Giving

              Giving
George Foreman
September 7, 2008
Abstract
George Foreman delivered this sermon at The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in
Houston, Texas, on September 7, 2008. During this sermon, Foreman discusses the
importance of Christians freely giving to others. While Foreman recognizes that giving
money can help people, he primarily advocates sharing personal goods, such as food and
services, during this lesson. Additionally, he encourages his audience to share their
blessings openly with everyone, no matter if they are a Christian or not; Foreman
presents sharing as a basic human good.
Foreman opens the sermon discussing the Biblical story of the Jews trying to cast
out demons (Acts 19:13-16). He uses this illustration to present the idea that Christians
should emulate God and should give to people they know are responsible. Foreman
proceeds to explain that giving and sharing was an integral part to his childhood.
Although he grew up in poverty, Foreman explains that his family treated guests
hospitably and that God provided enough essentials to survive and enjoy life. He
recounts the story of his sisters feeding Pork and Beans to their neighbor to illustrate
this point and encourage the audience to reevaluate their willingness to share with
others. From this point, Foreman underscores that giving to others makes a person feel
good and content in life. Recognizing this, he critiques wealthier individuals’
unwillingness to share with others. Foreman notes that this is very common among
people he knows that were once poor and became rich. He encourages his audience to
learn from the example of his impoverished youth, and give more freely to other people.
In track two, Foreman continues with his previous point and states that people
will never have enough money to be satisfied, and that you should give regardless of
your economic status. As Foreman describes it, giving to others helps you because God
recognizes your benevolence and returns blessings to you. He illustrates this by noting
how often he proved the recipient of others sharing with him throughout his life.
Foreman proceeds into an extended condemnation of asking passengers for gasoline
money. Foreman “hates” when people will give others a ride in their vehicles if the
passenger pays for gas. He states that in his experience, people that ask passengers for
gas are the stingiest people he has ever known. Much of his hatred for asking passengers
to pay for gasoline derives from witnessing people refuse to give his mother a ride to the
grocery store during Foreman’s childhood. He discourages his audience from ever
asking for gas money and give people rides for free. Foreman also discusses that people
should share the produce they grow in their homes with others. Foreman presents two
families he has known in his life that had a limequat tree. Foreman had to steal fruit
from the first family’s tree, but the second family invited him to eat their fruit from the
yard. Foreman uses this illustration to encourage people to be free and open with their
possessions, especially produce they grow for personal enjoyment.
Foreman states to his audience that “life is about giving.” To explain in greater
depth what that mean, he launches into a conversation of how parents, relatives, and
friends should give to children. Foreman notes that children often enter lives at
inopportune times, but responsible parents and guardians should want their children
not to endure the hardships they faced in their own childhoods. To raise children, then,
Foreman discusses that parenting is all about giving to children to make their adult lives
better. Parents have responsibilities to impart knowledge, skills, and objects to children
so they know how to live on their own. Foreman presents a greater hope for the world
during this discussion by noting that if parents continuously give to their children and
others, that will engrain the desire to give within the children. As the children age, this
will create a more loving and generous community that benefits everyone and
diminishes personal hardships.
Foreman concludes his sermon in track three by discussing Luke 6:1-10. This
passage records Jesus and his disciples picking grain from fields and eating it on the
Sabbath day, which the Pharisees criticized. Foreman uses this story to encourage his
audience to give food to the needy. Foreman says a possible way of doing this is to follow
his example and buy extra food at the grocery store specifically to donate to food banks.
Returning to Luke, Foreman reads the story of Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath day
and notes that people should give all the time. There will never be a perfect time to give,
but if a person knows of a special event or a family that needs help, they should be eager
to give money, food, or assistance. Foreman finishes by encouraging his audience to
pray and ask God to help them use their lives to help others.
Subject Guide
Track 1
Always give to others 00:00:01 – 00:02:40
Foreman giving as a youth 00:02:41 – 00:06:15
Giving when you are rich 00:04:39 – 00:06:15
Track 2
Giving when you are rich 00:00:01 – 00:00:52
Do not ask for gas money 00:oo:53 – 00:02:53
Eating fruit 00:02:54 – 00:05:23
Giving to children 00:05:24 – 00:0840
Track 3
Luke 6:1-10 00:00:01 – 00:03:55
Always give 00:03:56 – 00:05:20
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Track 1 begins.
