I Give Up: Week 5 - Blessed to Give!

Tim Ross | August 29, 2021

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Transcription

All right. We've been in a series called I Give Up. In this series, we've been talking about giving. The reason why we've used the double entendre I give up is because you have to give up the way that you've been thinking about what is in your hands before you can actually give it up to God. The first three weeks, I talked about tithing. The last two weeks, I've been talking about giving, I want to continue. Well, actually this is the second week on giving. I want to continue talking about giving and I want to read you a passage of scripture, but I'm just going to jump right in and give you the title of the message first then read the scripture so that I can pray and go right into it. Is that all right?

This is going to be a very simple message. Say it with me. A very simple message. Again, a very simple message. One more time, a very simple message. The reason why I want to tell you that upfront is because I don't want nobody by the end of the message is going, "That was just simple." Spoiler alert, it's going to be simple, but sometimes the simplest things we need to be reminded of the most. Any parents in here that got kids that have already grown out of this baby stage? Aren't you saying the most simple things to your kids every day? Brush your teeth.

I told you yesterday. They're still in there. Do it again. If you have boys, lift the seat up. Every day, lift the seat up and put it back down

All the mummies and their daughters said Amen.

The simplest stuff has to be repeated all the time. In this message, I want to give you something that is actually very, very simple, but I think it bears repeating because if you don't have the context to it, and if you're not reminded of it, sometimes we can just drift off and we never realize I have something to give to God every single day. I have an offering to give to God every single day. If you're taking notes on this message, three words, please write it down, blessed to give. You and I have been blessed to give.

Whether you realize it or not, whether you know it or not, God has given you a resource to be a blessing to the body of Christ. God has put something in your hands and something in your heart to be able to bless other people all around you. I want to prove that through scripture, but I want to read a verse that is spectacular to me. The reason why this particular verse that I'm about to read is so special to me is because it is a quote from Jesus that is not found in the gospels. It is not found in Matthew, it is not found in Mark, it is not found in Luke, it is not found in John, it is actually found and identified in the book of Acts and I think there's a reason why it's there.

Here's what it says in Acts 20:33. Paul is writing, "I have never coveted anyone's silver or gold or fine clothes." Never been caught up on that. "I know that these hands of mine have worked to supply my own needs and even the needs of those who are with me, and I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord, Jesus, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' " These words are in red. If you have it in your Bible or up on an app, these words would appear in red. He literally says these are the words of Jesus, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Now, this is not something that he heard or saw written in the book of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, but in the book of Acts, this quote about Jesus is in red. He says, "This is the word of the Lord Jesus. It is far more blessed to give than it is to receive." Why in the book of Acts and not in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, The Gospels? Why wasn't it recorded there? How come? Did anybody else miss it? Why wouldn't it be put there? Well, I think it's in the book of Acts because the book of Acts is called Acts.

I told you all this was simple, I'm so sorry. There's not no deep revelation, I dug it up in the Greek, has 11 syllables and it means act. I think it's in the book of Acts because I think this is something that we should be activated and actively doing. We should be acting like givers and actively giving. If we were to have this mindset and if we were to understand that we already have something to give, let me just say this right now, I don't need a prophetic word, I don't need a word of knowledge, I don't need any discernment to know everybody in this room has something to give right now.

I don't care if you are 6 or 65, or 92, you have something to give right now. The problem is, most people aren't reminded of that. Most people are not made aware that you have something to give right now, and especially in church. Oh, please pray for the church. We don't remind people about anything except one thing, to give.

Make sure you get that money. Make sure you give. We got a project, give. We got this going, give. We got that going, give, give, give. I'm going to teach you on what it means to be a giver next week and there's ways to give what your resources that is absolutely amazing but that's only one of the top three ways to give. If we don't talk about the others, people will come in thinking if I don't have any money, then I can't give an offering. I want to give you the top three gifts we can give to people, the top three gifts that we can give to people and I want to give you all three upfront then I'll break them down and give you some scriptures around it.

