GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT – GIFT OF GIVING
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 6:27-38
OCTOBER 13, 1985
They called him Lord. He came from Ireland in the 1850’s. He was Colorado’s most incredible tourist. He came from Ireland with power and with wealth. He came to lead a royally equipped hunting party on a massive three-year onslaught of the American west. He came not simply to examine the west but he came to ravish it, to reap it, and if possible to strip it of all life. By night, he slept like a king in a silk tent and by day he led devastating raids upon Colorado wildlife. He came in style. He brought his own bathtub with his family crest engraved on its metal side. He brought his own brass bed complete with down mattresses and linen coverings. He brought trunks filled with clothing and he brought barrels of delicacies to eat. He brought wines and liqueurs to prepare his palate. He brought candlesticks and plates and pewter mugs. He even brought a royal potty, complete with a fur covered seat. He brought mind boggling numbers of rifles and guns. He brought a 16-foot raft. He brought 50 trained hunting hounds and he brought scores and scores of servants to attend him and to make his westward journey smooth.
He left Southampton, England in January of 1854 and he arrived in St, Louis in March. There he purchased further provisions. He bought 250 gallons of 180 proof alcohol. He bought beads and trinkets to use to bribe the Indians. He would dilute the alcohol and mix it with red peppers and plug tobacco and create poisonous brew known as trade whiskey. He hired Jim Bridger, the famous frontier trapper to be his scout and his guide. He hired 43 additional men to serve his every need. He purchased 100 horses, 20 oxen, 27 different vehicles including his royal carriage, 2 large freight wagons, 4 Conestoga wagons and 17 Red River carts. He then set forth with a massive party on the Oregon Trail through dusty plains of Nebraska and Kansas and he came to the region of Colorado and Wyoming. He immediately began to hunt, not for food, not even for sport, but to satisfy a warped desire within him simply to kill. In a short period of time, he butchered 2,000 buffalo, 1,600 deer, elk and deer and innumerable smaller animals.
In Washington, D.C., the President of the United States and his cabinet began to discuss what they could do to make this Irish lord go back to his homeland, but they didn’t have to do anything because this lord made a mistake. He took his royal hunting party northward into the Dakotas, into the Black Hills, the sacred burial grounds of the Sioux Indian Nation. He planned to go into the heart of the Black Hills and to strip it of all life but there, in the midst of the Black Hills, he met the Sioux Indian Chief whose name was Bear ‘s Rib. This chief believed that all white people were just a little bit lower than the weasel. As the chief stood before the lord, this chief gave this lord two choices. He said you can leave minus a few things such as all of your possessions, all of your wealth, all of your vehicles, all of your food and all of your clothing including the clothes on your back or you can stay and you can go to war with the Sioux Indian Nation and you can fight to the death. This Irish lord thought for a second. He made his decision. He decided that he would become America’s first streaker! And so it was that this elegant lord and all of his party made a naked retreat southward running barefooted for three hundred miles, eating berries and roots, toads and lizards. Five weeks later they were near starvation. They made their way to the head waters of the Little Missouri where they were rescued by the peaceful Hedaska Indians and this lord was restored to health. He returned to Ireland—never to come back to America again.
Today, in the State of Colorado there is a range of mountains named after him—a range of mountains that towers above the mountain resort of Vail. A mountain peak is named after him, a mountain pass, two rivers and a once flourishing town. His name was Lord Gore. He came to Colorado. He came into our world. He came not to give but he came to take, and how unlike the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ who came into our world not to take life but to give life. It is said that he came that “we might have life and that we might have it abundantly.” It is said that he came “not to be served but to serve and to give his life, a ransom for many.” As Christians, the Bible tells us that we are visitors in this world. The Bible says this world is not our home. We are exiles and aliens on the earth and our true homeland is in heaven.” We live on this earth for a short time but we should not live as the world lives and our attitudes should not be the same as the worlds are. There are plenty of Lord Gores in this world – people who believe the earth exists to meet their needs but as Christians we are called to meet the needs of other people.
There are really only two types of people in this There are takers and there are givers. Lord Gore was a taker. Lord Gore was a taker. As Christians we are called to be givers. We’re not simply called to be givers in our relationship with the world but we are also called to be givers in our relationship with the church. As we enter the church, we’re not called simply to take life but we are called to give life. Tragically throughout the churches of Christ I believe there are more takers than there are givers and perhaps that is true in this church as well. For that reason, I feel led to share with you this morning on the subject of giving and the Gift of Giving and I have two brief teachings.
