LRH: Order in Our Giving - 7

Do you want to build your faith? Do you desire

to have a true encounter with God through His Word?

Then listen to Logos Rima R with Rev.

Dr.

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

is a seasoned man of God, and a teacher of

the Word in its truth and simplicity. Make time with

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

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

God richly bless you.

And you say....

Welcome to Logos Rima R with God's servant, Rev.

Dr.

Joseph Baalbein, Head Pastor of Harvest Chapel International Kumasi. And now,

to today's message.

Before we take our seats, let's go to Joshua 1

Joshua 1:8

verse 8. This book of the Lord shall not depart

out of my mouth. But I shall meditate in it

day and night, that I may observe to do according

to all that is written in it. But then I

will make my way prosperous, and then I will have

good success. Amen. Why don't you take your seats in

his presence as we continue our discourses on how best

we can bring order into our given lives. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

And text or anchor scripture for the month of order

in our giving is taken from Matthew chapter 6, verse 24.

Matthew 6:24

Matthew 6, 24. It says that no one can save

two masters, for either he will hate the one and

love the other, or else he will be loyal to

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

and mammon. And that's Jesus speaking. The message says that

you can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god,

you end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds

contempt for the other. You can't worship God and mammon. Amen.

So if in the chase for my mom, let's say

you own a very lucrative shop that on Sundays you

make a good business. And then on Sunday during church

service time, you say, oh, I'm going to open my

shop because it's a festive season. So our values, that's

a typical scenario. Hallelujah. Giving the choice. Should I go

to church or should I open shop? All my customers

say they will come on Sunday or Oh, then you

are dead. Then Satan will come. No, you know something?

If you go to the workplace, you make a lot

of money and you pay time. Immediately that comes. Oh,

God will understand. And then we sacrifice that one and

decide that we'll go for chasing the spirit of Mammon. Hallelujah.

So self-denial of the ungodly lifestyle and the comforts of

this world. Anything that displeases God. Verse 5. He says,

blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

And we said meek means they are submissive to the

authority of God in all their choices in life. Hallelujah.

They are servant-like hearts and attitudes towards God. The meek,

strength subdued. Hallelujah. When the Holy Spirit whispers, they yield

and they give in to the authority of the word

of God. then you are demonstrating meekness. Hallelujah. Amen. And

then in verse 6, he's still correcting the attitude. He said,

blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for

they shall be satisfied. More or less, he's saying that

God wants to see zeal and passion and enthusiasm in

the children of God, in the citizens that belong to

the kingdom. Amen. God wants to see excitement. I'm sure

a lot of us here, we will all be watching this.

Ghana Black Stars and the World Cup. And we'll be

behind our screens and rooting for our people. And we'll

show zeal. When there's a player on the field who

is not placing, we'll say, Sano, change him, change him.

As if the coach can hear us in our home.

Everybody in his home say, they should change, they should change.

But when it comes to the things of God, Oh,

then we are flattered. Because that one, when you go

and show zeal, they will say, no, they will give

you names. They will give you names. You are too spirituous. No,

that's not it. You have to take it. So there's

no zeal. There's no enthusiasm. We can't infect. You know,

enthusiasm or passion has a way of arousing people and

challenging people. So if the body language is like a deitical,

it's shuffling when it comes to the things of God.

We infect each other. We tell people it doesn't matter.

It is inconsequential to life. But if you understand where

we are going, where we are going, if you understand

where we are going. So if you know where we

are going, like I said earlier, on church days, you

will not set the worship of God aside and go

and chase after the spirit of Mammon. Because you know,

The first law, the first commandment. Hear, O Israel, the

Lord thy God is one. Thou shalt love the Lord

thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all

thy mind, and all thy strength. And then thy neighbor

as thyself. So you bring order. Sunday, I'm not opening shop.

It's a day of worship for me and my household. Amen.

You don't come to church and you tell the others

to go and open. Hallelujah. We are all going to church.

Isn't it amazing? That's what God did in the church

in the wilderness, isn't it? On the Sabbath. And what

did he do? He compensated them. So on Friday, what happened? Double.

