Reimagine Week 3 - Tim Horman
This is the third week of our Reimagine campaign, a season of praying, dreaming and asking God what he might want to do through One Church in the years ahead. Here's what's coming up this week:
Tuesday 20 October: Worship and Prayer Evening. An evening open to everyone, to praise God together and prayerfully commit ourselves to what he wants to do through us.
Sunday 25 October: Commitment Sunday. Bring your completed commitment card and three-year pledge, and we'll present them to God together as an act of worship.
You'll find all the details, the booklet and the daily prayer points at one.org.au/reimagine.
Prefer to listen? Here's the audio version.
Money can be a hard subject, and some people have been hurt by pressure or false promises of prosperity in church. So, however you're coming at this, you're welcome here, whether you give or not. But what Paul says about generosity turns out to be far more freeing than most of us expect.
On Sunday, Tim Horman continued our Reimagine series with a message on growing in generosity, from 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 and 9:6-11. Tim admitted he couldn't think of a single sermon he'd preached in the last five years focused only on money and giving. But Jesus talked about it a lot. Around a quarter of his teaching touches on money, wealth or possessions, because he knew how deeply it reaches into our hearts and how easily it becomes a rival god.
A story of God at work
Before the message, we heard from Stacey and Peter, part of One Church for close to 25 years. When Stacey's close friend Kat was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2024, Stacey and Peter became her family's main support crew.
During Kat's illness, her eldest son asked if he could come to church with them. When they asked him what he liked about it, he said simply, "It's the truth, and I just want to hear the truth." Stacey and Peter were with Kat and her family for her last breath, and her kids asked them to pray. Standing around her, holding hands, Stacey described a deep sense of peace and of God being "so clearly and evidently there."
More than 600 people came to Kat's funeral, and her family wanted it held here at One Church. Many were locals who drive past our building all the time. Since then, one of Kat's sons has given up rep basketball so that youth group can be a priority.
Two ways money weighs on us
For some, it quietly becomes the thing we look to for security and significance. We measure our worth by our suburb, our house, our car, our income or our super. For many others, especially with the cost of living as it is, money is a source of real stress and fear. How will I pay the rent, the mortgage, the petrol bill this month? What if the car breaks down or I get sick?
The gospel speaks into both. Scripture invites us to trust a Father in heaven who is good and generous and who cares for us, and to learn what Tim called "a different and truly liberating way of thinking" about what we have.
The setting of 2 Corinthians matters here. Paul was organising a financial collection for believers in Jerusalem who were in serious hardship, writing to the churches he'd planted to ask for their help. In part, Tim pointed out, 2 Corinthians is a fundraising letter, written into a real financial need.
Generosity flows from grace
The first thing Tim noticed is the word Paul keeps repeating: grace. He talks about the grace God has given the Macedonian churches. He calls their giving "an act of grace." And when he wants the Corinthians to understand generosity, he takes them straight back to Jesus:
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9)
Before we ever think about our own generosity, Paul wants us to see God's. The Son of God took on our flesh, our weakness, our sin and ultimately our death, so that we could be forgiven and welcomed into his family. The "riches" Paul has in mind aren't mainly about money. They're about salvation, a gift worth more than all the wealth in the world.
That's where all Christian generosity starts. We have received a love we couldn't earn and a mercy we don't deserve, and as that grace takes hold of us, it starts to form in us the same character as our generous, self-giving God. Understood this way, generosity stops being a burden or an obligation and becomes an act of worship, the overflow of our love and thanks to God.
Tim pointed to the early church in Acts. When the Holy Spirit was poured out, one of the very first signs of new life was that people began to share what they had, so that no one among them was in need. He quoted a historian who observed that when pagan Romans complained about the first Christians, their main complaint was how exceedingly generous they were: giving their money away, welcoming strangers, caring for widows and the sick, rescuing abandoned babies. It wasn't mainly their doctrine, their music or their preaching that convinced people Christ had risen. It was their generous way of life.
Tim sees that generosity at One Church too, from our One Care appeals (supporting our local and overseas mission partners) to our Food Pantry to the way people gather around anyone in crisis.
Generosity is something we can grow in
The Macedonian churches are a remarkable example. Paul says their "overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity." We wouldn't normally put those two things together. Most of us assume we'll be generous once there's a bit left over at the end of the month. But these believers were struggling themselves, and still they pleaded for the privilege of taking part.
