WHY GENEROSITY?
Notes
Transcript
It crucifies the flesh.
It crucifies the flesh.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Generosity kills pride and greed.
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.
When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?
Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt,
and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.
As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.
This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind?
Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.
Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.
Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God.
For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
Solomon is saying in vv. 10-20 that if you don’t get a handle on wealth, wealth will take hold of you. Wealth is given to us by our Lord not to destroy us but to deepen us.
He who gives us wealth also supplies the needed ability to enjoy it. Our ability is not innate but engrafted. In salvation we are grafted into the Branch Christ Jesus. His resources begin flow into our lives. Our lives begin to bear witness that our Father is the origin and owner of all our wealth. It is this understanding which empowers us to enjoy all that He has given to us. When you know whose you are; you will know who you are.
Generosity breaks the power of cancelled sin by laying up treasure in Heaven. I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity.
It cultivates fruitfulness.
It cultivates fruitfulness.
Generosity cultivates the Fruit of the Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
It cultivates faith.
It cultivates faith.
Generosity validates that loss is gain.
A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.
Generosity help me evaluate wants vs. needs.
Generosity drives me deeper into dependence.
Generosity declares my dependence on my Father and my independence from the love of money.
When we SOW (Steward Our Wealth) we cultivate faith for generosity is an tangible act of faith.
Not, how much of my money will I give to God, but, how much of God’s money will I keep for myself?
Generosity connects me to my Father’s heart.
Generosity enables me to love God and not money; others as myself.
Generosity breaks me free from earthly bonds and binds me to eternal truths.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,
but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.
And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.
Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.
Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
While heaven will be wonderful for all its inhabitants, Scripture makes it clear that not every believer’s position and experience in heaven will be the same. Heaven’s rewards—its possessions and positions—will vary from person to person. Not all of us will hear the master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23). Not all will have treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). Not all will have the same positions of authority in heaven (Luke 19:17-26). We’ll have differing levels of reward (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
Scripture suggests some Christians will be ashamed at Christ’s coming
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
I don’t think this shame will continue in heaven, but there’s no indication that rewards lost due to disobedience on earth will ever be restored. Just as heaven will be wonderful for all and even better for some, hell will be terrible for all and even worse for some. Punishment will vary according to the nature and number of the sins committed (Revelation 20:12-13).
Jesus warned that people in certain towns where he ministered would have a worse fate on the day of judgment than that of other cities (Matthew 11:20-24). The notion of differences in heaven strikes many as unfair. We’ve gotten the false impression that heaven must be identical for all of us. If everyone will be happy in heaven, what’s the nature of the differences? The best explanation is differing capacity.
Two jars can both be full, but the bigger jar contains more. Likewise, all of us will be full of joy in heaven, but some may have more joy because their capacity for joy will be larger, having been stretched through their trust in God and obedience to him in this life. John Bunyan said, “He who is most in the bosom of God, and who so acts for him here, he is the man who will be best able to enjoy most of God in the kingdom of heaven.”
No matter how we attempt to explain it, no matter how incompatible it seems with what we’ve heard, it’s a fact of Scripture that there will be differing rewards and differing positions in heaven. This adds up to different experiences in heaven that are now being forged in the crucible of this life. What will those rewards consist of?
Crowns are a common symbol of rulership. Five crowns are specifically mentioned as heavenly rewards:
The Crown of Life—for faithfulness to Christ in persecution or martyrdom (James 1:12; Revelation 2:10).
The Incorruptible Crown—for determination, discipline, and victory in the Christian life (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).
The Crown of Glory—for faithfully representing Christ in a position of spiritual leadership (1 Peter 5:1-4).
The Crown of Righteousness—for purifying and readying ourselves to meet Christ at his return (2 Timothy 4:6-8).
The Crown of Rejoicing—for pouring ourselves into others in evangelism and discipleship (1 Thessalonians 2:19; Philippians 4:1).
This crown may relate to Daniel 12:3, which says, “Those who lead many to righteousness” will shine “like the stars for ever and ever.”
