Mission 2023: Persistent (Not Sporadic) Generosity

Introduction

Several week ago as shoppers were preparing to finish getting presents for Christmas, there was a video that went viral as a person was asked a simple question: Would you rather receive $100 for yourself or give $1,000 to other people here in the store? Now, think about that question yourself for a minute or two. You’re getting things checked off your list and $100 of “free” money would be awesome… but is that better than being a blessing to other shoppers? These situations aren’t anything new, they’ve been around for a long time, but this particular video was so touching because the man chose the $1,000 and went throughout the entire store blessing other families with $100. He even went outside where a homeless person was sitting down and gave that individual $100 as well. At the conclusion of giving out the 10 $100 bills, the man was emotional because he had been given the blessing of giving to help other people. At this point, the person who asked him the question at the start of the video opened his wallet and gave the man $1,000 as well and thanked him for being a blessing to other people.

This short 2-3 minute video is a perfect mini-sermon as we know as Christians that it is always a blessing to give a gift but it’s also a blessing to receive a gift. Just as this man was gifted $1,000 to give to others, if you’ve ever been in a situation where you were able to bless someone else, it truly is a blessing to simply give… In fact, many people would say that it is greater to give than to receive! But we also know that it’s a blessing to receive a gift. Whether it be a Christmas present, a birthday gift, or something from your spouse for your anniversary, it’s a blessing both ways.

As humans, we are created to give. We give other people our time and attention. We give our spouse our love and devotion. We give our jobs our focus and effort. We give our children our love and future. We give and this is how we were created as humans. We read in God’s Word that we are created to love and the reason why is because God first loved us. We are made in God’s image and part of our responsibility is to reflect His image as we live our lives… this requires us to give.

As we continue looking at our church mission in 2023, we move from personal spiritual growth to persistent, not sporadic, generosity. What does generosity look like? It looks different for each person and each family as we’re all different! But what does it require? It requires us all to give. You can’t be a generous person whenever you get what you can, can what you get, and sit on the can. God didn’t create us to be can sitters - He created us to be generous givers. Today we’ll be in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 as you see in your outline and we’re going to look at what the Bible tells us about the importance of giving our time, talent, and treasure and our motivation for giving as well. This is a Biblical concept and where the Bible speaks, we must speak as well!

The Bible says this

2 Corinthians 8:1–5 CSB

1 We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia: 2 During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 I can testify that, according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own accord, 4 they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints, 5 and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God’s will.

2 Corinthians 9 CSB

1 Now concerning the ministry to the saints, it is unnecessary for me to write to you. 2 For I know your eagerness, and I boast about you to the Macedonians, “Achaia has been ready since last year,” and your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you in this matter would not prove empty, and so that you would be ready just as I said. 4 Otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, would be put to shame in that situation. 5 Therefore I considered it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance the generous gift you promised, so that it will be ready as a gift and not as an extortion. 6 The point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. 9 As it is written: He distributed freely; he gave to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. 10 Now the one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will also provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the proof provided by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedient confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone. 14 And as they pray on your behalf, they will have deep affection for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

God Expects His People to Give (8:1-5)

If you’ve ever studied Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, you know that this is a church that has a lot of serious problems going on! From immaturity to sexual immorality to an unBiblical view of money, this church had a lot going against it whenever Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians, though, is a bit of a different story. Paul has already shared the Gospel hope with them in his first letter and here he is building a solid foundation upon the Gospel and sharing how the Gospel must impact every aspect of their lives. We see this clearly in places like 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul says this

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

What does the Gospel do? The Gospel changes everything about us because we are literally a new creation! This means that we have a purpose that is God-given and we have a responsibility that is God-centered as we do everything to bring Him glory as 1 Corinthians 10:31 instructs of us.

Many of us understand that we glorify God with the things that we say. Even non-Christians know that words matter and that words are powerful as James 3 tells us. We must use our words carefully because they can destroy people or build them up. Other people understand that we glorify God with our actions and service and worship. We know that whenever we help someone in need, we glorify God. Whenever we gather for corporate worship with God’s people and we praise Him, we glorify Him. Whenever we read the Bible and spend time in prayer, we glorify God. All of these things are good and true but here in 2 Corinthians 8, Paul shares that that we also glorify God through giving.

