Greater Generosity, by Pastor Rob Ketterling
Well, today we are starting a new series, and it's dealing with giving and with generosity. As I was looking for a title for this series, I just was reminded that Greater is the theme of our year. It is not just Greater Presence, which was a great series that we just finished. Greater is our theme. It's a year to see all that God has for us and all that he wants us to step into, so I simply named this Greater Generosity. Kept it simple, kept it easy. Because I'm really believing that this is a year that we are going to step up in our giving, step up in our generosity and see God's hand at work in such a special way.
And I want to let you know that I always look forward to this series. We do a giving series every year at about this time, and I look forward to it. I know some churches, they don't like to preach about money. Some people are shy about it. I'm not. I enjoy it. I have seen God's hand of blessing on my life since the very first time I was given an allowance and I gave ten percent to the Lord. I'll never forget, I was in church, and I just remember the offering for the kids was a little church building that had a little slot on the top, and it was a white church. How many know what I'm talking about? Yeah, it was just fun. I was like, "I'm giving to God. I put it in the church." And it was so exciting to do that. So I love talking about it. I have seen God's hand of blessing on my life. I see it on our kids. I see it everywhere. But I'm surprised at how many churches don't like to do this and talk about giving.
I was also shocked, because I've been reading a lot of Charles Spurgeon's sermons. He was a great, great preacher. Thousands of sermons. And I was looking for some of his stuff on giving, and there is very little. And even when he'd preach on giving, it was always like, you know, "I'm really sorry. God wouldn't let me preach on anything else. I have to talk to you about giving, and I'll get back to the other stuff next week."
And I'm more like, "I love giving!" And it's just kind of funny that this guy who was so bold was kind of like so apologetic there. And I think it's because it really hits people where they live. You can talk about a lot of things in life, and you might cheer me on on a topic that has nothing to do with you, but I expect God to do surgery on this giving series, okay? If you don't amen me, I'm still okay with this series, all right? All right. And I'm believing that one of our campuses is amening me.
Anyway, here is the thing. Money has a lot to do with our heart. The Bible tells us in Matthew 6:21, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The Bible is very clear that you can't serve two masters. You can't serve God and money. And Jesus was speaking there and he says, "Hey, where your treasure is, wherever you put that, your heart is going to follow it." If you start putting your treasure, your tithe, your talent, your treasure somewhere, and all of a sudden your heart is going to follow after that. And that's why it affects us so much. Jesus had more to say about giving than heaven and hell combined. It is a very, very serious topic.
We know, again, it is going to be something that is going to hit us. But our church is doing so well, and I want to see us be greater. I want us to do better. I want us to have what I said on Vision Weekend; it's a six arrow year, which means complete victory. I want us to go higher than we've been. I talked to our business administrator. And I wish the numbers were higher, but the national average is about three percent of a church will tithe and give ten percent of their income. Our church is somewhere between 15 and 18 percent of the church, which puts us way above the national average. But that means there is a lot of people that still need to have surgery, so we are going to dig into this, all right?
But we do all that we do at church people say, "How does River Valley do it all?"
It's because so many people have stepped up and said, "You can count on me. I'm going to be a tither. I'm going to give ten percent of my income to the work of the Lord. And I'm going to start with that giving and then go over and above that."
We do so much of what we do because people are Kingdom Builders and they realize they've been blessed to be a blessing, and they understand that God owns all the money. It is all his and we are just stewards of it. We understand that there is good stewardship and good business practices that our church is involved in. Our elders run a budget that always leaves a margin. And you may not know this, but the church is in a position of strength as I preach this sermon. We have two month's income in reserve. If no one in our church gave for the next two months and was totally disobedient to the Lord, we could survive. You would be in trouble, but we'd survive, okay? Let's get that straight. It's good stewardship. It's good stewardship. And we are in a position that I can preach this not needing to say please give or else. It is, "Listen, this is what is best for you as a follower of Jesus Christ."
