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Welcome to day two of our look through 2nd Corinthians 9. We're going to be
looking at one of my favorite verses about giving in all the Bible today, 2nd
Corinthians 9. 7.

2nd Corinthians 9. 7 gives us another principle of generosity in our lives. If
you're counting, this is the 13th principle, but boy, we've got a lot of
principles now, so it's okay if you're not counting.

The principle is this, give with the right attitude. Give with the right
attitudes in your life. Verse 7 says, "Each man should give what he has decided
in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a
cheerful giver.

" There are three powerful attitudes for giving in this one verse. Give
decisively, give willingly, give cheerfully. First you give decisively.

Verse 7 starts out by saying, "Each one should give what he has decided in his
heart to give. " Giving is a faith decision. Giving begins with a faith decision
in my life.

If the only reason I give is because I've had a habit of giving and I don't even
think about it, I just do it by rote, then I'm not giving decisively. It has to
be a decision, a faith decision in my life, and I know some people who are in
giving, but they're not deciding to give, it's just more of a tradition than
actually a commitment. If you're at that point in your life, I encourage you,
start to give decisively again.

Start to think about what you're doing and to pray about it even as you do it.
Give decisively. I know some others, it's not a tradition to give, it's just not
in their life at all yet.

They just hope somehow, some way, they're going to have enough money some day
that there'll be a lot left over and they're going to be able to give. If you
don't decide to give now, you're never going to decide to give. It's got to be a
decision that starts now with the circumstances that you're in.

So you look at what God has said in His Word about giving the first 10% back to
Him and then giving offerings above that when there's needs, and based on that,
in prayer, you say, "God, what do you want me to do? " and then you decide to do
what God has said to do. God has given direction, there's no doubt about it.

Tithe is a direction, and offering is a direction, it's all through the
scripture. God's given direction, but in the end, He's left the decision up to
us. We've got to make a decision.

He wants to bless us, but it starts with our decision, and it's always a faith
decision at the beginning. It doesn't seem like it's going to work, it doesn't
seem like you're going to be able to do it. You give decisively out of your
faith.

You give decisively, and then you also give willingly. Not reluctantly or under
compulsion, but instead you give willingly. Listen, if you feel pressured to
give by another person, don't give.

Don't give. If you feel reluctant to give, even right now as I'm talking about
giving, you feel reluctant to do it. The only reason you might do it is out of a
sense of guilt.

I would say to you, don't give, because God wants to make you willing. God wants
you to not give, in fact, the scripture says it's a command, don't give
reluctantly. Don't give under compulsion.

Now that's not an out, that doesn't mean I just don't have to give because I've
got a bad attitude about it. What that is, is a command that recognizes that
giving's all about my heart. And the truth is, God is working to make you
willing.

God wants to bless you. He wants to bless others through your willing gifts.
Remember last week we looked at this in verse 8-12, if the willingness is there,
your gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one
does not have.

So you give because you are willing to give. So I always say to people, if
you're not willing, if you feel like somebody's pressuring you to give, don't
give, but every time you feel God inviting you to give, you better give. There
are some people who use high pressure appeals, human type appeals to cause you
to feel like emotionally I have to give in this situation.

If you feel like there's something wrong here, don't give, don't give, don't
give in response to pressure, don't give reluctantly. You give in response to
grace. That's the way it works.

You give because of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, and out of that, out of
that grace, you decide I'm going to be a giving, generous person. That's how
God's going to meet the needs of this world through his body, the church. That's
how God's going to make a difference in this world.

I've always loved what Warren Wiersbe said about this, about grace giving, what
he called grace giving. If our churches would get back to grace giving, there'd
be fewer high pressure offering appeals, fewer gimmicks to raise funds, and
fewer complaints from God's people. Instead, there'd be plenty of money
available for the ministries that truly magnify the grace of God.

And I think that the unsaved people in this world would truly sit up and take
notice. You and I are saved because God believed in grace giving. By grace, God
gave the gift of Jesus on the cross, and by grace, we give to God because of his
grace in our lives.