The first teaching is this: every Christian is called to be a giver. Every Christian is called to give. Now as Christians we give to the church. We give to the church some measure of our time. We give to the church hopefully our prayers. We give to the church some portion of our talents and abilities but the Gift of Giving—all of those things are critical to the life of the church—refers primarily to the giving of money to the kingdom of Christ and that’s why the Gift of Giving is oftentimes in the Bible simply translated as the Gift of Contributions. I think for many Christians there’s nothing harder to give than money.
A story is told of a big corporate executive who went to a United Way Fund meeting where he promised that every single employee in his company would make a contribution to the United Way Fund. This executive then returned to his company where he called for his manager. He instructed his manager to go and solicit contributions from every single employee in the company and this the manager did, and three days later the manager came back and he said, “Sir, every single employee in the company has made a contribution to the United Way Fund except one, a man named Paul Jones. I tried to induce him, I tried to persuade him, but he will not contribute.” The executive says, “have Mr. Jones come to me.” It was done and the executive said to Mr. Jones, “I understand that you’ve not made any contribution to the United Way Fund.” Mr. Jones said, “That’s right sir, in fact I make it my habit never to give to the United Way Fund.” The executive smiled and said, “Mr. Jones, I’ve given a promise to the United Way Fund people that every single employee in my company would contribute. You will either contribute or you will no longer be an employee in this company. You’ll be fired today.” Mr. Jones thought for a second. He reached in his coat, pulled out his wallet, took out a $50 bill, put it on the desk and he said ,”Sir, I would have given sooner but nobody ever explained it to me in the way that you did.’
I think sometimes God wonders what He has to say to us to make us realize that each one of us are called to contribute. Every Christian is called to contribute to the church. The Bible tells us that as Christians we are to understand that nothing belongs to us. Everything belongs to God. All of our possessions, even our children, the very bodies in which we dwell, our money, everything belongs to God. The Bible says we are simply stewards. This is the whole teaching of the Parable of the Pounds and the Parable of the Talents—that we are stewards. These things have been entrusted into our care and one day we’ll have to stand before the living Christ and give an account for what we have done with his things.
The issue is not how much of our money we’re to give to the church. The real issue is how much of His money we are to keep for ourselves. In the Bible God has given us instruction. He has told us that as Christians, He expects of us as His people to give to the work of the church a minimum of a tithe. One-tenth of everything we make we are to give to the work of the church in this world. That is a clear teaching of the Word of God. The Bible tells us that if we do not give a tithe, from God’s perspective we are robbing Him. It says in Malachi in the Bible, God says, “Will men rob God? But you are robbing me. You say how are we robbing you? In your tithes and in your offerings. You are robbing me, the whole nation of you and you are cursed with a curse. Therefore, bring the full tithe into my storehouse that there might be food in my house and put me to the test says the Lord God of Hosts and see if I will not open up the windows of Heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.”
If we do not tithe, the Bible says we are robbing God. If we do tithe, the Bible says God will bless us and He will bless us richly. We should tithe whether the church that we attend is in desperate financial need or not. We should tithe simply as a matter of obedience and we should tithe simply to enter into the realm of God’s blessing. If this church had all the money it could use we should still tithe and I can promise you that if we didn’t need any more money here, that money would go to some good Christ-centered cause because we’d give it to the poor and we’d send it forth to the work of missions and evangelical causes all over the world. But the truth is this church has tremendous financial need. If you think we’re cruising, you’re wrong. Next month this church must pay $110,000 to Saunders Construction Company. The following month, December, we must pay another $110,000 and then in January we must pay another $110,000 and then in February another $110,000 and this is all over and above our general operating g budget and the normal expenses of this church. And quite frankly, we don’t have the money.
According to the projections of the Session, with respect to our pledges and the promises—the faith promises that we have made as a congregation—at the rate we’re currently giving, we’re going to fall more than $250,000 short of what we promised and what we pledged as a congregation. Forty percent of the membership of this church gives nothing to this church. And the simple truth is we’re not going to make it unless we become more faithful. God has called us to be a faithful people.
You know this is frustrating to me. If I’m honest with you, it is somewhat discouraging. I love this church and I believe you are the best congregation I’ve ever seen. It’s frustrating to me because I know if we all tithed—if those of us of average income tithed—all of us who attend this church—We’d pay for our operating budget, we’d pay for our building and we’d have $2,000,000 left every year for world missions. But the issue is not whether I’m frustrated, that doesn’t really matter. The real issue is how does God feel, because I believe. God brought this church into being. I believe He’s looking down upon us. He had His hand upon us. He brought this church forth by the power of His Holy Spirit. Men and women and boys and girls have accepted Christ in this church and asked Jesus to come into their heart. That was true of some of you. Some of you have had your families, your marriages healed in this church and many of you have grown in your knowledge of the Word and in your knowledge of Jesus Christ. God has a vision and a purpose for this church. This church has not been irresponsible. We’ve not built an extravagant facility.
