Give Geriously, it is the RIGHT Thing!
2Cor - Live a Reconciled Life by The Power of the Holy Spirit • Sermon • Submitted
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Giving can be taught… But generosity is a GIFT from God.
Giving can be taught… But generosity is a GIFT from God.
“Giving is the overflow of joy in God that gladly and lovingly meets the need of another person.”
Many of us here are parents, grandparents and sometimes great-grandparents.
What makes that relationship that we have with our kids so special. What makes a grandmother… will just take one in our body who goes by the name “Gaga,” and her husband is called “Gpa.” That’s us Jeff and Jill. This is a relationship based in Joy. Our overflowing joy with our kids and now our grands.
We just had the opportunity to spend almost 2 weeks for Jill and 6 days for me with our kids and now 3 grands in Indianapolis.
This is a VERY busy house!
Jill and I have this overarching role as life giver. By our “lifestyle” we model generosity for our family and for our adult children. It is rubbing off… Its the best GIFT that I can give our boys.
Here is some OT connections
5 Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord’s contribution: gold, silver, and bronze;
21 The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives;
Yes Jill birthed and we raised Tyler and Josh. We gave them physical life. But far beyond giving them physical life we gave to them
Our Values, and our morals, our responsibilities, we gave them the ethos, the environment of what is was to be a Pagel.
For us that environment has everything to do with passing generosity along to others.
Since moving here to the valley I have seen more generous acts from more people than I have ever seen in my life. You are doing well… It can be better.
These are the same ideas that it is to be apart of a church family… This church family at First Baptist.
What’s all about a church being a “Family.”
What’s all about a church being a “Family.”
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
WE all need each other in this family...
How do we, all of us, make this church, this building a family?
This building is only brick and sheetrock… this building is wood and electrical, this building is full of wood, metal, wiring, paneling that
Makes it a building… It is also what we make it for ourselves.
Yes we are family, by our choice to accept the Lord into our hearts and minds our soul destination was forever changed.
Remember a minute ago I described “ethos” the environment that passed among family members as we are raised and eventually raise our own children.
Well here is what the bible says about that unique relationship that we have as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. This is our ethos....
25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’
That’s part of who we are. Now it’s up to us to tap into that family relationship so that we and all the families of the earth are to be blessed.... THROUGH US!
I’m going to make a bold statement here...
We as a church are only as good as an attender or member that gives sacrificially to the work of this body.
I have yet to say anything about money… It’s not the time… yet.
If you were born in this church you have been raised in the environment in the ethos of this body and the people that call this place home. You know what is what. You know where all the good hiding spots for playing hide-and-go-seek or to play minnows. You also know where all the of the skeletons are hidden.
You saw the ethos of this church in your parents. In the ways they participated in many of the ministries of the church.
Were they “whenever the doors are open we are there… parents or where we simply drop in when we feel like and pick and choose our participation level. And attend around televised Football Games?
Did you play sports so could not, did not attend as much as you’d like or was it a priority #1.
I’m not sure of the rhythms of your household, I don’t know if your along for a ride our if you are sold out 1000% with what we are doing???
The church, our church, Sunnyside First Baptist MUST be sold out 1000% to the message of New Testament.
And furthermore...
To the teaching of the New Testament and to the LIVING OUT of the teaching of the New Testament.
Why..? We must pick the ethos, the environment of the church based on scripture but it is only as good as those who live out scripture in our personal lives. +
Part of that learning and teaching happens on Sunday and at one of our Biblestudy times but most of us have to see it, be the benefactor of it. And then we get the idea that how we should live it.
I’m here to tell you today that there is only one Bible, one Faith, one Church and one Family. We by our choice have come into this family. We received Grace, Salvation and life everlasting life when we did.
Question #1 - Are you sold out to Jesus and His Holy Church?
Have you trusted Him and do you rely only on His Grace for our everlasting life? You ARE going to Heaven. Do you live that out here in our community?
The church is holy because it is set apart from the world for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Holiness is a divine declaration flag planting that says I’m no longer led by the power of satan but the power of the Spirit.
We, Christians are fallen human beings even after our conversion, and so the holiness of the church does not make it sinlessly perfect.
Believers are called to be disciplined in ways that will reflect the holiness of God. This will entail not only a transformation of individual lives but also a transformation of our relationship with the world.
