Love Problem (1 John 3:16-18 & Luke 14:1-6)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. If you'll grab a Bible, go to 1 John. We've been zooming in on this same passage we've been looking at for the past couple weeks. We've been working through 1 John, and then in our gift series, we usually do something a little different, but we hit a passage in 1 John where he really kind of zooms in on the same idea.
So we've just tried to dig into this same passage we're going to look at again today. But before we start in the text, I want to talk about something very important to me. Sugar cookie eggnog. My brother one time, it's amazing. Sugar cookie eggnog is delicious, and it used to every year at Christmas would get to get sugar cookie eggnog. And I tasted it, and I was like, oh my goodness, I've wasted my whole life eating sugar cookies when I could have been drinking them.
And it is wonderful, and it meant a lot to me. It was very, I had a very special, wonderful bond with sugar cookie eggnog. It was delicious. I actually took a picture at one point. This is me sitting in front of my white Christmas tree with sugar cookie eggnog. And you're thinking, did you go get the thing out of the refrigerator just to pose it in front of the Christmas tree?
There are some drinks. You just bring the whole bottle with you because you know you're going to refill. And so sugar cookie eggnog is like that. It's amazing. My whole family loved it. And then it started being harder to find.
But you could get online. You could figure out what stores it was in. And we started figuring out, okay, I've got to go to this store to get sugar cookie eggnog. Then it got to where there weren't any stores around us that had it. And I received a phone call from my brother one time, and he was in Maryland. And he said, I just found a store that has sugar cookie eggnog in Pennsylvania.
It's only like an hour and a half from here. I've called them. They have it. I'm buying a case. He gets off the phone with them. They get in the vehicle.
They go get a case of sugar cookie eggnog. He brings it back to South Carolina. My family hoists him on our shoulders. He's doing this thing. It was wonderful. It was the last time I ever had sugar cookie eggnog.
They've stopped making it. I have contacted the company about this, but there was nothing I could do to change it. They stuck with their decision. Now, if you were to think that sounds crazy to ride an hour and a half one way to get sugar cookie eggnog, if you were to say that to me, you would sound an awful lot like a person who's never had sugar cookie eggnog. Because if you had it, I think you would change your mind on that. But there's a reality to there are certain things that are worth it to us.
It's worth it. It's valuable that we go. This this is absolutely worth it. And then there are other things that you go. No, that's that's not worth it. That's crazy.
You do what you wake up at five a.m. to run. What is someone chasing you? Stop it. Like like for me, expensive sunglasses. It's not worth it. Every time someone's like, look at this, they're super expensive.
I'm like, they're going to fall off your head in the water like I don't that you're going to lose. You're going to sit on. Why do you have these? But I might get caught spending some money on a watch or a pair of boots because that seems worth it to me. At any given time, you might see me and all of my clothes came from Walmart except for my watch and my boots, because that's worth it to me. That's worth the exchange.
We're doing this all the time. And I don't know what it is for you. I don't know if it's vehicles or vacations or video games. I don't know what you pick to say. This is worth. This has value.
This is something I'll give up time for. This is something I'll give energy to. But we're doing that all the time. And that's something that first John's pressing on here is he's helping us see our value system. And he's kind of poking at it. He's saying, I want to point something out to you.
I want to help you see something because there may be an issue here. There may be some breakdown here on how we're valuing things. There might be something wrong with our math when it comes to deciding what's worth it and what isn't. So let's pray and then we'll read this text together. God, I ask for your help this morning. In order for us to do what John's going to call us to, we need you at work inside of us.
That we cannot generate what we need, but we need you to help open our eyes to it and to fill us. And so, Lord, we ask for your help. We pray that you'd help us to see it. But then we pray that ultimately through your spirit you'd help us to respond. In Jesus' name. Amen.
So 1 John 3, verses 16 and 17. He says, By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Okay, so he says this is the Christian picture of love, is what Christ did for us on the cross. That's how we define love. That's how we understand love. That's how we've come to know love, is this self-sacrificing love.
It's love that lays down its life. And he says, Therefore, that's the type of people that we are, and so we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Now, in the Bible, it tells us to love our enemies. It tells us to love our neighbors. But John here specifically has in mind this distinct love that is to happen inside the household of the church.
Inside the household, the family of those who belong to Jesus. And so he says, This is how we ought to love our brothers and sisters, our siblings in Christ. That is supposed to be this type of love, this sacrifice and lay down your life kind of love for our church family. This is one of the reasons why Charles Spurgeon says that the church is the dearest place on earth. That it's meant to be this type of love, where there's grace and joy and service. He keeps going.
He says, But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? So he says that negatively. But the positive picture of that is that as God's love abides in us as Christians, we're just open-handed with each other. That we're just generous with each other. That if we see Christian brothers and sisters who have need, stuff just flows through our hand to them. That's what he's saying.
And he says, If that doesn't happen, If you see a brother or sister in Christ in need and you have the stuff but you don't help, He says there's something wrong with your math. You're doing the value wrong. You're not looking at this correctly. That's what he's getting at. And I want us, we're going to jump to Luke chapter 14. And then we'll come back to 1 John.
But I want us to move to Luke chapter 14. Where Jesus is interacting with the Pharisees. And we see this same kind of thing. That he presses on this same idea. So it's Luke chapter 14 verses 1 through 6 is what we're going to look at.
But it's the same idea. And he's going to interact with the Pharisees on this same idea. And then we'll come back to 1 John. Because 1 John, they're both kind of pointing out the same thing. So I want us to spend a little time in this story this morning.
So it says this. One Sabbath, when he, that's Jesus, Went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. They were watching him carefully. Okay. If you've been following along in Luke. If you know what's happening at this point in Luke.
You understand that we've just set this story up to be some conflict. Because we have Jesus. We have rulers of the Pharisees. And it's on a Sabbath. Every time you're reading in the Gospels. And it says on the Sabbath.
There's a good chance there's about to be some tension. Because Jesus, when he interacts with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day. And he's actually at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. He's been invited to his house. So the Pharisees didn't quite know what to do with Jesus.
He obviously had some spiritual authority. He was a teacher. He was performing miracles. So all that was good. He was proclaiming some good news. But he wasn't acting the way they wanted him to act.
And so there was part of them that was drawn to him. And wanted to kind of incorporate him. But they wanted to kind of get him to fall in line with them. And so when he didn't or when he wouldn't. It was a problem. So they're still kind of keeping an eye on him.
And testing is he really from God. And is he doing things right. And one of the primary markers for the Pharisees at this time. Because they were aggressively going to keep the rules. Was the Sabbath. It was one of the only things that marked them as distinct.
Or one of the main things. Not one of the only. One of the main things that marked them as distinct. From the rest of culture. That they took Saturday as a Sabbath. It was a holy day.
They didn't work. They didn't sell. They didn't buy. They didn't even cook. They cooked the day before. And then they would have the Sabbath.
Where they would go to the synagogue. And they marked them as distinct from the Roman Empire. And so when Jesus showed up. And started breaking some of their Sabbath regulations. Not sinning. But breaking some of the Sabbath regulations.
The Pharisees did not like that at all. So they invite him to their house to eat. He's at the house of a ruler. But they're watching him closely. Not. Not.
This isn't a nice watching. They're not adoring him. They're trying to catch him. And so here's what it says. And behold. There was a man before him.
Who had dropsy. Now. It was common. For them to eat. On like a porch. Quite possible.
That they're eating kind of outside. And that people. Would be able to kind of view. What was going on. It doesn't seem likely. That this guy is a guest.
Of the meal. But he could be. But it doesn't seem likely. But he's there in front of Jesus. And seems. To want to be healed.
He has dropsy. Which. The common word. We would call this. Edema. Which is.
Certain parts of his body. Would fill up with fluid. And so that his whole arm. Might swell up. Or his legs. Might swell up.
Or both. And it can get very. Big. And very painful. And it can. Go to a lot of your limbs.
Or it can go to just one. But. It would have been a big. Noticable. Painful. Encumbrance.
And so he's there. In front of Jesus. And he's. It just says. He's in front of him. He's before him.
And it says. Jesus responded. To the lawyers and Pharisees. Them staring him down. I guess. He says.
Is it lawful. To heal. On the Sabbath. Or not. That's why they're watching. Let me see if he's going to break the Sabbath.
So he says. Let me ask you a question. Is it lawful. To heal. On the Sabbath. Or not.
But they remained. Silent. Which usually. When they remain silent. Is that they have an answer. They just don't like their answer.
They don't have to go on record. Saying it out loud. They hadn't learned. What our politicians. Have learned. Which is just answer.
A different question. That you want to talk about. But. They didn't do that. So they just stare at him.
Then he took him. And healed him. And sent him away. That sending him away part. Is one of the reasons. Why I think he probably.
Wasn't invited to the meal. I think he was hanging out. Jesus heals him. Sends him home. Because if it was part of the meal. He would just heal him.
And then be like. Pass the potatoes. Jesus. So he heals him. And sends him home. Then he turns back to them.
And he says to them. Which of you. Having a son. Or an ox. That has fallen into a well. On the Sabbath day.
Will not immediately pull him out. And they could not reply. To these things. Okay. They didn't like that he healed him. They caught him.
He's a Sabbath breaker. Gotcha. But he looks at him. And he says. Which of you. Who has a son.
Or an ox. That falls in a well. On the Sabbath. Will not immediately get him out. Now. It's a good question.
If your son falls in a well. That's terrifying. I recently went. I like roller coasters and stuff. I recently went. On the scariest.
One of those kind of like. Amusement park rides. I've ever been on. In my entire life. Absolutely. Thrill ride of doom.
Terrifying. You know the fair. The one that's right over here. I pointed. Hold on. This is going to mess me up.
I get turned around in this building all the time. I'm not going to point. Take me a second. I really want to point. The fair. The fair.
All right. You know the fair. Fair. That has a little like chair lift thing. That's like a ski lift thing. But it just takes you from one side of the fair to the other.
I rode that. But with a little twist. I took a three-year-old. Yeah. So. I saw other people doing this.
And I was like. It'll be fun. They got little kids dangling up in the sky. I can do that. I was terrified. I get up there.
All there's this one little bar. And I don't know if you've ever like sat with a kid at a picnic table. But they're going to find a way to fall out. And smack their head on something. So this is just awful.
And I'm holding a three-year-old. So I put him in my lap. And I like. Kung fu monkey death gripped him. He's not going anywhere. And the whole ride.
I'm just like. This was a mistake. We should not be on this. Because there's a couple things that are just extremely terrifying with children. Heights is one of them. Water is another one.
It takes an inch of water and 30 seconds for a child to drown. Water is terrifying. And so I just held on to this kid. So if you ever want to have like a really, really scary ride. Take a small child on one of those things. It was terrifying.
I was like. Afterwards. Like I was about to get in a fist fight or something. Had adrenaline pumping. So he says if your son falls in a well.
Let me tell you what happens if your son falls in a well. You do immediately exactly what you need to do to get your son out of the well. No hesitation. I don't care what that is. You jump in the well. If your son's down in a well.
And you can't see him. And he's not responding. And he's not old enough to swim. You're in that well. Very, very quickly. Holding the kid above your head.
If my son's going to drown in a well. If that's what's going to happen. I'm going to have to drown with him. That's what happens when your son falls in a well. And he says. How many of you.
If your son falls in a well. Go. Hold on. Ah. It's the Sabbath. None of them.
He says the same for your ox. Your ox falls in a well. You're not. You're just. You're going to save it. No questions.
No considerations. But what's the response. When he says. How many of you. If your son or your ox falls in a well. What's.
But it's my son. It's my son. And if you follow that up. What's the response. I love my son. Jesus says.
Exactly. That's what he's pointing out to them. The problem. Isn't that this is the Sabbath. The problem is. You don't love this man.
That's what he's getting at. We haven't run into a Sabbath issue. We've run into a heart level love. Issue. Y'all don't care about this guy. You care about your ox.
But you don't care about him. And I want us to see something. Jesus. Sees this man. And loves this man. Because that's who Jesus is.
And he heals this man. Because that's what Jesus came to do. When Jesus is healing people. In the gospels. It's a foretaste. Of ultimately.
What he's going to accomplish. On the cross. It's a foretaste. Of what his kingdom. Is going to be like. If you were hiring.
A chef. You might would talk about. Where they'd studied. You might would talk about. Other jobs they had. But eventually.
They'd cook you some food. Not all the food. That they know how to cook. But some of it. To give you a taste. Of the way that they can cook.
And when Jesus comes. What he's doing. When he heals somebody. When he. When he offers salvation to somebody. In a certain way.
When he casts out the enemy. Or when he brings somebody back to health. What he's doing. Is giving us a foretaste. Of what he's ultimately come to accomplish. And he's ultimately.
Going to pay with his life. For this. Type of healing. But not just for this man. But for all of us.
That all of us. Are in need. Of Jesus's redemption. He sees this man. He loves this man. And he.
Heals this man. Because ultimately. What he came to do. Is to see you. And to love you. And to heal you.
But the Pharisees. Don't see it. Y'all. They miss the miracle. They see somebody. Healed from dropsy.
Goes from being swollen. And in pain. To just fine. Jesus turns. Jesus turns. While he's at lunch.
And heals somebody. If you were. Eating with somebody. And they just had to perform. Like. I don't know.
A tracheotomy. On somebody. Or they did some quick heart surgery. And then they just came right back. To eating. And they.
They don't even acknowledge this. They don't see. How wonderful. And glorious. And beautiful this is. They don't see the power.
That Jesus has. All they can see. Is that he broke the Sabbath. They miss the miracle completely. Because they don't care about this guy. They don't celebrate.
He does. His family does. I'm sure. But they don't. Because they don't care. How often.
Do we do that? We're in the presence. Of some miraculous work of the Lord. And we just can't see it. You ever hanging out. With your community group.
Somebody brings up. The same sin struggle. They've been bringing up. And you think. Oh here we go again. Here's your same old mess.
Do what? Here's a person. Who Jesus is bringing along. Who is actively fighting sin. Which I don't know. If you've ever tried to do.
Is difficult. Actively fighting sin. Walking in community. Saying it out loud. In front of a group of people. And I'm sitting over here.
Saying here we go again. Or worse. They show up. And they're finally. Getting out of some of this. They're finally changing some of this.
And my thought is about time. Really? Jesus is actively working. Redemption in someone's life. Helping them break free from sin. Helping them change who they are.
Which I don't know. If you've ever tried to change. Something about yourself. But it's difficult. And Jesus has to miraculously work in us. To make us different.
And instead of celebrating joyously. For the work of Christ. In the life of somebody. We just sit around and go. Yeah okay. About time.
Thanks. Maybe you'll be less annoying. We're with someone. And they give generously to someone else. Someone asks of them around the street. And they give to them.
And what do we think? They're just going to waste it. You're really helping that person? There's a reason why they're in this position. And we miss the grace. And the generosity.
Of Jesus at work in somebody. To hand some stuff away. We miss it. You see. The answer that they have. They don't answer him.
But the answer that they have. Is well I care about my son. I care about my ox. And that's the exact problem. Is they don't care about this man. And John's pressing on the same idea.
He's not looking at the Sabbath. He's looking at our stuff. The problem wasn't that Jesus broke the Sabbath. The problem was that their hearts were off. And John in 1 John. If we go back to 1 John.
Chapter 3. He's got in mind. He's holding up for us. Worldly goods. The things that you own. And brothers and sisters in Christ indeed.
And he says if the things that we own. Won't just be handed over. The problem. Is a love problem. The problem is that we. Care about our stuff.
Don't care that much about them. He says this. How. How. How. Does God's love.
Abide. In him. Says if he closes his heart against him. How does God's love. Abide in him. See the.
The response to this. Is not for you. To muster up more love. Because it's not your love. It's God's love. It's not for you to go.
Okay. I gotta be more loving. I gotta just figure out. How to make myself love this person. Let me just stare at him. And see if I can fall in love.
And then maybe I'll give him my iPod. Or whatever the heck. I'm supposed to do here. It's not. It's not your love. That animates this.
It's God's love. In us. That animates this. It's his love. Abiding in us. That overflows.
Out of us. And that's the type of love. We have to have. Because the reality is. That loving sinners. Is extremely difficult.
But Jesus does it excellently. And so those of us. Who are overwhelmed. And filled by the love. Of Christ. Get to do that.
Get to participate. In this type of love. So I want to take just a second. And not try to tell you. That you need to be more loving. I want to take just a second.
And tell you the type of love. That our God has. For you. This is written to Christians. If you are a Christian. God's disposition.
Towards you. Is. Love. He's not frustrated with you. He's not upset with you. He's not looking at you.
And saying about time. Get it together. You are not. Welcomed into the family of God. On some sort of technicality. It's not like everybody else.
Was welcomed in. And you get to sneak in. At the back of the pack. He. Loves. That if you belong to Christ.
You're the son. Or the daughter. That fell in the well. And he didn't think twice. About diving in. To rescue.
And to redeem. Because of his great love. For us. That he paid for your sins. Because of his great. Love.
For you. Paul. Writing in Ephesians. Says. Here's my prayer for y'all. I pray that y'all.
Would just begin to. Have be filled. With the power of the spirit. To wrap your head around. The length. And breadth.
And height. And depth. And to know the love of Christ. That surpasses knowledge. He says. This is.
His love. Is unfathomable. And I hope you can just start. Getting your head around it. You ever stood. On the edge.
Of the coast. And just stared at the ocean. And saw how big it was. Paul says. I wish you'd get in a boat. And go out there.
And be in a place. Where all you can see is ocean. I wish that you would start. To dive to the depths. And go until it crushes you. And you realize.
That there's no way. You could have gotten to the bottom. I wish that his. Power of his spirit. Began to fill you. To understand.
How wide. And how deep. And how miraculous. And how unending. His love is towards you. Because that's the kind of love.
We have in Christ. God's love poured out for us. In Christ. That he would redeem sinners. That he would purchase sinners. And you say.
Well I'm not that lovable. He probably doesn't love me. Do not belittle the love of Christ. Do you see a child. Protecting a cricket. It's not that the cricket is glorious.
It's that the child is kind. And Jesus Christ is glorious. And he redeems. And he saves. Because he's good. And because he loves.
And that love is for you. It is a wildfire of love. For you. A love that does not destroy. But protects.
A love that keeps. A love that claims. A love that holds. A love that brings you on. Unendingly into glory with him. Jesus says.
Not only that he came and died. To redeem us from our sins. But he says. I go to prepare a place for you. He says. You're moving into my house.
I love you so much. You're going to stay forever with me. That he prefers us. I don't know if you have someone in your life like this. But if you pick up the phone.
And you call them. They want to talk to you. And they just want to keep talking to you. You have people in your life. That they're hard to get off the phone with. God's love for us.
Is a preferential love. That he pours out on his children. That he wants. Us. That's what he says in 1 John 3. He says.
See what great love the father has lavished on us. That we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. This love for us in Christ. That redeems us. And that makes us part of the family.
Is the animating love. That is at work in our hearts. And so we are first loved. And then we get to respond in love. That's what he says in verse 18. He says.
Little children. Let us not love in word or talk. But in deed. And in truth. That verse gives me a lot of courage. A lot of comfort.
You ever feel like. I must be the only Christian. Who is getting this wrong. I must be the only Christian. Who when someone asks for something. It just catches in my soul.
And I really don't want to give up the thing. Like maybe everybody else here. Really loves their brothers and sisters in Christ. And they are super generous. And I have a hard time with this. You ever feel like that?
Just me? So I really am the only one. Alright. It's cool. I love that these verses are in the scriptures. Where he corrects a thing that's wrong in me.
Because it means it was also wrong in them. And that God and his grace is at work in them. And he's also at work in me. That if there was no sin. If there was no trouble. If there would be no need to write it.
There would be no need for him to pen this letter. And say. Y'all need to grow a little bit. You need to change a little bit. If it was always just perfectly worked out by the spirit. And Christians never had a problem.
He'd never have to pen this letter. But he writes and says. Y'all need to grow a little bit. You need to soak in this love a little bit. You need the love of God to abide in you. We need to respond this way.
This is what we ought to look like. And this is what makes the church beautiful. That we love each other. Because we're animated by this unending. Deep. Forgiving.
Gracious. Forever. Ferocious. Love. Of Christ. For us.
And so we just get to swim in it. So someone in your church family needs something. We ought not to hesitate. We ought to just say. Yeah what do you need? How do I get it to you?
I've got one of those. I've got two of those. Come on. I can handle that. I can help pay that. Someone in our church family is sick.
So we just go spend time with them. We take some food to them. Or we go sit with them in the hospital. There's part of us that thinks. I've got better things to do. Than to sit in the hospital.
And the reality is. Inside the love of Christ. No you really don't. This is a glorious thing to do. Somebody in your church family needs some help. So you give up.
A very very precious Saturday. You answer the phone in the evening. And you go to someone's house. Or you have them over to your house. Somebody in your group is down or sad. And you know it.
So you go get around them on purpose. We're taught by culture to avoid sad people. But Christians don't. And you know what happens. If you're happy. And you go hang around a sad person.
You trade some of your happiness. For some of their sadness. You leave a little more sad. It's just how it works. But when you leave there a little more happy.
That's the type of substitutionary love. That we see in Christ. That he trades out his righteousness for our sin. And we leave righteous. And he leaves in sin. To be crushed on a cross.
And to rise victorious. We are animated by this wonderful love of God on our behalf. The band is going to come back up. The response to this is to not try to muscle up love. The response to this is to try to sit in. And wrap your mind around.
And be filled with the power of the love of Christ for you. If you are in Christ. You are dearly loved. And you are empowered by his love to love. This is how we get to respond. This is how we get to live.
If you are not a Christian. This love is offered to you. This welcome is offered to you. This invitation to be a part of this family is offered to you. This redemption is offered to you. It will not forever be offered.
But it can be forever yours if you will accept the offer. The king has come. He has been born among men. To redeem men. He has come to earth to redeem humanity. He has paid the price of our sin.
And he has offered amnesty. And salvation and forgiveness to all who will come to him. Come. Ask him to forgive you. Ask him to redeem you. And feel the overwhelming love of Christ for you.
And be brought into this glorious home. And Christians. May we celebrate. That our king has come. And that he has worked his love for us. And that his love fills us.
And then may we respond. As those who are overflowing. With the love of Christ. In generosity. And graciousness. And kindness.
And service. To one another. In the church family. The dearest place on earth. Let's pray.
God. God. God. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for this love. That lays down your life for us.
This love that redeems us from our sin. This love. That invites us. To be your children. And calls us into your home. And may we live.
As if our sins are forgiven. Our eternity. Is set. Our home. Is secure. Our hope.
Is held forever. In the resurrected Christ. So that worldly things. Possessions. Our stuff. Our money.
Does not matter. But your people do. And may we be able to respond. In love. As you fill us. And lead us.
In Jesus name. Amen.
Lay Down Your Life (1 John 3:16-18)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We are in our Give Series this month and every year we get to pause from whatever sermon series we're doing and we get to walk through the Give Series together. It is our opportunity in the season that we celebrate the gift of Christmas that Jesus was gifted to humanity. We get to respond to that generosity by setting in the call as Christians to live generously towards others.
We get to tackle a Give project every year which is a real action step for us to live generously towards others. We get to have awesome bumpers made like that that just celebrate the season. And it's a fun time for us to pause every year and do this. We typically or sometimes we'll jump into a completely new set of texts but we've been going through 1 John over the last few months and we got to 1 John 3 and it lines up fairly well with where we are in this Give project. So we are in verses 10 through 18.
That's what Chet introduced last week and we're posting up in the back end of that in 16 through 18 today to look at this a little more closely. He says in 1 John 3 verses 16 through 18. He says, By this we know love that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but indeed in truth. But Chet introduced this last week and we're going to spend more time on it today that God loves the world.
He loves the world but there's something special and specific about the people of God. That He loves us specially and deeply and as Christians we're called to love everyone. But there's this elevator we see in the New Testament, this sense of you're called to love deeply your brothers and sisters in Christ. So we introduced last week that in line with that idea, this Give Project specifically, we are tackling blessing. Some brothers and sisters in the faith who are in need. And then we stumbled upon an opportunity with Bethel Christian Camp.
So Bethel Christian Camp is a camp we've been connected to for years. Isaac Hill, who's on staff with us. His dad Jarl Hill is the executive director of Bethel Christian Camp. Their mission is to help make disciples throughout the summer of campers. And specifically they have a lot of focus on under-resourced families. So we love them.
We've partnered with them for years. And an opportunity came to us when Jarl said we're hiring a new program director. His name is Jason Earhart. So Jason, his wife Christine, and their four kids are moving down from Virginia. And they're going to move into an 1,100 square foot house. Jordan, you can go ahead and throw that up there.
They're going to move into this house. Okay. So it's a family of six moving into this 1,100 square foot house. And this house in particular needs a lot of love. So they said we need to do a lot of renovations on it.
We heard about it. We said, all right, we're in. How much do you need us to raise? So we need about $17,000 to renovate this house for this family who's moving down here to partner with Bethel Christian Camp and make disciples of children. So we're excited about this, this opportunity.
This family is making a sacrifice. So Jason is taking a pay cut to come down here. And a family of six is going to live in a smaller house. But they care deeply about the mission of Bethel. They care about making disciples. And we said, you know what, we want to bless this family.
Before they move down in February, let's raise the money. In January, let's go over there. Let's do some work. It needs HVAC. It needs renovations on the inside. Completely paint.
Kitchen. You name it. We said, all right, we're all in on this. Let's do this. That's the gift project that Chet introduced last week. We are excited about it.
But before we continue in this, I want to sit specifically in this idea that would compel us to actually love them well. That would compel us to rally around this and actually bless this family. And it is this specific idea of laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to sit in that and then examine some of the reasons why we actually might struggle to do this. So, let me pray. And then we will jump in today.
Lord, we love you. We are thankful for your goodness and your kindness towards us. God, I pray that you would help us worship this morning, knowing that that is true. Worship you because you're worthy. Worship you because you are generous towards us. But that you would stir in us a desire to want to love one another well.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so pull the text back up. Let's walk through this. It says, By this we know love. That he laid down his life for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. This is brothers, brothers and sisters in Christ. The family of God. But, verse 17. If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
At Christmas, we get to celebrate that God in his love and his humility came for us. And that doesn't register like it should. Because God is big. He made everything. He made the universe in all of its glory. A few weeks back, I was reading Garden and Gun, which is a magazine that I get.