That's how you give willingly. You start with the grace of God. You give
decisively, you give willingly, and then third, you give cheerfully.

God loves a cheerful giver. So you give with a smile on your face because you're
living out the character of your Father. God our Father is generous.

God our Father is giving. God our Father made everything, and he has given
everything to us. So you give cheerfully because you're reflecting the character
of God in your heart.

You give cheerfully because you know the difference that it will make in this
world, that God's going to use it in this world to make a difference. You give
cheerfully because you know that the greatest legacy of anybody's life is
actually in what they give and not what they get. I've always loved what Jesus
says about this in Acts 20-35.

Jesus says, "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving. " Just think
of the honesty of that. Jesus says, "There is more happiness in giving than in
receiving.

" He didn't say there's no happiness in receiving. Would you say there's some
happiness in receiving? Of course there is.

Everybody likes to receive, but Jesus says there is more happiness in giving.
Most of the world doesn't believe that. Most of the world thinks the greatest
happiness is in getting, except for some people who have gotten a lot.

Once you've gotten a lot, you realize there's not happiness there. You look at
some of the richest people in the world. They have some of the saddest hearts,
some of the saddest situations, saddest families.

Why? Because they've realized it's not in getting. You can't find happiness in
getting.

Maybe some small measure for some short time, but the greatest happiness is in
what you give. The greatest legacy is in what you give. The longest lasting, all
the way into eternity legacy, is in what you give.

This one verse tells us, "If I want to give and be a generous person, I've got
to give decisively. I've got to give willingly. I've got to give cheerfully.

" Let me just remind you before we end of a fourth right attitude for giving
from yesterday, and that is you give expectantly. Remember in verse 6, "Whoever
sows sparingly will reap sparingly, but if you sow generously, you will reap
generously. " So you give expectantly.

You give expecting God to give a blessing out of what you've given, or else why
would you give? Now, I can't promise exactly what you'll reap. Some of the
harvest waits until we get to heaven.

I can't promise when you'll reap, but I can tell you that God promises that we
will reap in ways that we immediately understand. Sometimes I give money to God
and the next day I get a blessing by getting a raise at work or I get a blessing
by getting a deal on a piece of real estate or a house or an apartment that I
was trying to move into. There are some times when immediately you see the
blessing, but most of the time it takes time.

You've got to have the faith, the eyes to see by faith. I can't promise exactly
what you will reap or when you will reap. I can point you to God's promise that
you will, and I believe that promise because I've seen it so many times in my
own life.

You should give expecting God's blessing, not demanding God's blessing. There's
a difference. You're not telling God what to do.

It's not a transaction between you and God. This is a relationship between you
and God. You expect God's blessing because he said, "That's what I'm going to
do.

That's how I want to work in this world. I want to give my people generous
hearts, and out of those generous hearts, I want them to give to meet needs
around the world. And then as they give, I want to bless the people that they're
giving to, and I want to bless them as well in ways that they see immediately
and also ways that they won't see until they get into eternity.

That's what God says he wants to do. " So how do you give? You start by giving
with the right attitudes.

Let's just take a few moments to talk together to God about those attitudes
today, just to ask him for them. Our Father, we ask for these attitudes in
giving. Lord, help us to give decisively, to make it a faith decision.

Stretch our faith. We don't want it to just be some rote habit. We want our
faith to be stretched by you.

Help us to give decisively. Help us to give willingly, not because some other
person is pushing us to give or we wonder what people will think of us if they
find out we're not giving, but to give because of what you've given to us in
response to your grace. Help us to give willingly.

Help us to give cheerfully. God, give us cheerful hearts, joyful hearts as we
give because we know that you're going to be blessed in that, that it makes you
a joyful God in the fact that we have given and reflected your character. So
help us to give cheerfully because we know it's going to bless you and also
bless others, bless this world.

And then, Lord, help us to give expectantly, expecting you to work, expecting
you to keep your promise, decisively, willingly, cheerfully, expectantly. We
want that in our lives, Lord, because you've asked for it in our lives. So give
us those attitudes, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look at the fact that we're
blessed to be a blessing.