Sermon Recap: Giving Special Offerings

<p>Sterling Edwards and Brian Bowman discuss the sermon from Week 6 of the First Things First series.</p><p><br></p><p>Giving Special Offerings:</p><p> 1. Your giving will prompt others</p><p> 2. Your giving will bless you</p><p> 3. Your giving will meet needs</p><p> 4. Your giving will glorify God</p><p><br></p><p>Ephesians 9:1-15</p><p>1 Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, </p><p>2 for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. </p><p>3 But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. </p><p>4 Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. </p><p>5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.</p><p>6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. </p><p>7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. </p><p>8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. </p><p>9 As it is written,</p><p>“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;</p><p>his righteousness endures forever.”</p><p>10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. </p><p>11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. </p><p>12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowin