Give Generously

Amen. Let's take our Bibles and I want you to go to Matthew Chapter 6 this morning.

We've been in something of a disjointed season with coming out of the holidays and trying to navigate this virus situation and coming into the conference and thinking about getting ready for it. I look forward to after the conference jumping back into our book study of 2 Timothy, but I wanted to give you this message before the conference this morning. Matthew Chapter 6 and just hold your Bible open there for a moment and let me talk to you about practical things that are foundational to the way we function here at Grace Life Church of the Shoals and have for many, many years.

First of all, and all this is introduction then we can just set this aside, all right? I want to mention to you afresh three basic biblical truths about giving. Three basic, I should say three basic biblical types of giving.

I'm not saying they're not, they're only three, there may be many more, but these three basic truths about the way we're to give to support God's work are common and abundant in Scripture. First of all, we believe in teaching not legalistically, not as a commandment of works, but out of a heart of love, we believe in teaching that we ought to bring a tithe for the local operating budget of the church. Now tithe is a guide, it's not an absolute.

Matter of fact, under grace, I think you would consider it a starting point. As one person said, learning to tithe and teaching folks to tithe is like the training wheels of giving, it just gets you going. I have, faithfully by God's grace, always given more than a tithe to the local operating budget of my church.

I could not, I would not charge you to do something I haven't lived. I did that when I made $50 a week when I first came on staff and I do that today. So there, the Bible teaches tithing and more for the local operating budget of the church. Secondly, and this is what we're talking about today a lot, and that's a faith commitment offering for world missions. That is, there's this thing in the New Testament, again it's not an absolute, it's not a command, but there's an illustration in 2 Corinthians of how Paul wanted the local church at Corinth to get ready to give a missions offering to help the Saints over in Jerusalem who were suffering. So Paul sends some of the brethren, Titus and some of the brethren, to Corinth, the head, to get them ready to give their gift. And that's a faith commitment offering. When you take your faith commitment envelope and you indicate on the top line what you're going to give, on the second line the frequency you're going to give it, we'll total all those up and we'll make our missions budget, but you're not giving it yet, this is getting you ready to give. And that's what 2 Corinthians 9 teaches. Paul said, the brethren are going, matter of fact, Paul said, I'm going to send the brethren ahead to guard against covetousness.

I know you want to give a good gift, but I need to send some brothers on ahead to get you ready to give it, then later I'll come and some other brothers will come to me. That's when we'll start receiving the gifts for this missions offering to go to the church in Jerusalem. So from that biblical truth we developed the faith commitment offering. It's not original with me or us, it's been around a while, we've put our own twist on it, but that's another biblical truth about giving and God has mightily, wonderfully blessed our mission support since we went to this approach. So we give 12 months out of the year, but all we'll be doing the week of the conference is indicating what we'll give, that is getting ready to start giving.

Now brother Steve, I'm going to put you on the spot. When does the new year start? July 1st. Now I always just start the next month with my new amount, but would you say it would be right to say sometime between the conference and July 1st your new amount needs to be kicking in, is that right?

Hopefully by April. All right, I know he'd bump it up a little bit if I asked him about it. Well anyway, it gives us an idea how to set up our world missions budget and as I've said, God has wonderfully, wonderfully blessed that. I remember years ago when we first went to this approach, it was not the Southern Baptist's way of doing mission support, because Southern Baptists always had a Christmas love offering. Let's see, that was home missions I think, and then an Easter offering for international missions. And that's fine, that's perfectly fine, but when we went to this approach, we went from about $40,000 a year to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, getting criticism from the denominational leaders and they started saying, can you teach us how you did that? Literally I've preached at big churches all over America about how to teach and lead your church to be involved in missions, because they like the extra money.

