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"Here as in Heaven."
For more information visit : garden.church
Welcome to Garden Church podcast. We are in a series called Reconstructing Church. We wanna talk about what it means to be the church today. How do we live out the mission of Jesus today with the cultural challenges we face in Christianity? The book of acts will be our guide as we learn to rebuild the church together in the power of the holy spirit.
Speaker 1:For more information, go to garden.church. Otherwise, enjoy this podcast. I heard this story in 2008 from a pastor from Michigan about a family in his church. In 02/2008, there was this economic downturn. Many of us who are alive felt it.
Speaker 1:And this one particular family, two kids in high school, experienced it in a very tangible personal way. The father lost his job first and started receiving unemployment checks, then the wife also lost her job a few months after that. And when the unemployment checks ran out, there was a series of events that began to take place where the experience of what was kind of a global meltdown, was affected on the family. And the, what happened was the as the checks ran out, they started prioritizing what bills they had to pay. First, it was they had to get a bunch of extra credit cards to pay, for the bills that they couldn't afford, like the utility payments and the medical bills.
Speaker 1:Their youngest daughter had a condition that required expensive medicine and procedures and they were still paying off the medical debt. So as the mortgage was not getting paid, debt collection started coming, the pink envelopes, anyone know what I'm talking about, started coming into the mail and then the home phone started getting ringing off the hook as people were trying to collect the debt. And if you can imagine that time of the desperation the family would have felt as their as they were experiencing the level of crisis as a family. They The the story goes that they couldn't afford utility payments. Their credit cards were maxed out.
Speaker 1:Their debt was outrageous. They weren't paying their credit card. They couldn't pay the medical bills, they couldn't afford the expensive medicine that their daughter needed. And there was one particular meal they were sitting at where the meal was kind of the epitome of what they were experiencing as a family, where the cupboards were empty, the meal felt cheap. And at that particular meal, the wife just began to cry in the desperation of what she felt.
Speaker 1:Husband was trying to be strong and the kids were trying to keep up, recognizing that they couldn't do anything about what was happening. And as they were sitting there eating, a neighbor who went to their church barged in without being invited, carrying arms full of groceries. She barged in and she kind of made a room on the table and sat it right in front of them. And then she went and grabbed a chair, which was over and she kinda drug it over, you know, sat down. And she said to them, I've been watching you and I know it's been hard.
Speaker 1:She pulled out a gift card, put it on the table, and slid it to the mom and said, I have worked out an agreement with the local grocery store and this will never, be emptied. Anytime you need groceries, you can buy whatever you want. It will be covered from here on out. She began to cry. And then she said, how much do you owe?
Speaker 1:And that's an interesting question because they owed a lot to a lot of different places. What do you mean? Do you mean the utility payment? Do you mean, the medical bills? Do you mean the mortgage payment?
Speaker 1:Do you mean the electricity bills? Do you mean the credit cards? She's like, how much do you owe for all of it? And they were shocked and she began they began to shoot out numbers about for the medical debt. And she's like, I'm gonna cover the medicine from here on out for your daughter, so she doesn't have to worry.
Speaker 1:The dad began to cry. How much do owe for the medical debt? How much do you owe for the credit card? All the credit cards. The ones that you're hiding.
Speaker 1:How much do owe? They started calculating all the amount and she she wrote it a check and doubled it and put it on the table and said, Have a nice meal, and walked out. Imagine what the mom felt as the burden was taken care of. Imagine what the dad felt, as his ability to provide as a father, as a husband was taken away, and in a moment of extravagant generosity, relief. I wanna talk about this idea that God has always designed the church to be this kind of church.
Speaker 1:That feeling you have in the story, it's too good to be true. It is too good to be true. That's what grace is. It's your debt being canceled. It's your debt collector's cease calling because it's been paid in full.
Speaker 1:And the early church, when it's described by those bearing witness, talk about this idea that the church was always marked by extravagant generosity. You see, what I want to talk about today is going to offend you, so there's no surprises coming. You heard it first. There's not going to be a moment. You're gonna be offended.
Speaker 1:And you're gonna be offended be because giving and generosity and money are always connected to the source of our heart. It's tender. It's a space we protect. It's a space we hide because of guilt and because of shame, and because of all sorts of things that we've designed our life to protect ourselves from. We don't want this area to be exposed.
Speaker 1:So yes, we're talking about money. We're talking about a characteristic that's marked the early church from the beginning that actually the norm is extravagant generosity, and I want our church garden to be trained in generosity so that we can be trained in being the kinds of people that steward heaven on earth. Nothing will train you more for heaven's reality than releasing the resources you've been entrusted with. And so over the next forty five minutes or so, we're going to talk about what it means to be a kind of church that has extravagant generosity as a marker. God is looking for people he will, who will use their resources for a greater purpose.
Speaker 1:Now I know, let me just say this, that in preaching this topic, you will be distracted and defensive, And I'm not gonna be surprised as there's gonna be distractions in the room and distractions in your mind and your heart. And I wanna say this with all honesty, and I don't mean this in any harmful way, but I know most of my preaching is gonna go to those that have ears to hear and eyes to see. I had this conversation with our staff a few weeks ago. I said, how do you prepare for the word of God? If the word is gonna be preached, how do you prepare for the word of God to be preached so that you could be good soil that receives from God when revelation of his word is proclaimed?
