The Spirit and Season of Giving

The following is from Montrose Baptist Church's AM Worship service on December 13, 2009.

Read text. (Acts 20:35)

Specifically this morning, we want to emphasize Paul’s relation of Christ’s teaching that it is better to give than to receive. We hear it often. In fact, it has become somewhat cliché to many people. However, we may need to investigate a little further.
In the latter part of the 17th century, German preacher August H. Francke founded an orphanage to care for the homeless children of Halle. One day when Francke desperately needed funds to carry on his work, a destitute Christian widow came to his door begging for a ducat--a gold coin. Because of his financial situation, he politely but regretfully told her he couldn't help her. Disheartened, the woman began to weep. Moved by her tears, Francke asked her to wait while he went to his room to pray. After seeking God's guidance, he felt that the Holy Spirit wanted him to change his mind. So, trusting the Lord to meet his own needs, he gave her the money. Two mornings later, he received a letter of thanks from the widow. She explained that because of his generosity she had asked the Lord to shower the orphanage with gifts. That same day Francke received 12 ducats from a wealthy lady and 2 more from a friend in Sweden. He thought he had been amply rewarded for helping the widow, but he was soon informed that the orphanage was to receive 500 gold pieces from the estate of Prince Lodewyk Van Wurtenburg. When he heard this, Francke wept in gratitude. In sacrificially providing for that needy widow, he had been enriched, not impoverished.
Please don’t misinterpret this story to mean that God is going to return what you give more than five-hundred fold. However, we must be faithful take God’s Word as truth. We must follow the instruction it contains and rest on the promises it presents.
In this season, we have the temptation to be consumed by the gifts we will receive. We can enjoy the temporary joy that comes from receiving, or we can seek to foster the spirit and enjoy the season of giving.
If we want to be a giving people that find the true joy of Christmas- those that truly understand that it is better to give than receive, we have three things that we must be found faithful in this December. First, we must…

1.) Recognize the Example (John 3:16)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Paul relayed Christ’s teaching of the blessedness of giving. However, in our current society, talk is cheap. For much of current society, truth is not established by proclamation, but by example.
Thankfully, Christ knew the attitudes of men and provided us with the instruction and accompanying examples necessary for men to accept the truth.
We can find the example of God’s giving in what is typically considered the best known verse of Scripture in the Bible. Just look at John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He GAVE His only begotten Son…”
God set the standard for giving and generosity. He gave the very best gift the world has ever received. He gave His perfect, sinless, only begotten Son to walk among us and serve as the propitiation for our sins. He gave the thing that He loved the most, His only Son, to an undeserving and unthankful world.
That is what we celebrate this season. We don’t celebrate Santa Claus and his elves. We don’t celebrate Frosty the snowman or Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. We celebrate the fact that the greatest gift we could ever receive was wrapped, not in Christmas paper under a tree, but in swaddling clothes and laid to rest in a manger.
You see, God did not give out of His abundance, but He gave the very thing closest to His heart. And through this gift, He gave the example that we are called to follow.
God personally serves as our example in understanding the spirit and season of giving. However, there are other examples of Godly men and women through the years that set a fitting example for this season as well.
One such example would be the woman whose name accompanies the special offering emphasis for foreign missions each December.
I’m sure that many of you know the story of Charlotte Digges “Lottie” Moon.
This woman grew up in an affluent family in Virginia. She was well-educated, spoke Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, and eventually Chinese, and even received one of the first Masters degrees ever awarded a woman in the South.
Despite rejecting her Christian upbringing during her teenage years, she became consumed by the cause of Christ through a series of revivals in college. At the age of 33, she followed in her younger sister’s footsteps and entered the Chinese mission field.
Her contributions to foreign missions, ladies’ roles in the gospel ministry, and the evangelism of Chinese women are well noted. However, the legacy of Lottie Moon is firmly established in what she gave for the Chinese people.
This lady endured civil war, violent uprisings, and every other type of social unrest during her service. Upon returning from a stateside furlough, she found those people that she loved literally starving to death. When the Foreign Mission Board was found to be ill-equipped to deal with the situation, Lottie Moon determined to contribute what she could.
She used her food provisions and salary to purchase food for those starving around her. In fact, she donated so much that she starved to death herself. Upon her death, Lottie Moon weighed only 50 pounds. And when returning her body to her family, it was accompanied with a chest that contained every earthly belonging she owned. The estimated value of every item in the chest totaled less than $250. She literally gave away everything she owned, including her life.
Because of her faithful imitation of the example of Christ, the IMB sought to honor her generosity and service by naming the annual foreign missions offering after her.
As a Christian people, we have some wonderful examples of the generous heart that is expected of the Christian person. We have examples that prove it is more blessed to give than to receive.
We must recognize the examples, and then…

