I want you to turn with me now
to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. When Paul was exhorting the elders
and the preachers at Ephesus, he told them, he said, I've showed
you all things. How that's so laboring, so laboring,
you ought to support the weak. Support the weak. And also to
remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how he said, it's
more blessed to give than it is to receive. Now I feel impressed today to
bring a message about giving, about giving. What God's word has to say about
it, about giving. about supporting the weak, sharing,
helping, where you see a need. And there's lots and lots of
false teaching about giving, lots of false teaching about
it. So many preachers, they take advantage of people, abuse people
over this subject. Men are told to give because
it's out of duty. It's a duty to do it. It's your duty. And what that does, as far as
I can tell, it puts people back under the law. If it's a duty,
you put people back under the law. If you tell people just
to give 10% of all they have to the church, where in the world
would they get an idea like that? Well, they have to go back to
the law. They have to, of course, go back to the law. They go back to the Old Testament
laws given to Israel. Yet they don't require men to
be circumcised. They don't require them to keep
the Old Testament Sabbath, which is from Friday night at six o'clock
to six o'clock Saturday evening. Not supposed to do that. They
don't tell them to keep all the dietary laws. The Jews were allowed
to eat certain things and other things that was unclean. But
yet they'll go to that one thing. Tell you it's a duty. but not
one of the apostles, and even our Lord Jesus Christ, you can't
find tithing in the New Testament. Can't find it. Another reason
men give for giving is reward. Oh my, you give and God will
bless you with a wonderful home, bless you with a big fine job,
You support our program, you do all these things, and God
rewards you. Oh, he'll reward you. Oh my,
he'll prosper you materially. You'll have so much stuff that
you don't know what to do with it. So what you do then is you
give so you get something back. You give to get in return. What
a selfish, selfish motive to do anything. To give, getting
something back, want something back. That's so contrary to the
grace of God. So contrary to the grace of God.
Our Lord taught us to give, expecting nothing, nothing in return. Nothing in return. So I tell
you, duty, reward, and another motive that men use for giving is fear. Fear. I remember fundamentalists and
legalists really used this. Fear. If you don't pay your tithe,
you know what God's gonna do to you? A fella told me one time
that God's gonna kill me. Kill my wife, kill my children. They preached this tithing. And
if you don't pay your tithes, God's going to take it out the
back door. You're going to end up in the hospital. You'll be
out somewhere in your car, boy. He's going to get that money
off of you one way or another. He'll put you in the hospital.
He'll make you sick. Oh, listen, I'll tell you what.
Ain't that the awfulest thing in the world to prep folks for
fear? What if you believe that if you didn't pay a tithe today
that God was gonna, you know, take it out some other way? Gonna
make you sick, make you ill, make your children sick. Oh,
that's awful philosophy. That's a horrible thing. That's
a poor reason to give and that's so contrary to what God's Word
says itself. And there's another motive that
people use. praise and recognition. You know, churches used to have
penny marches. You know, they'd have all the
kids come up and give their pennies, and we're going to give it to
the missionaries. You know, and all of that rigmarole. And listen, if you buy a pew,
we're gonna put your name on it. We need new pews, and everybody's
gonna buy a pew, we're gonna put your name on it, and we're
gonna have it put on the plaque on the end of your pew. And if
you help build this church and come up, if you give so much
money to build this building, I'll tell you what we'll do,
we'll put your picture up in the fellowship hall. Oh, my. We'll give you a certificate.
If you give so much money, we'll give you a certificate and sign
it and tell everybody to know how much you've done. Give you
a badge. These schools, they'll sue that.
If you give $10,000, you'll get this recognition. You give $15,000,
you'll get that much recognition. You give $25,000, you'll get
this much recognition. And oh my, our Lord condemns
that. He says, oh, don't you give to
be seen of men. Don't do that. He said, I'll
tell you what, when you pray, you pray in secret. When you
fast, you give in secret. And if you give, you don't sound
a trumpet. You don't sound a trumpet. And
I will speak as kindly as I possibly can. As honest as I possibly can.
And I want to say what God says about giving. It's not a duty. You're not gonna receive any
reward. Don't want anybody doing anything out of fear. Certainly
don't want people to be recognized contrary to the word of God.
