Marty Sloan – Living the Dream

Faith that Works Series – Part Two – Working Faith is Giving Faith

Matthew 6:1-6 NASB

Today we continue our Faith that Works Series – Last week we discovered together how to measure our faith. We continue today our march to World Harvest Sunday – a day that we set aside every year to SOW into global missions starting here in the River Valley and giving our way across the oceans to the uttermost parts. This is a Kingdom of God minded church and one of my assignments as your Pastor is to teach you and take you to Kingdom principles!

This morning I want to share with you the second part of our Faith that works series – Working Faith is Giving Faith!

The Kingdom of God is not a place you go visit, its really right here right now – it’s the territory that God rules. Right now some of you are in His Kingdom, others of you are not, if God “RULES” your heart then you are in – if not, but your looking to get in you can! You enter the Kingdom of God when you pursue Kingdom principles and apply them with faith and trust. Its been said “The peace of God is a byproduct of obedience. Don’t wait til you feel it. Do God’s will & the feeling will follow”.

Anyone who desires can join the Kingdom of God. You cannot get in the Kingdom if you have control issues with money. WHY? Because God owns everything in HIS KINGDOM!

• 16 of the 38 parables Jesus taught was about money and money management
• There is more in the Bible about money than Heaven or Hell combined
• There is five times more said about money than prayer

Why all this talk about money – because money is a discussion of ownership! God is trying to establish a Kingdom and He is looking for you to join it – you can – in the Kingdom of God, He owns everything.

Matthew 6:1 NASB
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 6:2
“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
Matthew 6:3
“But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
Matthew 6:4
so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:5
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
Matthew 6:6
“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Jesus address time and money in these few verses – money through giving and time through pray. Giving anything (time/ money) to God has always has been a matter of Faith – Faith that gives is faith that really trust God.

I. The benefits of giving-

• Givers will be gainers

Luke 6:38 NKJV
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
• Sowers and reapers will increase

2 Corinthians 9:6 NKJV
But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
2 Corinthians 9:7
So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
SKIP to vs 10
2 Corinthians 9:10
Now ◙ may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,

Seed cannot increase until it’s planted – your increase hinges on your willingness to release and sow. (The word GIVE here is NOT the same as the tithe – this is NOT a verse about tithing- its about giving). You can decide where you give and how much – you do NOT get to decide your tithe. God declared that on the front end.

Right now I want to shift from the Benefits of Giving to some Kingdom truth about giving –

Pivot the message to Kingdom Dynamics / Principles

Mark 4:30 NKJV
Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it?
Mark 4:31
It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth;
Mark 4:32
but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.”

II. 5 Kingdom principles for giving

1. Thinking

When it comes to the conversation of Kingdom ownership of your life – like Eve in the Garden of Eden – our thinking challenges our faith. Sin entered the world through the corridor of a person’s rationale overriding their response to Gods truth. Rationalizing truth is the breeding ground for sin. Your thinking will dictate your response to all TRUTH

Psalm 24:1 NKJV
The earth is the Lord’S, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
Psalm 24:2
For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.

How should you think – EVERYTHING IS HIS!

2. Testing

John 6:5 NKJV
When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?
John 6:6
And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.
John 6:7
Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.
John 6:8
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him,
John 6:9
There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?
John 6:10
And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
John 6:11
And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.
John 6:12
When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

You are tested every time this conversation of giving comes up! Like the disciples we have all had a “what are we going to do moment”! When tested know that things are better in His hands not yours.

3. Trusting

Test always create a TRUST issue! The little boy and the multitude all found they could trust Jesus. God cannot bless what’s in your hand only what we place in His! As long as the boy had a lunch – that’s all he had – when he gave it to Jesus he still had a lunch, so did everybody else, with baskets running over!

4. Tithing

Malachi 3:8 NKJV
“Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.
Malachi 3:9
You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even this whole nation.
Malachi 3:10
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.

• Tithing is NOT giving – its tithing yet, the tithe is the foundation of all giving – WHY? Because the tithe is an identification of ownership. The tithe is a clear amount “One person said – the tithe is our rent for living on earth” ☺
• The tithe is not something you GIVE – its SOMETHING you bring! Its already God’s – A pastor friend of mine says that the tithe is not ours to give its only ours to steal! (Example my truck)
• Some say that the tithe is only the OT / or Under the law – NOT true -tithe existed BEFORE the law/ during the law and after the Law

5. Thriving

Psalm 35:27 NKJV
Let them shout for joy and be glad,
Who favor my righteous cause;
And let them say continually,
“Let the Lord be magnified,
Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”

(at home today) Read all of Deuteronomy 28 it’s a great chapter of God’s blessings and the human alternative.

Action time – offering..