Sermon

LRH: Order in Our Giving - 14

Harvest Chapel International - Kumasi

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  1. Do you want to build your faith? Do you desire

  2. to have a true encounter with God through His Word?

  3. Then listen to Logos.

  4. Rima R with Rev.

  5. Dr.

  6. Joseph Balbin, Head Pastor of Harvest Chapel International Kumasi. He

  7. is a seasoned man of God, and a teacher of

  8. the Word in its truth and simplicity. Make time with

  9. us each and every Monday to Friday at 2 p.m.

  10. on Spirit 88.3 FM as we encounter the Word of Truth.

  11. God richly bless you.

  12. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Are you heaven-laden?

  13. Are you seeking the face of the Lord for a

  14. mighty deliverance and breakthrough?

  15. Then get ready.

  16. Harvest Chapel International Kumasi presents IPIP2. The highly anticipated second

  17. edition of If I Perish, I Perish Fast. Get ready

  18. for three days of power-packed worship, intense prayer, and continuous fasting.

  19. This year, God is giving us rest for our souls.

  20. Taken from Matthew 11-28, it is happening from the 4th

  21. to 6th of September. The venue is Harvest Chapel International,

  22. the Nyame Kumasi, on the Sunset Hotel Road, Welcome to

  23. to Logos Rima Al with God's servant, Reverend Dr. Joseph Baalbin,

  24. Head Pastor of Harvest Chapel International Kumasi. And now, to

  25. today's message.

  26. Amen. Let's take our confession from Joshua 1 verse 8.

    Joshua 1:8

  27. This book of the Lord shall not depart out of

  28. my mouth, But I shall meditate in it day and night,

  29. and I may observe to do according to all that

  30. is written in it. For then I will make my

  31. way prosperous, and then I will have good success. Amen.

  32. Why don't you take your seats in His presence as

  33. we continue to wait on the Lord in His presence.

  34. And God bless you for taking part in day one

  35. of our fast. Tomorrow we will do the same. Since

  36. we are talking about giving, we can't give something that

  37. we don't have. Anytime we talk about giving, we make

  38. it clear that there are at least three key basic

  39. things that we can give. We can give our time,

  40. we can give God our talents, and then we can

  41. give God our treasures or money. And so we'll be

  42. praying for these resources. God should show us where we

  43. can identify them, particularly financial resources. So material, financial, spiritual resources.

  44. We can't give what we don't have. So I'm just

  45. giving focus for our fasting. So as you examine yourself,

  46. some of us have money, but we've not been yet

  47. able as yet to identify spiritual resources or gifts that

  48. we can bring and can put it at the altar

  49. and serve God at the altar. So for you, most

  50. of your asking is going to be for spiritual resources.

  51. Maybe as the choir sang, this is not just raw talent. Amen.

  52. It's a mixture of talent and then unction. Hallelujah. It

  53. is because they gave those talents to God and presented

  54. it at the altar. No amount of wishing And last

  55. thing for ability to sing and minister will do the

  56. trick unless you enroll. And when you enroll, it's going

  57. to take you a lot of time. It's going to

  58. take you a lot of investment in rehearsal before the

  59. unction will come on you. It is never the case

  60. that God annoys you and say, go and sing. No,

  61. it's going to be the raw and the crude, if

  62. you like, talent. But it would have to be refined

  63. by God himself for it to be acceptable to him.

  64. That's what God does. Amen. But then you have to take.

  65. He throws the invitation. You take the first step towards him.

  66. And then he anoints you when he judges that you

  67. are sincere. God is never mocked. The anointing will not

  68. just come on you.

  69. Amen.

  70. You must thrust yourself upon him. You must let go everything.

  71. Total surrender. Then the unction comes upon you. And then

  72. the sacrifice. It's accepted. So we can have time, the

  73. same thing, talents and treasures. We are still talking about

  74. order and giving. So this preamble, I believe it's well placed. Yes.

