The Discipline Of Generosity Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. You can tell where a Christian's values are by examining his or her giving. One hallmark of a true believer is generosity. We're not afraid to hit the nail on the head as we focus on another spiritual discipline that strengthens us in the race of life.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, I've noticed my heart changes when I give. Is this the normal experience for believers? Dave, I think it is the normal experience for believers because when we give, we give part of our selfishness away. And when you look at the generosity of God, as a matter of fact that was the way in which Paul motivated believers when he was writing to the people in Corinth, it is because God has been so generous that we are generous in return. In my book entitled Holy Living in an Unholy World, I have a chapter entitled When Dollars Make Sense. And I trust that this book, which I have written, is going to be a blessing to many of you.

For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. I trust that God will birth within us a heart of generosity to his people, to his work, because as Jesus emphasized, it is putting up rewards in heaven that nothing can destroy, nothing can devalue everything that we do for the glory of God. You have frequently heard the expression that money talks.

Well, it does talk. Dug from the mountainside or washed in the glen. Servant am I or master of men. Earn me, I bless you. Steal me, I curse you. Grasp me and hold me. A fiend shall possess you. Lie for me, die for me, covet me, take me.

Angel or devil, I'm just what you make me. Most of you will know that this is the third in a series of messages entitled Disciplines of the Christian Life. The first was the discipline of worship, the second was the discipline of meditation, and today we come to the discipline of generosity.

The discipline of generosity. Everything that God gives us is a test of our loyalty, but money is a particularly accurate barometer of our relationship with God. In fact, the Bible is very clear that if you love money, you do not love God. Or to put it even more clearly, if you love money, you hate God.

If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Oh, how I wish I could convey to you, and I will try to do so with words, but to communicate with you and to let you know that what the Bible has to say about money, it says to us for our own good. You see, God does not want us to be deceived, and as we're going to see today, money can be very deceptive, and so God puts on the spotlight, as it were, and he shows us what money is really like to help us. The Bible is not opposed to riches. As a matter of fact, we're going to be talking about your need to make investments that get a high rate of return and yet have incredible security.

That's what the Bible is interested in, investments at a good rate of return and security. And as we shall see in a moment, we'll have some instruction on how that can be done. The other thing that we need to keep in mind is some of the things I'm going to say today are so contrary to the omnipresent lies of society and the natural lies that grow within our own hearts that some of you are going to be startled at what I have to say. Some of you are going to say that what he's saying sounds as if it has come from another planet, and as I stop to think of it, I realize that since the Bible comes from somewhere else other than this world, it comes from another planet. It's looking at money at God's perspective, so I want you to enjoy this.

I want you to fashion your seatbelts, and I want us to have a soft landing in about 25 or 30 minutes. First of all, let me say I'm going to speak to those of you who are poor, those of you who are poor, and then later on I'm going to talk to the rich, and I'm going to give you the honor of deciding which part of the message you're going to listen to. Now, I hope to God that because of your proximity to this PA system that you have to listen to the whole thing, but you make the decision as to whether you are rich or poor.

Makes no difference. I want you to listen very carefully, first of all to the poor, and the text is 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. If you're new to the Moody Church, we want you to know that we always encourage people to bring their Bibles.

As a matter of fact, that is oftentimes a sign of our own commitment to learning. It is important that you see in the text what it is that I am saying so that you know that I'm not making it up and that the words of God will be imprinted upon your mind and heart. 1 Timothy chapter 6.

Timothy is a little difficult to find. It comes after 1 and 2 Thessalonians, then you have 1 and 2 Timothy, and it's the sixth chapter, and for the poor now, if you're listening, I want you to notice that the Bible is very clear. Do not desire to become rich. Don't love money, you poor people.

Notice what the text says, verse 9. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many and foolish harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many a pang. We should not desire to become rich. We should not love money. Young man about 20 years old, drop dead, good looking, said to me one time, I want to be a millionaire at the age of 30. Let me ask you something. Is there something fundamentally wrong with a young man who says I want to be a millionaire by the age of 30?

The answer is yes. Notice what the text says. Do not desire to become rich. It is a root of many different kinds of evil. I need to say to you that if you love money, you have paid your ticket and you have to take the train all the way to the end of the station. Once you're on an expressway that says to Milwaukee you are no longer on an expressway that says to Indianapolis, it is impossible for you to say I'm going to love money and I also am going to sidestep the snares that the Bible warns about those who love money will fall into.

It is not possible to do that. You say well what are some of the results of those who love money? What is it that they really do find out either in this life or in the life to come? First of all, they discover a dissatisfied heart. They're dissatisfied. Dissatisfied if they don't reach their goal, that's obvious, full of envy, full of strife.

