CONNECTIONS

CONNECTIONS Philippians 4:14-20 February 20, 2000 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] When you go to a doctor for your annual check-up, the doctor will begin to poke, prod and press various places around your torso, all the while asking, "Does this hurt? How about this?" You dare not wince in pain, because, as soon as you do, the doctor will gouge the same place to verify that it really was that area that hurt. The doctor is double-checking because if you jumped, either one of two things happened: the doctor either pushed too hard, without the right sensitivity. Or, more likely, there's something wrong, and the doctor will say, "We'd better run some additional tests because it's not supposed to hurt there!" So it is when pastors preach on financial responsibility, and some of the people cry out in discomfort, criticizing the message and the messenger. Either the pastor has pushed too hard. Or perhaps there's something wrong. In that case, I say, "We're in need of the Great Physician, because it's not supposed to hurt there." Today we return to the text at Philippians 4 to share a teaching on generosity until it doesn't hurt anymore! I read the story of a pastor who stopped by to visit with a wealthy member to ask him for a pledge to their building fund drive. The man was notoriously stingy, so the pastor decided to lean a little harder on him than he might otherwise have done. The man responded, "Pastor, did you know that my father is about to have his farm foreclosed and my mother needs surgery and can't afford it? Did you know that my brother was badly injured in a car wreck and needs reconstructive surgery and his insurance has lapsed?" The pastor lowered his head and said no, he had not known of these tragic circumstances in the man's life. Then the man said, "Now if I'm too stingy to help my family in their time of need, why do you think I would give anything to the church?" Philippians 4:14-20 - You will recall that Paul is at this time imprisoned in Rome for preaching the gospel and here is in the middle of his "thank you" to the Christians at Philippi for the monetary support they had just sent him. When we last looked at this passage Paul was explaining that God has given him the strength to endure and be content whatever his circumstances, whether he had much or little. Now he continues... Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Let's notice just a couple of things in this text on our way to applying its teachings to our lives today. First, did you catch what Paul said in verse 15? He talked about what the sharing of offerings really is -"the matter of giving and receiving". What I believe he means here is that offerings should never be seen as just "giving," but also "receiving." That is, we understand Christian generosity best when we see beyond the offering basket to the "results" of what we give for. I believe the Lord would have us "look through" the offering basket to the effect that our gifts in the larger scheme of things. When you approach the offering basket, you need to understand that "beyond the basket" is where what we do in giving offerings makes the most sense. When you contribute your tithes and offerings you are not just engaging in some religious practice that defines you as a Christian, you are actually sewing seeds of the gospel. These seeds are being planted throughout the metro-east and across the world through our missions support; you are expanding the Kingdom of God by underwriting the preaching and teaching of His Word. And beyond all that, you are also blessing your own life! That's right, at first blush it looks like your losing (losing resources, money, capital), but you are in fact gaining. This is what the Lord meant though His words, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." This week I ran across a very good translation of that word, "blessed"--it means to be privileged to the point of being envied by others. When you give you are putting yourself in the place of blessing. This is what Paul meant when he wrote these words in verse 17 - Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. He is saying it is GOOD to be a generous giver. Not just that it benefits others, but it also benefits the giver. Remember the text we cited two weeks ago, Luke 6:38? Give, and it will be given to you--a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Proverbs is the greatest book of wisdom in all of human history, and in verse 24 of Proverbs, chapter 11, is says: A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. And this is why God asks us to give into His work. Remember, He doesn't "need" our money, what He "wants" is our heart. Now the world's system and the natural way of thinking is "get all you can, can all you get, and sit on the can." The world's system is selfish, self-centered; the kingdom system is other-centered and self-sacrificing. Eugene Peterson's' translation of Mark 4:25 reads like this: Listen carefully to what I am saying--and be wary of the shrewd advice that tells you how to get ahead in the world on you own. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity. Stinginess impoverishes. Ron Blue, in his book, Generous Living, writes, I have spent more than a quarter-century studying financial and investment strategies. I've written several books and spoken to countless people via television, radio and in person. I am . . .often introduced as "the guy with all the answers." But if I could boil down everything I have ever learned into one sentence or thought, it would be this: Generosity and financial freedom are inextricably linked. It's interesting to me that God actually uses our personal gain as motivation for our giving. He says, "Give and I will give (even more) back to you." The story is told that when Michael Faraday invented the first electric motor, he wanted the interest and backing of the British Prime Minister, William Gladstone. So Faraday too the crude model of his electric motor and showed it to the statesman. Gladstone did not seemed very impressed. "What good is it?" the prime Minister asked. The wise scientist Farraday answered, "Someday, you will be able to tax it!" He won Gladstone's approval and endorsement. God knows us and He motivates us to become generous givers by promising He will bless us richly when we give. He wants to bless people and knows that the greatest blessing is in giving, so He puts icing on the cake and says, "If you will be generous, I will be generous toward you!" Now this is an offer of grace. Remember, He is God and He could simply demand our generosity. E.E. Kenyon of American Weekly shared this story of a boss's surefire method of motivating. The normally sour faced boss smiled congenially at the salesmen he had called into the meeting. "Well gentlemen, I've called you in to announce a big sales contest which I am starting immediately and which I will personally supervise." There was an excited murmur from the sales staff and an eager voice in the back of the room called out: "What does the winner get, Mr. Smithson?" "He gets," the boss announced, "to keep his job!" God would have every divine right to get in our faces and demand that we return 75% of everything that we earn to Him. But he doesn't. First, He saves us by His grace, and then, by His grace, He invites us into even more blessing by giving us the opportunity to be generous in His name. On top of that He gives His word that He will return to us more than we give if we will be generous and faithful. The saddest thing, though, is that many of God's people who have received salvation and forgiveness and eternal life from the Lord, choose to not be generous, in spite of all His blessings. And, in that stubborn refusal, they forfeit receiving the even deeper blessings from God. What is God is calling us to when He invites us to give generously? He is calling us to the thrilling cutting edge of faith; to the exhilarating place of giving lavishly and extravagantly in His Name, and then receiving His reward. The question for each of us is, will we take Him at His Word, and choose to generously give away what He has allowed us to handle? Will we trust Him, or will we trust in our riches, claim they are our own, and hold on to them for ourselves? When you say it that way, it sounds quite arrogant, doesn't it? Frankly, arrogance is what God calls it, too. In the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi reflected God's thoughts on the matter of His people being stingy and selfish. Speaking for the Lord, he says, Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you ask, "How do we rob You?" In tithes and offerings - you are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing me." Now the Old Testament Law required a "tithe" from God's people, that is, 10% of all they had. Then there were additional requirements set forth in the law which, when added together with the tithe, amounted to over 23%. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. The people were apparently holding back. "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." Did you hear that? Smack in the middle of one of the Old Testament's most scathing prophetic denouncement of a disobedient people, God offers His promise of enormous blessing to those who will respond with the prescribed generosity! Brothers and sisters, how much more for us who are under grace?! I have three exhortations for us today: 1. Stretch yourself out of selfishness Stop thinking of your money as your security--and start thinking (rightly) of the Lord as your security. Helen Keller said, "Security is mostly a superstition (anyway). it does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." See your opportunity to give generously, even recklessly, as an adventure, a faith adventure. Stretch yourself in the direction of generosity, and you will find the greatest joy. You know, your faith is a lot like a rubber band. A rubber band is totally useless unless it is stretched. When our insecurity keeps us from stretching and growing in our faith, we end up with a life that is as unexciting and limp as a rubber band in a trash can. Stretch - take risks in the safest confines of all: God's promises! Ann Landers column once carried this poem: To laugh is to risk appearing a fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk involvement. To expose feelings is to risk rejection. To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure. But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. he may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow, or love. Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave Only a person to takes risks is free. There is a great little story about an old farmer, ragged and barefoot, who sat on the steps of his tumbledown shack chewing on a stem of grass when a passerby stopped and asked for a drink of water. Trying to be sociable he engaged the farmer in conversation. "How is your cotton crop this year?" Ain't got none replied the farmer. "Didn't you plant any cotton?" Nope, said the farmer, 'fraid of boll weevils. "Well," asked the stranger, "How's your corn doing?" Didn't plant none--'fraid there wouldn't be enough rain. "Well," the traveler asked, "just what did you plant?" Nothin' I just played 'er safe! A lot of well-intentioned but disappointed people live by that farmer's philosophy, and they never risk upsetting the apple cart. They prefer to just "play 'er safe." And they will never know the thrill of victory, because to win a victory one must risk failure. C.T. Studd, one of the greatest Christian missionaries in history, made a great statement about stretching and risk-taking when he asked this question, "Are gamblers for gold so many and gamblers for God so few?" This is the missionary who, when cautioned against returning to Africa because he might end up a martyr, replied, "praise God, I've just been looking for a chance to die for Jesus!" A guy like that just can't fail--he's got everything to gain and nothing to lose! One question you must answer if you will stretch yourself out of selfishness - will I trust God to take care of me? 2. Give in the spirit of gratitude There is one sure way to be delivered out of selfishness and into generosity - be constantly grateful. If you find yourself unable to give with gratitude in your heart, here's what you do - you get up in the morning and recite John 3:16 a hundred times. Then at noon you recite Romans 5:8 a hundred times ("God demonstrated His own love for us in this: while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.") Then at supper time you recite Ephesians 1:3 a hundred times ("Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.") Then late in the evening recite a hundred times Philippians 4:13 ("I can do all things through Him who gives me strength"). Then just as you are ready to fall off to sleep, whisper these words, "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus," until you drift off to sleep. Do that for a hundred days. And you will never know an ungrateful moment. Do you get my point. Meditate on the Lord and His love and promises toward you and it will heal your ingratitude. It'll turn an ingrate into a generous giver. And if you just don't want to meditate on His goodness toward you, more than likely you have never tasted His kindness, and you just need to get saved! Be grateful not only for what He has given you and what He promises to yet give you--be grateful for the very privilege of being able to give In a little church in Binford, North Dakota, one Sunday, an elderly woman named Mary, fainted and struck her head on the end of the pew. Immediately, an EMT in the congregation called an ambulance. As they strapped her to a stretcher and got ready to head out the door, Mary regained consciousness. She motioned for her daughter to come near. Everyone thought she was summoning her strength to convey what could be her final words. The daughter leaned over until her ear was at her mother's mouth. "My offering is in my purse," she whispered. 3. Try the tithe Look at tithing as a standard. If tithing is your standard, then you will look at it from one of three different perspectives. Either you're not there yet and you'll see it as a goal, or you are tithing already and you'll see it as a baseline. Tithing is a good standard for at least two reasons: one, it was God's chosen, legal level of giving through 1,500 years of Jewish history before Christ; and two, it is fair for everyone (like the flat tax), because it's a percentage, and not a dollar figure. For the first group, may I represent everyone I've ever known who has risked tithing, and tell you that not one of them has ever testified that the Lord did not bless them gloriously and take care of them. Do you remember what the Lord said through Malachi the prophet? Test me in this thing--bring the tithes into the storehouse and see if I won't open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on you such as you cannot contain. Talk to someone you know and trust in your cell group and ask them about their experience in tithing, and you'll hear an exciting story about God's faithfulness--I guarantee you. For those in the second group, who have already been tithing. It was a great step of faith and it was beautifully rewarded, wasn't it, when you first stretched yourself into giving ten percent?! Why stop there? You surely don't think you've "arrived," do you? Can you believe God for more of the same? I am challenging you to move on in God. There are no rules that say, "Sorry, there are no additional blessings past this point--you must stay at ten percent!" I challenge you to continue the adventure! Go on stretching, go on trusting, go on believing God to pour out His blessings on you - you're not going to break Him - or yourself! Do you like a challenge, an adventure. Make a bargain with God that you will live at the level of your present income, and all your future raises you'll just give away in His name. Whatever you decide, at whatever level of faith you are operating in, do this, ASK GOD WHAT HE WANTS OF YOU. Bottom line: will you trust God at new levels or will you just "play 'er safe"?       [Back to Top]