What's My Next Step, God?: Giving | Pastor Roberto Chaple
The question under the question
Roberto opens where the series began: our instinct is to demand the whole staircase before we move. But faith is taking the step God is actually showing you — without faith it is impossible to please God.
"It's as if God were saying: take the step and I'll show you the next one."
"The best-case scenario would be to say: Lord, here I am… now what?"
The series so far, in one pass
A third of the manuscript re-walks the whole series before it reaches generosity — which makes this message a genuine catch-up point for anyone who missed a week, and makes the blog post a natural series index.
Prayer — September 27, Acts 4:23-31. Under persecution, the first Christians didn't walk away. They lifted their voices to God together. Extreme situations demand extreme prayers — and prayer works best when praying is the only thing we can do.
Worship — October 4, Hebrews 10:22-25. Three calls, every one of them plural: let us draw near, let us hold unswervingly, let us consider how to spur one another on. Staying faithful in worship is not a solo project. It's a team project.
Service — October 11, John 13:12-17. Greatness in the Kingdom isn't measured by how high you climb, but by how low you're willing to go. Jesus didn't call us to reach for a position. He called us to reach for a towel.
Generosity — October 18, 2 Corinthians 9:6-9. Which brings us to this week.
Why generosity, and why now
The problem generosity treats is self-centeredness — what Roberto calls one of sin's most devastating effects, the endless pursuit of personal satisfaction. Nothing wrong with satisfaction, he says, as long as we don't achieve it at the expense of our neighbor. The sad truth is that we run everything through that filter — even God.
So generosity does three things at once:
it keeps us away from the center
it's a sign we're on the right track
it's a sign of spiritual growth and maturity
The context: a collection that proved a point
Paul writes to Corinth from Macedonia after a tense season, and chapters 8 and 9 are about a collection for the Christians in Jerusalem — money moving from Gentile churches to Jewish ones as proof the gospel had actually united them.
"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." — Galatians 3:28
Then the local turn, which may be the best line in the sermon for New Hope: "Check out the flags in Logan." More than thirty nations. Homogeneous Christianity is a human construct.
v.6 — the law of the harvest
"Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."
A farming metaphor every Corinthian understood, and the law of every good parent: you reap what you sow. Everything we have comes by grace — but some of grace's blessings have to be activated, and generosity is what activates them.
v.7 — the motive behind the gift
God cares not only what we do, but why — "the Wesleyan checklist," as Roberto puts it. Paul rejects both the pressure and the portion: the heart of the giver matters as much as the gift.
"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."
To make it concrete he introduces a character — "Memo" — and puts three faces on giving:
Duty. Not out of obligation — the face that says giving makes me sad.
Deal. Not out of negotiation — I give so you'll give back.
Joy. But out of celebration — giving makes me glad.
"What face does your heart wear: obligation, negotiation, or celebration?"
Giving is an easy way to fool people, he notes — everyone except God. True generosity is an attitude of the heart, which means opening the heart toward others and not only the wallet.
"Don't just give money to New Hope. Give yourself to New Hope."
vv.8-9 — enough, so you can abound
"God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."
The Kingdom process, in Roberto's words: abundance of grace brings sufficiency of goods, and sufficiency of goods brings abundance of good works.
"Our daily bread comes from God. Accumulation comes from man."
God wants us to have enough — not so we can stockpile it, but so we can spend it well. If you have enough, then be abundant.
The landing
"True abundance is found in the capacity to serve. True well-being is found in the capacity to give."
Generosity is one of the sure steps to take when you don't know what to do. If you walked in disoriented, asking God, now what? — today the answer is be generous.
Pastor Roberto Chaple — What's my next step, God, in giving? — October 18, 2026
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More Sermons in this Series
Other Sermons from Pastor Vicki
Generosity is the fourth step in What's My Next Step, God? Roberto walks straight through 2 Corinthians 9:6-9 — the law of the harvest, the motive behind the gift, and what God's abundance is actually for — after retracing the whole series from prayer to worship to service. The thread running through it: generosity is how a self-centered heart gets pulled off center.