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[0:00] Let us begin with prayer.

[0:30] Our Father God, this morning as we open Your Word, I am reminded of the passage in John 15 where it says, apart from me you can do nothing.

[0:49] And I would be sorely mistaken to think that preaching is an exercise merely of the intellect because, Father, it is something that is profoundly dependent upon the work of the Spirit of God.

[1:06] And to think that Your people, of their own will and volition, can glean from the words of a frail individual things that are of eternal value merely by their own thoughts is foolish.

[1:31] And so, Father, we join the psalmist in praying, Open Thou mine eyes that I might behold wondrous truths out of Thy law.

[1:42] And we understand this morning as we take up the subject of our stewardship, our giving, that for some of us here, this is a joyful practice of many years of application.

[2:02] For others, it's an ongoing battle and struggle. And for still others, it is an area of irritation and resistance.

[2:14] And so, Lord, this morning our prayer is that Your Word would have free course and that it would bear fruit. And we ask this because of Jesus and with confidence in the power of the Spirit of God.

[2:30] Amen. I would ask that you turn in your Bibles this morning to 1 Corinthians chapter 16, and I will tell you in advance that we will not stay there very long.

[2:43] Let me read the passage to you. The apostle writes this in 1 Corinthians 16.

[2:54] He says, Now concerning the collection for the saints as I directed the churches in Galatia, so also you are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper so that there will be no collecting when I come.

[3:13] I bring this to your attention because it's a passage that reminds us that the matter of stewardship was something that had traction and had a place in apostolic teaching, and it was part of what the early church addressed at one point or another.

[3:31] In fact, it was a fairly regular part. If you actually were to take and work your way through the Scriptures, you would be amazed at how often it appears. Now having said that, I do want you to know that it does not appear in the New Testament quite as often as it appears in contemporary televangelical, you know, televangelist speaking.

[3:57] You've heard me on occasion talk about the perverse part of my heart that every now and then we'll just kind of skip through and listen to a number of different individuals. And it's amazing, it's amazing, it's amazing.

[4:11] I was listening to Jake's the other day. Now I'll tell you, he's got fire. I like it. Very passionate, very enthusiastic. And I was listening to T.D. Jake's talk about, no matter where the sermon starts, guess where it always ends up?

[4:26] Somewhere close to seed faith. And seed faith is one of those, you can count on it being somewhere in the sermon, no matter who you're listening to.

[4:39] And if you are watching on TV, somewhere along the line when seed faith kind of comes up, there's an amazing, I don't know how they do it technologically, but right along with seed faith, there comes up, you know, dial 1-800, blah, blah, blah, and here's the place to send things.

[4:56] And it's all choreographed perfectly. It's great. I do want you to know that the Bible does talk about the matter of giving and is pretty consistent about it.

[5:07] And so one of the challenges that I face as a pastor is teaching on the subject and teaching on it clearly and then perhaps doing my very best to not be repetitious.

[5:19] Having said that, at the very outset, I'm going to tell you that for some of you who are here this morning, you're going to hear me say things that you've heard me say before or perhaps at some point you were in a ministry where the matter of giving was taught consistently.

[5:38] I, for one, grew up in a wonderful Christian home. I went to a Christian quasi-high school. I went to a Christian college. I taught in a Christian school.

[5:49] And I went to a Christian seminary. Can you top that? And I never heard the matter of stewardship taught carefully until Judith and I showed up at Westridge Baptist Church with Pastor Randy Patton.

[6:05] And lo and behold, when January rolled around, he did a four-week series on stewardship and it was the first time Judith and I had heard a careful, deliberate instruction from the Scriptures about the matter of stewardship.

[6:24] It was a life-changing, in terms of certain economy issues in our lives, it was a life-changing moment because I remember Judith and I, up to that time, had been pretty inconsistent in the matter of our giving.

[6:38] I'm not saying that we were off the charts, but it was not something that was woven in. And I remember as those sermons were progressing, Judith and I looking at each other and saying, you know what?

[6:51] I think this is something God wants us to work on and we were convicted of that matter. And I remember when Judith and I started giving consistently, faithfully, week by week, using what I was receiving as a benchmark and then giving proportionally off of that.

[7:08] And I remember at an earlier time in my life, I'm going to move this stand, musicians, so that I have room to move, okay? But I remember at an earlier time in my life, hearing, I heard a sermon.

