The Habit of Generosity
The Power of Spiritual Habits

Transcript

Good morning, church. It's good to see all of you here. This morning we're continuing our series entitled the Power of Spiritual Habits. We're actually in part six of a part seven series and we're going through the Christian disciplines that help us grow to be more like Jesus. That's what we've been working out.

Working out what he's working in is what the habits are about. Our theme verse is found in Ephesians 4:23-24 (NLT) 23 “Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.” And so it's the Holy Spirit at work in us. And then the spiritual habits or disciplines, practices are a way of yielding ourselves to that work.

Spiritual habits are a way of yielding to and cooperating with the Spirit's work for our sanctification. And so the habits don't change us, the Holy Spirit changes the Spirit of Christ, changes us, gives us a new heart. But the habits help us exercise or practice and yield to that work in us. Now, over the past few Sundays, we've talked about the habit of daily devotion, the habit of fellowship, the habit of service, of rest of Bible study. And now this morning we're going to talk about the habit of generosity.

The habit of generosity. Now, what is generosity? It's the virtue of giving from your heart and giving plentifully, to give joyfully. It's foremost, first and foremost, a disposition of the heart, a willingness to be a giver. It's an essential characteristic of Christ followers.

Giving generously is a way of life for believers. It's a mark of what it means to be a believer. Now, speaking of generosity, we're at the six month point of our It's Time generosity initiative. We went through the book of Haggai earlier this year and then the month of March. We made an over and above commitment as a church to give over and above our normal tithe and over and above our normal giving in order to accomplish three goals.

And we set these goals up based on what we learned in Haggai. And it was to be strong, do the work, be fearless. We wanted to be strong in our community engagement. We wanted to do the work of expanding our ministry cap with more staff and more volunteers. And we wanted to be fearless in taking hold of an opportunity to acquire a new property for our Rocky Mount campus.

So how are we doing? Can I give you an update? So first of all, engaging the community. Now that calls for resources. It costs money to make sure that new residents know that we're here for people to know about us, you have to get the word out.

And so because of your faithful generosity, your God enabled generosity, let me just give you a quick update. One is I'm hearing over and over again, first timers every Sunday coming to me and saying, hey, I just moved here from New Jersey, I just moved here from California, I just moved here from Pennsylvania. Fill in the blank. I met somebody last week who just moved here from Florida, but they were actually from New Jersey. And we had a little conversation about that.

I said, I think we call you halfbacks. That's where you leave the north, go to the south, fall half back to North Carolina. And I said, how'd you hear about it? Well, I got it. You sent me a card.

And I said, I did. Yeah, it was a new resident card. And so we're sending out new resident cards. And every week I'm hearing that. But even more so, I'm hearing people saying, I saw you on Facebook, I saw a video, I saw an invite, and then somebody started talking to me.

And we're seeing so many guests, it's unbelievable. Our Rocky mount campus saw 20 guests last week and it's just overwhelming. Now that's impressive, right? It's a cool thing that our community engagement is causing people to come. But may I say to you what's even more important, more important, most important, the people that are new, that are coming are the ones that are praying to receive Jesus.

They're the ones who fill out connection cards and make appointments to say, hey, I need to know more about how to follow Jesus. I want to be baptized, I want to be a Christ follower. And that's made possible. That's the fruit of your faithful God given generosity. I'm thankful for you being able to do that.

Give above and giving above and beyond that way. So our community engagement. Can I give you a really cool community engagement update? We just bought a billboard in Rocky Mount, just got put up. It's on Bethlehem Road.

This is, we're trying to really work on our Rocky Mount campus right now, letting people know we've got a new building and it's right down from Rocky Mount High School. So some of you, I know what you're going to do on your Sunday drive today you're going to drive on Bethlehem Road in Rocky Mount and have your photo made in front of our billboard and if you do put it on Facebook and you'll help us. And why are we doing this is because we don't want to make ourselves famous in eastern North Carolina. We want to make Jesus famous in eastern North Carolina. We want to make it hard to go to hell east of 95, because we're telling people about Jesus, right?

We want to saturate our cities with the gospel, but it requires resources. Thank you, thank you for your generosity. A couple of other items I'll mention to you is as you know, I've already announced last month we hired a children's director, Michelle Minter. She's working faithfully, she's doing a great job. We're so excited and we're looking at hiring someone new for Rocky Mount.