It's a magazine that I like. And I was reading it and it said that 80% of Americans have never seen the Milky Way. And I was like, I've never seen the Milky Way. You can see that with a naked eye. And then you like go to different, like there are different places that have, around the world that are called dark sites that have less light pollution. You can look up when the sky is right and see the Milky Way.
So I like went all in and looked at pictures and videos and started making plans. Like I want to see this because it's unbelievable to look up at the heavens and see the galaxy. And when you look at that, you just feel so small because the sight is so big. And when you take a step back as a Christian, you realize God made that and it's small to him. Like it doesn't compare. It's a passing worth and his glory.
That's how big our God is. When you understand how big our God is, you understand how much he loves us. That he came for us. That Jesus left the comforts of heaven. And he came for us. Like when you sit in that reality, it's just overwhelming that at Christmas, Jesus loves us so much that he laid down his life and he came for us.
Once you press into that, it says, by this we know love that he laid down his life for us. By this we know Christ who is love. When you understand and believe and are immersed and are infatuated with who he is, it says that his love is going to abide in us. And more specifically, the things that he cares about. We're going to care about. That's what happens when you love someone.
Like a few weeks back, I got to officiate my sister's wedding and it was an exciting time for me. It was the most fun wedding I've ever been to. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ceremony was beautiful. I was so glad that I got to be a part of it. One of the things I got to share with the people who were there was that I knew that my sister was falling for this guy.
When one weekend I was talking to my mom. I was like, what's Kat? What's my sister? What's she doing this weekend? I said, well, she's at a NASCAR race. I said, wait, what?
Huh? She never, like NASCAR was never on her radar. She was a beauty pageant. She queen. She was a cheerleader. Like, she was dainty.
Like, she, no. Like, at a NASCAR race. And I found out later, oh, yeah, she's also, she goes camping with him. Camping in the outdoors. Are you serious? I was like, man, she's falling for this guy.
That she would, and that's what happens. When you love someone, you become about what they're about, right? You start to love their interests. You start to care about the things that they care about. When you love Christ, you care about what he cares about. You're all in.
And when he says, love your church family. Love your brothers and sisters. That's what you care about. And he's highlighting this is what we should do. Yet you close your heart. That's what he's saying.
You close your heart. The KJV here says, shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him. When you look at all the translations alongside that, it's like, man, that one's a little different. But actually, it's probably the most closest to the text. What it's conveying there is that the innermost part of you. That the love of Christ should impact the innermost part of you.
And when you shut your heart, when you close that off, you are stopping the love of God that should flow through you. And we feel this. When you see something, you're like, man, someone should do something about this. When you see a Compassion International ad and you see children that are in deep need. Whatever thing that you come across that just starts to prod at your heart. You feel this feeling rise up inside you.
That someone should do something. And then something stops us often. And that's the closing of our heart. It damns up the river of compassions that should flow through us. We should look at Christ. Behold him for who he is.
And when we're doing that, his compassion flows through us. But we stop it. That's the problem that John is addressing here. And he has a question for us. He says, how can God's love abide in you if you're willing to close your heart? How can the love of God reside in you, flow through you?
How could Christ be the most important, beautiful, worthy of worship being in the universe for us if you don't love his people? If you don't love the church? If you love Christ, he will capture your heart. And you absolutely will. But there's something in us.
There's something in us that guides to break down the walls that we close off towards showing compassion towards others. And he goes on to say in verse 18, like this isn't a compassion that flows through you that is just talked about. This is not mere words. This isn't just saying someone should do something about this. Someone with means should do something about this. That the heart of a Christian breaks for his brother and sister and says, amen, what can I do?
What do you need from me, Lord? How can I help? That's what John's trying to inspire in these churches he's writing to. That's what the scriptures are pleading with us to do as well. Especially in the American church. In the American church, we have some of the most collective, the highest collective wealth of almost any church in the history of humanity.
And we have a lot of wealth in America and in the American church. And in our church, we're not, you know, we're not killing it, right? We're just not. Like we were a blue collar, middle class. Like that's who we are. But so you might think, okay, well, other churches can go for this even harder because they have more.
But the reality is when you look at us compared to the global church, it's like, no, we have an incredible amount of means. We have incredible ability to bless other Christians, to invest in other ministries, to do, to give. But there's something in us, even in our own selves, even in our own hearts, that stops us all the time. And that's what we're trying to see. That's what John's trying to diagnose. And it's what he's trying to help us see.
There's something in us that keeps us from doing that. So I want to ask some questions. I want to diagnose this a little bit to see what it is that actually keeps us from having a heart that's filled with the compassion and love of Christ. And it's extended towards others. And it's not to, hear this, it's not to do a guilt trip. Okay?
A guilt trip might get you to open your checkbook for this gift project. And that's fine for a moment. But what we need is God to continue to mold and shape and break our hearts so that we might continuously live in generosity and tap into the benefits and the goodness that is found in that type of obedience. We need that. But we need to look at when he says, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.
That phrasing there, we need to actually sit in that. That if Jesus is the one by which we know love and his sacrifice and his laying down of his life is something that we need to stare at, be consumed with, and to learn from. That I want to take a few minutes to walk through a few different teachings, a few different things that Jesus did to help us see how Jesus modeled this so that we might be a people that can do this well. And as we walk through a few different things, there are four things I want us to see. If we examine kind of the problem beneath the surface within us that keeps us from doing this, then we have a chance at seeing the love of Christ flow through us.
There are four things I want us to see as we walk through this. First, I want us to see this life in light of eternity. See this life in light of eternity. Second, I want us to see our stuff in light of eternity. We're going to see that's two sides of the same coin there. Three, I want us to see church family as family.
And fourth, I want us to see the sacrifice of Christ. So, four things I want us to see. All right, four. The first two things I want us to see this morning. I want to look at one text from Matthew 6, the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus is teaching in verses 19 and 20. He says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. All right, let's sit in this passage for a moment. Let's first see this life in light of eternity. One of the things that we fail to see as Christians is that eternity, okay? 60 million plus years into infinity. That is greater than 80 years.
That equation makes sense on paper. That millions and billions of years is greater than just 80 years. But we don't functionally live like that's true sometimes. We miss that. And when he says, But if anyone has the world's goods, We don't see that. That eternity is longer than just 80 years in this life.
So I want it to be very practical for a moment. When you enter the workforce, Okay? 18, 20, 25, whenever that is for you. When you enter the workforce, You've got 60 to 70 years ahead of you, If you are fortunate. And here's what happens. This is what the world sells us on.
Make as much money as possible. So that you can purchase comfort now. And have some comforts now. And throw money ahead in the future. So you can have a nest egg of comfort later.
That's the American dream. Buy what you can now. Store up for the comfort that you can have later. Go hard after this. It's the reason why right now you see a ton of advertisers on TV that are selling you on. This is what makes you feel good.
Like you see a Lexus commercial. And it says, Buy this with a big red bow on it at Christmastime. It feels good. Which those commercials annoy me for various reasons. First off, Who springs a Lexus on their spouse and gets away with it? Like that, You've got to be in a way different tax bracket to pull it off.
Secondly, Those commercials are almost always with a snowy backdrop. And it's like, Listen, That is only some parts of the country. Like y'all are missing it. It's neither here nor there. But, You get sold on this idea of purchasing comfort. Now, Make sure you save enough for later.
Make sure that when you're 65, You can buy an RV and go all around the country. That you can play golf as much as you want. So that you can travel to Europe. That you can see all the parts of the world. So that you can get the most out of this life right now.
That's the American dream that is given to us. And I want to be very practical here. Nobody here is in the 1%. Alright? We're just, None of us are killing it. Here's why this is really important.
Because if I was speaking to a bunch of people who were absolutely loaded, Packed in the ceiling, It would be a different thing. I would touch different things. But I want to be real practical for us for a moment. If you go hard after that American dream, As middle class people, You can't live generously. The margins aren't there. You can't do it.
You don't have the means to do it. If you've got to upgrade your car every three to five years, If you've got to upgrade your house every three to five years, Which when I was doing more real estate, I saw over and over again, When you've got to continuously throw large chunks of money at your retirement, And do the basics. Like eat. Feed yourself. Feed your family if you've got family. Eat your home.
Which is really painful these days. With inflation and everything that's happening. And then you've got to subscribe to like 15 different things. Because that's now the basics for us in America. But, When you do all of these things, And then you look at your budget if you have one, Or you look at your bank account if you don't. You're like, I don't know how I can live generously.
I don't know how I can give to anything. And you see a need that arises. Or the Christians need help. And it's like, I don't know how I can swing this. The reason we can't swing this, Is because of all the things, That we gear our lives toward in this life right now. Because we've lost sight that we're going towards eternity.
We've lost sight of that eternity is greater than, The 80 years that are in this life. So here's how this could look differently for us. You enter the workforce. Alright? And you've got 60 to 70 years. Or right now, You're rethinking your life.
You've got 30, 20, 40, How many of your years left you've got in front of you. You say, I am going to make an impact for the kingdom, With the time that I have on this earth. Randy Alcorn in the, I think it's the treasury principle, He says, Nothing makes a journey more difficult than a heavy backpack, Filled with nice but unnecessary things. Pilgrims travel light. Like, you own that. And it's like, There's a lot of unnecessary things that I could accumulate, But I don't live for this life.
Like, I don't need this. I'm living for eternity. I'm going to travel light. So what you do is, Is you leverage your life for the kingdom of God. You leverage your life, Your time. And you organize that in a way that you can serve the local church.
You structure your budget in a way that reflects your values. That you don't take positions and jobs that consume your life, That make your job your object of worship. That you leverage your life for the kingdom. That you pass on goods. The world's goods. And everything that will be offered to you, On a regular basis.
Why? Because you believe that that life in eternity is better. Because you see Christians that are in front of you that are eternal. Pitted alongside the things that you could purchase. Like, no, I want to be able to bless those who are in need. That you orient your life around this understanding that life is eternal.
And every decision you make for work and for spending and everything flows through that. That you live modestly because your eye is on the eternal prize. Because you believe that temporary comfort is less than eternal joy. And that is the anthem for how you live. And in the world's goods, that's just a tool. Money.
Stuff. That's just things. That's just a tool. That allows you to take care of your needs and your family and your life. But also be generous towards others.
That we miss this when we exchange it. When we mess this up and we say the end is the things we can purchase. That's how we fall prey to the American dream. We travel light because we know this life is temporary. We pack. And this life has a Christian understanding that it is light because we're living for the next one.
My wife and I, we're getting ready to go to Disney World on Saturday. Which I think I said this two weeks ago. Don't tell my kids. Because my wife will harm you. But it's a surprise of them.
But we are getting ready to go to Disney World. We are going to pack with that in mind. After my wife spent all week packing, I said, Babe, guess what? I want to take the piano with me to Disney World. She'd be like, You are crazy. What are you thinking?
It's a temporary trip. Here, we pack accordingly. In this life, we carry the things that we need. Because our mind is in eternity. Alright, here's the second side of that coin. Second, see our stuff in light of eternity.
So you've got to see your life in light of eternity, but you've got to see your stuff in light of eternity. Alright. Our economy is built off of consumerism. Not a huge shock. Alright. Our economy is built off consumerism.
Advertisements are geared towards helping you see that if you had this product, how good would you feel? How much better would your life be? Right? You see something, scroll across on Instagram, and they're previewing the product. And you're like, I want that. That's going to be good.
Like you see something on TV, and it's like, man, I would look so good in that, driving that. Like that's the whole goal. To help create this need or want in you, and for you to buy that, to fulfill that need. Now, this is what I would love to see happen. Is that if you purchased something, or if you saw something that they wanted you to purchase, and they advertised that product, and then they fast-forwarded like a year, or two years, or three years, or ten years, and they showed you the same product. They showed your iPhone all cracked up.
They showed your car with a bunch of dents in it. Like we need that. Like if the buy now button on Amazon showed the product that they were selling first picture, like let me see the second picture, and it's you throwing it in the trash in six months. Like how much money would you not spend at Amazon, right? Like the picture for us would be six months later selling it on Facebook for sale or wanted for like $5. Come buy it.
Like if we had that, like I want to show you, this is the side-by-side. This is a Samsung phone, right? It looks very sleek and nice. I've never owned a Samsung phone, but that looks very nice. And you look at this, and it's like, man, I want that. But if you just had, I took a screenshot for sale for sale for you wanted.
And that's, that, I don't know how long ago a Galaxy S9 was. But when that was out, man, that was happening. Like that was it. And this person is sadly selling it. There's no way they're going to sell that. But they're selling that for $80.
Please buy this. Like if you just had that mindset, the things that you purchased just don't last. Man, how much more freeing will we live? How much easier it would be to say no to things? It's like, that's why I love how practical Matthew 6 is. How practical Jesus' teaching is.
He says, why would you leverage your money and your hope and some of your anxiety about buying that? Why would you leverage it for things that moth and rust destroy? Translation. Translation. Things that end up, end up in a landfill. Why do we do this to ourselves?
It doesn't last. I mean, it's, I mean, it doesn't last like it did 30 years ago. They don't even build things for you to like buy and repair things now. Like I, I buy something and I want to repair it. And it's like, no, you can't. You must replace it.
I'm like, this is rigged. Like I want, this is ridiculous. Like do you buy, now you just got to buy things and replace things. Like it doesn't last. Like we need to see that. Because what happens is, is that we close our hearts towards other Christians who are in need for that.
We close our hearts towards other Christians in need for stuff that will not last. You need to see that picture right there pitted against a brother or sister in need. And Jesus says, sow up treasures in heaven. That's better. And the New Testament teaching on that is, is that listen, we, we believe that that by the blood of Christ, by grace through faith, he redeems us, he rescues us and brings us into the family of God. But once you are a Christian, there is this teaching that you are storing up riches in heaven.
That your works matter now in Christ. That there's some kind of heavenly reward. And we don't know what that is. Like we don't have real strong pictures for that. But Jesus says it's good.
He says it's eternal riches. Live as if eternity is true. Live as if the stuff that you can buy in this life will not last. It's not worth your hopes. It's not worth your desires. Don't fall for it.
Three. Three. See church family as family. See church family as family. It's going to be difficult for us to actually love to lay down our lives for brothers and sisters in Christ. If you don't view them as brothers and sisters.
We don't have a shot at doing that. If we don't see family, church family in the way that Jesus calls us to. Jesus in Matthew 12. His family is trying to get a hold of him. And we walked through this in the Gospel of Matthew a few years ago. I want to read this.
Because I think this is incredibly important for us to understand. He says. It says while he was still speaking to the people. He's been teaching. It says behold. His mother and his brothers stood outside.
Asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him. Who is my mother? And who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand towards his disciples. He said.
Here are my mothers and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven. Is my brother and sister and mother. Now. Jesus. Loves.
His mama. Okay. Fact. Go to the end of the Gospel of John. Jesus. Loves his mama.
He honors his family. He's not denigrating his family. Not doing that at all. He is elevating. The eternal family of God. He's trying to help us see.
That the eternal. Family. Of God. Matters. We need that. Alright.
Because a cultural southern value. For us. Is family. Like we care a lot about it down south. I love when Hollywood tries to write. TV shows.
And movie scripts. And capture. That idea. It's just like. They. They think everything for us is Hatfields and McCoys.
That if you cross your brother or your cousin. You're going to kill somebody. It's like. We're not. That unhinged. Right.
But they. Are making some observations. That are accurate. We do care about family. More so than different parts of the country. Like we.
Love. Our family. There's a lot of love. And loyalty. And care that we have for our earthly family. And we should.
Absolutely. The Bible teaches this over and over again. But that love. And loyalty. And care. And devotion.
That we have for earthly family. Jesus says. Take that. Step it up. That is elevated also. For the family of God.
For the people of God. For your brothers and sisters. That love. And loyalty. And devotion. Is meant for your church family.
In a way that you would. See your brother in need. And lay. Down your life for them. So that you would see another Christian need.
And say. What can I do? We don't have a shot of that. If we don't see church family as family. If we don't see extended church family. A global church family.
As the family of God. We don't have a shot of that. If we see. What we do right now. As a social aspect. Of what we do.
Like if Sundays. Are just a social thing. That we do. If groups. Are just a social aspect. Of our lives.
We're missing it. We're missing it. And how easy. Will it be for us. To close off our heart. Towards another brother and sister.
In Christ. Who is in need. We have got to see family. As family. Four. We have to see the sacrifice.
Of Christ. That's pinnacle. That's the basis. For all of us. To see. What Christ has done.
He says. By this. Verse 16. We know. Love. That he laid down his life for us.
And we have to lay down our lives. For the brothers. We will never understand the sacrifice. We will never live out this sacrifice for others. If at the forefront of our mind. And our soul.
Isn't the sacrifice of Christ. It's not just that. He left heaven for us. It's not just he left heaven. When we celebrate at Christmas. And came for us.
It's from the manger. To the cross. And everything in between. God lays his life down. Up into the pinnacle sacrifice. Of Christ.
On the cross. For us. His blood spilled out. For us. If we don't hold that out. In front of us.
And have that as the basis. For why we should lay down. Our lives. For our brothers and sisters. We don't have a shot at this. We'll fall for lesser comforts.
And lesser things. Over sacrifice. Towards others. We're called to lay down. Our lives. And our own self-interest.
Which is harm. That's a radical call. That Jesus calls us to. So. I know from time to time. That somebody stands up here.
The other guy who preaches half the time. He likes to play up. That I like weird movies. And it's. He's. He likes to play it up.
He's a funny guy. And he has lots of jokes on. On I like sad movies. Depressing movies. And all. You know.
They have to be called films and cinema. He has all kinds of things to say about. The things I. Watch. I was watching over the day. This indie film about.
This woman who dies of cancer. And. I knew it going into it. Like I chose this. I read this article. On the Gospel Coalition.
Which is a. Is a helpful site. For a lot of different articles. And theology and stuff. And there's this movie. Movie review of this movie.
Called Our Friend. That probably none of you have seen. Because it didn't do well at all. And it does sometimes fit. In the category of movies. That I watch.
But. I can watch this. Because they said. Listen. This movie embodies. This sacrificial.
Friendships. Like I'm going to watch this. Which disclaimer. It's got some language in it. But it does embody this.
It's a true story. Okay. It's a true story. About three friends. And. Three friends from college.
Two of them are married. One of them goes on. They stay connected for years. Then all of a sudden. The wife. Gets.
Terminal cancer. And. And it's. Incredibly hard on him. This is a younger family. They're like late 30s.
They've got kids. And he's trying to take care of his wife. And his friend. Their friend says. I'm going to move in with you. So he moves from New Orleans.
To Alabama. And he. He lives with them. For the last 12 to 18 months. Of her life. And it's just this.
This. Sacrifice. That he. He quits his job. And he moves there. And he.
Serves her. And he serves him. And he watches their kids. And gets them to school. And helps with. Cancer treatment.
As she's slowly fading. And as she's. Her mind is. Falling apart. He. Serves them.
And loves them. All the way to her. Final. Last. Breath. And it's this.
This choice. To sacrifice. Because he. Loves. Them. And he lays down his life.
And when you see that. It's like. That's it. That's a picture of the gospel. That you would lay down your life. That you would.
Moved on their city. If it required it. That you would lay down your life. For. Someone else. Because you see them.
As eternal family of God. And we as Christians. Have a higher ideal. That. That we are bound together. By this.
Jesus. Who laid his life down for us. How much more. Should we. Lay down our lives. For those who are in need.
Like we. Need this. And when we do this. We tap into something. That is eternal. And good.
But it takes some self reflection. It takes looking. At the ways we don't want to die. To ourself. The ways we don't want to sacrifice. I feel this.
Y'all. I feel this. I. I say I'm in a busy season sometimes. It's really just a busy life. Just the reality of it.
And I. And I. And I. And sometimes. Like I. I look at my schedule.
And needs come up. And I'm like. I've got things. I need to do. And I'm so convicted. Because I've got people in my life.
That don't do that. Like they. They move outside of their schedule. Because they love people. And it's like. I need to.
Grow in this. That I wouldn't value. My. Time. So much.
That I would. Not look. At a brother in need. A sister in need. And have compassion towards them. We.
Need this. We need to see the unmet wants. And the unmet needs. And the things that we want to buy. And the things we want to purchase. And the things that we want to accumulate in our life.
We need to say. That is. Less than. Than other Christians in need. That is less than. Than my brother.
Or my sister. Who is in need. We need to see the opportunities that we have in front of us. Some of which come at great personal cost. I mean. Sacrifice is that.
Is great. Personal. Personal. Cost. To you. Just as Jesus.
Had great. Personal. Cost. To him. We get to. Live that out towards others.
And we got an opportunity in front of us. With this. Give project. And some of you might be thinking. Listen. I.
Renovate a house. I got stuff. That needs renovated. I got stuff. That needs to get done. I got.
I got things that I. Want to do. And I want to. Impress upon you. That part of this. When we have opportunities.
To give. It isn't always. About what we're committing to. It's about our heart approach. It's about our heart approach. That says.
Even when I don't have. I give. And I sacrifice. And I choose to do that over. And over. And over.
Again. We got an opportunity in front of us. With the Earhart family. You can build a picture up to them. This. This.
Family. Is sacrificing a lot. To come down here. It's taking a pay cut. Moving into a smaller house. And they're going to sacrifice.
For the mission of Christ. At Bethel. And we got this house. We got this opportunity. And it's a real. Tangible thing.
That we get to do. To live out the gospel. We get to raise. Some money. To be able to bless them. The house needs a lot of work.
And it's just a way to love them well. That as they sacrifice. For the mission of Christ. We get to sacrifice a little bit. To be able to. Serve them.
So they can come in February. Ready to go. But it's not about this. Alone. This is a tangible thing. We get to grow in.
But we get to use this. As a springboard. Into a lifestyle. That understands eternity. The ten trillion years. Is greater than just a few.
That our stuff. Will. Faith. And it's not worthy of our worship. We get to use this. As an opportunity.
To see that. Family. Eternal family. Matters. And we get to use this. As an opportunity.
To look. At the sacrifice. Of our savior. And let that. Flow. Into our heart.
And that compassion. Flow out. In a lifestyle. That chooses. To live generously. Towards others.
Love the Brothers (1 John 3:11-18)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. It is our Give Series. We are excited every time, every year around this time and every time around this year. That's what I almost said.
Go to 1 John chapter 3. We've been working through 1 John and usually we would pause and focus just on Give Series stuff and go somewhere else, but John went there anyway, so we're going to just keep going through John because he's going to talk about what we would have paused to talk about. Our Give Series is around Christmas. We want to celebrate Christmas and we want to respond a little bit to how our culture celebrates Christmas because our culture, Christmas is a Christian holiday and culturally we have a lot of Christian background, a lot of Christian history. And so you have this idea of generosity and sacrifice and love and kindness and peace that all comes in with Christmas.
We have this idea of worship that Jesus would come and that he would humble himself to come redeem sinners, this idea of hope, this idea of light in darkness, that all kind of comes in. And then what happens is culturally we try to pull out the Jesus part. We want to keep peace. We want to keep joy. We want to keep life. We're cool with all of that.
But then we also want to infuse consumerism. And so it's like you bought a filet mignon and you cooked it perfectly and then you pour strawberry syrup on top of it. They just don't go together. It doesn't work right. Certainly Christmas is a time for celebration. Certainly it's a time for feasting.
Certainly it's a time for giving. But we've, we've amped it up so much with consumerism because our whole culture runs off of us buying things we don't need. Buying shoes before other shoes wear out. Buying shoes for this type of occasion. Buying shoes to be this type of person. Buying this shirt that makes us this type of person.
Buying things that help us have an identity. Buying more things than we need and replacing the things that aren't bad with new things. That's our, that's our whole system. It's what it's built off of. And you're a good American. If you go spend money, the news comes out and says, Hey, y'all hadn't been consuming like you're supposed to.
And you go, well, I got to do my duty. I said, I was thankful yesterday and now I got to go get some new stuff. It's just, that's, that's the system that we have culturally. And then we have as Christians, we're supposed to approach this differently. We're supposed to see this differently. And so at our gift series, we try to just push back on consumerism and amp up generosity.
We want some of our money to just walk out the door and to go towards things that don't benefit us. That's why I love the song that was just sung on that little video. It's from citizens. It's called, why don't you marry Christmas? It says, I see the writing on the wall. We've been through all of this before longer lists and grander gifts, brighter lights, entitled kids.
Well, if you love it so much, why don't you marry Christmas? The happy feelings that we had, are they just boxed up in the past? Buying more we can't afford. That's American. The pressure's high, but what's it for? Well, if you love it so much, why don't you marry Christmas?
So our hope in our gift series is to push back on some of this just consumer driven stuff and say, Hey, let's remember what this is actually about. And then let's respond as Christians with generosity. Let's give some money away at this time of year. We bring in money and we give money out for a Lottie moon. It's a Christmas offering, which goes towards the international mission board and towards international missions. It goes directly towards sending missionaries overseas.
And then as a church, we also come together to do our gift project, which is where we've helped church plants in Tennessee and downtown Columbia. We've helped people who had had some flood damage to their home. We came together and raised money for that. We were able to raise some money for some children's gifts and a party that we were able to throw in, in Columbia as well. We raised money for a women's shelter. We've raised money for overseas missions in Honduras and in Egypt.
So I get the distinct privilege of announcing our gift project today. Later. First John chapter three, we're going to pick up in verse 11. I'm going to pray and we're going to walk through as John presses on this idea. And then we'll get to talk through how we're going to be able to practice it together. So let's pray.
God, we ask for joy and delight. As we read your word, we pray that you would help us to see Christ clearly. You might change our hearts. Help us to be loving people in Jesus name. Amen. So John in this section is going to give us one big picture and then one practice.
So he's going to give us one big picture, something for us to see, and he's going to give us something to do the way that this ought to show up in our lives. So he says this in verse 11, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. This most likely the beginning of these talking about is the beginning of the proclamation of the gospel, the beginning of Christ's work that we would have love for one another in the church. But it's connected to the call in the old Testament to be loving and gracious to the people of Israel and to the people around you.
We should love one another. Verse 12, we should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous. Do not be surprised brothers that the world hates you. So he says this kind of big picture, we shouldn't be like Cain who murdered his brother.
And it's like, okay, sound advice. But he's, he's painting up on one side, the epitome of worldly approach to others. That's why he says, don't be surprised when the world hates you. He's saying, this is kind of the epitome of non-Christian approach. And then he says, and here's the epitome of a Christian approach that he keeps going. Verse 14, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.
