Made for Generosity

Made for Generosity

Sermon Transcript (Transcript starts at 18:46)
Have you ever been inspired by the generosity of someone else?

Have you ever encountered someone’s generosity and that made you want to become more generous yourself? I was doing some digging this last week as I was preparing and just thinking through some memories, looking back through some old social media posts, things like that from, from years of ministry past, and just looking back, kind of reflecting on the generosity that I’ve seen from people in the church over 16 years now in ministry. And I was just overwhelmed by the amount of things to celebrate, things to look back at and celebrate how God has been generous through his church and not only to me and my family, but. But things that I’ve been able to be a part of, things that I’ve seen the church do in the name of Jesus. And today we’re going to look at generosity in a little bit different way, I hope, than maybe we’ve looked at it before.

We’re going to look at what motivates us to be generous. If you think about it, why should anyone be generous? We live in a time when most people really are thinking mostly about themselves. And so whatever actually motivates anyone to be generous, there are some people that look at the utility of generosity, and we’re going to talk a little bit about that, about how generosity can lead to a better standing among other people and it can lead to even blessings for ourselves. That’s something that the Bible does teach.

But does generosity actually help those who are generous? Does it actually benefit the benefactors? That’s one thing I want to look at first. We’re going to look at those questions. We’re going to look at other things today as we ask what motivates our generosity.

There are a lot of things that people see as motives for or against generosity. And there are people in this world who, who have good motivations and bad motivations. And we’re going to talk a little bit about both. But our true motives behind being generous, those will affect how and when we’re actually willing to be generous and how we act in that generosity. And it matters because we were made for generosity.

Generosity is something that God commanded. We could look at it there. We could start there. When we look at the Bible, when we talk about being generous, God commands us to be generous. And so maybe that’s our reason we want to be generous because God said so.

Generosity is not just a suggestion, it’s a commandment for God’s people. That was true of the ancient Israelites who were under the law throughout the law, the Old Testament law, the law of Moses, the Torah. We see that there are community guidelines that are given on how people are supposed to handle things like loaning and repaying debt. There are guidelines that are given on how generosity is supposed to be handled in the heart with which the Israelites were supposed to perform these acts. In Deuteronomy 15, for example, we read that if anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of towns of the land the Lord your God has given you, God says through Moses, do not be hard hearted or tight fisted toward them.

Rather, be open handed and freely lend them whatever they need. God told Israel to be soft hearted, to be open handed toward those who are poor and in need among them. Earlier on, in verse one of chapter 15, we read that every 7th year, at the end of every 7th year, all debts were to be canceled in Israel. To understand why and to understand what’s going on here, we have to dive a little bit deeper and understand the culture in which they lived and how they made their living. This is an agrarian society.

They are based largely on agriculture, local agriculture, and then also on the trade of foreign merchants. And so John Walton explains in his commentary that individual farmers who experienced a bad harvest would often have to incur debt in order to survive the next season, in order to provide food for the coming year for their families and the supplies that they needed for the next year’s planting so that they could recover in the next year. But if there were bad harvests year after year after year, then some of those farmers may have to sell their land and therefore not be able to produce more. They may have to sell even their family and eventually themselves into what was known as debt slavery, or what we might call indentured servitude.

It’s not quite like slavery as we think of in modern terms, but it had its own challenges. It was an equally hard life for those who were indentured. Consider also that in Exodus, God had commanded Israel every 7th year to allow the land to go fallow. And so every 7th year was to be a Sabbath year or a sabbatical year in which the farmers would not plant their land. And so, knowing this, would leave some of those poor farmers in a place where not only were they indebted to someone else for the supplies that they needed to plant the next year’s crop, the next year’s crop wasn’t coming for two years from then, and so they’d be unable to pay their debts for years at a time.

And God knew this, and so he made provisions for his people to take care of one another. The problem is that people are people. And so some of them may have it in their hearts to consider that, well, this next year is a Sabbath year, a sabbatical year. So I’m just not going to loan anything to anyone for the next year because I know I’m not going to get paid. I know that I’m not going to get back what I’ve loaned out.

But God says specifically in verse nine of deuteronomy 15, not to harbor that wicked thought. He says through Moses. Instead, the Israelites are told to, in verse ten, to give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart. Then, because of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. He says there will always be poor people in the land.

