The Giver and the Gift | Pr Sandra Chin

You're listening to a message to go from ex Church.

We hope this message will light up your da.

The message I have for you today is called I

had to title some guy this The Giver and the Gift.

All right, I put the one lighter because it's Chinese

New Year just finished. Sorry, I use the one like okay,

pineapple anyway, The Giver and the gift. As we, you know,

walk in the Lord, as we walk every day, as

we serve the Lord, as we follow Christ. Yeah, you know.

Now and again we are reminded we are the giver

and we have a gift. Amen. All of us have

the opportunity to give, and we are the giver. Please

don't tell your neighbor you are a giver. Tell your

other name on the other side, you too, you are

the giver, Amen, and then tell back the other neighbor

you have a gift. Amen. We all have a you've

God has so much blessed us. Well, I'm just wondering,

as a question for all of us, on a scale

of one to ten, how would you rate the joy

of your giving? How joyful are you when you give?

If you look at the little zebra, will the zebra

be rocking? Up the top or rocking down at the bottom.

All right, on the scale of one to ten, how

would you rate the joy of your giving? I hear

the church in Nigeria when people come up, anyone from

Nigeria here? No, no?

Who?

All right? You know? I heard my friend went to

church there and they say it's offering time, and the

people would go woo, and they'll be dancing, going down

and then hilariously.

Giving their offering. Wow, the scale of their joy of

giving must be to ten. All right, I don't know.

So this is a good question. Are you happy when

you give? Or are you crying?

You're my ten dollars is departing from me, departing like dying.

You know, are you crying or are you like yay?

There's a chance for me to worship the Lord with

my giving. So you know yourself? You can you know

to usk and say where am I one or ten?

Or in the middle? Wow? Well, you know, the joy

of the Lord is our strength in all things. Our

encouragement to each other is that matter what we are,

what we're going through, where we're at, the joy of

the Lord is our strength, and that's how we draw

joy out and how we have the strength of the

lot because his joy isiness, not just happiness. Joy. Jesus says,

I go to my Father so that your joy may

be full, and I give you the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So praise the lot. Good. To rate yourself so you

know where you're at this at this season in your life,

and are you happy? Giving? Okay, can create yourself Number one.

If we're going to give friends, every time that we're

gonna give, we're gonna give it by an act of faith. Amen.

So first point is your act of faith. If every

time we give it has to be an act of faith. Amen.

Do you know when Jesus went to the cross, he

did not know if you and me would accept him?

Did you know that? You know? In Romans chapter eight,

verse five, he says, while we were yet sinners, he

gave his life for us. And I remember I wasn't

born yet right when he gave his life at the cross,

Sandra didn't exist yet. But he thought about me and

he went to the cross, but he didn't know if

whether I would would I receive him? Because at fourteen

I said no, thank you, Jesus speak to the hand

at fourteen a small young girl, right, we say no

to Jesus. I have other gods to worship, and I

rejected him. But just a year later I got to

say yes to him because God just came in and

just you know, I encountered Christ and then I got

to be a part of the big family of God.

And so you know, he also took that faith step

to die for you and me at the cross. It

was the death that you know. I'll never know how

much it cost him. I will never know the pain

I will never know. And there won't be any of

us who will never need to go to the cross

because Christ has done it for us. I believe that too,

was an act of faith, being sent by the Father

to the cross. Jesus went for us. Amen. And so

you know the verse in Hebrews eleven sixteen. On so

many times we say, how can I please God, Jesus,

please the Father, and look at that verse. But without faith,

it's impossible to please him. For he who comes to

God must believe in two things. Number one, that he

is and that he is a reward of them who

diligently seek him. Two things that you and I want

to do. How can we please the Lord? We gotta

go by faith? And then we got to know that

he is Bukan. He was okay, he is okay. Here

is not a words God, not a word God, but

is God. He's a today God. Yeah, he's present, Amen,

And that he rewards all of us who seek him.

Diligently seek him, and he will meet with us. Amen.

I believe that we are sheep, and the Bible in

John chapter ten says he's sheep. Hear his voice. Amen,

how many sheep we have in the house. You can

hear the voice of the law. Yeah, not but but

but but that's a goat. But you are the sheep,

and the sheep will follow the shepherd. And our great

shepherd is Jesus. So it is truly an act of faith,

even for us. It is by faith that we receive

the faith in Christ. It is by faith, you know,

to please God that we are going to prepare every

every Sunday, we prepare to give our offering, every time

we choose to give for any need. It's truly by faith. Yeah,

it's an act of faith because we want to please God.

You know, a lot of couples when they're dating in

the past, they used to come and ask me, pasus

I want to please God in my dating life? How

and what should I do? Everybody wants to please God,

so you gotta date by faith. You gotta put it

before the Lord and date by faith and seek the Lord?

And what and how you can encourage each other and

build this relationship by faith? Amen? Everybody. If we want

to please God, you got to go by faith. Anything

done without faith, I'm sorry to report. Sorry, you are

not pleasing God. So how many God pleases are in

this house? Let's go by faith? Amen? If you forgot,

then you have to go by faith. I'm also being

reminded go by faith. Take a step of faith. Thank

you Jesus. I'm gonna give by faith, Amen, because I

want to please God. So number one, as a giver,

you gotta act always by faith in all things, because

we want to please God. Amen, by faith? By faith?

You know, taking up any form of leadership is by faith.

