The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Gary Powers with the following message entitled, Increasing Joy and Worship through giving. Good morning. Good morning. Would you stand? Let's, I'd like to pray and I'd like to read some scripture.

You have a Bible? From scripture. If you have a Bible, if you turn to 2 Corinthians 9. I'm going to actually begin in the prior chapter, the last verse. 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 24.

Wherefore show ye to them and before the church is the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf. For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you. For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that a KIA was ready a year ago, and your zeal hath provoked very many. Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf, that as I said you may be ready. Lest happily if they of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, we that we say not ye, should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.

Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before you unto you and make up beforehand your bounty whereof ye had noticed before, that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty and not of covetousness. But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposed in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. As it is written, he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever.

Now he that ministered a seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food and multiply your seeds sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness being enriched in everything to all bountifulness which causes through us thanksgiving to God for the administration of the service not only supply of the want of the saints but is abundant also by many thanksgiving unto God while by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution unto them and unto all men and by prayer for you which long after you for Which long? After you for the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Would you pray with me? Father would you open this text to us this morning.

I pray that you would come, that you would send your Holy Spirit to teach us this morning. I ask you God to anoint my lips. Lord, I know that apart from you I can do nothing. We ask you for these things in Christ's name. Amen.

You may be seated. So several years ago, I was in central Mexico. We were in a very impoverished area. Everything was a dirt road. The people in that church in Chihuahua, they had next to nothing.

And the man that I was with that planted that church, He preached. I think I shared some things that morning. And as we were leaving, we hopped in a pickup truck and we were pulling away and somebody came running out of the church and they handed to him a paper sack. And he said, thank you. Thank you.

And I looked at him and I said, what is that? He said, that's an offering. They brought me an offering this morning. He said I've trained them to give. I have trained them as Jesus taught, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

So we could end the whole sermon right there. We'll just leave it at that. It's more blessed to give. End of sermon. I have something that I want to share with you this morning.

That you would be givers. Paul wanted to go to Jerusalem. He wanted to bring a gift to those in Jerusalem. There was a prophecy by Agabus that a drought, a severe famine was going to overtake the whole Roman Empire. And it came and the saints in Jerusalem were suffering terribly.

And Paul, we see the Romans, he was going to go, he said, I'm going to make my way to Spain but at first I have to go to Jerusalem. I'm going to bring an offering and when I deliver the offering there is going to be, it's going to seal fruit to your account To those that had given. That's what this whole text is about this morning. It's more blessed to give. We become a nation of takers.

Half the nation doesn't pay taxes. When you look at what the church gives, it is so little. They say five or six percent of the people actually give more than ten percent. When you talk to accountants, it's way, way lower than that. We fool ourselves.

And I want to encourage you, and I want to put before you a picture of the joyfulness of living a life of giving, living a life of being poured out even as a drink offering, giving of yourself, giving up your miserly life and giving living a life of abundance and giving bountifully generously beyond your ability but this house of Stephanas they were addicted to serving the Saints that you and I would be addicted to serving and to giving. There's so many because we're takers that it's like in the days of Haggai, he prophesied, you're living in your sealed houses. Hey, I live in a very nice home. We live in our sealed houses while the temple lies in ruins. Well, the house of God lies in ruins.

And he says, you earn money but you put it in pockets with holes. You put it in bags with holes in it. You thought it was going to come to much but it's come to nothing. And see if we get our priorities right, God takes care of all of the other things. And see you and I, we come into the world just like Jacob, clinging to the heel of Esau, clinging, hanging on, and we come in with clenched fists.

And saints, it's a work of God, it's a work of the Holy Spirit as God begins to pry those fingers open. Genesis 15 over, or not Genesis, Deuteronomy 15 over and over again. He says, we give with an open hand and an open heart. Open hand, open, hey, God so loved the world, he gave. He gave his very best.

He gave his all. So here we have this text. In the first part of this text, in 2 Corinthians Chapter 9, you see Paul is sending workers ahead of him. There was something going on in Macedonia, and I'm going to get there in a minute. But Paul before Macedonia, he was, the Corinthians had promised, they had made pledges, they said we are going to give to this offering to help the poor saints that are in Jerusalem.

