Imagine how you'd feel at this
moment if somebody came around to you with a basket, sort of
shook it at you, in hopes that you'd put money in that basket.
Imagine what it would be like if there were men on each corner
of the aisle passing little plates full of glistening coin and folded
paper, and the person next to you puts some in and looks at
you and hands you the plate. what it must feel like to think
about giving to the church, or worse, what it must be like to
feel like giving to God, because, you know, God desires your gifts. Imagine what it would be like
is as you sat there and you felt like, I really should give, but
I cannot give because I cannot afford with this little bit of
money I have to pay for my food this week, but I'm compelled
to give. I feel guilty if I don't, so
I give. That's the story of most church
members, Sundays and Wednesdays. It's so ingrained in our culture,
the passing of the plate and the taking of the offering and
the giving of the tithe. That it's actually worked its
way into the church bylaws and Constitution job descriptions. And it's actually worked its
way into the qualifications for the ministry. And I will tell you today that
one of the greatest ways there's many things as this series to
sort of unfold, there's a lot of things I'm probably going
to talk about prayer. And how the devil uses. a confinement
to the specifics of our prayers to keep us from praying. Because
that's what people teach us. And whether a sermon has ever
been preached or not to you, there have been many preached
to my ears out of Malachi chapter three. In verse 10, where it
says, bring your whole time into the storehouse. And it teaches
us that God will open up the floodgates of heaven and pour
out a blessing beyond measure. Trust God in this. Put the Lord
God to the test, Malachi says. But the error comes is when we
start to do anything out of grace that's mandatory. That's the
false teaching of the Galatians, that's the error of The Judaizers
in Galatia who said, yes, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone.
Of course, they didn't use those specific terms. But circumcision
is paramount for really, really, really, really spiritual people. When it's not. It's not even
required. When Paul talks to the Galatian
men and he says, if you want to be a circumcised person, why
stop there, emasculate yourselves? Be real men. But then yet he takes young Timothy,
half Jew, half Greek, and says, for the betterment of your ministry,
you need to be circumcised. So today I'm going to talk about
the giving in the church and how the devil in the pulpit preaches
conviction and guilt to the people of God and thus beats over the
head of the sheep. Things that are not from the
Word. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 9. Stick your finger there and go
back, go back to. The very beginning of Matthew
and then turn back a page and you'll see Malachi. There are several passages of
scripture that people use in the church to coerce people into
giving money to the ministry of the church. Malachi chapter
three is one of those. And listen to what it says in
verse ten. Bring the full time into the
storehouse that there may be food in my house. and therefore,
thereby put me to test, says the Lord of hosts. If I will
not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you
a blessing until there is no more need. In the beginning of that in verse
six, it talks about us robbing God. Turning aside, how should
we rob God? Are you robbing me? But you say,
have we robbed you? How have we robbed you in your
tithes and contributions? You're cursed with a curse, for
you're robbing me, the whole nation of you. So therefore,
bring the full tithe into the storehouse. So Malachi 3.10 is
not a nice thing. It's a strict command of obedience
that if it does not come, you will be a curse. You're in a cursed nation, the
prophet said to Israel. You are a person, people, and
I have cut you off and you're going to have famine and you're
going to have poverty and you're going to die. And I'm going to
I'm going to not deal with you gently because you fail to take
care of the priests who take care of the worship of your sacrifice,
who who work in the temple for your sake and for the sake of
your souls who give watch over you. And they're having to fend
for themselves and cook for themselves and grow food for themselves
and deal with livestock and become entrepreneurs because you have
failed not just to worship, but to take care of that worship. And so it'd be real easy if we
just exposited Malachi and we were all Jews going to the temple. Buddy, we better pay close attention. Just thought we best pay close
attention. to the precepts of the law, we better play close
attention to the to the instruction of Moses about how we're to dress
and how we're to wear the word of God and how we're to cleanse
our hands and bodies and what we're to do with specific people
who are not clean. It gives us instruction, according
to the law, of what we should do with a child who is a drunkard.
and who is rebellious at heart, were to take him to the elders
of the city and were to proclaim judgment against him. And the
elders of the city would take him outside the walls of the
gate and they would stone him to death because he rebelled
against his father. And if we were Jews, worshiping
the temple, we'd have to obey that law. So there's a lot that needs to
be said here. There's a lot of things that need to be paved.
for us, but ultimately, here's what I want you to understand. I've said it before and I'll
say it again. The church is not. The temple. Pastors are not priests. And you are not Jews. Nowhere in the New Testament,
not one place, nowhere in the entire Word of God has there
ever been any apostle teach any Gentile about the tithe. Ever.
