Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: You see what happens, church and culture, the world and everything we’re in, it’s created in us when we come to a place like this, we just want to take. "What do you have for me?" You may not verbalize it, but your attitude is like, "Oh, what do you have for me, Lord?" And can’t you hear heaven? I’ve given you my best.

I’ve already given you. What do I have for you? I gave you my Son. And I love you. So glad we’re in relationship. So let’s get busy on this partnership with a willing heart and do what I’ve called you to do and be who I’ve called you to be and enjoy your life as a generous giver.

Guest (Male): Great to be back with you and welcome again to Abounding Grace where we open and study the Word together with Pastor Ed Taylor. We’re in Exodus chapter 25, which begins a new section on the building and care of the tabernacle. As we learned last time, it’s a beautiful picture or type of Jesus. And as we’ll discover today, if we have the heart of Christ, we’re going to be generous. Here’s Pastor Ed with more.

Pastor Ed Taylor: I’ve always shared with the brothers and sisters that serve here at the church that we live, we literally live off of the worship money of the church. When I give, my family gives here, we have from the very beginning. When we give to this church, that is an act of worship. It’s not just an act of obedience. It’s an act of worship. It is my desire as a family to say, "Thank you, God, for your faithfulness. I give this back to you. I give it willingly. I want nothing in return."

I share with the team here when somebody joins the team and begins to have worship money provide for the needs of their family. That’s biblical because the Bible says that those that serve are worthy of their hire. They’re double honor sometimes. It’s true that there’s a biblical mandate for those positions that are staff on a church, for sure. No doubt. We’ll see it through the tabernacle, who’s responsible. They’re to live off the free will offerings of the people. That’s biblical. But we can do better than that. We can trust in the Lord without any manipulation, and we can obediently give of our tithes and offerings as the church.

This is an uncomfortable Bible study for some because you don’t give. I’m sure you have your reasons, but you should ask the Lord to give you a willing heart. You should ask the Lord for you to start to participate in what he’s doing. You should ask the Lord for a generous heart, for an overflowing heart. Where did it always become, "Give me, Lord, give me, bless me, Lord, bless me, bless me, bless me, Lord, bless me? I’ll give if you bless me." When did that happen? It wasn’t the beginning of your walk with the Lord. "You have so blessed me. I can’t believe that you would save me and enter in." Isn’t that how it started? The very tip of the relationship that you had?

The criteria for giving is always obedience and willingness. Look ahead. Go to chapter 35, verse 5 in Exodus. Come with me on a little journey here. Exodus 35:5. It says, "Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a," there’s that phrase again, "willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord: gold, silver, and bronze." Notice verse 21. "Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing; they brought the Lord’s offering for the work of the tabernacle." Look at verse 22. "They came, both men and women, as many as had a," where’s that phrase, "willing heart, and brought earrings and nose rings." Keep your nose rings. At least sanitize them before you put them in the offering box. But they brought what they were told to bring to the Lord, and they brought it willingly.

Notice verse 29, same chapter. "The children of Israel brought a free will offering to the Lord, all the men and women whose hearts were willing to bring material of all kinds of work which the Lord, by the hand of Moses, was commanded to be done." This nation blows me away with their faithfulness. But you know, they’re just close to their deliverance. Remember that. They’re closer to their deliverance, and the closer you are to your deliverance, the more of a willing heart you have.

We were encouraged this last Bible study last week to not forget where we came from. We were encouraged to remember the grace of God. We were taught that you can see the grace of God. We were taught when you get up in the morning, you look in the mirror, you see the grace of God. Thank God for it. Don’t forget where you came from. The closer you are to your deliverance, the more your heart will be willing for whatever he has for you. Whatever you have, I like to refer to giving tithes and offerings as a slam dunk. It literally takes no effort whatsoever. You could even set it up automatically if you want. You can set it up online automatically. It takes no effort.

You probably have to pay attention to it so that you know that you’re doing it so it’s not passive. Giving is active, but you have those opportunities where it’s automatic. This is a slam dunker. And if you and I don’t learn how to do the slam dunkers in our Christian life, what makes you think that when something hard comes, you’re going to be ready for it? This is easy. The Word comes out. Everybody that has a willing heart, he says, "Do I have a willing heart? I have a willing heart. Then bring me these things," God says. "Because I’ve got something for you. You’re going to build a tabernacle. I’m going to give you a place that’s going to point to Jesus Christ."

Just a few days earlier, just a few weeks earlier, you’re living in bondage crying out to me. I heard your cry. We’re in relationship right now. You’ve agreed. You’ve ratified. You want me to rule over your lives. Let me say the very first thing I’m going to ask from you only that I might give to you more. God is so gracious to us. So good. He invites us to be a part of what he’s doing.

