Summary
Coming soon!
Transcript
Hey, do this for me, go ahead and stand with me so we can read some of God's word this morning. We're gonna be reading out of Matthew , verse . We're gonna read through this morning. It says this,
"The eye is the lamp of the body. "If your eyes are healthy, "your whole body will be full of light.
"But if your eyes are unhealthy, "your whole body will be full of darkness.
"If then, the light within you is darkness, "how great is that darkness.
Let's pray this morning. Father God, we thank you so much for today.
Lord, I thank you so much for the opportunity we have to come and to join together and to worship and to praise and to grow in our understanding of your word and your heart for us, Father.
Lord, I pray that as we just come to you in this moment, that you open our minds and our hearts that we can cast off any fear or anxiety.
Lord, about worries about this upcoming week, Lord, and the things that press and allow us to be busy-minded. Father God, we can release those things to you now and we can just fully engage and be focused in your presence and your word this morning. It's in your holy name we pray, amen, amen. All right, you may be seated.
So we are starting something new this morning. We just finished an week series where we talked about spiritual formation and what that journey looks like and what spiritual formation is for us. And one of the things that we mentioned multiple times is we talked about the practices, the practices and how practices are something that we can participate in to open space for God and the Holy Spirit to do a work in our life and to combat certain things that are going on inside of us. And we talked about it a couple of times. If you wanna go back and listen to any of those series, you can. And we talked about how in our lives, many things can become a practice. There's many things that we can meet God in and these daily or weekly or routine things in our life that are very unique or individual to us. Like I told you about that. I sometimes have the practice of daily making a cup of coffee in a particular specific way. And this is a moment in which I get to take my time and I get to meet God in this thing. But it's unique to me. You probably would think my practice and my process is very annoying and slow. And many of you are like, yeah, I just push a button and my Keurig spits out coffee right away and it's really easy. And if that's you, God bless you.
Just enjoy that warm water. It's gonna be really good. But we talked about how there's nine classical practices that are kind of traditional practices that are open and available for anyone to participate in. And so the nine practices are prayer, Sabbath, fasting, community, service, witness, solitude, generosity, and scripture.
And so we as a church today, we're starting this journey where we are taking the next three years, this won't be the only thing we're doing, but over the next three years, we wanna have opportunities to teach and to have classes on and to demonstrate and participate in all nine of these spiritual practices, of these ways in which we incorporate it. And so it won't be like that, it won't be the next three years, that's all we do is talk about this. But we'll be taking little series anywhere from four to eight weeks where we talk about these individual practices, how do they apply to our lives, how do I walk them out of my daily life, what do they mean, understanding some teaching. And all of them will have an activity around them, including a practice class that will meet very similarly to how our spiritual formation class met on Wednesday nights. And so we may meet, have those meet here at the church, or we may even break those into some smaller groups where people can meet in their homes. But we're gonna have meaningful ways that we get to walk through and learn and practice some of these things that help us in our formation journey. And some of them you may read, then when you hear that list, you may be like, oh, I love that one, or I already do that one, or I really enjoy that one, or I would like to get into that one more. And then some of them you may listen to, and you may be like, eh, it's not for me. And that's okay, listen, that's okay. Sometimes it's like a certain food, you have to try it before you know if you like it. But that's just part of the process. And so in the journey of this thing, because this is something that's been brewing in my heart and the staff's heart for a really long time, we've been talking about our discipleship and what it means to be spiritually formed in this process for several years and getting into this point where we're at the place where we're walking through this as a church. And in the journey of knowing like, hey, we're gonna do this spiritual formation series, and then afterwards we're gonna follow up with the first practice. And we were having this guy, what is the first practice going to be?
And I had several that I was like, ooh, I'd really like to do this one. I mean, I would really like to do one on Scripture and how to read the Bible, because I love Scripture, I love reading the Bible, that would be really great. I love that. I really like to talk about what it looks like in service and how you're able to serve others in community. I really thought that Sabbath is a good one, because I think Sabbath is a huge one that's been a massive benefit in my life and walking through. And I was going through, and in that process, very early on, God made it very clear that the first one we were supposed to go over was generosity.
