Good morning. How are you all doing today?
Awesome. It's starting to warm up finally.
See some of you taking your jackets off. I'm like, well, that's a good problem to have. It's not too cold anymore, you know?
So we always like to start our service by saying welcome to anybody that is here in our sanctuary for the first time or if you're
joining us online for the first time,
welcome. We're so glad you're here to worship with us here at Hosanna.
Today we are going to be taking communion together.
And so if you are in the sanctuary here, you should have gotten one of these communion cups as you came in.
Okay, if you did not, we will give an opportunity for the elders to come down and distribute these to you later on in the service.
If you're watching online, just want to remind you to get your communion emblems ready for that.
We will be celebrating that together at the end of the service.
So for those of you who don't know, I am Pastor Nathan.
And this morning we're going to be continuing our four part series on generosity and giving with our second message titled The Heart of Giving.
Last week, we begun this whole series by laying a foundation for giving with really what the church is, what this entity is that we are a part of as
individual Christians. And we learned that as individual believers, we are called to collectively, intentionally, voluntarily participate in the work of the ministry of the church, that we participate together in everything, including the needs of the church, because we're the body of Christ.
And Paul has so much to say about that, about us being the body, that we are important parts of one another, that just as the physical body needs all the parts to function effectively, it's the same with us individually as we are part of the body of Christ.
And so it's just that idea that the body needs every part doing its part to fully accomplish its purpose.
And so we gather together as God's people to learn, to be equipped, to be strengthened, all united in one purpose in the presence of God, collectively participating together with our individual time, with our individual talent, and yes, our individual money and finances.
Now, the question that often comes up when we're talking about giving or generosity in the church is people go, well, does that mean God needs our money?
And the answer to that question is no. God doesn't need our money. He doesn't even need our time or talent, but it is the method in which he has chosen to work in this world, that he works through his people as he saves them, as he transforms them to participate in the work of the church.
As he transforms them to proclaim his glory to the world around us. And that collective unity of us working together, participating together, and supporting one another is all a part of that work that God wants to do.
But if God doesn't need our money, then why does the Bible talk about generosity and giving? Why does, why did God create giving? Why did he invent giving if he doesn't need our resources?
Why does he teach it and encourage it in his word? Well, the answers to those questions comes down to our hearts. It's about our hearts.
You see, a very important truth is giving is for us. It's not for God. Giving is for us.
In giving, in generosity, we demonstrate trust, faith, obedience to God, and we reflect the nature of the God we serve.
You see, biblically, the idea of the heart, the concept of the heart refers to that spiritual part of us, the seat of not just our emotions, but the seat of our desires, the seat of our will.
It really is an idea that refers to our nature, the essence of who we are. That's what the Bible is talking about when it refers to our heart.
Now, in its natural, unredeemed condition, Jeremiah 17, nine tells us that our heart is evil, treacherous, deceitful, and desperately wicked.
Due to the fall of man all the way back in the garden, our emotions and our desires and our will are tainted by sin, tainted by sin and utterly selfish as a result.
Jesus pointed this out in Mark chapter seven, where he said in Mark chapter seven, he goes, out of people's hearts come all manner of wickedness.
And then he gives us really kind of long list of wicked things that come out of the heart of man, and two of the things in that list are greed and self-indulgence.
And that teaches us that one of the biggest problems we have, if not the biggest problem, it's not an external problem, it's an internal problem, that we as man have a heart issue.
We have a heart condition.
Now, when we get saved, the Bible tells us that God gives us a new heart, not a physical one, but a spiritual heart, a spiritual heart.
As we become more like him, it's a result of him giving us a new nature, a new heart that has new desires and a new will.
He changes us to be more and more like him in a process the Bible calls sanctification.
And then again, as we become more like him, our lives display his character more and more.
But our old nature still wrestles with our new one, and thus we have the daily call to choose obedience to him, to say no to our old sinful nature, our old sinful heart, and yes to our new righteous one.
And as we do that, we find ourselves in our lives becoming more loving, more forgiving, more gracious, and guess what?
More giving.
For Jesus himself declared that the attitude that we have towards money is really indicative of the focus of our hearts.
That's what we're going to be talking about today, but before we get into all that, we're going to spend time worshiping God because he is worthy, right?
We should all understand that God has given us so much.
And I've said it many times that if all God ever did was save your soul, and then you never heard from him again, and he never blessed you again, and he never spoke to you again, we still owe him everything.
But God starts with saving our soul.
And then he indwells us with his Holy Spirit, and he teaches, and he guides, and he leads, and he directs, and he gifts, and he blesses, and it's just such an amazing truth that our God is a great giver.
And so we want to worship him for that.
We want to praise his name and say thank you, God, through lifting up his name in our worship, because he's worth it.
Let's pray.
Father, we love you so much.
God, you are worthy of our praise.
You are so worthy of our praise, God.
Lord, as we are studying your word and really learning what giving is all about in the church, what giving is about as Christians, how it all relates to our life and how we live, God, Lord, we want to be diligent to look at what your word says about this topic in every way we can, Lord.
To look at what it says about us giving our time and our talent and, yes, even our money, Lord.
Because, God, we want to be like you, and your word shows us over and over again that you are such a giver.
And, God, we are called to be like you.
Lord, your Spirit is conforming us into your image, Lord, as image bearers of Christ, God.
We want to reflect all that you are to the world, and that includes the generosity that is in your Spirit and your character.
And so, Lord, we want to just want to start by praising you for all that you've given us.
Lord, we want to celebrate you and just lift up your name on high because, Lord, gosh, we are nothing without you and we have nothing without you.
