1 Corinthians: "Any man"

Verse 8, He that planteth and he that watereth are one, but every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. Look down at verse number 13, Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall be cleared, because it shall be revealed by fire. For the trier shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

Chapter 4, verse number 3, With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by man's judgment, yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself, I think what Paul means there is he was conscious of nothing against himself, nothing that he felt he had failed in, yet am I not hereby justified. He wasn't looking for his own judgment to justify him, but he that judgeth me, the one that's going to pass approval on me is the Lord.

Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart, then shall every man have praise of God. Chapter 7, verse 7, I would that all men were even as myself, he's referring here now to marital states, but every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, another after that. Verse 17, But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called everyone, so let him walk.

And so on. Look at verse 20, Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. And verse 24, Brethren, let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God.

Verse 29, With this I say, Brethren, the time is short. It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none, they that weep as though they wept not, they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not, they that use the world as not abusing it, but for the fashion of this world passeth away. Chapter 10, and just verse 24, Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.

Look at chapter 12, verse number 7, But the manifestation, that would be the gift, which is a manifestation of the Spirit in dwelling, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to mutual profit. Look down the chapter at verse number 11, But all these worketh that one and the selfsame spirit dividing to every man separately as he will. Verse 18, But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

Chapter 16, for a final reading, verse number 1, Now concerning the collection for the saints as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings or no collections when I come. And when I have come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, then will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem, and so on.

Now again, we trust that God will add his blessing to the reading of his precious word. Corinth was marked by chaotic conditions. Every man trying to do everything.

Every man wanting to possess the gifts. Every man wanting to be heard. Every man wanting to be in prominence.

And into the chaotic condition of every man at the top, Paul would underline responsibilities that indeed were every man's. And so time and again, in fact, this word is used both in a negative and in a positive way throughout the epistle. Time and again Paul uses this phrase, every man or each man, as he would weave truth through the epistle.

We already touched this morning, when we spoke about fellowship, of responsibility in God's assembly. And I would like just to enlarge on it now by looking at what is the responsibility of every believer. It's not every believer's responsibility to be a leader.

It's not every believer's responsibility to preach the gospel from a public platform. It's not every believer's responsibility to teach the word of God. It is not every believer's responsibility for various functions in the assembly.

God gives gifts differently according to his sovereignty and his wisdom. But Paul here brings us to an awareness of areas of personal responsibility. So we will underline then, as we look at this together, areas and awareness of a personal responsibility.

Linked with that intimately is the avoidance of being thought that I'm not necessary. If these are my responsibilities in God's assembly, then God does have a place and a purpose for me. So it avoids any idea that there is any unnecessary believers.

It helps me to appreciate the fact that I need you and you need me. There is no man so gifted he does not need his brethren and sisters. And there is no one so, I hate to use the word, so minimal in his gift that others don't need him or her.

So learn that. We are never to view ourselves as independent, not needing another, and never to view someone as being so insignificant they're not needed. So there's the total avoidance of all of that kind of thinking.

And then he brings us to areas of personal responsibility in God's assembly. Now, let me come to them quickly. And again, time will not permit looking at all of them, but just to give them a heading and then to allow you to look at them and then to look at a couple of them in more detail.

In chapter three, now I know, and I think it is true, the interpretation of this would especially be relative to teachers in God's assembly, and I hope you'll allow me to broaden it because we could bring other scriptures to bear upon it to substantiate its application. I'm going to suggest to you in chapter three, it's my responsibility to contribute my labor for blessing, to contribute my labor to God's assembly for blessing, for building up the assembly of God. In chapter four, it's to conduct myself in light of the bema, the judgment seat of Christ.

So in chapter three, I'm contributing my labor to build up God's assembly. In chapter four, I'm conducting my life in light of the judgment seat of Christ. That's my... Every man shall have praise of God.

When we come to chapter seven, again, he is dealing with every man. It might be right for some to be married, and it might be right for some to stay in a single state. But every man has this responsibility, therein to abide with God, therein to dwell with God.

