Funding the Ministry of Reconciliation

CCI Fellowship is focused on reaching God, each other, and the community. The message tonight is about funding the ministry of reconciliation. The theme for this period of missions is that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. The goal is to spread the word and expand the kingdom. We can be a part of this ministry by proclaiming it ourselves and helping others spread the word through our giving. We are encouraged to be generous and give with a cheerful heart. The Corinthians were admonished for their delay in giving, while the churches in Macedonia were eager to give. We should abound in the grace of giving. God loves a cheerful giver. Welcome to CCI Fellowships podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. Open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. There we go. The title of the message tonight is Funding the Ministry of Reconciliation. I was trying to figure out how we could bring to conclusion what we've been talking about in fellowship group. We've been spending the last ten weeks talking about giving, tithing, talking about stewardship, and bringing that into today, which is missions giving. The theme for this period of missions is that God has given unto us the ministry of reconciliation. Those are the verses that we'll read out of 2 Corinthians 5. How can we combine the two to bring it all into a nice, tied up bow? In 2 Corinthians 5, verses 18 and 19, it says, Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Let's pray. Father, we bless you and we thank you. We thank you, Lord God, for this week. This week that has been full of giving. This week that around the world, in the CCI churches, Lord God, in every church in the network, Father, people have been giving to fund this ministry of reconciliation. To fund the expansion of your kingdom. To fund the spread of your word, Lord God. We thank you, Father, that you are able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think. And that you will take all of these gifts that are given, all of this seed that is sowing, sow and use it, Lord God, in a way that is amazing. In a way that we can't even fathom. That you would multiply it, Lord God, both to those that receive it and to those who give it. Now, Lord God, as we open your word, speak to us by your spirit. Give us hearts that are ready to receive. Give us eyes that are able to see and ears that are ready to hear. In Jesus' name, amen. This is the mission. The ministry of reconciliation. Now, for those who are in missions, you have no doubt heard many a message out of this passage of Scripture that says that we are Christ's ambassadors. And we are very familiar with this passage. It also says here that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, all things are become new. This is the ministry that we have been given. The ministry of reconciliation is the restoration of favor with God through Christ exchanging our guilt with His righteousness. He has exchanged our guilt with His righteousness. In fact, usually every day at some point, usually the end of the day when we're praying before we go to sleep, I always pray, Lord, help us to honor and glorify you in what we say and do and forgive us for when we don't. Because there are times that we don't. But that reconciliation, that word of reconciliation comes back and says, Oh, but I do forgive you. That's what Christ did. I've already forgiven you. I've already made it available. I've already provided it to you. And He has given then to us this message, this word, this task. He has commissioned us in what we have already received from Him, this righteousness that He has already given us. We have received from Him the expectation and the commission of, OK, you have received it. Now you go and give it. In verse 20 and 21, it says, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Now verse 21 is a sermon in and of itself. Tremendous truth there. Scripture says that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. But He has given us, not just given us His righteousness, He has made us His righteousness. That we might become the righteousness of God. A state of existence. Reconciliation also means to change from being enemies to being friends. Scripture tells us that we were at once enemies of God, in enmity with Him. But now we are His friends, now we are the righteousness of God in Christ. When we think of funding this ministry of reconciliation, as one minister put it, the gospel is as free as water, but it takes a whole lot of money to pump it into people. The gospel is free, but it takes money to get it to people. It takes money to have these lights on. It took you money to get here. It just, money is necessary. Do remember that Scripture says the love of money is the root of all evil, not that money is the root of all evil. In fact, in Ecclesiastes it says that money answereth all things. Interesting verses in Scripture regarding money. This mission, this ministry of reconciliation, what this church is doing about it is that for more than 20 years, or for around 20 years, Ecclesiastes has been dedicated to the expansion of this ministry with over 700 churches and missionary endeavors reaching more than 40 countries. You'll see in the video at the end that they are in 46 countries. The goal that was presented before the congregation a couple years ago is that by the year 2030, CCI would have presence in 50 nations around the world. There's only four more to go and six more years to do it in. I think we can reach it. I think we can reach it. And there's two ways to be a part of this ministry of reconciliation. One is to proclaim it yourself. You have the responsibility, the calling, the commissioning by Christ that this word of reconciliation be on your mouth and spoken to other people. But also we have the responsibility, we have the call that we can help others to spread the word through our giving. The interesting thing that