← ArchiveSunday, May 4, 2014DateMay 4, 2014Speaker—Text2 Corinthians 8Passages in this sermon2 Corinthians 8:23:272 Corinthians 84:22Malachi 34:22Genesis 14:2014:07TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Music Dot, dot, come here a minute, come here, come here, just a minute. I want to prove something here. Last week, you came to me at the desk out there. Asked me why. What are you preaching? What am I preaching on Sunday so you could pick a song out that would go with it?0:30What did I tell you? He didn't know you. And not to worry about it. Right. That God would take care of it. Go sit down. Thank you. That's a precursor and an introduction to the sermon that I'm about to preach. No, it's not from the passage where the Lord told the disciples not to worry about that. It's something that we're all worried about. It's something that plagues the church in times like this.0:57And it's something that plagues us as individuals at times like this. It's something that keeps us from really reaping the greatest joy of being in the Lord at times like this. And by that, I mean, we live in really scary times. Part of that goes all the way back to 9-11 when things begin to break up that we thought we had full control over. And we were actually attacked by a group of people who sought to destroy something about America that no one will ever destroy.1:27But that's America. But then in 2008, we saw the economic decline of the stock market. And housing structure, housing turned upside down. And people lost their homes. People lost their jobs. I know a lot of people that had to choose other things for a lot less and really did more than one.1:54Some people I know began to do two or three things. And I was always concerned at that time as to preaching on giving because I felt like that you were hurting. Many of you were hurting and to get up and preach on giving would just add to that pain until God began to work in my own life and began to show me that it's just like when my children were growing up.2:23And the one thing that I wanted to make sure of as they were growing up is that I took care of me to the point that I could make sure that I would take care of them. So I would always pray, you know, Lord, you need to take care of me because I have a wife and three sons and I need to be able to take care of them. And if something happens to me, nobody's going to take care of them like I will. And God just really slammed me with a truth from his Holy Spirit that said,2:51Chris, do you think I can't take better care of your wife and three sons than you? And he took all the fear away of my dying personally or of anything happening to my children or my wife because I know God is going to take care of me. And God's going to take care of you.3:21And we're going to share that with you and show you how that's going to be. If you have your Bibles with you, I want you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians 8. 2 Corinthians 8. In our Remind Them series that I told you about, you know, we talked about how Paul reminded them to quit blasting the government and start praying for the government. This past Wednesday night, we spent some time as we joined together in our National Day of Prayer3:47to pray for the needs of our nation, to pray for our leaders in our nation and to pray that God would open their eyes and that they might see him and learn that a nation's glory and strength is the ability and the willingness of that nation to depend upon God. But that trickles all the way down to the church. And it also trickles all the way down to the individual in the church.4:15It trickles all the way down to you and I. And before I read 2 Corinthians 8, let me read Malachi 3 because it's a very powerful passage concerning giving. We preach a lot from it, but it's important that you understand when God is talking to Judah and the children of Israel, He's trying to get them to understand just what that song that was sung for us's meaning is.4:45And that is that He'll take care of us. And so in chapter 3 of Malachi, and you don't have to go there just yet. You don't even have to go there. You just let me read it to you and you can go there this afternoon. But beginning in verse 6, He says, So God is giving a powerful message to them.5:05He said,5:23He said, You know, there are a lot of people that don't believe in New Testament tithing because they look at it as being Old Testament law.5:53Well, I just want to remind you that before the law ever was, Abraham tithed. And so Old Testament tithing is a biblical teaching. Now, the New Testament does not press on that as much as the Old Testament does. But the New Testament presses on even a harder giving. But He enlists too. But He enlists too. He says tithes and contributions. And then He says, Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts,6:23If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourers from you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.6:46Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of the light, says the Lord of hosts. Wow. That's a powerful passage that we often look over because it's an Old Testament passage. But as we go to the New Testament, we have 2 Corinthians chapter 