Jun 27 2010
A Life worth living – NEW Generosity
TEXT: Philippians 4:10-23 Ephesians 3:14-21 (Audio Version: http://sermon.net/daviddekock)
This is the last sermon in our series on the Letter to the Philippians, and we deal primarily with the subject of generosity.
I don’t know about you but whenever the issue of money and giving in the church is raised I get the picture of the American TV evangelists who seem always to be asking for money.
I laugh at the story (probably not true!) of one such evangelist who had electric wires connected to every seat in the church.
“All those who are willing to give one hundred dollars to God,” he shouted, “stand up!”
And then he pressed the button which sent a shot of electricity through each seat. There was a tremendous response but after the service they found three dead Scotsmen still clinging to their seats.
Another story is told of the beautiful silver collection plates being passed around for the offering. Everyone desperately dug in their pockets for loose change and the plates were finally returned, almost empty, to the minister. He took one look at them and then raised them up to heaven and prayed, “Lord, we thank you for the safe return of these plates…”
The picture Paul paints in our text today is quite different however. He writes to thank the Christians at Philippi who have sent him money via Epaphroditus. And he gives them two of the most wonderful promises of Scripture:
13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
and
My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
He also outlines the threefold blessing of generous giving –
- It blesses others
- It blesses us, and
- It blesses God.
First then, the blessing to others
Paul responds to the gift that he has received by saying, “I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.”
He is exceedingly grateful for the gift.
Nonetheless he shows clearly that it is not so much about the money for which he is grateful but for the opportunity that they have taken to bless him.
Paul’s attitude to money is far exceeded by the completeness that he finds in his relationship with the Lord. He intimates that he has known what it is to be in need, though he might not be at this time. He has, he says, found the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether in plenty or in want. He has found, in his relationship with the Lord, that whatever the circumstances “he can do everything through Him who gives him strength.”
Yet he is blessed by the gift – “it was good of you to share in my troubles” and he thanks them for coming to his aid time and again in the past.
You see, it is not the gift so much that counts as the fact that the people at Philippi, more than the other churches, were concerned enough about him and his ministry in service of Jesus, to send the gift. Perhaps this is where we get the saying that “it’s the thought that counts” –though we often mean that when we would like to have given or received more than we did. For Paul, it really was the thought that counted –they were really thinking about him and his ministry and they really wanted to support him in a very practical way.
One gets the impression that even if they had sent no money, any other expression of their concern would have been a gift enough. The bottom line is that Paul had moved away from concern about money, he had found his contentment in the Lord –that wonderful promise: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
What is the secret of contentment?
Well, it is not to have everything you want. John D Rockefeller, a multi billionaire, was once asked how much money it takes to make a man happy. He replied, “Just a little more.” Contentment does not come from wealth, for this only creates a desire for more. Contentment finds its satisfaction in the transforming friendship of Jesus Christ.
Paul discovered this –he learned how to live not on outer resources but on the inner strength which comes from Jesus Christ. And so he writes to the Philippians that in some ways he did not need their gift.
However, in some ways he did need the money that they sent and he commends them for continually coming to his aid. They had shared his troubles and had sent him money again and again. He appreciated it immensely and it blessed him.
When we first went to Howick I set out to visit everyone in the congregation. In one home that I visited I found that the husband was a member of the congregation but his wife was not. The reason was that though she was a believer, she had not been baptized, and had been made to feel embarrassed about it. She never came to church because of that and so her husband had to retell the sermon to her each Sunday morning.
I spoke to her about it, and about the misconceptions she had received from the church. The following week I baptized her in her swimming pool. She only came to church once after that and then the family emigrated to England. After they had left, I received a letter from her with a substantial amount of money –the note on the card said simply, “I got some bonus and I want to share it with you.”
The word “share” is a word that Paul also uses in relation to the Philippian church’s gift to him. It is the word “koinonia” which means fellowship, communion or close relationship. The church were in close relationship with him in his ministry and they showed it by blessing him with gifts. The lady who shared her bonus with me, did so, she wrote later, because I had helped to bring her into a close relationship not only with Jesus, but also with her family, particularly her husband. They now worship regularly together in a church on the Isle of Man and are very involved with their fellowship as a family.
And I was blessed by the gift, not of the money, but by the thought that was expressed in the gift.
Generous giving also blesses the giver
I love to give gifts. And I especially love to give gifts anonymously and as surprises. This is often true also of God’s people everywhere. I have seen it in this congregation. In my previous congregation most preferred not to have their gifts to the church made public and so we had no credits to anyone for their giving to build and equip the church – no public thank you’s, no brass plaques, nothing. Even the Foundation Stone at the entrance to the church said “Not to us, not to us, but to Your Name be the glory.” – Ps 115:1. And yet there were many who gave sacrificially and some very substantially –how else did we pay out more than a million rand over our normal income in such a short period….
