Northside Church - Sydney
Finding You In Community Week 4: Gaining Through Giving
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Oh, good morning, great to have you in worship with us this morning and battling the cold. Just rub your hands a little bit like this, warm you up a little bit, keep your alert as well if you're not already alert with all the caffeine hit that you've had. That's why I love the 1045 AM service by the way. It was just such an atmosphere and I thought it was a Holy Spirit, but it's actually caffeine. So, anyways, moving right along, I love this particular scene of this show, their eyes used to watch, it was so emotional, we'd get to the end of the show and there would be a great reveal and there would be tears and there would be hugs of joy and there would be people that are speechless, it was a show called The Secret Millionaire and it aired over in the BBC, they did a show over here and here's how the show went, they would take someone who was a millionaire and would secretly put them into service and they would give it their time and their money and they would just serve in the most wonderful ways with these places like homeless shelters and organisations that needed their help and they would get the boss of that organisation or whoever they're working with and they would sit them down at the end of this week and they would say I haven't been totally truthful with you and they would reveal that I'm actually a very successful business person or I've got a stack of money and that place you've been really dreaming of I want to buy that for you and the tears just overflowed and people would weep and I would weep. What is it that gets us or at least me emotional about generosity? What is it? I think it's because it's unexpected and generosity by its very definition is something that is unexpected, the giving of something, our time, our money, all the great things that Bonnie said in a prayer, our worship, our attitude that is above and beyond expectations, that's what generosity is and you know what, I think it's infectious don't you? It's infectious, it just catches on and infectious is probably what you would call the early church when you look through the scriptures here. Whenever you see the life of the early church described what we see is that the Christians drastic generosity gave birth to a cycle of impact and of change that changed the community around it. I mean look at the picture in Acts chapter 4 verses 31 onwards it paints for us, it talks about all the believers that they were in one heart and mind, that no one claimed that any of their possessions were their own, that they shared in everything that they had that no one was in need, that there was powerful preaching and that people were coming to Christ and joining this community. I'm thinking that's just because it was the powerful preachers at the time but it wasn't just the preachers, it was because the lives of the people in that community backed up what the preachers were saying. What we see in the early church is that a radical generosity, an unreasonable generosity led to a great oneness of community that attracted people to the church. They were gaining through giving, that's what we're talking about today is we finish up Graham's great series on what it means to be a true north side member, what are some of the key characteristics and when we ask the question how did this church explode radically through a culture that was self-interested in cruel in some respects, we see it's because their people each individual had an attitude and a heart and an explosion of radical generosity. Now I don't know about you but do you read those stories out of the Bible and think, oh come on, God put them in there because that's how many is church to be and they're just the model, they're the example ones, right? They had to be good though, they knew they were going to be in the Bible. God's challenging me with this morning, is it possible for us as a church to be like that? It's infectious, it's infectious and if we are going to be like that we need to discover their secret and it's probably the answer to this question this morning, why would Christians be so radically generous? I think it's got something to do with attitude, it's got something to do with approach and how the gospel shapes both of those things. You see first and foremost the gospel shapes your attitude towards generosity. I've shared this before with some of the night guys but I always go down to Manley, grab a nice kebab down there at the beach and this particular night I was down there and I went to Royal Copenhagen or one of those shops that smell great with the ice creams and we were waiting in line for an ice cream and there was this little girl in front of us in the line and you know how kids are when they want an ice cream, their faces up against the glass and I want that one and I want that one and I want that one and I want peanuts and I want chocolate sauce and she was just so excited with all this incredible ice cream in front of her and as the ladies scooping it out of the barrel there and puts it up on the counter so dad can pay, you could see her sort of lips almost watering and she's just dreams about, you guys feel like an ice cream now? And what got me was not the excitement there but it was this. And dad finally pulled it out of the cone holder there and gave it to her after all the anticipation. She turned to him and she held it up to him and she said, "Daddy, would you like a lick of my ice cream?" See, she got it. She got it, right? She got what David was saying, obviously that's what she was thinking at the time in First Chronicles, chapter 29, "But who am I and who am I people that we should be able to give as generously as this because everything comes from you?" We've given you only daddy what comes from your hand, the daddy bits not in the Bible, I just put that in Sam's amplified version. But the point is the little girl got it, the guys no matter how hard you work, everything comes from your daddy's hand. That we are to our skills and our talent and our wealth and our time, what that little three-year-old girl was to her ice cream, it didn't come from us. Let me ask you the question, because our attitude is different from the world, right? I've studied hard, I've worked hard for this job, I interviewed well, I dressed well, I got this, I found this question this morning is, "Who gave you the skills to get the job?" Who put you there in the first place? Who gave you the brain that you've got today? Who gave you the school you went to? Who gave you the family you're a part of? Who gave you the opportunity that came your way? You see it's like the story, two worms fell from the sky. One of the worms fell into a crack in the cement, the other worm fell into a dead cat. So after about three or four days, the worm in the cement malnourished, yearning for food, weakened, turns to the worm in the dead cat and says, "Kite sir, could you please tell me the secret to your