Can I Get a Witness?
SUMMARY
Dr. David Fraze explores how generosity serves as a powerful witness to the world in his sermon "Overflow: The Witness of Generous Living." Using a children's demonstration with pennies and the song "Love is something if you give it away," he establishes that generosity isn't about personal gain but about mission. Dr. Fraze contrasts the kingdom values of service (John 13) with the misinterpreted prosperity gospel, emphasizing that God promises to meet our needs, not necessarily our wants.
Through stories like the Good Samaritan, John D. Rockefeller's transformation, and personal anecdotes, Dr. Fraze illustrates how even small acts of generosity—returning a jacket, giving an unexpected tip, or simply offering a smile—can profoundly impact others. He challenges listeners to examine their motivations for giving, asking whether they seek to preserve their own legacy or point others to Christ. As 2 Corinthians 9:11-12 teaches, our generosity results in thanksgiving to God and serves as a testimony that extends beyond church walls.
TRANSCRIPTION:
All right, where's my volunteers?
Come on up. As they're coming up, we're going to be talking about generosity today and the overflowing of generosity in a missional sense. And every time somebody talks about finances, you're like, okay, is it getting close to the end of the year? Is this what we're trying to do here? This is actually not that, but this is a time, as we heard from our communion presenter, that we remember, and we get to give thanks, and we also get to spill that thanks out to everyone around us and be a mission and show that there is a difference.
As our sister just read the scripture through all the stuff she's been through, at the end of that, isn't it a testimony that she can say, the joy of the Lord has returned. Amen. If you're visiting, that's a big deal in this world, you will have trouble, Right? So if anybody tells you otherwise, they're teaching a false teaching. And about Jesus.
But Jesus allows us to do hard, better, and he brings us a family around us. Okay, guys, come on up, guys. This is a general term. All right, Stand right there. I'm going to give you an ancient.
This is something from the past of America. It's a penny.
I'm going to let you keep it. It may be worth something one day. There we go. I'm going to give you more. And I'm going to give you more.
He only has one. Now. Here's what I want you to do. Let's get over here. Okay, Do y' all remember the song Love is something if you give it away?
This is also an ancient song. You have no clue what I'm saying right now, right? Let me sing it first.
Love is something. If you give it away, Give it away, give it away. Love is something. If you give it, you end up having more. Now after that, it says, love is like a lucky penny.
Hold it tight. We're going to go back to cradle roll. You won't have any. Give it away, and you'll have plenty. You're going to have to give it away.
You'll end up having more. And then it becomes a contest. That's exactly right. Okay, so we're going to sing it, and you'll know when the time comes. Right.
Get your pennies ready. Okay. And then we usually had a lesson about everything is the Lord's, right. So we thank the Lord, and now we're going to use it as a blessing. Don't look at me.
You get ready to get rid of that pinning love is something if you give it away. Give it away, give it away. Love is something if you give it away you'll end up having more. Love is like a lucky penny hold it tight and you won't have any. Give it away and you'll have plenty you'll end up having more.
Good job. Second verse.
Okay, what have we learned, class?
Yes. And what happens when you give it away? Thank you. All right, you can keep those pennies. You're welcome.
Overflow the witness of generous living. Now, before we go on, we got to clarify something most of us learned at an early age. And hopefully you've seen it in your family. When we have that we give and it's a witness. When my mother passed away, it was the greatest story.
This lady comes up that I've known my whole life, but I didn't know her spiritual story. And she had gone to a Bible study at this little church in Louisville where my mom was, and she left her jacket. Now, this lady had never had anyone really show her love and compassion or really realize she was there. Her life was in shambles, but she had enough courage in the late 60s to show up at this lady's Bible study. And all my mother did.
And this is what she told me in 2019, your mother showed up and gave me back my jacket. And you're like. And because that was so common in my house. But that one generous action brought that lady into the fellowship of the church. Now, some of you grew up literally with pennies.
You remember that term that you don't have two pennies to rub together sometimes that was reality. But have you ever noticed how people and those around, especially in the family of God, you always had enough. Raise your hand if you've realized that. It's the oddest thing. It's Elijah in the oil.
It's all these stories that we learn. Again, if you've never studied that one, just Google it. It's awesome that God seems to provide for his people. Not necessarily all that we want, but all that we need. And it becomes a witness to the watching world.
