SPEAKER_02: Reading today is from Second Corinthians chapter nine.
SPEAKER_02: Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.
SPEAKER_02: But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be.
SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated, to say nothing of you for being so confident.
SPEAKER_02: So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have been promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.
SPEAKER_02: The point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
SPEAKER_02: Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_02: And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency and all things at all times, you may abound in every good work, as it is written.
SPEAKER_02: He is distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: He who supplies a need to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: He will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.
SPEAKER_02: For the ministry of the service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.
SPEAKER_02: By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.
SPEAKER_02: While they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you, thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.
SPEAKER_02: And so reads God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, my name is Mark.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new or visiting, I'm one of the leaders here uh at City, and it's great to have you with us.
SPEAKER_00: Um we are taking a pause uh for two weeks uh from our Romans uh sermon series.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we've been in the book of Romans uh since January, and we'll get up to uh the end of chapter eight by the time the summer comes around.
SPEAKER_00: But we're taking just a uh a two-week little uh pause uh to do something that we we do every year at uh at around about this time to uh to think about uh what it means for us to be a generous people, uh, what it uh what it looks like for us to be a church that partners with and blesses uh others, because we believe that that is a that's a good thing for uh for our hearts as individuals and uh as a as a culture of a church.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be uh known as uh as a church family that is uh generous and kind uh to others.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're uh we're taking two weeks uh essentially to uh to think a little bit about where generosity comes from, because there's lots of kind of confused thinking about generosity and about money in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here for the first time, you're like, oh my goodness, it's a money sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Please stick with me.
SPEAKER_00: It's not there isn't going to be a heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna want to show you the beauty of what it means to be generous, because I think actually we all want to be, we all want to be known as generous, right?
SPEAKER_00: We want to we want everybody to say of us, he's such a generous guy.
SPEAKER_00: You know the person, you know the person who's the last one to put their hand in their pocket to buy around.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that you don't want to be that person, right?
SPEAKER_00: So it's worth thinking about the um the underpinnings, where does that come from, that desire that is uh so sought after and commendable and not altogether easy to uh to achieve.
SPEAKER_00: But also to um to uh profile a little bit some of the people that we uh that we bless, that we that we partner with, because sometimes it can feel like uh you uh you set up your standing order and you give your money to the to the church and you're not quite sure what kind of black hole it goes into.
SPEAKER_00: Um now, if you're really not sure and you're not a member of City Church, can I encourage you to become a member?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because that's one of the places where we really do kind of have a lot of transparency.
SPEAKER_00: But it's good just to see uh little snapshots this week and next week about how uh our generosity goes to be a blessing to other people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh one here uh in our midst today, and then uh one outside of us uh next week.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that uh I'm constantly struck by in the Gospels, those those biographies of Jesus' life, is how his miracles are so uh lavish and abundant.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know what a miracle is, in people, miracles are little snapshots about what the kingdom of God is like.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is a place where there is no sickness, and so Jesus heals people.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is a place where death does not rain, and so he raises Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the kingdom of God is a place where there is no chaos, and so he calms the storm.
SPEAKER_00: The miracles are supposed to give us little hints and insights into what the kingdom of God is like, the kingdom that Jesus is is bringing in.
SPEAKER_00: So you think about some of his miracles, and one of the things that you see is that one of the things about the kingdom of God is the kingdom of God is lavish, it's abundant, it's generous because our God is generous.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you two examples.
SPEAKER_00: First, Jesus turns the water into wine.
SPEAKER_00: It's his first miracle uh of his public ministry, it's the first recorded miracle uh in John's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You all know the story, they're at a they're at a wedding and the wine runs out.
SPEAKER_00: Not a good thing, uh, not a good thing in any wedding, but a particularly shameful thing at a uh at an ancient Near Eastern wedding that would have gone on for days and days and days.
SPEAKER_00: And so you don't want to just be serving water to guests.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus fills up these uh these huge ceremonial water jars uh that would have held about 1200 bottles uh of kind of standard wine and he turns the water into wine.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know where you are in your faith journey and what you think of Jesus, but I know that there are lots of people uh who think that Jesus is the guy who actually turns wine into water, uh, that he's a bit of a killjoy, and that if you become a Christian, then you can't have uh any more fun and you just have to be a miserable person for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Um uh but what we see from Jesus turning the water into wine is that that is simply not true.
SPEAKER_00: He turns the water into 1,200 bottles of good wine.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the master of the ceremony said.