  75. So as we fast and pray, we have not yet

  76. discovered the length and the breaths of what we can

  77. bring to the altar. Let's pray to God. And as

  78. I'm saying, if you realize that I need, I want to,

  79. I want to join the harvest squad, but I'm hesitant

  80. because I, I'm not too sure if my grace is

  81. there as we pray. God is going to throw lights

  82. on it. Hallelujah. And for some of us, it's going

  83. to be time. Sometimes we look at our time and

  84. we have lasted to do something for God all these years.

  85. When we see people serving God, we just wish that, oh,

  86. I could also do the same. But once again, my time,

  87. my time. And so we are unable to take the leap.

  88. I'm going to pray that God will show you where

  89. you can find the time. Amen. God will throw lights. Hallelujah. Amen.

  90. Some of you, you have to walk to your boss

  91. and say, boss, you know, I want to come and

  92. negotiate my time and my lunch hour. I'm going to

  93. work through my lunch hour so that on days that

  94. I have to go for service, on days that I

  95. have to go for rehearsal or whatever, I can be

  96. able to close early. And you'll be shocked that he

  97. will say, okay, That's a good deal. You can even

  98. offer that, instead of eight, can I start at 7.30?

  99. You know, you give the workplace 30 minutes, jala, free

  100. of charge. God will give you the innovative ways. It

  101. doesn't just work like that. I mean, it just happens

  102. like that. Amen. And then for those of us who

  103. want to give God a lot of money, but the money,

  104. you see, Babu says, God is going to pray. Yours

  105. is going to be, the focus is God. Where can

  106. I get money? I want to be giving, but my

  107. money is small. And God is going to also pinpoint

  108. to you how you can have those financial resources. So

  109. we are praying for spiritual resources because it takes that

  110. to be able to do the work of God and

  111. to build the kingdom of God. It is not by power.

  112. not by might, but by my Spirit, seeth the Lord,

  113. shall it be established. With the arm of flesh, we

  114. shall prevail. Hallelujah. And so in all the giving that

  115. we give, it has to be backed by spiritual resources,

  116. the unction, the enablement, the ability to do that comes

  117. when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and we are

  118. cooperating with Him. Hallelujah. Then... You can sense the power

  119. of God, ability to do coming down upon us. And

  120. you and I, where we are going, where God has

  121. promised to take us, we need a lot of spiritual

  122. energy and stamina to be able to get there. Hallelujah. Amen.

  123. We are on track. We have come this far, but

  124. we are not there yet. And we need a push,

  125. spiritual resources. And so tomorrow, it will be the focus

  126. of our fasting and praying and trusting God that He

  127. will show us how we can get these three resources, talent, time, treasures,

  128. including spiritual resources, financial resources. material resources so that we

  129. can be able to complete and make progress in the

  130. assignment that God will never complete because it's a lifetime assignment.

  131. Immediately this finishes, then God says, now can we turn

  132. to this? At a point in time, you'll find out

  133. that you are doing a lot of things. Amen. God,

  134. most often you'll find out that you are multitasking and doing.

  135. So this one will finish, then this one. When God

  136. realizes that this one is about to finish, then another

  137. one will come, you know, so that we can serve

  138. him all the days of our life. That's when we complete.

  139. Sometimes that's when people say, I finished. And then you relax.

  140. Then the ancient dreams, and then boom, before you realize,

  141. the old man just pops up. Hallelujah. One of the

  142. ways that we can, you know, put the old man

  143. at bay is to be always present at the altar serving.

  144. Because then the refiner's fire would best burn the drawers

  145. in our lives so we can shine. Hallelujah. And be

  146. energized and empowered to do the will of God. Amen.

