Giving
The essence of our worship, of our thanks is found in giving.
Acts 20:35
“...remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Do you believe it? Even with the holidays coming up, is it really better to give than to receive? We all like to be the receiver don’t we? We like getting stuff, and giving seems like subtraction to us. If I give you ten dollars but I receive a hundred which is better? How many people do you really know made it big by giving? We see people today running around hoarding their money working all the time and we go out so quick to spend a lot of us are in debt. So the question stands, how is giving more blessed than receiving? The answer to that is found in scripture. There is a giving out of obligation, manipulation or what we can get
The Giving Jesus talks about is a very special giving.
Giving Is An Action Borne Of A Motivation To Communicate An Expression
Psalm 107:8
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, 9 for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
Definition: giving is an action. Why do we give thanks? The motivation is God’s unfailing love. Love is something we experience and something we express, it is both a noun and a verb. We give thanks to God because of his unfailing love and how that love is expressed the wonderful deeds that he does. He quenches the thirsty and feeds the hungry.
Giving is tied to what we do with God.
The only thing we can do for God or the only thing we can give to God is our thanks. Why? Because he doesn’t need anything from us.
It’s what God does is Give, he doesn’t receive anything from us. The only thing we have to give God is thanks.
Why is more blessed to give than to receive? Because when it comes to God, the one who created us, the only thing we can do is to give. it is his unfailing love that we give thanks to, all that he has given us.
James 1:16-17
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Every good thing comes from God. That means all things that we have in our life.
The reason we have to give thanks because the reality is anything that is good in our lives, it came from God, and if it didn’t come from God it is not a good thing. Why is it blessed to give than to receive? Because there is nothing anyone can give us thats better than what God can give us. If you live with the mentality that ‘it is better to receive things from people than it is to give’ the problem you run into is nothing you receive from people will be worth having because, if it is outside from God then it is not good. That is why it is more blessed to give than to receive. What we give is what God gives us to give to others. Giving thanks to God blesses us.
Draws us nearer to God:
What happens when you give thanks to God? You stop and you account for all the good things he you have. Many people live with the concept that if there is something good just hang on, because it will turn bad at any moment. Think about all the things in your lives that you wanted and that you didn’t get but now realize it wasn’t as important as you thought. Think of all the things that you are bored with or dissatisfied with. it is only when we give thanks to God that we can account for what is good in our lives.
Draws us nearer to ourselves:
Because we begin to look and understand who were really suppose to be and what we are suppose to be like. When we draw nearer to God and we see how God pours out his love on humanity, we began to realize that to be like God means to give like God. To take all our blessings and become a blessing to other people in the name of God. To love God is to love what he loves, and what is it that he loves? He loves his creation, he loves his people. When we love God we do it through worship, thanks and praise and as we get close to him as we near to him we begin to understand, he is calling us to be like him.
Draws us nearer to others:
Real giving is when I’m giving thanks and praise to God and then I turn and look at the world around me and I see their needs and my motivation now becomes a compulsion to engage in an action to communicate in an expression to God how thankful I am by loving the people he loves.
As much as we like to thing we are at better at receiving than giving we are really not. What happens to us when we set our minds on receiving and not giving? We set our minds on getting, ugly things start happening to us. When we wait in lines on Black Friday and take the last item, the last thing on our mind is I’m not giving it up to the person behind me. Look at this passage below and think about it this holiday.
James 4
4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.
What is it that causes us to fight and quarrel among us? We want something, we want to get something, we want to receive something, and the minute that happens we start to experience
Corruption:
Our spirits becomes corrupted. Now we are willing to fight and to quarrel with people. We move from corruption to...
Dissatisfaction:
We look at what we have and it is not good enough and we want something else, we want something that somebody else has, and that moves to...
Desperation:
We will do anything to get it. then it moves on to...
Depravity:
We will do what ever it takes to get or bring about our own pleasures.
When it comes to receiving and getting from other people all we get is just nasty, dissatisfied, distention and a lot of separation. It is better to give because we become more like God.
This isn’t a religious holiday that we are celebrating that is was mandated by God because it wasn’t, but when you study the scriptures the old testament and the new testament all you see are these cycles of these festivals where God’s people came together for one purpose and that was to give thanks to God for everything, to give thanks for the seasons, crops, forgiveness. The Jews lived lives that were built around thanking God at every turn and every season.
Giving Gains us:
When you thank God you recognize that you are connected, protected and preserved by God and when you thank him, you turn and you mimic him as you give to others, who when you give in that kind of giving turns their thanks and praise not to you but to God.
Giving grows us:
In our maturity and our effectiveness
Giving Glorifies us.
3 People You’ll NEVER Meet On Earth
- You’ll never meet a generous person who is an UNHAPPY person.
- You’ll never meet a generous person who is a BANKRUPT person.
- You’ll never meet a generous person who is CONFUSED about LIFE’S PURPOSE.
When I steal thanks and praise from God, I steal from me. When I withhold from him, I withhold from others. When I withhold from others I will never know who I am with God.
My thanks goes only as fas as my giving of it. Not in the receiving of what I want.
Notes taken by: lorelllawrence@comcast.net
The notes is for you to have for review in the series, also to reflect on during the week.
God Bless,
Sermon by: Pastor Frederick Williams