You are Selena. You think she wants to do this,

She'll cry bye? By faith in obedience has passed us.

She said, Okay, let's call obedience and then it's by faith.

You can't see right by faith because if you saw

these earlier, you're like, all right, bye bye faith. Amen,

anyone who's serving by faith. I just want to say

that X Church is inundated with the teaching of by faith.

X was planted by faith with just one man and

two people. That turned up from three people, it has

grown to where we are globally. It is not by

any other way, by faith, by faith, that someone will

rise up to the call to plant by faith, it

is someone who will say yes to Jesus. To serve.

Every day is a step of faith. Truly, every day

I wake up and thinking, oh, there's so much to

do by faith. If I shall conquer oh man, by faith,

we will get this conference on his feet this weekend.

All right by fame. Okay, so you'll help me, Okay,

all right, by fame. So much to do. Bye, bye, Fave.

When I see you, I will rejoice. When I see you,

I will say it was all worth it, all right

when I see you. When I see you, yeah, I

will be going like hallelujah. Amen, I'm so glad that

it was worth it. I saw my family there. I'm

punk team already dressed up up and ready at conference

and at our anniversary celebrating. Wow, it's such a joy.

And different ones you are also preparing, you know, our

dance team. And Leona has been on the dance team preparing.

You know, she says she wants to retire. I said, no,

you can't, No, you can't. Husband is, don't be selfish. Aymen,

We've got a fantastic light bulb our creative ministry. Ninety

six dancers from no dancers because people retired to.

Wow, refired, rewired from young and younger under a one hundred.

Oh hallelujah, It's gonna be awesome. You want to be there.

God has blessed X with such talent. Amen. When we

talk about giving, you know who has given the most sacrificial,

the most you know, the heart of giving, the heart

of unconditioned is our heavenly Father. Amen. You know our

God has given us unconditionally, and he gave us his son.

He gave us his son to bridge the gap between

the sin that stood before us and the Lord. But

God unconditionally, sacrificially only one son. He gave us his son.

And we celebrate that every weekend, every day that I

tell you in my quiet time, every day I say

to Jesus and I say, I'm such a broken record, Lord,

but I'm so grateful that I'm forgiven every day because

I fail. Every day I might hurt someone, I may

hurt God. Firstly, and I say, Lord, I'm so grateful

Jesus for the blood of the Lamb that every time

Father looks at me, God looks at me, it's the blood.

It's the blood, Amen. And it's truly, you know, such

a precious, precious sacrifice. So even Jesus was obedient, he

went as the Lord sent him. He was a step

of faith. He stepped into, you know, the the light

of the world, stepped into a very dark earth. What

would he expect? Would we reject him? Would we receive him?

And so when you think about your act of faith,

you think about the one who went before you and me,

our master, Jesus Christ. And so you draw that strength,

and you draw that faith of God that's in you

as you take steps to do anything anything for the Lord,

in your job, in your parenting, you know, in your

in your in your family life, in your church ministry,

doing something for the community. It's always really by faith,

no need to calculate one to treat us by faith. Lord,

you said I will go because my sheep here, my

voice says the Lord. Amen, hallelujah. I want to encourage

you with that because sometimes we forget that Christ has

given his life for us. One day we will have

to see our Savior face to face, and there will

be questions, there will be conversations with him, and I

pray we will all have great conversations on that day.

I don't think matter I will have a conversation. I

would just cry. The fact that I would see my

Master means I made it. I made it. No thing

to argue, nothing to say why that person so bad

to me? Nothing. It will just be thank you Jesus,

because all the love of Christ are washed away, all

my anger and all my regrets. And I say to us,

every day we celebrate God's unconditional love. Amen. And so church,

first step, as a giver, act by faith. Don't calculate

and count with God. Yeah, because He never calculated with you.

You give and you give your heart to the Lord. Amen. Secondly,

as we are the giver, we actually have an intimacy

with God. Wow. Everything that stems from the step first

one faith is that intimacy that you and I will

have with God or are having, or if you haven't yet,

you will have because you can't do anything without that

intimacy with the Lord. So key passage is Second Corinthians,

chapter eight and verse one to seven. The key passage

I'm taking this from is from Second Corinthians, chapter eight.

So give give you a quick background before we read it.

The background of Paul writing the church on Corinth. This

is the church that he planted and then he left.

You know, Paul had many missionary mission strips that he did,

and in Acts chapter eighteen was when he planted this church.

You read in X chapter eighteen he planted the church

in Corinth and then you know, pasted it, and then

you know, he made his trips back and forth planted

the other churches. And then he heard some news about

the church not being in a good place, so he

wrote a letter to them and so addressing different matters

and chald and one of these was in this area

that he was encouraging the church in the area of

their giving. So he was trying to remind them that

they had made a commitment a year ago to actually

collect the funds to give to the church in Jerusalem,

because Christians in Jerusalem were badly, badly persecuted, really persecuted

as long as you say Jesus, that's it. Okay, they

will kill you, all right. So they were underground, they're

going to the caves, they were hiding. There were those

there were those seasons of faith, and people were dying

for their faith, persecuted for their faith. So so the Christians,

those who became believers in the Gentile world in Turkey,

Uh in Asia Minor being heard about the news, and

they said, we want to give, we want to have

a part in Jerusalem. And so they began to collect

an offering. And the church in Macedonia, which is also

in in Asia, the part of uh was a very

poor church. Poor meaning they're nowhere like us. When you

say you're poor, brother, you got food and drink to eat.