Our sister church, Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church, spent the same amount of money as us to build a facility much smaller than we’ve built. They put in more quality. We simply built quantity. We simply want room to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and I can promise you that your staff is faithful, that they love Jesus Christ, that they work hard. I can promise you that your Session is responsible. Our elders are good stewards of God’s resources. I can’t imagine why anybody would withhold contributions from this church. Some people say, “Well, God will provide.” Sometimes that’s a cop-out because God has already provided. This church is an upper middle-class congregation and God has placed the resources in our hands. The faithfulness of God is not in question here. The issue is whether or not we as a congregation are going to be faithful. Some people question whether they can afford to tithe. I don’t think here in America there’s many people who can’t afford to tithe. God has blessed us.
I read this past week of a church in Chang Mai, Thailand, a church of 400 people. Every one of them tithe. The incredible thing is all 400 of them are lepers. All 400 of them are poor. They receive a weekly wage of 40 stangs, which is the equivalent of 20 cents. They get a portion of rice but they all give because they love Jesus Christ. They have tasted of Him and they’ve found Him good and they want to share Him with the world. They all give a minimum of four stangs every week to the service of the Kingdom of Christ. They support their own staff and they support missionaries in other parts of the world. In fact, in the country of Thailand, they are the Christian church which gives more than any other church.
We are so blessed to live here in America. You know the pastor of that church in Thailand says that every single member of his congregation has their needs met. The people are happy. God has provided for them. None of them are starving. He honestly believes God has blessed them for their faithfulness. He says there’s other churches with members who have more money and they’re not so blessed because they’re not so faithful. You see I honestly believe that if we would be faithful, we could live better on 90 percent than we can live on 100 percent when we’re not faithful. Such are the promises of God.
It’s not a question of whether we can afford to tithe. It’s a question of whether we can afford not to. The Bible says, “Give, and it shall be given to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing. It shall be set in your lap. The measure you give shall be the measure you get back.” The Bible tells us that we are to “give with the proper attitude.” What the Apostle Paul said to Christians more than 1,900 years ago in Corinth, I know God would have me say to you, “He who sows sparingly should also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Let each one does as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. My God will provide you with every blessing in abundance so that you may always have enough so that you may provide abundantly for every good work.” Every Christian is called to give.
Secondly and finally and briefly, some Christians are called to give extra. Some Christians have what the Bible calls The Gift of Giving. These are Christians who have a special endowment of the Holy Spirit. They have special gifts and capacities to make money in this world. It’s a gift that is not to be used in a self-serving way, but a gift that is meant to be used in the service of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
In the year 1622, in the Gulf of Mexico, a Spanish galleon named the Nuestra Sonora de Atocha was sailing westward in the midst of a horrible hurricane. This ship was no normal ship. Its cargo was not a normal cargo. The Atocha was laden with incredible wealth. It had 900 bars of silver. Each bar weighed 70 pounds—47 tons of silver. It had 700 planks of copper. It had 160 pieces of gold bullion. It had 250,000 silver coins. It had a treasure that today would be worth between 300 and 600 million dollars but the Nuestra Sonora de Atocha would never reach its destination. The great weight of its wealth and the violent hurricane through which it was moving was too great and the great ship went down, its massive wealth left at the bottom of the sea for 363 years until July 20 of this year when a treasure salvage company owned by a man named Melvin A. Fisher found the Nuestra Sonora de Atocha 40 miles west of Key West, Florida and only 50 feet beneath the surface of the ocean.
Melvin. A. Fisher used to be a chicken farmer but he doesn’t fool around with chicken feed anymore. He founded his treasure salvage company 20 years ago and for the last 16 years, from 1949 to 1925, the wealth of the Nuestra Sonora de Atocha was the all-encompassing, all-consuming purpose of his life. He had to find that wealth. Investors gave $10,000,000 toward his quest for the treasure of the Atocha. Every day Fisher would rise in the morning and he would say, “Today’s the day I’m going to find the Atocha.” Some people laughed at him. Some people harassed him—authorities from the State of Florida and federal agents. Some people cried with him. It was in 1975 when Fisher lost his son and daughter-in-law in a tragic accident at sea as they were looking for their father’s obsession, but he never gave up. He kept the quest and in the year 1985, July 20th, his men saw 900 silver bars, each bar weighing 70 pounds, stacked like cords of wood upon the ocean floor, a literal reef of silver. They had found all the wealth of the Atocha, and today Melvin A. Fisher is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Most of us would just love to find a treasure like that. The Nuestra Sonora de Atocha was not the only ship laden with gold and silver that went down. On the Atlantic coast between Maine and Texas, there are 4,000 additional ships yet to be discovered resting on the bottom of the ocean—many of them loaded with wealth—and as long as they are there, people will give their lives, their very souls in the pursuit of their riches.
