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ltw.org. I love that statement made by one of the great missionary statesmen of yesteryear, E. Stanley Jones. E. Stanley Jones put it this way. He said, You cannot serve God and mammon, but you can serve God with mammon.
Thank you for joining listeners all around the world for Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef. When a pastor or a church leader serves up the topic of finances or generosity, people usually kind of bristle. They're thinking, here it comes. They want my wallet. I can't give any more.
Don't they know how tough it is out there? Well, on today's Leading the Way audio, Dr. Yusef helps you understand that generosity is not just about the wallet. It's a deep response to God's amazing grace. Challenging you now to begin living generously.
Here's pastor and author, Dr. Michael Yusef. There is one thing that is certain, and it is this. Your view of money makes all the difference in the world regarding your view of the Lord.
Let me repeat this. Your view of money makes all the difference in the world regarding your view of the Lord. Money and serving is a very effective barometer for our spiritual temperature.
Why? Because money is neutral. Money can be used by evil ends, can be used by righteous people for righteous ends. As a matter of fact, I love that statement made by one of the great missionary statesmen of yesteryear, E. Stanley Jones. E. Stanley Jones put it this way. He said, you cannot serve God and mammon, but you can serve God with mammon.
Amen? Money is minted personality. Money is the distillation of our time and energy and labor. And giving of ourselves and giving of our money often go together. And this is why the Macedonians, Paul said about them, he said, they gave of themselves to the Lord first, then to us from their resources. See, the Bible makes it very clear, very clear, particularly in Deuteronomy 8, 18. It is God who gives you the power to make wealth.
Without him, you've had it. 1 Timothy 6, 17 tells us that God richly supplies us with all things for our enjoyment. The people who don't understand biblical view of money, they are the very people who see giving as just another obligation. But in reality, for those who know the grace of God, giving is a singular privilege.
Giving is a priceless privilege because it is the pipeline which God uses to bring about God's promised blessings to his faithful children. And that is why in Luke 6, 38, Jesus said, give and it will be given to you, shaken together and running over. That's the promise of Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 9, 6, Paul said, whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly. But whoever sows generously is going to reap generously. See generous living and generous giving to God results from greater giving of God to his faithful children. The promises of God regarding generous living and generous giving should stimulate believers to sacrificially give more.
But sadly, with the power of advertising and with our proclivity to self-indulgence and to lack of faith, and why do I say lack of faith? The reason people don't live generously according to their ability and beyond their ability is because they don't trust that God is going to provide tomorrow. So they're accumulated because they're not trusting God who provided yesterday and today will provide tomorrow. You see, it's lack of faith that keeps people from experiencing the full blessings that God really wants to give them.
And it's sad. Let's look at this group of believers that Paul is talking about here in 2 Corinthians 8. These people took God at his word.
They believed the promise of God. And in verse 1 he said, and now brothers, he's writing to the Corinthians, not to the Macedonians. He's talking about the Macedonians to the Corinthians.
I'm going to explain this in a minute. He said, now brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. You see, the Corinthians to whom Paul is writing, they are like our modern-day Christians.
They were big talkers, little walkers. They were braggers regarding all the spiritual gifts, but puny givers. And so Paul uses the generosity of another group of believers in Macedonia to stir them up into action. But that's exactly what Jesus did, and we saw that in the first message with the widow who gave everything. Jesus used her and through generations of 2000 years to stir up people in expressing the love for God.
He was challenging them by what the Macedonians have done. Remind me a story of this bivocational pastor in a small village in a farming community. He was a farmer during the week and then he was a pastor on Sundays. Actually, I've preached in many churches in the Midwest and in Canada where those farming pastors, bivocational pastors, but this particular pastor had a member of his congregation who was absolutely a big talker.
Very little doer. And so one day I went to visit him. And he said, whatever his name was, and he said, would you love Jesus enough to tithe? And the man said, I love Jesus enough to give him half of what I've got.
He said, really? You mean if you have 100 horses, you'll give Jesus 50? He said, yes, sir. He said, if you have 100 cows, would you give Jesus 50 cows?
He said, absolutely, yes, sir. And then this farmer preacher leaned over to the other farmer and he said to him, if you have two pigs, would you give Jesus one? Upon which the farmer snapped. And he said, cut that out, pastor. You know I have two pigs. Yeah.
Don't get close. The Corinthians were like that. They were bragging about their ability to speak in tongues and this one said, I speak more in tongues than he does.
I got these gifts and I got more gifts than he does. And they were really messed up and fighting among each other over spiritual gifts. And that's why Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in chapter 13, particularly about love.
And then 14, he talks about the most important gift. They were bragging about the supernatural abilities and the miracles and all these things that they can do. But they were very short on sacrificial giving that comes out of a loving heart in response to the free grace of God.
