Think Great

Thoughts
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
The
6 
6 
The point
point is
is this:
this: whoever
whoever sows sows
sparingly
sparingly will
will also
also reap
reap sparingly,
sparingly,
and
and whoever
whoever sowssows bountifully
bountifully[a][a]

will
will also
also reap
reap bountifully.
bountifully. 7 7 Each
Each
one
one must
must give
give as as he
he has
has decided
decided
in
in his
his heart,
heart, not
not reluctantly
reluctantly or or
under
under compulsion,
compulsion, for for God
God loves
loves aa
cheerful
cheerful giver.
giver.
 Abel
• In Gen 1-3 God, man, woman, and a snake all have
speaking roles
• Then in Gen 4 it is human blood that speaks
• “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the
ground.
• And now you are cursed from the ground, which
has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s
blood from your hand” (Gen 4:10-11).
• Abel has never spoken in his short life in the text of
Genesis, yet his blood cries out against his
murderer, Cain. Moreover, his blood exerts power
even after death, in that it prevents Cain from ever
settling again to farm the ground.
 Genesis 8:20-22
•  The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in
his heart: NEVER AGAIN will I curse the land.
• Though Noah's stock of cattle was small, and that
saved at great care and pains, yet he did not
grudge to serve God out of it. Serving God with our
little is the way to make it more; we must never
think that is wasted with which God is honoured.
 Genesis 18:6-10
• 7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice,
tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to
prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk
and the calf that had been prepared, and set these
before them.
• While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
 
“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
 Judges 11:30-40
• And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and
30 

said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children

of Ammon into mine hands,
• 31 Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of
the doors of my house to meet me, when I return
in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely
be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt
offering.
 VOW FULFILLED

• And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house,

34 

and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him

with timbrels and with dances: and she was his
only child; beside her he had neither son nor
daughter.
 2 Chronicles 1:6-7
• 6 And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar
before the LORD, which was at the tabernacle of
meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings
on it.
• After this great aroma,
• 7 On that night God appeared to Solomon, and said
to him, “Ask! What shall I give you?”
 SOLOMON
The Dedication of the Temple 2 Chronicles 7:1-5
• When Solomon finished praying
• The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD
because the glory of the LORD filled it.
• They worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD,
saying,
• “He is good;
    his love endures forever.”
 Reason
King Solomon offered a sacrifice of
twenty-two thousand head of cattle and
a hundred and twenty thousand sheep
and goats. So the king and all the people
dedicated the temple of God.
 DAVID
• 1 Chronicles 21:26 Then David built an
altar to the LORD there and offered
burnt offerings and peace offerings.
And he called to the LORD and He
answered him with fire from heaven on
the altar of burnt offering.
 What then is Sacrifice
Cambridge Dictionary
Sacrifice means to give up something that is valuable
to you in order to help another person
Collins Dictionary
If you sacrifice something that is valuable or
important, you give it up, usually to obtain
something else for yourself or for other people.
give up, abandon, relinquish, lose, to Offer
 What then is Sacrifice
American English
The act of giving up, destroying, permitting injury to,
or forgoing something valued for the sake of
something having a more
 JESUS EXPLANATION
• Luke 21:1-4
• Rich men Cast their offering
• A poor widow cast in thither two mites.
• Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow
hath cast in more than they all:
• For all these have of their abundance cast in unto
the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath
cast in all the living that she had.
 JESUS EXPLANATION
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.
• There were Angels God could have ordered.