Title: Tips for a Generous Heart
Place: Oakdale Wesleyan Church
Date: February 13, 2005
Subject: Living the Uncomplicated Life
Introduction
Americans per capita are the wealthiest people on earth and it is said of us that we are also the most generous people on earth. From the experiences I have encountered in this life I would have to agree. For the most part we American’s are pretty generous.
Let me share something that depicts this from my life this week. I am getting back into Model Airplane flying. I fly extensively a few years ago but haven’t picked up a transmitter box and worked the sticks for years now (except for one very brief flight and subsequent crash, and one other short flight about two years ago). I have joined a flight club and am starting to fly at the field on Manning and I-94. A retired gentleman is helping me get back into the flying and it is a good thing because my hands are rusty and shaky when taking the sticks to fly the plane. Well, we are heading out to the fields on Friday’s mornings to fly and this past Friday was no exception.
We got our planes ready, I put my all together and he worked on getting his wing fastened on and ready to go and after a few minor fixes and putting the prop back on his plan was off and running. He held the transmitter and I had the buddy box which he can give me control of the plan and allow me to fly it safely while he can take back over at any second if I get into trouble. He had me taxi around a bit and take off and up into the air I went. I flew for a little while and then I set up to land, he took back over and softly put the plane on the ground to have me taxi and take off again which I did.
I flew the whole flight this time and then he had me set up for the landing and told me to bring it on in. I made circled the field two times to loose some altitude, swung out to the north and west and then made a big circle to come into the cross breeze and set up my landing. As I made my final turn the plane’s wing was caught in the stiff breeze and for some reason I turned the wrong way and drove my trainer’s plane straight into the ground. He mentioned well, let’s go and check out the pieces which we did.
This guy wasn’t upset, wasn’t made. Instead, he said don’t worry about it, if I didn’t want to bring it home in pieces, I shouldn’t have brought it to the field. Once we gathered all the parts and pieces and accessed the damage he decided the plane had probably seen it’s better days. So he would go get another for me to be able to use next Friday.
I guess we Americans are pretty generous people. But is generosity all that God requires of us in this realm of giving? While I believe God requires us to be generous, I also believe that God’s standards are higher than just the world’s standards of generosity. You see, God not only sees our generosity and giving, but he also sees our hearts. God desires that we be generous, but that we be generous with right hearts and motives. I want to give you five tips this morning that can help develop a Christian’s heart of generosity.
OPEN IN PRAYER
1. We Need to be marked by our __________________
Have you ever considered how generous God is? Let’s pause for just a moment and think about God’s generosity through some talk back. What are some ways that God is generous? You tell me.
As Christians we are to reflect God in our world. The attitudes, attributes, and affections of God we should display. If God is generous we should also be generous. I think a genuinely distinguishing mark of the Christian is his or her generosity towards others. The church for ages has been marked by it benevolence and care of the poor, the widows, the needy, the sick. As Christians we are called to be generous.
Let’s take a look at a parable or story that Jesus told us in Luke 10:33-35.
What I find curious about this story is not that two religious men of this man’s own nationality walked by or that a despised foreigner was the one who actually did something but rather I find it fascinating how generous this foreigner was. He picked up the guy who was probably pretty nasty after having been beat up, he took time out of his own schedule to do it, he then took him to an Inn to take care of his needs out of his own expenses, and then he even paid for his stay plus a couple more days and promised to cover whatever expenses were incurred when he would return to check on the man once again. That’s some generosity. Then look at Jesus final words, “Go and do likewise.” We too are to be marked by our generosity toward others.
2. Give secretly
I find college campuses, Christian or non-Christian, interesting places. Have you ever noticed that all the buildings have names and those names reflect the donor who either gave a huge sum of money to the college or paid to have that particular building built? Our Wesleyan Colleges are no exception to this rule. Right in the middle of Indiana Wesleyan University’s campus sets this beautiful Chapel building patterned after a great ancient cathedral in Europe but built to smaller scale. It is complete with beautiful works of stain glass windows, decorative art work, gorgeous status carved out of marble, it is quite impressive. You know what the name of the chapel is? William’s Prayer Chapel. If you go through the campus online tour you will find building after building with a name attached to it like Nogle Christian Ministries building, Beard Arts Center, Bowmen House, Carmen Hall, Cox Court, Evans Hall and on and on.
