How Our Giving Affects Me

Excellence In Giving—How It Touches Me 10/17/2010

2 Samuel 24:18-25 Luke 12:13-21

Today we are in the final of 3 messages under Excellence In Giving. Pastor Toby preached on How Our Giving Touches God, Pastor Kellie preached on “How Our Giving Touches Others”, and “I’ll be preaching on “How Our Giving Touches Me.” This message is important for us all, because few things will determine more of what kind of a person we will be in life, more than the way we learn to give.

How we give is going to impact who is willing to marry us, who is going to be willing to be our friends, and who is going to be willing to show up at our funeral and say something about us. It is also going to determine, what heaven is going to be like for those of us who enter into it as well as what life will be like in hell for those who choose to enter it.

When it comes to giving, you are either a giver or you’re not. Giving has nothing to do with how much you have. It has everything to do with, how you see what you have. In our clip, Chris #1 & Chris #2 had the same amount of donuts in the box. Chris #1 held on to his donuts, Chris #2 gave them away.

Chris number one could only see that,” I might need this for something I want to do in the future.” Chris #2 could only see that “I have been blessed, let me make the opportunity of being a blessing to someone else.

Which Chris is going to have a greater impact in life? Which Chris is going to have a more meaningful life? Which Chris is going to be loved more by his children? Which Chris is more likely to be a tither in the church? Which Chris is more likely to get on board with the Campaign for Excelling in giving? Now look, you could tell all that from what he did with a box of donuts. It was not what Chris had that made the difference, it was the attitude toward what he had.

The attitude we are to have is to come from Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “let this mind, this attitude, be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.” Do we really want the mind of Christ running around in our heads. It could really mess up some of the things we normally do. The mind of Christ will cause us to see things in a way we have not seen them before.

God is at work on two levels in our campaign for excellence in our giving. There is the level we will all see which is the way in which our church building is going to be transformed. We will see the doors, the parking lot, the classrooms, the robes, the carpet and all the other stuff being changed and come into being. What we will not be able to see is the God at work in each of our individual hearts. But know God is going to be at work. Some of us are going to be willing to listen to the Spirit as the Spirit seeks to develop a giving spirit within us, but some of us will fight it from the start and will be changed with time. Some of us will fight it to the end. God is more interested in what is going to happen in our hearts than God is the amount that actually comes in. This building will one day collapse. You will be around forever.

There are two ways, we can look at our campaign. “We can ask the question, what’s the most I can give” or we can ask the question “what’s the least I can give and feel good about it.” Now the answer might be the same to both questions, but the choice of question we ask, is going to determine what God is able to do in and through us as individuals. Our giving affects how God is able to send things into our lives, even before we give the first dime.

We like to cry that we are broke and poor. How many of us realize that we are far wealthier than Jesus was when he walked the face of the earth. If you’ve got 4 changes of clothing, your wardrobe is probably much larger than Jesus ever had on earth.

Many of us get a check at least once a month. Jesus did not have that steady income coming in. Just think of all the stuff we have in our homes, garages, and attics. Jesus did not come close to possessing that kind of wealth. Many of us have cars or a bus pass. Jesus walked almost everywhere. Jesus had to borrow a donkey to ride on just a few days before he died for our sins.