Speaker 1:Because there is an ROI expected on what he gives. And what Jesus knew he was comfortable with is about 25% of the soil would produce crop. And of the crop of the 25%, only a small fraction would produce a hundredfold. And so of this 100% that are here, 25% of you might get it. It's for eyes to see and ears to hear.
Speaker 1:So if you're hungry, open up your hearts to the word. Shall we pray? I already lost 75%. Jesus. Lord Jesus, give us your eyes and ears.
Speaker 1:May our hearts be tender. May we not hold back. May we be good soil. May you have your way in this church that we would see the abundance of your kingdom flow through this church as you pour out revival and reformation and that we would be trained for eternity now. In Jesus name.
Speaker 1:Amen. Okay. Quick disclaimer because I lost half of you, but let me just give you some thoughts. Okay? Just quick things that get you perspective on money and why this is important.
Speaker 1:Money, possessions, and treasures are discussed in the scriptures a lot. Okay? 450 separate passages in the Bible. It's the second most discussed issue or topic outside of idolatry, which I would say it's connected to that. Almost 2,200 references in the Bible, three times more than love, three times more than prayer is this topic discussed.
Speaker 1:It's 15% of God's word and Jesus talked about more more about money, finances, treasures and material possessions than anything else other than the kingdom of God. So it's his second most discussed topic. How's that for biblical stuff? Thank you, Ramin. Number two, practical things.
Speaker 1:Money is not evil, but it is the root of all evil. So it's not bad. And we need to have a good theology of money. Scripture teaches us that money is a God that vies for our attention and that money can provide all sorts of things that God provides. Meaning and significance and power and identity status, which is why it's so dangerous.
Speaker 1:So scripture teaches us that you can't serve God in money. She, scripture teaches us that to use money without serving money and it teaches us to steward money to build his kingdom. So that's some principles. You got a bunch of stuff already. There's some healthy theology, but let's jump into the text.
Speaker 1:My sole purpose today is to fill your imagination with biblical truth. I just want you to be You're filling your imagination with all sorts of false narratives every second you live. I want to counter those narratives with biblical imagination so that you can test how you live against the scriptures. I'm speaking to those of us that have come to know Jesus as Lord. Listen, if you're here and you don't follow Jesus, you're free.
Speaker 1:You can do whatever you want. You don't have to listen to this text, but if you're a follower of Jesus, good luck. Here we go. Acts Acts chapter 11. Alright.
Speaker 1:The spirit of God empowers extravagant generosity. That is a theme. That is a norm. That is the early characteristic. I'm sorry, that is a characteristic of the early church.
Speaker 1:So if you have your bibles, raise them up and I'll give you the text in one second. I'll give you the frame. Let me see how many, alright. Keep them up high. Which one Who has the biggest bible today?
Speaker 1:I just wanna see you doing CrossFit. I see that over there. I see you. You got like You're like, look at that. Let's go.
Speaker 1:The only bible that matters is the one you read. So there you go. Just read the right kind. Okay? A paper bible.
Speaker 1:During verse 11, here we go. Check this out. This is the church in Antioch. Okay. Let's let's just look at this text.
Speaker 1:The church in Antioch, it says, verse 27, during this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up through the spirit and predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. In parentheses, Luke wants to know this is a historical event. This actually happened. The famine takes place, but they were warned about it in advance in a local church.
Speaker 1:300 miles away from Judea, a local church worshiping God in a gathering maybe like this and some weird prophets with the name of Agabas. Of course, he's a prophet. Obadiah, Haggai, Habakkuk, Agabas. Yeah. There's all the ayahs.
Speaker 1:I get it. So here we go. So this happened during the reign of Claudius. The disciples as each one was able decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did sending their gift to the elders in Judea by way of Barnabas and Saul.
Speaker 1:So I just want to capture your imagination for a moment because I love this story. I love this story because it's historical. We know there was a famine, a severe famine famine in Jerusalem and Judea, in Israel in particular, in that land during the early stages of the church that the church suffered with extreme poverty in in its origin. So where the church began in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, years later as it began to spread, there's some some prophetic whispers like a prophet in a gathering in a local church where they're worshiping, they're teaching the word, they're gathering, they're praying, they hear from the Holy Spirit that there's gonna be this thing that happens in the future and their response isn't to let's wait and see. Their response is to respond to the prophetic word, to be good soil, which requires a financial act of generosity.
Speaker 1:So they proactively give to a church. Look how far it is. So at the time that this was happening, Antioch's up there. This is Paul's missionary journey, but you go all the way down from that center, Antioch, all the way down to Judea, that's 300 miles. It's like from here to Stockton where you're traveling by foot.
Speaker 1:They said, we cannot let them suffer. We will proactively, offensively give for the sake of what God told us through revelation. I was sharing this story with a friend over the weekend and he was like, I was like, man, talk about generosity. He's like, generosity? Talk about faith.