They were poor. They also were persecuted, so it's difficult times.

But they had such a heart of wanting to give

to the Lord that they collected this offering and they

said to Paul, take this offering and you know, send it,

send it to Jerusalem. So Paul was taken up, so

taken up right. The whole leadership leaders will say, wow,

you know you're in you're in greater need than than

any of us, and yet you want to give this gift.

So Paul was taking the example of the Macedonian Church

and sharing it with the church in Korin, reminding them

that they too were the first to respond. But it's

taken one year. They haven't delivered their gift yet. So

that's where Paul was encouraging the church in Korinth. So

you want to read what made the Macedonian church give

in such a way even though they were lacking? All right,

So we're reading from Second Corinthians, Chapter eight. If you

have your bibles, we're still in by ob Okay, don't

trade your bible, keep it all right, um, And now

we're gonna read. But if you don't mind, I'm going

to read it from a different version JB. Phillips. All right,

it's a JB. Phillips version. So it's the whole story.

So here we go follow three. If you are okay,

thank you for showing there. Whatever, I'm gonna read JB. Phillips.

So Paul says, now, my brothers, we must tell you

about the grace that God has given to the Macedonian

churches somehow, in most difficult circumstances. Their joy and the

fact of being down to their last penny themselves produce

a magnificent concern for other people. I guarantee that they willing,

They were willing to give to the limit of their means. Yes,

and b on their means, without the slightest urging from

me or anyone else, says Paul. In fact, they simply

begged us to accept their gifts and so let them

share the honor of supporting their brothers in Christ. Nor

was their gift, as I must confess, I had expected

a mere cash payment. Instead, they made a complete dedication

of themselves, first to the Lord and then to us

as God's appointed ministers. Now this has made us, therefore

us Titus. So Titus was us, who has already done

so much among you, to complete his task by arranging

for you too to share in this work of generosity.

Already you are well to the fore in every good quality.

You have faith. You can express that faith in words.

You have knowledge, enthusiasm, and your love for us. Could

you not add generosity to your virtues? Add On, paulsies

don't want you to read this as an order. It

is only my suggestion, prompted by what I have seen

in others of eagerness. To help. And here's a way

to prove the reality of your love. Do you remember

the generosity of Jesus Christ, the Lord of us all?

He was rich beyond our telling, Yet he became poor

for your six so that he might so that his

poverty might make you rich. A Manda reading of God's word.

It's a bit more, you know, easier English. Okay. So

the second point is your intimacy with God. Drawing out

of Second Corinthians, chapter eight, verse one to seven, and

we're focusing firstly in this portion. The verse is verse five,

which says Paul says, I don't know how they could give,

but but I figured it out. Why. It's because they

first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us

by the will of God. This intimacy with God is

so important for each and every one of us. As

we grow in our faith with Christ, we go deeper

a little bit more every season of our walk with Jesus.

Come on, judge, amen, yeah, if you're you know this

is for eternity. Life we walk with christis for eternity.

Who better to deal to grow closer to on a

day to day basis, On a regular basis is Jesus

to deepen ourselves by first giving ourselves to the Lord.

And these children of faith, the Macedonians, gave themselves to

the Lord and then to the leadership right. So for me,

I see that as intimacy with God. When you are

having intimacy, the word intimate is the word to know.

In Genesis chapter two, where to know Adam new Eve,

the knowing, the intercourse, the connection produces a fruit. And

so as our faith intimacy with God goes deeper and deeper,

there there is a fruit. There's a produce. We produce

the fruit of the faith that God has put in us.

So these people produced because they gave themselves first. They built,

and they developed an intimacy with Christ. So I do

not speak at you. I'm speaking to myself as well,

and on a year to year basis, to ask ourselves,

have we given ourselves first to the Lord? Because when

you give yourself to the Lord, you go deeper in

your talking, in your fellowship with the Holy Spirit. And

it's not just about praying a prayerless or you're asking

for things, but you're just sitting before the Lord and

worshiping with your own song. Sometimes it's a broken song.

But God listens to your song and he enjoys you

as you enjoy the lot in your quiet time. You

break up some of your days where it's just you

just worshiping, just reading the word, just being still quiet,

and hear from the Lord. And when you and I

say here, I don't think he always says to me,

Hello Sandra, Hello John. But something stirs in my heart

that gives me an assurance that God is with me

in this particular journey I'm going through or whatever. So

I want to encourage us. This intimacy can only happen

when you first give yourself to the lot. Amen, give

yourself to the Lord. Make room for the Lord, Make

room for the Lord to speak. I find that many

people pack up their days, their weeks with a lot

of appointments. So when you ask them to go out

for a meal, they're sorry. There with somebody else. Maybe

they're afraid to be alone. Maybe they're singles. They want

to pack up their days, you know, because don't have

a boyfriend or whatever or some other activity, and so

they pack it all up. But can I say to you,

don't pack up your life with activities. Give some room

in a week, day to just spend with the Lord

just a few thirty minutes an hour and receive from it,

grow your intimacy so that you can recognize the voice

of the Shepherd, and he will speak to us. Amen.

I do that. I do that. You know their daily

quiet time is daily quiet time. But in between them,

sometime I just stop from everything in that hour and

just say, Okay, Lord, I just want to worship you

with my broken song. Nobody knows the song. Yeah, I

know the song. So I write my own songs and

sing to him. Amen. And you just give yourself to

the Lord. So I ask two questions for us to consider.

