I Give Up: Week 6 - Ready to Give!

Tim Ross | September 5, 2021

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Transcription

All right, peeps, y'all ready?

Today, we're going to end the series, I Give Up. If you have your Bibles, I want you to go to Exodus 35. We have been in the series for about five weeks on giving. For three weeks, I've taught about tithing because you can't really understand what it is to be a giver until you first learn how to be a returner. We talked about the tithe belonging to the Lord, and that the only thing you can do with the tithe is return it to Him because it never belonged to you in the first place.

Then for the last three weeks, this being the third week, we've been talking about giving. The first weekend was called Before You Give. Basically, all we wanted to talk about and address is forgiveness that in order to be a good giver, you have to be a good forgiver. If you can give before, you'll always be blessed to give, which was actually our second week, Blessed to Give.

We talked about the ways that you can give with your time, your talent, and your treasure. This weekend, concluding the series, I just want to talk about the three types of giving in a message that I'm entitling, Ready to Give. Let's bow our heads and pray because I'm just going to jump right into it. Father God, thank you for making us ready to give, Amen.

 For all the first-time visitors, I pray quick. I'm the one you want over for Thanksgiving dinner. We'll eat it while it's hot, eat it while it's hot.

There's three types of giving. I'm just going to jump straight into this. There's three types of giving that I want to address in this message. I'm going to give you some scripture around it and give you some practical ways that you can apply it. There's only three types of giving when you're giving to the Lord. The first type of giving is a sacred gift, sacred giving. My favorite passage in the entire Bible that describes what it is to just give a sacred offering or a sacred gift to the Lord is actually found in the Book of Exodus 35.

Starting at the fourth verse, here's what it says, "Then Moses said to the whole community of Israel, 'This is what the Lord has commanded: Take a sacred offering for the Lord. Let those with generous hearts present the following gifts to the Lord." Look at this roll call, okay? "Gold, silver, and bronze; blue, pur--" Can we just stop? Hey, we're about to take an offering for the Lord. What would you all like? Some gold, okay. Some silver, okay. Some bronze, okay. What else? Blue.

Blue what? Just blue, purple, scarlet thread, fine linen, and goat hair for cloth, tanned ram skins and fine goatskin leather, acacia wood, olive oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and other gemstones to be set in the ephod and the priest's chest piece. "Come all of you who are gifted craftsmen. Construct everything that the Lord has commanded."

Now, let me pause. Last week, I talked about time, talent, and treasure as giftings. The first things that God asked for was treasure, but He didn't say one type of specific treasure. He said, "Hey, here's a lot of options for you to be able to give." If He had only said gold, some people could have said, "Hey, I'm out of it. I can't give that. I don't have any gold." Then He said silver, but some people could have said, "I don't have any silver." Then He said, "Well, bronze." Some people didn't have bronze, then He was like, "Cool, blue thread."

I count the number of blue shirts in the congregation right now. He wants everybody to be ready to give and so He's saying, "I just want you to be able to participate. Whatever you have, I want you to be able to participate." That's treasure. He also asked for these talents in verse 10, "All of you that are gifted craftsmen, construct everything that the Lord has commanded."

"The tabernacle and its tent, its coverings, clasps, frames, crossbars, posts, and bases, the Ark and its carrying poles, the Ark's cover, the place of atonement, the inner curtain to shield the Ark, the table, its carrying poles, and all its utensils, the Bread of the Presence for light, the lampstand, its accessories, the lamp cups, and the olive oil for lighting, the incense altar, and its carrying poles, the anointing oil and fragrant incense, the curtain for the entrance of the tabernacle, the altar of burnt offering, the bronze grating of the altar and its carrying poles and utensils, the washbasin with its stand, the curtains for the walls of the courtyard, the posts and their bases, the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard, the tent pegs of the tabernacle and the courtyard and their ropes."

