The Undeniable Joy of Giving

I was talking to a friend this week who is a treasurer at his church and his pastor approached about the possibility of doing a message on giving. He looked at him and said, "It's in the Bible, isn't it!" and yes, the subject of giving shows up over 2500 times!

The joy of giving is actually part of the nature of God. God delights in giving and when we take the opportunity to give, we allow not only the flow of His presence, but the flow of His joy to permeate us. He sensitizes us to giving through the poverty and tragedies of others as well as the lack and trials in our own lives. Are we able to give even when we are unsure of our financial position? God continually wants to show us that the need will always be greater than our resources. Aare we ready to turn on the tap first and let the flow be released through us? Pray a prayer of preparation this week to the Lord and tell Him YES! Let it start in me!

We will be working through 2 Corinthians 8:1-15

The undeniable challenge of giving v 1-3

The desire to give isn’t about emotional appeals as good as they are. It isn’t about a clear cut presentation as sharp as they can be. It is about the inner motivation of the Spirit of God because when the Spirit of God touches your heart, it is a motivation that will be able to be sustained.

I can’t overstate the fact that the Spirit has to grip our hearts in response to a genuine need.

The condition of the Macedonian churches is not a bright one. They were dealing with their own inadequacies but didn’t let that blind them to those who were even in more desperate need. Paul describes these churches as those that were under severe trials and extreme poverty!

The severe trials they were facing related directly to the active persecution they were constantly under.
Their extreme poverty was the result of their land being exploited by their Roman conquerors who took complete advantage of their natural resources for themselves. There had also been a succession of civil wars that had been fought on their soil prior to Augustus becoming the sole emperor as well.

Giving always should challenge us to go beyond our means to the place of His provision. It has to be about faith and watching God fill up our supply again. We are filled to be emptied to be filled again with fresh living waters again and again! We start to realize that He is the God of infinite resources.

The undeniable privilege of giving v4,5

We give ourselves to God first. The ability to give ultimately comes first from God. Let me remind you again that God doesn’t need our money.

‘The crowning point of their surrender was their complete self surrender.’ R. Tasker

Acts 20:35 It is more blessed to give than to receive. Make no mistake about it, giving transforms us. Often we go on a missions trip or a serving project to minister to others and yet we leave being the most blessed.

The undeniable call to excel in giving v6,7

Paul is challenging them it is not enough to have great faith, honourable speech, solid knowledge, we have to be known as those who lead the way in respect to giving.

Think of two triangles. One rests upside down, on its point and rises up to spread out. The other is in the normal position like a pyramid with the point on top.

• The normal triangle

How many of you have been in a pyramid scheme? We have all heard about them and it is all about getting enough people under you to sustain your wealth. Unfortunately what happen in the normal triangle is that the closer we get to the top, the less we give and the more we focus on the ‘take’ and so the tip represents the very slim amount of giving that is done by the majority of those in this position of wealth.

Even those outside the church understand the futility of the normal triangle!

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it."
- John D. Rockefeller:  American industrialist and philanthropist

If you lock in to a goal to improve your relationships, your health, or your career track, you probably will. But achieving prosperity is a little different. You have to sneak up on it from behind. Goals to become rich fall flat - but setting goals to improve the lives of as many people as possible... that's the precise minute you follow the footsteps to prosperity.

• The inverted triangle

The upside triangle represents biblical giving that continues to give with it lines always be spread out, and the bottom at a point. The bottom represents the desire to keep investing our money in what lasts for eternity so our focus is always upward. God always gives us enough to live on, but it is His great desire that we will learn to give in abundance.

This is area that unfortunately Christians have a bad rap at restaurants. I have heard stories told of disillusioned waitresses at church chicken otherwise known as Swiss Chalet. They do not enjoy working especially on Sunday afternoons because of the church crowd. However, I want to contrast that with my first pastor, Don Howard, with whom almost always every staff meeting turned into lunch at the Swiss. It would be there that he taught not only generosity but how to share the gospel and one waitress came to faith in Jesus!

The undeniable call to completion in giving v8-12

I can’t overstate enough the calling we have to follow through on our commitments and not to say one thing and do quite the contrary by our actions. Jesus was the ultimate pace setter and is our prime example of giving. He poured out Himself completely for us, He gave us His everything.

Hebrews 12:2 Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross!

It was the Moravian missionaries who were driven by their motto, “Worthy is the Lamb to receive His reward”. The driving force in their life was their motivation of gratitude for Christ’s sacrifice. It began as a movement of prayer under John Hus in the late 14th century. They were the movement that kept watch in prayer 24/7 for over 100 years. It was out of this focus that birthed the first large scale Protestant missionary movement sending out ordinary people to reach out to the unreached.

There is an incredible sense of fulfillment that we feel when we have matched our actions with our words. It is that place where we can step back for a moment and say it is time to dance, it is time to rejoice in what God has done through us that we are ready to do it again.

In Nehemiah 6:15 we read about the children of Israel completing the wall and what is the result in 8:10 - the call to revel that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Paul couldn’t command this kind of giving. There is an element of spontaneity in Christian love that we don’t let giving turn into a work of the law. However, having said that, it is clear that an ungenerous believer is not the testimony that we are to be known for.

The undeniable call to equality in giving v13-15

There is this understanding that is created in this desire to give that we are in this together. There is a mutual realization that when we are truly there for others and meet their needs that in turn should we be in a similar predicament that they will be there for us. It is basically saying, “Brother, I got your back. I know you have mine now and it will not be forgotten. “ We are called to remember each other and not take gifts for granted. The gift is given with no obligation or commitment to pay it back, but the sense of goodwill that will always carry on.