Therefore, I command you to be open handed toward your fellow IsraElites who are poor and needy in your land. So generosity is not just a suggestion, it’s a command. It’s something that God says you must do to his people. And that was true of the ancient Israelites who were under the law. But it’s also true for us in the church today when we are under the law of Christ.

The love of Christ in our hearts tells us, demands that we are generous with those who are in need. And I don’t think I have to tell you that in our church. That’s why the leaders at central, that’s why we’re so intentional about creating opportunities for people to serve and to give of their time and their talents and their treasures. We go to great lengths to be generous and to create opportunities for all of you to practice generosity as well. And I don’t say any of this to self congratulate.

This isn’t a pat on the back for our church. We’re just doing what we’re supposed to do. We’re just doing what God has told us that we should do by being generous. It’s not something that we do to make ourselves look good. It’s not something that we do for good pr.

It’s literally who we are. Generosity is woven into the fabric of our DNA, spiritually speaking, as the church. And so we act in generosity and we give opportunities for generosity. I was just trying to sit down and think of some of the yearly things that we do every single year that we do to invite our community, and really not just our church community, but the whole community of streeter into these acts of generosity. And so here’s the short list of things that I came up with every single year we invite the community in to participate in February in night to shine our prom for the special needs community in our area.

We offer up our time and our strength to clean up trash around town in partnership with Livewell Streeter. Every summer, our youth ministry spends a week during Mission week going all around the area, serving in several different capacities, serving nonprofits and serving in several different places all over our area. Our youth also travel almost yearly to the inner city of Indianapolis to serve on mission with a group called Mission Indy. We partner with the Red Cross to host an annual blood drive in our fellowship hall every July. Every August we invite the community in to pack 50,000 meals that travel all over the world.

We just did that last weekend, traveled to places like Haiti, Africa, Ukraine, right here in the US with lifeline Christian mission. Every September we partner with WBGL and Bill Walsh and streeter for single mom Saturday Central kids partners with the city every summer for the July 4 celebration at the kids corner and every October at the downtown. Trick or treat. We collect loads, thousands and thousands of OCC boxes every November. And throughout the year, a large portion of those are being packed by our own volunteers right here at the church.

Those are also sent all over the world through Operation Christmas. Child Central volunteers partner with other churches and organizations like the ministerial association every Thanksgiving to provide a free thanksgiving meal to the community, as well as several other times throughout the year where our men’s and women’s ministries serve at Park Place and serve a free meal. Our volunteers join the Salvation army every December to ring bells and collect donations that are generously given in our community. And that money stays right here. Almost 40, I think it’s over $40,000 every year that goes to local people in our area that need help with food and clothing and personal hygiene and financial assistance and more.

And here’s the thing. That’s just some of the things that the church does in public that’s not even mentioning so many other things that you all do on your own, in your own lives and things that are done in private that are never seen by so many other people. And I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but please don’t forgive me if I forgot something that you’re involved in, because there’s just so many things. And again, I don’t say that as a pat on the back. We’re just doing what we’re supposed to do.

We’re just being the church that we’re called to be. And so we invite other people into that because we know that when our generosity is lived out in the way that Christ lived out generosity, that it has a global impact, it benefits all people. And that’s what the generosity of God’s people is supposed to look like. Proverbs eleven. The proverbs writer says this, when the righteous prosper, the city rejoices.

In verse ten or verse eleven of chapter eleven. Proverbs 1111 says, through the blessing of the upright, a city is exalted. And later in that same chapter, we read in verses 23 through 25, the desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath. One person gives freely, yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

And then in verse 25, we read, a generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes, others will be refreshed. And so there is some utility to our generosity. I think we need to examine that a little bit, that our generosity not only builds up our church, it builds up our community that we live in as well. Being generous can be helpful to society as a whole.

It can lift others out of poverty. It can benefit whole communities, whole nations by raising the standard of living. The benefits of generosity have also been studied in the context of our own psychology, our own psyche, and it’s being studied more and more, both by religious and secular researchers. Of course, I probably don’t have to tell you that when you’re generous, at least publicly, that that raises your standing before other people as well. And these are all utilitarian benefits to generosity.

And so in that sense, some people see generosity as a way of not only helping others, but as a way to help themselves. But is that all there is? I’d like to challenge our thinking this morning that that’s not all there is. That’s not all the motivation that we have to being generous. And so what motivates us to be generous in the church?