And I will be honest with you, I was not very happy about it. And I'll tell you why.
I've almost been, the lead pastor here at this church, has almost been seven years, which is mindblowing to me. And in seven years, over sermons, I have never once spoken on money.
Never once.
Never once.
And what that looks like in my life and in the people's lives around me here in this community. And for that, I need to repent and apologize to you, because that has been my failure and my shortcoming.
And the reason that that has been, and the reason that I haven't done it, is maybe the same reason that some of you are sitting here and thinking, "Oh no, he's about to talk about money
in church."
And it's because I have a lot of issues around money
and around giving and around generosity, because of how I grew up and where I grew up and where I live and things that I've struggled with both in my own personal life and in the greater church life. I have certain things that I've dealt with that has caused me great heartache and trouble and stress and drama and fear and anxiety around money.
And maybe you feel the same way.
For one, I don't feel like I'm qualified to teach you about generosity and about money, because I do not think that I am someone who has mastered generosity and money.
You wanna learn how to make coffee? We can walk right next door and I will teach you in way too many steps how to do it.
And it's not even an understanding of money. It's not even the understanding of how it works or what the process is. This is not like a humble brag, but I literally have two finance degrees.
I understand how money works. I understand how to talk to accountants. I understand how to argue with bankers. I know what money does, but that's not what we're talking about.
I don't feel qualified to teach you about generosity because I truly believe there are many people in this room who are far more generous than me in their hearts and have a better understanding of where that is.
And so there's that. The other reason that I don't feel like it, like it never felt like talking about it is because I have a lot of church hurt around church and money.
I grew up in the just pinnacle of the prosperity gospel.
Some of you know what I'm talking about, but I grew up in the pinnacle of this whole idea that if you give money to the church, God's gonna give it back. And in fact, the more you give, the more God gives back in this just like this vending machine. Just keep giving, keep giving back. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about what the cause is or where it's going or how it's happening. Just give and give and give and give it. Only not because you wanna buzz the church, not because you wanna be obedient, not because, but because you'll get more back.
And then when you know it, you give and you didn't get more back.
And then it's like God failed me.
I gave.
I gave $ and I was told a hundred fold return. Didn't happen.
I'm glad I only gave $.
I was taught an incorrect view on money. And then I was taught this whole idea about around the principle of tithing. And this is the problem of tithing. And I'm all for tithing. There's nothing wrong with tithing because I believe it. And we're gonna get into it. But here was the issue. I led in this belief that if you weren't tithing, if you weren't giving % of your income, and don't get me wrong, if it's only gonna be sort of how you calculate that,
that you are literally robbing God, you're stealing from God.
So for a lot of my life, I've lived in the shame of feeling like I am stealing from God every day.
Even though that's what I want, I'm stealing from God. But there's been times in my life that I have been giving %. And I've been meeting the quota.
And guess what? It actually became an even greater hindrance to me being generous. Because I don't need to be generous anymore. I already met my quota.
So if someone says, "Hey, can you lend me five bucks?" My answer is absolutely not. I already hit %. Sucka. I don't even need to be kind to you. I don't even need to look at your direction.
Tithing achieved. I'm already maxed out.
God's so happy with me right now.
I don't have to do anything else.
And in fact, tithing became the greatest hindrance to me being generous.
So because of this, and maybe some of these you've experienced, I'm just being honest with where I'm at.
I didn't wanna preach on money.
And don't even get me started that I grew up at a church that every time the pastor preached about money, all the people around me did was roast the lifestyle that he had in the car that he drove and the shoes that he wore and the suits that he had and the house that he had. And it's like, he tells me to give. I don't have anything, but look at how he lives. And I'm like, I don't even wanna bring it up.
I don't want you talking about the car I drive. I'm already selfconscious about it because I've got issues.
We bought two cars and I was supposed to drive the crappy one and my wife was supposed to drive the nice one. And then our lives changed. The next thing I know, I'm driving the car that's too nice and I'm ashamed of it.
Because I don't want people thinking, oh, look, that's where my tithe goes.
That's where it goes.