Since I’ve been in church, and this has been going on for years now, over thirty-one
years [since Foreman’s conversion in 1977], that I couldn’t count the amount of
moms and dads who have brought their kids to me and asked if I could help them get
out of trouble. I just told a lady the other day, I said, “I know you, but I don’t know him.”
I said, “I know you, but I don’t know him.”
There’s a story about the vagabond Jews who were exorcists. They had taken
upon themselves to call evil spirits out of a man, this man was possessed with devils.
And these people just because they had heard the story about Jesus Christ, they said,
We’re going to get the Devil out of this person. So they prayed, We [adjourn?] you by
Jesus. So we rebuke you by the name of Jesus whom Paul preached. And so the devil
spoke back to the person from within the man and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know,
but who are you?” It said, the devil jumped on those men from within that man and beat
him all up, and they were running out of the house naked, because you’ve got to make
sure the good Lord knows you.*
[*Story accounted from Acts 19:13-16.]
And that’s the same thing about all of us, make sure the good Lord knows your
children, because there’s no such thing as a good child, and I had the best children in the
world. That’s just a lie, they’re all just kids. Some of them are just known, and people
are, Here’s my baby, here’s my baby. Here’s my son, here’s my son. And do you know
something about them? Because, I have the privilege of praying for children when they
are first born, a few days after the doctors have let them go, then I’ll come up here and
pray for them. And I’ll follow their lives, I really follow their lives, how they’ve done with
their lives, how far one goes, how far the other goes, I watch everything. Then, with that,
you know if I’m looking, how God is watching. God can help your children. He really can
help your children, he can. And you’re going to need God to help all of us and our
children, because a mistake is so easy to make being a child. You can’t help but to fall in
love with these kids when you’re raising them, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Don’t ever worry about, Am I in love with my child. I just love my child. You were born
to love your kids. You don’t ever give up on your children, you’ve always got one more
chance for them. Don’t ever feel like you’re a clown because you keep giving them
another chance. Don’t ever feel like you’re a clown because you keep giving your
husband another chance. Don’t ever feel like you’re stupid because you give your wife
another chance, that’s just the way love is. And sometimes you’ve got to pack it on in,
and say, “You know what, I love you, and let’s go from here.” Always be willing to forgive
and give.
Giving is about the only thing that we can do. And it’s a hard thing because some
people, I’ve been knowing about giving all of my life. Giving, I’ve always known about
giving, and I didn’t know too much about receiving until later on in life, but I was taught
a lot about giving. And how can you know so much more about giving and you don’t
have anything? When I look back at my life, I really didn’t have anything, really didn’t.
There was a boy who had first come in from Louisiana, I forgot his name, my two
sisters were at home most of the time at this time, and the boy was such a good looking
boy, so they really wanted to make an impression on this boy. And so, when it was time
to eat one evening, they said, Would you like to have something to eat? And he said, Yes,
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and they got all shy because they were surprised because generally these boys would say,
“Nope, I’ve already eaten,” or something. I remember we had one can of pork and beans,
one can. I’ve wondered for years why they call them pork and beans, because I never did
find any pork in there. Anyway, you emptied a can of pork and beans in the pot, then
you look at the juice left on the can and you put some water on that and shake it real
good and pour that in there. And then you said, It’s still a little dark, so you pour
another can in there. Then you add a couple of weenies, the ol’ franks, and chop those
things so, and put them in that pot, and we’re going to have a feast, and there was this
boy over. And he sat at the table, he even got the real fork out and knew how to do it,
and he was sitting there enjoying himself with those pork and beans. And we were all
just looking at him saying, “Man, how can a kid like that, such a nice looking boy, enjoy
those pork and beans?” And let me tell you, it wasn’t long before he was back again
looking for more pork and beans. That’s what happens when we were sharing and
giving, and we thought we were something that evening because we were sharing what
we had.
