December 16, 2012
Grace Happens - 6
Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.
Isn’t that a great description of Ebenezer Scrooge? Can’t you just picture him walking down the street . . . everyone moves out of his way, nobody looks at him, nobody acknowledges him, babies stop crying, youth run, and old people shake. As Dickens wrote, “Even the blindmen’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming, would tug their owners into doorways.” That’s great!!
He was a hard-hearted, stingy, tight-fisted, angry, ready to bite your head off, mad at the world and Christmas — old man. Can’t you just see old Ebenezer Scrooge? Sometimes you can — — — when you look in the mirror? There’s a piece of Scrooge in the best of us? We don’t want there to be, but there is.
We go to make a donation; and as we write the check, we hear the voice of Scrooge telling us not to overdo it. We start to give time to a needy family, but Scrooge reminds us, we only have so much time. We start to forgive an old enemy; and Scrooge reminds us of all the pain we’ve experienced, so we don’t want to give them too much grace and mercy.
Scrooge is stingy, not just with the checkbook, but with kindness, compliments — stingy with encouragement and second chances. Nobody wants to be called a hard hearted Scrooge. After all, who makes a list of to-do’s for the week and writes down ~
Be stingy with someone
Wake up in a grumpy mood, and stay grouchy, so I feel better
Hope a friend would thank you for your cold, hard heart.
Stinginess doesn’t get us anywhere. We would agree with Proverbs 11:24 ~ 24 One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. How true that is. The stingy one thinks they’re getting away with things, yet they suffer more than those who freely give.
Have you ever stopped to consider about the generosity of God? We’re told to be generous, and for good reason, after we realize how generous God is, we should want to give even more.
In the creation story, notice God’s generosity. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. (Genesis 2:9) A few trees would have been nice, but God decided to fill the garden with all kinds of food, imagine garden of Eden — watermelon, strawberries, grapes, bananas, cantaloupe and chocolate covered raisins. Why would God create such a variety?
He didn’t just put a few fish in the sea, He filled the sea with fish. Would Adam and Eve be able to see all the fish? No, but God did it anyways. What about all the stars in the universe. We can’t count them all, yet God placed them there. If we can’t see all of them, then why create them? A few hundred would have been enough, but God created a sky which glimmers with stars we can’t even see.
The scrooge in us, would have limited the number of stars, but that’s not God. You see, God has been said to be ~
+ Rich in kindness, tolerance and patience (Romans 2:4).
+ His grace has been described as exceedingly abundant (1 Timothy 1:14);
+ Indescribable (2 Corinthians 9:15).
+ God doesn’t just love us, God lavishes us with His love (1 John 3:1).
+ God doesn’t just give out wisdom, but He gives generously to all
without finding fault (James 1:5).
Our God is constantly generous. Need more?! Generous enough to give the Hebrew slaves a land flowing with milk and honey. Not just a land with milk and honey, but flowing. Generous enough to give us goodness and mercy which will follow us . . . all the days of our life. And where will we dwell? In the house of the Lord!! And for how long will we live there?! Forever!! PRAISE GOD!!
Generous enough to give rain to the just and the unjust. Generous enough to overflow the prodigals table with a banquet; to overflow Peter’s boat twice with fish. Jesus is generous enough to heal all those who asked to be healed. All who asked to be forgiven and to receive salvation, received it.
Peter once asked about future rewards, reminding Jesus of all the things they had given up to follow Him. “Jesus, What will our rewards be?” Jesus could have corrected Peter because of his “what’s in it for me” attitude. But Jesus said, “because you left your family and friends for me, you will receive 100 fold . . . in this life and in the life to come.”
What does that mean? Jesus isn’t talking about 100%, because He’s really talking about 100 x 100, or a return of 10,000 times. How’s that for a return on your investment? If I gave you $10,000 for that $1 you gave me last week . . . what would you call me? Besides stupid!! How about GENEROUS!
God is generous. In fact, He was so generous, people thought He was overdoing it. Some people would say, God is controversially generous. His generosity has bothered people.
In Matthew 20, Jesus told a story about a landowner who needed workers, so He went to the temp agency. They agreed upon the wages the workers would receive and some were hired to work in the vineyard at 6 am. About 9 am, they needed still more workers, so he went back and loaded up more workers.
At noon, he went back and picked up more workers. At 3 in the afternoon, he did it again, and at 5 in the afternoon he went back and saw some just standing around. He asked them, ‘why haven’t you been working?’ They said, ‘because nobody hired us.’ The Scrooge within us wouldn’t like their answer. If nobody hired you, do you just stand around and do nothing all day? Or do you show determination and find some work to do? You tell me you’re just standing there doing nothing. The landowner doesn’t rip into them, instead he gives them a job. One hour before quitting time they get hired.
When quitting time comes, everyone is going to receive their wages for the day. The first people hired, who worked the longest will receive the most money, down until the last people hired, who worked only 1 hour. The landowner starts to pay the wages and everyone received the same amount. Those who worked one hour received the same as those who worked all day. Now, the 6 am workers were really, really angry. Wouldn’t that bother you? It would bother me too. The 6 am people said, “These men who were hired last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.” – Matthew 20:12.
We can sympathize with those workers. It’s basic, you get compensated for what you do. It’s pretty simple. This is no way to run a business. But Jesus’ point is that He’s not running a business, He’s talking about salvation; about grace, about forgiveness. The landowner says to the workers, “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” – Matthew 20:15
In other words, I can do whatever I want. When it comes to salvation, I’ll do it my way and it’s none of your business. God is so generous that He will create a controversy. People will question His lavish love, but He won’t stop loving. Here’s another passage in the book of Jeremiah 32:40-41 ~ 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.
