When Jesus is Known, Giving is Easy

i'm excited about tonight uh i just i get excited to teach um i've been preaching for gosh probably 35 years but i get so excited every time because i think anything could happen tonight like literally anything i i i really believe when i i talk to god when i pray like he he literally hears me the god who spoke the world into existence hears me and so tonight i was praying specifically saying god can i please experience you can we can we all experience you and so as as we go through his word tonight i'm just excited about what he might do i've been in hong kong for eight months now and it's been uh one of the best seasons of our lives uh we love it here um i don't know when every season is so happy for me like i uh i just i love following god i love experiencing him in new ways um and in fact uh my wife who's with me we we've been married for 27 years now uh we have seven children um two grandchildren um so there are and when we decided to move here from the u.s you know we thought okay we'll take our four youngest children and moved to hong kong and then both of my son-in-laws prayed and sought the lord and they both said we believe god wants us to come with you and so 12 of us moved to hong kong uh yeah [Applause] the twelve of us moved to hong kong in february like in the middle of covid and the protests and you know and everyone in america thought we were crazy they go how why would you do that to your children you know and then we get here and it's totally safe in hong kong and it's crazy in america right now especially today they're gonna be killing each other i mean it's just so it's it's just the way we've experienced god over the years i remember at our 25 year anniversary at dinner i asked my wife i said no she asked me she said do you know of anyone on the earth that is happier than us and i said i don't i don't know anyone and she goes i know she goes i keep thinking there has to be someone on the earth that is more blessed than we are but she goes i haven't met them yet and i thought that's exactly the way i think and it is so cool at 25 years of marriage to go i i i would i wouldn't trade this for anything it's been an amazing life the way that we've seen god answer prayer there's no way there's no way our lives should have worked out this way so many times i i'm just amazed going god you really heard me yesterday when i prayed that specifically i mean sometimes i am literally shaking like so shocked at the way that he answers my prayers and so when i was praying for you today i'm saying god can i experience it again can you do something tonight something that i've never even experienced can we all experience you in some way can that that fire come from heaven and in some way to where some of you that maybe you've been going to church services your whole life for the first time you're like i get it i love him because because something i've noticed being in hong kong like the people here are so hard working you work so many hours and and it's great you know i mean you know when i need something done this is the place to go um hong kong people know how to get things done and how to work but sometimes the relationships aren't so strong between parents and children husbands and wives and i've seen how sometimes that spills into the church where you can be very good at obeying commands and even showing up to just to serve you know if we need people to pass out rice you'll show up if we need people to to fold bulletins or do whatever all night you'll show up you'll do it and you'll come week after week but but how is the relationship because i i grew up in a in a chinese baptist church you know and so very very similar you know we both of my parents were pastors in hong kong um both in the baptist church um you know and uh and and uh so when they went to the u.s the idea was to start a church very similar to the hong kong church and so that's what i grew up in and so grateful so thankful for some of the people in that church in fact uh simo the pastor's wife she still calls me okay this is 45 years later simo still calls me in fact she's like don't move to hong kong you know you know she just worried like don't go over there your chinese is terrible you're going to say the wrong thing and someone's going to beat you up you know as i am saying you know you know and she said she goes i can't help it she goes i've been loving you for 40 years i can't just stop and i think wow that's so beautiful so much that i'm thankful for you know but i saw so many of my friends that grew up in the same church and so many people that were in that same church and they're not following god anymore and they were very good at doing whatever the pastor told them to do and obey those rules but it it's like it really wasn't in their own hearts they didn't really experience him they know how to do christian things but did they really know god see when i grew up i didn't understand some of this book when i would read like uh you know the passages about god's holiness i i understood it and when i would read the commands i understood them but then when i would read the psalms the psalms were very confusing to me because i would read the way that david would talk to god and i go wow that's weird because for most of us growing up in a a chinese home the the relationship especially with your your father you don't talk you don't you just don't talk right i never not even one time had a conversation with not one sentence of a conversation with my father i obeyed him i got the grades he told me to get because if i didn't get those grades he would punish me severely i feared him i would try to honor him but there's no relationship so then i read the psalms and it talks about david going oh i just want you i