And the whole life went on. I remember growing up having nothing, nothing; but
sharing. Can you imagine sharing nothing? And so as you go on in life, you realize about
the only thing that’s going to amount to something in life is your ability to share what
few things you have. Because people get great things, that’s when they start getting a
little hesitant, they draw back and say, “I don’t have that much.” I used to have people
tell me, as soon as I became the world champion and I made my little fortune in boxing,
I was about twenty-five, twenty-three years old, first thing people started telling me,
“George, you know, you can’t give everything you have away. You give everything you
have, and the same people that will be asking for it will not give you a dime.” I said, Why
didn’t they tell me that when I had given them pork and beans? Why didn’t they tell me
that when I was giving those little cents? I’d go out with my buddies and we’d turn in
those [glass drink] bottles, and some of those bottles you get a couple pennies back, and
every now and then there’s a big bottle, like 7Up [soft drink], and some of those bottle’s
they’d give you a nickel back. And you’d share those and nobody ever said a word about
that. “Don’t give everything you have, sometimes people never give you anything.” But
as soon as I had a lot, I started getting these lectures about, “Don’t giving everything
away, the same people.” Do you understand about sharing? And the one thing you’ve got
to hold on to that niche about sharing is that when you don’t have anything, hold that
because God can use that. And because of that, if you share properly, God will see that
he shares his wealth with you too. And the old song is that “He’s…
Track 1 ends; track 2 begins.
“…Got the whole world in his hand.” God can share his great fortune with you if
you just give a little bit of what you have. Don’t worry about, I don’t have enough. You
don’t even have enough if you have everything.
I was looking at a guy, became so wealthy, Ted Turner, he got so much stock
when he sold his company, CNN, and let me tell you, he was a top guy. And all of a
sudden, that stock went down and down. I heard him on TV, “Man I don’t have what I
used to have.” In other words, I don’t have enough to do a lot of things I used to do. So
it’s not like anyone’s going to have enough, you never have enough. All you’re going to
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has is a little bit, and we must learn to share and be grateful for what we have, that way
we can share it. Like that guy that was looking over there trying to find the last bean
with that little fork, I looked at him, and he made those beans look good.
In life, I’ve tried to do my best to be one known to give, but I’ve been a recipient
of a lot of giving in my life and watched my dear mother, and family, and friends give
too. They just give. That’s why I hate, I hate, I hate when someone asks you for gas when
they give you a ride, I hate that. “I’ll give you, but I don’t have any gas,” I hate that. I
hate that, I really do, especially someone giving a woman a ride and asking for some gas.
What about you? You say, “Well I don’t have this much gas.”
Well then, just tell them, “I can’t take you.”
Say, “Can you give me a ride?”
“No, I can’t take you,” but don’t ask people for gas, don’t do that. “I’m not going
to use up all my gas,” [laughter] because I’ve learned the most selfish people in my life
were always the ones who were talking about, I don’t have enough gas to give you a ride
to the store.
Because my dear mother had all these kids, that wasn’t anyone’s fault, don’t get
me wrong, she was the one who decided to have the kids, Amen? If you decide to have
the kids, you better decide what you’re going to do about them. But anyways,
occasionally she was in a tight spot and she just needed a little ride to the store, and they
said, I don’t have any gas. How can you not have gas with a full tank? You know they
said, “I’m not going to give you any of my gas, I’m not going to ride you around.” You
just never know, that person may come around and have a car one day and you don’t
have one, always give little things, and God will give back to you. Never say that. Never
say that, just say, “I’m not going to take you, I’m not going to do it. People can deal with
that, but saying, “I don’t have gas,” with a whole tank of gas. “Well that’s for next week.”
We may not even be here next year, we may not even be here for next week, next month,
we might not even be here for tomorrow; worry about giving.
Be known for those who give and God will give to you. And this is a story, and I
see scratches and stress through about giving and how important it is that God made all
the commandments, the commandments were about giving, being nice to each other.
The fruit that grows was grown for you. Everything that grows is for you. I can
remember, there was a couple down the street, they had these limequats, a little yellow
fruit, they grows sometime in the fall, the get reall yellow and they get sort of a bitter
sweet to them.* Not kumquats, but limequats. And these people would have these trees
filled with those things, and I knew the only way that I was going to get some of those
things off of that tree, I was going to have to steal them. Sometimes I stepped in stickers
and everything else trying to get those little things. And then, how in the world are you
going to grow fruit trees in your yard, or whatever, and not let people eat them? And I’d
see people, I’d say, “Man, you know there’s a certain time of year when you better eat
those things or they’re going to rot.” And you’ll be looking and say, “I’m not waiting, I’m
getting me some of those things.” People would jump out of there and say, “What are
ya’ll doing out there?”