success?" And the worm in the dead cat turns to him and says, "Well, hard work and a sound strategic vision." Think about it, guys, come on really, all of us here this morning have fallen into the dead cat. Realistically when you look at the rest of the world and the poverty and the misery and the terrible things that happen all around the world here and the low and all sure of Sydney, we've fallen into the dead cat principle. I mean, if God placed us in the middle of a desert somewhere, we'd be singing a totally different tune, but realistically, come on, we're living in paradise here. Even if this morning and I pray that you're doing okay, but in the toughest of our situations to be part of club Australia here, where we can preach and teach and freedom, religious freedom and all that we have, we're in the dead cat. And until the gospel breaks out into our lives, guys, we will always be inclined to say, "It's my own." I interviewed well. It's me. Can I ask you this morning quickly, how do you react when you get handed the ice cream, each and every day of your life? Do you offer God a lick first? Christians are generous because they recognize that all they've been given comes from him anyway. That's their attitude to generosity. It's all from him. But then a Christian's approach to generosity is this. You see, how is it then a world of self-interest and we know how it feels? We feel that too. It's difficult to let go that people can give of their time and their skills and their money and their talents. And in some respects, why is it so hard to be so generous? I think it's because we all treasure treasures. We all treasure treasures, right? Jesus said that in Matthew chapter 5 verses 19 to 21, he says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, your heart will be also." What I love about what he's saying there is that you're a natural-born investor. It's actually okay to treasure things. He's not saying they. Saying God created you that way to treasure and invest in things. But when he goes on to say a bit later on that you cannot serve both God and Mamma and the general word for wealth, he's not saying that the God is good and money's bad. He's not saying that he's trying to promote poverty and he's poo-pooing profits. I meant business profits, not the profits of the Old Testament. That's what he's saying here is that as much as we like to think it, that we're not where slaves to someone or something, and it can be your career, it can be your family, it can be your bank balance, and you know what, someone or something until God breaks in your life is going to be the true Lord over your life. It's who you're really a slave to, and as much as we like to think it, we're not really free. It's so hard to let go, and so the daily choice to say I will build my treasure not in the things of earth where moth and rust and time will destroy it, but I choose to invest in the kingdom of God and the incredible work that is bursting forth into this world. To do that it shows the world that Christian generosity is not an obligation, it's a declaration of freedom. In that simple sense, our approach to generosity is different, Christians give because we can, because we're not tethered, we're not slaves to these various things in our lives. Now finally, we get to the passage that we've got this morning for those that are more astute or thinking, "He hasn't even preached from Ephesians yet." Listen to what Paul says here in his prayer for the Ephesians, so he's praying for Christians and he says, "I pray that out of his glorious riches, out of his riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit and your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp power wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know that this love that surpasses on knowledge and that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Now when you read that, and if you're astute with it all, you'll pick up that there's a number of puzzles in that section of Scripture there from Paul in his prayer because, for example, in verse 17, he prays that Christ may dwell in their hearts. And yet in chapter 2 of the same book, he's already said that Christ is already indwelling in them. So on one hand, he's praying that Christ may dwell in your hearts, but he said he's already dwelling in your hearts. Then in verse 19, he prays that they will know the love of Christ. And you see so many other parts of the Scriptures in which he can't be a Christian unless you know the love of Christ. So he's praying that might not, but they should already know it. Then in verse 19, again, he prays that they'll be filled with the full measure of God and he says in his other letter to the Colossians that Christ dwells within them and that the fullness of the day he dwelt in bodily form in Christ. So in other words, he's saying you can have, I'm praying that you'll have the fullness of God, but you've already got it. What is he doing, class? What does Paul pray that they get what he emphatically states they already have elsewhere? He's just repeating himself. I think it's this. It's one thing to know of the riches of God. It's another thing to experience it. It's one thing to get it in your head, the riches of God and all of his universal riches. It's another to experience it deep down in the very center of yourself. That's what he said that you might be strengthened in your inner being by God's Holy Spirit. It's another thing to experience it. What am I trying to say? Here's the thing, I'm praying this week that you're all going to be a bunch of Scrooge's this week. Now if that makes no sense, it's because you probably like me in the sense that I was so familiar with the stereotype of the story of Scrooge that I'd never read the story of Scrooge. I want to happen to Scrooge. It was around Christmas Eve that sort of time and the spirits went and they took this man, this very greedy self-interested man, and the spirits went and took him and showed him the overflow of his greed. He's at his grave site and there is a lonely tombstone sitting there and he looks around at the faces of the people of whose lies he's destroyed and made a misery through his self-interest. Not only that, he stares into a cold and a dark and an empty and a scary grave and he begins to beg with the spirits. Not to send him there and he looks at a lonely tombstone in a life that he's wasted and he begs for a second chance. Then he falls into the darkness of that empty grave that scared him so much and then what happened? He woke up and was Christmas morning and as a result Scrooge went in and he began to continue to wring his hands and he started cackling again and he was still scheming but this time it was totally different because he was scheming but he was scheming not to rip people off but he was scheming to give what he now had away. But the lives of the people that he'd seen before were now before him and yet he had a second chance at life to do something about it. Scrooge here it is had an experience of grace