God shovels it in, and I shovel it backbut God has a bigger shovel.

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God shovels it in, and I shovel it backbut God
has a bigger shovel.
R. G. Letourneau
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• The Physics of Keeping v. Giving
• Mass, Gravity, Orbit
• Needed A Shift in the center of gravity a
  Copernican Revolution of Giving

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• Question
• Are we headed away from our treasures or toward
  them?

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Once you grasp true grace giving, tithing becomes
a moot point.
1. Tithing isnt the end-all of giving.
2. Tithing isnt giving.
3. Tithing is ceasing to rob God.
4. Tithing is givings training wheels.
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Giving less than a tithe?

• We live in historys wealthiest society
• We know the grace of Jesus
• We have the indwelling Spirit
• But we cant give as much as God required of the
  poorest Israelite, who didnt know Christ or have
  the Spirit?

Does grace lower the bar of set by the law? Or
does it raise it?
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• The church should be
• A grace-saturated culture of joyful
  contagious giving that begs for the privilege of
  giving. Where we never talk each other out of
  giving because thats unwise. Where we follow
  the example of the poor widow, not the rich fool.
  Where we model for our children and grandchildren
  the grace and joy of Jesus.

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• Ask yourself
• If I were the person God wants me to be, what
  would I do with Gods money?
• Do it nowthen watch God make you into the
  person He wants you to be.

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• Strategic question
• Five minutes after we die, what will we wish we
  would have given?
• Strategic plan
• Spend the rest of our lives closing the gap
  between what well wish we would have given and
  what we are giving.

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• Stephen King
• We come in naked and broke. We may be dressed
  when we go out, but were just as broke. Warren
  Buffet? Going to go out broke. Bill Gates? Going
  out broke. Tom Hanks? Going out broke. Steve
  King? Broke. Not a crying dime.
• All the money you earn, all the stocks you buy,
  the mutual funds

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• you tradeall that is smoke and mirrors. Its
  still going to be a quarter-past getting late
  whether you tell the time on a Timex or a Rolex.
• So I want you to consider making your life one
  long gift to others. And why not? All you have is
  on loan, anyway. All that lasts is what you pass
  on.

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• We have the power to help this needy world. Why
  should we refuse? Because were going to take it
  with us? Please.
• A life of giving repays. .So I ask you to
  begin giving, and to continue giving. I think
  youll find in the end that you got far more than
  you ever had, and did more good than you ever
  dreamed.
• Stephen King

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• Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Stephen King, etc.
• People without Christ can discover the truth
  of His principles and enjoy the short-term
  happiness of givingwhile many of Gods own
  people are enslaved to stinginess and debt,
  robbing God and living joyless fruitless lives.

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6 So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made
a beginning, to bring also to completion this act
of grace on your part. 7 But just as you excel in
everything in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in
complete earnestness and in your love for ussee
that you also excel in this grace of giving.
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7 But just as you excel in everything work,
sports, hobbies, parenting see that you also
excel in this grace of giving.

You can excel in givingdo it bigger and better
than in the past. You can give

• More

• More often

• More strategically

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• What have you been doing to excel in your
  giving? What steps have you been taking to raise
  the bar?
• Have you been providing a model of generous
  giving by what you do with your time and money?
  How are you helping your kingdom teammates excel
  at giving? Do you have giving accountability?

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Grace of giving gift of giving
Rom. 12 gifts of prophecy, serving, teaching,
encouragement, giving, leadership, mercy.
Gift of teaching get better as you use it
people know what it looks like.
Gift of giving get better as you use it people
dont know what it looks like.
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• We know the churchs prayer warriors.
• Where are the giving warriors?

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• What gifts would you expect God to grant widely
  during a time of unprecedented physical and
  spiritual needs?

• In such a time, what resources would you expect
  God to entrust to His people with the gift of
  giving?

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• Eternal Rewards in relation to the use of our
  money and possessions

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• Questions
• What questions or concerns do you have about the
  doctrine of eternal rewards?
• Why do you think this doctrine has been so
  neglected or misunderstood?

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• I value all things only by the price they shall
  gain in eternity.
• John Wesley
• I place no value on anything I possess, except
  in relation to the kingdom of God.
• David Livingston

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• He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to
  gain what he cannot lose.
• Jim Elliot

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• I have held many things in my hands and I have
  lost them all. But whatever I have placed in
  Gods hands, that I still possess.
• Martin Luther

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• And without faith it is impossible to please
  God, because anyone who comes to him must believe
  that 1) he exists and that 2) he rewards those
  who earnestly seek him.
• Hebrews 116

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• Do you not know that in a race all the runners
  run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a
  way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in
  the games goes into strict training. They do it
  to get a crown that will not last but we do it
  to get a crown that will last forever.

