Giving: The Heavenly Blessing
December 12, 2021      |     By: Jonathan Brickley      |      Category: Sermons      |      Location: El Dorado
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We Serve a Giving God
We are Made in His Image

- A Son is Given
- For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son
- More blessed to give than receive

Jesus’ Three Christian Life Disciplines
1) Giving
2) Prayer
3) Fasting

2 Corinthians 8:7-8 (NIV)
7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
8 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.

2 Corinthians 9:6-12 (NIV)
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
9 As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.”
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

Luke 6:38 (NIV)
38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

“poured into your lap” - seven times, completeness

Proverbs 19:17 (NIV)
17 Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.

Why Give?
1) He wants us to live under the original blessing
2) You have a heavenly bank account
3) Best Investment strategy in the universe (100% guaranteed)

Malachi 3:10-12 (NIV)
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty.
12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Worldly Wealth is Monopoly Money (Luke 16:9-12)

Luke 16:9-12 (NIV)
9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

1) Use it to gain friends
2) Trusted with little = Trusted with Much
3) Trustworthy with fake money = Trustworthy with True Riches
4) It’s not yours

2 Kings 4:8-37 (NIV)

2 Kings 8:1-6 (NIV)
1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a
famine in the land that will last seven years.”
2 The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.
3 At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.
4 The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.”
5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”
6 The king asked the woman about it, and she told him. Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

Generous, rich Shunammite woman
- Her gift was “Small” (vs 10)
- Results were HUGE

What she received from Elisha:
1) A son (4:16)
2) A son raised back to life (4:36)
3) Advice to avoid the seven-year famine (8:1-2)

What she received from the king of Israel:
4) Her house (8:3,6)
5) Her land (8:3,6)
6) Seven years of back income (8:6)

What she received from the King of Kings:
7) Freedom to Hope & Access to Ask

Elisha offered to speak to the king on her behalf (4:13) - and she said ‘no’. She trusted God.
God honored her by speaking to the king on her own behalf (8:6).

Because of her generosity, her plenty supplied his need - so that his plenty might supply hers! (2 Corinthians 8:13-15).
She was given “a good measure” back! (Luke 6:38).

2 Corinthians 8:13-15 (NIV)
13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality.
14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality,
15 as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”

Luke 6:38 (NIV)
38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”