Paul reminds them of the truth of what took place in the desert when the children of Israel would only gather enough to meet their needs. It was designed to teach them not to hoard, but to always be sensitive to the needs of others as much as they realized their own needs were being met.

Final Thoughts on GIVING

Comprised from Dave Ramsey ‘The Great Misunderstanding’


#1 God owns it all.(period)
The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it; Psalm 24:1

#2 We are His stewards. We are in a fiduciary relationship with God. I am called to be a manager and He is the estate owner. As long as I keep that perspective I will do well. It is when I get that switched around that it all goes bad very fast. When you are a manager, it is easier to give...WHY? ...because it is someone else’ money.

I had this experience when I went to India and my mom sent me with a large sum of money to bless individual ministries. I can’t tell you how much fun that is!!

Now, the word steward comes from old English times. It is definitely not a word that we hear today, but it comes from the time of Braveheart, the time of castles when they were lords, nobles and stewards. The steward was the one who took you on the tour of the castle and knew everything about it and where everything was found and did everything at the bidding of their lord.

#3 God doesn’t need my money and neither does the church.

God wants you to learn to give Him complete control and as for the church, we just need sold out believers who live in the power of the HS and the by product of that is giving!

#4 We are made in His image, we are His imprint. We can’t say we are like Christ when we are not givers. Even when giving feels mechanical, every mechanical act of giving will teach me that is less about me and more about Him. It moves me to become less and less selfish. The only place selfish people prosper is on TV.

#5 When you start giving, stuff happens!

Less selfish people are known to be more prosperous in relationships and in wealth. The more you release, the more you will have. We are most fulfilled when we are serving and giving.
#6 Giving is an area of spiritual warfare.

The enemy in the form of crying out in complete selfishness will always squeal when we learn to give more away. Giving also set me free from my addiction to stuff!

#7 God promises to bless those who give.

The root word of blessing means peace. It doesn’t me a BMW will automatically show up in your driveway, but it will be all the immaterial blessings that money never could buy in the first place and it is about storing up treasures in heaven where there will be the ultimate return in the relationships and friendships of those who came along the way.

S Martin tells the story of one of the richest families in church not too long after WW2

I'll never forget the Easter of 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene was 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died 5 years before, leaving Mom with seven children to raise and no money. By 1946, my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home.

A month before Easter, the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially. When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill.

Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us baby sat for everyone we could. For 15 cents, we could buy enough cotton loops to make three potholders to sell for $1. We made $20 on potholders. That month was one of the best of our lives. Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we'd sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so we figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the Pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before. That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn't care that we wouldn't have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering. We could hardly wait to get to church!

On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn't own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn't seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet. But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt so rich.
When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us girls put in a $20 bill.

As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes!

Late that afternoon, the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills. Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn't talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash.

We kids had had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn't have our mom and dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the fork or the spoon that night. We had two knives, which we passed around to whoever needed them.

I knew we didn't have a lot of things that other people had, but I'd never thought we were poor. That Easter Day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn't like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed that I didn't want to go back to church.

Everyone there probably already knew we were poor! I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew we were poor. I decided I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time.

We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn't know. We'd never known we were poor.

We didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn't talk on the way. Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church, we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but they need money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can't we all sacrifice to help these poor people?"

We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week. Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene.

Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering. When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn't expected such a large offering from our small church.

He said, "You must have some rich people in this church!"

Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that "little over $100." We were the rich family in the church! Hadn't the missionary said so?

From that day on, I've never been poor again.

The Takeaway

We are most joyful where we become poor in order to become rich!

Questions For Discussion

1. Why does God tell us to give so often?
2. What is giving a reminder of?
3. What was the function of the OT storehouse?
4. Is the tithe pre-law? Genesis 14. What does the tithe stand for?
5. Has anyone surprised you with a meaningful act of giving? How did that make you feel?

Pay It Forward

As I said last week and you have no doubt heard before the last part that gets saved is our wallet!
Our gifts must be the kind of gifts that enable others to give. We are called to lead by example in such a way that the flow doesn’t stop after we have given, but that we encourage gift giving to be reciprocated much like in the movie, ‘Pay It Forward’ where the debt is not paid back but done as a favour to a third party. For believers we could never pay back the debt that we have owed; however we have been called to show that same kind of generosity in our love towards others whether in gift, deed or forgiveness. One of the things that I love about the Ensenada Project is that the gift continuously gets reciprocated as we build homes alongside those pastors who also have had their homes and churches built through the generous giving of others.

Giving is meant to be reciprocal. Matthew 18:23-35

When it comes to debt we are called to be generous. We who have been forgiven an insurmountable debt have been called to show that same mercy to others. We tend to forget that in the situation especially when it is us who have to ‘have to take the hit’. We are quick to forget the price that has been paid for our forgiveness, to wipe our slate clean especially when we have been hard done by. We think and may even say things like, ‘I must hold them responsible,’ ‘I must hold them accountable, no one else will’. I must make sure they pay up! Really, is that our job?

We see giving also displayed in John 15 when Jesus told us to love others the same we have been loved and blessed.

John 4 – the story of the woman at the well begins with Jesus asking her for a drink. He challenges her to an act of giving. Even the unsaved are challenged to give. It is often in the act of giving that we come to faith.
I’ll never forget the time just handing out hot chocolate along with PB and jam sandwiches to people on the street on Vancouver’s east side and having one of my more affluent youth looking at me and saying’ “I’ve never felt closer to Jesus”

Giving is for mutual honouring and dependence A person who receives but in turn does not give themselves misses out on the great exchange. As a river of life flowing through us we actually dignify others by challenging them to be rivers of living water through their gifts as well.

Even as we bless and minister to non-Christians, we are called to challenge them to give love and assistance to others. It is often in these giving experiences that I have seen faith come alive and become real in others.
I was so moved by the story of sponsored children with Compassion and Partners in West Bengal, India who took the money that they received and in turn sponsored children themselves!

