11/6/22 2 Cor. 9:6-15 “Extravagant Generosity”

04 Nov 11/6/22 2 Cor. 9:6-15 “Extravagant Generosity”

11/6/22      2 Cor. 9:6-15          “Extravagant Generosity”

I think that one of the unfortunate things we have to live with in this broken world of ours is that we have the honor and privilege to do things that we really don’t like to do.  There are people out there that just don’t like to clean their house.  I know that there are many jobs on a cattle ranch that people just don’t like to do and I suppose the same can be said of a any ranch or farm.  I’m sure that children could tell me of some chores that they really don’t like to do.  And believe it or not, there are a couple of things that I would rather not do as a pastor.  But no matter what it is that we don’t like to do, we will do it because it helps us or others or the animals in the long run.  And I will let you in on a little secret.  Standing up here and preaching every week is one of the things that I just love to do.  I love it when the Holy Spirit grabs me and uses me.  However, there are times when I would rather not talk about certain subjects and today is one of those times.  We are going to be talking about extravagant generosity.  We are going to talk about this in some familiar terms and I hope that when we get done, you will see why you need to be doing this.

James May tells this old story of the pastor who was trying to break all records for giving in a drive to raise money for missions.  He did all the things that you would think like singing about missions and doing sermons about giving.  In addition to this he also wired all the pews to an electric current.  Then he asked people to stand if they were willing to donate at least $100 to missions.  After he asked, he hit the switch to the current and almost everyone stood up.  Let’s see now, where did I put that switch?   Notice how I said almost everyone jumped up.  There were several tight-fisted people who wouldn’t give no matter what the circumstance and would be electrocuted rather than give to the offerings.

Now I know that we don’t have any people like that amongst us today.  You people are probably very generous with your giving but I think that we all need a reminder of what, why and how we give.  There may be some people here today who will say that money is the only thing that we ever talk about.  I’m not sorry that we talk about money because money is mentioned something like 2300 times in the Bible.  Therefore, we should be talking about it because it is mentioned so much and it is also a major source of our failing to obey God’s word.

The Old Testament talks about tithing our income.  This means that you are to give 10% of your money to God.  If you think about it, all the money belongs to God in the first place so He really doesn’t ask for much.  The New Testament doesn’t mention tithing but they do talk about giving generously and giving all you can.  Personally, I think that 10% is a nice goal.  I have told you my story before where I just one day decided to give 10% of my income.  I have never regretted this and we have been richly blessed.

But this is hard for many people to do so I’m going to tell you a true story that has been repeated by people in many, many churches throughout the country.  This husband and wife were good, faithful Christians and they supported their church.  They were in their thirties and had a couple of children.  One day after their minister had preached a sermon on tithing, the husband decided to figure out just how much they gave.  He found that it was less than 2% of their income.  Just as a little sidebar here, I think we are called to tithe our time, talents and our income.  I don’t recall any place where it says you can give 2% of your income and make up the other 8% with talents and time.  We are to tithe all three of these things separately.

Anyway, the husband was a little shocked that it was so little that they were giving.  It seemed that they were always short on money as they had a mortgage payment, car payments and two children in school.  Most of us know what it is like to have many payments and little income.  He decided that he couldn’t just jump to 10%.  They would have to go gradually.  He decided that he would give half again what they were giving.  So, they increased to 3% for the next year.

This continued for several years until they got up to 7%.  They had juggled things to make this work.  One of the big things that helped them get this far was that every time they got a raise at work, they only put half of it into their bank and they gave the other half as their tithe addition.  What they found was that they could get along just fine by doing this and they weren’t really feeling any pinch.

When they got to 7%, they decided to make the big jump to 10%.  They did this rather easily as they were now used to it.  They felt very good because they had accomplished something big.  I would guess that if I went around the room today, we would find very few people who tithe.  This is a plan that you might want to follow as it has worked for many people.

When this couple started to tithe their income, they found that God was blessing them in many ways they thought were not possible.  They found that they were now cheerful givers because they had no guilt.  According to our reading, God loves a cheerful giver.  They actually found that they seemed to have more time and money than ever before.  Their family life became better.  They found that they were like the people who tithed in Malachi when God said, “And see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”  This family was truly blessed.  I know from experience that this is exactly what happens when you begin to tithe.  Try this plan.  You might like it.

Now I would like to talk about why we should give for a moment.  I think that you all realize that God doesn’t need you to give anything.  After all, He is God, He has everything and all things are possible through God, even some of our impossible churches.  The reason we are told to give is to help ourselves.  When we give then we are being obedient.  When we are obedient, then we will be blessed.

If we take a look at the people of the church at Corinth, we find a rag tag bunch.  I think that they would tend to be more on the poor side than the rich side.  They were also filled with the Holy Spirit at times.  They had problems but they were also fairly faithful.  These people helped each other when times were tough.  They gave so that they could have people like Paul come to them and preach the Word.  In other words, they were a lot like us.

