Fierce Church Sermons

Joy-Fueled Generosity | Fierce Pathways

• Fierce Church

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What does joy-fueled generosity really look like? 🤔💭
This week, Robert James teaches from 1 Corinthians 8:1–15 and shows us how Paul invites believers into a life of joyful, sacrificial generosity — the kind that looks like Jesus. 🙌

Paul reminds us that Jesus didn’t just give a little — He gave everything. And when our giving is fueled by joy, not guilt or pressure, it becomes an expression of Christ’s heart working in us. 💛

In this message, you’ll learn:
✨ Why God calls us to reflect His heart of generosity
✨ How to make sure money doesn’t quietly take over your heart
✨ The difference between owning vs. stewarding what God gives you
✨ Why grace—not pressure—is the foundation of Christian giving
✨ How joyful generosity changes lives around you
✨ How to live open-handed instead of tight-fisted 🙌

No matter where you’re starting, God wants to grow a heart in you that says:
“Lord, everything I have belongs to You — what do You want me to do with it?” 💬🙏

If you’re ready to experience the freedom and joy of giving like Jesus, this message is for you.

SPEAKER_01:

We are going to start. We're going to get right into some scripture this morning because our passage of scripture is going to come from 2 Corinthians, the eighth chapter. I'm going to get my time reading at the first verse, and I'm going to be using the New Living Translation. And it reads like this. It says, Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. They're being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more, and they did it of their own free will. They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. They even did more than we had hoped for. For their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do. So we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to return to you to encourage you to finish the ministry of giving. Since you excel in so many ways in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us, I want you also to excel in this gracious gift of giving. I'm not commanding you to do this, but I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches. You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that his poverty, by his poverty, he could make you rich. Here's my advice to you. It will be good for you to finish what you've started a year ago. Last year you were the first who wanted to give, and were the first to begin doing it. Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don't have. Of course, I don't mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you are in need. In this way, things will be equal. As Scripture says, those who gathered a lot have nothing left, and those who gathered only a little had enough. This morning we're going to talk about joy-fueled generosity. Joy-fueled generosity. Well, today's scripture, as you know, has really uh led us to a place that sometimes uh creates an uncomfortable feeling, especially when it comes to finances. But this very morning, we're gonna put our hands on our hearts and we're gonna touch the doorway of our finances. Culturally, I know we don't like to talk about money, we don't, but but here at Fierce, we do talk about money, so we're gonna talk about it this morning. Because the truth is uh money has a very sneaky way of sliding into only places that God belongs. Paul has showed us something very profound here in that the generosity has nothing to do. True generosity has nothing to do with how much we have. True generosity actually has everything to do with how much grace really has us. But before we get into uh before we get into Paul and what Paul said, before we go to Macedonia, uh before we uh talk about the offerings in Jerusalem, you know I gotta take it to a sailor story because that's where a lot of the action happens. A lot of the action happens uh when you're a young sailor. So there was this time uh when when I was a young sailor, and I mean, I thought I was really doing it. I had it all. I I you know, not only did I look good in my uniform, I was only about 175 pounds, soaking wet, but I was in really, really good shape. And I I mean let's be honest, I was it. That was it. You want to see it? That was it. I was it. So um I was independent, I had moved away from home. I was now, I was no longer in Chester, South Carolina, which is where I was born. I was all the way in San Diego, California, which is like three something, 3,000 something miles away from home. I mean, that was it. I was it. That's it. I was looking good, I feel good, I'm wearing a uniform, I'm independent, I can do whatever I want to do. I got all of this money and stuff, and I was making a lot of money too. I mean, in 95, I was making$800 a month, and that was, I mean, that was a lot of money. That was a lot of money. Because back then, I don't know if y'all know the minimum wage was only$425, but that's you know, whatever. So, but I was making a lot of money, and you know, just like any other young sailor, you gotta have a social life that is attached to the sellerism, and when you're it, you you have to have a social life. So I did uh, you know, I bought a 1995 cloud white Nissan Ultima. I mean, that was it. That even that increased my it by, I don't know, maybe 75%. The payment was$338 a month, and that's plus, well,$338 a month, and you add on gas, which wasn't like 99 cents a gallon back then, but the insurance as a young 18-year-old seller, as you would imagine, and we just go, we'll just do the math