"Focus on 4: Generosity"

Last week we said Focus number one was for us to individually take responsibility for our own personal spiritual development, to dig deeper with God and to get fit spiritually in the year ahead, right? So how did that go this week? Did you open your Bible, take time to pray each day, start a journal, or find a mentor? Remember, spiritual discipline classes start tomorrow, so come and learn. It’s not easy getting started, but it’ll feel good in a few more days.

This week, the second big focus for us in 2007 at Lakeview is to learn how to become a generous Church. That’s one of the Big 4 Focus this year, to become a church filled with generous giving people in 2007.

So let me tell you about my week:

Me and God on Tuesday morning, 4:12 a.m. I wake up and instantly I can sense God wants to talk to me. Okay, it sounds weird.

God says, “Dean, tell the story of Mephibosheth from the Bible”.

Dean says, “God, I can’t even say his name!”

God says, “Dean, tell the story of Mephibosheth”

Dean says, “God, I’ve already got another great idea . . .”

God says, “Dean, I don’t care, just tell the story.”

So, here goes. Listen closely especially if you don’t know the story.

The background: this is from the Old Testament and surrounds the history of Israel – God’s chosen people. David was a shepherd boy, a farm kid. He loved God and had an adventuresome spirit. God told him he would be King one day. The trouble was that Saul was King and he knew that God told David he was to be King one day. He envied David, hated him. But Saul’s son Jonathon was David’s best friend.
A tangled story.

David, over the course of years, gains popularity and power and becomes King after Saul and his best friend Jonathon are killed. History records as does the Old Testament that David is the greatest leader Israel had ever had up to that point and as their King he leads them to incredible victories with their army and secures the country’s borders and after several years the nation of Israel is thriving and mostly at peace. Everybody loves David. He is a great leader.

Then comes I Samuel 9 which records the story God wants me to tell you about. Let me read it to you.

II Samuel 9:1 (NLT)

One day David asked, “Is anyone in Saul’s family still alive, anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”

II Samuel 9:6&7 (NLT)

His name was Mephibosheth; he was Jonathan’s son and Saul’s grandson. When he came to David, he bowed low to the ground in deep respect. David said, “greetings, Mephibosheth.” Mephibosheth replied, “I am your servant.” “Don’t be afraid!” David said. “I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king’s table!”

David picks this one guy, Mephibosheth to honor because of David’s friendship with his father, Jonathon. He blesses this guy Mephibosheth beyond his wildest dreams.

That’s where this whole thing started for me Tuesday at 4:12 in the morning.

And so it is that from this story we are to learn about generosity and about what to do with the blessings God has so graciously given to us. So, let me tell you what I saw and maybe God will have something for us.

What I noticed as I read the chapters surrounding this story in the Bible is that David wasn’t just naturally a super giving very generous kinda guy. I mean as you read about his life, he doesn’t jump out to you as an extraordinarily generous man. In fact, he sometimes seemed rather careless and hard and pretty harsh especially with his enemies.

So what I looked for as I read was this; I looked for what made him have such a giving spirit at the precise time when this story took place. What were the things that came together in his life and faith that made him give so freely to Mephibosheth? Really, this is what I looked for. How was David’s life positioned and what kinda stance or frame of mind was he in personally and spiritually in order for him to be able to give so generously like he did?

What I found were 3 over riding principles of generosity that David lived out; three take homes for me and for us about becoming generous people.

1. Generosity begins with humility

When this story of generosity begins, King David is at the height of his power and his authority and his wealth and his influence. He’s got it all going on. His kingdom has been secured from his enemies and he was at the top of his game and in the season of his greatest popularity. Yet, his position or stance in life was one of humility which is a unique thing considering that he was the most powerful king in the entire world at that point.

His stance was simply very humble. He just said, “what can I do? Not for me, but to honor the family of this friend from my past. What can I do with what God has given me in order to bless him?” Interesting though that David didn’t say, “I’m the King. I’ve worked hard and I’ve got all this money and power and influence and wealth. Now what can I do for me?” He could have. Instead he said, “it’s not just about me, it’s about Mephibosheth. My money is not just about making my life bigger and better and stronger, its about making Mephibosheth who is smaller, weaker and of little influence better. It’s about him too, not just me”.

David said it’s not just about me going up, but it’s about Mephibosheth going up too. See, David knew a key principle that lots of us have to learn when it comes to life and money and generosity: Down is greater than up in the kingdom of God and God’s blessing falls on those with a lowly stance, not on those who are proud and puffed up. Listen to this great verse from the Bible:

I Peter 5:5b-6 (NIV)

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

The word I want you to hear in there is humility; humbleness. Listen to that word. Now let me give you a few more words that describe humility.

Humility is not proud or arrogant but modest, unpretentious, submissive, meek, unassuming, plain, common, poor, lowly and humble.

