How to Really Enjoy Your Earthly Wealth

Well, let me have you turn in your Bibles to, First Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6 for our time of study in the word, this morning, we are doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 18. And we're going to do, we'll, we'll rush through some parts of verse 17, but we will, get through verse 18 this morning. My initial intention was to get all the way through verse 19, but in the first service, we didn't get past verse 18.

So, those, you children that are filling out the, filling in the blanks on the clipboards, you're only going to have 7 blanks to, to, to fill in this morning rather than 9, but don't worry, you'll get your candy afterwards, and we'll just pick up where we leave off, next, next Sunday. If you want to give a title to the message, it would be how to really enjoy your Earthly wealth. How to really enjoy your earthly wealth. Unfortunately, when we come across a passage like this, people might tend to get a little defensive, like, OK, here we go.

This is going to be a sermon on giving, so I'm going to hold on to my wallet. And, I, I already know the direction this is going to go. Actually, I, I just want to encourage you guys to put your defenses down, and I want you to feel the love of God and the heart of God for you in this passage this morning. And just take it in because you have a God who is an advocate for your, Great, pleasure.

In fact, look what it says in verse 17. Instruct those who are rich, and are we rich guys? Carlos Cuellar two weeks ago, shared some information with us that I think would help us along those lines to see maybe where we are. if you make $47,500 a year, you are in the top 1 percentile of the wealthiest people on, on the planet.

So, we're, we're doing Pretty well compared to the rest of the world. And by the way, if you're like, I'm not sure I'm rich or not, so I'm not sure if this passage applies. Actually, every instruction that you find in these verses, you can find somewhere else in the New Testament applying to every believer. All right.

which is actually good news, because we're going to see that the pleasure of God is in this. Instruct those who are rich, those who have plenty, those who have received abundantly, and they have material provision, currency, wealth, in whatever form. Instruct those who are rich in this present world, not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God. Now look at this, speaking of God, who richly supplies us or gives to us all things.

Now look on the screen. Here's a literal translation, who gives to us richly into pleasure. That's literally how that phrase can read. That word joy, is found one other place in the New Testament, that's Hebrews 11:25 where it speaks of Moses, forsaking the pleasures of sin.

Remember that passage? and that word pleasure is the same word that is translated in joy, here. So sin has its pleasures along with the downside. the, the negatives and the guilt and the stained conscience and the judgment of God, and all the other consequences that ensue from our sin.

But then there's a God that's being depicted here, who is an advocate for our pleasure. And we learn here that God has a bunch of stuff. He's got a bunch of wealth. He has lavished that wealth upon us, and his agenda in every single thing he gives to us is to bring us into pleasure.

To bring us into the experience of a pleasure that he has thought up in his mind and that he wants for us to have. So when you look at anything that you have, any wealth, any currency, any assets that you have that you lawfully gained, You can know that this is a gift from the Lord, and God has given it to me to bring me into pleasure. That's God's agenda, and all that he has given. So the beauty of a passage like this, is we learned this about the heart of God.

So we don't feel so guilty about having stuff and being blessed materially. God has given that to us to bring us into pleasure, and this same God is also good to bring to us an instruction manual that goes along with that wealth to say, hey, here's what you need to do if you want the wealth that I've given to you to bring you into the experience of pleasure. That's what this is. A manual to help us experience the pleasure God wants for us to experience in the material provision that he's lavished upon us.

Now, we all know that not everyone who has wealth, not everyone who is rich is, is happy, right? Not everyone who has abundance is experiencing this pleasure. That God is talking about in this passage, and there's a lot of miserable millionaires that are out there. One example of a miserable millionaire, maybe billionaire from the Bible is King Solomon.

This guy was obscenely wealthy. Just some of his own description. I bought male and female slaves. I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me.

I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings, all that my eyes desired. I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure. He had the wealth and the means to do absolutely anything and everything he wanted to do, anything he wanted to obtain, he was able to do that to where his wealth surpassed any that preceded him.

Now, did he enjoy that wealth and experience the pleasure that God is talking about in this passage? Well, let's find out. Look what he goes on to say. Then I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor I had exerted, and behold, all was vanity and striving after the wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

So I hated life. For the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me because everything is futility and striving after the wind. Thus, I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. Therefore, I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor.

