Live A Life Of Startling Generosity

A 6th grade Sunday school teacher was struggling with a lesson. She was preparing to teach a lesson on how Christians manage their material blessings. She knew that when her students were in confirmation class the pastor would share what the Bible says about stewardship of time, talents, treasure, and testimony. We are to use all that we have to serve God and others. And when it comes to our money management, we take care of our family, and we pay taxes. Christians also use their money to help others, and to support Gospel ministry. But the lesson that the Sunday school teacher was preparing was focused specifically on giving.

On Saturday, as the teacher was baking a pan of brownies for her Sunday school students, she suddenly had an idea. She prepared slips of paper each marked with a household expense that would be a person’s budget: house payment, car payment, internet and cell phone expenses, insurance, food, entertainment, and so forth. Basically, she included all of the big-ticket items in a household budget. At church the next day the Sunday school teacher picked up the tray of brownies and began naming the expenses listed on the slips of paper. As each student handed over their expense slip, the teacher exchanged each one for a brownie from the pan. Finally, the last brownie had disappeared. But one boy still held his unredeemed slip of paper. “Offerings!” called the Sunday school teacher. The student came forward, hoping the teacher had one more brownie hidden somewhere. Using a spatula the teacher scraped the crumbs from the bottom of the pan into the boy’s napkin. “The brownies represent your money,” the teacher explained. “If you don’t give God his portion right away, he probably won’t get anything at all except maybe crumbs.”

I am guessing that the students never forgot that illustration about managing their money. Whenever they recalled that “crummy” Sunday school lesson they knew WHO must come first in their life. That is a good place to start whenever we talk about giving or stewardship of our material blessings. Putting God first in our budget prevents him from getting just crumbs from us. But where do we find the proper motivation to do that? When we remember that God wants our offerings to be joyfully given, as a regular part of our budget, and proportionate to the blessings he has given us, we must ask him to give us a new heart and mind. We need perpetual reminders of his undeserved love (his grace) for us. The Apostle Paul shows us how we as individuals and we as a congregation can excel in the grace of giving. He directs us to God’s grace. For our sermon today we direct our attention to 2 Corinthians 8:1-9. When we hear about the great things God has done for us, we are led to:

“LIVE A LIFE OF STARTLING GENEROSITY”

I. Because of God’s generosity to us

II. Because of the opportunities God gives us

To more fully understand these verses, it might be helpful to know the “back story” so to speak. In the Book of Acts we learn about an offering that was being gathered by Christians from all around the Roman Empire. It was an offering to help the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem who for a number of reasons were in desperate need of financial assistance. The Corinthians had been eager to help out their brothers and sisters in Christ. They promised to help. But it seems that they didn’t follow through with their intentions. So, in the letter we call “2 Corinthians” the Apostle encouraged them to gather the offerings they had previously decided to give. He pointed them back to God’s grace—his undeserved love in Christ. It was because of the grace that God had given them that the Corinthians would give money to help others. Their management of all their blessings would be guided by the generous grace that God had given them. And he also encouraged them to generously use God’s blessings for others as opportunities appeared.

I.

The Corinthians certainly had experienced God’s grace. It would be that grace alone that could get the offering for the poor Christians in Jerusalem going again. Let’s start with the last part of our Second Reading and then work back to the beginning. The Apostle Paul wrote, “I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” Note where Paul points them so that they can excel in the grace of giving. He reminds them of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. This simple reminder of how spiritually rich Christ had made them would motivate them to give. And how exactly did Jesus become poor in order to make them rich? They had been told the account of Jesus’ life and death. So when they thought of Christ giving up the glory of heaven to be born in a barn they would be motivated to respond to his love. When they thought about Christ giving up the glory of heaven to walk around homeless on earth for them, they will gladly offer their best to him.