Title: Jars of Generosity
Text: II Corinthians 9:6-11
Thesis: We are “Jars of Clay” to whom God gives gifts and through whom God gives gifts.
Introduction
Bonnie and I are parents. Raising children is a costly endeavor. According to the latest estimates, a family making $70,200 a year or more will spend $269,520 to raise a child from birth to age 17. The USDA has charts for calculating the costs of housing, transportation, food, clothing, health care, child care, education, and they top it off with a cost of $32,460 for miscellaneous. (MSN Money Staff, The Basics: Raising Your Million Dollar Baby, MSN Money)
I have no idea how we managed to raise ours… I suspect we did it for considerably less than a quarter million dollars per kiddo.
Whatever the cost, It did not matter. Any sacrifices we made were inconsequential. Our children were gifts from God. If it was a matter of money, the only way to have saved the cost of children was to not have them. It costs to have living children.
As long as our church is alive and as long as the ministries of our church here and around the world are alive… it will cost of something. We do not want to be a church on life-support. We do not want to be a feeding-tube church. We want to be alive and well. We want a quality of life that enables us to have a vibrant ministry in our community and the world.
God has a great deal to say about the resources he entrusts to us… in fact God’s Word is much more vocal about giving than we realize. So, if we are people of the Word, care what the Word of God has to say to us, and what it means, we will be receptive to this truth, just as we are receptive to any other biblical teaching.
We will be looking at several biblical principles this morning… this is the first truth:
I. There is a direct link between God’s blessing and our generosity.
• Remember this, a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. II Corinthians 9:6
In the spring of 1621, Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn. “The Pilgrims immediately recognized the value: No other plant could produce quite as much food as fast on a given patch of new world ground as the Indian corn.” (Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilema, P 25)
Wheat was the old world grain they had brought from the old country but the return of wheat was less than 50:1 or fifty grains of wheat returned for every grain of wheat planted. However, one kernel of corn resulted in a 150 – 300:1 return. The more kernels of corn planted, the more kernels of corn were harvested in return.
There are two challenges we need to keep in mind as we consider just how generous we want to be in our planting:
A. The first challenge is to be obedient to God.
• Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything your land produces. Proverbs 3:10
• “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple... “ Malachi 3:10
The second challenge is a matter of trust.
B. The second challenge is to trust God.
• If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving – large or small, it will be used to measure what is given back to you. Luke 6:38
• Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything your land produces. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with the finest wine. Proverbs 3:10
• “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you!” Malachi 3:8-10
The question that lingers in the mind of the person who considers whether or not to give is, “Will I have enough left over?” Or, the giver might wonder, “If I give, will God really meet my needs?” God’s Word says God can be can be trusted to not only take care of our needs, but to give more in return. I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but I have an image in my mind.
This week I dropped by Boyer Coffee over on 72nd and Washington. I used a gift certificate to stock up on Rocky Mountain Thunder Coffee. I ordered one-pound ground and two pounds of beans. When got to my study, I brought in the pound of ground coffee and poured it into an airtight canister. As I fill it, I shake it and tamp it to pack the coffee more tightly, so I can room for more coffee. That is the image we see in this verse… the image of God shaking and compacting his blessing so we can receive more of his goodness.
We are like jars of clay that have been entrusted with resources… we can either hoard our kernels of corn and get little or no return, or we can sow our kernels of corn and receive back more than our jar can hold.
The second biblical principle speaks to the decision to give.
II. What or how much we give is a personal decision.
• You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give. II Corinthians 9:7a
I don’t know if you are a good tipper or a poor tipper. But every time we dine in a restaurant we know that in addition to paying for the meal, we should also tip the server. The tipping scale is generally between 10%, 15%, and 20%. Occasionally a high-roller will make a server’s day. The point I wish to make is this: Even the most conservative of tippers will leave a 10% tip for the server. A table-waiter, who we don’t know and for whom we have no other affection or connection than that they served our food and kept our water glasses full, automatically receives 10% of the bill. We tip shuttle drivers, taxi drivers, bellmen, barbers, paper carriers, deliverymen, and hair stylists…
My intent is not to draw a direct parallel between a tithe to God and a tip to a server. However, tithing and tipping are both decisions we make… one in response to the one who serves us, and the other to the one who blesses us with every good and perfect gift.
Again, there are two things to keep in mind:
A. God does not want a person to give who is reluctant to do so or feels pressured into giving.
• Don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. II Corinthians 9:7b
God not only does not want us to be reluctant givers, he wants us to feel good about giving. (Peel up)
B. God wants us to feel good about our giving.
• For God loves the person who gives cheerfully. II Corinthians 9:7c
One Sunday morning a mother gave her daughter a one-dollar bill and a quarter. She said, “Honey, you can place either one in the offering plate. It’s entirely up to you.”
