The Sacrifice of Jesus
Transcript
Good morning. As Matt said, I am Josh Pabone. I am the current community group leader of our Seven Oaks group, and I'm glad I get to talk to you guys this morning. So we're in our annual give series. So each year around Christmas, we spend some time to intentionally look at generosity.
We want our Christmas to not only just be about what we get, but what we can give to others. So we take the time to look at Jesus' sacrifice for us and try to intentionally follow him in that sacrifice with generosity towards others. So this year, we're focusing on Samaritan's Well. It is a transition home for women and children in the Lexington area. They help them find jobs. They help them get housing, and they even help them pay off a little bit of their debt.
Last week, we had little stockings on a tree, and currently, we have $50 gift cards for the women and children at the shelter, so they get to kind of relax around Christmas and enjoy spending time with each other without worrying about being able to get gifts. So at the end of the sermon today, Chet's going to give us a... That was phase one. So at the end of the sermon today, Chet's going to give us a look at what phase two will be. So go ahead and grab your Bibles.
We're going to be in Philippians. If you don't have a Bible, grab one of the white ones around you. If you don't own a Bible, it's yours to keep. We'll be on page 570, and we're going to be in Philippians 2, 1 through 8. But before we get into the text, I want to take a couple minutes to talk about sacrifice.
Like, culturally, we love sacrifice. Like, we love to watch it play out in movies, we love to read it in books, and we just love to hear it in any sort of story. So it's kind of like Russell in Independence Day, who gave his life by flying that jet into the spaceship and blew it up. Or Tony Stark, Iron Man at the end of the first Avengers, who took that nuclear weapon that was set to destroy the city and flew it into that weird wormhole thing and blew it up and closed it, because apparently that's how science works. Or Noah in the notebook, who sacrificed his freedom. Who sacrificed his...
It's a great transition. Who sacrificed his freedom to be with his wife in a nursing home, because she had Alzheimer's. Or when people intentionally take time out of their holiday to serve others on Thanksgiving. Like, culturally, we just love it. We see worth and value in it. Whether it's true love, Acts of valor and courage, or the villain at the end of the movie who sees good is worth fighting for and gives his life to stop whatever doomsday device he has set.
Like, we eat it up. But only if it's not us. If my wife Nadine and I were in the never-let-go scene of Titanic, I would look at that door, I would grab her hands lovingly and gingerly, and I would look her in the eyes and I'd say, Baby, you're going to have to scoot over. Like, I love my wife dearly. I do. But I can only be so heroically sacrificial in freezing cold waters.
Like, maybe I could get behind it, and I could paddle you somewhere, and you could snatch up some other doors or debris. Like, maybe use one of these acceptable positions on the screen behind me. I don't know. Maybe we could figure out something. On one hand, we love sacrifice. We see that it is this selfless, for-the-greater-good thing.
That when someone else puts the needs of others before their own, we love it, we praise it, we worship it. We see that it's a value. But on the other hand, we're also told to do you. We're told to do what makes you happy and to achieve your goals no matter what. Like, we're told that we need to do what's best for us. Like, I love sacrifice, but the truth is I love when I don't have to do it.
Oh, well, you need something for me? No, I'm good. I don't think that's going to work out for me. It's just not in my best interest. No, I've got things to do. No thanks.
But when I see someone else sacrificing, wow, look how amazing they are. I wish I could be like that. You know, we're told by culture to both jump on a live hand grenade to save other people, while at the same time being told to do what's best for us. So today we're looking at sacrifice. We're going to spend some time seeing what Paul says about us, coming second and putting others first. Like, we're going to see a picture of how whether you or someone else is doing it, we're going to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of Jesus' sacrifice for us.
Like, we'll get to see that our capacity to even sacrifice comes from the much more massive sacrifice that Jesus made for us. So I'm going to pray. Thank you, God, for this time to talk about sacrifice. Thank you, God, for this time to talk about putting the needs of others before our own in a time where culture tells us that we need to put our needs first. God, I pray that your Holy Spirit move and give us hearts and minds to listen and just be willing to sacrifice for others. I thank you for everything you've given us, God.
In your name I pray. Amen. All right. We're going to be in verse 1. So Paul wrote the book of Philippians.
He was the most prolific missionary in the New Testament. He traveled all over. He was imprisoned. He was beaten. And he was even put to death for spreading the gospel. However, unlike some of his other letters in the New Testament where he's reacting to some form of crisis or some form of sin issue, Philippians is a bit different because he's talking about how much he appreciates them.
So in chapter 4, he talks about how they were the only church at one time to provide for him financially in his ministry. Or he also talks about how thankful he was that they provided for him multiple times in his ministry. So it's way less confrontational like some of his other letters and way more like encouraging. Verse 1. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in a full accord or official agreement, and of one mind.
Okay. Paul has a good relationship with his church. He's highlighting some of the wonderful things that they're doing while also saying, hey, do these things that I'm about to say and do it together. All right. Verse 3. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, which is excessive pride, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look to not only his interests, but also the interests of others. Okay. So Paul has two points here. The first is do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. One way to say this would be don't place your pride, your well-being, your ego, your comfort above others. Another way to say it is don't act like the world revolves around just you.
I think Jesus says it best in Matthew 22, 39, where he says, love your neighbor like you love yourself. But what he's not saying is that you shouldn't have ambitions. He's not saying that you shouldn't have goals. He's not saying that those are bad things. He's just saying that our goals don't end on us. So wanting a promotion at work, training to win a marathon, saving a certain amount of money in your bank account, or just finishing a whole pizza in one sitting.
Like goals aren't innately bad things. They're good things. He's just telling us that our ambitions and goals, they just don't end on us. So our bank accounts, like we don't save so we can get that sleek new car we've been eyeing. Like we save so we can help our coworker who's been biking five miles to work every day. He's saying that we work for that promotion to help someone pay their electric bill in the winter so they don't freeze.
He's saying that what drives you and pushes you shouldn't drive other people away, push them down, or just have them be left behind. All right. So that's what he said not to do. He said not to let your ambition center on you. So let's look at what he says to do.
Back in verse three. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others. So don't do anything from selfish ambition and conceit, but count others more significant. Don't look to just your interest. Look to the interests of others.
The second point here is in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. All right. So what are we supposed to do? Okay. We're supposed to count others more significant than ourselves. Okay.
How do we do that? In humility. And that is a beautiful thing. You see, humility is often equated to weakness or just being walked all over. But that's not real humility.
It is, however, the opposite of like arrogance, boastfulness, vanity, and aggressiveness. Like you're, you're also not like, Oh, woe is me. I'm just a big fat nobody. I'm the worst person in the world. Like you're not Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. Like you're just not focused on yourself.
You're not self-focused. You're not looking at your own interests. Rather than me first, humility allows us to say you first. It is the quality that lets us go more than halfway to meet the needs of others. And it allows us to sacrifice our comforts and desires in order to value others more. Okay.
So in humility, count others more significant, more significant than yourselves. Look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others. Now, if you're a parent, you're married, or you just have friends, you're kind of already doing this. Like most cases, it's much easier to love someone that you know than you don't. Like it's easier for me as a parent to count my kids more significant when it comes in terms of food and finances than it is the guy who's holding a cardboard sign at the Bush River Walmart. Like my kids are significant to me.
Their interests matter to me. My wife is significant to me. Her interests matter to me. And it's easier for me to approach my friends in humility than a person I've never met. It's easier because I actually care about them. And because of that, I approach them differently.
I approach their needs differently. Like somehow I deem them more worth it because they matter more to me. Like, yeah, man, I'll definitely help you pay your bills. I know you lost your job. I know you got laid off. I know you've been applying places.
I know no one's called you back. I'll help you buy groceries, man. Here's my money. Here's what I have. Take it. It's yours.
Like, for the most part, when people I know and care about are hurting, I tend to hurt alongside them. And I disarm my pride. I disarm my lack of desire. And I disarm any sort of pushback that I may have a lot easier with someone I care about than someone I don't. But Paul says to not just count the people that I care about or that I love or that I think matter more.
No, he says count anyone other than you. So anyone other than me, not just my family, not just my kids, not just my wife, not just my friends. It's anyone other than me. Jesus made similar statements. Love God with your whole heart and love others. Love your neighbor.
Love your enemy. Paul says count anyone other than you more significant. And when we're counting others more significant, like without pride or ego, we're not going to do things the same. Like, I just, I sit and wonder how that would look in our lives if we 100% believed this. And we 100% acted this out all the time. So I started thinking about this.
Like, what if I did this? What if I genuinely began to treat others like they mattered more to me? Like, what if I cared about their interests more than mine? I think that I would be looking at my budget a little bit differently. Like, I'd be looking at where my money went after all my bills were paid. Going out to eat one or two times a week.
I probably could not go out to eat one time and save that money and give it to someone who needed more. Or, I could use that meal that I was going to eat myself and pay for someone else to eat with me and get to build with them. Like, arguments all of a sudden wouldn't be about winning. They wouldn't be about proving that I was right. Like, heavy traffic would just get to be traffic. Like, I wouldn't be getting mad at the guy who waited the last second to merge in front of me.
I would let him in, and I wouldn't be wishing him bodily harm when I did it. Like, if I 100% believed that my wife mattered more to me, I think I would press pause more on video games, and I would mute the TV more. How much more would I do around the house? Like, if she came up to me and was like, hey, Josh, can you just do, insert whatever she asks here for me, that'd be great. I think I realized I'd say yes a lot more. Like, when she gets home late from work, I'd have the kids fed, and I'd have dinner ready for her, so she could sit down and relax.
I would treat her less like a parent picking up their kid from daycare, and more like someone else who's also had a long day, and needs to relax a little bit more than I do. Like, when I showed it to my group, and if I valued their interest more than mine, I'd bring food because I cared about them eating. I wouldn't have an attitude of imposition when I was asked to take someone home. Like, I wouldn't leave group in a bad mood, because I couldn't share something that was going on in my life, because we had to spend some time helping someone go through a struggle that they're going through. Like, I would put my phone down more.
When someone started talking, I would count them more significant than my Facebook account, or whatever random text message conversation I had. I'd be listening more. If someone comes up to me with a struggle, and we're sitting down talking, and it's just something that is sucking the life out of them, I wouldn't be counting down the minutes on the clock. I wouldn't be counting down the seconds. I'd actually be paying attention, be willing to give some of my time, some of my life, to help encourage them. I just, I really think a lot of things that I get frustrated about, hurt over, upset about, which is genuinely, stop making me upset and hurt.
Like, if I acted like I was less important more often, I believe my life would get better. So what if we did this? What if, what if this is what all Christians look like? What if you began to treat others like they were more important than you? Like, what if their interests began to matter more than yours? Like, somebody in your group has an unexpected medical emergency.
Like, people would be sacrificing time to watch kids, to make meals, maybe even give them money for gas to go back and forth to the hospital, or pick up some of their bills. Like, what if a part of the money in your savings account was set aside to give to someone else when in time of need? What if, what if Christians all across South Carolina who got government assistance for their food, used their snap and wick benefits to help someone? What if they shared a jug of milk, or, or some vegetables, or just part of a meal? Like, they would begin to do, be able to do so much. What if all employers knew that Christians were willing to kind of come in early, to sacrifice some time from Netflix, to sacrifice sleeping in, to come in early?
What if they knew that when they were asked, that they would stay late, or they would cover a shift? Okay. So, have you ever gone out somewhere, and been grabbing some lunch with some friends, and, and someone just starts talking to you from the next table over? Like, they're just, they're yelling at you, basically, trying to get into your conversation. Like, they're at another table, and they just intrude themselves into your conversation. Like, your first thought wouldn't be, wow, this person's super annoying.
I wish that they would just stop. No, you would realize that this person's probably lonely. Like, maybe this guy at the next table over, who did intrude into my conversation, maybe he got an invite at the table. Even though, I know that he will talk to the point that I wouldn't get a word in edgewise, and he'll probably talk up until the point that we have to leave. He gets his seat at the table, and he doesn't get brushed off, he wouldn't get ignored, he wouldn't be made fun of when he left, or when my friends and I had to leave. Like, instead of treating him like he was annoying, and an enemy, he'd be treated like a friend.
Like, we would be free from being held back, and thinking in terms of what we couldn't do, and actually be looking at what we could and would do. So this all seems nearly impossible to do, and honestly super uncomfortable to think about. So who are you not counting more significant? Like, in what areas of your life are you the most important person in the room? Like, anybody you know fit into this category? Spouse?
Parent? Child? Coworker? Neighbor? Guy you passed by on the street? Person behind you in the checkout line?
Single mother in front of you in the checkout line who got her car declined trying to buy food? Or maybe it's someone in our community group. See, I have a lot of pushback when it comes to this stuff, and it's because I naturally put myself first. Like, I matter more than anyone else, and the thought of someone cutting me off in traffic, in line at Chick-fil-A, or in mid-sentence, infuriates me, because my time, my desire to be first, and my ability to be heard matters more than anyone else's. Like, I matter more to me than anyone else on the planet. Like, I'm more significant to me because my interests matter more, and honestly, because I think they're better.
Like, like, seriously, you have no idea how highly I think of myself. Like, in my mind, I am pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. And if I'm being honest, I kind of rank sliced bread second. I'm just trying to look humble. Like, Paul says, don't act like this. He says to treat others like they matter more than me.
And truthfully, I can see how beautiful counting others more significant than me is, while at the same time, feel how impossible it can be to do this all the time. But the amazing thing is, it's not just left at that. Like, we're told not to make it happen. We're not told to make it happen on our own. Paul goes on, starting back in verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
Okay, have this mind among yourselves. What mind? So it's what we just talked about in verses 3 and 4. Which is yours in Christ Jesus. Okay, what does that look like? It's a mind where you're not motivated by selfish desire or pride.
It's one where you're elevating the values of others. While taking care of the responsibilities God has entrusted you, and also looking to see how you can be actively involved in helping others. Verse 6. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. That was a loaded sentence. So, okay, so to make this a little bit more digestible, we're going to walk right back through it.
Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Okay, so Jesus becomes a man. He doesn't demand his own way. He doesn't demand his own rights. He just doesn't. He humbles himself.
He's in the form of God, but he doesn't cling to it. He submits, and he lays down his rights. Like, we get a breathtaking example of humility and sacrifice, and we get to see what it looks like to place others above ourselves without conceit or selfish ambition. Like, Paul isn't saying that Jesus just emptied out a little bit of himself. He's not saying that he just poured out a little bit of his godness. He's not saying that.
His actual point is that Christ emptied himself by becoming something that he was not previously ever. He became something that required humility and ultimately his own humiliation. Like, Christ intentionally limited himself and left his throne to become a breathing, sweaty, physically dirty human being. He traded glory for grime. He was fully God and fully man. And in his decision to take the likeness of men, he did not look to his own position or status.
