regard Cain and his offering very important now why God did not regard Cain and the offering can be conjectured but the Bible says later on that he was an evil man so probably his attitude was wrong his heart was wrong when I was in Sunday school my Sunday school teacher as a kid says that Cain brought rotten tomatoes and rotten fruits and but I don't think the Bible didn't save Rotten Tomatoes I think he brought decent if they were Tomatoes they were decent tomatoes and decent corn and so on and so forth but something about it didn't meet God's standards something about it he did it but God didn't accept it so you get right from the beginning that it's possible to give an offering and God not accept it so just because you put something the offering basket does not mean you have satisfied God's standard there has to be something extra that you do that makes God looks at look at the offering and say I accept you and for Cain he didn't qualify now if we look at Abel's sacrifice and ever sacrifice is the first offering that is accepted by God so we must spend some time to study that offering the Bible says that he gave of the firstborn of his flock the firstborn of his flock and they are fat now when you look at Cain's offering there is no qualitative description of what he gave the Bible just says his brother fruit of the ground but this one there is quality being attached to their giving the firstborn and they are fat it is both a qualitative description and a quantitative description it describes the quality and the quantity of what he gave now why do I say it is the quality and the quantity because the passage says he gave the firstborn of his flock now when you read the Bible sometimes you have ideas already imprinted in your mind so many times when we read the firstborn of his flock we see him bringing one goat or one sheep but that's not what the passage said it said he brought the firstborn of his flock flock means the large number of animals so if he had been farming for 20 years or 30 years he brought the phrase born of the flock what does that mean now let's take for example that Abel was raring goats and raring cheap and rare in cattle that and probably even deer we don't know but let's just take these three goat sheep cattle and he's been working for 30 years before the offering takes place in the process of time let's just assume it's 30 years it means he starts his first animals the first goats they give birth to their firstborn and when they give birth to their first born he mucks the firstborn out and says that this firstborn is knocked out now that goat has a child and he max out the firstborn of the firstborn now if he does thirty years of that there will be probably about thirty minimum or most likely 60 generations of course now those sister generations are not linear because as they grow the generations also grow so if it's one to the generation just grow by the time you get to the thirtieth year that's a lot of goats and a lot of firstborns he goes to the sheep and he does the same he goes to the cattle and he does the same and so when he is bringing an offering he goes to 30 generations of fresh bones in the exponential growth level and collects all these generations of fresh bones and brings them to God so what he brings to God is no one she it's a lot of sacrifice that Abel brought to God quantity I will conjecture to say he brought probably about two to three thousand animals and then the passage says he brought them with their fat what does that mean at one level you can say that when he sacrificed he also burned the fat but it goes beyond that in other words what the passage is saying is when Cain when Abel is going through the generations looking for the firstborn if he comes to a generation where the firstborn is fat and the second born is thin he doesn't replace the second bone with a fat to say well it's a goat is a goat and it doesn't matter whether he's the firstborn or not he goes for the best where that is fresh born or not he doesn't differentiate and he doesn't replace and he doesn't try to cheat God are you following it so all these offerings he brings them all to God the firstborn of his flock and he sacrifices them to God thousands of animals burning on the altar and God says I like a bell I approve of Abel and his sacrifice so what did God approve of quantitative and qualitative giving quantity quality you cannot just give any way and say I have given you no there are people who are going to change and they've decided no matter what happens I will give a dollar oh I'll give a quarter and God can speak or he wants to speak I can be blessed all I want to be blessed but a quarter is that quarter and I said well you know it's all money is the same God well from the first offering we see that quality and quantity are important to God this offering is not 10% as a matter of father I'm sure if you do percentages because gods don't give birth 10 at a time so the first one will not be 1/10 gods will probably deliver about 2 3 2 3 let's so let's even say 4 so the first ball is 25% if it's to the firstborn is 50% I know you still like me so this is not 10% this probably is about 30% of 40% or I would be generous to say 25 percent of the flock of Abel was sacrificed to God and God looks at it and says I like it and not just I like it I like the giver but something happened right after that the one who's offering was not accepted started criticizing the ones who's offering has been accepted and fight in him and eventually killing him and that principle has remained those who don't we'll always persecute those who give it is an established first principle when you are a giver there are people who don't give who would try to fight you and it's not their money it's not your good it's my goat take your crops why are you fighting me when I am giving to the Lord why is that a bother to you but the principle has been said pain will always fight either and resist ever may I go a little further to say that in every church there is a king and there is an evil not in Jesus house in other churches there are only a bells here but in some churches I know that once in a while I visit they have canes who give but are very protective over the