Dr. Ron Sumners
March 28, 2010
May 23, 2004
In the end, how long you lived is not going to be nearly as important as how well you lived. It is not the duration of life that matters, but the donation of life that really counts. What have you done with the years that have been given to you?
Let me ask you a question. If you were to die right now, what donation would you have made to life? Would you die knowing that you have really not contributed much to this world?
Have you been a grabber or a giver? Many people live for many years and when they die all you can see is that they died trying to hold on to their things. They never became a giver in life.
Others have died in their twenties and they were known as givers. They gave, they donated, their hands were always open, and they may have died with empty hands, but their treasures were invested on the other side of death!
Jesus gives us some tremendous themes in the passage we are looking at today. The core of the message is that “giving has nothing to do with assets.” It has everything to do with attitude. When Jesus thought about giving, He was not thinking about how many homes we own; whether we rented or owned them, or the size of our bank account, or the kind of car we drive. In fact, He was saying, some of the biggest givers, in the world’s eye, have very few assets. Some of the greediest people in life have everything to give and give little or nothing!
In our passage today, the people who are blessed have no or very little financial blessing. They have very little food. They have few friends. Despite this, the Lord says that they are blessed, happy people. The world might see them as failures; God says they are blessed.
In verses 24-26, Luke goes from happy and blessed to woe and wretched. “Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.”
In verse 24 He talks about the people who have money, in verse 25 He talks about people who have food, and in verse 26 He talks about people who have friends. He is dropping a series of bombshells on the people.
He says, “You are blessed when you have few finances, food, or friends.” And you may be in trouble even if you have finances, food and friends. Is Jesus anti-rich and pro-poor? No, that has nothing to do with this passage. He is saying that if you are a giver to life, although you may have very little in the world’s view, you have things with real value. If you have a lot and are not a giver, you will die with a fist full of nothing! Jesus is not against what you have, He is against you not being a giver of what you have.
If you basically collect, store and save, and don’t pass on to others, Jesus is saying, “You are receiving all you are going to get.” If you are not a giver, go ahead and eat the food, enjoy your possessions and laugh with your friends, because that’s all you will ever have.
Jesus is talking about priorities and values. I’m sure you have heard the little platitude: “Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” Do our lives indicate that we will recognize the truth in these words?
In this whole process of making our lives count before God, we have a choice to make. The choice is: am I going to be a taker or a giver, am I going to be a consumer thinking of number one first and foremost or am I going to turn outside from myself and give? Jesus wants us to know that it has nothing to do with the amount of assets we have. People will say, “If I had more to give, I would surely give it.” Statistics and human experience prove that to be untrue. As the income level rises, the percentage given to the church and charitable causes goes down! Quit using that lie as an excuse. You have plenty to give no matter what your income level. The issue is not how much you have to give but rather, whether you are a taker or a giver.
How many assets or how large of a bank account do you need in order to love your enemies? How much money do you need in your stock portfolio in order to return love for hate; to bless those who curse you or to pray for those who mistreat you? Jesus understood that it has nothing to do with assets. It has everything to do with your attitude. There are people with very few assets who are tremendous givers in life because they have made a choice to be givers and not takers.
When we look at the potential as compared to the actual giving statistics of Meadow Brook Baptist Church, we would have to conclude that we are a group of far more takers than givers!
A number of years ago, in Anchorage, Alaska, they had a big earthquake. A lot of damage was done. Calls poured into the governor’s office. He went on TV and assured the people that they were doing all they could to meet the staggering need. He ended the TV spot with some encouragement that he had received. He had received a post card from a 10-year-old boy. It had two nickels taped to the back with scotch tape. The words were written, “Use this wherever it’s needed. If you need more let me know.” Two nickels, a million dollars, it is all in the attitude. It has nothing to do with your finances. It has everything to do with your commitment to Jesus Christ.
I want to give you some truths about giving as taught by Jesus. First, Jesus indicated that givers live on a higher level than most people. In other words, there are two roads that we can travel. You can travel the high road or the low road. The high road is traveled by the givers!
Those who take the high road are positive activists in life. Show me a giver and I will show you a person who is actively involved in life. They are constantly giving. Socrates said, “Know thyself.” Cicero said, “Control thyself.” Jesus said, “Give thyself.”
Jesus described the giver. They pray for those who abuse them, go the extra mile, and turn the other cheek. Givers don’t live with a list of don’ts; they don’t live within the framework of legalism. They take the high road by being actively involved in life.