He did not count that position or status that is something he should protect and maintain, but instead he saw others lower than him. He saw us. He saw that in no way could we reach a right relationship with God without him. So he chose to lower himself to our status. Jesus emptied himself. Like, that's what we celebrate this time each year.
That's what we see when we see the precious moments nativity scenes where for some reason all the adults look like babies and we're like, oh, look how cute that is. But in all actuality we should be like, what? Jesus became that? Lord of all creation, king above kings became this? Jesus' humiliation gets to become a humble and joyful reminder of grace unfettered. It is less an ornament or display and more of a reminder of how Jesus' grace is boundless, matchless, and without limits.
Verse 8. In being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. This is what the gospel is. that in order to restore our relationship with God that we severed with sin, Jesus had to humble himself, humiliate himself, die on a cross for our sins, and rise from the dead three days later to show that he conquered sin and death on our behalf. Jesus did it for us because we can't do it on our own. We can't earn it and we don't achieve it. We never have and we never will.
Jesus was able to humble himself because he saw a need we had. He saw that our need required great cost to himself and he willfully paid it. And I think we take that for granted. Like I don't believe we realize the amount of humiliation he went through for us or how it was in response to our neediness. but he didn't focus on the cost for himself. He was focused on the need. He was focused on us.
And when we begin to focus on the needs of others above what it would cost us, we begin to have the same mind that Christ had. Because Jesus was not looking to hold or improve his position even though he was in a higher place of authority, power, and position than we were. He wasn't looking to improve that. Instead, he looked at our position of depravity without a sense of pride. Without a sense of, what's in it for me? And because he was able to look at us in humility, he was able to count us more significant than his position in glory.
He was able to look at our best interest, which was to be made right with God through himself to the point of death. Okay. So, a couple of weekends ago, I was going to get Chinese food for dinner. And the way the door is positioned, it's on a strip mall, and so there's a door here and there's a set of stairs right in front of the door, or right beside the door. And as I'm walking up, there's a man who appeared to be homeless with a crutch sitting on those steps. And I'm walking up and I look at him and say, hey, what's up, man?
And he goes, nothing much, what about you? I'm like, I'm good, I'm good, thanks. And I walk through the door and as it closes behind me, I think, you did a great high to that guy. I'm pretty sure no one else said hi to that guy. Look how selfless you are. Wow.
Gave myself one of these. And I kept going. There were two guys in front of me who were, over here in their conversation, were a part of a traveling gospel band. And so they were talking about the rigors of their schedule and how busy it was and how many shows they had to do in one night. And in front of them appeared to be a single mother and her child, and she was ordering her food. And as she's about to pay for it, one of the guys walks up and he takes out his card and he puts it and he hands it to the cashier.
And he says, no, you're good, I got this. And I thought, that was nice. Look at him. He did a great job. Like, I probably could have done that. I just didn't want to spend more money than I had to.
I didn't want to have to explain to Nadine why it was like $30 more than what it was supposed to be. I thought that. And so I ordered my food and then I sat down and I pulled out my little Nintendo DS and I started playing Pokemon and I was trying to catch them all and I started to think. That guy only did that because she was a single mom. Had that been anyone else, he would have done that. Had that been some old guy, he would not even care.
He would have made that man pay for his own meal. And as I'm smugly catching them all, I'm looking at this guy and he's looking at his phone and he goes, oh, and he walks to the door, opens it, looks at the man and says, hey, have you eaten today? And I was like, great. Way to prove me wrong, God. And overhearing their conversation, found out the man who was sitting out there hadn't eaten in two days. things. And I thought, this guy's going to run for his money.
He's going to look at that menu and he's just going to order everything he can get. Whatever form of prime rib and lobster tails is on a Chinese food restaurant, this guy's going to order like seven of them. And as I'm thinking this, the man crutches himself, that's a term, he crutches himself up into the counter and he orders a small wonton soup and a small pork lumi. He ordered the two cheapest things on the menu in the smallest quantity and I was crushed. Because in that moment, I realized something. I smugly judge people when they're being sacrificial.
I also realized that I didn't get it. because I was in the middle of writing this sermon about being sacrificial. I saw it happen before me. I judged it and I still didn't get it. That night, I got to see two things. One, I got to see how beautiful the church can actually be when we do this. I got to see it unfold before my eyes.
Not only was that man and that woman her child ministered to, who I was. I got to see how much the value of someone else eating mattered more than the value of a dollar sign. Like, I got a small picture of what it could be if Christians treated other people like they were more significant than themselves. themselves. I also got to see that I won't do this on my own and that I can't. That the most I get to bring to the table are a few empty words and a self-high five. Like, some false sense of humility and honestly, it's really all about me.
Because if I'm being truthful, I didn't say hi to that guy so he would feel better. Like, I said hi to that guy so I would feel better. that is my absolute best. That's what I bring. But Jesus had his interest in mind, Jesus had our interest in mind when he lowered himself to our level. He had our interest in mind when he went to the cross. Like, he gave up everything, sacrificed himself because he saw that we had a need that we couldn't fill, but he could.
Like, I got to understand that even though all I bring to the table are selfishness and false humility and self-high fives, that Jesus wipes the table clean and replaces it with his selflessness and his death and resurrection for me on the cross. So Paul says be like this. Think like this. See the world like this. Have this mind. Be this way.
And that's impossible except for the fact that that mind is already ours in Christ. Jesus took my place on the cross for the moments in life where I'm doing this exactly as Paul laid it out and for the moments when I'm barely even trying. He does it for us because he did it for us. And that's how we have this mind given to us. That is what this mind is. It's filling a need regardless of how thankful you think someone will be.
Like we get to be a people that knows when you're willing to put others before you their praise and adoration pales in comparison to the work of Jesus who came before us. It's like if you're a Christian you have this mind in Christ Jesus. And thank God he gives it to us because it is overwhelming. And it is so beautiful to see in practice. this is who we get to be. And this is us. Like it means that you count others more significant in your community group.
Like their interests are they become your interests. Like the way you see your spouse, your kids, the people in your neighborhood or the people in your apartment complex changes. Like the whole lens that we view life through changes. changes. And so as we have this mind among ourselves this year we get to take some of our time, some of our money, and we get to put in practice that those around us matter more than we do. We get to be a people who respond by treating the women of Samaritans well as more significant than ourselves because we have a God who treated us like we mattered more than he did.
So I'm going to pray and then Chet's going to come up and he's going to introduce us to what phase two looks like. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you that because of you, God, because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, because of Jesus' humility, that we get to be humble and we get to sacrifice for others. Thank you, God, that we are not told to do this on our own because left on our own we won't. Thank you for doing it for us. God, I pray that as we continue to talk about give, as we continue to talk about this series, Lord, that your Holy Spirit move in people to give to others around them, to not to look at their own needs for Christmas, God, but to intentionally look at others because of your sacrifice for them.
In your name I pray, God. Amen. Amen.
The Generosity of Jesus
Transcript
Well, it's Christmas season. I hope you're as excited as I am. And I'm not talking about just like the Hobby Lobby Christmas season, like 11 months of the year. I'm talking about actual post-Thanksgiving, none of that setting up early stuff, Christmas season. My favorite transition of the year, because more than anything else, pumpkin spice disappears and peppermint enters in. Can I get an amen?
For real. What is it that for you, when you think of the Christmas season, what is it for you that really kind of piques your interest? Is it cold weather, cozy nights by the fire? Or maybe it's Santa Claus and, you know, his Christmas cheer and the ho-ho-hos and all the little kids who get exactly what they want. Or maybe it's when you try to take a photo of your kids with Santa and everything falls apart. Maybe it's the stress of buying the perfect gift so that everyone's happy on Christmas.
That's kind of hard to represent in a photo, but I stole this from a segment from Jimmy Kimmel, where they deliberately give hopeless presents to their kids. And she got a half-eaten sandwich. And her brother turns to her and says, can't you just be thankful for what you got? And she was like, no. Maybe Christmas season is your opportunity to let people know exactly what you want, either subtly or not so subtly from a stage. Maybe drop a hint here and there.
Maybe you're the type of person who goes completely overboard with your decorations. That's not us. I found it on the Googles. I promise. Maybe you're the kind of person who navigates seasons based off of what Starbucks is selling at the time. So you will know that, of course, the pumpkin spice latte disappears and the peppermint mocha comes out, which is perfect because there's nothing better than peppermint and chocolate combined into one thing.
I love it. Maybe for you, it's all about getting your entire awkward family together, regardless of whether or not you get matching pajamas or matching shirts or whatever. I particularly like in this photo all the kids who are like, seriously, we have to do this again. Maybe for you, Christmas is all about nostalgia, getting nostalgic about your favorite movies, the old school ones, the comedies, the kids' movies. Maybe you're being paranoid about being left alone by your parents. Maybe you're one of the type who actually thinks Will Ferrell's funny and you like Elf.
Shame on you. Maybe your name is Chet Phillips. And the only thing you think of at Christmas is sugar cookie eggnog and how it's been discontinued since 2011. And you blame Walmart, you blame Kroger, you blame Hood, you blame everyone. It's the Grinch's fault, Chet. Maybe you love Christmas because it's the only time of year that you get to legitimately pull out your Mariah Carey CD.
There is no other time. You cannot do it. It's fun to sit up. I'm actually going to take this off. It's melting my head right now. It's fun to sit up here and make fun of Christmas.
And I think we all get it and we all think it's funny because part of us knows, right? Part of us knows that even though it's fun, even though it's funny, even though we do all these crazy things, we've kind of collectively lost our minds. What in the world is any of that stuff about? It's fun. Don't get me wrong. I buy into it.
I love Christmas. But seriously, how did all of those things develop? Where did they come from? And yet still, even though we know we're insane, we break out the ugly Christmas sweater, we pump up the Mariah Carey, we decorate our trees, and we stress over gifts for no reason. And hey, I buy into it. I buy into any season where I can be in a foreign country and they take off their red, white, and blue glasses and put on red, white, and green glasses and have fun for an entire month.
Excellent. But here's the thing. In all the hype, in all the Christmas cheer, it's pretty easy to miss the point. And I know that there's plenty of people who will go around, be it in real life, kind of like on the streets, and on Facebook, being the Facebook warriors that they are, who will remind you that Jesus is the reason for the season. And it's true, and we know that, but the reminder doesn't really help. It doesn't do anything tangible.
And so we have all these people who say, Jesus is the reason for the season, and they share passive things on their Facebook wall, like, you know, random a cappella covers of songs by pentatonics that they come out with every year, like, Mary, did you know? Yes, she did, by the way. Mary knew. An angel of God came to her while she was a virgin and said, you're going to have a baby. His name will be Emmanuel, and that is God with us. Mary knew.
So maybe the song, this is just a suggestion, maybe the song should be, Mary, do you remember what the angel said when she came to you as a virgin and told you that you were going to give birth to Emmanuel, which means God with us? It needs a little work. I haven't fixed the timing of it yet, but at least it's true, guys. Every year at Mill City, we take time during this season, and we try to cut through the white noise. Culture gives a whole lot of messages about, this is what you need to do, this is what Christmas is all about, this is what you need to achieve this Christmas, this is where you've got to shop, that kind of stuff.
And we try to focus on what actually matters. What can we, how can we, during the mayhem of Christmas, during all the craziness that goes on, actually point people towards the gospel in a tangible way? What can we do to love our friends, neighbors, and our city like Jesus did? How can we, rather than buying into the Christmastime cultural consumerism, instead buy into Christmas, the kingdom message of Christmas? That's where our Give series, that's where our Give series comes from. Because Jesus, who was in very nature God, humbled himself and was born as a human baby.
That's Philippians chapter 2. He was rich and for our sake he became poor. That's 2 Corinthians 8. He gave himself up for us to deliver us from sin. That's Galatians chapter 1. The king of the universe, he had everything that is.
He sacrificed that in order to become a poor human baby. That's what we celebrate at Christmas. So, during our annual Give series, we remind ourselves that the season doesn't have to be about bells, doesn't have to be about ornaments, isn't all I want for Christmas is you, but instead we align ourselves with Jesus and we sacrifice what we have to show kindness to others. That's what our Give series is all about. We want to replace the material expectation of the culture with open-handed generosity. Let's pray for that.
Amen. Amen. Amen. God, we pray this morning that you'll be showing, you'll be diagnosing in our hearts where we believe a cultural narrative about Christmas. That it's all about us, that it's all about gifts, that it's all about decorations and good cheer. God, I pray that throughout our Give series, you'll be showing us ways where we can be sacrificial like Jesus and that we can be seeking after Him in the way that we love each other and love our world.
It's in His name we pray. Amen. You can grab a Bible, open up to 2 Corinthians 8, chapter 9. If you're in one of the blue pew Bibles that we've got, that's going to be on page 628. We're going to be sticking mainly to 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9 today. It's going to be our main verse.
We're going to read all the way up into it, but just to kick us off, I'm going to read chapter 8, verse 9. It says, Throughout our entire Give series, we're going to talk about generosity. How do we be generous? How do we sacrifice? What is generosity in serving? And how can we use that for mission?
Today, though, we're really going to get at the core of why. Why be generous at all? What motivates our generosity? Now, I have a pretty rational brain. I tend to see the relationships between all of life's elements somewhat like equations, like A plus B equals C. I'm typically very black and white, and I don't have a lot of wiggle room for the gray areas, and that can get you in trouble.
But I think, for the most part, it helps me see clearly where relationships kind of occur. And I'm going to use that a little later on to point out a very clear relationship in this verse to explain our motivation for generosity. But first, let's take a look at the immediate context, everything that comes up immediately before that in this chapter so far. So we're going to jump up to chapter 8, verse 1, and make our way up to chapter 9. So let's read from 8, verse 1.
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, and I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. Here's what's going on. Paul, the Apostle Paul, was taking up an offering for all of the churches, the poor churches down in Jerusalem. So if you've got the Mediterranean here, Israel's down here.
All the poor churches in Jerusalem down here really need some financial support. And all the way up around the coast is Macedonia. And the churches up here, who themselves are quite poor, answer the call and start funneling money through Paul down to the churches in Jerusalem. What's interesting is that he describes their giving as, he explains their state as being extremely poor. Out of their extreme poverty flowed a wealth of generosity on their part. They gave according to their means, and he says, beyond their means.
And they begged earnestly for the right to do it. And by generosity, notice also, just real quick, notice that he means money. It's talking about financial generosity. And even though they were poor, they gave over and above what anyone could possibly have expected from them. All the way to the point that Paul labels it as the grace of God that has been given among the church of Macedonia. That's huge.
