Gifts of Prophet, Mercy-shower & Giver
Category: Church, Ministry & Spiritual Gifts
Key Passage: Romans 12
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: March 27, 2024
Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Romans chapter number 12. Romans chapter number 12.
On Sunday nights, we are going through a series about spiritual gifts. This morning, let me see if I can get this right. I believe it’s, is it Allison? Brother Josh, is it Alyssa? Alyssa. This morning, Alyssa is trying to get a Bible out, I believe, right now. Good, they got it, Alyssa. You’re good. Alyssa asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior this morning. Amen. Amen for that.
So here’s the thing: when Alyssa was born—how old are you, Lisa? Eleven years ago—she was born with some physical gifts. I don’t know, maybe she likes to cook. Do you like to cook? Maybe she’s just gifted at being a good cook. She can bring in some cookies and try it out on us right now. There you go. But maybe she’s gifted that way physically, but she was born again as a child of God this morning. So when she was saved, born again, she was gifted spiritually. When you got saved, you were gifted spiritually, and they’re biblical. They’re called spiritual gifts. I think there are much more than 12. We’re covering 12 in our series.
Toward the end of this series, we will have a sheet for you with all 12 of those gifts listed out with the definition beside it. We’ll also have a spiritual gifts test that will help you in finding out how you’re spiritually gifted. All right. But we’re trying to cover three on a Sunday night, and that’s tough.
I came in tonight. Brother Patrick said, “Man, all those verses,” trying to give him verses ahead of time, if I remember, so he can put them online. He said, “Boy, we’re going to cover all those verses tonight.” And I said, “Well, we’ll see.” I mean, we do have volleyball. And how many of you said you just got a little tired? We don’t want to go too long. Brother Josh says that. He says he was out bus visiting yesterday. There were a lot of basketball games yesterday, so maybe that was part of it. I’m not sure. But we’ll try to cover as much as we can, as quickly as we can. I want us to grasp these gifts. Tonight we’re going to start with the gift of prophecy or a prophet, a very, very important gift we’ll start off with.
We are in Romans chapter number 12. We’re going to start in verse number three of God’s word. Romans 12, verse number three. Would you please stand as we read God’s word together, just trying to show it respect if you’re able to. Romans 12. Look in verse number three. He says, “For I say through the grace given unto me.” We’ve covered that. I think the first Sunday night, we’re gifted by His grace. That’s one of the things He earned first on the cross. And when He ascended, He said, “I gave men these gifts.” So we’ve got no right to be proud. I’m gifted in a certain way; it was given to me by the grace of God. And He says, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly.” I’m serious about it.
Now, here’s the thing: some go to extremes. Some say, “Well, I’m not gifted anywhere.” No, if you’re a born-again Christian, you are. And it is a good thing. Sometimes they’ll see that in you that you don’t see yourself. Be serious. Be sober. Be serious. Be sober. Be serious about this matter. You’re gifted somewhere. Not to think of himself more highly than you ought, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Friends, we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ. And everyone members one of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. He lists this one first; it is a very important gift. Whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. We won’t go through the other gifts listed here, but let’s just focus on that one tonight. We’ll start off with that.
Would you pray with me that God just keeps us engaged as we go through these three gifts tonight? Would you do that? Father, Lord, we are trying to cover a lot. Lord, help me not to get caught up in the details. Lord, help me to cover it thoroughly, but wisely. Lord, help us to be engaged in Your word on these gifts tonight. And Lord, show us where we’re gifted and why we’re different than others and how we fit into Your kingdom and can be used by You greatly. And Lord, thank You for what You do in Jesus. Then we ask, Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
This is a very important gift. If you notice, it was mentioned first there, and this is the only one of the gifts. There are four lists of gifts in the Bible, four different times gifts are listed. But this is the only gift that is listed in all four of the lists. I think it’s a very important gift. It is mentioned first here. In fact, 1 Corinthians 14, he’s talking a little bit and clarifying about spiritual gifts. Chapter 12 gives a list about gifts. Chapter 13 is charity. If you’ve got these gifts but you have no charity, it’s no good. It’s like somebody over there playing an instrument they can’t play, and it’s driving me crazy. If someone has a lot of gifts but they have no charity, it’s like, “I don’t care about your gift; you don’t love anybody,” type thing. That’s chapter 13, the love chapter we often call it. In chapter 14, he really does some correction. People really get off on some gifts, specifically sign gifts, specifically the gift of tongues. If you see someone or hear someone who wants to argue about tongues and all that, typically the easiest way I handle that is to go over to chapter 14 of 1st Corinthians, and it will list how that gift ought to be dealt with. That usually takes care of the problems.
