Ambassadors of Generosity | Pastor Rob Hemphill (Sermon)

amen good morning what a great reminder sometimes we get going so fast in our lives that we never take the time to count the blessings that god has bestowed upon us i think we get going that fast and we just forget about we don't pause to take the time we need to to to reflect on god's blessing that video is a great great reminder because it's it's obviously counter cultural to stop and pause especially to think about blessings and turning around and blessing someone else in fact our culture today says what our culture day says man gratify yourself indulge yourself get what's coming to you baby this is yours get what is yours stick it to the man right like that's that's so what our culture is all about that's what they're they're preaching at us and and a lot of times we get caught up in that i'm so thankful for god's word that i can follow that that it's the plumb line of my life as the scripture says itself it's it's a it's a lamp to my feet it's a light into my path so i don't get caught going down those rabbit holes and believing getting caught up that that it's all about me because it's really not because jesus said in his own words right jesus said if you want to be my disciple it's not about gratifying yourself if you want to be my disciple the first thing is self-denial you're denying yourself first if you want to come follow me you deny yourself take up your cross and then you can follow jesus god didn't call us to selfishness right he didn't call us to laziness he called us to be great ambassadors of generosity he called us to be great stewards of blessings that's what he has called us to be even solomon talked about that in proverbs 21 solomon said he was talking about he was addressing the lazy he was addressing the selfish people and he said the righteous give without holding back they give without holding anything back now scientific studies show that all human beings are basically selfish i know you didn't know that before you walked in here this morning so you're welcome goes on to say and get this men are more generally selfish than women as a rule studies show that the male neural reward system is more stimulated by self-centeredness in other words women are more likely to get a dopamine rush out of helping other people men are more focused on surviving women are more focused on helping others survive it's just the way that we're wired right and men if you're in good shape the news doesn't get any better i'm sorry research research shows big muscles lead to a heart that's more self-centered i shared this breaking news to my wife the other day and she said well rob it's a good thing that you have a big heart oh what what who am [Applause] i but men aren't the only ones who are selfish here's the comeback here's the comeback story guys right because another just a few years ago another survey revealed that women are less likely to answer the door when a charitable organization comes knocking nine out of ten women also when splitting a chocolate bar with another woman will always take the bigger piece but the point is the same right the point is the same that we are all selfish we all fall into that sometimes i mean if if we've not seen a good example of that i mean just think back almost yesterday right to 2020 we saw selfishness come out in ways that we never dreamed that selfishness would come but we saw people declaring that is my last gallon of water on the shelf that is my last package of toilet paper don't you dare and man people we saw people just lose their minds and get silly over the smallest things that's not what god has called us to when was the last time that we got to experience intentional generosity and by that i mean generosity to where we don't have to count the cost where we don't have to look over our shoulder we're just we're just giving we're just being generous when was the last time we experienced intentional generosity our passage this morning paul is encouraging uh a church kind of like what i'm doing here this morning encouraging them about getting involved and getting uh in generosity and and i think about that i think about this church and and and i want us to to stand as we read god's word this morning in second corinthians chapter chapter eight we have this marked it says this in verse verse 1 it says now brethren we wish to make known to you the grace of god which has been given in the churches of macedonia that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality their freedom for i testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints and this not as we had expected but they gave first they first gave themselves to the lord and to us by the will of god so we urge titus that has as he had previously made a beginning so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well verse seven but just as you abound in everything in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you see that you abound in this gracious work also i am not speaking this as a command but is proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also for you know the grace of our lord jesus christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich you may be seated may god add his blessing to the reading of his word this morning so let's look at that that church in corinth for just a second i mean paul has gathered the churches and he's and he's sharing about what's happening in these other churches of in the in macedonia and he writes he says that their poverty basically overflows in a wealth of generosity these churches have been giving beyond their means and they are inviting other people to be a part of the ministry to get involved that's what intentional generosity looks like sometimes it looks irrational it doesn't look normal right think about this you spend your entire weekend here at the church we're doing