8. We have Paul's letter to the Corinthians. After the first letter of really a challenging letter to the children there at Corinth,7:14Paul turns to share a new letter with them. And this letter is filled more with positivity and more certainty about where they are. But before we get there, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions before we go any further. Because I think many of you will answer this one way or the other. And some of you will answer it from a different point of view. And I'll set the point of view after you answer the question.7:42Okay? So you ready? So I'm going to do you just like I do my class on Wednesday. On Wednesdays, I have devotional time with four-year-olds. So I'm going to treat you just like I do them. Do not answer the question until you raise your hand. Do you believe that you are rich?8:14There's all kind of hands going up. Do you believe that you are rich? Just answer it. Yeah or no? You are rich. You're rich. And now I'll clarify it. You're rich in two ways. Several ways, actually. You're rich in one way is that you're in the top 1% of the world. If you're here sitting in this room, you're in the top 1% of this world. That's amazing, isn't it? Then, of course, we would say that we're rich because we're rich in all that God has blessed us with.8:40And we would not want to ever delineate from that or ever subtract from that. And then you help me answer the third one, and that is, do you believe the Bible? Because if you believe the Bible, then if you said, no, I'm not rich, I'm poor. But I tell you, I'll have people every now and then that'll, you know, you'll say, well, this guy right here, he's rich. Oh, no, I'm not rich. I don't have nothing. I ain't got nothing.9:10Yeah, you are. You're richer than you'll ever know. But that's reality. Now let's go back to 2 Corinthians 8. We got that question. So everybody in here is rich. I expect the offering to be totally different than what it's been being. Now that we've taken care of the crucial question, it's just how much of those riches do you believe are actually yours? Now think about that. It just means how much of those riches do you believe are actually yours?9:39I want you to listen to this letter. You know, it's one of those that just God renewed my spirit toward it. Now I guess it happened because I met with a group of pastors this past week, and they really didn't have a whole lot to say. But one pastor got up and he spoke, and his name was Dr. Frank Barker. And Dr. Frank Barker blessed my heart when he shared a testimony on giving because I've always thought of Dr. Frank Barker.10:04And you all know he is the one in God used to birth Briarwood. And one of the most humblest, meekest guys you'd ever want to meet. Talked about how he paid for his daughters when they were born. He had to pay cash for them back then. Now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God,10:32which has been given in the churches of Macedonia. That in great ordeal, won't you listen, that in great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability,11:00they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints. And this not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. So we urge Titus that as he had previously made a beginning,11:26so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well. But just as you abound in everything, notice how they are bound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness, and in the love we inspired in you. See that you abound in this gracious work also. I am not speaking this as a command,11:54but as approving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. I give my opinion in this matter to this is to your advantage, who were the first to begin a year ago not only to do this,12:23but also to desire to do this. So in other words, they had already determined a year earlier that they were going to start collecting a gift. And now this year has passed, and he commends them for that. For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has not, according to what he does not have. For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality.12:53At this present time, your abundance being a supply for their needs, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need. That there may be equality. And as it is written, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little had no lack. As you think about this letter, I came up with this title,13:21and I think it's a good title, God's Great Givers. Now, you know we have in Hebrews those great men of faith that God talks about. But if you study the Scripture, among those great men of faith are great givers. They are men who gave of themselves, gave of their blessings, gave of their riches, gave of their wealth, gave of their poverty,13:50gave of themselves, gave everything. They were good stewards. They understood. One of those first guys that we read about was Abraham. And it was in Abraham, I mean Abraham, it was in Abraham chapter 14. Somebody look that up. Genesis chapter 14, verse 20, that Abram is coming back from a battle, where he has been very victorious that Melchizedek meets him. And Abram gives Melchizedek one-tenth of his spoils,14:17of all that