Are You a Generous Person?
Do you consider yourself a generous person, why or why not? Let’s look at Philippians 1:3-11 to see what the bible teaches about generosity.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:3-11
Team Hoyt
Rick Hoyt’s umbilical cord was twisted around his neck while he was in his mother’s womb. As a result he lived with cerebral palsy until May 22nd of this year.
At birth, some medical experts viewed Rick’s life trajectory as flat. He was written off as someone who couldn’t do much of anything because of his medical condition.
But when Rick’s fellow classmate became paralyzed through a lacrosse injury, he asked his father if they could run in a race together—to encourage others that life wasn’t limited by disabilities. Rick wanted to help others. Rick said, “Dad, when we are running my disability seems to disappear.”
Encouraged to fulfill his son’s dream meant that his father would partner with Rick to push, pedal, swim and carry his son over 1,130 finish lines. Team Hoyt encouraged each other and many fans, finishing 72 marathons and 6 Ironman triathlons.
Rick and his father established a charity, the Hoyt foundation, to build character and inspire confidence in disabled young people. It has generously served for years inspiring others to believe “yes you can.” Rick lived a generous life.
Paul was encouraging the Philippian saints while locked up in a dark prison. Instead of the crowds cheering him on, the only people watching him were the Roman prison guards chained to him. What was Paul doing while in prison? He wasn’t throwing a pity party or focused on his own needs. Like Rick, he was generously looking towards the needs of others.
What Do Our Lives Look Like?
It’s inspiring to look at the lives of generous people like Rick and Paul, but what about us? What do our lives look like? By nature, most of us are “me-focused” not “other-focused” We naturally prioritize ourselves above others. we don’t hold other people’s best interests in our hearts. To truly be generous, Jesus must change our affections; change what we love. A changed heart will enable us to:
- give generously
- partner generously
- love generously
A generous life lives large. It goes beyond ourselves. It’s epic because it echoes through eternity. God provides the finish line. It will be complete on the day of Christ Jesus, let’s pray together.
The Key to Generosity
Generosity focuses on and celebrates others. Generosity reminds us that our lives are designed to be intimately connected to others. That we can have meaning beyond ourselves. But its not something we naturally do. I can live generously, but I need a changed heart.
A Changed Heart Gives Generously
What does that changed heart actually look like? A changed heart reminds me that I can give generously. Paul is remembering and praying for the Philippians with joy because of their ‘partnership in the gospel from the first day until now’.
Paul’s partnership with the Philippians in chapter 1 verse 5, meant a financial partnership.
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
See Philippians 1:5
The Philippian church had been giving of themselves generously. Despite the fact that they were financially poor, there was something important that caused them to be so generous in giving.
The average person might evaluate their financial status and think, ‘I can’t afford to give.’ ‘If only I had more money, then I would give’. In this passage this poor church had so much trust in God for everything that even the most difficult thing to let go of—money—was based on a different calculation. Changed hearts propelled their generosity in giving.
George Mueller
George Mueller lived in England as a Christian minister during the 1800s. He refused to take a salary in hope that fellow church members would develop a grateful heart. He wanted the members to realize that God would provide for their needs, just as the Lord did for their pastor.
He and his wife prepared their own rented home to care for 30 orphaned girls. This grew into caring for 130 children that expanded into a house for 300 children and finally 5 separate homes for hundreds of orphans. They were living large! He never asked people for money and never went into debt. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t stressful times. Sometimes they would exhaust all of their money only to receive food donations just hours before they were needed for all those children. He and his wife were partnering with God in generosity on behalf of the children.
Mueller was known as a man of prayer, who completely trusted the Lord to provide. He kept detailed records of every donation down to the smallest one. He wanted others to know the abundant provision of the Lord and felt that his personal life would prove his claims. His Christian life became one of anticipation as to how the Lord would give generously. Can you imagine living like this? The Philippian church gave this way, and we are reading about it thousands of years later. Is your giving reflecting your trust in God, or your lack of trust in him?
A Changed Heart Partners Generously
A heart change open doors for us to partner generously.
What makes for a generous partnering, rather than a typical partnering? The text shows that a generous partnering includes:
- discernment
- pursuing purity and being blameless
- producing good actions or what the bible refers to as fruit.
Let’s look at discernment first. In verse 9 Paul is praying that their love would abound more and more in knowledge and all discernment.
Discernment is when you perceive and comprehend something that’s hard to see on the surface. That can look like asking a question and then making time to listen to really understand your partner and ensure they feel heard. And then giving them what they really need, what’s good for them, not only what they ask for. Whether that be praying for them, sharing a word or scripture, or maybe even lovingly pointing out a fault or issue they can’t see. Even if it would be easier to remain quiet.
A generous partnering pursues purity and blameless living. Verse 10 calls us to be pure and blameless. The word pure speaks of moral and ethical purity or freedom from falsehood.
Blameless means not doing anything that would lead someone else astray. Pure could be thought of as internal and blameless more focused on external actions.
A good partner wants God to fully evaluate their internal motives. They don’t want to trip others up by how they live. A good partner doesn’t prioritize their needs above other partners. That is easy to say. Doing it is hard…impossible without Christ.
Christians can partner generously because God is doing the work in us! God generously fulfills what he starts in us, in spite of us. Look at what Paul says in verse 6:
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6
Finally, a generous partner produces good fruit. Fruit means outward actions springing from a generous heart. The heart is the key to everything we do.
