SPEAKER_02: I'm going to do that this morning.
SPEAKER_02: First Corinthians 16, verses 1 through for hear the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatians, so you also are to do.
SPEAKER_02: The first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
SPEAKER_02: When I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany you.
SPEAKER_02: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, we are so thankful, Lord, that we have this word.
SPEAKER_01: We're so thankful that it has lasting power, Lord, that it has ultimate wisdom, Lord, and it has instructions for our good and for our instructions, Lord, that we may come to know you, be obedient to you, and live with you the ways you want us to.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we pray that today that that word through Pastor Robert, Lord, hits our hearts, hits our minds, hits our souls, Lord, like never before, Lord, that we would hear your word straight from you, Lord, through Pastor Robert.
SPEAKER_01: And we just pray that it would not only touch us, Lord, that it would change us.
SPEAKER_01: I pray all this in your Son Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: You guys can be seated.
SPEAKER_00: If you've not already done so, let me invite you to open your copy of God's Word to the book of First Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: We are beginning the final chapter today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh hear like the final countdown from Rocky playing in my head as I say that.
SPEAKER_00: But uh we're beginning the final chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you got that, but not all of you.
SPEAKER_00: We're beginning the final chapter, and it is on giving.
SPEAKER_00: But before we do that, uh I just I want to make a just a quick aside.
SPEAKER_00: This will take four or five minutes, and it's a it's a point of celebration that we get to do as a church family as we as a church continue to pursue making disciples in DeSota County and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's something that we are about.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that we have intentionally tried to do over the last five years, which is hard to believe over the last five years, is free up more money to pull away from debt and put into ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna kind of take you back a little bit to 2021.
SPEAKER_00: In 2021, we had two different loans, right?
SPEAKER_00: We had one smaller loan that was an obligation for us of 30, I have the exact amount, 3260 every month.
SPEAKER_00: Went straight to that loan by God's grace and through your generosity in 2023, early 2023, we were able to pay that loan off, right?
SPEAKER_00: It is it's gone no more.
SPEAKER_00: And after that, we communicated and shared with you guys it was our goal and privilege to get after our larger mortgage um loan as well, and to to work towards attacking that in some strategic ways.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways that we identified to attack that was to refinance it by God's grace on March 31st, just a week and a half ago.
SPEAKER_00: And because of your generosity generosity, we have officially refinanced our larger loan.
SPEAKER_00: And the cool part about that, yeah, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: The cool part about that, uh we're still working out the specifics of of that, what that payment is going to be.
SPEAKER_00: We'll find out soon.
SPEAKER_00: But the cool part of that is we were able to bring over a hundred thousand dollars to the table, right?
SPEAKER_00: So it seems like just a year or two ago we owed over 1.6, we owe less than 1.4 at this point.
SPEAKER_00: So praise God for that.
SPEAKER_00: We want to celebrate that.
SPEAKER_00: That is a a good and blessed thing that the Lord has has given us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, even the fact that we were in a financial position to refinance, God has blessed us with multiple years in a row of increase in tithes and offerings and increase in overall giving.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe we are positioned well to continue to attack that.
SPEAKER_00: I I do believe, I'm gonna say this, I do believe it's realistic for us if we are intentional with our giving that we could have this thing paid off in five years.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that from the bottom of my heart.
SPEAKER_00: So I would encourage you to keep giving to this thing called mountain movers, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you're already doing so, keep giving.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not, let me just speak to that briefly.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to join that effort.
SPEAKER_00: Um if you missed that when we were here, when we did that, if you missed that launch, I wrote some things down to share with you.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's about the mountain movers, it's about more than paying off debt.
SPEAKER_00: It's about sacrificial giving, it's about responding faithfully to what God has called us to do as a church.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a redirecting of our tithe, but it's something that we give above and beyond our tithe.
SPEAKER_00: And our goal, and this is what I wanted to get to, our goal with mountain movers is to pay off our debt, to maximize our facilities with minimal expenses incurred.
SPEAKER_00: And you've already seen some of the some of that take place, and also to free up financial resources for missions in ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Every month, over$10,000 goes straight to debt.
