SERIES TITLE: SERMON TITLE

Happy Thanksgiving! It is less than a week away! Plan to join us for our Thanksgiving Lunch on Sunday, November 24, directly following our worship services. The cost is $20 per family, $5 per person. The cost is reasonable but the sense of community and love is priceless! Come and give thanks for all that God has done! We conclude our series Now Thank We All Our God with the sermon Choose Generosity. This is a logical and spiritual progression of this series and our growth in gratitude. The entitlement of our society robs us of gratefulness because we are too focused on what we deserve. The first sermon of this series encouraged us to choose gratitude, it focused on the power of a thankful heart. The second sermon encouraged us to choose grace, it focused on our need to recognize that we have gotten what we did not deserve through God’s love. We cannot earn it, it is an unconditional gift. God gives us grace because of his great love but he also wants to share the power of grace with others. This can be expressed in something as simple as graciousness but God intends it to do far more than we could imagine. We turn to 2 Corinthains 9:6-15 and the offering that the Corinthian church had committed to give to the poor believers in Jerusalem. There was a drought and famine in Jerusalem and the believers were struggling to survive. The Corinthian church had committed to the offering but it seemed they were going to give out of guilt. Paul uses this moment as an opportunity to highlight the power of the grace of giving. The Corinthians knew so very much but their actions did not match their words. Paul does not pile more guilt upon them, instead he shares with them a vision of God’s grace that can only be experienced in generosity. Grace is God’s gift to us and generosity is our expression of joyful thanks for this gift. Yet, this is not as easy as it sounds! Through the insight of the Holy Spirit, Paul shares with the begrudging, joyless, self-centered Corinthians a path to blessing, hope, joy, and thanksgiving! We can all be like these Corinthian Christians but God wants to give us a grace that is a treasure hidden in a field and worth more than we could ever imagine. We pray that the same Spirit and grace that transformed these Corinthians will fill your heart with overflowing praise and thanksgiving for all God has done for you as you read 2 Corinthians 9:6-15.

2 Corinthians 9:6-15: Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷ Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” ¹⁰ Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. ¹² This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³ Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴ And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (NIV)