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A Biblical view of money – Abounding in generosity

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening Prayer

But let’s go ahead and pray as we get started with that. Lord, we thank you for your Word that you’ve chosen to speak. And we pray that you would speak this morning, God. You would speak through your Word. Empty me and fill me with your Spirit. May I faithfully proclaim your words and dig the riches out of them. For the pulpits across our community and country and across the world, and brothers and sisters in Belize and those in Southeast Asia, God, may your Word be faithfully proclaimed and may your church have hearts and ears to receive. We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.

This sermon is part two of a probably four-part, maybe five-part series on money. [audio unclear] Matthew 6. [audio unclear] cares about our heart, and out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, right? Out of the overflow of the heart we act, and as your pastor I care about your hearts. So if you missed last week’s sermon I encourage you, if you have time this week before we get to next Sunday, to go back and listen to it. But we’re going to trust him, and we need to look to God’s Word and see what he says about wealth, about money, and how we love and trust and obey him with it. Depending on what version of the Bible you have and what word choices you use, the Bible mentions money between 700 and 2,000 times. Jesus talks about money more than heaven and hell. Eleven of his 39 parables were about money, and money is mentioned many times in the New Testament, not just the Old Testament. A lot of Old Testament verses have to do with the offerings. And over the course of the series, we’re going to look at debt and lending, providing for your family, inheritance, investing, saving, giving, tithing, generosity, maybe some more things. But this morning, we’re going to focus on and start with generosity. I chose that because I believe, as we’ll see in some of these Scriptures, God is so generous with us, amen, church. He’s so generous. He is the most generous person, and we are called to imitate him and be like him. So we’re starting with generosity.

The Generosity of the Macedonians

So let’s turn to 2 Corinthians 8 if you’re not already there. It’s going to set the context for chapter 9, which is going to be our primary text. So we’re going to start reading in verse 1 of 2 Corinthians 8. Hear the words of the Lord, church. It says—now, brethren, and I am reading in the New American Standard, in case it is a little different than yours:

Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

(2 Corinthians 8:1–5, NASB)

So Paul is talking about the collection that was being taken for the Jerusalem church, which was in great need. They were greatly afflicted, they were poor and persecuted, and they were in the middle of famine, so their need was great. But Paul also talks about the extreme poverty of the Macedonian church. So the church that was giving was not a wealthy church; they were a church that themselves were described as being in extreme poverty. The church in Jerusalem was in need, and the brothers and sisters in Macedonia, even though they were extremely poor, they were helping. They gave beyond their ability, and they sacrificed for others. They didn’t do as was expected of them. They exceeded expectations. They were generous. They gave liberally, and they did it joyfully. That is what the church there did. And they also gave of their own accord. And that shows that their actions showed that their hearts had Jesus as king, not their money. Remember, you can’t serve both God and money. Money was not their master. Jesus was their king. Fear was not their master; God was. A need was shown and they responded in a way that showed that Jesus is king. So Paul’s writing to the church in Corinth here and he uses the Macedonian church as an example, and then he says, be like this church who gave joyfully, who gave out of their poverty and beyond their ability. Be like them, be generous. And as we see this as we continue reading in verse 6:

So we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning, so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well. But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also. I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also.

(2 Corinthians 8:6–8, NASB)

Paul encourages the church to abound in the grace of giving, just as they did in faith, in message, in knowledge, and in love. The ESV uses the word “excel,” but the idea is the same, to go beyond what is expected, to have abundance. So Paul says, hey, abound or excel in the grace of giving. And hopefully we all excel, we all work to excel in our knowledge of the Word, right? Hopefully we’re doing what Steve encourages you to do, to get into God’s Word, spend time in prayer and study. Hopefully we’re doing that. Hopefully we seek to excel in our worship of the Lord as we gather and we lift up our voices, as we go in our service in ministry and to our family. Hopefully we are working to excel in those things. Those are the things we all want to grow in and be excellent at. But [audio unclear] “proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love.” He’s pointing towards their hearts. It says, is your love genuine? Do you serve the Lord our God? And show your heart by abounding in the grace of giving.

