Intro/Outro: You're listening to the Garden Church podcast. We're in a series called Church on Fire, a journey through the book of Acts. This is a story of ordinary people filled with the spirit, carrying the presence of Jesus into every corner of
The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and in us today. Join us as we step into the call to be people set on fire for his mission.
Darren Rouanzoin: 11, hello. I gosh. Problem of doing lots of services is when God shows up in the first one, you get wrecked and then you have to keep going two more times and we witness such miracles in this first service. I I can't even tell you perhaps one of the greatest witness miracles I've seen And, and then it would like float into signs and wonders. And it's about money.
So as soon as I said that, whoop. So like why? Why as John talks about giving does your heart just shut down? Like where did you go? This is what this I know this is what happens.
I feel it every time we talk about money which is why one of the reasons we stopped the living giving liturgy was because I was tired of walking on stage hearing blah blah blah blah blah and then all the hearts just shrink. It's because what happens is when we talk about money, lots of things go on in our heart, right? One, we immediately get suspicious. Like I don't trust the church. There's ulterior ulterior motives.
Yeah. We pay for communion elements, free coffee, electricity, their salaries, there's budgets going way far above and beyond and you've been disciple by religion inc or whatever, business of religion, TikTok and Instagram, you've been discipled by deconstructionism and distrust of any authority. So therefore, yes, more than scripture, more than Jesus, you've been discipled by culture. So yeah, let's check out on suspicion and distrust. I'm gonna start hot.
Also, shame, which is what you brought in here. Guilt and shame. Guilt is not a bad thing. Shame is from Satan. Right?
So what we've done is we've allowed our lack of knowledge around our personal finances or our limited knowledge which immediately pushes us pushes us into shame. So we feel like we're not doing enough therefore we aren't enough. Like what little limited knowledge you might have about finances in the church and what Jesus is asking of you. You're like, I'm not doing enough therefore I am not enough. So what you do is you check out because you've been discipled in a culture that says numb yourself from the pain.
Right? So like get on, just scroll through. Just just watch the next YouTube, binge watch the next episode, push away the spirit's conviction that requires action and keep serving your other idols. Because what what happens is we talk about money and you get offend we get offended. And and the reality is, do you know that Jesus talked about money more than anything else in all of the scriptures except for the kingdom of God?
Second most talked about topic by Jesus. More than prayer. More than discipleship. You can quote John three sixteen but can you quote any of the parables, the 17 parables that talk about money? And and the implications he has is that how you manage your life here, your material possessions, your wealth, your resource matters in eternity.
But we don't wanna talk about that. We wanna we wanna just control because when I talk about money, I confront your individualism. When it comes to money, wanna do it my way. I wanna do I what happens is you maybe some of you get into giving and you you you do a little bit here and there and then God gets serious and and then as you get along your expenditures grow because we live in the wealthiest region of the wealthiest state in the wealthiest nation in the world. So yeah check out when we talk about finances because your heart is somewhere else.
And Jesus doesn't say show me your heart then I'll show you your treasures. He says show me your treasures, your bank account, your hopes, your dreams, your 501C3, I'm sorry, your 401K, your cars your second homes your third homes your travel plans show me that and I'll show you your heart. In other words brothers and sisters you want account accountability bring your monthly giving statements and let me show you what you worship. That's the Darren paraphrase of Matthew chapter six. Why do I say all that?
I want you to give Jesus everything you have. Because he says, if you don't pick up your cross, if you don't hate your mother and brother and says, don't you're not worth following me. It's not worth it. So in this consumer Christianity that wants to play around this give God a percentage forget that. That's not biblical.
And we'll talk about that in a second because the biblical amount in the Old Testament is 23.3% not 10. Oh what? Yeah exactly. Got you there. Give God a tip and live your merry way?
No. It's not even a tip today. Minimum 20% at garden 30%. I want to be known around all baristas and waiters and waitresses that gardeners are in the house. We tip 30 or we don't go out.
Yeah. Let me pray. Open your hands. Close your eyes. God's gonna move today.
Yes. I'm shaking from the 9AM. Yeah. And I just want more. So Jesus, you are Lord.
That means you're king. That means you have the authority over all things in our life. So we submit, joyfully surrender because you're a good king. You're in a good mood. You're happy and you wanna give us your joy.
And Lord as this message goes out, I pray in the power of the Holy Spirit that you release the wounds, the shame, the disappointment, the fear and the longing. You release the lies. You awaken us to confront ourselves in how we've managed our resources. That we may honor you not just with our songs of worship but with our lives and finances, our budgets and bank accounts, Our venmos and our spending. Our lattes and our lives.
I'm a be a preacher one day. Would you bless this church to awaken to what's real and true. Confront the idols in our life. We wanna we wanna put it put on a bonfire this morning. We put any idol that leads us away from you in there And we wanna burn the bridges back to our idolatry.
