A Generous Person Part 2

Jason Calvin Parker

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Debt, debt, debt video. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7VomRupvCc

Celebration of Generosity

Shelley

Christmas Cards

Introduce Subject

So this week we continue to build off our generosity series we started two weeks ago.

Generous God

1. God’s Generosity is indescribable

2. God’s Generous is tangible.

For those of you her weren’t here a few Sunday’s ago feel free to give it a watch on our Facebook Page. We had a real holy moment where God break through and we experienced the presence of his love in a profound way. I struggled through articulating God’s indescribable Generosity and then talked about how despite the fact that God’s love is indescribable it became tangible in the person of Jesus.

Every moment of Jesus life was an expression of God’s generosity to us. And God’s Generosity plus the ministry of the Holy Spirit equals a heart that is blown away and in awe of the generosity of Jesus. Today we build on that platform and foundation.

Today we are going to continue to talk about the Generous Person but before we dive in today let me just say that

We can’t truly be the kind of Generous people God wants us to be unless we first and foremost experience the generosity of Jesus ourselves. Have you experienced the generosity and kindness of Jesus? As the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit we are filled with the Generosity of Jesus so that we can in turn share that generosity with other people. Does that make sense?

NIV

Romans 5:5 NIV

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

What God has done in the person of Jesus reveals to us God’s plan for humanity.

That plan is that our Generous God wants to make generous people.

Last Sunday we tackled the heart issues around generosity. Some of the high points we talked about were

A Generous God wants to make generous people

I think if all of us took a good look at humanity it doesn’t take long to be convinced that the heart of man carries a selfish problem that needs to be fixed.

We talked a lot about how the Bible clearly tells us we all have a bent towards selfishness, greed and being stingy

We created the tension between God’s expectation and command to be generous on every occasion and the inward reality of selfishness.

We also talked about the outward pressure of consumerism and materialism as well as the inward problem of selfishness.

We also talked about how Generosity is not just for them its for us.

Then we celebrated what Jesus has accomplished for us at the cross and through his resurrection

“The Cross and resurrection give us the power to be free from being that stingy, greedy and selfish person because the cross and resurrection has broken the power of sin. The problem may be that we are all born with a bent towards selfishness, greed and being stingy but the hope we have in Jesus is that he broke the power of selfishness, greed and being stingy. We have hope that we can be free from selfishness, greed and being stingy. If you put your faith in Jesus there is an amazing thing that will happen. Jesus will break the power of selfishness, greed and stinginess in your life and give you the ability to be a genuinely generous person. Isn’t that good news? PREACH IT!”

I am here to share with you this morning that we have a hope of being free from selfishness and greed and the opportunity to become authentic and genuinely generous people because Jesus Christ has broken the power of sin and selfishness.

On this foundation we helped provide the foundation for a generous person. Part of that foundation was based on our key Scripture for the series.

2 Corinthians 9:11–13 NIV

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. 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.

We just started to kind of get into the nuts and bolts of the Scripture.

We talked about how after we become a believer in Jesus there needs to be a shift in our soul from consumer to steward.

We also learned that We become a Christian in an Instant but becoming like him is a process.

We ended last Sunday with a challenge for us to dream about this goal of becoming a generous person on every occasion.

Before we got too far into the nuts and bolts of the Scripture our time came to an end.

This week I will like to dive right back into our Scripture verse again and make the shift of being a generous person a step further.

Define Subject

Fallen Condition Focus

Christ Solution (PREACH)

Transition to Text

2 Corinthians 9:11–13 NIV

- Context of 2 Corinthians

- Chapter 8 is in the background and Paul comes back around to it

- Unpacking the strategy of getting to the place of being generous on every occasion.

- Tackling the debt issue

- What things Can I praise God for as it relates to generosity in our church? Testimonies maybe?

Testimonies maybe?

- Are you generous at every occasion? If not, what is it going to take so you can be generous on every occasion?

- Tackle the shift from consumer to steward more

Paul is really wanting them to see that the thanksgiving

So the big idea and the goal that I want everyone to see is that God wants us to be generous on every occasion. Do you see it?

So let me really clear; does that mean God wants us to give every cause, every thing and every person that is out there, no.