Now think about this. When is the last time you’ve heard anybody say that that list of words is how to succeed in life. Well that’s what I’m telling you today and I’ll guarantee you won’t find many motivational speakers using that as their message for how to find success and keep it. You won’t see many late night info-mercials that sell humility.

Humility, meekness, submission and plain just don’t sell too many books or DVD’s or seats at a seminar. Humble pie doesn’t sell to our society, but with God it sells.

In fact, in the spiritual realm, humility is what success is based on. The bible says that it’s in a lowly stance where we get lifted up by God(down is greater than up) and it’s backwards math in our world. It doesn’t make sense to us but it makes sense in the Kingdom of God.

See, our whole lives we are taught that to succeed is to win pretty much at any cost whether it’s a 10 year old at hockey, getting A’s in school, the number of friends your kids should have, the type of career and salary you should attain, the level of status or recognition your career or position brings to your name, or the lifestyle you must attain. Success in our society is always about up and winning and more and better and pride. And you know what? There’s lots of good in all that. It’s good to push ourselves and it’s great to rise to the top and it’s great to have a long list of accomplishments and to be successful as long as all that success and winning doesn’t get in the way of our ability to not take the credit. When we start taking the credit we are no longer humble. When we forget what God has done for us and when we forget that He is actually the one in control of the universe, not us, that’s the worst possible place we could be.

Folks, the truth is it is God who gives us life and it’s God who gives us breath and it’s God who created our strengths and abilities and minds and even our drive to succeed and its God who is in control of every blessing that falls our way.

When we get confused about that, our spirits begin to grow smaller and when we get all puffed up and proud and think we’re all that and that it’s us who control our destiny, what happens is that God just has less and less and less to work with. The more pride we have, the less soul God gets to work with. He opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble. God can work with humility but He won’t work with pride. In fact, very few things that we value in life would work without humility, especially generosity or growing a generous spirit.

Folks, that’s the math in God’s kingdom. It seems backwards - down is greater than up and humility is stronger than pride. If you really want to be successful, try serving and giving to the people around you because God can’t work with a proud and haughty spirit. He enlarges, grows, develops and multiplies light in a soul that is humble. So, try working that equation. Real success lies under it - down is greater than up. That’s the first thing I noticed about David’s stance; his generosity started with humility.

Here’s the 2nd:

2. Generosity gets fueled by passion

David’s giving spirit, like I said before, did not happen simply because he was a super generous type of guy. He became generous because he was humble first and then when the fire of giving got started in his life, he fueled it by focusing on and by giving to something/someone that stirred his emotions and made his heart beat faster.

Mephibosheth’s father Jonathan, before he died, had been David’s very best friend. They were closer than brothers and they grew up together and had a connection that was far deeper than any other relationship David had had since. David had been intensely loyal to Jonathan and when David saw that he could change his best friend’s sons life and future simply by giving, and let the emotion and passion of that sink into his heart, his generosity grew even more.

As you read it you can’t help but see that as David’s heart beat faster and his passion grew it just fueled his fire to give even more.

And so the take away for us is pretty simply. Stay humble, that’s job number one and then ask God to show you something that you love, something that you’d like to see changed, perhaps something you’re passionate about and then give to that thing. As you let your heart go, you’ll see the generosity fire just burn at a whole new level.

David’s line was this. He said, “Mephibosheth, I’ve asked you to come so that I can be kind and give to you because of your father Jonathon”. David’s heart was overflowing with passion and emotion and loyalty and it just fueled his fire.

Question. Do you know what you’re passionate about giving to? Two things that I give to, for example, that make my heart beat fast:

1. This Church

One of my goals in life is to see people’s lives changed by God. That’s who I am, and what I have come to realize over the years is that the place with the best potential of doing that is this church.

Every week people’s lives are getting changed by God in this place. Lots of you found God here, and lots of your kids did. There were tons of Junior high kids here the other night.

So now, Pam and I give regularly to make sure this light stays on for people. We give 10%. We tithe 10% of our income to this church. Why? Because God says that’s a great place to get a habit started in your life. 10%. But really, I give 10% because I like to give to something that God is using to change lives.

2. Jerry and winter work clothes

After we give to the church we give to a family we love very much who needs our help. Job – Food – Clothes – Job – Food – Clothes. He is kinda holding down a job almost all winter. This week, he needed winter work clothes and our family was honored to help Jerry so he could continue to work and work better to provide for his family.

That stuff gets my heart going. A few dollars and some friendship can change a life over time. Those are two things that we give that make our hearts beat faster and as our hearts beat faster its not only easier to give, but its actually pretty fun.