  147. So let's continue with our discourses, our text for the man.

  148. Order in giving, Matthew 6, 24. No one can serve

  149. two masters. For either he will hate the one and

  150. love the other, or else he will be loyal to

  151. the one and despise the other. You cannot save God

  152. and mammon. And this is coming from Jesus Christ on

  153. the Sermon on the Mount. From the horse's own mouth,

  154. God is saying, there's no two ways. You cannot do it. Hallelujah.

  155. But then, as we are arguing, we still need the resources.

  156. We need the mammon. We need the money. We need

  157. the welfare so that we can be able to do

  158. things for God. And at the backdrop of all these

  159. discourses that God keeps on reminding us and I pray

  160. that we'll never forget it. Hallelujah. Because I believe that

  161. is the rallying point or turning point in your life

  162. or a lifetime of giving. If you recognize that God

  163. is the one who gives life and breath and everything.

  164. He says the earth is the Lord's, the fullness thereof,

  165. and all them that dwell therein. Meaning that all the

  166. resources in this world belongs to God, including the wealth,

  167. including that which is currently in your purse and in

  168. your bank account. Can you wrap your mind around it?

  169. And when God makes a demand, are you willing to

  170. be able to give it back to him? That's the

  171. challenge with many of us. Amen. We have not as

  172. yet been able to wrap our minds that whatever wealth

  173. that we now control or have acquired, whatever acquisition, whatever,

  174. including our time, our talents and treasures, they belong to me.

  175. And there's no way you're going to be able to

  176. get this thing out, except once again, you just hold

  177. in with God during those crucial times and moments when

  178. you have those one-on-one conversations with God in your devotional time.

  179. That's why the Bible says, have no anxiety about anything,

  180. rather by prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving. Let all your requests

  181. be made to God, and that the peace of God,

  182. the passive all-understanding, hallelujah, will wrap our minds around, hallelujah, amen,

  183. and form a wall and a garrison around our mind.

  184. so that we can be able to do whatever God

  185. is calling us to do. Amen. Amen. He says, you

  186. come and let us talk. And God is open to

  187. every form of conversation. That is how we've made it.

  188. It doesn't just happen. We also went through seasons of apprehension, fear, anxiety,

  189. debate within our hearts. Should I do it? Should I not?

  190. And then the invitation of the scriptures is there, but

  191. Thrusting ourselves on the authority of the word. Sometimes we

  192. are hesitant. Will it work out? Will God bless? If

  193. I give my time, won't I be shortchained? If I

  194. give my time, won't I be shortchained? Am I not

  195. going to lose? So most often we are there, but

  196. we are hesitant. And the only thing we can do

  197. is to encourage you. But as for the leap, it

  198. is you who have to do it. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Amen.

  199. So we are continuing with our lessons, and I hope

  200. that we'll just look at the life of Abraham because

  201. I think he gives us, you know, he's an example

  202. of what all that we are reading about the people

  203. of Israel. We are in Deuteronomy 8, verse 1, and

    Deuteronomy 8:1

  204. we are trying to look at it. We said in

  205. Deuteronomy 8, verse 1, we can pick five lessons there

    Deuteronomy 8:1

  206. that God on our pathway to acquiring Divine wealth. And

  207. that's what we said. We should be mindful of the

  208. whole commandment. Not pick and choose. I like this. I

  209. can do this. I can do that. No. Every commandment,

  210. that's what God said. Every commandment which I command you today. Amen.

  211. And then the second point there, he said, be careful

  212. to do walking obedience. Be careful to do obeying. All

  213. the commandments. Man shall not live by bread alone, but

  214. by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

  215. He says when we do that, then the third point

  216. we have gone over is that we will live and multiply.

  217. We will increase. Remember Adam and Eve before God and

  218. the creation. He says what? And God blessed them and

  219. said what? Increase. Multiply. replenish the air. That is what

  220. blessing means. There is increase. There is multiplication. There is replenishment.

  221. There is dominion. Whatever assignment that God gives you to do,

  222. your hand is strengthened Your heart is committed. The faculties

  223. of your mind are zeroed in on the assignment. And

  224. you will realize that you are able to do it.

  225. There is no, I can't do it in your mouth.

  226. It is eliminated, like Paul would say. I can do

  227. all things through Christ who strengthens me. Amen. The task

  228. may look on us and beyond you, but nonetheless, you

  229. tackle it. Amen. And you will realize that God will

  230. be by your side and he will empower you and

  231. he will be golden in your own and say, go, go, go.

