The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 5

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 5

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, we are going to get started. I'm going to switch places with you here because I can steal your notes. This is our last week on this series and we have been in the Lost Art of Generosity series. Okay, I'll get my own notes. I guess he's taking my notes. Oh, I thought that was us. All right, I'll grab my own. We have spent several weeks talking about the idea of being generous and we've really talked a lot about the why. Why should we be generous or even why do we struggle with the idea of being generous? Why is that hard for some of us? But then why we as Christ followers should be generous. We really dive deep into that. First, we talked about that there's more joy in giving than in receiving. And then we went into the idea of being on the lookout, the importance of being on the lookout for greed because it sneaks up, especially when you're trying to be generous. When you're making that effort, it just kind of sneaks that greed in and he wants to derail that, those efforts. And then we dug into how everything we have belongs to God. And for some of us that may be a hard concept to get, but for others that could be really freeing. It's like, well, it's all God's anyway, so why not be generous, right? And then last week we talked about being generous to the poor. What that looks like, why should that be a value for us and the importance of that. So today, we're going to be diving more into the how. How should we put this into action? We've learned a lot, we've talked about a lot, but now how do we actually put feet on this and go do something with what we've learned? So today we each have some practical steps for you that we want to share with you as you journey on this generosity practice, as you make it a practice, a regular thing in your life. Now, we want to acknowledge too that practicing generosity does require a measure of faith. It can be hard, especially if you're really just trying to get started, that can be really difficult, and it does require faith. Faith that God's going to provide for you when you're being generous to others. Faith that God is going to use whatever you are giving, however he sees fit.

But we actually, in our preparation for this series, we heard this one quote from John Timber, he said, "Faith is spelled R-I-S-K." And sometimes, taking those risks and stepping out in faith does reap huge rewards. And we believe that as you practice generosity, as you implement these things, you're going to witness miracles. God loves to show his hand when it comes to generosity and moving mountains and providing for his people. So when we give, we become these vessels, these conduits for God to show his love to other people. We get to be a part of that. And so, we just want to encourage you that as you endeavor to do this, it will be risky, it will take a measure of faith, but he is good to show up, to be generous to us as we show generosity to others. The reality is though, living a generous life, it requires a plan. It'll happen spontaneously occasionally here and there, but it's not going to be a consistent practice for you if you don't plan. So the reality is that the foundation you need is your budget. What does that look like for you? Creating some sort of plan to give. We will have some practical things for you, but none of those are going to happen really well or consistently if you haven't created margin in your life and in your budget for giving, for generosity. So that's kind of the foundation that we want you to start with. If you have never practiced generosity, or at least on a consistent basis, start there. Start by creating a line item for giving. Create space, margin in your life, in your budget to give. We want to help you build a life of generosity, just like an architect has blueprints for a house. Creating a budget with generosity in mind will be a blueprint to practice generosity consistently.

Yeah, so to integrate some of these biblical practices that we've been talking about, I want to ask a couple questions on behalf of us that are important for us to think about. And the answers to these will help us again lay that foundation. So the first one is maybe one that you've already been asking yourself, which is when should I start to give? And the answer is pretty simple. It's now. You may be saying, "But I don't have enough," or "I'm not there yet. My budget..." Again, take what Lauren was saying. But the answer is now. It's easier to give a little now than when you think you'll have more in the future. Proverbs 23, 4 through 5 says, "Don't wear yourself out to get rich, because you know better. Stop. As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears. It makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky." Wealth is uncertain. There is no guarantee that you will be able to give later on. If you don't let your heart be formed in generosity now through practicing it, you may not have the heart later to be able to practice generosity. Even though you're going to tell yourself that. You're going to be like, "Hey, when I have more, that's when I'll be generous." If you don't start now, it's like a muscle that we work out. You won't be able to do that when you have more on your plate. You need to start now. We might have thoughts that say, "I don't have the wealth to give away." Honesty is for those who have more than I do. But did you know that the most generous demographic of people in America are working-class Christians? Because there is a deep value and belief in what Jesus teaches that speaks to us and our need to give like Jesus gave. So, again, some of the lies are that the more people get, then the easier it is to give. So really, the more people get, the less they are to-- they tend to be less generous. So don't be a statistic or a person who makes more just to spend more. Start now, even if it's very small, but go on this journey of a lifetime of being generous. So that's the first question. When? Well, the answer is now.

Secondly, where should I give? We answered this throughout the couple weeks, but we're going to come-- this is where we're going to spend most of our time today, but just really quickly, the answer is where you want to give to the poor, to the church, and to the advancement of the gospel. We'll talk more about those in just a second.

Lastly, again, this is maybe a question that you've asked throughout this series, is how much should I give? Pastor Andre, Pastor Chris, Pastor Andrei, I need a number. Give me that number. We don't have a number for you. Jesus and the New Testament do not have an equation that tells us, "Input this and this, and at the end you will get the exact number that you are to give." That would be very easy. That would make it, again, just a lot easier, but it would kind of take out the faith. It would take out the belief and why we're doing it. Paul talks about the need to listen to the Spirit in what you are to give. Don't just base it off of what you think. Your heart is sinful. Your heart is selfish. Listen to God. Pray to God. Go before Him and ask for help in discerning how much to give. And this is going to look different. It's not the same for everyone in this room. A high school senior who just got a job and they're giving is going to look different than someone who's retired in a different stage of life. A person who makes so much and another person who makes maybe a lot more, the giving is going to look different. And that is okay. And we're not here to judge other people's giving. But we are here to be obedient to God. We want to be coming before Him in prayer and saying, "God, how much do you want me to give?" And another way of saying this, too, is that question that we asked a couple weeks ago, "God, how much do you want me to keep?" So those are some questions that maybe you've been wondering about, and those are the answers that will help us. We look at this art of generosity and begin to really dive into specifically where there are things we are to give to.

I love what it says in the Word of God when He talks about in Deuteronomy, there's this concept in this ancient biblical theology practice called first fruits. And the basic idea here is that whenever we receive income, we immediately give a portion back to God. And traditionally, a lot of this has been seen as in Deuteronomy, as the Old Testament or in the life of the Israelites, that that house of God to God was seen specifically in the temple of God. And so when Jesus, when God was setting up the Israelites and He brought them out of slavery in Egypt, He's establishing them as a people group, He begins to give them some rules of life of how to live and the rhythms and practices that He wants to see in their lives. And the first of which of that He talks through is the first fruits. And so the question in this is, we give to God our first fruits with special attention to the poor, the gospel, and specifically the church. And this happens right away. This doesn't happen after we've paid all of our bills or when we finally bought everything on our wish list or we have an empty Amazon card. It happens and it's giving the first portion. It's not the leftover, it's the good stuff. It says in Deuteronomy specifically where the currency of the time was grain, it was oil, it was the things that they grew, it was even down to the shearing of their sheep. The first wool of the sheep would be given to God for the use in the temple for the Israelite people. And maybe in this, this first portion is something new for you. Maybe you've never heard of something like this before. My wife, Lauren, and I, we practice this by the first thing that we spend money when a paycheck comes in is a check to the church. It's the very first thing that we spend our money on. When it comes in, it's the first thing that goes out. And it's hard. This is really hard because you think about it, you go, "Okay, God, am I going to have enough this month?" And I'll tell you, the times where I've thought that and I've held back wasn't enough. But those times that we were faithful in our first fruits to give the first the best, there was always enough every single month. And maybe for you this is a percentage that you give, maybe it's in the tithe, maybe it's a little less, maybe a little more. But what matters, the amount that changes in situation to situation, praying about it in God, but it is the first. It is the very first. And so then the question becomes, as Andre asked this morning, it's like, "How much? How much are we supposed to give? Is there a perfect mathematical equation in Scripture?" There isn't, but we have some different Scriptures that talk about some key elements in that, and that would be, "How much do we give?" The first answer would be, "At least some." At least some. That is the starting line.

And when we look in the Scripture in Malachi 3.10, it says, "Bring the whole tithe," maybe you've heard that word before, "into the storehouse or the temple, that there may be enough food in my house." These are the words of God himself. And this word here, tithe, means masar in Hebrew, and it actually means a tenth, one tenth. And this is the ancient practice in the Israelite people of giving 10% of our income away to God. And I've heard so many conversations with this in the church. The question of, "Is it gross? Is it net? Does it have to be exactly 10%? Is this still a mandate or a prerequisite or a requirement for followers of Jesus today? Does it get divided up? Does it only go to the church? Does 10% get split how I want to see it split?" And many followers of Jesus for a very long time have found this practice of tithing as a baseline for a lifestyle of generosity. And frankly, I know some of you, you're doing some numbers in your head right now, right? You know what your paycheck is and you think about the 10% and you think, "Pastor Chris, there is no chance." You seen the cost of eggs and bananas lately? We had a sign out here that said, "How can this be the cost of living when Jesus paid it all?" We were making fun of like, "The reality of life is expensive right now, right?" And all the looming tariffs and oil refineries shutting down and everything like that, gas could be $15 in California. Like, we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, but you know who does? And so for some of us to start our tithing journey in generosity, it may start with 1%. It may start with having to take a real hard look at what we spend our money on every single month. And we had talked about this before, it beginning to create margins. And for some of you, cutting 10% is easy. Pastor, I can give it to you right now, no problem. And I think for some of us, if you're in that boat, 10% isn't enough. And we see this baseline in scripture that this isn't the end all be all. You go, "God, I gave you my 10%, I'm good to go, I don't have to do anything else, I'm done." But for some of you, it needs to be like you're talking about faith being a risk. You got to step out in faith. There's months where I cut that child check for 10% and it's like, "That's good, it's easy." And there's other times I'm signing my name at the bottom of that check going, "God, I'm going to need you to show up. I need you to be there." Because this 90% in my math right now in my mind ain't going to happen. I've heard incredible stories of people who start working towards a 10% and maybe every year they add a percent. And so every year they get there and then they find themselves at the 10 mark and they go, "I'm not going to stop." And they continue to go on in 11 and 12 and 13 and 14. I've heard stories of people giving 80% away because all they need is 20% to live on. And like Andre said, this is going to look different for every single one of us. But what we need to do is step out in faith and trust God and what He is calling us to. There's a principle here in the New Testament when they had the early church that as their income increased, they gave more and increased their percentage of giving. The more you make, the more you're able to be generous with God.

An example of this might be something called a generosity fund, where you begin to in your budget put away 50 bucks maybe. And you have that ready to go and Lauren and Pastor Andre are going to talk about some other ways to be kind of like spontaneous generous with people. But the idea here maybe is to take 1% above your tithe and to set aside as a blessing fund just to bless people. Wouldn't that be amazing? That each and every one of us had 1% of our budget in our income just sitting around to just bless people. Man, that would be absolutely incredible.

But this takes practice. This isn't something we learn overnight. It isn't immediate. It takes time. It takes faith. It takes daily decisions. It takes risk. You have to completely change the way that we spend our money every single day, week, month, and year. That's just how it happens. And as you step further into your walk with Christ, not just in trusting Him and saying, "I trust you God in word," but trusting God through our actions and managing what He has blessed us with the way that He wants us to. For some it might be you have to start packing lunch to work. You might have to change the subscriptions you have every single month. You might have to cook more food at home. You might have to drive your paid off car rather than trading in for a new one that comes with a payment. You might have to stay where you live right now and not upsize your house or apartment. You might have to wear the same clothes that you've worn for a couple years instead of buying brand new ones, or you might need to simplify your wardrobe. You might just have to be in a season of just saying no to things because you're saying yes to generosity in God and going, "No, not yet." I'm telling myself that right now. There's a couple things I've been saving up for. I've been saving for a truck since 2018. I'm still saving. Price of trucks are going up faster than my savings. And I see them on the freeway all the time and go, "Oh, that would be sweet in one of those babies." But I know God's like, "Not yet. I need you to trust me." And so I continue to trust God. Because when we live under our income or under our means, there is capacity and margin for us to give more away. I want to be known as a person who is generous with everything that they have. Christ was ultimately generous with His life, right, on the cross for us. So we too, in turn, can be generous as well. Some of the most generous people I know are the most joyful, carefree, happy, cheerful people in the church. And I don't think it's a coincidence that it's tied to how they handle their finances. The life that Jesus calls us to is one that He promises hope, joy, peace, and freedom. And the world promises the gathering of more things, right? Just empty promises and failed promises. I want to be people who are known by their generosity and by people who change the world with what God has blessed.

All right, well, Pastor Chris covered about giving locally to the church and bringing our tithes to the storehouse. But I'm going to dive into giving to the poor. And I know we touched a lot on this last week. We talked about why we give to the poor and that we do it because one, it's an expectation of Christ's followers. It's just an expectation that we have. Two, it supports the body of Christ. When one of us is in need, someone else can meet that and that supports the body. And then three, because Christ gave to us first. And that's ultimately why we give is because we received. We were the poor that were received from Christ. And so out of that, we are generous to others. And as I said earlier, making a plan is going to be pivotal to this. I think a lot of us genuinely want to give. We want to be generous with what we've been given. But it may not just come naturally. And so I asked this last week, what is stopping you from being generous to the poor? Specifically, what is stopping you from being generous to the poor? And I hope that you took that to heart. But I really do think that I would offer that one of those reasons is that we don't have a plan for it. And so as we take this to God, as we seek Him and what He wants for us and how we choose to be generous, I would encourage you to seek Him in how you can plan for it. What does this look like? How can you divide up your generosity fund in order to include the poor in this?

First John three, 16 through 18 says, "This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need, but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth." We can express love through words, but someone is going to fully experience our love and God's love through actions. When we can actively show love through our generosity, He is going...when we meet their needs. All right. Oh, it's still going. It's a little dance break. Okay. When we meet the needs of people, the poor specifically, we are going to show God's love. Like I said, we are those conduits for Him.

So real quick, just some practical ways that you can give to the poor. And this is something you can start right away. So real quick, number one, keeping cash on hand, or maybe if that is hard for you, maybe go purchase some gift cards that you can keep gift cards on hand. Gas, groceries, fast food places, whatever you feel the need to. You get to pick the denomination, but keeping some of those in your car or your purse or your wallet that you can meet a need as you encounter it. Number two, giving to an organization consistently. Maybe you set up auto pay so you know what's coming out every month, but you can give to an organization. One that we love is World Vision, and they help people who are in poverty. They are meeting their needs. And so that is something that you can participate in by giving to an organization. Similarly, but slightly different, is sponsoring a child. There are some great organizations that connect you to a kid, usually in another part of the world, who needs help. And World Hope is one that we would recommend, and they are actually really focused on providing education and getting rid of barriers to education for children. And so when you are connected to a child, you sponsor them, you help them get what they need in order, uniforms, books, ways to get to school, all of that, you help them. Number four is donate to a local food pantry. Feeding the foothills, it was formerly Plaster Food Pantry, but feeding the foothills is a local thing that you can give to. You can even be generous with your time and serve there as well. But donating to those who are right here in Plaster County who need some extra help. And lastly, this is kind of a more fun one that I think is fun, you can do it as a family, is making everyday essentials bags. And this is just maybe a gallon-sized bag, so big if you want, but start with a gallon-sized bag, fill it with everyday essentials that someone perhaps on the street or really struggling could need. Toothpaste, toothbrush, bar of soap, washcloth, granola bars, water, a poncho, whatever the season might call for, and keep it in your car. And as you encounter someone, you don't have to give them money in that case, but you are still giving generously because you purchased those things. So do that, assemble them with your family, maybe get together with some other families and pool your resources and create these bags so that you have something really tangible that you can help meet the needs of the poor right in our area.

Again, the reality is we live in a consumeristic culture with marketing that tells us to get more when we have real needs right around us that we can meet, we can participate in that. So I want to just wrap up my time here with a verse that you are all probably pretty familiar with. Matthew 6:19-21 says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

So far you've heard a couple places where to give your money to the church, to the poor. I'm going to end with talking about giving to the advancement of the gospel. Traditionally in the church, money has been given for the sake of spreading the gospel. Paul in the early New Testament would deny money for himself, but would accept money for helping him plant churches and spreading the gospel around the known world at the time. Today we do so in a similar way by giving to missionaries, those who are going out into the world, into the unreached places to spread the gospel. I want to spend this morning specifically highlighting an organization called Wycliffe Bible Translators. Maybe you've heard of them. They do just that in the name. They work to translate the Bible into all the languages that are needed around the world. And so a couple facts for you. As of late last year, October 2024, around the world there are 7,300 known spoken and signed languages in the world. As of last year, 980 languages begun translation for the very first time. Last year, Wycliffe was involved in 2,146 language translations. And 1.8 billion people in 103 countries are being served through active projects. Currently there is Bible translation being done in more than 4,000 languages worldwide. This is an extensive project, one that is, it takes a really long time. I don't know if any of you are bilingual, have worked on translating, but an unknown language on top of that is just work. You have to go there. You have to begin to understand. Then you have to, once you understand, the Bible as a book is a whole other thing. You have to capture the nuances, the words that are used at that time that aren't used anymore. You have to figure out how to best say that in their language. And so it is just a slow, tedious process. And on top of that, we want to make sure that the Bible is accurate, right? Accuracy is very, very important when it comes to scripture. And so again, I'll have to say that it is slow, difficult work. And really, the translation world has come a long way in the last 20 years.