Now, we believe tithing pre dates the law. It was in the law in the Bible, and it is in the New Testament. Hebrews talks about when you're giving your tithe, you're really giving it unto the Lord. And I think that's why I was so excited when I was putting that money in that church. I was really giving it to Jesus. I was really saying, "I love you, and you are in charge of every area of my life, including my wallet."
And so as we dig into this series, it will be a three part series, and we are just so excited. We want you to grow, and we want you to understand as you obey God in this area his blessing will be poured out on your life. One of the things the church did is we bought a thousand copies of a friend of mine's book, The Blessed Life by Robert Morris. He's a great friend of our church. He's a friend of mine, and Becca and I are friends with he and his wife. And we loved his book. It is called The Blessed Life. I want to let you know that every dollar of this book goes to his church. He just signed the royalties away to the church and so it's an offering that goes on. But we bought a thousand copies of these, and they are available at the Welcome Center at all of our campuses. So if you would like to read this and you would like to understand more about tithing and giving and living in the blessed life, that's our gift to you. If we get rid of them all, we will buy more. We want to equip and empower you. We are not selling these books. They are yours for free, one per family.
So let's dig into this. We are going to talk about a familiar phrase today. God loves a cheerful giver. How many have heard that phrase before at churches? God loves a cheerful giver. It is found in 2 Corinthians, chapter 9. We are going to go there. I'm going to look at the whole chapter today, so if you have your Bibles, you can turn there. But it's a very, very familiar passage, and there is a ton there. And I just want us to be cheerful givers as we talk about money. As we have an opportunity to give, as we talk about an opportunity to be tithers and Kingdom Builders, it should be a cheerful thing.
As a matter of fact, it really would be perhaps the only time in our church service, when we receive the offering, that all of us could be happy. Think about that. All of us could be happy at offering time because we've received so much from God that we can give in the offering, and we know God loves a cheerful giver. Now, some people come with burdens, some people needing a miracle, some people come battling a disease, some people come with internal strife. But when it comes to giving, we could all be on the same page and be happy about our giving. So God loves a cheerful giver. There is something here for to us grab ahold of and to dig into.
In 2 Corinthians 9:1 5, I want to give the context before I read starting in verse 6. In verses 1 through 5, the apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, and he is saying to them, "Guys, the church in Jerusalem has money they need money. They are down, they are struggling, and they need an offering. And I need you guys to participate in this. You guys have money, and I need you to participate in this." And he says, "Hey, by the way, the Macedonian church, they don't have a lot of money. They begged me for the opportunity to participate in giving to the church in Jerusalem."
And isn't that interesting? Isn't it just like even today, people that are down and out give to people that are even more down an out. Have you ever noticed that? And sometimes rich people will walk right by people that are down and out, but down and out will give to people more down and out. And the apostle Paul is saying, "Hey, let's not live that way. I know you have money. I know you are blessed. Look at these guys, look at how good they're doing. You might want to do like them."
Just as a side note, Paul never rips on a church to make another one look better. He always talks about good things so that people will rise up to good things, okay? Can I just declare this as a church? We will speak life about every church. We will never rip down another church to make our church look better. We will hold up a great example for other people to live up to. And we will speak life about every church that preaches the name of Jesus. We will be godly, life giving people.
So the apostle Paul is like, "The Macedonian church is doing so good. You should join like them. They don't even have that much, and they want to give. You guys have a lot. Get in on this. It's good."
So we pick it up there with verse 6. The apostle Paul says, 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And 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. 9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”
For those of you that don't know, he is quoting from the Psalms there.
He says, 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
All right, so general observations here as I read this and I know about the heart of giving; some general observations here. When we give, when we give and we part with money, when we part with what we have, we are saying that we love the poor. We are saying that we love the poor. And I want you to understand that our church loves the poor, and when we give, some of what you give goes to help the poor. And I can tell you this, whenever I'm in a secular arena and somebody says, "Well, what kind of good does the church do?" How many know that I immediately go to the money that we give to the poor.
