Galatians 6:6-10: The Duty and Blessing of Strong Giving

The Shepherd's Church

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Good morning. As Kendall said, I am the deacon here, and so it is an honor to bring the word this morning.

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But this is my first sermon, so it is a weighty honor, though.

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Like Kendall said, we've been taking a break from the series in John. We've been in the

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Upper Room Discourse, which is from John 13 through 17. And in John 16 .1,

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Jesus tells the disciples that he is giving them the Upper Room Discourse so that they could keep from stumbling.

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And so we need to strengthen the church in order to keep from stumbling. So last week,

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Kendall talked about strong men. And this is very important, because strong men build strong families, build strong churches, build strong communities, build strong nations.

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That's really how the kingdom is built. But strong men and strong families are also built by strong churches.

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So we need to have strong churches just as we need to have strong families. We need to strengthen the church, which is our spiritual family.

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So the stronger our churches are, the stronger our families will be. And so it is this idea of strengthening the church that I am very passionate about.

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That's why I'm a deacon in the first place. That's why I write the things that I do, is to strengthen the church.

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Today we're going to look at one way that's very important, but often overlooked, of strengthening the church.

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And that is the topic of giving. Strong giving is very important to building strong churches and thus strong communities.

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As important as this is, though, pastors can often shy away from it. Good pastors are nervous preaching about giving because it may seem like they are trying to preach to enrich themselves.

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And there are other pastors that do preach to enrich themselves, using this topic as a way to coerce people into giving to their ministries.

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The worst of these are the prosperity gospel preachers. They say if you plant your seed, then

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God will give you health and wealth in return. But this is idolatry, which needs to be avoided like the plague.

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There are other churches that will even lock the doors and pass the offering plate around until they reach a certain goal.

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This is coercion and this is definitely sinful. So let me reassure you we will not be doing that here.

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We don't even pass an offering plate here because we see no precedent for it in Scripture. Instead we have a giving box located outside of the sanctuary and you can give online.

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I will not try to guilt or manipulate anyone into increasing your giving. However, I will not overlook or downplay anything that Scripture clearly teaches about this topic, and Scripture does have a lot to say about it.

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So today we will see from Scripture, particularly from our passage in Galatians 6, 6 through 10, that as Christians we have a duty to give and we are blessed in our giving, especially to our church family.

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We are commanded to be generous and we are blessed in being generous. First we will see that giving is our duty by looking at the tithes and offerings throughout

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Scripture. Then we will see that giving is a blessing by looking first at what that doesn't mean, then what it does mean.

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And finally we will look at how we should give. So turn with me to Galatians 6, 6 through 10.

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The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.

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Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

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For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the

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Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

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So then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

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Let's pray. Lord, you have given us life and breath and everything.

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All we have is from you and is ultimately yours. Today as we look at what your word says about giving, help us to be generous because you have been infinitely generous to us in the first place.

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Help us to treasure the local church as you do and reflect that in our giving. Create in us generous hearts that are eager to take every opportunity to do good to all people, but especially to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

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And help me to avoid the many pitfalls of preaching on this topic. Let me speak the truth of your word to your people so that your people may be generous out of love and not guilt or coercion.

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May our gratitude for you and for all that you have done overflow into cheerful generosity for your glory and our ultimate good.

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In Jesus name, Amen. Before we dive into this text, we need a little bit of context for it.

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Our text today comes at the end of the application section of the book of Galatians.

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Before that, Paul spent most of the book refuting the Judaizers who were saying that salvation is not just by grace through faith in Christ, but that we have to add to that.

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Specifically, they were saying you had to follow the Jewish law. And so Paul is refuting that throughout the book by saying, no, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and not a result of works.

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What these Judaizers were doing is basically just a version of the Jesus plus gospel, which we see all over.

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Jesus plus good works. Jesus plus being part of a certain demographic. Jesus plus giving.

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The Jesus plus view of the gospel views the gospel like a cup that Jesus can only partially fill, and then we have to fill it the rest of the way.

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But if we're looking at it as a cup, the gospel is more like a Pythagorean cup. The Pythagorean cup was an ancient practical joke, in which case you could fill the cup only to a certain level, but if you tried to fill it any more, all of the contents would drain out in front of you.

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This is what the true gospel is like. Jesus fills it as much as it can be filled. If we try to add anything on top of that, it's not that we will dilute the true gospel, but we will have no gospel at all.

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It all drains out in front of us, and it is worthless. The Jesus plus gospel is worthless.

