Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] All right, let's turn in our Bibles today. You can turn me down just a little bit, Rob.
[00:00:07] Second Corinthians. We're going to look at 2 Corinthians today. We just completed a long book of the Bible, so I'm giving you a little break. But I really felt directed to speak on this topic today.
[00:00:21] How to develop your life in order to become a generous heart, a generous person. And, you know, I was thinking a little bit, and, you know, you're not supposed to start a sermon with an apology.
[00:00:34] I try not to do that. I don't think I've done that. But today I'm going to do something unusual and start out by saying, the last few weeks, I think I've been speaking to specific issues in people's lives. Anybody get a sense of that?
[00:00:46] It's been quite quiet in the church at times because I've been speaking specifically to areas that I want to see you overcome, and I want to see you live a successful life. And I've been remiss. You know, I don't always speak about giving. We don't talk a lot about finances in our church, and it's not just about that. Today I want to talk more than that. I want you to have freedom in your life in this particular area. Because I think when we think sometimes of someone who's generous, we often think only in terms of finances.
[00:01:19] But today, I want you to understand that true generosity is an attitude, and it's reflected in how we treat each other, okay? So that we become generous to other people. It's not just the giving of money. That is one aspect of it. And I'll touch on that today. I'll directly speak about that. But generosity is really the giving of ourselves for the good of another. Isn't that a beautiful picture? And I want all of us to be generous. I want us to do the best we can for other people.
[00:01:50] That you learn how to do that, that's all part of maturing. It includes our time. It includes concern for others. It includes our expertise.
[00:01:59] Above all, I think it includes our prayers, you know, and we're going to see today, even from Scripture, that a lot of time we're going to give to people we don't even know who they are. A lot of times we're going to pray for people we don't even know who they are. And I've been doing that for a long time, and many of you have done that as well. And I believe that that's all part of God's development. Of our soul. He wants us to become more like him.
[00:02:22] I think the issue in our life is the person we become. That's the core issue. Who am I becoming?
[00:02:30] You know, a lot of people, they. We talk to young people. What are you going to do when you grow up? Isn't that kind of a comment we make to young people? What are you going to become when you grow up? I want to challenge us. It's not just about vocation, like being a minister or, you know, being a sanitary engineer or being a housewife or whatever the calling is.
[00:02:48] Here's what I want to say to you. When I grew up, I want to be more like Jesus.
[00:02:52] My goal is to be like him. I'm trying to become like him. And how many realize that Jesus is the most generous person you will ever meet? There's no one more generous than Jesus. He's the most forgiving, he's the most understanding. He's the most compassionate, he's the most caring. He's the one that's there for all of our lives. So how do we develop in becoming more generous in our lives? And then we begin to witness the amazing benefits of a generous lifestyle. Because I'm going to tell you something. There's great joy in becoming a generous person.
[00:03:27] There's great joy in having the ability to become a great, a generous person. Because, you know, a lot of people, they struggle. A lot of people are struggling today.
[00:03:38] This whole area, I think people living in an affluent society. I think that we're struggling with two major ingredients in our lives. Number one, money.
[00:03:48] Isn't it strange that the people who have the most around the world probably struggle more with money than the people who have very little?
[00:03:55] You go, what? That's true. The second thing is time. You go, why? We tend to abuse both of them. We. We spend more than we have usually. And so a lot of people today are in great debt.
[00:04:08] Let's just be realistic. There's a lot of debt indebtedness. People are buried by debt. There's no freedom.
[00:04:16] Sometimes we think of sin as all these bad things we do. But you know what? Sometimes when we spend too much and we get ourselves in financial mess, then we start living in bondage. We're not really free at all. And we just start using credit. And we use it, misuse it, and it brings us down. It's hard to be generous when we don't have anything to be generous with. How many say that's true?
[00:04:39] That's the problem. A lot of times we want to do More, but we can't because maybe we've just not been wise. We just haven't been good stewards.
[00:04:48] The other area is just time.
[00:04:50] And how we spend those gifts from God is a great indicator of where we're at a relationship with Him. It's very fascinating. You know, if I wanted to know where you were spiritually, I could ask for two things from you. You probably wouldn't give them to me, but I could tell you real fast. I could tell really quickly where you're at in your life if you gave me your daytimer. We don't have them anymore. But if I had your little calendar from your phone and all of your appointments or non appointments or whatever it is, right. And I had your time checkbook, at least you probably still have that to record your spending. I mean, you know, just the way we spend time and money tells us a lot about ourselves we don't want. And you know, most of us go, I'd never give you that, Pastor, you know. Yeah, I know. Because we don't want people to really know what we're doing in those areas. But it's a big deal because these areas are shaping our lives more than we'd like to admit. And I'm not here, I'm not going to be here to chide you. I'm not here to make you feel bad. That's not my goal. My aim is to help you succeed. That's my passion, that's my desire. You know, I think we need to learn to really trust God. And the question I raise is have we really learned to trust God?
[00:06:07] Do we believe that God will provide for us?
[00:06:11] I say absolutely. I would argue God will provide for us.
[00:06:15] Is our focus primarily on ourselves or are we growing up?
[00:06:21] And what I mean by growing up is we're maturing to a point where we are now taking a greater interest in the lives of other people.
[00:06:29] Not that we neglect ourselves, but that we've moved beyond ourselves. It's not all about me. It's not all about my goals. It's all, you know what I mean? It's like, what's going on in your life? How can I be of help to you? We've moved past ourselves. That's when you know you're maturing, you're getting outside of yourselves and it's a bigger world out there. How many know if it's just about you? It's a little world, you know, the moment you move past yourself, the world gets bigger. And you know, when you get married, how many know that's a bigger world, you got another person to think about. Then you have children. All of a sudden your world's expanding. But you know what? Even beyond that, we're expanding. And you know, God wants us to expand beyond all of that and to begin to think about other people. You know, the very nature of biblical Christianity is giving. Does anybody know that?
[00:07:15] God so love, he gave.
[00:07:19] So how do we become more generous with our lives? How do we develop into becoming a generous person?
[00:07:26] Well, Paul is writing to the Corinthians. He has expressed tremendous joy and relief because he wrote a first letter. And they had all kinds of problems. They were fighting, there was division, they were bickering, there were sin issues to address.
[00:07:38] And how many know when you're in the middle of dealing with problems, everything becomes inward focused.
[00:07:43] That's the way it works.
[00:07:45] When people get healthy, they can get outward focused.
[00:07:48] You know, when we're sick, it's inward focused. When we're healthy, it's outward focused.
[00:07:53] And we see that in there. This desire of Paul, he's now in chapters eight and nine. He's commanded him, he's addressed things, he's telling him how happy he is that they've dealt with the problem. He had to kind of chew them out a little bit. You know, his letter, you know, they said, yeah, Paul's got weighty letters, but when he's in person, he's, you know, he's pretty, he's wimpy or whatever. But anyways, they smartened up. Good news. And I'm kind of glad. The Corinthians were a mess. I'm being honest because I can read all the crazy things they did and I can learn from Paul what we shouldn't be doing. But then we get to chapters eight and nine and Paul now begins to address this whole issue of helping other people who are in difficulties with finances. Because it's interesting, when Paul first was there, he had mentioned a great need in Judea, people they didn't know who were hard pressed and they wanted to do something. Isn't that great? That's when you know God's love is in your heart. You hear about a need, you want to help, and they immediately wanted to help. But then they started having all these problems and they got sidetracked. So one of Satan's greatest strategies in our lives to defeat us from really being effective and fruitful is, is to get us focused in on ourselves, our problems, our issues and our sins, our bickering, our divisions. Isn't that interesting? We get inward and Then when we get healthy, immediately Paul can say, hey, remember what you wanted to do at the beginning? Why don't we pick that up again? And so he writes to remind them of their first desire and actually said, I told other people about your willingness to help these people in Judea, and, and I even mentioned it to your neighbors up north, the Macedonians, which is another northern part of Greece. And they got so excited. They wanted to help, even though they had their own issues, not those kind of issues, but they were under great persecution, and they didn't have a lot financially, but they really stepped up to the plate. So now Paul is going to use them as an example to the Corinthians that, hey, you better be careful. These guys are going to. These guys have really stepped up to the plate. So to inspire them to become more concerned about others than just themselves, Paul challenges them to express generosity.
[00:10:00] And Paul uses a few examples to motivate them to become responsible and generous to those in need. And I believe that what he said to them is equally applicable to us today, that these are the things we need to hear to help us, motivate us so we can get free from maybe our financial entanglements, our misuse of time, that we can become liberated and we can become a generous person that has time for people and, and has resources to help other people. Isn't that beautiful? And that we can serve God at a higher level and maybe can do more than we've ever done in our past. So let's take a look at the three reasons or maybe means by which you and I can become more generous. And the first one is the example of others who are generous.
[00:10:44] I think when you're around generous people, it rubs off on you. It does. You know, if you're around a wise person, it says, if you want to be wise. I read it this morning in Proverbs, you know, hang around with wise people.
[00:10:57] You know what I mean? You know, if you. If you want to do stupid stuff, hang out with people that do stupid stuff, you know?
[00:11:05] Right. Come on, now, you got to pick the right kind of people to hang out with. Otherwise you're going to just, you know, do the things that they're doing. They're going to influence you. And so we watched Paul gives the example of the Corinthians to those that were living in Macedonia, says, and now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that Paul has given the Macedonian church. You know, it's very interesting, that word grace. Linda Belville, who's written A commentary says what's newsworthy about these churches is the grace that God bestowed on them. She said the noun charis, or grace, appears 10 times in chapters eight through 10, but they're interpreted in English in different wordings. And this is what she said. Within the short span of verses, the range of usage is surprising.
[00:11:51] Isn't this interesting? It's like, you know, how many know that different words have semantic ranges to them? What's that, Pastor? It just means that different words have different meanings. Watch what happens.
[00:12:03] This word in the Greek is used and translated to speak of spiritual endowment, divine enablement, a monetary gift, a human privilege, a word of gratitude, and. And the divine favor or goodwill. That's pretty amazing. Just the word grace, he's using it in those contexts, goes on here. It refers to the way that, despite adverse conditions, God has enabled the Macedonians to financially assist destitute Christians. And I love this last part. Whom they did not know personally. You know, it's a lot easier to get to people that you personally know you love. You want to help them because you see the need and you want to do something. It's a lot harder to give to people you've never met. You don't see the need. How many say that's harder? Isn't that true? The heartstrings aren't pulled on as tight. So a lot of times, you know, it's easier to give to things that we can see, identify with, and feel the heartstrings. How many know it takes discipline to give to people who are needy that you've never met before. But if you ever met them and if you were right there with them at that moment, your heart would break and you would immediately want to do something. But it takes a discipline to do that when you don't see it.
[00:13:12] So generosity now, we're going to discover, is not about heart.
[00:13:16] I mean, it's about heart, not our financial capacity. I think that's an important distinction. It says in the midst of a very severe trial, they're overflowing joy, and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
[00:13:31] Wow, that's amazing.
[00:13:33] In other words, they didn't let what they didn't have keep them from helping others.
[00:13:39] That's a very important principle.
[00:13:41] You know, a lot of times we kind of get ourselves off the hook because I just can't afford to help.
[00:13:45] And my argument is we can't afford not to, because if we're like Jesus, we got to find a way to do something. Even it doesn't seem like A lot. Maybe we can't contribute a lot. I'm going to do something about it.
[00:14:02] FF Bruce says the Macedonian churches are a testimony that it is possible not merely to experience joy, but to have it overflow in the midst of trials. How many think that's a beautiful thought?
[00:14:14] Even more, just as persecution did not take away their joyfulness, neither did their poverty diminish their ability to be generous. Isn't that neat?
[00:14:24] You know, sometimes, you know, it's really humbling when you go to a Third World country and you're ministering and I've been there, and the people have nothing, but they want to give you something.
[00:14:34] And you realize that it would be an insult for you not to receive what they're giving you because you can see the joy in their faces, and they're so happy to give you something that you receive it. And you say to yourself, my goodness, I have so much more than these people. It is very humbling how many know it's a very humbling experience, but yet you can see the joy in their faces. They want to bless you.
[00:15:00] Is that neat or what?
[00:15:03] That tells you something. It's very powerful. Giving is a very powerful element in our lives. David Garland says poverty overflowing into wealth also may seem a little bit paradoxical. Sometimes it's like it's the opposite of what you think.
[00:15:18] But it fits the kind of crazy quilt logic of the gospel he puts down. Joy plus severe affliction plus poverty equals wealth.
[00:15:27] What?
[00:15:28] No. Some of the richest people on the planet are rich in faith, rich in joy, rich in hope, rich in love, rich in life, and they don't have anything. And then we get over here to North America where we have all this wealth and sometimes our wealth, wealth just equates to poverty.
[00:15:49] He goes on to say. Material wealth, on the other hand, may cloak spiritual poverty as Christ's condemnation of a wealthy but tepid church that Laodicea reveals. In other words, they say we're rich, and yet Jesus said, no, but you're poor.
[00:16:04] You know, I see so many people spiritually bankrupt.
[00:16:08] I see so many people in North America. So they have everything physically, but they have nothing emotionally, nothing relationally, nothing with no joy, no hope. And it's so tragic to look at this and you're thinking to yourself, what's missing?
[00:16:26] What's missing?
[00:16:28] I think it's Christ.
[00:16:30] Christ is what's missing.
[00:16:32] The key to generosity is to absolutely surrender to God. That's the key if you want to know how to do it. Step one, here it is.
[00:16:40] Give everything you are to God.
[00:16:43] Everything. I mean, hold back nothing. Don't hold yourself back, don't hold your mind back, don't hold your heart back, don't hold your life back. Just give God everything.
[00:16:53] Listen to what it says. I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability entirely on their own. They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege or the grace of sharing in this grace to the Lord's people. They were saying, please take what we have and help others with it.
[00:17:14] Isn't that a beautiful attitude? That's a generous spirit, goes on to say, and they exceeded our expectations.
[00:17:22] They gave themselves first of all to the Lord and then by the will of God, also to us.
[00:17:29] Isn't that a powerful statement?
[00:17:31] You know, I'm going to just share a little bit in my own personal journey.
[00:17:37] How did I get to be a pastor?
[00:17:40] A lot of people wonder, how does this happen?
[00:17:43] I was a brand new Christian. I was a part of a wonderful worshiping community of believers.
[00:17:49] I felt, you know, the spirit of God. I felt the love of God. I felt the support of God. I felt, you know, and immediately I was taught and I started giving.
[00:17:59] I felt a part of this community. And I remember as a newer believer, I was working in a restaurant. And the restaurant was a very nice restaurant, by the way, but there was an electrical fire. I happened to be there that day. It started. I didn't create it, but I was one.
[00:18:14] I'm just letting you know I was in the kitchen, but it wasn't a kitchen fire.
[00:18:19] I was.
[00:18:20] I actually saw the electrical boards arcing and going crazy. I don't know what happened, but they just went nuts.
[00:18:27] And I had one minute. I thought maybe I should go try to turn them off. But when there was so much arcing going on, I decided not to go in that room. It looked dangerous to me. If I'd have went in there, I'd have been. If I'd have touched anything, I'd have been fried. But anyways, I got everybody out of the restaurant and the restaurant burned. I mean, it really got totaled out. They couldn't shut the electricity off, so it took them 30 minutes to get that shut off. And by then the restaurant was really in. It was just engulfed in flames.
[00:18:57] And then I did. I was. I was thinking to myself, what am I going to do now? And I was trying to look for work and it was a difficult time. And usually in the service industry it's easy to find a job, but I just couldn't find a job at that time, and I worked in the union.
[00:19:09] So I was praying and I was thinking, maybe I should join the military. And, you know, the military will actually help pay for your education. I thought, I probably just need a better education, go to a totally different field. Field.
[00:19:22] And so I actually went to the recruiting office, was talking to the people, and just before I had to make the decision, I took a test. You know, they kind of tell you probably should go here and do this, that kind of stuff. So, I mean, I was quite serious about this.
[00:19:36] And because I had become by that time, a daily Bible reader, I just happened to be reading scripture and God spoke into my life.
[00:19:44] I found myself reading the story of the widow in Luke's Gospel. This was the part it says, and Jesus looked up. He saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small coins. Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All of these other people gave out of their wealth, while she, out of her poverty, gave all she had to live on.
[00:20:11] And I felt the spirit of God as I was reading the story. God says, I'm not interested in you getting a good job and, you know, supporting the church. That's kind of what I thought. I'll just get a really good job and I'll really be able to support the church at a higher level financially.
[00:20:24] I felt God saying, I don't want that.
[00:20:27] I want you to see the story here. The widow gave everything she had. God says, I want you to give me everything.
[00:20:35] And I knew then that God was basically saying, I have a different idea for you.
[00:20:41] And that moved me in a direction towards ministry.
[00:20:45] And, you know, that was a turning point and a pretty important one in my life.
[00:20:53] So once God has all of us, and I mean he has all of us, I mean, some of us think he has all of us.
[00:21:03] But I can tell if we're not giving, he doesn't have all of us.
[00:21:07] I can tell how we spend our time, if he has all of us or not. How do we spend our time? How do we spend our resources? That tells us if he's got all of us.
[00:21:16] If God says for me to go do something, I go, okay, let's go do it.
[00:21:20] Because I just know that if God's asking you to do something, it's the right thing to do. Don't hold back.
[00:21:27] We either believe God or we don't. We either trust God or we don't. It's just that simple.
[00:21:33] Paul in verse 5 is saying that these people exceeded his expectations because they gave themselves first to the Lord. It's easy to have people give when they've fully given themselves to God. That's the truth. You're now fully committed. You're fully in. You know, there's a big difference between the pig and the chicken. You know, you heard the conversation between the two. They were going to make a contribution for breakfast.
[00:21:56] You know, the pig says to the chicken, he says, I appreciate your contribution, but for me, it's everything.
[00:22:06] Right? He has to give his life to contribute to breakfast.
[00:22:10] The chicken can just lay a few eggs and move on. You know, that's what I'm talking about.
[00:22:17] Are we willing to make the ultimate. I'm all in contribution. See, we have to give ourselves to God first.
[00:22:25] Here in verse 5, it says these were people from a different ethnic background than the Macedonians. They've never met these people. And they shared a common faith. And they urged Paul to receive a gift from them on their behalf.
[00:22:38] This we see as a manifestation of biblical faith. And we need to be reminded to be generous.
[00:22:44] So we urge Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace.
[00:22:50] Your part, you know, Linda Belleville says we as humans are selfish by nature. We grow up selfish. Come on. We start out that way. When you're a baby, you're selfish, and that's okay. You need to be. I'm hungry.
[00:23:05] Right. The focus is on you.
[00:23:07] But over time, we hopefully we get past that baby stage. Right? Generosity is not something that comes naturally. It's the result of God's grace in our lives. That's why Paul refers to. To the Corinthian offering as this act of grace.
[00:23:20] But since you excel in everything now, Paul reminds them, because the Corinthians were very gifted people. He says, you're excelling in faith and speech and knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love you've kindled in. You see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
[00:23:36] You know, I mean, let's do report cards.
[00:23:40] How are we doing in this area of my life?
[00:23:43] Remember when you went to school? I don't know if they give report cards anymore. Who knows? I haven't been. I don't have a little kid at my house. We're getting report cards. But back in the day, when I went to school, they had report cards. How many know what I'm talking about? They had. The one side was what you did academically, but they had a whole other side on attitude, behavior, Anybody help that besides me? Did you guys get all of that stuff, too? Okay, so you got a report card? You know, how are we doing when it comes to the grace of giving?
