The Christian Life is Giving

Second Samuel 24 and we will turn back over in just a moment to Romans 12. So, if you want to mark that, second Samuel 24. And then Romans 12. I'll wait for you to find it and then I think we'll go to the Lord in prayer once more before we read this morning. Second Samuel 24 and Romans 12.

Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for your word that we're about to look into. May you take it and use it in our lives to show us areas where we need to change, to become more like our savior. Areas, Lord, where we need to be convicted of sin. We might repent of it, confess it before you, that you might cleanse us of it, and Lord, you might use us in a greater way in your service.

Pray Lord that you would reach out by your spirit and your word to our hearts and particularly Lord if there be one here today doesn't know you as savior. Lord, that you would reach out to them. Lord, bring conviction to their heart and give them faith to believe that you are able to save them from sin and hell. Even today, we pray. In Jesus name, amen.

Second Samuel 24 and we're going to begin reading in verse 17. David had sinned against the Lord. He decided to measure his greatness by the number of people and armies that he possessed. This is near the end of his reign and the Lord brought a terrible plague upon the people of Israel because of his sin. God told David ahead of time that this would be the consequence before he even brought the plague.

His vanity was in the numbers. So, God diminished the numbers. A lot of times, we reap what we want. We reap what we sow. The Bible says, be not deceived.

God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap and David sowed sadly from what he did reap. I mean, reap from what he sowed and not only did he suffer but his people suffered as well. For our sin affects others besides us. In the midst of this terrible plague, God gave David an opportunity. He paused for a moment and and during this moment in time, David had an opportunity to go to the Lord to stop the plague from continuing further and that's what we're reading about here in second Samuel twenty four seventeen and David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people and said, Lo, I have sinned and I have done wickedly but these sheep, he's talking about his people.

What have they done? Let thine hand I pray thee be against me and against my father's house. And Gad, that is the prophet Gad, came that day to David, and said unto him, go up, rear an altar, build an altar, unto the Lord, and the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite and David according to the saying of Gad went up as the Lord commanded and Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him and Araunah went out and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground and Araunah said, wherefore is my Lord the king come to his servant? And David said, to buy the threshing floor of thee, to build an altar unto the Lord, that the plague may be stayed from the people, that it might be stopped. And Araunah said unto David, let my Lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him.

Behold, here be oxen for burnt offering and threshing instruments and other instruments of oxen for wood. All these things that Araunah as a king give unto the king and Araunah said unto the king, the Lord thy God, accept thee. Now, that makes sense. Araunah said, well, you're the king and and this is a terrible situation. Here, take it.

Take it. I give it to you. To use as needed. Verse 24, but the king said unto Araunah, no or nay, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price. Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord, my God, of that which doth cost me nothing.

So, David bought the threshing floor and the oxen were 50 shekels of silver and David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So, the Lord was entreated for the land and the plague was stayed from Israel. So, when Araunah offered these things to David at no price because he was the king, David said, no. No. I can't take it.

I will buy it from you. For I will not offer unto God that which cost me nothing. The whole sense of an offering is your offering something to God which costs you something. It is of value to you and therefore, you are giving it as an offering unto the Lord and so David said, I will not give to the Lord that which cost me nothing. This morning, I want to look at the Christian life as being a life of giving.

It is not God who owes us. It's we who owe him. It's we who owe him everything. God has already given us who know Christ as savior. Something that we could ever never earn or we could ever deserve.

Eternal life. Forgiveness for our sins. He has given us eternity. He has freed us from the penalty and power of sin. By giving his own son on Calvary's Cross.

To suffer in our behalf. Salvation doesn't cost us anything. But it cost God dearly. His only son. Humiliation and suffering.

That we will probably never experience on that cross. The sinless son of God, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And now, it is not God who owes us. Never has been. It is we who owe him and in Jesus Christ, we have something to give.

And God desires that we give for his glory and for our good. David said, I will not give to God that which cost me nothing. The Christian life is giving. If you take your Bibles now and turn to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 and let's look again at Romans 12 verses one and two this morning.

Romans 12 verses one and two. I beseech or I urge or I plead with you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, according to the mercy that God has shown us, That you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul writes to the brethren in Rome, the Christians, those professing faith in Jesus Christ in the church at Rome. He says to them, he says, I urge you.