We want to give. And so he says it's superfluous for me to even mention it because I know that you're already ready and yet he turns around and he says I'm going to send the guys ahead of time. I'm not going to take an offering when I come. I want it all prepared. And he reminds them because a lot of people make promises but they don't fulfill their promises.

Keep your word saints. Keep your word. So here's the context of all of it if you turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 in verse 1 Here's what was going on in Macedonia. I'm gonna call this the Macedonian miracle and he says in in verse 1 moreover brother we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under the riches of their liberality. For to their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves, praying with us much in treaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering of the saints.

And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. Here are these saints in Macedonia And this is what we know about them. They were very poor. In fact, that word, it means that they were empty vessels. There was nothing left in them.

And they gave out of that poverty with tremendous joy. In fact, when you look at this text, it says that they pleaded, they begged Paul to allow them to participate in this offering that was going to be going to minister to the saints in Jerusalem. They gave with joy. They gave abundantly of all they had. And It says that they gave first to the Lord, then, then to others.

It reminds me of Romans chapter 12 that we are to present our bodies. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the will of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice And and when we've done that what we've offered what we are who we are to the living God Then he makes his will plain to us and he's made it plain to these saints here in Macedonia, they give of God and they receive the blessing of joy of being able to minister to others. And they gave beyond their ability, They gave with their own power and he says even beyond their own power they gave. It reminds me of Zachariah. It reminds me of the prophecy that is rubable.

Not by might nor by power but by my spirit, saith the Lord. And he says, Grace, grace, and these mountains shall be removed that you might finish this work of rebuilding the temple. It was by grace, it was by God's power. And you see grace poured out in his first couple of verses. The grace of God was upon them to do this.

This was not something that they could do of themselves. And God takes and he makes you and I something that we are not. Something distinct, something different, something otherworldly. It's a supernatural work of grace for God to take stingy, miserly scrooges and turn them into those that love to give. God begins to peel our fingers back one at a time and we let loose of the things of this world.

I remind you of Paul's, in 1 Corinthians 16, he told them how to take a collection. On the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, they were to take the collection. And they were to accumulate it there in that storehouse. And that tells us several things. Not everybody, I think not everybody gets paid on the same day, and so every week, different people would be giving, it would be accumulating.

Based on their ability, we could say that that's a percentage if you wanted to. But there would be no special offerings when it comes. Now let's turn to our text that I read this morning in chapter 9 and verse 1. I want you to first see that last verse in chapter 8. This was a test of their love.

Hey, it's one thing to see, brother, be warm and be blessed. The Lord bless you, brother. It's another To actually give something to do something The Good Samaritan how many walked by But the Samaritan he gave of himself of his own resources to care. For his touching the ministry to the saints is superfluous for me to write to you, for I know the forwardness of your mind for which I boast to them of Macedonia and Akayi that you were ready a year ago and your zeal had provoked very many." Paul was worried, I think. See, when he had went to Jerusalem and he met with the other apostles and they all got together and he began to share, he and Barnabas, what the work that God was doing in the Gentiles and they were astonished at the work.

And so they encouraged him. They said, okay, go back, but take an offering, have them give to the poor. And Paul was anxious to do that. I believe he wanted to help cement the bonds between the Jews and the Gentile believers, to bind them together. And you remember the Jewish church took care of the Gentile church first.

He was jealous for their reputation. He didn't want to be humiliated when he came because he had bragged about them to the Macedonians. He bragged about them to the apostles in Jerusalem. He didn't want to be ashamed. Look at verse six.

But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully. The proverb says there is the scatter and yet increase it. And there is a withholdeth more than his meat but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that waters shall be watered also himself." It doesn't make sense that the more I give away, That that causes an increase. And the more I hold back, you would think I would accumulate more, but it doesn't work that way.

At least not in God's kingdom and in God's ways. He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed. The stingy man is never blessed. The pie keeps getting smaller. I studied economics.

You know, it's the allocation of scarce resources, right, Ash? What if you have a God that keeps growing everything? And when he tells us to take dominion, things grow because of our productive labors. The blessing of God. Instead of keeping everything shrinking back.