The Pharisees had a lot of things that they did not do. They lived in the framework of legalism. Jesus tells us that faith is not only about what you don’t do. A lot of sinners don’t do the same things. There are some things that we are not supposed to do. But Christianity is found in what we actually do in the name and for the Kingdom of God!
The giver who travels the high road also always does more than is expected. In Luke 6:32 Jesus says, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be paid in full.”
The Lord is talking about an unnatural way of living. He’s talking about us living in a place where we do more than is expected. This is what testifies to the world of Jesus!
When the world sees Christians being givers and going the second mile and turning the other cheek, and blessing those who curse us, they stop and question what makes us behave in such an unnatural way.
This is the high road. It is the road that changes lives and society. It is the road where we actually become the salt and light of the world.
Jesus also says that people who travel the high road do good things without asking for anything in return. In Luke 6:35 Jesus tells us to love our enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting anything in return. He does not promise that you will get anything in return! In fact, isn’t it interesting that He tells us as we give to expect nothing in return, but in the next verse He says, “Then your reward will be great.” Doesn’t that sound like a contradiction? He says that we should expect nothing, but that our reward will be great. He is giving us the difference between the good steward and the bad steward. The bad steward gives and expects something in return. He isn’t really giving. He is trading. He is bartering in order to get what he wants.
Jesus is saying that if you love only those who love you, what is the credit to you? He is saying that if you lend only to those who can pay you back with interest, what credit is that to you? Jesus is telling us that givers give without expecting anything in return.
Did you ever know anyone who kept score on their giving? You might do something nice for them, so they have to do something nice for you. If they spend $100 on your birthday, they expect a $100 gift on their birthday. This is not giving, it is trading.
I think that there are three options in life concerning giving. There is the person who goes through life giving nothing. What they have is theirs and they intend to hang on to it. They are committed to taking care of number one. This person almost always ends up lonely and miserable. We are very content to let this person sit in the corner and count their money. We don’t want to be around them. Few people attend their funeral. Their lives don’t really count for much. There is the person who gives but expects something in return. This person will live a life of frustration and disappointment. People will always let them down. Life, for them, will always be one inequity after another. The third person gives without keeping score, without an account ledger. They know that God is their source and giving is not an obligation, it is their joy!
A second point Jesus makes about givers is that givers understand the principle of sowing and reaping.
The principle of sowing and reaping is not: I give you something now, you give me something later. That is not giving, that’s trading. The principle of sowing and reaping is doing good without seeing or seeking reward. It’s simply giving. Jesus tells us that if we give without expecting anything in return we will be rewarded. The reward will not come from people but from God. Jesus is telling us that when giving becomes the habit of our lives, God will give to us, “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.”
John D. Rockefeller Sr. was a millionaire at age 23. At the age of 50, he was a billionaire. He was the richest man in the world. But he was a miserable rich man. At age 53 he was sick and dying. He was a grabber, not a giver. He was a greedy man and the sole purpose of his life was to get more. Greed had him so consumed that his doctors told him that he had only a year to live.
Here is a billionaire, the richest man in the world and all his stomach could handle was milk and crackers because of ulcers. He could have walked in and bought any restaurant in the world and had the most delicious food available, but all he could eat was milk and crackers.
It was then that John D. Rockefeller began to look at his life. He understood that all he had done all his life was get and keep. He had never been a giver. He decided to be a giver. He gave to churches, to hospitals, to foundations, and to medical research. Many of the discoveries we’ve had in medicine have come from money provided by the Rockefeller Foundation.
At 53 he was a greedy, dying old man. He began to give and release all the stuff he had accumulated as well as the stuff (tension and stress) that made him sick. He began to really live and he lived to the age of 90.
People are killing themselves with stress and ulcers because they want to get and keep the material things of the world. That number includes some of you here today. Their lives are filled with resentment and greed. They are stingy and miserable. They wonder why there is no joy in all they possess. It is not how many years you live that counts; it’s what you give to life that really counts.
This morning let’s pour out all our bitterness, our lack of forgiveness, our anger, and jealousies so that we can become givers. Jesus went to Calvary and died on the cross on our behalf, all because He was a giver. Jesus died to get us to see beyond ourselves and into the very heart of God, who is the greatest giver of all. You can’t even begin to know God until you become a giver too.
Today we ask you to commit your Spiritual Gifts from God to His service. Are you a giver? Will you enhance the Kingdom of God by exercising your gifts for the glory of God?
Will your life count for much in the end? Only one life, so soon it will pass. Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Opmerkingen