SPEAKER_00: I want you guys to just pause and think about the work of ministry that could be accomplished with$10,000 a month.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a second.
SPEAKER_00: That's a significant amount of money.
SPEAKER_00: So think about what we could accomplish as we follow Jesus together and pursue proclaiming his name to DeSota County and to the nations, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we praise God for what he's done and we look forward to what he's going to do in the days ahead.
SPEAKER_00: And we encourage you to pray about how you are going to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: With that, I thought this was going to be a hard transition when we landed on this being the Sunday that we we shared this uh uh because of the timing of when the loan closed, but then I get ready to prep for something today, and it's about giving, right?
SPEAKER_00: We didn't plan this, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is by God's sovereignty and God's providence uh that this worked out.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to Dylan this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's like it seems like every time we're facing something or dealing with something as a church, God puts the perfect passage in place and it makes it makes us look like geniuses, but it's not us.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Lord, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not us, it is the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And as we know, we've been working through Paul's letter to the church at Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: It's been full of correction, time after time after time.
SPEAKER_00: He is correcting them on something they have gotten wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And we finally, today, we come across something that may not have gotten perfect, right, with giving, but we come across something that from what we see in this these four verses, they at least got it right a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Because what we see in these four verses, it's more instruction than it is correction.
SPEAKER_00: And we saw that when we read God's word a moment ago.
SPEAKER_00: It's not as corrective in nature as the rest of the letter to first, uh the rest of his first letter to the church at Corinth is.
SPEAKER_00: They messed up a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: They messed up the gathering, they messed up uh they messed up Mary, they messed up everything, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just like us.
SPEAKER_00: They messed up everything.
SPEAKER_00: But it seems as though, from what we see in these four verses, they were a generous church.
SPEAKER_00: They may have been messing things up, but they were a generous church.
SPEAKER_00: And most everything I read in prep for today and prep for this morning point to these four verses being some of the most procedural in nature of all of Paul's letters, which means they're very practical, right?
SPEAKER_00: It it leads one to the conclusion that I just made that the Corinthians at least at some level understood the theological significance and importance of bringing their gifts to the table in the gathering.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're gonna see as we work through this text, if you have your listening guys, I'm gonna draw out three specific applications that we see in the text.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is kingdom or giving is kingdom-minded gospel commitment.
SPEAKER_00: Second one is get giving involves an individual and the corporate body.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, giving involves intentional discernment and faithful accountability.
SPEAKER_00: With that, let's dive into the first one.
SPEAKER_00: Giving is a kingdom-minded gospel commitment.
SPEAKER_00: Verse one sets the context for the next few verses, right?
SPEAKER_00: He speaks to providing instruction, and that instruction he speaks to, you notice there, being the same thing that he said to the church at Galatia.
SPEAKER_00: When he uses the phrase collection for the saints, he's making reference to contributions that are being made for the benefit, not necessarily of the church at Corinth, but for the church in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I want you guys to have, you have to have that understanding as we begin to work through this text.
SPEAKER_00: He's making reference to contributions that were being made for the benefit of the church at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: It's also important to know that the churches Paul writes his letters to are not necessarily the mother churches.
SPEAKER_00: They are church plants.
SPEAKER_00: They are churches that birthed in specific locations that were operating autonomously from the mother church that was Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And this New Testament model is beautiful and it impacts my ecclesiology.
SPEAKER_00: It should impact your ecclesiology.
SPEAKER_00: It should impact the way, the way that we do church and our convictions around the way that we do church.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Paul seems to have no interest in building this mother church of Jerusalem into this big mega church machine.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, what he makes it his aim to do is to plant local churches that are autonomous.
SPEAKER_00: And what does he do as he goes to each of those local churches?
SPEAKER_00: He appoints elders to care for their soul, right?
SPEAKER_00: What happens is you see in the New Testament is you have multiple churches being planted that are functioning autonomously and they cooperate together because of this kingdom-minded gospel commitment to get the gospel to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we see in Paul's missionary journeys and in his letters as well.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the church at Jerusalem could be called the mother church of sorts.
