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Stronger than Instinct

Rev. Doug Pratt — January 24, 2010

 

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Introduction to Scripture
It was a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. The school had a strong academic tradition and a high average SAT score for its incoming freshmen. Every year its graduates did well in placement in the prestigious medical schools, law schools and business schools. But what the college lacked was a tradition of athletic excellence. Since they offered no exclusively-athletic scholarships, and since they played in the “non-scholarship” Division 3 of the NCAA, their football and basketball teams never made the big time or played on television. Until one magical season … when everything came together for the football program.

A gifted young coach, hired a few years earlier, was a brilliant motivator. He had recruited a core group of hard-working athletes who performed better than anyone had expected of them. And this particular season the team managed to go through its schedule undefeated—and also won its regional playoff games. They actually made it to the national championship game, and the NCAA scheduled the game on their campus. And most exciting of all, one of the sports cable channels decided to broadcast the game nationally on the second Saturday of December—that time when college football fans are in limbo, waiting for the 57 bowl games to begin. This was a huge event for a small college: a national television audience. The whole campus was caught up in the excitement.

And then disaster struck. A freak early-season snowstorm blew in from Canada on Thursday and Friday, covering the campus in two feet of snow. The football field and the grandstands surrounding it were buried under a mountain of white stuff. The athletic department was in a panic. Would the game on Saturday have to be cancelled or relocated—depriving their school of the glory and attention they had craved? The coach decided to put out an urgent plea: he sent his athletes door-to-door at 3 AM Saturday morning to every dorm room on campus, pleading for volunteers. And by the hundreds, students got out of their warm beds, shook the cobwebs out of their brains, bundled themselves up, and trudged through the drifts to the stadium. There they worked for hour after hour, without pay as willing volunteers, to shovel and haul all that snow away from the field, the grandstands, and the parking lots surrounding. It was a Herculean effort of manual labor. And it worked. By game time, everything was cleared, and the game could go on as planned—with the national TV cameras rolling.

Any of you who have ever been a college student, or have one in your family now, know how amazing and unexpected and counter-intuitive this was. If there’s anything college kids love, it’s their sleep. Most of them are world-class snoozers. Their natural instinct is to lie in bed, especially on a cold morning. What could possibly motivate this group of students to do what was extremely unnatural to them? Only something even stronger than their love for sleep: namely, a great love and loyalty to their school. It took an extraordinary circumstance to get them to operate against their instincts.

Today we’re going to think about another activity that tends to go counter to natural instincts: giving and sacrificing some of our own wealth and resources to help and support a cause greater than ourselves.

The Reading from God’s Word
Our passage from God’s Word is found in Paul’s first letter to a young pastor by the name of Timothy. Timothy was leading a dynamic and growing congregation in the prosperous city of Ephesus. Though of course not all of them were at the same economic level, many of them were comfortable and affluent. The people of Ephesus were certainly beyond the level of subsistence and barely meeting their basic needs. Because their economic situation was an important part of their lives, Paul could not end his correspondence to this pastor without addressing God’s truth to their financial condition. And I believe that what Paul says in his letter to Timothy speaks to us today as well.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19In this way they will lay up a treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
I Timothy 6:17-19 (NIV)

Temptations of Wealth
In verse 17, Paul puts his finger on the two most common mental and spiritual mistakes prosperous people—including prosperous Christians—tend to make. Look at his direct “command” (not a suggestion, not a gentle nudge, but a firm and forceful command): We who have been blessed by God with material resources beyond our mere necessities for life are cautioned “not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth.” What are our two greatest temptations with our material wealth?

The first great temptation is to be proud or “arrogant”—that is, to think that everything we have (the houses that have our names on the deeds, the cars registered in our names, the bank accounts for which we receive monthly statements, the pension and dividend checks that come in the mail, etc.) belongs solely to us for all eternity. That pride of ownership, that ego that congratulates ourselves on all we have acquired, is a sinful and deadly trap. And the reason is simply this: it all comes from God, by His mercy. He’s the one who gave us the abilities and opportunities. And all we own will very soon be taken from us. It’s really God’s, not ours. He lets us use it for awhile.

The second great temptation is to put our hope in wealth. That is the mistake of building our security, our faith and our hope for the future upon our bank account and stock portfolio, rather than upon trust in the Lord. It’s easy to make money our God in this sense—to see it as our source of security. But it’s not. The eternal Lord is the only one worthy of our trust and faith. All the money in the world can’t meet a person’s deepest needs, provide forgiveness for sins, or guarantee a place in heaven.