He calls their extreme giving, out of their poverty, God's grace. There's a direct relationship between financial, generous financial giving and God's grace. Now oftentimes, and I'm guilty of this as well, oftentimes we convince ourselves, I'm just, I'm too poor to give money. Money is not a thing that I have a lot of, and so I'm going to give lots of time instead. Time is something that I'm rich in, so whether it's volunteer work or even if it's in the church, in ministry, that kind of thing, we tell ourselves, I don't have any money, so I can't give money, but I can give my time, so I'm going to give that instead.
And we kind of pat ourselves on the back and we think, I've done a good job of giving to the church. Notice that that's not really at all what's going on here, but I can understand it. In fact, I've been there and I've done that and every now and then I continue to do that as well. But when I first moved here, a lot of you will know I moved here from Australia just over four years ago. When I first moved here, I went jobless for three years. I was studying in seminary, no Job, no income, no anything, for three whole years, which meant that my ballot sheet was blood red for three years.
And you know what you make friends with, you know how to make friends at that time, you go to Walmart. Walmart became my best friend for three years. And you know what, guys? Walmart gets a hard time. But as a student from another country who's never seen anything like it, there is nothing better than doing your groceries while picking up a new pair of jeans and a microwave and a shower curtain and a pack of Sharpies at 4 a.m. in the morning.
Nowhere else in the world gives you that freedom. And America is all about freedom, right? Somehow, Walmart is both the best and the worst thing about America all combined into one thing. And I say that to say that I know what it means to be hurting financially and to kind of have to aim at that level of shopping. And for the longest time, I just, I couldn't give regularly. It wasn't a thing that I was able to do.
I literally had no income. And so all that time, I was serving in the church, this church, convincing myself that was enough. I'm doing the best I can. And what I didn't realize is that after what Paul says in verse 2, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. I was missing out on that abundance of joy. I was missing out on that because I'd convinced myself I need the money.
It's all mine. I couldn't, I couldn't give it away. An abundance of joy sounds pretty great to me. And yet, I robbed myself of it over money. Now I get it.
If you don't have a whole lot of money to spare, if you have already cut expenses where you think you can, if you're living kind of at the line, not below the line, but at the line already, and you're just doing what you can to keep the family safe and keep the family fed and that kind of stuff, giving financially is tough. It is. My guess though, is that there's probably some room, probably some room for all of us to cut something out, even if it's for a month or two, in order to make some room for generosity around Christmas. Now, there is a possibility that perhaps if you truly, truly are hurting, if you truly, truly cannot give, and in fact, you need the help yourself, I don't want you to hear from the message this morning that you need to give even though you need help.
Because actually, oops, actually, as the church, our response to people who need help is to help them. And so, in Acts chapter 2, which is kind of how we have designed our church, in Acts chapter 2, it talks about how they all sold their positions and distributed the money to those in need. And we still function like that as a church. So, if you're truly hurting, our response to you isn't, cut something out, give money away. Our response to you is, how can we help? So anyway, I don't know your circumstances.
I don't think anyone knows your circumstances except for you. But, I'm saying all of this to say, I don't want money. We don't want money to rob you of being God's grace to other people. Don't want your love of money and the ability to buy stuff for yourself to rob you of the ability of helping other people who need it. The church that Paul writes about, the churches of Macedonia, they gave more than they could really afford. But it also says that they begged for the privilege to do so.
That's kind of crazy. They wanted so badly to help others even when they couldn't really afford to. They didn't just scrape off the excess, they dug into their savings account. Now for us, I don't really know how to, it's hard to say what it would look like today, but it would be almost like if a homeless person gets $10, could probably get themselves food for two days if they chose wisely. But instead of doing that, they chose to take another homeless maid of theirs out and go get McDonald's and they share a meal together off of the $10 that he made rather than feeding himself for a couple days.
It's the family that literally survives on food stamps who invite their neighbor over to share a meal with them anyway, even though they need the food themselves. Now most of us, I think, are in a pretty different place to that, so I don't want to be a super downer, but most of us are in a pretty different place to that. And self-sacrifice is going to look different. It's not going to be so ambitious. But it can take some pretty obvious and easy steps.
Let's take just one pretty easy example and kind of walk down a ladder. Let's say you are the direct TV fully loaded package kind of family. Sacrifice for your family if you're already at that level may look like let's cut direct TV for a year and go to Time Warner Cable because it's cheaper even though the service is kind of lame. Let's just go down there. That way we save 30 or 40 bucks a month and we can set that aside and give that away. We're sacrificing as a family.
We're not going to deal with all that good stuff anymore. We're going to set that aside and go to something more basic. Maybe you're already at that second level and you think maybe we'll cut out our cable subscription and go to the internet only package pick up a Netflix account or something like that and just survive on that for a while. And then you can save another 30 bucks a month and distribute that however you feel is working for you. Maybe you're already at that level the Netflix level and you think maybe I should start reading my books that I've been saving for seven years and I don't know maybe learn to read again and just cut the Netflix subscription and then you've at least got what is it now nine dollars a month that can be given away to something.
Whatever it is for you we don't know your circumstances I don't know your circumstances I can't tell you what you should do or what's the right level of whatever whatever it is what does it look like for self-sacrifice to come for you because as Paul said in chapter 8 they did it out of their extreme poverty and an abundance of joy flowed out of it. Let's keep reading verse 5 he says and this when he says this he's talking about that abundance of joy coming from extreme poverty and sacrificially giving and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Their primary allegiance was to God they were completely devoted to him and as a result through that relationship they were generous to the other churches just down the road who were struggling. Verse 6 Accordingly we urged Titus that as he had started so he should complete among you this act of grace but as you excel in everything in faith in speech in knowledge in all earnestness and in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace also.
And in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace also. Paul's saying good Job guys you're crushing it you've got this you've got the faith down you're excelling in faith you're excelling in speech you're excelling in knowledge you're saying good things you're doing good things you know some good stuff
Just don't forget to be a part of this act of grace as well. Don't forget to be a part of this sacrificial giving thing as well. and then look again at actually let's go to verse 8 he says I say this not as a command but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine Paul says
I'm not forcing you to give your money away nobody's telling you that this is a command and that you absolutely have to do it to earn God's favor you don't have to give your money away but when you do that sincere love reflects Jesus it shows how much you love Jesus
In your ability to give to others now let's look at today's verse which is verse 9 for you know by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich
Christ's grace that is the grace of Christ defines motivates and puts into perspective our generosity grace is an undeserved gift the gift that we did not deserve that he gave us anyway and Christ's grace to us is that
Even though we turned away from God even though we chose sin as our life direction even though we chose to reject a relationship with him he humbled himself to be born as a human baby so that we might pay attention to him
He became a human a perfect human one who was completely without fault so that in his death in his sacrifice he could atone for our sin that's the message of the gospel that while we were still sinners Christ died for us he took a step away from his
Throne came into our world and gave up his life in order to restore our relationship to the father that's what it's talking about when it says Christ's grace so let me say this again the grace of Christ defines motivates and puts
Into perspective a generosity that's a big statement that even though he was rich he became poor so that by us his poverty might become rich he had everything he gave up to be chilling in heaven where time space distance
Hunger pain none of that even exists and he gave up that completely full completely holy completely powerful he gave all of that up to become a human to be born as a baby which is
Basically a crying potato he gave up all of that to become a baby so that he could be bound to a place bound to a time feel pain feel hunger feel temptation to become
A traveling homeless unpopular preacher who would eventually be killed by the people that he was trying to save when he was killed he had one item of clothing that was worth fighting over that's all
That he had to his name was one item of clothing that people gambled over so they could have something that was left over from him and he did it all he did all of that left the throne came down
To earth born as a human baby so that we could know the father that's our God our God became a nobody so that nobodies could find God no other story talks about a God like that our God became a nobody so that
Nobodies could find God so I talked earlier about how I've got a logical brain I think this is where it kicks in as a result of what he said in chapter 8 verse 9 our generosity the way that we're open handed with our money our generosity is a reflexive response
To God's grace in our lives our generosity our giving sacrificially of ourselves is a response to what God has already done for us we don't give because we're good people we don't give because we're really into philanthropy we don't give because the Bible rule book tells me I
Have to in fact it says this is not a command we don't give because we're altruistic do-gooders we give as a response to God's grace so to put it in mathematical terms or physics terms God's grace is the action and our giving
Is the reaction God's grace is the action our giving is the reaction let me say that one more time God's grace is the action our giving is a reaction now the physics nerds in the room they're probably going to really like that because it
Sounds a whole lot like Newton's third law of motion and then you think about it a little harder and you remember that Newton's third law of motion says that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction emphasis on equal for every action
There's an equal and opposite reaction meaning that if we apply it to what we just said God's grace is the action our giving is the equal reaction go ponder that one you physics nerds but seriously the point is that we give
Because he gave first and we give in reaction to what he's already given to us it's not about us it's never been about us in fact our generosity is an act of grace and we're doing it in order to glorify Jesus
Not ourselves Christians they don't give to glorify themselves we don't give so that others will see us we give because we've seen Jesus our motivation isn't selfish our motivation cannot
Be selfish our motivation is that Christ gave up a lot for me so I'm going to give up a lot for Christ so what does that actually mean for us I actually think that at Christmas time that actually
Becomes an easier question to answer mainly because we're really hyper exposed to materialism at Christmas time and everyone kind of knows it even outside of the church
Outside of believers everyone knows that Christmas time is a really materialistic time so I think it becomes an easier question to answer now the best
Answer is just to pass on the cultural narrative to pass on the cultural narrative that Christmas is all about the perfect gift the
Ornaments the decorating the cheer the happy family the mariah carey album the starbucks whatever it is or complaining about the starbucks cup or whatever
It is Christmas isn't about all of that now those things can be fun no problem with enjoying them they're just not the point
And I think that's where typically we get it twisted as a church we don't just say don't get involved in the cultural narrative
We actually try to redirect so it's not just don't get involved in the cultural mess we actually say here's something better to get
Involved in and that's why we have a give series because we say instead of getting involved in that open up your wallets and
Give financially to something that's actually going to make an Christmas time is a time when a lot of people in our city who are already
In need feel it the most they feel the need year round but there's a certain pressure that comes along with just the Christmas
Time to buy the perfect stuff to be the happy family to have it all together that sting of being unable to provide is
Particularly harsh at Christmas time so as a church every year around this time we get really excited to give away all of our money we
Commit to giving at Christmas we see Christmas for what it actually is which is a time when we remember that Christ has done a lot for us and
So we can do a lot for him at Christmas we thank Jesus for his generosity to us and we give generously as a response and
If you're new around here part of what we do every year is we host the give series and then we pick a give
Project throughout the years we pick a give project and collectively as a church we commit to funding pulling off whatever we've chosen as
A project throughout the years we've done a couple things we've grown as a church so it's kind of progressively gotten bigger each year
We started off with what we called love bombs which is where we picked particular families who were in need around the city and
Each of our community groups raised support for whatever that family needed the next year we did we bought presents for over 100 kids
Families they otherwise probably wouldn't have got Christmas presents that year and on either side of this stage we set up boards with all
Of their names and a little cutout and people swarmed up to grab a name so they could go home and buy gifts for
Those people last year we were involved in flood recovery both in financially supporting it and in actually pulling off the work involved in
Flood it's been pretty exciting throughout the years to be involved in all of these different gift projects and so we're incredibly excited this year
To be partnering with a sub ministry of Christ Central Ministries called Samaritan's Well it's actually in Lexington Samaritan's Well is a shelter and a transition home
For women often with children who have come out of a variety of rough situations be it abusive or neglectful or homelessness and it's
A ministry that tries to help these women in those tough situations get back on their feet now usually what happens as we introduce a
Give series is we'll talk about generosity giving financially and we'll introduce the series on week one and then we'll just start collecting money until the end and
Then we'll deal with the money kind of at the end of the end of the series we're not doing it like that this
Year at all in fact today there's going to be an opportunity to respond financially this year we're shaking it up and we're going to
Respond in phases so if you're a position where responding financially immediately is a thing you can do then today is a great day for you if
You're in a position where responding financially immediately isn't necessarily something you can do you there are currently six women and they're combined seven children
At Samaritan's Well as a church we want to provide the opportunity for these families to celebrate at Christmas so this week as a church we're going
To commit to these six women and seven children each down here on our little janky old school pallet Christmas tree you'll see that
There's 13 little stockings that look like this each one of those represents one of the women or one of the seven children we
Want to provide a $50 gift card for each and every one of those stockings each and every one of those women and children
At Samaritan's Well as a church that's a total commitment of $650 and given the support that we've raised for previous give series I'm pretty
Handled that now remember you actually I know it's over here and you guys have a long way to go but you don't have to
Fight over it because there is subsequent phases and series weeks we're also going to be collecting money for other things as well now here
Are the rules slash guidelines for this week's phase one of our give project which is for Samaritan's Well rule number one only commit
To this give project as a response to Jesus' generosity to you do not commit for any other reason we don't want your money
We want a generous heart in our church that's rule number one rule number two this is more of a guideline let's take guideline
Number two I'm gonna swap it up halfway through if fifty dollars is a huge commitment but you still want to give and you
Have permission to pick someone and organize as a two or three or four or five if you need to break out your phone
Or text someone who's not here because you really want to give and you can't afford the fifty but you want to split it
Some way you have permission go ahead team up organize ways to get the Job done in and amongst yourselves That's guideline number two. Guideline number three. Do not push each other to the ground in a mad frenzy to come and claim one.
I realize I shouldn't have to say that, but I've seen you all respond to give projects before. And when 120 names disappeared in 17 seconds flat a couple years ago, I figured that given there's only 13 things over there, we just might have to make an announcement on that. Remember, if you miss out today because you chose to sit all the way over here and you didn't know that the Give Project was going to have stuff down the front and you didn't realize that those things weren't just decorations and you really want to do it, but someone else beats you there, you can sit in this front row next week. It's always empty. Rule number four. Once you've claimed a gift card, once you've claimed a stocking and you've committed to getting a gift card, we want you to be prepared to bring that back next week. There's going to be a table set up somewhere over there.
There's a Give table. And we're going to collect all of those next week so that we can actually make some moves on this Give, on phase one of the Give Project. So if you're going to pick one up this week, be prepared to come back next week to deliver on that. We're suggesting for gift cards kind of like a Walmart or a Target or a Visa card, that kind of thing. That way our families have some flexibility on whether they want to get clothes or toys or that kind of thing. We kind of want them to have a good opportunity to get whatever they need. Let's steer away from restaurants and that kind of stuff because we really want them to be able to buy some stuff that they might need. Rule number five. In order to give some time for the people
Who need help getting together and grouping up and stuff, in order to give them some time, we're actually going to wait. We're not going to respond immediately. We're not going to jump up right now. We're going to wait until the gathering today is kind of concluded. There's going to be songs. Chet's going to give some announcements, that kind of stuff. We're going to wait until it's concluded and when everything's over, that's when we're going to make a move and grab a stocking and respond to it then. Those are the five rules. We really want to aim to have all of those stockings gone today. That's phase one of our gift project. We're going to raise $650 to support these women and their kids celebrating Christmas together and we want to get that done today.
