It Was Always His

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Today's message is from Pastor David Porter.

The phrase I want you to hold on to for the next couple weeks, even next week, even though we have spirit and truth, is this.

It was always his.

It was always his.

I don't know about you growing up.

Always thought it was mine.

Mine.

I can't remember the cartoon.

Maybe it was Nemo, the birds.

Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.

We learned that as kids.

It's mine.

We hold on to it.

And so let's just hold on to that over the next few weeks or a couple weeks.

It was always his.

It was always his.

I've always thought that I was generous.

There was a time in my life where I wasn't very generous except to myself.

Amen.

But there's time in my, but I've grown in my generosity.

I've grown in my generosity, not just financially, but in my talents, in the time that I give.

And there's times I felt really good about it because I know I've grown so much.

But then I began to notice, and this is where God's grace works in us, his sanctifying grace works in us, that what God wanted me to give, I want to continue to manage.

That though I can give something, I want to manage it more.

I remember one time I helped a place and I gave them money, and then I found out what it was spent on, and I was upset about it, because that's not what I thought should be spent on it.

It wasn't anything nefarious or illegal or anything like that.

But I wasn't trusting God.

And it began a road of worry of the ways money that I gave was being used for the ministry of Jesus.

Anybody ever felt that way?

You don't have to raise your hand.

But you've given and go, well, I didn't like what they did with that.

I was confusing giving and surrendering.

When we talk about giving, it's it's it's sometimes the temptation there is for it to be transactional.

If I give, therefore I should receive.

And I what I have found over my years is that it is easy to give without ever surrendering a single thing.

It's easy just to say here, as long as when we surrender, it's just here.

And so today uh we're gonna look back at what it costs to move from giving to surrendering.

And and and I don't know if I need to warn you, this is uncomfortable for me.

I've always told you that it's uncomfortable to talk about finances and giving and things like that because I'm still working on it.

But here's also what I know is God's uh instructions rarely are comfortable.

Amen?

Except for that grace piece.

That's easy to accept.

But not the, hey, I want you to grow in grace.

And the first thing I want you to hear is giving isn't bad.

Giving isn't bad.

Giving isn't bad, but it's not the end.

God is always calling us to go deeper.

Becoming stewards is learning to grow from a life that's managed for God to a life that's surrendered to God.

A life that's what?

That we're not what?

Giving or managing for God, but surrendering everything to God.

And so faith moves us from asking these two questions.

What have I given to God, or what can I give to God?

Right?

That's where we usually begin in our in our giving process what have I given to God already?

Or what can I give to God?

What does my finances say?

Because I think most of us can answer that.

We can say, we can look back, it's easy for us to go, oh, I gave this, this, and this.

We we keep really good records of that.

And and it's really easy for us to say, here's what I think I can afford.

But faith moves us from asking those two questions to this one, and this is the hard one.

This is the one I'm still wrestling with, is what am I still holding back?

Because our theme is, it was always his.

And that's stepping into surrender, that's allowing God to move and grow our heart a little more.

Jesus talks about this in Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

He says, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way.

Give up means surrender, not just here, but I'm gonna hold on to it.

Give up, surrender your own way, take up your cross, change your life, it's gonna be hard, and follow me.

Jesus wasn't just talking about money and he wasn't just talking about actions, he was talking about everything.

Give up my own way, my own way of thinking, my own way of thinking on how things should be done.

You see, when we talk about stewardship and surrender, stewardship that ends at giving, that I gave this, but I expect something back, stewardship that ends at giving stops short of handing everything over to God.

See, giving can have an attitude of, and I'm guilty of this, God bless what's mine.

God, this is mine, I'm gonna give it, and so I want you to bless it because it's mine, and I'm giving it up.

So the transactional piece is I want you to bless it.

But surrender is it was always yours.

No transaction.

It was always yours.

It's the difference from the hand and the heart.

The difference from the hand and the heart.

And we hear this from King David at the end of his life.

Uh, we're gonna be opening up the first chronicles, chapter 29.

1 Chronicles 29 · chapter mention

Uh, I just love that word chronicles.

It sounds important, and I think it is.

Uh, this is the end of David's life.

I know we studied David earlier in the year, uh, so I hope we we remember how his life was.

Uh, but at the end of his life, he wants to build a temple.

He wants to build the house, the temple for God in Jerusalem.

And so he gives and he asks all the nation to give.

And if it in 28, in 1 Chronicles 28, it talks about all the silver, all the gold, all the bronze, all the iron, all the all the precious jewels that were given to build this temple.

And of course, because I like the the little things in this, I went and saw how much that would be worth in today's money for us.

Billions.

Because of the weight of everything.

Billions of dollars in today's U.S.

currency.

And so I want us to see David's response here.

And before we get to verse 10, I want to read verse 9.

It won't be on the screen.

But but here's their response of the gifts for building the temple.

The people rejoiced over the offerings, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly, that's the surrender peace, to the Lord, and King David was filled with joy.

So let's hear David's response here.

Verse, we're going to do 10 through 13 here.

Then David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly.

The king is putting himself front and center in front of all his people.

O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, may you be praised forever and ever.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty.

Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom.

We adore you as the one who is over all things.

Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything.

Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion, people are made great and given strength.

O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name.

We can drive just about anywhere, at least in the United States.

I know other countries too.

And you can look at just about any building.

You can look at uh even churches, you can look at hospitals, you can look at schools, um, sports stadiums, field, what do we know?

They're named after someone, right?

Sometimes it's in memory of or the things they have done, but in in today's world it's very much financial.

If you give this much, you will receive a name on the building or something.

It's not wrong, okay?

Because we do this.

We do this with Turkey Trot in the car show.

If you sponsor our events, we will do this, depending on the tier.

And that's kind of the world that it is right now.

Is is that if you sponsor something, there's a transaction that takes place because of your generous giving.

How does David respond to the generosity of the people of the people Israel?

Does he go, God, did you see how generous we are?

Can I put my name on the temple, God?

Because I gave a lot.

We could call it David's temple of the Lord.

No, that's not what David does.

He celebrates God's ownership.

Because it was already his.

Yours, O Lord.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, yours, O Lord, is the power, the glory, the victory, the majesty, all everything in earth and in the heavens, this kingdom.

It's yours, O Lord.

And David even gets a little more precise here.

He says, Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything.

Well, if riches and honor come from God, right?

If they come from God, what exactly are we giving?

We're not giving anything new back to God, right?

Because it's already his.

It isn't giving anything new, but we are returning what is his because he already owns the deed to it.

We are managers, we are stewards of what he has given us.

And just as we sang, even the air we breathe that we take for granted is not ours.

It belongs to the Lord.

Everything.

What does wealth and even honor?

Um, what what does it bring in our world when someone's really wealthy or have really high honor?

Power.

Brings a think about who who runs the the country or countries or the world, I'm sorry, wealthy countries have the biggest say.

Within a country, who who's usually in power?

It's the wealthy, it's the one with high honors.

But David declares power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion, at your discretion, God, at your discretion are made great and given strength.

The king of Israel is saying, Even my power belongs to you.

That's why he prays.

And so this is something that I don't want us to miss here.

If you don't know the story of David or or or forget, David wanted to build this temple.

This is his plan, this is what he wanted to do, this is his dream, this is his design, this is his legacy.

He wants to build a temple for God.

And God told him no.

God told him no, he's gonna allow a temple to be built, but he told David no, the one that God's heart's after.

He says, No.

And he says, because it's gonna be your son Solomon, because of the consequences of you being in war.

He said, There's too much blood on your hands.

You can see that in um 1 Chronicles, if you go back a chapter 28, verse 3, is where David says, I can't build it.

David won't even be alive to see his dream built.

It's about four years after his death.

And so we are seeing David's response by surrendering his power, what he thinks is best.

