Giving - Outline GIVING Pastor Al Breems II Corin. 9:5-8 .   I. The purpose of life is giving, not getting.  What you give in service to Jesus and out of love to others is what life is about. II. How can giving be the most important & most powerful thing we do to avoid or to overcome debt? 1. The more generous we become, the more we focus on giving to others & to the Lord?s work, the less focused we are on ourselves.  The cure for selfishness is generosity. 2. All our abilities, our money, our knowledge, our hard work are gifts from God.  If you shortchange God, He will bless you less and eventually you may fall into debt.  Giving to the Lord does not mean we will get rich or that life will be easy, but God promises to take care of our every need. III. We need see giving as an investment. II Corin. 9:6 1. Instead of spending money on yourself or someone else, you put money in the bank or mutual fund or stock.  Then if it was a good investment, the amount of money will grow, and you will get more back. --Relates to our willingness to give of our time, money, & ourselves to the Lord, after a period of time, it is going to pay off. 2. We may feel that giving feels like a loss because you do give up something in your life-- you let go of some money, you devote your time or energy elsewhere.  However, we as Christians live by faith.  When we give of those things, we have faith to believe that our gifts are investments.  If we do it for the Lord, we believe there will be a reward for those gifts. 3. God?s Word says Jesus is the ultimate example.  He left heaven to live, suffer & die for us.  His whole life on earth was a life of giving, as was His death.  And for these gifts, God raised Him, brought Him back to heaven & exalted Him as King over all. 4. Verse 6-The more you give, the more you will receive.  The stingier you are, the less you will receive?true in our finances, families, marriages, and our relationship with God.  Give more, invest more, and you will receive more; however, it takes time. IV. We need to see giving as a joy.  II Corin. 9:7 1. God doesn?t need our money or our time.  What God wants is our hearts.  Jesus said, ?Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.? 2. God wants us to give, but He also tells us how He wants us to give.  He wants us to give without complaining or reluctance.  Giving in this way does not please God. 3. God wants us to give with great joy?hilarious joy!  The love we have for the Lord will loosen our grip on our tight-fisted control of our money and time. 4. We need to learn to see giving as a joy, an honor, a privilege and not some burden or duty that we need to do. 5. Does this mean Christians should give only when we can do it cheerfully?  Sometimes we need to give in a disciplined way.  Sometimes we give of ourselves?our time, money, energy?even when we don?t feel like it. 6. There needs to grow within us a love for the Lord and a joy in serving & giving to Him that not only increasingly accompanies our giving, but fuels are giving.  We need to grow in seeing giving as one of the most enjoyable, most rewarding, most fulfilling, joy-filled things that we can do with our lives. 7. What determines how we spend our money and our time is our relationship with God. V. We need to see giving as a possibility for any & every one of us.  II Corin. 9:8 1. Some may feel as though you are in a position where you are unable to give (financially, emotionally, physically). 2. God, through His grace and love, enables us to abound?to have more than enough.  God has more than enough to sustain us no matter how much we give to others. 3. Part of the strategies of the devil is to convince us that we don?t have enough to give to others, and what?s really in our best interest is to look out for #1, ourselves.  But v. 8 says, ?And God is able? you will abound (you will have more than you need) in every good work (in every act of giving).? VI. Decide what is really important in your life.  The more we are able to willingly & cheerfully give, the more our gifts and generosity are testimonies of our faith in God & His loving grace toward us.

