Who am I to Give Generously?

Sermon Summary:


In the book of Chronicles we come to a place where King David has collected a large treasure for the building of the Temple.  As David surveyed the scene he prayed and in a part of his prayer he asked God who he and his people were that they should be able to give generously.  What is generous?  What does generous have to do with Thanksgiving?


Questions for Reflection:

1. What does the word generous mean?
2. Who is the most generous person you've known?  What made that person generous?
3. How have you experienced generosity?  What did it feel like to receive another person's generosity?
4. If generosity were the sole gauge of gratitude, how grateful a person are you?
5. How might generosity serve as an solution to the materialism in your life?
6. How can you be more generous with all that God has given you i.e. Time, Talents and Treasure?

Sermon:  Who am I to Give Generously?

If you’ve got your Bibles with you I would invite you to turn with me to the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles.  How many of us have read the books of Chronicles in the past year or so?  You’re brave and dedicated souls.  I say that because the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are difficult.  They’re lists and genealogies of family members of Israel and other groups of people where only occasionally do you come upon a name that sounds familiar.  It’s like the first 16 verses of Matthew on steroids.  Once you get past chapter nine of 1 Chronicles what we find is that the books of Chronicles reads a lot like the books of Samuel and Kings.  There are a lot of stories in Samuel and Kings that are repeated in the books of Chronicles.  I remember being frustrated by these books side by side in my English Bible that were so repetitive.  I wondered why they would be there.  There must be a reason but what is it?

When I was in seminary my Old Testament professor explained it to us.  He told us that the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles are written for entirely different purposes.  They tell many of the same stories with a different goal in mind.  The purposes of the two books become most clear when we notice the differences between the two books.  Instead of looking at the stories that are told in both books we need to look at the stories that are told in one book which are not told in the other.

One difference between Samuel, Kings and Chronicles is invisible to us who only read the English Bible.  The first difference is that in the Hebrew Bible the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles aren’t side by side like they are in the English bible.  In the Hebrew Bible Chronicles is the last book of the Bible or what we call the Old Testament while Samuel and Kings are in more or less the same place as they are in the English Bible.  Somehow it’s not as repetitive if the books aren’t side by side.

The major difference between the these books is that the books of Samuel and Kings spend a lot of time describing the sinful and and the wrong actions of Israel’s leaders.  The book of Chronicles lists very few of the mistakes the leaders of Israel made.  In Kings we read in fairly specific detail about the sin of David and Bathsheba.  In Chronicles Bathsheba’s name only comes up in the genealogy as the mother of four of David’s children .  That’s a fairly consistent pattern throughout the book.  The good things are highlighted, the bad things are omitted.  It points to the purpose of the books.  The purpose of Samuel is to show that there is hope after the Canaanization of Israel that took place in the Judges.  David the godly king is established in Samuel.  The purpose of the book of Kings is Exile and Defeat - the natural outcomes of not following the covenant.  The purpose of the book of Chronicles is to say to Israel or to say to God’s people that you might yet become what you already are.

The interesting this is that in the middle of this book of Chronicles, which was probably written originally as one long book that was divided over two scrolls, in 1 Chronicles chapter 28 and 29 we read about an interesting event in the life of Israel.

It’s the story of David and his part in the building of the Temple.  David wanted with all his heart to build a Temple for God.  The Spirit of God showed him what to build and the Spirit showed him (28:12) how to build it.  However, God also said to David that he was not to build the Temple because he was a warrior and had shed blood (28:3).  Solomon, David’s son, was the one God had selected to build the Temple.  As I read that story I got the sense that David was very disappointed that he was not allowed to build the Temple, especially since God had given him the plans.  We’re not told but I get the sense that David did obey God’s word that he wouldn’t build the Temple but he walked as close to that line as he possibly could.  David didn’t build the Temple but he told everyone that Solomon was going to build it because God said he couldn’t.  David didn’t build the Temple but he passed along to Solomon the plans for the Temple.  David didn’t build the Temple but he specified how the furnishings should be built.  David didn’t build the Temple but he donated his personal treasure to the building fund and asked the leaders of Israel to give to the fund as well.  The leaders of Israel collectively gave even more than David to the building fund for a Temple that couldn’t be built until David died.

After all of the wealth was collected from the leaders of Israel David stood before the people and beginning with verse 10 of 1 Chronicles 29 said this,

“Praise be to you, O Lord,
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.

¹¹Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.

¹²Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.

¹³Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.

