I. Introduction

A. Illustration - Pastor Bob Russell wrote, Once, in a ssermon on hoarding, I pointed out the foolishness of waiting until we die to give our children their inheritance. I explained, "When we die, our children will be in their 50s or 60s. They likely won't need our money then! And so, until their deaths, they hoard it from our grandchildren. "The time to help our children is when they're young and need the money. Our children will actually benefit from it, and we can hear them thank us instead of wondering if they quietly hope we croak early! And since we can transfer as much as $10,000 per child annually without the recipients paying taxes on the gift, it's wiser to transfer resources when we're living." Several weeks after the sermon I received a thank you letter from a young couple whose parents happened to be visiting that weekend. The wife explained that after hearing the sermon her parents sent her and her brother checks for $6,000. Nothing even close to that had ever happened before! The young woman wrote, "My brother and I call that the $6,000 sermon! Please preach more sermons on stewardship—especially when my parents are in town!" (as cited on PreachingToday.com)

B. This morning we’re continuing our series called Trauma Care for the Soul by focusing on a discipline that’s tough for all of us – the spiritual discipline of giving. We tend to think that, if we pop a check in the offering from time to time, we’ve fulfilled our calling to give. We forget that giving isn’t really giving until it’s sacrificial.

C. Illustration - Oswald Chambers wrote, (NEW SLIDE)<> The meaning of sacrifice is the deliberate giving of the best I have to God that He may make it His and mine for ever: if I cling to it, I lose it, and so does God (as cited on PreachingToday.com). Sacrificial giving doesn’t mean that we put on our best martyr faces and that the pain of giving is practically killing us. It doesn’t mean that we’ve got to be emotionally distraught over what we’ve given. But this discipline of giving does mean that we sacrifice what we would have used for ourselves to God and His purposes. Jesus gives us a good idea of what it’s all about in Luke 6:37-38, and I’m reading from the New Living.

D. Luke 6:37-38 from the New Living – (NEW SLIDE) Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. Stop criticizing others, or it will all come back on you. If you forgive others, you will be forgiven. (NEW SLIDE) 38 If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving – large or small – it will be used to measure what is given back to you.

II. Giving Costs Everything

A. The principle Jesus is explaining here could possibly be expressed as “what goes around comes around.” But that would be too simplistic. Jesus is telling us that giving involves more than just money – it involves everything we have and are. It involves giving up our rights to judge and criticize and exact revenge on others. It involves giving our all, not because of what we’ll get back, but because of our love for Who we’re giving to. It isn’t a principle of exact returns – in other words, if we write a check for $200 we’ll get $200 back. (NEW SLIDE) Giving as Jesus calls us to give means He’ll take care of all of our needs – physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, and social. We give our best in order to receive His best. There is no set rule for how much of ourselves and our wealth to give. C.S. Lewis wrote, "I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare" (as cited on Preaching.com). (NEW SLIDE) The Law of Moses required many tithes and offerings. In fact, the average Israelite gave somewhere between forty and fifty percent of his income to God. In return, God promised to meet their needs.

B. That’s exactly what Jesus is saying in our passage from Luke. Jesus says that what we do has a definite impact, not only for today, but also for eternity. If we judge others, God will judge us. If we criticize others, God will criticize us. If we refuse to forgive others, God will refuse to forgive us. The meaning of verse thirty-seven is plain and obvious to us. So why do we try so hard to fudge on verse thirty-eight? We like the receiving to overflowing part, but we forget that first we have to give God our everything. But as Augustine wrote, (NEW SLIDE) "Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure; where your treasure is, there is your heart; where your heart is, there is your happiness" (as cited on Preaching.com). Do we really want our happiness, our fulfillment in life, to be tied up in what we choose not to give? Do we really want to face God at judgment day and have Him ask us why we didn’t use what He gave us for His glory and to bring people into His Kingdom? I’m not trying to be negative here; I’m trying to help us to see the truth as God sees it. All of us will have to answer to God for how we’ve used the gifts He has given us.

C. So how do we have a change of thinking in this area of giving? We’ve got to begin by getting back to the truth of who a bondslave is. We went through this a couple of months ago, but we need to review. The word we translate “bondslave” in the Greek is “doulos.” A doulos had no rights, no possessions, no property. A doulos had no time that was personal time. A doulos had only what the master gave to him or her. The life of a doulos was completely in the master’s hands. (NEW SLIDE) If we begin to take the attitude of a doulos toward everything we are and have, then we begin to realize that everything we are and have belongs to God, and it has always belonged to God. The only way we can try to take possession of and grab onto what isn’t ours is if we forget that we are a doulos. 1 Corinthians 7:23 says, God purchased you at a high price. Don’t be enslaved by the world. We are slaves of Christ. Everything we are and have was bought with His blood. We can’t expect to be able to hold back on giving and have God let it slide. We cost Him too much. In return, He demands our everything. (NEW SLIDE) If we won’t make the necessary adjustments to our lives in order to give Him everything, He will make adjustments to our lives. As Peter Marshall wrote, "Give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving" (as cited on Preaching.com).

