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Transcript
All right. All right. All right.
Good. Good three claps. Hey, listen, before we get into today's sermon, I've got this basket. And in this basket are a bunch of blank birthday cards. Happy birthday cards. And we were asked as a church by a group. There's this really cool group called Legacy Family Network, and they help resource families and people who are participating in the fostering and adoption process. And one of the things the group does is that they send a birthday card out to any of the kids on their birthday when they have or when they're in this system, the foster system or adoption system. And they asked if we would prepray over all these cards because their desire is that this card is not just a birthday wish, but that is an encounter with the miraculous power of God. That is an encounter of knowing that they're loved, that people care about them, that people are thinking about them. And so we as a staff have already prayed over these. Our group that comes midweek has also prayed over them. But we just thought it was really important that as a church that we take a moment and just put our faith towards these, that when these cards interact with some of these kids who find themselves in a pretty difficult and challenging situation, that they are overwhelmed with the goodness and the kindness and the love of God, even if they can't fully express what that means, that this is a touch point of the power of God in their lives. And so would you just do this with me? Would you just stretch your hand out this direction while we pray over these and we just bless these. Father God, we just thank you so much for the opportunity to pray over these cards. Lord, we pray that each and every one of these cards, what they represent is an opportunity for someone to come into an encounter with your goodness and your love. Lord, and that they may not know why it's so special. They may not know all the different hands and the families that have prayed and blessed and spoken your love over these. But Lord, we just pray that this would be a touch point of your goodness and your mercy. Lord, that it would represent your heart, that your heart who desires to be close to the fatherless. And we just thank you that you're here in the midst of this process. Lord, we just bless each and every one and the work that Legacy Family Network is doing. We thank you for that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, one last thing. Stand with me. I'm going to pray. I'm going to read today's scripture for you.
And then we're going to get into it. Acts chapter four verse .
It says, "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all. And there was no needy person among them, for from time to time those who owned land and houses sold them and brought the money for the sales and put it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to anyone who had need."
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for today.
We thank you that as we learn and grow in your heart towards generosity and towards others, that you just continue to open our minds and how we can continue to live, to serve, and to honor you. It's in your holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, you may be seated.
Well, we are in week four of our generosity series. If you've missed any of them, I encourage you go back, listen to them. I think they're really going to be a blessing for you. Week one, we talked about the difference between an abundance mindset or scarcity mindset, or as Jesus said, the good eye or the evil eye and what we see when we look around in our natural circumstances.
And then week two, we talked about the difference between contentment and greed. And Jesus is teaching about watching out for greed and this everpresent desire for more and what it means to be content with what we have. And then last week, we looked at the difference and how we relate to our objects and our things, whether it's from the lens of being a steward and everything is God or believing that we own everything and looking at how those different perspectives can change how we interact. And so we're continuing in week four, and I'm looking forward to it because we want to see how Jesus teaches and what he talks about and money. And we've spent a lot of time in Luke chapter because a lot of Luke chapter has to do with stewardship and generosity and giving. And so I want to read this passage from Jesus and then kind of unpack it a little bit because I think it's interesting. We've read a couple of verses over the last couple of weeks, but we'll read this whole little parable here. It says this, it said, "Somewhere in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brothers to divide the inheritance with me." And Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me judge or an arbiter between you?" Then he said to them, "Watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." And he told them this parable, "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, "What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops." Then he said, "This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain, and lain up for many years. Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, "You fool. This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get all you've prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich towards God." I love that verse, verse , where it says, "You have plenty laid up for men. Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry." Jesus is actually referencing a Greek philosophy called Epicureanism. Epicureanism was a philosopher. Some of you have known this. In fact, we use that word even today. Some, I don't. That's why I had to look it up to make sure I knew what it meant. But Epicureanism is someone who's like into luxury and lavishness. Their whole goal was like the pursuit of pleasure. And so the "eat, drink, and be merry," that was a saying that is given to him. And so he's referencing this. And different Bible versions have taken some liberty of translating it.