he's taken. And then he refuses, of course, to take anything, not to give, but to take anything from the king of Sodom that might belong to him, so that he wouldn't do anything. But the reality is, is that Abram was willing to look at all that he had and give a tenth of it to Melchizedek because he was a priest of the Most High God. And in Abraham's heart, it was placed that this was a beginning point14:45in a beginning time of giving. And so I want to talk to you about several points out of this passage that I believe are very important to us. First of all, there's the beauty of giving during a time of great affliction. If you look at this passage in verse 1, you find that the first thing Paul is saying is that you gave out of great affliction. You know, I began to think about that and I began to think about how hard it is sometimes15:14to preach particular sermons when I know that people are suffering in specific ways. And in this particular case, people are suffering in this day and age. They are suffering, as I shared with you financially. They are suffering in a multiplicity of ways, in time, with their families, and their ability to do things. Nowadays, you have people that have less time to place in the church because they're spending more time outside the church doing a lot of the things that are taking care of their families and placing a lot of time15:44on their families. But I want to tell you to be careful because affliction can become a distraction. Affliction can become a distraction for us to give to the most important because sometimes we get like the squirrel does in the fall. And you know, the squirrels are pretty smart and in the fall, they start hoarding up all the nuts and resources that they can in the hollow trees16:14that they can find. And those squirrels that had those big nests in the summer are now moving to the insides of trees and they're hoarding up all these goods so they can get ready for the winter. And you see them out there getting as much as they can. It's kind of funny watching them. Well, I had a friend that had a dog that he gave him a piece of pizza in my presence. And I thought, well, that dog is going to devour that piece of pizza. He didn't. That dog took the piece of pizza and he went around and I said, where's that dog going with that pizza? He said, he's looking for a place16:43that he hadn't buried other pieces of pizza to bury it. I said, really? He said, well, just watch. And sure enough, there he goes and he lays the piece of pizza down and he begins to dig and he takes the pizza and he places it in the hole and then he takes his nose and he begins to, and I'm thinking to myself, if Baptists did that, we'd come to church every Sunday with dirty noses. Because we've been hoarding up getting ready for that bad day17:13that's about to come. But first of all, I want you to know that in giving out a great affliction, you give out a great pain. They gave out of their hurting. That's the, we want you to know, brethren, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia for in severe test of affliction affliction. Notice their abundance of joy.17:42What do we run into when we find people in affliction? Oh man, I'm really, I'm struggling. Boy, it's really down. I had a guy, I'm telling you, this is slick. I'm getting off the elevator to the hospital this past week. And by the way, I was visiting with Brother Rick and I got some emails, some of you may have gotten them. He's in that, that delayed zone now. He's not taking any more treatments. They finished the last treatment a couple of days ago and so we're waiting on the treatments to work their magic and not their magic18:11but God's grace and heal the bone marrow so that he doesn't have to go through anymore because in just a few more days he's got to go back and have another bone marrow biopsy and then they will determine if they have to give him more chemotherapy so keep him in your prayers. But as I got off the elevator after leaving him, I got off, this guy was slick. I got off the elevator and this guy comes up to me. I mean, he's getting on the elevator and he goes, hey, I know you. And I'm going, well, I guess everybody does.18:40You know, that's the first thing that comes to your mind. And I'm going, really? And he said, yeah. He said, where are you from? Where are you from? I said, I'm from Moody, Alabama. I'm Pastor Bethel. That's right. That's right, brother. I knew I knew you. He said, you don't recognize me. He said, I'm going in for some cancer treatments. He said, I've lost a lot of weight. He threw his picture up there real quick and then he took it down and put it in his pocket and he began to tell me about all this. And I said, he's going up for dialysis or something and he's right there19:09and I'm listening, I'm listening. And all of a sudden it dawned on me, he's fixing to ask me for money. And he said, brother, he said my wife was supposed to meet me here and she couldn't meet me here. My brother-in-law is going to meet me as long as I was already heading to Dothan, Alabama. He said, but I know you're out there in Moody, Alabama. He said, I know you'll help me. He said, I need $18. And that happened in the space of 30 seconds. And I thought, if