Generous Giving

Generous Giving NLT 2 Cor 8:6 So we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to return to you and encourage you to finish this ministry of giving. 7 Since you excel in so many ways—in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love us—I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving. 8 I am not commanding you to do this. But I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches.

To begin with brothers and sisters, Christian Friends, Well Wishers, and Saints of God I want to talk about Generous Giving.

I have the responsibility of teaching us about church finances and making sure that the church finances are on a sure footing.Because in the end when I have to stand before God Almighty an give an account of the vocational assignment that God has appointed me here with I’d better have made a concerted effort to maintain total operations of his church.

This kind of sermon “Unfortunately,points out how the Corinthian church members were not doing their part. They had made promises to God to be for faithful members, but they failed to keep those promises. And the thing about the bible it’s not just for the people of that day but it’s for us as well in this present day and time. And the church said Amen.

In (2 Cor. 8:10).10 And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.

In fact,Paul said that an entire year had been wasted by the Corinthians concerning their giving. But why did this happen? What was the cause of this serious delay in their commitment of giving ? Well it was a few things

1.It was the low spiritual level of the church. And in 2024 you can tell when a church is not spiritual and is carnal minded. They don’t act like they ought act.

2 When a church is not spiritual, it is not generous. and if they are not giving, it’s a spiritual matter. It’s a heart issue and That church needs to be Regenerated Because regeneration is a change of Heart.

3. Another reason that a church falls behind in finances is it gets stingy. I ain’t giving that church all my money. And right there, they need to repent. Because Repentance is a change of mind.

Church here’s how I see it, I’ve got my mind on my money and my money on my money and my money going to the church because God has been goood to me.

Tell your neighbor: Don’t act funny with God.

If you clown with God money He’ll start acting funny with you. Then you’ll be saying my money done got funny and my change done got mighty strange.

And God will make your money fleeting. Your money will be falling out of your pocket like you got holes in your pocket. ( Been there and done that, I don’t clown with God’s money no mo!!! No matter how I feel. They made me mad!!so what!!!

4th Lee, Another serious factor why the Corinthian church wasn’t giving like they used to, was the invasion of the Judaizers.

But Who are the Judaizers? The Judaizers were Jews that were converted to Christianity. Judaizers were those people who insisted on Christian Conformity to Jewish customs.

And here’s what they believed. Judaizers primarily believed that circumcision was an indispensable sign of the covenant, and as a result they taught that unless you were circumcised according to Moses’ Law, YOU COULD NOT BE SAVED!! WHATTTTT.

Also here’s the KICKER, Judaizers siphoned off as much money as they could. In other words some Judaizers had sticky fingers! Some of them were stealing. And the worst thing in the world to do is to make changes in leadership they all your money start disappearing. We’ve got a good leadership team and I’m proud to say they ain’t stealing the money. We changed the leadership team and our money went up not down. Say Amen.

Let’s keep the main thing the main thing. The main thing is Generous Giving. Well this is how it goes?

I was at the NBC in Dallas TX years ago and There was a cleaning lady pushing her cart through the convention. She looked tired. In fact she looked sick and tired of being worn out tired. And I was in the hall way working on my sermon as people passed by. And the lady put out her wet floor cleaning sign and went into the men’s bathroom to clean it. There were no men in there.

I waited and waited. And while waiting the Lord said go bless her. So I waited until she came out of cleaning the men’s restroom and I went over to her and I gave her $500 dollars and I said the Lord said to bless you darling.

She broke down and started to cry. I mean boo who cry! She made me cry...She said Mr. Rev I don’t know how you knew that today was my last day in my apartment. The landlord said if I don’t bring him the money today I’m out on the streets with my children. She said my husband walk out on us. and Mr Rev I’m not no street woman. And I’ve just been praying up and down these convention halls that God would make a way somehow.

And so long story short I didn’t tell my wife about it, and the next day my wife and I were walking through the convention hall to go to the morning session and this same woman spotted me. She had two other ladies with her and she came over to us and she said Ya’ll this the man! this is the angel!! that I was telling ya’ll about that saved me and my family yesterday.

The bible says to be careful how you entertain strangers because you entertain angels at unawares. And now I know sometimes God makes you that saving angel.

And when my wife knew how much I had given she didn’t say nothing. That’s not all. And Before we left Dallas that year I ran into 3 preachers that ask me to come preach for them. “Allen can you make the 11 am service Sunday coming? I said yeah Then another one came and said Allen can you make the 2:00 pm service next Sunday I said yeah!!! then another preacher ask me could I make the 1st Sunday service at 2:00 pm and I said look at God.

When you’re a giver God will open up door for you. God gave me more in those 3 preaching appointments than I gave the cleaning lady in the Convention Hall.

I’m talking about Generous Giving

Paul said in 2 Cor 8:8 I am not commanding you to do this. But I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches.

Listen to me church,If people got to make you give it’s less effective that a cheerful giver. God loves a cheerful giver.

Some people are just genuine givers.Paul said I don’t want you giving above what you’re able to give.From the NLT Bible it say in verse 10 Here is my advice: It would be good for you to finish what you started a year ago. Last year you were the first who wanted to give, and you were the first to begin doing it. 11 Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. 12 Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. I like this because Paul say I’m giving everybody a chance to get their hearts ready and prepared to give like they did a year ago.

I see several things here.