SPEAKER_00: You save the best and the last.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not that he just gives enough wine just to kind of get them through, to kind of save face and to uh to get them past their embarrassment, socially speaking.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: He lavishly provides for them way far and above what they needed in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you're you hear, you know, I don't really like the don't really like the wine example, think about the fighting of the 5,000.
SPEAKER_00: The feeding of the 5,000, you again, you may remember the story, you may have even colored it in in Sunday school as a kid.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a little boy who has a who has a lunch box, he's got a pack lunch, and uh, and there nobody else has any food.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples find the little boy with the pack lunch and they bring it to Jesus and kind of go, Well, would would would this would this do?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think it would stretch?
SPEAKER_00: Could we cut it up really small?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and Jesus performs a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: He provides uh for the 5,000, well, 5,000 men, so about 20,000 people.
SPEAKER_00: And what do we read there that everybody ate and was satisfied?
SPEAKER_00: It's not as though Jesus went, okay, uh this is a wartime situation, we're gonna need to ration this.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's just gonna get just enough to make sure that they uh they don't collapse on the way home.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's stuffed, they're all carrying their food babies home.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and how do we know?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's 12 baskets of broken bits left over.
SPEAKER_00: That it's lavish, it's abundant.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you think, well, the miracles are supposed to tell us something about the kingdom of God and what God is like, well, what do you conclude?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you conclude actually that God is generous, that the kingdom of God has a has a culture of generosity.
SPEAKER_00: How do people know that the kingdom of God has come about in earth, on earth?
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that the kingdom of God is in this place?
SPEAKER_00: Well, one of the ways is that people would perceive that among us there is a a spirit of generosity and and self-giving.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not even just about what you do with your material wealth, it's your it's your whole disposition.
SPEAKER_00: It's how it's how you regard your time.
SPEAKER_00: Are you time generous?
SPEAKER_00: How do you regard your talents and the things that God has gifted you to do?
SPEAKER_00: Are you generous with those?
SPEAKER_00: One of the ways that people will know at City Church that the kingdom of God is amongst us is by how we view our generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Is it something that we feel like we have to do?
SPEAKER_00: Or do we feel like it's something that we get to do?
SPEAKER_00: Why is this a marker of the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Why is this a marker of God's work in the world?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because I think that generosity doesn't always come instinctively or naturally to us.
SPEAKER_00: Augustine, when he talks about sin, and apologies if you've been at City Church for more than five minutes, because you've heard me talk about this before, but Augustine describes uh sin as being turned in on ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: That actually by by nature we are navel gazers, we're inland inwardly focused.
SPEAKER_00: We want to uh to keep for our for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to give to others.
SPEAKER_00: You see that with uh with kids.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'll give an example uh from from my two.
SPEAKER_00: Um that if we if we put a pizza on the table uh and we say, okay, you can have uh you can have four slices each because we've cut it into cut it into eight.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, what they'll do is they'll not eat a slice at a time, they'll they'll put their quota onto their plate because they're like, okay, this is mine.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put you know, zoo and I'm gonna put ketchup all over it, right?
SPEAKER_00: So you because he's a horror, right?
SPEAKER_00: So you put ketchup all over it and you guard it.
SPEAKER_00: You can't let anybody else have it.
SPEAKER_00: That's our kind of natural disposition.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that the good news of Jesus does when we see what he is like, is he begins to un unwind us so that we no longer just look in at uh at me, myself, and my, but we look outward to others.
SPEAKER_00: Religion can't make you generous.
SPEAKER_00: You think of the uh the parable of the good Samaritan, again, a story that may be familiar to uh to many of you.
SPEAKER_00: What have you got in the parable of the good samaritan where you have a man who is who is beaten and lying injured, uh dying at the side of the road?
SPEAKER_00: And the religious leaders pass by and they're they're protecting themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to become ceremonially unclean, they want to get on to their religious activities.
SPEAKER_00: And then along comes a Samaritan who in those days was a religious outcast.
SPEAKER_00: And not only does he tend to the man and see if he's okay and bind up his wounds, but he goes above and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: He takes him to an inn.
SPEAKER_00: He sees that he's uh given the care and treatment and uh medical assistance that he's needed and says, Well, send send me the bill.
SPEAKER_00: You see, in the kingdom of God, people don't ask, have I done enough?
SPEAKER_00: They ask, have I done everything that I could?
SPEAKER_00: The religious person might say, Well, no, I think I've done enough.
SPEAKER_00: I can probably kind of step back there, I think I've that's uh that's sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the person who is kingdom generous says, you know, have I done everything that I could.
SPEAKER_00: We must continually, and this is why we kind of talk about these things annually, it's we we must continually pursue generosity as a community virtue, as a as a culture among us, as a value that we hold on to.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, because there are practical needs and burdens that would need to be seen to, but also because our generosity is good for us as human beings.
SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't want to uh to be someone who is uh who is consumed by the need to uh to keep and to get.
SPEAKER_00: Remember how it is that uh Ebenezer Scrooge is described at the start of a Christmas carol?
SPEAKER_00: Dickens says of Scrooge that he was as cold and solitary as an oyster because he was so miserly, because he didn't have a generous heart.
SPEAKER_00: None of us wants to be known as that, certainly not feel that in us, that actually we're cold and cut off from others.
SPEAKER_00: But another reason why we need to pursue it is because actually generosity has evangelistic force.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that is so unusual in a sense.
SPEAKER_00: These guys bless others, and even when it's a burden to themselves, that they give for the needs of others.
SPEAKER_00: What a strange and curious thing that you would do that.
SPEAKER_00: But if a generous heart doesn't come naturally, where does it come from?
SPEAKER_00: What creates a generous heart?
SPEAKER_00: Some people might say, well, it's you know, it's peer, you know, peer pressure.
SPEAKER_00: The pressure and expectation of of others, you know, everyone else is giving, so I should give and it'll look bad if I if I don't, and you know, I need to be the part, you know, the social convention dictates that I need to be one of the people that puts my hand in my pocket and buys around.
SPEAKER_00: Social pressure might produce generous actions, but it can produce a generous heart.
SPEAKER_00: So what's produced is a generous heart?
SPEAKER_00: Well, some people then say, well, what about guilt and fear?
SPEAKER_00: Certainly, sometimes uh churches have peddled on that.
SPEAKER_00: Other charities have implicitly played on the sense of guilt that you are a have.
SPEAKER_00: Look at these have nots.
SPEAKER_00: And you go, oh gosh, yeah, no, I should I should probably help.
SPEAKER_00: Again, those things can produce generous actions, but they might not produce a generous heart.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they cannot produce a generous heart.
SPEAKER_00: What needs to happen in order for any of us to become radically generous is that we need to encounter the radically generous God.
SPEAKER_00: Only God can change the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: And it is when we encounter him and his generosity that we ourselves find that we are changed by him.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jared read for us uh 2 Corinthians 9, uh, where Paul in this section, uh really through um through 8, 9, and on into 10, Paul has been uh talking about a particular need that's going on at that time.
SPEAKER_00: There's a famine in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's been talking to some of the uh the wealthier churches, uh and in particular the church in Corinth here, which is a trade center of the ancient world, and kind of say making them aware of the the need and kind of saying, Hey, we actually really need you to help, but also giving the theological rationale for why they ought to be generous.
SPEAKER_00: And in the chapter before the one that Jared read, he uh he writes this in 2 Corinthians 8, uh verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what he's saying there?
SPEAKER_00: Let's unpack it.
SPEAKER_00: You know the grace saying Corinthian Christians materially well off, but you know, at one time you were spiritually lost, and God has come to you in undeserved kindness, that's what grace is, undeserved, unmerited kindness, and he's been gracious to you.
SPEAKER_00: How has he been gracious to you?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he says that the Lord Jesus that though he was rich, the King of heaven, the beloved of the angels, the ruler and owner of all things, the one who is due all splendor, glory, and honor, he did what?
SPEAKER_00: He set it all aside, he became poor.
SPEAKER_00: He gave it all away, and literally on the cross was stripped naked.
SPEAKER_00: He had no earthly possession, he was the poorest of the poor.
SPEAKER_00: They even bartered for his clothes, and he died with nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, again, in this very tight little verse, Paul tells us so that for your sake you might become rich.
SPEAKER_00: By his poverty, you might become rich.
SPEAKER_00: Rich in what terms?
SPEAKER_00: Rich materially?
SPEAKER_00: No, not necessarily.
SPEAKER_00: Many many followers and believers in the Lord Jesus are materially very poor.
SPEAKER_00: There is no guarantee in this life that you become a follower of Jesus, that that that wealth and prosperity are yours to claim.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, and yet the Christian is some of the richest people on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Because we know what it is to have our sins forgiven, to be adopted as children of the King, to have experienced the lavish grace of the Lord Jesus, to know that his perfect righteousness is now ours.