So we're in the process right now of interviewing some people. And so anyway, exciting things to be announced soon to come. And then you heard in the announcements, if you were here earlier and you were watching the video beforehand. This coming Saturday, we celebrate our 10th anniversary in Rocky Mount. And so Wilson’s church is 33 plus years old.

Our Rocky Mount campus is celebrating 10 years. Next Sunday we're gonna have lunch and a special presentation. God is good, but it's our generosity. God given generosity that he was generous to us and he's made it possible for us to be generous back to our community, back to others. It's all from the Lord.

That's what we're talking about today. But I thought it would be important to give you a six month check in update. If you want to know more about It's Time, go to our website. If you're a new attender, a new member, go to our website and look at that. And it's not too late to get on the It's Time team and help us.

But you know, the truth is we live in a culture today where generosity is not the mark. We care more in our culture today about getting than giving. And really the mark of our culture today, if you look at the culture, we're worried about inflation, we're worried about joblessness, we're worried about making ends meet.

We have more month than we do money, right? And so that's often what we're worried about. And even as believers, we often struggle with a mindset of scarcity. We think we have limited resources, which means we have to hang on to what we have and we have to be miserly. But here's the truth.

Misers are miserable, but givers are glad. And so we got to go against the culture. Because the truth is for a believer, for a believer, we're to have a mindset not of scarcity, but of abundance. Because as followers of Jesus, all that he has, we are now co inheritors with him he has the cattle on a thousand hills. He is the owner of all the earth and the people thereof.

And so we have this available to us. So when God calls us to be generous, we don't have to draw just on our pocketbooks or wallets. We can draw on the heavenly account. This is what Paul's talking about in Second Corinthians. In the Apostle Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, he urged them to excel in the grace of giving.

He pointed to the Macedonian churches, who, though they were poor and afflicted, they gave generously beyond their means. And he reminded them also of Christ's supreme example of generosity. And he challenged them to be generous, too. I believe today that we can hear this word of God today, and we can cultivate a habit of generosity. And as we look at the text, I think we'll see four practices that will help us do that, that'll help us grow more like the Lord and more in the Lord in the practice of generosity.

The habit of generosity. Let's look. Chapter 8, verses 1 through 9. Let's read God's Word together. 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 (ESV) 1 “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia,

2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favo] of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.

8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” This is God's word. Amen. We're looking for four practices for cultivating the habit of generosity.

1. Rely on God’s grace to enable joyful generosity.

Rely on God's grace to enable joyful generosity. We can do this. We can rely on God's grace to enable our joyful generosity. Now, make no mistake.

This is based on God's grace. The truth of the matter is. Here's the bad news. We're not generous. We're selfish.

We're all born that way. All you have to do is have children and watch them go. Mine. That's mine. They want their way.

But this is how we are. We want our way. My way. My stuff, my… And that's really the attitude of sin, isn't it?

That's the bad news. We're all like that. We're all born that way. Here's the good news. Jesus came.

He left heaven. He left the wealth of heaven and became one of us. He became poor so that we might become rich. This is the grace of God. Notice how it starts.

1 “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God…” You see that verse one? That's where we're starting. We're just going to go verse by verse and unpack this. We want you to know something.

The word know has the idea not just of intellectual knowledge, but experiential knowledge. We want you to really know the grace of God. What is the grace of God? It's the unmerited favor of God most clearly seen in the gift of His Son, Jesus. For God so loved the world that He.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting. That's God's grace. God's grace is Jesus. That's the picture of his grace, the gift of Jesus. We want you to know that, brothers.

We want you to know it, not just intellectually. We want you to know it spiritually, experientially. And here's what I want you to know now. Specifically about those churches up in Macedonia who have received this grace and what it has done to them. Look what it's done 2 “for in a severe test of affliction…”

What's this affliction he's talking about? Well, Macedonia. What is that? That's that area of where all those great warriors that you watch in movies, like the movie the 300 where they were fighting at Thermopylae and holding their ground against the Persians. Tough group of people.

But they started coming to Christ when Paul came through with his partner Silas and preaching, and he preached in these kinds of cities. And you'll recognize these names. Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea. Those are the Macedonian churches. They're afflicted in two ways.

