Generosity

Through this series we have looked at a number of issues dealing with relationships. We have talked about competition, judging others and with trust. Very applicable topics made necessary only by the fact that God has seen fit to put other people on my planet. If it weren’t for the fact that He is God I would think it rather rude for Him to have done it.
But He is God and He said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” He has populated this planet and then said that the way serve Him and keep His commandments will in large part be determined by the way in which we treat these other people.
There are other people on the planet, you know. You may have already heard the news that at or around 7:46 A.M. on Tuesday, October 17, 2006, the 300 millionth American citizen was born. It seems that our country is growing by about 2.8 million per year.
That means we have 300 million opportunities, without even leaving this country, to honor God in the way we treat people. There are opportunities all around you.
Generosity
Today we are going to talk about generosity. It wouldn’t even be possible to show real generosity if it weren’t for those 300 million people.
We recognize that God is generous. Scripture says that, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.“(James 1:17) “For God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3:16) We rely upon God’s generosity in our prayers.
A child’s prayer
A young mother in our congregation was telling me about the prayers of her son. He is pre-school age and has some interesting prayers. This particular day the whole family went to a Thai restaurant and the kids had their first taste of Thai food. Her son loved the sticky rice and soy sauce. He just couldn’t get enough of it.
So, that night as they were saying their prayers together, her little boy ended his prayer by saying, “And, God, would you please make it rain soy sauce?” This little boy knows that God is a generous God. (But I don’t know if raining soy sauce is really such a good idea.)
We are most like God when we give.
We can’t make it rain soy sauce, but we can join in on this God-character and God-activity of giving.
Chuck Swindoll tells the story of a soldier walking through a small German village during World War II, and he noticed a young boy with his face pressed up against the bakery window. He was obviously very hungry and had no way to pay for the delicious bread inside so he just looked and caught the smells from outside.
Without hesitation the soldier walked past the boy into the bakery. He bought a big loaf of fresh bread, walked outside and handed it to the boy. The little boy grabbed the gift and held it close to his chest. As the soldier walked off, feeling good about what he had done, he felt a tug on his pants leg. He turned and there was the boy, with tears of gratitude running down his face. The boy looked up at the soldier and said, through his tears, “Mister, are you God?”
All in the family
God is in the business of generosity, and it is a family business. He invites you and me to take part in this aspect of His character. In fact, the word ‘generous’ is an interesting one. It means: of noble birth. It comes from the same word that Genesis, gentleman, generation, genealogy, and genetics all come from. When you are a part of God’s family it is literally in your genes.
Myths of generosity
Here are some common myths about generosity:
· You have to be wealthy to be generous. This isn’t true. In fact, wealth is often times the greatest impediment to generosity.
According to Time Magazine (12-09-02): Percentage of personal income in U.S. that went to charitable giving during the Great Depression: 2.9. Percentage of income that goes to charitable giving today: 2.5. We gave more when we had less.
Study after study show that more giving is done by those with lower incomes than those in the higher income brackets.
· Generosity is a money issue. No. Generosity is a heart issue. It is a ‘noble birth’ issue. It is a character issue. In fact, generosity involves more than just money. It involves being generous with your time; being generous with your praise; being generous with your forgiveness; being generous with your kindness; etc.
· Generosity is optional. We think of generosity like the air conditioning option on a car. I can get along without it but if I can get a good enough deal it would be nice to throw it in. -- If I’m taken care of and comfortable and have some left over, then I’ll be generous. If not, it’s no big deal. Who’s really going to know?”
Genetics aren’t optional.
GETTING TO GIVE
Like all good dads, my dad does what he can to torment me. I’m a grown man now and I’m pastor of a church, but he still tries to torment me. He’s a dad. That’s what dad’s do.
He’s retired now, so he likes to rub it in that he doesn’t have to go to work anymore. When I see him on a Saturday night he often says to me, “Hey, you have to work tomorrow!” But I always correct him, “No. I don’t have to work tomorrow. I get to work tomorrow.” It has kind of become a little tradition for us.
Do you have to give or do you get to give? There is a huge difference.
You get to give, literally. In other words, you don’t have to give you get to give. Also, what you get (from God) is for the primary purpose of giving. So, you get to give.
Let’s see this in a passage of scripture from Isaiah the prophet:
*** Scripture Reading: ***
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.
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
What does this verse mean? It means basically that we have a wrong definition of generosity, bounty and abundance. We have it all wrong. We have missed the most important part.
Let’s say that you have a bunch of money. You came up with the right idea at the right time and you made it work. You capitalized on the market. You wooed investors. You hired the right people, fired the right people and your company is bringing in money hand over fist. You have been frugal and your bank account is bulging. We would say that you really are bountiful—that you have an abundance. Wrong!
You have missed the most important step of bounty or abundance. You are not generous but are a fool. You are not bountiful, but a miser.
The Secret of Abundance is this:
· Real ‘bounty’ is not in what you have, but in how you use it. (the ‘overflow’)
Did you know that the word abundance means literally, “to overflow”? It is made up of two Latin words that mean, “To move in waves out or away from.” The picture is of a river overflowing its banks. The essence of abundance is NOT how much is within the banks. That is irrelevant. Abundance is measured by what flows over the banks.
Nile River
The Nile River is often regarded as the longest river on Earth. Each year the river goes through seasons of change that result in regular overflowing of its banks into the surrounding region. As a result the Nile Delta, the land in and around the Nile tributaries, is the most fertile land in all of Africa.