And Paul said, in a use of translation, let's cut out that gibberish and let's get down to where the rubber mitzvah wrote. And so, let me tell you about these believers in Macedonia. These believers in Macedonia were so overwhelmed by the fact that they were saved by grace, that their sins were forgiven, that they did not talk but they walked. They did not brag but they gave. They did not complain and fuss and fumed and criticized.
They became extremely generous. You know the reason why people are not overwhelmed by the grace of God? Because they really think they were not all that bad when they were saved. That's really the problem in America. America evangelicals, they think they were just not too bad.
They were just a little bad. They understand the incredible, incredible teaching of the word of God about the original sin and the total depravity of man. And that's why they're not overwhelmed by the grace of God. And even people now preaching, hey, you know, just take Jesus along as your friend.
You don't have to change your life, just take him along the road. Are you a Christian? These believers in Macedonia, they understood that they were redeemed sinners, the rebellious sinners. In fact, both in chapter 8 and chapter 9 in 2 Corinthians, Paul mentions the grace in relationship to giving six times in those two chapters alone.
Six times. What Paul is saying here is this. Sacrificial giving that is in response to God's grace is honoring to God.
That's number one. And you see that in verse 2. Secondly, he is saying a sacrificial giving that is in response to the grace of God gets God's blessing. Verse 5. And thirdly, he is saying that sacrificial giving that is in response to God's grace is being an imitator of God. Verse 9.
Let's look at these very quickly. Generous living in response to God's grace, saving grace, that is unmerited favor is honoring to God. Look at verse 2. Out of the most severe trial, welled up rich generosity. There are three incongruous things, three characteristics of their giving that are contradictory from the human nature's point of view. You say why? Look at them again. Verse 2. Severe trials. And the second one is overflowing joy.
And thirdly, extreme poverty. I mean now you've got a combination that does not make sense. Because when everything is blowing in your face, when you are facing trials from every side, and you joyfully and generously give of yourself and your resources, that is not natural. That is supernatural. Not only that, but God never, never, never forgets this kind of giving. Why? Because the natural reaction when we are going through tough times in life, when we're going through difficulties in life, when we're facing severe problems in life and difficult circumstances, the natural thing is to react this way. Oh man, I've got my fair share of problems to worry about somebody else. I have my plate for right now to really be concerned about the work of God.
I am not in any shape to help anybody. That's the natural reaction. I know that experientially and I know you do too. But who in the world said that we're supposed to live in the natural? The Bible said we have to live in the what?
Supernatural. Which reminds me actually of a true story of a wealthy man in a town that was known for his wealth and he got a visit from a man who headed up an urban ministry that is working with the poor. And the man went to him and asked if he would support the ministry. And the man said, man, I've got so many problems right now.
I can give you a dime. And the man was about to leave. He said, no, wait a minute. He said, for example, did you know that my father is about to be foreclosed on?
You know, my mother needs a surgery. You know, my brother is injured in a car accident. Did you know that my brother in law will go to prison if he doesn't come up with the cash? By that time, this guy, the head of this ministry to the poor, I mean, he was feeling terrible. He kept apologizing. He said, I'm so sorry. I did not know about these tough circumstances.
Please forgive me. But then the wealthy man continued. He said, well, if I'm not going to give any one of them a single dime, what makes you think that I'm going to support your ministry? This man does not know the grace of God.
Does not know the grace of God. Now, in contrast, that was Sam Houston, the man after whom the city of Houston, Texas is named. When he came out of the water baptism, he announced to the congregation standing there by the water, he said, I'm going to double the church's budget so they can give to missions.
And somebody asked him why. He said, because when I got baptized, my wallet got baptized too. You see, Paul is saying the trials of the Macedonians, the tough times have been going through, made them more generous, not less. The trials of the Macedonians made them more sensitive to the needs of God's work, not less.
The trials of the Macedonians made them more compassionate, not less. And that is why Paul said, out of the most severe trials, they had overflowing joy. The greatest joy, their greatest joy, listen carefully, stems from knowing that they have been forgiven, that they've been eternally forgiven, that they have been transformed from darkness to light. They have been transformed from hell to heaven. They have been transformed from death to life.
They have been transformed. And my beloved friends, that eclipses every problem you and I face. And that is why generous living that stems out of thankfulness to God's grace is honoring to God. But secondly, generous giving that is a response to God's grace is blessed by God. Verse 5, they did not do what we expect, but they gave themselves first, then they gave their resources. You know, I truly been a blessed man that through the years of ministry, I have known some of the great stewards, truly great stewards, all across the world. And I can tell you this, without exception, without one exception, the more they sacrificed to the Lord, the more God provided and he even overwhelmed them with his provision.
Seen it too many times and I know you do too. In giving generously, in gratitude to God's grace, the Macedonians discovered the secret of God's blessing. First they gave of themselves. That's why I often say whenever I preach on stewardship, I say this message may be premature to some of you because if you have not given your life to Jesus Christ, it's not going to mean it. You're going to keep niggling and damning God and you think you're the last of the big spenders. But you got to give God your heart first. You got to give your heart to God totally, completely, wholly to the Lord.
