Sermonette:  The Twenty Dollar Tip

by Chris Cumming       MP3     MP4    printer-friendly

Please turn in your Bibles to Acts 20 and verse 35..,

Here we see Paul state...

I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. –Acts 20:35

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."  Have you ever meditated on that statement?  Often when it is stated, one is attempting to show another that giving has a higher spiritual value than receiving.  However, the first part of the verse says that the giver is more blessed for giving.  How is that?  How is one more blessed?  Let us take a look.  Notice a commentary...

Acts 20:35
[It is more blessed to give] It is a higher privilege; it tends more to the happiness of the individual and of the world. The giver is more blessed or happy than the receiver. This appears:

(1) Because it is a condition for which we should be thankful when we are in a situation to promote the happiness of others.

(2) Because it tends to promote the happiness of the benefactor himself. There is pleasure in the act of giving when it is done with pure motives. It promotes our own peace; is followed by happiness in the recollection of it; and will be followed by happiness forever. That is the most truly happy man who is most benevolent. –(from Barnes' Notes)

We are blessed in at least four areas:

1) We are thankful for being in a situation in which we CAN give.
2) It promotes inner peace.
3) There is happiness in the recollection of the specific act of giving you performed.
4) The promise that our giving will be followed by eternal happiness.

I get excited just pondering that list of blessings, especially number three, the recollection of the act. In fact, that is the purpose of my sermonette this morning…to encourage all of you to establish a List of Recollections…Recollections of Giving.

Let me share with you now, just one example of how this blessing of recollection works.  I call it the "Twenty Dollar Tip".

Several years ago my wife, Joan and I began a tradition.  If, when eating in a restaurant, we observed a waiter or waitress going above and beyond the call of duty and/or demonstrating an excellence in their work, we would call them to our table, inform them of what we had observed in their work and then present them with a twenty dollar bill with our thanks.  As time went on, this tradition expanded to more than just restaurant wait staff.  Joan and I began this tradition with the giving of ten dollar bills, but as time went on we increased it to twenty. Here are some recollections...

Note: Hear these in the video and audio versions of this sermonette

Recollection 1: Wedding Anniversary trip to Ocean Shores.

Recollection 2: Vacationing at Lake Tahoe in 2004—The little old lady coffee shop host

Recollection 3: The Dick’s Drive-in Story

Recollection 4...a Two-fer in Wichita Falls in 2002.  

These are just some of the many recollections I have.  It IS more blessed to give than to receive.  Those tens and twenties are long spent now by those individuals, but the memories of having given them will be with me forever and bring me great joy. 

The most exciting thing about this is that you can make up your own tradition of giving.  It doesn't have to be restaurant wait staff.  It might be the idea of slipping some money to a widow at the Feast, volunteering to work in a soup kitchen or seeing to the needs of someone right there in your own congregation.  The benefits and blessings will be the same. 

Start your own list of Recollections!!

 

 
 

back to top    back to Sermons   home