Christian Liberality from Abiding, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Christian generosity does not depend on your socioeconomic station in life, but instead on abiding in the vine. Our giving is the outflow.

It's the fruit of what's happening in our hearts. Humankind looks at giving differently than God does. When watching the rich throw their offerings into the temple treasury, Jesus remarked that the widow who gave out of her poverty was the one who had put in more than the others. In today's message, we will look at how God sees our giving from 2 Corinthians 8, 8 through 15. This is the third part of a message titled, Liberality from Abiding. It was first preached on June 29th, 2014.

To hear the whole message or other messages in this series, you can go to www.delightingrace.com. The richness of his righteousness. When that defines and becomes the parameters of all of my attitudes, then he develops within me and the outflow of that is generosity, self-sacrificing generosity. So, a question this morning is you're giving, and I think this is what Paul would ask the Corinthian church, is you're giving mathematical or is it theological? Mathematical giving? Mathematical giving means, well, okay, you do the numbers, you figure it out, okay, I'm going to give X percentage and I'm giving it to God. And you just kind of do it mechanically out of some kind of a duty. Well, I've given what I'm supposed to give, now the rest is mine.

Thank you very much. It's kind of like, you know, there's more than just material things that we can give. My wife and I went away for a couple of days this past week to the Outer Banks, first time I've been out there, so it's been our 27th anniversary. We had a lot of time to just kind of sit together on the beach and stuff like that and talk. You know, talking is a good thing.

I highly recommend it. And one thing that she said and we talked about is, you know, something we need to do is just intentionally spend more time together just to talk. Good lives can get so busy and I do a lot of, you know, marital counseling and what happens is two good lives can be busy, but they're so busy in their own lives that they start going separate directions and their lives start drifting apart.

It can happen to anybody if you're not intentional about spending that time together. So if we agree on, okay, we're going to intentionally spend some couch time together and talk, we agree on, okay, half hour every day. What would it look like if I come home from the office, sit down, okay, honey, let's fulfill our half hour here and we're talking and I'm looking at my watch, talking, I'm looking at my watch and she's talking, she's pouring out her heart. And I'm like, well, look at the time, half an hour's up, let's get on with life.

How would that go over? You see, that's just doing it mathematically. It's a mechanical duty. You know, our giving can be that way. Well, as you know, Christians, you got to do this.

So, you know, no, not at all. It's an outflow of delight when I remember the gospel of grace. Or am I giving theologically? Is my giving a theological giving?

What do I mean by that? It's an outflow of what I think of God. It's an outflow of gratitude in faithful stewardship. It's an outflow of my abiding, of what I think of God.

Understanding that life is a stewardship. Everything that I have is His. It's not mine.

He's entrusted it to me to point people to Him. It's known for their luxury watches. The Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe has also become well known for its clever advertising slogan.

You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely take care of it for the next generation. That's stewardship. That's what life is to us and all of our resources. That's the way it is with what we own. When we realize we don't really own it, it's all been entrusted to us.

Money, gifts, ministries, time, relationships, our very lives are entrusted to us. I'll never forget an interview I watched on the news in the wake of 9-11. All the airplanes that were crashing into buildings. One of them flew into the Pentagon. On that airplane that flew into the Pentagon was a 5th grade class going on a field trip. And the parents of this one particular child, I think she was about 11 years old, the parents of this one particular child were being interviewed on the news. Their child had of course died in that plane crash that flew into the Pentagon. And the interviewer said, how do you deal with it and what is it like for you to know that the life of your 11 year old was just snuffed out like that? And I will never forget their answer.

It's beautiful. They simply said, we thank God for the 11 years that she was entrusted to us. That's stewardship. And as an outflow of their gratitude, did you hear their gratitude in that response? It's like they had to give her and they did so in the outflow. The liberality from abiding. As we conclude this particular chapter, paragraph, I mean verses 13 to 15, there is a reciprocity to this generosity, to the liberality that is the outflow of abiding. We see then that there is a diversity, the benefits of diversity, those who have more being able to help those who have less.

Strengths compensate for weaknesses and that's true in so many arenas of life, isn't it? But the Apostle Paul is saying, listen, the tables could turn and you know what, the tables did turn. And when he talks about the equality, he simply means he's simply talking about meeting needs out of spontaneous love, not creating a dependency. He's not asking some people to really downsize their lives just so others could have a more elaborate lifestyle.

That's not the point here. He's asking for a spontaneous generosity as an outflow. I remember seeing an example of that when I went to Haiti last October. Before we arrived at the place where we would be teaching the Bible Institute, there are many orphans in Haiti.

And even more truly orphans, but also many of them are young children that are dropped off by their teenage moms who are not able to support them. Teenage moms most likely had been raped. Walking into the gates of this compound, these 92 boys ranging from two, three years old all the way up to early teens.

92 of them. I was looking at the facilities that they had and he told me the story. Pastor Prediston told me the story of what had happened the year before.

These 92 boys didn't have showers, they didn't have adequate latrines or anything like that. And one of the pastors from the previous module had come in and looked at it and asked about it. And immediately when he went home, he made the appeal to his church. He said, listen, these people are in need. And the church raised the funds immediately just like that and they sent it down.

And when he got to see the results of that, there was a very adequate latrine and showers for all 92 boys in that orphanage. Spontaneous generosity as an outflow. And when he speaks of equality in here, he's speaking of a reciprocation. And that is a principle that flows through the whole scope of scripture. It's the law of sowing and reaping. You sow generously, you will reap generously. You sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. And that lies throughout the scriptures.

Take for example what Jesus said in Luke chapter 6 verse 38. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom.

For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. He's getting right to the spirit of the matter, isn't he? Are you a person of generosity? Is a self-sacrificing generosity normal for you? And here's what I'm saying. I want you to be careful with this because you're saying, well, you know, I don't feel so, I feel like I have to struggle to give. Let's go back and rework the budget because, Rich, you know, that's not what I'm asking you to do. What I'm asking you to do is this. It's like it's a struggle for you in your attitude and giving.

I'm not asking you to go back and rework your budget. I'm asking you to do this. Go back and revisit the gospel. Go back and read the account of your infinite creator forfeiting his life for you. And let him do a work in your heart and mind.

Sing the song to yourself and can it be. Sing the song in Christ alone before the throne of God. How deep the Father's love for us. Meditate on that. Re-visit the gospel and let God flow through you the refreshing truths of the gospel of grace.

And watch him develop in you this liberality that comes from abiding. Proverbs 11 25, the generous soul will be made rich and he who waters will also be watered himself. See, it's a principle that permeates the scope of scripture. As the apostle Paul said earlier in chapter 6 verse 10, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

Do you see the perspective there? Material in this world we might have what might be deemed as nothing, but we know that in Christ we have the infinite wealth of his riches. And we can give that. We can give that. So Christians, your Christian generosity does not depend on your socio-economic station in life, but in abiding in the vine. It's the outflow.

It's the fruit. May God be glorified in our worship. 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.