Well, we don't give them any money today, so it doesn't matter I guess, but nevertheless that's just a little tidbit of history. The third biblical truth we've used from various times is something for special and unique needs, and that's what I call a lifestyle sacrifice. It's where we look at a project, we look at a need, and we say, we need a huge amount of financial resources to get this done, so let's all join in together and let's make a three-year commitment. Over the next three years, we're all going to give above and beyond an amount from our household, from our lifestyles, to meet this need, this next project, and we're going to take something out of our lifestyles. One of the most common illustrations is, I'm not going to buy a new car for three years, I'm going to keep the old car, and that house, that car payment, I would have paid for a car, I'll give that to that special project. We call it a lifestyle sacrifice for special needs.

Now, I don't have time, but these are thoroughly taught in Scripture, and there could be others, but we found that God has blessed that through the years. Is it not wonderful that we don't have to have special offerings to hire the architect, to renovate the old auditorium, to build the new auditorium, it's all been done. Praise the Lord. Which might not be good for us, by the way.

You get to resting on your laurels, you get at ease in Zion, and that's not good for you sometimes. But you know me, we'll find something to spend our money on. Matter of fact, God's blessed us with a wonderful balance in our local operating budget, and so hopefully we can continue to patch and fix some stuff around here that literally a lot of things hadn't been touched in 30 to 40 years. Now, let's go to, real quick, four basic biblical truths about Christian financial blessing. If you want to be financially blessed, now this does include the amount of money or wealth God allows you to have.

But it's not necessarily an absolutely that. Often the financial blessing, now listen to me, means that the finances God entrusts to you are blessed instead of cursed. You're better off to have little or nothing that's blessed than to have a whole lot that's got the curse of God on it. I've never seen a wealthy individual grow old who was greedy and selfish and didn't honor God with their wealth, and so the wealth that they had is not a blessing to them. It becomes a curse and a bitterness in their lives. How do we, how are we to be financially blessed as Christians?

Well, foundationally, and I need to say a whole lot about this, but just not time, the heart condition is the primary foundational issue. Okay, you hearing me? The heart condition, a heart that's striving to joy in Christ, a heart that is striving to treasure Christ, a heart that can say, Lord I enjoy good stuff and nice things, if you'll see fit to bless me, but you are my true joy and you are my true treasure. If that's not there, everything else I'm telling you is null and void. We're not about superstition.

You don't just plug in a formula and zap, you get something. Okay? It's the heart condition. But with the heart condition being right, these four basic biblical principles must be there. Number one, hard work.

Number one, hard work. Is it not a testament to the fallen non-wisdom and depravity of men's hearts and minds that we have a massive movement in our world today of handing out stuff to everybody that they can define as needy or a victim or oppressed or whatever it might be? And they end up with this, with this warped sense of compassion actually hurting the people they're trying to help.

You know why? God ordained people work for their wealth. You put a person, you drag a person down beneath the level of human dignity when you just give to them without any responsibility.

And these liberals and leftists that are teaching this stuff, all they're doing is ruining a whole generation of people. God ordained work. Hard work. Now it is true when you when you've got 30, 40, 50 years in that you shouldn't have to hold your nose to the grindstone in those first 20 or 30 years.

That's part of God's blessedness. But generally speaking, hard work is a foundational truth for blessing. Number two, spend responsibly.

Now again, I've got sermons on each one of these. I'm trying not to belabor each point. Spend responsibly just means that you have a disciplined approach, a budgeted type approach to your expenditures in your life. And of course one of the things there would be to be very careful about indebtedness and the things you will have any debt toward.

Number three, hard work. Spend responsible. Thirdly, invest wisely. The Bible teaches there is an importance in putting back and in saving. Even investing your money wisely. There's parables in the New Testament where our Lord used how wise it is to invest and get a return.

That's a good thing. That's a gift from God. You can't expect to go through your life with no wisdom about putting back or investing and be blessed financially.

Now we come to the fourth one and that's where I'm going to camp this morning. Give generously. Give generously. You cannot be blessed of God and have blessed wealth if you're not one who has a heart that says I want to generously honor and support the Lord's work. And as you make your faith commitment, again on the top line you'll indicate the amount you want to commit to missions this next year through Grace Life Church. And on the second line you'll indicate how often that amount will be turned in. When you do that, my joy is not in the final number.

