Becoming Generous

Introduction: I was watching the Olympics this past week when Khloe Kim destroyed the field nearly 10 points more than second place to take Gold in the women’s snowboarding half-pipe. And what was crazy is that she is only 17. How can someone so young become in the best in the world that quickly.

Well it takes money, because lift tickets are expensive.

It takes God given talent.

But more than anything, it takes time.

She started when she was 4 and never stopped. She didn’t have a normal childhood. She didn’t have normal schooling and her parents rearranged their entire lives around Khloe.

Time, Talent and resources are integral to everything. If you are missing one, it will impede everything else.

1. You can put in the time and talent, but without money or resources, you can’t reach your potential.

2. You can have talent and resources, but if you don’t put in the time, you can’t reach your potential.

3. Finally, you can put in the time and have all the resources in the world, but some of us just aren’t talented in the things that we want to do.

The same is true for anything that you want to be good at; sports, music, or selling insurance.

The same is true for anything that you want to be good at; sports, music, or selling insurance.

So here is what we know:

In this life, we have a limited amount of money and time that we are given. We have our god given talents and abilities to develop and grow.

The question is what will we do with this life that we’ve been given?

There is a saying in sports, “At the end of the game, make sure you leave it all out there on the field.” Holding nothing back, give it everything you’ve got.

In other words, be generous and give it all away.

1 Corinthians 4:1–8 ESV

1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. 6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. 7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? 8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!

1 cor

Big Idea: Be Generous with more than just your money.

The key word in this passage is “Steward.” A steward is someone who is appointed to look after another person’s property. Here is the transformational thought for us today: Nothing is ours. Paul puts it this way:

1 Corinthians 4:7–8 ESV

7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? 8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!

1 Corinthians 4:7 ESV

7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

If none of it is ours, then we should have no problem when God tells us to use it to make His name great....even if that means giving it all away.

When it comes to generosity, I think it’s safe to say most of us think about money. But money isn’t the most precious resource. You can always always make more money, but you can’t make more time.

When we stand one day before God, my guess is that we will answer far more for how we spent our time than how we spent our money.

1. Be generous with your time.

1 Corinthians 4:1–2 ESV

1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

Ephesians 5:15–16 ESV

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Explanation: Paul had a sense of urgency. You get the impression throughout his letters that he always felt like time was slipping away. He understood that soon he was going to gladly give his life to make sure that as many people as possible heard about Jesus. Paul understood that God had made him a steward even of the time he had on earth.

Illustration: Time is so important in sports. Especially in soccer. Soccer has take the issue of time to a whole new level. The game is such that only the referees know the game time and they aren’t going to tell anyone. Through the game, refs, stop time for injuries, line changes, and penalties. But the game clock keeps running. So when regulation ends, the game keeps going and only the refs know how much time is left. At the end of each game, you feel the tension rise as time seems to be slipping away. And when the game is over, and you’ve lost, you start thinking about all the near misses and the seconds here and there that slipped away. If I had done this differently, been quicker here or slowed down there, maybe things would have been different.

Application:

The world needs to hear about Jesus. Your friends need to hear about Jesus. And when they do hear about and accept Jesus, they need to be discipled. And all of this takes time. It takes everyone using their time.

Some people have an abundance of time. Retired people have time. Others don’t have as much time. But we can all do something. And yes, to give your time to God and his church means you have to sacrifice elsewhere.

Some of you spend a lot of time in traffic. How can you redeem that time? Podcasts. If you have a hands free headset, you can make some phone calls to check in.

It’s pretty easy to say, I’m too busy. How can I add anything else to my schedule? How much time do you spend binge watching netflix. I do it to. We need personal time as well. That’s why God commanded us to rest 1 day out of seven. But you can get everything done that God wants you to do in 6 days.

You always make time for the things that are important to you.

If all you have time to do is work, that’s what’s important to you.

If you don’t have time for family, family obviously isn’t that important to you.

If you can’t make time, it’s not important to you.

2. Be generous with your talents and abilities.

Explanation: As stewards, it is required that they be found faithful. Now we know from elsewhere in the scriptures that God has given those in the church special abilities called spiritual gifts and their primary purpose is to build up the church. And this plays into the whole idea that we have nothing that we haven’t been given. Where did our gifts come from? God. To be generous with our talents and abilities means that we use them to build up the church and make God’s name great. And yes, this also builds off of time. We have to take the time to use our gifts and abilities.