He said, collect double of the manna. So he compensates.

It just tells us what God will do if you

decide that because of my zeal, the zeal of the

Lord has consumed me. Sunday, church service days, the day

I have to go for the midweek, I'm closing shop,

I'm going to worship the King of glory. I'm not

going to allow anything. Hey, God will compensate you. Tomorrow morning,

immediately you open the shop. All the people that you

lost during this Wednesday evening because you went to church,

God will send them. He can even send just one.

What amount of sales do you make a day? He

can double and triple. Just one person will come and

just empty your shop. And then you'll be there. It's like, hey,

what is happening? It is God. Hallelujah. It is God.

He has the testimonies of people who place God first.

It's such an amazing experience. Amen. He says, those that

hunger and thirst for righteousness, they have desire and they

have determination. They show zeal, enthusiasm in the pursuit of God. Self-denial.

And they persevere. And God always says they shall be satisfied.

God will satisfy them. The thirst and the quest, the

hunger for God. He says he will satisfy it. Because

when you find God, when you find God, look, the

spirit of Mammon will recede. the spirit of Mammon will cease, recede,

because you know. After all, like he says, and he

challenges us through our scripture. He says, the silver and gold,

they are mine. Bring me the tithes. Try me and

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

heaven and pour you out such blessing that you cannot be,

you not have room enough to receive it. And God

has all these promises in and say, more or less,

in an invitation to claim it. Claim it. Let your

values change. And before then, Malachi was saying it. He says,

God was saying that you are robbing me. He said,

what we're enticed. And then so it's more like God

is challenging us that, look, you are not meditating long

enough to understand who I am. Who I am. The

possessor of heaven and earth. The creator of all things.

But we hear it and we allow it that no, no, no.

God first. He says, seek ye first the kingdom of

God and his righteousness. And all these other things will

be added. Amen. Let's look at 7. Let's go on.

It says, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

And we talked about the attitude. We should have the

attitude of kindness. Amen. Or kind-heartedness. Amen. And remember, we

said it's a process. So now that we have the

DNA of God, God is going to help us. It

should never be. If you have heard it, you see,

the irony about some of these things is that God

is so kind. When we are going through the process

and we are not doing very well, God will give

us the feedback. So one day you will hear it.

They will mention your name. They will come and pass,

you know, in your in your room, in front of

your room, and they'll be gossiping so loud that you'll

hear it. And then they'll mention your name, Beauty. And

then it's like, oh, is that me that they are

gossiping about? Where's your best friend? No, God wants us

to be merciful. And he says they shall receive mercy.

And then I start from that. The other shade of

meaning about merciful is being forgiven. Forgiving is a place

where a lot of us stumble. A lot of us stumble.

It's part of the old Adamic nature that we need

a lot of effort to crucify and to live. Like

we always say, you can't love God and love man

without the heart of forgiveness. So let me say it's

an urgent need. It's an urgent attitude that has to

be cultivated and then demonstrated in our lives, in the

construction of the new man. Because as we know, love

is the overarching virtue of all the others. But love

and forgiveness, they go together. God could love us because

he forgave us. Without him forgiving us, and then the

wrath and anger of God still hanging over our heads.

No way. So God had to forgive us to love

the world again. So they work. So that forgiveness thing. Look,

let them say, you don't want anybody to say anything

negative about you. We know sometimes the comments, it can

be scoffing and cutting and piercing and disabling, but... God,

that's why the Holy Spirit is in place. You talk

to him about it, he will heal you. Amen. Don't

allow that anger, that bitterness to fester. You won't be

able to grow. Like we always say, it will clog

your prayer channels. Because all that God will be saying, forgive.

Just as God forgave you, forgive one another. Hallelujah. So

he said, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

You remember what Jesus said? He said, if you don't

forgive me, there are trespasses in one other rendition of

the Lord's Prayer. He said, then God will not forgive you.

And we say, oh no, it can't be true. God,

you didn't forgive me. Me, I don't forgive. You are

a forgiving God. Me, I can't forgive because I can't forget.

You forgive first and you forget later. And when we

say forget it, it's only dead people who do it. No, no.