that changed his attitude and his approach to generosity. It totally transformed him. So now can you see what that secret was that the early Christian community had? In fact it's the secret that every Christian should have. Every Christian is an Ebenezer Scrooge. Every Christian is someone who has been taken not by the spirits of Christmas past or present or yet to come but have been taken by the Holy Spirit. A Christian is someone who has stared into their own empty grave and looked around at an empty tombstone and what could possibly be of their life and fall into that and dying to themselves and realise that they wake up and it's Christmas morning. It's through an experience of the grace of Jesus. He changed these people's attitude. It's not my money anyway. It's not my time anyway. It's God's time and it changed their approach to generosity. They scheme. They find ways to go and invest in God's kingdom. Look at why Paul said it to his Christian brothers and sisters when he called for a financial appeal to the church at Corinth. He says in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, "For you know the grace you know, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." He says, "You know, you know." He doesn't appeal to their wallets. He appeals to the gospel and Christians in that sense then give out, not out of guilt, but out of grace, out of the experience. And if you had that type of redemption this morning, have you had that type of new chance this morning? It can be yours this morning. Whether you believe in Jesus Christ or not, that was the difference, the hidden secret. And you're saying, "Well, look, I know what it feels like because it is so tough. What if I still struggle to be generous? What if it's still so hard to give this stuff away? You know what, like I've got to do this week, you've got to go back to your grave and weep. You've got to stare into what life would have been like, could have been life if God hadn't have broken in in the person of Jesus Christ. You see, for those who are Christians we know one who has already given everything so that we can live a life that at least gives something. So guys, this morning I know that the only reason I'm standing here this morning, that this whole church is functioning, is because I stand upon the platform of a legacy of radical generosity in this place. He talked to newer people and they go, "How could you guys do this such a smaller church? I know that there are people sitting in front of me this morning that have given with great sacrifice into the vision that God's kingdom might continue to go burst forth from this place. The new people might walk in the door if they just invest in the things of God and not wear moth and rust. Destroy." I know that and for that I'm so grateful. But the question for all of us included in myself this morning guys is, "Are we going to stop there? Is that it? Do we say, "Hey, I had a good run. I was part of the capital campaigns back in Herbert Street. I've had my bit. It's time for the newbies to have there go." Is that really it? No. I think God is challenging you and I to go to even deeper levels of generosity. Even deeper levels of response to His grace. For you this morning it might mean to be prayerfully sitting down and thinking, "You know what? Generosity is going to explode in my life just simply through the way that I might serve. You see the gap in the roster. It hasn't been filled yet. I can't give much but I can give above the expectation. I can serve." For some of you it might mean processing. What you're giving outside of the capital campaigns that we run one in every 18 months in this place. We don't ask for money a lot but God might be challenging you to look at the level of giving that you have in your life at the moment. God might be challenging you this morning to be giving of your skills and your talents. You might have a musical gift that's totally undiscovered at the moment and it's hiding back there in the auditorium while you've got a team who's doing all they can to put on what we've got. I don't know what it's going to mean for you guys but Paul prays for us that you will continue to know. Know the richest, the breadth, the depth, the length, the width of God's riches and when you do you'll understand that the secret millionaire is not just a TV show but the secret millionaire for you, you who calls yourself a follower of a Christ and who is in Christ and who is an heir to the kingdom who has an inheritance that will never perish, spoil or fail or that will fail or those of you are a kid of the king. Those of you that are his treasured possession you will come to realize as you know through the power of the Holy Spirit that the real secret millionaire this morning is you. Guys read, discover his grace and it will revolutionize your generosity or transform it. It has to because he who is rich became poor so that you could have the real riches for all eternity. The gospel transforms not just your attitude are you giving God a lick of the ice cream this morning but it also changes your approach. May we be a church this morning guys no matter how long we've been here or no matter how much we've given into this place through time or skills or service. May we be scooters this morning or ever scheming to work at because of the second chance that Jesus Christ has given us how we might give it away. Let's pray. Heavenly Father each and every one of us here in this message this morning knows Lord that that it hurts and it's a challenge. It's not naturally in us Father. We hold onto things dear Father and we know so often as we travel through life that the things that often give us a little bit of this earthly security are the things that we tether ourselves even tighter to. Lord I pray in this place for each and every one of us myself included Father that through the supernatural power of your spirit that you will that you will pull our fingers off that grip one by one this week of just one part of our lives whether it be service whether it be our time whether it be our skills whether it be our money Father we lift it up to you and recognizing that you are the God of great provision that you've placed this church and also a community church in the corner of the Oxford Street and Paul Lane here not just to be ingenious for now we do church but to be infectious Father. We want people to discover the grace of Jesus Christ and not just because of powerful preaching in this place or great music and all that sort of stuff but because the lives of your people Father back up the grace that we've experienced. So Lord it's a dangerous prayer for each and every one of us to pray this week but Father I ask that through the power of your spirit you might help us to know know ever deeper ever more. Now you Father God the the ultimate rich one of the universe the one who can do immeasurably more than we can imagine do it in this place Father do it in and through us help us repair of your spirit and we pray this now in Jesus name amen.