Generosity: Aligning Hearts with God's Kingdom
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"Just a great job giving us an update. Out of all the things that we support and partner with, Run is probably the hardest one to explain. So she did a really good job of giving you a little bit of a taste of who they are and what they do. And if you want to know more, she'd be happy to share, I'm sure, more with you. They also have tons of resources that are very, very interesting, all kinds of crazy stories of how God is moving around the world. The other thing that I would say about Audrey is she's been a part of our missions team for about a year now and is really just... Just given a ton of great energy to that team and raising awareness in the conversation. And if you are the kind of person who likes to dream big dreams or ask the question, what might it look like if we did this? Or what do you think God might be up to over there? Audrey is a great person to talk to about that kind of stuff. So you're going to have a lot of conversations after the gathering." [00:00:24] (55 seconds)
"Now, you might be thinking, well, sure, no one loves the money conversation, but it's not that uncomfortable, right? There's probably other things out there that are far more uncomfortable for us to talk about. But I would ask you a couple of questions. When was the last time you opened up your bank account and just said, hey, have a look, right? Look at all these numbers in there, or lack of them, right? When was the last time you were in a conversation with someone, you slid your tax returns across the table and said, what do you think? When was the last time you opened up your budget or your monthly spending report to somebody else and asked for their feedback on it? Or what about this? What if everybody at Discovery knew how much you gave to Discovery? What would that feel like?" [00:03:35] (59 seconds)
"Do not store up, this is Jesus speaking, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That's essentially our big idea this morning. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes or if your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." [00:06:39] (60 seconds)
"Stewardship. This belongs to God. This stuff, these resources, this money, this paycheck, it belongs to God, and it has been entrusted to me, and so I hold it loosely and open -handedly in this posture of worship. Are you with me? Okay. Posture two. My heart goes where I put God's money. If you want to know what you treasure, take a look at your bank statements. If you want to know what you treasure, look at your bank statements. But also, I think this goes the other way as well. Sometimes we have this like, oh, I feel like my heart is not right. There's something off. Maybe there's something off like spiritually. And so we come at it with like, oh, I should pray more. I should study the Bible more, go to church, whatever. And those are all really, really good things. But sometimes if your heart, if it feels like your heart is off or misaligned, maybe you need to start giving to something that God cares about and watch your heart follow." [00:14:38] (66 seconds)
"Our church has supported David and Claudia Osa. This is another one of our global partners. We've been supporting them for several years now. And the way that that began is after I got here as the lead pastor, we had this sort of transition with some people that we were supporting who were no longer gonna be on the field anymore. And so our missions team had some extra resources and I called up Global Scope and I said, hey, do you have any teams that could you support? And they're like, well, all of them. And I said, well, can you like give me one or two? And they highly recommended, they said, oh, David and Claudia are like the best people. You'll love them so much. And I said, okay, cool, where are they? And they said, Uruguay. And I said, what? Like, where's that? And you know, nothing against Uruguay, just was not on my radar of a place that like I was passionate about or cared about or quite honestly knew about. When we went and visited them, I was startled to find out how far away it is it's really far down there but over the years over the years as we've been supporting them and as we've gotten to know them and again visited them and they've come and visited us man i have a heart for that place i have a heart for montevideo and for uruguay and for their students and for their family our hearts follow our treasure if you want a heart for god give to the things that god cares about" [00:15:05] (88 seconds)
"Giving back to god is about killing idols god is not looking for philanthropists he wants your heart he wants our heart again jesus says we cannot serve multiple masters which means some idols will need to be destroyed one of the fastest ways to kill off the idol of money is to be generous with it be generous with it now we're going to continue to talk about this in more depth for the next couple of weeks, but I did want to pause this morning and just answer a couple of questions. We're going to do a little FAQ session, right? Because sometimes there's like some very classic questions that I've noticed come up in this conversation a lot. So the first question that comes up all the time is, what is the deal with 10 %?" [00:16:40] (53 seconds)
