Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] This Saturday morning, we'll be having our business people's breakfast.
[00:00:11] But don't let the name scare you away. It's a good place to network with other people.
[00:00:17] And I'll be sharing the thesis of Cal Newport's book called Slow Productivity.
[00:00:27] I'll be sharing his three big ideas.
[00:00:31] Narrow your focus, work at a healthy pace and obsess on quality.
[00:00:42] I guarantee you, the ladies who make breakfast do an awesome job and you will enjoy yourself.
[00:00:53] O Lord, we live in a beautiful world. Because of your generous creation, we experience the riches of love. Through your generous love, we have the hope of eternal life. Because of your generous forgiveness, we are blessed with economic wealth. Because of your generous blessings, we enjoy the benefits of health because you generously renew us.
[00:01:23] So please teach us today to be generous, just as you are generous. In Christ's name, amen.
[00:01:32] I'm reading an absolutely fascinating book about the end of the Sioux nation in the Dakotas and Montana and Colorado.
[00:01:52] So it's mostly about crazy horse and sitting ball.
[00:02:01] It turns out that the Sioux taught their children, their sons, three principles that they insisted that they live by.
[00:02:17] And the first one was bravery.
[00:02:20] In the Sioux nation, if you weren't brave, you just didn't have a place.
[00:02:29] Ironically, the second principle was generosity.
[00:02:34] The third was endurance. And the fourth was wisdom.
[00:02:42] Sitting Bull, as a young boy, he was learning these principles.
[00:02:49] And once every year, the boys of the tribe, they would have arrows without tips on them and they would go hunting these birds because they had feathers on them that their moms liked to sew onto their clothes.
[00:03:10] And the village had a prize for the kid who got the best feathers.
[00:03:18] So all the boys wanted that prize.
[00:03:22] So they all went out trying to get the best bird. And sitting Bull's friend shot his arrow into a tree.
[00:03:31] It rattled around up there and got caught in the tree, and his friend is distraught.
[00:03:40] So Sitting Bull said, let me see if I can shoot your arrow out of the where it stuck.
[00:03:47] So he shot his arrow and hit his friend's arrow and they both dropped to the ground. But his friend's arrow got broken and now his friend is angry and say, why did you do that? A sitting bull didn't do anything. He just gave the kid his arrow and walked back to the village.
[00:04:10] Well, that story got told around, and that evening when it was time for the chief to give the prize to the kid who had the best feathers, to everyone's shock, he gave the prize to Sitting Bull and he said, we value generosity more than we value feathers.
[00:04:40] And when I read that story, I thought there was a smart guy.
[00:04:47] He just taught all the young kids a powerful lesson about sometimes selfishness is your worst enemy and generosity is your best friend.
[00:05:04] The apostle Paul tried to teach us that same lesson in one corinthians.
[00:05:12] We've been studying one corinthians as a book that teaches us how to solve problems. And now we get to the very last chapter and Paul says this now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches in Galatia, so you also are to do on the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper so that there will be no collection when I come.
[00:05:50] And when I arrive, I will send those whom you have accredited by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. And if it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.
[00:06:06] This is Paul saying to the church at Corinth, ah, all of Christianity started in Jerusalem, but there was a terrible persecution against christians in Jerusalem. So they all started leaving the city.
[00:06:21] And when they all started leaving the city, the church in Jerusalem, the good people left because they went to other cities and got other jobs. And all that was left was the people who couldn't leave and the church couldn't support itself. So Paul was taking a collection from all the churches that he had started and he was going to take it to Jerusalem so that that church could continue to exist. And this is his instructions about giving.
[00:06:52] So first of all, Paul taught that it was a good thing for churches to share with other people outside the church.
[00:07:08] Look, it's not really healthy if we spend all our money on us.
[00:07:15] It becomes healthy when we have a bigger vision that we can be God's partner all over the world, not just here.
[00:07:25] And it turns out money is a problem solving commodity.
[00:07:33] There are problems that money does a good job of solving and we've found that out as a church.
[00:07:44] You can feed hungry people if you can buy groceries.
[00:07:51] Our Christmas offering every year goes to pay for the 60 some thousand dollars a year we spend on feeding hungry people. Money solves that problem.
[00:08:03] Several years ago we built a mission house. Some of you remember we built a house in Cleveland and we gave it to a single mom and her five kids. And by the way, they're thriving.
[00:08:22] Money solved their problem of being homeless.
[00:08:29] We're feeding and taking care of the kids in the orphanage in Uganda. Money solves that problem.
[00:08:37] When we send them money and they buy food and feed kids, that solves their hunger problem.