I would guess that we really don’t have any rich people (listening today) in our congregations unless you are really good at hiding it and that is a whole other issue.  We are probably average church attenders with average habits.  I would never look at who gives or how much anyone gives because it is none of my business.  But I would guess that we give maybe 1-2% of our income.  We are like the family I just talked about.  I hope that you are a person who wants to tithe.  If you do, then just start out slowly.

But maybe you feel that you just can’t increase right now.  That is ok.  Or maybe you feel that your $5 a week is more than enough.  There are many reasons why people don’t tithe.  I have known in the past, church leaders who have given almost nothing to their church.  I think it is really surprising as to who gives and who doesn’t.

Whatever the reason for you not giving, it is just plain a reason, an excuse.  Most of the time you don’t have anything left over to give to God.  You pay your bills and nothing is left over.  Now I’m sure that most of you have figured out that I am a rather old fashioned, conservative, thrifty fellow.  When I cook something, I always save the leftovers and then I will eat them the next day.  I am one of the few people in the world who likes leftovers.  If they were good the first time, then I think that they are good when they are reheated.  However, many people throw away leftovers.  I have heard many reasons for this and I guess that it is ok.

Now I want you to think about what you give to God.  Do you pay all your bills and give God what is left over?  If this is what you do, then I think you are taking a chance.  Maybe God doesn’t like leftovers any better than many of us.  Maybe He would rather just throw them away.  If you were made in His image, He may feel the same way you do about leftovers.

If we are going to be obedient to God and give the way He wants us to give, then we need to change our thinking a little.  This begins by gradually giving to Christ as we have already described.  When we get there or even as we start out, we have to leave the leftover mindset behind.  We need to start to think that what we give to God, we give first.  We make God first in our lives and in our giving.  No one likes to pay bills and no one likes payments, but we all love God.  Therefore, we should make our bill payments our leftovers because we really don’t like them anyway.  I think that no matter how you look at it, giving to God first makes a lot sense.

Have you ever seen those Capital One credit card commercials?  They have many of them but I remember one from many years ago.  It was when all the monsters and bad things are chasing you or are ready to devour you and along comes the Capital One card to save you.  The monsters are your bills and forget about the Capital One card because it is Jesus Christ who will save you.  Give yourself and your money to Jesus first and He will help you with all the rest.  Let the monsters be second and have the leftovers.  It’s kind of like feeding 5000 people with next to nothing and having leftovers.

I hope that you are beginning to see a little theme here.  God doesn’t want you to give to keep a church open or to pay my salary or anything else.  He wants you to give because it is good for you.  When you start to tithe, then you will begin to realize that God is everything in the world to you.  You will realize that God made everything that you have and that you ever will have.  God only wants to keep 10% and He wants you to have the other 90%.  That is a lot better deal than what we get from our government where we give 50% and are allowed to keep the rest of our money until it gets taxed again.  God doesn’t operate like that.  He wants to bless you and bless you and bless you.

The first step to these blessings is to have Jesus in your heart.  If you don’t have Him there, then repent and ask Jesus to live in your heart forever.  It is the greatest decision you will ever make.  If He is already there, then begin the road to tithing.  This is the road to extreme blessings.  If you think you can’t afford to tithe, then I know that you can’t afford not to tithe.

One of the great blessings that I think comes from tithing and being obedient to God is our happiness.  Our Scripture tells us that God loves a cheerful giver.  I think that God also gives us many reasons to be cheerful, whether it is through giving or some other form of obedience.  I would guess that if we surveyed the tithers amongst us, we would find that they are all cheerful because they have been so richly blessed.  I know that we are richly blessed and we always tithe to the church first.

And along with tithing our money, we need to tithe our talents and time also.  This gets us off on a whole other topic.  But remember this.  When you are giving your time and talents to God, then when you get done, you feel good.  I would say that you feel great but then I’m biased a little.  God wants you to feel good.  He wants you to have a great life with all kinds of great things.  And yet we still insist that we are so much better than God.  We show this by not obeying in tithing our time, talents and money.  This is really another of the dichotomies of God.  It is hard to understand but you have to give before you receive.  It is just like our worship.  You will not get anything out of worship unless you put something into it.

James May reminds us in another old story that I have heard many times about the family who left church one Sunday morning and the dad was complaining about everything in the service.   The music was too loud and it was too modern.  He hated the songs they sang.  He didn’t like the message probably because it applied to him.  He couldn’t hear what was going on.  It was too hot.  And there was a small child who was making a fuss.  He kept on and on until they were all seated in the car and his young son piped up, “But Dad, you have to admit it wasn’t a bad show for a dollar.”

Friends and neighbors in Christ, Jesus loves you and He only wants you to obey so He can help you have the best life you can have.  Don’t ever forget this love and love Him in return. And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.