3 Ways To Be Generous
Today we’re starting a new 4-week teaching series called The Generosity Tree, and it’s a series about how to be generous in a world of greed. We did a series like this several years ago, but we wanted to revisit it for further growth in generosity. As a church we do a series on generosity once a year because Jesus often talked about it, and because we know the positive impact it can have on our lives, relationships, and city. I mean what if our marriages and families experienced more generosity?... What if our schools and workplaces experienced more generosity?...What if our city experienced more generosity?...Both skeptics and believers would agree our lives, relationships, and city would be better off with more generosity than greed. So we talk about it because Jesus talked about it, and because we know the positive impact it can have on our lives, relationships, and city.
Now when it comes to generosity don’t just think about being generous with your wealth. We’ll certainly talk about that in this series, but it entails so much more than being generous with your wealth. For example, you can be generous with your wealth, but not generous with your time...You can be generous with your wealth, but not generous with using your talents to help a neighbor with something you have the skills to do...So being generous entails much more than being generous with your wealth, and today we’ll talk about being generous in 3 ways. We’ll talk about being generous with our time, talent, and our treasures. It’s 3 ways we can all be generous, and a good question to reflect on as we go through this message is do people view you as generous in these 3 ways?...Do your spouse, your kids, your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers view you as generous with your time, your talent, and your treasures?...Which of those 3 do you need the most growth in?...Let’s turn to Luke 10 and get into it. If you open your bible to the middle and keep turning right, you’ll find Luke. We’ll be in Luke 10:25-37, and the title of the message is 3 Ways To Be Generous. The big idea of the message is generosity can be displayed through your time, talent, and treasures...Generosity can be displayed through your time, talent, and treasures...
Here’s your context. In Luke 10 we learn Jesus sends out 72 people to serve and share the gospel in their cities. He sends out 72 people who were everyday ordinary people like us. Some of them had families, jobs, deadlines to meet...Some of them had houses to maintain, bills to pay, diapers to change, kids to homeschool, and schoolwork to complete...Yet these 72 people were still willing to give up their time, talent, and treasures to help transform the lives of others in their cities. But in today’s text Jesus meets a lawyer who isn’t as generous, so let’s see how he responds.
Luke 10:25-37 states, “Then an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus...” This man is a lawyer, an expert in the law, meaning he’s somebody who’s experienced in understanding and interpreting God’s laws for the Jews. The text says he stood up to test Jesus, and many scholars believe he isn’t doing this in a hostile way. He’s just trying to see how much of an expert Jesus is.
Again vs. 25, “Then an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, saying, ‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26 ‘What is written in the law?’ Jesus asked him. ‘How do you read it?’ 27 The lawyer answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” Jesus gives the lawyer a chance to answer his own question, and the lawyer breaks down all of God’s laws into two things. It’s to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. He says the way to inherit eternal life, the way to get into heaven is to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. He says you need to love God with all not some of your heart, soul, strength, and mind. You need to be 100% dedicated to loving God and loving your neighbor to inherit eternal life in heaven.
Vs. 28, “‘You’ve answered correctly,’ Jesus told him. ‘Do this and you will live.’” Jesus tells the lawyer he answered correctly, but he also tells the lawyer to do this. It’s a brilliant response because he’s now testing the lawyer! He’s now using the lawyer’s own words to expose that the lawyer isn’t doing this. If the lawyer was loving God and his neighbors then Jesus would’ve said keep doing this, but instead Jesus says do this because the lawyer isn’t doing this. Jesus is exposing this man’s inability to love God and his neighbors. This is important because if we aren’t careful we might think Jesus is saying we can earn our way to heaven by loving God and our neighbors. But he’s actually saying it’s impossible to earn our way to heaven like that, because nobody can perfectly love God and our neighbors to the degree God’s law requires. Nobody can claim they’re loving God with all their heart, all their soul, all their strength, all their mind. Nobody can claim they’re loving God to that degree. I mean we have a hard enough time just trying to love our neighbors! It doesn’t even say to love your neighbor more than yourself, it just says to love your neighbor as yourself, but we can’t even do that! Like the lawyer we all fail the test, we all fail to love God and our neighbors to the degree God’s law requires, which is exactly the point! Jesus is trying to show the lawyer and us that everyone fails at loving God and our neighbors. So the way to inherit eternal life in heaven isn’t to rely on our failing love, it’s to rely on God’s unfailing love.
