#168 - "When You... Give"

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Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening. The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports. Well, welcome to the One Cry Podcast. I'm Bill Eliff, and this is my partner in crime, Kyle Reno. What's up? And Kyle, it's good to see you, man. I tell you, always great to spend time with you and with all of our listeners. You know, I'm always stunned that anybody listened to anything I haven't said about anything. Ditto.

We're so grateful that you tune in. And I know it's your passion for revival and spiritual awakening. And that's what this One Cry podcast is about, is helping to stimulate you so you can be an agent for revival and helping you know how to pray and fast. And Kyle, we're going to do a little four-part series here these next four weeks that is really exciting in that regard. Tell us about it. Yeah. Well, man, very famous chapter, really, of Scripture, Matthew 6. You have these when you statements.

I'm a clarity guy. I really like distinct, definitive, do this, right? And so Jesus really gives us inside of this very famous chapter a few when you. When you do this, there's some things that happen. And even the manner and the spirit around you do it. So So for an overview, we're going to have when you give, when you pray, a couple of different podcasts on that, and when you fast and really get behind the heart of it.

But I think if you miss the context of the whole conversation, you miss some promises that are really laid in there. And so if you get to the whole of Matthew 6, you see that he says at the very end of the chapter to us, don't lay up your treasures in heaven where moth and rust destroy. meaning like live for something that will matter a million years from now, Bill. You know, like he's charging us, live for something that will way outlive your life.

And then at the very last section, he says, therefore—, I tell you, don't be anxious about your life. And then all the parts that come with that, just the promises of God's provision, care. He takes care of the sparrows. He'll take care of you. But here's the thought, Bill. I believe we break and parcel up passages of Scripture, but this is all one comprehensive truth that the Lord is telling us in this moment.

If you want to live a life that matters a million years from now, if you want to live a life that's free from anxiety, fear and control of your life, then I'm going to encourage you with these three when you statements. Wow. You know, it's fascinating, too. Of course, isn't it in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, which really is the great kingdom manifesto? You know, one of the first things that Jesus communicated was, OK, this is I'm bringing in a new kingdom.

Right. And so here's what the king. Here's how you enter the kingdom. Here's what you do in the kingdom. Here's how my kingdom operates. And, you know, he even comes at the end and says, seek first the kingdom. Right. You know, go go after these things. And it's fascinating to me of all the things that he could talk about that in this little past part of it. And we have in Matthew six, he pulls out these three.

And so they're very important. What we're going to talk about these next four weeks are very important disciplines, ways of kingdom living and really of a revived life. If you want to walk in revival and spiritual awakening personally, this needs to be right at the center of it. So, Kyle, I know... So we're going to start with just in the progression that we find in the Scripture. And Jesus said, when you give, when you give. Talk to us about that. What is he going after right there?

Right. So don't jump off the podcast because it's a giving message. You know, like, right off. And it's so interesting that Jesus starts here. You know, and I would say, man, to echo what you just said, Bill. These are key ingredients to a coming move of God. Like, if you want personal revival, the Lord always touches these right responses to desire for him. And in this moment, he starts with giving.

And I'll just read the passage. It says, Be aware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Lays down this overarching statement, like, Like, don't do these things I'm about to command you to do so that you look spiritual. And then he's going to give us all three of these things, which is a huge heartbeat.

My spirituality is not about being seen by others or being recognized as the giver, the prayer, the faster, you know, but I'm doing this in light of my desire for God. Verse two says, thus, when you give, so he starts there, when you, not if you, that the The right response of someone that has received the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was given, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

For those of us that have received what God gave in salvation through Christ, the right response is to be a giver. And so he says right here, when you give to the needy. Sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, in the streets, that they may be praised by others. He said, listen, get the right spirit around your generosity. Is that you're not giving, meeting a need, so others will praise your generosity. Or look and say, man, look how much that guy cares.

Years that our giving is in light of the which we've received and now we're releasing he says but when you give to the needy it goes back excuse me it says truly i said to you they have received their reward but when you give to the needy don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing i love that so that your giving may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you. So just talk for a second here, that there is something that Jesus knows.

You know the passage of scripture where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. What has you is displayed in our willingness to release. And so here's a statement and a thought. If we want to be a revived people, and if we want to be a part of revival, you won't find a revival, specifically in the Old Testament, these great manifest moves of God, where God won't restore right-giving practices.

