How many have heard of the
great commission? The great commission, yeah. So the
great commission, supposedly, Jesus tells His disciples to
go into all the world and you've heard it. You've had
people pound that into our brain that supposedly that is
the; I said supposedly, the reason for being for why most
ministries exist. Hopefully, they exist to preach the
Gospel. But when we get to that concept of preaching the
Gospel, therein lies the problem. Most people's idea
of what the Gospel is is not biblical.
We speak about things in terms of what we, I guess
take for granted, that everybody who would want to
hear or listen would know the Gospel entails Jesus speaking
of Himself as He walked the face of the earth, God who
took up the tent of human flesh, became the exegesis of
God, as John says in his opening, his Gospel, and came
preaching and proclaiming this good news that was about
to be completely fulfilled in that Jesus' death and
resurrection. Coming to pass in all the claims He made
about Himself, would come to pass, as they did and
therefore this is the beginning of that good news.
If you ask any Christian out in now the world what that
definition of the "good news" is they quote John 3:16 to
you, "God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son," and they stop right there. "Oh, hallelujah,
that's good. I just love that, He gave His only
begotten Son; died for me; forgiveness of sins." That's
not the full Gospel. What else is there? Obviously that
He died for me and for you, forgiveness of sins is one
dimension. He came to make right something that was
wrong with the world. That condition, the Adam condition
that had to be dealt with. Healing; I would say with
certainty that there was no sickness or disease when God
created in the beginning. Everything that He did create
was sound in its being. So, the last Adam, Jesus
Christ, came to basically, finally undo all the damage
that was done by the first Adam, sinning man; meeting
the needs of our condition, our nature and of course
healing. Life eternal, because it says in the
beginning that Adam and Eve were created and we know that
because of the sin, the fall in the garden, they were no
longer eternal beings. They ended up dying. So all of
this is included in the full Gospel; and I say the full
Gospel because there's; it's like dimensions that the
people omit conveniently. When you ask a person, "Have
you heard the Gospel?" It's assumed we're only talking
about Jesus. So I'm going to focus in on that Gospel
message for a minute, to make sure we're all on the same
page. And you'll know why I'm doing this eventually.
Too many people want to take the Gospel and separate the
things they like and the things they don't like. The
Gospel has at its core four writers who recorded, we'll
call it the life and times, for a brief way of saying it,
of Jesus; all the things that He did, the things He said
that were recorded for us: miracles of healing, raising
people from the dead, all this is recorded for us. And
there are things in that record that are part of the
Gospel that people conveniently omit.
Now, to this point, if I said to you; let's get a little
bit evangelistic here. If I said to you, "And on the
third day, Jesus rose." Wow, yeah! That's exciting,
because He said He would: He did. Scripture says, "God
will hasten his word to perform it," so He did it.
"Yea! Woo-hoo!" All right. God's Word is sure and made
come to pass. And then we're told He is the firstfruit, He
is the first-goer, and by Him any man that walks in faith
in Him, or woman, as I quoted last week, "shall never die,"
essentially the promise of life eternal. How many
believe that? Yea! Right? Yea! Right? Come on. That's
Gospel right? That's Gospel? I'm not hearing; is that
Gospel? "Now concerning the collection."
(applause) Now, now; but you see, but you
see this is the beauty of this congregation: you are the only
people who I've ever seen, and I've traveled to the
different places not just the incarcerated church, but free
churches out in the world who are still incarcerated their
minds when it comes to money. I could say that again for you.
Free churches, I'm not talking prisons or jails, I'm talking
about other people's churches when money is mentioned this is
what happens. “Oh, I've got to; I've got to see you later here”"
If there's any possibility that we can push off the subject, and
then, if it must be discussed, we must profoundly
apologize. But it's part of the Gospel message.
First things first, let's talk about giving as
what happens today in churches all over. Giving has
become this: everywhere you will hear the word "need."
Now, let's be clear, I remember Dr. Scott used to
quote C. S. Lewis, "God to be God has no needs." And guess
what? God doesn't need anything from anyone of us.
If God is sovereign, and I happen to believe that He is,
then God can make a lot of things happen without us.
There's too many people in the body of Christ that
think, "God can't do without me." Oh yeah? And I think He
could probably find a lot better vessels. He's got
angels and He's got all kinds of forces He can use, so we
have to approach this with a little bit of humility.
