Generosity Brings People Together

Good morning. Welcome to each one.

It's good to be here, and it's also good to have the opportunity to share.

It's a real blessing, so it is.

How big is your piggy?

That's a good-looking one. This one, maybe not so much. Yeah, it's kind of cute too, but this one looks like it has a little more personality.

Well, it's not a bad idea to have a piggy. If you don't have one, you should get one.

I thought it'd be interesting to collect some old $100 bills. Right there's the one my dad gave me. It's not too old.

It says 1990 on it. So what is that, 30 couple or so? But the $100 bill came out in 1914. It first was in circulation, so I thought if I'm going to collect them, I want to do something between 1914 and 1950. We'll just collect those, and then some of these later ones will eventually be worth something as well. So we started out with this small piggy, and he quickly got full of $100 bills.

And so I got this piggy, which is also getting full of $100 bills. And the one I'm working on now is a piggy the size of a 55-gallon drum. And so we got quite a few $100 bills.

If you believe that one, I'll tell you another one. All right. Hopefully, it seems like when you talk about money, everybody starts to listen. I don't know why that is, but at any rate, here we go. So I found myself at a drive-through at McDonald's, and in front of me was a Ram Cummins jacked up with big tires on it, and he had a big piggy pipe. If you don't know what they are, they're exceptionally large. And I don't know what that's all about, but at any rate, I'm sitting in my car behind this truck, and he's going, "Hearn, hearn, hearn, hearn." And he's pulling up to where he placed the order.

And it's interesting because he wants everybody to hear him, and yet he has to turn his truck off when he gets to order because he can't hear, and the person taking the order can't hear. So he gets up to the window, and he's going, "Hearn, hearn, hearn, hearn." And he goes, "Hearn."

There's something about a Cummins. They always make a little bit of a belt trip when you shut them off. I don't know if it's their resistance to being shut off or what it is, and they always kind of go, "Hearn." And he shuts off, and he waits for the lady to come over the loudspeaker and say, "Thanks for choosing McDonald's. Will you be using the mobile app today?"

And he has his favorite bill cap on, and it's spent in just a real nice U-shape. And he leans out the window of the truck, and he says, "I'd like a price on a medium fry." And she's like, "You want a medium fry?" And he's like, "No, no, just a price on a medium fry." "Price on a medium fry? Driving this great big truck, great big tires, loud exhaust. You want a price on a medium fry?" So she says, "That'll be 389."

He's like, "389?" And he's like, "Is it a little bit less if I get it without salt?" And she's like, "Huh, let me find out. No, no, it's still 389."

So he's like, "Now does that 389 include sales tax?" And she's like, "No, no, tax is on top of that. If you add tax, it's going to be 412." And he's like, "No, thanks." Puts his head back in the window, starts off the truck, and "Hearn, hearn, hearn," off he goes.

Have you ever done such a thing? If you have, shame on you. If you haven't, why not?

I got an email from my Hercules Tire sales guy. He's in charge of the eastern part of the country. And he said, "Hey, we have a dealer trip coming up we'd like you to attend. It's in Moab, Utah, all expenses paid."

Well, I'm not a person like that's okay. I'm be fine. I just like going to work every day and getting out and doing strange things and getting out of my comfort zone are hard. So hanging out with a bunch of dealers that I don't know and anyway, I talked to Devon and talked to Dad, and yeah, yeah, you should go. So I was like, "All right, I'll go."

So we flew out of Harrisburg and landed in Salt Lake City, Utah. And if you've never done that at night, it's incredible. Looking out the windows and the lights are just beautiful.

Landed in Salt Lake and ran like crazy to catch my plane that was leaving basically when I was getting off the plane. It was departing about the same time, and I'm freaked out because I'm not used to that kind of thing. So I'm running, and I got a little luggage, and it was quite a distance.

Finally got there, and they were boarding, jumped on my plane, and then landed in Grand Junction, Colorado. And when I landed, I got off the plane, and there was a man standing there with a sign. I can't remember if he had my name on it, if it said Hercules Tire, but somehow I knew he was waiting for me. And boy, I just felt so special and honored and whatever. This is a new experience. And there was one more guy that was on my flight as well. And so it was just two we came in about 9:30 in the evening, so it was the two tail end of everybody.

And we grabbed our luggage and got in a vehicle and over to the hotel. And he's like, "I know it's late. It's like 9:30." But he said, "If you guys are hungry, I'd be more than happy to take you out for supper." And I'm like, "I'm real hungry." And the other guy said, "Yeah, he's definitely hungry too." So we went to a local restaurant there, and I ordered myself up fish and chips.