[00:08:43] We pay their tuition, that solves their education problem. We help them with clothes. That solves their, their naked body problem.
[00:08:54] It turns out that money is a problem solver.
[00:09:01] We've just partnered. They're opening a new seminary in Cleveland so that kids don't have to travel to other states to get a religious education, and we're going to sponsor them. And money helps solve the education problem.
[00:09:19] We support Love, Inc. It is an organization that is specifically designed to help people in need, and we support them every month. Money solves the Love Inc. Problem.
[00:09:35] Every summer we do the love week and we just go out and we do a whole bunch of projects.
[00:09:41] And these projects are designed to help people live a better life. And love week usually cost about $25,000. And money solves the problem. Some of you went last year and helped us make beds for kids that don't have beds.
[00:10:00] There are kids who are sleeping in a bed tonight instead of on the floor because this church gave money and you went and volunteered and made the beds, took the beds to the houses and set them up. Okay, so money doesn't solve all problems, but guess what? It solves a lot of them.
[00:10:22] So it turns out if we're going to be God's partners in problem solving in the world, we have to be generous, just like he is.
[00:10:36] Psalm 41, one says, blessed is the one who considers the poor.
[00:10:46] Would you open your heart to this? God says, if you'll be generous to the poor, he has special blessings for you.
[00:10:55] God has blessings that he wants you to have. And the way he gets them to you is if you will be generous to the poor.
[00:11:09] Listen what James says.
[00:11:13] If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for their body, what good is that?
[00:11:32] You know what James is saying? It's not enough for us to talk a good talk. When people are hungry, we gotta feed them. When people need clothes, we gotta clothe them. When people are in need, we gotta meet them in their need. It is the heart of what God wants to do through good people in the world.
[00:11:56] So then Paul told us, when should we give?
[00:11:59] On the first day of every week.
[00:12:06] He said, every Sunday. Ah, set aside something to be part of God's work in the world.
[00:12:15] You may not know it, but we take an offering here every Sunday.
[00:12:20] But that's what Paul told us to do.
[00:12:23] We didn't invent that ourselves. It's what the Bible teaches us to do.
[00:12:31] Who should give?
[00:12:33] Paul said each one of you is to put something aside.
[00:12:42] Some of you say, charity is for rich people, and I'm not rich.
[00:12:51] I'd like to say that charity isn't for rich people. It's for every single one of us.
[00:12:59] You say, I can only give a dollar. It's not how much you give.
[00:13:04] It is the heart to give. It is the spirit of generosity. It's the willingness to give.
[00:13:11] You see, Jesus appreciated the widow's might as much as he appreciated the big bag of money in generosity. It's not how much. It is the heart that wants to be part of what God's doing in the world. Or it's the heart that says, I don't want to do that. I want to keep this for myself.
[00:13:34] God doesn't judge the amount. He judges the heart.
[00:13:40] So each one of us should do something out of pure loyalty and commitment to Jesus Christ.
[00:13:55] Psalm 37 21, the righteous is generous and gives.
[00:14:03] Do you hear that? The person who's living life right, they are generous and they give.
[00:14:13] Then he says, how much should I give?
[00:14:16] And when he says, how much should I give? He says, as he may prosper, God doesn't want what you cannot give. He wants you to give in proportion to as he has prospered you.
[00:14:30] So if you make $45,000 a year, he doesn't expect you to give as much as somebody who makes $150,000 a year, because they have prospered more than you have.
[00:14:44] I would like to say to you who do well, you do know that behind your success is a gracious God.
[00:14:57] And the better we do, the more disposable income we have, and the more generous we should be.
[00:15:05] We all have to admit, when we have more disposable income. Life gets a little bit easier when you're living on the margin. It can be very, very hard. And so we who have done well, if we're a little more generous than those who haven't done so well, ah, it's pleasing to God.
[00:15:38] We believe that not everyone should give the same amount because not everyone has prospered in life equally.
[00:15:47] Paul also said, don't wait for special offerings.
[00:15:53] Now, some of you in this church, you're very generous when we have special offerings. You, you're generous at Christmas time, you're generous at the time of the pump. But Paul said, don't wait for special offerings.
[00:16:06] Make it a weekly part of your life.
[00:16:10] I believe I shared with you last week. The first, we get paid every other week. Shay and I get paid every other week.
[00:16:17] And the first thing we do at payday is we sit down and we make our contribution to this church.
[00:16:27] I want you to know I practiced what I preach.
[00:16:33] I'll just be totally transparent with you. Shay and I gave this church $20,000 last year. We believe in this church.
[00:16:48] We want to be part of God's cause. And I didn't tell you that to clap.
