Sermon preached by Dale Appleby at St. David's Applecross on November 5, 2000
The givers give thanks because they see how wonderfully generous God has been. In more than one church I have been part of we believed God had called us to raise large amounts for building projects by direct giving. In both cases, when the day came to conclude the giving period, and we saw that what we had asked God and his people for had been given, there was terrific rejoicing.
The receivers give thanks because they are so grateful for the generosity and love of others.
The observers are also moved and commend it as a god-like act.
God is glorified when God's people see the implications of the gospel and give to further its ends.
We are talking about gospel ministry here. "Your obedience to the confession of the gospel" means acting consistently with what you say you believe. Understanding that the gospel involves helping other Christians in need; in providing for gospel workers; and paying for gospel ministries. Acting like that glorifies God.
Strong bonds of fellowship are formed when Christians give to other Christians and Christian workers.
However this is not always the case. Sometimes discouragement results when niggardliness rules. Or priorities of unbelief. Born again adults spend on average seven times more hours each week watching television than they do in spiritual pursuits such as Bible reading, prayer and worship, according to George Barna, a Christian researcher in the USA. His research shows that they spend about twice as much money on entertainment as they donate to their church and spend more time surfing the net than they do in prayer. Not all Christian workers benefit from generous givers.
The generous giving of the Macedonians and Corinthians was entirely due to the grace of God.
God has been graciously generous to us. That accounts for everything. Health, age, intellect, career, knowledge, experience, geography - all of these are aspects of God's grace to you.
God is richly generous to his people so that they can be generous in turn. Their ability to be generous is due to God's generosity to them. He gives them both the money to be generous and the generous heart.
What is this indescribable gift?
He became poor for us. He humbled himself to death on a cross for us.
Christ was made sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God. There is wealth!
This is the gracious heart that lies behind all our generosity. It is this great act of mercy which stirs up within us such great thanksgiving. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! Are you not moved every time you come to the Eucharist? Every time you remember again that one has died for all?
How glad and thankful our hearts should be as we think about this indescribable gift. So wonderful that we have been made rich beyond all measure. And in so many ways - not just in righteousness.
God makes us rich enough to be generous. His grace extends to giving us money to give away. He supplies us with what we need to give away to others.
"You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity," does not mean that we are rewarded for our generosity. Rather it means we are enriched so that we can be generous. God will continue to supply us richly in every way so that we can be generous. He gives us enough for ourselves and enough to give to every good cause.
God makes us rich so we can be generous. Like working for an employer who paid us $100 per day for our own needs and another $100 per day to give to those in need. Paying us so we can invest his money in people and in gospel work. It is not what financial planners will advise. But it is what God advises. He is the real employer. The company we work for is merely God's paymaster.
The outcome of grace and generosity is thanksgiving.
Its product is thanksgiving. Like praise, thanksgiving is at the heart of our relationship with God. We don't get much closer to God than when we are full of thanks to him.
Wealth - generosity - thanksgiving. That is God's business formula.
Do you have a thankful heart? Do you count your blessings? We can't grasp the ideas about generous giving without a thankful heart. Generosity and thankfulness go together. We can't be thankful without being generous. And we can't be generous without being thankful.
People who are full of thanks scatter God's gifts to all.
How much we have to be thankful for. What a great God we have to be thankful to. What a generous God. What a supplier to trust.