The reason for people being told today that they should
give because of need negates the Gospel response. You see,
you've got to go back to the beginning and weigh it all
out and see how in God's book He's been saying the same
things over and over again. And the response throughout
the ages has stayed the same. God said, "I want you to do
this," this in reference to an offering. Let's go back to
Cain and Abel, "I want you to do this. You will offer this
at this prescribed time, Cain and Abel," as we both; as we
read in the Scriptures we see both these sons had equal
opportunity to do it God's way. And too many times we
church people tend to want to usurp God's way and bring our
own way, which is the way of Cain, "Let me, let me improve
on what God wants me to do by doing it my own way." Simply
put, I think most of the church today; churches around
the world are filled with Cain givers. They give just
like Cain did. You know, people read that
passage out of Genesis and I'm sure there are some that
say, "Well that's just not fair. You know, both brought
their offerings." Knowing the pattern through the whole
book, God said, most likely, "Bring an animal sacrifice
and make it your best." And we know that Cain brought the
fruit of the ground and offered it to God. And I
think back and I think to myself, but God just cursed
the ground. That was the curse, for man, that was part
of the curse, "Here God, take this that You just cursed.
Take that and...." There was a song one time, but anyway;
take that━yeah, but it's just like that, and that's how
many people give to God. They want God to accept their
version of what they think the Scriptures tell them to
do. Now, on the subject of need, we do well
to just dispense with the idea somehow that God
needs our money. You will find people across America
today, and it is; it is a very prevalent thing and
germane to the churches in America, although it's
contaminated and spread throughout the world: "We
have a need. We've got to preach the Gospel, so we want
people to give so that we can keep preaching the Gospel."
Let me tell you something. If we believe that God is
sovereign and that this is His work and He raises up men
and women to do His work as conduits, then God can
provide. And by the way, not only provide men and women to
hear, but men and women to respond to that which people
peddle as a need. Now why do I have a problem
with this? Because, you know, I was lamenting; I made the
mistake of lamenting the one the staff people. I said,
"You know, if we just had a little bit more money." And
then I began to really get full of grief that I said
that. I was filled with grief. I'm going to tell you
why, because this ministry of represents a little bit the
tapestry of Elijah. You know Elijah's story? You know
Elijah's story? He had to learn to trust God in every
dimension of his life. And for his trusting obedience in
God, God honored and made always a way; God provided
enough. Think about it. Sometimes I internalize this
and I think maybe I'm a little bit like the ones who
won't read and say, "Hey, there's a lesson for me." The
dry brook experience of "God sent me here, and yet,
there's no water; and sent crazy birds to feed me and
then there's no, there's no food left. Now what?" Now you
and I would probably go climbing trees and eat
berries or eat bark or something; instead of waiting
on God to give us the next directive.
The Scripture says if we'll commit our way, He'll go to
work at ordering and making a way and clearing a way, and
not only that. There are blessings of, you know,
clearing away the devourer, blessing what we have that we
might keep it and that it may prosper. So I thought, no,
I'm full of grief that I said that. God's made a way for us
when there was no way. That's God's way. God doesn't;
believe me; God doesn't dump bricks of gold bullion and
lots of stuff in your lap like that and say, "Now, what
are you going to do?" Believe me; God's way smarter than
that. If He did that, He knows what we'd
do━"Whoo-hoo!" Right? He knows us. "For surely He
knows all about me," right? So, we're not talking about
money because we have a need. The greatest need that
mankind has is the need to be needed. How many know that?
The need to feel like you're needed. If you don't feel
like you're needed, you feel useless. Yes? God then, in
His infinite grace and mercy opens up a door to let us
participate in His program, letting us, He permits us, He
gives us a way in His graciousness to participate,
hence the word koinonia, in His plan for the salvation
and redemption of mankind. He lets us participate in
letting us feel like we have been granted the privilege to
participate. Now, much of Christianity
tells you, "You have to give, because.... You have to give
because if you don't give we can't do thus and so. If you
don't give we can't accomplish our purpose." I
would say you have to give because God said so. There
shouldn't be any other qualifications. In His book;
in fact, when people talk to me about the tithe and they
say, "Aw, Pastor Scott, you don't know what the tithe
means. You know people talk about the tithe all the
time." Oh, yes, I do. I know exactly what it means. In
fact, very careful reading of 1 Corinthians 16 displays for
us a little crystallized view of what tithe might have
looked like in this first church.
And by the way, I say that as a parenthetical sidebar,
because if you're expecting the Lord Jesus to come like
real quick, then you're not thinking about the tithing
principal. You're thinking about giving it all away like
they did in the Book of Acts: giving, giving, giving,
giving, and then suddenly what? A period of a few years
passes and suddenly the Lord's not coming as quickly
as they might've thought He was. Hmm. Well, God raised up
the apostle Paul and gives a very clear definition of what
the church is supposed to do. Now, I love this. This is the
way the church world vacillates on how to
interpret Scripture. We read the Scriptures and we say,
"Oh, the book of Romans!" The book of━the books we have;
the two Corinthian letters, "Oh, that's, that's solid
stuff," right; no one would debate that.
