It's a responsibility, I believe, of a pastor to preach from time to time on the subject of giving because not to do so is to rob God's people of the joy of learning to give and to be blessed by Him. And giving is one of the basics of the Christian life. just like being baptized as a new believer, just like coming to church, praying, reading our Bible, witnessing. None of those things are optional to living a successful Christian life. And neither is this matter of giving. And I believe that many times Christians never grow to the extent that they should grow in their faith. They never reach the pinnacle or the potential of spiritual growth in their life. They miss out on many of the blessings of God and watching God work in their lives because they never learn the blessing and the principles of learning to give systematically to God. And so Altide Sunday, while it is a big offering Sunday, while it does help to absorb any types of downturns in giving that we experience as a ministry, from time to time, just like a big snow Sunday. Boy, it's hard to recover from those days. That's why always when I'm praying in the wintertime, I ask God to let it snow Monday through Friday. But there's times it happens on Sunday, and it's hard to recover from that at times. And so it helps us to recover from those kind of things, but that's really not the motivating factor. The motivating factor is so that we can help you as believers to learn the blessing of giving systematically to God, to learn to trust Him, and to understand the Bible truth of giving to the Lord, and how important it is that we learn to do that, and that it becomes a reality in our lives. Now, here's the reality. You know, I'm not here, and I want you to understand my heart. It's not my desire as a pastor to coerce anybody to give. I'm not up here wanting to preach and make it in a sense of browbeating people with the Bible. That's not my goal at all. That's not my heart if you know anything about me. I'm not here to coax people to give or work in some kind of manipulative way to try to get people to give. That's not what my heart is. That's not what my goal is. What my desire is as a pastor and has been my 26 years of ministry is to learn the principles that God sets forth in His Word so that you and I can be a blessed people. Because we're all about honoring God. Remember that's one of our mission statements of our church. Honoring God, building lives, reaching others. And friend, one of the ways that I can honor God and have God to honor me is in this matter of giving to Him. Alright? And I want you to notice, if you would, Proverbs chapter 3 and verse number 9, because I'm going to help you understand something, and I'm not going to do a treatise on the tithe tonight. I'm going to give you ten reasons why I tithe. Okay? I'm going to give you that tonight. I'm going to give you some personal things. I haven't always tithed like I should to God. Alright? I'm going to get here in a minute, okay? If I'm a little scattered tonight, I've got a good excuse, okay? But I've not always tithed like I should. In my early Christian life, I was very much haphazard in my giving. I was up and down, and I'd feel guilty, and so I'd give. And then next thing you know, things would come up in my life, or it just wasn't a priority in my life, and I would fail to give. But then when my wife and I got married, we just wanted to set our family right. We wanted our lives to be something that God could honor. This was long before I ever pastored a church. We just wanted our Christian lives. We wanted to get our family and our lives and our marriage on the right foot. And we believed doing that and having God honoring our relationship was learning to give to Him faithfully of our tithes and offerings. And I can promise you that I give to God today, percentage-wise, far more than the tithe. I give Him far more than what I ever learned to give as a young Christian back in my early twenties when I had first gotten married and all of that. I've learned it, I've understood the blessing of it, and you've heard the cliché, well, somebody says they can't afford to tithe, and somebody will say, well, I can't afford not to. That's not just a cliché, that's a reality in our lives. We have so learned that God blesses us, and I'm not just talking about financially or materially, I'm talking about blessings that you can't put your fingers on, or that you can't put a price tag on, so to speak, as we've learned to give to God, and it's our joy. It's something that we don't do grudgingly. It's not something that we do because we feel like we have to or because I'm a leader. And by the way, as a leader of God's people, I believe in leading from the front, and I don't ask our people to do what I don't do myself. I don't encourage you to go out on visitation and witness to others if I'm not willing to go do it. Okay? And so whatever I ask our people to do, I've either done it, or I'm already doing it, or I'm currently doing it. In my life, it's part of who I am as a believer. And so, I believe in leading from the front, and that's my goal. But that's not why I do it. It's not any of those reasons we do it, because it's our joy. It's something