A Generous Church

A Generous People

Jason Calvin Parker / General Adult

Hook

- Tim’s Fire Story

Introduce Subject

A Generous People

Fallen Condition Focus

The need is so great

Way bigger than one person

The challenge is to not just get one person to be generous at every occasion but a group of people

Christ Solution

But I am thankful that God is able to bring not just individuals but a group of people to a place of being generous at every occasion

Dream with me about what God could do if we as individuals were generous at every occasion

Ok, now I want you to dream with me if we as individuals came together and were generous at every occasion

Why this excites me is because I believe Jesus has the ability to not just bring individuals but a group of people to the position to be generous at every occasion. Do you?

Dream again, what could God do through a group of people that were generous at every occasion?

What could God do through Woods Harbour Wesleyan Church if we were generous at every occasion?

Jesus has the ability to not just bring individuals but a group of people to the position to be generous at every occasion and the text we have been soaking in proves it. Let’s read our verse again.

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.

2 Corinthians

Transition to text

I really want to get in to the story of Macedonia and Corinthians

I want to talk about too the role Paul had at bringing both of those churches to be generous at every occasion

Paul had a vision and was able to build some healthy competition that made them step up to the plate to do what God was leading them to do

Spurring one another on to good works

I think from this story we can drill down on some key points.

The shift from individual to corporate

Misreading Scripture through western eyes

Back to our text

Generous God

2 Corinthians

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.

1. God’s Generosity is indescribable

2. God’s Generous is tangible.

Y’all

The Multiplication

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?

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.

Multiple People getting to the point where we are generous at every occasion

5

Our Generous God wants to make generous people.

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.

When multiple people allow God to bring him to that point

Stuff gets done

Our Generous God wants to make generous people.

Two Sunday’s ago we made the shift from a Generous God to a generous person. We actually took the last two Sunday’s tackling the Generous person with the first Sunday looking at the heart of the Generous person. I laid out a couple conclusions in the Sunday we focused on the heart.

Rather then just individual impact you begin to have a corporate impact

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.

I want multiple people in our church to get to this point because it will multiply the impact we have

The New International Version Chapter 8

9 For you know the graces of our Lord Jesus Christ,t that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,u so that you through his poverty might become rich.v

2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 2:8

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

The New International Version Chapter 9

For I know your eagerness to help,u and I have been boastingv about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last yearw you in Achaiax were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action.

So Paul was actually placing both churches in healthy competition with each other to spur one another on.

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

2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary e. An Exhortation to Be Generous (9:6–15)

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

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.

“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.

We have learned this series 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.

NIV

2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 9:15 NIV

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

We have also been working from a very key Scripture.

NIV

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.

Last Sunday we made the shift from focusing on the heart of the generous Person to the head of the generous person. We also talked through a couple key points.

THE GOAL FOR US IS TO GET TO THE PLACE WHERE WE CAN BE GENEROUS AT EVERY OCCASION. ARE WE READY?

WE TALKED MORE ABOUT THE GAP

God’s desire for you is to enrich your life so you can be generous at every occasion. - How does that sound?

Asked you to dream about getting to the point of being generous at every occasion

We need to get our heart fixed

Our mentality needs to change - Our head

“We have abandoned the vision that Christianity is an alternative way.”

“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.”

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

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.

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.

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 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 yourself. Instead, be different, be transformed and the way to do this is to allow Jesus to change the way you think.

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.

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.

The Shift from Consumer to Steward

from being spenders to beings savers

from being savers to givers

from sharing to blessing or what the book also calls generosity

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today we build on that foundation and make the shift from being a generous person to being a generous Church. So this shift moves us from individual to corporate.

Hook

- Tim’s Fire Story

Introduce Subject

A Generous Church

Fallen Condition Focus

The need is so great

Way bigger than one person

The challenge is to not just get one person to be generous at every occasion but a group of people

Christ Solution

But I am thankful that God is able to bring not just individuals but a group of people to a place of being generous at every occasion

Dream with me about what God could do if we as individuals were generous at every occasion

Ok, now I want you to dream with me if we as individuals came together and were generous at every occasion

Why this excites me is because I believe Jesus has the ability to not just bring individuals but a group of people to the position to be generous at every occasion. Do you?

Dream again, what could God do through a group of people that were generous at every occasion?

What could God do through Woods Harbour Wesleyan Church if we were generous at every occasion?

Jesus has the ability to not just bring individuals but a group of people to the position to be generous at every occasion and the text we have been soaking in proves it. Let’s read our verse again.

Read Scripture

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.

Transition to text

I really want to get in to the story of Macedonia and Corinthians

I want to talk about too the role Paul had at bringing both of those churches to be generous at every occasion

Paul had a vision and was able to build some healthy competition that made them step up to the plate to do what God was leading them to do

Hebrews 10:24 NIV

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,

Spurring one another on to good works

I think from this story we can drill down on some key points.

The shift from individual to corporate

Misreading Scripture through western eyes

Back to our text

Y’all

The Multiplication

Multiple People getting to the point where we are generous at every occasion

When multiple people allow God to bring him to that point stuff gets done

Rather then just individual impact you begin to have a corporate impact

I want multiple people in our church to get to this point because it will multiply the impact we have

This is what kind of stuff happens when we come together...

Woods Harbour Wesleyan Vision

Q. What will it take to get our church to be in a place where we are generous at every occasion?

Two things -

1. A group of people who have embraced the individual call to be generous at every occasion

2. Getting those people to embrace our shared mission of increasing the witness of Jesus in Woods Harbour, Barrington and Pubnico

Remember how I said last week that we can’t give to everything. If our church gave to every cause we would have no resources left to pay the bills and keep the lights on.

But we can give to what God has called us to and be ready to be generous at those opportunities when the Spirit gives us the ability to increase the witness of Jesus. You see a mission statement does two things. It tells you what your church is focused on doing and indirectly what it is not doing.

Our church is called to increase the witness of Jesus in these coastal communities and therefore we focus our time, resources and generosity towards those goals. And indirectly that means we don’t give our time, resources and generosity to other things. It’s not that those things aren’t important; they just aren’t what we are focusing on.

My dream for our church is two things.

1. The Lord would bring us to the point as individuals that we could be generous at every occasion

2. Pray and See the Spirit unite our hearts around our shared mission

As we embrace that mission we aren’t just giving and really investing in everything. Our investment is laser focused on mission. When you have that kind of laser focus you can really have an impact.

Squirt gun, water hose vs. water cannon analogy

I want us to be like the fire truck team

A Team of people

Focused on one primary objective

Pooling their resources to get the job done

So as you contribute to the church I want you to know you aren’t just paying to keep the place open you are investing in a team effort to increase the witness of Jesus in Woods Harbour, Barrington and Pubnico.

Does that change the way you think about giving and investing? Let me say it again.

As you contribute to the church you aren’t just paying the heat bill or lights; you are investing in a team effort to increase the witness of Jesus in Woods Harbour, Barrington and Pubnico.

We exist to see people come to faith in Jesus and see lives transformed.

2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 9:15 NIV

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Gospel

Sum Up

Suggestion Spin Around

- Tim’s Fire Story

Stop

NIV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

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.

A Generous Church

Generosity Series

Celebration

So with the 6 of us, here's what was accomplished for our little region; and this is conservative, because who knows what we don't know!!

1,383 hours were donated into communities

$59,425 was raised and donated into communities

This is what WE DID. It is not about who did what, we are team, we serve as a team and we celebrate as a team. This is a major win for our area.