Well, it’s time to continue our worship this morning with our giving. What a privilege and honor we have to partner with God, to sow into His kingdom, to see His will be done here on the earth, His kingdom come. That is His heart’s desire: that through us, working with us, partnering with us, His kingdom will come here on the earth. Today I want to focus on this thought from Luke 6:38: give, and it shall be given. In the King James Version: “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.”
Jesus presents giving as more than an act. Giving is a way of living. When we give, we are declaring that we are not the source of what we have. We know who our source is. God is our source. Everything in life flows from Him. Light, oxygen, all those things we need to get up and live every day and walk and be, food, all of it is sourced from the life of the Father God that is active here on earth. All your talent, your ability, your skill, everything you accomplish — God is right there in the middle of it. Giving requires us to release from our hands what God has blessed us with, while trusting that God is faithful to provide for us and bring the return back to us. Give, and it shall be given unto you.
So here’s the progression. We give, and it shall be given — it’s going to come back. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. That right there describes the Father’s heart for you. He wants everything for you to be good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came to give life, and life abundantly. That word “abundantly” in the Greek means to the full — abundant, full life till it overflows. Overflowing life is what God came to give us. This image is that of someone filling a container with grain. It is not casually filled; it is packed, compressed, and overflowing. The emphasis is not simply on getting something back. There’s a deeper principle: God is a God of increase, and He works through a generous heart to bring an abundant harvest. We touched on that the last couple of weeks — God is a giver, and He works through our generosity to bring an abundant harvest. God Himself is the ultimate giver. We see that in John 3:16: for God so loved the world, He gave. God’s giving flows from His love. It’s not that He feels obligated or pressured. He does it out of love. He wants to do it.
I talk about this a lot, but I wish you guys could see it. It blesses me all the time. When we go to see our grandkids, Conia becomes this giving machine. She just gives and gives and gives. She’s cooking for them, playing with them, giving them little tchotchkes. They are blessed by Nani. That’s God’s heart working through her. Christian generosity is motivated by the desire to bless others in partnership with God’s plan and purpose. When God moves on us to sow into someone else, into another ministry, into a program, into something going on at church, He is saying: partner with Me in this, and I will bring you a blessing.
Giving is a reciprocal process. Scripture says the kingdom of God is like seedtime and harvest. What do you do with a seed if you want a harvest? You plant it. You sow it. Luke 6:38 begins with “Give, and it shall be given.” We receive a blessing, we sow, we receive a blessing for sowing, and from that blessing, we sow again. That’s seedtime and harvest in action. I like this quote: to be a good giver, you must be a good receiver. If you only give and don’t receive — where I grew up, a lot of times it was like, oh no, no, no, you don’t have to give me anything back — here’s the reality: if you don’t receive, you hamper the order of giving. You stop the flow of reciprocity God put in place. In essence, you rob someone else of their opportunity to be blessed and to sow seed back into you. Second Corinthians 9:8 in the Amplified Classic: “And God is able to make all grace, every favor and earthly blessing, come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient, possessing enough to require no aid or support, and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation.” God’s grace enables generosity, and generosity becomes an expression of grace. God blesses us with every favor and earthly blessing — that gives us the resources to be generous — and as we give, that generosity becomes an expression of God’s grace. When you give, it shall be given unto you. Pressed down, shaken together, running over.
There are several ways you can give today. If you’re here with us in church, there’s a QR code in your bulletin you can scan, or we’ve got a basket here for cash or a check. Online, go to EmergeInternationalChurch.org, and up in the top right-hand corner there’s a Give button — our friend Kevin helped design it so you can see it. We praise You, Lord, for this opportunity. We sow into Your storehouse, Lord, into Your kingdom, and partner with You and see Your kingdom come and Your will be done here in the earth. Father, I pray over everyone who’s giving today. I pray a blessing over them. I pray a hundredfold return on every seed they sow today, Father, and we thank You for it. I thank You, Father, that as seed is being sown today, lives will be transformed for Your glory, and we praise You for it. Thank You, Father, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Father, we thank You for the privilege and honor we have to come and glorify Your name today. As we come into Your presence, Father God, we pray that You give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand all that You have for us today. Thank You for being here right in the middle of us, Father. Holy Spirit, thank You for Your presence. Jesus, thank You for Your Word and the opportunity we have to share it today, to freely study it and explore it together and learn of You, grow in You, walk with You as we go through this life. We thank You for today, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, today we continue on the series we’ve been studying, the power of His presence, based from Deuteronomy 31:8: “And the Lord, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Do not fear nor be dismayed.” We’ve looked at each one of these. He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you — He will never leave you. Nor will He forsake you. Last week we looked at do not fear. And this week we’re focusing on: nor be dismayed.
