I'd like you to open your Bibles this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter 9.
! We are going to look in particular at verse 7.
! But before we do that, I must talk about that which is always very important to me,
and that is your prayer for the preaching of the Word of God.
2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 1 and 2, the apostle says this,
pray for us that the Word of God would have free course.
And I trust that God never brings me to the point, or allows it, I should say,
where I become careless and indifferent to the role that your prayer has in the effectiveness of the Word of God.
Yesterday, it was my privilege to preach at Connie Barger's, that is Tim Jones' mother's funeral.
And I must tell you that I always view funerals as wonderful, absolutely wonderful gospel opportunities.
There's a reason for that.
Because the setting is such that no one present can miss the reality of death.
And I always get to preach on the very verge of eternity.
Providentially, the family had asked that I use Ecclesiastes chapter 3 as one of the passages that I reflect on,
and also Psalm 23, neither of which were a problem for me at all, getting from there to the gospel.
You know what Ecclesiastes chapter 3 says?
If I started singing the tune, you'd probably know.
It says,
To everything there is a season, a time to be born, and a time to die.
That's the way I started.
And I have to tell you that as we got into the clear presentation of the gospel message,
that Christ came to die to save sinners.
One of the things you always watch for is, are people identifying with what you're saying,
and are they affirming and encouraging?
Yes, go, pastor!
Tell them!
I didn't see anybody out there at all doing that.
You know, it's like, everybody's looking.
How many of you know?
It's like, the Paul falls across the face.
It's like, there is this kind of...
And I was sensing a gospel opportunity.
And I want you to know that as I was preaching, I reminded myself,
there were some of you here that were praying for me when I was doing it.
And I'm thankful for that.
And so I would plead with you that you never stop praying for whoever inhabits this pulpit,
that when a man stands up here in his frailty to speak the Word of God...
Now, you want to hear that always.
Do you follow that?
But in companion with that, that you as God's people will pray for that man,
that he speak with the enabling of the Spirit of God to make the things of God clear.
And so let's take a minute and come to the Lord and ask Him to work in us,
that we might hear the Word and be affected by it.
Precious Father,
we ask that you would open our hearts,
that we might behold wondrous truths out of your law.
The Scriptures are given to us that we, as your people,
might have all that we need for life and godliness,
that the man of God can be completely furnished,
adequately equipped for every facet and every phase of life.
But more than that, the Word is there also to help us know you and love you
and glory in you.
We are so easily inclined to be self-focused,
profoundly false in our worship,
subtle in the games that we play with spirituality,
but so about ourselves.
And I ask that your Spirit would work in us to give us that which we cannot produce ourselves,
an affection for the Lord Jesus,
and a genuine desire to see Him exalted in our life
by our walk,
by our holiness,
by our affections.
We ask this in your precious name.
Amen.
I actually had somebody come up to me last Sunday in the lobby
and said that while they were driving to church,
they'd been listening to David Jeremiah.
How many of you have ever heard David Jeremiah?
Turning point, I think it is.
And the person kind of chuckled and said,
and by the way, guess what he was preaching on?
I said, duh.
I know what David Jeremiah preaches on at the beginning of the year.
He preaches on the same thing that I do.
In fact, if you really want to know the secret of this whole thing,
years and years ago,
when Judith and I were living in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
we were in the town where David Jeremiah was pastoring.
He was at Black Hawk Baptist Church at that time.
And Randy Patton was our pastor.
And we ended up being deeply affected by both Pastor Randy Patton and also David Jeremiah.
And one of the things that early on in the ministry,
Randy Patton drove into my heart was he said,
listen, Tim,
it is important for you to teach regularly on fundamental truths that people need to know about.
He said,
some people don't hear it the first time.
Some people forget it.
And over the course of time,
it is always beneficial to have certain things that you come back and touch on fundamentally.
And so if you were to kind of track my ministry,
you will notice that it is not an accident that at the beginning of the year,
you know what Pastor Knoyer is going to preach on,
which is he's going to preach on stewardship.
And so here we are on this matter.
And I remember also early in ministry in the first congregation that God gave me the privilege of serving in,
I remember kind of laboring with the subject.
