Deuteronomy 15:7-11 7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be OPENHANDED and freely lend them whatever they need. 9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. 10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be OPENHANDED toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.
Living openhanded. What an exquisite and rewarding challenge. God, through Moses, instructed the people of God about generosity and compassion for others. He said that an openhanded approach is tied to a person’s heart. Hardheartedness, verse 7, will result in tightfistedness. Generous giving, verse 10, comes from a heart that isn’t a reluctant, stingy or “grudging” heart.
Here in Deuteronomy 15, generosity is blessed by God. Stinginess is considered wicked and sinful. Living openhanded can be a challenge for many people. Giving to the work of the Lord, and doing it generously, with a desire to be a blessing, can be difficult. It is clear to me that our desire and willingness to give or our need to hoard our resources, reveals something about the condition of our hearts.
I’m not quick to say that a person who struggles to give generously doesn’t care about other people’s needs or pains, but I can say that a lack of giving, at its core, reflects a lack of trust in God. A person who hoards and holds resources when others are in need lacks belief that God will take care of them, and thinks they have to control and keep their resources in order to take care of themselves. A lack of generosity isn’t always a lack of compassion. Sometimes it is truly a lack of belief that God will provide for them.
Another reason that a person might live a selfish or stingy life could point to a preoccupation with money, revealing it has become an idol in their life. Anxiety over not having enough drives a lot of people, even when their current needs and then some, are met without issue. Some people legitimately struggle with the fear of not having enough whether it is grounded in reality or not.
The Bible helps us understand that All of our resources are to be stewarded/shared under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Just as resources are shared in a nuclear family, so too, are resources shared in the Family of God. After all, nothing we have is ours. It is on loan from God and is to be a tool to point others to the generous nature of God.
Stinginess, tightfistedness will keep a person from being used of God. If you are truly seeking to follow Christ, your desire will be for Him to use you. There is no greater thrill than knowing that God has used something you have shared or said or done to help someone see Him more clearly and to experience Him more fully. Nothing. It is the greatest satisfaction I have in life.
I’ve had a few church members say to me over the years, “I’m not fast enough on Facebook.” When I have inquired what they meant, they have said, “I have seen you post that someone in the community has a need, but before I see it and can do something to help, someone else has already jumped in.” Like, they are bummed that someone else beat them to being able to help someone. People with that mindset know the thrill of being part of someone’s story. They know the satisfaction that comes from being used of God to make a difference.
Recently, Thom had someone reach out to him and say that the reason that he and his wife are still married today was because of marriage counseling he provided, now many years ago. What a serendipitous moment for him. What a thrill. What satisfaction. That is no small thing. You may be thinking, that has nothing to do with giving someone money or resources. How does that illustration even fit into this message? First of all, Thom gave one of his greatest resources. He gave of his time. Second, Thom was in a position to be used of God because his heart was free. He has lived a life of generosity and stewardship and a desire for all of our resources to be used to the glory of God which put him in a position to have sympathy and compassion for a couple who was struggling. Compassion is God-like. It is a form of generosity. You cannot be truly compassionate if your heart is cluttered by the things of this world.
Hardhearted people, people who are focused only on self and not on the Kingdom of God, aren’t going to be in a heart-position to be used of God. Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and that everything else in our own lives will line up or fall into place. The Kingdom of God is about the life and ministry of Jesus being offered to every person we come into contact with. Never once do we read in the Gospels that Jesus lived with a closed fist. Jesus gave to others freely. He touched others freely.
If Thom had been someone whose goal was to hold on to the things of this world, if he lived with an unwillingness to give freely under God’s direction, I believe his heart could have been hardened to that couple’s struggle. Who knows what kind of advice he would have given the couple? Who knows how being selfish and stingy would have clouded his judgment and made his heart cold to one or both of the people? He may have said, “You’re right, she is a horrible wife, or he is a horrible husband, you should just cut your losses and move on!” and that story would have had an unhappy ending. But his heart was free to minister in that situation because it wasn’t cluttered with the wickedness and selfishness that result from living with a tight fist instead of an open hand. He had been living life and continues to live life with the understanding that all we have is God’s and that we can be called on at any time to use it for His glory. People who lack generosity will be walled off from others in a way that keeps God from being able to use them as He desires.
As we processed the message about the restored marriage that Thom received, I said to him, “You know the passage from I Corinthians 2:9 that says no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him? I wonder if that passage, in part, is talking about the special moments when it is revealed that God used something we said or did or gave to make a significant or even eternal difference in someone’s life.” Those are the kinds of moments I live for. I have to keep my heart free from the temptation to hoard my resources and to refuse to share with others in order to have those experiences.
Are you understanding the foundation I am trying to lay for this message? If you live with a stingy spirit, the Spirit of God won’t be able to prompt you and use you when others need help. Not only will God tap someone else, but someone else will get the blessing you would have gotten if you weren’t so preoccupied with yourself.
Look at Deuteronomy 15:10 again, Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
Your generosity with others results in a comprehensive blessing for yourself! Everything you put your hand to, will be blessed of God. I’ll tell you this, You don’t want to miss the blessing of God. God’s blessing for you is better than anything you could clench for yourself.