I could learn19:39to do that, I could be a rich man just working elevators.19:51But these people were different. They weren't crying in their affliction. They weren't seeking sympathy in their affliction. They were giving out of their affliction and they were filled with joy. They gave, verse 2, out of joy. It was a privilege of them to give. And I want to tell you, as you read this, it even gets better. He said, for in severe tests of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed20:21have overflowed in a wealth of generosity. Can you imagine poverty and joy coming together and creating that formula or that equation that comes to a summation of great wealth? I don't see how that happens. But it happens when God's people get excited about where they are20:51in God. And it comes, and we'll see, when people of God are excited about knowing whose they are. So they gave out of their joy, they gave out of their hurting, and they gave more than they had to. Look at verse 3. For they gave according to their means and as I must and as I can testify and beyond their means. How do you do that? How do you give more than you have? I mean,21:21I mean, if you ask me today, Brother Chris, I need $100, I'm going to be hard set on giving you $100. That's a bunch of ones. Well, there's some 20. I'm not going to tell you how much I got because somebody will come up and ask me just for that. I know that. There you go. This won't spread far. But, how do you give more than you have? How do you give more than you got? Well,21:51Well, God's been teaching us that since the beginning of time. That everything we have is His and from Him and if He wants to multiply what we got to have more than we have, then all we've got to do is come to the place that we realize that what we have ain't ours anyway. And if He can multiply the fish, if He can care for the sparrow, I promise you He can take care of a cheerful giver.22:21I want you to notice verse 4 blows my mind. I want to know what denomination they were. Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. Here's what happened. They passed the collection plate and as they were passing the collection plate, a guy said, hey, I want that plate. Give me that plate. Hey, no, no, I want the plate. Please give me the plate. I want the plate. Give me the plate. Please let me have the plate.22:51And, you know, like nowadays, we go by, we get the plate. Here's what we do. Come on, take it. Take it. Come on, take it. Pass it down. No, it's like, what do I do? Listen, no. Hey, I want it. Give it to me. Give it to me. That's what they were doing. They said, hey, there's a need. I want to be a part of taking care of the need. I want to be a part of what God's doing. I want to, I know where all that I have has come from.23:20So the Bible says that they began begging earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this, not as we expected, I would guess not. Paul says we were surprised by the attitude that they had about their giving and wouldn't anybody be. And listen, folks, I'm not blasting anybody. I'm saying if I were sitting out there where you are, there have been times that I don't want the plate to come by me either.23:50Why is it, where is it going to come from? What am I going to do? How much do they want this time? Is it a bucket? Is it a box? But folks, as a church and the body of Christ, this is where our giving begins. And this is where our joy is. That's why we challenge you to come back tonight just to enjoy fellowship24:19one with another, just to have a good time, just to spend time getting to know each other. They begged to give. Their giving came in the proper sequence. Now, the passage is not sequential, but their giving was sequential. Look in verse 5. In verse 5, he says, and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves24:47what? First to the Lord. Can I tell you something? The problem with giving in the church is that we got it backwards. We got it backwards, and that's why when the preacher preaches on giving, everybody goes, well, we knew this sermon was going to come at some point. Hurry up. Let's get on over. No, instead of, you know, we preach sermons all the time. This one will be one of those sermons25:17where we go, whoo, hallelujah. Praise God, I like that. Yes, sir. That's right. Preach it, preacher. I'm ready to give. But here's the way we are. Have I given enough? Well, I've given more than I need to give. I'll tell you what, I don't like what we're doing anyway. I'm not going to give. I'll tell you, I've got this display. I've got this. He doesn't know what I'm going through. He doesn't know what I have. He doesn't. Let me tell you, I don't. You're right. And I'm not preaching out of my knowledge. I'm preaching out of God's word. Because God does know25:47your affliction. And God does know your heart. And God does know about your generosity or your lack of. So in reality, if there's ever going to be true generosity in the church, there's going to have to be a revival of giving of the heart of the individual to the Lord Jesus Christ first. The giving of the church is a thermometer of whether the people have given themselves to God. The giving of the church26:18is that leveler of understanding