Proverbs 11:24–25

0:00 Good evening, church. Well, if any of y'all like me had the great honor of being here earlier in the week during VBS, you would see this whole room kind of transformed and looking different than what you had ever seen it looking before. My daughter, Chaney Jo, is four, and it was her first year to be able to go to VBS, something that me and Kayla, my wife, were so excited about.

0:30 We tried to talk it up, tried to tell her about how great VBS is going to be until Monday night came around, and it was time for her to finally go to her very first VBS. And she didn't want to leave. She didn't want to go. If you would have asked her what she wanted to do that night, it wouldn't have been to go to VBS. It would have been to stay home and watch Paw Patrol. don't get me started on on paw patrol see she didn't want to let go of what she thought she wanted what she really wanted even though her father knew that what what was in store for her if she let go of that promise of paw patrol what was in store for her was a night filled with fun singing with crafts with snacks that she would love and with hearing god's word teached something that would be good for her and good for her own soul. And it got me thinking that oftentimes we find ourselves in the same place in our own lives. How often is it that we

1:36 do this with our own resources, with the own things that God has given us? We hold on to what we have, not wanting to let anything go. But if we let it go, we would be able to see just how much more our Father has in store for us. We're going to think through along these lines tonight in our passage in Proverbs 11 verse 24 and 25. It's on page 535 of your pew Bible if you want to open up there. So Proverbs 11 verses 24 and 25. It's also on the front of your bulletin. One gives freely yet grows all the richer. Another withholds what he should give and only suffers want.

2:25 Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. The main idea of the sermon tonight is, I pray, the main idea of what this passage is. It's that as a Christian, it is good for your soul to be generous with the resources that God has given to you. As a Christian, it is good for your soul to be generous with what God has given to you.

2:59 So that's right. For the second time today, you're going to hear someone preach about money, and I'm sure everyone here is excited about that. I know, I understand that many times it can feel uncomfortable whenever someone is preaching about money there may be a lot of reasons behind that but the truth is the bible has a lot to say about money and ignoring or skipping over verses that have to say about our our resources our money our time etc would be really to rob ourselves of the great wisdom that God has for us and how to order our lives in order to glorify God and to live in this life in a wise way. So it's my hope that we spend some time together tonight looking at our passage and thinking biblically together about money. And not only money, but thinking about all of the different resources that God has given us. And then specifically, how do we be generous with those resources that God has given us, and especially in the context of the local church and

4:05 and of gospel ministry. Because the reality is, all of us are just stewards. We have each been entrusted with money, time, energy, talents, relationships, education, careers. And it is God that has given those to us in order to glorify God with and not to build up ourselves with. Not to use to build us up, but to glorify God. And part of glorifying God with our resources is to be generous with our resources. So that being said, there's going to be two points to the sermon tonight. So why and how? Why? Why be generous? And then how? How can we be generous?

4:51 So first, why? Well, there are many reasons I can go into about why we should be generous. And Ryan did an excellent job this morning talking about many of those reasons. I can, you know, reasons to be generous is, like I said earlier, God ultimately owns our money. We're just stewards. So who are we to tell God what he can or cannot do with what he's given us? It glorifies God whenever we give. God commands it, so giving is an act of obedience.

5:22 But our passage tonight is mainly focusing on what we get out of giving. That might sound a little odd, but let's look at our passage. We see they're being contrasted here, right? Both giving and what happens whenever we withhold. So one gives freely and yet grows all the richer. whoever withholds what he should give and suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched and the one who waters will himself be watered. Now I want to pause here because I know for many of us this might sound perilously close to the prosperity gospel. But also why is that? Why is that whenever we hear the Bible talk about blessing or enriching that we think someone's up here preaching the prosperity gospel well i think it's probably because our our ears are

6:26 tuned to hear words like enriching and blessing and view that through the lens of our culture not through the lens of the bible so if this proverb is not saying is turning our giving into an equation that if you give x dollars god will then give you x plus y dollars no it's not saying that it's it's not saying that at all because we serve a God who's who's far more interested in your eternal good than than your financial good it is true that God may choose to bless people monetarily but God is way more interested in your faith and than in your bank account. Giving grows our faith in Jesus Christ, and refusing to give grows our faith in ourselves.