Never. It's not there. You can twist
it. The only place you see it mentioned is when Jesus is rebuking
the Jews and says, you are bound by it,
buddy. You better tithe. Because you're a Jew and you
better not disobey the other laws either. That's what his
words were. And the only other place we see it is when we see
the writer of Hebrews looking about the better covenant. The
better high priest who is in the line of the order of Melchizedek,
who Abraham, by faith, tithed. He wasn't commanded to. He wanted
to. He wanted to take care of Melchizedek so that the work
of the ministry could be done. But we have not come to that
covenant. Hebrews says we've come to a better covenant. We've
not come to the Mount Sinai where the law of God was spoken to
the people begged not to hear another word. We've come to a
new place. We've come to the to Mount Zion. We've come to a place of worship
with the angels of glory worshiping God through Jesus Christ. We've
come to the perfector and the founder of our faith, Jesus,
whose blood cries out greater and better and louder than the
blood of Abel. And friends, any preaching from the Word of God
that can put you in a place of bondage is a lie from hell. And I say that because we don't
know any other way to really express it. It's not from hell. It's from the one who's going
there. This is the father of lies. And this sermon in itself
is going to be very polarizing for some very dear friends of
mine. But their very own congregation called me about this situation.
And visitors will come and it's interesting to see that some
visitors are the worst, the offering plate. Why don't you pass an
offering plate? The offering plate at my church
in California, among a very small group of individuals, became
such an idol that I took it away to prove to them that they loved
it more than Jesus Christ. And they were angry and they
were hostile and they plugged up their ears and hardened their
hearts against the word of God because that plate was their
worship. And those are their words. We
worship when that plate is passed. I said, yeah, but the person
next to you who I have to go and give them their money back
because they're sitting in the dark without electricity, because
they feel compelled to give that is not godly. So the question is, where do
you fall? Do you fear God if you don't
give to the church, are you fearful that God's going to take your
money away? What kind of gospel is that? I'm your father. I'll send my son to suffer your
sins and satisfy my judgment against you, to establish justice
against my holiness. But you better do what I say
or I'm going to get you. Is that really the gospel? No, it's not the gospel. And
I'm not saying that obedience doesn't come with blessing, but
it's not any more blessing that comes with the obedience of faith.
Because disobedience comes with what consequence, not judgment.
But I'm here to say today, church, that there's nowhere in the New
Testament commanding the church time. We are really, really, really
missing the boat when we think that. Let's do let's look and
see what the scripture does teach about giving to the New Testament
church. Look at Second Corinthians, Chapter
nine. I pray the Lord to be. Faithful to this word here. And some translational problems
I have with verse six of chapter nine, because I just don't know
which way I'd like for it to read in your verse version of
Scripture, you could see the words. The point is this. Not necessarily so, because I
believe the next words out of Paul's pen are not a command
or even a theological expression, but rather just a proverb of
the day. Listen to the words of God. The
point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and
whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one
must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or
under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is
able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency
in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work
as it is written. He is distributed freely. He
is given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. He, verse 10, who supplies seed
to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your
seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every
way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce
thanksgiving to God for the ministry of his service is not only supplying
the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings
to God. By their approval of this service,
they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from
your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity
of your contributions for them and for all others while they
long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace
of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible
gift. Now, wow. Let's just go home. Let's go home. My voice is gone
today. What is the main theme of this
text? Because we know what Paul teaches
to the Philippians who had given to him in his time of need in
Corinth. Because these Corinthians didn't
take care of Paul. They hated Paul. Paul, because
of what he did, refused to take any kind of support from the
place where he was because they would hold that over him. And
thus be a hindrance to the preaching of the gospel plan of churches.
And Paul's the only apostle that actually took that liberty. And so when Paul talks here.
We have to think about what Paul told the Philippians who supported
him when they tried to support him when he was in prison. And
they tried to send them more money and they couldn't get it
to him, and Paul writes back to them and says, I know your
gift, you've taken care of me well. And God be praised for
that. But in this time, I've learned
to have much, and I've learned to be brought low with little,
and I prefer little. Because when I have little, it
is Christ who gives me strength to endure all things. That's
Philippians 4.13. That's the reference, the context
for which it's written. There's nothing to do about anything
but being able to survive with nothing. Nothing, no food, no
money, no house, no clothes, nothing, no camel, nothing, nothing. Paul wrote to Timothy in his
second letter. He was in prison. Dr. Luke was
tending to his physical health. He was in very, very bad shape,
physically weak. And he asked Timothy to bring
three things, three things, none of which were money. He says, I need my cloak cold. Those are his words. I'm cold. I want you to bring the parchments
and the writings that we started in the paper. We got to write
some more. And I want you to bring John
Mark. So you see what he needed. He asked
for. And Timothy brought it, and I
want you Four things, Timothy, you come to me and bring my jacket
and bring my papers and my books and bring John Mark. And so we have this seemingly
contradiction here, Paul saying you don't need anything and I
don't I don't want anything, but yet he's teaching here in
the Corinthians, the Corinthians, that they do have an expressed
compassion and a desire. You are giving to the needs.
