Elephant in the room_wk3_The Discipline Of Generosity

If there is an elephant in the room, it means that an obvious problem is being ignored. Put another way, it is

a noticeable issue that is not acknowledged or addressed.

Could you imagine an elephant, 14 ft tall, 15,000 lb animal in the room and no one explains it or addresses it…that would be weird or awkward.

And that’s what elephants in the room represent…figuratively…

Some people are overly comfortable talking about things like politics with acquaintances and family gatherings assuming everyone agrees with them…

Or the person who really under-performs at work and no one seems to address it and…

How about this guy…Stafford…elephant is that he just needed a real team?

How about when it comes to church? What are some of the elephants in the room…seems like no one is addressing?

So, what’s the biggest elephant in the room when it comes to church? MONEY!

A lot of people come to church and are like, “talk to me about my kids, talk to me about my sin, talk to me about my relationships but don’t you dare talk to me about my money.”

It’s too easy to just sit back and say the church just wants my money - no matter how many times we tell stories, ect, and let’s just address that

We do. The church is driven by the generosity of the people who make up the church.

While our generosity equips and enables the Church to fulfill the mission of Christ...

It’s your generosity that send meals, creates buildings and spaces for people, where we help kids grow in the knowledge of God and students in their community and calling and baptisms

Last week at, vision weekend - shared stats about the last 2 years

713 baptisms

1381 in rooted

6085 1st time visitors to us

To fulfill the mission we are dependent upon the generosity of people like you. What we really want is God’s best for you and God has a lot to say, not us, about you and your money and your heart. See our generosity is a spiritual matter. Your giving is not about the Church. It is about you. So, yes...this is personal.

Spiritual markers in your life with a small group last week.

Just as important in your relationship with God as prayer and reading scripture and practicing things like forgiveness…it’s essential in your formation.

Eye of a needle, rabbinic traditions even would say elephant through the eye of a needle!

According to Paul, if anyone has been prospered greatly, he should give a large amount. If one has prospered only a little, a smaller gift is completely acceptable.

Winston Churchill once said, “You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.”

KNOW: In order to be generous, you have to be intentional about it. As with prayer, worship, devotion, service, etc...generosity is something that takes an intentional effort. A discipline.

DO: Make a commitment. Become intentional about giving. If they give but don’t really have a giving plan...develop one. If they don’t give, take the first step to plan to give.

II Corinthians 8:7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

Meaning that our growth is not complete with we are not also growing in giving. This is the Elephant in the room. Because most Christians we want to hear about how they can grow in faith and love, but they are not as interested in how they can grow in giving.

Why? Because it is painful. It is a discipline. Truthfully speaking, it is a discipline to grow in any Christian virtue. But to grow in giving it takes special effort. At the end of I Corinthians Paul is going to talk about both the Gospel and giving. Let’s look at I Corinthians 15…

I Corinthians 15:1-4 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures

Tony Johnson writes:

Chapter 15 is a powerful chapter, where Paul is writing about the resurrection of the dead. In Scripture we see a couple pictures of what happens after we pass from this life. One picture is that death has no victory over us at all and upon our passing we are present with God. The second picture is the physical resurrection our bodies as incorruptible. Don’t picture zombies that is not the picture. The church in Corinth apparently were struggling with this, as some did not believe in the physical resurrection. Paul is spending chapter 15 laying out the argument for the resurrection of the dead. Notice that Paul says this is one of the most important things he passed along to them. And for the rest of the chapter Paul continues to lay out his thesis for the bodily resurrection all rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It really is a beautiful chapter. But I want to show you how he closes this section and transitions to the next chapter.

I Corinthians 15:56-58 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Tony Johnson writes:

Stand firm…be unshakable, excel in the work of the Lord BECAUSE

you know that your labor isn’t going to be for nothing in the Lord. Why? because he just laid out a chapter of evidence that we are living for something greater than ourselves. The things that we do for God are a part of something beyond ourselves. It should not be ignored that this is followed by what is to follow. Remember chapters and verses were added later Paul did not write with those markers. He comes directly out of these verses into the first verses of chapter 16, where he writes…

I Corinthians 16:1-4

1Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. 4 If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.

Tony Johnson writes:

Paul tells them to be intentional about their giving. Paul isn’t telling them to give willy nilly or make a knee-jerk decision based on how they feel in the moment. Paul is telling them that their giving should be intentional. Because the generous life does not happen by accident a generous life is intentional it is a discipline.

With the rest of this message, I want to lay-out the steps to a intentional life of generosity.

FOUR STEPS TO AN INTENTIONAL LIFE OF GENEROSITY…

STEP #1 – PRAY

I Corinthians 16:2

2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

Paul encourages them to include their giving into the natural flow of their prayers and worship. He wants them to put the same amount of energy and effort into generosity as they did to weekly worship. You can pray a simple prayer that goes like this, “God lead me in my generosity this week or you can pray a prayer like this credited to Ignatius of Loyola…

Lord, teach me to be generous.

Teach me to serve you as you deserve;

to give and not to count the cost,

to fight and not to heed the wounds,

to toil and not to seek for rest,

to labour and not to ask for reward,

save that of knowing that I do your will. Amen.

Loyola Press write the following about Ignatius:

Ignatius Loyola was born in 1491, one of 13 children of a family of minor nobility in northern Spain. As a young man Ignatius Loyola was inflamed by the ideals of courtly love and knighthood and dreamed of doing great deeds.

But in 1521 Ignatius was gravely wounded in a battle with the French. While recuperating, Ignatius Loyola experienced a conversion. Reading the lives of Jesus and the saints made Ignatius happy and aroused desires to do great things. Ignatius realized that these feelings were clues to God’s direction for him.