A New Testament translation in 1999, it was on pace to take decades to complete a New Testament translation. And for all the languages that were known at the time, Wycliffe projected that it was going to take another 150 years for Bible translation to just start on the languages that were left that had not begun to have a Bible in their language. But from May 2019 to May 2021, a new language was being engaged every 120 hours. That's pretty quick. That's a lot faster pace than it was decades ago. And then from 2021 to 2023, a new language was engaged every 30 hours. And today, on average, a new language is engaged every 14 hours. Now engaged, you might be wondering, what does that mean? That is as simple as going to a place with a new language and just beginning to understand, engaging in their language. And oftentimes, Bible translators don't just say there, "Hey, I need words. Give me words. Help me understand." They're already introducing the gospel in different ways, maybe a VBS or teaching biblical principles once they can speak and communicate in that language. And so engaging these other cultures with these other languages, engaging scripture, a New Testament is still far, far away, but they're starting to understand the teachings of Jesus. So about Wycliffe specifically, they made a bold decision in 1999 to have a translation program in progress and that every language still needing one would have one by the year 2025. And I'll share this really quickly. That 131 countries have achieved that vision that every language in that country has a Bible, a New Testament begun, not finished, but it has begun. Forty-three countries have one remaining language. Twenty-four countries have two to five remaining languages. And 16 countries around the world still have six or more languages that need to be engaged with the Bible.

So it's a lot, but we can also praise God for the work that he's doing, that that many people are going to be hearing about God. And this stems from, I'll just read a couple of verses. Psalm 86: 9-10 says, "All the nations you have made will come and worship before God. They will bring glory to your name for you are great." Revelation 7:9 says, "And there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne of God." We are working as a church and specifically the Wycliffe organization and other translation organizations are working to see that heavenly picture come to fruition. That every person from every tribe, nation, and tongue would be there in heaven praising God. So we share all this with you today. I want to let you know that you heard a lot of different places. You can get an email at the sometime today with links to all the organizations that we mentioned. We encourage you to go click on that link. If there's one that's specifically stirring you, we know that not everyone can give to all of these things. So we encourage you to give to the church. And then if you have that margin to give elsewhere, consider maybe God's stirring you that you want to be a part of what he's doing around the world in taking care of the poor. Or maybe Bible translation really speaks to you. You want to be a part and partner with the work that is being done. You'll have an opportunity to click those links later.

So we have a really quick question that we want to ask that you guys is the last chance around tables. And so Pastor Chris. Yeah, we got two more questions. We're going to spit fire through these, but we want you to talk at your table. What is your biggest takeaway from these past few weeks on generosity? And then what next steps do you feel God is leading you towards being generous financially? So we're going to take one or two minutes around the table. Let's go real quick and share and then we'll be back to close out.

All right, I hope those conversations have been good and you we pray that God is stirring and will continue to stir in you next steps for generosity. You want to end by saying a prayer, a guided prayer for the practice of generosity. So if you've done guided prayer, you know this is if you haven't, I'm just going to lead us and you can just reflect on the words that I'm going to be praying for us. If you guys want to bow your heads right now, encourage you to listen and submit your heart. Lord, when our hearts have shrunk and are giving with them, Holy Spirit come. To the fears that restrain us and our anxiety for material things, Holy Spirit come. To our other blindness and the busyness that causes it, Holy Spirit come. That we may overflow in abundant generosity, Holy Spirit come. That our giving may transform the world, the poor, the church and us, Holy Spirit come. That we may know you greatly through the expansion of our offering, Holy Spirit come. Father, you are the embodiment of giving is better than receiving. We want to be like you. We praise and love you, honor and desire you with all our being now and forever. Amen.

Well, I'd love to send you guys out with a benediction this morning. This comes from the word of God. It says, "May God bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times you may have all that you need. May you freely scatter your gifts to the poor. May God who supplies seed for the sower and bread for food also supply and increase your store of seed and enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. May you be enriched in every single way so that you may be generous on every occasion. And may your generosity result in thanksgiving to God." Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 4

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 4

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

If you haven't been around or maybe you've missed a week, just a reminder we are in our Generosity series. We called it The Lost Art of Generosity and I kind of love this title. I didn't come up with that so I can say it. I really like this title because I think that generosity in our culture has gotten a little lost and it really is like an art form. It's how we give, where we give, how much we ... All of it, it plays into it and it's a very nuanced conversation. I love that we are talking about this and trying to regain this lost art. I know so many generous people. Even in our time here at Spring Valley, I've just been blown away by ... It is just a church filled with generous people. Our family just alone has been the recipients of your guys' generosity. I think that while maybe many of us are naturally generous, there are parts of this conversation that perhaps we struggle with and we could use a refresher because the reality is we live in a world that is a consumer culture. We have multi-million dollar marketing campaigns and we have influencers and we have social media and it is all about getting more. We are told that we need more, that we don't have enough. I think this whole conversation, this whole series is such a good refresher for us. As a reminder, we have gone over. The first week we talked about how there is more joy in giving than in receiving. If you have generously given, you've experienced that, that there is more joy in giving than receiving. Next week we talked about being on the lookout for greed and how in our world of telling us we need more, greed can just be so sneaky that we don't feel like we have enough and we need more. We've got to be on guard against greed. Then last week we talked about how everything we have belongs to God. It is all from Him and so therefore we can be generous because it's His anyways and He can do with it and have us in obedience do with it whatever He pleases.

If you've been here, we've had some discussion questions. We're going to circle up at our tables here and have one more discussion question. Our question for today is how has our Western culture and even the American dream impacted how we practice the art of generosity? Circle up, chat about it a little bit, share your thoughts.

I'm going to call us back together. I hope your discussions were good and fruitful. I'm actually, I mean, I'm very interested to hear what you guys came up with so come tell me after service. But one answer that I felt like I came up with for me in answer to this question was that our culture, our Western culture and even the American dream can really limit us in our generosity to the poor specifically. So that is our topic today is how and why are we generous, should we be generous to the poor? If you're like me, maybe you hear the topic of this and you're like, I mean, I know we're supposed to be generous to the poor but how are we going to have a whole sermon on this? Well, let me tell you, the Bible has a lot to say about it. Just a quick Google search on scriptures about generosity and about specifically caring for the poor were seemingly endless. I could just stand up here and just read scripture to you the whole time. I won't but I could because there's so much that the Bible and that Jesus has to say about it. Jesus encouraged generous living but he also encouraged his followers to care for the poor. But the idea of this didn't start with Jesus in the New Testament, it started in the Old Testament. If we look back on the Old Testament and when God was creating the nation of Israel, he instructed Moses to teach the people how to live generously. In Deuteronomy 15:10 it says, "Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart," it's important, "then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to." So right off the bat, he's creating the nation of Israel and he's like, "You're going to live generously." But then if you continue on in the Old Testament, there are Proverbs and Psalms and in the prophets they talk more and more about caring for the poor. I'm just going to do a little rapid fire here. Proverbs 21:13, "Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered." Proverbs 21:25, "The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him because his hands refuse to work. All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing." Proverbs 11, "Whoever brings blessing will be enriched and the one who waters will himself be watered." When we are blessing, we will be blessed. Proverbs 14, "Whoever is kind to the needy honors God." I could go on and on, we'll just stop there for now. But there's so much packed into the Word of God because God is generous. It is part of who he is. It is his heart for the widow and the orphan and the one who is in need. I think most, if not all of us, desire to be generous.

We want to have a heart of generosity, but putting it into practice, I think, can be a struggle for some of us. And if that's not a struggle for you, praise God. I love that for you. I want all of us to be like that, but I think that it can be really hard for some of us. There can be some resistance. Maybe it's because of how we grew up, maybe how we were taught about money. Maybe we have this idea of the American dream, like you pull yourself up out of your bootstraps and you earn your way and that's yours. Or maybe it's just you don't know where this money is going to go. If you give to someone on the street, you don't know how they're going to spend it. And that can be really hard for us to relinquish that control. And we have to be wise in how we give. We have to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to be sure. But we can't let these limitations or these hindrances stop us from being obedient and giving to the poor. So whether this is a tough topic for you or not, I pray that this time together will be encouraging and it'll be a good refresher for all of us. So really our overarching question today is why should we give to the poor? I think we all kind of know this intellectually, but I want to dive deep in why specifically we as Christ followers should be giving to the poor. But before we really get into the nitty-gritty of that, we have to answer the question, who are the poor? It's the first question. Who's the poor? Who are we talking about? Who are we talking about? So let's answer that question first. Well, thankfully for us, the author of Luke, it also authored the book of Acts. And so we're going to look at Acts 4. I'm going to actually jump to verse 34. And it says, "For from time to time, those who own land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to anyone who had need." So the poor, Luke tells us, is anyone who had need. Earlier, it says that there were no needy persons among them. So it was the poor were needy persons or someone who had need. This could be just about anybody in different circumstances. But if there is anyone who has need around you, then there is work to do. As a Christ follower, we have work to do. This person who is in need could be kind of the natural person that comes to mind, maybe someone who is in a third-world country, who doesn't have access to maybe clean water or food regularly. It could be someone you've encountered maybe on a missions trip. It could be homeless or someone who is in need through seeking rehabilitation for addiction or maybe they're seeking help for an unplanned pregnancy. These can be kind of some of those people who are in need that we naturally think of. And those are. Those are the poor and the ones in need that Jesus is talking about and that the scriptures talk about. In the US, I did a little research for us, in the US, nearly 16% of children live in poverty. And food insecurity affects around 33.8 million people, including over 9 million children. That's just in the US. And we're a wealthy nation. So that's crazy to me. Globally, over 828 million people go to bed hungry every night and nearly 2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water. 2 billion people. That is a wild statistic to me.

So maybe it is those people that we think of when we think of the poor or those in need. And maybe it's someone that you are close to. Maybe it's a friend or a family member that is struggling. Maybe they're in between jobs or just got laid off and they need help paying the bills or getting some groceries and putting some food on the table. Maybe they're going through a really tough season and they could just really use a good cup of coffee and a listening ear. Maybe you have a neighbor who is elderly and physically can't care for their lawn or you could cook them a nice meal and take it to them. Because they are in need of that. They are in need all around us. And please hear me, this doesn't mean you individually have to meet every single need. But we are all called to do something. We are all called to give to the poor.

So back to our first question. We know who the poor are now, but why should we as Christ followers give to those in need? We give to those in need because one, it's an expectation of those who follow Jesus. At first I didn't really like this word expectation. I was like, oh, it feels like cringey to me. But the reality is it is. It is an expectation of those who follow Jesus. Second Corinthians 9:6-11 says, "Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." There it is again. "And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor. Their righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, God, will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 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." There's a lot packed in here, but what I want to focus on is that it's an expectation. It's an understanding. Paul here is writing assuming that the church, the people he's writing to, are already giving, that this is already a thing that they're doing. He says, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart." They've already decided what they're going to give. It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of how much. It was already an expectation that the people of Jesus were going to live generously. They were going to give. Even though we know and we see that generosity and caring for the poor is a command in scripture, it is an expectation of God's people, it's not out of this compulsion or erode obedience. It is out of an overflow of a surrendered heart. Paul expects that the people are giving and that they're doing it with joy, that they're a cheerful giver, that they're doing it freely, not out of compulsion, and that they're doing it because of who they are in Christ. Because God is generous and we were made in His image, that was also put into us. We are made to be generous. Paul is not questioning whether we will give, just how much. He also assures us in this passage that God will provide for our needs. He will enrich us to continue the kingdom work He's already called us to do. Giving to the poor is expected and it will bring glory to God. He will take care of our needs as we live generously. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. He's not going to call us to be generous to the poor and then leave us hanging. But it's an expectation of all of us who call Jesus our Lord.

We give to those in need because it supports the body of Christ. We're going to go back to our Acts 4 passage and read a little bit longer because this is the early church. This is talking about the first church and how they lived. So I'm going to read this for us again. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to anyone who had need. The government at this time, the Roman government at this time, didn't have any sort of system in place or programs to care for the poor. And as far as I understand it, it wasn't like even on their radar. Like this was not something they were worried about or looking to solve the problem of. So it wasn't, to them, it wasn't a government responsibility or political responsibility. And so if the poor were going to be taken care of, it was going to be done by the church, by the people of God, those who follow Jesus. But the beautiful thing is that they lived in such a way that they were able to meet those needs. They didn't claim their possessions as their own. They lived in community. They served one another. They made sure everyone had what they needed. And it was by God's grace. It says God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. So it was God's grace, His all-sufficient, all-powerful grace paired with their obedient communal living where they distributed as anyone had need. And there was no needy among them. That is so wild to me that they were able to do that, that everyone had what they needed. I love this verse, though, too, because, or this section of scripture, because a lot of our reasons for not giving to the poor are addressed here. I think the main two reasons are that we have a desire for more. We want to keep for ourselves. Maybe we just want to store up for ourselves or make sure our family is provided.

Or two, it is out of fear of lack or scarcity. And so this verse, or these verses fly right in the face of that because we're not meant to just consume. We're not meant to only gain for ourselves. We are meant to share. We are meant to be generous. And we have no reason to fear because the scripture says that by God's grace, we will have all that we need. So those two arguments are null and void if we live by what the word of the God says. When we give generously to those in need, it builds up and it supports the body. It allows kingdom work to continue. Because the reality is when a part of the body is hurting or in need, the whole body is less effective. I think of like our physical bodies. When we have something that is wrong, an injury or maybe a chronic issue, I get occasionally, thankfully it's not very often, but occasionally I will get these headaches that take me out. And I need to like lay down. I need a hot pack. I need some medicine. I need some water. I need to close my eyes. And I basically become useless at parenting, at taking care of the house, at cooking. I just need a minute to lay down. And I become virtually useless because I am so focused on my current need. So when there is someone in the spiritual body of Christ who has a need, we all are crippled in a way. We become less effective. And so then when we as a church meet that need, not only are we being the church and being obedient to what God has called us to, but then we allow that person to also become effective because they no longer have that need. It has been met. And they can be effective once again for the kingdom. One statistic I read said that if all Christians, all of those that follow, claim to follow Jesus, gave 10% of their income, there would be over $1 trillion available annually to tackle global issues. That's a trill- trillion. Annually, just year over year, it would be another trillion the next year. If every Christ-following believer just gave 10%, whether that's to the local church or to an organization or a cause, to maybe sponsoring a child, whatever that looks like, gave 10%, there would be over a trillion dollars available to tackle some of these issues we talked about earlier. I'm no math whiz, but I feel like a trillion dollars would do some damage, right? Taking care of some of these people who need some water. That would be amazing. And that's not even counting the non-religious groups that are contributing to the solution of the problem. God wants us to be generous to those in need.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, we give to those in need because Christ gave to us first. One of my favorite passages in scriptures, Philippians 2, starting in verse 3, it says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God, something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." Jesus gave up the wealth of heaven to be generous to us. He had everything at his fingertips. As the creator of the universe, he lacked nothing. And yet he came to earth, he took on human form, he humbled himself, and he gave so abundantly and so generously to us. When we operate from that truth, when we start there and operate from the fact that Jesus gave to us first, it not only compels us, but then it propels us to be generous to the poor because we were the poor. We were the ones in need. We were the ones who need saving. So we give out of love because we were loved first. I want to be clear, we don't give to the poor out of pity or some savior complex that we think we can save them or save the world that they even need saving. That's Jesus's job. We give out of love, out of compassion, out of a heart for generosity because we have a savior that loved us and came to us, that gave up the wealth of heaven for us. So maybe our question today isn't so much why should we give to the poor. Maybe the question we need to wrestle with is what's stopping me from giving to the poor generously, or giving more if that's something you already do. What is stopping me from giving to the poor more generously? I encourage you to reflect on this question this week. Talk about it with a friend or your spouse. Bring it to the Lord. Ask Him to bring up anything in your heart that is resisting this idea. Ask Him to give you a heart of generosity because we know it's clearly commanded in scripture. It's obviously an expectation of Christ's followers. We understand how it can meet practical needs and we can see how Jesus so generously gave to us first. So what is holding us back? What is stopping us? Ask the Lord to reveal that to you and to give you opportunity to serve and to give generously to those who are in need.

Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you were generous and loved us first and that out of that love we in turn can go be loving and generous to others. God help remind us of the gift that we have received to be so consumed with gratefulness for it that we turn around and in turn out of a surrendered heart to you we go and we give to anyone who has need. Help us to trust you. Help us to be courageous in this and be trusting you in this and guide us in where and how and how much you want us to give, Lord. We praise you for who you are in your name. Amen.