Speaker 1:And I was like, oh yeah. Because your generosity reveals your faith and your faith will always reveal your generosity. What do I mean by faith? The word faith is also the word belief and the word belief is a better translation trust. So where you trust, what reality you trust in will it will will be revealed through how you live your life.
Speaker 1:So in this story, and I just want you to see this that they thought as a local church, k, garden church in Sunset Beach overlooking the marina is in a worship gathering where the leaders of the church have a word from the Lord and they discern that it's from the Lord and so rather than just waiting for circumstances, they said this is what was revealed to us and each disciple in the church decided to participate in what God was doing. It was a norm to give. Not to give just to the people here, but to give to people that you'll never meet 300 miles away. So much so that when Paul goes around planting churches at the Roman empire, he will write letters to the church to participate in giving to the Lord's people and it's referring to the those suffering from poverty way back in Jerusalem. So if you go to second Corinthians chapter nine, the point of the letter we have received in the canon of scripture was written by Paul in second Corinthians chapter nine as a fundraising letter.
Speaker 1:So the church in Corinth would be ready to give financially so that when he gets there, there would be a financial gift that he will take back all the way to Jerusalem. That's the purpose of second Corinthians. And the reason he writes it with urgency is he was on his way there from Macedonia. And Macedonia is a poor region already, and Paul wasn't gonna tell them about this offering that was happening in all these other churches because he knew they were poor. And they heard through the gossip channel of the early church that there was an offering for their origin story of Jerusalem Church, and they said, we want in.
Speaker 1:And so they took an offering and he says, in their extreme poverty welled up abundant generosity. And he says, it was a grace from God. Meaning that Paul could not conceive how on earth this local church in poverty could give such an extravagant gift unless God did not work among them. And that word grace is where we get the word unmerited favor. Grace is the ability to do what you could never do on your own strength.
Speaker 1:So when we say we're saved by grace, we are saved by the sovereign act of Jesus dying on the cross, raising from the dead. We could never do what he did, and he gave us unearned, unmerited favor. He gave us the power to do what we could never do. That is grace. And he says, what happened to Macedonia was grace.
Speaker 1:And he writes to this church in Corinth which was a successful church, a wealthy church. You know, it was probably a a church that had yachts in view because Corinth was a wealthy place. And he says, hey folks, you've talked about giving. I need you to be prepared because a couple of leaders from Macedonia church are coming with me on this journey and I don't want you to be unprepared because they gave something that doesn't make sense and if you're not ready, I'm gonna be embarrassed. And Corinth was 800 miles away and he writes about this idea of of reaping.
Speaker 1:He says, remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give not reluctant reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver, a joyful giver, and God is able to bless you abundantly so in all things. What things? All things. At all times.
Speaker 1:What times? All times. Having all you need, you will abound in every good work. So Paul writes this letter because he expected the church to live with lavish extravagant generosity. The question I'm gonna answer in a second is why?
Speaker 1:Why was the early church marked by extravagant generosity? Why was that the norm? Why isn't that the norm today and it was back then? Before we get to that answer, let's let's fill your imagination with more. So the early the norm of the early church was extravagant generosity.
Speaker 1:The first two pictures we have are in Acts two and Acts four. I'll just share these quickly. You guys good? 25% of you good? Oh, you're like, I'm just waiting to be offended.
Speaker 1:Don't worry. Don't you worry. It's coming. No surprises here. Acts two gives you a snapshot.
Speaker 1:So this is what it looked like. This is what it looked like in the beginning. There's all this stuff that's going on, but one thing that Luke records is this, all the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. So from the beginning, there there's needs and people that don't have enough and then the people that have enough are sharing and selling and giving to make sure that the community of faith, the the body, the new family of God, they were taken care of.
Speaker 1:That's one account. And then acts four there, it happens later. Remember, this is over a 5,000 people in the local church at this point. So the church is large. They're gathering in homes.
Speaker 1:They're gathering in the temple. There's a move of God happening. And look at what's marked in this move of God. Verse 32 of acts four. All the believers were one in heart and mind.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. No one claimed that any of their stuff was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and God's grace was so powerful at work in all of them that they built conferences and wrote books and podcasts. That there was gold dust and signs and wonders and he nope. That was true maybe.
Speaker 1:Not against it. Not against that. But there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time, those who own land and houses sold them and brought the money from the sales and put it at the tax the apostles feet for a tax write off. No, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
Speaker 1:They they gave and let it go freely. It's what you call non designated giving. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, so he's think of Leviticus, all the rules for Leviticus, he's part of the priestly tribe who became a Christian, whom the apostles called Barnabas, means son of encouragement, sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. So he sells a property he owns and just lays it at the apostles' feet. This happens multiple times.
Speaker 1:They lay at the apostles' feet. It's a symbol of their authority, a symbol of their leadership, a symbol of trust in the church's leadership and guidance from these disciples who are wounded healers and imperfect people, but that God's doing this thing and they release the need to designate where it goes and just give it up. And it's an important story because the next story is a group of people that want to have the accolades that came with this generosity but lie about the amount Ananias and Sapphira. We'll talk about that next week. Super fun topic.
