Why Didn't Jesus Stop the Poor Widow From Giving Everything? | Branded: Part 3 | Pastor Alex Himaya

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Well, good morning, church. It's great to be with you today in the house of the Lord. This last week I went on the internet and did some research about branding. And truth be told, I'm too squeamish to go do like research like real research, cuz I don't want to see my steak before I eat it. But I did go online and look up some facts, some interesting facts about the whole subject of branding. And guess what, you're not gonna believe it? Who were the first people that started doing branding and came up with the whole idea of branding? It was the ancient Egyptians, which is amazing. I think they invented everything, like math and everything, right? But it gained a lot of popularity in Texas, back during the cattle trail days when a calf could go missing or be stolen fairly easy. And what they started doing is taking iron and shaping it into the shape that they wanted it to be in, putting this in the fire. And then pressing this hot brand against the hide or the flesh of the animal, leaving a mark on the flesh. And what I want you to get out of this really nice word picture is that a brand shows you something. First of all, a brand indicates ownership, say ownership. Your brand shows the world who you are and who you are, and specifically who it is that owns you. And we, as believers, have been marked by the Holy Spirit. Let me show you this verse in Ephesians chapter 1. We've been looking at it every week. When you believed you were marked, say marked, you were marked in him or branded with a seal, which is the promised Holy Spirit. And it's as if the Holy Spirit pressed his mark on you or in you. Now you remember in Genesis 1 in the creation story, the Bible tells us that we were made in the image of God, both male and female in the image of God. Now that happens at a spiritual level at salvation, where God places his stamp on you, not just

to show the world that he owns us, but to make us different. And that's the second thing that I want you to notice about branding, is because we are branded, we are different. Everything about us is different after salvation, right? After we receive the gift of God through Jesus, our whole life shifts around. And that's what we've been talking about all month long in the month of September. And our lives change in every single way. And one of those ways, just one, but one of those ways that we are changed is how we think about how we view and how we use our money, the treasure that God puts in our hands. So let's just review real quick what I've been calling the cowboy code of money. Number one, we said we are stewards, not owners. Number two, we give God our first and our best. And then number three, what we're talking about today is we reap what we sow. And by the way, these are theologically in order. It's important. We have one on top of the other. And around here, we don't give an order to get, but make no mistake about it. God does give back, meaning that the greatest investment we could make on earth is to put our resources into the kingdom of heaven. And here around the church, about a Cree church, we see this over and over again, quite honestly. We sow into a ministry and we reap an amassive reward, right? Like Egypt. All of our investment that we've put into the ministries in Egypt have yielded huge, huge returns. By the way, it's one of the reasons we are so committed around here to investing in the next generation and going after children and teenagers, because we think it is a great investment. We don't believe they're the church of tomorrow. We actually think they're the church of today.

Two Wednesdays ago in our student ministry, 1,700 teenagers gathered at our campuses, and 66 of them gave their lives to Jesus. 1700, it's a mega-church, with the average age being 15, right? And puberty and emotions flowing through the whole congregation. But 1700 teenagers, next Sunday, we're going to begin a possible investment in another ministry. In fact, next Sunday night, October 4th at 5.30, here at the Broken Arrow campus, there will be an interest meeting for what we're believing may be a ministry that God is calling us to. We're going to do a worship and prayer night in Spanish, here at the Broken Arrow campus. And so if you speak Spanish, how many of you speak Spanish, okay? Some of you, you got both hands up, like tongues and real for real Spanish, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You speak both Spanish and English. You prefer to listen in Spanish. Praise the Lord. That's your first language. So this is what I'm talking about right here, right? There are people all over our city. And so if you speak Spanish, or you are Hispanic, or you know and love some Hispanic people, this is an incredible chance for you to serve God well and help others well here in your church, okay? So let me remind you of the chart that we've been building over the last few weeks. And we said that we wanted to begin this chart by defining the two words that the Bible uses over and over and over again about money. We could pick all kinds of words, but we just said let's just go with Bible words. And those are ties and offerings. Ties simply means 10%. That's all the word means. It's tied as a tenth.

