Psalm
112:1-10
Praise the LORD. Blessed is
the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land; the
generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures
forever. Even in darkness light dawns
for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. Good will come to him who is generous and
lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice. Surely he will never be shaken; a righteous
man will be remembered forever. He will
have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in
the end he will look in triumph on his foes.
He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures
forever; is horn will be lifted high in
honor. The wicked man will see and be
vexed, he will gnash his teeth and waste away; the longings of the wicked will
come to nothing.
1 Timothy
6:6-21
But godliness with
contentment is great gain. For we
brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be
content with that. People who want to
get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful
desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds
of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced
themselves with many griefs. But you,
man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, endurance and gentleness. Fight
the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were
called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to
everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate
made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or
blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about
in his own time-- God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord
of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no
one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. Command those who are rich in this
present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so
uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything
for our enjoyment. Command them to do
good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for
themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold
of the life that is truly life. Timothy,
guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and
the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have
professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you.
I thought I’d
start this morning’s sermon with a poll.
A survey.
Just a simple
show of hands will do.
How many of
you here today would like to be remembered as a skin flint who was selfish and
greedy -- raise your hands.
OK, how many
would like to be remembered as generous?
Most people
would rather be remembered as a generous person than a selfish person.
One of St. Paul’s New Testament
letters is a short note named Philippians.
This is a great letter and it’s very personal. Paul is in prison, and the Philippians have
sent him a gift. This letter is
essentially a thank-you note.
In the
letter, Paul tells his readers, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain
conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own
interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.”
The story is
told of a mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, and Ryan, 3.
The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw
the opportunity for a moral lesson. “If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,
‘Let my brother have the first pancake; I can wait.”
Kevin turned
to his younger brother and said, “Ryan, you should be like
Jesus! Give me that first pancake!”
Well, we
should all be like Jesus. We should all
learn to become more generous.
Our elders have identified seven
marks of discipleship that all of our church members should embrace and
demonstrate in our lives. One of these
is giving our time, talent and money.
Put another way, we should all be generous.
We need to be generous to one
another. Neighbors need to be generous
to people in their community. Family
members need to be generous to relatives.
Strangers need to be generous to one another.
In a recent
telephone survey, a question was asked “Do you consider yourself to be a
generous person?” An overwhelming number
-- over 90% -- said yes. This was
followed up by a second question.
“Describe the last time you did something that was generous.”
Now surveyors
did not consider the details of the answer important. Instead, they had a stop watch in hand and
they were timing the respondents to see how long it took them to begin to
remember their last generous act.
The average
time? Twenty seconds.
Twenty
seconds.
A long
time. They would have a few seconds of
silence. Then they would hem and haw for
a moment with slowly saying, “Welllllll, let me seeeee.”
If it takes
us that long to remember the last time we were generous, then we can’t be a
TRULY generous people.
We want to be
generous.
God’s Word
tells us to be generous.
How, then,
can we become generous?
I
First,
generous people don’t put their trust in money.
St. Paul
tells us in our New Testament lesson, “Command those who are rich in this
present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so
uncertain.”
On all
American money there is a motto, “In God We Trust.” Unfortunately, we don’t trust the words of
the motto; we trust the money it is printed on.
You’ve
probably have seen the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? “
I don’t need
another show of hands. I know if asked,
most if not all of us would raise our hands and say “yes” I want to be a millionaire.
Why? We dream of winning the lottery. We dream of striking it rich. Why?
Because we
think that money will solve all of our problems. Money gives us happiness. Money gives us security.
The car
breaks down -- if we had enough money, we’d just buy a new one.
The kids
aren’t happy -- if we had enough money, we’d just take them to Disney World for
a month.
The house is
a mess -- if we had enough money, we’d just hire a maid.
Money makes
us secure -- or at least, that is the common way of thinking.
From time to
time I get a letter from the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. The letter always says the same thing,
“Congratulations Maynard Pittendreigh,” and of course they almost always spell
my name incorrectly. “You may already
have won a million dollars.” Most of the
time, these letters are thrown into the trash without even being opened, but
once in a while I’ll take a look at it.
Somewhere in the letter there is the phrase, “Imagine having security
for the rest of your life.”
But money
doesn’t add up to security.
Ecclesiastes
chapter 5 verse 10 says this: “Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.”
Trusting
money is trusting in something that doesn’t have the power to make us secure
and happy.