This guy's clinically depressed. He's really down. He's got all of this abundance, and yet he is not at this season of his life experiencing the pleasure that God gave this wealth to Solomon to experience. Andrew Carnegie, who was in modern-day economic, figures, in the late 1800s and early 1900s would be the modern day equivalent of, of a billionaire worth several billion dollars.

Listen to what he says. He says, I've known millionaires starving for lack of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man. And I know workmen and many so-called poor men who revel in luxuries beyond the power of those millionaires to reach. Just in his observation, he says, I've seen many wealthy people who cannot get at this thing.

I think that Paul is talking about in 1 Timothy 6, but I found poor people that were able to revel in luxuries, find pleasure. That millionaires were unable to reach. So please understand, guys, that if, if, if you would consider yourself as having abundant provision from God, that does not automatically enter you into this pleasure that Paul is talking about in verse 17. You must follow the instructions that come with that provision.

And so, what we're gonna do this morning, With the time we have, is I want to go over with you 7. We're only going to cover 7 instructions, in verses 17 and 18 to show us how to experience maximum pleasure in the riches, the material riches, the assets, the paper currency, and And the things that money can buy to show us how to, to enter into the pleasure in those things that God wants us to experience. The first of these 3 things we'll go through fairly quickly because Carlos covered them very well 2 weeks ago.

If you want to experience maximum pleasure as God intends for you to in your material prosperity, number 1, don't let your riches make you proud.

that'll ruin everything because if you're proud, the Bible says God's opposed to the proud. God will dress Himself in military array, as it were, and he'll fight against you. And that ruins your day, and your ability to enjoy the material blessings that God has given. So don't let it make you proud or make you think you're better than anyone else or that you're deserving of the blessing of God.

Secondly, Don't let your riches assume the place of God. If you really want to enter into the pleasure that God wants for you to experience in the enjoyment of the material provision that God has given to you, you have to be careful not to allow your riches to assume the place of God in your life. Now, we're funny creatures as fallen human beings, are we not? it is so easy for us to receive something from God.

And we take what we've received from God, and we worship that in the place of God, or we allow it to assume a higher place, a higher priority than God. That's idolatry. And we are so prone to idolatry. But what, the surefire way to guarantee that you'll never be satisfied with money is let money assume the place of God, and money will always let you down.

Solomon says he who loves money will never be satisfied with money. And by the way, that's true for anything. You, parents, you, you allow your children to assume the place of God. And you will never be satisfied with your children.

Husbands, you allow your wife to assume the place of God. You'll never be satisfied with your wife. Wives allow your husbands to assume the place of God in your life. You'll never be satisfied with your husband.

why? Because your husband can probably eventually make a great husband. He'll never be a great God. Only God can do that.

Don't, when you allow something to assume the place of God, you place the burden of deity upon that, and no one and nothing can live up to that, other than God. So don't let anything, and in this context, don't allow your riches to assume the place of God. He says in verse 17, don't fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God. Don't let riches seduce you away from trusting and putting your hope in God.

And winning your trust to itself. No, you keep your hope in God. Keep God in the rightful place and money in its rightful place, and you will thereby be enabled to truly experience the pleasure in your riches that God has given it to you to experience. Idolatry is a destroyer of pleasure.

That, going back to Andrew Carnegie, he said this in his early 30s, he realized he was making a ton of money and on the road to making even more money, and yet he realized that he was dying inside. And he said this in his memo to himself. He said, no idol is more debasing than the worship of money. For me to continue much longer, overwhelmed by business cares and with most of my thoughts wholly upon the way to make more money in the shortest time, must degrade.

Me beyond hope of permanent recovery. It's like this is going to destroy me if I continue. And he goes on to say, I know what I'll do. In 2 years, I'm going to leave the industry and get myself to reading and personal development.

Well, he didn't do that. over the next, two years and just felt in his own person, in his own heart, just the, the difficulties that came with that idolatry that he's candid enough to admit here. It, it took away the enjoyment. At this season of his life that he could have gained from the wealth that God was blessing him with.

There's a 3rd. Instruction here if you want to enter into the experience of the pleasure that God intends for you to experience in the material provision that He's given to you, and that is to enjoy your riches together with God. Enjoy your riches together with, with God. what?