What does it mean for you to give yourself first

to the Lord? What does that mean? What does that

look like for you to give yourself first to the Lord?

Have you done it now and then here and there?

But what does it mean? Second, when is it easier

to give yourself to the Lord during times of plenty

or during times of less than plenty? I don't know

an answer because it's a very individual answer. When is

it easier to give yourself to the Lord when you

have plenty? Will you remember the Lord? The Bible says

in Deuteronomy, when you are well. When you're filled, don't forget.

There is the Lord who gave you the ability to

make money. So after we've eaten and say oh it's

all me, do that all right? Remember the Lord. Amen.

And so when we have plenty, is it easier to

forget or is it easier to remember? Or when we

have less? Is it then only that we come to

the Lord and give ourselves to the Lord. Okay, this

is an answer only you can give imen as you

talk to the Lord. But something for us to think about,

because scripture tells us the Macedonian Christians, the believers gave

themselves first to the Lord. Therefore they were able to

give financially, even though they were themselves persecuted and in lack.

They were definitely poor by whatever they had. They said, no, Jerusalem,

the believers needed more than us. They were persecuted too,

but they saw the need. They were not having food,

they were not having a lot of me a lot

of whatever basic needs. So they sent their funds across.

Soone encourage us about us giving ourselves first to the Lord. Amen,

Because when you give yourself to the Lord, you are

the lords. And so I don't see Jesus ays Oh,

you know Jesus. I see Jesus as my master. How

do you see Jesus in your life? I see him

as my master? Where where I mean? The Master says,

I will do I don't. I don't have a doubt.

I don't. He tells me to go, I go. Will

I struggle with some things. I don't know. If you

ask me to take my late CRUs pot and lend

it to Leona, I'm not sure because because it's a

La Crusade pot, my French port. But if I'm hearing,

I need to give my with hands shipping. Here you go.

You when the Lord speaks, because of your intimacy, you

know it ain't going to be lacking, it's going to

be overflowing. But we have to take a step of faith. Okay, Lord,

we'll do it. Amen, we'll do it. Oh, ex has

got so many stories from our pastor who's taken those

steps of faith. Intimacy, We've got right. And the year

that he took a sabbatica for the year was the

very year that the the leadership in Singapore lost their

pastor Chung in prison. The director changi Prison fellowship. Also,

he goes to the prison in Chiangi, Reverend Henry Ku

passed away and his brother mister kuh and Yong, Reverend

kuhn Yong, said, would you come and pastor our church?

I told my husband, don't you dare the voice of

the wife unbelieving wife. Yes, it's like, no, you cannot

take over another person's church. It's the worst thing to do.

They'll give you hell. It's true. We take over somebody

else's church is terrible. All the people will hate you. You know,

what are you? And so we said, we already got

so much to do and I want so bad to

go past and say, uh, we'll pray about it. They say,

but at least would you come, you know, and preach

for us once a month. So we went to preach

every month. And of course when you go, you you

and there was I can't go tell you everything. But anyway,

there were really old people in the church, very old.

They would serve prison ministry and so because morning prison,

then afternoon they would have church service. And they all

came from actually different churches, but they use this as

their fellowship and they would come for service. But then

reverend Henry passes away, they really respected him. And then

then then then you get the Reverend Cannel right, woonel

are you write this young chap and they're really really old.

Two thirds of the church was old people. Uh, And

so he came to preach, and of course we fall

in love with the people, right. And then later he

goes and say yes, yes, yes, I will help. Then

called Junguey Christian Fellowship. Now it's acting a pole. So

he we go, I can't believe this, like I'm quite

unbelieving it. Yeah, but my husband took a step of

faith in the time of a sabbatical and the Lord said,

I didn't. You can rest, but this is the rest. However,

you're you're dealing with something else here. Don't let my

church close down. Because they were going to close down

the church church in Singapore not easy. They really got

two different licenses as a charity and as a church

us so much. Don't let it go. Don't let it down.

So church went down. Of course when we took over,

it went even down because all the old people left.

They said this busters we said some things. But of

course after that it just grew and we've got our people.

In the twenties, many young people came to the church.

So it's now much more younger, a little bit more younger,

more more younger. And now we've got babies, all right,

so all my leaders are getting married and having babies.

And this is a since two thousand and nine. It

was a step of faith. I don't know, it's so tough, right,

I mean, our pastor there passed on and his son

John has taken over. God used the trips that we made.

Many of some of you here used to drive down

to Singapore every Saturday morning service for Sunday afternoon. Friendships

were built. I think some of you went down, drove down,

then drove back up on Sunday midnight, start work on Monday.

Thank you for all of you serve together with us.

We were flying in doing a service here done and

then go to KLA fly into the two thirty service.

We just really I was it by I think I'm

putting my faith in the airline Asia. Sometime I just

you know, after the extra rass, I'd be oh, I

forgot I have a fly to catch it. Help the

skelter running the driving the airport. And we'd been doing

that every Sunday. We would do a service after Subang.

That time only one service Ubank fly over, fly over, flyover.

And some people say, you're mad doing this, But God said,

don't let my church close. And until the church was

well established, we didn't have to do that anymore. Too

often our teams drove in and out every weekend, once

a month at least or twice a month to serve.

If it wasn't by obedience, it wasn't by faith. I

don't think we could have survived that. Friendships were built,

the church was not closed down. It still continues. Amen.

