Its about the heart

Intro:

This morning I am very excited to begin a new series entitled the blessed life. I have waited for 2 years to be able to share this with you. Two years ago I desired to share this series of messages with you, but the Lord would not allow me. He told me that He would not let me preach what I was not living.

Well Im excited to say that He has released me to share these messages with you. The Lord spoke to me two years ago and said that there would be a greater anointing of breakthrough over the people if I shared the word from a place of experience. I will share some of our personal testimony of what God has done in the last 2 years in a later message.

I believe God desires for you to live a blessed life. To be blessed means having supernatural power working for you. By contrast, being cursed means having supernatural power working against you.

There is truth in this series that will change your life. It will change your family, and your health. It will change your relationships, your job its about a blessed life not necessarily a blessed pocketbook or wallet. I think your going to discover through these messages that God did not create giving for His sake, but for your sake.

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Submit:

So as we begin turn with me to Matthew 7:1-2.

““Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Quick question. Is the word money in any of those two verses? No. Judge not and you will not be judged. With the measure you use it will be measured back to you. Now look at Luke 6:37-38.

““Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.””

The first sentence of vs. 37 we see again judge not, and you shall not be judged. The last sentence in 38 we see for with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. (this is the parallel passage to Matthew 7:1-2.)

If you have grown up like me most of the time when you hear Luke 6:38 you think of money and receiving the tithe or an offering. Yet, when we read these two passages money is not mentioned anywhere.

Not only that but when we hear the word give we think about money. It is not wrong to associate the word give with money, but we must understand that giving must not be reduced to money.

If we talk about Salvation or grace we talk about giving because God so loved the world that He gave. If we talk about marriage we talk about giving because a marriage will not work if your not givers. Marriage needs mutual giving to one another to work.

Giving applies to every area of our life because giving ultimately is about the heart. The title of this message is “its all about the heart.” Jesus said Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

So often I hear from people that the church is only after your money.

I would like to make something clear the Church is not after your money, but God is. Why? giving deals with the heart. God is after it because your heart follows your treasure.

If you put your treasure in a stock, you will end up going on the internet to check the stock to see how its doing and you never checked it before. You never cared about it before, but now you care about it because your treasure is there. If you want your treasure in the kingdom or your heart in the kingdom. You put your treasure there. Its a heart issue.

In the passages we read Jesus is talking about judgement, condemnation, and forgiveness. Don’t judge or you will be judged, don’t condemn or you will be condemned, then he says forgive and you will be forgiven. Then He says, give and it will be given to you.

What he saying is give judgement and it will be given back to you. What he is saying is that what you give you will receive good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will men give judgment back to you. For with the same measure you give judgment you will get judgement back.

The context of these verses are judgement, condemnation, and forgiveness. Yet, you can apply the principle to other areas because of the spiritual laws of sowing and reaping. When you sow a seed you don’t get back one seed you get back a tree or a plant with many seeds, and thats the way God is.

So if you give and your going to get back wouldn’t is be better to give good things rather than bad things? Because you are going to get more back of whatever it is you sowed whether good or bad.

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Apply:

How do you develop a heart of generosity?

In Deuteronomy 15 God tells us four things that we need to do. Its all about the heart. Deuteronomy 15:7-8.

Deuteronomy 15:7-8 ““If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.”

Notice God says, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother. Open your hand wide to him and WILLINGLY.

Deal with a selfish heart. Deuteronomy 15:9 “Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to the Lord against you, and it become sin among you.”

God had a system in that time where every seventh year was the Lord’s release. Every creditor who had lent anything to his neighbor was to release it and not require it of his neighbor.

So God said, if your brother comes to you in need open your heart to him and give. Open your hand and willingly lend to him, and don’t let there be a selfish thought in you that says this is the year debts will be cancelled. If I lend the money and they can’t pay me back this year I will have to forgive the loan.

Essentially what God is addressing in this is selfishness. The idea that I am not going to be generous because I might not get it back. God says, don’t do that. He wanted them to learn to be like Him. God is generous and He wanted them to learn to be the same.

Notice selfishness is wickedness in God’s eyes and it becomes sin.

Here is a question: Why did God create or invent giving?

Do you really think that God needs your money to support His work? Is the light bill in heaven to big for God? Are they running out of gold to pave the streets. Are they out cattle on a thousand hills?

God did not create giving for His sake. He created giving for your sake. Giving more than any other activity for a believer works selfishness and greed out of our lives.

Most preaching on giving is give and you will get. This message actually works selfishness and greed back into your life. We shared a few years ago in the series Small God that we are not to look at God like a genie in the sky that gives me what I want when I want.

I wonder how God see’s that? Do you think he is excited all the people getting the revelation of getting? certainly not. We need to catch the revelation of giving.

2. Deal with a grieving heart. Deuteronomy 15:10 “You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand.”

If you learn to give from a right heart God will bless you in everything you do. This is a heart issue. Selfishness attacks us before we give, and grief attacks us after we give.

Have you ever given or made a commitment for a large amount and then right after something breaks? And the enemy comes immediately and says see you shouldn’t have done that, and grief comes because we gave.

Give someone money before service and have them come and give it quickly when I say i don’t have any cash for lunch today.

The person who gives it to wont be grieved to give it to me because I gave them the money before service.

They are not grieved because the money belonged to me. It was mine.

The reason that we grieve after we give is because we thought it was ours, and the word tells us that earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. When we understand that we give back to God what is already His, we don’t grieve over it.

3. Develop a generous heart. Deuteronomy 15:14 “you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the Lord has blessed you with, you shall give to him.”

God wants us to be generous but we were born selfish. We are born again generous. We just have to renew our minds with the word. I believe we really do want to be generous in our lives. What God is doing through giving is dealing with the heart.

What is it that we have to teach our children that is often so hard? To share.

Toy has been sitting on the ground for weeks, and a friend or sibling comes over and picks it up what does the child do? Runs over… I was playing with that. Kid sets that toy down and grabs another and your kid runs over and says, I was playing with that too!

Do you realize what God is saying to all of His children?

When are you going to grow up? When are you going to become like your father? That so loved the world that He gave.

Have you ever looked at the toys your child has and thought lets bless someone else with some of these toys? Is it not the truth that if they are helping you that they will make sure to only give away the things they don’t like?

Most don’t mind giving away what they don’t like, but at some point we have to grow up. At some point you say Lord what do you want me to give? Whatever He says to do your response to Him is that’s great that is what I will do.

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Closing:

4. Develop a grateful heart. Deuteronomy 15:15 “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today.”

Do you know what He is saying here? God is saying I command you to be generous. With what authority is God saying that? He is reminding them that everything they have came from Him. He is reminding them that they were slaves.

When you think back to where God has brought you from and the life you now have you have the opportunity to be grateful. You were a slave to sin. You were dead in your trespass, but now you are redeemed and no longer a slave but a son or daughter of God.

Generosity comes from a heart of gratitude. When you think about what the Lord has done for you. Generosity is not a difficult thing.

Don’t let the devil mess with your mind, and tell you your not a giver. When the Holy Spirit leads you to give in church, to a missionary, a guest minister, or someone in need. Give as God leads you. You won’t regret it.

Let’s Pray!

That the Lord would help us to understand the heart of giving. That he would protect us from a heart of selfishness, and birth a heart of generosity in all of us.

For salvation.