Brownwood Church Brownwood Church

What is our motivation for faithful and generous giving? When Paul tells the church that God supplies seed to the sower to multiply, it is to have an abundance for every good deed, not for the accumulation of personal riches. As the church transitioned from the legal requirement of paying multiple tithes to now every believer as a priest purposing in his heart what they are to give, it is joy that always motivates the greatest sacrifices.

The church was a family. It IS a family. It is THE family. And because the early church understood this, they continually devoted themselves to reflections of that reality. Like a family, they taught each other, had a participation of fellowship in their sharing and contributing, ate together, and prayed with and for each other. Like a family, they considered their possessions not merely their own, but provided for any as each had need. This wasn't a cult or communism: this was family, as God truly intended. Though they didn't share their own blood, they were brought together by the more precious blood of Jesus.

As the first believers were transitioning from the shadows of worship in the temple to the gathering of the church, assembling together became where they reminded each other to hold fast to their new confession of Christ as the fulfillment of the law, prophets, sacrifices, temple, and priesthood. As these new members of the church assembled together, they encouraged one another to love and good deeds.

In due time, every tree will identify itself when it bears its fruit. The words we truly speak can only ultimately come from that which is already in our hearts. So in the end, the fruit of our lips will prove the condition of our hearts, which is why Jesus can rightly say that we will be justified or condemned by our words.

The generation Jesus came to had been given more light than any before. They were witnessing His mighty works and hearing the kingdom proclaimed greater than ever. Yet the Pharisees, in the face of the most obvious displays of the works of the Spirit of God, attribute His power to Satan himself. They were insulting the Spirit of grace, and if one rejects the Spirit, there is nothing else that remains. This blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the most serious sin one could ever commit.

What was God's ultimate purpose in the Sabbath? Why could Jesus’ disciples pick grain on it? How did David’s men eat the consecrated bread for the priests, which was unlawful? In what sense could the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and remain guiltless? And why was Jesus healing on the Sabbath not only lawful, but a means by which His ultimate fulfillment of it was demonstrated?