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 3

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 3

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing in our generosity series. And again, our prayer is that through this series and the work of the Spirit, in your lives you begin to discover the joy of generosity. Not just the good feeling of giving something away, but truly the joy that comes from partaking in the inner life of God, as the God that we serve is the most generous God. In previous weeks, just a reminder that in this series and all that we're covering of generosity, each week is kind of like a spoke in the wheel. And it's important, it helps support this whole practice of generosity. And so, so far what we've covered is that there's more joy in giving than in receiving. Last week Pastor Chris talked about the need to watch out for greed. And he emphasized contentment and what we already have.

And today we're going to ask the next natural question, which is, how will we use what we have? And in answering that question, we want to look at the Bible to see what it says about what we have, because how we view all that belongs to us has a direct correlation with how we use that, how we use what is ours. So there's this truth that's woven throughout Scripture from the very beginning in Genesis that says that everything in the world belongs to God, and we are stewards of all that he puts into it. It's from the very beginning, all throughout Scripture, everything in the world belongs to him, and we are stewards of all that he has put into it. Now if you have been in the church, you've probably heard something like this before, it's not necessarily new. But sometimes we go amiss at that second part. The first part we recognize, it's easy, God is the maker, creator, yes, give him all the credit for that. But our role as stewards can easily be forgotten. We can view ourselves in a way that God never intended us to view ourselves. God reminds us often in the Old Testament that he is the creator, and that he made the whole world, and that it is his. And then Jesus comes along in the New Testament and still has a lot to say about this. And so this is reflected in what we know of Jesus' teaching, that 25% of Jesus' teachings are on money and generosity, and that just a little bit less than 50% of his parables specifically are on stewardship. So we're going to take a look at one of those parables today.

We’re going to be in Luke 12, verses 35 through 48, and in this chapter, in the middle of this chapter, which is one of the longest sections of Jesus' teachings in the Gospels, there's a verse that you might be familiar with. It says in verse 33, "Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." And these truths, these teachings are bookended by two parables. The parable of the rich young fool about a man who builds bigger storehouses to hoard all of his stuff, and a second parable, the parable of the faithful servant. And these two are parables of a compare-contrast teaching method of Jesus, helping us to understand his point of generosity. The first is a negative story, a rich young man who is evil and hoards everything that he has. The second is a positive story of a servant who serves a good master. We're going to look at that second teaching this morning. So if you're in your Bibles, you can follow along on the screen. Verse 35 says this, "Be dressed, ready for service, and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him." The disciples of Jesus, Jesus saying that the disciples of Jesus are to be like servants of a wealthy aristocrat, but with a twist. Verse 37 says this, "It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will help them recline at the table, and will come and wait on them." Do we notice this part about Jesus, who is, or God, who is the master serving the servants? This is that upside down part of Jesus's kingdom. The master takes the role of the servant, and this is Jesus's vision of God. God is like a rich, generous master who takes the place of a servant to his servants and lets them recline at the table and serves them. Verse 38 says, "It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even when he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this, if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You must also be ready, because the Son of Man will come in an hour when you do not expect him." These verses express the importance of living a life of obedience to God, living righteously, not just when being watched, not just when we know we will be judged, but all the time. In the midst of our larger conversation with generosity, it's about practicing generosity with integrity. You don't know when Jesus is returning, and so the point is we must be ready at all times. And we shouldn't hear that in a way that we just get tired of like, "Man, that's so much effort. We have to be ready all the time." We should hear that and say, "All right, that's my reason. I don't know when, so I am just going to be ready all the time. That's just the life that I have to live." Let me come to verse 42. Peter asks, basically, "God, what are you talking about? Jesus, I don't understand." So Jesus says in verse 42, "If the servant does a good job stewarding his master's house, God the master..." Oh, sorry, I've been reading my own notes. Verse 42, let me read God's words first. "The Lord answered, 'Who then is the faithful and wise manager whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Truly, I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. So if the servant does a good job stewarding his master's house, God the master will give him even more.’"

Now an important piece to understand is that of the crowd listening to Jesus at this time, the majority of them would have been people who are servants, considered servants, hired work. They do not have estates of their own. They are on the other end of this parable, working for people. And that's sometimes different than how we read this. We read this in our cultural Western mindset as principal owners of a lot of things. And so we read this often and say, "I got to take care of my stuff." We put ourself in the shoe of the master sometimes. But Jesus would have been speaking to those who clearly understood they were the servants in this parable. We'll get to that more in a second. Verse 45 says, "But suppose the servant says to himself, 'My master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of the servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in the hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him in a place with the unbelievers." That sounds very harsh. But the point is, to be wasting this time, to be acting selfishly, to assume the role of the master leads to a terrible ending.

Two things. First, the servant and the role of the master is not what the servant should be doing. The servant makes for a bad master. I think this speaks perfectly to situations where in life we try to be like God. Because of our sin nature, we will end up hurting people, causing pain and division, showing favor to some but judging and hating others. We were not meant to be in the role of God, the role of the master. And secondly, again, our motivation shouldn't be to try to earn something, but to live righteously when we think—or it shouldn't be to try to earn something or to only live righteously when we think it matters. Because, again, knowing the end date, we will never know that end date. We don't know when Jesus is coming back. And so we need to be serving God all the time, partnering with his kingdom, and participating in this inner life of God 24/7. Verse 47 says this, "The servant who knows the master's will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." I think that last verse is so important. From everyone who has been given much, much more will be demanded. And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. This radical idea that Jesus is talking about in this passage is this idea of stewardship. I want to give us a definition this morning that we can take with us. This idea of stewardship is this. The active and responsible management of God's creation for God's purposes. This call to stewardship was just as radical in Jesus's day as it is for us today. And if you picked up on it, this parable that we read is similar to other parables in scripture about stewardship.

And so from these parables and from the one this morning, we can surmise a few things about stewardship. Number one, three components. Number one is that God is the Lord of the world. Three components, number one is that God owns it all. In Jesus's day, there were primarily two different views of wealth. Non-ownership, it is no one's. This was evident in Plato's Republic, this mythical utopian society where the rulers owned nothing. Also in a more common day example would be the indigenous peoples of America also held this view. It is no one's. The other view is ownership, absolute authority. This was the Roman view at the time and the dominant view of our culture today. If you own something, you have 100% authority to do whatever you want with it. It is yours. The view of scripture is neither of these, but instead a third way. Stewardship, caretakers, that active and responsible management of God's creation for God's purposes. God is the owner. We are the caretakers. We see this all the way at the beginning in Genesis 1 where God creates everything. He makes a garden. And in Genesis 2, 15 says, "The Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work and take care of it." So from the very beginning, God is setting this tone that it's mine. You're helping me take care of what is mine. The theme of caretaking again is all throughout scripture. I'm going to hit you with a couple of verses really quick. Leviticus 25, 23 says, "The land must not be sold permanently because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers." Deuteronomy 10, 14, "To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it." Psalm 50 verses 10 through 12, "For every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you for the world is mine and all that is in it." These are just a few after the tens and tens and tens of verses in the Bible that God is saying, "It's mine. I created it. I am the creator." This idea in the library of scripture right up until Jesus' teachings in Luke 12 is that God owns it all. And again, as I was preparing this sermon, I was thinking it's very easy for us to acknowledge that God is the creator of everything. We have a harder time remembering and acknowledging that everything in creation still belongs to Him. I think we often just get this idea that God created it and kind of took a step back and let humanity take over. That's what happened, but that's not what God intended. We tend to view things as given to us, that we have 100% authority over what has been given to us. And again, that's not the view of scripture. We are caretakers, not owners, as is our second point.

Number two, we are entrusted by God with His resources to do good. God has entrusted you and me with what He has, and we are to take care of it. John Mark Comer, who's the pastor and author, whose content much of our sermon series is based off of, he says this, "We live often with the assumption that whatever money we receive from our jobs or an inheritance, we are free to spend in whatever way we want to consume that money in whatever way we choose, but scripture says otherwise." When I was a kid, maybe late elementary, early junior high, my parents, along with some other family friends, there's a bunch of us families that took this financial class for kids taught by a very well-known Christian financial guru. And it was extremely helpful. It helped instill the idea of like, "stay, spend, give." But one of those takeaways that I, from that and for many years, what I understood was that 10% was God's and the rest was mine. I do my tithe, God wants me to do that, and the rest of it, I get to choose what I want to do with my money. I think that it took a long time, by the way, for that to not be true of, to unpack that. All of it belongs to God. Evidence of the fact that we think like this is that many of us live above our income. Our expenses are higher than the money that we take in. We should be living with some breathing room in our budget to practice generosity and to live at peace without the stress of trying to make things and to try to thread this needle of our finances. This idea of living with breathing room is kind of a radical idea, and that may mean for those living with just a little by the world standards, that you may need to live with even less so you too can have breathing room to be generous, to practice giving. We don't often realize that not all of our money is for us. Some of it is for us to live, to put food on the table, to pay bills, to enjoy life. I don't want to preach this and you think that there is no joy in life. I cannot afford a happy life anymore. No. 1 Timothy 6, 17 says, "Those who put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." God wants us to have joy in life. He is not a stingy investor, but a generous father. However, not all of the money that we receive is for us to spend on ourselves. Some of it is to live, some of it is to give to the church, to the gospel, to the poor, and some of it is to build a business or a family. But we are entrusted by God to put every dollar to the right place. We are stewards.

The third point about stewardship is this. God blesses us not just to have more, but to give more. Those who steward well are given more, to keep doing what they are doing. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 9, verses 8, he says, "And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor. Their righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in the thanksgiving to God." I love that Paul hits the nail on the head over and over again. I love that last part. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. You need to hear that to understand why God is blessing us. This is such an important factor of God's heart of generosity. It's not for us to have more, but for us to continue to give more. I want to take a moment to address something known as the prosperity gospel, a uniquely cultural Western belief, by the way, and it's a fallacy because we hear Paul's words, and some of us may think, "Oh, if I give, then I get more in return." And all of a sudden, the mind starts turning and you're like, "Oh, well, this is great. I know how to make more money." And this is the prosperity gospel. Again, a false gospel. At its most radical, it is the belief that you give to get. If you give to God, he will give more back to you. And if you do this, and that is our goal to increase our profit in a way from God, it means that ultimately our motivation is greed and selfishness. Now, what makes the prosperity gospel so difficult is that it's not based on a complete lie. It's based on a half truth. When we are good stewards, God often does give us more. But the purpose is, again, is not to make us rich, but to make us more generous. Randy Elkhorn, who's an author and kind of an expert on biblical generosity, in his book, The Giving is the Good Life, he writes this, "God blesses us to raise our standard of giving, not our standard of living." That's hard to hear. That's not very American. That's not very Western, where we are always striving to do more, to get more for ourselves, for us, for our future. This is pretty radical to think that God's giving me more to give more. I want to take this one step farther. The question is less, how much do I give? And it's more, how much should I keep for myself? Do we see the change there? The heart posture that's changed? The mindset is still focused on stewarding, not about hoarding and about greed, but about contentment and joyful living. This is the way of scripture.

Usually, when it comes to money, there are two camps. There are savers and spenders. And maybe in your marriage or your couple, you kind of know, like, "Well, I know this person is this, and I'm the one that's trying to keep us on track." Or maybe you're the other person who's like, "Man, I always want to just feel they won't let me give what I want to give and buy what I want to buy." But savers and spenders, savers are often motivated by fear, spenders motivated by greed. And in the middle is what God has called us to, is a steward, one who is acting to channel God's resources for good, motivated by God's love and generosity. And being a steward leads us to ask a bunch of questions about what it means to be a good steward. How much do I tithe? How much do I keep? How much should I give away? What's an appropriate standard of living? What's that line between enjoying life and wasting money on luxuries? What kind of car should I drive? How many clothes should I have? You get the point. The list goes on and on. And these are the right questions to be asking, to be wrestling with. The New Testament doesn't spell it out for us, but leads us to practice discernment. And we should be constantly asking God, "God, what do you want me to do with what you have given me?" And depending on the Holy Spirit to guide us and provide these answers. A great example of this is John Wesley, the very John Wesley who our doctrine and church are based off of. He practiced what is now called a lifestyle cap. Early on in his ministry, he prayed and discerned that God wanted him, led him to a number, and he said, "I'm going to live off of only 28 pounds a year." Now, this was in the 17th century. Yeah, not today. And apparently in his lifetime, there was no, hardly any inflation. So by the end of his life, it was only up to 30 pounds. That was the new number that he had come to. And so anything over that that he made, he made a promise to God, "I'm going to give that away." In his first year, he made 30, so he gave two pounds away. In his second year, he made 60 pounds, so he gave 32 pounds away. Then it was 90 and then 120. At the peak of his ministry, he was making 1400 pounds a year. And living off of 28, he gave the rest of it away. He said, "This is all I need to live. The rest God has given me so that I can give to others." Now, that's an incredible model and a testimony of giving. And it's radical. I really cannot comprehend. I don't know anyone who does that. And I think that is just, that'd be hard. I'll be honest. I don't know if I could do that. But he came up with this saying, "Gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can." He lived the radical life of generosity. All right. Now, I want to shift gears a bit. I know that you're thinking, "Hey, we got away with not answering a question today around tables." Well, it's happening now. I want you guys, there's a prompt on the screen. After we've heard our message and heard God's word, here's our question that you guys can have five minutes to discuss around tables. It says, "What emotions surface in you as you consider Jesus' parable of the faithful and wise manager? And how does it encourage you? And how does it challenge you?" Why don't you guys go ahead, five minutes, I'll gather us back up, and you're done.

I hope that your conversations were encouraging and thought-provoking. And if there is a lot stirring, that's a good thing. That means that God is working your heart and maybe convicting in some areas that need to be just thought over. And so, continue to pray for each other. I want to end with six giving encouragement. These are really quick. I know you hear six and you're like, "This should be over really quickly." These are from Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. These are six things about giving and maybe tithing specifically, all right?

Number one is that tithing should be regular. First Corinthians 16 verse two says, "On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income." So Paul speaks to the regularity. It shouldn't be sporadic. It should be regular.

Number two, it should be proportional. In that same verse, "Each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income." Meaning, the more money you make, the greater percentage you should give. The general principle is the more you make, the more you give.

Number three, it should be sacrificial. Second Corinthians eight verse two, it says, "In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty weld up in rich generosity." Guys it should hurt to give. Pastor Lauren and I were talking about this at the beginning of Youth Group this past week. Just talking about how more often we are prone to give only when we have extra because it doesn't hurt us that much. We're like, "Well, I already have this. I already have what I need, so now I can give." And it's just like, "Oh, it doesn't hurt." But we, again, in the cultural West are adverse to pain and things that hurt us, so this is uncomfortable. It goes against the values that we have inherited, like take care of yourself and then take care of others. No, Jesus says to give even when it hurts. There should regularly be things that we may not buy in order to have enough to give to someone else, in order to give and be generous.

Number four, it should be voluntary. Second Corinthians nine verse seven says, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion." There shouldn't be a guilt trip about giving, but we have to pray about what is in our heart. And hopefully there's a desire because there's, again, this desire to be generous like God is generous.

Number five from second Corinthians nine verse seven says, "For God loves a cheerful giver." We're to give joyfully. It should be a joy to give and the joy that we have should outweigh the pain. It's going to hurt a little bit, but the joy of giving should be greater than the pain. It should be joy in participating in the inner life of God and being generous like he is and knowing that we are honoring him and worshiping him in how we give.

And then lastly, number six, it should be motivated by apprenticeship to Jesus. Second Corinthians eight verse nine, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." It's being like Jesus. He modeled it for us in the most ultimate sacrificial way and we should be willing to do so on much lesser grounds and lesser means. Giving is not a religious duty. It's a part of following Jesus and being an apprentice to his way of life. I'll let you know that our elders, our staff, we are praying for more givers in our church. Not givers out of obligation and not because we just want the money, but because it's evidence of people who are being transformed by God, who God is working in them and pulling them to be more like him. That's what we are praying for. So while these are guidelines, these six things are guidelines to follow because there isn't a spreadsheet. How nice would it be to open up your Bible and just to see your number of income and be like, "All right, God wants me to do exactly this. Here's how much I'm supposed to give exactly, and here's how much to give to this, this, and this." No, we don't have that. The Bible doesn't give that, but he gives guidelines. And again, we are meant to be praying, constantly praying, coming before God and asking, "Father, thank you for these resources. What do you want me to do with them?”

