Allen Jackson - Generous Living - Part 2
You know, the challenge with the word "generous," the weakness in the word "generous," the concept I think is apparent to us, and I like it a lot for that reason, But the weakness in the word is it's really not defined very well. If we gave a private evaluation to everyone and nobody else knew, I bet everybody in the campus today would designate themselves generous. And there'd be a lot of breadth and width to what that meant. And so we need a little more context for the discussion. We learn to give. And so I wanna just walk you quickly through some seasons of scripture that point us towards this idea.
In Genesis chapter 4, and I've told you on many occasions that the introductory chapters of Genesis give us the big rock ideas of the Bible, that if you'll process those early chapters, they'll help you get to the story of scripture. But in Genesis chapter 4, that's very near the beginning of the book, we're introduced to one of these ideas. There's two brothers, Cain and Abel. Abel is a shepherd, and Cain is a farmer. And it's where we step into the narrative. It says, "Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of the flock. And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he didn't look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast".
Now let's pause there for a moment. There's not a chapter that precedes this where there's a lengthy discussion about the appropriate kind of offerings to bring. Now that chapter is coming. You're just finishing the book of Deuteronomy. How many of you know there's a lot of discussion about the kind of offerings to bring? So I think it's a fair assumption that God has given Cain and Abel insight into the offerings that he wants them to bring, because it's clear that Cain and Abel understand what the intent was, but they've made their own choice. And it says that God was pleased with Abel's offering. He brought a lamb and he was not pleased with Cain's offering. He brought the produce from his harvest. And Cain is very angry.
Now, let's push on. "The LORD said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you don't do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you. You must master it.'" I don't read this passage as a passage of chastisement or criticism by God. God is saying to Cain, "Cain, you didn't follow instructions. You didn't do what was asked. You did something, but you didn't do what was asked". No, the big rock idea in this passage, to me, is that it isn't that we just give to God what we want, when we want, the way we want, that God has an opinion about what generosity means to us. Cain could have swapped a basket of apples with his brother Abel for a lamb and brought the lamb as an offering. I don't know why he chose not to. Maybe he thought what he was working on was as valuable as what Abel was working on and nobody was gonna tell him how to give. I don't know.
The text doesn't tell us. It simply says that Cain made his choice and Abel made his choice and God was pleased with one and not the other. Please don't live with the notion you can give to God how you want, when you want, and God will be thrilled to see you show up. Now, what to me is meaningful in the passage is God says to Cain, "Cain," if you'll allow me The Living Bible, "get a grip on it, son. Sin is crouching at your door. You got this. You know what right is, let's go". Now, many of you know the outcome of the story. Cain chose not to cooperate. He chose to hang on to the anger. He murders his brother and he forfeits a great deal because of that.
See, God cares about our attitudes towards generosity. God cares about how we manage our possessions because our lives aren't segmented. You don't have a church life and a business life and a casual life and a life with your friends. You have one life before God. God is our source. He's our security. The Bible says, "He's our strong tower. He's our rock. He's our protector". Hebrews chapter 7. I know that's the New Testament, but the author of Hebrews is referencing an event in Genesis 14. Abraham, the man held up to us in the Bible as the epitome of a man of faith. Abraham has been attacked and his family was plundered a bit and he's gone to the northern part of Israel and had a triumph over a set of kings. And he's returning from that great victory with the plunder of that victory and he encounters Melchizedek.
Now, Melchizedek is an interesting character beyond our scope today, but his name means king of righteousness. "Melech" is king and "zedek" is righteous. Melchizedek is the king of righteousness. And we get to listen as Abraham encounters him. The author of Hebrews is referencing Melchizedek when he says, "Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people, that is, their brothers. And even though their brothers are descended from Abraham".
Says that Abraham, as remarkable as he is, as celebrated as he was, as powerful, this man God called, the delivery system through whom God said he's gonna make a nation. Abraham gave a tenth of his plunder to this king Melchizedek. Now we have some boundaries beginning to come around generosity. It's beginning to take some shape in the story of scripture. In Genesis 28, Jacob has a revelation. He has a dream. He's fleeing from home. He's a conniver and a manipulator, Jacob, and he's running because of his behavior. But he has a dream and he sees a ladder extended to heaven and the angels coming and going. And when he awakens, he makes a covenant with God, a vow to God. It's what's in your notes. "Jacob made a vow, saying, 'If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, this journey I'm taking, and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I will return safely to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God.'"
