by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
I. We talk about giving of our best to the Master<\/p>\n A. I tried to show that such an idea was not about physical appearance, but spiritual\nservice.\n
1. We need to give the best of our time, the best of our effort, to God.<\/p>\n
2. We need to also support the church in doing God’s work in this area.<\/p>\n
B. We get bombarded daily with requests for help<\/p>\n 1. Mail, TV ads, telephone solicitations to support the orphans in remote\nareas, the police, the fire department, the schools.\n
2. Many good works are done and supported by voluntary contribution.<\/p>\n C. Too often we are distracted by the world’s causes and begin to think of the church\nas just one more good doing organization that needs money.\n
II. Giving is a part of our worship<\/p>\n
A. The aid given to the saints in Jerusalem glorified God – II Cor. 9:10-15<\/p>\n
B. Phil 4:15-18 – A sweet-smelling sacrifice to God.<\/p>\n
C. Attitudes in giving<\/p>\n
1. Prepared to give<\/p>\n
a. A readiness or willingness to give – II Cor. 8:11-12<\/p>\n b. I Cor. 16:1-2 – A setting aside money. This implies preparation\nand a plan. Not haphazard giving.\n
c. As a person has purposed – II Cor. 9:7<\/p>\n
2. A cheerful willingness to give – II Cor. 9:7<\/p>\n
3. A generous gift<\/p>\n a. The Macedonians gave generously even though in poverty – II Cor. \n8:1-4\n
b. A liberal distribution – II Cor. 9:13<\/p>\n
4. A proportional amount<\/p>\n
a. II Cor. 8:12 – Give what you have. Don’t go into debt.<\/p>\n
b. I Cor. 16:1-2 – As you have been prospered.<\/p>\n
c. Acts 11:29 – The relief was sent according to ability<\/p>\n d. The responsibility to give is not based on income, though the\namount should reflect your income. \n (1) Luke 16:10-12 – A poor person who is not generous will\nnot be generous if he becomes rich.\n
(2) The rich should give generously – I Tim. 6:18<\/p>\n
5. Your gift should cost you something<\/p>\n a. David refused to give God something that costed him nothing – II\nSam. 24:24\n
b. Generosity cannot be measured by the size of the gift.<\/p>\n c. The question is how much do you keep of what God has given you? \n99%, 95%, 90%, . . . ?\n
D. When to give<\/p>\n
1. On the first day of the week – I Cor. 16:2<\/p>\n
2. When someone asks – Matt 5:42<\/p>\n
3. When we have an opportunity – Gal. 6:10<\/p>\n
III. Giving is a cycle<\/p>\n
A. God first gave to us<\/p>\n 1. It is He who created us, made a world for us, gave us opportunities to\nwork. For all this we should be thankful\n
a. Eph. 4:28 – Work so we have something to give to others<\/p>\n 2. God gave us His own son. He purchased our salvation with the blood of\nChrist.\n
a. How trivial and insignificant is our gifts back to him<\/p>\n
B. God rewards the giver<\/p>\n
1. Generosity is returned at a later time – Eccl. 11:1<\/p>\n
2. The generous will prosper – Pr. 11:25<\/p>\n
3. As we give, it will be returned – Luke 6:38<\/p>\n
4. As we sow, we will harvest – II Cor. 9:6-10<\/p>\n
C. The cycle continues. The gifts we give, bring glory to God – II Cor. 9:10<\/p>\n IV. The \n giving we spoke of is in generality.\n
A. There is the giving to God, through the church<\/p>\n
B. There is the giving to God, through our aid to our fellow men<\/p>\n
C. Do not neglect our giving – Heb 13:16<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I. We talk about giving of our best to the Master A. I tried to show that such an idea was not about physical appearance, but spiritual service. 1. We need to give the best of our time, the best of our effort, to God. 2. We need to also support the church in doing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[157,159],"class_list":["post-62527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","tag-contributions","tag-giving"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36657,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-acts-2-justify-churches-helping-the-poor-in-the-general-population\/","url_meta":{"origin":62527,"position":0},"title":"Does Acts 2 justify churches helping the poor in the general population?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Acts 2 Christians were selling their property and giving to those in need. Were these individuals giving to individuals or individuals giving to the church and the church giving? If it was the church giving, were they giving to non-Christians or Christians only? I've heard this scripture used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36308,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/this-site-is-giving-me-a-better-understanding\/","url_meta":{"origin":62527,"position":1},"title":"This site is giving me a better understanding","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I don't know how I found this site, but it's giving me a better understanding. I'm 24 years old and feel like I have been going through a lot. Mainly because I haven't been following the right path and now I'm trying to. Answer: It means a lot to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9700,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-preacher-need-to-give\/","url_meta":{"origin":62527,"position":2},"title":"Does a preacher need to give?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Instead of me giving a certain amount of my support each week, if I was a gospel preacher asked the church to reduce what they give me for support in accordance with the amount I have been giving each week the past few months and not manually give, do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4884,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/giving-to-the-lords-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":62527,"position":3},"title":"Giving to the Lord’s Work","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew Bassford Of all of the spiritual topics that we might address, one of the most sensitive is giving. First of all, it\u2019s about money, which always has been very important to people. Second, though, the Holy Spirit\u2019s words on this subject have been misrepresented and abused for 2000\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14376,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-right-not-to-give-to-the-church-because-you-gave-it-to-the-poor\/","url_meta":{"origin":62527,"position":4},"title":"Is it right not to give to the church because you gave it to the poor?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Please help me answer this question: A friend of mine told me that as he was going to church yesterday he met someone who was sick, and he gave all that he has on him that day to the sick person. Instead of using that money to give\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41757,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-give-if-im-a-student-and-not-making-any-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":62527,"position":5},"title":"How do I give if I’m a student and not making any money?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good evening, I attend graduate school. I just came across your website when I did a Google search about the collection if you're unemployed. I wanted to ask a question based on the response that was given. I used to be employed last year, but now I am not.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}