[*Foreman is referring to either Limequats, hybrids of key limes and kumquats,
or Sunquats, hybrids of lemons and Kumquats.]
“Eating these limequats is what I’m doing.” [eating noise]. Well the fruit were not
grown to show how pretty and how nice it was. And I grew up and when I got to be a big
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man I decided, You know what, I’m not stealing. I’m just going into those yards and
eating all the limequats I want, I’m just eating.
I was in Florida walking down the street, back in the [19]’80s, I’d gone to boxing
and I started walking and exercising and running, and there were these nice grapefruit
and oranges on the trees. I said, I ain’t stealing, I’m going out here. And I just stopped
there and peeled me some and ate them, and I said, Come out if you want, I’m eating
this time. Because what are those fruit for? They’re for people to eat. And you decide to
grown berries in your yard and everything, remember, it’s for some of us to eat. And I sit
there to this day, going to the gym now, there’s a house on the left before you get to the
gym, these people grow the nice limequats, I mean they are the nicest, juiciest. So I had
my suit on one day, and I went and knocked on the door, I saw them backing out, I said,
“I’m going to eat some more of these, is that okay?”
They said, Yeah, eat all you want.
I said, “I’m going to do that anyway.” [laughter] But they were nice. I told them,
“It’s alright?”
They said, It was alright. I don’t know how many I had eaten before I asked if it
was okay. But they really kind of enjoyed me eating those fruit.
Giving, it’s all about giving. There’s always something that we can do for one
another if we just decide to give, give. Don’t ever get tired of giving, don’t ever be weary
of giving, and giving, and giving, and giving. Again and again and again, because
sometimes women don’t even know until they have a kid, sometime, or they’ll take over,
you know sometimes you’re living in a home and someone will drop your nephew and
niece over and say, “Take care of the kid, I’ll be back. Can you help me with my baby for
a couple of months?” The people stop and then they realize, “My gracious, all the hard
knocks I had in life, phew [exclamation], all the bad things that happened to me, I’ve got
to make certain it doesn’t happen to these kids. And the only way to avoid it is I’m going
to have to give to them. I’m going to have to give to them.” Give. Then all of a sudden
you realize your whole life, after you get to be a woman, it’s not about how pretty and
cute you were, it was about how much you can give before it’s time for you to leave.
That’s the same with a man. Sometimes they don’t even realize it, and all of a
sudden they’re like, “Man, we’ve got to make sure this kid doesn’t get in trouble.” What
are you doing? I had to get him out of here first, and show him how to shift these gears,
I’ve got to show him how to drive these cars. All the things that cause me trouble, I’ve
got to make certain that he doesn’t get into this kind of trouble. I’ve got to give this boy
some of my time. I’ve got to teach him how to cut the grass. Then you keep looking and
looking, and you realize, I don’t have that much time in life, I better teach this boy all I
can. Then he has what he needs so that eventually he can give it to someone else. Life is
about giving, and giving, and giving. And don’t ever get tired of giving. Giving to
children, giving to friends, giving to mothers, giving to fathers, because what you really
give when you give people is you give them that identity that they know how to give
themselves.
We all got to learn how to give until we’re just tired, then we leave something
when it’s time to go. Like when my granddaughter said, “Once you’re a butterfly you
can’t go back to being one of those bugs.” What do they call it, a caterpillar. You can’t go
back. So before you turn into a butterfly, make sure you do all the things you can as a
caterpillar to teach your children, and your family and your friends how to give. So you
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tell your kids in the morning, “Get up and get a job! You need to get up and get a job
because you’re just laying around and you’re lazy and not doing anything!” Why?
Because you need a job so you can give. You need money in your pockets so that you can
give. That’s what you need money for. Yes, your whole life is supposed to be tucked away
into giving, and as you give, what will happen is any man or woman when you start
giving and giving and giving, it gets into your genes. You know gene therapy, [laughter]
gene splice, or whatever they call it. It gets into your genes, and the next thing you know,
you’ll have a baby hit the ground just giving, giving, giving. Then, it gets into his gene, he
starts giving and giving and giving. “Well I don’t have a baby.” Well, just keep on giving
on your nieces and your nephews. Then you jump off on your school kids who you’re
teaching in class, just give. Just keep giving. And that’s what life is about: giving before
it’s time to give up the ghost [die].