Why do we give? What's the what's the what's
the two words that pop out when you read this in the English?
What are the two words that pop out there? The word Thanksgiving
and the word grace, and there's some others, but the main theme
of what Paul's teaching about giving in the local church and
to the local church is that it is affected by the grace of God. In other words, God's grace affects
the desire to give for the sake of what? Not just the needs to
the praise of his glorious grace. You see that this the church
is here so that we praise and worship the grace of God. So that we worship in spirit
and in truth. We worship in spirit because
God is spirit and it is through the spirit that we have been
made alive, so that which is flesh is flesh, that which is
spirit is spirit. Jesus says, I cannot explain
to you worldly things, you don't understand them. How am I going
to explain spiritual things, heavenly things? For I come from
heaven, only we who come from heaven can understand these things.
And unless you're born of heaven, you can't understand these things.
So Paul is writing to the Corinthians saying, you will give when the
Spirit of God alive in you, His grace effects giving in you. That's when you'll give. And
the outcome of that is not to have the stuff. The outcome of
that is that we praise God for it. Look at that. Verse 11, you
will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way.
So here is the issue. And I want to point to this and
then go back to the instruction. I know I'm skipping around a
lot. You will be enriched in every way. To be generous in
every way. So by the grace of God, you will
be enriched in power, impressed to be generous in every way. Every way. Not just financial
way. Because I'll tell you, church,
I'd much rather have you praying than paying. Because prayers are more powerful
than penance. Lincoln's on the penny and he's dead, so he can't
even get it back. And the outcome of that, which
through us, those who receive the blessing. Will produce Thanksgiving to
God, see that, see this little it's hard to take all this preach
a sermon on it. So we give and when we give those
who receive our gifts, worship God, because it is because of
God that the gifts were given. That's why it's deplorable. I
want you to hear that word deplorable. For people to give money or take
up money in church and say, if you give in honor and memory,
I'll put a plaque on the wall for you or if I'll put a plaque
on a pew for you or I'll put a plaque on a door for you or
I'll put a plaque on the plaque on the plaque for you. Some churches
have run out of room so much because of donations that they've
got plaques on walls with plaques on plaques with people's plaque
on plaques. I saw a tattoo of my tattoo on my tattoo. It's ridiculous. It's deplorable. Because Jesus says in Matthew
6, do not give in public where people can see and praise you,
but give where your Father sees in secret. Do not let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing. Why? Because our reward is in heaven,
not here. Now, let's focus on this text in a specific way.
Paul, in verse six, is dealing with the understanding that these
farmers, this agricultural society, agrarian community, understands
the more seeds you throw out, the more possibility of plants
that come. And the gospel, Jesus uses the same analogy. He used
the same analogy in the context of if you preach the gospel,
more seed goes out, more soil is there. But no matter how much
you throw in the gospel seed, only the good heart will produce
the fruit. So God has to go ahead of us
and actually produce good hearts to receive soil. So regeneration
precedes faith. Always has. You've got to be
born again before you can believe the gospel always will. And I know high, high, high,
high, high, high brow scholars can argue that to the cows. Come
on, just read the Bible, put up the commentaries and invest. Better yet, read the confessions
of historical Christianity, all of them, including the Baptist
faith and message today. Two thousand say. That regenerate
that regeneration, repentance and faith. are inseparable experiences
of grace. For the grace of God is given,
eternal life is there. So this is the point. Whoever
sows sparingly, reaps sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will
always reap bountifully. So if we take that, and there
is some places in the Old Testament that sound very similar, but
they're so different, and even the wording, that I don't think
Paul is twisting that. I don't think he's rearranging
that. At best, maybe Paul's Greek or maybe another language of
the Old Testament that he used, because Peter and Paul both use
different versions other than the Greek. They didn't use Hebrew
in this day. It was not read. It wasn't used.
It was Greek. When Jesus got to the temple
and he read the Bible, it was Greek. OK, the Septuagint is
Greek. The language of the day was Greek. Jesus's Bible was Greek. His
Old Testament was Greek. Understand that I'm studying
Hebrew right now just because I want to. It's not necessary.