a church-wide community outreach and to make sure the event goes off without a hitch we need all hands on deck and we and when we call upon you and you come and you serve from friday night all the way through sunday afternoon and it's it's a great thing and then you go back to work on monday and you're standing around the cubicles and someone says what'd you do this weekend oh well man i i served at my church the entire time it was it was amazing they were like what your entire weekend you spent at church see to our world that's it that's irrational that's completely countercultural and that's what paul is trying to to get them like to buy into like hey this is this is bigger than just us so this morning what i want to do is i want to uh i want to look at three mindsets of generosity in scripture but as we do that i want you to be thinking about two different questions the first question is where do we find blessing in these mindsets of generosity where do we find blessing in these mindsets the second question is how can we be great ambassadors of generosity in these three mindsets the first but the first mindset is is the bag mindset and in the bag mindset i can't ever get enough in the back i can't ever get enough in here man i i want to do things i want to give a man i'm constantly i'm constantly trying to put more and more in the back when is when is more going to be enough when is more going to be taken care of and what's happened is like you know i remember when when my parents when we moved from a small town to the big city of orlando for the next several years it was really really tight and so i kept hearing those phrases like hey money doesn't grow on trees hey we're gonna have to be a part of that next year because we're trying we just didn't feel like we could get enough in the back and what was happening here even in in haggai's time is is that they were the people were not putting god first we look back at chapter one of haggai and we see that people were not putting god first in fact the building of the temple took a back seat to their agenda haggai 1 6 says you have sown much but harvest little you eat but there is not enough to be satisfied you drink but there is not excess you put on clothing but no one is warm enough and he who earns earns wages to put into a purse with holes many people live this way there it's guarded man i want to be generous i want to give to god's ministry but i just i got to get i got to take care of this first i got to do this first and the way we talk the way we respond it reveals this back mindset the way we we react to things reveals the the bad mindset there's just the sense also to have to protect it this is mine hey this is that's that's my water that's my chocolate bar that's my time that's my money sense of protection this bag mindset you remember um you remember judas the guy that betrayed jesus judas carried it back he was he was in charge of the money and judas was was carrying the bag and and judas had a different mindset and there's a there's a great story in the gospel of mark it tells a story of a woman who they were hanging out one night and and she obviously in her life had made some poor choices but when she met jesus jesus turned her life around and so out of an abundance of her heart she gave without holding back she took a jar an entire jar of perfume opened it up poured it on top of jesus and lavished him with it she was giving without holding back and she was it was an act of worship because of what of who he was and what he had done for her she had experienced god's goodness so she's just repaying it's just an act of worship and judas lost his mind judah said woman are you crazy are you absolutely out of your mind because what is that that's got to be a year's worth of wages you could have taken that you could have taken that you could have sold that and you could have taken that money and then and then fed the poor and what judas didn't understand he had a distorted view of not only money but he had a distorted view of what generosity looks like i like to think that judas had an arm problem because every time he turned around judas had his arm in somebody else's back i mean he was protective of the bag but every time you he got a little to put in he put a little bit in his own back that's the bag mindset in the bag mindset and the mentality we we can never never have enough and the other thing about the bag is that that there's holes in it we don't even realize and it's not just monetary things that are falling out of the bottom of the bag we're being robbed also of contentment and joy and peace and love and many are the fruits of the spirit this leads us to the second mindset here and that is that is the the basket mindset now in the basket mindset in the bag mindset there's not enough never enough in the basket mindset there is enough we look at look at a couple of uh options here in scripture that in deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 2 and and following it says that all these blessings will come upon you they will overtake you if you obey the lord and then the people of haggai in this time they they had lost focus of what they were supposed to be doing they didn't rebuild the temple so they're being reminded in verse 5 says blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl there will be enough see in this mindset you can rest and trust god that there will be enough let's look at it from a new testament standpoint if you look at luke chapter 6 verse 38 jesus says give and it will be given to you notice he did not say keep and it will be given to you he didn't say horde and it will be given to you he said give and it will be given to you he goes on to say he says give and it will be given to you they will pour out of your lap a good measure press down shaken together running over for your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return