Alright brethren, let's turn
to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. We're just going
to read three verses here, beginning in verse 33. Now this is Paul
is leaving from Ephesus and he writes these words, speaks these
words to the brethren there and he says, I have coveted no man's
silver or gold or apparel. Verse 34, Yea, ye yourselves
know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them
that were with me. I have showed you all things,
how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember
the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed
to give than to receive. Now recently a young believer
asked me a question about how to give. how to give. And it's been a long time since
I preached on that subject and it made me think that perhaps
as the Lord has saved some young people here, they don't know
anything about what the Lord teaches about giving. And so
I thought I would look at this. We all need to be reminded of
this. So our subject this morning is
the gift of giving. And I've titled it that because
everything involved in our giving is a gift. Everything involved
is the gift of God. From the heart to do it, the
faith, the love, the cheerfulness, the occasion, the brethren, the
ability to give, the ability to receive, God the Father and
God the Son to whom we give, Everything involved is the gift
of God. Just like everything else that
we have, the Scripture says, What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? And it's the same with giving.
Everything about it is the gift of God. Everything. I don't have
any doubt in 2 Corinthians 9 that when Paul got to the end of that
chapter that he was speaking about Christ when he said, Thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable gift. But he was writing about
giving and he was writing about all the blessings that God gives
to the giver and to the receiver and how that it redounds to God's
glory in everybody involved. And it's like he was just so
overwhelmed with the joy of this ministry of giving that God had
given to him that he says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. And that's what it is, an unspeakable
gift. You take hard-hearted, covetous,
dead sinners, recreate them, make them brand new in the righteousness
and holiness of Christ, give them a heart of love and a heart
of faith, constrain them by Christ, by His love, and make them cheerful
givers. That's what God does for His
people. That's amazing, amazing, a gift. And he says, remember
the words of the Lord Jesus. He said it's more blessed to
give than to receive. Look over at Luke 16. The only
ones who objected to Christ speaking on this subject were the Pharisees.
The only ones. And the reason they objected
is because they were covetous. Look here in Luke 16 and look
at verse 10. The Lord had been speaking about
the unjust steward in His parable. And then in verse 10, He says,
He that is faithful in that which is least. Money and the stuff
we have in this life, that's the least. That's the least.
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in
much. And he that's unjust in the least,
he's unjust also in much. If therefore you've not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, in riches, who will commit to
your trust the true riches? The true riches are the unsearchable
riches. That's the true riches. And he
says here, and if you've not been faithful in that which is
another man's, All this stuff that we have in this world, that's
another man's. It don't belong to us, it belongs
to God. Everything does. He says, and if we've not been
faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that
which is your own? No servant can serve two masters,
for he will either hate the one and love the other, or else he'll
hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
mammon. We can't trust Christ. and trust that money is salvation. You can't do that. It's impossible. You can't trust that it's God
that's keeping us and God that's providing for us and God that's
set our nest in safety so that no harm is going to come to us
and at the same time be putting confidence in riches. You've
got to trust one or the other. One or the other. It's like works
and grace. You can't trust both. Now look.
And the Pharisees also, verse 14, who were covetous, heard
all these things, and they derided Him. They scoffed and turned
up their noses at Him because they were covetous. Look over
at 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. The problem is not money. That's not the problem. The Lord
has blessed some of His saints with money, and He's in the past,
in the Scriptures. And they were faithful. The problem's
not money. That's not the problem. The problem
is the heart. Look here at 1 Timothy 6 and
verse 6. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. That's true gain. That's true
riches. For we brought nothing into this world, and it's certain
we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment,
that is today, you know, right, what God's provided today, food
and raiment, daily grace, therewith be content. But they that will
be rich, They that will be rich, they that will have... Well,
I want a little more than that. I want to save up some for a
rainy day. I want to save up some for the
end. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and
into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction
and perdition. Now, here's the problem. For
the love of money, for the love of money is the root of all evil. the love of money, which while
some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God,
flee these things, flee these things, follow after the true
riches, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. I have an uncle that he always
said that my grandfather tried his best to flee from being rich. He said if it looked like there
was an opportunity that any kind of money was going to come his
way, he went the other direction. And he did. He died a poor man. Poor in this world's riches,
but rich in God's riches. My points are in no particular
order this morning. I want to first off begin with
this. A cheerful, giving nature is
the nature of God. And that's the nature God gives
His people. A cheerful, giving nature. John 3.16 says, God so
loved the world that He gave, He gave His only begotten Son. That's love. He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have, as the free gift of God, have everlasting life. This is the record God hath given
He's given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Now, when God the Father gave
His only begotten Son, I was thinking on this, just sitting
and thinking about God giving His only begotten Son. When God
gave His only begotten Son, and when Christ gave Himself, it
wasn't a dreaded thing. It wasn't a a grudging thing,
it was a cheerful gift. God loveth a cheerful giver,
is what the Scripture says. It was a cheerful gift. What
would be more, He said, He said it's more blessed to give than
to receive. What's more blessed? What's more
happiness than for God the Father to give His Son to bring all
glory and honor to Himself in the salvation of His people?