And he says, God, it's what you deem is best.

Now, I don't know about you, but I know many people that if they said, if so, if they said, I'm gonna give you money, and people said, Okay, and there was no transaction involved, that they weren't gonna get any type of glory or honor or praise, they would walk away and invest somewhere else.

Anybody else?

Isn't that what we do?

We want that PR.

But David did something remarkable, even if you will, unkingly.

He didn't just give, he went deeper and he surrendered.

He surrendered his power, he surrendered his ego, he surrendered all his resources, he surrendered his dream, he surrendered his legacy, and he said, It's yours.

It's yours, Lord.

I think we have to be careful that our giving isn't transactional, and that our giving is surrender.

Surrender costs something.

It costs the illusion that we own any of it.

It costs the illusion that we own any of it.

That any of the things that we have worked so hard for, Lord knows I've worked hard for things in my life.

And I get proud of the things that I've done or the things that I've been able to afford or do.

It's an illusion because it's not mine.

It's what God has given me to take care of.

Let's hear how David breaks this illusion in verses 14 through 16 here.

But who am I?

Who are my people that we could give anything to you?

Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us.

We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us.

Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.

O Lord our God, even this material we have gathered to build a temple, to honor your holy name comes from you.

It all belongs to you.

But who am I?

Lord, who am I?

Who am I?

This is a king talking in front of his entire kingdom.

I I I don't know if he was on his knees praying, I don't know his posture, but here's what I know is that in front of all those people where a king is to be strong and leader, and nothing's gonna break him down, the king is saying, but who am I?

And and and who are all these people that have given?

Could you imagine if the leader of our our town, our state, our country would begin a press conference and say, but who am I?

I'll bet you anything, there'd be a vote of confidence being taken the next day.

Because we see surrender as weakness, and yet in God's word, he says, What?

Surrender's what?

It's a strength.

Because we sometimes think we're stronger than God, but when we surrender it, we're saying we know that God has it, because it was always his.

David doesn't take credit for everything that he's done, he doesn't say, look what we have done or what we have given.

This king of God's nation demonstrates the posture of a surrendered heart.

This isn't about transactions for David.

This is about surrender.

He's even saying that giving from God, the the the just the idea of giving comes from God.

That giving to God, He giving comes from God's own heart and not ours.

We give because he first gave to us.

First John, I think it's chapter four, says, we love because he first loved us.

Everything comes from God.

God is the source of everything, not just the earthly things, but everything, even our own image, being the child of God, being the Imago Dei.

Everything.

And this is David laying it all out.

And this type of surrender costs something, it costs self, it costs ego.

As a child of God, stewardship isn't just about giving, it is about trust that God is the source of everything because it was always his.

That's what we read from David.

So, how do we apply that?

Because this is personal.

This kind of hurts.

This is counterintuitive of what we were taught.

Well, let's let's go a little deeper and see how we can apply this this week.

Well, first off, this weekend is spirit and truth.

I said I was going to mention something today.

It's a weekend that's set aside for us to seek God together as his children and his local church here in the church worldwide in prayer and worship and in learning.

This is a type of stewardship.

This is a stewardship of our time, this is a stewardship of our heart and a stewardship of our soul.

And so again, I ask that you be present this weekend.

I really believe that this is this is gonna be a point that we're gonna be able to look back from from the future and go, it was at that moment, it was during that year that God has moved us.

And then over the next two weeks with the pledge card, you're gonna be able to return this on October 25th.

So two weeks.

Again, this helps us plan our year together.

But here's what I want you to do in the two weeks.

I don't want you to take this home tonight and go, I'm done.

I want you to take two weeks with this.

And there's three things that I'm gonna ask you to do.

Uh again, I'm not gonna show up on your doorstep and go, hey, did you do that yet?

Did you do it?

Hey, hey, did you do it?

No, but here's here's some instruction of application if you choose to do it.

And if you don't, I'll send Justine on your doorstep.