Look with me at verse 1 in this chapter, Paul shares with these people about the generosity from the churches in Macedonia as they gave during a difficult trial where poverty was abundant.

These people didn’t strictly give a certain percentage of amount because giving isn’t based on compulsion… but they gave out of their poverty above and beyond what anyone could have expected. They begged for the opportunity to give and serve! These people begged for the opportunity to give while it’s so easy for us to fight to find a single reason not to give. So many people get wrapped up in a percentage to give and the New Testament doesn’t give you that percentage. Lots of people talk about 10% and that’s found sporadically in the Old Testament but did you know that the Jewish people actually gave closer to 30% of their annual income to the church? That’s a big number! We don’t find that type of black and white number anywhere in the New Testament but we do see a command to give and that command is almost always placed in relation to God giving to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus gave us everything that He had… that’s the level that we must be willing to give as well!

The question is not should I give but instead how and what should I give?

This text of Scripture tells us that this church was very poor. But verse 2 tells us that they had an abundant joy and a wealth of generosity. Isn’t that a crazy phrase? They’re poor but they have a wealth of generosity. Whenever we often think of generosity we think of people with means who give what they have left over and they’re generous with it… but that’s not the case with this congregation. That’s not true of many house churches in other countries. There was a missionary who told a story years ago about a church located in an agricultural area and many of the Christians were farmers. They were having a Bible conference at a home and many of the farmers left their fields the entire week to pray and study God’s Word with this missionary - even though it meant that they would lose money for the week. That’s a sacrifice! The missionary was blown away, though, on the last day whenever the believers began passing an offering plate and giving money as he believed that these funds would go to the church itself only to be given these funds in an envelope to thank him for his time. He declined the offering saying that his expenses would be covered by his organization but the believers refused and demanded he take their offering because they wanted to bless him and thank him for bringing them the Gospel hope. They gave out of their poverty and this missionary, now wellknown pastor, David Platt, shares that this offering was one of the largest offerings he’s ever been apart of. Not because of how much money was given, but because these people genuinely gave out of their poverty.

This is what this church is doing here and we know that with God, a couple of mites can outweigh an entire ton of gold as Luke 21:1-4 tells us

Luke 21:1–4 CSB

1 He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4 For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

Why would this poor widow give everything to the Lord? Notice, she doesn’t give to the salvation army here… she doesn’t give to the hospital down the road… she doesn’t give to a parachurch ministry first - she gives to her church, she gives to the temple. Why? Because she belonged to God and to His church and because she knew that God had first given to her. Why does God expect us to give? Because giving reveals our heart and what we have placed our trust in. Giving is an act of worship just as coming to church, reading our Bible, sharing the Gospel, praying, and growing to be more like Jesus. Giving not only reveals our heart and is an act of worship individually, but giving is also the means through which God accomplishes His purposes for local churches.

As we enter a new year, consider your own life and the life of our church. Do you have a deep desire to give and share in the partnership of our church as we minister to our community? If you’re not a member I don’t believe this is your responsibility at all and don’t feel guilted toward that end… but members of FBC Salem, do you desire to give yourself to the Lord and His Kingdom work? If so, one of the things that we do is we give of our time, talent, and treasure to support what He is doing!

If we’re going to truly make a dent in Dent County for the Glory of God and the good of our community then we have to be ready to give because God has first given much to us. The only way that we can minister to 100+ kids at Camp Joy and send mission teams overseas and help local needs in our community is by the generosity of our members at FBC Salem - not one or two people really doing all the work, but the entire body of Christ coming together in order to share in the privilege of proclaiming the Gospel and making disciples. God has given us a new year with just over 515,000 minutes left! He has given us time for a reason - to redeem it and steward it wisely. The same is true with our talents and treasure. This is what God expects of His people, this is what He expects of you and me and praise the Lord for those of you who take this seriously but if you need a little convincing, look at what Jesus did for us

2 Corinthians 8:9 CSB

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

God expects us to give because He Himself first gave.

