Tim Timberlake - Love Built This
- Watch
Summary:
In this passionate message on sacrificial giving, the preacher draws from Exodus 36 to highlight how the Israelites gave so generously for the tabernacle that Moses had to restrain them from bringing more. He emphasizes that everything belongs to God, and true love for God and people is expressed through generous, heart-led giving beyond the tithe. Declaring «love built this,» he celebrates the church’s impact through seeds sown—feeding families, planting campuses, and spreading the gospel globally—and calls the congregation to sow sacrificially today, trusting that God cannot be outgiven and that their obedience will echo into eternity.
Opening Worship and Prophetic Word
Good morning, Celebration! How many of you felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in worship? Before we go any further, I want to prophetically declare over you what I hear the Holy Spirit saying, and what I sense and see on a day like this, where we are coming to bring to our King our best. He never receives anything from us without having something better on His mind to give back to us. What I see and sense today is financial freedom. I really sense that God is taking the chains and the shackles off of finances today. I specifically see an entrepreneur who has been waiting on a loan to open your business, and I see you cutting the ribbon on that business. I see you stepping into that business, and I see God doing it—not your bank, not your lenders, not your good ideas, not your witty inventions. I see God doing it.
So today, I just want to encourage you to lean in, all of you that are listening to me, because this isn’t just a moment for us; this is an intentional moment designed by God. He knew the person you would be sitting beside. He knew what you would be processing right now. He knew what you would do after you leave this place today, and He has strategically organized it down to the most detailed thing, what it was that He would have you discover. So as we go through the Word of God today, I want you to be praying and start doing this: pray about what it is that God would have you sow. If you have not already done so, we’re going to have a moment in service today, right in the middle of it, where we worship God with our giving sacrificially.
Tithes vs. Sacrificial Offering
This is a little different because this is not tithes. The tithe is what belongs to the Lord; it’s ten percent. Oftentimes, as believers, we think that God only wants a tithe or a tenth of our money, but the Word of God says He wants 10% of everything. The earth and the fullness thereof belong to the Lord; it’s all His anyway. But He asks us for ten percent because it allows us to see the heart of God, and it’s God’s management plan for us as we consider stewarding His finances. How many of you know whatever you’ve got, it belongs to Him? The money you’ve got is not yours; the house you’ve got is not yours; the car you drive— I know you think it’s yours; I know you paid a note on it—but it’s not yours; it belongs to the Lord. Sometimes God asks us to return a portion of it to see where our heart is. The Word of God says that where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
If you’ve read through the Word of God, you’ve discovered this passage of scripture; you might have found it very peculiar and very odd. The Word of God says that you can’t serve two masters. If I were to say that, you would immediately think—without reading it—that the two masters are God and Satan. But the Word of God is very clear. It says you cannot serve both God and money because God understands that where your money is, there is your heart. You can always tell what you cherish the most when you look at your investments. A lot of us cherish our flesh more than we do God. A lot of us cherish our possessions more than we do God. But it’s time for us to invest in the one thing that has the greatest return, and that’s the Kingdom of God.
I was sitting over there in tears, thinking about the investment that this church has made—not only in this time, but in and through eternity—the seeds that have been sown so that people can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think about Paris, I think about Zimbabwe, I think about the Netherlands, I think about Jacksonville, North Carolina, D.C., Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and the hundreds of thousands of lives that have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ because of the seeds that have been sown.
Personal Story: «Love Built This»
I’m going to read a passage of scripture to you in a moment, but before I do that, I want to tell you what brought us to this point—what brought me to this passage of scripture in Exodus chapter 36. I remember being around six or seven years old and at the table with my dad and mom, just asking him, «How did I get here?» You know, around that age, you’re pretty curious. You didn’t just appear out of nowhere; something or someone had to make you. I asked my dad, «Hey, how did I get here?» He said, «Love.» I said, «Love?» He said, «Yeah, love.» I was very curious, asking a bunch of questions around that. I said, «Well, how did the house get here?» He said, «Love.» I said, «Love?» He said, «Yeah, love built this house.»
