Generosity - Shane Willard

so I want to I want to talk to you this morning about developing a generous spirit now let me um stop and go slow here because here's what happened here's the problem right a certain stage the room has already gone right because here's the problem as soon as I say generous right the first word that comes into mind is tithe and then here's the problem with that then it becomes a dualistic debate of am I for it or against it which actually misses the entire point because here's the thing it's not the tithe and it's not generosity it's so important it's our imagination of how that works out that's important right so there's doctrine or belief or values whatever word you want to put on it there's a doctrine and that's belief but then there is imagination of how that doctrine works out and what's far more important than what you believe is how you believe what you believe so what's far more important than what you believe is your imagination of how does that work out and when there's a gap between what you believe and what how you see it working out that creates anxiety and problems like I'll give you a great example how many of us would believe that we are we are forgiven by the finished work of Jesus Christ right that's at all of us right don't be too excited about that right but right that's a pretty good news story right right so we here's the problem though it's possible to believe that with with everything that we can mentally assent on the bullet point on the pamphlet we we can believe that with everything but if in our imagination we see ourselves guilty our emotions will attach to the imagination of how it works not to the belief and so what's more important than believing the right things is making sure our imagination obeys the Christ that we are believing in because here's the thing right I've never met anybody that rejected Jesus never in my life have I ever met anyone who rejected Jesus I've met lots of people who rejected the image of Jesus presented to them right and so there's a difference between the real Jesus and then someone's imagination of what Jesus might be and oftentimes the people rejecting Jesus are simply resisting an image of Jesus that should be resisted anyway but you talked you talked to an atheist and the atheist says I don't believe in God right and and so and so a good-hearted person doesn't fight it's ridiculous right they go oh tell me what you don't believe in and then they go I don't believe God is this this this or this and I just go is that what makes an atheist it's an atheist somebody that doesn't believe a God is this this this and this yes well I guess I'm an atheist right because what what they're resisting is not God they're resisting an image of God that should be resisted anyway right no you say what's this have to do with generosity everything because here's the thing right when I say the word tithe in 99% of cases it's not tithe that comes to our mind it's our imagination of what we think tithing is and when I when I say generosity it's not what generosity is it's our imagination of what generosity is here's I rescued it if you'll be if you'll have enough faith to do this right and I'm gonna let you look if for 40 minutes kind of 40 minutes to try to change your imagination about to give you a new image of what this could look like and if you'll if you'll see if you'll enter into what philosophers call a suspended space a suspended space is when you walk into an environment and you consciously choose to humble yourself and leave your preconceived notion up in the sky some in suspended space and you fully engage with the wrestling here and here's the thing after 40 minutes if you fully engage with this you are more than welcome to absolutely go right back to what you were right you're totally free you're totally free to just pick up the imagination you thought before but I'm betting on something I'm betting if you give me 40 minutes I'm betting I can give you a better imagination not a better doctrine but a better imagination and that is fundamentally different that is fundamentally different now a couple of a couple of things it's so there's three abuses that are that I find are primary when we talk about tithing all right so so if you bring that first light up for me the three are one it would be the tie there's some sort of rule to attain God's favor so there's any sort of belief that that if that tithers that God feels fundamentally different about people who tied than people who don't and if that's been in any part of your past and any part of anybody that's ever intimated that you and it created that imagination and so because of that you're like I'm against that I want you to know I stand with you I'm with you too I'm against any notion that there's any ritual that will fundamentally change God's basic disposition toward us right right so that is an image of tithing that should be resisted there's a second one that should be resisted that is the tithe isn't into itself so the idea that ah if I could just get this right then I will feel more whole more complete no you won't know you won't if you do tithing perfectly and you still feel empty on the inside and then you tie perfectly you're just a tithing feeling and be on the inside person it the tithe is not an end to itself the tithe is a framework that helps us develop something far more profound and we're going to talk about that right the third abuse which I absolutely stand against is that the tithe is magic here's what that sounds like right hey hey hey if you just tithe your finances will automatically work out no it won't hey oh listen if you tithe and then you buy a $60,000 car on a $50,000 income you're gonna be broke why because buying a $60,000 car on a $50,000 income is stupid and if you tied your just a tithing stupid person right that doesn't work the idea that all a hey hey you know what act as stupid as you want and then tithe it'll all work out there is a word