So, Lord, be blessed, be glorified.
We love you, and we lift up your name on high because you are the God of glory.
You are the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
You are our Savior.
Thank you, Jesus.
And it's your name we pray. Amen.
We are going to be jumping all over the place in Scripture, so just be ready to turn or scroll or whatever device you're using to get there.
But, you know, the heart of giving really starts with our salvation.
You know, the Bible tells us that when a person is saved, at the moment of conversion, we receive a new heart.
We receive a new nature.
We become different people than we were prior to that salvation.
You know, Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 26, God said it like this, and he was really speaking of the redemption of the nation of Israel, but the application is to all that God redeems.
And it says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And the idea there is that prior to redemption, we have a dead heart.
We have a dead nature.
Our spirit is dead.
And that's where that concept of being born again comes from, that when we are saved, we are giving a living heart.
The psalmist in Psalm 51 10 said, God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Because there was recognition there that our nature, outside of God, our nature is just desperately wicked.
And then in 2 Corinthians 5 17, Paul said that in Christ, we're a new creation altogether, that when we get saved, we're a completely new person.
He says the old has passed away.
And the idea of these types of concepts in Scripture is that when someone has been given a new heart by God through salvation, through faith in him and trust in him, that new heart means they're also given a new nature.
And what that means is that we behave differently.
We have a different set of desires, a different set of priorities.
We have a different will that is given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It's the power of the Holy Spirit that then comes in and changes our heart and our nature from being sin-focused to being God-focused.
And thus our priorities and our will and our desires change.
They become God-focused.
Now, it's not that we become perfect or sinless when we are saved, but we do gain the freedom, as Scripture teaches, to choose whether or not we're going to obey our flesh.
Whether or not we're going to obey our old nature or the new one.
And it's the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us the desire to please God with our lives, a desire that was foreign to us in our previous stone-hearted state.
Now, this process of God changing our heart, changing our nature, and developing it is called sanctification.
This is a biblical idea wherein God enables us through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to grow into more and more holiness over time.
And this process of sanctification for believers, it's a continuous process from the moment you're saved until the moment you're standing before Jesus.
It is a process that God is working in you and changing you and developing that new heart, that new will, that new desire that he gave you.
And it comes with a lot of victories and it comes with a lot of defeats because really that new heart and that new nature is battling with the old one that still resides in us.
And that's what Romans chapter 7 is all about.
But this development of this new heart and this new nature, this battle, this moment-by-moment choice that we have as believers to live the new heart, the new nature that we are given in salvation,
Paul characterized it this way in Romans chapter 13-14.
He says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
That means as believers endeavoring to live this new heart and this new nature God gives us, we have a choice to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's figuratively to clothe oneself with Jesus.
Paul goes on to say in Galatians 3-27, he says, for those of you who were baptized into Christ Jesus have been clothed with Christ.
And then in Colossians 3, Paul says this, do not lie to one another since you have put off the old self, that's the old nature, with its practices and have put on the new self, the new nature.
And so this idea that we have in Scripture of putting on Christ, it's an everyday thing.
It's a moment-by-moment decision that we make to follow him in discipleship or to put it another way, it's letting our lives be conformed into the image of Christ.
That is this process of sanctification that begins in our salvation.
And so the idea, and you guys have heard it many times probably in your Christian life, is that we are called to be like Christ, right?
We want to be like him, we want to act like him, we want to think like him, we want to have the heart that he had.
We're to be imitating him.
Now you might go, that's great Pastor Nathan, thanks for that.
What does that have to do with generosity?
What does that have to do with giving?
Well, if our goal as believers is to be like Christ, who is God, to follow his example in all things,
if we are to be as Ephesians 5 verse 1 says, imitators of God, we need to understand that God is a giver.
God is a giver.
And it's one of the characteristics that we are called to emulate.
Now in the Old Testament, if you study through the Old Testament, you'll read hundreds and hundreds of times the phrase,
God gave, or God gifted, or something was given, right?
You go through the Old Testament and we read, I just did a brief list of things God gave.
God gave land, blessing, families, he gave his statutes and commands, he gave wisdom, he gave insight,
he gave children, he gives rest, knowledge, understanding, and that's just a short list in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, over 130 or so times, we read the phrase, God gave.
And here's a list from the New Testament.
God gave authority, favor, spiritual gifts, he gave ministers to the body, he gives growth, he gave the Holy Spirit,
he gives to the poor, he gives for building us up, he gave grace, he gave himself, he gave life,
spiritual birth, revelation, judgment, righteousness, and eternal life.
And that's not an exhaustive list of what God gave in the New Testament.
And then ultimately, right, the biggest one, he gave his only begotten son that we would be saved.
Our God is a generous God.
God is a giver. Our God is a giving God.
And he loves to give.
Now as Christians, and if you don't know that word, that term Christian means Christ follower, right?
We should endeavor to be like him.
And so the heart of giving is the heart of God.
It really is the heart of God. And so why do we give, right?
One of those foundational questions that we're answering in this series?
Well, because we want to be like our Savior.
Because we're called to be like our Savior.
King David was called a man after God's own heart.
What an awesome way to be known.
Wouldn't that be great to have that reputation in your life?
You are a man or a woman after God's own heart.
And that's what David was known as because he reflected God's heart in so many ways.
And so now being like our Savior, having that heart of giving that is like saying,
God, I want to have the heart that you have, it's accomplished by living obediently to his word.
Right? That's a basic truth of Christianity.
So the heart of giving is also the heart of obedience.