"This comes, this is a concept called the tithe. It comes from the Old Testament. It's the idea of giving back to God a tenth. The first 10 % of whatever you receive, you give back to God this tenth, and it's kind of, it shows up all over the Old Testament. In fact, we'll look at one of the first occurrences of it here in just a moment as we get ready for communion. But this idea of the tithe, it's one of like, again, it's more of an internal kind of churchy thing. It's more of an internal kind of churchy thing. It's more of an but it's a really big argument that people love to have. Are we bound to this? Do we have to give 10 %? Does Jesus free us from the tithe? Now, here's the thing. The trajectory of Scripture, the trajectory of Scripture is away from law and legalism." [00:17:37] (50 seconds)
"And towards grace and freedom the trajectory is away from law and legalism and towards grace and freedom look at this second corinthians chapter 9 each of you should give what you have decided where in your heart right from that the deepest part of us each of you should decide what you should give what you have decided in your heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion for god loves a cheerful giver and god is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times having all that you need you will abound in every good work all right so the trajectory is away from law and legalism but is towards grace and freedom here's the catch jesus does free us from the tithe but it is not so that we can give less it's so that we can give more 10 is a clear number it might be a good starting point or a a good aspirational goal but the question that jesus asks us in matthew chapter 6 and in many other parts of scripture the question that jesus asks us is not are you giving 10 but what does radical generosity look like for you given" [00:18:19] (83 seconds)
"your stage of life your income your resources what does radical generosity look like for you by the way uh the vast majority there's a all kind there's always studies and articles coming out about this and there's a book that i'll talk about here in just a moment that alludes to all of this the vast majority of people in america who attend church on a regular basis do not give to their church those that do give give about two percent and a very very small percentage actually give the tithe or beyond i don't share that with you to shame anybody in the room but simply to say that might tell us something about sort of the collective heart of the church in america that almost nobody gives those who do give about two percent and a very very small percentage actually give the tithe or beyond two percent and a very small percentage give beyond" [00:19:58] (59 seconds)
"Now the last question that comes up a lot is, what if I'm in debt or some sort of like really complicated financial situation? Or what if I'm a student? Should I wait until I have my finances in order to start giving? Now I would say this, for those of you who again are maybe more on the like debt, messy financial situation side of this question, there are, I think, extreme situations where you should stop giving. And again, there's always freedom and grace in this conversation. But one of the things that I have found in my own experience and in talking to other people about this is that a great first step to get out of financial trouble is to start giving because it reprioritizes." [00:25:19] (45 seconds)
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"Now, you might be thinking, well, sure, no one loves the money conversation, but it's not that uncomfortable, right? There's probably other things out there that are far more uncomfortable for us to talk about. But I would ask you a couple of questions. When was the last time you opened up your bank account and just said, hey, have a look, right? Look at all these numbers in there, or lack of them, right? When was the last time you were in a conversation with someone, you slid your tax returns across the table and said, what do you think? When was the last time you opened up your budget or your monthly spending report to somebody else and asked for their feedback on it? Or what about this? What if everybody at Discovery knew how much you gave to Discovery? What would that feel like?" [00:03:35] (59 seconds)
"Do not store up, this is Jesus speaking, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That's essentially our big idea this morning. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes or if your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." [00:06:39] (60 seconds)
"Stewardship. This belongs to God. This stuff, these resources, this money, this paycheck, it belongs to God, and it has been entrusted to me, and so I hold it loosely and open -handedly in this posture of worship. Are you with me? Okay. Posture two. My heart goes where I put God's money. If you want to know what you treasure, take a look at your bank statements. If you want to know what you treasure, look at your bank statements. But also, I think this goes the other way as well. Sometimes we have this like, oh, I feel like my heart is not right. There's something off. Maybe there's something off like spiritually. And so we come at it with like, oh, I should pray more. I should study the Bible more, go to church, whatever. And those are all really, really good things. But sometimes if your heart, if it feels like your heart is off or misaligned, maybe you need to start giving to something that God cares about and watch your heart follow." [00:14:38] (66 seconds)