It’s got to be by course. It’s got to be a schedule. It’s got to be at least two, no more than three. It’s got to have an interpreter. It cannot be a lady involved in that, and just a lot of different things. Usually, it solves the issue. In that chapter 14 of 1st Corinthians, it does say, “Seek to have this gift.” It edifies the church. Tongues edifies a person, you know, “Look at me.” This gift of prophecy helps people. He says it’s a good gift to have, if you will. Many churches in our day and time have gone liberal. By that, I mean they’ve strayed away from the Word of God. They’ve watered it down because the gift of a prophet is sometimes just belittled. People don’t want to listen to that. It’s very interesting. He says in 1 Thessalonians 5:20, “Despise not prophesyings.”
You say, “Well, these people are preaching it to everybody, whether it be from the pulpit or wherever, and I’m just sick of that.” He said, “No, no, give them a hearing. Don’t despise that. They have their place.” A lot of churches in America need that.
Now, as far as a definition of the gift of a prophet—by the way, when I say prophet or prophecy, I’m not necessarily talking about preaching behind the pulpit; ladies can have this gift, I believe. In the Old Testament, it’s a little bit different, or I should say before the Bible was completed, it is a little different. Let me give you some definition. If you look this word up in Strong’s Concordance, it will say prediction or foretelling. God would use these people to tell what’s about to happen. Noah Webster, 1828, says it is a foretelling prediction, a declaration of something to come. But when the Bible was completed, there was a shift in this area of gifts. That’s where some of the sign gifts—you realize the Jews require a sign—and there were sign gifts, one of the major ones being tongues. The Bible says some of these sign gifts, 1 Corinthians 13 (we won’t take time to look over there), when the Bible was completed, that which was in part was done away with. They have ceased. There was a shift in the gifts category when the Bible was complete. Look over in 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter one. Hang with me; we’re giving a lot of details and forming a foundation for this gift of a prophet. We’ll get to a definition and more practical application in just a moment here. But look over in 2 Peter chapter one and look down in verse number 19.
2 Peter 1 and verse number 19. When you find that, would you say amen? Good deal. He says, verse number 19, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy.” We’re talking about the gift of a prophet or prophecy. He said, “Look, we got a more sure word.” Earlier in that chapter, he was talking about when Peter, James, and John heard the voice on the Mount of Transfiguration: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” He said we have something better than these Old Testament or before the Bible was complete gifts—sign gifts, prophecy, and these revelations and whatnot. So you have something more sure than that. He says, “Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.” That’s Jesus Christ. He is talking about the Bible here. He goes on and says, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” So you understand, when the Bible was complete, a more sure word of prophecy. And that’s more sure. That’s what we put our… That’s what we put our anchor on. Not that there are no signs at all, but we don’t hold too much to signs. You have to be careful. Signs can lead you to do some crazy things. The devil can give signs. But we have something more sure than that, a more sure word of prophecy: the Bible. So there was a shift in this gift of prophecy.
Now that we have the Bible, or the truth, a gift of prophecy is for one who is really concerned, focused on getting the truth out—the Bible. They are very concerned about getting the exact word clearly presented. They are often people that don’t see a lot of gray. It’s like, “Boom. This is what God said. It doesn’t matter what you think. It doesn’t matter how you feel. It doesn’t matter if you’re crying about it. That’s the truth.” That kind of mentality—I’m not saying this is bad—they’re just wired. They’re very focused on truth, the Bible. They are very concerned. Let me give you some attributes of someone that has a gift of a prophet or prophecy.