It was one thing to hear Randy Patton say,
you need to teach on this.
It was another thing to begin studying to do it.
And as I began to open up the Word and study,
I was really struck by the fact that the Bible has a lot to say about the matter of stewardship.
In fact, let me give you a couple things that are interesting.
For one, there are some 2,350 verses about finances.
Now, that's a lot, isn't it?
Now, I'm not saying that 2,350 verses say something directly about the believer's responsibility
or privilege of stewardship,
but nevertheless, money plays a big thing or a big part in the Scripture.
Secondly, of the 38 parables that you have in the New Testament,
stories that were told by Jesus that had a heavenly meaning and a lesson,
12 of them involve money.
One out of every six verses have some kind of connection to the matter of finances.
And stewardship is not something that in the teaching of the apostles and the Lord Jesus Christ,
or for that matter in the Old Testament,
was kind of left off to the end when individuals had reached a certain level of maturity
that they could handle the heavy issues.
How many of you understand that not everything in the Scriptures is designed to be handled by newborn babes in the faith?
You recognize that, right?
Interestingly enough, the matter of stewardship is something that both in the Old Testament
and in the New Testament was an early part of instruction for new believers.
Let me illustrate that by having you turn.
You're in 2 Corinthians.
Keep your finger there, but go just forward a little bit to Galatians 2.
Galatians 2.
You're in 2 Corinthians, so go to the right.
And when you hit Galatians 2, we're going to look at verse 10.
I'll give you a little bit of a context here so that you understand the setting.
Paul, eventually, later in his ministry, came to Jerusalem where he met with the elders of the Jerusalem church
and also with the apostles, and there was a little interview process just to understand where Paul was
and what was going on in his ministry.
It's very interesting to notice.
Look at verse 10, that as a result of this, in verse 9, they gave him the right hand of fellowship.
But in verse 10, only they asked us to remember the poor.
They'd been listening to Paul talk about his ministry, and the only little thing that they bumped Paul on says,
By the way, be certain that in your teaching you are dealing with the matter of benevolence and charity.
And Paul's response is, Hey, listen, I have been very eager to do this.
In fact, the majority of things that you will find in the New Testament that deal with the subject of stewardship
actually come from the writings of the apostle Paul.
Now, I ask you to turn to 2 Corinthians 9, and so let's go back there again as we pick up on one particular part
of this two-chapter lesson on the matter of stewardship.
Paul is writing to the church at Corinth.
And by the way, was the church at Corinth the ideal place in which to teach fundamental Bible truths?
What's the answer?
They were a congregation just like us, all different kind of things going on, some good, some bad.
And yet Paul thought it was very important to teach on the matter.
He does in 1 Corinthians 16, and then we find in the follow-up letter,
he does actually take two whole chapters to discuss the matter of stewardship.
And I want you to look at the last part of it.
In fact, if you don't have it underlined in your Bible, I just kind of throw a little challenge out.
You may want to do that.
Underline this little part says, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Let me say it again.
God loves a cheerful giver.
He really likes it when your giving is marked by cheerfulness.
And I want you to recognize as we begin thinking about what is it that God is looking for,
that there is a radical difference between the way the Scriptures encourage us to understand
the matter of giving and the way the rest of our culture does.
The Christian is set apart from the rest of the world, set apart from the way our government
views the matter of giving or other religions and other systems.
Because in other religions and other systems, and particularly our government,
there doesn't seem to be much thought given to the subject of whether or not you'd like to do it.
How many of you have the gall or the nerve, or you think you would,
of saying when April 15th throws around?
What's April 15th all about?
Anybody know?
Ah, that's when people line up at the post office to be sure that
their envelope is stamped with the right date and they're giving their taxes.
How many of you think you could get away with it with just kind of sending in a little note
saying, I'd prefer not doing it this year.
My heart's really not in it.
Well, I want you to understand that the Scriptures put a great deal of emphasis upon the heart attitude
that the believer has in the matter of giving.
And there in that passage, it says the Lord loves a cheerful giver.
And I want you to take a minute with me and look at the expanded portion of this passage,
for it says over there in verse 6, it says,
the point is this,
whosoever 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.
Not reluctantly or under compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver.
