Generosity part 2

We are concluding or series today on “Why Can’t We Just Get Along?” We will finish a message we didn’t quite finish last time on generosity. As I do I realize I’m speaking to some very generous people.
Fall Fun Fest
On October 31 this church hosted a party for the neighbor kids called the ‘Fall Fun Fest’. We asked you to give candy and goodies for us to give away. I walked into the back room behind the offices a day or two before the party and I couldn’t believe the piles of candy and games and toys that you gave. You are very generous.
The night of the party came, many of you served in game booths, cooking food, setting up and cleaning up and we were able to bless hundreds of kids from this neighborhood. We gave away a bunch of stuff – even a couple of bikes.
Last Sunday a man who helped at the Fall Fun Fest came up to Pastor Tom and asked how much the church spent on the party. In addition to the donated candy we spent hundreds of dollars to put it on. He said, “I’ve never seen so many kids so happy. Is it okay if I pay the churches expenses?” I don’t have to tell you Pastor Tom’s response.
Review
There’s still lots more we can do. Let’s read this passage of scripture again:
*** Scripture Reading: ***
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# Isaiah 32:5-8 (NKJV) 5 The foolish person will no longer be called generous, Nor the miser said to be bountiful; 6 For the foolish person will speak foolishness, And his heart will work iniquity: To practice ungodliness, To utter error against the Lord, To keep the hungry unsatisfied, And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. 7 Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; He devises wicked plans To destroy the poor with lying words, Even when the needy speaks justice. 8 But a generous man devises generous things, And by generosity he shall stand.
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# Here’s a quick review of some observations we made about generosity:
We are most like God when we give.
God is a giver, and a generous giver. We are never more like God and participate in the divine nature than when we give.
GETTING TO GIVE
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# All that I have is a gift. It is from God. And I get it for the purpose of giving. I get so that I might give. I get to give.
1. The Secret of Abundance.
The foolish person will no longer be called generous, nor the miser said to be bountiful; Isaiah 32:5 NKJV
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# We talked about the Secret of Abundance. The secret is this: abundance or affluence is not measured by what you have but by what overflows out of your life. We talked about this at great lengths last week.
· Real bounty is not in what you have, but in how you use it.
We refer to two classifications of people: the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. That is meaningless in God’s economy. We should rightly change those classifications to these meaningful distinctives: the ‘gives’ and the ‘give-nots’.
We discussed last time that generosity is not a money issue but a heart issue, and God is after your heart. Your generosity tells you a great deal about your heart.
A serious heart condition
Just last week a friend of mine was surprised at how out of shape he was becoming. He couldn’t do the things he used to do without getting exhausted. So, he made an appointment for a routine check-up to see how out of shape he was. They put him on the treadmill, and he flunked the treadmill test. That resulted in other tests that revealed he needs a triple or a quadruple bypass surgery on his heart. His symptoms revealed not just a lifestyle or diet issue but that his heart was in trouble. It’s a good thing that it was caught in time.
If I keep everything for myself and find it difficult to give generously to others, that is a symptom of a serious heart issue. How’s your heart?
*** Video clip: Nooma ***
Now let’s take a look at the last portion of our outline. We are going to focus on verses seven and eight, especially verse eight.
(Need this slide changed from verse 8 only.)

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Isaiah 32:7-8 (NKJV) 7 Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; He devises wicked plans To destroy the poor with lying words, Even when the needy speaks justice. 8 But a generous man devises generous things, And by generosity he shall stand.
Here’s really where it becomes fun. Notice the word ‘But’ which begins verse eight. ‘But.’ That is a very important word here. ‘But.’ Say it with me – “BUT”. (I bet you never thought you’d say that in church.)
That word indicates a contrast. It is a transition of opposition. In other words, two things are being compared and contrasted here that are opposites of each other. They are on extreme ends of the scale. The day is bright but the night is dark. I am smart but you ain’t. I like winning but I hate losing. You get the idea.
So what is being contrasted here? It is the evil person and the generous person. They are opposites. According to these verses, the evil person is interested in wicked plans. He or she plots ways to destroy the poor; he uses lying words and ignores justice – all for personal gain. On the exact other side of those things stands the generous person.
BUT, they have one thing in common. They are both schemers: “the schemes of the schemer are evil; He devises wicked plans … 8 But a generous man devises generous things…”
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# The Art of Scheming .
A generous man devises generous things Isaiah 32:8 NKJV
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# In order to talk about generosity we have to talk about scheming. Have you ever deviously planned how to get back at someone? Then you can deviously plan ways to give back to someone. Have you ever plotted a practical joke to mess with someone? Of course you have. Use that same creative and devious mind to plot ways to bless others, not mess with others.
· Generosity takes planning (devious thinking).
It is not just going to happen. It makes no sense to lay down at the end of the day, look back and say, “Well, I guess I wasn’t generous today. Shucks!” It makes perfect sense to get up at the beginning of a day and say, “How can I be generous today? I’m going to make sure to be generous today.” Devise plans. Only make sure they are plans of generosity.
Nabal and Abigail (1 Samuel 25)
Speaking of contrasts, plotting and generosity, there is a great study in 1 Samuel 25:
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# 1 Samuel 25:2-3 (NKJV) 2 Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb.
The contrast
We immediately see the contrast of the two in the third verse: she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil.
This reminds me of a story, I know I’ve told it before, of a husband and wife having an argument when the husband said, “Why would God make someone so pretty so dumb?” His wife immediately answered, “That’s simple. He made me pretty so that you would marry me. He made me dumb so that I would marry you.”