We learn in John 7:37 that the giving wasn’t just there for me to receive and say, ‘bless me, bless me, I’m so blessed...It was meant to flow through you like water through your fingers. It refreshes you, but you were not meant to contain it, but to channel it.

Giving is meant to be the great exchange. Matthew 10:38,39

We are called to give up our lives for the One who has given His life for us. We turn into spiritual parasites when we don’t follow through with the great exchange. We do not dignify the life that Jesus called us to live but short circuiting the process and not calling others to lay down their lives as well.

A study has shown that 97% of each dollar given to the church goes to maintaining its own programs! We have to change that stat. We sound more like a container, a pond, than a river! We are called to lay down our own agendas for His agenda.

The average person gives 2.7% of their income to the church. Is it any surprise that we have very little impact on our culture. Another reminder that we are looking more and more like ponds than the rivers we were meant to be.

Giving is meant to be sacrificial Mark 10:21

A man who was devoted to getting, not giving is the theme of the story of the rich young ruler in Luke 18:18. It is David who tells us that ‘I will not offer to God that which costs me nothing. ‘in 1 Chronicles 21:23-25 so he offer Araunah the equivalent of 15 pounds of gold which is worth today about $274 500 for a place to make an offering for the Lord.

Giving is meant to be for gospel growth! Luke 16:9,10

We are called to win souls for the kingdom of heaven and God by using material things to care for the needs of those in need. The act of giving is a platform that God has given us. The cardinal principle according to one ministry is that anyone who knows enough to be saved by Christ knows enough to tell another how to be saved.’

Through generous acts of giving, we are showing the love of Christ. A disciple is one who reaches others to become disciples. There are not two levels of disciples. For me it is about breaking down the barriers that separate the ‘clergy’ from the ‘laity’. These formal distinctions are manmade. It always catches me a little off guard at the ministerial meetings where I’m present with those with the collar. We are all men and women of the cloth. We are all called to the work of the ministry. Now, granted some of us have had a sense of calling to the role of equipping, but we are in this together.

Measure your flow by how many rivers flow out of you. Do you really see yourself as a channel?

As Dave Ramsey shares in the lesson on ‘The Great Misunderstanding, The Power of Generous Giving’
Water like giving money is supposed to flow through us. When water flows into a pond and not out, it eventually turns into a swamp and then you know what happens, the scum starts to float to the surface and that is what happens to people who hold their money with clenched fists, they become ‘scummy’ as he says.
You know what those people are like who are so tight with their money that make excuses every time when they are asked to give or to be generous with a worthy cause.

It is like the story of a family that came to church and everyone left complaining about something ....whether the music was too loud, the preacher was too long, the coffee wasn’t strong enough only to have their child pipe up and say, ‘I thought it was pretty good for a toonie’...

If you keep your fist clenched, you can’t receive any more neither, but if you keep your hands open, yes money will disappear, but you always be ready to receive more like verse 10 is getting across.
Through the power of the HS, we are called to pray, give and proclaim!

Penn Jillette, an atheist stated the following,

I’ve always said, you know, that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe there’s a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward... How much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that...’ WOW!

Giving is systematic and it is measureable. Acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira

It was just the other day that I overheard someone talk about winning the lottery. She really believed that if she could just win the lottery that all her problems would be solved and in this story, Ananias and Sapphira had definitely come into a great windfall.

They obviously were already well off and they made the bold claim that the church was going to get the whole ‘shabang’ but it is a funny thing how money changes us when it finally gets into our hands. So, what was their sin, that they didn’t give all their money? It was still a very generous gift at that, but it was the impression and attitude that they were giving off. They wanted to appear totally 100% sold out to the mission when in fact they weren’t and they were called on their honesty. It was a very sobering time for the early church that was barely off the ground.

However, it was clear that God demands honesty even before gift giving. If we have promised God that we will give, then we need to honour that commitment and take it very seriously.

Giving was always meant to be simple. Genesis 14:17-20

The definition of tithe is 10% and we first see the example of this in Genesis 14:17-20. So we can correctly identify that the tithe is ‘pre-law’. Some people write it off and say well, that is the OT law, but no it wasn’t. It was always about ‘firstfruits’ 22x it is spoken of and being an agrarian culture, they knew that this is the place that we begin. It is the first line item on our budget.

If you say well the NT doesn’t mention tithing and I will say that you are correct; however to be technical if you say you are bringing your tithe, it should be 10%.

People ask do I tithe 10% on my gross or my take home....As Dave Ramsey says, ‘I don’t care’ how you decide...just do it because only 2.7% of the church are doing it!

Mark 7:11-13 We are called to take care of our household as well and honor our families and recognize their needs and in doing so not nullify what the Lord has commanded us to do.
Now offerings are what we give that is above and beyond our normal giving.

Giving was meant to bring freedom 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

It is about a level of trust with God with our finances and once again we are faced with an incredible test to trust God with our level of giving. How serious are we about believing these verses.
Can you imagine a ‘belly aching’ laugh when you went up to give? The fact is that we are to be hilarious givers! We really do win the lottery in the ‘Christian’ sense when we can be set free to give.

I mentioned that I really believed that most believers want to really do well in this area, but they don’t know where to begin. They are up to their eyeballs in debt or the feel the heavy weight of their ‘line of credit’ upon them and they just can’t seem to get there.

One of the ways that God has been preparing me for this series is learning to pay it forward instead of in reverse and by that I mean how freeing it has been for Sharon and myself not to always look back with our finances, but to look forward. We have been so blessed by the teaching of ‘Financial Peace University’

We are now more intentional with all of our money than we have ever been before. We now pay it forward instead of trying to catch up to the expenses at month’s end. We have gone to an envelope system along with commissions for our children and the rewards are already being paid off.