It's really not. It used to be a lot but it's not because I know God's gonna take care of his resources if our hearts are right. But that you give generously with the right heart motive and attitude. Not out of guilt. Not out of some deal with the Lord that I'll do this, Lord if you'll do that.

No, it's Lord we want to see you advanced and you glorified. And as best we understand our Bibles, the way to do that is through our local churches. Now the foundational truth here, Matthew chapter 6 verses 31 through 33.

I have just 33 on the screen but let's get the context. Matthew 6 31. Do not worry then our Lord says about what we will eat or what we will drink or what we will wear for clothing. For the Gentiles, those that don't know God, eagerly seek all those things.

In other words, why would your life be driven just like those who are pagans and don't know don't know God? For your heavenly Father, middle verse 32, your heavenly Father knows you need all this stuff. That's my translation. Verse 33, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all that stuff you need will be added to you. Now that's the way a disciple lives. That's the way a God-fearer, one who's striving to honor the Lord lives. He strives to put God's calls first and trust God to bring the clothing, the food, the provisions, the material elements of life. Let me give you some points here. I could pull out many others but from a systematic overview of Scripture.

Here's the points I want to bring out this morning. Roman number one, the profit in giving. The profit in giving. That's not profit like a preacher but profit like money. I would say amused but really I'm saddened by the number of Reformed and conservative scholars who come to the verses in the Bible that clearly teach God, generally speaking, wants to bless you financially and they're so afraid of the prosperity gospel movement, which is wrong, which is out about, they're so afraid of that movement they overlook these truths and explain them away.

But let's look at it together. Now again the heart motive is the key foundational issue but if the heart is right and you are generous in your giving, primarily to God's work and God causes, here's some verses and I'll just run through them. Proverbs 8 21, to endow those who love me with wealth that I may fill their treasuries. Doesn't mean that God's always going to make godly people wealthy but generally speaking God has a pattern of blessing those who love him and strive to put him first. Now it includes more than material wealth but we cannot say it does not include material wealth. Sometimes God does just bless in ways that it and it's not financial after we've given but very often it is and does include financial blessing back to the one who gave. Proverbs 11 25, the generous man will be prosperous and he who waters will himself be watered. Proverbs 22 4, the reward or consequence of humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor and life.

Can't get around this. You just can't explain it away. It includes financial recompense back to the giver from the hand of God. Malachi 3 10, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house and test me now in this says the Lord if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overthrows overflows rather. So here they're bringing material gifts to God's work at the temple and God says if you'll do that with the right heart motive I will see that it comes back and blesses you. Now a lot of you out there you've been out you've been at it 20 30 40 years like me and God's just blessed you. I mean it's you're not the wealthiest guy in town maybe but you're just things have been good. I mean how did you think that happened?

Think! Have you not tried to tithe and bring offerings and make faith commitments through the years? Should it surprise you that God brings back a financial blessing?

It shouldn't. God just does those kind of things. Well let's go to the New Testament. 2 Corinthians 9 8, and God is able to make all grace abound to you that always having all sufficiency in everything that's talking about material goods you may have an abundance for every good deed. So again we give God gives it back we give some more and we keep this reciprocal flow going in our lives. Philippians 4 19 after the Philippian church had sent to Paul an abundant offering for his ministry Paul writes and my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. That means in proportion to the infinite wealth God has he will supply it back to you.

Can't take this out of the Bible it's so clear. Mark 10 29 through 30 Jesus said truly I say to you there's no one who has left house to honor the Lord sometimes it may cost you for a while or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and the gospel sake that means Matthew 6 33 is true in your life you've put Christ's kingdom first and it's cost you might materially but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age. So that's not just talking about spiritual blessing though it includes that because he's a real specific here houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms along with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. Clearly taught in Scripture this is a strong verse you see when God blesses me materially he gloriously brings with it and often before it certain trials that humble me lest the material gain draw me from a pure devotion to him. So you got to understand he'll bring something with that material blessing that humbles you and causes you to say I enjoy this stuff but he's my stuff he's my real joy.