Spiritual Scorecard
Apparently the scorecard in professional golf tournaments is so important that golfers actually have to sign off on it at the end of their final round? Are you ever tempted to carry a spiritual scorecard for yourself? Prayed today…check. Shared the gospel today…check. Prayed and shared the gospel? Christian superstar! Check check!! Good fruit happens as a result of abiding in Christ, not by producing the perfect amount of work that we think God will accept. If you’ve ever needed fulfillment through the amount of your spiritual work or felt empty by the lack of it, you’re missing out on the fruit of joy and peace that Christ produces through a changed heart. A changed heart goes from self righteousness to faith in Christ’s righteousness. A changed heart goes from self-awareness to self control looking to the day of Christ’s return.
Good fruit isn’t formed from the seeds of false humility whimpering around like Eeyore in self pity, always doubting, focusing on our inabilities and deficiencies. We don’t think less of ourselves because we’ve been given Christ’s righteousness. We think of ourselves less and partner generously.
Pressed Into Our Hearts
Living in Japan, most everyone is familiar with inkans. If you stare at the face of an inkan you can kind of see the image. But when you fill the inkan with ink and press it to paper, the impression clarifies what you thought about the inkan itself. By looking at the impression, we can understand the inkan even better than if we just look at the face of it. Understanding and sharing biblical truths is essential for Christian life, but it’s not enough. These truths must be pressed into our hearts to clearly show the impression it has made on our character, desires and ultimately actions.
Knowing God’s great love requires a generous response. Let’s consider two ways we can bountifully respond to God’s great love for us.
First, if Christians are to look after the weak and the poor, a good start may be trying to understand the causes of their hardships. Take those battling depression, for example. What are some things we can learn about others in this situation? What counseling or resources are available or could be made available?
The video Nozomi in your bulletin may be one way to learn more about hikikomori.
Once we learn about someone’s challenges beyond a surface level, we take another step to understand their deeper interests and ultimately invest in appropriate friendships, bounding beyond our comfort zone. We trust God that whether or not a great partnership forms with that person, you are making yourself available to partner generously with God.
“Did you know that 42,000 children in Japan were unsafe living with their birth parents in 2022?” This headline from the Japan Children Support Association is eye-catching to say the least. There’s a community responsibility to care for orphans, but the bible points out the deeper individual responsibilities of Christians to partner in walking the extra mile. What can we do? Again, a good starting point is to run to research and pray.
Finally, a report called WITHOUT DREAMS Children in Alternative Care in Japan that is a longer run towards generous partnership.
Saints, as we wrestle with ourselves to partner generously our love will be tested. What do the fruits of our motives, our thoughts, our mouths and the works of our hands, reveal? We can partner generously only by trusting the righteousness that Jesus Christ has placed in our hearts. It enables us to abound in love and together test what is excellent to be pure and blameless at the day of Jesus Christ.
A Changed Heart Loves Generously
I can love generously, but I need a changed heart.
Loving generously isn’t limited by our circumstances. Paul wasn’t with the Philippians when he wrote this letter to them. His love was abounding from afar. He was encouraging their love to abound more and more. Like a great coach, he was loving them through encouragement and by example. He held the Philippians in his heart. When God gives you grace to hold someone in your heart, your love won’t be limited to a place or by any action.
Paul says as much in verse 7:
It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
Philippians 1:7
Paul is reminding the Philippians that love holds on to others in the most intimate place, the heart. Why is he reminding them that they’re all “partakers of grace”?
As we will read later in the letter, some saints had forgotten they were partakers of God’s grace. Euodia and Syntyche, two female leaders in the Philippian church and Paul’s previous partners in the gospel, had turned away from a heart of love for each other through disagreement. They weren’t loving generously. How could their love abound more and more without the agreement that grace guarantees? God wants us to stand and grow in love so that we can love generously.
Paul yearned for Euodia and Syntyche with the affection of Christ Jesus.
When we insist on our own ways…our own thoughts and our own opinions, disagreements drop fellow believers from our hearts in favor of our own affections. We end up loving ourselves more and more.
You can’t love generously if you’re grasping for status through service like Euodia and Syntyche may have been. We can’t love generously if we’re prioritizing anything else that promises fullness like the affection of Christ Jesus does. We will always yearn for and hold onto that temporary thing that we love above holding each other in our hearts.
We won’t grow in love if we selfishly allow disagreements to drop fellow believers from our hearts.
New Hearts
But God has the power to give us new hearts. Not by what he grasped, but by what he released. The affection of Christ Jesus doesn’t seek its own. Christ’s love released his heavenly riches to become poor for us. He released heavenly worship to give us new hearts filled with more and more of his love.
The fullness of Christ’s love for the Father bore the weight of our sinfully shallow lives. The fullness of Christ’s love for us propelled him step by step up calvary’s hill. He was probably thrown to the ground, but he released his arms to secure fullness of life for divisive people like us. Jesus Christ was hammered to a cross for our refusal to hold others in our hearts.
Most likely his shoulders and wrists dislocated when his body weight was raised up on that cross. And in that agony he released himself fully to the Father’s will guaranteeing Christians fullness of joy, forevermore.
Standing on nails he pushed up to exhale his last breaths sharing the most generous words anyone has ever said to us:
Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
Luke 23:34
Are you living a lesser life than Christ died to give you? He rose from death and poured out the Spirit of God into the hearts of those who need the fullness of his friendship.
And that means I can love generously. I can love other Christians. I can love those I disagree with because we all share the same grace and gospel mission.
God Picks Us Up
God changes our hearts to live generously. He picks us up and we partake of grace so wonderful that it’s worth standing for. He picks us up to generosly stand together. We stand together in partnership. He picks us up to stand together in love. He doesn’t pick up those who pridefully stand in their own strength, but God gives grace to the humble.
Jesus didn’t grasp equality with God, but humbled himself to the point of death on a cross. He withstood what we deserve. He stood in our place. And God raised him higher than any man has ever gone or will ever go. Highly exalted above everyone and everything. May we be found pure and blameless on the day of Christ to his glory and praise.
Wayne
The Unknown’s Secret