"We Have Been Made Rich in Christ"
Sunday, June 2, 2013: 2 Corinthians 8:9
Mature in Christ Series: Devoted to Joyful Generosity

Introduction: A number of years ago I was going to be moving from Anaheim to Ontario, California. I had gotten a job to do Junior High ministry at a church in Rancho Cucamonga. So I called up a couple of friends and asked if they would help me move. They generously said “yes.” I rented a U-Haul truck and was to pick it up the next morning. That day, the day before I was to move, I was playing racquetball with a friend. I had played hundreds of games of racquetball without ever getting hurt, but this day was different. I was running and stretching after a shot when I felt something pull in my back. I went down to the ground and couldn’t move!! I had compressed a couple of discs in my back. I went to the doctor and he told me that I was to not lift anything over 10 pounds.

            Now fast forward to the next day, my friends show up to help me move, and I can’t lift anything over 10 pounds. My 2 friends were so generous and giving as they proceeded to move all my stuff for me!

            This morning, as we talk about maturing in Christ by being devoted to joyful generosity, I want us to think about what it means to be a giving people. Let’s pray...

I.                   What makes a generous heart?- (1 John 4:8)

a.      What is love?- As you grow up, one of the things you seek to learn is

how to love. At first you think that love is a feeling. So when you have strong feelings for someone you think you love them. Sometimes these strong feelings might lead you to be extra nice to people; extra giving. But the problem with thinking of love as a feeling, is that there will be many times when you don’t feel like you love another person.

            Then as you mature, you realize that love is more than a feeling, it is a commitment that you make to another person. You decide that you want to be committed and connected to someone who becomes special to you. And so love is more secure because it is not just about what you feel, but about what you would do for another. Your love is shown not just in feelings, or words, but in action.

            However, when I became a parent, I understood love in a whole new way. The love I experienced for my children was not just about feelings, but about something much deeper than that. I’m sure I cannot even adequately express the love I have for my children. But I do know that I love them not because of what they do, but because they are a part of my very being. I, along with Tami, created our children.

            In this understanding of love I began to understand God’s love for me so much better. I realized that God created me, and in my being created in His image, His love for me runs deep. It is in this love, the love of God that we see a generous heart. It is from this kind of love that comes a giving spirit. A desire to give from the depths of your being.

            If you were to ask a parent if they would give their life to save the life of a child, I believe most, if not all parents would say “yes.” I don’t think there would even be hesitation there. This is the extreme example of the showing of love.

b.      Generosity- So we think about generosity. What makes a person

generous? I believe it stems from the understanding of love. And we cannot fully understand love without understanding God. As we are told in 1 John 4:8, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” At the core of who God is, He is love.

            It is in God’s love for us that He is generous to us. If you doubt God’s generosity, all you have to do is look around you. God is so generous in how He created this world for us. God is so generous in how He made us in His image. God is so generous in His making us to be relational beings, meant to love and be loved.

            In a Peanut’s comic strip Lucy walks up to Charlie Brown and says: “You know what the whole trouble with you is Charlie Brown?” Charlie Brown answers: “No, and I don’t want to know! Leave me alone.” And Charlie Brown starts to walk away. Undeterred, Lucy responds: “The whole trouble with you is you won’t listen to what the whole trouble with you is!”

            When sin came into the world, it made it difficult for Adam and Eve to receive the love and generosity of God, because they became too caught up in themselves, and forgot what it meant to be giving and generous. They didn’t even want to know what the problem was. They just became self-absorbed in their own sinfulness. And this sinfulness was passed on to generation after generation.

            So, God decided to be generous in a new way…

II.                The Generosity of God in Christ- (2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:5-8; Romans 6:23)

2 Corinthians 8:9- “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 by his poverty might become rich.”

1. Grace of Jesus Christ- I think it is easy to forget that before God the Son

came to this earth, He resided in heaven. We read in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The Son of God lived in heaven in the glory of heaven. The Son of God was all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present. He had the angels worshipping Him. He had been involved in creation.

            We are told by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:5-8, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Jesus emptied Himself of being in the “form” of God, and took on the “form” of human flesh!

            Jesus was generous by being humble. Jesus was generous by coming to this earth. Jesus was generous by being born into the world. How? Because Jesus came to die on the cross for you and me. Jesus came to be generous to take away our sin by His death. Jesus was generous because He knew that His sacrifice would give us the gift of forgiveness from our sin. Jesus was generous because through His death we were able to be made righteous through faith in Him!

            Jesus understood that by emptying Himself of His God form, and coming to live on this earth, He would be able to give us a gift that is beyond anything we could imagine. As we are told in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Our sin leads us to death. Jesus’ amazing and generous gift gives us eternal life.

2. By His poverty- Let’s look at this another way. By His poverty we become

rich. We usually think that the sacrifice that Christ made for us was on the cross. And while this is true, it is even more than this. For the Apostle Paul, we see that Jesus’ sacrifice for us didn’t begin at the cross, it didn’t even begin at His birth. Jesus’ sacrifice began in heaven when He laid aside His glory and consented to come to the earth.

            In a little while we will take communion together. I want us to understand that when we partake of communion, this is an act of receiving the generosity of God. We must not take for granted what Jesus has done for us. We must not lessen the act of Christ on the cross. We must open ourselves up to how Christ so generously paid the penalty for us.

            We hear the words of institution, the words that explain to us that Jesus gave us this meal to not only remind us of what He has done, but to show the power of what He has done. This power of forgiveness and new life is given to us. When we eat of the bread and drink of the cup we not only proclaim the name of Jesus Christ, but we receive the benefit of Christ into our lives. We receive the generous gift of Christ.

            And so the poverty of Christ, taking on flesh, being beaten, and crucified, led to our richness. We are rich in that we are heirs of Christ. We are rich in that our sin is not held against us. We are rich in that we have gone from sinner, to saint, cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ!

 

III.             The Power of Generosity- (Romans 5:8)

a.      While we were sinners- As we think about the generosity of God we

must also consider Romans 5:8, which tells us: “For God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” What matters is not so much that I know God, but that God knows me, and still loves me. God knows me as the sinner that I am, and still chose to die for me!

            God’s generosity is shown all the more in that He is patient with me: God gives me second and third chances. God is kind to me. He often gives me gifts that I don’t deserve. God believes in me, even when I don’t believe in myself.

            Story of an incident that happened in the life of T. E. Lawrence:

In 1915 he was journeying across the desert with some Arabs. Things were desperate. Food was almost done and water was at its last drop. Their hoods were over their heads to shelter them from the wind, which was like a flame and full of the stinging sand of the sandstorm. Suddenly they realized that one of their party, a man named Jasmin was missing. “Who is Jasmin,” one asked? Then another remembered him to be the one who killed a Turkish tax-collector. In remembering this the man said: “What does it matter? Jasmin was not worth ten pence.” With this the Arabs rode on.

But Lawrence turned and rode back to find him. For an hour and a half, alone and at risk to himself, he rode against the sand and the heat. Then he saw a movement and discovered that it was Jasmin. By this point Jasmin was mad with the heat. Lawrence lifted him up on his camel, gave him some drink and made his way back to the Arabs.

When they saw Lawrence with Jasmin they said: “Jasmin, not worth ten pence, saved at his own risk by Lawrence, our Lord.”

            It was not good men and women Christ died to save, but sinners. We are those sinners who have received this amazing and wonderful gift.

b.      The desire in us- Next week Pastor Mike will talk more about how we,

as God’s people are called to be generous. But let me just prime the pump a little today. As God gives to us in Christ, it leads us to desire to be generous as well. As God has loved us, so we must love one another.

            Example- Illus. Unlimited, “We’re All Presents,” p. 230, #2. There is a story of a little 3 year old girl, who on Christmas morning was examining the presents. She noticed a bow had fallen off one of the presents, and in a moment of inspiration, placed it on her head and shouted: “Look at me, Daddy! I’m a present!”

            This is an important point. Christ died for us so that we could be in that place, free from our sin, to give of ourselves to others. At the heart of it all is the fact that we are to be a present to others. Because of who we are in Christ we can give to others of ourselves.

            Without Jesus’ giving to us, we could not hope to be in a place to give to others. It is by the freedom we receive from Christ that allows us to rise above our sinful, selfish ways, and desire to give of ourselves to another. But it is also in the gifts that God gives to us, that helps us to give. God gives us His peace, we can pass this on to those who are anxious. God gives us His love, we can share this with those who need to be loved. God gives us the knowledge of the saving act of Christ, we must share this gift with those who are lost!

Conclusion: We find the depth of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. As we say here often at CPC, God loves us as we are, but loves us too much to keep us that way. God knows that we battle with sin. God knows that we struggle to love well. So He sent His Son for us, to die for us, so that we could become so much more. God desires for us to be like Christ, and to be generous in how we love. But we must understand what love is before we can love.

            Communion reminds us of the cross of Christ. So think for a moment that you are in the upper room. Jesus is standing before you, and shares with you that He is about to be arrested, beaten, and crucified. Your first reaction is: Why? Then as you partake of the bread and the cup, and relate it to how you are lost in your sin, it begins to make sense.

            It ultimately makes sense in this wonderful verse: “For God so LOVED the world, that He GAVE His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not PERISH, but have eternal life.” AMEN.