The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ

And then we get verse 9, which I think is one of our chief motivators for giving and generosity. We’ve all heard the verse, we love—why do we love? We love because he first loved us, right, church? And we’re able to love because of the love we have received from God. And that love, it says in verse 9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” [audio unclear] Giving and generosity is the gospel. It’s the gospel. When we understand the gospel, when we get it into our hearts, we become generous. We love because he first loved us. We give abundantly and generously because he did it to us. He did so to us.

Free Generosity, Not Coercion

As we move on to the next set of verses, the Corinthian church had already said that they would give to the collection, and for the readiness to be ready when they come. [audio unclear] “a person has, not according to what he does not have.” In verse 13—this is not socialism, right, the government, it runs everything and controls the economy and it takes from people and it distributes it how it sees fit. Always ends in disaster. This is actually a counter to Christianity, which talks about being rewarded for your hard work. What Paul is talking about in this passage is loving people and specifically loving your brothers and sisters. This is not forced government coercion. This is free generosity from the heart. He is talking about what John talks about in 1 John 3:11–18. If my brothers and sisters are in need and I have the ability to help and I don’t, how can the love of God be in me? He says, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. Let us abound in generosity. And this is the type of generosity that should exist in the church. When we have a member in need, other members step in and they meet that need. And when there is another church in our area, in proper consideration, I think other churches can see if they can help meet that need.

We do here at Liberty. One of the biggest blessings to me is how I have seen this church do these things time after time over the years, even since I was a kid, stepping up to meet the needs of the saints within and outside of our church. I’ve seen our church, even in really tough financial times, send money to other churches near and far when it was needed. I’ve seen people give generously to others in our church for mission trips, for broken-down cars, for tires, for house payments, medical bills, so many different situations when there was real need, people in our church found out about it and stepped up, and they didn’t say, hey, we think the church needs to give to it, they generously gave to it. Most of the time, a lot of these people have wanted to remain as anonymous as possible, and so I get asked a lot of times to deliver it to the person who needed it so they wouldn’t know where it came from. And let me just say, church, may the Lord bless you all richly for the love and generosity you have shown over and over again through the years. You’re imitating your Lord and your Savior Jesus Christ.

Firstfruits and Planned Giving

Let’s go ahead and read the rest of this chapter 8 here. I’ll just offer one or two comments on it before we get into chapter 9. [audio unclear]

for the glory of the Lord Himself, and to show our readiness, taking precaution so that no one will discredit us in our administration of this generous gift; for we have regard for what is honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. We have sent with them our brother, whom we have often tested and found diligent in many things, but now even more diligent because of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker among you; as for our brethren, they are messengers of the churches, a glory to Christ. Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love and of our reason for boasting about you.

(2 Corinthians 8:19–24, NASB)

And Titus here was earnest to see them complete this grace of giving. He was a man who was well approved and also there to make sure that this gift was handled properly, which is important. Churches need budgets, they need financial tracking systems as well, and we want to make sure that we are using the Lord’s money correctly and that if people in our church have questions about it, that those questions can be answered, right? We want to handle the money that God has given us well. So Paul says, give without fear; this money is being overseen well. And so thank you to everyone who serves as part of our finance team and deacons for making sure our finances are handled well.

Chapter 9, we’re going to get into chapter 9 here, verses 1 through 6.

For it is superfluous for me to write to you about this ministry to the saints; for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the Macedonians, namely, that Achaia has been prepared since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I have sent the brethren, in order that our boasting about you may not be made empty in this case, so that, as I was saying, you may be prepared; otherwise if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to speak of you—will be put to shame by this confidence. So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren that they would go on ahead to you and arrange beforehand your previously promised bountiful gift, so that the same would be ready as a bountiful gift and not affected by covetousness. Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

(2 Corinthians 9:1–6, NASB)

So again here, Paul’s telling them, hey, be ready to do what you said you would do. Be ready to do what you said you would do. Our church has not done this in a while, but a lot of churches do, and we have in the past, do like a giving pledge. We’re trying to, you know, find out, hey, who’s going to give what in the church so we can build a budget. And then that’s sort of what Paul’s saying, hey, you all said you’re going to give. Now follow through on it. Be prepared when the collection comes. He wants them to have their gift ready. And in regards to that, if we jump back to 1 Corinthians 16, Paul had already talked to them about having their gift ready. It says in 1 Corinthians 16:1:

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem; and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me.

(1 Corinthians 16:1–4, NASB)

So Paul, he had been preparing them to give for a while and had even instructed them on how to do it. At the beginning of each week put it aside, store it up so it’ll be ready. And this is kind of a firstfruits idea. If you go back to the Old Testament, if you’re not familiar with the concept, in the Old Testament God’s people were commanded to give the firstfruits, or the best of the best, to the Lord as an offering and a tithe. A lot of times it wasn’t everybody taking money in. They were taking in their flocks and, you know, all the different things they had, and they were supposed to not give, you know, the weak little lamb that was all sad-looking. They’re supposed to give the best, right? So you give the firstfruits, you give to the Lord first, not the leftovers. In Proverbs 3, it says in verses 9 and 10, “Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce; so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.” So here Paul is telling them, hey, set it aside at the beginning of each week, firstfruits. So some practical encouragement here before we move on. This is how we should operate when it comes to our regular or planned giving. I would encourage you when you’re building out your budget, as I highly recommend you do, as I talked about last week, look at your income and then as the first thing you put on that budget, okay Lord, here it is, my firstfruits, and then build out your budget from there. Figure out the rest because you’re giving to the Lord first. Far too many people say, is there anything left? Okay, this is what I’ll give to the Lord. That’s not the firstfruits, that’s the leftovers. It would be like God’s people going through their field, collecting all the best fruits and everything for themselves, and then if there’s anything left on the ground, they’re like, oh, I’ll go pick this up and give it as an offering to the Lord. That’s not honoring to the Lord. It is not. So my advice would echo Paul here: look at your income, set aside your giving based on that, and give that. Practically speaking, that can look different. If you’re well organized and you’re good at setting stuff aside, I guess you could do it once a year or a few times a year. If you’re less good at that and know you might spend it, you should probably give it more often. The start of the week, or whenever your paycheck comes in, the start of the month, all sorts of ways you can do it.

Sowing and Reaping

Moving on, we get into my favorite section of Scripture here regarding money. Also, it gets twisted by many in different directions to justify bad theology. But let’s read verse 6 again, and we’re going to read through verse 15, and then we’ll come [audio unclear].

Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; as it is written, “He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor, His righteousness endures forever.” Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

(2 Corinthians 9:7–15, NASB)

It’s an amazing passage here. Back to verse 6. We don’t have any farmers in here, do we? Or any of you farmers? No? Everyone used to be a farmer. Nobody’s a farmer anymore. Does anyone garden? Okay, a couple people garden still. I garden with my parents. It was not my thing. But the picture here, I think it should be pretty clear. Most of us know how at least some of farming works. He’s talking about sowing and reaping. What do you do? They go out, they sow seeds, they scatter seeds, and then they reap, they gather a harvest. So Paul’s saying here, the more seeds the farmer puts out there, the more fruit or vegetables or whatever he’s planting, he will get when it comes time to collect them. If you only put out a little seed, what do you get? You get a small harvest. But what happens if you throw out a lot of seed? You go and you spread a bunch of seed, you get a big harvest, a huge harvest. And seed is a lot cheaper than what you get from the seed. So he’s using this analogy to talk about giving. If you give a little, you can expect a small harvest. And if you give a lot, you can expect a huge harvest. That’s the picture Paul’s painting.

Now, unfortunately, this might be where a prosperity preacher stops. Okay, so give a bunch and then you can get that new car. God will give you that new house, give you that airplane, that luxurious vacation you want. Just give it to the church and you’ll get ten times back in the mail. And that is not what Paul is saying here. The prosperity gospel is an abomination. It turns the gospel into basically God being a genie, right? You give something and then you get what you really want, which is stuff, money. You’re not really serving God there, you’re serving money. If you read this context here, God is blessing, not so you can go out and get whatever you want, but for other reasons, which we’re going to talk about as we get to those verses.

God Loves a Cheerful Giver

Now in verse 7, it says, God loves a cheerful giver. We should do or give as we have purposed in our hearts and not under compulsion. Not because of prosperity preachers yelling at you. You’re not to give with a bad attitude, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t to give. If your attitude is bad, you need to check your heart, not say, well, I don’t really want to give, so I’m not going to. That should be a warning sign. Paul is saying, hey, check your heart. You shouldn’t go out and provide for your family with a bad attitude—you should provide for your family regardless. So it’s a heart check here. If you don’t want to joyfully do this thing, it should be a warning sign that you need to check your heart. What is going on in your heart? If Jesus gave so freely to us, why is your heart hard towards giving? This goes back to last week when we were looking at Matthew 6 again, because maybe money has become your God. Maybe it’s because you don’t trust God. This verse here follows doing a heart check for us.

