The Generosity Factor

One month ago here in Santa Cruz County we marked the 30th year, if you can believe it, since the Loma Prieta earthquake. Raise your hand if you were somewhere in California during that earthquake. Wow. Raise your hand if you've got a story about that earthquake. We all do, right? Well, I was riveted a few weeks ago by a great story I saw in the news. Something happened in downtown Santa Cruz; one of the buildings that was condemned after the quake because it was just crumbling to pieces was Bookshop Santa Cruz. The whole thing was falling down, and officials gave the owner, Neil Coonerty, just two days to remove all of his stuff from the building. That was all of his stock, thousands of books, his registered cash, employees' belongings, everything.

Well, needless to say, there was absolutely no way that one or two people could do that in two days. So Neil went on a local radio station, he got on the air and he said, "They are giving us two days to get all our stuff out. We can't do it ourselves, so we are asking the general public if anybody would volunteer to do this." But he says, "Here's the kicker: the city tells us that they are going to make you sign a waiver, and the waiver says if you get trapped in the rubble with all these aftershocks happening, you understand that no one will be sent in to rescue you. And if you die in the rubble, you are signing this waiver to say that nobody in your family is going to hold us or the city liable for death or injury. So we need volunteers who will literally risk their lives for us to save my books." Thank you.

And by the way, there was no joke because two people had been killed in the earthquake by the collapsing wall of that store. So Neil did not know what to expect. He thought maybe a couple of loyal family members would show up. The next morning, 400 volunteers, most of whom he didn't even know, showed up to sign that waiver and put on hard hats and saved his store. Bookshop Santa Cruz is in business today because of 400 strangers who were willing to literally lay down their lives to help. Amazing story. In an interview I saw, Neil said that moment gave him so much hope, not so much for what the volunteers physically did, but the simple fact that there were hundreds of people who were willing to lay down their lives to help, and he knew he was not alone.

And he's not alone in history. Everybody who was around then has some story of how the community came together and how good it felt. What was going on there? I think that what we were feeling then was what you could call the generosity factor. Something happens inside our hearts when we band together as a community to help each other—something almost magical. And we have an opportunity to do that again. Grab your message notes that look like this. Last weekend, Mark Spurlock did a great job kicking off this little two-week pre-Thanksgiving series we cleverly call Thanksgiving, but that's intentional. I love that word because in one word, Thanksgiving, you see the two biggest keys to joy in life, no matter what your circumstances are.

Mark talked about the first half of that word, thanks, last weekend. If you weren't here, get the message, listen to it online because he talked about how gratitude has been scientifically proven to give health benefits and how it's promised to give you spiritual blessings in Scripture. So he talked about thanks last weekend. Today, let's talk about the second half: letting thanks overflow into giving. Gratitude leading into generosity. You could call it the cycle of blessing because when you live a life of gratitude, of thanks, and that overflows into generosity, giving, it leads to such an abundant life experience. But the order is important because if you start with giving that comes out of a sense of obligation or guilt, that's not gonna give you a lot of joy for long.

But if you start with gratitude and then out of that sense of gratitude you just are motivated to be generous because you're living in a mindset of abundance, that is going to lead to so much blessing. Check this out: the University of Notre Dame now has an entire research department devoted to studying the effects of generosity. What they do is they collect hundreds of academic peer-reviewed scientific investigations and they kind of compile them. This is fascinating; they found that generous people are happier and healthier and less depressed. Not only that, generous people have lower blood pressure, reduced stress, and longer life spans. Not only that, generous people have better moods, better marriages, more friends.

Raise your hand if you could use a better mood sometimes. Anybody here? Raise your hand if the person sitting next to you right now needs a better mood. Now, of course, this is all exactly what the Bible teaches. We're gonna be in Luke 6 this morning, one of the all-time classic passages about a generous lifestyle. And here's why this is so important: if you're a Christian today, you'll be interested in this, and if you're a seeker, you're not a believer yet today, you're checking this whole Christianity thing out, you'll love this passage because in these verses, Jesus sums up what being a follower of mine is supposed to look like. So this is super important. If we, as believers, live the way Jesus said to live in these verses, we are going to draw people to God like magnets, and we are going to live more blessed, joyful lives.

