The Great "Omission"

I love to watch movies.  I also love to watch the Academy Awards.  The last Academy Awards had a terrible booboo when the presenters announced the wrong best picture. We know what happened during Miss Universe 2016 when Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner. Winners of major awards like the Oscars are very careful when they deliver their victory speech especially during the part wherein they thank those people who have helped them.  They certainly don’t want to OMIT anybody.  Sometimes they make a list of names so they won´t forget.
It´s the same thing when you get invited to a party, it´s frustrating when you arrive at the door, you can´t get in because your name was omitted from the list.  Or when you are supposed to be honoured during a ceremony but for whatever reason, somebody omitted your name.

In our lives as Christians, there is a sin of commission and there is a sin of omission.  If we do bad things to other people, we COMMIT a sin.  It´s a sin of commission.    Now, if we failed to do good things to others, it is also a sin.  It´s a sin of omission.  God does not want us to do bad things but He also expects us to do good things.  

I want you to pay attention to these words:  commission and omission.  The title of our message this morning is “THE GREAT OMISSION” and our Scripture is Matthew 28:16-20.

Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave His disciples the Great Commission.  A “commission” is a command from somebody in authority, it´s a directive.  It´s not the Great Suggestion.  Pretty much like traffic lights.  They say in the Philippines traffic light is only a suggestion. Jesus gave commands directly to His disciples and indirectly to us. Jesus gave the church a marching order.  

Let us read from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 28 verses 16 to 20:

Before Jesus ascended to heaven, His last words to His disciples were not “go to a mega church that provides good food” or “go and sing worship songs that make you feel good” or “go and have some fund raising so you can buy a comfortable church building.”  Jesus did not say those things.  Jesus did not say “go and convert people to Christianity” or “go and make people born again and forget about them.”
No.  Jesus was very specific.  He said “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”  In the King James version, the command says “go and teach all nations” and the Greek word used for “teach” is matheteuo which is translated in English as “make disciples.”   So the NIV version basically tells us the English meaning of the original Greek word.  

The disciples took His command seriously and followed it.  They went into the world and shared the gospel and gave up their lives and thousands upon thousands were saved by the grace of God.  

These disciples delivered the message about Jesus which was so powerful and they have lived their lives as effective witnesses.  They were so effective that their enemies accused them…

If they did not follow the Great Commission, we would not even hear about Jesus Christ today.   The early church took the Great Commission seriously. That was then.  What about now?
What has happened to churches in our time today.

When something is omitted, it is “left out, undone, neglected.”  In most churches today, instead of making disciples in all nations, instead of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth, churches today can not even take the gospel outside its church building.  WCCC has some mission projects but it´s not enough.  Personally, I am also guilty of this.  
It is also very clear from the Scripture we read earlier that the call to make disciples and share the Gospel is NOT a gift but a command. This is one of the common myths that we would to debunk today.   There is another myth that we will debunk later. 

It is unbiblical therefore to think that we should not share the Gospel because we lack the gift of evangelism.  Many people think if they don’t have the gift, then it is not their job to share the gospel.  You may not agree with me but in the Bible, evangelism is not a “gift.” Sharing the gospel of Christ is a command for all believers. A lot of people is confused with the “role” of evangelist which is mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 with the “gift” of evangelism. There is no gift of evangelism, but a call for everyone to evangelize. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:11 that the church is gifted with evangelists, and their job is to equip God’s people to do evangelism. 

If we don´t evangelize, we commit the sin of omission and the repercussion is very damaging.  I read an old English proverb attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

If we don´t evangelize, we commit the sin of omission and the repercussion is serious.  I said earlier that “In many churches today, the “C” is missing in the Great Commission, making it the Great “Omission”.  How about you?

This is our question for the day.  This question is addressed to each one of us, individually and to our church as a whole.  This is a question addressed to a lot of churches today.  Are we more concerned on property and not on people?  Are we more concerned on meetings more than missions? Are we more concerned on our comfort more than community?  Are we more concerned on the color of man´s skin than the condition of his soul?   We all want to see people coming to church, for as long as they are the right kind of people.  This is a hard topic church.  I don’t intend to hurt anybody´s feelings.  I myself am guilty of this.  Has the Great Commission become the Great Omission.
What do you think the “C” in Commission stands for?

This is where we draw our lesson points for today.

