Heart Matters: A Joy-filled Heart

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Ramona Guthrie was going to face this coming winter with nothing more than a hooded sweatshirt. She'd have to face the cold, Indiana days and nights without a coat, without a pair of gloves, without a hat, just with a hooded sweatshirt. That is, until she met Carrie Cirbo. Ramona and the other 11 residents of the women's shelter she was staying at would have brand new coats, hats, and gloves for the coming winter.

You see, it all happened on October 30. On October 30, Carrie Cirbo was one of the studio audience for the Oprah Winfrey Show . Now maybe you're a fan of that. I don't watch the show myself but on October 30, Oprah handed out $1,000 gift cards to each one of the people in the audience with the challenge to go into your community and make a difference, to find some charitable organization and make a difference in their life. And she equipped each one of them with a camcorder to record those experiences.

Later on, Carrie would say immediately her mind went to the women's shelter in her community. She had a heart for their ministry before. In fact, she had contributed to the overall ministry in small ways before but now she didn't want to just make a donation. She wanted to make a difference, and she wanted to make a difference in the lives of the women who were there at the shelter right then, not some future person. And so that's when she got the idea. Why not buy coats for each one of the women who were in the shelter?

Well, on November 4, that's exactly what happened. The manager of the Steinmart store opened up his doors. Carrie went in with gift card in hand and also a camcorder recording the events, and there was Ramona with all the rest of them. Going through the racks, giggling, laughing, trying on coats until finally, Ramona emerged standing in front of the full length mirror saying, “This is the one.” A full length brown leather coat, smiling from ear to ear. Around her, the 11 other residents were all comparing coats with one another, asking opinions if they thought this one was okay or was this one too much money. “No, any coat you want. Go ahead and purchase it.” And in the midst of all this commotion is Carrie Cirbo, camcorder in hand, recording all of the events. Later on, a reporter for the local newspaper would ask her about the experience and she said, “You know, just to see the excitement in their eyes,” and then the reporter wrote she paused because she was at a loss for words. She said, “You know, unless you experience it, unless you do something like this, you just can't explain it. But once you do,” she said, “it's an incredible experience.”

Carrie Cirbo knows what it is to have a joyous heart about giving. She knows the joy of giving to other people. She knows the joy of giving back. She knows the fulfillment, the excitement of what that experience is like and I think she's right. Until you do it, until you experience it yourself, you can't really explain it.

Now we're in our second week of matters of the heart as we look at how we give back to God. And what is God really looking for? God is looking for our hearts and He's looking for a heart that's a right heart, the kind of heart He desires as we offer back to Him. Last week, it was a trusting heart, trusting that God sees to all of our needs. This week, God wants to show us a joyous heart. That is, when we give back to God, we are to give back willingly, eagerly, almost anticipating the moment. And God says when we do that, it produces joy in our life. There's this experience about giving back to God that's hard to explain.

To help us understand that, God's word speaks to us through St. Paul in the second letter he wrote to the Church at Corinth . We read that last week but this week, we're really going to drill down deep into what God was saying to us through St. Paul . There are two principles God shows us how we can have joy in our giving. The first one is this: God says when we give willingly, eagerly, it produces a joy-filled heart for us. Let's just refresh again. 2 Corinthians 9, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves the cheerful giver.” Let's focus for a few minutes on those two negative things of what God is not looking for. Let's be clear. This is what God is not looking for. Not reluctantly and not under compulsion. If we drill down a little bit deeper into that, what does it mean not reluctantly? Well, that word can be translated several different ways. The word can mean sorrow. It can mean to cause pain. It can mean to have grief. In fact, if we looked at the gospel according to Luke, when Luke writes about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and He goes off to pray, you remember, and He comes back to His disciples and He finds them asleep, He describes it this way with the very same word St. Paul used there. It says, “They were exhausted from sorrow.” God says that's not what I'm looking for. God says we're not to give back to Him reluctantly. When we give back to God, it's not supposed to cause pain in our life. It's not supposed to be a sorrowful experience for us. It's not something that causes angst or grief for us when we give back to God. In other words, when the offering comes, that's supposed to be part of our worship. It isn't supposed to be a time when we say, “Well, I suppose I have to. Deep down inside, I don't like it because who really likes giving away any of their money. But if I have to, then I suppose I will.” God says, “I'm not interested in that.” He says not reluctantly. It's not to cause sorrow, not to cause grief in your life.