People will argue back and forth about this verse, meaning maybe it’s saying Christians aren’t under the tithe anymore. People should [audio unclear] 25% of the people in the church will tithe, which is give 10%. And those people usually end up making somewhere between 50 and 80% of the total church budget, which is really sad. This is not equality, right, everyone sharing things equally; it is the load being put on a few. Now, this morning, we’re not going to look at the case for being under the tithe or the case for not being under the tithe anymore. I just want to propose to you that I think when you’re talking about like what do we give to the Lord, the tithe is a good starting point for Christians, not a stopping point, but a starting point that you should aim to exceed in time. And here’s why. As you read along in your Bible—which hopefully all of you have done—did anyone read the whole Bible this year? Anybody? A few people, that is fantastic. As you’re reading along through the Bible over time, more and more of Jesus and the gospel and who God really is is revealed. Start at the beginning, people didn’t know nearly as much, but as time went on more and more was revealed. The people of God had increasing revelation of him, and the more we know about God and who he is, the more responsibility we have before him. The more we know of his love, the more we love him. The more we understand of his grace and mercy, the more we should show it to other people. So in relation to the tithe, the tithe was required for God’s people. It was ten percent, or up to twenty-three percent depending on how you want to add it up. But that was God’s basic requirement for his people. And then there were also freewill offerings and other offerings. But as more of Jesus is revealed and as people gain more knowledge of how to live and what we’re called to, shouldn’t our generosity increase instead of decrease? It should be increasing beyond what God had required instead of dropping below it. Somehow a lot of people take the New Testament and how we’re not under the law but instead we’re now called to be joyful, generous givers to mean that we give less. And to me, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. When Jesus came, he didn’t say, hey, don’t worry, I’m here. Now give less of yourself. He said, follow me and be ready to give up everything. The call is greater, not lesser. So I don’t think, especially again in the richest time in the history of the world, we should use it as an excuse to give less of our finances. If you remember what I said about those tithing percentages, that’s what makes me even more [audio unclear]. How can the church in America be considered generous if it doesn’t even come remotely close to tithing, which is what God had required in the past? God’s blessed us with huge amounts of riches and the church in our country is holding back. And in my opinion, that withholding has actually caused enormous problems in our culture.

Let me just give an example. Take education. The government school system in our country has been teaching lies to our children about God and the world for a long time. And we have seen the fruits of it with crazy statistics about young people walking away from the faith. And one of the reasons for that is they have sat for 40 hours a week for their whole life growing up being taught lies and falsehood about God and the world from the government school system. So what else should you expect? The church has historically though been the one that has come alongside families to give kids a good Christian education. And the church largely punted that to the state, and I think the consequences have been devastating. But let’s say a church wants to get serious and wants to retake that place alongside the family. They want to open a Christian school and make it affordable and feasible for its members to take classes. Well, that is an expensive undertaking. Churches are often barely getting by as it is, but if you remember that 2–4% mark, if you were to double, triple, or quadruple the size of a church’s budget, if it went from like 2 to 4 percent to 10 percent, all of a sudden having a school and paying for it becomes within reach. There’s a lot of ministry that can happen. So again, the church in America being the richest in history, it’s estimated that there are over 20 trillion dollars sitting in the hands of not just churchgoers, but church members, people who are members of churches in our country, over 20 trillion dollars in their hands. That is a lot of money. A lot of money. So what could happen if the church got together and used that money for God’s glory? We’re going to talk about that more in the future as we touch on other areas. But my point is that the church in America, by and large, is not generous. Because to be generous is to give more of something than is necessary or expected. I guess if you move that mark from 10% to whatever you feel like, then you can say being generous is easy because it’s whatever you say it is. That’s why I don’t like it. But the point of this verse here is not tithe or not tithe. The point says, God loves a cheerful giver, one whose giving overflows from the heart. And so again, Paul is checking our hearts. This is a heart-check verse.