They listen to preaching. Maybe they go on Spotify. Spotify is a big thing these days. Ms. Brenda is looking at me like, “What in the world is that?” I haven’t got Pandora and all the other ones. Now they’re getting to Spotify nowadays. How many are on Spotify? Good amount of people, especially this side is more Spotify than that side. You can listen to good preaching or the podcasts nowadays, and you can listen to good stuff on there, but they’re listening to preaching. They’ll be very focused that every single thing in there is biblical. If there is one thing not biblical, “Wow, it’s not right right there.” And they’re right. If it’s not lining up with truth, they are right. But they’re focused on that. They’re just laser-focused on truth. They have a great burden over the sinful condition of the world around them. They can just spend 24/7 preaching at everybody, if you will.
They typically like hellfire and damnation preaching. Give it to a preacher; they’re not listening. Hit them over the head, you know. They are so intense about getting the truth and exactly the truth out that they can be abrasive sometimes and offensive sometimes to some people. They have a strong sense of duty to proclaim truth. They tend easily to spot what is wrong. They can just spot it real quick, often quicker than others.
One of our children, I was thinking about this, I think has somewhat the gift of a prophet. They were very young in school, maybe second or third grade, about eight years old. There was a girl in their Christian school class whose family, I believe, went to a church where they practiced this modern-day tongues movement, and they were talking about tongues. Well, one of our children, with that gift, a prophet doesn’t like error; they are going to point it out. Some people just love people, and I’m not saying a prophet doesn’t, but that’s not the big thing, center stage. But a prophet, man, they don’t like any error. That child of ours had it out. Eight years old, I’m like preaching, “That’s not right! That’s the devil!” They came home, “Dad, show me some Bible verses about this thing.” And I think, “Well, maybe they’re gifted a little bit. They have the gift of prophecy a little bit, and they’re concerned that’s not right.” No, the Bible says that will cease, that will be done away with, and the Bible is completed. Some people are just, wow, they’re gifted. That was a very, very important gift.
I think Apostle Paul had the gift of a prophet. I think it’s interesting: the church at Corinth had some issues. He wasn’t even there; he just heard about it. I’m going to read what he says—I read it for you—it’s in 1 Corinthians 5:3: “For I verily, being absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed.” He just heard about it; he’s not even there. Often a gift of prophecy can pick up on something like that. He said, “I’ve already made my decision on that one.” It was just focused on truth. It is a very important, very needed gift, but there are weaknesses. We’ve talked about the weaknesses of these gifts. Weakness of a prophet: Of course, when we say this about almost every one of them, they can get proud or self-righteous.
They are very good—I think about a man who has a gift of a prophet, and I think he maybe has a little bit of discernment too. Sometimes I’ll try to word something just right to cut to the chase, and this individual, boom, he can cut to the chase so quickly. Usually, he is hitting the nail on the head. He has told me about some arguments, if you will, with some friends—and he’s not in our church typically, but he’ll tell me, smiling, about something he got into. Boy, he’ll just hit the nail on the head. I said, “Brother, I understand you’re right on that, but I don’t know if you’re helping in that.” He is just focused on truth. Typically, they can get right to the root of it very quickly, but they have to be wise with that. Sometimes they have to work at keeping a right spirit.
Look over in John chapter 4. A gift of a prophet—a wonderful, very important gift. Sometimes they have to work at their spirit. John 4, look in verse number 23. They often talk about weaknesses, things they are prone to; they have to work at keeping a good attitude or good spirit. John 4, verse number 23, if you would please. Jesus is speaking there. Jesus says, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in…” What is the first word? Or next word, I should say: “spirit,” and in what is the next word? That’s very interesting. Everything in the Bible is there for a reason, and even the order is there for a reason. I’m always surprised about that order. He says Spirit first and truth. He said, “Look, the hour is here that shall worship the Father when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. “For God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in…” What is the first one? Spirit. And then, “and in truth.”