And Christians, we can get cheap. We look, we're we're always, we try to be good stewards and I think we tend to err sometimes on the side of being cheap because we're trying to be good stewards. Sometimes, we need to be more generous. See, god increased the size of the pie. See, in due time, that seed is gonna sprout.

And if you want a big harvest, I sound like a prosperity guy, I'm not. Listen, I believe, you know what I believe? I believe the scriptures. And God has rich saints, he has poor saints and he has saints in between. What did Jesus say?

Give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over shall men give unto your bosom. With the same measure that you meet out, it shall be measured to you. If you're so exacting and, you know, okay, I'm counting nickels and I'm not going to give any more than I have to. I'm going to count seeds.

You know, a deal is a deal versus the guy that... Think about the merchant that gives and he shakes the bag and he keeps putting more in there. I can get more in there. I can get more in there, shaking more and more and more. How's your attitude?

What's your attitude towards that? If it's miserly, guess what? The way you measure, it's going to come back to you the same way. If you give generously bountifully, That's why it's going to be measured back to you. In the industry that we're in, we're regulated very much like a pharmaceutical company.

And when we manufacture our products, we have to have written SOPs. And SOP is a standard operating procedure. We manufacture under what are called GMPs, good manufacturing practices. The FDA doesn't tell us what GMPs should be or what our SOPs should be. They just tell you if they don't like them.

Okay? And whatever you write, whatever your SOPs are, you have to follow them. You write it, you follow it. In the same way, how we give, how we measure, how we write it down is how we also will be treated. Cast your bread upon the waters and after many days it shall return to you.

You know what he's speaking of when the Nile would overflow its banks. Their bread must be different than our bread, maybe not in a lot of healthy, But there were seeds in the bread and you cast the bread upon the water and when the waters of the Nile would recede, those seeds would drop down deep in the mud and in time would bring forth a harvest. See the laws of sowing and reaping, You reap what you sow. You reap in the fields where you sow. You know, you plant the seed in this field, you don't reap the harvest over here.

We need to sow in a bunch of fields, don't we? We need to sow in the field of our family, we need to sow in the field of the kingdom of God and the church, we need to sow financially, we need to sow in a lot of different areas. We reap in a different season than we sow. We don't stick the seed in the ground and we go out tomorrow and expect that if we plant the corn that tomorrow the corn is going to be there. There's a lag.

Remember that was sin too. There's a lag. See sometimes we sin and we think we get away with it. There's a lag time between when we reap. We sow and we reap.

Do you know that grace, in my opinion, doesn't change what we reap, grace changes what we sow. Grace is the power to live a godly life. Now mercy, hey we get more mercy than we deserve. OK, that's different. But grace, we get it changes what we actually sew.

Well, we give to the poor, the Bible tells us that we lend to the Lord. And I think he pays big dividends and big interest. I don't know what your experience has been, but that has been mine. Verse 7, every man according as he purposed in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver." So we should give out of conviction, out of obedience, intentionally, as he purposes in his own heart, not reluctantly, not under duress. Nobody's laying on you.

Nobody's putting pressure on you. Some of you are probably old enough to remember the old movie, Run Baby Run, by Nikki Cruz and David Wilkerson working with the gangs in New York City. And he's burdened. He wants to see Christ come to these gangs in New York City. And so he's going to have a revival meeting and you've got all these nice little church people and then these two gangs show up and they're going to rumble.

Of course, he doesn't know they're going to rumble. So David Wilkerson, He's going to take an offering and he calls the two heads of the gangs up and he hands them these Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets and he tells them to go take the offering. They're going and making the collection. There's one nice little church-going man and the guy hands in the bucket he Sixty know how they people roll the dollar bill up and make it look like it's more and dropping in the bucket He's shaking the bucket at I'm like, you know, this is a real bad gang guy so he starts digging in his pockets and putting some money in. Well that's under extortion.

That's not how we're supposed to take an offering, okay? But it worked for him. No, not grudgingly, not out of necessity, not because somebody's laying on us. And for you in ministry, don't pressure people into giving. Just encourage them and I hope that I can encourage you this morning that this is a wonderful way to live.

