Sunday 10th June Morning

A Catholic priest, a Uniting church minister, and a Jewish rabbi were sitting around discussing how they divide the take from each Sabbath. The priest said, "What I do is draw a line down the centre of the room and then throw the money up in the air. Whatever lands on the left is God's, whatever lands on the right is mine." The minister said, "Well I do almost the same thing only I draw a circle in the middle of the room. Whatever lands in the circle is mine and the rest belongs to God." The rabbi says, "No, you both are doing it wrong. I take the money and throw it up in the air. Then I yell, God, Take what you want!. Whatever comes back down is mine......." Perhaps it’s best if we move on from that to some more dependable teaching about giving. 2 Corinthians 9: 6 – 15 6 Here’s my point. A stingy sower will reap a meagre harvest, but the one who sows from a generous spirit will reap an abundant harvest. 7 Let giving flow from your heart, not from a sense of religious duty. Let it spring up freely from the joy of giving—all because God loves hilarious generosity! 8 Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do. 9 Just as the Scriptures say about the one who trusts in him: Because he has sown extravagantly and given to the poor, his kindness and generous deeds will never be forgotten. 10 This generous God who supplies abundant seed for the farmer, which becomes bread for our meals, is even more extravagant toward you. First he supplies every need, plus more. Then he multiplies the seed as you sow it, so that the harvest of your generosity will grow. 11 You will be abundantly enriched in every way as you give generously on every occasion, for when we take your gifts to those in need, it causes many to give thanks to God. 12 The priestly ministry you are providing through your offering not only supplies what is lacking for God’s people, it inspires an outpouring of praises and thanksgiving to God himself. 13 For as your extremely generous offering meets the approval of those in Jerusalem, it will cause them to give glory to God—all because of your loyal support and allegiance to the gospel of Christ, as well as your generous-hearted partnership with them toward those in need. 14 Because of this extraordinary grace, which God has lavished on you, they will affectionately remember you in their prayers. 15 Praise God for his astonishing gift, which is far too great for words PRAY Context: Here is a church’s report card according to Paul….”You do well and excel in every respect—in unstoppable faith, in powerful preaching, in revelation knowledge, in your passionate devotion, and in sharing the love we have shown to you.” Would we like to have Paul say that about our church? You bet we would! These are all great things and would speak well of any church, but Paul knew that there was still an important ingredient missing if the church was to realise its full potential. That ingredient was generosity. Paul was obviously very keen to see the Corinthian church discover what it means to be truly generous. In chapter 8, immediately preceding today’s passage, he has urged the Corinthian church to put their hands in their pockets and give generously. Paul’s happily uses a bit of psychology that will be familiar to any parent. He describes the Macedonian churches in glowing terms, and quite openly challenges to Corinthians to go one better. Listen to what he says “Beloved ones, we must tell you about the grace God poured out upon the churches of Macedonia. For even during a season of severe difficulty and tremendous suffering, they became even more filled with joy. From the depths of their extreme poverty, super-abundant joy overflowed into an act of extravagant generosity. For I can verify that they spontaneously gave, not only according to their means but far beyond what they could afford. They actually begged us for the privilege of sharing in this ministry of giving to God’s holy people who are living in poverty. They exceeded our expectations by first dedicating themselves fully to the Lord and then to us, according to God’s pleasure. I’m not saying this as though I were issuing an order but to stir you to greater love by mentioning the enthusiasm of the Macedonians as a challenge to you.“ So if that’s how Paul saw things back then, what can we learn about how should we approach our giving? Paul wants us to aim for excellence in giving, an excellence based on the generosity of God. Paul repeatedly reminds us that we are where we are today because of the amazing generosity of a gracious heavenly father. Look at Jesus, who literally owned everything and anything and enjoyed all of the wonders and privileges of heaven. Despite his infinite riches, he became poor for our sake, in order that we too might become rich. If we are to be like Jesus in all respects, then we must share in his extravagant generosity. As was the case for Jesus, this is not an impulsive, poorly thought-out gesture. In verse 7 the NIV translation advises that “each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give” SLIDE 8. There are 2 elements here. Making a decision implies thought, planning and understanding. Engaging our heart implies listening to our passions and allowing God to lead us through our emotions. Both head and heart need to line up under God’s guidance SLIDE 9, and once they have done so then we need to get on with the cheerful business of giving. I want to challenge you at this point. SLIDE 10Do you actually know the state of your finances? Have you made a budget, and does your budget include a specific, intentional element of giving? Paul is not describing the kind of approach that the 3 men of God in my opening joke adopted, where we do whatever we want and God somehow gets the leftovers. We don’t