Here are the top three things that we can give people; our time, our talent, and our treasure. Say it with me, our time, our talent, and our treasure. Again, louder, our time, our talent, and our treasure. One more time, real loud; our time, our talent, and our treasure. You got one of them things right now. You're doing one of them things right now. Whether you are in this building or you are watching online right now, you are already giving one of those things because you're giving your time.

You do know Sundays are a voluntary thing. I think all of y'all you all know that nobody came to your door today with some hoodies on and some AK-47s like, "Get up now, we're going to church. Move, move, move, move." Nobody rappelled down [chuckles] your rooftop and bust through the door like a drug seizure to get you here. You came here of your own volition, which is why it's crazy to me when people show up to church and then they don't want to engage. I'm like you got all the way here and just decided, "Man, I feeling it no more. Second song, not mine, ugh, I don't like it."

Then they do something even far worse than that if they're not enjoying the expression that we're given because we're not giving you an experience, we're giving you an expression. You don't have an experience, we don't have a worship experience here. We have a worship expression here and you're invited to engage in it but this is not an experience. An experience is something you get to judge. An experience makes it all about you, an expression makes it all about Him, which is why people want to come down here, lay down on the floor, if you see me doing a cartwheel, don't say nothing.

Because this is the expression I feel like giving the Lord this weekend, and when you give an expression, we come here to give God something, we don't come here to get something. Worship is about us coming in to give something to the Lord, not to get something. I don't set out during worship going, "Man, it's not really my vibe." Well, you don't have to come, it's that simple. It baffles my mind when people would give their time but then come and just complain the whole time. I don't know about you, but if I get bad service at a restaurant, I don't wait to the end of the meal, I dip.

Anybody like me? Some of you are really polite. The whole service is bad and you're like, I'm not just not going to say anything. Me, don't ever be at a restaurant with me because if it's bad, I'm going to be like, let's go. They can be coming out with the food, I'll pass it like, "Mm-hmm."

Because if I give my time somewhere, I want to be fully engaged in it. This is point number one, give your time. You already have something to give. You're already actively doing it. I want to shout out to everyone that's watching, our Vitamin E church that's watching online, our people that are residents of this community but for some reason, through sickness or travel or vacation, wherever, you have to watch us online right now, I'm so grateful that you are a part of our community and that you give the time to be here when we're live.

This thing about it, those that watch us on YouTube can watch us anytime they want. I just want to give a shout-out to all of those that watch at the same time, whether you are on the East Coast, West Coast. I want to give a shout-out to South Africa because y'all be watching live. There are some people in England that be up late watching us live. Wherever you are, Australia, y'all watch us live. Singapore, y'all watch this live.

Thank you for getting up at two o'clock in the morning, your time to be a part of what we're doing our time. You're giving your time. When you think about giving your time, all of us have to be good stewards with it because time is one of those resources at once it's gone, you don't get it back. You want to make sure you're spending the right type of time with the right people in the right community.

Here's what it says in Matthew 4:18, "One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon also called Peter, and Andrew throwing a net into the water for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, 'Come, give me your time. Come follow me and I will show you how to fish for people.' They left their nets at once and followed him. A little farther up the shore, he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. He called them to come too and they immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind."

Now, I got to set this scene for you because this is a drastic way to give your time. I want you to imagine Jesus comes to your job tomorrow morning, 10:30. You are at your desk doing whatever work it is that you, oh, half of you all at home working. Jesus comes to your house. Not sure what you're doing. [chuckles] While you are at your laptop, logged in, doing your work, and he says, "Follow me," and you close your laptop.

That's what the disciples did. They looked their daddy in the eye at work. They didn't even say I quit. They didn't. They were too rude to give a two-week notice. They just left. [singing] I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. They just left and they started spending all their time with him.

Now, I want you to think about this, for three and a half years, they had exclusivity to Jesus. They didn't meet with him once a week in the synagogue. They didn't get together with him for a mentorship day, lunch, breakfast for 90 minutes in the morning and once a month or something like that. No, no, no, they were with him every single day. They gave their time to Jesus. By giving their time to Jesus, they began to understand and know him.

