Generosity: Investing in Eternal Treasures Over Earthly Wealth

1) "Today's theme is just heartless. called not just to be generous but more specifically to be generous to the poor and why would he say that well when we read the bible it's clear that god places a high priority on helping the poor not only the poor mentioned in the bible more times than faith is but of course it comes through god's priority for for the poor comes through in many of jesus teachings and that's why we'll look today in luke 12 at the parable of the rich farmer but first some context so let's start before jesus teaches this parable in luke 12 verse 13 what we see is there are two siblings fighting over the family inheritance it seems like one doesn't want to miss out on the wealth that they see as theirs but jesus refused to get to get sucked into this this argument and instead he warns his listeners about greed we heard about this a couple of weeks ago verse 15 then he said beware guard against every kind of greed life is not measured by how much you own" [27:58] (75 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "There are so many people in the world today whose goal in life is exactly the same as that rich farmer make a ton of money return to hire early and live it up and it's not surprising really when the world around us idolizes wealth and that sort of easygoing lifestyle but that's not what we as apprentices of jesus are called to our call is to believe god when he says he will provide what we need out of his love for us when we really believe that and live by it can be generous to the poor and so invest in our future and heaven. And that's when Jesus' teachings on generosity will actually make sense, because they won't unless we view all of our financial decisions from the smallest to the largest, not just in light of how long we're going to live here on earth, but in light of how long we will live in eternity. And how long is that going to be? Forever. It's a lot longer than our short time here on earth." [31:48] (75 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "In the same way, giving is an investment in the kingdom of God. It's putting your money in the one place where it can last forever. In the upside -down kingdom of God, what we give away, we actually keep. And what we keep, we lose. It comes as no surprise then that Jesus' first apprentices did exactly that. In Acts 2, where we read the first story of the early church, we read, Acts 2, 44 and 45, And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared their money with those in need. Now, it's no coincidence that this is recorded in the book of Acts by Luke. And it's no coincidence. It's no coincidence that he actually references and uses again Jesus' words in Luke 12, verse 33. Sell your possessions and give to those in need." [33:35] (72 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "The early church was wildly generous to the poor. Tim Keller called it financial promiscuity. He said this, the early church was strikingly different from the culture of the old. There was no culture around it in this way. The pagan society was stingy with its money and promiscuous with its body. The pagan gave nobody their money and practically gave everybody their body. And the Christians came along and gave practically nobody their body and they gave practically everybody their money. But the early church wasn't just generous to the poor as we often think of them. You know, those who are in abject poverty those sleeping rough those begging for money that we see at countdown and on the streets and things they gave to anyone who was in need for instance people would often bring offerings of money and extra food to the weekly church meal for those who were in need in the church to take home not just those out there and so from the very beginning of the christian church helping those in need has been a core part of how christians have lived out their faith and applied jesus teaching to give to those in need and they would often not only give their money but their time and they would build relationships with those in need so you early on churches became and monasteries became sprawling centers of social justice some basil a fourth century bishop in caesarea founded what was arguably the first hospital which grew into a small town called the basilead a hotel for travelers a hospice care for the dying a leper colony a daily feeding program and fixed our prayer so so the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who was barefoot the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor the empties will sell out and the hangers theracium t umpires the rest will be a vacuum of charity you do not do are so many injustices that you commit. He was voicing an idea that was widespread in the early church, that wealth that we keep for ourselves beyond a certain level was actually stolen from the poor who God intended it for." [36:06] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "So, you see, when you give things away, you get more back, you know? Who didn't get chocolate? Tyrannix and Ty? Your old brother? That's why you look like Tyrannix. Sorry. I'll put my glasses on. Sorry. Name, maybe. Xavier. Xavier. Peter. I really got one, I think. Thank you, kids. Thank you for helping us to see what happens when we actually give to others so here's the lesson behind the parable of the rich farmer his eyes were on the wrong things he was looking in the wrong places to have what he needed he didn't need to store up enough to to live on all he had to do was to seek the kingdom of god above all else and if he'd done that he wouldn't need all those extra crops he wouldn't need to spend all that money demolishing those smaller barns or spending all that money to build bigger ones what he could have done what he should have done was sold the crops and given the money to those in need or he could have just you know cut out the middleman and given the crops to those who needed money needed food either way the right thing for him to do in god's eyes was to be generous to the poor to be generous to those in need and so the question is are you generous to those in need if not do you want to be but don't know where to start that's okay sometimes in this world with so many needs and so many things that seem to be clawing at us and pulling at us for for money and food and and so forth it's hard to know where to start it's everywhere isn't it both here and overseas a little while ago i was listening to a podcast and it was called when to plant your tree and you know the best time to plant a tree 20 years ago what's the second best time to plant a tree now it's same with giving don't let it stop you just because you may not have done it before just do something now no matter how small just like so many of you did with the the light party fundraiser i think that's a perfect example of what god says some gave a little some gave a lot as they were able and that's all god asks us to do and you know together we raised over twelve hundred and fifty dollars in a matter of a few days and if jenny was here she'd probably pipe up the stage and say if you haven't paid it please do so you don't have to be poor to have needs you don't have to be poor to have needs and jesus said to him i'm going to plant a tree and i'm going to plant a tree and i'm going to plant a tree and i'm going to plant a tree and Jesus calls those people to jesus calls us to help meet the needs of everyone where we can so the question becomes who do you know who has a need whatever you can give well it's money with its time whether it's just tired whether it's just developing a relationship with them will help meet their needs because let's remember that god can do a little with a lot he showed us that didn't he just like jesus took fiveيد أعندع me م gamma!!!!!!! loaves and two fish and fed over 5 ,000. So too, God can take what little we have, go far beyond what we could ever dream. So give what you have, not what you don't have. When we do this, we are working with Jesus to create a world, to create a community where it can be said, there is no needy person among them." [44:00] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)