Don't give me a corrective letter like 1 Corinthians.
Well, I'll take it, okay." All right.
Now, I went to read this 1 Corinthians 16, if you'll go
there with me. And the relevance for the church
today, chapter 16, 1 Corinthians, verse 1, "Now
concerning the collection." That seems pretty plain
although the English word, "collection"━pray my Bible
doesn't split in two today here. Collection; I think
it's spelt with two, Ls. I was trying to be funny,
folks. Collection. That is a T. Collection. The Greek word
for "collection" is logeias, logeias.
Now, for you who've been around, you'll know why this
is such an important message. Couldn't━you know, if I said,
"damn," it'd be "Damn the translators." I was telling
one of the staff people this morning, before I die, I'm
going to make a Bible translation where people can
read and know that this one word over here is the same
word as this word over here, except they decided it would
be proper to repeat it again, "So, we'll just confuse
people by using other words." Just so you're clear, by the
way, read in verse 2, the end of verse 2. Let's read verse
2. In fact, let's read 1 and 2, "Now concerning the
collection," this is the word. "Now concerning the
collection for the saints, as I have given order to the
churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of
the week for every one of you lay by him in store, as God
hath prospered him, that there be no
gatherings"━"gatherings," hmm. No gatherings; you mean
like social events? Is that the type of gatherings he
meant? Or did he mean logeiai? That's what he
meant. The same word here as here, "collection" and
"gathering" are the same word. And I'd like you to
just notice something. At the root of this word
"collection" is the root log. You know what? The word of
this word "blessing" is the word log. "And in the
beginning, God," John says, "In the beginning was the
Word," the log━ sorry about that; writing English and
Greek━or the logos. So just on the level of looking at
what the Scripture says, it seems to me that God was
trying to speak to us through His Word, His good Word,
revealed His Word in the flesh, being Christ, and even
speaks to us regarding His Word in giving.
"Now concerning the logeias, for the saints, as I have
given order"━ as I have manipulated to the churches
of Galatia; as I have told you, Corinthians, God has a need
to the churches of Galatia. It doesn't say any of that.
He says, "Now concerning the logeias, for the saints, as I
have given order." By the way, that "given order" is,
it is a commandment, a commandment "to the
churches," plural, "of Galatia, even so to do ye.
Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay
by him in store." Essentially, if I could
transliterate that into common language out of the
straight Greek text, it would be "to lay aside the excess
of what God prospered you with through the week,"
suggesting there was a weekly collection.
Now, you know, we can talk about why Paul didn't say
here, "Give it all away." I can tell you why, and the
ones who've been around know why the tithe is such a great
thing for us as a gift in understanding this. "As God
has prospered that each person may lay aside,"
because when the Spirit of God takes hold of somebody,
you're probably going to be inclined to want to give it
all. Hence, we take the tithe and say, "Let that be a roof
over your head that you don't go crazy and give it all."
You know I really feel badly for those people that lament
about the tithe and have no relationship to the Greek
text and have no understanding. Oh, you know,
you've heard the complaints, "Why, all these people on TV,
these ministers are getting rich." Listen, as far as the
pattern that I read through my Bible and the pattern of
what God gave in the Old Testament, a lot of things
were brought to the priests and the priests kept that
lot. They had no inheritance, so they got to keep a portion
of it, and no one ever worried about coming into the
priest's little residence to check "how much bread he has,
how much stuff he's got stashed away." That was the
priest's business. Now, I'm looking at this for
me today as your Pastor and speaking to you primarily who
are listening out there in somewhere-land. It's time for
us to get educated on what giving is and is not; what it
should represent in the church and what Satan has
managed to do to rob men and women, who think they've
heard the Gospel message. Their response is, "Tell me
how little I have to do. Just give me the bare minimum."
Sorry, that's not even close to Christianity. And, no, if
you're listening to someone who says, "Give because we
have a need; give because if you don't give we can't."
Listen, I've said this to you before. If you don't want to
give and you don't want to participate in the greatest
privilege that God has given you, okay, sobeit unto you.
God will take me to another street corner somewhere else
where somebody else does want to hear and their response
will be that of joyful recognition for what God has
given to them by His Word, with some type of, "Oh my
God, what do I do now? Let me; let me help." And that's
the grace of God that lets us jointly participate.