It had to be hearing from the Lord that would hear,

not the unbelieving wife's words, the naughty wife. And of

course the church turned around and says that new people

came in. Those people where other churches went back to

that church. And so we left us with very few.

But the very few grew and we have what we

have today, a good group of new families, young families,

young adults. And God is good. Right. You've got to

take a self faith, but you also got to have

the intimacy relationship with the lot to hear and then

to do. And that's what our pastor has done. And

then all of us joined in and got a part

of it. Some of you are such good friends. Some

of ex partners and good friends with them in Singapore

are going holidays together and God builds the church that way. Amen.

So just encouraging us, When do we give ourselves to

the Lord, because we might just miss an opportunity of

a lifetime that got ones for us. Because we're hearing

the unbelieving wife. Yeah, so better hear the voice of

the Lord. Repented, repented, So act by faith a step

of act. Whatever you do by faith. Number two we

hear because we have an intimate walk with Jesus. And thirdly,

as you begin to act on these steps of faith

and are intimate with the Lord, you begin to grow

in the likeness of Christ. Amen. Hallelujah. Amen. That is

at the end of the day, that is what we

are meant for to look like Jesus Church. We're not.

When Jesus comes back, when he's returned, he ain't looking

for John. He the face. He is going to look

at the Christ. God, the Father is looking at the

Christ in John. You know, I'm so glad that every

time God looks at you and me, he ain't seeing

your faith my face, Eliate, He sees the blood of

the lamb that's why we can enter into the throne

of grace. It's the blood of the Lamb. And then

the character that God is building in us is his

very son. Would look like his son. So it's okay

if your hair turns white, it's not that he's coming,

for He's coming for the Christ in you, the hope

of glory. Every time you take that intimate walk with

Jesus and you obey Church, the Christian walk is a

walk of obedience. It is not a walk of eye

one and I like it is my convenience. It is

a walk of obedience every time you obey the Lord.

Doors open every time you say yes to Jesus. And

not getting mixed up with you know, I'm not sure

in Amela, I'm believing. Don't take Singapore and we've never

had that opportunity to build the church in Singapore. With

the planting of Singapore, the rebirthing of Singapore, going traveling

in and out for two three four years, flying like

this a really by God's grace and thank you for

air Asia. We planted then three church five just in

the year twenty twelve at one go. Because we had

the faith to do this. Our faith expanded January, Expertswana, May, Exbergussi,

ex Ampang was the day before in May. Then it

was ex London in October, then it was ex Melbourne

in November, and one more other plant I think pja

or something like that. Hallelujah. Why because your faith is stretched,

you lengthen your cards. You just every time you hear

the Lord, people will laugh at Passcanada and say what

is this man doing? But he hears from the Lord,

and he asks by faith, if we inherit Church, we

don't say, are you more work for us? The wife

on you will say that, but all of us will

just have an opportunity to have a part in the

Kingdom of God's building building. Right, so we God is

we grow into the likeness of Christ. Why because Christ

first gave we want to look like Jesus. Amen. And

that's and ex exactly in Two Corinthians. In two Corinthians

eight seventy nine says you know, that's where Paul is saying. Hey.

In verse seven, he says, as you abound in everything

in your faith, yes, in your speech, can speak very eloquently,

in your knowledge, yes, in your diligience, yes, in your

love yes. But one more thing that is of Christ, generosity,

the spirit of generosity, the grace. In the New King James,

he just says this grace, but if you study that word,

it just means the grace of generosity. God asking us

to add this more, one more thing, just like my Jesus.

He went to the cross, he gave his life, He

became poor that you and I might become rich. Amen.

So we want to look like Christ. You know. In

X twenty thirty five he says that is better to

give than to receive. He says, Jesus said, better to

give than to receive. WHOA don't have exact words like

they recorded everything because a lot of things Jesus said

they couldn't record. But Jesus himself acted on those. He

acted on it. He showed us what it is to give,

not just to receive. He always gave. He always gave.

He came to serf not to be served. Amen. So

I believe that as we we take a step of faith,

as we walk close with the Lord intimate relationship, is

he really master of my life? Or just I tell you,

I tell you when to turn, you turn, then he's

then I'm master? Amen? She said Jesus take the wheel.

Selena said, Jesus take the wheel. If Jesus takes the wheel,

and you better not be the back seat driver. You

can be backstreet boys, but not backstreet driver, back seat driver.

So Jesus takes the wheel. Jesus take the wheel. Yeah,

and he turns on the road of generosity. Jesus stopped

turning to the road of generosity. I don't want to

be generous. Jesus takes the wheeler does the road or forgiveness.

I don't want to forgive him, but I but you say,

take the wheel.

No, So who's holding the wheel now? On the backseat driver?

I'll tell you where you go. So we gotta you know,

check our hearts. Sometimes when Jesus took the turn to

the road of generosity, we also turn ler or road

of forgiveness, or the road of service, you know, the

road of care, the road of kindness. I don't know

what road Jesus would take you when he takes the wheel,

but we want to look like our Christ. And so

when you turn to when you look at Luke chapter six,

verse thirty to thirty one and thirty three thirty five,

you will see about how we should treat our enemies right,

and he says here in Luke Sick thirty he says,

give to everyone who asks of you, and from him

who takes away your goods, don't ask them back. You

took my luc who say I want to ask it back, Leona.

