Generosity<\/p>\n
That is a very long word \u2013 what does it mean? It means giving a lot, more than people would expect. In our Bible reading we heard Paul writing to his friends in Corinth about generosity. About God\u2019s generosity to us \u2013 about how we loves to bless us, and encouraging his friends, and us to show generosity. We can show generosity in lots of ways, not just with our money or our things, but with our time, our love, our energy, our friendship.<\/p>\n
Gratitude<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t quite such a long word \u2013 but it\u2019s still quite unusual. What does it mean? It means being thankful and saying thank you. There is such a strong link between Generosity and Gratitude. When God is generous to us, we can show our gratitude, we can say thank you, by being generous to other people, and then they will be grateful to God as well. As Paul says, \u201cyour generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. <\/p>\n
Goodness<\/p>\n
In this part of his letter Paul talks about righteousness. This is a very long word, and doesn\u2019t begin with G. So, we\u2019ve got Goodness instead, which is pretty much the same thing. God shows his goodness to us by his generosity, and Paul also links together our generosity and our goodness. Quoting one of the Psalms he says that people who are generous in what they give, their goodness will last forever. He goes on to talk about a \u201charvest of goodness\u201d. I wonder what kinds of fruit and vegetables you have grown this year. Just as you planted those seeds, and had a harvest, so as we plant seeds of generosity, so we will see goodness grow. <\/p>\n
Glorify<\/p>\n
And as we see that goodness grow, so it brings glory to God. We\u2019ve already talked about the way in which people\u2019s experience of God\u2019s generosity through us will lead them to thank God. But even more than that, Paul goes on to write \u201cpeople will praise God\u201d God\u2019s generosity to us is glorious, and as we glorify God by being generous to others. <\/p>\n
Gladly<\/p>\n
We had some birthdays in our family over the last couple of weeks, and we have some fun opening presents together. I wonder who here likes receiving presents and opening them? It\u2019s great isn\u2019t it. I also really enjoy watching people open presents. Seeing their smile and joy at what they\u2019ve received. This is what Paul is talking about when he writes about giving cheerfully, or gladly. Can you imagine how horrible it would be on your birthday or Christmas if someone just threw your present at you and said something like, \u201cWell you don\u2019t really deserve it, but I suppose I ought to give you something.\u201d That wouldn\u2019t really be generosity at all would it?<\/p>\n
Grace<\/p>\n
Now this word doesn\u2019t actually appear in our Bible reading this morning, but if we\u2019d read on to the end of the chapter, as Paul rounds up this section on generosity, he writes about the \u201csurpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. As is often the case with Paul, he\u2019s started writing up about one thing, and ended up talking about something else. I once heard Grace defined as \u201cGod\u2019s riches at Christ\u2019s Expense\u201d Which brings us on to our next word.<\/p>\n
Gift<\/p>\n
What is the indescribable gift that Paul was writing about? Who is it that Paul always ends up talking about, even when he\u2019s started on something else. It\u2019s Jesus. Jesus is the most important gift that has ever been given to us. The Father gave us his Son. And we killed him. So the Father raised him to life and gave him back to us. This is grace, this is generosity, this is the ultimate gift. What can we do but show our gratitude by giving all that we are and all that we have to him?<\/p>\n
God<\/p>\n
One of the hymns we sometimes sing at Harvest time has the chorus. \u201cAll good gifts around us come from heaven above. Then thank the Lord, or thank the Lord, for all his love.\u201d That captures something really important \u2013 all good gifts come from God. Everything that we can see, touch, smell, hear. God created it. All that we have, God gave us. Even the things we might think we earned or worked for \u2013 God created them in the first place, and then gave us the skills, energy, gifts to do that work. Everything comes from God. It all flows from God and God\u2019s love. <\/p>\n
Go<\/p>\n
Our final word this morning is very short. It\u2019s not difficult to understand, but it can be quite difficult to do. It\u2019s all about putting what we\u2019ve talked about and thought about into action \u2013 to actually Go and show our gratitude by being generous to the actual people we meet in our day to day lives. To Go to work and be generous. To go to school and be generous. To go to the gym and be generous. To go and meet a friend and be generous. Where ever you are going this week, go and be generous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Generosity That is a very long word \u2013 what does it mean? It means giving a lot, more than people would expect. In our Bible reading we heard Paul writing to his friends in Corinth about generosity. About God\u2019s generosity to us \u2013 about how we loves to bless us, and encouraging his friends, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[431],"tags":[1433],"class_list":["post-1225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wellington","tag-2-corinthians-95-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1226,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions\/1226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}