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It is no gospel at all, and that is the point of Galatians. In trying to add to what

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Jesus had already done, the Galatians were actually deserting him. Again, the true gospel is salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and not a result of works or anything else.

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If we try to add to it, we ruin it. It is in this context that Paul begins the practical application section of the book, in chapter 5, verses 13 and 14.

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For you were called to freedom, brethren. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

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For the whole law is fulfilled in one state, in one word, in the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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This sets the tone for all of the applications that Paul gives in chapters 5 and 6.

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So that is the attitude with which we need to approach our generosity as well. We must not use our generosity as an opportunity to enrich the flesh, but through love serve one another.

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Once saved, we are saved into a community, a family that is just as real as our physical families, and we have obligations to our spiritual family just as we have obligations to our physical families.

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Our love for each other then manifests in bearing one another's burdens while still fulfilling our own responsibilities.

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That is the passage that comes right before our passage today, so that is the immediate context of our passage.

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The reason that I am belaboring this point is that we cannot divorce anything that we do from the gospel, including our giving.

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The gospel of what Christ has already done on our behalf must undergird everything that we do, including our generosity.

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With that foundation, let's get into the text and see how we have both a duty and a blessing to be generous.

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First, Christians have a duty to give. Look at what Paul says in verse 6.

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The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. This is a command.

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The one who hears the word is all of us. We are being taught the word.

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Everyone sitting under the preaching of the gospel week in and week out is being taught, and so we are all to share all good things with the one who teaches us.

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In essence, this is saying that Christians need to financially support our pastors, so this is a reinstatement of the

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Old Testament concept of the tithe, which is the first thing we need to look at. A tithe is literally a tenth, so to tithe is to give a tenth.

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This goes all the way back to Abraham. When he and his allies had defeated five kings in order to rescue his nephew

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Lot, Melchizedek, who is called the king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, came and met him and blessed him.

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In response, Genesis 14 .20 says that Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils to Melchizedek.

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In the law, God commanded the Israelites to follow his example by giving a tenth of their possessions to the priests of their day, the priests and Levites, as we alluded to earlier.

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God designated the tithe as the wages for the priests and the

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Levites to perform their functions. As Kendall mentioned earlier, they had the functions not only of ministering to the people, but also keeping up the infrastructure that was needed for worship, and this is a theme we see throughout

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Scripture. Everything belongs to God, so if God designates something of ours to someone else, then it no longer belongs to us, it belongs to them.

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If we try to keep it for ourselves, then we are actually stealing both from them and from God, and that is exactly how

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God describes it. In Malachi 3 .8 -9, he says, "...will a man rob

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God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings you are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you."

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So withholding the tithe was equal to withholding wages, which is condemned throughout the law.

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Therefore, it was very important for the Israelites to pay their tithe and to pay the temple tax that Kendall mentioned earlier, in order to allow the priests and the

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Levites to do their jobs that God had called them to do, and to maintain the tabernacle, and later the temple, and the other infrastructure of worship.

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At times throughout Israel's history, they neglected the tithe, and as a result, the Levites had to abandon their posts in order to work to take care of their own families.

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As a result, the temple fell into disrepair, and the whole nation suffered spiritually as a result.

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Conversely, when there was a renaissance of the tithes and a restoration of the temple, it signaled that there was revival happening.

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When the Israelites were generous, they were strong. When they were not generous, they were weak.

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The concept of the tithe then continues into the New Testament. When sending out the twelve,

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Jesus told them not to bring any money with them, because the law said that the worker deserves his wages.

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Going back to our wage theme from before, their work was sharing the gospel, and so Jesus is saying that those who preach the gospel deserve to be paid by those who hear the gospel.

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Paul says the same thing in 1st Timothy 5, 17 and 18. The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching, for the

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Scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing, and the laborer is worthy of his wages.

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The second law that Paul uses here is the same worker deserving of wages that we have seen throughout both the

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Old Testament and the New Testament in connection to the tithe. But what about this first law that he uses, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing?

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First, the word honor here denotes esteem, so this definitely means that we need to honor our elders by submitting to them and this deserves its own sermon, so I clearly can't cover it in the depth that it should be covered.

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However, it is extremely important to strengthening the church, so I will mention it, but only briefly.

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Those who dishonor the elders are often the ones that cause division that ultimately weakens the church. In verse 19,

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Paul warns against this, and 1st Corinthians 3, 17 says that God will destroy anyone who destroys his church.