And we said you begin this generosity journey, all of us, at some point down here, with an initial contribution. That's the point in our lives where we take some of the treasure that we have earned and we trust God with it. And we make an initial contribution. If you make that step, today we're going to celebrate that step with you. But at some point after that, we say we're going to become consistent, meaning what? In our household, we say it this way. We automate what's important. If it's important, we want it to be automatic in our household. And so set it up where every two weeks or every week or every month, however it is that income flows into your household, now I'm going to become consistent with that. At some point, we're going to be first and best, that where we say first, the first thing we're going to do with any income that comes our way is we're going to give the first and the best, at least a tenth of it to God, right? And we use these words, priority, percentage and perpetual, right? We're going to become tithers. It's what the Bible says. And by the way, biblically, certainly in the Old Testament, at this level, you're not a giver yet. You're a bringer. And we talked about that last week. But when you exceed that level, you actually come over here to what the Bible calls a giver and you're giving offerings. And I want to show you a story in the Bible, a real life Bible story about a group of churches who took up an offering over and above their normal ties to help another church, not even in the walls of their church, another church in Jerusalem who was actually the mother church that started all the churches. They were going through famine, and so Paul is writing to a church in Corinth, and he's talking and giving testimony about these Macedonian churches who've been taking up this offering

for the church in Jerusalem. You follow all that? That's what's happening in the story that we're about to read. If you got your Bible open to 2 Corinthians chapter 8, and we'll begin reading in verse 1 of 2 Corinthians chapter 8. This is what Paul says. Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness, say kindness. What God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia, okay? So just coincidentally, or for your information, the Macedonian churches are the Philippians, the Bereans, and the Thessalonians, okay, that area. And Corinth, to whom he's writing in the book, or the letter to the church at Corinth, is further along the coast in Greece. So again, Paul is writing to one church, the church in Corinth, talking about other churches, these Macedonian churches who were taken up an offering for the church in Jerusalem. But there's a key word here in this first verse that I want you to see and pay attention to. It's this word, kindness. And this word in the Greek is the Greek word Keras, which is often translated gift. It's a grace or a gift. And by the way, Keras, this word for grace, is one of the top three primary words in the book of Romans, which we're going to start next week. I'm going to start eight week series through Romans next Sunday, and this word maybe the greatest theological work of all time, the book of Romans. And so we're gonna look at it. This is the perfect time, A, for you to begin reading Romans one through eight and studying ahead, but two, it's a perfect time for you to invite people to come along with you, for you to say to your friends,

hey, we're beginning a brand new series, this coming Sunday, we're gonna, excuse me, we're gonna look at the book of Romans, and so come and go with me. But this word Charis is a great, great, great word. In fact, this is the very same word that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 12 when he talks about the gifts, spiritual gifts that we have been given that you and I have. And here he says, God gave this grace or this gift to the Macedonian churches. Now, why did they need a grace? Well, let's keep reading. They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor, but they are also filled with an abundant joy, which overflowed in rich generosity. Now, for context and for your information, the Corinthian church whom he's writing to is rich. They have a lot of money, a lot of resources and a lot of influence. And Paul, in this verse, it is drawing the stark difference to prove a point. And here's what he said, the Macedonians are poor, monetarily, but they are rich in generosity. Now, let's keep reading, see what he says. For I, Paul, can testify that they, the Macedonian churches, gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. They begged us, it's never happened to me as a pastor.

Nobody's ever said, can I please just, can we do five offerings this Sunday? He's like, I'm just begging you that we could just give and give and give and give. They're begging again and again and again in order for the privilege, say privilege, of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. Now watch this, this word privilege, same Greek word. Caris, again. Now it's translated privilege, right? In other words, God in his kindness or in his grace gives us the privilege or the grace to participate with him and what he's doing in the world. And what is he doing in the world? Showering amazing grace. And this means that they saw giving as an opportunity from God. From their perspective, it was a gift to be able to give. It's not a burden to give some of their income. Instead it is a, say it, privilege, a divine opportunity. And this is at the heart of generosity. It's not to camp out on an amount, it is to camp out on the motive. And they were willing to give even more than they could afford because they understood giving as a gift from God or a grace. And because of that grace, they outgave those who had more. But the point I wanna make here is that poverty did not stop them. And collectively, they certainly probably