I can look back on the life of this church, and there have been many times in the last 25 years where I have had the privilege of bringing a project to our church and saying, "Okay guys, this is what God has brought before us. A piece of land, a building, steel, new parking lot, radio stations, whatever it is he’s asked us to go into." And I come to you and I go, "We don’t have the money, but if you want to participate, jump on board. It’s going to be a great ride." But even if you don’t participate, it’s going to happen anyway because it came from the Lord. But we want you to be a part of it.

We want you to say, "Every time I turn on the radio, I know that I helped the radio ministry when it started," or whatever it may be. Every time you park your car, you can say, "I bought this space." You actually didn’t, but when you park your car, it’s like, "Man, we made more space. I can’t believe sometimes I look at what God is doing and I can’t believe we made all those years without that back parking." I don’t know how we did it. I don’t know where people parked. The sanctuary was the same size, the same amount of chairs, and yet we didn’t have that back parking lot for a long time.

It’s amazing. And you can look back and go, "I remember those days." Some of you. "And I gave. I gave a little bit. It was sacrificial. I gave up this and I gave my tithe, but then I gave a little bit toward that, a little bit toward that, and here we are. You’re parking in it. You are participating in the life of the church where lives are being changed because God would come to us and say, 'Ed, I want you to tell the people to bring this, bring these offerings because I’ve got a new open door for you. I want the people of the church to be involved in the life of the church.'"

Paul touches on this in the New Testament in the new covenant. Would you turn over with me in 2 Corinthians chapter 9? Let’s go back there. I did a series on this if you want to go a little deeper in this. By the way, if you’re new to this church, we are a church that teaches through the Bible verse by verse. Remember that each segment of the teaching fits within the whole chapter, and up to the point that I’m teaching now, we’ve taught every verse in all the 24 chapters of Exodus to get up to this place. So we have allowed the Bible to speak for itself verse by verse.

I did the same thing when we went through 2 Corinthians, and I did a little mini-series on giving so that anyone that ever had a question about our church relation to giving, they can just go to the Bible study and listen to it. It’s here in 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Notice with me in verse 6. 2 Corinthians 9:6 says, "But I say this: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work."

Give according to what’s on your heart. Give willingly, not grudgingly or by compulsion or guilt. Don’t go into debt giving to God. Some of these guys say, "If you don’t have the money, do it by faith on Visa." No, don’t do that. God wants you to give of the increase. So pray for the increase. Don’t go into deeper debt. The Lord will provide. He is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always have all sufficiency in all things, that you can have abundance for every good work.

Don’t give with a greedy heart. Don’t give with a selfish heart. Don’t give all grudgingly. They’ll be walking into church and this might be your very first study here ever in this church and go, "Well, here we are, honey, another church talking about giving." Let me just tell you this, just in case you’re thinking that or listening online, listening on the radio, whatever. Let me just tell you. Yeah, you’re right. You walked into a church that’s teaching you how to give. You’re right. I’m not ashamed of it. I want you to know. I want you to tap into this stream of blessing in your life.

Not that you’re going to open up the floodgates, but listen, when you give with a cheerful heart, you know what kicks in right away? Verse 6 kicks in. If you go, "Okay, Pastor, I purposed in my heart to give a penny." All right, give your penny. But I could tell in your voice, that’s not a willing heart. So keep your penny. And if I can find a penny, I don’t know where they are these days, I’ll give you that. I’ll give you a penny on top of that and I’ll double it. Don’t come to the offering box here or set up online and give because the church told me to give. Don’t give.

Remember I was telling you about the team here. One of the other things that I add to the team is that if the giving ever stops or whatever in this church, guess what’s going to happen? You know what’s going to happen? What’s going to happen is we’re all going to revert to the day before we took a salary. You know what we were doing the day before we took a salary? Working. We’ll go get a job. It’s not going to stop me from doing the work of the ministry. That’s how I moved here. Whatever the Lord would have, I’m going to do in my life with my family whatever it takes that I might be useful for the kingdom.

But I also teach you what it means to give because it is true that you could answer today in your own heart, "I’m grudging and I don’t want to give." And you don’t have to give. You’re right. You would qualify under this verse. However, it’s not a good place to be. It would be the equivalent of saying, "Pastor, I don’t want to obey." All right, if you don’t want to obey, don’t obey. That’s a horrible place to be. I’m not approving of that position. I’m just validating what the Bible says so that you understand. Even the heart, for the last 20 years I just don’t really have a heart to give. I haven’t had a willing heart. 20 years? 20 days? 20 months?