Conversely, every time a Christian does something that kind of gives God a black eye—you know what I'm talking about—you see somebody who claims to be a Christian in the news or in your neighborhood or something, and you just kind of get embarrassed because they're just acting like such a jerk. Well, when they are acting like that, they are going against what Jesus said to do in these verses. So this is huge. Today, there are three things I want to look at from these verses, and the first one is this: Jesus says the reward of living a generous lifestyle is a richer life, a life rich in joy, a richer life experience. Take a look at Luke 6:38. Great verse. This is our key verse that we're going to be centered on. This is kind of the hub that all the other spokes are going to go in this morning. One of the most familiar verses in the Bible, but I'm also convinced that it's one of the most frequently misapplied verses in the entire Bible.

So let's read this out loud, then let's investigate. Let me hear you say this with me: Jesus said, "Give, and it will be given to you: a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Now, what does this actually mean? One of the most common mistakes that people make about this verse is assuming that Jesus is only talking about money when actually he's revealing a principle that applies to every single area of your life. This becomes crystal clear if you just back up a couple of verses and look at the larger context. Like take a look at the verse right before this verse 37: Jesus says, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven." And right after that, Jesus says, "Give, and it will be given to you." So you see, in context, verse 38 isn't really primarily even about giving money; it's just about giving, period.

Giving people the benefit of the doubt, giving people understanding instead of condemnation, giving forgiveness instead of holding a grudge. Jesus is saying whatever you do has a reciprocal reaction to you. What you give out comes back in to you. Now, this is not the same as karma; that's a different belief system. This does not mean that if you have trouble in life, then you must have done something to deserve it in your life or in a previous life. Everybody has trouble in life—good people, bad people—everybody has trouble. What this means is, all things being equal, you reap what you sow. If you sow anger and unforgiveness and judgment, then that's how others are going to treat you. If you're generous, compassionate, forgiving, and giving, then that is how others are going to treat you in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, poured into your lap.

Now, what does that mean? What it sounds like Jesus is using some sort of poetic phrase that people are familiar with, right? Well, he is. And to illustrate what he's talking about, I'm gonna ask Val to hand me this basket, which I'm gonna use as kind of a little object lesson. Jesus is referring to something that is mentioned three different times in the Hebrew Bible, what we call the Old Testament, and that's this: when farmers in those days farmed the fields, they were supposed to leave the corners of their fields unharvested for the poor people. They could go through and harvest all their grain with their oxen pulling the plows, but when they made the little churn at the corner, they were supposed to leave that grain unharvested so that the poor people could come in after the first harvest and gather the grain that was left there. And guess what they called this food for the poor? It was the second harvest, and that's where our local food bank here in Santa Cruz County gets its name. Isn't that cool? That name goes back 3,000 years.

But here's the thing: the people working in the corners of the field probably walked miles to get there, and so however much food they could pour into their basket or their pot would be the amount of food available to their families. So they had life-and-death incentive to get their baskets as full as humanly possible. So first, they would put in a good measure—not a partial measure, a full measure of the grain available to that basket was full. And then they would press down the grain so that they could get more in, and then they would shake it to get out any air pockets, and then they would pour in more grain, as much as it could handle until it overflowed and spilled off the sides. In other words, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, pouring off as they would carry it home.

And that's why Jesus uses these terms. He knew his listeners would instantly connect with that imagery. His point is, as a rule, you get back way more than you give. And remember, here he's talking about every kind of generosity—relational, emotional. If you give judgment, then judgment is what comes back to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. If you are suspicious and you give condemnation and you withhold approval and affection, well, you get that back in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, poured into your lap. But the good news is, if you give love and affirmation and the benefit of the doubt, Jesus says, generally speaking, that's what will be returned to you in good full measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, the lip of the basket pouring into your lap. Isn't that awesome?

But this is precisely where people go wrong with this verse. In my life, many times I've heard pastors, especially kind of televangelist types, rip this one verse out of context and say, "So come on, if you have a need, plant a seed. It says give, and it will be given to you, so write a check to our church." But Jesus isn't trying to give us a vision for getting more stuff. God doesn't want us to catch the vision of getting; he's trying to get us to catch the vision for giving. There are rewards for sure, and Jesus talks about them a lot—not just in this verse, but they are not our primary motive for generosity, so they're kind of a cool side effect.

