Thanks and Giving - Part 2

Last week was awesome we love having Bill and Marilyn come and share about their ministry in Haiti. What an awesome thing to see brothers and sisters in Christ come and share their passion in the middle of our series called thanks and giving. After watching their presentation, I was thankful that God brought them to us to share but also thankful that we are so blessed to be able to come and worship and not have to consider kidnaping or no food or water. Praise God we were able to give them a gift of thanks for their travels and the leaders of our church will be in discussion on how we can support the mission there in Haiti.

So we continue our series of Thanks and Giving.

What is a gift you were given that you will never forget?

As you think about this often our mind goes to physical things: One of my great friends sent me a gift this week.

As we ponder that though, what are other gifts we are given? I think about the gift of my wife, my kids. How precious they are to me. What about the gift of friendships, close friends in this church, in my community, throughout the nation and the world. So when we begin a message about giving its hard for me to not consider all that I have been given.

When we looked at what we are to be thankful for, what God designed to give for us: The gifts God has given us: Life, Food, Home, Marriage, Body, Mind, Spirit, Heart, Children and everything that is good.

Today we are going to be diving into giving, and can I just point out the fact that this is an uncomfortable conversation for anyone that comes up and is a representative of the church because it can seem self-serving.

Here is the truth:

--Your heart of thankfulness determines your giving to God

--You can’t have a heart to give if you are not thankful for what has been given to you.

Have you ever been given something that you could never repay?

(think of It’s a wonderful life and George Bailey)

How quickly we forget all that we have been given and all that God has brought us through.

When we think of the old testament we think of these laws and these times of giving as a ritual rather than a gift back. We often think they had to give things up. However, David says a prayer of thankfulness and a time of praise to God in the time of preparing to build the temple.

2 Chronicles 29:10-17 Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

---Often we forget all that we have is God's

---God owns it all we are just merely given the opportunity to use it.

However verses have been used in many ways to shame people into giving. I am not here to do that to you today. I believe Paul writes to the church of Corinth and we can learn a lot from it about.

What does the Bible, and particularly the New Testament, say about giving?

2 Corinthians 9:5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

-->1. Paul expects a gift

-->2. Paul expects a willing gift

2 Corinthians 9:6-7 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Matthew 6:19-21 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

-->3. You heart determines your gift, not what a man says

2 Corinthians 9:8-10 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written,

“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;

his righteousness endures forever.”

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

-->4. You should not fear giving because God provides for your needs

2 Corinthians 9:11-12 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

-->5. We give because we want to be generous because God is generous

2 Corinthians 9:13-15 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

-->6. We give to expand the Gospel