A Generosity Mindset (2 Cor. 8:1–7)
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Introduction
Warning: I might step on some toes today a little bit. One of the toughest things for a pastor to preach on is financial giving. It’s probably because it raises so many alarm bells with people. It’s tough to preach on financial giving, particularly to the church, without sounding like a bill collector calling.
But the Bible talks a lot about giving. To not preach on financial giving is to not preach on parts of the Bible that are important. The preacher must preach all of God’s word, even the ones that make people uncomfortable. God’s word is perfect, and teaches what we need to live for godliness. You came not to hear from me, but to hear a word from God through his word.
A Christian life is a generous life. A Christian life has a generosity mindset. We serve a generous God who moves on his people towards generosity. While they world will tell you to accumulate as much as you can, the gospel shows us that Christ gave everything for us.
Why is it that so often, we don’t have this same mindset? How can we learn to have a generosity mindset?
We will look at having a generosity mindset today through the book of 2 Corinthians.
1 We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia:
2 During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
3 I can testify that, according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own accord,
4 they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints,
5 and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God’s will.
6 So we urged Titus that just as he had begun, so he should also complete among you this act of grace.
7 Now as you excel in everything—in faith, speech, knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love for us—excel also in this act of grace.
There are a number of things we learn about having a generosity mindset from these verses.
A generosity mindset comes by the grace of God.
A generosity mindset comes by the grace of God.
1 We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia:
2 During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
We: Paul & Timothy (2 Cor. 1:1)
You: church at Corinth (telling them about the churches of Macedonia)
The Church in Macedonia
The Church in Macedonia
Macedonia is a region consisting of cities. Macedonia included the cities of Philippi and Thessalonica.
Christians in both of these cities underwent persecution.
29 For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,
30 since you are engaged in the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I have.
6 and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.
These are not easy places to be a Christian.
The Grace of God
The Grace of God
Paul is eager to showcase how the grace of God has affected the churches at Macedonia.
Grace = merciful behavior of a more powerful person toward another; an objective relation of undeserved favour by a superior to an inferior
The “grace of God”
Begins with salvation
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many.
The grace of God does not end at salvation!
So many think that salvation is the end goal. It is just the beginning point.
10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
Paul is excited to see how the grace of God has evidenced itself in this church at Macedonia.
2 During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
Even thought their material position has gotten worse, their spiritual condition is overflowing.
Themelios: Volume 45, No. 1, April 2020 Christian Generosity according to 2 Corinthians 8–9: Its Exegesis, Reception, and Interpretation Today in Dialogue with the Prosperity Gospel in Sub-Saharan Africa
The nature of grace is to overflow whatever it fills.
A generosity mindset comes from the grace of God.
750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers 674: Spiritual Perception
With a “blue” mindset, you’ll find that blue jumps out at you: a blue book on the table, a blue pillow on the couch, blue in the painting on the wall, and so on.… In like fashion, you’ve probably noticed that after you buy a new car, you promptly see that make of car everywhere. That’s because people find what they are looking for.
At times in our lives, God seems distant, absent. Perhaps that is because we have failed to develop a mind that is set on God? As we meditate on God, think of Christ and his work in our life, we begin to realize how present he is and active in developing and shaping us.
As we set our mind on God, we begin to act in ways that God acts. Don’t you know that God is a generous God? The grace of God in a Christian life creates a generosity mindset.
A generosity mindset shows that you value ministry.
A generosity mindset shows that you value ministry.
Notice how the generosity mindset affected these believers and showed what they valued.
3 I can testify that, according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own accord,
4 they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints,
5 and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God’s will.
The grace of God gave these believers a generosity mindset that stretched them beyond their abilities.
Notice that were not responding to a command from Paul or anyone else: They gave financially “of their own accord.”
Their giving was a response from how the grace of God had affected them spiritually. They gave out of the abundance of their joy in Christ.
They gave themselves
first to the Lord
then to us by God’s will.
Their giving was “sharing in the ministry to the saints.”
Ministry = acts of service
Saints = Holy, set apart, a title for God’s people. It is anyone who believes in Christ.
What is a church?
What is a church?
We think of “church” as a non-profit organization.
“Catalyst Church”
“Shadow Mountain Community Church”
“First Baptist Church”
The word church in the NT means assembly. The NT goes further identifying this assembly with God.