And I would just say, do you have the heart of Christ? That’s the question. Because as you’re abiding in Christ, Jesus is sacrificial. If I have the heart of Christ, my heart is going to be generous. If I have the heart of Christ, I’m going to be faithful to what he’s called me to do. I’m not going to be at odds with him. I’m not going to come up with excuses why I can’t be generous. I’m going to learn to be cheerful in my giving, to be excited about what God might do, how he might use it, how he might multiply it, how he might take just a little from all of us and multiply it for the sake of the kingdom. It’s mind-blowing. It’s mind-blowing what God can do.

So let me give you a few things, and then we’re almost out of time, but let me give you a few things about giving. I went to this in depth in the study, but just a few things for our study today. Number one, why should I give? Giving frees me. Giving frees me from the bondage of greed. As I give money, as I give, money has no hold over me. I can freely give because I’ve been freely given. It frees me.

Number two, when I give, giving fills me with God’s purposes. As I give, the Spirit of God pours in my spirit his desires for the world today. And I get to be a part of what he’s doing on the earth today through my giving. Number three, giving focuses me on the eternal. Why? Jesus taught us this, didn’t he? "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." So it focuses me on the eternal and I begin to value what God values.

And then finally, giving finds me in obedience. I give because God has given me so much. Consider that God allows me to use, if we just look into the tithe for a second. If you just look for the tithe, 10%. If that’s the measurement you use, then what God is saying is as out of the 100% that he entrusts to me, he says, "Give 10 to me and you can do with the rest whatever you want with the 90." And what do we say? "I don’t want to do everything with 90. I want to do it all." And God says, "Go ahead." And sometimes people wonder why there’s such a distance between their heart and with God. One of the things that’s really easy to check is: are you a faithful giver?

Generous, overflowing, poured out of your life. Not just the church. Church is the easy one. But there are those in need. And you instead of just dismissing it, you pray and you ask God, "Give me your heart." Is that something? Because we can’t do everything, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do something. Of course we can’t do everything. But what has God called us to do? How is he leading us? Where is my heart on the issue? This sowing and reaping is not a televangelist promise. It’s an eternal truth.

And again, God doesn’t necessarily, you sow a dollar and you reap a million dollars. If you sow sparingly, then you’re not going to be so free. You’re going to be trapped. You’re not going to be so filled. You’re going to be empty. You’re not going to be so focused. You’re going to be stuck on the world. And you’re not going to be in obedience. So what happens? You’re going to reap sparingly because you’re not enjoying what God has for you.

God wants us to be generous. He wants us to live in obedience. Some just don’t get it. They think tithing is some ordeal or for them it’s a bummer to be a part of the, "I work so hard for this." I’m sure you did. We all work hard. But God gave us the strength to work hard. He’s given us the knowledge. He’s given us the ability. He’s given us the education. He’s given us the open door. Remember when you were praying for a job and you were begging God for a job? And then you got the job. Where do you think you got that from?

Can’t forget the graciousness of God. Remember that time you were complaining about your job and then you got fired? Who answered that prayer? It’s all from him and to him and for him and through him. It all belongs to him. It’s all his. We are citizens in two places, on earth, but also in heaven. Marie and I recently were looking back on our lives. The early days were much harder than the latter days. Probably the first 15 years of our marriage were so hard. And we look back and we’re just like, I don’t know how we made it. I don’t know how we made it.

And then we get saved and then we make this decision for Marie to stay home. And we weren’t making it before. I don’t know how we made it on paper, but I know how we made it. God was so gracious to us. It’s like, look at these kids’ hearts. They’re just sold out to me. And little open door here and another. I wish we would have kept track of all the miracles that God did. They were so common they didn’t seem like miracles. God was just so good to us. So gracious, so helpful, so wonderful. We trained our children that way.

I remember years ago when the Lord placed on our hearts for Marie to stay home. We were new believers. She made more money than I did. She had all the medical insurance and we thought, what are we doing? But we learned whatever I made, we tithed. Didn’t matter what it was. Whatever I made, if I made 300 bucks a week, then we gave 30. If I made 450, then we gave 45. God was training us with the 30 and the 45. When our kids were any kind of money my kids get, they had to give it unto the Lord. Even if they got gift cards, we made them cash it out so they could give to the Lord. We wanted to train them to value even if someone blessed them and gave to them because of the day they were born.

When they gave of that day they were born, they gave because God was gracious to give them life. Now of course as kids they didn’t know. They’re all upset. But they know now. They’ll have their own children. They’ll make their own choices on how to remind them of the grace of God. I’m putting together a study for an upcoming conference I’m teaching and the title is, "Sometimes We Forget". And there’s a pattern throughout the Bible that God wants us to make sure we never forget where we came from. We never forget what he’s done.