And so what he is coming to in chapter seven, and again, I know the historical background of it does color the meaning of it to some extent, but I think the principle is still true, a responsibility to consecrate myself to God in God's assembly, to consecrate myself to God. Whatever my circumstances, whether free or bound, whether married or single, whatever the condition, he says, what we are looking for is consecrated believers to fill God's assembly. So in chapter seven, it is to consecrate myself to the Lord.

In chapter 10, he says there, let every man seek another's welfare, not to seek their own, but another's welfare. So in chapter 10, the teaching he is giving us there is I have a responsibility to consider the welfare of others, to consider the welfare of others. When I come to chapter 12, it is obvious the responsibility there is to cultivate whatever gift God has given me for the assembly, to cultivate it, to seek to see it grow and be useful and be a blessing for others.

And when I come to chapter 16, my responsibility is to communicate materially as I am able for the work of God and for the needs of others and for the assembly itself. So that is a very hurried overview, and I just want to touch two or three of them as God gives enablement and time and trust that what we say will be helpful. Let me just come then to chapter seven and talk about the responsibility to be consecrated to God, to be devoted to the assembly without being devoted to God, is to get things in the wrong order.

To so throw myself into the activities of the assembly and the Sunday school work and whatever it may be, and somehow to not recognize that the primary thing that God is looking for is not my activity but my heart. To realize that God is concerned, first of all, that I am occupied with Him and that there is a life that is consecrated for Him first, and as a result of being consecrated to Him, finding its direction, finding its outflow, linked with what is precious to Him, which is His assembly, then I have things in their wrong order. And so Paul here deals with varying circumstances.

He deals with varying exercises and varying concerns that believers have, and it's as though he would lift their minds from marriage and singleness and the current difficulties they were passing through, and he would say, really, what is vital, whatever condition in which you are found, whatever the circumstances that you are found in, the key thing is to live for God and live with God. So let me just bring that down then for just a moment to my audience. Maybe, maybe it has come into your mind somewhere in life, if only my circumstances were different.

If only there weren't those kids at school. If only there wasn't that person in the office. If only there weren't a spouse who maybe doesn't see things as I do.

If only, and you can fill in the blank, if only that weren't true, I could really live for God. If you cannot live for God where you are right now, you won't live for God anywhere. God has put you in circumstances.

They may be difficult. I have to shake my head and shed tears for some believers, the circumstances where God has put them. I'm thankful He knows who to put where, because some things I don't know if I could handle.

But He's put you where you are to live for Him right there. So forget your circumstances. You know what I mean when I say that.

They're not an excuse. They could well be the very means that God is going to use to enable you to live more for Him than if you had a pleasant set of circumstances surrounding you in life. So God is looking for consecrated lives.

Are you in the assembly and, you know, it's a nice place to be because you don't have to do much and you can get away with saying nothing and you can just come and go and everything looks fine as long as you say the right words, dress the right way, smile at the right times, be able to find the portion when they ask you to turn to it. Every once in a while, give out a hymn that seems like it fits in and you can just slide along. That's not what God is looking for.

That's not the standard of measuring up to responsibility for God's assembly. God is looking for lives that are consecrated. If you're just a Sunday school teacher, and I don't like to use the word just a Sunday school teacher, but if that's the sphere God has brought you into, God needs you consecrated to Him first.

If your responsibility in God's assembly is just to help out, giving out the hymn books and greeting people and welcoming visitors, God needs consecration there. If you're a sister and you're silent and your voice is never heard and there's no public sphere of ministry that is given to you and no great outward service that people can look at, if yours is literally just coming and going from assembly gatherings, God needs consecrated sisters. God needs every member of His assembly.

Every member of Church of God conditions needs consecrated lives. No free rides. No going along with parents to the assembly.

No doing it just because it's been in the family for three generations and we've got to do it too. Individual. Paul says every man, each man, stressing not only inclusiveness but individual responsibility.

Do you know anything of it? Of being absolutely poured out for God in consecration and then bringing that devotion into God's assembly for the blessing of others. And so Paul here deals with being conscious of what God has fitted me for. He deals in chapter 7 with the fact of communion being a priority and of commitment.

