The Joy of Revival Giving

This is North Way tape number 447. This message, the joy of revival giving, was given by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian community on November 10, 1985. Second Chronicles 31. Isn't that what I said? Second Chronicles 31. Now, when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke in pieces the pillars and hewed down the Asherim and broke down the high places and the altars, throughout all Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, every man to his possession. And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and of the Levites, division by division, each according to his service, the priests and the Levites for burnt offerings and peace offerings, to minister in the gates of the camp of the Lord, and to give thanks and praise. The contribution of the king from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings, the burnt offerings of morning and evening, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbath, the new moons, and the appointed feasts, as it is written in the law of the Lord. And he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites that they might give themselves to the law of the Lord. And as soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. We'll be looking at that passage, so just sustain your hold there. And for the sake of time, we won't read all the way through it. How many people here today Were born between 1945 and 1952? Put your hand up. Look at that. You're the wonderful baby boomers of the generation preceding. That was a time, and I'm a product of that also. That was a time when everyone wanted to have a baby. In fact, they started having multiple numbers of babies. And then they asked the question, how are we going to pay for all this? Now in our generation, people are asking, first of all, how am I going to pay for this? Then they're saying, I want to have a baby. And that's why a lot of people don't even consider having children until they're in their 30s. And it's really more fashionable to wait and have kids and that kind of a thing. It's funny, though, isn't it, how the joy of having a baby and all the dreams and possibilities of that little life all suddenly become a very practical reality. When you're standing there holding that thing right. You know, it's one thing to say, I just can't wait to have a child. I can't wait to have that baby. Think of all that he or she's going to do and then to realize that, what's the figure now? It's like $200,000 that you're going to pay just to get the thing to 18, right? That's right. And give it an education. Well, beloved, I want to tell you something. New life and new birth in the church is just the same way. It's wonderful and glorious to see people coming and to see people coming to Christ and to see people finding new life. But beloved, it costs money. It's expensive. How many glad it's not raining on your head right now? Only half the hands went up, Scott. You see, it does take money for new life. It never fails. My heart today, beloved, is to share with you on the relationship between spiritual life and materialistic responsibility. Spiritual life and material responsibility. I want to talk to you today about the joy of revival giving. The joy of revival giving. Now, before I go on, I guess I need to be released from two things. First of all, anybody that came today as a visitor can turn to your friend that brought you and say, you didn't tell me this guy was going to talk about money today. Okay? Because in every church, in every service, there's the possibility that you're here and you think that's all the church ever talks about. And I need to be released from the need to explain all these different things. Like it's not a preoccupation with this community, that it's not something that we have to justify because there's so many phonies and charlatans out there that it's not something that relates to your acceptance before God. And I also need to be released from the need to go into an extensive explanation as to the fact that we're not a gravy trained church. That is to say, we're not telling everyone, get on God's bandwagon and get rich in Jesus. I could spend the balance of the morning just answering each of those objections. So the misunderstanding I need to have let you release me in that number two. I also feel that I need to say that there's going to be a portion of us this morning who misjudge this message, who feel like it's a message for somebody else. I don't know of any subject, beloved, where I see more heads go like this. And more hearts go like this than the issue of finances. And as we come today, I just want to assure you that I don't come at this with a motivation that somehow says, number one, that I just need to do something religious with money and talk about it, because it's something that every church needs to talk about. And number two, I don't want you to think that we need to talk about money today because we need to talk about money. As Fred shared, beloved, really just a prompting is all it took for us to see you open generously your heart and offering last week. And this church has never functioned out of a need to have money. And I'm not going to stoop on motivation to such a place where this message is born out of that. And at the end of the service, when