River or Reservoir

Walk out to the Grinch “You’re a mean one” song

Intro

Well.  Good morning!!!  My name is Ryan Hanson and I have to confess, my bucket list has always included walking on stage to entrance music.  Consider that goal accomplished.  Ever time I see a CEO, motivational speaker, or presidential candidate walk out to a song I think it is great.  The song tells the audience a little bit about them and sets the tone for whatever they are about to say in a fun light-hearted way.  When I was imagining what entrance music I would want, I envisioned the Rocky Song.  The underdog that works hard, overcomes adversity, and accomplishes his goal.  That is the message I want the world to know about me. But…if I’m honest the Grinch song may be the perfect song for today.  Throughout the Flourish series that we’re wrapping up today, we’ve discussed how Jesus, through his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, wants us to move past the legalism of the Old Testament, and just like the Grinch 📷 Jesus wants our hearts to grow a few sizes so that we’re fully devoted to God and His plans for the world. Typically, when God has taken steps to grow my heart, my first response is to resist, and God has had to teach me the hard way.  The passage we’re going to discuss today is one of those passages for me.  If you paid very close attention to the series, you’ll notice that Toran “strategically” left out a few sections of the Sermon on the Mount.  One of them, he asked me to teach today.  Please join me in turning to Matthew 6:1-4 (NIV); the section where Jesus teaches on giving.  If you need a Bible there will be ushers walking up and down the aisles to lend you a copy. I don’t know your history with the topic of giving.  I have to admit, when it comes to giving, I was jaded for a long time.  I grew up hearing too many guilt laden, scripture light, cries for money from churches, televangelists, and other organizations.  Most taught 10-10-80, were you give 10% to God through the Tithe, give 10% to your future self through savings, and do whatever you want with the remaining 80%.  I knew that this was a generally smart way to handle money, but I also knew it was not in the Bible.  I do not believe in the prosperity Gospel that some churches teach, where your motivation in giving is only to get rich.  I knew that giving was more holistic than what I was being taught.  I knew that giving includes how we use our time, talent, and our treasures.  Because of my jadedness, I focused all my giving exclusively through the giving of my time and use of my talents but I did not give much if any of my treasure (money).  The problem is…that the way I was living is not the way God calls us to live through the Bible.  Just like the Grinch, my heart was multiple size too small in the area of giving and generosity. Hopefully everyone has found Matthew 6:1-4, if not the passages will be on the screen as well.  Please join me, starting with verse 1.

Matthew 6:1–4 NIV

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others 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 others. Truly I tell you, 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.

Whenever God repeats Himself, it is typically a good indication that we need to pay attention.  In both verses 2 and 3, Jesus says “when you give”.  As I mentioned earlier I was very comfortable giving of my time and using my talents to help others, but very cautious when it came to giving money.  I was naturally a saver.  In college I had heard you should save at least enough money to cover six months of expenses in case of an emergency.  I followed this advice, and took a lot of comfort in the security that fund provided. God wanted to grow my heart in the area of financial giving.  How’s your heart in this area?  Is this an area that God is working on your as well? Today, I’d like to share (2) experiences and (1) revelation God gave me on the journey that God took me on to grow my heart in the area of giving.  I took the hard path.  I pray that hearing the journey that God took me on, helps you avoid some of the mistakes I made.

