GIVE AND GIVE
By Rick Mathes
Philippians 4:15 (NASB77) 15 And you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone;
I was blessed to preach a service in a well-known national shelter for the homeless. The chapel was paced out with toothless, smelly, rag-tag winos to be there. I preached my heart out on encouragement and then an unexpected thing happened. The staff took an offering! I was shocked because this was a multi-million dollar ministry and the men were penniless indigents.
After the service I blew my top at the officer in charge, “How greedy can you get to squeeze the last drop of blood out of these poor homeless men? He explained, “Giving is a vial part of worship and that bum’s quarter was sure worth more in sacfificial giving than was your check fo $25 last Sunday. They are learning an important lesson in worship aren’t they? Wow!
WE are not under the law anymore so anyone who says yu must tithe, give 10% of your adjusted gross income to the church is mistaken. We are to give to Him what we don’t ned and I call that the “ouch!” level then it is a sacrificial giving: no pain, no gain.
Cheerfully give that amount freely and without worry about how you will get along without it. The Lord will provide and show you the way. So when you go to church with $20 in one pocket for McDonald’s and $10 in the other for Jesus, give $30 and joyfully sacrifice the lunch. You won’t miss it!
Now there has to be a consistency, so give an a regular basis systematically every Sunday or once a month but pray on each gift and give joyfully. This will give you joy especially if you don’t worry about how you can live on less. You need to send a few dollars for investment in the Great Commission.
So simply give what the Holy Spirit lays on your heart regularly and cheerfully. This really pleases our Lord. I know as a ministry leader that I can earnestly pray all day but if I don’t pay the bill with tangible money, they will turn out the lights! AMEN?
Rick Mathes 