The CEV says, "Live it up. Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself." The message, which I have a lovehate with, it says, "You've got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life." But there's this great book called God and Money that was written by John Quarton's and Gregory Baum. It's actually like a textbook. It's pretty cool. But they rewrote this parable or this part of the parable and like modern English so that you can maybe understand it better. It is geared more to a business person. It's a school thing, but you guys can maybe get the gist of it. It says this. It says, "The stock options belonging to a manager vested after a major runup and share price." And he thought to himself, "What shall I do? I already have enough saved to send my kids to college. My house has paid off and I already max out my (k) every year." And he said, "I will do this. I will open an investment account and create a passive income portfolio. And I'll exercise my options and put the money there. And I will say to my sole soul, you have a big enough portfolio to be financially independent. Retire early. Plan some vacations. Play golf."
Now, maybe for you, I'll if it's good, like maybe the play golf for you is like, "Yes, that's the thing." Or maybe it's something else. Maybe it's pickleball or maybe it's more vacation. Or maybe it's golf is not interesting. But it's okay. You get the drift. And here's what's wild. When we hear this,
that is like the American dream.
That is what many people are working towards, what I just said. And yet, the American dream is the villain in Jesus' parable.
And when you hear that, that is a moment where you just kind of have to take a step back and be like, "Oh, man,
what am I working towards?
What am I thinking about?
How am I living and how am I relating to these things?"
Because Jesus takes this time to share this story, this parable, and to continue to teach. And it's like when we hear this, it's like, "Yes, I want to save. I want to be finished. I want to pay off my house. I want to do all this kind of stuff." And then I can retire. That is the dream. In fact, that is the thing that is dangled in front of you the moment that you either graduate college or enter the workforce. They're like, " years from now, this can be you.
And if you're really good, it's years from now.
And if you're really, really good, it's years from now." But the dream is always the same. It's dangled in front of you.
This, "Eat, drink, and be merry.
Retire.
Plan some vacations. Play golf." And listen, I'm very pro retirement. I'm very pro vacations. I'm very pro playing golf. I'm really bad at golf, but I'm pro it.
I'm not like sitting here condemning you like, "If you play golf, you're a sinner." That's not what I'm saying. But this mindset of like that this is the epitome of the dream. And yet in Jesus, He's saying, "Watch out.
This thing you think is the motivating factor of your life is not good." And He continues. He continues on. And it's interesting because we'll read this because as He goes forward,
and we'll jump down to verse , He says, and we read this last week, "Don't be afraid, little flock. Your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.
Sell your possessions. Give to the poor. Provide purses for yourself that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief can come near, where moths destroy. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also." So He goes on and He continues to say, "Give to the poor." And this is actually a pretty common teaching within Jesus' life. And it's interesting because if you look at some really important verses in Scripture, like for example, faith is really important in our belief system, right? Scripture is not faith, right? There's roughly, you know, people argue which one is what, but there's a little over verses on faith because it's important. That's a lot of verses on faith, right? And then prayer is super important. Again, like it's vital. So there's plus verses on prayer. But there are over , verses on God's heart, so the poor and the oppressed and the widow and the orphan.
Significantly more than almost any other subject is God's heart towards the poor.
And something about that is interesting that when you realize that God has a heart of justice
and a heart of compassion towards those who are in need. And so here's just a couple other verses just to kind of put our minds in the right frame as we talk about today. Luke chapter , verse , it says, "Then the Lord said to him, "Now then you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people, did not the one who made the outside make the inside also. But now, as for what's inside of you, be generous to the poor and everything will be clean for you." This is a wild, this is a wild statement from Jesus. He talks about that you're being like you're doing all these ritualistic purity things, you're following this stuff, but he says, "But you're greedy and the thing that will purify the inside of you is not more religious duty or obligation. It's not more going to church or more sacrifice, it's being generous to the poor.
And that will be the thing that fixes this greed and wickedness that you have in this group that he's talking about." And then we see this lived out in Acts chapter verse , it says, "All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need."
And of course earlier we read Acts chapter where it continues to say this statement, "In which they lived in common and that there were no needs among the believers because they went together."
The church, the early church had such a unique view on taking care of the poor and the widows and the orphans. And in fact, you see that over and over again when you read through the book of Acts and when you read through the New Testament epistles that this was a subject that kept coming up, that churches were mandated, were required, it was very important for them to make sure that they were taking care of widows and orphans and the poor among them, that they were the ones who were taking care of this community that was around them. And maybe in our mind we sit there and we say, "Yeah, of course, but we have to put ourselves back into the historical context in the world in which they lived." In the GrecoRoman moralistic system, there was no set standard or requirement or need for rich or wealthy or people who had resources to take care of people who were in poverty. There was nothing. It did not exist.
