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The Message for Dec 13, 2015Extravagant Generosity2 Corinthians 9:6-15Rob Miller, Pastor

Today we wrap up our five-week worship series on the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations based on Bishop Robert Schanse book by the same title. These five practices include:

Radical Hospitality

Passionate Worship

Intentional Faith Development

Risk-taking Mission and Service

And today’s topic -- Extravagant Generosity You can check out the video message of the past four weeks on our church webpage.

Prayer…

I want to show you a picture of extravagant generosity… Here is it…

(Picture of MGB on screens)

It’s probably not what you expected. So let me explain… About 7 years ago when we were living in Pennsylvania, I received a call from Lyle Larson, a friend of mine living in Massachusetts. A mutual friend of ours named John McHuge was trying to get in touch with me.

John knew I like cars – especially older cars. And since he was getting older and knowing that his time in this world was coming to an end. He had this 1980 MGB that he wanted me to have. So I called John. We agreed on a price -- $2,000.

Now I had a problem – two problems actually. I didn’t have $2000 for that car and the car was in Massachusetts. I lived 7 hours away in Pennsylvania. How do we get the car from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania?

Another friend of mine named, John Plummer, who lives in Pennsylvania, was also into cars. He had a pickup truck and was willing to let me borrow his truck to go get the MGB. Now, I needed a trailer.

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The next day at church another friend, Ron Pohronezny, was telling me about an aluminum trailer for hauling car he had just bought that week. He was into old cars too. I asked if I could borrow his trailer. “Sure!” He said, “When do you need it?”

I had a truck. I had a trailer. So I called John in Massachusetts and we made arrangements for Simon and me to go get the car.

When I called John the night before to make sure that everything was okay for us to come the next day, John told me he had changed his mind about the price… Oh no… He said it was no longer going to be $2000 -- no the new price was $1. John wanted me to have that car. He said, “I know you will take good care of it. I want you to have it!”

When Edith Grumbine a faithful servant in the last church I served, heard how much I paid for that car, calling it a gift of grace… Edith gave me a dollar to pay for that car so that it would truly be a gift of grace.

I became the steward of that car – not the owner. It’s a gracious gift, that’s why I call that car Gracie.

Over the years I’ve probably put somewhere around $5000 into it. I rebuilt the engine, new brakes, new top, new driver’s seat, a few other odds and ends… I love doing that stuff.

I also love driving that car because when I do I have a smile on my face. It’s not just a 1980 MGB… It’s a gift of extravagant generosity in so many ways. Gracie represents the extravagant generosity that was shared with me and I will never forget it or the people who made it possible.

Our lives are changed for good when extravagant generosity is involved -- whether we are the recipient or the giver of that generosity.

Some of you may have a different thought when it comes to “extravagant generosity.” The economy stinks. My net worth has shrunk. I don’t have discretionary income. Nobody ever gave me a car like that for a dollar. I can’t pay my bills as it is. I’m looking for work. Extravagant generosity – you got to be kidding.

Life is tough right now for a lot of people, most of us are less off financially today than we were a couple years ago. People are frightened,

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scared, worried, and angry. I get that. We are no longer living in a stable world.

However – there is one thing I’ve learned over the years -- generosity has more to do with a person’s heart and what they value than it does with what is in a person’s bank account. Generosity is an attitude - an attitude reflected in one’s lifestyle.

Truth is - I’ve never met people who were more generous than I have here in Acadiana. I’ve actually learned how to be more generous since moving here to Louisiana. Thank you for that!

St. Paul perhaps said it best in our reading for today. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth in northern Greece. The people were dirt poor. They didn’t have much. The land was barren and there weren’t many opportunities for work or trade or industry. And yet Paul took a special offering from the church in Corinth to help the needy in Jerusalem. Listen to what Paul says…

Read text - 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

When it comes to extravagant generosity – God is that way with us. Think about it. God could have created a purely functional universe with no frills, just the basic, and yet God went overboard with creation.

Did you know there are over 400 different bird species right here in Louisiana? All different, all diverse in color and size and habitat. Why do we need that many kinds of birds? Because God is extravagantly generous.

Did you know there are over 400,000 different flowering plant species in the world? Why do we need that many flowering plants? Because God is extravagantly generous.

Did you know that in our Milky Way Galaxy is believed to have more than 100 billion stars? Why do we need that many stars in our galaxy? Because God is extravagantly generous.

The greatest example of God generosity is the gift of his own son, Jesus – our Lord and our Savior.

Jesus came to earth to live and to die and to live again for us – conquering sin, and death, and the devil for us. So that nothing can get in the way of God’s love for us. Jesus removed all the barriers between us and God.