from there. Well, uh, one day, because of the call of the it in my life and uh the social life that is attached to the it, I went shopping, and I mean, I really, really, really went shopping. I I mean, polo, I ran Florence Polo store, I tore it down in there. I mean, I bought the Burgundy Eastland boat shoes with the bubble gum bottom. I don't know who can remember that. I might be aging myself, the ones that dyed every pair of socks that you put into the shoe Burgundy to match the the leather that was on them. I mean, I walked out of the store and feeling like not only was I it, but I felt like a million dollars. I mean, just just like that. It's amazing how that happens. Uh, well, after uh my my it factor uh had increased exponentially, and after I felt like I was a million dollars, uh I checked my bank account. And I realized that I was no longer thin. Uh I I was not uh I wasn't low. Um I wasn't tight. I was broke. And that was it's a bad place to be when this young sailor uh salary, I had to become very creative to make it uh to another uh payday. Uh and that was very, but but that's when it hit me, even though I didn't want to admit it at the time, that's when it hit me that money was holding a little more of my identity than than than it should have. That's that's when it hit me uh that I I I probably needed to be a little better with the resources that I have. And uh if we're gonna be honest, since we're here, since we're all here on this snowy day, some people didn't make it because it snowed outside. But since we're here, we might as well be honest that it's not really just a young sailor problem, it's actually a human problem. Because we've all done it at some point or another. And here's the truth: the truth is we don't just handle money. Most of the time, it's the money that we have that handles us. Money has a way of whispering our identity. Not only uh does it tell you you're successful, not only does it tell you you're behind, which is never a good thing, not only does it tell you that you're doing better than them, uh, not only does it tell you you should be ashamed because you're not where you should be, not only does it tell you uh you need this to be more than somebody, but we confuse it with who we actually are, who God wants us to be. And when that happens, when all of these things happen, fear grows and and greed grows, where you can never have enough, and then the comparison grows. And just like last week when Erica was talking about being attached to the vine, and that vine gave us abundant joy, when we pull away from our identity and our grace, we pull away from abundant joy, and joy all of a sudden disappears. We're chasing, constantly chasing, but never catching. But the Bible teaches us something uh that we have often forgotten that really money was was given to give us dignity. It was literally something for us to take care of. But somehow that nasty sin disease that we have actually got in the way and it it perverted what money really was supposed to be about. And I'm here to tell you, Fierce, that when money becomes our identity, generosity becomes impossible. I'm gonna tell you how subtle it is, it really is, because there's another nasty disease. Not only do we have a sin disease, we have I mean my disease, which I don't know. There's no vaccine for it, we just automatically have it. But we start to say things like my money, and we start to see things like my things, my success, my opportunities. And I know, I know we we now, right now, we'll be semantical, say, well, I know that the money belongs to God. I know that the things I have belong to God, the opportunities that God gave me. I know that, but but this is what it really looks like. And I'm gonna give you some examples here. I need the right shoes so that people think that I'm hanging with the right stuff. I got the right stuff. My apartment, my car, my tech is is is here. Now I'm showing people that I'm doing okay. What about my retirement fund uh becomes the measure of how well I planned so that I would have some stuff left over in the future, which totally dissolves your ability to trust in God and puts all the trust that you have in your money? What about showing the right house? When you have the right house, you got the right car, you're wearing the right outfits, you're going to the right restaurants, you're going to all the vacations, so we can put them online and everybody can see that we have this beautifully curated version of life that everybody wants to have like, wow, people can see it, and they really got it together. That's what I'm talking about. And what about what about this? When we fear not being able to keep up with the trends that that are going on? What about when we fear an unexpected bill uh exposing how tight things really can be? What about when we fear uh that our retirement savings uh are not enough and have become, what will they say about me? What about when our children need something and we're supposed to be in this place and have this thing now that we've put on this facade that we're doing okay, but we can't help our children with some of the simple things that they have while they're growing up. We're talking about joy-field generosity. But in those things that I mentioned, there there is no joy. So let's take it back. Let's take a look here. And I'm gonna lay some cover fire because we're gonna go back now and we're gonna visit the scripture so you can understand the struggle that the Macedonian church was having. And Paul here points out that they were severely