I I plead with you, brethren. According to the mercies of God, that which God has already given us by his grace. That you present your bodies as he presented his, that we present ours. A living sacrifice to be used his service. Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your what?

Service. It is only your reasonable service. This isn't a stretch. This isn't going out on a limb. This isn't going the extra mile.

It is our reasonable service. That we should give our lives back to the one who gave his life to redeem us from sin and the hell and eternal despair. God has done something for us. We could never do for ourselves. He has attained something for us that we could never attain.

Not by works of righteousness which what? We have done. But according to his mercy, he saved us. And it is therefore our reasonable service to give of ourselves and our lives. Back to his service.

I've divided it up into several categories this morning. The first one is, you must give your mind to be renewed. We see that here in verse two. Verse two of Romans, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God wants your mind.

He wants to change your mind. He wants to renew your mind after the mind of Jesus Christ. Remember when God created Adam and Eve in the garden? He created in them in the image of God but that image was marred by sin but God wants to renew that image and renew our mind to be like unto the mind of Jesus Christ, our savior. Our minds were warped by sin but God wants to remake the minds of his children.

After his own. To think as he thinks, to see sin as he does, to see life from his perspective, to value souls, of men and women, boys, and girls as he values their souls. To know the truth, to cut through the lies of sin, the devil in the world, that has been planted and watered in the minds of man since birth. Are we are born, the Bible says, in sin and our mind is fed by the things of the world from the time that we are young. To think as the world thinks, to see as the world sees but when God saved you, he didn't save you just to take you to heaven but he saved you that he might change you here and now into the image of his dear son and that begins by the renewing of your mind.

To be like his as God changes our mind about the world and God changes how we see others and God changes how we view sin and many other things. We become more like Jesus Christ. It affects not only our thoughts but our thoughts in turn affect our behavior. That we might glorify the Lord who has saved us. How do we do that?

Well, we do that. We do that through his word. Look at this one. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word.

With my whole heart have I sought thee, oh, let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. How does God renew our mind like unto the mind of Jesus Christ? He does it through his word. His word is cleansing.

His word is the sword of the spirit. His word guides us through life. He has given to us his direct love letter that we might know him, that we might know his plan, that we might know his will for our life, that we might know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. That he might change the way we think and as we dig into the word of God and as we study and meditate on the word of God, day and night as David says in Psalm one. God does miraculous things.

In our mind and in our heart. But we need to give our mind. Dedicate our mind to him. To his word, to his way, that he might renew it and change it. Sad to say as Christians, sometimes it seems that we spend all of our time giving our mind to the things of the world.

Far more than we do giving our mind to the things of the Lord. The world is full of information entertainment out there that is teaching us to look at things the way the world sees it and not look at the way things the way the the Lord sees it. We need to dedicate, consecrate the mind that God has given us. To the things of the Lord, to the word of the Lord, to the thoughts and the will of the Lord. We must give our mind.

Second of all, we need to give our bodies as his instrument. In verse one here, it says, again, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you may present your, that you present your what? Your bodies, a living sacrifice. Now, are there are there were false doctrine that was being preached in the New Testament times in many churches that Paul had to deal with in his letters to the effect that God didn't care about your body. All he cared about was your soul and so you can do anything you wanted with your body as long as you had faith.

But that's not what God's word says. God does care about what we do with these bodies. He says here, Paul, urges and pleads with them to present their bodies not just their souls, a living sacrifice to be used in his service. First Corinthians six nineteen and twenty. Paul writes, what?

Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own. For you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. Yes, God. Church at Corinth is concerned about what you do with your body.

He bought it. He purchased it with his blood on Calvary's Cross. One day, he's going to change it and it's going to be resurrected and incorruptible body. But God wants to be glorified and how we use the instrument of the body that God has given us because it belongs to. God.

Him. And no longer just us. He purchased it At a great price on Calvary's Cross. Paul said on, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I but Christ live it in me and the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul says, this body, no longer mine. It belongs to him. It belongs to him and that should be the attitude of every Christian. These are his hands. These are his feet.

His eyes, his ears, his mouth. Remember when you were kids singing the song, little eyes, what you see, oh be careful little eyes, what you see for the father up above is looking down in love, so be careful little eyes, what you see, and we went through eyes and ears, and mouth, what you say and hands, what you do, and feet where you go. I mean, you you can add all kinds of stuff to songs. A fun song to sing but it relates an accurate message. The instruments of our body are to be used in his service.

