This sermon Giving is given by Pastor Maurice Hicks Sr. at Made Whole Ministries in Jacksonville, FL on 8/16/2015.
[ai_playlist id=”3070″]
This sermon Giving is given by Pastor Maurice Hicks Sr. at Made Whole Ministries in Jacksonville, FL on 8/16/2015.
[ai_playlist id=”3070″]
Giving
Pastor Maurice Hicks, Sr.
8/16/2015
The most important thing that can happen in the life of a believer is our salvation. That is the most important miracle that God can do in our lives. It happened to me. I know when it happened to me. It was a change that happened from the inside. Jesus is the reason. I don’t care what you are going through, Jesus is the answer. Whatever the question, Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the answer. He came. He died. He rose. He came back that we may have life and have it more abundantly. He told his disciples that it was expedient that He go away because if he didn’t go away then the Comforter wouldn’t come. So he told them that he must go away.
I thank God that the Comforter has come. Jesus is the reason no matter what we stand in need of this morning. Jesus is the answer. If anyone has sickness in their body, for anybody who is here or not here, I want you to just maintain an attitude of worship and praise.
-Say: Jesus, I receive you know as my healer, my sanctifier, everything that I need is in you, Lord. Father I thank you that by Your stripes I’m healed. From the top of my head to the soul of my feet. I’m healed. Every organ, every tissue in my body must come In tune and be in line with the Word. Jesus you are our healer. You are our baptizer. You are our sanctifier. Your are our baptizer in the Holy Spirit. I thank You. Whatever we need, He is. He said that he is the great I Am. Whatever we need He Am. We thank you for that, Father. We thank you for that right now. We give you the honor. We give you the glory. We give you the praise. Jesus, whatever we stand in need of, You are the answer.-
I don’t care what men can do, what women can do, what accolades they can get, the common the denominator is that you’ve got to know Jesus. You can’t join up, or sign up, or be elected in. You have to be born again into the Kingdom of God. I thank God that Jesus died that we might have eternal life and have it more abundantly. So father I thank you for what Jesus did for everyone of us. In Jesus name, Amen.
We’re going to get into the Word of God. There is a subject that we are going to be talking about today. It ‘s a subject that I really don’t want to talk about, but it’s something that I have to talk about. There was a guy who was a missionary in one of the poorest countries in the nation. In fact, he went to to a tribe that was so remote that they didn’t have anything. He had to have a translator come in and teach them English so that they could understand. A translator came in and he helped them to understand in the language. After years and years and years he didn’t have convert. Finally, he got one convert and then another convert. After years and years of intense labor, and communing with the people, and getting to know them and getting them saved one by one, he started preaching to them the whole counsel of God.
He told God that he was going to do what God called him to do. He called him to be a missionary to those people. He told got that he was going to give them the whole counsel of God. He was the one that they would stay in for this message and everything. The Holy Spirit told him that he hadn’t taught the whole counsel. He asked the Holy Spirit what that meant. He thought he taught them everything. He taught them about Jesus. He taught them that Jesus came to give them life and to save them, and that he came to seek and save that who was lost. They accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They were born into the Kingdom of God. He didn’t understand. The Holy Spirit told him that he hadn’t taught them everything. They were in poverty. There was lack. He hadn’t taught them about giving to God. The missionary felt like they didn’t have anything to give. The Holy Spirit told him that he had to teach them the whole counsel of God.
The next Sunday, he got up and he preached the message on giving with scriptural reasons for giving. At the end of the message, he made an appeal for an offering. So the people started giving what they had. Some people gave a seed that they could plant into a crop. Some people gave a spoon that they had. When he looked and saw what the people had done and have given into the offering, he literally wept. They gave what they had. Because of that, when a drought came, God blessed them because they gave out of what they had. Their crops grew in abundance. They were able to give to the other neighboring tribes food because God blessed their crops abundantly. The Word does work, but you’ve got to teach the whole counsel of God. I don’t like to talk about this, but it is something that God has put into my heart that I must teach. You who are all here are not baby Christians, and don’t really need a message on giving, but I’m going to obey God and give the message on giving today.
We are going to give a scriptural teaching on giving. I don’t know how long you have been in the body of Christ, but I have seen some things happen in the body of Christ that made me cringe because it wasn’t God’s word. There were all kinds of gimmicks and all kinds of things out there to try to provoke people to give. We are going to find out what is the scriptural basis for giving. Before we go into the message, we are going to go over some wisdom nugget ts. I want you to repeat after me.
There is a difference between obedience and honor. A lot of times you can do something because you were told to do it. Even though you did the right thing, God is not looking at it at the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. What you respect, you will attract. When you talk against prosperity and sewing into the kingdom. It won’t be attracted to you. You have to believe in it. God honors those who honors others. Real honor is how you honor those who aren’t around. When you honor others, God will cause honor to be given unto you. Also to be in authority, you must be under authority.