  232. You can do it. Hallelujah. That you may live and multiply.

  233. And then we say the fourth one, you go in

  234. and possess the land. And number five, we say the

  235. Lord swore. God is under oath to bring us into

  236. the blessing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. So we are going and

  237. possess the land. And we learned that Israel was led

  238. to the very brink of the land. But then, as

  239. we see, Moses died. They are the brink of it.

  240. And then God comes and encourages them. We said, go

  241. in and possess the military. That means that what? Occupy

  242. by force. Hallelujah. And they were only able to enter

  243. into the blessing when they obeyed. They did it. Hallelujah.

  244. And as I said, we'll look at the life of

  245. Abraham and look at some of the lessons he teaches us.

  246. But then let's finish up. Let's wrap up this one.

  247. Go in and possess the land. Let me buffer what

  248. I've just said with some scriptures. Deuteronomy chapter 6, 10

    Deuteronomy 6 chapter mention

  249. to 12. I think the other day we were making

  250. the point that for every particular person, God will give

  251. you a certain specific person you know, commandment that when

  252. you obey, boom, you are going to go into it. Abraham,

  253. he encouraged him to, in Genesis chapter 12, to leave household,

    Genesis 12 chapter mention

  254. to leave father, to leave family, and then to follow.

  255. And God said, I'm going to bless you if you

  256. do that. We saw in the case of Isaac that

  257. in Genesis chapter 26, when there was famine and he

    Genesis 26 chapter mention

  258. wanted to leave to Egypt, God came on the scene.

  259. He said, no, don't leave. Stay in this land and

  260. I will bless you. And as a result of his obedience,

  261. the Bible says he obeyed. And despite the drought conditions,

  262. that was adverse to, if you like, planting or sowing.

  263. The Bible says that because it was a supernatural instruction,

  264. God appeared to him and said, so. And Isaac obeyed

  265. and sowed in the midst of the drought. And boom,

  266. the Bible says he reaped a hundredfold blessing. Hallelujah. Amen.

  267. So we are saying that how are you and I

  268. going to enter into the blessings that God has? It's

  269. not one strategy. It's not one specific instruction. We are

  270. just learning all the principles Ultimately, it boils down to

  271. you hearing God giving that instruction and you being and

  272. I being willing to obey. And then God will reward us.

  273. There's always rewards for obedience. Amen. Hallelujah. So look at

  274. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 10 to 12. Let's show up

    Deuteronomy 6:10–12

  275. the principles with the word of God. So it shall

  276. be when the Lord your God brings you into the

  277. land of which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac,

  278. and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which

  279. you did not build. Houses, this is Israel's promise, houses

  280. full of all good things which you did not fill.

  281. Hewn out wells which you did not dig. Vineyards and

  282. olive trees which you did not plant. When you have

  283. eaten and are full, then beware lest you forget the

  284. Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt

  285. from the house of Bande. So this is for them.

  286. This is what God, so when he said, go in

  287. and possess, God had in mind all these, I mean,

  288. it couldn't have been clearer that I am taking you,

  289. but you are going in to possess it. The blessings

  290. that I have called you, I have said, I promise,

  291. it is all waiting for you. But there's something that

  292. you have to do. If you don't do it, you're

  293. not going to come into it. Did they do it?

  294. Now look at Psalm 44, verse 3. And then we

    Psalms 44:3

  295. look at Joshua 24. 12 to 14, just to tell

  296. you that. Because they obeyed, they came into the blessing.