Now, I realize he speaks of the time of great difficulty, likely a time of persecution, the present distress, as he calls it, and the need to set aside earthly relationships and business opportunities and not abusing the world, not overusing it to its full extent. I realize the background of that is a day of persecution and a day of difficulty, but could I just bring it to our day? What is hindering you in your consecration to God? Business? Work? Career? Education? Things that you are saying, when that is done, when I am finished with that, I am going to take this business of being a Christian more seriously. You know, when once all the education and the demands of it and all that I have to put into it, when that is all finished, then I think I will be able to begin really taking Christianity seriously and maybe putting something into the assembly.

Maybe you are just starting a business with all the demands and pressures that that puts upon your time and your thought and your energy. And in your mind is once the business gets rolling, then we can kind of let it go on its own. Let me tell you, don't kid yourself.

It sucks you in more and more. Maybe it is the family. You know, once we have gotten past these early years with the family, well, no, no.

Paul says put all those things aside. Sweep the excuses aside. He comes to what we would call in our own way the highest divinely ordained tie, husband and wife.

He says that should not hinder consecration to God. He comes as well to the most natural of emotions, the weeping. He comes to the sublimest of earthly experiences, the joy.

He comes as well to the most necessary of earthly activities, a man's business. He says take all of those things. Nothing should hinder you as you recognize the need of the priority of communion and consecration with God to be useful in God's assembly.

So the first thing that he would underline for us in chapter 7 is the need for consecration. Chapter 10 he brings us to consideration of the welfare of others. He introduces a new standard for behavior and he tells us there about not seeking our own but seeking another's welfare.

He introduces that new standard of behavior. It is going to involve personal self-sacrifice and it is going to involve the service of others. So he says in chapter 10 in verse 24, let no one seek his own but every man another's welfare.

So let me come back to what we talked about this morning and that is that the welfare of everyone in the assembly becomes your personal responsibility when you come into God's assembly. When you become part of that fellowship, then everyone else's welfare becomes your concern. So it is not just a matter of coming and going.

It is not just a matter of, well, you know, it is our turn to vacuum so we will do our job this month and vacuum the hall. No, no, no. All those are necessary things.

But he is getting to something far deeper and far more vital, something far more crucial for the welfare of God's assembly. He says rather than everyone seeking their own welfare, let each seek the welfare of others. Now, you will understand that this doesn't come naturally, does it? Our native instinct is self-preservation.

The first law, the first law of the natural man is self-preservation. The first law of the spiritual man is self-sacrifice. And those two laws are at war in our members, just as every other spiritual and natural principle vie so those two do.

Thinking of others, thinking of self. I sometimes will think of others when it is going to do me good to think of it. So really it is getting back to me again.

But to think of others, to put the welfare of others ahead of my own. Now, let me just ask you. Just test yourself by this simple litmus test.

Are others in the assembly better because I am a part of it? Are others in the assembly better because I am a part of that assembly? Or perish the thought, it is the worst. Have I been a positive or a negative factor in that assembly? It doesn't come natural and it doesn't come easily. Elsewhere, depending on who wrote the book of Hebrews, the writer says, where he is speaking about not forsaking the assembling of ourselves gathered together as the manner of some is.

He says they are considering one another to provoke unto loving good works. Now the word he uses for considering one another is the idea of studying another person, studying someone. So it means really I have got to think, what can I do? What can we do to be a help to that person? How can we help that young believer who seems to be struggling? How can we help that mother who seems to be struggling with that family? How can we help that brother who is overwhelmed with the burdens of business and he is not getting out to meet? How can we be of help? How can we just give a word of encouragement? It may just be a word of encouragement, that's all.

Just telling a young Christian when he is taking part, enjoyed his exercise, enjoyed his desire to try to give God thanks, to be a help in God's assembly. Not to be thinking about myself and, you know, I would hope that if ever people have to walk on eggs around me, afraid that he is so touchy, so sensitive, if we say the wrong thing, he is going to get all upset, he is going to get angry. I would hope God would take me home to heaven long before that ever happens.