LESSON POINTS:

Remember who gave the command in the first place.  Who gave the Great Commission.  It´s Jesus Christ.  The first C that we need to bring back to the Great Commission is Christ.  We can have all the mission and evangelism projects in the world.  We can make ourselves very busy, just like Martha – she was very busy in the kitchen.  Just like some of us, we are so busy with ministry activities but remember what Jesus said “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”  She chose to worship Jesus.  
In Rick Warren´s book PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE, he talked about five purposes that answers the question “What on earth am I here for?”  And these purposes were presented in chronological order.
The very first purpose is WORSHIP, then FELLOWSHIP, then DISCIPLESHIP, then MINISTRY and the last one is MISSION. Our priority is our relationship with Jesus.  It goes first before anything else.  Jesus goes above everything else.  It´s the first greatest commanded anyway.  We shall “love the Lord your God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind.”  The fifth purpose in this book is MISSION.  This means that we don´t just jump right away to the mission field if our relationship with Jesus Christ is not right. The challenge of churches nowadays, we´re usually stuck in the fourth purpose, that is MINISTRY.Jesus said in verse 18:
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  (v18)
Remember church that whenever we engage in fulfilling the Great Commission, the devil works double time to frustrate.  If you think with our own abilities, we can fight the devil then you are being misled.  We have to work on the power and authority of Jesus in us through the Holy Spirit.  We must ensure that when we are engaging ourselves in this warfare against the devil, Jesus is taking the lead.

The second point which is the second “C” is commitment.

  
I put this second point to make emphasis.  I know that if we truly have Jesus in our hearts, there should be “commitment” to His words.  We must be committed to His commands.
Commitment.  Commitment.  Commitment.  I know is a very abused and overused word.  Jesus said in verse 19:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit  (v19)
The mandate of the Great Commission is to “go!”  This is a word of action.  We cannot go if we are just standing still or sitting still.  We cannot say we´re committed to follow Christ if we are just sitting comfortably in where we are.  Jesus said “go!”
When Jesus said “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” – This statement is not a defensive statement.  During Biblical times, the gates of the city is very critical.  When the city is attacked, it´s the gate that can spell the difference.  If the enemy can overcome the city gates, then they can lose the battle.   What Jesus meant that the church that He will build, the gates of Hell shall not prevail.. it means that the Church should take an offensive stance… attacking the city of the enemy and overcome the gates of Hell.  It means action.  It means commitment on the part of each believer.  First, we have to be committed to live a life worthy of Christ´s calling and second, we have to be committed to follow His commands.   If we are not committed, then the Great Commission becomes the Great Omission.   

Most of us evangelizes others through our lifestyle and there is nothing wrong with that.  We always hear that the first Bible that other people will read is our lives.  But we should not stop there.  We must have genuine concern in teaching others to obey God´s words.  
Jesus said…
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (v20)
This is the second myth that we would like to debunk today.  We think that we follow the Great Commission by just living our lives.  Sharing the Gospel involves not only our lifestyles but it also our lips.  We are commanded to “teach.”  This is where most Christians fail.  Why?  Because they do not have the confidence. Why? Because most Christians are not equipped.  So we go back to proper training.  We are told to share our faith.  We are to tell the lost world what Jesus did for us when He saved us and what He can do for them, if they will trust Jesus.
It is not enough for us to show it.  We must also SAY it.  Can you repeat this statement?  It´s not enough to SHOW it, we must also SAY it.  We must have genuine concern in teaching others to obey God´s word.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:
The read the following story in the internet.  I apologize if I wasn´t able to take note or make proper reference to the original author.

It is about a small rescue station run by volunteers to assist the US Coast Guard.  They put their station near a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often happen.  They had a small and primitive building, they only had one boat and there was only a few of them.  But the members of this rescue station were committed.  They kept constant watch over the sea.  Whenever a ship went down, they would bravely go out day or night to save the lost.  Because of so many lives saved by this rescue station, they became famous.

Not long after, many people came and wanted to be associated with this rescue station.  They have given their time, their talent and their money to support its important work.  New and modern boats were bought.  New crews and volunteers were recruited.  Lots of training sessions were conducted.  As volunteers join the station, lots of ideas poured in.  Some of them became unhappy with their old building, so they wanted a better place and a new building was constructed.  They wanted a bigger place to welcome survivors of shipwrecks.  They also bought new beds, new furnitures and new equipments.  
Now the rescue stations became a popular gathering place of its members.  They met regularly.  They loved each other.  They enjoyed the company of every one.  They get to know each other more.  They hugged each other.  They shared their lives with each other.  As time goes on, the members are now getting less and less interested in what´s going on at the sea beside them.  Fewer members are now interested in going to the sea for life-saving missions.  What they did was to hire lifeboat crews to do the job for them.  