[7:22] Remember, I didn't have consistent teaching on the matter of giving, but I heard one sermon that really resonated with me. It was this, if you give to God, you can't out-give God, so if you give Him a little, He's going to give you what?

[7:33] He's going to give you more. And I really liked that idea, but I really hadn't put it into practice, I want to tell you up front. But then when Judith and I started into the matter of being faithful in our giving, we actually went for about six months, being consistent, and you know what?

[7:52] We never got a check in the mailbox. I didn't get a raise. No one rear-ended my car, and I got a wonderful settlement.

[8:03] There was nothing magical that happened, except I remember we'd made this commitment, and we began actually tapping into our limited reserves at that point because we were, do you know what we learned?

[8:18] We learned that what we had to do in order to be faithful in our giving was adjust our spending style. Now, that's an epiphany for some people. It was for us.

[8:30] There were things that we stopped doing because instead of making God kind of the leftovers of our giving, how many of you understand what I'm talking about? Hey, does the government get its first take on your check?

[8:43] I'm just curious. How many of you notice that when you open your check, there's already deductions that someone's helped you with? And did you get to vote on those?

[8:57] Well, you may say that in an elective government, yes, yes, yes, but the truth of the matter is, you know, you see all those deductions, you think, huh, that one? That one? And, you know, our government stands right out front first and doesn't even put their hand out politely.

[9:15] They reach into your wallet. And I remember beginning to think, well, I'm going to put God above the government, and we began being responsible in our giving. And it was a culture shock for Judith and me to go through this process of learning to be faithful in our giving by, first of all, being more faithful in our spending.

[9:40] And so, this morning, as I come to teach on the subject of giving, and that's what we're going to do this week and next week, I want you to know that I have no hesitation for the repetition of the subject because I think there is benefit in reviewing very important Bible principles, and what we're going to find this morning is that the matter of giving really rests upon a very foundational Bible truth.

[10:11] The starting place for Christian giving is something that I want us to think about at the outset. Let me begin by saying that giving is really not something that is woven into our nature.

[10:24] It's not. And when you stop and think about it, that a lot of people are of the idea that the human heart is just inherently good, and we just have to have a little more opportunity to be nice people, and it'll all work out wonderfully.

[10:40] That's really not the truth. And the truth of the matter is is that we're not born givers. If you have any question about this, you can work in our nursery. In fact, I think Pastor Saul said that there's an opportunity with the twos and threes and three-year-olds, and go ahead and just do a little quiz, a little test, and come back and report to me.

[10:59] Let me know whether your children that you're working with in the nursery are just intuitively gracious and generous, whether it is Cheerios or toys. You know, it's amazing.

[11:12] Every toy in the nursery, there's only one of a kind, so to speak, and whatever one the one has, the other one wants. Have you noticed that? I'm just telling you that up front, the matter of giving is not something that we're hardwired for.

[11:25] It's also interesting to recognize that biblical giving doesn't really begin with commands. I think we do a disservice when we teach believers that faithfulness in giving is really predominantly something that flows out of command.

[11:42] Thou shalt do this. Now, I'm in favor of commands, but the Scriptures always begin by reminding us of the incredible generosity of God in relationship to us, and all that we have received ends up being the motive for the way in which we respond to God.

[12:02] And so, it's appropriate as we think about this matter of giving to recognize the Bible doesn't begin by saying, thou shalt, you know. In relationship to this also, I think it's important for us to realize that biblical giving is never manipulative or based on a false idea of return on investment.

[12:22] I want you to hear that said carefully because it is a very common theme in many places. You give in order to get.

[12:37] And the idea that goes with that seed faith type of idea is that, well, hey, you know, you give God $10, and it's kind of a seed faith.

[12:48] It shows you believe that He is going to keep His Word, and guess what He is going to do? He is going to return a benefit to you, and you can kind of count on that $10 somehow or another spiritually growing into being a whole lot more money.

[13:05] And I can't tell you how common that subject is. Not only that, but a common way of churches raising money is doing all kinds of raffles and bingo and, you know, hey, what about cards?

[13:24] I mean, hey, wouldn't it be a good idea if we just kind of took something off the top of card games and things like that? What do you think? Is there anything in the Bible about relying on card games or chance as a means of raising funds?

[13:36] What's the answer from God's people? No. Meganoito. That's the word in the Greek. It's never let it be. Absolutely not. You may wonder why when we send our young people on a missions trip, we raise money the way we do.