One, economically, it's an economic downturn. Does that sound familiar to some of you? You might be going through a time of joblessness or a time where you're getting hit hard financially or something. And they were going through a season like that of economic affliction. But not only that, they were being persecuted because they were new believers.

And that, that's the area that Paul and Silas got beaten publicly and put in jail up there in Philippi. Of course, by the way, while they were in the Philippi prison, the Philippian prison, they led the jailer and his whole family to the Lord. So everywhere they went, they were sharing the gospel. But that area was afflicted. You with me? That's Macedonian churches, they're afflicted.

But now, of course, they're not going to give. They don't have much. They're being persecuted, they're not going to give, right? Wrong. Here's what he says.

2 “for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity…” What in the world happened in Macedonia? It's like they turned the hot and the cold water on at the same time. They turned on affliction, they turned on joy and, and out came generosity. It's like it overflowed.

How does that work? How does that happen? That's what happened there. It's by the grace of God. You know what I've noticed?

Often it's not the wealthiest people that are the most generous. It's often the people who have gone through the school of hard knocks and they remember what it felt like. And so here's the Church of Macedonia, the churches of Macedonia, they heard about the famine in Jerusalem and Paul coming through, making a collection for the Jerusalem saints who are starving. And they were like, isn't that where the apostles, isn't that where Jesus, hey, those are the founders of our faith. Hey, we want to give to that.

And Paul's coming up in there going, it's okay, y' all don't have to give. I'm going down to those wealthy people in Corinth and they're like, no, we want to give. We've been afflicted. We know what it feels like. And we're still being afflicted.

But you know what? The joy of the Lord is in us. And it made us givers. And I found this to be true among you. And among us, it's not the wealthiest among us, it's not the ones who drive in the nicest cars.

It's those middle class people, those, those blue collar, hard working people. Often it's those people that don't have all that much, but they have a heart that's been changed by Jesus, and it mixes together and out comes generosity. The habit of generosity begins with setting our hopes on God's account in heaven rather than worldly wealth. Rather than looking at your bank account, you look at God's bank account and you say, if he's calling me to do it, the answer is yes. That's generosity.

In first Timothy, it says this. 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (ESV) 17 “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” Here's what he's saying. He goes, open your hand to God and receive his grace, and let him change your heart and let him meet your needs. But don't dam it up down the line.

You know, stop shaking your fist at God, open your hand to God, and then if you want it to really flow to you and through you, you got to open. You got to open it up downstream, right? You got to be a giver. You have to be generous so God can trust you. Here's what I want you to know about God.

He cares more about your attitude than he does the amount. He cares more about the attitude of your heart than the amount of your gift. Notice what he says in 2 Corinthians 9:7 (ESV) “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

I like the word cheerful in the Greek. It's hilaros. Hilaros. It's where we get the word hilarious. Give till it cracks you up.

He says, God loves that. God loves that. And so give with a joyful heart. There are two great bodies of water in the country of Israel, and I've been to both of these, and some of you have gone with me on these trips that we've taken to Israel. The big, beautiful body of water that's in the north is the Sea of Galilee, and it has many inlets.

The primary one comes down from Mount Hermon, where the snow melts and waters, just like rapids, rush into the Sea of Galilee. And it's surrounded by lush vegetation and filled with fish and life. The Sea of Galilee is beautiful. And it has this one major outlet that goes south out of the Sea of Galilee called the River Jordan. And then it flows into another large body of water which is really at least two to three times bigger than the Sea of Galilee.

It's the largest body of water in Israel. It's called the Dead Sea. It has all this water flowing into it just like the Sea of Galilee. But it's dead. It's big.

It's dead. Why? There's no outlet. There's no outlet. There's no water flowing out of the Dead Sea.

You see, you can dam it up upstream and you can say no to God and you can live a life of scarcity and depend on yourself. You can open your hand to God and then dam it up downstream. And then that just shows you aren't really dependent on God because God's generous to you and he gives you a new heart to be generous to others. And not just a heart that's just doing it out of duty, but does it with joy. Generosity isn't what is in your wallet.

It isn't what is in your wallet. It's about. It's about what's in your heart. Generosity doesn't wait for abundance. If you wait for abundance, you'll never give.

