CIRRHOSIS OF THE GIVER: Learning to be Liberal

Chris McCurley: Nowhere I'd rather be on a Sunday morning than right here with all of you. Thank you for being here this morning. Last week we started a sermon series. It's a three-parter and talking about giving. We call it cirrhosis of the giver and last week we talked about how much for Jesus. You might have thought how does this apply to giving but it's a setup to what we're talking about today which was last week we're talking about how much you value Jesus and that's going to directly affect your giving. not just of your money, but of your time, your energy, all of that. And this morning we're talking about giving on a more practical level. But what the Bible talks about, not just about our money and turning loose of it, but what's involved behind the scenes in your heart going deeper with our giving. That's what we're looking at this morning. I want to say this as a preface. The elders did not ask me to preach this. You know, this is sometimes in some congregations. A preacher gives a lesson on giving and it's a moving sermon. You know what a moving sermon is, right? You give it three days later, you have to move. I don't think that's going to be the case here. My personal belief is the best time to talk about giving is when things are good and the giving is good here. And so I appreciate you and your giving, not just of your money, but of your time and your energy as well. However, any time we talk about giving, I don't think that it should be from the standpoint of we're preaching this because people need to reach in their pockets deeper. Now I think this is more about why we give the heart that we give with and what is going on behind the scenes. Reminds me of a man who said. If I had some more money. I would give it to God. But he said as it is. All my money goes to supporting myself and my family. He then said if I had more time. I'd give that to God. But as it stands, all my time is taken up by. work and family and leisure pursuits. same man said, I wish I had some talent. If I had some special ability, I would give it to God. But as it were, I'm not very talented. I don't have any special skills. I'm not very good at anything. And God heard this and was touched. And so He gave him all of those things. He gave him more money, more time, and special ability. And then God waited. And he waited. And he waited. Until finally he just took it all back. And one day the man said, you know, if I had all that money back, if I had all that time back, if I had that special ability back, I'd give it to God. And God said, be quiet. And the man looks at his friend and says, you know, I don't know that I believe in God anymore. And I'm not sure that that's not how some Christians tend to think about giving. They're more than willing to ask for God's blessings, less willing to turn loose of their abundance. God gives, but they dismiss Him. You know, it's important to understand that as Christians, giving is not a duty or an obligation. We don't give because of that. we give because of what God has done for us. It kind of reminds me of the circus ring master who would travel around to different cities and he had this standing offer. He would take a lemon and he would squeeze it until all the juice was out of it. And then he would offer $1,000 to anyone who could come up and squeeze just one more drop out of that lemon. And no one was able to do so until this one particular place, a little scrawny bald guy with black rimmed glasses. Don't look at me like that. Raised his hand. And said, I'll accept the challenge. The ringmaster said, come on up here. And so the ringmaster squeezed that limit until there was no other drops coming out of it. And he handed it to the little scrawny ball guy and he squeezed it and three more drops came out. And the ringmaster was stunned. The crowd was stunned. He handed him the thousand dollars. He said, how did you do that? No one has been able to accept my challenge. He said, ⁓ that was easy. He said, I do this kind of thing every day. I'm the treasurer at my church. You know, someone said there are three types of givers. You have the Flint, you have the sponge, and you have the honeycomb. The Flint, you got to beat with a hammer and even then you get just a few sparks and scraps of metal. The sponge, you just squeeze it to death till you get everything out of it. But the honeycomb is different because it just overflows with sweetness. No squeezing, no beating. And we are called to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with. But all too often, we cling to our money and we call it stewardship. Understand, God is not impressed with misers and cheapness is not a spiritual gift. Stewardship is not about taking what God has given you and just handing out a little smidge here and there while clinging to the rest. We cannot give from the top of our purse and act like it's a sacrifice. We can never offer to God that which cost us nothing. We see this throughout scripture, that money is always a subordinate good. And I'm not so sure that we always see it that way. And this is one area, giving is one area of our spiritual lives where we need to learn to be liberal. Second Corinthians chapter eight, if you want to turn there. In second Corinthians chapter eight, Paul is encouraging the church in Corinth to follow through on their giving. You know that Corinth had a lot of problems. The church there was riddled with issues and apparently giving was one of those. The collection that was