THEME: BIBLICAL RE-FOCUS ON GIVING

Tittle: The Joy of Giving.

Do you find joy when you give or pain?
Do you give to God joyfully and cheerfully or painfully and grudgingly?

What kind of giving does God esteem and blesses?

God blesses cheerful and joyful giving. 2 Corinthians 9:7 Let each one [give] as he has made up his own mind and purposed in his heart, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion, for God loves (He takes pleasure in, prizes above other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without) a cheerful (joyous, “prompt to do it”) giver whose heart is in his giving

God does not value forced giving. If you know within yourself that whenever you give, your heart follows your gift or money, it is better never to give and first work in your heart than giving when your heart is not okay. Some of us when we give a shilling, that is when you begin saying statements like, “ But where does this money go? These servants of God are just eating my money .” I repeat, it is better never to give than giving grudgingly!

Giving must bring joy to the giver not sorrow!
1 Chronicles 29:9 Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy. (KJV)

What kind of giving does God desire and demand from each one of us?
Though God demands an offering from us, yet He does not force you and I to offer to him. God is not interested in receiving forced offerings. God does not manipulate us to give, He wants us to give Willingly not by force.
His command to Moses was this, ” Speak unto the children of Israel, that they BRING ME AN OFFERING. (under which attitude of the heart): OF EVERY MAN THAT GIVES WILLINGLY WITH HIS HEART- YOU SHALL TAKE MY OFFERING” Exodus 25:2 .
God demands an offering from you but he wants you to give it willingly not forcefully.
The LORD spoke to Moses: “ Tell the Israelites to take an offering for me; from every person motivated by a willing heart you are to receive my offering. This is the offering you are to accept from them: gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goat’s hair, ram skins dyed red, fine leather, acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for fragrant incense, onyx stones, and other gems to be set in the ephod and in the breastpiece. Let them make for me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them. According to all that I am showing you – the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings – you must make it exactly so. Exodus 25:1-9 (NET)
Moses assembled the whole community of the Israelites and said to them, “These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do. Moses spoke to the whole community of the Israelites, “This is the word that the LORD has commanded: ‘ Take an offering for the LORD. Let everyone who has a willing heart bring an offering to the LORD: gold, silver, bronze, The Israelites brought a freewill offering to the LORD, every man and woman whose heart was willing to bring materials for all the work that the LORD through Moses had commanded them to do. Exodus 5:1, 4-5, 29 (NET).

Giving is an issue of the heart, not just how much you have or how much you can give. And based on the standard of God, no one is exempted from giving, no matter how poor you are or how rich you are. Look at this poor lady who gave out of her whole living, did Jesus ask her to take back her money because it was little? Not at all. This shows you how serious God is as far as willful giving is concern.
Look at the children of Israel, they would have had the better reasons of not giving for the work of God_ setting the tent of meeting. First, they had just come out of Egyptian slavery. Secondly they were not financially stable, and yet God asked them to give towards setting the tent of meeting in the above text of scripture. God knew they were financially not stable, yet God asked them to give. They were still in the desert; on other words, they were still financially struggling, nowhere to sleep_they had not yet built their own houses, they had not yet reached the promised land, but God esteemed the building of His tent of meeting first.

In the same manner, I ask you friends whose hearts are willing to give towards the purchase of the tent meeting for House of Worship & Prayer Assemblies (HOWAP). We are purchasing a tent and some members whose hearts are willing have contributed and now we have 1,477,000/=. We are purchasing a hundred seater tent, with a hard material, and the service providers asked for 3,700,000/=. Now we have a balance of 2,223,000/=, this is the money we are asking you friends to give with willing hearts towards the purchase of the church Tent. God bless you as you give.

The giving of the children of Israel (those ex-slaves then at the time when God spoke to Moses) was beyond measure. They gave beyond what was required in their poor condition. They gave much to an extent that the builders had to tell people to stop giving toward the tent project. That is what we also do as House of Worship Prayer
Assemblies. When we ask people to give towards a specific activity; like now for our tent, and the contribution is reached for that activity, we tell them to stop contributing towards that item until we shall start something different which requires a joint giving of the saints of God.
“They took from Moses all the offerings that the Israelites had brought for the work of constructing the Sanctuary. The people kept on bringing in their freewill offerings, morning after morning. All the artisans who were at work making everything involved in constructing the Sanctuary came, one after another, to Moses, saying, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing this work that GOD has commanded us to do!” So Moses sent out orders through the camp: “Men! Women! No more offerings for the building of the Sanctuary!” The people were ordered to stop bringing offerings! There was plenty of material for all the work to be done. Enough and more than enough. (Exodus 36:3-7) (The message).”

