Reaching Unity Through Offering Matthew 5: 23-24

I. Unity with Brothers Through Offering 1. Reconciliation Prior Offering Matt 5: Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

I. Unity with Brothers Through Offering 2. The Offerings of Cain and Abel Gen 4: 3-5 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

I. Unity with Brothers Through Offering 3. Offering and God’s Will Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

II. Unity Between Parents and Children Through Offering 1. Abraham and Isaac Genesis 22: 6, 8 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together... Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

II. Unity Between Parents and Children Through Offering 2. Hannah and Samuel I Samuel 1: 24, After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three- year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh…….I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD." And he worshiped the LORD there.

II. Unity Between Parents and Children Through Offering 3. King David and Solomon 1 Chronicles 22: 1-4, 16 Then David said, "The house of the LORD God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel." So David gave orders to assemble the aliens living in Israel, and from among them he appointed stonecutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God. He provided a

II. Unity Between Parents and Children Through Offering large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings, and more bronze than could be weighed. He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted, for the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought large numbers of them to David…….in gold and silver, bronze and iron-craftsmen beyond number. Now begin the work, and the LORD be with you.

III. Unity in Marriage Through Offering 1. Aquila and Priscilla Acts 18: 2-3, 26 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. ……

III. Unity in Marriage Through Offering He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

III. Unity in Marriage Through Offering 2. Ananias and Sapphira Acts 5: 8-9 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” Peter said to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”

III. Unity in Marriage Through Offering 3. Break Wrong Unity with Wisdom and Courage

IV. Unity Among Colleagues Through Offering 1. Mary and Disciples Matthew 26: 8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. John 12:3,5 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair.

IV. Unity Among Colleagues Through Offering And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume…….“Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.”

IV. Unity Among Colleagues Through Offering 2. The “Three” Wise Men from East Matthew 2:11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.