So, figure out what you’re passionate about. If you want to know more about what is happening here at Lakeview, remember this place has captured the passion of a lot of people. If you want to know more, wait until next week. We’re gonna unroll a few things that this church is gonna do in the future and I guarantee even just the initial thoughts of this stuff will make your heart beat faster for sure. Next weekend, don’t miss a sneak peak of what the next 10 years looks like at Lakeview.

Here’s the 3rd generous thing we can learn from David:

3. Generosity becomes part of our DNA through discipline

As I read this story over and over this week I caught something when

I went through it that I had missed on the first readings. Listen to what David says to Mephibosheth. He says, “I will give you all the land that belonged to your grandfather.” So, that is a one-time gift and that’s one level of generosity. That was nice. Look at the next line. David says, “and oh yeah, Mephibosheth, you may live here with me at the palace.” And it goes on to clarify that from that time on Mephibosheth ate regularly with David as though he were one of his own sons.

And the part I want you to catch is the “from that point on” part. That means for the rest of his life, Mephibosheth was just taken care of by David. Think about that. That was a commitment perhaps for the rest of David’s life and even beyond. David made the decision to make his giving a life long habit instead of a one-time event. Generosity became part of his DNA.

See, from that moment on, David’s generosity to Mephibosheth had nothing to do with his emotions or his financial state. David didn’t say, if I have 5 really good years financially then Mephibosheth can stay a while longer and he didn’t say if I feel really good about Mephibosheth and his life and if emotionally I like what Mephibosheth is doing, then I’ll continue to give.

No, he made a decision to give and to be generous as a discipline, a habit, a life long goal and as generosity became discipline for David, it became part of his DNA.

You know lots of us can get fired up to give some money to something once in a while when we feel we’ve got a little extra or when we feel good about what we’re giving to. However, if you want generosity to become part of who you are, if you want giving to be in your DNA, then you’ve gotta fight through the emotional side of it and give as a discipline – a habit - on a continuous basis. Regardless of your emotions and regardless of whether you had another great year financially or not; give.

As generosity becomes a life long decision and action, it then marks you as a person. What God then does is this: He takes the habit of giving and through that discipline he changes you on the inside. As you give, God will actually change your character over a lifetime. He will make you into a generous person. That’s how God works.

Spiritual Discipline (taking regular action to give) → Spiritual Habits → Character Change.

Now quickly let me show you how this principle worked in David’s life. Let me fast forward to the end of David’s life.

I Chronicles 29 recorded that David, lying on his death bed as an old man, hands his kingdom over to Solomon his son. It would now be Solomon’s job to build a temple for the people to worship in Jerusalem, a temple unlike any other ever built. So, in order to kick start that building, in order to get everybody else to give and be committed to seeing this temple get built, watch what David does on his death bed.

I Chronicles 29:1-6 (NLT)

Then King David turned to the entire assembly and said, “My son Solomon, whom God has clearly chosen as the next king of Israel, is still young and inexperienced. The work ahead of him is enormous, for the Temple he will build is not for mere mortals, it is for the Lord God himself! Using every resource at my command, I have gathered as much as I could for building the Temple of my God”. David first used all his political power to get it started. Now listen: “And now, because of my devotion to the Temple of my God, I am giving all of my own private treasures of gold and silver to help in the construction. This is in addition to the building materials I have already collected for this Temple. I am donating more than 112 tons of gold and 262 tons of refined silver to be used for overlaying the walls of the buildings and for the other gold and silver work to be done by the craftsmen”. Then he says, catch this, “now then, who will follow my example and give offerings to the Lord today?” Then the family leaders, the leaders of the tribes of Israel, the generals and captains of the army, and the king’s administrative officers all gave willingly.

Generosity became such a part of David’s character because he gave over a lifetime. By the end of his life, giving became the most significant thing he could do. I think David just said, God has given me all this and I have felt the incredible blessing of God my entire life even before money, before power and before fame. Why wouldn’t I just give it back to him? Why wouldn’t that become my legacy? So it was that David’s generosity set up the entire next generation of Israel to become a nation of giving people and Solomon built a temple for worship that was unparalleled in the world or in all of history.

But it was enabled. It happened because David decided to be humble and to find something to give to that made his heart beat fast and then he decided not to make his giving a one time event but to make it a habit, a discipline. He gave over a lifetime and God changed his character to truly become generous inside his life, in his DNA. He became a generous person.

And folks, that is exactly what God wants to do in every one of our lives. He wants to transform us over a lifetime to help us become generous people, to walk with our humility and to bless us as we serve him and the people around us. Then He will show us what we can be very passionate about giving to. As we give out of that passion and as it becomes a spiritual habit in our lives, He’ll take that giving spirit and place it deep into our DNA. Over a life time, He’ll change us. He’ll transform our character in ways we can’t even fathom. That’s what God did for David and there’s no question that’s what God will do for us.