"Our church has supported David and Claudia Osa. This is another one of our global partners. We've been supporting them for several years now. And the way that that began is after I got here as the lead pastor, we had this sort of transition with some people that we were supporting who were no longer gonna be on the field anymore. And so our missions team had some extra resources and I called up Global Scope and I said, hey, do you have any teams that could you support? And they're like, well, all of them. And I said, well, can you like give me one or two? And they highly recommended, they said, oh, David and Claudia are like the best people. You'll love them so much. And I said, okay, cool, where are they? And they said, Uruguay. And I said, what? Like, where's that? And you know, nothing against Uruguay, just was not on my radar of a place that like I was passionate about or cared about or quite honestly knew about. When we went and visited them, I was startled to find out how far away it is it's really far down there but over the years over the years as we've been supporting them and as we've gotten to know them and again visited them and they've come and visited us man i have a heart for that place i have a heart for montevideo and for uruguay and for their students and for their family our hearts follow our treasure if you want a heart for god give to the things that god cares about" [00:15:05] (88 seconds)
"Giving back to god is about killing idols god is not looking for philanthropists he wants your heart he wants our heart again jesus says we cannot serve multiple masters which means some idols will need to be destroyed one of the fastest ways to kill off the idol of money is to be generous with it be generous with it now we're going to continue to talk about this in more depth for the next couple of weeks, but I did want to pause this morning and just answer a couple of questions. We're going to do a little FAQ session, right? Because sometimes there's like some very classic questions that I've noticed come up in this conversation a lot. So the first question that comes up all the time is, what is the deal with 10 %?" [00:16:40] (53 seconds)
"This comes, this is a concept called the tithe. It comes from the Old Testament. It's the idea of giving back to God a tenth. The first 10 % of whatever you receive, you give back to God this tenth, and it's kind of, it shows up all over the Old Testament. In fact, we'll look at one of the first occurrences of it here in just a moment as we get ready for communion. But this idea of the tithe, it's one of like, again, it's more of an internal kind of churchy thing. It's more of an internal kind of churchy thing. It's more of an but it's a really big argument that people love to have. Are we bound to this? Do we have to give 10 %? Does Jesus free us from the tithe? Now, here's the thing. The trajectory of Scripture, the trajectory of Scripture is away from law and legalism." [00:17:37] (50 seconds)
"And towards grace and freedom the trajectory is away from law and legalism and towards grace and freedom look at this second corinthians chapter 9 each of you should give what you have decided where in your heart right from that the deepest part of us each of you should decide what you should give what you have decided in your heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion for god loves a cheerful giver and god is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times having all that you need you will abound in every good work all right so the trajectory is away from law and legalism but is towards grace and freedom here's the catch jesus does free us from the tithe but it is not so that we can give less it's so that we can give more 10 is a clear number it might be a good starting point or a a good aspirational goal but the question that jesus asks us in matthew chapter 6 and in many other parts of scripture the question that jesus asks us is not are you giving 10 but what does radical generosity look like for you given" [00:18:19] (83 seconds)
"your stage of life your income your resources what does radical generosity look like for you by the way uh the vast majority there's a all kind there's always studies and articles coming out about this and there's a book that i'll talk about here in just a moment that alludes to all of this the vast majority of people in america who attend church on a regular basis do not give to their church those that do give give about two percent and a very very small percentage actually give the tithe or beyond i don't share that with you to shame anybody in the room but simply to say that might tell us something about sort of the collective heart of the church in america that almost nobody gives those who do give about two percent and a very very small percentage actually give the tithe or beyond two percent and a very small percentage give beyond" [00:19:58] (59 seconds)
"Now the last question that comes up a lot is, what if I'm in debt or some sort of like really complicated financial situation? Or what if I'm a student? Should I wait until I have my finances in order to start giving? Now I would say this, for those of you who again are maybe more on the like debt, messy financial situation side of this question, there are, I think, extreme situations where you should stop giving. And again, there's always freedom and grace in this conversation. But one of the things that I have found in my own experience and in talking to other people about this is that a great first step to get out of financial trouble is to start giving because it reprioritizes." [00:25:19] (45 seconds)
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