Oh, we got a new pair of jeans. See where my check went.
Now here's the thing. I'm not even saying that's what you do. Maybe you do, that's between you and God. I'm telling you, that's what I grew up in.
That's what I grew up around.
Why would I give more? Why would I give anything? Lee looks like he's doing pretty good.
I saw it, it was a Tahoe.
And it's the high country.
So he doesn't need it.
This is what I carry around and God has slowly, slowly been healing me from for years. And I'm still not there. And yet God says, and this is what you're gonna talk about.
And although I'm not anywhere near
at the place where I used to be,
I'm definitely not where I would like to share with you. I'd much rather talk to you about scripture.
I'd much rather talk to you about Sabbath. I'd even more rather talk to you about coffee.
But here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
Jesus, if you took all of his teachings that we have in the New Testament about Jesus, over % of his teachings were about money and generosity.
One out of four.
Now imagine if we came to church in one out of four, that's all I was talking about was money. That would probably be excessive, but that's what Jesus did.
One out of four of his teachings were about money or the ability to keep the desire of greed away from your heart.
Why?
Why was it so important to Jesus?
Well, it's because he loves you that much. That he knows there is something about money.
There's something about wealth. There's something about resources. There's something about this idea and the way that we see the world that is broken.
And that if you don't see the world that he and his father and the Holy Spirit see it, if you don't see it in that way, then you will live in a way in which you are entrapped, that you are in bondage, and that you are a slave. And Jesus came so that you could be set free. So he's not gonna avoid an uncomfortable subject because he doesn't want you to be like, "Look at the robes he's got.
He's got a purple sash. Jesus seems to be doing just fine.
He's got followers."
He said, "No, I'm going to talk about something
because it is an access point to your heart,
because it's an access point to who you are. Because if you're not careful,
the thing that you think you own will own you and will keep you in bondage and fear and anxiety.
Because I can tell you this, I somehow in my personal life, I seem to switch between being fearful that there won't be enough for tomorrow or feeling guilty that I want more than I have.
And sometimes I can feel both of those at the same time.
And the enemy loves to come in and to plant fear and doubt and stress and anxiety.
And so Jesus comes and he teaches. And here's the thing that's crazy about Jesus' teaching.
He wants us to open up. And what he says is he says, "I have the key for you to live the good life. I have the key for you to live in happiness. I have the ability for you to be free from slavery and not to have fear and not to have frustration and not to have guilt."
He says, "I have a way for you to do it."
Acts chapter , verse .
This is Paul talking, he says, "And everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work, we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus himself said, it's more blessed to give than to receive."
The word blessed or blessed, depending on your translation,
is this word that we actually did a study in last year when we talked about the Sermon on the Mount. It's the word, "Macarios." Now, this quote of Jesus is very interesting.
We don't have this in the gospel. So we don't know if this was a quote that Jesus said that they didn't put in the gospel or if this is Paul just being like, "I'm just gonna go ahead and summarize everything Jesus said in his teachings and what he said is this, it's more blessed to give than receive."
But the beatitudes, that whole beatitude section and then many parts, the word Macarius is used and it's talking about the happiness that we can achieve through our actions or even more importantly, someone living the good life.
He says, "The good life,
the good life can be achieved when you give rather than receive."
Now, here's the problem with Jesus' advice.
I grew up reading Jesus' advice. I grew up hearing Jesus' advice. I grew up reading about giving and tithing and the poor and all this kind of stuff I read. And here's the thing, it's all well and good, but if I'm being honest, although I thought it was good advice, I thought it was crazy advice.
It seems like Jesus is some like unhinged hippie who doesn't care.
It's like, "That may work for you, Jesus. You don't have a wife, you don't have kids, you don't have a mortgage, you don't have other things." Like, it's easy to be like, "I look at the sparrows. Sparrows don't have children to feed with food. They can find worms everywhere. If you allowed my kids to eat worms, we'd be fine. But since this frowned upon in the state of Oklahoma, I have issues."
And so when you listen to how Jesus talks about the world, you're like, "I don't think you and I see the world the same."
And Jesus would say, "You're exactly right.
