Biblical generosity is not about what God needs from you. It is about what God wants for you. This past Sunday, Pastor Chip closed out the Counter Culture series with a message on the one subject most Christians would rather skip, and he made it clear up front that he was not asking anyone to give a penny.
Why This Message Is So Hard to Hear
Pastor Chip admitted something honest. He gets anxious all week when a generosity message is coming, because it is the sermon Christians say they enjoy hearing the least.
He understands why. There have been preachers on TV, on the radio, and all over the internet who have twisted God’s principles on this and left people suspicious. So he asked the church to throw all of that out the window.
No opinions. No pressure. No arm twisting. Just the Word of God.
His conviction is simple. It takes the whole Bible to make a whole Christian. If you feed people baby portions of Scripture, you get baby Christians. The world preaches greed. The Word preaches generosity. You are never more like Jesus than when you are generous, because He is a generous God.
When Did God’s Generosity Toward You Begin?
Before you were born.
Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He made a world for you to live in. He also made the place where He wants you to spend eternity.
Acts 17:25 says God Himself gives all people life and breath and everything else. However hard you worked, whatever you earned, whatever you paid for, every resource in your hands traces back to Him.
Then Romans 8:32 takes it further. God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also, along with Jesus, graciously give us all things? God already gave you the most costly gift He had. Why would He hold back anything else you actually need?
Pastor Chip illustrated it with their fall break. A family offered them a condo for the week. Then they said the condo was at the beach. Then they said it was already paid for. Then they said they would come along to help with the kids. Each time, there was more.
That is the pattern with God. There is a home in heaven for you. It gets better, it is for eternity. It gets better, Jesus already paid for it. It gets better, He is with you now and forever.
The right response is not repayment. God never asks us to repay Him. He asks us to worship Him, live for Him, and be generous back toward Him. He began being generous to you so that you could begin being generous to Him.
How Is God Consistently Generous?
Lamentations 3:22 says His steadfast love never ceases and His mercies are new every morning. Philippians 4:19 promises He will supply every need according to His riches in glory. Ephesians 2:4 reminds us that while we were dead in sin, God made us alive in Christ.
Why is God generous to you? Pastor Chip gave the simplest answer in the message. Because He loves you. He cannot help it. He is your Father.
He compared it to how he feels about his wife and his four kids. You cannot help being generous to the people you love. That is exactly how God feels about you.
That is why Scripture calls for rhythm in our giving. First Corinthians 16:2 describes setting something aside on the first day of every week. Pastor Chip framed it as giving God the first day of every week, the first hour of every day, and the first dime of every dollar.
Second Corinthians 9:7 says each person should give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. The Greek behind cheerful carries the sense of hilarious. The world thinks it is laughable that you would give away money you worked for to a God you have never seen with your eyes. But we do not see Him with our eyes. We see Him with our hearts.
Consistency requires intentionality. The question is not what someone tells you to give. The question is what God is calling you to give.
What About Tithing?
This is the question Pastor Chip hears most, so he handled it directly.
Some say tithing was only Old Testament law and we are people of the Gospel now. That second part is true. But tithing showed up before the law was ever given. Abraham gave a tenth in Genesis 14. Jacob promised a tenth in Genesis 28. Jesus affirmed the tithe in Matthew 23:23, long after the law.
Pastor Chip explained it this way. In the law, the tithe functioned as a ceiling. Under grace, it functions as a floor, because God calls us to be generous and not merely compliant.
The math is not complicated. If God gives you ten dollars, He says keep nine and give one back so it can be used to help someone get saved. He even provides the portion He asks you to return.
He offered a practical framework alongside it. Give ten percent, save ten percent, live on eighty. The world gives zero, saves zero, and spends one hundred and twenty, which explains a lot about where people end up financially.
Then he turned to Malachi 3, where God invites His people to bring the full tithe into the storehouse and test Him in it. He promises to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing. Pastor Chip pointed out that this is the only place in Scripture where God invites us to put Him to the test.
He was careful here. We are not giving so people get richer. We are giving so people get saved. Your church is not money hungry. We are not here to raise money. We are here to raise disciples.
He also commended the church directly. First Baptist Church Powder Springs is a generous church. Over the past twelve months, 189 people became first-time givers and 699 people gave. Everything the church enjoys today exists because of sacrifices people made across 184 years.
Where Is God’s Generosity Expanding?
First Chronicles 4:10 records Jabez asking God to bless him and enlarge his border, and God granted it. Second Corinthians 9:10-11 says God supplies seed to the sower and multiplies it, enriching you in every way so that you can be generous in every way. Second Chronicles 31 describes a people who brought in the tithe abundantly and found they had more than enough left over.
Proverbs 11:24-25 puts it plainly. The one who gives freely grows all the richer, and whoever waters will himself be watered.
Pastor Chip pushed back on a familiar saying. People often say we do not give to get. He sees something different in Scripture. You give to God, God gives back to you, and you keep giving, not so you can keep what comes back, but so the cycle keeps going. You cannot outgive God, because His generous heart is bigger than yours.
God expands your life so that you can expand His kingdom.
Why Is God’s Generosity Extravagant?
Because He loves you. That is the whole answer.
He could not love you any more than He already does, and He will never love you any less. Second Corinthians 8:9 says that though Jesus was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich. Ephesians 1:7-8 says He lavished the riches of His grace on us. Lavish means pouring until the cup overflows and keeps overflowing.
John 3:16 is the whole message in one verse. God so loved the world that He gave.
Sometimes God calls us to give extravagantly in a way that does not make sense on paper. Pastor Chip shared that his own family was recently called to do exactly that, trusting God’s promise to provide.
He walked through the generosity journey one more time. A beginning giver. A consistent giver. A tithing giver. An expanding giver. An extravagant giver.
The question is not how much. The question is who God is calling you to be.
Live It Out
Nobody is twisting your arm this week. Pastor Chip did not ask for a dollar, and neither are we.
Here is the one thing to do. Get alone with God and ask Him a single question. God, what are You calling me to give? Then look honestly at where you are on the generosity journey and name your next step. Maybe that is giving for the very first time. Maybe it is building a rhythm instead of giving whenever you remember. Maybe it is finally trusting Him with the tithe you have been circling for years.
Then do it. You will never be able to afford to tithe until you tithe.
Remember what is actually at stake. This is not about a budget. It is about someone hearing the Gospel because you trusted God with what He already gave you.
There’s a Seat for You
Whether money has been a source of stress, suspicion, or silence in your life, you are welcome here exactly as you are. We do not know what anyone gives and we do not treat anyone differently because of it. We just want to help you walk with Jesus.
Plan Your Visit and come see what God is doing here. Or take your next step and Get Connected with our church family. We would love to walk alongside you.