IWU is not the only school or entity that does this but universities across our fair land and across our fair city do the same thing, give a good chunk of money and we will memorialize your give by naming a building after you. While this may be a good technique when it comes to increasing giving to college campuses, when it comes to giving to God, we should not need to be memorialized in order to give.
In my days I have met two kinds of would be generous people. The first group are humble people, they don’t want anyone to really know what or how much they give. They desire to give their gifts quietly and secretly purely for the good and joy that it will bring to others or the church. Then there is a second group, these folks want pats on the back, public recognition for every little thing the door give. In a book I was reading by George Barna, the Christian Statistician guru he said, “One of the disciplines of a mature Christian is to receive joy from giving without being publicly recognized for that giving.”
Our giving, whether it be to the church, to others, to missions, or even to our families, should be done quietly and secretly.
Matthew 6:1-4 “Be careful not to do your acts of ‘righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
In this passage Jesus takes the spin off our generosity and he is zeroing in on the heart. What Jesus is telling us is that we must give with a right heart. If our goal is to be praised and have people do that oooo, ahhh thing when we give, we have given for the wrong reasons. So Jesus’ tip for generosity is to give secretly which takes away the danger of being prideful in our gift.
In our church, when you give it is done secretly. The only ones who knows what you give is Steve Zimmer our church treasure who tracks the giving and receipts and Mona Trade who helps Steve with counting and depositing the money. They are it. I don’t know your giving. So if you are looking for special treatment because of your gifts to the church, you won’t find it here.
As just one add on here. It is proper for Steve to know your giving. If you are member of our church Steve tracking your gifts is a form of accountability of stewardship. Now we will never send you a bill or come knocking on your door. But once a quarter we do give receipts for folks gifts to the church, if you give by check or offering envelope we can track that and simply give you that receipt so that you can know how you are doing in the area of stewardship. Even though we do track it, we have no idea what you make so not even Steve can tell whether you are tithing or not, that is totally between you and God. We want to do all we can to protect the privacy of those who give and to make it hard for those who want the accolades and attention because of their gifts.
3. Give Sacrificially
Having just said all this about secrecy in giving. Can I pat a group on the back a little bit. One of the things that the younger generations don’t really understand is sacrifice. For those who grew up in the depression or shortly there after they understood sacrifice. They understood what it meant to go without so that someone else could go with. Lawrie Anderson had shoulder surgery this week and I got to spend a few minutes talking with him as he waited for his surgery and one of the stories that Lawrie told me was awesome. He said he remembers during the depression and some pretty tight days that his dad would have all the kids join together and go pick wild berries so that they could have something to as a family to give to the church to help support the church during those hard days. Lawrie then told me that it left an incredible impression about the importance of giving sacrificially to those in need.
Let me talk to just the younger folks, my generation for a moment. There has been some enormous sacrifice from the older generations to give us what we have today. Even the church was given to us at a sacrifice by some of those who have gone on before and have lived longer than we. We should never forget their sacrifice and let be an example to us.
There is probably a multitude of reasons as to why God expects us to sacrifice for him and I could spend hours trying to exsigite all those reasons in eloquent fashion for you this morning, but I don’t know that it would really matter because for many of us we just can’t get it and we will never get it until who go there. God expects a sacrifice. In the Old Testament the Israelites were an aggregational community, they lived off of the land and livestock. Most of us don’t have sheep and bulls in our backyard that we live off of and trade and barter with. Instead in our culture we have time, treasures, talents, and money. So for us a sacrifice is not bringing an animal to church to put on the altar rather it is the act of giving beyond our means to God. It giving more than we think we can afford whether it be in money or time or talents. If it wasn’t more then we think we can afford then it really wouldn’t be a sacrifice then, would it? That is why tithing, giving 10% of our income is only a base line. For some 10% is nothing its not a sacrifice at all and so for you, you probably should be going beyond a sacrifice, but for others 10% is huge and just doing the 10% at your means in life is a sacrifice. A sacrifice is giving beyond our means to God in such a manner that we will have to give something up in order to do it.
The classic Biblical story of this comes from Mark 12:41-44 the widows offering.
That’s sacrifice, and that gets the attention of Jesus.
4. Setting an Example
My mom used to use a phrase that just drove me nuts. She would say (especially when my little brother was around) “Little eyes are watching.” Have you ever been given that warning? I would usually smart-alecky walk away and out of reach of my mom and say under my breath, “little eyes are watching.” I hated that phrase. It was so manipulative and coercive but probably why I hated it most is because it was true. Give it a couple of minutes and the very same thing I was just doing there would be my little brother doing it.
