But this morning, I mentioned in our announcements
that this was a month of generosity. And as I
was praying this week about generosity and the
service, it was like all of a sudden the Lord
just put this right into my spirit that in order
for us to truly be people of generosity, we have
to know the source of our generosity. We have
to understand our generous God. And this might
seem like a simple idea, but I often wonder how
much we truly believe that God wants to be generous
in my life toward me. Because if we really got
that it would be a whole paradigm shift For our
lifestyles That God is generous and not just
that he is generous, but he wants to be generous
to me Yeah, oh I believe he wants to be generous
toward Candice But does he really want to be
generous toward me? And so this morning, we're
gonna just, and I'm not gonna preach super long.
I knew we had a full morning today. And so I'm
gonna keep it short, but we're gonna be concluding
our time at communion, which I love, because
communion to me represents the source of generosity.
And so in 1 Chronicles 29, this is to me a powerful
verse. This is David. King David was setting
up for the building of the temple and they had
begun to take offerings in from the leaders for
the temple. And he was so overwhelmed by the
generosity of the people that he says this, but
who am I and who are my people that we should
be able to give as generously as this? Isn't
that an awesome question? Who are we? I'm so
in awe of the generosity in what has been given
that I have to ask the question, who are we that
we have given this generously? And he makes this
declaration, everything comes from you. And we
have given you only what comes from your hands.
How can we be so generous? Our source is generosity
himself. God doesn't just do generous things.
God is generous. It is who he is, just as God
is love. He doesn't just act lovingly. He is
love. God doesn't just act generously. He is
generous. He can't help but be generous. Now
when we hear this word generosity, often our
minds immediately go to financially, I have to
give to the poor, I have to give to the one that
is out trying to get money. But I want us, that's
to me very limiting. That is very limiting. Generosity
is in every area of life that we steward. It
is me being generous with my strength, my body.
It is me being generous with my mind and lending
it to helping other people and figuring out their
stuff. It is me being generous with my time.
It is me being generous in my prayer life. Oh,
this was a good one. I have a small group. on
Thursday nights. It is a small group. It's Tabitha
and I. Tabitha's not here today. Tabitha's loving
it. She's getting one on one time. But we've
been going through foundations and we were just
talking about prayer this week. And there are
a couple of verses that we read where Paul says,
and pray for all the saints. In this moment,
it's not so often what we pray are prayers out
of desperation for our situation, for our family,
for our needs. But Paul says, I'm calling you
to generosity of prayers. Prayers for all saints.
How many of you are praying here for one another?
Prayers for all the saints. Generosity. And so
I want you to think bigger today in the realm
of generosity. I want you to think beyond what
is easy for you to be generous in. Some of us,
we tend, I can be generous with my time, I can
be generous with this or this. What I'm calling
for is for us to redefine a little bit generosity.
Because... How should we be able to be so generous?
Everything comes from God. It comes from His
hand. And so there are just three takeaways today.
Are you ready? Takeaway number one, if you're
taking notes, I see that Pastor Ben is taking
notes. Oh, Darren is taking notes. Abigail is
taking notes. All right. Oh, Kathy is taking
notes. Look at all these hands. That's awesome.
Okay, so takeaway number one is this. Very simple.
God is generous. Everybody say that. God is generous.
2 Corinthians 9. Now, you also have to have your
Bibles, because we're going to... It's not enough
for my words for you to hear. You need to have
your faith stirred up by the Word of God. And
so 2 Corinthians 9 says this. Remember this.
Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly. Whoever
sows generously will reap generously. Each of
you should give what you've decided in your heart
to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver. Wherever you
are being generous, He wants you to be cheerful
about it. And God is, here it is, here's why.
God is able to bless you abundantly. How does
he want to bless you? Abundantly. So that in
all things, at all times, all things, at all
times, In all things with your co -worker that's
disgruntling you. In all things at all times.
When your kids are driving you crazy, when your
spouse is driving you crazy. I know I drive him
crazy. In all things at all times. Having all
that you need, you will abound in every good
work. As it is written, they have freely scattered
their gifts to the poor. Their righteousness
endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to
the sower. Who's the one that supplies the seed?