It maybe existed in maybe one or two individuals, but as a society, as a culture, that did not exist. And then Jesus came talking about the importance of taking care of the poor and those who are around them. And then that became this embattlement of the church, that they will not have any poor and needy among them, that they will come together and make sure the needs were met.
And we see this in Paul, like when Paul went and met with the disciples, he actually writes about this in the Galatians. He said, "I met with the original disciples, like with Peter and James and John, and I met with them and told them what I was doing. And they told me, keep doing it. They just told me, just don't forget to make sure to take care of the poor."
And he said, "Which I was eager to already do and was already my desire."
There was this mindset about the way that believers in the early church were like, we will make sure that the poor and the widow and the orphan and everyone who falls under this category will be cared for by the body of believers. And this is what's interesting.
You've probably heard of Pastor Tim Keller. He was a great author and he recently passed away. But he had this great view because he talked about that the early church and the way that the church lived and the early followers of Jesus lived in what he called financial promiscuity.
He said, "The early church was strikingly different from the culture around it in this way. The pagan society was stingy with its money and promiscuous with its body. A pagan gave nobody their money and practically gave their body to everybody." And it says, "The Christian came along and gave practically nobody their body and they gave practically everybody their money."
This opposite, this inverted kingdom. And here's this great quote. There was the last pagan emperor of Rome, Julian the Apostate. He said this in a correspondence. He said, "It is a disgrace that the impious Galileans," that was a slang for Christians, "port not only their own poor but ours as well, while everyone can see that our people lack aid from us."
Even here, there was this problem. He was upset. He's like, "They are getting popular and they're making us look bad because not only are they taking care of their own poor among them, they're taking care of the poor that are not even believers.
And it's making me look bad." Now notice he didn't say, "I'm going to start taking care of the poor." He's like, "I'm not doing that. Gross."
He's like, "But it's making me look bad because they're so generous."
You see, when you understand the history of what the love of Christ has done, so many things that we take for granted were a result of being generous to the poor. The reason that we have hospitals today is because that was believers being generous to the poor and creating systems and processes where people were sick, where they could come and they could find care. The reason that we have different foundations and the reason that our governments are established where they have wealth redistribution, the reason that we have all these different things that look like things that we say maybe did or didn't exist before, they are a direct reflection of Jesus's teaching on being generous to the poor.
Now, when we look at this and we understand where we come, maybe you're like me and you have two questions. Okay, Jesus says, "Be generous to the poor." But I got two questions.
Who's rich and who's poor?
That's what you were here for. They're real nitty gritty.
We'll start with the one you're most nervous about. Who's rich?
Now, Timothy,
I remember reading this growing up, it says, "Command those who are rich in this present age
to not be arrogant nor put on their hope and wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provide everything for enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life." Now, I remember growing up reading this, I'm like, "Yeah, rich people,
you all really need to be generous
because it's not clearly written to me because I am poor."
Now, that may have been true. There was maybe some moments in Vivian I's life early on that maybe we were poor. We didn't know it because we were just so in love, but maybe we were actually poor in hindsight.
I mean, I liked Ramen.
It was great.
But here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
If we're being globally minded, if we're being honest, the vast majority of people in this room are what the Bible would decide and would define as rich.
Now, I'm going to tell you, I gave you a resource. I gave you a tool. I'm going to take my word for it. And I'm going to go and caveat this. I don't want you to look at it right now because if you open up this link, you're gone and you'll never come back.
https://wid.world/income-comparator/
https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/how-rich-am-i
https://www.smoney.com.au/blog/the-price-of-happiness-in-every-country/#google_vignette
Okay. But in the you version notes, also if you scan that little QR code, you go to destinychurch.com. If you go in there, I gave you three resources. Okay. The first one is this thing that is this wealth comparator. It's this thing that you get to type in. How much money does your family make? How much money have answered some questions and it will tell you where you rank in the world. And there's another one that talks about does a similar thing and it talks about how much people in the similar category and similar stage of life like what we could consider to be a generous amount of resources to be able to give. Again, these are just tools. This is not totally unique where you live, the situation or life. There's a lot of factors that go in. These are just a resource, a tool. And then the third one, I actually find this one really interesting, is it's talking about how much money do you need to be happy.