SPEAKER_00: By his death on the cross we are made rich, our debt of sin is cancelled, and that we are now clothed in the royal robe of his perfections, adopted as sons and daughters of the King, never again to be abandoned, never again to be forsaken, loved unconditionally, eternally, hell secure by his nail-pierced hands.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says that that is what creates a generous heart.
SPEAKER_00: That when you encounter that generous Jesus, you have your heart transformed by his own reckless generosity.
SPEAKER_00: And so you look at your life differently.
SPEAKER_00: You look at all the things that you have and think, well, I'm not gonna put my trust in those things because I'm putting my trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I'm not gonna put my hope in those things because if those things are taken away from me, my possessions or my career or uh my family or comfort or whatever it is, if those things are taken away from me, then if my hope is in them, what happens to my hope?
SPEAKER_00: It's no, no, I'm gonna I'm gonna put my worth, I'm gonna put my hope, I'm gonna put my trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: Because that, because he can never be taken away.
SPEAKER_00: He lives forever in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So to attach our hope to him really means that we can look at the things that we have and go, oh, it's a gift.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't use it to define me anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I can be a blessing with it.
SPEAKER_00: I can hold it, but hold it with a looser grip than I did before.
SPEAKER_00: The thing is, if you if you hold it with too tight a grip, one of the things that you'll find is it just begins to kind of fall through your hands like sand.
SPEAKER_00: Or that you'll crush it.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can say with the the hymn writer, my worth is not in what I own, not in the strength of flesh and bone, but in the costly wounds of love at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: My worth is not in skill or name, in win or lose, in pride or shame, but in the blood of Christ that flowed at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of Jesus creates generous hearts.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of Jesus creates generous people, because it is an encounter by faith with our generous God, who walked on the stage of human history and showed us those miracles that I referred to, and showed us the culture of the kingdom, that culture of lavish generosity.
SPEAKER_00: And so our generosity then is a is a response, a necessary response.
SPEAKER_00: Because if if we're being you know one of the ways of talking about Christian discipleship and sanctification is to say you become more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, what's the Jesus uh uh that we're supposed to come become more like like?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he's generous.
SPEAKER_00: So our generosity is a response to wanting and striving to become like him.
SPEAKER_00: It is an act of faith and dependence of saying that my my heavenly inheritance is secure, so I can hold my earthly possessions with an open hand.
SPEAKER_00: It is an act of worship that says, all that I have has come from you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, hold on a second, Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Like I worked really hard, actually.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you have.
SPEAKER_00: God has given you the intellect and the skills and the abilities to do that.
SPEAKER_00: All that you have has come from him.
SPEAKER_00: It is an act of discipleship as we cultivate generous hearts together, not just with our material wealth, but with our time and our and our gifts as well.
SPEAKER_00: So in the passage that that Jared read, Paul gives us some uh principles to think through as we as we think about well, how should we pursue generosity as a uh as a community together?
SPEAKER_00: What would that what would that look like?
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that the Paul says is that he's encouraging the the Corinthian Christians to give uh willingly, thought, thoughtfully.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that he knows that they have this desire to be generous.
SPEAKER_00: And so in the uh in the first uh two or three verses, basically what he's saying is uh I'm on my way to you, and I don't want to embarrass you by uh by putting you on the spot.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm sending this letter so you're prepared and have thought about how it is that you're going to be to be generous, because I don't want you to be humiliated if you're if you're unready.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to just spring it on them, so he's making them aware of a need.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing uh that that he says connected with that is that he wants them to give uh prayerfully, so willingly, prayerfully.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, he says, each one of you must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_00: But each of you has decided in his heart, that for each of you it should be something that you pray about, you think about you reflect upon.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what does it mean for me with my means to be generous?
SPEAKER_00: Generosity is not about what's in your bank account.
SPEAKER_00: You can be very well off and not very generous, like Scrooge, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or you can have very little and be very generous with it, like the widow that Jesus talks about, who came and gave the two small coins.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about your bank balance, it's about your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so you should prayerfully consider well, what does it mean for me with my means to be generous with what God has given me?
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, thirdly, third principle, is that it should be done joyfully, not under compunction.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't sit here and think, well, okay, fine.
SPEAKER_00: Mark's Mark's turned the screw.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll finally, you know, I'll scan the QR code and I'll go to the giving page, right?
SPEAKER_00: Fine.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, don't then, right?
SPEAKER_00: Joyfully.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, God has been lavishly generous to me.
SPEAKER_00: I can see his blessing in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be a person who continues to grow in that grace and in uh in generosity and being a blessing to others.