A lot of people want to join the Army, then after 8 weeks of basic training they want to know how they can be promoted to general. But they have to pay their dues. We all know about the Centurion Soldier. The reason he knew and understood the authority that Jesus had was because he knew all Jesus had to do was speak the word and the servant would be healed. Because he was a man under authority and he was under the control of the Centurion government. He at least had 100 soldiers under his rule. He told the soldier to come and they came. He told his soldier to do and they did.
One more nugget. Open doors for others. When we open doors for someone else, God causes doors to open for you. You may be talented and you may be gifted. I thank God for my daughter in law. She’s very talented. Very beautiful. A Godly woman. She really aid it out the park. She was rewarded last night and received accolades. She is a very gifted woman and she has a lot of talent, but you know what? She’s not only talented in her own right, but she’s giving, and shares her time and energy for other people. She’s a student. She’s always learning. She’s humble, teachable. She’s a teacher as well. She teaches kids. She always pours into their lives. Because she is a giver, God will always cause other people to give unto her. Even though she is great actor, she’s always mentoring and giving to other people.
There is scriptural reasons for giving. Sometimes I’ll be in church and I they will have a prayer line for miles. Everybody that wants to receive a healing from the Lord needs to give ten thousand dollars. What if you had a critical illness? You had a illness that would cause death Then you couldn’t receive the healing if you didn’t have the ten thousand dollars. It’s like if they don’t have the ten thousand dollars then oh well. You see a lot of things that aren’t scriptural. Even though I’m married. I thank God for my help meet. The bible says that he who obtains a wife, obtains favor with the Lord. She does me good all the days of my life.
I thank God for Cecilia. When I was retired from the military I was on the road 40 weeks a year as a minimum. I would see guys eave on Monday morning like I did and come back on Friday and stay for a weekend and they repeated the cycle for the whole year. The only time we weren’t on the road was during the holiday. They wouldn’t want anyone doing install telephone work. So they would let us stay home, but other than that we were on the road. I saw A lot of guys who had rings on their fingers who were doing things that weren’t scriptural concerning marriage about honoring their wives. Did that make me want to tear up my marriage license and let’s not be into this marriage thing and tear up my marriage license? No.
I’ve got a license to drive. I got it from the state of Florida. I seen A lot of people disobeying the law. That’s not going to make me say, well that’s okay because no one else is obeying the rules. You will see accidents no matter what you do. That doesn’t mean you don’ t stay the course. Trying to get people to give unscriptural. That’s not going to stop me from giving. I know the heart of God. I know my blessings is based on my obedience to the word of God. This is a refresher for most of us. If Bill Gates or Donald Trump was to come to the service, I would expect them to give a generous offering. I wouldn’t expect Cecilia to give a million dollars. Not to say that she won’t have a million dollars. You give out of your ability to do so. You are supposed to based off of your income.
Go to the book of Deuteronomy. We are going to be talking about scriptural reasons for giving. Amen.
How many of you have heard that you can’t give blood out of a turnip? A turnip is not a living thing that has blood so you can squeeze that turnip until there is nothing left. You are going to get whatever is in that turnip if you don’t get blood. If you are a leader in the church, every leader needs to give you a thousand dollars. The leader may not be in a position to do that.
Deuteronomy 16:17 (KJV)
17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.
We give our gifts according what we are able to give. God has blessed me to be able to give my talent. We give what we are able, not according to what we don’t have. In Deuteronomy some people gave turtle doves and whatever they could afford to give as a n offering to the Lord.
Acts 11:29 (KJV)
29 Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:
So they didn’t go to their credit card and put it there or get a loan from John the loan shark. We see sometimes believers do that. They get a credit card. You give a s you have the ability according to how God has blessed you.
2 Corinthians 8:12 (KJV)
12 For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.
Am I the only one who has seen a prayer line based on how much they were willing to give? Have you seen it before? That is not scriptural. God is not merchandising his anointing. It’s not based on your ability to pay a thousand dollars. The anointing comes from Him.
Have you ever been to church service where they do an offering service and they
Say,” I’m going to give $500 to the offering. I think you all should be able to do the same. I’m not asking you to do what I wouldn’t do.” You might not be a GS-13 making 6 figures. Here you are as a Gs-2 barely making enough to pay your bills. Remember the lady who gave her last mite to the offering. Jesus said that she gave more than the others. A lot of the other people were rich, and they gave certain percentage of what they had, but she gave more. That women has been memorialize. Every time there name is mentions. Bills gates might give a billion dollar but hes bill gates. I wouldn’t expect that from someone who can’t even spell the word billion to be able to that.
You’ve got to be ab able to have it to give it.