There's been a lot of studies about money and happiness. You know the study that says like money can't buy you happiness, which is absolutely true. But they've been giving me on these studies like money can't buy you happiness, but it helps for a little while. It does help for a little point. And this ranks you and shows you and actually goes globally, how much money do you need to achieve maximum happiness.
And what's interesting is if you read all the stuff, which you don't have to, after you get past that, you don't get any happier. In fact, most times you get less happy.
Once you get over a certain hump, once you get over the certain range, you are no longer generating more happiness as a result of money. In fact, many times it generates the opposite issue.
This whole process. And so you can go through and you can look at it like this is just a resource. Some of you are like, I cannot wait. I cannot wait. I know Pastor Mike's back there having to use all of his self control not to go onto these websites because this is his jam.
I know it. And he's going to just really nerd out on it. And some of you are like, yeah, me too.
Don't do it right now.
Or else the Lord will break your phone.
He told me. I'm just kidding. Okay, I'm sorry. Just kidding. But some of you will never do it. And that's okay. You don't have to do it. But here's like, here's the biggest takeaway. Okay. Here's the biggest takeaway. If you just look at the average household income for Oklahoma, I think it's around like $,, the average household income. That puts you in the top % of world income.
Top %.
And so the problem is when we ask, like in my mind, I'm not rich.
Bill Gates is rich.
Bill Gates could give away % of his money and he still will have more money than I will ever have in my entire life. And that's demoralizing.
He's rich. Beezus is rich. The musk is rich. Those guys are rich. I'm not rich.
Like I'm a, my whole life's net worth is like a rounding error in their checkbook.
That's how it is. But just because there are people who are ultra rich, like mind blowing rich,
it doesn't actually change where you're at.
So the first thing that most, and I'm not, I don't want to sit here and say generally, there's probably people in this room that does not know the case. There's probably some college students in this room. You're what we call, you're living negatively, which means you're living on student loans and not making any money. You're actually going backwards. And that's okay. It's a season. Right? And there are some people that you found yourself through life circumstances that you are probably in this place where you are. And it sounds like this is like class and this is not anything, but you would be not rich. You would be poor in this moment of life.
And that's okay. Because more than likely every person in this room had a season when they were poor.
And that's part of life's journey.
But the vast majority, if we're just going statistically, of the people who are here are rich.
Both locally and globally, like it's a thing. So the first thing we have to understand in this process of understanding Jesus' teaching is, who's rich? For the vast majority of us, the answer is, I am.
I am.
Now, we'll get to the next question, which I know you're excited about. Then the question is, if we agree on who's rich, which we may not, that's okay.
The next question is, well, then who's poor?
And I don't know about you, but when I think about poverty, I typically think about people who are like an abject poverty.
Last summer I got to take a trip to Burundi and it's considered the poorest country in Africa.
And right now it's now considered the poorest country in the world. It's also considered the hungriest country in the world.
That's a lot of negative number ones.
And I got to go there and travel there and be there,
and it is very poor.
Very poor.
Like, it is hard that there's no words or no stories or pictures that can express what that actually looks like.
But I will tell you, in the churches,
those were some of the happiest people I've ever met.
And I had a real realization that when they hear Jesus teach the Sermon on the Mount, they relate to it much more closely than I do. Because when he says, "Blessed are those who are poor,"
they get it.
They don't have to imagine what it's like.
They are the target audience that Jesus spoke to. Because Jesus was so kind and loving. Two thousand years ago, he preached a message to people who he knew would need him and would have nothing.
That's the kind of God that we get to serve.
So we think about places like that. And the problem is that though we know they exist, I don't pass them every day. I don't interact with them every day. Yes, I can send money or I can support missionaries, and those things are good, but I don't see it every day because I live here in Tulsa or Broken Arrow. That is not what I'm seeing.