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Therefore, we must be very careful to avoid doing anything that would dishonor our elders and thereby weaken the church.

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Earlier, we heard about Alexander the coppersmith causing Paul much trouble in 2nd

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Timothy 4. It appears that this is the same Alexander mentioned in 1st Timothy 1, along with Hymenaeus, who caused

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Paul so much trouble that he had to excommunicate the two of them, saying that he had handed them over to Satan so that they would learn not to blaspheme.

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We must avoid that type of trouble, but this term honor also means price or value, so Paul is also saying that we not only need to respect and obey our pastors, but we need to adequately pay them as well, and this comes from the law.

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We already talked about the second law. The first is Deuteronomy 25 .4, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.

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This is a civil law about the use of oxen in the process of threshing, which was the final step of the harvest.

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It was about separating the grain from the rest of the plant. The oxen participating in this had a prime position to be able to eat some of the grain while working.

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Farmers would want to avoid this by muzzling the ox in order to prevent the ox from eating the grain that they depended on.

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So by outlawing this, God is saying that the ox has a right to eat that grain as a worker who is helping to produce it.

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God gave the ox this grain as his wages, so withholding those wages would be stealing, just as it would be stealing to withhold wages from a person.

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So by using this law regarding pastors, Paul is applying the underlying moral law that all people who work deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

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Paul makes this very clear in 1st Corinthians 9. After defending his right to be paid like any other worker, here's what he says in verses 8 through 10.

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I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the law say these things?

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For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing. God is not concerned about oxen, is he?

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Or is he speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher ought to thresh in hope of sharing the crop.

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So pastors then have a right to say with Paul in verse 11, if we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

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Scripture compels us to respond by saying no, it is not too much.

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Pastors sow spiritual things in us and therefore deserve to reap material things from us.

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So even though the New Testament doesn't repeat the command to give 10%, as the Old Testament clearly states, believers are still under the same obligation to financially support the local church just as the

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Israelites, and for the same reasons. And just like the Israelites, that support should come off the top.

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If God is our utmost treasure, we should give our first and best to him. We, like the

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Israelites, are commanded to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Jesus says that in Matthew 633 that we are to prioritize

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God's kingdom above everything else, including food, clothing, and shelter. Therefore, we should support the local church out of our gross income rather than our net income.

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We are to give our first and best to the local church to both pay our pastors the wages they are due and to properly steward the resources that God has given us for worship.

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But generosity in Scripture goes far beyond just the tithe. Jesus summed up the entire law in the command to love

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God first and foremost and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This should naturally produce generosity that goes above and beyond the tithe, and that is the concept of the freewill offering.

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A major example of this freewill offering happened in the Exodus. When the

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Israelites were beginning to build the temple, they brought so much money and materials to help with the process that Moses actually had to tell them to stop because they had brought too much.

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There was more than enough for the work that was needed. Jesus taught similar generosity, and He demonstrated it during His ministry.

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The early church followed suit. Here is how they are described in Acts 2, 44 and 45.

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"...and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need.

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They were so generous that Acts 4, 34 says there was not a needy person among them.

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They understood that everything they had belonged to God, and so out of love for God and love for their fellow believers they shared everything they had."

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This extended beyond the local church to include their fellow believers everywhere.

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When the church in Jerusalem was in need, Gentile churches provided for those needs generously.

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Paul describes this specific collection in Romans 15, 25 to 27. "...but

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now I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.

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Yes, they were pleased to do it, and so they are indebted to them. For if the

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Gentiles have shared their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things."

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It was this collection that was the context of the largest section on giving in the

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New Testament, two whole chapters, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Paul starts off this section by encouraging the

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Corinthians as the primary church in Achaia by the example of the Macedonians, which included churches such as Thessalonica and Philippi.

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Here's what he says in 2 Corinthians 8, 1 through 4, "...now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality."

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Liberality here meaning generosity. "...for I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participating in the support of the saints."

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The joy of their salvation and their love for their fellow saints overflowed into generosity towards them, not in spite of their poverty and affliction, but because of their poverty and affliction.

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Freely we have received, so freely we should give. After looking at the concepts of the tithe and the freewill offering, it is clear that Christians, just as Israelites, are obligated to adequately support our pastors and our local churches, and out of love for one another, we should give generously over and above that to meet each other's needs.

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This alone should be enough to motivate our giving, but we are not only obligated to give, but we are blessed in our giving.