SPEAKER_00: And what we know about the church in Jerusalem from historical context is that it faced all sorts of problems.
SPEAKER_00: Persecution was normal for the church in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: It was normal for the church in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And that had been so since the inception of the church in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Physical persecution was a reality, and there was also some situations that came up that were outside of the control of any person, both of which led to suffering.
SPEAKER_00: I want to look at both of these aspects briefly.
SPEAKER_00: Physical persecution as a reality for the church at Jerusalem, and also some uncontrollable situations.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at first physical persecution first.
SPEAKER_00: I bet you guys could make a pretty educated guess that most of the folks who made up the church at Jerusalem, a significant portion of them came from a Jewish background, or they were Jewish believers, is another way to phrase that.
SPEAKER_00: Which means this from the moment that they professed Jesus as the Messiah, they would have faced intense opposition from the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: They likely would have been barred from the synagogue or excommunicated from the synagogue further, which is potentially even more impactful as it relates to persecution, further, they would have lost all standing in the community because they proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And what we know about losing standing in the community and being excommunicated from the synagogue is that what comes with that is both social difficulties and also economic difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering and persecution, if for no other reason than those two things right there, would have come along with the reality of what the Jewish believers who made up the church at Jerusalem were experiencing.
SPEAKER_00: And if that wasn't enough, there were also some specific things that took place as well.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where it gets into the uncontrollable situations that impacted the church.
SPEAKER_00: What we know from history is that around four, I think it was 45 or 46 A.D., there was a pretty significant famine that hit, and the church had to endure that.
SPEAKER_00: You can read about the church receiving that warning in Acts 11.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to do that if you are interested.
SPEAKER_00: But as a batter stands in the batter's box getting ready to wait his turn and go hit in a baseball game right after that famine hit, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Another famine hit.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: So there was not only physical persecution, but there was also all sorts of things that were taking place that caused there to be intense difficulty, both physically and economically for the church at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul knows these things.
SPEAKER_00: And what he is saying to the church at Corinth is he is encouraging them and other churches to support the mother church, right?
SPEAKER_00: Support those who are in need.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at Romans 15, 26 and 27.
SPEAKER_00: For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.
SPEAKER_00: For if the Gentiles have come to share in the spiritual blessings, they also, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.
SPEAKER_00: We know, I want you guys to hear me here.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to miss this.
SPEAKER_00: We know, and you heard me preach about this probably a month or so ago, that Paul made it his aim to boldly proclaim and preach Christ and Christ crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We spent an entire sermon on how Paul made it his aim to preach Christ and Christ crucified.
SPEAKER_00: But I think sometimes we focus only on that and we forget that Paul also made it his need his aim to meet the needs of brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he preached Christ, Christ, and Christ crucified, but he also was intentional in meeting the needs of other people and he instructed the churches that he was ministering to to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: You see that we as believers, as followers of Jesus, according to God's word, we have a responsibility, yes, to proclaim Christ crucified, but also to meet the needs of brothers and sisters all around the world.
SPEAKER_00: You guys received an email this week about a meeting that we have here on Tuesday, about how we can participate in that very thing.
SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons I love our denomination is the cooperation in missions around the world, both nationally and internationally.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways that we do that is through this organization called Send Relief, right?
SPEAKER_00: From your neighborhood to the nations, sin relief.
SPEAKER_00: It it equips you and your church to serve people in tangible ways, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's directly from their website to serve people in tangible, gospel-centered ways.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham from Sin Relief, he works with refugees.
SPEAKER_00: He's here with us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: He'll be in the four-year.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know he is, look for a sin relief shirt.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to go by and meet him and get to know him and hear about what's going to happen on Tuesday further.
SPEAKER_00: If you're available on Tuesday, go to our website, to the events page, sign up, participate, be here as we learn how we can come alongside and support brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, specifically in the Middle East.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to participate in that.
SPEAKER_00: What we see in this passage is these brothers and sisters were giving faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: They were burdened in the same way that we should be burdened.
SPEAKER_00: They were burdened because they knew what their brothers and sisters were enduring and they wanted to help and encourage and provide for those folks.
