The Grace of Corporate Giving

Carlos is going to be coming up. And sharing with us about our ministry. Of the week this week before he does that. We're happy to have Brad and Julie Lee, Brad and Julie Ley.

Brad and Julie Lee. And our service this morning, why don't you guys stand? Thank you. they are missionaries that we support as a church who are serving the Lord and just a fantastic ministry in Albania, and it's a blessing for us to have them with us, and they're here in the States for I think 6 weeks, and they're with us today.

So, Carlos Cue is gonna come talk to us a little bit about VBS, so let's give our brother a warm welcome. Carlos, won't you come? Thanks, Milton. Well, in case any of you haven't, discovered, it is summer, is it not?

It is hot. And, summer is not only a time of intense heat, but, it's a time to be very excited. If you're a kid, you're out of school, some of you, if you're family, you're taking vacation, so there's a lot of things to be excited about during summer and I wanna just give you one more thing to be excited about, and that is VBS and, we're doing. We are gonna be doing a, a vacation Bible school in August, and, we just want, it's gonna be a great time to reach kids, with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And one way to do that is through sports. Kids love sports and, what we're gonna do this year is we're gonna do a BBS, soccer camp, an Iwana soccer camp, and it's basically teaching kids soccer skills and at the same time teaching them, and introducing them to the work in person of Jesus Christ. So, what it's gonna look like a typical day, kids are gonna come. They're gonna be paired up with their coach and they're gonna go through soccer drills and they're gonna have a time, what we, what we're gonna call the zone where they're gonna come together and they're gonna hear, they're gonna be exposed to worship and praise music.

they're gonna hear the word of God preached and they're gonna see a skit that emphasizes that Bible theme or idea and then they're gonna play a soccer game at the end and have a great time. And basically, we want you to be a part of that. We want to, get as many of you involved as we can. you may be thinking to yourself, I have no clue how to play soccer, or I stink.

I really stink. But I wanna assure you, cause I do too. I, I, I'm horrible. I think my kids play better soccer than I do.

There, you don't have to know anything about soccer to be involved. And even if you're a coach, we're gonna teach you everything that you need to know. So we'd love to have you come out, ways to serve, being a coach, being part of the hospitality team that's going to serve even the parents that are gonna be there and a minister the gospel to them. registration, helping with promote, promoting the event, we're gonna canvass, several neighborhoods and really try to reach out to these community kids that are in our area.

So just a, a number of ways to get involved. I'm gonna be personally out, out at the, sign up table. You can come and greet me, and I will shake your hand and then, have you, just give you more information and. And sign you up if you're interested.

So, also my phone number is in the bulletin under the Ministry of the Week there. if you want more information, you can call me as well. So, just wanna encourage you with that. We'd love to see all of you involved.

So I'm just gonna pray real quick as we get, our hearts ready to, receive the word. So join me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this morning, Lauren, and we thank you for Your body, which we are Lord, assembled together. We thank you for the opportunity to come and to worship you, to lay our offerings of thanksgiving and gratitude at your feet for all that you have done for us, Lord.

And we're humbled, we're grateful, Lord, we love you so much. And Father, as we hear the word preached, we pray for Pastor Milton and he, he would Just excite his heart as he delivers your word. And Father, be with us, Lord. Open our ears, open our eyes, prepare our hearts, Lord, Lord, not to be hearers only, but to be true doers of your word.

And so I pray that as we hear what you have for us to hear this morning that it would not, be for not, Lord, but that we would take it out with us and begin to apply it, Lord, we pray these things in your precious Son's name. Amen. Well, today is the last. Installment of our series on the dearest place.

On Earth, it is a 5 week series that we have been enjoying where we have focused primarily on Experiencing the presence of God, specifically when we gather together, we have sought to focus on some of the primary things that we do when we do assemble together and ask the question, why do we do things the way that we do them here at Cornerstone. And a lot of the answers to those questions have to do with that they provide us an opportunity to experience the presence and the power of God.

We ask, why do we gather to, gather, we talked about experiencing God's presence, through our worship. We talked about experiencing his presence through the preached word, God reveals Himself.

He manifests himself, to us. Through the preached word in our times of gathering, and then last week, Carlos preached on experiencing God's presence through our celebration of the Lord's Supper. And today we're gonna focus on yet one more topic that addresses something else that we do every time we gather on the Lord's Day, and that is the subject of giving. Why do we pass around a purple velvet bag every Sunday and give you the opportunity to put money into those bags?

why do we make that a part of our normal Sunday worship? There's a number of other things we could be doing every single week. That's one of them. Why?

Why is that such a high priority where we provide an opportunity for you like that every Sunday. And so I want to speak to you this morning on the grace of corporate giving, the grace of corporate giving as we attempt to answer that question. As I put the message together for today, I was reminded a number of times about something that happened when I was 10 or 11 years old. we attended a church in Albany, Georgia, where my dad was stationed as a Marine and, in the church that we attended during that three year period that we lived there, in the Sunday school class that, that, that I and my brothers attended.