So let's think a little bit about each of these words that are used.
That first statement that is made there in verse 7,
it says there,
not reluctantly,
it is stating this fact,
that our giving is not to be clouded by reluctance.
By reluctance.
The word that Paul uses in the Greek
is a word that is speaking about having regret or sorrow.
How many of you go through the process of purchasing something
with a certain level of anxiety and uncertainty about the wisdom of it?
You're kind of nail-biter.
Some of us, you know, say,
oh, should I buy that?
Maybe not.
Is that a good bargain?
You know how you do all that work.
And then after you've made the purchase,
there's something called, what,
buyer's,
we all know that word,
buyer's remorse.
It's like,
ooh,
should I have really spent that money?
I'm not real sure if it was the wisest idea.
And Scripture encourages us to recognize
that God is not looking for us to give
and then end up with some regret or some sorrow attached with it.
We've all been pressured to buy things.
I remember not too long ago being in one of our grocery stores
and walking down the aisle,
and as the mother and child were just in front of me a little bit,
the child was kind of one of these free-thinking souls
that the mother had really not taken control of.
How many of you understand between the lines what I'm talking about?
Okay?
And I was thinking to myself,
hey, I know the solution.
But I didn't say anything at that point.
I thought there was wisdom in just observing quietly.
And the mother was bribing the child as they were working down the aisle.
How many of you understand what I'm saying?
If you're a little, good little boy for the next 30 steps,
you can have, you know, and he took it anyway.
You know, it wasn't like, am I waiting for 30 steps?
I'm taking it.
See if you can get it back.
And the idea was this,
is that he was going to do what he wanted to do,
and sometimes our giving may be coerced and pressured.
Salesman comes into your house,
and he sells you on a vacuum sweeper, right?
Now, the nice thing we have today is we have what?
How many know?
Three days to change our mind.
But more than once, we've bought something,
and then later on we think, why did I do that?
We have that regret and that sorrow.
And God says this.
He says, listen, I don't want your giving
to ever be marked by regret or a reluctance.
I had to do it.
It was an obligation,
and I shouldn't have done it, but I did.
Second thing that it says here is that our giving is not to be under compulsion.
There's no place in the Scriptures for compelling believers to give.
And to compel is to rely on pressure or manipulation
through a variety of ways to end up with a certain outcome.
Our government compels us to pay our taxes.
Isn't that right?
And sometimes we are compelled to buy things
that we really don't have an interest in buying,
and we really don't think is worth the issues.
How many of you have been approached by children in your neighborhood
that are selling a four-ounce candy bar for like $15?
Everybody smile.
I'm at the point where I say, no, thank you,
but let me give you a donation directly.
I don't need the candy bar as a diabetic,
and there's something in me, perverse as I am,
I'm thinking, I am not teaching good capital venturism
when I am giving a person $10 for a four-ounce candy bar.
Take the donation.
Don't give me the candy bar as a trade-off
because it's a miserable compromise.
And so, you know, it's this business of,
do I give?
Yes.
But I don't give out of reluctance, the Scripture says,
and I'm not to give out of compulsion.
Third, the Bible says here that our giving is to be marked by joy.
The Greek word is translated by the word cheerful,
and it's actually, in literal Greek, it's the word hilarial.
Now, does that sound familiar to any of you, the word hilarios?
Judith and I were watching a show a couple days ago,
and I forget which one it was.
Oh, it was, yeah, I won't tell you which one it was.
It was about Christmas.
It was really hokey.
And it was, there was a certain part in it
that I think we rewound and laughed ourselves to the point
we had our sides ached.
How many of you have ever done that?
We were just, it was, and that's one of the advantages
of being able to rewind something.
You know, you watch it.
It was as good the third time, except I just couldn't,
I had to turn away because I was laughing so hard
that my sides hurt.
How many of you understand that?
And here's what the Bible says is to characterize our giving.
It's the hilarity.
I mean, it's joyful, cheerful, enthusiastic participation
that, man, I love doing this.
Just imagine the outcome of things.
If our president walked out and passed the executive order
and said something to the effect like,
I'll tell you what, 2013, we're only going to collect taxes
from those who are cheerful.
