Sunday 20th January 2019

Sunday 20th January 2019

I would love it if you would help me settle and answer a random question. If you're boarding an aeroplane and you have the choice between the window seat, the middle seat, or the aisle. How many of you would say it is God's will for you to take the window seat, I'm curious, window seat, window seat? How many of you would say aisle?

If you're new with us, we're doing a sermon series called, "Selfless." We live in a very selfish, self-centred culture. On week number one we talked about overcoming our selfish attitude by becoming bold in spirit. Last week we talked about dealing with selfishness by being faithful in service. Next week I’m going to talk about being grateful in the grind, in the ordinariness and even drudge of everyday life. Today, I want to talk about overcoming our selfish attitudes by becoming extravagant in giving, extravagant generosity. I researched the idea of selfishness just so I would understand it more when I was preaching, and I came across an article entitled, "Science Shows Us We Are Selfish." 

At first, I thought this was one of those ‘scientific studies’ that students do so that they can keep pretending to be students while still claiming they are researching something – you know the stuff: Oxford University did research that proved Spiderman isn’t real! A study shows the benefit of electric fans in extreme heat; being homeless is bad for your health; the more time a person lives in a democracy, the more likely they are to support democracy; and, my personal favourite, scientists discover a difference between the sexes!

I’m amazed that someone felt the need to research this because I don't need science to tell me that people are selfish. I just need to go to Silverburn at Christmas time. I just need to look at a two-year-old. You never ever have to have selfish lessons with a two-year-old. "Today, I'm going to train you how to be selfish. I'm going to take your toy and when I do, I want you to scream at the top of your lungs, mine!" You never have to have that conversation. By nature, you can just look around and see that people are inherently selfish. According to this article, the bad news for men is this. Men are generally more selfish than women. Sorry guys. There's a study that shows that the male neural reward system is more stimulated by self-centeredness. Women, on the other hand, they're likely to get a dopamine rush whenever they do something good for other people. Why is this? Well people argue because men are wired to survive. "I'm gonna leave my cave, go out and kill something, and drag it back so we can survive." We're stimulated by that. 

Women, on the other hand, they're nurturers and they get excited about helping everybody else survive. So, typically, women are more generous. Men, if you enjoy going to the gym and keeping in good shape, the news gets worse for you. Just thought I'd tell you, the article says that bigger muscles lead to a smaller heart. On average, muscle guys are less generous than the guys who drive by the gym, straight for the pizza. Just saying… 

Back to the aeroplane. For those of you that prefer the window seat, as do I, you are much more selfish on average than those who prefer the other seats. Ladies, if you're feeling pretty good about yourself, men aren't the only ones that are selfish. When it comes to chocolate, it is every woman for herself. Studies are clear that if a woman is with her best friend and has a choice between a bigger piece of chocolate cake and a smaller piece of chocolate cake, it’s going to be the bigger piece of cake. 

Our culture is all about selfishness. What does culture tell us? Gratify yourself, indulge yourself, get whatever you can get, get what is yours, it's all about you. Jesus sets a different way. “If you want to follow me,” Jesus said, “It's not about you getting more of what you want, it starts with self-denial, you deny yourself, you take up your cross, and then you follow me.” 

Rather than being selfish in all we do, I believe that God calls us to extravagant generosity and for a key verse for us today, I want to look at Proverbs 21:25-26The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work. 26 All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.

When Solomon was talking about lazy and selfish people and he said of them all day long the lazy and selfish craves and craves, they want more and more and more, but the righteous gives and does not hold back. I love that imagery. Even though in our culture today, it's natural to be selfish, to crave and crave and crave and crave and want more. There is another type of person who is righteous, a follower of Christ, and this person gives and doesn't hold back.

There are three different attitudes to generosity:

The first is the bag mindset. The person with the bag mindset believes there is never enough, it’s a real poverty mindset, a lack, a scarcity mindset. In fact, Haggai the prophet spoke to God's people during a time when they were not putting God first. They were taking care of themselves or at least trying to, but they were not rebuilding the Temple of God, they did not put God first and because of it Haggai 1:5-6 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a bag with holes in it.’

Most of us don't put God first and we believe there's never enough. When it comes in it just goes straight out, there are holes in the bag. I'd love to give more, I'd really love to be more generous, but there's not enough in the bag. I'd love to make a difference, I wish I didn't always worry about money, but there's just not enough in the bag. Judas, the guy that betrayed Jesus, carried a bag. Judas was the money keeper and he was all about the bag. In fact, there's a very powerful story in Mark's gospel, chapter 14, about a woman who was most likely a prostitute that had been changed by Jesus, who experiences the presence and the blessings and the goodness of Jesus. This crazy woman took a jar of perfume worth about a year's wages, and when she gave and worshipped Jesus, she gave and did not hold back. She broke open the entire jar of perfume, poured it on top of Jesus as an extravagant act of worship because of who He is, and because of what he'd done for her, she gave and did not hold back. And Judas, the guy with the bag, speaks up and said, “What are you thinking you stupid woman?! You could have sold that perfume and taken the money and given to the poor.” The problem is, Judas was distorted in his own understanding and love of money, because not only was he guarding a money bag, but he was taking out for himself. He had a problem. He said you could sell this and then just shortly after, the guy who gets mad about how the perfume is given freely, ends up betraying Jesus, selling Him for 30 pieces of silver. Why? Because he wanted to put a little more in his bag. The focus is the money and the lack.

