WESTSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH
PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN
SERMON TITLE: THE GIFT OF GIVING
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18
TEXT VERSE: Matthew 10:5-8 “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: (6) But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (7) And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. (8) Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”
I want to preach to you this morning on the gift of giving. Jesus said to these twelve to preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand and to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out devils. Freely ye have received, freely give. I want to tell you that God gives us a lot more power and a lot more authority than we realize. We can’t be Jesus but we can be like him. Thank God there’s a special something given to every Christian by God that’s ever been saved by his marvelous grace. There’s one thing we all have in common if we’ve been saved and that is we’re in His Holy family. He gives all of us something in common and that gift is the gift of giving. We ought to be able to give somebody what God has given us. We think about the scripture there where Peter and John were going into the temple and an old lame man there at the temple gate was expecting alms of them but Peter said, “silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give unto thee in the name of Jesus.” If you’re not helping somebody spiritually today, then you’re not helping them at all. Where do we get this gift of giving. We’re serving a God who is a giving God. He’s also a gracious and loving God. I want to share a few scriptures about how He gave to us.
1 Corinthians 2:12 “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”
When God gives us things, it doesn’t cost us anything.
James 1:17 “ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
God is no respecter of persons.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
I’m glad we’re serving a God who is in the giving business.
Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
We’re not saved because of who we are. We’re saved by his grace through faith. The Bible says it’s a gift of God. When he gave his only begotten Son, he gave him for the life and the sins of the whole world that whosoever would come and take of the water of life freely.
Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.”
I’m glad when God gives things, he gives it for our benefit. He gives it for our profit. He gives it for our advancement. He gives it for His honor and his glory. He gives it for his purpose.
You know what some Christians problems are? They always want to be on the receiving end and not the giving end.
Ephesians 4:8 “When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”
I remember reading in Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”
I’m glad the things that God gives are not earthly things. Their heavenly things. They’ll help get you from here to glory. I’m glad God gave his only begotten Son for me. Praise God, we need to be gift givers. If you’re a child of God you need to be giving something to somebody.
1 Peter 4:10 “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
You say you don’t know what to give to somebody? Give them Jesus Christ.
Acts 20:35 “I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
If you want to be blessed by God then you learn how to be a gift giver. When you’re giving away gifts for the Lord you can not be any respecter of persons. It doesn’t matter if they are white or black. German or French. If you’ve received something from God, you ought to be able to give it to somebody else. He said freely you have received, freely give. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils.....The reason most Christians can’t cast out devils is because they are full of them their selves. You get close to God and you can have a lot of power.
2 Corinthians 9:7 “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”
He likes for us to be happy when we do it. You keep saying things like: I don’t feel like going to church Sunday and I don’t feel like going on visitation Monday...God is going to tell you that he doesn’t feel like blessing you too. The Bible says he loves a cheerful giver. You go around with an old lemon on your face...what are people going to think about you. Being a cheerful giver doesn’t mean you have to give somebody all your money. Give them the gift that God gave you. I don’t know what gift God gave you to give away but I know he gives you Salvation. Time is running out and we need to tell people about Jesus.
Luke 6:38 “Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” How are people treating you? Probably about the way you are treating them. The Bible says if you want to have friends you must show yourself friendly. Quit worrying about what everybody else around you is doing and just be like Him. Give a Spiritual gift. Give and it shall be given you.
Romans 1:11 “For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established.”
We ought to love to be around each other.
I want to share this to a couple this morning. I’ll not call their names out as they know who they are. I made a phone call this morning for the Good Samaritans to a brother in Christ who has been out of church for a while and he told me about a couple here at the church who had come by and seen him. He said it blessed him as it was the most spiritual visit he’s had in a long time. I believe they gave away a spiritual gift.
Now we’re going to go through five gifts that you can give away.
