And we’re going to kick off our study series today by talking about generosity. Thornton Wilder, in his play The Matchmaker, said “Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.” That is a very true statement! And it is equally true that there are many people in the world sitting around with huge, stinking piles of this financial manure, completely uninterested in properly spreading it around. Am I right? So maybe we should kick this study series off with a good, old-fashioned, feisty, guilty roundhouse kick in the wallet. You with me? Maybe we all need some yelling and cranky money guilt, huh?
Or not! Perhaps we shouldn’t talk about money at all. Perhaps one reason there are so many guilty, gun shy, greedy people running around is because of poorly handled money talk. Maybe we’re supposed to be talking about something far more foundational. We all almost intuitively know our conversation isn’t supposed to be about just money. The French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau once said, “When a man dies he clutches in his hands only that which he has given away during his lifetime.” We’re supposed to be helping each other only clutch the good things in life, aren’t we? So maybe this cranky issue of money is only one tiny component of a much more important conversation. I think Winston Churchill got us closer to the heart of the issue when he said, “You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.” We are supposed to be in the business of helping people make lives for themselves, aren’t we?
So what does the Bible say about all this? Open your Bibles to Acts 4:32 (p 997). The Bible has a great deal to say about money. But almost everything the Bible has to say about money is placed in a broader, more foundational context. The Bible doesn’t just talk about bank balances and cash accounts. The Bible talks about generosity. The Bible talks about our hearts. The Bible paints a picture of good money management coming as an almost accidental by product of faithful, generous Christian living. In Acts 4, we find the second of two generous descriptions of the first century church. Listen carefully to how Dr. Luke describes these folks…
All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need. For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.
What is the Bible teaching here? I don’t believe this is just a petty money moment. I don’t believe God wants us to analyze how they spent their money; I believe God wants us to learn some fundamental things about the truly faithful Christian lifestyle of generosity. And I believe this passage beautifully models for us three great foundations of Christian generosity.
We Must Be Unified
The first of those foundations is found in the first half of verse 32. These early believers were generous people because they were together. They were unified in heart and mind. All the believers were united in heart and mind. They were generous with each other because they didn’t see themselves as “each other.” They didn’t see themselves as a random collection of individuals gathering together periodically to do religious stuff. They didn’t see themselves as an institution, building or business to be maintained. They saw themselves as a body. They were truly one in the bond of Christ. In Christ there was no slave or free, Sythian, Greek, Jew, male, female, rich, poor, smart, dumb, ugly, gorgeous, short, tall, fat or skinny. All distinctions faded away as the Holy Spirit miraculously drew their hearts together. By the power and work of the Holy Spirit, in Christ there was no “other.” There is no “them.” There is the life, death, burial and victorious resurrection of Jesus bringing us to life and sustaining our lives together. There is the Holy Spirit weaving our hearts and minds together to the point where it becomes inconceivable for the hands of the body not to care about the toes! We must be united.
And yet a lot of churches are not very united, are they? I loved the Ed Koehler cartoon appearing many years ago in Leadership. Against the backdrop of an obvious church brawl, a frustrated pastor is depicted on the phone saying: “Bad news, Bishop. Our church-planting team is horribly divided and fighting over whether to call the new congregation 'First United Church' or 'United First Church.'” Another wonderful cartoon in Leadership depicted a sad pastor at a congregational meeting reading some voting results, saying, “Well, officially, the results of the congregational vote are forty 'yes,' seven 'no,' and one 'over my dead body.'”
I know every church is flawed. I know we will never experience the full and perfect unity of the Body of Christ until we see Christ face to face. But I’m absolutely convinced God is calling us to seek and guard the unity of our fellowship far more jealously than we currently do. We aren’t interested in getting my way. We are interested in getting God’s way and getting our way. Trust me when I say we will never experience the full generosity of the body of Christ until we experience the full unity of the body of Christ. Until I stop seeing your life and our life together here as secondary or tertiary in importance to my own life, I will never move into the generous fullness God intends for me to enjoy. This is an enormous statement! This is such a wildly counter-cultural teaching I hesitate to say it out loud for fear of being misunderstood.
We Must Understand Ownership
The second truth is equally counter-cultural and almost nonsensical in the eyes of the world around us. God is not calling us to be less stingy with our money, time and talents. God is calling us to understand, in a very real, spiritual sense, we have no money, time and talents. God is calling us all to realize that all the precious things we consider “ours” in this world are not really ours. God is calling us to completely change our ideas about ownership. Look at the second half of verse 32 again: “they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.” These folks were so preciously and powerfully united, their unity redefined ownership for them. They became wonderfully and almost accidentally generous with each other and those around them because they believed what they owned was not their own.
Psalm 24:1 tells us “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” Haggai 2:8 tells us “The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the LORD Almighty.” The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, as he was in the process of explaining these “body life” issues as they relate to sexual purity, said something truly dramatic, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” Not only are we not in charge of our lives (as we discussed last week), we do not truly own our lives. We don’t even own our physical bodies, much less all the stuff we manage to carry in/on/around/with our bodies. This is not just talk; this is really the way God thinks.