Whoever does not love abides in death that the brothers, there is the church that there is supposed to be a distinct, special love for Christians in the church. Now, Christians are told by Christ to love our enemies, to love our neighbors, and to love the church. So you're, you're told if you're a Christian, that's everybody. They fit in one of those categories. He expands neighbor to whoever's around you. Enemies are all the people that dislike you.
And then you're Christian brothers and sisters. So we're supposed to love everybody, but the, the, the Bible presses on this idea that the church should have distinct, special, greater love, protection, care, defense for those who belong to Jesus. Those are the brothers. And this idea that we are all children of God is not a biblical idea. The biblical idea is that we are all made by God and that all humans are made in his image and therefore have value, dignity. But to be a child of God is a blood bought gift from Jesus to those who believe.
That's what John says in chapter one of his, uh, the gospel of John, that for those who believe, he gave him the right to be called children of God. That's what he says at the beginning of chapter three. And this is that he says that we, how great is it? How good is God to us that we get to be called children? And so we are, but it's through the work of Christ that we're children of God. And so there's this family of God that we're meant to show love to one another.
So he keeps going. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. That's a bold claim. We're going to look at that in a second.
By this, we know love that he, that's Christ, laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. One big picture. Cain on one hand, Christ on the other. That our approach is going to be more like Cain's or more like Christ's. That's what he's getting at.
That you're going to look like a disciple of Cain or a disciple of Christ. He says, we know that if we hate, we're murderers. Did we know that? That your heart posture matters. That just painting a smile on your face while you loathe someone is still a problem for you because God sees your heart. That he actually cares about your heart, not your actions.
This isn't just about your morality. Can you act out the right things? It's like, no, he cares about who you are. So for those of you who are unfamiliar with Cain, so far, you know that he murdered his brother. Well, I'm going to tell you that story a little bit. That's from Genesis chapter three.
Adam and Eve have sons, Cain the oldest, then Abel or Abel. My uncle Abel fusses at me because it's spelled Abel and it's probably pronounced Abel or Abel. So I'm going to call him Abel just for the sake of my uncle. Then sorry. So Cain and Abel, they both at some point come to the Lord to give him a sacrifice.
Abel brings sheep from his flock. It says he brings the first. And then it says in some time, Cain brings some fruit. God has regard for Abel and not for Cain. Cain immediately, it says his face has fallen. He's frustrated by this, that God was pleased by Abel's sacrifice, but not by his.
It seems as if Abel was genuinely worshiping the Lord, was delighting in the Lord, brought the first of what he had. And that Cain thought, okay, well, this may be a good thing for me to do. And somehow it'll garner some favor because as soon as it doesn't work, his heart does not tender towards the Lord to say, what's wrong? What did I do? Like to respond well, he hardens himself towards the Lord, which seems as if it was, he came in it self-interested and when it didn't work, he was frustrated. Then it says he talks to his brother, takes him out in the field and murders him.
That's crazy. But it's the epitome, the physical manifestation of Cain's idea of how the world works, which is you exist for his good. Everything's about me. Therefore, everyone else is expendable. If they benefit me, if they help me, if they bring joy to my life, they get to stay. What's her name?
Marie Kondo. He does that with people. Does this inspire joy? No, in the trash. That's what he does. Christ is the opposite of that.
When you look at a manger, when you look at a nativity scene, that's Christ coming and saying, I'm not here to be served, but to serve. I'm here for everyone else. Therefore, I'm expendable. I'm here to sacrifice so that they might be satisfied. I'm here to suffer for them. Whereas Cain says, you need to sacrifice so that I might be satisfied.
You need to suffer for me. That's his big picture, that we're going to have one of those postures. I'm going to show you a few ways that kind of shows up. If you ever had a friend who knew a guy, maybe you're this person, you know a guy, you have a guy, you have a guy that gets you tickets to things. You have a guy that gets you out of tickets for things. You have a guy that, that can help you fix a car.
You have a guy that can, like, I, oh, I know this person to help us get a deal on this. I know, I know a shoe guy. I know a person who can help, like, and that's, you ever been around that person and you've, I've thought, that must be nice. He's got like a bullpen of perks. Oh, you're going to Disney World? Let me make some phone calls.
Who do you, do you know Mickey? What, who do you do it? But the reality of that is I've got these people around me and I appreciate the fact that they enhance my life. I'm going to make a phone call. They're going to make my life better. I don't know what they do on their end, but be honest with you, I don't care.
Just want this thing. Have you ever been the guy that someone knew? You ever been the only person who owned a truck and a group of friends? I have. When we first planted this church, we were part-time movers. It's just a thing.
And you have to work on your heart in those moments because you're getting a phone call and it's, hey, I'd love for you to sacrifice for me. And there's part of us that really wants to be in the Cain position and really dislikes being in the Christ position. I'd really like for you to sacrifice for me. That would be excellent. And I'd really like to not have to sacrifice for you. Honestly, if you make me suffer and sacrifice too much for you, I don't want to be your friend anymore.
Now, if you sacrifice and suffer for me, that's actually how I define a good friend. I don't want to be a good friend. I want to have good friends. So he writes and says, Christians, do we look like Christ or should we be called Cainians? He didn't say that because it's dumb, but that's what he's getting at. Do we look like disciples of Cain?
People exist for my benefit. All right. I'm going to, I'm going to say a thing that may not garner me some friends. Let me get a drink of water first. Let's talk about wedding vows.
All right. I'm not a huge fan personally of people who write, people of when people write their own wedding vows and I'll explain why. Vows are promises, promises that you make so that you'll keep them when you don't want to keep them anymore. That's the point of a promise. When people write their own vows, they often don't write promises. They write poems about how much they like the other person.
And that's fine. Those are great. Some of them are very beautiful. I've listened to some and thought that's beautiful. It's just not a vow saying, I love how much you love my friends. I love how much you love my dog.
I love how much you love me is nice, but it's not a promise. If anything, it puts pressure on them. I'm going to need you to keep loving my friends, my dog and me. I want my, my wife to think I'm attractive. I want her to think I'm fun to be around, but at our wedding, I want her to promise to stay with me when I'm unattractive and no fun to be around. That's what I want.
I want her to look a lot more like Christ who sacrifices for the sake of love. Then I appreciate what benefits I get. Now we certainly should appreciate that. That's a part of relationships. I get that. But what I'm saying is there's this idea that this is the good stuff and this isn't, but this is where Christ went and it's where he invites us to go because it's actually the good stuff.
There's actually joy here. There's actually freedom here. There's actually delight here and Christ is there. So in the sacrifice, we get more Christ because we need more Christ in suffering. We get more Christ because we need more Christ in generosity. We get more Christ because we need more Christ and he's actually what is good.
That's what he's saying. That's the big picture. Then he says this, we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. That ought to be what this looks like. Jesus refers to it at one point as a city on a hill, that it ought to be beautiful to behold, that it ought to be warming and welcoming and joyful, that people ought to come and be around the church for a while and go, oh my goodness, I have to have that. That's one of the reasons why we invite people who are not believers to join community groups.
If you're not a believer, we want you to join a community group. And yes, this is a terrible, terrible trick because if you join a community group and you stick around one for a while and you see what real Christians look like in life and you begin to see how they love each other and how they love you, we're convinced that you'll see how Jesus loves you and you'll begin to love Jesus. And we want Jesus for you because he's wonderful. But that's what it's supposed to be like. It's supposed to be this beautiful thing that draws you in, that we're to love one another. There's supposed to be grace and sacrifice and generosity flowing out all across the board all the time where everybody shows up thinking, I'm here for your good.
And when you do that, you're free and there's delight and there's joy and there's love and it makes everything better. I've said this all the time and I'm convinced of it. If you want to be miserable, think everything's about you. Show up right now and ask, how much do I like this? How much do I appreciate this? How much do I wish things were like that?
And you'll just be miserable. If you show up thinking, I'm here to serve, guess what? You'll have a lot of opportunity for it and you'll be free and there'll be a lot of joy. We're supposed to be marked by this. John was marked by this. The night before Jesus, the night Jesus was betrayed, the night before he dies, he gets his disciples together and he says, the world's going to know that you belong to me by the way you love one another.
And he says, no man has a greater love than this, than that he lay down his life for his friends. And the next day, the disciple John, at a very young age, stands at the foot of the cross, watching his friend die. Not understanding fully why this had to happen, not understanding fully what was going on, but knowing that a man that had magnificent power and strengths, that he understood to be God in the flesh, was willingly laying down his life and dying and that he was intentionally doing this. John sees him rise from the grave. And John says, that's us forever. That's what we were born out of.
That's who we are. That's the blood that pumps through our veins is sacrifice and suffering and generosity for the good of others and the glory of Christ. That's what John calls us to. So he gives us this big picture and he says, we're either going to be in this posture, our heart's going to be bent towards wanting from others, taking from others, towards exalting self, or our heart's going to be bent towards sacrifice and selflessness. So he gives us a test.
But verse 17, if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? This just got real tangible. Takes this big picture that we ought to be selfless, that we ought to love one another, that we ought to be laying down our lives for others. And then you say, okay, yeah, I'll lay down my life for others. And he says, okay, hand over your stuff. And it's like, I thought you said life, not stuff.
It makes it real tangible, real fast. He says, we ought to look like Christ. And you're like, yes, we ought to look like Christ. Hallelujah. Hand me your wallet. What?
For, for, no. What? This is a trick. He says, no, this is an indication of where your heart is. Do you have stuff and see someone who needs that stuff? Do you keep that stuff?
That's the thing about stuff. It's the thing about money. It's the thing about tangible items. If you have it, I don't have it. If you eat the last cookie, I don't eat the last cookie. Because you ate it.
I wanted that cookie. That's how that works. If I, if you need $200 and I have $200 and I give you $200, that $200 does not pay my electrical bill. Or let me go to that concert I've been saving up for. Let me go eat at Ruth's Chris. Or Cracker Barrel eight times.
Or Taco Bell 150 times. I think I covered all of, all of us here now. Made it really, made you really feel it. That's the reality of if we have the things and we give away the things, we sacrifice. We don't have it anymore. We, we suffer because it was taken out of us.
Have you noticed that? That's one of the things they teach you in sales is a hand of the person, the item that you're selling because when they touch it, it becomes theirs. I sold swimming pools. If by the end of the night I had you hugging the item I had handed you, I was selling you a swimming pool. If I handed you stuff and you just put it in your lap, oh buddy, there was a pool in your backyard because it became yours. You ever seen somebody hurt some of your stuff and you felt it?
Invite kids over to your house. You'll see what I'm talking about. You'll watch them start doing something and you'll feel it in your body while they do a thing to a wall. It's like, and if they're your kids, you can respond appropriately. If they're not your kids, you have to look at their parents. Like, are you going to hit them?
But you can feel it. That's why he takes that here. He says, do we love people? Let me ask you a question. Do you give stuff away? Does all your money go to you?
You ever see somebody needing the thing and you just gave them the thing? Do you have a spot in your closet where your favorite coat used to be? Do you have fewer shoes because somebody else has more shoes? Do you not do a thing every month so that someone else can have something like electricity every month? He says, that's how you know if you love. If we can see that someone needs something and we have that something and we can talk ourselves out of giving them that something, he says something really scary.
He says, if you can close the door on your heart like that, I'm not sure Christ is inside there. So he says, let's paraphrase. Yet closes his heart against him. How does God's love abide in him? This idea that the love of God is flowing out from your heart and if you close the doors, it bursts the doors back open. But if you can close the doors and they stay closed, he just says, the love of God's like the Kool-Aid man.
It's coming through. And so if you can just turn that off and keep it off, I don't know if you know Jesus. I don't know if you've been overwhelmed by the love that he has for you because that's what overwhelms us. It's what pours through us. This love that doesn't end. This love that captures us.
This love that saves us. This love that redeems us. This love that flows. And so he says, when you see someone needs, you just think, this is my moment. This is the type of person I am because this is what Christ came to do for me and I get to do it for you. That's what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount.
He says, we're supposed to give to the ungrateful. We're supposed to give to our enemies. This idea that we're just supposed to give. They don't deserve it. Yes. Absolutely.
Isn't that why you became a Christian? Didn't you run headlong to Christ because you didn't deserve it? Isn't that what overwhelmed your soul? He says this, little children, let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth. Don't just tell people you love them. Don't just show up and sing about it.
Let's do it. My wife and I got to go to stay in a little mountain cabin thing for just a couple of days. It was Airbnb. We had a good time because our children weren't there. I love my kids, but this was nice. And we got to stay there for a couple of days and we were riding down to go try to find some food in the evening.
We rode over and we saw, it was beautiful. It's like nestled in the mountains. It was glowing. It looked like something out of like Disney World magic. Like it seemed almost fake. The city just glowing and we were heading down towards it and it was like, this is, look at this.
And when we got closer, it was a paper mill. It was a lot closer than we thought. It glistened beautifully, but you got close and it was like smoke and pipes and all the things that were little twinkling lights were just so that I guess people wouldn't like run into them or whatever. And it smelled like a paper mill. We're supposed to be a city on a hill that gets more and more beautiful and sweet and delightful the closer you get. Not that seems neat on the outside and the further you get in, the faker it becomes.
That's why he says, let's not love and word and talk. Let's not seem good. Let's not have and have nothing. Let's actually have the good stuff. Let's love and deed and truth.
You actually don't have to talk about it at all. Jesus says, it's better if you don't. Let's just do this stuff. Let's just look like we belong to the king of the universe who gave up everything so that we could belong to him. Let's look like people who were purchased by blood so money doesn't mean anything.
If you've been purchased by the blood of God, green things with Uncle Sam on them just doesn't matter as much. If we can rest in Christ and delight in Christ then the world's goods are just the world's goods. We're going to spend a couple of weeks just looking at this and talking about this and we want this to be who we are and how we practice all the time but we're going to pick one thing to do together right now. So we said John says is there some brothers who have a need? That's a good thing for Christians to jump in on and you may actually know of that. You may have that in your group.
You may have that around you where you say this is a Christian brother that have a need. It's Christmas time. I'm going to help but the reality is that should happen in January and February and March. It should be a hey these people around me they have needs. I have this stuff. Let's go.
And just constantly joyously looking like Christians but we're coming together for gift series to practically apply this in one specific way. So we just said do we know some Christians around us that have a need and anything that fits those categories a brother with a need works. We heard Raz Bradley brought this to our attention because he's on the board at Bethel Christian Camp and he said this is a little weird he said because I'm on the board there and we just said no it's not because all the things we've ever done have been with people that we've known that we knew about that's how this works and this one specifically is who's around who's a brother that you see and need do you see the need so Bethel Christian Camp is a camp in Gaston it's named Bethel and it's a Christian camp they do a lot of during the summer they do a lot of stuff with underserved children most of the children that come are on some form of a scholarship they have a couple of weeks during the summer where all the kids are on scholarship they run a really tight budget so that they can be very generous their director retired program director retired and they're hiring a new one and this new program director this is him and his wife Jason and Christine Arrington they're taking a pay cut moving from Virginia they're moving out of a nicer home into a smaller home they're taking a bigger budget making it a smaller budget so that they can be a part of what's happening and to join and serve and we found out that they were things are tight but they're trying to renovate this home a little bit Bethel is and so we just said hey if it serves them well as they serve y'all well and serve these kids well we want to help renovate that home we want to help make that a little nicer these are their four children and they're moving down with them in the background you can kind of see the home where I think they're coming from and then this is the one they're moving into and so we're going to go in as they try to renovate some of that and we're going to just help because they need some of the world's goods and we have some of the world's goods and we're the type of people because we belong to Christ who give things up so that other people can have them because Jesus gave stuff up so that we can have him and that's just how we act so we're going to practice this specifically together now we asked Jarl who's kind of head of things over there to send us some information what he sent us was a four minute video that explains a little bit of the heart behind Bethel and introduces us to the Arringtons and tells us a little bit about what they're going to do so we're going to watch that it's four minutes then I'm going to come up and say a few more things and that's it that's our gift project this year so we'll watch this hello Mill City my name is Jarl Hill some of you might know me as the director at Bethel Christian Camp some of you might know me as Isaac's dad and some of you might know me as Scott and Kit's son but most important of all is that I'm a child of God I'm a follower of Jesus Christ you see I think that who we think we are who we really believe that we are is vitally important it forms everything that we do we all know the story of how our great great great grandparents Adam and Eve were created by God and given a beautiful kingdom in which to live but that they decided to snub God because they thought they knew better and that's
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.
God With Us
Transcript
Well, good morning. We are in our third week of our Give Series, and our Give Series is something we do every year, so we always have a series kind of entitled Give three years in a row. And basically what we're doing at this time of year is we're going to intentionally take some time to study the Bible and to remind ourselves. I said study the Bible. We don't usually do that. We're always studying the Bible.
But take time to remind ourselves of what Christmas is about and not just get caught up in all the consumeristic stuff that goes on in our culture. So as Christians, what is always happening is there are some things in culture that we can just kind of accept, that we can go along with, that we can celebrate. And then there are other things in our culture that we're going to have to at times push back on. And so one of the things we just try to do around this time of year is rally ourselves as a church to be generous to some specific causes, to not just have Christmas roll by and all we thought about was gifts and giving and receiving gifts, but we actually think about some more long-term or some more other ways to be generous and to be helpful.
And so this year we've got two gift projects, and we talked about it last week. We may have bitten off a little more than we can chew, and so I don't think so. But we kind of got our work cut out for us. And what we've done is we're partnering with City Church, which is a church plant in Knoxville, where we're trying to raise some money for them so that when they hit the ground, we helped add into them hitting the ground running when they all move to Knoxville and get rolling. And we are helping the Staley's, who are a family affected by the flood that live in northeast Columbia. And we actually had a group of nine people go over yesterday to serve and work at their house and got a lot done.
And we're taking another group this coming Saturday to have another day of work over there. And then in January we'll have to go back to do some rebuild stuff. So right now we're just trying to make a few rooms in their house that are unsafe safe, and then we'll go back and make them beyond safe and back into being like nice and actual rooms in their house. And so that's kind of what we're going for. So I don't know about you.
I like Christmas, and I like the Christmassy-ness of Christmas. And I know some people get annoyed with Christmassy stuff. I was talking to someone this morning, and they said, yeah, I'm already over Christmas music. Like I'm annoyed with it at this point. I'm done. And I'm like singing in front of them because I just love Christmas stuff.
But I'm also the type of person I will cut down like random neighborhoods I've never been in just to see like the people who've lit up their house and decorated. I really appreciate the people that do that because I like the shiny lights and the colors and the tackiness and stuff that goes along with Christmas. I string up lights inside of my house because I want to enjoy them. So if they're on the outside of my house, I only see them when I pull up. So I have like lights strung around like the green outdoor lights and tree lights just strung around my house because I just plug them in, and my house is just lit up with Christmas lights.
And maybe a redneck, but I like that. But another thing you see around Christmas a lot is nativity scenes. And so you'll see nativity scenes. And nativity, the word, we looked it up. It just means like dealing with birth or your birth or something. So you could take someone to the place of your nativity.
So wherever you were born, you could say, this is the hospital of my nativity. They would think you were weird, but you could say that. That would be a correct way to use that word in a sentence. And so really nativity scenes are just a celebration of Jesus' birth. So it's the place of his birth.
And so you see these a good bit. We've got a few to look at this morning. And this is one of those that's like just the outline stuff. They're just shining lights on it. You can see that like Jesus is glowing. They're praying to him is what it looks like.
Maybe they're just praying over him. You've got the star lit up. You've got an angel that's just doing like the Vanna White thing. Like here they are. I don't know how long the angel stood there just doing that. But all right.
So the next one. So that one, you've seen stuff like that. Then you've got this kind. This is like you'd set up at your house. The thing about this nativity scene is it has everything. It has like birds that just float magically.
It's got a shooting star thing going. There's a beagle over here because they hung out in the Middle East. But it's just a whole lot of stuff. You know, it's like a 47-piece set. All right.
So then there's other ones that are just like more stylistic. So these people like coordinated all their outfits together. They're like, Jesus is going to be born. Everybody got your red sash. Yes, I got it. There was one guy who didn't have it, and he doesn't get to be in the picture.
All right. So next one. Then you've got people who do stuff like this, which who knows how long it took to get this to work out right. And in the right corner, it says fleas, navi dog. So if the dogs dressed up wasn't offensive enough, let's just throw this in here.
All right. Then you've got people who just like look around the house and find random things. So that's like a volcano with Batman on top. There's a Lego Garfield. The Bears quarterback is there. There's Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I don't know how the dude with the overalls, he just gets to be there. Like I don't know. And Frankenstein. So that's more traditional, like what you're used to. It's like all this isn't. You read it in your Bible.
No, I'm kidding. All right. So then you've got like Peanuts. They do their own kind of thing. And I think this may even be in the show they do. The next one's my favorite.
It's made out of bacon and sausage. We've had a debate. I think that's long, like long stem rice, but someone else was saying it was hash browns. But if you make a nativity scene, do you feel bad eating it? Like are you allowed to eat? Like it seems like you just wasted time.
Just go ahead and cook the bacon and eat it. Don't take forever. But anyway, there you go. That's a ham, sausage, bacon nativity scene. But we see these all the time, and I think we kind of get used to them.
Yeah, that can go away. We don't need to stare at bacon forever. People are just going to start getting annoyed. It's like, oh, I need a biscuit now. We see nativity scenes a good bit. And it's – I think we've over – it's the celebration that Jesus, that God, became a baby.
And so we set these up in our yard, and we have like a live one, and like church put on a big one, and have to order a camel from somewhere and have them walk around. And we celebrate this, but honestly, it's a little bit bizarre, if I can use that word, that God would become a baby, if you think about it. It's just a little bit – it should make us think. It should make us go, okay, what was the point of this? Like if we're celebrating that God became a human, what – why? What was he doing?
And so let's turn to Isaiah 9. We're going to look at what we've been doing a good bit. Isaiah chapter 9, if your Bible looks like this, it will be page 369. But what we've been doing a good bit is looking at Old Testament prophecy, which is where – so like if you watch movies and stuff and people see a prophet, like prophets like their eyes roll back in their head, and they like utter like cryptic sayings sometimes, and like they don't even know they said it, or like nobody knows what it means, but it's a prophecy, or like they have to climb a mountain and go talk to someone who's blind. And that's not what prophecy is in the Bible.
Prophecy is that God speaks specifically through people. So it's a person speaking on behalf of God what God told them to say. Now sometimes they have visions. Sometimes there are a little bit of things that go on with it where he's giving them imagery that they're – but it's not them. It's God that is speaking. And they're not speaking on their own behalf or through their own power.
They're speaking through God. And so that's what Isaiah is. And we're going to look at a really small prophecy that he made, or a really small section of prophecy that he made that's talking about this coming Savior. But we're going to pray before we hop in. God, we thank you for the time that we have to study your word together. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to grow in our appreciation for what you did at Christmas, what we're celebrating at Christmas, and what we're seeing when we see a nativity scene.
So, God, I pray that you'd help us to see that and to accept the invitation that you're making through being born here. In Jesus' name, amen. Isaiah 9, verses 6 and 7. This is a really pretty kind of piece of prophecy, but it's also – it puts these two images together that are kind of hard to hold together. So it says, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and he shall be called.
So we're going to stop for just a second. So he's saying there's going to be a child born, there's going to be a son given. And this theme runs throughout a lot of movies and stuff where there's this promised person coming, this promised son, this promised child that will be born, this destiny child. So there's like this thing that kind of runs through. Like we see it a lot as a theme, and this is actually what happens in Jesus. There's this promise that this son will be born, this child will be born.
So here's what it says. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. So he'll be in charge. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, and on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Okay, so there's going to be a baby born. And then Isaiah says some stuff that is not okay except for under one circumstance. He says some stuff that would not be okay to say except for under one circumstance. What he says is he'll be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. That's not okay unless this child that is born is actually God. Those are not okay names to call him.
In Hebraic Jewish understanding, it's a very serious thing to – it's blasphemy to take on the name of God or to be worshipped as God or to be called God when you are not. That's actually why they kill Jesus later. They accuse him of blasphemy because he is taking on the name of God. He's being called God. And they're saying, no, you're not. But he is.
He is this promised son. And here's what's crazy. These two images do not fit well together. Everlasting Father. Mighty God. Little bitty baby.
Now I know in our church family a lot of people have recently had children. A lot of people will be having children soon. And I'm not specifically if you're a mom in here and you've recently had a baby or if you just had babies. I'm not talking to you. Your child is excluded. But I'm talking about every other child that has ever been born.
Babies are ugly. Not yours. Yours was precious. Precious little baby angel. All the other ones look like little greasy trolls. Like they just didn't come out right.
Like they don't – every time I've ever seen a baby and they're like, isn't it beautiful? I'm like, hmm. Look how small it is. Like I just try to change the subject. Look at how – like when you say that you mean like look how big its head is. But you mean like look at – you just have to – oh, your baby could be in movies.
And like you're trying – it sounds nice but you meant like Voldemort in the train station in the last movie. Like that's what it looked like. Like you just – you're like, oh, this baby is so precious. But like I had a baby and Anna's like, isn't he beautiful? And I'm like, not really. Like I know I was part of the team here but this – this ain't looking so good.
Like his head's kind of odd shaped and like his face looks like a frying pan. Like I don't know. It turns out okay. They get cute. And I didn't mean – not your baby. Your baby was an angel.
But other people's babies. Not yours. Other people's. All of the other people's babies. Not cute. And God became one.
Everlasting Father. Mighty God. Little mushed up funny looking baby. That happened. And we've tried to clean this up. We've tried to make it nicer.
There's the song Away in a Manger. Away in a Manger. That song – that should be on the singing team. Melody Squad. In that song, this is one of the lyrics. The cattle are lowing.
And lowing means making noises. But mooing didn't sound as good. That's why we don't sing the cattle are mooing. No, it's – they're lowing. The baby awakes. But little Lord Jesus.
No crying he makes. Mmm. The only baby that never cried. Jesus. That would be the creepiest baby ever. Like, that's how babies communicate.
They can't speak. So, like, it's not like – are we trying to argue that Jesus could talk when he came out? Hello, mother. Hello, father. I'm God. I'm going to take a nap now.
Like, that didn't happen. He was a normal baby. Like, if he didn't cry, that's how they communicate that they're hungry and stuff. Like, the cattle low. They're lowing. And he wakes up, but he doesn't cry.
