October 21, 2001

Giving: Part 1

Sermon:

What did Jesus talk about far more than any other subject? It isn't a mystery.

Biblical Survey of Giving:

If you look in the Bible at the number of verses that talk about giving, you find something very interesting. Count up the verses about giving, and compare them to the number of verses about some other important subjects.

For example, there are:

272 verses about belief or believing,

371 verses about prayer and the importance of praying,

714 verses about love and loving,

BUT, are you ready?

There are 2,162 about GIVING! Three times as many verses about giving as there are about love, seven times as many as prayer, eight times as many as belief. You cannot love, pray, or believe without being willing to give.

Our sermon topic for today is "Giving". It's an easy subject to talk about right now. Our nation is in a giving attitude. The horror of what happened to us on September 11 has spilled over into a new willingness to share, to give. The outpouring of people's gifts to help those who lost family, firends, and jobs has been heartwarming.

I want to talk today about an "attitude of gratitude." We need to do an attitude check. How is your attitude? There's really only one question you need to ask to check out your attitude: How is your giving?

We could break that question down into smaller ones to give us a better picture, questions like:

Who are you giving to right now?

What are you giving them?

Why are you giving it?

Does your giving have strings attached? If so, why?

Why did Jesus insist that we give freely if we would know abundant life?

If you stop and think about it, giving is the basis of everything we do. Giving isn't just about sending a check to the Cancer Society, or giving a birthday present to a loved one. Giving makes up most of our day. You give your time to your employers, and they in turn give you a paycheck. Your landlord gives you a house to live in. And you give back a monthly rent check. The gas station owner gives you a tank of gas, and you give him some money. Most of life consists of giving and receiving. No wonder Jesus gave so much attention and teaching on this subject.

Sometimes people get the idea that the way to prosper is to keep to ourselves everything we can get our hands on. But Jesus tells us that the way to find truly "abundant life" is by giving as freely as our Father in heaven gives to us.

If you talk to truly wealthy people, you will discover that those who use their wealth to build value in other people's lives are much happier than those who keep their wealth only to themselves. Not only are they happier, they are generally healthier as well.

A giving heart is a happier, healthier heart than a miserly heart. After all, look at the word "miser." It is the root of the word "miserable." The misery of the miser is loneliness. Refusing to give cuts us off from relationship with those who can bless us.

John Maxwell tells the story of the father who took his son to McDonald's for lunch. As they were sitting at the table the father noticed the smell of the french fries the little boy had, and it made him hungry for them. He reached over to get one and the little boy grabbed his hand and said, "Hey Dad, don't take my fries!"

The father began to reflect about that experience. His son didn't realize where those fries came from. Just a few minutes before, his father had pulled out some money and bought those fries and handed them to him. Now he was acting like his father had nothing to do with it.

And the father thought, he doesn't realize that I could go to the counter right now and buy $100 worth of fries, I could bury him in fries if I wanted to.

But most of all, what he doesn't realize is that I just want him to be willing to share with me what I have given him. Is that so hard?

The height of ingratitude is for us to receive what God has given, and then put a fence around it and say "This is all mine" and refuse to share it as God shares with us.

Keep an attitude of gratitude.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Do you know where that expression came from? When you are buying a horse one of the first things you do is check the animal's mouth. The mouth of a horse is a good indicator of how well the horse has been taken care of.

Now, if someone were offering to give you a horse free, as a gift, it would be an insult to that person if you were to look at the horse's mouth. It would be like saying, "I don't want to accept your gift until I know that it is good enough for me." Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

When someone does something nice for you, don't start pondering things in your mind like, "I wonder what he wants" or, "If he's giving me this gift, it must not be worth much", or the real killer, "She's only doing this so I'll feel obligated to do something for her in return."

NO. Those are the thoughts that come from the evil one. They are designed to kill your attitude of gratitude. You must rebuke them, rebuke them in the name of Jesus Christ who gave the most precious gift of all, Himself.

