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Thank you for doing that.

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And if you're visiting, please know that we're glad you're here.

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We hope the service will minister to you today and that you'll come and see us again.

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Let's open our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 9 as we read verses 6 through 12.

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Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully

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shall also reap bountifully.

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The least one do just as he is purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion,

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for God loves a cheerful giver.

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And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in

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everything you may have an abundance for every good deed, as it is written, he scattered

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abroad he gave to the poor, his righteousness abides forever.

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Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your

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seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

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You will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing

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thanksgiving to God.

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For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but

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is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God.

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Toward the close of his life, the English writer G.K.

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Chesterton was asked the most important lesson he had learned in life.

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After some reflection he replied, it is to take things with gratitude and not to take

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them for granted.

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A wise answer I think that all of us could agree with.

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The word of God presents thanksgiving as a necessary and appropriate attitude of God's

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people.

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Even as the apostle Paul says earlier in this book, for all things are for your sakes.

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Now think of that.

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For all things are for your sakes that the grace which is spreading to more and more

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people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

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The apostle Paul says that God's grace is spreading through us to more and more people

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and the purpose of that is that God may be even more praised and glorified as a result.

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Thanksgiving is always appropriate for us and it is to be an increasingly prominent

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attitude the more that we know God and experience him.

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Some of the most joyful people that I have ever met in my life have been those who have

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been genuinely thankful for what God has permitted them to experience in life.

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I have known very few millionaires but I have known a few and I want to say that some of

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those people have been very joyful.

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Not because they are wealthy but because they appreciate what they have.

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They are grateful to God for those possessions.

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On the other hand I have known not a few who have been impoverished or who have been throughout

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their lives in pain and suffering.

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The happiest people I have ever met on that end of the economic spectrum have likewise

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been those who have learned to be grateful for what God has given.

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It is not how much we possess that makes us happy.

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It's our attitude toward what we possess.

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It was my privilege when I lived in Kentucky to become acquainted in the last years of

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his life with a man named George Hipshire.

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George was a single career man.

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Back in those days they were called bachelors, not called that anymore, single career men.

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George at the time that I knew him was about 60 years of age.

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He lived with his mother all of those years and cared for her.

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In fact he predeceased her.

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She died when she was in her 90s.

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George was a diabetic from early in his life and as a result of his diabetes became blind.

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And when I knew him he was in fact totally blind.

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Over the process of those two years or maybe three years that I knew him, as again a result

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of that disease he lost a leg and was very crippled.

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He could only get around in a wheelchair.

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And then toward the end of that period another leg was required because of the disease.

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And then he had a stroke which left him completely paralyzed on his right side and affected his

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speech.

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But in all of the times that I visited George never once did I hear him complain.

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Indeed he was forever an example of joy because he was grateful for what God had allowed to

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come to his life.

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Beloved a thankful heart is a normal heart for the child of God.

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But the fact is that we don't always have one do we?

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There are times when we have heart trouble.

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How does one experience a thankful heart?

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Let me just suggest some things to you.

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In order to experience a thankful heart I think we have to begin by saying this, that

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the natural heart of a person is not thankful.

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We see this illustrated variously in the Word of God but turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter

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three for a moment.

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And notice what the apostle says will characterize what he calls the last days.

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He is not saying that these characteristics are only to be found in those last days but

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he is saying that these characteristics which are a part of the natural man will be especially

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intense in those last days.

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He says for men will be lovers of self.

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Lovers of money, 2 Timothy 3.2.

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Boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful.

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Think of the list where a lack of gratitude is found.

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He tells us rather than being grateful the natural heart of man is to love himself.

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Our hearts are naturally selfish.

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I wonder if we really understand how wicked God perceives ingratitude to be.

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Jesus seems to indicate this in something he said in the Gospel of Luke in the sixth

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chapter.

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Here we have an accounting of one of his sermons.

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And he said as he did on several occasions in Luke 6.35.

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But love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return.

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And where your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the most high for he himself

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is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

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Jesus tells us that the natural man is not only evil but he is ungrateful and that ungratefulness

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is a part of his evil nature.

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This word evil that he ties together with ungrateful is a Greek word that refers to

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the deliberate defiance of moral law for personal gain.