A funeral director here in the city of Chicago told me that one time at the graveyard as the casket had just been lowered and the service was over, there were people out in the graveyard, these relatives were actually pulling out guns threatening each other as to who was going to get the inheritance. Now that's what I would call a dissatisfied heart. And money has a tendency, the love of money has a tendency for us to become like that. One day some people came to Jesus and said you know my brother isn't giving me the share of my inheritance.

Jesus said I'm not going to get involved in those kinds of brawls but then Jesus said covetousness is idolatry, beware of it. You will have a dissatisfied heart if you don't make your million and if you make your million you are also going to be dissatisfied. I have a friend who says to me Lutzer I know that riches does not satisfy but I would like to prove that by personal experience he says. Now the fact is the reason that riches don't satisfy is because God has created us for himself. He has created us for himself and therefore money cannot produce contentment.

It cannot produce contentment. Notice in verse 5 in this passage it talks about constant friction between men of depraved minds and deprived of the truth who suppose that godliness is a means to gain. Some people said well we'll get into the church and we'll get into this religious racket so that we can make some money.

Not unlike what we sometimes have happening today. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when a company need by contentment for we have brought nothing into the world and so we cannot take anything out either and if we have food and covering with these we shall be content. Number one it always produces a dissatisfied heart. Chris Everett famous tennis star in an interview in 1986 with one home in California one in England and another being built in Florida admitted she says I have been enormously successful. But then she went on to say but you have to find your own happiness and peace.

I am still searching. Oh Lord thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find they're all in thee and money cannot do it. The Bible says in the book of Proverbs he who loveth silver will not be satisfied with silver. A dissatisfied heart. Secondly a deceived heart. A deceived heart. We read the text in verse seven for we have brought nothing into the world and so we cannot take anything out either. It's that old line that says nobody has ever seen a Hugh Hall trailer at the back of a hearse. When the question is asked how much did he leave the answer is very easily given namely everything.

Now I want you to imagine that you are in a jet plane flying over Indiana and you are among 67 people aboard and suddenly the jet plane begins to plunge towards the earth and it crashes at 300 miles an hour and everything is burned and the bodies are burned beyond recognition and suddenly you have 60 some odd people standing before God and there they stand. What have they brought with them? No American Express cards. No mutual funds. No bank accounts. No cars.

No homes. Nothing except what they have in their hearts. That's it. That's it. Where is the money that would buy them an attorney so that they could get out of the difficulty of finding themselves at odds with God?

There is none. There they stand in the presence of the Almighty. You see money is very deceitful. It is if I might say overpriced. It's overpriced because actually when you stop to think of it it cannot help you at the very crucial moment when you stand in God's presence. Many of us have often preached on the 16th chapter the book of Luke which you need not turn to but what you can read this afternoon where Jesus talks about the rich man in Hades who was in torment and then Lazarus who was in Abraham's bosom and we've often used that as an illustration of Sheol and I've preached it that way and that's fine.

That's one of the lessons we learn about it. Many people though have no clue as to why Jesus told that story. Just a few verses before he told it the Bible says that the Pharisees were lovers of money and Jesus said to them these words that which is greatly esteemed among men namely money is detestable to God and then to illustrate how the fortunes of a rich man and a poor man can be reversed in the age to come that's why he told the story of the rich man who was clothed in linen and ate such beautiful meals and was served and the poor man who ate with the dogs and how that in the life to come their fortunes were indeed totally reversed. You love money you will have a dissatisfied heart you will have a deceived heart and finally you will have a desiring heart.

That's what the text says. It says but those who want to get rich fall into temptations and a snare and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. Harmful desires.

Why? It's because money gives you so many different options. You see when you're wealthy and when you love money there are so many new ways of sinning there are so many different things you can do to fill up the deadness and the pain of an empty life it actually takes the desires of the body and it increases them.

You ever wondered why people who are famous who have a lot of money and fame in Hollywood are constantly being married and remarried and on drugs and all of the other things that go with that lifestyle? It's because they're faced with a dilemma. On the one hand they have money that is supposed to satisfy on the other hand they have a heart that is not satisfied. At the same time time is running along and they know that sometime this life will be over. The only thing that they can possibly do is to grab for some more gusto to have this experience and that experience and to take all the experiences that they can afford and to enjoy them all if possible yet the more they enjoy them the emptier they become and they discover that the money that was to bring the happiness is the one that is piercing them through to use Paul's words with many a pang.

Watch it. Do not love money. If you love money you hate God.