So, he just does this. How does he communicate that he's hungry? Like, no. He was a regular baby. And here's the thing. There's a little bit of us.
At least it's in me. I don't know if it's in you. There's a little bit of us that's like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Calm it down. Like, I look at the bacon nativity scene, and I think a little bit – I would have a hard time eating that. Because it's like, well, this is a nativity scene.
You can't eat baby Jesus. I don't care if you made him out of a sausage. Like, this is weird. You shouldn't have done this in the first place. There's the one with Batman, and you're like, no, no. Batman doesn't need to be here.
There's a little bit of this where you're going, this is degrading. You can't say that baby Jesus was mushy and funny looking. The whole nativity is degrading. That's the point. God became a baby. That is absolutely degrading.
Absolutely humiliating. He humiliated himself. That's what humble means. He humbled himself. He humiliated himself. He wasn't even born in a palace or a nice place.
It wasn't like a mushy, weird-looking baby in a nice house. He was laid in a feeding trough. The whole thing is degrading. Every single of the prettiest nativity scene you've ever seen, even that one that had 42 pieces and a beagle, is degrading. Because God became a baby. And there's a little bit of us that's like, okay, but why?
Why would he have to become a baby? Why did he have to be born? Couldn't he just show up? Couldn't he just have walked out of the woods? Like just ripped open the fabric of the world and stepped out and like glowed and floated? Like when he's 30 or around there and goes back to his hometown and preaches, they don't even listen to him.
One of the things says, isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this the builder? Isn't this the guy who used to just work here? Why are we listening to him? He'd lived a normal, everyday life. Had to cut his hair.
Had to walk places. Had to get strep throat. That's humiliating. That's degrading. And the question is, why? What's he doing?
Galatians 4. Flip over there with me. We'll spend the rest of our time there. It helps us answer this question. Paul is talking about kind of who we are in Christ. He's writing this letter to the church and he helps cue us in on why.
It'll be page 632 if you've got one of the blue and white Bibles. If you don't own a Bible, just take this one home with you. We want you to have a Bible. I want you to read it all the time. We're going to start in verse 4. I love this.
When the fullness of time wasn't a backup plan. It was when the moment was right. He wasn't scrambling to try to figure something out. It was when the moment was right. When the fullness of time had come. God sent his son.
Born of a woman. This is Galatians 4 verse 4. When the fullness of time had come. God sent forth his son. Born of a woman. Born under the law.
To redeem those who were under the law. Okay, stop there. We need to talk about that phrase. Born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. We joked the other day when we started this series. That one of the arguments we make around Christmas time.
Is just that. It's Christmas. So like when you're getting an argument with your family. When you're hanging out and doing Christmas stuff. When somebody's bringing up some things. When someone's crying.
When somebody's like being a jerk. Your grandmother will go. It's Christmas. We do not have that here. It's Christmas. And all the argument is.
Is that you could wait two weeks and be a jerk. But you can't be a jerk today. Because Christmas is coming up. Like that's the argument. And that's kind of a funny weird argument to make. Although we all accept it.
The funnier thing that's kind of sad. Is that we can't hang out with our family for two hours. Without getting in an argument. That's the worst part. I was hanging out with my brothers. And my family over Thanksgiving.
And my younger brother and I got into it. Over a ping pong game. It was getting heated. Somebody else. Like it worked out well. That someone else came out.
And we were both a little bit embarrassed. That we were arguing over ping pong. And we had to like get in. So we had to figure out what the score was. And move forward. And really the biggest problem was.
He wouldn't listen to reason. Like I was pummeling him with wisdom and logic. And he would have none of it. But the truth is. I mean I'm getting. I'm really looking at my younger brother.
And arguing with him. And serious. Over ping pong. And I still feel right. Yeah. We can't hang out for three hours with family.
Without getting into it. There's a little bit of us. If we're honest. If we're honest. We look at the world. And all of us are going.
Yeah this is messed up. This shouldn't be the way it is. Like. There are things that happen. That are just wrong. They shouldn't happen.
If we're honest. We look at ourselves. And think the same thing. I'm not. I'm not really as loving. As I would like to make out.
Like I'm not really as kind. I'm not really as generous. Like I give myself the benefit of the doubt. Like I had good intentions. But really.
But there's a little bit of us. The whole time that thinks. If I just. If we could just. Teach the world. If they could just not be ignorant.
These problems would go away. If we could just. If everybody had good. Family situations. These problems would go away. If everybody just knew the rules.
If everybody was just informed. Over what was good. And what was bad. Like these would go away. If I just. If I just got another chance.
If I just knew the rules. That's the law. There's a little bit of us. When everything got messed up. That it was like. Okay.
But don't we just need to be coached up. That's what religion is. Can't you just tell me what's good. And what's bad. And then we can get it right. Nope.
You see. The world turned into a hot mess. Pretty quickly. After God made it good. And then God gives the law. Which is that idea.
Which is what we all want. A little bit. It's what we all. I can figure this out. If I just have the rules. You just coach me up.
And I can do this well. Just give me another shot. I can do it. I can figure it out. I can be good enough. I can accomplish it.
I just need to know. Kind of what rules to play by. And the truth is. Where the law comes in. There's just more broken laws. We just mess the rules up worse.
It wasn't just coaching that we needed. We needed something to get all together. Different. My dad went to Liberty University. Way back in the day. When it was more intense.
He was asked. Politely not to return. My uncle went. He graduated. I think. His oldest son went.
His middle son went. His third son went. Several of those were asked. It's okay. You're good. Just don't come back next semester.
My older brother went. He didn't finish up there. My younger brother went. He didn't finish up there. Several of them. It was just a formally nice request.
You're good. You're good. You don't have to come back. Then my older brother Logan. Went to Bob Jones for a while. I went to Presbyterian College.
And I didn't break a whole lot of rules. Do you want to know why? Presbyterian College didn't have a lot of rules. I broke one. You're not supposed to have a full size refrigerator. In your dorm.
But Matt and I were roommates. And that little refrigerator wasn't cutting it. So we went and talked to. Our RA. And he was like. As long as I don't see it.
When I check your room. You're good. We threw a blanket over it. We also had a pet squirrel in our room. Those were the only rules we really broke. There weren't a whole lot to break.
We could stand up here all day long. And just talk about rules. We could stand up here all day long. And just lay the law on top of ourselves. It's not going to fix us. You could be as coached up as you want to be.
You can know everything that you're supposed to do. It's not going to fix you. And so Jesus was born. When the time was right. He was born of a woman. Born under the law.
To redeem those who were under the law. See every single one of us fails miserably. Fails miserably. When it comes to the law. So Jesus had to be born into the system.
To get us out of it. He had to be born under the law. Into the system. So that he could live perfectly. Do what we can't do. To redeem us.
To buy us back. Born under the law. So that. So he was born. The reason he was born of a woman. The reason he was born.
So that he could be in the system. He could be under the law. So that. Those who were under the law. That's us. All of us have failed miserably before God.
All of us stand condemned before God. None of us will get to walk into the throne room of God. And say. Check out my track record. You're welcome. I crushed it.
Just here to get my high five God. You owe me. None of us get to do that. Even though we give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. We don't get to do that. So he was born under the law.
So that he could fulfill it on our behalf. So that he could rescue us. Redeem us. Buy us back. So that we might receive adoption.
As sons. And because you are sons. God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts. Crying. Abba. Father.
So not only do we get to receive adoption as sons. But for those who place faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit helps us be sons. And the reason it says sons. And not children. Is that sons are heirs.
So you are no longer a slave. But a son. And if a son. Then an heir through God. So in their society.
Females didn't inherit anything. So it's actually really beautiful. That we all get to be sons. Because in that society. That means you're an heir. So we all get to inherit.
What Jesus earned on our behalf. Here's what's beautiful. When you see a nativity scene. As humiliating. And as degrading as they are. And as how much it's trying to wed.
These two ideas. Of this little screaming baby. Helpless baby. With everlasting father. And mighty God. Jesus was born here.
So that we can be born there. Jesus was adopted here. You see Joseph in all those nativity scenes. That's not Jesus' dad. Joseph adopted Jesus. Jesus was adopted here.
So that we. Could be adopted there. That's the nativity scene. Is that he was born here. So that by faith.
We can trust Jesus. And he will redeem us. And we're born again. We're not. We're made new. And we're adopted into the family.
Jesus was born here. And adopted here. He joined himself with humanity. So that we can be joined. With eternity. So that we can be adopted.
Into the family of God. So that we can be. Completely welcomed. By Jesus' work. Not ours. And that's what's.
Really exciting. About our. Our give series this year. So it's really exciting. About church planting. See Jesus left heaven.
And joined with humanity. He said. I'm going to. Take your problems on myself. I'm going to take the law on myself. I'm going to.
Fulfill for you. What you can't fulfill for yourself. And he. Lived a normal. Life. For most of his life.
Had a job. Lived in a community. Celebrated holidays. Completely fulfilled. The law. And then went to a cross.
On our behalf. And the truth is. Church planting. Is a small picture of that. It's. I'm going to leave my home.
That's what city church is doing. I'm going to leave. Our home. And we're going to go. Join with this community. We're going to go get jobs here.
We're going to go be a part of. This here. We're going to go. Be around in normal life. That's what our groups are. It's us walking in normal life.
With the city. With each other. There's something beautiful about. Jesus becoming a human. Which means that. All of the normalcy of our lives.
Has meaning. And matters. Jesus didn't just float in. Say some stuff. And float out. No.
He went to work. He walked around. Cooked food. Cooked food. And so that means that. As we walk in normal life.
We get to join in. It's actually. Made humanity. In some ways. Godly. Just to go to work.
Just to build a relationship. Just to be friends with each other. Because that's what Jesus did. So that he could redeem us. So that he could buy us back.
And we get to go do the same thing. So that more people can meet Jesus. So go to work. And realize that your goal. As Jesus went to work. To work perfectly.
Your goal is to see more people meet Jesus. To get bought back. To know that he. When he was born. Came to rescue them. That's why we're.
That's why we're. Partnering with the Staley's. To help their house. Jesus said. This isn't my home. And I'm going to make it my home.
And I'm going to make it better. We get to do that. This isn't our home. But we're going to come alongside of you. We're going to treat it like it is. We're going to make it better.
The band's going to come back up. And here's what I want us to remember. Here's the big question. That every nativity scene. Screams at you. You see.
Jesus was born here. So that we could be born again. And he was adopted. So that you could be adopted. And when you see a nativity scene. At your grandma's house.
Riding down the road. A plastic one set up at Walmart. The question is this. Have you trusted Jesus? Have you been born again? Have you been adopted into the family?
That's why he came. He was born of a woman. So that we could be born there. So that we could be redeemed. He was adopted here. So that we could be adopted there.
And the way that works is by us placing faith in Jesus. So when you see a nativity scene. Have you done that? And if you have. Remember that. And celebrate that.
Every time you see one. That God humiliated himself. He degraded himself. So that we could be exalted. He was an inglorious. Un majestic little baby.
So that we could have glory. And majesty. And share that with God for eternity. That's the nativity. That's the celebration of that. That he humiliated himself.
So we could be exalted. Exalted. So we could be welcomed. So that we could be adopted. So that we could be made new.
And we're not going to work it out. We're not going to fix it on our own. We're not going to know enough rules. We're not going to accomplish it. We're going to receive it by grace. And just be welcomed in through what Jesus did on our behalf.
And that's what we're celebrating at Christmas. And that's the picture we get to see every time we see a nativity scene. And if you see one that's cheeky. It's poking fun. Every nativity scene is degrading. And all the more that we get to celebrate.
That our God humiliated himself. So that we could be exalted. So that we could be welcomed. That he was adopted here. So we could be adopted there.
That's the God we serve. That's the Jesus who's welcomed us. And you don't have to earn it. You don't have to accomplish it. He came when the fullness of time was right. To rescue and to redeem and to make you his.
And that's the invitation. To trust Jesus. To be made right by him. Not by your own work. Not by your own. That's why he had to be born under the laws.
Because we've all failed it. God we thank you. We praise you. Pray that we wouldn't miss it. But that we'd get to celebrate.
What you've accomplished for us. God I pray if there's anybody in here. Who has not been born again. Who has not been adopted into your family. Who has not fully trusted. What Jesus accomplished through his life.
And on the cross. And as he rose again from the dead. Pray that you would. Through your Holy Spirit. Send it into their hearts. And let them cry.
Abba. Father. That through your Holy Spirit. You would grab them. And bring them into your family. You've already done everything.
That needed to happen through your life. And through your death. And through your resurrection. And God that I just ask. That your Holy Spirit would move now. To grab people.
And to bring them in. That God you would do. Your work of adopting. That you would do your work. Of redeeming. And making people yours.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Joy Has Dawned
Transcript
Well, good morning. Festive seasons greetings to all of you. I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. I was invited early on in November to a Friendsgiving, and so I got to go eat Thanksgiving-type meal then, and then our community group had a Thanksgiving meal on Tuesday, and then we had a Thanksgiving meal at our house on Thursday, and then I went to my parents' house and had one on Saturday, and that was great, and I plan on doing that every year from now on. And I just wanted to throw this out there. If any of you are having Thanksgiving things and would like to invite me, I absolutely will try to come.
Eat turkey and drink gravy at your house. So I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. I hope you got to spend some time with friends and family. I want to take a quick poll. I want to kind of see where we land in the room, because I think there's really three types of Black Friday shoppers. So I just want to find out.
I want to see who's in the room. So three types. The first type is this. Oh, heck yes. There's good deals. I'm going to shop for 24 hours straight.
I will camp out. I will buy an expensive tent just to camp out so that I can save less money than I spent on the tent. I will fight a grandmother over an Xbox. She shouldn't be out if she can't handle it. Stay home. This is Black Friday.
Who's kind of in that zone like you get into Black Friday shopping? Really? Nobody. Nobody gets into it. All right.
My brother, he camped out because a friend of his told him that Cabela's was giving away guns, and the least amount you could get if you were in the top 600 was a $100 gift card. So he went and slept outside. They gave him a $15 gift card. He looked at his friend and said, I'm going home. He actually went and slept in his truck and then went to work, and that was it. That was his Black Friday, but nobody camps out here.
Who is in the second category, which is I will Black Friday shop, but I'm going to sleep, and I'll go for a little bit if there's a specific thing I want, but I'm not trampling anybody. Who's kind of in that zone? You will Black Friday shop. Okay, the third category is nope. Yeah, okay. My kind of people.
That's the zone I'm in. Again, I know some people are like, well, I'm going to Cyber Monday shop. That's good. You do that. Use the Internet. But I just kind of want to see what had happened, who's already been kind of out there in the world shopping and doing stuff.
So here's what happens. We have Thanksgiving. We have this week, this moment of like everybody just appreciate what you have until about 6 p.m., and then let's go get more stuff, and let's like be aggressive about it. Like that's kind of like that's the tone. That's kind of our culture is like let's be thankful, but not for too long because we're going to get some stuff. Like so our stores are opening at 6 p.m.
Like Black Friday is immediately the day after Thanksgiving where it's like, did you say the stuff you were thankful for? Cool. Get new stuff. Throw that stuff away. You can be thankful for this stuff next year until this moment, and then you've got to get new stuff and throw that stuff away. So that's kind of the zone.
And so when we come to Christmas season, we always do a give series, which is intentionally reminding ourselves what Christmas is about, taking a few weeks to just remember what we've been given, what we've received from God, and then intentionally leveraging our resources, our time to be generous, to not just get caught up in the consumer frenzy that is American Christmas, but to actually take a moment, take some time, and appreciate what's been given to us, and then try to leverage our time, our energy for some generosity, for some things that will last and will matter. And it's one of my favorite things that we get to do every year together as a church family, and excited that we're getting to start that this week. I love Christmas. I love Christmas.
I'm not one of these, like, I'm into it. I love Christmas. I'm not anti-Christmas. I am anti-Christmas until after Thanksgiving. So I know some of y'all were like busting out Christmas decorations before Turkey.
Like, let's appreciate the day we eat food. Like, why are we skipping past this? It's a wonderful holiday. But after Thanksgiving, I'm listening to Christmas music in my car. Like, I love Christmas music. Like, my, we got Christmas coming up with my family, and Archer and I, Archer's my eight-month-old son.
We have matching, horrendously ugly, Ninja Turtles Christmas sweaters that we are going to wear at Christmas. Is that a waste of money? Yes. Will it be great? I think so. I think it was worth it for us to, just to be able to celebrate some Christmas with some ridiculous stuff.
And one of the things I love about Christmas this time of year is that collectively, our entire culture is like, peace and joy. Good cheer. Good cheer? When do we ever use that phrase? But people will be like, be of good cheer.
It's like, what on earth are we talking about? Like, we're singing that where, we have this, this collectively, we're all just, joy. Like, you go to Dunkin' Donuts, and I think now Starbucks, I think they caved, because people threw a fit, about their red cups. But, go to Dunkin' Donuts, you get a cup of coffee, and it just says joy on the side. How nice is that? Like, we just, you hang up in your house, you just hang up the word peace.
You guys, peace. Look, it's bedazzled. Like, this is kind of our, our cultural attitude, is like, joy, and peace, and hope, and forgiveness, and happiness, because it's Christmas. And what's really funny to me, be of good cheer, what's really funny to me, is that, if you got a cup that said joy on it, in June, your name had better be joy. Like, why is that on my cup? Like, if they give you that cup, and you're like, why, are these cups old?
Like, what it, y'all way ahead of the game, or way behind it, why does this cup say joy? I just want to drink coffee. Don't tell, don't tell me how to feel. Give, give me another cup. I don't feel joyous. It's June.
Like, we push that, like, movies, and your mom and your grandma, but we'll talk about movies first. Then we'll talk about your mom and your grandma. Movies. A lot of movies, Christmas movies, have this. Something terrible happens. Somebody steals.
Somebody hurts somebody. Somebody does stuff. And then at the end, they go, but it's Christmas. TV shows. Just horrible shenanigans and hijinks. And then, at the end of it, they go, but it's Christmas.
The person said they're sorry. Let's forget. And this, this happens with your mom and your grandmother. You're, you're at Christmas. People are getting aggravated, and they'll go, mm-mm. No.
None of that. It's Christmas. And this is a valid argument. We're like, oh yeah, good point. That's the argument. No, you made a good point.
No. Grandma's right. The calendar. That's the argument. It is this time of year. This, this two, kind of two, three week zone.
Mm-mm. Mm-mm. No, sir. No, sir. You can get drunk, and argue with people, and spread everybody else's business, some other time of the year. Not at Christmas.
You can throw a fit, and be really rude, any other time you want to. Not at Christmas. Or we'll just be like, you have to forgive. It's Christmas. And all we're really doing is saying, see the calendar? If you want to do this in January, perfectly acceptable.
Start an argument. Be mean to people. Don't forgive. Whatever. Sorry. It's in the two week window.
It's Christmas. Joy. Look at your cup. Look at it. Drink it, and shut your mouth. It's Christmas.
This is our attitude. And we all are like, mm-hmm. Good point. Why? We have collectively, as a culture, decided, this is the time of year we're happy. We've painted smiles on everything.
We've painted smiles on ourselves. It's Christmas. And then what really happens is, if you're not happy, it's like way more sad. Did you notice that? Like your cup says joy, which makes you feel worse, if you don't have joy. Like if you're sad.
Like, okay. If I eat Taco Bell, and watch Die Hard, on a random Tuesday, that's a good night. If I eat Taco Bell, and watch Die Hard on Christmas Eve, I feel sad inside. Because it's like, it's Christmas Eve. I should be doing Christmas-y things. Even though Die Hard is kind of a Christmas movie, you guys.
John McClain. Putting it out there for Christmas. Here's the thing. Culturally, collectively, we have all decided, this is the time of year we're going to have joy and peace. And we're going to have good cheer. And we're going to have forgiveness.
If you keep asking questions though, if you keep asking why, why are we doing that? Why do we have joy on our cup? Why do we have good cheer? Why? What? Why?
The answer, without Jesus, is, we've decided to. That is the answer. If you keep asking why, and you eventually pull the curtain back, there's nothing there. Just that, we collectively have decided this is the time of year that we say peace, and we're not hippies. Collectively, this is the time of year that we put joy on our cups, and our name isn't joy. Like, that's what, we've just decided that.
And if Jesus isn't behind the curtain, we're really not a big foundation for joy. Really not a big reason for peace, and for good cheer, and for good forgiveness. It's really just that culturally, we've all decided, sure, sounds good. We'll all be on that team. And that's okay. I mean, I think people can get on board with the cultural decision, but it ends up being a lot more hollow, a lot less real, if there's nothing behind it.
And so one of the things we want to do is take a few weeks to actually see where that joy comes from. To actually show that scripturally, biblically, for us as Christians, we have a real reason for joy. You can have it on your cup in June. We have a real reason for joy, a real reason for peace, a real reason for forgiveness, and good cheer. We can all be of good cheer because we have a real reason. And so that's what we're going to celebrate.
That's what we're going to look at. And so we're going to look at, over the next couple weeks, we're going to look at some Old Testament passages that point to this coming Messiah. Some Old Testament passages that are pointing to this coming Redeemer, this coming Messiah, and what He's going to do, and what He's going to accomplish, and then how we get to celebrate that at Christmas. So, I'm going to pray and then we'll hop in. We'll be, well, I'll tell you in a second, we'll pray. God, we thank You for Your goodness.
We thank You that we actually have a reason for joy, that we actually have a reason for peace, that we actually have something to celebrate as we gather here this morning. That it isn't just a smile painted on, that it isn't just the word joy written on a cup that otherwise would just be a cup. God, it is actually real joy, real peace, and something real to celebrate and to get excited about. And so, God, we praise You. Pray that You would help us to see how good You are and then join in the generosity and join in the love and join in the sacrifice as we try to get behind that opportunity this year in our gift series.
And so, God, we praise You and we thank You. In Jesus' name, amen. We'll be in Isaiah chapter 35. So, Isaiah chapter 35. Isaiah was a prophet to Israel and he would, prophets in the Old Testament do a couple of things. They speak to, they speak like into their time, into their culture, and then they speak about things that are about to happen, currently happening, about to happen, or are going to happen sometime further in the future.
So, they're speaking right into what's currently happening, what's about to happen, and then sometimes they're speaking into things that are going to be ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, ultimately fulfilled further in the future. And sometimes it's both. Sometimes it's about to happen, and there's a bigger, greater, later fulfillment. And so, there's a couple places in Isaiah. We read one where he talks about there's going to come a child unto us, a child is given unto us, a son is born, and on his shoulders will be the government, and he'll be called Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He'll be called God.
At one point, he says he actually will be called God, so it can't be just a human. It's got to be something bigger, something later. At one point, he says that there will be a virgin who gives birth to Emmanuel, and Emmanuel means God with us. That's what we just sang. We were singing, Emmanuel, O come, O come, Emmanuel. And that God is with us.
God has joined us. And so, these are prophecies that would be spoken into, and everybody in the culture started looking for, when's this going to happen? Is it now? Is it going to happen now? So, my brother's a really big South Carolina fan. I'm a South Carolina fan.
On Friday, he and I were hanging out, and I looked at him, because we were going to be hanging out as a family, and eating a Thanksgiving meal, and watching the game, and then hanging out with each other. And I looked at him, and I said, Vince, are you mentally and emotionally prepared for what is going to happen tomorrow during the South Carolina-Clemson game? And he was like, he goes, you and my wife. And I was like, what? And he goes, you going to pout all day tomorrow? You know?
He tears him up. So I was like, dude, you got to be prepared. South Carolina, look at my face. South Carolina is not going to win. I love South Carolina. Not going to happen.
And he looked at me and went, okay. And I said, and that little voice inside of you that just said, but maybe let it die. And he busted out laughing. And he goes, I did just think that. You know, it's a rivalry game, and it's like, no, none of that. But here's what South Carolina has done all year.
South Carolina has been just good enough to lose all year long. That's it. They've been just good enough to lose. They've lost by a touchdown. They've lost by a point. They've lost by, that was to the Citadel.
They lost by a field goal. They've been just good enough to lose. And so every game, they get your hopes up though if you're a Carolina fan. So I was telling everybody, don't get excited. They're just going to play well and lose. And then when we got within like three points, when it was 25 to 28, I was like, everyone get your hopes up.
Please. Like Carolina just wants to get you in that area so they can crush your soul. And here's what happens. Every time I watch one of those games, I'd be like, oh. I'd be telling people, don't be excited. But inside I'm going, maybe we'll do it.
Like every single time and every single time they were like, are you excited? No. None of that. That's kind of how the nation of Israel felt over and over again with these prophecies. There's this, is it going to be, is it coming? Is it this time?
Is this, is this the one? Is this going to be fulfilled now? Is it like, there was this national longing, maybe a little more dull, but definitely dragged out and definitely over time there's this, when is God going to come? When is this prophecy going to be fulfilled? When is this going to happen? Is it now?
Is this the time? There was this national, oh, is this it? Kind of thing going on. And it's because of prophecies like this. And so we're going to see some of the promises that were given to the people of Israel, some of the promises that were given about what the Messiah is going to do when he comes, what it's going to look like when God joins us. And so we're going to see four promises and then we're going to look at some of the implications for the redeemed, for those who are saved, for those who are rescued by this Messiah.
We're going to see four promises about the Redeemer and then we're going to talk about kind of some implications for the redeemed. So Isaiah 35, verse 1. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad. The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it.
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord and the majesty of our God. Okay, so the first thing we see, the first promise about this coming Messiah is that the Redeemer brings life. What it says is that the desert will rejoice and be glad. The wilderness will break out in joy and singing. So it's some colorful imagery to talk about how the mood, what's actually going to happen, where he's going to take desert, he's going to take what's dead, what's dry, where there is no life and it's going to be vibrant.
It's going to be overwhelmed with joy and singing. So the desert is going to break forth in singing. So it's just this colorful picture of when this Redeemer comes, areas that are depressed are going to see economic renewal, areas that are broken are going to be fixed, areas where there's just death and sadness and guilt and shame are going to be renewed, are going to be given life. One of the things that I think is beautiful here is he says, the desert will bloom with the crocus. This is the crocus. that's pretty. I mean, that's a pretty flower.
I consider myself pretty manly. When I look at that, I'm like, oh, that's a pretty flower. Let me show you, he says it'll bloom abundantly. This is a field of crocus and you can just Google crocus and there are pictures of fields after fields of just that. So that's what he says.