that flows out of our heart to God that has been cultivated over the 26 years that we've been married, in the 26 years that we've sought to honor God with our lives, our finances, our future, our family, and everything about us in our lives. Now, when you look at Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 9, we're going to learn that this matter of tithing and giving to the Lord, it's not a law principle, although it was incorporated into the Jewish nation as a matter of the commandments of God to them. But you need to understand, all the Old Testament isn't law, okay? There is an eternal principle that God has set forth in His Word, and God even talks about this matter of tithing 400 years before He ever gave the law or before He ever incorporated it. It was something that was already built into the lives of his people prior to that, and therefore he incorporated it into the nation to meet the needs of the temple, the priesthood, the poor, and the needs of God's people, and so he incorporated that into it. But it would always been one of God's eternal principles, and so it's not really a law principle, it is a life principle, if I could say that. A life principle. And you're going to find that in the New Testament, it goes to a higher level, and it's a love principle. Okay? Notice what he says in Proverbs 3, verse 9. Honor the Lord with thy substance. Here's what God says. You and I are to honor Him with our substance, our material possessions. Notice he says, and with the firstfruits of all thine inquiries. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses burst out when you want." Now, we recognize that Israel is an earthly people with earthly blessings, and God was saying to them, when you honor Me with the tithe, I'm going to ensure that you have an apt harvest, and that I bless you, and that materially as a result of that, I'm going to make sure and open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing in the sense of that you're going to have food in the cupboard and you're going to have drink to drink and understand that this press here bursting out with new wine. New wine is not fermented wine. New wine can't be fermented wine. It has to be old, alright? Because age ferments. He's talking about grape juice, the idea of putting the fresh grapes that have been harvested into the to the wine vat and pressing that and the juice coming out. And that was a celebratory moment in the lives of the people as they would see the presses burst forth with that juice and meaning that God had blessed them abundantly. And here's what God's saying, when you honor Me, I'm going to honor you, God says. That's the principle that He's giving us. The word honor here means to give attention or weight to something. It means to esteem highly, to raise to a place of distinction, to give one their rightful place. And so God says one of the ways that you can give me your rightful place in your life is when you honor me with your finances. And when we faithfully and cheerfully and generously give to God, we're honoring Him and giving Him His proper place in our lives. I'm acknowledging His ownership of all that I am and all that I have. I'm giving Him the place of preeminence. And giving is like a thermometer in that it takes our spiritual temperature. Our attitude toward this matter of giving to God is an indicator of our attitude toward Him. Notice, if you would, he talks about firstfruits in our text. That means the first of the first. It's synonymous in Scripture with the tithe. When the Bible says, bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, it means the firstfruits. It's the first of the first. And it's learning to give to God. And the tithe is the tenth part, or ten percent of my income belongs to the Lord. And the first thing that my wife and I do whenever we're paid is we immediately write out our tithe to the Lord. Ten percent all means the whole tithe. I don't hold back any part of it. I don't give God two percent, five percent. I don't give Him nine percent. I give Him ten percent plus because ten percent is the tithe and anything above that becomes an offering. Firstfruits of all thine increase. And that means as soon as it was harvested. That means I don't wait until the government gets theirs. Let me just make it simple for you. I tithe off the gross and not the net. You say, preacher, that will rearrange my entire financial life. I know it will. It will take you to a higher plane in learning to give to God and watch Him meet your needs. Because that is the biblical tithe. Honoring the Lord with the firstfruits and the tithe is a way of saying to the Lord that I'm giving Him the first and the best because I recognize, God, that all that I have and all that I am comes from You. And, Lord, I want to say thank You for that. some reasons why I tithe tonight. That's what the message is. I wanted to give some basic reasons and I'm going to give you verses of Scripture with them because I believe they come right out of the Bible and we're going to turn to a lot of them tonight. Number one, first reason I give. First reason I tithe. And when I say give, I'm talking about tithing. Because really and truthfully, I can't give to God until