A GENEROUS MERCY PART 2
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Last Sunday we examine Paul’s call to generosity in our text. Our main point from last week’s sermon was
The mercies of God take a person who is bent on getting and turns them into a person who is bent on giving.
As recipients of such a rich mercy we should richly generous especially to those of the household of faith. Our Heavenly Father is not against us having riches. He is against riches having us.
Our wealth comes from our Father.
You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
This sermon is not intended to make you feel guilty about what you have but gracious with what you have.
If your generosity is not rooted in your experience of God mercies your generosity will be nothing more than legalistic philanthropy.
Sticking with the metaphor of gardening let us move on to our next step of developing a heart of generosity.
GENEROSITY MUST BE CULTIVATED.
We cultivate generosity by meditation.
Meditate on Christ.
Christ gives for that is His nature. It is who He is. He knows no other way.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church he lays out his lengthiest teaching on giving. His appeal for generosity is based on their knowledge of Christ generosity towards them
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 by his poverty might become rich.
Meditate on the Cross.
Does there exist a higher and loftier presentation of generosity than the Cross of Christ. It was there sin’s unfathomable debt was settled.
Christ gave because we had a need. Christian generosity is not about meeting others wants its Christian's giving their wants to meet others needs.
Meditate on our Christian responsibility.
Our text provides us with an object and occasion for our generosity.
The object is saints (other followers of the way). The occasion is needs (not their wants). Paul is not teaching the redistribution of wealth to level the economic playing field. He is teaching wealth distribution to glorify His name and to answer His Son’s prayer
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
The Father strategically mixes within His family those who have little and those who have much. Why? Not to create an environment of codependency but one of connectivity.
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.
You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.
For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.
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,
while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.
Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
Meditate on your confession of faith.
Our confession of faith is JESUS IS LORD! He is our master we are His slave.
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,
For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
If He is Lord of our life then Matthew 25:14-30 makes clear that we are given a particular stewardship and there will be a revelation and reckoning one day of that stewardship.
We own nothing! We are nothing more than heavenly UPS driver. Our truck is daily filled with goods purposed for a specific destination. Our duty is to ensure those goods are delivered to their destination not detained to satisfy our desires.
Fight your desires with these words
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Only when we altar our heart will we alter our lifestyle.
So a major part of fighting greed is to find contentment in Christ, not in stuff.
Generosity must be circulated.
Generosity is not an action to be chosen but an amount.
Determine how much you are going to give.
A follower of Christ does not ask will I give but how much.
Their experience of God’s merciful gift of salvation makes giving a natural extension of who they are.
Make a promise.
Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints,
for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them.
But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be.
Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident.
So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.
I promise to give $_________._______ relying on the Spirit’s help in order to reflect Christ and glorify my Father in heaven.
The point of giving Stewardship Of Wealth
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
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.
You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.
Giving is an act of gratitude.
We sow into our Father’s kingdom not because He is in need. We sow because in commanding our giving our Father is graciously showing us how to say thank you for the grace and mercy we have already received.
Giving is an act of guarding.
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Money does more than locate your heart it guides your heart.
Determine when you are going to give.
On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
Determine to whom you are going to give.
To the church
To other Christian’s
Paul teaches that we should contribute to the needs of fellow believers. What about those whose needs are caused by their sin (extravagant spending, laziness, etc)?
We don’t drop people because they have sinned we disciple them.
Get alone with your Father
Invest in eternal life
Validate the Scriptures
Enjoy your Father’s goodness