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It is the deliberate rebellion against law for personal gain without any regard or care

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for the suffering and the pain that is brought to others by it.

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It is a word itself which refers to selfish greed.

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This word evil is used of Satan in Ephesians 6 and verse 16.

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And so ungratefulness, unthankfulness is tied together with such a word as evil, a word

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that is descriptive of Satan.

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It is not too much to say that Satan himself is characterized by lack of gratitude.

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Indeed we can interpret his fall from heaven in light of that particular characteristic.

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And he has injected into the human race a lack of thankfulness to God.

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In Romans chapter 1 and verse 21 when the apostle Paul is listing the characteristics

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of the pagan world that is in rebellion against God, he says among other things, neither were

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they thankful.

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Now that was true if you understand Romans 1 as I do, in those days before the flood,

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just before God brought that intervention of divine judgment to the world.

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For it is ever a part of the corruption of the human heart to neither be thankful.

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So if you are now going to experience a thankful heart, we have to begin there by realizing

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it does not come naturally to us.

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It is not a part of our nature to be grateful.

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We are by nature an ungrateful people.

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And when we realize the evilness, the sinfulness of ingratitude, we need then to secondly acknowledge

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it to God just for what it is, as sin.

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And claim his forgiving, 1 John 1, 9.

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Just as he forgives any other sin, God does forgive the sin of ingratitude.

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But it has to be recognized and acknowledged to him.

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We have to own up to its presence.

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Then to bring it into a positive mode, there is a third thing that we need to do if we

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want to experience a thankful heart.

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That is we need to allow our hearts to be dominated.

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To be dominated by the Holy Spirit and to be dominated by the word of God.

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We have already studied together in previous months, Ephesians 5, 18, in the context immediately

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following.

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Where it says, and be filled, that is be empowered with the Holy Spirit.

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Or be dominated by the Holy Spirit.

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Then he gives the results of that and among the results is this one, thankfulness.

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And be thankful to God, he says.

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Thankfulness is a result of the Holy Spirit dominating our lives.

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When the Holy Spirit is not controlling us, ingratitude will be expressed.

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And when the Spirit of God is controlling us, he will produce in us a gratitude to the

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Lord.

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But that is coupled together in Colossians 3, verse 16, with the word of Christ.

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Where he says, and let the word of Christ richly dwell in you.

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That word dwell means more than just that we read the Bible, it means that the Bible

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actually becomes a part of us.

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He is saying there, let the word of Christ, that is what God has said about his Son.

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The word about him and which has been written by his apostles.

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This book, in other words.

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He says, let the word of Christ, the word of God settle down and be at home in your

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lives.

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Where he says, when it is, it will produce in us, and you follow the verse down, again,

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gratitude, thankfulness.

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Spurgeon said, so long as we are receivers of mercy, we must be givers of thanks.

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As you and I allow the word of God to richly be at home in our lives, we will come to more

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and more understand how merciful God is to us.

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And as we perceive that mercy and the goodness of God and his gifts to us, it will produce

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in us, because of the Holy Spirit's presence, gratitude.

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How do you experience a thankful heart consistently?

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Well, by realizing how wicked ingratitude is, confessing it is sin, and then allowing

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the Holy Spirit to dominate your life along with the word of God.

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That will produce a thankful heart.

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But a second question comes to mind, how do you evidence a thankful heart?

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How is a thankful heart expressed in the life?

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Well, there might be several things suggested, but I want to point out one this morning that

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I think is absolutely crucial.

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I think it is a central teaching of the word of God.

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And that is this, that a thankful heart is expressed by giving.

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That's right.

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Why do you think it's called thanksgiving?

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Because the two go together.

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If I truly am a thankful person, the result of that in my life is that I will also be

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a sharer, a giver.

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It is impossible, it is impossible for a grateful person to also be a selfish person.

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For a person who is appreciative is one who is also generous himself.

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His spirit will demand that he be a sharer.

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Earlier in the service we referred to Hebrews chapter 13.

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Would you look there for just a moment?

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It says in verse 15, through Jesus Christ then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice

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of praise to God.

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It is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name.

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Those are the thanksgiving.

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But notice what he ties together with thanksgiving.

