The ambition of the average American family is to make as much money as they spend. In other words, for many people, they have too much month left at the end of their money. And unfortunately, the majority of the members of our church have placed themselves in a position where God can't bless. Because they feel like they can't afford to give generously to God and to God's work when the truth is you can't afford not to. And the issue is not a money issue, it is always a love issue. When people love, you don't have to be on their case about giving because love has to give. This Bible, and we believe it to be absolutely true, God's inerrant word tells us that what you give and the way you give tells more about who you are than probably any other thing. Show me your checkbook and show me your calendar, and I will know who you are and what you value and what you love. That's very revealing. You see, we make a living by what we make, we make a life by what we give. Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, developed explosives and sold to world governments, the purpose of explosives to kill people. His brother died. And there was a confusion, and they ran in the paper the obituary of Alfred Nobel. And he saw his own obituary in the paper. And it said, This man got rich off of developing things to help people kill people. And so it changed his life. And you know the Nobel Peace Prize, rewarding those who give generously and who serve mankind. Let's just think about it. What if you saw your obituary now? Would your obituary give evidence that you have spent your life giving generously and serving others? Or would you need to make a change if you could see the end of your life? You see, we cannot go back and start over. But all of us can begin now and make a brand new ending. That's why now is so important. A wealthy man had on his payroll a contractor who built buildings for him. This man had been very faithful to him and he loved this man. And he came to him one day and he said, I want you to build a house. Here are the plans. I want this house to be the finest house you've ever built. Spare no expense. Use the finest lumber, the finest materials. I want this to be the best house you've ever built. I'm going to be out of the country for 10 or 12 months. When I get back, I want the keys to the house. The man said, Fine. But then the man began to think and he began to scheme. He began to plan because he realized his boss was going to be out of the country for nearly a year while he built this house and he would never know what went inside that house. That means he could use inferior lumber. He could even use used materials. And he could use subs that were not known for their quality. And as a result, he could pocket thousands of dollars. And he did, nearly$25,000. When his boss returned, he said to him, Is the house ready? The man said, Yes, it is. I got a question for you. Is it the finest house you've ever built? Yes, it is. See, once you began to do your own thing, lying just comes with it. Yes, it is. Did you spare no expense? The finest lumber, the finest materials. That's right. And the man looked at him and he said, Well, I'm glad you did. I wanted you to do it. Because you've always been so good to me, you've done a good job for me, and I love you. And I wanted to build this house for you. Here are the keys to your house. You see, that uh that could be our relationship with God. You see, we think we've got to take care of things and we've got to scheme, and we've got to get by, uh, do things so that uh that God will never know, and that we'll we're gonna take care of ourselves if we could ever realize that God can take better care of you than you'll ever take of yourself. And here's a plain truth that nobody's ever been able to prove false. That you can do more with 90% honoring God than you can do with a hundred percent not honoring God. And God says, trust me and I'll prove that to you. Try me and I'll prove it to you. Now, in this short series on giving, we've talked about giving as being the key to happiness, and it is. We're made up of givers and takers. The givers are happy, the takers are unhappy. Giving is the way to happiness. Number two, trust is the key to giving. Giving's bottom line is a matter of trust. If you're not giving generously to God, guess what? You don't trust God, you trust yourself. It's like you heard on the testimony. They had to trust God by faith, and God came through. But if you're not giving, it's a matter of trust. The man in the story I just told you didn't trust his boss to take care of him, even though his boss had always taken care of him. He trusted only himself, and he had to scheme and cheat to make sure that he was taking care of himself. And he came out the loser, and so will you. The best thing we can do is trust God and say, God, you've been so good to me. I can't I cannot afford not to trust you. So giving is the key to happiness. Number two, trust is the key to giving. Number three, that we want to talk about today, love is the key motivation for giving. We give because we love. And the why of our giving is more important than the what of our giving. If the why is what it needs to be, the what takes care of itself. You see, if you fall in love with Jesus Christ, giving is a done thing. It's a done deal. Because love has to give. Now I want you to listen to this carefully. This may be the most important thing I say. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. If you don't give to God, don't you tell me you love God because you'll you'll not only will you be added to cheating, you'll be lying and cheating. You'll be a thief and a liar. Because you see, love has to give. Let me give you four words that start with a D that describe the attitude of giving. Number one is dumb. Humanism, meism, egoism, and all the other isms that ought to be wasms. Self in control, knowing what you know about God, and if you still do not give, guess what? You are dumb. Say, preacher, I can't believe you said it. It's too late, I already said it. Not only that, the devil gives. The devil knows we ought to give. The devil doesn't tell you not to give. The devil just says, tip God. That's all you need to do. The devil says, put in a dollar, give ten dollars. Oh, be generous, give twenty. If you don't give, are you listening to me? You're dumber than the devil. You're a double dumb dumb. Number two, deal. Deal. You see, some of you give, I'm gonna give ten percent because it's a deal. If I give ten percent, I've got an umbrella over my life. God's gonna bless my business, I'm gonna make a lot of money, I'll probably be rich. I'll give God 10% because it's a good deal. Only problem is God know you knows your heart and He reads your heart. Number three is duty. It's legalism. The first one, humanism. The second one, materialism. The third is legalism, duty. I have to give. If I don't give, God will mess me up, God will zap me, or God will kill me. There's no joy in legalism. Number four is delight. That's love. I want to give. I get to give. Do you understand? If you're in love with somebody, nobody has to pressure you to give. And when we give because we are in love with Jesus Christ, it is a delight to give, and it's never a struggle over the amount. Because that's what love does. Remember Jesus' conversation with Peter? He said, Peter, do you love me? And Peter says, You know I do, Lord. He asked him the second time, Peter, do you love me? Lord, why are you asking this? You know that I love you. And each time Jesus said, Then feed my sheep, do my work. Obedience and commitment is the proof of love. He asked the third time, Peter, do you love me? When you look at that in the original language, you find that those first two times when Jesus asked Peter, Do you love me? He was using that word agape, which is unconditional love, unselfish love. Peter, do you really love me unconditionally? And then the third time he said, he changed, because Peter used the word Phileo. Lord, you know I like you. You know I think a lot of you. But Peter, do you love me unconditionally with your whole heart? Lord, you know I like you. And then the third time the Lord changed and went to Peter's word and said, Do you like me? And Peter said, You know I do. You see, Peter was zealous and and he had a lot of zeal, but he was lacking in love. He had a love problem. He didn't love Jesus enough. And that's what I want you to understand this morning. That if you're not giving and if you're not giving generously, it is not a money problem. It is always a love problem. There's a great story in John chapter 12, verses 1 to 3. It's a beautiful illustration of love giving. Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in honor of Jesus. Martha served while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Now, the setting is Jesus gets together for a meal with his friends. And there's Mary and Martha. And Martha is potato salad. Martha, she's in the kitchen, she's fixing because she thinks that activity is what's important. And Jesus wants to communicate that what Mary is doing by sitting at his feet is more important. Judas is there. And Judas is dishonest. He's negative. And when Mary takes this nard that was sealed in an alabaster box, it was it was one year's wages. One year's wages. And she pours it on Jesus. What did Judas say? What a waste. Why we could have taken that money and done something with it. We could give it to the poor. Does Judas care about the poor? No. He's negative. You know what I've learned in 40 years of ministry? When people are negative and critical, they're also stingy. The people who are the loudest about giving and the people who fuss most about what it's being spent for ain't given the money. Hello? True. Judas said it's a waste. The other disciples joined in and said, It's a waste, what a waste. Mary said, What a savior. He deserves the best that I have. He deserves all that I have. When I was in South Carolina, we were trying to get debt free, and I I challenged our church to give a day's pay, and many of them did it. Many of us did it. Then I challenged them to give a week's pay. And many of us did that. Then I challenged them to give a month's pay. Of course, it took time to get ready for that. We had to several months to prepare for it. And we ate together at church and you know, saved money and ate uh, you know, stuff that uh was filling but