Pastor Brian – Opening Prayer
Lord, we just bless you in your house this morning. We thank You that already you are here with us. Lord, that for those of us gathered now and those of us who will come in, that You have already prepared the way for us today. Lord, that You have made us ready to be drawn into You. Lord, we thank You that we do not wait on You. But that rather You are here. Lord, amen, You are here. And Lord, we just open our hearts to that this morning. This is about You. So, Lord, we place ourselves into Your hands today. Lord, we open our hearts to Your Spirit. To hear your Word, Lord, and to have our interaction with You today. Lord, fill our words today, fill our songs, fill our prayers. And fill our hearts today in Your presence. And we pray in Jesus’ name. And God’s people say, Amen, Amen. So, I just celebrate the name of the Lord a little bit.
Pastor Brian – Welcome and Samanthy’s Testimony
You can be seated. Let’s just entertain the presence of the Lord today. We do want to welcome you. Good to see those that are here. We have people away on Kefalonia. Pastor Gail is still in the States. Family is still traveling. We haven’t figured out that the summer is over yet. Weather is still a little bit too nice. But it’s good to be together in the presence of the Lord.
I do greet you especially from Pastor Gail. Pray for her. As always, she’s busy at work. And she needs physical strength, mental strength, spiritual strength. And if you think about it later today, right about that 3.30 p.m. time, put up a prayer and just pray for her ministry at church there. She’ll be in Washington, North Carolina today. I know the church she’ll be at. They’re a very excited group of people. So, it’s one of those places where the services go long and the prayer line goes longer. So, she’ll need lots of energy from the Holy Spirit today.
And for those of us that are still around town, as always, take a look around today. And if you see somebody not here, give them a phone call and encourage them. And don’t start out with, ‘Hey, I didn’t see you at church today’. Start out with, ‘Hey, how you doing? I just wanted to encourage you in the Lord’. Amen. It’s good to hear from one another and to push one another on.
As always, we want to pray for those who may be at home sick. Those are on the prayer list online, and we won’t name everybody this morning. But you pretty much know. So, pray especially for God’s people to be touched. Amen.
And do pray for those on Kefalonia, especially for Anton, who will be ministering to various groups of people there. And remember especially to pray for Trudy, who’s been working with the ongoing work there. The last I heard from her Bible studies up now to as many as about 18, 20 people. And on the islands, we call that megachurch. So, pray for that work to go on. Amen.
And you be encouraged in your spirit today. We don’t have a lot of announcements. We are back in the building on Wednesday nights. Come join us. Especially if you’re not participating in one of the home groups. We’re here for prayer at 19:00 and Bible study at 19:30. But we especially encourage you that if you’re not in one of the home groups, the care groups, get into one. Those are places where we can really encourage one another more intimately. We can spend time. We can talk. We can pray. As always, we can eat good food. Because we’re church and we do nothing without food. So, get into a group. Henneke’s downtown in the center.
We talked to Stavro and we were told about the groups out here, especially for Greek speakers. Tuesday mornings with Evy and Anton. Evy gone today? Okay. All right. We’ll point her out later. But everybody knows Henneke downtown. Everybody knows Stavro and Leto. And we believe that soon we’ll have the group finally beginning in the Voula – Vari area.
Remember to pray for Sean and Beatrice? They’re still learning how to live life with a new baby? And the baby has some challenges. So, pray for the baby. And I think he’s keeping mom and dad really exhausted. And Sean works from home, so that can be a challenge. Pray the same way for Eduardo and his wife. They’re learning how to deal with a brand-new baby. But it’s good to have a little bit of church growth, right? Amen.
All right. Well, we’re going to have a little special presentation this morning. Come on ahead, Samanthy. For those who don’t know, sometimes we see Sunil and Samanthy disappear for a while. I would have had him come, too, but he disappeared on me already. He’s upstairs with another baby.
So, Samanthy and Sunil actually go back to Sri Lanka. Maybe not as often as they would like. Maybe more than we like. But when they’re there, they’re helping to lead a group of churches. I don’t know if you still do it, but Samanthy used to gather what we do here over a period of time, and then she takes it to Sri Lanka and shares it there. And they’re such a blessing to us.
So, she’s going to share a little bit this morning about their ministry there. And maybe a little bit about here in Athens, as well. So, how long have you been in Athens? I’ve been in Athens.
First of all, I would like to share with you some health results about Sunil. As you may already know, he went through some medical issues. Whoever has doubts about his situation, please come forward. I have here the results. We were in Sri Lanka for four months, as Pastor Brian already said. We were working for the Lord.
