Giving God Our All in 2024 | Giving
Pastor Brian Kirby
Last week we began this sort of series of how do we give our best to God in 2024 and we talked about giving all of our love to God how is it that we give God all of our heart and soul and mind and strength
And then how do we love our neighbor as ourselves and the reality is we can’t do that on our own we can only do that through the power of God all throughout the month of January we were focusing on the disciplines um of prayer and of fasting of giving time specifically to
The Lord in order to dedicate this year properly to the Lord and last week we heard iob give just a word about how powerfully God has been using that in his life and um today as well well I would like to invite Eugene to come up but I don’t see Eugene there
He is wonderful I’ve asked Eugene as well just to share a short testimony about what this experience has been like for him as well to dedicate this year with these spiritual disciplines so thank you Eugene for being willing to share with us today hi everybody yes um I’d like to
To share my experience that I made in the past one month um that’s very interesting cuz um I’ve been reading this Bible for 21 years and um somewh never got boring um it’s always has something wonderful to provide and with that decision to continuously create those disciplines and um surround yourself with that
Specific things together with all the brothers and sisters from church uh it created um a very interesting perspective and I like the saying probably most of you that uh grew up in Germany knows that saying it says that um you are what you eat um and with uh spending this time
With the scripture and surrounding yourself with that um experiences of our predecessors that went through life and um experienced their life in their own kind of way uh it kind of gives me the opportunity to share their journey in my own life and um and interestingly the same things
That we encounter the troubles the difficulties the confrontations of life um they change and it’s not that the challenges really change but it’s us that change because we gaining A New Perspective through um spending our time and devoting our time with God and um
That gives us a new insight a new um way of looking of things and I surrounded myself in the last one month with job he was on my journey with me together uh Abraham Jacob and through their life and through all of those things we can really see how God so perfectly planned
Every little step and every little thing in our life and many times when you just read that specific verse and specific moment you look at their life and you think where’s their blessing but when you actually zoom out and you actually see what God has done
In their life and what he’s going to do there’s a tremendous blessing and I think is really important for us that we take on board how much we can get from the scriptures and how much we can obtain and how much it can impact every single aspect and second of our life and
The choices that we make by just becoming transformed through the word of God and that’s why I encourage everybody really to join in and it’s fantastic at the n always have an opportunity to to share what you got from this um and you also get to see other people’s point of
View and where they are in life and you see that we all together on the same journey and that’s really encouraging thank you thank you J than here is yes it’s not too late to join us on that Journey you can join in where we
Are um by the QR code that you’ve seen before I know more than 60 of you are on that Journey with us so uh jump in and join and see what God has for you as you dedicate this year now today we’re going to be touching I think one of the
Touchiest subjects in church they say that there are things that you aren’t supposed to talk about in polite company some of that is politic well I certainly won’t tell you anything about politics um religion of course we’re here so religion you’re you’re in the the the wrong place to not talk about religion
Right but the third one is money right and the Bible talks a lot about money and references money in so many ways uh next week we’ll be talking about giving God our best time and talent because those are certainly resources and I would say even in our current world
Sometimes our time is the most valuable currency that we have but money is still a big one right and as we think about how do we offer back to God the best of our resources how do we dedicate our budget to God in this year
Now if I ask you to take out a piece of paper and write down who you owe what and how much you owe for some of you that might be a short list for some of you that might be a long list for some of you there might be big numbers for
Others there might be small numbers but I would bet that most of you when I say make a list of what you owe to whom in the midst of who owns the mortgage on your house or apartment or your car or other things most of you might not have listed God and your
Church and your church family and yet when we read scripture it talks about how the church used resources how they sold property and met needs for others and so as we look at it of course the question that immediately comes to our mind is where is this pastor going and
How much is he going to tell me I owe the church right well I’ll give you the answer upfront like I try to do every week in case you fall asleep or decide to leave the answer to the question of how much do you owe God and your church is everything is actually
Everything now lean in and stay with me because that answer scared a lot of you you were hoping for 10% right some of you Bible scholars we’re going to unpack where the 10% comes from what that looked like in the Old Testament and then maybe how Jesus Amplified that in
The New Testament so before we pull out our calculators with God and answer the question before or after taxes I will tell you that you’re asking the wrong question that Jesus is asking us a different question actually and it’s all about giving everything we have to God so we’ll be looking at that
Today as we think about our resources so Martin Luther the famous um the famous German the famous reformer he once said that we undergo three conversions three different conversions we have the heart we have the mind and for him he said the purse or the wallet right that each
Undergos a different kind of conversion the Bible talks about prayer in more than 600 different references 600 in fact it might surprise you to know that the Bible talks as much about prayer and resources as it does well much as much about money and resources as it does
About prayer why would that be well it’s simple because it’s easy in this light to become very materialistic it is easy in this life to think that it is the sum of our things which brings us importance it is also easy in this life to think that what you have is