Is it just the utility of our generosity? I think there’s more. I think we can look at the virtue of being generous people. Are we generous because God said to be generous? And that’s true.

God said that we were supposed to be generous. Are we generous because we want to be blessed, and so we bless other people? The Bible says that that is what will happen. Or do we simply want to give back to what God. To God from what he’s abundantly blessed us with already?

Here’s the reality. When we recognize the generosity of God in our own lives, it should also motivate us as followers of Jesus to live out a change of heart in our lives. And that change of heart leads us to act in generosity toward others as we reflect the character of God out into the world. The reality is that generosity brings blessings not just to the receiver, but also to the giver. But perhaps you’ve experienced those blessings yourself.

Maybe you would say, well, no, I’ve been generous, and I just, I haven’t seen that yet. But maybe you have, maybe even in unusual ways. Here’s the thing. Often when we think of blessings, we think of material blessings. But God’s blessings come, what I found is that God’s blessings come in so many different forms and that when we are only looking for a material blessing in return for our material generosity, then we miss so much of what God is doing in our lives.

Think about it. In the Bible, in both Hebrew and in Greek, the word bless or to be blessed or blessing, the words literally mean to be happy. So if this happiness, if this state of joy, is something that is given from the Lord to his people, then maybe it’s not always in the terms of material blessing. In psalm 112, the psalmist says, praise the Lord. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Now, we may not think that blessing and fear have anything to do with one another, but the fear of the Lord is a little bit different. It’s not fear like, ah, you know, like, we’re not just afraid of God like because he’s great and powerful. He is great and powerful. But we understand the greatness of God. We understand the goodness of God, and so we give him the due worship that he deserves.

And so we’re blessed when we fear the Lord. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands. Their children will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Part of the cause of that happiness, that blessing, is that the Lord causes the righteous to prosper.

And so the psalmist continues and proclaims in verse three that, yes, it is sometimes a material blessing, that in verse three, wealth and riches are in their houses and their righteousness endures forever. But also it takes place when light overtakes darkness in their lives. In verse four, we see that the upright, that light overtakes darkness for the upright because they are gracious and they’re compassionate and they’re righteous, just as God is. Verse five, the psalmist says that good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice. And then in verses six through eight, we read that the righteous will never be shaken or have fear of bad news because they trust the Lord and their hearts are steadfast and secure.

And finally, in verse nine, even when God blesses us materially, what the psalmist says is that what the righteous do is that they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor. Their righteousness endures forever. Their horn will be lifted high in honor. The horn here is a sign of strength, a sign of goodness, a sign of goodwill from others. And so their horn will be lifted high in honor.

According to the psalmist, the blessings of God from the generosity of goddess is the direct source of our generosity if we’re righteous. And so God wants to bless us. He wants to bless us with his generosity as he draws us closer to him. The greatest blessing of being a child of God is that presence of God in our lives. And so God draws us closer to him.

He makes us holy and righteous according to his character. So does being the recipient of generosity. Does that bless you? Does that make you happy? I mean, have you ever think about this?

Have you ever received a gift and you’re like, oh, bummer, probably not. I hope not. If so, then I bet you’re great at parties, right?

If receiving gifts bums you out, then there’s probably something off there. You probably need to figure that out. But what about being generous? Does that bring us happiness? Does generosity bring blessings to us?

Because it should. Generosity brings blessings to both the giver and the receiver. Why? Because the scripture tells us that these things stem from the fact that God wants to generously blessed those who follow his way and live out his character with his generosity. And once we understand that, we can then start to form a more God centered motivation for what drives us toward generosity.

That’s because understanding God’s generosity helps us reflect his character in generosity toward others. Sometimes we forget. We forget that we serve a good God, a gracious and compassionate and generous God. It’s easy to forget that every blessing comes from the Lord when we work for a living, right? It’s easy to forget that.

It’s easy to forget where our blessings come from. If anything, we may just forget how blessed we are. Think about this. In the scriptures, material wealth, honor, good health, physical strength, and even political and national power are all given by the Lord for his glory, not just for our benefit. And so if it all belongs to God anyway, if it all comes from God anyway, then we really can’t give God what’s already his, can we?

