The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
 
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
 
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
 
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, is an encouragement to everyone to go against conventional wisdom, to try another route, to go off in another direction. Listen to the last stanza again.

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference."
(Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken")

Those words should really resonate with us because Christians are called to live counter-culture. The people of God are compelled to take the road less traveled. The call of the gospel is a call of reckless abandon. It is a call to leave the safe haven in favor of the dangerous. The problem that we run into is that the majority of American Christians don’t have a radical or dangerous bone in their body. Don’t get me wrong; we love Jesus. We try to please him with our lives. But this love for Jesus and this desire to serve him must be kept in its proper place and perspective in our lives. Let’s not be fanatical about it. Let’s not lose our heads. Let’s not get too radical here.

And therein lies the problem. The call of God is a radical call. It is a dangerous call. But we miss this because somehow we’ve created a way to make God fit our nice, comfortable, American lifestyle. As long as God and the American dream can coexist in our lives, then it’s peaches-and-cream. But what happens when God’s call runs counter to our culture’s understanding? What happens when God asks us to do something that pushes us beyond what we’re comfortable with? What do we do when God directs us down a road less traveled? That’s exactly where we find ourselves today.

This is the second message in our In God We Trust? series. The series is based on Proverbs 3. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim with new wine.” (Proverbs 3:5-6, 9-10, NIV)

We’re going on a journey of trust through this series. Last week we learned that to trust God, I’ve got to trust him with tangible things, such as my resources and my money. Today, as we open the Word of God and search out its truth, we discover that Trusting God Means Following…Wherever.

In the Bible, you can read story after story after story about people who trusted God. But what you quickly discover is that trusting God and following God are inextricably linked. If a person trusted God, then they had to leave one place and go somewhere else. They had to leave the comfortable and tread into the unknown. They had to leave the safe for the dangerous, because trusting God means following, wherever.

We see this truth played out in the very first book of the Bible. In the book of Genesis, we meet a guy named Abraham who chose to follow God wherever.

“The LORD had said to Abram [later called Abraham], "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." So Abram left, as the LORD had told him.” (Genesis 12:1-4a, NIV)

Abraham had to leave everything that he knew. Everything that was comfortable. Everything that was safe. He had to leave it all. God promised incredible blessings in his life, but only if Abraham would leave everything he knew behind. And not only did God tell him to leave all this behind, but he didn’t even tell him where he would end up. He simply said, “Trust me. I’ll show you where you’re going, but I’ll show you in my time, not yours.”

Last week we talked about trusting God even when we’re not sure what God is doing. Abraham had to trust God to leave everything he knew, without knowing where God was taking him or what God was doing. And when you understand that, the last words of this passage are incredible:

Abram left, as the LORD had told him.

Throughout history, God has called people to leave this in favor of that. It is a trust issue because we know the this. We know what we’re called to leave behind. However, we’re not so sure of the that. We’re not certain of where God will lead us, we don’t know his plan, we just don’t have a clue what God is up to.

But trusting God means following God wherever he leads us. If it’s uncertain territory, trust means that we go. If it’s dangerous territory, trust means that we go. Trust means that we don’t know what lies ahead of us, but whatever it is, we believe that God is bigger.

And this plays out in a very practical, real way in our lives because God is issuing an Abrahamic call in each of our lives. Everyone in this room today is an Abraham because, like Abraham, God is calling us to follow his lead. His calling is for us to enter a new, unfamiliar, and dangerous land. The land of generosity.

Listen to God’s call to enter this strange, new land. The call comes from 1 Timothy 6.

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19, NIV)

Let’s spend a minute unpacking these verses. First, we need to see who it is directed toward:

“those who are rich in this present world.” (1 Timothy 6:17a, NIV) Most of us would read that and say, “Oh, it’s for Donald Trump, not me. I’m not rich.” A few weeks ago in our Games People Play series, we talked about this issue in our Monopoly message. I won’t repeat all the same statistics from that message. If you’re interested, you can go to ameliachurchofchrist.com and listen to that message again. But the point we made is this: we are among the wealthiest people on the face of this planet. In fact, we learned that if your combined family income exceeds $25,000 a year, then you are among the top 2% wealthiest people in the world. ‘Nuff said. This call from 1 Timothy is for all those who are “rich in this present world.” Nearly every one of us qualifies.

Now that we’ve established that this call is for us, what are we called to do? First we’re called to put our hope, or our trust, in God instead of in our stuff.

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” (1 Timothy 6:17, NIV)

Like we’ve been saying all along in this series, the first step is a trust decision. God calls us to put our hope and our trust in him instead of our money and our resources. And he says that before he gives us instructions about our money and our resources. Trust always precedes the particulars.