So, God expects His people to give… but why? Let’s see 2 reasons why in chapter 9.

God Honors His People When They Give (9:1-8)

Again, why do people give? This is the question that lots of people ask regarding Christians and giving to their churches. There are some faulty reasons behind giving that people have bought into and we have to guard against these. Some believe that if they give in church then God will automatically bless them financially. One preacher even worded it like this one time, “It’s time to get out your checkbook so that God can make it bigger.” God can bless Christians financially as they are faithful to Him, but that’s not the motivation behind giving. Other people believe that if they give then they will feel better about themselves. Did you know that back in 2008, whenever our economy was in a recession, charitable giving decreased 2% while church giving increased over 5%? People continued to give to their local churches and paused giving or gave less to charities and parachurch organizations. In 2021 we know that there were financial difficulties and the results flipped. Charitable giving increased by 4% while church giving decreased by over 6%. That’s a big shortfall! What happened? We certainly want to support helpful organizations and resource centers, but in the New Testament it is clear that first and foremost, we give to our local church and then we give above and beyond that to other important groups and organizations. Why? Because God honors the giving of His people in Scripture and that giving took place in the context of the local church.

God’s Word talks often about our heart and giving, once again, is a reflection of our heart. Look at Jesus’ Words in Matthew 6:21

Matthew 6:21 CSB

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The person who sows sparingly in God’s Kingdom will reap sparingly while the one who sows generously in God’s kingdom will reap generously. God rewards the generosity of His people and He invites us to join Him in this giving journey. If we believe that God has first given to us and that He has gifted us with all that we have in order to give back to Him, then giving truly becomes a faith issue. Do we believe that God desires for us to give? God’s Word tells us that this is His desire. He desires us to trust in Him and to worship Him as we give! Whenever His people do this, we see that He loves a cheerful giver.

What does this look like? Cheerful giving? That might seem like an oxymoron in your mind! Let’s eliminate the wrong answers first. The Bible says earlier on in verse 7 that God doesn’t want His people to give out of compulsion or reluctantly… He wants His people to do what they have decided in their heart. 2 Corinthians 9:7 doesn’t even say that God loves a big gift… It says a cheerful giver. This means that it’s not about a certain number or amount, it’s about a heart that desires to serve God faithfully!

Example. how does God’s grace overflow and provide for us whenever we trust God completely, including the area of giving? Take 20 year old Joel Hayworth who worked part-time at SBU and had the usual college expenses of textbooks, gas, taco bell, intramural basketball fee’s, and an occasional bottle of shampoo. I usually made $50-75 / week working at SBU. That was enough to pay for some of those little things, but I distinctly remember having a conversation with my dad one weekend about this subject. I told my dad that I couldn’t afford to waste any money that that I couldn’t give at church because I just didn’t have enough… but that once I started making more money, then I’d start giving.

Have you ever heard the expression that you’re never ready to have kids? Boy, whoever came up with that one knew something, right? If you’re waiting until you have enough to start doing it, you’ll likely never do it. Eventually you just have to do it. God’s Word tells us that we are given everything that we have from God with an expectation to use it for His glory and to trust Him with it. We’re good at trusting God with our health and with our future. But for some reason whenever it comes to the green stuff we build a fence and begin to think differently. How insane is that? God promises that he who sows generously will reap generously - this doesn’t mean that you’ll make more money based on how much money you give… but it means that God rewards obedience and generosity. He honors those things. It is a blessing to give and God uses those gifts to further His Kingdom and to provide for His children. One reason why we give is because giving honors God and God honors giving, the second reason in our text is because

God Is Glorified When His People Give (9-15)

What does giving do? It gives thanksgiving to God through the sacrifices of His people. Whenever we as a church are able to meet a need in our community or build a home for a family in Guatemala or anything like that, people are so thankful for our generosity but we always tell them that the reason that we go and the reason that we give is because God has first given to us. God provides us with the means to help. He provides us with the opportunity to help and God gets the glory. God gives us grace. We give generously. God gets the glory!