Check this site out on how to get started with a simple budget...

http://www.daveramsey.com/media/pdf/fpu_qbudget.pdf

We are excited about seeing Financial Peace University run again this fall.



The Takeaway

We receive in order to give in order to receive more in order to give more.

The more we understand this truth, the more we will be free with our money.

Questions For Discussion

1. Have you ever took the opportunity to ‘pay it forward’? What led up to that event taking place?
2. Share about a time when you really felt the spiritual connection to giving, that rivers of living water were flowing through you?
3. Do you have a family budget? How have you set that up?
4. Has there been a time where you have seen an opportunity to share the gospel through an act of giving?
5. What are ways that you can be more intentional about giving or how have you learned to be more intentional in this area?

Lessons on FLOW!

I’ll never forget the time Sharon and I were on staff at a camp all summer as the program directors and getting challenged to give at the end of our ministry there.   One of the board of directors stood up and spoke to us from Malachi 3:10 and challenged us not to rob God with our tithes and offerings.  I was thinking to myself...tithes and offerings, I haven’t even seen any form of pay yet!  The fact was that we were basically working for peanuts and I needed every last cent to put towards going to Seminary that Fall or so I thought.  Anyways, the whole presentation really didn’t sit well with me, but God would do an overhaul on my attitude over the next 12 hours.






Every act of giving has not only a horizontal dimension to it, but a vertical one as well!  Our failure to give resists His giving, it resists the flow.  Recognize that you are the riverbed through which the goodness and blessing of God flows.  There are great catalysts to giving and we will unpack the truths that are found when we are faithful to the opportunities that are presented to us.  There is always a time to give no matter what that gift looks like.  There are times when our gifts seem all out of proportion to the need, but then God shows up and we are mesmerized!  On the other hand, do you ever think that you can give God too much?   You will be surprised what you find out about that too!  We will explore everything from fearless giving to how math of giving works in the heavenly realm.

The last meal of a widow  1 Kings 17 

 Destitute giving.
  

We find Elijah here, a victim of his own prophecy.  He predicted a famine and a desperate famine it was.   He goes to a foreign land and finds a poverty-stricken widow.  She is literally starving to death.  Elijah does the unthinkable, he asks her for her meal.   In her completely vulnerable state, she tells him this is it...their last meal and she and her son would die.  Elijah’s need in light of what her resources seemed completely nonsensical.  Who asks a dying widow for her last meal???  Apparently a man who knows that God always shows up when we trust Him with our resources!
He gives her an incredible promise v14 He knew the widow was the one that through whom God would pour out so much blessing.  When we give we empty a part of ourselves and in doing so we make room from the provision of God in us and through us!
So she goes ahead and first prepares a meal for Elijah like she was instructed. There are no more excuses, no more complaining.  When was the last time you let yourself off the hook for giving?  The fact is that none of us have been ever tested to that level of generosity and yet it is this act of faith that she must follow through on before her own flour jar and jug of oil would be refilled miraculously.
Ephesians 3:10 God does exceedingly above and beyond



A shepherd’s boldness   1 Samuel 17

·         Fearless giving

Let me paint the scene, a familiar one I know, but recognize the giving of a life.  David shows up and hears a giant blaspheming the God of the universe, His God and personally, he is incensed.  He focuses all his attention on the one who leads him from the heart and presents himself to Saul.  He comes to a leader who is wrapped up in human strength and so what does he try to do?  He tries to clothe David in human strength and armour.  However, the human defences only served to hinder this shepherd boy.  Fear will always keep you from seeing an Infinite God full of resources, full of blessing, full of life itself.



Fear will do that to you, it makes you weak, it makes you cower, it makes you curl up and it makes you look small.  Our failure to look at life’s challenges through the light of God’s promises will always result in our weakness. 
We must remember that the weapons that we fight with are not the weapons of this world! 
2 Corinthians 10:4 



Yes the challenge may seem insurmountable but we must never forget that our giving, our ‘standing in the gap’ will always unlock God’s unlimited resources.  God never disappoints the man or woman, the young person or child who says, ‘Here am I Lord, send me’!
Often all that is waiting for God to move is us.  We are the ones who He is waiting for to take the first step to perform His wonders.



A small town leader  Judges 7
When less is more!




The fewer our resources, the greater ability for God to act!




Is it possible that our gift is more than God wants to work with?  The answer is YES.  Gideon recruited 32 000 men for the army of the Lord and God tells him, ‘way too much for me to work with’.  Sometimes our wealth and the greatness of our gift can get in the way of what God wants to accomplish on our behalf.  We can be guilty of putting our hope in the budget, the financial giving of the top givers so we lose sight of how wonderful all giving is.  Our own desire to give can actually be a blockage in the way of other who need to learn the blessing of giving.


If we can get to the place where we can explain it all in human terms; how it all boils down and how it is all processed we lose our way.  Are our gifts merely just the result of our own ingenuity and goodness of heart?  It has to go beyond that!  Where do our gifts point us?  Do they give us the appearance that we are helping God out or do our gifts point us to God’s infinite generosity?  It is all a matter of our perspective.




In Gideon’s case, God had to use a series of tests to move him and his men to a place of complete dependence on God.  ‘If He doesn’t show up, we are hooped!’  He had to bring them down to 300 men with unwavering confidence in the God beyond their human abilities and comprehension.  God wants us to give with pure hearts and be so ready for Him to take everything we got and multiply it for His good purpose.  We are the ones who open the door and God does the rest.
 