could not give as much as the Corinthian church could give. But as a percentage of their total income, they probably outgave the Corinthian church. Which reminds me of a story that Jesus was a main character in the gospels. In Mark chapter 12, he says they were at the temple and people were lining up to bring their giving. And it was some sort of a metal container and because the currency in that day was metal, then when someone would make a big gift that you could hear it. And it would make all this noise and everybody would know that somebody is giving a big gift. And then Jesus says that this poor little widow comes up to the line and she drops two coins in the bucket. And Jesus goes to get his guys and says, come, come, come, come, come, come, come. I wanna tell you something about what just happened. And I need you to know it and I need you to understand it. And what was it that Jesus told them? Well, let me read it to you. I tell you the truth, guys, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on. Now, there's something going on and Jesus pulling them over and telling them this because this last phrase that's translated to live on in the Greek literally reads gave all of her life.

This, she gave her whole life, not just her, 'Cause he's gonna give his whole life. And Jesus understands sacrifice, and he wants us to know there's a difference between a contribution and a sacrifice, okay? Let me show you what I mean. Back to the chart, that when you get to this level of giving over and above the first and the best, and now you're a giver, you can still grow in your generosity, why? You could go to the next stage, which is a sacrificial gift, meaning what? Meaning I'm gonna sacrifice something in order to do it. I'm going to do without something that I would normally experience or enjoy, or purchase or build in order to give. And by the way, the wealthier we get, the richer we get, the harder it is to be sacrificial, to actually do without something in order to give. Now, we do this in purchasing all the time, especially if we're gonna make a big purchase. Meredith and I will sit down and pray about it, talk about it, wrestle with it, right? Do we really wanna make this purchase? Do we wanna take some of God's money and spend it on that? And sometimes when it's a big purchase, one of us will say to the other one, "Well, we could do that, but if we do that, "some things are gonna have to, what?"

Change, right? All of you have had this conversation. We can do that, but if we do that, some things are gonna have to change. If we purchase that, we're gonna have to change some of our behaviors, some of our normal things. A sacrifice has to be made. And what Paul is suggesting here is, hey, why not let your giving be the thing that drives all of that adjusting? Why not let your generosity be the engine of the train that sets everything else in order, so not the caboose of the train that is the leftovers, but let's be sacrificial in our givings. And so I have a great question for you about this story, that I really want you to ponder. If Jesus is all-knowing. How many of you think Jesus is all-knowing? If Jesus knows everything and he's standing there in the temple and he sees these people line up to make their offerings and he sees that lady and he knows that lady and he knows her situation, he knows what she has and what she doesn't have and he knows what she's about to give. Why did he not go to her, put his arm around her and say, hey, sweetheart, I know what you're about to do? It's the heart that matters. It's a sacrificial gift you're gonna, you don't need to give that. The temple doesn't need your gift today,

just you just keep it and use it to live on. Why did Jesus not do that? Because he knows something about sacrificial giving. And he knows that giving grows our faith and a growing faith that is dependent upon God never goes to waste, never. Now back to Paul, watch this, what Paul goes on to say. They did even more than we had hoped for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and then to us just as God wanted them to do. In other words, the reason they were able to see giving as a gift or a grace from God was because first they gave their lives to Jesus, to the Lord. They understood like that, widow understood, Jesus is gonna give his life and if he gave his life for us, we certainly can give our lives back to him. Now Paul goes on to say, Titus, our common friend, our mutual friend, we're gonna send him to you to collect the offering. Now look how he explains this in verse six. We've urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place to return to you and to encourage you to finish this ministry of giving. By the way, this phrase, this ministry of giving, Keras, again, it's a grace, right? And it is very clear what's happening here in the very next verse. Since you excel in so many ways, your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, your love from us, I want you to excel also