the deacons equip you with one of these community center progress reports, which is very specific and financially oriented. It's not really at all because I'm speaking about it today. In fact, this thing was supposed to be done three weeks ago. So it's just more or less a coincidence that it happened to come out the same day. You see, I'm much more excited about talking about perpetuating the move of God that's happening in our midst. And that happens in a very dynamic way as we come to terms with what it means to give as in a revival. This message today is not going to have terms like hundredfold return. It's not going to have terms like the law of prosperity. It's not going to have terms like seed, faith, giving. Now, does that mean I'm against that and don't believe it? No. In fact, I might even talk about some of that next week. But I believe that God wants me to come today and lay the foundation in this subject on the very truth that how many of you believe that God's moving in this body? Amen. And he's moving not just when we're here, he's moving during the week, touching people. I'm going to give you some illustrations of that. I said, lord, what is it about money and finances and giving that relates to revival? And this is the passage that the Lord led me to in that subject. Now I want you to look with me at this passage of Second Chronicles. The first thing I want you to see is that the children of Israel we're experiencing now we have an overhead, I think, that has that, don't we, as an outline. The children of Israel were experiencing revival. You need to write this down because I don't Have a handout for you. And the revival had three characteristics. Now let's look closely at it. Verse 1 of chapter 31, Hezekiah had come in, been given the throne of David. He was the ruler, king of the nation of Israel. And he began to institute reform, transformation, revival, because it was his heart's burden to please God. Look what he did. First of all in verse one, he broke down the high places and the altars throughout all of Judah and Benjamin. Now you need to understand that the high places signify a place of worship, of idolatry. And in that culture, BAAL worship had begun to be pervasive. And BAAL worship had all kinds of false man made idols. But it also included in it the fertility cult of sexual immorality. And so when it says that Hezekiah went through and tore down the high places, it's saying that he went in some of these hidden little, it's called groves. I think in the King James places where people went off to perform their sexual rites before the God of baal, there was a sweeping through of purity in the land. Isaiah, I'm sorry. Hezekiah had the perception to see that until that was torn down, revival would never come. Beloved, I rejoice with you today that God is tearing down high places in this people. God is coming in and he's tearing down altars. Now it's not something as brazen and as really disgusting as a fertility cult of a sex goddess, but it has to do with the things that we've held on to. God is taking his sword of truth and cutting into many of the high places of our own prejudices and our own way of doing things and our own secret little things. And God is doing a purging and a cleansing work in our people. And I rejoice that it's going public. Don't you? Now last week Mark Simpson sort of incidentally mentioned that the Summit Medical center was closed. Now if you weren't here, let me just reiterate that what happened was that over a year plus of time, teams of people were going down to that north side location, walking in front of that building every Saturday which was their heaviest traffic day. And then after months and months of doing that, talking to the girls that were going in, and sometimes the counselors would come out and there'd be confrontation in love, we began to pray on Saturday mornings. And one of the things that were being prayed for was that Summit medical team, the center team that was going down there to take over that place in the spirit and beloved I don't know of any greater demonstration of the power of prayer coupled with the action of God's people. And to see an abortion clinic, one of five in the city, only five in the whole county, that is. That was brought down by the power of God. And we found out. Amen. Let's go ahead and clap the Lord on. We have since found out. And I shared this on Wednesday night, but most of you weren't there that the head counselor. Now listen to this. At the Summit Medical center was so touched by her confrontations in love with the people on that sidewalk from this community that she received the Lord Jesus as her savior. And she reported that the reason why that place is out of business is because the pickets had such an influence on their business. Now, beloved, that's a high place that's been torn down. I believe God. I could go. I could just list so many illustrations. There's one family here in the community that has seen nine, and maybe it's 10 by now. People in their family who've received the Lord Jesus in the last three months in one family. They get together after we worship here and share with their neighbors and have their neighbors over. It's sort of like an afterglow meeting in their house because God's doing such a work. Testimony after testimony, people are