We would be given a passage of scripture to memorize, every week, and then we would have to come to class the following Sunday and quote that passage, and a lot of times he'd give us one verse, and then the next week, he would give the next verse in the Bible. So then the next week we had to come back and quote those two, and then 3 and 4 and so forth, to where we would end up memorizing a full paragraph. And to make us more motivated. At memorizing scripture, our teacher for a period of time, would have us get up in front of the class, quote the passage that we had memorized, and he would stand there with a stopwatch and he would time us to see how fast that we could quote that passage, and he would time everyone who stood in front of the class and quoted that, that passage of scripture and whoever quoted the scripture the fastest and word perfect would get a silver dollar every Sunday.

And I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging when I say, That I won the silver dollar every single week. It was a small class, but There wasn't a lot of competition, but I won every single week except one, and it happened to be this Sunday of the year in our national calendar. it was the Sunday before July 4th, and the Sunday that I lost that competition, my little brother was the one who had beat me and so he was all excited because he had defeated his big brother. but our teacher, After my brother won, he said, because you've won, I've, I've got a coin for you.

And he said, today or this week, we're celebrating the 200th birthday of our country. And so I went out and I got a Bicentennial half dollar. And so he gave my brother a $0 a bicentennial $0 rather than a full silver dollar. And to show the evil of my heart, I was like, yes, I hated to lose, but I was thinking if there's any week I'm going to lose, I want to lose on the week that I only lose out on a half dollar.

Well, true story, my brother, just a few years ago, we're old now, we're in our 40s and just a few years ago, my brother, who's an associate pastor at a church in South Carolina, wrote an article for a Christian magazine where he told his version of this story that I'm telling you. And I, either he or someone in our family sent to this Sunday school teacher, the article where my brother talks about his own disappointment and dismay at receiving only a $5 when he was expecting a full silver dollar.

Well, this Sunday school teacher, somehow, some way got a hold of that article and just a few years ago after reading it, he sent my younger brother a full 1 silver dollar. To make everything equitable, so I ended up losing out on a, actually ended up getting a buck 50 for beating me that week.

But what, when I was a child, I was a pretty selfish individual. If I could get money for memorizing scripture and saying it quickly, well then by all means, I would be happy to do that and I would come to church with the exciting expectation of receiving money. As I've grown older, I have come to understand the wisdom of the truism of Jesus that it is more blessed to give than to receive. And had I even at the age of 10 or 11, comprehended at least some of what we're going to be talking about today in this message regarding giving, I think my mindset would have been a little different than it was, and I would have relished the opportunity to give.

Even more than to receive. And so what we're gonna do this morning, as I said, is ask the question, why do we give? And why do we value giving and our Lord's Day gatherings, providing an opportunity every week for you to give to the Lord. Well, the first answer to that question, there's gonna be, I think, a total of 6 answers to this question.

And that is because the early church's example teaches us to value giving. The early church's example teaches us to value giving, and not even just to value giving, but even to value corporate giving. We see evidence of the early church, they freely gave, even in a non-corporate way, if they found out about a need, they would try to address that need. But there was also a corporate dimension to that that we see, where when they came together, They would give their funds to the leadership of the church so that the leadership could then distribute those funds to those that had needs.

Look at this, Acts 2:44, and all those who believe began selling their property and possessions and we're sharing them with all as anyone might have need. And so what we observe here is that, there's no evidence in the context that they were ever commanded to do this, or that anyone ever put them on a guilt trip and said you really need to, to sell your property to give to those that have need. It seems like they did this out of the freedom of their heart and their experience of the gospel, just giving what was needed to meet the needs of their brothers and sisters who were experiencing deprivation of any sort, and they were even willing to liquidate their assets.

In order to have the funds to give.

We also see in Acts chapter 4. Where we learned that there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet, and then they would be distributed to each as any. He knee, that's how much they love one another. And again, there's no whisper of them being commanded to do this, even instructed to do this, although perhaps they were, but just it seems like out of the freedom of their heart, and their experience of Christ, they were giving so freely.

Another example from the early church that we find in Scripture is of the churches of Macedonia, that Paul is speaking about to the Corinthians. And he's putting the example of the Macedonian churches before the Corinthians, so as to challenge them and inspire them to be equally giving as these churches were, and listen to his description of the churches of Macedonia. He says, we wish to make known to you the grace of God, which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction, and this is the Macedonian Church was church that was going through a difficult time materially, but in a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy, and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their generosity.

For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the grace of participation.

In the support of the Saints. In the Macedonian churches, Christians begged to give. They were not begged to give, they begged for the opportunity to give. And look at this, they were begging with much urging for the grace of participation in the support of the saints.

In other words, they were like, thank you, God, for this grace from you to be able to participate in the support of the saints in meeting the needs of the saints who are suffering in Jerusalem. And so when guys here at Cornerstone, we get our cues from Scripture. Amen. And if we're trying to find out how to live, what to believe, how to behave, we want to visit the area of our giving and generosity, we go to the pages of the scripture.

And one of the things that we observe is that the early church was a giving church. And so we give today. because the example of the early church inspires us to be generous in our giving and to highly value giving. There's a second answer to the question as to why we give, and that is because we are instructed in the Bible to give.

Not only do we find the example of the early church, but we actually have instruction. We're God speaks to us through His word, and gives us instructions that guide us to give. They challenge us to give. In fact, I just read to you the example of the churches of Macedonia that Paul puts before the Corinthian Christians, and Paul is trying to motivate the Corinthian Christians to give towards the meeting of the needs of the saints in Jerusalem.

