[As we focus our
minds on giving today. I want
to speak tonight about why we give to the kingdom work of my Lord Jesus
Christ in our tithes and offerings.
We ought to give with certainty and we ought to purposefully of our
time, talents and treasures. In
seeking to put together a message for this evening’s service that focused on
giving I was a bit pressed that I did not have a text that seemed to fit
what was placed upon my heart by the Holy Spirit of God.
However, having trusted the Lord in the past to bring the text He
knew would support the message, even if it came on short notice, I waited
upon the Lord. Friday
morning during my God and I time I read my designated reading in 1
Chronicles and as I read 1 Chronicles 29 I knew immediately that the text
was before me.]
[Things like this
often happen. Many of you know
that I do not wait until the last minute to prepare my sermons.
I prepare, with fasting and prayer, my sermon plan often more than
six months in advance. I will
pray about what passages I need to preach through verse by verse and even
consider, in a general sense, how I might break the book of the Bible down
in a series of sermons. I also
pray about what topical messages I might need to preach, prayerfully
considering special days and holidays.
Sometimes, I plan to preach on topics that need to be addressed
regularly, like giving, and reading through the Bible, and such topics, but
I do not necessarily settle on a text for the topic many months in advance.
As was the case for this evening’s message on giving.]
[I have learned
that I need to trust God to guide me in His time to the appropriate passage.
Our Lord said,]
[Luke 12:11-12
11
And when they bring you unto the
synagogues, and unto
magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall
answer, or what ye shall say: 12
For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to
say.]
[I think many a
preacher uses a passage like this to just shoot from the cuff in the pulpit.
I trust you know that I believe in diligent and fervent study and
preparation. I would not be
lazy with the Word of God or toward the people of God.
However, at the same time we can be so intellectually rigid that we
never listen to the Holy Spirit of God.
I strive to listen to our Lord and to be diligent with His guidance.
On rare occasions I must wait on God to guide me to His message, and
I have found Him always faithful in His guidance, even when the hour seemed
pressing to me.]
[I suppose I feel
led to mention all of this for these reasons,]
·
[The
Holy Spirit of God who indwells us is a real person with certain purpose in
our lives and He is to be listened to and heeded in our daily lives.]
·
[The
Word of God is the Word of God at every Jot and Tittle and it is to be read
and studied faithfully, without neglecting a single word or phrase.]
·
[The
Holy Spirit of God illuminates the Word of God and the Word of God
stabilizes our spiritual understanding so that they both work in harmony and
we need to heed both the Spirit of God and the Word of God.]
·
[As
a result we must be diligent to read the Word of God faithfully and we must
be patient to wait upon the Holy Spirits guidance in our lives.]
[Now, on to our
message for this evening on giving and why we give, which I find outlined
right here in king David’s words of praise as king Solomon is coronated upon
the throne of the kingdom. As
we consider the words of king David I find that David gave to God’s kingdom
work for the same reasons that I give to God’s kingdom work.]
We Give Because,
A.
Of God’s Faithfulness (vs
10-16; Mal 3.10-12; Luke 6.38)
[– Wherefore
David blessed the Lord before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed
be thou, Lord God of Israel
our father, for ever and ever. 11
Thine, O Lord,
is the greatness, and the
power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all
that is in the heaven and
in the earth is thine;
thine is the kingdom,
O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.
12
Both riches and
honour come of thee,
and thou reignest over all;
and in thine hand
is power and might; and in
thine hand it is to make
great, and to give strength unto all.
13 Now therefore, our God, we thank
thee, and praise thy glorious name. 14
But who am I,
and what is my people, that
we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort?
for all things
come of thee, and of thine
own have we given thee. 15
For we are
strangers before thee, and sojourners, as
were all our fathers: our
days on the earth are as a
shadow, and there is none
abiding. 16 O Lord our God, all
this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thine holy name
cometh of
thine hand, and is all
thine own. – Israel had gathered together, by a free will
offering, a great sum and treasure store of gold, silver, brass and
everything else that was needed to build a glorious temple for the Lord.
These stores of valuable goods were gathered, not of tithes, for
tithes are meant to support the ministers that work in the Lords ministry.
