How To Be A Joyful Steward

That third time, we've talked about how we can be driving the storage of the medical base of God. You know, it is a great pleasure to look at the world and see what God says about our storage ship, and specifically about giving. I have come to believe that sometimes I'm giving them it really changes, they're not giving it and to give it. And to me, the purpose of preaching on giving is always to encourage others. I read a thing this past week by an old lawyer, Octogenarian pastor, who seen a lot. These are my words, but I kind of agree with them in my short span of ministry. He says, I have never known a generous person to complain about how much money it takes to run a church. Poor givers gripe about how much it takes, but generous givers express concern that they don't do more.

I've never known a family who tithe for any length of time, who quit. I've never known a generous family that was not generally happy. I've never known a stingy miserly family that was not generally unhappy about many things. I've never known a person who was critical of most things, mad about many things, who was generous. I've never known a person who was critical of most things. I just read that. I could repeat that, actually. I have come to believe that most people who feel we talk too much about money really never really want to talk about money at all. And generous people enjoy talking about it. I've come to believe that there is a direct connection that exists between a person's faith and a person's generosity.

Those who give generously tend to become more faithful, and their reverse is true in both instances. It's an interesting thing in our culture to see what motivates people to give. If you watch the trend of things, ministries who have to constantly be raising money are getting much more aggressive. You've probably gotten phone calls from ministries, national ministries, if you've ever given to one. They're in the habit now of calling you and talking about your continued future support of that ministry and so forth. It's very common to give premiums when you give to a ministry. If you will give a $25 gift, you'll get a free book that may cost you $15 at the bookstore. The thing is, it motivates you a little bit more to give.

It seems like we need these little nudges all the time. I read it before, this is actually in the late 80s when someone did this study. It's an actual study they did that they looked at giving habits of church members in the United States. And this is what they said that if every single church member in the United States was to go on welfare and start tithing their income, that is giving 10%. That's what the word tith means. It just means 10%. They started tithing on their welfare income. Churches would immediately increase their giving by over 30%. Somebody said everybody is willing to give God credit, but a lot of people won't give him any cash. And there's some truth to that. People are always looking for ways to motivate people to give more.

I heard this old story, and these kinds of stories are multitudes. You can find however, about this lady, a little old lady who was a very soft touch for panhandlers. And she happened to see this guy standing on the street. She thought he was begging. He was dressed in shabby clothes, so she walked up to him and she pressed $5 into his hand. And she said, Godspeed, and smiled at him and walked away. The next day, this guy showed up at her door, and he says, here's your $100. Godspeed came in first and played 21. Well, they take the motor they use to beat a giver in the kingdom of God. Well, he looked at so far as the fact that the Bible pictures us as stewards. We were created as stewards. We were called when we were called with a gospel.

We became stewards of the manifold grace of God. And there's a day of accountability in which we were given account of our stewardship, both believer and nonbeliever, before the living God. What I want to do today is to take an overall look at 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. We've looked at a couple of spots and details. They just want to take an overall look at it and give you 7 principles or 7 things that must go on their life for you to become a joyful steward of the manifold grace of God. Which includes a lot more than your money, by the way. It includes your whole life. Somebody was mentioning to me this morning that a lot of people are much more able and willing to give money than themselves. And of course, that's true.

And that's Paul's point in 7 Corinthians 8, when he talks about the Macedonians, that they gave abundantly, but they first gave themselves. But I want you to notice these 7 things that Paul mentions in this passage about what is necessary in order for us to be joyful stewards of the manifold grace of God. And as you know, a steward is one who's been appointed to dispense the supplies of the master of the household. We are all part of a household. And God dispenses his goods through us. It's an amazing programming has. He could just drop his resources out of the sky, but in his wisdom, he has determined and planned and purposed that his resources would come through fellow believers into the lives of those who are in need.

But notice these elements in this text. First of all, Paul says that we have to be full of the joy and God in order to be joyful stewards of the manifold grace of God. He says in verse 2, either the most severe trial, and he's referred to the Macedonians who were going through a great trial of persecution, remember Paul was driven out of every church in Macedonia. He was thrown in jail or beaten and driven out of town. And when he loved the persecution continued. These Christians lived under persecution from day one of their faith in Jesus Christ. And so they were going through a severe trial, but also notice there was extreme poverty. They were going through a time in which their poverty was great.