I immediately go to, "Well, we buy food with Feed My Starving Children and send whole canisters of food to those people in need. We give over $100,000 to Convoy of Hope that goes in at the crisis moment." As a matter of fact, on Easter weekend we will raise money towards that $100,000 for Convoy of Hope. I go right to Children's Cup, that we care for HIV AIDS orphanage, and that you paid for the land and the building and the Care Point and the place where they are fed and trained. I go right to those spots and say we take care of those orphans in Africa. And I go to the poor.
And how many know that the marketplace and the secular world goes, "All right, good for you. That's good." And it is a good thing that we care for the poor. And when we give, we care for the poor.
When we give, we say we love lost people. How many know in the secular world they don't care we love lost people. They don't care. They like the first part, and that's good. But we also love lost people. We understand that God wants to forgive them of their sins, that they can be made right with God and that their sins separates them, and so we want to give, and so our global teams and we do a lot of things to reach lost people. Third thing it says when we give is that we love the church. We love the church. We understand that God says, "I'm building my church." And when we give and we bring our tithe to the church and we give and we part with that money we are saying, "God, we love the church that you created."
And how many know that, again, secular world does not get excited about that. They don't get excited. How many know that Target does not write a check to River Valley? And I love Target. They are very generous. But how many know they don't do it toward churches? How many know the government does not give us any money, okay? They give us tax exemption on the land, and they give you tax deduction when you donate. But the rest of it, they are not supporting us. They are not giving us money. And even if we did get a grant from the government, it could only be to buy food or some tangible thing for the poor. It could never be to pay for preaching of the gospel. Do you understand that?
So when we give, we say that we love the church, we love lost people, we love the poor, but there is one more thing. We love God. When we part with our money, we say, "God we love you. We love what you've done for us and in us and you are doing to us, and we love you and we give because of that."
And I haven't thought it all the way through, but I think if we give with our priority in reverse order that I just said it, our lives will go forward. If we give because we love God, because we love his church, because we love lost people and we lost the poor, I think if we give in that direction our lives will go forward. I think that many times we've got to watch out. The church is focusing on we love the poor, we love the poor, we love the poor. We love God. We love the church that he is building. We love lost people, rich or poor. Because if they are better fed but they don't know Jesus, they are still separated from God. And we love the poor don't get me wrong but we love God, and we start there. And I'll tell you this, I didn't think that all the way through, but it's okay.
But I do understand this, all right, I thought this through. What we do with the money in our hand says a lot about what we are doing with God in our heart. What we do with the money in our hand says a lot about what we are doing with God in our heart. And so I want us to get this right. I want us to understand about giving.
So let me go verse by verse as I go through this. I want to teach on this. Verse 6, Paul says, Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. And the thought is to give all you can. To give all you can. When it comes to giving toward the things of God, you want to give all you can. He's saying, "Hey, it's sowing and reaping. And you want to sow into the Kingdom of God. You want to be generous. You want to do as much as you can." It is not like get to ten percent and stop. Get to ten percent and finally be obedient and just do as little as you can. The principle here is be generous, keep going. Go above and beyond what would start at ten percent and give what the Bible would call a freewill offering.
Now I want you to know freewill offerings are all throughout the Bible. The Old Testament is loaded, loaded with places where they gave and they gave, and it says, As every man's heart was stirred, in Exodus 35, they gave willingly. Leviticus talks about it, Deuteronomy, Ezra, multiple times in that book of the Bible. It's like they gave freewill, they gave freewill, they gave freewill, and they kept giving and giving and giving. As a matter of fact, in 2 Chronicles there is a passage that talks about which priest was in charge of managing all the money that was given in the freewill offerings. Pretty amazing, because it is saying give generously, keep going, keep going, and do whatever you can. Don't just do a little bit. Keep sowing and give and give and give.
And I believe that sometimes the poorest people in our church sow the most. Like, they are so generous, you know, you're wondering. It is almost like the Macedonian church. They are like, "I can't wait to give."