It has to be a faith. You have to give in faith. And you know what Israel's big problem with it, with their keeping the law? The problem was that they didn't keep it in faith. In all of your law keeping, whatever God has put on your heart to do, you can't separate it from faith in God and clinging to God.

Listen to this in Romans 9.31, but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore because they sought it not by faith as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. They saw the law as something they could do. They didn't need God and you and I for every commandment of God, we need God. To help us, to make it possible.

According as he purposed in his heart. I'm a big fan of the tithe, of tithing. And you know, some will say that tithing is under the law. Some will say, well, it's part of the ceremonial law. Some would say, well, if you're going to give 10%, then you better give 23%, because there's three tithes, right?

There's the Levitical tithe, the first 10%, the first fruits would go to the Levites. You have the rejoicing tithe, 10% to be spent on rejoicing before the Lord. You could use that on a Kevin Swanstock would be using that on a conference like this. You spend it. You rejoice.

You thank God. You show joy. And then the poor tithe every third year a full 10 percent. I think that, you know, whether you think it's the law or not, in Genesis we see Jacob at Bethel giving 10% to God. You see Abraham paying tithes to Melchizedek.

You see the Lord Jesus. He rebuked the Pharisees for tithing, exacting, just like I was talking about, meting out, measuring every seed. Tithing, mint, cumin, anise. But they neglected the weightier matters of the law. Jesus said these you ought to do.

Don't neglect the former though. When they asked him, the Pharisees tried to trip him up with a coin. Jesus asked, whose picture is that on there? Caesar. Give to Caesar that which is Caesar but to God that which is God's and I believe the first 10% Were Solomon told his son honor the Lord with the firstfruits that your barns might be overflowing I don't see where that which belongs to God ever ceased to be God's.

He owns it all. All of it. I think that that's a good place to start. I think we return the tithe. And we give offerings.

Augustine said Ties are required as a matter of debt, and he who has been unwilling to give them has been guilty of robbery. Whoever therefore desires to secure reward for himself, let him render tithes and out of the nine parts, let him seek to give homes. Can you imagine if the church of Jesus Christ gave 23%? We change his world. Think about that.

Verse 8, And God is able to make all grace abound toward you. So my point is, back up. You need to be persuaded in your own heart. Because if it's not a faith it's sin anyhow. So be persuaded in your own heart.

And then obey God. Verse eight, and God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work as it is written. He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. See, God will give the increase, he will cause fruit to abound to your account. And he quotes here Psalm 1 12.

That Psalm is such a beautiful Psalm. It's a Psalm of the blessed man. And it paints a picture of this blessed man. And I think oftentimes our giving begins out of obedience but it ends in just this love affair with God because of this cycle that I'm going to show you of thanksgiving. He says your righteousness increases, that you will be richly provided for both in your soul and in your physical needs.

All your necessities are taken care of. That's what Paul is saying. And then in verse 10 he says, Now he that ministered a seed to the sower, both ministered bread for your food and multiplied your seed sown, and they increased the fruits of your righteousness. He's talking about you as a person increasing. The fruits of your righteousness is growing you as a person in your capacity but also the seed that you have to give it increases and God provides for the Saints that you're giving to he's using your giving to provide for others and yet he is giving to the sower as well he gives seeds to those who receive he gives seed he gives bread to those who receive he gives seeds to the sower.

In verse 11, being enriched in everything to all bountifulness which causes through us thanksgiving to God for the administration of this service not only supplyeth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God, while by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them and unto all men, and by their prayer for you which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. See here's what's happening. They're going to thank God for you. They're going to be praying. You see this picture.

Your joy increases as you give because you have a sense of, you took care of somebody's deeds, you just feel the blessing of God all over you. They are so thankful for what you've given that they give thanks to God. God gives them more to you because you gave, you give thanks to God. It's just a cycle of thanksgiving and thanksgiving and joy, both to the giver and to the receiver. We've been generous in giving vitamins to, I don't even consider this part of giving, it's just something we just do because It doesn't cost us much.