Verses 10-11 promise us that it is God who provides for us. He gives us what we need in order to give and as we give, there is a harvest. We see in places like 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 the idea of people doing this in the context of the local church as they’d gather a collection for the church on the first day of the week and this is why we do the same today. Maybe you wonder why, though. We see giving in Scripture, we know that it’s a part of God’s command, but we wonder why does it matter in 2023. Why should I, as a member of FBC Salem, give persistently to the work of this church? Here’s why

Psalm 24:1 CSB

1 The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord;

Whenever the Bible speaks about something, we’re going to speak about it as well. If the Bible tells us that everything belongs to the Lord and the Lord gives us all that we have and the Lord commands us to give, I’m going to take that as God literally means what He says. Adrian Rogers shared this point like this decades ago: Take your right hand and squeeze it into a fist - yes, this might seem silly, but let’s give this object lesson a try. Squeeze that dominant hand as hard as you can. Now, open it up and take a nice deep breath. Which one of those is easier? Opening your hand! What we have to understand is the things in this life that we try so hard to hold on to aren’t even ours in the first place. Everything in this world belongs to the Lord and He gives them to us for a period of time… We’d better learn to have an open hand approach with the things that God entrusts to us because whenever He calls us home, we can’t take them with us!

Why should we give? Because it’s not ours - it’s God’s! The sooner we learn this and the sooner we develop a healthy practice of giving, the easier it becomes. Look at what Jesus says in the parable of the faithful and faithless servant in Luke 12

Luke 12:48 CSB

48 But the one who did not know and did what deserved punishment will receive a light beating. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be expected.

Our focus at FBC Salem is not money… it is Jesus Christ! If this is your first time worshiping with us at FBC, maybe you’re thinking that all this pastor talks about is money just like every other church I’ve been to - I’ll be straight up honest with you, if I have a flaw one way or another when it comes to preaching on money, it’s on not preaching on it enough, not preaching on it too much. As a church body, though, because we love Jesus Christ, we desire to give and support the ministry of this church and the work that Jesus is doing right here in Salem.

Our money signals where our heart is at. The way we spend our money is an indicator of our spiritual condition. This matters deeply in the life of a Christian and this should matter in the life of our church! Consider our church budget for a moment. As a church we budget over $100,000 in various missions giving both locally, nationally, and internationally. That number doesn’t include the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering or the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering or special offerings for other missions trips and things like that. Whenever you give to our church, that is what you are supporting. You are supporting our children at camp joy. You are supporting our youth going to Branson and being discipled and growing in their walk with the Lord. You are supporting ministries at our church such as Kidz Choir and Pageant. You are supporting our facility as it is used by many people in our community. You are supporting discipleship programs for all ages so that people can grow deeper as a disciple of Jesus Christ. You are supporting missionaries and mission trips that our congregation goes on. We live in a world that loves to give to causes and there are many good causes to give to. But let me challenge you to see our church budget for what it truly is… a list of various important causes and we cannot succeed in all of these areas without everyone’s involvement! God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him and part of being satisfied in Jesus is serving Him with everything inside of us. Members of FBC Salem, simply examine this question, “If I’ve received God’s gift of grace, what am I giving back?”

If every member of FBC Salem gave the same percentage as me and my family, could FBC Salem

Minister to 95 kids each Monday for Kidz Choir

Have over 100 kids at Camp Joy

Have over 200 kids at VBS

Keep our lights on (at least when they’re not flickering)

Have heat in the winter in our facility and AC in the summer

Give tens of thousands of dollars to support missionaries, pastors, and seminaries

