As I have previously written, you and I find ourselves to be in Sacred Relationship with God. That Sacred Relationship involves a Sacred Calling, Sacred Gifting and Sacred Service. This month I will focus on Sacred Generosity. The transformation of a life by God, through the sacrifice of Christ and the power of His Spirit is indeed SACRED. God does it all. We have been transformed from objects of His wrath to objects of His grace and mercy. Christ sacrificed Himself that we might experience an abundant life. Some are confused about what that abundant life is all about, assuming that abundant is referring to having many things and lots of money with which to enjoy them. Abundance is so much more! Having been saved by Christ’s shed blood, we are also raised out of the muck and mire of life and its consequences, by His power. All of the promises of God and all that we need are provided IN CHRIST JESUS.
As God has been generous with us so are we called to a life of generosity. Certainly, this
involves generosity to the support of the Church as we give as an act of worship but also
generosity to those in need and each other. Acts 2 clearly says that the early church took
care of each other. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, he commended them for their generosity in helping other churches in the region that were experiencing famine. Paul in this letter established a powerful principle for generosity that each should decide what they wanted to give and then to do so cheerfully. To me this paints an attitude picture. We believe that God is generous and as we are created in His image, He has planted this generosity DNA in US. It’s how we were created to be and yet we wrestle as humans to be generous with JOY, FREEDOM, and PEACE. When we feel compelled to be generous it can be a sour apple. The journey from a place of fear and guilt to the land of redemptive gratitude and redemptive generosity is not a simple “follow these three steps to financial freedom”! It is indeed a journey and God will empower us and strengthen us, one step at a time.
The movement towards generosity is emotional, practical and spiritual. God has created us to be generous with our LIVES, not just our stuff. I’ll close with this illustration. I know that some of you have heard this story before but please bear with me. I lived at home through college and until I was married at the age of 24. My brother, who is 5 years younger, and I shared a small bedroom. He walked and talked in his sleep. The stories I could tell! Since we shared a room, he erroneously believed that we should share clothes as well. I understand as I wore some pretty cool clothes. Do you remember those platform shoes and cuffed, hip hugger bell bottoms? Righteous! We fought and argued all the time about my clothes until one Sunday when Pastor Jimmie Jackson proclaimed that the stuff we possessed didn’t really belong to us and that God gave us stuff so that we could learn to be good stewards. Glorifying God by how we used things. I became convinced that my clothes were really God’s clothes, went home and told my brother that he was free to wear God’s clothes any time he wanted. He never wore those clothes again. That wasn’t my intent but it worked out....! Withholding, grasping and clinging to that which isn’t ours entangles our lives. Generosity makes us free!
Pastor B
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