It's interesting, but not necessary. So here, if we just stopped at
verse six, we could actually say, see, Paul's saying you better
read if you want to gain. Let me tell you something. God's
not a bank. And God is nowhere in the Scripture other than the
twisting of Malachi, which is talking only about food, actually,
not not money, only about food. Malachi is talking about giving
the tithe of food, grains, produce, animals, livestock, so that the
people who work the temple can eat, not buy stuff. Now, sometimes
they may sell that grain for money that they would need or
sell that stuff for money, but the Jews didn't use money, they
used bartering produce and products, sort of like today. But we end
up with the paper and we think the paper is the end of it, but
it's not the end of it. So we stop there, we look and
we say, OK, we've got to read bountifully to receive bountifully,
and we will mess up when we think that it's only about money, because
in every situation There's a there's a specific meaning to the text.
Look at verse seven. Each one must give as he has
decided in his heart. You see that? This is going to
be one of those, I'm not going to break the other side of this
pulpit today preaching this text. But I hope that the bound, the
binding and the bondage of your heart will be broken. Because
if there's not, if there's any place in mine and Robin's life
as Christians, especially as young parents, 20 years ago or
16 years ago, however, when things are really bad is to feel guilty
and to fear, feel fear. Toward God, because we can't
give to the church. And I've never seen more angry
preaching You know what angry preaching is? Angry preaching
is when the pastor, because of his need to get you to see. He's emphatic to a place of just
hysteria. There is no more. Let me just
put it this way. Most of the angry preaching I
see is centered on Malachi three. You don't rob God. You're going
to steal from God by not tithing. You see that? If I preach that
to you, everybody in here would feel guilty and feel burdened. Paul doesn't teach that in the
New Testament church. Paul doesn't teach that because
it's not biblical. Each one must give as he has
decided in his heart. And it's hard. Not reluctantly.
That means if you're not really sure you can let it go, don't
let it go. Reluctant is hesitant. Don't
be hesitant. That's why we don't pass plates,
because I don't want people feeling like they have to give because
somebody's watching and, oh, God's looking and everybody's
looking and if I don't give, I'm going to feel bad. The guy next
to me is going to judge me. I'll give an empty envelope.
Oh, crap, I put my name on it. Now they're going to know I didn't,
you know. How do you know that? Because I've done it. I'm pretty
good at slotting hands. Sometimes I act like I drop it
in, just pull it up into a finger palm. Can't let that 20 go. Can't get gas to get home. Where
are you going? I just went to church. Can you
give me a ride? And for some of them, do you know what I'm
talking about? Driving an hour to get to church thinking, can
we take up a collection for some gas? This one must decide in his own
heart, not reluctantly. So, in other words, if you're
hesitant, stop. Pray. You haven't been given
the go-ahead by the Holy Spirit to give if you're reluctant. Nor should you give under compulsion. You know what compulsion is? When I tell you you have to,
and if you don't, you're disobeying God. That's compulsory. And there's
nothing compulsory about obedience of faith. We're compelled to strive for
righteousness, but we're not bound to judgment when we don't.
And even if we were, there's no command to give a tithe to
the church. But look why for this is a precious,
precious reality. For God loves a cheerful giver. Now, he doesn't mean that he
hates an uncheerful giver. It just means that God loves
a cheerful giver. He wants us to give and that
giving make us happy. Now I sound like a secret sensitive
guy, don't I? You want to be happy? You want to be happy? What most
people would say is, well, you give and watch what God can do.
That'll make you happy. How about this? You want to be
happy and you let the Lord guide you and grow you in grace so
that everything you do is an act of worship and it gives you
joy because you do it under the Lord. That's what makes you happy.
That's what John Piper talks about being a Christian hedonist.
We're pleasure seeking. And we find our fullest pleasure
in Christ. And verse eight, I'm not going
to do justice to this text in the time I have left. And God
is able to make all grace abound to you. All grace abound to you. So that having all sufficiency
In all things, at all times, you may abound in every good
work. You see that? Look at all those all's there.
Look at this stuff. So for God and God, we give as
God has called us to give out of the bounty of our blessings,
which is measured by the grace and the glory of the majesty
of God. And so we give out of the overflow
of God's giving, which is immeasurable. We see other places in Scripture
where we're supposed to give to anyone who has a need. We
see the early church in Book of Acts that sold their property
so that they could give to those who had a need. And then they
had all things in common. The Greek word for that is koinonia,
and we've translated it to a really pansy word called fellowship. Well, I can fellowship with a
flapjack at Huddle House, but I have anything common with it. But God is able to see the power
behind that. Well, if I don't give God, it
doesn't matter. We're not bound to get God's abundant grace if
we give back to him. He doesn't withhold and a little
bit here and a little bit here and a little bit here. God is
not a tit-for-tat guy. He doesn't have a stock market
that if you invest enough, then you'll reap a little bit more.
For God has given us all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. All
spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm. All spiritual blessings.
He's ordained us. He's predestined us. He's called
us. He has saved us. He's given us
an inheritance. We are the inheritance. He's able to make all grace abound
to you, so that having all sufficiencies, I mean, everything you need.
As Paul prayed, take this thorn, take this thorn, he says, I pleaded
with the Lord. It isn't like he had three breakfasts
and then the prayers, or the breakfast he prayed and then
it was over. Well, OK, I prayed three times, right? Early baseball. No, he pleaded. And Christ said,
I am enough. You don't need to have that removed
from you because you think that's where your joy would come. You
think if I take that out of your flesh, if I take that temptation
away from you, if I take that sickness away from you, if I
take your poverty away from you, if I take that away, you think
that'll satisfy your soul. But it won't. I will. I am the
only thing that gives you life. I am the bread of your sustenance.
I am the hope of your heaven. I am the glory of your wonder. And I alone am sufficient for
you. The power of God in giving is
enough to make all grace abound. Because the way I should be in
the church is I wish we could give everything we had. I wish
we could be compelled in some sense by the Holy Spirit to sell
it all and live in a commune and be a cult. I mean, you know
how that works. And then we'd have to put armed guards on the
inside to get people from leaving. It can get creepy. We can take
things to great extremes. But when God's grace abounds,
when God's grace is sufficient, all sufficiency, if you feel
led to support people and to take care of people's needs financially
or faithfully or prayerfully or physically, then you affect
that in your prayer life and God's grace, no matter what you
make or what time you don't have, will affect that to you and you
will be the cheerful giver that you've always wanted to be. God
and his power and his grace will make it happen. He will make
it happen. I was talking about the beginning
of the service about a new location that we were looking at, and
it's basically rounded up four thousand a month for three years. Somebody want to pay that? Oh,
not all at once, please sit back down. I mean, you know, it's
just, of course, that's crazy. So we're not going to look at
it. But that doesn't mean God's grace isn't sufficient to provide
it. When our heart is, man, I wish I could, I want to, maybe God
will allow it to happen. But it's not the other way around.
We don't give what we don't have reluctantly to the detriment
of everything else so that we can get more. Why don't we just
keep what we had to start with? He's distributed freely to the
poor, given to the poor as righteousness endures forever. You see here
that the righteousness of God begins to come in play here.
He's able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency
in what? All things, when? All the time. You notice that that's the verse
that we put on our offering box. It always has been. Not God loves
or cheer or forgive or Malachi 3.10 or else or give or die or
test God or do without. And there's no little old man
walking around having you stick something in there either. It's
not the way it's supposed to work. So the sufficiency, the grace
that's abounding, having all sufficiency in all things at
all times. Why? You may abound in every
good work. You see, it's not just focusing
on the giving, on the collection. Let's focus on the outcome of
that collection, the work that includes the financial needs
of the church or the financial needs. And when I said the financial
needs of the church, I'm not talking about the mortgage and the lights,
though those are important. I'm talking about the people. Yeah. In our day and time, we
just don't get to build barns in the middle of anywhere we
want to and have church in them. You have to rent places, you
have to pay for things, and the Lord provides for those things
as part of it. And I'm not going to get started
on the abuse of this stuff, but I might. I think it's abusive
when people use giving as a way of holding hostage of people
to a commitment to something that's not the gospel. I think
it's abusive. When people who have much. And
give. are not affected at all in those
situations, but people who have little and guilt are put in poverty
because of it. I think it's abusive when we
say that the Old Testament temple is equates to the New Testament
church. I think it's abusive to say that
the priesthood are the pastors when the scripture says that
we are a royal priesthood. I'm as much a member of this
church as anybody. And you can pray to God and study and teach
the Bible as much as God's called you to. But the role of pastor
is what God's given me, but it doesn't make me a priest above
you. Makes me a co-priest with you. And I think it's abusive when
we take the cross of Christ and the grace of Jesus Christ and
the gospel and we and we try to impart Old Testament commandments
on top of it. It is heresy. Paul says that
it is damnable. Yeah, but I'm going to say this
and I know some people who love me and I love are going to hear
this. It has been a requirement in
some churches that I have staff that I've been on staff with,
which is another sermon coming about church staff. That if we
do not tie, we would lose our positions. You know, Titus and Timothy,
here's the qualification for an elder Malachi three was added
to it. And they checked. You had to
actually turn your money in every week to someone in the church
that would tell the other elders that the other staff were giving. So what did I do? Started putting
cash, untraceable. We don't have anything on record,
but that's not my problem. I was not very kind. But it's compulsory. It's it's
it's it's abusive. It's abusive and it needs to
stop. And there are people who hear
