The World of the Generous

2 Corinthians 9:10 (NIV)

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

Introduction

I feel like the older I get, the more that I reflect on the experiences that have made who I am.

There are some experiences that at the time that I was going through it, I didn’t know why I was in that situation, but now looking back I see that experience as necessary.

For me, going away for school was such as formative experience. I grew up never needing anything, but when I was gone, my Dad made sure that I learned how good I had it living under his roof.

I was a student in Bible college and I needed to pay my tuition on my own. I was having to figure it out, work, save money, and then of course I had saved money from my summer job to make sure I had something in the bank. I remember owing my school a payment and it was all that I had left in the bank. I remember wrestling with, “Do I pay it, or do I just go ahead and drag this out...” I knew the school would work with me and put me on a repayment plan, but my Dad taught me to pay my bills on time. It was something that I just did not do. And so, I took out my check book and I wrote a check for everything that I had and I made my payment not knowing how I was going to get through the week until I got more money.

So right after leaving the registrar’s office I walked to my school mailbox and there was a card. I received a letter. Like an old letter, not an email or a text, but like a letter letter.

And when I opened that letter it was a card from my Aunt who felt compelled to write me and let me know how proud she was of me for making that decision. But not only did she send a card, but she sent $20 in that card.

I know that doesn’t sound like much, but in 1999 there was a Jack in the Box dollar menu and that was my lifeline. I was able to make it through the week because of the generosity of my auntie and never failing to trust God.

Transition

And today I want to talk about generosity. I am not going to talk about money, because I believe that money is a tool of generosity. I want to talk about the broader subject, and the subject that is more at the heart of the matter and that is generosity.

Our ability to see beyond our needs, and to see and meet the needs of others.

Text

Let me start by exegeting the text here for you all.

We read from the 9th chapter of 2 Corinthians, but it is a compliment to the 8th chapter of 2 Corinthians. The 8th chapter in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is to tell them all about the amazing things that were happening in Macedonia. The church was growing in spite of the pressure that was going on around them. They were growing, but it wasn’t easy. They were in a dog fight, but they were hanging in there and marching forward.

Paul said all of this in the 8th chapter because he needed the generosity of the church in Corinth to continue to sustain the efforts in Macedonia.

Paul was at work being an Apostle. Paul was spreading the gospel and fulfilling the great commission. He was planting churches, establishing them, and then staffing them so that he could move on to the next city and do the same.

And so the 8th chapter is a progress report of sorts. He’s letting them know how he is doing, which is in some ways like we did last Friday at Heart & Soul.

In the 9th chapter Paul is no longer telling stories about what is happening in Macedonia, but now he is teaching on generosity. This is necessary because human nature is to avoid generosity. By nature, we are all very self-centered and me focused.

Don’t believe me? Ask a two year old about their philosophy on toys.

If I like it, it’s mine.

If I can take it away from you, it’s mine.

If I had it a while ago, it’s mine.

If I say it’s mine, it’s mine.

If it’s broken, it’s yours.

Where do they get that from? Did Mom and Dad put on a clinic on how to be stingy? No, it’s the default setting in us, and from time to time we need to be reminded that we have been transformed by the grace of God and now we are blessed to be a blessing to others.

You Reap what you Sow

Paul makes this very simple statement:

2 Corinthians 9:6 (NIV)

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

Paul was making the conversation about sowing and reaping very simple for his audience. The harvest that you receive in life is a direct reflection of what you sow in life.

Said differently, if you become a generous person you will receive the generosity of others.

Proverbs 11:24 The Message

The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

A couple of years ago two people that I knew of died within a week of each other. Both of these deaths were untimely for the families, and so both families set up Go Fund Me accounts to help with the expenses of the funeral. I watched over the next week something happen with these two people and the way they were treated in their passing.

One person was not known for his generosity. Beyond that, he was a polarizing person. He was at odds with his family often. Eventually his wife left him and he grew more callous and said whatever came to mind, even things that should have never been said. We teach our children this, “if you have nothing nice to say don’t say it at all.” Well, he must have missed that lesson.

The second person was known for his generosity. He was a teacher, a mentor, and a friend to so many. He went out of his way to help others often. Although he had kids later in life, once his kids arrived he was a new man. He devoted himself to his boys, but still found a way to be helpful to others.

Within the two weeks of their passing the first person was blessed with about $7,000 based on the generosity of others. Short of the $15,000 goal for funeral expenses.

The second individual was eclipsed $130,000 in gifts. Far more than the $20,000 goal for fundraising. In fact, they so far exceeded the goal that they started a second giving platform just for people to donate to his children’s college expenses. I stopped keeping track of what was going on, but it was nearing $200,000 in total.

The world of the generous gets larger and larger...

You Give to what you Love

As I said earlier, it is not in our human nature to default to generosity, which is why we must be born again. To people who say, “I was born this way,” I simply say, “I understand, and this is why you must be born again.”

We can’t make excuses for being deficient in this area of our life. Jesus leads us to a life of generosity.

John 3:16 (NIV)

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.

You give to what you love.

Husbands, I want you to remember the days that you dated your wife. Women, I want you to remember the days that your husband was pursuing you.

There wasn’t anything that your husband wouldn’t do for you, was there?

If you were hungry, he’d find a way to bring you food. If you were cold, he’d give you his jacket. If you needed a ride, say less.

A man in pursuit is generous.