That is important. Even the order is important. There are some churches that are all about spirit and attitude. They have a good spirit, a loving spirit, a kind spirit, a forgiving spirit, a merciful spirit, and all that. I like that; that’s right. But then they have no truth. You can have a good spirit and a good attitude about you, but you have no truth. It is temporary help, not long-term help. Then you go to some churches, and sometimes if the pastor of the church has the gift of a prophet, he is going to have to work a little bit harder at it because it can be a church where the spirit is like, “Me! And bless God, my God, my God!” one way or another. Sometimes they’ll care for those Bibles so big enough; if people don’t listen, they can hit them over the head with the Bible, boom. They are spirited; they are going to tell the truth. They are going to have the truth, but the spirit’s not right. He said, “No, no, no. If I am going to be a true worshiper of God, I must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Both are important.
By the way, my thought process is the reason why God lists first the spirit, the attitude, then the truth. Because if you have the right spirit, pretty soon you will get the truth. If you have the right attitude, you get the truth. But both are important. He is saying here, “Wait a second, for a prophet, we have to work sometimes at having the right spirit, work at not being judgmental.” Sometimes I have to work at that. Sometimes someone with a gift of a prophet has to work at presenting the truth in love. Ephesians 4:15 says this statement: “But speaking the truth in love.” That’s what you want, whether it be behind the pulpit, in a Sunday school class, or in the corner of the room, or talking to somebody out back about, or on the phone, about so-and-so. You don’t want to be judgmental and have a wrong spirit, wrong attitude. Sometimes some people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. You understand. You’ve heard that before. It is so very important. The way you will reach them is by having compassion. You know the verse in Jude—there is only one chapter—Jude 22: “And have some compassion, making a difference.” Now, others with fear, but some with compassion.
By the way, we don’t want to get off too much on it, but when you go fishing, a good fisherman has every kind of lure. You’ll have plastic worms or rubber worms, and they’ll have Hula Poppers. Let me see if I can name them—you guys can name them much better than me—all these different lures, like the rattle trap. Oh, don’t list that one, Brother Frank; we don’t like that one. There’s an old fishing lure of Brother Fontaine. Here’s a good one as far as catching fish, but the old name back in the day was from Zorro, the Gay Blade. I told Brother Fontaine, “We’ve got to change the name of that one.” We changed it to the King James or the KJB Blade. That’s what we changed it to. It catches a lot of fish. A fisherman uses many types of lures. It’s not always one way; sometimes it’s compassion and so on. You have to work at presenting the truth in love.
Now let me say this. Look over in Second Timothy, chapter four, real quickly here. We’re winding down on the gift of a prophet and putting it in perspective a little bit, I think, in the end times—not about America in the end times, but this gift where we are today in our country, this gift of a prophet or prophecy, just laser-focused on the truth and getting the truth clearly presented. Second Timothy chapter four, look in verse number two. He says, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke with all long-suffering and doctrine: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
Now, friend, we are getting to the point where that crazy guy over there is just preaching to everybody. Well, maybe everybody needs a little preaching an hour a day in time. “Well, I’m sick of that. Teach me, teach me, teach me me.” Nothing wrong with teaching; this is a good thing. Next week we’ll talk about the gift of a teacher. It’s a good thing, but if it’s just teach, teach, teach, and they never want somebody just focusing on the truth, we have problems. Americans could sure use that, friend. But he says if we get close to the end times, if people say, “I don’t want that. Just tickle my head a little bit,” and give me some kind of a good story that might feel good—well, that’s nothing wrong necessarily, but you need truth. If you’re not careful, just feeling good is a temporary fix, but long term, nothing’s changed, and I’m going to be hurting just as much, or if not worse, a little bit later on. So, a very, very important gift. Let’s go back to Romans chapter number 12. We have completed our first gift, and we’re going to focus on another gift real quickly tonight and how important the gift of a prophet or prophecy is. It’s amazing as you watch sometimes; you’ll just find some people who are just laser-focused on truth. You say, “They’re hurting everybody’s feelings.” Yeah, but they’re getting the truth out. They can do it in a wise way, but they are just focused on truth.