How much time do you give? When you think about time as an offering, how much time do you offer up to God? How much time does God get from you as an offering during the week? I want you to think about this and it's not to shame you or embarrass you, but I want you to think about all the time that you have in a week and how much of that time is spent with Jesus.

Now I have an iPhone and that iPhone be telling on me in ways that I did not ask, I did not ask you to tell me how much I was engaged with this phone all week. It's rude to give me a report telling me that my usage is 24% higher this week than it was last week. The reason why I'm embarrassed by that because last week was high.

If it's 25% more, what have I been doing? How much time do we offer up? Do you even see your time as an offering? I'm telling you, you got three ways to give, and this one is incredibly important because where you spend your time shapes your mind. With whom you spend your time, you shall be groomed. Where is that time being spent? Is it in some devotion time? Is it in some worship time? I'm not trying to get everybody to spend seven hours a day in God's presence. If you got that time, Amen, but I'm just talking about quality time that shapes your mind.

You got time to give. In the same way that you allot out between 75 to 90 minutes to be a part of our worship expression, in the same way throughout the week do you go back to revisit maybe the scriptures that were read or a devotional plan that you go through, it doesn't take a lot of time to have your mind changed. It just takes some quality time, some intentional time.

When we came out of the pandemic in 2020, our last service was March 8th and we didn't meet again until January 3rd, so we came back after 10 months and we knew coming back that there were going to be some people that weren't comfortable coming back to church, being in close quarters. We just said we are not going to shame anybody for where they choose to spend their time, as long as they intentionally make the time to be engaged in community. Before we went on this break, this COVID break, which I call a sabbatical. All the introverts were like, "Yay." [chuckles] "The government doesn't want me to come out."

"I would've came over but you know the government." All the introverts, it was a dream for us introverts. All the extroverts was in the house like, [screams] "I said hi and they didn't say hi back. I can't read eyes." Extroverts duck. All the introverts were thriving. Okay. Everybody was asking like, "Oh my God, don't you miss your church?" I was like, oh God, please, Tim, get an answer together that doesn't make you seem like a jerk.

Then I was like, "No," and I was like, "Oh, man." I had to be sensitive to where everybody was going to be. We had two services before the pandemic hit and we came back, we have one service. Now, that means that 60% to 65% of our family is not here, but they're there. Right now, you can't see them. They see you, they see the back of your head when that camera pans, and they're like, "Oh, Sister so and so still goes here. It's good to see the back of her head."

"Our worship team is awesome. I like Tim's jacket," like whatever. We love you, and we are grateful that you have chosen to intentionally spend the time in the presence of the Lord because the same Spirit felt here will always be felt there,

Give some of your time because you have some time to give. If you are a person so busy that you have no time to give, I can guarantee you, again, without any prophetic unction, without any discernment, without any word of knowledge, you are doing something you are not supposed to be doing. It's that simple. If you have no time to give, you're doing something you're not supposed to be doing and you need to take inventory and go, "You know what, I probably need to change some of this stuff because if I have no time for my wife and I have no time for my kids, and I have no time for my church community, I'm probably doing something I'm not supposed to be doing."

Let me talk to my millennials real quick. The generation of the grinders, generation of the side hustle. I got to go get that paper. I'm out here and I'm going to make it. I got four side gigs and I'm good at them all, and you sleep for four hours and you've OD'ed on Red Bull, and Starbucks has too much of your money and Netflix too. That's a pipe dream. The super grind, I'm hustling, that's what validate. You see how much I do it. The more I'm doing, that validates that I'm doing something good, and all that just means you're busy. That just means you're tired.

When I get a business card and it says actor, activist, coach, therapist, masseuse, motivational speaker, auto mechanic, I got to go to the back of the card, but wait, there's more, IT tech specialist, organic tree planter. "Sir, when do you sleep?" "I don't got time to sleep. I'm on my grind." You're going to die. You need to take inventory of your time because everything that you could do is not good for you. I know that was for somebody.

