Generous and Wise

John

Generous and Wise / 2 Corinthians 9:1–15

We feel strongly about our things: value

We all have Stuff

Value is about what we are investing in

Matthew 6:21 ESV

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Generous and Wise Starts with Seeing God as Giver and All Else as Gift

2 Corinthians 9:8–11 ESV

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. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

This is the outcome of generosity and wisdom

2 Corinthians 9:6–7 ESV

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 decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Wisdom

2 Corinthians 9:7 ESV

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Generosity

The reason generosity matters in the Christian life is that the focus is not on resources but the focus is on people, the focus is on the other. The issue is not even on the opportunity, it is about the other person.

Generosity rights all of our relationships with God, the others and our stuff.

It places our lives rightside up, putting people and solving issues with the right stuff, more than just accumulating the stuff itself.

The church is called to have a generous response to life. Having been enriched by God. Experiencing His forgiveness for our sins, His mercy, His goodness, we can reply to God, others and the world based on that.