And that there was a problem that Paul was coming to them for a gift, for them to give to support the believers in Jerusalem who were going through a very tough ordeal. They always did it from the very beginning, from the day of Pentecost. You have all these Christians, 3,000 people turned to Christ on the day of Pentecost. And most of these people were not from Jerusalem. They were from somewhere else. They had come to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost, the speech festival, and they came to faith in Christ. And so they stayed in Jerusalem. And before along the church is multiplied into many thousands of people. And many of them were from other parts of the world. And so there was always struggle from the beginning.

The reason that they were appointed deacons in the church in Acts 6 is because there was a need to dispense the goods of the church to meet the needs of people. And so he brings this need to them. And these Macedonian believers who are going through a time of great struggle themselves financially, is he points with them in their response as an example of what a joyful steward of the manifold grace of God is. And faith says that of the most severe trial. They're overflowing joy and their extreme poverty wired up in rich generosity. As I said last week, it's almost like a chemical reaction. You put together severe trial, extreme poverty, and overwhelming joy in God, and it produces rich generosity.

Now you could remove those other two things, the severe trial and the extreme poverty, because the key element here is overflowing joy. That's really the key. People who are full of joy in God are givers. It's just a fact. Once a person gets full of the joy of God, when the joy of God begins to control their heart, it makes givers out of them. In this case, it made beggars out of these Macedonians. They begged Paul to allow them to participate in this gift, even though they gave beyond their ability. They needed the money themselves, and yet they wanted, because of their joy in God, to be a part of this gift to their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. In 1st Peter chapter 1, why don't you turn there a second?

Because here's a simple, one of the simplest places and scriptures that tells you how the joy of God is produced in the heart of the believer. There's a whole lot of believers who aren't full of joy. Now they should be, but we need them all the time. People who are not full of the joy of the Lord. Now they have been, and they will begin. The reason is this. Notice in 1st Peter chapter 1, in this you greatly rejoice. And what he's just mentioned is this great work of salvation in Christ Jesus that has invaded their lives. And he says, in this salvation, you greatly rejoice. Now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith, a greater worth than gold, which perishes, even though we find by fire, may be proved genuine.

And the result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. He says, God brings allows trials to come into your life in order to refine your faith, to purify your faith. So that the genuine part of your faith will produce these kinds of effects. And then he tells us the function of faith, refine faith in the life of the believer. That genuine part of your faith, and he's picturing your faith as though it's like a big chunk of gold or all mixed up with other stuff in it. So it's not pure faith that needs to be refined. But he says, as your faith is refined, that refined part, that genuine part of your faith produces something in your life. Your ability to trust the living God, to believe His Word, to believe His promises, to receive this revelation of Himself in Christ Jesus.

Notice what it produces. Though you have not seen Him, and though I remember who's writing this, this is the Apostle Peter who did see Him. This is the Apostle Peter who was with Him for three and a half years. He knew what it looked like. He saw Him after the resurrection, but He's writing to people who have never seen Christ like you and me. Nobody in this room has seen Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. You love someone you've never seen. And even though you do not see Him now, you are believing in Him and you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. See, exercising faith in Jesus Christ.

This is why God wants your faith to be refined. As you exercise faith in Christ in your daily life, it produces joy. Because it produces a union and communion with Christ that delights the heart. And Paul says, a joyful steward is produced first of all by coming under the influence of joy in God. I was talking to someone a couple of days ago about how we live in a culture now that is so entertainment oriented that it is an amazing thing. That 24 hours a day you can be entertained. You can be amused. We have an entertainment centered culture now. And yet there is such a lack of joy. The only thing that's going to bring joy to church is not entertainment. It's not a better band. It's not a whole lot of things.

It is the presence of Jesus Christ, the manifest presence of Christ. And because that's true, God sent the Spirit in order to mediate the manifest presence of Jesus Christ among His people. Because God wants us to be full of joy. And so Paul says the first thing that must be there, if we are going to be joyful stewards of the manifold grace of God, is joy in God, overflowing joy in God. The second thing he mentions in verses 6-9 is to follow Christ's example. We must be very conscious that in our giving we are following the example of Jesus Christ. You remember verse 9 of 2 Corinthians chapter 8 for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, richer than anyone has ever been beyond measure.