Sometimes we read these verses and it sounds like the speaker is just saying the same thing twice. Do not fear nor be dismayed — but those are two totally different words, and they mean different things. As we dig down into them, we begin to see what God was saying to the children of Israel. I’ll give you the summary right now: He was saying, don’t let fear and dismay hold you back from receiving the promise I’ve given you. And that’s what He’s saying to all of us today. Even though the enemy is defeated here on the earth — he has no right, no authority; if you’re a believer, in the name of Jesus you have all authority over the enemy — he still tries to get in there and hold us back from all that God has promised us, keeping us from being who God created us to be. So God is saying: nor be dismayed.
“Dismay” there in the Hebrew means being shattered or broken in spirit. Just totally broken in spirit, shattered. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced that in your life. I remember one time in my life that’s the way it felt. Everything was shattered. I didn’t know what was going to happen next or what I was going to do. It means being discouraged — you lose courage. It means being overwhelmed — you feel like I can’t do anything; I have no strength, no energy, no insight, no wisdom. It means being disheartened — you lose heart. And when you boil it down, that’s really what it means: don’t lose heart. When God says “nor be dismayed,” He is addressing the collapse of courage that fear and overwhelm can produce. Dismay says, I can’t handle what is happening. It causes you to look at yourself and the circumstance and conclude, this is just too much for me. Yet God is saying: don’t allow what you are facing to break your spirit.
Second Corinthians 4:16, the Amplified Classic, speaks to that: “Therefore we do not become discouraged, utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear. Though our outer man is progressively decaying and wasting away, our inner self is becoming progressively renewed day after day.” That’s a promise of God. We see two things in this verse. Number one, fear drains all hope from us over time — that’s how we become utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied. Yet, number two, our inner self is progressively renewed day after day. If we stay in God’s Word, it will bring life to us. It’ll feed us; we’ll grow. Every day you should be spending some time with God, sitting with God. Sometimes that means just sitting there going, Father, I love You. Thank You. Be grateful. Think of all the good things that happened that day. I got out of bed today. One of the things I thank God for is hot water coming out of the wall. I get to take a shower. Every time I say this I tell this story, but I still remember my grandmother who lived out in the country. Back when I was very young, she did not have an indoor toilet or bathroom yet. She had to wash in a wash tub, or stay at the sink and wash. When we were little, my brothers and I, she’d just throw us in the number two wash tub out there in the yard and hose us down, get us clean, then tell us, go in the house and don’t come back out here. But I remember when she got a bathroom, when she got a shower — man, it’s like her world changed. Things to be grateful for. Little things. I thank God for the hot water coming out of the wall. I thank God that when my bed is made, it looks so good — I do such a good job making my bed. My wife loves it too. But spend time with God. Study the Word. Meditate on the Word. Declare the Word over your life every day. When we do this, even when we’re facing hard times and challenges, it builds us up. It renews us. It refurbishes the hope and confidence within us that our God is with us, and He will never leave us or forsake us.
In Matthew 8, Jesus is healing so many people. Blind eyes open. The Roman centurion comes to Him and says, I understand authority — just speak the word; You don’t have to come to my house. So much is in this chapter. But then it comes down to the end of the day, and He says, all right, guys, let’s get in the boat. Verse 23: “Then He got into the boat and His disciples followed Him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke Him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’ And He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and waves obey Him.’” So here’s a principle: God is with you. He never leaves you or forsakes you. So do not let what you see around you destroy what God has placed within you.