And that Paul was going to be taking those funds to Jerusalem to help out the church, and the Christians there. And so he presents the example of these churches of Macedonia that I just read, and then immediately, 2 Corinthians 8:7, Paul says to the Corinthians and to us, see that you abound in this gracious work also. He's speaking to us, saying, see that you abound. In this gracious work also, as they have abounded in their generosity, I'm instructing you to abound in your generosity.

Part of what he's teaching is that giving is not just something we are supposed to do, but it's something we are supposed to abound in. It's an area of our life that should be an abounding area. It is something we abound in. There's other teaching in the New Testament that by way of inference very clearly indicates that we should be giving, not just to meet the needs of brothers and sisters experiencing physical and material need, but also giving to those that are doing the work of the gospel, specifically those that are providing spiritual leadership and gospel ministry in the midst of a particular local church.

Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:17, the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, and in that context, read that context, he's talking about remuneration or pay, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching, for the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing. This is not the most flattering analogy, as a pastor when I read this, but it works. Paul is saying, as the Old Testament teaches, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is working and threshing.

So, those who labor hard among you, especially at preaching and teaching, you are not to muzzle them, you are to Meet their physical and material financial needs.

And now he quotes from Jesus in Luke, where Jesus says, the laborer is worthy of his hire. And so any objective reader would look at that and say, OK, God wants me to play my part in contributing towards the, the meaning of the needs and compensation for those who are providing spiritual leadership for the local church body of which I am a part. Paul also in 1 Corinthians 9 does some reasoning from the Old Testament. and he says, do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend habitually to the altar have their share from the altar as the Israelites would bring their sacrifice, they were instructed that, that the Levites and those that worked at the tabernacle and with the sacrifice.

were allowed to take portions of those sacrifices to eat, and that was part of how they were provided for in the Old Testament. And so Paul states this fact, and then says verse 14, so also the Lord, the Lord Jesus directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from The gospel. Again, clearly, we can infer that those who have given themselves fully to a gospel ministry, especially those laboring in the local church of which a person is a part, should be compensated and provided for.

So, why do we give, why do We value giving in our Lord's Day gatherings.

We do so because the early church's example teaches us to value giving and also because we are instructed in the Bible to give. There's a third answer to this question as to why we should value giving. In our lives, and that is because when we give, we contribute to the building of the very dwelling place of God. This is really a remarkable truth if we could wrap our minds around it.

but let's take a little bit of time to look at this. Let's go back in our minds to the Old Testament and Exodus 35, where they were going to be building the tabernacle, which was going to house the Holy of Holies and which would house the very presence of God who would live and reside amongst his people. And as they were beginning the construction on the tabernacle, Moses, Sent out a decree or a command or a call, and look at what it says in Exodus 35:5. Take from among you, he says to the Israelites, a contribution to the Lord, whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the Lord's contribution, gold, silver, and bronze.

The beauty of this is Moses is not requiring every, every Israelite to give. He's saying only those who have a willing heart, bring A contribution. If you don't have a willing heart, we don't want your contribution. But those who are of a willing heart, bring your contribution, gold, silver, bronze, or whatever your contribution might be.

Well, the Israelites could have said, well, as I've examined my heart, I don't have a willing heart, so therefore, I don't need to give anything to this. Enterprise or this project, but it seems like very few, if any of them had this attitude. In fact, look at what happens. Everyone whose heart stirred him And everyone whose spirit moved him came and brought the Lord's contribution for the work of the tent of meeting and for all its service.

Why was it called the tent of meeting? It was a tent of meeting, not simply because that's where the Jews met with one another. It was a tent of meeting because that's where you went to meet with God. That's where his presence resided.

All whose hearts moved them, both men and women came and brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and bracelets, all articles of gold. So did every man who presented an offering of gold to the Lord. Every man who had in his possession blue and purple and scarlet material and fine linen and goat's hair and ram skins dyed red and porpoise skins brought them. Everyone who could make a contribution of silver and bronze brought the Lord's contribution.

And every man who had in his possession acacia wood for any work of the service brought it. The Israelites, all the men and women whose heart moved them to bring material for all the work, brought a free will offering to the Lord. In addition to their normal giving, they brought this free will offering to the Lord because their hearts were moved in excitement for this project of building something in which God's special presence would inhabit. Now, so generous for the Israelites.

This is the part of the story I love, that it created a problem. The workers on the tabernacle began to complain. Look what happens, Exodus 36:4, and all the skillful men who were performing all the work of the sanctuary came, and they said to Moses, the people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the Lord commanded us to perform. So Moses, hearing this complaint, verse 6, issued a command, and a proclamation was circulated throughout the camp saying, let neither man nor woman any longer perform any work for the contribution of the sanctuary.

Thus, the people were restrained. From bringing anymore. What a problem to have, to where we're going to build a dwelling place for God where his special presence will reside. And if you want to, you don't have to, if, if you have a willing heart, just, just bring whatever, and everyone's bringing so much to where the workers, they can't find their way around.

There's so much stuff that has been contributed, that literally a command has to be given, commanding God's people to stop giving. That they might be restrained. Now this is in the Old Testament. For a tabernacle that has passed away.

