Getting To Know God - Part 3 - Jehovah-Jireh - The God Who Provides
Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
John 14:23-24
“Jesus said, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him.
“He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me.”
And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …
Galatians 5:22-23
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Please open your Bibles to Matthew 23:23
Two weeks ago we started taking a look into WHO God is.
It is difficult to love someone you know nothing about.
How much do we REALLY know about the One we call God?
The first week we saw that the name that is so often seen in the Old Testament as “the LORD” is really a mask for the name Jehovah or more recently translated as Yahweh. This masking comes from Jewish tradition and not from the will of Yahweh that we can see in the Bible.
That week we also saw that YHWH describes Himself with the title, “I AM WHO I AM” and we saw that this reveals one of the characteristics of God which is immutability; He is immutable; He is unchanging.
Last week we took a look at Jehovah-Rapha or YHWH-Rapha, the God Who Heals. The God Who Heals has the power to heal physically and physiologically, although He does not always us physically or psychologically and when He doesn’t, we yield our will to His will.
He also has the power to heal us emotionally and He wants to heal us emotionally as one of the fruits of the Spirit is peace and emotional pain is the opposite of peace.
And, finally, He wants to heal everyone spiritually for now and eternity.
Today, we will be taking a look at Jehovah-Jireh or YHWH-Yireh; The God Who Provides.
We know the account of Abraham taking Isaac up to Mount Moriah where he was to sacrifice Isaac, the son of God’s promise, as a burnt offering. But, when Abraham was about to offer Isaac up YHWH stopped him and provides a sacrificial ram in his place.
This was a pre-shadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God on the cross of Calvary for our salvation. That is the specific application of the name YHWH-Yireh.
However, in addition to that we also see that YHWH provides for
1) His church,
2) His people and
3) those in need.
With that in mind let’s go ahead and read … Matthew 23:23
(Prayer for help …)
How does this apply to YHWH-Yireh, the God Who Provides …
First of all, let’s take a look at YHWH-Yireh, the God Who Provides for His church …
But before we even get started I want you to know that this is NOT a normal “you all need to be tithing” type of message; it has a much different and much more urgent point than that.
This isn’t just about tithing and why we should do it, but it is also about what should be done with the tithes and offerings that are given to the Kingdom of God
We see in Matthew 23:23
“YOU GIVE A TENTH OF YOUR (SPICES) … but you have neglected the more important matters of … justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced (justice, mercy and faithfulness), WITHOUT NEGLECTING (GIVING A TITHE).
In other words you should give a tenth (tithe) without neglecting justice, mercy and faithfulness.
Here is a fact from the Bible and if you can find something different please let me know.
The LORD God has only one plan for supporting His church and that is with tithes and offerings from those who belong to Him.
In the Old Testament God NEVER intended for anyone outside of Israel to support the Tabernacle/Temple or the priesthood.
In the New Testament God NEVER intended for anyone outside the church, the Body of Christ, the church or church ministries.
God has provided for us personally so that we can provide for the needs of the church. That is why we do not have church dinners open to the community to raise money. That is why we do not have bake sales, and rummage sales and raffles and bingo nights, etc. to raise money.
God intended for the people of Israel to provide for the temple and the priesthood. Likewise, God intends for His people, Christians, to provide for the church and her associated ministries.
Years ago onetime Pastor Karenlee asked one of our teens why we receive tithes and offering each week and the reply was, “To pay for you.”
Now, you don’t expect a teen to understand all that goes into keeping a church running but it is much more than, “To pay for you.”
Even though we are two full time pastors, Pastor Karenlee and I only receive what would be paid to one pastor, and we are fine with that. We have plenty to eat and drink and we have plenty of clothing and are very comfortable in the parsonage provided for us.
But, briefly, what DO the finances of the church go toward?