So how should we see these opportunities to be generous? We should see them as opportunities to steward what God has already given us from his abundance. God’s giving, his generosity is unmatched. You can’t outgive God, and it could be the inspiration for our own generosity. So if you’ve seen that at work in your own life, maybe it would help us to think in these terms.

Is God’s generosity, is it like a spring welling up inside of us? Is that source of water that we can then give to other people? Is it like a mountain spring where the water is, the rain and the snow melt have come down from the mountains, and they’ve collected and they’ve welled up inside of us. They’ve become this cascading flow flowing down to us from God. And we, in turn, we let those blessings flow to other people.

Is that how we view our generosity? The point is this. Recognizing God as our source of all blessings should change our perspective. It should change how we’re generous, when we’re generous, who we’re generous to, when we recognize our blessings as coming from God, we can use them to bless others. And in that sense, godly generosity isn’t done for our own recognition.

It isn’t done just for utilitarian reasons.

It’s not just done to improve communities, even though it does that. It’s not done just because God said so, even though he did. It’s a result of a transformed life when we encounter Jesus, it’s a result of repentance, turning away from our selfishness, turning towards selflessness. It’s proof that our lives have been changed by Jesus. And so God’s generosity is not just utilitarian, it’s a virtue by which we can truly live out God’s character in our own lives.

We’re the children of a generous and a compassionate God. And so doesn’t it make sense that we, too, should be generous and compassionate like God is? That’s exactly what the apostle Paul told his disciple Titus. He called these things that we do from God’s generosity excellent and profitable for everyone, he told Titus in Titus, chapter three. But when the kindness and love of God our savior appeared, he saved us not because of righteous things that we had done, but because of his mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying, Paul says, and I want you to stress these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. And so Jesus becomes our ultimate example of real generosity. He saved us not because of anything that we deserve, not because of anything righteous that we had done, but because of his mercy, because of his love for us.

He saved us. God poured out his spirit through Jesus. Paul says generously, and what’s the most valuable thing, what’s the most valuable blessing that God could give to his children? It’s his presence which is the Holy Spirit within us. The most valuable thing that we could ever receive from God is his presence.

His life lived with him, and God gives that abundantly. He did that through Jesus. Think about this. John says in John 316, you know this verse, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God gave his son Jesus on the cross, but he also gives Jesus as our Lord and savior, the one whom we follow, the one whom we can have a relationship.

And so we are blessed to enter into God’s presence by the spirit living inside us through the blood of Jesus, who gave his life on the cross for us generously. Now all of our debts are paid. We were indebted. We were indentured, and so we were unable to pay our debts. And Jesus paid that price, price for us on the cross.

The sabbatical year is here, and God knows that we can’t pay what we owe. And so he gave. He gave his son Jesus to forgive our sins and to draw us near to him by paying our debt. And so our generosity is a response to the incredible generosity of Jesus, who gave his life for us. And so what we learn, if you’re going to take anything away from today’s message, it should be this that we learn to be generous just as God has been generous to us.

You need to be generous, just as God has been generous to you. And I ask you, friends, have you experienced that generosity of God? Have you experienced that outpouring of God’s blessing through Jesus? And if so, then how might we reflect that generosity, that blessing of God out into the world? How can it well up inside of us?

How can it become that spring that flows through our lives into the lives of other people? I’ve seen so many lives transformed by that very thing, by the generosity of God. And it’s a beautiful thing. I could tell you so many stories of how people’s lives have been changed by Jesus and they’ve gone on to just do ridiculous acts of generosity toward others because of it. Some of them I can’t tell you because I’ve been sworn to secrecy, and I love that.

If I could, I would tell you so many things. Stories of people who encountered the transformation of Jesus. And then they went on to bless other people through that. It’s things like people contacting. This happens all the time.

People contact us, for example, around the holidays, and they’ll make a donation, and they just tell us, like, hey, I want this to be anonymous. Please don’t tell anybody, but I want you to just go bless a family around the holidays, because I know God’s love, and I just. I never had anything like that when I was a kid. So can you just go bless them? Here you go.

Here’s the funds to do that. It happens all the time. There’s stories of members of our congregation who devote countless hours behind the scenes, things that you could never even imagine. Jobs that volunteers do here all the time, that, honestly, they’re not thankless jobs. They’re just people doing them, not wanting to be thanked, just doing them anonymously.