How about that?

First one is this is pray.

Well, of course we better pray.

Yeah, but here's the thing is I I I don't want you to pray about what to give.

Yeah, I'm not asking you to give.

I don't want, I don't I I don't want you to pray on on what you should give or how much you give.

You know what God is placing on your heart, but here's what I want you to pray over the next two weeks.

God, what have you entrusted to me?

Make a list if you journal, make a list on a like I do.

I find a blank piece of paper and just start scratching things down.

I should be more organized with my notes, but that's how I do it.

Write it down.

What have you entrusted me?

I'm not talking just financially either.

What do you have in your whole life that you claimed ownership over that now you may be starting to realize it's not yours, that it was always his?

Friendships, house, an imperfect church body that is just trying to grow in grace.

A car, good or junker.

What are the things that God has entrusted you with?

Your finances, your time, your talents, your relationships, all those things.

Just list them out.

And the second thing, after you do that for a day, a couple days, however long that takes, wrestle.

Now, I I don't mean physically here.

I want some of you to wrestle.

I got a couple hospital visits this week.

I don't want any more.

All right, but I want you to wrestle with this question Am I holding what God has entrusted me like I'm owning it?

Or am I managing everything like they were always his?

In other words, maybe a shorter way to ask this is what am I holding on to?

What am I not surrendering?

Because this is what I this is what I felt God telling me this week.

It isn't the amount that is the issue, it's the pressure of our grip.

We take stewardship and we say, put this amount on here.

You know, do this, do this.

What I have come to find out is that when you don't ask a certain amount, people tend to be more generous because they begin to lose their grip.

It's not the amount.

What are you holding on to that you're claiming that you don't want to let go?

I can probably have just as long of a list of that as I as I can with with uh what God has given me.

And then finally ask.

So pray, wrestle, ask.

What is your will, Lord?

What are you asking me to let go of?

Once you work through that practice, then go to your card and allow the Holy Spirit to speak and work, do a work within you.

Because it was always his.

I can make arguments, I can make excuses why it's mine, but it was always his.

So here's what I want to ask you as we close.

Everything you're holding on to this morning, your income, your house, your plans, your your relationships, the years you've already lived, because I know I hold on to that past, uh, and and and the years you hope you live.

Here's the question I want to ask you: where did it come from?

I think we all know the answer.

We all know the answer.

Because we've been saying it all morning.

It was always his, but my question is this is have you ever said it out loud?

Have you ever given anything away, surrendered it, and said, God, it was always yours.

It's not mine to hold on to, it's not mine to control.

I don't think I ever have.

I think I've always done it as a habit and a duty, going, This is what I do, because I follow Jesus.

But how much more deeper does Jesus want to take us from giving to surrender when we go, it was already yours?

And guess what?

It still is.

But I don't want this just to be a slogan.

I want you to hear how David, uh this last part of David's prayer here in verse 17.

There's more to the prayer, but what we're gonna end with, verse 17.

Because I don't want you to go away with the slogan.

Here's what David says he says, I know, my God, that you examine our hearts, just like the widow.

I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there.

You know, I have done all this with good motives, and I've watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously.

David wanted to build God a house, and God said no.

David's response isn't complaining or going somewhere else, it's surrender.

He gave anyway, not because he had to, but because he understood it was never his to give.

It was always God's.

Even at the end of David's life, God was still after his heart to change it, continue to grow in love.

And he's still after yours.

Wanted to change it and to grow in love.

It's like Jesus said at the beginning.

If any of you wants to be my follower, you mustn't give up your own way.

Take up your cross and follow me.

He never said to stop trying.

He wants us to be perfect, but he understands we're not gonna do things perfectly.

I think he's asking to stop holding.

To let go, to follow.

What are you still gripping on to?

I don't care about your budget.

I care about your soul.

I care about my soul.

What are we still holding on to?

What's in our hand?

What are we gripping?

Because whatever it is, it was always his.

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