It overflows even in affliction, because Christ is your wellspring, you've got a source. If we wait until we're financially ready, we'll never be generous. So let's rely on God's grace. Grace fueled generosity means being a river, not a reservoir. Being a river and letting it flow.

2. Draw on God’s grace to supply surprising generosity.

Draw on God's grace to supply surprising generosity. We've talked about joyful generosity that comes from the heart. We're going to look at verses three through five now.

We're going to talk about surprising generosity and how we can draw on God's grace. Grace so that we give, so that it blows other people away, that we give in amazing unexpected ways. Look at verse 5 and notice how Paul and the others and his team go. They gave not as we expected. See that?

See the word not as. They didn't expect those Macedonians to give like that. They knew that they were economically disadvantaged. They knew. They knew they were being persecuted by the surrounding people groups.

They were brand new churches and they got up in there and they thought, we're probably not going to take a collection up here. We won't get much out of it. Let's not make them feel bad. Okay, that's probably what they were thinking. But then look what happens here.

Look at verse three through five. 3 “For they gave according to their means,” So they had a little something they could give. That makes sense. Okay, they could give a little bit.

But they didn't stop there, as I can testify, Paul says, 3 “...and beyond their means, of their own accord,” That word beyond in the Greek is the word huper. That's where we get the word hyper. Does anybody know what hyper means?

Does anybody have a three year old? That's what hyper is. It's where we get the word super. And here's what Paul says. You know, we didn't really want to even tell them about it because we don't want them to feel bad.

But they were like, they asked us for the favor. Did you see that? 4 “begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.” They asked us in verse four. No, they didn't just ask us, “begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the…” Can we please, pretty please, please, can we be part of the donation you're taking to the Jerusalem Saints?

Because we know what it feels like to be hungry, to be hurting.

Can you give us the favor? And then they gave super abundantly beyond their means. How were they able to do this? Because they had their hands and their hearts wide open to the grace of God, and God called them to do it. And, and whom he calls, he also qualifies.

Whom he sends, he also supplies. And so they depended on him and they were able to give beyond their means. It was surprising generosity. And they gave above and beyond, over and above their means to the relief of the saints that were hungry due to the famine in Jerusalem.

Verse 5, “and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.”
Oh, now it makes sense. It was easy.

Now I get it. They'd already given their pocketbooks. They'd already given all that they had to the Lord. They'd already given everything they were and everything they had to the Lord. It was easy because now God's given me everything and I've given it all back to him.

And he says, hey, I want you to send some over there. And they go, where? Over there. Okay, okay, okay. Because I know it's coming from you.

And so now I can be generous because you're so generous to me and I've already given my whole life to you, so I don't have to sit here and be worried about it. They gave themselves first to the Lord. Have you done that? Have you surrendered your whole life to the Lord? Who you are, your identity, your stuff, your family, your house, your car, your school, where you go, your class, your job.

Have you given yourself first to the Lord? He goes, we were amazed by them. It was so unexpected how they gave. And not only that, then by the will of God, they gave themselves to us. They gave themselves fully to us.

Paul, y' all need anything? I know y' all have traveled up in here, probably cost you a lot. You had to pay for the ship's fare to move from Troas over to Philippi and. And can we send you on ahead to Thessalonica? Here's a little extra.

Here's a little extra. Here's for the Jerusalem saints, but I know you guys need some. That's those churches in Macedonia, man, they're so generous, that's what he's saying. And it was God that made it possible.

It surprised them. It was unexpected. There's a story in the book of Mark, chapter 12, where the disciples are with Jesus and he's sitting in the outer courts, the court of the Gentiles, in the temple, in the court of the Gentiles. And in that area, they were these, these treasury boxes, these temple boxes where they would collect offerings as people would come in at all the different gates. And it's kind of like a figure, see a big box, and at the top was this trumpet shaped brass piece that opened up big at the top and went narrow that way.

You can't stick your hand in there and take the coins out, right? And it had a lock on the side. You had to open that. The priest would take the money out. That's how people would give offerings.