So what is our primary motivation for living a generous lifestyle? That's point two: the reason for generosity. I want you to leave that blank in your notes for just a second and see if you can guess it from the verses we're going to look at in the broader context. We're gonna back up in Luke 6 a little further and step back all the way to verse 32. Watch this: Jesus says, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be repaid in full." Now, when Jesus says sinners here, he's aware of his audience. Remember, he's speaking in a Jewish context in the first-century Roman world, and this is how the Jewish religious leaders would often refer to the Romans, the pagans, the sinners.

And Jesus is talking about the way generosity was looked at in his era. In the broader Greco-Roman world, they viewed generosity completely differently than we imagine it today. Watch this: they had a term, liberalitas, to describe the word that they—the Romans—would give to charity, and what that meant was giving to please the recipient in the hope that the recipient would return the favor. In other words, you give only to those who can repay you. You give only to those who later can do you a favor. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. In fact, the Roman emperors would actually print this word on gold, silver, and bronze coins, and he would go through the streets of cities and throw out these coins to people and say, "I'm giving money to you, liberalitas, so that you are going to owe me when I call in that favor." And that's how generosity was viewed in those days.

Consequently, who do you think received the most generosity? The poor people or the rich people? The rich people. The people who had stuff already were constantly getting more and more stuff. The people who had the most power, the most money, the most influence were always getting more because they could probably do you a solid later on, right? And Jesus walks into this liberalitas Roman world and he says, "My kingdom doesn't work that way. In my kingdom, watch this now, you give knowing you may never get it back. You give not even thinking about whether or not this person deserves it. In my kingdom, you do for others no matter what they do for you or have done to you." In fact, look how far he took this: "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

Jesus is saying the reason for generosity is simply to be like our Father, to be like our heavenly Father. Give to those who don't deserve it. Give to those who wrong you. Give that way because God gives that way. You know, when God makes the sunshine, he doesn't look down on the earth and go, "You deserve sunshine; you do not deserve sunshine, so I'm not gonna give it to you." He gives it on the deserving and the undeserving, right? The just and the wicked. Jesus said when Jesus died on the cross, he certainly did not say, "Hey world, I'm doing this for everybody who deserves it." If we could ever deserve it, he wouldn't have had to do it in the first place. Jesus is saying, "I want to change the whole generosity paradigm for my entire culture." And so Christians caught this vision, and they began to spread this whole new idea—not liberalitas, but caritas. That's the Latin word that Christians coined from where we get our English word charity. This means giving to relieve physical or spiritual distress without expecting anything in return. You could call it no strings attached generosity.

In fact, say that phrase out loud with me: no strings attached generosity. And again, the reason this was such a big deal is nobody ever had done this before. The Roman world had never seen anything like this, and this idea just spread rapidly throughout the early church. Christians were taking care of and were giving even to kind of the Roman overlords who persecuted them. And it's fascinating how this influenced people. There was an ancient letter that survives from the very earliest days of Christianity. The Roman Emperor Julian was trying to revive the pagan religions, and he writes a letter to his own pagan priests all over the Empire. In that letter, it's funny because he complains about the Christians and how generous they are and how it's messing everything up. He says, "The kindness of Christians to strangers has done the most to advance their cause. The impious Galileans support not only their poor but ours as well." And it frustrated him so much. Why?

Here's what he was talking about: when plagues would rip through the Roman cities—which they often did in those days—the Roman elite would take off. They would leave even their loved ones behind. It was the Christians who stayed. It was the Christians who risked being infected by the plague themselves. It was the Christians who showed up and signed the waiver and said, "We'll go into the rubble," because the Christians didn't fear death; they believed in the resurrection. So they're like, "Hey, if worse comes to worst, we'll still be alive at the resurrection." So they nursed the sick, they comforted the dying, and historians say when the pagan Romans returned or got better, they were like, "You know, we're super interested in what you guys believe because it makes you behave differently." And they turned to Christianity because of the generosity of those early Christians—the no strings attached generosity—which the Christians practiced because they believed that's how God gives to us: no strings attached.

The point being, we don't give because it works. It does work; there is a reward, but that's not primarily why we give. We give because God gave first. Jesus says, "Oh, and by the way, there is a reward, but the reason we give foundationally is for the pure joy of imitating our Father." And then finally, you get to number three: the result of generosity. And this is so beautiful. Jesus says the result of generosity is that people are drawn to God. A few verses later, same chapter, Jesus says something fascinating. He says, "You know, each tree is recognized by its own fruit." In other words, the people around you are going to recognize you and recognize me. They will see you; they will see me for what we really are. We can't fool them. They're going to see us as Twin Lakes Church, as Christians. They're going to see us as either hypocrites or true followers of Jesus. How are they going to be able to tell?

