Embodying Radical Generosity Through God's Grace

"They worshiped together in the temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper and shared their meals with great joy and generosity. With great joy and generosity. All the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. Filled with the Spirit. Peter preaches the word. Word, they're convicted and they encounter grace. And one of their outstanding fruits in the New Testament church afterwards is that they were radically generous people. A flourishing community is a community filled with radically generous people." [00:03:34]

"But I want to suggest this morning that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit and we are confronted by God's grace and his mercy, we become radically generous people. In other words, New Testament believers are marked by generosity. I see my friend James there. G'day, James. James is a good mate of mine. I just thought of this just then. He goes to Melbourne, walks down the city, walks by a homeless man and he says, and takes off his shoes and gives them to the homeless man. Radically generous." [00:05:05]

"When you're confronted by grace and filled with the Holy Spirit, my friends, the result is this. You become radically generous. A flourishing community is one where the people are radically generous. I find this very challenging. But I also find it inspiring. I want to look today at a scripture in 1 Chronicles 29. It won't come up on the screen because it's quite long. But I want to read it to you. Listen to the generosity that King David had. Listen to these words." [00:06:24]

"Now there is enough gold and silver and bronze and iron and wood and precious stones, costly jewels and all kinds of fine stone and marble. And now because of my devotion, to the temple of God, I am giving of all my own private treasures of gold and silver to help in this construction. This is in addition to the building materials I have already collected for the holy temple. What kind of, you know, temples is this going to be?" [00:07:39]

"Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours. O Lord, this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. Wealth and honor come from you alone. For you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand and at your discretion. People are made great and given strength. O Lord, our God, we thank you and we praise your glorious name. But who am I? Who are my people that we could give anything to you?" [00:09:13]

"Everything we have comes from you and we give you only what you first gave us. We are here just for a moment. Visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like passing shadows, gone here and without a trace. King David isn't going to build the temple. His son's going to build the temple. But King David gives so generously because of his passion for the temple. Listen to this. Let's read this again." [00:09:42]

"So I give it back to you and use it. That is the heart. That is the heart of someone who's radically generous, who says, who am I that you could use me by your grace and use the very things that you've given me even though it's all yours in the first place? Who am I? Flourishing communities are filled with people who know that every resource, every resource, their finances, their homes, everything is a gift from God." [00:11:53]

"The first thing that can actually get in the way of you and I becoming this radically generous community is this. We can become entitled. We get entitled. We fall into the trap of saying, this is mine. Not, who am I? But this is mine. You will not become a radically generous community if you fall into the trap of saying, hey, what I have, this is mine, rather than God, who am I? This is yours." [00:13:15]

"People who are radically generous know that they know that they know that everything they have is a gift from God. And they want to go, who am I? Not, this is mine. I had a friend of mine called Jason Smith. He's an ex-physio, but he built Back in Motion. It's the biggest physio, I think, in the franchise in the Southern Hemisphere. And about two years, he's a Christian guy, a really strong Christian. He sold his business for $130 million." [00:14:21]

"People who are radically generous understand that there will become a day when eternity matters most and you live like that. People who know eternity matters most are radically generous people. And the third thing that can keep us from becoming a community leader is that we need to be a community leader. A community of radical generosity, listen to this, is that we don't often link the connection between our passion and our giving." [00:19:50]

"How about people like Ken Weller, who's everywhere, helping people. Because he's passionate. He's the type of guy that's just, I've got this time. This is my night. He goes, who am I, God? Here's my time. And God uses him to bless people. How about people like Ryan Brooks in Young Adults, who spends so much time with these young adult guys because he loves them. How about Ben and Megan? Megan drives me crazy." [00:21:45]

"What happens when you don't forgive? Your heart becomes hard. You end up becoming bitter. You become resentful. You end up having a negative spirit. You know, in Proverbs 4 it says this, guard your heart for it's the wellspring of life. He says, guard your heart, not harden your heart. When we guard our hearts, we don't have a negative spirit. When we guard our heart, we are saying we are forgiving." [00:24:58]