Generous (Part 2a)
Generous

You’re listening to Generous, the 2008 Mars Hill Church Christmas sermon series. Pastor Mark Driscoll will be examining II Corinthians 8 and 9, which gives us an example to model our own giving by, and helps us remember that Jesus is the most generous giver of all. For more audio and video content, please visit marshillchurch.org.

All right, Mars Hill. We’re officially gonna do this. My wife just called and said, “Should we come?” I said, yeah, we need to double attendance today, bring the kids.

(Laughter)

I have never seen this much snow and ice and horrible road conditions in the 12 years of Mars Hill’s history. But we’ve never cancelled a service, ever, even when the Seahawks were in the Super Bowl and lost.

(Laughter)

And so, today we’re gonna continue forward. God’s been gracious. The electricity’s on at every campus. The satellite is working. And so, I’m gonna go ahead and pray, and we’re gonna continue in our series, “Generous,” II Corinthians 8 and 9. Of course, the purpose of the series was going into the end of the year, we’re a bit behind budget. Things are rough. Let everybody know what’s going on, so we could make up the deficit and have a great year end.

And the weather has certainly aided that cause. So for those of you who could join us today, we’re glad to have you. And for those who will be watching online, praise God for you.

We’ll go ahead and pray, and we’ll get to work. If you’ve got a Bible, find II Corinthians 8 and 9.

Father, thank you for those who will brave the elements today to join us at our services. And God, just do pray for safety. Pray that no one would have any difficulty coming or going – not just from our church, but all the churches in our region.

God, in some ways, I’m thankful for the weather. It’s been great to have the kids home from school a little early, to take my sons sledding and see them just laugh for hours. God, so there is a wonderful opportunity here for us to love our neighbors, to enjoy our friends and family.

And so, God, as we do study today, I do pray that our time would be pleasing to you, that it would be profitable to us. And God, when all is said and done, that we’d learn a bit more about Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.

Start by telling you a story. It’s that time of year at our house. We’ve got all our little Christmas traditions. Yesterday, it was Daddy Date Day with Alexi and I. She’s 5, blonde hair, blue eyes. And the rule is with the girls every year, we get a new dress for them, they get all dressed up. And I get dressed up. And they sort of lay out with me the order of the day, and we do a nice big Daddy Date.

So yesterday, we went downtown to the Space Needle, and she loves that rotating restaurant. Just absolutely is smitten by that. And she looked as cute as she could look. And we had lunch. And then we walked through the Seattle Center, and we rode the carousel, and went to the Center House.

And then we went to the Nutcracker, something I’ve never done. But I love Alexi, so we got good seats to the ballet and sat right up near the front. And the whole time, she was just on the edge of her seat, in her little dress, just absolutely awestruck by this ballet. She loved it. Got her some nice gifts from the gift store.

During one of the breaks, she wanted a cookie, so we went to get a cookie. And they were totally out of cookies, very long line. Everything sold out. And I looked at her, and I said, “Honey, they’re out of cookies.” She said, “That’s okay, I prayed to the Lord Jesus.” I said, “Well, then, we need to stay in line and just pray that Jesus brings a cookie out of nowhere,” ‘cause the last thing I’m gonna tell my little girl is, “He doesn’t do cookies. That’s a big job.”

So, we’re waiting in line, and all the cookies were gone. Everything was gone. Everybody left the line, ‘cause there was nothing left to sell, except for one couple in front of us, and they got the last bag of nuts. That was it. Literally, the concessions were cleaned out. And she looks at me, and I said, “Well, what do you think?” She said, “There’ll be a cookie.”

And true story, this woman walks up from the catering group with about six more cookies at that moment, and Alexi got her cookie. And she looked at me. She said, “See, I told you, I asked Jesus for a cookie.” I said, “All right, cool.” So, my daughter, if you need anything, she’ll pray for it. She’s got the red line.

And we got done with our time, and we came outside, and it was snowing. We held hands and walked through the Seattle Center and went to our car. We had just this amazing little Daddy Day. I think my favorite was during the Nutcracker, her sitting on my lap in her beautiful dress, holding her little ballerina doll that we bought for her in the gift shop at the Nutcracker, and just being absolutely awestruck by what was going on, on the stage. We had this amazing, amazing daddy time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it with her.