That'd be a denial of the principles of God's grace. Grace is a heart
principle. It's a heart principle, something
that God puts in a person's heart. Not law, not law. Oh, my prayer is that God give
me a believing heart, a praying heart, a loving heart, a praying
heart, a generous heart, and for His glory and for His praise. I want to know what God's Word
says about this subject. And it has so much more to do
with what you get given out of your pocket. That's not what
I'm trying to talk about today. That's not what all I'm going
to say today. Because if God don't have you, He don't have
anything. If God don't have your heart, He don't have you. If
He don't have your love, He don't have you. And that's what we're
talking about. But look over here in 2 Corinthians
with me. Here's one thing about giving.
And always look down there in verse 7. Therefore, as you abound in everything,
in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in your love to
us, See that you're bound in this grace also. And what he's
telling these saints of God here is, is that you're a church,
you're noted, everybody knows that you have faith in God. You
have faith in God. You're known, you're known for
your strong preaching. He says the utterance, you're
known for your strong preaching. of the word, known for your knowledge,
known for your knowledge of the word, known for your knowledge
of preaching the word, known for your knowledge of the doctrine
and the truth of the gospel, truth of the word of God. You're
known for all of those things. And then he said, you show great
love for the apostles. Oh, you show great love for the
apostles. You do that. But he said, I want you to notice
this also. that you abound in this grace,
abound in grace. In this grace, what? The grace
of giving. You know, I believe this with all my heart,
that generosity is a mark of the grace of God in a man's heart. It's in a person's heart. A saved
man is a generous man, a loving man, a kind man. And look at
the second word. So grace, I tell you what, the
first word is grace. Grace ought to be, you know,
where grace is in a man's heart. I mean, you know, it just does
something for a man that nothing else will. Law won't make you
do things. Law won't make you do that. Grace
will, grace will. And the second word here is love. Look down in verse eight. I speak
not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others,
and to prove the sincerity of your love. You know, I want you
to notice this. Grace and love. Boy, anybody
against those two things? Oh my goodness, grace and love.
Grace and love. And look what he says. I'm not
speaking by commandment. I'm not giving anybody a commandment. But I'd like to see the sincerity
of your love. You need to prove the sincerity
of your love. I'm not commanding you to give.
That's what he said. I'm not commanding anybody to
do anything. He said, I'm not ordering you
to give, not setting an amount to which you are to give. That
wouldn't be right. You know churches all the time,
almost all the great big churches that you know, million dollar
buildings and half a dozen people on the payroll. They start at
the first of the year and make everybody give pledges. You gotta pledge so we can make
our budget for the year. Gotta make our budget. Man, if
I budgeted for the year, I don't know what in the world I'd do. You know, I gotta take it one
month at a time, you know. I just gotta deal with it one
month at a time. And you know, hopefully more
don't go out than comes in. Don't you hope that's hope for
you? Hope more comes in than goes out. But oh my, wouldn't
it be awful for somebody to give you an amount, ordering you to
give, sending an amount for you to give? Anything that you do,
Anything not motivated by love, it's absolutely and utterly worthless.
It's utterly worthless, huh? And oh my, and you know what
he used as example for love? Look down there in verse 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, you
know the grace of our Lord. You know this. How that though
he was rich, oh rich in grace, rich in glory, but for your sakes he became
poor. Became poor. Come into this world
with nothing. Left this world with nothing.
And then by his very poverty, he turns around and makes us
wealthy. Makes us wealthy. You know, the apostle said, if I give my
body to be burned at the stake, and I give all my goods to feed
the poor, and I don't have love, it won't profit me anything.
You know, all of us in here that's married, we got a marriage certificate.
We went and got a marriage certificate. You know, whether we got married
by the preacher, Whether we got married in the courthouse. Everybody,
you know, you got evidence that you got married. You got a marriage
certificate. You got a ring. You exchange
rings. Everybody's got a ring. But now I tell you what, do you,
when you want to prove that you're married, do you run up and say,
listen, I'm going to show you how much, how I'm married. I'm
going to show you, instead of love, I'm going to show you this
marriage certificate. Run to your wife and tell her,
I don't love you, but we're married. I appreciate the ring. No. No. You don't need a marriage certificate
to prove you're married. You know how you know you're
married? Because you married somebody you loved. You married
somebody you wanted to be with. You don't have to put a ring
on and look at that. See, I'm married. You don't have
to try to do that. You know how you prove you're
married to the person you're married to? Love, kindness, grace,
generosity. You want something, listen, I'd
like to get this. Listen, I love you, go ahead
and get it. If we can afford it, get it. Ain't that the way
you are? Ain't that the way you are? Oh, grace and love, grace and
love. Let me show you something else
about it. Something else about it. Look
down in verse 12. If there first be a willing mind, grace, love, and willingness. If there first be a willing mind,
it is accepted according to that a man hath. and not according
that he hath not. Oh my, a willing mind. A willing mind. You know, look
down here in verse seven, chapter nine. Look what it says here
about God. It says, God loves a cheerful
giver. Loves a cheerful giver. God loves us, you're forgiven.