Once all of these have been claimed, this is still tentative. This is not necessarily happening but we want our groups particularly to be open to the possibility that if and when these women and their kids need help to go out and get the shopping done, like they may not, we don't know all of their situations, if they need a ride, if they want to go out and get dinner, like maybe your group could sponsor to take them out to dinner and then go to Walmart or go to Target or whatever to help them out when it comes time to actually using the gift cards. That's a great opportunity for us if we can make it happen to not just be a faceless church that sponsors them but actually to invest in them personally,
To begin a relationship, to invite them into our groups, to invite them into our lives and to make sure that they're actually building hearing the gospel as well. We want to make ourselves available to them so that gospel conversations can happen as best we can. Guys, I think we are, I think we have an exciting and incredible opportunity today to serve these women and since Christ loved us first, we get to respond with glad, sincere, and generous hearts. Let's pray for that. God, I want to thank you for the generosity of the Macedonian church and how they can be an example thousands of years later to us of what it looks like
To sacrifice so that others can have their needs provided for. Thank you for the Christmas season and that it's a joyful time where friends and family can get together. But I pray that that we will keep our eyes focused on you, that we will respond, that we will respond to the Christmas season as those who have been saved by your grace. I pray that you will work through us in this season to not buy into the cultural consumerism, to not buy into the cultural narrative that tells us that Christmas is
All about us, all about joy, all about Santa, all about gifts, but instead that it's about making Jesus known. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.
I realize I shouldn't have to say that, but I've seen you all respond to give projects before. And when 120 names disappeared in 17 seconds flat a couple years ago, I figured that given there's only 13 things over there, we just might have to make an announcement on that. Remember, if you miss out today because you chose to sit all the way over here and you didn't know that the Give Project was going to have stuff down the front and you didn't realize that those things weren't just decorations and you really want to do it, but someone else beats you there, you can sit in this front row next week. It's always empty.
Rule number four. Once you've claimed a gift card, once you've claimed a stocking and you've committed to getting a gift card, we want you to be prepared to bring that back next week. There's going to be a table set up somewhere over there. There's a Give table. And we're going to collect all of those next week so that we can actually make some moves on this Give, on phase one of the Give Project. So if you're going to pick one up this week, be prepared to come back next week to deliver on that.
We're suggesting for gift cards kind of like a Walmart or a Target or a Visa card, that kind of thing. That way our families have some flexibility on whether they want to get clothes or toys or that kind of thing. We kind of want them to have a good opportunity to get whatever they need. Let's steer away from restaurants and that kind of stuff because we really want them to be able to buy some stuff that they might need. Rule number five. In order to give some time for the people who need help getting together and grouping up and stuff, in order to give them some time, we're actually going to wait.
We're not going to respond immediately. We're not going to jump up right now. We're going to wait until the gathering today is kind of concluded. There's going to be songs. Chet's going to give some announcements, that kind of stuff. We're going to wait until it's concluded and when everything's over, that's when we're going to make a move and grab a stocking and respond to it then.
Those are the five rules. We really want to aim to have all of those stockings gone today. That's phase one of our gift project. We're going to raise $650 to support these women and their kids celebrating Christmas together and we want to get that done today. Once all of these have been claimed, this is still tentative. This is not necessarily happening but we want our groups particularly to be open to the possibility that if and when these women and their kids need help to go out and get the shopping done, like they may not, we don't know all of their situations, if they need a ride, if they want to go out and get dinner, like maybe your group could sponsor to take them out to dinner and then go to Walmart or go to Target or whatever to help them out when it comes time to actually using the gift cards.
That's a great opportunity for us if we can make it happen to not just be a faceless church that sponsors them but actually to invest in them personally, to begin a relationship, to invite them into our groups, to invite them into our lives and to make sure that they're actually building hearing the gospel as well. We want to make ourselves available to them so that gospel conversations can happen as best we can. Guys, I think we are, I think we have an exciting and incredible opportunity today to serve these women and since Christ loved us first, we get to respond with glad, sincere, and generous hearts. Let's pray for that.
God, I want to thank you for the generosity of the Macedonian church and how they can be an example thousands of years later to us of what it looks like to sacrifice so that others can have their needs provided for. Thank you for the Christmas season and that it's a joyful time where friends and family can get together. But I pray that that we will keep our eyes focused on you, that we will respond, that we will respond to the Christmas season as those who have been saved by your grace. I pray that you will work through us in this season to not buy into the cultural consumerism, to not buy into the cultural narrative that tells us that Christmas is all about us, all about joy, all about Santa, all about gifts, but instead that it's about making Jesus known.
It's in his name that we pray. Amen.
Serve God or Money
Transcript
Good morning. How are we doing? We'll be in Luke chapter 16. It'll be page 568 if your Bible looks like this. If your Bible doesn't look like this, it'll be Luke chapter 16. So what we're doing is we're in our third week of our gift series.
And so what we've been doing throughout this series is celebrating Christmas, celebrating the fact that that Jesus came to earth to pay for our sin, to rescue us, to make us his. Celebrating that that's what we celebrate in Christmas, that that that that God became a human. And so that's what that's what we've been doing. But we've been trying to celebrate it in a distinctly Christian way to actually look at that and not get caught up in all of the consumeristic tendencies that we have as a culture. And I get caught up in just the the Christmassy stuff and miss out on what Christmas is about. And so we love Christmas, love singing Christmas songs, love celebrating Christmas, love traditions and the things that we get to enjoy with family.
Like we're big on that. I think it's all good. We like my family. Just we celebrated our Christmas yesterday. My extended family, so my parents very much are just like, let's figure out a time when all of us can get together and we'll celebrate Christmas, whether that's early or late. My family also, we do fireworks, we're in fireworks stores.
So New Year's is not a good time. We usually go before Christmas sometime because we're getting amped up to run fireworks stores and try to figure out when all the family can get together. And so we did our Christmas stuff yesterday as a family. And there's just a couple of things that I know go along with that, the way we celebrate Christmas. So I know there's certain foods we'll have, you know, that's just some traditions that we enjoy.
So we're going to eat sausage balls. We're going to have some coffee cake. I always usually take a weapon with ammunition whenever I go celebrate Christmas with my family because I know at some point we'll go shoot things. That's just part of how we celebrate Christmas together as rednecks. And so I'm assuming that you have different Christmas traditions that you get excited about, that you know are going to happen, that you're going to enjoy with your family. And but what can happen is we can get too caught up in that.
We can get too caught up in this being the perfect Christmas, making the best memories, getting the best gift, giving the best gift. And we can forget that the reason we celebrate Christmas is that Jesus came to earth as an infant. And that is the best gift of the world ever received, that that ultimate humility is shown when God becomes a human and ultimate generosity is shown when God becomes a human. The manger and the cross are the two pictures of the most complete humility and generosity and charity. That have ever existed. And so what we're doing in this series is we're taking some stuff that Jesus said because he is the standard for humility and generosity and charity.
And we're seeing what he has to say about our finances and about our possessions. So for three weeks right around Christmas, we're talking about money and not how to get more of it, but how to give more of it away. So we've all been having a blast. Like favorite series for everybody. I love talking about money. Everybody loves money.
Like if you can just talk about somebody's finances, that's a good way to make a friend. Just just when you're meeting someone, say, hey, my name is, you know, fill in the blank and say, can I see a copy of your budget? Maybe your last paycheck is pay stub like that's it's awkward, but we're we're taking what Jesus says seriously. And we're as as people who follow him seeking to apply the fact that he is the only eternal human who's ever come back from that side of eternity. So when we die, we all enter into eternity.
Jesus is the only one who's ever come out of eternity and into time. And so we're seeing what he has to say about money and our hearts and our finances. And so we'll be in Luke chapter 16. I'm going to pray and then we're going to let Jesus teach us today. God, we thank you that we get to gather as church family. We thank you for the opportunities that we have.
God, we thank you for how you've already begun to train us in what it looks like to handle our finances well. I would thank you for for the gifts that are on the front of the steps here that that will get to be shared with families in our city. And we pray that that today that through your Holy Spirit, you would continue to teach us the words that we have from Jesus that have been faithfully kept and written down for our sake as you have overseen it. And so we praise you and we thank you. And in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. So this this passage has always been kind of confusing to me. So I'm excited that we all get to read through it together today and look at it and talk about it. And so we'll be Luke 16 verse one. And Jesus is going to tell a story. And so we'll just kind of talk about what the story is and then we'll talk about what it means.
And he follows it up with kind of explaining some different stuff. So 16 verse one. He also said to his disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager. So basically very rich man because he's paying another guy to keep up with his stuff. So he's got like a money manager, property manager.
This guy oversees everything. So rich enough that he no longer has to. He just pays someone to do it. Who had a manager and charges were brought to him. That's the rich man that this man. That's the money manager was wasting his possessions.
And he called him and said to him, what is this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management for you can no longer be manager. And the manager said to himself, what shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. So there's two options.
I can go do real work. No, I can go ask people for stuff. No. No. And so he says, I'm ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.
So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said, a hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. And then he said to another, and how much do you owe? And he said, a hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, take your bill and write 80.
And the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. All right. So we're going to stop there and we're going to pick back up. But I just want to look at the story because Jesus starts kind of explaining stuff in a second. So that's kind of an odd story.
Basically, the guy's super rich, has someone managing his accounts, his funds, his property, and realizes that the guy isn't doing a good job. We don't really know, but he's a dishonest manager. And so he's probably skimming some off the top, probably using some of it for himself, probably slowly padding his own account, probably just doing some poor decision making with it. And so he basically brings him in and says, show me your accounts that you've been managing and you no longer get to be manager. And so the guy freaks out because he's about to lose his job. And so he makes friends with the people who owe his boss money by cutting their debt down.
And so he knows now they owe him. He's got some leverage over them. And so he's been very intentional with the short amount of time he had left as a manager to set himself up for what was to come. So he knows he's got just a little bit of time to be manager left. He's about to get fired. So he takes it, says he sat down and wrote quickly, did whatever he could at that point, leverage everything he had at that point to set himself up for what was to come.
And so his boss just commends his shrewdness. So the rich man is very rich because he's probably very shrewd with his money and makes wise decisions. I don't think he liked it. I think he was just like, it's a smart decision given the situation you were in for your own benefit. You're still fired. Leave.
Like I think that was kind of the commendation for his shrewdness was like, see what you did there? Now get out. So it's not like Jesus is saying, so kind of steal and pilfer a little bit because that's smart. That's not what he's saying. He's just saying the manager said, he said to the manager, the rich guy said to the manager, well played, sir. You may leave now.
And so Jesus is then going to begin to unpack this for us. He's going to begin to just explain a little bit what he's saying. I do want us to see this. Whenever Jesus tells a story, he's going to be in the position of the rich man. He's going to be in the position of the master. He's going to be in position of the father.
Like he, whenever he tells a story, he's the chief head character who is in charge of everything. That's one of the reasons that the religious people didn't like him because Jesus would tell stories. And it was obvious that he was the main character who was in charge of everything. And so that's not always received well. So when you read a story like this, just realize if we're going to be in the parable for to understand the parable, we're going to be landing on the manager side, not the rich guy who's in charge of things.
Just in case you wanted to play that character, that's Jesus. He's in charge of stuff, not you. So just so you are aware. And so that puts us in a position with finances, with possessions, with money, where we are managing Jesus's stuff. That's the general tone of the story is that the things that you have. So just take a second, quickly take stock of the home you're renting, either from an individual or from the bank.
Maybe the home you own, your vehicles, the amount of money you have in the bank, the worth that you have from the job that you have, the possessions that you have. In this story, as Jesus is showing this to us, you're just managing his assets. So a little bit, when it comes to how we operate with God, we're kind of like the FedEx guy. We got a truck. We got nice stuff in it. It doesn't belong to us.
So like if you're the FedEx guy, you can't show up at someone's house and be like, hey, you got a Christmas gift from your grandma. I know because I opened it. It's this shirt. It doesn't fit me super well, but I'll make do. And there were some cookies in it that I thought were chocolate chip, turned out to be oatmeal raisin. So I threw them away because they made me so angry because I had mistaken them first for chocolate chip.
Because let's just be honest. This is a side note. Oatmeal raisin cookies are good. Only if you know they're oatmeal raisin cookies. But if you ever see them and think, this is a chocolate chip cookie, and then you eat it, it's like, what on earth?
Why would someone disguise oatmeal raisin as chocolate chip? It's pure evil. But you'd be a terrible FedEx driver. And you're like, please, could you just sign here? You're like, no, I'm not. I'm reporting you.
Like, you're terrible. And that's a little bit of the position that we have that some of the things that we've been given are not even for us. They're designed to be given to other people. And at all points, we're just a manager. God's super rich. And he's entrusted us care of a certain amount of what belongs to him.
And we are either going to handle that well or handle that poorly. That's kind of the situation we find ourselves as Jesus begins to explain this a little more. And so he says this. And this is where it gets a little confusing. So we're going to have to park here for a second.
The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. Okay. Stop for just a second. The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. Okay.
Big picture Bible. There are two types of people. And that's what Jesus is talking about here when he says sons of this world and sons of light. Sons of this world is not only, it's not just sons. It's not just males. Humanity, men, people, boys and girls, children, whatever you want to call it.
It's humans of this world and humans of the light. People of the light. People of this world. But he uses the word sons. And so that's how I kind of will continue to refer to it. But if you're a female, that includes you.
Just, there you go. For the record. So, sons of this world. The Bible is going to be pretty clear on how this breaks out. There are two types of people. There are those who have placed their faith in Jesus and there are those who have not.
That's the only two types of people that exist in the world. Those who have placed their faith in Jesus and those who have not. And here's how that works. Sons of this world. What it's talking about there is that's all the people who in this world, this is as much life as they will have. So when it says their generation, what it is referring to is this life.
Their generation, which is a generation. 50, 60, 80 years. Sons of this world. Sons of light. Their generation is eternity. Eternal life.
So I was at a funeral this past Thursday. I believe it was Thursday. And it was Thursday. And it was a co-worker of mine when I worked at Sears. And I was just standing at the funeral. And there was this moment where I'm just looking at the casket.
And I can see around it all the grave plots and tombstones and little cups with flowers in them. And I'm looking at the people grieving. And I'm thinking, that's where we all end up. That's every single one of us is going to be put in a box and lowered into the ground. Every single one of us is going to have a little spot of earth with a little plaque or a tombstone that says a little bit about us. Every person there grieving at some point will be in one of those boxes and have other people standing around grieving, myself included.
