Main Idea: Living at my full capacity begins by overcoming the barriers that restrict my giving.

This morning we begin our series of messages for our Stewardship emphases of 2004. Once a year we take three Sundays in November and allow God to renew us and challenge us about our stewardship of the resources he has given to us. The title for my series of messages was inspired by a quote from Eric Fromm. Fromm says that most people think that the best they can gain from giving is the feeling or satisfaction of sacrificing. Sort of, "I feel better because I’ve sacrificed so much." He says, though, that the opposite is true, "Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because we are deprived of something, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness." (Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard, p. 69) In other words, I show how alive I am by the way I give. I give so that I can experience life more fully.

How do you get there? How do I get to a place in my life where my giving is more than my sacrifice but it is my expression of just how fully alive I am? In Acts 20:32-35 Paul had some things to say about his life and how he saw his relationship to the material world around him. He spoke these words to some church leaders from the city of Ephesus. He was on his way to Jerusalem, carrying an offering for the poor. He reminds them of how he had modeled a life that knew what it meant to give in order to live life at his full capacity. Paul makes it clear that he knew a freedom from material desires, dreams, demands and doubts. He had overcome everything that restricted his ability to give. That’s what I want us to see this morning: Living at my full capacity begins by overcoming the barriers that restrict my giving.

Before we examine Paul’s words I want to tell you a story that I read this week: Once there was a man lost in the desert, near death from thirst. He wandered aimlessly through the burning sand for many days, growing weaker by the moment. At long last he saw an oasis far in the distance. Palm trees indicated a source of water! He stumbled forward feverishly and fell beneath the shade of the trees. Finally he might slake his tortured thirst. But then he noticed something strange about this particular oasis.

Instead of a pool of water, or a well, or a spring bubbling up from the ground, the man found a pump. And beside the pump were two objects—a small jar of water, and a parchment note. The note explained that a leather gasket within the pump must be saturated with water for the pump to work. Within the jar was just enough water for this purpose. The note also warned the reader not to drink from the jar. Every drop must be poured into an opening at the base of the pump to soak the heat-dried gasket. Then, as the leather softened and expanded, an unlimited supply of sweet water would be available. The parchment’s final instructions were to refill the container for the next traveler’s use.

The man faced a dilemma. He was dying of thirst, and he had found water. Not much, of course. Maybe not even enough to save his life. But it seemed the height of folly to pour it away, down the base of the pump. On the other hand, if the note were accurate, by pouring out the small quantity of water, he would then have all he wanted. What should he do? (The Parable of the Pump by Jim Carpenter, Discipleship Journal, Number 66)

That story gets at the heart of the choice we face when it comes to giving. It forces us to question if I will I give what I have in order to live my life at the very limits of what God intends or will I use what I have for my self and never know full satisfaction. To make that choice there are some barriers and obstacles that have to be overcome so let’s look at these and see how Paul overcame them in his own life.

Barrier No. 1 is what I call desires that are out of control. (v. 33) I want you to look closely at what Paul says in verse 33: "I have never coveted anyone's money or fine clothing." Now the thing we have to ask is: Is that true? If you look back at Romans 7:7-11 you discover that before Paul became a Christian he had a problem with coveting or desiring material possessions. In fact he says that when he understood that the commandment said, "Do not covet," that knowing that stirred in him "every kind of covetous desire" (v. 8). So what you see is that Paul struggled with desires that were out of control.

Yet he didn’t stay that way. Somewhere in Paul’s spiritual journey he made a break with that sin of coveting. Why? Because he knew that coveting was going to be inconsistent with his call as a minister of the gospel. He would tell the Corinthians that the reason he didn’t ask them to help him financially was because he wanted to preach the gospel to them "free of charge." His material desires were so under control that he wasn’t dependent on anyone but God to meet his needs.

