Sunday Message Summary, 22 January 2023
Christ came not to give us Christianity, but to give us a Kingdom. In the Kingdom we do not do as we please, while in Christianity everyone does as they please. The Kingdom operates on principles, and requires and enforces discipline. The rules are set in place in the Kingdom and cannot be changed, and if we mess up Kingdom principles, we mess up our own lives. In the Kingdom, all that give are blessed by GOD, but we must do as we are told, as only obedience receives blessings. As a result, there are Kingdom principles of giving, which include the following:
1. We give to worship, to honor, and to please the King: GOD is royalty, He is King, and giving appeases and pleases Him (Philippians 4:18). We must please the King, so giving a gift to the King is both an expectation and a requirement. As is the case with earthly kingdoms, one does not appear before the King empty-handed (Exodus 23:15). This is the protocol of royalty that every kingdom derives from the Kingdom of GOD. When Jesus was born, wise men from the East came to worship and pay homage to the King by giving and presenting gifts from their treasures (Matthew 2:1-2,11). They had knowledge, wisdom and understanding of royal protocol.
2. Giving that GOD wants comes from the heart. It is relational, and not mechanical nor routine: We are not giving to make GOD rich, but giving is a principle. GOD made all creation, so He is rich and not needy. Importantly, GOD has never called for giving from those who are not His, so to give to GOD we must foremost give ourselves to Him. Before we give to GOD we must be surrendered and consecrated before Him (Romans 12:1), otherwise our giving is in vain, being heartless (Matthew 15:8-9).
3. When we give to GOD, we attract His favor and generosity: When we give, we are also given in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over (Luke 6:38). This is the King’s generosity, liberality, abundance, and magnanimity in response to our giving. Furthermore, GOD will cause people to give to us, and He will give us divine enablement (2 Corinthians 9:7-8). This is favor. The same measure that we use will be measured back to us, so our harvest is in proportion to the seed we have sown (2 Corinthians 9:6). However, when GOD gives to us, He gives according to His riches (Philippians 4:19), and we cannot quantify God’s riches and resources, because we cannot quantify omnipotence.
4. Whatever we give to GOD, He outgives us: Whatever we do for GOD, GOD will always outdo us, so He will always give us far much more than what we have given Him. As an example of Kingdom giving, when the queen of Sheba came to see King Solomon, she gave abundantly to Solomon out of principle, out of honor and humility (2 Chronicles 9:1,9). However, when Solomon gave in return to the queen of Sheba, he outgave her, giving much more than she had brought to him (2 Chronicles 9:12). The greater kingdom always must outdo the lesser kingdom. What a king gives reflects his glory, so the King cannot do for us what is despisable (1 Kings 10:13). If we knew this, we would want to give every day. There is nothing we can ask from GOD that He cannot give us, but if we want out needs to be met, we must give to GOD.
5. It matters to GOD what we give and how we give it: Giving is not giving because we have abundance, but GOD looks at the heart. When Jesus looked at how people were giving to the treasury, the rich gave much by quantity, but the widow gave much by value/quality (Mark 12:41-44). The rich did not give as much as they could, so it cost them nothing and it did not matter to them. Value is therefore in proportion to what we have. It is the price we put on our gift that determines the value of the one that we honor. Value is the price of honor. If we honor someone, it will cost us something (1 Chronicles 21:24). What we give to GOD and how we give it shows us where our values are at. Honor is the sacrifice one is willing to pay. Furthermore, when we give to GOD what is meaningful, this is what defeats poverty and lack in our lives, and thus provokes the devil (Mark 14:3-9). Giving is more than just giving, but the same measure that we use will be measured unto us. So, do we give GOD cheap and keep the expensive for ourselves? Do we give the old to GOD and keep the new to ourselves? Do we give GOD second-hand and keep first-hand to ourselves? Do we give GOD what we need, or do we give GOD what we don’t need anymore? Do we give GOD what we still want, or what we don’t want anymore? Giving that honors GOD is when we give what we love, need, want and what costs us.
Giving that honors GOD is when we give what we love, need, want and what costs us.
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