And what Jesus is saying when he says they're sons of the world and they're sons of light is that life, vibrancy, joy, enjoyment, fullness for sons of the world, this is it. The happiest, the happiest they ever are, the most peace they ever have is going to have to come in that 50, 60, 80 years. And that sons of light, when they die on this earth and are placed in a box, life has just begun. Because their generation is an eternal one. And here's why. Jesus Christ came to earth to be a man to save men.
To be a human to save humans. That's why he came. That's what we're celebrating at Christmas. Jesus Christ is that he showed up not to show us how to live, but to live for us. That he's not a God that sat at the top of the mountain and yelled down to us, figure it out, learn how to be good, learn how to behave, learn how to be moral, learn how to follow religious rules, find your way up the mountain. But no, he came down and went up the mountain on our behalf for us.
That when we look to the cross, what we see is that Jesus definitively declares for every person in this room that we have sinned, that we have fallen short, and that we need him on our behalf. That the cross tells us Chet Phillips is busted, broken, and needs a savior. The cross tells us that every person in this room, every person on earth has fallen short and needs a savior. If there was one human from Adam and Eve in the garden, Adam and Eve in the garden, all the way to the last baby that was just born, that just got smacked on the bottom by a doctor and just sucked in its first bit of air and screamed for the first time.
If there was one human from that span of time, if there was one human from that span of time that was moral enough, good enough, loving enough, generous enough, that walked perfectly with God, Jesus would not have come. Because all God would have come. Because all God would have to do is say, it's possible. All of y'all should have been like this person. This person is good enough. None of you are.
But since no one fits that description, Jesus showed up to be that person on our behalf. And so Sons of Light is the group of people that have placed their faith in Jesus, that have said, his death covers me. His cross is my cross. That when God looks at me, he doesn't see me anymore. He doesn't see my sin anymore. He sees Jesus.
He sees Jesus. You see, every single person in this room will be put into a box and will be lowered into the ground. And every person in this room will stand before God, just like this manager did. Stand before God, just like this manager stands before the rich man and he'll say, open the books. Let's look at the account.
Let's see how you handled it. And every person in this room will either, as a son of this world, defend themselves and say, this is why I should be okay. This is why I should be good. See, Sons of the World is going to include all the religious people who think through their good behavior and their morals, their hard work and their white knuckling, being just a good person. They can put God in their debt. It's going to include all of them.
It's going to include all rebellious people who have just said, God doesn't exist. I don't submit to God. He doesn't have any claim over my life. All of them will be standing before God and they will defend themselves. They will be their own counsel. But Sons of Light will stand before God and say, Jesus is my account.
His life was for me. His death paid my penalty. My faith is in him. My hope is in him. My life is in him. The Bible is very clear on that.
And so when Jesus says there are sons of this world, there are sons of this age, and there are sons of light, what he is saying is there are those who have had their account replaced by mine. There are those who have placed faith in me. I lived for them. I died for them. And their faith has covered them because I have covered them. And there are those who said, no, I'll handle them all.
So let me explain something to you very clearly. We are in this room because this is true. So we celebrated on Friday. We got our groups together. We had our family meeting. And Raz's group won on a technicality, really, if you think about it.
And by a really messed up arbitrary point system. There was voting and lobbying. It's a lot like the BCS. And so we gathered in this room and celebrated what God's been doing and who we are as a church family because, and we talked about a lot of the effort and the money that's gone into church planting and to getting this church started and all the stuff we've gone through and all the man hours that we've put in and all the service that's happened and all the group hours and all the stuff that we've done. And the reason we have done that is not because a group of people want to get together and say that we are good and holy and can behave and are moral.
The church is not a group of people who get together and say that we're going to behave together and we're going to be good together and we're going to be really nice church people. It's a group of people who raise their hand and said, I have fallen short and I need a savior. And we get together and do all of the things that we do because sons of light exist and sons of the world exist. Because my neighbors will be put into a pine box and will be lowered into the ground and will stand before a righteous judge. And if they haven't had Jesus pay for their sins, they will spend eternity in hell, which is a real place.
And this life will be the only life they have had and they will have eternal death that follows it. And that's why we do what we do. And that's why we care about what we care about. Because sons of this world exist and sons of light exist. And those who know what Jesus has done on our behalf are not okay with the fact that there are still people who are trying to make it on their own, trying to be good enough, trying to earn it, trying to run from God because we will all face a righteous judge and a righteous judge does not acquit the guilty. And so when Jesus says that sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are sons of light, what he is saying is this.
People whose life is only going to take up 50, 60, 80 years. And when they die and are lowered into the ground, eternal death begins for them. That the most life they'll ever have is here. They handle their money really well. That's what he's saying. People who don't know Jesus handle their money in a very smart way because the most they'll ever have something, the most they'll ever enjoy something, the most fun they'll ever have, the best adrenaline rush they'll ever have, the most laughter and peace and joy and comfort they'll ever have is going to take place inside of 40, 50, 80 years.
And so he says they're very shrewd with their money. They make wise decisions. The sons of this world, the sons of this age are very intentional with their money because they're planning for retirement. They're going out of their way to figure out to have 401k. They're making sure they've got some medical insurance so that if something happens, they've got liability insurance. They intentionally go out of their way to enjoy things here.
So they plan ahead. They plan vacations. They do a lot of smart things with their money because the most enjoyment and the most life and the most fulfillment they'll ever have is here. And then he says the sons of light don't handle their money in a very smart way because for someone who has placed faith in Jesus, this life is a small, sad picture of what real life gets to be like, of what eternal life with a great savior and king gets to look like. And when we're lowered into a pine box, those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus, life just began. Real life, true life, eternal life just got started.
And so when he says that they don't handle their money well, what he's saying is most Christians live as if they're going to live for 40, 60, 80 years. And you would not know that they believed they were going to live for eternity. And if they were setting up their accounts, they're really being dumb with their money because their money has eternal consequences that the other money doesn't. That's what he's saying. So when we talked about last week when he says, sell your possessions, give to the needy, provide for yourself money bags and treasures in heaven that do not grow old, that moths don't eat, that rust won't destroy.
That's what he's talking about. That's why he says sons of light aren't shrewd with their money. They don't make good decisions with their money because we actually get to have eternal things, those of us who place faith in Jesus. That boat is going to be a hole you pour money into, first of all. It's going to need upkeep. It's eventually going to get old.
It's going to rust. That new car is going to lose value when you drive it off the lot. That job that you're pumping hours into, that promotion you're working so hard for, that house is going to be put up on the market. There's going to be an estate sale. It's going to go to one of your children, or all of your children are going to fight over it. 40, 60, 80 years, it's over.
And every possession you have does not go with you, is not enjoyed by you. And if you are a son of this world, if you are someone who has placed no faith in Jesus, you are carrying your own weight of sin, you are standing before God to be your own moral, righteous person, or you're just saying that God doesn't exist, get a boat. Have a nice house. Set up for retirement. This is as good as it gets. Be shrewd with your money.
You got 40, 60, 80 years, if you're lucky. And the last ones aren't going to be so nice. So put some money in retirement. But if you're a son of light, none of that stuff is going with you. And eternal possessions begin the moment people toss dirt on that box your body is in. That's what he's saying.
And we're going to continue to go through and see some of the practical stuff that he lays out for us. So he says this. We'll go verse 8. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation, so that's the 40, 60, 80 years, than are the sons of light. They don't handle their stuff well to deal with eternity. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
Okay, that's confusing. Because I think mostly we want to find out who are the friends we get to make, and what are the dwellings, and how do they invite us in. And I don't think that's what he's doing. I think he's just using the same language from the story he just told, as he continues his illustration. So it would be similar to if you sat down with a child, and you told them a story about a good little puppy, and a mean little puppy.
And you read through the story, and you told them all about it, and then at the end of the book you said, and you get to decide what type of puppy you will be. And you close the book, and the children say, German Shepherd. No, no, no, no, no, Dalmatian. It's like, no, no, no, no. The choices were good and mean, and it's not really a puppy. You don't get to be a puppy.
It's about behavior. I'm going to read the book again. And so, pay less attention to the pictures. That's what I feel like a little bit when I go, okay, well, who are the friends, and what kind of dwellings are we talking about? I think he's just using the language to say that the manager knew he was about to lose his position, so he did everything he could to set himself up for his next stage, for the place he was headed. And so when he says, make friends with unrighteous wealth, so they'll welcome you into eternal dwellings, he's just using the language that he said he made friends with himself, so they would invite him into their homes.
And so what he's saying for us is, take the time you have, be as intentional as you can be, to set yourself up for what is to come. So when he's talking about sons of light being shrewd, what that means is, what he says in Luke 12, give, be generous, be gracious, because all of that rolls over to eternity. Anything you keep here will be yours here for a short amount of time, and honestly it belongs to God, and you may be mismanaging it. But if you give it away, if you hand it over generously, if you help, if you pour out, all of that rolls on to eternity. That's the wise investment that the sons of light get to make.
That's what he's saying. Okay. So now it's just some practical stuff. One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. Okay. Very practical, and we don't believe that.
Just across the board, our culture doesn't, we don't click with that. We believe it on some things. So like, if I'm a terrible little league coach, and I tried to convince you I would be good in the pros, you would not believe that. Like, the terrible employee who works with you, who always says they'd be a great boss, you're like, bro, you don't even show up on time. You'd be a terrible boss. Like, you should get no promotion.
But, there are some things that we believe that. So it says, one who's faithful in little will also be faithful in much. That applies very well to relationships and to finances. So just, this doesn't have anything to do with money. It's just relationships. Just trying to be helpful.
People say things like, yeah, I'm not a real good boyfriend. If we get married, I'll be an awesome husband. No, you won't. And girls, ladies, friends, let me help you. If he is a jerk, and if he is lazy, and if he doesn't treat you well, and if he cares more about video games than you, and if he's always talking to and looking at other girls, do not say, well, I'll marry him and that will fix it. No.
He'll be married to a lazy jerk who likes other girls. It doesn't change that. So don't think, well, yeah, he doesn't treat me real good, but if we get married, then I'll have locked it in. Locked in what? Like, that's a terrible decision. Guys, if she's kind of crazy now, you ain't seen crazy.
I'm just trying to be helpful. Who's faithful in small things will be faithful in big things. And what that means, the way we apply that to money is all the time we say, I'm not real generous now. I don't handle my money well now, but I would if I had more. We said this last week. God says it's a heart issue.
Getting a raise doesn't change your heart. Statistically, in America, the wealthier people give away a smaller percentage than the less wealthy people. The higher education you have, the more money you make, higher income level, the less likely you are to be generous. Statistically. But we believe that if I had more, I'd give more, but that's not how that works.
We are just going to be generous because of our hearts at whatever level we are. That's how that works. So you're going to be generous at your level. And as your level grows, generosity will go with it. As your level grows, if there is no generosity, it doesn't just show up. I heard somebody say that, that if somebody says, yeah, I just, I just am in a spot where I can't be generous.
He said, he'll look at him and say, okay, so if you took a 5% pay cut next year, 10% pay cut next year, you would die? No, I wouldn't die. Okay. So you're just saying you don't want to be generous. Let's just be real.
Let's be honest with it. Because you can be generous at the level you are. Generosity doesn't have anything to do. There's a really good example. If you look it up on YouTube, it messes my head every time I've seen this. A guy walks around in a McDonald's, McDonald's, walks around in a McDonald's, walks up to people and says, hey man, can I have some of that?
Hey man, would you, would you help me get a cheeseburger? Hey, he just walks around and everybody's like, get, no, stop. They do what I would do. Stop. Go away. It takes a dollar to buy something like, get a job.
And then they walk outside, they hand a cheeseburger to a guy who's in a homeless situation. He opens it up, he starts eating it. That same guy who'd been walking around the McDonald's, walks over to him and says, hey man, can I get some of that guy? And the guy breaks it in half and hands it to him. And they sit next to each other and eat. Generosity has everything to do with our heart, and very, very little to do with the level that we are.
If you are not faithful with the money, the possessions, the finances that you have now, they are all on loan. One day, the master sits you down and says, let's look at the accounts. It is his grace towards us that he does not give us more to mismanage. It is his grace towards us that we get to be dishonest in a little bit, as opposed to being dishonest in much. It's grace towards us. Because if we're faithful in small things, we'll be faithful in big things.
You talk to somebody and you say, what's your budget look like? I don't need a budget. I don't have any money. That's not how that works. You need a budget now. You'll need a budget later.
Same thing with generosity. I can't be generous. I don't have any money. No, no, you can. You can be generous at the level you are. You can share what you have.
You can share what people give you. Generosity has everything to do with your heart. Very little to do with the position you're in. Your tax bracket. One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much.
If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? This clicked in my head this morning. If you've not been faithful in unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? That only makes sense in light of eternity. Only makes sense in light of eternity.
Everything you own will be somebody else's. Or it'll be in a landfill. Everything you own is lent to you. It's being borrowed unless you're given something in eternity. Because there are no estate sales in eternity. Things don't wear out in eternity.
Moths don't eat things. Stuff doesn't go out of style in eternity. He says, who's going to give you something? If you haven't been faithful with what isn't yours, who's going to give you something that actually gets to be yours? Why would you show up to heaven if you are a believer in Jesus and you haven't been faithful with the small stuff he's let us borrow here? Why would we show up to heaven and him have given us anything that we get to keep for eternity?
That's what he's saying. And that's why he says, sons of light don't handle their money well. Aren't shrewd with their generation. Because our generation is an eternal generation. Which means that it's very small minded and very silly for us to be so focused on the next 40, 60, 80 years when we actually get to have real things for eternity. True wealth.
Something that actually belongs to us. That won't just wear out. That isn't going to go back to the dump or the yard sale or to people who are going to show up at our house and read our will and hand it off. And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's who will give you that which is your own. No servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Okay, that makes sense too. We said last week that you don't really love money. You just love what money gives you. So like Scrooge McDuck. You know him? He jumps in and swims around in a bunch of gold coins.
Okay, he doesn't actually just like the gold coins. He likes what the gold coins say about him. He likes that the gold coins provide him security and power. He likes that the gold coins make him feel good about himself. He's not just rolling around in gold coins because gold coins are fun. So like if the U.S. government came out, the U.S.
Mint Treasury came out and said we're getting rid of all of the $5 bills that we currently have and we're changing over to this different type of $5 bill and you can trade in or we're getting rid of all the money that we have and we're changing over to this type of money. You can trade in all the money you have for the same size note. So if you give us a 5, we'll give you a 5. If you give us a 10, we'll give you a 10 and we'll hand it off. Okay, so after the dead date on that, when our old paper money is no longer good and we had to change over to like the plastic money that they use in Australia that has clear holes in it and stuff and it's weird.