Can you imagine being at such a place in your life? For most of us, rather than our desires for the material being under our control, they are, instead, out of control. We think we are not consumed with the material but we are confused about our relationship to material things. Barbara Jones was trying to console her six-year-old daughter who had lost her new Barbie lunch box on the way home from school. "But it's only material," she said, "And God doesn't want us to get caught up with material things." Through her sobs, she revealed her broken heart. "But it's not material, it's plastic!" (Barbara Jones, "Kids of the Kingdom," Christian Reader , March/April 2002, p. 8)

We do the same thing by trying to justify our material desires that have gotten out of control. We claim we can’t change because, "Everyone lives like this," "I can only live like this with hard work and more money," or, "This is only temporary." All the while we are saying, "It’s not material; it’s plastic!" I can’t tell you what material desires for you are out of control. But I can tell you that God can! Giving to live starts on the inside. Unless you get the inside of you under control you’ll never give to live at your full capacity. The first step is talk to God about your stuff. Let him tell you where your desires are out of control and start with that one place. The first barrier to overcome is desire that is out of control.

Barrier No. 2 is dreams that are consuming my limits (v. 34). What I mean by this is dreams for success or achievement that rather than enhancing our life or stretching us in a healthy way are, instead, eating up the limits and margins of our life. In other words, were’ working so hard our dreams are killing us.

In verse 34 Paul reminds these church leaders that he had gained a proper perspective on the purpose of his own work. He said they knew that he worked with his own hands to sustain himself and supply the needs of others. We know from the New Testament that Paul had the skill or trade as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). In fact he will say on two occasions that he worked very hard "night and day" (I Thess. 2:9, II Thess. 3:8) so that he would not be a burden to the church. For Paul, it wasn’t an issue of the degree of his effort in his work. He could hold his hands up to the church leaders as a testimony of how hard he worked. The issue for Paul was that he worked hard for a higher purpose – to be able to share the gospel without restitution! Paul’s dream was something he saw as giving his life for over and over again. Paul finished his life physically spent but he spent it for the right dream. Our problem is we can’t say that!

So let me ask you: Are your dreams for wealth, achievement, self-esteem, self-worth and success consuming your limits—physically, mentally, emotionally and relationally? There have been three words that have worked their way into my experience in the last three years: limits, margin and capacity. I have been forced to learn that I have limits, need margin and desire at the same time to live at the full capacity of my potential. You might say, "Bruce, you can’t have it that way! You can’t live at your full capacity without exceeding your limits." My answer is, "Jesus did." Jesus knew what it was to work hard and yet set limits on his life at the same time. It wasn’t the labor; it was the reason for the labor. It’s not that you work hard but the question is: Why are you working so hard?

Let’s come back to the barrier: Dreams that are consuming my limits. You have limits physically, mentally, emotionally and relationally. You may have dreams that push you to your limits in every one of those areas. Your dreams are so big that they are eating away at your very life. It’s not the fact that you dream, it’s that you may have the wrong dream. I’m not telling you to change jobs; I’m asking you why do you have the job you have. I’m not telling you to change your degree plan; I’m asking you why do you have that degree plan. I’m not telling you to not give your best; I’m asking you why you are giving yourself away. I’m not saying don’t dream; I’m asking you why do you have the dream. As long as your dreams are consuming the limits of your life you’ll never be able to give to live.

Barrier No. 3 is: Demands that my lifestyle requires (v. 35a). Paul tells us more about the reason he worked so hard. It was not only so that he could sustain himself and supply the needs of others but also he worked hard so that he could help the poor. For Paul, helping the poor had always been a valuable principle of his life. He told the Galatian Christians that he was eager to help the poor. Helping the poor was a principle that he taught as well to the churches. He told the Thessalonians to "help the weak" (I Thess. 5:14). He told the Ephesians that the purpose of work was to have "something to share with those in need" (Eph. 4:28). He again told the Galatians that we have an obligation to carry the burdens of others as essential to our discipleship (Gal. 6:2). Paul was a model of overcoming his own desires and dreams in order to meet the needs of those most desperate for survival.