SPEAKER_00: And they were taking this collection for the saints, as it's used here in this passage, and they were giving it to the church at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: I read one commentary that phrased it this way the Corinthians gave, I want you to hear this for a second.
SPEAKER_00: The Corinthians gave because they were kingdom-minded, not because they wanted a tax break.
SPEAKER_00: Let that sit with you for a second.
SPEAKER_00: They gave because they were kingdom-minded, not because they were looking for a tax break, not because they were trying to get to a certain number so they can write off a certain amount.
SPEAKER_00: They were giving because they were kingdom gospel-centered minded.
SPEAKER_00: They were so burdened by the realities that their brothers and sisters were facing that they gave.
SPEAKER_00: They were so burdened by the difficulty and the task of the Great Commission that they gave.
SPEAKER_00: They cared more about making disciples and reaching the lost and meeting needs than they did their bottom line.
SPEAKER_00: That sits heavy for us, especially in the day and age that we live and in the culture that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most important things in our culture that we imprint on our mind, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is we have to protect our bottom line.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying go impoverish yourself to meet the needs of others, but I am saying you need to do a pretty intense look at yourself and say, Am I giving kingdom-mindedly or am I giving for a tax break?
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the next application that we see in the text.
SPEAKER_00: Giving involves the individual and the corporate body.
SPEAKER_00: I think the natural tendency is to look at giving as something that is individualistic in nature.
SPEAKER_00: And there is a certain aspect of that, right?
SPEAKER_00: There is a certain aspect of man, is a worshipful act for me or for my family to give.
SPEAKER_00: My family worships through giving, and that is true, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't hear me say that that is true.
SPEAKER_00: Giving should be worshipful for you.
SPEAKER_00: We say that every Sunday when we speak to giving.
SPEAKER_00: It should be an act of worship, it should be in response to adoration, right?
SPEAKER_00: That is why we give, but also the church participates in giving together.
SPEAKER_00: We do that together.
SPEAKER_00: First two, in my personal opinion, points to giving being part of the liturgy each and every week during the gathering.
SPEAKER_00: I read uh a commentator named Harris in his commentator, uh his commentary on first and second Corinthians say it this way to argue the same point that I'm trying to allude to.
SPEAKER_00: He said, But when they but then why mention doing it on Sunday?
SPEAKER_00: When they could just as well do it regularly at home on their own times.
SPEAKER_00: The meaning must rather be that the Christians were to bring their offerings to church on Sunday, since that was the day they were to assemble and worship.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: When you do a deep dive and you look at giving in the New Testament, one of the things that you will see is the early church gave when they gathered.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They gave when they gathered.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why we give when we gather.
SPEAKER_00: Giving, not just financial giving, hear me, giving, not just financial giving, is the very heart of worship.
SPEAKER_00: I want to connect that for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's the very heart of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Again, to pull a quote from somebody smarter than me, you can give without worshiping, but you cannot worship without giving.
SPEAKER_00: You can give without worshiping, but you cannot worship without giving.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about this a little bit in our membership class on Wednesday this last week.
SPEAKER_00: We should approach church, we should approach the gathering not merely as consumers, but as givers.
SPEAKER_00: And again, not just financially.
SPEAKER_00: We should approach the gathering not as consumers, but as givers.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the gathering here is not just showing up to get what you want and desire from God.
SPEAKER_00: If that is your approach to the gathering, you have the wrong approach.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about showing up and getting what you want and what you desire.
SPEAKER_00: Gathering is about you coming and giving yourself in worshipful adoration to God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: The gathering here on Sunday is you giving yourself to the purposes of God as we submit to his design for the way that we are to worship.
SPEAKER_00: The gathering is you coming and submitting yourself to the one another that we see all across the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The gathering is about you coming and devoting and giving your hearts and minds to the word of God as it is proclaimed both in song and in the proclaimed word or preaching of the word.
SPEAKER_00: The gathering is us coming and giving our resource resources for the work of the Lord with our tithes and offerings.
SPEAKER_00: You see, if you are coming to the gathering simply to get something out of it and nothing more, then you are approaching the gathering all wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Paul did not only give these instructions to the church at Corinth, right?