Each of these 300 men took a lamp, an empty jar and a trumpet with them all that’s all they had. They lit their lamps, smashed their jars and blew their trumpets late one night and God caused such a great confusion that all the enemy soldiers turned on each other, running for their very lives.
The fact is that God will turn our enemies back , not our wealth or power.  It is in the very way that we treat our gifts as to how God will use them.  To the level that we see them as just the gateway to His eternal unleashing is the most significant thing we can learn.


How are you opening the door to God’s instrumental giving through you?

Building a place to meet with God  Exodus 36:3-7
When God says enough.  



Is it possible that our gift to God is too much?  Could we ever give God a gift that He looks at and tells us, “I’m sorry you are going to have to take that back for a refund!” 
Let’s check out the work on the tabernacle in the OT under Moses


Exodus 36  Check out the words of the skilled craftsmen in v5  ‘the people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.  Then Moses sends the word out through the camp , stop already!!,
 
'no man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.  And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they had was more than enough to do all the work’

Ready to sink or swim or how about STAND Joshua 3:9-11, 14-16


 Our giving causes God to pave the way




The river was at flood stage for the Israelites, it was turbulent and there was no other way into the Promised Land.  Only if they were ready to get their feet, was God  going to show up!  God doesn’t make it easy for them but He is ready for them to put His Word to their test.  All those great promises that Joshua proclaimed at the beginning of his takeover... Joshua 1:9  God wanted the people to first learn their complete inability to overcome this obstacle.

So, we know what happens to the Jordan River,  the same type of incredible phenomenon that took place at the Red Sea.  However, this time it was different.  The instructions were different.  It wasn’t Moses using his ‘shepherd’s staff’ to part the way.  This time God literally wanted the priests to lead the way with the Ark of The Covenant which symbolized the presence of the Lord.


 Has their even been a time where you felt the demands of serving in some kind of ministry but didn’t have any of the resources to pull it off?   Time and time again, God calls us to be faithful enough to initiate it as we let Him do it through us and then expect the unexpected!



When Debbie Lowry made the decision to step into the children ministry, she knew she had a passion for children, but at the time we were going week to week with volunteers.  As she dived into her role with all her heart, it wasn't long before her enthusiasm became contagious and a children's ministry team was formed.  Now, we have seen Adventureland divided into two specific age groups as well because God lit a fire in her and she was obedient to His leading.   The same was true of Sharon when God birthed the vision in her for the Good For Nothing store.






A boy and his fish and chips  Mark 6:41-44
   
Math in the heavenly realm...

It was late in the day and we are told that were 5000 men so add their wives and children and about 20000 were out that day to listen the most popular rabbi on the circuit, Jesus
V37  8 months of a man’s wages.... ‘He said this to test them for He Himself knew what He would do’
John 6:6 NKJV  This is what God does. He wants to put staggering needs before us to see what we are made of!  Are we made up of our own human ingenuity or do we really believe that God is able to pull off the miraculous.


Jesus asks His disciples the question, where are we going to buy bread for the people to eat?  It is the same question He asks us today.  How are you going to get the message out, the gospel out so that everyone can hear the good news?
 
What do the disciples do?  They respond how we often think.  They start focusing on calculating their human resources and making the decision to ‘send them away’.  We don’t have the money, the resources, the man power.   We often have the same response, ‘how can we minister to all the starving poor in the slums, where do we even begin with the child sex slave trade?  The response sadly is ‘send them away’



My time in India with Vivek and the street children reminded me what can be done by God when we step out in faith and just initiate and begin to do what we know we should.  I’ll never forget seeing all the flip flops of the street children outside his home and the great time we had with them sharing about our faith on their rooftop.




A radical event took place as Jesus asked the disciples to collect all the food that was available. 
 They came back and only one mother actually knew the service was going to go long that day so she packed her son a lunch!  It was a lunch he could share with a few friends as it was five loaves of bread and two fish.  Imagine her surprise when her son came home to tell her what happened to his lunch that day!!  Our giving allows God to multiply it and make it go further than you ever dreamed of!

You can give more than you think without your money!  Acts 3



The real gift they gave was the healing power and presence of Jesus’ Name.  Notice that they looked the man right in the eyes.  How often do we turn and look away when we see a desperate need or quickly change the channel.
The fact is that Peter and John didn’t have the money to respond to his immediate need.  
However  they had something far greater to give and that was a miraculous healing and did something for him that was completely life changing.
We must never underestimate the power in prayer and how we can pray for those in need even when we think that isn’t enough because it may be more than enough.  We  walk in and we give God’s power into each and every situation



Finally, He wants more than you think!




The story of the widow at the Temple illustrates that Jesus wants us to give our all...nothing less, nothing more in Luke 21   We see this again in the giving of the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with costly perfume in  John 12.  It is not the amount of the gift that Jesus is counting, but the cost and sacrifice involved and He knows and sees it all.



The Takeaway

Our decision to give generously opens the floodgates of heaven.


So to finish my story that I started with about the day that ‘giving’ completely turned around for me was that God reminded me to trust Him in giving back to the camp that I worked for above and beyond my tithe.  At this point, I knew that God was going to show up because there was no way that we had money to pay for tuition and rent, but God was faithful.  When we arrived in London, we put our resumes out and within a day, God provided Sharon with a full time job and four days later, I had a part time job and we were able to go through school debt free!
 
I am not going to tell you that if you give God $10-, you can expect to receive 10 times that in the mail like some do, but I will tell you that when you are faithful with your firstfruits and your giving to God, He will supply all of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus!  Philippians 4:19

Questions For Discussion

1.       What kind of gifts most honor the Lord?

2.       Why do we tend to focus more on the size of a gift than the cost?

3.       What gifts have you given that reflect the power of Christ?

4.       What prevents you from having a childlike trust that God will multiply your gifts?

5.       When in your life have you felt inadequate to respond to an overwhelming need?  Would you respond differently today?