[13:53] How many of you know how we raise money for a missions trip? We don't have them doing all kinds of little car washes and little projects and I don't want to throw a lot of cold water on that but here's what we do.

[14:04] We tell the people that are going to lead the missions trip, hey, you spend all your time helping our young people learn what it is to serve Christ. You help them learn the things they're going to use in Jamaica or, and Pastor Saul, you're equipping a team to go to Jamaica this summer.

[14:22] You do your work, we'll do our work. Our part's the support. As you think about this matter of giving for a return on the investment, I want you to stop and think just for a moment of a couple illustrations in the Bible.

[14:39] I'm just going to reference them and I'm going to assume that you can track with me but one would be the widow. Remember the widow that Jesus was kind of observing and at the temple people were throwing money in and along comes this widow and she dropped in two little mites.

[14:55] It's not like lice, it's two little coins, little eensy-weensy things. And Jesus made this statement, hey, there is a woman who's given more than all the rest of the guys have given.

[15:07] Now, did she walk out of there later jingling her pocket with ten mites or, you know, whatever it was? No, not at all. And here's another illustration. Remember Zacchaeus?

[15:18] When he came down out of the tree, what was the first thing he did? Does anybody remember? Raise your hand and wave at me if you know what he did. Just wave at me. That's all I'm looking for is just a wave.

[15:32] Do you know what Zacchaeus did when he came down from the tree? He said, hey, whoever I have cheated, I'm going to repay fourfold and half of what I have I'm given to the poor.

[15:47] Did he snicker under his breath and say, I'm getting it back. Is that what he did? No. Not at all. You see, the illustrations we find in the Bible of charitable giving have nothing to do with that kind of manipulation.

[16:04] So, the call to biblical giving really begins with the glory of God. And the call to biblical giving in your life as a believer really rests upon your view of God.

[16:18] That's where it is. We are to give because we are persuaded of His glory and we love His glory and we desire to see Him glorified.

[16:30] Let me have you look at a passage here. You're there in 1 Corinthians or maybe you moved on but, or your iPad went blank. Anyway, one of the things here, we're going to go to 2 Corinthians chapter 9.

[16:42] In 1 Corinthians, Paul says, hey, first day of the week, this is what you're supposed to do. 2 Corinthians, he takes two full chapters. Two full chapters. That's not a drive-by shooting on the subject of giving.

[16:56] He really gets into it. And towards the very end of chapter 9, listen to what he says in verse 13. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because your submission, because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.

[17:19] What's he saying? As other people see the generosity of your heart, they're going to end up giving glory to God.

[17:32] Why would they glorify God? Because they realize that what you are doing is something that is atypical. It's unusual.

[17:43] It's unusual. Hey, everybody understands giving when you're going to get something back. Am I right? Some of you at Christmas time, you get little gifts from some of your suppliers.

[18:00] Do you know why you get those gifts? It's really not because your suppliers just really like you. It's because they're hoping that in the next year you're going to keep on buying product from them.

[18:16] And depending on where you are in the food chain, they kind of, their gift is proportionate. And do you think they write that off as a business expense?

[18:26] What do you think? Do you know what that's telling you? That's just part of doing business. Am I right? Brian, is that right? Can they write that? Oh, I got that as the CPA told me.

[18:37] You can write it off. It's all right. That's not giving for God's glory. That's self-serving, manipulative giving.

[18:49] And we look here and I want you to understand what it's saying is that, hey, people see the generosity of your hearts and they turn around and say, wow, these people think a lot about God. Biblical giving, ultimately, like all other Christian behaviors, are to reflect and declare the glory of God.

[19:07] That's what it's all about. So let me take it a little step further. We understand that giving is to really flow out of our view of God, but I want you to understand that all creation is designed by God to actually have a desire for His glory.

[19:24] Given that I'm putting so much emphasis on the subject of giving today, let's take a moment and study this issue of glory, which is an underpinning for the matter of giving.

[19:35] And when we talk about glory, we're talking about something that means weight or value. Remember, our giving really reflects our view, our value, or the weight that we attach to God.

[19:49] And so glory is something that may be conferred on someone or something. Turn back in your Bible, if you would, to Psalm chapter 8 just for a moment, and we see in that passage that man has been given glory by God that was not really His to begin with.

[20:10] Psalm chapter 8, verse 4 and 5. What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him?

