A minister was speaking about all the things money can’t buy. “Money can’t buy happiness, it can’t buy laughter and money can’t buy love” he told the congregation. Driving his point home he said, “What would you do if I offered you $1,000 not to love your mother and father?” A hush fell over the congregation. Finally a small voice near the front, raised an important question, “How much would you give me not to love my big sister?”
A little girl became restless in church as the preacher’s sermon dragged on and on. Finally, she leaned over to her mother and whispered, "Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?" We all like the reputation of being generous, and we’d all like to buy it cheap. Our seven-year-old daughter had just won $2 for her memory work in Sunday School. After the morning service, the pastor’s wife congratulated her. Our daughter proudly announced, “And I put it all in the morning’s offering!” “My, how wonderful!” the pastor’s wife exclaimed. “I’m sure God will be pleased.” “Yes,” the child replied, “now maybe God will let me do some of the things I want to do!”
Have you ever noticed how big $100.00 looks when you take it to church, yet how small it looks when you take it to the mall?
There’s something about a minister mentioning money that makes people cringe. Perhaps it is the returning memory of such sleezy televangelists of the 1980’s. Maybe people cringe because they are not tithing what they think they should be. I do not want to preach at you about tithing. I want to encourage you to live a generous life! Jesus said more about money than anything else, but today pastors are afraid that they will offend someone or turn off guests by mentioning money. It is most likely why I have been serving at our church for six months without a single mention of money. For that mistake, I apologize to you. Living a generous life is more than just money. It is also about something else that is very precious in the society in which we live. Time is the second most valuable resource to a person, second only to the dollar. If we do not give freely of our time and our financial resources, we are harming the kingdom of God. Did I just say that? Yes. It will take generous use of our time, and in most cases, hard-earned money to advance the kingdom of God on earth. This month our church is focusing on the dreams God has for us individually and as a church. Last week we talked about giving complete control to God. In order to do that, we must give up the two things most precious to us; time and money.
In the revival in the book of Acts one of the first manifestations is giving and generosity. Why wait for revival to come – let’s sow our lives into a revival and open the windows of heaven and see if there will be room to contain it. If you have your Bible this morning, flip over to 2 Corinthians 9. (Read v.1-5). In the passage, Paul is describing the generosity of the Macedonian church. I want to observe the way they gave as a model for how we should give. Lately there have been some strange things going on around here. There’s new paint in the foyer the church wasn’t charged for. There is or soon will be a new lock on the front door. That didn’t come out of church funds, either. KidZone is raising money to try to support itself. There will soon be flowers and plants in the flower bed outside. Do you know what I think when I see all of this stuff going on? That is exactly the way it should be. Then again, every time I think the church has learned something, the devil throws us a curve ball. I applaud your sacrificial giving to see your volunteer work succeed. In fact, if you are involved in a service project currently, raise your hand. Whether service in the church or in the community, raise your hand. That’s great; it means we’re starting to get this dream of being a church of member ministers. This situation is exactly what Paul was seeing from the church in Macedonia. As Christians, we want to be good stewards of what we have. However, a good steward is not defined as “a person who hordes every cent.” Giving voluntarily makes the quality of life so much better. We aren’t going to take money with us anyways. There was a greedy man with great wealth who was determined to take his money with him when he died. He gave strict orders that when he died all of his stocks and assets were to be liquidated and all his life’s earnings were to placed in his casket and buried with him. When He finally did die many people came to the graveside service. They were surprised to see the man’s casket closed and lowered into the grave, but apparently empty. After the service a family member approached the man’s lawyer who had been entrusted with the mans will and asked, “What happened to all the money that was supposed to be buried with him?” The Lawyer smirked and replied, “Don’t worry about that – I wrote him a check.” And it goes with earthly wealth – in time it will all be lost - even with the best planning!
