The story is told of a little boy about 10 years of age who had been placed in an orphanage when he was five or six. For some reason, every family that came by to select a child passed this little guy by and another younger or more often an infant would be chosen.

He had come to the conclusion that because of his age he would never be chosen.... until one day, a couple came in and their eyes connected. He was called by the workers to meet privately with this couple for a one on one interview.

He was so excited, but at the same time was scared. What if he was disappointed again What if they said "no"?

The husband looked him up and down and said, young man, how would you like a room of your own? If you come to live with us, you would have that and a lot more. We would get you your own bike, and your favorite toys, too. If you come to live with us we even have room on our property for a pony if you want one. What do you think? Will you come and live with us?

The little boy looked up at both of them and softly said, “Could you Love a fella?”  

Today, I wish to simply speak very plainly with you, the family of God. At the church I pastor, we will soon be facing decisions, directions and many of you will be making the decision to ‘join’ this local body of believers. As we join hands and hearts together, we will have the opportunity to become much stronger as we battle the forces of satan, or we could find ourselves at odds with disagreement over “ideas and plans”.

As I see it from the vantage point of the Pastor, there is ONE and only ONE ingredient that can be added to a mix of varied ideas and complexities; an ingredient that will cause a flow of unity to be the end product -- and that is the "Precious Offering of Love".

God didn't need to make man with the capacity to love, He could have made man as a servant, a slave, or a robot! 

But God made man in His Own Image...

The nature of God is Love!

The scripture is full of stories that revolve around ‘sacrifices’ in the Old Testament. Every time a lamb was given in sacrifice it was an object lesson - pointing forward to the coming of Jesus when He would lay down His life for the world. (John 3:16) He became the perfect sacrifice and it was LOVE that nailed Jesus to the cross -- not duty, not theology, not tradition -- it was Love.

There are many who serve in the church out of “duty”. I’ve always done this or that, and I continue -- it’s my ‘duty’. Some serve to preserve certain theology -- right or wrong, we have believed that the moon is a fallen angel (just kidding here, folks), but if this was a theological position some would serve to preserve such a notion -- how foolish!  Others may only wish to maintain “Tradition”. “We’ve always done it THIS way, and THIS is the only way God can move!” Thinking outside of the box is like a foreign language.

Theology is very important and serving the Lord is as well. Traditions founded upon the Word of God should be maintained, this is not all a negative thing. But these things in and of themselves can become “mechanical” -- the flow of the Holy Spirit moving through love in the body can be substituted for “things” and “programs” that will not change people’s lives. Have you ever stopped and asked yourself....

"What is it that God wants "most" from me?"

If you are normal, you will answer “yes”, of course I have. We have read the story of the ‘widow’ who upon entering the Temple of God only had two “mites”, the smallest of value coin…a very, very small offering to place in the collection.

There were others who gave much larger gifts, but Jesus says in Luke 21:3 “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she, out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had!

It was her LOVE for God that caused her to give everything she had. Her love was demonstrated by her desire to give, even if it was the last money she had!

Could it be you are proud of your offering, but God isn't?

Let me explain what I mean. The Bible says that Pride is a most deadly sin. It was pride that caused Lucifer to rise up against God and started the rebellion that one third of the angels joined before God threw him out of heaven. Pride comes before a fall!!

Let me use myself as the example -- you may insert yourself in at any point

I like most of you am blessed with talents. Some of mine are in the musical realm. My piano playing is a gift from the Lord. I began to play around with the keys at an early age, but we didn’t get a piano in our home until I was around 14. Six weeks after we got it I was playing in church! That’s not the normal pattern, as you know. But playing came so fast I just don’t remember ‘learning’ to play.

FAST FORWARD nearly 50 years. I have been busy doing the piano music forever it seems. Played from New York to California, Australia and so forth. Quite a number of records, tapes and CD’s -- on and on. Each week now I play here at Bethel.

There was a point in time when it felt pretty good, you know... to tell God about how much I had given to Him, by only playing Gospel Music!  Surely He was proud of how I had devoted MY talent to Him, right?

Listen carefully to Me.  NO!  The answer was no! What do you mean Brother Abbey?  The talent, the gift of music that God has bestowed upon me is HIS, and not mine!  The Gift was given to me to Glorify Him, not ME!

What God wants from me is loving obedience.  Not just in the realm of music, but in every area of my life.  And the truth is, He wants the same thing from you!.  Jesus didn't say, If you love me, play an instrument.  Jesus didn't say, If you love me, draw a painting.  Jesus didn't say, If you love me work your fingers to the bone.  He didn't even say, If you love me, work for me.  What he said is, If you love me do what I have commanded of you. 

OBEDIENCE IS THE FRUIT OF LOVE!

Obedience is the most, "Precious Offering", any of us can give.  Nothing else will satisfy our Lord, and nothing else will give us peace in our own hearts.

Do you remember after Jesus was raised from the dead and he had his last encounter with Peter. You can read this story in John the 21^st chapter. But Jesus questions Peter -- the disciple who had been quite vocal in his ‘allegiance’ to Jesus, but who had failed on three prior tests.

If you remember, Peter had failed miserably during the crucifixion by denying he even knew Jesus, and don’t you remember when the women found the tomb empty they were told to go tell the disciples “and Peter” that He had risen?

You see, Peter may have giving up on himself, but Jesus hadn’t given up on him! Jesus was looking forward to the Day of Pentecost when this weak disciple would be full of the Holy Ghost, and preach the first sermon on the birth day of the Church of Christ to the people of Jerusalem resulting in 3,000 conversions on the spot!!

Many of you reading this may  have felt like you have failed in the past, and perhaps you have; except you see, there is no real failure except to those who do not get back up! It is God's will for you to be revived, for you to be re-filled. Some of you have returned to the God of your ‘youth and as you trust Him, your best days serving the Lord are ahead of you!

Now, we back up to this encounter in John 21 and Jesus was questioning Peter about his love for Him. He asks him this question, “Do you love me more than these?” ‘These’ mentioned here, are the other followers of Christ. Jesus asked him this question three times (same number as he had denied Jesus) Peter answers, Yes, you know I love you, And Jesus commands him, "Feed my lambs, Feed my sheep".

Churches across our land are blessed with many singers and musicians with varied talents, and there are others in the pews with wonderful gifts and talents in different areas -- all of them belong to God! We would have none of them had He not placed them in our lives!

This has been said before but fits here today -- we must not fall prey to 'loving the work of the Lord,'  and then neglecting to love the LORD of the work! He wants us to love him enough to give the widows mite offering.   He wants us to glorify him with our whole being, not just a talent.  He wants us to feed his sheep and his lamb, to love one another without hypocrisy.  He wants us to obey his voice with joy in our hearts.

If we continue forward with this kind of love for God and love for each other, I believe we will see the Fruit of the Spirit rise above the demands of the flesh every time and God will be glorified.

The fruit of His Spirit is not, jealousy, irritability, coldness, anger, bitterness or strife.  These are manifestations of the flesh and used by the Devil to tear down and destroy. Rather, the Fruit of Gods Spirit will produce...Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and self-control. 

My desire today is to GIVE MY GIFT of music back once again to the Lord. I desire to give my gift of ministry back to Him who called me. I desire to give my family I dearly love back to the One who loaned them to me.

Will you join me? Perhaps you who have read this message have felt at times that your service has been out of duty, or obligation…..maybe you have been blessed in a special way and have never fully given your talent, your gift back to the one who placed it in your life.  Maybe you just need to remind yourself that your love for Him demonstrated by complete obedience is the ‘gift’ He is looking for….. A Precious Offering.

Pastor John