Lies That Keep Us From Being Generous
Written by Ed Allen
Sunday, 21 March 2010 09:00
Passage: 1 Timothy 6:6-19
(6) But godliness with contentment is great gain. (7) For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. (8) But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. (9) 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. (10) 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.
(11) But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. (12) 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. (13) 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 (14) to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, (15) which God will bring about in his own time – God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, (16) 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.
(17) 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. (18) Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. (19) 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.
Let’s Examine Two Lies That Prevent Us From Using God’s Math
We think our provision depends on what we do
- “Command those who are rich in this world not to be arrogant.”
- When we get what we want, we think we got it through cleverness or tenacity, or good planning...
- When we don’t have what we want, we think it’s because we don’t … (fill in the blank) … have enough of some characteristic or didn’t get some opportunity. If only we had better training … more confidence … different opportunities...
- God’s assessment of that is that we are proud. What we have comes to us as a gift from God.
- James – “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights” James 1:17
- Jesus – connected to God you will bear fruit; apart from that nothing of value
- Moses – (Deuteronomy 8) Don’t forget when you get in the land
- We think we don’t have the life we really want because we have too little of something (characteristic or opportunity) but we actually have too much of ourselves.
We believe we would be happier if we had more resources.
- “Command those who are rich in this world not to put their hope in wealth.”
- We believe we will be happier if we have more money. We believe money can buy us more of the life we want. That’s what it means to put our hope in wealth. We put our hope in the thing that will meet our needs.
- We put our hope in wealth, because we believe it will bring us the life we want.
Did you hear about the group of friends that went deer hunting? They paired off in two’s for the day. That night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering into the campground under the weight of a 200 pound deer. The other hunters asked, “Where’s Bob?” The lone man said, “Oh, he had a stroke of some kind, he’s a couple of miles back up the trail.” The other hunters were shocked and asked “why did you leave Bob laying there and carry the deer back here instead?” “It was a tough call,” the hunter said, “but I figured no one was going to steal Bob.”
Now if you asked the hunter if he cared about Bob he would say of course he did. I bet he would say he carried much more about Bob than he did the deer, but his actions say differently.
We don’t believe that we are really putting our hope in wealth, but our actions say something different.
- God’s assessment of that is that it’s basically foolishness. “Command those who are rich in this world not to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain.” Why put your hope in something so uncertain?
- Proverbs 23:4-5 says "Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone. For they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle."
- Our building plan depending on selling land
- Nothing wrong with the plan – but wrong to put hope in it
- How do I know we put hope in it? Because as it fell apart it generated disappointment.
- That disappointment inhibited my ability to give God the thanks and glory He was due for what He had given.
The truth that helps us live by God’s math: our provision comes from God and that’s where we should place our hope.
- The Bible amplifies this great truth in two ways. First of all, it says that God provides for us richly. This is one of the central themes of the Bible.
- God provided direction when it was needed.
- God gave military victory
- God provided the land
- God provides comfort and peace
- God gave us life
- God gave His son
- GOD IS GENEROUS
- (Summer interview last week) we come to God thinking that He is demanding something of us, but He wants to relate to us. He has things He wants to give us.
- As Diane says, “We shouldn’t think about what God wants from us; we would do well to think about what God wants for us.”
- This is why we are made to be receivers and then givers – because God is the ultimate giver. And He longs to give to us so that we can be like Him and give then to others. We said that there were two ways the Bible amplified our truth! The first one was that God provides richly. The second is that God provides for us for our enjoyment.
- Sometimes we have the idea that God is the fun police.
- But God provides for us for our enjoyment.
Let me end with an example and one final point.
The example: God giving us Mercer to meet in.
- How should we think about that? Congratulate ourselves on how clever we are, be amazed at our good timing or receive it as a gift from God and be thankful to Him … According to God’s math, he provided and we received!
The final point: notice that Paul tells Timothy to command his congregation to put their trust in God and to do good and be generous. Seems like a stark, even harsh approach. But remember:
- All of God’s commands are based on who we are.
- They are not random expectations. They are the life habits that will help us have the life we really want.
About 8 years ago, the Daily Bread had a story of a rich industrialist who was disturbed to find a fisherman sitting lazily beside his boat. "Why aren’t you out there fishing?" he asked.
"Because I’ve caught enough fish for today," said the fisherman.
"Why don’t you catch more fish than you need?’ the rich man asked.
"What would I do with them?"
"You could earn more money," came the impatient reply, "and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. You could purchase nylon nets, catch even more fish, and make more money. Soon you’d have a fleet of boats and be rich like me."
The fisherman asked, "Then what would I do?"
"You could sit down and enjoy life," said the industrialist.
The fisherman said, "What do you think I’m doing right now?!"
For some of us, the life we really want will be found to the degree that we learn to receive the blessings we already have and those God is waiting to give us when we put our hope in Him.
- How is Gateway doing financially? (Talk about the challenges but also be optimistic and encouraging.)
- What are the current challenges for us? (talk about missing Sundays, talk about the growth in need this year, over against the current economic climate in the country)
- How can/do people give at Gateway? (some instruction here)
- Why do you and Jenny give, Chris? How do you give? How do you know what to give?