that that's not new theology it's very old it's finds its basis in Latin the word for it is bulla most crap of us okay the idea that is that people say people say I'm against tithing cuz it doesn't work you know what doesn't work what do you mean waiting well I tithe and I was still broke but then you talk to them and you're like they were they were buying things they can't afford with money they don't have to impress people they don't like of course they're gonna be broke right the tithe is not magic like who's freaking some tithes dust on your stupidity and ornament right No No and if that's your imagination I stand with you if you're like I'm against this idea that the tithe is some magic fairy dust that we can sprinkle on all levels of stupidity and suddenly or workout I'm with you oh right I think what we're going to find in Scripture is a better story it's a better story couple of thoughts on this one money is a great servant but a horrible master so the goal of what we're talking about is that every month you tell your money where it must do you tell hey this is what you're gonna do for me this month money is good because here's what free people do free people tell their money where to go slaves the money tells them where to go right so the last thing you want is on the first a month money go well I'm gonna be going to Visa MasterCard American Express Ford Motor Credit I'm gonna be doing I'm gonna be doing all this none of that's the last thing we want something more profound than forgiveness we want something called freedom and freedom financially is treating our money where we are that we are the masters and it is the servant money's a great servant but a horrible master number two in building a christ-centered community how we think about our stuff is of utmost importance like if your whole goal is to go to heaven when you die don't worry about what I'm saying now sort of irrelevant like if you could honestly say my entire goal in life is to go to heaven after death okay whatever you're boring but nonetheless no none of this really matters but but should that really be our goal like really huh like if Heaven and Hell isn't the issue is Jesus still worth following I would say he is I don't follow Jesus so I can go to heaven I follow Jesus because I actually believe he has the best way to live on the earth right and that's more compelling right that's more compelling so so so now now that we're all cheering that well now we got to think about our stuff because if the goal isn't to go somewhere else but to bring the somewhere else here whoa how we think about our steps have upmost importance three the seemingly small choices we make today affect big things tomorrow changing your life financially is just like changing your life in any other area it's normally not the big profound steps it's normally the small steps held true over a long period of time it's normally hey the the biggest the biggest changes in your life have not been the big profound yeses actually for honest the biggest changes in our life have been the small yeses that we held to its the small yeses that we held to so and so when we think about money listen if our goal is to get to the end of the day what we could do almost whatever we want but if the goal is to be in five years in a different place then that requires small changes that we hold to over a period of time right and that's true financially and in every other way listen you can't act foolishly financially and go well it's just a six-month thing give it that's six much thing takes you on a trajectory that you might be paying for for five years I mean I know someone personally who's still paying for a coffee they bought seven years ago cuz they put it on a credit card and just been paying the minimum payment every and it's it's become a lifestyle so that let's say this way next one um how did you a couple questions how did you get what you have how did you attain what you had there's there's only two ways to attain things one is to work for it earn it the other way is somebody gave it to you okay that's it that is it right like if you drove a car here today and you worked for it and paid for it it's your car if you drove a car here today that someone gave you that is also your car but if you drove a car here today and you neither paid for it nor anybody gave it to you I would suggest you stole it so the imagination is is is how did I get what head there's two ways to think about it one is to think about my whole life as I work for it I earned it it's my stuff the other way to think about it is everything in my life is a gift both are legitimate both legitimate here's the thing the first imagination leads to a fundamental different way of thinking about our things then the second imagination because the second imagination says if all of my life is a gift that I need to do what the gift giver wants me to do with that gift what right right and once again what see they're just fun to lead the different imaginations right so the question would be am i stealing see Fest in Hebrew is ready get ready here we go it's taking something to know yours but there's another definition of theft in Hebrew and that is keeping something for yourself that the master meant for somebody else right so you didn't right right so so and you know this like if if if you if you give someone if you handed me a hundred dollars and said Shayne I don't want that person to know about it I don't want them to know it's for me so would you just say it's a blessing hey would you give that hundred dollars to somebody and I go sure and I walk away and put it in my pocket I stole it I saw it's taking something the gift giver gave intended for somebody else and taking it as mom and that leads me to a whole nother different set of questions like a couple theta another question three do we need more than a touch from God like I would say we do like people who stand us all you need to touch from God no no I think we need