why did jesus say this give and it shall be given because he knew that they were going to do one of two things with it give it away they were going to bury it we have to think through that mindset for just a minute what does that look like a good measure pressed down shaken together running over i started thinking about what is the imagery of such a phrase and i thought aha i've got it i present to you exhibit a the slurpee i remember as a kid riding my bike up to 7-eleven and you get that slurpee cup and you go up the machine and you put whatever your favorite is in there strawberry banana whatever it is uh and you fill it up as much as you can and then you like jam a straw into it and you just suck as much as you can out too you can't feel your brain anymore and then you go back and you talk top it off and you walk over the counter then you pay right i don't know if you remember those days but like by 10 o'clock 11 o'clock at night you walk into 7-eleven and the slurpee machine area like a slurpee bomb had gone off it was a mess and i don't know if that's what the motivation was to invent what they invented next that was the slurpee lid oh man when that came out oh my changed life right because now we can stick that thing up there and we can we can go full full on and just fill that thing up like compact it all the way down press it down right in to jam it up in there go until it's completely overfilling over the top running over press down shaken together man you see the people that jesus is teaching this crowd listening to jesus they have a great contextual understanding of what he's saying when he says that because this he says because they knew that in that day a rich landowner who was employing hourly waged workers tells them that at the end of the week if there's anything left over set it at the edge of the field and that way anyone who is hungry anyone who is down and struggling to feed their family they can come by and they can receive it as a gift because as god has blessed us we want to be a blessing to other people and so if as an hourly wage worker if that was your job i mean my job all day is to to fill grain in my basket throw it up and haul it all the way on the other side of the field and sit it down closer to where the barn is right but my mentality has to change because if i'm just an hourly wage worker i'm thinking like man this is this is my job for the day right i'm doing this all day long i'm not trying to kill myself out here right so i'm just going to go and i'm going to fill it up maybe three quarters away kind of loosely in there whatever and take it and haul it over right but if i know that at the end of the week the excess is going to be used to bless either my family or my neighbor's family who are who are struggling who are hungry right now then what is my basket going to look like when i pack it then press down shaken together everything i can possibly get in there running over the top why because i want to take it across over here and i want to lay it down at the end of the week into the field so someone else can receive that blessing it's about the it's about a change in our attitude it's about a change in our perspective and in our heart because you see what happens is when i when i when i sit this down what what i give to god if i don't lay it before what i lay before god in front of him he can take and multiply way beyond what i could ever imagine because what is mine remains mine what i identify as gods becomes everybody's i think in this gospel of luke jesus is encouraging he's encouraging us to go above and beyond what our culture says is is generosity and that is foreign today because everybody the culture says look out for number one he says give and it shall be given to you a good measure pressed down shaken together running over it's interesting that that verse doesn't say what's to be given but i think if you go on and you read the passage after that and the following verses i think it starts to lean into what some of those things are it's it's show mercy to others do good for others don't demand your rights to be heard in front of others it's all about other people see a lot of people associate that verse with money and jesus is like oh no no no this it's so so much bigger than that he's talking about our heart it's talking about our intentions with generosity because god can take that and multiply it in ways i never could have ways that you never the ways our church could never god can take our gift and multiply it we see this in first kings chapter 17 of the woman a widow from zerath and and she has just enough oil in her jar just enough flour left in her basket to make one last little bread cake for her and her son and she goes out and she's gathering sticks to build this fire to cook this last little bread cake before they start to fall into starvation and she runs into the prophet elijah and he says bake for me this bread cake serve me first in other words trust god first and then you and your family will eat for a long long time that is irrational that doesn't sound right that's a huge step of faith and trust she does it and what happens she she gives elijah the first and then she goes back and and what do you know there's more a tiny bit more of oil in her in her jar there's a little bit more flour in her basket just enough to make the next bread cake to and she goes on and this happens happens times and times again and her family does not fall into starvation her family is fed for days and weeks to come it's that basket mentality there is always enough there's beyond that this is the way that the poor macedonian church was singing it didn't matter if they had a lot it didn't matter if they had little it was that they made their first commitment to god and god blessed that paul writes in in verse three going back to second corinthians he