Jesus says, "A good man brings good things out of the good stored in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart." Would you agree with me on this? I think that sometimes people who are actually not followers of Jesus, who wouldn't call themselves Christians, they actually have a much clearer idea of what Christians are supposed to look like and act like than we Christians sometimes do, right? Because for them, it's very simple: Christians are supposed to look like Jesus, and a lot of times, people who aren't even believers in Jesus as their Savior love the historical figure of Jesus because they see him helping the poor and the sick, and they see him being a person of grace and forgiveness, and they intuitively know that's what Christians are supposed to look like. And it's a disconnect for them when Christians don't look like that.

Here's the point, and this is so important: here in Santa Cruz, we have the potential to create our reputation in the minds of those who do not share our beliefs. We can create our reputation. What I'm saying is, in places like Santa Cruz, I think, in my experience, many people think Christians are good for nothing. At best, we are irrelevant, outdated, and probably, at worst, we're actually dangerous. That's what often people who don't have a connection to the church think of Christians. And you know what? We are never going to persuade them differently by arguing or debating or protesting. We can change that perception completely, though, by no strings attached generosity.

I will never forget a few years ago, I hosted a group of pastors here for a little one-day pastor conference. We were all senior pastors of other churches, all trying to be better at our jobs. I asked a man that I know here locally—he's a local community leader, super sharp guy who is not a Christian. In fact, he is proudly an atheist, an articulate atheist. But I invited him to come in and speak with us for an hour to us Christian pastors. My idea was this: I said, "I want us to do a Q&A with you because you are an articulate, friendly atheist, and I want us to just have a chance to ask you what's your impression of Christians? How can we perhaps make church more appealing to you and your friends?" I said, "Would you be willing to just answer those questions honestly?" He said, "Absolutely." So he came in. I just really wanted to get an outsider's perspective, and he's my friend, so I knew he'd be totally honest.

It was fascinating because there were all these great pastors I really respect, and we all started the Q&A session by asking him things about programming—if we had better sermons or how could we improve our sermons, what's the right length for a sermon, or if we had cool music, what kind of music would you look for—traditional, contemporary, or if we had more relevant movie clips, would that help? And I'll never forget the moment because he just stopped us and he said, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You don't get it." He said, "You apparently just don't get it." And we all got real quiet. He said, "What makes an impact on people like me is not what you say or how you say it; it's what you actually do in the community." And he said, "When I see Christians—and he said, 'I'm not gonna be inside the walls of a church, so I'm not gonna see what they act like there—but when I see Christians outside the walls of the church acting like Jesus, he said that's what makes somebody like me actually sit up and take notice."

And I want you to know he then said some very kind words about this congregation. He told those pastors, "As I've watched TLC in this community, my opinion about Christians has done a complete 180—a 180." He said, "But not because of what you believe." He said, "People can say they believe all kinds of stuff. It's because of what you do." And you know what? He's absolutely right. It's completely biblical. He's practically quoting Jesus because in a parallel passage in Matthew, Jesus says, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and better yet glorify your Father who's in heaven." He's saying there's a connection to eventual faith and worship, but the first step for so many people in the world is our generosity.

Jesus' disciple Peter said, "Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong—they think you're wacky—they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." And this is a deep part of our DNA here. This is why here at TLC, one of our values is we go outside the walls of this church and we go into our community and we look for ways we can help. We want to bless our whole community and build relationships and not even ask the question, "What are we going to get out of this?" Because it's no strings attached generosity. People who never go to church judge us not on our theology but on our generosity.

Now, let me make this clear: I think theology is super important. My master's degree is in theology; orthodoxy is critical. But people who are uninterested in church, people who have a bad attitude toward church, or especially toward large churches or Christianity in general, form their initial opinion of us not around our theology but around our generosity. And then, as Jesus and Peter said, one day they may glorify God. Does that ever happen? Just last weekend, a woman came to attend Twin Lakes Church who had never been here to church before, and the first time she ever walked on campus, she said, was during one of the power outages. And on our campus, PG&E, we said, "Hey, you guys can come here and set up your tents and have a resource center, have charging ports where people can recharge their phones and their computers." And that particular Sunday morning, I walked over there to say hello. I'm sorry to laugh, but the power in the PG&E emergency tent wasn't working; their generator was out. And so we just said, "Hey, come on into church and plug your stuff in," and we let people stay all day Saturday and Sunday and just plug everything right.