And you're like, "But you have so little."
"But I can't wait to give. I want to give more, I want to give more, and I want to give more." And it is so exciting to see them just understand, "I'm sowing into the kingdom of God and I want to do more and I want to do more."
I couldn't help, but this stood out to me just I think it was last week I was reading our SOAP. It was Mark chapter 12. And if you are not doing this, you need to do this. As a church, we read two chapters a day together, and we ask you to read the scripture, write down what you observe about it, how does it apply to your life, and then pray about it. Well, as I was reading Mark 12, it stood out to me about giving from your heart and large giving and large percentage giving. And it was interesting, because in Mark 12, it says Jesus was sitting there watching people give, which just blows me away. You know, that Jesus was right there, and we have, like, sealed envelopes and private things, and he is right there watching everybody give. Okay, but it says he was watching people give, and in Mark 12 it says some people gave very large amounts. It says rich people gave very large amounts. And then it talked about this widow who gave so little, but it was everything she had. And as I was looking at that, I was like, "Lord, that's just amazing. You don't condemn rich people for giving large amounts." It's like there is something about rich people giving large amounts. "And then you get excited about people that have very little giving very large percentages." And large amounts and large percentages are very important to the mission that God has us on.
And as I'm reading this I'm realizing, like, give as much as you can. If you are wealthy and you are blessed and you have been given a large amount of resources, thank God that you want to give large amounts to the church. How many know that large amounts given to the church keep the doors open, all right? It's true. Large amounts given to the church keep the doors open. It is like a home run. It clears the bases. Everybody scores. It's a good thing, and we thank God for large amounts.
But here is the other thing; large percentages open the windows of heaven. I believe that. Large percentages, sacrificial gifts. Now here is a lie that happens to you that if you don't have a large amount of money, okay, if you don't have a large of money, but you're thinking I just have a little bit, it's a sacrificial giving, you're like, "That doesn't matter. That doesn't matter to the church." Yes, it does. Because I believe just like this widow's gift caught the attention of Jesus, every time somebody does a sacrificial gift, heaven pays attention more to what's happening at River Valley Church. That's what I believe happens.
So every time a widow gives, heaven pays attention. Every time a college student gives and says, "I'm going to be a tither and I'm going to be a Kingdom Builder and I work at Starbucks," heaven pays attention." Okay? Every time a single mom gives, heaven pays attention.
Okay, now I can tell you this, the first time I received a gift from a widow, I didn't even want to receive it for the church. She said, "This is for the church."
I was like, you know, what do I do? I mean, "You have more need than we do."
And God is like, "You need to let her give that, because I'm paying attention to what's going on now."
Okay, I really I almost like felt like weeping because the lady sacrificed. And this is what my mom said. I said, "You won't believe this. She gave this."
And, my mom said, "You give that back to her!"
And I was like, "I can't. I mean, it's God's blessing."
And her point was do you understand how sacrificial that was? Do you understand how important that is to her? And here's the thing. I do. I do. And I believe this, your gifts, sacrificial gifts that are large percentages get the attention of God and open the blessing of heaven upon us. And those large gifts that are large numbers but maybe not as large percentage wise, they keep us moving forward. And together they bring a dual blessing on the church. They bring a dual blessing, and we need both of you to be doing that type of blessing. But we need to give as much as we can. That's the principle. Do as much as you can. Think about how much more you can give, not how little you can give.
Now verse 7 says, Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. The first part, not under compulsion, and it's not that it's on a sob story or that you're forced to give. Or, you know, we are going to share the needs of the church, but we are not going to be needy. Does that make sense? Like, "Oh, if you don't give," you know, "it's over." You know, "Come on, you better give."
And God wants you to give with joy in your heart, not sadness. God wants you to bring in your tithe and your offerings and your Kingdom Builder commitments to church not like you pay your taxes. Okay? Okay? Because nobody leaves paying their taxes, like, happy and singing, like, "Yay, yay!" Maybe if you got a refund. No, even if you got a refund, you already paid money in; they are just sending it back to you. All right? But nobody leaves, like, "Yay, I just paid the government!"