You know, you're giggling, but I am certain there are some
that would like taxes collected from other people,
and they're cheerful about the prospect of other people giving their taxes.
But really, if it came down to free will offering for taxes,
what would happen to our government?
Does anybody have an idea?
It would go through a gargantuan downsizing.
And God says that the issue of giving in the body of Christ
is to be characterized and marked by cheerfulness and not manipulation.
It is to be marked by cheerfulness and not with a hesitancy
that is coerced and pushed.
Most religions rely upon motivating people
to giving by suggesting that somehow or another
your giving ends up giving you some credits and some benefits.
And not only is that a standard way of approaching the matter of giving
in many places, but along with that,
they kind of give you something in place or in the same process.
It's a little bit like, all right,
we're going to have a raffle for a noble cause.
Or we're going to have a bake sale for a noble cause.
Or we're going to have a lottery for a noble cause.
What's the idea?
We can't get you to give free will and voluntarily,
so we're going to kind of dangle a carrot out,
and at least one of you is going to end up driving with a new car,
driving home with a new car, right?
Is that giving that is marked by joyful, cheerful, unforced giving?
No, it is not.
And we see that these elements of cheerful giving are clearly illustrated,
not only in this command in 2 Corinthians 9,
but also in a number of different places in the Scripture.
So I want to illustrate that for you a little bit
by having you turn back in your Bible,
go back in the Old Testament to Exodus 35, verse 4 through 29.
Exodus, way back to the left.
We're in the book of Exodus,
and here Moses is instructed by God to gather up an offering
from God's people for building the tabernacle.
I'm not going to read all of the passages,
but I want to mark several of them, if I may.
If you'll look at Exodus 35, verse 5, it says this,
Take from among you a contribution to the Lord.
Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution.
So who all was expected to contribute?
What's the answer?
Now mark this because it's important.
It was only those who wanted to do it.
You wanted to participate?
Go for it.
You didn't want to?
No, you weren't required.
Look at verse 21.
And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him,
and everyone whose spirit moved him.
Verse 22, all who were of a willing heart.
Verse 24, everyone who could make a contribution
brought as the Lord's contribution.
And then verse 26, all the women whose heart stirred them.
Verse 29, those are whose heart moved them
to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done,
brought it as a, what's the next word?
Free will offering.
What does free will mean?
It means that nobody had a gun in your face
or was coercing or manipulating you to do it.
There's a reason why.
Our approach to giving in this fellowship has been marked by this.
It's not because I went off to a seminar somewhere and decided,
oh, that's the most effective way of getting God's people to give.
No, it is this.
Teach the Word of God and allow the Spirit of God to work on the hearts of God's people
and let them give as they are inclined and without manipulation.
Let me explain something.
If you're sitting here this morning and you do not know Christ,
I want to tell you right up front that the issue of your charitable giving
is not even on the radar screen at this point.
The Scriptures don't speak about charitable giving as something that everybody has to do
in order to get points, in order to get to heaven.
Do people get to heaven by their giving?
What's the answer?
No.
They get to heaven because God sent His Son
and sent Him to be the sacrifice for our sins.
And as the Scripture says,
whosoever believes upon the name of the Lord, what?
They'll be saved.
I want you to understand this morning as we study the Scriptures
about the matter of free will giving.
It is something for the believer,
and it is something for the believer who wants to do it.
Well, that brings us to a practical question.
Why does God care about your attitude?
He's not up in heaven kind of wringing His hands hoping,
boy, I really hope I can get the people at Maranatha
to do a little better job this year.
That's not what He's thinking.
I've got to tell you, honestly,
you're a charitable congregation.
I want to say that carefully and slowly.
Our deacons meeting yesterday,
we had the annual report of what 2012 was like,
and I have to tell you,
and I've got several people who give me a nod or a shake if I'm off,
but I think we were $20,000 over budget.
Is that close?
That's amazing!
Because that doesn't include helping for a $42,000 missions trip
that you guys willingly took care of,
and just one thing after another in addition to that.
The charitable giving of this congregation is unbelievable,
and it doesn't flow from any program other than the encouragement of the Word of God.
Why does God care about our attitude?
Let me rattle off a couple things.