Sounds a lot like the Matthew passage to me. Jesus said, "Why do you worry about what you'll eat and what you'll wear and what you drink"? And Jacob said, "If God will give me food to eat and clothes to wear, then this stone I've set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me, I'll give you a tenth". Jacob said, "Lord, I'll give you a tenth of everything I have if you'll pour out your blessings upon me". Now, he will be, if we go back to the Deuteronomy passage, he's honoring that covenant. "I'm gonna honor you, and I will give to you out of the abundance of my life".
That place, it's named Bethel. Beth, B-E-T-H, means house, El is God. It's literally the house of God. It's a covenant Jacob made. Doesn't stop there. Goes right on. Hezekiah. Hezekiah is one of the great reforming kings of Judah. Not every king was a great king. There's an ebb and a flow to the people's spiritual life. Please know that. The people of God, the covenant people of God, living in the land he promised them with a temple in the center of their city and daily sacrifices, did not maintain a consistency in the way they honored God from generation to generation. There's an ebb and a flow to that. It's important for us to know because there's an ebb and a flow in our lifetime from generation to generation. What will be said of our generation? Have we honored the Lord or have we been self-indulgent and godless? It's not clear yet. Hezekiah is a reformer.
In 2 Chronicles 31, it says, "He ordered the people living in Jerusalem to give the portion due the priest and the Levites so they could devote themselves to the Law of the LORD". Hezekiah has implemented a whole number of reforms. He brought the books of Moses back, the Law, for the people to read. They'd lost sight of it. When you read it, it's hard to imagine God's covenant people in his Promised Land and they lost sight of the Lord. I don't know why it's hard to imagine. We lose sight of the Lord in our generation. We're a nation with a Christian heritage. Doesn't mean everybody who's been here is a Christian, but we're clearly a nation with a Christian heritage.
Verses of scripture are carved in all of our most important buildings in Washington, D.C. And now we have all kinds of leaders at every level in our nation that'll stand in a public square with a straight face and say, "We don't have that heritage". I'm like, "Huh"? And Hezekiah is calling the people back, to pay attention to the Word of God, to honor holiness and purity. They had put up shrines on the Temple Mount, next to the temple, with prostitution. And Hezekiah says, "I don't think so. That's going away".
Don't you know, there was an economic impact of that? There were people making money off that, people that thought that was a good idea, and Hezekiah said no. But then he orders the people to give. Why would he have to order the people to bring the portion that was due the priest and the Levites? 'Cause they'd forgotten to do it. "And as soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the firstfruits of their grain, their new wine, their oil and their honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything".
A tithe just means a tenth. Hezekiah understood that for the blessings of God to come to the nation, it was more than a theology. It was more than just a rehearsing of their history. It was about their behaviors before God. There is a power in giving. Nehemiah chapter 13. Remember Nehemiah's story? He's a cup bearer for the Persian king. Nehemiah's got a good job. In antiquity, if you wanted to get rid of the king, one of the most common practices was poisoning. So you wanted someone you trusted a great deal to be your taste tester. And that's Nehemiah.
So he eats well, he drinks well. He lives under the protection of the king. He has the king's attention. And Nehemiah hears from travelers that Jerusalem is in disarray, that the walls have been torn down and as much as he might have liked to have focused on the convenience and the comfort of his life, it says he couldn't. He was troubled by it until finally he decided he would be involved and he secures permission to leave his post and the resources he needs to travel to Jerusalem to rebuild the defenses of the city. And when he gets back, it's a harder job than he thought it would be. The labor is more difficult. There are more layers of political opposition. He negotiates the whole thing. He gets the walls rebuilt. He orchestrates a political peace that will let the people flourish.
Ezra, the priest, comes back to begin to teach the people to worship again. Zerubbabel comes back to build the second temple. Nehemiah, to this day, is a hero in Jerusalem. But at the end of all that Nehemiah does, there's one sentence in your notes. It's Nehemiah 13 and 12: "All Judah brought the tithes of the grain, the new wine and the oil into the storerooms". The whole nation, it says. Why does it matter? Nehemiah had secured physically the walls of the city. He'd politically managed to orchestrate a peace that would let the people flourish in the land, the priests are back and the story is emerging again, but he understands that if they don't live before the Lord their God in the way that brings the blessing of God, it's all temporary. God is the source of our lives. God gives strength to our bodies. He brings peace to our minds. He brings his provision to our lives. We wanna learn to live generous lives so that the blessings of God fill our lives.