where people come and say, I know who I believe. I know that he is able to keep that which I've committed. I know I can't out-give God. I know those things. But then why don't I live like I know those things? I want you to notice that Abraham gave a tenth in chapter 14, but in chapter 12, Abraham gave himself. Before he gave in chapter 14, he gave himself26:47in chapter 12. What are you talking about, preacher? Because it was in chapter 12 that God called Abraham to leave everything he knew to follow him out into the wilderness. It was in chapter 12 that he took him to the center of commerce, to the center of the wilderness. It was in chapter 12 that God called Abraham from the stock markets27:17the dependence of his day and the dependence upon the family of his day to be surrounded by nothing but space and time and God. And there's where God multiplied his wealth. Abraham becomes what he is because he gave himself first to God.27:44You see, we will never, we will never, never fulfill who we are until we give ourselves first. That's the beauty of giving is during great affliction. Then there's the beauty of finishing the task. If you look at verse 6, he says, Accordingly, we urge Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you the act of this grace. he said, Since you started this a while back, a year ago,28:14now let's complete it. Now, I'm not talking about promise, faith giving. I'm talking about I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ a long time ago. I need to continually, every day, give my heart and my life to him. Ultimately, I give him my goods. I become a good steward. I become that which God is able to use to meet the needs of others according to his riches in glory. I must complete that task that God began to meet.28:44You know, in other words, there's not a time. You know, people say to me all the time, you know, Brother Christian, we own a fixed income. Who isn't? Now, I realize that some fixed incomes are less than others. But you know, the Bible doesn't say accordingly that those that are impoverished don't have to give and those that are wealthy do give. Now, that's what the government says. God says everybody gives29:13everybody gives according to what they have. And you know, the beauty of this passage is that God is the one that multiplies the gift. The giver is never challenged to give more than he has. In Malachi, when God said you robbed God, God wasn't saying it was because you don't give more than you have. It was because they didn't even give a tenth. So when we get up here to preach we need to understand and when we sit there listening that we need to understand that God's not asking you to give. You only got ten bucks29:43ten bucks in your pocket. God's not asking you to give twenty. But you give what you got. You give from where you are. And we become faithful givers. Faithful in what we do. They were challenged to complete what they started and they lacked in no area of their walk in life because of where they were. Look at verse seven. Verse seven, but as you excel in everything, as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech,30:12in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also. You know, I can imagine that there are people that sit back and say, well, you know, I'm a good steward of my time. I go up there at the church and I do this and I do that and I don't have to tie. I don't have to. And people cut up with me all the time. They said, Brother Chris, I'm going to take this out of my tie. For instance, this morning, Cecil. Y'all know Cecil. Everybody knows Cecil. Cecil came30:42Cecil came into my office and he always has me a bottle of water. And he, and so usually, used to, he was having to go buy it. And then he rubbed me so hard the other day that I finally went and bought me a half a gallon of water or a whole old case of water. There you go, girl. And so when I, I haven't drank out of it so it don't have any microplasms growing in it. But someone was in there31:10and we were cutting up and I said, that's because he had to spend his dollar and a quarter on my water. I went and bought my own so he could just bring my own water out here. And he said, that's okay, I just took it out of my tithe. And I said, well that's okay, we owe you 75 cents. But we, we give folks because God's31:39because God's blessed us with the privilege of doing it and he's given us everything else we need and so we don't need to lack in this area. If God's called us to be a good teacher, then we need to be a good giver. If God's called us to be a good witness, we need to be a good giver. If God's called me to be a compassionate person, then he's called me to be a good giver. God said, Paul said, don't stop in one thing because you're doing well in these others. Keep on keeping on. So there's the beauty32:08of finishing the task and then there's the beauty of the purpose of the task. The beauty of love. They gave because they were in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in verse 8. You know, people all the time say, I love Jesus. Oh, I love Jesus. Oh, I love Jesus. What's your tithe like? Oh, I love Jesus. You know, how can we say we love God and we don't give? How can we say32:39we trust