7:18 How does that happen? Well, first, when we give, we have an opportunity to declare to the world and also to ourselves what we value. It is an opportunity literally to put our money where our mouth is. And on the flip side of that, that's true as well. Whenever we do not give, we're declaring what we value there as well. This September, me and my wife, we're going to celebrate seven years of marriage. And also in September, if anyone knows, I think the Monster Jam monster truck show is coming to town. So whenever September rolls around and our anniversary is here, what would it say to my wife and to those around us that how I value her if instead of putting on a suit, buying flowers, setting up a babysitter, I take my wife to a nice dinner, if instead I call up Quinn Cook and I ask him to go to the monster truck rally

8:23 with me well that would say a lot about what I thought about my wife right so likewise what does it say about us and what we think of the bride of Christ whenever we're spending more money on Amazon each month with impulse buying what sounds fun than we give to our church or what does it say that we think about the great commission whenever starbucks ends up getting more of our paycheck than our supported workers that we've sent overseas or what does it say we think about our our brothers and sisters in christ that we have covenanted together with whenever we spend more mental energy thinking through what next we're going to watch and binge on Netflix than we do pausing to pray whenever an urgent prayer request comes across in our emails. I want to encourage each of us tonight to take a moment and stop

9:31 to think what our resources and how we use our resources says about what we value. Another way that giving can grow our faith is that giving, it grows our faith by giving us an opportunity to rely on God. While not giving grows our faith in ourselves. When we give, you rely on God to still care for your needs.

10:02 When we do not give, we're robbing ourselves the opportunity to grow in our trusting and good Savior. Now, am I saying that you should stop paying the electricity bill or stop buying groceries in order to give more to the church? No, that is absolutely not what I'm saying. That's not what Ryan was saying earlier today as well. All of this needs to be done in wisdom and in wise counsel. And is it a wise thing to not pay your mortgage or not pay your electricity bill?

10:34 Absolutely not. But is there some other area of your life where you might be able to cut back on in order to be more generous with the resources God has given you? And that leads me to my next point, thinking about how. How can we be generous with what God has given us? Well, I'd like us to think together just a few kind of practical ways of thinking through how we can be generous with what God has given us.

11:05 So first, recognize that your resources are far more than just your money. I touched a little bit on this earlier, but when we think about being generous, we want to think about being generous with more than just our money. Yes, giving monetarily is important. That is a command in Scripture, and we want to be obedient to what God says in his word. But there are far more resources that we have to give as well.

11:37 And this is something that, honestly, I think our church is exceedingly good at. I think of earlier this week during VBS, I think I heard a number, something around 80 people, 80 members of this church volunteering. That comes out to about, I don't know, someone can check me on my math, about one in eight people volunteering to VBS. that is an astounding ratio of people willing to give up their time to serve the children in our church. I think of all of the countless times people have paused to pray for their brothers and sisters, whether that's coming here Sunday night, spending time in prayer, or praying whenever an email comes through the unofficial email list and sending out a quick reply saying that you're praying for them. Or how many food trains have been set up when people, whether in their most ecstatic time or the most heart-rendering time in their lives, this church does such a good job of

12:38 loving them and sharing their resources with others. So being generous means more than just giving money. You have more resources than just your bank account. And second, the second way that of how we can be generous is by budgeting your money and sticking to that budget so show of hands who all gets excited whenever they think about budgeting yeah okay more than I thought that's great I thought I would be the only one to raise my hand there is I cannot stress enough especially if you're in college here I know we have a lot of college students just how important it is to have the regular rhythm of sitting down with your budget and planning out what your obligations and what your priorities are. So sit down, look at your budget, think through those. What do I value and how do I plan to spend according to that? There's something that happens when we sit down

