What does God want to accomplish in us during tough economic times? How should the church respond to it?
Chadron Bible Church Podcast
Core Value: Generosity
[music] Hey Church family, it's Pastor Justin here, coming at you on the podcast here with another core value. We have a new month, the month of July right now. When this is being published, but a new month means a new core value, and our core value is generosity. Generosity, it'll always forever be a core value, in my mind, as part of the culture of any Church family. A community of generous Christ-like givers is a must. And generosity is something that I am excited about, but for some of you guys, you might be thinking the same thing. You're excited about generosity, you're a giver, you love it, that's your gift. But some of you guys are also might be thinking deep down, you know, well, man, here we go again, talking about giving, right? And how can God expect me to keep on giving with the economy the way it is? And I can relate to that, because like you, I too feel the inflation, I too wince at the gas pump and the grocery store. I too try to buy what's on sale on the front and the back page of the flyers and try to make wise purchases. So I can definitely relate to that, but the Bible would agree with that. The Bible talks profusely about handling money wisely and being good stewards of God's resources, and all of our resources are actually God's resources. That's foundational to remember when we talk about money or finances or anything really, that basically our money is God's money, and we should ask him what he wants to do with it. But if you're handling your money wisely these days according to biblical principles, that's great, because it's going to help you get through these tough economic times. But one thing I don't want us to forget is that the Bible also talks about being crazy generous with our money too, even when times are tough. A good example of this is the poor widow in Luke 21, one through four, who rather than giving off the top like we do, she actually put in all she owned. Even though she could only give two mites less than a cent in today's money, Jesus said she put in more than everyone else because she gave out of her poverty. Another model of generosity is the churches of Macedonia, of whom Paul said gave beyond their ability and of their own accord. So even though they were experiencing a great ordeal of affliction, they begged Paul to allow them to participate in giving towards the Lord's work, and they gave beyond their own ability. That's 2 Corinthians 8, 1 through 5. Paul said that because of their generosity, they were filled with joy, and their generosity was a clear sign that the grace of God was with them. I like to think they clearly embraced Jesus' words of wisdom in that it is more blessed to give than to receive. So right now, with that in mind and with the economic inflation and uncertainty in mind, I would have us think that God doesn't only want us to keep giving, but to actually challenge ourselves to give more. I think the Lord would have us lean into generosity even more, and I want to share with you why in their book, "Contagious Generosity," Chris Willard and Jim Shepherd describe how in the 2008 recession, which many of you might remember, churches typically responded in three ways. They would either deny, they'd live in denial, they would go into survival, or they would thrive. So many churches would deny, they would live in denial of what was taking place. The church leaders didn't talk about financial straits that they were experiencing, except behind closed doors. A lot of churches are afraid to talk about money too much because of some of the scandals and things in the past, and we certainly don't want to identify with that at all, but money is a large part of ministry and faith. And how we handle our money says a lot about who we are, but some churches in the 2008 recessions didn't talk about financial straits at all, and it left the people and the pew confused, and the end result was financial decline. Some churches, many churches followed their natural response, and they went into survival mode. They closed their fist, they played it safe, fearfully they locked up their finances and adopted a storehouse mentality, saving up as much as possible, and with the church tightening their giving, so did the individuals in the church, and these churches seemed to plateau. The third type of church, however, was the kind that faced it head on and thrived in it. They thrived, they didn't deny, they didn't just survive, but they thrived. They saw the needs of people hurting around them, and they became even more generous, living by faith and trusting that God is unhindered by the recession. He's not hindered today by inflation either. Some of these churches even gave away their rainy day funds to meet some of the needs that they saw. And these churches grew, and they're giving increased, and the generosity was contagious. People started to give, like crazy, and people became even more like Christ in the process. And at the end of the day, that's what I think God wants to accomplish in our lives in the season. It's not about the church budget, the building, or programs, or fundraising, though the needs are there. Yes, they are. They are there in our church. We and a handful of pastors that I've talked to recently all said that they think this economy that we're in has affected their churches' giving. All right, I'll just say that, that they sense it, they're aware of it. But I think at the end of the day again, God wants to accomplish in our lives just a Christ-like generosity. God is generous. He's a generous giver, and He wants us to be generous givers as well. This is about God cultivating in us a lifestyle of generosity. Even when it's not just off the top, but when it actually challenges us a little bit, the economy, this is our opportunity to demonstrate God's love and God's grace in action putting our money where our mouth is. This is about taking part in what God is doing. Generosity is about making disciples and becoming more mature disciples ourselves in the process. I mean, I like to think, and I shared briefly on Sunday morning in our call to worship about how we're all here because of other people's generosity. They were givers to some sort of ministry. They were givers in their time, their talent, their resources, and to make disciples. Just making disciples requires generosity. And so rather than deny the difficult economic times, refuse to talk about it or just allow the natural tendency of survival mode to take over, let's seek to become sacrificially generous. If the Lord leads you, challenge yourself to give beyond your ability. It's not the easiest season to be in, no doubt, but in this season we have the opportunity to increase our giving, our faith, and our Christ likeness at the same time. And we have the opportunity to share the love and grace of Jesus through our generosity, and that's exciting. And nothing says Jesus has changed my life, life, generosity. [Music]