    *_John Wilson Okurut_* 
    *_Pastor, House of Worship & Prayer_*

THEME: BIBLICAL RE-FOCUS ON GIVING

Tittle: The Joy of Giving.

Do you find joy when you give or pain?
Do you give to God joyfully and cheerfully or painfully and grudgingly?

What kind of giving does God esteem and blesses?

God blesses cheerful and joyful giving. 2 Corinthians 9:7 Let each one [give] as he has made up his own mind and purposed in his heart, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion, for God loves (He takes pleasure in, prizes above other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without) a cheerful (joyous, “prompt to do it”) giver whose heart is in his giving

God does not value forced giving. If you know within yourself that whenever you give, your heart follows your gift or money, it is better never to give and first work in your heart than giving when your heart is not okay. Some of us when we give a shilling, that is when you begin saying statements like, “ But where does this money go? These servants of God are just eating my money .” I repeat, it is better never to give than giving grudgingly!

Giving must bring joy to the giver not sorrow!
1 Chronicles 29:9 Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy. (KJV)

What kind of giving does God desire and demand from each one of us?
Though God demands an offering from us, yet He does not force you and I to offer to him. God is not interested in receiving forced offerings. God does not manipulate us to give, He wants us to give Willingly not by force.
His command to Moses was this, ” Speak unto the children of Israel, that they BRING ME AN OFFERING. (under which attitude of the heart): OF EVERY MAN THAT GIVES WILLINGLY WITH HIS HEART- YOU SHALL TAKE MY OFFERING” Exodus 25:2 .
God demands an offering from you but he wants you to give it willingly not forcefully.
The LORD spoke to Moses: “ Tell the Israelites to take an offering for me; from every person motivated by a willing heart you are to receive my offering. This is the offering you are to accept from them: gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goat’s hair, ram skins dyed red, fine leather, acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for fragrant incense, onyx stones, and other gems to be set in the ephod and in the breastpiece. Let them make for me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them. According to all that I am showing you – the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings – you must make it exactly so. Exodus 25:1-9 (NET)
Moses assembled the whole community of the Israelites and said to them, “These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do. Moses spoke to the whole community of the Israelites, “This is the word that the LORD has commanded: ‘ Take an offering for the LORD. Let everyone who has a willing heart bring an offering to the LORD: gold, silver, bronze, The Israelites brought a freewill offering to the LORD, every man and woman whose heart was willing to bring materials for all the work that the LORD through Moses had commanded them to do. Exodus 5:1, 4-5, 29 (NET).

Giving is an issue of the heart, not just how much you have or how much you can give. And based on the standard of God, no one is exempted from giving, no matter how poor you are or how rich you are. Look at this poor lady who gave out of her whole living, did Jesus ask her to take back her money because it was little? Not at all. This shows you how serious God is as far as willful giving is concern.
Look at the children of Israel, they would have had the better reasons of not giving for the work of God_ setting the tent of meeting. First, they had just come out of Egyptian slavery. Secondly they were not financially stable, and yet God asked them to give towards setting the tent of meeting in the above text of scripture. God knew they were financially not stable, yet God asked them to give. They were still in the desert; on other words, they were still financially struggling, nowhere to sleep_they had not yet built their own houses, they had not yet reached the promised land, but God esteemed the building of His tent of meeting first.

The giving of the children of Israel (those ex-slaves then at the time when God spoke to Moses) was beyond measure. They gave beyond what was required in their poor condition. They gave much to an extent that the builders had to tell people to stop giving toward the tent project. That is what we also do as House of Worship Prayer
Assemblies. When we ask people to give towards a specific activity; like now for our tent, and the contribution is reached for that activity, we tell them to stop contributing towards that item until we shall start something different which requires a joint giving of the saints of God.
“They took from Moses all the offerings that the Israelites had brought for the work of constructing the Sanctuary. The people kept on bringing in their freewill offerings, morning after morning. All the artisans who were at work making everything involved in constructing the Sanctuary came, one after another, to Moses, saying, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing this work that GOD has commanded us to do!” So Moses sent out orders through the camp: “Men! Women! No more offerings for the building of the Sanctuary!” The people were ordered to stop bringing offerings! There was plenty of material for all the work to be done. Enough and more than enough. (Exodus 36:3-7) (The message).”

    _John Wilson Okurut_
    Pastor, House of Worship & Prayer_