But once we make this trust decision, then God gives us more specific instructions.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19, NIV)

We make the decision: God, I’m going to trust you. Then God says, “Ok, then be generous with what you have.” He tells us to “do good and be rich in good deeds.” Be generous with your time and your talent and your service to others. He also tells us to “be generous and willing to share.” Be generous with your money and your resources.

This actually debunks a popular excuse you’ll hear from a lot of people. “I’m really generous with my time. I give my talents for God. I serve other people. This is the way that I am generous.” That’s great. All of that is pleasing to God, but we cannot convince ourselves that this is where generosity stops. We can’t use that as an excuse to be tightfisted with our money. We are called to be generous with our time and talent, but that’s not enough. God also calls us to be generous with our money and our resources. Giving money does not excuse us from serving, but the flipside is also true. Serving and giving of your time does not excuse us from generously giving of our money.

One more note from our passage: this isn’t a suggestion from the Lord. It is a commandment. The word “command” appears twice in the passage. Some of your translations may use the word “charge,” but the idea is the same.

The point is that in the life of a Christ-follower, generosity is not optional.

My dad and my youngest are brother are on a mission trip in Brazil right now. They are in a country whose official language is Portuguese. They don’t speak a word of Portuguese. They are working in remote villages along the Amazon River that don’t have electricity or sanitation or anything else that we take for granted in our country. In every way, they are in a foreign land.

Trusting God means following him into the land of generosity…and make no mistake, it is a foreign land. It’s foreign to us because it conflicts and it contradicts everything that we have ever learned in our culture.

Our culture’s view of generosity is writing a check when something disastrous happens. Something like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina. Generosity in our culture is dropping some change in a Salvation Army kettle at Christmastime.

But God’s view of generosity doesn’t wait for a tragedy and it isn’t reserved for one time a year. It is a part of our daily lifestyle. Generosity is an integral part of the tapestry of our lives.

And God tells us in His Word where our generosity begins: it begins in the church.

Galatians 6 says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Galatians 6:10, NIV) This is a surprising verse to some people because what we learn is that our good deeds and our generosity go, first and foremost, to the family of believers, or the church. It doesn’t say that we can give to other causes, but it does say that, for the believer, the primary place for generosity is the church.

It is no accident that we collect an offering each week. We don’t apologize for that. It is the Biblical way that the church funds its ministries. If Christians stop giving to the church, the church ceases to exist. Check that. If Christians stop giving generously to the church, the church ceases to exist.

Take a minute and piece together what we’ve learned this morning. God has called us to trust him by following him into the land of generosity. Generosity is not optional in the life of a believer. And that generosity begins within the church. Add all that up and what do you get?

God is calling each one of us to give generously to his church, and following his call is not optional.

Let me be bluntly honest. And if you’re visiting with us this morning, don’t check out on me, but this is for our members and regular attenders. Our church is struggling financially. Our giving has dropped off and that affects nearly everything we do. We are not able to send as much to our missions all over the world. Our ministries here at home are under funded. We have come up with great ideas and we have seen wonderful opportunities, and yet we’ve had to let them pass by because we couldn’t afford to take them on. And I have to wonder if all of us internalized the Scriptural truth of generous giving, wouldn’t these problems melt away?

But, but, but…you don’t understand. Do you know how hard it is for me to give generously? You don’t have a clue what is happening in my life right now! I can’t imagine what would happen if I gave more. I just can’t afford to be generous right now.

What if Abraham told God, “But God, I can’t follow you away from here. This is what I know. It’s where I’m comfortable and safe. And besides, you haven’t given me enough details about where you want me to go. I can’t trust you until I have all the facts.” But instead of playing it safe, Abraham had a dangerous and a reckless faith.

The Bible says, “It was faith that made Abraham obey when God called him to go out to a country which God had promised to give him. He left his own country without knowing where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8, GNB)

Like Abraham, God is calling us to follow him wherever. He desperately wants to lead us into the land of generosity. Even though we’re not sure where we’re going or what will happen, even though it seems reckless and dangerous, he is simply saying, “Trust me.”

As we wrestle with the decision to trust God in our generosity, let’s remember this:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, ESV)

“For God so loved the world that he gave…” Generosity and giving are at the very heart of who God is. Through his sacrifice on the cross, he has lavished an incomprehensibly generous gift on us. So when God calls us to give, when he commands us to be generous, let’s stop and consider the cross…consider the price that God was willing to pay for you and for me…and then consider how you want to tell God that you just can’t be generous right now.

Mike Edmisten