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We have one week left of our Growing Through Giving programme. The context has been that we need to get behind the building extensions project, in a very practical way – through giving the money required to enable us to have a very much better facility. However, our desire has been that this might be a time of real spiritual growth as we allow God to speak to us and instruct us with regard to our giving. We need the funds but faithraising is more important to us than fundraising.
We are now getting to the point of our responses. If you possibly can, please have your response forms in to us by next Wednesday. Please consider what God is asking you to give now; what God is asking you to give over the next 3 years. Remember, $1 per day for 3 years is $1095. How many dollars per day is God asking you to give over that 3 year period? But also please consider the possibility of an increased level of regular giving to support the work of the church separately from the building – things like a Youth and Families Pastor or maybe a counselling ministry or…. Next Sunday we will announce the grand total of people’s responses – and I guess we will get a picture of what God has been doing in people’s lives.
But already, I have begun hearing whispers of stories. I’d love it if people were able to say what God has been saying to them. Don’t mention specific amounts but how has God has led us?
I was speaking to a friend in Palmerston North whose church ran a similar programme. He was excited about the stories that came out about God working in people’s lives. He told of one couple who had had a house on the market for many months and it hadn’t sold. As the husband and wife prayed independently about what God would have them do, they both sensed that, if the house sold, they should give one tenth of the money received to the church. When they agreed on that decision, the house sold within a week.
Another man had a pen and ink drawing that was quite valuable. He sensed God wanted him to sell that drawing and give a portion of the money received. He kept a laser copy but sold the original and gave as God had guided.
Sometimes, there are sacrifices involved. Sometimes we might wrestle with God over what He is saying. Sometimes it will be costly. But the growth comes in trusting God no matter what and actually doing what He says.
Are you willing to share with us what God has been doing in your life?
Jesus also came to the point where a decision had to be made and it was not easy. For Him it was also a decision about giving, but a far bigger decision than we are being asked to make. For Him it was a question of giving His life. His decision-day was a Thursday. He had already, in a sense made this decision. He had already said to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and be mocked, spat on and flogged and that he would be killed. He had said many things such as, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many” and “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord.” At one point in His ministry he had put His shoulders back and taken and deep breath and set out towards Jerusalem, knowing what awaited Him there. Luke 9:51 says, “As the time approached for him to be taken up into heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”
Despite all that, on the Thursday night, it hit home and He had to decide whether or not He really was going to do it. After the Last Supper together, Jesus and the disciples went out to the Garden of Gethsemane. The time was getting very near. The final decision had to be made and Jesus was in so much anguish He was almost at breaking point. He did not want to die on a cross and He prayed that he wouldn’t have to.
READ Matthew 26:36-46
The absolutely remarkable thing about Jesus’ prayer is that even though He was in the middle of the most horrendous battle, and even though He didn’t want to have to go through with a crucifixion, He prayed, “But Father, not my will, but yours be done. Three times he prayed, “Father, my whole being is reacting against this. My whole being is crying out, “No!” Everything in me says, “No!” but I will do whatever You want me to do.” He was completely submitted to God.
Can you see what a monumental things it was for Jesus to pray, “Not my will, but yours be done”? Isn’t that just an incredible attitude? Jesus demonstrates what it means to submit to the will of God.
Why did Jesus so unreservedly yield control of His own life and yield to the Father’s will? Because He loved His Father. Because He loved what was right. It wasn’t a case of preferences. It was a case of what was right. Because He loves us. Aren’t you glad that Jesus’ attitude was to yield to the Father’s will? He was the servant who did it for us and wasn’t thinking of Himself.
I don’t think anybody here is facing crucifixion. I don’t think anybody here is facing anything as traumatic as what Jesus faced that night in the Garden. For us, it is smaller issues. When it comes to career or marriage or even how we fill each day, how able are we to say, “Not my will, but yours”? The question of giving is only one example, but often this is one where we will wrestle. Jesus felt free to question God’s will. He felt free to plead with God, but throughout His attitude was, “Father, I am saying this, but, if what I want isn’t right, then I don’t want what I want. I want what You want.” This is the submitted life; the consecrated life; the given over life; the lain down life. This is obedience.
It would be nice if I could simply say, “Thank you Jesus for laying down your life for me. I appreciate it” but I can’t say that, because Jesus then asks me to lay down my life. He asks me to also say “Not my will but yours”. This is obedience.
Every day I have to decide how to spend my time. There are some things I like doing more than others. I’d do those things all day, but every day I have to pray “Lord, what do you want me to do? Your will, not mine.”
I don’t want to look like I’m harping on about our possessions, but so often the Bible does. Often, when the God talks about laying down our lives, He knows that one of the critical areas is possessions. For example, Jesus said,
Mark 8:34-36 If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. (And then it is about possessions) What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit His soul?
1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (And then it’s about possessions) If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
It is not always about our possessions but very often it is. Our use of our possessions is very often a test of our obedience.
We know the story of the rich young ruler but let’s read it again. READ Luke 18:18-30
What was God’s will for that man? God’s will was for him to sell everything he had and give to the poor and then follow Jesus. Why was that God’s will? Because God’s bigger will was that that man might be saved. He came asking, “What must I do to be saved?” God (in the person of Jesus) told him and said, “Do that and you will have treasure in heaven.” God wanted that man to be saved.
What was the man’s will? The man’s will was to be rich, and that’s what he chose, but what if he’d said, “Not my will but yours, God”?
God’s will was that he be saved. If he had been willing to let go of his material possessions and had given to the poor, he would have gained eternal blessings. As Jesus said repeatedly, “We win when we fall in line with God’s will.”
He said that when the disciples questioned Him after this incident. Peter said, “We have left all we had to follow you.” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth: no one who has left home or wife or brothers 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.”
Two weeks ago, when we considered the passage that says, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” I understand that some people were concerned that I was implying that, if we give, we will receive an immediate monetary return. I am sorry if I gave that impression. I’m especially sorry if some of you have filled in your response forms believing that you are going to get an immediate cash handout. Please feel free to ask for them back and adjust them. Riches are not always monetary. In fact, I think the greatest riches are not monetary. And God’s response is not always immediate. Nevertheless, God says time after time after time, we win when we say, “Not my will but yours.” We might have to wrestle to come to that point but we win when we can eventually say, “Not my will but yours.”
And in Luke 18 Jesus specifically says that the rewards are received in this age, as well as in the age to come.
I don’t know how much of a wrestling match it has been for any of us to ask God about our giving and to say, “Not my will, but yours,” genuinely willing to do whatever God reveals as His will. God’s will was a severe challenge to the rich ruler. God’s will often is a challenge and we might have to wrestle with it before we come to terms with it. God might be saying x amount and we are saying, “No Lord, one quarter of that or one tenth of that. No, Lord, I can’t.” That wrestling might be intense before we come to terms with God’s will.
In the end, in the Garden, Jesus was able to say, “The hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” He was able to calmly walk out and meet Judas and the soldiers who had come to arrest Him. He had wrestled with it but His attitude from the beginning was that, really, he wanted God’s will. By the end, he had come to terms with it and was at peace about it. God’s way was (of course) best, even though it didn’t look like it. I can’t imagine what the consequences would have been if Jesus had chosen His own will. He would have been disobedient and a failure and we would not have a Saviour. Nor would we have any hope.
Jesus chose God’s will. Philippians 2 says that “He humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name.” Jesus could have had to endure eternal shame as a failure. Instead, because he chose God’s will, he was exalted.
On a much smaller question, we face the decision. What is God’s will concerning our giving? We may know what God is saying; we may know what He says in the Bible about it, and we may be wrestling with it. It is a question of trust. Do we trust that God will keep His promises? What’s it going to be: yes or no? For some of us, this is a growth decision. This is faith in action. I am confident many people are going to say, “Lord, Your will. I’ll do Your will.” And next week we will see the results of people’s obedience.