And just as you want men to do to you,

do also to them. Likewise, do unto others as you

want them to do to you. Is the golden rule,

all right. So whenever you want people to treat you,

treat people nicely, then people will treat you nicely. That's

part of life. When you saw it's what you read right.

Verse thirty five says, love your enemies, do good, lend,

hoping for nothing in return a very hard ware, and

your reward will be great, and you will be the

sons of the mouse high for his kind to the

unthankful and evil, Oh, very hard people who you know,

people who make life difficult for you? Ask you to

be kind? What are you, hola, hola? Oh, this person

don't make my life easier? Ask you to be kind

your Jesus, He says, Well, then you're no different from

the ones out there. But if you hope for nothing

and you bless them, ride verse thirty five. You will

be the sons of the Most High. You will look

like my son who loved them, who nailed him to

the cross, who loved them, who said we want Barabas

nail Jesus to the cross. Wow, we wouldn't want to

look like Jesus. We gotta do opposite then, what people

expect of you and me, And you don't. So we

don't pray things like all that's my enemy. You don't

put rain for them, don't give them sunlight. Sorry, Jesus,

God will make the sun come up and the sun

go down.

For everybody, both your enemies, his enemies, whatever, because God's

nature is one of sacrifice and of unconditional love.

So we cheer each other on and say, let's look

more like Jesus. Let's look more like Jesus. I know

it's hard, the person hurt you. I know it's hard.

I know it's hard. But let's let's move forward by faith,

walking intimately with Christ and maybe look more like Christ. Amen.

So Paul was really encouraging the believers in Kourine not

to just you know, many of us who can abound

in our faith, or we speak very well, we have

knowledge about the Bible. You know, all your doctrines, very

enthusiastic to serve, we love, But he said, add on

the grace of generosity. To find a generous heart at

all times. It needs to be inculcated. Not all of

us are generous. Just like that, you're not being able

to bless anyone anytime, not looking forward to much. You

pay me back. I pay you lunch the picnic, so

you take me lunch. No, it's just God said, you

want to look like me, then act like me. When

we started axt church in twenty five years ago, the

first service, pastor had to take the offering because God

said take the offering. Pastor Kna said, I can't. There's

just two others and myself. What offering are we going

to take? The word was don't rob my people. Don't

rob my people, which I'll come to that the next

point he said, take the offering. Take the offering because

the offering is unto the Lord and it will abound

to them. God wants the gift the fruit for the person.

So we started doing offering on day one, even though

it was only three people. Right, So we just want

to really grow in our likeness of Christ. And one

of those virtues is the generous heart. And our father

has an unconditional generous heart towards you and me, So

I'm always very thankful. That's why my prayer every morning

is just thank you Lord that you receive me, broken

and quite unbelieving soul at times, and naughty, but thank

you Lord that you receive me. And the blood of

the Lamb is what watches me and cleanses me so

that I can treat others better as I grow. And

I learned four fly friends, let us sew for eternity. Amen,

and then you abound on Earth, so towards eternity and

a bound on Earth while you're still living on planet Earth, helirija. Amen.

How do we look at that? If we look at

Matthew Chapter six, verse nineteen. Matthew chapter six, verse nineteen.

You all know this, right, Matthew. Matthew chapter six, verse

nineteen says, guys, you know this verse. Don't lay up

for yourselves treasures on where the mouth and a rass

will destroy, where thieves will break in and steal. But

Jesus says, lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where

neither mouth ras destroys, where thieves will not break in

and steal. Where your treasure is there, your heart will

be also amen. A good reminder. I haven't read this

verse for young's and then in preparation for this message,

it led me back where my treasure all right, where

your treasure is there, your heart will be amen. Right,

it's like dead lives. It's like when you're in love

with the girl in this place, or you want to

see love because your heart is there. Right, we don't care, mother,

say what I want to see her? Yeah, it's like

that when you're in love. Right, save with with with us.

Where we saw our our our strength, our time, right,

our talent, our treasure, that's where our heart is, truly God,

it's very evident. When I used to date a guy,

another guy before my ex ex boyfriend, not ex husband,

ex boyfriend, ex boyfriend. This is my ex boyfriend that

wants my ex boyfriend paid no other girlfriend me. I

had many so recording a cut so when I when

I when I was dating a banker one time, this

guy he would observe me and apparently he said, every

time I drive you up to your church, your face

lights up, but you don't light that when you see me,

I said, really, I love church, I love serving. I

love you with ministry. So people can see if your

face lights up when you go to church. I think

it looked like that because he saw it, and he's thinking,

you don't look like that when you see me. It

was a good sign I should not marry this person,

A very good sign I am not good for this

person because I'm so sold out to the mini I

mean whatever you can say, I just love going to church.

I just love being with whatever God has given me

an opportunity to serve it. So he noticed that, and

I never noticed. I said really, And that got me

thinking we don't share the same passion for what really

drives us. Right. So after, I mean after, I didn't

call off the relationship. He did because I love God

too much. Then he called it off and then later said, no,

I want you back. No, no, we sing the Backstreet

Boys song. Whatever. I forgot, whatever I say, Sorry, I

wanted that way. Okay, So I'm like, sorry, nobody, nobody

breaks my heart or drops me. I drop you, you

don't drop me. Right, So, but I knew God was

speaking and speaking, but I wasn't listening because I was

afraid to not have a boyfriend because everybody in my

group married. So I was always hanging with the campus

students because I'm in youth ministry, hanging out with them

right the best time ever. And so just dropped me.

