S. Building a Life of Generosity - 2Co_8:1-9
"Building a Life of Generosity"
We’ve been in this series, "Building Your Life with Values That Last," looking at principles that enrich your life, that bring to fruition Jesus’ promise, "I came that you might have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance, to the fullest, till it overflows." We’ve seen that among the values to build a great life on are faith, hope, and love. What’s the best way to demonstrate, to live out those priceless values? By being a generous person, a person who’s a giver, not a taker. 2 Corinthians 8:7 says, "Just as you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness in your love for us - see that you also excel in this grace of giving." Did you know that generosity is the most talked about value in the entire Bible? The word "faith" (or its variations) is used 246 times in God’s Word. "Hope" appears 185 times. The word "love" is used 733 times. "Give" or "giving" is used 2,285 times in the Bible. The Bible talks more about giving and generosity than any of those other principles. Why? Because giving is the expression of faith, hope, and love. Indeed, it’s concrete, practical evidence of the abundant life, the life that’s lived to the fullest as Jesus intended for you. I want to share with you today six benefits of being generous with your time, your talents, and your treasures.
First, giving helps you grow in godliness, it makes you more like God. The Bible declares over and over again that God is a giver. James 1:5 : "God gives to all generously and ungrudgingly." John 3:16 says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son." If you want to be a great lover, you’ve got to learn to be a great giver, because love and giving go together. It’s possible to give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. We saw last week that one of the reasons love is the greatest of faith, hope, and love is because God is love. When you love as He loves, you’re becoming more godly. In the same way, giving makes you more like God because God is a giver. Every time you’re generous you grow in godliness.
Second, giving celebrates God’s grace to you. Look at how verse nine describes it: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich." Before the incarnation, the Son enjoyed the infinite, the limitless riches of heaven. Yet because of His grace, He gave it all up and for your sake, He became poor when He came to earth. Jesus became so poor that He had absolutely nothing to give away, nothing but His life. That’s what Jesus came into the world to do, to give His life, to die, for you. He allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross; His blood, His life was poured out in a sacrifice so that you might become rich. Rich in salvation, rich in life, a life that enjoys forgiveness, a clear conscience, His supernatural resources of love, confidence, hope, and joy. By His grace, that’s what God has done for you, for me. One of the surest marks of a heart that’s been truly touched by God’s grace is this: giving is considered a privilege, a celebration of gratitude and appreciation for all He’s done for us in His Son. A third benefit of giving is that it breaks the grip of materialism on your life. Would you agree that we live in a culture that’s pretty materialistic? That in this kind of culture it’s difficult to keep your priorities in order? It’s helpful to remember that the spiritual driver of materialism is greed, the excessive, unsatisfied hunger to possess more and more and more things. The word "enough" is not in the greedy person’s vocabulary, because it’s never enough. Ecclesiastes 5:10 says, "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income." What’s the antidote? How do you keep from becoming so materialistic? There’s only one antidote to materialism - giving. Every time you give, you’re breaking the grip of materialism on your life. You’re claiming a spiritual victory, you’re making a subversive, counter-cultural move. When you’re a generous person, you’re saying, "I do not buy into the falsehood that life consists in the things I accumulate. I don’t buy into the lie that my net worth and my self worth are one and the same thing." You break through to that victory every time you are generous.
Four, giving blesses you in return. We’re all familiar with Jesus’ words, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Do we really believe that? Isn’t receiving really better? The idea that giving isn’t as good is based on the assumption that giving involves losing and receiving involves gaining. According to the Son of God, that logic is flawed. Giving does not involve losing, it ultimately involves gaining. Each time you give, be it an act of love, a gift to someone in need, a service or ministry to the cause of Christ, that gift is not a loss to you, it’s a gain. Look at what Deuteronomy 15:10 says, "Give generously and do so without a grudging heart, then because of this the Lord God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to" (also Proverbs 22:9). If you’re taking notes, please circle "all" and "everything" on your outline. God says, "Do this, give generously, and with a grace-filled heart, a joyful heart, and I will bless all your work, and everything that you do." In God’s economy, when you give you gain, when you don’t you lose. The last two points are really an expansion of this fourth one.
Fifth, giving gives you the opportunity to expand your impact for Jesus Christ. The sowing/reaping analogy in 2 Corinthians 9:6 is helpful here. Giving is like the farmer who sows seeds in the spring. His harvest, his return is proportionate to his sowing. If he sows a small amount of seed, that’s what he’ll get back, a small harvest. If he sows bountifully he’ll receive a prodigious harvest in return. It’s the same with generosity. If you give just a little bit, then what you get will be a little bit, too. But if you give abundantly, what you get will be abundant, too. Because of this, you can give with anticipation, looking forward to what God is going to do through your generosity. Speaking of how He blesses generosity, verse 10 says, "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." As you give generously, God will bless you, but His plan is not to make you financially rich, but to maximize "your harvest of righteousness," the work, the support you bring to building up the cause of Jesus Christ. With your generosity you can reach out with life-changing impact into your community, your country, and your world for your Savior and Lord.
Sixth, giving is an investment for eternity. Jesus said, "Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:20). He says you have a choice. You can store it up on earth or you can store it up in heaven. How do you invest for eternity? 1 Timothy 6:18-19 answers that question: "Use your money to do good…always being ready to share with others whatever God has given you. By doing this you will be storing up real treasure for yourselves in heaven…it is the only safe investment for eternity! And you will be living a fruitful Christian life down here as well." Let me ask you a few questions I’ve been asking myself this past week: How much of what you do with your time, talents, and treasures is spent storing up treasure on earth? How much of what you do has a lasting impact into the next generation, 50 or 100 years after you’re gone? How much of what you do has eternal significance? On the basis of God’s Word, I can tell you that the greatest thing you’ll ever do with your money is invest it in the cause of Jesus Christ, invest it in the Lord’s work. You can have lasting impact with it in this life, and store up for yourself treasure that will await you in glory.
I have three concluding remarks. First, to those of you who are parents: I want to challenge you to let your children see you give. They see you make money. They see you spend money. They see you enjoy money. But do they ever see you give your money? That’s why I encourage you, before you decide how you can participate in "A Time to Build," to have a family conference. Sit down and everybody join in. What do you want to give as a family? I think we all want our sons and daughters to learn to be generous, giving people. Second, by not being generous with our time, talents and treasures, we miss out on so many blessings that are promised to us by Christ. For example, Jesus said, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and God will leave you high and dry." Is that what He promised? No! "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Please, don’t let the evil one, or fear or doubt rob you of one more minute of God’s blessing if you haven’t chosen to give as God encourages you. Finally, being a generous person is ultimately a spiritual, not a financial issue. Giving challenges and tests and stretches and ultimately strengthens faith and hope and love, what’s in here. And that’s ultimately what God’s after, what’s in your heart, your mind, your soul. The generous life reflects the growth, the development, the maturity of our lives as followers of His Son, recipients of the greatest blessings of heaven: salvation, the life abundant and eternal that is ours in Jesus Christ.