He's going to take the desert, he's going to take dry, broken, dusty land, he's going to take what's parched and dead and turn it into that. He's actually going to make things more beautiful. Or you're going to walk out and just feel renewed, feel life, so that the Redeemer, the first promise is that he brings life. The other thing it says is the glory of Lebanon, so he's talking about the desert and the wilderness, the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. So he picked kind of well-known places that were known for their economic activity or known for their beauty and says, I'm going to take the wilderness and turn it like that.
It would be kind of like Columbia, it's a nice place, I like Columbia, it's really hot and it's not the prettiest city. I like Columbia, but nobody's like, oh Columbia is so beautiful. People just don't say that about Columbia. They say other things about Columbia, but they don't say that. And so it would be like him saying, I'm going to take Columbia and I'm going to give it the prestige of New York, the beauty of the Rockies, and the life of New Orleans, the kind of celebratory life of New Orleans. So it's kind of, he's taking the wilderness and saying, but I'm going to bring this over because Lebanon was known for its cedars, Sharon and Carmel were known for their economic activity and one of them was these two mountains that were next to an ocean.
And so he's like, I'm going to make this beautiful. And so the Redeemer, when he shows up, the first promise that's made in Isaiah 35 is that he's going to bring life. He's going to bring vibrancy with him. Verse three, strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.
Recompense means repayment. He's going to come and make it right. Behold, your God will come with vengeance and recompense. What he just did was he looked and said, all of you who are weak, all of you who are outcast, all of you who've been pushed to the fringes of society, all of you who have no voice, no power, don't be afraid. God's going to come with vengeance and repayment. And so what the promise is is that God knows what's happening.
He sees it and the guilty will not get off scot-free. The oppressors will no longer be able to be oppressive to those under them, but he will bring vengeance and justice that this God will take up the sword when he comes. That wickedness will have no place in front of him. And all the things that have been stolen, all the things that have been broken, all of that that's been taken will be repaid, will be given back. And so the second promise that's given is that this Redeemer brings justice. This Redeemer, when he comes, is going to bring justice.
He's going to level it out. He's going to rescue the weak. He's going to defend against oppression and tyranny. One of the pictures I have in my mind is like every Robin Hood movie so if you, I mean, I'm talking the one with Kevin Costner, I think even the one, the more recent one was Russell Crowe, Robin Hood Men in Tights, if that's your thing. I think one of the best examples of this is the Disney version where it's like a fox is Robin Hood. One of the things that happens in these plot lines is King Richard is gone.
The rightful king is gone. And in his place is his whiny little brother, Prince John. And while King Richard is gone, Prince John starts abusing his power. He starts overtaxing people. He starts just everything he can do to oppress and to steal. And so that's where Robin Hood shows up as this kind of anti-hero where he begins to steal from the government to give it back to the people.
So he's stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. And he's helping level everything out. And what happens in those movies though is as soon as King Richard gets back, everything gets straightened out. As soon as King Richard gets back, there's this celebration where King Richard takes his brother John and gets him off the throne and begins to let equality reign again where he begins to not oppress people where the kingdom gets set back right. And that's kind of the promise here is that this Redeemer is coming. And when he shows up, all the false gods, false saviors, all the false leaders, all those who've oppressed, all those who have been tyrannical are going to be removed and justice is going to be there.
And he's going to reign and rule with justice. He keeps going. So Isaiah prophesying about this coming Redeemer. He says, Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water. In the haunt of jackals where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. The Redeemer is going to bring healing. So he's going to take the desert and water's going to pour forth where the sand would burn anybody who decided to walk on it, anybody who dared ventured out in this desert.
He's going to turn that into an oasis. It'll be cool pools of water. But he says, The blind will see. The deaf will hear. The lame will leap like a deer. And the mute will sing for joy.
He's going to heal that that's unhealable. He's going to take what's broken beyond repair and repair it. That's a heavy promise. That's the kind of healing that this Messiah is going to bring. I watched a video recently of a deaf boy and he had to be, he was a baby, he had to be six months, eight months and they were able to go in and do some kind of a hearing aid implant thing and he heard his mom for the first time and it's the coolest video. It's really short but his mom starts talking to him and he looks at her and he goes like this and then he just starts crying and he's like a six month old baby.
I could understand an adult crying by being overwhelmed by hearing for the first time because they mentally know their deaf. Like they know there's something off and they know kind of, but this kid's six months old and you can tell that he's had this moment of this is how it should have been the whole time. There's something that he recognizes in that moment. He's not scared. He's like he just, he's like he can't handle what has just happened to him and that's the promise of this coming Messiah. That he's going to set it right so that there's moments for all of us where we go, this is how it was supposed to be the whole time.
This is what it was supposed to be like. You know that feeling that we all have that the world just isn't the way it ought to be. Even people who would say there is no God, there is no, they don't look at the world and go man this is great. We are crushing this right now. Turn on the news. You don't come away with that feeling.
If the news is not, turns out puppies are more snuggly than ever. Like that's not the news. We look at stuff and it's, we realize the world isn't the way it's supposed to be and this redeemer is going to show up and take what's broken beyond repair and fix it to the point that where it's the way it ought to always have been. Fourth promise of this coming redeemer. And a highway shall be there and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way. Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. No lion shall be there nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it. They shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there. and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads and they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. This redeemer is going to bring salvation.
He's going to open up a way of holiness. He's going to open up a highway and the redeemed will get to return. The ransomed will come back. When the Bible talks about a highway, so in this time they didn't have machinery so they mostly just had kind of paths that were worn out as people walked on. My mother-in-law recently moved to the northeast side of Columbia. She was talking to me the other day and Two Notch Road runs right past my house over in West Columbia and she lives on Two Notch Road in downtown on the other side of northeast Columbia and she said to me, I saw Two Notches over here.
Would it be just quicker and easier if I just followed Two Notch all the way to your house? And I was like, no. That would be terrible. That's a horrible idea because Two Notch I think originally started as like a path that people took their feet over and horses. Like, it's like we're going to go around the big tree and then there used to be a creek here so it just cuts and runs like this for a while and then that rock's really recognizable so we'll turn right there. Like, that's Two Notches this like old path that eventually just turned into a road.
We have highways now. You don't take Two Notch. You got I-20. Just hop, just come on around. Like, it just comes straight. Two Notch is like this windy and so that's how paths worked and then they cut highways which were the king's highways that they could travel armies over and what they do is they lower hills, they dig them out, they raise up the ground and they make a path that you can't get lost on.
It's not walk till you see the recognizable rock so that you're walking and going, is that a rock? That seems recognizable if you've seen it before. You should have had them draw me a picture. It's not that. Like, if I had to explain to her how to take Two Notch all the way here, it's not follow Two Notch. It's like, you gotta turn here and you gotta, like, they have highways now.
A way of holiness is gonna be opened up. It's going to be clear and evident and then it says the redeemed will return and the ransom will return. Redeemed means that he takes what's broken and he fixes it. He renews it. He makes it right so that people will be renewed and made right and then the ransomed means that he buys them out of slavery. That a price was paid for them to be set free.
It's like in Hunger Games where they have the, they draw the little names out of the hat on who's gonna have to go into the dome and die is basically how that thing starts off and they draw out that little girl's name and Katniss Everdeen, if you don't know anything about Hunger Games, she's the one on the cover holding the bow and arrow. She says, I volunteer as tribute because it was her sister. A tribute had to go so she took her place. That's the idea of ransom here. That a payment had to be made but that those who were going to be enslaved, those who were going to be crushed, those who were going to have to pay have been set free.
This is the promise that's given. That there's going to come a redeemer, there's going to come a savior who's going to bring life, who's going to execute justice, who's going to bring healing, and who's going to bring salvation and that promise is made over and over and over and over and over again. So there's this, this, is it now? When's it coming? Put your finger in Isaiah 35 because we're coming right back. Flip over to Matthew chapter 1.
This is your first time. You may be surprised. Turns out, this promised Messiah is Jesus. If you're a part of our church family, you knew we were coming to Jesus. We're always going to make it to Jesus. Matthew chapter 1, verse 18.
It's on page 523, if you're in the Bible, it looks like this. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. So they're basically engaged. Before they came together, that means they had not slept with one another yet, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. So the way they did betrothal was you were technically married, like you couldn't just break off an engagement.
You had to actually go through like a divorce process, but you're not married yet. So betrothal was more intense than it is for us. And so he decides, because she's pregnant and he knows where babies come from, he decides, I don't want to be marrying you because that baby's not mine. That was his decision making. But he also cares about her, so he doesn't want to put her to shame or have her harmed because there were some rules, some very strict rules against that in their time.
So he just decides to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. That's the prophet Isaiah. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Back to Isaiah 35. Jesus is God with us. He is the fulfillment of all of these prophecies. He is the fulfillment of all these things that have been promised over and over and over and over again.
And Jesus fulfills all of this. Here's what Jesus does. He lives a perfect life and then goes to the cross for us. That's where he bought us back and made us right. That's where the ransom was paid. That's how we are redeemed.
And so these promises for the redeemed and for the ransomed are for us who have placed faith in Jesus and are offered to everyone because Jesus went to the cross on our behalf. So let's look at this quickly and see how these promises are open to us and given to us through Jesus. So Jesus brings life, which means that in us, he takes shame, but he took it to the cross. And so now our shame and our guilt and all the things that had weighed us down and brought death to us, all of our depression and pain, because of Jesus, because this Savior did come, becomes glory. So he takes a desert and he gives to it glory.
Becomes glory because what it does is all of your guilt, all of your shame, all of your sin, all of your depression points to the greatness of Jesus as your Savior. The greatness of the salvation that's been given to us. So Jesus brings life to us. He takes all the darkest places in you and shines light on them, but not to shame you, to set you free from them. And so he brings life. He turns your desert life into that beautiful purple flower.
So Jesus does in us. He beautifies. He takes what's broken and he makes it right. The second thing he does is he brings justice. Read that again. Start in verse three.
Strengthen the weak hands. Make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, Be strong. Fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.
Say that to those who have an anxious heart, who can't stop worrying, who have let fear take up residence in their soul. Fear not. To those who are burdened with every possibility of what could go wrong and are continually asking the question, Does God know? Does God see? Does he realize what has happened to me? Does he know what's been done to me?
And what Jesus says is, Fear not. Fear not. Vengeance belongs to me. And repayment belongs to me. That's the promise given to us in Christ through the cross. He brings justice.
Jesus brings healing to us. The eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute shall sing for joy. Waters will break forth in the desert. All of us have something in our souls that we think this will be with me forever. This will Mark me forever.
This is unfixable. I saw a commercial recently of, well not recently, some years ago. Sorry. In my family, we say the other day, and that means any time past yesterday. Could be seven years ago. The other day I was in first grade.
Like that's how we do that. I think it was during the Super Bowl, and it was a commercial about some kind of medical something, and Christopher Reeves, who was Superman, way back in the day, back when Superman could go around the earth backwards and actually reverse time. That Superman? He was in an accident. He was paralyzed from the neck down, and in this commercial, he rides his wheelchair up on stage, and then he stands up and walks across the stage. And that stuck with me because I was like, is that real?
And it was not. They were just indicating kind of where they were headed. The progress that was going to be made. That has not happened yet. We haven't gotten to that point yet. But there was this moment where you see him stand up that it's like, can that really happen?
And currently the answer is no. Not outside of Jesus. But all of us have stuff that we think this is permanent. And with Jesus, no it's not. He can repair the unrepairable. He can fix broken relationships that are beyond repair.
He can heal what is so broken in you, so dark in you, so hidden in you. Jesus can bring life back to it. That's the promise given to us on the cross because Jesus died and came back to life and he can heal anything. That's open to us because Jesus became a man and went to the cross for us. I love the fourth thing that is true for us. A highway shall be open there and it should be called the way of holiness.
That's in caps in most of the Bibles. That's because that's Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He's the way of holiness that's opened up for us that will get us back to God. The unclean shall not pass over it because Jesus makes us clean. It shall belong to those who walk on the way.
Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. That is beautiful. It's my favorite verse in this whole passage. Jesus is going to do everything. Morons can't mess it up. Do you know how good news that is?
Some of you, that needs to be your life first. Write that in soap on your mirror. Even fools cannot go astray. You can't get lost even if you're a moron. For a lot of us, our past is littered with bad decisions. Horrible, I feel this in my gut, horrible gut calls that led to disaster, broken relationships, pain.
There hasn't been a thing that we haven't messed up. Even fools won't get lost. That's how big and beautiful this highway is. Get on the highway. Then what?
Keep going. When do I turn? You don't have to. Should I write this down? No. Just get on the highway.
That's all you gotta do. Jesus has done everything that needed to be done for us to be saved. We don't have to earn it. We don't have to religion it. We don't have to be good enough. We don't have to be smart enough.
We don't have to accomplish it. We don't have to climb the mountain. We don't have to meditate enough. We don't. Trust in Jesus because Jesus has paid everything with his blood and even fools can't get lost. And then it says that no lion shall be there nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it.
They shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Because of Jesus joy is given to us. You can have it on your cup year round. Because of Jesus.
Because he was born as a man and died in our place to ransom us to redeem us to open up a way back to God that we can't mess up. This is not a book of rules for you to follow. It is a book about a coming savior that is promised over and over and over and over again in the Old Testament and then in Matthew 1 where it turns into the New Testament we get told that promise is fulfilled. This was this happened so that Emmanuel that prophecy could be fulfilled and God could be with us and accomplish everything he said he was going to. Jesus is our redeemer and we can place our faith and our trust in him and he takes care of everything and he gives us joy and sorrow and sighing aren't allowed.
When he eventually returns and calls us all home everything is made right and he's already done everything that needed to happen for us to be made right with him. So the first implication of who this redeemer is in Jesus is that he does all this for us. The second thing is that he does all this through us as his church. We actually get to join him in bringing life. Join him in executing justice. Join him in bringing healing and join him in bringing salvation.
That he actually uses his church to join in on this mission. So we get to bring life. That means digging wells. It also means making things prettier like those flowers. It means that we can Christians can be graphic designers and architects and can do things to just help life flourish. It means that we volunteer at clinics because we get to join him in bringing life.
Executing justice it means we take up the cause of those who don't have a voice. We're at the margins of society. We defend the weak. Bringing healing it means that we work to fix relationships. We should be counselors and people who make peace among our friends and nurses and doctors and people who work to fix what's broken. Rescue workers.
We get that opportunity as Christians to join in with all that God's doing on earth and bring salvation which means that we proclaim the gospel to everyone which is there is a way that's been opened through the cross and life is given to us through Jesus. So for our Give Series that's what we're celebrating. That joy and peace have actually been given to us. That's who Jesus was. That's why he came. That's what he accomplished for us.
That sorrow and sighing flee away because we have hope in him forever and we get to join him in that. So that around Christmas we don't just celebrate the things that we can get. We don't just celebrate trying to get the best gift for people in this consumerism stuff. We actually get to remember that joy has come in the person of Jesus to give us salvation and hope and that he gave everything to rescue us and that we get to join him in that mission. And so I'm really excited. We try to take around this time of year we pick some different things to just try to leverage our energy for and the truth is we could do the same thing every year.
In most cases we could pick something and just say we're going to do that every year. But we want to intentionally try to do some different things. Just pick something each year and say this is where we're going to pour our energy, this is where we're going to pour our time, this is where we're going to put our money and hopefully maybe God works in you and it's something you want to keep doing but we're going to pick something every year and kind of get to pour some energy in it. And this year we're doing two things. God kind of worked it out and we kept praying about it and looking at it and we decided there's going to be two things that we're going to pour our energy and our effort into.
And we're not a huge church so that means we're going to have to be on it to pull off two things. But here are the two things we're doing this year that's very exciting. One is we're part of the grassroots network where we want to see more churches planted. And two weeks ago or three weeks ago Kent Bateman was here and they are planting a church in Knoxville, Tennessee. And so as a church we want to leverage some of our finances to help them get started. And so we are going to be pouring money into City Church which is going to be in Knoxville.
And what's beautiful about that and I was thinking about the other day it feels like cheating. And here's why. We get to do different projects to help serve people on the marginalized people or people that need help or do different work in our city all the time. And we try to do this through our groups and we rally towards it at Give. If we give to a church in a part of the country that we aren't going to live or be or build relationships we're giving into all of the things that they'll get to do. All of the Give series that they'll get to have.
All the times that they'll get to serve. All the people that they'll get to build relationships that we never get to build relationships. All the ways that they'll get to bring justice and healing and life and salvation to that area of the country where we'll never be. So we can actually leverage some of our money to help them do that and basically make a down payment on eternity for people that we'll never meet. And that's really cool. And we love church planting because we think that Jesus works through his church.
That's plan A and there is no plan B. and so it is exciting that we get to help them get started by taking some of our money, some of our finances, some of our energy and giving it to them. So that's the first thing that we're going to do. We're going to try to rally to put some money specifically towards City Church in Knoxville and we've got a couple of different specific things we're working on that we're actually going to say this is what we're going to try to pay for for y'all. This is what we're going to try to accomplish. And so we're talking with them and we'll have more details as the weeks come.
The second thing that we're going to do is we've gotten in contact with the South Carolina Baptist Convention and some of the people who have been affected by the flood locally. We had some people give us money specifically when the flood happened for us to be able to help victims and we are going to pour some of our energy and our effort into doing some work for at least one family that we've already been working out with and talking to to go clean their house, help pull off some work that they wouldn't be able to pull off on their own. So we're going to give money to City Church and we're going to give sweat and energy to help them do some work here. We're going to give money too but we've already raised money for that to give to help work on somebody's house who had surgery right after the flood and has not been able to do any of the work that needed to be done.
Doesn't even honestly know what work needs to be done. And so we're going to say alright we're your team. And we're going to have people around and we're going to come work and we're going to come do stuff. And what's beautiful is that we all get to do both. Some people just got really excited about giving money. Thank Jesus for you.
Some people just got really excited about putting in some work. Some people got excited about nothing. You need to start praying. Jesus will work in you. You got excited because you think I think he's wrapping it up. Um.
Um. But the truth is we want to all do both. We want to all begin asking how can I work and how can I give. And even if it's just a little bit we want to all do both as we leverage some of our energy some of our effort. Let me tell you something. I'm going to buy Christmas gifts.
I'm going to celebrate if if uh sugar cookie eggnog is back this year. I wrote them a letter last year just so y'all know I don't usually do that. I sent them an email because they didn't have it last year because they want to have regular eggnog and I was like what you're sitting on a gold mine which is sugar cookie eggnog and y'all are making regular eggnog. Get it together. It was nicer than that and they gave me a really lame response. But if sugar cookie eggnog is back I'm going to that's like half my budget over the next month is going to go to sugar cookie eggnog because I got to stock up.
But that's not going to last. When the Bible says that we're going to spend eternity with Jesus and that only certain things are going to make it there. Sugar cookie eggnog isn't. Oh it'll be in heaven but me buying it now won't make it there. But the money that Anna and I sit down and look at our budget and intentionally give to City Church and the days that we spend going over and working with this family that's going to make it.
And we always want to take some time around this time of year to say I want to be a part of something that is beyond the next month. That makes it past the calendar moments where I have to be nice to my family. I want to give in to something that's going to matter and it's going to last and the truth is as we get to rally for a church plant. Every penny of that. And as we get to spend our energy and our effort and give up some of our time and take a day off from work to go do some work for somebody who can't get this work done on their own. Every second of that.
And all of it gets to be a celebration that this Redeemer came. All of it as we do this over Christmas and maybe even into January with some of the work gets to be a celebration that he brought life to us. That he brought justice to us. That he helped us when we were weak and we couldn't help ourselves. That he brought healing into what was broken and we didn't know how to fix it. And that ultimately he brought salvation which means that we have an eternity to celebrate with him.
Band's going to come back up and here's what we're going to do. We're going to sing again the song Joy Has Dawned. We just sang it a minute ago. But we're going to sing it as we remember that everlasting joy crowns us. That the desert breaks forth in joy and singing because this Redeemer has come. That sorrow and sighing flee.
That justice is executed because we have hope and joy given to us through Jesus and we actually have something to sing about and we actually have something to celebrate at this time of year. And you can have joy on your coffee cup for the rest of the year if you want. Because we have something real given to us through Jesus. Y'all stay and let's sing. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Gospel Giving (w/ QandA)
Transcript
My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here, excited to be in our third week of our money series. And so you knew it was coming. We're talking about money, so today we're going to be talking about tithing. I mean, you had to have been getting yourself prepared for this. And the funny thing is, I know our church family, so I know that some of you are like, yeah.
And some of you are like, I didn't know that was coming. I don't even know what the word tithe means. So we're just going to spend some time this morning, really. We're in our third week of this money series, and we're going to take some time to kind of ask some questions when it comes to tithing. And what we realized with money in general is that as a church, we're very much, we're going to talk about Jesus. We're going to talk about the gospel.
We're going to make much of Jesus every time we get together. We're a band that plays one song, kind of like Rush. But we're a band with one song. That's all we're going to talk about is Jesus. And as we're getting started, there were a lot of things we wanted to talk about, wanted to coach ourselves up on and understand. And then we just realized that we hadn't ever spent any time talking about money specifically, and that the Bible treats it very much as a gospel issue, as a heart-level gospel issue.
And so that we needed to spend some time talking about it as we talk about Jesus, as we grow together as Christians. And so today we're just going to be asking, what is tithing? Really, the word tithe just means a tenth. So it's an Old Testament concept, but tithing just means a tenth. So tithing is giving a tenth.
And most of the time when someone in a church setting talks about tithing, what they mean is giving a tenth of your income right when it comes in to the local church. And so really we're going to ask a bunch of questions like, is that a Christian concept? Is that for the New Testament? Is that just an Old Testament thing? Is it a flat 10% for everybody? Does it matter how much money you make?
Like, are you supposed to... Like, we just... There's a bunch of questions when it comes to this topic. And so we're just going to try to spend some time looking at those questions this morning and really trying to kind of dive into that. And here's the thing. We have a...
In our culture, we have a saying, put your money where your mouth is. And what we mean by that is, if you believe so strongly in something, if you're going to talk big game, we'll back it up. If you really think that you're telling the truth, back it up. And a lot of times that we mean money specifically, a lot of times we just mean like, you know, live that way. Or like if you're talking smack, you're about to fight somebody and they're telling you they'll beat you up. And you say, well, put your money where your mouth is.
You don't actually mean give me money. You mean let's fight. Let's do this. But I actually, I like betting. Confession time. If that's bad.
I don't do it a whole lot, but I do like betting because I feel like it makes trivial things more interesting. And so recently I lost a bet to Matt Freeman about... I lost a lunch. We bet lunch on it. We bet whether or not Cracker Barrel has omelets. And that was the bet.
And I know and love Cracker Barrel and basically have their menu memorized except for the low-carb stuff because why would you go to Cracker Barrel to eat anything low-carb? But we got into a discussion about whether or not they had omelets and Matt said they did and I said they didn't. And so we bet Egg Roll Station on it, which would be $6.26 because you have to pay cash and that's what you're going to spend when you go to Egg Roll. But anyway, we'll talk about that later. So we bet Egg Roll Station on it.
We went to Cracker Barrel and Matt said, can I get an omelet? And our waitress said, yes. And she was wrong. There are no omelets on the menu, which was really what I was trying to bet. But Matt got by on a technicality because our waitress said yes because she understands that if you have all of the ingredients, you can just fold it over and it's an omelet.
But I have had waitresses say no before because it's not on the menu. But anyway, I'm still bitter about it. I just need to get that off my chest. But we have this idea. We have this idea of put your money where your mouth is. And here's what the Bible is going to say.
It's actually going to say that you put your money where your heart is. That your money, that your treasure follows your heart and vice versa. So that if you move your treasure, your heart will follow. And if your heart moves, your treasure will follow. And so the Bible is going to say that to the extent that something gets your money in your budget is to the extent that you value it and really that you love it. And so some of you are thinking, okay, so I love carowinds 1%.
And it's like, well, not really that specifically. More, how much when you add up, how much you're willing to spend on vacations, how much you're willing to spend on cable or satellite, how much you're willing to spend on comfortable things in your house, like a really nice couch. Eventually, you begin to see that if you look at your budget, okay, I value comfort this much. Or you can look and, okay, I value control this much. Or my family, the way I think about my family, takes up this much of my heart. That's what the Bible is really saying when it comes to our money.
It shows us our heart. So any amount of discussions on the topic of money immediately get intense. You ever notice that? Like when you get into an actual discussion on money, you feel tense, the conversation feels tense, and it's because we're talking about heart-level things. So when you question your roommate's spending habits, and suddenly the conversation gets really like, whoa, I didn't mean for this to be this dramatic.
Or husbands, wives, when you say something really smart like, why on earth would you spend that much money on this? Are you crazy? And suddenly you've entered into a minefield, and you didn't realize how intense this was about to get. It's because it's all heart-level stuff. And so that's why, if you're hanging out with a church on Sunday, and it's like, we're going to talk about money immediately, you go, ugh. Because it's a heart-level issue.
So, with all of the questions that we have about tithing, what is it? How do we do it? What are the rules? How should we approach it? Where does this come from? Honestly, to really answer it, and to really have it take hold, we have to have a heart-level answer.
There has to be a heart, it's a heart-level issue, so it has to have a heart-level solution. Otherwise, we'll just have some information, but it won't actually change us. It won't actually move us, because when our heart moves, our wallet follows. And if we move our wallet, our heart will follow. And so really, for us to answer this question, we have to have a heart-level solution. We have to have a heart-level answer.
So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to hop into 2 Corinthians. Well, we'll be in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 today. That's on page 628. It's going to take us a minute to get there, because we've got to do a little bit of background work, but that's where we're going to land. So let me pray real quick for us.
God, we ask that you would lead us, that you would give us your wisdom, that as we study your word, you would help us to grow in what it looks like to follow and to submit to you. And God, we praise you, and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. So 2 Corinthians chapter 8, page 628, if your Bible looks like this, towards the back, if your Bible doesn't. And what we're going to be doing today is we're going to be talking through how are we to, as Christians, view tithing. And tithing, when we say that, what we really mean is how are we to view giving to the local church and giving towards mission kind of on a regular basis.
And the truth is, what we're going to see is that our giving should be based off of the cross, not a calculator. Then when it comes to the answer that is given in the text is that our giving is based off of the cross, not a calculator. And that's really, that it should be based off of the gospel. So where does tithing come from? Let's answer that question first.
