God's Guarantee

GOD’S GUARANTEE

II Corinthians 9:6-7

S: Finances

Th: Supporting Kingdom work

Pr: God rewards our giving.

?: Why?

KW: Reasons

TS: We will find in our study of Scripture three reasons why God rewards our giving.

The _____ reason why God rewards our giving is…

I. HE WANTS TO BE FIRST.

II. HE WANTS US TO BE LIKE HIM.

III. HE WANTS US TO BE PARTNERS IN THE KINGDOM.

RMBC 5/20/01 AM

INTRODUCTION:

ILL Notebook: Money (Betsy & Billy)

A teacher says to Billy, “If you have two dollars, and you ask your father for four dollars, how many dollars will you have.” Billy’s answer, “Two dollars.” The teacher said, “Billy, you don’t know your math.” To which he responded, “You don’t know my father.”

Well, apparently like this father…

1. We have a hard time letting go of money, don’t we?

Well, I admit that I do.

It just seems that the more that I have, the more I need.

Have you ever noticed that?

So when someone asks for some, it is a crisis in decision making…

ILL “The End”

This is well illustrated by Burt Reynolds who starred in an old film entitled “The End.” In the film he decides to commit suicide by swimming out as far as he can until he is exhausted and then just go under. But after going under he is looking at the surface from the underside and decides not to go through with it. As he breaks the surface of the water he screams: "I want to live! I want to live!" He then begins to try to swim to shore, but it is a very long way off. As he begins to swim he talks to God. He promises to obey all of the Ten Commandments, and then realizes he doesn’t know what all of them are so he promises to learn them. Then in his panic he says, "Lord, if you get me out of this, I will give you 80% of everything I have." But time passes and he is still going strong, and besides he can just begin to see the shoreline. But as he continues to swim he feels his strength holding out and says, "Lord, if you help me to get to shore alive I will give you 10% of all my earnings." And, finally, he struggles to the place where he sees that he is just going to be able to make it to land and says, "Well, Lord, let’s just forget about what I said before. I think I can make it from here on my own.”

So…

2. Have you ever made a promise to God that you did not keep?

I think this happens a lot with our giving.

A lot of us have great intentions when it comes to our giving to the Lord, but somewhere in the midst of our living and lifestyle and comfort level, it gets lost.

TRANSITION:

If you are new to our church family, I want you to know that we are not beggars here.

We do keep you up to date on our finances as best we can because we are a family here.

But at the same time, we need to be reminded from time to time regarding what the Lord says about money.

We need to be challenged on this.

I need to be challenged by it and respond to it.

This is for all of us, including me.

1. Two weeks ago, we were challenged about what our hearts are for (Matthew 6:21).

We gave attention to what Jesus is recorded as saying in Matthew…

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The interesting thing that we noted in this verse is that our heart follows what we treasure, and not vice versa.

This is a remarkable principle.

For example, as I mentioned two weeks ago, if we buy a new sports car, we’ll be cleaning it and waxing it all the time.

And if we buy stock in some new “.com” company, we’ll start watching how the company is doing everyday in the paper.

You see, our hearts follow the treasure.

So, if we store up treasure here, our hearts will be focused on things here.

But the opposite is also true, if we store up treasure in heaven, our hearts will seek God.

We will be passionate about Him.

We will be excited about His kingdom.

So, if we are going to have hearts for God, we are going to have to be deliberate and intentional about the money and possessions that we are stewards of.

God has not given them to us to hold on to for ourselves.

He has given them to us to invest in His kingdom.

But let’s admit it, we don’t always have this kind of passion and excitement.