first of all I've tithed to the Lord. Okay? Now somebody's going to immediately say, Preacher, wait a minute, you said that tithe is a love principle in the New Testament, and you're not going to find the word tithe mentioned in the New Testament. You won't find that, except in the words of Jesus. When He was rebuking the Pharisees, and He was telling them, He says, you tithe on the smallest of spices, and you take the... the great pains to make sure that you give to me in this area, but then the weightier matters of the law in these other areas, you're not paying attention to them." And he rebuked them for it. But here's what he said. He said, these ought you to have done, all right? These things of taking care of their parents and obeying Him in other areas of their life, and not to leave the other undone. So the Lord did not say, well, listen, it's not important to tithe. He said, you need to do what you're doing, but He said, that's not the end of your Christian life. That's not the end of a life of righteousness. That's not an end of a life that honors me. It involves the rest of it too. Alright? And so he did not negate the tithe, he recognized it, and he told them they should do it. Okay? But then when you come on to the New Testament, you find the principle of love that is mentioned. Because it's not a matter of what I have to do, it's a matter of what I get to do. Luke 10, 27, our theme verse, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. And one of the ways that I express my love for God is in this matter of giving Him of my tithes and offerings. 2 Corinthians 8, 8 talks about this matter of giving that proves the sincerity of your love. Can I really say, now listen to me and think about this, can I really say that I love God if I'm not willing to give as He's asked me to give? Can I love God the way I ought to love God if I'm not willing to give as He asked me to give? Tithing, as I said, is not a law principle, but a love principle. It doesn't just reflect my obedience to God. And see, that's not what I'm here doing. I'm preaching New Testament grace. I'm not up here beating people with the Bible, saying, hey, listen, you need to obey God, and it doesn't matter. Obey! Obey! Obey! No, what I'm saying is love, love, love. Let that be the motivation. I do give out of obedience, and that may be how I started with giving, because it was right and it was obedient to God. But I can honestly say to you tonight, I don't give out of a heart of obedience so much as I do give out of a heart of love, because if I love Him, I'm going to obey Him with my life. So every time that I place my tithes and offerings into the plate on Sunday, and every time you place your tithe and offering into the plate on Sunday, you know what we're saying? God, I love you. That's what we're saying. when it comes from the heart. I love you, God. I love you. A lot of times, and I'm going to get to this in a moment, we think the offering is just a necessary part of the service. No, it's an integral part of the service. Because it's at that moment that we're worshiping God through our giving. It's worship. Alright, number two. Second reason I give is because I love my church. Would you turn in your Bibles to 1 Chronicles chapter number 29? Now, I hope you won't just tune out tonight because this doesn't interest you. Because the reality of it is, I believe it's something that will help us. Because I believe what I'm saying tonight is really verbalizing why many of you give, if not all of you. I don't know what anybody, and that's the good thing, I don't know what anybody gives in our church, I couldn't tell you. If somebody said, to so-and-so give to the Lord, I'd say, I'd have no idea because I don't know. It's not something I find out. I don't know what people give, I don't know who gives. All right? And I choose for it to be that way because I don't want anything to ever cloud my mind when I'm ministering to God's people. I don't want to make a decision because I'm afraid that might affect this person's tithe. Or I don't want to neglect to minister to this person over here or be tempted. I don't think I ever would. But I don't ever want to be tempted to maybe minimize somebody else's role in the church because they don't tithe. You see, it just keeps everything above board and transparent. And I just minister to everybody the same. Because really, this matter of giving is between you and God. Look at I Chronicles 29 and verse 3. Notice what David said. This was a building offering for the temple. He said, Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine own proper good of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above, all that I prepared for the Holy House." And here's what David's saying. He had been taking the taxes and the money that had been gained through warfare and the spoil of battle, and he had been putting it back into the house of God and dedicating it to God for the building of the temple. And he said, listen, God, that's not just enough. I don't want to just give of what somebody else has given. I want to give of what You've given me. And he said, God, I want to do it because I love Your house. I love what it means to me. I love my place