writes in verse three it says for i testified that according to their ability and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord watch this begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in support of the saints in other words they're trying to invite people into this ministry and not as we had expected but they first gave themselves to the lord and to us by the will of god man they gave themselves first to the lord that changes the mindset of how how we think sometimes so their their passion they had a generous undertaking to complete verse six so we urged titus as he had previously made a beginning so he would also complete in you this gracious word this was a ministry that titus had it helped out at the beginning so paul is encouraging the church at corinth here to join with the macedonian churches it's not about how much they're bringing right it's that their hearts in the right place when they bring it and god looks at us and says the same thing god gets a great amount of joy when you and i give with the right attitude when we bless with the right attitude when we receive his blessings and turn around and bless someone else and i'm not talking money i want you to see it's way bigger than that generosity has to do with all every aspect of our life it's the barn mindset is what this leads to paul writes in verse 7 but just as you have abound in everything in faith and utterance and knowledge and all earnestness and in the love we inspired you see that you abound in this gracious work also and so i'm sorry i couldn't uh have them build a barn in here this week budget was a little tight but but i think you see this picture you understand the barn with a with a grain silo it's full it's ready the storehouse is full proverbs 3 9-10 says honor the lord from your wealth from the from the first of all you pro your produce so your barns will be filled with plenty the storehouses are ready these are talking about our first fruits matthew 6 33 why what god wants our first right matthew 6 03 seek ye first the kingdom of god and what all these things will be added to you we have to think about like we have to think about tithe right we all i'll say you know that time people are like oh i can't believe i stumbled in here on the day that pastor's talking about money no this isn't about that please understand that but we think about because tithe 10 that man that's a scary number sometimes it is a scary number but i want you to understand this isn't about a percentage this isn't about a fraction this isn't about a dollar amount this is about where our hearts are seeing the in the barn mindset it's there's always enough it's overflowing you see in god's 90-day outlook financially there's plenty we just have to steward it well and be generous with it this goes back to the old testament right and god is telling moses he's like hey i want the first how you worship me dedicate to me every firstborn among the israelites the first offspring to be born both human and animals look when your sheep have lambs i want the first one don't wait until the tenth one when you find out whether or not you're gonna have a good flock i want the first i want the first this can be hard sometimes think about this who was who was jesus he was the first born the lamb of god god gave romans 5 says god demonstrated his love for us that while we were yet sinners christ died for us in other words god gave his son to us first we're over here as sinners don't even know that we need a savior yet and god gave his son first and we honor him by coming to him first with everything i remember when i was when audre and i were in seminary and uh just starting out in our marriage and and we didn't have a lot of money right and so we're living in this little apartment and and uh there were many nights where we had some interesting things for dinner i'll just say that and uh but we we had this conversation and i said are we gonna we're gonna pay our bills at the end of the month if so can we still give to the church that we're working out or do we pay our bills first and then give to the church or do we give first and then pay the bills man she was so faithful she was so steadfast and she's like we're gonna give first and see whatever happens and see whatever happens turned into potato chip chicken for dinner some nights you ever had that all right ramen noodles going out a date to mcdonald's and sharing a strawberry shake it was awesome i wouldn't trade those days for anything you know why because we saw god be faithful so many times there were bills that got paid at the end of the month where you're just going like i don't know i don't and it's bigger than that it's way bigger than that that we have to trust god with that we have to trust god with what he has given us stop trusting what killed her couldn't be in the bag and operate out of the barn he owns the cattle in a thousand hills he owns everything that's in our bank account right now he owns all of our time i'll be honest that's something that i struggle with sometimes i can just be transparent man my time like it's it's little and when i get when i get a minute i'm like going i'm like oh no no no no no this is my time i get i get this little time over here i either gonna go spend it on my family or i'm gonna spend it with with a friend or whatever and then you get that call right hey rob somebody needs to you to come down to the church and talk to him about this or about that and i'm like oh man are you kidding that's like 10 minutes before kickoff i'm just kidding i know you've never had that thought but what do we do how do we respond when god calls us into situations like that our time we have to be generous with our time sitting down and listening to someone that's being generous with your time that's offering up generosity to god it's always it's always exciting to watch students grow up to