You see, we are generous in giving people, well, because Jesus said so.
Right? Let me read to you out of Luke chapter 6 verse 30.
Jesus speaking here, he says, Give to everyone who asks of you.
And from someone who takes your things, don't ask for them back.
Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.
If you do what is good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do that.
And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners to be repaid in full.
But love your enemies.
Do what is good and lend, expecting nothing in return.
Then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High.
You will be like God if you follow in his example of generosity.
For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil.
Guess who that was?
That was you and me before we got saved, right?
Be merciful, verse 36 says, just as your father also is merciful.
Do not judge and you will not be judged.
Do not condemn and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and it will be given to you.
A good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap.
The measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
You see, there are some that get nervous about talking about giving in a Biblical perspective
because so many have abused the teachings of giving, right?
There's prosperity preachers out there that preach, you know,
hey, if you give me so I could buy a new jet, you will be blessed.
And they have a new jet and the people are broke.
It's just, it's wrong.
It is so wrong.
But we can't swing the pendulum so far to ignore what the word of God does say about giving.
Even in reference to what it says about our finances.
Now this passage, this is direct instruction from Jesus as to his expectations of those who follow him.
Now there's much here in this passage, but for the sake of today's focus,
what we see here is that generosity, giving in just a broad sense, not just financial,
but generosity and giving in a broad sense, it's a principle that applies to every single area of our lives.
What we see here in this passage is the admonition for God's people,
give love, give goodness, give finances, give mercy, give forgiveness.
Right, those are just the things listed here in this passage.
But then if you go through the New Testament, again, through those over 60 one another verses that the Bible talks about,
to love one another and all these things, you add all kinds of things to what we are to be givers of,
grace, encouragement, help, honor, welcome, teaching, service, patience, honesty, and on and on and on.
God wants us to catch the vision of giving.
He wants us to catch the vision of giving, not getting, right?
The priority of getting is rooted in our old nature.
It's rooted in our fallen, selfish nature.
Now, that's not to say that getting something or receiving anything is inherently wrong or bad in and of itself, not at all.
But in Acts chapter 20 verse 35, Paul quoted Jesus and it says,
it is more blessed to give than to receive.
And so God wants us to catch this vision.
Now, we read there that it wasn't suggested.
It wasn't, hey, if you feel like it.
It wasn't his, well, if you have extra, he just said be givers.
Right?
Now, in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 1, this is interesting.
It says, Paul writing to the Corinthian church, he goes, now about the collection for the saints,
do the same as I instructed the Galatian churches.
That word instructed in the Greek means commanded.
What does that tell us about giving in the New Testament?
That giving is commanded in God's word in the New Testament.
Now, that's one of the big things that people always will bring up like, oh, nowhere in the New Testament.
We're never commanded to give.
Yes, we are.
Now, the issue of how much, that's another conversation.
And we're going to dive into that in detail next week when we talk about what the Old Testament says,
what the New Testament says, you know, is the tithe for today, right?
That's a big debate, you know?
And we're going to deal with all that.
But the idea of being a giver, being generous, just across every area of our life, we're commanded.
And then we see here in 1 Corinthians 16 that he's directly referring to financial contribution in the church.
And he says, I commanded the Galatian churches to do this.
In 1 Corinthians, I'm saying the same to you.
Now, so yeah, the heart of giving, it's about being like Jesus, to imitate him in every area of our life, right?
As his image bearers, we are called to copy his character, which includes his generosity.
And then being submitted to his lordship in obedience to his word and in his teaching,
yeah, that's a part of why we give, too, because he told us to.
He told us to be generous givers.
Now, there's a whole bunch of teaching throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament about giving.
As I said, we're going to talk about those details next week.
But our obedience to God in this area of giving recognizes that there's a higher authority in our lives.
That's part of the heart behind it, that we're saying, God, you're the authority in my life.
I'm not the authority in my life.
So I'm going to be obedient to you.
I'm going to do what you call me to do.
And really, you know, some areas of our life, it's really easy to submit ourselves to God's desire for our living, right?
There's areas of our life where it's like, oh, it's super easy to be obedient to God in that.
But our submission is really tested in areas where our old nature or situations we're in make it difficult for us to be obedient.
And statistically, statistically for most in the church, money is one of, if not that greatest area of challenge when it comes to be obedient to God.
Martin Luther put it this way.
People go through three conversions, the conversion of their head, the conversion of their heart, and the conversion of their wallet.
And unfortunately, not all at the same time, right?
Our finances are often one of the last bastions of resistance to fall to the rule of God in our lives.
And even when that bastion does fall, sometimes we could find ourselves building it back up far too quickly and far too easily.
So submitting all of ourselves, every area of our lives, including our finances to the lordship of Christ, it's not something that's threatening.
It's not something that's going to destroy us.
Quite the opposite, it's the place of greatest safety.
And that's where then we see all that the word teaches about giving.
And we're going to see next week one of the greatest foundations of giving because we want to be like God and we want to be obedient to His word is really that everything belongs to Him.
It's all His.
Everything belongs to Him.
And that includes everything we have as His people, every material possession, every financial penny we got.
It all belongs to God because He is God Almighty.
And when it comes to our money, He doesn't even ask us to give it all back.
He just has give back a portion.
And we'll talk about that more next week.
But God doesn't just say, do this because I said so and leave it at that.
Now, He could have said that because He's God Almighty.
He could have said, do it because I'm God.
And it would have been absolutely right and just for Him to do that.
We were all kids.
We all realized how irritating that was when our parents would say, do it because I said so.