III. Five Areas to Give from

A. If we’re serious about striving to live out of the truth that everything belongs to God and that we’ve got to give it back to Him, there are five areas we’ve got to get in the habit of giving from. Those five areas are money, time, resources, talents and relationships.

B. (NEW SLIDE) First, God calls us to give Him back His money. We’re really only stewards of it anyway. God graciously allows us the use of it to meet our needs and even a few of our wants. But He also wants us to give money to promote His Kingdom and His causes. That includes, but is not limited to, tithing. Read Malachi 3 sometime. The people of Israel were cutting their own throats by refusing to give their tithes and offerings back to Him, because their refusal kept Him from being enabled to meet their needs. That may sound a little strange, but that is how God chooses to work. (NEW SLIDE) When we don’t give ten percent off the top to our local church, plus give to special offerings and support missionaries and other Christian causes, we keep God from being enabled to meet our needs. Think about the ministry that we would be enabled to do if only every person in our church tithed! And think about how much more we could do if everyone gave to special offerings! We have an opportunity to give coming up with our special offering for a portable baptistery. Before I talk more about that, I’d like LINDA POWELL to come up and share what being baptized meant to her. If we’re serious about living up to our name and being evangelistic, we’ve got to place a higher priority on baptisms than we do now by purchasing our own portable baptistery. Our goal is twenty-five hundred dollars, and Kim and I have pledged the first hundred. However, in a recent study Christian pollster George Barna found that only nine percent of born again Christians, as identified by a specific definition, gave at least ten percent of their income to churches during 2004. Step up to the plate and break that trend by helping our church fulfill the vision God has for us by giving the full tithes and offerings for His cause and His Kingdom.

C. (NEW SLIDE) Second, God calls us to give back to Him His time. Time really is a precious commodity. We live within the limits of time, yet we have a God Who exists outside the limitations of time. So why is time important to Him? Simple. We are finite beings with a finite amount of time. Only God knows how long each one of us will live, so only He really knows just how valuable the time He has given us is. There is a rather interesting pattern in the Bible. Those who followed God wholeheartedly spent a lot of time doing His will, and when they decided to spend time their own way they got into trouble. Look at the life of David. As long as he operated on God’s time and did God’s will, he did great. But when he chose to do things his own way, he committed adultery and murder. The same pattern is repeated in many lives in the Bible. (NEW SLIDE) Remember – a doulos does not have time of his or her own. It all belongs to the master. How would God have us spend the time He gives us? There are obvious answers like working, teaching our families about Him, going to church and Sunday School. How about rest and recreation? That’s what God created the Sabbath for. What about daily prayer and Bible study? What about other spiritual disciplines? Yes to all of them, and more. God calls us to spend time helping others, building relationships, reaching out to share His good news, and serving in the church. Merely showing up on Sunday mornings and calling it good doesn’t work. God expects the best from us – He expects us to give back His time to Him. Take some time this week to get some paper, chart out your week and how you plan to spend the time He’s given you. Then make any and all adjustments necessary to give God back the time He wants from you.

D. (NEW SLIDE) Third, God calls us to give back to Him His resources. Now wait a minute – didn’t we just talk about money? Yes, but all of us have more than money at our disposal. We have stuff. We have homes – yes, we may rent them, but they are still at our disposal. We have cars and trucks. You get the point. We talked a couple of weeks ago about the fact that we could get rid of most of our stuff and never even miss it. God often calls us to use the resources He’s given us in His service. That may mean giving to those who need something we’ve got. It may mean giving stuff to a needy ministry, or giving it for resale to benefit a ministry. It may mean giving rides to those who need them, or as Ed does, driving for Meals on Wheels. It may mean hauling stuff around for others who don’t have pickups. There are lots of possibilities, and most of them also tie into how God wants us to use the time He’s given us. (NEW SLIDE) What keeps popping into my mind is the last part of Romans 12:1 – When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Yes, it may inconvenience us, because God’s call frequently interrupts our plans for our time and our stuff. But, ultimately, when we consider what He did for us, isn’t it worth it? Give God back the resources He’s entrusted to you, and you’ll never regret it.

E.(NEW SLIDE) Fourth, God calls us to give back to Him the talents He’s given us. We’ve all been given gifts and abilities that enable us to be effective in the work of God’s Kingdom. Yet most Christians rarely if ever use these talents in His work. All that a doulos could do was at the service of his or her master. A good master would never expect a doulos to do anything that was outside of his or her abilities. If earthly masters had that kind of consideration for the doulos, doesn’t it make sense that God would have even more? (NEW SLIDE) God knows us infinitely better than we could even know ourselves – He created us. And He never, ever calls us to do anything that we aren’t gifted to do. Yes, there will always be somebody who is more gifted than we are, but God doesn’t expect us to live up to their level of giftedness – He expects us to live up to our own level of giftedness. When we refuse to use the gifts He’s entrusted to us as He calls us to, we’re calling Him a liar. We’re telling Him that what He knows and says about us isn’t true. Do we really want to have to face up to that on judgment day? Do we really want to have to look at Him knowing that we didn’t do what He created and called us to do? Do we really want to have to stand before Him and hear about how many people He wanted to reach but couldn’t because we refused to do our part? Again, I’m not trying to be negative – I’m just trying to get us to face up to the truth. People are not being saved and their lives are not being transformed because we refuse to use the talents God has given us the way He wants us to. It’s time for us to buck up and stop making excuses. It’s time for us to give the talents He’s given us back to Him to use for His glory.

