From ARC

Proverbs: Generosity (Proverbs 11v24-28)

Before we launch into the 5 proverbs we’ll be looking at this morning, I think it would be good to remind ourselves of how proverbs work. What does it mean for a proverb to be true?

Let me put up a few sentences up on the screen.

We don’t really use that as a proverb. It’s just a plain statement of fact to us. But if it became a proverb it would be capturing a very simple truth. A truth that’s true for everyone, everywhere, and that’s all there is to it. That’s the easiest type of proverb, but it’s not the only type, and it’s not the type we’re looking at this morning.

OK, next one:

Now that’s a proverb we do use. It’s saying “if you’ve got too many people involved, it can actually make things worse”. We can see that there’s truth to that. And it’s because it’s true that people keep saying it. But in this case the truth isn’t quite as straight forward. Let me put up the next one to help us see that.

Now that’s saying “the more people that are involved the better.” And we can see that there’s truth to that one as well. In this case, the truth depends on the situation. Some situations work better with more people involved, some with less. A big part of the wisdom, is in spotting which sort of situation it is.

OK, one more proverb.

Now again, this proverb is generally true. The way God has made the world, truth generally will come to the surface most of the time. Lies have a way of getting found out. But from our perspective in this world, that statement is not absolutely true in every instance, at every time. Sometimes people do get away with lies. At least for a while. Maybe even for their whole life. But the thing that makes “truth will out” a proverb, is that it does capture something about the way the world normally works. It may not be an absolute truth – at least, not here and now, not before God judges everything – but it is still a general truth. God has made the world in such a way that truth normally does come out. This proverb is a general truth. And our 5 proverbs this morning are in the same category. They are general truths about how things normally work in God’s world.

The Bible is well aware that there are exceptions to a lot of these general truths. That’s what the book of Job is all about. It’s the exceptions that makes them general rules and not absolute truth. But they are still general rules – which means they are generally true. And it is Proverbs we’re looking at today, not Job. So, lets launch in … Verse 24:

This is a proverb that feels a bit counter-intuitive in our modern hard-nosed business-aware world. Surely it should read more like:

Surely that seems to make more sense. And you might be able to argue that, in the most immediate short term, the hard-nosed version is actually true. The person who gives away £20 is £20 less well off. The person who hangs on to it for grim death – they’ve still got their £20.

But this proverb here in the Bible is pushing us to look beyond the chronically short-sighted, 5 second timescale. It’s claiming that as a general rule, generosity actually pays. And stinginess doesn’t.

There’s 3 reasons why generosity pays and stinginess doesn’t. Those reasons are to do with what God is like, what his world is like, and what money is like.

What God is like

First of all, God. Our proverbs only hint at this, but God has promised to actively work to bless those who are generous. That certainly fits in with the way he’s designed the world to work. But it’s saying something stronger. God is a generous God, and he likes his people to be generous people. And this verse, among many others, points us towards the fact that if people use the money God gives us in ways that please him – by being generous –then he’ll give them even more. Not so that they can stock-pile it all away, but so that they can be even more generous. So that they can give away even more.

Oh, by the way, the proverb does include an important little qualifying word – it talks about the man who withholds “unduly”. Being generous isn’t the same as being gullible. If you come across a con-man who is trying to rip you off and steal your life savings, and you withhold from him, that’s not a lack of generosity. And it’s not what this proverb has in view. It’s quite sensible to withhold money from con-men. But it’s quite another matter to withhold from someone who is in need. That is precisely what this proverb condemns.

Anyway, as I said at the start, this is a general proverb that catches what is generally true most of the time. Being generous is actually good for you. And I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s become poor through being too generous. I’m guess there might be someone somewhere – after all this is a general rule, not an absolute one. But it does seem to be a pretty strong general rule. It is actually the way things normally work. Generosity is good for you. Being tight-fisted, by contrast, is a sure way to trouble.

What God's world is like

The next three proverbs start to bring that out a little bit more. They show us something about how life works in this world that God has made. We’ll look at them together. Verse 25:

Verse 24 looked at things from the fairly focused angle of money – gaining more or losing it. This verse is more looking at it a little more broadly. It uses the words “prosper” which encompasses more of life than just the bank balance. And the language of “refreshing others” and “being refreshed” starts to focus in on the angle of relationships. Verse 26 carries on that theme even more sharply. Verse 26:

Quite a stark contrast. Being cursed – or blessed – by others. And verse 27 broadens the point out to all of life:

If you set out looking to do evil, evil will come back to bite you. If you set out looking to do good, you’ll find goodwill yourself.

Over the past few months there’s been lots of stuff in the news about the food situation in Niger and other parts of Africa. Now Africa has lots of problems, and many of them are caused by the West. But some are home grown too. Anytime there’s a food shortage, and anytime aid starts to get through with shipments of grain, some people will always try to take advantage. Those situations are always made worse because people hoard. There’ll be all sorts of guys who’ll try and make off with huge sackfuls of grain, because they know they’ll be able to sell it on for lots of money. And they’ll probably make a packet – but get cursed for it at the same time.

Or an example closer to home, if not quite so recent. Do you remember the petrol shortage that happened in September 2000? I think there was a strike or a blockade, and all the petrol stations in the UK started running out of fuel for a couple of days. I was in Basingstoke just when that was happening, and I remember that one petrol station there pulled a very sneaky trick. As soon as the fuel crisis started to bite, this petrol station closed. Didn’t sell anything for two days. Then, when everywhere else had run out of fuel, it opened up again, and started selling petrol for about £2 per litre. Very sneaky. Took full advantage of the situation. And I’m sure the owner made a bomb that week.