And the point is, is they have the authority to do that.
But God doesn't just leave it at that.
He actually shows us what happens.
He said it's more blessed to give than to receive.
And we see throughout Scripture many different ways where He says,
let me show you the blessing that I have in store for you when you're obedient to this.
And this is just incidentally another reason why we give.
That's kind of the underlying question of the heart of giving.
Why do we give?
One, we give to be like Christ.
We want to be imitators of Him.
Two, we give to be obedient to His Word.
And three, it's good for us.
It's good for us in so many ways.
One, giving builds our faith and our trust.
You know, when you're a giver, especially sacrificially,
when you give above what is easy or comfortable to give,
you're really expressing your faith and your trust in God to provide for you,
to provide for your family.
When you come to that place where you feel like God is saying,
hey, I want you to step out in faith in this, and you're like, ooh, I'm a little scared.
What you're exercising when you say, okay, God, I'll be obedient to that call in my life,
is I trust you.
I trust you to provide for me.
I trust you to take care of my needs.
I trust you to take care of my family.
It's also part of our sanctification because our giving, especially with our money
and especially when it's scary or painful to do so, man, that requires much self-denial, doesn't it?
That requires much picking up our cross, if you will, right?
Because, oh, man, if I give, I won't be able to get Starbucks tomorrow.
Oh, it's the end, right?
But sometimes it's even bigger than that, where we might find ourselves in extremely difficult
financial situations, and I've been there, and I know many of you have been there,
and some of you are there right now.
If I give, according to my math, I'm not even going to have enough to pay rent, right?
Those are real scenarios that God's people can find themselves in.
But the act of giving is an act of practicing self-denial.
It's an act of practicing, okay, God, I'm going to trust you more than myself.
I'm going to step out.
And really, every act of giving, and this applies in all areas, it really attacks and breaks down
our sinful, selfish nature.
It defeats that.
It puts down that old man.
Three, giving makes God happy.
I think it's a good thing to make God happy.
Not that we're afraid he's grumpy and going to strike us down with a lightning bolt,
but, you know, God says in his word he loves a cheerful giver.
God is delighted when his people gladly open their hearts and their hands to provide for the needs
of his church and his body and his mission.
God's blessed by that.
And then four, we are practically blessed when we're obedient in giving.
Practically blessed.
You see, there's this thing in Scripture that's called the law of reciprocity,
and we saw that already in that Luke 6 passage we looked at.
But the basic summary of the law of reciprocity is you get what you give.
Look again at Luke chapter 6 verse 37.
He said, do not judge, and you will not be judged.
Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Give and you will be forgiven.
Give and it will be given to you.
A good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap,
for with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.
So right here at the tail end of this section we looked at,
this overall teaching about giving, being a generous person,
as a life-encompassing principle, right?
It's with love, with patience, with everything, right?
Right here in the middle of this at the end we see these really interesting verses.
Now verse 38, incidentally, is one of the favorite verses that prosperity preachers will use.
Give and it will be given to you, right?
And again, they're just...
Anyways, don't want to get on that soapbox.
It's just they misapply and they just fleece the flock, right?
Now, yeah, I will concede, right?
I don't want to not say what the word says, that finances is a part of the application of verse 38,
but it's not the primary application.
Because in this whole section what he's saying here, right,
when he says do not judge and you will not be judged,
what he's saying here by giving it will be given to you is, look,
give judgment, you'll get judgment.
Give condemnation, you'll get condemnation.
But give forgiveness, wow, you'll have an abundance of forgiveness given to you.
Give love, expect a harvest of love to come back to you.
It's this idea of reciprocity.
Now, it comes back to you whether it's through the person you're doing that to,
but ultimately it comes back to you from God Almighty.
That's the idea here.
Now, at the risk of sounding prosperity-y, the same applies to our finances.
He said just lend and expect nothing back,
but then right at the tail end of this he goes give and it will be given back to you.
Now, there's so many stories and testimonies of people giving financially just to give, right,
with the right motivation, the right heart.
They're not giving with a motivation of getting something back.
They're not giving going, ooh, I figured out the biblical formula for getting rich, right?
They're just giving because God said be a giver.
God said be like me.
God said I commanded you to do it, and they're just doing it with the right heart
and the right motivation.
So many testimonies of people doing that, and then God blesses them back.
Now, does God always in every case exactly bless us back in a financial way?
Not in every case, but man, in so many of them He does.
I just had a situation a couple months ago.
I had a friend of mine who had come into possession of a brand new tablet, right,
and he knew I teach from a tablet, and he was like, hey, I got this tablet, you know,
but I would really rather have the finances to go get some more musical instruments
and invest in my calling and all that, and I was like, okay, cool,
and he goes, hey, do you want to buy the tablet off of me?
And truth be told, I had one.
It worked fine.
I didn't really need the tablet, but I just felt like the Lord said, hey, bless him.
Just bless him.
I was like, all right, and I'm like, well, how much do you want?
He goes, 800 bucks, and that was a discount on what it would be retail,
and I was like, Lord, that's 800 bucks, and he's like, bless him.
And I was like, okay, I'm like, well, I'm getting a new tablet out of it.
That's cool, right?
And so the next day I had given the money over to him,
and I had gone to the bank to pull out the $800,
and for some reason the teller actually pulled out $810, right?
And so I'm counting out the money for the tablet,
and I realize, oh, I got an extra $10 bill.
So I just put it in my pocket, and I'm like, okay, Lord,
I don't know what that's all about.
Kid you not, I get the tablet, cool, excited, I hope he's blessed, right?