Why is this? Why the desire to have no accolades? I think it is because God’s people have found a blessing that is far more than the acknowledgement of men.
And Paul tells us this too by using technical banking and accounting terms throughout this passage as he details how the church at Philippi will be blessed for their gift.
In verse 15 he speaks of “giving and receiving” or more correctly translated, of debits and credits –the two sides of an accountant’s ledger.
In verse 17, he uses a word, translated as “credited”. He says, “Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account.” The word would normally be used to speak of growth in interest income on a capital amount invested.
And then in verse 18, he says “I have received full payment” –which is a commercial term meaning “to receive a sum in full and to give a receipt for it.”
In a sense, by the use of this commercial language, Paul is saying the giving is an investment of capital, and that there will be a return on the investment which will be worth far more than a name on a foundation stone or a silver plaque. In 2 Corinthians 9:6, he again stresses this point –“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” Giving is like planting seed. A farmer is investing for the future and he knows that he will reap far more than he sows.
Hudson Taylor, the Founder of the China Inland Mission and who it is said laid the foundation for the present revival now taking place there, was preparing to go to China in 1853. He lived a very frugal life, eating only a bowl of porridge in the morning and a bowl of gruel on alternate nights. One day he was asked to go and pray for a very poor man and his wife. The only money he possessed was his week’s wages of half-a-crown. When he saw their poverty he thought that he should give them a shilling. When the five children came out he decided to give one and six. Then he spoke to them of the love of the heavenly Father and decided to give two shillings. Eventually, as he closed off with the Lord’s prayer he knew that he had to give them everything he had. Joy flooded his heart and he sang all the way home. As he ate his bowl of gruel that night he was reminded that “he that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord” and so he asked the Lord that the loan not be a long one. He slept peacefully and the next morning he received an unexpected letter. Inside was a pair of gloves and half a sovereign. He had received back 400% in just 12 hours. The incident became a turning point in his life and he came back to it time and again as he faced even more serious trials in his life.
That spiritual principle applies to everything in life. Whatever we give to the Lord he multiplies, whether it is our time, home, gifts, ambitions or our money. Our return is not necessarily financial though, because we are investing in people. We see lives changed, the hungry fed, the naked clothed, addicts set free, marriages restored and the sick made well again.
The New Testament principle is that if we want treasure in heaven, we have to send it on ahead –we can’t take it behind the hearse in a trailer!
What will our reward be? I don’t know but I suspect that we will see those we have unknowingly helped –someone who says, “I am here partly because of your gift” or “my marriage was restored” or “I was healed”.
We get a foretaste of this now by giving generously –for it is not only the recipients who are blessed: we are also blessed through our giving.
But more than anything generous giving is blessing to God
From verse 18, Paul moves to the language of the Temple. He says that our giving is “a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.”
Our giving blesses God because we are fulfilling His desire for us. In Malachi 3, the prophet tells us that the withholding of our offering is like robbing God. The Lord wants us to support His mission in the world, bringing the good news about Jesus into the hearts and lives of people, making disciples of them and teaching them to obey all that He has commanded.
And throughout the New Testament we are encouraged to give generously –regularly (“on the first day of the week” it says in 1 Corinthians 16:2) and proportionately (“a sum of money in keeping with your income” it says in the same verse).
Some people believe we should give a tenth accordingly to the Old Testament guidelines, but the only New Testament rule is generosity. Jacob the swindler gave a tenth, but then he was Old Testament. Zaccheus, after meeting Jesus, gave half of all he owned.
If we give generously, Paul says, “My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Ultimately then, we can never out-give God.
Our generosity must stem from the generosity of God’s grace to us.
Perhaps then it’s not surprising that this letter begins and ends with “Grace”. At the beginning Paul says, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” and he ends with “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” The central theme of the letter has been God’s love and generosity and indeed that’s the central theme of the New Testament and of the Bible as a whole.
Jesus taught that our highest duty is to love God with all our heart and soul and mind. After that our duty is to love our neighbour as ourselves and indeed, that’s how Paul closes the letter. “To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” And then “Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus.”
Then he closes by asking that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with them –for Jesus is the channel of all the good gifts which come to us. It is His love which enables us to love Him and His love which enables us to love others.
I think that if we had to ask Paul for a two-word answer to the question, “Why is this life worth living?” he would say simply, “Jesus Christ” and he would explain that He supplies all our needs and strengthens us to do everything.
To Him be glory in the Church for ever and ever. Amen