We were in Sri Lanka for three months. We were working for the Lord for the first time in Athens. First of all, when we were there, the devil managed to bring back a cancer that was cured back eight years ago in 2017. He was diagnosed back in 2018 that he had liver cancer. According to the doctors, they found out about his situation, literally last minute, and by God’s grace and he was saved eventually. Whenever the liver has a problem or malfunctions, the vitamin A increases a lot and you can tell from there.
The first time that he had surgery, his vitamin A was 500 while the regular, the normal value for vitamin A is 10. Everything was good with Sunil and we went for a regular annual checkup. The oncologist examined the results and he found out that vitamin A in his liver was a 1000.
MRI didn’t show anything. So according to the oncologist, Sunil has a special type of cancer and he has only three and a half months of life left. So, there is no specific treatment for this type of cancer. There is only immunotherapy that they can try and according to the doctors, they will try to do the best they can to extend his life but really there is nothing else to do. That sudden turn of things was really devastating and frustrating for us. Nevertheless, we have the spiritual prayers from the church here and from the church in Sri Lanka.
My spiritual mother, Pastor Gail, never forgot to pray for Sunil every Sunday morning. Back in Sri Lanka for the past three years, I have been teaching three different churches in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. My ministry and my message with my husband, Sunil, was to basically confess and testify in front of everybody.
And like others, we talk about the Red Sea and how God opened the Red Sea. We talk about the liver cancer situation that my husband has. So, while I was preaching, my husband was preaching the pathologies, the oncologist was there and she was like, be grateful or don’t be that grateful anymore after your husband lived eight years so far. Because for them, that was already a big miracle for Sunil to live for eight years. And it came to my mind from the letter of Philippians 4:13. I have been praying for three years. So according to that verse, it is not that we have the power to do everything, but it is that we have the power to endure everything, to go through everything. And even if the end result is death, still, we have the power to go through even that. And that has been my message to every church I preach so far.
So now you are going to see a church that started with 90 people, poor people. And that church started back in 2013. And now you are going to see the fruits of this church. Now this church is about 350 to 400 people. And I have to tell you that it is not the material things that we have, the world that we have, but it is what we have inside, the peace, the joy of Jesus Christ.
A month ago, before Sunil started his treatment, the amount of people in that church increased to 2,000. So, while we were expecting Sunil to die and all that, and indeed his numbers increased to 2,000 and then later even above that, 4,000, something like that. He is still alive. He is still alive. No, he followed the treatment for three months. The treatment worked exceptionally well. And now the F.P. from 2000 came down to 7. So, Sunil is very well now. We may go, but he is going to still be alive.
It is exciting what the Lord is doing. And it is exciting to see the people from our family going out and doing Kingdom work. Sunil and Samanthy, I am going to ask you, he is following the baby again.
Sunil, we are going to pray for you. He has responsibilities today. We are going to pray for them and their work. And of course we are going to pray for Sunil. We believe that the Lord is going to touch his body, prolong his life, heal him in the name of Jesus. So, you stand here with me and then we are going to ask Mary to come stand up here as well.
I think most of you have followed the story, but Mary has been going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth to doctors. Three of them have told her she has cancer in the eye and three say that I don’t. So, we are going to pray that the doctors will get some clarity. And beyond that, the Lord can just touch that eye and make the doctors unnecessary.
We will continue to pray for Chris, Mary’s husband. He hasn’t been able to be back in church with us for years now and we want to see the Lord just really touch his body. He is physically worn out. And then I’m going to add to this this morning, since we saw the Sri Lanka work, we want to remember the church in the Philippines today. Pastor Jenny wrote us yesterday that their bank account was hacked. And at least for the moment they have lost all their money. And really what that money is used for their building is just doesn’t even have walls. It has a bamboo top.
They lost enough money that would have covered the next three or four months. So, we’re going to work to try to raise some money to help them out. But we’re going to pray that the Lord restores everything that was taken and more.
So, if you feel comfortable, I’m going to ask you just to extend your hands toward these folks here. And Lord, we’re just praying this morning for each of these needs. But first, Lord, we give thanks for what is represented in the lives of the people standing here and in Jenny Rose in the Philippines.