2.) Recall the Expectation (Matthew 6:3)
“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by me. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing…”
Jesus made clear His expectation for charitable giving. It was to be done without flamboyance and drama. It was to be done as quietly and humbly as possible. Giving is done as a generous gift from the heart, not as a means of public recognition and show.
In fact, we are told to give in such a way that we don’t even puff up ourselves with how good and spiritual we believe we are. Forget public praise, we cannot even entertain the acclaim that we tend to offer ourselves. Our giving to those in need must be done without calculation and tabulation. If we have a running receipt of how benevolent we’ve been, we are missing the entire purpose, blessing, and expectation of Christ.
I have two examples of such giving that I want to share with you this morning. The first involves the famed 19th century Baptist preacher, CH Spurgeon.
According to a chaplain magazine, Charles Spurgeon, “the prince of preachers,” and his wife would sell, but refuse to give away the eggs that their chickens laid. As a result, some people labeled the Spurgeons as greedy and grasping.
Yet, they accepted the criticisms without defending themselves, and only after Mrs. Spurgeon died was the full story revealed. All the profits from the sale of the eggs went to support two elderly widows. Because the Spurgeons were unwilling to let their left hand know what they right hand was doing, they endured the attacks in silence.
This family endured criticism from their friends, family, and church members because they were unwilling to flaunt the good things that they were doing. Ultimately, their legacy was a fitting challenge to those very people that crucified them publicly for their “greed.”
While history now tells the story of benevolence of the Spurgeons, I have recently learned of a story of kindness and charity within my own family that occurred more than twenty years ago.
My Dandy, my biological grandfather, died of lung cancer in 1987. While his health was consistently deteriorating, one of our deacons at church, a successful business owner learned of my grandfather’s unfulfilled dream. You see, Dandy always wanted to attend an Atlanta Braves baseball game. However, his life was drawing to a close and his illness had impacted his finances as well.
One day, without announcement, this deacon pulled up in front of the house in his Mercedes, gave my grandfather the keys and his credit card, and told him all the expenses were on him. The instructions were simply to “Go and have fun.” I’m sure you can only imagine the excitement this caused.
It took more than twenty years for this story to leak and it did not come from the lips of that individual. To this day, I don’t know if that gentleman realizes I know the story.
We must seek to follow Christ’s instruction. We must fulfill His expectation. Our giving must be without selfish motives. We must give without even allowing ourselves to dwell on our “goodness.”
The examples of these men and the instruction of this passage challenged me last year. You may recall the Overflow last year. Does anyone remember seeing a television camera or a reporter? What about a picture in the Baptist Record? I had several people tell me that this was one of those things that we should celebrate. Yet, I believe that our private celebration and excitement is more in line with the Biblical model.
We need to recognize our example, recall the expectation, and finally…

3.) Relinquish with Excitement (2 Corinthians 9:6-7)
“Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
While we must not make giving into a spectacle or glory in the greatness of our goodness and generosity, we must give cheerfully and with excitement.
We must offer things with a smile on our face and joy in our hearts.
Now, I am not going to pretend that any of this is easy. It is part of human nature to desire acclaim and recognition. It is also part of our nature to want to hoard things and be miserly. However, we must still seek to give cheerfully.
Maybe you can relate to a story of a mother and her little girl I ran across this last week.
This mother wanted to teach her daughter a moral lesson. So she gave the little girl a quarter and a dollar for church. She instructed the young girl, “Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other for yourself.” When they were coming out of church, the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. “Well,” said the little girl, “I was going to give the dollar, but just before the collection plate was passed, the man in the pulpit said that we should all be cheerful givers. I knew I’d be a lot more cheerful if I just gave the quarter, so I did.”
I believe that we would all confess, if honest, that it is much easier to be cheerful about donating a dollar than it is to donate ten thousand dollars. However, whatever we are led to give, we must give it cheerfully.
Whether it is giving to the church, to the homeless, or to any charitable organization, our giving should be done with excitement.
Now, we tell people that they should be cheerful givers, but what happens when we are not? How are we to become cheerful givers?
I believe that there are scores of Christians that understand the call to benevolence. However, many of those that understand the duty do not see the joy in giving.
I believe that the majority of the hesitancy in giving, and sacrificial giving at that, comes from an attitude of entitlement. We believe that we earned what we have. We deserve what we have because it was purchased by the sweat of our brow. Back pain and sweat-stained shirts show how much we are entitled to keep what we’ve earned.
However, when we begin to hoard and refuse those in need, we must begin to question our entitlement. To those that would say, “I don’t owe anyone because I’ve earned what I have,” maybe you need to consider the source of your strength. Who is it that gives you breath in your lungs? Who gave you the physical health to crawl out of that bed this morning? Whose grace is evidenced by the fact that you have a job in this economy?
We can be cheerful in our giving when we begin to realize how much our blessings do not belong to us. They are given for a season with the intention that they will benefit others as well.
Maybe you still battle with entitlement. Maybe you need to be reminded of times that God went above and beyond. Perhaps you need to remember when you were the beneficiary of someone’s generosity.
Those times when I begin to grasp tightly onto every penny and think, “I just can’t spare anything,” I am reminded of my first month here.
Before Emily, the kids, and I moved next door, we spent approximately one month driving back and forth from Enterprise. One Sunday morning, Emily and I were down to our last twenty dollars. The cabinets were bare but so was the gas tank. On the way to church that morning, we discussed our options: Would we spend the last twenty dollars on gas so that we could come back for the evening service? Or would we use it to buy us and the kids something to eat?
Something happened that morning. At the conclusion of the service, while we were shaking hands with everyone at the back door, one gentleman shook my hand with something tucked in his palm. He whispered in my ear that he and his wife just wanted us to know that they loved us- and wanted to look after us. I tucked it into the inside pocket of my jacket without paying any attention to it.
When we belted the kids in, and climbed in the front seat, I pulled that piece of paper from my pocket to inquire what it said. In my hand was a hundred dollar bill. In that parking lot, I remember holding the steering wheel sobbing like a baby. In my hour of need, God provided both the gas and food we needed.
We could go on and on telling stories of times when God provided. We must remember those times. When we determine to be stingy and greedy, we need to recall our desperation and the joy that came when Godly people answered His call.
In this season, when encountering those in need around us, we must remember that it is more blessed to give than receive. The key to joy this season for the Christian is not found in what we receive, but in giving away those blessings that we never deserved.