a dose of wisdom as well right like right like like God is not duty-bound to fix stupidity right Nora's got duty-bound to finish something he didn't initiate like people who grow he who began a good work in you right okay faithful to complete yeah if he began it but when it's our poorly thought out idea that's not well researched and then we presume upon God's grace to fix stupidity that's crazy right like think about think about the second temptation of Christ what was it it was hey man throw yourself off this mountain and because God has such a big plan for your life he'll catch you probably right and remember Jesus's response he's like well probably but why would I test him when I could just not jump right like the the wisdom is is that is that it is foolish to presume upon God's grace to fix stupidity that we could have just handled proactively anyway right so there's there's all of this stuff now there's when the Jews make up 50 its oh sorry did you have 1% of the world's population and they have 50% of the world's wealth they might be on to something and most of them don't believe in Jesus right so it must be something this principle now when a Jew thinks about money he thinks about it in five facets let me show you all five of these facets if you could bring that next one up for me the five facets are work wisdom honor knowing God and developing a stell of sadaqa or generosity now for the sake of time I can't go through all of them except for really quickly okay let me handle it really quickly work there's a cure for being broke it's called get a job okay this is Australia you can be a flippin and make it here you can have no skills and people will pay you a living wage this is one of the greatest nations on earth when I hear Australians complain about Australia I'm like night where are you gonna go let me be blunt if you can't make it here where you gonna go I had an 18 year old tell me the other day he was paid sixty three dollars an hour to do a job I think my response was literally what right like this is a maze get up go to work if you're broken I call you at 9:30 and wake you up what is wrong with you wisdom wisdom wisdom is simply spending less than you make and doing it for a very long time not hard what's not easy to implement but it's not hard to conceive honor honor is your best life is found in a commitment to never purposely or intentionally harm another person even if they're different than you you honor the image of God in all people because there's one Christ holding us all together and if there's one Christ or one God holding us all together then right wrong or indifferent you're my brother you're my sister I could never purposely harm you because we are one we are all creation being held together right so that's honor right I want to focus the entire rest of the time on the last to knowing God and developing a lifestyle of generosity because he knowing God's will issue because if I say I said maybe we should need to know God people yeah but then the problem isn't the problem is no one know if I said we needed no God more no well ago no we need to know unless no one would do that right here's the problem with saying knowing God it's not the doctrine of knowing God it's whatever imagination we have of what that looks like so some people go well knowing God means knowing the Bible more but then at least all kinds of questions like what about the people who knew God that didn't ever have a Bible because the fact the idea that we could have our own Bible is a relatively new thing and what about that and so and so or knowing God is is not making mistakes it's like wait a minute hang on what are you talking about here actually as far as I know there's only one definition in the whole Bible of what it means to know God 1 it's referenced later but the original reference is this this is Jeremiah 22 16 he defended the cause of the poor and the needy and so all went well is this not what it means to know me declares the Lord your God in other words when you do something for someone who can't do anything in return for you it is in that moment that you get to know God for that is what God did for the whole world and this follows this follows that pattern through scripture like there's lots of people who weren't theologically correct that God called righteous because of their generosity Acts chapter 10 is guy named Cornelius there you have never met a human being more theologically jaded than Cornelius first of all he has no theological background he was a military guy second of all to be a Roman military officer you had to proclaim Caesar is Lord this guy was so clueless he didn't even know Peter wasn't God now that is about his elemental of an error as you can get hey Peter you're here you must be gone that is right he gets the story is so elemental that Peter has to tell the man don't bow to him right this is like theology 101 don't belt him in and Cornelius is a little confused he's like you're not you're not God no I'm not God I'm Peter right and then Peter it's Oprah near says Wyatt why are you here and Peter says cuz God wants you to pastor the first church in Cornelius his response would be like what I didn't even know you weren't God I'm not ready to Pastor he goes no no you're ready to Pastor he says because your generosity to the poor has already went up as a remembrance to God and he counted you righteous based on that right is this not what it means to know me declares the Lord your God so so the question is is do here's my question right scary scripture and whole Bible to me Matthew 7 jesus said many in that day will say Lord Lord and I'll say I don't know you and if you go read it the people he doesn't know are confused remember he says he says no I don't know you and they go what do you mean you don't know us we cast out devils in your name we prophesy you wait for four miracles what are you talking about what are you talking about what's so convicting to me about this is that there's a group of people and the end of the day who think they're in but they're actually out right and then and then Jesus goes their surprise they go wait a minute wait we prophesied so Jesus is like hey there's a lot of people in a day there they think they're in but they're actually out and then he goes on to describe Pentecostal leaders right which is weird because I'm a Pentecostal leader right like who else is prophesying casting out Devils and performing miracles right Baptist in Cleveland they're safe right is this that's us right it's I mean I prophesied on occasion I've cast out devils twice not a big fan of it right right if you're here today and you have a devil see him he'll sort you out I don't really I'm not a but I think it needs to be done I mean in my experience the less demons the better but it is scary even Jesus goes but I didn't know you it's so for Jesus he this thing this thing of knowing God this thing of knowing God sort of followed him around and followed Paul around this idea it was a scriptural pattern of when you do something sir my first John beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loves is born of God and knows God this is the idea the idea is creating a habit in our life where we regularly engage in something for someone who can do nothing in return for us so that's knowing God the last one is is sadaqa or generosity developing a generous spirit and its role in a park for the rest of the time it's interesting generosity in Hebrew is the word sadaqa I love that so what's up go to womb but gusto could you say that let me say sadaqa ready go sadaqa alright now it's an interesting play on words because because the word for righteous in Hebrew is sadoc so you hear the similarity sadaqa sadaqa sadaqa sadaqa hit that next line for me sadaqa sadaqa there are 2106 verses of scripture someone counted 2106 verses of scripture that tie righteousness to generosity so once again if I say we need to be a more righteous people no one goes no we need more wickedness no the problem isn't the doctrine the problem is our imagination of what that means - my grandmother's generation not smoking not drinking not going to movies that meant you're a righteous but in the heat through tradition righteousness wasn't tied to what you abstained from righteousness was tied to what you engaged in for somebody who could do nothing in return for you it was even in the language sadoc righteous sadaqa generous sadoc righteous sadaqa generous as the dock man does sadaqa duh right this is where we get the word ikan from by the way so in the first century the people who collected the almost for the poor were called the Deacons but the word for Deacon in Hebrew is sadhika right the collectors of righteousness the people who are collecting things for people could nothing in return for them now 2106 verses of scripture connect righteousness to generosity I figured I'd show you all of them right now I'm just joking right next slide this is some this is just a few this Psalm 37 verse 25 I've been young and now I'm old but I've never seen the sadaq righteous forsaken or seed begging bread for all the day long he deals generously sadaqa and linds freely and his seed is blessed in english there's a separation in Hebrews not Oh a sadoc man does sadaqa of course he does a righteous person does generous I of course of course Psalm 112 verse 5 a righteous man shows generosity Oh in Hebrew that would literally say a sadhaka man shows sadaqa now of course of course what else would he be doing what else would us the dock man be doing here's James chapter 1 if anyone considers himself religious and does not keep a tight rein on his tongue he deceives himself in his religion is worthless religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is this to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted for my another were doing something for someone who can do nothing in return for you that's not the world's way it's the dock sadaqa now here's the question right if I was to say well here's the thing here's the thing we need more righteousness we need to know God no one disagrees with that you can't it's impossible the question is is what does that look like and the ancient Jews had the system that they called sadaqa and I want to show you this system of how to handle money because the question would be how do I know when I've engaged in righteousness what are doing here here is the system I find their system brilliant it's the reason one percent of the world has 50% of the wealth right here's what they did first this is the summary they would do something in Hebrew called the master rashon the master was shun the master rashon is something we're very familiar with that would be the taught one tenth to your church community to your to your holy community to your spiritual community right that was called the master rashon here's the problem with tithing and here's why our imaginations get jacked up with it right here's the problem is in Hebrew there are three tithes in English there's one word tithe and so it gets translated the same way which makes it sound like it's everywhere but actually there's three right so the first type a tie just means a tenth what's called the master rashon and that was a part of their community their way of life now now the second one though was equally important let me show you that one the second one next one it's called the master SHINee that was one tenth to yourself now here's my question right how many of us and let's be honest don't answer me out loud it's rhetorical right how many of us before we walked in here today when we thought about the word tithe in our imagination it included a mandate to save for my family right and this is what set me free is when I realized that God was just as interested in me saving money as he wasn't me giving money why because to be a reasonable person in creation you have to master the art of both giving and receiving you can't just master