this and they will get mad and they will preach. I'll tell you what
you think reform doctrine, you think the Gospels divisive mess
with somebody's pocketbook. Mess with somebody's building
program, start teaching people that they're free from all that. People don't care about what
you think about salvation anymore when you start taking money out
of their paychecks or money out of their building funds. This
is one of these types of things that you don't hear because people
are scared to even say it. Church, I don't want you to be
scared. And I don't know that we've ever taught anything either
way, but I think there's a lot of us in this room who have come
from a lot of different places in ministry. And I think a lot
of us have some really bad garbage that's just holding on to, that
we're holding on to, that we don't speak about because we
dare not bring it up because it may be the same here. So we'll just
pretend like we don't know anything. So like the drug dealer walking
up to the cop and going, just hypothetically, if I needed to
get out of dealing drugs, how would I do that? You got some
drugs on you? Nope. You're going to jail. I
mean, you know, We just don't ask. The outcome
of this openness, of this giving, of this grace, is that it is
sufficient in all things at all times that you may abound in
every good work. Are we abounding in the good works of the gospel?
And what is the good work? Well, let's look at verse 10.
God, who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, Will supply keeping that in mind,
it's not talking about our physical needs. He's talking about him
and now he's moving beyond them. You got some food and seed to
grow the bread to make food. God gives them both. Farmers
would not produce food if God didn't give them food to produce. He who supplies seed to the sower
and bread for food will supply and will multiply your seed for
sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness." Now,
did you see that? What is your righteousness, church?
Whose righteousness is ours? Christ's. Christ's. Knew no sin, but came sin, that
we might become the righteousness of God. Look what kind of love
the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children
of God, and so we are. I write these things that you
may not sin, but if you sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is our propitiation. Jesus
Christ's righteousness is our righteousness. And the Scriptures
here is teaching that God, in the growth of grace in the heart
of the believer, will supply the grace needed to give the
earnestness and the desire and the eagerness to meet the needs
of the church and to meet the needs of the people of the church.
And we will look at our empty coffers and go, oh, but I can't.
But I so want to. And God's grace will multiply
the seed so that you can. It's not the other way around.
It's not taking what you don't have to get what you want. It's
God giving you everything out of nothing. You see that? And what's the outcome of it?
Increase the harvest. He will multiply your seed for
sowing. Do you want to be a giver? God
will give you the opportunity to give. And it'll be in your
heart that God has given you to give and you'll give and you'll
be like, I cannot wait to give. Most people look at giving and
offering like a bill. Georgia Power, Grace Truth Church,
IRS. I mean, you know, this is bad.
Don't do that. That's not good. That's terrible. That's terrible. That is a bondage
that cannot be in the people of God. But God will multiply the seed
for sowing, for ministry to the flock, for ministry to the church,
for ministry to the community. God will multiply the seed by
His power and supply and His grace that abounds with all sufficiency
at all times for all things. You see how that works now while
I'm having to jump all over the place. And not just the seed
for sowing, but increase the harvest of your righteousness
because The harvest of your righteousness is a continual righteousness
that we trust in, who is Jesus Christ, the depth of your faith
and trusting the supply and the sufficiency of God. And also
that as we give, the harvest of righteousness is that the
glorious praise to the grace of God. We have thanksgiving. That's what God wants. That's
what God's looking for. That's why God saved himself
a people, that we may praise his grace, that he may be worshiped
because he's worthy. What does it say in Revelation
to him who is due all honor and glory and power and wealth? What is God going to do with
the coin and the money at the judgment? He melts it and he
makes pavement out of it so we can walk on it and spit on it. I think that's why the imagery
of treats of gold is really incredible. I'm twisting that a little bit,
but I think it's funny. You will be enriched with the
outcome of what God does with his grace, you will be enriched
in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will
produce Thanksgiving to God. God's grace that abounds to you
for every good work at all times and all things will enrich you
to be generous. You know what generosity looks
like? Generosity is cheerful, open handedness. Take it. Take it. Here. Take it. You need something, take it. Very few people really have that
affected in their life because they hold on to things. Well,
there's my giveaway pile and this is my hold on pile. This
is my giveaway pile. And they'll transfer a little
bit in their time and their talents and their treasures. I hate to
use those three T's because they're so abused. But God's grace will enrich to
be generous. Take it all. Take this. You want this? You
want the shoes? You want the glasses? Take it all. You need my time? Burn
me up. I'm being poured out like a drink
offering. And my time has come. I've run the race. I've finished
it. To obtain the prize of righteousness,
the crown of life. Paul says, I am poured out. I am done. Come on. Continue to run this race as
though you were earning a prize that is invaluable and expressible.