So light us a flame in Jesus name. Amen. You can already sense the spirit? Yes. I don't pray good prayers unless the Lord's in it.
My prayers are very short and weak. And then the Lord shows up and he begins to minister to you. Can I say hi to all the overflow people real quick? Can we put the overflow up? I wanna say hi to overflow.
Hi guys. Love you. So glad you're watching us on TV right now. But you're here, you're in the room. When I ask for hands, can raise your hand and also can I just say, we're gonna have a response at some point?
You can come in here or go forward, there'll be a team in there just so you know. Okay. Hold your Bibles up. Why don't you keep that up? Let's just see that.
Let's see how many percentage wise, how many they have? How many Bibles they have? Come on. Percentage wise, overflow wins. Let's go.
No. You guys are good. You can't do it like this. Like, I brought my Bible. It's this.
What is this like? Come on. Alright. We're gonna go to Acts chapter two. We're gonna read two passages of scripture and today I wanna talk about what's at the center of the early church in the book of Acts.
What's at the center of the church. What's at the center of the people of God throughout history is extravagant generosity. I said extravagant generosity. Some of you don't know the way of generosity and today you're gonna get a biblical thesis for the way of Jesus is the way of generosity. Acts chapter two verse 42.
Can we all rise, stand if you are able? Rise for the benediction, for the public reading of the word. I'm gonna read this and then one more passage and then you can say after I say the word of the Lord you can say thanks be to God. Training you some practices of ancient church tradition. One thing I love is this is our liturgy.
Liturgy are just like the formal process of worship. We have lots of little liturgies. We take communion every Sunday. We worship. We read scripture.
We teach. We pray for the sick. We give our offerings and our tithes. And sometimes the Holy Spirit interrupts and I call them the supernatural liturgies he wants to insert. And today it was a big one.
It stopped. I couldn't finish my sermon. So points had to stop, it was like that classic moment where Peter's preaching and the spirit falls, he's like, Oh I'm not done with point three. Alright get baptized. And that happened today.
I hope it happens again I can't make it happen. So Lord, we're ready. Let's read this. All the believers were one in heart and mind. I'm in the wrong passage.
I'm in the next one. Just call me prophetic. I don't know. I don't know. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possession to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes, ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Oh love that one. Go to chapter four verse 32. These are two snapshots, images, pictures of the early church. This is what it looked like when the spirit came and the church existed together.
Verse 32 it says, All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own. But they shared everything they had. I feel that same thing baby. No Lord.
No not my own. From the mouth of babes. At least one of us is honest in here today. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Listen to this.
And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there was no needy person among them. For from time to time, those who own land or houses sold them brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet and it was distributed to anyone who had need. One of the stories is Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus whom the apostle called Barnabas nicknamed son of encouragement sold the field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles feet. The word of the Lord. Alright go ahead and grab a seat.
The thing I want to talk about is extravagant generosity. What you see in the early church is that the spirit filled church is a generous church. Put it on the screen. Let's see it. Take a photo.
Write it down. Put it in your heart. The spirit filled church is a generous church. When the spirit begins to move on this new community of God that grows into the thousands in the first inception chapter two chapter four snapshot from Luke. Luke gives you like a documentary picture of this is what it looks like.
It says over and over again, this new community represents heaven on earth. This is what heaven looks like now in the present and over and over again he says, it's marked by generosity. It's marked by this instinct within the people of God to say you don't have enough and I have more than enough. Even if I have enough let me decrease my provision to make sure you have enough. Miraculous isn't it?
So Cal is that miraculous? I mean that's miraculous Orange County Long Beach LA County the wealthiest counties in the world to become the kind of people formed by the presence of God Not because of activation from a cultural narrative. Not from a philosophical mindset that everyone has to be equal in how much money we make. No. A move of God moves inside of a person and the person now sees all of the resources he has or she has and has to put it at the feet of Jesus to entrust the needs of this new family because now the ties that I had that were once blood are now including this community of who all who partake in the Eucharist.
The body and blood of Jesus in a juice and a wafer. Now that that commitment to my mom and my dad and my brothers and my relatives now come here. That is miraculous. I see it in the scriptures. I see it over and over again and you see it throughout history.
I love what Tim Keller says. He says, the early church was strikingly different from culture, from the culture around it in this way. The pagan society was stingy with its money and promiscuous with its body. A 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.
That's our origin story. Acts two and four, Spirit filled people live with soft hearts and open hands. So I wanna train this church in if you watch the video that went out for our giving campaign which can I just say I hope that it's answered this week? That there there are financial all of you can participate in providing the needs for this local house of God. We'll talk about that later.
