Redemption: I'm Not the Man I Used To Be

Encounter and Humility

Genesis 32:1-12 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God's camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’” And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.” And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” – C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: HarperCollins, 1940/1996), 91.

Generosity

Genesis 32:13-21 So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau, two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’ then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’” He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.” So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

Proverbs 17:8 A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it; wherever he turns he prospers.

Proverbs 18:16 A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before the great.

Proverbs 19:6 Many seek the favor of a generous man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.

Proverbs 21:14 A gift in secret averts anger, and a concealed bribe, strong wrath.

Transformation

Genesis 32:22-32 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.

Second City Church - Redemption Sermon Series 2016

The Unshakables - The Unshakable Generosity - Week Ten

The Unshakable Generosity: The unshakable life stewards God’s provision well in order to live a life of generosity.

The Dangers of Wealth Biblical Principles of Prosperity Putting God First Extreme Generosity

As we enter into the Thanksgiving season, we want to be sure to give honor to God for all that He has so generously provided for us - in life, in family, in finances, in fruitfulness through His church. As God has been abundantly generous to us, we want to learn to do the same in being generous as a people unto His kingdom cause.

The Dangers of Wealth

Mark 4:18-19 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

Luke 16:13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

What does it mean to serve money?

Every decision that you make and action that you take is done for its accumulation or preservation. You live out of fear of not having enough to meet your needs or desires.

1 Timothy 6:9-10 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

What does it mean to love money?

You begin to look to money as your source of identity, value, worth and security rather than the God who ultimately provided it for you. You give it the majority of your time and attention. The lion's share of your goals have to do with your incessant pursuit of money. It becomes an end in and of itself rather than a means to God's greater kingdom good. A life driven by the love of money is focused on its continued acquisition with no greater purpose than having more of it and spending it on your pleasures. It is a frustrating search for fleeting satisfaction and pseudo-stability outside of a vibrant, growing relationship Jesus Christ, His church and His eternal gospel mission.

Proverbs 11:28 Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.

Proverbs 23:4-5 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Luke 12:15-21 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Biblical Principles of Prosperity

Proverbs 10:3-4 The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.

Proverbs 22:9 The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

2 Corinthians 9:6-11 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;their righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Putting God First

2 Chronicles 31:5-8 As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the firstfruits of their grain, new wine, olive oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything. The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the towns of Judah also brought a tithe of their herds and flocks and a tithe of the holy things dedicated to the Lord their God, and they piled them in heaps. They began doing this in the third month and finished in the seventh month. When Hezekiah and his officials came and saw the heaps, they praised the Lord and blessed his people Israel.

Leviticus 27:30-33 “‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord. Whoever would redeem any of their tithe must add a fifth of the value to it. Every tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the Lord. No one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If anyone does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.’”

Extreme Generosity

Luke 21:1-4 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

2 Corinthians 8:1-7 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

A generous life is one centered in the gospel.

2 Corinthians 8:8-9 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

There is no outgiving God. He demonstrated this by giving the life of His own son on the cross that we might be reconciled to Him.

Second City Church- The Unshakables Sermon Series 2015

Designer God - A Design for Your Finances

 

“Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then give all you can.” —from a sermon in the Works of John Wesley

Gain All You Can

In regard to finances, there are generally two mentalities driving people to two extremes: poverty and greed.

God wants to bring us to a place of contentment and generosity. Before we can be generous, we must have something to share.

Deuteronomy 8:11-20 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Save All You Can

If you are going to save successfully, you must also have a plan to get out of debt.

Debt:

Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

We can not escape the trap of debt when we do not control our impulse to nickel and dime ourselves to death.

How Good Is Your Money Game?

Proverbs 21:17, 20 Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich. Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.

Didn't Jesus say not to worry about saving money?

Matthew 6:19-24 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." No. He was a Jewish Rabbi in agreement with all of the wisdom of Proverbs, which says the following: Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous.

What He is saying is not to let the desire to reach a certain goal keep you from your ultimate devotion which is generous obedience to Christ.

What does it mean to serve money as your master?

It means to look to money as the source of your security, stability, happiness and salvation.

It is through the practice of worshiping God through your tithes and offerings that He frees you from the idolatry of looking to your job or people as your god, rather than Jesus Christ.

Give All You Can

People have the false idea that they should begin a life of generosity when they have accumulated enough. However, it is a deception to feel like you will ever have enough if you do not live by Christ's standard of contentment.

“There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.” - G.K. Chesterton

Where and how does God say giving should begin?

Deuteronomy 26:1-15 When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household. When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them. I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while I was in mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done everything you commanded me. Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

The tithe is a mechanism through which you continually renew your covenant with God, reestablishing the trust that you have in your heart toward Him in regard to His provision and protection (i.e. - Old Testament times' covenants with kings). It is for your benefit to free you of the idolatry in your heart, looking to another god or savior.

Proverbs 11:24 One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.

The place that I will show you...

The church is not a charity like the Red Cross or Habitat for Humanity. Though wonderful organizations like these found their beginnings through the motivation of Christian benevolence, they do not replace, supersede or divide the portion that belongs in the house of God alone. It is a place of consecration where, by the command of God, our hearts are shaped in worship as we give the first and the best of our time, talent and resources to Jesus for His direct, unadulterated Kingdom/gospel purposes in the earth.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
- Maya Angelou

Old Testament tithe or New Testament generosity?

Matthew 5:17-48

The writers of the New Testament make reference to the fact that we are not under the law of sin and death for our reconciliation (to be counted innocent in the sight of God) because of Jesus' atoning sacrifice for us. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law for us (Romans 8:1-5), paid the penalty for our rebellion on the cross and rose from the dead for our justification (Romans 4:25). However, through Christ, we now have a greater expectation to the law of the spirit of life (being led by the Holy Spirit), which leads us to the eternal principles that were at the heart of the law, rather than the letter. This calls us to greater righteousness, not less, as some would suppose.

The Old Testament tithe to the local storehouse is to be the floor, not the ceiling of our generosity. As we saw in The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus always took the law to a higher, not lower level. Do you think that Jesus would want you to be more or less generous in the New Testament? Use the tithe, the tenth, as your starting place to know, "at minimum," I should do this...

Should I wait until I'm out of debt or reach all of my financial goals before I begin?

No.

You don't make up for years of disobedience by perpetuating it. You begin with obedience now as a mechanism to invite God to reverse the curse. Additionally, if this is your first time learning about this, you develop a lifetime of trust by taking the first steps of obeying what you now know.

Generous like Jesus Christ:

Joy comes as a result of having Jesus' perspective, when you know that the sum total of your life is part of a larger story. Do not let the longing for individual desires weigh you down. You must live for and give yourself to something, to someone, bigger than yourself to truly find authentic, sustainable, increasing joy. The only lasting, eternal cause is Jesus Christ and His everlasting Kingdom. Let's meet Jesus at the cross today and allow Him to produce His promises in our lives by the power of obedience to His wisdom and Spirit.

Second City Church- Designer God Sermon Series 2015