one you'll die right so the master rashon was the tenth to the church but the master SHINee was a mandate to save 10% yourself and here's the wisdom in that right if you're here today and you're over the age of 60 and you were honest if you had saved 10% of your income your entire working life how much money would you have today the answer is a lot even even if you even if you never worked anywhere but say a McDonald's or KFC or something like that even if you were on that kind of wage from 16 to 60 you would be worth over a million dollars if you if you if you habitually and disciplined save 10% your whole life this is genius stuff and then they would save it to their children's children I'm so thankful to my mother I didn't know about this I couldn't read the Bible I was four I think I was 27 before I realized there were people who didn't tithe right but but my mother my mother the way you grew up you think is normal right my mother when I was four if my granny gave me a dollar I'd have to go break it into ten ten cent pieces and I'd have to put 10 cent in the church offering plate and then she I can't even imagine this because this was before online banking she would take the time to take my four-year-old behind to a bank sit down and fill out a deposit slip for $0.10 just to build the discipline in my life this is how you do it this is how you do it my entire life I've saved 10% of my income since I was four and listen I've been a pastor my whole life I've never made a wage that would make any of you go Wow Paul but the discipline of saving 10% over that course of time now my investments are starting to compound in a way where I can't possibly keep up and that is wisdom that is wisdom so the master was Sean then the second was master Cheney the third one was called the master Annie this was one tenth to the poor and it was given in lieu of every third master shiney let me see if I could explain it this way in Jamie they did it by years we get paid by month so I do it by month so in January in February I'll save a tenth I'll save 10% to myself in March instead of giving it to myself we give it to the poor in April and May 10% yourself in June instead of give each of you give it to the poor right this is this was their system and here's what they called it they called that system sadaqa sadaqa they added one little thing to it it was called the terumah I don't want to get into that today it was just a it was a small 140th offering to to your spiritual leader or to your pastor right a little is a very small holy offering is is $25.00 on a thousand right it was very very small it'd be it'd be like giving up coke or something right like to do it like drinking coke not sniffing coke sniff it goes more spit right right and so you see you have this car they called this sadaqa they called stuck now a couple of observation about this to bring this into our world first in Jesus's world being a Christian was more about a new way of being in the world than it was about going somewhere else when the primary questions are where do we go when we die where do we go we die what it's sometimes alleviates us from the required wrestling of our role of saying yes to the infinite possibilities God has for us to bring heaven here right and in Jesus's day it was about that let's say this way in Jesus's world the focus was less on what you believe and more on how you believe what you believe doctrine was still being worked out people would ask first century Christians hey are you Jude are you are you Judaism people no no we think God's bigger than that so sir you like a Roman god worshiper no we're somewhere in the middle I think Christians in the first century were executed by Trajan for the charge of atheism because Trajan was like well wait a minute if you're not a Jewish follower person and you're not one of us then you're somewhere in the middle what you need to go right so so before doctrine was really even as it was being worked out the focus had to be on how you believe what you believe it's not so much it's not so much that you believe in Jesus it's what does that belief in Jesus and connection with that how does that affect how you treat your neighbor right like so what if you understand the mysteries of 18 heavens if you have not loved what are you your clanging cymbal like it doesn't matter the boredom of the doctrinal discussions I hear like you know I'm Shane you know what do you think about this what do you think about listen I don't care if you think God is a 9 sided cube and the Antichrist is an eight-year-old Chinese boy named Tong you in if if you can't tell me well what does that matter what does that mean and if you believe that you said you know what here's what that means I am gonna be committed I'm so inspired by that I'm gonna be committed to centering our world around the risen Christ and being nice to our neighbour whatever I just applaud it right it's it's not so much what we believe it's how we believe what we believe let's say this way three to be against tithing is like saying I find no responsibility to my community my family or the poor that's all tithing was tithing was a framework by which we intentionally bless our pastor bless our church bless our family and bless the poor who could be against that so if people say I'm against tithing I'm like which part are you against saving for yourself are you actually a it's not are you actually against taking care of poor people are you against participating in your role in our community that's all tithing was tithing was just a framework to and be intentional about taking care of your pastor taking care of your church taking care of yourself and taking care of the poor who could possibly be against that like if someone said no I find no responsibility for my place in my community no responsibility for my family and no responsibility for the poor in the marginalized that person would be perhaps the biggest jerk you could ever imagine and here's I hope