Speaker 1:You don't wanna miss. Bring your guests. Bring your non christian friends. So what you have is this early church is marked by a kind of generosity that has a deep concern for the physical needs of others who are in their community. The spirit of God's moving and the gospel that's moving impacts their finances and resources and material possessions.
Speaker 1:And these are the kinds of things that are happening where it's not a reactive gift. It's a proactive generosity. It's offensive giving. It's on the offense. It's not defensive.
Speaker 1:Here's what we need. It's offensive. I know there's need. I'm laying it at the feet and it's non designated versus cause giving. Can I speak about giving for a moment?
Speaker 1:Just a little side note. You ready? Okay, good. So there's all types of giving and I would say there's probably levels of increased generosity and I do think there are levels. Like the first area is casual giving.
Speaker 1:Like first of all, most people don't give, so that's fine, but then there are some of us that just, we do get casual giving like, oh, we're reminded that we should give on Sundays. We throw a couple of it's like a tip to God. Here you go. I'll give today. Feels right.
Speaker 1:Everything's or someone's, you know, asking for money and and you have a a nudge and you're like, oh, I'm gonna give this time. It's casual. You throw it out or someone comes up here and they're, you know, they're doing all this work in places around the world that has extreme poverty and your heart is moved and you move from casual to cause giving. There's a cause like we wanna we wanna support Franklin for Christmas. That's a cause giving.
Speaker 1:Why do everyone gives to cause giving? Because it tugs at your heart. I I show you a video of what it's like in Baba, Ecuador where we've supported, you know, World Vision and we've supported Compassion International where you're looking at the these conditions where there's all these at risk at risk kids and youth and your heart's stirred and you wanna be a part of the cause. And yes, you should be a casual giver. You should be a cause giver.
Speaker 1:And then there's tithing, which can I say tithing is not generous? Tithing is not generosity. I want to get to extravagant generosity. Alright? But tithing is maybe here on the spectrum of this thing we're talking about where tithing or recurring giving is now now I have some stats on this, but let me give you the biblical perspective real quick.
Speaker 1:You guys okay? Do you need me to say it one more prayer? So tithing is an old old testament concept. Okay? And if you go to old a a lot of people are like, yeah, it's not a new testament concept.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, me give you the whole old testament concept. Okay? You ready? So it starts with Abraham having an encounter with Melchizedek and he gives a tenth of everything he owns.
Speaker 1:Everything. Alright? So a tenth of his cars, a tenth of his cattle, a tenth of his money, a tenth of all the things he possesses. That's a tithe is a tenth. Now it was later instituted in the old testament and you would give 10% of everything, your harvest, your cattle, whatever it is, as an offering to the Lord, to the house of God and it would be the inheritance for the Levites, the people that would serve the house of God because they didn't have an inheritance.
Speaker 1:They didn't get land. Their inheritance was serving the Lord in the house. So the 12 tribes gave 10% to the house of God and they survived off that. But it wasn't just a tenth of your resource and your your harvest. It was the first tenth.
Speaker 1:It was the first tenth. It wasn't you weren't promised the 90. It was the first tenth that you had anticipated in faith. But not just that, you also gave, like three and a half percent every few years for the poor and then you give to festivals and you would have gleaning rights. If you happen to own a field, you would have to leave the edges of the field for the poor.
Speaker 1:And what scholars believe is you gave around 23.3% of your income if you wanna go Old Testament. I just argued that away. But here's the interesting thing. 10%, is what is is like what I would say is the spiritual discipline of growing a generous heart. Right?
Speaker 1:So it might start with casual and move to cause and in the stage of life, 10% is too much. It might just start with 2% or 5% and that is your tithe. That is your commitment and that should go to a local church. I don't believe tithing should go to missionaries or cause giving. I think you should tithe biblically to the local church.
Speaker 1:I don't know how you cannot argue that in the scriptures. And so I'm gonna say this here and I'll say that at the end. I'm not asking you to tie to the garden. I don't care. If you don't trust me, fine.
Speaker 1:You don't trust our team, great. Give to a local church that you trust and give faithfully and regularly and see what God does. Okay? So get that out of your head. I'm gonna call you to be generous.
Speaker 1:Why? Because God doesn't want your money, he wants your heart. And if our church is about making disciples, we gotta talk about the things Jesus talked about. And this is your his greatest competition because it's about your allegiance. You guys good?
Speaker 1:So tithing then is this regular non designated gift. Right? And then there's offerings where you give above and beyond like you sell possessions, you get an inheritance, you get a bonus and you give. And then there's extravagant generosity where just God does miraculous things where we push over here and that when when extravagant generosity takes over a community, it's the grace of God where there's no needs, where God's doing miracles. What we know is in revival history, revival where there's a supernatural sovereign move of God always connects to the social implications of society.
Speaker 1:In the Welsh revival, in the great awakening, we know that colleges were founded, hospitals were funded, public housing was funded, orphanages were started. Universities that empowered women and men to be educated. We are an institution that's moved by God to care for people and to do it systematically with the generosity of the local church. So if we're like, oh, a move of God's gonna happen. If it's a move of God, society is transformed.