One of my close friends was sharing with me last week. He had a dream, and in the dream he was out on a lake or the ocean, and all around him the waves were blowing and chopping. The water was choppy, and it was just chaos out there — except where he was, and it was perfectly calm. And he woke up from that dream with the Lord speaking to his heart: don’t look at what’s around you. I’m with you. Peace is with you. Even though there’s chaos going on all around you. And that’s really what was going on here with Jesus in the boat. The Lord is the one who goes before us. Proverbs 3:25-26 in the Amplified Classic restates this: “Be not afraid of sudden terror and panic, nor of the stormy blast or the storm and the ruin of the wicked when it comes, for you will be guiltless. For the Lord shall be your confidence, firm and strong, and shall keep your foot from being caught in a trap or some hidden danger.” See it right there? For the Lord shall be your confidence. God is our confidence. He is our strength. He is our protector. He keeps us. He is the one who goes before you, with you, follows behind you, surrounds you with all of His goodness. When God is our confidence, we overcome.
We all remember the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. The Philistines had come up against Israel, and their champion, the giant Goliath, was challenging them to a duel each day for forty days. He would come and say, I defy the armies of Israel. In verse 11, from the NIV: “On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.” All. For forty days they had done nothing. Remember this: King Saul was the tallest man in Israel. He was the great warrior. However, it seems he had forgotten who was on his side, because it says he and all the men were dismayed and terrified. They’d lost heart. They had lost hope. Dismay can produce a spiritual paralysis. I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know what to do. I can’t go forward. This is where the army of Israel stood that day: overwhelmed, not sure what to do, and not willing to trust God and go forward. Yet then comes the shepherd boy David, and his first words were, who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? Right there, we see David’s perspective was totally different than everyone else’s. He was focused on the God who was with them, not what he saw in front of them. And that’s the thing we have to focus on. When tribulation comes, remember Jesus said to His disciples: when tribulation comes, rejoice — I’ve overcome the world. God is with you. He has already overcome it. He has a way through it.
First Samuel 17:32, David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” When he said that, Saul tried to talk him out of fighting Goliath, giving him all the reasons: David, you’re just a boy, maybe seventeen years old, and you don’t have the experience Goliath has in battle. And look at his size — he towers over you. And what was David’s response? First Samuel 17:36-37: “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” Saul says, I don’t have to go out there and fight him. You go ahead. And we know the rest of the story. Did God deliver David? He did. David did not go forth in his own strength. David went forth with confidence in the power and might of the Lord his God. He said, the Lord who rescued me from the lion and bear will rescue me from this giant. Because of this, he triumphed over Goliath. He did not let dismay overpower him or cause him to lose heart.
Don’t allow what is ahead of you to cause you to abandon the journey. Fear can make you hesitate. Dismay can make you quit. But know this: your confidence flows from God’s presence, not your own strength. If you’re spending time with God every day, you’re in His presence, and you’re building yourself up and renewing yourself inside, you’re going to walk in His confidence and strength, not your own. Just like David, you can face something bigger than yourself, knowing that it is not bigger than your God who is with you.
There’s a beautiful progression here. First, the Lord goes before you. Second, He will be with you. Third, He will not leave you. Fourth, nor forsake you. Fifth, do not fear. Sixth, nor be dismayed. In other words, it’s simply this: God’s presence plus God’s faithfulness equals your courage, because it flows from Him. Come boldly before the throne of grace — Hebrews 4:16, from the NLT: “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” I’m going to go back to my grandkids. When they come and ask me or Nani for something — if they can do something, if we can go somewhere — they don’t come going, Papa, I don’t want to bother you, I don’t want to upset you, but can we? No. They just walk in and go, hey, can we go to the playground? Nani, will you order something from Amazon for me? That’s my joke for her. They come boldly. They’re not afraid. When it says come boldly to the throne of our gracious God, you’re coming before the throne of your heavenly Father, and you are His child. He’s not going to come to you in a judgey, authoritarian way: well, I don’t know, we’ll see. No. He goes, come. Trust Me. Let’s do this together.
He is the reason. God doesn’t simply command you to be courageous without giving you a reason. He Himself is the reason you can be courageous and go without fear. Matthew 28:20 in the NIV: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” This is what Jesus was declaring to the disciples and all who would believe in Him and receive Him as their Savior: to the very end, I will be with you. The seasons and times and ages here on earth end. But we have everlasting life with Him. There is no end, and He will never, never, never leave us. He will always be with us.