God and we don't sacrifice? How can we say that we care about what God is doing and we don't do our part? Look at what Paul says. He said, you're going to give and the earnestness and he said, but as you excel in everything in speech and knowledge and all earnestness and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also.33:09I say this, not as command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. You know, people can say a lot of things about you, but maybe one of the greatest things is that they say that you're genuine. You're real. If people look at you as being real, that means that you are what you say33:39you are. You do what you say you will do and the characteristics of your life prove that. And so that's what Paul's saying. He's saying, let this giving abound so that you can prove that you are in love. You're in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, but you're also in love with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And then there's the beauty and the power of a personal example. Look in verse 9. Why do you mean34:09the beauty and the power of personal example? Because Jesus set the personal example. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich. Wow. What an example has been set for me that if Jesus Christ can come to this earth and prove God's love, prove God's character, prove God's truth, die on a cross, raised again34:39raised again the third day, how is it that I who have trusted in him for the forgiveness of my sins cannot also trust in him with the stewardship of my giving by my tithe as well as my contributions that I am willing to do all that I need to. I got tickled at Brother Barker as he shared this testimony. He said that he actually got saved I believe it was before he got married and he said then he got married35:09and he said by that time he had really excelled and he said I'm not telling this to brag it's just my testimony because we were talking about stewardship. He said but I had begun giving a large portion of my salary to the church and he said you know my giving was really up there and he said my wife came to me and she said Frank she said we had already had one child she said Frank if we're going to have two children you're going to have to cut back on your giving and he said I learned one thing you'll love this35:39he said I learned one thing that day for sure and he said that was is that it's easier to pray and ask God to change a woman's mind than it is to try to change it yourself. So he said he kept giving and then the third child came along because they have three and he said the third child came along his wife said you know the last daughter cost us $500 to get her out and he said and we've got a broke down car and it's burning oil36:08and it burns a lot of gas and we don't know if it's going to get us where you're going or not you got to cut back on your giving and he said I said ah let's just keep going and he said about that time one of my members called me he said he's one of the elders of the church called and said brother Frank I want to meet you for lunch today and he said okay he said I'll be glad to meet you for lunch and he said oh I went out and I met him for lunch and he said we're eating lunch36:38and he said is that your car out there he said yeah he said listen he said I own such and such and he wouldn't tell us who he said I own such and such dealership he said I want to tell you something he said Lord's laid it on my heart I want to give you a car he said now here's the deal brother Frank I want to give you a new car every year but here's what I want you to do he said I want you to buy the gas and oil for it you keep it for a year and at the end of every year you bring it back and I'll give you a new one and he said I want that one out there and he said I'm going to go37:07sell that one out there and whatever I sell it for I'll give you the money for it he said what do you say to that deal I said okay it sounds good to me he said so we got a brand new station wagon that day I drove home in a brand new station wagon and in a few weeks my daughter was born he said I went to the hospital to get my daughter and he said now listen to this he said they dropped the price on $200 he said instead of costing me $50037:37$500 it only cost me $300 and he said so I paid $300 to pay for my doctor to pay for the obstetrician or whatever and he said so I saved $200 and he said when the man sold my car he gave me $500 because he said he sold my car for $500 he said so I made $200 plus I was driving a new car and he said my wife begin to see you see38:04you see that's how it is when we can break loose from the chains of unbelief and trust God that he can do through us far more than we could notice he says give responsibly as well look at verse 12 in verse 12 he says38:33he says for if the readiness is there it is acceptable according to what a person has not according to what he does not have so don't give irresponsibly don't bring your house payment in here and say well bless God I brought my house payment to the church and now they're telling us to move out I'm not telling you to do that don't bring your car payment in here just don't put yourself in a position to