Believing for Breakthrough IV - The Grace of Giving

Second Corinthians 8. You all there. We want you to know, brethren, about the grace of God, which has been shown in the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty, often you see those two words together have overflowed in a wealth of liberality on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this not as we expected. But first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. Accordingly, we have urged Titus that he has already made a beginning. He should also complete among you this gracious work. Now, as you excel in everything in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all earnestness in your love for us, see that you excel in this gracious work also. I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And then down at verse six of chapter nine, the point is, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide an abundance for every good work. Praise the Lord. I said last week that the discussion of abundance and provision and finances is not a focus or an emphasis of North Way. And if you were visiting, you probably said, yeah, I've heard that before, and I'll come back next week and see what they talk about. So you came back this week to visit again. And here we are once again. I promise you I won't be speaking about this next week, But after that it's open season once again. It is impossible for us, beloved, to live in this world and not be aware of financial pressures. We always have financial decisions to be made, no matter what our category of income, no matter how affluent we might be. In fact, it seems that the more affluent we are, the more weighty that the financial decisions become. But we all have salaries to deal with and bills to pay everyday. Expenses are just astronomical, aren't they? I mean, it just costs so much to get the Basic things of life done. We have this little thing that's unfortunately developing in our household that Mondays, which is my day off, is the day that we get all the little necessities gathered together for the household. So we have a standing thing of going down to Kmart and buying all these little goodies that we need for the fireplace or the yard and all this stuff. You can't get in out of Kmart anymore for under $50. I've just joined the prestige club at Kmart. In fact, just keep spending and just little things that you've got to have. You've got to have insulation and you've got to have Kleenex and all those things. And so we're all dealing with that. And as Christmas comes along, how many of us are even more painfully aware of pressure? How can we please everyone that we want to please and have anything left over? In fact, how can we do it without going into debt? The average family, it's anticipated, will spend about $500 on Christmas this year. That's just an average. On gifts and beloved. The very last thing that this pastor wants to do today is to represent God as somehow wanting to put pressure on you to give. God is not a God of pressure. He's a God of provision. Hallelujah. Would you say that? Hallelujah. He is a God of provision. He's not looking around trying to see how he can squeeze another dime out of your budget. Isn't that delightful? Aren't you glad that God isn't worried at all about where he's going to get his next meal? He's got more than enough. He doesn't need your money or mine. But he yearns for his people to move in the fullness of his provision. Jesus Christ came saying, I have come that they might have life and have it. How abundantly. And we said last week that abundance was the ability to see your needs met and have enough left over for the needs of others. And I just pray that there are many people here today who say, I want to have something left over to give to others. Far from having spoken about this subject too much in the community, I probably, and others of us, have not talked about it enough. In some ways, I feel that there's some financial bondages that haven't been broken because we haven't addressed those things in the word of God clearly enough. And I want to say today again, more or less for those of you who are visiting, because others that have been here a while know my heart that we're not here as A community that's preaching the prosperity gospel. We're not here to say that God wants everyone to be rich. We're here saying that God knows the needs of men. He knows the needs of his children. He's committed to meeting those needs, sometimes in ways we didn't expect. Came across this little story about a missionary for WEC worldwide Evangelization Crusade named Bill Pethybridge, who was over in England. And it says this. He was to speak at a church on the other side of London, and he only had enough money for car fare there and not back. So he went, believing God would supply the return fare. At the other end, after the service, he lingered and chatted. Thought that someone would come and slip him a shilling, maybe invite him over for a meal. But one after another, they said, thanks for coming, and then goodbye. And finally he was standing all alone. But, Lord, he groaned, you promised to supply all my needs. Yes, I did. The Lord said, and you need exercise. Start walking. You see, God knows our needs, our real needs. There are many times that we think he's let us down when really he's addressed the deeper need. But there's one need, I believe, brothers and sisters, that God Almighty is never about to withhold the meeting of it. He's never going to be short in it. And that's the need that we have for the resource to make disciples of all nations. God has committed himself to release everything necessary to fulfill the Great Commission. Do you believe that? Do you wonder why some of the television ministries and the radio ministries of today are seeing such incredible amounts of money coming in? I believe it's because they have a vision to reach the whole world, to make disciples. Now, there's all kinds of limitations, and