Giving With Generosity

We are ending the Christian year with a two-week sermon series focusing on generosity. The goal is to allow us to develop an understanding of what generosity means to us individually and as a church.

The hope is that through this study it can lead us into a desire to ask God for ways we can become more generous. This week we will look at what it means to “Give with Generosity.” Our scripture comes from 2 Corinthians 8:1-7.

8 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. 6 So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

Please pray with me…

The definition we are going to be using for this word “generosity” can be found in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. It states that generosity is “freely giving more of something than is necessary or expected.”

This definition will help us individually and as a church develop a theology of generosity. An understanding of how God wants us to show generosity to those around us. It is important that as a church we figure out for ourselves individually and as a group of followers of Jesus what it means for us to be generous.

This definition works for us, but it also doesn’t offer, us, meaning the church, the full picture. We need to add that we are doing what we are doing “for God.” Followers of Jesus are generous for many reasons, but one of the main reason we should be “generous” is that we are following and serving the one who was first “generous” to us.

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In fact, let’s look at some of the ways God is generous to us. God is generous through his willingness to create us. This is not only pointing out his creation of us but also his willingness to create us with free will.

He created humanity with the ability to decide not to follow him at any time. He didn’t force us to be like a robot and follow his commands without question. God created us with the ability to think and make decision on our own.

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God is generous to us because he provides for us. He gives us what we need to overcome what we may be going through. He gives us what we need to help those that he desires for us to help. God gives us what we need to be the person that God desires for us to be.

What God does not always provide is what we want. He does not always allow us to get or experience what we desire. This is where the struggle can become real. We can sometimes struggle in discovering how our “needs” are being meant when our “wants” aren’t.

When we lose a friend or family member. Those times when we have those around us mistreat us or use us. We may have to ask God or seek how what is or has happened to us in any way will be able to be used for good. All of this takes faith. It takes a willingness to trust that God is at work in all aspects of our lives.

This form of generosity includes the Holy Spirit. God could have said “my son has saved you now live your life the best that you can.” That is not what we believe that God has done. God not only came and saved us and offered himself as an example to us, but he also left us with someone to help us.

He left us the Holy Spirit, God within us, to guide and direct us. He wanted us to be as close to him as we were willing to be. He wanted us to be able to cry out to him and hear from him. God made sure that we would never be alone.

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This leads to what is the most important way God offered us generosity. He came down to earth and died on the cross in order to give us forgiveness of sin. He did this for us without us having to earn the right or deserve to be saved by him.

We only have to admit our weakness. Admit that we can’t be the best person that we can be on our own. We need to be willing to follow our Lord and Savior. We need to be willing to humble ourselves before God and turn our life over to him. We have a generous God.

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We find in our scripture Paul speaking about a group of people that were generous to others. Paul tells us that this group of people were facing their own trials and tribulations. Life wasn’t going well for them but that did not prevent them from giving in “rich generosity.”

They did not allow life to get in the way of their generosity. They show us that what is going on in our lives should not have an impact on our willingness to be generous. We should not allow ourselves to think we can’t be generous with the abundance or how little that we have.

Our focus should be on God. Our situation or circumstances should not stop us from being the person that God desires for us to be. In the case of the Macedonians that meant “giving as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability.”

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Let me pause because I know what you may be thinking, Pastor Jim is focusing on the offering plate. He wants to make sure that we are “giving as much as we are able, and even beyond our ability.” That is what the Macedonians were called to do. That might not be what you are called to do.

The Macedonians gave with “overflowing joy.” We are to give to God and to others with a joyful heart. In 2 Corinthians chapter 9 it says that “God loves a cheerful giver.” Joyful is a synonym for cheerfulness, so we could state that Paul is speaking also of a joyful giver.

This should tell us that we are to give out of our heart instead of out of obligation. I don’t want you to give because you feel pressured by me or someone else. I do believe we are called to give back to God, but the amount, that is between you and God.

This can lead us back to a focus on grace over the law. The Jewish people were to give ten percent of what they had earned to the church. This was considered their tithe to God. This was important because the priests and Levites did not earn a wage. They needed the support of the community to put food on the table.

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Many churches have taken this command given to the Jewish people as a way to mandate what is expected giving within their churches and congregations. They have decided that this is a minimum standard of generosity towards God.

It is not that I disagree with them. Amy and I personally follow a minimum standard of a tithe. but with that in mind listen closely, I do believe that if you can’t give a tithe cheerfully or joyfully then you are giving for the wrong reason. We are to be cheerful givers back to God.

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Our first reading I think points out how we are to view our relationship with God and with what we have. We have a woman entering the temple and she places within the offering plate, “two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.”

Jesus sits watching her along with many of the wealthier people of the congregation place their offerings into the plate. Jesus does not focus on the wealthy for their gifts; he focuses on the gift given by the “poor widow.”

He focuses on her because she “put in everything—all she had to live on.” The widow didn’t give ten percent; she gave 100 percent of what she had to God. What this says to me is that all that we own, all that we do, belongs to God.

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God is our creator and our Savior. He desires for us to recognize that he is God and we are not. He wants us to view what we have as belonging to him. When we view what we have in this manner we are deciding not what we are giving to God but what we are giving back to God.