of worship. I love where I come to meet with You. I love what happens in my heart in my life when I come to the house of God. And you know what? Another reason that I give is not just because I love God, but also because I love this church and I realize and recognize that as I give to the Lord through this local church that it is building up the ministry of this church and enabling it to do that that God's given it to do and be what God wants it to be as a church. Because, listen, we can talk all day long about it, but the reality of it is it takes money to make ministry go, and that's just reality. You've got to buy diesel to put it in buses. You have to pay the electric bill to keep the lights on and the heat and the air conditioning, you know, to keep our properties. And I believe our property ought to be the best-looking property on Main Street. This is God's property. It's His buildings. And I tell you what, there ought not to be a place on Main Street nicer than Calvary Baptist Church. Because when people ride by here, they need to be able to look, and the way this place looks, it ought to reflect our God. It ought to be excellent. And I give because I love my church. I just ask you tonight, do you love your church? And I'm not talking about the brick and mortar and the wood and nails, although I do love this building. I love it with everything that's in me. I love everything about it. Okay, I love this place, but that's not what I'm talking about. If we didn't have this building, we'd still be a church. We'd still function. We'd still move forward. and there would still be work to be accomplished and I give so that God's work can go forward. Number three, I want to give you this. I give my tithe to the Lord because I don't want money to hinder my relationship with God. Look with me at Matthew chapter number 6. Would you turn there? Matthew chapter 6. I don't want money to hinder my relationship to God. Do you know that sometimes money can stand in the way of a person's relationship with God? It can keep them from full surrender to the Lord. because they maybe don't want to give up a lucrative income, or they don't want to give up a dream of a lucrative income, but to serve God maybe in a lifetime capacity? I believe there's many a man that never answers the call to preach because a salary stood in the way of it. I know what it is to pray in money I don't have. I know what it is to pastor a church and work a full-time job and go to Bible college and do all of those things in a church with only 18 people. They're not going to be able to do a whole lot for you, but I was thankful for what they could do for me. And as the church grew, they took better care of me. There's no complaint. I'm telling you, you as a church go over and above and beyond to ensure that my wife and my needs are met. And we're so thankful for that and above that. And we rejoice in it. You don't ever hear me poor mouth and complain. Our staff doesn't do that. We're thankful for what you do so that we can live. And you free us up so we can serve you. And I'm thankful for that. I wouldn't be able to do what I did last night if I had to go punch a clock at a job. But I was able to be there and function today because you've made it possible for me to give my life to this fully and completely. And be there 24-7. And our staff be there 24-7 when we're needed. And thank you for that. And that's what your giving accomplishes. But I don't want my money to hinder my relationship with God. Look at Matthew 6, verse 24. Jesus said, No man can serve two masters, for either will hate the one and love the other, else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You see, if I'm constantly wrestling with God about money, I'm not going to grow spiritually the way I need to grow spiritually. because I'm all the time going to be wrestling in an opposition to God and unsurrendered in an area of my life. And as a result of that, my attitude toward money is going to hinder my spiritual growth and development if I'm not yielding myself to God and my finances to the Lord. And our attitude toward money is an important part of our spiritual development and maturity as Christians. And the Lord's boiled all of life down to two choices, God or mammon. which is money or material possessions. And a person really has but room for one master in their life. Nowhere in the Bible does God ever condemn the making of money. God never condemns a person who becomes rich. Listen, God gives people the power to get wealth, and there are people that God blesses in abundant ways, and I'm thankful for that because it enables them if they have the right attitude to give more toward the work of God maybe than they ever could in any other way in their lives. And so I'm not against and God's not against people being rich. God never says it's wrong to be rich. God says it's wrong to love riches. That's the difference. It's wrong to love it. And by the way, you don't have to be rich to love money. You can love money and not have any. Because you're so bent on having it that it's to the exclusion of everything else. And people, listen, they blow their entire paycheck on a lottery trying to hit the jackpot rather than being good