Jen Wilkin | Open Wide Your Hand! | Deut 15:1-18 | TGCW18

all right Deuteronomy 15 you're about halfway through isn't it so great to get to go through an entire book of the Bible I'm for it but I guess you probably already knew that if you know much about me so we'll be in Deuteronomy chapter 15 tonight and you left off earlier with a vision of what it means to love God with heart soul mind and strength and now we get to the portion of Deuteronomy and we're still in that second sermon where we get to hear about what it looks like to love your neighbor as you love yourself we get to take a long hard look at neighborliness and I think when we think about our neighbor we can think of someone that we are looking forward to being around or someone that's easy to be around but of course you're probably familiar with the way that Jesus speaks of neighbors in the New Testament and that sometimes loving our neighbor is a costly kind of love and that's the kind of thing that we're going to see unpacked for us in Deuteronomy chapter 15 we will be asked to love our neighbor not merely with words but with deeds and we will have a clear definition of our neighbor so Deuteronomy 15 let's read through the passage the word of the Lord at the end of every seven years you must cancel debts this is how it is to be done every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite they shall not require payment from anyone among their own people because the Lord's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed you may require payment from a foreigner but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you however there need be no poor people among you for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance he will richly bless you if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today for the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none you will rule over many nations but none will rule over you if anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you do not be hard-hearted or tight fisted toward them rather be open handed and freely lend them whatever they need be careful not to harbor this wicked thought the seventh year the year for canceling debts is near so that you do not show ill-will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing they may then appeal to the Lord against you and you will be found guilty of sin give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to there will always be poor people in the land therefore I command you to be open handed toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land if any of your people Hebrew men or women sell themselves to you and serve you six years in the seventh year you must let them go free and when you release them do not send them away empty-handed supply them liberally from your flock your threshing floor and your wine press give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you that is why I give you this command today but if your servant says to you I do not want to leave you because he loves you and your family and is well off with you then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door and he will become your servant for life do the same for your female servant do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free because their service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand and the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do I ask them for an easy passage they said no this is actually my favorite kind of passage to go through because it's the kind that the first time you read through it you get a little scared and you feel a little uncomfortable it's passages like this that make us want to avoid the Old Testament which is exactly why we should dig in and see what we can pull from them so we have here a very specific outer working of the command to love neighbor as self and it has to do with the issue of poverty this whole passage is speaking of poverty and the solution to poverty and the role of the people of God in it but we hear this with modern ears and we have a hard time figuring out what's going on so what I would like to do first is to go back through the passage and see if we can't get into the skin of the original audience a little bit and see what is going on because when you and I hear about canceling debts and we hear that someone has taken out a loan in our modern-day parlance we think that someone has just overspent the budget needs to purchase a copy of Dave Ramsey and start putting cash into envelopes we believe that the problem that they are dealing with is related to spending too much time in Target or spending too much time on Amazon or taking one too many vacations or driving a car that was a little nicer than they needed to and when we hear this language we have to take a minute and get back to where this message was originally preached at the end of every seven years you must cancel debts says verse one and this is how it is to be done basically a call from Moses or from the Lord through the mouth of Moses that for six years someone could carry alone but in the seventh year if they haven't paid it off it's the record is going to be clear and to our ears it sounds like why would you why would you do that that sounds like just bad business just bad practice I mean can't they just keep trying to pay off the loan and we have to understand why it is that a person in this time would have taken out alone in the first place it wasn't because they overspent on non-essentials we're talking about debt that has taken on to avoid starvation we're talking about someone who worked as hard as the next person but because they don't control the weather and they don't control whether they're gonna have good seed or bad seed the crop didn't come in one year and maybe they were able to make it through one year but then the crop failed again the next year and they've got children to feed and they've got a family to support and so they have to go into debt just to keep their family going and this provision is made in the law so that the cycle of poverty would not continue for this person over season after season to the point that there is nothing left for them that at the end of the six year period this seventh year would be a time to just hit the reset button that sounds pretty good doesn't it and notice the language here we're talking about a person who is sliding into poverty in a way that the community can come around this person and help lift them up and whereas in our culture when people slide further and further into