But I realized the thing years ago, the thing behind the thing in our church has always been generosity. It's always been this this ability where we've seen so many stories and testimonies of God doing incredibly generous acts. Not one person giving all of our budget but lots of sacrifice. Lots of above and beyond. Lots of sharing the the things that we possess for those that don't have it.
But, what I realized is that we live in a culture that is deforming us towards scarcity. The kingdom of God is about abundance but we've been trained and discipled into scarcity. And I remember it years ago, I was on this men's retreat, 2016 and there were two cars, groups of cars that were traveling from Southern California to Colorado for this event and we were we were caravanning up there and on the way there, halfway through, one of the cars broke down. We had to drop it off at a mechanic, they weren't gonna be able to fix it at that time, we're gonna have to come back. So we put all of the other dudes and the small 4Runner and all the stuff on top of the car.
We wrapped it. It was pouring down rain. It was chaos. We were trying to figure out what to do. We had to make it to a campsite that night before it got dark because they locked us out so we had to get to this location quick.
So we put all of our stuff on top. We tied it down. We hopped in the car. Six very large men. I somehow got in the front seat.
I don't know how it happened. But I was I was sitting there and we couldn't stop for lunch. We're all starving and we're all complaining about being hungry and I open my backpack. Can I borrow your backpack for me? I open my backpack and I look and I somehow stuffed all the snacks that I had that my wife provided for me for the trip in the back and I go and I pull out dried mangoes and I immediately stick it in.
Because I had this thought and this is what we think. This is the thought that shapes our formation Yeah. With all things as Southern California people. If I open it there won't be enough for me. So I stick it back in.
And as as quick as I stick it back in and have that there's not gonna be enough for me thought. I hear in my head what I come to know as the small voice, the whisper from the father. And he said this to me, if this is how you are with dried mango, where else in your life are you holding back? And it began to shape my view and my life. Thank you pastor.
And I opened it up and I said, who needs who wants dried mango? And it was gone in a moment. Ravenous wolves they were. And I began to realize that if that's how I am with dried mango, where else in my life do I hold back from God and from others? That same week I found out.
I was on this trip with five friends in Colorado experiencing this men's event. There was a 22 year old girl in our church who was an exchange student from Hong Kong that was finishing her school here, who had purchased a new car and had joined a house church and one of the families that were a part of her house church in Downtown Long Beach had five kids and both of the parents were working and they had to do, they only had one car. And they, they were taking public transportation forty five to an hour, forty five minutes to an hour each, each way. And she thought as she went home, instead of selling the car, a single college student starting her career in Hong Kong, $22,000 car, I'm gonna give that to the family in five. So here your pastor, not sharing dried mango, came back to the testimony of a 22 year old college student from another nation offering a family of seven her car.
You see, what I realized is that God trains us in the mangoes so he can train us in cars. Yes. He trains us with dried mangoes so he can train us with homes and shoes and clothes and libraries and gifts and thousands of dollars and millions of dollars so that we are formed in this vision of generosity that he's had from the beginning of time. Are you with me church? So God wants to first start with dried mangoes and then move you to miracles.
The same spirit who convicts, I'll put, oh it's on this yeah. It's good. I got the greats. I got good slides. I've seen so many stories at this church of generosity and it's the spirit that whispers, open your hands.
It's so subtle. You don't know where it leads. I remember my good friend, one of our elders was saving up for years to buy a camper van. He wanted an off road camper van, he had a four runner. And in our covenant community, we don't make big purchases without covenant.
So we we process it with the brothers and we we say, what what is your, what are you, how are you finances? How's your giving? Where where is God moving your life? And we hold each other accountable not just for sin but for the kingdom life that God calls us to. That same group was the group that was saying, God calls us to pray for miracles so we're gonna hold each other accountable for the miraculous in our everyday life.
So one time after a month of discernment we're like, yeah bro, you can buy that camper. You've been giving generous generously like you're gonna sell your your your four Runner which is valued at $45,000. You're gonna sell it so you'll you'll have a small payment. Great. Go for it.
Buys it. Buys the camper van of his dreams and he's sitting in church and the Lord whispers to him, give the Forerunner valued at $45,000 away to your best friend. Tells his wife she's like, what? No. And he does it.
Little did he know that his best friend's dream car was the 4Runner. I can't tell you how many cars have been exchanged. We have at least two that were exchanged in the 9AM service from that testimony. More? Get your keys out.
Because there's a waiting list of three other people or so. Four. Four other people that need cars. Brothers and sisters, I'm not joking. This is gonna be elderly single mom.
I'll tell you the testimony in a second because I know God's gonna do it again in a different way. I don't wanna spoil the surprise when some of you have courage to begin the process. In our church, we've seen dramatic generosity starting right now. Okay. Great.