For they belong to him. Romans six twelve and thirteen, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it and the lust thereof. Neither yield you your members as instruments. That's your bodily members, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. How how more clearly can God lay that out?

We are to use the instruments physically that God has given to us. To be used in his service, for we are now his ambassadors. We now represent the king of kings and Lord of lords. And we must yield our bodies as well as our minds to his service. It is ours to give.

Thanks to God. The third thing, I want to look at is our time. We are to you to use and yield our time in the service of the king. Ephesians chapter five fifteen through 17. See then that you walk circumspectly.

That means with your eyes open. Okay? Cautiously. Not as fools but as wise. Redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Wherefore, be you not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Paul writes in Ephesians, remind the church there. Open your eyes. Jesus said that to his disciples and said, see the fields there what? White on the harvest.

We read that last week in our message. Open your eyes. Don't walk through this world with your eyes closed spiritually as fools, as the foolish of this world, as the lost of this world, but with your eyes open, following the Lord as wise, redeeming, or using up the time wisely because the days are evil. The day in which we live is not kind to the things of the Lord and the devil is very busy trying to trip us up. Not only that but the days, the time is short.

It's brief. Life is as a what? A vapor which is here for a moment and then vanish it away. Our time is short and our time is not our own. It's borrowed from God.

It's on loan from him. The seconds and minutes and hours are ticking away and though we may not know the limit. God does. And our time on this Earth won't last forever. Our time with Jesus will.

Yeah. But our time to serve him here, It's limited. I calculated in a sermon a few years back the number of seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months in the average lifespan of the lifespan of the human being. And when you look at the number of hours or the number of days, it strikes you. That isn't really that many.

That really isn't that many. Our time is short but our time should be spent in service of our king. For we are his, our time is his. And one day when this time here is done, we will all stand before him and give an account of how we used that time in his service. You say, but pastor, I'm saved.

I'm a Christian. I won't appear before the judgment seat. Oh, no. You won't appear before the great white throne judgment. Where man will be judged based upon his works and cast into the lake of fire who have not received Jesus Christ as savior and whose names are not written in the book of life but you've trusted Christ as savior and you're a born again Christian, you will still appear.

Corinthians say, before the judgment seat, the Bema seat of Christ. This is a place of reward, not punishment. But do you not want to hear the words? Well done. Thou good and faithful servant.

Do you not want to have something to show for the time that he has given you. Do you not want to have crowns to lay at his feet as it says will happen in Revelation? Our time is limited. Are we using it? Mostly, for selfish things.

Are we using it? For his glory and in his service. Keeping in mind that is it is his. Something he has given us as a tool to be used to bring him glory and not merely ourselves. The fourth one, fourth one is this, your ambitions in line with God's will.

You know, when you're a kid, you have big ambitions. I, you know, I went out in my front yard when I was a kid and I pretended to be Joe Montana. And if you're not old enough to know who Joe Montana is, I'm sorry but but I would go out there and I would pretend to be Joe Montana and I I I didn't have my my brother is ten years younger than I am and my dad worked evening shift. So, when I got home from school, he was at work. So, when I played, I had to use my imagination because it was just me and so I would I would go back as John Joe Montana and I would throw the pass and all of a sudden, I would warp into Jerry Rice and I'd run down my yard and I would try to get under that ball and catch it and make a touchdown.

And I dreamed a lot about being a a football player or being a a an astronaut or a scientist. I like science. I was I I even went to college as a physics major. God worked on me for several years to get me to change it to Bible. I had dreams and ambitions.

I was going to do great things. But I had to give up those, give away those ambitions. Set aside those ambitions for the will of who? For the will of God. There's some ambitions in life that we have that fit into his will but there are some ambitions that we may have in life that don't.

And we need to be willing to set those aside. To give of our goals and ambitions to the Lord. Turn if you would to Matthew 16. Matthew 16. And look and you would have in verse 21.

I was going to put this on the screen and then well, I we I read it and I think I thought when we have to look at this in context. So, verse 21 of Matthew 16. Now, Simon Peter had just recognized, declared that Jesus Christ is the son of the living God and Jesus Christ had just complimented Peter and proclaimed that upon this rock, not Peter but that he is the son of the living God, that Christ would build his church and then we go down to verse 21. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things to the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Now, we looking back at that say, oh yes, that's why he came.