I turn around, I walk out the door of the office,
and an old friend of mine who lives in Idaho pulls up in a car.
Now, I knew he was in town, I saw him earlier that day, but he pulls up.
And I'm like, dude, what's up?
He hands me money, he goes, God told me to give this to you, and it was $1,100.
And I was like, is there another tablet around here somewhere, right?
And I was just like, why?
He goes, God just told me.
I was getting ready to head out of town, and God told me to come by and give this to you.
And I was like, well, God bless you, bro, thank you so much.
And then I was like, well, God, I want to give back to you, right?
Thanks for blessing me, right?
And so I was immediately like, God, I want to give you 10% of this, right?
Well, he gave it to me all in $100 bills, right?
So it was $1,100 in $100 bills, and I was like, well, 10% of $1,100 is $110.
And I'm like, oh, okay, well, I'm going to have to go break one of the hundreds and stuff.
And I'm like, okay, cool, no problem.
And then I reach into my pocket, and guess what I pulled out?
That $10 bill that the bank gave me too much.
And I was like, Lord, how specific are you?
How cool, right?
And I've had dozens of stories like that in my life where I just trusted God,
and I wasn't thinking of anything, and he gave back.
And sometimes it's giving back in finances and resources,
and many times it's giving back in other ways.
But some of you know the stories of Pastor Gary, right?
The leader of Hosanna, and Pastor Gary used to give away cars, right?
How many of you ever got a car given to you from Pastor Gary?
A number of you in here.
He would give you a car, and then as he's handing you the keys,
there's another one pulling up.
Someone's going, I'm supposed to give this to you, Pastor Gary.
And he would just pass cars on over, and it became like a game to him.
He was just excited every time he was like, who needs a car?
I want to give away the car because I'm excited to see how God's going to give me another car.
He did that so many times.
And there's just story after story after story of Christian people trusting God in their finances
and experiencing this law of reciprocity according to what Jesus was saying here.
You know, there's one story of a Christian adventurer.
I forgot to write out his name, but many of you have heard the story before.
He was a businessman who was like, God, I'm going to commit to giving you 10% of my income.
And he goes, God, as you bless me, I want to give more.
And so he gave, and God gave more back in his business.
And so he goes, okay, I'm going to increase my giving to 20%.
And he was giving 20%, and God blesses his business even more.
And he goes, okay, I'm going to increase it.
And he kept doing that until he was giving away 90% of his income and living off of 10%.
Guess how much the 10% he was living off of was?
Millions of dollars, millions.
There's too many testimonies about this to be like, oh, oh, back away.
We can't talk about money in that regard because it's happened over and over and over.
But the issue is that it's about the heart, right?
When our hearts are right in our giving, God blesses us.
He really does bless us.
You know, 2 Corinthians 9 verse 6, this is Paul again talking to the Corinthians
specifically about monetary giving.
And he says, the point is this, the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.
And the person who sows generously will also reap generously.
But it's about our hearts, right?
Giving to get, getting as a motivation for giving, that's not Christ-like.
That's not following Christ's example.
That's not being an imitator of God's heart.
And I believe God honors that.
You know, Proverbs 16, 2, it tells us, all a person's ways seem right to him,
but the Lord weighs the motives.
God knows your heart, right?
God knows your motivations.
And so when it comes to pleasing God and living according to his word,
the motivation of our heart is ultimately what matters.
And so God wants us to be pure-hearted givers.
He wants us to be unselfish givers, even with our finances,
purely for the joy of imitating our heavenly Father.
But knowing our weak frame, knowing our propensity for fear and worry
and anxiety over giving, especially monetary giving, God said, test me in this.
Right?
The only place in all of Scripture,
the only topic in all of Scripture God said, test me, deals with giving.
It's in Malachi 3, verse 7.
Let me read it to you.
Since the days of your ancestors, you have turned for my statutes.
You have not kept them.
Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of armies.
There's that law of reciprocity.
Yet you ask me, how can we return?
Will a man rob God, yet you are robbing me?
How do we rob you, you ask?
By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions.
In New King James that says, in not paying your tithes and your offerings,
and we'll talk about those next week.
But verse 9, he says, you are suffering under a curse,
yet you, the whole nation, are still robbing me.
Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house.
Test me in this way, says the Lord of armies.
See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven
and pour out a blessing for you without measure.
I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not ruin the produce of your land,
and your vine and your fields will not fail to produce fruit,
says the Lord of armies.
Then all the nations will consider you fortunate,
for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of armies.
Now, yes, this is God speaking to Israel.
Yes, God is speaking specifically here about the tithing,
the giving of food into the storehouse.
But God does not change.
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And so we see here in this teaching in Malachi
that a principle is given to God's people.
And God's principle, since he doesn't change, his principles don't change.
And so it still applies to all who are his people.
And what is the principle here?
God is teaching that when we give faithfully,
when we do what he commands us to do,
and we're going to see in the New Testament,
he commands us to be generous in our giving.
When we do that, he takes care of our needs, and then some.
That's the press down and shaken and pouring over.
That's what it means by that, that he takes care of us and then some.
Now, it doesn't mean necessarily that you're going to go out and win the lottery.
It could.
But again, we're not giving to get, right?
That's not the idea here.
The overall idea is God says, be generous, and I'm going to take care of you.
I will take care of you. You will not have lack.
But in many cases, when we give back from the blessing he gives us,
increase does indeed happen.
And so, you know, when God teaches us to give and to be generous,
and then says, I'll give back to you, pressed down and shaken and running over,
when he says, seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you,
when he says, see how I take care of the lilies of the field,
of how much more value are you than they,
when he says, trust me, yield to me, have faith in me in everything, including your finances,
why do we persist in disobedience?