in this gracious act of giving. And in other words, a church or a believer can excel in so many areas in their Christian walk, right? In our faith, in the way we believe, in the way we act, in our speaking, in our sharing of Jesus, in our knowledge, in our discipleship, in our enthusiasm, in our love. But Paul is telling them, don't just focus on those things and miss out on this particular grace. Keras, again, this opportunity to give, not only an opportunity, but a challenge. Look at what he says. I'm not commanding you to do this, but I'm testing, How genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of other churches. Let's keep reading verse nine. You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor so that by his poverty he could make you rich. Now Paul starts this whole thing out by saying these poor Macedonian churches. By the way, that area known as Macedonia today is the part of Europe that still deals with poverty and struggles with poverty today. But Paul is not comparing them to the world's economy. He's pointing out that Jesus himself was made poor in order for us to be made rich in the grace of God, through the riches of God's glory. Now the rest of this chapter, chapter eight, is him telling them and giving them instructions

on what to do when Titus shows up. The very next chapter, chapter nine. In fact, turn the page to chapter nine, if you would. And you remember the chapter breaks are not in the original manuscripts. So this is one letter, one continuous thought that Paul is making here. So look at chapter nine and he says, remember this. A farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. Now Paul is getting into the principle here that we call reaping and sowing, right? And he's borrowing this illustration from the world of agriculture. He's borrowing this illustration from farmers, but this is a spiritual truth before it was an earthly truth. And God sent this truth into play. And the principle is this, write this down. We reap what we sow. Meaning, if you go out and sow an apple seed, you're gonna get an apple tree, right? If you sow a spruce seed, you're gonna get a spruce tree. You can't get apples if you don't sow apple seeds. You cannot reap a blessing if you do not sow a blessing. Now keep that in mind as we keep reading here in verse seven. Look at what he says, you must each decide in your own heart how much to give and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure.

Why? Because God loves a person who gives cheerfully. And by the way, Paul's not talking about the tithe here. It's very clear. You say, how do we know that? 'Cause he says you must decide how much to give. The tithe was already set. God set that, right? And he's saying, decide in your heart how much to give. This is an offering level that you gotta pray about and you decide on your own, you and God. Now how does this principle of sowing and reaping work? Keep reading, look at verse eight. And God will generously, say generously. Circle that in your Bible. Provide all, say all. You need and then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. The reason I circled those things is what I want you to see is there's a cycle to giving. And there's a cycle to sowing and reaping. Do you remember what we said in week one? We said, everything belongs to God, everything comes from God. And everything is distributed by God. And we are stewards and not owners. And of that, which God has already trusted us with, he asked us to trust him and give back. And you know what he does? He gives back to us when we do that. Why?

So that we can give back again. And you know what he does? He gives back to us why, so that we can give back again. And the problem is sometimes, if we're honest, what we want to do is reap before we sow. But that's not how God set the world up. God's design says, you can't reap until you sow. So Paul wants us to know this is a matter of faith. And it's a matter of trust. And God has the ability and the promise to provide how much all you need. Now, how does he do that? Generously, and when will you have all you need? Always. And how much is left? Plenty. Are you seeing this? And by the way, isn't this the reason that some of us are afraid to get in this giving thing at all? Is because we're afraid we don't have enough? This is exactly what God is dealing with our hearts and what he promises. Now, look at verse 10. He says, for God is the one who provides the seed and the farmer to the farmer, for the farmer, and then the bread to eat. Now, people get this confused. Seed is not for eat. So you can sow it and then reap it. And what do you make with it?

You make bread, right? What some people do is eat all the seed without sowing anything to shut this whole cycle down in their lives. God wants us to eat the bread, but you can't get bread unless you sow the seed. And if you eat the seed, there's no bread. Do you understand what Paul's trying to teach here? Shake your head this way. This is great preaching, you should clap for this. Paul is making this abundantly clear. And look at what he goes on to say. In the same way, according to that illustration that we just gave, he will say it, provide. But not just ride and increase, what? Your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. God has always concerned about in you, right? And he doesn't just provide, he increases. He gives you beyond what you need with more leftover, why? So that you can give. And so that you can take care of others. Now, what I've just explained to you is the principle biblically called reaping and sowing, but I think we need to adjust it a little bit because of what we just read. Because when we give generously out of a cheerful heart, the principle is not, we reap what we sow. The principle actually is we reap more than we sow. Isn't that true in agriculture?

