GIVE TO GOD WHAT BELONGS TO GOD

By Odon Bulamba (16th January 2011 - summary only)


I praise God because this morning we have been able to meet together this morning and it’s a grace to meet together like this to read the Word of God. Some are not able to meet this morning because maybe they are sick, maybe they had a car accident or maybe they died during the night but we are here together and we can praise God for that.


Mark 12:16,17


“And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him”.

 Jesus told these people, “I don’t need 100% from you, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give me what belongs to God”. It was a way of bringing peace between the two parties. One side wanted to say that everything belonged to Caesar while the other wanted to say that everything belonged to God. Jesus found a way to bring peace between both sides by what he said.


The picture on our coins is the image of the queen and it is this image that makes the coin valuable. Without the image of the queen, the coin will be fake and unusable.


Caesar represents man, Caesar also represents our nation and also our government. Every day we owe something to someone. For example, if you use electricity, you will owe the power company. If you make a phone call, you will owe Telecom/Telstra Clear. If drive in your car, you will need petrol, WOF, registration etc. If you don’t pay, you will receive a reminder with the due date. If you don’t pay within the due date, you will be given a penalty. If you continue not to pay, you will be taken to court until you do pay. Sometimes we have to take finance in order to pay off what we need, and we accept to pay interest.


We accept to pay because we know that it belongs to Caesar and we have to pay or we will be in trouble. If you are late for work, you will get a warning and if you continue to be late every day, it will become a serious issue. Most people work because they have to, not very many people work because they enjoy it. Then the IRD asked for their portion and if you refuse to pay tax, you will see yourself going to court and you will pay the price for that.


If you don’t send your kids to school, you will see the government intervening and pushing you to send them to school. Even to get food requires money. Today we need to buy a house and before to build, we need permission to buy the land.


God says, ‘yes you have to pay for all these things’. We spend our money and our time and effort to please the government and ourselves. We fear the government so we pay in order to avoid trouble but for God, we don’t care, we sometimes even forget He exists.


God also has a coin. He said, ‘let Us create human being in Our image’. You are this coin. Think of your value – the image of God. When people see you, they should notice you belong to God. God created you to be seen by everybody unlike the Caesar’s coin which can be hidden in your pocket. Whenever someone goes missing, the police put their image on the television, and people will search for them but if I lose a simple coin and tell the police, they will sent be away and say I’m wasting their time.


The police respect the lives of human beings more than money. You are very important and if God can make the government and the entire country care for you, why can’t you also care for people instead of money?


If what happened in Queensland (flooding) could be here today, then you would seek God because we only seek Him when we are in trouble and then we say, ‘thank you and goodbye’ to God because we got what we needed.


John 1:12, “But as many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”.


We have the power to become children of God.



To be a parent is to educate your child and most of the time, God tells us (as His children) things we don’t want to hear. We have to pay back to God because we owe Him so much. How many promises did I give to God? How many things did I say I would do for God this week?


When we have a birthday party to go to, we have time to prepare….we prepare the gift, we prepare ourselves (what we will wear), we might even prepare food but when we are going to the House of the Lord, we don’t have time to prepare (spiritually). There is joy for a birthday party and we are there on time but for church, there is no joy and we are usually late, sometimes the preacher has a whole month to prepare his message but only takes ten minutes before the service to get it ready.



When it’s God’s time, we try to remove our responsibilities and try our best not to be committed. Our churches need our offerings but we prefer to buy something else that pleases us.

 Malachi 3:8, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.”

 When God gives you a ministry, you think it’s too hard and too difficult. It’s like me wearing this suit, I start to think it’s too hot, so I take off the jacket, and then I take off the tie and then my shoes and eventually, I stand in front of God completely naked because I have removed every ministry until there is nothing left.


God created us and therefore we already belong to Him but then He also brought us with the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, He owns us twice but why don’t we accept to belong to Him. You owe Him a lot so why don’t you give Him at least the minimum? To find people who tithe is a problem, to find a preacher is a problem, to find anyone who will work for God is a problem.


II Timothy 3:1-5, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away”.


These are the gifts most Christians have today rather than gifts from God. This verse is a warning from God ‘cos the time we are living is very dangerous. Many Christians love themselves, many are selfish and don’t love others or God. Many Christians love money more than people and many are proud and many boast. Many Christians are disobedient to parents (God is our Father).

 How often do we obey God? We listen to God but we put it aside and we don’t care because we are careless. Why don’t we take God seriously? Why don’t we want to listen and obey God?

 We are unthankful. When we tell others the great things God has done, many others might also come to God. Whenever you give something to God, you are not giving in vain, you are collecting for God and He will bless you.


Many Christians slander but we need to avoid slander and we need to be self-controlled. Self-control is when you want to sin and you control yourself to not sin. Satan doesn’t have the power to force you so if you say, ‘no’, he’ll leave you. Control your actions, control your attitude, control your good relationship with God. We mustn’t love pleasures more than God. We need limits and we need self-control. Many things pull us to make us addicted to them (eg. Television) but we have to control ourselves.


SUMMARY

- Give to Caesar (government, man, nation) what belongs to Caesar
- Give to God what belongs to God
- We owe God a lot
- God created us and bought us (we belong to Him 2x)
- We are the image of God (people should recognise that)
- Give to God our time, our money and our effort
- Be self-controlled