[00:24:13] How are we doing? Just asking the question, you know. The Macedonians considered it a privilege to contribute. The word privilege again is that word grace that rings throughout these two chapters.
[00:24:26] They did not plead poverty to evade any obligation. They pledged with Paul instead to allow them to join in this service by contract.
[00:24:35] Contrast, Paul has to plead now with the more affluent Corinthians to follow through on their first pledge. So Paul says, I'm not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. This is interesting. Giving is a report card. It's a test.
[00:24:55] How are we doing?
[00:24:56] God pulls out the report card. Oh, see how you guys are doing in this area.
[00:25:01] Some of you go, I think I got to pull up my grade a little bit, maybe. I don't know.
[00:25:07] And I think that's fascinating. David Garland goes on to say, the life of faith always brings its test. And Paul equates the collection with the test. He says in chapter two, verse nine that he wrote the letter in tears to see if they would stand the test, that he might know their character. They passed that test, submitting to Paul's authority. Now he moves to another test.
[00:25:27] The Macedonians came through in a severe test of affliction and gave generously. The Corinthians. It's a test to see if their love, something that Paul thought needed more work because, let's face it, he gave them first. Corinthians 13, right? If you do all of these other wonderful things but you don't have love, it's of no value. Even if you give all your money away to the poor and you don't have love, it doesn't have any value. Oh, got to have the right motive.
[00:25:54] A lot of people are being taught to give with the wrong motive.
[00:25:59] They're being shamed, compelled, all the rest of it. That's not healthy.
[00:26:04] The only motive that God's interested in is the motive of love.
[00:26:09] Why am I doing what I'm doing?
[00:26:12] Is it genuine? Is it authentic? Paul leaves them with the implied question, what will they do when they're faced with the test?
[00:26:19] Love in this sentence does not have an object. It can refer to their love for Paul or their love for Christ. Paul speaks earlier of his own love of Christ, constraining him in what he does.
[00:26:31] So is it possible that he intends for them to show their Love for Christ and Christ's love for them by showing their love for their fellow Christians. Paul knows that word expressing love can come cheap and can be faked. But genuine love will show up in the checkbook.
[00:26:50] What's David Garland saying? He's saying, hey, it's easy to say to somebody, I love you, but then you walk away.
[00:26:58] Actually, I'm going to be preaching from James. You know what James says? If your brother or sister is in need and you have the means to help them and you just say, God bless you and head out the door, he says, that's not good.
[00:27:12] You're failing the test.
[00:27:14] When you and I can do something about it now, I know we could say, well, maybe they don't have wisdom. Well, then help them learn how to have manage their funds better. Explain it to them. You know, we try to have classes once in a while here to explain to people how to manage your finances in a better way. You know, you have to learn that lesson. Somebody's got to teach it. Not everyone gets taught these lessons, by the way.
[00:27:36] Not every household. The person that's the parent is actually helping their kids grow up and have wisdom in this area. A lot of parents just neglect all of this stuff. They think people learn this stuff by osmosis. And in this culture today, most parents today say, well, you know, we let the school teach them all this stuff. I don't think they're being taught that stuff. I'm just being honest. Okay, so where does one begin? Well, when we begin, I think one of the places we should begin is, is in a local church where we're attending. You go, why do we give here? Because we're a community of believers and we minister to other believers. And God designated it that we move beyond just an individual approach to life. You know, a lot of people go, I just like to give. Wherever I feel led, I'm going, well, let me help you out a little bit. There's a lot of things you're not even going to be exposed to. How many in this room know that we give hundreds of thousands of dollars around the world?
[00:28:32] Yeah, we do. I'm just letting you know that. And so you need to be aware of that, guys, that when you're giving to the church here, it's not all going to what's happening here. We're giving, we support Mustard Seed. We have other ministries even in the city that we're helping. We're constantly giving to other people. Believe me, most organizations come talk to us about helping them, and we try to do what we can to help as many people as we can. That's just one example.
[00:29:01] God saves us, I think, to put us in communities so that we become powerful witnesses to our community. How many know collectively we're doing more than any one of us could do individually.
[00:29:12] Even if we all did it individually, I don't think if we all added up what we were doing would never amount to what we do collectively. There's a synergism that happens. What we can do together is far greater than what we do individually. So where do we begin with our giving? So, you know, people kind of wonder, well, let me just pause here for a second and say this. How many have now figured out, especially if you're here the last two weeks, that Jesus standard is far higher than the Old Testament covenant? Anybody figured that out yet? How many have figured that out? You know, this is what is required of you in the Old covenant. But I say to you, and then the bar goes way up, right? How many know what I'm talking about?
[00:29:49] Everybody know that bar goes up. Why does the bar go up? Because the spirit of God lives in us. The grace of God is within us. So when we talk about giving, it's interesting. The New Testament has only one reference to tithing that's in the gospel, doesn't say anything more about it.
[00:30:06] And, you know, I'm going to tell you why I think it's done that way, because I think a lot of Christians think, well, once I'm tithing, I'm okay.
[00:30:13] I'm not convinced that's okay.