Do I have the seed? No. God gives the seed. God
is the source. I love that it says they have
freely scattered their seed. When you aren't
the source of the seed, you can scatter it freely,
right? It didn't cost you anything, it comes
from the seed giver. When it doesn't cost you
anything, you can freely scatter, holding nothing
back. 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. I love this because it's
not just about the stuff of this earth. But this
kind of generosity is a generosity of righteousness,
growing in the things of God, becoming like our
generous God. You will be enriched in every way.
Every way. Think about the areas right now in
your life, if you're taking notes, write it down,
where you do not feel like you are being enriched.
And then I want you to begin to pray this verse
over that area, that you would be enriched in
every area so that you can be generous on every
occasion. And through us, your generosity will
result in thanksgiving to God. God wants to be
generous with you. Why? He wants you to be generous
with people. You will be enriched in every way
so you can be generous on every occasion. Every
occasion. This is where the rubber kind of meets
the road because there are areas that we don't
like to be generous. There are people we don't
like to be generous towards. And here I see no
wiggle room. He uses very strong language, every
occasion, at all times, generous, generous, generous.
Why are we able to do that? Our God is a generous
God. Our source, we have a well of generosity
at our disposal. Listen to these verses. I'm
going to read through them fast, but Matthew
7, and it will be given. Seek and you will find,
knock, the door will be opened. Everyone who
asks receives, the one who seeks find, the one
who knocks the door will be opened. Which of
you, if your son asks for bread, will give a
stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him
a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your father in heaven give good gifts
to those who ask him? Ephesians 3 20 to him who's
able to do immeasurably more than you could ask
or imagine according to his power at work within
you Hebrews 11 6 he rewards those who earnestly
seek him Matthew 21 22 if you believe you will
receive whatever you ask for in prayer 2nd Corinthians
9 we read it he is able to bless you abundantly
so in all things at all times having all you
need you will abound for every good work. When
I read these verses what do I hear? I hear the
heart of a generous God who according to Ephesians
says he lavished on us. He lavished all grace
upon us. We have a generous God and you need
to start believing that he wants to be generous
to you. Jesus was generous. And I say this specifically,
in our leader meeting Monday night, or Tuesday
night, we were talking about a verse, and Kathy
was pointing out how Jesus operated out of his
humanness, right? Jesus did all these great and
amazing things while on earth, and we think,
yeah, that's because he's Jesus. But Jesus was
operating out of his humanness. He battled and
struggled and was tempted like you were. In fact,
in Philippians 2, it says, though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God as something
to cling to. And this is actually in the New
Living Translation. I liked this. because it
says he gave up his divine privileges. He took
the humble position of a slave and was born as
a human being. And this is what he operated out
of Well on Earth. The English standard version
says that he emptied himself. And it was out
of that place that he did all that he did. And
so Jesus, out of his own humanness, was the mark
of generosity. He laid aside the glories of heaven.
He healed on the Sabbath when he wasn't supposed
to. He touched the untouchables when he wasn't
supposed to. He allowed women to follow him around
and sit at his feet and learn from him. He wasn't
supposed to do that. He ministered to non -Jews.
wasn't supposed to do that. He fed the hungry.
He gave voice to the people by challenging the
religious leaders. He made himself available
to all people. He valued children. He washed
the feet of his disciples. He offered forgiveness
to his betrayers and he was suffered on the cross
and died for you and I. Jesus was generous. Jesus
was generous. If you get nothing else today,
I want you to, what I feel like this sermon is
supposed to be for you today is a diving board.
There is no way I can cover the depths of who
God is in generosity. I wanna be a springboard.
I want it to be a diving board for you to leave
this place and dive in and discover the generosity
of God in your life. but God is generous. Number
two, it is good that God is generous, but you
must feast on his generosity. It's not enough
to know God is generous. You have to feast on
his generosity. In Psalm 36, there's this beautiful
passage starting in verse five that I love. Because
it does, it shows us again the generosity of
God. Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens.