And on the way home, we were visiting and talking. We were singing Christmas songs on the radio while the snow was coming down. And she said, “Daddy, thank you so much for my Christmas present.” And I said, “Well, you’re welcome, sweetie-pie.” And she said, “But I don’t know what to get you for Christmas. What do you want for your present.” And I told her, I said, “I always wanted a little girl. Thank you for being my daughter.” What a gift my little girl is. That actually made me cry, driving home in the Jeep, just thinking about the tremendous gift it is to have a little girl and to be her daddy.

And so she was my great Christmas gift. And Ashley and I’ve got our date this week. And me and the boys got our dude time set up. And it’s that great time of year, when we get an opportunity to enjoy family and friends, to give gifts, to receive gifts, and it all makes sense biblically.

It’s amazing even now, in our home, we got the nativity set up. And there’s the baby Jesus with the wise men, the Magi, and they come to give him gifts. And that becomes such a big part of the holiday tradition is generosity and giving. And it’s in light of this spirit of Christmas, where generosity and giving is part of the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

And also the fact that the greatest gift we receive are people who love us, like Alexi, who loves me. And those people who love us, they are the greatest gift. And all of this ties together. And what I was hoping to accomplish in the II Corinthians 8 and 9 series, that around the birth of Jesus, we remember the generosity of God. That God gives everything that we have, literally, and that God ultimately gives himself as the greatest gift who’s ever been given.

And Paul picks up that theme in II Corinthians 8, and he says that Jesus, though he was rich for our sake, he became poor. And Paul’s big idea in II Corinthians 8 and 9 is that there’s ten principles which guide generosity. We looked at the first six last week, where he talks about how Alexi is a great gift to me.

Jesus is the greatest gift to us all. That he has given himself to us, and that everything that we have, Paul says, is of the grace of God. That it belongs to God, and that all of our possessions and all that we have and own, all of our collective wealth, is gifted to us by God.

And if we understand that, it really changes our view of people and things. We go from loving things and using people, to loving people and using things to love them. That’s Paul’s big idea in II Corinthians 8 and 9. That as Jesus has been generous to us, as everything we have ultimately belongs to him, we are stewards of his grace. We’re stewards of our life to give ourselves in love to others. And we’re stewards of our possessions that have been entrusted to our care by Jesus, so that we might generously give to others.

And I know at this time of year, many people are struggling financially. The economic numbers are bad. Our church is in the middle of a series of layoffs and downturns as well. But I think 2009 is for us this amazingly wonderful opportunity to make budgets, to live within our means, and to be generous. Not just giving our possessions, but also giving ourselves, following the pattern and example of Jesus, to those who are struggling and in need.

And so, today I’ll pick up the last seven principles from II Corinthians 8 and 9 on this issue of generosity and how it relates to Jesus. Number seven, generosity benefits from friendly competition. I’ll read it to ya in II Corinthians 9. We’re picking up the second of the great two chapters on generosity in the New Testament.

Paul says, II Corinthians 9, “Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove vain in this matter, so that you may be ready as I said you would be.

“Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated, to say nothing of you, for being so confident. And so I thought it necessary to urge you, brothers” – here’s the competition – “to go on ahead to you and arrange an advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.”

Here’s what he’s saying. There’s two churches that he’s speaking to and of. One is in Macedonia, one is in Corinth. He’s already stated in the previous chapter that the Macedonians are really struggling under an economic recession. They are at a pain point that is not unlike our present day. Yet, in spite of that, they were very, very generous.

He said out of their strong poverty came overwhelming generosity. What he was saying is, they had nothing, and they gave – he literally says, “beyond their means.” And he’s using them as an example of people who are generous, and then he tells the Corinthians, the economic downturn hasn’t hit you as hard. Basically, they were Seattleites. Our economy has faired better than some. Better than most, in fact.