[00:30:15] How's that?
[00:30:17] I mean, if God required a poor Israelite to give a tenth of their income, why wouldn't God require more of me?
[00:30:29] I'm not a poor Israelite, you know, I'm living under the grace of God, having so much more.
[00:30:37] On top of that, I live in one of the most affluent parts of the world.
[00:30:40] What's God going to really require of me now? He's not going to require more than I'm able to give. Okay, let's just get that all under our belt. But let's face it, most of us, we're a little undisciplined in a lot of areas, but this is one of them. When it comes to finances. You go, well, Pastor, you know how expensive it is to live? I go, yeah, I know. I live with you guys. I live in this world. I get it. I know it's expensive, and I know what it is. Because I, you know, I was a pastor and Patty stayed home. So we were a one income family. We, we raised two children. We made a lot of sacrifices. We made a lot of decisions to live a simpler lifestyle. You know, we didn't have all the fancy things, but, you know, I never missed any of that stuff. I was so excited to have a beautiful family to invest in my children's life. But I'll say this, I always tithe all the way through. I didn't just tithe folks.
[00:31:33] Our church, when it was developing, we had to buy land. Then we had to build these buildings. We had to give extra. So for most of my ministry career, I've been giving way more than the tithe because I had to help build the church. And I couldn't get up in front of people and say, guys, we're going to do this now.
[00:31:51] We need to give to it. And myself, I'm just not the kind of person that can ask people to do something that I'm personally not willing to do, you know, so we made this little pledge here the other day for this minister of evangelism. Believe me, I signed up immediately and said, this is what I'm going to do.
[00:32:08] Minimally, by God's grace, this will do. If I can do more, I will. That's just how my mind works. And so I'm just challenging us. We have to think a little differently.
[00:32:20] So I just wrote down here, you know, I realize that God's standard is higher in the New Testament than it is in the Old Testament. And I think the only way to understand it is this. We have to move away from thinking that you own anything.
[00:32:37] This is a big paradigm shift. The moment you stop thinking of yourself as an owner and start seeing yourself as a manager of everything in your life, it's going to change your whole life. In other words, the money you have is not yours. You're managing God's money. Your body's not yours. You're managing God's body.
[00:32:56] Your time is not yours. You're managing the time God has given to you. And you and I are going to give an account of how we used our time, how we used the abilities, how we use the opportunities, how we use the resources he gave us. And we're all going to stand before God and God's going to say, well, what did you do with these things? Well, you know, I was on this vacation and I did this thing here and I went over there and I bought this thing here. Oh, yeah, I just. I couldn't afford to touch tithe. Jesus, I'm so sorry. It just was so tough Living in Canada.
[00:33:28] I'm just pointing it out to us.
[00:33:31] Are we catching on? Is this starting to make, you know, it's not that I'm begging for money here. I'm trying to help you. Here's what I tell people. If you can learn minimally to tithe.
[00:33:43] You know, at first I couldn't save because I could only afford to tithe. And what I was making was just enough to get through on what we were living on. But you know, over time I got more disciplined and we were able to tithe and save and live on this. And you know what happens when people, you know, you move on in life and you start making more money? What do people do? They start buying more things.
[00:34:04] Maybe that shouldn't be the approach because I've discovered something. When you get older, you have to downsize anyways. You're going to get rid of it all anyways. What in the world are you thinking?
[00:34:13] You know, I'm just pointing these things out.
[00:34:18] Okay, let's keep moving on.
[00:34:20] Let me go to the second reason because I'm going to run out of time. I know what I'm like.
[00:34:27] Second reason?
[00:34:28] The example of Jesus. How many think Jesus is a good example?
[00:34:32] Isn't it the goal to become like Christ? Isn't God the Father's goal is to help you and I to become more like Jesus. Paul says he allows things to happen in life. All these things work together for good. Why?
[00:34:43] So that he can conform us into the image of His Son. So God's goal is to make you like Jesus?
[00:34:49] That's my goal too. I want to cooperate with that process. It says here, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich.
[00:35:03] Wow, that's interesting. Now he's not just speaking of Jesus simplicity of life as an ordinary Galilean, but I think he's relating to his pre existence state. When he was in heaven with God the Father, he was equal to the Father. And now he's willing to lay aside his exalted status, if I can say it that way. And even though he's God, he makes himself poor by coming to the planet. And why does he do that? So he can rich the rest of us.
[00:35:28] So Linda Belville says, irrespective of the degree of poverty which Jesus may have experienced, and this can be exaggerated at times because he probably had more than people realize. But it's not economic poverty about which Paul writes here.
[00:35:41] Most likely he had in mind, Jesus whole incarnate life. In this case, becoming poor relates to setting aside his preexisting glory in the presence of the Father. Giving is determined then by what God entrusts to us. How many know, I can only give what I have?
[00:35:57] You can only give what you have.
[00:36:00] That's it.
[00:36:01] So maybe some of you go, I don't have a lot of money. But do you have time? You can give time?