SPEAKER_00: We can see these instructions and we can say, man, this is the same way that the church is to operate today.
SPEAKER_00: Also, we also see that he gave them, even in this passage, he speaks to, he gave them to the church at Galatia as well.
SPEAKER_00: We also know that he gave them to the churches in Macedonia, which would have been part of present-day Greece, which would have included churches like at Philippi and Thessalonica.
SPEAKER_00: What we see is this the giving of our resources is worship for the individual, yes, but it's also worship for the corporate body.
SPEAKER_00: It is a corporate commitment by the local church to benefit the kingdom of God.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: To benefit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're wondering, how do how do we know what he meant with this?
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that he meant it was for all individuals and not just for a select few individuals?
SPEAKER_00: I want to point to a phrase that you may have missed.
SPEAKER_00: I want to point to the Phrase, each one of you.
SPEAKER_00: You notice that phrase in that passage?
SPEAKER_00: Each one of you.
SPEAKER_00: Might step on some toes.
SPEAKER_00: It's not me stepping on your toes, it's God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Each one of you.
SPEAKER_00: It's crystal clear here that he expected all saints to contribute.
SPEAKER_00: Really quiet.
SPEAKER_00: All saints to contribute.
SPEAKER_00: If you were covenanted to the body of Christ, Paul is saying you should be giving.
SPEAKER_00: He recognized that some may have the capacity to give more than others, and we'll get to that in a few moments.
SPEAKER_00: But regardless of what your capacity to give was, you were expected to give in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: I was reminded in my study this week of a sobering reality that I do not think about enough.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: When we, I want you to think about this for a second.
SPEAKER_00: When we pass from this life to the next, and we are in the presence of a holy God, what a day that will be, right?
SPEAKER_00: And as I preached a funeral in Nashville on Friday, I was again reminded of the blessed realities of eternity and what an eternity it will be.
SPEAKER_00: But something that hit me as I was preparing to preach a funeral and I was preparing to preach this message.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there are two great privileges for followers of Jesus that we get to experience on this earth that we will never get to experience in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And those two privileges are we will never get to share the gospel with a lost person in eternity, and we will never get to bring our financial gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Never get to share the gospel, and we'll never get to bring our resources.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you, I understand, may very well in your mind when you say you'll never get to bring your financial resources again, be saying, thank goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Thank goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And thank goodness I don't have to share the gospel because I don't like doing either one of those things.
SPEAKER_00: That's not me.
SPEAKER_00: That's too hard.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do those things.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers, we have to stop, and sisters, we have to stop looking at sharing the gospel and giving of our resources as obligations and see them for what they are.
SPEAKER_00: They are great privileges.
SPEAKER_00: Great privileges.
SPEAKER_00: Say it this way: a passionless gift given from a graceless heart is a meaningless act.
SPEAKER_00: God does not need your money.
SPEAKER_00: Your giving is not God's privilege.
SPEAKER_00: Your giving is not Heartland's privilege.
SPEAKER_00: And it's weird for me to say this because I am uh paid by your giving.
SPEAKER_00: Your giving is not my privilege.
SPEAKER_00: Your giving is your privilege.
SPEAKER_00: Your privilege.
SPEAKER_00: We get to, think about it, we get to participate in God's plans for the nations by the verbal proclamation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We carry a worthy message and praise God.
SPEAKER_00: We get to participate in that.
SPEAKER_00: We get to participate in the financial gifts that is the church.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not an obligation, it is a privilege.
SPEAKER_00: The question we should be asking isn't, man, I don't want to do this.
SPEAKER_00: How can I get out of it?
SPEAKER_00: The question that we should be asking about proclaiming the gospel and giving of our financial resources is how can we give more?
SPEAKER_00: Not how can I do that less or how can I give less.
SPEAKER_00: With that, let's move in to the last thing we're gonna look at together, and that is giving involves intentional discernment and faithful accountability.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that's clear in this text is that Paul points to intentionality with giving.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be careful how I communicate this.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna stay pretty close to my notes in this part.