So she loved that so much and met a couple of our pastors, was impressed by our generosity, so she came to church for the first time last weekend. And guess what? Last weekend, she told us she committed her life to Christ. Last week, but what opened the door was generosity. Generosity is so powerful. Generosity tears down walls. Generosity builds relationships. And no strings attached generosity is particularly powerful. Why? Because the Bible says, the most famous verse in the Bible, God so loved the world that he what? Gave. Now, what did he require us to do first? Nothing. He just gave his only begotten son, and then he allows the response to be up to us. There's a word for that: grace—undeserved grace. And so through our no strings attached generosity, we have the potential to introduce people to grace because that's what grace is. That's what God did for us, and there are very few places in the world where people are going to feel grace.

So I'd love for us to be known even more and more and more and more for our no strings attached generosity as a church. I'd love for people to look at us and say, "Well, you know what? I'm not one of them, but I'm sure glad they're here. I'm not one of them, but I'd sure hire one of them. I'm not one of them, but man, I'd love it if my son or daughter married one of them because they're the most grace-filled people that I know." And if you're here today or you're watching on Facebook Live and that has not been your experience with Christians, shame on us because that's not your fault; that's us still trying to figure out how to really live like Jesus told us to live.

Now let me wrap this up because there's a lot of ways to apply this all the time: a lifestyle of no strings attached generosity. But let me suggest one very timely application as I wrap up. I began with the story of the earthquake and those volunteers who saved Bookshop Santa Cruz, but I heard that and I thought, you know, there's another earthquake going on right now. You can't see the rubble; you can't hear the rumble; you can't feel the aftershocks, but there's a new seismic shift happening in our county. Watch this: 10,000 families earning less than 50k a year have moved away in the last four years. Now, why do you think they've moved away? Just shout it out: cost of living. They just can't afford it. Now they say families who are middle class, earning between 50 and 80 thousand dollars a year, are the ones that are struggling to meet budget. That used to be a lot of money, and that means food insecurity is now part of life for the middle class—teachers, young tech workers, working families. The middle class households where two people work often still can't pencil out the budget, and so they often cut back on healthy meals. And when people cut back on nutrition, that contributes to child obesity, diabetes, and many other serious issues. This is an earthquake-level disruption, a seismic shock for many of us here in this room.

And that's why if you need food, we offer food here every Wednesday, no strings attached. Please come and feel free to grab groceries; we are honored to serve you. But those groceries have to come from somewhere, and like 80 other food pantries in our county, we get much of our fresh food from Second Harvest Food Bank. That's why once a year we hold a drive for them, and this is the final weekend. If you've already given to the food drive, thank you so much; I'm so grateful. If you haven't already, you can use the envelope in the bulletins, as Dan said in announcements, or give on our website. But the way I see us is this: you and I are like those hundreds of volunteers who showed up in the rubble, and we're rolling up our sleeves for some people in desperate need, people in shock, and we are saying we are ready to sacrifice to help you out. And when we do that from a place of abundance and gratitude, man, what blessing awaits us!

I'll wrap up with this thought: Matt Chandler's a pastor in Texas. He has a great quote. He says, "Generosity is grace made visible." When we give, we're giving people a taste, a sensation, an introduction to God's grace. And I'm sorry if that message didn't come across in the church that you might have been raised in. Sometimes the grace message gets muddled, but in the Bible, the whole point of this whole Christianity thing is that we give because he first gave to us. As Trent said, starting at square zero, God gave us life, and then he gave us his Son. And when we receive that with gratitude, and then that gratitude overflows into generosity, well, that is really the core of our faith. You could sum it up in one word: thanksgiving. Amen.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the grace you lavish upon us—our life, our salvation, this church—it's all just pure gift. Help us to grow in gratitude for all your gifts. Help us to grow into the same kind of lavishly generous nature that you have. And now, God, I just want to dedicate anything given to the food drive to your glory, and I pray that people would be drawn to the bread of life, Jesus Christ, through our generosity. And we pray this in the name of our matchless, generous, gracious Savior. Amen.