just want to be with you this is the one thing i ask can i just stare at you oh when can i even when i'm in the desert and there's no water all i want is you and i would read those things and i just couldn't understand it because i grew up very chinese and we understand commands and we will obey those commands but these words about relationship and desire especially with your authority okay your authority and david's talking to god like he says his friend or his wife or it's like these words how can you use that for authority because authority and intimacy don't seem to go together but i would read that in the bible and and god over many many many years even to this day he's teaching me about love teaching of me about relationship teaching me the enjoyment and it's not just david in in the new testament you know one of my favorite passages is is in philippians 1 when paul says in verse 21 for me to live is christ and to die is gain he's like my whole life is about jesus and if i die that'd be even better because i'd be even closer to him i could see him i want to be with him because a couple verses later he says he goes i am hard-pressed between the two my desire is to depart and be with christ for that is far better paul goes oh i just want to leave this earth right now this would be so much better is that your desire tonight not because you're depressed not because you know you're having a hard time but because you're in love with the person of jesus is it like a real is he a real person to you it's like when you know i'm so grateful for covid because all the places i was supposed to travel i got to say sorry you know i can't go i have to stay here but it's great because i i don't want to go anywhere and every time i'm away from the family i just travel every single week and so every time i'm like i hate being away from my family like and i can't wait to get home that's the way paul felt about jesus he wasn't just this idea of some being up there he was a real person he's going gosh this isn't enough i love praying to you but i want to see you i want to be with you you're the only one i want to be with so i would much rather leave the earth all these people on the earth i love for my one true love i for me to live is christ and and i was thinking you know i can explain this passage to you i can teach it but i'm saying god i i don't want this just to be a lesson so i brought with me a menu um of just different it's a pastry shop you know different cakes and and i can i can teach you the menu i say oh you gotta try this cake wow there's like i i it's i don't know i don't know what's on there okay but i cuz i can't read chinese but okay but if i could i could just read it for you and say ah this cake is made of this and this and this and this you know and you'll be there and go wow that sounds really good then i go okay you gotta try this one okay this one is you know and i explain every maybe i can explain it so well see this happens in a lot of churches we open up the menu and we just start reading and everyone's like oh that that sounds good that sounds really good and and and maybe maybe i've never tasted this but i can still explain it to you i can still be right i can still be accurate i said wow they have these these egg tarts you know and as you say wow look at this you know how they make them and i could explain everything in an egg tart how it's how it's created what it would taste like and you go oh that's good that's good thank you thank you next week teach me about uh you know um chatsu bao you know just just teach me something else okay that's good and we learn and we pass on information and it's accurate but my prayer i actually brought some don todd okay now or i could go wow this is so good this is so awesome here see hola you don't try one hang me around you know like this is what i prayed for i go god i don't want to just talk about you i want to be up here i want to experience you i want to taste you the bible says taste and see that the lord is good i always pray god make me one of those pastors that's talking about you as i'm tasting you you know that i'm not just reading out a book that's fine it's accurate but i i want it in my mouth i want to taste it and i want you to taste it i'm saying god i can't make this happen i can't i can't make you experience god and understand this relationship where it's real to you and and he enters you and he becomes a part of you and then you tell everyone then you've tasted and you tell everyone you've got to understand this relationship man for me to live is christ i like i love him so much i just want to leave the earth right now because i can't get enough of him that's that was paul and i i can't explain to you how paul felt but that's not my desire i go god i want them to feel what paul felt i want them to experience what paul experienced i want you to taste and see and go i really want to leave the earth right now because i'm so at peace with jesus and i want more of him see i believe there are some of you here that all you've done is read the menu and you just look at the pictures yeah i agree i agree i agree that sounds good oh good i could have peace beyond comprehension i can have that much peace i'd like to try that someday i could have joy joy that's inexpressible where there's no words where i'm so like freaked out like happy that i i can't there's no words to explain how good this is you go oh i want to try that it's all these things you read about and maybe you've been reading the menu your whole life but you've never tasted i'm saying god i can't make that happen i can't make a blind person see you have to do it it has to be a miracle you know this week they they asked me uh a couple months ago to come because i said they want to talk about giving to