[00:16:54] I want to be as honest and transparent with you as I can. I'm trying to say what I'm talking to you about is something my family and I practice ourselves.
[00:17:07] I'd like to ask some of you who are very generous at our special offerings, would you consider being a weekly giver?
[00:17:15] Would you consider the first day of the week or a paycheck giver whenever you get paid?
[00:17:23] Would you consider being God's partner in funding good in the world and just make it part of your personal budget?
[00:17:35] Paul taught the church to handle offerings with accountability.
[00:17:41] Listen what he says, and when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
[00:17:53] Paul says, we're going to be accountable for this offering. I'd like to tell you about our church's accountability.
[00:18:05] We have a check and balance system.
[00:18:09] Our staff writes a budget every year.
[00:18:12] And when the leadership team thinks the budget is right, we take it to the elders. And the elders examine our budget. And basically they say, if we spend our money this way, will we be doing the mission that God gave us to do?
[00:18:31] And when the elders approve the budget, then we have one business meeting a year that nobody ever comes to. And the church gets to see the budget, and the church gets to approve it.
[00:18:43] So we start out with a budget that is approved by the elders in the church. All right. Then we have to manage this budget. And so we have an accounting office.
[00:18:55] We actually have. Katie is our executive pastor, and she leads a team of three women on our accounting office. And there's a check and balance in there. Some ladies can do one thing, they can't do another thing.
[00:19:09] So we have a check and balance within our accounting office.
[00:19:14] On top of that, every month the elders have an elder meeting, and they look at all our economic data.
[00:19:24] They look at how much money came in, where we are, what we're doing.
[00:19:31] And then once a year, we have a CPA who comes in and he does an annual review. So we do the very best we can to be totally accountable for every single penny.
[00:19:47] You can ask our staff.
[00:19:50] They start turning in budget requests that I think are frivolous, and I get grouchy I see lights left on in here, and I start grousing and saying, who was in that room last night?
[00:20:06] We do not want to waste a single dime of your generosity.
[00:20:16] Paul made himself accountable in economic issues. Listen to what he says.
[00:20:23] If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.
[00:20:32] Paul says, if it's okay with you, I'd like to be part of delivering this offering to Jerusalem.
[00:20:44] All right, so here we have from the Bible a good model for how we should function economically as a church and by the grace of God. This is exactly what we try to do.
[00:21:01] All right, now, toward the bottom of the, almost at the end of the chapter, we have verse 13, and I'd like to share it with you. Although it's not about giving, it gets pretty quiet in here. When I talk about giving, it's a little uncomfortable.
[00:21:24] I start hearing crickets in the place.
[00:21:30] Paul said, be watchful.
[00:21:34] Stand firm in the faith.
[00:21:37] Act like men. Be strong.
[00:21:41] Let all that you do be done in love.
[00:21:45] And these are the five problem solving qualities I want to leave you with as we end this sermon series. The first one is problem solvers. Pay attention. Be watchful.
[00:22:02] Some of you did well in grammar. You might recognize this as an imperative.
[00:22:09] Paul said, this isn't optional. This is a command. I command you to be pay attention.
[00:22:17] In problem solving, we have to be aware. We have to pay attention.
[00:22:26] Problem solving is easier when the problem is small and we pay attention to it. If we don't pay attention to it and the problem gets bigger, it gets harder and harder to solve.
[00:22:38] So in your problem solving toolbox, here is another tool.
[00:22:44] Pay attention.
[00:22:47] Live. Be in the moment.
[00:22:51] Don't let your life pass you by like a blur.
[00:22:54] Engage fully.
[00:22:57] And then he says, stand firm in the faith.
[00:23:03] Problem solvers, stand firm in the faith. What does that mean? It means tomorrow you're going to be confronting problems, and you're going to have to decide, am I going to confront this problem as a Christian, or am I going to confront this problem like any other pagan out there when it gets tough, am I going to deal with the moment like a Christian, or am I going to permit myself to be unpleasant, ugly, and hard to get along with like the people around me?
[00:23:38] Paul said, if we're going to really make a difference in the world, we got to confront problems like christians. The way we solve problems should be different than the way other people solve problems.
[00:23:56] Every problem is a divine opportunity to glorify Jesus Christ.
[00:24:02] Do you know that next week when you confront problems every single problem you confront, it's an opportunity for you to glorify Jesus Christ. It's an opportunity for the people around you to say, this is what it looks like when somebody is following the way of the Lord.
[00:24:22] This is how they act. This is how they problem solve. This is how they treat the people around them when the pressure is on.
[00:24:32] And then he said, problem solvers are courageous.
[00:24:41] It takes courage to solve hard problems.