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This brings us to our second point. We are blessed in our giving.

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The commands regarding generosity in Scripture are often accompanied by promises of blessings. Here's a few.

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Proverbs 11 25, "...the generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered."

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We already looked at God's rebuke of the Israelites in Malachi 3 8 and 9.

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Here's how he follows that up in verse 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

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Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows."

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And Matthew 6 31 through 33, "...do not worry then, saying, what will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear for clothing?

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For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

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But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

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The point is clear. God blesses our generosity, but we need to understand how

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God blesses our generosity, starting by how He doesn't. Back to Galatians 6 verse 7 gives us a warning.

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"...do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap."

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Do not be deceived about the connection between our generosity and God's blessing.

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The prosperity gospel says that God will bless us because we are generous.

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He will give us health and wealth. He is promising to do that with some of these scriptures that I just read, and many others like them.

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But these are taking these texts far out of context. It leads people who are hearing what their itching ears want to hear, as we heard earlier in 2nd

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Timothy 4, it leads them to give not out of love, but in order to enrich themselves.

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They are giving in order to earn God's favor. But we can't earn God's favor by giving or by anything else.

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This is the point of the gospel. God has given us everything, so if we try to earn

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His favor, that would be like kids who get an allowance from their parents, giving that allowance or even just part of that allowance back to their parents, and hoping to earn their love through that.

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It would be even more pointless than that for us to try to earn God's favor through our giving.

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Remember, we aren't generous to earn God's favor, but because in Christ we already have

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God's favor. Our generosity flows out of our salvation, not vice versa. So, giving to earn

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God's favor is pointless. Look at verse 8, "...for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption."

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Paul says that if you sow to your own flesh, you will only reap what your flesh can produce, which is corruption.

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Do not be deceived and do not mock God by thinking that you can sow to yourself and reap anything else.

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The term here corruption does not describe evil, but decay and worthlessness. So, if you sow to the flesh, you will reap a worthless harvest that may even be destructive to you.

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In a wonderful book by Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs, called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, he observed that many saints throughout

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Scripture were made better through trials, but precious few were not made worse through prosperity.

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Prosperity is a test that very few people can pass, and so for most of us, it is actually a huge blessing that God doesn't give us prosperity.

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So clearly, worldly prosperity is not the blessing we should expect from our generosity.

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What are the blessings of our generosity then? Galatians 6 .8

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continues, "...but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."

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So, as Kendall alluded to earlier, generosity is an investment. This text is saying that every dollar we spend, we are investing somewhere.

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We are either investing it to the flesh, or we are investing it to the Spirit, and we will reap the appropriate returns for that investment.

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We reap the fruit of the seeds that we sow. The kingdom of God is the only sure investment, and so we should be sowing there, and that is what we are doing with our generosity.

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Verse 9 says, "...let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary."

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Any investment in the kingdom has guaranteed eternal returns. We see this in the parables of the treasure and the pearl in Matthew 13, 44 to 46.

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In both cases, someone finds something of extreme value and then sells everything in order to possess that.

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From the outside, they look crazy, but they know the value of what they have. And so, to them, it makes perfect sense.

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They are really wise investors, because all that they are giving away is in order to get something of much greater value than what they are paying.

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So, to put this into perspective, let's imagine back in 1980 when Apple became public that you knew

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Apple was going to be a really good investment. So, you decided to put everything you could into Apple.

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You even sell your house and live on a shoestring budget so that you can invest as much as you can in the then relatively new company.

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Then, you would look completely crazy, but not now, after that investment would have grown by 1 ,600 times.

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It would be even smarter of an investment if you knew that Apple was the only investment that would give you good returns and that everything else that you invested in would be worthless.

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So then, you would clearly be a wise investor to put everything you could into Apple, even if you looked crazy on the outside.

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The kingdom of heaven is an infinitely wiser investment than Apple. Jesus says as much in Matthew 6, 19 through 21,

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Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

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But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.

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For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. As Jim Elliott said,

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He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. So when we give to the local church, we are actually investing in the building of the kingdom.

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Jesus is building His church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Psalm 22, 27,

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All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before you.

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Habakkuk 2, 13 and 14, Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts that peoples toil for fire and the nations grow weary for nothing?

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For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

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Romans 16, 20, The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

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The point is clear. Jesus wins and with Him the church wins. So the church is the only sure investment.

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So generosity blesses us in being the only sure investment because we are investing in building the kingdom which will give us much greater eternal returns.

