Give and Be Blessed
Over the last year, as many of you know, the pastors have been in a process to better understand and explain who we are as a church. We recently did a series all about that, but one aspect we didn’t talk about directly is our values — or you could call them characteristics of our church culture. Most of these are obvious and they sort of come through naturally — God-Centered Worship, Bible-in-Relationship (or discipleship focus), Team Leadership, Spirit-led Sending, and Cheerful Generosity.
And we include generosity here because it’s just been true of our church. It’s undeniable. We have the data. For a decade, and especially in recent years, God has given grace to the members of our church to give generously. And for that, we thank God and we thank one another — but there’s actually a little detail here that I’ve been challenged about recently.
It’s that I would not be vague in expressing thanks. In the past, I’ve said to the whole church, to everyone, “Thank you, church, for giving so generously.” But the problem with saying it that way is that I’m including in the “thank you” people who have never given anything, which is unhelpful for two reasons:
It undermines the “thank you” to those who have given.
It creates an existential crisis for those who have not given, because you’re being thanked for something you’ve had no part in.
And so for everyone’e sake, I’m not going talk that way anymore. Instead, I’m going to say it like this:
Thank you to the members of this church who have given generously. There are many of you — so many of you that you’ve shaped our church culture. Thank you! And for the others of you who don’t give, I invite you to be part of that culture of generosity. I invite you to start giving something.
And I can make that invitation with integrity because my family gives and I believe with all my heart that Jesus is still right about everything he said, and he said, Acts 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
My exhortation is give and be blessed.
Let’s pray:
Father in heaven, you know our hearts and you know all the reasons we may not give. And inasmuch as any of those reasons is a fear that you will not take care of us, we repent. Father, we do look at the birds of the air, and we recognize that they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet you, our heavenly Father, feed them. And you value us more than you value the birds! You have promised to take care of us, and you have, you are. Forgive us for thinking you won’t. Forgive us for our unbelief, and if there are any other sins that we’ve harbored, would you bring those to light now in this time of silent confession…
…Father, we consider the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, yet for our sake became poor so that we in his poverty might become rich!
Father, in Jesus, you have been so generous to us! Oh make your generosity to overflow! To feed because you’ve fed us. To bless because you’ve blessed us. To give because you’ve given to us, in Jesus’s name, amen.
