No Excuses: In God We Trust
2 Cor. 9
1 There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the saints. 2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we--not to say anything about you--would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.
What is happening here?
I love this passage – a very pastoral, leader type passage…
So ultimately Paul is dealing with the concept of giving…
And a balanced approach to it.
So with that in mine I want to merge two important things today…
Issue of balance in the body of Christ… and our Giving (tithe and offering)
First – quickly talk about balance…
How many of you would notice if part of your body stopped working?
One of the themes that has come up in many of our messages is the concept of not only hearing God’s word but doing it…
I received an email this week with some tremendous thoughts on the exact concept that challenge gives us.
The difference between
Knowing and Obeying / Hearing and Doing
Read Psalms 24: 1 through 26: 12
Knowing the ways and commandments of the Lord is not the same as keeping His ways and commandments (Psalm 25: 1 0). We struggle, not to know, but to obey. It is not light that we are lacking these days, but life. Truth that is not translated into obedience is like brightness to a blind man.
One outstanding preacher made the comment that the hard¬est congregation to preach to is not made up of unbelievers, but of people who have heard the truth over and over again but refuse to obey it.
AND HEAR THIS CHALLENGE: We can be educated beyond the level of our obedience, and so live in a realm of theoretical brilliance but practical ignorance, filled with knowledge but lacking wisdom.
HERE’S THE CHALLENGE OF GOD’S WORD: God’s blessing always accompanies obedience. God’s strength is readily available to those who trust and obey.
2nd let’s talk about tithing and giving today… continuing to look at 2 Cor. 9…
A HARVEST OF GENEROSITY
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
9 As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
What I call level 3 giving…
Do we believe in the harvest of generosity?
Do we believe God’s challenge? Do we believe God’s word?
The answer is in our checkbook and and our datebook…
OUR SOURCE AND SECURITY
In receiving God’s blessings there must be something from our side of the coin… TRUST.
Do we genuinely trust God to be our source and security in life…. Or do we trust this (hold up 100$ bill)
We think money will solve problems… Investment News warns that winning the lottery carries odds of 7-million-to-1, making it much more likely for you to be struck by lightning.But a fortunate few do win, and they’re greater in number than you might you think. Lotteries handed out more than $21 billion in winnings last year. Yet every time a state lottery agency has a big payday, it’s tantamount to clearing an untrained pilot for takeoff.As financial advisers know all too well, people who come into sudden wealth often face wrenching psychological changes. Far from good fortune, the results can be ruinous.Nearly one-third of all lottery winners eventually seek some sort of bankruptcy relief.
Or the story of a lottery winner in the late 1990’s…
And on May 22, 1999, 20 months after hitting lottery pay dirt, Harrell locked himself inside an upstairs bedroom of his fashionable Kingwood home and stood at the point of no return. Investigators say he stripped away his clothes, pressed a shotgun barrel against his chest and fired.
Billie Bob Harrell was gone forever. So was the fortune, and even the family that had rejoiced with him when the shower of riches had first rained upon them. A schism has widened between the children and grandparents, who cannot even agree on whether Billie Bob took his own life. And an intrafamily war looms over the remnants of the fortune, which may not even be enough to pay estate taxes.
Perhaps the only thing not in dispute about his life and death is the jarring impact of money: It may not have caused his problems, but it certainly didn’t solve them.
Shortly before his death, Harrell confided to a financial adviser: "Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me."Believe in A harvest of generosity
Make God your source and Security
SIMPLY MAKING THE DECISION; NO EXCUSES
7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
CHEERFUL GIVER…
Malachi 3 –
Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord Almighty. "But you ask, ’How are we to return?’ 8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, ’How do we rob you?’ "In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the Lord Almighty. 12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the Lord Almighty.
13 "You have said harsh things against me," says the Lord. "Yet you ask, ’What have we said against you?’ 14 "You have said, ’It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.’" 16 Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. 17 "They will be mine," says the Lord Almighty, "in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
God challenges us to challenge Him…
Reality – tithing 10% of your income is a risk…
So we will take that risk with you…
Our 6 MONTH CHALLENGE
What happens when we live as God intended?
AN INCREDIBLE GIFT-TO MEN AND TO GOD
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
What we do… how we give… not only supplies needs… it thanks God.
How do we give?
1. Know that God owns it all…
A few days ago i was driving my kids to school and as a treat we went through the drive through donut shop and got donut holes for them. Healthy i know... i figured a sugar rush for the teachers would be fun... i gave the kids their bag of holes, each having 12 very important sugary holes in them... i asked if either of them was willing to give old day just one. With big smiles they refused... I said,"what, i just gave you the whole bag and you can’t even give me one?" now with glazed covered smiles they still refused... i chuckled and then God brought this message to my thoughts. Are we like my kids... blessed with life and resource and we are not willing to give back even one of the doughnut holes?
2. Be a river not a resevoir – let your supply flow to bless all around you… give your first fruits.
3. Live your wage – budget well
4. Dare to believe…
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
Believe in A harvest of generosity
Make God your source and Security
Simply make the decision to give – to tithe (6 month challenge)
Experience the incredible gift of living life for God
