Church On The Rock-Abilene
Sunday Morning Service - 7/5/2026
  • Graves Into Gardens
  • THE FATHER'S HOUSE
  • When Wind Meets Fire
  • The Lord Will Provide
  • BUILD MY LIFE
  • Text:
    Genesis 12:1–2 NKJV
    1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
    Opening Prayer
    Father, we thank You for every good and perfect gift that has come into our lives. We acknowledge that everything we have ultimately comes from Your hand.
    As we open Your Word this morning, renew our minds and shape our hearts. Teach us to trust You more deeply, to hold the things of this world more loosely, and to become people who truly reflect Your generosity.
    Help us to hear what Your Spirit is saying to us today. Give us the courage to obey, the faith to trust, and the joy of becoming a blessing to others.
    May Jesus be honored in everything that is said and done today.
    In His name we pray, Amen.
    Introduction:
    Good morning.
    Over the last several months, we have been walking together through a journey of faith.
    We have learned that faith is more than something we believe.
    Faith is something we live.
    Faith has taught us to trust God through disappointment.
    Faith has taught us to trust Him with our daily lives.
    Faith has taught us to faithfully manage what He has entrusted to us.
    Today, we come to the next step in that journey.
    Because eventually, faith must move beyond trusting God for His blessings.
    Faith must also trust God with His blessings.
    One of the great truths we discover throughout the Scriptures is that God has never blessed His people simply so they could accumulate more.
    He has always blessed His people so they could become a blessing to others.
    That is exactly what He told Abraham in Genesis 12:
    "I will bless you... and you shall be a blessing."
    Notice that God's blessing was never meant to stop with Abraham.
    It was meant to flow through him.
    The same principle is true for us today.
    Everything God places in our hands—our time, our abilities, our resources, and yes, even our finances—is ultimately an opportunity to reflect His goodness to the people around us.
    This morning, I don't want to talk simply about giving.
    I want to talk about becoming the kind of people who naturally live generous lives.
    Because generous giving is not first about an amount.
    It is about a heart that has learned to trust God more than it trusts anything else.
    We are blessed to be a blessing.

    We are blessed to Be a blessing.

    Genesis 12:1–2, we learn that we are blessed to be a blessing.
    Many of us are working our way back to where we feel we should have been the whole time.
    As a people, we often feel as if we are in a hurry. We think we have to make up for wasted time.
    While we may feel the need to hurry, it actually works against us. To do a quality reboot takes time. When we rush things that take time, we only hurt the goal we are trying to reach.
    The faith aspect of giving to the poor is realizing that, no matter where we are in our journey, we have something to give.
    We give because we are representing the King.
    His name is Jesus.
    By the way, any time I mention "the King," I mean Jesus, not Elvis.
    Matthew 10:42 NKJV
    42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”
    When we give something as simple as a cup of cold water as a result of our relationship with Christ, we are not ultimately giving it to the recipient; we are giving it to the Lord.
    Each giver may struggle with giving for reasons of their own. Still, just because giving is a struggle does not mean we should not do it.
    The struggle is where faith comes in.
    We are trusting God to take our offering and use it for His glory.
    One of the reasons we give is that it is a direct representation of God's unconditional love and His provision for us.

    The Lord blessed the people of Israel in the land and commanded them to leave the corners of their fields for the poor and the stranger in the land.

    Leviticus 19:9–10 NKJV
    9 ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.

    Did you notice something? God blessed His people and immediately built generosity into the blessing.

    One of the reasons the Lord commands generosity as part of the rhythm of our lives is because it keeps us from making an idol out of the necessities of life—money, food, clothing, or whatever else we may possess.
    Notice also that the Lord commanded His people to take a small portion of what He had blessed them with and leave it for the poor and the stranger.
    You can practice this principle by setting aside even your pocket change so that you are prepared to meet the needs God brings into your path.
    Now we come to a place where I need to offer some pastoral advice.
    There are two extremes I want to mention.
    The first extreme is people who have never been taught to give or why they should give. As a result, they simply never develop the habit of generosity.
    That is one of the reasons we are talking about this today.
    We are teaching you to give.
    No one can make you give.
    But today you have been exposed to God's Word.
    Now allow the Holy Spirit to work in your heart and begin making a plan to become a giver.
    The amount a person gives is not nearly as important as taking the first step of giving.