“Nor be dismayed” is ultimately a call to remain inwardly strong and steady. It doesn’t matter what is coming, because He is with you. The external circumstances may be changing. You can be surrounded by uncertainty without becoming uncertain about God, because we know God already knows and has the way. You can be surrounded by opposition without becoming defeated in your spirit. So “nor be dismayed” carries this profound message: don’t let what you are facing break your confidence in the One who is with you. Don’t give up on God, even a little bit. Trust Him with everything. Brother Kevin has mentioned this a couple times when he’s been here: he and I, a few years ago, together studied Proverbs 3:5-6 — don’t lean on your own understanding and your own confidence. Trust in the Lord. Recognize, know, and acknowledge Him in every dimension of your life, and He will make straight and plain your paths.
Second Corinthians 4:8: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair.” Troubled but not distressed means this: the pressure is real; however, it does not have the final word. I may be troubled on the outside, but I don’t have to become distressed on the inside, because God is with me, and He gives me peace that passes understanding. We may be perplexed — I don’t understand — but not despairing: I’m not giving up on hope. I still have hope. I may not see the way, but I know and trust the One who knows the way. He is the way. You may encounter circumstances that are overwhelming, but those circumstances do not have the authority to determine your ultimate hope. And here’s why: God remains present. He is always with you. He’s with you right now today. He’s with us right here in this room. Don’t allow what you are facing to break your spirit, destroy your courage, or convince you that you cannot move forward. Because the God who called you is going before you and will remain with you. Don’t surrender your heart to what you see, because your circumstances do not have the final word. The final word is God. Deuteronomy 31:8 in the Amplified: “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will march with you. He will not fail you or let you go or forsake you. Let there be no cowardice or flinching, but fear not, neither become broken in spirit, depressed, dismayed, and unnerved with alarm.” For as Jesus said in Matthew 28:20: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
God is with us, and He wants us to know nothing is too big for Him. That’s why Jesus said, with God all things are possible. And to him who believes, all things are possible. God has an answer for you. God has a way for you. No matter what you’re facing, God has already made a way for you. Amen.
Let’s bow our heads in prayer today. Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You that forever and always You are with us. You never leave us. You never forsake us. You never let us go, Father. You are right here with us, surrounding us, covering us, crowning us with Your goodness and Your mercy and Your love. Father, I thank You for showing us the way. I thank You right now for everyone who’s listening, that they have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand the way that You have for them. As they go and seek You, they know You will show them the way. You will bring the answer. Now, Father, I pray over all who are on our live stream. I pray peace over them and blessing over them. I pray perfect health over them in the name of Jesus. Be healed. Be strong. Be healthy and whole, in Jesus’ name. Father, I pray for them to go out with a grateful heart and just bless everyone they come into contact with this week. And Father, we lift up Brother Kevin as he’s on the Gaither tour. I know he will be sharing and speaking one day. Father, I thank You for anointing him to speak into and pour into the lives of all those You have ordained for him to touch this week. Thank You for protecting him and keeping him safe. We pray they have a blessed cruise, and people’s lives are encouraged, changed, and transformed, in Jesus’ name. And we thank You for it all in Jesus’ name. Amen. Pastor Conia is coming with a closing word and thought. See you next week.
Well, as we get started here every week, and we’re brand new, there’s plenty of opportunities for dismay. There’s plenty of technical challenges, and there’s plenty of fun. But you’ve got to have your morning quiet time every morning. When you have your quiet time and you’re focused on God, there’s a difference there. And the dismay comes when you take your eyes off of who and what is important. And David didn’t do that. He didn’t have his eyes on the uncircumcised Philistine. He had his eyes on God. And what God can do through us is far greater than anything we can do on our own. And the dismay comes when we’re trying to do it on our own. Father, thank You for this time together. Thank You, Lord, that there is no need for dismay. We shouldn’t be dismayed, because there’s no cause for it. Thank You, Lord, that You eliminate all cause for dismay. We love You, Lord. We praise You. We thank You. In Jesus’ name, amen. We’ll see y’all next week.