I did a little bit of study here of the word and the idea is that we would be ready all the time to be generous. I like the word occasion because it gives a sense of timing. I think what this passage is describing is a goal. We should work towards getting to the spot where we are always ready to be generous. Then when the Spirit brings about a Spirit-ordained occasion we are ready to give.

Listen, the reality is this, I cannot give to everything but I can give to the occasions God’s Spirit brings about for me to contribute and we can be ready to be generous on every occasion and that is that goal.

I can’t stress this enough, the goal for us as believers in Jesus is to be ready to be generous at every occasion. And if we were to ask ourselves the question, “are we ready to be generous at every occasion?” what kind of answer would we give to the Lord? For some of you it is yes and you could probably instruct us on how the Lord brought you to the place of being ready. But for most of us, including myself, we aren’t ready to be generous on every occasion. Now I think that is the case for a lot of different reasons but before I get to that I can’t stress how important and how awesome what God wants to do here is.

God’s desire for you is to enrich your life so you can be generous at every occasion.

Like how does that sound?

Like that does that sound like something at all you would be interested in?

To me I read this verse and I kind of get amazed by Jesus. You wanna know why?

I get amazed by Jesus because he wants to bless me so much. One of the chief he ways he wants to bless me so much is not just by enriching my life. One of the chief ways Jesus wants to bless my life is to give me the ability to be generous on every occasion. REALLY EMPHASIZE THIS!!!!!!!

This is what I want us to dream about. I want us to dream about this amazing goal that Jesus has set before us. Jesus wants to make us generous on every occasion. What does that even look like? It might be hard for some of us to wrap our head around that. Now some of you are there and are able to practice that but for most of us here in the room we see that ideal and goal of being able to be generous at every opportunity the Lord brings across our path and we just have this sense that we are not there. We desire to be generous at every occasion but we just realize that we fall short for a lot of different reasons. As I was reflecting on this verse this week I came to a conclusion. I think there are three main reasons or categories as to why we don’t get to the goal of being generous on every occasion.

The Heart

The Head

The Habits

The Heart

We spent a lot of time dealing with this last week but this can’t be over-stressed enough. We can’t truly be generous on every occasion God provides unless the power or bent to sin is broken in our hearts. This can only be done by faith in Jesus Christ.

talks about how through one man sin entered the world 5:12 and that when we were utterly helpless or powerless God sent Christ to die for us.

Last week we talked about how the power of selfishness, greed and stinginess must be broken by Jesus in our Spirit first and foremost so we can truly be the generous people God has called us to be.

We learned last week the incredible truth that if we put our faith in Jesus and believe that he died and rose again from the dead, choose to turn from our selfish bent and invite Christ to come in, Jesus comes into our hearts and breaks the bent towards selfishness, greed and stinginess. Some of you are here today and you have been hearing about this good news and you recognize that you need to give your life to him. We are going to give some of you at the end of the service to be public about your faith in Jesus and invite you to come forward to accept Jesus.

The heart is foundational and before we move on to our head and our habits we gotta get our heart fixed.

So how is your heart? Has Christ broken the power of greed and stinginess in your heart or do you have a stronghold in your heart?

Do you need to come in faith in Jesus to help fix your heart?

How will you respond to the call of Jesus?

Let’s go back to the question again - how do we become the person who is generous on every occasion?

1. We need to get our heart fixed

2. Our mentality needs to change - Our head

One author by the name of Jethani says that we behave in ways that are more similar to those of the world. And why? “We have abandoned the vision that Christianity is an alternative way.”

SoulShift asks the question, what is this alternative way?

See this is where the tension starts to build in the room as Jesus begins to challenge us with his truth but let’s embrace the tension and allow God to speak.

Howard Dayton points out that Jesus talked about possessions in 16 of the 38 parables as Jesus gave instruction on how to handle money and possessions. He goes on to say “Indeed, Jesus Christ said more about money than about almost any other subject. The Bible offers 500 verses on prayer, fewer than 500 verses on faith, but more than 2,350 verses on money and possessions.”

SoulShift - “Yes, Jesus had strong opinions about money, but he had more than just opinions. He had an entirely different mind.”

That is exactly what talks about.

