Day 25 - Spur One Another

Key #7 – God Prospers Us to Give Not Have More


Romans 12:6-8
• What are the different spiritual gifts that Paul lists here?
• Have you ever thought about giving as being a gift?
• Giving is, perhaps, the least thought about gift of this list
• Of course, all of us are called to serve, show mercy, and give, even if we don’t have those specific “gifts”
• Imagine that God chose this time to fulfill his plan of evangelizing the world in a way that he hasn’t for many generations
• What gift would you expect him to distribute widely among his people?
• Perhaps the gift of giving?
• And what might you expect him to provide for those to whom he’s given that gift?
• Perhaps unprecedented wealth to meet all those needs and further his kingdom?
• Look around at the United States – We have a country with unprecedented wealth and an ethic to give to others but also an ethic to spend lavishly on ourselves
• The question is: what are we going to do with the wealth that God has entrusted to us to reach the lost and help the suffering?
• We know what happens when people have the gift of teaching, encouraging, leadership and so on
• Rarely do we hear of stories of people truly excelling in the art of giving, although there are examples

• Have you ever prayed for the gift of giving?
• Do you constantly look for ways that you can give to others?


Hebrews 10:24
• How can we apply this passage to the art of giving?
• It’s common in a discipling time to ask someone how is their marriage, their Bible study, their sexual purity, their evangelism, etc.
• How often do we ask, “How much are you giving to Lord?” or “Are you winning the battle against materialism?”
• We seem to operate under a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy when it comes to giving
• If I don’t ask you, you won’t ask me and then neither of us will have to sacrifice
• How can a young Christian in the church learn to give?
• How can he know what giving looks like in the life of a believer captivated fully by Christ?
• How can a young Christian know any better than the normal materialism in which we were all reared?
• Shouldn’t we be asking how we can spur one another on towards giving?

• What can you do to spur others on to escape the materialism of our culture and to give more generously to God’s Kingdom and to invest in treasures in heaven?

2 Corinthians 8:7-8
• Many might warn that we don’t want to compare each other’s giving
• But Paul tells the Corinthians of the Macedonian’s giving so as to motivate them
• We don’t want to embarrass anyone or shame them into giving but we do need to try to out-give one another
• Isn’t that just spurring one another on?
• Don’t we need to help each other raise the bar of giving so we can learn to jump higher
• We have to balance not giving to be seen by others (Matt. 6:1) and avoid pride with the fact that Jesus said to do good deeds so that others may see and praise God (Matt. 5:16)
• We have hidden giving under a basket and as a result we’re not teaching Christians to give
• Many are lacking joy and purpose because of our lack of proper understanding of the role of giving in our lives

1 Chronicles 29:6-9
• The people could only rejoice because they knew how their leaders had given
• They could follow their leaders’ example in giving only because they knew how much they had given
• Unless we learn how to humbly tell each other our giving stories, our churches will never reach their full potential in giving


Convictions
• Is it your desire to excel in the gift of giving?
• Is this a gift that you seek from God and constantly seek to develop in your life?
• Do you see the need to talk about giving with one another so that we might help and spur one another on?