being taken up was for the church in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem church was the mother church. It's where it all began. But the Jerusalem church was also a poor church. And so Paul would go around gathering a collection for the church to support it in Jerusalem. And apparently about a year earlier, the church in Corinth had started giving, but they had not followed through on their giving. so now Paul is stepping in and saying, look, it's time to put your money where your mouth is. Talk is cheap and so is your giving, right? And I want you to notice what Paul says beginning in verse one, second Corinthians chapter eight, says, now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God, which has been given in the churches of Macedonia. that in a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. So we urged Titus, that as he had previously made a beginning, so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well. But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also. I'm not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich. I give my opinion in the matter for this is to your advantage who were the first to begin a year ago not only to do this but also to desire to do it. But now finish doing it also so that just as there was the readiness to desire it so there may also be the completion of it by your ability. Four, if the readiness is present, It is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. But this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality at this present time, your abundance being a supply for their need so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality. As it is written, he who gathered much did not have too much and he who gathered little had no lack. Now these letters would have been read out loud in front of the congregation. And I can imagine as this letter was being read aloud in front of the congregation that there were some in the church going, ⁓ goodness, here we go again. Paul's what money? That's how we tend to react sometimes when we hear a lesson on giving. The church just wants money. They can never have enough. They always want more. But I think. Part of our issue with giving comes from the fact that we're all clutters, aren't we? Just by nature, we're clutters. You were born a clutcher. You came out of your mother's womb with your fist made, anytime your father or mother came and put their finger in your hand, you would clench it tightly. You clenched it. You became a toddler. And you clenched your toys, so much so that any other toddler came up, you'd say, mine. Right? You got into junior high and you clutch the handles of your bicycle and you got into high school and you clutch the hand of your boyfriend or girlfriend and you left high school and you clutch that diploma and you joined the workforce and you clutch the bottom rung of the ladder and then you'd clutch the second rung and the third rung as you tried to climb the corporate ladder of success. Eventually you retire and and you clutch a pension or a retirement fund, social security or golf clubs. And then. You get into your golden years and maybe you clutch a cane or a walker. And then maybe before your life ends here on this earth, you clutch a hospital bed. But that's how we are. We're just natural born clutches. And it doesn't matter what we do or say, how much we try to convince ourselves. It's hard because we find that money provides security. It provides significance. It provides satisfaction. have this reflexive response that won't let us let go of something so near and dear to us. And for most of us, clutching is like breathing. It's just perfectly natural, which is why a discussion on money and giving should never focus on the obligation or the duty. I wish we would stop doing that in the church, to be honest with you. It kind of bothers me when I hear we've been commanded to lay by and store. Because if that's the only reason we're giving, then that's a problem. We shouldn't be giving simply because we think it's a duty or an obligation. We shouldn't be leaving Christians with the impression that the only reason for our offering, or even the primary reason for offering, is because God said to... And while that certainly contains merit, while it certainly matters what God says for us to do, that cannot be the only reason for our giving or else our giving is severely lacking because there's a whole lot more to giving than just the obligation. 1 Corinthians 13 and three says, And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. God doesn't need your money. I mean, it's not about the money to God. So we don't start with money. We don't start with the amount. We start where Paul starts. And he doesn't start with the obligation. Did you see where Paul started? Did you notice where Paul started? He started with grace. And that's where we start. And that just makes sense, doesn't it? Because everything comes down to grace. Everything you are and everything you do, believe it or not, comes down to grace. It's everything we are and everything we are about. as far as we know, Paul didn't show a pie chart. He didn't draw a pie chart in his letter to the Corinthians showing how much they've given and how much they need to give. As far as I know, there was no thermometer. You've seen those fundraising thermometers where that's red showing what you've given. And then it's, you know, that's clear for how much more that you have to give. Paul didn't do any of that. He didn't start with the amount. He started with grace. Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia. Paul appeals to a single motive for giving. He starts with God and he starts with grace. Christians give because God has given and God continues to give. The free gift of grace is given by God through Jesus Christ. Should be all the motivation we need. give the free gift of grace. That's our catalyst. Our giving is a gospel response. The gospel is all about the generosity of God and living out the gospel is about our generosity to others, to the church, which means that when we're talking about money, we're talking about way more than just the amount. Notice what Paul says about the Macedonians and their giving. He says they gave with the right motive that in a great ordeal of affliction. Their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. He also says they rejoiced in their giving despite that they were being persecuted. Despite their deep poverty, they considered it joy that they got to contribute at least a little something to the Jerusalem church. The fact that they gave in spite of their poverty also shows how much that they trusted in God to meet their needs. They also gave sacrificially. For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord. But the key to the giving of the Macedonians is found in verse 5. But they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. That's it. That is the whole crux of the matter. They gave themselves first. to God. And when you give yourself first to God, well then giving is not a problem. Those who have trouble turning loose of their money are those who have not first given themselves to God. Those who are hindered in their giving are those who have not given themselves first to God. The Macedonians were glad to be able to give because they knew that their giving was pleasing to God and so they gave sacrificially knowing and trusting that God would take care of their basic needs. Now, if you skip over to 2 Corinthians, chapter nine, notice what is written starting in verse six. Paul writes, 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. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. Paul mentions grace again here, doesn't he? Here's his argument in a nutshell. God will take care of you. Sounds simple, but that's his argument in a nutshell. God will take care of you. God gave his son. He gave His Son, He gave everything He had for you. Do not think He's going to take care of your basic needs? God's going to take care of you. And don't be someone who gives with the wrong heart. Understand that giving is a barometer of your faith. It reveals your heart. How much do you trust God? Do you truly believe that He will take care of you? Plus, when it gets right down to it, What right does any of us have to hold on to any? None of this is yours to begin with. It's like the gentleman who told one of our elders many years ago, well, I'm not giving any more to this church until y'all do what I've asked you to do. And I said, you understand that it doesn't become the Lord's money when you give it to the church, right? It's always the Lord's money. You don't own anything. None of this belongs to you. Not only your money, your time, your abilities. Sometimes people say, well, I earned this. worked hard for it. Yeah, but who gave you the ability? Who blessed you with the opportunity to work? It all goes back to God. So what right do we have to clutch anything? You are a steward. You're not an owner. It is only by the grace of God. That you have anything. And therefore. Or your giving should be an act of grace as well, and I want you to notice. Paul's focus when it comes to the Corinthians giving. He's not trying to incite a competition between the churches, especially between, you know, Corinth and Macedonia. In fact, he never mentions the actual amount of money that the Macedonians gave. Because the amount doesn't matter. It's the spirit with which it is given. That's what matters. And the first question we often ask is how much, right? How much? How much are we lacking? How much do I need to get? Maybe there's a better question. Look at Mark chapter 12. Can't have a lesson on giving without looking at the widow and the two minds, you? Mark chapter 12, starting in verse 41. And he sat down opposite the treasury and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling his disciples to him, he said to them, truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury, for they put in out of their surplus. But she out of her poverty put in all she owned, all she had to live on. Now, the first thing that sticks out to me there and probably you too, is that Jesus observed their giving. He was sitting there watching them give. Do think he observes our giving today? That's kind of a scary thought, isn't it? But I think he does. What's he observing? What's he looking at? Oh, you put in a 10 and I know you had a 20. Yeah, I don't think that that's what he's observing. This poor widow woman gave only two small copper coins, much, much less than all the others that were contributing to the temple treasury. Yet her giving, Jesus said, is an example for disciples to follow. Why? Because it was the Spirit with which she gave. You know, the temple treasury had these trumpet-shaped dispensers that you could put money in and get out. And the scribes and the Pharisees would come in and they would drop in several coins, making as much noise as they could so that people would be impressed with their giving. And yet here comes this poor little old