You and I do not see the world the same.
You and I have a totally different vision for what exists.
You and I look around and what you see and what he sees very different."
It's very different. And as much as I'd like to be like, "Oh, I don't know about this whole giving and getting." There's been all these social sciences that have studied the concept of generosity and giving, especially of your money. And by the way, we're gonna get into the fact that giving and being generous is not just money. There's other things. There's your time. There's your talent. There's your resources. There's your influence. All those things matter. And although they expand to everything and it's more than just money, generosity is definitely not less than money.
And many times I know for me, I'm really willing to give up my time, my talent. But the thing that sometimes I struggle with is the money because I don't really worry if my talent's gonna fade tomorrow,
but I do worry if my money's gonna fade tomorrow.
But they have found that people who are generous,
like this is just universally true. This is across gender, age, socioeconomic, culture, language, that people who give regularly, who are generous regularly, they're happier, they're healthier, they're less depressed, they're less anxious, they have more personal growth, they have better relationships, a longer life expectancy, and they laugh more.
Here's the thing, if you just think about who is the most generous person you've ever met?
Who's the person that are like, man, this person, they're just so generous. They're so generous. They always are giving. They're so generous. They're so generous. I have several people in mind. And here's the next question. Are they happy?
I've yet to meet someone who's like the most generous person I've met, and they're a curmudgeon Scrooge McDuck.
The people that I know that are the most generous
are always happy, are always joyful. That doesn't mean they don't have bad days. That's not what I'm saying. Something happens when you live generously.
And it's across so many boundaries and what we can do.
And it really speaks to where our heart, Matthew chapter six, verse , again, this is in the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus said, "Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth where the moths and the vermin's destroy and where thieves can break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven where moths and vermin's do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
You know, many times we think that our money follows our heart, like the things that my heart are passionate about, my money follows. And in some way that's true. I keep on talking about coffee, like I like coffee, so I have more coffee toys than you do probably. But that's because like my heart's into coffee, so therefore some of my money follows coffee. Meanwhile, if has a great agreement because the place where I buy coffee is from, like I can buy one bag of beans and you get a free drink. Well, she likes free drinks and I like coffee, so we're in a symbiotic relationship. It's very good for me right now.
Very good. I mean, it doesn't mean every time she goes to get a drink instead of it being $, it's $, but I get bags of coffee.
And I don't buy coffee from a coffee shop, so we'll call it even.
But here's the thing, as much as that's true, absolutely. Your money will follow your heart. The problem is over time,
your heart will begin to slowly follow your money.
And wherever your money goes is all of a sudden where your heart is.
And what should be the opposite direction, all of a sudden you find your heart very engaged in and concerned with and tied up in where it is or where it's not.
And so it's wild that Jesus doesn't even, he talks about this impulse for us to lay up treasures, to store up treasures. And what's weird is he actually doesn't tell you to not store up treasures, he just says, where you're storing it and how you're looking at it is wrong.
He says, store up treasures in heaven and he doesn't mean eternal resting place like this whole, we've read the crowns, and I'm storing up crowns in heaven, I just got another ruby in my crown. That's not what he's talking about.
That hole in heaven is talking about God's work on earth. That was like a first century saying, hey, doing things like storing up treasures in heaven is like I'm gonna store up things in the work that God's doing here on earth.
That's where my heart's going to be.
That's where my heart's gonna be.
And here I wanna read a section of scripture, we read this this morning because honestly,
this was something that was so freeing and so transformative for me, even though it came with a bit of a harsh reality check, it was something that has been one of the most eyeopening things about life and about where I look at, we read part of this this morning, we're gonna start in Matthew chapter six, verse .
This is continuing literally right after this whole idea of storing up treasures in heaven.
It says, the eyes of the lamp of the body, if your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes are unhealthy, then your whole body will be full of darkness.
If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? Now for years and years and years, I read this, and I typically just skipped right along past it because again, it was Jesus' wild talks about money in a sermon that I really didn't understand, and then it's talking about healthy and unhealthy eyes, and I've always had vision, so guess what? I'm all good.
Don't need to worry about it, moving on.