When, when God gives you, material provision, see that as being from God, and enjoy the heart of God as it reveals itself and what he has blessed you with materially, rather than idolizing and enjoying the thing he's given in exclusion of God. what I'm talking about? enjoy it in the context of your relationship with God. Just a silly example.

Imagine I come home from work one day and I have 1 dozen red roses for my wife. She likes red roses as long as they're alive. and imagine I come home with those red roses and a $1000 beautiful necklace. And I present it to her as she greets me at the door, and she takes the roses, and she's just riveted by the roses.

Oh, I love these roses as long as they're alive. These are beautiful. And, and, and then she takes the necklace and she's totally riveted to the necklace and just raving about how beautiful it is, and she's so caught up in the roses and the necklace. That she's just talking to herself, enjoying those things, and she turns her back to me and walks upstairs, goes into the bedroom, closes the door behind her to continue enjoying the roses and the necklace, and I'm left standing there downstairs going, this didn't go the way I thought it would go.

And, and not that I would want it to be all about me. You guys know what I'm talking about. I, the, the thing is, I would want her to enjoy the roses and the necklace as an expression of my heart, to where she enjoys those in the context of our relationship with one another, not an exclusion of that relationship. And so all of the blessings of God, maybe you don't have a million dollars, but even the smallest blessings, see that is from God.

I love sometimes sitting down to eat a meal and, and just, what, I'm going to savor every bite and I'm going to view every bite as being from God. And so I, I put a bite in my mouth and I'm chewing it and I, I just imagine my Heavenly Father, like, just like, do you like it? Do you like it? I created this with this texture and, and this taste and just viewing every bite as a personal gift from Him.

And enjoying, and enjoying the bite, I'm enjoying him. And his generous goodness. Enjoy your riches together in relationship with God. There's a 4th instruction.

This gets us into verse 18. If you want to enter into this pleasure that God intends for you to experience in the material provision and wealth that he's given to you, and that is do good works with your riches. Do good works with your riches. Look at verse 18, instruct them, the rich, literally to work good.

Instruct the rich to work. Good. And this is a compound word. It's the word gathos that means good, and then gain, that is the word we get our English word energy from.

All right, so it means to expend energy to accomplish something, to do something. And so what God is saying here is this, if you, I've given you this provision to bring you into a pleasure that I want you to experience. And here's one of the instructions of what you need to do to enter into that pleasure, and that is, get busy with what I've given to you and work good. It's interesting that we would be told to do that.

Most of us dream of making enough money to where we don't have to work again. Right? God says, that's fine, you may not have to work for money anymore. But once you have that provision, what I want you to do is get to work with that provision and work good, accomplish good, do good, he says.

With it. He would say, that's why I gave it to you. In fact, think about this, we all know that theologically, this is true, right? We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good, that's Agatha works.

and that's ergos. So same two words, only they're separate here. We're created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them, right? We all say, yeah, that's true.

That's why I was saved. Christ died so that these works would be done, and God prepared them beforehand so that I would walk in them. What Paul is saying in this passage, basically, is look around at your material blessings, your cars, your, your house, the rooms in your house, and the food in your cupboards, and, and the money in the bank and the currency that you have. Look at all of that and realize that God has given that to you so that you can work good, so that you can accomplish good with it.

Rather than taking that and wasting it, or stashing it away and never using it so that it can get dispersed after you die, and maybe do a little bit of good then, or rather than taking that wealth that you've generated and just making your life all about yourself. Rather than that, God says, I've given this to you as a part of my provision so that with it, you can do the works that I prepared beforehand so that you would walk in them, accomplish good things. With This provision.

That I've given to you.

The word Agathos can speak of something that's good in the sense of morally good or noble, righteous. So do things that, that are moral and righteous and that contribute to righteousness in the lives of others and even in your own life. You never want to take what God's given you and actually do evil with that or foster evil. with that.

But this word also, beyond just speaking of something that's morally good or noble, it can speak of something that's practically good. Just addressing a basic mundane need. In fact, what's interesting is the only other time this exact compound word occurs in the New Testament is in Acts 14:17. Speaking of God, it says, I believe to the people of Lystra, it says, yet he did not leave you without witness and that he, God, did good.

