God’s order in our lives. Our gratefulness and sacrifice, leads to God working in our lives.

I have often read the story of Noah and the promise associated with the rainbow, but this morning as I read the end of the chapter before that promise is given, something really stuck out to me.

Genesis 8:20-22 (KJV) 20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart [is] evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

1. Sacrifice quite often comes before blessing.

2. Noah voluntarily gives a sacrifice of 1/7 of the clean animals after the flood.

V 22 God is pleased with Noah’s sacrifice

Then God says I will not curse the earth as I have just done again and He gives the pattern for the seasons

I am not proposing a “formula” approach to giving. God is not a genie!

ie - give 10 I get back15 over the next 10 years

What I am proposing is gratefulness. When you recognize the principle in found in James,(James 1:17 (KJV) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.) Giving will only be an extension of that.

You also have to recognize that no matter what you give God it is minuscule to what he can give you. Noah sacrificed the clean animals, was it 10, was it 100? Who knows, however, it was much less than what God gave to Noah and his descendants. In return God gave the entire world the promise of no world-wide flood.

This is also illustrated in 1 Kings 17:9-24 with the widow of Zeraphath.

[1Ki 17:8-24 KJV] 8 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which [belongeth] to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman [was] there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11 And as she was going to fetch [it], he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. 12 And she said, [As] the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I [am] gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. 13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go [and] do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring [it] unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. 14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day [that] the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth. 15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat [many] days. 16 [And] the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah. 17 And it came to pass after these things, [that] the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? 19 And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. 20 And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? 21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. 22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. 24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou [art] a man of God, [and] that the word of the LORD in thy mouth [is] truth.

Elijah tells her to make him a meal with the last Of her food. She does so, Elijah promises she will have food for the duration of the famine. Later her son dies and Elijah raises him from the dead.

You cannot out give God!

Ephesians 3:20 (KJV) Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

My point is God listens when we sacrifice for Him. Even if we are not materially rewarded, He is still pleased with the sweet smell of our sacrifice. And after all isn’t that why we exist?

Revelation 4:11 (KJV) Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.