lady. who drops in two small coins. No fanfare, no demonstration of piety. She just comes in and humbly gives, and Jesus says that. That's what giving should look like. You know, from the standpoint of men, her contribution was paltry, but from the standpoint of God, it was priceless because in the Lord's eyes, Her tiny coins were more precious than diamonds because it wasn't the amount that she gave, but the attitude she gave with she gave humbly, she gave cheerfully and she gave out of love. We could say she gave herself and we tend to measure the contribution by the amount we give. But it seems as though God measures our contribution by the condition of the heart from which it came. It's easy for us to look at the story of the poor widow woman and say, yeah, but was that really? Was that really the wisest decision? I mean, she had two small coins. Maybe just keep one of them. Wouldn't she have been well within her right to just keep one? And wouldn't that have been the wiser thing to do? And then we look at it in terms of Western Christians living in this day and age, and we think, well, is that what God expects? We just put our entire paycheck in the plate every week? Well, no. That's missing the point. The amount of the gift never matters. as much as the cost to the giver. He said that again. The amount of the gift never matters as much as the cost to the giver. It's not the size of the gift, but the sacrifice involved by giving all that she had. She was showing that she had to rely on God. For everything. Dependence on him. Was really all that she had at the end of the day. God will take care of me. I know that so it was an act of faith as well. God judges what we give, but what we keep the wealthy gave out of their wealth. And even though they gave large sums of money, they still had a whole bunch left. They had given out of their abundance. They weren't going to miss the money that they had given away. They had plenty more to sustain them. The widow gave everything that she had, and therefore she had only her faith to sustain her. She had to trust in God. The contributions of the rich cost them. nothing but the contribution of this poor widow woman cost her everything. And if you give what you do not need. Is it really giving. Jesus commended the woman not forgiving not forgiving away so much but for keeping so little because in Jesus's view the amount we keep indicates more than the amount we give. Giving reveals. what our heart is given to, doesn't it? One undeniable fact that stands out boldly in the scriptures concerning giving is that giving always included sacrifice. point of the story of the widow giving her two mites is this. It's not the amount that you give that's important. It's did you give all you could? Did you give out of your abundance or did you sacrifice? Is your faith in God or in money? And this is why lessons on giving are so difficult because when you really probe the Scriptures, when you really dig deep to see how people treated money, how their relationship was with money, They gave their money away, exposes least a lot in my heart and perhaps yours as well. Are we putting our full faith and trust in God? Or do we rely too heavily on our money? And how we answer these questions will directly affect our giving because ultimately giving is a lordship issue. Who has your heart? are giving as a direct result of who has our heart. Is money a tool or is it a guy? The gentleman by the name of Wayne Pendergast. True story. Wayne Pendergast went on a drunken binge and committed a spur of the moment robbery. He was walking through his neighborhood and he found a house. He broke in through the second story window. He filled a suitcase with valuables. Then he set the house on fire and escaped through the back door all to cover his tracks. As he's walking towards his house, he turns the corner and he sees all the fire trucks and the blaze, the smoke coming from his home. It was then it struck him that a very inebriated Wayne Pendergast had broke into his own home, stolen his own stuff, and set his own house on fire. He later said this, I had no idea. I had so many valuable possessions. think we take so many things for granted because we have so many things to take for granted. Like or not many of us have ascribed divine attributes to our money and the things that money can buy. And we allow our money to fill a space in our lives that only God should be inhabiting. We turn to money to do for us what only God can do for us. Like I said a moment ago, money becomes our source of security. It becomes our source of satisfaction. It becomes our source of significance. And when money is your source of security, your source of satisfaction, and your source of significance, then what do need God for? I those are the three biggest areas of your life. What do you need God for, right? What do you need faith? The strange, strange malady of cirrhosis of the giver is seen in the individual who starts to get tremors and break out in a cold sweat. when they have to reach for their wallet. Now, interestingly enough, cirrhosis of the giver doesn't have any effect on one that is playing golf or shopping at the mall or eating at a restaurant. Cirrhosis of the giver is described like this. Sudden paralysis or an inability to reach for your wallet when the offering plate gets passed. Sweating and internal feelings of anger when the preacher starts talking about money. nausea and lightheadedness when considering turning loose of a portion of your money. This is all