The second category that maybe comes to your mind is maybe something in this, and this is like, I will be honest with you, this has somehow become a bit of a charged political issue, but it would be the population in our community that's all through the United States, which is like the homeless community. That would be the community that would come into poverty.
And this is very difficult because one of the biggest issues is, and again, this is not popular, but the vast majority of the people who find themselves in the houseless situation is there's addiction and mental illness, and usually a combination of both.
And so though it varies in desperate need of help, we have to be very careful how we engage in helping those people, because if you are not intentional and you are not careful, then the thing that you're trying to do in being helpful is actually just enabling or exacerbating the problem, and that is not what we're trying to do. And so it's a very big issue.
In fact, and although it's a big issue, it's also not an issue that though you may drive past it in your car, it's not something that you are coming into personal contact with regularly,
because the vast majority of those people, the thing that they need most is actually not your money or your food, they actually need relationship.
And that's something that you can actually potentially be called to give in that situation, which is your time in relationship.
I'm not telling you what it looks like, but it looks very different. Again, this is a big thing, right? But it's a big problem. And there are groups and organizations that are attempting to say, hey, we have to address this mental health and we have to address this addiction because that is the core root for so many cases.
But it's a big issue. And so what happens is when we think that poverty is really far away, and this poverty, it's really complicated how we address, and it's not near like the type of poverty that we were talking about in biblical times, it becomes very overwhelming, and then it's like, I'm just not going to do anything. I can't do anything. Or I'm going to send $ a month to this thing and just call it good. And listen, if you're giving money overseas, or you're like, it's awesome. But the problem is, none of that allows me to daily or regularly be generous to the poor in my community.
It doesn't happen.
And so I think what's important is for us to look at through scriptures and see some synonyms and some other things. In fact, we just read one in Acts.
Because sometimes when we say poor, we have this mindset, it's like there, but he also says that there was no one in need among them.
No one in need among them.
And so maybe one of the things that we can do that can help us walk generously and live generously is instead of saying, I'm going to be generous just to the poor and by the way, I define poor as someone who makes less than $, a year. Like instead of going into that category and being like, well, how much could you work? Like that becomes, I get it, it's complicated. But the question is, in your community,
so meaning here in this church, or this is your church family, or in your family, or at your work,
is there anyone that you know of who has a need that you can meet?
Is there anyone who can meet? And listen,
maybe it's money. Maybe it's hospitality. Maybe it's time. Maybe it's care. Maybe it's one of the many different things. But here's the thing, we live in a community which there are needs represented in this room.
And the need for the person or the family is really big. And for someone else, it's actually not that big. Like the way relativity works and how things go, I remember there was a time in my life that $ may as well been a million dollars. You know what I'm saying? Anyone remember that? And I'm not just talking inflation. Like I remember what was like $ was like, if I lose this $ bill, like, there's no gas or there's no groceries. Like that's like the level that we're talking about. Like I remember that was a big deal. And now, praise God, $ is not the make or break of my entire life.
But there is a dollar amount that is the case. So guess what? When I encounter someone who happens to be the exact same place I was years ago, where $ is everything and they just got hit with something unexpected, and they need $, and I have the capacity to give $, do you know what that means? I get the opportunity to do?
I get the opportunity to be generous and do something for them.
And they're maybe not abjectly poor.
They have a house, they have a car, they have things, but yet they were hit with something that was unexpected.
And that changes. Some of you are the other place in life. Like some of you remember whenever you had young families and it's expensive time and then whoops, the air conditioner went out. And you remember that was like devastating.
And some of you AC money ain't nothing but a G thing, you know?
Ain't no thing. I could buy ACs for days.
That's just point in life.
That's not because the family's not working. In fact, that's just because whatever you've got kids and you're doing it, the career, all those things matter. It's different. There's different seasons. And when we realize there's needs in this community and there's people who can meet those needs, sometimes it's not even, like I said, it's not money. Sometimes it's like, hey, I just need someone to come and spend time with me. Like I need someone to come and take one of my kids out and maybe speak a little intelligence and then because they're making stupid decisions.
Listen, we have an incredible widow group here at this church.
Incredible, incredible. And here's the thing, and I don't want to speak for all of them,
but there's several of them that they're some of the most generous people financially to our church, period. No questions, no seconds. And that's like humiliating sometimes to me. Who are some of the largest givers in your church? The widows.