    The second extreme is just as dangerous as the first.

    These are people who give too much.
    What? Give too much?
    Yes.
    We are called to be an instrument in God's hands, but we are not the only tool in His toolbox.
    Giving is like many other ministries within the church. We are all called to participate, but some people are especially gifted in certain areas.
    We are all called to share our faith, but not all of us are evangelists.
    We are all called to pray without ceasing, but not all of us are called to the ministry of intercession.
    In the same way, we are all called to give, but some have been given the spiritual gift of giving.
    Romans 12:8 NKJV
    8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
    Those who have the spiritual gift of giving need to give themselves permission to be generous. They need to be prayerful, but we also need people like them in the Body of Christ.
    Otherwise, we can begin giving out of obligation instead of faith.
    If we are not careful, we can begin acting as though we are the only people God can use.
    That is not faith.
    That is obligation.
    God can use anyone He chooses.
    Don't rob someone else of the blessing of giving.
    Don't stand in the way of God's work in another person's life by trying to meet every need yourself.
    We are all members of one Body, and God delights in using all of His people.

    Giving Proves That We trust God More Than Money.

    Matthew 6:24 NKJV
    24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
    This week, and really over the last nine or ten weeks, we have been talking about walking in faith.
    Faith requires more than discussion.
    Faith requires action.
    In order to walk in faith, our minds must be renewed.
    When our minds are renewed, our hearts begin to change.
    Then that change begins to show itself in the way we walk with Christ.
    Change is hard.
    Change hurts.
    Working out hurts.
    Eating differently hurts.
    Saving money requires discipline.
    Reading our Bibles consistently takes effort.
    But if we stay with those things, the benefits are tremendous.
    We are all born into this world.
    When I say we are born into the world, I do not mean simply born onto this planet.
    I mean we are born into the world's way of thinking.
    The flesh naturally looks for security in money, possessions, and what it can control.
    But as believers, our security must rest in the Lord.
    Not in our own strength.
    Not in our bank account.
    Not in our possessions.
    Simple, systematic giving is a supernatural act when it is done in submission to the Lord.
    When we begin giving—even something as simple as the "corners of the field," or what we might call our pocket change—the Lord is glorified.
    If the Holy Spirit is dealing with your heart this morning, expect your flesh to push back.
    Just as dieting, exercising, or saving money goes against our natural desires, generosity also goes against the flesh.
    The enemy will use fear to convince us that we cannot afford to give.
    He will whisper that we need to hold on just a little tighter.
    But every time we choose to trust God instead of our fear, we are declaring that our confidence is in Him.
    Giving is not about losing money.
    Giving is about learning to trust the God who promised to take care of us.
    Conclusion
    As we come to the close of this message, I want to leave you with one final thought.
    Throughout our journey of faith, we have learned that faith always requires action.
    Faith is more than something we believe.
    Faith is something we live.
    Today we have seen that generosity is one of the ways faith expresses itself.
    God blessed Abraham so that he could become a blessing.
    God commanded Israel to leave the corners of their fields so the poor and the stranger would be cared for.
    Jesus taught us that even a cup of cold water given in His name matters to the Kingdom.
    None of these things are really about money.
    They are about the heart.
    They are about trusting God more than we trust ourselves.
    Every time we choose generosity over selfishness, we declare that God is our Provider.
    Every time we release something from our hands, we are reminding ourselves that everything we have first came from His hand.
    My prayer is not simply that you become a giver.
    My prayer is that you become a generous person.
    That you become the kind of man or woman whose life naturally reflects the generosity of God.
    This week, I want to challenge you to do something intentional.
    Ask the Lord to show you one person you can bless.
    It may be a cup of coffee.
    It may be a meal.
    It may be a few dollars.
    It may simply be your time, your encouragement, or your presence.
    The amount is not what matters.
    The obedience is.
    Because we are blessed...
    to be a blessing.
    And when we live that way, we begin to look a little more like Jesus every single day.

      • Genesis 12:1–2NKJV

      • Matthew 10:42NKJV

      • Leviticus 19:9–10NKJV

      • Romans 12:8NKJV

      • Matthew 6:24NKJV

  • There Is Power in the Blood
Church On The Rock-Abilene
churchontherockabilene@gmail.com
3256725446
https://church-on-the-rock-abilene-tx.faithlifesites.com
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