This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. Let's take our Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. We're going to start reading at verse 9. Wonderful passage on body life. This is the Word of the Lord. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor. Not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men, if possible. so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink, for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil. but overcome evil with good. This is the reading of God's holy word. Amen. Well, this morning, we're going to talk about service and giving as acts of worship. And we are in the midst of a series, we're actually coming to an end on worship and spirit and truth. And as I thought this week about the themes of service and giving, I was delightfully reminded of how well I can relate to the Apostle Paul here in his relationship to the Thessalonians. The Apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians, he said, finally then brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more. I stand here this morning and rejoice that Grace Community Church is, in fact, a serving and a giving church. And I would simply echo Paul's words. We're going to be instructing on service and giving, and you actually excel in these things, just as you already do. So I commend that you would excel all the more. Now, our treatment of these topics, of course, serving and giving, is going to be by necessity brief because when you think about service, service is absolutely a huge subject in Scripture, giving is a huge subject in Scripture, and so what we're going to do is because we're focusing on worship, this series is sort of a primer on worship, we're going to look at our service and our giving as specific acts of worship, and so we're going to be very narrowly focused And we're going to do something that I don't necessarily like to do in preaching or teaching, and that is we're going to be looking at numerous verses. I usually like to take one passage and just kind of drill down as far as we can go, but today we're going to be looking at a number of passages, and if you want to just listen to those as we read them, that's fine. If you want to turn, then that's fine too. So number one is worship in serving. Think about this for a minute. How much does the Bible actually speak about service? How often does the Bible speak about us being servants? There are, in fact, two primary verbs in the New Testament for serve, and one is the verb douleo. You might hear in that doulos, which of course is a very famous Greek word for just slave. Douleo just simply means to actually, to serve as a slave. All right? And it is used, I believe it's used about 37 times in the New Testament. And then you have diakoneo, which you might recognize the noun form, diakonos, from which word we get deacon. And diakonos is a little more of a detailed word, whereas duleo just is to serve as a slave. Diakoneo is to render assistance or help by performing certain duties often of a humble or menial nature. And in fact, one of the places where this is used is in Acts chapter 6 where it is serving tables. And so the idea is a humble service, a menial task that needs to be done. All right? And so here is what we have to say about worship in serving. Number one, we were saved to serve. All right, we were saved to serve. I'd like you to turn to Matthew chapter 20, and we're gonna read verses 24 through 28. Now this is, This is right after James and John's mother comes and says, you know, I really want my sons to sit on your right hand and left when you come in your kingdom because, of course, my sons are so awesome. And Jesus says to them, well, are they able to drink the cup that I'm gonna drink? Are they able to be baptized with the baptism I'm gonna be baptized with, so forth. And when the others hear this about John's mother asking for James and John's mother to ask them to be in a prominent position. We read this in verse 24. Hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers. It's easy to see, right, why they're indignant. But Jesus called them to himself and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life a ransom for many." Now, this text tells us that we're to be the servants of all and the slaves of all, right? That is what the text tells us. This text actually is a great call to being servants to others, but I want you to notice that it is rooted and grounded first and foremost in Jesus' service to us. Notice verse 28, if you're here in Sunday school, you know what this is. Verse 28 would be what? That would be the indicative and the imperatives about serving all come before. But our service is rooted in this. The Son of Man did not come to be served. Have you ever stopped to think about what an astonishing statement that is? I mean, don't you serve Jesus? Aren't you servants of God? Didn't Jesus come into this world for us to become his servants? And the answer actually is no. The gospel is not a help wanted sign. The son of man did not come to be served. Now, did he have the right and the authority to come into this world and to be served by both angels and men? And the answer is absolutely, he had that authority, he had that right, but that's not what he came into this world for. He did not come into this world to be served, but to serve. And