and for Christ to give Himself to glorify His Father and to
save His people, to make His people be complete in Him by
His work. What's happier than that? What's
more blessed than that? It's more blessed to give than
to receive. Look to Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith, who for all just the drudgery of it,
No, for the joy set before Him. For the joy that was set before
Him. He endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God. Christ
knew He'd be despised and rejected of men. There's no joy in that.
Christ knew coming to this earth that He must bear the sin of
His people. It's the only way that He could
put away sin in a just and righteous manner. He knew He must be made
a curse for His people. He knew he must bear the wrath
of God. He knew he must die on the cross. And we don't ever want to make
light of the suffering that Christ suffered. He said, I have a baptism
to be baptized with and how am I straight until it be accomplished?
There was nothing joyful about that. He despised the cross. But he did it for joy. for joy,
that He would glorify the Father, that He would save us, His people,
from our sins. And that's what He accomplished.
Look at Revelation 21. I want to show you the joy that
was set before Him. We talk about that it's more
blessed to give than to receive. It's more happiness in giving
than receiving. Alright? Here's Christ, the God-man,
the blessed man, who is preeminent in giving. And God our Father,
preeminent in giving, what's the happiness, what's the joy
that was set before Him? What did He accomplish by His
giving? Here it is, Revelation 21, 3.
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men, and He will dwell with them and they shall
be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their
God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. That's the joy that was
set before Him. And that's what He accomplished
by giving. That's why He said, He that is
more blessed to give than to receive. Now, when He's made
us a partaker of that nature, His nature, that nature, that
loving, cheerful, giving nature, you can't help but be a loving,
cheerful giver. It's natural to believe we have
to be taught these things, But it's natural to a believer. It's
natural. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth God, and he that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. The Holy Spirit is saying through
the beloved apostle, the loving apostle, John. It's impossible
to have the Spirit of God and not love. It's impossible to
have the Spirit of Love dwelling in you, capital L, the Spirit
of Love Himself dwelling in you, and not be a loving, cheerful
brother and sister to your brethren. It's impossible. The same love
where God took all our burdens and all our sin off of us, brethren,
that same love, is the love He puts in the heart of His child
to make us cheerfully, willingly, for the joy set before us, the
joy of seeing the burden taken off our brethren, whatever it
is. That's what makes you want to
do whatever you can to take that burden off. Because it's the
same heart that He's put in you that's in Him. The same heart.
You think of what Christ says. Think about what He said. He
says, lovers of money, pierce themselves through with many
sorrows. But the giver is a happy man. You get the picture there? The
man who's receiving and taking and getting for himself, just
heaping up for himself, he's just stabbing himself through
and through with all kinds of sorrows. And the man that's just
giving it away as fast as he can give it away, he's happy
as he can be. Happy as he can be. Those are
the words of the preeminent giver, the preeminent blessed man. I'm
going to listen to him. I think he knows what he's talking
about. I think he does. So first of all, believer, give
cheerfully. Give cheerfully for the joy set
before you. The joy of relieving the burden,
even as Christ did for you. The joy of knowing it causes
through us much thanksgiving to God. Much glorying in God
to relieve a burden. Alright, now, secondly, Give
to God first. Give to God first. You know,
under the old covenant, God ordained that they would give the firstfruits
to God. The firstfruits to God. Now,
we're not under the law, we're under grace. Christ has come
and fulfilled the law. He's taken the law off of us
to where we're under grace. And when we're under grace, that
means we give because we want to give. We're not under a tithe. A tithe was a tax. under the
old covenant. Believers don't tithe. We give.