Later, as they were driving home the mother asked her daughter what she had decided to give.
“Well,” she said, “at first I was going to give the dollar but then the man said that God loves a cheerful giver, so I felt like I would be much more cheerful it I gave the quarter instead.” (Van Morris, Mount Washington, Kentucky, PreachingToday.com)
In II Corinthians 8:3-4 there is a story about some folks who reflect the kind of joy that accompanies a cheerfully given gift. Paul wrote of them:
• I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford but far more. And they did it of their own free will. They begged us again and again for the gracious privilege of sharing in the gift to he Christians in Jerusalem. II Corinthians 8:3-4
The third biblical principle teaches us that:
III. God promises to more than meet the needs of generous people.
• And God will generously provide all your need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. II Corinthians 9:8
Again, there are two biblical truths to keep in mind:
A. Our ability to give generously is linked to our spirituality. The bible says:
• “Godly” people give generously to the poor. II Corinthians 9:9a
And that:
B. God remembers the good deeds of those Godly and generous people.
• Their good deeds will never be forgotten. II Corinthians 9:9b
Jesus, in speaking of the final judgment after the second coming, spoke of the separation of people the way a shepherd separates sheep and goats. The sheep were likened to people who had acted generously toward others and the goats were likened to people who had not been generous in helping others.
• Jesus said, “I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me! And when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.” Matthew 25:31-46
The implication is that God keeps a record of all that we do… God remembers both the generous spirit and the not so generous spirit.
God wants us to think of giving as planting seeds.
IV. Opportunities to give are like seeds;
• God is the one who gives the seed to the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will give you opportunities to do good… II Corinthians 9:10a
The first biblical truth to be emphasized here is this:
A. The good that comes from our giving is like a harvest;
• and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched so that you can give even more generously. II Corinthians 9:10b
And the second is this:
B. God is blessed by the gratitude of those who benefit from our generosity.
• And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will break our in thanksgiving to God. Two things will happen: The needs of the people will be met and they will break out in thanksgiving to God. And you will be glorifying God through your generous gifts. II Corinthians 9:11-13
When Bonnie and I accepted our first call, we were living in Minneapolis and directing the Southside Chapel Ministry to neighborhood children. We were poor and totally dependant on a small stipend we received through the Northwest Conference office. One day I received a phone call from Herb Nehlsen. Herb was my pastor when I was a little boy living in Iowa… He was then a missionary in Mali / Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso, Africa and home on furlough and I was all grown up. He wanted to meet me for lunch in St. Paul. We were broke. I did not have any money. I accepted the invitation and then lived in terror of what I would do if he didn’t pick up the check. He did.
As we were saying good-bye in the parking lot, he reached into his pocket and removed some money, stuck it in my pocket, and quoted Proverbs 11:24, One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds, but comes to poverty.
Herb Nehlsen was never a “rich” man, but he always had enough to give away… he got and he gave. And now, nearly 38 years later, I am still expressing my gratitude to him and giving glory to God for his act of generosity.
God is blessed by those who benefit from our generosity.
Conclusion:
So what basic truth do we carry take with us this morning? What is the gist of this talk?
Let me use the bible to sum it all up. This is what God says to us this morning.
• Give whatever you can according to what you have. If you are really eager to give, it isn’t important how much you are able to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you don’t have. Of course, I don’t mean you should give so much that you suffer from having too little. II Corinthians 8:11-13
I happened upon a story I have saved for some time. I cannot give credit to the source other than to say that the name Rick Ezell was in parenthesis at the end of the story.
A group of American Christians visiting missionaries in Korea passed by a field where they saw a boy pulling a crude plow while an old man held the handles and guided the plow. They asked the missionary, who was serving as their guide, about the scene they had just witnessed. The missionary said they were the family of Chi Noui. When their church was built, they were eager to give something, but they had no money. So they sold their ox and gave the money to the church. This spring, they are pulling the plow themselves until they earn enough money to buy another ox.
One person in the group observed, “That was quite a sacrifice.”
The missionary replied, “They did not call it that. They thought it was fortunate they had an ox to sell.” (Rick Ezell)
The image of people as jars of clay is a universal image… it is the image of a Christian farmer in Korea, and it is the image of those of us who live in metro Denver.
All Christians are earthen vessels… simple jars of clay to whom God gives gifts and through whom God gives gifts.