Jesus had no ulterior motive. He laid down His life for us, paid the price of sin, poured out His Holy Spirit to plant eternity in our hearts, and all of this He did for only one reason: He loves us, and He does not want anyone to lose their soul.

"It is not an accident nor a mystery why some people are blessed and some people are not blessed. See Luke 6:27-38"

“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

There are two simple principles at work here:
1. Ask God for what you need.

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us today our daily bread." And in Epshesians 6:18 St. Paul said,

"Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."
God wants us to ask Him for the things we need. And He wants us to ask with a confidence and trust that He hears us and that He will take care of us.

Before I became a Christian I was always afraid. The thing I feared most was not having the things I needed to live a happy life. When I gave my life to the Lord, one of the first things I noticed was that I wasn't afraid any more. I knew that God was real, and that my security was in Him, not in things, possessions, or money. Whenever I had a need, I would pray, put it in God's hands, and go on with my life. It has been amazing to see how God has provided for me in ways I would never have thought of.

Philippians 4:6

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Ask God for what you need. He will take care of you.

2. You must be generous in order to receive from God. God will not bless a miser.

From the monthly newsletter of "Money Matters", Larry Burkett had this to say in the aftermath of the attack on America on Sept. 11.

"Through the Great Depression and World War II, through the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam, through Watergate and the Gulf War, we've been able to regain our focus and keep moving forward. I think of what Winston Churchill once said: 'Success is the ability to continue to move through total disaster.' I think that kind of steely determination will rise from the ashes of September 11.

"If there is one bright spot in this, it is that our nation has been shockingly awakened to the fact that vast numbers of lives and an abundance of material things can be vaporized in an instant.

"Let's pray that many in our nation also will come to understand that having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Lord over all creation, is the only source of ultimate fulfillment, the only unshakable ground of security, and the only basis for a hope that does not disappoint us.

Indeed, our hope does not disappoint us. Our hope is in Christ. That's the conclusion we must come to. The most important giving of all is giving ourselves to God in Christ? Repeatedly the New Testament calls us to accept this way of life, this dependency, this constant giving and receiving with God and with each other. This is where we find God's power at work. As St. Paul put it:

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21

Tony Evans said it so well in addressing a Promise Keepers meeting:

"The apostle Paul had a view of life like this. They said to him, "Paul, we're going to kill you." and Paul said, "That's all right. For me, to die is gain."

"Then they said, "What if we let you live." and Paul said, "That's OK. For me, to live is Christ."

"Then they said, "Oh, but if we let you live, we'll make you suffer!" and Paul said,

"We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if we share in his sufferings so that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us!"

"That was Paul's approach to life:

If you kill me, I'll be with Christ.

If you let me live, I'll serve Christ.

If you make me suffer, I will glorify Christ in it.

It makes no difference to me what you do to me because it's all Christ. So, bring it on!

Indeed! Bring it on. Bring on the needs, the challenges, the gifts, the sufferings, the patient, faithful waiting on God. Bring it on. It's all growth for the Christian.

As we pray, I'm going to ask you do something unusual. Hold your hands out in front of you with the palms up, as though you were holding a platter in your hands. It is an ancient and important posture for prayer. Now, with your hands open upward, let us pray:

O gracious God, Giver of all good gifts, Giver of love and mercy, Giver of life: Take these open hands and use them as your own. Use these hands to hold onto those hands that are afraid. Use these hands to uphold those hands that are weak. Use these hands to guide the lost back to You. Use these hands to comfort those who are in sorrow and sadness. Use these hands to give good gifts to those who are in need. (And now lift your hands slowly upward) And finally, Lord Jesus, use these hands always to praise you. We who have received everything from Your hand return to You the best gift we know how to give, our worship. May Your holy name be blessed and praised by all the hands, hearts, and voices we can gather before You, today, and forever. Amen.