Now when you look at this, it doesn't say anything about duty,
pledges, pressure, ties, a debt, but willingness, willingness,
willingness. Oh my, to give willingly, cheerfully,
thankfully, from a heart of love, love and grace, blessed of God,
because you've been blessed, love and grace. And let me tell
you this, the amount is absolutely unimportant. A man, he does say here, a man's
required to give what he does not have. God does not expect
a man to do what he does not have. He does expect him to do
something he cannot do. But he expects him to do that
from which he has now. What he has now. Not what he's
gonna have. Not what he had. But what he
has right now. And he does it because he wants
to. He's willing to. Where do you get this willing
mind? Where do you get this willingness from? In the day of his power. The
day of his power. The day of his power. He made
us willing. That's one thing that God does. He takes a man
and changes his will. He changes everything about his
will. And I tell you, if a man does
anything, he does it because he wants to. Because he wants
to. Yes, he wants to. Led by the Spirit of God. Led
by the Spirit of God. So willingly, love, grace, Willingness? That sounds like somebody that
God's done something for. Put grace in their heart, love
in their heart, willingness in their heart. That sounds like
somebody that God's done something for in a miraculous, supernatural
way. Supernatural way. Now look over
here and I'm gonna give you another word. Another word. Look over here in chapter seven
again in verse nine, chapter nine in verse seven again. Every man according as he purposes
in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, not out of necessity,
for God loveth a cheerful giver. You know, the word alone, the
word alone, this word alone right here that I just read, will do
away with the duty of tithe, the tithe, 10%. You know, years
ago, I wrote an article on that. If all you had to give was 10%
or 50%, that'd be like salvation, you know. God gives you 90%,
it's left up to you to do the other 10%. Or you give half of what you
got, then that means that you know God done half, and then
you do the other half. That wouldn't work, would it?
That wouldn't work at all. Wouldn't work at all. Uh-uh,
no, no. If I'm obligated to give 10%,
there's no reason for me to even worry about what goes on in my
heart. You know, just give my 10%, forget it. Huh? Why would I consult my heart?
Why would I be led by the Spirit? Why would I have any purpose
in my heart? If I've had a tax put on me, and this is what the
tax is, 10%, 10%. But as a man's purpose in his
heart. You know, last March, I'd been here 42
years, and this coming up on September. So ever how long I've
been here, 42 years and eight months or seven months or whatever
it is, that I've pastored this group of believers. In all the years that I've preached,
nobody can ever say that they heard me preach tithing. Never
heard me preach tithing. Nobody can say they ever heard
me beg. Never heard me beg to get anybody saved. Never heard
me beg for money. Nobody can say they've ever heard
me beg. Nobody can ever say that I wanted
something that anybody else had. They can't do that. They can't
do that. You know why? Because God, you
tell him what the need is, and you'll always have it. You tell
Him. You tell Him. And here's the
thing about it. You know how He does it? Does
it the way He does everything else in our lives. By the grace
of God. That's how He does it. That's
how He does it. And He does it by the grace of
God in the hearts of His people. His people. You build buildings
from the grace that's in a person's heart. You keep the building up by the
grace that's in people's hearts. And we're stewards. Everybody
knows what a steward is. You know our Lord talked about
stewards and husbandmen. And a steward is somebody that
is committed to certain things. Committed to certain things.
He said, this is yours and it belongs to me and I want you
to take care of it. I want you to manage this. That's
what I want you to do. I want you to manage this. And a steward. We're all stewards
of what God gives to us. That's what we are. We're stewards
of what God gives us. That's what we are. We're stewards
of His grace. We're stewards of what God gives
to us. And so, Everything that he gave to us. David said it
like this, I only give back that to which you have already given
me, Lord. I don't have anything that you
ever gave. He said, you gave me the throne,
you gave me the crown, you gave me the strength, you gave me
the grace. You chose me, you set me apart. And he said, everything
I've prayed and everything I've done and everything I've given,
Lord, I'm only giving what you've already given me. And I tell you, and God, by His
grace, enables us to look at His church, and that's us, that's
us. Somebody said, you know, there's
a need. I think the church ought to do something about it. Well,
you're the church, ain't you? Each and every one of you. If
you see a need, could you meet it? You're the church too, you
know. And I don't mean to be smart-alecky
about it. That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm not even being
facetious. But oh, as God purposes, as God
enables us to purpose in our heart, no threats, no duties,
no rewards, just love, just grace. That's all. Just love and grace.
