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00:00Good afternoon West Rand English family. I am sending this message to you from the Limpopo.
00:12We are at Bella Bella, busy with the Limpopo camp meeting and I was asked to end off our
00:17week of spiritual emphasis. And I'm going to speak this afternoon about resources becoming
00:25or resources, sharing your resources, becoming a matter of the heart. But before we start,
00:34let's just quickly pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that you and I can speak
00:40together with our church, Lord. We've been looking at stewardship this whole week, Lord,
00:46and we ask that you will, as we speak about this last message, that you will solidify
00:52this concept in our hearts. Lord, giving is something that we do because our heart belongs
00:58to you. And if we don't give, Lord, there might be other problems. But the biggest and
01:04the most important reason for that is because there's not a connection between us and you.
01:11And so, Lord, as we've gone through this week and different presenters spoke to us, Lord,
01:16may these ideas that they share, may it change our heart and may we become part of a relationship
01:25of giving because you've given all to us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
01:34So as I said in my prayer that resources and the sharing of resources is actually a matter
01:40of the heart. The Lord says in Matthew 6, verse 21, that there where your treasure is,
01:46your heart will also be. But I think the reverse is also true. There where your heart is, that's
01:53where your money or your treasure will be. There's this story about a lady with the name
02:00Gelda Brechmann who lived in the UK, and she was quite a wealthy lady. She had an estate
02:07of 15 million pounds. And even though she had children, when she died—nephews and nieces—when
02:14she died, she gave her whole estate to the Mann family. The Mann family was a family that was
02:22from China, which went to the UK. They opened a small Chinese restaurant, and she left all of
02:30her money not to her family but to this Mann family, these Chinese people. And when asked,
02:35the Mann family asked, when they asked the Mann family, why is it? The only answer that
02:44they could get to is maybe because it is we spend most of our time with her, and her family almost
02:51never came to visit her. So they would go once a week to visit and make her a Chinese dish,
02:58which was the old lady, Mrs. Gelda Brechmann's favorite. They would visit her, they would spend
03:04time with her, and because of this love and this care that was shown towards Mrs. Brechmann,
03:12they actually inherited her whole estate, which was 15 million pounds.
03:18Now that's quite an extraordinary story. Why was this? The family cared for Mrs. Brechmann,
03:30and we will invest, we will give when we feel that we belong to something,
03:37when we feel attached to something, when we feel safe and secure in something.
03:44You see, most of the time the church or the conference would ask for money to buy something,
03:49or to replace something, or to repair something, and then the money comes in very slowly because
03:56it feels like an obligation. But when receiving or when sharing
04:06with something, or to something, or for something that your heart is really invested in,
04:12it is then that you really give. The Lord says to us in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 7, it says,
04:19So let each one give as he is purposed in his heart, not out of grudgingly or of necessity,
04:31for God loves a cheerful giver. And so the Bible says we shouldn't just give because we feel it's
04:37our purpose, or because it's a necessity, we should give because it's nice, it's cheerful,
04:43it's what we want to do. But it shows that we will only start doing that when we
04:50really belong to something. See, giving must come from the heart. It's only when we feel
04:56safe or we feel that we actually belong to something that we will invest in that thing.
05:02The heart, Ellen White says, is first and foremost the gift that we should give to Jesus.
05:08And she says that if we give our heart to Jesus, all of our hearts, truly give it to Jesus,
05:15our gold and our silver will follow. That we would give all our resources and we will spend
05:21all of our resources in the Lord's work if our heart truly belongs to the Lord.
05:27When you and I have experienced Jesus, if we've gone through the trenches with Jesus, if we
05:34have truly experienced Jesus through the difficult times, if we have felt His leading,
05:43if we have felt His care and His grace through difficult times, giving becomes easy.
05:51It is difficult to give if we have not experienced Jesus in that way, because most of the times we
05:57think that we're giving for the church or we're giving for the members of the church or the
06:00leadership. But in actual fact, we're giving to the Lord. And that becomes easy when we know the
06:06Lord and have experienced His leading, His love and His grace. But if we haven't, it's difficult
06:13to give. And I want to use the example of a married couple where one is a Christian and one
06:18is not. And the first month after their marriage, the Christian man, when they were working on their
06:24budget, immediately decided to give his 10 percent tithe and his amount of offering that he decided
06:31on. And his wife asked him, but why? And the young man said, it's because the Lord cared for us
06:38and He gave to us. And she said, no, it's not the Lord. I worked for this money. I made this money,
06:45and I'm not prepared to give it to the church. You see, it's when we have this relationship,
06:50this understanding of God, that giving becomes easy. In Acts 20, verse 28, we read,
06:57Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you
07:03overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
07:11And this is where I want to end of our talk tonight or this afternoon.
07:15We are to shepherd the church. We are to create a place where our members feel that they belong,
07:21feel that they are invested, feel that they are a part of. We should give programs that
07:28makes them excited and makes them want to give. We should create a place where they meet Jesus
07:35and feel Him and feel His leading in His grace and His care and His love. If we create such a church,
07:41if we create such a church, our members will give.
07:46The General Conference tells the story of a pastor. They started monitoring this pastor
07:55when they realized that his church had exponential growth in tithan offering.
08:02And whenever this pastor would leave a district, the tithan offering would drop,
08:06and the new district where he went to, the tithan offerings would increase.
08:12And so they started monitoring this and they realized that this pastor, it wasn't because
08:18he was a good preacher or because he had good Bible study skills or because he had good resources. It
08:24was because he was a caring and a loving pastor. And because he was a caring and a loving pastor
08:31and created such an atmosphere, the people in his church would give. May we as a church believe
08:38and create and believe in and create such a place where our members could feel that they are a part.
08:46And may our members realize that it's not just the pastor or the leader's responsibility, but they
08:51would also take part in making our church a place where we belong, where we can experience and find
08:59Jesus, because then giving and sharing becomes a matter of the heart. I hope this week and its
09:06emphasis on stewardship truly made a difference to you and truly helped you to understand why
09:14we would give and should give our tithe, why we should and must give our offerings,
09:20and the connection between giving and our relationship with Jesus. Let's close our eyes.
09:28Heavenly Father, thank you that we as a church could, hand in hand with our conference,
09:33go through this week of spiritual emphasis. As the speakers spoke, we learned new things and we had
09:39new ideas that made us realize that giving is actually a reflection on our relationship with
09:45you. And may this week have helped us to become in a deeper relationship with you. And may we
09:52learn to give because you have given everything to us. And may we learn to give because it is why
10:01we love you. Thank you, Lord, for giving us this week. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
10:10Well, West Rand English, thank you so much for taking part with us in this week.
10:15Thank you for your excitement and enthusiasm. And I pray that the Lord will bless you in this
10:20coming week. Bye-bye.