Experience 1

The first experience God gave me was a few years into my marriage, my wife and I had our eyes opened to the need for foster parents through a teaching series at the church we were attending.  We prayerfully considered it and felt that God was calling us to take in a foster child.  We fostered one child for two months and another for a year.  When the second foster child left to go live with family I felt God clearly ask me (not audibly, but more of an inner conviction that clearly was not from me), “Why did you foster?”  I answered that I felt, it was what He wanted us to do and I genuinely wanted to help those kids.  I again felt a deep conviction that could only have been from God, as I would never naturally do what God called me to do.  I felt God say, “Then give away everything you were paid for fostering them.”  I have an engineering degree and a master’s in business and the math was not hard.  Over the year of fostering we were paid $12,500.  Within days of this conviction, we received the Samaritan’s purse Christmas Catalog in the mail.  Samaritan’s Purse is a huge, global non-profit that helps improve the lives of people in third world countries.  The Christmas catalog is one way they help to make it easy to donate to fund their work.  You can purchase Bibles, farm animals, school supplies, etc.  The item that stood out to me was a $15,000 school.  I felt that inner conviction again saying, “round up.”  This was HUGE and beyond what I was prepared for.  You remember my hesitancy in donating any monetary amount.  For me this felt like, what I can only imagine the Israelites felt like after the exodus when they were stranded on the shore of the Red Sea with the Egyptian army chasing after them in Exodus 14.  If you’re not familiar with that story, God had just miraculously saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  They were leaving the country when Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army after them.  They got to the Red Sea, the last hurdle to freedom, when they became trapped.  They had to trust that God was leading them to a better future, or go back to the comfort of the known life they had in Egypt.  I felt like I was at that last hurdle just like the Israelites.  My wife and I were blessed with the opportunity to go to Egypt on a Bible study tour so I have stood on the shores of the Red Sea.  Here is a picture. 📷 Notice you cannot see the other side.  The Israelites, led by Moses, trusted God who opened up a dry path in the Sea for them to cross, saving them from the Egyptian army. Feeling very unsure about this, I was faced with a decision.  God has just challenged me to give $15,000 to fund the construction of a school in a 3rd world country.  I don't know about your situation, but $15,000 is a lot of money.  I could buy a car with that or go on a really nice vacation...(pause)…and that was the problem that God was exposing.  My first thought was what I could do with the money if I spent it on myself.  My second thought was the security I would lose, because this money would have to come from my emergency fund.  I was not focused on what God could do through this donation for His Kingdom purposes.  It became clear to me very quickly that God was exposing a problem within my heart.  It was a few sizes too small. I talked to my wife about it.  She was all for making the donation.  She has always been more financially generous that me.  But I still struggled.  For me it came down to God asking me, “What kind of God do you believe I am?” This is a question I think we all, at one point or another, have to ask ourselves. What kind of God do you believe God is? Maybe you do not believe there is a God.  Maybe you’re here under protest and the promise of a free lunch.  If so, I am so glad you are here and I want you to know that even if you don't believe in God, God believes in you.  He created you with a purpose and good plan for your life.  I want you to know that even if you are not pursuing a relationship with God, God is pursuing a relationship with you.  I want you to know that you may not love God, but God loves you more than you can imagine.  He loves you exactly as you are, but loves you too much to let you stay that way.  God wants you to live into the fullness of the potential that He has put inside you.  I am glad you are here and if you have any questions please see me or Jordan or Toran.  We’d love to have a conversation with you. Maybe you believe in a God that created the universe but has disengaged.  Your experience has shown that there is not enough to go around and everyone has to fight to get enough for themselves at the expense of others.  Giving to others would mean that there may not be enough for you and your family.  Being generous means that you suffer. Maybe you believe in an active God.  Your experience shows that God is working in the world, and provides just enough to go around.  We have to give to ensure everyone has just their basic needs met, but having excess means that we are forcing someone else to suffer.  Or maybe you believe in a God that is not only active, but lovingly blesses us to excess.  This God provides WAY more than enough and out of His love He blesses beyond what we could ask, want, or imagine. At that time in my life, I believe that God provided just enough and giving to others mean that my family and I would have just enough to get by with nothing extra, no safety net (comfort).  God was calling me to give this gift, challenged my understanding of who God was.  Giving this gift was a huge struggle for me.  But giving this gift was made easier because I did not consider the money I received from the foster agency to be mine.  It was given to me by the foster agency to use for the kids under my care.  I was stewarding the money for the kids.  Since I would have taken care of those kids without any money from the foster agency, it was a little easier to give away.  It was fully within my rights to keep it, but donating it to other kids in need seemed like the right thing to do.  My wife and I chose to donate the $15,000 and this is the school that was built in Cambodia as a result.  It turned out that $15,000 only builds 1/6th of a school.  We found out later that we only sponsored 1 room of the 6 room schoolhouse. 📷Through the act of giving, God grew my heart a few sizes that day.  Whereas I felt okay giving away the money from the foster agency, I had to deal with the loss of my emergency fund and God forced me to put my trust in Him to a level that I have never done before.  Over the months that followed, God provided.  We were able to handle the unexpected expenses and even build the emergency fund back up over the next year.

