CRCF””8/8/10
Edwin Markham, The Parable of the Builders, tells of a rich man who wanted to help other. He came to a poor peasant living with his family in a tiny hut. The rich man employed the peasant to build for him a beautiful house. To save money so his profit could be more, the peasant used the cheapest materials he could find, secretly enjoying outwitting the rich man. He also gave his slackest effort to the project. When the house was finally completed, the rich man returned to inspect it. Then he shocked the builder, “This is your house,” he said, “it”™s my gift to you and your family!”
Honoring Grace
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NLT)
14 Either way, Christ”™s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
We need to think practically about giving Jesus all that we are.
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him our . . .
1. TIME
Lloyd Cory: “Time is significant because it is so rare. It is completely irretrievable. You can never repeat it or relive it” (Swindoll, 571).
Ecclesiastes 3:1
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
1 Corinthians 6:20
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God”™s.
Matthew 22:37-40
37 Jesus replied, “”˜You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”™ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ”˜Love your neighbor as yourself.”™ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Our lives are not ours””we are Jesus”™ servants!
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Colossians 4:5-6
Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
It”™s always time to witness for Christ””in word and in deed, no matter what the circumstances!
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
2. POSSESSIONS
1 Timothy 6:17-19 (MSG)
17-19Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage””to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
Now, some of you may object and say, “Well, this isn”™t for me, cause I”™m not rich.” Oh yes, you are! According to a Stanford University study of the world”™s population, over 95% of Americans are among the world”™s most wealthy people””in the top 8%!
4 Principles:
a) Enjoy What You Have (17c)
b) Don”™t Be Proud of What You Have (17a)
Luke 6:24
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
c) Don”™t Trust In What You Have (17b)
Proverbs 23:5
Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
d) Share What You Have (18-19)
John Wesley said, “When the possessor of heaven and earth brought you into being and placed you in this world, He placed you here not as an owner but as a steward” (Swindoll, 534).
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
3. MONEY
George W. Truett, the pastor of First Baptist Dallas, TX for 47 years, once said, “A man right about this question . . . is likely to be right, or easily led to be right, on every other question of religion. A Christian man wrong on this question . . . is likely to be seriously wrong on every other question of religion!”
Jesus said it best:
Matthew 6:21
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Jesus told 19 parables, 12 of which were about money or giving.
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (NLT)
6 Remember this””a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don”™t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9 As the Scriptures say,
“They share freely and give generously to the poor.
Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”
10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.
11 Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. 12 So two good things will result from this ministry of giving””the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.
13 As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. 14 And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you. 15 Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!
The Law of the Harvest (6)
Do you want God”™s bountiful reward in heaven? Then give liberally, generously!
Don”™t ask, “What can I spare?”, but “What can I share?”
According to the IRS, people earning less ($10-15K) are 10 times more likely to make charitable contributions than people making more ($50-100K). “The higher the taxpayer”™s income, the less likely he or she is to give”.
W. S Tulner: “He who is not liberal with what he has, does but deceive himself when he thinks he would be liberal if he had more.”
If God were to give back to you 10X what you gave last Sunday, would you be able to live on it this week?
God”™s requirement is intentional, hilarious giving! (7)
Exodus 36:2-7 [See Later]
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
You can”™t outgive God! (8-11)
You don”™t have to worry about not having enough after you give. You don”™t have to wonder whether that 90% or less will be enough.
Malachi 3:10
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
Luke 6:38
Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom (lap). For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
It is God who enables our giving!
Matthew 19:26-29 (NLT)
26 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
27 Then Peter said to him, “We”™ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?”
28 Jesus replied, “I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life.
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
Stuff Happens When We Give (12-14)
1) Meet the Needs
Hudson Taylor: “When God”™s work is done God”™s way it will not lack for God”™s supply.”
2) Glorifies God
3) Is Evidence of Obedience to Our Confession!
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
WHY We Give (14c-15)
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
“Stewardship is NOT the church”™s plan for raising money! It is God”™s plan for developing Christ-like character . . . The standard for grace-giving is the Cross where Jesus personally demonstrated how we are to give!” (MVK, II).
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
2 Corinthians 8:1-5 (NLT)
1 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. 2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.
3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. 4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. 5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.
Our giving should be . . .
1) Steady (2a)
2) Sacrificial (2b-3)””NT Giving =Tithe + Grace
The tithe is the floor not the ceiling on NT giving!
A pastor once told his fashionable congregation: “Many of you came to church this morning riding in stolen cars, wearing stolen clothes, and adorned in stolen jewelry, because you paid for those things with money which you withheld from God.”
3) Sincere (4)
4) Surrendered (5)
THIS is the key!
2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty you might become rich.
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
Sam Houston was an authentic America hero! He was born in Virginia, was a Congressman, and later, the Governor of Tennessee. As commander of the Texas army in the fight for independence from Mexico, he led the defeat of Gen. Santa Anna and the Mexican forces at the battle of San Jacinto. When Texas became a republic in 1836, he was elected as its first president. Men molded by the frontier knew how to fight, gamble, drink, cuss and kill. So did Sam. But later on, he married a devout Baptist wife who prayed for years that he would be saved. Late in life, Sam Houston surrendered his life to Christ under the preaching of Dr. Rufus Burleson, then president of Baylor University. Upon bringing him up out of the baptismal waters, Dr. Burleson said, “Now, Sam, your sins are all washed away!” Houston replied, “God help all the fishes!” Just before he was baptized, Dr. Burleson suggested that he give his wallet to a friend so it wouldn”™t get wet. “No, I believe not, Pastor””I”™m afraid it needs baptizing, too!” And indeed, after his baptism, Houston began paying half of his pastor”™s salary and faithfully gave financial assistance to ministerial students at Baylor University until his death! Sam”™s baptized billfold was proof that God had changed his heart by grace! And if you”™ve gotten a real dose of God”™s grace in Jesus Christ, you”™ll be a giver that honors God with your money, your possessions and your time!
Jesus”™ love motivates us to give Him all we have.
Celebration of the Lord”™s Supper
–Brief Explanation of 1 Cor. 11 & mention
Sermon Next Sunday