saying, you know, sometimes it's dramatic and sudden. Sometimes it's just a slow sense of, I really need what God's doing. The high places are coming down, beloved. The. The altars are falling. Now there's a second thing that happened here, verse 2. Hezekiah appointed divisions of the priests and so on. Beloved. There was a refreshing of worship. Tearing down of the high places and then a refreshing of worship. So many people say when they come to North Way, I love the worship. I love the presence of the Lord that I sense. Someone said not too long ago, there's just something there when I come in. How many know that's a someone? Amen. It's the Holy Spirit of God. And he is pleased. And he said to us many times how he's pleased that we're seeking to grow. We're not there in some perfected state of worship, but we're growing in pleasing worship before the Lord. A restoration people who see that loving God is their number one priority. Is that true for you? The number one desire of your heart is to love God, to tell him so. And the third thing we see in verse 3 and 4, which I won't develop, but it's there clearly that Hezekiah Summoned people to a reformation of honoring the word of God. Look at the end of verse four, that they might give themselves to the law of the Lord. Beloved, I was just showing the home group leaders this morning how in many ways we're seeing people say, I want more of the Word, I want to learn more truth so my life can be shaped. Not according to some what's the word of shifting kind of standard of the culture, situational ethic kind of thing, but rather the truth of God's word in absolute form. Honoring the word of God. Now, when these things happen, beloved, when lives are being changed and high places pulled down, when worship being refreshed and when the word of God is being honored, you have revival. Amen. You have revival. You have restoration of the things of God. Now, what took place then? I want you to see this, Hezekiah. In the midst of that, look at verse five, in case you don't know how they honored the law of the Lord, verse 5. And as soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. They brought it in abundantly, the tithe of everything. How do we then exercise revival? That is to say, how do we sustain it? Those of you who've played any sports know the adage that it's easier to get to the top than to stay at the top. Is that right? Let's ask Chuck Noll. You see, remaining in a posture of stirring of the spirit of God requires something of us, beloved. See, Paul said to the Galatian church, how is it that you started in the spirit and now reverted to the flesh? It's so easy. Our nature is to just fall back, isn't it? Just go back to our old ways. This is great, but I just go back to my old ways. You see, my conviction is that we will not go on. We won't keep growing in the spirit of God, seeing more and more of what God wants until we see the link between material responsibility and spiritual blessing. Remember a man named Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19? Remember singing the song when you were a kid? Zacchaeus was a wee little man. You know that one? What happened to Zacchaeus when Jesus went into his house and shared with him the good news of the kingdom? What does the Bible say in Luke chapter 19? He said, Lord, I'm giving half of what I owe to the poor. And if I've defrauded anybody, I'm going to give it four times over. And Jesus looked And said, today, salvation has come to this house. Why? Because he said, I received Jesus as my Savior? No, because Jesus saw in his heart that there was transformation, that the kingdom of God had gotten a hold of his finances. Look at Pentecost Acts, chapter two. We say, oh, Lord, we just love to see 3,000 people came to the Lord. They were just having a time of it. But what happened? The Bible says that they met together in homes and they shared all things in common. You see, the Lord touched their pocketbook at the same time that he touched their heart in the macedonian church in 2 Corinthians 8. You might be wanting to jot these verses down. Second Corinthians, chapter 8. The Bible says that the Macedonian church, that's the Philippians and the Thessalonians, they were experiencing a joy of revival because they had responded in grace to the needs of the church in Jerusalem. You read it. It's right there in Second Corinthians, chapter eight. But, beloved, the essence of how we maintain a revival is that we move in discipline. Now, would you listen to that? I'm going to say it again. The way that we maintain a spirit of revival is that we move in discipline. You may be here today and you have at one point in your Christian walk been victimized by somebody who's been spirit led and helped you through a deliverance of some kind, but didn't help you get something in order in your life. And you find yourself falling right back into the same pit. Anyone had that happen to how many know deliverance has to be followed by discipline? Revival in the spirit must be followed and responded to by revival, giving a sustaining of the move of God by the liberality that comes as we open our resources to him. And beloved, there is one order of discipline that I see in the scripture when it comes to giving. And here it is. Get ready. It's the tithe. The tithe is God's order of discipline when it comes to giving. Now, I want to talk about this, and I do have an overhead on tithing. And I want you to take a look at it. Jot it down with me as we go through it. There's something in us that when it comes to the tithe, just begins to bristle with interpretation. First of all, just for the sake of those who may not know, what is the definition of a tithe? What is it? One tenth? The Hebrew word tithe means tenth. Okay? People say, well, I'm tithing 5%. No, you're only stealing 5% from the Lord. Okay. Someone says, I'm tithing 20%. No, you're tithing and you're giving 10% more. That's the definition of a tithe. 10%. Now, first of all, I want you to see that the tithe that Hezekiah talked about is pre law. We don't have time to turn to Genesis 14, but write it down. You may want to look at it later. There Abraham encountered Melchizedek, who is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils in victory in honoring him as the One who had given him victory. And it's a picture of our giving to God. And out of honoring him as being the One who's the source of everything that we have, it predates the law. Would you please get that right in here, folks? It's so easy to think of tithing as Old Testament law, but it's not. This is 400 years before the law. Now, it does appear in the law law of Moses in Leviticus, chapter 27. There the Bible makes it very clear that at the tithe is 10% of everything that we get. And the tithe is the Lord's. And then tithing appears in the New Testament. Jesus speaking to the Pharisees. Matthew 23:23. Interesting little passage there. And Jesus looking at them and says to them, you tithe mint, dill and cummin, but you neglect the weightier matters of the law. Righteousness, right, love and mercy. And then he says, I can see us, we spirit people, we say, right on, Lord. I don't want to be a Pharisee. We should not neglect the weightier matters. Love, justice, and mercy. But then Jesus says, these things you ought to have done, that is to say, you should have tithed but not neglected the weightier matters of the law. Whoa, wait a minute now. What? I thought this was the new covenant of grace. It's grace. How many of you believe that grace means less than law? You see, the Bible, beloved, is so clear that the new covenant is far superior and that the giving that God requires of us by grace in the New Testament exceeds that which he could demand of us in the Old. And that's very important. So many people have bought the teaching that Old Testament giving was tithe and New Testament giving is grace, as if they're in contradiction to one another. And I believe when the Spirit of the Lord touches the heart of a person, he can't help but want to give in recognition of his Savior, that he is the owner and master and Lord of all things. And the Tithe is just the beginning point. It's a statement to God of his ownership. That's the next thing. Psalm 24 the heavens and the earth, the fullness thereof, belong to the Lord and Beloved. When we learn to tithe, it's sufficient for kingdom enterprise. That's to say that when we learn to tithe, all the things that God requires of his church are supplied for. Did you know that in colonial America there was no property tax? Did you know that when this country was settled that if you didn't pay your tithe you could go to jail? That's right. And in fact George Washington, when the states, each state started to repeal the tithe law, George Washington wrote quite a significant letter to the governors of the state saying that he feels that the foundation of our society would be crumbling if we took away the tithe. Now how many of you are glad you're not put in jail because you don't tithe? Right. It's the kind of thing that's so changed in our culture that we don't even have any basis of understanding. We can't even begin to relate to that idea. But it was true. Now another thing about the tithe is that it goes into the storehouse. Malachi3 there's been all kinds of talk. What's the storehouse? Well, I just feel like the storehouse, naturally by the picture, is a place where you get your grain to be fed. A place where you get your grain to be fed. And I don't know of really any consistent evangelical ministry today that would argue that that is anything other than the local church. Even the ministries that count on support other than from the church agree that the tithe goes to the local church for their oversight, for the leadership to dispense according to the needs. The Bible says that the people who believed in Acts brought their gifts and tithes and laid them at the apostles feet. Another thing about the tithe is that it's full of promise. And boy I tell you, we could spend hours just looking at Malachi Chapter three. I said I wasn't going to get into that today, but I just want you to read it. Malachi 3:8 11 the Lord promises to open the windows of heaven, pour out a blessing you can't contain, and to rebuke the devourer. You see beloved, tithing is a principle of life, not of the old, not of the new, but of life that honors God for who he is. Now just let me reiterate. The tithe does not improve your standing before the Lord. The tithe does not vary with interpretation. And the tithe did not disappear when the New Covenant came along. Amen. That is the basis then, of ongoing