He worked good. In what form? Look at this. He gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food.

And gladness, down to the smallest thing of giving someone a bite to eat, that brings pleasure, not only to their stomachs, but also their hearts, and it, it lifts their spirits. God is the one who gives reins and who does these practically good things. For mankind. And here we get a chance to imitate God.

God has blessed you. And God's agenda is that through that material blessing, you enter into pleasure, but you've got to do certain things to enter into that. And one of those things is be like God and work good. That accomplishes things of eternal value.

The ultimate good is the good of the gospel, is it not? The gospel is good news, and it is good news, not only because the message is good, but because it accomplishes good things. And whenever we take the material provision God has given to us and we Put it towards the ministry of the gospel verbally, and even through deeds, just being a living embodiment of the gospel, imparting the gospel through deed, and through word, we are working good with The material blessings God has given to us.

Well, there's a 5th instruction that God gives, and a lot of these instructions are saying the same thing, but in a slightly different way in order to convey just additional slivers of thought that completes our understanding.

And the 5th instruction, again, we have the word work here. is to become rich in good works. Look what he says in verse 18. Instruct them, the rich, to do good and to be rich in good works.

Now let's think about why Paul would word it this, this way. I think Paul words it in this way because he wants to make sure that we don't think that all we need to do is just do some token good things every now and then. Like, well, hey, I, this past month I gave away 1% of my income to a charitable organization and I gave 1% of my income to the church, and what, two weeks ago I was at the gas station and someone asked me for a quarter. I gave them a quarter that I had in my ashtray.

I didn't need it. I gave it to them. and so what, I, I feel like I'm doing this with the bounty that God has given to me. I am working good with that.

Well, technically, you're doing some good with that. But Paul is saying, I'm not talking about just some token good deeds. I'm talking about being rich, being plentiful in good works. In 2 Corinthians 8:7, Paul is talking to the Corinthians and encouraging them to give funds to meet the needs of their brethren in Jerusalem who were being ravaged by a famine.

And Paul says to the Corinthians, see that you abound in this gracious work of giving also. He's, he's not just saying, I want you to give to help your brothers. He's saying, I want you to abound. I want you to overflow in This gracious work of giving, and that's the idea here, even though the exact words are a little different.

God wants us to be rich in good works. The truth is, if we take what God has given to us, in fact, think of it this way, become rich in good works. today, various people are rich in different ways. Some are rich in paper currency.

Some are rich in assets. Some are rich in gold bullion, some are rich in treasury bonds, and some are rich in real estate. Some are rich in lands. In fact, on the news this past week, I, they had a little segment on Ted Turner.

And they mentioned that he owns so much land that if you put it all together, it's 3 times the land mass of the state of Rhode Island. That's all the land that he owns. That's a guy who's rich in land. And with all of the upheaval that's going on in our economy right now, people who have wealth in various forms, they're wondering, Should I move my wealth from this to this stage?

Should I move my wealth into Treasury bonds or into gold? And they're wondering what is the best choice to make. Paul is saying, I've got a great investment strategy for you. Take the wealth that God has given to you, and move it into this currency of good deeds.

OK, put it to work, doing good, of eternal benefit, and even practical good, wherein you are a living embodiment of the generosity of God, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, because Paul would say, here's the neat thing about the currency of good deeds, you can take those with you. After you die. Everything else you leave behind, but your good deeds will follow you through the grave and into eternity. I love this sentiment in Revelation 14:13.

John says, and I heard a voice from heaven saying, right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them. Their deeds will precede them into glory. And even as they're walking in the trillions of eons throughout eternity, their deeds that they did when they were on the earth will not only be with them, but they'll follow with them wherever they go.

They'll be walking down the streets of gold and Someone will come up to them that they've never met before and say, what, I want to thank you for making a difference in my life. You're like, what, I, I, I'm sorry, I don't recognize you. who are you? They're like, what, you led someone to the Lord 100 years before I was born.