Property insurance and Workman’s Comp insurance and disability insurance
CCLI licensing
Support of Eastern Nazarene College
District support (new church plants)
Pension and Benefits fund (many lifetime pastors of small churches have no significant Soc Sec or other retirement income)
Building Maintenance
Utilities: Electric (heat), Gas, Water
Lawn care – gas, oil, batteries, belts, etc.
Snow removal
Annual building code inspections
Annual fire extinguisher inspections and maintenance
Pastoral salary and health insurance
Trash removal
Internet and phone service
Outreach events such as concerts and Jews for Jesus
Church mortgage ($$$ remaining)
Travel expenses for District Assembly and other district gatherings
Cleaning supplies
Church decorations
Funeral expenses
Teaching materials
Women’s ministries
Church office supplies
Audio Visual equipment
Landscaping – mulch and flowers
Postage and shipping
Let me show you a graph of last year’s undesignated funds at the end of each month versus this year. Usually over the summer we start building up because we do not have heating and snow plowing costs. This year we are not building up but are holding even. Does this mean we will be in financial trouble when the cold hits? I don’t know. YHWH-Yireh, the God Who Provides, is faithful. Are His people? We’ll find out.
The-God-Who-Provides one and only plan for providing for the church and that is through the tithes and offerings of those who belong to Him. Period!
So, does The God Who Provides for His church also provide for His people?
What does the Word of God say?
Matthew 6:31-33
“Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
The fact is that whatever our personal income is we can spend ourselves into debt, sometimes hopeless debt.
Often we find that we waste much of the money the Lord provides because we do not remember that 1 Timothy 6:6 says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.”
It is possible take the provision of The God Who Provides and recklessly waste it until we “don’t have enough for ourselves” let alone for the Lord and for others. So, often if the Lord gets anything at all He gets our “leftovers” and not the “first fruits”.
OK, so, here’s the real point in this whole discussion about Jehovah-Jireh, YHWH-Yireh, The God Who Provides.
We are conduits of God’s provision for:
- The support of the church, and,
- For those in need
Who is it that is in need, I mean REAL need?
(Chart of Income Per Day – PPT slides available for the asking)
USA 4 person household median income (2005) = $67,019/yr = $46/day/person in the household
USA 1 person household = $12,490/yr = $34/day/person in the household (Gov’t. assistance avail.)
USA 4 person household = $25,750/yr = $18/day/person in the household (Gov’t. assistance avail.)
Non-USA 53% of the people in the world live on less than $2/day each
You can plainly see from this chart that over half of the world lives in REAL poverty with NO government assistance available.
(Show picture of a U.S. soup kitchen and a picture of starving children in a foreign country.)
These people have maybe only enough food for survival, many die from starvation. Children are especially at risk
(Show picture of a U.S. publicly funded health center and a picture of a third-world hospital or witch doctors in a foreign country.)
These people have no medical facilities. Many if not most of them rely on witch-doctors or other “medicine” based on superstition.
(Show picture of a church free clothing setup and a picture of street children in India wearing the only clothing they have to their name.)
These people have only the minimal clothing. Exposure to the elements, heat or cold is a constant threat to their survival.
(Contrasting photos of the interior of a US prison vs a third world prison)
The prisons in those countries are not like the prisons we have here.
There are not three healthy meals a day served in a well lit clean cafeteria.
There are no exercise facilities. There is no library. There is no state paid college GED or college education. There is no TV or recreation area.
There are no weight lifting facilities. There are no state paid sex-change operations.
There is only slop to eat and death and disease. No protection from other inmates.
(Contrasting photos of clean tap water and child drawing water from a polluted stream)
We have plenty of clean safe water to drink here. People will even pay for bottled water that is municipal water just like what comes out of our faucets but it is packaged and sold in store.
Not so in many areas of the world.
Now remember, the God Who Provides has provided much more for us than we need. Are we to hold on to these or to use them for the glory of God.
(Project a collage of third world photos used before)
As we look at these pictures on the screen let me read these verses from Matthew 25:42-43
“I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”
The God Who Provides has given us the mission of helping all of these.