Pastor Doug Schmidt, of Woodside Bible Church in Troy, Michigan, was speaking on these generous church issues and made a novel suggestion. He came up with a simple sticker he thought might be helpful to regularly distribute around his church. I liked the idea so much I actually tried to get a bunch of these stickers rushed into production this week. While there wasn’t time or money to do so in time for today, I may yet get a bunch of these stickers made up for us later. Do you know what this "IDBTM" sticker means? It means “it doesn’t belong to me.” Do you get it? I don’t know how Pastor Schmidt was planning to use these stickers, but I think it would be great to keep some of them on hand and, whenever I find myself getting overly possessive of something in my life, slap one of these stickers on it to remind me of who does not actually own it. I already have some ideas where I need to put my stickers. Where will yours go?
We Must Be Genuinely Generous
When we allow the Holy Spirit to draw us properly together, all our selfish and worldly definitions of ownership will slowly but surely begin to fade away. We will become the genuine, generous people God desires for us to become. This third foundational image of generosity we see here will come to us as naturally and easily as it did to those first few simple Christians in the book of Acts. We will stop worrying; badgering each other about money, control and start enjoying the satisfying, genuinely generous life God always intended for us to enjoy together.
Do you see what this genuine generosity looks like here in Acts?
It was voluntary; nobody badgered, guilted or “capitol campaigned” anybody into giving of themselves sacrificially. There were no soul searching skull sessions among the leadership. There were no marketing campaigns, mailings, donor lists or special prizes for big donations.
Their generosity met real needs; there were no poor among them anymore even though Jesus told us all earlier that the poor we would always have with us. This was one brief shining moment, one gloriously unified, generous circle of friends, in which that wasn’t true for awhile.
They gave because of the grace and mercy they themselves received; freely they received, freely they gave. Their generosity was driven by love, not law. These people finally understood that the Sabbath was a gift to us as an antidote to our workaholic behavior and the tithe a gift as an antidote to greed. Giving wasn’t about minimum standards and percentages. They gave because it became increasingly incomprehensible/nonsensical they wouldn’t give.
And they didn’t just give some petty cash and coins away; they gave themselves away. They gave their future, their security, their savings, their well-being – they gave of their hearts. It wasn’t just about money to them; it was about doing right and fully owning life together.
Their generosity testified powerfully; just as Luke says the Apostles spoke powerfully in those days, I believe the generosity of their fellowship gave the Apostles one more absolutely powerful, gorgeous thing to talk about! Genuine generosity is a very loud and joyous sermon! And this powerful testimony of generosity also results in the blessing of God on the generous.
Their generosity was unqualified; they laid their gifts at the Apostle’s feet with no strings attached to it. There was no pettiness, control or tax exemption attached to it.
Their generosity was humble and submissive; they trusted the LORD to lead their leadership to do what was right with their generosity. And later, when doubts arose as to the proper distribution of their gifts among the widows, the Apostles took steps proving themselves worthy of humble trust and submission of the people. Genuine generosity is always humble.
Their generosity was miraculous, because normal people just don’t give of themselves like this. Their generosity was evidence of the unifying work going on inwardly in their lives.
This is what generosity looks like when generosity is real. We are seeking something here today only God can give us. We are seeking miraculously genuine generosity.
We are seeking a unity we can’t manufacture without the Holy Spirit’s help. We are trying to disown things we’ve spent our entire lives, most of our waking moments, trying to more effectively own and control. We are seeking to disown stuff and be genuinely generous.
In his book Written in Blood, Robert Coleman tells the now famous old story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same very rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor. “Would you give your blood to Mary?” the doctor asked. Little Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, “Sure, for my sister.” Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room--Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned at his sister. But as the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny's smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube. And with the ordeal now almost over, his slightly shaky voice broke the silence. “So Doctor, when do I die?” Only then did the doctor realize why the little boy had hesitated and why his lip had trembled when he'd agreed to donate his blood. The little guy thought giving blood to his sister meant giving his life. And in that brief trembling moment, he'd made the ultimate generous decision because that’s what brothers do.
I know these miraculously high standards of generosity can seem a little scary at first blush, maybe even a little crazy to some of us. I know exactly how ludicrous and demanding all this sounds. I know the initial pinpricks of generosity might hurt a little. I know how strange it feels the first time we lay there on the table and watch our blood flow out through the tube. But this lavish love is precisely the generosity Jesus offered each one of us and it is precisely the generosity the Bible tells us Almighty God longs for us to enjoy and to offer to others.
God isn’t looking for cash. God is looking for generosity.
May the Holy Spirit miraculously and powerfully unify our fellowship! May our strange unity cause all our selfish ideas of ownership to slowly fade away so that we will become the genuinely generous people we were born to become! May we listen to what the Bible says!
Amen.
Posts
