Grace Generates Generosity Example 1 Macedonia Example 2 Christ Example 3 St. John

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Nora Johns
5 years ago
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1 Grace Generates Generosity Example 1 Macedonia Example 2 Christ Example 3 St. John To find something in this world that is sustainable forever is impossible. People say that our oil supply will one day dry up, and that means no more driving cars run by gas. People say our coal supply will run out one day. That means no more power from coal plants. Sadly there have not been many advancements, if any, in the field of sustainable and universal energy. Coal can generate power, just not cleanly and efficiently in cars. Gas can generate heat, just it isn t very stable. So you can see that the two indeed can generate what the other does, but not in a sustainable way. God s grace however is endless, boundless, and eternal. God shows us today in His Word that His Grace Generates an endless supply of Generosity. Paul today in our lesson uses another congregation as his first example. Paul tells us that the Macedonian church, which compelled by God s grace, generated unbelievable generosity. Jesus also gives us examples of his generosity throughout scripture as well. How he, like today in our Gospel lesson, could have walked away and said, wish I would have gotten here sooner. But instead his boundless grace generated unbelievable generosity in raising Jairus daughter from the dead. Finally, we can take a look at ourselves individually as well as collectively here at St. John and realize how God s grace over the last 140 plus years has generated unbelievable generosity. Our lesson about Grace generating generosity begins with our first example from Macedonia: And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. We always talk about grace being something that is undeserved. Often we make the direct connection with our salvation, but rarely do we talk about the blessings

2 we receive in our life, whether our paycheck, roof over our head, or clothes on our back as a result of God s grace. Paul shows us though that God s undeserved love, lavished on his children is grace in blessings. Your possessions are a result of God s grace! Paul then points out a very interesting truth in verse two. Our perception, and our contentment with what we have been blessed with, dictates our giving. Notice that the Macedonian church was described by Paul as existing in extreme poverty, but yet in the same breath are described as generous. The only way that extreme poverty can translate into generosity is by God s grace. The Church in Macedonia looked at their situation and they perceived what they had as a blessing from God. Talk about being optimistic! Maybe it s the American in me, but for some reason I can t see many 21 st century Americans acting like this. Yet in Macedonia, they were content with what God gave them, and even in their extreme poverty they gave generously. Quick point. In their generosity, they probably still gave less than most other churches, but still, it wasn t a numbers game or a specific amount that they gave, but it was their attitude towards giving as well as their outlook at their opportunity to give. Notice in verse four, the Macedonians viewed their opportunity to give as a privilege. There is an evident joy in their giving! Something else that strikes me. They are in Macedonia. That is a long ways from Jerusalem. What spurred them on though was this privilege. The privilege to share in this service. I have to be honest with you; there is an amount of shame that fills my heart when I hear the Macedonians looked at their opportunity to support others in need as a privilege. I know there are times when I give because I am compelled to do so. I don t always look at the offering envelope as a privilege but at times I sadly look at the opportunity as a burden. How many times to I look at the hundreds of dollars that I give to church and say to myself, boy I could do a bunch of cool things with that money! Yet with that one statement I am running away from my privilege that God gave me to support his ministry with compulsion. We all need to remember that it is a privilege to be part of the family of God. It s not a right. We didn t earn it, Jesus did. We don t keep all of the laws and rules,

3 Jesus did. We can t even resist Satan all of the time, but Jesus did. Because of Jesus perfect life, avoiding and fighting all temptation, resisting Satan, and then paying the ultimate price for Sin up on the Cross, by his grace, his undeserved love for us, he has given us the privilege to be his children; to have our names written in the book of life. God s grace generated generosity in Macedonia, and Jesus also puts on display how his love, his grace generates generosity in his actions. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. When Paul asks the Corinthians to test their sincerity, he does so with the only motivation there is, and that is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every ounce of our giving abilities and every motivation to give and every joy we experience in giving comes from Christ. As we can see from verse 9, Christ had it all! He is the Son of God, dwelling in the majesty of heaven. Yet even though all of that was true of Jesus, for you and for me, Jesus became poor. If it wasn t enough for Jesus to vacate heaven for 33 years, he bound himself to the frail human body for 33 years. He experienced all of the temptations that weak flesh experiences and he dealt with the effects of sin all around him for his entire life. He became poor. Maybe not in the same sense that we normally think of poorness. What is poor? According to our nation the poorest people here would be the richest people in a 3 rd world country. In contrast to the riches of heaven though, Jesus became poor. Homeless. Broken, beaten and killed. He did all of this so we might become rich. Not as the world defines rich, but as Jesus defines rich. If I were to ask most any person if they would like to become rich, almost everyone would say, yes please! Why though? Why does one want to gain riches of this world? I guess we could blame it on the society we live in, but it goes much deeper than that. The answer we are looking for is in our sinful nature. Our sinful nature tells us and shows us that it is our money that generates generosity. That isn t at all true. As we saw with the Macedonians, you don t have to have much to be generous. What you do need is Jesus, and a firm understanding of his love for

4 all his children. And sadly that s where we as Christians come up short. All of us groan and complain when we can t get what we want. We look at how the Lord provides for our needs and we don t want that, we want what we want. Then there is Jesus who, even though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. So honestly who really cares about becoming rich in this world?!? What truly matters is our eternal home. Remember this is the same letter where Paul has talked about the earthly tent and how we need not fear the temporary but we should look at the unseen things of this world and find hope in those things we cannot see. The true riches, something beyond our experiences and our knowledge awaits us in heaven because of Jesus. Jesus shows us that because of his selfless acts of grace in living and dying for us, we are rich! God s grace generates for every Christian and endless supply of generosity. So what does that mean for us here at St. John today? I think the first thing all of us need to do is take a look around us. Look at the walls, the stained glass windows, the woodwork on the pulpit, the altar of God, the sub altar, the baptismal font, and after the sermon use your ears and listen to the authentic sounds of a real pipe organ. Then after church, look at the school building on Clay St. Look at the old school building on Hwy 96. All of these material things that many of your grandparents and great grandparents put into this church were generated by God s grace. It was generated by God s grace and the Christian understanding of how gracious the Lord is to all of us. It may seem like we are in tough times now. More people are concerned about what may happen in the next generation. People are worried. People are scared. Not knowing, even remotely, what might happen frightens people. Jesus in our gospel lesson put s that fear to rest. He is in control of all things. He watches over everything. We don t need to be afraid. Paul understands that life isn t just one constant upslope of income and success by Christians. There are times when hardship will come and we won t be able to do everything we may want to do.

5 13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality. So notice what Paul says to us today. He doesn t tell us to give more for the sake of giving more. He doesn t motivate us with fear or the punishment of Hell. What Paul does, is he uses and wonderful example of Macedonia, motivated by the Gospel which gave generously, not a huge amount of money, but generous none the less because it was given from their hearts as a privilege to support the work of God. This is our motivation here at St. John. We are motivated by the Gospel. Not to give everything we have, but to look at what the Lord has blessed us with in our Life and motivated by the gospel, watch how God s grace generates generosity out of support for the Holy Ministry. AMEN

1. [Intro] 2. [A] 3. [A]

1. [Intro] 2. [A] 3. [A] 1. [Intro] We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill 2. [A] 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 ¹Now about the collection for the Lord s people: Do what I told the Galatian