Great. Drop it right there. The the generosity of our church has always marked what God's done and he does it as a grace over people. Like I I I have so many stories like my I have a friend who's extremely generous like God gave him extraordinary wealth and he's really good at making money. Like God gave him the gift of just making money like early investment of Facebook, of Amazon, of Tesla, of the video.
Like he's just he he he that's the guy sold his business. He but God also gave him the gift of generosity. We're not, yes he stewards his like he is so creative like we did an event at his house one year and he had all these young people, we're all young and he did prizes for his for all these young married couples for these random games. It's like who can keep the balloon up the longest? Free flights and all expenses paid to Hawaii for that couple.
We're like I wasn't playing serious enough keep me uppy. He's he's sent staff members and and and people that could never take a vacation because they're living paycheck to paycheck to their second home in Hawaii. All expenses paid. Cash in the pocket for food out. I mean, that is a gift of generosity with the resource of generosity.
Only we don't talk about it here because we want to talk about percentages. Early church was strikingly different. And the same spirit who convicts us over mangoes is forming a people who will share cars and homes and bank accounts for those in need. It's a different kind of faith. I was at our our sister church River House in Boise and it it was one of the most amazing miracles.
I've had multiple multiple miracles until the 9AM. 9AM is probably my favorite now. Until eleven. We'll just see. No, you can't.
God just has to move. I was at River House and we had this elder meeting. Well I did an elder retreat for all the elders like 20 something people there and the spouses were all there and we we were like teaching them the culture of garden. I was with another elder from our church and taught like three times a day and and the Friday we got there they got this email that this building they've been praying for became available for purchase. It was gonna have to act fast, be ready to go.
And and the crazy thing about the story is when Jordan started the church, his first public gathering with like 30 people, he told the church his vision. And he says, if you wanna know where we'll be in ten years, he started calling out the vision of the church. And then he said, we're gonna be at this building, it's called The Armory in Downtown Boise next to Boise State University. And that's the building that became available that Friday, eight and a half years later. So in that meeting, they were discerning, do we make a a risk?
Do we take a risk and buy it for $9,000,000? They didn't have $9,000,000. They had no idea but in faith, they're like, we're gonna go for it. And on the drive from Park City to Boise, I was scheduled to preach that night. The Lord's like, preach on generosity.
So I I do this talk on generosity and I've done it all over. I did it in The UK. I've done it other churches. People are like, take Have me come and talk about generosity. Because of what God has done in this church.
And this guy, I tell a story, I told this story, I said, hey, there was a time when there was a single mom in our church. I didn't know she was a single mom. But I had this this thought that there was there was a woman or a person here that was getting evicted. She was a single mom and she did $1,500 for rent. This is in the second service that was happening in Downtown Long Beach.
So I be I couldn't get up at the 11:00 and preach. I started reading and stumbling over the world's words and I was like, fine God, I'll stop. And I said, hey, let's pray. I prayed, I'm like, I'm gonna give this word and if it's if it's for someone, we'll know. Is there a single mom here and it's $1,500 that's gonna get evicted?
She raises the eviction notice. $1,500. I was like, oh my gosh, God's real. Cool. I'm gonna preach.
No. Then we passed the bucket a second time, put all the cash in. Exactly $1,500 was given. I share this story and at the end of the sermon, I'm not done with my notes, this man comes up like like this man just did and put cash on the on the stage. And he said I need to lay it at the apostles feet.
And all of a sudden just it was a mountain of cash like at the 9AM today. A mountain of cash and you know people they've never seen this before. No one's ever done this before. I've only done it a couple of times like, yes, know exactly what God's doing. Yes.
I have no idea. I'm freaking out. So I'm like, okay, maybe there's some single moms and sure enough, there are single moms that come forward and they just weep as they receive this offering. So here's what happened in the 9AM. I was finishing this.
I wasn't finished with my sermon. A young man comes up and I The story is, he went and got cash out during the sermon. Came back and interrupted the sermon and put cash down. And I'm like, okay, great. And as soon as he put cash down, the Lord said to me, and this is I don't know.
Okay. So this but here's how I sensed there's a single dad here. So I said, I think this is for a single dad. And then I felt immediately and he's grieving. Yeah.
A guy stands up or I say, is there a single dad? One guy in the back, I can't see him because of the lights, raises his hands. It's single dad whose wife just passed away from cancer. Yeah. And they helped start our church.
They were living in South Africa for two and a half years as she was battling cancer. Brian and Amy Colgan. Amy just passed away. She helped start our church. She helped us move in here.
She was a dancer that would dance before she got diagnosed with cancer. And you guys, over $10,000 cash were given here and $7,500 on Venmo. $17,000. Yeah. We launched our campaign to cover our finances and we just gave away $17,000 to a single dad.