I want to ask, do you do this? Do you listen to God about your money? We took a survey right now. You don't have to answer out loud. Don't raise your hands, but which one would you be? First, I do not listen to God. I listen to God, but not about money and generosity, or I listen to God about my money and generosity. Keep that up there for just a second. I think if we're honest, many of us are that second option. I listen to God, but not about money or generosity. We're scared of what he may say, because we're still believing the myth that more money equals more happiness. And if God is asking us to give away our money, he's asking us to give away that source of happiness in our lives, and we don't like that. And so we're just like, "God, I'd rather not ask. I'm just going to do my thing. I hope I'm going to be in obedience to you. I'm going to do my 10 percent." But we don't necessarily have this active conversation with God. We don't yet believe that God is an abundantly generous Father, which is why Jesus says in Luke 12, verse 32, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom." Just as Pastor Chris preached last week, it's worth repeating, because we need to hear this so badly. He has given us everything that we need. Everything. Not what the world says we need, but everything that we truly need, God has given us. And it can be found in him. Let me close with just a few more words from John Mark Conroy. It says, "God is not a stingy investor out to maximize his profit margins, but he is a loving Father who wants to bless you and form you into a daughter or son who is like he is, full of generosity and joy." So this week, I want to challenge you. Take time to radically rethink your relationship with your resources and your money, not as an owner, not as a non-owner, but as a caretaker, as a steward of what God has given you. And begin this lifelong journey of listening to the call of our generous Heavenly Father and where he might be wanting you to give and partake with him in a generous life.

Let's pray. God, thank you again for your word. And thank you for this call to be radically different because the world needs it. And we know that we have been called to be partners with you, participating in your ministry, God, in your kingdom. And we pray that you would help us to reevaluate our relationship with what you have given us. Help us in our hearts and minds to have this shift of seeing ourselves as stewards, that you have given us something and we are to care for it in the best way. Maybe spending some of it for ourselves, maybe keeping some of it to build our family, our businesses, and then also to give. You have given us things to give away. God, I pray that through your spirit, you would help us to see clearly opportunities this week to be generous with our time, with our money, with our relationships, with our influence, with whatever you have given us. I pray that you would put in front of us opportunities to give it away and that we would feel joy in that, God. True joy. Yes, it will hurt. Yes, we're going to say, "Oh, you know what? I was saving that for this," or, "I could really use that." But God, I pray that you would help us to feel the joy of when we participate in being generous like you and giving it to those who need it. We trust you, God. We love you. We pray this in your name. Amen.

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 2

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 2

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are in week two of our Lost Art of Generosity series and I hope you guys enjoyed last week and some discussion around the table. We're going to have a little bit more today as part of the service today. But last week, Pastor Andre opened up our series talking about some words directly from Jesus himself. Specifically talking about how there's more joy in giving than in receiving. And that the foundation of a life of generosity is this idea that the more that we have that we give away, the greater our life becomes. And this is totally counterintuitive to life, right? While generosity is more than just giving our money, it is actually not less. And that we ourselves, as it says in scripture, we are created in the image of God and God is a happy, a joyful, a generous God. And when we practice generosity, we are actually living life according to the design and we tap into the joy of God himself. It says in Acts 20 35 that there is more happiness in giving than in receiving. And there's an author, Randy Alcorn, that we'll talk about through this series. He says that giving is the good life. And Jesus has an invitation for us in our hearts to kind of watch out, to be careful how we have our natural desires. Because when we truly begin to slow down and simplify the parts of our lives, it's all in a manner of creating margin to live a life of generosity. And Pastor Andre last week, he challenged us to think about a very simple, maybe small act of generosity that we could take before today. Maybe it was to pay for someone else's coffee, to maybe put $5 in our pocket and to pray every single day, "God, where do you want this $5 to go?" Or maybe it was the gift of someone of our time to maybe sit down and have a conversation, to have an act of service towards them or serve somebody in a practical way. Around our tables this morning, I got two questions for us that I want you to talk about. The first of which is, what challenges do people face when thinking about generosity? What are some of those challenges that maybe personally we feel or you see in other people? And then what new ideas of generosity have been growing in you this past week as we begin our series? So we're gonna play some just quiet music in the background, take about three minutes or so, begin to discuss around the tables those two questions.

I love, I was kind of overhearing some of the conversation in the room, but just give a shout out from your table. What were some of the things you guys talked about that are some of the challenges or things that really kind of things that people face when thinking about generosity? Not having enough. Not having enough. Yeah. Selfishness. Ooh yeah. Oh co-dependency, yeah okay yeah yeah. What else? What other challenges? Fear. Yeah absolutely 100%. What else? What other what other challenges? Anything else from your table? Control. Giving up control? Okay yeah yeah. You give up control? Okay yeah yeah. You give it away and then you just don't know what's gonna happen with it after that. Yeah that's fair that's fair. What other things that your table kind of popped up? Oh there you go. Getting people to accept the help. Okay. Yeah so you don't know whether it's it's where your money is going if or whatever it is is really going towards the the cause that they say it's going to. Yeah that's good. Yeah those are definitely some really real challenges when thinking about generosity. Anybody have any ideas of of new ways you're thinking of generosity maybe this week as we started the series? Is anybody able to do like the five dollar thing or pay for somebody's coffee and do anything give anything away this week? Time? Okay awesome. Yeah we had this week we actually had someone come come by the church and ask for some gas money and and for us here in Rocklin that happens maybe six months or so. And got to have a good conversation with a gentleman and you know it's it's interesting with those things where it's like begin to have kind of put in our mind and then God brings an opportunity by our way and we're like okay and honestly we what we tend to do here is we tend to have gift cards to Safeway down the street so they can get groceries or diapers or and what's nice is they have a gas station there too. But we were actually out all out of those. And so we ended up just handing over some cash and some of those real fears of like, is the guy really going to go buy gas? Does he need something like what is he going to go spend it on? But it was one of those things it's like God was like no, you need to be generous. You need to trust him and trust that he's listening to God in that. And so a very real practical way. We as a church are actually because of you guys are actually able to bless somebody this week.

And so have you ever been talking with someone about something specific? Maybe it's some new shoes or clothes or a kitchen gadget and new video game. Maybe it's something to do with your favorite hobby. Maybe something about Mother's Day coming up. Guys, one week warning, heads up. All right. Can't say I didn't tell you. But maybe it was a trip you want to take or something else that you want to buy. You remember having those conversations? I had one of these this couple weeks ago. I was meeting with my spiritual director, my shepherd, and we were talking about what we were doing this summer. And Lauren and I are a 17 year anniversary is coming up the end of this month. And yeah, we're excited about it. We're excited. And so we were talking about where we wanted to go. Maybe we wanted to take a flight somewhere or travel out of town. Maybe go to Tahoe. We weren't sure. And I'm having this conversation with my friend and all of a sudden literally a pop up notification on my phone. Southwest is having a early summer sale. And I was like, God, are you listening? Siri, are you listening? Like what's going on here? But it's just like this creepy moment just like what is happening? We didn't book any flights with Southwest. It was a little too creepy for us.

But experts say on average, we look at and we are exposed to and put in front of us three to five thousand ads every single day. That's just daily. That's not a week. That's not a month. That is daily we see that. And all of these are designed not for our rational brain because consumerism isn't rational at all. But all of these ads, they're amplified. They have all these algorithms. They spend billions of dollars every single year on advertising. And let me tell you, the executives of these businesses, they're no dummies. They don't spend this money if it's not working. But the reality is that all of these are designed to data mine our deepest fears, our insecurities, our questions, our hopes, our dreams. All by watching what we do and listening to us right from our pocket. A Harvard professor calls this the surveillance capitalism. But even before the era of digital manipulation, the human heart has long been prone to believe the myth of more. See that lie that just if we had a teeny bit more, then we would be happy. But the truth is, and it cuts across the spectrum of the entire human experience, no matter how much we get, it's never enough. No matter how much we possess, it's never enough.

And the writers of Ecclesiastes were very wise when they said this, "Whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income." See, the fact is that the more we get, the more that we want. Not just the reality. John D. Rockefeller, the oil tycoon, the first billionaire in the entire world, was famously asked, "How much money is enough?" And he responded with, "Just a little bit more." Psychologists actually call this the hadronic treadmill. The fact that desire only begets more desire and more desire and more desire, and it's like you are literally on a treadmill of life running and walking and chasing after something, but never arriving. Chasing the carrot at the end of the stick. But even worse, the more that we get, honestly, the more neurotic we actually become. And this is the encounter intuitive side of Jesus that really begins to stretch us and challenge our thinking because we think that money will make us happy. But often, not only does it not make us happy, it makes us even less happy than we were before. We become more anxious. We become more distracted. We become more discontent. We become more lonely. And as a result of us living here in the West in a very affluent generation of human history, many of us are wracked daily by fear, worry, greed, and unsatisfied desire.

And it comes to no surprise that the majority of Jesus' teaching on money are warnings about the danger of it. I want to look at a couple examples this morning. Jesus in Luke 12 says this. He says, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed." Greed is really similar to lust, but it's for things. It's this insatiable desire for the more that we have, the more that we need. And Jesus, He was right. There are all kinds of greed. There's more crass things of greed. A bigger house, a bigger TV, a bigger, faster, nicer car. Those bigger, better things that we're always chasing. But there's also a more bespoke type of greed. A greed for exotic travel. Maybe it's for eating out. Maybe it's for boutique fashion. Maybe it's for rare possessions. And we're all vulnerable to some level of greed. Hence why Jesus here says, "Watch out!" But why? Why is greed so bad and dangerous? Well, the next line from Jesus' word says this in Luke. It says, "Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." It's just not where the good life is found. But not only that wealth can be dangerous, let's look at this next thing that Jesus says in Mark chapter 4. He said, "Some people like seeds sown among thorns hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, the desire for other things, come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful." Notice Jesus' language here. He says, "The deceitfulness of wealth." He doesn't say that wealth is evil, but rather it is deceitful. But why is that? Well, it promises what it cannot give. So wealth does. It says it will give you happiness, contentment, an identity, a false sense of safety and security. We all fall for the lie. Can we be honest here? We fall for that lie again and again and again and again. And yet this desire for wealth is often what is keeping us from the good life. Jesus continues in Matthew 19. He says, "Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." Again, I tell you, He's got to say this twice because it's so hard for us to understand. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." So notice here that Jesus has to say it twice, right? It's so hard for us to comprehend or we so quickly forget it, right? That here wealth is actually an obstacle to the good life, not the path to the good life. But what I want you to hear here is Jesus saying it isn't impossible. It's possible to follow Jesus into the kingdom of God and carry wealth with you. But it is very hard to do. And we love to think to be, "I'm going to be the first one to do it, Jesus." "All those who have come before me did not have the faith and the relationship that I had with you, God. I can carry the heavy burden of wealth. Please bestow it upon me.”

But the reality is Jesus' warning is haunting. The financial success can equal spiritual failure. See, this is an idea that you rarely hear in society today, right? But it's profoundly biblical. Which is probably why the weight of Jesus' teachings are so focused and against and warning to greed. The thing about it is that very few of us think we're greedy, right? As a pastor, I've had, oh man, I've had people confess things to me. Whether it was abortion, whether it was adultery, pornography, all sorts of addictions, abuse. But I've never had anyone come to me and confess greed. Just never have. And we tend to unconsciously adopt the standard cultural norms of our day, right? We live in one of the most greedy materialistic cultures in history. Hence, we often, like the story of the frog in the water, we don't even realize what greed is doing to our soul. And in this series and in this thought of figuring out the lost art of generosity, our pastors, we were thinking about, could there be a way of Jesus that could set our hearts free from greed and form us into the people that Jesus so desperately and deeply wants us to be and happy and at peace. And yes, there is. It's the rhythm and the practice and the lost art of generosity. Jesus says this to the Pharisees in Luke 19. He says, "You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness." See, wickedness is more of like a generic term, but greed is very specific. It's the one sin that Jesus calls out by name is greed right here. And then he says this, he continues on, "But now for what is inside you, that greed, that foul just ugh, ruining of your heart, but rather be generous to the poor and everything will be clean for you." If there was a silver bullet to greed, it would be generosity. And yes, it is true, the more we get, the more that we want. But the opposite or the inverse is actually also true. See, the more that we give, the more happy and at peace we actually become. The word here used by biblical scholars that would talk about this inner satisfaction would be the word contentment. Contentment. It's one of those most underrated virtues in the entire world. That if greed is this unsatisfied desire being wracked by want of more and more, contentment is the actual opposite. It is being deeply happy and grateful for what you have. It's being free from the desire for more. It is this way of living our lives with a heavenly perspective that frees us up and allows us to live without the weight on our shoulders.

Turn with me or flip or tap or whatever to 1 Timothy chapter 6 is where we're going to be for the majority of this morning. But I love what it says here talking about contentment. And it brings all of this stuff together. It says as Paul is echoing Jesus, so Paul isn't saying something different. He's echoing Jesus, but he's also giving us this idea and alternate pathway towards happiness. It says this in Timothy 6. Godliness with contentment is great gain. What does he mean by this? What he means is that true wealth is not having a lot. It is being happy in God and content with what you have. I've heard a wise person say this once. They said, "I may not have a lot of money, but I am rich all of the time." This is the idea of contentment. It continues on in 1 Timothy, "For we brought nothing into the world and we take nothing out of it." As the saying goes, you can't take it with you. A lot of people have tried. Wealth is temporary. Either you lose it all the day you die or you lose it all way before that point. It continues on in verse 8, "But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." What does it mean by that? Well, the Greek word here for that word clothing actually translates to covering. So the idea is here, if we have food, we have clothing, we have shelter, and as long as we got God and each other, that's enough. There's no need for anything more than that. But he continues on. It says, "Those who want to get rich," or maybe translate this way, "Those who set their hearts on being wealthy, those who long to be rich, those who desire with their hearts on being wealthy, fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." This line is often misquoted, but if you read here, you pay attention to the love of money is the root of all evil that everybody says. The love of money is the root of all evil. No, no, no. That's not what the Bible says. The NIV translation here actually is really, really excellent. It says, "The love of money is a root, a root of all kinds of evil," meaning it's the evil underneath so many of the evils in our soul and society. Money itself is not evil. It's just not. It can do great good, absolutely, but it can also do great evil. And when I think of power of generosity, I think of a business in which to make the world an absolutely better place.

But at the same time, money isn't neutral either. It's very powerful. I think of nuclear power or nuclear energy. It can bring life or death. And it's very hard to steward this level of power well. I think of money like Frodo's Ring in Tolkien's classic Lord of the Rings, right? You guys have seen those series. I think of it and the idea that only the purest of hearts stand a chance at not being corrupted by its power. The whole movie series, all 300 hours of it, are all about the struggle to end the Ring, right? They do flashbacks to years before when kings wielded it and destroyed half the earth, and then it was gone and lost and hidden forever and then found again. And the whole journey of the fight to be able to figure out what to do with this powerful ring. And I think that's for us with money. That even then sometimes it's not a blessing as much as a burden to our soul, and it tends to deform our inner person. That money-love is far more dangerous than any of us realize. This is what it says in the next verse. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Another way it's been translated, pierced themselves with many pains, have wounded themselves with many sorrows, caused themselves untold agonies of mind. In my life here on earth, whether you have more years than me and say I haven't been here very long or you have younger years than me saying you are super old, I've seen a lot of people gain wealth over the years. And I've seen what it does to their hearts and to their lives. And my experience is that the warning of Jesus and the scriptures are incredibly, incredibly true. Not only does money make most people happy, but it often is the root of all kinds of evil.

So what's Paul's solution to all of this and the problem of greed? Contentment. The writer Randy Alcorn defines contentment as being satisfied in who's you are, who you are, and what you have. Those who love and serve Jesus can be truly content, but those who love and serve money can never be. To be content is to realize you have enough. But even more so is be happy with what you have been blessed with. See, my problem is, you guys probably don't struggle with this, is that I think I'll be content when I get a raise or when I buy that home or when I get through just this season of life. Then I'll be content. But that's not how contentment works. It's not. The truth is, though, but we can be happy here and now through practicing the lost art of generosity. See, there's, I see this as two facets of this discipline, kind of maybe like two sides of a coin. The first of which is going to be the most obvious one. So if we have generosity, the first side would be to give. To give our resources away. Which we're going to talk about this more later, but the reality is this isn't ours in the first place. It's solely God, and so we freely share. Giving is like God's antidote to greed. It's like the prescription to fix the greed in our lives. And the more that we give away, the less control that money actually has over our hearts. The other side of that is to simplify our life. To edit down everything to the essentials of what really matters. And see, both sides are critical. J.K. Chesterton famously said this, "There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less." Paul puts it this way, that there's two ways to be rich. Earn more or want less. That's it. I think the second one, want less, is a little bit easier to attain in life.

