The Power of Generosity

Undaunted is our series in the biblical book of 2nd Corinthians, how to stay undaunted through all of the challenges of life. My name is René, another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. So glad that you could join us here today.

Researcher Laura Sumner Truax wrote a book called Love Let Go that I just found riveting, and she opens the book up with this great quote that I want to share with you. She says, "All of us have a superpower." Did you know that you have a superpower according to science? Well, you do. All of us have a superpower capable of improving almost every aspect of our life. She says, "We flourish when we use this power and those around us flourish as well." In fact, she says, "When we use this power, studies show we have increased energy." Who would not like increased energy right now? Not only that, but we have also increased happiness. She says, "These results are as conclusive as the link between exercise and health, but equally amazing is that most of us simply don't believe it." She asks, "What is this superpower? Generosity."

And then she goes on in her book to talk about what studies show are some of the amazing benefits of generosity. For example, generosity lowers blood pressure. It reduces stress. It increases confidence. It lengthens lifespan. So let's talk about it. The superpower of generosity. The classic biblical passage on this is 2 Corinthians, chapters 8 and 9. Today, I'm just going to hit some of the key verses in this passage. And I know you are going to be so uplifted and encouraged today.

Here's the historical context, and this is very important. You understand this a little bit better. The Christian movement, of course, was started by Jewish people in Jerusalem. Then more and more non-Jews, Gentiles, became Christians, and there was tension, ethnic and political and doctrinal tension between these Jewish and Gentile Christians, especially between the Jews and the Romans. Because Jews understandably saw the Romans as part of an oppressive system that kind of was holding down and persecuting the Jewish people. And even the nice Christian Romans did things like eat eels and shrimp and get tattoos, all of which the Jewish people found offensive because it wasn't kosher.

And the most culturally Roman, of all the people in the Roman Empire in the first century, were the Corinthians, living in this city of Corinth in what is modern-day Greece. Even the other Romans saw the Corinthians as kind of excessively pagan in their culture. They were well known for being a city of kind of spoiled, brats, rich, self-indulgent people. That's how even other Romans would caricature the Corinthians when they were characters in Roman plays from the first century and so on.

So when the Jewish Christian believers, very conservative people, hear that across the ocean, these Romans in the city of Corinth are allegedly now part of their movement, they are skeptical to say the least. There's tension, all right? And then something terrible happens. There is a bad famine in Jerusalem. People are starving. They're not getting enough to eat. And so the Apostle Paul says to the Gentile Christians in this region, "Hey, let's do a food drive and help out some of our Christian brothers and sisters who are Jewish there in Jerusalem." He is literally going around to the Gentile churches raising money for food, but not just to feed the Jerusalem Jews. Paul sees this as an opportunity for reconciliation between these two divided groups.

And how relevant is this passage of scripture to us today? Here at Twin Lakes Church, our own food drive, as I speak, is underway. So I want to know, what does Paul say to the Corinthians to motivate them to give to their food drive? You're going to notice here, there is not one ounce of guilt motivation. This is 100% positive. You're going to love this. Paul says to live a generous life, to become known as a person of generosity, be inspired by three positive things. First by positive examples of giving all around you. Like the positive examples of other people in your life all around you right now.

Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1. He says, "And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches." Now, hip-hop for a second, this word grace, one of the most important words in this section of the Bible. It occurs 10 times in chapters 8 and 9. And of course, it's one of the most important words to describe our faith, and yet even Christians sometimes miss this. And our faith can become guilt-oriented instead of grace-oriented and can become a bunch of guilty people trying to guilt other people into how to act and how to think and how to vote. That's not what our faith is all about. Our faith is about grace.

Grace is God's unmerited favor. Grace means God lavishes good gifts on you all the time that you and I don't deserve. He just lavishes them on us for free like salvation. Plus every breath we take, every sunrise, every sunset, and a thousand gifts of grace a day in between those two events just stream toward us from God. And the more we get that, the more we live in that, the more we're going to radiate grace to other people like these Macedonians.

Watch this. Paul says, "In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity." I have a question for you. Do you know anybody who is characterized by these descriptors? Do you know anybody in your life, maybe in your past, maybe right now who has both overflowing joy yet also extreme poverty and also is richly generous? I'm inspired by these examples. I think in my own life, I think of my own mom. We were raised in poverty. I've told some of you that she raised us as a single woman up until I was in junior high school. The food we ate often came from the rescue missions, downtown San Jose rescue mission, food distribution. The clothes my sister and I wore were mostly from thrift stores.

The carpet that we had in our house, it was carpet squares that had been carpet samples and carpet remnants of weird shapes that my mom got literally dumpster diving in dumpsters that were behind carpet stores. Sometimes she would lift me up, "René, see what you can find back in the dumpster." I would grab this stuff and we would bring it back home, all these mismatched pieces, and she would glue it to our floor in kind of a quilt, and that was our carpet. We really did live in poverty, and yet my mom not only had extreme poverty, she had overflowing joy, and it welled up in rich generosity. She was one of the most generous people I know.

She taught me and my little sister, "Save money every week so that you can be generous, generous to church, generous to people all around you." My mom taught me something. Generosity is a mindset completely independent of wealth. Do you agree with that? It's a mindset. It's a way you think. It doesn't have anything to do with your bank account. It is an abundance mindset rather than a scarcity mindset. That is exactly what these Macedonian believers have, and that's why Paul says, "Guys, be inspired by them. Think of their positive example." And then second, he says, "Think of the positive example of Jesus Christ."

Skip to verse 9. For he says, "You know the grace," there it is again, circles back to it over and over, "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that through his poverty you might become rich." Jesus Christ was rich beyond our imagination, right? In heaven he did. He gave all that up to be born in a feeding trough and then being condemned to death on a cross outside the city walls. Why? Out of his overwhelming love for you. No strings attached, grace and generosity. Now of course he's more than our example. He's our savior. But when our imagination is captured by the positive example of Jesus Christ, then as the saying goes, we gave because he first gave to us.

Then finally Paul says, "Be inspired by God's desire for equality forever." This is very inspiring when you see it all through scripture. Skip a couple of verses. Look at verse 12. "Give according to what you have, not according to what you don't have." He's saying, "God doesn't judge you for what you don't have. We can't all give the same amount if you can't give to this food drive we're collecting for now. No worries, no pressure. Some of us are financially strapped. We're out of work. It is our joy to give to you. Others right now are at a pretty good spot. You're at a place where you can give." Paul says verse 13, "Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed but that there might be what? Equality." At the present time he says, "Your plenty will supply what they, the Jerusalem Jews, need so that in turn one day their plenty might supply what you need." One day you might be in a place of need yourself. They'll help you out. The goal is equality.

Now there's something he is talking about in Roman culture that makes this point especially meaningful. Back in the Roman days there was no such thing as a welfare system, right? Nobody got government money regularly. You had to find a patron. The Roman system of charity was this. Any elite Romans would sometimes adopt as what they called clients, poor individuals or poor families, poor neighborhoods, poor causes, right? And they would become the patron of those clients. However, this was not a no strings attached relationship. The clients now owed a whole series of social obligations to the patron. It was kind of like the mafia. "I do you a favor. I do you a solid. Now you owe me," right?

Well, Paul is saying, guys, Corinthians, I don't want you to have a patron relationship as Gentiles to your Jewish clients because what is that going to do to the Jewish mindset? That's exactly the kind of Roman system that they're rebelling against, that they're going to even see your patronage as really just another way of keeping them in a subservient relationship. You see? This is why Paul is saying this is not about one person having a lot, one person having a little, having that kind of unequal relationship. This is about equality. This isn't about some sort of system of oppression. And you and I, of course, have to watch the same exact thing with our giving today.

It is so easy for us to even unintentionally get into a situation where even our giving can't be toxic to a relationship. Paul's imagining a whole different way of giving that didn't exist at the time in Roman culture. Grace! No strings attached giving solely out of love, solely out of, "Hey, we're brothers and sisters. I give you something and you know what? You don't owe me a thing." No strings attached charity, that's called grace. But do you see how in all these verses, Paul is really, really leaning away from even a hint of guilt motivation? It's all positive examples of others, of Jesus Christ, of God's desire all through scripture for equality. Why? Because inspiration by example is always more effective than guilt. Would you agree with that?

This is what Paul's getting at, and let me just prove it to you right now. A couple of years ago, the Atlanta Boys and Girls Clubs made a video at Christmas. Now you gotta remember that about 83% of the kids they serve come from low income families. With that in mind, watch this. This year for Christmas, what are you hoping to get? A computer. Big giant Barbie house. A trophy case. Xbox 360. Minecraft Windows. What do you think your mom or dad want for Christmas? My mom would probably want a ring. She's never really had a ring. Joy, she loves Joy. I'm on TV. My watches.

So, we actually did buy an Xbox 360. What in the world, what is this? Okay, you really got this for me? A new ad album. Wow, it's a necklace. So we also bought a necklace because you said you also wanted to get a necklace for your mom or your auntie. The catch is that you can either get a gift for yourself or you can pick a gift for your mom and dad. I need you to pick one. Now before you answer, oh I bet that's hard. Is that a really hard question? Mm-hmm. What gift do you pick? I choose this. I gotta go with the ring. What gift do you pick? That one. That dress. I'll choose this for my mom. I'll choose this one. It's a really tough question. I'll give him this. You already know. Tell me why. Because Legos don't matter. Your family matters. Legos not toys. Your family.

So it's either family or Legos and I choose family. I get gifts every year from my family and my mom don't get anything. If I get a laptop, my mom will get something. She helps me when I'm sick. She helps me with my homework. She gave me a house to live in. They look out for me and do stuff for me so I need to give back to them. Now I have the opportunity to give them something. Because you actually picked the gift for your family, you're actually gonna go home with both. Tell me how you're feeling. I'm feeling really happy and thankful. Why? 'Cause happy. Thankful. For your family? For what? My family, everything. You did make his decision actually. Oh my gosh. And he picked the Pandora Charms. Oh that is... You're gonna make me cry.

So where are you putting your gift for me? Always for me? Always for you. Thanks guys. I was crying too. Yeah, and you know what? I was crying too. I gotta admit it. I mean, what you and I are feeling in that video is exactly what Paul is getting at in this passage to be motivated to live generously. First just look at the positive examples, right? Okay second, have a positive understanding of giving. A positive understanding of the nature of giving. Here's what I mean. It's so easy to think of giving as loss. But it's gain. I'm not losing money or losing my time. It's gain. I'm investing.

And this is what Paul's getting at when he says this. Remember this chapter nine verse six now. Remember this. Whoever sows sparingly, sowing meaning planting. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, reaping meaning harvesting. And whoever sows generously will also reap generously. He's talking here about the principle of sowing and reaping. You reap what you sow and you also reap more than you sow. I want to show you something my wife saw on Facebook yesterday. This is a 100 year old rhododendron and the woman who planted it. Isn't that amazing? What an example of the principle of sowing and reaping. She got back way more than she planted, right?

Here's the point. Who knows what beauty you could be creating, you could be setting into motion 100 years down the road with one simple kind act. Plant a seed. When you get this principle, when this is kind of like how you see life, man, this one blossom I plant, this one seed I plant could erupt into a thousand blossoms of beauty later on maybe a hundred years after my life. When you see life like this, then here is how you give. Next verse, verse seven. Paul says, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart." What you have decided in your heart. Don't let anyone else tell you what you should give. Paul says, "Not reluctantly or under compulsion, never give out of guilt, never get out of pressure. If you feel pressured to give, don't." Why? For God loves a cheerful giver.

Now when I was a kid, I used to always hear this verse like in Sunday school when they took the offering. Remember kids, God loves a cheerful giver. Like put a smile, paste a smile on your face. But you know what I never really asked myself until later is why. Why does God love a cheerful giver? Because that's what God is. God is a cheerful giver. God cheerfully gives to you every second of your life. The breath you just took, God cheerfully gave it to you. Your salvation. God cheerfully gave it to you and that means that you are more like God when you are cheerfully giving than at any other time in your life. Because cheerful giving is literally like the essence of God. Don't you love that? I told you this was all positive.

Now before our final point, you know every week in this series I've been interviewing another undaunted person. And this week a friend from Second Harvest Food Bank, I know his example of growing up undaunted through poverty is going to inspire you right now. I'm with Josue Barajas who is the chief programs officer at Second Harvest Food Bank. Josue, tell us a little bit about your story. I was raised by a single mother. There were times when we didn't have food on the table. There were times when we were sleeping in our car because we had to decide to either pay for our rent, pay for our utility, or pay for the gas and the car. And so we found ourselves later on during our time going to churches, going to food distributions and going to pantries to help kind of supplement the food needs that we had.

So how did your family get out of that state of poverty? My mother is, I love her to death and she's an extremely, extremely hard working person and there were opportunities where the only time I got to see her was when she tucked me into bed at night, kissed me on the forehead and then really quickly went to work. This woman was, still continues to be the hard work, the most hard working woman that I know and I'm biased because that's my mother. She was not only a hard worker, your mom you said was a very generous person. She was a generous, she still is. One time when we went to McDonald's, we had some leftover food and we took it, you know, we took it home but as we were walking out there was somebody who was outside asking for food and asking for money.

Minded that back then we still were kind of hard on money so we were sharing this Big Mac and chicken nuggets and fries and this drink in between three of us. There was leftover chicken nuggets and some fries and that was going to become our dinner for later on. She nudged me and said hey, you know, handed over to that person and I looked at her and I said this is my dinner, what are you talking about? And she, you know, she didn't hesitate, she said give it to him and I'll explain later. And the message that she gave to Mac in the car said you've already have a full belly, this person might not have a full belly, you don't know when their food, when their next meal might be. We're fortunate enough to have our bellies full now.

That's one of the biggest things that my mom taught me growing up was to give even though you don't have anything. Maybe there's people who need food right now, what do you think they don't know that in your experience they really need to know? A lot of people are still in fear that they go out to these sites and they'll get judged and that's one thing that I really want to just, you know, know as a personal experience that I've never felt judged. I never felt judged going to any of these sites or going to the sites when I was younger and I think that that's something that we need to continue to carry on and say that there's no judgment that if you're there, you're there to receive the food and whatever you decide to do with that food, whether it's you give it to that hungry neighbor that you know or that sick relative that you know, that's what makes the difference. I love that, just keep the generosity going.

You know I asked Josue and my other friends at Second Harvest what they're seeing out there right now with the COVID crisis, the fires here in Santa Cruz County, what's going on with food distribution? They said that food bank distribution, the need is up 70% since March. Our county has never seen an increase over six months in food need, in food insecurity like that in our lifetimes. 40% of the people they are seeing are first timers, never been to a food bank or a food pantry before in their lifetimes, they are typified by moms who have lost all or part of their work, now can't pay all their bills. We get a chance to stand in the gap for these people. Just as Paul said to the Corinthians regarding the Jerusalem Jews, this is our opportunity to serve them and we can do that at TLC.org/food. That is where you can go to donate online to the food drive. I would really encourage you to do that.

Every year somebody tells me I was going to donate but the food drive ended before I knew it so why not take advantage and do it now. Again, no guilt, no pressure, just do it if you can do it out of joy and enthusiasm. Now I want to wrap up with point three. You're going to love this because Paul just started out talking about positive examples, then he talked about having a positive understanding of giving, and then his third point he just goes on this soaring emotional crescendo as he says, "Be motivated by a real positive expectation of giving." Did you know that it's very biblical to expect rewards to yourself from acts of generosity? The Bible is full of this promise and Paul talks about it here.

He says, "And God is able to bless you abundantly." I think this is important. This is not like the universe blessing you. This is not just impersonal karma. This is God noticing what you are doing and personally blessing you just as Jesus talked about so that, now look at all the alls, so that in all things, at all times having all that you need you will abound in every good work. I think that pretty much covers every single thing in life. Then he quotes an Old Testament Psalm. He says, "As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor and so their righteousness endures forever." Now watch this. Paul is quoting here from Psalm 112. This is an ancient part of the Bible that was already a thousand years old or so when Paul wrote this 2000 years ago.

The whole Psalm, Psalm 112 is all about generosity and the benefits of generosity, the superpower of generosity, how it enriches you, the giver, not just the recipient. And I want to show you just a couple of more verses from the Psalm that Paul quoted, verses 5 and 7. It says, "Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely." Watch this. "They will have no fear of bad news." Wouldn't you love to have no fear of bad news? Well, the Bible says, and modern research proves that generous people just tend to be more confident about the future. Why? Think about it. They have learned from their own experience that when they're in need, their needs are provided and when they have enough, they get to provide for other people's needs. From their personal experience, they know the Lord will provide.

When you are generous, skip to verse 11, Paul says, "You will be enriched, you will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion." And then Paul says, "Through us," because he's going to be bringing that gift to the Jewish people in Jerusalem, "through us, your generosity can result in thanksgiving to God." I love what my friend John Orpig says about this verse. He says, "When you give, it sets a divine supernatural process into motion that enriches the one who receives and the one who gives. It enriches not only the people that receive what you give, it enriches you." When people's hearts become captivated by the desire to give, God enables them to give in ways that they could not have anticipated and they overflow with joy.

And this is what Paul means when he says, "You will be enriched in every way." And one more thing before we close. Did you know what else generosity can do? This will take us full circle back to the context of this passage of the Bible. It truly is a superpower because generosity can bring divided people together. It can bring people together toward each other. It can bring people closer to God. Verse 13, remember the context, "Because of the service by which you've proved yourselves, others," now who are the others he's talking about? The Jewish people in Jerusalem, "will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your profession of the gospel of Christ and in their prayers for you," he says, "their hearts will go out," whose hearts? The hearts of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem will go out to you Gentiles because of the surpassing grace. There it is again, that God has given you.

I love that phrase, "Their hearts will go out to you." Remember this is the end game for Paul. The end game is not charity only. That's great. The end game for Paul is reconciliation. Let me tell you a story you may not know. New Beginnings Community Church. This is the church where my friend Herman Hamilton is pastor. This is a non-white majority, multi-ethnic church. Did you know that New Beginnings Community Church in Palo Alto gave us Twin Legs Church a gift of $25,000 about five weeks ago for helping fire victims? They said, "You have fire victims in your church, in your church community. Here's a check for fire relief." And then their pastor Herman, a black man, specifically told me, "René, in this cultural moment, people need to see love between Christians of different colors. So we are doing this in the spirit of reconciliation." Don't you love that? That's powerful.

And we in turn have helped New Hope Baptist in Salinas. This is a black and Hispanic church. I interviewed their pastor, Artis Smith, a couple of weeks ago here. Well, they were robbed about two or three weeks ago of all their sound and video and computer equipment. And so we are helping them to replace that again in the spirit of Christian brotherhood. You see? And that is precisely what is going on here in 2 Corinthians. Paul says, "When you give, it brings culturally divided groups together and it brings divided people together." Maybe some people in your own experience, some people between whom you feel kind of a divide relationally right now, what generosity can do is their hearts will go out to you because they see the grace of God operating through your generosity.

And this is true not just between believers. Let me ask you this. How can we improve the reputation of Christians in America and the world and right here in Santa Cruz County? One word, generosity, right? With big gestures of generosity like the food drive and small gestures like bringing dinner over to your neighbor. Think about it. This is how Christians have always gained ground, especially in cultures that are hostile to the Christian message. I want to show you a quote that I love. One Roman Emperor, Julian, who was very anti-Christian, really tried to wipe Christianity out. He wrote a letter to a friend where he expresses frustration that the more he tried to destroy the Christians, the more they instead grew. And he had a great quote. He says, "These impious Galileans," in other words, for Christian, "support not only their own poor," like that'd be bad enough, "but ours as well." Like their generosity knows no bad.

To the Roman patron client mind, this made no sense. Like, why are they doing that? Is no strings attached? Generosity? Yeah, we call it grace. I love his frustration. It's humorous to us now, but you see, this is how then and now we Christians can regain credibility and goodwill, our generosity to our community through things like the food drive. I love that these two chapters are about a food drive. Christians have been doing food drives for 2000 years. This is part of our DNA to establish not only assistance for the poor but also reconciliation.

Now let's bring this in for a landing the way Paul does. Look at the very last verse in this section, verse 15. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift in Jesus. Paul started back in chapter 8, verse 1, two chapters ago with grace, and he came back to grace eight times during this passage, and now he ends with grace because this is what our generosity is grounded in. Not guilt, not ever, but God's grace for us every day and primarily the indescribable gift of Jesus Christ. So my question in closing is simple, have you received this indescribable gift? Would you like to? Then let's pray together right now. There's no time like the present. Would you bow your head with me?

Lord, we need your grace. We all need your grace. And God, I believe that some are praying this prayer right now with me. God I confess I am a sinner. I want to turn my life over to you right now and just receive your incomparable gift of grace. Some of us may have prayed that prayer years ago, but I've forgotten to live each day in that mindset. So Lord help us to live in that and then to live that out toward others. And Lord, I know there are many with us today in severe financial trouble. We pray for them as a church family right now and we commit to helping them by your grace. And we pray for all those impacted health wise by COVID and other illnesses. Lord, we ask by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would heal and comfort them.

And finally for our nation, as we move into this national election, please help us as believers to be examples of grace and love in the midst of these contentious times. Help us to make every effort to guard the unity of the body of Christ. And we pray all this in the name of Jesus through whom your grace is daily lavished upon us and will be forever. In His name we pray, Amen.