we all have questions about all that. But I believe that God's released abundance toward them so that they can get that message in places around the globe that we could never reach. God wants to meet that need, that need to supply resources to make disciples. Bill Bright's believing God for a billion dollars in the 1980s. There's a fellow on the Dick Hatch program the other day that said he's got a vision and he's got the whole thing worked out in terms of the mechanics of it, to send a Bible to every person on the face of the earth that doesn't have one right now, which they estimate is about two and a half or three billion Bibles. Did you hear that, Sherwin? I forget what the figure was, but it was $5 billion or something in that neighborhood to send a Bible to everybody. We need money for the banquet coming. It's going to cost us $4,000 to send food home with these people, let alone what we're going to feed them that night. But what is that to God concerning his desire and his heart's yearning to see these people receive the gospel, the good news of Jesus? I believe it's nothing to God. And I believe that it will be, as to us, a great blessing to participate in what God wants to do, to share that word. And so God has a plan to provide. Isn't that great? He's not up there wondering, how am I going to do this? How in the world are we going to get this gospel to every creature? He knows what he wants to do. And his plan is summed up in one grace. Grace. God's grace, Charis, is God's power to do what he wants to do. It's God's power to do what he wants to do. And in respect to we as people, it's God's power to do through us what he wants to see done. All giving, all true giving is from grace. And the major problem that the church has today, I think, and maybe this is your problem as well, is that we have sought to deal with giving and receiving in terms of our flesh, not in terms of God's grace. You say, well, that means that maybe I just haven't received that grace yet. And really that's kind of good because that takes me out of the whole picture today. Put away the checkbook, Louise. We're going to go home. I don't need to worry about it. If I haven't received the grace, God doesn't require anything of me. Is that right? Beloved, listen. The grace of God is always flowing from the throne of God. How are we saved? How do we come into the kingdom by grace? Has God withheld grace for salvation? Absolutely not. People just haven't received it. Has God withheld grace for healing? People just haven't opened their hearts and by faith received it. Has God supplied grace for spiritual gifts in the body of Christ? Absolutely. They're called spiritual gifts, Charismata. But people just haven't received it. It's the same way with God's supply of finance. God's supplying it. He's supplying the grace to give and the grace to receive, but his people simply aren't receiving it. Now let's look here in Corinthians this morning and just see what power there is in the grace of God when it comes to this matter of receiving and giving. First thing I want you to note is that in chapters eight and nine which deal specifically with money, the word grace, Charis appears 10 times. 10 times. And notice that Paul says it isn't enough just to know about it. Look what he says in verse 7 of 2 Corinthians 8. Would you look there? I want you to see this now, as you excel in everything, in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all earnestness and in your love. He's talking to the Corinthian church who had been growing in all these expressions of maturity. He says, see that? Make sure that you excel in this gracious work, this work of giving. Also Second Peter says, grow in grace. Don't just say, well, I know it's out there, but grow in it, come into it, embrace it, hunger after it. You say, I don't really know if I want to grow in giving. It might hurt. Not if it's of grace, beloved. If it's of a grace, it's a joy to give. And we'll see some of the signs of that in a minute here. Alright, I have just two points this morning. The first one, how do we then receive the grace of God for abundance? Listen, what I'm talking about here is before God wants you to give, he wants you to receive. Would you make a note of that in your mind? Before God asks you to give anything, he wants you to receive. I've told people through my ministry, don't put a sin in the offering box until you've received from God. God isn't looking for you to somehow peel off a dollar bill and make some big sack. When you've received the grace of God, then you'll want to give. So let's look at first of all, how do we receive the grace of God for abundance? The very first thing is we've got to examine our motives and our attitudes. I talked about this last week. There's some very practical things here we've got to look and see. How do I really think about this? How do I really feel about God's heart in giving? How many of you, may I ask this morning, thought 20 years ago that what you're making in a salary today would have made you rich. Isn't that right? 20 years ago you thought that someone who was making $25,000 a year was really riding on easy street. Easy street ended back in the late 60s. Now at 25,000 and beloved. A lot of us are living in 20 year old mentalities about the abundance of God. And I want to tell you, it just gets soaked way down in there, and it doesn't want to let go. And so we're thinking about, well, I've always given faithfully, every week, $5. But that was 20 years ago when that might have been a significant portion of your income. It's not anymore. We've got to say, wait a minute. God is moving. He's doing something new. My attitude's got to change about the abundance of God. We need a new mind and heart. Now. The second thing about our attitude here, we're still under attitude, okay? No, we're still under attitude is that the Bible repeatedly warns against the dangers of wealth. The Bible calls wealth a snare, a trap. It's a trap