Can I just say God's pretty thorough? Anybody know that God can get very specific when He tells you what He wants. "The beautifully stitched garments of the priest to wear while ministering in the Holy Place, the sacred garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments for his sons to wear as they minister as priests. So the whole community--" y'all get this. This is a pastor raising an offering. Y'all got to see this because I wish more pastors would raise offerings like this. "So the whole community of Israel left Moses and returned to their tents." This is unprecedented. How many churches have you been in where the pastor makes an offering a hostage negotiation?

"We ain't leaving till we get this money."

As it's coming up, they're counting what's in the basket and they're like, "Yes, we're going to need $80 more." I'm looking at the pastor with a gold watch on, gold necklace tucked into his shirt and I'm like, "You got $80 on your wrist, bro."

"At least just drop the watch inside the basket. I think we're going to be good for the day." Who can ever think of coming into a church and they're saying, "Hey, we want you to give an offering. Now, go home and pray about what to give. We don't need it today. Here's what the Lord said that He wants. Now, go home and pray about what you want to give." This next verse blows my mind. First sentence, "All whose hearts were stirred and whose spirits were moved came and brought their sacred offerings to the Lord." Can I pause? Did it say everybody came back?

Did it say the whole community of Israel came back and gave?

The whole community heard it. They went home and it said, "All whose hearts were stirred and whose spirits were moved came and brought their sacred offerings to the Lord." Can I just pause and say God has never needed 100% participation in giving to accomplish His will? Y'all need to understand that because if He did, that meant you could hold God's vision hostage based on if you felt like giving or not. God has never needed everybody to be able to give into the vision of what He wants done for it to get done.

Only those whose hearts were stirred to give brought what was necessary. We're going to see how it plays out. "They brought all the materials needed for the tabernacle, for the performance of His rituals, and for the sacred garments. Both men and women came, all whose hearts were willing. They brought to the Lord their offerings of gold, brooches, earrings, rings from their fingers, and necklaces. They presented gold objects of every kind as a special offering to the Lord."

They just came and gave. As they gave, everything that was supposed to be fulfilled for the building of the tabernacle was getting done. Jump down to Exodus 35:29. Here's what it says, "So the people of Israel, every man and woman who was eager to help in the work the Lord had given them through Moses, brought their gifts and gave them freely to the Lord." Again, it never said everyone gave, just those that had a heart to give. Next verse, "Moses gave them the materials donated--" them to dudes with great names, Oholiab and Bezalel. Dope names. I'm just thinking if anybody's starting a family, those might be two dope names you might want to consider for your kids. Oholiab Jenkins would be… I’m just saying. Bezalel Smith might be just what this generation needs as God's raising up Bezalel. "Moses gave the materials donated by the people of Israel as sacred offerings for the completion of the sanctuary, but the people," get this, "continued to bring additional gifts each morning." When you open up the heart of a giver, you can't shut it off.

They gave blue, gold. They gave some earrings. They gave some purple thread, went home, and was like, "What else can I give?" Got up the next morning and was like, "I got another offer for you." They didn't even ask for another offer. They just came in and was like, "I want to give you something else." "Why?" "I have the heart to give. I'm ready to give right now. You don't have to ask. You ask one time, I keep coming back with a gift." "Why?" "Because this is just the way I'm wired. I'm ready to give right now. I know I'm not giving it to you. I'm giving it to the Lord, so I'm happy to do this."

"Moses gave them the materials donated by the people of Israel as sacred offerings for the completion of the sanctuary, but the people continued to bring additional gifts each morning. Finally, the craftsmen who were working on the sanctuary left their work. They went to Moses and reported, 'The people have given more than enough materials to complete the job the Lord has commanded us to do.'" Here's what the craftsmen said, "Can you please tell them to stop giving?"

I think revival would break out in church. If the pastor got up one morning and was like, "Y'all, oh, I just got to talk to y'all real quick. There's something I need you to stop doing." Everybody's like with bated breath, "Oh, my goodness, is somebody in sin?"

Anytime a prophetic word comes, people would be like, "Oh, Jesus, I don't know. Lord, please cover me," and he goes, "Can y'all stop giving so much? I mean, oh, my gosh. When I told you we needed an offering, but Lord, have mercy, you're all obnoxious. We got too much blue now. Some of y'all, come get this back." "So Moses gave the command and this message was sent throughout the camp: 'Men and women, don't prepare any more gifts for the sanctuary. We have enough.' So the people stopped bringing their sacred offerings. Their contributions were more than enough to complete the whole project."

You ready to give? Because the sacred offering to the Lord is whatever you have to give to Him. There's people that have the capacity in here to write a check for $100,000 and just, "I just felt like giving. I know that you're believing God to upset the world and so I wrote a check for $100,000," and somebody else went on Pushpay and gave $10. You know what heaven said? Bravo. [claps] Look at all the givers in the room. Heaven did not compartmentalize the $100,000 line from the $10 line.

The people that came up and dropped off gold bars for the building of the tabernacle were not celebrated more than the people that came and dropped off blue sweaters. It was all a sacred offering to the Lord. That's the first type of gift we can give to the Lord is a sacred offering. Here's the second, sacrificial offering. We're not talking about this one. It's going to get a little bit uncomfortable. Because when I talk about sacrificial giving, people start going, "Please, Lord, don't speak to me."

"Please, Jesus, don't speak to me about nothing sacrificial right now. My whole life is a sacrifice."

I want to give you a perspective because I want to show you two people that had two different perspectives on the offering, then I want to show you how those two people live in all of us. In John 12:1, one of the most famous stories in scripture. "Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus, the man He had raised from the dead."

Imagine going to dinner a week after you raised your friend from the dead, that's a good dinner.  "A dinner was prepared in Jesus' honor. Martha served and Lazarus was among those who ate with Him. Then Mary took a 12-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard. She anointed Jesus' feet with it, wiping His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance, but Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray Jesus, said, 'That perfume was worth a year's wages. It should have been sold and money given to the poor.'" Now, I love the writer, John, who has no chill in giving the quote of Judas and then giving his own recap of why he would say something like this, "Not that he cared for the poor."

John has no chill. John's like 90 years old writing and he's like, "Before I die, you're all going to know the truth."

"He was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples' money, he often stole some for his self." Tell it, John.

You don't survive the isle of Patmos and just decide to be discreet. "Jesus replied, 'Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial." Then He says something that, ooh, I know this is going to really hurt the heart of some missionaries, "You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me." I just want you to think about Jesus saying that.

This expensive perfume, that's worth a year's wages. I want you to take your annual salary, whatever it might be right now because annual salary is relative to whatever industry you're in. Take your annual salary right now and imagine going to buy perfume from Dillard's and writing a check for what you make in a year.  Ain't no amens right now. You're all looking like--

"Keep going."

"Get to your point, brah," and I give him my annual salary up, right? "Get to your point." I just want you to imagine going into the Dillard's and getting the perfume and writing a check for $62,000 for some perfume, and then going to a dinner and a Jewish dude is posted up a week after raising your brother from the dead. You don't use it to spray on yourself. You smash the bottle on the ground and start wiping it on His feet.

That sounds extravagant, but this is sacrificial. She does it because she can remember how she felt the week before. With that memory still lodged in her head, she said, "I have to do something that's a little bit more than sacred. I want to give something that costs me something. I'm going to give an offering that I'm going to feel." Anybody ever given an offering that was sacrificial?

I mean, you gave it and you were like, "Aha, bye. I love you." Anybody ever given a sacrificial offering? You know it's sacrificial by the way you feel when you give it. You know it's sacrificial the way you respond when you heard him tell you to give it. When you give a sacrificial offering and the Lord says, "I want you to give that," you go, "Um, hmm. Satan, how did you get into my--"

"How have you invaded my quiet time?"