  297. Psalm 44 verse 3. There's a commentary on that. But

    Psalms 44:3

  298. they did not gain possession of the land by their

  299. own sword, nor did their own arm save them. But

  300. it was your right hand, your arm, and the light

  301. of your cantina, because you favored them. God, the blessings

  302. come from God ultimately. So when Israel went in, And

  303. they possess, as we are reading in Deuteronomy chapter 8,

    Deuteronomy 8 chapter mention

  304. and God is saying, be careful that at the point

  305. in time, your heart is not going to be lifted

  306. up and you say that by my degree, by my connections,

  307. by my PhD and the other master's degrees that I

  308. have done, that is why I have come into this

  309. place of wealth. Then your heart is being lifted up.

  310. But you shall remember that it is the Lord your

  311. God that gives you the power. To create wealth. Amen. Hallelujah.

  312. So here the psalmist is acknowledging. But it was God.

  313. Your right hand. Your arm. And the light of your countenance.

  314. That's it. When God says I love you. That's it.

  315. You and I. The grace is favored. I say because

  316. you favor the period. Hallelujah. Now let's look at Joshua's

  317. commentary on it. In Joshua. God was speaking. That was

  318. the last sermon of Joshua. And listen to us. God.

  319. The Holy Spirit was speaking. He said, Joshua 24, 12

  320. to 14, how they conquered Cana ultimately and why the

  321. victory was God and why the booty that they entered

  322. into the blessing, the wealth, they owed it to God

  323. to honor him with the wealth. Amen. He said, I

  324. sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from

  325. before you. Also the two kings of the Amorites, but

  326. not with your sword or with your bow, I have

  327. given you a land for which you did not labor

  328. and cities which you did not build. And you dwell

  329. in them. You eat of the vineyards and olive groves

  330. which you did not plant. Now, therefore, fear the Lord.

  331. Serve him in sincerity and in truth. And put away

  332. the gods which your father served on the other side

  333. of the river in Egypt. Serve the Lord. Amen. Hallelujah.

  334. So all that's we have read is just trying to

  335. tell us that God, when God says, I'll bless you,

  336. God says, I'll increase you, I'll multiply you, He has

  337. the capacity to do it. And He knows just what

  338. He will do for each and everyone. I mean, should

  339. I use the word specificity? Hallelujah. So you don't go

  340. and convert what somebody else is doing. There are some

  341. of us here, the blessing is waiting for me. I

  342. know that the blessing that will come to me, that

  343. has come to me since I gave my life, is

  344. to serve at the altars of God. That is why

  345. I'm always there serving. Rain or shine. Hallelujah. Amen. And

  346. I know and I acknowledge whatever rewards I get from

  347. serving at the altars, it belongs to God. So when

  348. he makes a demand, I'm not hesitant to give it

  349. back to him. Amen. Because that is his promise. And

  350. that was what he was telling Israel of all. Hallelujah. Amen.

  351. And the blessing of God, when we talk about blessing,

  352. we are talking about fruitfulness, increase and multiplication. And for

  353. each one of the children of God, it is tied

  354. to our obedience. Let me make this point. It is

  355. tied to our obedience in pursuing our life assignments. Amen.

  356. So if you agree that you are able to work

  357. at that pharmacy because of God, when your salary comes,

  358. you'll say this one, it belongs to me. I had

  359. an interesting, you know, I had an interesting text this

  360. morning from one of our university students. And I said

  361. I'm going to weave my discord around it. And it's

  362. very telling in it. She said, you know, in the

  363. course of the lecture for the day, I think she

  364. was still at the lectures, and then she just sent

  365. me the text and said, you know, this is what

  366. my lecturer has been saying, you know, and he spoke

  367. quite extensively. I doubt it's the lecture, but maybe, you know,

  368. a university lecturer sometimes they meander off in my days,

  369. that's what they, and talk about life, other things, and

  370. all that, and then they will come back just to make,

  371. so she said to you, He had been talking on tithing,

  372. and he says that, no, as a student there, tithing

  373. is not compulsory, you know, so you can decide. And

  374. I said, we've heard this. One of my roommates used

  375. to say that, ask for tithing, no way. You give

  376. to God by your own tithe, because the parents have

  377. already tithed. You know, so now she says she's now confused.

