Am I Generous?
The Blessed Life Series - Robert Morris Week 5
I want you to turn to 2 passages of scripture please. I want you to turn to John Ch 12 and Mark Ch 14.
John 12.1 Then six days from the Passover, jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead..
It’s been about 2 months since Lazarus was raised from the dead. The story of it is in John 11 as well.
John 12:2 There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of
those who sat at the table with Him.
John 12:3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of
Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the
fragrance of the oil.
John 12:4 But one of disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him said,
John 12:5 Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the
poor?
John 12: 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had
the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.
John 12: 7 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial.
John 12: 8 For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.”
This is an amazing passage of scripture because what we see here is generosity – we see two hearts, we see a generous heart and we see a selfish heart, and both hearts are on display for us they are displayed . I want you to notice that what displays a heart – that is anything to do with giving. She came and gave an extravagant gift - that displayed her heart and then the person that despised her for doing that – his heart was displayed as well.
I think about 2 questions when I think about this.
- Why did she give such an extravagant gift? Why did she do this?
- Why did it bother Judas so much?
Here are 3 things I want to talk to you about:
1.The Enemy of Generosity
The enemy of generosity is selfishness. Everyone of us are born selfish. Each of us is born selfish. We are selfish from the time we are little children - the first word that a child learns is ‘mine’. And they learn to pronounce it better than any other word. Mine Mine Mine. The problem is that many of us never grow out of the habit. We keep on saying mine and that also is one of the most difficult things in a marriage to deal with.
Selfishness promotes self: Selfishness looks out for self. Selfishness protects self; The thing about these 3 things: is that Selfishness promotes self; protects self & provides for self;
Here’s the problem: God is the One who is supposed to ‘Promote us’; ‘Protect us and Provide for us.’. and when selfishness is trying to promote , protect and provide it is taking the place of God. That is what selfishness does. This is the Stronghold of Selfishness and I use the word stronghold because it is like the enemy has a fortified place in our life and it starts as children and he tries to fortify that place even more and more as we get older and older. Judas uses an excuse here, and I want you to hear this excuse: Why wasn’t this sold and given to the poor? Have you ever had that thought?
A few years ago I was in the car with a friend of mine who is a Pastor of another church and we were driving by a nice home and he said: Look at that house’ and I said yes, actually that’s a friend of mine that owns that house - he’s a really strong believer; really loves the Lord. And this Pastor said: “He ought to sell that and give it to the poor.” I replied: “You don’t care about the poor, because if you did you would sell your houseand give it to the poor.” “And, that guy right there probably gives a larger percent of his income than you do.” You know who started this thing? i e about “that ought to be sold and given to the poor” that quote is from Judas! The one who betrayed our Lord. My friend said: I’m sorry!.
Come on now, have you ever made that statement, because we normally make that statement about someone’s house that is bigger than ours!. ‘He ought sell that and give it to the poor! That’s a selfish statement. Let me tell you Judas is trying to cover up his own motive by pointing the finger at someone else’s extravagance. That’s what selfishness does.
Have you ever had that thought? That’s selfishness - it is the oldest excuse for selfishness known and the person who came up with it was Judas. You have to understand that Judas was looking for a kingdom and he was looking for a place in that kingdom. You know how I know that ? – all of the disciples were looking for Jesus to set up an earthly kingdom. Look at all the conversations they had about the kingdom. “Lord are you going to set up the kingdom?; Where is the kingdom? When is the Kingdom coming?” One time Jesus asked them ‘what are you all talking about and they didn’t want to tell they were talking about who was going to be the greatest in the Kingdom and even after the Resurrection they said : Is it this time you are going to set up the Kingdom?
Quit thinking about it. This is important: This is a brand of Christianity that is being preached today! In other words it is being preached today that we serve God not for what we can do for God but for what God can do for us!. I want to say something: Serving God is not about what God can do for us! It’s about what we can do for God. It’s the Kingdom, it’s laying down our lives for the Kingdom and the reason Judas was so upset was that he was taking money , and he wanted more money for himself.