SPEAKER_00: This is not something that we step into flippantly, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't say that from a standpoint of you do not give until you have it all figured out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not telling you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: That's like telling someone, don't have kids until you're financially stable.
SPEAKER_00: Good luck, right?
SPEAKER_00: Good luck.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give until all your ducks in a row.
SPEAKER_00: Your ducks are never going to be in a row.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get real, right?
SPEAKER_00: Your ducks will never be in a row.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh a guy named Thistleton said it far better not.
SPEAKER_00: It is theologi, it is theologically entirely appropriate to speak of the collection, not as a mundane chore of maintaining the church in any routinized mechanistic sense, but of maintaining others by passing on freely received grace.
SPEAKER_00: Freely received grace.
SPEAKER_00: So when I say it's not to be stepped into flippantly, what I mean by that is this is an opportunity to give.
SPEAKER_00: And the opportunity to give is by God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And the gifts that we do give is the passing on of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: With that, I'm gonna speak to this is where it might get uncomfortable, and I'm just gonna, you know me, I'm gonna dive right in.
SPEAKER_00: I want to address two specific oppositions I've often heard and hear in relation to giving from folks that I believe not just this text, but the entirety of scripture speaks to directly.
SPEAKER_00: The one is the idea of tithe, and I've heard it said often, it's an old testament practice.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I can give what I want, and there is no set amount that I need to give.
SPEAKER_00: All right, that's one opposition.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be very careful with that sentiment, if that is you.
SPEAKER_00: For those who say that, I don't think they fully understand what they mean when they say that.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, I promise you, they wouldn't be saying that.
SPEAKER_00: I was listening to a sermon from Colin Smith this last week, and he was talking about the law.
SPEAKER_00: He was talking about it not in relation to giving, but it applies, and you'll hear in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: He was talking about the law and he was doing a deep dive on the law, and then that got me going, man, I'm gonna research Old Testament law.
SPEAKER_00: And I did, you know, there are over 600 laws in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: 600.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, side note, can you imagine trying to keep all those?
SPEAKER_00: My goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Like I can't keep the big 10, much less all 600, right?
SPEAKER_00: And we know, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read this slowly because I don't want to breeze past this.
SPEAKER_00: We know that Jesus did not abolish the law, but praise the Lord, he fulfilled it.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, he fulfilled it.
SPEAKER_00: So don't hear me discounting that.
SPEAKER_00: I am affirming that with 100% certainty.
SPEAKER_00: But do we understand what that means?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: We were given freedom from the law because of the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We should stand at the top of the mountains and proclaim that with all that we have.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord for the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But do you ever stop to think about the obedience that we are called to in the New Testament in response to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Takes it a step further than the law.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever stopped to think about that?
SPEAKER_00: Let me illustrate that with two specific things we see.
SPEAKER_00: One, Old Testament law, do not murder.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty black and white, right?
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what we see in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: You have not heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever murders will be liable for judgment.
SPEAKER_00: But I say to you that everyone is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
SPEAKER_00: So he takes murder and he goes, Oh, don't even be angry.
SPEAKER_00: Not only don't murder, don't even be angry.
SPEAKER_00: Do not commit adultery.
SPEAKER_00: Old Testament law.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 5, again, same sermon on the mount.
SPEAKER_00: But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just don't commit adultery, don't carry out the physical act, don't even look lustfully at someone who's not your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: Or you've already committed adultery.
SPEAKER_00: See where I'm going here?
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament calls for 10%.
SPEAKER_00: You know what the New Testament says?
SPEAKER_00: Radical generosity.
SPEAKER_00: It's a step further than the Old Testament tithe.
SPEAKER_00: We give not to fulfill an obligation of 10%, or because we hope that we will get something in return.
SPEAKER_00: We give in response to the blood of Jesus that gave us freedom from the law.
SPEAKER_00: And the second statement of opposition to giving that I've heard is giving was different in the New Testament church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to challenge that.
SPEAKER_00: Giving was different.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have buildings, they didn't have this.
SPEAKER_00: But when you look at it, it's actually quite similar.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize that for 2,000 years?
SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a second.
SPEAKER_00: For 2,000 years, God's people and God's churches, God's local churches, have given for four things primarily.
SPEAKER_00: To support faithful pastors preaching the word for the purpose of making disciples, to meet tangible needs, to plant hurt healthy churches who also support local pastors faithfully preaching the word that make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And fourth, to support missionaries evangelizing the lost.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give me this argument that is different.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's different because we have electric bills now, but the purposes are still the same.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at a church today, there should be aspects of those four things being supported in their budget in a major way.
SPEAKER_00: It may look different because we have buildings in AC.
SPEAKER_00: We live in Mississippi.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, we have AC.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, all those little dead beetles around the outside are getting sprayed by pest control.
SPEAKER_00: They're not climbing on my chest, right?
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for those things.
SPEAKER_00: So it looks a little bit different, but the purpose is the same.
SPEAKER_00: The purpose is the same.
SPEAKER_00: But, and I love how Paul includes this at the end of this section.
SPEAKER_00: I love how he says there also needs to be some accountability in place.
SPEAKER_00: Notice verse 3 that Paul did not say, I will take that money to Jerusalem, nor did he say, I will appoint the person to carry that money to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will send by the way of who you accredit.
SPEAKER_00: He also says, he offers, I will go, but he makes no demands.
SPEAKER_00: He makes no assumptions.
SPEAKER_00: Paul clearly, what we can see here is Paul clearly understood the temptation that was money.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He understood the temptation and he also understood the importance of being above reproach in the areas of finances.
SPEAKER_00: And a beautiful aspect that I think we can overlooked here, I want to draw out a beautiful aspect of what we see, especially in these last verses three and four, is that also points to congregationalism in the early church, right?
SPEAKER_00: Paul, as a church planner, as someone who supported this church, recognized it was not his responsibility to govern the decision of that church and how that money was to get from point A to point B.
SPEAKER_00: But it was up to the church to make that decision.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't up to Paul, it was up to the church.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make that connection for us present day.
SPEAKER_00: We as elders do not dictate how much you give.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna get a call from us and say, hey, you're not giving enough.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't look like you're, I know your job.
SPEAKER_00: That's not 10%, brother.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna call you and say that.
SPEAKER_00: But to appropriately, let me say this also, but to appropriately care for your soul, we should expect all members to give as elders.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not, you may get a call from us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not to say we need more money, that is to say, brother, you are sister, you are missing out on one of the good privileges, great privileges of being a follower of Jesus, and that is contributing to kingdom work.
SPEAKER_00: I want to challenge you here.
SPEAKER_00: If you are a member and you have never given, I hope this text makes you uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: I hope it makes you uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to wrestle with this text.
SPEAKER_00: Wrestle with the statement, each one of you give to the collection.
SPEAKER_00: Not some of you, not a select few of you, but each of you.
SPEAKER_00: Wrestle with the text.
SPEAKER_00: The second connection to present day is congregationalism is a absolutely beautiful thing as it relates to finances.
SPEAKER_00: For us here at Heartland in a practical way, and in most churches in 20, what year are we in?
SPEAKER_00: I almost said 2023.
SPEAKER_00: That's like four years ago, three years ago, 2026.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: 2026.
SPEAKER_00: The the elders or staff, they're they are the ones in the throes of the day to day that they build the budget, but ultimately the the congregation votes and approves the budget.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Further, you guys might remember this.
SPEAKER_00: We just did this, what, five or six weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00: The congregation votes to approve things like refinancing alone.
SPEAKER_00: That's a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: Congregationalism provides accountability in the area of finances, amongst a bunch of other things, but in the area of finances, certainly.
SPEAKER_00: Further, I hope you know this about us as elders.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be as forthcoming as we possibly can with finances.
SPEAKER_00: We want to tell you as much stuff as we possibly can as it relates to our finances.
SPEAKER_00: We want to share with you all levels of details.
SPEAKER_00: And so much so that I probably had a half a dozen, if not more, people come up to me and say, hey man, like thank you for being open.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys as elders for being open, but you don't have to tell me all that.