Every year we talk about giving and every year many of you are in the same place you were last year and the year before that. You hear me talk about giving and you say, "How can I give? You don’t understand the bills I have." You hear me mention that I believe that tithing starts with 10% of my gross income. You may agree or disagree with that definition but the reason you can’t give and the reason you don’t tithe is because of the demands that your lifestyle requires.

Now I need you to understand that you can still tithe 10% of your gross income and still struggle with the demands that your lifestyle requires. But that’s not where most people are. Most people know that the reason they can’t give, or don’t give or tithe is because the demands that their lifestyle requires have consumed their resources. We can’t serve the poor because we have used up our resources to keep our lifestyle going. We have to work hard to keep our dreams ahead of us so we don’t have time to serve. Our desires are so out of control that we can’t even think of anyone but ourselves. So you see if we ever hope to be an example of how you can help the poor by working hard, we have to overcome the demands that our own lifestyle choices have placed on us.

So, where do we start? We start by talking to God about our lifestyle choices. You didn’t get where you are overnight and you are not going to get out of it overnight but starts with you and God getting honest with your lifestyle and what demands you have created. A second thing we must do is to set a goal to live on less money than we make. That one sentence creates seismic shocks in our lifestyle but it is the clear and simple truth. If we will ever know the satisfaction of giving to live then we must overcome the barrier of the demands our lifestyle requires.

Barrier No. 4 is: Doubts that are draining my joy (v. 35b). Paul presents to these church leaders the driving principle of his life. This principle was such a conviction for Paul that it conquered his desires for material wealth, redirected his dreams and altered his lifestyle. Paul so believed this statement that it overcame all of his doubts that would discourage his faith. Paul just believed what Jesus said was true: "It is more blessed to give than receive."

Those words are so simple and yet we doubt their reality. We are really not convinced that a life of joy and lived at its full capacity is waiting for us if we only believed what Jesus said. We hold on instead to our resources just imagining that by keeping them we will find our real life. What we don’t see is that we are losing our life, just as Jesus said, by saving our life.

In the fall of 2003, a string of Southern California wildfires eventually claimed two-dozen lives. The flames moved at a speed faster than people could flee. Responding to complaints that some residents did not receive enough warning, Sgt. Conrad Grayson said, "We're begging people to leave, and they don't take us seriously. They want to pack some clothes, or fight it in the backyard with a garden hose. They don't seem to understand that this is unlike any fire we've seen. If people don't move fast, they're going to become charcoal briquettes."

Jon Smalldridge frantically warned his neighbors, only to have some disregard him or respond too casually. He told of those who tried to save their televisions and computers before escaping. "They looked like they were packing for a trip. The ones who listened to me and left the area, lived. The ones who didn't, died." ("Hesitation Is a Fatal Mistake As California Firestorm Closes In," USA Today , 10-30-03) They doubted the words of the one sent to save them and it cost them everything, including their very life.

How long are you going to doubt the truth of what Jesus said? How long are you going to let your doubts about giving drain the joy from your life. Freedom and life are waiting for you but you can’t know it until you believe one simple truth: "It is more blessed to give than receive." The life I really want to live is found by giving.

So let’s come back to the pump. Here we are, lost in the desert. And we have found water. It’s not much water. But at least it’s something. On the one hand it makes sense to drink the water and ignore the pump. On the other hand, if the note can be believed, we have the choice of risking pouring out all the water in order to start the pump. If we do that, then there is an unlimited supply of water.

Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than receive." The Message says, "You are far happier giving than getting." Life at its very best is waiting for you but the question is where are you going to pour your water. You may need to pour the water on desires that are out of control. Others may need to pour it on your dreams that are consuming the limits of your life. Some may need to pour it on the demands that your lifestyle has created. Yet you may need to pour it out on the doubts you have that what Jesus said is really true – I will be happier by giving, not getting.

Paul would end his life by saying what he did with his water. "As for me, my life has already been poured out…" (II Tim. 4:6). The question is: "What will you do with yours?"

Sunday, November 7, 2004

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org