Now, why I pick this is because it's a familiar one,
and seemingly over the years it's been the one that we've
lifted up as the staple. There are 16 chapters to 1
Corinthians. This undoubtedly is the last chapter. And the
chapter before; in my Bible, it's kind of funny. I don't
know why they made these headings, but chapter 15 over
my Bible, chapter 15 says, "A summary of the Gospel." A
summary of the Gospel. You know what? That's about the
best heading in my Bible. I don't know why people will
read 1 Corinthians 15 and they'll get excited for Paul
to tell them that "this is life eternal," and he gives
the declaration so clear "as the Scriptures hath declared
that Christ died for our sins, that he was raised up
on the third day, that he's going to come again, that how
he appeared to..." and he goes on to catalog, "first to
Cephas, then to the twelve, then to about five hundred
brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto
this present, but some are fallen asleep," he doesn't
say "they're dead," by the way, even though that's what
he means; a different word in the Greek. "After that, he
was seen of James, then of all the apostles, then, as
last of all, one born out of due time," the apostle Paul
speaking of himself. "I'm the least of the apostles, not
meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the
church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am:
and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in
vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all."
Listen to what he says, "Now if Christ be preached that he
rose from the dead, how say some among you that there
is no resurrection of the dead?"
Nobody talks about this today. In the wave of
prosperity and in the wave of caricatures, in the wave of
warping people's minds and tapping on to the self, which
is self-centered, for a better you in the now; who
talks about resurrection? Man that should be a first thing
that comes across your eyeballs. Now, hey; no matter
how bad it gets down here I'm not staying here all my life.
There's a better place for me. Now that should be; that
should be the greatest encouragement. No matter how
bad it gets, I'm going to go to a place, the Scripture
declares, at some time, at some point, whether it's
because I, He takes me. And I say that He takes my breath
away, He comes back for the church. Paul even describes
it here, the catching away the church, the twinkling of
an eye; however it is that I'll be with Him at some
point. Revelation says, "Where there's no more tears,
there's no more sorrow, there's no more death." Hey,
count me in. That should be the focus for
every Christian, the beginning point, and then all the other
stuff that we have to deal with down here becomes
secondary. "Now if Christ be preached
that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that
there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no
resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen: and
if he is not risen, then our preaching is vain, your faith
is also vain," and he says, "you are also still in your
sins if Christ be not risen from the dead: ye are yet
your sins," verse 17. "Then they also which are fallen
asleep," he used that same word "to fall asleep," not
"dead," but "in Christ are perished. If in this life
only we have hope in Christ," if that's it then, "we are
most miserable. But Christ is risen from the dead, become
the firstfruits of them that slept." And he goes on to
really just catalog and puts it, as you seen this done
before, puts it in the past of Christ, Christ died; how
He rose, and then says and we too, in the future will rise.
And then goes right from there, no chapter and verse
into, "Now concerning the collection."
You know if every pastor; and I know there's pastors
listening to me right now; if every pastor would teach
this, we could maybe eliminate half of the skubala
that's done in Jesus' name, under the guise to trick you
into giving money when very plainly to me the summation
of the Gospel message; Paul sums it up this way. And at
the end of all this glorious truth, look at the very end
of this passage when he talks about death, "Death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of
death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ." He says, "Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding
in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that
your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Now concerning the
collection." Do you know what is acceptable to
God? Listen to Jesus. As He's watching these people
put their money into the treasury, and some very rich
folks come along and they put their money in and that widow
that had her two mites, putting in her two mites. And
Jesus says, "This woman has given" essentially more than
everybody else, because she gave of her need, her
substance. They just gave of the excess. That got His
attention. I've heard people rail over that and say, "See,
all of the church people want to do, all these pastors and
evangelists, they want take your money. Well, that's the
world's perspective, because they're not called of God and
the only thing that they operate by is money.
Scripture declares; not me; Scripture declares what is
the root of all evil? I didn't, I didn't, I didn't
think I heard you. (The love of money.) It doesn't say
that money is evil, money is not evil; but the love of
it, that which surpasses even the capacity to love God, "I
love money more than I love God, therefore how; why would
I give my money to a pastor or a church?" That's the
worldview. By the way, you can transport
all of this, right back into the Bible. You know the
example of Cain and Abel and we say, "Well, you know, Abel
did it God's way." It really paid off, didn't? But
standing from; we're in time right now, and they're
eternity. If you had to pick somebody, you can only pick
one of two people, who are you going to be? Ah, yeah.
