Generosity
2 Corinthians 9
April 28, 2013
Stephen King is the author of 49 suspense and horror novels that have sold over 350 million copies. You may not know that about 10 years ago he almost lost his life. He was walking along a country road in Maine, and a van hit him and knocked him into a ditch. His legs were so crushed the doctors considered amputating them, but eventually did not. Since that time, he's now an outspoken advocate of generosity
I want to read an excerpt from a speech he gave to the graduates of Vassar College. This is part of what he said in his commencement address ~
I found out what "you can't take it with you" means. I found out while I was lying in the ditch at the side of a country road covered with mud and blood and with the tibia of my right leg poking out the side of my jeans, like a branch of a tree taken down in a thunderstorm. I had a Master Card in my wallet, but when you're lying in a ditch with broken glass in your hair, no one accepts Master Card. We all know that life is ephemeral, but on that particular day and in the months that followed, I got a painful but extremely valuable look at life's simple backstage truths.
We come in naked and broke. We may be dressed up when we go out, but we're just as broke. Warren Buffet is going to go out broke. Bill Gates is going out broke. Tom Hanks is going out broke. Steve King, broke, not a crying dime. All the money you earn, all the stocks you buy, all the mutual funds you trade, all of that is mostly smoke and mirrors. So I want you to consider making your life one long gift to others. And why not? All you have is on loan anyway. All that lasts is what you pass on. We have the power to help, the power to change. And why should we refuse? Because we're going to take it with us? Oh, please.
Right now we have the power to do great good for others. So I ask you to begin giving and to continue as you began. I think you'll find in the end that you got far more than you ever had and did more good than you ever dreamed.
Those are great words from Stephen King. But they are only words. What do they mean for us? What does it mean to be generous? Listen to these words from Paul in 2 Corinthians 9 ~
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
9 As it is written, “He has distributed freely, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”
11 You will be enriched in every way – – to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.
Now, Paul is talking about an offering that’s being collecting for the church in Jerusalem, so, he’s referring to money. But I want to point out that this extends through all of life. Money is just one aspect of generosity. Last week, we looked at the many ways other than money, in which we can be generous.
You see, money captures us and we believe, as Stephen King did, that it can buy life. The power of money enables us to have lots of idols. When you think about it,
We worship pleasure and comfort.
We worship security and protection.
We worship honor, fame, and prestige.
We worship experiences – vacations, trips, meals.
We worship independence, don’t tell me what to do.
And money is the tool that enables it all. Now, none of that is bad, but when it becomes our driving force, it is bad. It moves us away from God and generosity.
Again, Paul said, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” – 1 Timothy 6:10
The pull of money is strong, and can act like a raging current like those we saw in the recent floods and drag us away from the call of the gospel. Remember, money is not evil, it’s good and it’s necessary — BUT the love of money, which controls us, that is the root of leading us into evil. And it can lead us away from faith and cause a great deal of trouble and hardship.
New Testament scholar, Craig Blomberg, calls the way we take care of our material possessions “the most important test-case of one’s profession of discipleship,” and said materialism is “the single biggest competitor with authentic Christianity for the hearts and souls of millions in our world today.”
That’s quite a statement about who we are as Christ-followers. How do we view our possessions and our money? How do we view giving to the church? Others will give, so I’m off the hook. It really doesn’t matter, I have other things I want to do, so who cares. I don’t have much money so there’s not much I can do.
We can make all kinds of excuses, but if you don’t give you’re not only hurting the call of the gospel. You’re hurting yourself. There’s potential for you to receive great joy and blessings because of your giving. Wouldn’t it be great when God thinks about you, “He considers, ‘aah, there’s Deutsch. He’s such a great giver of what I’ve already given him. How can I bless him more, so he can bless others more? Let me count the ways!”
And wouldn’t it be great if when others think about you they know, they don’t think, but they know, you are generous. They see Christ in you because of who you are. I’m not just talking about money, I’m talking about the totality of your life. You’re a giving person, and others want to model what you have. They want what you have. That’s what we should be like!
What about our material possessions, too? Again, there’s nothing wrong with having ‘stuff.’ But how much do we really need? Does our wanting possessions interfere with serving? Does our selfishness get in the way of serving? Another way we can be demonstrate generosity is how we think of others.
In Philippians 2, Paul said,
1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,
2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Do you hear what Paul’s saying? Here’s a whole new way to be generous. Consider others better than yourselves. Look at the good of the whole, not just what’s in your best interests. Share tenderness and compassion, look to the interests of others. These are all gifts and ways to practice generosity.
It’s not just our words, it’s our actions which make such a huge difference. Did you know that’s what set apart the early church? They were persecuted and killed and ostracized and the world had such a low view of Christians. But that didn’t stop them. They kept doing what they believed they were supposed to do.
There was a man in the second century by the name of Dionysius who wrote about common life among people in the pagan culture of that time. It was estimated that in the Roman Empire every town, village, and city faced a major calamity on about once every thirteen years. A calamity was an earthquake, fire, plague, or a military conquest.
Because cities in those days were constructed with such flammable materials, a fire could sweep across the whole city and devastate it. Or an earthquake would bring all the buildings tumbling down. There was no medicine for plagues. What did the people do when catastrophes hit?
Dionysius wrote, "The pagans thrust aside anyone who began to be sick and kept at a distance even from their dearest friends. They cast the sufferers half dead into the ditches and left them unburied."
Buried within the history of the Peloponnesian Wars which occurred in the 5th century BC, are vivid descriptions of how people ran whenever there was danger. They didn't care about their children, or their aging parents, they didn’t care about their neighbors. They just ran to save themselves. That was one of the core notions of a pagan view of life — save myself.
Now let me read to you something from a Christian leader in the third century. His name was Eusebius of Caesarea. Eusebius wrote ~
The Christians were the only people who amidst such terrible ills showed their fellow feeling and humanity by their actions. Day by day some would busy themselves with attending the dead and burying them. Others gathered in one spot all who were afflicted by hunger throughout the whole city and gave bread to all. When this became known, the people [that is, the pagan population] glorified the Christian God and convinced by the very facts confessed that the Christians alone were truly pious and religious.
The only people in those days who genuinely stood up for what they believed in and acted out of charity and love and generosity were the Christians. For three centuries the Christian movement expanded in one of the most dramatic periods of growth in Christian history. The countries of the Mediterranean world became filled with communities of believers, and the secret to it all was they were known for their generosity and their service.
How did this happen? How was it forgotten? I would suggest to you that across the world today, the Christian movement is not well known for its generosity. It's known for other things, but not necessarily for its generosity.
As we prepare to wrap up today, let me give you a kind of working definition of generosity. Generosity is a lifestyle — a lifestyle in which we share all that we have, are, or will become as a demonstration of God’s love. It is our response to God’s grace.
It’s not enough for us to talk about generosity, nor is it enough for individual Christians to simply commit to being generous. What makes generosity a real and powerful witness to God’s love is our actions. Generosity flows from a belief that all we have, are, or ever will be is not ours to horde, it’s our to share, because God has shared His wealth with us, and we seek to bring glory to God.
Our money and possessions are more than an obligation. It’s an opportunity to witness to the reckless nature of God who gives the free gift of salvation by grace to all who will receive it. Generosity is the fullest expression of the life of one who receives, one who has been given a gift, a gift that must be used wisely and for a purpose, bringing glory to God. * Contagious Generosity; Jim Sheppard & Chris Willard, Zondervan, 2012