We are living in the New Testament. Christ has come, he's died, he's been raised. We are now living in the glories that Old Testament prophets long to look into and understand. They would love To be living in our day today, and the burning question is in the Old Testament, the dwelling place of God was in the tabernacle, and the Holy of Holies today, where is the dwelling place of God?

Where do we find the special presence of God Almighty? What have we been learning? In the church among his people, and specifically when his people gather together, God, 1 Corinthians 14 is certainly among them. Jesus, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I.

God is present. When his people assemble, he is present in the church, the dwelling of God today. Paul says in Ephesians 2:22, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:16, do you not know that you plural, all of you guys plural are a temple of God, and that the The Spirit of God dwells in you.

He's not speaking of the fact that our bodies are the temple of God, although that's taught elsewhere. He's not speaking of the fact that the Spirit individually indwells me, although the Bible teaches that Paul is teaching that all of us together collectively compose a dwelling place for God. And so when we give to the Lord's work to the ministry of the gospel, what we're actually donating towards is towards the construction of the very dwelling place of God, the construction, the building up, the edifying of this edifice that is called the church, as we give and souls are saved through ministries that have been supported.

Through our giving, we are thereby contributing to the further construction of the dwelling place of God where His fullness resides, as we give to the ministry of the local church and what have you, where born again believers are being enriched and strengthened.

In their ministry, not only in their relationship with God, but also strengthen in their relationships with one another and the local church where God's presence in a special way resides. When we give to such ministries that enrich believers and enrich the church in this way, we are contributing to the building of the dwelling place of God, to the enrichment. of the dwelling place of God. I don't know, guys, there's a lot of things we can give to.

Is there any enterprise that is any greater? Any more worthy of our funds than this. Often we, we, we, we do in our culture, we spend a lot of money on a lot of stuff that's going to burn. But an enterprise such as this is something that will survive the fires of Judgment Day, and it will last forever.

And if the Israelites were as generous as they were for the construction of a tabernacle that no longer in its past form exists, then how much more generous are we to be to the further construction and enrichment of the very dwelling place of God, which is the church. There's 1/4 answer, and a lot of these overlap as to why we should give and value giving. In our lives, and that is because when we give, we participate in the work and in the fruit of the gospel. Because when we participate when we give, we participate in the work, and in the fruit of the gospel.

The gospel is a glorious thing. It is the power of God and the salvation to those who believe the world looks at it and they brand it as foolishness, but, but we look at it and understand that it is the power of God unto salvation under my own salvation. It is also the power of God unto salvation to anyone that we speak to, and that they embrace this message. And so the ministry of the gospel is a glorious ministry.

And it is a ministry that we ought to want to participate in through our giving. We want to experience the gospel in our own personal lives, and in our relationships, and in our homes, and literally through our giving to the ministry of the gospel and those who do the work of the gospel, we deepen our participation in the work and fruit of the gospel. In fact, let me have you turn to Philippians 4. If the words on the screen are too small for you.

Philippians 4:14, Paul is in prison for preaching the gospel. Paul is a gospel minister and the Philippian Church, not a wealthy church, has given, generously to him and to his gospel work. And look at what he says to them in verse 14 of Philippians 4. He says, nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction, you yourselves also know Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in a matter of giving and receiving, but you alone, for even in Thessalonica, you sent a gift more than once for my needs.

Verse 17, not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit, which increases to your account, literally the fruit that increases to your account. Paul is saying as you give financially to me, whatever fruit is born in my gospel ministry, As a result of what I do via your financial support, the fruit that is born increases to your own account. It is attached to your name, you participate in my ministry through your giving, and Paul says, I'm happy for you. When I received this financial gift from you, my heart leaped with joy for you.

Because now, the fruit that is born will not only increase to my account, but to your account, because you are participant with me in my gospel ministry through your giving. Verse 18, he says, but I have received everything in full and heaven abundance. I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus, what you have sent a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice while pleasing to God. Part of what we learn here is that when I give to the ministry of the gospel, and to those doing the work of the gospel, I'm not just giving to them, I am giving to God.

I am offering to God a sacrifice. That is a fragrant aroma. And it is well pleasing to the Lord. Giving to those doing the work of the gospel is an act of worship to God Himself that pleases him.

And so why do we value giving? One of the reasons is because when we give, we participate in the work and fruit of the gospel, and you can add to that, we thereby offer up a well pleasing sacrifice to God. There's a 5th answer to this question as to why we give and value giving. And that is because when we give, God gets glorified.

When we give, God gets glorified. I love this. In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul is trying to talk to the Corinthians about donating towards a collection that is being taken for the Jerusalem saints who are going through hardship. And Paul says a number of things to them.

And Paul begins to anticipate the effect that this gift will have upon those who receive these funds. And he says in verse 12 of 2 Corinthians 9, for the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the Saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God, because of the proof given by this ministry, they, the Jewish Christians, will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ. They will certainly they'll be thankful for you.

But ultimately, they're going to thank God, and they're going to glorify God for putting it in your heart to give, to meet their needs.

How many of you have ever In your life, experience some great need, whether it was a material need, financial need, a need for a car or companionship or a meal to be brought over. How many of you have ever been the recipient of any significant act of generosity from another Christian to you? Raise your hand. OK.