God’s Invitation
After alerting us to these two great dangers (taking pride in our wealth and placing our security in it), Paul points out in the second half of verse 17 that God has been tremendously gracious to us. He has given us so much—far more than we could ever deserve. And all He gives us is for our enjoyment, to enrich our lives. To make our lives even more blessed and joyful, He invites us in verse 18 to add the incomparable joy of giving. To be generous in sharing from our abundance just a portion or percentage with others and to support the work of God’s kingdom on earth is a great privilege.

Verse 19 sums it up: When we give, as we take from our earthly bank accounts, we are piling up huge, compounding interest in our heavenly accounts. And that will not only give us great joy and satisfaction for all eternity, it also gives us a sense of the fullness and joy of life while we’re here on earth—what Paul calls “the life that is truly life,” and what Jesus calls “the abundant life.” It’s the law of spiritual nature that is shown over and over, and taught throughout scripture. When we give, we get back even more; but when we tightly hold on, we lose it all. When we take the wheat and plant it in the ground, it produces a harvest a thousand-fold; but if we keep it locked away in a cupboard, it spoils. Jesus said, “Whoever tries to hold onto his life will lose it, but whoever gives his life away for My sake will find it.”

In the 1985 comedy film Brewster’s Millions, Richard Pryor plays a down-and-out guy who is given a startling, unexpected inheritance. But it comes with a curious string attached. In order to teach Pryor the meaning of money and the value of living a life of giving and philanthropy, his benefactor requires that he must give away or spend $30 million in 30 days, before he can receive the entire inheritance. And he is not allowed to tell anyone else about the requirement to liquidate all his assets. He finds, to his surprise and frustration, that the more he tries to give away, the more he keeps getting back. In a spiritual sense, that’s something many of us have learned: when we give, we get back abundantly.

Overcoming Our Instincts
This principle of giving in order to receive may seem very idealistic and noble. But it clearly runs contrary to our basic instincts. And as we wrestle with the decision of how much we and our families should give each year to the Lord’s work and to helping others in need, we have to honestly face the fact that giving does not feel natural. It’s something we struggle with. We all have an instinct to hold on to everything we’ve acquired. We’re all tempted to hold tightly to our wealth. Just as in northern climates the squirrels busy themselves gathering all the nuts they can find, in case it’s a long winter; so we have this creature-like instinct to horde. We justify it to ourselves by saying we need to be cautious: for our own needs, for our futures, for our children and their future needs, for our retirement, for that “rainy day” that may come. It’s hard to let go, even of a little bit, and trust that the God who has met our needs in the past and present will be able to do so tomorrow as well.

Since it’s such an irrational but deeply-rooted instinct, the urge to horde and conserve is not overcome easily. In fact, the only way to counteract any instinctive urge is with clear, powerful motives that are even stronger and that lead us in the opposite direction. In other words, we need reasons to give that outweigh our reasons to not give.

A group of new recruits for the U.S. Army had just completed their basic training and were assigned to a base in North Carolina for paratrooper training. After receiving classroom instruction about how to pack their parachutes, put them on, jump out of the plane and, ultimately, land safely, the troops were loaded into a cargo plane and flown towards the drop zone. Every human being has an instinctive resistance to jumping out of an airplane. We’ve all had a fear of falling from the day we were born. It’s simply not natural to jump from 5,000 feet, since God did not choose to equip us with wings.

And so these young recruits were understandably scared to death, trembling as they rode in that plane. Many had already decided that their instinct for self-preservation was just too powerful. They were saying to themselves, No way am I jumping. I’m staying in this plane. They won’t get me out of this seat till the plane is back on the ground! Then, suddenly, they all looked up and saw the pilot racing from the cockpit and shouting, “The engines are on fire!” They watched, stunned, as the pilot grasped the release ring of his parachute, jumped out the open door and yanked it. Now those recruits suddenly had a stronger motive for jumping than they did for remaining in the plane! And, sure enough, they all quickly followed him out the door.

Powerful Motivations to Give
That’s what it takes to resist a strong instinct, like the urge to horde and keep for ourselves all that God has given us: an even stronger motivation to go the opposite way. There are three powerful motivations Christians have discovered that lead us to resist our self-centered human instincts and do what Jesus calls us to do. Just as those soldiers needed a powerful reason to jump from the plane and trust their parachutes, so we need these powerful reasons to give and trust in God to continue to provide, as His Word promises He will.