Lord, you are blessing them to do the work of the Kingdom. And we honor their testimony because it’s a testimony of you. We thank you, Lord, that you’re going to extend that work both in time and in strength. Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus right now that you touch the body of Sunil. And that, Lord, you bring full health and restoration into his body. Lord, I give you thanks for the joy that I see in him every time we meet. I thank you for the testimony of his life to his family, his friends, those around him. Lord, I thank you for Mary that she just perseveres and continues to work and help the church and help the ministry. Thank you for the sacrifices that she and Chris have made through many years. Lord, we pray for Chris today at home that you would just touch his body and raise him up. Give him rest. Lord, I pray that today he would lay down at some point and sleep for eight hours because of the touch of peace you have put on his life. Thank you, Lord, for what you’re going to restore for the church in the Philippines. Lord, we thank you that you continue to bless them to grow and to do ministry there. Lord, these are the things of the fruit of Your faith. And we bless You for it all, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Brian – Main Message
Alright. If you weren’t here last week, I would encourage you to hear Anton’s word from last week. We’re going to continue on from that today because we’re talking about something that we really don’t talk about a lot in this church. We try to talk about it enough, but not too much. And that’s the subject of tithing and giving.
Most of you have been here long enough to recognize we don’t really hype our offerings. We don’t try to get people all excited about their giving. Because our prayer and our hope is that you’re excited about your own giving. And as we often say, it’s the job of the Holy Spirit to inspire that in you. It’s not our job. But there are some biblical things that we at times need to remind ourselves about. Not because we’re trying to get something out of it, but because we’re trying to get the blessings of the Lord active in our lives. I meant to bring it. I left it in my car, but I was going to bring an umbrella today. But then maybe it’s good I didn’t because they say you shouldn’t open umbrellas indoors, right?
But the reason I wanted to do that is because the blessings that the Bible speaks about regarding giving. In kind of the tradition, I grew up in, it seemed to me that I was often being told that if I didn’t do this, God was going to judge me and that He would remove His blessings from my life because of this. And the reason I wanted the umbrella is because I want to put a different picture in your mind today. And that is that the blessings of the Lord are more like an umbrella. When you exercise what His Word says in your life, you step under the blessings of that umbrella. And when you don’t, it’s not God’s judgment on your life, it’s just that you’re not taking the opportunity He has given you. And we find in His grace that He even often blesses us anyway. And maybe a few of God’s faithful people could say amen.
So, I want to talk about tithing today and giving, but in a New Testament sense. So, I’m going to give you the definition. First of all, how many of you grew up being taught about tithing? I have three friends from college here, I know they did. Well, we know that the idea of the tithe comes originally from the Old Testament. And the word just means tenth. And we are taught in this teaching that as believers we should commit a tenth of our income to the work of the Lord. As a first fruits, the first of the fruit offering to the Lord.
Now, I happen to still hold on to that teaching as a New Testament believer. And I’ll give you a few quick points why in a minute, but that’s not my main point today. We determined years ago that in the Glyfada Christian Center; we wanted to use a different kind of definition.
I apologize to the Greek speakers; I didn’t have time to get this translated. I felt like it would be unfair to send it to somebody at midnight last night. So, you’ll have to read the English and hear the Greek. But our definition is this. We’re not worried about percentages and amounts, let’s go with the theme, the purpose. That in our attitudes, what it means, we are giving first to God, first to God, joyfully, from that which He has entrusted to you. God gives to you, right? We’ve all understood that as believers, we’re not owners, we’re stewards. God says here, I want you to use this and use it well.
So, I like to think of it like this. My bosses do not pay my salary. God pays my salary. God is my provider. Through whatever means He chooses; God is my provider. Turn that inward to yourself, tell yourself, ‘God is my provider.’ So, we’re just taking care of the things He gives to us, whether that’s money, family, other kinds of possessions. God is the owner. You are the manager, you’re the steward.
I don’t like the word manager; that’s a small limited word. Because God gives you immense freedom in how you use what He entrusts to you. So, the New Testament reveals that giving is not merely a duty, but it is a joyful expression of faith.
Now I use the 10% marker because I think it’s a good biblical example. My parents taught me from a little child, to give my first 10%. And even when I was an absolute heathen in the world, but I had a job… when I was not living right. Somehow it always remained in me to do that, I think because I was afraid of getting in trouble. Or maybe it was a way of making my conscience feel better.
But I continued to do that all my life to this day. In fact, I have automated it in my life. Before I could ever touch the 10%, it goes to the Lord. It doesn’t even make it to my bank account. That’s because I’m lazy and don’t trust myself. But the reason that I take that on as a New Testament believer… I’ll give you four quick reasons.
Number one, because Jesus affirmed it in the New Testament. He told the Pharisees when they were showing off about giving their tithes. He corrected them and said, ‘you need to work on your heart. And you need to show mercy and justice and righteousness. You need to show mercy and justice before you worry about the tithes.’ But then he says, ‘but you should also do that’. He didn’t tell them to stop. He just said, there needs to be a purpose in your heart for what you’re doing.
