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The Swimmer Bargaining with God |
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Written by Rodney Buchanan, 'Where Your Treasure Is': sermon preached at Mulberry Street United Methodist Church, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, November 12, 2000.
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Burt Reynolds starred in an old film entitled ‘The End’. In the film he decides to commit suicide by swimming out as far as he can until he is exhausted and then just go under. But after going under he is looking at the surface
from the underside and decides not to go through with it. As he breaks the surface of the water he screams: “I want to live! I want to live!” He then begins to try to swim to shore, but it is a very long way off.
As he begins to swim he talks to God. He promises to obey all of the Ten Commandments, and then realises he doesn’t know what all of them are, so he promises to learn them. Then, in his panic, he says, “Lord, if you get me out of this, I will give you 80% of everything I have.” But time passes and he is still going strong, and besides he can just begin to see the shoreline. As he continues to swim he feels his strength holding out and says, “Lord, if you help me to get to shore alive I will give you 10% of all my earnings.” And, finally, he struggles to the place where he sees that he is just going to be able to make it to land and says, “Well, Lord, let’s just forget about what I said before. I think I can make it from here on my own.”
Reynolds’ attitude is reflective of the attitude of many people today. Giving to God or living for God are sometimes thought of as “paying our dues,” or fulfilling an obligation. What should our attitude toward giving be? What is the proper way to give and think about giving? The first point we need to understand is: Giving is an act of worship. It is an expression of gratitude to a faithful God for all his goodness to me. Giving is not just a response to a need in the church, it is a response of gratitude.
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