Super healthy eyes. Now I have turned , and all of a sudden, text has gotten blurry, and I did buy a pair of readers, and I thought, wow, my life is different. Now I'm not brave enough to wear them on Sunday yet. Also because the taking them off and putting them on was a lot, and if you try to keep them on, boy, you get dizzy real fast, but here's the whole thing.
It wasn't until, and this was quite, like I said, within the last two years,
I was listening to a teaching on this passage, and they unpacked the cultural understanding of what this verse is, and this idea, which is, by the way, is seen in other places in the Bible, seeing the Old Testament, seeing the New Testament, Jesus is not the first person to even quote this type of thing.
The idea of someone who has a healthy eye,
someone who has a healthy eye, they would say is someone who sees the world
the way that God sees the world.
So first of all, they see that God is their father provider. God is their provider, that's how they see their world, that they are his child, their son, their daughter, that life is already a gift, that God gave the breath of life, and as long as there's breath inside of my lungs, I am experiencing the very first gift that God ever gave.
That when they look around, they see surplus, they see generous examples of God's goodness everywhere, they see that there's more than enough everywhere that they look, they have gratitude towards God, and they have generosity towards their neighbor, because I don't have to worry about keeping because there's more than enough, there's more than enough for me, and there's more than enough for them. They have a good eye.
This is what Jesus has, he has God's eye, which is why he's always talking about the lilies and the birds and all this kind of stuff, he's like, there's plenty, there's plenty, there's plenty here, like, are you, and there's times if you're like me, like, are you looking at the same thing I'm looking at God? Because I saw that bird, it was dead on the side of the road.
I don't think we see the same thing, but the opposite, the unhealthy eye,
as opposed to an abundance, they see scarcity.
God's not the provider, I have to provide for myself.
I'm on my own.
Life is not a gift, life is dangerous, and I'm one poor choice or one bad interaction from completely falling apart.
Resources are scarce, they're finite.
I'm focused not on what I have, but what I don't have and what I need to achieve. I'm fearful, I'm anxious, and I'm greedy.
That's a bad eye.
And it has nothing to do with what actually exists around you, it has everything to do with how you see the world.
And what God confronted me with in the most loving and kind and compassionate way was that for my entire life, until very recently, I've been living with an unhealthy eye.
Or in the Old Testament, they call it the evil eye, which I actually like the sound of that better, but it's confusing.
I've been living with the unhealthy eye that everywhere that I look, as opposed to seeing God's abundance, I see scarcity, I see lack.
When I look at my yesterday, I see what I missed and what I didn't see. When I look at my yesterday, I see what I missed and what I didn't do. When I look at today, I'm worried that there won't be enough. And when I look into the future, I think it definitely won't be there.
When I look at relationships, when I look at people, when I look at time, when I look at the church, when I look at numbers, when I look at everything, what I see is what is lacking.
That's how I view the world. (Audience Laughing) Which is why my wife, who by the way, she's not perfect, okay, so don't get it twisted. I can tell you all the things she doesn't.
But she, at least in the scale, will have a much healthier eye than I do.
Which is why we can look at the same thing and she could be like, "Let's do it tomorrow." And I could be like, "Impossible!
Do you not understand?"
Which by the way, that's not a great thing to say to your wife.
Just a little marriage tip. Has nothing to do with what we're in. Don't say to your wife, "Do you not understand?
That's not good."
Or wives don't say to your husband, "That's an equal opportunity offender."
Like we can look at the same thing. We can look at the same resource. We can look at the same world. And she sees God's abundance and faithfulness and goodness and I see death, violence, destruction and chaos.
Listen, and I'm just being honest with you, there's times I literally, and there's been moments and Bevie can laugh at you, she can tell you like where I'm like, "We're one decision away from homelessness."
It's just one choice.
One thing, and it goes from all you see around you to homeless.
That's it.
So of course, I'm stressed out.
The number of times that I've made horrible choices financially and thought, "This is it. This is where they come and the state takes my kids. Everything I have is impounded. My wife divorces me and I become a lonely nomad wondering the streets."
And yet, it's never happened.
