It is More Blessed to Give than to Receive

1. Read: “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35).

2. About the Text:

1) Out of all the things that the apostle Paul could have said to the elders at Ephesus, he spoke about giving.

2) Paul wasn’t necessarily talking about giving monetarily here.

3) He was speaking about a way of living.

4) Oh, yes, it is a command to give to God.

a. If we are giving, however, just to fulfill a command, then we are not pleasing God.

b. Our giving is not supposed to be “of necessity” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

c. I would not ask you to give simply because our “numbers” are not up.

d. If we are looking at the board each week and wringing our hands, we are displaying a lack of faith and trust in God.

e. Those who do that are guilty of the sin of pride thinking that it is through our ability that we have the financial means that we have.

5) Giving is supposed to flow from our way of life in relationship to God and the church.

6) When we give how God wants us to give, it will make us a different people.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. What happens when you just think about yourself all the time?

2. Giving is not about self.

1) The Pharisees failed to appreciate this.

2) They gave while sounding a trumpet (Matthew 6:2).

3) They gave out of their excess to show others how “righteous” they were (Mark 12:44).

4) If we are giving to simply say, “Look how great I am and how much money I give to the church,” then we are wrong and we should stop giving until we repent of the sin of pride in our life.

3. Giving is about God.

1) Giving should be about participating with God’s purposes.

2) God wants us to do His work of loving Him and our neighbor.

3) He wants us to evangelize the lost (Matthew 28:18-20).

4) He wants us to help the needy (Galatians 6:10).

5) I am recognizing that there is something greater than self in which to participate.

4. We give to God because He first gave to us.

1) God is the greatest of givers.

2) “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

3) “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

4) God’s character is gracious and that means that God gives.

5) In being imitators of God (Eph.5:1) we participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

1. We are social beings and we want to belong to something.

2. Giving identifies me with a particular people.

1) “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common” (Acts 4:32).

2) We are saying, “These are my people, and I freely share my goods with them because I love them.”

3) Do you see the church as being “your people?”

4) Are you just here to get your ticket punched?

5) Do you really love your brother and sister that are sitting next to you and around you?

3. Giving shows that I am in fellowship with God’s people.

1) “For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive[a] the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:3-4).

2) The churches in Macedonia greatly desired to be in fellowship with the other saints.

3) They did this through giving.

4. We allow the grace of God to dwell in our lives and show it to others through giving.

1) What kind of character do we want to have? Gracious or stingy?

2) “Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality” (2 Corinthians 8:1-2).

3) God showed His grace through their giving.

4) They were able to do this because they gave themselves to God.

5) “And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God” (2 Corinthians 8:5).

1. How do you know God loves you?

1) Is it not by what He has given?

2) John 3:16

3) “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Galatians 1:3-4).

4) God shows you how much He loves you by what He has given to you.

2. This is the second command (Matthew 22:37-40).

1) If you don’t know how to love yourself, you won’t love others.

2) How much do you give to yourself?

3) A person who doesn’t give is a miserable person.

4) “There is a Sea” song #556 in Songs of Faith and Praise.

3. We really do declare how much we love God and one another in our giving.

1) Listen to what John wrote: “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:17-18).

2) “I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others” (2 Corinthians 8:8).

1. It is more blessed to give than to receive because in giving . . .

1) We put the focus on God instead of on self.

2) We participate in God’s community and with God’s people.

3) We value others, and thereby demonstrate how much we value ourselves.

2. Invitation