And he saw a rich man come in and they would come in, they pull their money out of the pouch and they throw it in that horn, that big horn shape, and it would ring all over the place down in the hole in the box. And the disciples were probably turning to each other and going, man, that guy's wealthy. Did you see how much money he put in there? I bet God loves him, man. Jesus was just sitting there quietly.

And then this widow woman comes up and she makes sure nobody's watching. One person was watching. She gets in her little pouch and she has to dig around, she keeps pulling out lint. She finds two little coins, the smallest denomination of the Roman Empire.

She tried to lay it in there so it would slide in instead of ring. Here's what Jesus said to his disciples when that happened. He called them around. Mark 12:43-44 (ESV) “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance,

but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” There's a couple amazing things I want you to get out of this. First of all, Jesus watches your giving. He watches, he notices your generosity. He's watching.

God is watching. Another thing I want you to know. He cares more about the attitude of your heart than he does the amount of your gift.

It's not how loud it rings, it's how much it demonstrates your heart change. Have you ever been surprised by someone's generosity? An anonymous gift, a meal paid for that you didn't expect, a check arrived just in time at the last minute when it was needed. This is the kind of spirit led generosity that Paul's describing. I would say, first of all, ask yourselves, have you given yourselves fully to the Lord?

When he has my heart, he has my hands. When he has my willingness, he has my wallet.

This week, why don't you try some generosity? Just put it on for just kind of putting some generosity on. If he's working it in you, why not? If he's putting it in, why don't you put it on? Try some things.

Why don't you call somebody just to say hello, not to ask them for something, not to just say hello. Just give them the gift of your presence. Why don't you tip somebody like you've never tipped before. Like blowing the waiter or waitress away. Like they stumble and drop their drinks after they pick up the tip.

Give an unexpected gift. Compliment someone who least expects it. Smile generously, make someone's day. Be happy for someone else's success. You're at your best when you're generous.

Why not be crazy generous? Why not be joyfully generous? Why not be surprising, unexpectedly generous? Because God is generous to us and it shows that we are in Christ. That's the second practice that we can pursue and cultivate the habit of generosity in us.

We can draw on God's grace. And even when we are in a season of lack, we go, not really. I'm never going to be in a mindset of scarcity because I don't draw on an earthly account, I draw on a heavenly account. Here's number three. Here's the third practice.

3. Let God’s grace move you to pursue generosity.

Let God's grace move you to pursue generosity. Let God's grace move you to pursue generosity. We're at verses six and seven now, okay? We're working through it verse by verse. Verse 6 and 7 accordingly.

Okay, he switched topics a little bit now. Not topics, but at least he's talking directly to the Corinthians more. So now he was describing the Macedonian churches, and now he's going to apply it to the Corinthian churches. “Accordingly,” he says in verse six, “we urged Titus..” and they know Titus. Titus had been there the previous year telling them about the Jerusalem famine and that we were, hey, we're going to swing back by here later and pick up an offering.

So y' all work on getting it together. We need to support Jerusalem. They're in trouble. And so they've known for a year. You read the rest of the letter and find that out.

It's in. It's in the rest of the letter to Second Corinthians. He goes, we urged Titus, so he sent Titus on ahead so he could complete among you this act of grace, this grace of giving. Titus has come. He's going to come ahead.

Now, why is he doing that? It's because he's going to bring some of those Macedonians with him, and he's been bragging on the church at Corinth, and he doesn't want the church of Corinth to make him look bad, and he doesn't want them to feel bad because he's been going, those Corinthians, now, they excel in everything. It's going to be a great gift. But the more he thought about, about, he thought, I don't know. These Macedonians have blown me away with their generosity.

I don't know if that bunch of rich people down in Corinth really get what it means to live through a famine, you know? And so he was worried about it, so he sent Titus on ahead. Y' all with me? Are you staying with me here? I'm giving you a warning.

And then he gives them this charge, and this is really the central kind of, I guess, command language, if you will. It's not quite a command language, but it almost is. He goes, 7 “But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you,” You got all these things.

See that? Here's the command part, or at least a strong urge. See that you excel in this act of grace. Also see that you excel in generosity and giving. Also, you're good at faith, you're good at speech, you're good at knowledge, you're good at earnestness, which is the idea of enthusiasm.

You have love, but you're kind of lacking in generosity.

