An Offertory Devotional video for Sabbath, April 16, 2022 in your @adventistchurch: vimeo.com/667855127. Putting God first can be difficult. What we can learn from this video that will help us put God first in our lives today? Also available in #Spanish and #Portuguese. Put #GodFirst #StewardshipMinistries
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For more information on the Stewardship Ministries of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, you can head over to stewardship.adventist.org/
We worship through regular and systematic giving because God gave us an example of love without boundaries. John 3:17 declares the nature and the scope of the mission of the Son: Jesus came to bring salvation, and He brought it to the whole world. Doing mission in the footsteps of Jesus means embracing a universal mission. Among other things, the tithe and offerings plan provides us with an opportunity to participate in a global mission.
The story is told of a pastor who was ministering at a city church. This large and well-off congregation was known for its generosity. They were keen to invest in the regular upgrading of their church facilities, unfortunately sometimes at the expense of returning a faithful tithe and participating in regular offerings. Interestingly, the pastor refrained from educating his members about the danger of self-serving generosity and the importance of supporting the global church family. Pastoring a church with the best facilities was even a source of pride and satisfaction for him. After some years, the conference transferred him to a different and less affluent locality; he quickly understood the consequences of the narrow vision of mission.
How large is our vision of God’s mission? We are saved because God emptied heaven and sent Jesus to our world. And at some point, the church mobilized resources to send a missionary to our home country or region. With Jesus as our model, would you like to be an instrument of love to every nation, tribe, language, and people? This week, as we worship with our tithe and regular offerings, called Promise, we have another opportunity to give globally.