This Christmas at Crossway is Be Generous month.  I want to remind all of us that the Kingdom economy is opposite to the economy of this world.  It doesn’t take an accountant to tell us that the more you give, the less you will have.  However, the benefits of giving far outweigh the money we may lose. Jesus teaches us that it is better to give than to receive.  The Bible is filled with verses that tell us the giver will be blessed.  Let me share a few verses with you and why we should be generous:

Proverbs 11:24-25  “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.”

1. The one who gives grows “all the richer.”  The generous person becomes richer in all aspects of life.  This involves spiritual life, relationships, joy, perspective, etc.  Remember that a person with much wealth is not a “rich” person.  
2. We were created to give.  The ESV says “should give” which is not strong enough.  The word implies being right or just.  In the New American Standard it says “what is justly due.”  Giving is the right thing, the just thing to do.  
3. We grow to become more like Jesus.  Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20 that this Christian life we strive to live is from the one who “loved me and gave himself for me.”  We become more like Him as we give ourselves away.  We experience the gospel of Jesus as we give love and give.

J I Packer sums it up so well in his classic, Knowing God. “Our shame and disgrace today that so many Christians – I will be more specific: so many of the soundest and most orthodox Christians – go through this world in the spirit of the priest and the Levite in our Lord’s parable, seeing human needs all around them, but … averting their eyes and passing by on the other side.  That is not the Christmas spirit.  Nor is it the spirit of those Christians – alas, they are many – whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends … and who leave the submiddle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian, to get on by themselves …   The Christmas spirit is the spirit of those, who, like their Master … enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others – and not just their own friends – in whatever way there seems need”.

Let me encourage you to continue to be generous.  Give a Gift to a foster child or give your time and serve the less fortunate in one of our events.  Let’s be more generous and become all the more richer in God.

crossway-church/begenerous