God also says not under compulsion. Well, you drill down a little bit deeper into the word of compulsion. It can also be translated necessity or obligation or inevitable. In other words, giving back to God shouldn't be something we look at as an obligation we have, that it's something that is a necessity and you just can't get out of it or the one that really strikes me is “it's inevitable.” “It's inevitable that I have to give to God, so let's go ahead and do it.” That would be kind of like the attitude of saying, “Why don't we move the offering to the beginning of the service because it's going to happen anyway, so let's get the painful experience out of the way and then we can enjoy the rest of the service.” And that's not what God's saying. God says giving back to Him is not something we are to do grudgingly. God isn't in the business of causing pain in our life. God wants to bring joy in our life, and God says He can bring joy in our life when we offer back to Him a portion of what He's given to us.

Maybe the best way to understand this is to look at how God has given to us but even more importantly than that, for our purposes today, the attitude with which God has given back to us. Because God finds great joy in giving to us. Let's take a look at what God has given to us and let's for a moment leave behind all the physical blessings. I think we've covered that before. Everything we have can be traced back to God and God gives it to us, house, home, clothes, all of that. But let's really get at the heart of it. What's the most important thing God has given to us? I mean the thing you can't even hardly believe God has given to us. Let's go back simple, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” St. Paul describes that gift this way at the end of Chapter 9, “Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift.” My Friends, how can you describe a gift like that? How can you describe a gift that God has given to each and every one of us? God who created everything, heaven and earth and everything in it, God who created a perfect world, God who created perfect people and those people turned their back on God, they sinned against God, they rebelled against God and yet God, in His love, sends His Son from heaven into our world. Jesus comes and lives among us. Though He is sinless, He's nailed to a cross. There, halfway between heaven and hell, all of your sins, all of mine, the guilt, the regret, the shame we carry around with us, all of it is piled upon Jesus and, when he breathes His last and says, “It's finished,” it's done. Just like that. Our sins are forgiven. Guilt is removed. Shame isn't in our vocabulary. Because of the blood of Jesus, each one of us stands in front of God righteous. Because of Jesus, we're given eternal life. We're going to spend an eternity with him. That's the gift God has given to us. It's indescribable.

But now what was God's attitude when He gave that gift? How much differently would you feel about the gift of God's Son if you knew God gave it grudgingly? In other words, God was kind of reluctant about the whole thing. He looked down at Adam and Eve when they fell into sin and He sort of said, “Well, I suppose I created them. I guess I'm responsible for them. I suppose I better do something about it.” How would you feel about the gift if that was God' attitude towards us, that He didn't really have a choice in the matter? “Oh well, I guess I have to do something about them.” Can you imagine how much different scripture would read if God did it out of obligation or if God did it reluctantly? For instance, we read in the gospel according to Luke when a person comes to faith, there is great rejoicing in heaven. Luke writes this, “I tell you. There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” That's Jesus talking. He says, “One sinner who repents.” One sinner who comes to faith, there is great rejoicing in heaven. The angels are singing out. Now how would that be different if God's attitude about giving to us was one of reluctance or compulsion or obligation? So it's announced to God on high that a sinner has repented, someone else has come to faith and so God looks down and He says, “Do you have any idea what that's going to cost me?” It's not the attitude God has. God's attitude says heaven rejoices. God eagerly, willingly sent His Son into the world and Jesus eagerly, willingly came into our world so He could redeem us, so He could save us. St. Paul puts it this way when he writes to the church at Rome , “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how would He not also along with Him graciously give us all things?” God graciously gives us all things. Out of His love for us, His willingness. He can't wait. His eagerness to give us all things. And when He gives us all things, He rejoices over the fact. There's great joy it brings to Him.

The way in which God has given to us is how God calls upon us to give back to Him. We're not to have this reluctant heart, not to have this pessimistic view or grudgingly give back to God but to give back willingly. It's a part of our worship. It's a part of our thanksgiving to God. It brings joy in our life.

There's an important point here I want you to catch. I want you to hear me on this. If when it comes to the offering, whether it's here in worship or some other place, if down in your heart, you really, really are doing it reluctantly, if down in your heart you're saying, “I suppose I have to. Everyone else is. I guess I'm forced into this,” if you're doing it reluctantly, if you're doing it because of out of obligation or compulsion, then don't give. Don't put anything in the plate. The business manager just fainted in the back. I'm serious about this, though. You'll never experience the joy and that's what God wants for you. Frankly, that's what I want for you. If you give it begrudgingly, if you give it out of compulsion, you'll know the joy of giving back to God. You'll never know what it is to have that joyful heart. So I say don't give. Wait until God has changed your heart. Wait until God has convinced your heart. Wait until God has opened up your spiritual eyes to see all He has given to you. Wait until you have that point when you say, “You know, I can't help myself. I have to respond back to God. I have to give something back to Him. I have to respond to what He's asked me to do. But I want to do it willfully. I want to do it joyfully. And I want to give back to God.” Wait until God changes your heart. Because when we give back willingly to God, cheerfully to God, that produces a joy in your heart you can't explain.

