Imagine – You’re Part of Something Bigger – Part 2

Introduction

• Loan
• Infrastructure
• Lighting
• Projection
• Stage
• Communication
• Seating

The Best Is Yet to Come

Handing Out and Explaining the Booklets

The Booklet Explanation

Commitment Card Explanation

Easy Way to Remember What to Do

• Prayer
• Devotion
• Commitment

Review

• Matthew 6:21 (ESV): ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Introducing the Stewardship Theme

Cain and Able’s Offering

• Genesis 4:1–2 (ESV): ¹ Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” ² And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
• Genesis 4:3 (ESV): ³ In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
• Genesis 4:4 (ESV): ⁴ and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
• Genesis 4:5 (ESV): ⁵ but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

Cain & Able Anticipate What Moses Writes

• Genesis 4:4 (ESV): ⁴ and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
• Deuteronomy 15:19 (ESV): ¹⁹ “All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and flock you shall dedicate to the Lord your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.
• Leviticus 3:16 (ESV): ¹⁶ And the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing aroma. All fat is the Lord’s.
  • “The fat attached to the vital organs is the best part of the animal. . .[and is considered to be a] fine delicacy” [Jewish Boston.com] (https://www.jewishboston.com/read/sacred-fat-vulnerability-and-gods-choice/)
  • “The fat was the tastiest, most fragrant, most calorie-dense portion of food available in an often desolate and calorie-poor land. In other words, in those days, it was the BEST.” [Pastor Maggie Erikson] (https://www.quora.com/What-does-fat-mean-in-Leviticus-3-17)
• Genesis 4:3 (ESV): ³ In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
• Leviticus 2:1 (ESV): ¹“When anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it
  • “Grain offering,” consisted of. . .“fine flour” or the “finest wheat.” The offerer covered the grain with oil and frankincense (“incense”). The oil served the purpose of aiding the combustion process, while “frankincense,” was the main ingredient in incense. [Mark F. Rooker, Leviticus, vol. 3A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 94–95.]

Deep Down Inside, We Know

Cain, Able and the Spirit of the Tithe

How You Give Matters

Do You Think You’re a Steward or an Owner?

• Matthew 21:33–46 (ESV): ³³ “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. ³⁴ When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. ³⁵ And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶ Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. ³⁷ Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ ³⁹ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰ When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹ They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? ⁴³ Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. ⁴⁴ And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” ⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶ And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

Vows

• Deuteronomy 23:21–23 (ESV): ²¹ “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. ²² But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. ²³ You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.
• Leviticus 27:1–2 (ESV): ¹The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone makes a special vow to the Lord involving the valuation of persons,
• Leviticus 27:9 (ESV): ⁹ “If the vow is an animal that may be offered as an offering to the Lord, all of it that he gives to the Lord is holy.
• Leviticus 27:14 (ESV): ¹⁴ “When a man dedicates his house as a holy gift to the Lord, the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand.
• Leviticus 27:16 (ESV): ¹⁶ “If a man dedicates to the Lord part of the land that is his possession, then the valuation shall be in proportion to its seed. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.
• Leviticus 27:26 (ESV): ²⁶ “But a firstborn of animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no man may dedicate; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s.

Hannah and Eli

Hannah

• 1 Samuel 1:11 (ESV): ¹¹ And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”
• 1 Samuel 1:21–22 (ESV): ²¹ The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. ²² But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever.”
• 1 Samuel 1:24 (ESV): ²⁴ And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young.

Eli

• 1 Samuel 2:27–29 (ESV): ²⁷ And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? ²⁸ Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. ²⁹ Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’