Generosity takes a miracle. You don’t just become a generous person unless you have been moved by the hand of God. In Philippians 4:10-23, Paul comes to a crescendo finish to his epic letter to the Philippian church on the source of scandalous joy. A joy that is produced not by man made efforts, but the act of a supreme God working in the life of an ordinary believer. Through trials, through humility, through parroting the Lord Jesus as a humble state of a bond servant, and through a generous heart. Do you believe in miracles? Because that’s what it takes to become a generous person.
Watch the end of the Cal vs. Stanford game, “the Play”, as it is called, played in 1982, at the Cal Memorial Stadium. What a moment. What a place. I used to play rugby for Cal in that stadium. Cal was down by 2, two seconds left, a kick off and a run to the end zone. How did they do it? The announcer says, “It’ll take a miracle.” And it happened. Cal beats Stanford. The announcer goes wild! The Cal students are out of their minds.
Well, what does this have to do with generosity? It will take a miracle to change the heart of the average American church goer to become as the Philippian church became, generous in their giving to the point where Paul says he "mega rejoices” over it. How did that happen and what do we learn from this history lesson?
Joy, true joy, is a miracle of generous giving of one's life and resources. Remember Billy Crystal’s line in Princess Bride? His wife asks him, Max the miracle worker, "will it work?” He says, “I don’t know. Bye bye boys, it’ll take a miracle.”
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Generosity takes a miracle. You don’t just become a generous person unless you have been moved by the hand of God. In Philippians 4:10-23, Paul comes to a crescendo finish to his epic letter to the Philippian church on the source of scandalous joy. A joy that is produced not by man made efforts, but the act of a supreme God working in the life of an ordinary believer. Through trials, through humility, through parroting the Lord Jesus as a humble state of a bond servant, and through a generous heart. Do you believe in miracles? Because that’s what it takes to become a generous person.
Watch the end of the Cal vs. Stanford game, “the Play”, as it is called, played in 1982, at the Cal Memorial Stadium. What a moment. What a place. I used to play rugby for Cal in that stadium. Cal was down by 2, two seconds left, a kick off and a run to the end zone. How did they do it? The announcer says, “It’ll take a miracle.” And it happened. Cal beats Stanford. The announcer goes wild! The Cal students are out of their minds.
Well, what does this have to do with generosity? It will take a miracle to change the heart of the average American church goer to become as the Philippian church became, generous in their giving to the point where Paul says he "mega rejoices” over it. How did that happen and what do we learn from this history lesson?
Joy, true joy, is a miracle of generous giving of one's life and resources. Remember Billy Crystal’s line in Princess Bride? His wife asks him, Max the miracle worker, "will it work?” He says, “I don’t know. Bye bye boys, it’ll take a miracle.”
Our cultural moment is one of political tension, algorithm-driven echo chambers, ideological violence, and rapid cultural and technological change. Yet against this backdrop, there is evidence of surging interest in Christian faith—Bible sales and online searches have increased dramatically and church attendance among Gen Z has increased every year since 2022. In our own church we’ve seen people come to saving faith for the first time, people re-engage in life with Jesus for the first time in a long time, and young people take bold steps as leaders. All of this raises a critical question for followers of Jesus: what does it look like to be a faithful witness to the good news of Jesus in our time? Or, to put it in the language of Philippians 2:15, what does it look like to shine as lights in the world? Join us as we learn together from Philippians 2:12-18 to turn on the light.
The River Church Sermons
Generosity takes a miracle. You don’t just become a generous person unless you have been moved by the hand of God. In Philippians 4:10-23, Paul comes to a crescendo finish to his epic letter to the Philippian church on the source of scandalous joy. A joy that is produced not by man made efforts, but the act of a supreme God working in the life of an ordinary believer. Through trials, through humility, through parroting the Lord Jesus as a humble state of a bond servant, and through a generous heart. Do you believe in miracles? Because that’s what it takes to become a generous person.
Watch the end of the Cal vs. Stanford game, “the Play”, as it is called, played in 1982, at the Cal Memorial Stadium. What a moment. What a place. I used to play rugby for Cal in that stadium. Cal was down by 2, two seconds left, a kick off and a run to the end zone. How did they do it? The announcer says, “It’ll take a miracle.” And it happened. Cal beats Stanford. The announcer goes wild! The Cal students are out of their minds.
Well, what does this have to do with generosity? It will take a miracle to change the heart of the average American church goer to become as the Philippian church became, generous in their giving to the point where Paul says he "mega rejoices” over it. How did that happen and what do we learn from this history lesson?
Joy, true joy, is a miracle of generous giving of one's life and resources. Remember Billy Crystal’s line in Princess Bride? His wife asks him, Max the miracle worker, "will it work?” He says, “I don’t know. Bye bye boys, it’ll take a miracle.”