SPEAKER_00: And so, because of those motivations, I gladly think through, okay, how can I be a blessing to others?
SPEAKER_00: To do it joyfully, and then fourthly, to do it uh sacrificially.
SPEAKER_00: Paul here in this passage mentions the Macedonian church uh in verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: And the Macedonian church, what you need to know about them is they were the opposite to the Corinthian church.
SPEAKER_00: They were not a church that was well off.
SPEAKER_00: Corinth was in a major trade center, loads of money traveling to it's like it was like having a church in the city of London or in Manhattan.
SPEAKER_00: That was Corinth, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and yet here was Macedonia, and Macedonia, you know, could be uh, you know, dingle, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh down in down in Kerry.
SPEAKER_00: They're a church that's just kind of out in the stinks.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul is saying is those guys, even though they didn't have nearly the material wealth that uh that the folks in London or Manhattan have, that actually they gave beyond their means.
SPEAKER_00: That they gave so that it hurt them a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: It caused they had to they had to tighten their belt.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't think, well, actually, we're we're not gonna get that, we're not gonna get that take out.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're going to we're gonna increase our giving a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see?
SPEAKER_00: And they gave in response to a need, as I'd alluded to, that Paul made them aware that there was a famine in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: At City Church, uh our mission, you want to know our mission as a church?
SPEAKER_00: Our mission as a church is this to connect people to Jesus, to grow them to spiritual maturity, that they might serve the community and go to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Four things connect, grow, serve, go.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're about.
SPEAKER_00: We want people to meet Jesus, we want them to be mature and believers, and we want them to be a blessing to others wherever God has placed them.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're about.
SPEAKER_00: And our giving, how we give as a church, reflects that uh in terms of who we partner with.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that each year uh we give uh over 10%, we give closer to 15%, about 45,000 euro, uh, of our income to support other churches, uh, chiefly among them uh Redeemer, our daughter church that we have planted, but other organizations and individuals as well, uh, both here in Dublin and uh and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the people uh that we support is is here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he's doing your sign today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's uh is Owen.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna invite Owen down just very briefly.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give him this, and just for a couple of minutes, we're just going to check in with him.
SPEAKER_00: We uh interviewed him before um he started his time with uh Christian Unions Ireland.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they are an organization that we support, and we support uh Owen in his work there as a as a relay volunteer.
SPEAKER_00: So he's given a year of his time.
SPEAKER_00: He could have gone on and uh and uh and made all of the uh you know the ridiculous income that teachers get.
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, yeah, you know, that that that big teacher dollar.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he could have done that, but he turned aside from it in order to volunteer to serve students uh on campus this last year.
SPEAKER_00: So why don't you tell us just a little bit more about what that work looks like?
SPEAKER_00: What do you what does it mean to say that uh you serve students on campus?
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, the vision of Christian Unions Ireland as an organization is to give every student in Ireland the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: So it's a big mission.
SPEAKER_03: Um my part in that, there's kind of there's four different steps of this I can tell you about.
SPEAKER_03: Firstly, is I meet students individually, um, students who love the Lord, I meet them for Bible studies.
SPEAKER_03: We'll look at the Bible together, we'll we'll think about what it looks like to go on a mission, how do we grow in faith, how do we grow to know Jesus more?
SPEAKER_03: Um, and yeah, I really encourage other students, and I'm built up myself by doing that.
SPEAKER_03: Um, I also help the local Christian unions on different campuses.
SPEAKER_03: So I work specifically with DCU and Trinity, um, and I'll meet the committee, I'll help them think through what does it look like to reach to put on a good outreach event?
SPEAKER_03: How can we effectively um tell people on campus about Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: Um, I'll go with them onto campus and say if we're trying to advertise an event, I'll show them, oh, this is how you can approach somebody and I'll help them and support them and encourage them in reaching out to their campus.
SPEAKER_03: Um, also, Christian Unions Ireland, we will run different events and and programs for resourcing and training students.
SPEAKER_03: So Christian Union leaders will come to different conferences and events and we'll train them and encourage them and try and show them from the Bible why we reach out and fuel them that way.
SPEAKER_03: And finally, it's a lot of pouring out, but I'm also poured into.
SPEAKER_03: So I receive discipleship.
SPEAKER_03: I have a theology study program that I follow where I get to grow and I get to learn more myself.
SPEAKER_03: So that's kind of what I do in a given week.
SPEAKER_00: You're coming up to the uh actually to the end of your time with CUI, last couple of months.