  378. And then, I mean, if she has to tithe in church,

  379. when she goes home too, she has to tithe in

  380. her local church, and then sometimes the resources that she

  381. has to use to type, I mean, student money, you know,

  382. so she's confused whether to continue with typing or maybe

  383. she has not even started. So I said we will

  384. engage each other, you know, but I gave a snippet

  385. of what we will discuss and said, there's no way

  386. that you type and then God will shortchange you. in

  387. my experience. There's no way. Amen. He is the one

  388. who commands the blessing upon us. Amen. And that's why

  389. that we read every time, you know, bring ye the

  390. tithes and the offerings into my house so that there

  391. will be meat in my storehouse and prove me and

  392. see if I'm not going to open the windows of

  393. heaven and pour you out such blessing that there shall

  394. not be room enough for us to eat. You have

  395. heard it all, but you say, this one there. It's

  396. not for me. This instruction is not. But the people

  397. who obey, they enter into the blessing and can testify.

  398. Whether it's an Old Testament commandment or whatever. Like I

  399. always say, you don't want to be legal with God.

  400. Particularly when you understand who God is. To Abraham, he

  401. said what? God is the possessor of heaven and earth.

  402. What brought him into this experience? What he saw unfold

  403. in his life and his walk and adventures with God. Hallelujah.

  404. That's why the Bible calls him a man of faith

  405. because when he had the sermon to leave country, home,

  406. and household, and family, and everything, the Bible says he obeyed.

  407. It doesn't mean he didn't debate. It doesn't mean he

  408. didn't have to answer. I mean, it would have been

  409. a very strange family if when Abraham packed his bag

  410. and everything and he was going, they didn't ask him, son, Abraham,

  411. where are you going? It's logical that they would ask him.

  412. And then he says, God wants me to leave. I

  413. don't know whether he said he told them, you know,

  414. just like some of us, I'm coming. Hallelujah. But probably

  415. he told them because Lot also said, I'm going to

  416. go with you. But he had to give an answer

  417. and said, where are you going? He says, I don't know.

  418. I don't know. God says a land that he will

  419. show me. I don't know. He says he has a

  420. blessing for me. And that through me and my offspring,

  421. all the families of this world will be blessed. And

  422. yet still, at 75 years, no child. But by faith,

  423. the Bible says he obeyed and he left. Hallelujah. Amen.

  424. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Are you heaven-leading?

  425. Are you seeking the face of the Lord for a

  426. mighty deliverance and breakthrough?

  427. Then get ready.

  428. Harvest Chapel International Kumasi presents IPIP2, the highly anticipated second

  429. edition of If I Perish, I Perish Fast. Get ready

  430. for three days of power-packed worship, intense prayer, and continuous fasting.

  431. This year, God is giving us rest for our souls.

  432. taken from Matthew chapter 11, verse 28. It is happening

    Matthew 11:28

  433. from the 4th to 6th of September. The venue is

  434. Harvest Chapel International, the Nyami Kumasi, on the Sunset Hotel Road,

  435. close to the Mickey Hotel. Come, lay down your tools

  436. and labor, and receive divine rest from the Lord.

  437. Shalom.

  438. This broadcast was proudly sponsored by the Friends and Partners

  439. of Harvest Japan International Komatsu. Thank you for listening to

  440. Logo Shreema Hour with Rev.

  441. Dr.

  442. Joseph Baobie. We believe that as we act on this word,

  443. God's power will transform your life. Join or visit us

  444. for our in-person family service at Harvest Chapel International, close

  445. to McLean Hotel and on the Sunset Road, this and

  446. every Sunday at 7 a.m. for our key service, 8.30 a.m.

  447. for our Bible study and 9 a.m. for our English service.

  448. You can also join us this and every Wednesday for

  449. our amazing midweek teaching service at 6 p.m. and on

  450. Fridays for our prayer solution service also.

  451. At 6 p.m.

  452. Remember that all our services are streamed online at Harvest

  453. Chapel International Pumasik on our Facebook and YouTube pages.