LAKEVIEW MISSIONARY CHURCH

Weekly Update for March 15, 2023

THE TRUST OF GIVING

Pastor and Bible teacher J. Vernon McGee was preaching in Arkansas when someone from Oklahoma approached him after his sermon. The woman was from Tishomingo, Oklahoma which was the city in which McGee’s father died in an accident at work and was where McGee’s father was buried.
            The woman was about McGee’s age. As she approached him she told him that she and her mother had cooked and delivered meals to his bereaved family in the months following his father’s death. The woman said to McGee, “I never knew that years later I would be listening to you. We gave you physical food, and now you supply spiritual food for us.”[1] That woman’s story is an example of why it is important that we give to others. Paul writes about the importance of us giving to others in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8,
            “Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;”
            Here are a few principles Paul describes for us that we should apply to our giving. First, our giving should be generous. Paul says we should sow “abundantly” (v. 6).[2] Our giving should be generous and significant for us. Second, our giving should be intentional. The Greek word for “purposed” (v. 7) has the idea of choosing beforehand or deciding ahead of time. Our giving should be planned ahead of time. Third, our giving should be auspicious. This is something we do in a “cheerful” (v. 7) way. We should consider it a privilege to give to our Lord through the ministry of a local church.
            Giving might not be easy to begin but we should start because Paul tells us God will supply the generous cheerful giver with enough to meet his or her needs and enough to meet the needs of others. Giving can be a tough thing to start, but once we do it in a generous, intentional, and cheerful way, we will find there are benefits to others and eventually to ourselves, just as that woman discovered who had fed J. Vernon McGee years ago.
Christopher L. Scott