But it was gathered of free will offerings.
King David had massed a great store in preparation, and then Israel
had willing added thereto.]
[However in the
praise of King David there is a wonderful illumination about this great
wealth of preparation for a glorious temple for our Lord.
King David rightly declares that everything that had been gathered
was always the Lord’s. It all
belonged to God.
The only reason king David and
Israel were able to gather what they had gathered was because God had been
faithful to give it to them in the first place.
It all ultimately came from God, and regardless of how king David and
the people of Israel used the wealth God had provided it all still belonged
to God.]
[Think for a
moment about the wealth of king David and the people of Israel.
King David did not live in a mud hut.
As the king of Israel he lived in a palace.
King David provided well for his family, perhaps at times too well.
He had many wives and many children and they, in their time, wanted
for nothing. They had all the
best of what their world had to offer them.
But king David also cared for the people of his kingdom.
While we are certain there were rich and poor, we also know that the
reigns of king David and king Solomon were times of financial and personal
gain for all that lived in the kingdom of Israel.
By no means did king David or the people of Israel give everything
they had to build the temple.
But they did give, and they gave
abundantly.]
[As God had
faithfully blessed king David and his people, they gave faithfully back to
God and I believe that this faithfulness to recognize the gifts of God and
to faithfully honor God with those gifts is why Israel prospered greatly
under king Solomon.]
[We must recall
the promises of God given in the Bible,]
[Malachi 3:10-12
10
Bring ye all the tithes into the
storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith,
saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and
pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room
enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer
for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither
shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord
of hosts. 12 And all nations
shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord
of hosts.]
[Luke 6:38
38
Give, and it shall be given unto
you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over,
shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete
withal it shall be measured to you again.]
[We must ask
ourselves, why is America so wealthy?
Why are the people of America so wealthy and blessed?
Perhaps you don’t feel all that wealthy.
That is because you measure our wealth in comparison to those around
you, in comparison to your community.
However, if you were to see the shanty towns of Brazil, the rugged
concrete block homes of Paraguay, the grass and mud huts of Africa, then
perhaps you would begin to understand your incredible wealth.
America was founded out of a deep love for God and a reverent honor
toward God and as a result we are a wealthy people.]
[God has been
faithful toward us, but have we been equally faithful toward God.
I believe most of us here tonight have sought to be faithful toward
God, after all it is the faithful who return to Church on Sunday evening.
But there are more and more in our culture that are anything but
faithful toward God. Many are
vehemently rebellious toward God and others just ignore God altogether.
Now, these are to be expected.
However, my concern is how these unfaithful folk might begin to cool
our faithful hearts toward God and giving.
For we might begin to think, “Well I have given in abundance in just
my tithes, so perhaps I do not need to give so much in my offerings.”]
[My Christian
friends, let us always remind ourselves that everything we have was given
through the faithfulness of God and let us be careful to be faithful in
return to our Lord. Let us sing
glorious praises to our Heavenly Father as we faithfully recognize His
faithfulness in our giving hearts and spirits.]
[My brothers and
sisters I give back to God because God has been faithful to give me that
which I can give back to Him.
And I give it back, as king David did, with great joy and rejoicing.]
B.
Of God’s Righteousness (vs
17-19; Acts 13.22; 1 Sam 15.22; John 14.15)
[– I know also, my God, that thou
triest the heart, and
hast pleasure in
uprightness. As for me,
in the uprightness
of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now
have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly
unto thee. 18 O Lord God of
Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers,
keep this for ever
in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare
their heart unto thee: 19
And
give unto Solomon my
son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy
testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all
these things, and to build
the palace, for the which I
have made provision.]
[It is
interesting to note here that king David’s willing and giving heart poured
out of the purity of the righteousness in his heart.
Now, we know that king David was not a perfect man.
King David had sinned in his life, but he also sincerely repented of
his sins and ask for God’s forgiveness.
King David retuned to God and sought after God with all of his heart,
so that the Bible testifies of king David,]
[Acts 13:22
22
And when he had removed him, he
raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony,
and said, I have found David the
son of Jesse,
a man after mine own
heart, which shall fulfil all my will.]
[From this we
understand that king David deeply loved God and desired to please God.
Out of this depth of relationship with God poured God’s blessings
upon king David and king David’s willingness to give back to God in
abundance. King David gave of
God’s bounty back to God, but he gave himself to God first.
King David recognized that any sacrifice without righteousness would
be meaningless. This reminds me
of Samuels’s words to king Saul.
Samuel said,]
[1 Samuel 15:22
22
And Samuel said, Hath the Lord
as great delight in burnt
offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey
is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat
of rams.]
[Perhaps this is
what our Lord Jesus Christ was implying when He said,]
[John 14:15
15
If ye love me, keep my
commandments.]
[My friends
giving your treasure to the Lord is meaningless if you have not first given
yourself to the Lord. The
greater truth is likely that until you have given your life and heart to the
Lord you will be less likely to give your worldly treasures back to the
Lord. Perhaps if we were to
measure the levels of giving among church people we would likely find a
correlation between the righteousness of the people and their willingness to
give to God’s kingdom work.]
[When I say I
give because of God’s righteousness, I mean that God’s righteousness
inspires my desire to be righteous so that I can draw closer to my Lord.
The closer I draw to my Lord the more I love Him and trust His
faithfulness and the less I feel like I have to provide for my own needs.
Hence, I feel free to give more toward my Lord’s kingdom work.
At least, this is how it all works out in my mind.]
[Giving because
of God’s faithfulness and righteousness reminds me of a hymn.]
[Hymn – The Longer I Serve Him]
[Since I started for the Kingdom,
Since my life He controls,
Since I
gave my heart to Jesus,
The longer I serve Him,
The sweeter He grows.]
[Chorus]
[The longer serve Him, the sweeter He grows,
The more
that I love Him, more love He bestows;
Each day is like heaven, my heart
overflows,
The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.]
[Ev'ry
need He is supplying,
Plenteous grace He bestows;
Ev'ry day my way
gets brighter,
The longer I serve Him,
The sweeter He grows.]
[Chorus]
[The longer serve Him, the sweeter He grows,
The more that I
love Him, more love He bestows;
Each day is like heaven, my heart
overflows,
The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.]
C.
Of God’s Sacrifice (vs
20-22) [–
And David said to all the
congregation, Now bless the Lord your God. And all the congregation blessed
the Lord God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped
the Lord, and the king. 21 And
they sacrificed sacrifices unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings unto
the Lord, on the morrow after that day,
even a thousand bullocks, a
thousand rams, and a
thousand lambs, with their drink offerings, and sacrifices in abundance for
all Israel: 22 And did eat and
drink before the Lord on that day with great gladness. And they made Solomon
the son of David king the second time, and anointed
him unto the Lord
to be the chief governor,
and Zadok to be priest.
– Now some might think
that I am stretching the text a bit here, but the sacrifices given by king
David and Israel as they worshiped God and coronated king Solomon reminds us
of what every sacrifice of the Old Testament pointed toward and that is the
one supreme sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon Calvary’s Cross.]
[By these
sacrifices we are reminded that there is a great price to be paid for our
sins and that price was paid in full by our Lord Jesus Christ.]
[Romans 3:24-26
24
Being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25
Whom God hath set
forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare,
I say, at this time his
righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus. ]
[I give
sacrificially to my Lord and His kingdom work because He first gave himself
sacrificially for me. My Lord’s
sacrifices teach me to be sacrificial in my life and giving.]
[My brothers and
sisters, our wealth will do one of two things in our life.
Our wealth should draw us closer to God and that will be reflected in
a heart and life that is willing and ready to give back to God of our time,
talents, and treasures.
However, our wealth can also feed our lusts and covetousness and draw us
away from God and toward this world’s luxuries and goods.
Let us endeavor with diligence to recognize that God has been
faithful toward us and His faithfulness should draw us to be faithful to Him
in return. Our faithfulness
toward God is reflected in our righteousness and sacrifice in the midst of
our generous giving.]
CrossRoads
Evening, July 11, 2010
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