Well those days are long gone. But the little eyes are still watching, this time it isn’t my little brother, it’s my own children. A few years ago we had an humorous incident on vacation that helped us see ourselves a little bit better. We were visiting Grandma and Grandpa Hales home in Wabash Indiana and Caleb was getting himself in trouble with Grandma. Arica was only about 2 or 3 years at most old. As Grandma was getting after Caleb for whatever he was doing she said the words, “What should we do with you?” Without missing a beat, little 2 year old Arica jumps in with the answer, “Spank Him!”
It is almost scary to realize how much a reflection your own children are of you. And the funny thing is, usually the mirror the worse parts of our behavior or at least that is what we see.
When it comes to our generosity and giving even if done secretly we are setting an example to others. Although the size of your gift you may be able to conceal, you will never be able to conceal a generous heart. I think that is why giving should be done with joy as well. A stingy giver really hasn’t given, but a joyful giver gives more than just money.
One of the saddest things that bothers me about kids, my own included, is the mine, mine mine! I touched it first, I saw it first, I thought about touching it first, it’s mine! Where do they learn that? Probably from us adults. Our attitude in generosity sets an example to those who are watching. And for us, it is not just children watching, there are plenty of other adults watching as well. If you claim to be a Christian and love God yet you are stingy with your co-workers, you stingyness speaks much louder then your Christian profession. But praise the Lord, the opposite is true to. If you are a generous person, if you are benevolent, if you hold things loosely willing to help where and how you can, that does not go unnoticed as well and speaks volumes of your faith in Jesus Christ. Tip #4: Realize you are setting an example by your generosity
5. Investing in the Future
The last tip that I would like to give you is a reorientation of our thinking when it comes to our giving and benevolence. We are so trapped in the now. I would suppose that many of us live pay check to pay check or at best we are one pay check ahead if we are lucky. We are constantly attempting to keep our heads above water in the here and the now. Our primary concern is survival of today, this week or at least this month. If God has been gracious and our bills are paid and we have pulled ourselves out of debt may-be our primary concern is now be comfortable in this life and so we invest in this life. We buy things that make our lives easier, happier, and supposedly more joyful. We invest in opportunities that bring pleasure for a season. But God presents us with an interesting challenge. He suggests that our investment should not be in the temporary, but rather be invested in the eternal. God’s desire is that we use our earthly resources to invest in those things which will last forever.
Again, this is where the heart comes in first and the gift itself comes in second. There are some people who even give to the church for its survival. I know of one church that I have personally had to deal with quite a bit who’s givers give for the survival of the church. In fact the primary donors have told me, if we don’t give to the church it will close its doors. So the giving is not an investment in the eternal but rather an investment in the temporary survival of something that will eventually fade away anyway.
When we give, we should look for things that have eternal payoffs, things with eternal consequences. Jesus told another parable in Luke 12:16-21 that I would like to read for you.
The heart of a Godly giver is looking for things that have eternal rewards. Giving to ministries, giving to missionaries, giving to the church whether it be your time, your talents, your money should be seen as an eternal investment.
Now let me give you a rule of thumb. As a steward of God’s resources, you need to look for organizations, whether it be a church, missions organization, a college, or whatever that is making a difference eternally. I say this with caution – not all churches are making an eternal difference. They primary concern is on today, may-be survival of tomorrow, may-be on just the comforts of doing religion to suit our needs and wants and they are not outward focused, they are not making an eternal impact but rather only a temporary impact. So you need to be careful and wise even when giving to so called “Christian” things. In fact, if our church is not longer concerned about or making a difference on the eternal, you have a right to stop giving to our church. Now it may not be done your way but if the church is seeing people discipled and growing in their faith, if they are reaching new people for Jesus, then they are worthy of your gifts. If those eternal things ever stop, so should you money and support.
We should look at all our giving as an investment in eternity. The money you give to missions, the church, or other ministries is not money just thrown away as the world would see it, rather it is an investment in a heavenly eternal kingdom and one day we will enjoy the fruit of that investment.
Conclusion
Americans per capita are the wealthiest people on earth and it is said of us that we are also the most generous people on earth.
My hope and my prayer is not that we will be “more” generous, but rather that we will have a heart of generosity. I tell you, as your pastor I think I got the better end of the deal. I try my best to teach and lead you folks but so often I find myself learning so much for you. To see your generosity, to see your generous spirit is a encouragement to me. It is also a huge challenge to me, to have as generous a heart.