the poor and caring for the needy and and so yeah that's such a big concern of mine as those who are suffering and so i'm like yeah i'm honored to do that uh but i don't i i know how chinese can be you know we ask you to do something and you do it it's weird it's not like that in america okay and uh so if we say give to the poor you go okay you know and you just you do it but it's i think we're far more concerned about the heart behind it there's there's a passage i want to show you um it's in second corinthians i love this just looking at it again this morning just going wow it really says this in second corinthians 8 paul says this we want you to know brothers about the grace of god that has been given among the churches of macedonia for in a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part for they gave according to their means as i can testify and beyond their means of their own accord begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints okay he says i want to tell you he tells us he tells them about the churches in macedonia and he says they are extremely poor because i want to tell you about this church they're extremely poor but they earnestly they kept begging me can we give our money to the saints who really need it it's like what these guys were very extremely poor extremely poor picture the most the poorest people you've ever seen imagine them begging can we give you what we have to other people who are in need but what i want to point out to you is paul is not telling the corinthians about the macedonian church he is not bragging about the macedonian church he is not saying that church those churches are so amazing in macedonia no what does he say he says we want you to know brothers about the grace of god that has been given among the churches he's writing telling the corinthians i want to tell you god gave a gift to the macedonians i want to tell you because grace is right he gives you something you don't deserve he goes i've gotta tell you something that god gave to when when someone receives a gift do we ever boast about that you know let's let's suppose let's pretend um let's pretend pastor john is rich okay use your imagination say financially rich okay pretend he's financially right say he has billions of dollars and tonight then he he hands pastor michelle five he one billion dollars it was here you go one billion yeah would any of us say wow michelle is so awesome no we'd go you're so lucky why did you get it why how how could you be so blessed how could you be so fortunate we'd all look at the giver and go you seriously gave her that so that's what paul is saying here in second corinthians 8 he goes i want to tell you what god gave the macedonian churches the grace he made them so generous that even in their poverty they're like oh can i give can i give see paul's explaining this is a gift from god generosity is if you're if you're a generous person and i don't know you i don't know who's stingy i mean most chinese are cheap you know but but there may be some of you that are so generous givers and that's nothing to be proud of that's that's what i love about this passage that was a gift that was given to you why are you so generous because god gave you his grace and and so that's why it's not like oh please give give to the poor this or that my prayer is god would you give a gift to kung fu church tonight can you the way you just gave generosity to the macedonians where they were in extreme poverty and yet they became givers that was a gift and there's probably people here that do have a lot of money and you're scared and you're holding on to it and you're like well i don't know if i have enough to retire i don't know if i have enough for my kids to retire i don't know if my grandkids will have any and you you have so much and you're you're still worried and so so you know people are dying today but but but you're scared and we're not going please please just give and beg you we're saying oh god would you pour out your grace on them would you gift them with generosity because jesus says it's more blessed to be a giver than a receiver right it's more blessed i mean try to think do you know if any generous person think of the most generous people you know do you know of any generous people who are unhappy my wife and i were talking about that try to think about someone who's just a total giver and just mad all the time it's it's not the generous people are the happiest people on earth it's those who are holding on and have so much but they're they're scared there's no joy versus god i freely give and god always takes care of me i look back at my life and i go god i don't know where i'd be without giving some of my greatest bows are the way you came through when we gave i remember the first time i i went to africa it was about over 20 years ago and uh and i kind of went for selfish reasons um you know there were some famous people going on the trip and uh in fact there was one of my favorite uh bands back then is was a band named u2 and uh bono was supposed to be on this trip and i thought whoa i want to go to africa with bono you know that'd be cool you know and and you know a few others you know franklin graham but he's not as cool you know a few uh you know i'm thinking wow this would be really cool but then franklin graham's mother got sick and so he didn't go and then all the famous people didn't go and i'm on a plane going wow it's just me and a few no-name pastors okay and but when i got there and i saw the poverty of these people like i i everything in me just wanted to help them you know and i just fell in love with these little kids and gosh they have nothing and i'm seeing these little girls you know trying to find food in the dump you know just just lifting things up looking for anything they can eat and and i'm thinking i have two little girls at home and i only had two back then and i'm going whoa what if that was them i'm supposed to love them like i would love my own kids and suddenly i just had this love and and i was like everyone else yeah this is a picture of me this was during our trip to uh ethiopia um on our 20-year anniversary so just like seven years ago we're like gosh all our greatest times are when we go out and serve and so we're okay i haven't been to ethiopia yet and we've been volunteering there serving there and this girl i mean it i've never seen anyone like that that bad i've seen a lot of poverty but not like that and i remember just i didn't know if i could touch her i didn't know you know when i asked the leader i go you know and her stomach was distended that means like her organs were already eating themselves and he just said she's not going to live no matter what we do i said but can i pray for her he goes oh yeah you can pray for her and i just beg god i go god can you save her just keep her alive long enough to worship you and there are thousands of kids like this just you know her brothers sisters they they're all dead it's just weird i've been on trips where i just watched mothers screaming like crazy because their child just died but i think i sent the next picture too you can go to the next slide that's her the same girl a few years ago yeah and uh i i can't tell you the the thrill of going you know where that day we were chasing each other around we were playing tag and she's just laughing laughing laughing then we have a worship service and i just see her with her hands up in the air worshiping jesus like oh god that's one thing i prayed for have her lived so she could be used to worship you there's no way i can explain to you i mean i'm trying to explain it to you but i can't have you taste what it's like to chase a girl like that around and play tag with her and listen to her laugh and know that had we not gone on that trip she would have died and she should have died and there's thousands more and sometimes we get there too late but but it's it's the joy it's the joy like it doesn't compare you know when i came home from africa the first time i i told my wife i go you don't understand these kids they they make me so happy like i i it's not like i feel guilty i go i just i want to give whatever we can and we didn't have very much but we had a house and i was like do you mind if we sell our house you know we can just move into a trailer or something like that i said because these kids i have to do something for them i want to do something for them and when my wife you know at that time i think she was maybe pregnant with our third or we had at least two and uh she goes well it's not i didn't go with you on the trip so i don't feel what you're feeling but if you think god wants us to sell our house then let's do it and so that day we went out looking for trailer parks and trailers to live in and sold our home and found a smaller place to live in and the joy of being able to help these people and then i remember gosh probably 12 13 years ago you know we kept giving and seeing the results and we kept getting happier i remember one time at after a service i'm going god there's so many rich people in our church i go but they're if they really believed in heaven why wouldn't they be giving it all away because you say this is forever and everything i give you you're gonna reward me for a hundred fold forever that's a good investment okay and so i go if they believe that why won't they give more why do they have to live so so so luxuriously why can't they just live like a normal person and give the rest of the money if they believe in heaven and in my prayer i go god at the end i said god either change him i said or you can make me rich seriously this was my prayer and i told god if you make me rich i will still live the same way i won't spend any of it i'll give it all away because i am so happy knowing you that money won't change me money can't make me happier and i just kind of said that like i didn't i wasn't that serious just say change them or make me rich and i'll give it all away and show the world that it doesn't matter then the next year i made a million dollars u.s not just a little hong kong million like u.s million and i'm going what because i wrote a book i didn't know i could write my english was terrible my math was awesome but my i'm chinese you know but the english was horrible and then i write a book and it becomes a bestseller and i'm going what and they go yeah you'll have looks like you'll have millions of dollars coming in and i saw my wife i'm like we're not touching any of it i told god if you made me rich i don't want it i'll give it all away and immediately we signed over all the royalties you know to a non-profit and just saying you know we spend the last i don't know 10 years or so just giving away millions of dollars around the world and that's why i feel like we're the happiest people in the world and we still drove the same old car same old clothes that means the only that's the only time i've ever preached in a suit you know like because i heard that's what you do um and i just bought this i had the same suit for 20 years and then my second third daughter just got married so we bought this for a hundred dollars and um but before the suit i just want the same old clothes because it's like it doesn't matter for me to live as christ and to die is gain that's that's why uh how much time do i have am i well i'm okay okay i'll tell you one more story okay um like when i read in the book of luke in the book of luke jesus is talking to rich people in luke 18. remember the story of the rich young ruler and the rich young ruler comes to