Vs. 29, “But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” The lawyer is wanting to justify himself, because he knows Jesus is right. He knows he isn’t doing this, he isn’t loving God and his neighbors to the degree God’s law requires. He thinks he can justify himself, plead his case, but Jesus is about to further expose the lawyer’s unloving heart.
Vs. 30, “Jesus took up the question and said, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead.” Historically we know the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, was considered a dangerous 17 mile road through mountainous terrain. In fact it was so dangerous, that they decided to call it The Bloody Way. It was full of caves where thieves would hide to beat people, take their money, and sometimes kill them. Traveling this road is like walking down a dark alley in the worst part of a city, but for 17 miles without streetlights, police stations, or paramedics. They didn’t have cars to lock their doors, cell phones to call 911, or Glocks and pepper spray for self-defense. It was a long, dangerous, 17 mile road to Jericho called The Bloody Way. Jesus says a man on that road was beaten, robbed, stripped naked, and left on the side of the road half dead...This could’ve been your dad, your son, your brother, your friend...He’s dying...His heartbeat’s fading...Who’s going to help him?...Who’s going to be generous with their time, talent, and treasures, to love their neighbor?
Vs. 31, “A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.” Okay so here we have both a priest and a Levite, a Levite is like an associate pastor who helps assist the priest. So we basically have a pastor and an associate pastor walking down The Bloody Way, and they see this guy half dead on the side of the road. The text literally says they saw him, but they chose to pass by him. Maybe they were scared for their own lives, maybe they didn’t want to go through Levitical cleansing from touching a dead body, or maybe they just didn’t care. We don’t know why they didn’t stop; we just know they cared more for their own lives than this man’s life. They weren’t generous with their time, their talent, or their treasures. Now we need to be careful of thinking too highly of ourselves like the lawyer, because the truth is we pass by hurting people every day. They may not be half dead on the side of a road, but we pass by hurting people every day like the homeless, the outcast at school, or the Debbie Downer at work because we don’t have the time or emotional energy to talk to them. We obviously can’t meet every need we see, but we sometimes pass by even the needs we can meet. So we need to be careful of thinking too highly of ourselves like the lawyer, because Jesus could easily expose that we’re a lot more like the lawyer, priest, and Levite than we think. We pass by hurting people every day.
Vs. 33, “But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion.” This is where the lawyer’s heart gets further exposed. It’s because Samaritans were a mixed race that the Jews called half-breeds. They were half Jewish, half Samaritan, and the Jews hated them for mixing their races. In fact they hated them so much, they’d literally pray for God to not forgive Samaritans. That’s how much they hated Samaritans. So Jesus intentionally uses aSamaritan as the hero in this story, to expose the lawyer’s racist unloving heart toward Samaritans.
Vs. 34, “He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” Notice this Samaritan is living out 2 of the 3 ways to be generous. The text says he went over to him, meaning he’s giving up his time to help the man. Whatever was on his calendar, whatever board meetings he had to make, or whatever downtime he was hoping to take, all that went out the window because of the urgency of the situation. It’s okay to guard your downtime because you won’t be much help to anybody if you’re burnt out. But sometimes we need to sacrifice our schedule and our downtime based on the urgency of the situation. The Samaritan saw the urgency of the man in need, and abandoned his schedule. He sacrificed his time to help. He was generous with his time.
But he was also generous with his talent, because it says he bandaged his wounds. Was he a doctor, nurse, or paramedic? We don’t know, but what we do know is God gave him hands to help others and he used his hands. He used his hands instead of sitting on his hands. He used what skills he had to bandage this guy up. In the same way God’s given you hands, gifts, talents, to help bandage the wounds of others in our city, and we’re to use our hands instead of sitting on our hands. The Samaritan was generous with the use of his time and talents, and we’re to do the same.
Vs. 35, “The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’” So now the Samaritan’s living out the 3rd way to be generous. He’s being generous with his treasures. He gave up some of his treasure, his money to help put this guy in a hotel until he could recover. The text says he gave the inn keeper two denarii, which was 2 days worth of wages. Scholars say this is equivalent to the Samaritan paying for the guy’s hotel room for several days. But he also offers to reimburse the inn keeper any extra money he spends while caring for the guy. If you put somebody in a hotel for several days, it’ll certainly cost you financially. But this Samaritan cares more about this person than the money. He cares more about healing up this person, than he does building up his savings. This Samaritan is being extremely generous with his time, talent, and his treasures. Are we doing the same?...Are we being generous with our time, talent, and treasures?...