Forget that. It means it will come, but it won't

disarm you. It won't pierce you. It won't bring all

the pain and all the ugly spectacle when you recall

or recollect what that person did to you. That's what

we mean by forget. It doesn't mean that it won't

come into your head. Sometimes we say, oh, no, I

can't forget. You can't forget. It can recede to the

recesses of your heart or mind such that when you

recollect it, you can smile over it and laugh over it. Yeah,

that's what it means. And until you can smile and

laugh over it, it means you have not forgiven. Hallelujah.

That's tough, eh? Amen. So let's be quick to forgive

so that we can be able to reach out to

hurting people. Let's do eight. It's a blessing that they're

pure in heart for they shall see God. Pure in

heart means pure thoughts. And purity has to do with

our motives and intentions. Don't be a schemer. Every time

you are scheming, how best you can hurt people or

hit back. Pure in heart. Childlike faith and trust in God.

And the whole thing about the purity is that holiness

is the goal. Be holy for I am holy. And

pure in heart also means abhorrence of sin. However, we

know that we may trip and fall. The apostle John

puts it nicely in John, he said, there is no

man that sinneth not. But the distinction between the believer

and the unbeliever is that, he says that what? When

we sin, we do what? We repent. We don't continue

on living in sin. Because the power of God, of

the Holy Spirit in our life, acts as a restraint.

In sin life. Because you will know within your spirit.

You will never be happy. You will never be joyful.

Sin will clog your prayer channel. So it more or

less sin in our lives as believers. Paralyzes us. And

brings a hole to our functioning. Amen. And so when

you have felt it before. You don't want to go

there again. That's why the antidote is the confession. And

then boom. The Holy Spirit. comes back alive, and then

he begins to give us his energy, then we are joyful.

We can pray. We can sing. And we can be

in good mood. Hallelujah. Amen. If we trip and fall,

be quick in repentance. Take advantage of the grace to

repent and do it. Hallelujah. Let's go on. Blessed are

the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

They shall become sons of God, peacemakers. They are proactive

and quick to settle quarrels and disagreements. Proactive. Amen. Proactive.

They take the lead. No, she's the one who hurt me.

I'm waiting for her to come and apologize. If she

doesn't come, okay. No. He won't say, stay in your corner.

Me too, I'll be in my corner. We used to

be very, very good friends, but now it's over. No. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen.

So be proactive and quick to settle quarrels and disagreements.

Love peace. Settle for peace whenever the opportunity presents itself.

So sometimes you can just, I mean practically, start praying

over it. Lo and behold, this person that you didn't,

as you start praying over it, God will just orchestrate,

you know, a taxi back to school and then lo

and behold, when you open the taxi, here she is.

And just the two of you are there. No interference.

You say, yay. It's a setup by God. Start the conversation.

How are you? How was your day? These days, we

don't mean chatting crowd. Maybe in one of these days,

I'll come. We can just go for a meal. God

will give you something too. Amen. Hallelujah. Or if you come,

the two of you come to Harvest Chapel. He says, please,

when you are going for church, come and call me.

You have extended that. You've not said so much in

words unless settle our differences. But telling the person that

come and then call me, it's like, amen. That's peacemakers.

Love peace. Settle for peace. And then the last point

I have here, don't prolong unduly quarrels and disagreements. There's

a time for everything, isn't it, Ecclesiastes? A time for

war and a time for peace. So the opportunity will come.

Don't let it pass you by. Settle it. Amen. You

found yourself in that place and then, I mean, maybe

you went for dinner or something. And then, lo and behold,

you found yourself in the same seat. It's an opportunity.

Don't prolong it. Where are you going to sit? Can

I sit by you? Instead of looking for another place

when there's no place. And then you say, can you

push that? Let me sit here. I don't want to

go near the, no, look for it. God will orchestrate

it all. We have seen all these things in our life.

When we say you like me, it doesn't mean nobody

will hurt you, but you seize the opportunity. Don't prolong

unduly quarrels and disagreements. Hallelujah. Even your wife, your husband,

say something. Amen. And then just diffuse the tension. Your roommates,

I've told you my ordeal with my roommate that sucks.