[00:36:06] Well, I've got a lot of experiences you could give. Experiences. You could help young people, keep them from making bad decisions by sharing your experiences. You could invest in people. You know, we have great ministries here. You could invest in discipling people.
[00:36:22] That's time. That's important stuff. God sees all of that. Now, I'm not just talking about money here. I'm just talking about being generous in every aspect of your life.
[00:36:33] Now, here's what Paul writes to them and here's my judgment, he says, about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give, but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it. How many know, a lot of people start well, don't end up well.
[00:36:54] You know, finishing well is different than starting well.
[00:36:58] Some of you, you know, you could say, well, I used to be really good at this, but now I've kind of gotten off track.
[00:37:03] Let's finish well.
[00:37:04] Some of you say, I've never started well. I'm still not doing well. Here's the good news, finish well.
[00:37:12] All right.
[00:37:13] Anytime you can start anytime, it's a beautiful thing. You can just step up and say, okay, I'm going to make a change in how I'm thinking about all of these things.
[00:37:21] He goes on to say, for if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. Don't give what you you don't have. You know, our desire is not that others may be relieved while you're hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time, your planting will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality as it is written. The one who gathers much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.
[00:37:50] So, you know, Paul is, I think, bringing us back to the story of the manna. Remember, in the wilderness, they were picking up manna. It said that no matter how much you picked up, you always had just enough.
[00:38:00] And if you picked up too much, it didn't work out for you.
[00:38:04] Okay, so the question here is, it's all about trust. Do I trust God to provide for me? And do I trust that as I give, God will provide what I need when I need it?
[00:38:16] How many know if you're a generous person? You know, you don't think about it. You're not worried, because you're confident in God's ability to provide for you. And you know what I've discovered? I've been a Christian now for five decades. I can say, he's faithful.
[00:38:30] He'll see you through. You know what?
[00:38:32] Sometimes I've had God say, could you give a sacrificial offering? How many have ever had to do that? Do something sacrificially? You know what? We do it. And when it happens is God says, I like that. I can see that. You know what? A lot of people might have given a lot more than you did, but for you, that was a sacrifice. And God acknowledges that. Okay, let me move on to the last principle, the principle of generosity.
[00:38:57] Generosity fosters reciprocation.
[00:39:01] What does that mean?
[00:39:04] There's physical and spiritual laws, and they go hand in hand. Here's what Paul picks up on. It's called sowing and reaping. And I call it a principle. It's not a promise. Now, here's the principle. Remember this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Now, if you're a farmer and you go, I'm not going to put a lot of seed in the ground.
[00:39:26] Can you expect a lot in return?
[00:39:28] No, of course not. But let's say I sow bountifully. I'm just sowing this whole thing. Can I always expect that what I've sowed will come back?
[00:39:38] No.
[00:39:39] How many know when you're a farmer, you go, oh, I got to trust the weather's going to work out right? And then some years they have a bumper crop.
[00:39:47] Isn't that great? When they have a bumper crop, they go, ah, this is great. I sowed this, and I got way more than I sowed. Then there's some years I sowed and sowed, and so I'm not getting any of the returns that I thought. So let me move away. We're not giving to get. That's what I'm trying to get out of your thinking.
[00:40:02] A lot of people teach that if you give, you get.
[00:40:06] That's not biblical.
[00:40:09] It's a principle, not a promise. Let's move away from that.
[00:40:13] So that's not what it's about. You want to understand that.
[00:40:16] But how many know if you sow sparingly, you can only expect to reap sparingly, right?
[00:40:21] I mean, if you're a farmer, you sow just a little bit. Here you go. This is. And you can imagine he's writing to people that some of them, they don't have a lot. These are people that don't have huge farms like we do in Canada here.
[00:40:34] And I wrote down these principles are not guaranteed that there's no exceptions. Receiving should not be the primary motivation for forgiving. We do not see this reciprocating idea. We do see it in the physical laws, which are equally true in the spiritual and relational side of life. But people often sow with struggle.
[00:40:53] But they know as farmers that there's no sowing of seed, no harvest.
[00:40:57] And then I read this in Psalm 126, those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
[00:41:03] Interesting. You know, sometimes it's difficult to sow seed, especially if you don't have a lot. It's a very challenging thing to do.
[00:41:11] But we're to give cheerfully and not under compulsion. Each one of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves. What kind of a giver?
[00:41:22] A cheerful giver. But let me close with this.
[00:41:25] I'm going to just say this.
[00:41:28] Put that down. We'll stop you and I can do the right thing. We can give. It's possible to give without loving. How many say, that's true, but it's impossible to love without giving?
[00:41:44] How many go, that's powerful?
[00:41:46] And what is God really looking for?
[00:41:49] He's looking for us to love. Because I'm really convinced that what God is trying to do in our lives is not only that we learn to trust him, but that as we're growing in our trust, you know what mature faith, faith looks like at the end? Mature faith is love.
[00:42:06] You know, think about what I just said. Mature faith is love. What is God? God is love.
[00:42:13] Mature faith is love.
[00:42:15] Paul is saying that the goal of our faith is to express itself in love.