The Holy Spirit has to walk you through like, "So Satan is going to tell you to give something sacrificial to the Lord for the furtherance of His kingdom," and you're like, "You right, you right. Must be my flesh. It just must be my own--"

"That must be my own flesh," and then the Holy Spirit has to be like, "So your stingy self thinks that you told you to give a sacrificial offering?" You're like, "You right, you right, you right." "Oh, I guess that's you, huh?"

Here's why sacrificial offerings are often a wrestle because the Mary in you wants to give the sacrifice, the Judas in you does not. I'm telling you when it comes to sacrificial offerings, you have to ignore your inner Judas. Every single one of us has one because as soon as the Lord tells you, "Here's the amount I want you to sow. Here's the amount that I want you to give. I know it's sacrificial. You might have to move some money around, but this is actually what I want you to do. I'm working on your heart. There's something that I want to bring into your heart, but it's not going to happen until you get this out of your accounts."

Your inner Judas goes, "I could give that money to the poor. Why would I give that all to one place? That's almost the same as our entire family vacation of five last year. Surely, you can't be asking me to give up a vacation." Everyone's inner Judas gets real loud when the request becomes sacrificial. You have to be able to ignore your inner Judas and put it in check the same way Jesus did.

I loved exactly how Jesus did it too because this woman takes $62,000 and goes to Dillard's, gets the perfume, puts it on Jesus' feet. Judas is loud enough for everyone else to hear it. You would think he would've just said it to himself like in his mind. He's like, "Why are we doing that? That should have came into the plate." John is like, "So you could have stole it?"

When you're writing about somebody as foul, you got to have an attitude when you write.

Here's Jesus' response, "Leave her alone. Just shut up. What she's doing is preparing me for my burial." It's sacrificial. It's something that is not normal. You may be asked in a lifetime by the Lord to give three sacrificial offerings. This is not something that He's going to ask you to do over and over and over again. Mary wasn't breaking open alabaster boxes every year. Every year at the time of Passover, here come Mary with that alabaster box.

No, it's sacrificial for a reason. It's meant for you to remember it. That's what Jesus said about the whole event. As far as the stories about me go, this one's always going to be remembered. Why? Because it was special. In the same way, when you think about a sacrificial offering, you got to understand and know that means that you're going to have to ignore your inner Judas.

I'm a giver. I have the gift of giving. I love to give. I don't need a reason to give. I don't need a bad excuse to give. I just give. It's just the way I'm wired. I've always been like that. I actually got that from my parents. Mommy and Daddy, I know you're watching, so hi. My mom, when we were young, she worked downtown LA at the Parker Center, the main headquarters for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Where she got dropped off at the bus station was maybe two blocks, two or three blocks from her place of business. Where she had to walk in between getting off the bus and getting to Parker Center was right past Skid Row, and so my mom would have me and my brother up at night on an assembly line making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Triple-decker peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Two to a bag rolled down in a brown paper bag and she would put it into a larger duffel bag.

When she got off the bus, every homeless person she saw at 5:30 in the morning, most of them were still asleep, she would just drop off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, triple-decker. I remember asking her one day when I was really young, "Mommy, why is it three pieces of bread? We don't make our sandwiches with three pieces of bread." She said, "Baby, because when they wake up, they need something that's going to stick to their ribs and a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Keep more peanut butter. Get more peanut butter on there, but then put some more jelly because you don't want them to choke off that peanut butter you just put in there."

Anybody ever had the ratio off on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and you almost dying in the back like, "Ahhh"?

"I'm just trying to get a good swallow, sir, before I can-- Is the milk here? How come the milk is not-- Is there any milk here?" Water don't cut the same. You need milk. For all those lactose-intolerant, you got options there. You got oak and almond and soy and cashews, so whatever. We would make those sandwiches and she would just drop them off. Giving God in me at an early age and how to give God in me at an early age. If I had money to give, I give money. If I didn't have money, I gave something else.

There's a sacred offering that we can present to the Lord and present to others. It's also sacrificial offerings that we present as well. The last type of giving that I want to talk about and then we're done is extravagant giving. We talked about sacred giving. We talked about sacrificial giving. Now, I want to talk about extravagant giving because extravagant giving is just that, it's extravagant. It's not a word that we use a lot, but there are certain gifts that are just extravagant.