God's wise he loves you too much to let stuff ruin you. He loves you too much to let material blessings become your God because though money is a wonderful tool money is a cruel master. Luke 6 38 give and it will be given to you good measure pressed down shaken together running over they will pour into your lap it'll come through other people other places for by your standard of a measure it will be measured to you in return. In the last few months I've had several of our faithful business men and it wouldn't orchestrated just maybe in the hallway I think one time we went out to lunch and said pastor you just wouldn't believe this happened and this happened and this person bought this out of my head and I got three times more for it than ever thought it would be worth and God just blessed he said I wasn't looking for it I didn't go out and have a strategic plan it just happened and I've been materially blessed I just happened to know these men for decades and I know how generous they are to honor God's work.

Listen to me folks that doesn't just happen. You say yeah but I know pagan and wicked men that stuff just falls in the lap and they got great wealth yes but here's the problem it's cursed wealth it's cursed wealth and they can't really enjoy it because it owns them they don't own it and there's a difference. Remember I've told you many many times it's not sin to have wealth it's sin to love wealth. I know more people who are poor who have the sin of the love of money then I know wealthy people who have the sin of loving money because there are more poor people than there are wealthy people. It's a hard issue you can have nothing and love it and love stuff you have a lot of stuff and love stuff but it's the hard attitude. Pam and I were talking about I've mentioned some of these things in the past but how God has proven this truth in my own life I just want to mention some of these for the glory of God and to humbly admit that what I have came from the hand of God it's nothing I deserve and nothing I can claim credit for but we had a revival meeting here many many years ago and some of you remember that the singing group was traveling in this old dilapidated motor home and I forgot how many children were in the singing group but it was a bunch but I mean it was they were in a desperate place and I led us to do something I've never done before that and never done since then I got in the pulpit and said Pam and I have a little money and we just had a little I mean this is pretty early in our marriage and when Pam and I got married well she had some money because she was a superstar person you know all about that she had money but I didn't have anything no she'd gotten some gifts and that was nice but before we married you couldn't had more of nothing than I had you just couldn't I had all of nothing you could possibly have and we've put a little money back for some some patio furniture we're gonna give the money we've got put it back to help them buy a motor home and I said nobody should feel an obligation but if anybody else wants to pitch in and I think it went on for two or three hours people just kept plunging money and we gave them about $35,000 to buy a new motor home but here's the part you don't know a couple of weeks later family in the church bought me and Pam patio furniture stuff just keeps coming back when you try to put first the kingdom of God y'all remember the old auditorium over there it's the chapel we're on our third renovation of that building and this is the best one but we were going to renovate that building this has been many many years ago and Pam and I had again put some money back for an anniversary I think that was our 10th anniversary I'm not sure and I've I'm not as disciplined and wise as brother Steve I've never had a real good emergency account I've had little but not much but anyway we thought we need to renovate that building if I'm the pastor I need to be an example I wanted to charge my people to give if I'm not going to do it so we cleaned out our bank account again and gave the money we put back for an anniversary trip to renovate the building and God blessed and you guys came through and we renovated that building but over the next couple of years I got a check from an insurance company I had no idea was coming and we got free trips to both New York to see some plays and to Hawaii we had a better trip than we could have ever afforded God knows how to bring it back now let me throw this in at this point there have been times when we've tried to give generously to be quite honestly from an American definition we were kind of strapped because of our commitment to give and it didn't flow right back and you know what God was telling me did you give it to get it back or did you give it because you love me are you with me church generally he does but occasionally he may test you no it's going to be lean for a while and you're gonna have to live to this commitment you've made because you love me and I said amen that's right yes Lord when we started thinking about bidding a new auditorium do you remember the hire the architect campaign we had a hire the architect I forgot how much the architect but it cost a lot to what we had and I thought well I'm the pastor of the church if I'm gonna charge my people to give generously I've got to do that I can't be a hypocrite in