To think of people having to walk on eggs around you, just so touchy and so sensitive, that if you look the wrong way, they are going to be out of the assembly and say it was all your fault or, you know, people just looking for some reason. How tragic! How tragic to be so self-centered that all I think about is myself in God's assembly. And whether people are recognizing me and people are giving me my due and people are nice to me, what a tragedy.

What a tragedy to just be self-absorbed. God's assembly, my responsibility is to look out for the welfare of others. Let me come though to chapter 12, especially for the sake of young believers, to cooperate or rather to cultivate whatever gift God has given to me.

Now, it hardly needs, I think, for us to go into the issue of one-man ministry and pastors and all in God's assembly. You will, of course, appreciate, I'm sure even all the young believers here appreciate, the fact that God has given multiplicity of gifts to multiplicity of men for balance. No one man can meet the needs of a company of believers, even a small group of believers.

And so God has a multiplicity of men whom he has gifted to not just lead, but to teach and to guide. One man's teaching may appeal to some and another man's teaching may be able to connect and reach with others. And God has, in his wisdom, in his sovereignty, done that.

And we read there in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians that all these work with one and the self-same spirit, dividing severally, individually, to every man, to each man as he will. So the sovereignty of the spirit, the wisdom of the spirit. Let me just maybe take something that perhaps you haven't appreciated, that in the functioning of gifts in God's assembly, there is actually a revelation given of what God is like.

Not in what the gift does, but just in the functioning of it. Because what it is showing, really, in that is the sovereignty of the spirit, the wisdom of God, and the glory of Christ, the risen head who has given those gifts. So there really is in the multiplicity of gifts being given, and in the functioning of those gifts in a cooperative way, there really is a revelation being given of what God is like.

That God is wise. That God is sovereign. That Christ is risen and glorified as the giver, the pourer out of gifts to his church.

So we are really giving a revelation of God. And we are seeing how that works. But what I want to come to especially is then the responsibility which God has given, and accepting that responsibility relative to cultivating my gift.

Just a few things I think that are obvious, again. Familiar, not new, but for the sake of younger believers. It will help you and preserve you when you're faced with all the confusion of charismatic gift that is all around, and you'll come into contact with people at school, you'll come into contact with people at college, come into contact with people working in the community, and their big thing is that they have charismatic gift.

They have spoken in tongues, or they have had some other experience. You know the dead giveaway? The dead giveaway to the fact that it's all a fraud. I mean, beyond even scriptural exposition.

The dead giveaway is their gift occupies them with themselves. It's their experience. When you come to the word of God, there is no gift which is for my experience.

Every gift is for the blessing of others. But everybody who talks about those gifts, speaking with tongues and, you know, whatever you want to, all the others that they go into, it is all a personal experience that makes them feel good about themselves. And yet we read together in chapter 12 for mutual profit, for the profit of others.

And we could show that through chapter 12 and through chapter 14. Every gift God has given an individual is not for that own individual's experience, but for the blessing of others. That gift should never occupy a person with himself.

It is rather something that goes out to others. So on the surface, before we even get into any kind of exposition of chapter 12, 13 and 14, those gifts are fraudulent. Where they come from, whether psychological experience, whether group hysteria, whether peer pressure, wherever they come from, they're not from God.

And we don't have to get all concerned about them. So let me just come then to this issue of cultivating my gift for God and trying to enlarge upon it. Many young believers, and I think it's only right because we all did the same thing, so it has to be right if we did it, many young believers ask, well, what's my gift? What's my gift? How would I know my gift? Now, while we all ask that question, I'm going to suggest to you it's a wrong question to ask.

It's going about the thing in the wrong way. It would be far better to ask, what's the need? What need is there in the assembly where I am in fellowship that I can begin to fill? That I can pray and hopefully God will raise me up to fill that need? God will begin to give me ability to fill it? So maybe in the assembly where you are, you come home on a weeknight meeting and you say to your wife two verses for the whole Bible reading and I didn't understand anything and everybody else was looking around as though it was just boring. What's wrong? Do you see a need? Maybe instead of complaining, get alone with God on your knees and with your Bible and you come next week with something to give.

