Unpacking The Sermon Ep4 (Audio)

The host and senior pastor discuss the theme of living as a new creature in Christ and how it affects finances. They emphasize the importance of giving and offering, which are often overlooked in the church. They explain that Satan understands the significance of finances and how it can affect our faith. They also mention the story of Moses and how God wants us to worship Him with all aspects of our lives, including our finances. They stress that offering is a form of worship and it is not just about the money, but about the condition of our hearts. The pastor talks about the principles of giving and receiving and how it is essential for believers to align their finances with God's principles. This is a day that the Lord has made, and you shall rejoice and be glad in it. Sambonangu Junanangu, Leni Ashin, and welcome to yet another power-packed, Holy Spirit-filled episode of Unpacking the Sermon, where we unravel, offer insight, and give perspective that we believe will leave you feeling enlightened and, furthermore, inspired. I am your host, Fidelia Coughlin, and as always, I am with our Senior Pastor, or Pastor Sisso Toalang. Fondisi, how are you doing today? Good evening, Sister Fidelia. Good evening to the viewers, wherever you are catching us from. I am so excited to be here. Indeed, it is a day that the Lord has made, and I am excited and glad to be here. And, Fondisi, we are just as excited to have you back on the show and on our very hot seat. To the viewers at home, thank you so much for all the participation and everything that you are doing. We see it and we appreciate it. If you haven't subscribed, make sure to do so. Make sure to share the link to all the people that you know. For the Word of God may be continued to be spread. Make sure to grab your pen, your notebook, your Bible, and let us get into unpacking this week's sermon. Fondisi, we have entered into a new month, and this month's theme was titled, A Man in Christ, A New Creature. And you touched on how there is a way to live as a new creature. So, in this segment, we will be looking more on the finances of it and the offering part of it as a new creature. Can you expand on that, Fondisi? Thank you, Fidelia. When you study the Bible, indeed, maybe let me start here. When Paul, in the book of 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, when he is addressing the church here, when you study from up there, he talks about that we no longer look at people the way we used to. And then he says, just as we don't look at Jesus Christ as we used to. And then he says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. And I'm saying, Norma, where I want to start with you, becoming a new creature simply means there is now a new way of living. So it is not just a title that you are a new person or a new creature, but it simply means there are things that must be done differently. So we are entering the subject of finances. How does this affect, Norma, how does this then change the way we do, Norma, we look at finances in the church and just generally. I want you to note this. There are two things that Jesus taught a lot which are not prominent in the Bible. These are things that Jesus, when you study his teachings, he taught a lot. But these are the things that you will never get anywhere. The first one is prayer. Number two is offering. And this is a key thing because it seems as if there is something that the enemy understands that the church still does not understand when it comes to the issues of finances. When you look at the Bible in the book of Exodus, when Moses went to Pharaoh and said, let his people go so that they can worship him. Pharaoh says, okay, Moses, you can take your people and leave, but just leave your livestock, just leave your wealth, basically. And we must say something powerful. We are going out, but we are not leaving anything behind. And then he says, because our finances are not exempted in worship. So what Satan has done with the church, we have crossed over into a new kingdom, right? The Bible calls it the kingdom of light, the kingdom of his dear son. But we have left our finances behind. So we just come with everything else, but we leave our money behind. And we wonder why our faith life is not moving. What Jesus says in the gospel, I think it's in the book of Luke, where your heart is, where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. So Satan understands, let them go, but I will keep their finances. So wherever their hearts will still be with me, because when we go into this new kingdom, when you become this new creature, we are leaving our finances behind. And so when I said being a new creature requires a new way of living, it also affects our finances. So offering and finances, it is one part where the church struggles a lot. We are good with worshipping God in song. We are good with worshipping God in raising our hands and everything. But whenever it comes to the offering part, that's where the church struggles. And you've got to understand, Mrs. Fidelia, one