Where does this idea come from? It begins in Genesis when Abraham meets a guy named Melchizedek. And Melchizedek is the priest of Salem, which ends up being Jerusalem. And he gives him 10% of everything he has. And so that's where the idea just kind of originates is that there would be 10% given to a priest, kind of a religious, someone in between you and God kind of thing. And then in Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers, it's taught as a part of the law.
So Numbers 18 and Leviticus 20 are basically going to say that you give 10% of your increase. So 10% of whatever comes in, and this would for them would have been goats, sheep, grapes, like whatever came in, you would give 10% to the Levites, to the priestly class because those are the ones that were running the sacrificial system. Those are the ones. And so they didn't get land. They were one of the tribes, but they didn't have any inheritance. And so you were to give it to them.
Actually, you were giving it back to God. And then God said, I'm giving it to them. And that's what Numbers 18 and Leviticus 27 says. Deuteronomy 12, 14, and 26 says that the tithe serves three purposes, still 10% off of increase. And what it said was, it's to go to the Levites, the priestly class, for them to do what they do in the temple. A portion of it is for you to celebrate.
So they were supposed to take the tithe and eat it in celebration in front of God to celebrate His provision. And if the temple was too far away, you were supposed to sell the stuff, take the gold, go to the temple, go to Jerusalem, buy whatever you wanted. It says buy meat, buy wine, wine, strong drink, and drink it and eat it in the presence of the Lord as a celebration. That it was a reminder of God's good things. And so for those who even didn't have a whole lot and were just getting by, they were still supposed to take a portion of their money just to celebrate with. And the other reason it exists was for taking care of the widow and the poor.
So that was the three reasons for the tithe in Deuteronomy 12, 26, and 14. 12, 14, 26, if you want to do that in the way Numbers go. Then we see a few examples. Second Chronicles, Nehemiah and Malachi are all going to talk about the tithe and how it works. Malachi, God's actually going to show up and tell him, you haven't been tithing and you've been stealing from me. You haven't been giving and you've been stealing from me.
And then he's going to do something that he doesn't usually do. He's going to say, test me. Test me and see. Apparently they weren't giving because they didn't think they could afford it. And what he says is, test me and I will provide for you and I will open the floodgates of heaven and I will take care of you if you'll trust me. Now, Old Testament's pretty clear on it.
It's 10% of increase. Most of the time when tithing is taught in the church, every time I've heard it, someone goes to the Old Testament and says, here's the rule. And so even as we were praying about it and talking about it, we knew we were going to need to address this issue and as we started working on it, we just opened the Bible and started reading everywhere they talked about the tithe. And the New Testament doesn't really talk about it. Doesn't come up. There's no verse in the New Testament that's like, it's not like in second opinions where it's like, hey guys, keep tithing like we used to.
Just pretend like the church is the temple now. You're welcome. Like the New Testament doesn't say that. Paul never writes it. Jesus doesn't really address it. Jesus talks about it twice while he's fussing at Pharisees.
So he's in the middle of yelling at people, which I don't know if y'all know, Jesus does that. He yells at people. So he's in the middle of yelling at people and what he says is, you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, which are spices. So he's saying, you tithe, you're so legalistic, you tithe out of your spice rack. So when they went and got spices, they would have said, okay, let me measure out 10%.
So if y'all have a spice rack, go home, measure out 10% and then you gotta bring it in little bags. But if a cop finds you with a bunch of little bags of spices, good luck. But just be careful on the trip. Don't drive too fast. But no, he says you tithe out of your spice rack and what he says is, this you should have done without forgetting the way to your things of the law.
And that's the only time Jesus addresses it. Paul never talks about in any of his letters. And so the New Testament doesn't really talk about it. And so for us, we have to look at the Old Testament and say, how are we to understand this as Christians? Because the law was given in the Old Testament and then Jesus tells us, Romans 7 tells us that he fulfilled the law on our behalf so that we're no longer bound by the law but we've been set free. We died to the law when Christ died for us and that we're now bound by the law of Christ.
And Jesus says he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And so there are certain aspects of the law that have been fulfilled and there are certain things that the New Testament clarifies when it comes to the law. And so the Old Testament law kind of breaks down into three things if you're trying to just do this really quickly and kind of look at it. They had civil law which was because they were a nation. Because the nation of Israel existed they had civil law which was like if my bull breaks out and kills your bull I've got to give you my bull. That's the rule.
And we have civil laws like you can't drive too fast. Look at the sign. Do what it says. And so the civil laws for Jerusalem don't really apply even though when we've crafted laws we look to see kind of what God thought was fair and we took some of those out but they don't really apply to us anymore because we don't live in Jerusalem. We live in the United States. So the civil laws aren't really for us as much and the tithing does kind of fall into that category some.
They had ceremonial laws which was how they related to God through the temple system. Through sacrifices through clean and unclean laws through some dietary laws and basically what that was teaching them was this. God is holy and you are not. He is clean and you are unclean and there are things that make you unclean and it was a consistent reminder of that and even when you were clean when you had done everything you had to do to be clean when you showed up at the temple you still needed a sacrifice. So God's teaching us in the Old Testament that the best of us still need Jesus.
Still need a sacrifice on our behalf. But the ceremonial laws don't really apply to us anymore because Jesus fulfilled that in his sacrifice on our behalf when he died on the cross when he rose again. So we're not bound to that anymore. And then there's moral law which is like the Ten Commandments. So moral law is just here's how humans ought to interact with each other.
Don't lie. Don't commit adultery. Don't covet your neighbor's stuff. Don't steal. And those still apply. Those are still things that we would look and say this is how God thinks we ought to interact with each other so we should still follow these.
And really when it comes to looking at the Old Testament you have to look at the context and you have to look at what the New Testament says about it. That's why people will say stuff like oh yeah? Well the Old Testament says not to cut the corners of your hair. Nice flat top, hypocrite. Or oh yeah? Well you're not supposed to eat shellfish.
Let's go burn red lobster to the ground. Like people accuse you of these things but they don't really apply anymore because Jesus has paid for and taken care of those aspects of the law. And there are certain New Testament passages that just say things like you can eat whatever you want. God declares it all clean. And that's why if you ever eat bacon praise Jesus. So there are certain things that when we're looking at how do we apply this and then the Old Testament speaks on it and teaches on it and then the New Testament is silent.
It begins to you begin to ask the question why? Like why doesn't the New Testament address this? Hebrews talks about it a little bit but all it's talking about is the story of Abraham meeting the priest of Salem. So why doesn't the New Testament address it? Why doesn't the New Testament talk about it? Why doesn't the New Testament say how we ought to handle it?
Because we've got a lot of questions, right? And nowhere in the New Testament which the New Testament is pretty straightforward on most things does it address it. And here's what I think as we began to read it and began to look at it here's why I believe that the New Testament when you see how the New Testament starts treating money the way the New Testament is going to talk about money post-cross it actually begins to make sense why tithing isn't mentioned. Why there isn't a rule given why 10% isn't there and here's a way to think about it. My wife and I just had a son his name's Archer he is two and a half months old I don't know if you know many two and a half month olds he's the best.
So just take the greatest two and a half month old you know just go a level up and that's kind of what Archer's like you'll get to kind of be able to imagine him now. Just kidding. Anyway no I'm serious but we have a two and a half month old and right around the time that Anna got pregnant Matt and Katie realized they were going to be having a baby as well and so everybody we were kind of wanting to see if it was going to be two boys or if we knew we were having a son if they were going to have a boy or a girl and once they found out they were having a girl Emerson Lane Freeman who when I wrote all of this that we're about to talk about I just assumed Matt and Katie wouldn't be here so some of this is going to get a little awkward for them because I felt like I had the freedom to say whatever I wanted to but they apparently don't have their baby when they're supposed to.
[QA NOTE — 2026-05-10] The remainder of this sermon is missing from the cleaned transcript because Whisper produced a single unpunctuated mega-sentence at the tail of the audio. The raw text in transcription_work/ contains the rest. Recommend re-running the cleanup with timestamp-based punctuation restoration, or capturing the missing portion manually from the audio.
Genuine Generosity
Transcript
G'day everyone. That means good morning. You can say g'day back or you can say good morning, whatever. My name is Raz. It's good to be here this morning. I'm willing to bet everyone here at some point in their life, at least a million times, has heard the phrase, is money is the root of all evil.
Yes? We've heard this phrase, money is the root of all evil. Nope. Money is not the root of all evil. Money, in fact, I believe, is very, very good. In fact, if you think back to a time when money did not even exist, think back to a time when no one traded money, they just traded stuff.
We commonly know it as the Stone Age. Other people know it as settlers of Catan. The idea is that I need to produce something for myself that I can trade with other people to get stuff that they produce. So I might produce a whole bunch of sheep, which are pretty useless, and you might produce a whole bunch of timber or wheat or something like that. And if I want some wheat, I need to convince you to trade your wheat with me for my sheep because I don't have any money. Problem is, you might not want sheep because sheep are pretty useless.
And so I have to convince you somehow to give me some timber so I can build my road. But you don't want me to build my road because then I'll beat you. But that's not how it works in real life. Everyone needed to produce something so that they could trade with other people. And that's how it worked. I would produce something.
You would produce something. We would swap. No one had any currency or anything. And so every individual person needed to produce something for themselves. Most people would try to live off what they had on their own land. But every now and then you would need to trade.
And the problem is, my stuff that I have is only worth as much as you're willing to trade me for. If you don't want to trade with me for the stuff that I've got, then I'm in trouble and I just don't get what I need. Enter into this situation money. Money comes in and suddenly everyone has this unique, special thing that you can trade for anything. Money holds value in and of itself and everything's value is measured against money. Sheep have a dollar value.
Wood has a dollar value. Bricks have a dollar value. And suddenly people who produce different things can use this unique resource to trade with each other. Money sounds pretty good. Money sounds brilliant. And you fast forward a couple thousand years, lots of thousands of years of money being used.
And now we have professions like athlete. That couldn't have existed before. No one said, hey, I'll give you a barrel of hay if you jump over that stick. I'll give you a sheep if you sing me a song. It just didn't exist. Everyone was producing things.
And so now because of money, CEOs, managers, farmers, musicians, athletes all have this thing that they can trade. They can use money to buy what they need to survive. Money is a good thing. It is not the root of all evil. Money is the root of all evil is actually a misquote. There's a similar quote.
Money is the root of all evil is a misquote. A misquote is a good. Misquote is a fine under particular circumstances. They're good if you're trying to win an argument that you're not going to win otherwise. You can always quote Shakespeare or Einstein. You don't need to know the quote.
It just has to be close enough that no one really knows. They're also good for annoying nerds like this one. This one. It says, use the force, Harry, by Gandalf. And there's a guy from Star Trek. His name is Jean-Luc Picard.
And all of the fonts are wrong. If you're a nerd, it kills your soul. Misquotes can be good. But the quote we're actually looking for is from 1 Timothy chapter 6. And it reads like this. It says, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.
Hear the difference? The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. Money in and of itself is not evil. It's the desire for money. The longing. The desire to have more and store it up and keep more and more for myself.
The idea that money will fulfill me. These are all different kinds of evil. Money in and of itself is actually a good thing. It allows everyone to trade. This love of money is the source of all kinds of evils. That's why the author of Hebrews, he says, keep your life free from the love of money.
Be content with what you have. It's the desire for more and more. It's actually what causes all the problems. Now, my goal today is not to convince you that you saving money is sinful. It's not necessarily. It could be.
My goal is not to convince you that your spending habits are in and of themselves evil or that your money is evil because that's not necessarily true, though it could be. My goal for today is to convince you that giving money away freely to other people, those who need it, those who don't need it, just giving it away with no benefit to yourself is actually a source of great joy. That's the goal for today. Being generous is a source of great joy. Let's pray.
We talked about the lens through which we culturally see money and how that lens can kind of corrupt our understanding. We talked about some big principles about how we should actually view money, but we didn't really get into the kind of nitty-gritty of how that applies to our lives. So the next couple of weeks, we're going to talk specifically about how that generosity, how that lens impacts the way we use our money. There's two big principles from last week that I want to highlight. The first one is that, let me just check it so I get the words right. The first one is, we cannot take it with us, but we can send it on ahead.
We cannot take it with us, but we can send it on ahead. The idea is that we are going to die. You are going to die. Everybody dies. Easy. You cannot take the money that you've stored up with you once you've died, but you can send it on ahead.
And what that means, what this idea of storing up treasures in heaven means is that the way that we interact with money now, the way that we manage money now, can impact what we will have for eternity. When you are generous with your money now, when you give it away with no kind of selfish greed ambition for yourself with that money, when you just give it away, you're actually storing up treasures for yourself later. You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. The second one that we looked at, the second principle that we talked about was that God owns everything. I am his money manager.
God owns everything. I'm his money manager. The idea here is that God created the world, created us, created everything in it. Psalms talks about how he is the owner of everything in the world. We read other places where he says, all of the silver, all of the gold belongs to me. Everything in this world is God's.
I'm just the guy who temporarily uses it while I'm on earth. That's how our approach to money should be. And so when we ask any question that starts with this idea of, what should I do with my money? How should I spend my money? Who should I give my money to? What percentage of my money should I give?
We've already misunderstood. We've already believed a lie that the money we're talking about belongs to me in the first place. And so this principle is that the money belongs to God. You're just the person who gets to control it temporarily. The opposite of this, the opposite concept of this entire lens that we're looking at money through, is kind of how the world talks to us about it, how culture talks to us about money. The American culture in general is big on making it yourself, the American dream, making lots of money, getting a job, moving on in the world.
If you've ever seen a show called Shark Tank, you've probably seen this guy before. His name is Kevin O'Leary. Shark Tank is a show where billionaires like this guy invest in other people's products, other people's time and effort, and try to help them become billionaires as well. They're all obsessed with money. This guy is the epitome of it. They call him Mr.
Wonderful, which is totally wrong. He's a massive jerk. He treats everyone like scum. And when he was interviewed about money, this is something that he said. He said, you may lose your wife, you may lose your dog. Your mother may hate you.
None of those things matter. What matters is that you achieve success and become free. Then you can do whatever you like. That's pretty bold, right? That's pretty bold. Now, I know none of us would quite say it like this.
No one in this room is rich enough or brave enough to say that. But we can understand where this comes from, given our culture. We can understand this concept that money is worth dying for. Get rich or die trying. We can understand this concept that anything that gets in your way of getting rich is just an obstacle. It's kind of how our culture views money.
Whether we like it or not, a small part of us that does understand that also sympathizes with it. We might not go to the extremes of saying we're going to trample our mother and our dog and our wife and stuff. But we understand what it means to desire so much to have more money that we would do things for it. That we would push things out of the way to get more money. When culture is so overexposed on an issue like money, a little bit of that seeps into us, even if we deny the overall premise. And it's kind of horrifying that we could sympathize with something like that.
Open up a Bible, if you've got one, to 1 Timothy chapter 6. If you've got a Bible that looks like this, it's going to be on page 644. Page 644. 1 Timothy is a letter. It was written by the Apostle Paul to Timothy. Paul was getting really old.
He's a bit of a geezer at this point. He planted a whole bunch of churches. He was the main primary leader of those churches. And he knew he was going to die soon, so he was setting up other people to kind of take over those roles. Timothy was one of them. He was leader at this time of the church of Ephesus.
And Paul is just giving him some instructions on here's how the church should be run. We're going to be in 1 Timothy 6 from verses 17 to 19. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. That means arrogant. Charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.
Thus, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Okay, back up to the top. Verse 17. As for the rich in this present age, well, I don't know about you, but I know I am completely off the hook at this point in time. And as I look up at everyone, I didn't see anyone like, shh, quiet the people next to them. He's talking to us.
We need to listen. None of that happened when I said the word rich, because we all kind of think we're off the hook at this point in time. I understand that, because none of us are rich, right? We live in Columbia, South Carolina. That's not a rich city. Most of us, we don't own our own houses, not at least outright.
We probably don't drive a flashy car. We've probably got some loans to pay off. We're not like all those rich people out there that exist. Those rich people who own a nice house and own a flashy car and don't have any loans. They live on their cash. They're the rich people.
But then those people look at the other people with five houses and ten vacation homes in six countries, each of them with a Lamborghini. And they say, I'm not rich. That guy's rich. And the process continues. I'm not rich because someone is richer. It's all a bizarre trick, really.
It's all this trick that we tell ourselves to disassociate with this label. Rich. What does it mean to be rich? It's actually a very weird logic. I'm not rich because someone else is richer. Let me prove it to you.
I poke holes in this all day. If I substitute the word rich, it's no longer I'm not rich because someone else is richer, and add in something mundane. Clothes. I'm not clothed because someone else has more clothes than I do. What? I'm not full because Matt ate more food than I did.
What? What? It's true most of the time. It's true most of the time, but that's not how logic works. It's not this case of I'm not rich because someone else is richer. The logic is flawed.
I went to Belize a few years ago. Belize is a country in Central America. It's on the Caribbean side. They don't associate themselves with Central America. They're a Caribbean country. Let me tell you what it looks like to be rich in Belize.
If you're rich in Belize, you probably have a door on your bathroom. Your bathroom will be just in the corner of your square house, and you'll probably have a door instead of just like a curtain on your bathroom. You will probably, if you're rich in Belize, have a lock on your front door instead of a dog. The only building in all of Belize that I went to that had air conditioning was the airport. So we arrived, thought, this isn't so bad, and then spent two weeks sweating out in the sun all day long.
Fun fact about Belize. There's not that many flushable toilets. There's a few. They're around. If you plan your day, if you're a good planner for that kind of thing, you can plan when you need to use the bathroom, and you can find a flushable toilet. They're not everywhere.
Even the ones that you do find, you are not allowed to flush anything down it, including toilet paper. They have a little trash can that sits in the cubicle. So you can go, and then you can clean up, and the toilet paper goes in the trash can. Keep in mind, these houses are not air conditioned. If you've got a window, you're lucky, and it's probably 120 degrees with 100% humidity. Kind of gross.
But that's actually the rich, the wealthy lifestyle in Belize. It's kind of crazy. You want to learn a thing or two about luxury, you go to a country like that, and then come home. Then you experience luxury when you come home. And that's what happened for me. I spent two weeks in Belize, came back, and then found myself on day one eating three full meals, sitting on a fully functional flushable toilet, flushing my toilet paper.
It was amazing. And then I would just pick up whatever I was doing from before I left, like watching TV shows on Netflix. The kind of stuff that normal people do. Not rich people. Kind of different when you come home. I will probably continue to play the I'm not rich card.
This Trump card. I'm not rich. I'll probably continue to play that card for the rest of my life. I probably will. But I'm going to be doing that from my air-conditioned department, sitting on a fully functional flushable toilet that I can put my toilet paper in.
I'll probably be on my iPhone, maybe watching subscription television while I'm at it. None of that makes me rich here. Excellent. We measure richness in the Western world in kind of a bizarre way. We have like this sliding scale where we are able to, in our own minds, measure what rich actually is. And so if we have the poor, the poorest of the poor don't have a single dollar, probably in thousands of dollars of debt, whatever.
These people all the way over here that have absolutely nothing. And then all the way at the other end of the scale, the sliding scale of richness, you have Bill Gates and his buddies over here who have billions and billions of dollars. We're all going to land somewhere in the middle, probably on this side of the middle, probably. And we're going to look this way and say, that's where rich begins. Because we want to disassociate ourselves with this label of what it means to be rich. We're not rich.
All these people in front of me are rich. How could I be rich when they've got so much more than I do? And we push away this label because we're scared of it. Being rich comes with more responsibility. I have to look after more people. I've got to finance well.
And so we disassociate ourselves with richness saying that's something for all those people. And we don't really pay attention to all these people. We never turn around and say, wow. I am incredibly blessed. Look at all these people that I could help out. Look at all these people who have nothing compared to me.
This is how we evaluate richness. This is how we generally associate whether or not I'm rich. This is our criteria. Am I at this mysterious line on this side that I have to cross eventually? Then I become rich.
That's how it works. But the closer we get to that line, the further up that line moves because no one wants to be rich. At least we avoid it. Instead, I want us to evaluate it slightly differently. I want us to evaluate it like this. Answer the question, could I survive on less?
Could I survive on less? Would my family and I die? Would we cease to exist if we had less money, less stuff? Now, if a decent percentage of our income disappeared overnight, gone, it could be 5% for you. That might be a big deal. It could be 45% for you.
That could be a big deal. If a massive drop happened in our income overnight, we would probably have to make some lifestyle changes. That's natural. If we're forced to live on less, we make lifestyle changes. We might have a smaller house without two spare bedrooms that we keep just because the in-laws might come eventually but never do. We just have to vacuum an extra room every week.
We might have to cancel subscription television, HBO, that kind of thing. Maybe we would have to use a dumb phone. My suggestion is and always will be that you just get rid of the dog. That's a money pit. But there's no reason to do that to yourself.
It just costs money. But in the process of all of this, being forced to live on less, we would probably have to rely on God a little bit. Probably. But I'm willing to bet we wouldn't die. Willing to bet we could all live on less. Now, I don't know if I've proved my point or not, but I'm willing to bet also that when you got here today, you arrived by vehicle in a car.
Car. You probably are wearing clothes. At least I think you all are. You probably ate some food this morning. And you probably used a fully functional flushable toilet. If all of that is true, I'm just going to read the rest of this and assume it applies to us.
Verse 17. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty or arrogant, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Rich people. That's us. Don't set your hopes on money. Don't set your hopes on money.
Set them on God. Now, you might think, I don't have any money. That's fine. Don't set your hopes on it anyway. For people who've got lots of money, don't set your hopes on it. It could go in a flash.
Some bank could go bankrupt and you lose everything. Your trust fund could disappear overnight. Don't put your hopes in the money that you have. For people who don't have any money, don't put your hopes on the money that you hope to have in the future. When the mortgage is paid off. When the car is paid off.
When the student loans are paid off. When the job gives you the promotion they've been promising. To say, I'll just be good. I can give more then. I can be okay then. I'll be comfortable then.
It's still putting your hopes on money. It's just future money that doesn't exist yet. It could be 10 years away. It could be 25 years away. Don't put your hopes in money. Put your hopes on God.
He's the provider of everything that we need. You can't take it with you. What's the point in hoping in it? When you start to get worried. When you start to get worried financially. Are you more likely to turn to your bank account.
And make sure that there's still that buffer zone in the bottom of it. And say, sweet. I'm okay. I'm good. I'll survive. I got the buffer zone.
Or are you likely to think. God has made promises to me. He's going to keep them. I'll be okay. When you're stressed. When you're anxious.
Are you more likely to find comfort in bankofamerica.com. Telling you you've still got that much money left. Or are you willing to find comfort in the fact that. God predestined you. He set you up since before the world began. He knows the number of hairs on your head.
And he has a plan for your life. Which one of them is more comfort to you. Sadly I think. A lot of people find comfort in this. Arbitrary amount of money. That's kept in their bank account.
We know that money is temporary. We know we can't take it with us. We can't take it with us when we die. Why put our hopes in it. Instead put your hopes in God. In verse 18.
They. That's the rich. Are to do good. To be rich in good works. To be generous and ready to share. Thus.
Storing up treasure for themselves. As a good foundation. For the future. So that they may take hold of that. Which is truly life. Paul is saying that for those.
With money. Those who are rich. Do good things with it. Be generous with it. Be hospitable with your house. And your stuff.
When you do. You store up treasures for yourself. In the future. And attain that. Which is truly life. That's a crazy thought.
But you. Can't take it with you. Send it on ahead. Store up treasures for yourself. In heaven. Where.
Moth and rust. Don't destroy stuff. Every time you. Be generous. Now. Every time you give away.
Not. Not expecting anything in return. You're storing up treasures for yourself. In heaven. It gets to be joyful in the moment. You have a lot of fun doing it.
But you're also storing up treasures in heaven. That's exactly what he says to do. Now. The early church is described as incredibly joyful. These are the guys who are around. Right after Jesus kind of ascended.
And I'm going to read a passage that we. We talk about a lot. As Mill City Church. We. We kind of believe that this is a model for. For how we do our community groups.
That's from Acts chapter 2. 42 through 47. As I highlight some things. Words are going to come up on the screen. It's not the whole passage. It's just chunks of it.
But. But that's the kind of the bits that I wanted to highlight for you. This is from Acts. Acts 2. 42. 42.
42. 42. 42. 42. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. That's the Bible.
And the fellowship. To the breaking of bread and prayers. And all came upon every soul. And soul. And wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together.
And had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings. And distributing the proceeds to all. As any had need. And day by day. Attending the temple together.
And breaking bread in their homes. They received their food. With glad and generous hearts. Praising God. And having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number.
Day by day. Those who were being saved. Sell my stuff. And give it to people who need it. There's. Something about that concept.
When I do it for myself. When I see other people doing it. That just makes you happy. It brings joy. To see those who need it. Receive it.
And to be responsible. For allowing those who need it. To receive it. Is a source of great joy. It really is. It physically shows.
As I give money away. As I give things away. It physically shows that. I'm not the point. I don't need this. God is the point.
Other people need this. It's a tangible. Physical representation. Of me giving away. That which I don't need. And making God the point.
The guy that we've been talking about. The author of this book. Treasure Principle. His name is Randy Alcorn. We referenced him last week. Great book.
I think you should all read it. He says it like this. Generosity. Is the only antidote. To materialism. Generosity.
Is the only antidote. To materialism. When I. Give stuff away. I break. The stranglehold.
That that stuff. Has on me. We know that we cannot serve. God and money. And so when we give. Money away.
We break the stranglehold. That money has on us. We allow God. To be the focus. Of everything that we do. Generosity.
Is the antidote. To materialism. Materialism. Being the attachment. That we have to money. And stuff.
Now it's not easy. We know that. There's this guy. That Jesus met. It's recorded in Matthew 19. They call him the rich young ruler.
He comes to Jesus. And he says. I've kept all the commandments. I've done everything I should have done. What do I need to do. To inherit eternal life?
And Jesus kind of sees through him. He sees through the facade. He sees what's actually going on. In this guy's life. And he says. To himself.
Money is this guy's problem. So he says to him. Sell everything you have. Give it to the poor. And come follow me. And the guy leaves.
Upset. He leaves upset. Because he cannot see that which is truly life. He cannot see what it means to follow Jesus. And not be attached to his money. He's put all of his hope.
All of his comfort. All of his power. All of his everything. In money. He believes money is where his source of joy will be. Because he's unwilling to get rid of it.