Point number two, please write this down, give your talent. Give your talent. There are some talented people in this church, and if you would combine your time and your talent, Embassy City would be so dope. It would be better than what it even is now just by some people combining a little bit of their time and their talent to be a blessing to the community, or to combine that time and talent, to be a blessing to your neighborhood, to your homeowner's association, to the club that's on your block in the apartments you live in or the neighborhood you live in, there's some talent in this room.

I believe when a community starts to grow to a certain level, we need people's talents to come to the forefront so that church can be everything that it's supposed to be. Here's what it says in 1Samuel 17:32, I thought this was a cool way to introduce this particular point. " 'Don't worry about this Philistine,' David told Saul, 'I'll go fight him.' " This is the first chapter 1Samuel 17, the chapter where David fights Goliath and completely obliterates him. The G-rated version is what we give all the kids in children's ministry with a coloring book and it's like, "Mommy, daddy, I drew David and Goliath, and see, it threw a rock and he died."

You read that straight on. David threw a rock into Goliath's forehead, it sank in, then he ran over there, unsheathed Goliath's sword, kicked off his helmet, picked him up by the locks of his hair, cut the man's head off, skipped over to Saul's-- He did. He tralalalad over to Saul's tent, asked the king to come out and said, "Is this him?" 

We don't give that to the kids. "There's so much red crayon you used, son. What's the--" "He cut off his head, dad," We're like, "You're seven, no."

David literally volunteered to kill Goliath because he said I have a talent. Let me tell you how he got to this position. 1Samuel 17:17 says this, "One day, Jesse said to David, 'Take this basket of roasted grain and these 10 loaves of bread and carry them quickly to your brothers, and give these 10 cuts of cheeses to their captain. See how your brothers are getting along and bring back a report on how they are doing.' " David didn't just have a talent to kill people, he had a talent to serve. What got him his date with destiny was a delivery.

Now, David had already been anointed by Samuel. He had already been appointed to Saul's court as a musician, but you know what got him with his destiny, his father told him to go on an errand.

David didn't go, "Pop, come on man. You see me, I still got some oil in my hair right now from when Samuel anointed me. You know I'm about to be King, man. I can't be doing no delivery, son."

"I'm about to be the King of all this, man. Come to me correct, bro. I mean, you see what I got."

"I'll be out here killing your bears and lions. I'm already shepherding and stuff, and you know I just got hired as the worship pastor at Saul's house. Treat me better, man."

"Delivery boy? Who are you talking to, bro?"

"Can't be out here doing deliveries for you." How do you know that the errand you're supposed to run is going to get you the promotion you never thought you'd have?

I grew up in a church. I preached my first sermon 5 weeks after I gave my life to Jesus. Then when I moved out to Texas in '97, I was serving the youth pastor and the church just exploded under his leadership. He started with 80 and very soon had like 1700 people. He used to have me get up and do exhortations and 15 minutes sermonettes and be encouraging people. I've had a mic in my hand since I was 3 years old. I was destined to talk to somebody or to do something in front of people.

I was serving with that gift. Then he came back to me one day and he pulled me to the side. He said, "Hey, I've actually had some complaints from some licensed ministers within this church. The complaint is that I'm using you to exhort and have a lot of time on the mic, but you actually haven't been credentialed with this particular organization, and so I'm going to have to take you off the mic."

Now I could have got mad, I could have got bitter, but I was just there to serve. 25 years I've been preaching, I just see it as a gift that God gave me to serve with. I don't think of it as like, "Yes, I'll be speaking." It's just a gift He gave me. If they wanted me to vacuum the floors, I'd vacuum the floors because I have time and I have some talent. I can do some stuff.

He says to me, and I was 22, he says, "Hey, I'm going to have to take you off the mic, but I want you to start greeting at the door." I want you to imagine, I moved here, got connected with the youth pastor. I've been up in front of all these young people week in and week out, with the mic, encouraging them. Then he says, "Hey, no, can't do that anymore. Will you greet at the door?" I said, "Oh, absolutely," because again, I just saw it as an opportunity to serve. Whether I had a mic in my hand or I'm greeting at the door, I'm just glad I get to use my gifts. I got some time, I'm 22, I ain't got a lot of money so don't ask for that.