After that happens, you no longer like your old money. You put on a pair of pants that has a $20 bill in it, you are now mad at that $20 bill. You do that now and you're like, jackpot, this is my favorite pair of pants. I'm going to wear them next week so if they have another one. You pull out an old $20 bill, it means nothing anymore. You no longer like that because it no longer has the value, carries the weight that it used to.
And so we're either going to serve money for the reasons that, the things that it gives us or we're going to serve God or our money is going to serve God is another way to put that because he says you'll love one and hate the other, you'll love one and despise the other one. Let me show you how that plays out. If you serve money, the past three weeks has been very frustrating and all of us serve money a little bit. So it hasn't been super fun to sit and think about to last week here that Jesus says where our treasury is there, our heart will be so we can look at our bank statement and see what we love.
For any of us who sat down and tried to do that, not a fun thing. Anytime we hear, we'll say things about the church like all they want is your money. Anytime we hear these kind of things because anytime God speaks on money, he's chasing after what we love and we will despise that. We'll hate that. We'll be frustrated by that. We'll be annoyed by that.
We'll think that's aggravating. We'll make excuses for why we get to do what we do or we'll say, well, I serve a lot or I do all this or I would do that if this was different or if I could just have that promotion. We will fight against what he says about it. But if you're serving God, then you'll do stuff with money that only makes sense in light of eternity. And everyone standing around you will say, that was so dumb. But money will be despised by you.
And it doesn't mean you'll hate money. It's not like you're going to go home and grab your wallet and that's not what it is. Despising means over and against the other one, you're going to dishonor, disrespect, shun. So what that will look like is this. Let me give you some tangible examples of how our money gets to serve God. You will adopt some children for Christmas.
Your children will get less gifts. Your family will get less gifts because you despised wealth possessions in order to serve God. You will pass up on promotions because you'll go, no, everything's not about money and that's going to make me work this extra hours or have this, and I really need to be building with the people I'm building with and I need the time to be able to lead a community group. You'll have someone offer you a position and you're like, I can't move. I've got church family here and I've got too many neighbors that I've just gotten to where will talk to me, that I've just gotten to where I can hang out with and build with and I know that there are sons of this world who will face God and be condemned because they did not have Jesus pay for their sin and I know that I deserve to be condemned but have placed my faith in Jesus and he has set me free and I'm not okay with moving because of the relationships that I've built and you will despise a promotion and you will despise getting a raise because you understand eternity and everyone who is your friend and even people in the church at times will say, what?
You'll be like, no, I can't. I can't move. I can't do that. I can't have a house like that. I can't drive a car like that. My money's got to go other places.
The car just needs to get me somewhere. It's a tool. It's helpful. I'm not going to have it forever. And you'll despise money and possessions because your money and possessions will be serving God. Does that make sense?
And so when it says you can't serve God and money, either you're going to have a problem with every time God talks about money, you're going to have an issue with every time he says things about generosity because he needs to be serving your money. There are churches that gather together and say if you follow God, he'll make you rich because God serves your wallet and he wants to give you a bunch of treasure here. No. Maybe. It's not wrong to be rich. It means God has entrusted you to steward more.
He's lent you more to be generous with, to be intentional with. Nothing wrong with having nice things. Nothing wrong with having a new car. Don't hear that. We do need to know it won't be new forever. We can enjoy nice things.
God invented steak on purpose, made it delicious. Eat a steak. But sometimes, pass up meat and remember that the mission's bigger and that your wallet doesn't just serve you. Yeah, both. Let's do both.
Go on a nice date. Go to a movie. Skydive if you want to. Realize the adrenaline rushes in heaven will be better. Don't. Don't act as if all you get is 40, 60, 80 years because that is not true.
Your money is going to serve God or you're going to try to figure out a way to have God serve it. The consistent amount of our prayers our God help me have, help me have, that may be an indication to us of what we're shooting for. He's not black and white. There's no, there's no, he is black and white. There's no gray area there. You cannot serve God and money.
So it's really going to be one or the other, which is really kind of annoying when Jesus does that. I'm just going to be honest. You read that and you're like, dang it. What about, what about this? And he's like, no. And that's what he gets into next.
The Pharisees, 14, the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things and they ridiculed him. It's exactly what he just said. You love money, you'll despise God. That's a case in point. The Pharisees loved money, heard all these things and they ridiculed him. They mocked him.
They said it was dumb. Same thing that'll happen if we're living intentionally with our money as if we have an eternity. And he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Okay. Two things there.
The arguments that we throw back up stop. The justifications that we give, we just get to stop. Jesus cuts right through it and says, God knows your heart and justifying yourself in front of your community group and explaining to your spouse and making yourself feel good by your clear articulation of why you live the way you live. Just stop. God knows your heart, which makes things easier and nicer just so y'all know. And it makes things way harder.
So we'll cover easier and nicer first because that sounds better to me. Makes things easier and nicer this way. Because it's a heart level issue, it doesn't have anything to do with our behavior. Which means that what he is not saying is go earn it. Go give a certain amount. Go be, no, it's a heart level issue.
So when that guy broke that cheeseburger in half, if he is a believer, eternal treasures exploded. Real things were just added to his account. Because it's a heart issue. It wasn't like, well, I guess he gets an eternal half of a cheeseburger that they forgot to put pickles on. That's not how it works. It's not level of.
It's heart. Which means that for someone who says, I don't have that much to give, doesn't matter. It's not earn it. It's heart. And it's not get out there, try really hard, white knuckle it, fight. No, it's a heart level issue.
Makes it way easier. Not check it off a list. And it makes it so much harder. Because wouldn't it be nice if it was just checking off a list? Do you see what I'm saying? Like, we don't have to go earn it, but there's something in us that feels like, but kind of we do.
And I really wish it was just like some do's and don'ts and some, you know, certain percentage or maybe some, if we could just kind of reach, like there would be this moment we reach and God would just say, good, you did it. Up top. You don't have to be generous anymore or you've already banked up enough. Just enjoy this stuff. Like, it's a heart level thing, which means that if we religiously follow into it, which is I'm going to go do this so that God will owe me, our hearts are off. We've gotten confused along the way.
So our justifications, save them. He sees your heart. And it is a heart level issue. 18. The law and the prophets, that's the Old Testament, were until John, that's John the Baptist. So he's the pre-runner before Jesus.
The law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it, into the kingdom of God. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. Okay, so he's talking to religious leaders and what he says is, the law and the prophets were until John and since then, the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom is preached and everyone tries to force their way and everyone's fighting to get into the kingdom. But I'm going to tell you, not a drop from the law will become void.
And what he's saying is this, your goal to earn heaven, to work really hard to live up to the law, to force your way in, which means that you would show up and you'd stand before God and you'd say, I've been good enough and his hand would be forced. Yeah, you have. You're in. Good Job. Good Job. What he says is this, not a bit of the law will be void, which means that every single one of us will be guilty because God is a good judge and none of us will be generous enough, none of us will be moral enough, none of us has the moral resume, the moral report card to show before the God of the universe and have him be impressed.
Not a drop from the law disappears. We all stand with the weight of the law of a holy God on our shoulders. And we cannot force our way in because we all fall short. The law is not void and God is a good judge and a good judge does not let injustice happen, does not acquit the guilty but holds everyone accountable for failure and upholds the law. That's what a good judge does. But the good news of the kingdom is preached.
And the good news of the kingdom is that the manger and the cross exist and Jesus' generosity gets to be applied to our account. That we will never be generous enough. We will never be good enough. The weight of the law will always fall squarely on our shoulders and must be upheld unless Jesus upheld it for us. That's the good news of the kingdom. That sons of this world do not move themselves over into the category of sons of light that Jesus does.
That we don't earn it, we don't merit it, we don't moral it, we don't get together as church family to learn how to be good so that God will love us. We get together as church family because God has loved us and was good on our behalf. We get to gather together, we get to get in our community groups and talk, we get to be the first people, Christians get to be the first people to say, here's my sin, here's how broken I am, here's where I've fallen short, and all other Christians go, yeah. The world thinks it's the opposite. Some of us in this room may think it's the opposite, that the purpose of the church is for us to get together and learn how to be good and show how awesome we are.
That is not the case. The purpose of the church is to get together as a group of people who realize that Jesus was awesome on our behalf, good on our behalf. That's the good news of the kingdom, that we have eternal life because Jesus gives it to us. So we're going to continue to sing, and here's what we're going to do. Here's what I want us to realize. If you are a Christian in this room, you get to be generous, and every bit of it is worth it.
Everything you give away is actually the only stuff, think about the stuff you've given away, that's the only stuff you'll ever keep. That's the only thing that ever gets to be truly yours, is the stuff we give away. And that Jesus' ultimate generosity has been applied to our account, that he paid for our sin, that he canceled our debt, and that he gives us life and freedom. And that generosity changes our hearts so that we can be generous. That his spirit changes our hearts so that we can view money in the right way, so that we can understand eternity. So if we're Christians, that's where you sit today. with an ultimately generous God, who has paid your debt, who has given you true riches, and invited you into eternity.
And if you're in here today, and I don't care if you've been around the church, I don't care if you grew up in a church, I don't care if you could beat everyone in this room in a Bible drill. If you think that you make yourself a son of light, if you think that you force your way into the kingdom through behavior, through good morals, through being a really good churchy person, you do not. everyone in this room is a son of light because Jesus has saved us and set us free, or is a son of the world because he has not yet done that. And we have not yet placed faith in him, and have not yet trusted him to pay our debt, and have not yet said that I know that I'm broken and I fall short, but that Jesus was righteous in my place. So if you're a believer, allow the gospel to impact your heart so that you can be changed by God's ultimate generosity, by the fact that an infant was laid in a horse trough, in a barn, and then hung on a cross, to be generous and charitable and gracious to us.
And if you're in here and you haven't placed your faith in Jesus, let's at least be very clear about this. This is not a place that is about behavior, not any of our behaviors, Jesus's. If it's about behavior, if it's about upholding the law, it's about Jesus doing that on our behalf. It's not about us being good, being moral, and realize that you are freely and forever invited to place your faith in Jesus and have him set you free. Does life get better? I don't know.
Maybe not. Eternity's going to be great. That's where real life starts for the believers. And we will guarantee you that you get a whole messed up church family to walk through this messed up life with. And at least you'll every once in a while get to look good by comparison. But if you haven't placed your faith in Jesus, we invite you to do that.
To trust him with your sin because he can handle it and you cannot. And if we're Christians in the room, don't let the generosity of Christmas be lost on you and be drowned out. But let the gospel change your hearts. I'm going to pray. Pray with me. God, we ask that through your Holy Spirit for those of us, for the individuals in this room who have not yet trusted you, not yet said that I know I can't hold my sin, but Jesus can, we ask that you would right now show them and call them and break them with your generosity and your grace.
God, that people would leave this room today as sons of light and their destiny for eternity would be changed through your grace and generosity. God, we ask that those of us who have already trusted you with our sin would continue to grow in trusting you with every area of our life, including our finances, including our generosity, that the gospel would so impact our hearts that being generous just made sense to us, that we would so clearly see the eternity that is given to us that everything here would pale in comparison and seem as small as it really is. we ask all this in your holy name. You talk to God, if you need to talk to God, do business with him, let him speak to you, and we're going to sing... Due to the Talent...
Eternal Perspective
Transcript
Well, good morning again. I walked up here without a Bible and then didn't know what to do, so I'm just going to walk back down. This is important for what we do on Sundays. I need one of these. Good morning. Okay, so what we're doing, we're starting the first week of our Give Series.
Very excited about our Give Series. We'll talk more about that later. It is Christmas time. So I don't know about y'all. Most people, it's like you gear up for Christmas after Thanksgiving. So I know that my brother went to Bob Jones University, which if you're not familiar with it, imagine a Christian school and a military school.
And if they had a kid, it would be like a militant Christian school. And you're close. It's something like that. They had a rule in their handbook that you could not play Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. I think that's intense. And I also think that's a pretty good rule just for life in general.
But most people, after Thanksgiving, start gearing up for Christmas. Now, if you're in retail, it's like, oh, Halloween's coming. It's Christmas time. That's how retail works. But for most people, it is now Christmas time.
And I'm a huge fan of Christmas. I enjoy Christmas. I enjoy all the stuff that comes along with it. I like getting together and celebrating with family. I like the ridiculous decorations. I like Christmas trees.
I like real Christmas trees. I love the smell of Christmas tree. I get Christmas tree candles. And I light them. And I put them everywhere. And my wife, who is like over halfway pregnant.
She's whole pregnant. She's over halfway. I don't know the amount. Four months pregnant. Something like that. Five months pregnant.
She, apparently, it makes you smell better. Like you, you can smell. She smells good. That's not what I mean by smells better. She's good at smelling. And so the other day in our house, we had a Christmas candle going.
And she was like, are you trying to kill me? Turn, blow that out. Like apparently, I was just getting whiffs of it. And it was like crawling into her nasal cavities and trying to murder her. But I love, I love Christmas.
I love real trees. With an exception, my wife and I have a white Christmas tree. A white plastic Christmas tree that we got from the family dollar in Clinton, South Carolina. Unless you're from Clinton, then you call it Clinton. In Clinton, South Carolina, when we first got married. So we've had it for five years.
It cost us $20. It has now cost us $4 a year. So I feel like we got our money's worth. I love that tree. So it's white.
We cover it with colored lights and silver tinsel. Because we're classy. And I don't usually like fake trees. But I love my white tree. And I think the reason is it never tricks me. Like you don't walk in my house and go, oh, a Christmas tree.
Is that real? Is that a balsam? Like you don't do that. You don't walk over to that tree and smell it and see that it's plastic and get angry. You're like, that is fake and ridiculous. And I'm in the house of a redneck.
But what are you going to do? So I love my Christmas tree. I love Christmas things. I'm not one of these anti-Christmas people. I'm not going to stand up here and say that if you rearrange the letters in Santa, you can spell Satan. Like I'm not, I don't land there.
I do think, though, that in our culture, we can get swept up. And as Christians, we can celebrate Christmas in a distinctly non-Christian way. I think that is true. I think we can get caught up in all of the Christmassy, Christmassy stuff. And we can celebrate Christmas in a distinctly non-Christian way. And so one of the things that we shoot for, that we're going for every year around Christmas, and we are friends with Midtown Fellowship.
I did some stuff there. We stole this from them. But in the spirit of Christmas, they generously gave it to us. We received it. We take this series called Give, which is around this time of year, we're going to intentionally seek to reorient our hearts towards generosity, towards remembering what Christmas is actually about. And it's about the greatest gift that was ever given to humankind.
And we want to, as Christians, celebrate Christmas in a distinctly Christian way and reorient our hearts towards generosity. And so that's what we're doing in our gift series. That's what we're shooting for. That's what we'll be doing for the next three weeks. And so I just want to start us off with what we just read, what David just read up here. What we're celebrating at Christmas, and it gets drowned out.