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Did you know that our giving has life and death consequences? Our giving is a life and death matter…

In Acts 5:1-11 there is a wonderful story about Ananias and Sapphira, his wife. They made a promise to support God’s work in and through the church. They agreed to sell off some of their property and give the money to the church… But after selling their property - they decided to keep some of the money for themselves. It did not go well for them…

Read Acts 5:1-11

Talk about a bad day in church. Could you imagine? Our giving has life and death consequences for us too. When we fail to give to God it doesn’t go so well for us.

Did you know that everything we have doesn’t really belong to us? It’s on loan to us from God. We are stewards of everything God has placed into our care. It all belongs to God. We get to use it for a while. Someday I’m going to give that MGB to someone else.

BTW - When I look at that MGB, I don’t really think of it as mine. I think of it as a gift from God through John McHuge and others.

We can learn a few things about giving from this reading in Acts… Here are three things to consider:

1. When I keep what I am free to give, part of me dies. 2. God has blesses us for one reason - so that we can be generous

towards others for Jesus’ sake.3. The spiritually wise person knowns that frivolous consumption corrupts

the soul. 

Extravagant generosity says more about what we keep than what we give away. Martin Luther said: “There are three conversions necessary in the Christian life: the conversion of the heart, the mind, and the purse.”

The purse can be the most difficult conversion, just ask Ananias and Sapphria. They thought it belonged to them to do as they wished. They learned the hard way that you ought not lie to God. We are to give to God according to our means, Paul says.

As followers of Jesus, every decision involving money is really a spiritual decision before it’s a financial one. We don’t want money ruling our lives; we want our spiritual lives ruling our money.

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Unfortunately, we tend to live way beyond our means. And unfortunately, money has become a god for many people.

Like a god, money…

offers security, can induce guilt, promises freedom and power, and entices us to do things we would otherwise not do.

Some people worship money. Some people live to get more money. St. Paul told Timothy that “the love of money is root of all evil.” Money is not evil. The desire for it can cause us to do evil things.

When we let go of part of our money, we tend to think that we are letting go of part of ourselves – part of our security. That can be scary for many people. But if we see that our security is in God and not our money then we can freely let go – investing in the kingdom work we share.

Did you know that a majority of Americans are living beyond our means? For every $1 we earn we spend $1.22. We live on credit and then we pay interest on that credit. One in 50 households has more than $20,000 in credit card debt.

No wonder marriages and business are families are in such trouble. People don’t have a healthy relationship with money. They don’t understand the spiritual power that money can have on us.

There is a biblical word to describe our giving. It’s called tithing. The purpose of tithing is to put God first in our lives… (repeat)

The first 10% goes back to God not out of duty or compulsion or guilt but out of gratitude and thankfulness for the blessings in our lives. Giving to God’s work in and through the church is not about money. It’s about trusting God with everything we have and everything we are. We are stewards of God’s generosity.

Now… I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said to me, all the church wants is people’s money. Some churches do. But not here at First. You will never hear me say that we need your money. As a matter of fact, I really don’t care how much you give. And I don’t know how much you give. Maybe I should but I don’t.

Instead –

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I care that you are involved in the life of this congregation beyond just worship.

I care that your involvement is helping you grow in the faith. I care about the motivation behind your giving. I care that you live as a disciple of Jesus every day.

Consider this, our giving level is in direct proportion to our faith level. We give a little, we trust God a little. We give a lot, we trust God a lot. It’s proportional, 10% is our guide.

One Sunday a pastor wanted to help the congregation understand the relationship between faith and giving. So after the offering was received the pastor stood at the altar, raised the offering plates and said,

“O God, no matter what we say and do, this is what we think of you.”

There is a direct relationship between handling our money and our dependency on God. I believe we have that backwards. I believe we’ve discovered ways of handling our relationship with God and we place our dependency on our money. It ought to be the other way around. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21 – “Where you treasure is there your heart will be also.”

Giving frees us from the tyranny of money. That’s why you hear me teaching and preaching tithing – giving the first 10% of what God has blessed us with to the Lord’s work in this place.

The reality is that most Christians in America give less than 4% of what we earn to the Lord’s work. This is not to make you feel guilty. I point that out because there is room for growth. Think of all the life-giving ministry we could support here in Louisiana, in the United States and around the world if every believer was moved towards tithing.

I invite you to consider growing in your giving by 1% next year -- grow towards tithing, if you aren’t already. It’s a life changer for good.

Why? Because as disciples of Jesus -- we live not for ourselves but for others.

St. Paul taught the early churches time and time again that we live not as isolated individuals but in community – and our concern for one another transcends all ethnic, political, economic, and cultural boundaries. We give generously and cheerfully of our money, our time, and our talents so that others may receive according to their need and give thanks to God.

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We invite you to help feed the needy here in Lafayette. Go get a bag of non-perishable food items from the local grocery store and place them under the tree in the gathering area. We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others.

Please join me in pray… repeat after me.

Gracious God… give us generous hearts… empower us… to place our trust in you… and guide us… to be good stewards… remind us… that we are blessed… to be a blessing to others… Amen.