That was the first time I think I ever had fish and chips, but it was delicious. It was incredible. And then we just the three of us had a little time to talk together and stuff, and I felt like a big person, kind of out of my own.

Well, the next morning then we got together, and we had breakfast and talked a little bit, and then we got all of our stuff and loaded into two brand new Chevy Suburbans. They were black. We felt really important. That's what the president rides in. And you jumped in them, and we went to Dead Horse Point State Park. And if you've never been there, that's a very beautiful place to be and has a little history behind it. And we hiked around a little bit and had some conversation and whatever. And then we jumped back in and went on down to Arches National Park, walked around there a little bit and had a really nice time and took some pictures and stuff like that.

And of course, always we had a little snack. If you wanted something to eat, you could just grab they had beef jerky or some bars or whatever, crackers, and then plenty of drink.

So we got to our hotel that night after doing a little looking around and went outside, and it was just beautiful out there. They had a humongous patio, probably the size of this church building or so, maybe bigger.

And it just had little chairs set up around a nice fire ring, and there was fire flames. It was propane, so they were just jumping up in the air. It was kind of cool out, and so it was really nice to get around the fire. And then you'd run to the hot tub, jump in the hot tub, and then from this hot tub, you get too hot, you jump over into the swimming pool and back into the hot tub a little bit before you went to bed.

And then we woke up the next morning and went down to this was in Moab now, went down to a local rental agency there. They had 10 Jeeps all fixed up with about $25,000 worth of suspension parts, shocks, and different things to jack them up and make them really flexible over rocks, etc.

And then Hercules had sent tires ahead, and so they had all their tires mounted up, great big tires, all terrain, mud terrain, different tires so you could experience how they rode and how they clung to the rocks when you crawled.

And so it was two guys per Jeep, and we would drive for a little bit, and then the other guy would drive for a little bit, and you'd ride and stuff like that, and you hit the trails and hit the mountains and just crawl all over all kinds of stuff and go way up high and then look down, and there would be a river there, and it was beautiful.

And as we went along, sometimes it was so steep that when you are sitting in the vehicle, all you can see is a blue sky. You're like, "Where are we going? I hope we're okay." And then sometimes it was so steep when you were coming down that all you saw was the dirt.

And then sometimes it was kind of dangerous where we were going, so they would have a spotter out there to kind of help us say, "Turn now, turn now, give it a little gas, give it a little gas around," whatever.

Anyway, so we had a very interesting time, something I don't ever do, so it was a good experience. And they would encourage us to talk about the tires and stuff like that, share thoughts, etc. If you wanted to, they would even give you a video clip so you could share on your social media and etc.

Well, after that, we were pretty shook around, and we'd go out for supper. And it was really interesting. The guys were able to order whatever drink they wanted, so they were really concerned about this special mixture. I'm getting this, and I'm getting that and whatever. And I'd be sitting there with my soda pop and water and whatever.

But they came out with incredible appetizers. I mean, just spent a lot of money on appetizers. And so while the guys were concerned about their drinks, I was just going with the appetizer, and they were incredible. They were really good.

And then you could order whatever you wanted. And at the end, it was 700, 800 bucks for the meal, and the guy paid it, and we went back to our hotel.

Then the next day, we went Jeeping again for about a half a day or so. And then after that, we parked the Jeeps and then checked out a few local businesses and shopped for some souvenirs and stuff. And then we had a meeting at the end where we all got together and introduced ourselves, and they went over their program and gave us some swag. So we got some wearables. Got a pair of Oakley sunglasses. I got a hat.

I don't know what else I got, maybe a bag or something I could carry stuff in. And I flew home the next morning going, "Bang for Hercules." I was tore up. They had treated me like a man. They respected me. They went over and above with their generosity. "Hey, you want it? Go ahead. We'll pay for it, whatever you need."

Just really, really a kind of a good time in a lot of ways. And there was some negative for sure, but it was a good time. What impressed me the most was their generosity and how they went over and above. The trip cost an enormous amount of money, and they swallowed it for us.

All right.

We appreciate generosity when we feel it.

I should say I said that wrong. I'm sorry. We appreciate generosity when we experience it, and we feel it when it's missing.

I looked up the word generosity, and it says it's a willingness to give or to share, being unselfish or generous. The words I saw there were bountiful, liberal, large, ample. Those are all the things I experienced a lot of that on my trip. It was amazing.

