Having a Generous Heart
Notes
Transcript
So I want to start today by talking to all the married men in the room.
Do you remember what it was like before you were married?
If you were like me you were a huge slob,
I mean I did not actually use my closet for clothes to often because why hang up your clothes if you are just going to wear them again in a few hours
But when your married your wife does not appreciate that
So that had to change
Before getting married I would also never cook, well when you get married you have to cook sometimes.
It turns out you cannot live off of fast food
When you get married you also have to change how you spend your money.
I mean Arika had a project
But then you have kids and guess what? Your time commitments begin to change where instead of going to the movies or doing different hobbies you are watching your kids.
But all of that to say when you are in a relationship with someone there are things that we will reorient in our life for that relationship.
And you know in our walk with God, there are things that after we accept Him into our life we are called to change in our life.
Because God moves us away from this life where we are living a life that is inwardly focused to a life where the focus becomes God and the people He created.
And so with that things change in our life.
For some we say wow I really have some anger issues that I need to address
For others it might be that we are gossiping
It might just even be something like how we spend our time
But there is one area that is our focus today that has become a little bit of a taboo subject in the church,
And it is when we step into a relationship with Christ He begins to call us into a generous lifestyle,
where we are giving our time to Him, we are giving are talents to him and we are giving even our finances to Him.
And just to be completely honest church as a whole (universally) is decent at the first 2 (We would probably get a C as our grade), but when it comes to giving financially to be honest we are not the best.
And like I said this has become a little bit of subject that is awkward to discus, because a lot of us have heard this mindset of “the church just wants my money, they do not care about me.”
But can I just say thats not true,
In fact this is the first message I have preached on just giving in the three years I have been here
and so we are going to debunk that a little bit as we get to the end of the message,
But I want you to know that this subject is important. In fact if we looked at how often different words appear in the Bible
The word “love” appears 541 times in the Bible
The word “faith” appears 458 times (which faith is pretty important right?)
But then the word “giving” appears 2,172 times throughout the Bible.
I mean that alone shows us that for our faith there is something important about giving.
And so I am hoping to accomplish a few things today:
I am hoping to show theologically why we give
But then I also want to show the need and the difference we could make (very practically) if we get this area right as a church.
So we are going to start in Leviticus 27:30 and this is just a short verst that shows how they gave in the Old Testament; it says this:
30 “ ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.
So in the Old Testament they would take something called a tithe (which is litterly translated as 1/10) out of everything they brought in as a source of “income” at that time.
whether it was grain, fruit or some sort of currency
Before they would eat it, spend it or trade it they would place it in the temple
And there are a few reasons why God asked them to do this:
First off it showed they trusted God to provide.
It wasn’t the land or how hard they worked, or a good investment opportunity, but it was them acknowledging it is God who provides
But secondly it showed the importance of God in their life.
You know something I have learned about myself is my bank account will often show the things that are important in my life.
If you looked at my bank account and I spend a $1000 a month on my car, at car washes, car payments, and expensive upgrades you would say wow, Brendan’s car is pretty important to him
And really in a way this is partly why God had them tithe in the Old Testament. It showed that God was important, because a tenth of their income was devoted the Him.
But then finally probably one of the most important reasons they tithed was it showed that everything they had belonged to God and they were just giving Him a portion back to represent that.
I heard Rick Warren who wrote the book “purpose driven life” mention it is like if you are a parent and you are going through the drive-through at McDonalds and you get your kid a small thing of Frys
But before you give them to your kid you take a few fries for yourself right?
But your kid starts to get upset and they say “Dad, that is not Okay!”
Well I bet you would get a little upset back, because you would say “wait a minute! I gave you the fries; and not just that but I do not have to give you any fries or if I want I can give you a ton of fries (the supersized option)
But with all seriousness God is the one who provides the fries.
He provides everything we have, but so often we say “but this is mine”
I mean if we truly believe that God has given us everything it seems like when He ask us to give something, how could we say “no”, if what we have does not belong to us?
And I know there are some of us who are probably thinking “okay pastor, thats great, but this is the Old Testament, didn’t Jesus come so to get rid of all these crazy laws?
