{"id":1706,"date":"2018-12-03T19:10:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T01:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/?p=1706"},"modified":"2018-12-03T19:10:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T01:10:59","slug":"gratitude-in-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/2018\/12\/03\/gratitude-in-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude in Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A couple of weeks ago, I was preaching about giving, as a mark of discipleship.\u00a0 Disciples give through an attitude of gratitude. Not out of obligation, nor out of rewards expected or out of threat or fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch that sermon below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"6 Marks of Discipleship: Giving  11-25-2018\" width=\"616\" height=\"347\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MLg7781mwHk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As Advent just recently started for 2018, we enter a time of budget discussions and an annual meeting.\u00a0 Giving comes in many forms.\u00a0 It comes in the talents that people bring, the monies they give and the time they give, just to name a few.\u00a0 In a &#8220;perfect&#8221; world, we would not have to worry about making payment on the bills.\u00a0 But do we?\u00a0 Do we really trust in the promises of God?\u00a0 If we are following God&#8217;s calling for us, things will work out.\u00a0 It is when we buck God&#8217;s way and we head to another highway, that God did not want us on, things go wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The flip side of giving with a grateful attitude is receiving, with a grateful attitude.\u00a0 If we are unable to receive gratefully, how can we give gratefully?\u00a0 Our &#8220;stuff&#8221; can get in our way, both in giving and receiving.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back to receiving, God keeps on giving, even when we are ungrateful.\u00a0 Maybe that works against us, on how we respond to the one giving.\u00a0 God keeps on giving, and we keep taking and then we ask for more and more.\u00a0 If we are unwilling to receive and give back with a grateful attitude, that reflects on how we receive what is given by others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When people give, whatever they give, little or lots, we need to thank them for the giving they have done.\u00a0 Showing gratitude, is life-giving and contagious.\u00a0 The quickest way to stop someone from giving, is demanding more from the person that is giving, or telling them thanks, now give me more.\u00a0 How about, thanks, but you did not do enough or did not do &#8220;it well&#8221;.\u00a0 Any demands to the giver, is not helpful to them or us.\u00a0 Any demands, do not make our or the giver&#8217;s actions, life-giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God gave us God&#8217;s Son.\u00a0 We wait in this time of Advent, with Hope for something that God brings to us, today and in the future.\u00a0 We wait in this time of Advent, for peace to come.\u00a0 We wait in this time of Advent, for God&#8217;s Love to be revealed in flesh.\u00a0 We wait in this time of Advent, to receive with an attitude of gratitude, the Joy that is given to us by God and received by us with an attitude of gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now if we could only live this way all year long.\u00a0 Giving and receiving with an attitude of gratitude.\u00a0 Saying thanks for what is given.\u00a0 We pray together:\u00a0 God of everything, we give you back what you have first given us.\u00a0 We ask that you bless all those who gave and those who wanted to give.\u00a0 Bless all that is given, to be used for Your glory.\u00a0 In Jesus&#8217; name.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of weeks ago, I was preaching about giving, as a mark of discipleship.\u00a0 Disciples give through an attitude of gratitude. Not out of obligation, nor out of rewards expected or out of threat or fear. Watch that sermon below. As Advent just recently started for 2018, we enter a time of budget discussions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,100,63,97,81,98,96,101,6,102,49,58,103,20,99,41],"tags":[87,91,92],"class_list":["post-1706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-attitude","category-conflict","category-discipleship","category-faith","category-giving","category-grattitude","category-hope","category-jesus","category-joy","category-life","category-love","category-peace","category-reflection","category-response","category-stewardship","tag-giving","tag-hope","tag-love"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8agoY-rw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1707,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions\/1707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flcssc.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}