SPEAKER_00: As you reflect on the year just gone, are there some ways that actually you've seen the Lord at work uh either in you or through you in your ministry?
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03: I think to like to preface that question, it's why is what I do, why does it matter?
SPEAKER_03: Why is it important?
SPEAKER_03: And actually, university is such a time where people are searching, they're trying to figure out what is what is my life all about?
SPEAKER_03: What where is my life gonna go?
SPEAKER_03: Um and there's a real openness for the gospel there.
SPEAKER_03: People are trying to figure out what life's all about.
SPEAKER_03: And even students who are already Christians who go to university, they're trying to, it's a real it's a real decision time.
SPEAKER_03: Am I gonna follow the Lord with my life or not?
SPEAKER_03: What's that gonna look like in my life?
SPEAKER_03: Um, so yeah, in in those things, how I've seen the Lord at work, firstly, is I've really seen growth within the students that I meet or within the students involved in the Christian Union.
SPEAKER_03: Um, I've seen people grow in their confidence and their ability to lead.
SPEAKER_03: Um, I've seen people be more excited to actually I can take that scary step and invite my friend to an event.
SPEAKER_03: I can tell my friend about Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: And I've really seen the Lord working inside people's lives as they grow in the assurance of their faith and their their willingness and excitement to reach out to others, which is such a blessing to see people grow in that way.
SPEAKER_03: Um, and a consequence of that is that I've seen people who don't know the gospel come to events and hear the message of Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: I've seen people, yeah, just walking by on campus, become aware there's a Christian union on campus.
SPEAKER_03: People are here who care about the gospel and it affects their lives.
SPEAKER_03: So I've seen the gospel going forward to people who don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: And I personally haven't seen anyone come to faith through that, but people do come to faith, saving faith in Jesus through the work of Christian unions across Ireland and across the world.
SPEAKER_03: Um, and finally, I have seen the Lord at work in my own life.
SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, I in one way I've been able to grow in skills and what it means to give a talk, what it means to open the Bible with somebody, but also just in my own heart, seeing more of who Jesus is, seeing more of what it means to live a life dependent on the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I've seen growth in my own life, and yeah, that will be hopefully be a blessing to the church and to others throughout my life, not just this year.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, so we are uh we're not the only church that supports you.
SPEAKER_00: Um there are there are others that are partnering with you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh what does it mean uh to you to have uh folks like your brothers and sisters here, your home church back home in Cork, uh, to be uh to be generous?
SPEAKER_00: How significant is that uh for for you this last year?
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you you could say it's pretty significant.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's quite simple really.
SPEAKER_03: Without the generosity of you guys and others, I can't do what I do this year.
SPEAKER_03: You know, when I go to Little and do my weekly shop where the roof over my head, 100% of my income this year is the generosity of people towards me.
SPEAKER_03: Um so like that's incredible.
SPEAKER_03: The only reason I can support student ministry is because people have chosen to give towards this work.
SPEAKER_03: Um so like it's massive, it's huge.
SPEAKER_03: So when you give to that black hole of the City Church giving page, part of that is actually enabling me personally to engage with student mission.
SPEAKER_03: Um and yeah, there's a lot there's a number of individuals and my church in Cork as well, who who are supporting me.
SPEAKER_03: And yeah, I probably don't often enough express how grateful I am because it really is, it makes such a difference.
SPEAKER_03: It enables me to give this year, I could have gone into teaching, but I have the freedom and financial ability to give this year to help students and proclaim the gospel on campus.
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I'm incredibly grateful.
SPEAKER_03: So thank you all for um for giving to me and supporting me in this.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, brother.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, give them a round of applause.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, one of the things that struck me as Owen was talking there, it's about a lot of uh a lot of generosity in uh towards Christian ministry is about uh is about saying that uh the people who have the desire to serve the Lord full-time and the the ability and the gifting to do so are simply freed up to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, Owen uh uh Owen has not, uh to the best of my knowledge, you know, gone off to the dealership and put a deposit down in a Maserati or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he is not, you know, this is uh his annual what his annual support has not enabled uh enabled a particular lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: It has simply freed him up.
SPEAKER_00: The money is not a uh something that he needs to be concerned about while he's giving himself to the uh to the work of to the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and he is just one example, and there'll be uh more next week, but of the the partners that we are uh that we seek to be generous uh towards.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I want to uh just then also just make uh you all uh aware of uh of where we're at uh as a church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when we do our members' meeting, like I said, this is the best place to kind of uh get this information.
