5: Very good to see you. Very good to see you. If you would do me a favor and, uh,
welcome my family, my wife and all of my children are here,
and you guys just give them a little love, that would be great.
Um, if you don't know me, uh, particularly for those of you joining online,
my name is Leon. And, uh, I'm so glad to be with you today.
Uh, today we're gonna dive into one of my favorite topics,
and that is how to be a blessing in the world.
It very much goes along with the video we just watched together,
and we're gonna bounce around several scriptures. Uh,
but our anchor verse will come from Proverbs chapter 11, verse 25.
And I wanna read it in two different versions because one's very fun and one's
very clear. And sometimes you gotta have some fun with some clear amen.
And so here's the first version. It's, it's the IFF version. Proverbs 1125.
Listen to this,
A soul that eth shall be made fat.
I just like that. I want to have a fat soul, juicy.
And he will say, or she,
that eth shall be filled. Also, listen to it in the NLT.
The generous will prosper and those who
refresh others will themselves be
refreshed, let's say a quick prayer together. Father, we thank you.
We thank you that you are here with us.
We thank you that you are with us wherever we are,
we thank you that the medium doesn't matter,
but that when the spirit of God moves,
that our hearts can be changed and transformed and ignited.
And so we pray now first that you would hide me behind your hand and that
we would experience the call Yahweh,
the voice of God that can only be heard in the gathering of God's people.
And that we would be transformed no matter where we are on our journey with
Jesus,
that we would be fully transformed in some significant way.
Today we ask it in the precious and matchless name of Jesus.
And if you believe that the Lord is good, would you say with me? Amen. Amen.
Uh, most of us are probably not familiar with a man named Julius Rosenwald.
He, like many others, has been forgotten to time.
But Julius Rosenwald was one of several presidents of the retail chain,
Sears and Roebuck. Remember when that existed? And in 1910,
after being freshly minted as a new president,
he had a chance to meet with a man named Dr. Booker t Washington.
If you don't know who that is, look him up. He's a,
a gift to this nation and a gift to our society, uh,
and a world changer in his time. You see,
during this time in the Jim Crow South education was nearly
non-existent for the African American community.
So under the leadership of his friend, Dr. Washington,
Mr. Rosewell began a quiet partnership with black communities in the South
to build schools,
to build teacher housing and to resource education materials.
Between 1912 and 1932,
Rosenwald and his partners built 4,978
schools. Rosenwald invested, listen to this,
nearly $1 billion,
nearly $1 billion of his own money in today's
currency to be able to do this. Now,
while most of us have never heard of Mr. Rosenwald, maybe before today,
we've likely heard of Medgar Evers, Maya Angelou,
and Atlanta's own congressman John Lewis,
all among a short list of people who were educated in the
schools that Rosenwald started.
Rosenwald was generous,
and yet he never even got to see the fruit of his generosity.
While we have the benefit of looking back in history at what he accomplished,
he actually died on January 6th, 1932.
He never saw the fullness of what he did. He was a generous man,
not only because he believed in the work,
but because of his own deep Christian belief.
And when he was asked why he devoted so much time and wealth to giving,
his response was incredible. Listen to what he said. He said,
giving is the greatest pleasure in life.
Giving is the greatest pleasure in life no matter
where you are on your spiritual journey. We all,
I believe want to be this type of person.
We want to be the type of person who blesses others with that level of
impact and joy and dedication.
I believe that we all wish to be what we read together in the proverbs,
a soul of blessing.
And yet as inspiring as Mr. Rosenwald story is,
and as much as we might wish to be that type of person,
there's an equal and opposite counter motivator that we face.
Here's what it is. Often giving feels like losing,
giving feels like losing. Whether you are in touch with that feeling or not.
I imagine if you did a quick inventory of your heart,
you would find some resonance there.
Giving for many of us feels like a loss.
We may feel like we're losing out on something that we want or something that we
think we need. Perhaps we feel a loss of our sense of security or,
or maybe even control whatever it is.