The Bible warns us regarding riches. The Bible says, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.” Our Lord Jesus Christ said that, “it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven.” The Bible says, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Have you ever wondered why money is so dangerous? Certainly, some people make money their lord. They begin to live for money and the pursuit of money. They begin to trust in money. They begin to find their security in money. It becomes the highest purpose of their life instead of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, but it is also true that money is a great burden because the Bible says, “To whom much is given, much is required,” and people who have the Gift of Giving understand that They understand that much is required of them and that their ability to make money is an ability just like any other ability which is meant to be used in the service of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Throughout history there have been some great Christians who have realized this.
All of you have heard of Oliver Hardy, the comedian. Some of you have heard of Thomas Hardy, the writer. I’m sure most of you have never heard of a man named Alfius Hardy. He was a multimillionaire. I’m sure that God was very pleased with his life. When Alfius Hardy was very young, he longed to be a missionary. He wanted to go to a foreign land, particularly a primitive place where people were very poor and he wanted to love them and care for them and share with them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but he was a diabetic. His doctor told him that he could not go to the mission field, he could not bear up under the rigors of such a life. Alfius Hardy struggled with that and one night as he was praying, he had a vision, and God said, “Alfius, you don’t have to be a missionary to serve me. You don’t have to be a minister or a pastor. You can serve me just as well as a businessman. I want you to make money for my kingdom.” So it was that Alfius Hardy founded one of the largest shipping lines in the world. He began to give millions of dollars to Christian causes, to missionaries and ministers and churches all over this earth. What was true of Alfius Hardy is also true of Kraft of the Kraft Cheese Company. He longed to be a missionary. He could not so he became a businessman and gave millions of dollars to the work of the Kingdom of Christ. It is also true of Welch of the Welch’s Grape juice fortune. He longed to be a missionary but could not and gave millions of dollars to the work of the Kingdom of Christ.
I’m sure many of you have heard of R. G. LeTourneau who built the massive earth moving machinery company. It was LeTourneau’s machinery that prepared the beaches at Normandy at D-Day. It was his machinery that built the Alaskan Highway. It was his machinery that stripped 5,000 acres of swampland and made it into Kennedy International Airport. When he was 35 years old, he felt like God was telling him that he was to give 90% of everything he made to the work of the Kingdom of Christ and that he did, and through the years, God blessed him many, many, manyfold, and he gave millions and millions of dollars to the service of Christ.
That was also true of Henry P. Crowell who founded the Quaker Oat Company. He gave 70% of everything he made to the work of the Kingdom of Christ. Now it’s not likely that any of you are going to be a Crowell or a LeTourneau or a Kraft or a Welch or a Hardy. But by this world’s standards, each and every one of us are blessed. We are the richest nation on the earth. “To whom much is given, much is required” and Christ demands we “seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness.” You know, one day we’ll all stand before the judgement seat of Jesus Christ to give an account of our life. If you really believe that it’s going to radically effect the way you live in this world. I’m convinced, however, that many people who say they are Christians are not so sure that judgement day is coming. We shouldn’t kid ourselves. The Bible is truth. God doesn’t lie. There comes a Judgement after this life and one day we will stand before Jesus Christ. As Christians, our heart’s desire needs to be that we would hear Him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a little and I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” And we will be faithful if we “seek first his Kingdom above all else in this world.”
This life is very short compared to the great span of eternity and the promise of Heaven. This life was meant to be a classroom, a time of preparation for a world to come. The Bible says it’s actually possible to prepare ourselves now for the real world that is to come. If you believe that, you’ll be willing to serve Christ now. We’re saved by grace. The Bible says that “we who believe in Jesus Christ will receive varying rewards on the basis of our faithfulness now.” That’s why Jesus said, “do not lay-up treasures on earth where rust and moth consume and thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where neither rust nor moth consume. No thief breaks in and steals. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” We’re all called to give. Let’s pray.