Look at verse number six of Romans chapter 12, and let’s get to another gift here. He says, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us: whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministry; He that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity.” The gift of a giver. Now, you know every pastor in the world likes somebody with a gift of giving, amen.
Let’s just, for a minute here, if I’m going to do it, we’ve got to do it right. Let’s just get our thinking right about giving for a moment here, specifically inside the church. The Bible talks about a tithe. That is the tenth of our income. That is not necessarily giving; that is giving God something that is His. Leviticus 27:30: “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, it is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord.” It is already the Lord’s. It is, if you will, rent for living on His green earth. God requires it from everybody. You are giving Him what is already His. By the way, you have robbed Him if you do not give it to Him; that is what the Bible says.
Then there are offerings. The Bible never says how much an offering should be—a tenth is a tithe. We know what that is. An offering—it may be a buck sometimes, it may be a hundred bucks next Sunday. For some of you, it is $20,000. I do not know what it is. The Bible does not tell us what an offering is. God speaks to you individually about it. Malachi 3:8: “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” We will all give you an offering, everybody, but we do not know how much an offering is. That is however the Lord leads you. By the way, I do not know who gives what in our church, and I do that on purpose. The Bible does speak of proportionate giving: the widow put in the two mites, and Jesus says she gave more than all.
But there is alms giving. Let me read a verse for you. Acts 3:2: “And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple.” Alms is where you know someone that is needy. We have been using Brother Frank all night long, so we will use him again. Brother Frank does not have a dime to his name, and he needs to put food on the table for Miss Wanda, or else she is going to hit him over the head. So we shake his hand and ask, “How much money do you want, Brother Frank, tonight?” “A hundred dollar bill.” Man, you might as well say a thousand or something. We have it—a hundred dollar bill—and we shake his hand. Brother Frank says, “That we want to give it to you. We love you, Brother.” Maybe it is a tough time. That is alms giving. Those are all wonderful, wonderful ways of giving to the Lord.
So, just trying to get our minds wrapped around this thing as far as giving biblically. Let me give you a definition of someone that is gifted in the area of giving: one who is wise with money, realizes the need for money in the Lord’s work, and enjoys giving to the work of the Lord. They enjoy it. Let me give you some attributes about it.
They do not mind it. They like it when the preacher—someone here recently, maybe a year ago, when we had the bucket offering for different things, and maybe even before that—said, “Man, preacher, you’ve been having all these special offerings. Don’t you think people are going to get tired of giving?” Honestly, in my mind, I’m doing people a favor; I’m giving them a way to invest in eternity. Someone with a gift of giving will love it if the preacher gives ways and lets you know of needs; they like it. If the preacher is preaching on giving, they like it. They are like, “That’s needed.” They realize they have it; this is in the forefront of their mind. If the work of God is going to go forward, money is part of it—not being mean or rude or greedy or anything. They are focused on that; they realize the importance is just part of the formula.
It is typically one who has the ability to own money without money owning them. The money is not bad; the love of money is bad. They enjoy giving to the church and people. Someone today—to be honest—texted me. They used to be in our church; they have moved away but watch online. I have tried to get them into a church where they are, but they watch online. Every once in a while, I have been mentioning lately that we need Easter eggs, candy Easter eggs. They texted me and said, “I’ve sent in $50 extra, and I want to make sure it gets to… it’s for Easter eggs.” They do this periodically. I imagine they are gifted with this gift because they are focused. It is in the forefront of their mind. They want to make sure that we have enough money to make sure those children get plenty of eggs. By the way, those children are going to have eggs running out of their ears, and praise the Lord for it. Our people are giving. They are focused on that. Sometimes if somebody asks, “Do we have enough for this?” they are not trying to be nosy. They are not concerned. They do not want to say, “Well, I want everybody to know I gave this.” They are not concerned; they are just focused on it. They want to make sure the needs of the church are met financially. It is in the forefront of their mind. Sometimes we will say, “Do we have enough for this?” and you kind of get to know people, and you are like, “Yeah, I think we did. Thank you for your concern.” They are just wired that way, and I like it, amen. It is such an important gift.
