Latest / The Daily Word / April 8 – Give Yourself to God First
Transcript
- Brandon Dirmann: Well, welcome once again to another episode of the Daily Word Podcast. My name is Brandon and whoever you are, wherever you're listening from today, ⁓ thrilled to have you with us. And in case you're new to the podcast or maybe you just haven't gotten the message yet, our whole goal is that every single day we provide some encouragement to you. That number one, you leave this 10 minutes or so of time just encouraged. filled with hope that there is a God who loves you, he's for you, he's got great purposes and plans for your life, that you're able to leave this podcast with just something in your pocket to apply to your life and to ⁓ more faithfully maybe follow Jesus and do what he's asking you to do. And secondly our prayer is that this encourages you and reminds you that you have the ability every single day to spend time with God in the secret place in a meaningful way. where God will speak to you and he will help you become more of who he's called you to be and do all that he's called you to do. The format of this podcast is we simply use our Life Journal reading plans, the reading plan as a church community that we've chosen to be able to read and spend time with God together. And we take the New Testament portion and simply share scripture, observation, application, prayer. That's our method of journaling. We write down the scripture or the passage that God's speaking to us from. We write down our observation, we write down how it applies to our life and a response or a prayer. And so we're simply following that format. And maybe it's not always as clear as we're sharing, but that's kind of the heart behind it. Scripture, observation, application, prayer. So today is April the 8th. And I want to share with you today from our New Testament reading, which is 2 Corinthians chapter eight. And here is the scripture that I'm going to share. The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 5, he says, not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us by the will of God. Let me read that again. And not only as we had hoped, Paul's writing about a church who had been so generous in their giving. And he goes, man, not only as we'd hoped, they gave generously, not only as we hoped, but they gave themselves to God first, to the Lord first, and then to us by the will of God. And here's the observation that I made, and it's beyond just financial giving. You know, I think sometimes when we talk about giving, we can immediately think about money, which makes sense, by the way, because that is a part of our giving. Part of our giving is financial. We believe as a church in tithe. Tithe is the first 10 % of all that you make, all that you're blessed with. You offer that back to God as ⁓ a statement of faith that you trust Him and you believe in Him and you're honoring Him first with your finances. We believe in offering as God leads you, being generous to give and to bring offerings to Him financially that would ⁓ bless and honor and be a representation of your heart. and we believe in using resources for kingdom advancement, whether that's missions or blessing people. But we're not just talking about financial because we can give in lots of ways. We can give of our time. We can give of our energy. And one of the things that I've noticed, it's just an observation, maybe it applies to you, maybe it doesn't, but I've noticed in my own life and in the lives of other people that sometimes that you can give, and let's just stick with time for a second. Well, we'll just finance as a part of it, but let's just go with time for a minute. We can give sometimes of our time and our energy. And when we give of our time and energy, guess what we don't have anymore? That time or that energy. We signed up to volunteer, we signed up to serve, we signed up to be a part of something, and it requires our physical actual time and energy. And what can happen is when we give of that time and energy, which we no longer have, we can feel the effect of that. So let's just go this. I feel tired and I feel a little tighter with the things I gotta get done. Well, why? Because I gave time that I could have used to do other things and I gave energy that I could have used in other areas. So now I feel tired and I feel a little like I feel pressure because I got a lot of stuff to do. and I don't have the time and energy I used to have. And I think a ploy of the enemy is to cause us when we are generous with our life when it comes to the kingdom of God, building God's house, advancing God's kingdom, serving God's people, if we're not careful, the enemy can start making us feel bitter or we start resenting people or resenting things. Man, you know what, I used to love the. the kids minister, I used to love the youth minister, I used to love my church. But I'm kind of bitter towards them now because I just, like they always take my time and they take my energy and what can happen is we can, that frustration, that tension, that pressure we feel, because again, we gave something. I don't have the time and energy I would have had because I gave that. Well, I feel pressure and tension because of that, because I'm tired and I feel more tight in what I gotta get done. and rather than realizing, I gave something, I offered something, the enemy can use it and we can misplace it and start feeling frustrated. And here's what I always remind people, here's what I remind myself, by the way. The apostle Paul gives us this principle. He goes, hey, just look, I want you to notice this about this church. They first gave themselves to God. and then to us by the will of God. There's an order here. They didn't give of this financial gift to us because they felt pressure or manipulated. They didn't give because they just felt, they gave themself to God. They gave themself to God. And because they gave themself to God first, out of that posture and that position. God led them to give themselves to us. I think it's so important because anytime that I start feeling stress or pressure or the exhaustion of my serving, of my giving, I have to remind myself this is not between me and the church. This is not between me and this person. This is not between me and this ministry or this is between me and God. God, I gave myself to you. God, I gave myself to you first. And I'm only serving this person. I'm only serving this ministry. I'm only giving this financially because I've given myself to you, God. And here's how that changes the posture. When I posture my heart, my life like that, it's hard for the enemy to get me to get bitter or frustrated or resentful towards a person or a ministry or a thing because I've already settled in my heart. No one's taking this from me. No, I gave myself to God. And this is an offering of worship before him. And therefore, what I need to recoup, what I need to make up the difference of what I've given, God can supernaturally provide. Let's just go money for a second. I'm not going, ⁓ yeah, know, the church is always looking for my money. Nope. No, actually the church isn't looking for my money. Maybe there are some greedy pastors, leaders who feel pressure and they're, but, But that's a small percentage. No, the church doesn't need my money. The church belongs to Jesus. Jesus can take care of his bride. So I'm not giving of my tithe and my offering because the church needs my money. No, I'm giving because I first gave myself to God and therefore my giving, it's not between me and a pastor. My giving is not between me and an organization. My giving is between me and God. And because it's between me and God, The enemy can't put a wedge between me and you or me and a pastor or me and a leader. They can't do that because it's not between me and you. It's between me and God and my hope and my encouragement is when I feel there's a deficit. I serve a God who's supernaturally can and has promised to provide and make up that difference. Jesus says seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the things you have need of will be added. And so my application in that is in every area where I'm giving right now, I want to re-examine my heart and say, God, let me make sure that I first given myself to you. That this giving of time, energy, resource of my life, it's between me and you. And because it's between me and you, I refuse to get bitter or frustrated or feel like anyone's taking it from me. And as I live that way, my heart stays clean before everyone and everything I'm doing. My heart stays pure in worship before God and I'm guaranteed God's ability supernationally to make up the gap. So Lord Jesus help us in every area in every way that we are being generous in every way that we're giving to be mindful we've first given ourselves to you and then to the people that organize it whatever and then to that because it's you first and thank you that as we do you're faithful to provide and make up any gap that we need in Jesus name. Amen and amen. Well, once again, we're so thrilled that you took time to listen today. I hope that you were blessed and encouraged and we'll see you tomorrow on another episode of the Daily Word Podcast.