The Sacrifice of Giving
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Sacrifice now, payoff later!
On 8/26 I decided I needed to make a change...
I changed, my diet, exercise routine, sleep pattens, etc.
It’s been a sacrifice. I’ve given up some things, especially mindless munching. It’s difficult!
this past Friday, I’ve lost 20 lbs. More importantly, I feel fantastic!
That is what I’m interested in more than weight loss. Why? Because I want to have an abundance of energy to serve Christ!
My sacrifice cost me, but the dividends are significant...
Yes, sacrifice is hard, but there are great dividends that will result because you have the foresight and discipline to stave off immediate gratification for something far more satisfying.
Do you remember the main idea for this series?
The Treasure Principle - You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.
Before we get to the next two keys needed to unlock the treasure principle, lets review the first two...
Key#1 - God owns everything; I am His money manager.
Key #2 - My heart always goes where I put God's money.
Okay, so now let’s move on to the next two keys that will help us unlock the treasure principle...
Let’s start with...
Key #3 - Heaven and the future New Earth, not this fallen Earth, is my home.
There are several passages that communicate this profound truth!
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Where we store our treasure largely depends on where we believe our home is.
What if our home is in America, but we are living in France for three months?
If you are saved, you are part of this church. As a part of the church, you are the bride of Christ. As the bride of Christ, Jesus, your groom is preparing a beautiful home for you.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
Jesus is a builder by trade. He’s also omniscient and omnipotent, qualities that come in handy on a building project! Don’t you think that the home He’s been building for us the last two thousand years will be incredible? If we would let this reality sink in, it would forever change the way we think and live. We would stop laying up treasures in our earthly hotel rooms and start sending more ahead to our true home.
Alcorn, Randy. The Treasure Principle, Revised and Updated (p. 50). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
What motivates your giving?
Guilt?
Duty?
Tradition?
Grace? The ONLY reason you have any vestige of hope for eternal life and a home in Heaven is because of His grace!
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Explain the gospel...
“Gaze upon Christ long enough and you’ll become more of a giver. Give long enough and you’ll become like Christ.” - Brian Smith
Are you a giver? Not one because of guilt, or shame, or obligation, but purely because of God’s grace?
You may sacrifice now, but when you get to the other side, your sacrifice will seem miniscule in comparison to what you’ll see that He has done for you!
Key #3 - Heaven and the future New Earth, not this fallen Earth, is my home.
Key #4 - I Should Live not for the dot but for the line
This is what missionary Jim Elliot was talking about when he wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” If you hear those words and think, He was one of those super-spiritual types who didn’t think about gain, then you missed the point. Reread his statement. Gain was precisely what Jim Elliot was thinking about! He just wanted the gain he couldn’t lose. He wanted his treasures in Heaven. Live for the line, not for the dot.
Alcorn, Randy. The Treasure Principle, Revised and Updated (p. 53). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
He is NO fool... - Elliot is saying, if we invest in this life, we are fools! If we invest in the life to come, we are wise.
Let’s take a journey back in time to hear what the wisest man has to say about living for money...
The more you have the more you’ll want.
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.
2. The more you have the more that people will come after it (including the government).
When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?
3. The more you have the more you realize it does you no good.
When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?
4. The more you have the more you have to worry about.
Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
5. The more you have the more it can harm you.
There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt,
6. The more you have the more you have to lose.
and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.
7. The more you have the more you leave behind.
As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.
And, by the way, Solomon knew what he was talking about...
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.
As base a thing as money often is, it yet can be transmuted into everlasting treasure. It can be converted into food for the hungry and clothing for the poor; it can keep a missionary actively winning lost men to the light of the gospel and thus transmute itself into heavenly values. Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth. Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality.16
Alcorn, Randy. The Treasure Principle, Revised and Updated (p. 58). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
We must be careful with the resources God has entrusted for us to manage.
And remember, the poorest among us here is fabulously wealthy in comparison to the rest of this world and certainly more wealthy than the world of Solomons’ day - Flush toilets, refrigerators, tv’s, etc...
WE are not to simply spend all of His resources on ourselves...
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
We are to not live for the dot, but instead, live for the line! The line of eternity.
Remember this well...
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
The Carell’s cousin.
My friend Robert
My friend Dave
People do not wake up in the morning and anticipate that this might be their last day on this planet. Perhaps we should?
We should anticipate the line. The reality of our eternity. This dot is a blip, the line is eternal. You are eternal - you will live in one place or another for all of eternity.
Make sure you are right with God through Christ.
Make sure you are investing His resources in the best
place possible - Heaven. Live for His Kingdom.
Conclusion - There you have it. Two more keys to the Treasure Principle.
Key #3 - Heaven and the future New Earth, not this fallen Earth, is my home.
Key #4 - I Should Live not for the dot but for the line
Friends, one final thought. You do realize that money is a mirror, right? It is a mirror of our heart.
As you look into the mirror of your heart this morning, what reflection do you see?
Do you see a picture of selfishness and greed? One of hoarding and self protection?
Or do you see one that looks like Christ?
Christ is a giver! And the more we gaze on Christ, the more we will give. And the more we give, the more we will be like Christ!