1. Be Generous with God’s Resources. (2 Cor. 9:6-10 read) Paul is appealing to the Christian responsibility to help those in need. I would have to say we are getting pretty good at taking care of ourselves around here. What are we doing for others? And there was silence, a hush fell over the crowd. Giving generously to others enhances the reward we get from God. Whaddya know? A gift to someone else can be an act of worship; it can inspire other people’s faith. Paul does caution that we should not give compulsively or reluctantly. In other words, if you are going to give something to someone else, decide to do it, and never look back. Premeditated giving, yeah, that’s it. One of the best stories out of scripture to describe this kind of giving is found in Mark 12:41-45. (read). The message of this passage is pretty unmistakable. I wish I could read it and say “The problem with the rich is that they were putting in too much…Jesus preferred the penny over the bags of gold. As long as I throw in my $5, I’ve done even more than I have to.” This is not one of my favorite stories. The reason is that it’s so easy to understand, and the message is inescapable: I need to stop being so selfish. I need to stop being so generous towards myself and start being more generous towards God and other people. Do you notice how these sermons are running together. We have to live for God, but to do that we have to give Him control. We have to give generously, but in order to do that we have to give God control. Make no mistake, giving God control of your life is a daily process, and it can be scary, but fear is a dream killer.
2. Sow generously, reap generously. (2 Cor. 9:11-15 read). Look at verse 11; you will be made rich in every way. Now, if you’re anything like me, you read that and laugh to yourself. You say, God, if I am rich, how have I not seen this? I am completely and utterly poor. What’s the deal with this, God? When Paul says the word rich, it doesn’t have to mean rich like money. We can be rich with other things God has given to us. It is up to us to find these gifts and use them to benefit others, or else they go to waste. We don’t like it when things go to waste, especially when the gift going to waste could save or help someone in need. Our junior year of college, our concert choir had the wonderful opportunity to attend an international choral festival in Havana, Cuba. I think it was an experience Rachel or I will never forget. We practiced for an entire semester learning songs in Spanish. Our director threw a couple southern gospel songs in there to show the Cuban people that style of music. There’s something about Cuban people you have to know. They relate very well emotionally. Our choir getting to Cuba in the first place was a miracle. The US government gave us permission right before a new set of trade embargos were set in place. If we would have applied just a couple weeks later, we could not have gone. When we got to Cuba, we found out that we received permission from the Cuban government just two weeks prior to our arrival. We had been working for three months prior to raise the money to go. No organized religion is allowed in Cuba, so all of the churches were turned into concert halls. So here we are, on a mission from God in a Godless, communist country. We tried our Spanish songs, and they went over okay. When we pulled out the gospel music, the Cubans went nuts. They loved it so much. Because when our choir would sing, we would convey a spirit of worship and emotion the Cubans had never seen before. There was one concert when they kept shouting more, more, more! The choir had another concert to go to at a house church, but we couldn’t exit because the audience was blocking the aisles shouting more, more, more! If you ever want to see God, go on a mission trip, that’s all I have to say. There was so much more that happened in Cuba, but I have to make a point.
3. Use your gift to benefit others. For example, I may (or may not) have the gift of communication. While we were in Cuba, one evening me and Rachel and some friends were eating at an Italian restaurant in our resort. We prayed before our meal and continued on. When we were about ¾ finished eating, a man came into the shop and up to our table. He spoke in a broken accent, I was walking by here earlier and I saw you praying. We told the man, his name was Raphael, why we were there. He said he came to Cuba from South America to work on the commercial port in Havana. We invited Raphael to our choir’s devotions that evening on the hotel balcony. He and his friends came, and he spoke. He talked with such passion about Christ, and how we were so different, yet we were united in Christ. I had never in my life heard someone speak about God like he did that night. I can’t even recreate what he said. Though, when he had finished, we all knew God was there, with us and Raphael. Some in our group said he was an angel. There’s no ignoring God when He presents you with something like that. Even the story stirs me up, and it’s been nearly two years. It’s a testament to the power we see from God. If you need to make a decision this morning, or anytime. We’re here.