They're unexpected. You didn't know that they were coming, but then God just moved on somebody's heart and they gave you something that just exceeded your expectations. It was exceedingly, abundantly above everything you could have asked or thought. My favorite passage to talk about extravagant giving is actually found in 1 Corinthians towards the end of the book in Chapter 29 starting at the first verse. You just got to hear the extravagance that David leads with in a corporate offering that he wants people to join him in giving to the Lord.

"Then King David turned to the entire assembly and said, 'My son Solomon, whom God has clearly chosen as the next king of Israel, is still young and inexperienced. The work ahead of him is enormous for the temple he will build is not for mere mortals. It is for the Lord God Himself. Using every resource at my command, I have gathered as much as I could for building the temple of my God. Now, there is enough gold, silver, bronze, iron, and wood, as well as great quantities of onyx, other precious stones, costly jewels, and all kinds of fine stone and marble. Now, because of my devotion to the temple of my God, I am giving all of my own private treasures of gold and silver to help in the construction. This is in addition to the building materials I have already collected for His holy temple."

Now, let me just pause right there before we go to the next verse. What I'm about to read you is so extravagant, but I'm going to tell you why David was able to do this because David had money. Money did not have David. This wasn't in my notes, but I just want to bring up the story, the parable of the rich young ruler, who comes up to Jesus and says, "Hey, I've been following all the stuff that's in the law. I've obeyed my parents. What else do I have to do?"

Jesus doesn't sugarcoat anything, nor does He play with this guy's time. He goes straight to the thing that He knows the guy struggles with the most. He says, "I want you to sell everything that you have and then you can follow me." The rich young ruler, who initiated the conversation with Jesus, wasn't even polite enough to end it properly by saying, "Thank you for your time, sir. I'm not going to be able to do that."

"I'll leave now." Scripture says that when Jesus says, "Hey, if you want to be my disciple, I know you've done this on your checklist, but I need you to sell everything you have and follow me." It says that the rich young ruler bowed his head, turned around, and walked away. If the story ended there, it would have been enough. Here's where Jesus decides to go further and actually turns this guy into an illustrated sermon. I don't even know if the guy was out of ear range or not. I'm an empath, so I feel sorry for people when they get embarrassed and stuff. I'm like, "Oh no." I can't watch the first two weeks of American Idol.

I can't do it. Other people are entertained by people getting booed and people being told that your grandmama told you wrong. You shouldn't have ever come.

Some people, y'all think that's good TV. I'm too much in my feelings. I feel so sorry that someone lied to him that I literally changed the channel until they go off, but I can't watch it. I turn to Food Network and wait two minutes and then come back and be like, "Okay, a good singer."

I cringe every time I think about this story because the guy starts walking away and Jesus is like, "It is easier for a camel."

I'm like, "Did he hear you, sir?"

I can just imagine walking away like you're already on the slow walk of shame and then you hear, "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich person to get into heaven." You're like--

How does this happen? Jesus wasn't after the guy's money. He was after his heart. What He knew is that the guy didn't have money. Money had the guy. I don't think for a moment, He was going to tell him to give it all up and not give it all back, but the test is if you have money or if money has you because you cannot serve God and money. Let me tell you how extravagant David's heart was.

"I am donating more than 112 tons of gold from Ophir." "Name the address, sir. I don't even know where that is, but good on you." "I don't just got gold. I got gold from Ophir. Deal with that," "and 262 tons of refined silver to be used for overlaying the walls of the buildings and for the other gold and silverwork to be done by craftsmen." This question,  "Now then, who will follow my example and give offerings to the Lord today?" I just want you to imagine.  Would you imagine Jeff Bezos walking in? "I've heard the vision of Upset the World and I'm completely riveted by it. I've also seen how much money the Ross household spends on Amazon."