The second thing God wants us to learn is giving generously produces a joy-filled heart. I know that's the exact opposite of what the world would teach us. But the fact of the matter is when we give back generously to God, that produces a joy-filled heart. Again, let's look at God. How has God given to us? Has God been stingy with us in any shape, way, or form? In any aspect of our life? Spiritual or physical side of our life? Has God been stingy? God has been generous with us. St. Paul says when he's writing to the Corinthians, we read it a moment ago, “And God is able to make all grace about you so in all things, at all times, having all you need, you will abound in every good work.” All grace has abounded to us. We don't even need to recount it right now. Think about all the things God has given to you and God has been incredibly generous with each and every one of us. He's just poured out blessing after blessing after blessing to us and that brings God joy. He wants to do that. He wants to bless us. He wants to eagerly give us these things in this world and things for the next world, and it brings joy to God's life. Same way when we give back to God. When we give back generously to God, it produces a joy in our heart.

It's a hard concept to understand. I understand that. It's kind of like the mom who's dropping her little daughter off for Sunday School and, just before she went into the room, she looked down at her daughter and she says, “Now, Honey, I'm going to give you a quarter and I'm going to give you a dollar. And when the offering comes, you put in whichever one you want, okay? Whichever one you want to give to Jesus, that's the one you give back. Okay, off you go.” She goes off in the Sunday School room. So about an hour later, Sunday School is over. Mom comes back to her daughter and says, “So how was Sunday School today? What was the lesson about? And what did you decide with the offering?” Well, the girl looks up and says, “Well, Mom, I have to tell you, when I first went in there, I was pretty sure I was going to give the dollar back to Jesus but then I heard God loves a cheerful giver and I felt a whole lot better about giving Him the quarter.” Her way of thinking fits in well with the way of thinking of the world. The way of the world is we hold onto as much as we can and we give away as little as we can. That's how our whole economy works. If you find out Target has a sale but Kmart doesn't, you're going to go to Target and get it on sale. If you find out you can buy gas cheaper at one location as opposed to another location, then you're going to go to the first location. You want to have and save what you can and invest what you can and give away and pay out as little as you can. That's the way of the world. But that's not God's way. So the world's principles work in the world, but God's principles work in the spiritual world. And God's principle is when we generously give back to God, that actually produces more joy and more blessings in our life.

Maybe the best analogy for this is going out to eat. Let's say you decide you're going to have a nice meal, okay? So you're going out to a pretty nice restaurant. Now for me, there are two things that make for a nice experience at a restaurant. I think you'll agree. One is they have good food. The other one is to have what? Good service, right? You could have an impeccable meal but if you have lousy service, it can easily ruin the evening. You could have a mediocre meal but excellent service and have a good evening. So let's go for the ultimate here. You have an incredible meal and you have incredible service and you absolutely love the person you're with. Now that is an outstanding experience. I'm talking the kind of person, whether it's male or female, that knows just how to do their job. They engage in conversation but you don't hear their whole life story. They are attentive to what you need but they're not there every five minutes asking if you need something. It's just impeccable service. When that evening is over, nine out of ten of you, I have to believe, are going to leave a tip. And not only are you going to leave a tip, more than likely, you're going to leave like 18-20%, I'll bet, for that server because it's just been outstanding what they've done for you. And when you walk out of the restaurant, you're going to be able to look at that server in the eye and say, “Have a good evening.” Now let's say you had that impeccable experience, outstanding service, would you feel the same if you popped a buck down on the table? Could you look the server in the eye and say, “Have a good evening?” after leaving a buck on the table. Nine out of ten of you couldn't and you wouldn't feel good about it. But when you respond appropriately, when you respond generously, you feel good about that.

When we respond back to God and the incredible blessings He's given to us and we respond appropriately and we respond generously to God, there is a joy you will experience. I really don't know how I can convince you of this principle because, until you do it, you don't know what I'm talking about. Some of you out there know exactly what I'm talking about because you've experienced it the same way my family and I have experienced it and you know that joy. And what I'm saying is I want you to have that joy and the only way it can happen is when you step out in faith, when you say I believe God's Word, I believe the promises He says to me but willingly, cheerfully, we step back and we offer back to God.

The best I can tell you is that thousands upon thousands of Christians before you have made that initial step and the blessings have been incredible. But it finally comes down to this. I'm going to have to agree with Carrie Cirbo on this. Until you have done something like this, until you've experienced it, you just can't explain it. But once you do, the experience is incredible. Amen.

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church