Why do we persist in fear and faithlessness?
Why do we walk in lack?
Why do we do that?
Because we have a heart problem.
We have a heart problem.
And so the question is, well, how do we fix that?
How do we develop a heart like God's, right?
One, you're saved. You've been given a new heart.
You've got to work on it.
It's that idea applies, that idea applies to our whole life.
We have to practice choosing obedience to God's word.
We have to practice stepping out in faith when it's scary.
We have to practice getting out of the boat like Peter did.
Okay, God, I'm going to trust you.
And so there's a passage in Deuteronomy chapter 15 that I think does really good.
And I've adapted some of this information from a pastor named Robert Morris.
He did a really good job going through this.
But Deuteronomy 15, it's this passage here that really shows us God's heart.
It really shows us God's heart of generosity.
And it really is a neat passage of teaching us how to develop a heart of generosity.
Read with me in Deuteronomy chapter 15, starting in verse 7.
He says, if there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers within any of your city gates in the land,
the Lord your God is giving to you.
I'm going to start that over.
If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers within any of your city gates in the land
that the Lord your God has given you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards the poor brother.
Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him enough for whatever need he has.
Be careful that there isn't this wicked thought in your heart.
The seventh year, the year of canceling debts is near, and you are stingy toward your poor brother and give him nothing.
He will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty.
What's happening here is every seven years in ancient Israel was this year called the Year of Jubilee.
Right before this in Deuteronomy 15, God is teaching that what they're supposed to do every year is cancel all debts.
Wouldn't that be awesome?
How many of us would buy so many houses?
Seven years from now, boom, debt's gone.
Anyways, I just read that and I'm like, man, that's awesome.
But all debts canceled, every debt, every credit card, every loan, every car payment, right?
All canceled is the idea here that every debt was canceled every seven years, and they called it the Year of Jubilee.
And so what God is saying here is like, hey, like if there's someone, you know, that's in need around you, be generous, right?
Give, be generous. Don't be tight-fisted. Open your hand.
Why is he giving this thing?
Because he's going, look, the issue here is if there is a need in year six and someone goes, hey, I need help,
people would go, oh, I'm sorry, the Year of Jubilee's next year.
I mean, if you hit me up six years ago, we might have had a deal here.
But next year, I'm going to have to wipe out that debt, so I'm not going to give you anything.
He says the person's going to be tight-fisted, right?
They're going to be hard-hearted.
And what is the idea here is the people going, hey, I can't be generous with you because, gosh, I won't get my money back.
I'll lose out.
I won't have enough if I can't get it back after I give it.
And what does God call that type of thinking in verse nine?
Be careful that there isn't this wicked thought in your heart.
That type of thinking God calls wicked.
It's also a selfish thought.
It's the selfish thoughts that keep us from obedience and compassion and generosity.
One of the ways to develop a generous heart, a heart of giving, a heart like God, is to deal with your selfish heart.
It's to deal with your selfish heart.
If you truly want to follow God's example of generosity, you have to look at your selfish heart and say, God, I don't want to be that way.
I'm going to put that on the altar.
Selfishness is the default condition of the human heart.
It's a part of our old nature.
We wrestle with it in our new nature all the time.
It's a part of the nature that we're born with.
You know, little kids, right?
Do you have to teach them mine?
No.
They just know that.
They're like, who taught you that?
Mine.
It's just they don't want to share.
And it's something we wrestle with through our whole lives.
But selfishness is what says, if I give, oh, I might not have enough.
I need to keep it for myself.
If I give, God won't be faithful to meet my needs.
And God's saying, don't let your heart think this way.
Why?
Because I gave you a new heart.
I gave you a new nature.
Trust me.
Have faith in me.
Have a heart of a giver like me and trust me to take care of you.
The second thing we see in verse 10 is really in developing a heart of
giving is we have to deal with our stinginess.
Look at verse 10.
He goes on to say, God speaking, give to him and don't have a stingy heart
when you give.
And because of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and
in everything you do.
Now, that phrase stingy heart, that means a grudging heart.
Like, it means giving with grief.
Like, you give and then you're sad you gave, right?
Or you're regretful that you gave.
That's the idea here.
And what he's saying, he's like, look, give.
Just be generous.
And when you do, don't begrudge it.
Don't grieve it.
Don't lament it.
Don't have a stingy heart that makes you think, oh, man, I could have done
such and such with that money I gave away.
I could have done such and such with that time I gave away.
I could have done this or that if I had just kept it.
You see, way back here in the Old Testament, we see that God loves a
cheerful giver.
Now, selfishness is what comes after us before we give, right?
Oh, no, I can't.
I can't.
And then stinginess is what comes after us after we give.
Oh, no, I gave too much.
Can I get that back?
I'm sorry.
You know?
And God doesn't want us to give begrudgingly because, you know, oh,
well, it's this burden I have to do it.
And then we give and then we mope around after, oh, I gave to God.
Oh, right?
That's not what God wants.
It doesn't please God to give in that manner, nor does it reflect his
character.
Can you imagine if we read in the Bible, for God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son and then said, well, that was a waste, right?
We don't ever see that with God.
He just, he gives and he lavishes us with blessing.
And that's what he wants from his people.
You know, God is working on our hearts through this idea of giving.
That's why I said earlier, giving is for us, not for God.
It's for us.
And really, I think the way to fight against this tendency we have to be
selfish and stingy and grieve and all that is to have a proper understanding
of what you think is yours, all right?