You say well what are the poor supposed to do then? Well the answer of scripture is this they are supposed to pursue riches but of a different sort. I shall read verse 5 again.

Constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth who do not rejoice in the truth by the way but who rejoice in tax evasion. Who suppose that godliness is a means of gain verse 6 but godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. You're supposed to seek God thereby seeking contentment having food and raiment let us thereby be content and what is contentment? Contentment is when your earning power is the same as your yearning power.

It means that I am satisfied with what I have. Now don't you see how contrary this is to the world? Don't you see that the whole advertising industry by and large excluding those in our congregation who are involved in advertising of course but isn't it true that the advertising industry by and large is designed to make people discontent? Isn't that the whole point of the television ads? Heaven help us if we're content with Sprite which I usually have with a meal because I'm not supposed to be content with Sprite because if I'm content with Sprite oh terrible I'm not going to be ordering Coke. So the Coke ads try to make me discontent with Sprite and on and on it goes and during the summer we are told that we should fly to places where it is winter and during the winter we are told that we should fly to places where it is summer. Have you ever thought of what would happen if all Americans woke up some morning and everybody says I am content?

The whole economy would come to a halt. The whole point is to generate, irritate, and exploit discontentment and here the text says having food and raiment therewith we should be content and I've seen people content in Morocco and I've seen people content in Mexico and also in Eastern Europe who do not have much beyond the food and the raiment and they don't have what we do and they are content because godliness with contentment is great gain. What do you do if you're poor? Do not desire to be rich, do not love money, but pursue God that you might be content. Well that's to the poor now a word to the rich. I can imagine you're saying wow if he said that to the poor what are the rich gonna get?

Well I don't have to make it up. It's all here in the text. Notice it says in verse 17 it gives instruction to the rich. Instruct those who are rich in this present world and not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches but on God who supplies all things richly for us to enjoy. What are the rich supposed to do? They are to stay away from the snares that very easily entrap the rich. The rich have a whole set of temptations and snares. Landmines that are willing to blow up in their face and to take the riches that should have been a means of blessing and to make those riches a curse. What are they to do?

First of all they are to stay away and if necessary repent of these landmines. Pride, pride. I instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited. You see wealth brings conceit. Wealth says I don't need you.

I can live without you because I can afford whatever I want. Wealth says I have a cut above you because think of all the places that I could go, all the people that I could meet, all of the politicians whose coffers I could help fill. Wealth says I can do all those things you see. You know one of the things that has really been a puzzle to me is why it is that there are people who have millions of dollars who nevertheless will cheat and manipulate to get more millions and I'm saying they've already got more than they could spend. You know my sinful nature says you know if I had more than I could spend I'd just start spending it.

I wouldn't care trying to make more. And then somebody who is on the know told me, he said, you don't understand. He says that money is like a narcotic. He said there are some people who get high on drugs, there are some people who get high on the art of the deal.

That's the point. And you see this narcotic overtakes them and it is part of the power game and that's why no matter how much he has he always wants more. Even if he can't spend it he has to control and to manipulate and the Bible says beware of conceit. Beware of conceit. Oh you who are rich I plead with you. Beware of the independence that comes with wealth.

Secondly, notice instability. He says be aware that you not fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches because we've already learned that riches does not have the security that you think it does. Riches does not bring about the kind of self-confidence that many people might feel that it should and as a result of that there is uncertainty and especially if you have money in the stock market. Your spiritual temperature is taken day by day by how the Dow Jones Industrial Average is doing and you have fixed your hope on that which is uncertain instead of fixing your hope on God. What a diversion money can be. Oh how that beast warms its way into our souls and says I will not move. Beware.

This is Pastor Lutzer. Recently we were in a city that has a large casino and as I thought about that huge building, the beautiful hotel, I was aware of the fact that it was built by losers. That is to say people who invested their money only to lose it. How different it is when we invest our money in heaven. Jesus said that we should live in such a way that when we arrive in heaven there will be those who will welcome us into everlasting kingdoms. I've written a book entitled Holy Living in an Unholy World. It includes the subject of money but it also includes other kinds of subjects regarding decisions that we have to make, the will of God, how to discern legalism from good discipline.

These are the kinds of issues that are discussed. Now for a gift of any amount it can be yours and thank you in advance for helping us. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. You can go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let me give you that contact info again and as I have already mentioned we are deeply appreciative of all those who stand with us in this ministry. Go to RTWOffer.com. Of course as you know RTWOffer is all one word. RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

As a matter of fact you can call right now 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Money can weigh us down in the race of life, turning our hearts away from God and toward pursuing even more money. Next time on Running to Win, more of what God says to the rich, taken from 1 Timothy 6. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.