Like we get excited about other things. What we're celebrating at Christmas is that God, the eternal God, became a human, became an infant, like had to be carried places, was dependent on other people to keep him alive. My brother has a one-year-old. She's not producing much. She's not really carrying her weight around the house. They pretty much have to follow her around everywhere to make sure she doesn't kill herself.
That's what God became an infant. And we just gloss over that. Like I get more excited that sugar cookie eggnog is a thing now. Like that comes out around Christmas. If you don't know about sugar cookie eggnog, it is amazing. I don't know why they print like the nutrition facts on the back.
I don't know why they do that. If you're drinking sugar cookie eggnog, you don't want to see that. But like a glass of that is the equivalent of like drinking a sleeve of Oreos. But it's amazing because it's eggnog that tastes like sugar cookies. And I know, I know that we've all been eating sugar cookies and thought, I wish there was a quicker way. There is.
It's called sugar cookie eggnog. You don't have to chew. You just swallow it. Now you can eat pie and drink sugar cookies. We get more excited about those kind of things. We get more excited about all the Christmassy stuff than what actually has happened at Christmas.
That God became a human with the intent on dying. Came to earth specifically to die for us. That the most miraculous, mind crushing thing happened at Christmas where God took on flesh and weakness. And we miss that. We gloss over that. And so what we're seeking to do and what we're going to do for the next three weeks is this.
Specifically knowing that Jesus is the eternal God. Creator of all things who stepped into history on our behalf. We are going to look at what he says about money and finances. So as we celebrate Christmas for the next three weeks, we're going to look at what the eternal God, when he became a human, what he had to say about possessions, about generosity, about how we view money and finances. Who's excited? Exactly.
Let me just tell you something. Can I say something? I love money. Can I say that? Can I tell the truth here? I think most people here are a fan of money.
It has intrinsic value. If you're thinking of a way to make friends, giving people money is probably a good start. Like I think that would be like, I know that would work for me. It's like, here's 20 bucks. I'd be like, I like this guy. He seems pretty alright.
Like there's just something about us that we like money. We guard money. We defend money. We defend our possessions. There's something in us that likes money. And so the eternal God becomes a human and he talks about money a lot.
He talks about possessions a lot. He does. Like he is the creator of the universe. Knows how we work. Knows how we view things. Knows where our hearts are oriented.
And the first most, the topic that he covers the most is the kingdom of God. But the topic that he covers second most is money. About 15% of everything he says is going to be on money and possessions. And the reason is, is because we don't view it correctly. It's become too big to us. It's grown too much for us.
And so what we're going to do as we walk through our gift series for the next three weeks, we're just going to look at what Jesus, who specifically came to give himself to us. Who is the ultimate authority on generosity, the ultimate authority on humility, and who is the eternal God, which makes him the ultimate authority on really everything. But in coming to earth and dying on a cross proves his love for us, his desire for good things for us, and his generosity and charity towards us. And so we just want to see what he has to say about possessions, what he has to teach us about finances. It's just a little bit of like when you're going to talk to somebody about money, you go to talk to someone who like has it and handles it well.
Like if you're working on a budget, you don't talk to the guy who's consistently getting his power turned off. That's just true. You don't go, hey man, I notice that you're always asking people for money. Can you help me set up a budget? You don't do that. You talk to somebody who seems like they mostly keep it together.
And so we're going to actually get advice on finances, the way to view finances, wealth, generosity, charity, through the ultimate authority on all of those topics. This is what we're seeking to do for the next three weeks. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to hop in. We'll be in Luke chapter 12. God, we thank you. Thank you for your grace.
We thank you for your love. We thank you for your generosity and charity towards us. And we ask that as we take this time of the year to intentionally seek to reorient our hearts towards generosity, that you would bless that, that your Holy Spirit would teach us, guide us, and point us in the right direction. Amen. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, so Luke chapter 12, Jesus has grown up. So what we celebrate at Christmas is that Jesus came as a baby. We don't actually know when Jesus was born, but this is the time of year that we celebrate it. And so at this point, he's grown up. This is the eternal God, and he's just teaching people about a lot of different things. And so we're going to kind of jump into the middle of this story where he's teaching and see what he teaches on some of that possessions and finances.
So we'll be in Luke chapter 12. It's on page 566. If your Bible looks like this, it's on some other page, most likely, if it does not look like this. All right, so he's teaching and he's talking about a completely different subject. And then we jump into verse 13. And so it says, someone in the crowd said to him, teacher.
So he's talking about a topic. The guy raises his hand. Yes, the floor is yours. And he says, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. So basically, this guy is like, I'll go to Jesus because if Jesus tells somebody to do something, he should do it.
It's just a good general rule. I bring Jesus in. If Jesus agrees with me, I win. And so that's what he says. That's what he's going to do. So he goes and he says, I'll get Jesus to tell my brother to share with me the inheritance, which apparently is his brother's.
His brother received an inheritance. Parents passed away. Most likely his brother's an older brother went to him. So this guy doesn't have an inheritance or has a smaller inheritance and he wants his brother to share. And Jesus is always talking about being generous and sharing and stuff. So I'll go to him.
He'll say, share. This will work out really well. And so it does not. Verse 14. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?
Which means like, why is this my business to hop in and play referee between you and your brother? And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not exist in the abundance of his possessions. That went poorly for that guy. So he raises his hand.
He says, tell my brother to share with me. And Jesus says, no. And hey, while we're on the topic, don't be like that guy. Like it just, it went poorly. Like Jesus immediately is like, oh no. Like I didn't see that playing out quite that way.
He says, be on guard against all covetousness. So covetousness is a word that we don't use very often. We would probably use the word greed or greedy. Although they do have different meanings. And I think Jesus specifically means covetousness. So covet is to want something that is not yours.
Specifically to want something that someone else has. So you want something that is not yours. Specifically something that is someone else's. And so he says, be on guard against all covetousness. And so what he just said was, watch out for your desire to want things that aren't yours. Specifically things that are someone else's.
So his response to that guy's brother's inheritance is, don't do that. Because that's what he was doing. He was coveting his brother's inheritance. He said, don't do that. I just want to point this out to us. Because Jesus does this all the time.
We want to talk to Jesus about something. And he changes the subject. And I think it's very rude. Although helpful. But you'll go to Jesus.
You'll want to talk to him about something. You'll want to pray about something. And immediately he'll be like, no, we're going to talk about this. You'll be like, Jesus, my boss is an idiot. And he'll be like, let's talk about your attitude at work. And you're like, I intro to the subject.
Let's not talk about that. And so I just want to help us all see this. And in this specifically what he did was he took this topic and he immediately, it says he addresses them. And so he turns it on everyone. And that's what Jesus does. He doesn't say, hey, you, look at that guy.
He says, hey, you, look at yourself. That's what he does. That's how he turns it. So as we talk about this, as we walk through talking about money and finances and covetousness today, it's really easy to think about someone else who has that problem and to not let it sit on you. It's more comfortable and very easy to do. Don't do that.
We automatically get defensive when we talk about wealth, possession, finances. We get weird when we talk about money. It feels very private to us. We get, we want to, you'll want to battle this the entire time. Don't do that. Just let it sit.
Let Jesus talk to you. Let him deal with you. It actually indicates something to our hearts. Just know that when we get defensive automatically about money, that indicates something about us in our hearts. So like if every time the chicken song came on, you know, I can't, I can't, I can never pull songs out of my head because I'm not musical at all.
But you know the chicken song where you do this or whatever. Yes, every time that came on, like if every time that came on, you like started twitching and crying. You have a problem with the chicken song that we need to deal with. Like there's something off. Like you had a bad experience. Like a chicken attacked you when you were little.
Like we need to talk about this. And there's something about us as Americans. When we start talking about finances, we immediately get like, don't do that. Realize that that indicates that there may be something a little bit off in our hearts because we're like that. And let Jesus actually speak to us this morning. So here's what he says.
Verse 15. And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. So he's basically going to say two things. He's going to say, we have a problem. And then I'm going to tell you why it's a problem.
So this is the issue because. That's kind of how he's going to say it. So the first issue is covetousness. That we want things that aren't ours. And what he says is be on guard. We are not on guard against covetousness.
We aren't. Because our economy runs off of it. We don't call it covetousness. We call it advertising. Like you don't go to greed 101. You go to economics 101.
Like I studied business in school. I did honors research in economics. I love how it works. And the basic system of like capitalism is this. You're going to look out for you. So that if I sell a product and it's terrible, you're not going to buy it.
I'll go out of business. Some other guy who sells a good product will show up. You'll buy that. And the amount of people buying it and the amount of cost of the product. He's going to look out for himself. You're going to look out for you.
And that's how you'll figure out what the price should be. That's how economics works. Our entire system is based off of self-interest. And our desire to want things that aren't ours. And we do this all the time. And we don't notice it.
It's very simple. I'll give you two examples. From college. Simple ones. We went to school at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. And there was hardly anything there.
But there is a KFC Taco Bell. Which is a beautiful restaurant. It is half KFC, half Taco Bell. Also a classy joint. That's where I got the idea for my white Christmas tree. But the thing about it was you can eat like a king at Taco Bell for like $5.
But you would go in there and see biscuits and it would mess you up. Like it was like I came in here to get four burritos that are wrapped in cheese. And now I see biscuits and I'm going to have to get biscuits. I could only get Taco Bell if I went through the drive-thru where I couldn't see biscuits. But they would show these late night like 69 cent burritos.
And we'd be watching TV at like 12 o'clock at night. And they'd be like, Taco Bell, open late. Five layer burrito, cheese, meat, beans. And we'd be like, Matt and I were roommates. And we'd be like, you want to go to Taco Bell? Yes.
What that was was coveting. We wanted the cheesy thing that we just saw on TV. And it immediately made us get in our vehicle and drive to Taco Bell. And that happened repeatedly. And the beautiful thing about Taco Bell is they can get your order wrong and you've still got the same thing. They only have five ingredients.
Just eat it. It's the same thing you ordered. So anyway, we would go to Taco Bell. That happened all the time. The other thing that happened to me in college was I had a roommate my freshman year. And he had a little like black tube television with like, I don't know, it was like a 20 inch thing, 10 inch.
It was somewhere. It was small. It was this size-ish, which is really helpful if you're listening to this on the Internet. And so we had one of those. And our dorm neighbor had a flat screen, but it was a big TV. So it was still like a tube TV, just the screen was flat.
I don't know if anybody remembers that awkward transition stage, but that was a thing. And so it was high def. And so we would go watch games in his room. We would play video games in his room. We would watch football games specifically in his room. And it was a much better TV.
And then I would walk back 10 feet to my dorm, and I would walk in, and I would hate the television that was in my dorm room. I'd be like, you are so terrible. You're the worst TV ever. My roommate moved, took his TV with him, and I went and bought the exact same TV that my dorm neighbor had. Because sometimes his door was locked, and I couldn't just walk in there and watch his television. So I got my own.
That's called covetousness. And that's what made me make that purchase. But that's normal to us. Later in life, I had that TV stay with me for years. Got invited to someone's house, and they had a flat screen television that was like skinny and wider. And I would go home and be mad at my television for how fat and stupid it was.
You couldn't tell. It was in a cabinet. But I knew it was fat behind the screen. I knew. Like it was embarrassing me. Like if someone broke in my house, they wouldn't even want to steal that.
And they couldn't unless they had a teammate because it weighed like 75 pounds. And I was ashamed and mad at my television. So I got a skinny one that's like 42 inches. And then you go to someone else's house, and they got like a 65-inch TV. And now they have the ones that like bend and like actually take you there. And like people spit on you.
And like if there's a fight, you get wet. Like it just is whatever. And immediately we go home, and we're like mad at our stuff. Like we no longer because we've begun to covet. We've begun to want something that is not ours. That's normal.
That's how advertising works. So you talk to someone about a sale. You see someone in some really snappy clothes. You ask them, hey, where did you get that? Oh, I got this at this place for $12. And if you get this, you can go get it.
Sweet. And you're there the next week. It's normal for us. You go to your friend's house. He's got Netflix. He explains how that works.
You go home. You get Netflix. Because why wouldn't you? And here's what he's saying. Be on guard against desiring things that are not yours. Have your radar up for covetousness.
And all I'm saying to us is we do not. That's not on our radar. It's not something we think about. We have community groups. We get together. We talk about sin struggles.
We pray with each other. We talk about issues that are going on. We're always on war against sin in our lives. But that one's never come up. Never been sitting around with a group of guys in my house talking about things we're struggling with. Praying with each other.
And had someone be like, guys, I just feel like I covet a lot. I just feel like I see things that I don't have. And then I want them. And then I get them. I feel like I get excited around Christmas because I know of some stuff that I feel like I need. And I want to ask.
It's not on our radar. We don't see it. And he says, be on guard against it. It just doesn't show up. And here's why, though. Here's what he's going to say.
Be on guard. Take care. Be on your guard. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Okay. One's life does not exist in the abundance of his possessions.
We believe that. Ish. Like, we can say that and we would all agree we would not. Yes, true. Super smart thing to say, Jesus. Like, we feel that.
Because we watch Christmas movies and stuff. And the whole time they're freaking out about getting the perfect gift and having the perfect Christmas. And Arnold Schwarzenegger is fighting somebody so that he can get a toy. And, like, we have that. We see that. And then at the end, it's like it turns out all we needed was each other.
Like, their house burns down. And then they're just hugging in the front yard. And it's like, Dad, all I needed was you the whole time. I didn't know that, child. And then they hug and music plays. And, like, there's a dog in the background.
Single-tier Rondo. And we nod. We're like, hmm, yes. We believe that. But we don't actually.
We don't actually. That doesn't sit with us. We don't really feel that. Anna was on Facebook the other day. And she said, Ted Turner just sold or put up to sell his private island off of the coast of South Carolina. I was like, really?
And she said, yeah. And then she looks at me and goes, you want to put a bid in on it? It's like, yes. I do. But we won't get it.
There is something inside of me, though, that believes life would be enhanced by owning an island. I believe that. It feels weird to say it to all of you. Because most of the time we don't voice those things to one another. But I believe that.
And in much smaller things, I consistently believe that. And we consistently believe that. That life comes from the abundance of things. And you hear it all the time. Oh, man. Must be nice.
God, I wish I could. Oh, if only I was one of the. And whatever we follow that up with is what we think in life so that we see. Man, if I could just. If we could just have two vehicles. If my family could just have two vehicles.
Because this one vehicle thing is killing me. If my family could just have three vehicles. Because now our kids are getting older. And this is. We can't keep. If I could just make 10% more.
If I could just have that position. That title. Man, if we could just be in a bigger house. If we could just have a larger yard. Like, across the board. We're saying consistently.
The opposite of what Jesus says here. Which is that life somehow will be found. In the abundance of possessions. If I can just get this new gadget. If I can just get this iPhone. But my iPhone doesn't talk to me.