One day, a large ship was wrecked off the coast.  The hired crews brought into the station boatloads of dirty, wet, sick and half-drowned people.  People from different walks of life.  Some of them were from first class cabins, some were from the lower decks.  People with different colors.  Some are black. Some had yellow skin.  Some speak English.  Some could hardly speak at all.  The beautiful building became a place of chaos.  Their new carpets got dirty.  Their furniture were damaged.  The committee decided to build showers outside the building so that the victims can clean up themselves before getting inside the building.  

In their next general meeting, there was a heated debate.  Some members wanted to stop the stations life-saving activities as these activities have become a hindrance to their normal fellowship.  Few members insisted that their primary purpose was to save lives.  Unfortunately, they were voted down and they were told to leave.
So the small group of members of the old station started a new station.  Years passed, the new station experienced the same problem.  It evolved into a place of meeting, of fellowship and never-ending training sessions.  The cycle continues.  A few people started another station, with the goal of saving lives, then after a while, they grow big but only in numbers only.  If you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of stations with ample parking and nice facilities.  Shipwrecks still happen a lot of times in the area.  Unfortunately, a lot of people drown and they are not being saved.

This story is a parable. It´s the parable of the rescue station.  But we can also call it the parable of the modern church.  I am not saying we are like this church.  But if we don´t do anything, we can be like them.  If we omit C in our commission, if Christ is no longer the reason for our mission, if we are not committed to saving lives and if we are not genuinely concern for their eternal destiny, our great Commission becomes a Great Omission.

This happens not only in the church in general but also to each one of us.  We can become so comfortable of being a Christian that we forget the Great Commission. Why do you think God did not just take us up to heaven the moment we received Christ in our lives? 

There are people around us in shipwrecks.  They are drowning. They are losing hope.  Some of them are not even aware of their situation.  God has given us the command to help them.  Not only that, He promised that He will always be with us to the end of the age.  He also sent the Holy Spirit to empower us, to give us confidence, because He knows we cannot do it ourselves. Jesus said “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Let us pray.

Prayer:

Wherever you are, whatever you situation you may be -- you need the love of Jesus in your life. Please say this prayer sincerely from your heart:  

Father God, I confess all my sins to you today.  Please forgive me.  Today, I open my heart to your Son Jesus Christ.  I accept Him in my life as my Saviour and as my Lord.  May the Holy Spirit come to my life and make me the kind of person you want me to be.  In Jesus Name, I pray.    Amen.

The above article is an excerpt from a sermon delivered at WCCC Richmond during its service on  Sunday, May 7, 2017

I apologise if there are grammatical and spelling errors. 

I also apologise if I have missed acknowledging or making proper references to my sources, if any,  as it is purely unintentional.

If you are looking for a church in British Columbia, Canada please visit our website at:

 www.wordchristiancommunity.com

Tithing Under Grace

Today is stewardship Sunday. It´s one of those Sundays that we are tasked to preach about giving.  You know,  the pastors job is not easy. It´s hard enough to preach a sermon on salvation or sin, it´s even harder to speak in the pulpit about stewardship, about giving and most especially about tithing.  I have no business standing here and speak about tithing if I myself does not give my tithes.  Probably the first person to walk out of this room is our Accounting Ministry.
Our church is full of gifted people especially in preaching.  Sometimes, people would ask me, Pastor Ramil, why don´t you let this person preach.  He´s been in the church for a long time.  He has a gift in speaking .  In fact, with all due respect, Pastor Ramil, he is better than most pastors.  (One thing I learned over the years, when a person says “with all due respect” please expect that the next few words will be a bit disrespecting).  So what can I say, I agree with everything the person said, except that I cannot tell him why.  If I ask that person to preach about tithing in the pulpit "Houston, we have a problem..."
Your pastors may not be the most talented preachers but one thing I can assure you, we practice what we preach especially in the area of tithing.