SPEAKER_00: When we do a members' meeting, we have a much fuller breakdown of uh of everything.
SPEAKER_00: And we believe that actually the financial transparency is uh is a uh is a crucial thing for for any church or charitable uh organization.
SPEAKER_00: Um but let me just give you a snapshot.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a slide that's gonna come up uh just just here.
SPEAKER_00: This is I just pulled this from our from our last members' meeting, and this gives you just an idea of of where we're at uh as a church.
SPEAKER_00: So you'll see there that our uh our income uh is around about 26,000 uh euro per month.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me just double-click on that number.
SPEAKER_00: That number is uh is taken from two streams.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there's you guys, uh there is the internal uh giving income, and then there's external support.
SPEAKER_00: So again, if you come to a prayer meeting or a members meeting, uh we pray for uh those uh those churches uh that partner with us.
SPEAKER_00: So as we're generous to places like Redeemer and uh and Calvary Church Loch Ray, there are churches that are being generous towards us and pouring into us, and there are individuals as well who stand with us and who are uh and who give to us on a uh on a regular basis who are not um uh regularly part of our our church family.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know how that number is made up, it's broadly made up uh two-thirds internal, one-third uh external, but that's what that number is.
SPEAKER_00: So we uh we normally generate around about on average 26,000 uh per month.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see there total expenses, uh total um just over uh 30,000, about 30,400 or so.
SPEAKER_00: You think what does that include?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it includes our uh includes our giving, uh includes running the church, staff, venue rental, uh ministry expenses, those those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00: And again, become a member.
SPEAKER_00: If you're like, oh, I've got questions about that, become a member, come and ask those questions.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and then you'll be able to um uh uh to see uh how it is that we administrate uh the the funds at City Church.
SPEAKER_00: And as it stands, what that means then, because you're you've all uh uh done sufficient maths that you can subtract uh 30,000, uh sorry, 26 from 30,000 and realize that we've got a monthly deficit of about uh 4,000 euro per month.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that is uh that's not counting the external uh giving.
SPEAKER_00: If all of our external support dried up, um I'm doing a generosity sermon 52 weeks a year, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um but uh given uh that that is uh uh that those uh partners are are with us and we believe with us uh through the medium to long term, we're looking at a deficit of around about 4,000 euro per month.
SPEAKER_00: But actually, it's really great news.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm very heartened by that big red number over there because I have seen um City Church for the last 10 years.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh things have uh have gotten better and better and better uh throughout the uh the life of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to put it to you too, as you're prayerfully and uh and and and considering uh how it is that God would be calling you to be generous, I want to encourage you that I think together we can we can eliminate that deficit.
SPEAKER_00: I think that together, uh, if uh if there are a hundred of us, say, that think, well, I could increase my giving by 10 euro per week, uh, then that deficit is gone.
SPEAKER_00: Now there are some of you who won't be able to do an additional 40 euro a month.
SPEAKER_00: There are some of you who'll be able to do way in excess of that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm simply asking you to prayerfully consider how it is that you might be able to uh contribute to the work of City Church, to the support of Owen and Redeemer and others, as we seek to be a blessing here uh here in the city.
SPEAKER_00: In considering our own personal response, let me uh let me give you Paul's final principle.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's final principle here in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 is one of uh is one of sowing and reaping.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me acknowledge right at the start that uh that Christian preachers and churches have have used this principle in order to manipulate people uh out of their out of their money.
SPEAKER_00: And I do not think that that is what Paul is trying to do, actually.
SPEAKER_00: Um uh and so I am uh not going to do that either.
SPEAKER_00: I certainly hope.
SPEAKER_00: The reason why I think uh that uh that those preachers and teachers use this verse in order to manipulate people out of their money is because uh there is this false idea uh that uh that sowing and reaping is a is a singular monetary transaction.
SPEAKER_00: That actually, if I give some money, I'll reap back more money.
SPEAKER_00: The end, that it's a it's a transaction that I am uh that I am enacting with God, that if I give a little bit, he'll give me back more.
SPEAKER_00: But I simply don't think that that's what these verses are are teaching us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when Paul uses this principle of sowing and reaping, the first thing that he wants to tell you, the first thing that he wants to encourage us with is this idea that when you give, it's not in vain.
SPEAKER_00: And so we uh we jokingly uh allude to, I did and Owen did, you know, they it feels like sometimes you go on the giving page and like you're just giving money into a black hole.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul's saying, no, that's not true, that as you give, as you sow, God has so ordered the world and ordered his kingdom that there will be a return.