I don’t know if you have ever thought about this. The Bible says he was a thief! And he had the money box! Have you ever thought about who gave him the money box? Who was the Leader of this group? Jesus. Do you think Jesus knew that he was a thief when He gave him the money box? Jesus formed him in his mother’s womb. Jesus knew Judas. Matter of fact did he know that Judas was going to betray him? He said about 12 months before he was betrayed “Did not I choose 12 and one would betray me? So why would he do this? He didn’t do it to set Judas up to fail - He did it to set him up to succeed. He gave him responsibility in the area of his witness, so that he could overcome theft. Some may say yes but that’s his weakness he is weak in that area” Let me tell you some great news about God:
I Corr 10: 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.
This is a great promise!
But with the temptation will also make the way of escape , that youmay be able to bear it.
So you may be tempted in the area of your weakness but God will never allow you to be tempted above that which you are ableand with whatever is the temptation, make a way of escape. So we have got to come to the place where we understand this.
Now I think there is a correlation between this and tithing. Notice what Judas was doing He was taking money out of what was in essence the offering box . Jesus was in travelling ministry so they had boxes like we have at the back but they kept and took it with them. So they had an offering box; people are giving to support the ministry and he is taking money out of the offering box. Would anyone here take money out of our offering boxes? No. You definitely wouldn’t take money out of the offering boxes! You wouldn’t take God’s money would you? None of you here would TAKE or KEEP God’s money? Then you would be a Thief! Thief - think about Malachi here’s what God’s own words were: “You’re robbing me” You’re stealing from me” Is it the same thing to not put money in the offering box that belongs to God as to take it out? I think it is! So you need to understand that there is an enemy to Generosity and that enemy is Selfishness and we all have to deal with that.
Here’s the second thing I want to talk to you about:
- The Extravagance of Generosity
This was 1 year’s wages. The word denarii is the plural of denarius. Denarius means 1 day’s wage. There was a coin that was called a Denarius but they actually changed the value of that coin with inflation so that it would be 1 day’s wage and 300 denarii was often referred to as 1 year’s wage. Because, by the time you have had the Sabbaths and holidays and things like that it would be about 300 days. So 300 denarii would refers to 1 year’s salary. So, I want you to think like that because every person here can relate to that. Every person. She gave an offering of 1 year’s salary to the Lord. Now, would that be an extravagant gift for you? To give one year’s salary to the church? Sure it would! But lets take it further. Would it be extravagant to take 1 years’s salary, buy perfume with it and pour that on someone’s feet? That would be pretty extravagant. That’s what she did. This is an extravagant gift .
What gift could you give to God that would be extravagant? Now I only want you to think like that. How much money will impress God? Would a million $ impress Him? Would 100 M $ impress Him? Get to impress? Would 100 B$ - before you start thinking that, you might let me just remind you what He owns: . HE OWNS IT ALL!!. Right? And let me remind you about His House - we have a description of it in the Bible. His streets are paved with gold - that’s extravagant! By the way God didn’t do this to show off he just did it because he got so much of it he’s got to do something with it and there are no potholes in heaven! His walls. the foundations of his walls are diamonds; He’s just got them lying around! They’re just all over the place! And His gates are made of Pearl. So, how much money could you give God to impress Him? Nothing!! No amount would impress God Right? Well let me show a scripture: because all of you can give God something that will impress Him:
2 Corrinthians 8:3 For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their
ability, they were freely willing,
2 Corrinthians 8:4 Imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the
fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
2 Corrinthians 8:5 And not only as we had hoped, but they firstgave themselves to the
Lord, and then to us by the will of God.
Everyone of you can give something to God that will impress Him. You can give YOU!. It’s the most extravagant gift you have! You can give yourself, but, let me simply remind you, that your wallet comes with you. Because if you say “God you can have all of me except my money” that’s not all of you! That’s why God says “where your Treasure is, there your heart will be also”. Because He knows that!