I think about this week in that all of the churches in the missionary network are giving this week is that even the churches that are receiving during this next six month period, the churches and outreaches that have been chosen to receive funds from the offerings that are taken this week, they're giving offerings as well. So it brings in a very beautiful example of giving and receiving. They're not just sitting there waiting. They're not just sitting there saying, Oh, woe is me, we can't do anything. How are we going to fund the work of the kingdom unless somebody else gives it to us? They're sowing into the ground as well. And it is from that seed that God produces a harvest for them. So we spread the word ourselves or and we fund others to spread the word. So what are we to do? Let's go to chapter eight. One, be generous. Be generous. In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, these two chapters, when it comes to giving, when it comes to sowing and reaping, when it comes to having the right heart behind it, these two chapters are key. If you haven't read them in a long time, I encourage you to read through them this week to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you and teach you. But these two chapters, Paul is basically admonishing the Corinthians because they had the idea of giving an offering to the believers in Jerusalem. It had been publicized and other churches that Paul had gone to were incredibly excited to be part of this offering to the believers in Jerusalem because from the believers in Jerusalem came the gospel in the first place. From them came this message of reconciliation. From them, they received the opportunity to be reconciled to God. And so they were excited to give back. And in the first part of chapter eight, Paul says, the churches in Macedonia were eager to give. And he gives us the idea that the church in Macedonia was a church that wasn't affluent at all. It's not that they had all this extra money laying around. It's that they gave themselves to God, it says, and then to the apostles to be available to give to the believers in Jerusalem. And the Corinthian church was delayed, we'll put it, in their giving. They came up with this idea. They were all excited about it in the first place, but then they were one of the last ones to give. So much so that Paul put it in a letter. It made it into the canon of Scripture for them to give and complete what they said that they were going to do. In verse seven, it says, But as you abound in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us, see that you abound in this grace also. There is a grace of giving. There are people who abound in giving, that God is able to entrust them with an incredible amount of money because of how generous they are. They steward it well, as we learned in fellowship groups, that those that steward well are entrusted with more to manage. And then there are those who each has their level of ability. Each has their level of ability. But Paul tells us that we are to abound in the grace of giving. Not only to abound in faith, not only to abound in speech, in evangelism, not only to abound in knowledge, in the study of the Word and everything else, and not only to abound in all diligence and love, but also that we abound in the grace of giving. Chapter 9, verse 7 says, So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. Not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. Did you know you could get into bondage over giving? And honestly, that's where the prosperity gospel leads people. But as I've said for many years, the truth taught badly doesn't negate truth. Just because somebody has taught it badly, lived it badly, or has deceived many, doesn't mean that there isn't truth. They have taken the truth and distorted it and have used it for their own benefit. We don't give begrudgingly. We don't give like, I guess I have to give. It's Mission Sunday. I guess I've got to give something. It's Mission Sunday. I don't want to look like the only person in service that didn't give anything. Let me see what I've got in my purse. I guess I've got to give something. Where you feel guilted into giving. That's not abounding in the grace of giving. That's falling under condemnation and bondage. And it says not out of necessity. Now we can take that a couple ways. One, sometimes we give because we feel like if we don't give, then who else is going to give? Or like, it's our, we're helping God out by giving. God has everything. He owns everything. And that's why the verse that says, I own the cattle on a thousand hills. He says, if I needed something to eat, I wouldn't tell you. If I was lacking in something, I wouldn't make it known to you. Not because God isn't going to ask for help. It's that God doesn't need our help. He doesn't need our money. He needs our hearts. That's what he needs and that's what he wants. Be generous, but be generous out of a willing heart. Be generous out of a cheerful heart. To sum up these past ten weeks, it could be summed up in this way. One, it's all about the heart. Giving, tithing, it's all about the heart. Two, the tithe is holy and it belongs to God. Three, he's the owner of everything. Four, those who give generously receive back more than what is sown in order that they may continue to be generous. To be generous, you must be blessed. But to be blessed, you must be generous. You can't live a generous life without living a blessed life. And you'll not live a blessed life outside of living a generous life. The two go hand in hand. They cannot be separated. I want you to know, as your pastor, just to make clear, sometimes we talk about speaking the same language in our leadership meetings so that when we say something, it's clear what we mean by it. We don't have to go back and set the foundation over and over again and take the time to do that. And I want you to know as the congregation that whenever we talk about tithing, whenever we