Walking in the Way of Jesus... Generosity

May 2, 2014
1Peter 4:7-11,  Matt 6:19-24

A woman accompanied her husband to the doctor’s office. After his check up, the doctor called the wife into his office alone. He said, “Your husband is suffering from a severe disease, combined with some horrible stress. If you don’t do the following your husband will surely die.”

“Each morning, fix him a healthy breakfast. Be pleasant, and make sure he is in a good mood. For lunch, make him a nutritious meal. For dinner, prepare an especially nice meal for him. DON’T… burden him with chores, as he probably had a hard day. DON’T… discuss your problems with him. It will only make his stress worse. And… MOST importantly, make love to your husband several times a week and satisfy HIS every whim.

If you can do this for the next 10 months to a year, I think your husband will regain his health completely.”

On the way home, the husband asked his wife… “What did the doctor say?” She replied… “You’re going to die.”

Prayer

We end our 6 week journey today of “Walking in the Way of Jesus, 6 values of followership. Our journey has helped, I hope, us to understand the importance of discerning and having core values as a faith community. Values, I pray will help you carry out your ministry here at Cana. The Values, I pray you will practice and live out…. Values you have chosen… Prayer… Worship… Learning… Serving… Relationship Building… and we need to add Welcome to this list… and today we will reflect on the value of…

Generosity.

Today this is not a sermon about money, rather a sermon about the heart of your Generosity.

Luther is said to have proclaimed that in the conversion process the wallet is the last thing to be converted.

Often, we in the church don’t like to hear anything about money. The church is about spiritual matters, not economic. Many do not believe money is a spiritual issue. This may surprise you, but I want to impress upon you that I believe generosity is the most important spiritual value of all those we’ve listed. And from my perspective… the one value that gives us the most ministry heartache.

I believe God must have thought money was important enough to mention it some 200 times in the bible. In fact, Jesus mentions money 23 times in the gospels and alludes to it another 11 times. So… I believe we need to pay attention to this spiritual value as it affects most everything we do a Jesus followers. Jesus says in our story today… “Don’t store up treasures on earth…”

At the heart of the manner, “Where your treasure is, so will be your heart.” So my friends… this is a heart matter and we need to pay attention.

 What does Spiritual Generosity Involve?

Spiritual Generosity Involves Giving to God… as an act of Worship. 1Chron 29:10-20 

Ancient Israel gave a tenth back to God as an act of worship for all the blessings God had given them.

1Chron 29:10ff David has asked for people to be generous as he begins to build the temple and the people come through and provide the necessary funds. David praised God and they worshiped God out of love & devotion for God’s blessings. For David… it was all about giving as a response to God’s provision. So they worship God out of that love.

Trinity Lutheran Seminary professor Mark Powell in his book titled “Giving to God” says, “We are not asked to place money in the collection plate because the church needs the money, but because of our need to give as an act of devotion.

Devotion is a matter of the heart… it’s what happens when we give from the heart and the heart is the source of our worship & devotion.

Spiritual Generosity Involves Giving to God… as an Expression of Faith.

Ps. 24:1… “The Earth and Everything on it Belong to the Lord, the World and its People Belong to Him.”

An expression of faith usually means an act of trust. How is your trust relationship with God?

There is a story of the Gaul… perhaps an urban legend. The Gaul’s were war-like people from what is now France & Belgium. They spoke Celtic language and the Roman empire conquered them and they never liked being controlled, so there were numerous uprisings. As Christian missionaries ventured into Gallic territory & over time many became Christian.

The Story goes… when these Gallic warriors were converted and baptized in the closest river or stream, they would hold one arm as high as they could as the missionary dunked him under. The missionary thought this was odd, and sought to learn the reason this was practiced. It seems for the Gaul… when the next battle broke out he could proclaim that one of his arms was not baptized, grab a club or sword & engage in battle… still being a Christian.

Seems we have a similar mentality when it comes to being generous in our faith journey. Everything belongs to God and God gives us the use of some of it. None of what we have is really ours and God trusts us to manage the gift. Were not the owners of anything… we are trusted to manage God’s gifts. How we manage these gifts determines our trust in God’s provision.

When we have faith in something… we trust it will work. When I have faith in you to do what you say, I trust that you will do it.

When we give back to God it’s an expression of our faith and trust in God.

Spiritual Generosity involves Giving to God… as a Spiritual Discipline.

Matt. 6:21 Jesus says, “Your heart will be where your treasure is.”

Sam Clemens, known as “Mark Twain” was talking to a devote Morman one day on the practice of Polygamy. The Morman said, “There is nothing in the Bible that says a man cannot have more than one wife.” Clemens responded, “I may not be to well-read in the Bible, but I seem to recall something in there that says, “No man can serve two masters.”

What is the master of your life? What do you value most?

Wikipedia describes the meaning of Discipline… Discipline is a course of actions leading to a greater goal than the satisfaction of the immediate. A disciplined person is one that has established a goal and is willing to achieve that goal at the expense of his or her immediate comfort.

From a spiritual standpoint… a generous living value is the pathway to growing closer to the heart of God.

As we conclude this series Walking in the Way of Jesus, 6 Values of Following Jesus… Prayer, Worship, Learning, Serving, Welcome, Relationships, Generosity and we have to include the word Welcome as one of your values. While we won’t specifically speak about this value I believe welcome is very much a part of being a Jesus follower. Given that much of the Christian culture is about exclusivity.

Closing:

In closing… I want to leave you with some things to ponder and pray about as you continue to discern your list of core values.
Are these Cana Lutheran’s Core Values?
If they are…How do they help people BELONG to a community of faith?
How should they help people BECOME a faithful follower of Jesus?
How do they help people BELIEVE Jesus is Lord and Savior and God’s GIFT of GRACE & LOVE to ALL?

My friends… I believe the values you’ve chosen… should you choose to embrace them… will not only empower you to discover your next pastoral leader, but will be the foundation to the future vibrancy of Cana Lutheran.