SPEAKER_00: And we've given you a glimpse of what that return looks like.
SPEAKER_00: And so his first encouragement is to say, your giving is not in vain.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just go into the into oblivion, into the ether.
SPEAKER_00: It actually achieves something.
SPEAKER_00: It actually achieves something worthwhile, that as they're sowing, there is a return.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is encouraging us that as we give, that giving will not go unutilized by God, but will realize a return.
SPEAKER_00: And then you ask, well, well, what is the return?
SPEAKER_00: And this is where some people go wrong, because they think, well, the return is just it's a monetary return back to me.
SPEAKER_00: But again, that's not his emphasis.
SPEAKER_00: Have a look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, or let me read it out to you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of what?
SPEAKER_00: Of your righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: What's the harvest?
SPEAKER_00: What's the return?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul's primary focus is actually when you're when you're generous, when you give as a blessing to others, what you reap in your own life is a gospel shaped heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: You become more like Jesus as you lean into the generosity that He Himself models and exemplifies.
SPEAKER_00: God gives you resources and then encourages you to use those resources.
SPEAKER_00: Resources to be a blessing to others.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because in return, you reap righteousness, generosity, godliness, acknowledging your dependence.
SPEAKER_00: That is a holy thing.
SPEAKER_00: You realize that actually being a blessing to others is a joy.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that a dear friend taught me was not to be too scared about talking about money in the service, because actually, to give is a delight.
SPEAKER_00: To be a blessing is a joyful thing, not a duty for the heart that is shaped by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Sowing, reaping, it's not about you being rich.
SPEAKER_00: It's about you being a blessing and being being shaped by our generous God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me conclude.
SPEAKER_00: God encourages us uh to be generous because he knows how easily we are given to that self-incurvature, that navel gazing.
SPEAKER_00: We know how easily, he knows how easily greed can grip us.
SPEAKER_00: And greed's a hard thing to discern, right?
SPEAKER_00: Lots of people think uh that they're generous because we and we we find it hard to kind of realize when actually greed's got us.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the things that's so insidious about those sins, or about that sin.
SPEAKER_00: You think, well, you nobody, you know, Tim Keller has this has this example.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you know, nobody accidentally stumbles into adultery, right?
SPEAKER_00: You you don't you don't sleep with somebody who's not your spouse and go, oh, who are you?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: There's an awareness of what's going on, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Greed's not like that.
SPEAKER_00: Greed grips your heart and you haven't even realized it.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a constant kind of um feedback loop that needs to have, okay, how am I being a blessing to others with my my time and talent and treasure?
SPEAKER_00: Some questions to to reflect on.
SPEAKER_00: Can I ask you, do you do you give?
SPEAKER_00: If not, why not?
SPEAKER_00: If it's because well, things are things are tough, we're in a hard season right now, Mark.
SPEAKER_00: There are uh there are things going on.
SPEAKER_00: That's understandable.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there are lessons to be learned from the for the Macedonians that give in spite of difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there are those among us, I'm sure, who are genuinely in desperate need of help, and actually we want to be a blessing to them.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that we set aside is we set aside a mercy fund for people in the church that if you find yourself in dire straits, one of the things that we as the elders put aside is money in order to be a blessing and a help to those of the household of faith so that we can encourage you if things are particularly difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And we'd want you to come and share that with us in confidence.
SPEAKER_00: But let me also ask do you see your giving as a blessing or as a or as a duty?
SPEAKER_00: Is it something that you get to do?
SPEAKER_00: Is it something I have to do it?
SPEAKER_00: Do you need to follow through in your intentions?
SPEAKER_00: Have you scanned the scanned the QR code weeks ago and it's there as a tab on your uh on your uh browser app, but you've never actually kind of gone gone through with it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if City Church is your regular place of worship, then let giving be part of your regular worship, let giving be part of your discipleship here in this place as you see how it is that we seek to be a blessing to others.
SPEAKER_00: And if you do have any other questions about the Bible's teaching on this or how we administer and approach these things, please do uh reach out and talk to us about it or consider becoming a member.
SPEAKER_00: You can do so by going uh to um citychurchdublin.ie forward slash membership, and you'll find more about joining us, partnering with us in the work of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, let us pray and prayerfully consider how God is calling us to be generous in response to his lavish generosity to us in the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to this week's sermon.
SPEAKER_01: If you found this helpful or want to know more about City Church Dublin, please visit our website found in the link below.