True or False? Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
Acts 20:34-35 New International Version (NIV)
First Things First: First Steps, First Call, First Priority, First Love, First Fruits
GENESIS 4
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.
Genesis 4:2B-7 (NIV)
“Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord emptyhanded: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.”
Deuteronomy 16:16-17 (NIV)
God commands His people to bring Him offerings not because He needs it; He’s the Creator, it’s already His.
God wouldn’t allow them to give the leftovers…He always asked them to give their first and their best as an offering to Him.
God says:
Trust that with me, less is more!
By obeying this
You are literally trusting God with your life!
Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine .
Proverbs 3:9-10
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice…to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter… Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard…if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry…then your light will rise in the darkness…
Isaiah 58:6-10
Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.
Luke 6:38 The Message (MSG)
God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
Acts 4:33B-35
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 12:1 NIV
…Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.
Romans 12:1 MSG
This is a way of life. It’s not just money, it’s how we trust God with everything. We’re not owners, we’re stewards.
We don’t give in order to earn God’s love and favor- we give as a joyful response to all God has already given-because He’s given us everything!
In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.
Genesis 4:2B-7 NIV
“Tell me what you value and I might believe you, but show me your calendar and your bank statement, and I’ll show you what you really value.”
Peter Drucker
Our stewardship is not a peripheral issue, it’s a core issue of our discipleship
. The Way of Jesus does not add crushing burdens to peoples’ lives who are already burdened— the way of Jesus brings freedom and peace to the hopeless.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believers in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV