Giving Offerings According To Luke 6:38
[adsenseyu2]
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Return To Good Stewardship
There are a number of ways for Christians to help save the lost. We can share our testimonies, evangelize within our communities and live a life based upon the Christian ethic. However, there is another way which is to support missions through the churches we attend or through other churches and ministries which we can trust.
It’s wise before investing money into Christian programs outside your church that you first investigate the person or persons in charge, how the money is used, what the program is accomplishing with proof and statistics. Proof might have to be found outside the ministry or program your investigating, but the time you take will make the difference between getting scammed or your money actually helping God to spread the Word.
Giving Offerings
Many might not agree, but the Bible discusses the giving tithes and offerings. You don’t have t agree, but one thing is undeniable. As Christians we’re to help others receive salvation and live God’s Word. On a world scale level we can’t reach out beyond our communities, but we can help to finance this endeavor and we should. God needs His people to reach out with their financies through their churches because He can only work through His people.
Our churches are depending upon their congregations for this specific financing which is needed to spread the Gospel. According to Mark 16:15 and Matthew 24:14 it’s scriptural that Christians are to go out into the world and save the lost. However, not all have been called, yet they must be supported.
Mark 16:15 15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Matthew 24:14 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Helping to finance the Gospel is one of the responsibilities that we have as Christians to help save the lost. But it’s not easy when one has little money. However, God has a strategic plan to help His people increase their money for this function, and as a result, they will be blessed in the process.
I want to make it clear that we’re to give our tithes to support the church we attend, but offering can be given to our churches for missions and other programs as well. Offerings are given above giving tithes. If you don’t have much money to give, then it’s a sign that you’re spending too much money aside from God or you don’t have much money. In any case, you need to be at a place financially and materially where you practice good stewardship.
However, according to scripture your giving should actually prosper your financial growth, but you need to first learn that God desires for all your needs to be met. We can’t give what we don’t have and God doesn’t want us to starve our families to give our financial support to the Kingdom when we don’t know how to perpetuate financial growth – Matthew 6:31 & 33.
God tells us in Matthew 6:25-34 not to worry about our needs because He will take care of us. All we need is to center our lives on God and He’ll take care of us. Once we learn what it means to trust in God and center upon Him before all things, we’ll be able to help God with the financial needs of the Gospel by working His financial plan by being obedient with tithes and offerings.
We should do what the Word says as we learn it. If God tells us to center upon Him with the result of being taken care of, then we should obey, not worry, and let Him take care of us. God will provide a plan for each of us to fulfill that will bring continual financial growth. I’m saying that we don’t have to work, but we can look to Him for employment that will match our talents and bring promotion. He will either work through whatever employment you have, or he’ll guide you to the career of your dreams.
Giving Offerings To Spread The Gospel
If you’re in a position where you don’t know how to make ends meet, then you should learn how to trust God for your needs and financial growth. He’ll guide and assist you to increase your money so that, in time, you’ll be financially blessed as well as a financial blessing.
God can’t rain money from the sky. He needs our financial support. But if Christians believe that it’s wrong to have money or they have severe money problems, God can’t support the persons He has entrusted to go into the world and preach the Gospel. These particular people in missions were called to work full time in service for saving the lost and building their characters in Christ. They need to be supported.
Those of us who were not called are then responsible to help support them by giving offerings and financial gifts. I realize that some Christians don’t believe in giving tithes, so I won’t push that belief. What I will say is that whether you believe in tithes or just offerings, money is still needed to spread the Gospel. It’s got to come from somewhere and the usual place is from our churches. But without this support, then it won’t be possible for our churches to fulfill this important part of their function.
Besides trusting that God desires to bless His people, we also need to believe that God desires that they be financially blessed.
Proverbs 1:5-10 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. 8 It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. 9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; 10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
So now that I’ve established from God’s Word that we should not only believe God wants us to have money, He also expects us to give Him his part of what we earn. Proverbs is old testament, but there are verses in the New Testament that agree. I will give references to those verses below.
Giving Offerings Should Prosper Your Money and Your Spirit!
It’s one thing to tell you to give your money into the Gospel, but if you don’t know how to give according to scripture, you won’t be able to perpetuate your giving. When you give, God says your barns should be to overflowing. To be honest, this isn’t happening for most Christians today. This is because they’re not taught how to give money in a way that will prosper their lives and their money.
Churches and ministries tell their congregations that if they give they will receive. But that’s not scriptural. Christians need to learn the truth about their giving, how to give and how to insure that God’s blessings will begin to flow in their lives, including financial blessings.
It’s also important to check into your church’s mission funding accountability. When my husband and I were younger, we were giving some of our missions support to a small church in our area. However, we kept on top of their accounting from month to month. We noticed one week that the missions fund was empty without any report of where it went. When we checked further we found that money had gone for an expensive vacation that included a trip to Disney World in Florida for the pastor and his family. That was the last support we gave them.
This isn’t a story to keep you from giving. All I’m saying is that you need to be sure that your giving into a church that will deal honestly with your money. You need to insure that your giving is actually going to missions and wherever else it’s promised to fund.
GOD’S FINANCIAL PLAN
If you’d like to learn more about why God wants you to prosper financially and how to get His Word activated in your life to receive your financial blessings, I’ve organized all the information you need in the God’s Plan Series.
Learn God’s strategic plan for your finances and learn how to practice good stewardship to keep and perpetuate the money you have. Learn More
(c) Giving Offerings To Help Share The Gospel by Margaret Lukasik. All rights reserved.
Return To Good Stewardship
If my lesson about financing the Gospel was a blessing to you, please share it with your friends.
Leave Giving Offerings To Share The Gospel For Home Page