Yours and to hold your hands tightly around it and again as we dig into this today we want to begin to open up our minds and our hand and maybe even our wallets and purses to god so let’s look first at what does the Old Testament say about tithing about giving about our
Resources well we looked at Leviticus 27 and verse 30 there are many other passages in the Old Testament which deal with giving and giving back to God for the nation of Israel Leviticus 2730 says a tith so that’s a tent of everything from the land whether
Grain from the soil or fruit from the trees Belongs to the Lord it is Holy to the Lord so in this God was setting a principle a principle saying I’ve given you everything everything that you have is is mine right but I’m asking you to trust
Me and honor me and love me by giving 10% ENT of it back why wasn’t because God needed it right the Bible tells us that everything is God’s and God has the cattle on a thousand hills so it’s not that God ising us or that God needs it
Back so why would God for us to do that because the short answer is God wants us to be more dependent on God than our resources even the idea of a establishing a day of Sabbath in a culture where people spent every day fighting to survive every day Gathering
And hunting and storing and preparing just to be able to survive the idea that one day would be spent just in Devotion to God meant that they were putting their very existence back into God’s hands once a week they were saying I’m going to trust that you will provide in
This fabus a part of their week their time was given but also their resources their resources now in some parts in the Old Testament Deuteronomy it talks about them Gathering that 10% and then they have a big party with it and then they dedicate the
W in fact the idea was never I’m just going to give you 10% and then I’m going to live my life over here with what I want to do with my things and my stuff because they would have realized it all came from God to begin
With but as we’ve grown as society and as we’ve grown further away from God in that dependency it is easy for us to imagine that what I have is mine and I don’t owe it to anyone but we see in the Old Testament the idea that everything was already
God’s and they knew it because they’re very existence depended on it so then what does the New Testament do with this idea of giving well there’s a very interesting story that tells us a lot so I want to invite you to look with me in the Gospel of Luke the Gospel of Luke
Chapter 18 and we begin reading in verse 18 through 30 Luke 18 a certain ruler asked him good teacher what must I do to inherit it eternal life why do you call me good he answered no one is good except God alone you know the Commandments you shall not
Commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not deal you shall not give false testimony honor your father and mother all these I have kept since I was a boy he said and I imagine he’s feeling pretty darn good about himself right Jesus has given him a Li and and is able
To check it off that’s what religion does right creates lists so we can compare ourselves to others so we can check off boxes on someone’s list that’s religion but Jesus is going deeper he’s talking about relationship relationship with God so he looks at him and in Mark’s version I
Think it is he says he looks at him and he loved him child loved that ver we should have used that version today check it out there we don’t see that here in Luke but it says when Jesus heard this he said to him in verse 22 you still lack one
Thing one thing just one thing you’re just like one thing you’ve forgotten sell everything everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and then come follow me well when he heard this he became very sad because he was very
Wealthy Jesus looked at him and said how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God indeed it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is Rich to enter the kingdom of God those who heard this asked like I
Might have asked and you might have asked well who then can be saved and Jesus replied what is impossible with man is possible with God Peter said to him we have left all we had to follow you truly I tell you Jesus said to them no one who has left
Home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and in the age to come eternal life so what do we get out of the story well it seems that the takeaway is that
We have to offer everything we have to God we have to offer everything we have to God now before you rush out and say this pastor’s crazy he’s told me that I have to sell everything and give it to the poor I think there’s more happening in
This story right it’s not that Jesus is contradicting the Old Testament right where the tithe was set up but Jesus is doing what Jesus does all throughout the New Testament in fact it’s what Jesus does so well in The Sermon on the Mount where he says you have heard that it was
Said to the people long ago and then he takes something that they know like do not commit murder but I tell you to watch your language to don’t don’t come someone or raaka a fool an empty head you’ve heard that it was said to the people long ago do not commit adultery
But I tell you that if you’ve looked at a woman lustfully you’ve already committed adultery in your heart so what he’s doing is he’s taking the Law from these people who loved the law cuz they could check the box and feel good and he’s saying oh you’ve heard the law
But let me tell you the next step actually that it’s not about just the law it’s actually about what’s happening in your heart and in your relationship with God it’s not enough to check the box so he’s saying I want more for you now what I find interesting is what if
Hypothetically this Young Ruler this Rich Young Ruler had said yes well there are a couple of possibilities what if he had said yes I’ll go sell it all right now I’ll be right back well it may have been like Abraham and Isaac Abraham was asked to give his only
Son on the Altar and when he went so far as to raise the Knight God provided another sacrifice he was willing to put it all on the altar but God gave it back to him so that is one possibility right it could have been like
Job that in a moment as we read in the Book of Job that gradually everything was taken away he went through this terrible time of tribulation and then at the end God blessed him with children and with money and with things that he lost so maybe it
Would have been given back to him or the third and much less comfortable answer is it could have been like Paul or zakus or others we find where actually they gave up all they had and they followed Jesus and they lived in complete dependency they writed wrongs they gave up money that they
Had could have been everything now this eye of a needle part is really tricky and theologians love writing about this cu no one really knows there are some who think it’s just hyperbole right it’s an exaggeration of course an a camel cannot go through the eye of a sewing