Giving feels like loss,
especially when you can't see where it's initially going.
If you invest in a kingdom endeavor,
it might not immediately yield the return that you're gonna see much like Mr.
Rosenwald. And so it might not feel like you're getting anything back.
But here's the thing,
and I'm talking specifically to those of us who say we practice the way of
Jesus. If you don't practice the way of Jesus, you are off the hook.
But for those of us who say we practice the way of Jesus, here's the thing.
If we believe that our God will supply every need,
if we believe that our God this is right outta your Bible,
supplies every need and owns the cattle on on a thousand hills,
if we believe that God will return our generosity with his
abundance, the Bible says press down, shaken together and running over,
then giving should not feel like losing.
And I can empathize. I'm gonna tell you a very embarrassing story.
I remember feeling like I was losing every time I gave and there was even a
time. This is, this is so shameful.
There was even a time that I gave and then a few days later I unga,
you can laugh. I know it's uncomfortable. It's okay. Let it out. I unga.
I attended a conference for pastors 'cause that's what pastors do.
And on the final day,
the organizers asked the attendees to consider making an investment in the work
so that more people would be able to come to the conference. The next year, I,
I felt prompted. I felt moved by the Holy Spirit.
I felt compelled they were doing good work. I wanted to be a part of it.
I prayed and asked God what to give.
And then I gave and a couple of days later before the check, yes a check,
some of you have never seen a check, but a check had cleared my account.
I freaked out.
I was afraid that I wouldn't have enough money to make it through the rest of
the month.
So I called my bank shamefully and I stopped the check and I
felt so crushed because I knew I had disobeyed God.
Well the month went on and it turned out that I had enough to have given even
more than the sum that I gave.
But I was so afraid of losing something.
And so in need of control that I missed an
opportunity to be a blessing and thereby be blessed.
It's a shameful story.
But my hope as always is that my transparency will
cultivate a culture of honesty in our community. Amen.
Fast forward to today by God's grace alone. And hear me say it again.
By God's grace alone, this is not a humble brag of any kind. Brianna,
my wife and I are now able to give away about 17% of our
yearly income. And maybe you're wondering what changed and when.
Well, about 11 years ago,
I received a clear and straightforward understanding from God while I was
reading the scriptures.
It became unavoidably clear to me that nothing I
have is mine. I don't own anything,
but I get to manage everything that God has entrusted to me.
Now maybe I'm slow. You know, maybe you had this epiphany years ago.
I have had multiple concussions, you know that.
And so maybe I'm on on the train a little later than you,
but I did not see it until I was 32 years old and already
pastoring a church. And when I be,
begin to finally see myself as a manager of God's
stuff, listen to this, don't miss this.
A manager of God's stuff rather than an owner of my stuff.
Brianna and I started to give big and in faith and our family began to
experience immense blessing of every kind.
And when you hear me say the word blessing,
I'm not talking about wishing a Lamborghini into your driveway.
That's not the gospel.
I'm talking about blessing that far exceeds even monetary blessing.
And yet the Bible even promises some of that as well.
And so today I wanna share four truths concerning money and possessions
that are helping me grow into a soul of blessing.
And I believe they can help you too. But here's a quick note.
Here's a quick note For those of you who are new here,
whether online or in the room or those wrestling with their faith,
you're probably thinking to yourself, great.
I show up to church and they get the biggest dude on the teaching team to shake
me down for money. ,
I wanna put your mind at ease. Okay? Today's not about that.
Giving to God through your local church is not something to be forced or feared.
Can I get a good amen on that?
It is the convergence of two things.
Your own personal spiritual journey of becoming a soul
of blessing and your own trust in what God
is doing in a local church. And so today is not about that.
It's it's only about the first part of the equation.