13:43 and actually start to budget. You realize where your priorities are and you begin to see the areas that you can cut back on in order to make room in your budget for those priorities. So plan. Plan and budget. Budget to give generously in whatever way that may look like for you financially. Go so far as to sit down, come with a budget, and even write down that number that you want to give first, and then look and see how can I organize the rest of my life around being able to be generous with this. As Ryan said earlier this morning, as he talked about prioritizing our giving, I think that's even important as well. As you sit down, as you budge, even think through how do I prioritize how I be generous. Ryan was spot on whenever he said that first I think we

14:44 always need to prioritize giving to our local church. I think there's a biblical precedent for that. Second, I think we prioritize giving to gospel ministry, giving to our missions partners, giving to across campus, taking, I don't think he's here tonight, but taking Greg Tarr out for dinner, hearing about the work he's going to be doing in England, and then leaving him with a big fat check to help him get across the pond over there. And then third, after we've planned how to give to our church, how to give to support gospel ministry, if we still have room to give, plan on giving generously to be a blessing to others. I'd encourage you all, think about it in terms of having your own benevolence fund, just how our church has a benevolence fund, and our elders do a faithful job of of helping meet needs in the life of the church you can do that in your own budget as well it doesn't take that much money just a few dollars a week to think through how can

15:48 I be a blessing to brothers and sisters in Christ and whenever you do that what you'll find yourself doing is as you see needs arise you're able to meet those more quickly because you know I've already planned to meet this before i even knew this brother or this sister was in need now that's probably far much more uh about budgeting than anyone had uh had planned on getting tonight so i will move on to something that is infinitely more exciting than a excel spreadsheet lastly christian whenever we think about how to give generously look to christ as our example on how to give our part of our passage this morning in second corinthians chapter eight verse nine it says for you know the grace of our lord jesus christ that though he was rich Yet for your sake, he became poor, so that you might, by his poverty, become rich.

16:54 When you think about how to give, what better example is there than to look to our Savior, who gave his very life for us, for you? Think of what he sacrificed for you. Christian, when you find yourself wanting to hold on to your resources instead of letting them go, look to Christ's example and think of Christ's sacrifice. And if you're here tonight and you're not a Christian here today, what I do not want you to take away from this sermon is how you should give to God.

17:36 Though my prayer for you today, if you don't know Jesus, is that you would take time to consider what God gave for you in his son, Jesus Christ. If you don't know Christ, God does not want your money. He most certainly does not need your money. But what he wants is a relationship with you. What he wants is your faith. And the only way that you can have a relationship with God is by placing your faith in Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life that you could not live, died a death that you deserved, and then rose from the grave so that if you place your faith in him, he will conquer sin and death for you.

18:28 You know, if you ask my daughter at the very end of VBS Thursday night, if she was glad she went to VBS, she would have given an astounding and enthusiastic yes. And as I was laying her down to go to bed that night, Thursday night, what do you think was more likely to be going through her mind? I don't think it was, I wish I had more time today to watch Paw Patrol. i think it was i wish i had more time today to have gone to vbs likewise we'll all reach the end of our lives one day and stand before our lord to give an account of how we've used our resources i don't think a single one of us will think i wish i had more to spend on myself but i think we'll all say i wish i had more to get to god Let's pray.

19:34 Lord, we thank you, God, for the many, many good gifts that you have given us, that you have entrusted to us to be faithful with, Lord. We pray that us as a church and us individually would be faithful to you and all the many resources that you have given us, God. May we give freely and generously for your kingdom, God. You are king of our resources, and you are king of our lives, and you are a worthy king, God.

20:08 And we thank you, Lord. Please be with us this week as we go about our work, whether it's out of work, at home, at school, whatever it is, Lord. May we dwell on your word and how we can be generous with it. In Christ's name, amen.