Experience 2

What I did not account for was that once you get in the system, non-prophet organizations do not let you go.  The next year God gave me a second experience when Samaritan’s Purse gave me a call.  “Can you donate again?  We have another school we’d like to build.” This time it did not feel like the Red Sea, it felt like the Jordan River in Joshua 3.  If you’re not familiar with that story, the Israelites were at the end of their 40 years of wandering in the desert and just had to cross the Jordan River to enter and take the land God had promised them.  When they crossed the Red Sea God created the path before they had to move.  Here at the Jordan River, God waited for them to act first.  They had to step into the raging river, at flood stage, before God would stop the flow and create the path for them to cross.  Again I was at a point in my life when I had one more hurdle to overcome to get to the place God wanted me to be.  My wife and I have also been to Israel and seen the Jordan River.  Because of Dams and Irrigation there is much less water now than there was then, but it is still a raging river.  Here is a picture I took. 📷 On the trip I was re-baptized in the Jordan and even at the lowered levels of today and standing outside of the main current, I could barely stand up.  The pastor on the trip tried to talk me out of it because it was so dangerous. 📷 God was calling me to give substantially for the second year in a row.  It was at this point in my life that God used the one verse that had initially jaded me in High School to teach me.  Maybe this is true for you too, but I have found this to be one ways that God speaks to me.  If I am bothered by something, it is typically because it is something that I need work on.  My agitation, just like with giving, is a prompt that God provides to tell me when I need to stop and do some heart work.  The verse God used in this case is 2 Corinthians 9:6-15.  It says:

2 Corinthians 9:6–15 NIV

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

I had always heard people put the focus on this passage on verses 6 and 7, typically preaching that if we plant seeds by giving money than God will bless us back with even greater finances.  They would then throw on “God loves a cheerful giver” right before passing the offering plate.  This sermon always struck me as a little manipulative and guilt inducing. Reading the whole passage changed my perspective on giving completely.  Giving is about pointing our hearts toward others, not ourselves.  Reading verse 6 again, Paul writes about Sowing and Reaping, which is about planting a few seeds, and getting a crop that is much greater.  God wants us to give in ways that make a huge impact.  I can get behind that.  I want to maximize the impact that my giving produces.  In verse 7, Paul writes about giving only what you have decided in your heart to give.  Giving is not legalistic, but something that God wants us to put a lot of thought and care into.  God wants us to use our time and talents and treasure wisely.  In verse 11, Paul writes that God blesses us, and gives us the ability to make money so that we have the means to bless others.  In verse 13, Paul writes that the result of our giving will be that others will praise God. Reading this passage with fresh eyes changed my thinking about giving completely.  Whereas I justified the first gift because I was stewarding the money for the two foster kids, this gift taught me that the money I earn at my job is no different.  Just as the foster agency gave me money to use for the kids, God blesses us with the ability to earn money so that we can steward it and use to further His Kingdom.  10-10-80 is wrong.  We don’t get to give 10% back to God, give 10% to our future in the form of savings, and spend the remaining 80% on whatever we want.  Everything we have is God’s and we need to use it, in any amount, however He calls us to.  10% is the Biblical starting point, but God may call you, or me, to do much more as He seeks to partner with us to bring His kingdom to earth now. My wife and I talked and prayed about it.  We obediently gave again that year, again depleting our emergency fund.  In doing so, God taught us exactly what Biblical stewardship meant.  This is the result, not only another Cambodian school but the second growth of my heart in the area of giving. 📷 I want to take a pause because I mentioned a verse that is regularly used to get people to donate money.  2 Corinthians 9:6 states,

2 Corinthians 9:6 NIV

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

Has my wife and I come into a huge financial windfall?  No.  Do we believe that the money that was sown in those two schools is reaping a huge cop in the changed lives of the 300 children that attend each of those schools every year?  YES.  I think if you give because you think you will personally get something as a result, you are missing the point.  Jesus does say we will be rewarded, but I do not think that should be the reason we give.  I think my reward for these donations with be meeting the 600 kids per year (300 per school) that benefit from these schools and hearing the stories of how their lives were improved because of them.  Throughout the entire Bible, God chooses to partner with people to accomplish His plans. We should give, because God generously gives to us so that we can give to others, furthering His kingdom plans now.