What is different about you guys? But something has happened. When we think about generous living and the overflow, we have two clear pictures. We have two clear thoughts that are battling each other. One is the way of service.
John 13. When Jesus washes the disciples feet and says, I your teacher, have done this. I'm your master. You do that as well. That's one way of generous living that we put ourselves second and we look for opportunities to serve others.
The other side is Something that, and I'm afraid to say, comes out when I teach General Bible at LCU. When I ask this simple question, does God have a plan for your life? And usually somebody raises their hand and said, oh yes, doctor, phrase, Jeremiah 29, I have plans to prosper you and not to harm you. And I look at him and I say, what happens if you get cancer and die?
And these 18 year olds are like, I said, read it again and read it in context. And that verse is promising something that is not promised to us or to the people of Israel. He's saying, overall, this Deuteronomy theology, big fancy word for today, God's plans will succeed. But us on an individual level, there are times that hardship come to us. And if we believe in just following Jesus is going to bring you a smooth road.
That's not in the Bible. But here in our westernized reading of the text, we don't read the context. We said, yes, I'm supposed to prosper and all these good things are going to happen. I'm going to live in that mansion. I don't know if you know where I live.
I got pretty good faith, but my tree may fall over at any moment. I mean, it's not that I don't love the Lord, it's not that I don't have faith in him, but the generous living that we read about in Scripture may not have very little to do with where we live and the success in life. That's very, very important to say because we have a tendency to say, if good things happen, then you have strong faith. If good things happen and I'm prospering, it means somehow I'm doing things right and God is blessing me. But raise your hand if you know somebody who does everything right.
And it seems like sorrow after sorrow follows them.
So it has to be more than just that, right? I love what Spurgeon said in his commentary on the treasury of David, actually, and right there, Psalms 1:12 is what will be mentioned here by Paul in Second Corinthians. He says, understood literally, this is a rather promise of the Old Covenant than of the new. In other words, here is the people of Israel, I will walk with you. I will prosper you, because I have a plan.
It echoes of something we'll see in a second of the promise of Abraham.
But for many of the best of the people of God are very poor. Yet it's been found true that uprightness, the road to success, and all other things being equal, the honest man is the rising man. You would agree with that. So let's look at three things today. Then we're going to have a little examination.
Generosity is not just personal. It's not like what I can get for myself. Love is something. If you give it away, you hold it tight and you won't have any. But you give it away and you'll have plenty.
And you'll what you'll end up having more. Generosity is not a personal thing. So you can get. It's missional. Do you remember the story that's illustrated so beautifully in this painting?
A story that starts with a religious person coming to Jesus saying, what should I do to inherit eternal life? He's like, well, you got to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and your neighbors yourself. And here's this verse, the Bible. It just hurts me to the core and it challenges me wanting to justify himself. Ask this question, who is my neighbor?
Jesus never answered the question.
He never said, well, just be nice to those who look like you. Just be nice to those who live in your neighborhood or go to your school. Be nice to those who attend your church. He never answered the question. And then he made the hero of the story not a religious person, but a Samaritan.
Now, before you're really tough on the religious, you know, people that were passing by this man, these people seems like we're going to do religious stuff. You know, they're on their dress clothes. They got to go to Jerusalem and they got to worship God. And there are teachings to these individuals. Do not get around something that's dead.
Because if you get around something that's dead, you can't serve before the temple. And what Jesus is doing here is incredibly scandalous. He's saying the way you live your life outside of that is more important than coming to worship and saying whatever you want. It's not about that. Your love supersedes.
Paul would say it this way. Your worship is how you live your life among people.
So through this idea of a Samaritan who, by the way, gave out of his riches and left more money at the end than he probably should have. And he said, if I come back and there's a debt to owe, I'll pay for it. This person was an outcast. He had no business serving anybody on the road to Jerusalem. But he did it.
I learned from a Muslim. This is interesting. My friend was his son, and my son grew up together. And before the regime change in Pakistan, he was actually part of security forces and was part of. He came out in a flight jacket with an F16 patch on.
I'm like, who are you? And his job was when it was a NATO presence, he was part of their Air Academy and stuff. And he was so respectful because we would pray before dinners and do all that at this camp for it was a school camp. But I asked him about this and he put it in a Near Eastern contest. I never thought about this because typically if we see a need, we take up a contribution, don't we?