because you can get into it and begin to be moving around appropriately in God. And then suddenly it grabs you and you're snared into it, and you've got to deal with it. Proverbs 38, 9 is where the writer says, lord, don't give me too much and don't give me too little. Remember, he says that. He says, I don't want to be rich, but I don't want to be poor. I want to have just enough to eat for today. And what that author is saying is that, lord, I know there's a snare out there, and I don't want to fall into it. I don't want to be tripped up into it. I don't want to find myself thinking that I don't need God anymore. And you know something, beloved? That is the snare of riches. That's it right there. The snare of riches is thinking, I don't need the Lord anymore. How many of you see your source as being your employer? Well, that's where I get my paycheck. Beloved, let me tell you, your source is God. And if you're faithful to God and you're walking in accordance with his word, if God needs to get you another employer to meet your needs, he'll do it. It's not your employer. It's not your skills. It's God. He's the source. And one of the snares of riches is you begin to think, well, what do I need to do to make sure that this happens instead of trusting God according to his word? The third attitude we need to watch out for, beloved, Our third motive is what are we doing in relationship to the poor? That blue sheet that you were given this morning is a very important part of our vision for the banquet. It talks about God's heart for the poor. I appreciate the work that was put into listing Those scriptures, I'd ask you to go over that today with your spouse or on your own and say, lord, does this reflect my heart? Am I concerned about the poor? How many of us have not driven through. One of the lower rent districts of our city in the last year? I'll tell you, one of the greatest blessings of my trip to Mexico City was to be reminded of the nature, the depth of the degree of poverty that much of the world lives in. And beloved, I don't care who you are today, I don't care if you're on food stamps here this morning, you're rich. In comparison with most of the world, we are isolated from poverty. And I'll tell you something. Isolation breeds indifference. And God help us, church, when we become indifferent. You want to know when we're going to stop growing is when we just kind of slip into a nonchalant, someone else will take care of it attitude. And this banquet is a test for us. Only 200 people have signed up. What kind of a statement can we make if only 200 of us go to that banquet? How much ministry is going to happen at the tables? Where is our heart for the poor? We need to examine our motives. Because if our motive is just to pad our own pockets with this whole thing, it'll never work. It'll never work. Okay, so that's the first point. Examine your motive. The second point is exercise your faith. How do we receive the abundance of God? We've got to move in the exercise of our faith. And I want to go through this. This is so exciting. Faith becomes mysterious to so many people. Faith? Well, what do you mean? Faith for finances. Faith to receive from God. Well, listen, how many here today are confident that you've been saved by grace? Alright, most of us. Then you have faith. That's the faith that I'm talking about. To receive God's abundance. Romans 1:17 says that the just shall live by faith. It's the key of the Christian life, living by faith. Now exercising our faith means that we order. Our affairs in God's kingdom according to the laws and principles that he has set down. When we say laws, we're not talking about some sort of threatened punishment if we don't keep them beloved. We're talking about ways that God has ordered his kingdom. How many of you think that the law of gravity is a good thing? If you got out of bed this morning and the law of gravity was not working, wouldn't it be kind of strange to get up, out and do a backflip up toward the ceiling. For some reason, we count on the law of gravity. It's not some threatened, negative, punishment oriented thing. In fact, it enables us to order our life. We just simply know that when we drop the glass, it's going to shatter and not float around. Well, the laws of God's kingdom are those kinds of laws. They're laws of order. It enables God to move and prescribe ways so that we can depend on Him. It enables us to know how God's going to work. And they're pervasive. Now, the law that I want to talk about this morning is the law of sowing and reaping. Take a look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 9. We mentioned it, verse 6, the law of sowing and reaping. He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. I want to talk about these laws of sowing and reaping because, beloved, I think of all the things that we have tended to not understand and not appropriate. It's been this principle of God's kingdom. And it works, listen, not just in finances, but in relationships. It works in our attitudes. It works in righteousness. The law of sowing and reaping. In fact, I have to say this. It's such a profound law that the Bible uses this law to describe the work of Jesus Christ. Unless a grain of wheat falls in the earth and dies, it remains single. But if it does, it shall come again with a great harvest. John 12:24. Jesus was the sown seed of God unto eternal life. That's how profound this principle is. And we are the harvest. Turn to someone and say, you're the harvest of God. Go ahead, tell them that you're the harvest of God, brother. Amen. All right, very quickly, let me just go through the list of the law of giving, sowing and reaping. The first point of this law is this. You sow first, you reap later. How many of you know that in understanding the Bible, the natural first, then the spiritual. Let's just, in our minds, put a natural image of a farmer. How many people know farmers? That's safer. Okay, all right. A farmer does not go out in July or August or September looking for a big harvest if he hasn't done what first in the springtime, sowed the seeds? If you have a little garden, you don't go out in your garden to pick tomatoes. If you hadn't put the plants in sometime back in May or April or wherever it might be. So we've got to sow first. Church. Hold your place there in Corinthians and turn to Luke 6, would you? Verse 38, give and it will be given. You see what comes first. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back. And that's the second point on our outline here. The first is to sow first, reap later. The second one is the measure that you sow, is the measure that you reap. Listen, if you sow a little bit, you're going to reap a little bit. You don't put one or two little seeds in the ground and expect this big harvest to come out. How many of you know that along with that, though, that you get a lot more back than you put in? How many have ever choked on tomatoes come September, right. Holly put six plants in there. I got 350 tomatoes lined them up in my garage. That's God's principle. But if you sow a little, you reap a little. If you sow a lot, you reap a lot. The third point is that you sow wisely. And if you sow wisely, you reap abundantly. How many farmers sort of just drive along in a tractor and take handfuls and throw it out? Well, I got this request here, and I'll throw it out there. And this just put a little there, big pile there. What would happen to that kind of a farmer? It'd be a disaster church. I want to tell you, many of us give that way. Throw a little there, throw a little here, a little to this person, a little to that need. God says, know where you're going. And one of the greatest safeguards to not getting emotionally manipulated by a lot of the requests that we all get in the mail and over TV and everything is to have a plan that God leads you in. And now we're moving to 1985. I want to challenge you, have a plan for your giving in 1980. Get before the Lord and say, lord, where do you want me to be giving? And then stick with it. And then you can ward off some of the really manipulative things that come our way. Now, some of them are genuine, and I pray over every one, but many of them are not. The fourth point is sow with expectation. He who sows expectantly reaps joyfully. One of the problems that we get into when we talk about giving is that people who say, I Give in order to get. Now, we are not to give in order to get. We are to give as we are led to give according to the word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is, though. But, beloved, we are to expect to receive. What farmer throws his seed out, cultivates it and waters it and weeds it and all the rest as it grows, then takes a drive one morning early in September and says, well, maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Doesn't matter much, really. First the natural, then the spiritual. We should be expecting God to return. You know why? Why? So I can move somewhere else and get a bigger house? No, so God can pour through you more, more, more of his abundance to meet the needs of others. Now, the third principle, then back to the other overhead. The third principle of how to receive in abundance is to pursue those acts of faith, that sowing of the seed, that expectant giving of the seed with your praise. So many people say, well, the Lord led me to give here and nothing's happened. And God, I'm down again. God isn't going to be able to do it, and I don't know what's going to happen. This is wonderful at what you're saying, but it never works for me. Well, as long as you have that attitude, it isn't going to work. God wants it to work and he pursues it with praise. Let me move off very quickly because I want to conclude with the second point today of how do we then give? Gracefully. Once you've received, how do you become a graceful giver? Are we clear so far? Okay. Can I sit down for you? No. Are we clear so far? You can't give until you receive. All right. You don't have anything to give. So the first point was how to receive. Receive. Examine your motive. Take your little seed. Listen, those of you who are in the worst financial situation, don't give into the lie that says, well, I can't give anything because I don't have anything. The reason, I mean, that's the very people that need to give something the most and then pursue with praise. That's how you receive. Now, how do we then give? How do we become a graceful giver? A graceful giver. Look, now we're back into 2 Corinthians 8 again. You've probably heard this before, but it's worth repeating. Verse 7. You must do as you've made up in your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. The Greek word there for cheerful is the word hilares, which Means what hilariously? I don't sit back and watch the offering box, but I rarely see someone laughing as they walk that way. How many of you have been in a church where people have clapped when the pastor or a person leading that morning said, we're going to take up the offering? I have. It's an opportunity. People recognize that what they're doing is obeying the Word and preparing themselves to receive. So opposite to the mind of men. They think when they give, they're going to get less. God says no. When you give hilariously and joyfully, then you're preparing yourself to receive in abundance. Now let me share with you here. I have five ingredients in being a graceful giver. Alright, here they are. First, honor God. Honor God in your giving. That's how you be a graceful giver. And how do we honor God? We give him the first fruits. Proverbs 3, 9 and 10. Give him the first fruits. I got to read that to you because I think it so underscores the truth of that. Honor the Lord with your substance and the first fruits of all you produce. And then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be burnt. Church One of the problems we get into is we give God what's left over at the end and