I never even like missed a bill or even better, never even missed a meal.
Like my kids have never gone hungry.
My kids have never been homeless or clothesless.
My kids have never not even had a seat.
And yet, you would think time after time after time after time of God showing that He is good and abundant, that that would change how I view the world. And yet, I was like, "Maybe that worked last time, but I can totally see now. It's not happening this time."
You see, Jesus, and the reason He wants to talk about your money is because you don't look at it right.
And you don't see the world around you right. And I don't see the world around you right. Now, maybe some of you are a little bit better than others, but many of us, many of us have an unhealthy relationship around money.
And especially when it comes down to our giving it
and being generous and maybe even on top of it, if you're like me and you grew up like me, when it comes down to the church.
And that's a really tough place to be. Because when we see the word, the way that Jesus does, and we see abundance,
well, then when Jesus starts making teachings and He says like, "Don't worry about anything. Seek first the kingdom of God and all this will be added into you, give and it will be given to you." We're like, "Yes, of course. All those things are true Jesus. Yes, I wanna live that way. And I'm gonna be free and generous with everything." But if you don't see the world the way that Jesus does, and He starts saying that, it's just like Jesus,
you've missed it, bro.
I'm gonna go ahead and just keep doing the things I want. And the result will be you being enslaved to fear and greed and anxiety and everything else.
And Jesus came to set the captive free, not just from your sin,
but from the things in this world that are true spiritual forces, like money that wants to grasp onto your heart and enslave you.
I have lived years enslaved
by money thinking I was free. And it wasn't until Jesus came, and in the way that only Jesus can do, confront me with my failure and my wrong belief and the most loving and kind way and in the process of removing the veil or the things that were covering my eyes, He was able to change the way I see and to show me this is what freedom actually looks like.
This is what freedom actually looks like.
You've been captive in this area.
Do you wanna walk in freedom?
And I've begun that journey. Like I said, begun because I'm still not there. There's still times that something happens and my first thing that happens is I may encapsulate it and engrossed with fear or anxiousness, or I go to pay some bill or I go to look at something or an unexpected expense happens or something breaks. And my first thought is this is it.
Pack up kids, we're out.
(Soft Music)
Because you know, over time, when you see scarcity, you'll see scarcity even when there's abundance.
Even when the evidence is actually that everything will be fine, you will still see scarcity
because you've programmed your brain to think that way.
And to believe that if I just had a little bit more, if I just had a little bit more, if I just had a little bit more,
my life would be better. If I got that promotion, if I got that one thing, if I got that extra car, if my house was just a little nicer, if we remodeled that thing, if we changed the thing, all that, like, and here's the thing, we're gonna look at this from many different ways.
But over the next seven, eight weeks,
we're gonna address our personal relationship with money.
We're gonna address what it means to be generous. We're gonna address what it means to partner with the church financially. We're gonna address what it means to look at and maybe ask questions differently
than what we've asked before.
Maybe we ask questions less about how much I should give and maybe I should ask the question, how much should I keep?
And if I change my frame of reference, what happens?
If I look and I see that God's entire life from the very beginning has been nothing but giving and giving and giving and giving, that He gave us the world, that He created everything, that He gave me breath and that later He gave Jesus and He gave His life on the cross and He gave me the Holy Spirit and He gives and He loves and He's generous and that's who He is, then why do I walk around acting like everything is mine and I should control it?
You know, ultimately, humanity lives in a way that is so broken because ever since Eve and remember the order, the Bible says that she saw
with her eyes that the fruit was good and she took it. Her vision was impaired
and she took what she thought was good and ate it and it wasn't. And ever since the fall, we've lived in this place where man has been creating this scarcity mindset. And truthfully, if we really look at it, I was talking to my boys about this, it's like there's this idea that God has created this incredible party. Have you ever been to a party that's like a really swanky, fancy party and it's like everything is there for you, everything's catered, all the food's there, all the drinks there and you don't have to worry about anything, you walk in and everything's taken care of and there's people, the fancy guys walking around with the hors d'oeuvres and you can just grab them from a tray and you can bring drinks and everything's there and you're like, I'm not having to worry about anything.