of the theological attributes about God, God is a cheerful giver. And one of the signs, who is growing in the faith, would be their ability to give. That is one. I want you to know that. I'm going to bring an example of Abraham. Abraham was tested on two things which are very important. Number one, he was tested on his ability to receive what he doesn't have. That is number one. But that's not the highest test that he got. He doesn't have a child. He says, I'm going to make you. He was tested on his ability to receive what he doesn't have. But the biggest test, Abraham, where God confirmed, now I know, he was tested on his ability to now give what he already has. And this is where us, as Abba Zalwani, we fail. You see, when it comes to the issue of offering, and I do understand why believers feel like this. The whole exercise, the whole ministry of giving has been bastardized in the church. It has been misused. People have been manipulated. People have been scammed of their money in the name of giving to God. And so that's why they are sceptic. That's why they are holding back. What we have done is, instead of going back to the Bible and searching what the Word of God says in regards to offering and giving, in regards to our financial breakthrough, and then doing what the Word says, and throwing away every other excess that might be there, the manipulation, the scamming, and throw it away. But what we have done, we have thrown the baby with the bathwater, without just taking the baby and throwing the water. What am I saying? I'm saying, God is a God of principle. Everything that God does is based on His principle, so what we call His Word. The Bible says, in the beginning was the Word. It says the Word was God, the Word was with God. And then all things were made in Israel. So that is number one. We know He spoke things. Number two, when you go to the book of Colossians, the Bible tells us, it's not Colossians, it's the book of Hebrews. The Bible tells us that He upholds all things by the Word of His power. So things were not only created by the Word, but they are also upheld by the Word, which is what we call the principles. Principles are words that say, God is in doing. Where am I going with this? I'm saying, when we speak of financial breakthrough, we are talking about the new creature, right? How does this new creature live? He has to abide by the principles, and that involves our finances. I spoke earlier, I'm mentioning in Togo too, Ufaro said, leave, but Shiani, your finances. This is what the devil continues to do. Abba Zoland, they are saved, they are tongue speaking, they are doing all kinds of things, but their finances are still kept in the kingdom of darkness. We still do life financially like we used to do before we got saved. But God is the God of principles. He says, give and you shall receive. Before you can set in motion the receiving, you have to start with the giving, right? If you are going to set in motion the receiving, there has to be giving, and there's no going past that. Because God is a God of principles. He says in the book of Jeremiah, I watch my word to perform it. When it comes, I want to repeat so that I can take it back to you, Sis. Fidelia. If you are a new creature, there is a new way of doing life, and that involves every area of your life. That includes your finances. I'm going to repeat this to us, and the believers as a whole. We have come into a new kingdom, but we still handle our finances like we used to do before we got saved. We are thinking you can pray yourself into financial breakthrough. We are believing you can wish yourself into financial breakthrough, and it doesn't work like that because God is a God of principles. God does His word. Not our prayers. You can pray all you want, but when it's time for you to receive a breakthrough from God financially, God opens an opportunity for you to give because it is the giving that sets in motion the receiving. Anyone who does not give... And I like what Apostle Paul says. He says he gives seed to the sower. So God does not give the fruit, but He gives a seed so that you can plant. And when you plant... God gives seed to a sower. Before moving on, you mentioned something about Moses that I never looked at it in this way at all. You will expand on it, but my question is, is offering a form of worship? Powerful, powerful question. I'm going to touch where you are asking from. Moses said, as I said, if you remember, we are not leaving anything behind. He says because we do not know what God will want us to worship Him with. Nothing of ours is kept away from worshiping God. So God wants us to worship with all of us. And I want you to know this, Videla. It is not the money that God wants, but it is the heart that is after. I said when I touched the issue of Abraham, the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, Abraham gave his son because of faith. But we know when we read in Genesis, he did not because So what does that mean? It means in his heart, Abraham had already given. So God