stewards of God's resources that He has given them. And then why should God give them more? If all they're going to do is blow it and waste it? And not be good stewards of it? We have to come to grips with either God is our Master or our money is. And to live for material wealth or possessions and what we can get out of this life is to lessen our devotion to God. When we fail to give to God, we make an idol out of our money and our possessions because we've put them before Him, we love them more than we love Him, and so how we give demonstrates who our Master really is. And so another reason I give is I'm saying, God, this money is not my Master, You are. Because God, in reality, there may come a time that I don't have any of this, but God, I'll always have you. And you've promised to meet my needs. And you've promised to take care of me. Number four, I want to move quickly, because my heart always follows my treasure. Look up at Matthew chapter 6 and verse 19. Notice what he says. Lay not up for yourselves treasures. That word treasure simply means deposits upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. You know what he's talking about there? The uncertainty of riches, okay? You have to look at it in their day because Most people didn't have a closet full of clothes. The average Jewish lady didn't walk into her closet on the Sabbath day and say, hmm, what am I going to wear? She didn't do that because usually all she had was probably what she had on and maybe one more change of clothes because they didn't have mass production of clothing in that day. And to have more than one or two changes of raiment was a major thing. That was wealth in that day. And so the very wealthy people That's why the Bible says the rich man that Jesus spoke of in Luke 16, he was dressed in purple and fared sumptuously every day. He was dressed as a king. And they would flaunt their wealth and they would actually weave gold into the thread of their fabric and wear golden clothing, so to speak, as a sign of their wealth and their status. And they would show that off to others. And you know what? A moth doesn't care whether it's a burlap sack or golden woven thread, it'll eat either one of them just the same. And what he's saying is, listen, don't just make your deposits on things that are temporary, that that can be moth-eaten, that that can tarnish and grow old with age, that that somebody can break in and steal. And you know what? The reality of it is, somebody said to go home and add up everything that thieves can't steal, money can't buy, and fire can't destroy, and that's really how rich you are. And He says here in our passage, He says, And where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where thieves not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also. So guess what God says? Your heart follows your treasure. Or if you want to flip it, your treasure will follow your heart. Either one of those is fine because that's exactly the truth that the Lord is setting before us right here. And what he's saying is that, listen, I don't just need to have an earthly portfolio. Nothing wrong with having that. I need to have a heavenly portfolio. And the Christian who faithfully gives to God of their material resources and makes investments in eternity exhibits a heavenly direction in life. They're living with a heavenly mindset. And here's what the Lord's saying. He's saying the truth is that wherever our riches are, our heart is already there. And therefore, if I am giving to God as I should give to God, it is an indicator and an evidence that my heart is on heavenly minded, and I have a heavenly mindset, and my heart is on the right things, spiritual things, rather than on earth, the temporal things. Now listen, God never says it's wrong to save. God never says it's wrong to have a portfolio. God never says it's wrong to plan for retirement. There are plenty of proverbs and principles throughout the Bible that teaches us stewardship principles on how to handle our money beyond that that we give to Him, that that He allows us to keep. He tells us how we're to handle that money. But what he's saying is, when I take of what he's given me first, and I make deposits in heaven, he's saying that my heart is in the right direction and in the right place spiritually, rather than living for temporal values that will fade and won't last. And the reality is, everything you and I accumulate and gain and build and work for down here is one day just going to go up in flames. It is. I mean, the guys that build skyscrapers and the work that goes... One day that skyscraper is just going to burn up when God burns up this earth. It's all going to be gone. But what you and I lay up in heaven, we will have forever. That's what we really gain. Number five, tithing keeps me from being a covetous person. Would you turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6? By the way, do you know that covetousness is a form of idolatry? Because I want something more than I want God. But I want you to look at 1 Timothy chapter number 6. I would recommend a book for Christians to get. If you say, preacher, I really want to have a right biblical mindset toward my finances, you ought