So what about our car? He said, «Love did that too.» I didn’t quite understand what he was saying until I got a little bit older, and what he was telling me was that God loves us, and I love you, so I’ll do whatever it takes to provide for you. Love built that house. Love built me. Love built this house. Love built this almost 23 years ago. A couple had a call from God. They didn’t quite know how, but they stepped out in faith and they knew God called them to Jacksonville, and they said yes to the call. Oh, and you better believe through the 22 years that God has called them to do this great work, they’ve been ridiculed, they’ve been talked about, they’ve been verbally stoned, and yet and still they continue to do what God has called them to do because they understand that nothing can build this but love.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 36
Exodus chapter 36, let’s go there. I want to read to you beginning at verse 1. The scripture says, «Then Bezaleel and Eliab, and every wise-hearted man in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary according to all that the Lord had commanded.» And Moses called Bezaleel and Eliab and every wise-hearted man in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, and everyone whose heart stirred him up to come into the work to do it. They received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary to make it with all. They brought yet unto him free offerings every morning, and all the wise men did well in all the work of the sanctuary. Every man from his work which they made spoke unto Moses, saying, «The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded to make.»
And the Lord commanded Moses to command the people. It says, «And he proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, 'Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering for the sanctuary.' So the people were restrained from bringing, for the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work and much more.» Can you imagine a society? Can you imagine a church where the pastor stands up and says, «Okay, y’all, don’t give another penny. We don’t need anything else. We’ve got everything we need. Our storehouse is full.» Have you ever been in a service where the pastor stood up and said, «Stop! Don’t sow anything else. Our buckets are full. Our storehouse is bursting at the seams! We fed everyone in Jacksonville. We fed everyone in Orlando. We fed everyone in Fort Lauderdale. We fed everyone in North Carolina. We fed everyone in D.C. We fed everyone in the Netherlands. We fed everyone that God has called us to in Belgium, Brussels, Paris, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. We fed everyone in the underground church in China. We fed everyone in Syria. Don’t bring anything else. Everyone has heard about the good news of Jesus Christ. Everyone we’ve been trying to reach has been reached.»
Have you ever been in a service like that before? I haven’t, which means we have to continue to sow for what it is we expect God to do. You know, money is one of those topics that people get uncomfortable talking about. It’s one of those things that a lot of churches dance around, and they sweep people, and they make it all pretty. I’m a firm believer that I love people; we love people, and so we will talk about the money it takes to reach people. We talk about money everywhere else, and then the church goes, «No, no; oh, here we go again, talking about money. They just want our money.» They just want our money—it’s only to help people. You’re absolutely right; we do! If you’ve never heard a pastor say that before, I’ll be the first one to tell you we do, but it’s to help people.
The world of the generous gets larger and larger, and the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. I am all about God expanding our world, and in order for God to do that, it takes a very generous group of people who say, «You know what? We are willing to sow beyond ourselves so that people can experience the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ.» My prayer is that it lives beyond my lifespan and carries over into the generation that’s coming behind us and the generation that’s coming behind them and the generation that’s coming behind him. If the gospel of Jesus Christ stops with us, we’ve done a bad job. My investment into the Kingdom of God has to live beyond me. My son is three years old; my prayer is that what we sow today would impact him when he’s 26. You know why? Because love built this.
In our own power, we can’t build this, but when we team up with the plans that God has for us, we can stand back and say love built this. I think about the 15,000 families we’ve been able to feed over the span of this pandemic—43,000 boxes of food, just in Jacksonville alone. For a moment, I want you to think about this—think about those families. If it had not been for the sacrifices that people within this house made, think about the dire—I’m not talking about convenient; I mean dire—need for food in Zimbabwe. Families on the verge of starvation, families on the verge of dehydration because of no clean water. But because a group of people at Celebration Church stepped up, their lives have been sustained because of love.
I’ve often heard it said that you can give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving. And so, when you sit in the seat that you sit in, you should remind yourself that love built this. When you walk out the doors that you walk out of today, or if you’re watching me at another location or watching me from home, remind yourself that love built this. When you get into your car and you close the door, say to yourself, «Love built this.» Whatever it is that you have possession of, you have to remind yourself that God so loved the world that He gave. Love built this. This is a season, this is a moment, this is an opportunity for us to invest into eternity and say to God, «We’ve partnered with You because You love; so do we.»
The Israelites' Generosity
The children of Israel have been known historically, up until this point, as complainers. God has brought them out of Egypt. He’s brought them through the Red Sea. He opened it up for them to walk out on dry ground. Not only did He do that, but they get into the desert and they’re thirsty, and Moses prays, and God provides water out of a rock. They need food, and God delivers manna from heaven to them every single day when no person went hungry, no person went unfed, and they still complain. Sometimes you can experience so many miracles that it becomes mundane. If you’re not careful, you’ll begin to complain in a miracle season because that miracle for you has become the normal thing. But the very thing that you may be complaining about is the same exact thing someone else is praying for. Never forget that love built this.