Speaker 1:If it's a move of God, there will be a decrease in things of evil and an increase of things of caring for the poor and the needy and the things that are full of injustice. We will see justice reign. That's what is promised in the scripture. Are you with me? Alright.
Speaker 1:Here's some facts on tithing. Okay. You ready? So this is a nationwide stats on those who tithe in the church. So number 5% of church goers tithe.
Speaker 1:5% out of two forty seven million US citizens that identify as Christians, 1,500,000 people tithe. Told you you're gonna feel guilt. You're gonna feel shame. There's gonna be a sense of, oh, and then there's some of you like, how on earth is that pot? And you're outraged.
Speaker 1:And this is probably true for our church. Like the majority of people don't give or give regularly. And how do you define that? Because we don't have membership. We have participation.
Speaker 1:Well, you define it by the numbers. The average attendance does not equal a 100%. It's probably lower than 20%. It's probably 15%. The average tither gives $78 a month.
Speaker 1:Like we're talking about tithe, right? 10%. The average is 78 a month. 8 out of Now this is great. This is where prosperity gospel comes in.
Speaker 1:I don't believe in prosperity gospel, but hey, check this out. Eight out of eight out of 10 people who tithe have no credit card debt. 30% are debt free. So it pays to give. God wants to give you a cyber truck.
Speaker 1:If you tithe, you're more likely to own one. I'm just saying. And you'll be debt free. I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's just clear. I got I got the head shake from my wife. She's like, no.
Speaker 1:Hey, okay. On average, listen to this. Christians give 2.5% of their income less per capita than during the great depression where it was 3.3. How do you feel? Okay.
Speaker 1:You're like, I'm gonna give when I have, you know, a lot more money. Well listen to this. It's not the wealthy who always tied. The statistics suggest that if you make less than 20,000, you're eight times more likely to give than someone who makes more than 75,000 and you know it. You're like, oh that that You know that makes sense.
Speaker 1:It's so true. I'm gonna give once I have enough and then all of a sudden your budget increase. Like, well, I kinda have to shop at Whole Foods now. And it's true. Like, Biggie Smalls, mo money, mo problems.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely true. Hip hop reference. Don't worry. I I grew up on hip hop. I studied all the greats.
Speaker 1:I listen, I I was on an all male hip hop dance team. That is absolutely true. I know. I'm not not. Hey.
Speaker 1:You don't ask you don't ask a sober person to drink alcohol. Don't ask me to dance. Okay? I That was before Jesus. Just wanna dance, know.
Speaker 1:Recurring givers annually donate 42% more than one time donors. Women make up 75% of North American donors. Let's go, ladies. And then the church has the audacity to say you can't be a leader. We'll take your money but not your wisdom.
Speaker 1:We'll take your money but not your your revelation from the Lord, your gifts from the Holy Spirit. I'll fight for that all day. I'll take your money and your leadership. Do we have any baby boomers in the house? Let me hear it.
Speaker 1:Come on, boomers. Hey, listen to this. This is so true. Baby boomers give 613 more each year than those 40 and this is a fact. The baby boomer generation is more generous than the gen x generation.
Speaker 1:The gen x generation is more generous than the millennial generation which I'm a part of and the millennial generation is more generous than the, gen z generation and the reason has to do with where they put their trust. Gen z's don't believe in institution authority. They reject all forms of authority except for their self, is defined by their feelings in the moment. So they love cause giving, motivated in the moment. They don't know what it's like.
Speaker 1:Most of them, this is a generalization. Forgive me for the generalization, they don't know what it's like to commit to something over a long period of time. They don't like to commit in general, let alone reply to texts. Sign up for recurring giving. I'm trying to convince you to text me back.
Speaker 1:I'm watching Masters of the Air, 18 year olds flying b 17 bombers in World War two, handling machinery, getting shot down in enemy territory and doing something that's hard. Gen z gets stressed about texting back. It's not a it's not a I wanna say it's time to rise up. Don't be associated with the with the norms of a generation that's not been given consequence and character and capacity. You have character capacity in Christ.
Speaker 1:Let it shape how you text, how you give, how you commit. It says they devoted themselves to fellowship. You can't be devoted if you're not texting back. You can't be devoted if you're not bought in with your finances. I don't have finances yet.
Speaker 1:Well, you're buying $5 coffees every few days. I have an agenda and it's not to put you down. You are gonna stand as a generation or my son's generation will stand. Because we're raised in the next generation of consequence. They know God's voice.
Speaker 1:They know his word. They know the difference between right and wrong and truth and they will commit. It's time to take your place. Oh, no one's giving me space. You have the space.
Speaker 1:Go for it. Run. Don't wait for the cause to make you generous. Give now. Can we go?
Speaker 1:Can I move on? Man, that's all I have to do right now. Have a lot more, but man, that was good enough. Did the early church tithe? I I can't argue that.
Speaker 1:Like if I I hear all the time was was the Is there a New Testament principle of tithing? I don't see that commanded in the New Testament. I see extravagant generosity as the expectation norm. I say I have some possessions you don't, I'm gonna give. I have a property that's designed for my inheritance, but you are a new family to me.