And he says, “Though you are doing better financially, you are not as generous as those who are struggling more mightily.” And so what he’s trying to do is he’s trying to sort of use the Macedonians as a good example, to spur the Corinthians on to greater generosity. And so, one of the things we’ll do in 2009, we’re gonna keep you regularly abreast of how things are going across the seven Mars Hill campuses. A little bit of friendly competition can’t hurt.

And I saw one cool thing this last week. I didn’t even know we were doing it. I was reading the PI, and I saw that downtown, Pastor Tim Gaydos and his team, they had given away 400 coats and fed 550 people last week on the coldest day of the year, which I thought was wonderful. And it’s good.

And those are the kinds of things, Pastor Jamie and Pastor Tim Beltz will join me at the end, we’re going to be funding and resourcing some of those kinds of friendly competitions between campuses. Who can give more? Who can serve more? Who can help more?

Not to boast, not to brag, not to have some sort of varsity/junior varsity view of those in Mars Hill, but just to have a little friendly competition to spur one another on, as the Bible says, to love and good deeds.

And so, I’ll give you the update, and here’s how it’s going for us at Mars Hill. The first thing we always do at the end of the year, is we pull up the giving of the pastors and see, are the pastors being generous? ‘Cause if the pastors aren’t generous, then it’s totally hypocritical to say anything to the people in the church.

The average pastor at Mars Hills is giving over seven-and-a-half thousand dollars a year. So, across the board, your pastors are being generous. Your pastors are giving at more than a tithe percent. They’re doing very well. We’re not concerned about them at all. It’s exactly what you would have hoped for. Exactly what we would have hoped for.

We talked to one of the leading not-for-profit accountants in the region, and he said that the average giving in the Pacific Northwest is about 1,800 to $2,500.00 per adult per year. In areas of South Seattle, that tends to be a little lower. In areas on the East Side and from the I-90 corridor up, it tends to be higher.

So, if you’re on the East Side, it’s actually probably 2,500 plus. If it’s North Seattle – plus – $2,500.00 a year or more. If you’re I-90 south, it’s probably more toward that $1,800.00 amount. And the average Mars Hill adult giver is about $1,900.00 a year. So we’re at the low end, particularly since most of our campuses are thus far on the North End and on the West Side and on the East Side. Statistically, we should be more at about that $2,500.00 level, and we’re pretty low.

And what’s happening now, nationally – it’s interesting as I talk to pastors – they are freaking out because their giving is going down to our levels, where we just tend to live. We tend to be a fairly lean church.

So, here’s the little friendly competition. I’ll show you what’s going on between campuses. Number one is Lake City, who I hear this morning had zero people when we started services. So, that may ruin everything for them. They were doing well ‘til today.

The average person at Lake City gives $216.00 a month, and about $2,600.00 a year. So, go, Lake City!

Number two is Shoreline, up north, $205.00 a month, about $2,400.00 a year. Tied with them is West Seattle. So West Seattle and Shoreline are neck and neck.

Number three is Bellevue, one of our newest campuses, with Pastor Jesse – about $190.00 a month, and about – just under $2,300.00 a year. Olympia, our newest campus, way down south, is a smaller campus, but so far doing well in generosity – $174.00 a month, or about $2,000.00 a year.

Downtown – $154.00 a month, about $1,800.00 a year. Ballard gets no gold star on its chart. Ballard is the Mariners of Mars Hill campuses.

(Laughter)

It is the Seahawks of Mars Hill campuses. We hope it doesn’t become the Sonics of Mars Hill campuses, but it is at $130.00 a month, or about $1,500.00 a year. And part of our problem going into the year end, so you know, is that about half of the attendance is at Ballard. So, if things were flipped and the preponderance of our attendance was at any one of the other campuses, we would actually have met and exceeded budget. But because of the struggles at Ballard, we’re really in a pain point.

Basically, the campuses are floating financially. They’re all at or near – close to – within striking distance of budget. Not Ballard – Ballard – Pastor Jamie’ll get into the details – we’re in the middle of going from a staff of 27 to a staff of 16, possibly less at Ballard. So, big adjustment at Ballard for 2009. Some people being reallocated positions in the organization. Others losing their jobs. And so, this is a hard season for the Ballard campus, particularly, and Ballard is struggling most mightily.