Abundance for Every Good Deed

It’s not, hey, let’s not set the bar so low that it’s easy for me to be unimaginably happy when I give. It strives to grow in the grace of giving. It strives to grow. And as we take a look at what God does when we give generously, it’s not, hey, here’s your fancy cars and giant houses and all that. Verse 8 says that God is able to make all grace abound to you. This is grace, right? We don’t deserve it. But so that always having all sufficiency for everything—he’s like, I’m making sure you understand this is everything here. As in, he’s going to make sure you have everything you need. On top of that, you’re also going to have an abundance for what? Again, not to go buy that $100,000 car, but you have an abundance for every good deed. This is the first that we start to see here. When you sow bountifully, you are sure to provide your every need and then more than your need—why? So that you may abound in good deeds. So that you may use that money for the good works God has prepared for you to do. Verses 9 through 11 again: “As it is written, ‘He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor, His righteousness endures forever.’ Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.” This is what happens when you’re generous with your money. God is the one who provides you with what you need, and then he multiplies what you’ve put out there so that you can do so even more and increase the harvest of your righteousness. So you give more, God provides more, which enables you to be even more generous, to be even more generous for God’s glory. It’s not given for you to spend on pleasures and luxuries. It is not about giving money to get what you want, it is about being generous just as God is generous, that as you’re obedient, as you imitate him in his generosity, he’s going to enable you to imitate him as he blesses you with greater ability to do so. In Matthew 25, this is the parable with the talents, the servants with the talents, which we’ll actually look at next week.

To make one more comment though on verse 6 and this passage. According to statistics, 25% of practicing regular attenders, those who attend church every week, don’t give at all, at all, statistically speaking. And it says, he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully—what follows for those who do not sow at all? You can think on that one. But I will say, in all the situations over the years where I’ve tried to help people with their financial problems, the one thing that they all seem to have in common was they gave little to nothing. The biggest indicator to me of how someone is doing financially is generally not how much money they make, although that is a factor, but how generous and giving they are, because God provides your needs as you decide to be faithful with the money he has given you. And honestly, this principle, it’s not a vague, hidden, or hard-to-understand thing in this passage. I think it’s pretty clear as day: he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. [audio unclear] from our money. That’s what’s hard.

Thanksgiving and God’s Indescribable Gift

And verse 12 tells us why, because it is meeting the needs of the saints. This happens whenever we give. Now, I’m not only talking about giving to your local church, though that’s where you should start. We’ll talk about that more in coming weeks, but whenever you are generous and you meet needs, it results in thanksgiving towards God. He directs praise and glory to our God, which is the chief end of man. If you look again in verse 13, it says, “Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you.” The proof he’s talking about is the money given, [audio unclear] your generosity to them and to everyone. And if you’ve ever been in a place where you were in need and God met that need through someone else, yes, you’re thankful to the person, but you’ve probably experienced what I’m talking about where you’re just like, wow, like, thank you, Lord. I didn’t know where this was going to come from. And you provided it. And he provides it often through his people being obedient. But that’s not all. It says also by prayer on your behalf, they yearn for you, because of the grace of God they have seen in your life. It leads to people loving and praying for you, not because of your greatness, but again, because of the grace of God that can be seen in your life. You are being like Jesus. You are being generous just as he is. And what does Paul say then? He says, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.” God’s indescribable gift. This is all a gift from God. He is the only one who gives increase. He [audio unclear] stories with us of God’s provision, and I encourage you to do the same with your children. They’re very open about where our family was financially. Even for some of my high school years there was a family budget in the kitchen with all of our expenses and income just like right there, and we had some lean times where I remember eating rice and beans a few nights a week, but we never went hungry. The Lord always provided. We always had what we needed. And my parents, even when my dad was without a job for months, never stopped giving. He was like, nope, we’re going to keep giving and be faithful to the Lord and trust him. And God met our every need and has always enabled my parents to be generous. And they have some crazy stories. If you ever see them here, I’m sure they’ll be back at some point, but they could give you story after story where God provided for them. And I think one of the reasons is because they’ve always been faithful to be generous themselves, whether they have the money to be so or not. But church, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, but in heaven. Don’t worry about what you need. That’s what Matthew 6 says: your heavenly Father knows; seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and he will take care of your needs. So be generous as God is generous, and watch as you’re enabled to be even more generous.

