Zion Church Online Bulletin

Week No. 10 | 10 March 2024 Lord's Day

LORD’S DAY SERVICE ORDER

PRESIDER: Elder Anthony Lim
*Silent Prayer
*Confession of Faith
Hymn 48
Responsive Reading:
2 Psalm 2
2 诗篇 2
Prayer by Elder Anthony Lim
Scripture Reading:
Leviticus 3:1-5
利未记 3:1-5
Choir Anthem by Sharon Choir
We Remember You
我们记得祢
Sermon by Pastor Samuel Kim
Leviticus 03 – Peace Offering
利未记 03 – 平安祭
Hymn 466
Offering Prayer by Elder Anthony Lim
Offering Song:
Hold my hand
牵我的手

(Northern Lights Cell Group)
Announcements by Elder Anthony Lim
*Hymn 6
*Benediction by Pastor Samuel Kim

*Congregation Standing

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Let us continue to pray for the growth and revival of our church and for the work of evangelism and missions.
  • Please refer to the following for our service times:

    • Lord’s Day (Sunday) service @ 10:45 am*
    • Lord’s Day Bible study at 1:30 pm
    • Wednesday service @ 7:40 pm*
    • Saturday Dawn service @ 6:00 am

    *Also broadcasted live on YouTube for Lord’s Day & Wed Services: http://live.zionchurch.sg

    *也在 YouTube 上直播主日和周三礼拜: http://live.zionchurch.sg

  • The Precept for 2024: “A Church that Arises to Rebuild the Foundation of Faith and Is Devoted to Spreading the Word of Redemptive History. “ (Neh 2:18; Isa 58:12; Matt 24:14; 1 Tim 4:15; 2 Tim 4:2)

    “一个兴起重建信心基础和致力传播救赎史话语的教会”
    (尼希米记 2:18; 以赛亚书 58:12; 马太福音 24:14; 提摩太前书 4:15;提摩太后书 4:2)

  • There will be HORA Youth & Young Adults Conference in New York this year! Please pray for God’s blessings upon the conference and all those who attend.

    Theme: RE:Align (Theme verse: 2 Chronicles 34:2)
    Where: Stony Brook University campus, New York
    When: 3-6 July 2024 (Wed-Sat)

  • Timothy Youth & Elijah Young Adult Ministries will have combined services with special speaker, Mr Poh Yu Khing on Apr 6 at 5 pm in Zion Church. He will be speaking on the Topic: “Money & Financial Stewardship”. All are welcome to join.
  • There will be Italy HOR Seminar and HORA Associate Church Induction Thanksgiving Service in the month of March:

    – Mar 13-14: HORA Seminar on Book 1 in Milan
    * Mar 15-17: HORA Seminar on Book 9 in Sondrio
    – Mar 17: Induction Thanksgiving Service

    Please pray for the seminars to be filled with God’s grace and for Pastor Sam’s safe travel.

  • Join Us for Passion Week Special Services this March!

    – Dawn services: Mar 25 (Mon) – 29 (Fri) at 6:00 am
    – Evening services: Mar 25 (Mon) – 28 (Thu) at 7:40 pm
    – Good Friday service: Mar 29 (Fri) at 10:45 am

    We encourage you to invite your friends and family to journey with us through the Passion Week and experience the transformative power of God’s grace.

SERVICE DUTIES

Prayer (Wed 13 Mar) Dcn. John Tan
Presider (Sun 17 Mar) Eld. Tan Pau Soon
Basket Bearers (Sun 17 Mar) Eld. William Ng, Dcn. Louis Loy

OFFERING & TITHE

Via Internet Banking

You can give an offering electronically by transferring to the following account:

Please make sure to indicate your name, type of offering and the date info under the memo/remarks sections when initiating the transfer. Please indicate your offerings’ purpose especially for TITHES (to be listed as TH).
Note: Any online offerings without indications of whether for tithing, thanksgiving, building, mission, etc will be recorded as regular offerings.
Thank you for your assistance.

1. For regular, tithes, thanksgiving, special, and missions offerings ONLY
OCBC Bank Account: ZION CHURCH
Account Number: 621835867001
PayNow UEN #: T00SS0141D
Swift: OCBCSGSGXXX
Bank Address: CHULIA STREET, 63, OCBC CENTRE, FLOOR 10, SINGAPORE

NOTE: Please specify Name, Purpose and Date (ddmmmyy) of the offering in the MEMO or Bill Reference Number section. See Example 1.