To attain true joy. To receive true joy. To follow Jesus. He refuses. Because he has his hopes in the wrong place. You can loosen the grip that money has on your life.
You can loosen the grip that stuff has on your life. By simply giving it away. Selling it and giving it to the poor. It can be to the homeless. It can be to a thrift store. It can be to people in your community group.
It can be to an organization. It can be cash. It can be gift cards. It can be clothes. It could be a car. It could be the money that you've been saving for a big vacation.
That you've always wanted to take. In all of these situations. You're saying. It's not about me. God has blessed me with this stuff. I choose to bless other people with it.
And I guess to be a source of great joy. There's no reason to not be happy about meeting the needs of other people. Now it can't become legalistic. Legalistic meaning. I'm just following the rules. It can't become legalistic.
Like. I have to do this. In order to be saved. Wrong. It can't become prideful. It can't become.
Hey everyone. Check me out. I give all my stuff away. Also not that good. In both situations. You're still using generosity.
You're using generosity as a tool. To earn favor with God. You don't earn favor with God. God has freed you. Of his own goodwill. There's nothing for you to do.
To earn favor with God. Because you're free already in the gospel. This is all. How you react. According to the gospel. It's not something you do to earn it.
Your generosity should be because. You want God's money. To be a blessing to God's people. So you bless God's people with God's money. That's your motivation. You want people to be blessed.
So you bless them. It will probably mean budgeting slightly differently. For some people. It will probably mean budgeting. Budgeting. You should budget.
For other people. It will just mean budgeting differently. Some people set up what they call a benevolence fund. Benevolence means. Giving to those. Giving away from what you are not using to help others.
Now that doesn't mean. Just use the fringe stuff that you never use. It means budgeting so that you've got fringe stuff. It means budgeting so that you've got a section of your income. That you're deliberately setting aside. To give away to other people.
That's something that someone with a lot of money might be able to do. You could set aside 40% of your income. And say I'm just going to give all that away. I'm going to set it aside. As a church. As a church.
Most of our financial support has happened. Within the context of our community groups. And so far it's been pretty amazing to see. Just within the little cells that we've got. We've seen a lot of people. In crazy ways.
In beautiful ways. Support each other financially. We have seen groups pay bills. Replace stolen property. Pay for counseling for people who need it. Completely outfit pregnant couples with baby stuff.
Because they couldn't afford it themselves. We've seen them fix cars. Buy car parts for each other. Pay travel expenses. Pay for hotels. When people were in a dangerous situation.
And needed to be temporarily removed out of them. We've seen mortgage payments paid. Gas for people to get to and from gatherings. In their community group times. We've seen prescriptions filled. We've covered each other's meals.
Our Christmas and birthday gifts. For families that have kids. And they weren't going to be able to get anything for them. We've seen our groups. When they want to go out to get a meal together. But there's a big family in that group.
That can't afford to take all of them with them. We've seen our groups sponsor the kids. So that everyone could go out in a big group. And eat together. And it's crazy. It's beautiful.
So far our groups have been nothing short of heroic. Incredible. At meeting each other's needs. If that isn't exactly how it should be. I'm not sure that we're doing it right. I think that when you see that happen.
You get overwhelmed with joy. Thinking that's exactly what family should be like. That's exactly what church should be like. People meeting each other's needs. And if it doesn't get you a little bit overjoyed inside. If it doesn't make you.
Even if you've got a stern face. Smile a little bit. Then you might just. I don't know. Be Voldemort or something. Our groups are amazing.
They meet each other's needs when they come up. And what's amazing and beautiful is that. Joy doesn't just come from the people who are getting stuff. You might think. Score. Someone bought me a free meal.
Victory. Yay. You might think. Score. Someone paid my bills for me. Victory.
Yay. And that only those people who are receiving things. Are the ones who are receiving. Or joyful about it. It's not the case. Those who have been meeting those needs.
Are equally. If not more joyful. That they were able. Out of their abundance. To be able to sacrifice. And give to people who needed it.
More than they did. There's something joyful about that as well. And that's why we've seen families. In our church. Who've needed to receive things. At one point in time.
Turn around and be generous. At another point in time. And bless others. Those who've needed things. In the past. Have turned around.
And provided food hampers. For people whose budget. Didn't have anything left in it. For the rest of the month. Who've catered events. From their own pocket.
Christina and my wedding rehearsal dinner. Was completely catered for. By other people. Largely by Mill City Church. People wouldn't even. Accept money from us.
Because it was a joy to them. To be generous to us. It's not obligation. It's joy. There's nothing that says. You need to do this for us.
Because we did something for you. No. It's joy. People do it. Because it's fun. Because it makes it feel good.
And within our church family. It's been pure joy. Over and over again. To see bills paid. To see people make it. When they didn't think they were going to.
And it's all because of this principle. It's God's money. Not mine. How am I going to bless people with God's money? It gets to be joy for me. Now I like challenges.
Actually I take that back. I don't like challenges. I just take them really seriously. It's not always good for me to accept a challenge. But I do anyway.
You're probably thinking to yourself right about now. Look at that amazing beard. It's red if I hold it up to the light. It's not if I don't. Sometimes. It's growing longer and longer.
And the only reason for its existence in all of its glory. Is a challenge. A challenge made by my wife. In front of 25 people. To get it down to here. It's currently in the regret stage.
It will probably continue to be in the regret stage. Until it stops falling out everywhere. Which it is doing now. Another challenge. If you're friends with either of us on Facebook. You've probably seen.
We've become rather artistic lately. Particularly in the realm of beanies. That's why people walk around now. Looking like minions. Ninja turtles. Vikings.
Whatever we can come up with. Started out as a challenge. I think we won. Challenge me to do something. I'm going to learn how to do it. And I'm going to trample everything in my path.
Until I can conquer that challenge. Puppies. Children. Doesn't matter. I'm going to get out of my way. Today I'm going to issue you a challenge.
I want you to take it as seriously as I do. I want you to take it seriously. I think it comes straight out of the verse that we've read. I think it comes straight out of the verse 18 and 19. They say, You're to do good. Be rich in good works.
Be generous and ready to share. Store up treasures as a good foundation for the future. And take hold of that which is truly life. Now I don't think there's anything particularly hard about my challenge. But I don't think it's particularly normal for us.
It's quite abnormal for us. Here's the challenge. Give generously to someone this week. Give generously to someone this week. It could be someone you know. It could be a family member.
It could be from your community group. It can be cash. It can be gift cards. It can be a meal. I think you can. You've got some freedom here.
You can be pretty creative. You can do above and beyond that thing. And remember, generosity is not conditional. It doesn't have to be because someone needs it. You can just do it as a surprise. That will still bring joy for them and for you.
If you're like me and you're prone to a little bit of pride, you might want to do this for a complete stranger instead. The benefit of doing it for a complete stranger is that they typically don't come and thank you. Especially if you make it anonymous and you hide and that kind of thing. They won't be able to come and thank you. But you still get to see the effects of your generosity.
You still get to see what happens as a waiter goes over to a table and tells a family that their meal has been paid for and they look at each other like, What? This happens? What? And you get to smile to yourself and strut out of that restaurant thinking, I just made their day. Oh, yeah. And if it's a Monday, you get to think, I just made their week.
Oh, yeah. It doesn't have to be for any reason. It doesn't have to be for any particular person. You can go to a drive-thru and pay for the person behind you. You might want to make sure it's not a bus. You can go to a drive-thru and just pay for the person behind you and then drive off and they'll never know it was you.
But you'll know that you just made that person's day. You made that person's week. You made that person's month. Who knows? You might not have much money. That's okay.
Spare $5 from your budget this week. Go to Starbucks on Tuesday because that's the start of this week and everyone's going to feel like it's Monday. Buy someone coffee at Starbucks. Watch how that transforms that person's morning. They don't want to go to work. They want to sleep in.
And you just bought them coffee for no reason. That's going to crazy bless them. They're going to have such a good day because some random stranger bought coffee for them in the morning. So countercultural. If you've got quite a bit of money, you're in luck. You get to go crazy and you get to be super creative.
Go to start small. Go to a mechanic and pay someone's bill while they're gone. $500, $800, $1,200. Who knows? That is going to transform someone's day. That might transform someone's year. They might not have been able to pay for those tires.
They might have been pulling out their credit card for the first time. They might have been maxing out their credit card and you just paid that bill off for them. That's going to make someone's day. Get 12 dozen Krispy Kremes. Get 12 dozen Krispy Kremes. Go to the DMV and make waiting at the DMV a little less torture.
That would be a fun way to spend some money and bless people. And you know what? All of it comes as a reaction to the gospel. All of it comes as our response to what God has done for us out of his generosity. While we were still sinners, Christ came and died for us. God gave generously to us.
He sacrificed his only son to come and pay the sins of the world. To pay your sins, to pay for my sins on the cross so that we could be reconciled to him. That's what it took for him to be generous. And for us, it gets to be as easy as money, which we can't take with us. There is great joy from being generous. It feels good to bless people financially.
And you know what? Instead of laying treasures for yourself here on earth, you get to set them up for yourself for eternity. Lay treasures up for the future. Where they won't grow old, they won't rust, and moths won't eat them. You get to keep them forever. Let's pray.
Father God, we praise and thank you that you have blessed us with so much. We thank you for the opportunities that we have as those who can live on less to bless others abundantly this week. I pray that as we go out this week and think about the ways that we can be spending our money, the ways that we can be budgeting, the ways that we can be looking out for other people, that you be giving us discernment on how much, you be giving us discernment on when, you be giving us discernment on in what manner, but that overall we can be generous and that our generosity will come from a heart that is just loving you, responding to what you've done for us the way that you would like us to. Pray that this week and weekend, give to others with a glad and generous heart.
It's in Jesus' name 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...
Where Your Heart Is
Transcript
Well, good morning. How are we doing? All right. It's my favorite thing to do. I do that all the time. I ask how people are doing, no one responds, and then I make fun of you.
It's great. It's a wonderful way to start off a sermon. So my name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here, and we are in the second week of our Give series. And so what we're doing is right around Christmastime, as our culture just kind of goes crazy with buying things, with Christmas in general, and sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a healthy, we're excited about Christmas way. More often than not, though, it's in a consumeristic kind of frenzy-ish way.
So, like, I heard somebody said that there was someone who was from another country. I think they were from England or something. They were here on Black Friday, and there was, like, people shooting and stuff at a Black Friday thing. And they looked at someone near them and said, is this normal? Like, do y'all usually shoot each other on Black Friday? Like, is this, should I have brought a gun?
Like, I'm not an American. What should I have done here? And so it turns into that, where there's this mob of people and this massive amount of weight and pressure that come with Christmas. I'm assuming y'all feel that, have noticed that. Like, there's this pressure for it to be magical, for it to be special, for this Christmas to somehow outdo last Christmas. There's this pressure to have perfect time with family.
There's this pressure for there not to be any problems or anything bad. Or, like, we just, no, no, no. It's Christmas. You can't be angry at Christmas. Like, my mom cried one time and told my dad he was ruining Christmas. And his response was, like, how?
What am I doing? And she said, I don't know. Because there's just this weird pressure of this has to be perfect. This has to be great. This has to be. And even when it just, when it's a really nice time, when it's a really special, it just, you feel this weight for it to be better, for it to be bigger, for it to be more magical, more special.
And so what we try to do around this time of year, and we've done it every single year for both years that we've existed as a church, is we try to intentionally be generous, intentionally try to reorient our hearts towards generosity with a series called Give. And we're not the only church in this area that does this. There are two others that we partner with and are good friends with. They do this as well. And it's just an intentional around Christmas. We're going to try to be generous.
We're going to try to remind ourselves what's really important, why it really matters. And so what we're doing for three weeks is we're looking at some tough sayings of Jesus on the topic of money and possessions. So what we're celebrating at Christmas is that God became a human. That's what the word Emmanuel means. So they said he'll be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.
We're celebrating that God became a human, took on humanity with the express purpose of dying on our behalf. And so when we read the words of Jesus, when we look in the Gospels and see what Jesus says, we're seeing what God says. The creator of all things. We're seeing what he says about marriage. We're seeing what he says about relationships with other people. We're seeing what he says for the next three weeks or for these three weeks on the topic of money.
We're seeing what he says about money and finances and possessions so that we know how we ought to think, how we ought to view this, where we see it incorrectly. So that's what we're doing. I'm going to pray and then we'll be in Luke 12, which is right where we left off last week. God, we thank you that we get to gather as your church, as your people to hear your word. We pray, God, that you would help us to follow, to not just say we're disciples, not just say we're followers of Jesus, but to actually follow Jesus. We pray, God, that you would, through your Holy Spirit, help us to see truth, to believe it, and give us, God, the grace that we need to repent and the grace we need to follow after you.
We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We'll be in Luke chapter 12, and like I said, we're going to pick up where we left off last week. So last week we started in verse 12, 13, somewhere around in there, 13.
And basically Jesus is teaching. Somebody comes over and says, hey, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me. Jesus immediately starts teaching how this guy's kind of covetous. He turns it on, everybody. It'll be on page 566 if your Bible looks like this. If you don't own a Bible, take one of these with you.
We want you to have a Bible. This is our gift to you. Take this with you. And so what we talked about last week, though, was that Jesus tells us to be on guard against all covetousness. And so we tried to point this out and even jokingly some point how we're covetous and we don't even notice it. It doesn't even show up on our radar.
It's just normal to us. We were shooting some video stuff yesterday. And Charlie, one of our group leaders, came over to give something to Matt. And he came over on his motorcycle. And when he rode off on his motorcycle, I looked at Matt and said, I want a motorcycle. And Matt responded, me too.
And that's called covetousness. That's seeing something you don't have and then feeling like you need it. Feeling like somehow you're missing something by not having it. And desiring something that someone else is. It's innate in us. And we don't even notice it.
It doesn't show up. The other thing that he said at the beginning of this passage is that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. And although we've watched the Hallmark movies, we don't believe that. There's something deep in us that feels like, no, yeah, but yeah, it kind of does though a little bit. Like good point, but yeah, but not really. Like we feel that.
And I'll show you how this shows up. You're in your community group. You're walking with church family. You're praying about stuff. And somebody says, hey, I've got an opportunity for promotion. I just got promoted.
Automatically. Boom. Celebration. That's automatically a win. You're getting more money. It's a win.
Because life exists in that. We don't ask, well, does that mean you're going to have to travel more? How is that going to affect your ability to spend time with your family, to do what you're doing with like? Automatically it's a win. Somebody says, hey, I've got a better Job. I'm moving.
Oh, congratulations. We'll help you pack your stuff. We don't ask. Do you think that's what you ought to do as a part of church family, as a part of a Jesus follower? Is that like we just don't even show up? Because we believe somewhere deep inside of us that life exists in the abundance of possession.
So if you can get some more, if you can make some more, if you can rise up in the world, that's a win automatically. It's just not on our radar. And so Jesus goes through and he tells the story about a rich man who gets more wealthy and basically says, cool, I get to tear everything down. I get to be set for life. And that God looks at him and says, well, kind of, because your life's going to end tonight. And all this wealth that you've accumulated, whose is it going to be?
And then Jesus says that he's foolish, not wicked, not evil. He says he's foolish because he doesn't understand how to be rich towards God. He doesn't understand what it means to actually invest in something that lasts. And so that's where we are. That's what he just finished saying. That's what we're going to pick up today.
But we're going to do something a little bit differently. We're going to jump to the end of what Jesus says, kind of his summary statement, so that we have this in our head as we walk through. And this is one of my favorite passages on the idea of finances, on the idea of possessions, because I feel like Jesus just says it so clearly. And so it makes me very uncomfortable. And that's why I think it's good. Just so you know, when you're reading scripture and it makes you uncomfortable, you're reading it correctly.
If the Bible always agrees with you, you're reading it wrongly. Like if you read the Bible and you're like, told you, Jesus is a Republican. It's like, no, I think you may be off there. I don't think he automatically agrees with everything you think. And so this is one of the areas where Jesus just says something. He says it very straightforwardly, and it makes me uncomfortable.
So we're going to jump to the end. And we're going to kind of do, you know how you're watching movies sometimes, and it starts off like it just drops you in the middle of a scene. And there's like the main character is like sweating and holding a gun. And you look over, and there's some guy you don't know, but he's like bleeding out. And you can tell that they like each other or whatever. And then he like spins around the corner, and he's like, I guess you're wondering how I got here.
It's like a voiceover thing. He's not actually saying that because that would be weird and walking around saying it out loud. But it's like a voiceover. Two days ago, I was just your normal, average high school student. And then it like takes you back. So like you got to see where you're going, and then it takes you back.
And so you've got that in your mind the whole time you watch. That's what we're trying to do as we read the end of this passage. So like when you meet the character that's bleeding at the end, you're like, bro, I know you're worried about that math test on Friday. You ain't even going to. Don't worry about it. Don't study.
You might as well watch some Netflix. You ain't going to make it. That's what we're doing. We're going to see where Jesus is taking this. We're going to see what the ending scene is so that we can hold that in our brain for the rest of the time as we go through this passage so that we can understand more clearly. I think it's a helpful way to go through this.
So jump quickly to Luke 12, 34. This is Jesus, kind of how he lands this. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So what Jesus is going to say at the end of all this is he talks about money and possessions.
He's going to land in. If you want to know where your heart is, all we've got to do is look at where your treasure is. And he's talking about it specifically in the context of money and possessions. Like the passage before says, sell your possessions, give to the needy, provide for yourself money backs. He's talking about the concept of finances. So don't sit there and go, well, my treasure is my children.
That's not what he's talking about. What he's saying is where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So where you send your finances, where you put your possessions is showing you what you care about. It's going to indicate to us what we love. And we know this. We see this in our culture.
Like I was a business major. One of the things that you talk about a lot when there's a crime is committed, they're going to look at, well, where's money going? So like we have websites called Follow the Money that are going to tell you who gives to what political party. So that you'd watch a guy and see how he votes over and over again in Congress or something. You start seeing, well, who gives him money? There are different TV shows at different times that were Follow the Money.
Every time someone's killed, they're going to look and see, well, who's the beneficiary on their life insurance? Because we know that the money is going to lead us somewhere. And that's what Jesus is saying. He's saying, follow the money and you'll find your heart. But you'll get to see clearly what it is you actually care about.
I saw this about a year ago and I looked it back up today to make sure it's true. But it's a lady won a million dollars on Wheel of Fortune. Which I didn't even know you could do. It was apparently like a special thing. Three people now in all of history have won a million dollars. And I was watching it on like local news and they were like showing the clip of how she won.
She's all excited. And then the news anchor before they swap to the next story goes. And the lady said that she would spend all of her winnings on her upcoming wedding. And then they changed over to a new story. And I was like, do what? You're going to spend a million dollars on a wedding?
Like what are the party favors at this wedding? Leather jackets with diamond encrusted doves in the pocket? Like what? You've got to do work to spend a million dollars on a wedding. And immediately I'm like, that is absolutely ridiculous. Because if you gave me a million dollars, I would spend it on the things that I love, not the things that she loves.
That's all we're saying when we look at something and say, that's a dumb way to spend your money. All you're saying is, I don't place value where you place value. But Jesus says that you follow the money and you'll find your heart. That where your treasure is, that's where your heart's going to be. That's why it gets so tense when we talk about money. That's why conversations with people about money and how they spend money get intense.
Because there's an immediate connection between your wallet and your heart. So if I start telling you how to spend your money, what I'm telling you is, this is how you ought to have your value system line up. And immediately you're going to get defensive because your heart lines up with your money. So Jesus, he's getting in our business a little bit, isn't he? Okay, so that's where he's going to take it. That's where he's going to land it.
Let's jump back up to the top here in verse 22. And he said to his disciples, Therefore, I tell you. Just so you know, whenever you say therefore in scripture, it means you need to know what just happened. Because he's responding kind of in light of what was just said. So what was just said was, You're foolish if all of your money goes to you.
If you don't ever put any money towards long-term, eternal investments. You're foolish. Therefore, I tell you. Oh, and he says this to his disciples. So really, Jesus is talking to those who follow him.
So if you're in here today and just checking out this whole Jesus thing, this is something he turned and said specifically to those people who said, I follow Jesus. Now, the stuff is still true about your money shows you where your heart is. But some of where he's going to press us some today, specifically to those who say, No, I'm a Christian. I follow Jesus. I've had my sin paid for by him. He is my king and leader.
Therefore, I tell you, Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?
And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?
And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried, for all the nations of the world seek after these things. And your Father knows that you need them. That's beautiful. Like, that's a very encouraging thing that Jesus says. He looks at these people and he says, don't be worried about this stuff. Don't worry about what you are going to eat, what you are going to wear.
Look at the ravens. Look at these birds. They have no intentionality behind what they are doing. Like, they don't have barns. They are not punching the clock. And your Father knows them and feeds them.
How much more value are you than birds? That's beautiful. Like, there have been times before where I've sat in my backyard in the morning and just hear tons and tons of birds. My wife and I recently had pet squirrels that we found. So they were baby squirrels and we raised them.
And then we kind of let them out into the wild. And as they got older, they just kind of quit coming around so we wouldn't see them anymore. I was in my backyard. Probably hadn't seen any of those squirrels. I mean, you see squirrels, but you don't, you can't tell. Like, we didn't spray paint them to know which ones were out.
I was in my backyard on the phone and I looked down and there was a squirrel at my feet and it just ran, climbed up my leg, sat on my shoulder, climbed back down as a full-grown squirrel and ran off. And as I was reading this today, I thought, you know, that squirrel was raised by humans so it really doesn't have much of a chance at being a good squirrel. Like, it's, like, God's really got to be on that. Like, we were feeding them for a while and then they quit coming around and we didn't know if they lived or died or whatever. And what's beautiful is that God knows about that squirrel, cares about that squirrel, has been feeding that squirrel.
You can sit outside and hear birds chirping and God says, I know each of them. Jesus at one point says not, there's not a sparrow that falls to the ground that God doesn't know about. He knows each of them, cares for each of them, provides for each of them. And some of us today, that's what we need to hear. Life's tough. Christmas just points out to us how short we fall on things, how far behind we are.
And you need to know that. You're worth much more than birds and grass and God takes care of all of them, provides for all of them. So when he was talking to this crowd, this original hearers, that's mostly what he was pushing in on them a little bit. Was you're concerned about, you're anxious about, you're worried about these things because you're consistently asking, where's my next meal coming from? Am I going to eat? Is this going to work out?
How am I going to stay clothed? How is this going to work? Because for the majority of history and the majority of humans, even on the planet Earth now, primarily you eat to not die and you wear clothes to not have the sun cook you or the weather freeze you. I guess pretty much for the majority of people across the world, that's how that works. But for the majority of Americans, that is not how that works.
So for some of us, he's going to talk to us in the same way that he was talking to them, which was saying, don't be anxious about these things. God will provide for you. But when it comes to our anxiety for most of us, our anxiety around food and our anxiety around clothing is in a completely different place. And so he's going to be talking to us in a different area. Because here's the thing. Most of us don't ask the question, am I going to eat later?
Most Americans are asking the question, what am I going to eat later? Most of us are not asking the question, will I have clothes? Most of us are asking what type of clothes, how much clothes, what brand of clothes. That's kind of where we land on things. Because in the past hundred years or so, we started being able to produce more than we actually can handle. So it used to be you had about the same amount of shoes as you had feet.
But now we can make shoes so much faster, so people have to convince us that we need different types of shoes. And that our shoes tell the world about us. Isn't that with food? Most of us aren't worried about, am I going to eat? It's like, we're a little bit like, I've got so many Doritos, I don't know what to do with all of them. I guess I'll just eat them until I fall asleep.
Like, when it comes to food, it's a little bit like, I'm happy, so I'll eat. I've got something to celebrate, let's eat. I'm sad, so I'll eat. I'm depressed, I'll eat. The TV's on, I might as well eat. I have the whole day to myself.
I want to nap on an empty stomach. Like, that's kind of how we treat food. We've got way more than we actually need and our anxiety with it is in a different space. Same thing with clothes. Clothes to us, you don't pay more because your clothes has more material to it for the most part. You pay some more for different types of material.
Most of the time though, we're paying for the label that's on it and the place that we bought it from. You're spending more because they put a little stitch thing on the front. Like, it's not like you walk up to somebody and be like, long sleeves. I bet that sets you back. That's not how that works. Ah, purple.
Didn't know you were rich. That's not, that's not how, it's way more what's on the front and what do your clothes say about you. And I'll give you examples of this. Like, if you watch advertising, you'll pick up on this pretty easily. So as you walk around doing your Christmas shopping and you're out, you're going to see two to three thousand ads a day, the average American does.
Uh, and as we're walking around doing our Christmas shopping and seeing different things, like some, all right, so, uh, you're watching TV and a car commercial comes on. There are some car commercials that are going to sell you on features. Most of them are going to sell you on what type of person that car makes you. So it's just like a cool guy riding around in the car and he hops out and he's got a tuxedo and he lights up a cigarette and you're just like, I want to smoke and drive that car. Or like, uh, legitimately, car advertisement is hamsters dancing. My wife drives one of those cars.
I have no clue what that tells us about her, what kind of a person she is. She's the type of person who wants to dance with a hamster. Like, I don't know, but they don't tell you anything about the car. It's just like techno music and hamsters dancing and you're like, cool, that's the type of person I want to be. Uh, one of the best examples of this, you're walking around Christmas, please, if you're at the mall, look for Hollister bags. I've said this before because I think it's the best example of this.
Look for Hollister bags. I used to work at the mall. People would come through with Hollister bags. Okay, so Hollister is a clothing company. That means they're a company that sells clothes. On their advertisement is a picture of a guy torso-ish up with no clothes.
He is wearing nothing as far as we know in this advertisement and they are trying to sell me clothes. They are not selling me on our clothes will keep the sun from cooking you. They are not selling me on our clothes will keep bugs from eating you. They're selling me on our clothes are so cool you won't have to wear clothes. I don't even like, I wish I could be like that guy if I had one of those Hollister shirts I'd have abs. Like, I don't know how that works.