I mentioned this earlier, but in Psalm chapter 24 verse 1, it says, the earth
and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants belong to the Lord.
Everything, everything, including everything you and I have belongs to the
Lord.
It's his.
So when you give, you are simply giving back to God what already belongs to
him to be used for his purposes.
Understand that.
You're only giving back to God what already belongs to him.
It's not yours.
When we internalize this, it really becomes easier to give.
It's not mine.
God said, hey, be a steward of this and hey, I want this much back for my
purposes.
Okay, it's yours anyways.
We're not the owners.
We're stewards of what doesn't belong to us.
That's the idea here.
You know, Pastor Chuck Smith used to say, hold everything with an open hand.
Right?
God gives you something, great, thank you, Lord, but hold on to it with an
open hand because the second God needs it, here you go.
Take it.
And the promise here we see is God will bless you in all your work and
everything you do.
So in addition to dealing with our selfish and stingy hearts to develop a
heart of giving after God's own heart is simply be generous.
Right?
Look at verse 12, Deuteronomy 15.
If your fellow Hebrew, a man or woman, is sold to you, and the idea of this
was called bond slavery.
Like if someone owed a debt for somebody, they would say, hey, can I come
work off that debt?
And so you would be in bond slavery.
And so if they were sold to you and served you six years, you must set them
free in the seventh year, that Jubilee idea.
When you set them free, do not send them away empty handed.
Give generously to him from your flock, your threshing floor and your wine
press.
You are to give him whatever the Lord your God has blessed you with.
Now today we don't necessarily have flocks and wine presses and threshing
floors.
What do we have instead?
Jobs, businesses, investments, right?
And the idea is that it doesn't matter where it's coming from.
We're called to give generously from what God has blessed us with.
And we see that very clearly taught in the New Testament as well, and we'll
talk about that next week.
But you know, this is that intentional battle I talked about earlier between
our flesh and our old nature and our new nature, because giving goes against
our selfish nature.
It goes against it.
Our fallen nature riles against giving in generosity.
But guess what?
Giving in generosity is perfectly consistent with the new nature God gives
us, that new heart that he gives us.
And so let go.
Have an open hand.
Don't be tight-fisted.
It's odd to take care of your needs as you are generous with what God leads you
to give.
You know, Jesus said in Matthew 6, 21, for where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.
You want a heart after God's own heart?
Invest in what God cares about.
You know, Jesus said where you invest, your heart's going to follow.
Where you spend your time and your talent and your money and your resources,
your heart's going to follow that.
All of these things will become a priority of your heart.
They will line up with what you want to be a part of.
If you want a heart like God's and to follow after his heart, well, trust him
with everything and be generous like he is generous.
And the final thing to do if you want to develop a heart of giving after God's
own heart is be grateful.
Be grateful, right?
Look at Deuteronomy 15, 15, the last thing he says here.
Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God
redeemed you.
That is why I'm giving you this command today.
Why be generous?
Because I did something amazing for you.
I just want you to live in gratitude to me.
Now, next week we're going to deal with questions like how much am I supposed to
give?
Is there a number?
How often am I supposed to give?
Does the Bible say anything about that?
Are we supposed to tithe?
Is the tithe a New Testament concept or not?
But the particulars of giving don't matter much if your heart isn't right.
That's why I wanted to do this study first before we got into the details.
God wants us to be givers because he is a giver.
God wants us to experience the blessing he has for givers.
He wants us to develop the heart of a giver through the power of the Holy
Spirit by choosing to deny our selfishness, to deny our stinginess, by
choosing to be generous with what he has blessed us with.
But one of the greatest reasons to give, to be generous as God is generous, has
to be our gratitude for what he has given for us.
You know, in Deuteronomy he says, remember what I did for you.
I redeemed you out of Egypt.
And we know in the New Testament side of things that Egypt is a picture.
It's a type of the world, right?
And when we understand that, we can see how this applies to us today.
When we let God remind us that we used to be slaves to sin, that we were on a
path to eternal judgment, hell forever, and that everything we have now in our
life, starting with our salvation and our eternity and everything in between is
because of his gracious hand, wow, it helps us to be generous.
God, I am so grateful for what you've done in my life.
I am so grateful for what you've done for me.
How can we not give back the portion that he asks from all he has given to us
when he gave not a portion but everything for you and me?
You know, we remember him and what he did.
This is really the basis of what we do in communion, is to remember him, to
remember the heart of a giving God, to remember this God who gave his son to
die for our sin, to set us free from the penalty of sin and death forever
through faith to save us and redeem us and to give us a new heart and a new
nature who then fills us with the Holy Spirit and continues to give,
guidance and blessing and gifts.
We owe him everything.
And yeah, we don't give out of guilt, right?
That's not my point here is that, oh, gosh, wow, he doesn't want us to give
out of guilt, obligation, compulsion.
He wants us to give out of a grateful heart simply because we want to
continually and regularly say thank you, Jesus, for all that you've given to me.
Of course I want to live for you.
Of course I want to be obedient to your word.
Of course I don't touch my wallet.
No.
He wants us to be like him.
And so everybody in the room, you should have got one of these communion cups.
If you're watching online, I would encourage you to get your communion
emblems now if you haven't received those.
But for those of you in the room, there's these two tabs if you've never seen
them before on this cup.
There's a very, very thin plastic tab that's the first one.
If you gently pull that back, it will reveal the bread here, the wafer.
If you didn't get a cup, please raise your hand and our elders will go around
to make sure you have one to participate in communion with us.