The Seven Gifts Of Christ

Are you ‘with it’? Did you ‘get it’ are all questions designed to make us focus on whether we truly understand what is being communicated to us. They determine our ‘inner savvy’ to being in the loop or often getting a joke that has been told. In Matthew 1:23, we see that the Scriptures lead us to the understanding that the Saviour of the world would be called Immanuel, meaning, ‘God with us’. We see the truth of this teaching described over 170 times in the New Testament. We see it from being in Christ to Christ in us like the vine and the branches as so clearly pictured in John 15 and this is just the beginning! We will focus not only on the gift of His presence, but His power, provision, perfection, His resurrection and the comfort of His reigning ascension and His anticipated imminent return.

• His Presence
• His Power
• His Provisions
• His Perfections
• His Resurrection
• His Comfort of His Return
• The Comfort of His Reign


We Give Christ’s Presence

There is a great difference between talking to someone and communicating with someone. Communication can exist without conversation but it is a one-way street and most of us are pretty comfortable with that approach in our spiritual lives. OK, God I’ll do the talking and you do the listening. Talking is a legitimate practice, but it is rarely an intimate one. The children of Israel often were driven to this type of communication. They would say, ‘Moses, you talk and listen to God for us.’ We need a breakthrough!
Two way conversation is communion and it is so beautiful, so strengthening, so full of joy, but why do we seldom go there? For some they still relate to God on a servant / master role; however, he has called us friends.
Revelation 21:3,4 brings to light His ultimate desire for us. What is the desired end? Sweet communion. We talk about longing to be more in God’s presence, but did you ever ponder the fact that He longs even more than we do for that communion with us.
Last week we caught a glimpse of the powerful realization that God through His Holy Spirit longs to speak into our lives.

Jesus personified Immanuel, God with us. The first and most amazing gift is the gift of His ongoing presence with us, in us and through us!
1. Be STILL - Quiet yourself so you can hear God’s Voice. Be Still – David in Psalm 46
2. FOCUS – Fix Your Eyes on Jesus…. Paul in Hebrews 12
3. FLOW- Recognize God’s voice as spontaneous thoughts which light up on your mind. Mark Virkler. Philip in Acts 8
4. JOURNAL – write down what you hear HIM speaking to you, don’t analyze it, that comes later. Every vision that God gave us through His servant….even Revelation from John.
We Give Christ’s Power
Colossians 2:15
When Christ died on the cross at Calvary, He disarmed all the powers and authorities made a public spectacle of them as He gloriously triumphed. It is within that event that He has transferred to us the same power which every day is so hard for me to actually wrap my mind around. The good thing is that I’m not to wrap my mind around it, I was called to believe with all my heart and use that same power in my prayers.
Christ gave us ‘binding’ power in Matthew 18:18
In His powerful Name we can cry out to God to reclaim territory stolen by the enemy in our home, our churches, our neighbourhood, our land!
We have from time to time done prayer walking and I still remember the days with the youth when we would pull off all nighters at an event called ‘Liberate’ and go out and specifically pray all over town from the HS to the perimeter of town.
Jesus has told us that we will have power over all things demonic and that they will flee from us as He promised to His followers in Luke 10:17.
In 1 Peter 2:9, we are called ‘royal priests’ in the NLT The word royal means ruling! We are ruling priests! It is a position of power and a call to bring all things under the authority and in submission to our Heavenly Father.
We are called to speak and confess His Name audibly. Satan is not a mind reader and we push him back when we walk in our God-given authority and confidence.
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…
We Give Christ’s Provisions
• We are called to give guidance John 10:11,14 He knows everything and He provides His people with a plan. His plan for others was meant to flow through us. We are His messengers, His ambassadors.
A shepherd provides guidance and he is also called on to give protection. What are the forms of protection we can give to fellow believers?
• We are called to declare He is the only way. Christianity was never meant to be a religion, it is a love relationship John 10:9; 14:6
• We are called to give His bread to others. John 6:35; John 8:32 The gospel!
• We are called to experience fruitfulness. John 15:1
We give Christ’s Perfection
We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
I have been to countries where so much is done to ‘appease the gods’ whether it be in India, Nepal or Papua. The greatest display of this for me to see was in Kolkota where I watched masses of people in procession all ready to bring their sacrifices from flowers to candles. They say that no nation works harder to please angry gods. Every meal, bath, conversation and harvest is all done in a specific way so as not to offend the gods.
Isaiah 1:18 Come let us reason…
Matthew 5:17 do not think that I have come to abolish the Law…I have come to fulfill the righteous requirements.
We could never manufacture our own righteousness and as I have always said there is nothing we can do to make ourselves acceptable before God. We find our complete acceptance in Him.
The greatest gift of a mother is her acceptance of her children. It is not necessarily ‘approval,’ but the incredible belief and faith that she can place in her child. It is the same way with God, there are many times that we sin and struggle with sin, being unfaithful. But He is faithful even when we are unfaithful. God doesn’t condone our sin as His children, but He chooses to see us through the perfection of His Son.

We give Christ’s Resurrection
• We are called to bring light into dark places. Spiritual darkness is so fearful and the fear of death can be so crippling in the lives of people. We are called to turn the lights on, to bring hope.