Revelation

God used these two experiences to show me a picture of giving that I can only describe as a revelation.  God showed this to me while my wife and I were in Israel.  We were learning about baptism on the banks of the Jordan River.  1 Peter 3:21 states that…

1 Peter 3:21 NIV

and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

The water used in baptismal practices back in Jesus’ day was living water, which simply meant that it was flowing, not stagnant.  1 Peter tells us that through belief in Jesus and baptism we are saved from the consequence of our sins and given eternal life with God in Heaven.  I knew that baptism clears our conscience of all the sins that we have committed.  I did not understand why this water must be living (flowing) water. Seeing the Jordan River in person, not only helped me understand why living water was needed for us to be baptized / saved, it totally changed the way I view giving and generosity.  Here is a picture of the Jordan River in Israel. 📷 The Jordan river is the life blood of Israel.  Israel is a desert and the Jordan River is the only source of fresh water they have.  They use it for irrigating their crops and growing the food that feeds the country.  Israel is a world leader in farming and irrigation techniques because they have had to learn how to use the water from Jordan River as efficiently as possible.  This river literally brings life to the entire country of Israel. The Jordan River dumps into the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth.  The Jordan River flows in and nothing flows out.  As the water evaporates, the minerals and sediment becomes more concentrated.  The water becomes saltier and more mineral dense.  The water in the Dead Sea is 8x saltier than ocean water.  It is a ton of fun to float in because you cannot sink, but if you drink ½ a cup of it, you will die.  The Jordan River is a HUGE blessing to all of Israel, but it becomes poisonous when it stops flowing.  The same is true of God’s blessings. Holding onto God’s blessings becomes toxic When we choose to use the blessings from God for purposes that He did not intend, our hearts harden, we become greedy, and just like the Grinch at the beginning of the move, our hearts shrink. In the same way a lack of generosity becomes a toxin to our hearts, when we let God’s blessing flow through us to others, we bring life to everyone we come in contact with. God wants us to be living water for the lost and hurting of this world. God is calling us to offer all of our time, all of our talents, and all of our treasure to Him to use for whatever purpose He desires.  I like the way the Paul states this concept in Romans 6:13, he writes…

Romans 6:13 NIV

Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

If you leave and only remember on thing from today’s teaching, remember that… We are called to be rivers not reservoirs Just like the Jordan River blesses the entire country through its supply of clean water, let the blessings God has given you flow through you to help the lost, the poor, and the needy.  Don’t store them up, greedily keep them for yourself, slowly poisoning your heart.