Secondly, I do it because I believe it exists outside of the Law of Moses. In other words, what we call Old Testament Law. Because the example was given to us before the Law ever existed, in Genesis 14. And then we’re reminded about it in Hebrews 7. The very first tithe we ever see in the Bible was when Abraham paid the priest king Melchizedek. Because God had allowed Abraham to win a great battle, we won’t do the whole story. He was able to save his family. And the Bible tells us that on his way back home he stopped outside of Jerusalem and paid a tithe to the king priest Melchizedek.
Not for him, but as a praise to God. Hebrews 7 tells us that Christ is a priest king in the order of Melchizedek. His priesthood is not in the line of Aaron, like the Law, the Old Testament Law, it’s in the line of Melchizedek.
To me that means the principle existed before the Law and it exists after the Law. I believe in it because of the principle of ownership that God tells us about in Malachi, He’s the owner. And that opens the way for blessing, it supports the work of God.
And I believe in it because of the example of history in the unity of the church with that throughout time. That’s me. That’s why I believe in the ten percent. There are a lot of New Testament believers who don’t. That’s fine, depending on the reason they don’t. If the reason we don’t believe is because we want to get out of the responsibility, that’s not a good reason.
If the reason is because we believe giving is from the heart and is generated in the spirit and we can operate from that, that’s a good reason. So, we want to remind all of us that it’s not a legalistic idea or approach. But it’s the theme of gratitude and of faith. And of stewardship. That Jesus and the writers of the New Testament carry forward for us. So, like with everything in the New Testament, it fills the Law with purpose and elevates the concept. Our giving, however you define it, must be an act of grace-filled worship. Rather than religious ritual, or some kind of spiritual Law.
So, look at our definition once again. Giving first to God, joyfully, from that which He has entrusted to you. And then it’s up to you and an honest conversation with the Holy Spirit to figure out what that means.
So again, I want to put this in our mind in a different kind of picture. Mary, since you’re here on the front row, I get to pick on you. I have here ten coins. This represents Mary’s blessing from God. Now Mary, you grew up being taught the same way as me, right? So, what I want Mary to do is come receive your blessing from the Lord. Mary’s got her blessing. We might let her take that home.
Now Mary, as we’ve been taught, how do you give your tithe? We’re not talking about tithing and giving yet. How do you do your tithe? There’s ten coins. Okay, so Mary picked up her ten coins. Her blessing; and gave the Lord her tithe. The ten percent. All right, let’s put these back down. Give me back, your blessing.
That’s not a bad example, and it’s traditionally how I learn. But I’ve learned through time, because of the principles I just gave, to think differently. God does not say, take the ten and then give me one. He says, I’m going to bless you at this amount. Here’s what I want you to do. Leave Me ten percent. And you take the rest. That’s tithing. Not that I get it all and then give it back. Because it was never mine in the first place. God says, I’ll let you be the ninety percent partner. Just let me be the ten.
In any business deal, that’s a pretty good percentage. Victor, when you get that big deal and the record company says, ‘we’ll keep ten, you take ninety, you’ll take that deal won’t you?’.
It’s a simple example, but it’s a different mindset. It’s the difference between being an owner and a steward. When we live that way. And again, I’m not trying to get you hung up on a number or a percentage. But the principles remain the same. First to the Lord.
See, some people think, just because they tithe ten percent, that that’s an actual tithe, it’s not. If, like me, you believe in tithing, tithing is not just any ten percent, it is the first ten percent. It’s the first fruits. And we live like we can just give the Lord any fruit. So first is important.
And you may say, well, this month, I mean, I just don’t have anything. First of all, I guarantee you have something at whatever amount the Lord would tell you. Just make sure it’s first. Remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees about the widow? I don’t care if she gave nothing, but I care why she gave, how she gave, to who she gave. We give first, joyfully, of that which He has entrusted to us. So, it becomes an act of discipleship. It’s a way of loosening our grip on earthly security.
The Bible identifies two things that are the hardest for us to deal with. The first one is this (the tongue). It’s hard to control the tongue. It’s hard to give up the tongue and the rights you feel like you have to use it. The Bible says it’s like something that steers, it’s like the rudder that steers a ship. Where your tongue goes, so you go. That’s a hard thing to deal with. Interestingly enough, it’s one of the reasons I believe in speaking in tongues. Because one of the hardest things for us to do is to give God our tongue.
What’s the second one? It’s this. (the wallet, the money). This is hard to give over to the Lord. I remember when we were building the orphanage in Morocco. I went to speak to a group of businessmen. And it had been pre-arranged, they were all going to give an offering, write a check as we do in America, write a check on the way out the door. So, I made my presentation. And at the end, one of the guys who I knew fairly well, he wrote a check for $500. He handed me the check, handed me all the other checks. I walked out the door.