come to them watch them come alongside them when they when they step into those next steps of their their uh their faith journey and many years ago we had a student that came through our ministry at a previous church and we walked with him and his family through some times and and just just it was great but it was hard sometimes and turned out to be a remarkable young man and he graduated went to college got married started doing some entrepreneurial stuff because he had that mindset and god started blessing him and and together they began to ask god what do you want us to do with this excess that's coming in i mean they they just had they launched some things and it just god just blessed it because they were faithful they said god what do you want us to do with this excess so he said he prayed and god gave him this vision it says is i want to go out i want to buy some land and in different places and i want to build like retreat camps so that so that the pastors can go there so that ministry leaders can go there and be refreshed be rejuvenated so that christian couples can go there and be be reunited it's like man for a young couple this is this is this vision's incredible right and that was the vision god gave him because he said he said if i put my identity in a dollar sign god made it very clear that he was going to lead a life that was going to lead to emptiness and so they continued down this this plan that they had and the next thing you know she god is impressed upon her he gives his wife all the credit here and he says he says man god impressed upon her when she was praying not long after that like why are you waiting and they're like oh god we don't have the land yet we're still trying to figure this part out that kind of thing why are you waiting do it now so they came up with a plan to do it now they're like okay gonna have to trust god with this whatever and so so they did now fast forward months later i'm sitting in my living room and i'm opening a letter and i'm reading this letter and it's it's from this couple and honestly to be honest with you we get a lot of letters that ask for support when some former students come and they're like hey we're about to start this ministry we're about to go on the mission field we're going to do this trip whatever great and we will write the check do do whatever we can to help them right and that's what i kind of thought this was at first then as i began to read i i was i stood up and i was like oh my gosh i could not believe the generosity that was coming out of their hearts out of this letter and i got up and i walked over i was like audra come here come here say is this real it's like oh my gosh i said rob we we thank you for everything that you've done you've blessed us and because god has blessed us we now want to bless you and your family and we want to send you on this vacation that you could never do on your own it's like whoa whoa whoa man this is this is hard position for me to be in like i'm the one like i like to roll my sleeves up and serve surf surf surf that's just who i am right like to be on this end of it i'm like whoa whoa and so we we talked and i was like man listen i appreciate it this is a great gesture but he's like no no you've got to like this is this is the joy that god has told us to pursue like oh my gosh and sure enough covet played some havoc but we they continue to pursue this and next you know we're on vacation out west and we're staying in places i'm going to be honest with you i could never stay in and it was incredible that i got to bless my family with this it was incredible now this is this is on the south rim outside the south rim of of the grand canyon i know it looks like we're in tatooine but it was super cool right so we're in one of these on a tuesday night of that week now it'd be great if the story ended there we got blessed right but here's what happened next on the tuesday night in the coolest of the night we got a fire going in this little this little pod looking thing and we did this little survey with our family and we asked them questions and asked everybody to answer five questions and to hear my sons share back with us the definition of who our family is who they see us to be as parents setting mission goals for our family over the next year man to hear this come back man tears are welling up in my eyes and i'm like i can't believe this this is probably one of the biggest highlights of my parenting career maybe i haven't screwed this thing up so bad right would have missed out on that blessing audrey i would have missed out on that incredible blessing had we not received the gift of generosity by this couple we would have also missed out on it if they had not been obedient to give to god first we were blessed because of who god was and what he's done in our life i'm going to lead us in prayer and then i'm going to go change as we get ready for the next part of our worship service today which is baptism and so we'll be out but as as marsh leads leads us in this song and there's a lyric i want you to focus on it says oh the joy i found surrendering my crowns at the feet of the king who surrendered everything let's pray oh god we come before you today father we we come before you with our our hearts postured to receive your blessing postured to return those blessings and generosity to others around us god may we we read this passage today may we be encouraged to to count the blessings that you have bestowed upon us but to then go and turn and to bless other people our neighbors our co-workers our family people in this community may we be a blessing to them as we are great ambassadors of generosity but we pray this in jesus name and all god's people said amen

Channel: Northland Church

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Length: 31min 57sec (1917 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021