There is an expectation that generosity should change us.
The more radical the generosity, the more radical a transformation should occur. A few years ago the movie "Pay It Forward" came out. The movie begins with a wealthy man tossing the keys of his Jaguar to a young man on a street corner. As the young man searches for an explanation, none is offered. The wealthy man gives just the simple instruction, "Pay it forward."
In other words, take this extraordinary act of generosity and let it shake you to the core of your being. Let it be a defining moment that melts your heart, turns your will, changes your perspective, coverts your soul,and causes you to live a transformed life from this point forward.
Have you ever been the recipient of such extreme generosity? Has anyone ever filled your tank so full that you never ran on empty again? I don’t know about you, but no one’s ever tossed me the keys to a Jaguar.The movie "Pay It Forward" presents a compelling sequence of events, as one radical act of generosity after another climaxeswitha little boy giving his life to save the life of a friend. Giving away keys to a Jaguar is an extraordinary event. But what if someone gave uphis very life on your behalf? Would that act of generosity change you? Could you walk away unchanged?
Thanksgiving is about celebrating generosity.
Just what act of generosity, orwhose generosity are we to be celebrating? I hope that you are thankful for your parents, brothers or sisters, your grandparents, neighbors, teachers, mentors, your employer or employees, and your community leaders. I hope you are thankful for your church and for our young people who are serving in foreign lands, making the ultimate sacrifices for our nation and our well-being.
This Thanksgiving, I pray that you feel so overwhelmed by the generosity others have shown you. I hope thatyou willpay it forward to others every possible chance you get. Let their generosity change you!
The Bible has a special word for generosity: grace.
There is a sense in which all of us, religious or not, have been blessed by God. Matthew 5:45 (NIV) says, "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
God’s grace is an amazing thing. Were we to grasp the enormity of God’s generosity toward us, it would radically change us. In fact, we would never look back. We’d keep paying it forward to others without reservation. In fact, this is exactly what happened among Christ’s first followers. Having experienced the generosity of God, they began paying it forward to others.This involvedgreat sacrifice!
Acts 4:32-35 (NIV) says, "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need."
What act of generosity compelled Christ’s followers to behave so radically?
John 15:13 (NIV) says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
Romans 5:8 (NIV) says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NIV) one of Christ’s followers explains, "For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
For the Christian, the cross is the most compelling symbol of generosity in all history.
On that cross, God himself paid it backwards by taking all of our past sins,without exception, upon himself. He did this so thatinstead of living for ourselves,we might live for God.Of course, not everyone responds this way to the generosity of God.
Some people denyGod’s generosity.
There are those who will not only deny God’s generosity, but they deny that God even exists! This group has no compelling reason to live for anyone greater than self, and they rarely do. They are held captive to sin their entire lives, and they remain unchanged. See Romans 1:21-32 (NIV). "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."
"Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen."
"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."
"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."
Some peoplegive lip service to God’s generosity.
They are others who give lip service to God’s generosity, but have never been impacted personally by God’s grace. A lot of churched people fit into this category. They are churched, they talk the talk, and they point out the need for other people to receive God’s grace. But theythemselves remain unchanged. See Romans 2:17-24.
Just substitute the word "Christian" for the word "Jew" in this passage, and you will see a picture of the person who gives lip service to God's generosity.Romans 2:17-24 (NIV) says, "Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: 'God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
Some people abuse God’s generosity.
There is still another group that keeps on sinning so that God’s grace might increase. This is the group that boasts about how much God has forgiven them, but they are not acknowledging the high price that Christ paid on the cross for their sins. Romans 3:1-8 (NIV) says, "What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written:'So that you may be proved right when you speakand prevail when you judge.' But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? Someone might argue, 'If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?' Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—'Let us do evil that good may result'? Their condemnation is deserved."
Some people are being transformed by God’s generosity.
But then there are those who possess the true spirit of Thanksgiving. There are those who have become overwhelmed by the generosity of God, and who have been shaken to the core of their being.There are those for whom God’s generosity has become a defining moment that has melted their hearts, turned their wills, changed their perspective on life, converted their souls, and caused them to live a life for God’s glory instead of for self.
Romans 6:8-14 (NIV) speaks of these people. "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God."
"In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."
There is an expectation that generosity should change us.
The more radical the generosity, the more radical a transformation should occur.I hope that this Thanksgiving, the countless acts of generosity shown to you by others, will humble you. But I pray that God’s eternal act of generosity in Christ will transform your life.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NIV) says, "For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."