The children of Israel found themselves being complainers, but yet and still, when it was time for them to come together with their resources and when it was time for them to bring together what they had, God did something supernatural. Up until this point, Moses had told them, «This is what we’re going to be doing; we’re going to be building a sanctuary for God’s people and for the presence of God. We’re going to build a tabernacle for Him. This is the first sanctuary that was ever built.» And you know what? When people say, «The church shouldn’t be that lavish; the church shouldn’t be that big,» I would argue that the church absolutely should be so it could meet more people. If you had seen the things that Moses was asking the people to bring for the first sanctuary, you would be shocked. He said, «Bring diamonds!» Come on, bring those! You say, «Oh man, that’s prosperity gospel right there.» Moses was teaching prosperity; bring gold, bring precious stones, bring copper, bring silver, bring what it is that you have. Moses was only communicating to the people what God had told him to bring. You know why? Because God deserves the best.
Some of you have your envelope already pre-filled, and you didn’t even pray about it. You’re giving out of instinct, and God wants you to give sacrificially. That’s what God was asking of the people of Israel—He was asking them to give sacrificially. Sacrificially for some may be $500 or $1,000; for others, maybe $5. You know what sacrificially is for you. I know what it is for my household, and I know what God has asked of us to give, and that’s what we will do because I am moved by giving. I’m not moved by what I get for myself. Though I’ve never purchased something that brought me to tears, never went shopping for a pair of shoes and cried when I got them, never went out to eat and sat in front of that plate of food and filled that plate with tears, «Thank You, God, for this Big Mac—two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.»
But whenever God calls me to sow sacrificially and to give generously, it always moves me to emotion because I understand the impact that it could have on someone else. My mentality to God is, «God, with what I have, I give it to You.»
Personal Stories of Giving
I remember several years ago overhearing a single mother telling the council of the school that she didn’t have the money to pay for tuition. I just overheard it; I just heard it. God spoke to me and said, «You pay for that kid’s tuition.» I said, «Well, God, where am I going to get that from?» He said, «If you have the heart to do it, I’ll provide the resources for it.» She left; she cried, and they drove off the parking lot. I went to the council and said, «Listen, I’ll pay for that tuition. Don’t tell her who paid for it; just tell her it’s paid for.»
There have been a number of instances like that in my life where God has called me to sow sacrificially for something or for someone, and every single time He’s called me to do it, what He returned to me was far more substantial than what I sowed—and I’m not talking about money because money comes and goes, but the memories created from your obedience stick with you for a lifetime. I remember seeing that single mother after that tuition was paid for, and her not knowing who paid for it but her giving thanks to God because it was paid. It’s something that has been left in my memory from that moment forward.
I remember being 12 years old. We had a Heart for the House campaign a lot like this in our church growing up, and my dad was encouraging people, «Listen, pray about what it is that God will have you to sow.» I remember I had saved up $200 to buy this football memorabilia. It had on it some of my favorite football players; they had signed their cards, they autographed them, and they had put them in this plaque. I saved my money to purchase it, and I got ready to give my money to my dad to purchase it. As I got my money—I saved all year long for it—God told me to tell him to give this to the Heart for the House campaign, and I gave it to him. I remember my dad told that story in the middle of a message, and I didn’t know that in the audience that day was an agent that was connected to a good number of the football players that I desired an autograph from. From that seed sown into building the Kingdom of God, I got a chance to meet and develop relationships with everyone I wanted to get autographed from.
You never know—hear me—you never know the significance of your seed when it’s in your hand. You only discover the significance of it after you release it, and it is invested into the Kingdom of God.
Call to Prayer and Giving
In Exodus chapter 36, Moses is talking to a group of people, and he’s telling them, «Listen, God is asking us to bring something sacrificial.» They brought it; they made the sanctuary, the tabernacle of God. This is why God no longer wanted to just save people; He wanted to dwell with them. They loved the presence of God; they needed the presence of God. We need more of the presence of God, and we need more rooms around the world that display the presence of God, like never before. And so they gave, and it says they gave so much that Moses told them to stop giving.
My prayer for us today is that at the end of this year, we can look back over it and say, «Love built this.» So what I want you to do over the course of the next few minutes, I want you to be praying about what it is that God would have you to give. In your seat back, there’s an envelope; there’s also a commitment card for those who did not come prepared today but are praying through what it is that God would have you to give. I’m a firm believer that if you can pray about it, God will tell you. That commitment card is your commitment for the rest of the year. This is what I’m going to believe God for; this is what I’m going to sow towards; this is what I’m going to commit to, and God honors your commitment.