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And he says, do not neglect doing good and sharing.

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So do you see that the word of God teaches that part of thankfulness is giving.

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Part of being grateful is being generous to others.

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Now we come back to the text that we read earlier in 2 Corinthians chapter 9.

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Keep in mind that the Corinthians had a year before the writing of this book made, shall

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we say, a faith promise.

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They had told Paul what their intentions were.

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They said, we intend together, together an offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem.

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And so they made what we did this morning, a faith promise.

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And now after this time had transpired, they had failed to come forward with the actual

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gift.

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And so the apostle writes to them in these chapters to remind them gently of what they

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had said that they would do and to urge them to complete their gift.

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He reminds them that they had received themselves the free grace of God as a gift.

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Notice what he says in chapter 8 and verse 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus

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Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his

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poverty might become rich.

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He reminds them of what God had done for them.

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God had richly poured out his grace upon them.

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He concludes chapter 9 by saying, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

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And so he reminds the Corinthians, even as he reminds us, of what God has done on our

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behalf in Christ.

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And therefore it was anticipated by Paul that they would be grateful and would show that

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gratitude by giving freely.

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And he tells them that the more that they would give, the more grace would abound to

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them.

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The more that they would again give, the more that God would give grace.

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And so there was a cycle of giving and grace, giving and grace, which was producing, says

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Paul, an abundance of thanksgiving to God.

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The apostle Paul explains in the context of the passage we read how a thankful heart will

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be evidenced in Christian giving.

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How should a thankful Christian give?

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Well, he tells us the principles in these verses.

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Even as earlier he illustrated most of these principles by pointing to the Macedonians

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who had already given a gift.

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There are five characterizations of a thankful heart in its giving.

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In the first place, a thankful heart will give, says Paul in verse 6, generously.

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Because a person will understand the principle of sowing and reaping.

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You sow sparingly, you reap sparingly.

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But if you sow bountifully, you also reap bountifully.

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Now he had pointed out already to them in chapter 8 and verse 2 how the Macedonians

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had practiced this principle.

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Notice that he says regarding the churches there in Macedonia that in a great ordeal

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of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty, Paul puts together a couple

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of words that says there that they were down to the very rock bottom in their ability to

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give and yet they gave.

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And they gave in a way that overflowed in the wealth, he says, of their liberality.

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He doesn't give the dollars and cents.

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It's not the point.

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He was saying that in the depth of their poverty, their gratitude to God caused them to give

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generously.

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Now he is saying to the Corinthians and he exhorts all of his readers, including us 2,000

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years later, give generously to God.

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You cannot out give God.

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If you sow bountifully, then God is going to cause you to reap bountifully because God

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blesses liberality.

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And the second principle is this, that one who is giving with a thankful heart will give

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purposefully.

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Look at verse 7, let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart.

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One who is a thankful person is one who will carefully consider what he's doing.

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He will not casually reach into his billfold or into the pocketbook and reach for a bill,

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whatever it may be, and flop it in the offering plate.

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But he is one who carefully weighs what God has done and who then with purpose of heart

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as an act of his will says, God, I will give this.

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And notice again in verse 3 of chapter 8 that this characterized the Macedonian.

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Paul says, I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability they gave

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of their own accord.

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In other words, they decided that because God had been so good in blessing them that

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they were going to give X amount.

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They purposed in their heart what they would do.

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And that, my friend, is part of the basis of a faith promise partnership.

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It is a biblical principle, faithful giving never occurs spontaneously.

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Faithful giving always occurs because it's planned, it's purposed in advance.

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And then a third characteristic that he lists of the giving of a thankful heart is that

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it's sincere.

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One who gives thankfully gives sincerely.

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Notice how the apostle puts it there in verse 7, not grudgingly or in the compulsion.

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In other words, what's put in the offering plate is put there without any resentment,

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without any begrudgment, nor is there any arm twisting, but it is done sincerely.

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And notice again in chapter 8 and verse 4, here's the attitude of the Macedonians.

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Paul says, they were begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in

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the support of the saints.

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They were begging, Paul, let us in on this.

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Have you ever seen anybody do that in the service?

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Stand up and say, preacher, hey, you forgot the offering.