[20:25] And it's amazing to stop and realize that God thinks about me personally. Let me say that again slowly so you don't miss it. Everybody look here. Look here. It is really amazing that God thinks about me personally.

[20:39] I mean, how many people are in this world? Billions! I'll bet you there's some of you here that get a brain cramp just writing the number.

[20:51] That'd be me. But do you understand that God thinks about you personally? He says, what is man that you're mindful that you think about me?

[21:03] Verse 5, yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. God has given glory to us and glory may be ascribed or attributed to something or something but when we look at something such as God or something that He has created, we're not making it glorious.

[21:27] We're just recognizing its glory. Let me give you an illustration of that. I have to tell you that I'm just so over snow. It's like, you know, the last storm did me in.

[21:41] How many of you remember the storm that put about six inches on all of our properties and driveways and then crusted it over with ice? My snowblower decided that it would not cooperate fully.

[21:56] Okay, it was over the top. That's when I said enough. And I remember watching several different people post on Facebook, oh, the snow is so lovely.

[22:06] And I thought to myself, that had to be a wife. I say that lovingly. My wife is sitting back here. That had to be a wife. Someone's sitting in there looking out the window with a cup of coffee in her hand saying, you know, look at that.

[22:24] Her husband is out there trying to avoid a heart attack, you know. And she's eating it up. Okay, now, it is true that snow is beautiful.

[22:40] So, when we look at that beautiful snowy scene and we say, wow, is that beautiful. That's just glorious. We're not, by our statement, making it so.

[22:53] We're only recognizing what it is. And, really, the reason God created us in all of creation is to show His glory.

[23:06] To show His glory. It's not just heaven or nature. It's not just snow or sunset that exists to glorify God. We're all created for that purpose.

[23:19] In fact, this is one of the interesting thoughts I want you to take away. And I want you to think about this in a very, very personal way. Stop and think. There's really only one of you. Everybody look up so you don't miss us.

[23:30] There's really only one of you. Only one. There will never be another person like you. even twins. I was, we had a wedding yesterday and weddings are just wonderful opportunities.

[23:47] Someone said to me, why do you choke up? There are a lot of reasons for that, but I happen to like weddings. And weddings remind me of my wedding. The first time I cried publicly was at my wedding. And I've been doing it ever since.

[23:59] Okay? But weddings are also profound opportunities for certain things that you plan to go one way not going that way. I'll never forget a set of twins in our fellowship.

[24:13] Twins. Now what's the deal with twins? You know, they come out just minutes apart. These twins, they were girls, were just absolutely opposite from each other. One who got married first had a wedding that was carried off with military precision.

[24:28] I mean, the wedding quarter did not actually stand with a stopwatch, but it was pretty close. I mean, I remember her back there and go, go, you know.

[24:40] And the second of the twins got married about eight months later and her attitude, they came from the same mom and dad and they also came out of the same womb and they're like, whatever, you know.

[24:51] Here was the really weird thing about it and it kind of taught me a great lesson. They both had equal set of hiccups and so I decided that, you know, take it easy, relax, it'll be all right.

[25:04] The only thing that counts is the I do, you know. So here we are, we're all about showing God His glory and making Him look good and each of us individually designed by God for His glory and it's appropriate for us to think about, so how am I glorifying God?

[25:25] That's what I want you to recognize. It's important. Let me give you a couple texts on the issue of glorifying God. Look at Romans chapter 11 verse 36.

[25:38] For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, now here's the statement, to Him be glory forever, amen.

[25:50] To Him be glory forever, amen. Can I tell you that that wouldn't be a bad life verse? Do you know what I mean by a life verse? It's an operating principle.

[26:03] How is what I am doing making God look good? That's the question. Here's another passage in Colossians chapter 1 verse 16.

[26:16] Colossians chapter 1 verse 16. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whatever, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him.

[26:36] It's for God. So it follows then that if we exist for His glory, then all that we do, including our giving, let me say that carefully, so that all that we do, including our giving, must flow from our purpose and desire to glorify Him.

[26:58] Does that make sense? If He is the God of this universe and He made us for His glory, it is just a reasonable connection between the two that all that we do, including our giving, be a reflection of the glory of God.

[27:20] And so we might expect that every motive that pervades the life of a believer is really about the glory of Christ, the glory of God. And so that's a fair question for you to ask yourself this morning.