Every revival has this movement of God in the hearts of people and their willingness to, not for the sake of being seen, but in sake sacred right response, to open their hands with what they have, realizing that I received into one hand, I'm releasing through another hand. It's that God is wanting to free us from ourselves. I'll give you another passage of scripture to sort of illustrate this.

It says in 2 Chronicles 31 verses 4 through 9, and I would just encourage you not to get into the banter or the argument around tithing, firstfruits giving, which I believe is a principle of the kingdom that predates the law. That's still true today. Not that I'm trying to tell you that that's the way you should believe, but that's the way I believe about it. But you see, regardless, when someone finds, when some person or group of people.

Find themselves off-center in their relationship with God, often what you'll recognize is they've lost this generosity of spirit. But when God moves upon them, one of the things that's restored first is their willingness to be generous, to give. You see it right here, 2 Chronicles 31 verses 4-9, and he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and Levites that they might give themselves to the law of the Lord.

As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and all the produce of the field. They brought it in abundantly, the tithe of everything. And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep and tithe of dedicated things that had been dedicated to the Lord their God and laid them in heaps.

In the third month, they began to pile up the heaps and finish them in seven months. Then Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps. They blessed the Lord and his people, Israel. So, Bill, I want us just to think about this a second, and just talk about the need for revival in our giving practices, that when God's people give him what's first, then I believe something's broke, honestly.

That when we come and are generous with what God's entrusted to us, with what's first, then whatever's left is His to disperse in any way He desires. When a need is there to meet the need.

And that one of the greatest signs, I believe, would be in the move of God in your life or in your church or in our country, is that God would so rend us of selfishness and our desire to hold on to that we would be willing vessels that the resources of God would come flowing through us to others, not to be known, but that God might be glorified. So I would ask today of our listeners and local churches and leaders, one, I think we're afraid of this topic way too much because it gets too personal.

And honestly, why Jesus wasn't afraid of this topic is because it was actually measurable. It was a great indicator. It was like the dashboard to show where's your true heart, what has your focus in life. One of the things that would be an easy indicator of where you are with the Lord today is ask this question, well, when I give, how do I give? What does that look like? What's the spirit behind that? How is that used in the advancement of the kingdom? How is it helping people?

How is it advancing God's purposes through his church? So, Bill, just to banner a little bit back and forth here, man, what's your heart? And how have you seen this play out in the hearts of people in local churches? Yeah, you know, Kyle, I can't help but think both of us have had the privilege of being in environments where the Lord has really manifested himself for revival. We'd say revival had come.

And one of the most profound for me was in 2011 here at the summit where our pastor was pastoring, and the Lord just showed up in a Sunday morning service. I've told that story before. And we came back the next night and the next. Totally unplanned. and it lasted five weeks every night except Saturday night.

Well, one of the immediate things that happened when the Lord just manifested himself, there's no other way to explain that, and the services went three and four hours just completely unscripted. Was spontaneous giving, just unbelievable giving. And I remember the first night that a guy came down and he was so moved. And he was a young guy and his wife. They lived in this nice part of town and they said, God just moved our hearts.

And we want to go live in this poor part of town and help couples that are there and get us a little house. And people, I just, I put a basket on the pulpit area and people just started coming down and just emptying their pockets and just giving, giving, giving. By the end, I think there was $11,000 in there. And by the way, about a week later, a woman came, said, I heard you all were looking for a house. Said, I've got this little house.

You know, I have to be fixed up, but I could sell it to you for maybe, I don't know, $11,000. I mean, to the penny. Well, that happened over and over and over again. Cars were given, money was given, needs were met. You know, it was just, it was just insane. And my experience with. Of revived hearts is what happens is your heart starts beating in unison with the heart of God. Right. And he tears down one of the primary idols of our heart, and that is materialism. That's right.

That we've been substituting for the presence of God. So you can hardly track any revival in history where there hasn't been a falling down of this idol of materialism and a rise of this absolutely gracious and unbounded generosity. And, you know, like this passage says, it says, beware of practicing your righteousness before men. Don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. I think the other thing that's key in that is it's not so I can be seen.

I'm not giving for my sake. I'm giving out of love for God because I just love God and love people. Yeah. You know, the beauty, Bill, I think Think about, like, that's the intimacy of relationship with God. Like what God says, hey, don't do it so you can have those conversations where people go, look how awesome you are. Do it so in the secret place, me and you can talk about it.

