Key Thought: While we pray, we are to give our labor and means to fulfill these prayers. If we act out our faith by prayer and plan, we shall not be forgotten.
January 28, 2023

1. Have a volunteer read Deuteronomy 16:17

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What criterion does God give as a basis for the amount of our offerings?
3. Personal Application: What do your offerings and your attitude about giving them say about your relationship with God? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “I pay my tithe, but I can’t afford offerings for the church or for the associate ministries that call for help in running their radio and TV programs independently from the conference. Everybody wants and needs money for several ministries. I don’t remember the apostles doing it that way.” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read I Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 96:8,9.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How do we apply these principles to our own worship experience?
3. Personal Application: What is your experience with returning tithes and offerings as a part of worship? How does it impact your relationship with God?
   Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “God never said anything about offerings being required, but only as an expression of thanksgiving based on our increase. God doesn’t need my money. He can finish the work without all the expensive programs the church makes up to increase their income and finances.”
   How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Mark 12:41-44. Acts 10:1-4.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage
2. What is the message of this story and how can we apply it to our own worship experience?
3. Personal Application: What action was noted in heaven by the Roman that prompted a visit from heaven? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “So does God want us to give everything we have to feed the poor or to spread the gospel and try to live by faith when we give everything away? I think if people are paying tithes and offerings according to their income or increase after paying their bills, they are doing what God expects and approves.” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Mark 14:3-9.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Who were the main characters at Simon’s feast? What was the value of Mary’s gift? Why did she anoint Jesus at this time?
3. Personal Application: Why is sacrificial giving as important for the givers as for the recipients? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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Read Deuteronomy 16:17. What criterion does God give as the basis for the amount of our offerings?

Our offerings are an acknowledgment and expression of our gratitude to God for His abundant gifts of life, redemption, sustenance, and constant blessings of many kinds. So, as we noted in the passage above, the amount of our offerings is based on what we have been blessed with. “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required” (Luke 12:48, NKJV).

Read Psalm 116:12-14. How are we supposed to answer the question posed in verse 12? How does money fit in with the answer?

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How could we ever repay God for all His blessings to us? The simple answer is that we never could. It seems that the best we can do is be generous with the cause of God and in helping our fellow human beings. When Jesus sent out His disciples on a missionary trip, He told them, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8, NKJV). Our offerings contribute to the development of a Christlike character. We are thereby changed from selfishness to love; we are to be concerned for others and the cause of God as Christ was.

Let us always remember that “God so loved …, that He gave” (see John 3:16, NKJV). In contrast — as sure as day follows night — the more we hoard for ourselves, the more selfish in our own hearts we will become, and the more miserable we will feel as well.

Bringing an offering to the Lord is a Christian duty with spiritual and moral implications. To neglect this is to do spiritual damage to ourselves, perhaps more than we realize too. In addition to that, it is up to us to determine what amount we give and what entity receives our gifts.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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We love God because He first loved us. Our giving is in response to His amazing gift to us, Jesus. In fact, we are told, “The Lord does not need our offerings. We cannot enrich Him by our gifts. Says the psalmist: ‘All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.’ Yet God permits us to show our appreciation of His mercies by self-sacrificing efforts to extend the same to others. This is the only way in which it is possible for us to manifest our gratitude and love to God. He has provided no other.” — Ellen G. White, Counsels on Stewardship, p. 18.

Image © Jim Howard at Goodsalt.com

When we surrender “our” money to Jesus, it actually strengthens our love for Him and for others. Therefore, money can be a real power for good. Jesus spent more time talking about money and wealth than just about any other subject. One verse in every six in Matthew, Mark, and Luke is about money. The gospel’s good news is that God can deliver us from the misuse and love of money.

Read Matthew 6:31-34 and Deuteronomy 28:1-14. What does God promise to do for us if we obey Him? Is it selfishness on our part to claim the promises of God?

Our offerings are an evidence of our willingness to self-sacrifice for God. They can be a deeply spiritual experience, an expression of the fact that our lives are wholly surrendered to God as our Lord. To us, as an English idiom says, it is “putting our money where our mouth is.” You can say you love God, but generous offerings help reveal (and even strengthen) that love.

An offering comes from a heart that trusts in a personal God who constantly provides for our needs as He sees best. Our offerings rest on the conviction that we have found assurance of salvation in Christ. They are not an appeasement or a search for God’s acceptance. Rather, our offerings flow from a heart that has accepted Christ by faith as the only and sufficient means of grace and redemption.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Corinthians 9:6-7; Deuteronomy 16:17; Psalm 116:12-18; 1 Chronicles 16:29; Mark 12:41-44; Mark 14:3-9.

Memory Text: “What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD now in the presence of all His people” (Psalm 116:12-14, NKJV).

Besides tithing, there are offerings, which come from the 90 percent that remains in our possession after our tithe is returned to God. This is where generosity begins. Different types of offerings were given by God’s people, such as sin offerings, given in response to God’s grace, or thank offerings, given to recognize God’s protection, and blessings of health, prosperity, and sustaining power. There were also offerings for the poor, and offerings to build and maintain the house of worship.

When we consider the magnitude of God’s gifts to us, we then begin to see our giving as more than just paving the parking lot or buying choir robes. We bring our gifts in response to what God has done for us, especially in the sacrifice of Jesus. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19, NKJV). The church, then, whether it be local, conference, or worldwide, uses our gifts to advance the cause of God. This week we will review what the Bible has to say about offerings as part of our management of God’s business on the earth.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, January 28.

Sunday–>

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You can view an in-depth discussion of God’s Covenants with Us in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris. Click on the image to view: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxLPhw5NUSA&w=560&h=315]

With thanks to

Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

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