Needle there is also a theory that I like that was made famous by a very famous Theologian Anam um who said that there was a gate in Jerusalem now again none of this is proven archaeologically or historically so this is another theory but I like where he’s going with
It that there was a gate where the only way that someone could get through this narrow opening gate was to get down off the camel to take everything off the camel to walk through with nothing and the camel would have to hunch down and barely squeeze through this opening they
Had to leave everything behind and give up everything they were carrying to be able to walk through it now whether it’s historically accurate or not I like the explanation because I like the idea that what Jesus might be saying is that we have to be willing to strip it all the
Way and leave it behind that maybe Jesus is saying everything that you think is yours leave it everything you think you’re bringing with you leave it behind right because despite the fact of how much we might have in our bank account I don’t know a single bank that can
Promise you that you’ll have it in eternity and even though the Egyptians love to bury their pharaoh and their rulers with all this wealth and gold so that they would have it on the other side I can guarantee you that the Bible says they won’t that we don’t take anything with
Us so I like this Thomas aquinus version I don’t know if it’s true or not but it certainly makes me think that there is an attitude that Jesus is speaking too sometimes we even imagine well this is just for the rich right but the Bible also talks about the poor right there’s
A story that we find in Luke of a widow who gives just the few might the little bit that she has and I find it interesting because Jesus commends his Apostles and he says look she gave all that she has but the story does not say that she
Got it back doesn’t say that Jesus rushed up and gave it back to her he just commended her for giving everything that she had so where does that leave us well it means that rich or poor we can still have an obsession with money that’s not healthy we can still live a
Life that says it’s all about me and mine and I don’t have to share and I don’t have to give it’s a get what I can get world and that’s what the world will say that you have to watch out first for you but it is certainly not what the
Bible tells us it’s certainly not what Jesus tells us in fact in only one place that I can find in scripture does it tell us to test God and see and it’s in the passage that we’re going to look at now in Malachi and my
Question for us which is a bold one it’s not my question it’s scripture this ISS are we robbing God does God have an expectation for what we should be giving and are we robbing god of what God has taught us we should be giving so I want to invite you
To look at this passage on the screen in Malachi 3 verses 8 and n and I want you to read it silently for yourself and let the Holy Spirit speak to you what you need to hear In this passage Jesus God says to them you robbed me and they say how are
We robbing you and he says because you’re not breathing bringing in the tithes what you know to be due and offerings even joyfully above and beyond what I’ve asked you to give so remember it’s not that what God wants from us because everything is God it’s what God wants
For us there’s a big difference in those two prepositions it’s not what God wants from us because God has everything God doesn’t need your money God does not need your money God has all the money in the world so when we’re asked to give back it’s not because God needs your
Money then why would God ask for it is this what God wants for us God wants us to be freed from thinking we live our lives on our own terms God wants us to be freed from materialism God wants us to be freed from this worldly thinking of what’s
Mine is mine and what’s yours is yours and we each live in our own Corner no God wants us to be freed from that mentality so that we can live for God and live for others there’s so much more or us and that scripture Malachi tells
Us that God will open up the flood Gates of Heaven and there’ll be so much that we will not be able to receive it now I want to be careful when I say that because it does not mean that if you give all that you have to the church the
Next day your bank account will double is this not these are not those kinds of odds it’s not what I’m promising this is not Prosperity Gospel but I am saying that when we give to God it frees us from materialism and it puts us in a deeper better Rel relationship with God
John Wesley famously wrote another reformer I strongly urge everyone to work as hard as you can to make all the money you can and spend as little as you can in order to give away all that you can not bad actually work hard make all
The money you want to spend as little as possible so that you’re able to give away as much as possible and I want to commend so many of you who Faithfully give to this church I don’t know who you are CU I don’t look at giving records but I see that money’s coming
In and that you’re giving and that we’re able to do so many amazing things together you’re going to hear in just a few weeks about our project to go to Tanzania there are a few people in the congregation who are going along with me and a team where we’re going to be able
To do a summer camp for about a hundred or so orphans who hardly ever leave that compound where they are in rural parts of Tanzania and anaga but in this partnership with hope Co we are going to bring love and life and hope to them and they will also
Teach us about what it means to live in simp Simplicity but we need your help to go it’s an opportunity for those of you who cannot go to help our team members who want to go be able to go so we’ll be challenging you to think about how much
You’d like to contribute to help the team go why would you do that why would you give money to help people in the congregation that you might not know go work with children that you certainly do not know and it’s because you know God who knows them who knows the children and
God has called us to have a heart for all of those people God has called us to help people find and follow Jesus right and this is a part of that commission going to the ends of the Earth giving is a blessing a blessing that we don’t often
Imagine I want to leave you with this image for us to think about and so I want to invite you if you feel comfortable you can do it to your sides or further up but I want to invite you just to open your hands with
Me and I want you to imagine the things that you think you own whatever that house bank account car whatever it is you think you own I want you to imagine it in your hands and now I want to lead you to be able to say in your own heart God these
Things are yours I want to invite you to give and to take away the things that are in my hand according to your will because I want to trust you to live in relationship with you as you continue to leave your hands open I would invite you to join me in prayer