But in the moment that it was happening, I don't think so,
right? Or to the New Testament; and I've taught on
this before, too: the woman with the alabaster box versus
Judas. This is where giving in God's
program gets reduced down to the most basic basic. And at
the forefront of all this, we can talk about Cain and Abel,
we can talk about here's this woman bringing her best,
most precious ointment and casting it on Jesus.
And of course Judas, "Why this waste? The
money; this could have been sold and the money given to
the poor." Except here's the guy who's taking the bag
around, and it's pretty sure to say that he was skimming
off the bag, so he saw some of his profits going out the
window. I would've had more respect for him if he would
have said, "That money could have been sold and I could've
taken my cut and the rest of it could have gone to the
poor." Now, you might say, because
most of us sitting this room here, we've heard this type
of teaching before. But there's a whole universe of
people out there that when you speak of worship, the
first thing they think about "worship" is praising God,
hands up in the air, we've got music going on: that's
worship. But the most essential concept of worship
through the English language begins with the contraction
of two words "worth-ship." And this is the value of
something, "worth," the worth of something, the value of
something, and the suffix "ship," the state or
condition, the action upon which is acted out as we show
the value of something. So when people say, "I love to
praise and worship," then I should say, "Get your
pocketbooks out, because praise and worship is
speaking, speaking, there's a dimension of praise; there's
speaking, singing; and worship at its truest
essence, which is showing value for that which you have
received. When we say that, this is not some theoretical,
"We'll think about it for a while. Let's get philosophic
and think about what it all means and we'll come back in
a minute and see if anybody wants to give." The greatest
tragedy is if people would get this, we wouldn't get
down to "You need to give because we have a need."
You know, what happens to people who are out there with
an opportunity? And I say this because I can see it as
an opportunity to show people a right, to lead them to what
God's Word really says about giving God's way, and not be
ashamed of it, not to cower somewhere. I'm just expecting
that there'll be many, many people who, by me telling
this dimension of God's grace our lives that gives us the
opportunity to feel needed and participate in His
program. Tell me something. What else can you or I do
that is an act, a participatory act in
something God has already laid out, what else can we
do? "Oh, I love the Lord. I'm going to pray for you." Okay,
that's good. But how you show ownership in your life; you
know, people say Jesus is Lord. Lord over what? Is He
Lord over somebody else, but not over you?
This is the Christianese that just gives me the
heebie-jeebies. If you're going to talk about Jesus
Christ being Lord and Savior in your life, then He is Lord
and Master over everything from your problems, from your
health, your family, your marriage and your money.
"Well, I just, I'd just like it if she wouldn't meddle.
It'd be much easier, because then if she's nice to me then
I'll, I might send an offering." Look in the camera
over there. If you're nice to me you might send an
offering. No. That wasn't a subliminal message, because,
because what I'm trying to tell you is you're going to
find something. When you keep studying the Word, you're
going to find concepts that are so tied together; no
mortal could have put this together like this.
I'm pointing this out to you because it's quite noteworthy
that at the root of this "gatherings" and
"collections" is the root for "the Word," and, "The word
became flesh and dwelt among us," and we speak good words
of that Word that dwelt among us, took up flesh and dwelt
among us. God relates all of these things in principles,
which then either have; we do; we have a, we have a
choice. I told somebody this earlier this week. Don't talk
to me about people forcing a choice; forgive me; for
people to "accept Jesus." You know what? You're going to
walk, and at some point, recognize you're not your
own. And whether you come to that recognition in a natural
way or whether God gets you to the place where your
back's up against the wall and you cry out; and believe
me, when you're crying out, you won't have "decided to
accept Him." But there is a decision to be made. The
decision is will you trust Him?
It's amazing to me. If somebody wants to talk and
discuss the blessings that come from giving God's way,
I'd like to enumerate them for you. I'd like to tell you
about it, not from my experience; that doesn't mean
anything. Somebody once asked me; I remember this, probably
a better part; two or three years ago, "Tell us about,
teach on Malachi," you know, "Prove me now herewith,"
you've all heard it, "Prove me now herewith, if you
don't, if God doesn't pour out blessing on you that you
can't contain." And I stayed away from that text. And I
did so rightly. I stayed away for good reason. Do you know,
if you read the verses that come before it, God is
cursing the people for this disobedience. He says, "I'll
bless you if you'll hear My Word and be obedient; and
I'll curse you if you don't listen."
That's probably why I stayed away from it. I thought, you
know, I'm, I'm going to let God pull the chain at the
right time when it's time to talk about this. I'll know
and you'll know and He'll know. Well, it's time. It's
time for the church to start understanding, no; we're not
under the old dispensation where God is going to smite.
