Rev. David Holwick D Life On the Level, #3
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 27, 2013
Luke 6:30-36,38
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I. How great is your generosity?
A. Wide range in our country state by state.
1) Stingiest part of the country? New England.
2) Most generous part of the country? Utah.
a) They give 4 times as much as New Hampshire!
b) Why Utah? Lots of Mormons. They require tithing.
3) It is not just Mormons, though.
a) The most generous states also tend to be the most
religious states.
b) New Jersey is more like New England.
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B. How about yourself?
1) Celeste is exceedingly generous. I am much less so.
2) A few of you are just like Celeste.
3) What level would God want from you?
C. Jesus wants more than above-average generosity.
1) He calls us to radical level - an impossible level.
2) But it is also one that the whole world has noticed.
II. The world's version of generosity. 6:32-34
A. Sinners are normal people, not fang-dripping deviants.
1) It is used of people who have a worldly perspective.
2) They just don't take God into account.
B. How do people in the world treat each other?
1) They love those who love them. 6:32
a) Of course, they don't ALWAYS reciprocate love.
1> Sometimes they give evil for good.
b) But generally people will love those who love them
back, and hate those who don't.
2) They do nice things for people who are nice to them. 6:33
a) Even worldly people accept the principle of mutuality.
b) "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."
3) They lend out money if they think they can get it back. 6:34
a) ALL of it, not just a chunk.
b) And they get pretty upset when you fall short.
C. The world's treatment of each other sets the bottom line.
1) It is even what many Christians consider godly generosity.
Back in the 1960's and 1970's many Westerners assumed the
church in China was destroyed.
Instead, there was great spiritual strength and courage.
In the southern provinces one Christian group alone had 400
house churches.
One of these house churches was led by Rev. Yeong.
In 1963 their province had a severe famine.
News came to their group that 20 house churches in the next
commune were so short of food that starvation was likely.
Rev. Yeong told the church and they began scraping together
what they could spare.
Finally they got together some eleven bags of dry food, each
weighing about 70 pounds.
The neighboring churches came to get the food, and before
they left, everyone held hands and sang praises to God.
Rev. Yeong told them this was New Testament Christianity and
everyone was inspired.
When they gathered at their next worship service, communist
officials were waiting for them.
They accused the Christians of food stealing and sabotaging
the system of distributing food.
The communists told them that they had shown more concern for
the Christians in the neighboring commune than for fellow
villagers in the same commune.
The communists were making a valid point.
The Christians were just loving their own.
As one of those who was punished in the incident later wrote,
"It has taught us a deep lesson - that Christians must
learn to be open to people.
"We must learn to love as Jesus loved."
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2) Doing good for your friends when they do good to you should
be expected of normal people.
a) That's why Jesus says you don't get any credit for it.
b) For spiritual credit, you have to GO BEYOND this.
III. Jesus sets the bar higher. Much higher.
A. Do to others as you would have them do to you. 6:31
1) Positive emphasis -- doing good things like giving, loving,
lending.
2) Your expectations for yourself - what you would like done
to you - should be the determination of how you treat
others.
3) This is one of the best examples of the radicalness of
Jesus.
B. No other religion sees it this way.
1) You have probably heard that the "Golden Rule" is universal.
Soon after he became President in 2009, Barak Obama
spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast.
Obama said the Golden Rule unites all major religions.
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This is an old American tradition, going back at least
to Thomas Jefferson.
Some who hold this view have pointed out that Confucius
gave us the Golden Rule before Christ was born.
But what he gave his followers was a negative version
of the Rule, saying, "Do not do unto others what you
would not have done to yourself."
Buddhist and Jewish wisemen give similar statements.
Now, Confucius and Buddha and many rabbis have said some
wise things about life and morality.
But we need to remember that Christ's morality goes far
beyond traditional ethical wisdom.
The Confucian version of the Golden Rule, for example,
says "do not do," meaning, leave other folks alone.
You build your wall around your life, and I'll build mine.
We each retreat to our own private space so that we
don't step on each other's toes.
Jesus, on the other hand, demanded that we get involved
in other people's lives.
"Do unto others," he taught, which means loving others.
He put it plainly: "Greater love has no one than this,
that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
When you see a man lying in a ditch, it's not enough to
leave him alone.
Confucian ethics allows you to pass him by.
But the ethics of Christ praises the Samaritan, the alien,
who actively involves himself in the needy person's
life.
The difference between these two views is as profound as
the difference between self-interest and self-sacrifice.
Leaving others alone is more comfortable, and entering
into others' lives is more daunting.
But that's Jesus' teaching, and it is what God commands.