You see whenever we preach about tithing, we take a step of faith and a huge risk of being misinterpreted.  A lot of people shied away from the church because they think the pastors are just there to take away their money.  That the church is just a big excuse to collect people´s hard-earned money by some wolves in sheep´s clothing pretending to care because they want to enrich themselves at the expense of others.  I can´t blame some people to think that way. Because sometimes we´ve seen in the news how extravagant some pastors live their lives.   

Jesus did not say during His ministry here on earth was "Now that you´re under grace in the New Covenant, forget about tithing because tithing is found in the Old Testament.  It´s passé, no need to do that!”  No, He did not say that.  

Tithing is not a very popular word to use.  People would rather hear about “love offering” or “love gift” or “generous giving” or “sharing” but the word “tithing” seems to have some sort of stigma in it.  Even in Tagalog it´s not popular, the word “tithing” in Tagalog is IKAPU, sounds like INAKUPU!

Among the questions that I get about tithing are the following:
1. Is tithing only applicable in the Old Testament and that it was never commanded in the New Testament?
2. Is it based on Gross Income or Net Income?
3. Here´s a logical expression:
Tithing is under the law.  
The Bible says, we are no longer under the law but under grace. Therefore, tithing is unbiblical.  
Therefore, again, It´s perfectly all right to give less than 10 percent or not to give anything at all.

Every time I talk about tithing and we mention Malachi 3:10, some people will say “that´s Old Testament, not applicable.”  But Abraham gave his tithes to King Melchizedek – nope, Old Testament, not applicable.
Well, let us read a New Testament passage & listen what Jesus Christ had to say about this.  

The first thing we need to understand this morning is the word TITHE:

But maybe before we even argue about the 10% of what we are supposed to give back to God, let us first understand who owns the 100%.  The Bible says in Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”  So this simply means that God owns you and everything you have, including your money.
But pastor, I worked hard for the money…so hard for the money.  You may have this job but who gave you this job in the first place?  But Pastor, I studied hard and worked hard and used my talents to get this job.  Well, who gave you those talents in the first place.  Who gave you your life in the first place.  So if God owns everything, what are we?  We are stewards.  We are caretakers.  If we have internalized this principle that God owns everything and we own nothing, then it will not be very hard for us to give something back to Him.  Not because we are forced to do so, but because of that overflowing gratitude in our hearts that while we give back a certain portion of what we earned, God in His generosity allows us to use the rest for His glory.

LESSONS:
Let´s talk about the first lesson that we can derive from the passages that we read this morning.  Since a lot of people here are logical people, I wrote a logical expression here to prove a point:
Tithing is under the law.

Jesus has nothing against the Old Testament law.  Why? Because He created those laws in the first place.  In the beginning, Jesus was with God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
When Jesus walked here on earth, He had to explain or maybe let´s use the word “expound” the law because people are getting it wrong.  For example, the Pharisees were questioning Him about healing people or helping the needy during the Sabbath.  So Jesus said, “wait a minute, you´re getting it wrong …. The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath!  God commanded the Sabbath so that people can rest and worship the Lord.

How did Jesus want us to fulfill the law?
Jesus wants us to fulfill the law from His perspective.  He wants us to follow the law not for the sake of following it but because we love God.  Jesus wants us to obey the law so we can please God but not to put others down or not put ourselves better than the others.

One time Jesus told a story:   A Pharisee and a tax collector went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
 “But the tax collector would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’  The tax collector went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
That is how Jesus wants us to fulfill the law.  He does not want us to forget the more important things in life and not to become self-righteous. Let us say you are faithfully giving your tithes in the church but you´re the queen or king of gossip, you have a bigger problem sir… or ma´am.  Or let´s say you are top giver of tithes in the church, but you are living an immoral life… you are certainly missing the point.

Jesus said to the Pharisees:

Now question, did Jesus abolish tithing in the New Testament or not? Or not!

Let us go to our second point. Some people likes to use the word “grace” when they talk about giving.  Sometimes, the intention is good and it´s biblical but I do hope they know what they are talking about.

Jesus sets a higher standard under grace in fulfilling the law – not just in giving but in every aspect of the law. (V19)

What´s Jesus´ standard?
If you read the Bible you´ll know what I´m talking about.  Jesus made His standards very, very clear.  Let me give you some examples:
Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 5, verse 21-22: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[Exodus 20:13] which is part of the Ten Commandments.  Why did Jesus use the word “heard?”  Well because at that time, the Old Testament laws were read to people.    Jesus continued “But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Raca is an Aramaic term for “contempt” so Jesus was saying… wait, “you shall not murder” does not simply mean you need to take the life of someone else… if you are character-assassinating somebody, that´s also murder from God´s standpoint.