And Matt's iPhone does. And so we're riding around. And Matt will just pull his phone out. And he'll go. Siri. Call Peter.
And Siri will be like. You want pizza? And it's like. No. So it doesn't.
I don't really want Siri too much. Because she never understands what he's saying. But. We do that. We consistently think that life will be enhanced. By just having a little more.
Just by getting a little bit extra. Because there's something in us. That every time we buy something. Like if we'll be honest. We're a little creepy. Every time you buy something.
You're like. Yes. It's so beautiful. And new. This will make my soul feel warm at night. Like we really get weird about like.
And you thoroughly enjoy it. The first time you wear that new jacket. You're just walking around like. Take that. Cold weather. Not only am I not cold.
But I look really good. And the next year. You're going to. You want a new jacket. Because I've had that one for so long. And the cold weather is no longer impressed with me.
We somehow believe that possessions. Will fill us up. Will make us whole. Will give us life. And it's just not true. And we do this all the time.
And we see it across the board. That's what Pinterest has been to me. So I don't have a Pinterest account. I just use my wife's. Sometimes to look at things. Because I'm a self-respecting male.
But that's. Like I get on every once in a while. To see like do-it-yourself projects. Because like we want to like. Redo our bathroom. And there's different things.
I like to build out of pallets. And every once in a while. I'm like I wish my whole house. Was built out of pallets. Although it doesn't make any sense. I want to do that.
And like. I get on there. And like looked at bathroom remodeling things. And all it is. Is just like me coveting. And believing that somehow.
Life would be better. If our bathroom looked remodeled. Because I don't like. And it gets weird. Like you sit there. And you do this long enough.
And then you walk into your bathroom. And you're looking around. And you're like. This stupid wallpaper. This is terrible. I hate having to pee in here.
This is so lame. Like you just get mad. And all it is. Is this lie. That Jesus. Because he is eternal.
And because he is gracious. And because he is loving. Is going to step in and say. Don't. Don't believe that. Don't let your heart chase after that.
Don't feel that that is true. Kids. Love. Face paint. They do. If you're anywhere.
And there's someone who will paint a face. And there are children. There will be children. With painted faces. Because they love it. There will be little princesses.
Or like Elsa looking blue. Swirls all over little faces. There will be a little boy. With like a Spider-Man face. And you're as a parent. You let your kid get his face.
Drawn up like Spider-Man. Because it washes off. But you would not let him get. A Spider-Man tattoo. On his face. Because that stuff.
Doesn't even look good on Mike Tyson. And here's why. You have a perspective. That your child does not. You know. That having Spider-Man.
Draw on your face. Isn't going to be cool forever. When he hits middle school. That's going to be weird. He's going to get some nicknames. That he used to think were cool.
In third grade. That are no longer cool. And you have that perspective. And so you're going to say. No no. You're going to guide.
How he views that. And what he does with it. You're going to guide him through life. And Jesus is the only one. With an eternal perspective. Who's going to step in.
And try to guide us. When it comes to finances. When it comes to possessions. When it comes to how we view money. He's the only one with the perspective. To say.
Hey guys. You're thinking about that wrong. The way you believe that works. Isn't actually true. And it's out of his love. And his grace.
And his goodness. Towards us. That he does that. And so. To help prove this to people. To help explain what he's saying here.
He tells a story. To help show what he's talking about. So here's what he says. Verse. We'll start back in verse 15. And he said to them.
Take care. And be on your guard. Against all covetousness. For one's life. Does not consist. In the abundance.
Of his possessions. And he told them a parable. Saying. The land of a rich man. Produced plentifully. So this guy was already wealthy.
He has land. It does. It produces. Plentifully. It's. It's.
He's very wealthy. And that would be. They were a mostly agrarian. Agricultural economy. So that.
What it means is. Like it's. Guy. Worked in the stock market. Was very rich. And was just booming.
It was working really well for him. Um. And he thought to himself. What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. So he's got barns.
He's got silos. But they're full. And his. His crops do so well. That he's got to fill them up more. And he has no word to put it.
And he said. I will do this. I will tear down my barns. And build larger ones. And there. I will store all my grain.
And my goods. And I will say to my soul. Soul. You have ample goods. Laid up for many years. Relax.
Eat. Drink. Be merry. But God said to him. Fool. This night.
Your soul. Is required of you. And the things you have prepared. Whose. Will they be? Me.
So Jesus says. Be on guard. Against covetousness. Against greed. Against selfish desire. And he tells this story.
And he says. There was a rich guy. Who had. Great wealth. And he used his wealth. To make greater wealth.
And once he had accumulated. So much wealth. He said to himself. Self. Which I love that he said that. Like the guy's like soul.
And soul's like what? And he's like hey. So anyway. But he. Says to himself. Great.
Now I don't have to work anymore. Now I've made it. Now I've arrived. Now I'm set. Now I've found.
Life. And God. Says to him. Fool. Tonight your life's required of you. Here's what's very interesting about this.
And especially when we talk about this topic. He does not say. You wicked person. He does not say. You evil sinner. What he says is.
Fool. Fool. You just don't see it. You've missed it. Life doesn't come from that. So Jesus in coaching us up.
Isn't going to jump in and say. Stop coveting. Because it's super sinful. And it makes God mad at you. That's not where he takes this. Coveting is sinful.
It's in the top ten. Ten commandments. Coveting's in there. So we shouldn't. But the point that he's making here is.
You're foolish. You're not seeing it right. You don't. You haven't viewed it appropriately. Like he just failed to see. The reason he was blessed.
And why he was blessed. And what he could have done with it. He just handled it foolishly. So we look at this guy and say. Man he's done very well. He's very.
He's very smart about his money. And God looks at him and says. No he's foolish. And here's why. 20. But God said to him.
Fool. This night your soul is required of you. And the things you have prepared. Whose will they be? So is the one.
Which just means. It's the same way with everyone. So so is the one. Who lays up treasure for himself. And is not rich towards God. That's very interesting.
He calls him foolish. And says it's the same way with everyone. Who lays up treasure for themselves. But is not rich towards God. Which means two things. One.
Our treasure. Possessions. The things we're blessed with. Are not meant. To simply terminate on us. And.
There is a way. To be rich towards God. There is a way for us. To roll our money up. And to somehow. Give it to him.
To roll our possessions up. And somehow give it to him. And I'm going to steal a little bit from next week. Next week we're going to go through. The rest of what he says here. We're going to jump down to 33.
And it's going to be on the screen as well. I just want to help answer. What it means to be rich towards God. So he says. The sell your possessions. And give to the needy.
Provide yourselves with money bags. That do not grow old. With a treasure in the heavens. That does not fail. Where no thief approaches. And no moth destroys.
What he just said. Was there's a way for us. To be rich. Eternally. Eternally. And he's the only person.
Who can speak on that subject. Because he's the only eternal person. Who's ever returned. From that side of eternity. So we all go to eternity.
But none of us have ever. Been to eternity. And come back. Regardless of the books. That are out. So it was like.
When I was in middle school. And I dyed the top of my hair. Bleach white. That's correct. I looked as good. As you are imagining.
That I looked. And I had an older brother. Who's in high school. And it was so helpful for me. To have an older brother. Who's in high school.
Who would coach me up. And be like. Hey that's cool. Don't do that anymore. Before. And he would help me.
All the time. Because he was in high school. He'd been to high school. And he would tell me. Hey. Hey.
Yeah. Girls aren't going to like that. And I'd be like. Oh. Well I'd better stop. Because I like girls.
And I want them to like. The things that I'm doing. And he would. I would say a joke. And he'd say. That's not funny.
And he would help me. Because he knew. About this world. I didn't know about. Which was high school. And Jesus is the only one.
Who's come out of eternity. Stepped into history. And said. Hey. You're thinking about this. Incorrectly.
The way you think about finances. And the way that. Everyone else is going to say. Is good and smart. Is wrong. Because there's actually a way.
To be rich. Towards God. To be eternally. Wealthy. What does that look like? I don't know.
What is treasure in heaven? I have no clue. But I can tell you this. It's better. Than what we have here. What we have here.
Does not provide life. Does not fill us up. Does not make us whole. And what we get there. In eternity. For those who follow Jesus.
And have been saved. From sin. By him. There is eternal treasure. And you think. Is it selfish for me.
To be generous here. Just to get eternal things. Apparently not. Because that's what Jesus says to do. It'd be really selfish. For me to just get eternal blessings.
So I'll just spend money on myself. It's like. No. He's. It's actually good. Be eternally selfish.
And be radically generous here. That's what he says. That through giving. Away what we have. Through being generous. In another place.
He says that if you give. Even a cup of cold water. To someone who is his disciple. You will in no way. Lose your reward. So even in tiny things.
For people who are just. I'm going to bless this person. Because they're in ministry. I'm going to bless this person. Because they're a Christian. I'm going to bless this person.
Because they're part of my church family. And then here he says. Sell your possessions. Give to the needy. I'm going to bless this person. Because they need it.
He says it's actually. Sending it on the head. For eternal. Reward. Where nobody steals. Things don't get old.
Or go out of style. And you have it forever. And that's what he says. Is wise. Is it not. Foolish way to view.
Finances and money. We're going to keep talking about this. For the next two weeks. And here's what we're going to do. Matt. And Bianca.
And Raz. And Josh. Are going to come back up here. And we're going to. Sing. Here in just a minute.
As we prayerfully. Think about this. But I just want to. Help us see this a little bit. I just want to help us. Diagnose a little bit.
So he says. Don't. Be on guard. Against covetousness. And so the first question. I have is.
How do I do that? How do I start being on guard. Against that? I think. I think we have to start paying attention. To the things that we want.
That are not ours. Which would be most of the things. That we want. I mean. I like the stuff that I have. But I don't usually think about wanting it.
Think. That we need to be aware. Of the. Effect. That advertising has on us. The effect.
That certain people have on us. When we get around them. And they have things. That we don't have. But I think we also get to be.
Intentionally generous. So we get to intentionally. Try to turn our hearts. Towards the opposite of that. We get to intentionally. Start saying.
I'm going to send. Some of my treasure. On ahead. I'm going to start. Working for. Eternal things.
So I think one of the questions. We get to ask is. Does my treasure. He says. So it is with anyone.
Who's only rich. Towards themselves. Does all of my. Finances. Do all of my finances. Do all of my possessions.
Serve me. Am I the bottom line. When we look at our family's income. Does it just end with our family. Because Jesus is going to say. If that's the case.
We're foolish. If there's no. Area in our budget. Where we're being generous. Where we're giving of our possessions. If all of our treasure.
Just gets. Compiled. And piled up. And given to ourselves. We're foolish. And that we can be.
Intentionally. Generous. To try to turn this. And so here's. Here's what we're going to do. As a church family.
For our give series. So our give series. Again is. Every time. Every year. Around this time.
We're going to. We're going to pause. And we're going to try. To intentionally. Be generous. We're going to try to find.
Some need. Some area. That we can give to. That we can rally. Our church family around. To make a difference.
That we can bless. And here's what we're going to do. This year. This past Thursday. We. Went to.
The gentle pines area. North brown area. Of West Columbia. Which is just a. A lower income area. In our city.
Where there's some higher crime rates. And some. It's about 60% Hispanic. And so it's a good bit of people. That don't speak English. That live in.
Single unit housing. With just a bunch of families. In there. And so what we did. Was we just went. We got up early.
On Thursday morning. For Thanksgiving. Many of you were there. And we cooked. And peeled. A thousand potatoes.
I didn't count. But that seems right. And. Handed out. 201 meals. At first.
And then another. 60 or so later. With what was left over. After we ate. And so some other people. Just went around.
And went from house to house. And went into downtown. And so we handed out. About 270. Pre-boxed meals. Just because we wanted to.
To seek to be generous. On Thanksgiving. And I was. I was. Be proud of our church family. Because there was.
I think the mathematical term. Is a pile of people there. To serve. On Thanksgiving day. And it was just a lot of fun. To see all the people there.
That wanted to serve. And wanted to help. And I know other people have. Family and stuff. That you had to go do. And that's.
Not an indictment. Be excited. And so. But what we did. While we were handing out meals. Was we talked to people in that area.
And we asked. Can we help you for Christmas. If you have children. Usually Angel Tree. Goes around that apartment complex. They did not this year.
Angel Tree. Is the people that. Basically help. People in the area. Give Christmas gifts. And so we just ask.
As our church family. Is there a way that our church. Can help. This year. With you and your family. For Christmas.
If you have small children. We had 77 children. Sign up. So when we can. Just so we can actually look at it. So what we're shooting to do.
This year. As a church family. Is provide Christmas gifts. For 77 children. In the North Brown area. Of West Columbia.
If you are good at math. That is about the amount of people. Who are a part of our church. Which means that this just got serious. Because that's how many people signed up. And so what we're going to do.
As a church family. Is figure out a way. To reorient our hearts. Towards generosity. As a first step. Towards laying up some treasure.
In an eternal place. By just giving to those. Who need. Many of which were Hispanic. I know a little bit of Spanish. And one of the things.
We just basically said. Tell us age. Gender. Size. And if you have a small gift request. And the number one thing.
That was written down. Was zapatos. Which means shoes. The number one thing. Requested for Christmas. For the children in that area.
Was shoes. And yeah. We want to be a part of that. We want to be a part of being. Intentionally generous. Around Christmas.
Reorienting our hearts. To send treasure on ahead. Because Jesus says. That's what's wise and good. For us to do. You're not signing up for anything today.
We're going to begin praying about that. We're going to begin talking to our. Talking with your community group about that. And next week when we get together. We're going to give some specific instructions. On how we're going to go about that.
And actually let people begin. Signing up for. And saying. We'll take this many. Children. And we want to get gifts for.
So I'm going to pray. And then we're going to sing. Father we thank you. For your grace. We thank you. That in your wisdom.
And your love towards us. You didn't show up. And say it's wrong. To have nice things. It's bad. To do.
Nice stuff around your house. You're wicked and evil. What you just said was. No it's foolish. But you do bless us.
And you do give us good things. To enjoy. But you want us to know. And to intentionally reorient our hearts. Towards generosity. And God.
We ask. That your Holy Spirit. Would empower that. In us. That the gospel. Would impact us.
In such a way. To be generous. That you would change us. Because too many of us. Have normalized coveting. Too many of us.
Are okay with. The belief. The belief. The lie. That life comes from the abundance of possessions. We far too often think that's true.
So God. We ask that you would lead us to repentance. That you would lead us to change. And that ultimately. You would lead us to be generous. As you are generous.
Charitable. As you were charitable. Gracious as you're gracious. Jesus. We love you. And we praise you.
And we thank you. And God. We ask for wisdom. In our finances. In Jesus name. Amen.