GIVING

Today we talked about what you should give up to be saved. Jesus told the rich man to give up all he had and the Disciples asked, “Who can be saved?” meaning that no one has the will to  meet all the requirements; you can only be saved by faith. 

In Mark 10:29-30 Jesus says, “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.” Which might be interpreted to say you will be rewarded for anything you give up. 

In 2 Corinthians 9:6 (NIV) “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

In 2 Corinthians 9:7 (NIV)  "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.” Tithing means you're being obedient to God, so you should give without expecting anything in return.” 

Then there is one place in the Bible where God asked us to test him, Malachi 3:10: “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 you will not have room enough for it.“

However you view giving, it is important to remember the story of the Widow’s Coins. Mark 12:43-44, Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”