Giving - Sermon Sermon: Giving AL BREEMS, Pastor Text: II Cor. 9:5-8 Last week I broke away with my two older boys to go down to what they call the Summer Pro Basketball League in Long Beach. It was a lot of fun. We got to see a number of the up-and-coming rookies and new stars in the NBA up close in a series of games held at the Pyramid stadium at CAL State Long Beach. While we were down there, I also had to attend a funeral of a man who actually had been in training with me to become an Evangelist. He had grown up in the Philippines as a singer. After he became a Christian, his heart's desire was to serve the Lord in music ministry. A few years ago, he brought his family to the States and was working part-time in a church as a worship leader, studying with me to become an evangelist, living on a shoestring, when he developed cancer. Two weeks ago, he died. But what struck me as I went to his funeral that day was not only the incredible testimony of love for and devotion to the Lord and to his family that came through in the service, but also the contrast between the life of this poor humble man and the big-named, multi-million-dollar-contract NBA stars. It made think. What's really important in life? What really matters? Becoming a star? Making millions? Gaining all this world has to offer? Or giving your life in service for Jesus Christ? When all is said and done, who is richer--someone who makes it big in this world, who rises to the top and become famous? Or a very simple humble man of God who gave his all for Jesus, who devoted himself to loving his wife and kids and leaving them with a legacy of love for the Lord? To me, it was clear, the one who gives the most gains the most in life. And I share that with you this morning because this is the theme of the message that I would like to bring to you from God's Word. Life is not about what you get. It's about what you give. Life is not about what you attain, but what you let go of in service to Jesus and out of love to others. To put it in one word, the purpose of life is giving, not getting. And I want to take this up this morning first of all in connection with the series of messages which I have been bringing to you on the topic of finding freedom God's way--not the way of the world--from financial debt. We've been taking a look in the past weeks at what the Bible teaches, what God teaches about the way out of debt: hard work, honesty, seeking advice or counsel from others. And today, I'd like to conclude this series by talking about perhaps the most important and most powerful thing we can do to avoid, overcome, find a way out of debt, and that is quite simply, giving. Now you may wonder, how does that work? You mean the more I give my money away, the more I will be able to pay off or stay out of debt? How does that work? Seems like the more you give your money away, the more likely you are to go into debt, doesn't it? Well, part of the reason why giving helps keep us out of debt has to do with the fact that the more generous we become, the more we focus on giving to others and the work of the Lord and the less focused we will be on the money we will spend on ourselves. One of the greatest fuels for the mounting debt in our world and lives is selfishness. The cure for selfishness is generosity. Learn to be giving. The other way in which giving makes a difference with staying or getting out of debt has to do with the more we are willing to focus our giving on causes which honor God, the giving we do in a sense to the Lord. Why? To me its very simple. Who gave you the money you have right now? Ultimately, where did you get everything you have in this world? If you think all you have comes from you--your abilities, your knowledge, your hard work--think again. All we have is gift from God. Think about it. Your mind, your hands, whatever skills or abilities you have to do your work are gifts from God, aren't they? The fact that you have a job is a gift from God, right? So listen, don't bite the hand that feeds you. In other words, don't shortchange God. If you do, He will feed you less, and guess what happens then? You hit more and more financial crises and eventually have to depend more and more on debt to sustain you. The more we give, and give to the Lord, it doesn't mean we will get rich or that life will be easy, but the more we can and are promised that He will take care of our every need, and give us enough to have an abundant life in this world. So, give and God will help you get out and stay out of debt. Today, however, there is another Reason why I would like to take a look at this same passage and that has to do with what's coming after the message--the ordination of Bob, Rudy, and Preston. Because I believe the truth of these few verses goes far deeper than getting out of debt. The truth of these verses speaks to the overall direction and commitment as I said of what's really important in life, giving ourselves and not just money. Let?s read II Corinthians 9:5-8. ?So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given. Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: ?He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.?? The beauty of these verses, I believe, is that they give us a perspective on life and on this whole issue of whether we are going to live our lives to get or to give. The more we get the picture, so to speak, the more likely it will be that our hearts will be open to generosity of ourselves, our time, and our money. Now, the picture that is used at the outset of these verses in v.6 to describe the importance of giving and why giving is worthwhile to do is the picture of farming. It says if you sow, which means to plant your crops, sparingly you will reap, which means to bring in the harvest of the crops, sparingly. However, if you sow or plant or perhaps you could insert the word give generously, you will reap or bring in a generous harvest. In our society today, this picture of the farmer sowing his seeds gets lost for most of us. I would guess that very few if any of us here have any first-hand experience with farming, with the sowing and reaping of crops. However, there is another picture that I would like to suggest given our context and life today in terms of understanding or getting God's perspective on the whole issue of giving. This is my first point that I want to make today. If you want to learn to be a more generous giver, here's what the Bible recommends first of all: see giving to the Lord as an investment. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, how does investing work? You put aside some money. Instead of spending it on yourself or someone else, you put in the bank or mutual fund or buy a stock. Then after a while, if it was a wise or good investment, the amount of that money will grow. And you will get more back. In many ways this is what the Bible tells us will be true for our lives if we are willing to give of our time, our money, ourselves for the Lord. Whatever we give like a good investment, eventually after a period of time, is going to payoff. There will be dividends, interest that will be paid on whatever we are willing to give. Now this is important, I believe, because many times giving does not feel like an investment. Many times giving feels very much like a loss. And to some extent, that's true. It is a loss. To give means you give up something in your life. You let go of some money, you devote your time, your energy to someone or something else. And at least initially you do lose control and access to what you give to another or to the Lord. However, the Bible teaches that as Christians we live by faith, right? What does that mean? Well, the definition of faith in the Bible is this: believing in or being certain of things that we do not see but hope for in the future. When we as Christians give of our ourselves, our time, our energy, our money, we need to give in faith believing this simple truth: that our gifts are not losses but investments; that whatever we give, there will be, in the future--especially when we do it for the Lord Jesus--a reward, a payoff, a dividend for that gift. I believe this is especially true for the men we will be ordaining today. There will be and have already been great sacrifices that they have made for the Lord by themselves and by their families in the planting of these new churches or ministries to which they were called. And yet, by faith they and we believe, and I know that they have already begun to see that whatever they give to the Lord in the planting of their ministries, God will bring a harvest, a dividend on their investment. You know what the best example of this truth is--the one you can take to the bank more than any other--the example of Jesus. The Bible says He gave up a lot just to leave heaven and become a human. But if that wasn't enough, He suffered in this world. He was rejected, betrayed, and at the end, as a payment for our sins, He was killed on a cross. His whole life on earth was a life of giving. Even His death was a gift for you and me. But, the Bible says, after He gave His life for us, God raised Him from the dead, brought Him victoriously back to heaven, and exalted Him to a position of authority as King over the entire universe. Does giving pay off? Think about Jesus. Think also about what this says here in v.6. It's not just whether you give or not that matters, but how much you are willing to give. Some of you remember the answer I give when someone asked about tithing. People will ask, "Should I tithe on the net amount or the gross amount of my income?" You know what I say, "Do you want a net blessing or gross blessing from the Lord?" If you read this verse, it's pretty straightforward isn't it? The more you give, the more you will receive. The stingier you are, the less you will receive. This is true in our finances, in our families, in our marriages, and especially in our relationship with God. Give more, invest more, and you will receive more. Right away? No, does the farmer plant and right away reap? It takes time. But know this. Give a little, be selfish, stingy, self-centered in life, and at the end, no matter how much money or fame or power or achievements you have, you will reap a very small harvest. There are many people who end up financially rich but emotionally, relationally, and/or spiritually poor. Now, here's the second thing I'd like us to learn from this passage concerning giving. Not only do we need to see giving as an investment, but we also need to see giving as a joy. Look at v.7. It says, ?Each man should give what he has decided I his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion , for God loves a cheerful giver?. I heard someone say, "Yea, but he also accepts from a grouch." Which may be true, God accepts gifts from grouches, but it's pretty clear here He does not like gifts from grouches. Does our attitude matter when we give to the Lord? Absolutely. You see, God doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our time. God is not broke, and he controls time itself. What God wants is our heart. More than anything else God wants a heart that is in love with Him and His Son, Jesus. Part of the way God sees whether our hearts are open to Him is in the fact that we do give. Jesus said where you treasure is, where you put your money, that's where your heart will be also. But it is also a matter of how we give the money, how we give of ourselves to the Lord and others. Do we do it complaining? Does God have to pry the money or time out of us? Reluctantly, as it says here? Under compulsion? If so, I'd say forget it. I mean that. If you hate to give, if you see it as a burden, don't put your money in the basket. Don't volunteer. It does neither you nor the church nor God any good. The Lord loves a cheerful giver. And the Greek word for cheerful, as good old Pastor Tim used