David prayed this wonderful prayer after all the wealth had been collected.  The building fund was very healthy at this point.  I’m not sure if it was enough to complete the project but they definitely had enough in cash and pledges that they could go ahead with the project.  It must have been a very exciting and satisfying time for David.

David prayed this prayer in which, right at the beginning, he acknowledged God’s eternity, His greatness and His worthiness to be honored.  David acknowledged that God was the source of all the wealth they had collected and that God is the ruler of all things.  He ended this section of his prayer by thanking God.  It really is a beautiful beginning to a prayer and it would be a great prayer for us to pray at Thanksgiving.  All those things are true about God to whom we give our thanks this weekend.  He is eternal, He rules, He is the source of all we have and are.

In verse 14 David continued to pray,

¹⁴“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this?  Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

Interesting that after David had listed all the things that we can readily agree are true about God he began the next sentence of his prayer with the word ‘but’.  The word ‘but’ is a word that introduces a contrast.  What is there that David could say that might be in contrast with that wonderful beginning to his prayer?  All of these things are true about God, but….

Are any of us familiar with a band called Sixpence None the Richer?  I really don’t know anything about them besides their name and how they got their name.  Does anyone know how they got their name?  The band got their name from a short anecdote in C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity.  In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis wrote about how everything we have comes from God and yet God is pleased when we give what we have back to Him.  He spoke about a boy who loved his father and wanted to buy him a birthday present.  The child had no money and so he went to his father and asked him for sixpence so that he could buy him a birthday present.  The father gave the child sixpence and was pleased with the gift his son bought for him for his birthday.  C.S. Lewis concluded the anecdote by saying that “only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction.”  The point C.S. Lewis was making in this portion of the book is that we often think that we are somehow making God richer by giving him our money or our gifts.  That’s not true because God owns everything, gave it to us in the first place and couldn’t possibly be any richer because of anything we have given Him.  He is pleased when we use our gifts to His honor and glory.  He is pleased when we give Him our sixpence but He is none the richer for it.

That’s the beauty of the contrast David introduced in this verse with his use of the word ‘but’.  They had collected a huge amount of wealth to be used in the building of the Temple of God and David gave thanks to God but in the euphoria of the moment he didn’t lose track of who he was and who Israel was as a people and who God was in relation to all of them.  He never got all full of himself in the passion of the moment and began to think that somehow he and the people of Israel had made God richer by collecting this wealth for the building of His Temple.

Who am I and who are my people that you would allow us to be generous.  Who are we that you would give us sixpence to spend on you.  We often think that we are blessed when we have money to spend on ourselves.  That’s not true.  When we have money to spend on ourselves we are indulgent and maybe at times selfish.  We are blessed when we give generously.  We are a blessed people not because we’re rich.  We are a blessed people if we are generous.

What is generous?  Can anyone tell me what generous means to them?  There are four things I think of when I think about generosity.  First of all, I think generous means more than is required or more than is expected.  God expects His people to tithe our money, our time and our gifts.  If we’re not yet tithing, no matter how much we might be giving in our eyes, in God’s eyes, we’re not being generous.  Generous begins when we get beyond what’s required and God requires a tithe.  Generous is not just limited to Church and faith.  Generous is an attitude and a lifestyle we carry with us through every area of life.  More than expected in every area of our lives.

Have you ever gone for coffee and when the bill came left a tip that was larger than the bill?  Try it sometime.  It’s generous and it’s kind of fun to do that even if you don’t see the server receive what you gave them.  It’s generous, it’s more than was expected.

Suppose we hear of a ministry that has a need and we give to meet that need.  Others help and then we learn that the need has been met and exceeded.  How would we react to that?  If we react by wondering if we could have gotten by with giving less or not giving at all, we are not being generous.  However, if we react by wondering what cool thing God is going to do through that ministry with the extra money or extra people or extra gifts people have volunteered, we probably are being generous.

When we are talking to God about our giving for the upcoming season of our lives and I believe we all should regularly have very serious conversations with God about our giving because Jesus said “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also” (Mtt. 6:21).  If we’re talking to God about our giving for the upcoming season of our lives do we treat that conversation like we’re negotiating to buy a new car - trying to get the price as low as possible - or do we treat that conversation like we’re negotiating for a government grant - trying to get as much as possible.  Our attitude in that conversation will tell us about our generosity.  Generosity is more than is required.