Applications

So, a few applications for us here. First, just like when we were in Matthew 6 last time, I encourage you, church, we’re starting off the year, check your heart. Steve was encouraging everyone, check your heart. It’s all about the heart. Are there idols there that need to be knocked down? Do you need to change? Do you need to repent from sin? Do you love money and are therefore afraid to release it? Probe your heart and ask God to reveal to you any hidden sin there. And when you see it, confess it and turn from it. And second, again, this is a heart thing. Just probe: where are you at with your trust and your faith in God? As I said, this Scripture is not a difficult one to work through. It’s plain; the hard part is trusting and obeying. Do you trust God and his Word? What would hold you back from doing this? God is faithful, church. Jesus said when talking to Satan when he was being tempted, do not put the Lord your God to the test. But it’s actually interesting in Malachi, there’s one place where he tells them to test him. In Malachi chapter 3, you can read it later, but they weren’t bringing in the tithes and offerings and God said they were robbing him. And he told them to stop and bring it in, and he says, test me in this, test me and see if I do not respond with blessing. So do you trust God’s Word? We all pay taxes, right? I mean, unless you’re a tax evader, unfortunately, you’re probably paying taxes. Most of us pay much more to the government, who gives very little back and keeps none of its promises. We do it because, or partially because, we’re afraid of punishment. We’ve got to pay up. But one of the things I was thinking about is like, who do we trust more? Who do we fear more, God or the government? And I think all of us would answer, oh well, obviously we trust God more and we definitely are, hopefully in the right way, more fearful of God than our government. But a lot of times with our money, our taxes come out, we don’t think about it other than to complain, but we don’t give to the Lord like we should. So my encouragement is to trust the Lord.

And then the third thing is take action, which is how you show that trust. Test the Lord in what he says. God is faithful to his Word, as we sing. We read his Word here. He’s faithful to do what he has said. So if you, when you examine your heart, you find that you don’t have a generous heart, that you haven’t been giving, be obedient. Start. You can start small, make a goal. It might mean major reorientation of your life. It will almost definitely require sacrifices. We’re imitating Jesus, right, who went and laid down his life. He was generous. He gave himself up for us. So giving, being generous, is a sacrificial thing. It requires sacrifice. If you think of the church in Macedonia, they gave out of their extreme poverty. It cost them something. So if you’re going to be generous, it will cost you, but it will be worth it. And fourthly, even though it’s another action, I just encourage you again, as I did last week, church, if you don’t have a budget, make a budget. It’s a lot easier to be generous if you have one. A lot of people have told me they want to be able to give freely and be generous so they don’t have a budget, but I actually think that leads to not giving freely; it leads to trouble. You should know how your money is being spent and you should know where it is going. When you have a budget, you sit down and you make intentional choices about how to use the money God has given you and you figure out what you need and the things that you have no choice about, which by the way, when I make a budget, as I said, you put that tithe or giving to the Lord as one of those needs, not a leftover thing. But you start there and after that, you go on. You can make categories for other things, for generosity. You can set a savings line item to build savings. So if a real need presents itself, you can meet it. You actually have money for it. If you see something or someone you want to give to, you can actually see what it’s going to cost you to do that, where you will sacrifice in your budget so that you can do the thing. It is helpful.

But my closing exhortation is this, church: be generous, just as God is generous to us. Give of yourself, just as Christ gave of himself for you. Sow bountifully and trust the Lord. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. God is faithful to his Word. Amen, church. Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are faithful to your Word, that we can trust you, God. Same as last week, I pray that you would reveal to us where our treasure is, where our heart is. Lord, we want to be faithful and obedient, and I pray that you would set anyone in our church who’s got just a problem with money, that you would set them free, Lord, that they would be set free from the idol of money and their heart would be given over to you. Lord, for those that step out and decide to trust you with the grace of giving and being generous, Lord, I ask that you be faithful to your Word as we just read, that you would do what you’ve said that you will do. Lord, as we’re ready to close up in the singing of your faithfulness here, God, make us a faithful church as we imitate you this year in 2026. Help us to slay the dragons of greed or lust or whatever it is, that fear that keeps us from trusting you with our money this year. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.