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Generosity also frees us from the love of money. If we love money, trust money and pursue money, then it becomes our idol.

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This is a massive temptation for all of us, whether we have a little or a lot. God wants our best and our best is

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Himself, holy and exclusively. Jesus made very clear that we cannot love both

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God and money. So if we love money, we don't love God. And we will ultimately miss out on great joy if we try to mix

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Jesus with earthly pleasures. This is what the rich young ruler tried to do.

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In Mark 10, 21, it says that Jesus loved him and so he told him to sell all of his possessions and give the money to the poor in order to get true riches in heaven and then to come follow him.

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But he wasn't willing to do this and so he went away sad. He wasn't able to have it both ways.

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He wanted to be able to follow Jesus while still having his wealth. But since his wealth was an idol, Jesus could not have it and have him still follow him.

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So he went away sad. Instead, we need to smash that idol and generosity is the hammer.

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Our giving frees us from the love of money. Related to this, generosity also increases our faith.

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It is very easy to trust in our possessions, especially when we have abundance. But when we are generous, we demonstrate that we are trusting in God to live up to his promises to provide for our needs.

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Throughout scripture, God gives us these promises. Here's a few. Proverbs 19, 17.

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One who is gracious to the poor man lends to the Lord and he will repay him for his good deed.

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2nd Corinthians 9, 8, or 10 through 11. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase your harvest or the harvest of your righteousness.

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You will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.

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Mark 10, 29 and 30. Jesus said, Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms along with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life.

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Scripture clearly teaches then that God will provide for our needs. So the question is, do we believe him?

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Do we believe, do we trust that God will keep his word?

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It is easy for us to say that we do, but it becomes much harder if God removes our financial safety net.

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In that case, it is like we are stepping on a rope bridge that doesn't look very stable.

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As we step on, it rocks back and forth, it's making strange noises.

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The scene from every movie and show in which such a bridge breaks comes to our minds.

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In that moment, out of fear, we can either turn back or keep going. As we keep going, we get used to the swaying and we see that the bridge will hold us.

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Our confidence in it increases. Essentially, our faith in the bridge increases as we continue to walk across it, making each step a little easier than the last.

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This is what generosity does. When we are generous, God shows us that he will provide for our needs, which increases our faith and trust in him.

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If we are not generous, then we miss out on this opportunity to increase our faith. So generosity gives us eternal returns, frees us from the love of money, strengthens our faith, and it also helps us to reflect

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Christ. As Kendall mentioned last week, we were made to image

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Jesus Christ, and among other things, Jesus Christ is infinitely generous.

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We are only generous because God has been infinitely generous to us first.

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Our God is the God who gives. He gave us life, breath, and everything.

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He gave Adam and Eve the garden and all of the abundance that was in it. He gave the patriarchs blessings and promises.

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He gave the Israelites the promised land and everything in it. He gave us his word, and most importantly,

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Jesus Christ gave us himself and salvation in his name. He gave, he gave, he gave.

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2nd Corinthians 8, 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich.

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So God is so generous to us that it is only proper for us to respond by being generous back to him and to each other.

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So giving is not only a duty for Christians, but also a blessing for us. We have seen that giving is both a duty and a blessing for Christians, but what does that look like practically?

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Look at Galatians 6, 10. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

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Since this verse starts with while we have the opportunity, that means there will be times when we don't have the opportunity.

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So our generosity is limited by our opportunities. This also means that in our giving, we cannot neglect our responsibilities to our physical families.

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We need strong churches, but we also need strong families. We can't weaken one in order to strengthen the other, because they both go together.

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1st Timothy 5, 8 says, but if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

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So we must take care of our families, but we also must take advantage of the opportunities that God gives us to be generous, especially to our spiritual family.

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Taking every opportunity also means that our giving should be regular and sacrificial. Our giving should stretch us.

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If we are living comfortably while our pastor is barely making ends meet, then we are sinning.

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If he is on such a tight budget that it is detracting from his ability to shepherd his family and this church, then

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Hebrews 13, 17 says that we have made his work a burden and not a joy, and that would be of no advantage to us.

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Strong churches need strong pastors in order to strengthen the families in that church.

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And if we were all tithing, then a church of our size should be able to adequately support at least a full -time pastor and a part -time staff member.

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So if we're having trouble with this, then maybe we need to re -evaluate as a congregation our giving.

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We are also very close to outgrowing this space, so we need to start looking for a larger, more permanent home.