The second mindset is the basket mindset: In the bag, there's never enough, but in the basket, there actually is enough. Luke 6:38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’Notice He did not say keep and it would be given to you, He did not say hoard and it will be given to you, He says, "Give and it will be given to you. The imagery here is one people then would have understood more easily than we do. Landowners would often instruct workers to leave some grain at the edge of the field for people who had no food.  Of course, most would simply put some in the container but everyone knew that if it was for yourself, or your family, what you would do is fill the container, then shake it to get the air out from between the grain, allowing more to be added.

In 1 Kings 17 there was a widow who had a young son. All she had left was a little bit of olive oil and a very little bit of flour in her basket, and she said I'm going to make a loaf of bread and then my son and I are going to go out and we're going to die. We have nothing else left to eat, we're going to starve to death. Elijah the Prophet comes up and he says, "Would you give me some bread?" She was like, "I would love to do this, but I can't because all I have is a little bit of flour in my basket and after we make this loaf of bread we're going to die." And the prophet asks her to make him a small loaf first and then make one for her and her son. He effectively challenges her, "Would you just trust God, and see what happens." And this woman, who had almost nothing, made the most courageous faith-filled decision to honour God by giving to Elijah first when she had almost nothing. And if you read the story, what is so powerful is then from that moment on until the drought and famine ended, God always multiplied what was in her basket, and she always had enough flour in the basket and oil in the jar.

In the New Testament, Jesus was teaching one day, about 5,000 men, probably another few thousand women and children. At the end of the day the Disciples said, "Everybody's hungry," but nobody had any food. A little boy came up carrying a Spiderman lunch basket, he had five loaves and two fish in it. The little boy did not keep what was in his basket, but he gave what he had, and when he gave what was in his basket God multiplied it and fed everyone there, so that, at the end of the meal, there were 12 basketfuls left over. Why 12? I do not know for sure, but I think perhaps it was so that God could give one to each of the 12 Disciples, a doggy bag for them to take home to remind them that with God there is always enough. 

There's the bag mindset, which is how many of us grew up, "There's not enough, I wish I could give more, but I simply can't." There's the basket, which understands God's provision. When we give, God multiplies and we have enough. There's another mindset and this is where I want to live. My word for this year is the word "abundance." I'm trying to retrain my mind, and build my faith, that we serve the God of abundance. The third mindset is this: it’s the barn. When you recognize in God's kingdom there is way more than enough.

Proverbs 3:9-10Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

When we honour God and we put Him first with what He trusts to us, our barns will be filled to overflowing. What does God want? I hope you'll understand this. God always wants to be first in your life. He always wants to be first. Jesus said it in Matthew chapter six, He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be added unto you.” Seek Him first. In the OT this was called the firstfruits, or it's called the tithe. The tithe comes from a Hebrew word ma'aser, and it literally means one-tenth. Whatever God gives to us, in an act of worship and obedience to Him, we return one-tenth. God loved us before we even knew he existed. He gave much more than one tenth when Jesus died and in doing that he multiplied the life of the one to the life of the many. God doesn’t ask us to do something he hasn’t already done, and even more. This tenth is in every area of our lives, not just money, but financial giving is one of the most tangible and consistent ways of responding in faith to God. He understands that it is not easy and that is why he gives us permission to put him to the test – Malachi 3:10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

So much blessing. Not just increase in finances, but joy, spiritual contentment, and peace. Put me first, says God. Most of the time we are conditioned to think of what God is saying to us as individuals and I believe this applies to each of us, however, Malachi was writing to the whole people of God – they were to act individually for the good of all.

As we were preparing our budget for the year at the last Fabric and Finance meeting we realised that we would struggle to meet what we have to pay to Edinburgh toward the work of the wider church and have enough for ourselves. We could choose to live there with the bag mindset and worry and fret about it. We can choose to accept that there is always enough with God and that he will provide – through us; the basket mindset. Or, we can choose the barn mindset, deciding that we will give that first fruit, the tenth of all we receive, to God so that we not only have enough but that we can bless others from our abundance. Extravagant generosity calls for sacrifice, but the promise of God is blessing for those who give sacrificially.

My prayer is that you’ll join me in trying to change the mindset and that together we’ll test that promise God made.







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