They realize the need. They see the financial need before others do, and they are very liking and wanting to be able to give. They may be wealthy, or by the way, they might not be wealthy. Some people think they have the gift of giving, but they do not have a whole lot of money. They are just focused; they are concerned that so-and-so gets their need met. They are somebody that will buy a tire for someone. I think of a couple—at least the husband is in heaven, the wife moved away—I am sure they had the gift of giving, and they were always giving. They were not rich; they were all right financially, but they were always giving to people. I have seen them just give to so many different people. They like to give; they wanted to give. They have a good understanding between the difference of eternal and temporal. The importance—we have already mentioned it briefly—they realize the importance, the need of God’s kingdom financially. It is interesting when God talks about tithing; we already read that in Malachi 3:10: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house.” Part of tithing is so the needs of the kingdom of the church specifically are met. That is just part of it. By the way, that is the storehouse. Over in 1 Timothy 3:15, he says the house of God is the church, very clear in Scripture. Their focus is that the need is met so the work of God can go forward. I can hear Curtis Hudson saying, “Great works aren’t built by spare time and pocket change.” It is somebody investing time and energy and money. Imagine all that could be done if we had the funds. Giving is an important part of the work of God.
Another importance of the gift of giving is that it gets the heart of people into the work of God. Matthew 6:19: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” If somebody gives to a cause, you know they are going to check up on that cause, why? Because their heart is there; they put their treasure there. Giving is a great thing because it gets your heart in there, and you are concerned about it because you put your treasure in that thing. Another importance: it equals a lot of rewards one day in heaven. The Bible says, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth doth corrupt, where thieves do not break through nor steal.” It is a good way to invest in eternity.
Now let me just real quickly here. I feel like I’m going so fast. Are y’all still with me tonight? We are winding it down. That was a little bit of a week. Yes, yes, yes, yes. We are winding it down. Let me just quickly review the gift of giving. Sometimes that can be… maybe a little guilty of enabling others. The Bible still says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If a man will not work, he ought not to eat.” If the guy is just not willing to work, he is just lazy, and I keep giving and giving, I am going against Scripture. I do not want to be an enabler. I like to give to people; I like to do that. We were at Dunkin’ Donuts—praise the Lord for that, amen—and someone asked us for… they didn’t ask for money; we wouldn’t have given them money. But they asked for coffee the other day. We were glad we got them coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I tried to witness to them, and I realized mentally they were off a little bit. They probably cannot hold down a real job and could not stay focused long enough for me to give the gospel to them. Now, someone like that who cannot work is understandable. But if they can work hard and they are just lazy, I do not want to enable them to go against biblical principles.
By the way, money cannot solve everything. A church can have a whole lot of money, but if they do not have the hand of God on that church, it is not going to go very far. Sometimes there is a weakness because they can give too quickly. Never give without praying. Always seek the Lord. Always ask God’s advice on it. Sometimes they can give without asking their spouse. You want to work together, and you want both to be a part of that. My wife is so good about it. Sometimes I will say, “Hey, babe, I gave this, or I want to give this, whatever.” And she says, “Well, do whatever you want.” I said, “Good. I am going to go buy a set of golf clubs.” No, I do not say that; I am not into golf anyway. But I say, “I want you to know about it because I want you to have a part in that. I want us together; we are doing this together.” She is a giver; she likes it, but I want her to know about it. I want to be involved in this together. Sometimes they are just giving without keeping their mate involved in it all. Sometimes pride—“I’m a giver.” Can I say something to kind of help us with that? Maybe that is one of your tendencies. You realize the greatest giver there is is God, who gave to you. You will never give back to Him more than He gave to you, and that kind of keeps us humble on that.
Benefits of a giver: rewards forever, laying up for themselves treasures in heaven. God is very pleased with him, and every man according as it purposeth in his heart. So let him give, not gradually or out of necessity. “For God loveth a cheerful giver.” God loves that. Givers like to give; they enjoy giving. God loves that; He enjoys that.
