August 3, 2000, TE: The Gift of Giving

August 3rd, 2000, Thursday Evening

-- FAITH PROMISE MISSIONS CONFERENCE --

DAY 2

"The Gift of Giving"

The Economy of God at work

OPENING: 2 Corinthians 8:1-12, KJV

2 Corinthians 8:7: Giving is grace.

While we should abound in many things, above all, we should abound in grace.
Giving is a disposition of the Holy Spirit of God.

Giving is made up of three components:

#1/3: LOVE
- As said yesterday, "You can give without loving but you can't love without giving."
- Love causes us to give. When you love, you must give of yourself
  - The tithe is an Old Testament-mandated rule of giving that applies even to today
  - What kind of parents would we be if we didn't give of ourselves to our children?
- 2 Corinthians 8:5: However, remember that all the proceeds and giving in the world doesn't mean anything until you FIRST give yourself to God
#2/3: TIME
- We all feel there are times when it is not convenient to go to church. But you are committed to come to church because you love your Savior
- When people see how happy you are about church, they will want to know and have what makes you to happy. They'll want to know more about your guidelines and about church and God
  - On Saturday night, gather the family around the kitchen table with the checkbook. Teach your family to write checks to your church--whether it be for tithing, the church building fund, etc. Tell them what you're doing as you write and soon you'll find your children will argue over who gets to write the next check--NO KIDDING! It's happened to Pastor Boulton!
    
    Tithing is not a question. It's a requirement
  - 2 Corinthians 9:7: "Offerings" are monetary donations from your heart, BEYOND your tithe; You tithe first and whatever you give after is an offering
    - This verse stresses that your giving should be a cheerful giving
    - Don't grudgingly offer or offer because you feel it's a requirement
    - Offer because you're happy and want to with all your heart!
    - (Note: You'll find in the non-King James Version (KJV) Bibles, the tithe requirement is almost excused!)
#3/3: TALENTS
- Share your inherent God-given talents with others!
  - Missionaries stay with families when they travel because of the most excellent food that families serve
  - Just as women are good at baking food, men are good at and enjoy fixing things. These are trades that should be passed on and shared!
- In the area of $$$ and finances:
  - When you marry (not move-in with your significant other), consider putting that second name on the checkbook. Rather than pool the family income into one account, share by separating a set amount and giving to your spouse
    - 2 Corinthians 9:8: Would your spouse really love you if you never gave her anything throughout your entire marriage? Yes... However, that love would increase if you did give. Giving is showing your love. And with thousands who die every day, when you invest a little giving to God, God multiplies your investment--exceedingly to meet His needs (example true stories to follow)
    - This context of giving is not about God earning money from you. Rather, it's about giving all to God--your heart, mind, soul, and money; Since you tithe and give offerings, you're simply giving to God what belongs to God; All money in the world belongs to God. You're not tithing your money to Him--you're simply giving a percentage back to Him that which is already His!