Here is the principle: You cannot REACH out in compassion with a closed hand. You cannot RECEIVE God’s blessings with a closed hand. Those are the two points to this message. Your ability to receive God’s blessings will be tied, in part, to your heart, to your willingness to reach others for the Kingdom. In other words, you reap what you sow. You receive as you give. II Corinthians 9:6 says, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”
You cannot deny the correlation between generosity and the abundant blessings of God.
It is beautiful to see so many serving in our congregation to do the work of ministry and to meet the needs of people in our community. Whether it is donating blood for the recent blood drive we had or working at the Community Cupboard like so many did this past week, and will do this week, it is wonderful to see people demonstrating that people’s needs should move us to action. Ours, is a church that is known for reaching out into our community to demonstrate God’s love in practical ways. Is that simply now the reputation of our church, or is it your personal reputation? Does your life reflect that the needs of others move you to action? Are you living with an open hand?
Listen, God is never going to ask you to give up something that you need or that He won’t multiply back to you.
Mark 10:17-23 tells the story of a man called the Rich Young Ruler. It is tragic for many reasons. It began with real spiritual interest. This guy actually sought Jesus ought. He was sincere in his question. He knew Jesus had the answer. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He was a good Jew. He lived with a desire to keep the Ten Commandments. He could check off religious boxes. But then Jesus told him it was obvious that he lacked one thing. One thing was keeping him from being a true follower of Jesus. Jesus said this in verse 21:
“One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
The Rich Young Ruler’s heart was connected to his stuff over a desired connection with the Savior and the needs of those around him. He walked away from eternal life for stuff. That tells you how much his heart was invested. Sell his stuff? He was proud of his stuff. Give to the poor? Couldn’t they work hard like he had done? Couldn’t they help themselves? Why did Jesus make this request for a would-be disciple of Jesus? The fact that the Rich Young Ruler possessed stuff wasn’t the problem. The problem was that the stuff possessed him. Jesus’ invitation wasn’t just an invitation to walk with Him, to follow Him around, but it was an invitation to be used of Him to meet the needs of the poor. That wasn’t the kind of discipleship the Rich Young Ruler was looking for. His heart was open to God, but was closed to being used of God. It was closed to helping others. That isn’t discipleship!
What kind of discipleship are you looking for? Are you good with being a disciple in name or will you adopt God’s game plan for your life to be generous and helpful to those in need? Everyone in this room doesn’t have the same resources, but everyone in this room could have the same commitment to be used of God. How does your life reflect that you are living with an open hand? An open hand is a sign of an open heart.
When Jesus walked this earth, He did so in an earthly body. Divinity was wrapped in flesh. Holiness was clothed with skin. Love was personified by the way the man-Jesus lived His life. Think of the many ways He used His hands. Think of the openness and love His hands held for the hurting, the poor, the marginalized, the sick. Think of how He used His hands to touch the children, to wash the disciples’ feet, to make them breakfast on the beach, after they had all failed Him in His darkest hour.
Jesus lived with an open hand. I don’t see how we could faithfully follow Him, seeking to allow the life of Christ to be lived out through ours, if we walk around with a clenched fist. The plan for the world to see the love and power of God is still the same as it was when Jesus walked this earth. Divinity has made a home inside of the Children of God. Divinity has been deposited inside of humanity. Men and women, image-bearers of God, those who have had the life of Jesus now placed inside of our flesh and bones, we are to live open-handed as He did.
I have some sand in this pitcher. Can we let it represent something really valuable? Let’s pretend it is some kind of gritty gold. If I pour this valuable gritty gold into my hand and close my fist to make sure I can hold onto it, how much gritty gold will I have as a resource? Only what my closed fist will hold, right? But I can sure protect this amount of gritty gold. I can preserve and keep it for myself. I can make sure it is available whenever I need it.
But what if, I choose, instead, to live with an open hand and allowed God to continuously pour this valuable resource into my hand? What could happen? This valuable resource could be scattered in so many places. It could have an impact in so many more places. It could help so many more people than just myself. My hand could receive and distribute this valuable resource wherever it was needed, and because it is open, I could continually be in a position to receive more, more for my needs and more for the needs of others.
I like the poem by Martha Snell Nicholson that says:
One by one He took them from me,
All the things I valued most,
Until I was empty-handed;
Every glittering toy was lost.
And I walked earth’s highways, grieving,
In my rags and poverty.
Till I heard His voice inviting,
“Lift those empty hands to Me!”
So I held my hands toward Heaven,
And He filled them with a store
Of His own transcendent riches
Till they could contain no more.
And at last I comprehended
With my stupid mind and dull,
That God COULD not pour His riches
Into hands already full!
As we begin the season of Lent, I invite you to check your heart where the biblical concept of generosity is concerned. If this is something you struggle with, confess it, as the Bible says a lack of generosity is sin. I challenge you to look for ways that you can become a source of blessing to others. I challenge you to view generosity as a spiritual discipline. Start in small ways if needed. Pay for the car behind you in the drive-thru. Bless someone who you think might be struggling. Maybe pay for the person’s gas at the pump next to you. Maybe begin to give away things you don’t even use. But make it a habit to be a blessing to someone else. Be moved by a need. Ask God to cultivate a heart of compassion in you. Ask Him to help you open your hands so that He can fill them with more resources that can be used to bless other people.
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