When you received and experienced that, Do you recall what your heart's disposition was towards God? Do you recall thanking God? Do you recall feeling instructed by that as to the nature of God's love and concern for you and faithfulness to you? yes, you were grateful for the person who did what he or she did, and what they gave you.

But ultimately, the heart of God was revealed through that and you were left glorifying God. Guys, when we give to other people to meet their needs, when we give to our brothers and sisters, we create opportunities for that moment to happen for them, where they're left utterly impressed with God, and glorifying Him. I was sharing with those in the first service that, And I've shared this with you guys before, some time ago. But when I was in seminary, Many years ago, My wife and I were fairly poor.

all seminary students are poor and we did not have a lot of money in our checking account. And on one occasion, I specifically recall Donna and I sitting at our dining room table on a Saturday night. We were looking at our checkbook and there wasn't a lot to look at. And we were trying to decide what we were going to give to the Lord on the next day.

And so we're trying to figure out how are we even going to make ends meet, and then also what do we give tomorrow and the offering. And after talking it over, I decided to give, we decided to give $100 in the offering plate in the service the next day. So, I wrote the check for $100 that night. I folded it up, I put it in my wallet.

I went to church the next Sunday morning, the next day, I fully prepared to give that $100 and the offering plate. we sang some songs, the offering plate came by, and I did not give the $100. I could not let that go. I was too anxious about our financial well-being at that time.

So I let the moment pass me by. And did not give in the offering that morning. Through the afternoon it was bothering me and we went back to church that night. The offering plate was passed again and this time when the plate went by with white knuckles holding onto that check, I was able to physically release that check and place it in the offering plate and then look forlornly and longingly at that check as it went further and further away from me, and I knew the moment was gone for me to retrieve that.

Check. The next day, true story, the next day. I go to my post office box, stack of mail. I grab it, go through it real quickly, bring it back to our apartment, and Donna was sitting at our desk, and I set the stack on the desk and an envelope that I did not see when I had first scoured through the mail fell from the desk and landed on the floor by itself.

I picked it up and saw who it was from and thought this was odd. I opened it up and there was a check for $2000. From somebody whom I had not spoken with since we had moved and who would have had no clue of what our needs were. I called that person up right away and asked, I thanked them and said, why did you do this?

And he told me a few days earlier how God had laid it on his heart. To give that money to us. What do you think my wife and I did? We glorified God.

I have, I have to this day, I go back to that moment. Because of what it reminds me about God in situations that I face to this day, I have fed off of that incident. God to this day still gets glory for what he did. Yes, I was grateful for that person's generosity.

But I was even more profoundly impacted by the fact that even before that Saturday night, when we're looking at our checkbook, God had already a couple days earlier laid it on the heart of this man to address a need that we were only becoming aware of on Saturday evening. That is the faithfulness of God. And when I think about that, it's like, man, by being generous and, with whatever resources God has given to me, I can create moments like that for my brothers and sisters and the Lord to be impressed with God, and to glorify Him and to offer thanksgiving to Him for His goodness in their lives.

And so 1/5 reason why we give to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters and also give to support the ministry of the gospel is that when we give, God gets glorified.

There is a final reason why we give and value giving in our times of gathering, and that is because giving puts us in a position to experience God. And this is very similar to what I've just been saying it, it puts us in a position to experience, God, His goodness, His faithfulness, his bounty, the riches, the wealth of God, when we give, it's not that when we give, we earn those blessings, and we earn an experience of God. It's simply that when we give, we locate ourselves where The waterfall of God's blessings are flowing, we position ourselves to experience all of these things about God.

To the Philippians who gave out of their need, who were not a wealthy church, Paul gives them this promise, and guys, please understand that Philippians 4:19.

is not a promise for everybody. This, this is a common misunderstanding. Philippians 4:19 is not even necessarily a promise for every single believer, necessarily. This is a promise for those who give.

This is a promise given to A people who had just sacrificially given. To A man who was involved in the work of the gospel. And Paul says to those who gave, my God will supply all your needs, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now we can generalize that in a sense to apply to every believer, but specifically, The picture is of this, that I take stuff out of my cupboards, and I give them away.

And so my cupboards are becoming empty as I am emptying them in order to take the contents of those cupboards to give to those that have need. This is the promise. God will resupply your cupboards. He will refill.

God will fill. Those cupboards that now stand empty because you have taken the contents of them and given them away. That's the promise. And so the point is not, OK, I want to give so that I can get back.

Now, the point is that through God's generosity, according to his riches, as he responds in this way, resupplying our needs, even when we give out of our needs, we experience God, we experience the heart of God, and we are blessed, we are transformed, we are impacted by our deeper experience of God. On the other side of our generosity to our brothers and sisters, and to those who do the work of the Gospel. In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul says in verse 6, now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully, you will be enriched in everything for all generosity to the Corinthians that he's trying to motivate to give.

To meet the needs of the Jerusalem saints.

He's saying, if you give, you will be enriched in everything for all your generosity. To them, he says in 2 Corinthians 18, this is to your advantage. I'm offering you this opportunity. It is to your advantage that you participate in this.