And until you do that, you will never understand this principle. Larry Brackett, he said, there is no way a person can claim to be truly born again. That does not give God at least the tithe. When he used to hear these statistics of 45 million born again in America, he will literally shake his head and mutters not even five percent. For that's about how many people tithe to the Lord.
Think about it. What does it mean to give yourself fully to Christ? Trusting him completely with your eternity.
How can you going to trust God with your eternity when you don't trust him with the money that he gave you? See, when we give generously in gratitude to God's grace, we're honoring God. When we give generously in gratitude to God's grace, we get the blessing of God. And thirdly, when we give generously in gratitude to God's grace, we are imitating our God. Listen to verse 9.
For you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich and yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich. What's the Bible saying here? He's saying that before his incarnation, our Lord Jesus Christ was in the presence of the Father in heaven, in the heavenly realm. There in the Godhead, he was robed with splendor and with glory, with majesty and with wealth and power and untold riches, everything in the universe.
What has his beacon called? And yet he willingly, deliberately, joyfully, lovingly, he laid it all aside, laid all his wealth aside, laid all his splendor aside, he laid all of his wealth aside so that he come to earth and live like a homeless and die on a cross the death of a criminal so that you and I and everyone who would turn to him for salvation, to have eternal life, be sharers of the wealth of Jesus for eternity. So what does that mean to you and me? You see, when we intentionally live generously, we are actually imitating Jesus.
That's what he did. When you live generously, you are imitating Jesus. When you postpone that unnecessary expensive item to give to the work and the needs of God's people, you are imitating Jesus. When you take that thing which you prize the most, you idealize the most and the Lord speaking to you about it and hand it over, you are imitating Jesus. Dr. Michael Yusef challenging you to imitate Jesus in everything on this passionately delivered edition of Leading the Way.
It's one part of his life-changing series called Living Generously. Oh, and Dr. Yusef returns in just a moment to close out this episode with an example of living generously. So stay with us.
You will not want to miss that. Now, as we enter these last days of 2024, we want to make sure we give a thank you for listening to Standing with Dr. Yusef and Leading the Way. We never want to take for granted that Leading the Way is a partnership between those who have like passions to reach the world with the truth of Jesus. So we thank you for your partnership with Dr. Yusef. It's because of your support in 2024 that Leading the Way continued to point fear-filled people to peace, peace found only in Christ during the many challenging days that we've experienced. We're honored to impact lives across six continents in 28 of the world's most spoken languages by way of media, technology, and through one-on-one faith conversations worldwide.
Take a moment. Learn about the broad scope of the ministry that Leading the Way maintains when you click around ltw.org. Or, of course, you can always call a ministry representative at 866-626-4356.
Do that today. And consider joining others in becoming a partner, deepening your engagement with the ministry. Now, as mentioned, here is Dr. Michael Yusef to put a bow on today's message through an example of living generously. All of us probably are familiar, if not most of us, with the familiar hymn that Frances Havergar wrote.
Take my life and let it what? Consecrate it, Lord. We all know the song. She wrote it and people were singing it. And then several years after she wrote this song, the Holy Spirit was nudging her, speaking to her. Frances, you know that exquisite jewelry box that you have that means so much to you that you idealize?
Give it to me. And she resisted for a number of years. Lord, but you know the value of this. Lord, you know what that means to me.
But the Lord kept nudging her. Have a girl. Give that to me. You might not go for jewelry, neither do I.
But whatever it is, you're idle. Only you know it, because I know mine. Finally, she surrendered to the voice of the Holy Spirit. And she took this beautiful jewelry collection in a box and wrapped it and walked down to the office of CMS. CMS is the Church Missionary Society and she handed it to them. And then she went home.
And after she delivered that idol out of her life, she sat down and wrote this stanza, which was written much later than the hymn itself. Take my silver and my gold. Not a mite would I withhold. Let me ask you this. Are you withholding something from God? See, only you know that. Has God been speaking to you about being set free to living generously and you have been resisting?
Remember this. God is honored by generous living. God blesses generous living. For ultimately, you are imitating of Jesus. And beloved, just think about this. If we say that this life is a dress rehearsal for eternity, we will be with Jesus forever. Not 60, 70, 80, 90, even 100 years. Eternity.
Forever. And if this is a dress rehearsal, and the dress rehearsal is to be Christ-like, you are no more Christ-like than when you say, Lord, nothing I withhold from you. Live generously and be set free. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef, passionately proclaiming the uncompromising truth of God's Word around the world. Finette further with audio and video content at ltw.org or through your favorite social media platform, including YouTube, Facebook, X, previously called Twitter, Instagram, and more.