to get The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. A-L-C-O-R-N. Excellent book. Excellent book. A young couple starting out. Adults. Somebody's saying, I want to, I was talking to a couple today, was talking to me about financial counseling and things, and I'm not a financial advisor and I don't do that. They were just asking me some biblical questions about some things. And I said, listen, before you go see a financial counselor, read the book, The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. Because what that's going to do is he's going to set about six or eight principles in front of you about this matter of having a right biblical attitude toward my treasure, what God's given me. And here's what he says, and we probably ought to do it right now. On your paper, why don't you do this? I want you to draw a line on your paper with an arrow, okay? And I want you to put a dot on it. Would you put a dot? I don't care where you put the dot. Let's imagine that life, and it's from where you're born and going out into eternity, and then where you think you are on the line, okay? Now, I probably ought to put it further up the line than what I did, but I want to think I'm going to make a hundred, okay? You have not because you asked not, right? Alright. Here's what Randy Alcorn says. You're either living for the dot or for the arrow. If you're living for the dot, then you're laying up treasures on earth. That's living for the dot. You're just concerned with the here and now. He said, but if you've got a heavenly mindset and you're laying up treasures in heaven and you have a right attitude toward what God's given you, your treasures, you'll live for the arrow. That's what's eternity. That's eternal. And everybody in this room right here, you're living either for the dot, right now, or you're living for the arrow. And how we give determines, is an indicator of where we really are. Look at verse 10 of these 16. He said, for the love of money is the root of all evil. The love of money is the root. That is the beginning of it. That is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. I just read some excerpts in Randy Alcorn's book, and I've seen other things, that one of the worst things that can happen in some people's lives is to win the lottery. It destroys them. They can't handle what they got. But they think, if I can just win that lottery, it's going to solve all my problems. I've got a list of great wealthy people that will tell you how miserable they are. List after list, there are quotes about how miserable they are, and how not one dime of it ever made them happy. Matter of fact, Andrew Carnegie said this, he said, millionaires seldom smile. Because they're so worried about losing their money. John D. Rockefeller could have bought all the filet mignon he wanted to, and he ate baby food. Because he was so worried about losing his billions, or millions I guess, his millions would be billions in today's dollars. That he had such stomach issues, all he could eat was baby food. Covetousness is a true problem among God's people. Coveting that that we don't have, coveting that that what others have. And God said that godliness with contentment is great gain. Doesn't mean we can't have. But when all of our life is just either eat up with jealousy because we don't have what they've got, or we're resentful because God doesn't give us what we think we ought to have, and we're pursuing it but can't get it, and we're eat up with covetousness, God said, there's no contentment in that, and there's no gain in that in life. And when you and I learn to tithe, it frees us up from an unhealthy attachment to stuff. because it's just stuff. You talk to any of our people that's battled cancer here lately, or Brother James that just had a heart transplant. James, prior to the heart transplant, you had a whole different out view of life than you do right now, don't you? Brother James told me, he said when he was going through that and he was there waiting on his heart transplant, he said, Pastor, he said, everything about my life has been recalibrated. I don't see anything the same again. Because at that moment, material possessions don't really mean a whole lot when you need a heart to live. Everything you've lived for is not really all that big of a deal. Isn't that true, Brother James? That's what he told me at Duke Hospital. It's amazing how our people that battle cancer or do different things, that deal with life and death issues, how it rearranges their thought processes. Number six, and I need to move quickly because I want to finish tonight, tithing is an expression of my gratitude to God. Would you look at Philippians 4, verse 18 real quick? And then I'm going to just give you the rest of it because I'm going to run out of time. I thought that I would be done early and we'd be waiting on the kids to get out. But you all know that's a wish, right? I never run out of anything to say. My wife says I even talk in my sleep. Philippians 4.8. That's not the one I'm looking for. Philippians 4.18. Paul says, "...but I have all and abound. I am full, having received..." This was a love gift, a missionary love gift from the Philippian church to the apostle