Yet for your sakes He became poor, poor than you can imagine, so that you through His poverty might become rich. Jesus Christ heard other than the words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me on the cross so that you would never believe or have to utter those words. He became poor, that you could be rich and He says this is to be the pattern of our giving. Philippians chapter 2 which we looked at last week, pictures the giving of Christ of Himself as pouring Himself out. He emptied Himself. He gave Himself completely and this is what Paul said about the Macedonians, they first gave themselves. And then out of that self giving they gave of their substance, neager as it was. The third thing Paul speaks of is the fact that we had to follow a thoughtful plan in our giving, in our stewardship.

In verse 11 he says, now finish the work, he has told them you made this promise over a year ago. In fact if you would look back to 1 Corinthians chapter 16 again, I want you to notice something, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, just a few pages back. Paul ends his letter to the Corinthians, his first letter chapter 16 begins this way. Now about the correction for God's people and speaking about this offering that's to go down to Jerusalem and the environs around there. Do I told Revelation churches to do? On the first day of every week each one of you should set aside the sum of money and keeping with his income, saving it up so that when I come no collections will have to be made. Then when I arrive I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem.

And if it seems advisable for me to go also they will accompany me. Also as you ought to give according to a plan, in other words you ought to plan to give and then follow the plan. And in this passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 he talks about this planned kind of giving. It isn't a deed by impulse. Now there's nothing wrong with giving impulsively at times for sure. But our giving is to be a planned part of our Christian life. We had a plan to be good stewards of the manifold grace of God and to be conduits of that grace as it pours out through us into the lives and ministries of others. So we should follow a thoughtful plan. Do you plan to give? When you sit down to do your budgeting and I know all of you work according to a budget I can tell by the looks on your face.

When you sit down to do your budget for the year do you decide how much you're going to give to the work of Christ here and around the world? Where to follow a plan and then to fulfill the plan. And then he says we have to participate in responsible corporate efforts. In other words the church is called to work together in the support of the leaders in need around the world and ministries around the world. Both here and around the world were to do it as a corporate work. He says in verses 20 and 21 we want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. In other words there was an administration of this gift. Paul's very careful he sends Titus and he sends another approved man to receive the gift from them that they said they wanted to give.

And they received the gift and they're held in high confidence. That's the reason we ordained beacons in local churches because they're the men who can be trusted. But the resource is the church to dispense them where they're really needed. And so there should be a corporate effort in giving. Not just me giving privately an individual but joining with other believers with their local church and giving to meet the needs that is brought to us. For we are taking pains to do what is right not only in the eyes of the world but also in the eyes of men. The church ought to be willing for anyone to come in and audit their books. The church ought to be willing for anyone to allow anyone that has a right and a need to do that to look at the way we handle money.

We're going to do it in a way that is right before the eyes of the Lord and also the eyes of men. To give an accounting of how we handle the gifts of the people of God to promote the work of God around the world. And then he says we should resist covetousness. In verse 5 he says so I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance. He's coming to get this gift. They want him to come by to get the gift. But what he is concerned about is that when he gets there they would have not already thought through this and accomplished this work. They said they were going to do it. And so he says I'm sending them ahead. Titus in this other brother that he does not name. To visit you in advance and to finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised.

Then it will be ready as a generous gift and not as one grudgingly given. I quoted one of the church fathers last week who said if you're afraid that you're giving to the work of God. Is somehow going to destroy your life and keep you from having everything you need then by all means don't give. You should give when you are full of joy. You can give not grudgingly but with generosity. The kind of generosity that Jesus Christ gave his own life for us then by all means give all you want. Because that's the most important thing to the living God is your motivation and giving. The most important thing to God in regards to your giving is what is your motivation? What are you being motivated by? And then strictly he says chipily give what you can.

