Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

The fullness of the blessing

Mother Teresa once gave an interview to Hello! magazine.

She was asked the question, “Is it only the affluent who give?”

She replied, “No, even the poorest of the poor give.

The other day a very poor beggar came up to me and said, “Everyone gives to you and I also want to give you twenty paisa” - which has been known as 1/100th of a rupee and is no longer recognized as money has been replaced by 50 paisa coins.

But at the time it is 3 cents CAD.

She said “I thought to myself, what do I do?

If I take it he won’t have anything to eat, but if I don’t take it I would hurt him so much.

So I took it, and he was so happy because he had given to Mother Teresa of Calcutta to help the poor”.

Giving cleans the heart and helps you get closer to God.

You get so much back in return.

Generosity is not just a nice character trait that people have.

It is right at the heart of what our faith is all about.

C. S. Lewis defined Christianity as “a kind of giving”.

God has poured out his generosity to you in Jesus (John 3:16) and you are called to respond in faith and generosity to others.

The key to the fullness of the blessing is the generosity

This morning we are going to look at giving, being generous and what that means.

We are approaching a season where we will celebrate our blessings and thankfulness.

We are blessed and because of our blessings we need to remember to be generous people.

Be Generous Always

Be Generous to Everyone

Be Generous LikeGod

1. Be Generous Always

We can look at our society and see that it is made up of givers and takers.

According to David, this is a key difference between the righteous and the wicked.

Generosity is not an occasional act it is a way of living.

According to v. 26 in our text:

The generous are:

-always generous

-lead freely

The Lord delights in those who live like this (v.

23)

We may hit problems and stumble but you will not fall.

God promise is to bless you and your children.

Today we are confronted with so many needs.

The bigger picture in this Psalm is a vision of the entire people of God upheld by the practice of mutual generosity: giving and receiving.

In our fellowship currently we have this initiative called Formission and we have just completed my health and now into mutual health which lines up here with our text of giving and receiving.

We are to be generous always.

Taking into account those around us.

It was the people who followed God in generous giving to the poor that would find that their own needs were met when things took a turn for the worse.

Today, we are aware of great need both locally and further.

God’s will for all His people is to uphold one another by giving generously (v.

21).

Take every opportunity to give generously and you will experience the fullness of God’s blessing.

2. Be Generous to Everyone

Jesus spent the night praying to God.

He was filled with insight as he chose his disciples.

He was also filled with the power to heal the sick: ‘and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all’ (v.

19).

Jesus contrasts those who accumulate for themselves (the takers) and those who have generosity of spirit (the givers).

There is an emptiness about the way of life in which involves becoming ‘rich’, being ‘well fed’ with lots of superficial laughter and gaining a good reputation (v.

24-26).

It leaves people ultimately dissatisfied and ‘hungry’ (v.

25).

The way of blessing is totally different.

It is the way of generosity.

It may involve poverty, hunger, weeping, being hated, excluded, insulted and rejected - but it is a way of satisfaction.

When we are generous to everyone how does that look?

being kind in action and speech

bearing on another’s burdens

being people of confidence - genuine care

love like Jesus loves

random acts of kindness

being who we say we are even when no one’s looking

You see - you will be satisfied (satisfaction) and joy (you will laugh).

Jesus calls us to be generous towards our enemies ‘Love your enemies...”

Be generous to everyone, this means an attitude of generosity, ‘without expecting to get anything back”.

As always, Jesus is only calling us to imitate the generosity of God: ‘Help and give without expecting a return.

You will never regret it.

Live out this God created identity the way our father lives towards us, generously, even when we are at our worst.

Our father is kind and we are called to be kind also.

(v.

35-36).

Generosity towards your enemies means not only to forgive them.

You must not speak evil of them even if you think they deserve it.

You are to PRAY for them, BLESS them, and speak WELL of them.

“Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill your enemies” - N. Mandela

We are called to be like God and to be generous to everyone (v.

36)

3. Be Generous like God

Throughout scripture we see the theme of blessings and curses and the contrast of taking and giving.

We see God’s continuing generosity to His people.

Their life was not easy.

If you have been a Christian for any length of time you have probably experienced times like that.

The Israelites went through the desert, the valley, and wasteland.

This could be seen as a picture of life’s trials, dry patches, low spots and seeming fruitless.

But God gives water!

Part of being generous like God is in obedience and an area of obedience to God is giving or tithing.

It is important to talk about tithing, there are times we need a reminder of the importance of this act.

It is important because it is another act of worship.

Showing God we are thankful for what He has given to us by giving back to Him the first fruits of what He has blessed us with.

There are those here today that this may be the first time you have heard about it and others have heard but have forgotten the need to be obedient here.

I touched on this briefly on Tuesday night but this morning I would like to share on this a little more.

We are taught here that we must bring our whole tithe into the storehouse in verse 10

It is clear here that our tithes are not to be cut up for a little here and a little there.

If this is your church, place where you are coming to be fed spiritually then this is where your whole tithe needs to come.

Tithing is an act of worship where we give God our all because it is His and He gives us the ability to show our surrender to Him to honor Him by giving it back.

It goes on to say the whole tithe so that there may be food in my house.

I believe here what this means for us today is tithe to your local church so that it can then feed you and do the work that we have been called to do.

We come to this church to be fed spiritually therefore if we are not tithing our whole tithe there will not be food to feed you, the ability for the church to do what is needed will lack.

By not being obedient in this manner we are robbing God.

We would never want to be accused of robbing God.

Therefore when you give take this seriously and give as we are called to give.

Give with a cheerful heart.

Cheerful heart - give not with a grudge

When we give we give to God.