I got some time and I got some talent, if you want me to greet at the door, I'm going to greet at the door. I started greeting at the door. If you've ever been around me, you know if we connect eyes, I'm going to say hi to you. If you get close, I'mma hug you. In this climate, I'm a bump you, something. Kid and play-kick you, we going to do something, okay? I was at the door for 90 days. I'm just greeting everybody and dapping them up and loving on them every time they came in. After about 90 days or so, the youth pastor called me in his office. He said, "Hey, I need to talk to you about something." I said, "Okay." He said, "Do you realize ever since I put you on the door, our youth attendance has gone up 35%?" I said, "What?" He said, "Dude, it's not me. It's you. Ever since I put you on that door, you can't imagine how hyped people get to come in and be greeted by you. They don't even go to the other door anymore."

It's like a line going all out the door because just the way you welcome them in and so they're starting to bring their friends now. He said, "Our attendance has gone up 35% and it hasn't been because of me. I noticed because I put you at that door." Here's what the Holy Spirit whispered in my ear after that meeting was over, "Hey, Tim, I put an anointing on you, not what you do."

Wherever I put you, my approval goes with you. David was just as anointed in the field as he was in the house with Saul playing the harp, as he was on the battlefield killing giants, as he was in the palace overseeing a nation because the anointing was on him, not on what he did. Here's the reason why I bring that up because oftentimes when a growing church like this asks people to get involved and give a little bit of their time and their talent and to serve here, to become an ambassador here, here's what they say, "I don't do that."

"Hey, I'm willing to serve. What would you like me to do?" "Well, we need help in children's ministry." "Yes, you know, kids though."

"It's not really, I got like five prophetic words that I'm called to be a prophet to the nations, so I'm not going to be able to do these kids. I have a specific anointing to lead people into worship." After you were evaluated, Sarah was like, "You know what? There are some other things you can do." Instead of allowing that to offend you, maybe you should allow it to make you curious enough to go, "Well, God, if not that, what else would you have in store for me?" Don't let it make you offended, let it make you curious because God has a place for you in the house, but if you have it in your mind that it can only happen this way, you can miss the very thing that sets you up with your date for destiny.

I want to show you some gifts that everybody-- I'm going to read a list and I promise you, the gift is in this house somewhere. Romans 12, starting at the third verse, here's what it says, "Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I write each of you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are." I can do a whole sermon on that right there. "Be honest," get this, "In your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body and we all belong to each other."

I've said this all the time as relates to my preaching gift, it doesn't actually belong to me, it belongs to us. I don't get to actually say what I'm going to do with it, God has to tell me what to do and I'll do whatever he says. "In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. If God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If you're gifted serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. If you have a gift of showing kindness to others, do it gladly."

On that list, one of y'all got one of them things. If you feel like you have none of them, the least you can do is be kind. Like, "Man, can't do nothing. I read your list, I'm not going to prophesy to anybody, I'm not going to teach well," can you just be nice? If you were just nice, the whole world could change off some nice people. Give your talent. Before you leave today, I just want you to ask the Lord, God, what might I have that my community needs? Go through our connect class and find out what's available for me to do, and whatever it may be, just go, you know what, I never even considered that, but I'll do it. I didn't run into my youth ministry going, "Can't wait to greet people at the door," but that's where I wound up and God's still anointed the place that I submitted myself to serve.

Point number three, please write this down. Give your treasure. This is talking about finances. It's talking about resources. When I teach about this next week, I'm going to talk about the difference between tithing and actually giving. There are some people in our church that are incredible tithers and givers. When some people say like, "Hey, God's blessed me so much, I'm a 30% tither." No, you're not. You're a 10% tither. You can only return to God what is his. He's not giving you bonus points for giving more. Everything that you give above your tithe is an offering to the Lord. You're a 10% tither and you're a 20% giver. Amen to you. What you are not is a 30% tither.

