This Sunday, I will be preaching on How We Should Give and my final point is Give Sacrificially. As I started to meditate about giving sacrificially, I realized that there is no instruction in the New Testament to do so. The example of sacrificial giving in the New Testament churches is found in the church of Macedonia. Paul mentioned in his Epistle to the Corinthians how the Macedonian churches not only gave according to their ability but beyond their ability. Giving beyond ones ability is sacrificial giving. Paul also mentioned in his epistle to the Philippians concerning this kind of giving as well. During the time of Jesus, He commended the giving of a poor widow for giving all she had and not out of her abundance.
In the New Testament, there examples of sacrificial giving, but certainly there is no command for every believer to give sacrificially. There maybe times in our life when God tells us to give sacrificially, beyond our own ability to give. Sometimes God wants us to trust Him with our money. These are special cases and not necessarily for everyone. As a matter of fact, I did sacrificial giving several times in obedience to God's prompting. As always, God returns even more. Such being the case, it is not a norm for everyone.
I also want to note that the phrase "give until int hurts" is not found in the Word of God. This is only a tactic for those who promote projects or raise funds, but not necessarily biblical.