how does he ultimately and preeminently serve us, his people, He comes to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. What you have to understand is that Jesus Christ as God's only Son comes into this world first and foremost to serve you and He is serving you by laying down His life and paying the penalty for your sin so that you could be redeemed and ransomed and freed and made right with God. That is the most beautiful, the most magnificent, and the most eternally significant form of service that's ever been rendered to any human being throughout the history of humanity. And so Jesus comes to serve you by saving you and by saving you He then does what? He then calls you to serve. You're not above the one that came into this world to save you, and if the one who came into this world to serve you by saving you says, I didn't come to be served, but to serve, then who are we to say we are anything but servants of the Most High God? Right, so you were saved to serve, okay? You were saved to be a worshiper for sure, first and foremost, but you were also saved to become a servant. Now for some of you, that has a beautiful ring of truth, and for others, it doesn't sit well. Because we come into this world, with a fundamental premise. And that is, I am worthy to be served. And on the basis of that fundamental premise, we end up having a mantra which we love to disperse among everybody around us, which if it's not in words, it's at least an attitude, serve me. Serve me. Make much of me. And God says, I'm going to send my son into this world to serve you, but to serve you in a way that ransoms you from that kind of selfishness and liberates you from that kind of bondage and actually frees you to become the servant and the slave of other people. Luther, in one of his earliest books, The Freedom of the Christian, actually says that the Christian is free, and he's free from all, but he's free so that he now is the slave of all. Now, we could actually go on on this theme because there are other passages, for instance, in Romans chapter seven, verses one to six, the apostle tells us that we, by our union with Christ, have died to the law, right? And so here's, so there's, so the marital union between us and the law is now violated, okay? And it's violated how? By a death. Once a death occurs, then the law has no more jurisdiction over the living spouse in that marital union. And then Paul tells us we've actually been joined to another, that is to Jesus Christ. So there is this break in our covenantal relationship to the law. And then Paul says this wonderful thing in Romans chapter seven and verse six, he says, so you've been freed from the law so that you can do what? So that you can serve in the spirit instead of the oldness of the letter all right and so we're set free we're redeemed in order to become servants second point we are equipped to serve Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4 love this passage We're just gonna pick it up in verse 11, and he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. Four, verse 12, what's the four doing? Purpose, purpose, it's stating the purpose. Here's the reason why Jesus, the head of his church, gives these gifts, these offices to his church for what? For the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. Now Paul goes on and he actually expands on that, but here's what you need to see, is that Jesus actually gifts his church in a way so that there are pastors and teachers who do what? Who equip you to do what? To actually do the work of service. Sometimes people will introduce me and they'll say, oh, this is Brian, he is a minister. Whatever. Here's the thing, is that you're all ministers, because a minister is actually just another way of saying a servant. And so what happens is, see this is the way we've read this, and actually the faulty punctuation of the King James had led many people to see that you have apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and what do they do? They equip the saints, and then they do the work of service. pastors and teachers. And so for a long time, churches would look at the pastors that they hire as being, these are the guys that we hire to do all the work. And that's not the way it works. I'm called to do what I do to equip you to do all the work. Seriously, that's the purpose. And so here we do Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, we do Wednesday nights, we do men's breath, we do all these different kinds of ministries of the word, and you can never complain that there's a shortage of teaching at Grace Community Church, right? Okay, you're not gonna starve. The only reason you're gonna starve is if you stay home, okay? So there's no reason to starve, so you're just fed, you're fed, you're fed, and you're equipped, and you're equipped to do what? Get really fat, lazy, and happy that you're at a place where you get fed so well, right? You're like, this is a buffet, and I, man, it's like all you can eat, and I go here and I just eat and eat and eat and get fatter and fatter and fatter and never do anything. By the way, if that is what's happening with you, by the appearance, it's happening to some. You are short-circuiting the very purpose for which pastors and teachers exist in the church. In other words, you're supposed to eat, you're supposed to be fed, you're