[27:32] Does my life really honestly reflect that I am interested in making Jesus look good? Right? Let me have you think with me across the broad scope of several different passages in relationship to this.

[27:51] Look at Ephesians 1, verse 12. We're looking to illustrate this principle of glorifying God in Ephesians 1. It says, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

[28:05] Why did Jesus save you personally, particularly? So that He'd look good. Can't believe you picked Him. Do you remember getting picked in grade school for athletic activities in gym class?

[28:21] How many of you remember that? Here's the ugly truth. I did not develop physiologically until later in life and as a result in the early days when they would pick people for dodgeball or pick people for whatever it was, guess what I always knew was going to happen?

[28:41] I was the last person picked. In fact, you know, it was like, do we have to take Him? Verse 13.

[28:55] Verse 12, it says, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. Hey, you know what? If you pick LeBron James, who gets the credit? You for being the good coach or LeBron for being on your team?

[29:09] You don't get credit for being a good coach. People think, duh, what do you think? It's going to happen. God, in picking you, got glory because you're a surprise to the unbelieving world.

[29:23] It says, why in the world would God save him? Ephesians chapter 1, verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.

[29:34] It's about the praise of Christ's glory, our salvation. Philippians chapter 1, verse 10 and 11, so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with all the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

[29:55] What's that saying? How does God get praised in the life of a believer? Hey, it's when you, through the power of the Spirit, act differently than the pagan culture we live in.

[30:09] Am I right? When you are in line at one of the stores and someone immediately in front of you is just fussing and fuming about one of the particular issues that there was a spill on aisle nine and nobody claimed and cleaned it up.

[30:26] You ought to see the bathroom. And you come right behind and you act exactly the same way. Does Jesus look good? No.

[30:39] It's when you allow the grace of God to have a difference in your life and you then play that out and people say, whoa, what meds are you on? You know, that's, why are you that way?

[30:52] Oh, well, Jesus handpicked me out of the crowd to be an exception to the rule so that he would look good. Colossians chapter 3.

[31:04] Colossians chapter 3 verse 17. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him. Over in 1 Corinthians it says, whether you eat or drink.

[31:18] By the way, how important is eating and drinking? You know, not important at all right now, but an hour from now, guess what you're going to be saying? Hey, he has gone way over.

[31:32] It's time to stop. It's time to eat and drink, okay? Eating and drinking are very important and, you know, what we do is for his glory. That's the point of 1 Corinthians 10 31.

[31:43] So I want you to understand that God calls us to love him and his glory and to live and give for him alone. Now, sadly, sin has led men to desire their own glory.

[31:57] Isn't that true? When sin entered the garden, Adam and Eve fell to the temptation of refusing to glorify God and rather they sought to put themselves in his place.

[32:12] That's an interesting idea, isn't it? God, it's not about you, it's about me. Smile, everybody. Everybody smile at me. Everybody smile. When we say no to faithful giving, that's what we're telling God.

[32:25] Do you follow me? God, we're saying, it's really not about you, it's about me so that I can upgrade my pizza or that I can have a smarter phone or so that, you know, there are all kinds of reasons.

[32:47] But I want you to understand that when we decide we are not going to make God first, it shows up all different kinds of places. At the root of every sin is a desire to not glorify God.

[32:59] We find that over in Romans chapter 1 verse 21 and it says this and I'll just recite the passage to you, it says, they did not give him glory. That's what the unbelieving world did.

[33:11] They chose not to glorify God. So, as we think about the realm of giving, we understand that we can bribe people who have a small view of God to give with certain perks.

[33:28] Do you follow that? If what you are doing is you don't have a high view of God and you want to nurture giving, you've got to figure out how to manipulate the situation.

[33:44] You want to be charitable and really give generously? I'll tell you what. a pastor will show up at your door and take you out to coffee in the limo that the church has.

[34:00] Some of you are scratching your head saying, I didn't know you had a limo. I don't, just using an illustration, bear with me, okay? Or, you know what? There are all kinds of ways to manipulate it, right?

[34:14] And whether it's public commendation or a coffee mug with, you know, faithful giver on it, you know, something like that, something really, you know, you could set that on your desk at work, right? Faithful giver?

[34:25] What is that about? Let's come back to the truth. Our giving reflects our view of His glory. That's what it's all about.

[34:37] How a man gives and why a man gives says it all about what he really thinks about God. Let me say that again slowly. How a man gives and why a man gives says it all about what he thinks about God.