takes from your heart, not the physical thing, because offering to God is what is in your heart. How is your heart? Because he gave already. Why? Because God takes from the heart. So offering is a worship. Why? Because it comes from the heart. I am learning a lot in this segment. And I believe a lot is being revealed to me and to the viewers at home that God is not only looking at some aspects of us. He is looking at everything. And that includes that we are holding on to. You know, Sister Delia, in the Bible, we never hear where as opposition, as rivalries for the heart of the world. But we hear one thing that stands in competition for your heart against is money. The Bible says you cannot serve two masters, the spirit of Mammon, which is money. And the Bible is putting money for the love of money and God at the same time. If there is one thing that has potential to take your heart away from God, it is our money. So that is why money is such a serious issue. That is why money is such a touch subject in the church because it resides in our hearts. So when they are quick to say, why is it always about money? Why not money? Yes, because money is the thing. Your heart is still with God. It is when your chest is clear, where your treasure is, that is where your heart is going to be. So that is why they are still struggling when it comes to the issues of giving. They are holding on to money. They have made money their God and they are not even aware. So indeed, when it comes to money, it is a serious issue in the kingdom. Why? Because it has potential to steal your heart away from God. Sure. I just want to share something that happened also to me regarding Tabayachile. I remember, I think we were having a Thanksgiving here at church and I had wanted to pledge and then... After some time, I am like, actually, you know what, next time I am in land, let me trust and the next time I will. And I want to show you, truly, this thing starts from the heart. And then on the day when we were supposed to give our pledges, I am like, let me trust. Not let me trust, but God, this is what I had intended to do. Let me carry on and do it. And then I did it. The month went... Then when I went back to my account and then looking at what I spent and everything, comparing it to my salary, what I had spent and everything was more than my salary. Wow. It was more than what... for the month. I so wish, I so wish we as believers can understand that. God is not after our money. In fact, God does not need our money. He says silver and gold is mine. He says a thousand kettles on the hill, they are mine. But whenever He opens an opportunity for us to give, it is to test so that He can then trust us. If you cannot be trusted with worldly riches, which is money, how can you be trusted with heavenly riches? There are bigger things that God can give unto us. But from the little that we have, we cannot be trusted. And you cannot, I said in the beginning, you cannot bypass the word of God. The Bible says, those who are faithful over little will be trusted with more. A lot of people say, Vitellia, I'm going to, once my salary improves, I'm going to give better. And God is saying, you are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. You are lying. Thank you, Fidelia Conklin. And we are still on Mfundi's way to Opus Dei Feso Toala. Still unpacking Indaba. We are offering money and all of that. Mfundi, see, before we carry on to the questions that have been sent on our Facebook page and WhatsApp page, I just want to ask this. Are there any different types of offerings? And if there are, can you please briefly just touch on them? Yes, there are. And maybe I'm not going to focus a lot on the Old Testament side. But if you look from the Old Testament, you have your first fruit offering, your alms offering, your seed offering, your tithe offering. But I just want to bring it to us in the New Testament church. The few that I know of, these are matters that are highly debated in the church. Let me start with the issue of the tithe. It's debated in the church. So I'm going to speak from my position what I preach and what I believe in. So there is the tithe, which is the 10% of your income as a believer must be brought to God. I'm not going to explain a lot on that because you said just briefly. There's also the freewill offering. So this is when we circulate the basket or whatever that we use to collect offering. And then there's also alms giving. Alms giving is maybe that I need to explain that. This is when you give to someone. Maybe you see someone is strapped in or you know of someone and then you give to them. So that is alms on offering. So I'm just going to touch on those for our benefit. There's also seed offering which is not an everyday thing. There's times when you are feeling guilty. There's something that I'm believing God for and you just bring. This is not something that is, you know, it's rare. It shouldn't be like that whereby someone tells you to bring a seed. But you must know there's something that I'm believing God for