As I shared on Sunday, I had an experience once when I saw a man holding a sign that said, “Anything helps.” I approached him and asked if he would like me to buy him lunch. He said he would so I bought him lunch and brought it back to him. A few minutes later I saw him look at the lunch and then drop it in a trash can. It was very upsetting to me. Since then, I have felt some tension inside me because on the one hand, I know passages of scripture like 1 Timothy 6:17-18 which encourage generosity. “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them to…do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share”. But on the other hand, I know there are people who will take advantage of that generosity or perhaps dishonor it. How do we manage that tension? As we dive more deeply into scripture we discover how important it is to God that we navigate that tension. In 1 Timothy 6:19 we hear Paul say that those who are generous we will be “storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.” The indication here is that how we use our material resources has an impact on our future. Jesus spoke to this in a parable he shared in Matthew 25:14-30. In this parable, three servants are entrusted with large sums of money. Two of the servants invest the money and double the size of the investment. The third servant basically does nothing with it. When their master returns and discovers what they did with the money, he is very upset with the one who did nothing with what was entrusted to him. But he was very pleased with the two who used what had been entrusted to them, took a risk, and were able to increase its value. To each of these two, he said, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Most of us would like to hear God say that to us when we stand before him in the future and give an account of how we used what He has entrusted to us.
In the Old Testament, the instruction is given to give 10% of our income to the purposes of God. For centuries, Christians have been practicing the tithe. Those of us who have taken the step of faith and embraced this spiritual practice have discovered a great deal of joy. We’ve experienced a growing desire to be more generous and we’ve enjoyed seeing the fruit of that generosity. Many people have experienced a great deal of peace from practicing the tithe when confronted with the decision of whether or not to help a person holding a sign that says something like, “Anything helps.” They have taken comfort in knowing that through the tithe, they are contributing to a wide variety of outreach ministries. This is especially true here at Lakewood Methodist Church, a church that does so much to bless others.
None of us can be certain how things will go when we stand before the Lord to give an account of our life. My prayer for you and me is that we will hear the Lord say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”