discipline and revival giving. It's the beginning point of what God wants to do with us to sustain that revival. Now, beloved, I don't know of any way to make this point more clear than to say to you, if we neglect the disciplines of God, we are setting ourselves up to lose that blessing. It's funny when people come to terms with that in their life. Let's take the Word. Let's take reading the Bible. Some people see their time in the Word as being, well, I've been here for a few days. Okay, look through here. That's good. Okay, that's pretty good. Yep. Go on, walk away from it. And that's it. Two days later, you know, I got to get in it. Guilt begins to motivate you instead of a hunger and a thirst. And there's no discipline. If you're not disciplining yourself to be in this world, you're not going to gain out of it what God intended. It's the same with prayer. People say, well, gee, I prayed a little bit this morning getting my shower, but I haven't been to prayer. Oh, beloved, see that God requires of us a discipline. And we can't just keep somehow believing it's going to keep moving on in glory if we don't have any discipline. Are you with me? It's so important that we see that. Why? Because I want the move of God to go on. I don't want to look back six months from now and say, oh, remember in the fall? How about you? I want to still hear the reports of God doing mighty things. I want to still see people being touched, healed, and set free. The Lord Jesus tells us that if the law requires of you this. Remember he said, for example, if in the law it says you shall not commit adultery, what did Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount? I say to you, if you even look at someone with adultery in your heart, you've committed it. And yet some people look at the disciplines of God, and particularly tithing, and say, well, I'm free. Free to give less. That's right. I don't understand that. But, beloved, I'm not even talking about the joy that comes to you when you do respond in obedience to the Lord. Do you know that everything that God has committed himself to give you is opened up as a life principle when you begin to tithe? I was talking to a person here, several people this week in Fact shared with me that when they lost their jobs, the greatest temptation they encountered was to stop giving. Well, I need the money now. It's irresponsible. And the two men that I have in mind right now both told me that. They said, no, I'm going to sustain my giving according to what my income is, and I'm going to tithe on my income cut way back as it was. And do you know that both of those men now have recently received jobs and are moving ahead? And they said, you know, it was wonderful that I didn't one time default on a bill. I didn't one time dry up in my resource. Why? Because God said, if you honor me, beloved, I'll honor you. Pat Robertson said, if there's one thing in life that I'm convinced of, it's this. That when you're in financial difficulty, give. Now, this is so. Our culture laughs at this thought, beloved. Our culture thinks that's the silliest thing you've ever heard of. I want you to know there's a mockery out there toward the things that we treasure. I want to share something with you I saw just last night. I got home rather late last night and I sat down in front of the tv. I was going to catch the end of the news. And that was already over. I found out. And get ready for this. Stay seated. But this show, which I've never seen, this Saturday Night Live was on. Now, don't put your hand up if you saw it, okay? But I want you to know the spirit that's coming in our culture today against the things that we value. And part of what was happening in this show is a little clip. And after the emcee person was done, the screen faded black. And then on came a very professionally done commercial like thing. And I have to say, I thought it was a commercial because the commercial was going along, singing where you're going, you know, and it had people drinking beer. And you all know that commercial I'm talking about, you know, and it had getting into sports cars and flying a Concorde jet and putting out their gold American Express card and, you know, women in their suits that were pushing guys out of seats and, you know, all those kind of scenes. But it was very. It wasn't a joke. I thought it was. And I thought in the end it was going to come on and said, where you're going, it's Michelob. Okay? And in the end, what came on is where you're going, it's hell. No, no. Yeah. You see, the last Scene was a picture of all these people in all their suits and all their, you know, their get up writhing around in hell, mocking. Yeah, it was. It was unbelievable. And then the caption came on. Brought to you by almighty God. One of the persons saw that. Just put your hand up just to confirm what I said. All right, Grant. Dog hunter. Oh, okay. Grant was just confirming that I saw it. Now, I'm not. Listen, I'm not up here as a hypersensitive prude about the things. I don't expect the world to have much of an appreciation for the things that I value. But when they mock the very truth of the word of God, and I tell you, was it not mockery, brother, in its highest fashion, high class mockery. I tell you something, beloved, that's a high place. And it's in the very point of