this thing well once again we didn't have any money in the bank but I had bought a new four-wheel-drive vehicle and it was the first four-wheel-drive vehicle I ever owned and I loved it because I could just get out in the woods and sling dirt and mud it was just fun and I said Pam what you know the only real way we've got to give in money is we've got good equity in that car let's sell that car and I'll get a little something to drive and down the road maybe I can get another one and so we sold the car gave those thousands of dollars to the hire the architect campaign and it wouldn't I don't know two or three months later family in the church gave Pam and I a brand new car God does that what does the text say they will pour into your lap it comes through human means but you didn't see it coming you didn't know how it would come and then the last one I'll mention is when we built this auditorium you remember project 2000 that ring about any of you we're gonna raise all this money we wanted a we had this huge capital campaign and I don't know brother bill Newman knows all these figures 1.4 1.7 million dollars we actually got together up front in cash to build the building and I thought once again hey if I'm the pastor of this church I'm charging these people let's build this auditorium for God's work if I don't do it I'm a hypocrite so we didn't have really anything in the bank to look at but we made a pledge in faith we're gonna give $30,000 to the building campaign now that might as well have been 300,000 to be honest and it was tough for a while but you know where that money came from we had started saving money to build the new house we now live in and we put a bunch of money back to build that new house and so we just cleaned all that out and gave it to the building program of the church now here's what I'm gonna say I'm not saying anybody else is supposed to do that you're not less spiritual if you didn't or do not do those kind of things because I haven't done those kind of things in a long time all I'm saying to you when God impresses you and you do it it's amazing how he takes care of you so we gave our money for a down payment to build a new house and part of that motivation was because my accountant at the time his name's Ricky Kennedy a good brother good man he had been telling me for several years brother Jeff the church keeps up in your salary the church keeps being blessed he said you need to sink all the money you can in a house it's a great tax shelter especially for ordained ministers you may not know this ministers get an extra deduction nobody else gets and it's a huge huge blessing he said put all you can in a house so that's what we were trying to do but we gave that to the building program and in two years now here's the point after we gave our last dollar on that $30,000 above and beyond commitment the two years after that there were six different channels of financial blessing that came to us that enabled us to build the house we live in today channels you could have never figured out for just give you one real quick church member called me said pastor I know you love woods and I know you've thought about maybe investing in real estate one day if as a part of your retirement said I've got this family that lives in Georgia they've inherited some land up here in Calvert County and they've given me the price I think it's a great price do you want to buy that land well I had no idea what levels were that no concept so I called another church member who does that he looked at the land and said boy you better buy it so I didn't have any money so I went to the bank borrowed the money and bought the land month later I sold the timber too much later I sold the land and we had a huge pile of cash with the other five channels to put a very big large down payment on the house we've been living in for 21 years here's what I'm saying gives and it will be given to you good measure press down running over they will pour into your lap and you'll never be able to figure it out but now listen to me the hard attitudes foundational and I think God's also wants to know do you work hard do you spend responsibly do you invest wisely and do you give generously and I'm gonna tell you what it does it humbles you and you come to a point in your life I'm 41 almost 41 years into this thing now and you're you're you're you're generous and gracious to your staff and that's biblical and right and good but you realize you cannot explain my life based on my salary and what I give and what I have it's not explainable it doesn't work on paper it just doesn't work it ought to be said of all of us I can live like I live because I give like I give now are you listening to your pastor this morning my story is not supposed to be your story you may not just be supposed to do anything I've done I want to free you all I'm saying is you get with God and you honor him from your heart knowing that God for some reason gave us an abundance of specific promises that as a general rule he floods it back to us when we give and honor him first maybe some of you this year ought to do something super califragilisticexpialidocious on this offering just just something unusual just say Lord I love you I don't know maybe not I would charge all of you as I'm going to do it I don't I think every year we've always done this I'm gonna do at