refer to it often in the modern church, but in the OT the people of Israel were instructed to bring their first fruits to God, and what was left over was then available for other purposes. Paul is challenging us to sit down and work out our finances, to ask God to stir up our hearts so that we know where to give, and to choose to make this giving our number one priority. How many of us are true to this principle? Notice that Paul does not at any time nominate a sum of money or a percentage or proportion that should be given. In the OT, the people of Israel were instructed to give 10% of their income as their offering to God, which we know as the tithe. They didn’t just hand over cash in a sterile transaction to support the temple and those ministering in it. The people of Israel were instructed to use their offering money in part to throw a big celebratory feast for all comers, temple staff and the marginalised, which included oil, grain, fruit, meat and strong drink. Yes, really! So even the fractional giving required of Israel had a joy and life about it that we have lost. The NT never instructs us to tithe, and in today’s passage Paul has specifically ruled out any compulsory sum. It is quite clear that the NT writers regarded everything we have as actually belonging to God, and that we could not buy him off or tick off that box by signing away 10%. Rather, it is all his SLIDE 11. 10% is probably a good start for beginners, but Paul is urging us to go beyond this and to excel in our generosity. You might be wondering whether it is OK to have savings, or maybe even whether God’s plan is for no one to be materially wealthy. Although some people have famously given so much away that they became materially poor, I do not believe that this is God’s will for all believers at all times, nor do I believe that he is anti-rich. I do believe that he calls us not to cling to our possessions tightly, just as Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped onto without letting go. Saving is OK if it enables you to overflow with generosity when God asks it of you. And this is the key, that we are ready and willing to use all the resources that he gives us as and when he calls us to do so. So, if this joyful, generous, abundant mode of giving is what is meant for us, what do we get in return? Paul sets out 3 clear consequences. Abundant blessing SLIDE 12. This passage is absolutely clear that people who give cheerfully out of an understanding of how generous God has been to them will receive in return even more blessing. Sometimes this has been distorted into a form of income generation, where it is said that we can get rich by giving money way, because God will then be obliged to give us even more. Like most effective lies this has a strong grain of truth. What it completely misunderstands is the motivation behind giving is the thing which moves God to bless the giver even more. Those who give for right motives will be wonderfully blessed, materially and more. Those whose aim is to enrich only themselves will be like the rich fool in Luke 12: “Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” A harvest of worship SLIDE 13. Verse 11 “You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” There are few things more exciting and delightful than being on the receiving end of an unexpected windfall. How many fantasies or stories have been written around the idea of an inheritance that came out of nowhere, or winning the big lottery? The difference here is that everyone involved knows that the generosity of the giver is actually the generosity of God being passed on. As a result, everyone has good reason to acknowledge and to praise God. The giver for the delight of seeing their gift appreciated and used. The recipient because they have discovered yet again of the amazingly generous grace of our father, and his people, even ones that we may not have actually met. Of course, this leads to a sense of deep connection SLIDE 14, where we feel a strong but unseen bond with other believers, even though they may be far away. As Paul puts it, “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” In conclusion, I want to leave with you some of the challenges that he has hit me with as I have worked my way through this passage. SLIDE 15 Are you operating out of a spirit of loving generosity, or a spirit of fear? Are you relying on your own efforts to provide for your future, or do you trust God? If an accountant or financial expert sat down with you and went through your finances, would they be able to see that you are underwritten by the grace of God, rather than relying solely on your own financial devices? Does the way that you give display the developing character of God in your own life? As Jesus put it, are you rich toward God? Do you actually know the state of your finances? Are you in a position to be able to lay them before God and ask him to move both your head and your heart so that you can give in the way that he is calling you to give! CAP Money course July 4th and 18th. Have you ever considered setting up a specific “blessing fund”? Sometimes God calls on us at short notice to be generous. If and when that happens, would you be ready? I just want us to come away today with a renewed determination to discover the joy of generosity, of moving in the lavish grace of our always-giving God. The place we are looking to get to is one where, having carefully worked out our finances, having decided under the influence of the spirit how, when and where we will give, we can relax. We can move on from legalistic percentages and figures into a place where we can give joyfully, hilariously even, and freely, a place where God can trust us with many, many blessings because he knows that we will use them just as he wants them used.