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Limitless and Endless Generosity

Dwayne Gandy
12/15/24 - Lord’s Supper Service

Limitless and Endless Generosity

Summary

Limitless and Endless Generosity

This morning, as we remember Jesus, we take time to focus on His endless and limitless generosity. Jesus taught extensively about being generous, lived a perfect life of generosity, and continues to show generosity to us today. Let’s reflect on these aspects of His life as we prepare our hearts.

Jesus had much to say about generosity—not just the act itself, but the proper motivation behind it. In Matthew 6, during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses how the Pharisees and Sadducees practiced generosity. Their actions were motivated by self-interest—seeking recognition and praise rather than honoring God or helping others. Jesus made it clear that true generosity comes from the heart, as seen in Matthew 6:3: "When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

Our generosity must begin with a desire to honor God. It flows from our understanding that people are in need and from our willingness to meet those needs, bringing joy and assistance to others. And as a result, we also benefit, growing in character and faith as we give.

In Luke 6:35-36, Jesus emphasizes this mindset: "Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. You will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and evil. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." When we are generous, we reflect the character of God and demonstrate to the world His perfect generosity.

Jesus illustrated this principle in Matthew 25:37-40, where He teaches about the final judgment. He describes how acts of kindness toward others—feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick—are ultimately acts of service to Him. Similarly, in Mark 9:41, He says, "Whoever gives a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, will by no means lose his reward." Our generosity toward others is ultimately an offering to God.

Faith is also central to generosity. If we lack faith in God’s provision, we may hesitate to give, fearing we will not have enough for ourselves. Yet, Jesus calls us to trust that God will care for our needs, enabling us to focus on helping others. In Mark 12:41-44, Jesus highlights the widow who gave her last two coins. Her faith and willingness to sacrifice exemplify the heart of true generosity.

Sometimes, generosity requires stepping out of our comfort zones. Consider the Good Samaritan, who risked his own safety to help a stranger in need. Generosity often means prioritizing others over convenience or personal gain.

Jesus didn’t just teach about generosity; He lived it. He frequently sacrificed His time to meet the needs of others. For example, in Mark 5, He responds to Jairus’ plea to heal his dying daughter. Despite being surrounded by crowds and interrupted by a woman seeking healing, Jesus shows compassion and gives His time and power to both individuals.

Most importantly, Jesus demonstrated ultimate generosity by giving His life for us. In John 15:13, He says, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends." Jesus willingly sacrificed Himself to redeem us. He declared in John 10:17-18, "I lay down My life… No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord."

As we partake of the Lord’s Supper, let’s reflect on Jesus’ generosity: His forgiveness, His joy, His purpose, and the eternal hope He gives us. As 1 Peter 1:18-19 reminds us, we were redeemed "not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."

This weekly memorial reminds us of the generosity of our Savior, who gave everything so that we might have eternal life. One day, we will experience the fullness of His generosity when we are with Him in eternity. Until then, let’s live as reflections of His love and generosity, sharing His blessings with others.

This morning, as we remember Jesus, we're going to take some time to focus on his endless and limitless generosity. Jesus taught a lot about being generous, and then he lived a perfect life of generosity, and he continues to be generous even to us today. So we're going to think about those elements of his life as we reflect upon him.

Full Transcript

We know that Jesus had a lot to say about being generous to people. Not only that we should be generous, but how we should be generous and the mindset behind our generosity. If we remember in Matthew chapter 6, it's the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the way that they were being generous. They had everything out of whack. They were being generous, but their generosity wasn't motivated by the proper source.

It wasn't motivated so that God would be honored. It wasn't really even motivated to help someone. It was mostly motivated on how they could benefit from being generous to other people.

That other people would look at them and think that they were big, or they were special, or they were something very important. And so Jesus wanted to make sure his disciples knew the proper way to be generous. And he says in verse 3 of Matthew chapter 6 that when you do a charitable deed, when you're generous to someone, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

So our generosity should start with our desire to honor God. And then after our desire to honor God, we are generous because we know that people are in need and we want to help their needs. We want to give them joy and give them what they need in order to have the life that God wants them to have.