[34:55] Now, I didn't say what he gives. I didn't say what he gives. I think it was back in 2004, 2007, Judith and I went to Newport on the coast.

[35:13] It's where people like J. Pierpont Morgan and Getty and some of the other incredibly wealthy robber barons.

[35:25] Now, I know this is history lesson a little bit, but the robber barons, do you know how they made their money? Well, one with creative ideas, but with incredibly manipulative, cruel treatment of other people.

[35:37] Now, they just, they gathered wealth by just giant sucking sound. And then towards the end of their years, they decided that they wanted to kind of redeem their reputations and do you know how they did that?

[35:55] Well, they gave it away and now they didn't have any need for it. Well, why don't we build libraries? Why don't we build, you know, and so they would be involved in charitable donations.

[36:06] What had they done to the countless people that they had impoverished in their effort to gather wealth? Nothing. They didn't do anything for them. And it was all about their control and their name. Let me come back again.

[36:20] It's not how much you give, but it is why you give and how you give. And so ultimately, a generous heart really reflects the heart of God in that our heart ends up being generous because He is generous.

[36:38] You know, one of the things that I have said to you as a fellowship over and over again is that our fellowship is characterized, and I mean that, is characterized by a level of generosity that is exceptional.

[36:54] And that generosity is not something that is fed by manipulation. It is fed by your appreciation for the grace of God and the goodness in His treatment of you and the readiness you have to partner with what He is doing around the world.

[37:17] Over and over again, I've had people ask me over the years, what do you do that encourages your people to be so generous? Do you know what the answer is?

[37:29] We talk about God. We look at His Word. We value the grace of Christ that saved us from the miserable self-centered lifestyle that we used to live, and the outflow of that is that I don't have to stand up here and make all kinds of wild promises about if you put ten dollars in the offer, you're going to get back double.

[37:54] In fact, you know what? If you can hold your breath for the next week, this week and next week, you'll probably not hear me bring up giving for another whole 12 months. Do you know why?

[38:07] We're going to spend all the rest of the time talking about Jesus and what He's doing in our life, and the blessing we have of knowing His love, and the certainty of eternity, and the outflow of that is that you as a people have hearts that are prompted to be generous in your lifestyle.

[38:23] Let me put it this way and close. Grace changes us from being a slave to our own dark hearts to living and giving for Him.

[38:37] Isn't that true? Grace changes us from being a slave to our own dark hearts to living and giving for Him.

[38:49] You know, every one of us in this room started out at one point as a miserable, hell-bound sinner who had no hope at all. And whether we responded to the grace of Christ as a child growing up in a home where we heard the Bible or it was years later when the Spirit of God convicted us and drew us to the cross, there came that point where the burden of sin was so heavy on our life and the shame and the guilt and the terror of the prospect of the judgment of God that we cried out and said, I need help.

[39:21] And you know what? Here's the truth. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. sinners. And this morning, most of what we have talked about is not giving.

[39:37] Most of what we've talked about is the generosity of God that would willingly sacrifice His own Son for your sins on the cross. And the way in which most of you here give this morning is a reflection of the simple fact that you stand amazed at the gift of God in your salvation and the way you give just says thank you.

[40:09] I do recognize because I went through that experience as well that there are some of you here this morning that the subject of giving is something that honestly you've really never dealt with.

[40:21] And I've got to tell you this. At the end of the day, the scriptures make it clear that people who have a high view of God are generous in their giving.

[40:40] And people who have a low view of God are selfish in their giving. You let God sort that out in your heart. Does that make sense? That's the Spirit's work.

[40:53] But go ahead and say this as a prayer, Lord, I'm willing for you to do whatever is necessary to deal with my heart in relationship to the matter of my view of you. Let's close in prayer.

[41:09] Our Father God, we are thankful that your scriptures are clear that you are worthy of all our glory and all our affection. And this morning as we attend to your word and we listen to the truth of what it has for us, we recognize that you who abide in heaven pay particular attention to the heart that we have and you want us this morning to rejoice in you and to serve you.

[41:32] We pray for the ministry of the Spirit of God in the hearts of those that need to be convicted, whether it be in the matter of their salvation or the matter of their generosity or there's an attitude and a sin that needs to be confessed and forsaken.

[41:45]  We ask that you would do that, that you might be glorified and we ask this in your precious name. Amen.