Tithing & Offerings

Today I preached about tithing as requested by the church leaders. I think that was one sermon that I had not preached for a long time. Neither was it easy getting there. The Tambunan road was equally challenging like the Ranau route only that it was shorter by 20kms. But the view was glorious in the early morning sunlight. I had to sacrifice the France Argentina match as I went to bed early to ride at dawn to my destination some 2 hours away. The traffic was light and I stopped over the mountain top restaurant with the thermometer reading 16 degree Celsius cooler than Kundasang near Mount Kinabalu. I preached to a willing audience of about 100 adults and the small church was about full. It was only 2kms from Tambunan town and the new church was built 12 years ago. One elder knew me from the time I was in HQ as Treasurer and perhaps that was why they invited me to preach about giving.
I shared from Abraham and Jacob lives how they paid tithes to Mechisedek and God respectively. I referred to Nehemiah 12 about the offerings of the people during Nehemiah’s time so much so all the priests and Levites had plenty to live on. I challenged the SIB church and with my standing in the denomination though I am a nobody my sermon on tithing was bound to hit the air or viralled to various groups and churches. But I can see with confidence that they were a willing audience and I preached for 50 minutes and it felt like 20mins. I had to take off my singlet mid journey as I knew it would be really hot and my shirt was totally wet by the time I sat down. The leaders took some photos with me and we had another hour long fellowship over lunch before I drove back in the rain and reached KK at 3pm.