Lastly, we benefit from being generous. It's helpful to us to give of what we have to someone else and for a greater cost. So it's very, very important for us to remember this.

In the same sermon, Jesus talks again about this in Luke chapter 6 and verse 32. Luke's account now of the Sermon on the Mount. Luke chapter 6 and verse 32, where Jesus, I'm going to start in verse 35.

It says, But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For he is kind to the ungrateful and evil. And then he finishes verse 36, be merciful or be generous, think of it this way, as your father is merciful or your father is generous.

And so it's important to know that when we are generous, we are reflecting the character of God and the character of Jesus. And think about this for a second. If people look at what we do and they say, man, these are flawed individuals and yet they can be generous with their earthly possessions.

Just imagine how much the perfect God is generous with what he has and the perfect one that they follow is generous with the blessings that he has to offer. And then the passage there in Matthew chapter 25, which talks about the end of time, how we're going to be judged based upon how we treat other people, what we do for other people. In Matthew 25 and verse 37, after Jesus says, I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink. It says, Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? Or when do we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer and say to them, Assuredly, I say to you and as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. And then in Mark, we find out that Jesus says that if you give a cup of cold water because you belong to me, then you'll get your reward.

And so I think it's important to understand when we do things for other people, it's like we're doing them directly for the Lord himself. And we had to keep that in mind. I'm not giving necessarily to this person, although some people are wonderful and great and they deserve our gifts.

But mostly I'm giving because God is wonderful and great and he deserves us to give to other people because he gives so much to us. And when we do this because we are belonging to Christ. Now if we do it like the Pharisees did because we want credit, it doesn't get us anything except the credit from man.

If we do it for the right reason, it gives us this relationship with God that is amazing for us to even think about. Jesus also taught it's vital to be generous and that faith is a huge part of that. If you don't have the faith you need to have in God, you're not as likely to be generous because you're trying to watch out for yourself.

If you know that God's going to take care of you like he always has and somebody else is in need, then you're more likely to give to them knowing that God's going to take care of you. He promised that he would, right? So you have that faith that we need. Sometimes generosity requires sacrifice.

The woman gave her two mice, the last money that she had, in order to show that she was generous to God. And then sometimes it takes getting out of your comfort zone. You know, what about the Good Samaritan? I mean, the other two that walked by didn't want to do it.

It was out of their comfort zone. He risked safety, he risked his possessions, and he did that. So let's turn from what Jesus taught about generosity to how Jesus demonstrated generosity.

I think that's an important part of remembering Jesus this morning. First of all, I want you to look at Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. There's two stories back-to-back, and they overlap in the middle, and both stories show us something about the generosity of Jesus. And one thing that I want us to remember here, Jesus did not have suitcases full of money that he traveled around with, and that was how Jesus was generous.

You know, all right, give them some money, give them some money, give them some money. Although he did have a treasury, and when Judas got up to betray him, they thought he was going out to give some money to the poor. So giving money to the poor was probably something Jesus did on a regular basis.

But why do you think Peter could say to the layman as he's entering the temple, silver and gold I don't have, but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ. Get up and walk, because he saw Jesus do that all the time. He saw Jesus look at people and say, you know, I'm not giving you money, I don't have money to give you, but I have something to give you, and I'm going to give you what I have to give you.

And one of the things that Jesus gave people on a regular basis, sometimes it's more difficult than giving him money, is giving him time. Jesus sacrificed his time on a regular basis for other people. He comes on the shore, he gets out of the boat, and he's met by a man whose daughter is sick.

And he says to Jesus, Jesus, in verse 23, I'm in Mark chapter 5, in verse 23, and he begged him earnestly, saying, my little girl lies at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live. So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed him and thronged him.

Now, Jesus could have made all kinds of excuses. I'm busy here. I came to do this, or I came to do that, and I'm tired, whatever.

But Jesus didn't. The guy says, I need help. My daughter's about to die.