41 I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.
Not only will God do good, but He will have fun doing it. He rejoices / delights in doing you good. Isn’t that great to know. Put that on your refrigerator, tell the world about our awesome God, who delights in doing good for you.
Let me give you one more example of God’s generosity. Jesus told another story in Matthew 18 about a man who owed 10,000 talents. What does that mean? A talent was equal to about 15 years worth of wages. That means the man owed 150,000 years worth of money. That’s a lot of money. Figure at $30,000 a year, he owed, $4.5 billion. It was impossible to repay it.
The man owed the money to the king and the king decided it was time to settle up with those who owed him money. So, the king 25 ... ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 The servant fell on his knees before him and begged, ‘Be patient with me and I will pay back everything.’ 27 Then the king was filled with pity for him, and he canceled the debt and let him go.
God’s generosity strikes again. Did you notice the man’s request? He said, give me time, I’ll give it back. The king didn’t give him time, He just forgave the debt. I would think the head of the treasury would say, you can’t do that, you can’t give away the money for the kingdom. The point is that when we receive God’s grace and forgiveness we should extend that gift to others as well. It’s a gift given to us from the generous heart of God.
Yet, what did this man then do? He leaves the castle and meets up with a guy who owed him 100 denarii. This would be about $2,000, or about .05% of what he owed. We would expect him to be in such a great mood that he would shake the man’s hand and release him from his debt. We would expect grace upon grace.
Instead, now catch this, 28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
The man asked for time to pay back his debt, but he got thrown into prison. How could that happen? How could a person so quickly forget about the grace he received. Why would someone do this?
Maybe it’s because he never received the grace of the king. Do you hear what I’m saying? Maybe, he never received God’s grace. It was given to him, but he didn’t receive it. He probably walked away from the king, not thinking “what a great and generous king, but thinking — what a shrewd business man I am. I just worked the system. That king is stupid.” He was arrogant, he thought it was all about him. Arrogant people just don’t give grace.
But when the king found out what he did, he was furious! The king was willing to release the man from his debt, but now he couldn’t release him from his ingratitude.
32 “Then the king called the man in and said, ‘You wicked servant, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ So, the king had the man put in prison.
Jesus concluded, 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
You can’t get any more direct than that. Here’s another way to say it ~
GRACE CREATES MORE GRACE! Or maybe GRACE RECEIVED CREATES MORE GRACE!
Just incase you missed it, we are the person with the billion dollar debt. God’s grace is immeasurable. We can never pay it back, because His grace covers it and it’s a gift. God has poured out his grace into our lives in such abundance that we can’t ever quantify it.
God doesn’t give us grace through an eye dropper. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine if it was that slow and minimal. No, God pours His grace upon us, and we celebrate it.
Your heart is like a dixie cup, and God’s grace is like Niagra Falls being poured into that dixie cup. You cannot contain it all. We might try, but we can’t, it will overflow; and that is the point and the hope. That God’s love will overflow from our hearts into the lives of others.
You see, God is a contagiously generous God. Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give” Matthew 10:8. You see, when God’s grace happens to us, we become a people who are very gifted. We are saved by His abundant and generous grace and God calls us to do the same. We are to give generously, because we have received generously. It should be a natural outflow of grace. When grace happens, generosity happens.
When you experience God’s grace you might find yourself wanting to forgive some people you didn’t want to forgive; you may find yourself performing some extravagant acts of kindness; you may find yourself doing some things that 10 years ago, or maybe last month you never would have considered, and now you’re doing it. All because of grace. When grace happens, generosity happens.
When you meet those extravagant givers, you know they’ve experienced the grace of God. And when you meet those cold, unforgiving, tight-fisted Scrooges, you also know they’ve never received God’s grace. It was poured over them, but never received in them.
Some final questions as we close ...
Is there anyone in your life whom you refuse to forgive? The question is not what did they do to you; the question is do you know what God has given to you?
Jesus said, “If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal” Luke 7:47 (message). If you have not accepted God’s forgiveness, you will not be able to release His forgiveness. Holding unto unforgiveness and bitterness is a weight on you, that you can easily get rid of, if you’re willing.
Do you resent God’s kindness to others? Think about it, you’ve been working since 6 am, you’ve kept your nose clean, you’ve fulfilled everything you’re supposed to do, you’re the model Christian — — then you see this other jerk, who at the final hour, after living a life which was a total embarrassment, a total disgrace, is going to end up in the same heaven as you?
You ever resent the goodness that God has for His people? Remember grace is His business. He will do it in His ways, all the time.
How long has it been since you gave a gift which prompted a response such as, “wait, this is just too much, this is too generous!” This is even too controversially generous. I’m not talking about being irresponsible, but just stretching yourself. What if you were known in your neighborhood for being the one who is controversially generous. Or at work you were lavishly generous? They are always doing those things.
It happens when we follow the psalmist who wrote, 2 Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits — 3 who forgives all your sins. Psalm 103:2-3
As you think of all the benefits from God, His forgiveness of all of your sins. He’s not tight-fisted with grace, His love is abundant. His sacrifice is constant. And our Lord gives grace the way His Son died on the cross . . . with open arms. He’s not a Scrooge and we shouldn’t be a Scrooge. Maybe this is the season for some of you to be UnScrooged. May we give grace the same way as God.