No, chipily give what you can trust God to supply. This is an amazing passage of Scripture. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 9. In fact I'll put it up here for you. Verse 6 he says remember this. Where is so sparingly will also reap sparingly. Now that's just the fact if you want a healthy lawn you saw a lot of seed. If you're stingy with the seed you know this grass seed is really expensive. And so you drop a seed about every foot every square foot in your yard. Let me tell you you're going to reap sparingly. And so he says the farmer knows this. Whoever is so sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever says generously will reap generously. Now some people read this. In fact the whole health and wealth gospel movement they read this in such a way that says if you want to really get back from your giving then give a lot and you'll get a lot back.

But that's not the point of this passage at all. These Macedonians are so clear the process of I hate to take your money to give to others. What he's talking about is something else. That what you will reap is far greater than what you saw. See that's the principle of selling in God's ordained system. That you saw before you reap. You reap more than you saw. And you reap after you saw. And he's saying here when you saw there's going to be a crop. That crop is going to be far greater and more important than money. Because you're investing in something far greater. He says each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give. Not what your arm has been twisted to give, not what you've been manipulated to give, but what you have decided in your own heart to give.

Not reactively or under compulsion. Not because you can't help but give into the appeal. Not with great reluctance. For God, this is the reason. This last place here is a purpose clause. This is why you don't give that way. It's because God loves a cheerful giver. The Greek word here, cheerful, is the Greek word helosterion. Is that sound familiar? Helosterion? Hilarious? It means with deep satisfaction. Somebody said there would be a lot of laughter around the giving box. Because God wants us to give with cheerfulness. He wants us to give because we can't wait to give. Because He has blessed us. We've trusted Him to give us seed to sow. And we can't wait to sow. Don't give gradually. Get cheerfully.

You can't give cheerfully. Where will you get cheerful and then give? I'm probably really cutting my throat on it. I think He's going to take a cutting thing. But that's how God feels about it. God loves a cheerful giver. He loves for you to give. Not because you've been manipulated, talked into something. Given the strong arm, but rather, because you are full of the joy of God. And you know He's given you so much you could never give it back. But you pray that He will give you seed to sow. That you can invest in ministries all around the world. I mean, think of it. You can get money to invest in children in the Philippines. Who sit under the word of God and are taught by people who love Christ and love the gospel and willing to lay down their lives to do this ministry.

You can support that. You can actually sow into that so that you will reap from that crop. And those lives. We'll say that God is able to make all grace around you so that in all things at all times have an all that you need, you will abandon every good work. Now that is a quite a statement, isn't it? You see that? God is able to make all grace around to you so that in all things at all times have an all that you need, you will abandon every good work. God is able to give you the seed to sow a crop that will reap a spiritual bounty. See, this thing is so much better than the health and wealth gospel. That is that if you give a lot, you'll get a lot. It says you can unveil things in the work of Christ, in the kingdom of God, and you will reap spiritual eternal effects.

Can you think of a better investment? There is no better investment than that. As it is written, he has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness and doers forever. God is the one who is making us able to give. And it passes through our lives into the lives of other people so that we can be blessed in the giving. Now, he will supply seed to the seller. Who is it that gives seed to the farmer? Oh, it's God. God is the one. God is the one who has created this earth in such a way that you can sow seed and see a crop come up. And he says the one who supply seed to the seller in bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

I think this is the most amazing plan there is that I can actually give money, plan it as a seed, and it's going to reap a spiritual crop of righteousness. And I can actually invest in the kingdom of God. I can invest material things in the kingdom of God. That's an amazing principle. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. You who are givers, I would like to encourage you that when you give, you are not even aware of it, but when you give. And that seed is planted and that money goes to support the work of the gospel in many different places. There is an outcry among people who give thanks to God.

That's the crop. And God knows who that seed passed through to be planted. And you know what God says, I will increase your joy in this and therefore I'll give you all the seed you want. And that's really the principle. The principle is this, if you don't want to sell, God will give you the seed. I don't think, I think that's indisputable. I don't even know this text and there is no doubt about it, that is exactly what the Apostle Paul is saying. You can give all that you can trust God to supply. Please don't give with your Visa card. Don't go and borrow $200,000 in your house to give. Trust God to supply the seed, not the credit, but the seed so that you can sell. But I would like to ask you something, have you asked God to give you the seed?

This is a scary thing for people to do because I can tell you what happens. When people begin to see this principle, when believers see this principle, when givers, those who have already experienced the germ, experience the germ giving, they've already, that's already a part of their Christian life. They've entered into this and they've experienced it and they see this principle. They begin to ask God to give them seed so they can sell. They hear about a need and they say, God, I would love to give to that need. If you would supply the money, I'll give it. And it's a scary thing because God starts supplying the money. And then you know what the temptation is, don't you? You ask God to supply the seed, the seed comes, and then you think, oh man, I can really use this.

We're the guy, a missionary I've told the story before. A wonderful guy, he said, one time he was down here on vacation. Well, they actually come down here and put their chairs. Even they got up one year from Oregon. The missionary was with me to the million dollars to do a work in this huge training camp they had. It was really run down and they decided they had to rebuild this thing. And so he said, he was asking the Lord, how could I give to this? How could I see this money coming? Can you use me? And he said that he went into a grocery store down here, a quick stop, something. And then he saw the lottery tickets there for sale. And he thought, you know, it was like, I forget what it was. It was four and a half million dollars or something.

And he thought, you know what? Lord, if I won that lottery, I'd give that money to the mission. Four and a half million dollars. So he bought the lottery ticket. I don't think he ever told a mission about buying the lottery ticket, but he bought the lottery ticket. And he said, he went out of the store, he got this car, and then he said, his heart was just jumping. God made, give me this four and a half million dollars. And I can give to the mission. He said, he drove out of money, I think, and you know what? All they need is a million. You know, Lord, if you let me win this four and a half million, I'll give two million to the mission. And he said before, he was five miles down the road. He decided that he was only going to give the mission a million and keep the three and a half.

You know, that's our temptation, isn't it? Actually, I started asking God to give me seed to sow. When I started opening my eyes to the thought that the work of the gospel is going on all around the world, it is unbelievable. What a part. You can have simply through a financial, financially supporting missions around it. Well, just an amazing thing. That there are people willing to give their lives to the work of the gospel. And you can support them. It's just amazing. And Paul says, if you're willing to ask God to give you seed, he'll give you all the seed that you want to sow. I used to have these things. What I would do is I would think about the kind of giving on good. I would think of these different things in my life.

You know, God, what I like to do is I like to be able to give more than the government takes from me. When that be a great goal for you is to ask God to work in your life in such a way that you could give more to the Kingdom of God and give to the United States government. I tell somebody about the other day and they just laugh. That's impossible. It's much easier to complain about the tax rate, isn't it? Then actually ask God to empower me to give more. I used to have a girl. For a while that I was wanting to directly support missionaries and I kept asking, let me support 10 missionaries. And it started to scare me because he actually began to enable me to give and support missionaries. See, I think our biggest problem is it's scary to us to think that God would actually respond in this way.

Not make us rich. Just make us able to give and to give in significant ways. If you want to sow, God will supply the seed. I don't have any doubt about that whatsoever. I could tell you a million stories about people who have given far beyond the means simply because they begin to ask God to empower them to give. You know, once you're a giver, you can never turn back. Charles Satton Spurgeon was an incredible giver. And one time he, here's a man who his sermons are being published all over the world. In newspapers and books and so forth. Well, here's why they had chickens. His wife took care of these chickens and they sold the eggs. And somebody complained that they, why would they sell the eggs when they knew there were so many poor people around that they could simply give the eggs to?

Somebody actually publicly criticized them for that. Can you imagine? Well, that he didn't even say in response and was only, only came to be known when his son wrote his biography, is that all the money from those eggs went to support a missionary on the field. See, they were unrepentant givers. And that's what God will do to you. That's really the scary thing about it. It will actually change your value system. We read this morning, we heard this morning in March 14th. Here is this crazy woman who's got her value system turned upside down, that she's rolling the poor out a year's wages on the head of Jesus just to show her that she loves him. What kind of craziness is that, the Bible said? Did he give that money to the poor?