But then that's where I realize, when you're sewing towards eternity,

that's just eternal. My time, my treasure, my talent, I

couldn't see. I just enjoyed doing what I did. So

as I sewed towards eternity many many lives, or whenever

God caught me to do, I then abounded on earth

the blessing that God would give. But where was my treasure?

My treasure was in what God was interested in, the

lost young lives, the ministry of his house sew into eternity.

So where's your treasure? People? You know it's not wrong

to grow your wealth because God. In Deuteronomy chapter eight,

he says God gives you power to make wealth. Deuteronomy,

you get God gives you power to make wealth. So

make wealth. Because some of you are very good doing business,

I am not. I lose business skick because we're always

giving money away and not good. He's always giving away.

Na.

Na, you're aware not. So God gives you power to

make wealth. Make the wealth, because that's a blessing of

God in your life. Called for you to be an entrepreneur,

a business owner. But just ask ourselves, you know, how

are you sewing? Are you building your wealth towards something eternal?

What's God calling you to do with your wealth? Because

you always give you more than you need, and you

have extra to give to others. That's a teaching even

in the Bible. If you read the book of Ruth,

Boas said to his glean to his I don't know

the English word. Suddenly the people who sow and reap

their farmer or whatever, leave a bit. The laborers leave

a bit. Don't sew everything, don't don't go and take

everything into the storehouse. Leave some of the grain because

the poor will need it. But he also thought about

but that's part of their Levetical law. You can read

in Levetticus. Leave some because Ruth will get to glean

in it. So God will always give you more than

you need and enough to give away. The Macedonian Church

were already poor, but yet out of their giving of

themselves to the Lord from their poverty, they gave me

collected and they gave. All right, So where are you

and I sewing? Whether we have little or whether we

have a lot, we should sew towards eternity, where our

treasure is there our heart will be. Paul was calling

out to the church in Philippi, and he said to

the believers, he said, give right. If you read the context,

they were also collecting a gift for the church. And

he said, hey, guys, not that I seek the gift Philippins,

Chapter four, verse seventeen. Philippins, Chapter four, ver seventeen. He

says him asking you to give and encouraging you to give.

Why not that I seek the gift, But I seek

the fruit that abounds to your account. I want you

to abound church. I want you to have the experience

the power of God's provision. But learn to give. That's

what he told the church, and Philippie, who was also

collecting to give to the church in macedoniave I think so,

if not to Jerusalem. So he said, give, And that's

why passed the challenge from the Lord. Was collect that

offering because I'm wanting the gift to abound to the people.

I'm not taking I want them to abound and experience

the abundance. Amen. Amen. So as you saw your time,

your talent, your treasure, you saw it unto the Lord. Amen,

sew it to eternity. If you're building your wealth, which

is God given to you, sow it, I mean, do well.

But I need to teach you somebody sew it well

into the things of eternity. But remember that God has

made you able to do that. Thank You made you

able to do that, so that when you have, and

you have more than enough, you can give. Right. We

read the verses in verse in our Second Corinthians chapter nine.

God loves that your forgive a la la lah, you know,

give give. So I want to encourage you my favorite verse,

and I sing this song anyone lived in my time

where dinosaurs walked the earth, and I sang it before.

In Luke chapter six, verse thirty eight, Give and it

will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together,

running over, Give and it will come back to you

good measure, press down, shaking together, running over. Give. Give

to the Lord. Amen, you give. Don't ever hold back

your gift, especially when it's given to the Lord. Amen.

Because you so towards eternity he says, give and it

will be given to you good measure, pressed down, shaken together,

so can give more, can come in more to you,

running over when we put into your bosom, for with

the same measure that you use, it will be measured

back to you. If you give to the Lord a teaspoon,

you got to get back a teaspoon. That's all. That's all,

he says. You sow, you reap. If you give God

a truck full, you will get a truck full measure

back to you. Press down, shaking together, running over. I

want a running over kind of giving, so that I

will never like When I was sixteen and naive Christian

my self, group leader said to me, would you rather

be rich or would you not rather be rich? And

then my naive answer was, I think I would just

not be rich, And I choose to be in the

Lord because when I need I will ask him and

he will provide for me. Naive answer at fifteen sixteen,

But that's it. That's it. If he given you power

to make wealth, make wealth, but know how to soul,

and if we don't have, ask him and so he

will give to us. Amen. I stand in amazement every

day as I look at my husband. I really don't

know where the money comes from. I don't give him

pocket money. It's like a choice choy thing, you know.

I say, hey, bug, I give you something. Hey no no, no,

no no no no. I never I help you payler

no no no no no no no no. God will

provide for me. Really unbelieving my fear. I don't know,

And so we never argue about money. We don't you

you have no Of course I get angryllave and he

loses it la. Only one time he did a bad mistake,

and I'm like, right, because I wanted the oven and

you didn't want to give me an aven early days

of marriage, wouldn't know why No, then you lose the money.

I believe that he's learned to live by faith. Thirty

years we are married, thirty years. There's thirty years of

watching him bless me when he couldn't. He was very sad.