You'll be enriched in every way and it will produce thanksgiving
to God for the ministry of this service is not only supplying
the needs. So what is it for? It's not only
supplying the needs of the saints. But also results in the overflowing
and the thanksgivings to God, so he comes back to that. It
comes back to the thanksgiving that comes out of the supply
of the needs for the saints. And of course, The ministry of
the Word is the need of the saints. Having a place to gather is a
need for the saints. But it's small in comparison
to the fullness of what the Scripture's talking about. I've always hated
benevolent ministries. You know what that means? Well,
I shouldn't even say that because I would rebuke a lot of people
without grace. I think it's wrong when a church thinks or someone thinks that
the church gives them money and that it came from the church,
not the church. So that's why when there's a
need in our church, we tell the church and the church goes and
meets the need. They hand people money. They hand people food.
They hand people clothes. They give people houses or cars
or whatever it is that they might need. Because if it's just behind
a corporate name, what is the logo? What is the name? Nothing.
It's just how we identify where we are where we live and where
we meet. You just don't drive up and see
herds of people and try to figure out which one's your congregation. From this year, the service produced
Thanksgiving to God by their approval of the service in which
they approve it, they receive it, they celebrate it, they glorify
God because of your submission flowing from your confession
of the gospel. and the generosity of your contribution
for them and for all others while they long for you and pray for
you. So let's unpack that and then we'll be done. Watch this. People who receive the service
of giving. Approve of it. How do they approve of it? You've
done this out of out of generosity. Why would you do this? Don't
don't give this to me. I can't take this. Take it. That's
hard to do, isn't it? Well, I'll pay you back. You
can't go in debt with a brother or sister. You can't. You can't
be in debt. It's not possible. It's not me
turning into a giraffe. You cannot owe money to a brother
or sister in Christ. It's impossible. You can't do
that. Now, you may, but do you know
what I'm saying? Don't give that way. Don't give
expecting it back. If you can't give it and let
it go, don't give it because you have not blessed that person,
you burden them more. You have taken the burden of
their need and now placed them as a debtor against you. It is
wrong. When that person is, by the grace
of God, given seed and they sow and they got more, then they
may come back and say, hey, I'm going to give you some. But it's not a payback. Folks, we can't pay each other
back for the ministry. It's impossible. Because it's
God's doing, not us. Now, some practice. They approve
the service because they approve the service, they will glorify
God because of your submission. Your submission to the Holy Spirit,
your submission to the grace of God, not to the commands. You see that? To the grace of
God. who's empowered you to be enriched
in generosity in all areas of life. You are submissive and
the submission comes how? Through your confession of the
gospel of Christ. First, that's it. You've been
submissive to believe and confess the gospel. Confession is speaking
that which is true. Not saying the right confession
isn't just saying something. I can say, hi, my name is Mike
Thompson, and that's a lot of confession. Now, if I were really
Mike Thompson, I'd have been lying all this time and said
that it would be a confession because it would be true. But
just to say things is not confessing anything. It's saying what is
true. So if the gospel is true, we
confess the gospel. And if it is true, it is a confession.
If it is not, it is a lie. We say we walk in the light,
but we walk in darkness. We lie. In other words, our confession
is false. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and all of unrighteousness.
First John one. So if we look here. We flowing
from the confession of the gospel, in other words, we're born again.