So, you know, their need may not be finances like it was in the Old Testament, but you know what? They may need companionship.
They may need friendship. They may need a relationship. They may need an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner.
They may need someone to say, hey, you want to come to our join our small group? You want to go have coffee? They may need a different need.
There's needs in this church. And if we change the way we see our perspective, instead of being like, let me look around. Y'all have clothes. Yup. Y'all drove here. So I guess you're all good.
You're all rich because in one way that's true.
But we're all in different points in life. And if we begin to look at need differently and say, I can be generous. I can create that opportunity because it looks differently. And everyone here is different. That's why we get to be led by the Holy Spirit.
That's why when things like this, we were just talking about it this morning, right before the school year ended this last year, my wife came home and she said, hey, just wanted to let you know we're going to have one, maybe two different college students from Columbia living with us this summer.
Great.
Excellent.
This is not the first time someone's lived with us and it won't be the last time someone lives with us. You know why? Because my wife came as a foreign exchange student and Mike Renee opened their home for her and she lived there. And the only reason that her and I are together is because they were generous enough to open up a place for her to stay and they didn't charge her anything. They didn't pay her. They didn't make her pay for anything all the way into the point we got married.
In fact, Mike sold his motorcycle to pay for our wedding.
I shouldn't have told you that, but the cat's out of the bag.
And it was a God thing because apparently God didn't want to have a motorcycle. That's a whole other story. So someone already did that for me and I got the best thing in my life out of it. So how am I not going to open up my guest bedroom and let someone else stay?
And you know what? Only one ended up staying and she kept saying, how much can I pay you? How much can I pay you? How much can I pay you?
All right. Nothing. Nothing.
And this didn't cost me that much. She wasn't very big. She didn't eat that much.
I mean, yeah, she used more water, but it's fine.
And here, let me tell you the thing.
We can be generous with what we have.
There's a lot of things she could have asked and I couldn't have done.
Couldn't have done.
We would love to have bought her a car. We can't buy her a car. We would love to pay for her school. We can't pay for her school.
We're not there.
But she can stay in her guest room for two months.
I can make my boys share a bathroom with her, which that was really funny.
I can be generous and say yes.
And you know what always happens when you walk in generosity towards others?
The thing that you're doing to be a blessing to others ends up being an even greater blessing to yourself. I'm so blessed to have had that opportunity to have her live at our house this summer. I know the VV was too. The boys,
three out of four were great.
But listen,
I don't know where you're at, but we're here in different places. We've got people in different stages of life, different socioeconomic, different family dynamics. It's very different when you're single than when you're married with no kids and you're married with kids. All of a sudden I've got four kids and they're old and they're expensive and things are just crazy. Every time the school calls, they want $. I'm like, what's happening right now?
Where am I living? This is constantly, why does everything cost $?
The geographical phenomenon, $ from everywhere.
I'm just like, I don't know what's happening.
But one day, they'll be out of my house and that won't be the case anymore. And my life will look differently. But if I say I'm going to wait to be generous till then, it's too late.
I can do something now.
You can do something now, no matter where you're at. There's a need in this church that you could fill. There's a need at your work that you could fill. It may be small and maybe buying someone lunch. It may be so minor where you're going to a coffee place and it's like they can't afford coffee and I can buy one coffee. So we're going to split our coffee and that's really generous in my book.
I think God will look at that and say, like the widow's might if you gave half your coffee to someone else.
Because you see, living generous to the poor and expanding the way we view poor, not just to someone over in another country, but like someone in my community who has a need.
And it may look different. They may have a job. They may have a car. They may have a house. And yet they still have a need. And can I be someone who meets that need? Not because so that my name can be glorified because I can tell you this, as someone who has received these random checks or random gifts or random envelopes of cash or random bills being paid. What happens is not I say, praise this person or they're the greatest person or they're the greatest person. What happens in my heart is I say, look at how much God loves me. I'm very thankful to Pastor Mike and Renee, but the thing that they know and the reason I bring them up is because they know I did not glorify them. I glorify God through them. And it blesses my heart that that's the result of what I get to be here for and more mates than one. You get to be generous to those around you.
