Have you ever seen someone give when you didn't think it was possible for them to? That's what happened in the Macedonian churches. Paul was receiving an offering for those impoverished in Jerusalem from the churches he had started throughout Asia. I believe he expected very little from the Macedonian churches. The people in these churches had gone through some type of trial. Paul doesn't explain what the trial was, but it must have been quite significant because he calls it the most severe trial. Perhaps they were persecuted in various ways. Their crops may have been burned, animals or other means of income stolen, or maybe even some lost their lives. But whatever the case, Paul didn't expect them to be able to produce much for the offering he was receiving. He must have been shocked when these churches produced more than those that had not gone through the trials they had. He says "they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability." There was no way to account for this giving except for one thing. It was God. The people gave themselves to giving to God and God produced a miracle through them. Paul states that fact in verse 1. He gives God all the credit: "we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches."

Paul knew that all giving really begins with God's grace and generosity.
When we give, we may have the notion that we are the one's giving - that's it's totally our initiative. We may be tempted to believe we have worked hard for what we have and we have gotten wealth by our own hands and labor. But this scripture teaches a very different truth about what we own. Listen to Deuteronomy 8:10-18….

Just as the people who were delivered from Egypt and brought into the promised land were called to remember that it was God who gave them everything, so we are to remember this truth as well. Our giving doesn't begin with us, but with God. We can only come to understand this when we truly believe that everything we have is a gift from God. God reminded his people in Haggai 2:8: "The silver is mine and the gold is mine" declares the Lord. Psalm 24:1 reminds us "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." This truth reminds us that we can only give what God has given to us first. We are stewards, not owners.

All giving begins with God's grace and generosity. God lives to love and God lives to give. You may have heard that saying, "You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving." That's God. Because God is pure love, God is also pure giving. God gives us everything. So when we understand this, we can have gratitude in our lives, something which is greatly missing in many in American society today. The least expressed value in life is gratitude. (Remember the story of Jesus healing 10 lepers and only one returned to give thanks.)

Since our very lives are a gift from God, we must stop and count our blessings, realize from where they come, and give thanks. It would do us all good to keep a grateful journal. Everyday, we should write down something or many things that we are grateful for and give thanks for them. Instead of going through the day wondering where we're going to get what we need or how we're going to pay the bills, we should focus on what we have been given already. Listen to this great quote by John Maxwell on gratitude:

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and crates a vision for tomorrow. (John Maxwell.)

Take a moment right now and list five things you are grateful for:

The reason I am having you reflect and list some of the things you are grateful for is to help you remember that these things come from God as a great gift. You should never take these things for granted. And God desires our thanksgiving and gratitude. God desires to create in us grateful hearts.

Grateful hearts lead to gracious giving. When you realize what God has given to you, you want to give back to God. We all have the need to give - to show our love and appreciation. Every year just befor Christmas, Daniel's hand will go into my pocket to find some money for the Santa Shop. The Santa shop is a little store that the teachers set up at the school will some gifts that the students can purchase and wrap for their parents. Daniel has no way of purchasing a gift for his mom and me without us giving him the money. But he has a deep desire to give something to us. So he gives back to me from what I give to him. (Show what he gave last year - Plastic bank with $100 on front. Maybe I'm at least worth $100 to him! Or maybe he wants me to put change in here so he can come and ask for it later!)

It's the same with God. Every time we give to God we are reaching into God's pockets to give back to him.

God doesn't need any money or wealth that we can give to God. God didn't even need the animals sacrificed to him over thousands of years:

Psalm 50:9-10: I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from you pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.

That's a whole lot of T-bone steaks! God doesn't need any of our sacrifices, but God desires our heart. He desires a heart that is grateful and so he desires us to give out of gratitude, thanksgiving, and repentance to Him.
When truly accept that everything comes from God and we begin to live in gratitude, then we can begin living and giving as God desires. That's where giving must begin for us. That's when we'll begin to see what true wealth is and realize from whence it comes.

Take a moment and write down 3 things that you greatly treasure in your life:

Maybe you wrote down some of the things you just wrote down that you were grateful for a few minutes ago. Let's share some of these:

Family - spouse, children, grandparents, grandgrandchildren, etc.
Health
Home
Church

These are the most important, aren't they?

Daniel was 9 years old yesterday - had a little party with friends. He enjoyed opening all those presents, but nothing compares to friends and family being with him.

Foys - 50th anniversary. No gifts. Didn't need those - just desired friends and family to be with them to celebrate. That's what's important.

The greatest gift we have is family in Christ - they'll be with us for an eternity, not just earthly wealth, but eternal wealth and riches.

These are the things that are important. This is real wealth. When some say wealth someone may think of millions, mansions, a Lexus, etc. But have you ever seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul. Not real wealth.

God's prosperity. God's prosperity is having your own needs met with enough left over to bless others in need. God wants us to bless others out of the gratitude that we have for what he has given to us.

God always gives enough. But God leaves it up to us to give out of what he gives to us to meet the needs of others. God blesses us in order that we can be a blessing to others.

Ron Sider - not a hunger problem. Sharing problem. Hoarding and systems keep people in poverty. There is enough food in the world to feed everyone. Just not enough love.

If we're not careful, we will live with a poverty complex. Wayne Myers: "A poverty complex is not defined by a shortage of funds, but rather a heart attitude. A person who constantly accumulates and hoards because of a fear of going without lives in bondage to the fear of poverty. If we constantly worry about losing what we don't need, in all probability we will. If you are saving for a rainy day, hold onto it, because you're going to get wet. If you doubt God's faithfulness to provide, Satan will rob you of peace and trust in God. Being so attached to our possessions or bank account that we can't release either could never be mistaken for the overflowing, abundant lifestyle that God designed for us to live.

So God gives to us graciously and asks us to give as well out of love. We never have to worry about being impoverished, because God gives us true riches and what we need. God prospers us for one purpose: He wants us to bless someone else.

Some farmers quit because of fear of poverty, couldn't make it. But others keep planting, hoping for the harvest. This year was bad year of drought. Some selling cattle because can't feed them and can't afford to buy hay. Others are holding on and still hoping for a better year next year. They live in faith. They keep planning that seed in faith, knowing that the seed is in God's hand and that the harvest is up to God.

That's what God calls us to in giving. God gives us the seed. He puts it into our hand and asks us to sow it. We can sow in fear or in faith. The Macedonian churches sowed in faith. They could have held onto what they had, but because God had been so gracious to them, they gave us that material wealth for others that were in need. God multiplied that harvest beyond what anyone could imagine.

Everything in your hand is a seed.

Everything in God's had is a harvest.

We must have faith to see the harvest. Faith is giving back to God so that God can bring a harvest.

Plant seed - see if it grows.