poverty we are tempted to keep them at arm's length we see here an impulse to pull them close that the language that is associated with the person who is a debtor is always fellow Israelite what your fellow Israelite owes you some versions of the text say what your brother owes you it's the idea of family this is a family member for all intents and purposes who is in need and if someone is able to loan to a person who needs a loan what can we know is true about their situation that they not only have enough for their own family but they have more than enough and there is specific instruction given that they would understand the importance of this and the timing of this and the heart behind this this interesting statement up in verse four it says however there need be no poor people among you for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance he will richly bless you there need be no poor did you catch that interestingly when we get to verse 11 what does he come back and say he says but there will always be poor among you the tension feel the tension between those two statements because what he's basically saying is listen if you would just abide by what I'm asking you to do poverty among the people of God will not be an issue but then he says there will always be poor among you the acknowledgement of the ever-present poor in our midst but we should know that we are the solution in fact if you think about the book of Acts and acts 2 44 through 45 and how the early church was described it's actually meant to be sort of a fulfillment statement of what's being articulated here what the family of God should be like that says that all the believers had everything in common they sold their property and possessions to give to anyone in need does this mean that the ideal for the family of God is that everyone would have exactly the same amount no I don't think that's what we're necessarily seeing but what we are seeing is that within the family of God there ought to be no one who is in dire need there ought to be no one who is at the brink that those of us who have more than we need should be looking to give to those of us who have less than we need and notice the way that this first six verses is structured it begins with hey in the seventh year we want you to forgive debts and then it concludes with a blessing associated with that for the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none so an extended blessing at the end of the passage we're going to see a parallel structure a little bit further on in the passage your fellow Israelite your neighbor and your rather the text is assigning a social element to the issue of poverty it's saying that the attitude of the family of God should be your poverty as our problem rather than push you away from community when we see that you are spiraling downward we are going to pull you close we're going to pool resources verse seven goes on to address just general poverty it says if anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you do not be hard-hearted or tight fisted toward them rather be open handed and freely lend them whatever they need there's a pretty great interplay that begins to happen here in the text between heart and hand between hard-heartedness and tight-fisted 'no sand then softheartedness and open handedness and of course these two ideas go together in the New Testament as well if you think about what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount what does he say he says do not store up treasures for yourself here on earth where moth and rust can destroy thieves can come and break in but instead store up treasures where in heaven right because where your treasure is is where your heart is and so we see a similar connection here we see that a hard heart means treasures on earth and a tightly closed fist but a soft heart means treasures in heaven and a widely open hand if anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land your Lord goes if in you do not be hard-hearted or tight fisted toward them the connection between your heart and your hand is inseparable it is not enough to be open handed and still harbor a hard heart because sooner or later that's going to turn south in fact it will probably generate the very wicked thought that we see in verse 9 be careful not to harbor this wicked thought the seventh year that year for canceling debts is near so that you do not show ill-will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing they may then appeal to the Lord against you and you will be found guilty of sin wicked thoughts that we associate with looking on those who do not have enough I think there are two primary sinful responses that we can have to poverty wicked thoughts that are generated the first is exploitation we see this all the time where the poor are exploited because they have no power and they are put into systems that they are never able to free themselves from so the first wicked thought we might have is is there a way that I can capitalize on this person's inability to pull themselves out of poverty and the second sinful response is self-protection to look on their lack and to think well they're not touching my stuff we might find a way to help them but it's not going to cost me hard heartedness and tight-fisted miss softheartedness and open hands it is the tight fist that asks who then is my neighbor and it is the open hand that asks as christ reframes the question in the parable the Good Samaritan to whom can I be a neighbor looking to help instead of looking to horde verse 10 says give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart do you see it's not enough to simply give generously but it must be done with the proper motive then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to there will always be poor people in the land therefore I command you to be open handed toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land be generous be open handed do not hold back we're talking about starvation prevention in these passages and when we get to verses 12 through 18 we see a parallel structure that matches what we saw in the opening section about the forgiveness of debts because we're going to see another form of debt forgiveness and verse 12 says if any of your people Hebrew men or women sell themselves to you and serve you six years in the seventh year you must let them go free is anyone reading a different translation than I have right now are you freaking out yes because what does it say it says if anyone sells himself to you to be a