Just talking about a church. We are about done, all right? Ladies, you might want to start putting your shoes back on. We are about done here tonight. By the way, men, too. Please, men, keep yours on. Your feet stink worse now. But it is amazing how God has provided. Often, when we have great needs, I have watched God bring in someone. I think about years ago we were trying to… This used to be mostly woods back here, just one little dirt road that went back up to the plateau, and the parking lot was much smaller. We wanted to clear that out and add on to the parking lot. We were trying to raise—I cannot remember how much we were trying to raise to do that—and God brought a man to our church. He wasn’t here maybe Sunday morning or Sunday night; he came for a while. He was not proud; he did not want… I do not think about it for the most part. I cannot remember if John Qualls was a treasure back then. But this man was just focused on giving, and he was checking how we were doing. “Are we going to have enough?” That man wrote a check for $30,000 and enabled us to meet the goal and clear out the land, and dirt was coming in.
It is amazing to watch how God has provided the right people at the right time. A friend of ours still watches online sometimes. You could just tell he was concerned about that in a good way—the needs of the church being met financially. Maybe you can pray with me for a couple more of those givers during the building program. God provides for His church, His bride. Sometimes they have the wealth that they can write a check for $30,000. Sometimes they cannot, but they will give. They are focused on that. I thought about Miss Darling. I would not mention names that are not in heaven; she is in heaven now. Miss Darling was a widow. She was not rich, but she had a little bit. She could kind of provide here or there, and she was focused on giving campaigns where we were at and how we were doing all that stuff. You’ve heard me tell this story, but the church was having a church auction. We had voted in business meeting on setting aside some money to get that tent that we have. I remember, and I think the number is right, I think we had voted on setting aside $1,500 to buy that tent. And without… surely that’s enough, it’s just an auction. The church was about to close down and whatnot, and so we went to the auction. We started bidding, and people wanted that tent. Now, I tried to convince them, “Hey, once you set it up one or two times, you won’t want that tent.” Drive those stakes down the ground a couple times, and you’ll want to get rid of it. Brother Marlins, I got preaching a lot now. I think Brother Marlon set it up more than anybody besides me and him, whatever. But anyway, I kept going up, and it got to $1,500. Oh, boy, we do not have any more. And Ms. Darlene kind of tapped me on the shoulder and she said, “Pastor, keep bidding.” She said, “I’ll spot the church. You don’t have to pay back, but I’ll give the church if we need it.” I know the amount was $500; I think it was $1,500, and it went to $2,000. And praise the Lord, it stopped there.
And I thought about it so many times. We’ve set that tent up—I don’t know how many times—we’ve had people saved under that tent. We’ve had old-fashioned services under the tent, yard sales under the tent, revival; we set up over here, had revival under that tent. How many services on the hill were people saved under that tent? All that. And Ms. Darlene, she is up in heaven, just kind of reaping the dividends. And everyone smiles; she’ll check on her cell phone, “My interest rates are going up on that tent. I just got another soul on that tent.” And for all eternity, these people with the gift of giving, they have a great part in the work of God.
Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? Would you just for a minute tonight ask the Lord, “Lord, show me where I’m gifted and show me how I can use it for You.” It may be, “Lord, help me to allow others to be wired differently than me.” “Lord, help me keep a right spirit.” I don’t know what it might be, but just spend some time with the Lord. Lord, speak to me, guide me, grow me. I would like to be used. Maybe you just say, “I’ve realized how depleted I am in one gift, and though I’m not gifted there, I need to work at that gift a little bit.” Whatever it may be, would you spend some time with the Lord?
Would you stand? We are going to have a word of prayer. We won’t be long. Would you spend some time just seeking the Lord tonight? Father, thank You that when You saved us, You gifted us. Lord, please make clear where and how we’re gifted and how we fit into Your kingdom and how we can be used by You. Lord, help us to allow others to be different. Lord, if we need to work at an area, show us that. Speak to us clearly in these next few minutes, and we will thank You for it in Jesus. And we pray. Amen.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂Gifts of Prophet, Mercy-shower & Giver＂ - Sunday PM 03⧸24⧸2024 [2ZGsd-z3KcY]