See, she had an upside down turned around value system. What in the world would happen to us as the people of God, if all of a sudden he began to change our value system? That we actually valued the kingdom of God more than we valued our own little piddling pursuits. What would happen? What would happen if we begin to pour out our lives and our substance the way Christ did? And we begin to trust the living God to supply a seed to sow. What would God give seed to those who want sow? You know, if you don't sow that seed, my brother and I used to work for Scott's seed company, he would always give us grass seed when we planted grass. And one time he'd give us a bunch of seed and we didn't use it and set it on the shelf for a long, long time.

And we discovered that that seed could go bad because we didn't sow it. And it wouldn't rip a crop. God gives seed to those who will sow. Amazing phenomena in the United States of the general population, 1.7% or the general population gives 1.7% of their gross adjusted income to cherries and so forth. Christians give 2.5. It's amazing all, but all the discussions about tithing. And I personally believe the word of the New Covenant and we're not under a tithe. Not under a tithing system, but it's a simple way to give because it's just a simple 10%. But it's an amazing thing that very few people in the Church of Jesus Christ of America even approaches giving 10% of their income. And then you know some people who are worried about what is that mean 10% of my net or my gross?

Is that 10% after they take out my retirement or before? Yeah, that's kind of things. I think, hey, God wants to give you seed to sow. Why would you limit yourself? Don't you realize that God wants to use you as a convert through which his riches are poured out in the people's lives? Not just money, but everything. He keeps pouring into you. Will you pour it out? And will you discover this the more you pour out, the more he pours in? That's his purpose and that's his plan and that's the way it works. And then notice the seventh thing. Give an obedience to the gospel of Christ. This is crucial. This is really like a heart of this whole issue. It's a gospel issue. Paul says, because of the service by which you approved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ.

Is that a mistakeable or what? That giving and the obedience, specific obedience he is speaking of in this context, is the obedience of giving to meet the needs of needy believers in Jerusalem. And he says, the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ is going to cause God to be praised. And for your generosity and sharing with them and with everyone else. Oh, this is, we sing these songs. Dance Havener, a seven Baptist exorter. He used to say there are more lies told than a song service in church than any place else on the face of the earth. We sing songs like, I'll grow where you want me to go dear Lord. I'll be where you want me to be. I'll give my all to Jesus. We sing those songs this morning.

We sing about righteousness. And the Apostle Paul says that our righteousness will be manifested. The righteousness of Christ in us will be manifested in obedience in a gospel way. Motivation is crucial for stewards. This is God's primary concern about your stewardship in every area. In service and serving Christ by serving in the local church or elsewhere. In your giving, in your living, everything in your Christian life. Motivation is the crucial thing in the eyes of God. That's what the sermon in the mouth is about. Jesus said what's important is not just what's going on in your physical, the way you use your body physically, but it is what's going on in your heart. On one extreme, there is legalism.

And this is what legalism is. Legalism isn't just, it isn't like living under the law of Moses. Legalism is, when you attempt, either through the law of Moses or in the other law, your own law, when you attempt to establish your own righteousness by keeping law, that's legalism. If your motivation is, I am going to become righteous in the eyes of God by doing this. That's the wrong motivation. And what will create in your life and what will create in the life of a church is devastating. Churches that are dominated by legalism, people become complainers, they become judgmental, they find a million things wrong with everybody around them because they don't measure up to their specific form of the law.

Whenever we attempt to establish our own righteousness by keeping rules, that's legalism. But the other extreme is what we call license, and that is using your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. That's what Paul calls it in Galatians 5-13. Licentiousness or licenses when we use this freedom that we have in Christ, to indulge the flesh instead of to accomplish the work of God. He goes on in that verse in Galatians 5-13 to say, your freedom in Christ is you can serve one another. You're free to give to one another. You're free to love each other. You're free in an unhappard way to love each other. Now here is the motivation that God is concerned about and that is gospel obedience. God wants our giving to be a manifestation of gospel obedience.

Each one of you must do just as he has purposed in his heart not grudgingly or in the compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. That is gospel obedience, cheerfully giving on every level. He says in 1 John 4-19, we love because he first loved us. It's amazing how secular psychologists have learned this principle and that is that people can only love if they have been loved and they can only love to the degree that they have been loved. It's a devastating thing for a person to grow up in a context where he is an unloved person. Solomon said that the earth shakes under a woman and unloved woman who finds a husband. Because being unloved does such great damage, but the gospel says for God so of the world that he gave his one and only son, that he was so ever blues an inch and not perish but have eternal life.