There may be innumerable crowns and types of crowns as well as many rewards unrelated to crowns. All are graciously given by the Lord Jesus and earned through the faithful efforts of the believer. They are lasting reminders of our work on earth and Christ’s faithfulness in empowering us to do that work.
Our rewards are given not merely for our recognition, but for Christ’s. We see this in Revelation 4:10-11, where the twenty-four elders “fall down before him who sits on the throne” and lay their crowns before his feet while they worship and praise him.
Though God’s glory is the highest and ultimate reason for any course of action, Scripture sees no contradiction between God’s eternal glory and our eternal good. On the contrary, glorifying God will always result in our greatest eternal good. Likewise, pursuing our eternal good—as he commands us to—will always glorify God.
I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.
We can be disqualified from earning our crowns (1 Corinthians 9:27), and we can lose them (1 Corinthians 3:15) or have them taken from us (Matthew 25:28-29). When we seek our rewards from men, we forfeit rewards from God (Matthew 6:5-6).
John warns,
Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.
Not only can we fail to receive rewards, through acts of unfaithfulness we can also forfeit rewards already in our account. I recently read a Christian author who categorically states that people won’t own anything in heaven.
But what about the different dwelling places believers will have in heaven (Luke 16:4,9)? What about the treasures Christ commanded us to store up for ourselves in heaven (Matthew 6:20)? What about the different crowns and rewards God will hand out according to our works (2 Corinthians 5:10)?
What about the fact that we have an inheritance that will be given us in heaven (Colossians 3:24)? Doesn’t the word inheritance imply something tangible that will belong to us? Will your crown be as much mine as yours? Of course not. What about God’s promise to give to overcomers a white stone with our new name written on it, a name no one else will know
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’
Will you and I have equal possession of those stones or names? No. The one God gives you will be yours, not mine. The one he gives me—if I’m an overcomer—will be mine, not yours. Is this ownership wrong or selfish? Of course not.
Ownership is never wrong when it’s God distributing to us possessions he wants us to own! Heaven is not a socialist utopia in which private ownership is evil. Materialism, greed, envy, and selfishness are sins; ownership is not.
Believers will reign with Christ (Revelation 20:6). “Reigning” implies delegating responsibilities to those under our leadership. One parable tells us certain believers will be put “in charge of many things” (Matthew 25:21,23). Christ spoke of granting some of his followers leadership over specific numbers of cities in proportion to their faithful service on earth
He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.
Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’
But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’
When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business.
The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’
And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’
And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’
And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’
Real cities? Sure, why not?
The New Jerusalem is heaven’s capital city, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only city. God can spread cities across the new earth, the new galaxy, and the new universe. We’ll even have angels under our command
Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?
Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
Where will we send them? On what missions? What responsibilities will we delegate to angels? We don’t know yet. But don’t you look forward to finding out?
Conditions for reigning are clearly stated in several passages, with an emphasis on endurance and perseverance: “
if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;
The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Christ also promises, “
The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations,
and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
And I will give him the morning star.
The “morning star” was the name for the planet Venus. Perhaps this suggests God’s servants will reign not only over this world but others. God alone judges the motives of the heart (1 Corinthians 4:5). Accordingly, he will reward small and hidden acts of faithfulness (Mark 9:41). He will also disregard many public acts of notoriety that might impress us (Matthew 6:1-18).
Think about this not only when you look in the mirror, but when you look at your family, neighbors, acquaintances, the man at the office, the girl behind the counter, the taxi driver, the Down Syndrome child, and the handicapped old woman who spends her days praying for missionaries. (Take a very close look, since you and I may be serving under her in heaven.)
In The Weight of Glory C. S. Lewis said, It is a serious thing to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
It conveys our faith.
It conveys our faith.
When we fail in generosity we convey to others that God is not love.
If love is an action and God greatest display of love was giving His Son. Then an unbelieving world is going to find our claims lacking or call them an outright lie.
Generosity conveys the reality of another world beside this one.
Generosity conveys our belief in Scripture.
Generosity points to the cross as the only explanation of such behavior.