And that person went on to lead some other people to the Lord, and then they some other people to the Lord and, and eventually it came to me. And because of you, God used you as an instrument of my salvation. And you're like, wow, that's really, see your good deeds will just like follow you, and all their reverberating consequences and outcomes will just follow you through eternity. In fact, it'll take eternity to just find out all of those chains of consequences of, of the good that we did by the grace of God, those good deeds that God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

And so, hey, with, with what's going on in the world today, move your wealth into the currency of good deeds because that'll survive anything. In fact, it survives death. And when all your material possessions takes wings and flies away and abandons you in that moment, the currency of those good deeds done by the grace of God and in the name of Jesus will go with you and follow you through all of eternity. See, God is, he's, he wants your pleasure here.

Do you guys feel that? God wants you to enter into the experience of pleasure, and that's his agenda in the material blessings that he's given to you. There's a 6th instruction that he gives. That he wants you to follow with regard to your material wealth and provisions so that in following it, you can enter into the pleasure that he dreams for you and that he gave you your material wealth for, and that is be generous in giving goodly portions of good things to others.

OK? The language sounds hokey here, but, goodly is a little bit older of a word. It just means sizable, all right? But I feel smart when I say it.

Be generous in giving goodly or sizable portions of good things to others. Look what he says in verse 18, instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous. That word generous is the Greek word for giving. Speaking of giving something away.

It's got a preposition attached to the beginning of it to intensify. That word giving. And then it's got that you prefix, EU prefix to the beginning of the word, and that word you means good, like a eulogy is a good word. that someone might speak about another at their funeral, and you put all of that together and generous is a very good translation, but unpacking that translation, it's what he's saying is be generous in giving goodly or sizable portions of the good things that you have.

to others. You're, you're good at giving and, and you give the good things, not the unnecessary things. And when you give, you give sizable portions to address the needs of other people and serve the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. See, what he's, what he's not talking about here is gathering the family together, saying, OK guys, we're going to do spring cleaning here and we're going to go through the house and we're going to get rid of all the junk and we're going to load it up in the van and we're going to drive it down to Goodwill, and we'll donate it to them and we'll drive home feeling really good about how we're, we're just really following this passage.

Well, that's actually a great thing to do. I would actually commend that. but this particular word goes beyond that. It's not talking about giving something that you don't want or giving something that's less than the best.

It's talking about giving the good stuff that you have, the stuff that you would deem to be good and useful, giving the best stuff and giving it in sizable proportions. To the Lord and to others. A great example of this would be the Macedonian Christians that Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 8, where he says that they gave according to their ability and beyond their ability. They gave of their own accord, begging us for the privilege of being able to participate in the support of the saints.

No one had to beg them. They begged for the opportunity, like, please let us do this. And they gave according to their ability and beyond their ability. That's what this word generous means.

Now, real quick, let me, a little bit of a side note. We've been talking about generosity and giving here in this particular word. Let's just think real quick about who do we give to, according to the New Testament. And again, you may be able to go beyond this, in your thinking.

I wouldn't argue against, But just going from the text of the New Testament, here's the four different directions that money from Christians through generous giving goes. Number 1, it goes out to fellow Christians who are suffering need, right? Paul, and a few of his letters is trying to encourage believers to take up a collection so that, that could be taken to The Christians in Jerusalem that are experiencing famine. In 1 Timothy 5:3, he talks about giving money to the church essentially so that the church can assume responsibility for providing financial care and provision for widows who are destitute and have no one else to provide for them.

So money can go in that direction. Number 2, it can go in the direction of anyone outside the church who has a need that is in your power to address. In Galatians chapter 6 verse 10, Paul says, Let's do good to all men, especially to those who are of the household of faith. So especially the believers, but he's including in that that you want to be a doer of good.

To all men, including those that are outside of the faith, be a living embodiment of the generosity and the heart of God towards those that may presently be outside of faith. And Jesus in Luke 10:25 to 37 is the story of the good Samaritan who sees a man beaten and left for dead by the side of the road and he looks upon him, feels compassion for him, and, and does everything he can, to nurse him back to health and, set him up in a hotel essentially and even Provide funds, so that his needs can be taken care of.

and so what that Samaritan is doing in that moment, he's just being a living embodiment of the goodness and the generosity of God. And God may actually use some generosity that you show toward a nonbeliever to actually lead them to a saving knowledge of Jesus, right?

But even if that doesn't happen, you get an opportunity to imitate God, and that's reward enough. Our God who causes the sun to shine on the evil and the good and rain to fall on the evil and, and the good. So that's another direction that our generosity goes. And then number 3, I have to say this because this is what the scripture says, especially in First Timothy that we've been studying.