Speaker 1:So what I would give to my kids, I now share with you as my brothers and sisters and moms and dads and and, daughters and sons. Is tithing a new testament principle? I don't think it it is. I I think it's a spiritual discipline for the local church. You gotta hear this.
Speaker 1:I just expect everyone that's following Jesus to be practicing spiritual formation, becoming more like Jesus and generosity and giving and tithing is one of the most fundamental ways you develop freedom in Jesus. So if you're not practicing tithing, if you're not practicing giving, no matter where you are, you're not developing your life in a biblical way. So starts with tithing and it moves to something far more mysterious, generosity that's extravagant. Are you guys good with that? It says all the believers were one heart and mind.
Speaker 1:No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. Now what you have to understand as I'm trying to answer this question, why was extravagant generosity a defining characteristic of the early church. What I've come to believe is first of all, the local church, not this like disembodied, we're part of the church that's a globe and it's online and social media and I claim to be Christian, but my life doesn't look like it kind of cultural Christianity, but like the local body of followers of Jesus considered this new body their new family. That we are brothers and sisters, and if we are brothers and sisters, the first century familial expectations apply to us here. So whatever I would do for my mom, whatever I do for my brother in need is my my blood line family I have to do here.
Speaker 1:That was the expectation, but it also was something else. They were saying Jesus is Lord, which was the branding for Caesar and the expectation is Caesar provided salvation. That was written into their history books before we talked about it with Jesus. Caesar would provide peace and prosperity in abundance and so they expected, you know, the the Roman Empire to be their form of defining characteristics of what took place economically. And in Roman culture, there were social, social markers and boundaries and and status, and so there were levels of of status for slaves.
Speaker 1:There were levels of status for free people and gentiles and Roman citizens and they didn't, the church said, we're not going to use our status markers anymore. Instead, we're all one in Christ. So a Levite with wealth will give to those who don't have, who might be a slave, who might not have any status in the Roman empire because that has gone That that status is done with. We're not gonna judge each other by the world's standards. We're just gonna be one family and we're gonna give because that's what God expects.
Speaker 1:God expects us to care for each other and we're not gonna, you know, judge one another based on where you are and your status in life. You know, I'm not gonna be like, oh, I'm I'm happy to give as long as I know that you're not I'm not funding your addiction. I'm happy, you know, I'm happy. I love designated giving that way. It's like I know that this is where it's gonna be used because I really want it to be used with control and power.
Speaker 1:In your life, even if it's a gift to someone else, I can do your life better. Just give me give me the reins. I know it's tough. But there's a deeper truth. Now stay with me.
Speaker 1:There's a deeper truth in my opinion for why. Why the church was marked by this? And it's something I've already alluded to. But it's that your spiritual life is directly connected to how you manage your money and possessions. There's no separation of faith and finances.
Speaker 1:There's no separation of how you love God and how you love each other, that actually they were tangibly connected, that you can't possibly have faith in Jesus as a resurrected son of God and not allow that faith, that trust, that belief to impact how you reallocate your resources. See, America loves the compartmentalized gospel. Jesus is Lord of my spiritual life, you know, my prayer life, my Sunday attendance, my percentage of income, but the rest is all mine. Compartmentalized gospel. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right. He's got a 100% access to all of it. 100% access to my browsing history. 100% access to my finances? Like what would spiritual What would your discipleship look like if it was defined by you handing over your monthly budget and saying, do you see Jesus in my finances?
Speaker 1:Imagine if accountability wasn't just about the software you had on your phone for for looking at things that you shouldn't look at, but what if accountability was, here's a printout of everything I spent. What do you see that's not for me? Do you see Christ's resurrection in my b of a monthly statements? That's where it goes and that's what the church knew. Look at what John says in his epistle in first John chapter three.
Speaker 1:He says, this is how we know what love is. Okay. How do we know? Tell me. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1:Oh, let's just pause right there. Yes. Let's sing some songs. I would I would get on there, you know, I would sing you. You know what?
Speaker 1:I'm just gonna do this. I didn't do this in the first serve. No, don't wanna mess it up. I'll mess it up. I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 1:We love songs. We love love songs. You know, like I can think of being in college singing to serenading my future wife Alex, singing, would you dance? If I asked you to dance, you know, like, I can be a hero, baby. You're just like, love doesn't Yeah and she still married me.
Speaker 1:I know. It wasn't my singing. It was my dancing. Give Just them say yes. Just know she's not it was my heart actually.
Speaker 1:Right? Yeah. Yeah. She's like, yeah. I tricked her.
Speaker 1:Love is not some like sonnet. It's not some song we sing. In the first century church, John said, hey, Jesus, the cruciform image of Christ, not just Jesus, but Jesus on the cross. This is now how we see the world. This is how we view our relationships, and then he makes it practical.
Speaker 1:It's not like, oh, let's talk about being a hero, baby. He says, if anyone has material possessions and sees a brother and sister in need but has no compassion on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with singing songs but with actions and truth. Love is not abstract metaphor of warm fuzzy feelings for someone. Love is tangible.
