Joyous Giving is Contagious

December 21: Joyous Giving is Contagious

1 Chronicles 29:6-9 (NIV)
6 Then the leaders of families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the king's work gave willingly. 7 They gave toward the work on the temple of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron.8 Any who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the temple of the Lord in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite.
9 The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly.
Spirits are contagious. If you are negative those around will be infected with your negative spirit. If you are joyful you may just possibly begin a contagion that sets the church ablaze with great joy.

This was the case with King David. When the people saw his willing response to give to the Temple project they were stirred to give as well. Notice the spirit of those who gave was not a result of manipulated emotions they were genuinely moved by David’s example and they gave freely and willingly. There was great rejoicing on that day of great giving.

Joyful giving to God’s work by God’s people will always lead to great rejoicing among God’s people. How about it why not start a great spirit of joyful giving to the cause of the gospel through our international mission offering this month. Let the others see our joyful response to God’s call to the nations. I do want you to notice the characteristic of these gifts, they were given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord, which led to the leader of the people being filled with great joy.

The greatest gift Lakeland could give this pastor is by letting me see your free and willing response to God’s call to give to his missionary call to reach the nations. Lead me to great joy by giving freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord this month of Foreign Missions.

Expecting to be led to rejoice by your gifts,

Pastor phil