But the discipline of pursuit of less has at times been called simplicity or simple living. Or in the Christian tradition, different words. Or maybe you've heard the secular term minimalism. But there's so much more to be said about simplicity. First, I want to get this straight. Simplicity is not the same thing as poverty. Sometimes we just throw the baby out with the bathwater and go, "I'm just going to be poor." But I don't think that's how God wants us to live our lives. Because if you're poor, you don't have anything to give away, right? But the reality is that the definition of simplicity is this. Limiting the number of our possessions, expenses, activities, and social obligations is a level where we are free to live joyfully and generously in the kingdom with Jesus. And it reframes the question of, "What else can I get?" Framing it into the question of, "What can I do without?" Thinking in our mindset. And see, this question only makes sense inside of a worldview like that of Jesus. See, the reality is, to live a generous life, we need to have margin. We need to have margin in our finances so we have budget in the room to share. We need to have margin in our schedule for rooms for interruptions from people who need us, for times for rest, for times of delight in the Lord. We need margin in our relationships. But see, the problem is most of us live at overcapacity, not under capacity. See, for Jesus, or for us who are apprentices of Jesus, disciples of Jesus, we should live our lives where the people should look at us and how we spend our money, and they should assume we actually make less money than we do. This is really hard. Imagine this, if you would with me, I'll put this on the screen, of a line of our income and our expenses and a level of indebtedness. Most of us in the world around us, this is reality, we live above that debt line. We're maxing out our capacity. Jesus calls us to actually live underneath that level, in the bottom. Because in the area above, we find ourselves with anxiety, with misery, with stress, with worry. But when we live below that line, we find contentment. We can live out generosity. We find joy and happiness. And this is the exact opposite of our culture.

We live in California, we live in a very affluent area in California, but the reality is when people drive in the luxury cars, living in the giant homes, living in their lifestyle with their clothes, everything like that, they are still living paycheck to paycheck, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. And I don't see how this is the way that Jesus calls us to live our lives, to just live the opposite. Did you get what Paul said there? He said, "We will be content." The Greek word here, content, implies a resolve of the heart, that we will not give into greed, but be happy with what we have. There will come a time in your life where you will have to draw a line in the sand and say, "Enough is enough. I don't need any more." But here's the hard part. This practice looks different for all of us. And it will look different based upon your stage in life, based upon your income level, whether or not you have children or dependents. You may be struggling to put food on the table, but Jesus' warnings about greed are not just for the rich. It is a call for all of us to be content in what we have.

I love what it says in Hebrews, we're going to close out, it said, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have." Keep your heart free. See, our heart is like a GPS. I think we've all used GPS on our phone before, right? We can pull that up and the world tells us, "Just follow your heart's desire." But that's like opening up Google Maps and just driving. We'll just go wherever, right? There's no direction, there's no final destination, there's no place that we're trying to head towards. We're just out there freewheeling it. And I think the reality is that if we were to just let our heart's desire just lead us, we'd probably end up in some really bad places. What Jesus is trying to teach us here is we have to put in the address of heaven into our heart GPS in life, because then we're going to the right destination. And then every turn has a purpose, every direction makes sense. We're headed towards a certain place. And if we just let ourselves go, we won't get to where God wants us to be. See, that is the goal. The Jesus way is not riches or poverty, but it is freedom and generosity. This is what it says in that second part of Hebrews 13. Just keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. And then he says, "Because God has said, 'I will never leave you, I never will forsake you.'" Because ultimately what we've been doing is we've been searching for, what we are searching for in money can only be found in God. What we have been chasing after to fill that in ourselves, money and wealth never will. It's only to be found in God. Whether it's peace, happiness, safety, security, identity, desire. We think we just get a little bit more, right? Then we'll be content. But what we're searching for in money can only be found in God. The good news, the gospel is that we already have everything that we need. We already have it all. We have access to the kingdom of heaven. God is our king provider and he will never leave you and never forsake you. Right here, right now, we have everything that we need to live a happy, joy-filled life in God.

Pray with me. Jesus, thank you for who you are. God, thank you for your son, your gift and sacrifice on the cross. Jesus, we have everything that we need. You've blessed us with everything. You've given us exactly what we need for today and for tomorrow and for the day after that. You have it all figured out. So God, I pray that we wouldn't worry about that, but that we would be focused in the moment here and now. That we would have contentment to push back against the greed that creeps into our lives every single moment of every single day. And Jesus, we would live a life that is honoring and glorifying to you with our finances. Being a witness to others to point people to you, Jesus. In everything that we do and say and schedule and work with our hands and take care of our time. God, it would all be directed to bring you glory in this world until we see you face to face in heaven. We thank you, Jesus. We love you. Amen.

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 1

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 1

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, we are, as you can see, around tables today and there is no lunch afterwards and you're probably like, what is happening right now? Was this just for Morning Blend? No, though it does help. We wanted you guys to sit around tables for Morning Blend but we are going to be around tables to encourage and provide opportunity to prime the pump, to ready your hearts and minds, to engage with this series and to do so in community. So we're gonna be around tables for the next four weeks, this week and four more weeks. I know some of you are like, oh my goodness, will I not be here for the next four weeks? Oh, I love that. Some of you are like, yes, this is the best. Yeah, we need to. We're gonna have time either before the message or after the message, maybe during the message, where we're gonna give you each week a prompt or a question that you are gonna discuss around your table. And so as much as it is an individual faith that we have, we also recognize that it's a communal practice that we live in Christ together and we wanna encourage that with this. And so in our series, we are starting the series, The Lost Art of Generosity. While generosity is present in our world today, generosity as Jesus lived it and taught it, practiced it, that's harder to come by. And so this series is gonna take a look at Jesus's words about generosity. From a distance, generosity sounds like a difficult practice to embody regularly every day, and it is at first, but it quickly becomes one of the most joy-filled of all of Jesus's practices. And so our prayer for this series in the coming weeks is that you discover the great joy that Jesus is referring to, not just the good feelings that occur when we are generous, but the deep joy that comes from participating in the inner life of God himself, who is the most generous being in all the universe. I'll continue to share more about our series in just a moment, but let's pause right now to have our first discussion moment. So here it is, it's on the screen, we'll give it to you. Whether you were the giver or the recipient, share about a time when you experienced the joy of generosity. Whether you were the giver or the recipient, share around your table. So we have like three to five minutes. We won't have time to go into your full story, so maybe keep it short and just say, "Hey, in this moment in time, this guy did this for me, "and I really loved it, and it was amazing." It can be that short. If you're around a table with just the two of you, feel free to share your whole heart if you want to. But introduce yourself if you haven't. Be really quick, three to five minutes, and then I'll gather us back up. Ready, set, go.

We're gonna start in verse 19. It says this, this is Jesus speaking. It says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth "where moths and vermin destroy "and where thieves break in and steal, "but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven "where moths and vermin do not destroy "and where thieves do not break in and steal." Notice here that Jesus doesn't speak against storing up things. Are there any collectors in here? People who love collecting something, maybe? Yes? Okay, I see a couple hands raised. Good. I'm curious about what those are. I have some collectors in my family. My grandpa was a huge collector. He collected stamps and coins. I didn't know, I was a kid when I really found out about this and didn't come to appreciate it 'cause he passed away when I was younger, but he was kind of an expert, and people would send coins and stamps, mail 'em over to him and be like, "What do I have?" And he would go through people and give them estimates. So he was really into stamps and I think foreign coins. On my other side of the family, my cousin, this was also when I was little, I remember walking into, he had a two-bedroom house, and I kid you not, from floor to ceiling, you could not see a wall. It was covered in action figures. Like the biggest collection I've ever seen. The whole two-bedroom house was just for the collection. He was living by himself. But he had, it was amazing. And as a kid, I was like, "This is awesome. "This is better than a toy store. "Look at all these toys." But I learned that I couldn't play with them. They were all boxed up and graded and everything.

So those might be some extreme sides of collecting, but there is an innate desire in us to store things up. Jesus doesn't rebuke that. Rather, he speaks to where we should store things up. He says, "Not on earth, where moth and rust destroy, "where everything can be lost so quickly, "but store up your treasures in heaven." Now, we read that, and we think, "Eternal treasure storehouse." Of, hey, when I, the way I live my life as a Christian, one day when God, the Bible says I get my own house, he's building a house for me, I'm going to have a treasure room somewhere, and there's all these treasures that I've accumulated from being a good Christian. Maybe you don't think that, but we can kind of think that way. Of, hey, I got this place, I am getting all these things in the future. It's a future investment. And that's not necessarily wrong, but that's not the whole picture that Jesus is saying here. You see, this phrase, "in heaven," at that time as Jesus meant it, is also saying, "in God and what he is doing on earth." Store up your treasures in God and what he is doing on earth. That paints a little different picture. That helps shift our mindset from a future that we cannot see and may not feel responsible to interact with. That's a future, it's over there, I'll get to that one day when I die, get to experience all these treasures in heaven. It shifts that to, this is a future that I get to participate in. Storing up my treasures in heaven and what God is doing right now on earth. It's more present, it's more tangible for us. And it can change our heart towards stewarding what we have and giving what we have. Because for Jesus, money is all about our hearts. Verse 21 says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." According to Jesus, our hearts follow our money. We often think of it the opposite way, that our money follows our heart. And that can be true, that we can spend money on what we love. But Jesus is saying it works both ways. We come to love, maybe even obsess over or be controlled by what we spend our money on. This one can be tricky, it doesn't start necessarily as an obsession. Maybe it can be slower developing and we can obsess over something that is a good thing but it becomes too much and it takes the place of God in our hearts. Maybe it's something like, hey, you bought a house. That's amazing. But all of a sudden, all the money that you're pouring into that house, that thing can become an idol over God. You care about that house more than you care about God. That takes up more of your time, more of your heart. You are more controlling and acting out of fear and greed over that than listening to God. When we store up on earth, two things become key motivators and get a hold of our hearts, fear and greed. Our hearts are racked by fear because we know that we could lose it all in a moment. Or our hearts are motivated by greed because we feel like we may never have enough.

So we want more and more and more just in case, if I just have more, I'll be that much more safe, that much more able to provide for my family. But Jesus, he never wants us to operate out of fear or greed. And he has an alternative way of storing things up in heaven or with him and what he is doing here on earth. And in order to do that, we need a certain perspective. It says in verse 22, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness?" What is Jesus talking about here? Do we all need to have surgery to have 20/20 vision so we can all see perfectly? No, though that is helpful at times. "The eye is the lamp of the body." In the Greek here, these phrases, the people would have understood this, a healthy eye means you are generous. An unhealthy eye means you are stingy. Jesus is saying there are two ways of looking at the world. This is the crux of our message today. There are two ways of looking at the world. Again, in the old world, they would have said good eye, bad eye. Today, we would say something like the abundance mindset and a scarcity mindset. In an abundance mindset, we see God as Father, a provider. We see ourselves as His child. We see life as a gift given to us. We see that in this world, God has provided more than enough. It says elsewhere in Jesus' teachings, "Look at the lilies of the field, the birds of the air. If God has given them what they need, how much more will He give us?" The result of this is that we are grateful towards God and generous towards our neighbors. If we see the world in this way, we see God as our Father who provides for us, we are His children, He's going to take care of us, life is a gift, and this world has more than enough, then we are grateful, and we are able to be generous to other people because we know and trust that God is good and He will provide. Now, the other mindset, scarcity mindset, that God is not our Father and not our provider, that you are on your own. It's a dog-eat-dog world out here, and you better do what you need to do to take care of yourself. It does not matter what it means to other people. That life on earth is a dangerous place and that there are scarce resources. There's not enough to go around, so I've got to take care of mine. And again, it doesn't matter because there's not enough, so I better take care of... It's responsible. We can even guise this in wisdom and say, "God has told me to provide for my family. I'm sorry if that means it's not providing for your family, but I've got to take care of me." The result of this is a heart that is consumed by fear and greed. I want to keep this up here for a second. In the old world, they're using this healthy eye or unhealthy eye, right? The healthy eye, an eye of abundance. We see the world in this way. We live in this way. We are free to live in this way. With the unhealthy eye, you can see how that person is consumed by fear and greed, and there is no room for God in there. We want to have a healthy view of this world. And the scarcity mindset, this unhealthy eye, is an unhealthy view of the world. You know, the church isn't immune to this temptation or exempt from dealing with this. As a church, we must be a place that fights to have an abundance mindset, which can't be hard. We as a church have, you may not know this, but Spring Valley has bills to pay. We have to keep the lights on, the air conditioning, the heat in the winter, and we can be prone to be stingy and have a scarcity mindset. "God, there's not enough. There may not be enough this month. What does that mean? Maybe we can't do this ministry. Maybe we can't love these people like we're supposed to." Those thoughts are just because we're pastors, doesn't mean that we totally see it, we totally get it, we're good, we're locked in. It is hard. We can look to the future with this fear and greed and say, "I don't know, God. I don't know if there's going to be enough." And all of a sudden, we're operating ministry out of fear and greed. Instead of looking at our situation, trusting God that he will provide and there's abundance. And to be very real with you, in times of economic uncertainty and things like inflation, tithing is often the first thing to go. People sacrifice their tithing because, again, they view, "I got to take care of me first. God, you'll take care of the church. You'll figure that out, but I got to figure out me first." And I'm not saying that--again, I struggle with that too. So what I'm saying is to share that we have to fight against this mentality, this scarcity mindset.

We cannot view generosity in those moments when things get tough. Like tithing, we cannot view it as optional or extra because it isn't. These two mindsets, the good eye and the bad eye, they aren't necessarily determined by what a person has either. Let's take this a step further. Two people can have the same exact situation, the same job, the same income, the same family responsibilities, same bills and everything, but see the world in radically different ways. That can be true of two people who make very little by the world's standards and struggle to pay everything, to, again, by the world's standards, struggle to live. But there can be a person in that situation who has an abundance mindset, who is thankful and sees God as providing for their every need, even if it's just enough that God is providing. There can be a person who is in that place and is struggling, saying there's not enough and living in a scarcity mindset. It can be true of two people who make a lot by the world's standards, who have more than enough, who have never known what it is to need anything, and they can still struggle with having a scarcity mindset. So let me ask you, church, how do you see the world? How do you see the world? If you had an absolute assurance that God would provide enough for you, how would that change your relationship to money and generosity? If you trust God's vision of abundance and see Him as your Father provider, how would that change things? If you live like that, let's flesh out this concept a bit more. If you have a healthy eye, and you believe that there is abundance in this world, and Jesus' teachings start to make sense when He says, "Don't worry. There's no need for anxiousness. I have you. I've got you." Seek first the kingdom of God. Again, not seek first making sure your life is good and then seek the kingdom of God. No, seek first the kingdom of God. If we have an abundant mindset, that makes sense. If it says, "Give and it will be given to you," if we have an abundant mindset, that makes sense too. If we have a scarcity mindset, that verse does not--we don't understand that. But at the end of an abundant mindset, we are free to be generous. In the scarcity mindset, Jesus' teachings sound foolish in today's world. All that He talks about generosity and money, they do not add up. That is not what the world says. And at the end of a scarcity mindset is being enslaved by fear and greed.

And this leads us to how Jesus finishes this teaching, which is why He says, verse 24, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Jesus is even more clear by posing this question, "Who will you serve? Money or God?" The word here for money is the word "mammon," which is an ancient Syrian god of wealth. So this is Jesus' way of saying money is like a rival god. Which god are you going to serve, the god of money or the god of the universe, the king of kings, Yahweh? We want so badly to believe that money is neutral. And technically, it is, but it's kind of like nuclear energy, capable of great good, but also devastating destruction and absolute evil. For Jesus, wealth is powerful, and the sway it has in our hearts is a work in influence of the enemy. The god of mammon is behind so much in our world. Whole industries are run by the worship of mammon, the worship of money. War, racism, ecological devastation, sexual exploitation, to name a few.

As we look at the words of Jesus in verse 24, he is informing us that it is impossible to serve both God and money, because mammon will take over our hearts. So how do we resist? How do we resist this temptation that money has, the sway over our hearts? How do we have that healthy eye and live out the abundant mindset? This is what Jesus is teaching his disciples here. And Jesus, you guys know this, is a brilliant communicator and teacher. So in just these short verses, he is teaching on three different levels. He's teaching at the head level, the knowledge, the ideas that he's saying, our heart, he's addressing the feelings that we have, and he's also teaching our hands, what to do, our behavior. So the first one, what he teaches us to understand is how to see God and our lives in his world. He's telling them where good life is to be found and who God is. You see, biblical generosity doesn't start with tithing or giving to the poor. We'll get to those. Those are good practices. It starts with who God is. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Trinity, a Trinity of self-giving. Our God is a heavenly Father. I talked about earlier the idea of a heavenly Father who provides. For those of you who have kids, or even if you were a kid, you had an age where you didn't worry about certain things. Our kids don't worry about food on the table, medical bills. They're not worrying about like, "Hey, Mom, Dad, we have a medical bill showing up for my six-month appointment," whatever. They don't worry about those type of things. Why? Because they trust that as parents, we are providing for them.