Perfectly good thing to do. Somebody needs a house. All right, let's go ahead, let's buy one of those. All of that is wonderful and fine, but what this means in a Near Eastern context is some of you may have seen in Lone Survivor. Do you remember that movie?
You take care of what's in front of you. He said, so you see a need, you don't form a committee, you don't go tell an elder or minister, we gotta do something about it. You do something. In that moment, you take a jacket back to a lady who visited your lady's Bible study. It's that simple.
And it blew my mind. So you mean when I'm going to Starbucks and I decided, I know that's blowing your mind, that I would drink coffee, but I go to Starbucks and I decided, guess what? I'm gonna give that person a tip today. I didn't need to ask a committee about that. I'm just knowing they're working hard.
It's the holidays. I'm just gonna throw a five dollar bill on the counter and walk away. I know that's not quite the cost of a Starbucks cup of coffee, but it's a good tip. And they turn around saying, why are you doing this? I just want you to have a good day.
Bless you. Do you think that person's going to remember the next time something's going on and go, hey, I remember you absolutely.
It's the small things. And when you're generous with your time, your talent, not just your money, when you're generous with a smile. When you're generous with a kind word, it becomes missional. So do me a favor, look to the person next to you. Just smile real big.
We're going to end this way, but go ahead. That was gross. Y' all are married. Smile to somebody else.
Newly married people.
Here's what the Bible says. You are the light of the world. Remember that one? Another song. This is the light of mine.
A town built on a hill can't be hidden Neither do people Light a lamp, put it under a bowl instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may. What? Say it. Say it again.
And glorify God. It's a hint to Isaiah 2, which is a fulfillment of a promise.
Jesus didn't come out of this out of thin air. He's reminding us of something in the new kingdom we belong to. Abraham was told, you're going to have a son. Your son will become a great nation. That nation.
I will be your God. You will be my people. Hard pause for hundreds of years. And all the world will be blessed. All the world will be blessed.
And Isaiah 2 says, There will be a time where all the nations will stream towards this place. How are people supposed to know about that? Well, it's the signs we put in our yards. Come on, Curtis. We put signs in our yards.
The songs I listen to, Gary. I post songs all the time, right? It's where I drink coffee. I only go to places that has fish on the door.
And you should see my posts on social media, Brian. Always against Texas.
Do you realize all those things are very impersonal in our world?
I was talking to an uncaged preacher Saturday at Costco. I won't tell you which one, but here's what Carl would tell you, and here's what I would tell you. The world doesn't care that we're in here this morning.
The world doesn't care. This is not a witness of anything in the United States of America. A witness of nothing. What would be a witness is when you go to lunch after this and you give a stupid tip and they're like, what are you doing? I just noticed you've had a hard day.
Can we pray for you? What? Why are you talking to your server? When you go to Costco and you battle the crowds and you know this person's like, behind you and you want your hot dog and Coke for $1.50, and they're right there in the way, and you're like, oh, no, please go.
When they see what? Not your signs, not your songs, not your posts. When they see your good. What? Don't overthink it.
It's a Samaritan on the road taking care of people. It's missional. How about this one? Our giving displays God's kingdom values in a world driven by self preservation. Does anybody recognize the picture of this man?
Who is it? Rockefeller. For all of you youngins, go Wikipedia this thing. It's amazing. He was a follower of Jesus, but by 53, he was one of if not the richest man in the world.
He started Standard Oil, in today's terms, way over $500 billion back when he was 53 years old. The problem was, do you remember he was dying.
He couldn't sleep, he couldn't rest. Nothing was enough. He just was dying inside. So he experienced a reversal, we call it in religious terms a conversion experience. And he went back to what he knew from his childhood.
The love is like a lucky penny song. And he began to give it away. He began to give it away. He lived till he was 93. His health reversed.
He started so many foundations. There will be a tree, youngins, that is raised. And you'll see it on the Today show, right? What plaza is it in? Rockefeller Center.
The development of penicillin, all of these other things because he turned his money outwards. Because when he was living under the kingdom of self preservation, it almost killed him. And he read Ecclesiastes, that famous, I believe, kind of most more of an autobiographical look into the life of Solomon, whether somebody else wrote it or not. Here is this idea that when you die you don't know who's going to have your money. So why don't we just kind of enjoy, by the way, a nice meal time with friends and the beauty of your work.
