How Much Giving is Enough?

How Much Giving is Enough?

Good Morning Friends,

Most of us agree that giving to a worthy cause is a good thing. But just how generous are we supposed to be? Are we great because we give as a nation? Are we actually better when we give? Is philanthropy dominated by the super-wealthy? And, for the rest of us who want to do our bit, what are the most effective ways to do so? The problem is that we too often love things more than relationships. When all our goals are extrinsic instead of intrinsic we set ourselves up to be unhappy. When we fail to experience the pricelessness of the moment, either living in the past or the future, we miss out on life. When we are posting to Facebook and with each post become less and less happy maybe it is because we are believing something that is not true. Friends, we need this insight… true abundance comes when we are not encumbered by our wealth. We must give up loving things. This is counterintuitive…for we are not completely converted. So we ask today’s question… How Much Giving is Enough?

Scripture: He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴²A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. ⁴³Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. ⁴⁴For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’

Mark 12: 41-44 (NRSV)

6The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:6-7 (NRSV)

19’Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust^* consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust^* consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; ²³but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.^*

Matthew 6:19-24 (NRSV)

Message: Forgiveness, thanksgiving and giving generously are related, for in experiencing each we learn that we cannot out give God. You see money is trapped energy waiting to be released for God’s purposes. Some people refer to it as foldable time. Its potential energy is truly released when we release our will to God….released when we open our eyes to the wide wonder of the world. The message here is not about stewardship giving. The message here is more transformational than writing a check. It is about embracing a life of worshipping God and not letting things get in the way. It is about integrating our service to the poor as an act of worship and experiencing something powerful in the process. You can have it both ways and should if you give up loving things and start loving people. Imagine for a moment what it would be like if you took the words of Jesus serious. We can never ignore these words. But don’t think it a burden. There is a reason that Jesus says to help the poor. It is obvious to the poor and yet difficult for those with wealth to see. We are expected to already know that this is God’s will for us to give to the poor so we might learn. He wants us to help them as an act of worship, as an act of releasing our will to His. Those giving receive. Indeed the challenge is that of an Ebenezer Scrooge and his money. Joy is only found in the giving not the keeping. That is why people that have not learned this lesson fall. That is why there needs to be a ministry to the poor that responds to the miseries of the rich. You cannot serve God and money both. So think to the future in setting your priorities and serve God. Set your sites on heaven. Set your sites on eternity and look to serve the poor each day as an act of worship and thanksgiving and be blessed. And when you do…when people give more money away, with purpose to glorify God, even those that do not have a lot of it, guess what happens….that’s right… they tend to prosper and the economies too. Giving extravagantly to the point of joy, giving in the reality that so doing will bring us to the point of being more dependent on God, not only brings happiness, but it changes us in a way that helps us succeed. Even our appearances improve.   In the scripture story of the widow’s mite we see a woman loving God and others. Here we see a woman loving others as if she were loving herself. It is a story about measuring giving not by the size of the gift, but how much we have left after the gift is given. We stand at the border of the kingdom realizing that we too must put God first before we can come into an intimacy with Him and others too. Friends, giving may or may not change others but it will change the giver if we stop loving money and follow the Spirit.

Pray we learn to forgive our debtors. Pray we we learn that by giving to Christ by giving to others we also give to ourselves.  Pray we realize that the greatest barrier to the door of the kingdom of God is greed. Pray we learn to give to the point of joy, give to the point we are dependent on God. Pray we give as a real life commitment of our love of God and your neighbor. Pray we find the power… the might in the mite. Pray that we learn to value a Jesus to whom we owe everything. Pray that we value him more that the price of a slave, more than expensive perfume… more than everything we have. Pray God forgives us for our preoccupation with the cost of life’s choices. Pray we learn to receive love and grace and share the gifts of beauty, love and those things that really last….memories. Pray Lord we learn to give… to give extravagantly to your kingdom.

Blessings,

John Lawson