ik flocks their crops and can't understand why others are more generous this is the record of the first offering it establishes identity of the giver and the relationship between the giver and God the second offering recorded in the Bible and I'm not gonna spend too much time talking about it I'll quote the passage narrate the story and make comments on it and then I'll move on to the third one because I don't want to spend too much time on this the second one is in Genesis chapter 8 verse 15 to 22 Noah's offering by the way Abel's offering can also be called a first fruit offering because it is the firstborn the firstborn now sometimes biblical words have different meanings in different places because people attach different activity to words so some you go to some place you see fresh fruit there's already already a pre understanding of what fresh fruit is supposed to me for some it means one thing for others it means the other thing don't attach your particular understanding of a word or a phrase to what the Bible is talking about but it is a fresh fruit offering that means it is the firstborn the firstborn the reason I'm saying this is we will encounter it later in the New Testament the offering of the firstborn now you know Noah God tells Noah to build an ark because there's going to come a flood and life will be wiped out but to preserve for posterity two of every animal must be put in the ark and seven of the clean animals added to them Noah does that gets into the ark the flood comes wipes out everything and he and his family and the animals in the arc are preserved at this point this is the preserved stock for repopulating the earth everybody or animal that survived is scarce commodity because there is no substitute anyway there is no surplus so if if there are two two sheep that's all you have if you kill them that's it there's nothing left so this is scarce commodity this is commodity that is very precious that must not be trifled with that must not be dismissed or must not be dissipated because if you dissipate it then the earth loses permanently Noah comes out of the ark and he picks on these animals who are scarce commodity on the clean animals he goes to pick them and he makes a sacrifice to God now for you to understand what this means it's almost like it's almost like jeopardizing the future for all of us but he pits these animals scarce commodity for which there is no replacement anyway most likely they were born in the ark and he picks them and he sacrifices them to God can imagine that and God smells the aroma and he says to Noah because of what you have done that because I saved you but because you took what is rare and stars and unavailable and of high value and you sacrificed it and remember every sacrifice is in anticipation of a future reward because you have done this I have sworn to you Noah that as long as the earth remains I will not ever destroy life as I have to understand and as long as the earth remains seedtime and harvest will never cease and what God says to Noah is I will not destroy mankind again although I know the intention of his heart is wicked in other words God is saying I know people are bad I know they're gonna do worse things that would happen durst and I know that there's going to be a great cause for me to destroy them but because of your offering the rest of the human race after you for generations are preserved do you know why there is wickedness upon this earth and we're still surviving because of Noah because of Noah and what we learn from this gift from this offering is that an offering has the capacity to extend its benefits for generations even after the giver of the offering has died so what what I give us an offering today will protect my children my great-grandchildren great-great-grandchildren to a thousand generations even when they don't remember me and even if their heart is wicked so there are people now who deny God but who are beneficiaries of offerings that were given years ahead on their behalf and they're getting blessed and they think it's by their own ingenuity and hard work and they forget the two hundred years ago an ancestor covenanted with God and spoke into their future so although the heart of the descendants a desperately wicked God honored the gift of the original giver so sometimes you read people would say well you go to countries like Norway they don't worship God by their prospering do you know what was done 500 years ago when Christianity had its foundation in Norway in Germany in Switzerland in Sweden there were no us who gave an offering who honored God whose covenant is covering them although the imagination of the heart is wicked never see the prosperity of the people now who have rejected God as an endorsement that God is not relevant to development because a generation lives who's offering continues to speak for generations yet to come that is the foundation and that is what Noah did God says I know verse 21 and the lost smell a soothing aroma and the Lord said in a that I will never again curse the ground for man's sake old dog the imaginations of man's heart is evil from his youth I know his imagination is evil I know it there will be bad people but because of what Noah has done I will preserve them some of you here are beneficiaries of your grandparents giving and sacrifices they met a God and prayers they prayed sometimes a generation comes we does not even respect what a previous generation did but they are offering is remembered the third offering in the Bible third offering in the Bible so we've looked at the first offering can enable Abel's sacrifice accepted Cain rejected second offering Noah's offering preserving for the human race third offering this is very important abraham's offering abraham's offering Genesis chapter 14 verse 18 to 21 Genesis 14 18 to 21 now let me give you a background to that to this passage before I read it Abraham was told by God to leave his father's house go to a new land but he went with some of the people in his father's house including a nephew called locked whom most people say like a lot of these but lot was Abraham's nephew and live with his uncle Abraham and was a businessman with his uncle and in the process of time his