you understand this when people say I'm against tithing I know in their mind that's not what they mean because you can't be against that the problem isn't the tithe the problem is their imagination of what that tithe means and their standing against that and some of those imaginations should be stood against but we should recapture this word as a beautiful word that means play your part in the community play your part in your family and play your part to the poor say yes to the dance that God is doing in our world instead of standing in the corner watching everybody else it's that who could be against that let's say it this way to be a functioning part of any part of creation we got to master the art of giving and receiving you can't master the art of giving without mastering they are receiving you'll be broke you'll be broke if all you do is give out and you never receive you're gonna be broke you're gonna be broke that's unwise it's unwise you can't you can't do that nor nor can you master the art of receiving without mastering their to giving you'll die like if everybody takes a deep breath in and then you just choose not to breathe back out some point you'll faint because your body will make you breathe back out right right you can't if you eat three meals a day and never go to the bathroom you'll die or you'll wish you were dead right I mean at some point brothers got to receive their brothers gotta give the only thing they know of on earth that receives without giving is the Dead Sea and nothing can live there why because when you receive without giving you stagnate you die but but also if you give without mastering there and receiving you're gonna be very frustrated and broke but the beauty the beauty of the whay God set this thing up what was it built a framework for mastering the art of receiving and mastering the art of giving in a way that creates a symbiosis that allows every functioning thing in creation to do that leaves what if the trees rebelled and said no more breathing out for the humans right and well then the humans die but then the trees done but this is this is how the world works it's called symbiosis right we have to we have to operate that way let's say this way number five tithing is an excellent framework to work out heart and lifestyle of generosity in my life but let's just be clear it's just a framework it's an excellent framework but it's a framework there's a more profound truth that I don't even I haven't thought about tithing in 10 years and it's just because we do so much more than that it's not even a thing anymore because that the framework is just meant to build habits of lifestyle that we now wake up though the word has become flesh for instance it's it's a weight I don't even think about this lifestyle anymore it's just a part of me the goal is to for the word to become flesh the framework is meant to develop trust and sadaqa because nothing develops trust like spontaneous giving nothing hey-hey nothing will overcome your fear of lack like being spontaneously generous nothing and I want to be clear about this men struggle with this more than women and here's the reason why right the reason why is because a man's biggest fear is being seen by his peers or his spouse is not enough that's our biggest fear let me let you in on that ladies right our biggest fear is not whether you love us or not we don't actually care about that that much we know you do it's not a thing right right our biggest fear is that you don't find us attractive anymore look at us right we gave up on that a long time ago right right here's the thing right is that a woman's biggest fear is being do yous do you love me still despite the changes in my body this is why if I'm if a married couple is is out at a restaurant in Toowoomba right and they're having a date and let's say the prettiest woman in Toowoomba walks by I'm telling you right now if the prettiest woman in Toowoomba walked into the restaurant the men don't notice first the women do and they hate her yeah she comes in pretty swimming swimming and pretty woman it's pretty swimming swimming walks by physically and the man goes whoa yes sir did you some of that well that's gonna hurt her feelings right but men don't understand that because we have a different fear like if the best-looking man in Toowoomba walked by I'm talking about like underwear model eight pack right right right if the best-looking man in Toowoomba walk by men don't care if their wives notice that like if the man walks by and the woman goes yes sir whoa that is one good-looking hunk of a man we don't care we'd be like well get pre-heated you're coming home with me whatever don't honestly sir could you come over show her your abs this makes my job easier later this get her you know right we don't care right but here's the thing right if at the same meal the wife says hey did you hear about Johnny he got 3 raises last year he now makes twice as much money as you I wish you were that successful why because a man's biggest fear is being seen as not enough and that fear is conquered through spontaneous and intentional generosity it's the way to beat it now there's four principles here I want to quickly walk walk through one is giving and receiving mastering the art of giving and receiving is critical to being a viable part of creation you can't exist without two is a hut hut is a Hebrew word that means unity and diversity that we are not isolated from everything else going on Paul uses incredibly broad language about this the spirit of the risen Christ is filling everything in every way he is holding all things together for by him and through him were all things created and in him all things hold together in other words there's a dance to be a part of there's a plan to be a part of and it's not I and we can't be in if we isolate it if we isolate ourself from that dance it has has horrendous ramifications in the long haul my question is is not are you a tie there my my question