Why?

Because that man is in love. When a man is in love, he will move all heaven and earth to make it happen.

I’m going to tread carefully here because if I ever bring up my wife in a sermon, depending on what I say she adds something to the Amazon cart.

But my wife and I, we are part of a generation that paid for our wedding. We had some help, but we didn’t have rich parents who bankrolled the wedding. For any of you that are getting your wedding bankrolled, the Lord bless you.

But when we were engaged, we have never worked harder at saving money in our life.

I was living on an extremely tight budget, I mean that was penny tight! Every PENNY was accounted for. I was working at the church, and I was traveling and preaching as well. I gave myself a budget of only $20 a week to eat out. That’s it!

Never mind that I ran up the grocery bill at home with my parents, but I wasn’t spending my hard earned money on fast food and energy drinks. I had a wedding to save for!

But I did that… why? Because I am in love.

Love gives. Love is generous.

Giving Reveals Your Heart

Could you imagine if I was weeks out from my wedding and rather than make saving my priority I withheld my generosity and bought a car instead?

Could you imagine if I said to Joanna, “Baby I love you, but I saw that Fire Kicks is having a sale and I NEED these $3,500 Off Whites!”

She would know, and anyone who was my friend would know, that my heart wasn’t in the right place.

I cannot say that I love something, and refuse to be generous.

And I believe that the reason that generosity is all throughout the Bible is because generosity reflects the priorities of your heart.

And God wants your heart.

I’ll say that once again, God wants your heart.

Generosity Matters

And so when you say, God I love you, he’s going to inspect your love in the area of generosity.

When we become generous here is what will naturally happen to you.

Giving Turns My Focus Outward

When you become a generous person you stop focusing on just yourself. You start to see the needs that are in the world around you. When you start to see the needs that are in the world around you, you should be compelled to do something about what you are seeing.

And let me say this… generosity is quickly becoming counter cultural.

Books written in the 1800’s used the word generosity 69% more than books written in the 1980’s.

So the world has become increasingly more me focused that we read about generosity almost 70% less.

So becoming more generous, or becoming more like Jesus, is quickly becoming counter cultural in the me first world that we are living in.

Matthew 23:11 (NIV)

The greatest among you will be your servant.

Jesus said that to be great, is to serve others.

Giving Adds Value to Others

John Maxwell gives a great talk about generosity, and in it he uses the word “robbers” to describe people who are the opposite of generous. It’s layered with humor, but the point remains. Only robbers look at a person and asks themselves, “what can I take from that person?”

Have you met anyone like that?

I have.

I’ve known some people that I didn’t feel comfortable introducing them to other because I knew they were takers. They were robbers. They weren’t looking to add value to other people, but they were only looking out for what they could take.

Generosity changes your posture to be a blessing to others. To add value to their lives. It doesn’t mean that you are handing out money to them but you have something to offer them that would improve who they are.

Be that person. Be that person who makes connections. Be that person who welcomes friends into their home. Be that person who lift up others. Be so confident in who God made you that you want others to succeed.

There is this saying that I love, “you can’t make your light shine brighter by dimming the lights of others.”

Giving Helps the Giver

Finally, generosity changes us. It helps us.

The science behind generosity shows us that it releases oxytocin into your brain. Random acts of kindness produces dopamine. Listen, you can literally fight back against depression by being generous.

Science tells us this, but it’s really only catching up to the scriptures that say.

Acts 20:35 (NIV)

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Andrew Carnegie said this, “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.”

Conclusion

I want to close with two things today… the first is I think it’s important to reiterate some of the the things that we shared at Heart & Soul. We have these goals for the year to come and I want to compel you to generosity.

Our first goal is to complete the build out of our Vista Campus. This is important because it’s a critical path to some of the things I am going to talk to you about next.

Big Sunday’s at Lighthouse. We want to leverage our Sunday’s to do more attractional events on Sunday. Said plainly, we want the preach the Gospel to more people who have not heard the gospel. But truthfully, our situation is uncomfortable. And excellence creates comfort.

Graded Curriculum for LKids. We want to complete our LKids facility as we reimagine our content and curriculum for LKids. The pandemic and Church from Home is detrimental to your kids. I love all of you watching online, but your children need to be in the room. Studies are already showing how school at home adversely affected our kids and they fell behind. It doesn’t work for little ones.

Meeting the needs of Families in Vista. Along with that, we did an incredible series that showed us that people want to be better parents, but they need help. And here’s what I know, this Bible is filled with principles about parenting. We have educators, counselors, and psychologists here in our congregation who would love to tell a Mom, Dad or student that they need Jesus, and they can’t in school. We want to finish our facilities so that we can host Biblical Parenting Classes for our community.

Love Where You Live. Now the last one, is where we are at our best Lighthouse, and that is to Love Where You Live. We have several year end options how we are going to love on our children. The first is partnering with Solutions for Change for a Breaking and Entering Christmas event. The next one is that our Young Adults are starting a drive for items to distribute to the those affected by homelessness. They are taking sleeping bags, beanies, gloves, and other warm items. The last one is we are partnering with the California Highway Patrol for the CHiPs For Kids Toy Drive. We host this here and we need to both collect and distribute gifts to families. We want to try and give 300 families gifts this year.

Year end offering, December 11. Pray about what God would have your family to give and let’s prepare a special offering to keep moving the church forward, and we’re going to help plant yet another church as well.