Rev. Chris Enoch - October 18, 2015
Link To Sermon Audio
Scriptures:
Mark 19:17-22
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell
on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I
do to inherit eternal life?"
"Why
do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God
alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do
not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and
mother.'"
"Teacher,"
he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."
Jesus looked at him and loved
him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you
have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come,
follow me."
At
this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
2 Corinthians 9:7
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to
give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
2 Corinthians 8:6-15
So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning,
to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But just as you
excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness
and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
I am not commanding you, but I want
to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of
others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was
rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might
become rich.
And here is my advice about what is
best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but
also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager
willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your
means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to
what one has, not according to what he does not have.
Our desire is not that others might
be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At
the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their
plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is
written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered
little did not have too little.”
Genesis 22:7, 8
Abraham
took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he
himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham,
"Father?"
"Yes,
my son?" Abraham replied.
"The
fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the
burnt offering?"
Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb
for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.