But listen, I read the Scripture. I know what the
obedience brings and I know what disobedience brings. Can
I walk obediently or can you walk obediently all the time?
No. But we walk by faith. And claiming the promises,
including going back to the Old Testament, where God
says, "If you'll put Me first, I'll bless the rest."
In fact, there's so many promises attached to giving,
and I been reticent to even talk about them, because I
feel when I begin to talk about this people will say,
"Aha! She's in that 'blessing camp.'" Well, yeah, I am in
that blessing camp if you rightly understand it. That
for children, obedient to their Father; and that is
translated in today's world by faithing and trusting in
Him. He honors the little, the little bit we get to feel
like we're needed and participate in worship to
Him, He blesses. "All right, you just said, you just said
about Malachi." Well, read the whole passage, "Will a
man rob God? Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and
offerings." Now most people today would
make a defense for that and say, "Well, that's Old
Testament, though." Okay then, let's go to the New
Testament. Let's go the Book of Acts where it says the
people sold everything they had and laid all their goods
at the feed of the apostles. So, wherein have we
robbed God? Now, I can tell you this
because it really is a true statement out of God's Word.
The greatest blessings that come from God are not when
our mind says, "What is God going to give me?" Ephesians
1:3, when it declares that God has; the eulogatos word;
"blessed be" is being translated your King James,
that He's blessed us with all spiritual blessings; He's
blessed us with His good Word. It is His Word of
promise and you will never know what the life of faith
is like as long as you're not latching onto a promise of
God and saying, "I'm reaching for it," and latching on to
that promise. I'm speaking of money today. It means
latching on the promises of God and trusting God to honor
His Word in your life. You know, we talk about
claiming promises and everybody wants to talk about
claiming promises for healing, for health, for
well-being; latch on and don't let go. And as soon as
that one faith promise has come to be a reality, you
find something else to latch onto. And the next one, and
the next one, until if you stop reaching forward in
faith you will have disconnected yourself and
you're no longer operating in faith, you're operating in
apistis, going away from God. Money is the same thing.
"Ooh, that just gives me cold chills." God gives a faith
opportunity to every person who will hear. He gives a
faith opportunity, and a challenge, by the way. People
think when they're giving; I'm just going to lay it out
here, and will see; you know, listen; if the shoe fits wear
it. People think that tithing or the tithe is their faith
opportunity. No, that's about the least you could do.
That's about the least in God's book, if we're going to
look at the Old and the New. In the New, they gave
everything; in the Old, there was this governor. That's
about the least you can do in God's program. And why do I
say this? You know, if you look at the big scheme of
things of how money is treated, it's amazing to me.
We wait our life time for somebody to come and give us
direction in the Word and then we say, "Well, what's;
what's the minimum I have to give?" If you can even get to
giving. You cannot cheat God, and the true expression of
spirituality is a giving nature. Unpopular message.
Somebody might say, "Well, that's good for somebody
else. I cannot afford to give more than a tithe." Okay. I
suggest you go and go back and read or reread the
response to the Gospel message and I'd say there are
those people who are so gripped by God's Word that
they become hilarious givers, uncontrollable, cannot be
contained. Now, as for me, I had a big
argument one time with somebody. We were talking
about tithing, and I said, "God has not poured out the
blessing," this is everybody's mistake, "pour
out the blessing of multiple return on my tithe," like
somehow God's the slot machine and if I'll just keep
putting on it, one day the blessing being poured out:
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. No. Or, here's a
good visual for you. Some people give like this; can
you imagine, and forgive me, but it's a good time to do
this. Behind, behind door number one, door number two
and door number three. So, I'm ready for my reward, I
just have to go through one of those doors. Most people
treat giving like that, like it might be a surprise.
Wouldn't you and I be surprised that behind each
one of these doors, instead of the mountainous piles of
money or gold, behind each one of these doors of
blessing stands the Man/God Jesus Christ, providing for
every single need. I mean that's, to me, I'm sorry,
that's the greatest humor that I could think about or
for any person who has them mindset to say, "The promise
is..." Read the promise of Malachi carefully, in Malachi
3, the promise is He says He'll rebuke the devourer,
increase; yes, the increase of your field. He says all of
that, but the "Prove me now herewith," watch how much is
italicized beyond that. The testing of God's Word is God
gave His Word in a promise, and that promise is not to be
broken. That promise, by the way, comes in the Old
Testament by way of obedience, and in the New
Testament comes by way of faith.