He said, I love you. I love the church. I love the
people. I love the saints. And if I see
a need, oh God open my heart, make my heart generous and kind
and fill it full of grace and love. So if I see a need, I'll
stand up and I'll beat that need. I'll do it. I'll do it. I want
to help. be a partaker of preaching the
gospel. I want to be a partaker of supporting
the gospel. I want to be a partaker of supporting
God's work. I want to be a partaker of serving
and doing the Lord's will for His people, for His people. You
know, God gives people jobs, His people jobs, so that they
can support the work. God gives people's homes so that
they can open their home and have the Lord's people in. He
gives them food so that they can fix a meal for the Lord's
people. He shows you sometimes that somebody needs something.
And you don't have to let everybody know what you've done. You see
somebody in need, you just do it. You shake hands with them
and you do whatever needs to be done. You don't let your left
hand know what the right's doing. What the right's doing, it just makes sense, don't it? It just makes sense. Let me show you another word.
And I want you to look in 1 Corinthians 16 for this one, for this. Look at this word here, chapter
16, verses 1 and 2. Now concerning the collection
for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia,
even so do you. Upon the first day of the week,
let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered
him, that there be no gathering when I come. I want to look at the proportion
here now. He said, whenever you take up a collection for the
saints, and he's talking about poor saints, he's talking about
the saints, the saints. He said, you lay by in stores,
God has prospered you. I want you to look at two things
here in this verse, second verse. Upon the first day of the week,
and this is the first day of the week, here's the first word, everyone,
let everyone, everyone. Everyone. Every believer, every saint of
God, every child of God is a giver. Whether he's rich, whether he's
poor. Whether he's old, whether he's
young, every believer is generous and
wants to share what he has with others. He really truly does.
You remember when our Lord Jesus was standing there in the interest
of the temple and there in the temple they had a great big box And the scripture says the Lord
was sitting there watching and here come these, here come people
out of their abundance. They was throwing in gold and
they was throwing in lots, you know, and they just come up there
and reach in their pockets and just throwing handfuls in there.
Here come a poor old widow, an old widow woman, old widow woman. She walked up there and she didn't, she had about a half
a penny. Two mites. About a half a penny. And she put it in. And the Lord said, see all these
people? He said, they gave out of their
abundance. But this woman right here, she
gave everything. And that's what God's saying
to us. Give everything. We just sung that song to her.
Every idol from my heart. Take away this heart of stone.
Take away stinginess. Take away selfishness. Take away
pride. Take away worrying about self. The world's, the scripture says,
the world's lovers of themselves. We're lovers of one another.
We're to serve one another. Serve one another. I remember
one time years and years, oh my goodness, so many years ago,
I had an old, what was that old monster, rotary engine thing,
that thing was so old, you know, you could put three dollars of
gas in it and run it for weeks. But I went off to preach someplace
one time, way off in the middle of nowhere, and I don't remember
where it was. And, pretty good little crowd there,
I got ready to leave. Nobody said, I'm going to give
you some money for gas. Nobody said that. But an old
woman come up to me, an old woman. And she shook hands with me and
put $2 in my hands. $2. Just $2. And I said, ma'am, please keep
that. She says, no. She says, no. The Lord laid on my heart to
give that to you. $2. They could have gave me probably
up until now much money. But that woman, God had it fixed
at $2. $2. See, as God says here, now listen,
you don't have to give something you don't have. If two dollars,
God puts it on your heart to give two dollars or five dollars,
give it. It don't have to be hundreds,
it don't have to be thousands, it don't have to be fifties,
it don't have to be twenties. Don't have to be those things.
That widow, she didn't have much, but she gave what she had. That
woman that gave me that two dollars didn't have much. But she did
it out of love, because the Lord laid on her heart. And then there's
everyone, everyone. Here's the next word. Here's
the next word, look what he said. By him is store as God hath prospered
him. You give as God in proportion
as God is blessed and prospered him. That's what he does, as
God has blessed and prospered us. Those who have more are able
to give more. Those who have less, naturally they give less. That's just the way it's made.