2. Offering toward Missions Offering or Book Drive to support broadcasts of the History of Redemption Series globally, can be made in the following ways to HORA Ministries:

1) Direct bank transfer to:

DBS (Development Bank of Singapore)
Account Holder: LI JIA TSUEY or CAI XIAO FEN ERICA
Account Number: 271-310151-9 (Account Type: Multi Currency Account)
Currency Type: All currencies accepted (US$, S$, etc)
Address of Beneficiary Bank: 12 Marina Boulevard, DBS Asia Central, Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3, Singapore 018982
Country: Singapore
SWIFT Address/Code: DBSSSGSG

2) PayNow to HORA Ministries via NRIC S7638942Z

3) Indicating “Book Drive” or “Missions” on the offering envelopes.

Use the following acronyms to indicate Purpose (offering type):

    • RO = Regular Offering
    • TH = Tithes
    • TG = Thanksgiving
    • SP = Special Offering
    • MO = Missions Offering
    • BO = Building Offering

Example 1:
JohnDoe TH 05APR20
SamMiller TG 05Mar20
JaneSmith RO 03May20

Example 2:
JohnDoe BO 05APR20

By Mail

You may mail your offering cheques to Zion Church to below address:
“Finance Department”.
2 Gambas Crescent, Nordcom 2 Tower 2 #10-13. Singapore 757044.

By ATM

You may transfer via ATM:
BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO SPECIFY TYPE OF OFFERING if you use this option.
Please inform any Finance Team member if want your offering to be recorded.

  • Eldress May Ling
  • Deaconess Leh Tieng
  • Elder Steve

Living Manna

Sermon Summary
Leviticus 2 – Grain Offering

Scripture: Leviticus 2:1-16

Grain offering is not given through blood or death but through grain and harvest. It is the harvest of our lives; hence it represents giving a gift to God from what is given to me. It is about me becoming God’s gift and furthermore, it foreshadows Jesus’s life.
The word offering in Hebrew is ‘qorban’ (קָרְבָּן), qorban is rooted in the word which means to approach, draw close. Qorban is an act of drawing close to God. It’s an act of drawing near to the presence of God so that He can fix what is broken in us.
The term for grain offering is ‘minha (מִנְחָה) qorban’ in Hebrew, meaning offering without animal blood, gift offering. Therefore, it’s not for the purpose of atonement or forgiving sins. It’s more for the purpose of giving thanks and praising the Lord.
Leviticus 2:1 says when anyone presents a grain offering, anyone is ‘nepes’ (נָ֫פֶשׁ) which means soul, life, and breath. This anyone includes all of us.
Let us begin to think about this grain offering from Leviticus 2:1, we see 3 elements here.
1. Fine flour
We need to bring fine flour, ‘solet’ (סֹלֶת) in Hebrew. For grain to become fine flour, it needs to go through the process of being broken, crushed and grounded. It speaks not only of our broken hearts but also of our faith and our lives that have gone through the refining. The flour or grain that is ground up into fine flour, does not make noise, and this speaks about Jesus’s gentleness, meekness, and humility (Matthew 8:42, 11:29, 2 Corinthians 10:1).

2. Oil
The next one next thing that you need is oil, ‘semen’ (שֶׁמֶן). Oil symbolises God’s Holy Spirit. Receiving the spirit of God and having the spirit of God upon us is being anointed, having the oil for the purpose of bringing good news to the afflicted (Isaiah 61:1-2). To be anointed by God means that we are under God’s spiritual rule and reign. For us to give the grain offering, first we need to become that fine flour, but that is not enough. We need the whole process of grounding to be mixed with oil, the Holy Spirit. We need to receive the Holy Spirit.

3. Frankincense
‘Lebonah’ (לְבוֹנָה) is frankincense. Just like the burnt offering, soothing aroma is what pleases the Lord and this incense symbolises the prayers of the saints (Revelation 8:4-5). We need to become the fine flour, then receive the Holy Spirit and add on the prayers of the saints. A soothing aroma comes and is produced only when the offering is burnt in a fire. With fire, when our sins are presented to the Lord we talk about fire as God’s judgment. When our sins are burned away, it’s speaking about repentance. It is the repentance that causes the soothing aroma. May we bring that fine flour, oil of the Holy Spirit and frankincense, our confession of faith (prayer) as an offering to God.

Leviticus 2:2 says to offer it up in smoke, as its memorial portion. This word memorial in Hebrew azkarah (אַזְכָּרָה), which means remembering, lifting up your memories. First, lift up your memories as you remember the goodness of God in your life. Secondly, as a remembrance of God’s covenant. It’s an offering that we lift because we remember the Covenant of God, which becomes a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Leviticus 2:4-7 speaks about different options or different ways of the grain offering. As such we are giving the best to the Lord in different ways and different forms. In 1 Kings 17: 8-14, there’s a story about Elijah the prophet. God tells Elijah to go to a widow in Zarephath to stay there. It was during the time of famine, she had only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. She explained there was no more, but Elijah said “Give me the piece of bread and you can have the rest”. As a result of this offering that she gave to Elijah, she received the blessing of her jar of flour and jug of oil not running out until the famine was over.