talk about giving, whenever we talk about anything financial, anything having to do with money, I detest the prosperity gospel. Don't get it in your head that anything that comes from this pulpit or in fellowship groups has any reference whatsoever or resemblance to the prosperity gospel. It is a teaching that comes from hell, that uses Scripture to manipulate people, to bring them into slavery, and to benefit the person who is teaching it. I don't like the prosperity gospel. At the same time, it grieves me when believers ignore Scripture because somebody else has taught it badly. And we give up the things that God wants to provide for us. We give up the things that God has made available to us simply because somebody else has taught it badly. Both are extremes. They are the opposite end of the pendulum. We don't want to swing this way, but we also don't want to swing into ignorance and rejection of God's Word. So when I talk about it, when I allow somebody else to talk about it, whenever we choose material that we're going to be taught by, know that it comes from a desire that we fulfill what Scripture says. And we receive from Scripture what has been made available to us. In verse 8 of chapter 9, it says, And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. Now people say, well, you know, we shouldn't give to get. We should give to give. Yes, we should give to give. But when you give, you get. That's what Scripture says. I found this diagram while I was studying. The cycles of grace giving, or the grace of giving. We can start in either one. If we go by the verses, we give to God. That's in verse 6 and 7. God's grace abounds to us. That's in verse 8. Behind the piano and speaker, it says, We give more to God. That's the second half of verse 8, which we just read. Then in verse 10 and 11, it says, God blesses us even more. And we find in the middle the results. And this is why I want you to read chapter 8 and chapter 9, because it answers all of these doubts that we have. And it really brings into clarity that we're not giving to get. We're giving to God. We're making ourselves available to God. Remember, at the beginning of chapter 8, it says, they made themselves available first to God and then to us in their desire to give. So we make ourselves available to God. We give to Him. Then His grace abounds to us. And since we can't give and not receive, when we give, we do receive. Then we give more since we're good stewards of what God gives us. And then God blesses us even more, and it just goes round and round and round and round. But then we find in verse 12 through 14 the result of our giving. People's needs are met. God is praised and glorified. The giver is appreciated and prayed for. There are a list of churches in the CCI Global Network that are going to be praying for you because of your gift. They're going to be thanking God for His provision. They're going to be praising Him and glorifying Him because their needs are met, the needs that fund this ministry of reconciliation. And their appreciation to you will be heard by God and no doubt there will be videos that come to this congregation or to this church of people giving thanks for the blessings that have come from this church. Blessing comes from good stewardship, as we saw. Again, verse 8, He's able to make all grace abound toward you. What grace? The grace of giving. That you always having all sufficiency in all things. Having all sufficiency in all things. Well, I don't have enough to give. Yes, you do. Well, how can I have enough to give when I don't have enough at home? It's amazing that when you begin to give how God is able to supply all sufficiency in all things. So verse 10 says, just in case you're not able to grasp that verse, verse 10 says, Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food. Seed to the sower and bread for food. Those are two different things. It's not the seed that you sow develops into bread. It's that God provides for our needs, but he provides also for our ability to be generous. One of the things that I've talked to in people that have missionaries that do agriculture is that they have talked to people in the mountains about the seed that they plant and a lot of times people eat their seed. Instead of putting it in the ground and it harvesting something that they can live off of, they eat the seed instead. Or they'll plant something that they really like to eat and then they eat their harvest instead of selling their harvest and using that. So there's a focus on the immediate provision and I was talking to one missionary. He said that he switched tactics and started telling people, just plant something you don't like to eat. If you don't like peppers, then plant peppers, because you won't be tempted to eat them. And went about it in that tactic. I thought that was very ingenious. But God says he's the one that supplies seed to the sower and bread to eat, which for me takes all of the worry out of giving. It takes all of the fear out of giving. It takes all the concern out of giving of will I have enough? Because he provides seed to the sower and bread to eat. Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. Increase the fruits of your righteousness. Now we read before about the grace of giving. We read before about how we are the righteousness of God in Christ. What Paul teaches us through this Scripture, through this teaching, is that one of the fruits that shows that we are the righteousness of God in Christ is a generous spirit. It shows that we have been made righteous when we are willing to be generous. It shows that we have been made righteous. It's a fruit of who we have become. Which fruit comes naturally, right? You don't have to go out to an apple tree and beg it to produce apples. It naturally produces apples. Therefore, those who have been made righteous, it should be a natural fruit of ours that we are generous people. God is the one who provides. God is the one who multiplies. God is the one that produces. That's what this verse says. We are simply the stewards. So we steward what He gives us as bread for food, and we steward what He gives us as seed to the sower. And don't get them mixed up, because when we do that, then our faithfulness as a steward diminishes. And God says to whom much is given, more will be given. To those who are not faithful, to those who have little, even what they have will be taken away from them. We don't want to be found in that place. We want to be fruitful, righteous people. In Philippians chapter 4, verse 17, Paul kind of echoes this idea. It says, not that I seek the gift. He's talking to the Philippians about a gift that they had given him, provision that they had sent to him, and he's teaching them about giving and receiving. And he says, I'm not seeking the gift. This is where he says, I have learned in all things to be in need and to abound. I've learned to be full. I've learned to be hungry. I've learned to be clothed. I've learned to be naked. I've learned to have, and I've learned to have not. I have learned in all things to be content. And he says to them, I'm not seeking your gift. I'm not teaching you these things. I'm not telling you about these things simply because I want you to give to me. That would, of course, be those who preach the prosperity gospel. Paul sets us straight. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. What fruit? The fruits of righteousness. Good stewardship leads to the freedom to give whenever the opportunity arises. You know, we have this every six months. Mission's offering is every six months. The Bodega Solidaria is there all the time. That is a constant opportunity to give. In February will be the next CCI missionary experience. They're talking about it being in Valle de Angeles. They're going to need food bags for that. They're going to need provisions for that. There is always an opportunity to give. But you see, if we steward well, that when those opportunities come up, we are ready and able to give. When we don't steward well, a need arises and we're like, well, you know, I really wish I could be able to give to that. I really want to be able to give to that. Or, you know, I'll give this, but it's really not much. Don't diminish your seed. Don't speak ill about your seed. That just popped up. That's a good one. Don't give your seed and then speak negatively about it. Why do we make our profession each week when we give our tithes and offering? We're speaking good things about the things that we are giving. We're speaking life. We're speaking a harvest from it. So whether you give little, whether you give much, speak life about your seed. But when we're good stewards, then when the opportunity comes up, we're able to give. Verse 11 says, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. So let me read verse 10 and 11 together. Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. The New Living Translation says, yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. Stewardship produces preparedness. In verse 19 of Philippians 4 it says, and my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Have you ever paid attention to where that is in Scripture when Paul said that? Have you ever put the pieces together? The Philippians had sent Paul a gift. They had sown into Paul's needs. They had sown into his ministry. And Paul says, and because of that, my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory, which means his math supersedes our math, which I would go by his math all the time. I'll go by his bank account all the time because there's definitely enough in his when it seems like there's not enough in mine. And even when it seems like there is enough in mine, there's still a whole lot more in his. So I'm going to do the things that give that access to God's account. Doing things in God's way. Doing things with a heart unto serving God. And steward then what he filters back in to me. Because he is able to supply all of our needs according to his riches in glory so that we would have all sufficiency in all things because he gives seed to the sower and bread to eat so that we may with all liberality, which means with all freedom, Oh God, I just wish I could give. I just can't give right now. I wish I was able to do this. That's not freedom. That's limitation. That's the exact opposite of liberality. That you may with all liberality give and bear the fruits of righteousness. So let me wrap this up. You can't separate giving and receiving. You can't separate the promise that God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory from the fact that they gave first. You can't separate that diagram that we looked at, the cycle of the grace of giving. You can't make that come apart. When you give, you receive. When you receive, give. The ministry of reconciliation has been given to us. Jesus told his disciples, freely you have received, freely give. We have received the gift of reconciliation, therefore we must minister reconciliation to others. We also have the opportunity, because we can't get to everybody, to help others by giving into this ministry of reconciliation. When we steward what God has given us, we'll be able to give with freedom. I love being able to give with freedom. I love not having to worry about if I can afford to give. You can't afford not to give. Let me tell you that. And you can't afford not to tithe. That's even greater. I can't afford to tithe. That's why you're in the situation you're in. Start tithing. When we steward what he's given us, we'll be able to give with all freedom. When we can give with all freedom, then we can fulfill what our key verse is as CCI Fellowship, Galatians 6.10. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are the household of faith. Amen. Contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com That's fellowship.cci at gmail.com Or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings.