Generosity: Part 1 of 4

This past Sunday, I had the privilege to preach at a church in Aurora, Missouri. The topic: Generosity.

I think generosity is something that the church does well with at times, and not so good at in other times. And, honestly, as individuals we stink at it.

But, caring for the poor and needy is a theme that runs throughout the Bible. Deuteronomy 15:7-11 is one of the earliest instructions to care for the poor.

The Israelites weren’t supposed to take advantage of those less fortunate among them. Generosity was supposed to be a hallmark of their society.

One example of this can be found in the book of Ruth where the poor and the widows were allowed to go through a harvested field and retrieve the leftovers for their own use. You see in Ruth the practice Moses instituted as a way for the poor and widows to gather grain for their own use or to sell for profit.

What’s neat is that God makes two promises in this passage. One of them, Jesus acknowledged in Mark 14:7. The passages in Deuteronomy and Mark note that the poor will always be around us. Deuteronomy charges us to open our hands wide with our generosity.

The other promise God makes involves a blessing associated with our giving. I think sometimes we mistakenly associate God’s blessings for our giving as being financial in nature. But, this passage leaves the door wide open. God’s blessings for our charity may come in the form of financial increase. Or, it might be good health; better relationships; increased joy in our lives, or maybe some blessings we can’t even imagine.

Psalm 41:1-2 states this in another way. Clearly, there are physical, mental and spiritual benefits to being generous to those in need.

I know from my personal experience that for me, the biggest blessing is the joy in knowing I’ve helped someone. In fact, I can only really think of one time where I was financially blessed beyond measure for being generous. Most of the time, for me, the blessings are more spiritual. I get a real sense of joy knowing what I have done to help has made a difference. I think most Christians are that way, and it’s something that we’ll come back to in a little bit, because the generosity of Christians actually played a major role in you and I being here today.