I have often thought about what we could do with the money we spend on our mortgage once it is paid off. And, I confess to my own humiliation, that I most often thought about our church. What could we do here? Could we redecorate the facility? Could we pave the parking lot? Could we build a covered entryway for when it is raining? Could we build a pavilion or a play ground?
And, all the while children in impoverished nations are starving to death or dying of dysentery from drinking water polluted with sewage. Others are dying because they have no access to medicine or are dying at the hands of witch doctors.
The Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) arm of the Church of The Nazarene is prepared to take food to the most needy around the planet but it cannot be done without funding.
And, all the while we are feeding those who were starving we can be telling them about salvation that comes only through Jesus, the Bread of Life.
God the Provider has provided more than we need so we can send life saving food and the good news of eternal life in Jesus to those who have neither.
The NCM arm of the Church of The Nazarene is prepared to provide medical care to those who do not have it but it cannot be done without funding. And, all the while we are providing medical assistance to those who had none, we can be telling them about YHWH-Rapha, the God Who Heals.
God the Provider has provided more than we need so we can send medical help and the good news of eternal life in Jesus to those who have neither.
The NCM arm of the Church of The Nazarene is prepared to drill wells in villages to provide clean potable water to those who walk miles in order to carry heavy jars of polluted water back to the village but it cannot be done without funding.
And, all the while we are drilling wells for them and teaching them about proper hygiene we can be sharing the Good News of salvation through Jesus the Living Water and about His blood that cleanses us from all unrighteousness!
God the Provider has provided more than we need so we can provide life saving water and the good news of eternal life in Jesus to those who have neither.
I have a vision for this church.
My vision is that we would all start tithing and giving sacrificial offerings.
My vision is that we would deny ourselves for the sake of the lost.
What would we do with all of that extra money?
First we would pay off the mortgage. The Bible says that, “the borrower is the slave to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7
The Body of Christ, the Church of God, should NEVER be a slave to anyone other than our Master, Jesus Christ.
After the mortgage is paid off we would then put that money that previously went to the mortgage toward providing food and clean water and medicine and, most importantly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who need it most around the world.
This of course would be in addition to our contributions to the World Evangelism Fund which provides for our missionaries.
Can you imagine if we could put that $664 each month into reaching the lost for Jesus through compassionate ministries?
And if everyone in our church started tithing and giving thank offerings we could do much more than that!
What if we could give $1000 or $2000 per month?
What if the offerings came pouring in such a quantity that we could give 90% of them to reaching the lost people who are starving, dying of thirst and ravaged by disease for Jesus!
Can you imagine that?
You see, we need to think outside these four walls and the four walls of our homes. There is a BIG world out there, a big world in desperate need of Jesus filled with starving, thirsty, sick and eternally lost people.
When we stand before Jesus, the King and the Judge, He will not say, “Your church was not decorated very well, why didn’t you make it magnificent for Me?”, instead He will say, “I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat.”
When we stand before Jesus, the King and the Judge, He will not say, “You needed a café and bookstore in your church.”, instead He will say, “I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink.”
When we stand before Jesus, the King and the Judge at the end of time,
He will not ask, “Why didn’t you get better musicians and a decent preacher with all the money you had so you could get a bigger crowd?” instead He will say, “I was sick and you did not look after Me.”
God The Provider has provided the funds needed to meet the needs of hundreds if not thousands of starving, thirsting, sick, lost souls and those funds are right in our pockets.
He will NOT reach into our pockets and take the money out.
He wants us to do it out of love for Him and love for those who need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
According to God’s plan those of us who have an excess of what we need to live on are to be the conduits through which The God The Provider provides for those who are hungry, sick and dying of thirst.
That is His plan for reaching the lost.
If the God Who Provides can get His tithes and offerings out of our hands and if we faithfully send it on to the mission fields there WILL be a bountiful harvest of souls for the Glory of God The Provider.
Final thoughts and prayer.