Generosity.

Turn, if you want to, to Acts chapter nine. We'll look at some stories from the Bible, and we'll think about the generosity.

Acts chapter nine.

Story of Dorcus.

We're going to start at 36 through 42. Now, there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcus. This woman was full of good works and almsdeeds, which she did.

She had a large piggy bank. She was full. She did a lot. She was a generous person and all that, but she was full of good works and almsdeeds. And it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died, whom when they had washed, they laid her in the upper chamber. And for as much as Lydia was nigh to Joppa and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them. Then Peter arose and went with them. And when he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber, and all the widows stood by him weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcus had made.

It was a display of her generosity. I've never went to a viewing or a funeral or anywhere to my knowledge where there was a display of the person's generosity. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you could probably pick it out maybe, but they were holding up their garments and saying, "Look, this is what she did for us. This is what she meant to me. This is what it was." And then they were weeping.

But Peter put them all forth. Okay, I'm just going to stop there.

These coats and these garments were probably quite time-consuming to make. I don't know, but I'm just guessing that this represented a lot of time. This represented a lot of sacrifice. This represented a lot of generosity. But the generosity touched the lives of these widows and brought a group together. Generosity draws people together.

Abraham, let's go back to Genesis 18.

Start at verse one.

And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. I don't know exactly what time that was, but he was resting there. And he lifted up his eyes, and he looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground and said, "My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away. I pray thee from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched and wash your feet. Rest yourselves under the tree, and I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts.

After that, ye shall pass on." His generosity here. I mean, he was maybe half asleep. I don't know, but he just sprang into action for these three men. And immediately was thinking, "How can I make your life better? How can I make you comforted? What can I do for you? Here, sit here and hang out for a little bit." And they said, "So do as thou said." And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah and said, "Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal. Need it and make cakes upon the hearth." And Abraham ran unto the herd and fetched a calf tender and good and gave it unto a young man, and he hastened to dress it.

And he took butter and milk and the calf, which he had dressed, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. So here we see the generosity. I don't know why he stood. Maybe his lawn chair was broke. Maybe who knows? I don't know. But he said, "Hey, you sit here where it's nice and cool." And then after he was preparing for them, he stood by them. I thought that was interesting.

Put some spirit in your generosity. Someone stops in, put some spirit in. Hurry, get it done. That's what Abraham did. Get excited about it. Try to make him as comfortable as you can.

He went out of his flock, and he got a calf tender and young. I'd never do that. That's just not me. That calf has a lot of potential. Why a calf? Why something tender and young? There's plenty of, if you have a herd, especially the size he had, there's plenty of animals you could put down for a meal. Tender and good. He picked the best. His generosity was nothing missing. He just went wholeheartedly into providing for these three men.

And I really liked the fact that he stood by them. I don't know what that was all about for sure, but he was prepared in a position to get whatever they needed quickly. It wasn't like, "I'm going to get up now and go get this." No, you're out of water. I'm standing here. Here's water. You want some more meat? Whatever. Generosity.

First Kings 17.

One through 16. So widow of Zarephath and Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, "As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be doom or rain these years, but according to my word." And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, "Get the hence and turn the eastward and hide thyself by the brook Cherith. That is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I've commanded the ravens to feed thee there." The generosity of the birds.

So when he went and did according unto the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan, and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook.

And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, "Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." So he rose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was gathering sticks.

And he called to her and said, "Hey, you get me something to drink? Kind of thirsty."

And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, "Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand." And she said, "As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruz.

And behold, I'm gathering two sticks that I may go in, dress it for me and my son, that we may eat and die." And Elijah said unto her, "Fear not. Go and do as thou hast said, but make me therefore a little cake first and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste. Neither shall the cruze of oil fail unto the day the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth."

And she went in and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she and he and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not. Neither did the cruze of oil fail according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. And I thought about that. Generosity demanded.

Sometimes we're in a position where generosity is demanded of us. But a lot of times we have the resources to meet that demand. Not always, but a lot of times we do. She had an empty pantry. She was gathering the last little bit, and then it was going to be all over.

Family first, right?

Strangers second. Maybe she knew him quite well. I don't know. I'm guessing maybe not.

God first, family second.

So she went ahead and in obedience provided generously for the prophet.

All right, one more.

Second Kings four, eight through ten.

This is the great woman of Shunem.

Four, starting at verse eight. And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman, and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was that as often as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. Evidently, her generosity really spoke to him because every time he stopped by for a little something to eat.