Your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness
is like the highest mountain. Your justice like
the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people
and animals, for all of you animal lovers. How
priceless. is your unfailing love, O God. People
take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They
feast on the abundance of your house. You give
them drink from your river of delights, for with
you is the fountain of life." Listen, he has
an abundant house. Right here it says it in verse
8. Your house God is an abundant house. We have
the choice if we want to feast or not. My first
small group was an abundant house. Oh man, we
had cleaned all day. I had made chili. I had
made cornbread. I had it ready. Tabitha came
and Tabitha had already eaten. So my family got
to it. I had an abundance, but there was nobody
to feast on my house. God has an abundant house,
but he doesn't force feed anybody. It is on us.
to feast and to drink. We just had a wiener roast
at my mother's house and we were having this
discussion that when my children were little,
my mom loves to shop. She loves to buy things
for the grandkids, right? All grandparents, right?
You like to buy things for your grandkids. I
was just in Missouri with our boys and we had
gone thrift shopping. The boys like to go thrift
shopping. And so, you know, this is why I take
them thrift shopping, because I can afford to
buy them whatever they want. If we even go to
Walmart, I'm not giving them all their heart's
desires, but at a thrift store, I can do that.
And so, we had gone thrifting. So later that
night, the boys were with Alexandra and Jeremy
in the vehicle, and Benji was going on, Dad,
she bought me whatever I wanted. had to do was
point at something and it was his and he was
so excited over this generosity Edmund was a
little different Edmund was eight he is eight
and he would come up to the counter with me to
check out pulling out his wallet because he was
gonna pay I was like, little dude, we are not
doing this. I'm not arguing with you like I argue
with your son. You're eight, put your wallet
away. Nona is buying today. So we love to buy
for them. So my mom is no different. But I remember
when they were little, I'd be like, don't ask
grandma for stuff, right? As mom, that's what
I'm saying. Don't ask grandma for stuff. So she
would try to pry out of the kids when she went
shopping what they wanted and so she was telling
us last week of the time that they were at Walmart
and they were checking out and Jeremy said grandma
Can I have a pack of gum? And she was like, and
she did, even in telling the story, she threw
her arms out. Yes, you can have whatever you
want. What else do you guys want? Yes, you can
have whatever you want. She was so delighted
that he had asked her for something. This is
the way the father wants us to come to him. He
wants us to feast on the abundance he longs to
give to us. Psalm 23, we know this passage. It's
the passage we read at funerals, but it's one
of my favorites. You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies, but it's up to
me to step up and seat myself at the table of
the Lord. He doesn't do it for me. He doesn't
do it. But you know, this is a kind of generous
God. He loves it when we ask Him. He loves it
when we come to feast upon His generosity. When
my kids were younger, Jeremy had a best friend,
Luke. Luke has drummed for us a time or two,
and he's just like one of my kids. He was the
best friend. Vanessa and her son Chandler, they
were all best friends. And Luke, I loved it when
Luke came to dinner. Luke loved food and Luke
appreciated food. And he would be like, oh, this
is so good. This is so good. He would get so
excited. And it was probably just a normal night's
meal, but he would get so excited over his food
that I love to feed Luke. Why? Because He enjoyed
feasting on my abundance. What are you talking
about down there? Darren appreciates it if I
make steak and apple pie. The Lord takes joy
in our feasting on His abundance. And for some
of you, you feel like, and it's true, we are
unworthy of it. We are. But the heart of God
is to come and to feast and some of you need
to really get that. Because the word calls us
to come boldly into the throne room. The word
calls us to not, oh I'm so sorry Lord for coming
in and asking this. No! He has an abundance and
he wants you to come and take joy and delight
in the abundance that he has for you. He is a
generous God. He is a generous God. And it's
up to us to feast on that generosity. Third takeaway,
and we're gonna be finishing up here. In this
generosity, when we partake, when we feast on
the generosity of God, something interesting
happens in that we begin to take on the characteristics
of God's generosity. This is the power of it.
is that we begin to be transformed as we partake
of God's generosity. We take on His characteristics
of generosity. We actually become people of generosity.