For one thing,
our giving reflects our grasp of why we have anything.
Do you follow that?
Our giving reflects our grasp of why you have it.
Oh, I have it because I'm smarter than my neighbor.
No.
Let's look at 1 Chronicles 29.
1 Chronicles 29,
and just pick up on what it says in verse 14 through 17.
Why do we have anything to give?
1 Chronicles 29,
it says,
verse 14,
But who am I,
and what is my people,
that we should be able thus to offer willingly?
Again, that issue of,
hey, what's the issue of attitude?
It's willingly.
Why are we blessed like this?
Verse 15,
For we are strangers before you and sojourners,
as all our fathers were.
Our days on the earth are like a shadow,
and there is no abiding.
O Lord our God,
all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name
comes from your hand and is all your own.
How much part,
how much does God own of your check that you get every week or every other week?
What's the Bible answer?
He owns all of it.
Where did it come from?
It came from God.
And here in this prayer,
we find a ready acknowledgement of the fact that the reason we have anything at all is because God gave it to us.
And so in our giving,
we are reflecting, for one thing, upon the fact that we got it from God.
Secondly,
our giving,
our continued giving recognizes the fact that He is going to continue providing.
It expresses a confidence in His continued provision.
I want you to look at a couple different passages in relationship to that.
If you look at 2 Corinthians,
if you go back there for a moment,
we're going to skip around a little bit,
but 2 Corinthians chapter 9,
verse 6 through 8.
I'm going to actually take verse 8,
focus on that.
It says,
God provides and continues to provide,
and that's the basis upon which you have adequate resources from week to week,
from month to month,
to continue showing an affectionate heart for God
and being generous in your giving.
Now,
I said we're going to look at two different passages.
Turn back,
if you will,
to 1 Kings.
1 Kings chapter 17,
verse 14.
Very interesting passage in which we see Elijah the prophet show up at a widow's house.
He was instructed by God to go to the widow in Zarephath,
and when he arrives there,
he comes to her,
and she finds her,
as you look there in verse 10,
so he arose and went to Zarephath,
and when he came to the gate of the city,
behold,
a widow was there gathering sticks,
and he called to her and said,
bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink.
Now,
that's almost a pain-free request.
Water?
Sure,
I can do that.
And as she was going to bring it,
he called to her and said,
bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.
Oh,
by the way,
bring me a sandwich too.
And she said,
as the Lord your God lives,
I have nothing baked,
only a handful of flour in a jar,
and a little oil in a jug,
and now I am gathering a couple of sticks
that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son,
that we may eat it and die.
I have not been in most of your homes in the last month.
But I'm going to guess that most of you have something in the refrigerator
you should have gotten rid of before.
Today.
My point is,
is you probably have more than you actually need.
You're not at the point that this widow was,
where when the prophet says,
hey,
listen,
would you fix me a sandwich?
She says,
hey,
stop.
The reason I'm out here is I'm gathering sticks.
Now,
you know what sticks were for?
Because that's the way,
they didn't have propane,
natural gas,
electricity to cook with.
They,
they used sticks.
They rubbed them together.
You know how that goes.
And so,
okay,
enough of that.
They used sticks.
And she's saying,
hey,
stop.
All I've got left is enough to feed me and my boy.
You know,
we're going to have a little bit,
and then we're going to starve to death.
How many of you have ever gone NPO after midnight?
Nothing by mouth after midnight.
Yeah,
it's amazing where eight o'clock rolls around,
and you are thinking that you're starving.
It's the furthest thing from the truth.
This lady was starving.
And she was saving the last,
a handful.
a handful
for one last little meal
before she and her son died.
And here's what Elijah says.
Look at verse 13.
Elijah said to her,
do not fear.
Go and do as you have said.
But first,
hey,
how big is this cake?
It's little,
right?
Handful of flour.
How many of you understand
what a handful of flour represents?
It's probably,
I'm going to guess,
it depends on how large your hands are,
but mine probably would hold
about two-thirds of a cup.
You got that?
Verse 13,
he says,
but first make me,
first,
make me a little cake,
bring it to me,
and afterwards make something for yourself
and your son.
We're talking about dividing
a two-third cup of flour
into a three-part portion,
and who gets to go first?