And so, I give that to you for a way of prayer and information, going into 2009. Paul’s next principle is the generosity point eight is about sowing and reaping. And I’ll read this to you from II Corinthians 9:6-12. He says, “The point is this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has made up his mind.”

That’s an issue for you to pray about. What should I give? Well, you gotta make up your mind. Gotta pray and search your heart and look at your budget, and figure out what Jesus has for you to do. Not reluctantly – not like you had to – not like you were forced to. Or under compulsion – not because we’re making you feel guilty, and we’re going to shake you down for finances. For God loves a cheerful giver.

The only way you can really be a cheerful giver is if you know that God is generous. That everything you have is a gift from him. That Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior has come to give his life, death, burial, resurrection for your sins, for you salvation, and that he isn’t taking anything from you when he asks you to be generous. He’s asking you to take what already belongs to him and to steward it well.

In the same way, if I came to you and I gave you a large sum of money, and I said, “Use some of this and give the rest away to people and ministries in need,” you should be very cheerful. Like, “What a wonderful thing that was done for me. I received generosity, and I get to be generous to others. That makes me cheerful.

Those who think that they are not stewards, that everything they have is theirs and not God’s, they’re unable and incapable of being cheerful in their giving, because they feel like something they own is being taken from them. As Christians, if it belongs to God, he’s not taking from us, he’s sharing with us. And so, we’re cheerful. It changes how we view our possessions.

It goes on to say, verse 8, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written: ‘He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”

I want us to note that. When he talks about harvesting there, the harvesting is not financial harvesting, it’s a harvest of righteousness. We’ll come back to that.

“You will be enriched in every way for all your generosity” – there’s our word – “which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supply the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.”

This is what he says, that ultimately, generosity is about sowing and reaping. And he uses the analogy of a farmer. A farmer goes out and he sows seed, and some of it takes root. And it grows. And then there’s a crop that’s harvested, so that food could be eaten, so that life could be sustained.

And he says that in some regard, money is like that. Money is sowing seed so that you can get a return. The great evil that is done with this verse is by those who teach prosperity theology, and they say that if you sow money, you get money. They turn it into a get-rich-quick scheme. That’s not what Paul says. Paul doesn’t say that if you give money to God, you’re going to get a good return on your investment financially.

What he says, you’ll get a harvest of – what? Righteousness. Righteousness. So, we do believe in sowing and reaping, but not in the financial means that some would misinterpret this text. We don’t believe this is teaching prosperity theology, where if you give money to God, you get rich. We believe it teaches generosity theology, that you should be generous with whatever God has entrusted to your stewardship and oversight.

And I’ll tell you what this looks like, practically, and here’s, I guess, the issue biblically. When it comes to the Bible, there are four kinds of people when it comes to money. If you’ve been around for a while, you’ve heard me say this – there’s two kinds of rich and two kinds of poor.

The two kinds of rich are righteous rich and unrighteous rich. Some people are righteous rich. One example would be Abraham, whom God blessed in every way. He had tons of cattle. He had great land, and he lived in great luxury. He was righteous. He loved God. He had sin, but he was repentant, and he had faith in God. There are righteous people who are rich.

There are also unrighteous people who are rich. One example of that is a guy in the New Testament before he becomes a Christian, named Zacchaeus. He’s a con man. He’s undergoing a lifetime of fraud and ripping people off. He’s rich, but he obtained his wealth in an unrighteous way.

The righteousness is, “How did you get your money? How do you steward your money? How do you save, invest, spend, tithe? How do you get your money, and what do you do with it?” That determines your righteousness. Is it out of love for Jesus or not?

Zacchaeus was a man who was rich, but he wasn’t righteous. As soon as he met Jesus, he because a Christian. You may recall, one of the first things he did is he said, “I’m gonna pay back everyone I’ve ripped off.” He was gonna go from rich to poor because his wealth was accrued through theft. And repentance for him included restitution, giving back everything he had stolen.