Our personal spiritual journey toward becoming a soul
of blessing. And my singular hope today,
my singular hope is that at the end of this, you will take just one step,
one step forward on your spiritual journey toward generosity,
whatever that looks like for you. So I'm gonna tell you this,
take out your pen and paper,
get your Presbyterian amens ready 'cause you want to write this down. Okay?
The first principle or the first truth,
rather we call the cosmic ownership principle.
The cosmic ownership principle. God owns it all.
God owns it all. The psalmist writes this in Psalm 24,
the Earth and everything in it,
the world and its inhabitants belonged to the Lord.
For he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the
rivers. The psalmist tells us that all created things, anate and inanimate,
human and animal material and immaterial belong to God.
All of it is His why, because he made it all. He shapes it all,
he sustains it all. He holds it all together.
Paul says by the word of his power,
it all belongs to him.
And given that everything in the known and unknown world belongs to God,
that it stands to reason that what we have in our hands,
what we have in our pockets, what we have in our accounts,
what we have in our properties, what we have in assets,
all of that belongs to him too.
It's His God owns everything. And if God owns everything,
guess what that means that I own nothing.
That's the cosmic ownership principle. In his book,
the Treasure principle author Randy Alcorn, great book by the,
by the way you should read it, uh,
shares a story of a local business owner who experienced this epiphany.
Jerry Craven had a successful restaurant chain. He, he had two banks,
not one, but two a ranch. He's basically living my dream life, okay?
Real estate ventures. And at age 59,
Jerry began looking toward retirement.
Who here would like to retire by 59 ? That's,
it's not gonna happen for most of us. Let's just, we're gonna work forever.
'cause the interest rates keep climbing. Age 59,
he was looking toward retirement.
He began searching for a lovely lakeside property.
And then I imagine he was sitting in a worship service at some point in his life
and God got a hold of his heart and turned it into a different direction,
toward greater giving instead.
And when asked what changed his attitude toward giving, this is what,
this is what Jerry said. Look at it. He said it was realizing
God's ownership.
Once we understood that we were giving away God's money
to do God's work,
we discovered a peace and a joy we never
had back when we thought it was our money.
It clicked for Jerry. God owns everything.
So he gets to decide what happens with what Jerry and his wife possess.
God owns it all. In fact, Hagga I two eight says this,
the silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts.
One can't get more precise than that.
The currency itself belongs to God,
not just the land and the people and the polar ends of the universe.
It all belongs to him. And so if you want to be a soul of blessing,
the first step is to accept that you own nothing.
Nothing you have is yours.
Knowing God owns everything leads us to the second truth.
And that is that we manage God's money, we manage God's money.
The stewardship principle, that's what that's called.
The stewardship principle tells us that we have the privilege. Listen,
the privilege of managing God's possessions,
being God's manager is a noble calling.
Now you may be thinking to yourself as I have in the past,
well I made this money, I'm the one working 60, 70, 80 hours a week,
90 hours a week I made this money. But as a follow of the way of Jesus,
how do we reconcile thinking that?
And this is a question I've asked myself in the past.
How do I reconcile thinking that with God's own words?
Listen to it from Deuteronomy eight 17 through 18. You may say to yourself,
it's almost like the Bible has something to address everything that we might be
thinking. You may say to yourself,
my power and my own ability have gained this wealth from me.
But remember that the Lord,
your God gives you the power to gain wealth
in order to confirm his covenant that he swore to your
ancestors,
as it is to God gives us the power to get money.
So do you see how these are building on one another? God owns it.
God gives us the power to get it, which reasonably means what?
That God expects good management of his stuff.
And so hearing that at minimum should make us ask the question and am I a good
manager of God's stuff? Okay, so God owns it all.
We have the privilege of managing God's possessions, stewardship principle,
the cosmic ownership principle.
And then the third truth comes from Jesus' own words and and it is this,
my heart follows where I put God's money.
It's a heart principle.
My heart follows where I put God's money.
Look at Matthew six 19 through 21 with me.
Don't store up treasures here on earth where moths eat them
and rust destroys them.