When the widow was giving the little bread to Elijah, she was actually giving it to God. She was offering her life to God. It was her last bread, her daily bread. She gave it to the Lord, the faith that she added on to this offering is like frankincense. Grain offering is a voluntary offering, something that we lift up to God daily. We need the oil, anointing of the Holy Spirit and the frankincense, our prayers and faith.
Now when you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers spread with oil (Leviticus 2:4). According to Leviticus 2:11, grain offering shall not be offered up in smoke leaven or any honey to the Lord. Leaven is something that makes the flour fluffier and softer, it makes the bread taste better and softer. But according to the Bible, once leaven is mixed into the cake, it is not pure anymore. Jesus says the Pharisees and the Sadducees are the leaven (Matthew 16: 6). They act like they’re teaching the word of God but they mix in their greed and hypocrisy. When the church and Christians are mixed with the leaven of the world, the thoughts and ideologies of the world, its purity is compromised and values are affected. Therefore, we must remove all spiritual leaven before we lift it up to God.

Honey is ordinarily something good in the Bible, and you’re wondering why not honey. We need to realize that the offering or worship we lift to God needs to be according to God’s taste, not my taste. We come expecting to receive consolation and comfort. Of course, when we worship God and hear the Word, the Holy Spirit gives us grace. Then we receive consolation, comfort and blessing. We must come with the heart of giving to God according to how He likes it.

Leviticus 2: 13 says with all your offerings you shall offer salt. Salt prevents decomposition, corruption and brings out the natural taste. Salt represents the Covenant of God, making the offering covenanted and based on God’s word. You are the salt of the world when you have the spirit of the Lord (Matthew 5:13- 14). When we lift our offerings and our daily life to God, it needs to be upon the basis of God’s promise.
Grain offering with salt but without leaven or honey is like giving myself without making myself look bigger, exaggerating or adding things to make it sweeter. God wants us as who we are and with the Word (salt) and the Holy Spirit (oil), it brings out the beauty in you. All the unnecessary things will be burned away.

In Leviticus 2:12-14, it says bring offering of first fruits and of early ripened things. In Hebrew, the first fruit is called ‘resheth’ (רֶשֶׁת), which means beginning, starting point, the first, the best. Early ripened things in verse 14 is ‘bikkurim’ (בִּכּוּר), which come from the root word ‘bekor’ (בְּכוֹר) which means firstborn. So ‘bikkurim’ means early harvest or first fruit.

Jesus died on the Passover and He resurrected on the first Sunday. Jesus stayed on earth for 40 days after resurrection, ascended into heaven and 10 days later the Holy Spirit came, that’s Pentecost. The Sunday after Passover is the first day of the 50-day period, the 50th day is called the Feast of the Harvest, Feast of Weeks, it is also called Pentecost. Israelites are supposed to do according to the law in Leviticus, on this first day, they are to go out and pick the best and most beautiful first fruits of the barley and lift it up as an offering to God, that’s ‘resheth’.
‘Bikkurim’ is the harvest of wheat towards the end of the 50 days, the first fruits, early harvest, that’s ‘bikkurim’. If the burnt offering represented the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the grain offering is the fruit of the holy spirit, the fruit of resurrection. After the resurrection, after Jesus, because of His love, my life has changed. The difference in our lives day by day becomes the ‘resheth’ and the ‘bikkurim’. The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5) that is what we lift to God, that’s the grain offering.

In conclusion, the offering we give to God is not about making a deal but it’s about our relationship with God. In Mark 14: 3-7, this woman broke the very costly alabaster vial of perfume and poured it on Jesus, to give thanks to Him. While she was doing that, Jesus’s disciples headed by Judas Iscariot rebuked her saying, how great would it have been if she had sold that for more than 300 denarii. But Jesus said, leave her alone, why do you bother her, she has done a good deed to me. Good here in Greek is ‘kalos’ (καλός) meaning wonderful and beautiful. She represented her most valuable thing, her life and Jesus said it is good.

We went through the sacrifice; we gave that as an offering to God. Through the sufferings and afflictions, we found God. An offering that results from our relationship with God, something that we give because we love Him and we are so thankful to God. The blessing that He gave comes from that relationship. Through that relationship with God, may we be able to lift our offerings and Jesus can say this person has done a good deed to me.

AMEN.

Pastor Samuel Kim

2024-03-23T14:19:03+00:00
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