On the flip side, there’s two kinds of poor people in the Bible. There are righteous poor people. They’re not poor because they’re in sin. They’re not poor because God is punishing them. They love God. They serve God. They’re faithful to God. They’re just poor. Jesus is the greatest example of righteous poor.

In addition, there are people who are unrighteous poor. They don’t have money, but it’s because – Proverbs talks about, for example, the sluggard who won’t work. They just won’t hold a job. There are some who drink and gamble away, Proverbs says, everything they make. There are others who are always chasing fantasies and get-rich-quick schemes, and trying to leverage themselves to such a degree that perhaps they can strike it rich, and they can retire early.

That kind of greed and foolish planning leads some to financial devastation. Proverbs is clear on these things. And what tends to happen when people come to the Bible, they tend to think in terms of rich and poor, because culturally, we’re conditioned to think in terms of rich and poor.

And every election year, there’s a big debate about what the obligations of the rich are to the poor. And I’m not saying that all of that is necessarily bad. But in the Bible, it’s more complicated than rich and poor. And it’s really not about rich and poor. It’s about righteous and unrighteous. It’s about righteous and unrighteous.

Jesus, for example, uses the example of a widow, an elderly woman who was very poor, and she gave one coin into the offering. And Jesus says that she was very righteous and she was very generous, because she gave out of her poverty. So, the Bible lifts up people based on their righteousness, not based upon their riches. Not based upon their riches.

And so, when we come to the Bible, we can’t just say, “Well, is it rich or poor?” Because then there’s this competition between two things I’ll call poverty theology and prosperity theology. Prosperity theology says, “If you really love God” – and takes this verse out of context – “and you sow a faith seed, and you give money to God, God’s gonna make you rich. God wants his children to be rich.” Well, that’s prosperity theology.

On the flip side, some say, “Jesus was poor. It’s good to be poor. Anyone who’s rich must be in sin. That’s bad.” That’s poverty theology. The Bible is less concerned with poverty and riches than it is with righteous and unrighteous. It means that if you’re poor, make sure that you’re poor for a good reason. You work hard, you love God, you’re a good steward of your resources.

If you’re rich, to be righteous, to earn your money in a faithful and fruitful way. To be generous with those in need. To be generous to God. To not be greedy. And the Bible speaks of both groups, poor and rich, operating in a way that is nonetheless righteous.

And so, when Paul is talking here about sowing and reaping, he’s not saying, “Give money so that you can get rich.” That’s not what he’s saying. I’ve heard some teach on Christian television and crazy places hundred-fold blessing. You give God money, he’ll give you a hundred percent return on investment. Just crazy abuse of spiritual power. And, I think, taking advantage of gullible people.

Now, under this, I do believe in a harvest principle. That as we give money to faithful ministries, there is a harvest of righteousness. The more churches can get planted. The more evangelism can get done. More ministry can get done. More people become Christians. More lives get changed. And there’s a harvest of righteousness. That we believe. That we believe.

And I’ll prove it to you from my own financial portfolio, if you want to call it that. If we had a graph, and I graphed for you my real estate investments – the line goes down over the last few years. I own a home and I have a rental home – values down. On paper, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you look at my 403(b), which is the not-for-profit version of your 501(k) – your retirement account – it goes like this. Have lost tens of thousands of dollars. Not a great return on investment.

If you look at my giving to Mars Hill, it goes the other direction. Every year, Mars Hill’s grown. Every year. I can’t say that about my real estate or my retirement portfolio. I can’t say, “Yes, every year the numbers go up.” It’s been wonderful. In fact, lately, all the numbers go down. The only numbers that keep going up, insofar as my investments go, are my investments in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I don’t regret giving money to Mars Hill. Grace and I were talking about this recently. So, were having this conversation. I said, “Well, here’s where we’re at, baby, our real estate’s down. Our retirement’s down. Everything’s down. Our kids’ college fund is down.”

And Gracie, bless her heart, she’s got the gift of encouragement and faith, she says, “Well, at least Mars Hill’s up. That’s been a good investment.” I said, “Yeah, that’s true.” I mean, we’re up – not today, [Chuckle] – but we’ve been up a thousand plus people from the same time last year. That’s great. We’ve seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people become new Christians. That’s awesome. We’ve seen hundreds of addicts and abuse victims jump into Redemption Night and get help. That’s great.