slave and so let's make sure that we understand what is being talked about here and what is not being talked about here elsewhere in Deuteronomy in Deuteronomy 24 chapter 24 verse 7 we have a prohibition against the kind of slavery that probably everyone in this room thinks of when they hear the term we think of chattel slavery we think of what we know to have been true in the United States we think of someone being kidnapped or stolen or purchased and then owned dehumanized and pushdown Deuteronomy 24 7 says if any if someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave the kidnapper must die you must purge the evil from among you that is not what is in view in this passage what is in view in this passage is debt servitude it's like what some of you may be familiar with an indentured servant it is someone who owes a debt and works the debt off over a period of years and in this case they're working it off over a period of six years and in the seventh year they're supposed to go free so again this is a person who has spiraled to a point where the best solution for them to be able to pay off their debt and get back on their feet is to work in the employment of someone else until the debt is paid off but if the debt has not been worked off in six years under this law that the Lord is establishing they will still go free at the end of six years not only will they go free but look at what verse 13 says and when you release them do not send them away empty-handed supply them liberally from your flock your threshing floor and your wine press give to them as the Lord God has blessed you because remember if someone is able to have this person work off the debt it would be implied that the person who employs them has more than they need so there's a generosity that goes even in the moment of turning them free from the debt that they owed and why is the reason verse 15 remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you that is why I give you this command today we'll come back to that in just a second look at verse 16 it says but if your servant says to you I don't want to leave you because he loves you and your family as well off with you then take an awl and push it through his earlobe into the door and he will become your servant for life and do the same for your female servant do you see what is being implied here that this arrangement of being able to pay off a debt should be so characterized by love your neighbor as you love yourself that at the end of the six year period the person who has been in debt servitude to you and your family might actually say I don't want to leave because they've been treated so well not only that but it's pointed out to us the blessing associated with this person's employment that the six years would have been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand and that the Lord will bless you and everything that you do if you abide by this Israelite debt servitude differed from slavery in some pretty critical ways from our idea of slavery first note that it was for a limited period of time six years and then no more no matter how enormous the debt six years and then no more secondly was entered into willingly albeit under difficult circumstances it was entered into willingly not against their will it was a way for a Hebrew to help another Hebrew it was intended to be a win-win in an expression of loving your neighbor as yourself of showing this preferential love that the Bible calls us to was meant to be a relational solution to a societal problem it implied compensation and care cruelty was forbidden of the one who was in service the term harshness and ruthlessness that was used to describe the way that the Egyptians treated the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt is the same word that is used in Leviticus when it forbids the harsh treatment of a servant a servants master must not rule over him with harshness as Leviticus 25 43 and 46 and 53 there is to be no physical violence or back-breaking labor in fact there were laws in the Old Testament to protect servants from abuse like getting a tooth knocked out if someone turned up and was missing a tooth or had damaged their eye and it was obvious that someone had harmed them that the master or the person they work for was harming them then that person went free they were immediately freed was not to be tolerated the assumption is that the relationship would be so positive that some would not even want to leave their situation and the intent this is very important was to restore dignity and agency not to remove it that is not the kind of slavery that we are familiar with here in the United States and it is not the kind of slavery that the Israelites had been drawn out of slavery in Egypt was involuntary there was no end to the bondage not only that but slaves in Egypt worked in gangs they were an anonymous mass they were depersonalized they had lost all individuality in the eyes of their oppressors Pharaoh had the power of life and death over the Israelites their property rights were minimal and conditional as all land in Egypt ultimately belonged to the crown there was no Sabbath rest to be enjoyed and also that would mean no opportunity for regular worship of Yahweh Exodus 1:13 says that the Egyptians ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves Egyptian wisdom literature describes the agriculturalists slave of Egypt like this the worm has taken half of the food the hippopotamus the other half poor miserable agriculturist what was left on the threshing floor thieves made away with then the scribes lands on the bank to receive the harvest his followers carry sticks and the Negroes carry palm rods they say give us corn there is none there then they beat him as he lies stretched out and bound on the ground they throw him into the canal and he sinks down head under water his wife is bound before his eyes and his children are put in fetters this is the slavery of Egypt we know from the exodus account that the employment of the Israelites was in the making of bricks from writing called the satire on the trades and ancient Egyptian writing we have a description of the brick maker his dirtier than vines her pigs from treading under his mud his clothes are stiff with clay his leather belt is going to ruin entering into the wind he is miserable his side's ache since he must be outside in a treacherous wind his arms are destroyed with technical work what he eats is the bread of his fingers and he washes himself once a season he is simply wretched through and