Okay.
You know, when Jesus took the bread, it tells us in the gospels, it said he
gave thanks and he broke it.
And he said, this is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
His point was that he was giving himself, all of himself on the altar of
sacrifice as your atonement, as my atonement.
His very life in the place of our own that we would be set free, that we
would be forgiven, he gave for us.
That's an amazing truth.
It was his body given for us that paid the price for our eternal life.
It was his life laid down that made possible a restored fellowship with our
Creator now and into eternity.
You know, in John chapter 10, four different times Jesus says, I lay down
my life for the sheep.
I lay down my life for the sheep.
And then in verse 18 he says, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down on
my own.
He didn't give out a compulsion.
He didn't give out a guilt.
He didn't give out a duty.
He gave willingly voluntarily because he loved you so much.
Jesus gave his life that you and I would be saved and we can never express our
gratitude enough for that.
But we can start by saying, God, I want to live my life for you.
And I want to choose to obey you in every area of my life, including my
giving, including generosity, because I want the world to see your character in
my life.
And we remember that it was his body given that we would be set free, a price
we can never pay, but a free gift we get to receive in him.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, that you gave your body.
Lord, it was your body that was brutalized for us.
You took the punishment of sin that should have been on us, but you willingly
voluntarily stood in our place.
You took the full wrath of God for sin upon yourself that we would be able to
through faith, through trust in your work to say, God, I believe that you're God
and I believe you died for me and I believe you rose again, Lord, that through
that we would be saved and we would have eternal life, Lord.
God, it is so far beyond our comprehension to truly understand the price you paid.
But, Lord, your word tells us so much about it, Lord, and we choose, God, to
believe in you through faith and trust for our salvation, and we say thank you,
God.
Thank you, God, that you're a giver.
And, God, thank you that through the giving of yourself that you then give us a
new heart and a new nature to make us just like you.
Help us, Lord, to never forget what you did, that we would never stop representing
you and reflecting you to the world around us, especially those that don't
know you yet because they need you so desperately.
Thank you for loving us.
Let's partake together.
All right, if you're here in the sanctuary, there's a thicker tab.
Very gently pull that back in order to review the juice here in your cup.
You know, in that same story where Jesus was instituting the Lord's Supper, it
tells us that he took the cup, and he said, this is the new covenant in my
blood.
Do this in remembrance of me.
He didn't just give his body, he gave his blood.
He shed his blood.
He shed perfect, sinless blood that was poured out on the altar.
To wash the sin clean from our lives.
He did something that was so powerful and so magnificent that it was a once for
all sacrifice.
Not the old covenant where we had to go back over and over and over and over
and over.
But once for all time, you put your faith in Jesus, he washes you clean.
Past, present, future.
What an amazing gift.
What an amazing gift, and he wanted us to remember that when he gave his blood,
he gave his very life for you and me.
It was a permanent gift.
It was a permanent once for all satisfying of the wrath of God against our sin
forever.
And you and I are now free to walk in the newness of life.
Forgiven and set free from the power of sin and death.
That all means that you and I would never have to worry again about paying the
price for our sin.
We would never have to worry if we made enough sacrifices.
We would never have to worry if we did enough.
Because he said, I did it for you.
I gave that to you.
It wasn't a delay of our sentence, but a gift of a complete, clean and clear
record.
Where the Bible says that now and forever when he looks at you through the blood of
Jesus Christ, he sees blamelessness, spotlessness, he sees you white as snow
in perfect righteous purity.
It's with great gratitude we remember that in communion.
We say thank you, Jesus, for the blood you shed for me.
For the freely given gift of salvation that he gave to his freely given body and
his freely given shed blood.
Again, a price we can never pay.
But a glorious eternal gift that we receive freely from him.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you, God, for your shed blood.
Lord, your act of sacrifice, Lord, going to the cross for us shows us the heart of
a giving God, a God who gave everything that we would be saved.
A God who not only gave his body to suffer the penalty of our sin, but then gave his
blood that we would be washed clean of the stain of it forever.
There is nothing we could ever do to repay you for this immense gift.
And God, you don't ask us to repay it.
You just ask us to live a life of gratitude, to live a life of obedience to you.
Not even threatening to take away the gift if we fail, but just simply saying,
trust me and keep getting up and keep moving forward in faith.
Lord, thank you so much for loving us so much.
Help us to live for you.
Fill us with your spirit and overflow out of our lives.
Then in every hour of our lives, we would reflect you in every way.
We love you so much.
Let's partake together.
Well, I pray that God has spoken to you this morning, and we have two more weeks in
this series on giving, and next week and week four, we'll start getting into the
nuts and bolts of what the Bible says about giving.
But like I said, if your heart isn't right, the nuts and bolts don't really matter
all that much.
I have experienced God's blessing so many times.
I know so many of you have experienced God's blessing so many times when you give
of your time and your talent and your money.
It's a part of the collective unity.
We are called together as a church, but still, it's not because I have to or I have
to, it's God, I want to.
And so trust God.
If you've been wrestling with a selfish heart, a stingy heart, I just pray that
you go before the Lord and say, God, please help me with this.
I want to trust you in every way.
I want to trust you when it's scary.
I want to trust you when I'm not sure.
I want to trust you.
And watch God just do amazing things in your life, because his word, he makes
promises to us when we trust him.
And I look forward to hearing the testimonies of what God has done and what
God is doing, because God is working amongst his people.
He is working in our church.
He is working in his church worldwide.
And we just want to keep seeing him glorified in every way.
Amen.
All right.
God bless you guys.