Rev. John W. Fowler

October 19, 2003

Scripture: Malachi 3:6-18

This morning I want to share with you from the third chapter of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, and he writes:

I want you to think for a few moments today on this Acolyte Sunday about living a generous life, and how practicing the spiritual discipline of generosity can help you to grow spiritually, and truly have a great impact on those around you. In a modern day parable by Juan Ortiz, based on the pearl of great price that Jesus spoke about in the parable where a man discovered this pearl and went and sold all that he had and came back to get the pearl. I believe this is the beginning of what it means to live a generous life. It begins like this:

“I want this pearl. How much is it?”

“Well,” the seller says, “It’s very expensive.”

“But how much?” we ask.

“It’s a very large amount.”

“Well, do you think I could buy it?”

“Well, of course. Everyone could buy it.”

“But didn’t you say it was very expensive?”

“Yes.”

“Well, how much is it?”

“Everything you have,” says the seller.

We make up our minds. “All right, I’ll buy it,” we say.

“Well, what do you have?” he wants to know. “Let’s write it down.”

“Well, I have ten thousand dollars in the bank.”

“Good, ten thousand dollars. What else?”

“That’s all. That’s all I have.”

“Nothing more?”

“Well, I have a few dollars here in my pocket.”

“How much?”

Well, we start digging. “Ten, twenty, thirty, forty,… Well, it’s a hundred and twenty dollars.”

“Well, that’s fine. What else do you have?”

“Well, nothing. That’s all.”

“That’s all you have?”

“Well, I have a camper.”

“That’s fine. That becomes mine. Where do you live?”

“Well, I have a house.”

“Fine, I’ll take that too.”

“But I’ll have to sleep in my car.”

“You have a car?”

“Two of them.”

“Well, both become mine, both cars. What else?”

“Well, you already have my money, my house, my camper, my cars. What more do you want?”

“Are you alone in the world?”

“No. I have a wife and two children.”

“Oh, yes, your wife and children too. What else?”

“Well, I have nothing left. I am left alone now.”

Suddenly the seller exclaims, “Oh, I almost forgot — you, yourself, too. Everything becomes mine — wife, children, house, money, cars — and you too.”

And he goes on and says, “Now, listen. I will allow you to use all these things for the time being. But, don’t forget that they are mine, just as you are. And whenever I need any of them, you must give them up, because now, I am the owner.”

I really believe that this is the beginning of living a generous life — whether we are talking about finances or your time, your talent, your very lives. When we recognize that God is the giver of all blessings, He is the giver of our lives, there is nothing that we would have if it wasn’t for Him — that’s where we begin. And when we are grateful for what He has blessed us with, and we recognize that He is the divine giver, our lives given back to him, or we are being stewards — we are generous because we know He is the one who gave it to us and we want to share.

I want to speak for just a few moments, first of all, about the attitude of generosity. Do you have a generous attitude? I came across a story of a modern day Scrooge this past week. Apparently this man was doing well financially. They were having a building campaign, so a couple of them got up the courage to go see him and they made up their minds that they wanted to ask him for a gift of $50,000, and they proceeded to do that.

And the man said, “Well, I can see why you would ask me for $50,000. I mean, I’ve been doing pretty well. I know times are hard, but our business has done well. But did you know that my mother is in a nursing home, a very expensive one at that?”

“Well, no. We didn’t know that.”

“Well, I didn’t think you did. And, did you know that my daughter — she’s out of work, and she’s a single mom, and she’s got two little children to look after — and she needs my help too. Did you know that?”

“Well, no. We didn’t know that.”

“And did you know that my Alma Mata is going through a real hard time financially and they have come to see me, and they want my help too?

“Well, no. We didn’t know that.”

“Well, then, what I want you to tell me is: If I’ve said ‘no’ to my mom and my daughter and my Alma Mata, why should I say ‘yes’ to you?”

Some people are that way; it doesn’t matter who needs them; they are not going to give, no matter what.

In 2 Corinthians you see a much different attitude. There is a famine in Jerusalem. It’s the mother church of Christianity and the Apostle Paul on one of his mission journeys is going around and taking up money for them. In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 8, he says it this way. This is entitled Generosity and Courage:

Just a few things about this congregation: Four ways that they gave. Think about it. Not just finances, but your life. First of all, they gave liberally. That is, they weren’t asking, “Aw, OK, how much will we have to do?” No, they gave abundantly. They gave liberally.