least a little more than last year in my faith commitment it may be five dollars it may be fifty dollars it may need to be five hundred thousand I don't know but I'd charge you can you do a little more than last year well how's our time doing I'm going to hurry Norman to the priority of giving the priority given giving is a real priority in our Christian discipleship and one of the primary reasons a is because it reveals the heart when you and you look at your bank account when you look at your checkbook when you look at how you respond when material stuff comes up it's a good checkup for what's Lord of your life or who's Lord of your life who's on the throne of your life it's just a good checkup I turned in my tithes and offerings this morning dropped it in one of those boxes and I'll just be honest I try to give generously and I my account it's sitting back there you ask him that this pastor give generously I think he'd say yes confident would but sometimes if I get to looking at those numbers too much I think God could back that off a bunch and do some other stuff but I need to do I need to give that you remember that doctor I told you about him while back there's a doctor who found that there's a nerve that wraps all around your heart and that nerve has a linkage it comes off that nerve and it goes down through your hip and it connects to your billfold you want to find a man's heart find out what that bill folds about and God knows that it's just a checkup it's a weekly checkup of Lord are you Lord God am I looking to you that's why I can bring these tithes and offerings because you're my source well tied closely to that in Matthew 6 21 is a good verse there where your treasure is there where your heart be also you find one you find the other where your treasure is there we heart be also well secondly it renovates the heart there's actually a spiritual discipline in giving that sanctifies you it grows you as a Christian it matures you in the faith God knew this and notice especially from the Old Testament these texts real real quick notice the first here on these verses the first and the best of the first notice those words Proverbs 3 9 honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce why the first because you need the exercise of putting God first with your giving to help your heart keep putting God first you see what you do helps what you are when you're a Christian number two near my 1035 and 36 in order that they might bring the first fruits of the ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the Lord annually and bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle the firstborn of our herds and I don't know we go what's the point here God we're gonna bring you the same it out God's I don't want just the amount I want to know that it's the first because you need that discipline you need that reminder it helps renovate your heart to put me first on and on we could go this isn't coincidental folks God has a purpose Exodus 34 26 and you shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your soul into the house of the Lord your God now this is a agricultural people they ate or starved based on it based on this year's crops but when the crop came in God said you can't put the first thing you harvest into your storehouse for your family to eat that's not that your heart's not right there you bring the first to my temple then I'll make sure that yours never runs out you need it renovates the heart it disciples you to put him first numbers 18 12 all the best not just the first but the best of the first all the best of the fresh oil all the best of the fresh wine and of the grain the first fruits of those which they gave to the Lord I give them to you now here in this context he's saying they're for the priest they're for the ministers you bring the best of the first to God's work he says Ezekiel 44 30 and the first of all the first fruits of every kind of every contribution of every kind and from all your contributions is that exhaustive enough shall be for the priest you shall also give to the priest the first of your dough now that's bread because a blessing to rest on your house look to cause a blessing to rest on your I don't know if you believe God or not but I like thinking if I honor the Lord if my heart's right with tithes and offerings in ways far greater and better than money he brings a blessing on my household and first Corinthians 16 to on the first day not the second there's a principle here on the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save as he may prosper that no collections be made when I come what's God saying God saying you need that exercise to remind you you're trusting me and looking to me well thirdly it meets the needs of the Lord's work it meets the needs of the local church we know that in actually in Scripture when you look at the New Testament there are only two basic things that the the offerings of the early church were concerned with the pastors and the poor the church was in gay encountering rather great hardships and persecutions and difficulties and there are lots of folks who just needed food to eat so they gave their money to support their pastors but also to take care of one another with special and difficult needs Roman 3 the pleasures of giving the pleasures of giving you've heard the phrase give till it hurts that's