Illustration: Team sports usually have specialization. Everyone on a team has to be good at their specific position. This means knowing your position so you can become good at it. To become good, you have to use your talents and abilities over and over and grow into someone who is a consistent contributer to the team. No one starts off awesome! Everyone starts in a place of being a novice. Then you grow through time and hard work

Application: Some people have an abundance of talent. Or they are just good at things that the church needs.

Give you talents and abilities to God’s church. Music is a big one. If you are talented in music, you can use that to lead music on Sunday morning. Teachers? Good with finances? Good at serving?

Someone once advised me that if you want to know what your church’s purpose is in God’s plan, just look at the talents and abilities of the people God has given your church.

You might ask, what could we do with a talent for snowboarding? Well if we looked around and enough people loved snowboarding, we might consider a snowboarding ministry where we take students to the snow and teach them how to make it down a mountain without dying and then tell them how Jesus actually died for their sins.

If we had a church full of accountants, we might have a ministry to help people with their taxes.

If we had a church full of teachers, we might think about starting a school where we could teach kids math and how Jesus died for their sins.

If we had a church full of people who love to play, watch and talk about basketball we might have a basketball ministry where we have a bunch of kids coming and we teach them about basketball and how Jesus died for their sins. And then when their parents come to watch their games, we might do a halftime devotion where we tell their parents about Jesus!

3. Be generous with your money.

Explanation: Paul relied on people to finance his missionary efforts. At times he even worked as a tent maker, but that wasn’t ideal. We should think of giving money to the church as an investment. It’s not about getting money back, but building up treasure in heaven. And what is that treasure in heaven? It’s people. Through our combined efforts, the gospel can spread through the world; starting here.

Illustration: Becoming good at anything takes a lot of money. From lessons, to equipment, to education, to hospital bills from all the times we fall. But the money that we spend to be great is an investment in our ultimately goal. I wonder if you asked Khloe Kim if it was worth it right now, what would she say? Or better yet, her parents paid for it all. Do they think it was worth it? But an olympic gold medal pales in comparison to see someone come to know Jesus.

Application: Churches get a bad rap for always asking for money. And usually it the 1% of those churches who are truly greedy and scamming people. Most churches just want to make a difference in the world. And churches just like North Hills rely on the generosity of members to finance the Gospel. This is how it’s always been done.

God’s standard for giving to His church is 10%. Some say that was the OT, but Jesus always raising the bar. Jesus said, give your whole life. And with that, God has alloted you to steward 90% of what he’s given you, but the 10% is reserved for his Church.

And no, you won’t become wealthy beyond your wildest imagination if you tithe. You may have to rearrange your life to make it work. You have to learn to budget. You have to sacrifice. Your kids may have to sacrifice. Here’s what I believe for Scripture and what I’ve experienced. If you are obedient to God, he will take care of you!

Let’s face it, we could have people with time on their hands and all the talent in the world, but without sufficient resources, we won’t accomplish as much.

You might say, that in sports, kids can raise themselves out of poverty and even if they don’t make it to the pros, they can at least get a scholarship. You’re right, but that still took generosity on the part of someone to make their dream a reality.

The same thing is true of being good at school. Put the time in. Have the ability. Someone will see that effort with generosity.

The basis of christian generosity is that we understand that all that we have and all that we possess are gifts from God not to be hoarded but to be stewarded for the glory of God’s name and for our own good. We are a free people because we understand nothing is ours. ~ Matt Chandler

Conclusion: At the beginning of this sermon series, we talked about how we needed to be committed. And you might have noticed, that pretty much every sermon after has tried to show us what that looks like in the Christian life.

Some of us have more time than others. Some of us have more talent than others. And some of us have more money than others. But together we are one and we commit to working together to tell the world about Jesus.

To be a generous person means that we give it gladly for the sake of Jesus. To generously tell the world about Jesus. To preach the gospel.

And what is our message?

That each of us is a sinner heading on a path that leads to destruction.

But God intervened to save us from our sins.

He sent His son to die on a cross to pay the price for our sins.

on the 3rd day he rose from the dead.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Reflection: Are you a generous person?

So here we are. The question is, will you be generous with your time, talents and your money.

1 Timothy 6:17–19 ESV

17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Conclusion: We can be generous today because Jesus gave it all 2000 years ago.

Be generous with your time.

Be generous with your talents and abilities.

Be generous with your money.

Reflection: Are you a generous person?