But how many know that when you give a gift to your dad, when you give a gift to your dad if you're a child, and you give a gift to your dad and he smiles, you walk away singing. You're like, "I love you, I love you, I love you." You know.
But God loves a cheerful. Okay, so why does he love a cheerful giver? Here is why I believe he loves a giver. Because when you are a cheerful giver, you are in tune with everything else on the earth. Everything else on the earth was created to give. Everything else was created to be in this. God Your Father is a giver. God Your Father is a giver. And everything else on this earth gives, and if it doesn't give it's a desert. Okay, it just consumes and takes. But everything else is a giver, and when you do this you get in the rhythm of creation. You get in tune with your Heavenly Father, and he loves it that you start to look like him and that you're in tune with him.
And how many know when something is out of tune, it is not very exciting at all. We love our worship around here at River Valley. We have very good worship. We are known for good worship. And the worship team was working on a video that we decided not to release. You can take a look and see why we decided not to release this video. [Video played]
If you thought that was good, come up for prayer at the end of service and adjust your radio in your car. All right? It's called a shred video, and it's actually an honor that somebody would do that to your worship team. So I know you're probably like, "What in the world?" But somebody did that to say they like our worship. I know it's a weird thing. But anyway, man, thank God our worship is not like that. If it is out of tune, it is not enjoyable. Nobody is buying it.
Here's the thing, when you are generous you're in tune with what God is doing. You're in tune with what God is doing. He's like, "I love that. I love that you look like me, that you're in tune. Because I am a giving God and I want you to get involved and be in tune with me."
Okay, verse 8, God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all you need, you will abound in every good work. Let me just tell you this. Paul introduces the church at Corinth to another concept that we would just call God's math. God's math. Okay? He is saying when you take what you have and start to give God generously from that a tithe and more, God gets involved with your finances and he is able to do whatever he wants with your money and able to take care of you. It's called God's math. How many have ever told somebody that when you are explaining that you tithe ten percent of your income. And you're like, "You don't understand. See, you take ten percent and you give it to God, and 90 percent with God is better than a hundred percent without God."
And they are like, "Huh?"
And you're like, "I know it doesn't make sense. But our bills are paid. We made it and we are able to do it." And you're kind of like, "God got involved in the math and it works."
And Paul is saying that. Don't you understand that when God is involved in your finances, and God is doing this, he's able to make you to prosper. He's able to take care of you and he will do more with whatever he lets you keep than with whatever you gave to him. It's an amazing way that it works.
Now verses 9, 10 and 11, let me just bunch them together. It is a continuation of God's math. And he is saying this, like, if you get in on the blessing of generosity and you start to do this, the blessing of generosity will start to propel you forward into more blessing and more generosity. And he's like, "God is able to get the math going, and as you start to do this and as you start scattering seeds of generosity, God will start to pour out more on you and more on you and more on you. If you get into the flow, the flow will get on you." Okay?
It's kind of like Becca and I took the kids to Costa Rica one year, and we did body surfing. And we just said, "Okay, all you've got to do is just get in the flow of the wave, and as soon as you make a little effort in the flow, the wave will carry you. And sure enough, that's what happened.
Paul is saying, "Hey, if you start doing this, God will get you in the flow." You've got to jump in the flow.
A lot of people will say, "God, if you bless me, then I'll bless you."
And Paul says, "No, get in the flow, and as you get in the flow, the flow will start to bless you. And God will start to bless you more and more and more and more, and it just rolls with you." And how many know you can't outgive God. Okay, and that's what happens. It just starts going.
And he says in verse 11, You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. I've heard this said many different ways, but you are blessed to be a blessing. You're blessed. You have so much. You're in this flow to be a blessing, and as you give more, God wants you to be a blessing. And that statement to me in verse 11 says, "Live above the stuff." Live above the stuff. God is going to bless you and pour out his blessing on you and you're going to get in the flow. And it would be very tempting to live like the rest of the world; just for the stuff. But God is, like, "Live above the stuff." Live above the things.