and I'm planting this so you give whatever it is that you have decided. So that's a seed offering as well. It's also practiced in the New Testament church. Thank you very much for that Mfundisi. You mentioned something in your tithe. And in one of our questions we have something relating to that. It says from on our Facebook page it says that we also spoke on bringing tithe to the storehouse of the Lord. What is tithe? And is tithe only about finances? So on top of that, how do people who don't have finances bring to the storehouse of the Lord? Thank you very much. When we speak of a tithe, we speak of 10% of your income, right? Maybe let me start here. People use the argument that tithe is the law. It's the Old Testament and we did away with the Old Testament. Why are we still keeping the tithe? That's the argument. But people who have studied the Bible know that tithe did not start in the law. But it was put in the law so that to make it compulsory to abandon Israel. Abraham started with the tithe when he gave to Melchizedek after he went to fight with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. And when he came back with the spoils, Melchizedek somehow, I believe that it was an inspiration because he somehow just knew that he gave a tithe a tenth of all that he had. So that's when we start to hear of this principle or concept of tithe. And we also know that Jacob also gave his tithe because the Bible tells us that after he slept at that place Bethel, he said to God, if you bless me, I am going to come to this place and I'm going to give my tithe as well. So it was before the law. It was before Moses. But the concept and the principle of tithing was already there. So God placed it in the law so that it becomes compulsory. Let me go back to that again. So what is tithe? Tithe is a ten percent of your income. So it's not necessarily money. But it is whatever that you consider an income. For a farmer who goes and farms and leaves off his produce, ten percent will come from that. But we are living in a time where the current that we are using for exchange is money. So that's why tithe is now money. So for someone who says, I work with Elon, even people who are farming, they farm and then they go sell. At the end of the day what they bring back as their profit, whatever, it's money. So that's why when we speak of tithe now, it's money. But then they used to bring their sheep, they used to bring their fruits, they used to bring their whatever. Whatever they brought or produced, that's what they brought to God as a ten percent. But we are living in a time. Anyone who can come and make an argument, why is it always just about money? Because now when you want money, you go to work, they don't give you money. They give you money. You go to any grant from the government, they don't give you votes. They give you money. So money is the currency that we use. So that's why the ten percent is always, Nomimali, is always spoken about when it comes to Elon, the tithe. I hear you Mfundisi, but for someone who does not have... Yes, let me go back there. Thank you for reminding me. God did not say bring a hundred grand, bring ten grand, bring. He says bring ten, which is ten percent. Ten percent of zero is zero. So Ghusgud, if you don't have an income, your tithe is just your heart. But as soon as there's something that comes in, if you are making ten grand, bring that one grand. So God made it to, it's not about the quantity, but it's about the principle itself. So no matter how much you make, there is a tenth in whatever that you are making. So a zero, a zero, a tenth for a zero is zero. So zero is good enough for God, provided that zero is what you are making. Thank you for that, Mfundisi. And we know that the scripture that speaks on tithing, can you please remind me of it, Mfundisi? Malakai chapter 3 verse number 10. Uti, uti, bring, uti, uti mkulunkulu, bring. In fact, Mkala from Pezul, he says, uti mkulunkulu, you have robbed me. Uti ni mkulunkulu. And the prophet asked Noma, uti, or in fact God answers himself, uti, you have robbed me. And then the prophet, and God says, you are saying, how can we rob God? Uti, uti, by tithes and offering. And then he says, bring all your tithes into the storehouse of the Lord. Uti, so that there may be food. So the tithe was used, number one, to take care of the, the, the, the things at the temple. There was oil, there was all of this. So tenth percent was used to take care of the running of the house of God. Number two, tenth percent was used to take care of our priest who was serving in the church. So when there is, there is tenth, when there is giving of tithe in the house, it ensures the movement of the house. Every, every church has a ma, a ma, a ma cost. Every church has a ma expenses. There's, there's electricity, there's generators, there's carpets, and there's whatever that is needed. It is the ten percent primarily that ensures uti, mkulunkulu continues each and every day. People, people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people people