afflicted, which means that they were experiencing distress, they were in persecution because of their faith, and they also had destitution, which means that they didn't have a whole lot. They they were extremely poor, and I'm talking about well below poverty line, poor, and they had very little by means of material wealth. So they really, they really, really, really didn't have nothing. But the Bible says that they gave uh they the that they overflowed with joyful generosity, they had very little, but they gave like they had everything. So here's the question how is it possible to have nothing and give so much? Why would you give so much really when you have nothing? Okay, well, here we go. I'm gonna tell you what we're gonna talk about, and then I'm gonna talk about what we're gonna talk about. So here it is. God, I'm gonna give it to you. Those, these are the cliff notes for those who just want to get the cliff notes. God really owns everything. And then Jesus gave everything, and and then we can take it with us, which is a controversial topic, but we'll talk about that, and and you'll be like, Yeah, he's right. We can take it with us. So here we go. We're gonna walk through these one by one. That God owns everything, literally, everything that God has given you, everything that he's put in your your power, everything that he's put in your reach, he's simply just made you a trustee of it. Paul says that the Macedonians gave as much as they were able and beyond. How? Why? Why why would they why would they do that? And it's all because they remembered a very simple truth, and it's really one that kind of sneaks past us all the time, is that that nothing that we have is actually ours. I mean, it's good to think that it's ours, but it's not really ours. I mean, uh, everything that we have literally belongs to God. All the house that we live in, that's his. Uh, the car that we drive, that's his too. Uh, the clothes that we have on our backs, that's his. The food that we ate this morning, that's his. Um, let me see. The lint that's in your pocket, you guessed it. That's his too. Um, literally everything that we have our health, our talents, uh, our education, our opportunities, they are all gifts from him. Everything that we have. We're managers, we don't own it. And that is one of the biggest struggles that I've seen in the church is that we have something, even when it comes to positions, that we own the position instead of realizing that we're really just stewards of the position. So the resources that we have and everything that we have really is because God uh God has gifted it to us. And when we start to put ourselves in a position where we're owners and not simply managers, we then become spiritual thieves. And I'll be transparent. I'll be transparent because I'll just talk about me because I don't want to talk about anybody else. So if I am talking about you, just know I'm not gonna call your name if I do happen to talk about you. Um so there recently here a family member called me and they they they addressed, they said they had a need. Here I am. I stepped in and I it didn't affect my household, it it didn't stretch me, uh, it didn't even feel like it was a sacrifice, but afterward I thought I could have done more, and then I realized that it was the Holy Spirit that was actually whispering to me, and he informed me that you're right, you could have done more because it was never your money to begin with. I'm a trustee and not an owner, you're a trustee and not an owner, and trustees don't ask how much of this can I keep? Trustees ask, Lord, what do you want me to do with what you've given me? So, what does that look like for us? We're gonna let's apply it to our lives. What does it look like for us? Well, this week and even this week and beyond, what we ought to do is when we uh have resources in our grasp, what we ought to do is say, Lord, this is yours. What is it that you want me to do with what you have just given to me? And the other part of it is we really need to start to repent from what I now have learned through my study, is known as silent embezzlement. And what silent embezzlement is, is the assumption that what we have, the money that we have, is ours to begin with. We we did, yes, you're right. I get it. I know I can do some wordplay. You're right. You did get up in the morning and drive to work, and you worked so hard, and you did all of this stuff, and payday came, and you checked your direct deposit, and then it was there, and you were so happy, and you did all of that stuff. But this is what let's let's rewind. What actually happened is God woke you up, let you get ready, you were in your right mind, so you were able to get dressed. God gave you the strength in your body to make it to your car. You started the car, and God allowed the car that you have, whatever kind of car it is, to start up. Not only did it start up, but you had enough gas. God made sure that you had enough gas in your car to get from where you were going. Then he made sure that you arrived to your destination safely. When you got to your destination, he let you walk into the building safely. Not only that, but he kept you while you were there and allowed you to live, breathe, and have a productive day while you were at work. That that's that's how it really works. That's yeah, you did. So yeah, now we know how that that that whole thing works. So not only does God own everything, and we're just trustees, but Jesus gave everything. It's literally his grace that should calm our fears when it comes