Not long ago
I read an article in the newspaper about a hospital in a Midwestern city where
officials discovered that the firefighting equipment had never been
connected. For 35 years it had been
relied upon for the safety of the patients in case of emergency. But it had never been attached to the city's
water main. The pipe that led from the
building extended 4 feet underground -- and there it stopped! The medical staff and the patients had felt
complete confidence in the system. They thought that if a blaze broke out, they
could depend on a nearby hose to extinguish it. But theirs was a false
security. Although the costly equipment
with its polished valves and well-placed outlets was adequate for the building,
it lacked the most important thing -- a source of water!
And that is
the way it is with many of us. We trust
in something that looks like it can do the job, but it is absolutely
useless. Money has no power to give us
happiness and security, and yet, we trust in it all too easily.
And this
trusting in money keeps us from becoming a generous people. We cling to money thinking it will give us
the things we need in life.
If we are to
become a generous people, we have to learn to stop trusting in money as our
source of happiness and security so we can be able to let go of it and give it
away.
Instead of
money, we have to trust something, or someone, else.
II
Generous
people don’t trust money, but they trust God.
St. Paul
tells us in our New Testament Lesson, “Command those who are rich in this
present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so
uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything
for our enjoyment.“
If you trust
in money for happiness and security, of course you aren’t going to become
generous. You can’t let go of those
things that you think will fulfill your life.
But if you trust God to provide for you, then you can begin to become generous
and be able to share with others.
Now
strangely, it is easy to put our trust in money. It is not easy for us to put our trust in
God.
A man falls
off a cliff.
As he is
falling he miraculously grabs onto a twig -- a small tree growing out of the
side of the canyon wall.
For just a
brief moment he thinks he is safe, but then he notices the plant is being
pulled out of the ground because of his weight.
Knowing he
has just moments to live, he yells up to heaven. “God almighty. If you’re up there, save me.”
Much to the
man’s surprise, he hears a voice.
“This is the
Lord God. Let go of the tree. I’ll catch you.”
The man looks
down -- it is a long, long way down.
Then he looks
up and yells out, “Thanks a lot God, but is there anyone ELSE up there who can
help?”
It is hard to
trust in God.
III
St. Paul gives
Timothy some guidance in our New Testament Lesson on how to develop
generosity. First, we need to stop
trusting in money. Second, we need to
put our trust in God. One third thing --
practice makes perfect.
Generous
people become generous, by developing the skill of generosity.
St. Paul
tells us in our New Testament lesson, “Command those who are rich in this
present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so
uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything
for our enjoyment. Command them to do
good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”
It is not in
our nature to be generous. Generosity is
a skill. It has to be developed. And most of us have not developed this skill.
Singing is a
skill. Typing is a skill. Driving.
Speaking in public. Teaching. All of these are skills. We all have skills. If you stop and think about something that
you are good at, you are good at it because you take the time and energy to
develop that skill.
Golf is a
skill. I used to play golf when I was in
high school and college, but I haven’t played much in the past several
years.
Not long ago, my son decided he
wanted to take up golf and asked me if I would go out and play with him.
The only thing that kept me from
being absolutely humiliated was that I was playing with my son who had never
played golf.
None of us did well. We would take a swing, look down, and see the
ball was still on the tee. We’d land in
a sand trap, hit the ball, go over the green and land in another sand
trap. But we were well matched for each
other, because all of us were so equally bad, equally unskilled.
But if we
were to practice everyday, then we would certainly improve our game.
Generosity is
the same thing.
It isn’t
something that comes naturally. It is
something that you have to work at and develop.
The Bible
constantly offers us the challenge to be generous and giving --
Giving to the
church,
Giving to our
neighbors,
Giving to
strangers.
Giving our
time, our talents, and our money.
Generosity
should become the way of life for the Christian.
In Hebrews
13:16, the Bible says, “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for
with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
In St. Paul’s letter to the
Galatians, Chapter 6 verses 9-10, we read, “Let us not become tired of doing
good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do
good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
Practice your
generosity.
Be generous
to your church, to your neighbors, to strangers.
OK, it’s test
time. No need to get out your number 2
pencils or sheets of paper. I’m going
to time you. I’ve got my stopwatch in
hand. I’m going to give you 20 seconds.
Can you
remember the last time you showed someone generosity?
“20, 19, 18,
17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1”
Did you come
up with anything?
Are we
generous enough?
Copyright Maynard
Pittendreigh, 2013
All Rights
Reserved