Speaker 1:It's practical and if you don't have it, it's expressed by how you treat the people among you that have need. And that phrase pity is the word compassion which to feel in Hebrew is to feel womish. It's a mother feeling towards her unborn child. It's the way God feels towards creation. It's the suffering with.
Speaker 1:It's a move of the bowels and it says before that has no and that translation in the Greek is translated to shut one's heart off too. The image is Jesus on the cross live this way towards other people and when you see someone in need, you don't judge them, you feel and act towards them the way God feels and acts towards you. But the question is, why do we shut our hearts off? How does it start? You're like, well, I don't shut my heart off to someone.
Speaker 1:Doesn't start with this callusing, it starts with a gentle nudge of self. I was, on a men's retreat in, going to a men's retreat a few years ago, 2016, a lot of years ago. And, there are two guy two two cars caravanning to Colorado from Southern California and halfway through about Beaver, Utah, one of our cars broke down. It was pouring rain. We had to pull it off, leave it there.
Speaker 1:We all piled all these dudes into one car. We crammed in. We put all the stuff up top and tarped it off, and it was this absolute chaotic scene. We didn't have time to stop for lunch. It's a long drive to Colorado and we're driving to Colorado and my stomach is growling and I had my my backpack with me in the front seat.
Speaker 1:I was in the front seat. God bless those men. And I look in my backpack and I pull out dried mango which is like nature's candy. Right? Like this is like God's like, I'm gonna give you candy.
Speaker 1:I mean, this stuff has like, yeah, 500 grams of sugar per bite but so no wonder it's candy. But I I stuff it back in. Right? My babe packed me all these snacks and like, I had this thought. If I open the dried mangoes, then I'm gonna have to share with everyone.
Speaker 1:And the following thought was, there's not gonna be enough for me. You see, we don't shut ourselves off to people right away. It doesn't it doesn't start with a a shutting down of the heart. It starts with scarcity. It's not gonna be enough.
Speaker 1:And I I was like, oh. And as soon as I thought that thought, I don't know how the Holy Spirit convicts you, but I had another thought, which was, if this is how you are with dried mangoes, what else in your life are you doing this with? And it was in that moment I realized I had a choice. I can either move towards self and scarcity or move towards God and generosity. I know it's silly, but in that moment I pulled out the dried mangoes and I said, hey, I got some dried mangoes.
Speaker 1:Who wants some? Pass it around. It was gone in one take. But it starts with dried mangoes. It starts with the mindset that there's not gonna be enough.
Speaker 1:You know, I was on that same trip shortly, after that where my wife called me and we had plumbing issues like our something was flooding. And I'm like supposed to be away for a week, focus on Jesus. And and I'm now I'm thinking about, you know, plumbing issues. It's either like $5 or like $50,000, especially for those of us that have no idea. Right?
Speaker 1:And I was like, 50,000? We're gonna we just had this house. It was new. We're like, I don't know what to do. You know?
Speaker 1:We should be renting, not owning. And I was sitting at lunch after the call, and there were all these guys, and I felt the Lord prompt. He said, buy the meal. Align your hearts. Align your heart to my abundance.
Speaker 1:Right now you feel there's not enough. You're gonna have to go into debt to pay for this. But let as a spiritual act, a spiritual discipline of formation, choose to step into abundance. So I I choose to to buy the meal, which was a lot. It's, you know, I'm pastor and there's a lot of guys and they're big guys, and so they ate a lot of food.
Speaker 1:But see, generosity has trained me in the things of the kingdom. Like, this is what it's talked about in the parables. Like, you don't know how to handle worldly possessions, the little things, how will you ever steward the abundance of the kingdom of God? You learn that actually generosity is a window into your soul. It's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter six, he says, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth 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, where thieves do not break in and steal.
Speaker 1:For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. What he says is not where your heart is, there your treasure will be. He says, where you see the treasure buried underneath, that's where your heart is. We all value treasure. Find connection with things and that's not a problem.
Speaker 1:The problem isn't treasures. The problem is treasuring. The problem isn't investing. The problem is investing and treasuring in things that don't last for eternity. The problem is being dumb with our investments.
Speaker 1:He's like, you're you're gonna live for eternity with me and if you've come to believe that, you come to trust that, then it should be evident in how you live with your finances. It should be evident with how you live with your resources and your material possessions because what's deeply connected to those things is your true heart, and what he's after is not your possessions, not your money, not your tithe. He's after your heart. And let me just say this, when we talk about money, you know what we're talking about? Freedom.
Speaker 1:Because Jesus names mammon. He says, you cannot serve both God and money. And that word in Greek is actually an Aramaic name called Mammon, which was the personification of the God of wealth and possessions. It's the only deity Jesus ever names in the scriptures. And he says, my greatest threat to your discipleship is your allegiance to money, possessions, and material possessions.
Speaker 1:Your things. Because money's connected to your heart and God doesn't need your money. He wants your heart. And why is it so hard to talk about money? Well, it's because it's connected to our heart.
Speaker 1:It's tender. Also, we prefer compartmental spirituality. Right? Like teach me how to pray, not how to deal with my money. Come on pastor.