jesus and he says what do i have to do to go to heaven and jesus answered him in a way that we wouldn't he says well have you obeyed the commands and the guy's like yeah yeah i obeyed him and then jesus says something crazy i mean this man is just asking how do i go to heaven and jesus sell everything you have and give it to the poor and the man it says he walked away sad because he had so much see that's the way some people respond when we ask them to give to those who are in need they they almost get sad like ugh give to the poor and for this man it was everything and the son of god asked him to do it and he was sad because he felt like someone's taking away something i love but then in the very next chapter after jesus says oh it's so hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven it's easier for a camel to go go through the eye of a needle than for rich man to enter in the gates of heaven but then in the next chapter in the next chapter there's a man named zacchaeus and the bible specifically says in in luke 19. there in verse 2 there was a man named zacchaeus he was a chief tax collector and was rich and he was seeking to see who jesus was but on account of the crowd he couldn't because he was small so he ran on ahead climbed up a sycamore tree and then you know jesus sees him and says get down i want to come to your house and you know the story zacchaeus is like what jesus jesus is going to come to my house he gets so excited so he came down and received him joyfully and then in verse 8 zacchaeus stood and said to the lord behold lord half of my goods i give to the poor and if i have defrauded anyone of anything i restore it fourfold and jesus said to him today salvation has come to this house remember jesus says it's hard for the rich but then here it says he's a rich man and he goes salvation has come to this house what's crazy is you don't even have a record of jesus saying well give to the poor case just goes i can't believe you're in my house you're in my house the son of god is in my house okay everyone half of everything i own goes to the poor and i know i've stolen money from some of you i'll give you four times as much back with the rest of my money and jesus just sees zacchaeus and goes salvations come to this house do you see the difference in the attitude one person is looking at his money going uh i don't know i don't know i don't know you're asking for everything i don't know the other person zacchaeus is like jesus you're jesus you're the son of god you want to come into my house seriously oh my gosh this is crazy uh here take all my money you you guys i know i sold from you here's the money man he he he's not thinking about his money he's looking at jesus and going i can't believe you're willing to come into my house you see when you really understand who jesus is when you've really tasted and you really go wait so jesus you went earth and then the earth just showed up he's like yeah that's what i did oh my gosh and you're in my house like you seriously you what'd you do you just said light he goes yeah i just said light and just that's it and then light like the sun that well how did it and now you're in my house of course i'm not thinking about my money of course i'm not thinking about retirement you spoke the world into existence and now you're about to go to the cross and you're gonna die for me to pay for everything i've done wrong and you because you want me because jesus you want me you want relationship you want to know me my own dad didn't want to know me and you who spoke the world into existence you're gonna die on a cross because you want me this is crazy this is insane that's why a few million dollars you you talk about money you think i care about money man i i go god thank you thank you you gave me a gift you opened my eyes and now money nothing matters you have it all because for me to live as christ and to die is gain and i'm praying that some of you would be honest enough to admit wow i feel more like the rich young ruler than i do zacchaeus i'm looking at all these things i'd have to give up to really follow jesus and i still love them all and i don't know if i'm ready to follow him i see zacchaeus and now you're explaining who jesus is and i'm going wow he really did that for me and maybe tonight he's going to open your eyes because i prayed that for some of you maybe you're like a lot of people in the church i grew up with where you did things you obeyed things you didn't do anything super evil you you know all that thou shall not command you you got him down you stayed away from those things but this joy of taste in god and going oh i love him i just want to leave this earth and be with him jesus please come because i miss you i just want to be with you i just want to hold you and experience you even more that's what i'm praying for in fact even right now i'm gonna pray i'm gonna pray that that god would give some of you the gift what am i asking you to give okay i'm gonna ask god to give i want to get i want him to give you sight like zacchaeus i want him to give you generosity like the macedonians father right now i praise you i worship you for opening up my eyes to how beautiful you are forgiving me generosity god i was just as selfish as anyone until you opened my eyes to what a treasure i have in jesus money is ridiculous to me now lord that's a gift from you and i pray for my new friends in this room that you would pour your grace out on them that they would see you even now as we worship you that they would taste of you holy spirit please fall in this room in jesus name we pray amen you

Channel: Crazy Love

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Id: 3oX2Kk3zm1w

Length: 46min 33sec (2793 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020