supposed to be equipped so that you in turn can turn around and actually do work of service to build up the body. Whose primary responsibility is it to build up the body? It's actually yours. Our primary responsibility is to equip you to do that, but your responsibility is work of service, okay? All right. To me, it's actually completely plain. And what we've done is we create these massive divisions or distinctions where they don't exist in the Bible. There are different offices and there's different giftings, but that is not simply so that you can have two classes of Christians, the clergy and the non-clergy, or the laity. It's those that are gifted and called to this equip the rest to go out and do the work. That's just a Bible fact. Third, service Service is an expression of our faith and our love. Galatians chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5, verse 6. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. So you know what Paul's saying, right? And that is not only the ceremonial, the Mosaic law and submission to the Mosaic law, but the externals. So circumcision, uncircumcision, that's not what matters. He's gonna say in 6.15 that circumcision, uncircumcision don't mean anything, what matters is a new creation. Here what he says is, in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision, that is whether Jew or Gentile submitted to the external right or not submitted to the external right, doesn't mean anything. What matters is faith working through love. The way that you should read verse six, by the way, is for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. You take that means anything and actually then help, you take it over to the next clause so that the implication is, but what really matters, what really means something, is faith working through love. The Bible never teaches some sort of stagnant, static faith. It teaches a faith that actually works, a faith that actually manifests itself, and Paul says this faith is working, it's effective, it's producing through love. Now look at verse 13. For you were called to freedom, brethren, Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. So here's the way that it works. God opens our hearts. and gives us the gift of faith supernaturally by His Holy Spirit. And when God does that supernaturally and opens our hearts, we then, by faith, embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we embrace the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, we are declared righteous, our sins are forgiven, we're adopted into God's family, we're reconciled to God, We're redeemed, we're ransomed, we're forgiven. The whole package of salvation becomes ours through the instrumentality of faith, but then that very faith which justifies is the faith that begins to work itself out in our lives, not just vertically, but horizontally by loving other people. So the faith actually begins to work itself out and then what does that love look like? That love looks like serving one another. And so you have to understand this, that the doctrine of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone has the radical implication that you're not just a single repository in which the grace of God comes and then stops and settles, but rather you become a channel through which the grace and love and mercy of God comes and then begins to be manifested to other people. By the way, this is how people know you're one of his disciples. People are not gonna know you're Jesus' disciple because of a pro-life bumper sticker. And people are not gonna know you're one of Jesus' disciples simply because you watch Fox News. You're not gonna be recognized as one of Jesus' disciples because you carry the biggest Bible on the block. People are gonna recognize that you're Jesus' disciple because you're actually serving other people through love. That's the identification. That's the mark of the Christian. And so, we're saved to serve, we're equipped to serve, that service is an expression of our faith and our love. By the way, does not the apostle John warn us of actually loving in word only and not deed? And in fact, he says, how in the world can you then look at your brother and not meet those needs and then say the love of God abides in you? And so, little children, let us not love in word only but also in deed and truth. So love is concretely manifested as a fruit of our faith. Number four, service is empowered by the power of God. 1 Peter chapter four. It's funny, as I was looking at all these texts, we've covered all of these books of the Bible, Matthew, Ephesians, Galatians, 1 Peter. in just recent times. 