I was on call this week for the Milton Hospital and a call came in late one afternoon. It was a lady we will call Donna. She had requested for a chaplain to come in. I was told that she had cancer all through her body and that she was in the final stages. I came in and she was in and out and just struggling to breathe. She looked like she was so old but I knew that wasn’t the case. I have seen how cancer can steal, kill and destroy. The friends there were telling me, Donna just needs prayers for peace, but as I got to know her, I realized that she had no relationship with God, no idea of the one who can only give transcendent peace. I was honest with her about her situation and challenged her to put her faith in God and there on her death bed she said YES to Jesus!
Then I took the time to read Psalm 23, John 14; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 because now I could read it with authority and with the absolute hope of eternity. Death is not the final chapter for the believer.
We give Christ’s Reign
In a world where we continue to see so much upheaval from the fluctuation of financial markets, to the increase in natural disasters, the latest being the 2,000-kilometre-long cloud that has spread from Iceland to northern Spain as well as man -made disasters in the oil spills. We really are not sure what will come next. We continue to hear stories of greed, ponzi schemes, terrorist plots, persecution of Christians and no we don’t have an answer for every hate filled violence and destruction.
At least 50 Iraqi Christian students are receiving hospital treatment following a bomb attack on May 2 outside the city of Mosul that killed at least one person and has forced nearly 1,000 students to drop classes for the rest of the semester. Nearly 160 people were injured in the blasts that targeted three buses full of Christians travelling to classes at the University of Mosul.
From the Persecution and Prayer Alert, May 6th 2010
Francis Chan tells the story of a visit that he had with some of the 21 believers who were held hostage in Afghanistan already 2 years ago and how they felt a strong presence to Christ that they have never felt since. There were actually those among them who said, `sometimes I wish we were still there in a place where we knew we could lose our lives at any point’ for their faith in Jesus. The fact is that Jesus reigns no matter what happens to our earthly bodies.
For the Christ follower once again we know that the final chapter has not be written. We will join Christ in His glorious reign our questions will be replaced by the awesome sight of His final dominion reign, His love and His justice.
Romans 8:1, 28
Revelation 17:14

We give Christ’s Comfort
Revelation 21:1-4
There are many things in this world that divide and separate us from language, culture, race and nationality and within all that we see how even when we have all that in common, pride, hatred, economic bracket can all separate people as well.
There is only one form of separation that cannot be reversed and that is death
However there is only one union where that all melts away and that is the realization of our oneness in Christ with believers all over the world.
"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. . . . Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (Romans 12:2 MSG)
Recognize the power of prayer. Maybe you aren’t at the place where you can just bring the spiritual right into the conversation, but you can always say, “I will pray for you”…and just maybe, it begins with that. When you start to make prayer a priority first and commit to pray for them regularly, you will be surprised at how quickly God keeps bringing them into your life.
Prayer moves the heart of God.
Jonah 2:10 When God saw what they did and they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

The Takeaway
When it comes to spiritual blessings…

We GIVE what has been given to us and it all starts with Jesus’ life giving presence.

Questions For Discussion

1. What are some of the ways that God speaks to you?
2. How do you recognize His voice in your life?
3. What kind of thoughts are not from God?
4. Why are we more reluctant to recognize demonic power here than in other parts of the world?
5. Which gift of Christ speaks the most to you in your present situation?

Born Again to be Rivers....not ponds!

Ezekiel 47; Revelation 22

I went on a drive to my old stomping grounds in Acton last week and one of the things that really struck me was the pond behind my house which used to be a place for swimming and hockey had now turned into a swamp full of bulrushes, weeds and almost completely overgrown. This happens over time when there is no constant stream flowing into it. Spiritual rebirth is like going from stagnation like this in our lives to the raging power of a great river. It is there that a flowing stream brings life to everything along its way.

We are beginning a new series this week that will focus on giving. Did you know that the subject of giving is mentioned 2500 times in the Bible? The next closest subject is only mentioned 500 times. This alone is fairly motivating for us to consider as we explore it. The Word is very clear on the incredible joy and blessing of giving. Most followers of Jesus would like to be more giving but see so many challenges that get in the way. My aim is that we will discover in very practical ways a clear understanding of how we can position ourselves so that the spirit of generosity can flow through us!

• Rivers are pictures of giving Christians.

The Bible begins with an image of the river which flowed from the Garden of Eden and flowed into the major tributaries in Genesis 2:10

The river flowed to a land where gold is found , to land that is exceptionally pure, a place where the most precious stones are found as well and the Tigrus and Euphrates River. In ancient times, you wanted to be along the river because it was there that the passage of all goods would take place and trading would be done. The river was also the pathway to the greatest treasures that God had to offer.

The Bible also closes with a picture of heaven where the river flows through the central part of the city in Revelation 22. Wherever the river flowed, there was life. There were trees of life that grew along each side of the river.

• The River is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit.

To be born again is to be part of that very flow of the Spirit and the presence of God. Before Christ we were like the Dead Sea or a pond. A pond or a sea can only contain water, it does not give water.

As you listen to me speak about the river, this passage in Revelation may sound familiar to you and it should. Last month at our Easter service I spoke on Ezekiel 47 which mirrors and is a similar picture of the river that John describes. Ezekiel had the same vision and the realization was that the river flowed from the south side of the temple. God is the river that is always giving, always flowing into our lives if we let Him. It is a picture of the infinite generosity of a generous God; however, it is Satan who longs to convince us otherwise that God is the one who restrains us and that He is the one who is holding back on us.

• You were meant to go with the flow...the flow of the Spirit


We can either believe the lies of Satan that we must hold on to everything and suck the life out of it like a pond or believe that God will just keep pouring into us.

In the garden, the enemy convinced both Adam and Eve into believing that God is not fair and that He holds out on us. That is a lie straight from the pit of hell to believe that God is a miserly God. Satan would love nothing better than to us believe that everything must flow into us when all of heaven is devoted to an outward flow. When we make concern for ourselves first, we separate ourselves from the joy, the life, the growth that God desires for us and we simply dry up and become overgrown as we see in Ezekiel 47v11’but the marshes and swamps will not be purified; they will be sources of salt.