It is why I will usually if not always word the prayer over our offerings as “us giving back to God.” We are returning through our tithes and offerings a small percentage back to what God has given to each one of us.

That is why Paul adds that last part that the Macedonians gave “beyond their ability.” They gave more than they should based off of their financial situation. They were willing to as we have been speaking of since July, to bless others because they believed they were blessed.

They had the faith to believe that God was calling them to give above and beyond what they could afford. They trusted that God would provide for them at the very least their needs to survive. Again, I am not saying that this is what you are called to do.

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But Paul is using the Macedonians as an example for the people of Corinth. The comparison is probably not by accident. Where the people from Macedonia were said to be facing “extreme poverty,” Corinth would have been considered a place of wealth.

You could consider it to be the New York City of the day. It was a major place of trade and travel within the region. Therefore, it was one of the most wealthiest cities within the Roman empire.

Paul wants the Corinthians to consider giving to the cause. The cause being the remnant of Christians in Jerusalem. The Christians in Jerusalem were facing financial hardships. We aren’t given a reason why within scripture, but many believe it was due to persecution or possibly a drought that occurred during that time.

He wants the people of Corinth to decide to ask God about how they should help provide for the Christians in Jerusalem. Paul wants them to let God speak to them about how they are to help provide for those that are in need.

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Paul says it this way, he says that the Macedonians “gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.” It was through a conversation with God that led them to decide what they were going to give towards the cause. Paul is asking the Corinthians to also take that step.

That leads to this question, have you asked God how you are to disperse what you have? If we believe that God has given to us all that we have then we should consider going to God and asking how we are to share what we have. We are to ask God what it means for us to show generosity.

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We have Paul end our scripture with a focus on the importance of generosity to God. He says it as what could be considered a half compliment to the Corinthian Christians. He tells them that “since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

Paul is challenging the church in Corinth but at the same time he seems to see them as a church that loves God. They show the love of God through their actions and their willingness to connect with God.

Paul through these words offers to us six pillars of what it means to be a loving, caring church to each other and to those around us. They are faith, speech, knowledge, complete earnestness, love, and giving or generosity.

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Let us briefly take a look at these six pillars of the church. Everything begins with faith. We need to have faith to become a follower of Jesus. The church needs to have faith that God is at work in them, among them, and through them individually and as a united group.

It is through faith that we keep moving forward individually and as a church. It is through faith and a willingness to cry out to God and listen to God that allows us to become the individual followers and church that God desires for us to be.

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They also knew the words to say and were willing to say them. This matters to God and therefore should matter to us. It is why we spent three months focusing on what we call evangelism. The willingness to show the love of God to those around us through our words and our actions.

 It is through a willingness to share the love of God that allows a church to not only survive but thrive. It is a willingness to as we spoke of a couple weeks ago to be “Strong In the Lord.” A willingness to not allow fear to paralyze us and be the person and the church that God desires for us to be.

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They also were willing to learn about God. They wanted to know about the one who created them, saved them, and resides within them. They wanted to have the knowledge to help them keep the faith and to help them become bolder in their desire to share their faith.

We can help each other in our knowledge and understanding of God. This is why we offer the devotional on our Facebook page during the week and also a Bible study after our service on Sundays. We get to help each other understand God as we grow closer to God.

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We next find a focus on the church having complete earnestness in their willingness to follow the will of God. Earnestness is not a word that we use very often. Another way this word has been translated within scripture is eagerness.

This would point out an eagerness to be willing to follow the will of God. This would be a willingness to not only hear from God and listen to God but a desire or eagerness to do what God has called for the church to do.

We are living this out at The Church of the Good Shepherd through our desire to reach those within the Sharon Woods neighborhood. This church has been placed in the middle of a large group of people. We should be eager to be the hands, feet and voice of Jesus to those that are living close to us.

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We next find this understanding of a showing of the love that was kindled in them. This would point out a willingness to love the way that God first loved us. It is Paul pointing out to the church in Corinth that they are to love like the love Paul and his companions showed to them.

We find this type of love in the way that Jesus loved. He cared for those he meant no matter their life circumstances. He lived a life of compassion, a willingness to express his love for others through action. He was also was willing to tell those around him how God desired for them to live their lives.

We are called to live lives that reflect Jesus. We are to desire to show the love of God to those that we meet no matter who they are and how society views them. We are called to love all people equally.

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Those of us that are followers of Jesus are on a journey with Jesus. Each one of us has our strengths and weaknesses within our understanding and following of Jesus. Paul seems to be pointing out to this church that they “excel at a lot but are struggling with the “grace of giving.”

Another way that this could be expressed is that we are to choose to give abundantly. We are to give above and beyond what would be expected. This returns us back to the widow. She gave her all.

We should desire to be people of abundant generosity. A willingness to live out our mission statement by connecting with those that we meet by being the hand, feet, and voice of Jesus to our communities.

We should not focus on who someone is or how they are viewed by those around them. We are to show the love of God to each person that we meet without a focus on our differences. We are to focus on the fact that they are like us in that they are loved by God.

And lastly, we should be doing this individually but also together. We are to be united together under our mission of becoming closer to God while we are also serving those around us through our time and talents and we should be doing this generously. We are called by God to be people of generosity.

Let us pray…