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 10. As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks is to do so as the one speaking the utterance of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Here's how Christian service works. Christian service is not you standing in front of the mirror, psyching yourself out, getting yourself ready to go do something that you don't really want to do. Christian service is actually this. God has given you special abilities, special perspectives, special opportunities, and as those opportunities arise, his grace is going to be manifest through the way in which you meet those opportunities so that if it's a speaking opportunity or whether it's a serving opportunity, you're going to do it with the strength that God supplies. Why is that so important? It's so important because the one who supplies the strength gets the glory. And so, what act of service is possibly too hard for you if God promises to supply you the strength to do it? And so, the strength of Christian service is not the will and determination of the Christian, it is the strength that God Himself supplies. One last characteristic of our service, and that is our service should be done with zeal. All right? We read this in Romans 12. We're not lagging behind in diligence. We're fervent in spirit, literally boiling in spirit, serving the Lord. And so Joel Beek, he says, are you burning hot for the Lord? If you're zealous, you don't need a title or a personal invitation to serve. Why don't you serve? Well, I haven't been asked yet. If you're burning with enthusiasm for the Lord, guess what? You're serving. Right? You're just serving. You don't need to be asked. You don't need to be granted a special title. You don't need to be given lands and deeds in order to serve. You just go, you know what? I'm a servant, praise God. Look, there's an opportunity and you enthusiastically meet it. All right? So, we were saved to serve, equipped to serve. Service is an expression of our faith and love. Service is empowered by the power of God. Service should be zealous or done with zeal. And now, what does this service look like? So this is where I go from preaching to meddling. You ready? I heard two people say yes. God bless you. What does this service look like? Number one, it looks like this. I do not refuse to serve in certain situations because that's not where I scored on the spiritual gifts test. By the way, I think that our whole approach to spiritual gifts grossly and profoundly misunderstands the apostle, okay? Grossly and misunderstands the apostle Paul. But real service never takes the posture of saying, well, you know, it's not my ministry. Well, you know, that's not my gift. Well, you know, I'm not really very good at that. Here's the reality. Let me just break it down for us very, very simply. What does a service look like? It begins with this. We are already servants. What do servants do? They serve. And so a real servant looks for opportunities, sees an opportunity, and then meets the need in the body by fulfilling that opportunity. Now, it may be an opportunity that presents itself that is outside of our area of giftedness, okay? Or It may be in an area that is really our comfort zone because we do feel equipped there, but here's the bottom line. Whether you feel it's a strength or a weakness, servants simply serve. When a need comes up, if I am able, I seek to meet that need for the glory of God and for the good of my brothers and my sisters and my church family. That's what it is. And then notice I say, if I am able. If you ask me to help you move, I might say, I'd be more than happy to, but I'm going to have to take small boxes because back surgery kind of precludes me from helping you move your piano. Okay? All right? So, I'm not saying, here you are, you know, very feeble, can barely stand up, and somebody goes, hey, will you help me move? And you go, here's a service opportunity, and then you're crushed under a piano. That's not the idea here, all right? Now, I really, I hesitate to give suggestions because I will most surely overlook numerous things for which you will then justify not doing those things. All right, but let me just give you a list, okay, of just ways to serve. Maybe you've thought of these, maybe you're doing these. I know, I actually know many of you are doing these things. Visiting the elderly or the sick. Giving somebody a ride to a doctor's appointment. Helping out a stressed young mother with cleaning or babysitting. coming alongside somebody who is burdened and just simply praying with them. How's this? When it snows on a Lord's Day, a servant says, I'll get there early with a snow shovel. We eat together. something as mundane as helping set up tables and take down tables and clean the tables and Run the stragglers off from around those tables is an act of service You said well, you know what? I mean if I actually love to see our young men helping David Wetmore get in there and clean those tables. It is an act of service. You know why? Because it's a need, and it's a need that needs to be done. Because if we don't clean the tables and put them away, then we're going to have tables in the middle of the row. We're going to have tables out there. There's going to be food everywhere. We're going to have ants. Then if we have ants, then we're going to have to call the exterminator. If we call the exterminator, we're going to have to pay more money. And if we pay more money, then we're going to have to increase the budget. It's just a wonderful way to actually serve God's people. Okay? Here's another way. Bring extra food for lunch. That's service. How about becoming aware of somebody that has a financial need and just dropping a check in the benevolent offering with their name on it and just say, you know what, can you just pass this on to them? I don't need to be known. What about teaching Sunday school or teaching kids desiring God? There are ministries, there are works of service all around us. Most of the time, our service is not going to be the kind of formal service