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2) The positive Golden Rule is hard.
a) You might say that your personal level of selfishness
becomes the guide for your generosity with others.
b) To make it even harder, Jesus adds some specifics.
IV. Let others set the level.
A. Give to everyone who asks. 6:30
1) For a pastor, that would be a doozy.
2) I get 4 or 5 requests a week.
a) Two homeless guys on Friday.
b) Another called but I turned him down - I've helped him
35 times over the years and see him as a manipulating
moocher who needs to get a handle on his life.
Then again, maybe I'm the one who will go to Hell...
3) People can ask for a lot more than you have.
B. Give even if they take without asking. 6:30
1) Don't demand it back.
2) This is not just a greedy neighbor.
a) Verse 35 associates the request with your enemy.
3) Give even if it is the shirt on your back. 6:29
a) The background for this is probably Exodus 22:26-27:
"If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return
it to him by sunset, because his cloak is the only
covering he has for his body.
What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me,
I will hear, for I am compassionate."
b) In a world where you might not have much in the way of
material goods, your clothes might serve as
collateral -- but only temporarily.
1> You have rights!
2> But Jesus says, forget about your rights.
A> Give up your shirt even if someone is taking
advantage of you.
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C. This would not work well for the banking industry.
1) If everybody wants, and no one pays back, there is nothing
left to give.
a) We would all be naked.
2) Not a very sound economic policy.
a) Though some say it sounds a lot like our government's
economic policy....
b) They're just trying to be like Jesus.
V. There is a pay-off.
A. Some see it here and now.
A fascinating study was conducted by Bernard Rimland, the
director of the Institute for Child Behavior Research.
Each person involved in the study was asked to list ten people
he or she knew best and to label them as happy or not happy.
Then they were to go through the list again and label each one
as selfish or unselfish.
They used the following definition of selfishness: a stable
tendency to devote one's time and resources to one's own
interests and welfare --
or an unwillingness to inconvenience one's self for others."
In categorizing the results, Rimland found that all of the
people labeled happy were also labeled unselfish.
He wrote that those "whose activities are devoted to bringing
themselves happiness...are far less likely to be happy than
those whose efforts are devoted to making others happy."
Rimland concluded: "Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you."
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B. Jesus probably saw the reward in the future. 6:35
1) What does the reward consist of? Jesus doesn't say.
a) Some of his parables give it a material angle.
b) Handle $500 well, and you'll take charge of 5 cities in
the Kingdom of God.
c) "Treasure in heaven" carries the same idea.
1> Heavenly gold doesn't get corroded or stolen, but
what we invest for God and in people's lives
will follow us to heaven.
2) One aspect of the payoff is purely spiritual.
a) We get to be children of the Most High God.
b) He is not saying generosity gets you into heaven, but
that God's children will share his character.
1> What is God like? He is merciful. He is kind to
the ungrateful and wicked.
2> If we appreciate God's grace toward us, we should
extend it to those around us.
C. How is your godly character doing lately?
1) Think of the opportunities you had to help someone this
week. How did it go?
2) Think of what you could do THIS week....
VI. You can't out-give God.
A. We receive from God in same manner we give to others. 6:38
1) He gives a full measure, pressed down to pack in the
last kernel.
2) The way you measure out to people, is how God will measure
to you.
B. We actually receive better.
1) God gives us something we cannot give ourselves - salvation.
2) God gave his one-and-only Son for us that we might live
forever.
3) Have you received him yet?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 975 “Real Christianity Or Standard Selfishness?” Raymond Fung, from
his book “Households Of God On China's Soil,” WCC Mission
Series, page 14, added April 10, 1994.
#16855 “Do Or Don't Do?: Christ and Confucius,” Charles Colson,
BreakPoint Commentary, added December 1, 2000.
#26844 “Unselfish and Happy,” Martin and Diedre Bobgan,
www.sermoncentral.com newsletter, August 14, 2006.
Derived from Martin & Diedre Bobgan, “How To Counsel From
Scripture,” Moody Press, 1985, p. 123. They are citing from
Rimland, “The Altruism Paradox,” Psychological Reports 51 [1982]:
521,522. Illustration was contributed to SermonCentral.com by
David Yarbrough.
#35229 “Religion Can Bring Us Together,” compiled by Tom Strode, Washington
bureau chief for Baptist Press, http://www.baptistpress.org,
February 6, 2009.
#63887 “The Reason Some States Are More Generous States Than Others,”
Bruce Watson, adapted by David Holwick, January 22, 2013,
<http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/22/charitable-giving-most~
-generous-states/>. Graphic can be found at <http://www.mint.com~
/blog/trends/give-a-little-bit-a-visual-guide-to-which-states-are~
-the-most-charitable-0113/?display=wide>
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