Now, I know a lot of us have a lot of things, and we are some of the richest people in the world. If you make more than $34,000 you're in the richest one percent of the world. If you make more than $340,000, you're in the richest one percent of the world. And God is like, "Live above the stuff." As you get in the flow, be generous on every occasion. Man, you're going to get in the flow so you can bless God and keep doing more for God. And he is really saying, "Don't live to get more stuff; live to eliminate need." Think about it. Let me say it again. Don't live to just keep getting more stuff. Live to eliminate need.
And so you live in such a way that you start saying, "Hey, we can meet that need for that missionary, let's write the check. Hey, we can meet the need for the youth group, let's right the thing. Hey, we can meet the need for those people that are poor in Africa, let's write the check." Let's live in a way so that we can be generous on every occasion, and let's position ourselves to live for more than stuff.
Now, again, there is nothing wrong with prospering and God giving you the ability to earn wealth, and as you do that you're able to take care of your family's needs and to do these things. But you need to live higher than the stuff. The stuff should never be your goal. Your life should be living for more than that. And I wrote this down in my journal, and if it fits, you can use this saying. I'll give you two of them. "Big livers need to be big givers." If you're going to live big, if you're going to be in the one percent, man, if you're a big liver, be a big giver. And then I thought, livers, you know. Then I wrote down, "Live big, give big." That should be your motto. If you're going to live big, give big. If God's going to allow you to be responsible for a lot of money and, you know, all this stuff is happening and you're able to take care of your family and do these things and you're prospering, if you're going to live big, give big. Because God blessed you so you can be a blessing.
Just three more versus, or two more things I'll say. Versus 12 through 14, I'll lump them together. People are helped, and God is praised. When we give, people are helped, and God is praised. That's what Paul is saying. And the best way to give I wrote this down. The best way to give is, "You get the joy, and God gets the glory." Okay? You get the joy and God gets the glory.
You don't need a plaque in praise. You just need to say, "God, here it is. I give to you. I want people to be blessed. I want them to sing your praise. I'll get the joy, you get the glory." Doesn't matter. That's the beauty of anonymous giving. It is like, "You get the praise. I get the joy." Man, it is a good exchange.
Last verse, verse 15, he's talking about Jesus. He's really saying, Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! He is basically saying God has been so good to you. We are all recipients; we should be givers. We've all been recipients; we should be givers. He's like "God has given you such a beautiful gift." Romans 5:8 says it even better. It says, But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Before you gave anything to God, God was already giving to you. Wow! And he's saying, "You know what? Man, we need to thank God for his indescribable gift. We serve a God that is a giving God, a loving God that gave us the most amazing gift. As recipients of that most amazing gift, we want to be generous on every occasion.
So, God, I pray that you would help us to be generous on every occasion. We thank you for the indescribable gift. We thank you that you sent your son while we were sinners. While we were enemies you were giving. And you set an amazing example. So, God, as your children, as your church, we commit to saying, God, we want to be generous on every occasion. Help us to be cheerful givers. Help us to realize that we've been blessed to be a blessing. If we are living large, I pray that we'd give large. Live big, give big. And, God, I pray we just give you the glory and give you the honor. We give you the glory and the honor. May every gift that we give, may the large gifts, the small gifts, give you the glory and the honor.
And I close out by praying a blessing on everyone that is tithing and everyone that is a Kingdom Builder, may they be blessed to be a blessing. And may those now that are in that moment of decision, they are going to make a decision are they going to do it or not, I pray for obedience and them to desire to get in on God's math. Get in on the blessing of God. Get in so that the flow will push them forward and they can be blessed to be a blessing. We thank you for this. We thank you for this. And we pledge to be Kingdom Builders for you, Lord. Help us to build your kingdom and to be generous, cheerful givers. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