that has some sort of title in which we're invited to do something that puts us up front. That's the fact. The fact that most of our service doesn't look like that, we have to come to grips with, we're called to menial tasks. What about actually going and taking the class, men, and being qualified to go into prison? You go, well, I'm not called to preach. Well, I didn't say you were called to preach, but do you know how encouraged those men are when actually other men just show up to be able to talk with them before the service, after the service, and just minister to them? CPC. City of Refuge. One of the things that blesses me so much in our congregation is Wednesday by Wednesday, we will get prayer requests, humble prayer requests, not the kind of prayer request that says, hey, look at me, but the kind of prayer request that's given in humility by a couple of guys in our church that are always sharing the gospel with people. Always. And sometimes under the craziest of circumstances. You know, just opening your mouth on behalf of Jesus to somebody is an act of service. A week ago yesterday, we had the golf tournament for GCA and we had some guys that were in the golf tournament that weren't believers and in God's providence, they get paired up with guys that are just freely talking to them about the Lord. So how is my service an act of worship? Well, first of all, when I'm serving, I'm doing what God has redeemed me to do. And so as I do what God has redeemed me to do, God gets the glory. As I'm actually serving, laboring, helping, assisting, doing whatever needs to be done, God gets glory because I'm simply doing what He's called me to do as His child. When I am receiving the ministry of the Word with a grateful heart so that I can in turn give and serve, and when the love of God compels me to through faith serve, and when my service is dependent upon His grace and His strength, it's an act of worship. Think about this, here you're asked to do something, and you go, oh, I wish they wouldn't have asked me to do that. Oh, you know what, I just heard the other day that I need to say no more. And so here's my opportunity, and I'm just gonna tell them no, because I just don't feel comfortable doing that. Okay, so on the glory to God scale, what does that response do? How about this? Can you serve and help us do this?" And inside that sense of fear comes, like, oh, I feel so uncomfortable doing that. And you go, you know what? I don't know that I'd be very good at that, but I'll tell you what, because I believe in serving with the strength that God supplies, I'm going to go ahead and do that. and I'm gonna do it, and just trust God with the results. I might have 100 questions for you before I do it, and there you go, and you end up serving in the strength that God supplies. How much glory does God get? God is glorified when we actually step out and just say, Lord, I don't know that I can do this, but I know that you can give me the strength to do it, and so I'm gonna do it for your namesake, and that is an act of worship. And so I tell you this morning that there is great joy in serving. There is great liberty in putting others ahead of ourselves. That's Christian. putting others ahead of ourselves. God is worshipped and He's glorified in our service and good is done to one another. So here's the question, how am I serving in the body? Do I see myself actually as a servant or as one to be served? So if you are serving, and there are so many of you who are, you know the joy of, you know, here, Lord, I give myself away to all that I can do. The joy that comes from doing that, you know it, it is a liberating joy. But if you're not serving, if you kind of look at Grace Community Church, It's a preaching station. I go, I walk in, sit down, hear the sermon, and I leave. You're actually missing the very heartbeat of this local church, and you're robbing yourself and others of incredible blessing. Now, I have seven minutes left for worship and giving, which is probably not a good thing. Give. Amen. No. All right, so turn to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. By the way, just do me a favor. If you've actually ever benefited by being served from the people of Grace Community Church, raise your hand. That's what I thought. This is a loving, serving church. I praise God for you. Galatians 6, verse 6, the one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. Man, I love that text. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap from the Spirit eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we'll reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Let me just make a couple of comments, and then we'll see how this goes. First of all, the Bible presents giving as an act of service. So, giving is an act of service. For instance, Galatians 6.6, we support the work of the ministry by our giving. In other words, by giving, what we're doing is we are enabling the work of the ministry to go on. And in that sense, that is an act of service. But then, Galatians 6.10, we also help and minister to those who are in need, which is also an act of service. And so giving is a form of service, but giving is also a specific act of worship. So the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 3 verses 9 and 10, you are to honor the Lord from what? From your wealth, okay? Now, there's