supposed to be funny guys. Picture it like this. Your child turns 16 and you want to do something nice for them. So you go out and you buy them a brand new Ford F-150. I know that probably none of you in here would do that, but just play along with me. You buy them a brand new F-150, you put a bow on it, you blindfold them, you bring them outside and you tell them to take the blindfold off and there's their brand new F-150. You give them the keys and off they go. Sometime later though, your car is in the shop and you need to borrow theirs for the day. And you tell them, I'll take you to school, but I just need to have your truck for the day because mine's in the shop. And they throw a fit. What are you talking about? You can't have my truck. I mean, this is my truck. You find somewhere else. Find some other truck to drive. This is mine. And what would your reaction be? I mean, besides slapping the taste out of their mouth, what would your reaction? We have a, you know what kildee are? Kildee are those little birds that they're really annoying, but they build a nest on the ground. And we have a kildee that has built a nest in the middle of our driveway. So you have the median strip in our gravel driveway. She has built a nest and she's got four eggs in there and we've done our best to avoid, you know, running over her nest. Sometimes it's quite a challenge, but you walk up close to her nest like, when you're going to the mailbox or whatever and she flips out and she starts puffing her feathers out and acting like she's big and tough. She doesn't want you anywhere around her nest. And I'm thinking, this is my driveway. This is your fault. You built a nest right in the middle of my driveway. Or it's like when my kids were small and I would take them to McDonald's and they play on the play place and I'd give them, you know, get them the chicken nuggets and French fries and we'd be sitting there and I would I would grab one of their fries and saying we go, hey, dad, could eat my fries. Your fries. I bought those fries, right? You get the point. Nothing was yours to begin with. So to clutch it and cling to it like it's yours, this is God's blessing that He's given to you. What an act of ingratitude for the recipient to be so unwilling to turn loose of it. Proverbs 37 through 9. Two things I asked of you. Do not refuse me before I die. Keep deception and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is my portion. That I not be full and deny you and say who is the Lord. Or that I not be in want and steal and profane the name of my God. Yeah, try praying that prayer if you dare. Two things, just two things. Keep deception and lies far from me and give me neither poverty nor wealth. Don't give me too much, God. Don't make me wealthy because then I'm gonna rely on money and not you. And don't make me too poor. I wanna have enough. In essence, the prayer is, God help me live paycheck to paycheck. I mean, we would almost question God if he answered that prayer, right? But maybe if you're a clutch or this is a good prayer to pray. Maybe if money is assuming an unhealthy place in your heart, this would be a good prayer to pray. We don't want our daily bread, do we? We want our monthly bread. We want our retirement bread. But here in this prayer, you see the writer of Proverbs saying, give me just enough. And then I'll rely on you for the next day to give me just enough. Keep deception and lies far from me and help me live paycheck to paycheck. My friend Steve Higginbotham tells the story about a little girl sitting in church and she was clutching a couple of quarters waiting for the offering plate to pass. Excuse me. And as it come came down the aisle to her, she opened her hand over the plate. And the coins kind of stuck to her hand and so she pried him off and they dropped in the plate and she handed the plate to the usher and she said. Thank you. And you think that's an odd thing to say, right? Thank you. I mean, the usher should be saying thank you, right? If anybody's going to say thank you, why would you say thank you after giving your money? But that little girl was on to something. Because that's all of us, right? All of us should be thanking God for the opportunity to turn loose of what he has given us. He has abundantly blessed us and we have the opportunity to give back. to the church, to others, so that it can help someone else, so that it may further the work of the kingdom? When was the last time you thanked God for the opportunity to give? Clutchers don't see it that way. Owners don't see it that way. The people in the world around you, they don't see it that way. Only those who have been transformed. Only those who have received grace. Give with grace. This is one area where it's okay to be liberal. In fact, being liberal when it comes to being generous is the goal that we should all have. I love you all and I thank you all for being here this morning. Can we help you? Can we pray with you? Want to study the Bible with someone we can set that up? You like to talk to someone contact the church office and set up a time we come this week and talk to to myself or the other ministers, one of our shepherds. Or maybe you're ready to put on Christ and baptism and begin a daily walk with God. Certainly we want to take care of that as well. I say it all the time, but. There is no good reason for you to leave here this morning without being right with God. And so if we can help you, why you come? We stand as we sing.

Mark 12 · chapter mention Mark 12 · chapter mention