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Every day pray that everyone you know will either become a Christian or influence others to become a Christian, and please share this online book with others - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com

 

 

Worship music - Please click the links and sing along if you know the words (You can also click skip ad to go straight to the songs) -

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj3ebaO3HoY&list=PLrQ_9CjH0M3AQeK7-UCU0l2AYzhHa1BXA&index=9

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GC1Fb61jgc&index=16&list=PLrQ_9CjH0M3AQeK7-UCU0l2AYzhHa1BXA

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNeQ7Tj40aU

 

 

What Is Sacrificial Giving?

 

Second Corinthians 9:7 says, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” 

 

Christians are supposed to give offerings from the money they earned to their churches once a week (1 Corinthians 16:2). If a Christian plans on putting twenty dollars in the offering plate, they should do that. Although, if someone professes to be a Christian, but they unwillingly put twenty dollars in the offering plate and doesn’t enjoy giving that offering, God will not reward them. This is known as free will giving. But, sacrificial giving should occur sometime in a Christian’s life. 

 

Sacrificial giving is whenever a need or cause appears that you feel the Lord wants you to give a certain amount to, you have a strong desire to give that amount, and you give that amount without anyone asking or begging you to give. An example of this was when the Macedonians begged Paul for the opportunity to give to the relief offering Paul was collecting for the poor Christians in Judea (2 Corinthians 8:4). Although, the Macedonians were extremely poor. Second Corinthians 8:2 confirms, “How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.” This proved that the Macedonians were true Christians, because 2 Corinthians 8:5 says, “And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.” A similar instance is recorded in Mark 12:41-44 when a poor widow gave an offering of two mites, and that was all she had to live on. These examples seem to mean that if someone is a Christian, they will give all their money for God’s purposes. From reading this chapter, you can see that this isn’t true. The Macedonians and the poor widow were in a situation where they felt that the Lord was leading them to give a certain amount, they had a strong desire to give that amount, and they gave that amount without anyone asking or begging them to give. It just so happened that the money they wanted to give was all they had. The amount that is given isn’t what is important.    

 

Paul encouraged the Corinthians to have the same kind of willingness to give as the Macedonians. He recognized that the Corinthians had many Christian characteristics, and he listed them in 2 Corinthians 8:7, which says, “Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also (Paul was referring to giving.). 

 

Then in the next verse, Paul said, “I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.” Paul didn’t command them to give, but he was testing the sincerity of their love. If they really loved (were Christians), they would have given like the Macedonians. Paul had to remind the Corinthians that they had promised to give to the relief offering for the poor Christians in Judea a year ago (2 Corinthians 8:10). The Macedonians, on the other hand, begged Paul for the opportunity to give to the relief offering. This doesn’t mean that none of the Corinthians were Christians, but God disciplined those who were Christians because they belonged to Him (Hebrews 12:5–11). As a result, they needed to repent of this, and Paul told them how to do that in 2 Corinthians 8:11, “Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have. (They needed to give the money they had promised to give a year ago, and they needed to give it with the same eagerness they had a year ago. This was the kind of eagerness the Macedonians had.) Second Corinthians 8:12 explains this more, “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” 

 

If someone professes to be a Christian but never in their life has a desire to give a certain amount of money to people in need or to another one of God’s causes and gives that amount without anyone asking or begging them, that person may not be a Christian.        

 

(Please follow chapter 10 of this book - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com if you have asked Jesus into your heart, believed that Jesus is your Savior, or trusted Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into heaven, etc., but you have never in your life had a desire to give a certain amount of money to people in need or to another one of God’s causes and gave that amount without anyone asking or begging you.)

 

If you have not prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, please follow chapter 41 of this book - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com

 

If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you are not sure you are really a Christian (Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 21:18-22, 1 John 5:14, and Hebrews 11:1), please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven

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