F. (NEW SLIDE) Fifth, God calls us to give back to Him the relationships He’s given us. How’s that supposed to work? A couple of ways. We give our current relationships back to Him when we allow His Spirit to control them. We become servants to each other. We put the needs and preferences of others ahead of our own. (NEW SLIDE) We allow His redemptive power to transform our relationships into ones that honor Him. We also give relationships back to Him by opening ourselves up to new relationships with the people He brings into our lives. I know that’s a bit of a tough one because we have a lot of time and emotional energy invested in our current relationships. But how are others going to know the power of God working in our lives if we don’t build relationships with them? How are others going to have their hearts and lives transformed for Christ if we’re not taking the risk of befriending them and disciplining them? I know it’s hard to open yourself up to others because you get hurt at times when you open yourself up. I know – every week I bare my heart in my preaching and there are times when some folks who don’t want to obey the calling of God on their hearts and lives use what I’ve shared against me. Anyone who’s ever preached or taught or led a small group knows what I’m talking about. Yet God is the God who heals us so we can share His love even when we get hurt. We have no excuse not to give the relationships He’s given us back to Him, for only He can redeem them.

IV. Seven-Eleven Theology Applied to Giving

A. One basic truth in all this is that there is no way we can out-give God. As the Scripture says, the more we give, the more God will pour His blessings out on us. He will give us everything we need, IF we will trust Him by giving to Him what He calls us to. To illustrate the point, I’ll be calling for volunteers one at a time to come up and hold my 7-11 cups.

B. First, we have the Gulp, the 16 oz. cup. In terms of giving, let’s say that this is something like going to church a couple of times a month and occasionally putting something in the offering.

C. Then we have the Big Gulp, 32 oz. This would be something like going to church more Sundays than not and putting something in the offering four or five times a year.

D. Next is the Super Big Gulp, 44 oz. This would be something like going to church practically every Sunday, putting something in the offering most months, and even sometimes going to Sunday School.

E.Now comes the Extreme Gulp, a 52 oz. insulated cup. This would be those who go to church just about every Sunday, goes to Sunday School just about every Sunday, and puts something in the offering every month. They may even do a little something in the church every so often, maybe donating some stuff occasionally and having a few friends in the church.

F. Next is a big one, the Double Gulp, 64 oz., almost as much as a two liter bottle. These folks go to church and Sunday School every week, tithe or come close to it, do some things in the church, give some stuff to those who need it, and have some friends in the church. These are pretty good folks and are fairly committed to Christ. They probably even read their Bibles a few days a week and pray for a few minutes every day. But this isn’t the top level. The American Church would like to think that this is as good as it gets, but God’s got another level.

G. The final level – the big, insulated, 100 oz. cup. These are the folks who are sold out for Christ, and their lives show it. Not only do they participate in Sunday School and church, but they use their talents for God’s glory wherever He calls them in the service of the church. They tithe, and give over and above the tithe regularly to special offerings, missionaries and other needs. They generously give whatever they have to those who need it. They continually work on building and maintaining accountable relationship within the church, while befriending those who need it. Their time is not their own, but is at God’s disposal whenever He calls. They are actively involved in a love relationship with Jesus Christ by spending daily quality time in Bible study, prayer and other spiritual disciplines. They live out the modern expression of a doulos of Christ.

H. Now I don’t know about anybody else, but I want to be the 100 oz. Christian. I still feel like I get hung up too much of the time at the Double Gulp level, even sometimes dipping into the Super Big Gulp level in some areas of my life. The crux of the matter is this: what level of Christian do you want to be? Do you want to be a Gulp Christian, or a 100 oz. Christian? ‘Cause if you’re not striving for 100, eventually you’ll slip back down to the Gulp. Thank you volunteers. You can put the cups down on the table and go back to your seats.

I. (NEW SLIDE) Giving costs, and giving at the level Christ is calling us to, the 100 oz. level, costs us a lot. But as Mother Teresa wrote, "If you give what you do not need, it isn't giving" (as cited on Preaching.com). Folks, when we give what we need back to God, He will give us everything we truly need.

V. Conclusion

A. Please bow your heads and close your eyes out of respect for each other’s privacy. What’s God been speaking to your heart this morning? What level of Christian are you right now? Are you Gulp, Big Gulp, Super Big Gulp, Extreme Gulp, or even Double Gulp? What is standing between you and becoming a 100 oz. Christian? Let’s spend a few quiet moments listening to the Holy Spirit whisper to our hearts.

B. What’s God been speaking to your heart? If the desire of your heart today is to surrender to God’s call to give your everything as a 100 oz. Christian, then raise your hand as a sign of that surrender, and I’ll pray for you. Let’s pray.