We’ve seen many new campuses open just in the last year. We’ve seen additional services added. And we’ve seen lots of people get married, and lots of babies be born. And we’ve baptized hundreds of new Christians. And that’s a harvest of righteousness. And that’s all that Paul is saying with sowing and reaping.

If you look at it and say, “I have money. If I give it to God, how much more will he multiply it,” you’re really thinking like a pagan. All you’re thinking is, is God going to make me richer? And at that point, you’re not thinking about other people and how you can use money to love them. To serve them. To feed them. To minister to them. To evangelize them. To help plan a church for them. To help start a Mars Hill campus for them.

You’re really not thinking about people and Jesus and righteousness. All you’re thinking about is yourself and money. That’s a sad thing. But the principle is still true. If we give generously to ministries that are faithful and to people who are needy, there’s a harvest of righteousness. People’s lives get changed, and good things happen.

And so, what I see for us as a church in 2009 is an amazing opportunity to be generous. And to sow into the lives of people, community groups, Mars Hill campuses, church plants, ministries. You’re gonna hear about a micro-missions project that we’re undertaking as well, calling something the Generous Campaign out of this series for 2009.

We will give you on Sunday reports of things that God is doing for us to reap a harvest of righteousness in our region and our world. We’re gonna bring to you on Sundays, as well as on the blog at marshillchurch.org as well, needs. So, the first one – the need that I posted was an orphanage in Visakhapatnam, East India. We partnered with them for more than a decade.

We’ve got 136 orphan kids they plucked off the street. Put ‘em in an orphanage, feed ‘em, house ‘em, love ‘em, point ‘em to Jesus, give ‘em a good education. Get ‘em out of poverty. Many then go on to the seminary, and then go on to be church planters.

And this’ll be the first time ever that they don’t have Christmas. They usually get an outfit of clothes and a toothbrush and one small toy on Christmas day. It takes 20 bucks a kid to take care of 136 orphans, $2,720.00 or something. So, I posted that need. I just said, “Hey, Mars Hill, let’s be generous. Let’s love and feed 136 orphan kids that we’ve actually partnered with, and we dropped 40 grand a few years ago to help buy the land that their orphanage is on. So, these are kids we’ve already invested in and we know real well.

Those kinds of things will be forthcoming in 2009. We’ll be sending lots of materials to Iraq and Afghanistan, to soldiers in need, who are tuning in online. And we’re not doing that, saying, “And that will really increase our giving. We’re gonna get rich that way. We’re gonna pay off our mortgage early, ‘cause if we give money, we’re gonna get rich.”

No, what we’re saying is, “We want to be generous as a church to set an example for our people to be generous, so that there could be a harvest of righteousness. That more people could be loved. That more people could be served. That more people could worship Jesus Christ as God.

And whether or not our giving goes up or down, we still need to be generous. And we can’t do it for a financial motive. We need to do it for a righteousness motive. And that’s exactly what Paul is saying. So, if you’ve been in a church, or gotten teaching that is basically get-rich-quick scheme scam from II Corinthians 9, go back to the original intent and say, “You know what? He says it’s all about a harvest of righteousness. That’s more people worshipping Jesus. That’s a good reason to give.”

That’s actually a more cheerful and motivating reason to give than even financial wherewithal blessing and benefit. And then, number nine. This one is an interesting point that he makes. Generous is an evidence that someone is a Christian.

It’s not the evidence – it’s an evidence, 13 and 14, those verses say, “By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the Gospel of Christ” – right? Your giving flows out of your confession that you worship Jesus as God – “and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others. While they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.”

What he says is, one of the evidences that you’re a Christian is that you’ve had a change in understanding about generosity and wealth. Martin Luther said it well. He said, “The last thing to be converted is someone’s wallet.” That seems like that’s the last place that we have hard, difficult struggles with obedience and worship.

But Jesus says that worship is actually not just a matter of the heart and the lungs and the hands and the mind. It is also an act of the wallet. He says that where your treasure is, there your heart will be. And in context, he’s talking about finances.