Secondly, they gave voluntarily They weren’t coerced; they weren’t given high pressure tactics.

In fact, I’m sure they thought, “This congregation is on hard times. We really shouldn’t ask them to help the Jerusalem church because they don’t have that much.”

No, all the more. They wanted to share. They knew that they had more than the church in Jerusalem, but they knew what Christ had done for them. They gave voluntarily. They gave anonymously. It wasn’t a big deal; they didn’t want a lot of recognition. But most of all when you hear this at offering time, oftentimes this is a verse we quote: They gave joyfully.

A truly generous person gives with a joy and they get a thrill. You’ve seen it at Christmas, haven’t you, or birthdays, when you see the look on someone’s face — a gift that you have given them — there’s actually joy that comes from giving. That’s what generous people have discovered. There is an attitude of generosity.

And then, one example of the generosity is tithing I want to share with you. Now, I’ll give you a warning: For about the next five minutes, it’s going to zero in on money and you may want to be like I was when I went to New York for the first time; I guess it was the last time, too, at least it’s been so far. When I went, I was nervous. I was afraid I’d get mugged the first time I went anywhere. I had just heard all these things about New York and I had a New Yorker with me from college, so at least I had a good guide, but the whole time I had my hand on my wallet.

So, if you want to put your hand on your wallet or your pocket book, that’s fine. You go right ahead. But tithing is not a scary as is sounds. When you find this sort in Malachi, Chapter 3, what Malachi is referring to is when the children of Israel had come back, it’s a time of renewed faith, they were already wondering, “Well, is it really worth serving God?” And one of the most evident ways that they weren’t coming back to the Lord was the tithe.

What is the tithe in the Bible? Well, you first of all find it in Genesis, Chapter 14, after Abram has gone and rescued Lot and his family and there is a tribal war, he gives a tithe of the spoils of war, which was not an unusual custom. He gave it to Melchizedek.

Then in Genesis, Chapter 28, Jacob, the great deceiver who has cheated Esau out of a blessing and a birthright, dreams this ladder; he has this great encounter with God and says, “Well, if God will bless me, then I’ll give a tenth to Him.”

It kind of sound like he is making a deal with God, but for Jacob, it’s progress. And that’s the other reference, you see, to tithing. For the Jew it was a commandment.

When you get over to the New Testament the only time Jesus refers to it is more of a rebuke to the Pharisees. I felt like — Well, I know you tithe all that you have, but you neglect the weightier teachings of the law — of mercy, and justice.

Tithing is still a good guide. It’s not the only guide because, essentially, what the scriptures teach based on the New Testament is stewardship. Especially with finances, God calls us to be stewards of whatever we give. Whether it's like the Woodruffs, who gave a hundred million dollars to Emory University when I was there, or like the widow’s mite, the amount is not what counts; it’s what’s on the heart and what God leads you to do.

I remember our first Sunday night in the ministry. We had just gotten back from our honeymoon and I married someone who believed in tithing. I was totally ignorant of that. I mean, I put money in the offering plate, but ten percent sounded like a tremendous amount of money, especially on a part-time youth minister’s job and Liz didn’t have a teaching job at that point, and so I thought, “You know, that’s kind of risky, Liz, I mean, to tithe.” And as I say, ten percent of nothing is a lot of money. But, we went ahead and did it. I know we did, because I was nervous. And so we had a little Sunday night service after Youth that we had in that church, and they asked for prayer requests. I had an unspoken request. I didn’t want to tell them, “Well, the Youth Minister is broke and I need you to take up a love offering for him,” but I did raise my hand for prayer because I didn’t know what we were going to do. Well, we go to the Youth that night and we had an old-fashioned pounding. That doesn’t mean they “whupped” up on us. What that means is that they had a whole bunch of groceries for us and so, there was our food for that week or a couple of weeks.

And that leads me to the first great benefit of tithing I’ve found. It was a recognition that God gave it to me in the first place and you are giving back to Him. It is faith. It has really helped me to not worry about money. I still do at times, but it has really helped me to trust Him about finances.