SPEAKER_00: We trust you.
SPEAKER_00: No, we we are going to tell you all that.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to, I would rather take the approach of telling you too much and you like, man, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's like reading a Metaxist biography.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to know the kind of cereal this brother ate, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna tell you everything that we can.
SPEAKER_00: I would rather do that than run the risk of potentially sharing too little, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful thing, congregationalism in the area of finances.
SPEAKER_00: The individual congregate, this is what I want us to see here.
SPEAKER_00: The individual congregant certainly has a responsibility to give and to give faithfully in response to God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And then we see here in verses three and four, the church has a responsibility to faithfully manage the resources they have been entrusted with.
SPEAKER_00: It is a corporate act that we give, and the church should ensure healthy management of finances, ensure the finances that are being funneled, as much of them as possible, to the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Why the heck do you think we want to get rid of this dumb loan so we can put more money to ministry?
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the why of all of this.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where I want to land the plane.
SPEAKER_00: God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: You see, your capacity to give, your capacity to give in worship is blood bought.
SPEAKER_00: It is it is blood bought.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus didn't give of his body and his blood, our giving would be meaningless.
SPEAKER_00: But it's blood blood bought.
SPEAKER_00: When we think we have capacity to give because of man, I got this job and I earned this fat paycheck, and my bank account has lots of zeros because of the work that I did.
SPEAKER_00: That's garbage.
SPEAKER_00: I work to earn that dollar.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you work hard.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for that.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not your money.
SPEAKER_00: That's not your money, right?
SPEAKER_00: We can't miss the reality that the dollars that are in our bank account aren't ours to begin with.
SPEAKER_00: They are his.
SPEAKER_00: And that the ability to worship our creator, God, through giving was purchased for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I spent some time in prayer yesterday, uh priest of funeral on Friday, and then I I went yesterday, I did some more massaging on the sermon and I went for a run.
SPEAKER_00: It's really hot, by the way, side note.
SPEAKER_00: Went for a run and I spent some time praying as I was running, thinking about this for myself and for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Man, if there are people who are gathered here today, right?
SPEAKER_00: If there are people who are with us today in the gathering of God's people on this Sunday morning in April in 2026 who are who are not followers of Jesus, my my prayer was may the Spirit prompt a response in them as they come to an understanding of the source of worshipful giving.
SPEAKER_00: The source of worshipful giving is the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to leave you with this thought, and then I'm gonna pray for us and we're gonna participate in the Lord's Supper with one another.
SPEAKER_00: May we be a people who look past the dollar sign, however many zeros or behind it.
SPEAKER_00: May we be a people who look past that.
SPEAKER_00: And may we see the nail-pierced hands of Jesus, the body of Jesus, the butt blood of Jesus that was broken and shed on our behalf to give us the great privilege amongst all sorts of many things, the great privilege of giving of our resources in worshipful adoration to God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here today and you're not a follower of Jesus, man, there's so many great privileges of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Giving is just one of those.
SPEAKER_00: My encouragement to you, I know it's it may sound odd.
SPEAKER_00: How can you point to Jesus in a message about money?
SPEAKER_00: Because our money is about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: My encouragement to you today is to respond by putting your faith and trust in Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: Your only hope in life and death is the fact that Jesus Christ gave up his life so that you could have eternity with him and with God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Let that be your response today.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together as we prepare to participate in the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we are grateful for who you are.
SPEAKER_00: We are grateful for your church.
SPEAKER_00: We are grateful for the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: God, in that it gives us freedom from the law.
SPEAKER_00: God, and we celebrate that and we we look to that and see your goodness in that, and we see that that you have expressed a care for us in a way that we do not deserve as sinners, wretched sinners, and that we can be saved by the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We praise you for that.
SPEAKER_00: But God, we also praise you for the response that you are prompting in us once we have put our faith in you.
SPEAKER_00: And that is to look past as it relates to giving.
SPEAKER_00: That is to look past the bottom line that we have, that is to look past our bank accounts, look through the dollar signs, and see the nail pierced hands and worship you in the way that we handle our finances.
SPEAKER_00: May it be so in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.