Yes, the Jerusalem saints will be blessed, but this is something that is to your advantage. Jesus himself says in Acts 20:35, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Guys, I love to receive. All of us love to receive, but Jesus says it's more blessed to give than to receive.

Do we really believe that? I think many of us have tasted of that, and we understand how true this is that genuinely, when you give of yourself, of what you have to other people, you honestly from that transaction end up more blessed. than the person you gave. 2.

It is more blessed to give than to receive. And so when we give, it positions us to experience the faithfulness and the goodness of God on the other side of our giving. And hence we come to know him more. Again, I shared this with you guys some time ago.

But I kept thinking of this incident, especially with this point that When, when I was in seminary, we bought a condominium in Los Angeles that, that we lived in and then planned to sell when we graduated, and when I graduated from seminary and after I graduated, we tried to sell the condominium, wouldn't sell, no one even looked at the place. that was right when the bubble was bursting back in 1991 on the real estate market. And so we got totally upside down on, on that thing and would have lost tens of thousands of dollars were we to sell it to anyone who was interested in buying it.

So we tried to make lemonade out of the lemon.

And began renting it out to seminary students at the master seminary, and we just took a loss every single month on it. and we were one of 3 owners on it. My, my parents and my brother, were co-owners and we all just took a loss on the chin every month. But our consolation was that we were helping out seminary students.

well, 22 or 3 years ago, I call a real estate guy in Los Angeles and I didn't know about, I hadn't been tracking the market or anything and I just said, is there any way we could sell this for this amount and get our money back? And he said, well, he started laughing. He says, I'll tell you what you can sell it for. And he gave me a figure, and I thought, we're selling it today, as soon as we can.

And we ended up putting it on the market. It sold in one day. And for even more than what we asked, and when we added up all the figures and divided up the money, we got every single penny back that we had put into it and that we had lost from month to month over the previous decade plus, plus a little bit of extra money even beyond that. It turned out not to be a lemon after all.

Well, we received that and totally blessed by that, and I'm sitting down on a Sunday morning, the following Sunday after we get the last check. From escrow and, and I write the largest check I've ever written in my life to any church at any time. And even as I'm writing and I'm like, oh my goodness, this is amazing. But, but I wanted to honor the Lord, my daughter walked through the dining room at the time and I called her over and I said, look what we're going to give to the Lord.

And her first response was, what? We're going to give this away? And, and I explained to her where it's coming from, and she was like, and she was totally on board with it. but it was still freaky to give that amount.

I come to church that Sunday, and I placed that Check in the offering plate with total joy, and an act of worship to God. And this is a true story, guys, guys, and I, it doesn't always happen this way and it hasn't always happened this way with me, but it did on this occasion. I put that huge check in the offering. And after the service, about an hour and a half later, I go down to my office and Sitting on my laptop computer on my desk was a check, or was an envelope within which was a check, and I open up the envelope and look at the check, it was the exact dollar amount.

That I had just given to the Lord an hour and a half earlier, from someone who had no clue, not a clue. About any of this. In that moment, I was totally experiencing God. It was such a personal thing between me and God, and I got home and I gathered the family together and I told them what God had done.

And what we did, we glorified God. And we were instructed about God, we experienced him in a way that we perhaps would not have had that step not been taken. I felt like in that moment, God, when I looked at that check down in my office, I, it was like the Lord was saying, Milton, you cannot outgive me. Just try.

You cannot outgive me. I own the cattle on 1000 hills, I own the hills that those cattle are on, I own the world and all that is in it, all of the wealth of the world belongs to me, even the ability that people have on this planet to generate and earn wealth, I gave them that ability. It all belongs to me. I do with it as I please.

And I dare you to try to out give me. If you give to my work and to my gospel and to meet the needs of those who are your brothers and sisters in the Lord, and even beyond that, you will experience me. And folks, one of the reasons that we give is that through giving, we position ourselves in such a way so that we can experience God more deeply. And don't we want that?

I think we do So these are 6 answers to the question of why do we give. And why do we value giving in our times of gathering, and what you are hearing is the cry of someone who does not want to give. before we, When you preach on giving, someone always cries. Let me round the corner here guys, and just, as quickly as I can give you three principles.

we've talked generally about giving, let me give you three principles, there's so much more that we can say. Let me give you three principles that can guide you in your giving. number one, make the local church your primary focus of giving, not saying it has to be your only focus of giving, but make it your primary focus of giving. When you read through the New Testament, in fact, I challenge you, read through the New Testament, read through the epistles, especially of Paul, and ask yourself, what entity should I give to above and beyond all else?

And you would read in Paul's epistles that the church is the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the fullness of God itself, the pillar in support of the truth, the temple of God, the dwelling place of God, And even the local church of which you are a part is a temple among many temples that are around the world where God's special presence dwells. And so I would challenge you based on the overwhelming emphasis in the New Testament to make the local church your primary focus of giving.

I appreciate, from time to time I listen to Christian radio, and I hear, people from other organizations, They're asking for funds or for people to pray about giving funds. And I often hear them say, give to your local church first.

But above and beyond that, if the Lord leads you to give to this ministry, please give to this ministry. They understand what we're talking about here. And that is that the local church should be your primary focus of giving, giving to meet the needs through our Agape Fund, for example, to meet the needs of your brothers and sisters in the Lord. By the way, I didn't say this at the beginning, and I had hoped to.