through it is no wonder that Moses says remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you what is being communicated there because this person is serving you to pay off a debt don't you dare consider doing to them what was done to you don't you dare not only that but it corrects the false connection that we often have and that is indeed prevalent in our culture that hard work results in a positive outcome if you just work hard enough you can get there you know why you don't have what you need because you didn't work hard enough and you know why I do because I worked harder than you and by pointing them back to remember that they were slaves in Egypt he is pointing them to the truth that sometimes you can work yourself to the bone and have nothing to show for it you once worked hard and had nothing to show for it don't you dare treat a fellow Israelite that way this is a means to bring someone up not push someone down but have you noticed the language here the language of this passage is pointing us towards something earlier in the book of Deuteronomy and there is a concept that we're going to need if we're going to understand exactly what is going on after the end of how many years were they supposed to cancel that's seven right there's that number seven and then we had the same thing in the seventh year that's when they were to let free anyone who was working off a debt and then there's that phrase remember that you were once slaves in Egypt that sound like anything that you've already heard in the book of Deuteronomy yeah it sounds like the 10 commandments sounds like the fourth commandment doesn't it where we hear about sevens and we hear about slavery Deuteronomy 5 12 through 15 says observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it you shall not do any work neither you nor your son or daughter nor your male or female servant nor your ox your donkey or any of your animals nor any foreigner residing in your towns so that your male and female servants may rest as you do remember that you were slaves in Egypt there it is the same phrase and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day so this passage that we find in Deuteronomy 15 is an extension and an expansion of the command to observe Sabbath and it's predicated on this idea of remembering so I don't know if you've been paying attention to the whole rhythm of the book of Deuteronomy but remember is the repeated chant throughout this book in fact it is repeated 11 times as an exhortation in Deuteronomy and not only that but it's repeated nine times the phrase do not forget why because it seems like they had a bad memory and I want to shame them for it but I sometimes can't remember some of my children's names what's interesting is this idea of remembering actually occurs in the earlier first four books of the Torah but it occurs in a different way the emphasis on remember in those first four books is on the Lord remembering his promises and on the children of God calling to the Lord to remember his promises but when we get to Deuteronomy it switches on us and it becomes the Lord saying to his children remember BRR remember over and over again chapter four chapter five chapter eight two times chapter 9 chapter 11 chapter 16 chapter 24 two times chapter 25 chapter 32 it's through the whole book of Deuteronomy remember don't forget don't forget remember but this particular remembering remember that you are slaves in Egypt it occurs first here in Deuteronomy five and then it turns up again in Deuteronomy 15 and both of these are telling us something about rest Deuteronomy 5 we're seeing that we are commanded to rest but I don't know if you've paid attention here because it's not just we who are commanded to rest we're commanded to rest but also anybody who works for us is commanded to rest as well did you pick up on that it says that no one who works for you should work on the Sabbath day not your son or daughter your male or female servant your ox your donkey or any of your animals nor any foreigner residing in your towns why is that because we're not allowed to hedge our bets on the Sabbath we're not allowed to get to the end of our day of rest that is a result of other people working and tell ourselves what a great job we did being still before the Lord if my rest causes someone else to work that's a problem I got a Roomba about nine months ago and you know it plugs in with the rest of the home automation system which my husband it's kind of like his new child now that all the kids have left he and Alexa they chat a lot but Roomba has a name too so my background is I'm German and I'm Irish and so we decided that a vacuum cleaner should have a German name as an homage so we named Roomba well we named him Klaus von vacuum Schmidt count vac EULA for short we just usually call him Klaus and I'll get those little notifications Klaus is stuck or Klaus is finished vacuuming the house and I know that technology is the devil but I love Klaus more than some family members and when I first got Klaus like on the schedule Klaus is scheduled to run around the living room on actually on Sunday like we leave for church we're walking out the door I can hear Klaus firing up and coming out like a little cockroach from underneath a piece of furniture he lives under and I jokingly put on Instagram early on is it lawful for Klaus to labor on the Sabbath and as I was preparing this message I thought oh no it may actually not be good for my heart now I don't want to be overly fastidious about something that doesn't matter that much but you know what I thought as I've meditated on Klaus laboring for me on the Sabbath that there's something in me at the end of a day when I was to be still that when I look around at my house and feel that I've still accomplished something even though I wasn't doing anything you know what I still think I still think I run the universe because what's the purpose of resting on the Sabbath you know why does God Institute that because the original command in exodus chapter 20 right relates this commandment to the seven days and the seventh day of rest after the six days of creation and God didn't need to rest he wasn't tired why did he do it he did it to set a pattern for us but why is it necessary that we would rest and that we would not hedge our bets by making other people work while we are resting why is that the case because when we sit still and the earth keeps turning we learn to rightly orient ourselves to God he is the creator and the sustainer not us so you know I wanted to