The Bible clearly says that. That's why he died and that's why he came to die for our sins so we could be saved but from Peter's vantage point, he couldn't understand that. He didn't yet have a total grasp of what it meant to be the Messiah and what Christ came to do. So, verse 22 says, then, Peter took him that is took Jesus and began to rebuke him saying, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee but he turned that is Jesus turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savor us not the things that be of God but those that be of man.

So, your ambitions, your goals, how you see things, you're not seen from God's perspective, you're seen from what? Man's a moment ago, he said that God had revealed to Peter that Christ was the son of the living God and now verses later, he's saying to Peter, now, you're listening to man and you're not listening to who? God. Because this is why I came. Your ambitions aren't lining up with mine, Peter.

You need to get in line. Verse 24, then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Jesus said to Peter and all those disciples and maybe others standing around, you're going to follow me, you need to deny yourself. What does that mean?

It means you need to deny, set aside these ambitions and goals and selfish desires. Not every desire is selfish and not every ambition is contrary to God's will but the ones that are, we need to deny them. Things we need to set them aside. And we need to take up our what? Cross.

Well, what is the cross represent? It it represents the will of the father. You see, Jesus came to die on the cross. That was the will of the father. That was what was necessary for our redemption.

God has a will for us. We need to set aside our ambitions and goals and we need to pick up. We need to put off the old man and put on the what? The new man. We need put off those ambitions.

We need to pick up the will of God and we need to go forth. We need to give our ambitions and goals in life. To God. It is our what? Reasonable service.

Reasonable service. Not only are we to give our mind to be renewed, our bodies as this is, as his instruments, our time and service, our goals and ambitions to his will, but our possessions for his purpose. Our possessions for his purpose. Matthew six twenty four, no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

You gotta make a choice. You're going to be the most miserable Christian in the world if you're trying to hold on to both at the same time. You need to let go. We, yes, even we who are Christians sometimes tie up our happiness and security far too much and the things that we possess, in the money in our bank account, in the home, in the car, or or whatever it may be. Rather than finding our security and joy and peace in the savior who has already given us everything.

Everything and we hang on to things that we should be willing to let go of and we prize them far too too highly. You see, if I belong to God and my body belongs to God and my mind belongs to God and my time belongs to God and my ambitions belong to God, doesn't it make sense that my possessions belong to him too? That that my possessions are not merely here to to bring me pleasure but my possessions that God has seen fit to bless me with are also here to be used as tools to bring him what? To bring him glory. Sometimes, oftentimes, we look at our possessions as things that we have earned, as things that represent our success.

And we think they ought to be used for our pleasure and we don't consider that they came from God. They are blessings from him and that as we belong to him, so do our possessions and they're not just here to bring us pleasure. But we have them to be used in his service. A vehicle is something you use to get from place to place as you serve the Lord or something you use to pick up things for people or to pick up people to bring them to church. And sometimes we we need to think about It's all about the shiny vehicle in my front yard.

Well, the shiny vehicle is going to tarnish. And how sad it is of when that vehicle is ready to be thrown in the junkyard that it wasn't used for anything but to impress other people and not used in his service. Our possessions belong to him, our car, our house, our TV, our computer, our paper, our pen, our phones. If we saw them as tools to be used in our his service, if we saw them as his possessions and not merely our own, we would recognize that he has say then how over how they're used. We wouldn't use them for some things that we do.

Myself included. It's so easy to get our eyes off the things of the Lord and on the things of the world. To love the world and not the father and that is so contrary. To the life that we now live as Christians. We're to love the Lord and not the world and part of that is giving of our possessions Yes, even our money.

Saying, pastor, I knew you were going to get to that. If you've been here often, you know I don't preach on money very often. That's not my job to bring in the finances. That's that's God's but sometimes, we do need to be reminded that what's in this wallet also belongs to him and one of the ways that you may be able to gauge yourself how you're doing And surrendering your possessions to God maybe how well you're doing at surrendering your tithe and how well you're doing at being a good steward of all the money that's in that wallet. To be used to bring glory to him.

And not merely you selfishly on self. For that is something God has provided you to. First Corinthians nine seven, every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give. Not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth the cheerful giver. When we give to the church, when we give to someone in need, we are giving to who?