He told the children of Israel, make sure your kids know. Make sure you hand this down to your kids. Make sure you’re always talking about it. Make sure that this is the pattern of your home. Remember the Red Sea. Remember the Red Sea. And then reveal to your kids the Red Sea in your own house. It may not be as big and dramatic. It may not make the Bible, but there’s Red Seas in all your houses where God made a way where there was no way, where he showed up when you didn’t know what was going to happen, where he brought you to the end and you didn’t know and you’re throwing up your hands and you’re unsure and you’re ready to sink and the Lord just rescued you just like Peter, remember when he started sinking on the water?

I find that the more that I find myself meditating on the goodness of God, the more generous I become. And I am learning, I don’t know that I’ve fully appreciated this yet, but I am learning and I’m committed to learn that it’s better to give than receive. And I love receiving, by the way. But I also love giving. I love that what God has done in my life where a response so quickly is to give. So quickly to hear, I’m watching this video and I’m just wondering automatically, I wonder what we could do for them. I just automatically thinking. I don’t know what the answer to that is.

But I just want to see them succeed. I watch, I see one of my brothers, I post a little picture today of the sign downstairs that we walk by all the time, but it caught my eye because it was brand new. It caught my eye, so I walked over to it and Micah had put a poster together with just highlighted all of our missionaries that we’re doing through the month of March. So I took a picture of it, put it up. I didn’t even say anything, I just did. But one of our missionaries saw it and he says, "I’m so thankful for this church and those that support us." And they’re not even gone yet. They got a lot to raise to get their visas and everything to launch out. Their heart's already there, but their bodies are in Oregon. Little by little, they’re catching up with their hearts.

I want that for you. I pour out my life and I’m saying that not in some kind of like, oh look at what you do, Ed. I’m just telling you this is my life. From a man that lived his whole life taking, taking, taking, it is so good to live the rest of my life as a generous giver. I give my prayers for you. I give my time for you. And I do that joyfully and willingly. Not always. Sometimes I’m not so willing. Sometimes I’m grouching inside or sometimes I’m in a bad mood. But then it becomes an act of obedience because you’ve got that muscle memory where you give and serve and you give and serve and you have a bad day.

What do you do on bad days? You give and serve. See, the Lord doesn’t have any bad days. He never grouches. He never complains. But he loves you and me so much that he gave his only son Jesus Christ so that our sins can be forgiven, our lives could be redeemed, we could be delivered from slavery and live in the fullness and the abundance of all the life that he has for us. And we haven’t even yet tasted and seen that the Lord is good. I mean we have, but there’s so much more. So when you come to church, be willing to give. Be willing to give of your tithes and offerings.

Be willing to give of your time. Be willing to give of your talent and your gifts and your expertise. Be willing to give of your prayer. You see what happens, and this will be my final point, but here’s what happens. Church and culture, the world and everything we’re in, it’s created in us when we come to a place like this, we just want to take. "What do you have for me?" You may not verbalize it, but your attitude is like, "Oh, what do you have for me, Lord?" And can’t you hear heaven? "I’ve given you my best. I’ve already given you. What do I have for you? I gave you my son. And I love you. So glad we’re in relationship. So let’s get busy on this partnership with a willing heart and do what I’ve called you to do and be who I’ve called you to be and enjoy your life as a generous giver." Amen?

Guest (Male): Well, we’re enjoying the study in Exodus here on Abounding Grace. Pastor Ed Taylor is our teacher on the program, and you can hear these studies again online at aboundinggraceradio.com and then through the Calvary Church app. Check out Ed’s blog at edtaylor.org and look for his podcast, Lead to Serve, on Apple Podcasts. There he discusses the value of servant leadership. Thank you for remembering Abounding Grace in your giving to the Lord. Every gift that comes in goes right to ministry. It plays an important role in helping us bring the truths of God’s Word to the radio every day.

And when you support the ministry today with a gift of $25 or more, you’re invited to request a copy of Real Worship by Warren Wiersbe. Real Worship has served to help many see what true worship is and isn’t. To order it today, call 877-30-GRACE. That’s 877-30-GRACE. You can also go online to calvaryco.store. If you’d just like to make a donation to the ministry and not interested in the book, you can donate safely and securely at aboundinggraceradio.com. Coming up tomorrow on Abounding Grace, we’ll bring you a special Good Friday message from Pastor Ed called, "It Matters". We’ll be in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 if you’d like to read ahead.

Pastor Ed Taylor: This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love, that you would take my place, that you would bear my cross. You laid down your life that I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you’ve done for me.

Guest (Male): Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.