My mother-in-law, Donna's mother is doing great. She's back in Indiana. she's meeting with doctors. we were on our way to LAX.

So that they could fly home on Father's Day evening. And she had a seizure. We didn't know what was going on, but she couldn't speak. And one thing led to another and they took her from LAX to a hospital near Pepperdine University and then from there to UCLA Medical Center, found a malformation of blood vessels on her brain.

And one of them had an aneurysm, and that's what had caused the seizure. And Anyway, they, put her on anti-seizure medication. She's fully recovered from that seizure. She's back home in Indiana feeling much better., and, but she, she's going to need a procedure done to address that malformation of blood vessels so you can continue to pray, for that.

But thank you very much for all of your prayers. but here's why I say all this right now. when she was, at the first hospital, Donna and her dad were up all night in the emergency room and then transferring her to UCLA. They, they got hardly no sleep at all, during that time.

The next, when they, she, she got to the UCLA Medical Center, For the next few days, we were able to set them up and Donna and her dad in a hotel so that they could be near Donna's mom. I want you to know that those of you that give to the Agape Fund, You paid for that You ministered to our family. You ministered to Donna's. Father and mother and to Donna.

And to me, on the couple of nights that I was there also. So thank you for that, know that you were a participant in that. Donna's dad. He said that he has never met a nicer group of people than he met here at Cornerstone, and they have raved about the blessing you were to them.

and when they learned of this church's generosity, towards them in this way, setting them up in a hotel. they were even more blessed. And so it's that thing, and many other incidences that we could never even publicly share that through your giving to the Agape Fund, you go to meet the needs of brothers and sisters at specific times where they're the most vulnerable. Their hearts are just, when, when, when an act of kindness comes their way, it's like, it's extremely powerful.

And so giving to the local church through an Agape fund like what we have to address needs such as what I just mentioned and also giving to support those who labor among you who work hard at preaching and teaching and provide shepherding for the church body. This should be the primary focus of your giving. Another principle, if I can give it to you real quick, is make giving to the Lord your first financial decision. Make giving to the Lord your first financial decision.

Proverbs 3:9, Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all of your produce, Guys, the, the application of that is that when you receive a paycheck, we talked about this a few weeks ago, make your first financial decision to be what you're going to give to the Lord. The Jews would begin their harvest, they would take the first fruits of their harvest, offer that to the Lord, even before they knew how the rest of the harvest was going to go. They didn't say, let's do the whole harvest, see how it goes.

And then at the end of the harvest, OK, God has shown himself faithful, therefore, we will give Something back to him.

No, it was an act of trust. We'll give him the first fruits and trust him with the rest of the harvest. And by way of application, we take our paychecks, and the first financial decision we make is what we will give to the Lord, and then we trust him to enable us to live on the rest. That's how we honor him because we're trusting him.

Some Christians, and I know there have been times where I've been guilty of this, they get a paycheck, and they wait to see how the pay period goes and at the end of the pay period, it's like, OK, they breathe a sigh of relief. God's been faithful, and I have this much money left over, I will give this as an offering to the Lord. That doesn't honor the Lord, like obedience to Proverbs 3:9 would, to honor the Lord from the first of our paycheck. And one of the things I've learned the hard way, guys, is when money comes your way.

Dream first of what you're going to give to the Lord, and then dream of what you're going to do with the rest. If you get money and you dream first of what you can do with all that money, and then as an afterthought, it occurs to you, oh, I got to give some to the Lord. Well, that's a downer. let's say you get $1000 and you're dreaming of what you can do with all that $1000 and then you're like, oh, I got to give some to the Lord, and now that's a lesser amount.

avoid that and dream first of what you're going to give to the Lord, and envision that act of worship to the Lord and then dream of what you can do with the rest. And a final principle is this, some of you may be asking, OK, we've been talking about giving, and so we might as well ask the question, how much should we give? I've actually had people come up to me and ask that question. is there any guidance in scripture in terms of how much we should give to the Lord?

And so here's principle number 3. Number 1, make the local church your primary focus of giving. Number 2, make giving to the Lord your first financial decision, and number 3, give whatever you want. Give whatever You want.

And 2 Corinthians 9:7, Paul says each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Honestly, I believe in the New Testament era, if you came to God and said, how much should I give, God would say, give to me whatever you want out of the sincerity and willingness of your heart. what time is it? Is that clock right?

Who's got the time? It is right? OK. I wish we had the tape from the first service where we could get into this.

We're not going to have time in this service. Let me just say that I personally do not believe that the tithe, which is the giving of 10%, is taught in the New Testament. you can read from cover to cover in the New Testament, and nowhere are Christians ever commanded to give a tithe or 10% to the Lord. That is something that is found in the Old Testament.

And what's all the more significant is that the New Testament speaks voluminously on the subject of giving, and yet in that volume of teaching, nowhere are New Testament believers ever commanded to tithe. In fact, reading the New Testament, the tithe seems small and puny and overly restrictive when you read things like the Book of Acts, and the generosity of the Macedonian Church in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and 9. it's, it's restrictive. we, if anything in the New Testament, we find people out of the freedom of their heart and their experience of the gospel, not being bound by a 10% tithe.