uncle's business grew and his business also grew they were livestock rarest and their flocks were growing and they had a workforce that always fought and so the uncle says to the nephew hey nephew our sevens are fighting because we are too prosperous and our boundaries are colliding into each other so let's create space for our businesses so we can all grow so he says didn't his nephew take the best land or take the land first and I'll take the second land that what you don't like you know when your uncle tells you that common sense should tell you go back to uncle and say uncle listen you are the older one you know but you know when you are lucky you don't think correctly so your uncle tells you that and he goes ahead and makes a choice and he looks at the land and he looks at the one which seems the most prosperous and he picks it and tells his uncle I've made my choice so you take the rubbish the land which lot chose eventually is the land of sodom and gomorrah which was the new york of those times or the DC of those times and the other one was the lagos of those times that's what is left say Abraham took the Legos so well when you're prosperous land one of the things is that you have a lot of enemies so in the process of time several kings came together five kings form the an alliance went to attack sodom and gomorrah and the lands nearby ransacked them took over their land those days that's how the nations got rich you just beat people and take their money you know and protected that's I mean people were not producing much they were just fighting for wealth so so I mean they took all the money from Sodom and Gomorrah and took the men the women and in the process took lot and his family so Abraham gets the report that his nephew and the family had been ransacked in a war they have now become war booty so abraham puts together 318 men from his home arms them they go to five five kings and their armies and conquer them that's a miracle by itself but we're not that's not what we're dealing with so they conquer them and when they conquer them be rescue all that these guys have stolen from the land of sodom and gomorrah now if they stole from the land of sodom and gomorrah i don't think that was the first land they had ransacked so if they had runs at different places before they came to serve and Gomorrah the wealth that was from them was more than what was taken from Sodom and Gomorrah it was the accumulation of wealth that had accrued to them over the years of exploits so they go knock these guys of Abraham's sevens knock these guys up and rescue all of these human beings animals gold silver implements clothing and so and so forth just a lot of stuff from five kingdoms you get a lot of stuff so when Abraham had conquered the law was that now he's the owner of the property because he has beaten them and the wealth must go to him so Abraham Ismail owned all of these after Abraham finishes this battle a guy shows up he doesn't show up before the battle he shows up after the battle there are some people who show up after the battle all right so that's what we're going to read about in Genesis chapter 14 verses 18 to 20 it says then Melchizedek king of Salem brought our bread and wine he was the priest of God Most High and He blessed him and said blessed be Abram of God Most High possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand and he gave him a tithe of all this is the first time the word Taif appears in the Bible Abraham gave him a tithe of all the word tithe from the Hebrew is masa masa and it means literally 1/10 1/10 or 10% in our current understanding in Abraham's time they didn't have the word percent but 1/10 1/10 and 1/10 basically means you count one two three four five six seven eight nine number 10 is that tithe is the tenth so every tenth count is the tenth is the tithe now the word type means the tenth this is very important and secondly it means a collection a collection in other words it is not the tenth that remains but the tenth that is collected so if you say you count one two three four five six seven eight nine ten granting their hundred sheep and you can one two three four five six seven eight nine ten that ten must not remain where it is you must take it out because if it remains where it is it is not no longer at ten the tenth must be collected so one two three four five six seven eight nine ten you pull it up one two three four five six seven eight nine ten you pull it up one two three four five six seven eight I tell you pull it up what you pull out becomes a collection and that collection belongs to the tenth Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek we are not told exactly what tenth he gave another tenth of animals tenth of people tenth of clothes what tenth is it we are not told but he it says a tenth of all so if he says a tenth of all we can safely say that all the things that he rescued from them from the battle a tenth was given to Melchizedek so if he rescued men from the battle than one tenth belonged to Melchizedek they're going to be Melchizedek seventh so one two three four five six seven eight nine ten one two three four five seven nine ten if he rescued clothes nice clothes like what I'm wearing then he has to line them up two three four five six seven eight nine ten one two three four five six clothes shoes one two three four five six seven eight nine ten and away one two three four five six and a tenth of all far many instruments one two three four five six seven eight nine ten gold one two three four five six seven eight nine ten server one two three four five six seven eight nine ten sheep one two three four five six seven eight nine ten so for everything that he rescued he counts up to ten the tenth he pulls our tent he pulls out ten Tipu certainty pasa it's not just a tenth of sheep but of all including inanimate objects like clothing like shoes like precious stones gold silver so and so forth and he puts all of these together and he says the Melchizedek this is yours remember Melchizedek did not fight in the battle neither was anything of his taking from the battle he hasn't fought he hasn't suffered he shows up after battle and doesn't speak he just said to Abraham blessed be Abraham