God Loves A Cheerful Giver

[They were in a bad situation. They had no money and owed everybody.

• We were behind

o in our rent and

o our car payments.

o We had back-IRS payments,

o 16 credit cards with more than $40,000 in debt,

• and not enough food in the fridge to keep our tummies full.

o on occasion Julie and I were so broke that we ended up going to a friend’s restaurant to ask for free food.

• And on top of all that, we decided to start a business.

[They were trying to figure out how they could give to the church]

After prayer and discussion, we decided that God would get the first portion of every check . . . We learned to make God the first priority in our lives, and we had no idea how we’d get by.

During the week after this decision, my brother and I were dropping off flyers at a construction site looking for work. We’d started a carpentry company. We met a builder, and he asked if we would be interested in doing their work. He had a house that was ready for us to start immediately and about twenty more to do during the next twelve months.

[They realized how good God was to them and decided to give even more.] No one told them they had to give more. They just wanted to (www.preachingtoday.com, Dave Ferguson, pastor of Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois, from sermon "Here Is My Investment Strategy")

SHOW the offering bags:

We “take an offering” every week because we are glad God has blessed us.

I can’t promise how God will bless you. I can’t say how much will be money, how much will be other needs. I do know that Paul IS reassuring the Corinthians that they will be blessed enough with money or things, but he is also saying they will be enriched in many ways:

• They will be enriched because they know that the people they help will be so happy that they will praise and thank God

• That the people they help will be so glad and thankful, they will pray for the givers. They will pray and pray and pray for the givers and ask God to bless them with their needs.

• There are many many many ways God will bless you and make you rich. Having Jesus and the hope of heaven is enough riches . . . but whatever you get, you are not to keep it.

Our Lord blesses us for a purpose (besides the fact that he loves blessing us and providing for us): He wants us to bless others as he does us!

See the rest of the following verses:

8 And God is able to shower all kinds of blessings on you. In all things and at all times you will have everything you need. . . You will do more and more good works.

11 You will be made rich in every way. . . Then you can always give freely.

ILLUS: mail man keeps the package . . .

Suppose you have an important package to send to someone who needs it. You take it to an overnight delivery service. What would you think if, instead of delivering the package, the driver took it home? Then, when you confront him, he says, "If you didn’t want me to keep it, why’d you give it to me in the first place?"

You’d say, "The package doesn’t belong to you. Your job is to deliver it to the person who needs it."