We give. We want to give. When April 15th
comes, you got to pay your taxes. Do you like doing that? That's a tithe. Giving freely
because you want to. That's what we do by grace. That's
what we do by grace. Now, we do it because we want
to honor the Lord. He said, honor the Lord with
thy substance, with the firstfruits of all thine increase. The firstfruits. Giving to God first acknowledges
that everything we have, God first gave it to us. That's what
the whole idea of the firstfruits are. God first gave to us. He first gave to us. Now, we
first give ourselves. We first give ourselves. Anybody
who's not been called by God's grace and given a new heart and
a new nature, that's giving to support a work, a church, what
have you, that's a work. They're not giving because they
have a heart. They don't understand what's going on here. We give
first ourselves. to Christ. James said we're first
fruits, we give ourselves. And then on the first day of
the week, the saints on the first day of the week in the early
church, because we're acknowledging God gave me this day, God gave
me this week. This is a new week God's given.
and then we give the first fruits of our increase, whatever God's
blessed us with. Now, when we give to ourselves
first, and we give to our families first, and we give to God what's
left over, we not only rob ourselves, we rob God. Malachi 3.8, if you
can find it, it's last... Malachi 3.8, last book in the
Old Testament. Malachi 3.8, Will a man rob God? Will a man rob God? Yet you've
robbed me, God said to them, but you say, where have we robbed
thee? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse,
for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. bring ye all
the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine
house, and I watch this, and prove me now herewith, saith
the Lord of hosts." God's saying, test me. Test me. Put me to the test, God said.
See if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you
out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive
it. And I will rebuke the devourer
for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground.
Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in
the field saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you
blessed, for you shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts."
This is the sovereign Lord of hosts. This is the Lord who controls
the sun, and the moon, and the rain, and the stars, and the
earth, and the planets, and the universe, and every little tiny
thing in it. And He says, test me now. He's basically saying, see if
you can out-gift me. See if you can. Just try it. And see if I don't provide everything
you need. Isn't that something? He's already done that. He's
already provided us everything we could possibly need. And that's
what He says. Now, this is something that I
found out. And I know this is so. If you
give to God first, young people, you young believers, Get this
and get it settled. We're a debt-laden nation we
live in. You know, spend, spend, spend,
spend. Spend your way out of debt. If you give to God first,
give to God first, and then whatever's left over, that's what's yours.
You will find that you'll live within your means. because now
you've got an anchor. Now you've got somebody holding
you in place. If you do it the other way around,
you've got no anchor point. You've got nothing to be budgeted
by, and you'll just spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, and you'll
never have anything to give to God. I'm telling you, that's
so. That's so. All right, here's
the third thing. Understand that our giving proves
both our love and our faith in God. Go to 2 Corinthians 8. 2 Corinthians 8. Giving proves our love and our
faith in God. First of all, our giving proves
the sincerity of our love. 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 8. I speak not by commandment, Paul
said. I'm not trying to tell you, you
have to do this. You have to give. He's not saying,
I'm not putting a law on you to give. I'm not putting a tithe
on you, a tax on you. But by the occasion of the forwardness
of others and to prove the sincerity of your love. He was gathering
this offering that they had, that they were going to give,
and He was saying, now get this together. And He said, this is
going to prove the sincerity of your love. Now, He gives an
example. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. What do I mean by proving the
sincerity of your love? Well, how do I know that Christ
loved me sincerely, truly loved me? The way I know it is by how
much He had left over when He finished giving Himself for me.
He gave till He was poor. He gave on the cross till He
was utterly without anything. He gave everything till he had
nothing left over. That proves to me the sincerity
of His love for me. And by that, He made me rich
in righteousness and justification and redemption, salvation. He
enriched me. He gave everything. You got ready
to call me to be your pastor. If I would have said, well, I'll
just keep coming up here once a month and pastor this church. But I almost stayed back in Tennessee
because I got a good job, and a good house, and cheap taxes,
and all that stuff, and I'll just come up here once a month.
