The church as Generous and Wise

Everything becomes a comparison

This is the last message in a series called “Generous and Wise.” Where we have looked at the idea of what it means to take care of God’s resources. Where we are managing what God has given us to use on His behalf.

We have heard from different individuals on different topics regarding giving, generosity, wisdom, finances, time, ministry, our friendships.

What we can conclude is that how we handle all of our finite resources: our time, our finances, and our skills, is a spiritual issue. The goal is not simply to not care about what we have but to care deeply enough that we see it as a spiritual issue.

Now, one brief note. If you have been new you might be asking yourself, is this all they talk about? And the temptation would be to think, “all the church talks about is money and just keep asking for money.” I hope you hear that is not the case in the message this morning, even as we explicitely talk about money and giving. And also know that I have been here for 9 years and this is the first real series we have done on stewardship. So the track record is once a decade.

The modern posture of the ancient church is to be both generous and wise. These are expressions of what it means to follow Christ in the world. As we leave our mark and influence in the world, the idea is that we would be generous and wise in it.

And how we do that comes through what we value most. What we value most will either form us toward generosity and wisdom or will constrict us toward scarcity and foolishness.

We often get these things mixed up. We believe that what is in front of us is the most important thing. The thing we most value.

Allow me to show this through how we view online videos. Let’s say you get online because you want to learn more about economics (which we will talk about a bit today). And let’s say that you watch a brief overview of the theory of economics and learn about Adam Smith, etc. But we also know that in every video there is a string of related videos. And on one of the related videos there is one titled, “Adam Smith’s cat.” A cat video! So now you watch that. And another and another.

Soon, the almighty algorithm learns that you love cat videos. You may value economics, but you spent your time on cat videos. The algorithm now hands you cat video after cat video. It reveals to you, not what you value, but what you spent your time on, what you looked at. This is called “digital rubbernecking.” You didn’t set out to watch cat videos, but you ended up watching cat videos. The algorithm revealed it to you and you rubbernecked your way through youtube rather than choosing what you value. (1)

And the problem is that what is in front of us, what is revealed to us, is often an issue of what we value most.

And what we value most will begin to be understood through the lens of economics

Living at the level of transaction

The study of economics can be defined roughly as the “allocation of scarce resources.” Meaning that when there is a finite number of items, economics will look at how those items are spread around groups of people.

Economics is the study of how things get transacted. How someone pays money for a good or service. We have come to believe (like watching endless cat videos) that what we trade for (or pay) becomes that most important thing for us. We learn to, or it is revealed to us, that what we transact for is the most important thing. What we should value the most.

We often take what is in front of us as the most important thing. So the issue is that we are no longer a society with an economic foundation we are what is called a market society. Everything is for sale. Everything has a price to it. We have come to believe that instead of the infinite value of a human life, we can reduce it down to some kind of cost. We quantify a human life. That is necessarily sin.

But when everything becomes a transaction, everything becomes a comparison.

When everything becomes a comparison, we focus on the part of our relationships that provide the most value to us. This necessarily means the relationship is no longer about the person, it is about what they offer. We reduce individuals, not to who they are, but to how we define them. We limit others based on the value that we think they are worth. In a market society have to decide what something is worth. We take the infinite value of a human life and we quantify it. We say it is only worth so much.

So you you may ask, why is this important? Why are we even talking about economics on a Sunday morning?

Stooping down and standing up

Because to live at the level of transaction is a stooped over posture. It is bent over. We can no longer see the whole picture, we just look at people at the knees.

Well, we have stooped down as an entire culture and have for some reason agreed to live at the level of transaction. And living at the level of transaction is a bent kind of posture. It is stooped down, never able to look at God or others in the face.

The call of the church is to not stoop down to transaction, seeing a limited value on human life, but to stand up in the posture of generosity and wisdom.

Think of it this way

The difference is found in what is called daylighting. this is an environmental process that takes riverways that have been covered up by roads and concrete and removes the obstructions to restore them to what they were before they were built over.

In the urban sprawl of cities, rivers get covered or redirected in order to build over or around it. The waterway may be buried in concrete or pipes or drainage systems. This process has had detrimental effects on the rivers and ultimately not only increases pollution but also increases flood risk. Daylighting removes as much of these impediments as possible to restore it to its original use.

To live with scarcity is to live stooped over, crunched under by impediments, to live generously is to live daylighted, with nothing over us. Just like daylighted rivers that can run freely, generous people can stand upright.

We see that in this verse. This is the first real description of the first church. It is a description of what they are doing. This is not just a theoretical or theological view of the church. It is practical. It is showing what they are actually doing. It lists out how they are choosing to live in community with each other and with the world.

Acts 2:42 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

As this description opens, the church is given a verb, something that this fledgling community acted upon. The passage states that the church was devoted to four things:

the apostle’s teaching

the fellowship

the breaking of bread

prayer

The church devoted themselves to certain things, to value some things over another. That’s what that word means, to devote. It means to pay attention to or focus on. The church made sure these things were first.

And it was when they learned to value those things over everything else that they lived out a generous and wise life.

We always act from what we value most. And when we are talking about stewardship, we are talking about caring for those things that we care about the most. It is not just that we care for those things, it is that God cares for them as well.

And when we get the order right, when we understand that the posture we have in life comes from the things that we desire most, we can begin to look at how to express our lives in generosity and wisdom.

And this is why it matters that we get the order right.

If economics is the allocation of scarce resources and we have been taught to think as an economic society where everything is scarce and everything is traded, then it is far too easy to think there will never be enough.