Speaker 1:Sick to the spiritual things. Right? Like it's easier to talk about prayer. It's like, okay, I can pray. It's hard to talk about, hey, everyone's, you should start tithing.
Speaker 1:You need to, you need to learn the way of extravagant generosity. Stop using your money in a way that serves the self and start serving the Lord with your money. You're like, oh, he's got an alternative motive. You don't think I have an alternative motive when I'm teaching how to pray. You do when it comes to money because you're defensive and you're defensive because it's close and it's tender.
Speaker 1:And when I get even deeper, what you realize is there's a sense of guilt which is from the Holy Spirit. There's conviction. You see those statues like, I feel conviction. But what happens is the enemy uses guilt and what you've learned in our culture is shame. You've been taught shame which is not that you've done something bad, it's that you are bad and the enemy keeps you paralyzed in shame.
Speaker 1:And in your paralysis, you don't know how to get out of the pit. And Jesus wants you to get out of the pit with your resources that that you use it for his purposes. And if you're here and you feel shame, there's freedom in Christ and he wants to set you free. He wants to set you free in your finances. He wants to get you out of debt.
Speaker 1:He wants to use you and empower you to make millions of dollars, some of us, to build businesses and have ideas and start companies that bring lots of money in because he's not afraid of money. He's a king and he wants you to understand the way the kingdom works and it's not just about giving your prayers. It's about giving your resources and you don't learn how to be generous when you make lots of money. You learn when you barely have enough and you've been trained as a disciple to trust when there's little so that when there's lots, you're not justifying your spending. Well, it's a lot more than when I didn't have this job.
Speaker 1:Is it generous? Is it cultivating freedom and trust? Is this gift causing you to rely in dependence on the Lord or is it just out of the abundance and self sufficiency? I want a move of God. Can I say that?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like I don't want revival. I want reformation. Revival would be great if our culture was strong enough to manage the character of God. We do not have a character in society anymore.
Speaker 1:We don't have the pillars of foundation of ethics and morality that's gone based on the self narcissism narcissism and the the type of agenda that's been pushed across the board. We need reformation of moralities like the great awakening. We need a reformation of God that moves beyond our spiritual lives and moves to our finances, moves to our identities, it moves to the way we live amongst each other in unity. It moves out to society to care for the poor, to care for the widow, to care for the uneducated and those that need education, to give access to those that don't have access. It is a reformation of God.
Speaker 1:And can I say that every move of God had wealthy and a generous church giving to the move of God? John Wesley had patrons in a wealthy church in The UK sending him back and forth to The Americas. We wouldn't have a reformation if it wasn't a German prince who supported Luther's reformation. Every move of God was marked by generosity, not because they're waiting for a defensive request from the leadership, but they were proactive in laying it at the apostles' feet. When does it start?
Speaker 1:You tell me. When does it start? You've been a follower of Jesus for so long. Are you becoming more generous every year? Is your faith relying on the stories of the past when you did YWAM in college or is it relying on fresh stories of faith today?
Speaker 1:I'm tired of hearing old stories. I want new stories of radical generosity. This is in my life that force you to trust. Just this week, I was asking the Lord, give me ways to trust you, writing a sermon on generosity. Give me ways to trust you, Lord.
Speaker 1:And when I opportunities to give that would require faith. And then I get a text from my little brother. Hey, Darren. I ordered this coffee maker, that hasn't come in and I'm leading this retreat for this thing. He has a discipleship cohort he leads.
Speaker 1:And I was wondering if I could borrow your very expensive coffee maker for the retreat. You know, the only begotten coffee maker that you have. Now what's crazy is that it's close to my heart. Like even when I fast, I don't give up coffee. I was just like, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Like Jesus was probably getting cappuccinos from the angels. I'm just saying. No. That's not true. That's not true.
Speaker 1:Afterwards, it says the angels attended to him. Maybe that's when he got his cap. But, it's like there are these moments where there's an invitation and it requires walking through with sacrifice, pushing through what's comfortable. And I believe that's for all of us today. I have a list of like 12 things that you can do to grow in generosity.
Speaker 1:Forget the list. Okay? Here's what I wanna say. Don't put them up there. Well,
Speaker 2:don't do it. Don't do it.
Speaker 1:Alright. Throw them up. Blah blah blah blah blah. Here's one one through six. Take a picture.
Speaker 1:These are great. These are great. But here's what I wanna leave you with. Go to go to the next one. There there's yeah.
Speaker 1:There you go. It's good. Okay. Blah blah blah. I I actually feel a prompt.
Speaker 1:Clearly, you need to get out of debt. Clearly, you need to live on a budget. You need to live below your means, all those things. I feel like for our church, this service in this moment, it's to give reoccurring gifts, non designated, undesignated gifts to the local church. If not here, then choose another church, a local faith body, not a missionary, not a cause, the local body of Christ and commit for a season.
Speaker 1:That's the call. To learn the way of generosity is to surrender and say, I'm gonna trust this to you Lord without having strings attached. Sound good? Thank you for listening. For more information, please visit us at garden.church.