One day I'll tell you. Amen. Hallelujah. So don't prolong

or deal with quarrels. Now let's look at verse 10.

And he said, blessed are those persecuted for righteousness' sake.

For this is the kingdom of God. Hallelujah. Amen. More

or less, it's calling you. I think we'll tie it

to 11 and 12. So let's read this. Blessed are

you when others revile you and persecute you and alter

all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.

For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Hallelujah. Amen.

And so more or less, these three verses, you know,

I'm lumping them, trying to tell us that we don't

have to be surprised To see people disliking, disagreeing, and

insulting us on account of the values and attitudes we

have embraced in this life. When you make a choice,

or you make choices that bring glory and honor to God,

you will attract people. persecution. That's the paradox of the gospel.

Jesus said about end persecution. The Christian suffering is something

that God has woven into the Christian life. You want

to walk with God, you will attract persecution so long

as this earth remains. There's no way everybody will like

you in the workplace, in home. Remember what Jesus said?

He said, I'm bringing not peace, but war. He said

in the home fight, three will be against two and

two against three. It's all talking about the values that

the kingdom citizens want. Embrace the attitudes that they will demonstrate,

the behaviors and the choices that they will make. It

will attract anger and dislike. Hallelujah. Amen. But you need

to be brave and courageous to endure it. Don't quit

or deny God in the face of adversity. Don't, don't.

And he gives us the reason why. Hallelujah. Amen. Continue,

he said that Jesus says here that your reward, my

reward is great. More like Jesus is incentivizing us. I

know it's going to be tough. And remember he said

the life that he came to live and to demonstrate.

I like saying, I mean, look at Jesus Christ for

you and I crowd here. You and I there, already

we are guilty, you know. But Jesus Christ, he stood

there and said, which of you here accuses me of wrongdoing.

There's nobody. The only charge that finally stuck was that

he was blaspheming God by saying that he's the son

of God. That's why they crucified him. But even if

they said they weren't going to crucify us, we have

a lot of things that they will use to crucify us. Amen. Hallelujah. Amen.

But not him. So when they are insulting us, they

are justified. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And Jesus is saying that your

best behaviors rather ironically is what is going to elicit

the persecution. Why? Because of the ruler of this world.

And because of the values that he inculcated in us.

I'm talking about the old man and his author, Satan.

And what he has done to us. That's why we

keep on saying the damage is substantial. There's a lot

of work to be done. To deconstruct the old man.

Don't underplay. That's why Jesus starts, kick starts, you know,

and Matthew documents it quite early in his gospel narratives

about the way that Jesus started attacking values. And encouraging

God-honoring values and choices. Because He's going to change our

attitudes about so many things in this life. And He

keeps on bringing in where we are going. Heaven, heaven, righteousness, heaven, God, meekness,

and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Just emphasizing them. Hallelujah.

And then warning us that we will be attacked. We

will be persecuted. We will be pushed out. Of the

conversations of men. But then be encouraged. That is by design.

That is by design. Until Satan is completely dealt with.

Every believer. Will suffer persecution. If you are running your

Christian life. In such a way that everybody. Likes your

brand of Christianity. The master's own. He wasn't like. But

you your own. And then you are priding yourself. I'm

better than Jesus Christ. They applaud me better. No. No.

He said, if they insulted me, they will insult you.

You have never received an insult as a believer. Then

you have forged out your own brand. And that's what

he's saying. He said, rejoice and be exceedingly glad for

great is your reward in heaven. Once again, reminding us

where we are going and why we have to go

through what we are going. We are going to heaven.

As for the heaven thing, believers, we don't like here.

We want to be here on earth. And then display

opulence and the spirit of mamon. Go chasing him and

then when we have it all, then we'll just display

it and say, oh, see what the Lord has done. Hallelujah. No.

What he's saying is that don't be surprised to see

people disliking, disagreeing and insulting you on account of the

values and attitudes you embrace in life. The choices that

you and I must make should bring glory and honor

to God. Hallelujah. And when they look at that, now

let me put, I put this here because it's important.