"Well, can God prosper what I have?" Absolutely. They'll be
those that will say, "Well, if the tithing principle is
what you use," which, by the way, I'm only going to go by
the measure of what the apostle Paul said in 1
Corinthians 16, "As God has prospered each person, laying
aside every week." 1 Corinthians is; isn't it in
the New Testament? Last time I checked it was, so why is
he saying that "Putting aside what God hath prospered" for
each person? It seems very clear to me
there's nothing to be ashamed about. I could teach giving
probably from 1 Corinthinians, passages out of Timothy;
there're plenty of passages to chose from which are all
saying the same thing. In some places it says, "Watch
out saints, don't let anybody make merchandize of you,"
suggesting, by the way, that we ought to be cautious about
what we listen to and how people will abuse our genuine
heart of searching to take from you and rob you, because
gullibility, or as P. T. Barnum said, "There's a
sucker born every minute." If it sounds too good to be
true, it probably is. If you can't find here in the book,
don't bother with it. Do you want me to say that again? If
you can't find here in the book, don't bother with it.
If you want; if you want to use New York Stock Exchange
principles out in the world that's fine, just don't try
and bring them into the church. God gave His way.
Now, go back to the great commission, because I think
that's where I started somewhere before the flood.
The great commission: preach and teach, baptizing in the
name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching
them. Teaching them what? The Gospel. The Gospels, we have
a record, a concrete record in four New Testament books,
and at least a highlight in one of those books says,
"Wherever this gospel is preached," speaking of Jesus'
death and the preparation thereof, "also tell what this
woman who brought the alabaster box did."
You see that's why you can't escape when people talk about
the great commission and the responsibility to preach the
Gospel, the full Gospel; go back to the Gospels then and
read what Jesus said. He said, with regard to this
woman, He says, "Why trouble the woman? She's done a good,
wrought a good work on me." And by the way, I like Jesus'
footnotes. They're pretty good, He says, "By the way,
where this Gospel is preached, see to it also you
tell what this woman hath done." And most of the church
world won't even take Jesus' instructions to tell what
this woman has done; memorialized forever, her act
of giving. Now we know this to be a
fact, I've taught on this before, this woman
undoubtedly brought this in preparation, having heard,
undoubtedly and unmistakably. I'm not sure that she knew
the whole story or really believed the whole end of it
all. Not one of these stuck around long enough. We know
that by record; only one woman was at the tomb;
finding the tomb empty. But I would say as the lowest
common factor available here, this woman that we speak of,
she did this in preparation for His death. Probably
having heard Him preach that He must die and be raised up
again. The response to the Gospel
message is not to be embarrassed and say, "Well,
if somebody else can figure out how to get saints to
give," because it's much easier to work on people's
emotional innards. You know, don't you have that, "Oh,
gee"? You know, here's Brother So-and-so, he
doesn't place to live and he's destitute. "Will you
help Brother So-and-so?" "Oh boy."
Now, listen, we do a lot of charitable acts, we do plenty
of things; that's none of your business. We do plenty
of them as a church. But the church is not a charity. And
anyone who is not teaching you the honor and dignity of
giving God's way is robbing you of the honor of
participating in true worth-ship.
Now, there'll be folks, trust me, that will; it's like this
all the time. They heard the message, but it's somebody
else's problem. They heard the message, but next month.
They heard the message, but they still make excuses. What
will it take for a body of believers to finally come to
the reality? And some of you have, but many, many, many
who listen to me, it's one of those things where you say,
"Lord, if there could be one thing communicated, just
one," this concept. The highest form of worship given
to us, because it's something; think of this, we
work all week, people go to a job, they; there is 40 and 50
hours, some working two and three jobs. At the end of
your week when you have managed to put in your time
and get your paycheck and go, "Eh? Is that it?" God's
promise, because all the promises are mine and yours,
God's promise is still good, that if will be enough, it
will be sufficient. And what I put first into God's trust
and care, through the one teaching, that would be me,
let's you also reach back in and say, "The rest of this
He's going to bless and make enough."
There are plenty of promises attached to giving God's way.
Unfortunately, if you keep going back to listening to
Pastor, Pastor Need; Pastor Need says━I pray there's not
one real Pastor Need out there, by the way. Pastor
Need said, "If you don't give we can't, we can't preach the
Gospel." You know what Pastor Scott says, and I've said
this to you because it matters to me that you're in
this building, but I'll take the Gospel if I have to out
on a street corner and do it and find an audience of
people who are willing to listen to this powerful Word
that not only gives an awakening to the soul of
where you and I are at this very moment, but gives me a
promise of life eternal. I'll go somewhere else where
people say, "I need some encouragement." I see it
every day through the week, people who are just kind of
barely making it through. This Word gives me enough not
only to make it through, but in my case, I'd say many
times no matter how low I get my cup runneth over because
His Word has declared these promises to me. He's not
going to renege on His promises and not make good.