This guy didn’t just marry over his head, but out of his league. I can identify with him on this point because I married way over my head.
Keep in mind that the name Nabal means ‘fool.’ He acts true to his name by his lack of generosity. On the other hand, the name Abigail means ‘my Father is joy.’ Her joy and intimacy with the Father is seen in her generosity.
The story
Messengers came from an unknown guy who was in trouble with the law by the name of David (later to become King David) asking for some generosity. It was a feast day (like our Thanksgiving). David’s men didn’t have anything. Nabal had plenty.
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# 1 Samuel 25:10-11 (NKJV) 10 Then Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. 11 Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”
Notice the attitude of a fool: What’s mine is mine. “Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat and just give it to someone undeserving?” He would have been wise to share. He wouldn’t share anything at all, yet verse 36 says that he feasted like a king and drank so much that he became drunk.
Also notice the ingratitude of a fool. David and his men had actually been protecting Nabal’s shepherds. They were largely responsible for his riches. (They also could have taken whatever they wanted by force.)
We see this when one of the shepherds comes to report to Abigail:
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# 1 Samuel 25:15-18 (NKJV) 15 But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the fields. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him.” 18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
Abigail devised a plan of generosity. It countered the evil of Nabal. She pulled together what she could and took it out to David and his men herself. She gave it humbly, with a right heart. She was glad to give what she could to David because she knew that David was going to be king oneday, as God had said.
When Nabal found out that David’s men were coming against him and Abigail rode out and gave him some stuff, scripture says, “his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.” His heart became in the physical what it already was in the spiritual: hard and cold. Many Bible commentaries suggest that may mean that he had a stroke and became paralyzed. He died ten days later. What a tragic end.
We live in a Nabal world. It is a foolish world. It tries to hold onto riches and wealth, producing hearts of stone and empty, tragic deaths.
But we can be Abigails. Whatever I can do, whatever I have, whatever I can put my hand to, I can plan to use in generous ways. It may take some scheming and some devious planning, but I will do whatever it takes. Whatever you have, give with joy.
A modern day ‘widow’s mite’
In June of 2006, Warren Buffet, the world's second-richest man at the time, announced that he would donate 85 percent of his $44 billion fortune to five charitable foundations.[i] If my math is correct, 85 percent of $44 billion dollars is $37.4 billion dollars. That’s quite generous. It means he is leaving for himself only a measly, a paltry 15%, or 6.6 billion dollars to live on. How will he do it?
You do understand, don’t you, that a billion is one thousand millions? $6.6 billion dollars is one million dollars, six thousand and six hundred times. That’s generous. But it is generous by the world’s standards.
Consider instead Thomas Cannon. In 2005, Thomas Cannon died of colon cancer in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. He was 79 years old.
When Thomas was 3-years-old, his father died. Once Thomas' mother remarried, the family of six lived in a three-room wooden shack without running water or electricity.
As an adult, Thomas went to work with the postal service. He never made more than $25,000 a year. Upon retirement, he and his wife lived in poverty. Yet over the course of 33 years, Thomas gave away more than $156,000. His gifts were mainly in the form of $1,000 checks given to people he read about in the newspaper who were going through hard times or who especially exemplified courage or kindness. A youth worker in a low-income apartment complex, a volunteer faithfully serving at an elementary school, a Vietnamese couple wanting to return home to visit, and a teenager abandoned as an infant were some of the recipients of Thomas' benevolence.
Sandra Waugaman wrote a biography of Cannon’s life. She makes this comment, "Not many people would consider living in a house in a poor neighborhood without central heat, air conditioning, or a telephone, and working overtime so that they could save money to give away.”[ii]
That is generosity of biblical proportions.
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# The Principle of Rebound.
By generosity he shall stand Isaiah 32:8 NKJV
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# Like it or not, scripture is very clear that generosity has a rebound effect.
· Generosity will always be rewarded.
Some people get upset when you talk about this. They say we shouldn’t be generous to get something in return, even if it is heavenly rewards. I’m sorry if it offends you, but God will not be out-generoused. Your generosity will always be rewarded in some way.
The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself. Proverbs 11:25 NKJV
He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, And He will pay back what he has given. Proverbs 19:17 NKJV
He who has a generous eye will be blessed, For he gives of his bread to the poor. Proverbs 22:9 NKJV
And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.” Matthew 10:42 NKJV
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38 NKJV
But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 NKJV
Conclusion
Now let’s finish the story of Nabal and Abigail. David heard of Nabal’s death. He remembered Abigail because of her generosity and her wonderful heart. So David sent some messengers to her:
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# 1 Samuel 25:40-42 (NKJV) 40 When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, “David sent us to you, to ask you to become his wife.” 41 Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, “Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 42 So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey, attended by five of her maidens; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife.
This time she saddled up a donkey again. She carried not bread, wine, sheep or grain, but herself. She gave herself to David. He became king and she was his bride.
This is the gospel message. Jesus came to earth, being fully God, to give the most generous gift of all. He died in my place. Now He waits. What am I going to do? If I give myself, like Abigail, the scripture says that He will reign as King of Kings and I will be His bride.
[i] Associated Press, "How Do You Spend $1.5 Billion a Year?" cbsnews.com (6-27-06)
[ii] “Thomas Cannon had Little Money to Give," Omaha Sunday World Herald (July, 2005), p. 13A; Margaret Edds, "Cannon's Canon," HamptonRoads.com (7-24-05)