That's what the liturgy said to do. Here's what that's about, grace. Yes. That's grace. You can't repeat that.
We can't try to mimic what God did uniquely but here's what it requires, a heart to respond to Jesus. Are you alright? Can we go to the text now? Let's Alright. Let's so, I was supposed to tell the stories but I wanna show you in scripture and hopefully I'll get through some more talk talking points because it's I've got a lot of great content but I I decided already next week I'm gonna continue the conversation.
Is that okay? Because I can't get through all this because there's so much good. But one of the things that I I wanna tell you is that there's a great passage that gives us a a a framework for this heart of generosity. It's in first John chapter three verse 16. If you have a bible, go there.
Did I miss any points? Person who's I can't see who's running slides. Let me see. Oh, yeah. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Okay. So so in first John chapter three verse 16, John is is teaching the church how to live pastorally. Here's how we live and what he wants you to know is that love is not abstract. First John chapter three verse 16. Love is very tangible.
Love is not about your intentions. Any married couples here fight over intentions? That's what I meant. Any Gen Z, Alpha Gen that wanna be you know parented based on intentions? What I meant was love is very action based.
Look at what he says. He says, this is how we know what love is. Okay. How do you want how what is love? Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
So the image we have, this is what love is. Love is tangible. Love is the cross. If you ever question what love looks like in any situation, it's Jesus self sacrifice on the cross. Can I say amen?
Hallelujah. It's cruciform. But just in case you wanna keep it as a worship song. Just in case you wanna keep love abstract like a sonnet but soft with light through yonder window bricks. It is the east and Juliet is the sun.
Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon who is sick and pale with grief. No. Love is not a sonnet. That was good. I know.
I studied Shakespeare. You're welcome. Some of you are like, oh oh, Romeo. So we don't keep love up on the stage or in our head or in a worship. No no no.
Here's what we know. Look ready for this. Let's read it right here. Here's the practical. If anyone has material possessions.
If anyone has some stuff and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, shuts their heart off to them. That word pity is the word compassion. It means to be moved from within to do something about the situation. If you don't have that, well then how on earth can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
The call for the church that is being formed in Christ likeness by the pastors and the apostles by the power of the Holy Spirit is to recognize that there's a direct correlation between how you manage your resources and the love of God for others. This is not to sing songs like this is what we do. Oh, love God. I do the one thing that is required of me. Luke chapter 10.
Just gonna adore Jesus' feet. Only the verses before is the story of the Good Samaritan. So just throw that out. Focus in. Oh, love is just self sacrificial love on the cross.
Oh, love it. I'm I'm always doing that. Do you share your resources? It hurts. Right?
I see your head. You're like, it it stings. This is what I felt when I was preparing because I'm like this is where it hits. It hits us in the SoCal jugular. Yeah.
Like this is the thing. This I mean we build consumer churches. Right? And then we don't talk about it or when we do it feels all sorts of shame. But the biblical narrative is to share your resources.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 15. I'm just gonna prove this. I like to make a case so that you're like dead by the end of the sermon. You're buried under the weight of truth. You can walk out if you need to leave.
That was the time because it's only gonna get worse. No. I'm not talking to you. I see you. Go ahead.
You're good. Love you, dude. No. There was someone else who was walking out. I see you leaving in shame.
No. He's not. He's he's going to the restroom. Be weary. I'd be careful.
I'm loose today. 11:00 this is how it is at one. I don't know what's going on. Okay. Here it is.
Deuteronomy, 15 verse seven. So Deuteronomy is written by Moses. Alright. So Moses' last you call it an epistle. This is his pastoral encouragement for the people of God Israel to live in response to I love it.
Thank you so much. To live in response to Yahweh. He's he's teaching the next generation. This is what's required for you to be faithful to Yahweh as you go into a new season of life. What's the new season of life?
The new season of life is prospering. It's flourishing. You get land with milk and honey. It's gonna be abundant. You're gonna have vineyards and gardens and homes and your kids are gonna settle and they're gonna have great great great great grandkids and so he preaches Deuteronomy with passion to not forget what was formed in Exodus.
What was formed in Exodus. He says this verse seven. If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in that town of the lands the Lord your God has given you, do not be hard hearted or tight fisted towards them. Rather be open handed and freely lend them whatever they need. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought.
The seventh year, the year of canceling debts is near so that you do not show ill will towards the needy among your fellow Israelites in giving them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord to cry out against you and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart. Then because of the this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work, in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land.
Therefore, I command you to ope to be open handed towards your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. So what's going on here? Well, this is called the provisional law. If you read Leviticus, if you read Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, there's these laws that God puts in place for the people of God to reflect him to the world. So the goal was Israel would live in covenant with Yahweh in a way that how they lived together would point the nations.