Another direction that our giving goes is towards those who labor as elders, working hard at preaching and, and teaching. So obviously, there are funds that go to the local church, so that support for the ministry of the local church can go forth. The ministry of the word and so that elders can do the work of shepherding that the church and God has assigned them to do. And then 1/4 direction of our generosity, according to the New Testament is toward those who serve the church by Going out on behalf of the church to spread the gospel of Christ.

You have a guy like the apostle Paul who was sent out by the local church, and there were other churches that loved Paul. It's like we want to participate in his ministry and so they, they gave funds to support him. In 1 Corinthians 9:14, Paul says that the Lord has essentially declared it to be that those who preach the gospel should get their living from the gospel. And so there may be something else that I'm not seeing in the New Testament, but just basic, just looking at the text of the New Testament, these are four directions that you're giving, your generous giving in sizable proportions, the best of what you have goes.

And keep in mind that in giving in this way, There's pleasure. And that's exactly what Jesus said. In Acts 20:35, Paul quotes Jesus as saying, It's more blessed to give than to receive. you guys believe that's true, right?

It's more blessed to give than to receive. It's great to receive, is it not? I, I love receiving. It's fun to receive, and Jesus is not knocking, receiving at all.

In fact, what he's saying is, as great as it is to receive. It's more blessed. To be the giver than it is to be the receiver. How many of you, just to get a feel for where we're at as a church, how many of you In your life have experienced moments where you have given of yourself or of what you've had to meet the needs of someone else, and you experienced the blessedness in that moment that Jesus is talking about.

Just raise your hand if you've ever experienced what he's talking about here, in any given moment. OK. it seems like most of you have, so I don't even need to persuade you. Of the truth of this because it's true in your experience.

Let me illustrate this though. I was rereading just this week, in Hudson Taylor's, biography, there's an incident that he tells about before he went to China and, he was working for an employer and that employer would pay him on a regular basis like on Friday of every week and that employer would often forget to pay Hudson Taylor on the assigned day, but Hudson Taylor determined that, what, I'm not ever going to go to my employer and remind him that he owes me money. And not that he thought it would be wrong to do that.

He just thought, what, if I can't trust God and just go to God when I need those funds from my employer and trust God with that, then I'm not worthy to go to China, and I'm not going to be able to trust God when I get to China thousands of miles away.

So he just imposed that on himself. I'll never remind my employer that he is behind in paying my paycheck. Well, there was one particular grouping of a, of a couple of weeks or so where his employer had forgotten to pay him. Hudson Taylor wanted so badly to remind him, but, but again decided not to, and I'm just going to trust the Lord, and he kept taking that to the Lord in prayer each day.

But his funds got so low to where Hudson Taylor was down to a meal. It was a Sunday. He had some food to eat that night and he had breakfast for the next morning, and that was it in terms of food. His boss owed him money.

His boss was behind. The only other thing Hudson Taylor had in his possession was a large denomination coin in his pocket, and it was English currency, and I don't even know what the values of all those things are, so we'll just say a large denomination coin, all right. So he had food for that night, that Sunday night. The next morning, he didn't even have dinner for Monday night, and he had this large denomination coin in his pocket and he was thinking this will get me by for maybe a few more days.

Well, that Sunday evening, when he was coming out of a worship service, there was a man, an impoverished looking man who approached Hudson Taylor and said, Can you come to, to my house? My wife is dying. And Hudson Taylor said, sure, I'll come. And the man said, I just want you to pray for my wife because she's dying.

He says, OK, I'll do that. And so he follows this man to a very rundown part of town, a dangerous part of town, and, follows this man up a set of stairs into their dwelling place. And Hudson Taylor said when he walked into the room, His heart just was crushed by the sight of, of what he saw, and there were several children gathered around. Their cheeks were hollow.

It was obvious that they were malnourished. There was this woman who was just groaning and moaning as she lay there close to death, and I believe there was a 6 week old child, an infant that was by the mother who was so weak and famished that the child was not even able to cry. It would just moan quietly. And Hudson Taylor, his heart broke for them and, but he realized that the man has asked me to pray for his wife and so I'm gonna do that.