I'll give you one more passage from the New Testament. This is Luke 19. Very near the end of Jesus's life. In fact, he's on his way to Jerusalem where he's gonna be crucified by the Romans. And the last major population center en route to Jerusalem, if you're coming down the Jordan Valley, is Jericho. From Jericho to Jerusalem is only 20 miles, but it's uphill the whole way. So typically the travelers will stop in Jericho for a bit of rest and refreshment, rehydrate, and Jesus is following that pattern. He gets to Jericho.
It says, "There was a man there by the name of Zacchaeus and he was the chief tax collector and he was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he couldn't, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a tree to see him. And when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I'm gonna stay at your house today.' So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. And the people saw this and they began to mutter, 'He's gone to be the guest of a "sinner".'" It's a fun story. Zacchaeus is a wealthy man and he's apparently slight of stature so he can't see over the crowd. So he's climbed a tree to see Jesus and Jesus gets to the spot where he's perched and he says, "I'll go home with you today". And it torques the people in the city because they know Zacchaeus is wicked.
Says he's the tax collector, says he's the chief tax collector. That doesn't mean he works for the IRS or he's a CPA. The Romans discovered that the most efficient way to collect taxes from a local population was to recruit a local because they, after all, knew where the resources were. But then they would give to that local citizen the authority of the Roman legions. So the Roman soldiers would stand there and some local would collect the taxes, hiding behind the might and power of the Roman soldiers. They worked for the coffers of Rome. But human nature being what it was, most of the tax collectors also lined their pockets so they were perceived by the locals to be traitors and that they were prospering through their alignment with the Romans. And Zacchaeus is the chief tax collector. It says he's wealthy.
Now, please note as an aside, the Bible doesn't condemn wealth. The Bible does not say wealth is evil or wicked. The Bible doesn't say money is evil. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil, not money. You can love money and not have any. Come on, I like ice cream a lot, but I don't have any right now. Doesn't diminish the affection one bit. It's the love of money that's the root of all evil. If you don't guard your heart, it'll grow in your heart that somehow wealth or abundance is wicked and it doesn't put you in a good place. It's not helpful or healthy. Don't be mad at people with stuff. It's not a helpful attitude. It will diminish you. It's not a new tension. It was back in Jericho 2 millennia ago. The people in town said he's a thief and Jesus is hanging out with a thief.
If he were the prophet he says he was, he wouldn't be hanging out with Zacchaeus. So Jesus has lunch with Zacchaeus. And after the encounter, look at Zacchaeus's response. Verse 8: "Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, 'Look, here and now I give half my possessions to the poor, and if I've cheated anybody out of anything'", I can see the crowd in my mind's eye. When Zacchaeus says, "If I have cheated anybody," everybody's eyes roll, because he's cheated everybody. "'I'll pay back four times the amount.' And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.'"
I tell you what intrigues me with that story, apart from the context is that Zacchaeus's change of heart was reflected in how he handled his money. It would have been much easier for Zacchaeus to say, "Hey, look, after I met with the Rabbi Jesus, I'm going to synagogue this week. I will be a regular attender". Zacchaeus could have said many, many things that would have avoided the elephant in the room. But he said, "Listen, my faith is gonna impact how I handle my resources". And your faith impacts how you handle your resources as well. God is our source and repentance, to heart change, all of those things, are reflected not just in where we sit on a weekend or the label we attach to our faith life. They're attached to how we conduct ourselves. Generous living opens the doorways for the blessings of God in our lives.
You know, the word we typically use in church world for that is a tithe, it's a tenth. My opinion, which means you can disagree with me, or you could save yourself some time and agree with me, is that the tithe is the Lord's. It's not mine. It's not mine to broker. It's not mine to disperse. It's not mine to decide, it's the Lord's. I give it to him. Now, I have lived that. It's not just a theory for me. It's been my practice for a long, long time and it's one of the places the Bible invites us. I know we're not under the law any longer. It's not legalistic. I don't think you're limited to a tenth. I think it's a way to help us imagine what it looks like to be generous. I'm not looking to put you under the burden of some legalism, but I don't want you to miss the power of generosity.
And I don't wanna leave it as something arbitrary. You can be generous. For many of us in the affluence of our lives, a tenth doesn't represent anything close to a sacrifice, and it isn't just about helping the poor. We have an obligation to those less fortunate than ourselves. There's no question about that, but that's not all giving was about. Jesus stood and watched them bringing their gifts to the temple and putting in the temple treasury gifts of enormous wealth. He didn't offer any criticism. He offered affirmation for a widow who brought a very small amount and he said her gift represented greater value than all the rest because hers was given from a position of such a small place. So, giving is across the breadth. It's a generous life.