What's the answer?
Elijah the prophet.
Now we come to verse 14.
For thus says the Lord,
the God of Israel,
the jar of flour shall not be spent,
and the jug of oil shall not go empty
until the day that the Lord saves rain upon the earth.
And she went and did as Elijah said.
And she and he and her household ate for many days.
Now,
let me go back to the point I want you to understand.
You see,
our giving reflects our confidence
that God will continue to provide for us.
When you give it away,
you are relinquishing your ability
to take care of yourself,
and in part of what you're doing is saying,
and I believe God will continue to take care of me.
And let me say this to you.
He is going to take care of you
until the day he intends to take you home.
I love the passage in the Old Testament
where the psalmist says this,
I have been young and now I am old,
and I have not seen the righteous forsaken
nor his seed-begging bread.
Third,
my giving reflects my personal faith
and pleasure in him.
What we do with our time,
our talents,
our resources,
always reflect the values of our heart.
I have to tell you this,
that it's always true
that your wallet follows your heart.
Isn't that true?
Your wallet follows your heart.
I have heard on numerous occasions
individuals say things like,
I can't afford that.
And it's a very common statement
there are occasions
where it's actually true.
But I am always kind of amazed
that the person who can't afford A
can't afford B.
You know,
they think they can't afford this,
but they turn right around
and I'm wondering,
so what in the world are they doing that for
because I thought they couldn't afford this.
It often is a reflection of,
well, just the way in which we value things.
And we all,
listen to me so we don't miss this point,
we all judge the decisions
other people make with their finances
through the lens of what we value.
Isn't that true?
Somebody who is getting paid more than you
is always being paid what?
A lot.
And maybe too much.
And someone who's being paid
substantially less than you
is, well,
that's just because they're not smart.
You know, whatever.
Anyway, okay.
So, here we are.
When I give,
it reflects my personal faith
and confidence in the Lord Jesus.
My affection for Him.
I'm a little ashamed to tell you this,
but thankfully those are many, many years ago.
But I remember when I was in college
and I was courting Judith.
She is now my wife of almost 43 years.
But back in my early 20s,
I was quite smitten with myself,
not with her.
I don't know why she married me.
It was an act of God.
I can tell you that.
But I remember that I had learned somewhere
that it was appropriate
to take girls out for dinner.
You know, it was appropriate.
And I could think,
well, if I have to do this,
dinner?
Yeah, okay.
I'll do that.
But I wanted to go to a smorgasbord.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
She wanted to go to some little fritzy Italian place
and, you know, I mean,
you get a three-ounce salad
and pay $21 for it.
You know, it was,
what am I doing?
I want something where I can use
two plates to go
and two plates to come.
Beloved, I want you to understand
as the Spirit of God got a hold
of my selfish, self-centered heart
and began to change my attitude,
I began to say,
honey, what do you want?
And I found pleasure
and satisfaction
in answering her heart
and her affections
and her desires.
And if your giving
does not rise from a love
for the Lord Jesus Christ
and an affection for Him,
you're always going to struggle
with doing it.
Furthermore, my giving shows
that I've been affected
by His heart and His grace.
Go back, if you will,
to 2 Corinthians 9, verse 13.
Let me just touch on this
as we come to a close.
2 Corinthians 9, verse 13.
It says,
For by their approval
of this service,
they will glorify God
because of your submission
flowing from your confession
of the gospel of Christ.
That's a very interesting statement,
isn't it?
What Paul is saying
is that as other people
had an opportunity
to observe the charitable giving
of the church at Corinth,
people would say,
Wow, these are people
who get it.
They've been affected
by the gospel.
Now, we have a weird idea
about what the gospel is.
And one of the things
that I am troubled by
is there is a disconnect
between gospel preaching
and gospel living.
Now, what I mean by that
is that people who profess
to have come to faith in Christ
but don't act like
they've ever had a change
in their life.
Does that make sense?
See, it says in the Scriptures,
it says,
If any man be in Christ Jesus,
he is a what?
He's something different.
Right?
And if you're something different,
it's not just the way
in which you part your hair,
it's the way you handle
your wallet.