values. You see, to me, when we learn to give according to the principles of God, what we do is we strike Satan right where he hates it the most. And the world would think it's foolishness and throwing your money away and all that stuff. But I think it's the greatest statement of strength against the power of the enemy. When we say, look, I'm not even bound to this. I just let it go. My faith and confidence is in God to supply. I just want to share one last point with you today. How do we not only extend that revival, how do we expand it? I said, lord, what is it that you want us to learn about giving in revival for North Way? Fred alluded earlier as we were bringing the boxes up, he was saying we need to see it as an act of worship. And I want to talk about that at another time. But beloved, the Lord began to show me in context in second Chronicles. Here. Are you still there? I haven't referred to it much. Look at chapter 32. What happened in chapter 32 is this. I want you to read the first verse with me after these things. What things? All of the ordering. The tearing down of the high places, the honoring of the Word and the refreshing of worship and these acts of faithfulness. What acts of faithfulness? The giving, the tithing. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and invaded Judah and encamped himself against the fortified cities. And beloved, I want you to see that the nation came under attack. And I began to think about, well, Lord, what was it? And if you read. We don't have time to read through this at length, but I just want you to see that Sennacherib was a very coy, cunning and cutting enemy. Look down at verse 13. Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to deliver their lands out of my hand? And he mocks them. Look over in verse 18. And they shouted with a loud voice in the language of Judah to all the people of Jerusalem who were upon the wall to frighten and terrify them. This is a mocking enemy. And beloved, because Hezekiah had learned the value of discipline, giving, he was able in faith to cry out to God in verse 22:21. And the Lord sent an angel. That's all it says. I love that, don't you? Here's Sennacherib with all this army fortified against the cities and strengthening up and ready to just pulverize them. And the Lord sent an angel who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. Aren't you glad that one of God's angels is all that's necessary to set you free? I rejoiced when I read that. And why did it happen? I submit to you it happened because Hezekiah knew the God that he was calling on and he knew that he had been faithful, that the worst time to cry out to God is when you haven't done what God's told you to do because you don't have any faith that God's going to hear. And the Lord was saying to me in that beloved, the church needs to see its giving as a spiritual weapon. The church needs to see its giving as a weapon of warfare against the enemy. I'd never seen that before. I've heard of our praise. I've heard of our song. I've heard of the word of God, the testimony of Jesus. But I've never heard giving as a spiritual weapon. That when we put our tithes and offerings in that box and when we give to the things of God, we are in specific standing against the enemy and bringing down the kingdom of darkness. I could give a lot of illustrations. Just jot these down. Think about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. Where look at First Kings 17. Don't turn there. But she was about to die. She had one little cup of meal and a little cruse of oil. And he said, what's going on? She said, I'm going to cook this for my son and I. We're going to die. And he said, give me the first portion. Which she did. And then what happened? Well, he multiplied it and provided for her all throughout the family. I could go on and on, but the church in Thessalonica was raised up in joy because it learned to give even when it seemed that the oppression was the worst. And then it overcame. We need to learn that, beloved, God would have us to push back the kingdom of darkness with our giving. Finally. Jot this down. How do we start? Well, beloved, first of all, the grace of giving begins with repentance. Do we have that? Write this down. The grace of giving, moving in. The grace of giving begins with repentance. Okay, Lord, I'm just not there. I've not given you lordship of my finances. And beloved, just like in any area, if you want grace, you start with repentance. Number two, the grace of giving flows in a discipline. Once you start, don't stop, don't back up, because count on it. If you start out to please God in your finances, what's going to happen? You're going to have a hassle. The enemy is going to rile up and he's going to try to take it away from you. Number three. The grace of giving grows in the exercise of faith. I believe that God wants to do something with this fellowship that will cause us all even more than he has to sit back and say, God, you are doing a wonderful thing. Your spirit is moving. And all that we need to do, beloved, is to respond in disciplined faith. Giving as the Lord has commanded, sustaining revival. And then as we give with an eye toward expansion. Seeing that God is tearing down the strongholds of the enemy as we go before him. I rejoice in being part of a people that co