Where thieves break in and steal them.
Rather store your treasure in heaven where moths and rust cannot
destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal.
Because wherever your treasure is there,
the desires of your heart will be also.
Martin Luther said this,
show me where a man spends his time and his money
and I will show you his God, our spending,
our saving if we do it, our investments,
if we're able our giving or lack thereof,
it reflects our heart and our priorities.
It may be worth noting today that Jesus talked about money
more than he did life or death, heaven or Hell,
13 of his parables or about money in possessions. Why is that?
Because that is the thing that holds so tightly to our hearts.
And if he can get that, then he's got all of us.
He's got every part of us by telling us that our hearts follow our treasure.
Jesus is essentially saying, show me your bank account.
Show me your credit card statement. Show me your receipts.
I will show you where your heart is. Money leads, heart follows.
If you want giving to feel like gain and not loss,
then you have to let your heart be led to eternal endeavors and not
temporal ones. A w to you said this,
any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth.
Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality.
So we have the cosmic ownership principle, the stewardship principle,
the heart principle.
And the final truth that I'll share today is this.
Give God your first and your best and you will be blessed.
Give God your first. I didn't even mean to rhyme that it just happened.
It just happened.
Give God your first and your best and you will be blessed. Well,
where do you get that from? Pastor. It's the first fruits principle.
Proverbs three, nine through 10. Honor the Lord with the what?
First of your possessions and the first of your produce,
of your entire harvest. Then. So there's an if then clause here,
then your barns will be completely filled and your vats will overflow with new
wine. Can we get a shout for some new wine? Bless God.
The rest of you're Baptist. I know. Um,
now we don't typically deal in produce. All right there,
there's a urban farming thing going on in Atlanta that I don't understand,
like there's goats just hanging out in people's front yards. And you know,
I'm like subway weight or trains going by,
buses going by the goats just looking. So, so that is happening.
In fact, our worship pastor has a full garden in his backyard,
but most of us don't deal in produce. And so how does this apply? Well,
back then, this was the currency. They didn't have gold and,
and and silver the way that we do now.
They certainly didn't have paper money the way they did that they dealt was in
trading. Trading what they grew, what they raised,
what they had in land and possessions.
And so the principle here in Proverbs three is saying,
give God your first and your best and you will be blessed hearing in varying
places in the scriptures and through the lens of varying authors.
We see this as the first fruits principle. Why?
Because what we believe about God is most
evident in what we do with money and possessions.
When you give God your first and your best,
you're showing that your deepest affection is toward him.
This is a discipleship issue and intertwined in that affection and
intertwined in that relational bond, God says,
is unspeakable blessing for us. And so Solomon tells us,
honor God with your best honor means to hold him in high esteem
with your first and your best.
In most sense,
you'll find yourself in the midst of biblical math where the more you give,
the more you seem to have to give.
He certainly understood this principle as he wrote in in,
in the rest of Proverbs chapter 11.
One person gives freely yet gains more.
Another person withholds what is right,
only to become poor.
A generous person will be enriched.
And so when we roll all of these together, the cosmic ownership principle,
the stewardship principle, the heart principle, the first fruits principle,
and we understand the biblical narrative that God is writing about,
how we handle what he entrusts to us,
then our thinking gets reversed.
And we no longer think that giving is losing.
No giving is gain. Giving is gain.
It is not lost. It is gain.
And when we choose to join God in blessing this world,
he continually restocks our shelves so that we always
have more to bless others with. And for those of you who are nerds like me,
lemme give you a little science as well.
Evidence shows that consistent givers even beyond
finances, let's not get locked in there.
Even beyond finances are blessed. This is what the evidence shows,
that they are happier than those who do not give consistently.
That they suffer fewer illnesses and injuries.
I don't even know how that's related. That they live a greater purpose,
that they experience less depression.
Giving according to science is a sort of miracle drug.