And she said unto her husband, "Behold, now I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which patheth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick. And it shall be when he cometh to us that he shall turn in hither."

They prepared ahead of time a place for the man of God. This was the first Airbnb.

And she paid attention to detail. What do we need for this man? Well, we're going to need a bed. We're going to need a table. We're going to need a stool. And we're going to need a candlestick. And she must have really went over and above, and we'll look at that a little later.

This really spoke to Elisha. He was a huge fan.

Each one of these individuals we talked about

had an experience with death

and the resurrection.

Generosity draws God in, draws God's attention, and turns His face toward us.

Dorcas was raised from the dead. Abraham saw the deadness of Sarah's womb turn to life. The widow of Zarephath, her son was raised from the dead.

The woman of Shunem, she had a son that died and was raised from the dead.

And then we have the great generosity of God giving His Son. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And then Jesus' generosity in giving Himself for us, for our sins.

And then He was raised from the dead. Generosity produces life.

There's two warnings on generosity. One's found in Matthew six one through three. And maybe I'll just turn and read that real quick here.

Two warnings on generosity. Matthew six one through three says, "Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise, you have no reward of your Father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when you do your alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, and they make that they may have the glory of men. Fairly, I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou dust thine alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret. And the Father which seeth in secret, Himself shall reward thee openly."

So I don't know how Dorcas was doing her almsgiving, but I'm guessing it was something that wasn't on television. It wasn't something that was blasted all over social media. It wasn't something that was maybe well known necessarily by everybody. But God turned His face toward her, and He rewarded her openly.

So as we go about our generosity, whether we're building a place for the prophet or whether we're sowing for somebody or whether we're preparing a meal for somebody that stopped in unexpected, whatever it might be, just really just keep it toned down. And the greatest blessings you'll experience are generosity that goes unnoticed. That'll be a real blessing for you, and God will receive a lot of praise. Second Corinthians nine verse six, another warning.

"But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly.

And He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." So generosity is paid back on the basis of how you hand it out. So be generous. Sow bountifully, and God will give you a rich blessing.

I talked about being kind of enthusiastic. That's the word I want to use. I was excited. I'll use that word about my trip to Utah and how excited I was to sell some Hercules when I got home. I wanted to go back and look at the house there that this couple built for Elisha and just kind of see his enthusiasm as well for what she did for her generosity.

All right, so here it goes. "And he said to Gehazi, his servant, call this Shunemite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. And he said unto her, 'Okay.' And he said unto him, 'Say now unto her, 'Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care, all this generosity that you put into us. It's incredible. What is to be done for thee? What hast thou bespoken for to the king or to the captain of the host?' And she answered, 'I dwell among mine own people.'

And he said, 'What then is to be done for her?' And Gehazi answered, 'Verily, she hath no child, and her husband's old.' And he said, 'Call her.' And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, 'About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son.'" He was just compelled to do something good for her. And that's what I've experienced. When somebody really goes over and above in generosity, it compels you to do something for them. And I think when we go out of our way to be generous to others, God comes along and does something for us. He just wants to. Anyway, that was her experience.

Thought that was interesting. Back to the McDonald's.

I'm sitting there, I place my order, and I notice as the truck drove out that he gave it a little bit of extra gas when he went by the windows.

Big old cloud of black smoke. And I thought about the person inside. Probably thinking, what was that all about? That was crazy. And am I worthless? Like, seriously, I mean, am I worthless?

I take a tremendous amount of phone calls at the shop. I've never counted them on a daily basis.

But I know it really wears me out. And I take a ton of phone calls that are just full of garbage. You know what I mean? They're just worthless. They make you feel worthless. There's no generosity. And it's just a waste of my time.

And they call up for the dumbest things. Seriously. I mean, you got guys that are 40, 50, and 60-year-old ladies the same. They've been driving for 40 years or whatever it is. And they call up and say, 'What's the state inspection cost?' Who cares?

Seriously, a state inspection, to my knowledge, has never been over $100 for most vehicles. Okay. Generally, it's significantly less. And always it's given at cost, basically. Do I pay my labor, the guy that does it?

The business doesn't make any money on inspections. But it's something that we do, provide a service for the community and have an opportunity possibly to look at their vehicle and maybe sell them a set of front brake pads or provide some kind of service for them.

And then to price it, you got to be kidding. You've done this every year. For how long? Like, what changed? Where's the generosity at?

You're dealing with a piggy bank that's this big.