The fool says, “I’ll dig a deeper canal so that the water doesn’t overflow.” The miser says, “I’ll build bigger banks along the side so I keep all this to myself.” In so doing you don’t create a greater abundance, but less abundance.
If we miss this point we miss everything.
I’m afraid that we don’t have to merely adjust the way we think about abundance and generosity but we have to flip it on its head. We have to invert our ideas about what we have and what it’s for.
Seed for the Sower
I heard a story once about a missionary who went to a poor village to minister and he soon discovered that there was a serious food shortage. There was very little to eat and the people of the village were becoming thin and emaciated. He wanted to help with the situation but had no idea what to do.
One day he went into a hut he had never been in before and was shocked when he saw that it was full of grain, the very thing they needed to bake some food and lessen their discomfort. He rushed to an elder of the village to tell him of the discovery and ask why they didn’t eat the grain. “Oh no,” replied the elder. “We must not eat that grain. That grain is seed for next year’s harvest. If we eat the seed then all hope is lost.”
What if the things that I have in my life aren’t for my own consumption? I think what God gives us – our treasures, our talents, our time – are seeds. We wonder why they don’t satisfy. We’re sitting in the corner of our little hut crunching away on our mouth full of seeds thinking, “This new boat, car, vacation, house, thing is nice but it just doesn’t satisfy. I’m still hungry.” The whole time God is saying, “Of course those don’t satisfy. Those are seeds for planting. That is not for your consumption.”
What if the number one purpose for all that you have isn’t for you to keep, but for you to give away? What if we have it entirely backwards? I think that we do.
2 Corinthians 9:10-11 (NKJV) 10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.
God provides seed for the sower. (Underline ‘seed for the sower’.) Seed must be given away, put in the ground and die before it has its real purpose. What ‘seeds’ has God given you? Is it finances? Just by being an American you are among the world’s wealthiest inhabitants. Is it strength or an ability that you have been given? Is it time that can be shared with someone in need? Your seeds may not seem like much, like mustard seeds perhaps. But plant them and watch what happens!
Now look at verse eleven. Why are you enriched in everything? It is for all liberality (Underline that phrase) or generosity. You have so that you can give, not so that you can keep. Giving is not optional or secondary. It is primarily why you have what you have.
The root of conflict
Let’s look at another often quoted verse:
James 4:1-3 (NKJV) 1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
You’ll often hear this verse quoted, “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss.” What is missing is the most important part, “that you may spend it on your pleasures.” That’s what amiss. Conflicts come and prayers are not answered for this reason: We fail in generosity.
The reason for working
One more verse:
Ephesians 4:28 (NKJV) 28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
Look at this. Paul says that those who are stealing shouldn’t just stop stealing, but should go to work. Why should he work? Clearly, to take care of his own needs. NO. Most importantly so that he will have something to give. Paul takes it full circle from taking to giving. The hands that had been taking from others are the very hands that should work at something good and be the hands used to give to others.
It isn’t working this way
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but money has not bought happiness. Let me show you a couple of charts. The first chart (CHART 1) shows the result of surveys done with college students over the last 40 years. Two questions were asked students upon entering college. The first, “Is it very important or essential to develop a meaningful philosophy of life?” In the late 1960’s, more than 80 % said yes. The other question asked was, “Is it very important or essential to be very well off financially?” Only 44% said that was important.
Move ahead to the 2000’s and you see a shift in the importance of those two issues among those entering college. Now it is nearly reversed. Over 70% said it was very important or essential to be very well off financially, while only 40% felt that developing a meaningful philosophy of life is very important or essential. This is a dramatic shift. What has been the result?
The second chart (CHART 2) shows that, in fact, personal income from 1957 to 1998 doubled, from $9,000 per year to over $20,000. In that same period of time the percentage of people who reported that they were very happy didn’t increase at all. In fact, it decreased slightly. It’s not working this way.
Having more does not result in greater happiness. There has to be another answer.
Berry picking
When I was a young boy I was sentenced to berry picking. As far as I was concerned, it was cruel and inhumane treatment – probably against the Geneva Convention.
The first day my brothers and I rode the bus to the berry field was a dark day indeed. We had to get up early, we were cold and it was backbreaking work. We decided at lunchtime that we should just walk home. It was miles away. I remember walking for hours and then, before we got home, the bus went by. We would have gotten home sooner if we would have stayed and taken the bus home.
That was just day one. We had to go back day after day. We decided not to walk home anymore but we were terrible berry pickers. And then it hit me: I love strawberries! They taste even better out in the field because they have just a little bit of dirt on them. So I developed my own rhythm: one for the carrier, two for me, and three or four to throw at my brothers. We had great berry fights—lobbing them from across the field or running up and smashing berries in each others’ hair. The job wasn’t so bad after all.
I never made too much money picking strawberries. I remember one time I was so proud of my personal best: 39 carriers. I told my friend Doug Jordan and that day he had picked only an average amount for him: 66 carriers.
I may have picked as many as anyone else out there, but I learned that you don’t get credit for the ones you consume or for the ones that you throw at others.
You don’t get credit for what you consume for yourself or what use against others. What you have doesn’t belong to you. The way to feel the greatest sense of personal fulfillment is to get all you can and give up all you can.
· Generosity is a practice .
It is not just something we think about but it is also something we do. It results in action. We will look at this in more detail next time.