A Very Generous Gift

My wife Allie loves to give gifts. Christmas time is one of her favorite seasons because she is very generous… sometimes I feel too generous. That’s because I'm a more reasonable gifter. She might say stingy, but I like saying reasonable. I know what I can spend, and I don’t even dream about extravagant gifts. While there is a balance to be had, I think Allie’s impulse is the godlier one.
 
One of the most generous gifts she ever gave me was my acoustic guitar. At the time, we didn't have two pennies to rub together. I was a pastor of music, but I was stuck playing what we called sarcastically, "Black beauty." It was anything but beautiful. It was a cheap black acoustic guitar that the church owned and I borrowed. Black Beauty was terrible in every way, and I'm convinced it was more cardboard than wood. You might say it was better than nothing, but I’m not sure it was.
 
Allie saw this need and began cleaning houses on the side, and she secretly saved back every dime. On my birthday, she surprised me with a little over $700 to buy a new guitar. And that’s with 2008 money. Today, that would be more than a grand!
 
I was in total shock by her generosity. $700 seemed like a million dollars at the time. We hadn't been married long, but it was plain as day that God had given me a good one. I went out and tested dozens of guitars at the Guitar Center and settled on a beautiful Canadian-made Seagull guitar.
 
Have you ever received a really generous gift? Maybe it was a birthday gift or perhaps someone stepped up and paid off a debt for you. Or it could be that someone donated their time to you, even when their time was extremely valuable. Whatever it was, if you've experienced someone's generosity, it brings great joy.
 
Tomorrow we’re talking about the essential Christian practice of generosity. And do not confuse generosity with tithing. Those are two very different things. In fact, you can tithe and not be generous, and you can be generous and not tithe. More on that tomorrow.
 
What I want to communicate is that this won’t be your typical sermon on tithing. I will not be guilting you into giving more to the church. What I will be doing is helping us look deeper than the tithe so we can learn how to defeat consumerism and greed and produce joy. I hope to see you at worship tomorrow!