So then we're back to, if it's not Pastor Need, what is
it? God said it. He sent a man named Paul to set up a
new way. And I say a new way, which is really not a new
way, but after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
and the ascension, and that first church that was born on
the day of Pentecost; the beginning, the beginning of
the day of Pentecost, when Pentecost began to be
fulfilled, which has not been completed and won't be
completed until He comes again; the harvest, the
beginning of which. There was such an outgrowth; the church
was just spreading like crazy. How do we support
this? We were just a small band, you know 120 people, we
managed. In fact, I hate to tell you, but there's some
places within the Gospels where it records that the
women, some of those richer women, they sustained a lot
of the travels and goings. There's a passage that makes
it really clear. How was this church going to
survive? And they became a community of givers, putting
and bringing all that they had. The anticipation is
"Christ is coming back, Christ's coming back, Christ
is coming back"; and then probably, "Well, He ain't
here yet." Six months, a year, now all this time has
passed, until it was finally realized. Oh, the day of His
coming will come and He will come again for His church,
but until that time, God sent a man, the apostle Paul, to
institute and give order to the churches, beginning with
this having preached and given a summary to this
church that my goodness, so gifted with spiritual gifts,
yet the greatest spiritual gift that they could possibly
apprehend, they were blind to: "Now concerning the
collection." Now, I'm believing this. I'm
believing that God's Word never returns void. I'm
believing that there'll be many listening today that
will say, "I finally get it. I'm not checking a box." The
tithe is not somehow this "I have to reach to get up to
the tithe and now that I'm there, I can rest
comfortably." In fact I started say a few minutes
ago, acts of faith should be stretching beyond what
you're capable of doing periodically, to stretch your
faith muscles in every dimension, claiming the
promises. Not just; we could talk about needs, but faith
in action stretches beyond the seen into what is not
seen, until that which was previously not seen becomes
realized and you must find something else to latch hold
of, in faith. You've all been taught that.
This is not a new concept, and yet I find periodically I
say to myself, "I wonder how many people know that just
doing the bare minimum is probably not even a faith
act." When you reach beyond the bare minimum, and you're
going beyond that, which forces you to stretch a
little bit further than you actually thought you could,
that's where faith must be turned loose. We say if you
can obtain something just by doing it, why do you need
faith? What's the purpose? So we have two groups of people,
essentially doing kind of the same thing. I have what I've
coined the lint offering, which is reaching and taking
out what's in the pocket along with the lint and an
old Kleenex, "Here, there's my offering," as it comes by.
Or those that say, "I just will reach the most
comfortable level and not beyond."
You know, we will have arrived as a church; and I
say arrived, I mean in the faith life, when there are
enough people saying, "No. God has no needs. And we are
His church and He lets us have a purpose to participate
and gives us the honor to show worship." I could take
you to many other places in the Bible, but I would just
limit it right here and say a simple thing. How is it the
church world is so excited about hearing the resurrected
Jesus Christ; He died, He rose, we will raise up again
too; we will raise with Him either in the now or in the
later, "Now concerning the collection." It'd be great if
the consistency of excitement would be kept on par with the
things that are; things that were, the things that are,
and the things that will be with the things that God
says, "Do this, too: Now concerning the collection."
I pray there will be people that will understand you're
not doing God a favor when you write your tithes and
offerings. It's a response to the Gospel that either says
the greatest most important thing that I can do or it's a
Judas spirit. It's either Abel coming in obedience; oh,
you're going to love this. What a great way to bring the
message to a culmination. Abel acting in obedience,
that cost him his life, or Cain being memorialized
forever in the Scriptures, just his whole pattern of not
doing it God's way. There's only two camps of
people, folks. So we'll either find out when we take
up an offering, as we're going to do shortly; and for
those that are at home, I'm expecting people to call and
say, "It's time for me to respond, not because Faith
Center or Pastor Scott have a need, but because God has
declared in His Word this is a part of the Gospel. Not
only being preached, but being received, taken in,
engrafted, and I'm abiding in that Word."
Now let it take root, folks, because this is the only way.
The techniques of the world, they may build great
churches, but they don't build great men and women of
God for eternity. So there's your choice. That's my
message. Come on, ushers. You have been watching me,
Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith
Center. If you would like to attend the service with us,
Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive
your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to
go straight to our website, the address is
www.PastorMelissaScott.com