Then Jesus continued -- “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”
Ok, life application … you are faithful in giving your tithes.  You placed your love gift in the collection bag.  but you have issues with people, you have lots of enemies, you have offended somebody… what did Jesus say?   Go and be reconciled to them… then come back and offer your gift… now your gift becomes a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord.

In Matthew 5:27, Jesus said “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  Lustful thoughts is already adultery.  These are Jesus standards under the age of grace.  Now tell me, which is the higher standard? Under the law or under Grace? Well, if you want to be technical about it… there is only one set of standards, it´s God´s standards but like what I said, over the years… man has corrupted God´s law.  They were faithful, but they were faithfully wrong.  They were sincere, but they were sincerely wrong.
  Here´s our third point:

Jesus said in verse 20  “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
This applies to everything, including giving.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
The sad thing is this – some people uses “grace” sometimes as a rationale for not giving at all. Once I heard somebody saying this.  God owns everything, right? Everything!
- If my kids are really the Lord's, then I can count the money I spend on their food and clothing and college tuition as falling into the 'good steward or tithing or giving' category.
- If I use my home for hospitality and hosting Bible study group, then I can spend for furniture acquisition and home makeovers. I use my computer for Bible study and my phone to store worship songs, so those items are “steward” deductible" or “steward applicable” expenses
- If I send money to my relatives in the Philippines, this means I a a good and helpful person and I can count this as part of my giving back to God
- I pay taxes, this makes me a good citizen so I can consider this part of what I give back to God
- Well, God owns everything, including my body.  So if I treat myself to “the Keg” and eat a $50 dollar steak, I can consider this as part of my giving to the Lord.
- I watch the sermon of Charles Stanley on television so I can consider my 60 inch LED TV as part of my givings to the Lord
- I play golf and share the Gospel with my golfing buddies, so my green fee and the cost of my Callaway golf set is also considered as part of my tithes.
We can go on and on and on… but this type of "all-grace giving" where we give "everything" to God looks suspiciously tantamount to giving nothing back to God.

You know, if you read the Bible, you will learn that in many occasions, God tests His children.  Our life is a test.  God wants to know who is faithful and who is not.  However, there is one instance when God allows His children to TEST Him.  What? Me testing God?

Malachi 3;10 says “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test Me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing there will not be room enough to store it.'"
God invites human beings into an experiment. He challenges people to test Him.  How can we know what God has in-store for us if we don’t do what He asks us to do.

You can start giving to the church… if you cannot afford to give 10%, start with something smaller… but be consistent and be faithful.  Give with a cheerful heart, because God loves a cheerful giver.  If you want to give 10% based on your salary and you are confused whether its based on Gross or Net Salary… well, you can start with your Net Salary.  But remember we reap what we sow.  I do believe that the more generous we are in our givings, the more blessings God will open up for each one of us.  And even if He doesn´t give us something back, it´s ok.  We trust Him with His plans.  And this is something we have proven over the years in my family.  God provides – in different forms.  We have proven that.
One good example is about our children – He did not give us money to pay for my daughter´s tuition fee in the university – but He made her hardworking enough to get full scholarship.  God did not give us money so we can send our son Ram to study music like piano or guitar or flute.  But He blesses Him with a gift in music so he can still play just by listening on his own.  God is good, amen?

Let me leave you with this statement from one of my favorite preacher:

Let us pray.

Prayer:

Wherever you are, whatever you situation you may be -- you need the love of Jesus in your life. Please say this prayer sincerely from your heart:  

Father God, I confess all my sins to you today.  Please forgive me.  Today, I open my heart to your Son Jesus Christ.  I accept Him in my life as my Saviour and as my Lord.  May the Holy Spirit come to my life and make me the kind of person you want me to be.  In Jesus Name, I pray.    Amen.

The above article is an excerpt from a sermon delivered at WCCC Richmond during its service on  Sunday, May 21, 2017

I apologise if there are grammatical and spelling errors. 

I also apologise if I have missed acknowledging or making proper references to my sources, if any,  as it is purely unintentional.

If you are looking for a church in British Columbia, Canada please visit our website at:

 www.wordchristiancommunity.com