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• Therefore I do not run like a man running
  aimlessly I do not fight like a man beating the
  air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so
  that after I have preached to others, I myself
  will not be disqualified for the prize.
• 1 Corinthians 924-27

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• For I am already being poured out like a drink
  offering, and the time has come for my departure.
  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
  race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in
  store for me the crown of righteousness, which
  the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me
  on that dayand not only to me, but also to all
  who have longed for his appearing.
• 2 Timothy 46-8

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• Hebrews 1113-16
• All these people were still living by faith
  when they died. They did not receive the things
  promised they only saw them and welcomed them
  from a distance. And they admitted that they were
  aliens and strangers on earth. People who say
  such things show that

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• they are looking for a country of their own.If
  they had been thinking of the country they had
  left, they would have had opportunity to return.
  Instead, they were longing for a better countrya
  heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be
  called their God, for he has prepared a city for
  them.
• Hebrews 1113-16

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• I consider that our present sufferings are not
  worth comparing with the glory that will be
  revealed in us.
• Romans 818

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• For our light and momentary troubles are
  achieving for us an eternal glory that far
  outweighs them all.
• 2 Corinthians 417

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• Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am
  looking for what may be credited to your account.
• Philippians 417

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The Stewards Eternal Destiny
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• No man has power over the wind to contain it so
  no one has power over the day of his death.
• Ecclesiastes 88
• It ought to be the business of every day to
  prepare for our last day.
• Matthew Henry

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• Since everything will be destroyed in this way,
  what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to
  live holy and godly lives as you look forward to
  the day of God and speed its coming. That day
  will bring about the destruction of the heavens
  by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
  So we are looking forward to a new heavens and a
  new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
• 2 Peter 311-13

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• Show me, O Lord, my lifes end and the number of
  my days let me know how fleeting is my life. You
  have made my days a mere handbreadth the span of
  my years is as nothing before you. Each mans
  life is but a breath. Man is a mere phantom as he
  goes to and fro He bustles about, but only in
  vain he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will
  get it. But now, Lord, what do I look for? My
  hope is in you.
• Psalm 394-7

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• Man is destined to die once, and after that to
  face judgment.
• Hebrews 927
• Christ will come again to judge the living and
  the dead.
• Apostles Creed (AD 250)Nicene Creed (AD 325)
  Athanasian Creed (AD 400)

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• For he has set a day when he will judge the
  world with justice by the man he has appointed.
  He has given proof of this to all men by raising
  him from the dead.
• Acts 1731

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• Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If
  the miracles that were performed in you had been
  performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have
  repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I
  tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and
  Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And
  you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the
  skies?

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• No, you will go down to the depths. If the
  miracles that were performed in you had been
  performed in Sodom, it would have remained to
  this day. But I tell you that it will be more
  bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than
  for you.
• Matthew 1120-24

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The Believers Experience in Heaven

• When he lies he speaks his native language, for
  he is a liar and the father of lies.
• John 844

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• The satanic beast opened his mouth to
  blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his
  dwelling place and those who live in heaven.
• Romans 137

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• There are many rooms in my Fathers home, and I
  am going to prepare a place for you.When
  everything is ready, I will come and get you, so
  that you will always be with me where I am.
• John 142-3, NLT

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• I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends
  for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will
  be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
• Luke 169

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• No longer will there be any curse. The throne of
  God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his
  servants will serve him.
• Revelation 223

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• Set your sights on the realities of heaven,
  where Christ sits at Gods right hand.Let heaven
  fill your thoughts.
• Colossians 31-2, NLT

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The Believers Judgment in Heaven

• Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming
  when all who are in their graves will hear his
  voice and come outthose who have done good will
  rise to live, and those who have done evil will
  rise to be condemned.
• John 528-29

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• Revelation 20
• Then I saw a great white throne and him who
  was seated on it. And I saw the dead, great and
  small, standing before the throne, and books were
  opened. Another book was opened, which is the
  book of life. The dead were judged according to
  what they had done as recorded in the books The
  sea gave up the dead

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• that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the
  dead that were in them, and each person was
  judged according to what he had done. Then death
  and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The
  lake of fire is the second death. If anyones
  name was not found written in the book of life,
  he was thrown into the lake of fire.
• Revelation 2011-15