Vs. 36, “‘Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’” Jesus reverses the question on the lawyer. Remember the lawyer asked who is my neighbor, but Jesus is asking who proved to be a neighbor. That’s two totally different questions. The lawyer asks who is, but Jesus is asking who proved to be? We should ask ourselves that same question. We shouldn’t ask who is our neighbor, we should ask how can we be a good neighbor like the Samaritan? It’s a timely question especially with the election this week. We need to remember whoever wins the election, the Republican, Democrat, and Independent voters are all still our neighbors. We also need to remember we don’t have to agree with our neighbors to love our neighbors. Jesus doesn’t tell us we have to agree with our neighbors, he tells us to love our neighbors. The Samaritan didn’t stop to see if he agreed with his neighbor, he just loved his neighbor. Let’s be especially mindful of that this upcoming week with the election.
Again vs. 36, “‘Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ 37 ‘The one who showed mercy to him,’ the lawyer said.” Notice the lawyer can’t even say the name Samaritan, instead he says the one who showed mercy. The lawyer has so much hatred in his heart he can’t even say the name Samaritan. Jesus exposes the lawyer’s unloving heart by making the Samaritan the hero, and proves the lawyer isn’t as loving as he thinks. He proves the lawyer lacks the very thing he said God’s law requires, which is to love.
Again vs. 37, “‘The one who showed mercy to him,’ the lawyer said. Then Jesus told him, ‘Go and do the same.’”Jesus says go and do the same. Go and do likewise, meaning go and love your neighbor with your time, talent, and treasures like the Samaritan. What Jesus is teaching this lawyer and us is that our neighbor is anyone who’s in need, and that we’re to love others not just with our words, but also with our actions. Love is a verb, which means it requires action. Jesus says go and do the same, go and love your neighbor like the Samaritan. What Jesus does with this lawyer is what we need to do with our lives. We need to evaluate our hearts asking ourselves are we more like the lawyer, the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan?...Who would your family, friends, co-workers, church members, and neighbors say you’re more like?...Would they say you’re passing by them and other people like the lawyer, priest, and Levite, or you’re loving generously with your time, talent, and treasures like the Samaritan?...Which of these 3 ways of being generous do you need to grow in the most?...Is it being generous with your time, your talent, or your treasures?
Spend some time this week evaluating these 3 ways of being generous. Evaluate your time, perhaps creating margin in your schedule to meet with a few people you’re pouring into, or even making your attendance and involvement in the church community more of a priority. Evaluate your talent, perhaps thinking of ways you can use your physical talents to help spread the love of Jesus in and outside the church. Evaluate your treasures, perhaps giving financially to the church for the first time, giving more consistently, or giving more sacrificially to help expand the church’s ministries so we can reach more people with the love of Jesus. Evaluate your heart this week so we can keep growing into being a church filled with generous people like the good Samaritan, willing to give up our time, talent, and treasures out of a genuine love for Jesus and our neighbors.
The big idea of the message is generosity can be displayed through your time, talent, and treasures...Generosity can be displayed through your time, talent, and treasures, but you’re going to fail at that. Both skeptics and believers are going to fail at being generous, fail at loving God and our neighbors to the degree God requires. See the primary point of this parable is that we’re all really just like the lawyer. We’re all failing to love God and our neighbors to the degree worthy of eternal life in heaven. But we’re also really like the person in the story who’s lying helpless in the ditch, half dead, needing somebody to save us. Our sins have robbed us, wounded us, left us for dead, but the good news is Jesus loves us and stops to restore us back to life. Jesus is the greater Samaritan who traveled The Bloody Road of the cross, to give up his life for our life.
City Awakening Jesus saw you!...Jesus saw you, and he didn’t pass by you...He’s the greater Samaritan who saw you lying half dead in your sins and came to save you. Instead of passing by you, he died on the cross for you, and the more we see ourselves as the person on the side of the road needing a savior. The more we see Jesus as the generous savior who saw us and was willing to stop to save us, the more generous we will be. You can’t experience the kind of generosity the guy on the road experienced, and not be changed by it. So be generous with your time, talent, and treasures knowing it’s Jesus who saw you, and was generous to you...