After a while, you'd think, is he sincere? But to turn your
back on that, come here and say, I'm committed to this thing,
you have some idea that he's sincere about this. He's sincere
about this. Well, that's what Christ... He
committed Himself to His people. That proved the sincerity of
His love. And then look, our giving proves our faith in Christ. Now, let me just give you these
scriptures. You know these. Paul said in
Philippians 4, My God shall supply all your need according to His
riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He'll supply all your need. And
then here in 2 Corinthians 9, in verse 8, he says, God is able
to make all grace abound toward you that you always, having all
sufficiency and all things, may abound to every good work. Do
you believe this? Do you believe God? Well, tell
me which one believe God. Christ was standing there one
day by the treasury. And folks were coming up and
they were casting in offerings in the basket there. And Scripture
says, many that were rich cast in much. Many that were rich
cast in much. And this widow walks up there
and she throws in two pennies. Which one believed God? Well,
surely it was those rich people that cast in much. Surely they
believed God, they cast in much. Christ said this, He called His
disciples and He said to them, Verily I say unto you, that this
poor widow has cast more in than all they which have cast into
the treasury. For all they did cast in of their
abundance, they still got lots left over. But she of her wont
did cast in all that she had, even all her living. She trusted the Lord. Now let
me ask you this, which one do you think was more secure? You know, carnal thinking says,
well those fellas that saved a little back in the bank, they're
more secure. Spiritual True reasoning says,
no, the one that trusted the Lord is the one that's more secure.
She was more secure than they were. Much more secure. You see
what I'm saying? It proves the sincerity of your
love and your faith. Alright, fourthly, how much should
I give? How much should I give? Alright,
2 Corinthians 9 verse 6. He says, He which soweth sparingly
shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall
reap also bountifully. Now he compares giving to sowing
seed in a garden. And this is just common sense. If you don't plant much in a
garden, you're not going to get much out of it. If you plant
a lot in a garden, you're going to get a lot of vegetables out
of it. And that's what he says about this thing of giving. This
has a great deal to do with faith and contentment with God. Because
the man that believes God by his grace and is content with
God, by his grace, and is content with food and clothing, what
he has, he's not trying to be rich, he's just content with
what God's given him. That person, by God's grace,
has a cheerful heart to give abundantly. And he's going to
see more and more God's faithfulness to make good on His Word. He's
going to continue to be content with God because God's going
to increase him in that faith and that contentment. But the
man who doesn't trust God and thinks that his real salvation
and his real safety is in money and is going to be content if
he can just get a little more money and he's going to be happy
if he can just get a little more money, He's not going to give
much because you don't get rich by giving it away, the world
thinks. But he's never going to be happy and he's never going
to be content because you don't find contentment and happiness
in money. The Lord said, it's more happy to give than to receive.
He'll never have it. But that man that believes God
and is content with God, he'll be happy. He'll be happy because
his contentment and his safety and his happiness is in God. It's not in money and stuff. You see what I'm saying? There is that scattereth and
yet increaseth. And there is that withholdeth
more than is meet, but tendeth to poverty. And that just don't
make sense to the world. There is that that gives away
abundantly and just increases. And there's those that save and
save and save and decrease. Now to the natural eye, they
look like they're increasing in riches. But you can increase
in riches and be so poor spiritually. The Lord won't be a debtor to
His believing, giving people. He won't be a debtor to them.
He just won't. As He gives you grace to provide
bountifully for the poor, God will provide bountifully for
His child. He says, He that hath pity upon
the poor, lendeth unto the Lord. He that has pity on the poor
lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given will the
Lord pay him again. That's Proverbs 19, 17. Alright,
now here's another word on how much to give. Give according
as you purpose in your heart. Verse 7, 2 Corinthians 9, 7. Every man according as he purposeth
in his heart. You see, this is why I tell you
we're not under a tie. You can't do that and be under
time. Somebody, I forget who said it, somebody said, if I
give less than 10%, that's what they were required to give by
law. If I give less than 10%, I'm an outlaw. If I give 10%,
I'm a legalist. But if I give according as I
purpose in my heart, according as God has blessed me, I'm a
child of grace. You understand that? And a believer
usually, the 10% thing, he don't even think about. It's usually
abundantly more, because he's been blessed abundantly more
by God. Alright, he says, let him give
as he purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly
or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. Now we just
saw from the Lord's Word concerning that widow, that God doesn't
look on how much we give. He looks on what you got left
over. He doesn't look on what you give, He looks on what you
got left over. And the woman that broke that alabaster box
of ointment on the Lord, remember what the Lord, He called that
a good work. The only person He ever said that was a good
work, what she did. And you know what He said she
did? She did what she could. She did what she could. Our Lord's not unreasonable.