And so Romans 5, here's the truth of it. You
see, at just the right time, when we were still
powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. And here's
our human generosity. Very rarely will anyone
die for a righteous person, though for a good
person, someone might possibly dare to die. Isn't
that the truth? You deserve my death, I will
die for you. You not so much, so forget about
it. That's not the generosity of God though,
is it? Because it says in verse eight, God demonstrates
his own love for us in this. While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. He didn't wait for
you to earn or to deserve it. While we did not
deserve it, he extended generosity of his life
toward us. And so generosity, God's way, means
that it is to be generous toward those we deem
unworthy. Because it is, in our minds, it's a
bit of an injustice. Well, who am I going to
pick on? Cole. Cole did me wrong. Cole did something
And because of that, I don't need to be generous.
He does not deserve it. That's the generosity
of the world thinking. God's way is to be generous
toward those that have put us on the cross. That's
God's justice. Generosity, God's way, is to be
generous when it's inconvenient. Generosity,
God's way, is to be generous when it appears
I have nothing to be generous with. This is the
generosity of the kingdom. This is the generosity
that steps outside the realm of what I can offer
you. This is the generosity that taps into the
source and offers what comes from God. This is
the generosity of the kingdom. One of my heroes
of the Bible are the Macedonian people. How many
of you know who the Macedonian people are? Paul
refers to them in 2 Corinthians. He says, I want
you to know about the grace God has given the
Macedonian churches. In the midst of severe trial,
their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty
welled up in rich generosity. I love them. I'm
like the Macedonians deserve extra reward in
heaven. For I testified they gave as much as
they were able and even beyond their ability
I've been reading the autobiography of George
Mueller right now who in the 1800s started orphanages
and the only way he paid for it was by God providing
money day by day hour by hour Millions of dollars
went through his hands in the 1800s as he by
faith believed. He gave away almost all of his
income and lived on very little with his wife.
Generosity flowed through him. He reminds me
of the Macedonians. They couldn't afford it,
but they gave in rich generosity, entirely on
their own. They urgently pleaded with us for
the privilege of sharing in this service to the
Lord's people. They were asking, I need to give.
How can I give? How can I give? How can I give?
Rich generosity. Was it convenient? Could they
afford it? No. But they knew the source. They
were tapped in to the generosity of God. They
were tapped into the source. Are we tapped into
the source? I'm gonna ask if the worship team
will come and the ushers are gonna be getting
ready here in a moment. But I've shared this
little story before and I wanted to do it again
today. But the story is told that one day a beggar
by the roadside asked for alms from Alexander
the Great as he passed by. The man was poor and
wretched and had no claim upon the ruler, no
right even to lift a hand. Yet the emperor threw
him several gold coins. A courtier was astonished
at his generosity and he commented, sir, copper
coins would have adequately met a beggar's need.
Why give him gold? Alexander responded in royal
fashion. Copper coins would suit the beggar's
need, but gold coins suit Alexander's giving.
We can be satisfied with a level of giving that
originates from us, but friend, we are representative
of a generous God. And our giving is not based
upon the needs of people or the needs of circumstances.
Our generosity is based on the generous God that
gives all and withholds nothing, not even his
own son. Our generosity is a reflection of that
kind of God. We can afford to be generous. We
can afford to give beyond what we thought we
could or imagined that we could, because we have
a source, a generous God. And in 2nd Corinthians
8, it says, through his poverty might become
rich. It is the poverty of Christ that became
the doorway for us to become rich. And so who
are we? Who are we that we should be able to
give as generously as we want to give in our
giving? Who are we? David asks, we are ones that
have access, that acknowledges that everything
comes from God, and we are only giving that which
He's given to us to begin with. Amen? And so
some of you today need to catch this. The generosity
of Jesus has made you rich, and you need to think
a little differently. Because you're still thinking
of your life out of the place of poverty. You're
still thinking about your life and the place
of lack. And the whole point of this month of
generosity is to begin to understand the power
of giving, how it changes us, how it opens us
up, and how we quit seeing our lack and we begin
to see the generosity of God released through
our lives. And there's joy in that. There's joy
in that. And so our team of ushers back there
are going to come and distribute the table of
the Lord. And as they do, we're just going to,
for a few moments, worship as the team leads
us.