of God Most High who once delivered all your enemies under your hands blessed be God Most High possessor of heaven and earth bread wine that's it chameleon partake of this covenant and he that's all he does saves him communion as we know it now and then blesses him and then Abraham says for blessing me and given me seven me this bread and wine I give you what I have risk my life for and what my sevens risk their life for and what is do me by virtue of my hard work I give it to you now if you read the story later on Abraham did not take anything else from the battle he returned the 90% to the Kings whose properties had been lost and took nothing so all that was due him was given to Melky Zedeck this is the record of the first time Melchizedek and I will say a bit about him on Tuesday because we will unravel unveil Melchizedek but the Bible says two things about him his king of Salaam his priest of God Most High he occupies two offices one Civic the other spiritual king of Salim is a civic position or a political office he represents the state of Salim is the president of Salim he's a political governmental leader of Salim and then he is a priest of God Most High so he represents the things of God and the things of state the state and the spirit Abraham pays a tenth to him both as king of Salim and as priest of God Most High so he is established in a principle that we are elite to the king and to the priest when you give to the king in these days we call it tax you give to the priest it is called tithe so Abraham is establishing the principle of giving that it's not only to God but also to the state king of Salem priest God Most High you remember when Jesus later on was asked about giving he says give me a coin they gave him a coin he says whose picture is on it they said Caesar he says give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God you don't give to Caesar what is God's now that do you give to God what he sees us there are some things you give to Caesar the thing about Caesar is that he doesn't like free will so see that tells you if you don't give me my I would jail you and we are happy to give to Caesar and he doesn't these days Caesar doesn't even take 10% the richer you are the more Caesar loves you because Caesar would take a lot from you and Caesar doesn't leave you to your choice Caesar says I would take it because it's mine and if you would hold it I will punish you and all of you are so afraid of Caesar that at this time in the year you are rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's and you don't complain to the king of Sodom and say well king of Sodom you know the world is hard and my children's school fees and I don't have money for this and I have money for grocery gave to me Jesus says and you keep but when it comes to God we make up all kinds of excuses you know how life is Lord you know because God does not compare but he says if you do it willingly I will bless you so Melchizedek represents two offices and Abraham gives to the king of Sodom when he gave to Melchizedek now kiss it across a representative giving it to solemn and to the things kingdom of God it's almost like what happens when you go to the tax office and pay your tax somebody receives it but he's not going to spend it the guy who sits in front of you you don't give your tax money your check to him and say wow he this guy's rich today because you know he got so much money from me now he receives it on behalf of the state and that's why you cannot also say well I came to church and I tithe and I looked up a stag and this shoe and I think it's a nice shoe I think you know he took my tithe to buy a shoe now and I will deal with that later on on Tuesday but this is the third offering the third offering and I'm not going to deal with all the offerings of Abraham I'm going to deal with just one of the offerings of Abraham and then I close this is the second offering of Abraham and the fourth in sequence of offerings giving God says to Abraham look to the skies as many as the stars are so shall your descendants be Abraham says to God how can I be sure that my descendants will be as that how can I be sure that the promise you gave me will be fulfilled and God says to Abraham bring me an offering this is the first demanded offering in the Bible first time an offering has been demanded by God each one the people gave and by the way the offering to Melchizedek is the first time in the Bible that an offering is not bent it is give whole and it is giving directly to a human being and not bent on an altar those are very significant so but this is the first time God is demanding and offering so Genesis chapter 15 verses 7 to 11 then he said to him bring me the of an offering okay let me see then he said to him I'm the Lord who brought you out of ur of the chaldeans to give you this land to inherited and he said Lord God house and I know that I shall inherit a house shall I know and he said to me bring me a three year old - three year old female goat at three year old Ram a Turtledove a young pigeon then he brought all these to him cut them in two down the middle place each piece opposite the other and he did not cut the birds into and when the Vortice came down on the carcasses Abraham drove them out away it is demanded by God and it is specific three year old goat three year-old female these three old - three not four year old not three and have no two year old specific offering this is a specific offering demanded by God when Abraham brings this offering God tells Abraham cut the animals into the big ones cut them into two so he cuts them into two places them in a line and then the two birds he says you don't cut the birds place the birds hole so there are three animals cut on one side and a bed and then three animals cut on one side and a bed and in the middle there is a walking space and when Abraham puts them down God knocks him down into a trance so Abraham is watching what is happening but he can't do anything about he can't respond and as he's watching his offering on the ground he sees something that looks like an oven of fire come through and walk through the middle of the offering and God says to him I swear by myself that whatever I have to ooh I will