Provide hope and good news in our community week in and week out

If your answer is no, if you have not given your time, talent, or treasure as s member, here’s my challenge to our members. 3 months starting off 2023, prayerfully trust God in the area of giving and walk in obedience with what He calls you to do. Not because of guilty… but because you’ve received His gift of grace and His grace compels us to give. Pray about what that looks like in your life. David Platt shared that statistics paint a sobering story as 10 years ago a survey was conducted regarding members of churches and giving. It found that only 1/3 to 1/2 of church members gave to their church. We’re not talking about a 10% or 20% amount here, we’re talking about a single dime. Let’s split the middle and say that 40% gave something… that means that 3/5 people didn’t ever give anything and these are church members! This is why Biblical church membership matters so much in the Bible! This is why we talk about this in our new members class. So many people believe that they can consume and consume and consume without contributing and that’s not Biblical whatsoever, friends. If you’re a member of a local church, if you belong to the body of Christ, then you have a responsibility to contribute. This is literally straight from God’s Word in places like 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

The question for members of FBC Salem is not “should I give” it is, “What should I give?” The Biblical answer is that we all are commanded to give. But what should we give? We give our time, talent, and treasure for God’s glory and the good of our community, and our exceeding joy in Christ. If you’ve never given in the past, I’m not telling you that you have to start 2023 off doing something new and giving exactly 10% or else you lose your membership - don’t misunderstand things. Here’s the challenge and here’s the encouragement: Prayerfully ask God to guide you and practice persistent generosity through your giving for 3 months, and see what happens. Maybe that’s serving somewhere or giving financially 1%, 5%, maybe though, that’s 10% or even more that’s between you and the Lord… sacrifices will have to be made, you’d better believe it. But God’s Word tells us that God expects His people to be a giving people. He loves a cheerful giver. Some say that pastors only talk about giving so they can get more money, I pray that y’all know better than that by now. Your pastor isn’t telling you to do anything he isn’t doing. Pastors give financially too, and many do more than your the standard “10%”. Why? For 1, because this is our church family and we support our family and the ministry of this church. Second and more importantly, because this is a Biblical topic and God certainly has the authority to tell us what to do in all facets of our life, finances included.

Can we dream a little this morning? I’m strictly using data from studies done by Christian organizations here, not our church data. Roughly 40% of church members give. If half of the members of FBC Salem give and half do not, if the half that does not commits to begin giving financially, even 5%, not a tithe or offering, just 5% which maybe seems insane or crazy to you right now, if 50% who do 0% give 5% and those who do not give of their time find a way to do that as well then, guess what? First, that honors God as God’s grace transforms our heart, but second, that giving changes our community. Your giving allows lives to be changed with the Gospel. Your giving allows people in Salem to have practical needs met. Your giving allows the Gospel to be proclaimed. Your giving allows discipleship to take place. In a community that needs Jesus Christ, followers of Jesus Christ must be generous because Jesus was first generous with us as He gave Himself in our place and He gifts us with every good and perfect gift as James 1:17 tells us

James 1:17 CSB

17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Let’s dream here: How much more kingdom work could FBC Salem do in the year to come to make a dent in the lost population of Dent County if every member of FBC Salem practiced Persistent Generosity? Sporadic generosity, giving to causes and when it is easier to do is certainly more natural for us! But persistent generosity and trusting in God and worshiping and serving Him through our finances honors the Lord and is what God’s Word commands from God’s people. Pray and seek what the Lord would have you do as we make much of King Jesus in our church, community, country, and all around the world. I pray that this would be our goal in 2023, that we would be a congregation who desires to see Christ glorified in the area of generosity as we grow, give, and go make a dent in Dent County.

If you’re here today and you find yourself trying to figure out this “giving” thing out and your skeptical, look at what God has done. You and I dropped the ball, but God loved sinners like us enough to send His Son - He gave. Jesus lived a perfect life and died for sinners on the cross - He gave. Jesus rose from, the grave, ascended back to heaven, and He sent His Spirit to live with His people until He returns - He gave. Today you might be wondering what to do with a message like this, friend, it’s simple: Jesus calls us to give Him our lives. To submit ourselves to Him as Savior and Lord and to turn from our sin. If you have never done that, then the best thing that you can do is to pray that God would give you a new heart and follow Him today.