But right before he started to pray for this wife, the spirit prompted Hudson Taylor and said, give them the coin in your pocket. And Hudson Taylor admitted that he said, no, no, and he was like, Lord, because he was thinking it's such a large denomination coin. Lord, if I had several smaller value coins, I would happily give to them from that. But this whole coin that has this value, I'm, I, I'm not going to do that.

And so he was fighting with the Holy Spirit in that. In that moment, and he ended up praying for the woman and started praying through the Lord's Prayer and give us this day our daily bread, and he was just smitten with conviction like, you hypocrite. You're not even trusting God to provide for you and you're praying for this family and this woman. He said, I don't even remember what I said, but I muddled through the prayer the whole time I'm battling with the Holy Spirit.

When I got done, I got up to leave and this man looked at me and earnestly said, Sir, you can see the dire straits we're in. If you can do anything for us that would help us, we would appreciate it. At that point, Hudson Taylor gave in and he reached in his pocket at that beloved coin and pulled it out and he said to the man, he says, this is honestly all that I have, but I give all that I have to you. I'll let him tell you what he felt after that moment.

He says in that moment, the joy all came in full flood tide to my heart. I well remember how that night as I went home to my lodgings, my heart was as light as my pocket. The dark deserted streets resounded with a hymn of praise that I could not restrain. When I took my basin of gruel before retiring, I would not have exchanged it for a prince's feast.

The victory he experienced, the joy, the blessedness that he experienced in giving was enormous, and he could not restrain himself. The story doesn't end there. The next morning he gets a knock on his door and it's mail being delivered, and he didn't normally get mail on Monday, but there's some mail there and he's going through the mail and there's a package there and he opens up the package and inside there's some gloves, and he unfolds the gloves. And inside those gloves is 400 times the value of what he had just given to that family the night before.

And I don't have Hudson Taylor's exact words with me, but as he shares it, he basically was thinking, what, this was an amazing investment. There's not a bank in England that can match what the God of the universe has just done for me. I do what I did last night, and he gives me a 400% return in less than 24 hours. And he said, I decided then and there, I'm keeping my money with God.

I'm depositing it with him because the returns with him are enormous. But what, in his heart, he didn't even need that. The joy already was his. That's just icing on an already delicious cake.

Amen. It is more blessed to give than to receive and We need to believe this. And, and Paul says, be generous. That means that give sizable portions of the good of what you have.

Take, take the stuff, not, not just stuff that you don't really want, the throwaway stuff, and you'll donate that to charity or give that to somebody else. Take the good of what you have, the best of what you have, and give that. Don't just give out of your wants and out of your luxury, be willing to even give out of your need. And know that God will take care of you.

In fact, the Philippians had given graciously and generously to Paul and his imprisonment, and his ministry of the gospel. Paul is writing them a thank you letter that we call Philippians, and, and he's like, man, you guys have really blessed me. There's fruit that's going to abound to your account, and I'm happy for you for that reason. But then he says this in Philippians 4:19, and my God, will supply all of your needs, according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

Be very careful with this verse. This is not a promise for every Christian. This is not even a promise for every Christian who gives. This is a promise for Christians who give out of their need.

Because what Paul is saying here, the, the Philippians had given out of their need, because they love Paul and love the gospel. And Paul is saying, I want you to know that God's gonna replenish your need. You have given out of your need to me. I want you to know God will replenish that need from which you drew to give to me.

The truth is, guys, we cannot, we absolutely cannot outgive God. I'll never forget when I was in seminary at the Masters seminary, we were pretty poor. And And I remember on a Saturday night, my wife and I were sitting at the dining room table and I was looking at our checkbook, and there was just a paltry amount in that checkbook and, we were talking about what we were going to give and the offering the next day and, I really was struggling in that moment with like giving anything because we had so little and I'm thinking of bills to come, utilities and seminary bills and so forth, and, but we ended up deciding that night to give $100 in the offering the next day.

So I write the $100 check Saturday night, go to bed and get up Sunday morning, we go to church and the offering plate goes by and I just let it pass on by.