It's the same way that God takes care of us. We see the triune God, and there's generosity woven throughout Scripture. From day one of creation, God is giving, is blessing. All the way up to Jesus. God gave his only Son. Jesus gave his life. God and Jesus give the Holy Spirit to us. We serve a generous God, the most generous God. And do we trust him? Do we live free to give as he has given to us? That's the idea. That's the head knowledge. Secondly, our hearts. He's teaching the disciples about the architecture of our hearts. He's telling us, if we get our relationship to money right, it will set our hearts free. If we follow Jesus and live like him, it should change our whole view on money. That's why it's more than just tithing or radical acts of generosity. Really good things, but it's more than that. It's also about the freedom to buy coffee or a meal for a friend. About having people over and providing them dinner. About being quick to forgive, as forgiveness is an expression of giving, of generosity. It's not just about our behavior. It's about our inner nature being formed to be like Jesus. Our hearts being shaped like his. And then thirdly, it's about the practice of generosity. Listen, the generosity that Jesus lived, that he calls us to live, is just that. It's a life. It's not a one-time thing. It's not a random, "Hey, I did that last year. I was super generous to that one person. I'm good for a while." It's not just when we have extra, and so we're like, "Hey, I have some to spare. Now I'll think about being generous." It is a practice. It needs to be a regular practice, a lifelong practice. Practicing generosity will make you into a more generous person.

Here's the reality. You can't leave today and instantly remove all the fear and greed that you face. Like, "Oh, I just learned about abundant mindset and scarcity mindset. I'm no longer going to be afraid." It just doesn't work that way. That fear and greed is still in you. You have to work that out with God. But you can, after leaving today, you can sponsor a child. You can buy someone lunch this week. You can give away a regular amount of your monthly income with special attention to the poor and the church and the gospel. You can practice being generous. And as you practice being generous on a regular rhythm, that grip that greed and fear has in your heart will begin to dissipate. And through this practice, God can change our hearts and habits. John Mark Comer, he says this, "Generosity is a practice by which we index our hearts from scarcity mindset to the abundance mindset of Jesus." We turn from fear to trust. As we give, this is what happens, we turn from fear to trust. We turn from worry to peace, trusting, knowing that God has provided for us. We turn from desire to enjoyment, always wanting more and never being satisfied to enjoying what God has given us. We turn from grasping to gratitude, and we turn from misery to joy. I know that all of us in this room, we want to be on that right side of things. And that comes through a regular practice of generosity. I want you to think of the most generous person you know. I know this from the story that you shared this morning around the table. But let me ask you this, were they joyful? Are they generally a joyful person? I think, yes, it's almost safe to say that, I'm not guaranteeing that every one of your people is joyful, but it's pretty common that people who are living a generous life are also a very joyful people. It's been said that it will cost you, literally, it will cost you to put Jesus' teaching into practice, but you will get more back than what you put in, because there is more joy in giving than in receiving. I'd encourage you this week to begin exercising that muscle of generosity. Put it into practice. If you need something practical, here's something small. Set aside maybe like $5, or pray about that amount. Maybe you can give more. And ask God this week for an opportunity to bless someone. Put that money in your wallet and just be praying, "God, show me somewhere, somebody this week, that I can give this $5." And then just keep your eyes open. See what opportunity God brings your way. We're not trying to solve global poverty or be heroic in any way. We're just trying to tap into that flow of the spirit of living a generous life, being more ready to give than to be stingy. If you need some ideas, again, keep money in your pocket, or buy someone in line behind you a coffee or a lunch, pay for someone's bill anonymously, drop off groceries or gift someone that you know who is in need, send cash digitally to help a friend with medical bills or expenses that they can't currently pay, buy a gift for someone just to encourage them and bless them, or give away something that you have. But spend time this week reflecting on how you see the world and what might need to change in order to see God as your Father provider, and having a good eye and living a life with an abundant mindset.

Let’s pray. God, thank you for your words and your instruction. As difficult as they may seem to live out, God, we know that this is the life that you would call us to. And God, we want to pray this. As our provider, you hold all things in endless, fearless supply. Help us to live in that trust and rest in your extravagance. Help us to know that we can freely give in the manner that we have received, selflessly, daringly, and lovingly. We recognize that all we have is from you, and we know that you are an abundant God. Help us, free us from that grip that fear and greed has on our hearts, and help us to be an expression of your love by giving to those around us. Pray this in your name. Amen.

Easter Sunday 2025

Easter Sunday - He Is Risen!

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Amen and Happy Easter! Okay, we gotta do it one more time. I know Pastor Andre did it again, but we gotta do it one more time. He is risen! He is risen! Amen and Amen. That is why we are here, right? We are here to celebrate, to acknowledge, to show our gratitude that not only did Jesus die for us, but He didn't stay dead. He rose from the grave and gave us power over sin and death, so we can have eternal life with Him. Again, I am so glad you are here today. I am Pastor Lauren, if I haven't had a chance to meet you. We have a packed service today, so we are just going to dive right into the Word. If you would turn with me to John 20, you can pull it up on your phones or Bible. We got Bibles in the seats in front of you. It will also be up on the screens if you need it as well. We are just going to read through. It is a good-sized chunk of Scripture, but we are going to read through when the disciples discover that the tomb is empty.

Read along with me. John 20, verses 1-18. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put Him." So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni," which means "Teacher." Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, "I have seen the Lord," and she told them that he had said these things to her. Amen? Amen.

The disciples have just been through a really tough weekend. They saw their Lord crucified and buried, and then they discover that his body has been taken. Jesus had told them that he would rise again, but they did not fully understand it. They go off and tell the other disciples what is going on. Mary is here, still at the tomb. She is weeping. She is distraught. She is in such deep grief. She is so involved and consumed with finding Jesus' body that she does not even recognize Jesus. I do not know, maybe she had tears in her eyes, or she was not even looking at him. She was just frantic. Or maybe his physical appearance had changed after the resurrection. But for whatever reason, she does not recognize him. Until he says her name. She was distracted and disoriented and grieving, but then Jesus said, "Mary." In only the way and tone and inflection that Jesus could, I imagine that she was not even looking at him, and he said her name, and she turned and she knew. Just because he was the only one who could say her name, just like that. Jesus called Mary's name, and she recognized him. One commentator about this passage that I was reading this week said, "Jesus revealed himself, not by who he was, but by who she was." You see, our identity is wrapped up in the resurrected Jesus. Our identity is who he says that we are. That because he rose from the grave, because he is resurrected, he has changed us. We become a resurrection people.

Because of his death and resurrection, we experience true freedom and a new identity in him. We are changed. We're a resurrection people. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone. The new is here." That is good news. It is good news. That because he died, because he paid the price for our sins, and then because he rose from the grave, we experience true freedom that can only come from him. And we have a new identity in who he says we are. On Good Friday a couple nights ago, we gathered together for a service to honor and reflect on his death. We read scripture, and we talked about the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Because the reality is the resurrection is amazing, but there is no resurrection if there is no death first. In our modern day, I think sometimes we forget how gruesome the crucifixion was, or we try to maybe separate ourselves. We read over the passages, and it's like, "Okay, he was crucified. The end. Move on." We don't necessarily let it sink in, the level of pain and anguish that he endured. But the reality is that it was awful. Jesus endured the cross for us. And only love would go to the cross for someone else. Only love would endure such excruciating pain for people that hated him, and despised him, and mocked him. Only love, only divine love, would stay on a cross when he could have gotten himself off. He chose to stay on that cross for us. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He did it when we were still sinning, when we were still outside of relationship with him.

He died for us. What he did was this deep, beautiful, only God kind of love. And because of his sacrifice, our sins are forgiven. The price has been paid. There is no more price to be paid. Through his death and resurrection, he restored what was broken. He made us new, and he put his righteousness on us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." That means that we have now direct access to God. We can approach the throne of grace freely. There is nothing there to block us. Because of his death and resurrection, he put his righteousness on us. But we couldn't do this ourselves. He did it because he was the only one who could do it. He is perfectly God and perfectly man. He was sinless. And the reality was that God is holy, but he wanted a relationship with his people. And because God is holy, he cannot make himself less holy to stoop down to our level. He can't become less holy, so he had to make a way for us to be holy in order to be in relationship with him. He had to make us right. And only Jesus qualified as the perfect sacrifice. But now, because of that sacrifice, we have been set free, and we can have a direct relationship with God. But because Jesus was the only one who could do this, we have to remember that it wasn't by anything that we did. There is nothing that we can do that can save us. There's no amount of good works or living rightly, performing, producing. There's nothing we can do that we can earn our salvation. It's only by his sacrifice. It is only by the death and resurrection of Jesus that we can be saved. Now, for most of us, this is really good news. That we can't do anything to earn our salvation. We can't do anything to save ourselves. That's good news. But I imagine there's some of us in this room that maybe have a slightly different response. Maybe your initial reaction is, "But I don't deserve it. I've sinned too much, or I've been gone away from him for too long. I don't deserve that kind of gift." Or maybe you're thinking, "Okay, yeah, sure, but I have to do something to earn this, right? Surely there's something that I have to do to get this incredible gift. Or if nothing else, I have to do something to keep it. Maybe he'll give it to me, but I have to keep striving in order to keep hold of this thing that he has given me." Well, if you're in the first group of thinking that you don't deserve it, I'm here to tell you today, you're right. But that's the point. You don't deserve it. None of us do. But here's the thing, if you deserved it, you wouldn't need it. You wouldn't need the gift because you'd already saved yourself. And if you're in kind of that second group of thinking, it's just another, the other side of the same coin. You can't do anything to save yourself. There is no catch. There is no, "Okay, yeah, but." No, there is no, no, there's no, "Yeah, but." It just is a gift. Again, if there was a way for you to earn it, you wouldn't need his gift of salvation. I heard a pastor this week on a podcast talking about the things that we do as Christians. Good things, like, you know, praying and going to church and the good things we do out of our love for Jesus. And he said, "When we do those things, we are not earning, we are inheriting." We're not earning, we're inheriting.

Because the reality is when we accept Jesus' gift of salvation, we become adopted into his family. We are the sons and daughters of Christ. We are co-heirs with Christ. So by the power of his death and resurrection, we are adopted into the family of God. I had never caught this before, but in the John 20 passage we read earlier, Jesus tells Mary Magdalene, "Go tell my brothers," meaning the disciples, "Go tell them what you've seen." But before this, he had never called them that. He had called them servants. He had called them friends. But he had never called them brothers. But because of his sacrifice and his resurrection, they are now family. Their identity, again, back to that idea of identity, their identity has changed. We too are family. We have been adopted into the family of God. If we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, we are part of his family with all the rights and privileges of a son or daughter. When we have a legal adoption in our country, the child becomes part of that family. They have all the same rights and privileges of any other person in that family. Their parents are their parents. They get the same inheritance. They are a sibling. They are part of that family with all the rights and privileges of a natural-born child. They are brought in. They take on that name, their last name. They are part of that family. Galatians 4:7, "So you are no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you are his child, God has made you also an heir." There's nothing we have to do to earn this adoption status. Because we're not earning, friends. We're inheriting. If Jesus declares that you are forgiven and righteous and made new, and he does, then the literal only thing you have to do is to not fight against it, to not resist it. If you believe that he died and rose again and paid the penalty for your sins, then you're a follower of Jesus and you get to spend eternity with him in his glory and in his presence.

Friends, if you've already made the decision to follow Jesus, if you've declared that he is Lord of your life and received his forgiveness, then let this day be a day of celebration, like a birthday. Just a reminder of his goodness and his sacrifice and his love for you. Because it's such a powerful day. We get to celebrate Easter whenever we want as Jesus followers, but today is extra special, right? We get to really just focus in on it and celebrate it. But I have a little bit of a challenge for us as we wrap things up today. I want us to ask ourselves this question. Maybe just kind of take it into your week, think about it. But for those of us who call ourselves Christ followers, the challenge for us is how does my life reflect that his death and resurrection changed my life and my identity? How does my life, my words, my actions, my decisions, my priorities, my responses to things, how does that reflect his death and resurrection changed my life and my identity? Because it should. Your life should look different than the world's. Your life should look different than it did before. And friends, if you've never made the decision to follow Jesus, if you haven't surrendered your life to him, and you're wondering if Jesus maybe is for you, I just encourage you to consider that today. Consider that maybe he's calling you and he wants to change your identity. Jesus wants a personal relationship with you and he went to the cross for it. We are going to head into our time of baptisms today. But as you watch these people get dunked underwater and representing raised to new life, consider what that would maybe mean for you. That maybe today is the day that you surrender your life and enter into a relationship with Jesus.

Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for raising from the dead. We thank you that not only did you sacrifice for us, but you chose not to stay dead. And we can declare that we serve a living God. We thank you that we get to celebrate your resurrection today through worship and the word and through the testimonies of those being baptized today. We love you, Jesus, in your name. Amen.

Palm Sunday 2025

Palm Sunday - Ushering In A Kingdom Unknown

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We're doing well? Yeah? Good, good. I see a lot of smiling faces today, which is always good, helpful for me. We just wrapped up our series called "The Ministry of Jesus" and looked at different aspects of His ministry in a three-year span, all to gain a deeper understanding of who Jesus was, what He did, so that when we come to the cross, when we come to Easter, our praise could be all the deeper, all the louder, having this deeper understanding of Christ's ministry. This week is Holy Week, Passion Week, as you know, I'm sure. This is the final week of Jesus' life before the cross, and it's a week packed with a lot of things. It's packed with important conversations, intense moments between Him and the opposition, the Pharisees, the religious leaders. He has in this week some final preparations to be made with the disciples. And then there's also a lot of emotions, painful tears that are shed as He readies His heart for what He is about to do. All of this leading up to the perfect Son of God being on the cross, taking on our punishment of sin and death, one that He didn't deserve. But we know that the story doesn't end with the death of Jesus. Obviously, we have Easter where we celebrate His resurrection. But this week, I just want to say, before we get there, it's important to go through this week. This week is a rollercoaster, ups and downs. We start with a good moment, but then we go into some lowest of lows before getting to the highest of highs. This is a week where the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, is treated like a criminal, a public nuisance, a problem that needed to be taken care of. But the beginning of Holy Week starts with this moment where He is, to some small extent, He's actually treated like a king. And as we'll see, it's a significant moment, not for reasons that people thought, but because it signifies our proximity to the cross. We're getting closer and closer to the most important moment in history.

So if you guys will, would you guys open your Bibles with me to Mark 11, Chapter 1. We'll have it on the screen as well. Mark 11, chapter 1 verse 1. It says this, "As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of His disciples saying to them, 'Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, 'What are you doing untying that colt?' They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, He sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!' Jesus entered Jerusalem, went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.”

Just pray with me one more time. God, as we open up your word, I pray that you would reveal your truth to us. God, that we would better understand this moment, what Jesus went through, and what it meant for this holy week. God, I pray that through your word that we would be encouraged and empowered to give more of who we are to you. So be with us during this time. We pray this in your name. Amen.

This is, of course, famously known as Jesus' triumphal entry. Merciful entries were a practice more done in the ancient world, where celebrating someone of significance, often a ruler or a military leader, they had a procession or a parade recognizing that person's accomplishments and celebrating what they have done. So in the Old Testament, we do have an example between David and Solomon, where King David is pretty much ushering Solomon in as the new king, also riding on a mule. That's a little important. We also have, later on in history, if you think of some of the greats, Alexander the Great, he had a procession into Babylon. Julius Caesar had one returning after a military campaign into Rome. Napoleon into Milan in Italy. More modern day, we think of maybe the royal family. I don't know if you guys follow the royal family, but King Charles had a procession ushering in his new reign as king. My mind, you guys know me, I'm a sports person, and I think of our modern day triumphal entry as probably going to be for a sports team. The tradition is, if that team wins a championship, they go back to that city, and they get on the double-decker bus or some cool sports convertible cars, and they have their trophy, and they bring it with them around the city as everyone's cheering, all the fans are there. We in Sacramento have no idea what that's like, because we have never won anything. Maybe if you come from the Bay Area, you celebrated those, I know it hurts, I'm like, I don't know what that's like, I would love to be there. We'll get it on, if the Sacramento Kings ever win a championship, I think Pastor Chris and I will be downtown celebrating that triumphal entry. Jesus's triumphal entry is probably the most famous in history, though it had a lot less pomp and circumstance than some of these other ones I mentioned. It still though is quite a scene here in the Bible, and it's a beautiful moment that demands a further look, because as we celebrate Jesus's triumphal entry, when we really peel back the layers of this moment, what Jesus went through, we'll find that it's a little more complex than just a hallelujah moment. Not everything is as it looks on the surface.