Or you say, but if I said something at all... Maybe just a question. Maybe just a question to change the tenor of things. Maybe just something to change the back and forth of two men in a Bible reading, just suddenly a voice out of nowhere interrupting it with a question.

It may just move things a little differently. And maybe you come to a gospel meeting on Sunday night and you look around and you're complaining, we're just preaching to ourselves. Everybody here is saved.

What are we doing? Why not go out and get somebody and bring them in? Why not start visiting in the neighborhood? Children's work? Small Sunday school? Why not? Why not take it as maybe something God is laying on your heart to begin to do it? So let me suggest first of all to you, rather than getting this big, big thing, what's my gift and how will I know it? First of all, let me just talk about awareness. Become aware of needs. Now, don't start the day after you're saved praying about whether you should go to Africa or whether you should go to South America or Mexico.

That may come, but pray about need where you are. Think globally, act locally, okay? That's what these bumper stickers. Start acting locally.

What need is there where I am? Become aware of the need. But not only become aware, become available. If need were to stare you in the face, do you have time for it? Or are you so busy there's no time for God? Are you available? Could you set aside one night a week for the study of your Bible so you could help in the Bible reading? Could you set aside one afternoon, one Saturday afternoon a week to visit door to door? Could you set aside an evening a week for a children's meeting in your home with some children? If you can't get them to the hall because Sunday's not a good day, what about your home on a Friday night or your home on a Saturday morning? Could you do that? Are you available? Are you so committed to other things that there's no time to make yourself available for whatever God would lay on your heart to be done? So it begins with an awareness, a sensitivity to need that exists in God's assembly.

It moves to an availability to give myself to it. And then it means being active in it, doing it. Not just talking about it, planning it, thinking about how nice it would be if someone else did it.

It may not be your gift. That'll become obvious very quickly. But if there's something God has put upon your heart as a need, being active in it, giving yourself to it, doing it.

And let me mention one other thing, and that is be approachable. Because it may just be that one of the overseers might come to you and say, you know, we appreciate your efforts, but have you ever thought that maybe God is leading you in this direction? Maybe your abilities would be better used here. Be approachable.

Don't sit back and be touchy that if they come to you and say, you know, we don't think the public platform is maybe just for you right now. That's it. I'll never speak again.

Forget it. They're never going to hear another word out of me. You know how many lives have been stunted by that kind of a response to advice? It may not be the advice was given in the right way.

There may have been error on the part of the way advice was given. But that doesn't resolve me of, absolve me of the responsibility to respond in a spiritual way. Be open, be approachable.

That's how God will help guide you as to what your gift is. Those who have more experience, those who have discernment will begin to guide you and to encourage you one way or another. And God will begin to give affirmation by seeing blessing upon your labor and giving you joy in your own soul as you do it.

So rather than sitting back and waiting for some huge revelation about what my gift is, become aware of what the needs are. Become available to God. Be active in what you're doing.

Be approachable so that others can be a help to you and to guide you and to encourage or discourage you in the spheres in which you would be exercised to move. You see, the reality is, and I think I speak for others here, a man is a poor judge of his own gift. We tend to be creatures of extreme.

We tend either to think wisdom dies with me or we tend to go the other way and think, you know, I'm useless, what good am I? A man is not a good judge of his own gift. A wise man doesn't even get occupied with his own gift. He seeks to use whatever he can of ability and opportunity for God and others will help to encourage or discourage.

Others will close doors or open doors. No need to open your own doors when it comes to gift. No need to force your own way.

No need to demand upon your time and your space and your opportunity. If God is opening doors, there's not a human being can shut them. No one can shut a door that God is opening.

So just be patient and wait upon God. The word of God is filled with examples of individuals. Let me just give you one.

There are several that come to mind. Let me just give you one. One day there's a, I would take it he's a young man, possibly in his twenties.

