Honoring God With Our Substance
Minister: | Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: | 2/17/2016 PM (Prayer Day) |
Text: | Proverbs 3:9,10 |
Psalters: | 242, 317, 357, 393 |
- Proper attitude in sowing.
- Our text calls us to “honor.”
- To honor is to judge something to be weighty or heavy, to be rich and glorious. This word is used in the fifth commandment.
- We are to honor “Jehovah.” He is worthy of honor because of who He is and because of what He does.
- In our text we are to honor Jehovah with our substances and first fruits.
- “Substance” refers to one’s possessions, that which God has given us, put into our care.
- “Increase” refers to our income, that which is added to our substance.
- The “first fruits” of our increase is the initial portion of the harvest.
- This was the giving of a tithe, which was older than Sinai and deliverance from Egypt (Gen. 28:22).
- While the believers considers honoring Jehovah this way to be a privilege, the unbeliever sees it as a great expense and folly.
- Our text calls us to “honor.”
- God promises a blessed reward to such giving/ honoring: “barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out….” (10).
- This promise is God’s way of challenging us to “test” Him.
- The figure of physical and material blessings: the God of the weather promises a great harvest of grain and fruit.
- We must not think that this is a promise of earthly, physical wealth, especially in the New Dispensation.
- God uses Old Testament language to promise the godly giver who honors Jehovah to receive a great spiritual harvest.
- He that sows sparingly will reap sparingly; and he that sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully (II Cor. 9:6).