But it's obvious that they're no longer selling us that when it comes to our anxiety around food and our anxiety around clothing it's obvious that it's no longer where he was talking to them about. See, here's what happens. I want to show you where he takes this. Verse 29 And do not seek what you will eat and what you are to drink nor be worried for all the nations of the world seek after these things and your father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Okay, that gets a little confusing if we don't know what the kingdom is. because it seems like he just changed subjects. He's talking about money, possessions, he's talking about this rich guy not being, only being rich towards himself, not being rich towards God and then he says don't worry about clothes and food because God wants to give you the kingdom. So it's just a little bit of like, what, is the kingdom filled with clothes and food? Like I don't understand what the kingdom is. The kingdom is this, that Jesus, that when God created the world we rebelled against him and that we're sinful, we're broken, we're off, we don't love God, we don't follow God, we don't want to be a part of his system and that Jesus came, that's what we're celebrating at Christmas, that Jesus came to die for our sin, to pay our debt and when he did that he invited us back into his kingdom where he's the king and our debt has been paid, we have been set free from sin and we have become God's children, God's family, citizens of the kingdom and here's how that impacts money.
To a Christian, money is just money because we've been invited into the kingdom. So here's what's true. You don't actually love money. We said last week that we liked money. You don't actually love money. You love what money gives you.
You love what money provides for you. That's actually why we like money. Nobody in here is like addicted to collecting Monopoly money. None of you would work for Monopoly money. The only time you care about Monopoly money is for the seven hours that you play that game until one of you gets so mad at your grandmother that you flip over the thing and walk out. But we don't care about Monopoly money because it doesn't give us anything.
The reason we like money is because of what it provides. And what I mean by that is this. some of us in here if given a million dollars we would invest and we would put it in the bank. And our standard of living wouldn't change a whole lot but we would feel so good at night going to sleep thinking nothing can mess with me because I've got a million dollars in the bank. Like if I mean I can pay off my house I can be perfectly secure and if anything comes up if there's any problem and so money for some people is going to be security and control. You get to feel like by having money by having possessions that you have a level of control over your life.
You have a level of I don't have to worry I'm secure because I have finances and that's actually going to show you where your heart is. That's showing you what you worship what you value what you love. Some of us it's going to be comfort and you get money it's gone. Well I have money when I could have a cheeseburger. Well I have money when I could get a hot tub. Well I have money when I could go like it goes towards just us enjoying life.
That's the purpose of money is to have nice things in our house to have a nice couch to have a big TV because money brings comfort. Money brings vacations. That's what it represents to you. Some of us it's going to be power. Money gives you authority over people and things so you get really rich you can actually influence how political parties work, who gets elected, what happens, how things happen. You can show up at the school and your kids are in trouble but you got a lot of money so you can get them out.
What happens, how things happen. You can show up at the school and your kids are in trouble but you got a lot of money so you can get them out. For some of us though we're not going to have that much money so it becomes more like this. I'll help you pay for this and you're just doing it not out of generosity not out of love but it gives you a little bit of
Power over somebody so you see parents be like I hope you pay for your wedding if I'll give you that small loan if or even there's no if they don't say if but it's an included if because it just oh yeah my money works for me to elevate me in power. Some of us it's really just approval that's what he says
When he says that Solomon in all of his glory didn't look like the flowers it's really just money helps people know my status helps people know where I am that I've arrived that's why we say things like man I wouldn't be caught dead driving that because that that vehicle would not articulate my status to the world appropriately that's why if you're out
Somewhere like you went to Walmart at two o'clock in the morning you didn't think anybody was going to see you so you're wearing like really grungy clothes you run into somebody and you're like dang it I'm going to be on people at walmart.com and you're embarrassed because of
How you dressed just because because clothes no longer are just how to cover you but it actually says something about you it tells the world your status and so when Jesus said it's God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom it eradicates the need for all of those other things
Because Jesus stepped in to pay for our sin and when he did status and approval were forever taken care of that the God of the universe approves of us because when he looks at us he sees Jesus standing in our place money cannot buy a Christian approval approval approval approval
Has been given by the shed blood of Jesus on our behalf there is no higher status than a son or daughter of the king of the universe and that's already been given to us by Jesus that's the
Invitation into the kingdom and that's why it's God's good pleasure to give it to us and that's why it eradicates our need for these other things comfort we have an eternity to spend with the creator of the universe in heaven
I don't know if y'all know much about heaven it's nice and there's nothing that comforts our soul more than knowing that we have been secured forever by God and that that's where we are going to end up because of Jesus
Not because of us security and control you're in the hand of God and your security has already been won for you forever by Jesus because you've been invited into the kingdom by his work not yours and the ultimate most powerful
Being on earth loves you cares for you provides for you works for you serves you in the cross to give you life and joy and hope and peace and you get to rest in his powerful controlling hands that's why
Money gets to be just money for a Christian that's why it means nothing else to us it doesn't buy us approval doesn't buy us power doesn't buy us status doesn't give us control those all belong to God they all
Belong to Jesus and they've all been given to us freely in the cross that's why we get to look like we're citizens of a different kingdom that's why he starts talking about the
Kingdom I was talking to Raz recently he's from Australia so he thinks about things differently so we have different discussions about guns we have different discussions on taxes and social
Issues like how the government interferes with and works in society with medicine we're always on different pages the most recent one we had was we were here at
Glen Forest they were having a basketball game we went into the side just because we're used to being around here doing stuff when we were leaving we realized that we had not paid
And we were supposed to we were there for a few minutes so we didn't turn around and pay which maybe we ought to have but I was like oh we didn't pay and Raz was like
Pay we didn't pay to get in the game he was like y'all pay to get into games at a high school I was like yeah he was like no
He's like who pays I was like parents you gotta pay to watch your kid play a sport I was like yeah he said no I was
Like how do y'all pay for stuff he was like school fees I was like I don't think we really have those private schools
Do I guess he's like oh well public schools don't have sports I have in heaven as citizens of king Jesus and it changes
How we view money it changes how we view relationships we are secondarily american citizens australian citizen that's secondary for us primary is citizen
Of the king citizens of heaven and that's why he says it's God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom and that's how that
Affects our finances and our hearts that's how that actually steps in and changes so that when we see what Jesus has provided for
Us we no longer trust money to do that when we see the generosity given to us and what we celebrate at Christmas and
What we celebrate at Easter we're no longer so caught up in what finances can accomplish for us because we know that they're secondary
They're smaller that money is just money you can be generous with it and you can be good with it yeah you can buy
Some food and clothes with it yeah but God's got all that God's going to provide and we actually get to leverage our money
For his kingdom we actually get to leverage our money to be generous to be good to others and that's actually what he says 31
Instead seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you I'll provide for you follow me fear not little flock for it
Is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom 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 those of
Us who say we are followers of Jesus I believe that many of us will get on the other side of eternity and will
Immediately see miss the boat I failed to see how money was supposed to work on earth because I did not fully understand how
The gospel applied to my wallet because he says give be generous provide yourself with stuff that's going to last you can buy a
New car it's not going to be new forever you drive it off the lot value drops it's going to rust out you're going to need another
One you can get a new house it's not going to be new forever value that's going to increase most likely but not forever you can buy some
New clothes you need some more and what Jesus says is no no make an investment that lasts forever make an investment that's there
Forever where moths don't eat stuff up in heaven people don't steal stuff in heaven and then he says this for where your treasure
Is there will your heart be also here's why Jesus is going to talk so much about money because he knows that it is
Directly linked to our hearts and Jesus cares about our hearts sometimes you hear church talking about money and you think oh goodness Jesus
Really need my money like is he broke he had a hard time paying rent in heaven I guess the expenses up there are
Pretty good it is a gated community you immediately get cynical but here's the thing Jesus doesn't need your money you Jesus cares about
Your heart and that's why he's going to go hard after finances because he knows that it's directly tied to what we value and
What we love and so he's going to come after you because he loves us enough to do that you ever notice that some
Of the people that are most willing to get in your face call you out on stuff that are closest to you care most
About you that's why Jesus is going to talk about money because he cares about us and he wants our hearts to change that's
Why the Bible so often isn't going to go after behavior it talks about behavioral things but it talks way more about heart change
Here's the truth some of us in here can be like I'm generous I give to the church I give to other people and
Honestly all we've done is our heart hasn't changed we've just said okay so if comfort and control or whatever it is I'm seeking
If the best way to get that is to pay God off let me do that you're saying if I give to God he'll
Bless me cool let me do that our heart hasn't changed we're just using God we're just paying him out to get what we
Want I'll be a part of this church thing I'll give as long as my kids are going to turn out okay I'll give as long as I won't
Be late on on payments and stuff because you say God will bless me heart hasn't changed that's why the Bible is going after
Our heart so often because our behavior indicates where our heart is and especially when it comes to money so specifically every month we have a
Limited amount of resources and where we're willing to put money shows us what we actually value what we actually care about very clearly
Very clearly here's how this ought to work here's how this does work and here's what it ought to look like if we took everybody in your
Social economic status same bracket tax bracket everybody in your neighborhood all of your co-workers that are around the same level as you and we begin
To show with no names exactly where everybody's money went over the past month over the past year it should become obvious to us
That's a Christian because you can see their heart and how their money spent should become obvious if you print out your bank statement and lay it
Down because you can go to Jesus and you can tell him all the stuff that you love I love you I love this
I love that he goes okay bank statement not because he wants your money could care less about it cares about your heart and
Where your money is where your treasure is where your possessions are is where your disciple of Jesus you ought to look poorer because
You automatically have places where you want money to go that your neighbor doesn't you automatically see the world you're investing in eternity your
Neighbor is not you're selling your possessions and giving to the needy your neighbor is not you're providing paying for mission and stuff taking
Place at local churches at local places that give things away you're paying for stuff it's just money because of what Jesus has provided
For you so Jesus says we want to know where your heart is let's look at where your treasure is let's look at how you
Spend your money that'll tell us what you love every time he doesn't he doesn't give caveats he doesn't beat around the bush he says
Where your money is that's where your heart is I don't want us to just move past this I want us to sit with
This for a second so here's what we're going to do and I'm going to come back up and talk about some other things
We're going to talk specifically about our give project this year I want us to sit and I want us to think just a little
Bit about what you're willing to spend money on there's some things that you spend money on you don't have to think about there's
A no brainer to you of course I'd spend money on that there are other things you've got to think about I don't know if I want to give money to that so there's some stuff in the past week that time to spend money on you didn't even cross your mind because you have value on high school I want us to just think for just a second, where's my money go? What's it say about my heart? What is it I actually love? Do I actually, if you looked at my financial records, would it say, would it scream? This person knows the gospel. This person loves Jesus. This person absolutely has had their heart wrecked by the grace that has been offered to them in the cross.
They know that everything's been given to them by Jesus. So I just want us to ask some questions. Sit and think. What am I most willing to spend money on? What am I least willing to spend money on? Some of the times we'll say things like, well, if I just made more, I'd be more generous. But the problem is making more money doesn't change our heart. Jesus does. It's actually good for us. It's God's grace to some of us who do not handle money well and use it to chase after things other than what we ought to. That God hasn't given us more. He's being gracious to us. He's allowing us to mismanage a small amount of money as opposed to a greater amount. So I just want us to sit and think. God, where am I most willing to spend money? Where am I least willing to spend money? What is it that you have to work with me on to actually give towards? And I'm going to come back up and we're going to talk about some other things.
But I just want us to think through our budgets. Think through how we allocate money and what that says about our hearts and what we actually care about. And I'll come back up and we'll talk about our gifts. Don't be afraid of God. It's true. Don't be afraid of Maharaj's помощь. The power of Yahudi and Eisenhower Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is one of the areas where most often the Bible is going to talk to us about your heart changes and then your behavior changes. And that's true. The Bible says our hearts are deceitful, they're messed up, and that Jesus is going to give us a new heart through the Holy Spirit and he's going to change us and that's going to change how we act. And you can see that in normal life with everybody. It's like he loves this now, so that's why his time goes there. When I started dating Anna, I quit hanging out with all my other friends because what I cared about had changed.
My heart had changed. And that's true. But this is one of the few instances where we can actually intentionally move our hearts. So we can start sliding our treasure over to a different place and our heart will go with it because where our treasure is there, our heart will be. Here's what that means. You buy some stock. That's the only little thing you're looking on on the ticker because that's where your money is. That's the one you care about. You bet on a game. If you're watching a game, like a football game, and you don't even care who's playing, bet. Put $5 on it. You will care. Here. I'll be like, all right, I got $5 on the team with the orange helmets. Syracuse? Okay, I'm a Syracuse fan now for the next two hours. Because when we start shifting where we send our money, where we put our treasures, where we have our possessions, it's going to move our heart with it.
It's one of the few instances that that's true. So that's why we do the Give Series the way we do it, where we're going to intentionally seek to be generous, intentionally go out of our way to follow some clear, direct teaching that Jesus has on being generous, on giving, on moving our hearts with our treasure. So here's what we're going to do. We announced this last week. I know some of us weren't here, and I'm going to have to say a good bit to make this clear. And like with everything we do, we exist in church families. So if something is confusing, as soon as we're done, you just ask somebody and we'll clarify. Here's what we're going to do. We went on Thanksgiving and handed out about 270 meals. We gave out 200 in the Gentle Pines apartment complex in West Columbia. And while we were there, we asked them, is there anybody here who needs assistance for Christmas with small children?
And we just prayed beforehand. We were like, God, send us the amount of people you want us to have for us to handle. And 77 children were signed up for us to help give assistance for Christmas. Majority of them Hispanic. And we got what we have on these. Each one of these represents a child in our city that needs some help. Their parents need some help for Christmas. We're going to follow what Jesus says, which is give to the needy. Give to those who need help. We've got over there on some of these. I wrote some of these down. There's a three-year-old girl named Jocelyn. She'd like a soccer ball. She lives in our city. And I don't believe outside of us stepping in and helping, that's going to happen. Does she deserve a soccer ball? I don't know. Does it matter? Absolutely not. We're called to be generous. We're called to love. We're called to share.
And our church is called to make our city better by being here. Because we're a group of people who've been changed by the gospel, which changes how we interact with everything, which makes us bless everyone that's around us as best we can. There's an eight-year-old boy named Christian, and he needs some shoes. And there's a six-month-old named Dana. They've asked for some clothes for her. And we, because we know Jesus, get to step in and help. Because Jesus paid our debt, we get to help with others. Because Jesus gave us the greatest gift we'll ever receive. Because Jesus completely turned our value system upside down. Money's just money to us. Everything's already been given to us. Nothing can be taken for us because it was given to us by Jesus, and it's kept by Jesus. It's held secure for us forever. So we get to step in and be generous because we're citizens of a different kingdom.
So here's what we're going to do. So we're going to continue to play some music. And I expect this to be loud because there are going to be some conversations that need to be had. You're going to need to talk to your spouse. You're going to need to look at one of your friends. You're going to need to say, you may need to call somebody. You might want to talk with your community group. But we're going to try to get all these children off of here. And here's what we're going for. Those tags over there have a couple of different things I need to explain to us. They're going to have a name, an age, and a gender at least. And if that's the case, it's basically, okay, it's a three-year-old boy named Michael. And I get to get him whatever I'd like to give Michael. I get to just be, what do I think a three-year-old would like? And you just get to be generous to this kid.
Some of them are going to have name, age, size, and a request for clothes. Some of them are going to have name, age, size, request for shoes. Some of them will have name, age, gender, request for toys or maybe a specific type of toy. And we're just going to go out of our way to inconvenience ourselves to bless other people, which is what Jesus did for us. So that's what we're going to get to do this year to celebrate Christmas as part of how we celebrate Christmas as a church. So what you're going to do is if you pick a child off of the thing, you're going to keep that because that's going to tell you how you ought to, what it looks like for you to bless them. You're going to grab one of the sheets on the table with some more specific information about what kind of gifts are okay, not okay. And then on that table back there, you're just going to write your email address and name next to the child that you picked.
And they're all numbered on the back. So the number on the back will match up with the number on one of those sheets, and you'll just write that down. And our church family is going to go out of our way to bless children this Christmas. And the goal for us is that we would bring the gifts back in some sort of a bag because we've had different people say they'd like to give one certain type of thing to each child, and so we want to be able to just stick that in their bags. Bring it back in some sort of a bag next week. So this week we want to try to get the gifts, and honestly, I hope that inconveniences us a little bit. Because the more I'm inconvenienced, the more I have to press into the gospel. I know that's true for me. The more I have to remind myself why it's worth doing and what Jesus has already accomplished for me. And then on our Christmas gathering, which will be the 21st, we're going to go over there.
We're going to load up some vans and go over there and give them out. And anyone in our church family who wants to go do that gets to go do that. So you want to just go help knock on doors, say Merry Christmas, hand somebody a bag full of stuff, which is a lot of fun. We want to do that. Come on. Goal being to spend about $15 to $30 per child because most of them are in sibling groups. The majority of the kids came from sibling groups, three to four plus per household. And we don't want to have a big disparage between like one kid in the house gets $50 spent on him and one kid gets $10 spent on him. We kind of want to keep it in the $15 to $30 range. And if you want to sponsor more children, do that. I'm going to pray for us. We're going to continue to play some music. Actually, we're going to continue to play some music. And go ahead and start having conversations.
Go ahead and start grabbing those. Go ahead and start writing your name down. And then I'll come up and pray for us and we'll close out. And then we can still grab names and children after that. So wide open for anybody who wants to go grab a name, grab a kid, write some information down. If you need to make phone calls, you need to talk to people, whatever you need to do. If you know you can't figure it out right now, you're going to be able to do it. But you want to talk and grab one later, we can do that as well. We'll be wide open for it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Charlie. If you wanted to sponsor a child and all the names are gone, just talk to somebody. Talk to somebody in your community group. Ask how you might be able to get a gift for a specific child. If you need to, if you need to, if for some reason you know you wouldn't be able to bring the gifts back by next week, even though that's our goal, just get with somebody.
We'll see if we can't have somebody bring it over for you. That sort of thing. God, we thank you. God, we thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That because of your grace. God, we thank you. Thank you. And because you intentionally planted us here. God, we thank you. That 77 children in our city are going to get gifts this Christmas that may not otherwise have been able to. That 77 children in our city, whether they know you or don't, are going to be impacted by what you've already done, are going to be loved because you love, are going to be given to because you've given to us. God, we thank you. We thank you that these small gifts pale in comparison to what you've given us. We thank you, God, that you will work in our hearts as we go out of our way to be generous to change us. God, I pray that this is one of the first very small steps for us as a church family, us as individuals, in stepping into what it looks like to be generous in a way that is completely impacted by the gospel.
We praise you, Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen.
What is it I actually love? Do I actually, if you looked at my financial records, would it say, would it scream? This person knows the gospel. This person loves Jesus. This person absolutely has had their heart wrecked by the grace that has been offered to them in the cross. They know that everything's been given to them by Jesus.
So I just want us to ask some questions. Sit and think. What am I most willing to spend money on? What am I least willing to spend money on? Some of the times we'll say things like, well, if I just made more, I'd be more generous. But the problem is making more money doesn't change our heart.
Jesus does. It's actually good for us. It's God's grace to some of us who do not handle money well and use it to chase after things other than what we ought to. That God hasn't given us more. He's being gracious to us. He's allowing us to mismanage a small amount of money as opposed to a greater amount.
So I just want us to sit and think. God, where am I most willing to spend money? Where am I least willing to spend money? What is it that you have to work with me on to actually give towards? And I'm going to come back up and we're going to talk about some other things. But I just want us to think through our budgets.
Think through how we allocate money and what that says about our hearts and what we actually care about. And I'll come back up and we'll talk about our gifts. Don't be afraid of God. It's true. Don't be afraid of Maharaj's помощь. The power of Yahudi and Eisenhower Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is one of the areas where most often the Bible is going to talk to us about your heart changes and then your behavior changes. And that's true. The Bible says our hearts are deceitful, they're messed up, and that Jesus is going to give us a new heart through the Holy Spirit and he's going to change us and that's going to change how we act.
And you can see that in normal life with everybody. It's like he loves this now, so that's why his time goes there. When I started dating Anna, I quit hanging out with all my other friends because what I cared about had changed. My heart had changed. And that's true. But this is one of the few instances where we can actually intentionally move our hearts.
So we can start sliding our treasure over to a different place and our heart will go with it because where our treasure is there, our heart will be. Here's what that means. You buy some stock. That's the only little thing you're looking on on the ticker because that's where your money is. That's the one you care about. You bet on a game.
If you're watching a game, like a football game, and you don't even care who's playing, bet. Put $5 on it. You will care. Here. I'll be like, all right, I got $5 on the team with the orange helmets. Syracuse?
Okay, I'm a Syracuse fan now for the next two hours. Because when we start shifting where we send our money, where we put our treasures, where we have our possessions, it's going to move our heart with it. It's one of the few instances that that's true. So that's why we do the Give Series the way we do it, where we're going to intentionally seek to be generous, intentionally go out of our way to follow some clear, direct teaching that Jesus has on being generous, on giving, on moving our hearts with our treasure. So here's what we're going to do.
We announced this last week. I know some of us weren't here, and I'm going to have to say a good bit to make this clear. And like with everything we do, we exist in church families. So if something is confusing, as soon as we're done, you just ask somebody and we'll clarify. Here's what we're going to do. We went on Thanksgiving and handed out about 270 meals.
We gave out 200 in the Gentle Pines apartment complex in West Columbia. And while we were there, we asked them, is there anybody here who needs assistance for Christmas with small children? And we just prayed beforehand. We were like, God, send us the amount of people you want us to have for us to handle. And 77 children were signed up for us to help give assistance for Christmas. Majority of them Hispanic.
And we got what we have on these. Each one of these represents a child in our city that needs some help. Their parents need some help for Christmas. We're going to follow what Jesus says, which is give to the needy. Give to those who need help. We've got over there on some of these.
I wrote some of these down. There's a three-year-old girl named Jocelyn. She'd like a soccer ball. She lives in our city. And I don't believe outside of us stepping in and helping, that's going to happen. Does she deserve a soccer ball?
I don't know. Does it matter? Absolutely not. We're called to be generous. We're called to love. We're called to share.
And our church is called to make our city better by being here. Because we're a group of people who've been changed by the gospel, which changes how we interact with everything, which makes us bless everyone that's around us as best we can. There's an eight-year-old boy named Christian, and he needs some shoes. And there's a six-month-old named Dana. They've asked for some clothes for her. And we, because we know Jesus, get to step in and help.
Because Jesus paid our debt, we get to help with others. Because Jesus gave us the greatest gift we'll ever receive. Because Jesus completely turned our value system upside down. Money's just money to us. Everything's already been given to us. Nothing can be taken for us because it was given to us by Jesus, and it's kept by Jesus.
It's held secure for us forever. So we get to step in and be generous because we're citizens of a different kingdom. So here's what we're going to do. So we're going to continue to play some music. And I expect this to be loud because there are going to be some conversations that need to be had. You're going to need to talk to your spouse.
You're going to need to look at one of your friends. You're going to need to say, you may need to call somebody. You might want to talk with your community group. But we're going to try to get all these children off of here. And here's what we're going for. Those tags over there have a couple of different things I need to explain to us.
They're going to have a name, an age, and a gender at least. And if that's the case, it's basically, okay, it's a three-year-old boy named Michael. And I get to get him whatever I'd like to give Michael. I get to just be, what do I think a three-year-old would like? And you just get to be generous to this kid. Some of them are going to have name, age, size, and a request for clothes.
Some of them are going to have name, age, size, request for shoes. Some of them will have name, age, gender, request for toys or maybe a specific type of toy. And we're just going to go out of our way to inconvenience ourselves to bless other people, which is what Jesus did for us. So that's what we're going to get to do this year to celebrate Christmas as part of how we celebrate Christmas as a church. So what you're going to do is if you pick a child off of the thing, you're going to keep that because that's going to tell you how you ought to, what it looks like for you to bless them.
You're going to grab one of the sheets on the table with some more specific information about what kind of gifts are okay, not okay. And then on that table back there, you're just going to write your email address and name next to the child that you picked. And they're all numbered on the back. So the number on the back will match up with the number on one of those sheets, and you'll just write that down. And our church family is going to go out of our way to bless children this Christmas. And the goal for us is that we would bring the gifts back in some sort of a bag because we've had different people say they'd like to give one certain type of thing to each child, and so we want to be able to just stick that in their bags.
Bring it back in some sort of a bag next week. So this week we want to try to get the gifts, and honestly, I hope that inconveniences us a little bit. Because the more I'm inconvenienced, the more I have to press into the gospel. I know that's true for me. The more I have to remind myself why it's worth doing and what Jesus has already accomplished for me. And then on our Christmas gathering, which will be the 21st, we're going to go over there.
We're going to load up some vans and go over there and give them out. And anyone in our church family who wants to go do that gets to go do that. So you want to just go help knock on doors, say Merry Christmas, hand somebody a bag full of stuff, which is a lot of fun. We want to do that. Come on. Goal being to spend about $15 to $30 per child because most of them are in sibling groups.
The majority of the kids came from sibling groups, three to four plus per household. And we don't want to have a big disparage between like one kid in the house gets $50 spent on him and one kid gets $10 spent on him. We kind of want to keep it in the $15 to $30 range. And if you want to sponsor more children, do that. I'm going to pray for us. We're going to continue to play some music.
Actually, we're going to continue to play some music. And go ahead and start having conversations. Go ahead and start grabbing those. Go ahead and start writing your name down. And then I'll come up and pray for us and we'll close out. And then we can still grab names and children after that.
So wide open for anybody who wants to go grab a name, grab a kid, write some information down. If you need to make phone calls, you need to talk to people, whatever you need to do. If you know you can't figure it out right now, you're going to be able to do it. But you want to talk and grab one later, we can do that as well. We'll be wide open for it. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Charlie. If you wanted to sponsor a child and all the names are gone, just talk to somebody. Talk to somebody in your community group.
Ask how you might be able to get a gift for a specific child. If you need to, if you need to, if for some reason you know you wouldn't be able to bring the gifts back by next week, even though that's our goal, just get with somebody. We'll see if we can't have somebody bring it over for you. That sort of thing. God, we thank you. God, we thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That because of your grace. God, we thank you.
Thank you. And because you intentionally planted us here. God, we thank you. That 77 children in our city are going to get gifts this Christmas that may not otherwise have been able to. That 77 children in our city, whether they know you or don't, are going to be impacted by what you've already done, are going to be loved because you love, are going to be given to because you've given to us. God, we thank you.
We thank you that these small gifts pale in comparison to what you've given us. We thank you, God, that you will work in our hearts as we go out of our way to be generous to change us. God, I pray that this is one of the first very small steps for us as a church family, us as individuals, in stepping into what it looks like to be generous in a way that is completely impacted by the gospel. We praise you, Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen.
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.