And that's one of the proofs, if you will, of Christ in you. Because, for God so loved the world that he, you know. And when you have the gift of God, which is Jesus, and you have the grace of God, which is unmerited favor in Jesus, and he lives in you, and he's being fully formed in you, so that the life of Christ is now the life you live, generosity becomes one of the marks of your character. He goes, you need to pursue this. You need to grow in excellence in this church of Corinth.

You're wealthy. Now, you might not feel wealthy. Those Corinthians are wealthy. But when it comes to the world, Americans are the most wealthy in the world. I've been all over the world, and I've never seen the kind of poverty that I've seen in those other places in the world.

Even the most impoverished areas of the US don't compare to what I've seen in Uganda or in other places. I've been to Indonesia or other places. I've been in Mexico or in places I've been to in Guatemala, and I've been to a lot of places. And it's hard when you leave to see how much wealth we have here and how unaware we are. He says, let's pursue generosity.

See that you excel in this grace. You know, there's a story over in the Book of Exodus where they were getting ready to build the tabernacle, and God had given Moses the blueprint. He'd gone up on Mount Sinai and he'd given him the blueprint. And Moses comes down and he's going to build the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. And he needed some resources.

And so it says this in Exodus, chapter 35, verse 5, Exodus 35:5 (ESV) “Take from among you (this is Moses talking to the people) a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, (because, see, God doesn't want a bunch of tight people. He wants a generous heart gift)

let him bring the Lord's contribution… Then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service.” And so their hearts were stirred. They were feeling generous.

It was coming from their heart. And the story goes on, when you get to chapter 37, the book of Exodus, some of the workers that were running the building of this thing came back to Moses. And you got to tell the people to stop giving that's a real problem. It's stacking up out back. We'll never use all the resources they're bringing.

The people are just like, here's some more, and they're bringing him more. And because they're so fired up that God stirred their hearts and that they're God's people, and they're so excited, and Moses had to tell them to stop, Hey, y', all, hold up. We got enough. You know, if God's people are generous, if their hearts are stirred and they're full of Jesus, they'll be more than enough.

They'll be hyper super enough. When God's people are living according to God's grace, how do we pursue this? He says,
you should be excellent in this, just like you are on your doctrine and your public speaking and your other things. You're good at those things. Church at Corinth, you guys are highly educated, know what you're doing.

You got a great church. But you could really grow at giving. How could you do that? Well, one is you could look at some of the Old Testament laws and apply them as principles. In the New Testament, we don't live under law anymore.

We live under grace. But the Old Testament is still very useful to inform us. One is the tithe, which means one tenth. That's a good practice to start with. It's a good benchmark for generosity.

And so you could start with the tithe, giving a tenth of your income. The Old Testament talks about other kinds of offerings. Freewill offerings, first fruit offerings, these kinds of things. So look at these as principles, and look at them as the Old Testament saints were blessed. But how much more are we blessed in the New Testament?

And so I don't see that it would be less than what the Old Testament saints did. I think it would be superabundantly more. Our generosity would be marked because we have Jesus. Let me give you a couple of thoughts about the tithe. One is, it shows when you give back 10% to God.

You're saying to him, I already know you own 100%, and by faith, I give you 10% to show that I believe that. That's from
Leviticus 27:30 (NIV) “‘A tithe of everything… belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.”
It's special to the Lord. And so if you haven't started tithing, maybe you're a new believer.

And maybe you got yourself in such a financial wreck that if you tried to tithe, you wouldn't eat this month. Okay, God knows that he cares more about the attitude of your heart than he does the amount of your gift. Start where you can. Don't do nothing. Do something and say, God help me to get to where I can grow in the excellence of generosity.

Start with 1% and then grow it. And here's what will happen. As you give, you'll grow in the generosity of letting it flow, living the life of the open hand. Not like this, the open hand. You'll grow.

You'll grow in generosity. You can start with tithing. Give first fruits. You know, tithing is the one place in the scripture where he promises to test him. He says, Malachi 3:10 (ESV) “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”
He says, you know what?

Test me in this. Just go ahead and try to outgive God. Go ahead and try. You can give me the test. First fruits is just the idea of giving him the first portion.