That's the way God says it. That's the way He says it. But
here's something about all of them. Every single one of them.
All of them give. All of them share with others.
And God enables them. You know, people give a squash. Give us tomatoes. Give us food in bowls. Bring it here and give it to
them. When people get sick, people
go and bring meals to them. We're not just talking about
money here. We're just talking about living and sharing and
helping. When Mary got sick, you all for
six months brought a meal every single day. When we just had that funeral,
and you know what all y'all did? You gave and went here and put
on a good meal for that family. That's what I'm talking about.
Why do you do that? Love, grace, willingness. Generosity. Generosity. And just, if you ever have God's
prospered you, that's what you need to do. If He's not prospered
you much, don't do much. But if He's prospered you, you know, don't be like that
fellow said, oh my. He said, my, oh I've got so much
this year, and I've been so prospered I'm gonna tear down my barns
and I'm gonna build some more. to fill them up. Don't be like
that. Don't be like that. Oh my. Everything, everything we have
is given to us from God. Everything. Everything. Our Lord asked this question.
He said, who maketh thee to differ? Who makes you to differ? What
have you got that you did not receive? What have you got that
you did not receive? And you know what our Lord said
one time? He was teaching and preaching. He said, you know
a man can't receive nothing, nothing, except God gives it
to him from heaven. You can't receive truth. You
can't receive this message. You can't receive anything that
God doesn't give you. So what didn't we have that God
didn't give to us? What do we have? Huh? What do we have? And what are
we going to do? Well, we're going to thank God.
Oh, thank God. Thank God for a nice suit. Thank God that we could go buy
something. Thank God. There's times I couldn't. I remember
one time that we couldn't buy our children winter coats. We didn't have the money to buy
them new coats for the winter. You know what happened? Went
to the mailbox one day. Had a letter from somebody and
there's a $100 bill in it. Way back in the 70s. Our kids
was little. You know what we did? We bought the kids new coats.
That's what I'm telling you. Somebody somewhere thought of
me. Somebody somewhere thought of
me. And I had a need and couldn't
meet that need. But God did. And every one of us has been
there one time or another. One time or another. So I tell
you what, we're going to thank God. I'm going to thank God.
Thank God for our clothes. Thank God for our shoes. Thank
God for a nice bed to lay down in at night. Thank God for a
good pillow to lay your head on at night. Thank God for a wife. Thank God
for a good meal. Every day, what do you want for
supper? What do you want for dinner? I don't know. Whatever
you fix. Why do we do that? Why does people
do that? Because they love. They got grace in their heart.
Huh? And oh my. And then we have love
to God. We have love for others. Oh,
we love others. And a believer, God's blessed
people, want to share what God gives them. As God leads them
by the Spirit, and they do it freely, they do it willingly, And we give as God enables us
to. I want to show you something
back over here in 2 Corinthians 9. Ruby used to quote this to me
going out of the building. I couldn't countless, countless,
countless times. Countless times. Oh my. Thanks be unto God for
His unspeakable gift. Oh, look what God gave us. God
gave us. Now, I also want you to look
in 2 Corinthians 9.8. Let me show you this. And God is able to make all grace
abound towards you, that you're always having all sufficiency
in all. may abound to every good work.
You know, he said God's able to make grace abound to you.
You can do anything that God enables you to do. And then you'll
have all sufficiency, all sufficiency. And the last thing I want to
say is this, and a man told me this just the other day. Give as unto the Lord, as unto
the Lord. See, you're not giving to the
church, you're giving to the Lord. It's the Lord's, it's the
Lord's work. It's the Lord's gospel, it's
the Lord's church. Give us unto the Lord. Our Lord
said this about his disciples. He said, for as much as you did
it unto the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me.
You did it unto me. There's some motive. The love
of Christ constrains us. He said He constrains us. This
is our motive. All that God did for us, His
love constrained Him. God loved us before the world
was. He loved us so much that He gave
His blessed Son. And our Lord Jesus loved us so
much that He gave Himself for us. The Spirit of God came and
spread abroad the love of God in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. So grace, love, willingness, and it has to do with our whole
lives as believers. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Jesus Christ, our Lord, thank you for allowing us to
meet here today. And Lord, bless the words to
our hearts. Save us by your grace. Save us by your love. Save us
by your power. And Lord, make your word effectual
in our hearts and in our understanding. And do these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen. All right.