Conclusion

So what?  God asked me to give a pretty big, at least big for me, donation two times.  If you’re familiar with the passage in Mark 10, Jesus asked the rich man to give up everything before following Him.  That is nice, but God may never ask you to give everything away.  The question we all must as is If God did as you to give everything would you? Where are you at on the spectrum of generosity?  Do you have some Grinchiness in your heart that God is trying to help you move past, like He did with me? The first thing I recommend you do is set a goal.  After we came back from Israel, my wife and I set goals for our generosity / giving.  The one rule we set was that whatever we give to, we want it to have a TRAJECTORY CHANGING IMPACT on the lives of those who receive it.  We want to partner with God to change the world.  I want to offer three ways that you can become LIVING WATER, allowing God’s blessing to have a TRAJECTORY CHANGING IMPACT on people’s lives through your giving. The first trajectory I suggest we consider changing is your own.  Maybe you’re in a spot where you need to… Focus on getting yourself financially healthy In doing research for this teaching, I found out that 27% of Americans have no savings, that the average credit card debt for households that carried a balance was $16,048, and that 46% of Americans have less than $800 in savings.  Maybe this describes where you are and giving seems like an impossibility.  If this is where you are, I would suggest you start by creating some margin in your finances by taking steps to get out of debt and build up some savings, in the form of an emergency fund.  In the back, there is a sheet of paper and you can sign up to take part in a workshop that we’re offering on budgeting, saving, and building that margin into your finances.  The workshop will be based on the principles of Ron Blue, who is a top Christian financial advisor.  We’ll go through the concepts in his book Never Enough: 3 Keys to Financial Contentment. 📷 This will be a free 2-week class, held right after church April 22 and 29 from 11:45 to 1:45, and we’ll even provide lunch.  It will be very interactive and provide many practical tools to help you gain control over your finances. The second trajectory we all need to consider is our community. Focus on your community Maybe you are doing alright with your personal finances, have some margin, but struggle with the thought of giving financially, like I did.  I didn’t trust the church or organizations to use the money wisely based only on the marketing material.  I have found that serving helped me get to know the organizations, build trust in how they handled donated money, and gave me the change to meet some of the people benefiting from the organizations services.  For me, serving motivated financial giving because the causes of the organizations I volunteered at became my causes.  Where can you serve? I would also challenge you to start giving something to TLC.  My personal opinion is that I want to give to causes and organizations that I believe are doing good work for the Kingdom.  My wife and I decided that we would only attend a church that we wanted to give to. I am an unpaid staff member of TLC and have no stake in the finances, other than I want the church to continue to exist.  Sitting in on meetings and seeing how the finances are handled, I trust the leadership here at TLC and believe that they are stewarding the finances responsibly with the goal of having TRAJECTORY CHAING IMPACTS on people’s lives to build God’s kingdom.  Giving to your “Local Church” is a great first step in financial giving. The third trajectory we should consider is beyond our community.  We are blessed for no other reason than we were born in the USA.  The Bible calls us, over and over, to help the widow, the orphan, and the poor.  One way we can live that out and make a HUGE TRAJECTORY CHANGING IMPACT is by putting our… Focus on the needy of the world Maybe you are solid financially, you serve, and even give to the church.  I would challenge you to think broader.  Jesus called the disciples to start in Jerusalem, then to Samaria, and then to the ends of the world.  Our passage today specifically calls us to give to the needy.  I challenge you to think about helping those in the most desperate need. One way my wife and I do this, is through child sponsorship.  We sponsor (2) World Vision kids, their names are Noa and Noella. We chose them because they were from Burundi which, at the time, was the poorest country in the world.  Noa shares my daughter’s birthday and when we were looking we saw Noela who was born on Christmas and has Noel in her name.  How could we say “no”? Here are their current pictures. 📷📷 The kids World Vision helps walk an average of 6 kilometers to get to the nearest source of water twice a day.  This water is not only dirty, leading to disease, but the time that it takes to collect keeps them from going school, limiting their future potential.  A donation of $39 a month gives the town the kids live in a well that supplies clean water to everyone, and provides the specific child you’re sponsoring with schooling, healthcare, and healthy nutritious food.  We receive letters and pictures from our two kids multiple times throughout the year and can interact with them through e-mail.  We are very involved with World Vision and know that they are very responsible in how they use donated money to maximize the Kingdom impact.  Maybe God is calling you to take a step to very directly CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY of a child’s life.  I have a computer setup in the back of this room and at the information desk if you would like to take that step and sponsor a child today.  I could not recommend doing this more.  You will be a HUGE blessing to one of “the least of these” in God’s Kingdom and it doesn’t cost more than one sit down family meal at a restaurant per month. No matter where you are on the spectrum of giving and generosity, Jesus calls us each to take the next step.  Commit to the action you will take before you leave.  Change the TRAJECTORY of your life by signing up for the financial workshop.  Change the TRAJECTORY of your community by committing to serving or by giving to TLC.  Or change the TRAJECTORY of the life of a young person through Child Sponsorship.  It may be different for you, but if I don’t act immediately, I end up doing nothing. Don’t ignore God’s call to be LIVING WATER, brining life to everyone you come in contact with, commit to giving your entire self (time, talent, and treasure) to God’s use now. Please join me as we close in prayer: God, you know exactly where each of us are at on the spectrum of generosity.  You know each of our pasts as it relates to the topic of money.  I pray that you give each of us a tangible next step that we can take today.  Help us to grow a heart that seeks to go beyond the law, to fully devote every aspect of our being to you, to be used for whatever purpose you need.  Please be with each person and each couple as they wrestle with the topic of giving over the next week.  Give us the courage to act on today’s teaching in ways that honor you.  We thank you for the tough teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.  We pray that even though we are done with the series, the Spirit continues to work to grow our hearts for others and helps us to surrender everything we are and have to you for whatever purpose you desire.  We thank you, and we love you and it is in the powerful name of your son Jesus that we pray.  Amen. I don’t know about you, but I want to leave the Grinchy aspects of my life in the past.  I want to be LIVING WATER, bringing life to others by partnering with God as the Spirit direct me. Don’t leave without taking the next step that God is placing on your heart.  Stop by one of the stations, sign up for our financial workshop or sponsor a World Vision child before you leave, but act now.  Don’t give yourself time to talk yourself out of doing good. Next week is our 1 year party and baptisms.  Don’t miss it.  This would be a great week to invite friends.  Have a great week.  Go in peace.