Embracing the Gift: Receiving from a Living God
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
1. "Maybe you've never thought about that as a spiritual practice, I happen to believe it's actually the foundation of hearing anything from God, and to receive is the antithesis of doing. We spend our life doing, right? You wake up, some of us have a to-do list, some of us just know there are things that have to happen today, and we spend our lives doing to get things. And we accidentally sometimes, I think, apply that mentality to our connection with God, but that's not how He operates. Thank goodness. He actually wants you to just come open and willing to receive what He has to give you." [02:57] (38 seconds)
2. "Kids are amazing receivers. I will never forget my youngest daughter at her fifth birthday party. She was in front of her pile of presents, and she was just, everything was amazing. She opened up every single present, and it was just as amazing as the last. She even got something we later called Garage Sale Kitty. It was just like this mangy-looking cat from someone, you know, a stuffed cat. She loved Garage Sale Kitty just as much as she loved everything else. She just received all of it." [04:12] (27 seconds)
3. "Miles just received $100 because guess what Miles did? He put his hand up in the air and he said, I will take something. That is a good receiver. And I know that right here in this space where we are gathered as a community today, and anywhere our community is gathered, that God can meet every single one of us and give us something far, far, far more valuable to our life than a $100 bill. As good as that is. I believe that God has something for each of us today." [06:49] (33 seconds)
4. "God doesn't deal in fairness. God actually deals in favor. I was trying to teach my kids this. Well, I don't know. Maybe halfway. And also I just wanted some ice cream. But when we were out at ice cream, this has happened more than one time as they were growing up. I don't eat a whole cup of ice cream because it upsets my stomach. But I can handle a few bites. And so I would take a clean spoon. And I'd be like, who gets to give mom a bite? And they're all like, not me. You know, take his, take hers. And so I'd choose somebody's and I would have a bite of ice cream. Because I would only take one or two bites. Relax, kids. And they would inevitably say, that's not fair." [09:19] (40 seconds)
5. "Grace is God's unfairness to us. Grace is an undeserved favor from a God who didn't have to give it. He didn't have to do anything that looks like anything toward us. And yet, over and over and over in the Bible, we learn that he is a God of grace. And it throws us off because we have a hard time with that concept. It's actually a uniquely Christian concept. And in our life experience, we kind of understand that favor is a gift. That favor and grace coming toward us is often not really how it works. But if you want to hear the voice of God, you have to hear a voice speaking favor over your life. Speaking grace to you. Wanting to actually give to you." [10:09] (46 seconds)
6. "What we believe that God thinks about our screw-ups makes a massive difference in whether we can hear his voice because he wants to speak forgiveness. And I don't know about you, but none of us are going to stop messing up anytime soon. This is a fundamental thing that we need to be able to hear his voice saying to us, what if he's actually speaking kindness to us? What if his point when we mess up is actually to say, please come to me. Don't run from me. That's not what we're going to do. That's not what we're going to do. That's not what I want. What if his voice is gentle and his spirit is kind and the whole point of your connection is that restoration would occur, that reconciliation would occur, that love would blossom again wherever it's not." [20:33] (47 seconds)
7. "The voice of God never sounds like condemnation. The voice of God never sounds like shame. The voice of God will never want to cancel you. The voice of God is not trying to get you to pay a high price, stew in all your pain for just a little while longer till you learn your lesson. This is not the voice of God. John 3 17 says, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. What we assume about God as we fumble our way through life makes a huge difference to the voice of forgiveness, whether we ever actually hear that." [21:57] (39 seconds)
8. "Receiving faith is something that the voice of God is going to be speaking to you. He's going to be offering you chance after chance after chance to receive a deeper faith because faith is the doorway to all those other things that you want and that you need and that you might ask God for in the living of your life. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, For we live by faith and not by sight. We live by faith and not by sight. He contrasts two different ways of living. There's living by faith and there's living by sight. I would just say what he meant by sight is what he meant by sight, what you can see of and in the world. And then there's another realm that you could live in called by faith." [33:03] (48 seconds)
9. "When God speaks, he's going to invite you into opportunity. He's going to invite you into opportunity. He's going to invite you into opportunities to have more faith. And in my personal experience, this almost always sounds like his voice asking you to take a risk. That's what I've discovered in this realm of his voice and what it looks like to actually receive a deeper, bigger, bolder faith. He almost always will put a risk in front of you. And his voice is saying, will you do it? Will you come this way? Will you give that thing? Will you go to that place? Will you trust me in this? Will you take a risk?" [34:32] (38 seconds)
10. "Faith comes through words about Jesus. We're going to have to actively pursue those. If you want to hear the word of God, if you want to grow in your faith, deepening your faith, you're going to have to hear words about Jesus. You're going to have to read scripture. You're going to have to hear teaching. You're going to have to actively pursue that because you will be receiving something. And what you'll be receiving is just whatever the world is serving up. You'll be receiving the things that tell you to live by sight because, of course. So if you want to live a different way, if you want to have a life of faith, if you want to have a bigger, bolder, deeper faith, which is what God wants for you, why? Because there's more life there. He wants to give you more life, more gifts, more things in the kingdom of God." [35:26] (49 seconds)