tell myself that I was going to get some Sabbath rest while I was staying in this beautiful hotel over here and then it occurred to me how many hands were at work to make that room a place where I experienced rest and I am having rest but I'm not having Sabbath rest when our rest requires someone else to labor it's not a true Sabbath rest because we're still able to say you know who keeps all the plates spinning I do what Sabbath intends for us to do is to hold very still and realize that it does not all depend upon us and that it does not originate from us what Sabbath is supposed to do is remind us that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and that anything that comes into our care and keeping is only for stewarding it is not for owning this is going to be important for us as it relates to the issue of generosity because if I think I own it all do you think I will be open handed or tight fisted but if I'm a steward of it then I'm probably going to give it away so the original commandment about Sabbath occurred in Exodus 20 chapter 8 but that was not actually the first time that we saw Sabbath's talked about with the Israelites so in Exodus 20 that's when they're standing in front of thundering Mount Sinai right but if you go back a few chapters before that when they've just gotten out of slavery and they're in the wilderness and their stomachs start to rumble and they get a little whiny and they say why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the desert at least there was food there and so God just zaps them all with a giant lightning bolt because they're sassy no he does not and you and I should all be grateful because I'm pretty sure we've all said something along those lines now what does he do he gives them manna to eat manna in the wilderness and this is important it's important for us to understand he gives them manna in the wilderness and and how do they react what does he say says you can collect it for six days but on that sixth day you need to collect a double amount because on the seventh day that's the Sabbath and you need to rest so he hasn't even given the commandment to Sabbath yet but they're already running into the idea and what do they do they do not obey they go out there and they try to collect it on the seventh day like they do not get it and we should judge them so hard unless unless unless you've ever driven to chick-fil-a on a Sunday and been so mad I cracked up so hard did you see the article that was in The New York Times recently where they were like we do not want your Christian chicken here and I was like this person has not eaten at chick-fil-a there is nothing about the way I feel about that chicken that is remotely Christian and I suspect that if it were made by the devil himself I would eat it when they hand it to me and they say it's my pleasure my head here's you will not surely die and I do not care we are not so different from the Israelites we do not want Sabbath observance to inconvenience us at all we want others to work so that we may rest it is our basic impulse apart from grace that changes our hearts into soft ones instead of hard ones so the people of God have been in the wilderness at the time of the writing of Deuteronomy for 40 years and do you know what they have eaten the whole time they have been there manna and in Joshua chapter 5 they will cross the Jordan and they go in to take the land of Canaan and do you know what happens when they get into the land of Canaan the manna ceases the manna ceases it will not appear anymore why because God says now you will live off the provision of the land but at this point in Deuteronomy they're still dining on manna there daily bread is still falling from the sky and so they can only attribute its provision vertically but what do you think might happen as soon as they get into the promised land and they've got a nice plot of land and they put down some roots well actually back in Deuteronomy chapter 8 Moses has anticipated this very thing if you want to turn there I'm going to read a little of it for you Deuteronomy 8 starting in verse 11 take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes which I command you today less when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied then your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water who brought you water out of the flinty rock who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know that he might Humble you and test you to do you good in the end beware lest you say in your heart my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your father's as it is this day standing on the brink of landing in the promised land the people of God are exposed as never before to the sin of entitlement to the sin of self-reliance to covetousness listen when nobody has anything and we're all making bricks without straw the sin of covetousness is not one you have to spend a lot of time on but when we all have land and houses and wealth and when poverty is something that's in the rear view mirror for us that we really don't want to remember we can quickly see it as someone else's problem and we look out at our house and our belongings and all of the things that God has given us to steward not to own and we stay with Nebuchadnezzar look at what my hands have wrought but friends the Lord causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust you have what you have because of the goodness of God and the wilderness God provides daily bread but in the promised land they may slip into believing that they themselves provide their daily bread and when we believe that we are the origin and the sustainer of all that we have generosity will die a hard and fast death our hearts will grow hard and our fists will grow tight whether you understand yourself as an owner or a steward will determine how generous you are owners will be tight fisted and stewards will be open handed but when we recognize that God gives us good things not so they might terminate on us but so that we might steward them on behalf of others it changes the way that we interact with the world around us when we find ourselves with abundance we must ask am i a terminus or a distribution point does it all terminate on me or do I see myself as someone who now has a Bend instution with others in my early days of ministry brother John Bassanio who is a legend in the Southern Baptist Convention was the interim pastor of my church and he was helping lead our church through a stewardship campaign and he stood before us one day I will never