1. Give according to your income or ability
2. You must give without ostentation
If someone tells their church to give $500 just because someone else tells them too, and they all give $500, the church might miss a blessing. I might have purposed in my heart to give more than $500, but because they only asked for $500, I’m only going to give $500. The church would have gotten more blessed, but they didn’t let me give from my heart. Everybody that goes up to give their $500 have already received their blessing and they made big display about it.
When I go to my bible it’s in red writing and hat is how I know Jesus said it. I didn’t say it, Jesus said it. You might not like what I said, but Jesus did. Go talk to my boss if you don’t like it.
Cecilia and Kerri are teachers. The more involved you are in the learning process the more you retain it.
Who do I want to receive my rewards from. God or man. God. We don’t want to let our left hand now what our right hand is doing. We don’t want to bring attention to ourselves but on God. We don’t want A lot of fanfare
3. We must give freely
We shouldn’t give out of showmanship. But according to the goodness of our hearts. We must give in season, so God can reward us openly.
If your hand is open and I give you something and you want more. If I give you more. You can’t receive it if you close it and have a fist. God wants us to be a conduit of our blessing. This gift that we have given does not. God is not against us being blessed but He doesn’t want the blessing to have us.
Some folks can’t get the money, because now they want to buy a boat, but they are out on the river, worshiping God, but it’s out of order. The money they couldn’t have used for the offering, they need to make payments on their boat. When the offering boat comes you give God a tip. You’ve got to dance with the one that brought. Kerri doesn’t go to a dance with Maurice and dance with other men. If that happens there is going to be a problem. You’ve got to dance with the one that brought you.
Who’s the one that put that ring on your finger? You’ve got to dance with the one that brought you. Amen. If God brought you this far, why you doing to change partners now. Now that God has brought you to where you are, and you’ve got a little bling bling, now all of a sudden you don’t have time for God. God gave it to you. You’ve got to stay with God.
Luke 6:38 (KJV)
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.
is a verse I want everyone else to know as well. God is going to cause men to give unto your bosom. It ‘s going to be like a basket. It’s full of fruit. Instead of just giving, they are going to press It down, shake it, and then they will be able to put more fruit in there. Then there will be more in there that will be running over. That is how I want to receive from God. That is how I want to receive from God.
God said to always sow seeds to the sower. God also gives back to us, not just in finances, but in good health, peace of mind, and the ability to take a breath so that we can live.
Do you know what prosperity is to someone who is sick? Being well. Being made whole in the body. Prosperity isn’t all about money. Spiritually, financially, and socially. If you lack in any of those areas, you are impoverished. God wants you made whole in 5 different areas. He who has friends must show himself friendly. If I’m Oscar the grouch, do you think that people will want to be around me. We have to be loving to people who are mean, unkind, and want to mess up your day. Even to people who want to mess up your day. We have got to freely give. God will cause men to give unto our bosom when we do that. I have seen this happen. What you cause to happen to other people, God will cause to happen to you.
There is a guy by the name of Supreme. Kerri you know Supreme. He was a rapper and his stage name is Supreme. He met Junior and he said that his time might not be here, but he wanted to supp[support Junior. He saw the anointing on Junior. Every time he’s in town in the D.C. area, he will change his schedule to be a blessing to Maurice. He’s like his armor bearer. A lot of people think that he’s his body guard. He know something that A lot of men don’t know and A lot of Christians don’t know.
When you honor another man, God will cause the stuff to come to you. Supreme understand that. When we were in Las Vegas and the manager, Tareo would say, “hey Pop, I need this I need that. We were in the background and we would try to take care of it.” We were in the background and we would try to take care of it. Soon as Supreme showed up, he would say,”Pop, I got this.” He would just on and his wife Alonda caught the principal. She understood the principal. It could have been a occasion where her and Supreme could have gotten to know each other. But I saw that. He didn’t say anything but I watched what he did.
He honored me just because I was junior’s father. I guess he figured that the apple don’t fall to far from the tree. He got a harvest. God h as to give him good harvest because he planted in good soil. Make sure that you give because we know that we are going to give by the grace of God once a year. Or once a month. Everyday. Every opportunity that we have to give our time our abilities our love. We need to be willing to give.
Banks only give you 15 interest. God gives 30, 60,100 fold. That amount multiplied by 30 times. I would rather give to God. If you give to the homeless, or give in secret you will be blessed. Maurice always is so fresh and looks so nice, but they don’t know that he always secretly gives.
4. Give with simplicity.
It is freedom from pretense or guile. To give innocently. Give whatever is placed on your heart.
In Acts 10 Anais and Saphira had this land and they were going to sell it. He gave with zealously.
Would you want someone to give you a gift if you know it’s not in their heart to give. If It’s not in your heart to give, God doesn’t want that. If He can’t have your heart, I don’t want nothing at all. God does not want us to give, unless we give cheerfully with a willful heart.
Romans 12:8 (KJV)
8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.