I Started Living, When I Started Giving To God!

I started living, when I started Giving to God

I was enjoying this week, something unusual i don’t get to, sleeping in on a Saturday morning,

As I woke refreshed, after having coffee, I was thinking about how good God is and how truly blessed that we are,

What an incredible life God has given to all of us,

There’s an old chorus we used to sing and its also the title to my message this morning;

I started living when I started giving to God,

I started living when I started giving to God,

Pressed down shaken todather and running over,

I started living when I started giving to God,

I don’t know about the rest of you, but the words of that song, ring true in my life!

You see, TBS. it rains on the just and the unjust!

And I believe, that’s part of the reason people have such a hard time with giving!

Because the world looks around and says, well so and so aren’t givers and just look at the pile of dough that they have.

While that may be true, we don’t know that their really living do we?,

Because we all know of stories of famous, wealthy people, who were to have thought to have it all, that were miserable and their lives ended to soon.

True living starts, when you give your life to God, your whole life to him,

He’s looking for an the inclusive gift of you, because He wants everything you have, He’s looking for your all!

Most people don’t have a hard time with their heart, that seems easy enough,

your heart, in exchange for all of eternity, that’s a pretty good swap,

but you’re wallet, now that’s a different story!

Its interesting, that people love to talk and hear about the love of God after all, its mentioned 697 times in the NIV.

Its interesting that people love to talk and hear about healing in the bible, its mentioned many times and there are more than 90 healing scriptures in the bible.

Its interesting that people love to talk and hear about blessings in the bible, everybody loves to be blessed and altogether its mentioned 433 times.

But when it comes to the word giving, which is mentioned more than 1,500 times,

The one that everyone should be excited about and while some who understand how the law of reserprosity are always excited about giving, most people are not to excited about giving,

Either because they don’t understand it, or they never seen it work in their life first hand.

Now getting might be a different story, everyone likes to receive,

but if your not willing to give much, your not going to get much either.

Ill. I like the old story about the guy who came to church with his family. As they were driving home afterwards he was complaining about everything. He said, “The music was too loud. The sermon was too long. The announcements were unclear. The building was hot. The people were unfriendly.” He went on & on, complaining about virtually everything. Finally, his very observant son said, “Dad, you’ve got to admit it wasn’t a bad show for just a dollar.”

Luke 6:38 NKJ

38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

We must admit, when we here on the news, when Bill Gates on some other Wealthy person,

makes a large gift or donation to some charity, we may think wow, what a big giver.

But I tell you this amazing fact, there has never been or will never be a bigger giver than God.

John 3:16,17 NKJ

16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

17. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Gods gift of His Son and His Grace message, has never stopped giving from day one.

And the same freedom that Grace gives to us and that we enjoy in every other area in our lives, we should enjoy in our giving.

The more control we give over to God in every area of our lives to more He is able to bless us completely in every area of our lives.

Looking back on my own life, I can tell you when I gave everything over to the Lord including my finances,

Was the moment, He was able to start shaking it together and start to make it run over and pour out a blessing that was uncontainable.