But the church began with devotion to what will never dry up and what will never run out. The church didn’t start with allocation of scarce resources, they started with the attention to divine gifts.

Everything we do as the church and everything we do as Christians begins with everything that God has given. We have been communicated to in God’s Word (the Apostles teaching). We have not be left out in the cold and silence. We have been brought in and instructed and guided and promised and cared for.

We have been commanded to live in community with one another, devoted to each other. Meaning when I fall you help me up. We learn to live in the grace and care of the church body.

We have been offered the Lord’s table. That is what the breaking of bread means. We are not only given the word of God but also the promise and work of God in Christ.

And then we are devoted to prayer, to be in communication with the God who communicates to us.

All the things we are called to be devoted to will not run out.

So then when we do consider the “allocation of scarce resources” we learn what it means to live from the right perspective. Our relationships with others, our time, our skills, the way we spend our money, our ultimate scarce resource, is seen through Gods limitless resources.

We continually shape our relationships through economic activity and thought. A biblical view of economics assumes good relationships. We work, with what is limited and scarce to hold up with and align with what is limitless and eternal.

Christ is the call to stand up

Acts 2:43–45 ESV

And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

These are not just experiences, they are outcomes. Because the church puts Christ and His people first there is a general experience of what it means to live together.

People were able to see who God truly is in their lives, they respond to the signs and wonders. To live devoted to Christ, His teaching and His people and their neighbors means to remember that there is no economic limit on relationships.

This is why people had all things in common and why they sold their stuff and distributed to those in need.

Let’s get this out of the way, this is descriptive not prescriptive. We are not going to challenge you in what you give we are going to challenge you in your relationship with God. That is the focus of this passage, not that they gave but that they couldn’t help but give because relationships came first and formost.

Notice the passage itself. There is not coercion or lack of agency. The people were together. They recognized the Lord in themselves and each other. It is voluntary and participatory. There were resources and there was need. Under the promises of Christ and His resources, they were able to highlight relationships as the most important.

For the church to remain generous, it means that people are opting in, that people are leaning in. If generosity is forced it is no longer generosity. When someone experiences Christ, His generosity and care, then they choose to become generous. What I hope you see is a picture of a group of people who have been loved well in God and who then loves well.

They lost the anxiety of the allocation of scarce resources under the present reality of the infinite God.

Acts 2:46–47 ESV

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The church “bodies forth” Christ and the Gospel in the way we show what it means to live in the world. We live out what cannot be reduced and impart it into the world that always feels too little and too late.

Christ is the unchanging and ultimate generous One. He gave entirely and fully and invites us to live in that eternally with Him. When we do that we learn what exchange truly is and what life and relationship really looks like,

The generosity of God in Christ touches every part of us, even our scarce resources.

We show what is valued and how things are exchanged. That the world is economically situated, but it doesn’t have to live at the exchange of transaction only. There is a different value and a different means of exchange.

We mediate Christ, imitating Him in the world, challenging our assumptions and cultural norms about value and exchange. The gospel must always be a challenge to our economics because it disrupts and challenges our understanding of value and exchange (3).

But we live in a scarce world.

But we live in a scarce world. We live in realities that always feel a little tight and a little too close. The goal is not to ignore those anxieties, the goal is to face them as we live devoted to Christ and His church.

Again as we do that, devote to Christ, His Word and His people, we get a descriptive life of generosity not of scarcity. It doesn’t look exactly like the passage we looked but there are demonstrations of generosity.

We want to live this out as a church. This is why we open up to the homeless community,

It is why we want to care deeply for the special needs community

And the immigrant community. In a couple of weeks you will hear about an interest breakfast about ESL or English as a second language. The national director for the CMA ESL ministries will be in the NE district and we are hosting a breakfast on behalf of the area.

We want to discern with the Lord what He is doing and respond. We devote to God and we express our lives in generosity, caring for those around Him.

This is why we give 10%, which is the definition of a tithe, to global missions. We are committed to expressing generosity and care for those around us. As we pay attention to the Lord and others, and are devoted to relationships, we use that 10% for missions for others around the world to do the same.

This is why we talk about personal giving as 10%. Sometimes I joke that the New Testament talks about giving everything and as the local church we just talk about 10%. But that is a lot of money, I agree. In a world consumed with lack and with scarce resources, asking someone to give to the local church 10% is a lot. But we don’t live in a world of scarcity.

The point is not the exact percentage, the point is being devoted to God and committed to expressing generosity in the world. But maybe it’s a good time to challenge giving. Maybe don’e sell your possessions and belongings, maybe think about going from 3% to 5%. Maybe go from 5% to 10%. We use what you and I give to the church, we tithe as a family as well, to express generosity in the world.

When we are devoted to God and each other, we end up expressing ourselves generously. We tithe, we give our time. Not because we have to, but because we want to. We want to live at the posture of the kingdom of God. Christ becomes the one who reveals our value, not the algorithm.

We have a lot of opportunity to live out devotion to Christ and His kingdom well here in Attleboro and throughout the world. Lean into how God is calling you to be a part in how you serve and love others well.

(1) Aleksic, Adam. 2025. Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language. Alfred A. Knopf. 121

(3)Barton, Stephen C. 2009. “Money Matters: Economic Relations and the Transformation of Value in Early Christianity.” In Engaging Economics: New Testament Scenarios and Early Christian Reception, edited by Bruce W. Longenecker and Kelly D. Liebengood, 58–59.