Get behind me, Satan. Would point the nations to Yahweh that the way they lived would reveal God to the world. So one of the things he has in the law is provisional laws. Every seven years debts would be cancelled. Could you imagine?
Anyone? Amen. Amen. We're believing for it. Faith is rising.
Cancel debts. So we immediately apply our political agenda to that, both sides. But in the old testament, God's like, okay, if you're gonna be my people, you're gonna live in a way with your resources that provide. So here's what's gonna happen. There are there's gonna be a time where debts are cancelled and here's what I need you to do.
I need you to lend to those who ask. Speaking of, it's the Israelites. We're not talking about anyone and everyone. We're talking about the people of God. We care for each other.
Yeah. Right? That's key. We care for each other in this local church. So in the old testament they cared for each other if there were people that had enough and there were poor people in the land, the people that had enough would share and lend to those that didn't have enough.
And he says otherwise they will cry out which is what Exodus begins with. Israel cries out to Yahweh. God sends Moses to liberate them from Pharaoh in Egypt. He says, don't be hard hearted or tight fisted. Hard hearted, tight fisted.
Where does the Bible speak of hard hearted when it's first mentioned in the in the story of God? You said it. Pharaoh. So he's saying, as you go into the land of abundance, empire creeps in when you close your heart off to your brother and sister. Empire creeps in when you you say there's not enough for me.
So you hold back. You become pharaoh Which in the Exodus is anti Yahweh. John and his got his epistle, he'll call it Antichrist but that's a whole other conversation. Anti anointing, anti Jesus like. When we treat each other like pharaohs.
So generosity is a practice of freedom. Remember the story of Israel is that they were liberated as an act of grace and now God saying, go into this flourishing place, this promised land knowing that it's all grace in the first place. So therefore, generosity is a practice of freedom. So generosity is exodus spirituality. It's what free people do.
So the question is, are you living free or are you a slave to empire? Just let that sit in. When you look at your resources, do you live as a slave to empire or you living at an obedient freedom because all is grace? Yeah? Yes.
We okay? Yes. Generosity aligns us with the heart of God. At the center of the gospel, there's this famous passage John three sixteen. You guys know it.
Ready? For God so loved the world, he held back some of his own. No. No. No.
For God so loved the world, he gave some of his son. He gave a percentage. Oh. Yeah. Does that sing?
I surrender some. Sing it. I This is what you feel. Some. Right?
This is what's real. Percentage to Jesus. Just a tip 10 eyes. We're recording live music on the nineteenth. By the grace of Lord I am not going to be singing those songs.
Faith faith has standards and guidelines for leadership. One of those is excellence and I don't I don't meet the criteria. I do have the heart. When we step into the flow of generosity, it aligns us with the heart of God. You see that the kingdom of God expands.
When Jesus looks out and sees people harassed and helpless, he says, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers and laborers. The very next thing he does is give away authority and power to his disciples to do what he had been doing. So the expansion of the kingdom is always connected to the heart and generosity of God. It flows from, from out of this place of abundance but we have to be trained in abundance which is why generosity is so counter cultural to our day. The world disciples us into scarcity, does it not?
It disciples us, it forms us, it says to protect what's yours but the spirit trains us to say our God is generous, there's more than enough. And I've seen this a lot in the church and I've seen it in my own life, I see it with my kids. Most of us have been trained in what I'll call Twix Theology. This is so good, you'll remember it. I promise you, the only thing you'll remember is this parable.
Ready? So let's all pretend we're going to the movies right now. Alright I'm gonna sit next to you. Can I sit with you? Is this good?
Yeah okay great. So we all go to the we are all gonna go to see movies. We're gonna go I bought myself Twix. What's your name? Elijah.
Elijah. What's up bud? You have a good biblical name. And you brought your bible. Let's go.
You brought your bible? Yes, sir. Are you single? Yes. Yeah.
Do you look at it? The sky is a catch. Can tell. Smells good. Can we get the video camera for overflow?
I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Sorry bro. Sorry. Welcome to church.
Welcome to church. We provide all sorts of needs. Yeah. Okay. So Elijah's like bro can I have some?
I'm like yeah I'll share but in my head this is a four pack. I'm calculating I only got three left. Right? So you can have the Twix. You probably won't eat sugar but that's fine.
I'm gonna bring it over to youth. You guys can you guys can split this among yourselves. Here you go. Your parents probably won't like that but So in the world we're shared like I gave him one that means I have a little bit left. I know the percentage but see the kingdom of God is like that extra large popcorn at the movies.
You know what I'm talking about? Do you guys get the extra I you Okay. Wait. Where are my people? Like it's like a dollar.
No. It's like 75¢. It doesn't make sense. It's like $13.50 for a medium, $14 for the extra large which if you don't know this you're so welcome for this. Unlimited refills.
Unlimited. Before I leave the counter, I dump them into those trays. I have a eight of us. I bring all the kids. I'm like I got eight.
Give me eight. They're they're like fine. Just keep dumping it. They fill it up for us because because that's how it's supposed to be. Like with the popcorn it's like it doesn't matter.
Sorry about that. You could just like you can share. This is the kingdom you guys didn't know. You guys didn't know you were in the splash zone. Slav was supposed to email you because you just wanna share everyone all of your stuff.
Why? Why do you live like that? Why? Why am I so generous with what's mine? There's more than enough.
There's always more. There's always more in the kingdom of God but we live as though there's not enough. We're a Twix church. No we're a popcorn. Be like popcorn.
Yes. Write that down. Write that one down. What started with John talking about money you got real quiet. Right?
You got real scarce. You got You went into your place of fear. You're like I got Twix bars. Some of you are very comfortable with Twix and God is like that's just the training wheels of tithe. Can I just say real quick side note tithing is not generosity?
Tithing tithing trains your heart in generosity because generosity is a heart posture. How many of you know that you can have so much money and be poor in spirit? But you could have no money at all and be extravagantly rich and generous. That's what God is after. He's after your heart.
He's not he's not after you giving a percentage. He's after your allegiance. Sorry about getting you guys dirty. It's it's it's butter free popcorn. It's not gonna stain.
It's like a health. It does taste like butter. That's great news. No seed oils. You should eat it.
It's fresh. No seed oils. You guys are being great. They can talk back. You guys are you guys are holding each other accountable.
Good job. Be quiet. No. You're good. I put popcorn all over you.
Elijah had the Twix. You guys got the popcorn. Sorry about that. Generosity has to become a spiritual discipline for the church. Right?
So it has to be something we say, okay, if I'm gonna be formed in Christ likeness, if we're gonna be a spirit filled church, let me say, I wanna be a church that preaches the gospel, that heals the sick, that raises the dead, that casts out demons, gives sight to the blind, announces the year of the Lord freedom, continues to do the ministry of Jesus, makes disciples of all nations, baptizes people. Next Sunday, I'm baptizing my eight year old boy. Hallelujah. It also has to become a church that practices spiritual discipline. So we fast, we pray, we read and memorize and study scripture, we teach scripture, we do all the things and we discipline ourselves towards generosity.
We start where we're at. So here are some practical tools. I mean, next week I'll elaborate on all this. I wanna just create space or some cash up here. So this is for this service.
Like some of you are in need. Don't know. I don't have the sense. Maybe our team has a sense of what it's for. Last last service this is for a single dad who just lost his wife.
An act an act of extravagant generosity. There's no other way because that was the most money we probably have on a single Sunday ever and it was given away because that's what our God does. When I say that there's not a hint of I wish you went to the offering of the church because I know I have a father in heaven who can do exceedingly more than all I can dream or imagine or pray And there are needs that are gonna be met not because we went through a system. I'm all for systems. Not because we went down a list.
By the way, the early church had a list. Yeah. Were widows that didn't have kids to take care of them and Paul says make sure they're on the list but there was a criteria to ensure that they're actually widows because some people wanna take advantage of the system. Yeah. It's true.
Just let that sit for a second. But spirit filled generosity will build a community without need. Not because we got the list and we were emailing everyone, but because we lived in such a grace amongst each other that before that person could be on a list, there was a provision because you're just generous. Because you go home and you take Can you put that slide of practical things? You take an inventory of all your stuff.
You're like, gosh, I have a lot of shoes. Gosh I have so many pairs of pants I can't stick them in the place. That's for my wife. She can I'm like you know what bless it Lord more pants for her. If that brings her joy I will provide Lord Madewell gift cards every time I can.
That's how I love my wife. Love costs me something. My boy's birthday is coming up. It's hard not to do what the father does. A father knows how to give good gifts to his kids.
How much more will the heavenly father? If I am to reflect the heavenly father towards my boy which is a design of fathering by the way, of covering, then yeah I'm gonna bless my kid. That's what he wants for you. Man, I feel like I just hit a nerve. Do you know that God loves you?
Wait, do you know that God is happy? Yeah. That he's in a good mood? That he's a good God that gives good gifts? Do you know that?
Maybe that's why you are holding back because you don't have the right God in your head. You don't have the right God in your heart. You have worshipped an image of God that's been formed by your earthly experience and you need to repent because that's an idol. That's the story where Jesus talks about the talents and the and the minas and the cities. You know those who are faithful to one, they bury the one and when they describe what the masters like they're like, well you don't sow, you reap, you don't do this, you don't do that.
But the other people said that did the five talents and became ten, one talent became two. They say, no, you're generous. You expect these things. This guy has the wrong idea of the master and that's taken from him. And I I need you to know I don't have time to go theologically.