Paul. He said, "...but I have all and abound. I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you." Now watch this next statement, "...an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God." Here's what God says. Paul's saying in this passage that when you and I give to God, it's an act of worship. When you and I give to God that, that He asks us to give to Him, we're saying to God, thank You for what You've done for me. Thank You for Your blessings in my life. And then when that offering plate goes around, Don't think of it as just, or whether you e-give or however you give, when you press that button, whatever you do to give to God, don't think of it, okay, I've done that, I've done my duty, or I've got that done. No, no, no, no. It is an act of worship, and God said that when I do this from a right heart, and my offering goes into the plate, God said that's an odor of a sweet smell. It's a sacrifice that's lifting up to God, and God's sake, I'm pleased with that because you're honoring me, and you're showing gratitude toward me, and you're loving me, and you're showing my worth in your life, God says. Never look at giving again. When the offering plate goes by, it's not just flipping an envelope, it's worship. I'm worshiping you, God. That's why it's important in our service. I can never repay God for all He's done for me. And that's not why I give. I give because I'm grateful for the fact that God saved me, and God's blessed me, and God's met my needs, and God's given me beyond things, beyond measure, a blessing of a wife and children, a great church to pastor in, and a wonderful opportunity to invest in the lives of other people. I cannot count the blessings of God in my life. And now He's given me His grace and His mercy and His sustenance and all the things God's done. And I can never repay Him, and I don't even try. But I can through my giving say, God, I'm thankful. Thank you. And you know what? I'm grateful for other Christians who gave to support the work of God so that I could hear the gospel and be saved. And I want to continue to give so that others who I don't even know will one day hear the gospel and their lives be forever changed. Number seven, because God blesses generosity. Acts 20, 35, Jesus said, It's more blessed to give than to receive. When you and I learn the lessons of generosity, God blesses us. Number eight, it's God's plan for furthering His work. Malachi 3.10, bring you all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house. And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. But He said that there may be meat in mine house. And what He meant that was substance in order so that the work of God, my house, The needs are met so that my house, my worship, and my work can continue to move forward. And the giving of God, I can just promise you, your giving at Calvary Baptist Church translates into ministry. It translates in diesel and buses, buses themselves, tracks and literature. I mean, it goes, and I can promise you, it translates into ministry. We don't hoard money at Calvary. People think when they ride by, well, that church has got deep pockets. The reality of it is that's probably not true. Because I can be honest with you, it comes in and it turns right around and goes right back out in ministry. Unless we're trying to save money for a building project or something we're working toward, and somebody says, well, why do you do that? Well, when Jesus comes, why do we want to leave it for the devil? I think churches will answer to God for millions of dollars being in the bank. They'll answer to God for that with half the world dying and going to hell. They'll answer to God for half the world not having the Bible. They'll answer to God for hoarding up money here and not being willing to translate that into ministry so that God's work can go forward. They'll answer to God for that. Listen, I want to use it while we're here because there's coming a day when working day is going to be over and what we can do for God in ministry will be done and then the devil's crowd is going to get it. So let's use it for Him. Amen? Number nine, it's an expression of faith to the Lord to meet my needs. God says, "...and prove Me now herewith..." You know, the only time God said to put him to the test is in the matter of giving to Him. He said, you prove me in this matter. God challenges us to prove Him in this matter of giving. Now, years ago, and I don't know who I learned it from, but years ago, I'd make the statement, I'd say, now listen, you give to God for three months solid, and at the end of that three months, if God's not blessed you, we'll give it back to you. Well, I can't say that because the IRS won't let us do that. It's against the law. Okay? It is. I didn't know that. I never have had to come through on it because everybody at the end of that would say, Preacher, God's blessed me. Never had to take her on that because they proved God and God showed him to be faithful. But the reality of it is we couldn't if we wanted to. I would have been breaking the law. But we wouldn't have to because God's got a law principle here that when you prove me in this area, God said, I'm going to bless you and He will bless