a promise in that passage that actually generosity breeds more generosity even from the Lord, all right? But here's the command, honor the Lord from your wealth. And so giving is an act of worship in that first and foremost, it is an act of obedience. So, my life, all of my life, including my money, is under the Lordship of Jesus. Do you believe that? If you believe that, then when we give, it's nothing less than a demonstration that He owns it all. You see, it's absolutely hypocritical to say, of course, all of my resources, all of my money, all of my wealth is under the Lordship of Jesus, and I'm not gonna give any of it away. That's pure hypocrisy. Actually, the demonstration that He is Lord, even over my checking account and my savings account and so forth, my income, the demonstration that He is Lord is that I obey Him and I give. Now, if you've been around for a long time, if you've been around for a short time, you'll know that I recoil from talking about giving, and I say that actually not to somehow build myself up. I say it to my shame. And the reason I say it to my shame is because the Bible is filled with teaching about giving. And I have recoiled from it thinking that if you talk too much about giving Borgman, if you talk about giving it all Borgman, except on very, very, very rare occasion, people are gonna think that the church is just about money. Here's the reality. You know this place is not about money. When was the last time anybody told you there were two offering boxes attached to the back walls for anything other than receiving your visitor cards? Huh? Actually, you can put visitor cards back in those boxes, but they exist to receive your tithes and offerings. And it is an act of obedience. And so what I'm saying, let me be abundantly clear. If you are not giving, you are, in the words of Malachi 2, robbing God. You are not honoring God with your wealth. And you go, wealth? Well, I don't have wealth. Oh yes, you do. Oh yes, you do. You want to see people that don't have wealth? go to the Sudan, or go to Zambia, or go to China, and guess what? They're givers. Why? Because we give out of what God provides, right? That's just the principle. So if you have a little, and you're the widow in Matthew chapter 12, Jesus actually says her gift of two cents is actually greater because she gave out of her lack. So here's the reality by the world standards every single person in this room. You're in a fluent person All right, and So we honor Lord is an act of obedience by giving Second it is an act of humble recognition of his sovereignty and his provision over our lives so listen to this this is this is David and You remember, David was responsible for gathering up all the materials that Solomon would then use to build the temple. And so, very interesting, warrior king, King David, in one of his last official acts as king over Israel, was a fundraiser. And the people brought so much that he could tell them, it's enough. And this is his prayer. He says, oh Lord, you are great, mighty, majestic, magnificent, glorious, and sovereign over all the sky and earth. You have dominion and exalt yourself as ruler of all. You are the source of wealth and honor and you rule over all. You possess strength and might to magnify and to give strength to all. Now our God, We give thanks to you and praise your majestic name. And then David says, but who am I? And who are my people that we should be in a position to contribute this much? Indeed, everything comes from you and we have simply given back to you what is yours. When you give, When you write a check, for instance, at Grace Community Church, put it in the offering box, you know what you're doing? You're simply giving back to God what He first gave you and is already His. It's that simple. Then David goes on and he says, he says, for we are resident foreigners and nomads in your presence like all of our ancestors. Our days are like a shadow on the earth without security. Oh Lord our God, all this wealth, that is all that had come in, which we have collected to build the temple for you to honor your holy name comes from you. It all belongs to you. You don't own anything. Everything you have comes from the living God. And you say, but you know what? I'm a, let's see, I don't think we have any brain surgeons here, right? I'm a brain surgeon. And I went through school. And I'm a smart person. I mean, after all, I'm a brain surgeon. I'm actually a cliche for brilliance, okay? I use my abilities to do brain surgery, and I make lots and lots and lots of money, of course, until Obamacare, but the money that I make is me doing what? Employing my abilities and my education, and yet somebody's forgetting something, namely Deuteronomy 7.17, that it is the Lord your God who has given you the power to make wealth. Where do you get the brains to become a brain surgeon? Where do you get the opportunities to go to school? Everything comes from Him. Everything from Him, through Him, unto Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Everything you have belongs to Him. And how do you express it? By giving. And so giving's an act of obedience. It's an act of humble recognition of His sovereignty and providence. It is an act of gratitude. In fact, there's a great passage, don't have time to look at it, 2 Corinthians 8, one and two, and Paul's talking