not what came in in the beginning. And I want to say, notice it says the first fruits of all you produce. How many of you are going to get a Christmas bonus this year? Is God going to be honored with your Christmas bonus? I just had to face some questions in my own financial affairs about places where I thought something had just sort of come in. And I didn't even realize that God was in that and he needed to get the first fruits of that as well. The second way that we move in graceful giving is we do it in secret. Jesus said, when you give alms, don't give it out there so everyone can see. Don't put a blue light on top of your check when you walk back to the offering box. Give in secret. Really, some people need. They just need some assurance that we know that you're giving. If you need that assurance from me or from Fred or somebody else, then you haven't understood what God's after. We don't even know what you're giving. God does and he's the one that's going to reward you. Third, take the initiative. You want to be a graceful giver? Take the initiative. Don't wait for special appeals. We don't have many special appeals around here. Paul said in 1st Corinthians 16, Lay up according to the measure that you've been blessed every week. So the first day of every week we can collect it, take the initiative, get it ready. It's a wonderful thing to hear the Lord and step out before you get the appeal. It's a wonderful thing to be able to say. I knew that that need was coming and I've already responded because God led me to do it. I took the initiative. The fourth thing, reinvest your increase. Once you begin to move in the flow of this abundance. Now listen, God's going to be, he's going to be wanting to pour out and to pour out and to pour out. If you start just collecting it all in, then you're going to shut off the flow of it. There are some businessmen here today that have been blessed by the Lord for one reason, and that's to reinvest what you've got been blessed with in the kingdom of God. And he'll keep blessing you. Once you begin to build your kingdom up, God's going to turn it off. I'm so blessed. I read of a number of people who have started by giving the Lord 10% of their income according to God's law of tithing. And now by the faithfulness of their giving of the increase, they're giving God 90% living on the 10 and living better than they ever have. Number five, exercise your will. Do it. Start now. Paul says very clearly here in this chapter in Corinthians, see that you excel. Don't put it off. The intentions, good intentions aren't good enough, folks. Do what God says so that the grace can begin to flow. You know, in this matter, so much of the time, it's just the same battle in our minds as it was when we were first saved. How many of you, when you first heard the invitation to respond to the gospel, wanted to respond and something like this went on your mind? Don't do it. Don't be a fool. What are people going to think? Don't lift your hand, don't go forward, don't share it. Don't, don't, don't lie, lie, lie. Well, you know something? God might be right now moving in somebody's heart, or maybe he did this week and said, this is what I want you to be giving. And there's a war going on in your mind right now. That's not God. Get behind me. And we put it off. And we fight and we fight and we fight and soon God just leaves. Paul says, go ahead, respond. Do what he says. Church we're coming into a time of great personal stretching, but I believe it's going to be a time of great personal victory. We're going to see. We're going to see the hand of the Lord. It's going to take miracles to do what God's calling us to do. I'll tell you flat out in the very near future, just as soon as we have these things firmly established, we're going to share with you exactly where we are financially in terms of this building. It's going to be a time of great corporate stretching, but it's not going to be a burden because God is going to set Himself to do a work through his people and he's going to release the grace of his might to do what he wants done. Do you want to be part of that? I want to say one word in conclusion to the mature saints. Those of you who have walked with the Lord awhile, those of you who are older in years and God's prospered, younger believers and younger families need your example. And our tendency is, as we get older, to become more and more collective. And I just want to ask you, mature saints, will you lead us? Will you lead the family of God in your response to the grace of God and show us be an example to us, us, even as Jesus was, of the grace of giving, and we expect them to do wonderful things together. Let's pray. Lord, your Word is just such a sure and clear light shining through all of the confusion, Lord, that has come down through our culture about material things. We thank you today, Father, that your desire is to be a God of grace and giving. We bless you in that, Lord. We thank youk that yout've purposed to do that. And Father, I pray for the freedom that needs to happen in many of our hearts today, in this area in particular, so that we might move in an abundance of joy and rejoicing. Hallelujah. As you have your head bowed, I want to say this morning I have been talking to the family of God, to believers, but there may be a few here this morning. You've come and you're not sure about where you are with God. You're not confident, you don't know for sure, without a doubt in your heart that you're loved by God and you've been forgiven, that you have a place in his kingdom. I don't want to end this morning until I've given an opportunity for you to say, I want to know this Jesus that you're talking about. I want to know this God who would supply my needs according to his resources. If that's your heart this morning, ma'. Am. Sir. Young person, if you want to know the love of God, don't put that off today. Begin today. See that Jesus Christ was given as a gift from God to you.