http://www.trinityopcnovato.org Serving Novato, Marin County, California and the World Wide Web. This site provides information about the Christian ministry of Trinity Presbyterian Church, OPC. This site also broadcasts the latest sermons and Sunday schools from Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, CA. Our sermons seek to exposit Scripture, preaching Christ and the cross, and understanding the impact and demand of the Word on our lives. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:54:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Copyright © by W. Reid Hankins and Trinity Presbyterian Church, 2011 info@trinityopcnovato.org (Rev. W. Reid Hankins) info@trinityopcnovato.org (Rev. W. Reid Hankins) Religion & Spirituality:Christianity 1440 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/tpc-vertical144.jpg http://www.trinityopcnovato.org 144 144 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?feed=podcast Sermons and Sunday Schools Serving Novato, Marin County, California and the World Wide Web. This feed broadcasts the latest sermons and Sunday schools from Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, CA. Our sermons seek to exposit Scripture, preaching Christ and the cross, and understanding the impact and demand of the Word on our lives. Church, Novato, Marin, Hankins, Sermon, Christian, OPC, San Rafael Rev. W. Reid Hankins Rev. W. Reid Hankins info@trinityopcnovato.org no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/11/return/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/11/return/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:40:16 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1552 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/12/11/return/feed/ 0 0:38:34 Sermon preached on Malachi 3:6-12 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/11/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Malachi 3:6-12 12/04/11 “And I Will Return To You” In th[...] Sermon preached on Malachi 3:6-12 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 12/11/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Malachi 3:6-12 12/04/11 “And I Will Return To You” In this passage we see a call for the people to return to God. Verse 7. If the people return to God, God says that he will return to them. And so what is then flushed out in this passage is the concept of repentance. Repentance is about turning. It’s about turning around from one direction to another. From a direction of sin toward the direction of righteousness. From a direction of godlessness to godliness. From the direction away from God to the direction toward God. Repentance involves a turning, and that’s what this passage is about. Well, as a Christian, it is important to understand the concept of repentance, since we’ve been called to faith and repentance. We’ve been called to turn from a life apart from God and turn toward him in faith. To trust in his forgiveness and set him as the Lord in our life. That’s what Christian conversion is all about. It’s about a turning to God. We see a kind of turning described in this passage. Here it is about the people of Malachi’s day turning back to God, specifically in the area of worship. And I like how Malachi describes this. Often when we think of repentance, we think of confession. Confessing a sin is part of repentance, but it’s not all of it. Repentance involves not only confessing a sin, but then turning from it. In your mind you make a mental u-turn and look to stop practicing that sin in your life. Here Malachi shows us this with the example of tithing. And so again, the people respond right away in verse 7 again with a bit of spiritual ignorance. God had just confronted them on their sin. God said they needed to return to him. And yet in verse 7, they ask “In what way shall we return.” Well, they should have been able to examine their lives and answer that question in light of God’s law. But we are glad they asked because it shows us a picture of returning. Returning involved turning from their sin to follow God and his holy laws. Here God points to their failure to tithe. That was a sin they needed to turn from if they were to return to God. And so we’ll be spending some time today thinking about their failure in tithing. But then we’ll situate that within the context of their call to repent and return to God. So then let’s think about their failure to tithe. We’ll start with a basic definition of this. First, note that tithing is an ordinance. Verse 7 mentioned ordinances and then the passage goes on to talk about the ordinance of tithing. Offerings are mentioned here too alongside tithing. They are related, though don’t become the focus here as much as the tithing. Back in chapter 1, he had dealt with their problematic offerings. So here God says they had not been giving a tithe, and that this tithe was not optional. It was a statute God commanded them to be doing as part of their religious worship. Specifically, a tithe was a tenth. A tenth of their income. The word literally means just that – a tenth. Numbers 18 gives the primary legislation on tithing. This tenth of their income was supposed to be given to the priests and Levites as their primary sustenance. Deuteronomy 14 goes on to describe how normally they were to bring this offering at the main tabernacle, with the exception of every third year. In those years you were to store the tithe up locally to provide for the needs of both the local Levites, and the poor and needy. This is what it’s getting at in verse 10 when it talks about the storehouses being full. These tithes were to fill up God’s storehouses to provide food for these different groups. Evidently those storehouses had become empty at Malachi[...] Malachi Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/02/07/you-shall-rejoice-you-and-your-household/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/02/07/you-shall-rejoice-you-and-your-household/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:27:37 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.novatoopcsermons.org/?p=624 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/02/07/you-shall-rejoice-you-and-your-household/feed/ 0 0:35:07 Sermon preached on Deuteronomy 14:22-29 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/07/2010 in Novato, CA. Manuscript: You Shall Rejoice, You and Your Household Sermon preached on Deuteronomy 14:22-29 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/07/2010 in Novato, CA. Manuscript: You Shall Rejoice, You and Your Household Deuteronomy Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no