Be generous. Rockefeller got it, but he had to stop on the self preservation. Look what the Bible says. Remember, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give. Not reluctantly, not under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly. So then all times and all things, having all that you.
And then we just stop there and some preacher will get up and say if you give, you're going to get. That is true, it is a lucky penny. But it's not what you think. It's not what I think.
You will have all that you. What's that highlighted word? Need. And God respects and wants the motivation. First Corinthians 13.
Paul will talk about love has nothing to do with marriage, by the way. Sorry to spoil it for you. It has to do with how we relate in church. And it says you can even sacrifice your body to the flame, but if you have not, it's just a clanging gong. You may get your name on a statue.
If it's not done out of love, I believe you will be forgotten.
But people still remember my mom and most of y'all didn't even meet her because she took a jacket to a lady who visited ladies Bible class. Now, if you're visiting with us, I'm seeing face after face after face in this audience. It's gonna be remembered forever. If you're visiting here, you're online.
You gotta go try these people out because y'all are the real deal. I've never seen, and this is a big statement, such a group of cheerful people that will literally give the shirt off your back. And that's a blessing. And you have what you need. You will abound in every.
What is that word again? Good work. Not that you'll live in some kind of big mansion, but you will abound. When that begins to happen, you'll end up having more and you'll have even more good work to do. And here's that verse from Psalms.
They will freely scatter their gifts to the poor. Their righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies God the seed to the sower and bread for the food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your right living.
You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. The service that you perform get this church is not only to supply the needs of the Lord's people. Stop hard. Stop there for a moment.
Remember, people don't really care what we do in here. This is what we do. It's what's expected in our country. But what happens when that overflow begins to happen in the many expressions of thanks to God is not just in this place, but outside these walls. That is a testimony.
That is a testimony. Would you agree?
So when we give freely, others see Christ more clearly. My wife and I are going back to the chosen. This is a great little scene when he literally, if you're not familiar with the chosen, it's their view of how they read the gospel. And it kind of brings some things to life. And Jesus walks with his people with a Roman group, and after they go two miles, they get uncomfortable and start taking the hats and stuff off the people.
And they begin to have conversations about the uniqueness of this two mile idea that Jesus was teaching them about. Why? Because the more we give freely, the more we invest in the kingdom of God, the more that we invest in those outside of ourselves. People begin to see Christ more clearly. My son, when he was in elementary school, we moved to the hills.
I wasn't used to toll booths. And at that time, they still had money. And I had to get from Fort Worth the way over to Frisco to visit somebody in the hospital. And I'm going through every nook and cranny because I was running out of change. It wasn't.
No. I'll just take a picture of your license plate. And I'm at the very end. I'm like, I can't get off to get money. I'm sitting right here, and I'm like, I don't know what to do.
And the greatest thing happened as I walk out, as I go to the toll booth, and I'm like, hey, I have absolutely no money. Can I. What do you want me to do? Because I got to get to this hospital over there. And the guy pulled out of his pocket money and put in the plate.
And he said, man, you're all right now. The reaction to that came from my son. I was very relieved. But my son in elementary school looked at me and said, dad, is that a Christian?
He must have been a Christian at his young age. He realized people don't do that. This guy must be a Christian. So let me ask some questions. As we close, let's go back to our points.
If generosity is not just personal, it's emissional, what is your witness to? A watching world of the why you're generous. I can't answer this for you. I just want you to go to some deep thoughts with the Holy Spirit right now. When you give, is it because you want people to remember your kingdom, or is it because you want them to remember the kingdom of God?
When you serve, do you justify yourself or do you look for those opportunities like the Samaritan, why are you generous? This one. This goes back to the kingdom. Our kingdom, our giving displays God's kingdom values. In a world driven by self preservation, what are you trying to preserve?
Your legacy or the cross of Jesus? Getting ready for this? I read about Chuck Feeney, which some of you may be aware of. And Chuck Feeney was a very big billionaire. Anybody familiar with him?
Google it. Then you'll understand why I'm using his name. He also was a billionaire. Nobody knows his name.
He gave it all away. I know the guy, right now. He gives a lot of money to lcu, and he's like, my kids ain't getting nothing. I'm like, explain that, please, because I would like for you to adopt me. There was a lot of money there.
And I'm like. He goes, no, I'm giving it all away.
