Being A Giver In A World of Takers (Part 4) — God Loves A Cheerful Giver — Francis Chan Christ’s Crazy Love Ministry

Malachi 3:8-10 New Living Translation (NLT)

⁸“Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!

“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’

“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. ⁹You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. ¹⁰Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!

Haggai 1:3-6 New Living Translation (NLT)

³Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: ⁴“Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? ⁵This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! ⁶You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!

1 Thessalonians 2:5 New Living Translation (NLT)

5 Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money! ⁶As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.

⁷As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children^[b] among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. ⁸We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.

⁹Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you.