wasn't very expensive. But now I never even encountered the thought of asking anybody to give a year's wages to God. She gave a year's wages, and the Lord blessed her because you see, she was doing it because she was in love with Jesus Christ. And she didn't care about the ridicule of the other disciples. All she wanted was to see the smile of Jesus and to know that he knew how much she loved him. Incredible love story. And she was anointing Jesus for his barrel. See, she understood things about Jesus that the disciples didn't understand. She understood that he was about to go to the cross and die for the sins, and he needed to be anointed for his barrel. And she anointed him with oil. Because remember when the women got to the tomb after the death of Christ, it was an empty tomb. And this was the time he was to be anointed for his burial. Now, you know what I think? The reason the disciples didn't understand that, but the reason Mary knew it is because she had spent time sitting at the feet of Jesus. When you sit at his feet, that's when you learn what he's up to. And the longer you sit at his feet, the more in love with him you get. And the closer you get to Jesus, the more giving becomes second nature. There's another story that you might not be quite as familiar. It sounds very similar, but it's uniquely different. It's in Luke chapter 7, verses 37 to 39. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. And as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. She then wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner. What a story. Now here is this woman who is a prostitute, a sinner. That word means the worst kind of sin. An immoral woman, a prostitute. And yet there's a meeting going on. Jesus hasn't been invited to this home, and he's talking to his host, and neighbors can come in and they can stand around and watch. They can't say anything, but they can watch. And this sinful woman came to watch. They were in the home of a Pharisee. Those were the Pharis of the Fair, the purest of the pure, the legalest. And they were not excited about this sinful woman in the room with them and pouring perfume on Jesus. Do you know the people who give the most to God and do the most for God? Those who hadn't gotten over getting saved. Those who hadn't forgotten what God's done for them. You see, this woman, the Pharisees considered trash. Why would she even be allowed in here? Why would Jesus allow it? If he were a prophet, he would know this woman is trash. Well, if they knew Jesus, they would know that that's why Jesus came into this world to take trash and turn it into treasure. And there when she walked, when she came into that room and she stood by Jesus, she lost control. Never been there. She got to thinking about what her life was a mess, the immorality, the shame, the guilt. And Jesus had forgiven her. And she just started crying. And she cried profusely. And the tears wet the legs of Jesus. And then she took her hair and she wiped and dried those tears. Not a more beautiful story in all of God's word that is a picture of the gospel. And Jesus got real personal. He said to this man, I came in here and you didn't even give me the common courtesies. What is he saying? He's either saying, You don't know who I am or you've forgotten what I've done for you. And yet you're criticizing what this woman is doing. In these stories, we see number one, that love gives extravagantly. That's what love does. How many of you, when you got married, could afford to get married? Did it stop you? No. Didn't stop you. How many of you got an engagement ring that you could afford? I remember when I bought Lee's engagement ring, I had one question for those people. How much will you let me borrow? And they told me that the highest payment I could possibly make, and that's what I chose. Now it that was ridiculous when you think about it. But that's what love is. Love is extravagant. Have I ever regretted what I spent for that ring? No. I wish it could have been better. When people love, you don't have to encourage them to give. When people love, you can't keep them from giving. And they give extravagantly. She could have used ordinary oil to pour on the head of Jesus, but she knew in her heart that Jesus was no ordinary person. He had given his best to her, and she had to give her best to him. Secondly, love gives sacrificially. Think about this woman who gave one year's wages. Think how long she had to plan for that and work at that. Think of the sacrifice involved. Love is always willing to sacrifice. Don't you listen to me closely? God has some big things He wants us to do as a church, and it's time to do them. It's that mountain we've been talking about that's going to come that we're going to have to climb. And how we're going to do that is by a church-loving Jesus. That's how it'll happen. Because if we can just fall in love with Jesus all over again, if we love Jesus, if we sit at his feet, then giving sacrificially comes naturally. It's what we want to do. And you see, up to now we've we've climbed some hills and we've done some neat things, but basically we have never, ever sacrificed. But to do what's in our future, we've got to sacrifice. And