But as you’re writing that out, I want to share with you what God has shared with me—just a couple of points. The first one is this: your heart matters when you give. Your heart matters when you give. If what you give today does not touch your heart, don’t give it. This is a no-pressure environment. If it doesn’t move you, don’t give because your heart matters when you give. If God can change your heart, He can change your habits, and when we sow sacrificially, it allows God to see where our heart is as it concerns His Kingdom.
This is what I know: money does not change you; it only reveals who you already are. I hear people say all the time, «Man, they got a little bit of money and they change.» No, they didn’t change; they just showed you who they were. It was revealed who they were. If God can trust you with a dollar, He can trust you with a hundred thousand dollars. And so, the way you give and the heart that follows is super important. As we see in Exodus chapter 36, time and time again, it’s talking about the heart of these men and these women—how they gave, how they sowed, how they invested into the sanctuary, how they invested into the house of God, how they invested into the Kingdom of God—because it’s not what you give that’s important; it’s the heart behind what you give that’s important.
And so for some of you, you can give five dollars, and your heart is moved, and that’s a stretch. For others, that’s nothing, but follow the Holy Spirit and allow the Spirit to guide your heart. Don’t follow your heart because your heart will always lead you back to what you want versus what God needs. You’d be surprised how generous God gets when you have a generous heart. Everything that you need, He already has a knowledge of, but He still asks us to sow—not because He needs it, but because you need it. Your heart matters when you sow.
The second thing is this: you cannot outgive God. In 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 8, it says, «And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.» Every good work. As it is written, «He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.» Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply an increase to your storehouse of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. What this means is no matter what you give, you cannot outgive God.
What this means is no matter how much you sow, you cannot outgive God. No matter what your heart’s intent is, you cannot outgive God. God so loved, so He gave. The reason we can say, «Love built this,» is because God is love, and wherever God is, there is love. And wherever love is, there is God. We can stand on our two feet with our heels touching the ground, with our chest poked forward in the boldness of God and say, «Love built this.» This isn’t the work of one man; this isn’t the work of one woman; this isn’t the work of people; this is the work of God. And we have an opportunity to invest into something that will last into eternity. It doesn’t stop with us, but we have an opportunity to invest in it.
I can’t imagine a world without Celebration Church. I can’t imagine the hundreds of thousands of lives that would be different if Celebration Church was not here, and people such as yourself did not step up in moments like this to invest into the Kingdom of God. I am the product of someone saying yes to sow. I am the product of someone giving sacrificially. How many more young men and women do we know that need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ will have an opportunity because we say, «Yes, Lord, I’m available. Here I am; use me.»
So I want you to stand right now. Those of you that came with your offering prepared, I want you to grab hold of it, and I want you and your spouse, if you’re married, to grab that seed and hold each other’s hands. I’m going to ask my wife to come at this time. For those that need a minute to fill out their envelopes or the commitment time commitment cards, please do so right now. What I’ve come to learn is that farmers understand the greatest seed goes into the richest soil, and there is no soul richer than the Kingdom of God. What we are saying before God today is, «God, You can use us; we are available.» What we have is not ours; it’s Yours. We’re just stewards of it; we’re just managers of it. God, we’re just the protectors of it. But God, You are asking us to return it, and so we do so gladly when we sow back into Your Kingdom with joy and gladness.
So if you’ve got your seed ready, I just want you to hold that seed up. If you’re watching online right now, wherever you may be watching me from, just hold that seed up. If you’re giving online, there are instructions behind me as to how you can give. Hold up whatever device you’re sowing from. We’re going to seal this seed with prayer, and then after we pray, the worship team is going to come. I want you to walk that seed down and sow it into these buckets. Let’s worship God with our giving.
Prayer Over the Offering
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to partner with You in building Your Kingdom today. God, we don’t just give anything; today we give sacrificially to the work that You’ve called us to do. God, we declare and decree that this work is significant; this work is great. And so, God, we sow greatly into what we are expecting and anticipating You to do through us. And so, God, today we say that love built this, and God, we thank You that what we are doing today will live beyond us, and God, trickle over into generations to come. And so, God, we say we are available; our answer is yes. And God, today we sow this seed into rich soil known as the Kingdom of God. In Jesus' name, we pray. All those that agree say amen.
When you’re ready, begin to walk those seeds down to this soil and sow them into the buckets. Let’s worship God with our giving.
Come on, worship. The third thing that I wanted to tell you is this: people will thank God because of your sacrificial giving. Week after week, I hear stories of people that come to meet Jesus because we said yes; parents whose children are encountering God because we said yes; families being restored because we said yes; homes literally being built because we said yes; families being fed because we said yes. We say yes because we believe that love built this. If you believe that, just say it: «Love.» Come on, say it like you mean it: «Love built this.»