you. Now that doesn't mean that I'm going to get a new car. That doesn't mean that I'm going to get this or get that. But what it does mean is that God's going to bless my life and my finances. And I tell you, listen, no Christian that gives faithfully to God can necessarily explain at the end of the year why it all works out. Okay? You can't put it on paper. It doesn't fit on paper. Why? Because it's God. And it's amazing how that God can take my, and of course back then it was 90%, but now I give far beyond that to the Lord, and I don't even know what the percentage is, but I give far beyond that to the Lord, and that's of course between me and the Lord as well. But the reality of it is, whatever it is that God blesses me with that I keep on my end, I'm amazed at how God can enable me to do more, and in those early years, especially when we thought we couldn't spare a dime to give to God. But yet we began by faith to learn to give to Him and meet our needs, and we watched God do things that was unimaginable. And at the end of the week, it's like we've got money and we didn't know how. And the bills were paid, and the kids were fed, and we didn't maybe not have everything in the world you want. Hey, we drove one car for ten years. One car. My wife and I shared one car. That's like sharing one bathroom today. Who does that? But we did it for 10 years because we believed, we had principles that I wanted my wife to stay home with my kids, and I wanted my kids to go to Christian school, and therefore we'd set our lives and our finances not to have certain things that we considered luxuries because we believed those things were necessities. And that's what we did. Now that was what God told us to do. And you know what? It worked out. And you know what? God's blessed us and God's met our needs and I have no regrets for some of the decisions that we did back in those days because I'm experiencing the payoff today in the lives of my children and the lives of other things. And it's worth it. Let number 10 and I'm done. Because all that I have belongs to God. I determined a long time ago that everything I have is God's. And I ask Him to help me, because just like anybody else, there's times that God asks me to do things and I struggle with it. I do. But there's times that God said, I want you to give that. I'm like, well, I had plans for that. He said, but I've got a plan for it. You should give it. And I gave it. Times I've been sitting in a service and they didn't take up an offering for a missionary or for a need, or there was a situation and God said, I want you to meet that need. There are times that there are needs that God leads my wife and I to meet that we could easily, I could go to the deacons and say, hey, this person has a need, and how about you guys doing benevolence and meeting it? And God doesn't want me to do that. God said, I've shown you that need, I want you to meet it. And my wife and I meet that need. Because that's what God tells us to do. No, we don't do it all. That's not all the case. That's not something we do on a weekly basis, but there are times that we do it fairly regularly. that God will say, I want you to do this. Buy their groceries. Take care of that. Do this. I've shown you that need. You take care of it. And it's come to the point where we recognize that all that we have really belongs to God. Because here's the reality of it. God can take everything I've got anytime He wants to. Everything. He can take my house, my cars, my wife, my children. He can take everything I've got anytime He wants to. Because He's God. And he can do what he wants to with it. So why should I not say, God, it's yours? It's really yours anyway, because the earth is His and the fullness thereof. And so the right heart attitude is just to go ahead and say, God, it's yours. And everything God's given me is a trust from Him. My wife is a stewardship responsibility. My marriage is a stewardship responsibility. God has entrusted a woman to me to love and care for and nurture. and be a husband to, and to be the right kind of husband to, and have responsibility of God to steward my marriage, to steward my family, to steward the finances and the resources that God's given me. This church is a stewardship trust. This isn't my church. God can remove me from here anytime He wants to, and give this church to another man anytime He wants to do it. All He's got to do is incapacitate me. And I realized that it is a trust. And so while God's placed these things in my life, it is my goal and my desire as a pastor to honor Him and to be the best steward I can be with what God's given me and entrusted to me until He calls me home. And that's true biblical stewardship. I'm not telling you I'm perfect at it. I still struggle sometimes. And I still wrestle sometimes. But that's the right heart attitude of where I want to land in my life. And I trust that you see your marriage and your family and your future and what God's given you as a trust from God and you're His steward. And God said, moreover, it's required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Ten reasons why I give to God. Ten reasons. And I believe they're biblical reasons. Let's stand to our feet tonight.