Now, two groups I think are in danger on this topic. Those newest to the faith that perhaps have been sitting in that skeptic seat and you're going, "I knew it. All they wanted was my money". And if this is your first week with us, you get a pass, okay? Just hang on. Let the Lord make real to you what's real to you. But the other group that I think are in danger are the tenured folks, the folks that have been around church, that giving has been a part of your life, the whole journey. And you went, "Oh, Pastor, I've heard this. Couldn't we do something more relevant? I wanna learn something meaningful. This is old news. It doesn't matter to me". I could not disagree more enthusiastically.
You know, I learned about prayer when I was a child, but I don't think I've mastered prayer. I learned about forgiveness when I was a child, but it's not a topic that I can afford to not stay current on. There are many, many aspects of our faith journey that you're introduced to early in the journey, but you wanna continue to grow in their application, in their understanding of them and what it means to walk in the fullness of the grace of God under that idea. And if you don't stay alive with this idea in your heart, you forfeit something. You forfeit the blessings of God, the abundance of God, that he could bring to your life. Again, we go through all kinds of seasons up and down. I know good godly people that face physical challenges, but we trust God to restore their health. And we face financial challenges, but we trust God to restore us financially as well. But don't ignore, ask the Lord.
Have the courage to say to the Lord, "What would it look like for me to live before you with greater generosity"? You know, you model this in a beautiful way, week in and week out. You give your time and your talent and your resources. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I happen to know the choir and I promise you they rehearse every week. They don't just come in here and put their robes on and come in and belt the next number out for you. They work hard to raise their game and I want us to raise our game before the Lord. We're in this journey together. You know, it was about 14 months ago, we did a capital campaign around here. We've done several through the years. Not the first time. Usually they were about bricks and mortar and every time it's a sacrifice for that group of people because they've got a seat at the table, they have a parking slot and their kids have a space across the way in the children's ministry.
But we're getting a little tight and so we say, "Listen, we need to make a sacrifice so somebody else could come". And there's always a tension at that point. Like, "Not my problem. Let them find their own church. I found this one". But every time you have responded with such amazing generosity and it's expanded the capacity and the Lord has brought new lives, somebody's made a sacrifice for you to be here. That's the truth. And about 14 months ago, we did it again. This time, not for bricks and mortar because with efficiencies and effectiveness and multiple services and multiple rooms, we could still accommodate more people. But we said we needed to expand the influence of the message of a loving God in our culture.
And you responded in such a beautiful way with "Invest in Forever". You've been honoring that. And you know, when when we talked about that, we didn't make a lot of promises about what we would do because I didn't want to put something abstract out there. But from that day until this one, God has opened one door after another to multiply the influence of what we do here on the weekends. Now on a monthly basis, there are hundreds of thousands of people that share in the ministry we enjoy here. It's remarkable. It truly is. A man came to me and, after the last service, and he introduced himself and he said, "We're from Atlanta". And he said, "I just came to say thank you to you and to your congregation because we are participants". He said, "We were here at Bridgestone and we've been watching and being engaged with you ever since. And we made the trip this weekend so we could be physically with you".
The last few midweeks on Wednesday nights, we've done some things with some technology to take just what we do in a Small Group and share it with people. Tens of thousands of people have participated. This last week, more than 1000 churches joined us from here, Greater Metropolitan Murfreesboro, that I believe all of those opportunities are God's response to your generosity. We didn't wake up smarter. Doors opened, invitations were extended. All kinds of things have happened. A generous life opens the windows of heaven to you in a new way. If that hasn't been your story, ask God to help you, and if it has been, ask him to awaken you to the opportunities of this season. God is our source. He secures our future. We are vulnerable apart from him, amen.
I brought you a prayer. It's at the back of your notes, but I don't wanna pray that one with you. You can read that one. May I pray for you before you go? Why don't you stand with me? May I suggest a response, just to turn your palms to the Lord to receive his blessings? I wanna invite a blessing on your life. If you don't want yours, just keep your hands in your pockets, okay? I'm gonna ask for yours but I wanna be sure the Lord knows I'm here and ready, okay?
Father, I thank you for these men and women. I thank you for their lives. I know they're precious to you, that you care about every detail and circumstance. Lord, nothing in our lives is hidden from you. And I pray today that those things that originated from your heart and your mind would find good soil in our hearts and those things that didn't will fall to the ground. Lord, help us to live in such a way that your greatest blessings can be poured out upon our lives. Help us to choose to honor you in all that we are and with all that you entrust to us, so when our days are spent and our strength is diminished, that you might welcome us by saying, "Well done". I thank you that you love us and that you care for us. In Jesus's name, amen.