I couldn't bring myself to put the $100 in the offering plate. And I started doing all this math in my head of all the needs that we had and the bills that were coming and, but that really hassled me through the afternoon and then Sunday night came, we went back to church, and when the offering plate came by, I released that $100 and put it in the offering plate. I would love to say, that my experience was the same as Hudson Taylor's, just this rapturous release and I stood up in the middle of the service and began praising the Lord in an unrestrained way.

I, I felt a release to a degree, but I still felt anxiety, unfortunately.

Well, but I, I felt blessed that we had obeyed the Lord. The next day, totally true story. The next day I go to the post office box in our apartment complex where we lived, and there's a stack of mail, and I grab the stack of mail and I walk back to our apartment complex. My wife is sitting at our desk and I start dishing it out one at a time onto the desk, and as I'm doing that, an envelope falls from the bottom of the pile.

And I bend over and I pick it up and I see that it's from somebody that I knew in Indiana that I had not talked to, communicated with in any way, shape or form since we had moved out to California. And I opened up that envelope and inside that envelope, true story was a check for $2000 just to help us get through seminary. And I can say then my experience was like Hudson Taylor. I I was like, I get it, Lord, I get it.

and I started running the math going, what an investment this was. Last night, we obey the Lord and we give what really was a small amount and I get this multiplied return in less than 24 hours. See, the truth is, guys, like I said, you cannot outgive God. God won't let you because his reputation is at stake.

God is extremely, extravagantly wealthy. He will never let any of his people out give him. And God glorifies Himself by when we give, even when we give out of our need, God will supply, he will replenish our need according to his riches and glory. The economy may be bad, but what?

God's not hurting. God's riches are the same yesterday, today and forever. And God loves to give, and he loves to replenish the need of those who give generously out of their need in the four directions that we saw a little earlier in the service. Well, we are running out of time, just so I can say I got as far as I did in the first service.

Let me give you This, the 7th instruction is be letting others share in what you have. If you want to enter into this pleasure that God has for you to experience, then be letting others into what you have. Think about it, technically, like if, if I give to somebody, I'm, I'm like taking that money and I'm sending it away. But another way of looking at it is that in that act, what I'm really doing is from another vantage point is I'm inviting that person into what I have.

And saying to them, this portion of what I have belongs to you as much as it does me. Come inside and I will allow you to share in the experience and the blessing of this thing that I have, that I, I, I want you to know I view this as common property amongst the two of us. You are as entitled to this as I am, and I invite you in to share in the experience of this that God has blessed me with. There's more to say regarding this particular point, we'll pick up here next week.

But all in all, guys, I just feel the heart of God. God is, you, you cannot imagine how passionately God is an advocate for your pleasure. And he's lavished bounty on us, and all of that's from Him. And he's done that with the agenda to bring us into pleasure.

And he gives us instructions here on how we can do that. There's even a couple more instructions that we, as we get into verse 19 that just starts really blowing our minds. And let us, let us just trust the generous heart of God and live the lives that he wants us to live, making use of the material provision he's given to us as we are instructed to here. Want to ask you to bow your heads.

We're going to take up an offering, as we always do at this point in our service, and we thank you guys so much for your consistent generosity and giving, To the work of the ministry here. And we would just encourage you as the offering bags go by, to give as the Lord leads. Let's pray together. Lord, you've done so much for us.

in, in the gospel, Lord, you've just, you gave us your son, you created the world with all the resources and the power that you had and it was good, and you placed us on this planet, and we fell, we sinned against you. You gave us your son. Jesus, you donated your entire self. You gave up your life so that we might be saved and have our sins forgiven.

And then believing in you, Jesus, that gets our sins forgiven. It gets all that stuff out of the way so that we can then have a relationship with God and the day is going to come, When we're going to experience eternal hospitality where God's going to let us come into heaven and just share in His wealth, his riches for all of eternity. And Lord, all we're really seeing here in this passage is a picture of God. A picture of you and what you have done.

With your resources and your wealth. And you now call us being motivated by this wonderful gospel. of Jesus Christ to, to go forth with the wealth and provision you have given to us, and to be a living embodiment of your generosity, to mirror this gospel to others, to imitate you. To be generous just like you, that we might taste of your pleasure.

Thank you, Lord, even at this point in our service for the opportunity to give our offerings to you, Lord, we ask that you would do much with these offerings for the glory of Jesus Christ. The same time we give ourselves to you in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,