We believe by faith. And because we are a new creature,
we have a new heart. And it comes then to prove that
we are new because it creates generosity, the generosity of
your contribution for them and for all others. So here's those
two things that they glorify God because of your faith in
the gospel. Because of your faith in the
gospel, you're a new creation and you are generous. And so
they glorify God and praise Him for your generosity and they
glorify God and praise Him in their longing for you and in
their praying for you. You see that? If we're not cheerful givers,
Cheerful ministers, we are burdened when we see somebody drive up
who needs our stuff. Oh, not here. An opportunity for God's grace
to abound to me with all sufficient, I don't have time for it, but
what's what God can do with no time? What's what God can do
with no money? You see how good this is? I can't
preach this enough. There's not enough time. Should
have made it a series. This is beautiful. They long for you,
not loathe you, long for you. You ever long for somebody? The
people who you bless in ministry out of generosity? Friends, this
is, I think, a better picture than Acts for Koinonia. Love always affects itself in
giving. Always. But giving is not what
we've been taught giving is. They not only long for you, they
pray for you. God's grace effects praise to
him for the gift of our generosity. And then because of that, ministry
comes that's better than what we gave for us. We're prayed
for. The Spirit of God, Romans 8,
purposes His people to pray for those who are generous. So there's
a mutuality there, a common giving. And so as God gives for their
needs through me, then they give for my needs through Him. Wow,
that's a good picture. That's a really, really, really,
really good picture. And we see back to the beginning,
verse 14, while they long for you and pray for you because
of their surpassing grace of God upon you. And then he just
exalts with a doxology. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible
gift. Is that the way you give? Do you have that kind of joy? God is able to affect grace and
expressively giving through his people to his people for the
sake of his name, for the sake of his power, for the sake of
his glory. Because he gave Christ. To become sin. And I could go on and We talk about a lot of things
the scripture talks about. Who should we give to? I'd have
to come out of here. This is specifically talk about
ministry to the church. But the same heart of generosity
and grace ought to have, ought to be stirred inside of us when
we see the lost. First to the gospel and also
for their needs. The same type of generosity and
grace ought to be stirred in us when we see our enemies. We're
to pray for our enemies. We're to love our enemies. We're
to die for our enemies so that the unsurpassing grace of Jesus
Christ would be immeasurably hot upon their heads. And that when they hate us, they
know perfectly well they're hating the omniscient, omnipotent, powerful,
merciful God who sent us to them. And they despise us because our
works are righteous and theirs are wicked. Because we are Christ's. Why did Cain kill Abel? Because
his works were righteous. Why were Abel's works righteous? Because he was filled with the
Holy Spirit of God. And when he obeyed the command
to give an offering, it was righteous. But when Cain obeyed the command
to give an offering, it was wicked. Because his heart was wicked. I think the problem comes, churches,
are we going to be able to overcome all these things? Are we going
to find joy in the gospel? When Paul commands us and says,
you need to be more generous than your neighbor, you need
to outdo each other in giving and affection. Are we going to let go of all
this old thinking? this bondage and watch
what God can do. And at the same time, there are
some throughout the world, some maybe even in our own congregation
who are able to take care of needs in this church and don't. I would pray that the spirit
of God. Would work. And I don't even know who I'm
talking to, because everybody in here seems to be really in
tune. But I don't know the fullness
of your heart. I don't know how we hold. You don't know how much
of a hoarder I am. We don't know how much of a hoarder
we are until we really start looking at it. Friends, hold
loosely that which the world has. And when we have it, we
praise God for it. And when we praise God for it,
we know that it is for the benefit of others. Why do we have homes?
So we can hide? No, so we can host. That's why God didn't give you
a house so you could protect yourself. Now, there's time to
be alone. Your family is your first ministry,
but it's not more important than the ministry to each other. But
we live in the only culture in the world where weekend is personal
time. What is that? We slave away for a job and we
slave away for ourselves. When do we die for each other? Let's pray. Father, you do teach us that
your grace abounds. Father, we all pray that you
would work in us generous hearts, that we would come to an understanding And we aren't to be bound by
a tithe, but the Scripture teaches us that we are to give as much
as we can out of the abundance that you've given us. We're not
to be bound through guilt and compulsion, but Father, pray
that you would work in our hearts how it is that you'd have us
give our treasure and our time and our lives. Father, you gifted
us all each differently. And sometimes, Father, our giftedness
and our gift is just different than each other. And we need
to be gracious in that and not look down or up because we aren't
able to do what others can do and vice versa. Father, let us be free because
the Son has set us free. Let us be here today as instruments
of grace and vessels of mercy, not vessels of judgment and wrath.
Reach into our hearts and bring out faith, put in newness. Grow us deep in your grace, save
us, hold us, keep us, lead us not into the temptation of this
world and this flesh, but Father, help us to walk the paths of
rightness. And Lord, I thank you, Father,
that through the years that I allow the devil to preach through me
this life of bondage, that you saw fit to help me correct it. And maybe somebody else will
see it and correct it. And Lord, what we don't understand
is that when we let people loose to be filled and empowered by
You, the giving is greater than it could ever be, even the financial
giving. But that's not our aim. Our aim
is to praise You, worship You, and thank You. for your everlasting
grace that supplies all things unto righteousness.