Before I got to the elevator, he came out and caught me. And he said, Brian, I can’t do this. He said, the Lord told me in that room to give you the best that I had in my pocket. He was a financial investor. And just before that meeting, he had been handed a check for $45,000. And he came and said, Brian, the Lord told me to give you the best I had in my pocket.
Now, this dude has seven kids and a certain lifestyle. He likes to play his golf. It’s expensive to do that. Or at least he used to. He’s passed away now. But much to his dismay, he turned the check over, signed his name and signed it over to me. He actually, in one gift, built our first home for children on that campus.
I know that was not easy for him. And I’m not going to necessarily say that because of that, God gave him ten times more. I don’t know that to be true. But I know that the Lord blessed his life. I know he never went without. I know his kids all went to good schools. I know that every one of them is living for the Lord and serving in ministry. I know that his family has been blessed to generations. Because his heart heard the Lord.
Now, I’m not sure that’s not the only time he ever did something like that. And I know I didn’t speak that well that day. But he heard the voice of God. And he changed the lives, not only of his children, but of other children. The blessings of learning to give to God joyfully. First. Recognizing His ownership of everything.
And I’ll just finish with, I have some other things here, but I think this is enough. I just want to finish with a personal testimony. And I’m going to use myself just because it’s easier to talk about yourself than it is to talk about other people.
I told you I’ve tried to practice this all my life regardless of the condition of my life. I’ve learned a few things. It’s been a blessing for me as a pathway to intimacy with God. It’s been a blessing to me even in just my relationship with God, my communication with Him. It’s a declaration of my faith. My faith is in God.
Mary knows this because she works for me. There are many months, we don’t know if anybody’s getting paid. I’ve lived like that for 33 years. I confess to you; I don’t necessarily enjoy it. And I don’t know how it works. But somehow, I’m still here. I’m still eating too much food. It’s not my car, but I don’t take public transportation very often, except when I go to Athens, and who wants to go to Athens.
It’s been a channel of blessing that has enriched my life. If you ask me what I own today, I own the clothes in my closet. I own half of a 35-year-old motorcycle. Stavro, I own a big-screen TV with good sound. And I own a dog who has higher health bills than I do. That’s about what I can think of that I own. I live in a flat that’s the size of a hotel room. But I’ve been amazingly blessed.
You know, God gave me 14 years of living in a little flat without ever paying rent. The owner’s generosity has ended. I now pay rent. But it’s not much. And I get to live on the side of the mountain in Vula. I may not own my own transportation, but God has not only gotten me around here. He has somehow transported me to almost a hundred nations of the world.
I have learned, I have learned, I have learned, and you will learn. I have learned that sometimes the money doesn’t go up, but God can make the expenses go down. I have learned that He is always faithful, and that when we learn to live within what He gives us, and we learn to honor Him first, and do it joyfully in whatever size or amount the Holy Spirit inspires you with. We step under the umbrella, and we reap the blessings of God.
So, I don’t want to urge you to anything. I don’t want to ever have to push anybody to give. But this is how God finances His Kingdom. Through you and me, and you, and you, and you. And He expects us to be a partner. He is the majority partner. With the least amount. We are minority partners. But we get to keep the most. Because God is a giver. And we don’t even have to remind ourselves; everybody knows this Scripture.
Give, and it will be given to you. How? Good measure. Pressed down.
Shaken together. And? Running over. Say it loudly.
Angelo, good measure. Angelo, that means lots. Pressed down.
Shaken together. Get as much in there as you can. Until it runs over. (Luke 6:38)
You cannot out-give God. You will never out-give God. But I dare you to try. See what that brings back.
Last word. We say this in a lot of our offerings. Don’t ever feel compelled to give more than the Holy Spirit tells you. But don’t ever give less than what the Holy Spirit tells you. And that’s the only law you need to follow. And see Him bless your life. Simon, come ahead. I’m not going to give an altar call today.
I wouldn’t know how to say, now anybody who doesn’t give, please come to the altar. If you feel like you have failed in this category, we would like to lay hands on you. Well, we actually might like to lay hands on you, but that’s a different story.
No. The Lord loves a cheerful giver. Be free in it. But be in it. Amen? Would you stand with me? We don’t have, for some reason, as happens in our fellowship. We have lost the slides for this song.
But Victor and I wanted to do this as a blessing over your life today. So, we’ll do this in English. I don’t think there’s anybody here today who doesn’t understand English. But if you need a little help, just have somebody come over and tell you what the song says, if you don’t know it.