I don't even think about it, but we give vitamins a lot of times to missionaries and to pastors, and we just supply them. I think one of the reasons our company has been so successful is that one guy told me, you know, brother, every time I put one of those pills in my mouth, I pray for you. That's the picture of how this thing works. What a wonderful way to live. You know, God stretches us and sometimes, brother, a friend of mine told me a long time ago, I said Peter how much do you give?

He said brother give till it hurts. And God will stretch you And the numbers can just keep increasing. And he stretches you and the tank just fills back up. I could tell you story after story after story. I could.

I could exhaust the rest of the time just telling you personal stories. I'll give you one example of I had years and many, many years ago, we started a little side business, and I had a couple of the guys that were working for me, wanted to be part of it, and they each put in, I think, $5, 000, $10, 000, something like that. And it wasn't going to work. It was the wrong time. It was the wrong market.

And I had made the decision I'm going to shut it down. And so, the lord was really convicting me. You need to give those guys their money back. Well, they invested in it. Well, give them their money back.

Just write the check. I give it up. I didn't have it to give to them. But I did it any how. And I had this guy that just kept bugging me for like two years.

He kept calling me and saying, you guys have this name, this product name that we were using called Aller Care. Some of you may know that name, Aller Care. I'll tell you why you know that name. They kept calling me. This guy said, you know, I've got a client, they want to start a business and they really would like to have that name.

You know, nah, we're not interested in selling. Six months later, the guy called, really would like to buy that name from you. Finally after about a couple of years you know thinking about shutting it down I still wanted to keep the name but guy says you know come on there's got to be a price. I just saw some little guy starting a business somewhere. I said, just tell him $50, 000.

I figured that'd be the end of him. The guy says, I'll meet you next week with a check. Well, he was representing Johnson Wax. Now, I didn't know that. Now I learned something in the process.

There's a reason why he was, he was an attorney that was representing, they wanted that name and they launched a carpet care line and they wanted to buy up that name. Guess what? I was able to pay those guys, I had already made that decision a long time ago, but that was all working in the background I know that you have your own stories like that, but there's so many of them You see here. They're encouraged By your ministration They see the work of grace in your life and it encourages other people. When people see you change, they go, wow, what happened to him?

That guy used to be the tightest miserly guy I've ever met, now look at him. You know that that was true of General Sam Houston? Was LBJ, not a fan of LBJ, but LBJ's grandfather led Sam Houston to the Lord. And Sam Houston was a belligerent man. And God got a hold of his heart and his life.

And he agreed to pay half the pastor's salary every year. And somebody asked him about that. And he said, brother, when I got baptized, my wallet got baptized too. You know, we are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We're to have no other gods before him.

Nothing should be in front of him. And sometimes I wonder what's in front of him. And if I were to work for the NSA, which you know, we're probably being listened to right now, okay? I just have to look at your checkbook. And I could look at your calendar.

Because it's not just money, it's your time, it's your talents. See, when you take the one talent that you have and you use it And you spend it and you're faithful a little you know what the result is Jesus the joy abounds The joy abounds to you Enter into the joy of the Lord. Enter into the joy of the Lord. And so many times you get one talent, you're looking at the guy with ten and you think, what difference does it make? It makes a huge difference.

Take your one and use it. And God will give you more. Faithful, little, faithful and much. But are you all in? See the modern seeker friendly, you know, That's one of their mantras.

You know, we don't ever want to talk about money because money turns people off. So what Paul did, look at the first verse, he's saying, give proof of your love. Give proof of a conversion. Give proof that your life is different. Sam Houston testified to that.

His life was different. So here's in summary of what Paul was saying to them at Corinth that we ought to give bountifully, Deliberately and freely. So how do we apply this? I'm going to give you a couple more things. This isn't really expository preaching this morning.

It's more of a topical teaching, but I picked a text. So number one, we want to give in secret. Whenever you can, give in secret. Don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Give in secretly and God will reward you openly.

Number two. Give is an act of worship in the beauty of holiness, in the fear of the Lord. Scott's been using that verse in chapter 27, Psalm 27, one thing I desire that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever. To behold the beauty of the Lord. Can I encourage you that when you give, you know some churches now they like to go to this automatic deduction out of your paycheck?