1. In verse 10 Paul is saying Last year you did real good so go back to that. And church that’s sort of like a backsliding church. They were doing good last year but somewhere in their hearts decided not to be faithful in their giving.

2. in verse 11 Paul is saying come on get back to what you used to be and give what you able to give. What does that mean saints ? I’ll tell you like this. some of us have dug ourselves in a hole so deep in debt until we couldn’t pay tithes even if we wanted too. But trouble don’t last always!!!

Tell your neighbor: Trouble Don’t last always. Because sooner or later you gon pay off one of those bills. Then take that money and give to God. I vowed that I wasn’t going to be the kind of preacher that CHEATS GOD. I said Lord if you get me out of debt I promise I’ll pay my tithes and offerings. And I’ll tell anybody I’m a tither. I give more than what I make. And God blesses me over and above every time.

In verse 12 Paul is saying give what you can.. And when you can do better God will honor that. I taught school 27 years and all of my student didn’t make the honor roll. And I see them now out in life and many of them are doing well. And the point is You don’t have to be a star to be in my show. But everybody in here can give better than we’ve been giving. And that’s a fact.

From the NIV 2 Cor.8:13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, 15 as it is written: “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.”

Let me lay this in your lap where you can get it. God is not saying he wants us to give so much that we suffer and can’t pay our bills while other folk prosper. God was saying to the Corinthian Church that you were a prosperous church, why are you not living up to the standards of excellence as you once displayed.

Paul was also saying that the Association was counting on y’all payment because y’all church always gave the convention the association and the conference a lot of money. I believe in all of those things BUT!!! Charity begins where Yall? Let’s make sure we are on a solid footing, then we can go help somebody else. Then that’s Equal. I believe in helping people. And this is my advice to anybody who will listen. If you’re in debt pay your debts. And then don’t get the big eye and turn around and go get into deeper debt than you had before. Does that make sense what I’m saying to us.

Alright 8 more verse and I’ll be finish 8 chapter. Verses 16,17,18,& 19 says from the NLT version 16 But thank God! He has given Titus the same enthusiasm for you that I have. 17 Titus welcomed our request that he visit you again. In fact, he himself was very eager to go and see you. 18 We are also sending another brother with Titus. All the churches praise him as a preacher of the Good News. 19 He was appointed by the churches to accompany us as we take the offering to Jerusalem—a service that glorifies the Lord and shows our eagerness to help. Brothers and sisters this is a form of Grace Giving. Grace giving is a matter of faith: we obey God and believe that He will meet our needs as we help to meet the needs of others. Grace Giving is not a mathematical system or formula. Because Grace Giving is giving more than the 10% while realizing that God pays the dividends at a higher yielding than any other investment firm you know. In other words God will multiply your blessings so much so that you won’t have room enough to receive the great blessing God has in store for you. And the church shouted Hallelujah!!

Paul is saying I brought along Titus because he started with ya’ll and now he’s a seasoned bonifide preacher pastor teacher leader that’s come to help. And then Paul adds some specificity and integrity to the process.

1. Paul said I want ya’ll to give more and

2. When you give more we’ll make sure that the money don’t get feet and walk away or get wings and fly away and we’re right back where we started from.

3. Paul said we ( the leaders) have got to be trustworthy that when the members give more, the money is used for what you said it would be used for. If the money is for building fund use it on the building, if it’s for mission use it on mission if it’s for equipment use it on equipment. etc etc etc.

And then 4. Raymond Allen said and if the church isn’t practicing Generous Giving tell them they are not practicing Generous Giving so that hey can get back on track.

Then verses 20 We are traveling together to guard against any criticism for the way we are handling this generous gift. 21 We are careful to be honorable before the Lord, but we also want everyone else to see that we are honorable. 22 We are also sending with them another of our brothers who has proven himself many times and has shown on many occasions how eager he is. He is now even more enthusiastic because of his great confidence in you.

1. In verse 20 Everybody on the Leadership team are going to travel together so that we are all on one accord and them people money don’t come up missing.

2. Because we’re going to need that money to sustain and maintain this holy House of God.

3. We are employing honorable brothers who are going to get the job done right, and not a cousin deal, where everybody get broke off a piece and nothing gets done.

Then the last thing Paul says in verse 22 is that we are bringing people who are enthusiastic about you and who have great confidence in you. And that literally means that you want a pastor that believes in you that have confidence in you and who is excited about your potential. I told you I taught school 27 years. And some teachers would come to me and say How did you get Johnny to do his work and make good grades in your class? I said I told Johnny that I believed in him because he reminded me of me.

Church you remind me of me, and I promise you that if we have Generous Giving the way God says to that we’ll come out on top.

And then in verse 23 from the NLT version 23 If anyone asks about Titus, say that he is my partner who works with me to help you. And the brothers with him have been sent by the churches, and they bring honor to Christ.

They bring honor to Christ. They aren’t no crooked preachers that’s stealing all of God’s money they come for the right thing.

Then lastly KJV 24 Wherefore shew ye to them, and before the churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf. This means if you know you got a good pastor follow him, if you’ve got a good preacher listen to him, and if you know you’ve got a decent Man of God work the plan together with him to edify and build up the body of Christ.

Because I know the most honorable preacher that ever lived,um um His name was Jesus. And loved us so much until One Friday Great God they led him on up to Calvary’s Hill