The Corinthians, on the other hand, had made a good start but needed encouragement to finish. Paul tells them, "since you excel in everything... see that you also excel in this grace of giving." Which means generosity is something we can learn. It's part of the journey of faith.
For many of us this is a hard area. You might have grown up in a home where money meant conflict, or lived through times when there genuinely wasn't enough. All of that shapes how we respond when someone raises giving in church. And all of that is okay. God meets us where we are and calls us forward, step by step, into greater freedom and joy.
For one person, Tim suggested, the next step might be starting to give regularly for the first time. For another, it might be reviewing a pattern of giving that hasn't changed in years even though life has. For someone else, it might be admitting they've been giving generously but resentfully, and bringing that to God.
He also pointed to the order in verse 5: the Macedonians "gave themselves first of all to the Lord." They didn't give to prove their devotion. They gave out of it.
"What's important is not where we start. The important thing is the direction that we're moving in."
It's all God's anyway
Tim called the third point a game changer, not just for money but for everything we have. Generosity isn't me giving my money to God. It's me investing God's money on his behalf.
Look at the direction of 2 Corinthians 9:8-11. God is able to bless you abundantly. He supplies seed to the sower and bread for food. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. Everything flows from God to us first. As we use it faithfully for his kingdom, it flows back to him in thanksgiving, worship and changed lives.
Tim was quick to say this isn't a shortcut to getting rich. Quoting a friend, he described ministry as "the Get Rich Slow program." But he and his wife Melissa have found, again and again, that as they've tried to be faithful and generous, there has been enough, sometimes more than enough. And each time, their faith has been stretched, and stretched faith grows.
He quoted C.S. Lewis, who said that if we devoted every moment of our lives to God's service, "you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already." Then he told a story from the evangelist J.John about a man at an airport who bought a bag of donuts and sat down next to a stranger. Every time he took a donut from the bag between them, the stranger took one too, and he grew more and more annoyed at the cheek of it. Only when he got up to leave did he find his own unopened bag of donuts. He'd been eating the stranger's all along.
The whole situation looks different once you know who owns the donuts.
Bread and seed
Paul's image in verse 10 is a helpful one. God supplies bread for food and seed for sowing. Bread is for eating. Seed is for planting. Every farmer knows that if you eat your seed, eventually you'll have nothing.
God knows what we need. Caring for our households, meeting our responsibilities and even preparing for retirement are all part of a wise and faithful life. But he also invites us to recognise what he's given us as seed, to be released for the sake of others and his mission. And Paul's promise is that God will enlarge our store of seed. Not necessarily our store of bread, Tim noted, but our capacity to keep being generous.
So he asked a simple question: have we made room for generosity in how we plan our lives and our budgets? That's a question for prayer and conversation, for each household and for us as a church.
Generosity leads to joy
Finally, Tim said, generosity leads us to joy. The Macedonians saw their giving as a privilege, not a burden. Paul recalls Jesus' words in Acts 20 that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." Most of us know something of the joy of giving a gift that really matters, or seeing a burden lift because we could help.
Tim pointed to the Dead Sea, which isn't dead because nothing flows into it, but because nothing flows out. When we keep everything we receive, we stagnate.
"I don't know any miserable givers, but I know a lot of miserable misers."
Money promises something that sounds a lot like salvation: have enough and you'll be safe, significant and free. Money is useful and can do a great deal of good, but it is a terrible god. Giving as an act of faith loosens its grip on us. That's why generosity matters as a spiritual practice.
It also lets us share in what God is doing. Tim described Alpha (our course for people exploring life and faith), where guests share a meal, hear about the hope we have in Jesus and are prayed for. He listed some of what happens in our building every week, from kids, youth and young adults to Encore (our seniors' gathering), Mainly Music, Playgroups, marriage courses and our Food Pantry. Many of these are places where people who don't yet follow Jesus first connect.
And the gift goes well beyond the giver. Paul says our generosity "will result in thanksgiving to God." Someone is helped, someone meets Jesus, and heaven rejoices.
Deciding in your heart
Tim closed with 2 Corinthians 9:7: "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." He drew out four things:
Prayerfully. Ask God what you might give to the ministry of the church, and to Reimagine over the next three years.
Voluntarily. There's no coercion. If Reimagine isn't for you, that's fine, but Tim encouraged everyone to get on "the generosity journey" in some way.
Cheerfully. Tim gives for two reasons: because he wants Jesus to be his God, not money, and because he's seen what God does through a generous church, from the many recent baptisms to a growing 5.30pm service.