Instead, when we really look, we'll see that there's a people here with a misguided hope. We begin to see Jesus as that suffering servant king. And then also while everything is kind of going against him, that doesn't stop God from executing his plan, as his kingdom, God's kingdom, is a subversive kingdom. So our passage this morning sets the stage, harkening back to that triumphal entry from Solomon in the Old Testament, which is considered to be this golden era of Israel's history. And so the people are experiencing this, are there, and they're making connections. They're thinking, "Oh, this is from our history, I've seen this before, we know about this, this Jesus is important. This Jesus could be the one." But let's start to peel back the layers. So the people of Israel, the crowds, the religious leaders, and even the disciples, were a people with a misguided hope. As the people are shouting, verses 9 and 10, "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest heaven." They are praising Jesus, that's a good thing, they can always praise Jesus, but for reasons that were not completely accurate, or not fully realized. They're praising him, but they don't even realize fully who Jesus is, or what his kingdom will look like. So we get this beautiful triumphal entry, praising Jesus as king, but not of a kingdom that they think of, that they know of. We talked about this in our series, Ministry of Jesus, this analogy from a few weeks ago. They walked into a Home Depot wanting to build a home, and they came out with all the wrong pieces and instead built a doghouse. So if the Old Testament is the Home Depot, it's got everything they need for the people to understand who the Messiah will be, they grabbed all the wrong pieces and they were looking to build the wrong thing, a lesser model, assembling the pieces of scripture, the prophets from the covenants, even past experiences, they came to their own conclusions about who the Messiah would actually be.

Let me ask you this question, do you guys know why on Palm Sunday, the people at this time waved palms in the air? If you were here for the morning huddle, you can't cheat and shout out the answer, because I gave it already. But the people waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna" because they have this genuine desire for liberation, but they also have this human propensity to control the means of salvation. See 150 years prior to this moment, there's a man named Judas Maccabeus who led the Jewish people to a victory over the Seleucid dynasty, which is the dynasty that was overruling Israel at the time. And after that victory, the crowd celebrated by waving palm branches in the air. And to commemorate that victory, Judas, whose nickname was the hammer, which is a pretty sick nickname, Judas the hammer, he stamped an image of palm branches on all of the Jewish coins to symbolize a victory for the Jewish people over their oppressors. So now we come back to Jesus' time, 150 years, and the Jewish people are again under foreign rule, this time by Rome, and they wave their palms in the air, shouting "Hosanna, save us!" And they're saying something to Jesus. They're in effect saying, "Rescue us, but do it like it's been done before. Do it like we know of that military campaign, of a revolt. Lead us again and deliver us." They had hope in Jesus, but it's a misguided hope, constructed from their limited ideas of what Jesus could be. They were thinking merely just of a better earthly existence, a better here and now. Maybe a king to elevate their status as Israel to be recognized around the world, or maybe a warrior to fight back against Rome, maybe a diplomat to get the nation ahead politically. They were limited in their expectations of Jesus, which led to this misguided hope. As we know, God had so much more for them in store, and for us. God sent his son Jesus to save. He came into the world to give so much more than just another golden era for Israel. He came to undo what sin had done, to defeat sin and death, to give salvation, to invite those who believe into an eternity with God. There would be no greater gift, but the people could not see this in that moment.

Pastor Richard Viotta says this, "On Palm Sunday, the crowds wanted deliverance from the power of Rome, but Jesus was about to deliver the entire world from the power of sin and death." Even the disciples, following Jesus year after year now, they did not fully understand what Jesus was about to do. And he had very open conversations with his plans with them. When we think about this tendency to have a misguided hope from Jesus, we are often guilty of this. We can be. We have a small mind or immediate limited view of what's happening. We don't always see how it's all fitting into the larger picture of God's plan for our lives. We get caught up in wanting the better earthly existence, the better here and now. And we want Jesus, we praise Jesus for what he can do, but sometimes we get our expectations fixed and maybe he won't do it the way that we think he will or should. So if we were to ask, you know, who has perfect perspective over everything, who sees the world with perfect wisdom? It's God. It's only God. It says in Isaiah 55, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declared the Lord, "as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." This is true of those people right there in the triumphal entry, that they're thinking only to this level, but Jesus has plans that are far greater.

So I want to ask us right now, do we have a misguided hope? Maybe at times. Are you expecting one thing of Jesus hindering you from seeing maybe the other things that he's doing in your life? Are you looking at scripture and only looking for things that affirm what you hope for, what you believe, quietly in your hearts demanding God to do something or to be someone that you deemed as the only possible solution? We might need to take a step back and continue to put our hope in Christ, but allow him to work in the way that he deems best, which we may not understand. We may not see as it's happening, because God is often working behind the scenes. That can be hard. It can be hard to be patient and to wait and to trust. I know for me, sometimes I am one who thinks between me and God, I'll have a conversation and say, "God, I figured it out for us. I figured out the plan. If God, if you could just do X, Y, and Z, if you could just follow my plan, you got the power. I came up with the plan." And I say it now and it sounds ridiculous, but I think we can kind of get into that habit of praying, "God, just do this. I figured it out. If you could just do this." We limit God and what he could do. It can be hard. It can be discouraging to go through that and not see how God is working. David writes about this in Psalm 42. It says, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." David has a little pep talk with himself, questioning why he's so down and feeling so anxious. And he reminds himself, he commands himself, "Put your hope in God." So do you have a misguided hope in Christ? And how can you trust God more fully in your life and your situation right now? All right, getting back to our scene here. Jesus is riding that colt. He sees the crowds. He hears their cries and knows that their hope is misguided, but he keeps riding. And what is he riding into? What situation is he entering into?

Well, he's riding into the climax of history here, where he will embody being a suffering servant king. One of my favorite tropes in stories and movies and books is the character that has the slow reveal of their true identity in the story. Specifically someone usually like high regard, nobility, who downplays their identity, keeps it a secret as to why they should be revered and instead chooses like the lowly, humble path. I think of my favorite book, Lord of the Rings. I think of Aragorn, maybe King Arthur in ancient history, or maybe Luke Skywalker for you sci-fi fans of someone who had an identity that wasn't known, but then as the story progresses, you see them enduring some injustice. They should be seen in a certain light, but they're not, until a moment or a couple of moments where their true character is able to shine and you get a cheer for them. You're like, "Yeah, that's right. That's what I'm saying. It's been amazing this whole time." I think we see that here with Jesus a bit. In this moment, there's a bit of everything. We see people who are giving him a royal entry. That's good, as we said, but it's not nearly enough for the God of the universe, for the Messiah who will give them eternal life. It's a little short-lived. As he rides into the praises of the people to a grassroots royal entry, because typically these were given by the city, the city would kind of order, "Hey, here's what's happening." But this one just kind of happened. The people gathered, they started raving the palm branches. He's not riding into the glitz and the glamour of everything, but into a moment where he will suffer in a way that no one has ever suffered, bearing the weight of all sin while being crucified. It says in verse 11, "Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12." Again, usually following these royal entries, this figure, whoever was being celebrated, would be housed and entertained, wined and dined. It was a big thing. It just didn't end with the procession. It was like, "Let's welcome you into our finest house. Let's throw a party." And one scholar writes that Jesus, not doing any of that, and instead departing, suggests that this city and his house, as Malachi had warned in the Old Testament, they're not ready for him. The people, again, are expecting an earthly ruling king, but Jesus is a suffering servant king. He's going to suffer, and every sense of the word will suffer emotionally, spiritually, physically, mentally with what he will endure. And yet he serves. He washes the nasty, stinky feet of the disciples. He teaches with compassion and love. He gives food to the hungry. Heals the broken. He serves by giving of himself. He is a suffering servant king. With all this on his mind, as he rides into the city, Jesus knows. He knows that his own people will turn on him. He knows that his own disciples will betray and deny him. He knows that he's going to be tortured and beaten, mocked and scorned, and that he would have to give his own life. And knowing all of this, feeling the weight of all of this, he rides forward. He enters the city, and he continues that redemptive plan. What a king. What a king. What a leader, someone who would suffer for his own people, who would endure pain and death, who would give his own life for a people who had no knowledge that this is the plan.

Now while that leads us to praise Jesus for all that he did, it should also make us ask something of ourselves. Are we prepared to suffer and serve like Jesus? We are called to be like him. Philippians 2 5 says, "Have the same mindset as Christ." And later in that same chapter, Paul writes, "For it is God who works in you, to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." You have to have the same mindset as Jesus being ready to suffer and serve for God's kingdom. Because God is working, continuing his redemptive plan through us today, as we live like Christ. First John 2 says, "Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did." Again, ready to suffer and serve. And then Peter connects the dots for us even more clearly. First Peter 2 says, "But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps." We are adverse to suffering. It's true, we don't like it. We often build our lives around how to, we build our lives being able to suffer as little as possible. And I'm not saying that we need to seek out suffering, and don't hit me on that. But we should expect and be prepared and know that we will suffer for his kingdom if we are following Jesus. It may mean being betrayed by people, being mocked and scorned, hopefully not torture or beaten. But, I don't want to say this lightly, but if that were the case, would you be ready to do that, to follow Jesus, to follow his example? And we need to serve, not just be served. Jesus the Messiah, God overall, again, served in so many different ways, got dirty with his disciples washing their feet. Are you looking to get your hands dirty to serve those in need for his kingdom? And our reward may not be an earthly one. We're not doing this to say, "Hey, if I do this, again, my here and now, my life on earth is going to be better." It may not. It probably won't. But our reward is in heaven. And the goal, I hope you have this goal, this desire that when you get to heaven with God, he's going to look at you and say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." And he's going to have those moments in mind where you suffered and you served, and he's going to be thanking you. "Good job. That's exactly what I wanted." So are we prepared to suffer and serve for Jesus and like Jesus, who was our suffering servant king?

Something so different than the Israelites were hoping for, something so different than our world today values and admires, which leads us to this point that God's kingdom is a subversive kingdom. As I was studying this week, I was struck by the way that God continues to move his kingdom forward. Even when on the surface things are so chaotic and misunderstood or even against him, his kingdom is a subversive kingdom. His will and his power, his goals keep happening underneath the surface. If you think of it like a river and on the surface and the waters are flowing downstream are chaos, misunderstanding, confusion, opposition. Yet underneath all of that, God's will keeps moving upstream. Doesn't matter. We may not see it. We may not see how he's doing it, but his will is going to happen. He's able to do amazing things all underneath the surface. As the misguided hope of the people is desiring Jesus take an earthly throne, God is still at work to establish his heavenly throne. As the religious leaders are plotting against Jesus, getting everyone with influence and power to join force and to take Jesus down, God is still at work, still moving upstream. And even while Jesus will face his death and his time on earth will come to an end, God is still at work. On the surface, things may look confusing, chaotic, but underneath it all, God is still at work. God's kingdom is a subversive kingdom. This is a theme that goes all the way back to the Old Testament. Quick story in the Old Testament. We think of Joseph in Genesis and he's the one that was sold into slavery by his brothers, seemingly to his death, but God amazingly brings what was intended for misfortune to bring Joseph to be second in command over all of Egypt. And there's a moment where his brothers come to Egypt for food because they're about to die and Joseph has this to say to them after he has that big reveal like, "It's me, your brother. I'm alive." He says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Despite all the things working against Christ, God still uses it for his good. God's kingdom is a subversive kingdom, disrupting this world of sin with his love, undermining the selfishness and pride with a kingdom of humility and service, challenging the elite and the strong by valuing the poor, the lost, and the least, fighting against corruption and deceit with truth and divine authority. God and his kingdom persevere, endure. They cannot be stopped.

Proverbs 21, 30 says, "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord." Do we believe that today? Do you guys believe that? That nothing, nothing as awful as this world is and the things that go against God and how he created things, nothing can stop him. I hope and pray that that is comforting and brings you hope. I want to ask you this. Are you partnering with God in his subversive kingdom? As the currents of society, of culture are heading one way, are you trusting God as we followers of Jesus head the other way? Do we believe and hope and know that despite all the chaos of the world and all the efforts of humanity to pursue selfishness and pride and pleasure, do you know that God is still at work? But there is always hope in him that nothing can succeed against him. Are you confident and assured in God and his kingdom? Or are you prone to fear? Are you prone to anxiousness, to worry, to doubt, to division? God encourage you to partner with God, work with him, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes in ways that are unseen for a time before the plan is really made known, but to trust him, to pray about those opportunities where he's going to use you and be ready for that opportunity. As we look around at the messiness and the unknown and the brokenness of this world, it's easy to be all doom and gloom about it. But instead, we can see an opportunity for Jesus to save, for God to work, to know that the God we serve can take what is intended to harm and use it for his good, that no scheme or plan that goes against his kingdom will succeed. How does that change your outlook? Knowing that, how does that change your day to day? How might that help us to join in, not on the fear mongering, but on sharing the gospel? Instead of continuing to pass down fear to other people as they're sharing fear with you, how might you combat that with, "You know what? I'm actually not worried. And my hope and my security comes from something not of this world. It comes from God. Because I know that he has me, I'm going to be okay, that he is working through the midst of all this around us, sharing a hope that is found in Christ." We know that Jesus rescues us in ways we often don't understand at the beginning. We look back and are able to see, "Oh, that's what God was doing. I didn't know this at the time. I didn't know. I didn't understand. I didn't know." But after this, this, and this, that brought me to Jesus. That brought me to this place where I could see that I needed him, that he could rescue me. Jesus rescues us in ways we often don't understand. The biggest in history was through the surprising and apparent powerlessness of the cross. If someone were to draw up the rescue plan, I do not think that they would have themselves dying to save everyone on the cross of all things, not a noble, glorious death, but as Pastor Chris said, a criminal death. And yet, we all know today, we live in the power of the cross.

So as we close, I just want to say this. There were those with a misguided hope in this crowd on Palm Sunday at the triumphal entry. They had a misguided hope in Jesus. They forgot that he was, or they didn't know that he was a suffering servant king. They didn't see how God's kingdom was a subversive kingdom working things through all this opposition. But we can learn from Christ's triumphal entry all these years later that during Palm Sunday, as they're welcoming Jesus with the triumphal entry, again, they were ushering a kingdom unknown to them, but it's a kingdom that's been made known to us today. Through his word and through the power of the Holy Spirit, a kingdom that we who believe in Jesus as our Savior are a part of and get to be partners with God in this kingdom. We can help make this kingdom made known to more and more people today. So our prayer as you enter, again, we have those cards. We have, and really that's just an exercise of, we hope you're doing that all the time, that you are praying for opportunities to share the gospel, that you have friends, relationships that are forming there. You're praying for a moment where maybe they bring it up and they say, "Hey, I want to meet and talk to you about something." Or maybe Spirit's going to prompt you to have that conversation. But partner with God in this kingdom and making it known to other people. And through this week, through Holy Week, and if you're on our email list, you're going to get some emails about what each day of Holy Week means and where to maybe spend some time in prayer and reflection on those Holy Days. But at the end, we'll come together next week praising God for the fact that he has risen. Amen?

Let's pray. God, again, we come before you just thankful for this, for your scripture, God, for your truth and a chance that we get to learn from it. And we look back knowing that the people at that time didn't know what kind of king you would be, why they were fully praising you. But God, we know today. So on Palm Sunday, as we look back at that triumphal entry, we want to give you all the praise for the king that Jesus is. The suffering servant king who gave us eternal life, who took on our sin and punishment of death for us so that we could have eternal life with him. And God, as we walk forward in this week, I pray, Lord, that we would spend time each day reflecting on what Jesus went through. The cleansing of the temple, to the teachings with the disciples, to the night that he was betrayed, to the death that he faced on the cross. God, I pray that we would be okay with mourning a bit, with recognizing our sin and bringing it before Jesus, knowing that without him and his sacrifice on the cross, we would be doomed. There is no hope. So God, be with us, give us hope, help us to see that hope and to have a mind and to see opportunities to share that with other people this week. I pray that you would give us boldness, the words to say, and you would bring about those opportunities, God, and that your spirit would be so strong in that moment that we can't help but say something. Just invite them to church, invite them to hear the truth. We trust you, we love you, we give you our everything. We pray this in your name. Amen.