When Jesus talks about the seeds and sowing in the parables. Well, he often gives the example of a harvest. And he says 10, 30, 60, 100 fold. That word fold just means the measure of return. In other words, it's the percentage you get back compared to what you put in. And what he says is it's 10, 30, 60 or 100 times more. Meaning what, we always reap more than we sow when we sow into the kingdom of God. And last week, some of you did exactly what I asked you not to do. You got snagged on the word tithe and you missed the principle because the whole point is not to focus on a particular amount, but for you to see what God wants to do in you and through you. And by the way, these messages are always the messages where I feel like at times like the circus clown going, hey, the circus is cool. Chuck, well, of course you would say that. You're the pastor. It's these messages where I wish I wasn't the pastor 'cause I could just testify. But over the last several weeks, I've had six different people come to me and say pastor, can I just share with you my giving journey? Can I just tell you what God has done in my life? Don't ever stop teaching this. This is what changed my life pastor. And it ranged from little things on a scale of, this is what my social security benefit was.

And I had a deceased husband and social security called and said, you know what, we owe you three times that amount. And if those of you know anything about social security, that doesn't happen unless you get God in the equation. All the way over to this side of the equation that is big, big, big, six and seven, figure things, same principle, same principle. And so today, let me make it even clearer. We just read my favorite text from the New Testament about this subject, 2 Corinthians eight and nine. Few weeks ago, I was re-studying these passages to get ready for this series 'cause this message has been written for six or eight months. And so two weeks ago, I'm refreshing myself on what had been written, you know, a half a year ago or more. And I'm re-reading 2 Corinthians eight and nine. And right beside my Bible, I had a notebook and a journal. And I just wrote down 10 giving principles that Paul gives us in chapters eight and nine. And I wrote them all down and I was sharing them in a meeting last week. And our guys were like, you should tell the church the 10 things that you wrote down. And by the way, some people are like, I'm not old covenant, I wanna be new covenant. Okay, this is the test for you. This is the New Testament test for your generosity and for your heart. And by the way, I'm not gonna go slow enough for you to write these down.

Okay, so let me just tell you on the front end. I know I see it sometimes. I don't stand near the TV long enough. And you're like, oh, it's hard for me to preach when I see you going, oh, right? So we printed it for you. And on your way out, our ushers are gonna give all of you a card with this on it. And you can just, the New Testament test about your heart and about your giving. Here they are. In New Testament generosity, we give in these 10 ways. Number one, as a result of the grace of God. As a result, he initiated this thing. He gave his grace first, right? Number two, by the way, I have the verses for you. We give in the New Testament and in New Testament generosity in tough times and in poverty. We give joyfully and cheerfully. We give based on ability, and we give sacrificially. I left an eye out there, okay? It was early one morning. There's a lot of eyes in that word. I put some already, but you need another one. And don't get hung up on this and miss the principle that you and I give sacrificially, right? And so here's number six. We give voluntarily, not by compulsion, with a sense of eagerness and participation in the gospel work. When you're giving and you're writing that check or you're setting that automated giving up, are you praying with eagerness?

God use this to save people, to extend the kingdom, to move the gospel across our city and our world. We give out of love for the Lord. We give generously as the Lord provides, and then the last one. We give trusting God to replenish what has been given, why? So that more may be given. And these are the top 10 list on New Testament giving, and by the way, this is way bigger than Ty. And people always want to bop on this one, but it's straight out of Scripture. Why? Why does God give us back more so that we can get more? And others can benefit from it. In fact, let me just show you verses 11 and 12. Yes, you will be enriched in every way. Why? So that you can always be generous, and when we take your gifts to those who need them, they're going to thank God. They're going to thank God in heaven because of your generosity in verse 12. So two good things Paul says, too, will result from this ministry of giving. The needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God in heaven. In other words, there's always a gospel component to Paul's teaching. And the offering that they were collecting was going back to Jerusalem to help the church that was in the middle of a famine, but Paul's making it clear. That's not the only good thing that's going to happen. Yes, they're going to get grain and food and be fed. That's only part of it. Paul says the real motivation is the gospel. And we're going to see our good deeds, and they're going to praise our God. In heaven.

