Liberality with Alacrity, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. 1 Samuel 16-7 tells us that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. So when it comes to our giving, why we give matters just as much as what we give. Let's do a heart check today as Pastor Rich digs into 2 Corinthians 9 in this message titled, Liberality with Alacrity. You're listening to the third part of a message that was originally preached on July 13, 2014 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. If you want to hear more sermons in this series, check out www.delightingrace.com.

I've done some of this. I've given grudgingly. Some of my giving has just been outright mechanical.

It's not been theological. It's just been mechanical giving. I give because that's what I think I'm supposed to be doing.

It's not really an outflow. Or maybe you have been giving because you're expecting God to give you something back. Or maybe you've had an opportunity to give and you want people to know how much you've been able to give. If you find yourself giving with the wrong motives, and then from the challenge of this message from this scripture today, I would say don't stop giving.

That's not God's plan either. Homer Kent says, if we don't give, we are rejecting one of God's gracious gifts to us. The very act of giving is one of God's gifts to us. So if you find yourself giving for the wrong reasons, don't stop giving, but change your motives.

You say, Rich, how can I do that? Well, by the Spirit of God, through the power of God, we can because we recognize that we are not just these giant chemical reactions. We just do what you're predisposed to do.

We are living volitional, rational beings created in the image of God. And God can transform a heart and mind. If you find yourself giving for the wrong reasons, then here's this little mini series within this sermon. All right.

How do you change your motive? Well, the first thing you do is remember. Remember.

Remember what? Look back with me at chapter eight and verse nine. 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 become rich.

That's what you remember. If you find yourself giving for the wrong reasons, then go back to the gospel. Because Christian generosity is an outflow of the gospel of grace. Go back to the gospel. You can't just go to your house and sit down and say, OK, I'm going to change my motive. I've got to change my motive.

No, that won't work. Because that's only the flesh. But by God's grace and by his fury, as you reflect on the gospel of grace, God is going to mold your heart and your mind. And as you reflect on the gospel of grace and what God did for you, then he's going to be transforming you at the level of desire. And when he does, then repent. First of all, remember and then repent.

Because as you look into the scriptures and you remember and you reflect upon the gospel of grace, this perfect law of liberty will be like a mirror to you and God will show you what needs to change. And when God does that, are you ready to repent? Repent just simply means to change your mind. Are you ready to allow God to change your mind as you reflect on the gospel of grace? And he will change your mind to pleasing him. He will change your mind to having the mind of Christ as you reflect on the gospel of grace.

And then thirdly, resolve. There is a purpose in your heart. It is my aim to please him. My highest function is to love God and I will love him. That is the resolve of my heart is to love God through manifesting his generosity.

It's just a matter of making up your mind after you have remembered and repented. May God work in our hearts through his word. Thirdly, cheerful giving gets return on Godward investment.

Cheerful giving gets return on Godward investment. It's proper to understand this in its right context with the right motive because God's doing it work. Look with me at verse eight. As I read this verse, listen to it and think maybe there might be a little bit of an emphasis in this verse. Look at it with me. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work.

Maybe just a little emphasis there. It's all about God. It's his doing. And my generosity is his work in my life. That's Christian generosity. It is God's supply.

My giving is his gift. God has supplied. Verse nine tells us that God has supplied the generous giver with the resources out of which he gives. It's God's work of grace.

Very interesting what he says in verse 10. Now, may he who supplies the seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. Increase the harvest of your righteousness.

What is that? The increase that God increases the harvest of your righteousness means that the character of God is at work through me. And therefore, I am able to bless others by pointing them to him.

All that through generosity, through being kindly disposed. It is this is a particular manifestation of the mind of Christ of thinking of considering others more important than yourself. And then he says, look at with me at verse 11, enriched in everything for all liberality. Verse 12, Thanksgiving to God, verse 13, glorify God. Verse 14, the grace of God in you. This is a God thing. It's God at work in me and through me.

His character manifesting himself to bring him glory. This is the program of God's liberality. This is liberality that abounds. This is liberality from abiding. This is liberality that approves.

This is liberality with alacrity. This is cheerful giving. This is Christian generosity.

God's program of liberality is to enrich the cheerful giver so that he or she can go on enriching others by his generosity. There's a fine example of that that I see, for example, in our missionaries, Jacob and Prashanti Gedala over in India. What a wonderful testimony it was for us to be able to visit some of the families over in India who were earnestly praying to God to send them one who would faithfully teach the scriptures. While they were praying, Jacob was over here getting his education to go and do just what they were praying for.

He didn't know that, but you see, God did. And Jacob and his relationship that he developed with us as a church, not only us corporately, but also many individuals within the church have been very generous. And because of that, God has multiplied his ministry in India. And it has been wonderful to witness and to observe.

From the first year that I went over to the second time that I went over, the year I went over this last January, his ministry doubled. And so much of that is through the generosity of God's people, God's program of liberality to enrich the cheerful giver so that he can go on enriching others by his generosity. It's God's work.

It's his doing. So the challenge then, what Paul is calling the believers to do is to sow the seeds of generosity. Sow the seeds of generosity, the cheerful giving that pleases God. And you reap, as it says in verse eight, an abundance for every good work. Sow the seeds of generosity and you will reap an abundance for every good work.

That's a good line to keep in mind, isn't it? And it all comes down to this. What is the fountainhead of it all? He says in verse 15, it's God's work of grace as an outflow of his indescribable gift. And that gift has a name. And that name is Jesus.

Your Redeemer. That's God's program of liberality. Gordon Macdonald shared an account, an experience that he had that transformed him from giving as merely an institutional obligation to being a cheerful giver. He says this on a missions trip to West Africa, we joined a large crowd of desperately poor Christians. We joined them for worship. As we neared the church, I noticed that most every person was carrying something. Some hoisted cages of noisy chickens, others carried baskets of yams, and still others toted bags of eggs, etc. Why are they all bringing all that stuff?

I asked our hosts. Just watch. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him. The one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.