I know some people that have- some pastors that have blown up so big and wrote books and got so much money, and they're like, I'm a reverse tither. I give 90 and keep 10. No, sir, you gave your 10, and then you gave a extravagant offering of 80% and you have a good financial system so you can live on 10%. Yay you, but don't mix the tithe and the offering. The tithe is 10% and belongs to the Lord. You can't give it, you only return it because it never belonged to you to begin with. Anything you give above and beyond that is an offering. If you're just tithing, you're like, oh boy, don't hit me with, I just started tithing, man. Please don't hit me with the offer yet.

I am not ready, sir. I had to cancel my Netflix subscription, Hulu, I had to reorganize my whole life to even get the tithe in, bro, so don't ask me for no offers right now. First of all, can I say bravo to you. [clapping] Bravo to you. If you have taken the time to reorient your life to give God what belongs to him, you have no idea the blessings that are about to come to you. I guarantee it, I stand behind it 100%. God's going to bless you in a way that you've never been blessed before. Let me pause and also say that our giving right now is up 40% since we started this series. Unbelievable.

I'm so grateful for what God is doing in people's hearts. It's absolutely amazing but I want to read you this particular passage starting in Luke 12:31, "Seek the kingdom of God above all else and he will give you everything you need. Don't be afraid, little flock, for it gives your Father great happiness to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasures for you in heaven. The purses of heaven never get old or develop holes, your treasure will be safe. No thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. Wherever your treasure is there--" I just want to slow my roll right here, "Wherever your treasure is, wherever your money is, there the desires of your heart will also be."

If I were to have a meeting with you that you initiated, and you said, "Hey, I want you to help me to locate the desires of my heart based on my treasure." I would just say, "Hey, just give me your last two bank statements and just give me a highlighter and I'll find your treasure real quick. Oh, you like golf a lot. You like guns a lot. Oh, you really like eating out a lot. Uber Eats is on here more." You show me the last two bank statements, I will show you where your desires are. It's not that you've given more money to the church and you spend on anything else, therefore, you must now be a generous person. You know how to give of your treasure. No, it's just priority.

I know some people who have started tithing and they go. I'm tithing now, but I want to step into giving but the only thing God's getting is a dollar. Let me tell you something, all of heaven is like bravo to you. They're not going no, when you get up to $100 then we'll celebrate, no. When you start exercising the heart to be a giver, heaven starts to celebrate it. In the same way, I just want to encourage you that you have time to give, you also have talent to give, but you have treasure to give too. The treasure that you give should be something that you cheerfully want to give, not something under compulsion, manipulation, control, guilt, scheming. It has to be something that you are so happy to let go of.

If it's $5, yay. If it's $5 million, yay. Heaven doesn't look down and go, oh, we really gone party because that $5 million check got sold because this has never been about the amount. It's always been about the intent behind it. Everything concerning giving has to do with your heart, nothing more, nothing less. Next week I'm going to teach on what it means to be released to give and to be able to give extravagantly in some moments. Today I just wanted you to be reminded by these simple three things. I have time to give, I have talent to give and I have treasure to give because I've been blessed to give.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? No matter what point might've hit you, maybe the Holy Spirit convicted you on time. For somebody else, maybe he convicted you on talent. It's like, what? You know what, I do have these gifts and I've been holding back and I-- Thank you Holy Spirit. Maybe you've been hurt by a past church and you're like the last time I gave my talent, I wound up getting abused. I'm not stepping out there again bro. I just got here, I just found out about you all. It's only been two months, take me slow.

This is not a recruitment session. This is a hard inspection. This is you allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you about what you need to do as it relates to your talent. When it comes to your treasure, I cannot stress this enough, there is nothing about these messages intended to get into your pocket. All of these messages are intended to get into your heart. As it relates to your treasure and the finances that God has blessed you with, I just want you to consider that it's not yours, it's all his. Just ask him what he wants you to do with it. I promise you he's not going to ask you to sell everything and be homeless to prove that you're a giver. God doesn't mind you having money as long as money doesn't have you.

God, Father God I pray for all of my brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters, and the opportunity that you have given us to give. Thank you for the blessing of our time, our talent, and our treasure that allows us to bless the body of Christ and turn the world upside down.