Track 2 ends; track 3 begins.
“And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first, that he went through
the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in
their hands.” That must have been good. “And certain of the Pharisees said unto them,
‘Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days?’ And Jesus answering
them said, ‘Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an
hungred, and they which were with him; How he went into the house of God, and did
take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not
lawful to eat but for the priests alone?’ And he said unto them, ‘That the Son of man is
Lord also of the Sabbath.’” [Luke 6] You see, you can’t just store food because it’s a
tradition, food was meant to eat. That’s what he’s trying to tell them. The food you had
was meant to eat, t was meant to eat. That’s why every now and then all of us should try
to [give], because I know I have a habit of this, when you grow up so poor as I did, you
always over-shop. I buy all the things that I know I just can’t eat that stuff anymore, but
you tell me that I don’t go to the store shopping and I’m not going to get some Spam,
you’re wrong.* Because as a little kid, I used to take a little thin slice of that Spam, mh-mh-
mh. So now, I just buy it, buy it, buy it, and just sit there and look at it. But then I’m
thinking, There’s always some of these food banks that always need a little something
extra, and you can go, and I do it al the time, for the sake of my feeling good, and I’ve
seen my wife do it too, buy food. I see a lot of people do it, I see stacks of it in the major
stores, where you pay and you buy these things and they put it in the box. You buy some
food, and you say, “I’ve got enough, I better put some over in the box that they put into
these food banks for other people.” Just always when you eat think about someone else,
that will get into your genes, and it will spread. And before you know it, the person next
to you in the store sees you do it and they say, “I can do that too.” It just spreads like a
disease, everybody’s giving, and next thing you know, no one’s hungry.
[*Spam is a canned, precooked pork product.]
Give. That’s what he [Jesus] meant, Can you imagine that I’m hungry and I can’t
eat? You’ve got this this food and I can’t eat it and the people with me? “And he said
unto them, ‘That the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. And it came to pass also on
another Sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man
whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he
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would heal on the Sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. But he
knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, ‘Rise up, and
stand forth in the midst.’ And he arose and stood forth.” [Luke 6:5-8] He [Jesus] told
him, Get up, he knew they [the Pharisees] were looking to get him into trouble, but
sometimes you don’t worry about getting yourself in trouble, you just give. If you get in
trouble for giving, then you can live with that. It doesn’t matter how stupid you look,
“You mean you helped him again? I can’t believe you are stupid like that.” Just suck it
in, you knew they were going to say it before you did it. But he was going to get ready to
get himself killed. He said, “‘Rise up and stand forth in the midst.’ And he arose and
stood forth,” the man. “Then said Jesus unto them, ‘I will ask you one thing,’” he says, If
you’re looking to accuse me, “‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil?
To save life, or to destroy it,’” since you treasure the Sabbath day, “‘And looking round
about upon them all, he said unto the man, ‘Stretch forth thy hand.’ And he did so: and
his hand was restored whole as the other.” [Luke 6:8-10] Isn’t that beautiful?
First, he asked them, Do you want to do good on this day, or bad? They couldn’t
open their mouths, and that’s what we realize, you want to do good. If you’ve got two
dollars in your pocket, do good with that two dollars. Don’t wait, “If Lord I only had five
dollars.” You’re not going to do any better with five dollars as you’ve done with that two.
If you don’t see goodness in two dollars, you will never see goodness in five, you just
won’t get it, you will not get it. You know why? Because somebody may have messed it
up in your genes. [laughter] You know you can clean those genes up quick, all you havet
to do is start giving. Start giving. You see someone just had a new baby, you know they
had a new baby, send them over five dollars, send them over six dollars. Well they didn’t
have, what do the call those things, a baby shower. Well, they don’t need a baby shower,
you know they have a baby. Do the good, get that stuff working in you, next thing you
know, it’s all around you. It’s in your genes, give, give!
“Did you hear so-and-so is getting ready to lose her home?” Offer her a room, or
shut up. I’m exaggerating the point, but there’s a lot that we can give. There’s a lot that
we can do for one another, you’d be surprised, all you’ve got to do is ask yourself, “Lord,
what can I do? What can I do to make this world better? What can I do? Give me a
chance to use my life for more than just talk, especially talking about people. Use my life
for helping human beings before I die.”
End of sermon.