And it says in
Proverbs 3:9 (ESV) “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce.”
And so it's to give him your first portion. It's to give him your first and your best. Because if you wait till the end of the month, you'll run out of money before you run out of month. But so it's better to be generous with first portions.

It shows that you're putting God first. Remember, God calls us to be a river, not a reservoir. Here's number four. We've gone through three practices.

We've talked about joyful generosity. We've talked about pursuing generosity. We've talked about surprising generosity.

4. Look to God’s grace in Christ for genuine generosity.

Genuine generosity. Verses 8 and 9. That's where we are. 8 “I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.” Hey, we're in the New Testament.

And besides, if he has to make us do it, if he has to command us to do it, it's not generosity. It's a tax. Has anybody here given the IRS a tip? You know, like when you're writing that check to the IRS. You know what, D.C.?

I feel like up there, y' all have done such a good job this year. I'm not only going to give you the amount that I owe you, I'm going to give you a little extra out of the generosity. Can I see a show of hands? How many people? Nobody.

You know why? Because you've been commanded, you've been taxed. That's not generosity, that's a tax.

But God has given you freely, he's given you all the best of heaven when he gave you Jesus. And then when he gives you Jesus and you receive him freely, then you have all that there is because you become coheirs with Christ. And out of that should flow a new heart as Christ is fully formed in us, so that we're generous and it's not a tax, it's a privilege. Do me a favor and let me give. That's what the Macedonians say.

And that's what it starts looking like when we have this genuine generosity. He says, I'm not commanding you, telling you this to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. You know what generosity is? It's a test. It's a proof of whether or not Christ is formed in you and his influence is growing and changing your character.

That word prove is the same word that you would use if you brought gold to someone to test it and they would heat it up and test to see if it's genuine silver or gold or some other metal. And they prove it and they say, well it's 30 proof or 50 proof or whatever it is, right? And he's saying, you know what, I'm not saying this to command you. I'm saying this to show that the genuine love and generosity of God is really in you. And by the way, can I remind you what that looks like? Verse 9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

That's it boy. That's it right there, isn't it? Jesus says in Matthew 10:8 (NKJV) “Freely you have received, freely give.”

He's the example. But we can't live up to his example. You see, that's the gospel. The gospel says, here is what holiness and righteousness looks like.

And we go, yeah, but I can't do that. Well, that's the bad news. I can't do that because I'm selfish or I don't have enough. If I let go of this, I won't have enough. That's the bad news.

I can't do it. That's the bad news. But the gospel's good news. Well Gary, how's it good news? Jesus did it for you.

He's the generous one. He's God's grace incarnate. He's God's grace, he's God's generosity in the flesh. And when he came and died for us, he took our death, he took our sin, he took our separation from the Father, saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

It's the great exchange. He says, if you'll take me freely receive me, I'll take your death, I'll take your sin, I'll take your separation from the Father, and I'll give you my eternal life, my righteousness and my sonship so that you're adopted into God's very family. That's the gospel, that's the good news. You can't be generous. I'm sorry.

I just spent 40 minutes plus telling you to be generous. You can't do it. I'm sorry. But Jesus in you can do it. And he can do all things.

And we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. It's the proof that the one who left heaven and came and became impoverished, that we might be rich. It's proof that now he lives in me and you. That's how we know he's there, is that we have the habit and the character trait of generosity.

Do you know him today? Have you given your life first to him? Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that we can study your word.

And more than that, we can have it applied to our hearts by your spirit. I pray for that person that's here this morning. You've never surrendered. You've never released control of your life and said, I'm selfish, I'm a sinner, I'm broken, I'm hurting, I'm a mess. You've never admitted it to God.

You've been hanging on. But it's time to let go and say, God, forgive me, I'm a sinner. I believe Christ died on the cross for my sins, that he was raised from the grave, that he lives today. I believe that. Come and live in me by your spirit.

Forgive me of my sins.

Adopt me into your family. Give me eternal life and give me this new heart, this new generous heart. Others are here and you've done that. You've given your life to Jesus, but today you've been struggling with a mindset of scarcity, a mindset of lack. You've been doubting God's provision today.

Would you just bring that to the Lord? You're a believer, you're a follower. But you would admit today I want to grow in this excellence of generosity. Lord, help me to trust you to provide for me so that I might give and live generously. In Jesus’ name, amen.