Romans 12:2 NIV

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

So God wants to transform us into these people that are generous on every occasion. How does God want to do this? By changing the way we think.

So don’t be like the world this verse is saying. Don’t build your whole lifestyle around getting wealth and resources for yourself to waste on your self. Instead, be different, be transformed and the way to do this is to allow Jesus to change the way you think.

AHA Moment - The lightbulp moment - Paradigm shifts - Repentance means a change in perspective - re-wiring

Our problem is culture has beat into our heads the way to think about our resources but Jesus wants to change the way we think about things. The resistance and tension we feel right now is the tension between our adopted way of thinking about resources from the world and Jesus challenging us to think differently.

(EMANCIPATOR - ABE LINCOLN - Jason, I have called you to set people free from the bondage and strongholds of greed, idolatry and selfishness. Lord give me your word to speak boldly into this stronghold. BE CONFIDENT!)

PREACH - Jesus actually wants to set us free from that worldly pattern and show us a new way. The new way is the way of generosity. He has already broken the power of selfishness in our hearts but if we really want to be different and generous we need to be changed by changing the way we think.

So what does it mean to change the way we think? How does our mentality need to shift?

Well last week I talked about a book called SoulShift. In this book they identify a number of different shifts that need to happen in our lives to cause us to live a life that reflects Jesus. And that is the goal;

Romans 8:29 NIV

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

The goal is to be like Jesus and Jesus was and is generous on every occasion so how do we change the way we think as it relates to generosity?

This book as a chapter committed to the shift from consumer to steward.

The moment we accept Jesus God breaks the power of consumerism has on us but if we want to have a lifestyle that reflects Jesus our mindset needs to change from consumer to steward - are you with me? Do you see it?

The old pattern of living and the way the world lives is as a consumer but Jesus wants to change our identity from consumer to steward. In order for us to make this major shift in our mindset about ourselves we have to be convinced of it first.

In Soulshift, before we can make this huge shift from Consumer to Steward they argue that 3 progressive mini-shifts have to happen first.

from being spenders to beings savers

from being savers to givers

from sharing to blessing or what the book also calls generosity

So let’s go back to that first shift from being a spender to a saver.

Many of us, including ourselves are at the very first shift. Now let me tell you a little story.

No money in the savings account

Debt - Video

Debt

Financial seminar

Our mindset has to shift from a spender to a saver and then our behaviour has to match up

Appropriate spot to say I am at the first step; many of you are way ahead of me on this and I could use some advice from you on this

Why I am saying this? Well because i want you to know I need to grow in this area and I hope this is an encouragement for those who struggle like me. Let me be real clear though, I am not saying this at all for people to feel sorry for me; I am saying this to be vulnerable so that we can grow together to become the generous people God has called us to be.

It’s hard to be a saver when you got debt. One of the main reasons I cannot be generous at every occasion right now and maybe you relate with this is because we have debt and obligations that God actually wants us to take care of first. So my responsibility and so with any of us that are in the same boat as me is to be as aggressive as possible with that debt so that we can be freed up to be generous on every occasion. I celebrate the fact that this month my wife and I have worked hard and have my last student loan paid off. We have a long ways to go but our goal is to be debt free in 2019. Why? Because we want to be generous at every occasion. Again, we are not saying that looking for sympathy. We want to work hard to reach our goals and I want others to be inspired, that with God’s help it is possible. Do you hear my heart there?

So after we get to the point where we are savers God teaches us to begin to be generous with what we have.

This third shifts get us to the goal of being able to be generous at every occasion God gives us. So in the authors mindset there is a progression in the way we think.

2 Corinthians 9:11–13 NIV

Great questions to Ponder from Soul Shift?

Do I see other people’s stuff and become critical or bored with my own/

Do I shop for recreation?

Do I buy compulsively without thinking first of my budget or of my need?

Is my circle of need getting bigger?

Do I complain a lot about how much I make?

Do I feel self-conscious when I am around rich people?

Do I give less than 10 percent of my income to the ministry of the church?

Does it annoy me when the preacher talks about money?

I don’t like talking about money but because Jesus talked about money just as much and one could argue more than any other thing I feel compelled to speak on it.

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