[00:42:22] That's powerful.
[00:42:23] You know, these three things abide faith, love, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.
[00:42:35] I'm telling you, the more I become like him, the more loving I become.
[00:42:41] And the more loving I become, the more generous I become.
[00:42:47] Let's stand.
[00:42:50] You know, people sometimes say, pastor I can't afford to give.
[00:42:54] And you know what I say to myself? And I sometimes I'll say it to them, too. You can't afford not to.
[00:43:01] You've got to sow seed.
[00:43:04] That's part of life now. I'm just saying to you, you know, I'm not trying to make you poor. I'm just saying learn to sow seed.
[00:43:14] And as you learn to be a generous person, it's really funny what happens. Things come back to you.
[00:43:20] You're sowing and it's coming back.
[00:43:22] You know, I can sow in a whole bunch of areas. Some of you. I could say this. Some of you need to sow forgiveness.
[00:43:29] When I'm sowing forgiveness, you know what starts happening? Forgiveness comes back to me. Do you need forgiveness? I need forgiveness.
[00:43:36] Sow forgiveness.
[00:43:38] See what I'm getting at?
[00:43:40] See what I'm saying?
[00:43:42] Okay, everyone in this church, family that you're committed to giving to the church church, let me tell you what's happening. People are giving their lives to Christ.
[00:43:52] You're making eternal investment.
[00:43:56] When you get to heaven, all the things you invested on an earthly level, they're all gone. What will really matter then is what you invested for eternity.
[00:44:05] I have no problem giving. I love doing it.
[00:44:08] I like being generous. Patty and I like being generous.
[00:44:12] We're happy to be generous.
[00:44:14] We are cheerful givers. We enjoy it. We like blessing people.
[00:44:17] It's our privilege to do it. We find we get. We get more out of it than they do receiving. I'm serious.
[00:44:25] I don't even mind going without to give somebody else something. I have no problem with that. I love doing that.
[00:44:31] I want to teach you the same principle. I want you to become like Christ.
[00:44:36] And I don't want to just say I speak on every other subject, but I never speak on giving. I just spoke on giving.
[00:44:43] You need to ask God.
[00:44:45] And here's what I'm going to challenge you today.
[00:44:48] I need to give God myself.
[00:44:53] If there was a big offering plate right now, I want you to step in it and say, okay, God, this is it. I'm giving you everything.
[00:45:02] Because once you give them everything, then giving them every little things is nothing.
[00:45:09] See, that's what we need to learn how to give. We need to give God everything.
[00:45:13] Once you do that, giving is peanuts.
[00:45:17] So I'm saying some of you are resisting giving God everything.
[00:45:21] Give him yourself.
[00:45:23] And when you do that, God's going to take care of you. I'm going to tell you right now, he will take care of you. Listen to Me trust him?
[00:45:31] You're struggling with trust.
[00:45:33] You're struggling with trusting God.
[00:45:35] Let me pray for you this morning.
[00:45:38] Did you hear this message, how to be a generous person?
[00:45:43] Step one, give yourself fully to God.
[00:45:46] Amen.
[00:45:48] Then giving him anything else is peanuts because you've already done the big job of giving yourself to him.
[00:45:54] So, Lord, I just pray today.
[00:45:57] I know there are people that are struggling with time, and I know there's people struggling with finances.
[00:46:03] And I know the answer is real simple. Step into the offering plate yourself.
[00:46:08] When we fully give our lives to you, we are on a journey of trusting you.
[00:46:16] And you're not going to be unfaithful.
[00:46:19] You are a faithful God.
[00:46:22] So, Lord, I pray that we'll even be better than the Israelites. Just tithing.
[00:46:27] That's.
[00:46:28] That's bottom line giving.
[00:46:31] We want to be generous.
[00:46:33] We want to be generous, Lord.
[00:46:36] And we need to support each other.
[00:46:39] We need to support one another.
[00:46:41] And we do that by giving collectively.
[00:46:44] You know, sometimes it's better to give when we don't know where it's going. Because you know what, if I keep giving to the same person, pretty soon they become dependent on me.
[00:46:54] That's not good.
[00:46:55] It's better if I gave it in the benevolence fund. The benevolence fund, gave it to them way better.
[00:47:03] Because then they begin to learn. I got to trust God.
[00:47:07] We want to trust you, Lord, not people.
[00:47:11] So, Father, I pray today as we've heard this message. I know you're speaking to hearts. I know people struggle with giving. It's a big issue because we think it's our money. It's not our money. We're just stewarding it.
[00:47:23] I pray, Lord, that you'll help each one of us to be able to stand before you unashamedly and say, lord, I did what you told me to do.
[00:47:33] I'm just obeying you. I'm just trusting you. I'm just walking by faith. That's what you're calling me to do, Right to the very last day I breathe. You'll be there for me. You're going to be faithful. I know that you've been faithful so long.
[00:47:48] I pray right now. Remove the fear we have in our hearts. Help us to learn to joyfully without compulsion, give without any expectation.
[00:48:00] But we also recognize that you're going to take care of us. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave today.