The first reason to give is love: love for God, gratitude and thankfulness for His abundant blessings to us. This is the premier, the greatest of all motivations. The Bible says “We love because He first loved us.” Our love is a response to His kindness to us. In every congregation—and I’m sure it’s true in this one—those who give the most to the Lord’s work are by no means necessarily those who have the highest incomes or the largest portfolios. They’re the ones who love God the most, and delight in expressing that love in a tangible way.

Just as we show our love for our spouses, our children, and our friends not only in words of affection but also in deeds and practical actions, so we show our love and gratitude to God not only by praying and singing our thanks to Him, but also by giving back to Him a portion for His work in the world. In the Bible He asks for a tithe, one-tenth. That’s all. “You keep the 90% and enjoy it with my blessings,” He says to us. My wife and I have been tithing for over 30 years now, and we will never stop. It’s such a meaningful way to express our love for our Lord. And a great many of you have experienced the exact same thing.

When Sam Houston, the rough and carousing frontiersman in the early days of Texas, made a commitment later in his life to Christ, he decided to throw himself into it with all the gusto he had applied to his earlier life of sin. The preacher called him forward from the congregation gathered on the riverbank for the baptismal service. As Sam Houston was about to wade into the water, the preacher said, “Sam, you’d better remove your wallet from your pocket.” “No way,” Sam replied. “If I’m going to be baptized, I want my wallet to be baptized as well.” Have we let God “baptize our wallets”? It’s an act of love for Him to allow that.

The second reason to give is loyalty. When we give to the Lord’s work and to help others, we are expressing not only our devotion to God, but also our commitment and loyalty to those individuals and organizations we care about. There’s a special bond that develops when we give to help support someone else. When you give to your church, you know and can see first-hand the beneficiaries of your gifts: the pastors, the staff members, the programs and children’s classes that your gifts make possible. When you give to a missionary or a charity you have the joy of knowing that people are being helped, and that your contribution is having an impact.

Historian Stephen Ambrose wrote a powerful book called Band of Brothers, in which he traced the wartime experiences of a company of U.S. infantry, from their boot camp through D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. What he found in his interviews with those veterans was that their loyalty to one another, as a “band of brothers,” was the most powerful force that brought them through their battles. They cared enough about each other to support each other, and sometimes even risk their lives for each other. Jesus tells us that we Christians, His followers, are a “band of brothers and sisters,” who need to support each other in practical and sacrificial ways.

The third reason to give is to leave a lasting legacy. We give to make an impact on our world that will live beyond us. That’s why giving to uniquely Christian causes has a special, extra benefit to it. There’s no question that our society is filled with lots of worthwhile charities: hospitals, symphonies, museums, colleges and the like. We receive requests all the time for contributions. What makes Christian ministry so unique is that, through it, we can touch people’s souls and make an impact on them for all eternity. Leaving a legacy, making a true and lasting difference, gives us great fulfillment, a great sense of a higher purpose.

One day in the 17th century a clergyman was taking a walk through London, and he came upon a construction site. He went to one of the laborers and asked him, “What are you doing?” The man grunted and replied, “I’m just chiseling these stones.” He asked a second, who answered, “I’m just trying to make a living to support my family.” He came to a third and asked the same question, “What are you doing?” This man stood up straight and tall, and answered with evident pride in his voice, “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build St. Paul’s Cathedral, to the glory of God.” Only that third laborer could see that his work had a higher purpose, and that what he was doing would provide a legacy that would outlive him. In an even greater and more spiritual sense, what you and I are doing when we give to the church or a Christian cause is to help build the great Kingdom of God, to His glory.

How Is God Leading You?
Those are three of the powerful reasons why we as followers of Jesus need to confront head-on our natural instinct to not give, and resist it by responding generously. I know that the brief and inadequate words I speak to you today cannot in themselves motivate or influence you. But the Spirit of God within you can make a difference. And perhaps He’s leading some of you to take a major step of faith, to “jump out of the plane” and trust in Him to continue to meet your needs in abundance, as you give back to Him and His work. Perhaps He’s triggering in your heart the desires that are prompted by love, and loyalty, and a desire to leave a legacy.

The decision of what to give back to the Lord is a personal and spiritual one. It’s nothing to do lightly. And God’s Word makes it clear how important it is. Let me close by re-reading a portion of our text from I Timothy: Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share (1 Timothy 6:17-18).