Question #2 - Are you a participant or are you on the sidelines in our church?
The choice is yours… How you manage you and your family is up to you.
The church is one because it is the creation of the Holy Spirit. Its unity is therefore spiritual.
Spiritual unity is able to accommodate diverse thoughts on the many ways to worship and structure our church. But this diversity must reflect a common mind, which is expressed in the Bible. And in the ethos of our body.
Question #3 - Do you fully trust God and Sunnyside First Baptist and its leaders to be fully committed to what we are doing here?
I’m not going to answer that question I want each of us here today to answer that question for yourselves?
Let me read it again and pause...
I hope the answer is “Yes,” “Yes,” and Yes.
The church must remain faithful to the teaching and the mission of the apostles. The teaching is available to us in the New Testament, and we have no authority to go beyond it (or to subtract from it).
The mission is to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Big Question — What does generosity include?
I’ve talked around this topic this morning. But I think it is important to address directly. I’m not going to beat around the bush… I’m going to address it directly. In three short statements
#1 - Use of our time.
Here is a common, theme...
How many hours a week do you work at a job?
Mother - 168 Hours a week +1 because they are super women!
40 hour week worker - Well 40 hours AND 50 hour a week workers etc
Students - Working loosely in your education and extra stuff… 50 hours a week.
I WANT FOR THE CHURCH 10% OF YOUR TIME.
If this were the environment, the ethos of our body only God knows what we could accomplish in our community and beyond. Sunday morning would only be a beginning of how we could be reaching out to our world
#2 - Using our talents for the Church, for God
The number one thing I hear is that I couldn’t do [fill in the blank]. I don’t have that skill. Let me just list a couple that I’ve seen in 3 years
I can’t make an extra hot dish to give to a new Mom or a family that is experiencing sickness
I can’t be apart of a Junior High or High School ministry I’m to old, I’m to busy, I’m to young… as Col. Sherman Potter of MASH fame would say… HORSE HOCKEY PUCKS!!
Those two things and many more are simply excuses to not be committed IN ANY WAY to our ministry after you get up and punch your ticket on the way out of the sanctuary on Sunday morning.
I can give you 15 jobs right now in our church… one of them certainly has to fit...
There is NO JOB to menial for the saint who wishes to serve
10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.
12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.
13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others,
#3 - Sharing your treasure with the one who gave it to you.
What is your job title or your career? How did you come to choose that? Did God help you make that choice? Has he affirmed that choice in your life?
I worked 30+ years in 2 different careers… I wasn’t happy or fulfilled in either of them. I finally yielded to God as he pointed me towards full-time ministry. THANK YOU GOD FOR THAT!!!!
Each of us as a result of those activities makes money. Sometimes a little money, other times a lot of money. And once and while a great deal of money.
I HOPE THAT YOU THANK GOD FOR THE JOB THAT YOU HAVE...
God’s not big on talk… He is biggest on ACTION.
What are you going to do with that treasure that God has given you.
It all belongs to him… what are you going to return to him as a gesture of thanksgiving?
8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.
10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
Ok… He comes the money talk, your treasure!
Are you going to give Him 90% and live on 10%? It is done and I know it can be done.
How committed financially are you to God’s mission here on earth, at First Baptist to trust him.
Here is a little help for you from Scripture
17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
Are you a 10% giver… The Tithe? OK that’s great, but the tithe included the first fruits of EVERYTHING.
Your firstborn child to be dedicated completely to the Lord.
A 1/10 of your crop.
Literally a portion of EVERYTHING that you had any part in making… THAT IS A VERY HIGH BAR!
In reality… If the church really was able to achieve that true 10% participation from everyone… The sky would be the limit as to the ministry we could support.
1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia,
2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord,
OK… That didn’t hurt to much did it???
Let’s talk a bit about giver types...
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
Let’s return to the BIG QUESTION!!!
Big Question — What does generosity include?
#1 - Time
#2 - Talents
#3 - Treasure
Well… I hope that I’ve given you a great deal to think about.
Just in case that you may not know the amount of money or number of children, chickens, corn, wheat, grapes, that you have given to the Ministry of First Baptist Church, Nora is in the lobby with your giving record from 1/2020 to current.