I just get to go around and eat and drink and this is great and that's what God created in the world. He's like, I created this place where everything is provided for you and all you gotta do is walk around.
But imagine if you were at that same party
and everyone's there and all of a sudden someone's like, this shrimp cocktail's really good.
I love this shrimp cocktail, but I'm worried.
There's a lot of people at this party.
What if we start to run out of shrimp cocktail?
That could be a problem.
I know I'm gonna do. I'm gonna gather up as many trays of the shrimp cocktails I can and I'm gonna barricade myself into the formal dining room and I'm gonna recruit a couple other people to help me to make sure that no one can come get this shrimp cocktail because this shrimp cocktail's mine and I wanna make sure that when my kids show up, they'll have shrimp cocktail.
So we're gonna just keep all the shrimp cocktail here and another group went over there and they took all of whatever your favorite thing is.
The artichoke dip.
The good kind, that really doesn't have artichoke, but mostly cheese and sour cream. You know what I'm talking about.
And all of a sudden we have these factions that are fighting with each other and keeping these things and the host of the party is like, hey, there's so much for everyone.
You don't need to hoard up the shrimp cocktail. You're gonna make yourself sick.
I'd rather be sick on shrimp cocktail than not have shrimp cocktail in my life, though I can tell you that.
And imagine going to a party and you walk in and everyone's just creating factions and hiding in different rooms and gathering and keeping and saying it's not, and then somehow trying to even justify it. Like, it's not just for me, but it's for the people I take care of. They have to be okay. What would happen if my grandchildren walk this earth and they never get to taste shrimp cocktail?
That would be a sad day, so I better make sure I keep it for myself and for them and for everyone else.
And God, the entire time, the host, the most generous host is saying, but there's plenty. You haven't even seen the kitchen.
You've only seen what's out. It keeps coming, it keeps coming, and it keeps coming out. And if that tray earns out, guess what? I'll bring more trays. And if you can imagine it, there may be something better out here than shrimp cocktail.
And we live in a world in which our generous host has had his party completely broken into shambles. And people look at how they can hoard and protect and keep and guard.
So then we build walls and we do things to keep people away, and this is mine and that's yours, and don't touch my thing, and it can be over everything.
And generosity and understanding what God is, is us taking one step back and being like, I know the world is broken and I know that this is how they live, but as for me and as for my house and as how I'm gonna live and how I'm gonna interact with this world, I am going to walk around believing that the host of this party is very generous and he'll make sure that I have enough to eat and enough to drink and enough to live on.
And maybe I'll just be one person to the party living free,
but I'm not gonna live under that bondage.
The reason that we're getting to walk through this together is because my heart for you, just like it's for my family and for my kids and for myself,
is I want you to live free from the enslavement that money and greed and fear can create in your life.
So we're gonna talk about it. And there may be moments that it's a little uncomfortable.
And there may be moments where God and the Holy Spirit brings up some things inside of you that he wants to work out of you or work through you or ask you to give up something or stop doing something or start doing something and that will be uncomfortable. (Soft Music)
But he loves you too much to leave you chained to something that has no good thing for you.
So that's the journey that we're gonna go over the next seven weeks. I'm looking forward to it. So do this for me. Stand with me to your feet. I wanna read one last blessing to you.
This is my heart for you. This whole little passage of scripture, nd Corinthians chapter nine.
Verse eight, it says this, and God is able to bless you abundantly
so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever.
Now, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but it's also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
Father, we thank you that you're with us this morning.
Lord, over the next several weeks, as we talk about money and generosity in your heart, Lord,
search us.
Look for anything that's not of view.
Lord, anywhere we don't see the world, the OA that you see in, will you repair our vision?
Will you heal our hearts?
Will you open us to your healing power?
We love you so much, Father.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. Hey, last thing, church, before we dismiss, if you need prayer for anything, the prayer team's gonna be down here. If you have questions about what it means to be a believer, if you need prayer for healing or standing for someone else they'd love to pray with you, other than that, you are dismissed. Have a great rest of your Sunday. We love ya.