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But in order to grow into a new space, we will need money for that space. But we don't have much more room to grow here, and so we will have to have that space before we can grow much further.

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This obviously means that increased giving will be required. Now, we're not going to start a pledge drive or have a special offering for a building now, but this is something to keep in mind while you are considering how much money to give to the church.

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Taking every opportunity also means that our giving should be joyful and willing. We must not give legalistically in order to meet a certain percentage level, but we must give generously as the

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Holy Spirit convicts us and as God has equipped us. 2nd Corinthians 8 -9 or 8 -7 9 -7, 2nd

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Corinthians 9 -7. Each one must do just as he purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

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So let us pray that God will make us cheerful in our giving. We are to do good to all people, this verse says, especially our fellow believers.

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This means that we need to prioritize giving to the local church. We have a special obligation to our brothers and sisters in Christ, particularly in the location that God has put us in our local church.

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And so our giving to the local church should be the top line item on our budgets. When we need to make cuts, our giving to the local church should be among the last things affected.

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And when we get a raise, our giving should increase as well. Over time, we should seek to increase not only the amount of our giving, but the percentage of our giving.

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We need to look long and hard at our budgets in order to identify opportunities to do this.

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Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 10 -5 that we must take every thought captive to obey Christ.

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It naturally follows, then, that we should take every dollar captive to obey Christ as well. Capture it, interrogate it, question it, see where it is going.

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If it's not going somewhere that honors Christ, then divert it to somewhere that does. As we do this, opportunities to increase our giving will present themselves.

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Finally, Galatians 6 .10 says that we are to do good to everyone, which means that our generosity should include not just our money, but our time and our talents as well, which are also gifts from God.

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God has given all of these things to us, and we need to use them as investments to advance his kingdom.

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We should all be able to say with Paul in 2nd Corinthians 12 -15, I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls.

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This doesn't mean that we can only give to Christian causes, but it does mean that whatever causes we do give to, we need to make sure that we are advancing the kingdom, because every dollar is still an advancement, either in the kingdom or the flesh.

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We need to make sure we are investing in the kingdom, even if that cause doesn't directly state that it is for the kingdom.

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So we need to pray for discernment in the way that we give of our money, time, and talents.

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Whatever you do, wherever you give of your money, time, and talents, do it all to the glory of God.

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Today we have seen that it is our duty and blessing to give, and we have also seen how we should give.

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By looking at tithes and freewill offerings, we have seen that we are obligated to adequately support the local church with our finances, and that if we withhold what

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God has designated for the local church, then we are stealing from God and from our pastors and the church as a whole.

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We have also seen that God blesses our giving, but not with temporal material blessings.

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He blesses us by using our investment to build the kingdom of God.

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He blesses us by keeping us from the love of money and its associated pitfalls,

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He blesses us by increasing our faith through our generosity, and He blesses us by using our giving to reflect

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His infinitely generous nature. He has given us everything, so let us generously, regularly, and sacrificially give of our money, time, and talents to strengthen the local church especially, which is our spiritual family, and in doing so we will strengthen our physical families as well.

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We all have room to repent in this area. We have wasted money and time and our talents on things that do not advance the kingdom.

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We sometimes give grudgingly or under compulsion, even trying to earn God's favor, even if we wouldn't admit that that's what we're doing, rather than giving cheerfully out of love for God and out of an overflow of salvation.

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We have also withheld our tithes and therefore deprived our pastors of wages they deserve, and that has in turn slowed the growth of the kingdom.

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For all of this we must repent, but we must always remember that every sin, including our neglected giving, if we are in Christ, has been paid for by Him.

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So if you have not placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ yet, don't waste another moment, but place your trust in Him and the gospel of His perfect life, atoning death, and conquering resurrection.

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Do it right now. God loves you so much that He gave the greatest gift of all,

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His only Son, Jesus Christ, for your salvation. Unless you trust in Him, all of your investments of money and time will ultimately come to nothing.

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So let us be generous and praise God for His gracious gift. Let's pray. Lord, everything is

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Yours and You have given us everything we have. Help us to be wise stewards of the money, time, and talents that You have given us.

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Help us to use them for Your glory. Lord, give us each day what we need for that day, but don't give us too much, otherwise we may forget

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You and depend on ourselves. Make us generous towards You and our neighbors around us, especially the local church.

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Increase our faith and advance Your kingdom through our generosity. And we are eternally grateful for every gift that You have so graciously given us, especially