The Ministry of Jesus: Part 6

The Ministry of Jesus

Part 6: The Opposition of Jesus

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, I'm excited today to be with you guys and to wrap up this series that we've been in for the last five weeks, six weeks now, focusing in on the ministry of Jesus, going from the past and what he did and changing and shifting that into how does that apply for us in our today's world. The first week we kicked off, we talked about the parables and a third of everything that we have recorded of what Jesus said is actually a parable. That's pretty impressive. And how Jesus would find these simple stories and yet take deep theological complex concepts and ideas and be able to break them down for us and make them really simple for everybody who was there listening. And then the week after that we had Pastor Phil here and he talked about the calling of Jesus and how that is to follow him and to go. And he shared with us the missional movement of Eastern Germany in the 1700s called the order of the mustard seed and the order and the vow for the order of the mustard seed was to be true to Christ, be kind to people and to share the gospel to the nations. And they are even now today still active around the globe. And then Pastor Lauren shared with us about the healings of Jesus and how they demonstrate his power. They demonstrate his compassion and they show the coming kingdom of God. And when we truly put our faith in Jesus, healing happens. It's either here on earth or on the other side of heaven in eternity. And then Pastor Andre talked about how Jesus fulfilled scripture and focused in on the story of the temple where Jesus showed up and called out some crooks that were trying to take advantage of people worshiping. And Jesus shows us that in that there is no place in the church for commercialization, monopolization or any humans being stopped in any way from being able to worship God. It revealed who Jesus was and his purpose here on the earth to die on the cross for us. And then last week Pastor Andre shared about the signs and wonders or the miracles of Jesus. And that the purpose of Jesus' miracles were to reveal his divine identity. To strengthen our faith and to just demonstrate the kingdom of God in our world today. And he asked a really good question. He's like, "Do miracles still happen today?" Yes, they do. Maracles still happen today. You and I are actually a living, breathing miracle. And that we are to have faith in his power, trust in his compassion and have hope in his resurrection.

Today we're going to wrap up talking about Jesus and the oppression that Jesus faced during his time here on earth. But I want to ask you, have you ever faced opposition when you knew you were doing the right thing? Have you ever fought against that in your life? Well, I'll tell you that Jesus did. Jesus had opposition from friends, from family, from those who should have supported him. And he knows exactly how that feels. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, he faced relentless opposition. From the very start of his ministry to the final breath that he breathed on the cross. It wasn't random. It was direct opposition to who Jesus was. And he shows us how to stand firm in that purpose that God has for each of our lives. Jesus faced opposition from the enemy, his family, his hometown, the religious leaders of that day, the elite of the church. And yet in every instance, he triumphed over it with divine wisdom, authority, purpose. Specifically using scripture as his weapon. Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for this morning. God, your presence has been felt in this place. So I pray, Lord, as we dive into your ministry and the life that you lived here on earth. God I pray that you would transform our lives. You would speak to our hearts. You'd pull back the layers of our soul. We would learn deeply from you today of how you want us to live our lives. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

Right at the beginning of Jesus' ministry was when Jesus was 30 years old. So Jesus lived his life up to 30 and then had this incredible moment in the Jordan River. His cousin, John the Baptist, was in the river baptizing people. And Jesus shows up and gets baptized by his cousin. And it's this powerful moment in the Bible, if you were to read it. And where we see the trinity of God and his three personhood revealed. Jesus in the Jordan River. God the Father vocally speaks from heaven. And the Holy Spirit descends down as a dove. This is a powerful, incredible moment in the ministry of Jesus. And immediately after that, he heads out into the desert. And he's starting his ministry focusing in on fasting in the desert, listening to God as he begins this next three years of his journey on earth. And immediately he's tempted by the devil. How fitting is that, right? How many of you have had like these powerful God moments in your life? And I remember a professor in college, he called it thin spaces. Where you felt like the distance between you and heaven or you and God was just so thin. It was just like God was right there in that moment. And then maybe later that day, maybe that next week, soon after, the enemy is just pouncing on you. Right? That's how it works, unfortunately. And that's what the enemy tries to do when we have these spiritual highs, these incredible moments with God that deepen our faith. The enemy doesn't like it. And Jesus isn't immune to that either. It says this in Matthew chapter 4. When Jesus was led by the Spirit to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. I would think so. I would be hungry after four hours and four hours. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Oh, that's tempting. Jesus answered, "It is written," right back at you with some Bible, Satan, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the truth of God." Then the devil took him to a holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, and he will not let you lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus comes back at him again. "It is also written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all their splendor. "All of this I will give you," the devil said, "if you will bow down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan, for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" Then the devil left him and the angels came and attended him.

Immediately following the baptism of Jesus, the enemy comes at Jesus. Right after, opposition, moment one, boom, hits. And hits him at a weak point. Forty days, forty nights fasting. I don't know if you guys have ever done an extended fast. Forty days. And there's a direct assault from Satan. Satan tempts him with physical needs, with food, with bread. He tempts him with pride. Jump, the angels are going to catch you. And power to have the kingdoms of the world. Jesus didn't flinch. Even being tired and hungry and weak and worn out, he didn't flinch a second. But threw the word of God back at the devil. I love that. It wasn't his words. It was a word of God from the Bible. It's from Deuteronomy. For food, he said, "It is written in Deuteronomy 8:3, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Deuteronomy 6:16 is also written, "Do not put your Lord to the test." Deuteronomy 6:13, "Away from me, Satan," he says. For it written, "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only." Satan attempts to quote scripture, to throw it at God. And yet, he's twisting it. He's manipulating it. He's making it look and sound good, right? I don't think anybody would have blamed Jesus for doing any of these things. He's Jesus. But he understood what was at stake here. There was something more going on in this moment. And the enemy knowing that he had just had this incredible moment in the Jordan River, beginning his ministry, knowing that for the next however many years, Satan was going to have to attack this guy and attack this guy and attack this guy. If he said, "If I can knock him down right here, I can have victory." But Jesus stood his ground. It was no surprise to Jesus. And I love... Satan tries to use scripture to attack Jesus. And what does Jesus do? Comes with the truth of scripture. It's like using exactly what your enemy is using against you. You just turn around and go on it right back the other way. It's amazing. I love how Jesus does this stuff.

And see, what the thing is that Satan's tactics haven't changed. He does the same thing to us. He does the same thing to me. He gets in my head. He comes at me. And he says, "Oh, yeah. You're a pastor, right? You're supposed to have it all figured out. You're supposed to know all this Jesus stuff. You're not doing it right. Oh, you messed up over there. You messed up over here. How could you call yourself a pastor?" Satan does the same thing over and over again. And he loves to come at us when we're vulnerable, right? He loves to come at us in those moments. But I love how Jesus uses the power of God's word to resist. We have access to that. We have God's word. Jesus didn't come up with some new tactic to come after Satan. Jesus used Scripture from the Old Testament, hundreds of years old, words of God. Jesus uses in that moment against Satan. And unfortunately, this was just the beginning.

Opposition didn't stop with the devil, but it came a little closer to home. It says in Mark 3:21, "When his family, being Jesus' family, heard about this, they went to take charge of him, and they said, 'For he is out of his mind.'" Isn't family supposed to be that one that loves and cares and nurtures you and is the most supportive of you, right? If you don't have a supportive family, Jesus didn't either. It says on in Matthew 13 57, "And they took offense at him, being Jesus. But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is without honor, except in his own hometown and in his own home.'" Those closest to Jesus, who knew Jesus growing up, little baby Jesus, tiny, tiny toddler Jesus, junior high Jesus, high school Jesus, carpenter Jesus, but then it stopped there. All they could see in this man was a carpenter from Nazareth. They didn't understand the bigger thing that was happening in the life of Jesus and in their world that was right in front of them. His family thought he was crazy. His hometown couldn't see or understand who he was. He was hated. And yet, he didn't stop. It hurt. It had to hurt. Being Jesus growing up with, say, I don't know, Uncle Steve around you, and you become Jesus and Uncle Steve rejects you for who you are. You're like, "I built your dining room, Seth." Don't you see? Jesus faced rejection from those who should have known him the best. See, I think it's one thing to be rejected from people who don't understand you, who have no idea who you are, or what you're doing, or know nothing about you.

For those who don't know, my father is a retired fire captain, and I grew up around the firehouse. And actually, my mother's father, my grandfather, was a firefighter as well. And so growing up, I would get asked the question, "Are you gonna go into family business? Are you going to also be a firefighter?" And I thought for a while, maybe I was. And in junior high, I tried it. I joined the cadet program and did the workouts and got CPR trained and first aid and did drills and do all this stuff. But it just wasn't what, there's just something missing about it. And because at the same time, God had begun to grow inside of me a passion, a heart for the church and for people and for people to know Jesus and to find hope in his gospel. And so I'd try it, and I would be around the firehouse a lot going on calls, being able to shadow and do ride-alongs with my dad. And people would ask me, other, his fellow firefighters would ask me, and I would just politely smile and say, "No." And they didn't understand. But that's okay. They didn't understand what God was doing in me to bring me to where I am today. All they saw was the generational firefighters and that I would just follow in suit. If I was becoming a firefighter, I couldn't have a sweet beard, so it was like a deal breaker. Unless I joined Cal Fire.

But the reality was that Jesus was rejected by people who didn't understand him. But Jesus was also rejected in opposition of those that he cared about. His blood, his family, his people, his cousins, his aunts, his uncles, those around him. They called him crazy. Maybe you're in that place in your Christian walk. Maybe you're the only Christian in your family. Or maybe your family is the only one who are Christian. I experienced this growing up. My aunts, my uncles, my cousins, they don't understand why I do what I do. They don't understand that our family of why we attend church, why we take time from a perfectly good weekend to come inside and sit down and to sing songs and do karaoke together. And then to listen to some dude talk about this old dusty book. They don't understand it. And there's opposition there. So if you face that in your family, don't feel alone in that. Jesus lived that. He walked that journey. And yet, he kept going forward. He understood the purpose, the calling, the reason why he was here on earth.

See, if family opposition stung, the religious leaders turned into their opposition as a campaign. It says in Matthew chapter 22:15, it says, "Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words." They said, "Tell us then, what is your opinion to Jesus here?" Trying to mess with him. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? The Pharisees did this relentlessly. The scribes, the epitomized leaders or religious greats of the day came after Jesus time and time again, trying to discredit him at every moment that they could. They tried to trip him up with questions to mess with him. They would throw misquoted scripture. That sounds familiar, right? The enemy? Misquoted scripture. They would throw man-made Jewish rules at Jesus. Ain't nothing that God ever commanded it. But what they decided to use to control people, they would throw cultural sayings at Jesus. They would try to make these things sound biblical or scriptural, but they were far from the heart of God. Because they didn't like what Jesus was doing. Jesus was bringing the word of God to the people. The religious leaders wanted to control the people. And Jesus came to stop them along the way to his journey to the cross. Twisting scripture. Trying to get Jesus to say something to reveal that he really wasn't the son of God. To prove that they were smarter than this guy. That they were more religious or they were elite. They were better than just this carpenter from Nazareth. But Jesus always had the absolute perfect answer. I love this. Sometimes he would answer with a question. Not only to answer their question, but to kind of dig a little deeper. Sometimes the question would sting in return. Jesus would have such eloquent words to say that he could just put people in their place and humble them with a simple sentence.

He does this in Matthew 22:21 in response to that question of Caesar. He said to them, "Get back to Caesar's," what is Caesar's? "And give to God what is God's." This is an ultimate mic drop moment from Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Boom. Booyah. NBA Jam. Boom Shakalaka. Alright? In this moment, Jesus corrects their misuse of God's word showing them his authority and his purpose. And over time, there were people in the religious world that saw his truth. Saw the way he handled himself and conducted himself and were drawn to it. Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee himself, began to come to Jesus as knight and fear for his own ridicule from the others. But ultimately, in the end, came forward in public and said, "Jesus is the Son of God." People are drawn to the truth. It says in John 8:32, "Jesus says, 'Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.'" Truth is enticing to people, right? I think deep down inside we all want to know what the truth is, right? Jesus' truth is the truth that will set you free. Jesus turned their traps into testimonies of truth. And in every confrontation, there was a battle with sin that was going on. Whether it was selfishness, whether it was pride, whether it was just pure evil, Jesus never backed down.

See, when we look at the responses of Jesus, we see divine wisdom. We see God's authority. And we see God's purpose. Against Satan, he quoted the book of Deuteronomy to affirm his dependence in God and on God's words. Against the family in his hometown, a rejection. He accepted as a part of his prophetic call. Against the religious leaders of the day, he interpreted scripture rightly, truthfully, and rejected and exposed their hypocrisy. And every single time that Jesus did this, whether it was with opposition or confrontation, each encounter was straightforward. It wasn't desired or wanted. I don't think Jesus would wake up every day and go, "Okay, which Pharisee am I taking out today?" Like, that's not Jesus. That wasn't his heart. But Jesus also wouldn't back down. Jesus wouldn't shy away. I don't know about you in this room, I don't like confrontation. It's one of the things that I despise most in this world. But sometimes God asks us to confront people in the name of Jesus. And when we look at his example of how he conducted himself, it was amazing that every single time through his mission and his purpose, that he revealed to the world who he was and continued to point people towards the Heavenly Father. It was never about Jesus. It was always about God. And ultimately it was about him humbling himself, getting himself freely on the cross for our salvation and redemption, which we will celebrate here in just a few short weeks. But along the way, there were people who wanted to get in the way of that mission. There were people who didn't like what Jesus stood for. The enemy did not want Jesus to be successful. And yet at the exact same time, Jesus spoke with truth in defending himself. And at the same time he advanced God's kingdom. This is incredible. It's this combination to teach with love and to set people straight, all wrapped up in truth. It's like the perfect one-two punch. I think of a boxer who doesn't just sit there and just defend himself and just get into the corner and take it. But I think of an elite boxer who is able to defend and turn it into an offense. Christ had this amazing way to size up to the opponent. Because Jesus wasn't always compassionate or soft, and Jesus wasn't always aggressive and over the top. Jesus had this way to meet people where they were, whether it was the woman caught in adultery that he just had compassion on her. When he could have thrown scripture in her face, he knew what she needed. And yet at the same time, like Pastor Andre talked about a few short weeks ago, Jesus rose up to the occasion of the temple and went after those who were trying to manipulate worship for their own advancement, for their own profit, for their own selfish gain. Jesus would not back down. He was not pushover. He was not timid. But at the same time, he wasn't over the top, aggressive in your face. His response was always perfect, warranted, and appropriate.

So what can we learn from Jesus, from then for our world today? I think we can take a look at ourselves and ask us the question of, when we face opposition, how will we respond? When we face temptation or misunderstanding or outright hostility, how will we react? I think our response should be threefold. Our response should be what Jesus did and to arm ourselves with scripture. Are we memorizing scripture? Are we in his word daily? Are we seeking God with his wisdom and everything that he's given to us? Do we search for his truth in the Bible? The second thing, we need to trust God's wisdom and his authority. We need to take steps of faith to when we get in these moments, that maybe we just need to keep our mouth shut because God's the one who needs to do the talking, not us. That's hard to do. That's really hard to do. And I think the third thing in this is we need to shine God's light. We need to let these moments in which we trust in God, in our opposition, to begin to think about how can God be glorified through this moment? I think a practical step for us this week would begin to memorize scripture even from what I talked about today. Whether that's Matthew 4, "That man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." You can memorize that this week, no problem. Write it on a post-it, put it in front of you, stick it in your car, stick it on a mirror, put it by your bed. Change the screen wallpaper on your phone so every time you go to your phone, you're looking at God's Word. Put it in front of you every single moment. Or maybe Deuteronomy 6:13, "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only." Or maybe it's Matthew 22:37, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind." Put those words on our hearts. There have been times when I felt attacked and oppressed by the enemy. And thankfully growing up, my mother helped me to memorize scripture. And so I can draw back on those moments to remember those words to use against the enemy. And the enemy goes away, guys. The opposition isn't forever. The enemy can't stand against the Word of God.

See, Jesus faced all of this and he won. He's with us in our battles. We talked about battles this morning in worship. We talked about breaking chains. We talked about the power of God. Don't pick these songs flippantly. You've already sung it this morning. You've already proclaimed truth against the enemy if you were singing with us this morning. If not, the words of God have washed over you and have anointed you. Even if you're not singing, the Word of God is still penetrating your heart. And Jesus said, "Of that which will not turn void." I love what it says here in Hebrews. It says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness, but we do have one who has been tempted in every single way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." From the wilderness to his hometown to the streets, Jesus faced the enemy, family rejection, and religious leaders. Yet, every single time he triumphed over them with divine wisdom, authority, purpose, all rooted in Scripture. The opposition couldn't stop Jesus, but it was revealed in him. How about we have a week of letting Christ be revealed in us against all of our opposition? Amen? Amen.

Pray with me, Jesus, we thank you for your truth. Jesus, we thank you for your gift of just you living your life here on earth, going against all sort of opposition, and coming up victorious in the end. Jesus, we thank you for your example, and we thank you for the truth that you are with us in all of our battles. That you are fighting for us, you are carrying us, you are sustaining us. And no matter what tactic or trap or trick or whatever the enemy has to try to come at us, from whatever angle through whoever that is, God, we know that you are with us and we will come out on the other side victorious. And so, Jesus, I pray over us this week as we go, as the enemy attacks, God, that we will not fall for his tricks. That we will stay focused and rooted in your scripture to let your truth cover us and protect us this week. And to guide us, Jesus, in the way of your salvation and in your grace and your mercy, ultimately standing strong to shine the light of the glory of Jesus in our lives to saturate our communities around us. Jesus, we thank you, we praise you, we love you this day. Amen.