forget this and he said hey I don't want you to worry God has all the money he needs it's in your pockets I thought about that so often God is not poor but many of us are carrying his wealth in our pockets and we think it's for us you know the 10th commandment forbids coveting because to do so is to deny the goodness of God to look at what someone else has and wish that it was ours is to say that the boundary lines have not in fact fallen for me in Pleasant places Jesus speaks against hoarding because to do so is to deny the goodness of God to coveting implies a lack of God's present provision and hoarding anticipates a lack in God's good provision in the future neither mindset will translate into generosity generosity only flourishes when we do not fear loss remember that you were once slaves in Egypt you were purchased purchased into an inheritance that is imperishable and unfading and undefiled and kept in heaven for you and for those who possess the good and perfect gift of Christ we can count all generosity as affordable loss God gives good things to us generously risking no loss in doing so and we too should give good things to others generously recognizing that we to risk no loss in doing so we can be generous with our possessions with our talents and with our time on behalf of others because we see these good gifts as a means to bring glory to their giver instead of to us because friends those who know the good awaits them in heaven can afford to be generous on earth they lose nothing in the giving of what has been given to them where is your confidence is it in the stuff or in the God of all stuff because we come face to face with the great commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves we must not take the tight-fisted approach and ask who then is my neighbor we should instead be open handed and asked to whom can I be a neighbor and there is no end to the list of neighbors that comes to our doorstep these days they're on the news they're on the Internet you need never take two seconds to wonder if there's someone who is caught in poverty and cannot get out and we must as the family of God have eyes both for those who lack at far and those who lack who are near and we must respond we should be known as a people of generosity because we are the recipients of such a great generosity you know we were studying Matthew in my Bible study this past year and when we got to the story of the crucifixion there's a part where Jesus is carrying the cross and he can't he can't do it anymore because he's so so borne down and he's suffered so much already and a man named Simon of Cyrene comes out of the crowd carries the cross you know what's weird about that story why is a stranger carrying the cross of our Lord why were the men who followed him this hour of greatest need they were not there and a stranger stepped ahead of the crowd to do him kindness we studied that scene and I thought how if I'd been there it would have been different I would have run to him and when I read the story of Mary and Martha involved in his ministry I think that would be so wonderful to be the one who made him the meal to be the one who helped him off with his outer coat or took him to have his feet washed in my home to have actually ministered to Christ and his moments of earthly need have you noticed that as we look at a passage that deals with those who are poor and those who are servants that we worship the Christ who came not as a rich man but as a poor man and who came not to be served but Sir and in Matthew 25:31 through 45 Jesus in one of his last teachings says you know in the last day I will commend some of you I will say I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink I was a stranger and you invited me in and I needed clothes and you clothed me I was sick and he looked after me I was in prison and you came to visit me and he says that those people will respond Lord win when did we do these things for you he says surely if he had done them for the least of these you've done them for me those who the Lord places before us who do not have their daily bread do we see the face of Christ on them do we regard our treatment of them as though it were Christ himself because that's what he's told us if you longed to be there with Mary and Martha if you would have bound up his wounds if you would have gone to the tomb will you not go to those who are before you for surely if to serve them as as though we were serving him to neglect them is as though we were neglecting him the more forgetful we are of God's provision for us the more forgetful we will be to provide for our neighbor we must remember but Oh to be those who would serve the least among us as though they were Christ Himself joyfully faithfully with a desire to raise up the downtrodden whether it be a person in our neighborhood or a person in our church or a person in our community or a person that we read about in a newsletter who does the Lord place before you and say here is your neighbor here is your neighbor coming to you lowly Isaiah 61 speaking of Christ the sovereign Lord has anointed me the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim good news to the poor will we be those people I pray that when we count the cost of our Redemption we would respond with a generosity and open wide our hands let's pray Heavenly Father these words are as timely for us as they were for the original audience we come here today and we have more than we need and we ask Lord that you would show us how we can be a distribution point for the good gifts that you have given us rather than a terminus Oh father we see in the news those who are in need and we see in our neighborhoods those who are in need help us Lord to pry our hands off of the things that we take our security and and understand that our security is in heaven with you teach us to love the God of all good gifts rather than just the good gifts he gives may we not be consumers but may we be distributors of the abundant life that you have given to us that all might be raised up there should be no poor among us there will be one day no poor among us and we pray Lord forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven in your son's precious name Amen you

Channel: The Gospel Coalition

Views: 17,233

Rating: 4.9103141 out of 5

Keywords: the gospel coalition, the gospel, gospel, coalition, Christ, Christian, Christianity, spiritual, teaching, Deuteronomy

Id: ZPCuDbJC7f8

Length: 52min 14sec (3134 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 23 2019