Faithfully. You can't out-give God, and faithful giving leads to abounding in every good work.
Tim also shared some encouraging news. As part of the campaign, 35 households, including our Elders and ministry staff and their families, were invited to pray about making an early pledge to build some momentum. Together they have pledged $806,040. It's a wonderful start, and now every other household across our church is invited to pray and consider what they might pledge.
Next Sunday is Commitment Sunday. We'll have a guest speaker from overseas, and there will be space to present your pledge to God, whether you've filled in a paper card or committed online. Either way, it will be a time to dedicate it all to the Lord.
One way to live it out this week
Take Tim's question into your week: what in my life is bread, and what is seed? Set aside ten minutes to pray it through, on your own or with your household, and ask God, "What would growth look like for me in this area?" If you're part of One Church, come along to the Worship and Prayer Evening on Tuesday and bring that question with you. Whatever you decide, let it come from gratitude for what God has given you, not from pressure or comparison.
A short prayer
Father, thank you for your generosity toward us,
for the gift of your Son and for welcoming us into your family.
Holy Spirit, help us keep growing in our trust of the Father.
Help us recognise what has been entrusted to us and use it for your glory.
Give us cheerful hearts, and show each of us the next step you're inviting us to take.
May our generosity well up into thanksgiving and worship.
Amen.
7 Things to Pray for This Week
Take these with you this week: download the printable prayer points (PDF)
Monday 19 October: Hearts shaped by grace.
Give thanks that Jesus, "though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Pray that all our generosity would flow from gratitude for that grace, not from obligation or pressure.
Tuesday 20 October: Worship and Prayer Evening.
Pray for tonight's gathering. Pray that we meet God together, and that whatever we commit to comes out of worship, not pressure.
Wednesday 21 October: People exploring faith.
Pray for people in our church and community who are exploring faith and asking questions about Jesus. Pray that they would find space to ask, people to walk alongside them, and that God would be at work in them.
Thursday 22 October: Young families.
Pray for the families who come to Playgroups and Mainly Music, many with no other church connection. Pray that a new, all-weather playground would become a front door for young families all week, all year round.
Friday 23 October: Freedom from money's grip.
Pray for everyone carrying financial stress right now, worried about rent, the mortgage or the next bill. Pray that each of us would learn to let God's goodness, not our anxiety, shape how we live, and that money would be a useful tool in our lives but never our god.
Saturday 24 October: Joyful, faith-filled generosity.
Give thanks for every household preparing their commitment this weekend. Pray that each of us would know the joy of giving, sense God's leading in what we decide, and trust him to do immeasurably more than we could imagine.
Sunday 25 October: Commitment Sunday.
Pray that as we bring our commitment cards today, it would be a genuine act of worship. Pray that each of us gives what we've decided in our hearts, cheerfully and not under pressure (2 Corinthians 9:7).
Personal Reflection
When money comes up in church, what's your first reaction? Where do you think that reaction comes from?
Think about what you have right now. What feels like bread, and what might God be inviting you to treat as seed?
Tim said the important thing isn't where we start but the direction we're moving in. What would one small step forward in generosity look like for you?
Small Group Discussion
Tim said Jesus spoke about money so often because he knew it could become a rival god. Where do you see money competing for people's trust in our culture? Where do you feel its pull yourself?
Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 together. The Macedonians were in extreme poverty yet pleaded to give. Does their example inspire you, puzzle you, or make you uncomfortable? Why?
Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-11 together. Paul says God gives “seed to the sower and bread for food.” What do you think the difference is between bread and seed in everyday life? Is it easy or hard for you to tell them apart?
Does anything else jump out from these passages for you? What might God be saying to you from these passages?
Stacey and Peter's story showed a church community surrounding a family through grief. Have you ever experienced the generosity of a church (or seen it from the outside)? What did it mean to you?
Tim suggested generosity is "investing God's money on his behalf" rather than giving our money to God. How would that shift change the way you make everyday decisions, not just about giving?
The doughnut story turns on who really owns what. Why do you think it's so easy to forget that everything we have is a gift?
Our upbringing and experiences shape how we feel about money. Without going into specifics about what anyone gives, how has your background shaped the way you think about money and generosity?
Tim said, "I don't know any miserable givers, but I know a lot of miserable misers." Do you agree? Can generosity ever come from the wrong place, and what might help it become joyful?
Where do you need God's help to trust him more right now, with money or anything else? Share what you're comfortable sharing, and take time to pray for one another.