to resources and open our hands. Okay, hear this clearly, hear this clearly. We Will never be financially free until guess what? We're spiritually free. Because whom the son has set free is free indeed. And notice the writer in the scripture said son S-O-M, capital S by the way, S-O-N, and not M-O-N-E-Y. Not only that, but we'll never be spiritually free until we really get a grasp on grace. And the grace that we have in this life really has to be more real than money or material possessions could ever be. Paul says Jesus became poor so that through his poverty we might become rich. What does it mean? It means that Jesus didn't just give 10%. There was no 10% of his life that he gave. He gave everything. He gave his blood, he gave his body, he gave his breath, he gave his throne, he gave his glory, he gave his life. Grace is not just what Jesus gave, but if you think about it, he traded his grace for this mess that we do. He literally lost grace so that we could live. And when you start to think about that, that oughta do something to you. It ought to change your relationship with money and materials and possessions and things. I know I don't know about you, but it changed mine. And the more I sit in scripture, the more I grow, I start to see just how unworthy I really am. I mean, the the more I meditate on what Christ has done, and the more I think about all that he went through just for me, the more something inside of me shifted. It's still shifting even now. Matter of fact, I'm thinking about a time that uh my grandfather would say to me that closed hands, you should never have a closed hand. Because when you have a closed hand, you can't put anything in it, and you can't take anything out of it. So I thought about it. What is what does it really mean? And I have this my beautiful uh uh example of Grace here is gonna give it. She has this closed hand, and it looks like there's money in there. Look at that. Look at that. I can't take that money, girl. Give me that money. Give me that money, girl. Well, maybe I'll try to push on her. What's happening? What she can't get it. But when you start to think about grace and your hand starts to open. So grace has a way of unlocking our hands, and and when it does, the the possibilities of what God can do in our lives, endless. Absolutely endless. And it it didn't, I I realized after after I realized grace had such a hold on me, not only did I open my hand or become open uh with and generous with my treasure, I also uh became more generous with my time, because that's important too. I become generous with my compassion, that's important too. And I become generous with my presence. So, what am I saying here? What do we do? Where do we go from here? If Christ's sacrifice is really defined more than money, what would generosity look like for us? What is he? God didn't ask us, he's not asking us for leftovers. He didn't give us leftovers, he gave us his very best. We should give people our very best and not what we have left. We should be willing to give and to give, and when we give, we have to be careful to make sure that we give with love, that we give with joy, and that we give with purpose, because generosity born from grace has heaven's fragrance on it, which means that if we can be generous down here, he smells it up there. So not only does God own everything, and we're just trustees, not only uh it's Jesus gave everything, and that it's his grace that ought to calm our fears. Why are we worried about uh how we're gonna do this and how we're gonna make it? We we put everything that we have in his hand, the one who gave everything, and it'll open our hands. And then, this is a very controversial point, and I don't know. There are some people who actually know what I do for a living, but just say I do uh work with people who are who have uh who are no longer living. And I have heard the saying over and over again that you can't take it with you. But my third point says you can take it with you. Matter of fact, uh if you invest, not in the stuff that we see around here, not in all of the stuff that's going on on TV, but if we invest in eternity, you actually can really take it with you. And Paul, he ends this whole section with reminding us uh of a truth that we often forget. That everything that we see here is all temporary. Nothing, nothing that we nothing that we see here right now will last. The Bible says that the the the grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of our God will last forever, and his promises and everything that he said to us will last forever. So you're right. We can't take the earthly stuff that we have. You know, you're not gonna take your house with you. I'm not gonna take my very nice car with me, I'm not gonna take uh all of my very nice stuff and my clothes and my watches and all that stuff. None of that stuff is going with me. Somebody's gonna get it. But then I realize that if I'm investing in eternity, the bank in heaven actually has a much better interest rate for those financiers that are out there. Heaven has an interest rate that is unbeatable in comparison to any, whether it's BMO, whether it's fifth third, uh, whether it's Chase, Navy Federal, and all of the other banks that everybody's trying to flock to, who has the best interest rate. The Bank of Heaven, I'm just saying it's mind-blowing interest rates. That's all I'm saying. And this is and this is what I've seen. When it as far as it comes to investment in eternity, these are things that we see right here locally in Fierce. We see it uh whether