Don't do that. In fact, if you call me legalistic but if I can't out I want to write the first check when I get paid. The first check to the church, to the Lord. I don't let my children put it in the offering. I do.

It's an act of worship. Because I am saying, seeing as if I do an automatic deduction, it's out of mind. I don't want it out of mind. I want to say, not look at me God, look at the size of that check I'm putting in there, I want to say, God, thank you. Everything I have is because of you.

Every product idea, every bit of strength and ambition, everything, every person, every customer, everything, every ounce of air that I'm able to breathe is because you gave it to me. And we don't want to be, remember the warning that Moses gave them, when you come into the land, when you go into land, I know what's going to happen, You're going to forget and you're going to think that all this is because of you. Don't you ever forget that it's me. I gave you the power to gain wealth and when you live in houses that you didn't build and you drink from wells you didn't dig and you eat from vineyards you didn't plant. When I bring you into a lofty place, honey and barley where you can dig iron out of the hills, which you dare forget.

And see, the tithe was given, and so for no other reason, Deuteronomy chapter 14, the tithe was given to teach the fear of the Lord. And anything that teaches me the fear of the Lord, I want to do. Because by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. By the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. By the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. I want the fear of God in my life to increase. And I give joyfully, but with a recognition. Oh God, Oh God. You can in a second snatch everything.

Rosh Nunez says, God, not man, is seen as the giver, sustainer, and Redeemer of life and its blessings. God alone is the giver of material gifts of productivity and prosperity. Three, we ought to give joyfully. You know, whether you practice the rejoicing tithe or not, you could look at it as a picture, as a type. I think sometimes the world looks at us as believers and they say, well, where's the joy?

If they see your family and you're out to dinner and you're feasting and you're laughing and you're rejoicing together, look at them over there. Wow. What's different about them? We're rejoicing together. We're thanking God for his goodness to us.

We're thanking God that we were once in darkness and he's called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Give us an open hand. Give generously. Number four, if you need to err, err on the side of generosity. Oh, what if they spend it wrong?

What if they do that way? Give generously. You know what? See if you can out give your friend. You go out to dinner with a bunch of friends, see if you can get the check.

In all areas. If you have a, maybe God gave you a second home, you got a cabin somewhere, Use it to bless other people. You can't use it that much. Give the keys away. You got a chainsaw.

Why does the guy down the street have to buy a chainsaw? Let him use your chainsaw. Give, give, give, give. Give your time. Maybe you don't have much money to give.

Give your time. Give away your time. Give. Give generously. Give in faith.

Number five. See, we must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them to diligently seek him. In faith, There's so many that have encouraged me. Reading the testimony of George Mueller or R.G. Letourneau.

Letourneau was giving away 90% of his income. He just kept getting new ideas. He's in Sunday school class, not that that's a good idea. They didn't know back then. And God gives him the idea of these hips on an earth mover.

You think about how those hips move on an earth mover or the bulldozer. They kept giving. Stanley Tam, God owns my business. I can't think of the guy who started Quaker O, it's the same deal. I've often remembered George Mueller praying, the way he prayed, God, you said.

And I think people often don't know how to pray for money. Well, we started our business 25 years ago. I had a guy challenge me some time ago. He said, you give out an abundance or you give this or that. He says, I live by faith.

You're praying a million dollar payroll, brother. You ever have to pray in a payroll? Go to God. God, we need orders today, God. I made commitments to all these people.

God, God, you've got to move. You need to cause that phone to ring. When I make that sales call, God, would you give me favor? See, how are you going to go to God and pray when God says, Son, you've been robbing me? You pray but you've disobeyed my word.

George Mueller would pray, God, you said. You said that you would rebuke the devourer, Father. I tell you, in the early days of our business, I could go back to the shipping and I'd say, Did an order come in from so and so? They'd say, How did you know? I'd say, was it for $350?

How'd you know? And the day came when, for years, I prayed like that. And I said, God, I was an elder in a church, I spent all my time praying for this business, I should be praying for the saints. And the day came, I was like. I didn't pray that way anymore.