The other area is, too, it helps me to guard against the temptation to be selfish, self-centered. It helps me to be a more generous person. Tithing doesn't’ mean that you have arrived in financial stewardship. I still work on what I am going to do with the other ninety percent. But it really is a recognition that it comes all from the Lord.

And I want to share with you about the generosity of time in life. For some, this makes us more nervous. Some of us are more apt to say, “That’s fine. I’ll get my checkbook out and write it.” But when they start talking about your time, that makes us more nervous. So, if you want to hold onto your watch, or your calendar, or your day timer, you go right ahead. I want to talk about the generosity of time and of life. And for that I want to share with you from Acts, Chapter 3, where you find that Peter and John are going up to the temple and Luke tells us :

Peter’s response was "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you.”

Oftentimes the greatest gift that we can give people, especially in this instance, is the gift of our time, the gift of our talent, that we get involved in other peoples’ lives. I think of the Harvest of Blessings Mission yesterday (and if you had gone over to the great auditorium at the Catawba Valley Community College, you would have seen the whole track filled with mission displays.) And as you go around — whether it is disciple, Bible and prisons, or Henderson Settlement — there is just a variety. All of them were, generally, some aspect of helping those who poor, those who are in need. I always love to talk to the people who are there. Some have come a long time to share their story. You could tell they are passionate about what they are doing, about how God has called them to help.

I remember one morning when I felt like a devotion that I gave at the prison was really not too good, and I didn’t notice much of a response, then hearing them pray, “Lord, we thank you for these men who have taken the time to come out here.” And then I realized — that’s really what made more of an impact — that we gave the gift of time to those people. When we have the gift of time and are generous with it, we see the needs of other people. We are not too busy for them.

Also, we are generous with our families. That is, that no longer do we keep fitting them into our schedule; we make time for those who are nearest to us, for those who will gather around when our days on Earth are about to end. I think of my mother at this time. That is the gift that she wants more than anything; it is the gift of time. She still wants me to go down to the snack store and get her a Coke and a Snickers bar and some crackers when I go — and that puts me out about two or three dollars — but I’ll do that that for Mom. But, it’s really taking the time to go; that’s what means the most. Are you generous with your time?

Let me close with this story. Of all places for inspiration, I found it in Sports Illustrated, on the back page. Rick Riley writes very well. This story I want to share with you because we recognize that God is a giver and you are grateful for what He has done in your life, and then you become a generous person. You become generous with your attitude; you become generous in your actions. Yes, it’s going to affect your pocketbook and your wallet. You will become generous with your time; it will affect your watch and your calendar. But what you’ll do is: whatever God has given you, you are going to give it back to Him. You won’t worry too much about what He hasn’t given you; you’ll just focus on what He has given you and you will use it and you will use it for Him.

His name is Ben Coleman and he has been called the slowest cross country high school runner in America. When the best come in at sixteen minutes, or eighteen minutes, or nineteen minutes, or twenty, he comes in at about fifty-one. But people stand and wait and, as he says, “….break their hands clapping” when he comes in. Ben has cerebral palsy. He has a twin brother who runs like a rabbit. But Ben wants to keep running. And Ben is not real graceful when he runs. (I love cross country. When you come in, you’re all dying because you’re gasping for air.) But he’s not just that way. He is black and blue and he’s usually bleeding a little bit because he falls down; his coordination is not the best. But he keeps going. In fact, after his teammates get through, they will hunt him up and they’ll run the last bit with him. And then, sometimes the opposing runners — they’ll go out and run with him too. And at the finish line, sometimes you’ll see grown men cry — not so much feeling sorry for him, but just really impressed at this young man’s determination.

And that’s why he says he does it. “I believe God has called me to be an example of someone who takes what God has given me and I don’t quit; I keep going, and when I fall down I get back up and I keep going.”

This is a young man who also works for Habitat for Humanity and he builds ramps for Easter Seals. There is a disabled neighbor that he spends time with in visiting. He says he’s going to run a marathon one day. He wants to be a doctor. He inspires me, though, because he has taken what God has given him and is using it to inspire others.

Would you be willing to do that — to be generous with what God has blessed you with and use it to inspire others with His love and His power and His grace?

Let us pray.