She's at the very point of death. Come and lay your hands on her. And I don't know how long it took Jesus to walk to his house.

I don't know how long the encounter took. But Jesus was willing to sacrifice a good portion of his day to help this particular man on this particular occasion, and this man's daughter. And if you recall, on the way there, he's interrupted in the journey.

There's a lady who has had a flow of blood for 12 years, and she has spent every single penny she has. And if she could have gone in debt to get better, she would have gone in debt to get better. She would spend her money, and then have to make more money, spend it, make more money, spend it, make more, because she wanted to be healed.

She realized that if I just touched him or the garment of Jesus, I will be healed. That's exactly what she did. And so power left Jesus, and he recognized that.

He said, who touched me? And the disciple was like, everybody touches you. Everybody's around you all the time. How can you say that? And then the woman confessed it.

But you think about this for a second. Jesus didn't give her material blessings. He gave her something way better than that.

But in the process, do you think Jesus helped her financially as well? Absolutely. She didn't have to spend any more money on getting better. Could you imagine how many of us would love to have all of our medical expenses covered for the rest of our lives? You know, and not have to pay a single penny out of pocket.

You know, we would love that. And Jesus offered that to her on this particular occasion. Incredible that he was willing not only to give us time, but give us power to people so they could be healed, and their life could be changed.

But mostly, Jesus was generous, and that he gave his own life for us. He didn't stop with time. He didn't stop with money.

He went all the way to the point of giving his own life, his own blood, so that we could have forgiveness of our sins. So in John chapter 15, Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he's telling them what it means to be my disciple. One of the things that it means to be my disciple is that you go out and you love like I love.

You love one another like I love you. That's one of the signs that you are my disciples. And then in John 15 and verse 11, it says this, These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

Just put a marker there, because you can think about this as we continue to partake. One of the things Jesus has been generously given us is he's generously given us joy. You know, could you imagine living life without the joy of knowing that we have something better, and that Jesus did die for us? What a generous gift that was.

And then in verse 12, This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends. I think you could say greater love.

You could also say greater generosity has no one than this, than to actually give their very life for the sins of other people. And in John chapter 10, Jesus makes this point in verse 17. He says, I lay down my life.

I lay down my life. I give you my life. It is my gift.

It is a token of my generosity. No one is taking it from me. I have the power to give it to you willingly, and that's what I'm doing, and I have the power to take it up again.

And so I want to close our time thinking about Jesus by reading some in John chapter 18. So if you are following along, John chapter 18. I'm going to read verses 1 through 14, and then one other passage, and then I'll leave you with a thought as we continue to remember Jesus.

John chapter 18. In verse 1, this is when Jesus leaves the upper room, and he goes to the garden. Think about this in the terms of the generosity that Jesus offered his disciples, and us, and the people that there were to do him harm.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, where he and his disciples entered. And Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came with their lanterns, and their torches, and their weapons.

Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that would come upon him, went forward and said to them, Whom are you seeking? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I am he. And Judas, who betrayed him, also stood with them.

Now when he said to them, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground. And he asked them again, Whom are you seeking? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he.

Therefore if you seek me, let these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled which he spoke of those whom you gave me, I have lost none. Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.

So Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which my father has given me? Then the detachments of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. And they led him away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, and it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

Now that gift that Jesus went on to give all the way to the cross is a gift that you and I benefit from every single day. And when we come here, and we remember it on the first day of the week, we are remembering what Peter, the one that betrayed Jesus, that was in the upper room, that heard all these things of Jesus, when he said, You were not redeemed with perishable things like gold and silver from your aimless conduct, but you were redeemed by the blood of Jesus, a precious lamb that was given for you. So as we continue to partake, let's think about how often Jesus has been generous to us.

Generous in his forgiveness, generous in giving us joy, generous in giving us purpose, generous in giving us hope, knowing one day, one day, we will see the generosity of Jesus in its completeness when we see him and inherit eternal life. This is sort of a down payment on that generosity. So let's think about our generous Savior as we continue to partake.