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Pass the offering plate.

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We want to give this morning.

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I've forgotten the offering sometimes.

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I've never done that here.

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But there have been times when I have forgotten the offering.

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That is devastating.

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I've never had a single person ever stand up and say, preacher, you forgot to pass the

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plates.

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But you see, that's how the Macedonians were.

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They say, hey, Paul, hey, don't forget us.

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We want to give something.

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And Paul is saying, oh, God loves that when we give sincerely without any begrudging,

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when there is no compulsion, that we give from an inward sense of joy.

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And that brings us to the fourth characteristic.

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One who gives out of a thankful heart gives joyfully.

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For God loves a cheerful giver, it says here.

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And again, the Macedonians, look at verse 8.

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It points out the fact that in the great deal of affliction, their abundance of joy caused

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them to give generously to God and to the needs of the saints.

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And so one who gives gratefully gives joyfully.

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The world says this, give till it hurts.

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Right?

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Give till it hurts.

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It's not biblical.

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God says give till it quits hurting.

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Give till it's fun to give.

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Give until there's joy that comes from your heart, because that pleases God.

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And then the final principle, one who gives with a thankful heart gives expectantly.

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Expectantly.

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He doesn't see this just as an end in itself, but he has a long-range vision.

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He gives expectantly.

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What does he expect?

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Well, in the context of what Paul says here in verse 8, he expects grace for his own sufficiency.

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In other words, as he gives generously, purposefully, sincerely, and joyfully, he expects that God

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in fact is going to meet his own need.

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That's the context of Philippians 4.19, isn't it?

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My God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.

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But it's because the Philippians themselves had given just the way Paul has described.

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They could expect God to meet their needs.

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Then in verse 8 again, they expected abundance for sharing if they gave the right way.

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In other words, liberality would even increase their ability to give, because God knows that

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that person is not going to be stingy and selfish.

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Therefore, he would pour into that person's life an ability to give even more than they

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expected.

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They expected righteousness for harvest in verse 10.

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The godly man is described in Psalm 112, which is quoted in verse 9, the godly man.

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Giving generously, giving purposefully, giving sincerely, giving joyfully produces character

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in a person.

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We can expect then that there will be righteousness in our lives for a harvest as we give right.

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And finally, we can expect glory to God in verse 12.

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When we give with thankful hearts, as the apostle tells us to, we can expect that God

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is going to be glorified.

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The praise will be finally and fully only to him.

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We don't give in order to be recognized.

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We give in order that God may be praised.

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I would imagine you can agree with me.

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I've never met a thankful person who is also a miser, have you?

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Nor have I met a miser who is also happy.

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It is no accident that those words, thanksgiving, are together in our language.

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A thankful heart is a giving heart.

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And the thankful heart can always find some cause for gratitude.

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Henry Ward Beecher said this, if one should give me a dish of sand and tell me there were

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particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes and search for them with

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my clumsy fingers and be unable to detect them.

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But let me take a magnet and sweep through it.

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And how would it draw to itself the almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction?

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The unthankful heart, he says, like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies.

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But let the thankful heart sweep through the day, and as the magnet finds the iron, so

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will it find in every hour some heavenly blessings.

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Only the iron in God's sand is gold.

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My fellow Christian, let your heart be filled with gratitude to God and let it sweep through

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the day and gather to itself the blessings of God.

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And then let that gratitude be expressed in the biblical way and be a giver.

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Let's bow together.

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Do you need a thankful heart?

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We can talk to the Lord about it.

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Are you having trouble today arguing with God?

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Are you mad at God?

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We can't be mad at God and be truly grateful at the same time, can we?

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Let's let this be a thankful season of the year.

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And then, if you are a thankful person, are you looking for ways to share, ways to give?

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For that is the expression of true gratitude.

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Father in heaven, I pray that we, each of us, each man, each woman sitting here in this

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auditorium at this time, will be able to look to you and say, Lord, create in me a thankful

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heart and let that gratitude be expressed by giving in my life.

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God, make us, I pray, thankful givers, those practicing the principles of your word that

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we may expect these great blessings that Paul has reminded himself in our text this morning.

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And to you be the glory, in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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Бустан.