And it's an opportunity for us to participate in the wonderful work that God is
doing in the world. Now,
if you're not yet a follow the way of Jesus or you are generally suspicious of
the church, then today could feel like a high hurdle.
And I wanna pull as much of that down as possible before we close our time.
You may have thought that people only give under compulsion or pressure or
guilt, but the scriptures are clear that it's not supposed to be that way.
Giving is a response to God's generosity.
God was the one that went first.
God went first when he gave Jesus to the world before we gave him anything.
And Jesus came to this earth and he lived perfectly and he died tragically and
unjustly at the hands of his own people in the Roman government.
But only because he allowed it.
He gave his life so that you and I could receive forgiveness for rejecting his
love and his leadership.
He gave his life so that you and I could live an eternal and
abundant life. Anything we give to God,
anything we give to God is a response to the generosity he extended to us first.
Not an effort to earn anything from him.
And so the invitation today, if you are not yet a follower of Jesus,
is to commit to following Jesus so that you see what life with him
is actually about. This is not a shakedown, it's an invitation.
In fact, here's what I want to do.
I want to give you a chance to today to either commit or recommit your life to
Jesus. I don't know if you guys do this here,
but I'm gonna ask you to humor me for a moment. Every head bowed,
every eye close.
If today is a day that you want to recommit or commit your life to Jesus,
would you just let me know by slipping up your hands so I can pray for you?
Amen. I see that. Anybody else,
if today is that day for you, praise God,
I wanna invite you to do a second thing. It's a simple prayer. A simple prayer.
And this, it's not a magical prayer. There's no magic in the prayer.
It's just words to gather our thoughts around what Jesus might be doing
in your heart. And if you wanna pray this with me,
you can pray quietly right there in your seat to yourself or on your couch or
kitchen table, wherever you are. Jesus, I trust you.
I regret rejecting your love and your leadership.
I accept your forgiveness. I commit to following you.
Now, if you all would indulge me one more time,
the Bible says that when one person returns to the Lord,
all of heaven celebrates.
Can we celebrate together that somebody's life changed for eternity today?
Amen.
If you prayed that prayer in faith and you're here in the room,
I'm gonna invite you to let us know by texting follow to
7 2 9 8 9 text follow to 7 2 9 8 9.
And we will help you take the next step into life united with Jesus and his
people. And if you're online with us, just type in the chat, follow,
just type it in the chat.
And one of our pastors will circle back with you as soon as they can.
And then I'll make one other invitation that somebody's gonna be watching this
on demand.
You're gonna be watching it in the middle of the night or on your lunch break
or, or at some point in the future. And, and,
and if this is your moment to commit or recommit to Jesus,
just send that text,
follow to 7 2 9 8 9 and we will
walk with you toward the abundant life that Jesus promises
to everyone. Our invitation today is clear,
become a soul of blessing.
Strive to live so that your generosity with all that God
has entrusted to you makes everything better everywhere
you are.
Take one step and here's what I promise,
I promise you that while it won't
immediate,
most likely you will begin to see your heart.
Follow Jesus in a new open-handed way.
And your soul, your soul will grow fat
and your life will become richer.
I see hope community as a church of overwhelming
generosity and overwhelmingly blessed people.
I see hope as a church that the surrounding community cannot live without.
That if these doors were to close, then the whole triangle would suffer.
And for us to live into being that community,
then we must see giving as gain.
We must see God as owner and we
have to trust him with open hands and everything
around us.
Everything around us will become more transformed
and reflective of the kingdom of God.
If you want to be a part of that, I'm gonna ask you one more time,
give me a good amen.
1: Amen.
5: Father, we thank you now in the name of Jesus that when you speak,
we listen even when it's something that is disquieting or
uncomfortable. And so we pray now
that whatever is stirring in our hearts that you were directed to,
to your ends and that your spirit would do the work that only your spirit
can do
and that we would truly be changed to people when we reenter
the world tomorrow,
we ask it all in the precious and matchless name of Jesus.
Amen And amen. Thank you guys.