Ask a question about this sermon
2. "Kids are amazing receivers. I will never forget my youngest daughter at her fifth birthday party. She was in front of her pile of presents, and she was just, everything was amazing. She opened up every single present, and it was just as amazing as the last. She even got something we later called Garage Sale Kitty. It was just like this mangy-looking cat from someone, you know, a stuffed cat. She loved Garage Sale Kitty just as much as she loved everything else. She just received all of it." [04:12] (27 seconds)
3. "Miles just received $100 because guess what Miles did? He put his hand up in the air and he said, I will take something. That is a good receiver. And I know that right here in this space where we are gathered as a community today, and anywhere our community is gathered, that God can meet every single one of us and give us something far, far, far more valuable to our life than a $100 bill. As good as that is. I believe that God has something for each of us today." [06:49] (33 seconds)
4. "God doesn't deal in fairness. God actually deals in favor. I was trying to teach my kids this. Well, I don't know. Maybe halfway. And also I just wanted some ice cream. But when we were out at ice cream, this has happened more than one time as they were growing up. I don't eat a whole cup of ice cream because it upsets my stomach. But I can handle a few bites. And so I would take a clean spoon. And I'd be like, who gets to give mom a bite? And they're all like, not me. You know, take his, take hers. And so I'd choose somebody's and I would have a bite of ice cream. Because I would only take one or two bites. Relax, kids. And they would inevitably say, that's not fair." [09:19] (40 seconds)
5. "Grace is God's unfairness to us. Grace is an undeserved favor from a God who didn't have to give it. He didn't have to do anything that looks like anything toward us. And yet, over and over and over in the Bible, we learn that he is a God of grace. And it throws us off because we have a hard time with that concept. It's actually a uniquely Christian concept. And in our life experience, we kind of understand that favor is a gift. That favor and grace coming toward us is often not really how it works. But if you want to hear the voice of God, you have to hear a voice speaking favor over your life. Speaking grace to you. Wanting to actually give to you." [10:09] (46 seconds)
6. "What we believe that God thinks about our screw-ups makes a massive difference in whether we can hear his voice because he wants to speak forgiveness. And I don't know about you, but none of us are going to stop messing up anytime soon. This is a fundamental thing that we need to be able to hear his voice saying to us, what if he's actually speaking kindness to us? What if his point when we mess up is actually to say, please come to me. Don't run from me. That's not what we're going to do. That's not what we're going to do. That's not what I want. What if his voice is gentle and his spirit is kind and the whole point of your connection is that restoration would occur, that reconciliation would occur, that love would blossom again wherever it's not." [20:33] (47 seconds)
7. "The voice of God never sounds like condemnation. The voice of God never sounds like shame. The voice of God will never want to cancel you. The voice of God is not trying to get you to pay a high price, stew in all your pain for just a little while longer till you learn your lesson. This is not the voice of God. John 3 17 says, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. What we assume about God as we fumble our way through life makes a huge difference to the voice of forgiveness, whether we ever actually hear that." [21:57] (39 seconds)
8. "Receiving faith is something that the voice of God is going to be speaking to you. He's going to be offering you chance after chance after chance to receive a deeper faith because faith is the doorway to all those other things that you want and that you need and that you might ask God for in the living of your life. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, For we live by faith and not by sight. We live by faith and not by sight. He contrasts two different ways of living. There's living by faith and there's living by sight. I would just say what he meant by sight is what he meant by sight, what you can see of and in the world. And then there's another realm that you could live in called by faith." [33:03] (48 seconds)
9. "When God speaks, he's going to invite you into opportunity. He's going to invite you into opportunity. He's going to invite you into opportunities to have more faith. And in my personal experience, this almost always sounds like his voice asking you to take a risk. That's what I've discovered in this realm of his voice and what it looks like to actually receive a deeper, bigger, bolder faith. He almost always will put a risk in front of you. And his voice is saying, will you do it? Will you come this way? Will you give that thing? Will you go to that place? Will you trust me in this? Will you take a risk?" [34:32] (38 seconds)
10. "Faith comes through words about Jesus. We're going to have to actively pursue those. If you want to hear the word of God, if you want to grow in your faith, deepening your faith, you're going to have to hear words about Jesus. You're going to have to read scripture. You're going to have to hear teaching. You're going to have to actively pursue that because you will be receiving something. And what you'll be receiving is just whatever the world is serving up. You'll be receiving the things that tell you to live by sight because, of course. So if you want to live a different way, if you want to have a life of faith, if you want to have a bigger, bolder, deeper faith, which is what God wants for you, why? Because there's more life there. He wants to give you more life, more gifts, more things in the kingdom of God." [35:26] (49 seconds)
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Sep 15, 2024. Do you have any questions about it?