• We are designed for an outward flow.

We have been created for generosity.

On the last day of the seven day Feast of Tabernacles, thousands would gather in the temple and the priests would begin to act out the very vision of Ezekiel. They would be dressed in white robes and would walk down to the Pool of Siloam very reverently and would fill up their golden pitchers with water. They would then take the water and pour it out over the temple floor and it was created in such a way that the water would then flow out down the south side part of the temple past the altar. The crowd would shout with incredible joy and for the nation it was a powerful reminder that through the nation of Israel the presence of God would flow to all nations.

It would be at this incredible event that Jesus, looked upon as a young rabbi, would proclaim loudly in John 7:37 "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

What was the response...

It was incomprehensible for so many to believe that the temple was not the source of the river!

1 Peter 2:5...we have become the living stones of God’s temple and the powerful rush of water was meant to flow through us to transform barren and broken lives with His love.

We come to Christ to drink and a river of living water will flow out from within us.

We were meant to be leaky temples! It was meant to leak and hopefully at some point just pour out of us.

So, when we are born again, we truly begin to care about what God cares about and pursue what He pursues. It is literally within us and so we can’t stay stagnant.

To become a river, you have to deny self in the sense that you no longer come first.

There was a rich young ruler who thought he could buy his way into heaven. He had a stack of solid health, incredible boldness and of course a boatload of money. He was hoping to get an eternal life insurance policy, but here is the thing about salvation. It was never meant to be a possession. Salvation is not a possession you can get; it is a condition that you become transformed into and the Spirit of giving is born into you!

The origin of the river is in the complete reversal of what has come naturally to all people. It is for that reason that it is often a river that goes against the flow of culture. It reminds as well of the story of the wide and narrow gate. We are changed to the point where move from getting to giving and from selfishness to sacrifice.

Our rivers are born when we die to getting and learn to start living by giving

It was Satan who started the lie that changed the direction of the flow of the river in his heart when He challenged Eve in the garden to become like God...you can have everything, you can have it all, all the knowledge, all the power in essence to become retaining ponds.

C.S. Lewis captures the picture in The Great Divorce when he depicts hell as solitary confinement, a place of eternal aloneness.

Fear over possessions either gained or lost is a picture of that pond mentality which measures life by the amount of water in one’s pond. The river mentality measures how much flow is going out and giving life to others all along the way.

• Fruit is the evidence of the flow

John 15:1-8

All NT references to the lack of fruit or barrenness are pictures of death, of loss, of hell itself. They are the stagnant ponds rather than the life giving rivers.

A young mother was dying of cancer and was surrounded by several members of her church’s prayer team for months. During that time, God gave her a vision that she saw a millions souls in India streaming into heaven as a result of her witness. The prayer team thought that this was evidence of the fact that God was going to miraculously heal her. However, shortly after seeing the vision, she died.

Five years later a Christian from a northern state in India came to the US and located the church of this mother. He contacted the minister of missions and shared about a little tract that was written about a dying mother, her faith and her vision and inquired if anyone knew about the author. As it turned out, the tract was made as a testimony of her love for Christ during her pain of cancer, was translated and was being widely distributed there. The man shared how 4 new churches had been started and the tract was used instrumentally in speaking to the pain of so many living there.
From Why Give by John F DeVries


When it comes to streams, we may never see the places where our river flows downstream and is still at work in even increasing flow.

• Childlike Dependency is the means to increased flow.


Each of us has our own Dead Sea into which God’s Spirit flows. Remember that Ezekiel’s guide measured the river four times and the realization is that when God is the source of the river, He will be the one that will create the ever increasing flow.

1 John 3:1

How great is the love of the Father that He lavishes on us that we should be called the children of God.

He wants to pour out His abundance through us.

Salvation is God using us as the streams of living water to the dry and weary land where we live.

April was one of the driest months on record since record keeping in the 1800s. Where are the April showers? We are the April showers in people’s lives!

It was prophesied over me and though I sometimes go through periods of doubt, it sustains me!

So I opened the Champion on Friday night and went to the section on churches and just checked out what everyone was doing. The article that lead into it was on the need for us to look after widows and orphans and it spoke to that. I thought to myself, ‘good article’, but had no idea how it would play out in my life... the following day.

Rylan and I took part in part of Milton Community ‘Good Neighbours’ Day. I have been part of it in the past and can remember bagging a lot of garbage along the Sixteen Mile River. Yesterday, it was different though. They handed me an address and told me there was a senior that needed her windows washed. So, with Windex in hand, Rylan and I were off and we went to Linda’s home. We got there and met with her and learned that she has been a widow for ten years. We found out that her son had transferred out to Vancouver a few years ago and she was thrilled to have some help. Well we ended up doing a fair amount of weeding as well and it went really well. As I was digging them out, I thought, this is what the church needs to be about as well. I had this really great plan to pick up all the remaining slips of paper back at Hugh Foster Hall and hand them out at church but there was only one left. I offered to take it, but a family arrived late to take it.

It started to thunder and rain as we were just finishing up and we got the ladders and weed bag in the garage. Linda looked at us and said, “I don’t know what to say.” I responded by telling her that we went to Southside and that the Bible tells us to look after widows so it was an honor for us to do it. It was a great morning and I can’t express how much joy God gives you when you serve. Good Neighbours Day should not only be about one day so keep your eyes and ears open to the opportunities that God allows you to GIVE!

The Takeaway

If you are a child of God, it is IN YOU to give!!

Questions For Discussion

1. List major gifts that make up God’s river of giving.
2. If you can, relate about a time when God has completely multiplied your giving.
3. What are the direct fruits of giving?
4. How can you position yourself for releasing a greater flow of the Holy Spirit and giving in your life?