He's not calling on His people to do what you can't. You do
what you could. Do what you could. If there be
first a willing mind, it's accepted according to that a man hath
and not according to that he hath not. Now, here was a question
that I thought I needed to answer for this young person and I think
it'll help our young people. If you're a young believer and
you're supported by your parents or you're a college student or
whatever, And you might ask yourself, well, should I be giving? Should
I be giving? Well, here's the answer. They're
out there in that text. That's up to you. That's up to
you. Totally up to you. When I was
that age and my parents were supporting me, I had a job, two
jobs. and was trying to provide some
for myself too. And when the Lord saved me, I
started giving to the church weekly, not because anybody told
me to or made me do it, just because of what the Lord had
done for me. And that's up to you. That's what He said. It's
up to you. And He says, not grudgingly.
Now, to the grudgers, if you have a spirit of grudging, a
grudging spirit, and you don't want to give, don't give. Don't
give. God does not need your money. Don't give. Don't give. And He
says, not of necessity. That means, do not give because
you're imposed upon, because you're under obligation, or to
gain an advantage. None of those reasons. And it
means this too. Not of necessity. Not of need. It means, do not
give to a need. Do not give to a need. There's
going to always be need. And when we're giving, we're
usually giving because there is a need. But the point is,
don't give to a need, give to God. Don't give to a need, give
to God. There was a man one time who
used to call up and say, how much more do you need? I'll fill
it up with the rest, whatever you need. And the pastor would
say, we don't need anything from you. And that's, you don't give
to a need, give to God. Give to God. He said this, Whatsoever
you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not to men. Do
it heartily as to the Lord, not to men. I say unto you, Christ
said, inasmuch as you've done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, you've done it unto me. Give to the Lord. Don't give
to any. Give to the Lord. And he says
he loves a cheerful giver. Now here's the last thing and
I'm done. Give quietly and give prayerfully. Give quietly and
give prayerfully. The Lord said do not sound a
trumpet when you give. Now you're going to find this
is the hardest thing in the world. Because if you do anything that's
a good thing for somebody, we have a fleshly nature that just
itching to let somebody know about it somehow. You know, we
don't dare go and, we wouldn't dare go and toot our own horn
about it, but if we could get somebody else to recognize it,
just somehow we would. That's our flesh, and it's so
hard not to do that, but he said, don't sound a trumpet. Give quietly,
don't let anybody know you even gave, much less how much you
gave. We're here amongst brethren.
It don't matter if somebody sees you put something in the basket.
What I'm saying is, you know, don't go around, you know, making
sure everybody sees you and talk about how much of that. I don't
know. I don't want to know. And don't you let other people
know either. Give quietly, quietly. And then
give prayerfully, because we need to be kept humble. And it's
the most difficult thing, not to become proud, thinking we've
really done something. But remember, we've never given
anything that God didn't give us first. And it's his. Every
bit of it's his. So we don't have anything to
be proud about. Now, I think this is what the young person
emailed me about. That's some of what I told them. They got more than they expected,
I think. But I think what they meant was,
how do I physically give? Well, there's a basket back there.
And there's an envelope. And you put the offering in the
envelope, you write the amount on the outside, you seal it up,
you put it in the basket. And that's so two people can
count it without just one sees who's it from and nobody else
knows. But you put the amount on the outside, seal it up, it's
in the basket. That's it. All right? All right. Let's stand together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for this gift to minister to You the things that You've
given to us. Lord, we thank You that it causes
thanksgiving to You. We praise You for it. Those to
whom the gift goes praise You for it. All the glory and all
the praise comes back to You. You gave it and it comes right
back to you. Lord, thank you. You're merciful.
You're gracious. You're giving. You provided us
everything we need. Lord, we thank you. Thank you
for everything we have here. Unity, peace, the gospel, everything, Lord, You've just
provided abundantly. We thank You most of all for
Christ Jesus, the unspeakable gift. Lord, forgive us of our
sin. Forgive us of our unfaithfulness to trust You. Make us trust You, Lord. We ask
it in Christ's name. Amen.