The love of God and understanding and experiencing the love of God frees us up to give. We give because he has first given to us. And then in 1 John 3-16, this is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Quite simply, this is God's program. God's program is so much better than any human system of fundraising. The system is this. The giver is the most blessed. Who was it that said it is more blessed to give than we say it? Who said that? You know who said it? Anybody? Jesus said it. We know Jesus said it is that Paul tells us that. It's not in the gospels. The Paul, the Apostle Paul said, Jesus said it was more blessed to give than we see.

I take it that there's only two possibilities. Even that was a part of the oral tradition. That is what was passed out of the teaching of Jesus not written but oral. Or Jesus Christ said that to the Apostle Paul when he was teaching him face to face, which Paul said that Jesus did. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than we see. So this is the plan. The plan in purpose of God is that stewardship giving of our every part of our life, including our money, is to be done in this pattern, the gospel pattern. The pattern that we see in the life of Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, he became poor. Though he didn't think it's something to be grasped and held on to with every answer this being to be equal with God, but he emptied himself.

He became a servant. He even became a fellow in the eyes of the law in order that he might redeem you. He gave himself. Now this is a wonderful plan. It is a glorious plan. It is not a plan that you have to twist people's arms. It's not a plan. You have to tax people. Don't have to send you a bill and say we understand you made $100,000 this year. You owe us $10,000. This is a plan in which the spirit of God works in the hearts of his people, fills the hearts so with the joy of God in Christ that they joyfully and cheerfully give to Christ and to the work of Christ. Don't you love the system? I think there's the greatest thing that you could ever imagine when it comes to the way that God deals with our material resources.

I hope that all of you giveers, all of you who have learned this pattern of giving and you give some of you give incredible ways. I hope all of you will be encouraged by the truth that God loves a cheerful giver, that what you are selling is something significant. It isn't just money because there's a crop that is going to come up from your giving, that it's going to last for all eternity. God is using you for this. And all I want to do is to encourage you to trust Him. Encourage you to test Him. Just encourage you to believe what Paul says that he will supply seed to the solar. You will be amazed at what he can do in you and through you. But you stand with me and let's pray. I Father, we are grateful that you are a cheerful giver.

That brings you deep satisfaction to give to us incredible riches of all that we have in Christ Jesus. To think that as Paul said, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heaven is in Christ. You have filled our hearts up with the blessings of your hand in Christ Jesus. Father, I thank you that salvation is a gift to be received by faith. We simply came to you with an awareness that the Spirit brought to our hearts about deeply and desperately we needed Christ. We turned to you in faith, in simple faith, and reached out and took hold of Christ by faith. Bound the need to Him and receive Him as Savior and Lord and you caught out your great blessings into our lives.

God make us like you. You are our Father and we are your children. We pray that we would follow your pattern. Help us to the imitators of God, I pray. Give us many opportunities to give of ourselves and our substance for the work of the kingdom. I pray that we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, all of us together, who are brothers and sisters in this local church. We stand there and we will have, we will greatly rejoice at the marvelous, glorious abundant way that you work in our lives together. Make us a people who are givers like you, I pray. And give for the right motivation. Help us to give Father because you've given so much, I pray. And because we can trust you to supply us with what we need to give, whether that's courage to teach a fourth grade Sunday school class, whether it's the willingness to sacrifice our comfort to go to the mission field and minister to people in a totally different culture, or whether it is the ability to give of our substance.

Oh God, change us, I pray. Change us, I pray. Make us, make us rich in this grace in our lives, we pray. Make Christ be glorified. I pray that you'd help us now. You told us that when we are gathered like this together, that when we are talking with one another, we are inside one another to love and good deeds and we pray that you would empower us to do that this morning in our conversations. May we talk about you as you listen to our conversations, we pray that you would be delighted, it would be a sweet smelling savor to you, Father. We ask all of this for the glory of Christ and in His name. Amen. Amen.