And let me say this also real quickly, if, if you think that the tithe is binding on believers today, You would have to acknowledge you're getting that from the Old Testament. And if you're getting that from the Old Testament, reread the Old Testament's teaching on the tithe, and you will observe that according to traditional Jewish understanding, all the way into Jesus' day and Paul's day, that the Jews understood the Old Testament and the various passages on the tithe to be teaching 2 tithes, 20% to be given to the Lord every year, and every third year, an additional third tithe to be given to the Lord.

And so if one feels conscience bound to apply the Old Testament's teaching on the tithe today, they would necessarily need to believe that every year they give 20% of their income to the Lord, and every 3rd year, they give 30% of their income. One other thing, let me say about this is that you might say, well, I've been tithing and God has blessed me, and I know people that have tithed and God has blessed me.

and I would fully acknowledge that and agree with that. But please listen carefully. God has not blessed you because you've tithed. He's blessed you because you've given.

He's not blessed you because you've reached some magical 10% points. He's blessed you because you have given according to the understanding of your conscience, you have stepped out in faith and given to the Lord. I know Christians and I have read of Christians who do not tithe at all, not even remotely. They give 20% of their income, 30%.

I read of one guy in a magazine, a fairly wealthy man who gives 90% of his income to the Lord. He's not bound by the tithe at all. And what, they experience the blessing of God, not because they tithe, but because they give to the Lord. And so the important thing is that God wants us to give to him out of the free will offerings of our heart.

I had a man recently come to me and asked me, how much should I give? to the Lord. And I asked this man this question, and I would submit it to all of you. I said to him, if your daughter came up to you and said, Daddy, how many times should I hug you each day?

What would you say? The man said, Well, I tell her to hug me as often as she wants. As much as she wants. And I said, that's God's answer to the New Testament Christian, when we ask him how much should I give?

How much should I give? God says, give whatever you have purposed in your heart, and then follow through with that. If we had the time, and I think we're going to come back to this theme, or at least a similar, similar theme in coming weeks. while the Bible teaches that you should give whatever you want, guys, let the example of Christ be a guide.

He was rich, yet he made himself poor, so that we through his poverty might be made rich. Paul gives us that theological truth in the context of teaching about giving. And so often we have a standard of living and we want to maintain that and we'll give out of the excess. Jesus was willing to change his standard of living.

He was rich. That was his status. He was willing to become poor. So that we might receive what we needed to receive of the blessings of salvation.

And so let his example be a guide. Also let the needs of others be a guide. We are commanded to bear one another's burdens. Acts 11:27 to 30.

The Christians at Antioch were just minding their own business and doing their own thing, and they hear about a famine coming all over the world. They immediately think of the Jerusalem saints and the needs that they were going to experience. So they immediately took up a collection. and submitted it to their leadership so that it could be taken to them.

They were guided by the needs of other people. We should also be guided by the riches and the promises of God as we're determining what to give, and also guided by the degree to which God has prospered us. Just take some of these things, even though we cannot go through them in detail and meditate upon them, and make Your ministry, every one of you have an opportunity to have a ministry of giving. And Paul says, see to it that you abound in this gracious work, make giving to the Lord, not just something you do, but something that you abound in, so that you can thereby abound in the experience of God, the experience of His grace, and increasing fruit that will abound to your account through what the Lord does with the money that you give to him and to his work.

Let me ask you to bow your heads this morning. There we are, we can do so much good for the Lord's glory. With the funds that He provides to the giving of his people, and I want to take this opportunity to commend you for your generosity. And giving from week to week and month to month.

There will be people that you encounter in eternity who will thank you. And you will have never met them, but it was through your giving. Even the missionaries like Brad and Julie Lee, that we support. There's fruit in Albania that abounds to your account.

That you don't even know about. And may it be that God does such a work in all of our hearts through His precious gospel. That when it comes time to give, we're saying thank you to the Lord. Thank you for this grace.

And we beg to give. For the favor of participating in the work of the gospel. And in the support of our fellow saints. Let's pray and ask God to do this work in us.

Lord, this congregation, I personally am blessed beyond words to be here. Amongst these people. You, it is so evident that you are doing just an incredible work in our midst. We are learning so much, Lord.

And the love that we experienced through one another, we're actually experiencing your love. We're led to glorify you time after time after time through the generosity of your people. Just help us to excel still more, Lord. And to see to it that you get even more glory for yourself.

Thank you for your word and for what it teaches us on subjects such as this. Help us to go forth from here and with hearts motivated by grace, not by guilt. Be doers of the word and not hearers only. Help us to be faithful, righteous, and obedient to you.

In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said, we're gonna sing, Take My Life. we're just gonna sing the second verse in the chorus, so. Faithfulness. This is what I long for.

Faithfulness. But I faith. This is what you want from. So and for Transforming And take my s t ud io to yours.

Yours to yours. Hey man. Thank you guys for leading us in worship today. That was just awesome.

These guys are amazing. And I just want to praise the Lord and thank our pastor for preaching the gospel to us today. How about you? I'm, Britt, John, Cheryl, I'm gonna, I need a couple of those CDs.

I'm gonna get a couple of those babies, couple of community items before we're dismissed. one is