is is have you said yes to the and in saying yes to the dance what part are you playing are you out of step and we're where do we need to make sure we're taking care of our community our family and the poor but let's say this way number three is to alum the repairing of the world this is a phrase the rabbi's would use to say we we we don't need to be focused on somewhere else we need to look around and repair our world around us we need to be a part of that and that is so compelling and so much more compelling than hey you're 16 pray or prayer once and then wait till 107 tonight that no the Christianity is much better than that it's much more what I've heard people go I think Christianity is boring I'm like I've never I've never met someone who thought Christianity was boring that I disagreed with because once I talked to them and said tell me about what you think Christianity is what isn't that where you believe the certain things when you're a kid and then you go to heaven after death well if that's Christianity that needs to be resistant because the good news is much better than that we can participate with the takuna Lum the repairing of the world the fourth principle is sadaqa righteousness and generosity that in a Hebrew imagination righteousness was not what you abstained from righteousness was what you entered into when we do something for somebody with no expectation of return for ourselves it's in that moment we get to know God why cuz that's what God did for the world that in that sense God is not somebody we love God is somebody we find in the act of love itself that when we love it's there we find the presence of God the most profound sense of his presence is when we're doing something for somebody who can do nothing in return now a couple questions good sermons aren't meant to be agreed with or disagreed with they're meant to be wrestled with let's wrestle one are we participating in the bigger story of God's unfolding grace to the world are we saying yes to the dance are we waiting to go to heaven are we participating in that too are we in the dance are sitting in out number three I think a profound question we need to ask and not in a flippant way but in a deep heartfelt way is do we actually trust God as our source do we actually trust that he's got this thing and I gotta tell you if we don't try in today's world if we don't trust God by now I don't know we've got more money than ever like God has shown himself faithful to be a provider but they look at our life we have motorcars paved roads stores the prepackaged food for us clean water in our taps like you mentioned if your great-great-grandfather came back from the dead and your task was you had three days to convince him how hard the world is compared to what he had like what let you imagine it like this is just the best God has been a good provider it's been a good provider if you can't trust him by now what what now number four am i saving for my future I think we need to ask that question I think we need to wrestle with that okay because here's the thing time flies you think I got plenty time to do that and in your then you wake up one day you're 52 am i saving from a future have I mastered the art of receiving as well let me say this way what have we done recently for someone who can do nothing in return or maybe a more profound way to ask that question is what have we done recently for someone with no expectation of a return it's in that moment we start to get to know the heart of God for people six do we know him do we know him I think this is by far the most important question I could ask today if you had to stand in front of Jesus today would he say oh I know you I know you hey I know you if you had to stand in front of Jesus today does he know you the last one is this next life are you willing to start today working a framework to develop a generous spirit working a framework develop a generous spirit is simply simply starting where the starting points are developing that into a lifestyle and saying yes to participate in the infinite possibilities God has for his dance between him and his creation that includes us for those of you who suspended your imagination of what tithing is I hope I just gave you a far more compelling one participate with your community participate with your family participate with the poor do things for others with no expectation of return but that is what it means to know me declares the Lord your God may we know him we pray Lord we love you we honor you we proclaim your king there's none like you we bring our fears and our doubts and our trust to you why don't you just right there under your breath why don't you just say a prayer like this Lord I'm choosing again to trust you as my source maybe you need to make a decision this morning that says I'm making a decision to trust you with my life you can just feel that God moving at your heart thing it's just simply like hey look today I'm gonna make a decision that God's version of my life story is better than the one I've written on my own I'm gonna trust that version [Music] may we be a generous people why don't you just make a quiet commitment right where you're sitting to say yes to the dance I'm gonna participate I'm gonna participate Lord you give us the grace to master the art of giving and receiving it was the grace to see things differently irresistible urge to respond to what we see amen thanks so much maybe part of your morning forgive me for being three minutes over right peace between us I can't wait to see you tonight please come on back I promise you it'll be an hour and a half well spent Monday and Tuesday will be the best hour you will spend I can't wait to share with you grace the peace everybody go

Channel: New Hope Church

Views: 1,005

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

Keywords: new hope, church, toowoomba

Id: 1CX40ls-wGE

Length: 41min 40sec (2500 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 18 2019