Why so generous?

WHY ARE YOU SO GENEROUS?

Luke 14:12-14 NKJV
"Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

I met Clay Becknell at Lafayette Church of the Nazarene in 1982. He and his wife Mary sang in the adult choir which I led.  I soon learned the lore surrounding Clay and his love for Lafayette Church of the Nazarene. Clay and Mary had joined the church when it was a basement church on the corner of Southland Drive, Rosemont and Lafayette Parkway. They participated in every activity of the church, singing in the choir, teaching Sunday School, special music, and various outreaches of the church.

Once the fledgling congregation began to outgrow the basement church, the main sanctuary above was the next phase. Soon, a Sunday School wing was the obvious and pressing need of the rapidly growing congregation. Clay and Mary sought God in prayer. Clay was a letter carrier for the US Postal Service. As he studied his growing pension, he realized that he had enough money there to make a significant contribution toward the Sunday School wing the church so desperately needed.

Clay did the unthinkable. In his 40's, he retired from the US Postal Service, took a lump sum retirement settlement, and gave it to the church to construct the Sunday School wing. Clay was unemployed for several months. Week after week he visited the post office. His former boss refused to rehire him. "You're retired!" Week after week, Clay sought the boss to hire him yet again. Finally, he relented, and Clay was again a letter carrier.

Why did Clay Becknell give so generously and sacrificially to Lafayette Church of the Nazarene?  Why did he threaten his own security and comfort? Why was Clay willing to extend his working career nearly to his dying day some 40 years later? Clay believed in the church's mission. That belief made him creative, generous, and sacrificial in his giving.

Why do you support Wesley Biblical Seminary?  Why are you creative, generous, and sacrificial in your giving?

Doug Carter's dad often told him:  "We can worship money and use God, or we can worship God and use money."

People give for various reasons: duty, debt, self-interest, superiority, and uncontrollable generosity.

"He dropped a penny in the plate and meekly raised his eyes,

Glad the week's rent was duly paid for mansions in the skies."

For some folks, Sunday offering may be a lot like April 15. We give out of a sense of duty.

Scott Rodin and Gary Hoag (The Sower, p. 23) wrote:  "Part of our journey is cultivating hearts that will make a free and joyous response to our call to be godly stewards, rather than a sense of legal obligation."

The woman who worshiped Jesus by washing his feet and anointing them (Luke 7:36-50) had a sense of debt and obligation.

There is a sense that each of us as believers lives in debt. We live with a sense of debt to God, institutions that have formed us, people who have mentored us, family, the local church, and to the broader Christian community.

WBS alumni may give out of this sense of debt.  Students historically pay 30% or less of the cost of their education at WBS.  A sense of debt or obligation is not entirely bad, but needs to mature and transform in its motivation to give.

Perhaps self-interest is in the emotional payoff of giving. Some give in order to create a sense of indebtedness or control over the recipient. Nevertheless, some people give with strings attached.

"If they don't do things my way I will cut off the cash. Let's see how long they make it without me!" Money becomes a tool to manipulate and control the church or ministry to which they give.

Some give to get. They have a skewed view of God and His Kingdom, and give in an attempt to manipulate and control God,  They see God as a sort of slot machine.

Others give to get certain emotions met.  Self-interest.

The Pharisees and priestly leaders of Jesus' time gave with a sense of superiority. The temple had collection boxes with trumpet shaped funnels. When you dropped your money into the funnel, quite a lot of racket ensued, insuring the notice of the crowds at temple.

"Such giving can be a cruel thing. It can hurt the recipient much more than a blunt refusal. When a man gives like that he stands on his little eminence and looks down. He may, even with the gift, throw in a short and smug lecture. It would be better not to give at all than to give merely to gratify one's own vanity and one's own desire for power. The Rabbis had a saying that the best kind of giving was when the giver did not know to whom he was giving, and when the receiver did not know from whom he was receiving." (Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 196).

Jesus said, "“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly" (Matthew 6:1-4).

Lavish love for Wesley Biblical Seminary is all about the mission of WBS.  It's all about our students, our alumni, and the impact which God is allowing us to have on the world.  It's an unshakable confidence that what happens at WBS is of eternal significance and must be advanced.

Paul described this lavish love expressed through Generosity.

"Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive[a]the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God" (II Corinthians 8:1-5).

"But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully (lavish love) will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work... 

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (II Corinthians 6:9-15).

Ron Haas writes: "Your friends might not give just because they are your friends, but they might give 'simply because you are not ashamed to keep on asking,'  Be bold, but be gracious." (In Ask for a Fish, 23).  

There is a certain joy in generosity!

"A man may give because he cannot help it. That is the only real way to give. The law of the kingdom is this--that if a man gives to gain reward he will receive no reward; but if a man gives with no thought of reward his reward is certain. The only real giving is that which is the uncontrollable outflow of love." (Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 197).

John Maxwell (Today Matters) said: "People give not from the top of their purses, but from the bottom of their hearts.  If you desire to become a more generous giver, don't wait for your income to change. Change you heart.  Do that and you become a giver regardless of your income or circumstances."

Rev. David McCracken often encouraged his congregation, "Don't give until it hurts!  Give until it feels good!  'God loves a cheerful giver.'"

Generous giving is not merely about transactions, it is about heart transformation.  Rodin and Hoag (The Sower) write:  "When I realized that my primary calling as a development person was to be used by God to cultivate hearts to be rich toward Him,  everything I did changed." (p. 11)

It is my delight to teach people the joy of giving lavishly, and experiencing the corresponding blessings of God.  God being my helper, I seek to model this kind of giving. Why do you give to support WBS? Duty, debt, self-interest, superiority, or lavish love with uncontrollable generosity.

"Fundraising... the transformational ministry of raising Kingdom resources." (Rodin and Hoag, The Sower, p. 37).  

Doug Carter (Big Picture People, p. 88):  "Giving is not God's way of raising money, it's God's way of raising people into the likeness of His Son."

John Maxwell (Excerpt from The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader) writes:

"Nothing speaks to others more loudly than generosity from a leader. True generosity isn't an occasional event. It comes from the heart and permeates every aspect of a leader's life, touching their time, money, talents, and possessions. Effective leaders, the kind people want to follow, don't gather things just for themselves; they do it in order to give to others. To cultivate the quality of generosity in your life, do the following:

• Be grateful for whatever you have.
• Put people first.
• Don't allow the desire for possessions to control you.
• See money as a resource.
• Develop the habit of giving.

"The only way to maintain an attitude of generosity is to make it your habit to give-your time, attention, money, and resources. As Richard Foster says, 'Just the very act of letting go of money, or some other treasure, does something within us. It destroys the demon greed'."

http://wbs.edu/impact/ways-to-give/