I doubt much older than that. And he's standing at the foot of a cross and there's a woman next to him. And the Lord looks down from a cross and says, woman, behold thy son.

And then to John, behold thy mother. Now keep in mind, here's the man who is destined to write a gospel, three epistles and a revelation. Now you just put all that together, those 48 chapters, is it? And think of what a slice of the New Testament that is.

Only exceeded by, is it Paul and possibly Luke as far as the number of chapters are concerned. Think of the value that man is going to be to the testimony of God, not only in his own day, but throughout the ages. And he begins by just taking care of a widow.

You could say, wait a minute, Lord, I'm destined for great things. Just, that's all you're giving me to do? Just take care of a woman? That's all? I'm destined for fame and fortune and so all I got to do is take care of a woman? Yeah, there she is. Take care of her.

He does it. From that hour, that disciple took her unto his own. Not just own home as our versions give it, but the idea is his own things.

Everything that was his became hers. Took her in totally. No partway measures in his bearing of responsibility.

I turned my Bible just a few pages and now John has gone from taking care of a widow to helping to take care of an assembly. And I turned my Bible a few more pages and John has gone from taking care of one assembly and he's sent down to another region to be a help to many assemblies. And I keep turning my Bible and I come to Revelation 1 and 2 and 3 and now he is giving ministry to seven assemblies.

And by the time the book of Revelation closes, John is giving ministry that assemblies now through the ages have profited from. So what's the lesson? Whatever God puts into your hands, it may just be one child in Sunday school. It may just be one little neighborhood to visit with tracks.

It may be just a few minor things to do to start out within his assembly. Whatever God puts into your hand, you do it with all your ability. And you do it as though this is my life's work.

It might be it is your life's work. Wouldn't it be a tragedy to be doing something God put in your hand in kind of a haphazard way because you were made for greater things and you're just waiting kind of on hold until the big thing comes along and to enter heaven's shore looking back and realizing I missed what was my big thing. But someone would say, but supposing he does have bigger things in mind, I don't think you'll ever regret putting your all into the small.

Putting your all into the initial. Putting everything you had into what God gave you at that time because that is the way to promotion. That is the way to move in God's school is by doing to the very best of my ability whatever God gives me.

So whatever it is, however minor it might seem, your responsibility is to cultivate whatever gift God has given you, whatever ability God has given you to cultivate it for his honor and for his glory. Let me come then in the remaining moments to chapter 16 and communicating materially. Now I think that I have a little more liberty to preach on this than many of our other brethren.

So you'll understand and it's clear I still work for a living. I have been richly blessed of God and need nothing. So there can be no thought, no hint that when I speak about giving that there is any appeal being made by me to you.

If you pass on fellowship to me, you increase my burden because I have to pass it on. So I'm not appealing. All my needs have been met.

So let me just then take up something which perhaps at times we are slow to take up in assemblies and slow to deal with because of the concern that it sounds like an appeal for funds. I want to talk about individual responsibility of giving to the work of God. So when we come to chapter 16, Paul says, let every one of you lay by and store as God hath prospered.

So here then is a responsibility that every believer in Corinth had. No one accepted, no one excused, and don't forget amongst them were those who were slaves. And it may not be that they were prospered very well in life, but whatever God had prospered them for, they were responsible to give.

So you will then notice here in this section as we take up this issue of giving, it should first of all be the response of a thankful heart. That's where Paul comes to. We could, those seminal chapters, chapter 8 and chapter 9 of 2 Corinthians, those two chapters that deal with the subject of giving in great detail, those two chapters remind us that giving is to be the response of a thankful heart.

He begins that section, doesn't he, with ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. And he ends that section with thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. And so he brackets the whole message of giving with these two tremendous reminders of a Savior who gave all and of a God who gave all.

And in light of that, all being given for us, the only sane response from our hearts should be to be willing to give whatever we can for his honor and for his glory. So it is first of all then the response of thankful hearts, not a demand being made, not the response to begging by someone. We hardly, we take it for granted.