remind us, is the same root word from which we get the English word hilarious. How should we give to the Lord? With great joy, with hilarious joy. When something is hilarious, it makes you laugh uncontrollably, right? The joy we have in the Lord and the love we have for Him needs to move our hearts to such a point where we lose our grip, lose the tight-fisted control of our money and our time, and we are willing for the sake of the Lord and others to give generously and cheerfully. In many ways those of you who knew him, and I'm hoping because he pastors one of our daughter churches up in Folsom that there will be more of you who get to know him, Pastor Tim was such a wonderful picture of hilarious giving to the Lord. He had this sort of joy-filled, free-loving passion for Jesus that just exuded from him the minute he walked up on the stage. And that is the picture that God gives us here in terms of our attitudes about giving. We need to have a joy-filled, free-loving, open, generous spirit towards God and towards others--to learn to give cheerfully, to learn to see giving as a joy, as an honor, as a privilege, and not as some burden or duty that we need to do. Now I do believe there are times where as Christians we need to learn to give in a disciplined way and not just out of emotions. We don't just do things for our kids when we as parents feel like it, right? I mean all parents have days where they don't feel like driving the kids or changing the diapers or making the lunch or dinner or refereeing the fight, right? But we do it anyways. Cheerfully? Hmmmm, no. Not always. But we do it because we know it's the right thing to do, the loving thing to do. And the same is true in our relationship with God. We give of ourselves, our time, our money, our energy even when we don't feel like it. However, we cannot ultimately grow or develop in our Christian lives if it's all just a matter of will power. There needs to grow within us a love for the Lord and a joy in serving and giving to Him that more and more not just accompanies our giving, but fuels our giving. That it is the "joy of the Lord"--what Jesus has done in our lives, the forgiveness He has given us through His death on the cross, the joy and love He brings to our hearts, that as the Bible says, becomes our "strength"--our motivation to give. We need to grow more and more in seeing giving as one of the most enjoyable, most rewarding, most fulfilling, joy-filled things that we can do with our lives. I've heard it said that really at heart the whole idea of what we do with our money or our time are spiritual issues. In other words, what really determines how we spend our money and time in our lives is our relationship with God. And I would agree with that. The more we grow close to the Lord, the more our hearts will be filled with an attitude of joy in giving, the more we understand and believe and have experienced the love of the Lord in our hearts and lives, the more our hearts will well up with a love for the Lord and see giving as a joy. The more we think about how much He has given us, the more giving back fills our hearts with joy. Now, having said that, I know that for some of you, the issue in terms of giving is not whether you want to give or not, not a matter of whether it gives you joy to give or not, you simply feel as though you are in a position where you are unable to give. Given where some of you are financially, how tight things are in your life or how far in the hole you feel you are right now, it is very understandable where giving generously and cheerfully seems impossible to do. Given where some of you are time-wise, being incredibly busy. Given where some of you are emotionally, given all that you are struggling with in your life right now, given that you are in crisis or hurting, I do understand where it's hard to think about being able to give to anyone else let alone the Lord. And yet, that's where I believe is one other truth that we need to learn from these verses about giving, and that is that it is important I believe in any and every situation of life to see giving not only as an investment or joy but as a possibility. Look at v.8, and you will see what I mean. It says, ?And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.? What makes giving a possibility for any and every one of us? It's not that we are able in all situations but look what it says. God is able through His grace--the love He has for us even when we don't deserve it, a love that goes beyond our shortcomings and failures and even disobedience and betrayals of God, a love that sent His Son to die for us. Through this grace, God is more than able to enable you and me to, as it says, make us abound, and the word abound means to have more than enough. God has more than enough to sustain us no matter how much we give to others. Many times I believe one of the strategies of our enemy, the devil, is to narrow our thinking, to convince us that we don't have enough to be giving people, and that what's really in our best interest is to keep to ourselves, to live life in such a way that we simply look out for number 1. And I want you to know that is a trick from the pit of hell. Here's what the Bible teaches, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." He, Jesus, is able to do more than we can even imagine. Or better yet, look at v.8, "And God is able... you will abound? (you will have more than you need)? in every good work? (in every act of giving). When we sell ourselves short in terms of giving, we sell God short. The more we are able to and are willing to give, cheerfully, the more our gifts and generosity are our testimonies of faith in our God and His loving grace toward us. When all is said and done in our lives, will our funerals be testimonies to lives of giving and faith or lives of selfishness and emptiness? Now is the time to decide what's really important.

4-Part Series by Al Breems - Index