But here is the thing because thats not what Jesus says. Because in Matthew 5:17 He says:
Matthew 5:17 (NIV)
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
He did not come to abolish the law or get rid of it, but He came to fulfill the law.
bringing it to completion.
And I’ll be a little honest I get a little nervous about this because we see what this looks like in Acts 4:32-35
Because this passage shows what this meant for the early church after Jesus had left and His Spirit came upon the early church. It says this:
Acts 4:32–35 (NIV)
The Believers Share Their Possessions
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
And so look whats happening here because they are filled with the Holy Spirit and all of the sudden people are giving everything they have.
They are selling homes, fields and they are giving it to the early church.
And I know some of you are thinking “okay Pastor you crossed a line.” I am not selling my house for the church.
And I am not telling you to do that.
But I think there is an important transition that takes place here, because they move from this place where they say “okay God, here is my 10%” to saying God here is my everything.
And because of that they do not just give everything to God, but part of how God is guiding them is to give it to others.
And it is amazing what happens because it says there was not a needy person among them as a result.
And I just want to share was God has personally convicted me of
Because for Arika and I this has meant that we give 10% of our income to the church as a base, but then even with the remaining amount it is fully God’s.
And if God convicts our heart to give to something above that (whether its at the church or to maybe a person in need) we are going to do it.
Because in our lives we do not want to be people who hold back from God what is His.
And I really want us to understand that this whole giving thing theologically is something I truly believe God wants us to be a part of.
And this is a little scary for us, because in a way we are giving someone else complete control which is scary!
A lot of you know this but I taught Arika to drive and it was scary because I had to give her complete control of the car and sometimes she did a bad job
But here is the thing God is a much better driver than Arika.
And when we give Him control it is amazing what can happen.
because when we give we end up being blessed!
And that might not be financially but God takes care of us and blesses us in ways we cannot imagine
And so I want to shift a little because like I mentioned I believe God calls us to give when we are a follower of Christ, but whats neat is there is a purpose behind it.
And this is the very practical level of all this
Because even on a local level our church has needs financially
And every week I mention we don’t give to keep the lights on at our church, but to see lives transformed, but part of how we do that is through some of the expenses to fund different things
And so you should have recieved a couple papers in your bulletin that says “financial goals”
and you can see what we brought in verses what our goal income an is.
and September we did pretty good, (we were only 2% off our goal)
But then last month we were pretty far off and actually only brought in 39% of our goal.
And each year it is normal to have months that are really low,
But the issue is when this happens often times we cannot accomplish everything we believe God is asking us to do and as a result we become less effective in our mission
And as a side note we will start handing these out monthly so you can see where we are and the needs we have.
But I want to end with this because there is another sheet I included today called “What If”
And I this is a visual for you to see very practically what amazing things could happen if every person here decided to give God full control of their finances
Because in Buchanan the average household income is $42,593 a year.
Now that is the average
So some of us might say wow that is a ton!
But others might say wow thats low!
But regardless thats the average.
And so with that in mind we have about approximately 25 families that consider our church their home
And so I want you to see what would happen if every household in our church decided to tithe,
Because right now our total church income is about $50,000 each year
Which sounds like a lot, but if every household gave like this our church income would be around $106,482 a year.
Can I just say; how many more lives could our church impact with $56,000 each year
How many families could we bless in our community?
How many new ministries could we start?
How many lives would come to know Jesus as their savior and begin to enter into relationship with Him.
And the amazing part is God is inviting us to be a part of it.
You know I think I may have used the word “need” a few times
But the truth is God does not need your money
Because if He wants something done He will make it happen.
But like I said He is inviting us to be a part of what He is doing
And maybe God is tugging on your heart today and is saying you know you gave me these areas, but have you given me your finances?
And there is a card in your bulletin (the only one we haven’t used) and I would invite you to mark this card if you feel like God is nudging you this morning just as a way of us knowing how God is moving in your life (you do not need to write your name or anything)
And some of us might be able to mark it right now, but others we might need to pray about it
But I want to encourage you to do it at some point in the next month and place it in the offering box in the back as a way of saying God I am laying down my finances to you.
And to be honest for some of us this may represent a bigger issue on the table, it may not just be you laying down your fiancees, but laying down yourself as a whole, where you are saying, God I want to to have all of me!
and so will your pray with me as we close
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