One of the ways you know that you’ve met Jesus is that it shows up in how you budget and how you view and steward possession. Right? It just does. All of a sudden, you start helping people that previously you weren’t helping. All of a sudden, you start giving to ministries that previously you were only taking from.

And Paul is saying that this is an outworking of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That God, Jesus Christ, came into human history to give his life – sinless life – his death, burial, resurrection in our place for our sins, to give the gifts of salvation, eternal life, reconciliation with God, love, indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is a giver. And once we understand all that he has given, including, particularly, himself, it changes us.

And how we view possessions and stewardship and generosity is one of the evidences that we’ve met this Jesus whom the Bible speaks so well of. That being said, that was one of the first things that I experienced as a new Christian. I’d gone to some Bible studies. I’d gone to church. I’d taken a lot for a long time.

And then, when I became a Christian, God the Holy Spirit convicted me, “No, no, no. You need to worship Jesus, and that includes generosity, even though you’re a broke college student.” And so, this is an indication in how we view possessions and stewardship, as to whether or not God the Holy Spirit is in us, and he’s working to change our heart and our understanding.

And that being said, I’ll give you a few statistics. There was an amazing book written, called Passing the Plate. It’s by a man named Christian Smith. He is widely regarded as the leading religious sociologist in America today. He’s got a Ph.D., and he is a professor at the University of Notre Dame. His Ph.D. is from Harvard.

And he did one of the biggest surveys ever on Christian giving. And here is what he found. I’ll give you a few quotes from the book. “All of the evidence we will see points to the same conclusion when it comes to sharing their money. Most contemporary American Christians are remarkably ungenerous.” There’s our word.

“The goal of this book is not to morally chide or condemn American Christians for their tightfistedness. We do not need to do that. The numbers,” he says, “speak for themselves.” I’ll give you a few of the numbers. He says, “Americans, curiously, do not often view themselves as living in abundance. Most Americans, even the upper middle class, often see themselves as ‘just getting by.’” Well, I’ll tell you, a little bit of international travel changes that perspective.

He also goes on to say, “Calculated out, self-identified Christians in the U.S. earned a total collective income in 2005 of trillions of dollars. Christians in the United States who actually attend church twice a month or more often, or who consider themselves strong, or very strong Christians, earned a total collective 2005 income of more than $2 trillion.”

So, three years ago, American Christians, those who consider themselves devout, church-going, Bible-believing – we earned over $2 trillion. Needless to say, more than $2 trillion earned every year is a huge amount of money. It is more than the total gross domestic products of every nation in the world, except at most, the six wealthiest – the U.S., Japan, Germany, China, the United Kingdom, and France.

If all the Bible-believing Christians, just in America, came together – we would be the sixth or seventh richest nation on the earth. When Jesus says things like, financially speaking, “Of whom much is given, much is expected,” that should be very sobering for us.

I’ll give you a few more quotes. He says, “Earning higher incomes does not make American Christians more generous with their money. It actually appears to make them more stingy, protective, and distrustful.”

And then lastly, he says, “The wealthiest national body of Christian believers at any time in all of Church history end up spending most of their money on themselves.” That’s just what the facts declare. Now, in all of this, if generosity is in evidence, as Paul says, that someone is a Christian, then either Christians don’t understand what the Bible says, or there are lots of people who are religious, but not necessarily worshipping Jesus in all that they have and all that they are.

And in this, you can hear me – and I hope you don’t hear this – you can hear that I want something from you. What I don’t want is something from you – I want something for you. I want you to have a change of heart and mind so you could see your life as a gift from God, all of your possessions and wealth as a gift of God. To see yourself as a steward who gets to use some of what God has given you to pay your bills, to give some to the cause of ministry, and to be generous to help those in need.

I want you to see that if God should increase your standard of income, it’s not necessarily to increase your standard of living, but an opportunity, perhaps, to increase your standard of giving.

I want you to see that 2009 is a wonderful opportunity for us all to have a real moment of clarity and biblical thoughtfulness to say, “How do I view possession? How do I view wealth? How do I view debt? How do I view generosity? And if I’ve met Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwells in me and I believe what the Bible says, is my financial state reflecting what I say, or my theological convictions and my priorities?” And if not, it’s a wonderful time to make some adjustments.