But you turn on any radio Bible program, all the great preachers and all the great speakers, you know what they're doing. Somewhere, somehow, there's a bit of begging going on. Sometimes it's more than a bit.

Sometimes it's overwhelming. Now it's done with class, you know. Now you send in your donation and you get a free cassette or you get a free booklet that they're going to send you.

And of course, once you do that, you're hooked, you're on their mailing list. And now every week or two, you get mailings from them about their needs and their wonderful faith ministry and how to support this faith ministry. You should be giving and on and on and on.

We're so unaccustomed to that. It's interesting that Paul, when he says, when he's writing about the churches of Macedonia and the collection that they made for the poor saints in Jerusalem, in chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians, he says, they had to beg me to take the money. They entreated us with much entreaty.

They literally begged me. I didn't want to take it from them. They're so poor themselves.

I was almost embarrassed to take their money, to take on to other saints who were poor. The givers did the begging, not the receivers. So it's never the response to begging or a sense even of guilt, but rather the response of a thankful heart.

It's the recognition of a great debt, isn't it? We give because of the recognition of a great debt. It's not that in some way what we give the Lord ever begins to repay that debt. But you see, he gave all so that we, likewise, should have a burden to be able to give something.

But likewise, it's a relationship. It's a likeness that is being reproduced because God is a giver. God is the ultimate giver.

Every good, every perfect gift cometh down from above. So that the character of God reproduced in his people means we should be giving people because that's what God is like. God gives without ever looking for anything in return.

Every day, every week, every month, every year, God gives to men who will never once lift their eyes heavenward and say, thank you. He gives the rain, the sun, blessings, the blessings of life. He gives to both the just and the unjust.

He lavishes richly upon men who will never thank him, never recognize him, who instead curse him and deny him. God gives to even that type of person. And so giving is the very character, the reproduction of a character of God in us.

It is the ready answer to divine claims. But let me come to the scriptural mandate. You will notice that it's often been pointed out, you need me to underline all this, that it's personal.

Let every one of you. So it's a very personal thing. I also believe personally, husbands and wives should give personally.

We don't come as families when we come as worshipers. We come individually. And it would be nice to individually give to the Lord.

Or you might say, but my husband makes all the money. Humbug, it's your money together. If your husband brings home a paycheck, it's because you're home taking care of the children.

It's not because he's the breadwinner and you're a nothing. I could never do what I'm doing if my wife wasn't doing what she's doing together. It's our money together, not mine versus hers.

So we each have something to give God. It's personal. First of all, it should have priority upon the first of the week.

Now we were taught this as young believers. So let me just pass it on to other young believers here. It's all hat for use, older believers.

Please forgive me. I'm sorry to bore you. But don't wait to see what's left over at the end of a week to see what you give God.

It's a priority. Establish in your mind from day one what you're going to give God. That comes off the top.

And the rest you live on. Don't figure, well, we want to spend this and we'll spend this and we'll see what we have left at the end of the week. No, that's going about things the wrong way.

Set aside what belongs to God. Set aside what you have determined in your heart to be able to give Him. And don't give Him the leftovers.

Give Him the first part. Now there is no percentage given. There's no demand made upon you as to how much you give.

We'll see that in a moment. But determine in your soul before God as a priority. What do we want to give God? Not only that, but when the raise comes, make sure God gets His portion, the first fruits of all that increase.

There is no one who has ever given to God who hasn't received back far more than they ever gave. No one has ever given that God has not abundantly repaid in many different ways, not just in the coinage of the realm, but in other ways that God is able to bless and prosper His people. Now that doesn't mean that if you give, that's the way to health and wealth and happiness type of life.

But what I'm saying is that it is a way, and we'll see that in just a moment, it is a way in which we can honor God and in which we can show God priority. Giving proportionately as God has prospered, we have that. Giving purposely, laying by in store.

Cultivate the habit. Recognize that really material things are a trust that God has given to us. Money, money is a tremendous trust that God has put in your hand.

Money is also a great test. Money is also a great temptation. I don't need to tell you that.