It goes against the grain. Chuck Feeney, here's what they said about him. He had a new vision of wealth that you make it and you give it away. And it's funny, you don't even know his name. I'm just gonna.
It's your assignment. Go look up Chuck Feeney and see all the things that he did. I have a plaque in my office. It's kind of strange that I got from a friend of mine, Brandon Erlab, over at the Heights Fellowship, and it simply says this. Preach the gospel, period.
Die, period. Be forgotten, period.
That's pretty cool. Gives you a little understanding of what will endure and what will not. What is your witness of what? When you give. And this one, when we give freely, others see Christ more clearly.
So who is it a witness of?
Is it a witness of Jesus, transformation, power in your life? Or do you just want people to see you?
That's difficult. But when we answer these questions and we examine ourselves and no one's perfect, here's what I want to challenge you to do. Don't look at the grand expressions of generosity this week, and don't look at it from this point forward. Some of you may have the ability to do a grand generosity thing. One of the incredible donors that we have at Lubbock Christian is Al and Pat Smith.
Some of you know them. If you want to get them upset, you honor them, they don't like that. Am I making this up? It is kind of funny, right? We're going to do it anyway, so enjoy it just for a moment.
When he left the board, there was just a small group of people in a room in Amarillo, and we went to his favorite thing and saw the symphony.
He did not want his name on the building there at lcu, But Jesse Long can talk anybody into anything. He's basically an apostle, right? So Jesse said, this will be a good thing.
And anytime you go to visit them, you got to be sure to just say, hey, we just want to say hi. Because they're like, do you need another $500,000? We're like, no, we're here to drink coffee.
That's an incredible thing, because they are unknown donors.
There's a plaque at lcu, and I redid a youth ministry room that says unknown donor, and you'll never know who gave the money. So you're like, if you tell people who gave the money, I will take my money back. And I'm like, fine, easy. Unknown people.
The next thing I want you to consider is if you just live a regular, normal life, whether you can be a big donor or not doesn't matter. It's like, how are you going to treat the people in the next few moments when you leave this parking lot?
Do we run around so fast that we don't stop and say, how are you? And how are you? Do you know that's also generous because you're giving your time in a world that doesn't have any. When you walk around Target and people are like, oh, my word, they're buying toys. Stuff like that.
Say, oh man, rough. You want me just go get something for you really quick and hide it in my cart. You know what I'm talking about? Stuff like that, letting somebody else have your line, giving somebody gifts, just being nice and smiling. My friend Tim Feeney been through a lot.
I'll end here. Graduated high school with him. In a lot of ways, a trail of sorrows. But he's a great guy. Known him since I was 14, 15 years old.
He started a thing about just smile. And he decided, I'm going to do something different. I'm just going to smile at people. And he leaves encouraging messages. He does have a glorious smile.
But he just said, would you just stop and smile at people around? Just. You never know what a smile's going to do. Would you go out of your way and just say, hey, good win the other night, Brian? You know, just stuff like that, I mean, just something.
It makes a difference in people's lives.
Mr. Nelson back there, he doesn't know this. I walked up and there's some college students. I'm like, I can't walk through this door. I need you to watch this. He's about to give me a full body hug.
What did you do? You gave me a full body, you know, hug, Full body, full on. I called you Nelson. Sorry, that's your spawns married name. So I love that.
I need Corey's hugs. I need that generosity because it reminds me of something better and makes the world around us better. So one more time we're all going to stand because we're about to sing. The praise team is going to come up. I'm going to pray.
But everybody stand. I want you to look at the people around you. Give them a smile. Or really, I mean it, not forced.
If you just hugged your family, I need you to turn around and find a stranger and creep them out a little bit. Everybody look at the online community right there. Wave at them. Come and visit. All right, let's be a witness of Jesus.
Father, thank you so much for all the gifts you've given us. Not to keep to ourselves, but. But to be a witness of you, all of these gifts, not to be kept to ourselves, but to show people what kingdom we're actually striving for. Give us all of these gifts to be missional. Father, I just pray that as the scripture teaches, that this week in particular and beyond that we will overflow generosity in our time, in our talents and in our treasure, that people will have a clear vision of your kingdom.
We'll have a clear vision that we want to reach out and not keep in. And, Father, we want to remind people of Jesus every single day. And the church said, amen.