And what it says
in this passage
is that as the Spirit of God,
the grace of God,
worked in the lives
of the believers
there in Corinth,
other people began to say,
Wow, wow,
those people have changed.
Those people have changed.
Finally,
my giving shows
that I am growing
to be more like
my heavenly Father.
Let me just recite the passage.
But in Matthew 5, verse 16,
it says,
Your good works end up doing what?
They glorify your Father
who's in heaven.
As people get to see
the lives and the charity
of God's people,
they begin saying,
Wow, why are you acting that way?
Well, I'm being like Dad.
What'd you get from your Father
in heaven?
You got salvation,
didn't you?
You have all that you need
for life and godliness.
You have promises for eternity.
You are blessed in abundance.
Is there anything
that He has withheld from you
that you need
for this life or eternity?
And the answer is,
Nothing!
And my charitable giving,
my free will,
generous giving,
reflects that I am being
affected by my dad.
So let me close with a couple
practical questions.
First of all,
and to you who are believers
this morning,
here's my practical question.
Number one,
are you faithful and consistent
in the matter of giving?
We're going to talk a little bit
about that next week.
But, hey,
Tim Kenoyer does not know
what anybody in this congregation
gives.
Do you know that?
I don't know.
I never have.
It's probably a reflection
of my weakness
that I don't pay attention.
I don't get involved.
If you walk up to me
and say,
Here,
would you take this?
And I figure out
that it has to do with money.
How many of you know
what I'm going to do?
What am I going to do?
Todd,
what am I going to do?
Find the nearest deacon.
I don't touch it.
That's the way it is.
I don't have anything
to do with that.
And so,
I can ask you
the open question,
Are you faithful
in your giving?
I don't know,
but God does, right?
And the question is,
Are you consistent?
Are you faithful?
Second question is this,
And do you like doing it?
Do you like doing it?
Christmas has just passed.
And I am a miserable
Christmas gift giver
to my wife.
Not miserable
because I don't do it,
but I'm miserable
because I always enjoy
telling her ahead of time
what it is.
I don't know,
it takes half the fun
out of it,
but once I've decided,
it's like,
So,
I told my daughter,
I said,
I'm going to give her
an extended list
and she's just going to
have to buy one
off the list
and I don't know
what it is.
And she said
she wouldn't do that
for me.
That's very disappointing.
in 43 years of marriage,
I think I've surprised
my wife one time.
But you know what?
The question is,
do you like,
do you enjoy
the opportunity
of being charitable
with what God
has given to you?
Third question is this,
do you really honestly
look for ways
to help
and bless other people
with an eye
of seeing Christ
lifted up?
Do you follow that?
what can I do
that is going to
advance the cause
and testimony
of Christ
and lift him up
in a world
that knows
no charity
and no kindness
apart from that
which is manipulated
and expected?
And finally,
as you sit here
this morning
and the entire sermon
has been about
the matter of
charitable giving,
let me understand,
let me help you understand,
that at the heart
of the issue
of a Christian's giving
is the fact
that we have received
eternal life
through the Lord
Jesus Christ
and we've had
complete forgiveness
for all of our sins
because God sent
his son
to die
for our sins.
Do you know
why we're charitable
people?
it's not because
there's a record
out there
or your pastor
shows up on your door
and says,
by the way,
I want you to know
you're a little behind.
Your giving
is in proportion
to your appreciation
for the grace
that God
has lavished on you
and your joy
is reflective
of your love
for Christ.
Let's close
in prayer.
Gracious God,
we would ask
that this morning
as we have studied
your scriptures together
that your spirit
would work
to bring conviction
to into our hearts
that those who are here
that know the Lord
Jesus Christ
would ask themselves
those practical questions
by the prompting
of the spirit.
Is my heart
joyful in my giving?
Is it generous
and consistent?
And Lord,
I know that there are
those here
that do not know Christ
and my plea to you
would be this,
that today would be
the hour of conversion
and salvation,
that you would break down
the barriers of pride
and stubbornness
and that you would convict
them with the shame
and guilt of sin
and lead them to see
that there is no hope,
there is no remedy
aside from crying out
to the Lord Jesus Christ
and saying,
save me from my sins.
I ask this in your precious name.
Amen.