And here’s the reason why, the tenth point is this: Generosity promotes the worship of Jesus Christ as God. This is why it’s cheerful to give. The more you give, the more opportunity there is for more people to meet and worship Jesus. It’s that simple. Am I saying we buy people’s salvation? Not at all. But by funding Gospel work, we’re opening up more opportunities for more people to meet and worship Jesus as God. That is exciting.

When you and I die, all of our possessions will stay here. The only things from the earth that we will see in Heaven are the people who have met Jesus. So that’s the great investment.

Back to my Alexi story at the beginning. She says, “Daddy, what do you want for Christmas?” I said, “You are my daughter. That is my gift.” I don’t mind getting things from my kids, but I really like having my kids. They’re the gift. I don’t mind getting things from God, but God giving himself to me in Jesus, that’s the gift.

And I don’t mind giving things to people. I don’t mind spending money on people. I don’t mind funding ministry, but at the end of the day, if people don’t meet Jesus and worship him, and spend, together with him, forever in Heaven, then ultimately, money’s not been well-stewarded; opportunity’s not been well-secured.

We want more people to meet Jesus. And I know it sounds so weird to hit this on what will be the lowest Sunday attendance of all of 2008, probably all the way back to like 1996. I think our attendance could be down to 1996/’97 levels. Our giving today is going to be horrible. Our year-end giving likely will not be great. We probably will not make budget. We probably will have more layoffs. And we’re gonna hit 2009 upside down on a very painful point.

And you know what? At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is if we can see more people worship Jesus Christ as God. That’s what really matters. And I love how Paul says it. He says it four times in Chapter 9. He says it in Chapter 9, verse 11, “You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.” Chapter 9, verse 12, Paul says, “For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.”

Chapter 9, verse 13, Paul says, “By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the Gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.”

And he ends Chapter 9, verse 15, the last verse in this section, saying this, “Thanks be to God for this inexpressible gift!” That Jesus is an amazing gift. That he’s an amazing giver. And that we have been gifted with an opportunity to be generous people, so that more people would worship Jesus Christ as God.

And I do believe that 2009, one of our great themes is going to be generosity. That if we are generous, the city, the region, the area that we love, that has been very opposed to Jesus and Christianity, the least churched city and region in the country, there will be an opportunity for us to show the love and the grace of God in a way that many have had a hard time hearing of the love and grace of God.

But because of need, because of fear, because of lack, because of want, because of struggle – we’re not going to take advantage of anyone, but we want to humbly love and serve as many as we can. We want to be generous as a church so that more people would worship Jesus Christ as God.

When we give instead of take, when we bless instead of curse, when we help instead of criticize, the question will invariably be raised, “Why?” Why? And the answer is, Jesus is alive. He’s a giver, not a taker. He loves you, and he sent us here to share his grace. And I do believe that people’s hearts will be open to Jesus in 2009. And I do believe we’ll have a harvest of righteousness.

So, with all my heart, I want to thank those of you who have been faithful this year. And I want you all to be praying for 2009. We’ve got a lot of great work to do. And I’m gonna bring out Pastor Jamie Munson and Pastor Tim Beltz, and I’m going to have them sort of give you a bit of financial snapshot – here’s where we’re at and going – here’s exactly what’s going on. We’re capturing all of this to put it online for those who could not join us today.

Hey, guys, how you doing? Pastor Jamie’s your lead pastor – I never know what the title’s are – and your executive pastor. And I’m the court jester. And they – they run everything at Mars Hill. Jamie runs everything with Tim. I don’t oversee the finances. I am not particularly skilled in areas of administration. And so, I thought it would be best to bring you gentlemen out, let you tell everyone what’s going on, since you’re far more aware of what’s going on than I am.

And Jamie, they know a bit of your story, I had you up last week. Do you want to tell them a little bit about Tim’s story, and then launch in?

Pastor Munson: Do you want me to tell ‘em or you tell ‘em? Tim’s been a godsend.