(Preached at Pleasant Ridge Baptist, Morganton, NC 6-28-15)
It has been a very disappointing week for Bible-believing Christians, the Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage at the top of the list. But we have much to be thankful for — including the blood of Jesus the choir just sung about — and that never changes! Because of what Jesus did for us, like that song says, we owe our lives, our all. And we will show how much that truth has impacted our lives in many ways — not least of all through our giving. When you love, you want to give.
One day last week Cheryl took our oldest grand baby, Corley Jane, to Walmart, and when I looked at the sacks when she got home, I said; “You have more bags of toys for Corley than you do for our food!” Cheryl said: “They aren’t all toys; there are some clothes and sandals in there too!”
Of course, grandparents are famous (or infamous!) for buying things for their grandchildren, and the reason, of course, is that we often demonstrate our love by the way that we give. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21) In other words, you are willing to spend money on what is important to you. If you want to see where a person’s heart is, just follow their checkbook (or their debit card these days!) — what they spend money on will lead you to what is most important to them.
This morning as we continue our study, “The Disciplines of Disciples”, we remember that Jesus did not call us to merely “come to church”, but to “Follow Me”! We have seen that there are a number of ways in which we are called in the Bible to discipline ourselves and follow the Lord, among them a morning prayer time, as well as spontaneous prayer throughout the day; daily Bible reading and scripture memory; and some more “horizontal” disciplines, like fellowship and service in the church, and evangelism. Today we are going to look at a discipline which should be a part of every disciple’s life: the discipline of giving. As we will observe in our passage in Genesis 28, it’s not merely about money, but gets right to heart of what being a disciple is all about:
“Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the LORD will be my God. This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.'”
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