Now there are 3 levels of giving in the Bible. You go through the Bible O/T and N/T there are 3 levels of giving in the Bible. Tithes; Offerings; and Extravagant offerings. All through the Bible you can find examples of each: tithes, Offerings & Extravagant offerings. I remember when I saw this in scripture I got so excited I called a friend of mine who actually has the gift of giving and I said to him “I just saw something in the scripture - Do you know there are 3 levels of giving in the Bible?” and he said “Yep!” And you have to understand something, When a Preacher finds something in the Bible we don’t think anybody else has noticed it!. I told him “ I just found this today”. He said ‘I know what they are’ - so I asked him to name them: Tithes; Offerings and painful Offerings! By the way, most believers ,according to surveys,“Most Believers never get to the 1st level. Statistics over the past few years Tithing in the Body of Christ? - 5 – 7%. 5 – 7% give 10% or more of their income to the local church. Only 5 – 7% of every person who says he or she is a believer. So most people never get to the first level and let me remind you what the first level is It’s 10% of your Gross income to the Church undesignated. You see people love to control with their money. I want this going here and this going here. You can’t designate it because it is not yours. The 1st 10%. You can designate offerings over and above the 10% - you can designate and give to certain ministries but not the Tithe! And it’s 10% of the gross and not the net.
Most people never ever get to the 1st level! But, let me tell you this: every person, every person that gets to the 1st level gets to the 2nd level. Do you know why? Because if they tithe the curse is removed, the devourer is rebuked and the windows of heaven are opened over, so much so God says: “I will pour out blessing on you so you won’t have room enough to receive it”. In other words you have to give more away! So every person who gets to the 1st level gets to the 2nd level. They’ll begin giving over and above most people that never get to the 1st level.
It’s so sad, because they can never have the curse removed – never! They never have the devourer rebuked; and they never have the windows of heaven opened up So everyone that gets to the first level will go to the second. And then afew people will go to the 3rd level They will have a time in their life, when God speaks and they give something extravagant!. She gave something extravagant . Do you realize she didn’t know what she was giving it for? Have youever thought about that? She didn’t know where it was going; Here’s what Jesus said: Leave her alone she did this for my burial. You realize this was the only anointing His body got for burial. No other anointing because the Sabbath was coming and they had to get his body off the Cross and into the tomb quickly so that they didn’t have time to prepare it for burial - that’s why they were coming back on Sunday morning. That’s why they were coming back on resurrection morning and they brought 100 pounds of spices with them that morning. And she took the whole bottle - by the way she poured the whole thing out on Him!. So it would last I guess! But she didn’t even know what she was doing.
We have some friends and they told me the story of the 1st year they were married - didn’t have very much at all. Like most couples the first year they get married. And at the end of the year they got this unexpected bonus and it was a large amount and it was just wonderful . As soon as they got it they had this sense that it wasn’t for them. And you think about it as ayoung married couple, all the things you could do with this unexpected money - it was a large amount but they knew it wasn’t for them. And so they went down to the Church they were attending and they spoke to the Pastor and said: We got a bonus and we just believe we are supposed to give it and we don’t know where it’s supposed to go but someone, something we just know we are supposed to give this. And when they gave him the cheque, he said “ yesterday I met with a Widow here that can’t pay her mortgage off and she has to pay the whole thing or the banks will foreclose on her. I wrote the amount down that she told me yesterday that she owes”. He pulled the amount out that the Widow owed and held up the cheque and it was exactly the same amount! Now that’s fun - that’s the Blessed Life!
I want to tell you one more thing about Generosity I want to tell you about
3. The Reward of Generosity.
Now look at Mark 14. this is the exact same story I could read part of it to you but I would rather just read the whole thing to you. It’s good. So you will know it is the same story.
Mark 14: 3 And being in Bethany (it’s where it told us in John 12 and it’s also in
Matthew 26) And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He
sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil
of spikenard. Then shebroke the flask and poured it on His head.
(So she poured it on his head and his feet )
Mark 14:4 but there were some who were indignant amng themselves and said “Why was
this fragrant oil wasted?