What we do with what God gives us is very, very vital. Let me just mention something again, a lot of different avenues here that could be taken. At your own convenience, leisure, as they say in Britain, at your leisure, go through the word of God, beginning with Abraham in Genesis 14, and look at what different men did with the spoils of war.

Now you can think, can't you, of a David, of a Solomon, of an Achan, of a Moses, of a Joshua. Just go through the word of God and begin to look at what men did with the spoils of war. Because what it revealed is their spiritual character.

It revealed what was going on inside. And so Abraham comes back with the spoils of war. Genesis 14, you know what happens.

You take everything. I don't want anything. I've got God.

I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, possessor of heaven and earth. I won't take anything from you as much as even a shoe latchet. I don't need what the king of Solomon can offer me.

You just go through. What it reveals is it's an insight into spiritual character. There are few things, there are few things that reveal our spiritual character as much as what we do with money.

Something strange about money. You know, we, you know, anything else, just don't touch my money. And I'm not standing up here as one who would be happy if my pension were suddenly disappeared or my savings suddenly disappeared.

I would take no joy in it, I tell you. So I'm not, hopefully not speaking in a way that would tempt God. But what I'm saying is there's something about money that reveals the reality of our spirituality perhaps more than anything else does.

And so he brings them then to this, the scriptural mandate, the specified measure that he gives according to ability, according to abundance, according to their appreciation of grace. It is a stewardship as well. There are expressions in Luke 16 that are worthy of note, and I'll have to close with this.

He says, If you are not faithful in another man's, who will give you that which is your own? And if you are not faithful in the least, how about the most? And if you're not faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who's going to commit to your hand the true riches? So you've got three contrasts there, don't you? You've got that which is the least versus that which is the most. That which is the unrighteous mammon, that which is the true mammon. That which is another's, that which is your own.

So money is the least. It is unrighteous mammon. It is another's.

You know why it's another's, don't you? It's going to pass through your hands and eventually belong to someone else. Can't hold on to it. Even if the grave becomes another's.

So those aren't true riches. Got to leave them. So he says in contrast to that, he says contrast to the least, he says the most.

You know what that is? That's spiritual wealth. He says in contrast to what is unrighteous mammon, he says true riches. Again, spiritual wealth.

And he says that which is another in contrast to that which is really your own. You know what you're going to take away from earth? You know what you're going to take away from this planet when either we go by way of death or by way of the rapture? Going to take away the spiritual wealth you've accumulated in fellowship with God. That embraces the knowledge of Christ that you have gained, the knowledge of God, the service you have rendered.

Now he says, you use this for this. What do you mean use this for this? What I learned is if I am faithful with this, if I am faithful with the unrighteous mammon God has given me, he's going to make more real to my soul the true riches. If I am faithful with what is another's, I will be able to grasp and enjoy more what is my own.

If I have been faithful with what is the least, I will be able to appreciate what is really worth living for. So that this business of giving is not just a matter of it's Sunday again, we've got to put our hands in our pockets, put so much in the bag. No, no, no.

It is really an avenue to spiritual growth. It is not only a reflection of spiritual reality, but it becomes an avenue to spiritual growth and spiritual prosperity. So let me again come back, especially for the sake of young believers.

Make it, if you're just making $10 a week, working part-time somewhere, a couple of hours a week after school, you begin now, put aside a certain amount for the Lord. Whatever you can afford, you put it aside. If you're just making a few dollars, give God his portion.

Show priority for him. Now, it's interesting that the giving, most of the giving in the New Testament was for the sake of poor believers. There is giving to the Lord's work as well, and the support of the Lord's work.

We would have that, especially in Paul with the Macedonian assemblies. But whatever it is, whether it is putting a gift in the mail to a missionary or to someone in the Lord's work, whether it is passing on a gift to someone, whether it is what you give on a Lord's Day, all of that is a reflection of how like God you can be. To display his character, character of giving, that's your responsibility in God's assembly, but it's also a tremendous privilege, tremendous honor to be able to give to God, to further his work, and to be a blessing to others.

Now, with that, we'll have to close and ask God's blessing upon his work.