again, it is not an issue of money, it's an issue of our love and our willingness to. To give extravagantly and sacrificially because we love. So what I'm asking God for this year in our church is that we have something of a revival, that we fall in love with Jesus all over again, and that we learn how to pray more deeply, that we learn how to fast, that we develop the spirit of sacrifice. So that when it comes time to make the biggest sacrifice we've ever made, we'll step up the plate and do it. And God told me, I want you to start out practicing now because you're the leader. And I said, God, what do you want me to give up? He said, I want you to give up some things you enjoy doing that you don't want to give up. He said, I can give up golf. That's not a sacrifice. It's I sacrifice when I play golf. See, what will you give up for God? What do you want me to give up? You know what started coming to my mind? Things that you already know about me. Died Cokes. I've had probably 50,000 Diet Cokes. But I'm gonna give them up this year. And you also know that with a Diet Coke, if I have any problems in my life, if I have a hard day, if I have difficulties, I have to put a Snicker bar with a Died Coke. I've had some Mondays that required three Snicker bars and three Cokes. I'm gonna give up Snicker bars. I'm gonna give up Google clusters. One of the finest candy bars known to man. Gonna give it up. Both that with the peanuts and with the pecans. Both. What else do I really enjoy doing? Because I live such a busy life. I don't have a lot of extracurricular activities. But one thing I really enjoy is every day I want to read the USA Today. I just enjoy doing that. I'm gonna give it up. And I'm gonna take that time and give that extra time to God and say, God, you speak to me. How many of you believe I'll get more from God than I'd get from USA Today? But do I want to do that? No, I want to stick with USA Today. Just because I enjoy that. That's something I enjoy. If there's something in there I need to know, I'll count on you to let me know. What else? The only thing I could think of that I spend money on. I don't have any hobbies that that requires money. I just basically all I do is work. Bluebell ice cream. Giving up bluebell ice cream. Bluebell ice cream will help anything you put it on. What else do I spend money on? Clothes. I have to dress up. And even though I always wear dark suits, I've got a bunch of different dark suits. You think I wear the same one every week, but because my wife tells me I only have one color. But I enjoy buying ties and shirts and suits. I buy them at half price at the right time. And by the by now, if you don't know this, this is the time they're that right now they're at 20% and 30%, but they'll go to 50% in February. That's when I buy. But I'm not gonna buy any clothes this year.

But I'm not gonna buy any clothes.

You see, these are things that I'm gonna give up wild women booze in the casinos, just throw that in. But will will that make a large monetary difference? No. What it's doing is God is teaching my heart what it means to give up something. You see, Christian sacrifice is giving up something that you don't want to give up, that you enjoy, and there's nothing wrong with it. But God wants to develop a spirit of sacrifice. Because if he can develop that spirit, then when it comes time for God to tell us how much we have to give financially, we'll be willing to do it. And that's what God is gonna ask from you. That you're gonna reach a point where God tells you this is what you ought to give. And I'm telling you, if you go into that cold, he's gonna blow your mind at what he tells you you've got to give. So I encourage you to do like me and let's start working on it now. Lee and I are already working on every money we can save. We're already putting it aside to give the biggest gift we've ever thought about giving to this church for this building program because that's what God requires out of all of us. So love gives extravagantly. Love gives sacrificially. And then love gives with abandonment. I want you to take you back to the story of these women. What did they do? They let down their hair and they dried Jesus with their hair. I'm telling you why that's important. In that day and time, when a woman got married, anytime she went out publicly, anytime she was in the presence of another man from the day she married till the day she died, she could never let her hair down. Her hair was always in a bun, it was always up. She could not let her hair down in front of other men. Prostitutes did that. Only prostitutes and immoral women did that. So when when Mary and when this sinful woman let down their hair and dried Jesus, what they were saying is, I don't care about what other people think about me. I only care that Jesus knows how much I love him. My friend, you and I will be a lot, a lot further down the road God wants us to go when we stop worrying about what people think about us and worry about what Jesus thinks about us.

We hope you were blessed by our program today. If you would like a copy of today's program, go to www.fredlowry.com, where you can find this program and other Christian resources by Dr. Fred Lowry.