Generous is more than money.  Generous has to do with anything that comes from God and everything we have and everything we are comes from God.  How we spend everything we have and are speaks about how generous we are.  Generous is for people who are poor as well as people who are rich because we all have time and gifts and we all have talents even if we don’t all have money.  In fact money is often a liability to us when it comes to being generous.  We sometimes use our money to buy our way out of tithing other things God has given us.

Have any of you heard of this thing called Carbon Credits.  I probably don’t know the full story behind carbon credits and I know I don’t fully understand how it works, but as I understand how carbon credits work it’s like this: if we use more than our fair share of energy or the earth’s resources we can pay some money to someone - I’m not sure who that would be - and paying that money somehow makes it okay that we are using more than our fair share of the earth’s resources.  We can keep being excessive in our lifestyles as long as we keep buying Carbon Credits.  I don’t understand how that solves the problem.

I think a lot of us have this idea that we can buy the faith equivalent of carbon credits when it comes to service or contributing our time and gifts.  We might have booked ourselves a bit too full with our job or other things to be able to volunteer at church or in some other place God might call us.  So to make up for our selfishness in that area, we just give extra money.  We buy Carbon Credits.  We can’t buy the service equivalent of carbon credits for our selfishness with our time and gifts and believe somehow we are still being generous.

Generosity isn’t just about money.  God has given all of us time.  We need to be giving some of the time He has given us back to Him.  He might call us to start a ministry at church or in our community or to help along with an existing ministry or organization.  He might call us to give our time in an organization in our community that’s not related to the church at all.  God wants His people in all of society.  Generosity involves more than money.  God has given every Christian a spiritual gift.  He never takes it away from us.  Generosity is using that gift whenever and wherever we can for His honor and glory.  That never stops no matter how old we get nor are we off the hook because we’re too young.  It’s generosity, more than is required with what God has given us.

Thirdly, Generous is a Indicator of Gratitude.  This weekend is Thanksgiving and we take time to be thankful.  Generosity a way to demonstrate our gratitude all year long.  I think the reason David was so intent on doing as much as he possibly could to help with the building of the Temple was because of his gratitude for all the things he listed in his prayer that were true about God.  He was so grateful that this God had forgiven him and trusted him with the leadership of His people that He gave generously of his time, his gifts and his rather sizable treasure to the building fund for the temple Solomon was going to build.  David wasn’t bitter that God wouldn’t let him build the Temple he was grateful to God and his gratitude was shown in his generosity.

Do any of you know another name for a tip you would leave with a server in a restaurant?  It’s sometimes called a gratuity - from the word gratitude.  We’re grateful for the service this person has given us, so we leave something to show our gratitude.  The more grateful we are, the more generous we are.  If we’re self-centered and believe everyone was put on this earth to serve us we will begrudge the server anything we might give them or we might look for excuses not to give anything because our money is so important to us.

When we think we’re doing God a favor by giving to Him we will not be generous.  When we think God is lucky to have us on His team we will speak of giving or doing our fair share.  Those are not signs of gratitude or generosity.  David was grateful and absolutely blown away that God would bless him and the people of Israel with the ability to be generous.  Generous is an indicator of gratitude.

Fourthly, Generous is an Antidote to Materialism.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as we as a church and a society become more and more materialistic we also become less and less generous.  Materialism is about us and what we can get.  Generosity is about others and how we can give more than is required and bless them with it.  If you find materialism gaining an increasing hold in your life try to increase your giving of your time, your gifts and your money.  I am quite sure that as we give stuff away materialism will lose its hold in our lives.

To close this I want to take us to one more verse, because it’s such a beautiful verse.  It’s verse 18 of 1 Chronicles chapter 29.

Do you remember what I said the purpose was of the book of Chronicles?  You might yet become what you already are.  In this the last book of the Old Testament God seems to be laying out for the people His desires for His people.  It’s a book that minimizes the failures that plagued His people.  It’s a book that contains long lists of people God has chosen to be His own and to be about His tasks.  It’s a book that describes attitudes and actions that are consistent with the people of God because if we follow this book we might yet become what we already are.  We already are the people of God and if we live what Chronicles describes we might grow into that honor God has given us by calling us His people.

With that in mind the writer of Chronicles recorded David’s words in verse 18 where he prayed,

¹⁸O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.

David’s prayer was that God would keep within His people the same attitude of generosity that they displayed as they brought forward their gifts for the building of the Temple.  Our world notices generous people.  Our world notices generous churches.  David prayed that throughout history God would keep within the hearts of His people a desire to be generous and a desire to be loyal to our God.