Over the years, Ignatius became expert in the art of spiritual direction. He collected his insights, prayers, and suggestions in his book the Spiritual Exercises, one of the most influential books on the spiritual life ever written.

With a small group of friends, Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. Ignatius conceived the Jesuits as “contemplatives in action.” This also describes the many Christians who have been touched by Ignatian spirituality.

Now, his story is inspiring but he was not the first or the last follower of Christ to pray God lead in my generosity. Every year, my wife and I discuss & pray about how we feel God is leading us to be generous. Each year he led to different opportunities. One year, he led to support a missionary. Another year he led us to sponsor a child from Haiti. Every year he leads us in different ways.

STEP #2 – PLEDGE

I Corinthians 16:2

2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

Paul called these people to move from the spiritual to the practical, to set aside a specific amount to be generous. We told you in week one that we do not shy away from the fact that your generosity equips and empowers the church to be the church. But that is not why we give we give because of what the Holy Spirit does in us when we do. However, these commitments are the same. Do your commitments help us budget and plan for the coming year? Absolutely they do!

Tony Johnson writes:

But your commitment is so much more than that. Think of your commitment in this way, when you get married you can just head down to the courthouse and get that legal document signed. But…most of you didn’t decide to do that because you know that there is more to marriage.

In a Christian wedding ceremony, you are making a commitment…a pledge to each other and most importantly to God. God is the central character in your pledge to one another. In the same way, your pledge is your commitment to God to be faithful in doing what God has called you to do. You have prayed about it and heard God’s voice and now you are pledging to God through your faith community to follow through.

STEP #3 – PLAN

I Corinthians 16:2

2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

Because Paul knows generosity is a discipline, he encourages all the churches he was discipling to plan to be generous. You have heard the saying failing to plan is planning to fail. This also true in generosity as well. If don’t plan it, more than likely it won’t happen.

This is something, we do every as a church, as a church leadership team we plan to be generous. We do something called the Big Give. Last year, we packed over 240,000 meals for Haiti. One year, we gave to church planting here locally and globally we built a church in Nicaragua. Here is a picture of that church. My point is it would have happened if we didn’t plan and if many didn’t plan. One easy way to plan is to automate your giving. This certainly helps me and my wife to plan.

Bill High shares the following about what can happen once you start excelling in planning to be generosity. He writes:

Here is an unsual challenge for you: pick a day and give away $100 in cash.

I call it the “Give a Benjamin Day.” Benjamin Franklin is, of course, the founding father whose face is on the $100 bill.

Why give a Benjamin? I believe there’s something beautiful in random acts of spontaneous generosity. There’s something amazing when you have an opportunity to give away something of value. But such a “random” act of generosity can give something equally amazing to the recipient.

One year, I had the same attendant several different times when checking out of the airport parking lot toll booth. I asked her questions while she processed my credit card. She told me she read books to pass the time and that, one day, she hoped to get a Kindle. The next time through, I gave her $100. She was speechless.

Who does that kind of thing? That’s what giving does. It reminds us that this life is not about us. It reminds us that there is value and worth in our giving. Because when we give, we reflect the Ultimate Giver. There’s a power in that giving which is hard to touch.

Some time back I proposed the idea of a “Give a Benjamin Day” to some friends of mine. Most were enthusiastic, but some confessed that they weren’t sure how to do it.

I think it’s important to note that we should follow the nudge that God gives. We need to be a little less concerned that the money will be used well, and maybe for once just be a bit reckless in our generosity.

In any event, below are a few ideas for how you could give away $100.

Ideas on giving a Benjamin

Pay for the entire line of people behind you in the coffee shop.

Go to a dollar store or a thrift store, and leave notes with cash on the shelves for other customers to find—“Bless you, in Jesus’ name.”

Go to a restaurant (probably not upscale) and leave a $100 tip.

Go to a bus station or train station and give the cash to a traveler.

Go to a more difficult neighborhood gas station and give the clerk a $100 gift.

Find some folks in need outside a local rescue mission.

Tape some cash to the gas station pump for the next person.

Give some cash to workers at a nursing home or assisted living facility.

Find an all-night diner and give some cash to someone on the late shift.

Go to your local Meals on Wheels and tape cash inside of a meal delivery.

Go to an auto repair shop and pay $100 toward the bill of a single mom.

Find a rough-looking car—rusted out, beat up—and leave cash in an envelope for the driver.

Go to your local school and pay for lunches for those who cannot afford to pay for their own.

Give a Sonic carhop a $100 tip.

Get coffee at a local university coffee shop and give the cash to a college student.

Pay for the breakfast of another guest and then give your waitress a big tip.

STEP #4 – PERSEVERE

I Corinthians 15:58

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

I want to bring up back to where Paul started this. In vs. 58, Paul says don’t give up because sometimes the discipline of generosity can be wearisome but God will remind us in little ways of how our generosity is making a difference. As I say that I am reminded of something that happened to me about 15 years ago…

My wife and I were young in our marriage, and one year we were visiting the church I grew up and first served at as youth pastor. At this point in my life I was in my mid-late twenties. While we are in the lobby a young man that I had led in small group comes up me and says to me, “Pastor Keith, I want to thank you for everything you did to pour into my life when I was teenager.” Now, when he says this, I am thinking, he is just being nice because now we are all grown up. Because he was a very difficult teenager. But then he told out a Bible, I gave 15 years ago, that he was still using. And it was at that moment that the words of I Corinthians 15:58 became a reality for me.

CONCLUSION

A generous life is not accidental. A generous life is intentional. It is a spiritual discipline. The best way to live the generous life is to

-Pray

-Pledge

-Plan

-Persevere

Over the past three weeks we have seen how our generosity is personal

because it is a heart issue and makes us more like Christ.