THE ECONOMY OF GOD

God's Economy: The process of giving money to God who exceedingly multiplies its return to you in a way which man cannot comprehend; This is a sound process no matter how rich or poor you are; Don't try to understand how to works and don't try to outgive God. It won't work
2 Corinthians 8:2: Giving God money (which is all His anyway) is a privilege. When you can't afford to give is when it's a good time to start giving
- TESTIMONY (True story): In the New Testament, Macedonia contained the poorest of the dirt poor people. To add injury to insult, Macedonia also suffered seven earthquakes. Paul sailed there to preach the gospel. These poor people had no food, no medical supplies, endured seven earthquakes and yet gave more than Paul had ever seen contributed by any other less poor town ever! This is because these poor Macedonians understood the Economy of God (2 Corinthians 8:2-3). Paul was embarrassed to so much from people who had so little but the people absolutely refused to take any money back because they wanted God's blessing.
- TESTIMONY (True story): During an annual missionary get-together, money was needed to help feed missionaries, maintenance their vehicles, and collect for the tithes and offerings to God. Much money needed to be raised and some had none in their wallet. One lady approached the podium and said she's been married over 30 years and she had no money to give. She proceeded to take off her wedding wing and said, "I'm no jeweler but I believe this ring may be worth $1,500" and dropped it in the plate. The crowd sat silent and awestruck. One man in the crowd stood up and said, "I'll give $200 to buy that ring back." Many others came forward, putting money in the plate to buy the ring back. In no time, the ring was returned to the woman with now a fresh $1,500 in cash in the collection plate. Proof of the economy of God: you give and get in return more than you asked for with money in the plate for God's use, at the same time!!
"Giving should not be based on the economic condition. Rather, giving should control your economic condition."
The "SEWING AND REAPING" component
- If you give of your love, time, and talents (sewing), God will repay you with more than you gave (reaping).
- 2 Corinthians 9:6: This verse of scripture doesn't specify what to sew or how much to sew. But just simply give cheerfully from the heart what you can and the Lord will bountifully multiply it. Reaping more doesn't always mean you're sewing more than if you sew with a little!
  - TESTIMONY (True story): Our church, Berean Independent Baptist, has a regular Sunday morning attendance averaging 80 persons and have yet to deploy its first missionary. A church that Pastor Boulton has been told has regular attendances numbers half that. Yet this church has launched four missionaries in the world. An example of sewing more doesn't mean you'll always reap more than if you sew little.
- When you give it all to God, you lose nothing.
- 2 Corinthians 9:7: The more you give, the more you get out of debt because of the Economy of God. Why give? Because God gave us the love to pass on to others.
- Ecclesiastes 11:1: This "river" is the river of life. Invest in this river of life--where rust and man's hands cannot reach it... and it will come back to you--multiplied.
- Proverbs 19:17 then Ephesians 3:20: God is able to take what you give Him (not to another charity or homeless person on the street--but to Him) and make it worth than what you gave so God may use that to help those in need AND return the money back to you--multiplied. You give this money to Him through your local Church.
- If you balance sheet is out of whack (too positive), then your finances are God. It is the Economy of God.

CLOSER

TESTIMONY (True story): Russell Cromwell was the pastor of a church in Philadelphia in the early 1900s (back when people were eager for church). One day, as people were filing in, a little homeless girl stood at the side, crying. For there was no room for her to go to the children's Sunday School. As Russell found her, he took her in and made room for her at the school. That night, as the girl lay in her bed, she was so excited about the prospect of having all children go to Sunday School, she began the process of saving her money to build a bigger Sunday school.

Two weeks later, the little girl was found dead with a tiny, red, plastic purse on her. In the purse was 57 cents and a note saying the money was to go toward the building of a bigger church. Pastor Cromwell was so moved by this gesture, he took the note and the money to the pulpit and challenged all the deacons to get moving on this initiative to build a bigger church.

The end result: Good Samaritan hospital/church/university that stands in Philadelphia today.
So the moral of the story is: Little is much if God is in it.

There was a carpenter shop The tools in the shop were having a fellowship meeting Brother hammer was leading the singing

Suddenly one of the other tools rose and said, "I don't like the way brother hammer is leading the music he is making too much noise--he must go."

Brother hammer got mad and said, "If I have to go then brother nail must go you have to hit him on the head to get him to do anything around here!"

Brother nail got mad and said, "If I go then brother screw must go you have to turn him around and around to get him to serve God!"

Brother screw got mad and said, "If I must go then brother handsaw must go he's always very cutting and going against the grain around here!"

Brother handsaw got mad and said, "If I must go then brother sandpaper must go he's the roughest one of the bunch!"

Then brother sandpaper got up and said, "If I must go then brother ruler must go he's the only one who thinks he's right around here!"

So all tools were arguing about who's right and who must go when in walked the master carpenter. He gathered up the tools together and with grace and power he built a pulpit where the gospel could be preached all over the world.

Isn't that what we're going here?
Preaching the gospel of God all over the world?
Trying to keep souls out of hell?
...casting our bread upon the water?
So that it will return to us in many days...

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