But we can be guilty the same. I've been guilty of the same thing myself. But my encouragement for us this morning is, let's not nickel and dime each other. Let's not do that. Let's not nickel and dime other individuals. Let's not do that. If your piggy bank is that small, get a bigger one. Get a bigger piggy bank.

Work a little harder. Get out there. You can take a few more hours. Every business in this valley, oh, most to my knowledge, is hiring. Get an extra side job. Make yourself a little extra money. Put it in a bigger piggy bank for others.

That'd be my encouragement. Don't nickel and dime each other. And I'd like to say that God's people don't nickel and dime. God's people do nickel and dime.

It's interesting. We can come to these Christian Aid Ministries. It's a huge organization. Got a lot of money. And everybody likes to give to Christian Aid Ministries. I can't figure out why.

Is it a bad organization? No, it's not a bad organization. I just don't figure out why they don't give to each other. Why don't we give to each other? Why do we nickel and dime each other and beloat Christian Aid Ministries?

I'm not sure. I haven't figured it out yet. That little box in the back there is an offering box. And I think that's a good and right thing to do. And it has a good place in the church. Why do we nickel and dime each other?

Why do we do that?

All right. Well,

let's be generous. Let's find opportunity to be generous to each other, to other Christian organizations, to other Christian individuals who are working, who own a business, to the unbelieving society out there as well. Let's be generous. It's going to require you to put a little aside when it comes to the state inspection, whatever it might be. Put a little more aside for your brother. Put a little more aside for someone you're going to rub shoulders with in your community.

It'll draw you together.

There's a lot of different ways we can be generous.

What about our thoughts and how we think about each other? How big's your piggy bank? This one here quickly gets empty.

If your thoughts fit in this, you're going to run out of good thoughts for others, and you're going to have nothing good to say about them. If your piggy bank's like this and you have lots and lots of reserve, you're going to keep pulling out of that thing good thoughts for the person that you're struggling with so that you can have generous thoughts for others.

It's important. It's really important to do that.

I had a man in the shop this week, and first-time customer, and that's always a red flag. If you're a first-time customer, we appreciate it very much. But at the same time, the guy was in his 50s. Where have you been all this time?

I've been here for 20 couple of years. This is your first time here.

He complained and got nasty on the first visit, and on the second did the same.

And I was this close to saying, you know what? This is almost unheard of in our business. We have zero customer complaints, really. I was surprised. Seemed like when we first started our business, we had a lot of complaints, a lot of growing pains. But recently, honestly, it's just been really, really good. And I was like, here, just get out, man. Honestly, just get out.

The reason you're here is you did the very same thing to the last guy, and he's sick of it.

But I pulled out of this piggy bank, which is exceptional because I'm not quick to do that. I'm quick to say, hey, we'll see you later, bud. And I felt good all day. I felt much better all day. When it came to the end of the day, I felt much better that I didn't tell the guy off. And I had another customer that was sitting there, actually a number of them. And he stood up when his time was to pay his bill, and he said, I'm going to chew you down like the last guy.

He said, actually, no, I was ready to kick him out. I said, there's other people that think, hey, you know what? His piggy bank was too small. But if you're a Christian and you're complaining, that's a terrible testimony to the Lord. That's a terrible testimony about your brothers. That's a terrible testimony. You need to have a piggy bank this big and keep pulling out generosity. We got individuals that come in that they have such positive thoughts toward us. They just throw the keys on the counter and say, hey, call me when it's done.

And they come in, put their credit card in. They don't talk about the bill. They just have good thoughts to share with you, and they walk back out. And it's just a positive thing. And in the long run, it's just so good. The math works so well.

I'm coming to the end.

I thought I had some more, but it looks like either I had two scratch pads of paper, and maybe this other scratch pad has the rest. But at any rate, let's be generous with each other in every way possible when it comes to our homes.

Be generous. Get the best roast you got out and prepare.

Just dig deep in that freezer and get whatever you can. Get a little extra. Turn the heat down if it's hot. Sit here in the cool while I just busy myself with getting ready. Sacrifice a little. Put a little money aside in your bank account for that unknown, unexpected visitor that's going to show up that you can pull out some extra money and show him bang, whatever that means.

All right. Well, we have one quote, and then I'm going to wrap it up here. And this is by George Elliott. "If you sit down at set of sun and count the acts that you have done, and counting find one self-denying deed, one word that eased the heart of him who heard, one glance most kind that felt like sunshine where it went, then you may count that day well spent."

That.