it's uh uh in our children, we invest in our children who are the future and will carry on uh this mission that we're on now for God, and it's in our ministries, our ministry groups that we have. Uh it is in the missions that we do abroad. And we just, this is since we are in uh our Freedom Month, this is uh the ministries that we do abroad, and and the the families that we work with while they're walking through the very crises of their life, and people who are hungry for hope, people who are hungry and have a need for us, and when we do that, fierce, we are living out Matthew, the 25th chapter, the 35th verse, where it says, For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison and you visited me. Then these righteous ones will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink, or a stranger and showed you hospitality, or naked and gave you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will say to them, I tell you the truth. When you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you're doing it to me. That's called kingdom impact, that's called eternal return. Matter of fact, I'm a product of your eternal return because I had two grandparents who raised me in the church. And would you believe that they did take something with them? Because God is still answering their prayers for me right now. That's treasure in heaven, not the stuff that we see, and we know that abundant joy that comes from the true mind, but generosity allows that to overflow. So here it is. This is what we need to do going forward. We need to give to people, we need to give to the gospel, give to gospel, give to church, give to the poor, invest in the next generation, and fulfill the mission that we're on for kingdom work. When we give to these things, we're not losing anything, but we're transferring everything that we have to eternity. So here it is the challenge that I have for you that Jesus didn't tithe on his life. There was no tithe on his life. I'm pretty sure he gave it all according to the scripture. He gave it all. So that we could become eternally rich. So my question here this morning really is I've had a lot of questions this morning, but this is perhaps the I would call the relevant question. Where exactly is Jesus inviting you to imitate his generosity? Is it to loosen your grip? What about to trust him more? What about to redefine your identity from what you have into his grace? What about to give joyfully? Because the Bible says that the Lord loves a cheerful giver, or is it to join the faithful 50? Is it to join give one? Stay tuned, there are some announcements and some details coming. But when we do whatever it is that he invited us to do, just know that we're not doing it out of guilt, we're not doing it out of pressure, but everything that we're doing ought to be marked with grace. Look, let's hear it is. Uh, when it when I when I have a whole bunch of it, sometimes this crept in and became my identity. When I didn't have enough of it, I got fearful, thinking out how am I gonna get myself out of this? But maybe I'm by myself or have we all done it because we're human. But here it is: God owns everything. Bible says that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. God gives everything, everything that we have, God has given us, and God sustains everything, which literally means that if he gives it to us, he takes care of it for us, even when we don't think it's possible. Here it is. We ought to let his grace hold our hearts and break money's hold on us. When we do that, we become a church not just known with pretty cars in the parking lot, we become a church not just known for the members having wonderful houses, but we become a church that is marked by the overflowing joyful generosity that people outside of this building can see. And I am convinced, I am persuaded that because we have Christ, the one who hung blood and died on Calvary's cross for us and got up on the third day with all power in his hand, in him we have everything that we need. No need to worry or care for tomorrow. Where you're gonna lay your head, what you're gonna need. Because if God can take care of the birds who don't toil and labor, how much more will he do for us? Think about it. Generosity that is joy-fueled only brings about more generosity, and that generosity becomes contagious. Let us pray. Father God, we thank you for how you've given to us. We thank you, God, that you are the source of all resources. God, we thank you that you remind us today that everything that we have has come from you. Thank you, Jesus, because you became poor so we could become rich in your grace. Lord, we ask you now to free our hearts from fear and from pride and comparison and open our hands, open our eyes, open our spirits to give with joy. Not because we have to, but because we show love. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Let us all stay together. Amen.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, folks, that's all the time we have, but thank you so much for listening to this sermon. If you got a lot out of this, feel free to share this with somebody who might need it. Also, there's a ton more content on our website, on our YouTube channel, on our Instagram channel, on our TikTok channel. Feel free to check all that kind of a thing out. Also, if you're interested in leadership type stuff, go ahead and check out our other podcast or any other blogs or videos or anything over at Bible Leadership.com. And whatever else you do, make sure that you believe God for something big today.