In other words, the church is going to be blessed, and the people are going to grow as they share Jesus, which, by the way, is the next stage of generosity. We move to giver in an offering giver, then we're sacrificing and doing without things in order to put that into the kingdom, but there's another level and Paul's hitting on it right here. It's called an eternal giver. This is when you get to the stage where you are in a frenzy to move resources from one kingdom to the next. This is where you get to the point where somebody in your life dies, somebody goes on to be with Jesus, and you are face to face with the fact this ain't forever. That there's going to come a day where I'm not going to be here anymore, and these resources will be of no use to me here, but I'm going to do what Jesus said, I'm going to send them on ahead, and I'm going to put them in the other kingdom. And so I'm moving earthly treasure around trying to send it into the next kingdom. It's the point where you realize what we do here for these 50, 60, 70 years here on life is kind of like we're playing a game of monopoly, and we're all handed money, but it really has a no value. It's a value in the game if you're playing the game, but outside of the game is really of no value, right? And that's exactly what all the money that you and I have in our hands is going to be like an eternity, like monopoly money. But it is a test, and it is a trademark, and it is a tool that we can use, and what Jesus said is, "Hey, use this monopoly money here on earth to store up real treasure in heaven, and you can be trusted with real treasure." is a game the whole family can play where are you on the growth chart and maybe you're here you've never trusted God with anything that you've earned and maybe today you're going to take that step and you're going to trust God with some of your treasure can I tell you not only are we praying with you and for you we're gonna celebrate with you but your heavenly Father is gonna celebrate and if your picture of God is him counting all the times that you fall down you've missed the abundant grace amazing grace in the New Testament never once when I was busting it eight 10 12

hours a day trying to get the church started and off the ground that I come home to Meredith and she say your baby fell down 39 times today never once but there were many times she said your baby took a step today and that's exactly how your heavenly Father sees you as his children he's not counting the times you fall down in fact he's helping you up and licking your little Bobo and saying come on honey you can do this let's go to the next stage take another step and some of you are going to take another step and you're going to say I'm going to get consistent in this thing I'm going to automate what's important in my life I'm gonna go in the app or on the webpage and I'm going to set this thing up some of you are going to jump all the way to this big old step called the tide where you're going to give the first and the best of everything that comes into your world and into your home some of you're going to take a step beyond that and become a real giver some of you're going to learn to be sacrificial and some of you are going to start getting in that frenzy of moving things around where are you on this and by the way it's possible to be at a stage and facing the wrong direction in other words if we're going up this way I could have made it to this step but turn around look back this way so which where are you and which way are you facing are you thinking about going back or are you thinking about going on and there's another principle I want you to write this down others reap what we sow we don't just reap what we sow others reap what we sow and it was never meant for us to hold on to all of it and just enjoy all of it no no it was meant to be putting our hands to employ for the gospel in other words there's always a gospel component to our sowing around here but the first thing you need to give in order to start this cycle is to give your life to Jesus that's what Paul said the Macedonians gave their lives to Jesus then they gave their money to help the church by the way if you're giving your money to help the church before you give your life to Jesus you may be blessed here and now but you'll end up spending eternity in a real place called hell give your life to Jesus then give your money to help the church grow and if you're here today and you've never done that first step I would love to lead you in a prayer helping you do just that what would you bow your heads at all of our campuses and close your eyes here at Broken Arrow in the chapel the Allen Gamble South Tulsa and Midtown or Wasso and Jinx if you're here under the sound of my voice right now watching online and you've never trusted Jesus to be your lord and savior can I

lead you in a prayer helping you do just that today and I'll pray at one phrase at a time so that you can pray it to God after me out loud you're going to hear people around you praying out loud but if you want to give your life to Jesus would you pray and say dear God I know I'm a sinner today I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin Jesus coming to my life to be my lord my savior my forgive her in the best way that I know how I turn my back on my sin and I trust you alone Jesus to save me and I want to thank you for saving me in Jesus' name we pray and together we all say amen and amen would you thank the lord for meeting with us today