ridiculous Christians don't give till it hurt that's ridiculous that's what pagans would do Christians give out of joy have you ever heard me say give what you can give with joy you know I say that because I mean that if it's one dollar one million do what you can do with joy there is a pleasure in giving if you give till it hurts if that's the case don't give it all God does not want your begrudging gift he doesn't want it he doesn't need it the scripture teaches though that there is great pleasure one of them I'll call immediate pleasure there's an immediate pleasure that happens when we give our tithes and offerings or maybe you just give to bless a brother and sister in Christ who has a special need second Corinthians nine seven but let each one do justice he's purposed in his heart not grudgingly or into compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver you've heard it before the word cheerful means hilarious it does something to me when I bring my tithes and offerings our special gift and give it to bring a sweet pleasure and a joy to my heart and oh no that only works for the child of God it only works for the child of God Proverbs 10 verse 3 reminds us the Lord will not allow the righteous to hunger but he will thrust aside the cravings of the wicked he'll not allow those who put first his kingdom to hunger he's gonna take care of us the bottom line is folks he's my source he is my source there's joy and there's pleasure in giving because he's my source and so when I give and it speaks to my heart afresh and it reminds my heart you're looking to the Lord to take care of you and then I think about the Lord I think about oh my goodness the one who came for me the one who died for me the one who suffered and bled for me the one who faithfully intercedes for me the one who pledged the totality of his being to keep me secure and bring me to glorification I don't know about you but that gives me pleasure to think on him as my source not that company I work for not that stock investment I've got that's all good and wise we should do those things but he is our source but lastly there's a growing pleasure as we have seasons of giving generously and joyously it brings us to a new level of maturity it develops a spiritual character in us that produces an increasing listen and lasting pleasure in God again money is a great tool but it is a dangerous tool and God knows it takes many years of training for you to find pleasure in your money and not be hurt by the dangers associated with money and giving is the greatest way God has found to keep his children's hearts right so that they will not hurt themselves but rather bless and help themselves now you may be sitting here you may be begrudging what I'm saying here's what I want to say to you don't worry about it keep it do what you want I'm not beating you up I'm talking to God's children about the blessings he's given us I'm not beating you up if you don't belong to him and don't want to do this amen it that's that's twin you and and your God the dangers of money proverbs 28 22 those who hasten after wealth want will come upon them first Timothy 3 3 says be free from the love of money first Timothy 6 10 those who love money pierce themselves with many a grief or pain Luke 12 15 even when one has an abundance our life does not consist of that advantage it doesn't consist of the stuff we have though God may let us have a lot of stuff and there's nothing wrong with enjoying it but it's not our joy proverbs 30 verse 8 don't let me be rich or poor give me what I can handle basically that's what that's saying God you know where I am don't let me have so much it becomes an idol and gets in the way of my devotion to you some of you the best thing you could do is God's blessed you the best thing you could do is do something big for God to get your heart back right well true financial success is when God provides your needs and most likely if you've been faithful in these biblical principles he provides more than your needs you have an abundance and that's true of all American Christians basically true financial success is when God provides our needs and likely in abundance because you honored him through hard work responsible spending wise investing and generous giving and this abundance is enjoyed but it's never enslaving it's a blessing but it's never possessing that is true financial success now when we come to our faith commitment this year what's most important heart attitude Lord I love you and I want to strive to make the kind of faith commitment that puts first the kingdom of God in his righteousness knowing you're my source you're my provision and he promised all these things shall be added unto you here's what's interesting some people are missing out on significant financial it gain because they've never learned to put first the kingdom and God's just gonna let you scratch until you learn to do that and on the other hand if in the Providence of God Jeff Noblitt and all of us come to almost nothing to be devoted to Christ praise his name do I want to do that anybody want sign up for that today I don't but if that's God's will then praise his name amen then we'll just get a bunch of chickens and hogs and we'll just slaughter them and pluck them and feed each other and do what we got to do but you know you can have joy there too because he's our joy