The godly choices that we are talking about, the principles

and the values that you are losing to run your life,

they should be taken directly from the Bible and from

the mouth of God. Amen. Not the philosophies of men.

The values we are talking about, it's not some philosopher somewhere, social, no.

When they look at the values that you have embraced

and you are running your life and living amongst men,

we should be able to draw a line to one

of the sayings of God or Jesus or the principles

in the Bible. Hallelujah. Amen. So someday you have a

lot of some of these things, wise sayings, they are around.

Be yourself. Like I was saying, have you seen any

be yourself in the Bible before? Be like Jesus. We

are destroying and discontrasting the old man's name. Be yourself.

Be yourself. Don't let anybody trample on your self-esteem. Did

the boss say that? Go and confront him. I'm here.

I'm backing you. Hey, you don't want to know. That's

not it. Hallelujah. So let's continue making those God-honoring choices

and decisions. Jesus says here that your reward and my

reward is great. Great in heaven. It means in the

life hereafter. Great in heaven. Jesus made sure, he made

sure that he tells us where that great reward will

be dispensed into our lives. Great in heaven. Your rewards

is great in heaven. So that, you see, Jesus is

preparing us. Let's look at him. He didn't go chasing

after the spirit of Mammonu, but he had a fulfilling life.

He had a life where there was no lack. On

the occasion when he had to pay his tithe and

the Pharisees or the people confronted him that you are here,

you don't pay tithe, you don't pay your tax, full tax.

And then he called Peter. They asked Peter. And then

when he got him, Peter said, then he asked him

that question. The people of this, to whom do they contribute?

Is it the citizens or the children? And he says, okay,

so that they don't take offense, go into the sea,

catch the first fish, open his mouth, let go, pay

your tax and my tax. Amen. The needs were met

just when he needed them. He was almost always more

like relaxed in the arms of God. The right attitude.

Else you will go chasing after the spirit of Mammon. Hallelujah. Amen.

Great is your reward for so they persecuted the prophets

who were before you. Hallelujah. Amen. And more or less

it's trying to say we should remain faithful no matter what.

Let me say this and then go. Let's get this.

The Christian life is a highly sacrificial life, but joyous, peaceful,

and a rewarding lifestyle. Let me make it again. The

Christian life is a highly sacrificial life, which is joyous, peaceful,

and a rewarding lifestyle. We are called to serve God. Amen. Very, very,

very important. Call to serve. Call for sacrifice. Call for persecution.

Call for great rewards. Hallelujah. Amen. And we need endurance

to be able to go through all these service, sacrifice,

persecution in our walk with God. You will face them.

You have to serve. You have to sacrifice. We haven't

been called to live a life of comfort. Hallelujah. God

will provide for every legitimate need. So if for whatever

reason he calls upon us to deny us a certain comfort,

it is for a reason. But then because of the

spirit of self-sacrifice, we say, no, I'm not going to push.

I'm not going to drive myself and ask the spirit

of Mammon to do that. If God says, no, no,

You see why sometimes we drift away? I must go

chasing after the Spirit of God. Because the Spirit of

my mom will be able to help me, be able

to do what we call the necessary sacrifices. No. So

sometimes we hear, oh, poverty is a curse. Yeah, poverty

is a curse. It came as a result of the sin,

isn't it? So automatically, no. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. The Bible,

the New Testament believer is not applauded for poverty's sake.

They are applauded for dependence on God and reliance on

God to supply all our needs according to His riches

in glory by Christ Jesus. Apostle Paul died with nothing,

just a parchment and a cloak. But what was he?

He was in exuberance. He said, I have finished my course.

I have won the faith. And on occasion he says,

my God shall supply all my needs according to his

riches in glory by Christ. He was so assured that

at any point in time, if there is a need,

because he's a man on a mission for God, God

will supply. Rise up on your feet.

This broadcast was proudly sponsored by the Friends and Partners

of Harvest Japan International Komatsu. Thank you for listening to

Logoshrima Hour with Rev.

Dr.

Joseph Baobi. We believe that as we act on these words,

God's power will transform your life.