The NUMBER ONE gift you can give away is love: 1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God: and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”
If you know God and you’re born of God, you’ll be able to share God’s love. We need to love Him first. The Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. Secondly you need to love your brethren. That’s our brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s not a love you have for your spouse. It’s not a lusty love. It’s a spiritual love. A heavenly love. It’s a Christianly love. It’s love! Not only do we need to love God and our brethren but we need to love our neighbor. Those are the ones that are around us that aren’t our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not only did he say that, but he said to love our enemies. That’s hard to do sometimes. You think about all the fighting that’s going on over seas and all the posters of Bin Laden on how bad he is. I’m sure he is probably bad but he’s still in the human race and it don’t matter where he’s from or who he is...he still needs Christ as his Lord. We shouldn’t go around mocking him. We need to fall down on our knees and pray for him. We were enemies when Christ gave his life for us. We weren’t worthy of it. But he loved us regardless.
Christians don’t have the burden for lost people like they should. I know a preacher who shares the gospel with one person each day. Been doing it for years. It doesn’t matter where he’s at or who he witnesses to. He doesn’t look at the outside of a person but he knows what matters on the inside. If we could see all people that way we’d have a bigger burden for the lost.
NUMBER TWO we can give away the gift of prayer. James 5:16 says “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
When you mess up you don’t want to tell anybody about it. You’re aren’t going by the Bible. James says to confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that ye may be healed. One of the best things you can give to people is prayer. I remember praying for some people just this week and I called their names out to God and most of you are here this morning. I may not always be able to visit you but I promise you this...I pray for you every day. There is power in prayer. Everything Jesus did he prayed about. Prayer changes things. It’s also good when you can go to church and have group prayer. I was telling Freddie about when I went to a Promise Keepers meeting one year. There were 58,000 preachers in the Georgia Dome and we were asked to turn to the person on our left and hold hands and to share our prayers request with them and we had prayer. What a meeting that was. Prayer changes things.
NUMBER THREE we can give the gift of witnessing. Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
You’re supposed to live an exampled life and tell somebody about Christ. A lot of people spend all their time talking about the weather, sports, their job. How many times do you talk about Christ? It’s one thing to tote your Bible every where you go. I do. Somebody might need to hear some Scripture and I like to have it close by. But more so than doing that I want to have it in my heart. The Bible says that with the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. On our visitation this month we met here at the church and we had prayer and I said we’re not going over here to waste God’s time by talking about the weather. We need to find out three things. (1) Do they believe (2) Do they belong to a church (3) If not they need to become a member. They need to believe, belong and become. We got over there and all they wanted to talk about was their jobs and their dog and one of the men of this church was bold enough to speak out and say, “Hey, Have you ever been saved?” I praise God for that. I don’t care what kind of job they have. I want to know if they are going to heaven. We need to be bold. We need to be Holy. We need to be witnesses.
NUMBER FOUR we can give the gift of teaching. Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
It takes all three. Jesus said no man can come unto the Father but by me. It takes the trinity. It takes us to teach people what the truth is. There’s only one truth and that’s an Almighty God. It isn’t about being Baptist or Methodist. It’s about the church of Jesus Christ. To be in it you must be born again. That’s what we need to be teaching them. There’s a sister here that blesses my heart. Her name is Brandy. She came to church and got saved and joined the church and a few weeks later she had her baby and look where she is now. She’s in church. Her other children are here and they are up singing. We need to get people like that in the house of God and let God change their lives like they did hers. That’s why I’m so hard on members that don’t come to church regularly. If we don’t come, how can we expect other people to come? We need to teach them. Brandys daughter gets up and sings “You are my sunshine.” It’s not an appropriate song to sing in church but most Christians won’t even get up and sing anything. She’s willing to get up and sing and as long as she is we ought to be able to teach her some Christian songs. If Brandy keeps coming and praying, she’ll see her husband in church too,
NUMBER FIVE we need to give the gift of preaching. 2 Corinthians 4;5 “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake.”
Paul said in one place “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Paul said in Romans “How can they hear without a preacher? How can they preach except they be sent?” We need some men of God that have been called by the Lord Jesus Christ who are filled with the power of God. By the foolishness of preaching they shall be saved.
You need to be a gift giver this morning. Give the gift of Jesus.
1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” Giving away spiritual love. Freely you have received. Freely give.
LET US PRAY: Father, thank you for todays message. I pray you would help me to impart the gifts that you have given me. I pray that I might be a good steward by telling others about you and how you sent your only begotten Son to die at Calvary for our sins. I want others to receive the gift of Salvation as I have. Help me to be bold and Holy. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