I said, God, give us our daily breath today. Just trust God. Just stand. God's done a remarkable thing In my life and in my heart. Changing me.

So walking together in God with God. So given faith. Give sacrificially number six, The widow's might is a great example. Because we can give out of abundance. We can even give bigger percents but it no longer is sacrificial.

She gave all. And I think the Lord put that in there for us to learn from. To remind us if you were wealthy this morning, scripture gives specific admonition to you. Paul told Timothy, charge them that are rich in this world, 1 Timothy 6.17, that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches. So be humble.

Don't trust in that because it can grow wings and fly away very, very quickly. But trust in the living God. Keep clinging to God. Keep trusting in God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. One of the problems was there's only a few books on giving, really modern books on giving, and some of them are written from such a Gnostic standpoint.

They don't talk about leaving a blessing for your children, that money is all bad. That's not what the whole scripture teaches us. That God gives us these things to enjoy, but don't hang on to them with closed hands. That they that do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. Share your faith.

Share what God has given you and you're laying up in store for yourselves a good foundation in times to come. Number seven, give our best. No blemish sacrifices. A friend of mine told me a story. One Sunday in their church they had missionaries show up and they were disheveled looking and their clothes were filthy and full of holes, tattered.

And they gave their presentation to raise money and somebody said look what a gimmick another guy said you know can't they dress up what's wrong with them come into God's house like this Somebody asked, challenged him about it, and he said, this is all we have. These are the clothes that you guys sent us. Shame, shame, shame on us. Give God Our best, our first. Jesus tore up the money changers in the temple because they were bringing bad sacrifices.

Number eight, give regularly, give systematically. See a lot of people say, it's all gods. You know brother, it's all gods. Don't lay that type thing on me, don't lay any percentages on me, it's all gods. You know what the reality is?

You give very, very little. I had a brother that I brought this teaching many, many years ago and He said, you know, he realized, he said, I don't give hardly anything. I've been kidding myself. And he was robbing himself of tremendous blessing. And lastly, give simply.

No strings. When you give to a ministry, no strings attached. You can direct your giving if there's a burden, You've got a burden for this country or that country or this project. You can direct it and all that. But when you give, give to God.

You just give through them, but give to God. A young man, a friend of our family, she was, some young lady was going on a trip and she was trying to raise money And he really ponied up. I mean, the Lord really put it on his heart to give. And he gave, painfully, sacrificially. And as he handed her the check, she says, Oh, good, praise God, now I won't have to take any money out of my savings account.

And he thought, wow, I've given, I emptied my bank account to send you and you're not all in. I said, brother, you give to God. You gave to God. Don't worry about, don't worry about her. You gave to God.

God deal with her later. I made a decision. You ought to make a decision. I shared a message a couple weeks ago that, see most people, the message last night, one of the messages yesterday, We need to have private worship, private devotion, family worship, public worship. Most Christians don't have a regular quiet time.

And the heart of the message was to seek first the kingdom of God, put God first and give him the best part of your day, the best part of your week, the best of your strength. He's worthy of all of it. The best of your resources. And I challenge, make the decision. People beat themselves up all their life.

I know, I know, I know I had to get together with God in the morning. I just can't get up. Make the decision one time. Spend the rest of your life managing the decision. Make the decision one time that I am going to be a giver, not a taker.

Then I'm going to give, give, give, give, give. You'd be amazed at how much you get. We don't give to get. Don't misinterpret me. Just the way it is.

You know, God's so loved that he gave. I always come back to that verse in Romans. God spared not his own son. How will he not also freely give you all things? God didn't hold back.

He offered up his son for you and for me. Think about that. He gave his very best for you and me. It's a wonderful way to live, a joyful way to live. Would you pray with me?

Father, thank you. Lord, would you cause fruit to abound? Would you increase our trust and our hope in you? Would you cause our faith to increase? Would you allow each one here and who will hear these messages to abound in joy, to experience the joy of giving, of living as a bountiful giver.

Oh, Lord, I pray that blessing in Jesus' name, Amen. For more messages, articles and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the word of God and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches where you