"How frequent our delivery trucks arrive at their house for things as frivolous as toothbrushes and wipes. I'm going to cut a check for $7 billion. Who will join me?"

I was too good.  "Who will join me in giving today?" "Then the leader, the family leaders, the leaders of the tribes of Israel, the generals and captains of the army, and the king's administrative officers all gave willingly." Now, they did not have as much to give as David, but they all gave according to what they had.

"For the construction of the temple of God, they gave about 188 tons of gold, 10,000 gold coins, 375 tons of silver, 675 tons of bronze, and 3,750 tons of iron. They also contributed numerous precious stones, which were deposited in the treasury of the house of the Lord under the care of Jehiel, a descendant of Gershon. The people rejoiced over the offerings for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord, and King David was filled with joy."

It's extravagant giving. It's giving that is just above and beyond what you would ever ask or think, but I want to give you David's perspective on his giving and the giving of all those that contributed. "Wealth and honor come from you alone for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand and at your discretion. You choose people and find out who you want to make great and give strength. Oh, our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name."

This next part is really good to me. "Oh Lord our God, even this material we have gathered to build a temple to honor your holy name comes from you." The next statement is the truest statement. "It all belongs to you," so I can't take any credit for the offering I've given as extravagant as it is. In today's economy, it would be billions of dollars that David gave for the building of this temple.

Here's what he says, "Don't give any credit to me. The only thing I gave is stuff that God gave me. I know, my God, that you examine our hearts," because that's what giving is all about, "that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there. You know I have done all this with good motives, and I have watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously."

Listen, over the last five weeks, the same thing David said in the last verse that I've read is what I can say about all of you and you all that are watching us online. I have watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously. In the last five weeks that we have been in this series, God has unlocked so many people's hearts as it relates to giving. I'm telling you, it was almost instantaneous from the first weekend when we started to right now.

Our giving, I told you last week, it was over like 40%. It may be over that now. Every single weekend of this series, it's gone up like 20%, which lets me know that you all are hearing from the Holy Spirit more than you're hearing from me. I've watched you give willingly and joyously to the Lord. I just want you to know how proud I am of you, but even more, how blessed God is by you that you have money, but money doesn't have you.

It's something to be celebrated because when you can break your dependence on money to put your trust in God, then your bank account will never make you feel less than you know whose you are. With $1 million in the bank, I'm a child of God. With $6 in the bank, I'm a child of God. "The earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein." It all belongs to God. Thank you for being ready to give, blessed to give, and being a forgiver before you give.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? My hope and my prayer is that you could find yourself in the narratives that I shared. You may be in a season where you're giving your sacred gifts to the Lord. Again, it doesn’t matter whether you wrote a check for $1 million or you gave $5. The fact that you're participating and giving for the Kingdom of God to be expanded, all of heaven rejoices with you.

Perhaps you're in a season where God is nudging you a little bit. He's like, "I want you to give something sacrificial." Maybe you've been arguing with your inner Judas and you keep going back and saying, "That cannot be the number. There's no way you want me to give that. There's no way you're asking me to give that," but you keep hearing that nudge and you know it's not the enemy. You know it ain't you, but it's the Holy Spirit saying that there's something precious about a sacrificial gift that you'll have as a memorial for the rest of your life.

I just want you to push past that doubt and a little bit of that fear that you have. Push past the voice of Judas to act like Mary. You may be in the season where you're so blessed that you can give extravagantly. Maybe you haven't even thought about what an extravagant offering looks like until I read you this passage and you went, "Oh, my goodness." Honey, we can do something like that. God's put it within our power to be able to do something like that. Just pray about it. Come into agreement. Whatever God tells you to do, just do it.

You'll never go wrong obeying what God tells you to do. Lastly, more than any gold, silver, bronze, money that you could give, your heart and your life is more important than it all. This weekend, if you want to give your life to Jesus Christ, it would be the most extravagant gift that you could ever give is your life. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would draw every person that needs to give closer to you. In Jesus' name, Amen.