Early days. We had our heart. We've all done our

hot miles. We all will have our heart miles. We

must do our heart miles. So we understand lack, need

ask receive. And every time we have lack, can I say,

don't let your pride get in the way, because the

very thing that you need, God would use your enemy

to bless you. Then you didn't see church or church

I don't receive from you. But God still uses people

until today. I don't know how he doesn't fall from

the sky, seriously doesn't. It could be a monkey on

the tree shaking down, but he But he robbed that

bag from somebody, right. God always uses a person, So

my I think, I tell myself, I tell us, just

be ready if God will use you to bless somebody

with etiquette, money, to bless somebody with I don't even

don't even think that. But that's a rich man. You

don't know what that need today. Yesterday they were rich.

Today they're not rich. Something happened. Don't question and say,

but he's got like houses. Don't care. I've God told

you you just knock, knock. I tell you what. The

pride will go and humility will take over and they

will just say thank you Jesus. So God can use

you to meet a need. God always uses people. He

doesn't use a donkey because they don't work and they

don't have money. La, Okay, he uses us. We have

to remember that we're sewing for eternity. We want to

abound and see the abounding while we're still alive and

planet Earth, we were abound that you will never lack

done our hot Miles and I share this story all

the time. When we first got married, we didn't he

owned on he earned only eight hundred or five hundred rate.

All is he's in on the vows and all my

warly what and all my worly riches, I bestown the

vowler the vow we say. I really knew that was

not true because I turned around and look at at nothing,

very unbelieving. He said, all my early whatever, all my riches. Right,

my husband has blessed me more times than I have

ever blessed him. He has given me more times than

I would have given him. And I don't even want

to ask him where he gets it from. Maybe he

robbed it. I don't know. It's better that I don't know, right, yeah, yes,

just better. The wife don't know until I sit in

a service and here his testimony. That's when I found out.

So you probably heard it first and then you tell me,

and then I knew. So don't think everything he says.

I know, I don't know. People would tell me. But

really because I'm never in the same service and very

seldom right. So take a step of faith. I can't.

I really, I married a man. I didn't know that

will live like that work law. But God told me

to live by faith, Danny. So shero like, let's pray

that you and I will go to Melbourne and see

your grandmother. See y'all, let's pray together. They got will

provide fers. The jos shall live by faith. I never

understood that, but that was my first year of marriage.

He did that to me. I'm like, you're mad. My

church never taught me that. Nothing right. He's in the

Bible a kid, you not. He said, you need to

see your grandmother. We've not seen her for years. I'll

take you. The two etiquettes came. My faith just grew

and I've got to see my grandmother. And every year

after that until she passed away. He said, I've done

my duty. I've taken you to see your grandmother every

year until the day she died. It has to be fain, friends,

God never never forsake us. You trust him for it,

and if it's a God thing, he will provide for us.

If it's not a God thing, you cannot provide for you.

But if it is, he will do it. So, friends,

let us sew to eternity that you may bound on earth.

Don't go and sew into earth and you think you're

going to nothing Earth you sow, you only reap earth eternity.

You saw you sow for eternity. Amen, I encourage you

so and the Lord. You refresh others and you yourself

will be refreshed. Problebs eleven, twenty four, twenty five says,

as you refresh others, you yourself will be refreshed. Feel

down today, you feel like I'm so lethargic. I tell

you why why don't you buy lunch for somebody? Why

don't you take it and your pray and say, God,

who can I give this? To give it? I tell you,

as you refresh somebody, somebody will you, yourself will be refreshed.

It's a principle of God. If you're children of God,

then a's follow what you want to make room. This

is how we make room. God said it. Let's do it.

Don't don't think and calculate so much. Do it? Amen?

And lastly, friends, develop a spirit of cheerful and joyful

heart of giving. Develop it we got time. We still

got time. We still got time. Amen to give a cheerfully,

to joyfully give. You know, even the Lord ask the

people to provide for the building of the tabernacle in

Exodus twenty five, verse two. As I end and as

I close, I just want to say, sometimes we as

children of God, we sometimes get very you know, doubtful

and say, why must I give? Even as we're preparing

for our aniversary once a year, instead of getting the birthday,

give we give a birthday gift to the Lord. We

give to the Lord. Give to the Lord. The Lord

said to the children of Israel formosa, speak to the

children Israel. In Exodus twenty five, verse two. He says,

speak to the children Israel, that they bring me an

offering from everyone who gives it willingly with his heart.

You shall take my offering Exodus twenty five and verse two.

But then you see what happens in Exodus thirty six.

So every day you take the whole chapter thirty six,

verse one to verse seven. Every day they brought their

free will offerings every morning until the craftsman said it's

too much. The people of God will never lack. Come

on Church, Jesus became poor that we may be rich.

Don't ever declare to yourself at I am were I

don't have enough you and I have. It's dashed somewhere

because they gave free will offerings every morning until it

was too much and they said stop. They had to

restrain the people. Really, God has blessed the church, just

the church, not excellently church, and I really the church

has really been a blessing to the community. The church

must bless within as it were blessed without. It comes

from the church. I always say, you know, the Methodist

Church is so blessed. The Baptist Church. They believer us.

They they in the past they have sown so much.

God will not forsake his church. But once they start withholding,

then that's where things go alry, because we're not sowing

for eternity so acts. So I have to say, over

the years twenty five years, I've seen the generosity of

people giving. I tell you, if I tell you there's

a need now wherever I've I've seen it being taken up.

I actually made the need. Other judges were saying to us,

X always responds the first, because your pastor always responds

the first, and the need, and he encourages us, not

that he deserves one of the gift from us, but

that he wants you to abound generous.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit X Church RG. We

are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that

this week is going to be a good week.

I hit for you. God bless