God, The Great Giver! Series

INTRODUCTION

 The world’s stingiest man went Christmas shopping, but everything he saw was too expensive except a $50 vase that was on sale for $2 because the handle had been broken off. He bought it and had the salesman ship it by mail so that his friend would think he had paid $50 for it and that it had been broken in shipment. A week after Christmas he received a thank you note from his friend. "Thank you for the lovely vase," his letter said. "It was so nice of you to wrap each piece separately."

 That guy was a pretty stingy giver.

 Did you know that one of the attributes of our awesome God is that He is a generous giver?

 When you look at what people around the world worship, you will notice that what they worship continually takes from them with little to no return.

 The pagan gods required child sacrifices, and what did the worshipper get in return for tossing their child to this false God? NOTHING!

 When you think about all those who pray to the false gods of today: what do they get from them? Does the false god answer their prayer? Does the false god give them anything?

 What about the other things that people worship? What does a drug addict receive from the god of drugs? NOTHING but heart ache.

 What about the person enslaved to alcohol? What does the god of alcohol give to its’ worshipper? Nothing but heart ache.

 What about the god of money? It gives you a never satisfied hunger for more and more.

 When you give your life over to these things will these things give you something-worthwhile back?

 It is sad when you go around the world and see how people are enslaved to the false gods of the world. Look in India, you have people starving and the cows run rampant through their countryside.

 Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, New Age Movement, Scientology, drugs, materialism, alcohol and the list goes on, offer you nothing of eternal value. These things just take and take from you.

 Many people have the impression that all God does is take, but that is not true. God gives more than you can ever offer Him.

 God wants you to give your life to Him through Jesus, when you do this you will receive a great gift from God.

 Today I want us to see that our God is a giving God. I want us to see that no matter what we do we cannot out-give God. Finally I will show you that God has given us the best He had. He did not wrap us some broken vase and try to pass it off as something of value.

SERMON

I. OUR GOD IS A GIVING GOD! MATTHEW 7:7-11

1. Matthew 7:7-11

 Verse seven can be memorized by the acronym A-S-K. (READ v 7)

 A-sk-and you will receive

 S-eek- and you will find

 K-nock- and it will be opened to you

 In verse 8, Jesus reiterates what He said in verse 7. (READ V. 8) He tells us that if we ask, we will receive, if we seek, we will find and if we knock, it shall be opened to us.

 This does not mean that God will answer the we always want Him to because He knows what it best for us and God will only want to give you what is best.

 Paul asked God to remove his thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, but God told Paul that the thorn served a greater purpose in his life and therefore would not remove it.

 God knew that the thorn, what ever it was, was something that Paul needed to keep himself grounded.

 How many of you would like to give your children what ever they asked for? There are times when you withhold things from them because you know that what they want is not good for them. God is the same. God want to give us what we need, but not to the detriment of our spiritual growth.

 In James 4:3, James says, You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. This is another reason that God does not just give us everything we want.

 Jesus explains that God is a giving God in verses 9-11. (READ 9-11)

 Jesus uses the example of an earthly father who loves his son. We want to give to our children. Notice in verse 11 that God wants to give what is GOOD to those who ask Him.

 God wants to give to us. JAMES 1:5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. This verse says that God wants to give us wisdom. It says that God is not going to think ill of you for asking or give you wisdom begrudgingly. God wants you to have wisdom because it is good for you!