honor it now when you solve that you may not understand what is going on with this offering and how God is responding to this specific offering a covenant offering with Abraham Abraham originally came from the air of the Chaldeans of the Chaldeans Abraham is a Syrian in the air of the Chaldeans this is how covenants were cut so God is using Abraham's culture to speak to him in Abraham's culture from the air of the Chaldeans when a major king conquered a smaller King this is what the smaller king would do for the major King the smaller King will go and bring these animals and cut them into two on each side with blood oozing on the ground and the smaller king or the weaker King will walk in the middle of the offering that he has presented before the higher king and he will swear to the higher king and say if i i am unfaithful and i break my vow to you then i will be cut let me be cut in pieces as these animals are so abraham understood when you are cutting a covenant and you are this week Awan you have to walk through this fire I'll walk through these animals and swear to the higher king however once he's watching he should be the one walking through the parts of the animals but he sees God walking through the animals they'll hire his swearing to the lesser and God walks through the animals and what God is saying to Abraham Abraham if I fail my word to you I will be cut in pieces like these animals I will no longer be God the day I fail I am gone I am dead there's no God in the universe I will be cut in pieces like these animals and I swear to you by my self that I will do it God subjected himself to Abraham in covenant after he had brought a special demanded of him to him there are offerings that God demands from us which are special to us it is covenant cutting offering as a matter of fact it brings God into a binding relationship with you that can never be cut out and that is what he did to Abraham and after he had walked through that as fire through those animals and had pledged to Abraham the next offering he says to Abraham go sacrifice your son your only son Isaac does the third offering of Abraham go to Mount Moriah God has sent to Abraham I've put my life down for you now let me see whether you put your life down for me that offering was a test offering he wasn't going to kill his son but he wanted to test what is Abraham's heart if I have put my life down for you are you willing to put your life down for me and you know the story of Rahab goes to Mount Moriah and he sees around instead of his son Isaac and after that God says by myself I have sworn that in blessing I will bless you in multiplying our multiply now many times we make those declarations only the promise but we don't understand the covenant of giving and sacrifice that had given rise to those declarations from God we see from our interaction with the scripture that an offering is not just money it's person it's not just your money in the offering bowl it's not just is you and when God looks at what is in your hand he's not seeing dollar bills he sees you whether you're ready to give yourself or not and how much of yourself you're ready to give and that determines the Covenant he makes with you tomorrow we're going to look at this whole process as it unfolds under the law and then on Tuesday we'll come to the New Testament and see Jesus and how he dealt with us just before I close remember that the tithing that Abraham did in the passage we read happened at least 450 years before there was a Levitical priesthood this is not a Levitical tithe it is a priesthood of Melchizedek tithe and we will see who Melchizedek is and whom Abraham tied to on Tuesday as we unveil the real identity of Melchizedek the reason I'm saying this is because from tomorrow we're going to see that there are two parallel systems of tithing in the Bible the order of Melchizedek and the order of the Levites they appear the same but the receivers are different one is received by Melchizedek the other is received by the Levites and when we get to the New Testament properly on Tuesday you will see who receives your type now when you type and then we're going to really answer whether the type is for the New Testament or the Old Testament whether it is law or it is grace the scripture will speak for itself did you get anything out of it did you get anything out of it there are three prototypes that we want to consider in my conclusion first Abel 2nd Noah 3rd Abraham these are the three foundations the three pillars and all of these happen before the law was giving all of it happened before the law was giving and tomorrow we will look at the law we'll look at what the law says and then we will look at what Jesus Christ Himself taught and I can guarantee you faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God lift up your hands to God everybody I don't know how this word has spoken to you but if you believe that you want to be in covenant with God and let your hand be up with God and just begin to pledge a covenant of giving with God and say Lord as long as I live my heart will be towards you in my giving I will give like a bell I will give like Noah I will give like Abraham in my giving I will give out of my heart I'll give out of my spirit begin to talk to the Lord because for some of you God wants to come into a deeper covenant with you a deeper covenant with you father I pray for every one whose hand is up who has been in covenant with you without the full knowledge of what that covenant is and I pray Lord that the full reality of that covenant were done upon your children that in this place you raise up men and women like a bell like Noah like Abraham and like our Lord Jesus Christ Himself whose gifts will speak for generations whose sacrifice will speak for generations whose offerings will speak for generations that there will be men and women of covenant that you will give yourself to and pledge yourself to in this place raise up covenant men and women for your glory and for your kingdom Lord in Jesus name we pray amen and amen

Channel: Jesus House DC

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Id: vg7xn6Z1p6Q

Length: 64min 56sec (3896 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 25 2018