The church of God (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1)
The church of Christ (Rom. 16:16)
The church is an assembly of believers in Christ that God has brought together.
It is important that when we are talking about a generosity mindset that we are clear about what is a church.
Catalyst Church is an gathering of believers in Jesus that God has brought together in this local community. You and I, we are the assembly of God, the church here in Paradise Hills.
Giving financially to the church is giving to the ministry to the saints. It is giving to you, the church, to the people around you. A generosity mindset shows that you value ministry.
Over my past 10 years of ministry here in San Diego, I have come to know quite a few pastors. There is nothing that shakes a pastor more than preaching on financial giving. Pastors can preach the gospel, that’s not a problem. If you can’t preach the gospel, you shouldn’t be preaching. But preaching on financial giving is scary. That’s because of the abuses that Christians have heard. It’s either on one extreme or the other. Some pastors will refuse to preach about financial giving. Other pastors will preach as if God has some accountant firm in heaven going over your finances, saying, “Oh, the Sotos gave a percentage out of their gross, not their net. Guess we’ll have to take away two percent of blessings this week.” But the Bible speaks about giving often.
3 But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
17 Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him.
35 In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
The end point is that as we, as Christians, are affected by the gospel, we will develop a generosity mindset in our financial giving because we value ministry.
Money is a tool that shows what you value. One way to see what someone values is by looking at their bank account. We purchase that Netflix subscription because we value the downtime after work. We eat out because we value not having to cook, or because we value going out with our family. We pay our rent and our car payment because we value having a place to live and a vehicle to get us to work. The way we use our financial resources shows what is important to us.
Looking at the way we spend our money can be a real heart check. If you looked at your bank account over the past year, where were your values? What did you look at as worthy to invest in?
This is where our heart and our financial picture combines. How did the church at Macedonia give? It wasn’t because they had a lot of extra money sitting around. They were in a bad financial situation. But God had so affected their lives, their was such an abundant joy with them, that they saw their resources as a tool to invest in Christian ministry.
A generosity mindset comes from the grace of God.
A generosity mindset shows that you value ministry.
A generosity mindset comes from a heart of love.
A generosity mindset comes from a heart of love.
Look at how Paul said that the example of giving from the Macedonian church should impact the church at Corinth.
6 So we urged Titus that just as he had begun, so he should also complete among you this act of grace.
7 Now as you excel in everything—in faith, speech, knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love for us—excel also in this act of grace.
Titus is a pastor serving at Corinth. Paul is saying, “Look at how the grace of God has so moved in the people at Macedonia that they have developed this mindset of generosity. Encourage the church at Corinth to have a generosity mindset as well!”
Pause to Highlight Verse 7
Pause to Highlight Verse 7
If you haven’t set any spiritual goals for 2022, I’m going to help you out. Verse 7 is a great list of spiritual goals for your new year. If our church, the assembly of believers here, would excel in these areas, our church would be ablaze with spiritual fire! There would be such an impact in our homes in and in our community.
Look at this list. Paul says, “Do you want New Years Resolutions? These are the things that you should seek to excel in.” Write these down in the margin of your Bible, make a note in your phone, whatever works.
Excel in:
Faith
Speech
Knowledge
Diligence (earnestness; hurry)
Love
Generosity
What I want you to see is, what I am describing to you as a generosity mindset, is really love in action. Paul describes it as “in our love for us.” Look at what John says in 1 John 3:16-18:
16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him?
18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.
A generosity mindset comes from a heart that is impacted by the gospel. That Jesus came to this earth to go to the cross. He laid down his life for us.
Paul said it this way:
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
Our Lord was in the place of ultimate power and authority, yet out of the generosity of his love, he stepped out from his wealth to take on upon himself our poor condition, in order that we could have eternal life with him.
It is the love of our Lord Jesus Christ that compels this generosity mindset in believers. Since Christ was so generous with us, I am also generous, stretching beyond the capabilities that I have, to act out in love and compassion to my brothers and sisters around me.
A heart that loves is a heart that gives. Someone said it this way:
You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.
Let us strive to love well, and to act out that love through generosity to others.
Conclusion
A generosity mindset comes from the grace of God.
A generosity mindset shows that you value ministry.
A generosity mindset is a spiritual practice.
A Christian should have a generosity mindset.