There’s no way our church could operate without all those volunteers day in and day out, year after year, doing those things to make our church run. And why do they do it? Because they’ve experienced the change that Christ has brought to their life. They believe in the ministry of God’s church. I can tell you stories of brothers and sisters in Christ going far out of their way to make sure that people had what they needed, whether physically, food and clothing and things like that.

But not just those things. It’s also people that go out of their way to give rides, to be friends to those who are lonely, to serve in places that most people never even think to serve among those who are the least of these. And it’s not just big amounts of money and hours that matter. There are people that volunteer and make a difference, even through five minutes. I could tell you stories and stories of youth leaders who give five minutes just to ask a student, ask a teenager, hey, how are you doing?

Just checking up on them and then having conversations that help those teenagers who are struggling with anxiety and so many pressures they have today. It’s people sending simple messages, hey, you were all my mind, so I prayed for you. Those are also acts of generosity of our time, our talents, and our treasures. It’s families who are working hard to make it from what they sharing, from what they have, what little they have to help others who they don’t. They don’t even sometimes know.

It’s faithful givers on fixed incomes. It’s all these and so many more examples that I could give you of how God’s generosity has transformed the lives of his people into lives of generosity. And that is a reflection of God’s character. That is what it means to live out the virtue of God’s generosity. Here’s the thing.

True repentance and transformation are found in Christ, and those lead us to a generous heart that reflects the heart of Christ. God’s people are called then to live out God’s character and generosity. So how do we do that? What does that look like? I want to give you two practical ways that we can do that.

First of all, start with gratitude. Maybe the most simple thing you could do today, the most beneficial thing you could do today, is just count your blessings. How many ways has God blessed you? Write them down and then thank God for every single one. We’re going to sing here in a few moments.

Maybe while we’re worshiping, you can just thank God for those blessings that he’s poured out on you. Start with gratitude from what God has done in your life, because that is the foundation of a generous heart. Paul says in one Thessalonians 518, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. God’s will for you in Christ Jesus is that you are thankful in all circumstances. And so one simple way to practice that gratitude is just make a list and give God thanks for everything on that list.

The second thing is, be generous as God leads you. And I want to give you two ways that you can do that today. First of all, support the mission of God’s church. And I say that unashamedly, that when we give regularly and proportionally to God’s church, then ministry happens in regards to the mission of God’s church. Paul told the Corinthians, remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

So each of you should give what you have decided to give in your heart. To give not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Your generosity can and does make a tangible difference in the ministry of the church. Without that generosity from God’s people over generations and generations following God’s leading in their generosity toward the church, then there would be no 50,000 meals packed.

There would be no no 7000 plus boxes sent out from here. There’d be no thriving children’s and youth ministry that reaches tons and tons of kids for Jesus every single week and on and on and on. Without your generosity every single day, our church is able to make a difference in the name of Jesus in our community and all over the world because you follow God’s example in his generosity. My question is, do you see the difference you’re making through that? The second thing is this.

We can be generous. We can reflect that character of God by serving others in need, by giving with sincere sacrifice. And so whether you give here or not, whether you’re generous here or not, my encouragement to you is this. If you’re not gonna be generous here, then go out and be generous somewhere else, because God is still leading you to be generous. Remember back three weeks ago when we talked about how we were made to serve others?

We read Jesus words in Matthew 25, and Jesus says, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. True generosity often involves sacrifices that we make, and sometimes those sacrifices are made with no one else noticing. And so if you’re not gonna be generous here, then go be generous somewhere else, at least, because God is calling you to that. Who’s God putting in your path today to serve with your generosity? Who’s suffering that he’s calling you to ease through your generosity?

Who’s God maybe laying on your heart right now? If someone is being put on your heart right now, don’t ignore that. I want to challenge you to take a step of faith today. Start with one thing, one thing that you feel God is leading you to, and then go and be generous as God has been generous to you. Don’t ignore what God’s putting on your heart.

If he’s putting a name on your mind. I want to encourage you to reach out to that person and start today. Oh, today, the generosity from God has inspired you to be generous to other people. Remember, your generosity can be a powerful testimony of what God has done in your life, and it can inspire others. May we be that inspiration as others follow in our footsteps.

God has been so generous to us, and we were made for generosity.