His perception is that he's serving Satan not Yahweh. So you gotta get the right image of God in your head and heart so that it can free you. So practically you live on a budget. Garden Church we're gonna live on a budget. We're gonna live on a budget.
We're gonna know what comes in before we spend it as as individuals and households because we're shrewd stewards. We're gonna live with such wisdom with our things and we're gonna go home and we're gonna take inventory and you're gonna see you have three old iPhones, an old computer, you have all these extra pens, and there are people in our in our community here. There are friends in our city that we know that don't have a pair of shoes for school. How is it possible that we take communion? And we say, yes, this is how we're saved and we reject the injustice we're providing in the church.
It's on us. Well, I didn't know pastor. Didn't You need to get to know your neighbor. Get to know those who say I believe and they come here so that there are by grace no needs. How does the grace happen?
I got the I got the excel spreadsheet. There was a reminder. There was an Instagram post. There was an announcement. Pastor preached on it.
No. You're so moved because Jesus is Lord that your finances reflect his lordship. We start where we can. Start with a percentage. Start with a 1%.
Great. You know that it's 1%. Great. You did the job of knowing what came in. Great.
I can give 1%. Commit. The miracle isn't a spontaneous cash gift. The miracle is consistency over a long period of time. A regular rhythm of generosity.
I'm gonna make the case next week because we love giving with control. We love to give where our hearts are moved and we get the emotion and so then we got to give spontaneously because we are reacting to the moment. Generosity is a disciplined way of life where we we give and I wanna say in the church I think everyone should give a a tithe to the church, the local church. Tithe is 10%. I don't think that's generous.
I think that's baseline. If you're like, well that's not commanded in the New Testament. Yes, you're right. It's in the Old Testament. Let's talk about the Old Testament for just one second.
Can we do that real quick? Okay. 10% in the Old Testament went to the Levites. The leaders of the sacred gathering and community that were were designed as leaders set apart living sacrificially to steward the house of God and the spiritual worship for the people of God. They didn't have an inheritance of land.
They had the tithes and offerings of 10 to live off of. Yes, there's injustice. Yes, there's all that. That was 10%. We're talking Old Testament.
You also had to give 10% annually on top of that 10% for a festival party. So everyone, need a $4,400,000 budget this year to end all the ministry to provide for the needs of this house, and we need $4,400,000 for you to give so we can have the most epic party ever. That's Old Testament. Oh, and three and a half percent, 3.3333 on top of the 20% so Old Testament is 23.33333. That is Old Testament.
What is New Testament? It is all his. I don't know what you need but when I read this passage in Acts four, God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that were that there was no needy person among them. I get inspired by the possibility of a move of God. A move of God that sees those within the community being cared for by the generosity of the community.
See, in second Corinthians chapter nine which I'll I'll speak about next week. Paul talks about this miracle that happened in Corinth. And, yeah, he he's traveling with this offering for the Lord's people. He's taking this fund that he's collecting from the churches around the Roman Empire. In that Galatians passage where it says, remember the poor.
It's specific to that that fund. He would go and plant churches and there was famine and suffering happening and persecution in Jerusalem. So hundreds of miles away, the churches around the Roman Empire took a fund to go back to the church where it started. People they'll never meet. That's generosity because that's our business.
Right? And in second Corinthians chapter eight and nine, he's going to Corinth which would be like a SoCal church. Right? Southern California church, extraordinarily wealthy. Harbor City, decadent, they had their own brands of clothing.
Like there's so much history, it's so beautiful. It's very much SoCal. And he just came, he was coming back from Kentucky, West Kentucky. And he's he writes to them, he like sends the email. Hey guys, coming into town next week.
Some bros from Kentucky are coming to join me and they're gonna accompany me all the way back to Jerusalem to give the fund. Now, I didn't tell them about the offering fund that I have been collecting because they're poor but they heard about it and they wanted in. And they gave something that was beyond anything I could have imagined in their severe poverty. God welled up miraculous generosity. So get ready for the offering.
Because if I come and you're unprepared, I'm gonna be embarrassed because I've talked all about you SoCal and your generosity. But these Kentuckiers, they're coming and I don't know what it is. Is that it? You're from there? Kentuckian.
I don't know. I just know. Yeah. Never mind. Not gonna insult Kentucky.
I love Kentucky. One of my friends is Kentucky pastor. He's awesome. Wait. Where did the revival start?
Is that in Asbury's in Kentucky. Exactly. It's coming. Be ready for the offering. That's literally why we have second Corinthians.
That's the purpose of I mean, he answers all these questions but when you wanna know the motive behind that epistle, it's to get the church ready to give. Alright. That's all I got. That's all I got. Come here, I'll stand.
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