[00:24:45] Anybody can solve the easy problems, right?
[00:24:51] Anybody can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
[00:24:55] But making a lasagna is an altogether different thing, right?
[00:25:01] God said, I don't want you dodging the hard problems.
[00:25:05] I don't want you avoiding the hard problems. I don't want you to be that guy or that woman that everybody knows. When it gets hard, you disappear.
[00:25:16] I want you to have some real christian courage. I want you to be my partners. I want you to engage with me.
[00:25:26] It takes mental courage to solve hard problems.
[00:25:32] There have been. Our church has confronted some very hard problems. And we've sat in an office, and the best people we have, we've worked on them, and we've said we don't have enough information. And we've gone and done homework, and then we've come back and discussed it again.
[00:25:52] Often the hard problems don't yield to your first try. It takes mental effort to get it done.
[00:26:01] It takes emotional courage, some problems. It takes emotional courage to confront. You just have to say, my heart is in, and if it breaks my heart, I'm still going to solve this problem.
[00:26:19] If I have to lose my joy for a while, I'm still going to solve this problem. I will not give up on this problem because it's emotionally demanding.
[00:26:30] It takes spiritual courage to solve problems. Could I remind you that we don't just wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. Evil is a real thing, church. Evil is not a myth. That's a holdover from our prehistoric past. It is a modern day reality. And it takes spiritual courage to confront evil in a broken world.
[00:27:03] It takes volitional courage. Sometimes you just have to have the courage to say, I'm in.
[00:27:12] Sometimes you just have to have the courage to say, you can count on me. If we have to stand back to back and fight this out, we're going to do it because it's worth it.
[00:27:24] And then he said, problem solvers have to learn how to strengthen themselves to do good.
[00:27:32] Do you know how to strengthen yourself when you get worn out in life? Do you know what you need to do to strengthen yourself when you start to feel that you're getting burned out, do you know how to refresh yourself? Paul said, we're long term solving problems, problem solvers.
[00:27:56] We're not once in a while problem solvers. So we have to learn how to strengthen ourselves.
[00:28:03] We have to learn how to renew ourself in the Lord.
[00:28:10] It turns out the harder problems you solve, the harder problems you're capable of solving.
[00:28:20] We are able to grow in our problem solving skills so that the more we mature, the harder problems we can be trusted with.
[00:28:32] And I don't know about you, but I want that in my life.
[00:28:36] I don't want to be the player who has to sit on the bench when the game is hard.
[00:28:42] I want to be one of the players when the game is hard. The coach says, I really want you in there right now, church. I don't want to be one of God's guys. And God says, you know, when it's not tough, I'll put you in. When it's really tough, I can't count on you. I want it to be just the opposite.
[00:29:07] I want to get up every morning singing, put me in, coach.
[00:29:11] I want to play center field.
[00:29:14] All right, get carried away here.
[00:29:22] And then Paul said, let all things be done in love.
[00:29:32] Paul says, you're going to have to solve hard problems. You're going to be challenged. There's going to be pressure on you. But remember, I want you to be a problem solver who brings love into the equation.
[00:29:49] I want the people around you to feel valued while you're solving problems. I want the people you're helping to feel loved, not marginalized.
[00:30:07] I'm asking you today, would you give your arrow away?
[00:30:16] There are things that you really want in life.
[00:30:22] Some of them are beautiful, and some of them are frivolous.
[00:30:27] There are prizes that you would like to win.
[00:30:31] But I wonder if on your way to having the life that you would really like to have, could you learn the value of sitting bull and give your air away?
[00:30:46] See what God might do if you trust him and give your arrow away. If a chief is wise enough to reward a boy, then surely God is wise enough to reward you.
[00:31:02] I want to remind you one more time what Jesus himself said.
[00:31:07] If you have one of those New Testaments that the words of Jesus are in red, these words are in red. Jesus said, given. It will be given unto you good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.
[00:31:24] Will it be put into your lap for the measure you use? It will be measured back to you.
[00:31:33] God says. It turns out that he is more generous with the generous.
[00:31:38] And I wonder if you have the faith to believe that. Our dear heavenly Father, thank you that you are a problem solving God.
[00:31:50] Thank you that you invite us to be your partners.
[00:31:54] I pray for myself, and I pray for this good church.
[00:31:58] I pray that we would be willing to do whatever you ask us to do to be your partners in the world.
[00:32:05] I pray that we'd make the world a better place around us here in northeastern Ohio. I pray that we'd make the world a better place in Uganda.
[00:32:16] I pray that any hard task that you ask us to do, our hearts would be filled with faith. And we would say, here are my lords in me, and I ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