And if you change your view and say, I am rich and they're those in my need and it may look differently. We may sit in the same church. We may even drive the same car. And yet they have a need that's really a struggle for them. And I can meet it. I can come over and I have a skill that can fix it really easy. I have a talent. I have time. I have resources. I have money. They have this. I have that. We can figure it out.
They like to eat. I like to cook. Well, let's make it happen.
This is a way in which and when you do that, greed leaves because you're constantly living like nothing is yours because you are not the owner of what you have. You are the steward of what you have. You live in contentment because God has already given you more than you ever could need. And when I look out, I see there's more than enough for all of us. And so if I have a surplus and you're experiencing the lack in this moment, then I will give to your lack because the God who supplied all my needs will also supply what I need when I'm in lack. And the roles may be reversed one day or maybe it never will be paid back. That is not the point because I live differently in generosity.
So when I wake up and when I think about all the pressures of life and the bills that are due and the cost and the $ and the $ and $ and $.
All I say, why would I worry about any of that?
And all of a sudden I sound like Hippie Jesus.
Look at the birds. They don't worry. Look at the flowers. They're fine.
I'll manage it because I haven't met a need yet that my God hasn't met.
He won't fail me now.
And I don't know how he's going to do it. I don't know whose hands it's going to come through. I don't know what way it's going to look that the needs for me and for my wife and for my kid. I don't know how it's going to happen because we have needs. And yet I know what's going to work out. And while I'm waiting for God to meet my needs and while I'm continuing to trust him, you know what? I'm not just sitting here hyper focused on my needs. I got to fix it. I got to fix it. Whose needs can I make?
Because you know what?
Many $ is maybe a lot for me, but $ is not. So if I can use my $ for someone else, then you know what? Because God's going to take care of all this other $ over here.
I got time.
I can go have coffee with people. I can pray with people.
What does it look like to live generously, to fend off greed,
and to fully walk in what it looks like to live a generous lifestyle? It will transform your life.
And last thing, church,
I just want to encourage you.
We mentioned it. Pastor Charlie mentioned it. We're starting our generosity practice in September.
It is so good. We'll be covering some of the content that we've gone through here in a deeper way, but also there's a practice element, a discussion element, ways in which—and I'm telling you, it's so good.
It's challenging.
It's hard sometimes.
Sometimes it makes you a little scared and nervous.
And yet it will transform the way in which you live if you might the Holy Spirit into the process.
And so if I had encouraged you, it's Wednesday night, it's going to be awesome. I can't wait to do it. I'm looking forward to it.
But prayfully consider what that looks like.
We're still going to be talking about generosity for several weeks as we move forward and what it looks like in our lives and how we execute it.
But today,
keep your eyes open because the good eye, the abundant eye, is always looking around, not only to see God's abundance, but to see where in their community is there a need that I can fix. I can't fix the world poverty. I can't even fix Tulsa Broken Arrow's homelessness.
I can't. I can't even fix everything in this church.
But there may be one that God will show me and that I am here for such a time as this to be able to fix that need for that person.
So where is it?
Open my eyes, God.
Help me see like you see.
Help me live like you live, directed by your step so that when the opportunity comes, I can be like you in that moment and in that time.
Generous with your loyal love.
Stand with me. Let me bless you and we'll dismiss this morning.
Father, we thank you for today.
We thank you for your generosity and your heart for those in need.
We all here were once in need.
We may be in need now or maybe in the future. We will be in need. No matter what our socioeconomic diversity is, no matter where we find ourselves, need is something that we may find ourselves in the very presence of. And yet you are one who comes to generously provide for everything that we could need before we even ask or think about it. So, Father, we thank you for that.
And Lord, as we're waiting and as we're standing and as we're believing, Lord, help us have our eyes open for the needs of those around us in our community.
Lord, I'd love for it to be said about our church and there was no needy one among them.
Not because the church office was giving out benevolence requests, but because the church community rallied around to be in relationship with each other so that we can see each other where they are at and meet the needs in the moment that they arise.
We thank you for that, Jesus.
We love you, Father. It's in your holy name we pray. Amen and amen. All right, church. Hey, listen, we love you very much. Don't forget next week, baptism service, family service, food afterwards. It's going to be awesome. We love you. You're dismissed. Have a great rest of your Sunday.