Doesn’t that prove that hoarding is the way to go? Well, again, if you look at it only in the short-term, and only from the money perspective, then the answer might be yes. But let’s ask a slightly broader question. How do you think the locals felt about this petrol station, now that they were paying £2 per litre. I think the proverb summed it up pretty well – People curse the man who hoards petrol.

Now, I didn’t do any surveys about what the longer term business effect on that petrol station was. Perhaps not loads. Sometimes when people go to a petrol station, they simply go to whichever one is on their route home. But then again, perhaps it did have quite a big effect. I know if I lived there, and had any sort of choice, I’d at least think about switching to somewhere else after that move.

People don’t like to be ripped off. And they don’t like it when others are tight-fisted and mean and miserly. If someone is like that, very often the people around them move into the calling-down-curses mode. That’s not nice, the person don’t prosper, they’re not refreshed. And actually, it’s bad for business too. Tight-fistedness reaps its own reward. Evil reaps its own reward. That’s the sort of world God has made. Good and evil both reap their own reward. As a general rule, generosity pays, stinginess doesn’t.

And as well as the material consequences, there’s consequences with God. And there’s no fooling him. He knows what we’re like, through and through. It’s perhaps not quite the truth that our proverb is teaching, but it would still be true to say that:

Generosity pleases the people around us. Everyone recognises that it is good. And generosity certainly pleases God. So a good question for us to ask ourselves is whether we are generous. Are we known for being generous? And if we are keen to please God, then maybe one of the ways forward is for us to ask God to give us opportunities to be generous. And to keep our eyes open for them when the come along – as I’m sure they will. And then to actually take them.

What Money is like

Our last proverb tells us one more thing, this time about money. Verse 28:

Money is a treacherous thing to rely on, it’s a treacherous thing to lean your whole weight on. It’s like walking on rotten floorboards. You’re depending on it, but it could give way at any minute. Don’t misunderstand me here – the book of Proverbs sees having money as a blessing. I don’t know whether any of us here have every been in real, real poverty. The sort of poverty where you go hungry for several days because you can’t afford to buy anything. The sort of poverty where you don’t even have 19 pence to buy a Tesco-value loaf of bread. In lots of countries, and through most of history, there’ve been many people in that sort of poverty. If you’re in that situation, you realise clearly that money is a blessing. But it’s a blessing that comes with a big temptation. And the temptation is to trust it. To rely on it and depend on it, instead of on God. How much do you trust money? If you had some financial disaster tomorrow – your pension fund went bust or you lost your job, or you lost all your savings, or maybe you even went bankrupt. Try and imagine you are in one of those situations. How would you feel? Obviously it wouldn’t be nice. Obviously you’d be upset – that’s natural and right and appropriate. But would you feel like your whole world was collapsing? [ACT THIS OUT - ?WITH A CHAIR?] If I’m resting comfortably against something, and it gives way, I have to correct my balance. But if I’m depending on something, if I’m trusting my whole weight to it, and it gives way – then I collapse with it. If you trust yourself to money, if you lean your whole weight on it – at some stage it’ll let you down, and you’ll come crashing down. So how do you stop yourself from trusting your riches instead of trusting God? How do you stop money from becoming your master? It’s quite easy really. Every so often you have to teach it who’s boss.

Think about your bank account for the moment. Your main current account, the one you pay the bills from. Think about what the normal day-to-day balance is. The balance that’s left each month after the bills are paid. Think of a specific number, in your head, that specific amount of money. Hold that number in your head.

Now maybe for some people here, you’re thinking of a negative number. If that’s you, your lesson is that you probably need to spend less. If you spend and spend and spend, it’s hard to be generous, because there’s nothing left to be generous with.

Maybe that applies to some people here, but I’m hoping most people will have thought of a positive number. If that’s you, if you’ve got a positive number as your left-over bank balance, here’s the way to teach your bank balance a lesson. Here’s the way to show your bank account who’s boss. Just divide that number in two. Half it. Give half of it away. Why not give it to overseas mission? You could give it to TearFund, you could give it to the Bible Society, you could give it to some other organisation. Your bank account will survive that. There’ll still be a positive number left at the end of the month after all the bills are paid, it just won’t be as big.

But the benefit is that you’ll have taught your bank account a lesson. You’ll have taught it who’s boss. And you’ll have reminded yourself that money isn’t your master, and that it’s not what you’re relying on.

Well that’s a simple challenge for us to be left with. Simple perhaps, but it many not necessarily feel easy. But the harder it feels, probably the more we need to do it.

God’s the one we’re to depend on, not our bank balance. These proverbs say that the generous person will prosper. Do we take God at his word? Do we trust him in that? Cos if we trust him to prosper us, we’ll be able to be generous. But if we’re trusting our riches to prosper us, then we’ll find it very hard to be generous. And when you stop and think about it, we have all the reason in the world to trust God. He’s already given his Son to us, that’s how generous he’s been. He’s not going to suddenly turn stingy, he’s not going to suddenly desert us. If we’re being faithful to God, if we’re doing what’s godly and sensible and wise, he’ll look after us. And part of being godly and sensible and wise is being generous. Part of being wise is trusting God not trusting riches. Part of being wise is being able to teach your bank balance a lesson every so often. Why not teach it a lesson this week?