God. We're giving to God. And we should give it with a cheerful heart. We should not give it grudgingly. For it is a tool that God has given us to bless others.

And to demonstrate that God is first in our life. That we give him the first fruits and not just the leftovers. Sometimes, that's how we treat God. With our finances. God, well, whatever I have left at the end of the month, you can have that But God told Israel, you need to give to me first.

First, recognizing that I am the one who has blessed you. And as we do give to God, we do give to the church and we do give to others. We provide for the necessities of ministry and we provide for the needs of others and God blesses them through us. What a blessing to be used. In that way, in God's service.

Our possessions, they belong to him. We need to give surrender them to him and finally, this morning, our love, our heart, to him, above all other things. Deuteronomy six, four, and five. God said to Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. There aren't many of me.

There aren't several of me. There aren't there there isn't me that looks like a calf and the me that looks like this or or that idol over there. There's only one me. That's it. And thou shalt love only the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

We need to give our love, our allegiance, our loyalty, our dedication to God above all others. The first commandment, thou shalt have no other what? God. God's before me. None.

We live in a world where people put everything before God. Their bank accounts, their fame, their power, their pleasure, everything comes before God today. And it's so easy for us to say, hey, I'm doing pretty good because this part I give to God. God doesn't want this part of my heart. He doesn't want to share it with other idols.

He wants to be God and God alone in your life. He deserves it. He is worthy of our worship. He is worthy of our praise. He is worthy of our life, our love, our loyalty, our allegiance.

Does he have all of your heart? Or does he just have a portion? Is there part that's locked away? It says, God, I'll give you this but I won't give you that. As we've gone through these things this morning, we looked at at our possessions, in our time, in our ambitions, in goals, our bodies, and our mind.

Is there something today that you've been holding back? And you know it. Would you be willing to surrender that today to God? To yield your body as his instrument, his mind to be renewed by his spirit and word. Your ambitions to be brought in line with his will.

Your time to be used in his service, your possessions as his tools today. What will you choose? Joshua said this, before he passed off the scene in Israel This is familiar, I'm sure to some of you, it would seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. Don't don't don't ride the fence. Don't ride the fence.

Whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods, the Amorites, and whose land you dwell, but as for me and my house, Joshua said, we will serve. Sadly, Israel that day said, yes, we will serve the Lord and Joshua said, now, be careful what you say. You better back it up because God's holy and God's going to hold you to account and they said, oh, but we will serve the Lord. Praise God. They said that but sadly, a couple generations later, things changed drastically.

What is wrong with the church today? What is wrong with the world today is connected with what is wrong with the church today. We have proclaimed. We will serve the Lord but in reality, we as Christians sometimes serve many things. God is not always even at the top of the list.

Christian life is giving not selfishly hoarding things for our own pleasure and our own glory. It is our reasonable service to give of ourselves back to him. How are you doing? How did you do in 2016? Maybe it's time to recommit ourselves for 2017.

Maybe there's something in your heart and life. That needs to be yielded to him. Let's just take a moment and go to the Lord in prayer and before we give the invitation, I'm going to pray and then I'm going to pause for a time of silence and maybe there's something this morning that you would like to talk with the Lord about. Before we give the invitation. Dear Lord, we thank you for all that you give given to us.

For giving your all on cross of Calvary for arts. Lord, you have declared your desire and expectation for your children that we should give of our bodies a living sacrifice unto you. For it is our reasonable service. One who has given so much to us. Lord, as we look into 2017, Lord, I pray that you would forgive us for the areas that we have held back, for the things that we have placed above you.

For areas of sin in our life that we haven't dealt with, Lord for things that are your will, that we should have been doing, that we've we've pushed off till tomorrow. Lord, may we not push them off anymore. May we surrender ourselves to be yielded to your service today. Lord, may you work in the hearts of your people. Dear heavenly father, I I pray that as I know you have spoken to us by your spirit that we would continue to yield ourselves this year, dedicate ourselves to your service, that you might be glorified in us and in our church that we might grow in love, the knowledge of our savior Jesus Christ, and in your grace.

As we surrender all to you. We pray Lord if there's one here today that's never trusted in Jesus as savior. That they might come as we give this hymn of invitation. That others might come as you speak unto them to surrender things to you. In Jesus name, we pray.

Amen.