The Lord's saying, let's walk so close in fellowship that I can prompt your heart to meet that need, and that'll be a little secret between me and you. And God's a giver. Yeah, right. Just God so loved the world that he gave. I mean, he just, he is a giver. And so when you start walking with him, which is what Jesus is describing in this whole Sermon on the Mount, what his new kingdom is like, that we're not going to be like the world.

We're going to give, and we're going to give from the right motivation. And, you know, I think, Kyle, Hal, what do you think this says to... The average person who's just listening today, what's the takeaway from this for their life? Yeah, I think the Lord is moving in the hearts of people all over our world, obviously, in our nation. But even right now, listening to this podcast, and I think there's a genuine desire for revival and renewal and for God to move mightily in his kingdom.

What I love about Jesus, though, is he doesn't play compartments. He's after the complete person. And so I think in this moment, like there's for the average guy, God's warming his heart, a lady that's wanting to go all in with the Lord. Now God's coming and saying, let's talk about your resources. Because we can't get to a point, and this is just true in every revival, in life of person people, that if you want to be a revived people, You want to see the life of God moving through you.

It's going to, not maybe, it is going to have an aspect of repentance and release in our resources. It just is. God's not going to let us have that, but everything else is His. I think it's the right place is to come, is to just fresh surrender. And part of it, and this is, Bill, I know where you are in this, I think that's why God's hardwired firstfruits giving is something that you break the back of that, that if first things belong to God.

And so if I cross that line of faith with first things, then everything else, I'm listening for what the Spirit of God might prompt in that. So I think the right question is as the Spirit of God is speaking to an individual, maybe you're a pastor of a church, and let's be honest, Bill and I, man, we led through this together and talked through it, that you got to be bold and go like, I love my people enough to talk about this, you know, and to help them find freedom in this area of their life.

What's what's the next right step of obedience for you that's right in in this aspect of your life it very well might be repentance most times it's going like hey Lord I'm holding on to this hoping you don't ask me anything you know so well and you know Kyle you look at both sides of this when revival comes personally or corporately, God's going to get you to generosity.

He's going to take you there because that's his heart. But this other side of the equation is it may be that removing the idol of materialism and the stinginess of, well, that's mine. I got to hold on to that. I got to take care of myself. And just becoming generous is what brings revival. Yes, exactly right. So let's pray together for that. And for our listeners, we always on this podcast, we're not here for you to listen to us pray. We just want to lead you in prayer.

And so in just a minute, Kyle, why don't you pray and then I'll close that. But I want us to just go into the Lord's presence right now in prayer for just a moment. And I wonder just quietly where you are. You may be going down the road or in your home. Would you ask the Lord this question? Lord, what are you trying to say to me today about this? What are you trying to say to me about this?

And just listen. And then would you be bold enough and would you trust him enough to ask him this question? Lord, what adjustment are you asking for in my life so that your life can be seen more clearly through me? What adjustment are you asking for in my life so that you can be seen more clearly through me? Just ask him that and then let's just listen for a minute and then Kyle, lead us. So Lord, we do. We come into the secret place that you, Jesus, purchased for us.

So that we might commune with you i hear from you be taught by you and we do i ask you to help us make the right adjustments lord i ask holy spirit would you even help us right now to just open our hands and say what do we have that we've not received so we do not boast or hold on to or try to control instead lord we like the sparrows or we realize man and everything we got we were were given.

And so anything that you want to come through our lives to help others and advance your kingdom, we say yes. We say yes. And so, Lord, I pray that today that that would become measurable and that we would be a very generous people. And Lord, not to be seen by people, but that the watching world would see the heart of God. So, Lord, I pray that you would win this war in our hearts as a part of your coming movement.

So, Lord, we love you. We trust you. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, thanks, Kyle, for that. And thank you, listeners, for tuning in today. And we're just getting started on this brief little four-part series.

Next week, in fact, two weeks in a row, we're going to be talking about when you pray. Jesus says when you pray. And he's very deliberate about what he says after that. That is critical. In fact, this is, I think, the greatest passage that we have in the scripture, a comprehensive passage on prayer that we have anywhere in the scripture. So tune in, okay, and invite others to join us too. Go by our website, onecry.com. There's just a plethora. How do you like that word, Kyle?

A whole bunch, means a whole bunch, a whole bunch of stuff on our onecry.com website that will help you. Music.