about the poor Macedonians that are actually giving, and he says, you know, the great thing is is they receive the grace of God, and then they turn around, and they don't have anything, but you know what they did? Because they'd freely received grace, they in turn freely just gave stuff away to help the poor saints in Jerusalem. In other words, grace breeds gratitude. And so God gives us grace, grace frees our hearts so that our hearts overflow with liberality. So let's say you've got, let's say you've got 40 bucks in your pocket and you have a need in front of you that's gonna take 20 bucks and you're sitting there and now you don't need all 40, you know you don't need all 40 because you're just gonna blow the other 20 on coffee. All right, and so there you are, and you're thinking, okay, here's an opportunity for me to give, and so who's the person whose heart has been exploded by grace? The person that reaches in his pocket without thinking, and just says, here you go, it's yours, and it's yours because it was mine, but it wasn't mine because it was his, and now it's yours, and it's still his. Is that grace, or is this grace? You know how irritable I get if I don't get coffee? You know how coffee aids in my sanctification? If I'm not able to get the coffee that, you know, I'm sorry, I don't have anything. Where's the grace of God being demonstrated? Grace liberates us to be givers. Also, it's an act of faith in his provision. So the Philippians are poor, and yet they give to Paul in order to help the ministry. And Paul says to them in Philippians 4.19, my God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches and glory. Boy, little words matter. He's gonna supply your needs, how? According to His riches and glory. Paul could have said, from His riches and glory, but he says according to. In other words, God's standard of providing for His people is exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think. All right? So, if you're afraid to give because you don't know where the money's gonna come from next, guess what? That's unbelief. Here's a lesson for you young people. Mrs. Borgman and I have been married for like almost 100 years, okay? And back in like 1901, we were struggling. You've heard living paycheck to paycheck? You've heard that, right? Some of you know the reality of it even now. Paycheck to paycheck. We heard a sermon in Gresham, Oregon about tithing. And we'd given regularly to our church, but it was as we could. And we made the determination after that service that we were gonna give. And we were gonna give 10% of next to nothing. And on paper, that 90% was unlivable. But guess what? God operates according to different mathematical standards. And in God's economy, I can promise you, it is easier to live off of ninety percent than to try to live off of the hundred percent. Now, when you give You're doing something. You're saying, you know what? God's the one that takes care of me. Do you believe that? Or do you believe it's the person that cuts your paycheck? It's God who takes care of you. And so it is an act of joyful worship to give and we should actually, God doesn't want us begrudging. Don't wanna give this, I wanted to buy a new gun. God says, I want you to be a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9, 7, who does God love? God loves a cheerful giver. God loves a person that just says, Lord, I'm so happy to be able to do this. I'm just doing it beyond my ability because I know you're gonna provide for my needs. And God says, I love that. I love the joy of people just saying, I wanna be like my father and just give, God's a giver. And so Jesus says, Acts 20, 35, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And so when our hearts are right, giving brings us joy and gladness. So when God saves us, he makes us worshipers and he makes us worshipers by making us servants and givers. And you're a giving church. You're a giving church. A Christian who doesn't serve or doesn't give is either grossly disobedient or seriously self-deceived. So to those of you who serve faithfully and give generously, may your joy increase as you abound all the more in service and giving. To those, you don't really do either, or at least you don't do either very well, just evaluate yourself. Just sit down and with courage, just ask the Lord, please, Lord, help me evaluate my priorities, my attitudes of my heart. Lord, deal with whatever obstacles are in me, whether it's unbelief or covetousness or greed or just my time is my idol. Just deal with those obstacles. and free me, free me to be the person you've called me to be. That kind of life brings about joy unspeakable, full of glory. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would work mightily in our midst. Father, we thank you so much for what you've accomplished in this local assembly of your people. Father, what a serving, loving, giving group of people you've assembled together. And Father, for those that do so and do so with gladness, Father, we pray that you would increase their joy, increase their opportunities. And Father, for those that aren't there, we pray you give them eyes to see how much they're robbing themselves of the joy that's in you as we're the people you call us to be. Father, we pray that we would practice this even today. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.