where you can't afford to give to God39:02you see we make the decisions on buying houses that are too big for us or cost more than we need we make the decision on buying vehicles that are far more expensive than we need to have we make decisions on setting up debt and credit cards and those things and putting ourselves in situations and positions that we can't handle and the reality is is that God is able to care for you and God is not asking you to be irresponsible39:29because God is very responsible they gave responsibly and then there's the beauty of meeting needs and having needs met look at verses 14 and 15 and then we're close to closing your abundance at the present time should supply their need so you're going39:59to meet the needs of someone else so that their abundance may supply your need now wait a minute if they've got an abundance then why am I giving to them have you ever thought that well there are people in the church that are giving enough to the church why do I need listen you don't need to give to the church because we need anything you need to give to the church because that's the way the Lord set it up that's why we tithe I don't give because we got a bank account because we don't have a bank account I don't give because we got debt or we don't40:28have debt I don't give because we give a lot of money or we don't give a lot of money we do I don't give for those reasons I give because that's what I'm supposed to do that's what God asked of me and I give out of the love and the joy of being able to do it and it's that privilege of entering in with him this awesome stewardship of life whoever gathered much had nothing left over and whoever gathered little40:58gathered little had no lack let me tell you that doesn't teach communism or socialism it doesn't say that everybody that's got money is supposed to run over here and give their money to the poor people that ain't got no money so that the poor people that ain't got no money will have just as enough money as everybody else and we drive ourselves nuts trying to do that what it does say is that to whom much is given much is required and to whom little given still there's a requirement that no one gets to beg out of being41:27a part of God's stewardship but you know it really doesn't do any good to preach on tithing or stewardship if we're not going to give ourselves to Christ first it's when we give ourselves to Christ first that we begin to realize that we don't need the cable and we probably don't need the vehicle we probably don't need this we don't need that it's amazing what God begins to reveal to you that you don't need and what41:57and what you can have and not have but it happens when you give yourself to Christ first that's where the walk begins that's where the journey starts the journey doesn't start with your checkbook really it doesn't that's the proof that you're in the journey the journey begins with your42:26with your relationship to Jesus Christ and your understanding that God does on the cattle of a thousand hills and that God did place the stars in the sky and he set the gravity of the earth and he set all things in order and he supplies all of our goods according to his riches and that really all I'm called to do is to be a42:54good steward of what he's asked me to be a steward of I'm to be a steward of my life physically I'm to be a steward of my life spiritually I'm to be a steward of that which God has given me personally I can't be a steward over you other than the steward of my time with God for you and challenging43:22and challenging you to just read the Bible and let your stewardship begin by giving yourself first let's pray father as we bow and as we pray it's an invitation time and God truly those that43:51those that have tasted of the sweetness of Jesus are glad to give all they have because there's nothing any sweeter there's nothing more satisfying there's nothing more glorious than the taste the salvation the redemption that is ours in Jesus Christ44:21Christ and so God today I don't I'm not praying for a big offering what I'm praying for God are lots of souls and hearts that will give themselves first to you and in giving themselves first Lord everything else will take care of itself because it is the proof of the genuineness of that love that shows44:50that shows in our tithes and our offerings and the stewardship of our time and our talents God may we be found faithful in Jesus name amen I'm going to ask you to stand for a hymn of invitation if God has brought you to this church because you believe that you need to be a part of it we invite you to come if the Lord has spoken to your heart and you know you first need to give your heart and your life to Jesus Christ we invite you to come we'd love to45:20to share with you how you can come to know the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords by coming in touch with his grace for by grace are you saved through faith not of works at least any man should boast you can't give and be saved you can't buy your salvation it's when you fall in love with Jesus that true giving becomes a part of who you are and I want to invite you to fall45:51where you are and what you needMore sermons on 2 Corinthians →
